Heads up: The National Defense Authorization Act
 

The video is worth watching, folks, especially if you are just coming into the dialogue here and haven't read about the act yet. The Senate just passed this bill last week. The bill allows for indefinite detention in secret prisons, secret interrogations and trial-free domestic terror proceedings and processes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...mericans-face/

http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes...orization-act/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...on-Act-of-2012

Well thank you! One of my favorite Christmas movies! I just can't help but think there is a way to tackle this problem via OWS. I really am happy to see the Occupy people in many places on the lawns of foreclosure situations. A couple of these actions have helped get some more time for some folks. We need to get these properties completely out of the hands of banks and re-structure loans based upon actual market values today. Just that would enable many to stay in their homes and pay it off. Some of the bogus loan products people were sold were just nuts! Some of these loans can't even be traced to wherever they ended up!

Oh, I can deal with sugary-sweet escapism!

60 Minutes Asks: 'Why Aren't We Prosecuting Wall Street?'
 

This past Sunday 60 minutes did a segment on all the fraud that went on at banks such as Countrywide and how no one in the SEC or FBI is willing to do a serious investigation or prosecute them. This link has a transcript and video of the show:

http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars....t-we-prosecuti

Here's a snippet of the interview:

Los Angeles votes to end corporate personhood
 

LINK: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/0...te-personhood/

Yes! This is exactly what needs to be done! No easy task, but must happen. This would be such a great OWS focus nationwide. The Citizens United decision is so very much at the core of why there has been such wage disparity in the US for so long.

Here's the video - Go City of Angels
 

"Los Angeles is the first major city in the United States to call for a constitutional amendment that clearly establishes that human being and only human beings are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not the same as free speech, thus providing the basis to overturn Citizen's United decision."

My latest email from the NAACP
 

http://action.naacp.org/page/-/image...ader-email.jpg

Legislators around the nation have been working to strip or severely restrict the right of their fellow Americans to vote. They claim to be preventing voter fraud. They deny that their goal is to suppress the votes of people of color, students, the elderly, and the poor. The truth is their efforts amount to nothing more than a scheme to undo generations of work securing the voting rights for all Americans. The NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have released an important new report on the relationship between the historic levels of participation in the 2008 election and the new voter suppression bills proposed and passed by legislatures around the country. The report removes any doubt about our opponents' intent, and we must not ignore this attack.

Take a moment to read the report and find out the truth. Then make sure your friends and family know about it too:

http://action.naacp.org/defending-democracy-report

The report, "Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America," provides indisputable evidence of a coordinated attack intended to silence the communities who turned out in record-breaking numbers in 2008: young people and communities of color. The report exposes the reasons why new stringent voter ID requirements, bans on the formerly incarcerated -- people who have already paid their debt to society -- and suppressive rules on voter registration and early voting periods are being pursued.

In short, these laws threaten to undermine the record levels of political participation witnessed during the historic 2008 Presidential election by blocking access to millions of people, many of them our most vulnerable citizens. And it's no coincidence that this comprehensive assault was launched just in time to affect the 2012 election.

You can find full details of the voter suppression initiatives in the report. More importantly, the report provides a roadmap for our communities to begin to actively counter these block-the-vote efforts. "Defending Democracy" is eye opening, and serves as the backbone for our Stand For Freedom Rally at the United Nations in New York City on December 10th. Please take a moment to download the report and spread the word to friends and family:

http://action.naacp.org/defending-democracy-report

Today we face one of the biggest threats to civil rights in over a century. If these powerful forces capture our right to vote, the other rights we care so deeply about -- education, health care, equality for all -- could be at risk.

Thank you in advance for learning more about this crucial issue and taking action in your community.

Yours in justice,

Kim

Kim Michele Keenan, Esq.
General Counsel
NAACP

This Saturday December 10th NYC
 

Standing for Freedom
( copied from http://www.stand4freedom.org/ )

This year, two-thirds of state legislatures have introduced laws that undermine the right to vote. Early voting and Sunday voting are under attack, photo ID requirements will introduce the first financial and document barrier to voting since the poll tax, and racially-motivated bans on ex-felons will wipe tens of thousands off the rolls.

This effort is unprecedented, it is coordinated, and it is targeted. African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, students, working women, seniors and immigrants of all colors will be disproportionately affected.

The right to vote is the heart of our democracy. Throughout our history Americans have been murdered for defending this basic human right. We will not let it be taken away from millions today.

Join us on Saturday, December 10th—The United Nations’ Human Rights Day—to proclaim to America and the world:

It’s time to Stand for Freedom. We must protect our right to vote.
Assembly and March Information

10:30 am to 11:30 am: assemble 61st St. and Madison Ave., the Koch brothers' NYC office.

11:30 am: March from 61st St. and Madison Ave. to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th St. and 2nd Ave.

12:30 pm: Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations.

End copy and paste

Join me anyone? Give a yell if you want to meet up...

If there is a separate thread for discussion of teh Citizen's United Case, I'll post this there also.
But meanwhile, if you , like me, believe that Corporations are NOT people, granted the same rights of Free Speech, PLEASE, help correct the Citizen's United Decision with this Constitutional Amendment . This is the time, there is awareness growing all over, even in L.A. :)
Sign Senator Sanders Petition and share widely !!!

Signed. Thank you for posting this.

slightly off topic but i find it relevant....here's what the military thinks about it's members


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...ry.html?wprss=


horrifying really.

BUMP! Let's bump this often!!
 

Please circulate on FB, Twitter.... and bump a lot!! Thanks MsMerrick!

That is FUBAR. Why isn't there more reports of this in the main stream press?

Thom Hartman with some good news about OWS
 

Tell Congress to end the Bush tax cuts
 

Didn't notice this posted in the thread:


http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bush_tax_cuts_2011/

gee i can't imagine. we are just expendable trash after all. who wouldn't want us to know that? the count was 2700 soldiers. i'm sure there's more. mebbe no one wants the comparison drawn of mass body graves of the past? cuz Bush started it and it was clearly never ended by the current administration? cuz it's beyond disgusting? i could go on and on.

Not just FUBAR but SNAFU.

Yeah we're fucked. Most people are still not awake either.