If you ever questioned whether the so-called "Super Committee" represents a breakdown in the democratic process, yesterday's proposal from the group's Democratic members should put your doubts to rest. The system's seriously broken when unelected super-legislators from both parties keep trying to top each other in proposing inhumane and unpopular programs.

The party of the donkey is about to give itself a real ass-kicking.

Representatives from the "party of the people" want to cut Medicare and Social Security, and they're looking for bragging rights on who'd cut government more in a time of need.

If the regular folks' party is trying to impose this much pain on the elderly, poor, and disabled, what's the rich people's party going to do: sacrifice babies in Times Square on live television?

Change That Shatters

As I read the proposal I kept asking myself: Who are they trying to impress? Certainly not the electorate, which overwhelmingly rejects the positions they're advocating. And certainly not the Republicans, since even these Dems aren't naive enough to think their proposal will be accepted. So who?

The "Super Dems" are proposing twice as much in deficit cuts as the Committee's mandated to find. That bit of pointless grandstanding reinforces conservative notions that government spending is evil and deficits are our most urgent problem.

It's straight out of the Bill Clinton playbook. But Clinton operated in a period of artificially pumped up, bubble-fueled prosperity. Americans hunger for better policies now. That hunger helped Democrats win the White House and both houses of Congress in 2008. (Seems so long ago, doesn't it?) The Democratic Party website still proudly proclaims the Party's slogan: "Change That Matters."

Change? These are the same Republican Lite policies Clinton ran on in 1992. But we're a sadder and wiser nation now. We've reaped the bitter fruits of economic inequality and endured a disastrous crash as a result of these bipartisan policies. We've moved on, but these Democrats haven't. They're still slavishly (if meekly) echoing the failed conservative ideas of the past.

Indecent Proposal

Their plan calls for $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings, half or which would come from benefit cuts for the seniors, disabled, and low-income people who rely on these programs. The higher out-of-pocket costs for these vulnerable populations would leave many of them with less to spend on necessities, taking billions out of the economy and creating even more economic stagnation. Not to mention the hardship and suffering ...

The other $200 billion would presumably be found by cutting provider reimbursements - which makes sense if done wisely, but which will only create shortages and access problems if done foolishly. (Wise or foolish: Bets, anyone?)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Democrats also support moving the government to a "chained CPI" cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) calculation for Social Security. That would shortchange everybody receiving benefits, including people already receiving them.

The current COLA is already a raw deal for seniors, disabled people, and the poor, and now these Dems want to double down on it. The chained-CPI would also raise taxes on people who aren't already in the highest tax bracket by accelerating "bracket creep."

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Conservative columnist George Will offered this during last Sunday's ABC show This Week:

WILL: ... exactly right about the rise of Cain. It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology.

And while that's not exactly new for Will, who's been saying similar things about Romney since 2007, his criticisms seem to be getting stronger and more pointed. Here is part of what he'll have to say in his column which comes out on Sunday in the Washington Post.

“Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate: Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the tea party and other conservatives, who will be deflated by a nominee whose blurry profile in caution communicates only calculated trimming. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from "data" ... Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?”

It bears repeating that among conservatives words such as "competence" become euphemisms for "compromise" which in turn means complete abdication of conservative principles. But in the world George Will and others of his ilk inhabit, ideology does triumph all, even at the expense it would seem of winning back the White House with the one candidate who seems like he would he would give Obama the most trouble out of the sorry lot that is the Republican field. That type of thinking is sort of remarkable when you stop and think about it. We knew the tea party crowd were that nutty but it would appear the mainstream conservatives would also rather fall on their sword than go with their own compromising candidate.

And yet, the right-wingers accuse Occupy Wall Street of being anti-Semitic? This is from one of the organizers of Rick Perry's prayer rally:

Enter Mike Bickle, head of the unironically named “International House of Prayer”, or IHOP for short. Mr. Bickle was one the pastors deeply involved with Rick Perry’s now infamous prayer event in which Perry prayed for, among other things, the wildfires to be put out even as he slashed the budget for the states’ Forest Service which deals with the majority of these blazes.

Mr. Bickles is not a fan of the Jewish community. For years he has been preaching that those of the Jewish faith that do not convert will be condemned to prison camps (aka concentration camps). The crown jewel of this hysteria is his endorsement of Hitler. Yes, you read that correctly.

From one of Bickles’ sermons:

The Lord says, “I’m going to give all 20 million of the the chance to respond to the Fisherman and I give them grace.” And he says, “And if they don’t respond to grace, I’m going to raise up the hunters. And the most famous hunter in history is a man named Adolf Hitler."

Got that? Hitler was an agent of the Lord and the Holocaust against the Jews was their own fault for not believing in Christ. Before anyone becomes indignant and insists I’m putting words in Bickles’ mouth, you had better come up with a viable alternate interpretation of his words or don’t waste my time.

Go ahead, watch it and tell me he really meant something else.

Labor support for Occupy Wall Street protesters continues to grow as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka visited Zucotti Park this week, releasing a video of his visit. Trumka also responded to the use of tear gas against protesters in Oakland and the arrests of peaceful protesters in Chicago, Atlanta and elsewhere:

It is a tremendous dishonor to America when the voices for the powerless are suppressed by the powerful – the top 1 percent. We are extremely alarmed by the increasing number of arrests of peaceful protestors across the country and call on elected leaders to stop ordering the police to make these arrests. The Occupy Wall Street movement has elevated the national conversation by shining overdue attention on the struggles of the 99 percent for whom the economy is broken. When people can't raise their voices around pervasive inequality, there is a fundamental problem with how we're functioning as a nation.

Mayor Bloomberg of New York City listened to reason from the community and did not forcibly disband the original Wall Street protestors at Zuccotti Park. We urge all elected leaders across the country to enable peaceful protestors to continue to exercise their most American of rights.

Trumka and the AFL-CIO, as well as many other labor organizations, have showed strong support for the Occupy movement almost from the very beginning.

We support the troops for protecting our freedoms, and then we break their heads for actually using them? Iraq war vet Scott Olsen, a Wisconsin native, faces brain surgery as the result of injuries incurred by police actions in Oakland this week:

Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a projectile fired by police during the Occupy Oakland protests, has woken up and is lucid as he awaits surgery, hospital officials and family members have said.

Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine, was struck in the head during anti-Wall Street protests on Tuesday night. He has been upgraded from critical to fair condition.

Olsen "responded with a very large smile" to a visit from his parents, Highland General hospital spokesman Warren Lyons said. "He's able to understand what's going on. He's able to write and hear but has a little difficulty with his speech," Lyons said.

Doctors had not operated on Olsen yet and were waiting to see if swelling in his brain eased, Lyons said.

Olsen's aunt, Kathy Pacconi, told Reuters in an email that her nephew was showing signs of improvement.

Olsen, 24, has become a figurehead of the Occupy Wall Street movement and Oakland organisers have said they will stage a general strike over what a spokeswoman called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters, including the former Marine.

Oakland's police chief, Howard Jordan, has promised a vigorous investigation into the incident which has provoked heavy criticism across the US, sparking solidarity marches in dozens of Occupy camps in the country.

Seems Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan is getting a little testy after weeks of Occupy Wall Street protests, and that has him on a mission to improve his corporation's tattered image.

From Bloomberg News:

Moynihan, 52, told employees in a global town hall meeting last week from the firm’s Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters that the “place to win the battle” over the bank’s battered public image is at the state and municipal level.

Bank of America’s outreach campaign is part of Moynihan’s effort to turn around the lender since he took over as CEO in January 2010 following two taxpayer bailouts. His plan to charge some debit-card users a $5 monthly fee drew reprimands from President Barack Obama and lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who said customers should withdraw their deposits in protest.

“I, like you, get a little incensed when you think about how much good all of you do, whether it’s volunteer hours, charitable giving we do, serving clients and customers well,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 18 gathering. To the bank’s critics, he said, “You ought to think a little about that before you start yelling at us.”

Not certain how well his plan to circumvent addressing Bank of America's real critics, those pesky protesters at Zucotti Park who have hurt his feelings. Also, too, I wonder if Monyihan's bank has spent $35 million on charitable donations in the past 10 years? Seems only right that donations total at least as much as the bank spent on federal political campaigns and lobbying congress on behalf of its' own corporate interests.

Monyihan did say to think about it a little, and so I did. I didn't bring up his charitable giving.

UPDATE: The judge ordered them released, and chided the governor's office for "deciding which protestors" are allowed on public land.

These sure are some dangerous hippies. Not only do they get thrown off public land, guards have to be posted to make sure they don't come back:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Authorities in Tennessee made about 30 arrests early Friday at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters have been encamped for about three weeks in Nashville, protesters said.

Authorities began moving in a little after 3 a.m. using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents. The state's new rules specifically banned "overnight occupancy" at the public space and require permits and use fees for rallies.

But later in the morning, Jeff Blum of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office said the protesters were being released after a night court judge wouldn't sign the warrants. He didn't elaborate on the judge's refusal.

Protester Steve Reiter, who works closely with the group's legal team, said there were apparently problems with how the protesters were taken into custody, particularly concerning being given proper notice. Reiter said their release is a victory for Occupy Nashville.

Katy Savage, another of the protesters, said she peeked out of her tent around 3 a.m. and saw that the camp was surrounded by state troopers.

"I was grabbing our stuff to try to get it off the area," she said.

Savage said people who had already decided they would get arrested sat down together and began singing "We Shall Overcome" as troopers took them, dragging some to waiting buses.

About 20 protesters, who remained on a sidewalk, were not arrested and were still there later in the morning. All the tents had been removed from the plaza and state workers could be seen picking up items left by the protesters. Several state troopers stood guard at the steps to the Capitol.

There's something fishy about Herman Cain's candidacy. Other than the distinct possibility that Republican voters are suffering from some sort of collective brain damage, I cannot begin to explain how Cain is leading among the admittedly sad slate of Republican candidates. But that's not the fishy thing. His campaign infrastructure appears to be next to nil, other than a rather cushy underpinning from Koch Enterprises.

And now a former campaign worker has revealed a man who is more than just ignorant of basic economic theory and prone to conflicting statements, but also tetchy, distant and haughty:

If Herman Cain feels his management skills are up to any challenge, some of his former staff members think he should have started with the disorder in his own campaign.

Mr. Cain has hardly shown up in New Hampshire and Iowa, they said, spending the bulk of his time on a book tour through the South. He occasionally mishandled potential big donors or ignored real voters. His campaign churned through the small staff; last week, his campaign announced the appointment of the veteran campaigner Steve Grubbs, his third Iowa leader in four months.

Even bumper stickers have been hard to come by.

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.

“I found it odd,” said a former staff member who liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

You know, there's just enough of a conspiratorial nugget in my brain to wonder if Herman Cain isn't some really wacky performance art experiment being inflicted upon us.

Left in Alabama: The decline and fall of vote fraud fraud Artur Davis.

No More Mister Nice Blog: Now, Rick Perry wants to secede from Republican debates.

Donklephant: Two-thirds of millionaires support raising taxes on millionaires.

Calculated Risk: Unlike much of Europe, U.S. gross domestic product is finally back to pre-recession levels.

Speaking of which, your quote of the day: “It pains me to say this, but it's become clear that the president has committed us to the current path: higher taxes, more dependency, more bureaucratic control, inaction on the drivers of our debt -- just not even dealing with it -- and painful austerity, the kind you see in Europe.” (Paul Ryan, October 26, 2011)

Guest blogging Mike's Blog Round Up today is Jon Perr from Perrspectives. Send your tips, recommendations, comments and angst to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

If you missed this Tuesday's Charlie Rose Show on PBS, here's his really wonderful interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Truthdig's Chris Hedges with their thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

More video below the fold.

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