E.J. Dionne:

Everyone on the left side of American politics, from the near end to the far end, has advice for Occupy Wall Street. I’m no exception. But it’s useful to acknowledge first that this movement has accomplished things that the more established left didn’t.

Who wants to read about an informant-induced, non-operational terror plot in NYC that never was going to get off the ground when you can watch Homeland? It's much more compelling and about as real as the chances of a "lone wolf" pulling off a terror attack under the watchful, ever-present eye of the NYPD.

They were watching him for two years. Here's the Complaint. His website, which was being monitored, is trueislam. Here's his You Tube page. The informant was in this with Pimanetel -- they purchased stuff together and started building the bomb together at the informant's apartment, according to the complaint. Contrary to news reports (sloppy reporting), the complaint clearly states Pimentel was arrested with the components at the informant's apartment, not his own. They could have stopped this at any time.

The Inspire Magazine article (it's not a manual) has been all over the web since 2010. (Anyone can buy the Anarchist's Cookbook on Amazon -- there's even a Kindle version.)

Was it important to stop Pimentel? Of course. Did NY dodge an imminent bullet? Hardly.

Also on tonight: A new Next Iron Chef and Boardwalk Empire.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The mini-bus spending bill passed by Congress and signed by Obama is chock-full of law enforcement and prison spending -- $27.4 billion, including increases of $4 billion for the FBI, DEA, ATF and Marshal's Service. The FBI gets an additional $1.1 billion "for new initiatives in national security, surveillance, violent crime and cyber security." The Senate removed a provision that a portion had to go to something called "special surveillance groups." But the DEA is getting $10 million to expand the El Paso Intelligence Center. There's $90 million for prison construction. (Start on page 234.)

It also has detainee and abortion-funding restrictions for female prisoners. (Sections 202-204.) And it tells the Bureau of prisons it can't spend money on cable TV services or videos for inmate recreational purposes. [More...]

WaPo:

The congressional committee tasked with reducing the federal deficit is poised to admit defeat as soon as Monday, and its unfinished business will set up a year-end battle over emergency jobless benefits and an expiring payroll tax holiday.

While wasting most of the year on a non-existent "deficit crisis," the Beltway has ignored the jobs crisis. This neglect is brought into stark relief by what they think they need to do in December:

A great article on how police brutality became the standard procedure for policing protests.

Open Thread.

Sometimes "what is standard procedure" is the scandal:

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters. "When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."

After reviewing the video, Kelly said [. . .] "What I'm looking at is fairly standard police procedure[.]"

(Emphasis supplied.)Worth noting this from former Baltimore cop and John Jay College of Criminal Justice sociologist Peter Moskos:

The Davis Faculty Association calls for ouster of UC-Davis Chancellor:

The DFA Board calls for the immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi. The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership. Given the recent use of excessive force by police against “occupy” protestors at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, the Chancellor must have anticipated that, by authorizing police action, she was effectively authorizing their use of excessive force against peaceful UCD student protestors. The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it. We also call for a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protestors by police on the UC Davis campus. The University of California should be taking a leadership role in encouraging the exercise of free speech, not in suppressing it.

Sacramento Bee:

The UC Davis chancellor called Saturday for a review of the events that led to 10 arrests and pepper spraying of apparently non-violent protestors on the campus Friday. [. . .]A task force review and report "will help inform our policies and process within the university administration and the UC Davis Police Department to help us avoid similar outcomes in the future," Katehi's statement said.

Better work quick because:

The students, meanwhile, expect to return to the quad in greater numbers Monday[.]

Chancellor's "letter" to the university community:

As indicated in various videos, the police used pepper spray against the students who were blocking the way. The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.

(Emphasis supplied.) The Chancellor's spokesperson was not "chilled" by the use of pepper spray and the head of the campus police was PRESENT when the pepper spray was used and remarked that her people did a great job. Obviously the "chill" the Chancellor identifies appears to have evolved after the reaction she felt from the criticism she has received.

UC-Davis Spokeperson:

Claudia Morain, a UC Davis spokesperson, told The Huffington Post that [. . .] that the officers were essentially trapped (the videos suggest otherwise) and had to transport several of the arrested students. "The pepper spray was used because they needed to get out of there," she said [. . .] "The police tried to use the least force that they could," Morain explained.

UC-Davis Campus police chief:

UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza [. . .], who observed the events on the Quad, said that she was “very proud” of her officers.

Oh by the way, the rationale for the action?

Chancellor Linda Katehi [said that . . .] while she appreciated the peaceful nature of recent protests, liability concerns and limited staffing to supervise protesters meant the encampment must come down.

(Emphasis supplied.) Liability concerns? This helped, I'm sure.

"Safety" concerns:

UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said officers used force out of concern for their own safety after they were surrounded by students. “If you look at the video you are going to see that there were 200 people in that quad,” said Chief Spicuzza. “Hindsight is 20-20 and based on the situation we were sitting in, ultimately that was the decision that was made.”

Yes. Look at the video.

Last night, I made an "investment" that there would be less than 70 total points scored in the Oklahoma State-Iowa State game. I've been "investing" on Okla State all year but the line was 28 on the road, so I laid off. On my mind was the news earlier in the day that Oklahoma St.'s head woman's basketball coach and his assistant had died in a plane crash. I was thinking if it is on my mind, I imagine it was on the mind of the Okla St. athletes.

Okla. St., who was positioned to play in the BCS championship game if they could beat Oklahoma at the end of the season, lost in 2OT to Iowa State last night. The BCS is yet again in disarray. We need only one more occurrence to make it perfect chaos - LSU losing to Arkansas. Then you would have 3 one loss SEC West teams. There should be a playoff, and the players should be paid with the windfall.

Here are my picks today - Missouri -18 over Texas Tech, Cal +19 over Stanford (3 units), Miami (Fla) -1 over South Florida, Cinn. -3 over Rutgers, Oregon -15 over USC (3 units), Ohio State -7 over Penn State (3 units), Tennessee +1½ over Vandy (2 units), BC +25 over Notre Dame (2 units), Florida State -17 over Virginia (2 units), Texas A&M -31 over Kansas (2 units)

5pm update - forgot the best bet - Oklahoma (-16) over Baylor (10 units). Game is tonight.

Open Thread.

Mercedes Benz has an assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Al. One of the company's managers from Germany came to Alabama on business. He ended up in jail for violating Alabama's new immigration law. Why? His rental car was stopped for not having an appropriate tag and he didn't have his driver's license on him, only his German identification card.

Alabama's new immigration law requires police to check citizenship status when conducting a traffic stop. Anyone without proper papers gets arrested.

"If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this...." Previously, drivers who lacked licenses received a ticket and a court summons....

The manager was released when an associate brought his passport and German driver's license to the police department.

What a stupid law. Not being in possession of a driver's license should result in a ticket, not an arrest. [More...]