Seven people were arrested as officers broke up the Occupy Charlotte tent city, across the street from police headquarters on Monday.

Those arrested faced misdemeanor charges of resist, obstruct and delay. The action took about an hour. Tents were handled with care, and not destroyed as has been the case with many occupy encampments across the country.

Charlotte police returned early Tuesday and aimed their spotlights on the front lawn, where police had evicted dozens of protesters and torn down at least 30 tents Monday afternoon.

After awakening the Occupy Charlotte participants with their floodlights, police officers walked onto the lawn and ordered the protesters to leave. There were no arrests.

Occupy Charlotte members and their attorney have a court hearing Tuesday and plan on asking a judge to prevent the city from enforcing a newly-adopted ordinance that prohibits protesters from camping on city-owned property.

[Via, Via]

A Facebook group put up by an anonymous user seems to be suggesting a threat against people who sign the recall petitions in Wisconsin against Republican Governor Scott Walker. The page was initially launched with a message that read:

You know who you are. WE know who you are. This is gonna get FUN!!

I'm sure as hell going to inform my employer about co-workers names that show up. He is a true Walker supporter. He was looking to let go a couple of workers...now that decision is made that much easier.

The group's profile pic is a photo of a house on fire. The implication is clearly that those who signed petitions to recall Walker would be targeted with loss of job or their home being burned.

After a number of websites learned of the group, the original message was scrubbed from the site and it was "remade" as a "warning" that right-wing extremists might engage in this type of behavior:

Daily Kos gets it wrong, as usual. This is Knot a hate page. This is a page warning petition signers of a clear and possible realitly that radical right wing extremists will be getting your info off the Recall Petitions.

If you read posts on the page, though, this smokescreen falls flat, as there are denigrating references towards liberals and the page lists among its favorites the "Verify the Recall" group, which claims to be a nonpartisan group interested only in making sure recall petition signers were legitimate, but is a fan of tea party-related groups and organizations like Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty, which is promoting events like a "Celebrate Walker" rally and is linked to numerous right-wing organizations.

It seems clear the original page was going to be flagged and removed as a threatening site and they changed the tenor of the page to comply with Facebook guidelines.

I was really surprised at this column by E.J. I was raised Catholic too, but I'm outraged at the Church's hostility towards contraception and I didn't think he bought into this narrative. And let's be honest E.J, many pro-lifers will not vote or support Obama anyway so why should this matter to him or any progressive Catholic? Why should the president do any more for them than the Democratic Party already has?

Obama’s breach of faith over contraceptive ruling

All religions live in the U.S. and must honor our laws. What's being offered is not illegal. How many times are women and progressives supposed to kowtow to the religious right? It's infuriating and I grew up Catholic.

Digby writes:

Tell me again why I'm supposed to care that "progressive" Catholics are unhappy that president Obama mandated that Catholic institutions that employ people who are not members of the faith have to provide birth control coverage under the health care law? I'm hearing they feel "betrayed."

Welcome to our world folks. Now you know what it felt like for the rest of us when the administration made a deal with the Church to give abortion coverage pariah status in the health care law and treat it as though it is something so dirty that decent people wouldn't even want their money to touch the money of those who bought this dirty coverage. It wasn't pleasant.

I don't pretend to understand why progressive Catholics, who I'm told practice birth control at similar rates to non-Catholics, are upset that the government is mandating low cost coverage for everyone—for something they personally practice. That sort of hypocrisy is simply beyond the ken of a heathen like myself. But as a political matter, the*President made the right decision. Pro-choice progressive women have been shafted over and over again on reproductive issues and to enable this growing anti-birth control crusade to gain traction at the hands of a Democratic president would have been a true betrayal of epic proportions. Keep in mind that Democratic women outnumber Democratic men by nearly 10 points.

I feel betrayed by a religion that taught me only how to be a better person when I attended in the '60s and '70s. I'm so sick and tired of these hypocrites telling women what they can and cannot do.

Today, 1 in 3 women has trouble affording birth control. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancies in the industrialized world, and studies show that women who plan their pregnancies are likely to be healthier, seek prenatal care, and have healthier children.

Given all of this, shouldn't the question be why a group of mostly men—bishops or otherwise—need an extra-extra special exemption from prioritizing the health of women? Sadly, this is no freak occurrence. When the Obama administration made the misguided decision not to allow Plan B to be sold over the counter, the debate focused exclusively on the way he—"as a father"—viewed the idea of 11-year-old girls getting Plan B with their pack of gum. The overwhelming majority of young women who were simply trying to avoid pregnancy or abortion, both far more risky than Plan B, were ignored. And when a collection of almost all men pushed the "Bart Stupak amendment," holding health reform they supposedly supported hostage for the sake of inroads on their anti-choice agenda, the actual impact their amendment would have on women was virtually absent, as news coverage lionized these men's dedication to their consciences.

Shouldn't we ask why women's health, our ability to control our lives and bodies and careers, is such a popular political football? Is it because the women who actually are affected have no voice in our political system?

Bart Stupak got run out of office for supporting these people. They are not interested in facts or freedoms. We do not live in a monarchy where men are the lords and women are the chamber maids. Dionne's instincts have been compromised by the same propaganda as so many Americans have been over the years. It's really sad.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he's had it with President Barack Obama "respecting every other religion on the planet," and thinks it's time for him to "respect our religion" instead.

At a campaign event in Florida on Monday, Gingrich seized on letters read at Catholic Churches across the U.S. that condemned the Obama administration for making birth control more available to women.

"Callista and I were at mass last night, and I believe at every Catholic Church, they are reading a letter about the Obama administration's attack on Christianity," Gingrich explained. "This is a fundamental assault on the freedom of religion. ... If you help me win the nomination and then you help me win the election, on the very first day I'm inaugurated, I will sign an executive order repealing every Obama attack on religion across the entire government."

"I think we need to have a government that respects our religions," he added. "I'm a little bit tired of being lectured about respecting every other religion on the planet. I'd like him to respect our religion."

While he was at it, Gingrich also charged that the current Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, had waged his own war on religion.

"Gov. Romney imposed on the Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, a position against their conscious," he said, possibly referring to the misleading claim that Romney supported government-subsidized abortions. He could have also been referencing a decision the former Massachusetts governor made to provide the Plan B birth control pill under Medicaid.

"Gov. Romney cut off Kosher meals for Jewish senior citizens who were on Medicaid to save $5 a day," Gingrich continued.

The New York Post reported last week that that Romney had used his veto in 2003 to reject $600,000 in funds that would have allowed poor Jewish nursing homes to get Kosher meals.

(H/T: Think Progress)

From this Monday night's The Young Turks on Current TV, Crooks and Liars managing editor Tina Dupuy, Turk's regular Ben Mankiewicz and Color of Change's Rashad Robinson discuss whether the Obama administration is finally going to crack down on the banks and whether we see newly appointed RMBS co-chair Eric Schneiderman or Treasury Secretary win out that battle.

Tina and Ben were hopeful we might finally see something finally be done. Robinson reminded the viewers that without pressure from progressive groups, we might not have finally seen President Obama finally make some moves towards some accountability. And Cenk wasn't so optimistic after the stalling and lack of accountability we've seen so far.

For more on that, here's Taibbi's take over at Rolling Stone -- A Victory for the Public on Foreclosures?.

Dave Dayen has more on whether we might see Schneiderman and this working group accomplish anything -- Schneiderman’s RMBS Working Group: Resources, Jurisdiction and Will.

And from C&L here's more on the pressure that's been put on the Obama administration to act from Mike Lux -- Word of the Day: Accountability and from Ken Quinnell -- AFL-CIO's Trumka Joins Chorus Calling for Investigation of Banks.

Next topic for the panel was the recent article at Politico -- Death of bipartisanship has killed the Washington deal. As they all noted, Republicans gave up on bipartisanship a long time ago and progressives haven't had too many real victories in quite some time given how far our politicians on all sides of the aisle have moved to the extreme right.

And one final note, C&L has been in talks with Current TV about Tina doing some correspondent work for them this election season and possibly covering CPAC next week. If you'd like to get a chance to see more of Tina on Current, send them a note and let them know how you feel.

You can contact them at feedback@current.com
or @current on Twitter.

Thanks everyone and we'll keep you posted!

A day after an Occupy DC protester was tased in the back by a Park Police officer, the media was out in force at Occupy DC. Monday to cover the Park Police’s noon deadline against camping at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, the largest remaining Occupy encampments.

Before their arrival the youthful protesters at McPherson draped a massive blue tarp over the statue of Gen. James B. McPherson and moved some of their tents underneath it. They dubbed it the “tent of dreams.”

The hope, among the protesters I spoke to, was the tent would force the Park Police into a confrontation, rather than allow them to arrest protesters one by one. At noon, there were just about as many members of the media as there were occupiers. They too were hoping for a confrontation.

That’s how the media has covered this movement, a series of confrontations with police: Brooklyn Bridge, Oakland tear-gassing, raid of Zuccotti, UC Davis pepper spray, McPherson “occubarn,” flag burning in Oakland.

Around 1 p.m., Park Police Sgt. Schlosser addressed the media horde about their plans. He said the camping ban enforcement will be ongoing, but they have no deadline for police action. Around 2 p.m. most of the cameras were gone.

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I think we will never have an honest discussion about race or about whether gestures -- verbal, images and physical -- imply white superiority over people of color. I just don't think it's possible because no matter how hard one might try to keep the discussion neutral, it just degenerates into a defensive, angry pile on the floor.

Megyn Kelly was just breathless and wider-eyed than ever on Monday over the mere suggestion that anyone could possibly think Arizona governor Jan Brewer's finger in the face of the President and disrespect shown to the office, much less the man, could possibly be construed by anyone as racist.

Enter David Webb, creator of Tea Party 365 and BigGovernment.com contributor, who takes a dim view of anyone calling Brewer's contrived gesturing racist. Jehmu Greene rounds out the panel for Megyn, where they hash out the issues.

Greene has a strong point when she points out that whether or not it was overt racism (she doesn't believe Brewer is racist), it had racial undertones that played out for people viewing that image. Combined with Brewer's claim that the conversation left her feeling 'intimidated', there's no question that the dog whistles were sounding loud.

David Webb is Andrew Breitbart in the body of an African-American man. He loves meanness, just like Breitbart does. It's not enough to dislike someone if you're Webb. Dislike is too kind. It must be hateful and mean, spewed with sneer and squinty eyes. I saw him give Sally Kohn a hard time last week, and today he actually managed to get the usually unflappable Jehmu Green close to livid with his repeated references to the "black mafia" and denial that there could possibly be racist overtones to the Brewer incident.

Webb leads off his argument with this question: "Did Jan Brewer's finger have the N-word written on it? That would have made it racist." He follows that up with this: "Or is this a case where the President and his acolytes need to call out the Black Mafia, which is what they are, to turn it into racism?"

I understand the need on these 24/7 networks to be outrageous in order to garner attention, but these comments were stomach-turning to me, not only for their obtuseness, but for the sheer joy he gets in trying to criminalize President Obama and other respected members of the black community like Greene. The fact that he, too, is black doesn't give him free license to spew racism on the airwaves, even if he thinks it does.

This exchange is particularly difficult, starting at about 3 minutes in.

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The Inverse Square: The evil that men do.

Occasional Planet: Starving the infrastructure beast – privatization vs. the American Jobs Act.

Unqualified Offerings: The problem with democracy is all the debating.

Mikeb302000: Disturbing and possibly racist.

Guest post by Batocchio. Email tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

It appears rather than ignore the shot that was taken at Fox "News" by the Muppets and the fact that they're not a "news" organization, Bill-O decided to respond with a not so thinly veiled threat: "We still like the Muppets, but they'd better watch it."

Watch it or what Bill? Jebus this man needs to take that ego down a notch. I think I give round two to the Muppets just for O'Reilly making enough of an ass of himself for feeling the need to respond to a puppet show to begin with.

O'Reilly's "reality check" ought to include the reality that sometimes you're going to be made fun of, and that you don't come off all that sympathetic to your audience if you're telling a puppet in a someone's parody to watch their step.

During the waning days of Top-40 AM radio in 1968, one song stands out in my mind as never being identified, always used as either lead-in to the news, lead out to a commercial or somehow dropped into the middle of a set virtually unnoticed. Yet somehow it wound up being the song that would often repeat in my head, usually around three in the morning, and always followed with "what the f**ck is the name of that song?"

At first I thought it was one of those oddball instrumentals by The Who (remember Waltz For A Pig, the b-side of Substitute by The Who Orchestra?), since there was a prevalent French Horn in the song and Pete Townsend was going through his French Horn phase (The Overture to Tommy) I figured maybe it was yet another Who masterpiece masquerading as the flip side to something.

And it wasn't until years later that I heard the song again and found out it was by Raymond Lefevre and His Orchestra - a big hit in Europe, racing up the French charts and an instrumental version of a song originally written by French Ian Hunter look-alike, Michel Polonareff.

Since 1968 the song had been hijacked by the "Beautiful Music" format of 1970's FM and turned into something of a Middle-of-the-road classic. And, truths to tell, the song did straddle the worlds of Bland and Pop pretty well for a long time.

But Raymond Lefevre was no slouch or anonymous hack. He was a first rate film composer with an impressive list of credits and he was a widely respected musician and arranger who was much in demand in French music circles.

But, as I suspect a number of you who remember hearing this song over and over and not knowing the name of it or who did it, here's the answer to your sleepless nights: Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline - in french) by Raymond Lefevre and His Orchestra.

Another of life's elusive questions is answered.

And the world of Pop Music spins quietly and deceptively on.