Ben Harper weighs in on the Occupy movement's May 1st General Strike.

What's on your mind today?

[Caution: There is one "F" bomb early in the video as Kurt is speaking before the song begins.]

This is Nirvana and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

More footage of the Occupy arrests on Wall Street Monday evening. As you can see, there doesn't seem to be any rule of law being followed by the NYPD here, along with some white shirts (high-ranking officials) they seem to be just randomly selecting people to arrest, including Matt of WeareChange.org.

Sacramento Bee:

Annette M. Spicuzza, the embattled UC Davis police chief who came under fire in last week's report on what led to the Nov. 18 pepper spray incident on campus, has decided to retire, according to an email statement received by The Bee today.

"My 27 years in law enforcement have been dedicated to the ethical and committed service to the departments and communities I have been proud to be a part of," the statement read. "For the past seven years, I have accomplished many good things for both the Police Department and community here at UC Davis; and am grateful to those of you who have remembered this.

"As the university does not want this incident to be its defining moment, nor do I wish for it to be mine. I believe in order to start the healing process, this chapter of my life must be closed."

Spicuzza and Lt. John Pike, who pepper-sprayed UC Davis students participating in a non-violent protest on campus have both been on paid leave while internal affairs conducted an investigation of the incident.

Last week, a task force issued a report blaming the incident on poor planning, communication and decision-making at all levels of the school's administration.

The report was especially critical of Chief Spicuzza, Lt. Pike and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

Explaining the Buffet Rule

The latest stories from the front lines of the labor fight across the country...

Congratulations! You have your own bank, as in the Yes Men strike again...

Note: A "phishing" site warning may appear when you click on the link, but you don't need to worry, it isn't. Just click on the "ignore" option and proceed to the site, and if you have a moment to report the phishing tag as being false that would be great.

In a personal letter on the website from the CEO of Your Bank of America, Brian Moynihan (I'm sure we can get someone else to fill that spot soon enough!):

Dear Fellow American,

Welcome to your Bank of America.

Today, it's time to acknowledge that our Bank isn't working anymore—not just for the market, but for people, our real customers. We've paid $8.58 billion in relief to borrowers and $3.24 billion in fines. We face lawsuits and claims from citizens, companies, and state and local governments. There is even a petition with the Federal Reserve to break up our bank, adding yet more uncertainty to our position. Finally, we've found ourselves front-and-center in the national foreclosure crisis, and deep in unpopular investments like coal, at a time when climate change is a growing societal concern.

As a result, our company’s shares have fallen precipitously, and now trade at one-fifth their 2008 price. Our Bank may, in fact, soon need help keeping afloat—and much as in 2008, you, the American taxpayer, will be asked to provide that assistance.

The institutions you rescued in 2008 have continued much as they always were, engaging in the same practices that brought our economy so close to collapse. To make sure that this time around, things turn out differently, we at Bank of America are launching a forum in which you, the American taxpayer, can prepare for the time that you own us. By sharing ideas, and reading and rating the ideas of others, you can begin charting a course for this Bank—your course.

And when the day comes that you, the American taxpayer, own this Bank, you will be ready to make it a Bank for America—one that brings benefits not to the privileged only, but to all of our customers, and to all of our stakeholders too.

Welcome to your Bank of America.

Brian T. Moynihan
Chief Executive Officer
President

Be sure to visit Your Bank of America soon -- while it's still there -- and submit your ideas in the ideas section.

The Tax Dodgers celebrated yet another record-breaking season at the headquarters of their sponsors, GE, Verizon, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The team was joined by their hula-hooping cheerleading squad, The Loopholes, and together, they will be personally thanking everyday New Yorkers for paying their taxes for them.

Members of the 99% gathered early in the morning in the five boroughs on Tuesday for planned Tax Day activities and protests. They spoke with people throughout the day as they dropped off their taxes in the mail about how they paid less taxes than corporations, and members of the 1% like Mitt Romney. They passed out information sheets about tax dodgers and talked to people as they walked by or into the post office.

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Has everyone survived tax day?

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West discuss new book 'The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto': MyFoxDC.com

"There are nearly 150 million poor and near poor people in America who are not responsible for the damage done by the Great Recession. Yet they pay the price. When the largest economic institutions in the world were brought to their collective knees, they went crawling to the government’s doorstep in search of salvation. The government obliged, allowing Wall Street to socialize its failure on the backs of Main Street Americans. The housing and jobs crisis they created fostered a poverty unseen in generations" – Tavis Smiley and Cornel West

Here's an excerpt from the book:

There are nearly 150 million poor and near poor people in America who are not responsible for the damage done by the Great Recession. Yet they pay the price. The poor did not create the deindustrialization of America, unmatched corporate profiteering and greed, more than a decade of foreign wars, and unregulated tax benefits for the wealthy. When the largest economic institutions in the world were brought to their collective knees, they went crawling to the government’s doorstep in search of salvation. The government obliged, allowing Wall Street to socialize its failure on the backs of Main Street Americans. The housing and jobs crisis they created fostered a poverty unseen in generations—not just in inner-city ghettos and barrios, but also in suburbs and rural areas crossing racial, age, and gender lines. Nearly one-third of the American middle class—mostly families with children—have fallen into poverty.”

Tour Dates http://www.therichandtherestofus.com/ Buy the book now

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Jon Stewart took on the GOP's "war on women" during his opening segments Monday, first with highlighting the hypocrisy of the media firestorm over Hilary Rosen's comments and the Romneys' blatant hypocrisy on whether he respects "the dignity" of motherhood or not.

Stewart went after Fox "News" in both segments, who have been flogging this story for everything they can get out of it, trying to do damage control for Mittens given the Republicans' sinking poll numbers with female voters. I was glad to see someone finally go after them as he did for their feigned outrage over the Democrats using the phrase the "war on women" when Fox has happily used the same type of language for everything from their fake "war on Christmas" to the "war on Easter" or the "war on food" or whatever their latest ridiculous outrage of the week is.

I could have done without the picture of the pregnant woman spread eagle his graphics department chose to use in the segment though. Tasteless addition to what was otherwise a pretty good summation of the rank hypocrisy we've been seeing from Republicans who would be content to take us back to the 1950's with women's reproductive rights and the desperation of the Romney campaign to now try to distance himself from the way his party is governing, or at least distract the voters from paying attention to it.

You can watch the second segment below the fold.

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