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Also, some of the interest made was put back into educational systems other than the student loan programs, as in state education college funding. What happened (and even under Obama's plan) is that the "working" margin of interest profit is now going to the private incomes/bonuses of private bankers and is part of those dividends paid to stockholders of the private banks. Those are folks within the 1%! Sound familiar? This was the direct work of Republican privatization political strategies. In effect, the student loan programs in the US were raped for the good of private and publically traded business on the backs of college students. Obama's plan will help with having sane payments for students after graduation, that is true. But the banks will not have as high of a yield of profit from these loans. Probably they will add more loan fees in order to recover these losses (remember, the so called regulation safeguards we now have don't really have much bite at all- pretty bogus, really). There are also many loan fees associated with these loans that were not charged when they were administered by the government. Not even close. The original government run student loans were a very good bargain for students and were not filled with initiation fees. In fact, a student paid about $15 to file a loan application and that was about it for them in terms of loan fees. And they paid a low inhterest rate when they began paying back these loans. No, problems around student loans and the relationship to banks and Wall Street are not being fully addressed. Even loans for our veterans that can give them good deals on buying a home are profit makers for banks and Wall Street via how they are intermingled and administered through private banking. Personally, I want whatever taxes I pay that is earmarked for education and loans to vets to be part of government administration and put back into the programs so that the programs grow and more loans become available for both populations and the jobs that were available to government employees are brought back! Have to add that "out-sourcing" happens within our geographical boundaries (public to private administration)!!! |
200-plus arrested as New York police clear 'Occupy' camp
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Update: Zuccotti park reopened through a bottleneck, barricades still in place.
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This is from Occupy News on FB:
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“Tax The 1%”: It’s Time to Occupy Our Communities"
Oh yeah. Even if you've seen this, it's the inspiration we need right now:
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Michael Moore talks to Keith Olbermann about the latest crackdowns on Occupy across the country
http://current.com/shows/countdown/v...campment-raids
He says the Obama administration has helped mayors coordinate the raids against encampments in NY, Oakland, Denver, etc. |
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Keith Olbermann takes on NY Mayor Bloomberg
Go Keith! Go! |
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I believe it is true. But without an admission from the federal government or from sources willing to go on record there really isn't 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' proof here. And even if there were, Obama certainly has plausible deniability and six degrees of separation to boot. I'm sure it is in his best political interest to have his effort to help get rid of the protestors be understood by the 1% while being seen by the rest of us as probably misinformation or mere speculation. Sounds like the same old, same old to me. Occupy' crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials Rick Ellis Minneapolis Top News Examiner Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict "Occupy" protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night's move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies. The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement. According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present. The FBI has so far failed to respond to requests for an official response, and of the 14 local police agencies contacted in the past 24 hours, all have declined to respond to questions on this issue. But in a recent interview with the BBC," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan mentioned she was on a conference call just before the recent wave of crackdowns began. "I was recently on a conference call of 18 cities who had the same situation, where what had started as a political movement and a political encampment ended up being an encampment that was no longer in control of the people who started them." At the time this story was updated, Mayor Quan's office had declined to discuss her comments. http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-...ement-agencies http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...nd,-Berkeley,- http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/11/1...al-government/ |
6 Burning Questions About the Violent Crackdowns on Occupations Around the Country
By Lynn Parramore November 15, 2011 Alternet In the aftermath of a city-by-city crackdown featuring hundreds of arrests and evictions of Occupy encampments, plenty of questions demand answers. Occurring without provocation, the Occupy crackdown gives the appearance of an orchestrated effort to thwart an emerging protest movement. Early morning Tuesday, in New York City, hundreds of police officers, many in riot gear, swept down on Zuccotti Park, throwing away private property, restricting press and using aggressive tactics to remove protesters and supporters. Here are some things we’d really like to know. 1. Who convened the mayors call? In an interview with the BBC, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan alluded to her participation in a conference call with leaders of 18 US cities just prior to the raids on encampments across the country. Mayors' associations do exist, but they do not typically organize police interventions or local decision-making in such detail. Given the abuses of the past, such as the notorious COINTELPRO and other intervention programs that the U.S. government organized during the Vietnam protests, the public has a right to know the details of who organized that call. 2. Was there an attempt to control press coverage? New Yorkers awoke to front-page stories and photographs in both the New York Post and the New York Daily News. Coverage by the two papers was supportive of the mayor and the police actions but disparaging toward the protesters. An AlterNet reporter, arriving on the scene at 1:30am, shortly after the raid began, could get nowhere near Zuccotti Park due to police barricades (and was subjected to pepper spray while attempting to report on events). How did the friendly reporters gain their access? Was there advance coordination to allow certain media outlets access and block the rest? Why was press access restricted? Were some reporters' credentials confiscated? How will reports of unwarranted force on the part of police toward the press be addressed? 3. What, if any, was the role of the White House? Who was in charge of following the nationwide Occupy crackdown at the White House? What does President Obama, the man who celebrated the uprisings in Egypt (and who is currently out of the US, in Asia), think about the raids and the encroachments on the civil liberties of peacefully protesting Americans? As a constitutional scholar, what is his view of the restrictions of the press and the arrests of journalists? 4. Was the Department of Homeland Security involved in the raids? Filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted this question, asking if the Department may have given the green-light to the raid. The DHS has been reportedly following Occupy Wall Street Twitter feeds and other social media networks. Did it play any role in the crackdown? 5. What, if any, was the role of the FBI? Suggestions are circulating that the FBI and other federal agencies may have advised local law enforcement agencies on how to conduct the raids and even how to handle press relations. Did this happen? Was there any coordinating of arrests across the country on the part of the FBI? 6. Where are the libertarians? In the face of all the clamor about “states' rights,” local government and the Constitution, we want to know where all the libertarians have suddenly gone. It’s enough to drive you to drink an emergency cup of tea. |
5 Arrested in Pittsburgh last night
Well, dare I say FINALLY (?) Occupy Pittsburgh made a statement
last night. They we demonstrating outside the convention center where a huge meeting of Haliburton exec's and like people where congregating. They were asked to move off of Covention center property. Convetion center was funded with tax payer dollars (according to OPgh) there fore they felt they had a right to be there. Police asked them several times to move across the street. Most did. A few did not (5) and they were all arrested for tresspassing. According to the morning news, It never got out of hand, (noisy) but that's all. The morning news also ran a film clip from one of the Opgh folks of the convention atendee's pressed up against the glass watching the whole thing. http://www.post-gazette.com/images5/...otesthpx_3.jpg |
Great shot and go Pittsburgh :-)
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"Now we can begin."
Some amazing things are coming out of Monday's 2 a.m. raid, and I love Brodsky's message -
"Mike Bloomberg is nothing if not consistent. He's America's leading apologist for the 1%. His recent defense of banks and Wall Street as blameless for the financial meltdown the Great Recession was New York chutzpah in extremis. It was obvious he sensed the long-term dangers that OWS poses to his vision of American. Clearly, the use of cops to sweep Zuccotti Park was always where he was headed. History works itself out in unexpected ways. The initial beauty and effectiveness of OWS was its non-hierarchical, amoeba-like incarnation. It replicated across the world based on two insights: Technology, properly used, can swiftly create organizations of gigantic proportions, and most people understand that wealth and power are now more concentrated that ever before and that's a bad thing for all of us. It didn't need leaders and spokespeople. Bloomberg's sweep of Zuccotti Park changed all that and forces OWS to examine its future. The challenge to OWS is real. Can it turn its' technological genius and simple message into an organization that makes real, practical change in people's lives? We've worked out a democratic system that permits aggregations of human beings to challenge aggregations of money. The civil rights movement, the women's movement, labor, anti-war, environmental, etc. et. al., all found ways to make politics, government and daily life better for the great majority. Now it's OWS' turn. Can it transform, develop an agenda, participate in conventional politics and change the power arrangements in America and elsewhere. Can it do all that without losing its' integrity, transparency and openness? Yes, it can, but it won't be easy. One of the lasting progressive images from the beginning of the labor movement is the moments before the execution of a labor organizer named Joe Hill, on trumped-up charges. His last words, "don't mourn for me, organize" became part of a song written by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson that Pete Seeger and many others made famous. Now the OWS movement has arrived at its defining moment, thanks to a phalanx of cops and a mayor by, of, and for the 1%. Now, we can begin." http://images.huffingtonpost.com/201...11011_3600.jpg |
I absolutely love this. It's long but so worth watching.
Marianne Williamson Speaking About the Occupy Movement, Berkeley, CA November 2011 |
via twitter:
SalmanRushdie Salman Rushdie Nazis destroyed books to "purify" German culture. Bigots do it in the name of God, or Allah. What's Bloomberg's excuse? "Hygiene"? #ows ...a little smirky but he says what he thinks and makes no excuses. i'm ok with that. |
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...y/photo-12.jpg
Occupy Phiadelphia this afternoon |
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A reasonable and fair discussion/response to what is happening requires that people use language that is NOT a wild exaggeration to provoke a reaction. Since this thing started I've had to point out how outlandish and fear-based the claims of "who the protectors are" and "what their goals are" that were being spread by the media. I'm surrounded by people who don't have an analysis about OWS that shows them it is in their interest. Comparing Bloomberg to a Nazi is as useless and counterproductive as comparing "the 99%" to wild anarchists who just want free marijuana. We have to do better. Rushdie should know better. |
I looked and looked, but there's no way I can see to share this on social media (Facebook). It's too good not to share, so I'm going to cut and paste the text of the article/blog here and then paste the link to the blog page at the bottom. Thanks for your patience. I know it's a long read, but I think it's worth it. :winky:
------------------------------------------- Saturday 19 February 2011 by: George Lakoff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed What Conservatives Really Want (Photo: Patrick Feller / The New York Times) Dedicated to the peaceful protestors in Wisconsin, February 19, 2011. ---------- The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy. The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting and on and on. Budget deficits are a ruse, as we've seen in Wisconsin, where the Governor turned a surplus into a deficit by providing corporate tax breaks, and then used the deficit as a ploy to break the unions, not just in Wisconsin, but seeking to be the first domino in a nationwide conservative movement. Deficits can be addressed by raising revenue, plugging tax loopholes, putting people to work and developing the economy long-term in all the ways the president has discussed. But deficits are not what really matter to conservatives. Conservatives really want to change the basis of American life, to make America run according to the conservative moral worldview in all areas of life. In the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama accurately described the basis of American democracy: empathy — citizens caring for each other, both social and personal responsibility — acting on that care, and an ethic of excellence. From these, our freedoms and our way of life follow, as does the role of government: to protect and empower everyone equally. Protection includes safety, health, the environment, pensions. Empowerment starts with education and infrastructure. No one can be free without these, and without a commitment to care and act on that care by one's fellow citizens. The conservative worldview rejects all of that. Conservatives believe in individual responsibility alone, not social responsibility. They don't think government should help its citizens. That is, they don't think citizens should help each other. The part of government they want to cut is not the military (we have 174 bases around the world), not government subsidies to corporations, not the aspect of government that fits their worldview. They want to cut the part that helps people. Why? Because that violates individual responsibility. But where does that view of individual responsibility alone come from? The way to understand the conservative moral system is to consider a strict father family. The father is The Decider, the ultimate moral authority in the family. His authority must not be challenged. His job is to protect the family, to support the family (by winning competitions in the marketplace), and to teach his kids right from wrong by disciplining them physically when they do wrong. The use of force is necessary and required. Only then will children develop the internal discipline to become moral beings. And only with such discipline will they be able to prosper. And what of people who are not prosperous? They don't have discipline, and without discipline they cannot be moral, so they deserve their poverty. The good people are hence the prosperous people. Helping others takes away their discipline, and hence makes them both unable to prosper on their own and function morally. The market itself is seen in this way. The slogan, "Let the market decide" assumes the market itself is The Decider. The market is seen as both natural (since it is assumed that people naturally seek their self-interest) and moral (if everyone seeks their own profit, the profit of all will be maximized by the invisible hand). As the ultimate moral authority, there should be no power higher than the market that might go against market values. Thus the government can spend money to protect the market and promote market values, but should not rule over it either through (1) regulation, (2) taxation, (3) unions and worker rights, (4) environmental protection or food safety laws, and (5) tort cases. Moreover, government should not do public service. The market has service industries for that. Thus, it would be wrong for the government to provide health care, education, public broadcasting, public parks and so on. The very idea of these things is at odds with the conservative moral system. No one should be paying for anyone else. It is individual responsibility in all arenas. Taxation is thus seen as taking money away from those who have earned it and giving it to people who don't deserve it. Taxation cannot be seen as providing the necessities of life for a civilized society, and, as necessary, for business to prosper. In conservative family life, the strict father rules. Fathers and husbands should have control over reproduction; hence, parental and spousal notification laws and opposition to abortion. In conservative religion, God is seen as the strict father, the Lord, who rewards and punishes according to individual responsibility in following his Biblical word. Above all, the authority of conservatism itself must be maintained. The country should be ruled by conservative values, and progressive values are seen as evil. Science should have authority over the market, and so the science of global warming and evolution must be denied. Facts that are inconsistent with the authority of conservatism must be ignored or denied or explained away. To protect and extend conservative values themselves, the devil's own means can be used against conservatism's immoral enemies, whether lies, intimidation, torture or even death, say, for women's doctors. Freedom is defined as being your own strict father - with individual, not social, responsibility, and without any government authority telling you what you can and cannot do. To defend that freedom as an individual, you will, of course, need a gun. This is the America that conservatives really want. Budget deficits are convenient ruses for destroying American democracy and replacing it with conservative rule in all areas of life. What is saddest of all is to see Democrats helping them. Democrats help radical conservatives by accepting the deficit frame and arguing about what to cut. Even arguing against specific "cuts" is working within the conservative frame. What is the alternative? Pointing out what conservatives really want. Point out that there is plenty of money in America, and in Wisconsin. It is at the top. The disparity in financial assets is un-American - the top one percent has more financial assets than the bottom 95 percent. Middle-class wages have been flat for 30 years, while the wealth has floated to the top. This fits the conservative way of life, but not the American way of life. Democrats help conservatives by not shouting out loud, over and over, that it was conservative values that caused the global economic collapse: lack of regulation and a greed-is-good ethic. Democrats also help conservatives by what a friend has called "Democratic Communication Disorder." Republican conservatives have constructed a vast and effective communication system, with think tanks, framing experts, training institutes, a system of trained speakers, vast holdings of media and booking agents. Eighty percent of the talking heads on TV are conservatives. Talk matters, because language heard over and over changes brains. Democrats have not built the communication system they need, and many are relatively clueless about how to frame their deepest values and complex truths. And Democrats help conservatives when they function as policy wonks — talking policy without communicating the moral values behind the policies. They help conservatives when they neglect to remind us that pensions are deferred payments for work done. "Benefits" are pay for work, not a handout. Pensions and benefits are arranged by contract. If there is not enough money for them, it is because the contracted funds have been taken by conservative officials and given to wealthy people and corporations instead of to the people who have earned them. Democrats help conservatives when they use conservative words like "entitlements" instead of "earnings" and speak of government as providing "services" instead of "necessities." Is there hope? I see it in Wisconsin, where tens of thousands citizens see through the conservative frames and are willing to flood the streets of their capital to stand up for their rights. They understand that democracy is about citizens uniting to take care of each other, about social responsibility as well as individual responsibility, and about work - not just for your own profit, but to help create a civilized society. They appreciate their teachers, nurses, firemen, police and other public servants. They are flooding the streets to demand real democracy - the democracy of caring, of social responsibility and of excellence, where prosperity is to be shared by those who work and those who serve. --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.spiritualprogressives.org...10219190836960 ~Theo~ :bouquet: |
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I keep hearing snips here and there about how many of those connected via Wall Street agree with this movement (other than Warren buffet). This is based upon the disparity of wages and the "rich gets richer, the poor, poorer" adage. There are a multitude of jobs throughout the Wall Street "insitution"- a lot of the "secretaries" Buffet spoke of as well as mid-management folks that don't make mega millions. But reports do point to the folks that are doing quite well financially too.
What I am wondering about is why the hell these people are not speaking up more? Hummmm........ (yes, a kind of sarcastic Hummmm...). |
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/index
Occupy SF has been in the streets today.....closed down a BofA and are sitting in the bank and being arrested. |
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Linus posted it in Politics and Law. i'm under the impression it was voted on today or was at least up for a vote today, but i'm not finding any news on it. |
Yes, it is. Thank you for posting. You might want to cross post this in the petition thread and the Internet and privacy thread.
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'Patriotic Millionaires' Beg Supercommittee for Higher Taxes
By SUSANNA KIM | ABC News – 11 hrs ago Two dozen wealthy members of the group Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength are targeting members of the deficit "supercommittee" to increase their taxes. Entrepreneur and producer Charlie Fink, said he and other Patriotic Millionaires testified in a congressional hearing and visited the offices of 13 members of Congress on Wednesday, seven of whom are members of the supercommittee, to express their concern for the country's fiscal health. Fink, who lives in Washington, D.C., said if the Bush tax cuts do not expire, the country "is digging itself a big hole by foregoing revenue." "Without revenue, we will never solve the problem by giving tax cuts to the wealthy while supporting two foreign wars," Fink, a former AOL executive, said. The group visited the offices of legislators in both parties, including Senators John Kyl, R-AZ, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., minority leader, Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., and Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., assistant democratic leader. "It was a very refreshing conversation that restored my faith that there are people who, in spite of their financial successes, have not lost their compassion and sense of fair play," Rep. Clyburn told ABC News after meeting the group. The supercommittee has stalled on how to trim over $1 trillion from the budget. Democratic members of the group met on Wednesday for more than two hours. Patriotic Millionaire Robert Johnson, former chief economist of the U.S Senate banking committee, said that the current economic system is not broken, but it is "working on behalf of those who designed it in their favor." "America is no longer based on markets and capitalism, instead our economy is designed as 'socialism for the rich' – it is designed to ensure that the wealthiest people take all of the gains, while regular Americans cover any losses," he said at a press conference this afternoon in Washington, D.C. "It's a Las Vegas economy where regular Americans put their money on the table and the richest 1 percent own the house," he said. "And if the 1 percent happen to lose money, the 99 percent bails them out – covers their losses and then stands by watching while the house does it all over again." Last November, the Patriotic Millionaires launched with 45 signatories who sent a letter to President Obama asking him to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of last year. The petition was signed by the Grammy Award-nominated DJ, MOBY, as well as Jerry Cohen of Ben-and-Jerry's-Ice-Cream fame. The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength wrote a 155-word letter saying they hope their taxes will increase. Its text is posted at FiscalStrength.com. The message of the group has remained the same. "For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled," the group's website states. "We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more." Other Patriotic Millionaires who participated on Wednesday were Lawrence Benenson, executive vice president of Benenson Capital Co., David desJardins, former Google software engineer, Guy Saperstein, civil rights attorney, and Eric Schoenberg, former managing director of Broadview International. |
This is actually excellent. I am in awe of what she pulls together with this and how she does it.
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Excellent piece for this and so many other passages -
"From these, our freedoms and our way of life follow, as does the role of government: to protect and empower everyone equally. Protection includes safety, health, the environment, pensions. Empowerment starts with education and infrastructure. No one can be free without these, and without a commitment to care and act on that care by one's fellow citizens. The conservative worldview rejects all of that." Quote:
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Is This 84-year-old Woman the New Poster Child of the Occupy Movement?
http://www.commondreams.org/sites/co...f-movement.jpg 84-year-old Dorli Rainey being helped by fellow activists after Seattle police blasted a crowd of Occupy protesters with pepper spray “Freedom of speech is a concept. It is not always practiced in this country,” says Rainey, whose blog, Old Lady in Combat Boots, talks about her civic activism. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/16-6 |
The OWS People's Library was confiscated during the Tuesday night raid, angering the public who rightly were horrified by images of books--particularly a lovingly-curated collection of donated and crowdsourced books--being destroyed.
Douglas Rushkoff urges those disheartened by this to regroup and restart and take the library for a metaphor: A book can have more influence for being destroyed than having existed in the first place. This week isn't the first time my books have been destroyed, but it's probably the most significant....Remember, though, the People's Library is less about the books sitting in the reference section at Zuccotti Park than the extended network of books being shared and read by real people in the real world...Likewise, while the Occupation of Zuccotti and other places may serve as "reference" points, the real occupation is embodied by those of us in the real world who change our behaviors to reflect our values, and who stand up for what we believe in the conversations occurring all around us. The library was immediately restarted with a half a dozen paperbacks. Within two hours the collection was up to over 100 volumes and the library was fully functioning—cataloging, lending, and providing reference services. “The library is still open” was repeated like a mantra...During the reoccupation on the evening of November 15, it started to rain so library staff put a clear plastic trash bag over the collection. Within minutes a detail of about 10 police descended and demanded that the covering be removed because they deemed the garbage bag to be a tarp. There were a few tense minutes as staff tried to convince them otherwise, but ultimately it was removed—leaving the collection open to the elements. As the police withdrew, scores of people chanted “BOOKS …BOOKS … BOOKS … BOOKS.” ... Library staff quickly set up umbrellas over the bulk of the books and began sending librarians home with bags of books to keep the collection safe in remote locations. complete article here:http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews...ks/#paragraph6 |
Following #N17 is riveting.
This is the first time I've used twitter like this. |
http://rt.com/on-air/ows-day-action/
It's fun to watch it too, but definitely not as riveting. http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution Maybe a tad more riveting. |
Oh yeah. A couple of us here were watching the 2 a.m. Ziccoti Park raid live on Livestream the other night and comment in the thread. I'm grateful to have had Ebon, Corkey, Persiphone and AtomicZombie here to talk with while I watched that.
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From Occupy News on FB:
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Apparently they have let people out of the park now. Not sure what was going on. |
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Woohoo the first aid tent is back up at Zuccotti!!
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_new...nt-goes-mobile |
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