Dr. Nada Dhaif, and Dr. Fatima Hajji discuss the sentences and give their shocked reactions to them.

These doctors, and eighteen more, were sentenced simply for providing aid to injured protesters, the rest of the charges fictitious.

It should also be noted that while the U.S. State Department is "deeply disturbed" by these sentences, Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, and thus a key ally in the region. The U.S. has provided the tiny island nation of Bahrain nearly $100 million in aid since Barack Obama became president. Iran's PressTV is only too happy to provide (accurate) figures on the contradiction:

The Pentagon has cut deals with Bahrain in arms trade, sending dozens of American tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopter gunships, thousands of .38 caliber pistols and millions of rounds of ammunition, from .50 caliber rounds used in sniper rifles and machine guns to bullets for handguns, some of which were undoubtedly used against protesters.

In addition to all these gifts of weaponry, ammunition, and fighting vehicles, the Pentagon in coordination with the State Department oversaw Bahrain's purchase of more than $386 million in defense items and services from 2007 to 2009, the last three years on record.

From the CNN report:

(CNN) -- A group of 20 doctors who were detained during this year's protests in Bahrain have been convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and hit with lengthy prison sentences, authorities and a human rights group said Thursday.

Thirteen of the physicians were sentenced to 15 years in prison, two for 10 years and five for five years, said military prosecutor, Col. Yussef Rashid Flaifel.

The U.S. State Department, "deeply disturbed" by the sentences, said the Bahraini government should provide fair trials, access to attorneys and judicial transparency.

Deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States was "concerned about trials of civilians, including medical personnel, in military courts and the fairness of those proceedings."

Charges against the doctors included possession of unlicensed weapons, inciting the overthrow of the government, provoking sectarian hatred and forceful occupation of a public building, officials said. Prosecutors have alleged that, at the height of the protests earlier this year, the accused medical personnel refused to help patients at Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital in the capital city, Manama.

Amnesty International called the charges "ludicrous" in their press release.

“These are simply ludicrous charges against civilian professionals who were working to save lives amid very trying circumstances,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “It appears that the real reason for targeting these health workers was the fact that they denounced the government crackdown on protesters in interviews to international media.”

“We’ve repeatedly said that Bahraini authorities should never have used military courts to prosecute ordinary civilians, including doctors, teachers and human rights activists.

From the descriptions of the people who were there, it sounds as though Mayor Bloomberg's strategy is to thin the ranks of protesters with set-ups like this. The Powers That Be don't understand how many more people are waiting in line to support the Occupy Wall Street actions:

Police reopened the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening after more than 500 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested for blocking traffic lanes and attempting an unauthorized march across the span.

The arrests took place when a large group of marchers, participating in a second week of protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement, broke off from others on the bridge's pedestrian walkway and headed across the Brooklyn-bound lanes.

"More than 500 were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge late this afternoon after multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway," a police spokesman said.

"Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others locked arms and proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were arrested," he added.

The bridge was reopened at 8:05 p.m. EDT after being closed for hours.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene on the famous suspension bridge as a sea of police officers surrounded the protesters using orange mesh netting.

Some protesters tried to get away as officers started handcuffing members of the group. Dozens of protesters were seen handcuffed and sitting on the span as three buses were called in to take them away, witnesses and organizers said.

The NY Times interviewed protesters who said, despite NYPD claims, the police never warned them they couldn't walk in the roadway:

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Alicublog: Don't laugh, you're next.

Brilliant at Breakfast: This is the problem, right here .

Naked Capitalism: Friedrich Hayek joins Ayn Rand as a hypocritical user of Medicare.

Unqualified Offerings: Anarchy, Utopia, and the Squidger.

Lance Mannion: And my mother-in-law wonders why we don't go to church anymore.

A Tiny Revolution: Attack of the American Free Enterprise System.

Guest post by Batocchio. That's it for me for now, folks. Thanks. Email tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

"Nickel and Dimed" from Lewis Lapham's "The American Ruling Class" available for purchase here or through Netflix streaming.

I don't know about you, but I feel very nickel and dimed of late. From the obscene monthly charge for using an ATM card levied only on those who don't carry a $6,000 balance in their checking account (because it makes sense not to charge those who have no problem affording it, right?) to job websites discriminating against the unemployed to all the absurd extra fees, charges and humiliation I had to endure flying home from a family get together. And yet when I look at the roster of the Sunday shows, I see all the same familiar faces and NOT ONE of them will talk about what it's like for most Americans. I suspect that most don't have a clue that they don't know what it's like for most Americans, and worst, they don't care.

If it's Sunday, it's the John McCain Show, this time on Face the Nation. And the media is going to give Herman Cain his due as the Florida Straw Poll winner with two spotlights on This Week and Fox News Sunday. Imagine if he polled higher than 5%! Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz will appear together, making State of the Union the official nexus of evil this weekend. And for some giggles, check out Chris Matthews' topic. After 30 years of catastrophic Reagonomics poisoning the economy, he wants the panel to tell him whether they think America is beginning a long-term decline. Like I said, most of them do not have a clue what it's like for 99% of the American people.

ABC's "This Week" - 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Govs. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., and Deval Patrick, D-Mass.; Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Nia-Malika Henderson, John Heilemann, Rana Faroohar and David Ignatius. Is America Beginning A Long-term Decline? How Is Chris Christie Making Mitt Romney Look Unacceptable?

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Govs. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., and Haley Barbour, R-Miss.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz; former CIA Director Michael Hayden; former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Barbour.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

"Fox News Sunday" - Cain.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

Time for your weekly podcast with The Professional Left, otherwise known as our own Bluegal and Driftglass. I just want to wish our friend Driftie and some of my fellow contributors the best of luck with finding new employment, along with any of our readers who are facing similar circumstances. It's a tough time to be looking for a job out there, so many competing for the same jobs and with the Republicans determined to do everything humanly possible to make it worse so that President Obama doesn't get reelected.

Links for this episode:

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By way of a shout out to everyone hitting the streets and organizing protests this weekend. To the C&L Crew (Go Tina!) for delivering Pizzas to the hungry Occupy L.A. crowds and all the other truly amazing people (way to go Michelle!) taking part in the 99% Movement, here's something I was able to track down that was recorded just this past week. As you know, the Rock In Rio Festival is the biggest gathering of music this side of the Atlantic. Last reported some 600,000 people are partaking in some of the world's best as well as Brazil's best music. It's a massive celebration and it's a coming together of the world under one vast roof.

And maybe that's a little of what it's been like today. People coming together for one purpose and doing it in a mass, peaceful way; trying to bring sanity back from it's way-too-long vacation.

So if you're setting up camp, printing up signs, organizing rallies or just chilling, here's Metallica's complete set from last week's Rock In Rio. It's split up between two players, since the concert clocks in a little over 2 hours.

Enjoy. See you back at City Hall tomorrow. Keep it goin' - keep it real.

An inspirational track from Pink Floyd, with an assist from the supporters of Liverpool Football Club at Anfield.

In yet another example of CNN allowing one of their guest to play the "both sides are obstructionists" and a lack of bipartisanship is what's wrong with our politics game, frequent contributor Prof. Peter Morici does his best to lie to their audience about who is actually making sure that nothing gets done in Washington D.C. -- as long as Republicans' primary goal is to make sure that President Obama is not reelected instead of allowing the economy to improve.

Here's Morici on Saturday's Your Money:

VELSHI: So the work needs to be done to fix this economy outside of Washington in the private sector. But the idea there is a road map, there is some destination and there are some agreement as to how to get there is the thing that is going to help businesses make those decisions to employ people.

So ultimately the gridlock you're saying, Diane, is a large part of the problem. Peter Morici, what's the logical fix to that? Do we have to wait for 14 months for an election to finally have the people somehow send the message that you guys have to get something done in Washington?

Are we still going to see this reactionary politics that plays its way all the way down to the voter who now is going to vote on choices that affect them personally?

MORICI: The fact of the matter is we're going to see marginal action on the president's plan. Even the Democrats in the Senate are putting it off. My feeling is there will be a package. It won't be nearly as comprehensive as the president likes.

But a basic problem we have is that when the Republicans win, they think they should get everything their way and the Democrats think they should obstruct. When the Democrats win, they think they should get everything their way and Republicans think they should obstruct.

The reality is folks do want government -- Americans are moderate. They want solutions in the middle. Until politicians are willing to do that, we're going to have this seesawing in elections. I mean, that's all there is to it and we're going to be a country divided.

But I think there are real solutions to getting the private sector going. We haven't had a clear vision from the White House how to do that beyond stimulus. And frankly on the Republican side, cutting taxes and deregulating doesn't warm me up.

Naturally what Morici fails to mention here is that Democrats have not been the ones unwilling to negotiate, to a fault I would say. It's been the Republicans and to the point that they're even refusing to vote for their own ideas if heaven forbid those ideas might somehow even marginally improve the economy.

We've already written about the level of GOP obstruction we've been watching over the last couple of years at Video Cafe. Steve Benen wrote a post on this earlier this year here -- Evil vs. Disgusting -- which did a really good job laying out just how craven the Republican's strategy has been that bears repeating here in the wake of Morici's remarks.

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To fully comprehend the sad spectacle that has become American politics since the 1980s, you need not peruse the politics section of major periodicals. Or the opinion, news or business pages of illustrious publications.

No, lately you’d be best served by heading on over to the obituary section.

For example, this past week, a legislative giant from an earlier and more evolved Republican Party - that is to say, one in which dazzling audiences with tales of cantering saddleback on the family T-Rex was not considered “reaching out to the base” - former Senator Charles Percy, passed away. This sad news has come not long after the passing of another Republican legend, former Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield.

These men were both of the Rockefeller, or old Establishment wing of the Republican Party, a robust and scientifically literate (hint) group that followed in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight D Eisenhower. Therefore, the importance and symbolism of their passing, for so many reasons, cannot be overstated.

It is the disappearance of their perspective and purpose that is one of the major reasons why our politics is where it is today - somewhere on the spectrum between corporate performance art and collective shame. Namely, the Bachmannization of the GOP, its influence in wrecking Washington culture and corrupting the current Republican Establishment, and its overall deleterious effect on the American middle class since the early 1980s.

This history of accomplishment by these moderate to liberal Republicans and their now near-complete extinction also leads the more naivete among the Democratic Party - see 1600 Pennsvlvania Avenue - to believe there are still deals to be made with this current crop of Koch-infected androids, a group which considers George W. Bush to be a near-Maoist for having supported pro-business immigration reform, appointing Ben Bernanke to the Fed and wanting to ban those on terror watch lists from buying assault weapons.

Dirty hippie!

Essentially, the face of the GOP has gone from Mark Hatfield and Charles Percy to David Vitter and Tom Coburn, which would explain why a once-respected profession has lately morphed into something more closely resembling the oldest one.

It may be hard for those who either were not alive (which includes me) or have not studied what the times were like to understand how different our legislating process and political culture was when men like Percy strode the halls of the Capitol like a colossus.

It was a time when there were scores of Republicans who were more progressive on civil rights, war & peace and even social programmes than some Democrats. Percy supported legislation to stimulate the production of low-cost housing for the poor. He joined Senator Hubert Humphrey in creating an "Alliance To Save Energy" because of the OPEC oil embargo.

Hatfield, meanwhile, one of the first military servicemen to enter Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb, opposed Vietnam and the first Gulf War and offered his view of national security thusly:

"Every president other than Eisenhower has been seduced by the military concept that that is our sole measurement of our national security and the more bombs we build, the more secure we are."

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Alabama's crazy new laws targeting illegal immigrants have started an exodus from their schools. Alabama's laws are said to be even more severe, more draconian than in Arizona.

The video clip is from WAAY in Huntsville, Alabama.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) – Hispanic students have started vanishing from Alabama public schools in the wake of a court ruling that upheld the state's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigration.

Education officials say scores of immigrant families have withdrawn their children from classes or kept them home this week, afraid that sending the kids to school would draw attention from authorities.

There are no precise statewide numbers. But several districts with large immigrant enrollments — from small towns to large urban districts — reported a sudden exodus of children from Hispanic families, some of whom told officials they would leave the state to avoid trouble with the law, which requires schools to check students' immigration status.

The anxiety has become so intense that the superintendent in one of the state's largest cities, Huntsville, went on a Spanish-language television show Thursday to try to calm worried parents.

"In the case of this law, our students do not have anything to fear," Casey Wardynski said in halting Spanish. He urged families to send students to class and explained that the state is only trying to compile statistics.

Here's the superintendent:

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