How the Bitter Elitists at Fox News Keep Trying -- And Failing -- to Dampen Support for Occupy Wall Street

Another day, another Fox News attempt to smear the Occupy Wall Street movement. This time they've resurrected their favorite bogeyman, ACORN.
October 27, 2011

Fox News has been feverishly trying to dampen the viral growth of OWS ever since the movement sprouted in a park in Lower Manhattan about a month ago. Fox's overt hostility is in sharp contrast to the love affair they had with the Tea Party.

Now Fox is slandering decent and passionate protesters as communists, whining about class war, comparing them to hippies, accusing them of violence, and associating them with Nazis. All of these attacks have collapsed from the weight of their own dishonesty, and support continues to grow for the movement. But does that stop Fox News? READ MORE

Colbert Fights Against 'The War On Halloween' (VIDEO)

The Colbert Report
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David Taintor | October 27, 2011, 10:34AM

With Halloween just around the corner, Stephen Colbert on Wednesday had some tough words for those trying to spoil the spooky fun.

Apparently there's a new trend this year: costume swapping, to keep old costumes from ending up in landfills.

"This is political correctness gone bad," Colbert said. "Before you know it, we'll need to buy carbon offsets to leave a flaming bag of poop on a doorstep."

Environmentalism goes against everything Halloween stands for, he added: rampant consumerism and waste.

"Like clear cutting a forest, pulping the trees into lush, three-ply toilet paper, shipping the rolls on diesel trucks to air conditioned grocery stores, where we buy them and, as a heartless final insult, hurl them at their still-living cousins."

But that's not all. A Christian group in Texas is reportedly encouraging people to ditch the sexy and scary costumes for sheets of white and Bibles. They're calling it Jesus Ween.

"Because dressing in white and handing out bibles is sure to make your house the creepiest one on the block," Colbert said.

The group is selling it as an alternative to Halloween -- a decision Colbert doesn't quite understand.

"Think about it, Jesus rose from the dead, he's the original zombie," Colbert said.

Watch the video:(above)

10 Reasons Bank of America Is the Most Hated Bank in America

Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you.
October 27, 2011

There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.

Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you. (And yes, that may be near impossible if you have a mortgage with them, as refinancing away from any big bank nowadays is a nightmare.)READ MORE

Rick Perry's Shady Connections to Extremist Right-Wing Pastors

Perry has long cultivated ties to evangelical leaders who hold extreme views.
The following article first appeared in Mother Jones. For more great content from Mother Jones, sign up for their free email updates here.

At the Values Voters Summit earlier this month, Rick Perry and his sputtering campaign got plenty of attention—but not for the reasons the candidate would have liked. It was the Texas governor's association with a controversial religious leader that made headlines, after Robert Jeffress, a Dallas Pastor who introduced (and endorsed) Perry at the event, said that conservative voters should reject Mitt Romney because he belongs to a "cult" (the Mormon church).
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Fox News Won't Air Wall Street Protester Who Humiliates Fox News

You had to know that the notoriously imbalanced Fox News wouldn't tell the truth about the populist uprising taking place on Wall Street. What you might not have expected, however, is the conservative cable channel getting caught red-handed in its latest moment of extremely biased reporting.

Thus far Fox's only pieces on Occupy Wall Street have been poorly developed hit jobs like this one from Bill O'Reilly, in which a producer makes fun of ill-informed children. But when Greta van Sustern attempted a similar stunt later last week, her producer got far more than he bargained for in Jesse LaGreca, one of the more outspoken Wall Street occupiers. LaGreca, who is far from a hippy-dippy rambler, puts van Sustern's producer on his heels immediately, unleashing a blistering assault on Fox News before delivering a well articulated explanation of why he's protesting. In the end the Fox News producer is forced to admit, "Fair enough. You have voiced an important reason to criticize myself and my company." It's a great instance of an embarrassed man getting his comeuppance, and you have The New York Observer to thank for it. For some reason, Greta van Sustern chose to never air the LaGreca interview.

US Officials Tried to Pull Videos From YouTube

Google released data tracking government efforts to have videos taken down from YouTube. (photo: Hürriyet Daily News)

Josh Halliday, Guardian UK
Halliday reports: "Figures revealed for the first time show that the US demanded private information about more than 11,000 Google users between January and June this year, almost equal to the number of requests made by 25 other developed countries, including the UK and Russia. Governments around the world requested private data about 25,440 people in the first half of this year, with 11,057 of those people in the US."
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10th Anniversary of Patriot Act a Day to Mourn

President Bush signs the USA Patriot Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 in the East Room of the White House, 03/09/06. (photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Shahid Buttar, The Progressive

Buttar wrties: "The Justice Department's own internal watchdog has documented numerous abuses of Patriot Act powers. The federal government has issued thousands of improper National Security Letters. The Patriot Act has also been used by the Departments of Justice and Treasury to seize charities without due process, even though the work of such organizations could advance US interests by alleviating suffering in war-torn areas and winning hearts and minds. The same provisions have enabled investigations of peace, labor and immigrant rights activists in Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles for what essentially amount to thought crimes."
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