Excerpt:
Occupy DC in standoff with police after erecting wooden structure
By Muriel Kane
Sunday, December 4, 2011 15 Topics: police officer ♦ police orders ♦ wooden structure
As many as twenty arrests were made at the Occupy DC protest in Washington on Sunday after occupiers assembled a two-story wooden structure from sections that had been constructed off-site and refused police orders to remove it.
Protesters told reporters that the building was needed to provide shelter as winter weather sets in. “It is a symbol saying we can rebuild the country together,” one added. “As Americans together we can rebuild the country, we don’t really need the government for that.”
Police indicated they had no intention of evicting the occupation as a whole but declared the structure to be “unsafe and illegal” and gave the protesters an hour to dismantle it.
Several protesters then stood on top of the unfinished building to prevent it being torn down. At that point, the police moved in on horseback and began making arrests and attempting to break the structure down.
Investigative reporter Timothy Shorrock, who arrived on the scene as the standoff with the police — which had begun in the late morning — was under way, tweeted at about 4:00 PM, “A forklift has arrived to take down the #occupydc structure. Seven people still on the roof. A few hundred ppl surrounding them. Cops angry.” He added slightly later, “Cops brought in metal barriers over last hour. About 150 ppl surround police surrounding the structure. Maybe 20 inside now.”
Other observers have tweeted that one police officer had refused a supervisor’s order to use a taser on a protester who was being arrested. At the time of writing, however, more police were arriving and were surrounding the camp, blocking off access from adjacent streets, and even ordering the closing of a nearby Starbucks.
Photo by Nicholas Kamm from AFP.
http://townhall.com/news/us/2011/12/04/police_arrest_occupy_portland_demonstrators
Excerpt:
Police arrest Occupy Portland demonstrators
APNews17 hours ago
- Authorities say riot police moved into a downtown Portland park area and arrested several anti-Wall Street protesters Saturday night after they refused to vacate the park.
Police Sgt. Pete Simpson says officers began detaining protesters at South Park blocks around 8:30 p.m., after the park was closed a half hour early,
He says several arrests were made but still doesn't have an exact count.
Occupy Portland demonstrators set up tents in a portion of the park that runs through Southwest Portland earlier in the day and vowed to stay through the winter, defying city officials who said overnight camping will not be allowed.
The protesters had been without an encampment since police swept through a downtown site three weeks ago, making arrests and dismantling tents.
Excerpt:
Voting – no match for corporate power
Letter to the Davis Enterprise, 12/4/11
Your editorial of 11/17 opines that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has made its point and that the encampments themselves are now the issue. It then recommends the occupiers work for change by supporting candidates and voting. OK, but voting ain’t what it used to be.
Regardless of vote counts, elected officials will still be obligated to the special interests that fund their campaigns.
Voters can be manipulated by constant streams of ads, whether truthful or not, bought by the ultra rich. This was how private wealth turned North Carolina from blue to red as documented by Jean Mayer in the New Yorker, Oct. 10, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Long
Excerpt:
In 2006, Long was chosen by the family of Martin Luther King, Jr. to host and officiate the funeral for Mrs. Coretta Scott King, wife of the late civil rights pioneer.[12] The event was attended by four Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter).
http://thescrollmovie.com/?p=148
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/i-wanna-be-macho-man-prosperity-gospel-according-eddie-long
Excerpt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haim_Saban
Excerpt:
http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/how-haim-saban-pulled-deal-lifetime-16926
Excerpt:
Your editorial of 11/17 opines that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has made its point and that the encampments themselves are now the issue. It then recommends the occupiers work for change by supporting candidates and voting. OK, but voting ain’t what it used to be.
Regardless of vote counts, elected officials will still be obligated to the special interests that fund their campaigns.
Voters can be manipulated by constant streams of ads, whether truthful or not, bought by the ultra rich. This was how private wealth turned North Carolina from blue to red as documented by Jean Mayer in the New Yorker, Oct. 10, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Long
Excerpt:
In 2006, Long was chosen by the family of Martin Luther King, Jr. to host and officiate the funeral for Mrs. Coretta Scott King, wife of the late civil rights pioneer.[12] The event was attended by four Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter).
http://thescrollmovie.com/?p=148
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/i-wanna-be-macho-man-prosperity-gospel-according-eddie-long
Excerpt:
I Wanna Be A Macho Man: The Prosperity Gospel According to Eddie Long
by Sikivu Hutchinson
Allegations that Bishop Eddie Long lured young Black men to become his sexual playthings should come as no surprise, since his brand of “faith pimping spiritual ministry translates into emotional manipulation, psychological control, and sexual exploitation.” Long, a “self-proclaimed ‘spiritual daddy’ to a nationwide army of ‘wayward’ sons,” is the inevitable offspring of religious patriarchy and robber baron politics.
I Wanna Be A Macho Man: The Prosperity Gospel According to Eddie Long
by Sikivu Hutchinson
“The arch homophobe and macho man mentor of boys Long would seem to be the devil’s latest casualty.”
Excerpt:
Dunkin’ Brands.)
Bain Capital
At the upper end of the range, Mitt Romney’s former private-equity firm would reap $593 million from the IPO. That windfall could buy more than 74 million one-pound bags of Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut coffee.
Carlyle Group
The private-equity firm, which is prepping an IPO for itself as well, also is slated to own about 26% of Dunkin’ Brands after the IPO. At the top end of its IPO range of $16 to $18 a share, Carlyle likewise is staring at more than $593 million in paper value for its stock holdings. That would buy nearly 149 million half-dozen orders of that sweet fried dough at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Thomas H. Lee Partners
The Boston private-equity firm could buy 599 million Dunkin’ Donuts large ice teas with its $593 million potential windfall from the IPO.
Jon Luther
The 67-year-old former CEO and current non-executive chairman of Dunkin’ Brands owns about 2.2% of the company’s stock right now. Those shares, assuming the IPO shares are sold at the top end of the expected price range, are valued at $41.3 million.
Dunkin’ Brands.)
Bain Capital
At the upper end of the range, Mitt Romney’s former private-equity firm would reap $593 million from the IPO. That windfall could buy more than 74 million one-pound bags of Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut coffee.
Carlyle Group
The private-equity firm, which is prepping an IPO for itself as well, also is slated to own about 26% of Dunkin’ Brands after the IPO. At the top end of its IPO range of $16 to $18 a share, Carlyle likewise is staring at more than $593 million in paper value for its stock holdings. That would buy nearly 149 million half-dozen orders of that sweet fried dough at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Thomas H. Lee Partners
The Boston private-equity firm could buy 599 million Dunkin’ Donuts large ice teas with its $593 million potential windfall from the IPO.
Jon Luther
The 67-year-old former CEO and current non-executive chairman of Dunkin’ Brands owns about 2.2% of the company’s stock right now. Those shares, assuming the IPO shares are sold at the top end of the expected price range, are valued at $41.3 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haim_Saban
Excerpt:
ABC Family
On July 23, 2001, Saban announced that he and News Corporation would sell Fox Family Worldwide Inc for $5.3 billion to The Walt Disney Company.[14] and on October 24, 2001, the sale was completed[12] and the network was renamed ABC Family.[5]Saban profited about $1.6 billion from this sale.[5]Univision
On June 27, 2006, Saban Capital Group led a group of investors bidding for Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the United States.[15][16] Other investors in the Saban-led group were Texas Pacific Group of Fort Worth, Texas and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The group was successful in acquiring Univision with a bid valued at $13.7 billion (USD).[15][17]http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/how-haim-saban-pulled-deal-lifetime-16926
Excerpt:
How Haim Saban Pulled Off the Deal of a Lifetime
By Sharon Waxman
Connie Bruck’s New Yorker piece is out, and endless. By far the most interesting aspect involves the backstory to Haim Saban’s sale, with Rupert Murdoch, of the Fox Family Channel to the Walt Disney Company in 2001 for $5.2 billion.
The piece details Disney chief Michael Eisner’s getting cold feet because he overpaid, and trying to block the deal through Brazil.
But WaxWord has learned of yet another tactic Eisner tried after that: crying "anthrax" as a material change to the contract. (Neither worked.)
To begin with, according to Bruck, Saban succeeded in convincing the usually unbending Murdoch to create a joint venture between Saban Productions and Fox Kids Worldwide.
But much to Murdoch’s shock, when the network’s ratings foundered, Saban chose to exercise an option to sell his 49.5 percent within five years. He and Murdoch bickered over the matter, and finally agreed to find a third-party buyer.
Enter Disney, and a genius round of maneuvering at Herb Allen’s Sun Valley retreat in the summer of 2001. According to Bruck, Saban enlisted Stanley Gold, a Disney director and major shareholder, to pressure Eisner to acquire the network. Eisner hesitated, because of the price. (Saban told Bruck that Gold approached him on Disney’s behalf.)
Bruck writes: “But at a meeting with Murdoch and Saban, at Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley investment retreat, Eisner was convinced that he might lose the company if he failed to act.”
“We did a really good job of positioning this as a deal with a multitude of suitors,” said Peter Chernin, who at the time was president of News Corp. “There was no one else, not even close,” Chase Carey, who now has Chernin’s job, told Bruck.
The next day, Eisner agreed to pay $5.3 billion (including more than $2 billion of debt) for the company — about a billion dollars more than News Corp. executives had believed it would bring.
But according to Bruck, Eisner realized he’d agreed to pay about $1 billion too much and tried to back out. The deal required approval from many foreign regulatory agencies, and the kicker was Brazil, where approval was going to drag beyond the stated deadline.
According to Chernin, Saban placed a call to Bill Clinton, and the regulatory hurdle in Brazil disappeared.
“Haim said, ‘Let me make a phone call — maybe I can get something done here,’” Chernin told Bruck.
Clinton called the president of Brazil, and soon after, approval came through.
Bruck goes on to say that Saban subsequently made a $10 million pledge to the Democratic National Committee. Then-DNC chair Terry McAuliffe denied that there was quid pro quo, though the article does not actually say there was one:
“McAuliffe says that DNC lawyers were not involved in any tax-benefit planning. All I can tell you is there is no lawyer at the DNC who would have that conversation," he said.
The piece details Disney chief Michael Eisner’s getting cold feet because he overpaid, and trying to block the deal through Brazil.But WaxWord has learned of yet another tactic Eisner tried after that: crying "anthrax" as a material change to the contract. (Neither worked.)
To begin with, according to Bruck, Saban succeeded in convincing the usually unbending Murdoch to create a joint venture between Saban Productions and Fox Kids Worldwide.
But much to Murdoch’s shock, when the network’s ratings foundered, Saban chose to exercise an option to sell his 49.5 percent within five years. He and Murdoch bickered over the matter, and finally agreed to find a third-party buyer.
Enter Disney, and a genius round of maneuvering at Herb Allen’s Sun Valley retreat in the summer of 2001. According to Bruck, Saban enlisted Stanley Gold, a Disney director and major shareholder, to pressure Eisner to acquire the network. Eisner hesitated, because of the price. (Saban told Bruck that Gold approached him on Disney’s behalf.)
Bruck writes: “But at a meeting with Murdoch and Saban, at Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley investment retreat, Eisner was convinced that he might lose the company if he failed to act.”
“We did a really good job of positioning this as a deal with a multitude of suitors,” said Peter Chernin, who at the time was president of News Corp. “There was no one else, not even close,” Chase Carey, who now has Chernin’s job, told Bruck.
The next day, Eisner agreed to pay $5.3 billion (including more than $2 billion of debt) for the company — about a billion dollars more than News Corp. executives had believed it would bring.
But according to Bruck, Eisner realized he’d agreed to pay about $1 billion too much and tried to back out. The deal required approval from many foreign regulatory agencies, and the kicker was Brazil, where approval was going to drag beyond the stated deadline.
According to Chernin, Saban placed a call to Bill Clinton, and the regulatory hurdle in Brazil disappeared.
“Haim said, ‘Let me make a phone call — maybe I can get something done here,’” Chernin told Bruck.
Clinton called the president of Brazil, and soon after, approval came through.Bruck goes on to say that Saban subsequently made a $10 million pledge to the Democratic National Committee. Then-DNC chair Terry McAuliffe denied that there was quid pro quo, though the article does not actually say there was one:
“McAuliffe says that DNC lawyers were not involved in any tax-benefit planning. All I can tell you is there is no lawyer at the DNC who would have that conversation," he said.
