OCCUPY WALL STREET

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Corkey

Lets be clear. The Oakland police department came armed with several riot options. They encountered a peaceful protest and after being taunted with paint and a few rocks, which they were fully capable of protecting themselves from, lobbed tear gas in the direction of a person in a wheelchair, and used a flash bomb on a person who was UNarmed. Upon which Unarmed civilians trying to remove injured civilians from the scene were again flashed bombed. There is NO reason for any of this to have happened. The Mayor needs to answer to the people of Oakland and the police chief needs to answer why his officers used lethal force on unarmed civilians.

Just saw info on the person in the wheelchair- WTH?? I agree about the police being able to protect themselves against rocks and paint- they wear shields.

Good luck with the Mayor of Oakland answering for this! The Chief of Police just quit in Oakland last week due to poor relations with City Hall in Oakland.

What a mess.

[Sachita]

Originally Posted by AtLast

Just saw info on the person in the wheelchair- WTH?? I agree about the police being able to protect themselves against rocks and paint- they wear shields.

Good luck with the Mayor of Oakland answering for this! The Chief of Police just quit in Oakland last week due to poor relations with City Hall in Oakland.

What a mess.

you would think by now that all law enforcement would be prepped to handle this in a non-violent way.

[Cin]

So they are rebuilding...

Tension remains at Occupy Oakland even as action abates


OAKLAND -- The volatile Occupy Oakland movement experienced something of a detente Thursday as protesters, police and city officials retrenched under the world's increasingly critical eyes.

Protesters started rebuilding a tent city that had been removed by police Tuesday night at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of City Hall. Mayor Jean Quan, whose approval of the raid brought condemnation from pundits and protesters, was quiet Thursday amid questions over whether the camp would be allowed to remain on the plaza.

Meanwhile, an Iraq War veteran who was critically injured by a projectile believed to be fired or thrown by police Tuesday prepared for surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former Marine, had improved slightly Thursday at Highland Hospital and was able to breathe on his own for the first time since the injury, said his roommate, Keith Shannon of Daly City.

Several tents were back up in the plaza by Thursday afternoon and occupiers were expanding a shrine to Olsen built around the base of a memorial to military veterans.

Vita McDonnell, 24, who was arrested in Tuesday morning's raid of the encampment, brought a box of candles and notebook in which she is asking people to write notes of encouragement to Olsen and reflections of events of the past several days.

"He was protesting our arrests," said McDonnell, a health-care assistant. "I felt very touched by it. This is really something I had to
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do."

Tuesday morning's police raid "felt like we were under attack. It was like a war zone," she said. After 13 hours in custody, mostly at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, she was released with a citation of unlawful assembly, she said.

As protesters held vigils and expressed anger over Olsen's injury, police were tight-lipped Thursday about the incident. Oakland's interim police chief, Howard Jordan, said investigators were still piecing together accounts from more than a dozen police
departments that sent officers to Oakland for the raid on the encampment.

Olsen's injury prompted vehement anger toward police during protesters' march around the city Wednesday night, but Jordan would not speculate whether the Daly City man had been hit by a police projectile such as a tear-gas canister, rubber bullet, wooden dowel or something else. At least one police department suggested officers may not be to blame for the incident.

"I haven't seen much, but given the nature of that individual's injuries, I'm wondering if he wasn't struck by something thrown by a demonstrator," said Chief Dennis Burns, of the Palo Alto Police Department.

Oakland police violated their own crowd-control rules, which call for medical services to be available when tear gas and other control measures are used, said Jim Chanin, a civil-rights attorney who has fought for police reform.

Thursday's lull left more questions than answers about the future of Occupy Oakland, which has leapt to the forefront of the nationwide Occupy movement targeting banks, big business and a slate of other social and economic issues. The East Bay protests have captivated talk-show hosts such as Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore announced Thursday on Twitter that he would arrive at the Oakland site Friday.

[Cin]

Wednesday evening, Occupy Oakland protesters returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza for a relatively peaceful rally and march. Most of the anticipated action was in San Francisco, where a clash with police never materialized.

On Thursday morning, two tents were pitched on the square in from of City Hall at 14th Street and Broadway

9:20 a.m.: Two tents and fence `sculpture' on Oakland plaza

Two tents remain on the plaza after the previous night's rally. About a dozen people camped overnight, it appears without city intervention.

What's really attracting attention is a stack of cyclone fence, the remnants of a barrier that had been erected around the lawn area but was torn down by protesters. The stack of fencing resembles a sculpture and many people are walking up to take pictures of it. A police officer just went over to snap a shot as well.

[SoNotHer]

I have actually had a visceral reaction to what has happened to Scott Olsen.. This young man is a hero and a leader.

"Olsen was dedicated to the Occupy movement, working at his job during the day and joining the protest at night, Shannon said...He became active in the antiwar movement when he returned [from Iraq]. In the last three weeks, he's only been home a couple of nights," Shannon said. "He's been dedicated to this even though he has a good job, just trying to support the movement even though he's not directly affected."

Dottie Guy, also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, has been at the hospital since Tuesday night. She'd met Olsen only a few months ago but said he is always smiling, always positive."

From -

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/loc...#ixzz1c2bCxEcO

Originally Posted by Ebon

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-...rotest-2011-10


Scott Olsen survived two tours of Iraq, but his life could be over after being critically injured by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland, The Guardian reports. He's 24 years old.

As we know, Occupy Oakland got incredibly ugly this week as police tried to remove protesters from their camp in front of City Hall by using tear gas, fire crackers, and rubber bullets.

Olsen suffered a head injury on Tuesday night, and is now in critical condition in Oakland's Highland Hospital. Jay Finneburgh, a photographer on the scene, managed to witness and take pictures of the incident. Police policy specifically prohibits the firing of these weapons at a person's head.

"This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up," Finneburgh wrote.

At first, Doctors told Olsen's friends that he was in critical, but stable condition. Now they're being told that his skull has been fractured and his brain is beginning to swell. Neurologists are in the process of determining whether or not he will require surgery.

According to Keith Shannon, a friend who served with Olsen during his time in Iraq, Olsen was hit in the head with a tear gas or smoke canister, and he has the scar on his head to prove it.

Meanwhile, Oakland police admit that they used tear gas and baton rounds, but have denied the use of flash bang grenades. Protesters, however, say they saw police use them, and the more video that comes out, the harder it is to believe the police.

Olsen hails from Wisconsin, served tours of Iraq in 2006 and 2007, and is active in both Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

You can see a video of him collapsing and injured below.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-...#ixzz1c0pcVmVh




Here is the video also. It shows the police throwing a flash bomb right in the middle of them while they are trying to help him.

[atomiczombie]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Certainly, I’m happy to provide sources always:

http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com...Organize%21%29

Then there's been the various iterations and riffs on the use of the word 'occupy'

http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.c...e-wall-street/

http://ignite-revolution.org/

I find quite a bit of the language in the above quite problematic and I think that to the degree that OWS adopts these ideas, that is the degree to which it is problematic. While I understand why consensus decision making seems wonderful, my own experience is that it is not so much democratic as it is a way for a small group of people to hold an agenda hostage. I need point out only what happened to Rep. John Lewis in Atlanta where he showed up in support, someone blocked consensus on his being able to speak which, as an aside, was when I started to think 'Oh no, not again'.

I want OWS to be successful. I want it to push the political class (or drag them kicking and screaming) to the table so that the long hard slog of rebuilding the middle class in this country can begin. But I'm a reformer not a revolutionary. I just don't trust revolutions because so few of them turn out well. I'd love to see us have a Constitutional convention with two goals:

1) A Constitutional amendment specifically defining a person in such a way that corporations are outside of the definition

2) A Constitutional amendment providing for the public financing of campaigns.

I think that those two things alone would go a very long way toward making the voices of the vast majority of people who aren't rich something that elected officials ignore to their singular peril. Right now, there's really no negative consequence to ignoring our voices that isn't outweighed by the consequences of ignoring their master's (read: the top 1%) voice and so they pay the piper that plays the tune. If we are the piper, they'll have to listen to us.

Cheers
Aj

Thanks for sharing your sources Aj.

The article from your first link is really the first I have read about OWS mentioning any words such as petty bourgeoisie and socialism. Well, I have seen the word socialism bandied about but that is from right-wing critics and not from the protestors themselves. I found that whole article quite disturbing. Firstly, I am not sure how people are getting these statistics on the populations who are protesting.

"Since this movement is currently dominated by a class of people who make up, perhaps, the top 20% of the ninety-nine in the US and Canada––and probably only four or five per cent of the global ninety-nine––the fact that it is speaking, in very broad brushstrokes, in language vaguely akin to the language of communists is extremely interesting."

This sentence itself bugs me. How did the writer come up with these percentages? This is a fluid and growing movement and I can't imagine that anyone has collected enough data to do an accurate statistical analysis. It seems like the writer just pulled these numbers right out of her/his ass. Also, what specifically does the writer mean by "language akin to the language of communists" specifically? If you go to the 99delegation website or the OWS nyc working group site that I previously linked, you won't find much of any language resembling that of communists that I can see. No one is calling for an overthrow of the government or an end to capitalism in any of the working groups or general assemblies from what I have read.

And then there is this little gem:

"Even the fact that the movement has been resisting the need to place key demands on its agenda, falling back into some sort of “strength in directionless” ideology promoted by AdBusters (one of the key magazines for the activist, “culture-jamming” petty bourgeoisie), demonstrates the consciousness of a petty bourgeoisie in crisis––directionlessness, confusion, the realization that its class position is, and has always been, unstable."

First of all, Adbusters is a Vancouver based anti-consumerist magazine and yes they were the ones to propose a Sept. 17th occupation of Wall Street. But they don't claim any control over the protests and won't even comment about them when news organizations (such as NPR) ask them to. What the movement has become, has become so organically and not by the orchestration of Adbusters. Secondly, this ridiculous notion that the movement is directionless and that people don't know what they are protesting for is garbage. That's the kind of thing Faux news keeps saying. This sums it up better than any words can:



People know why they are protesting and what it is they want. The OWS working groups are working day and night to come up with a list of demands to put to Washington. This process takes so much time BECAUSE they are trying to include as many voices as possible and come to consensus. They are working towards a national General Assembly for next summer in Philadelphia. They are working on ways to make it possible for people who can't make it to the assembly to vote online. They are putting up as much of the process on the web as they can. This movement is very new and the process is slow, but that is good. It means they are being careful.

There's a lot more of that article that I really shake my head at, but here is a real zinger:

"When this movement peters out, as it surely will, and the majority of its most vocal supporters decide they want “to join the victors when the fight is over,” then we must ask ourselves what victories could be claimed by the left in the aftermath?"

This is just stupidity. It seems like the author is just wanting this whole thing to fail so that he or she can say, 'I was right! Ha ha!!' The truth is no one knows how this will turn out. 80 years ago during the Great Depression this country didn't have a revolution; it had a reformation. The economic situation today is in some ways very different, but in others very similar. The income inequality is almost the same as it was back then. We have corporate monopolies today that are just as powerful as the ones back then. The reforms we enacted back then have been eroded over the decades by all the deregulation done in the name of making America "more competitive". We can change this. We CAN achieve significant and needed reforms. The writer of this article seems to assume it will fail. Well, he/she can kiss 99% of my ass. I am going to stay positive and believe.

Ok so I could go on taking that article apart, but I am tired tonight lol. I do want to come back and talk about your other 2 links. The second one I found interesting, the third one seemed to be some fringe movement that really isn't tied to OWS in any concrete way. I haven't seen anything from them on the 99delegation site or in the minutes from the GA meetings. Ah, but it is late now and I need sleep, so I will sign off and continue this discussion tomorrow.

Thanks for participating!

Drew

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Wednesday evening, Occupy Oakland protesters returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza for a relatively peaceful rally and march. Most of the anticipated action was in San Francisco, where a clash with police never materialized.

On Thursday morning, two tents were pitched on the square in from of City Hall at 14th Street and Broadway

9:20 a.m.: Two tents and fence `sculpture' on Oakland plaza

Two tents remain on the plaza after the previous night's rally. About a dozen people camped overnight, it appears without city intervention.

What's really attracting attention is a stack of cyclone fence, the remnants of a barrier that had been erected around the lawn area but was torn down by protesters. The stack of fencing resembles a sculpture and many people are walking up to take pictures of it. A police officer just went over to snap a shot as well.

The picture in my original post changed. It was the "when they give you fences make sculpture" pic when I went to bed and it is "Iraq Veterans Against The War joined Occupy Oakland supporters to hold a vigil for Scott Olsen in front of city hall yesterday"pic when I woke up. I guess the picture will change frequently. That should prove interesting albeit puzzling as time passes.

Anyway here's a pic of fence sculpture.

[Dominique]

OCTOBER 17, 2011 Borrowed from the City Paper
Occupy Pittsburgh and other activists come calling at Toomey's office


BY LAUREN DALEY


Share this article:

Participants in the Occupy Pittsburgh movement ventured out from their Mellon Green encampment and to protest outside Sen. Pat Toomey's office today, demanding he "[s]top working for Wall Street and start working for us."


The Occupy campers joined One Pittsburgh and its offshoot action, the People's Lobby, in front of Toomey's Station Square office building at noon today. There, they denounced the Republican Senator's vote against the American Jobs Act. The action was among those that Occupy participants consented to supporting this week. They also plan to picket BNY Mellon -- which owns the Mellon Green site they are camping on -- this Wednesday.
The roughly three dozen activists on hand were joined by county councilor Amanda Green. "A lot of people think of me as an elected official, but that's just a part-time job," she said into the bullhorn. "I've got a full-time job. I've got bills to pay. I've got student loans. I understand what it's like to not be able to make ends meet."
Green made an impassioned speech from below Toomey's office window. "You need to be able to explain how, at almost 9 percent unemployment rate in this county, you vote 'no' on the [American Jobs Act]," she said. "It's unacceptable and ridiculous to me."
Toomey, protesters say, hasn't offered much of a response to their concerns. "At every meeting, his staff leads us nowhere," says Corey Buckner, a 24-year-old Garfield resident and member of One Pittsburgh.
Toomey has issued this statement on the ACA vote:
President Obama's latest stimulus bill contains hundreds of billions of dollars in increased spending and more tax hikes, which won't create jobs any more than his last stimulus bill did. With the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, we do not have time to waste on political games and big tax increases that will only make our economy weaker for all Americans
Instead, I support a real jobs plan, which will reduce burdensome regulations that are preventing businesses from hiring; ratify three pending free trade agreements that will increase Pennsylvania's exports; simplify and reduce business and individual tax rates to encourage job-creating business expansions; and get our federal deficits under control, among other pro-growth measures. This plan will actually create jobs.
The protesters, meanwhile, called for Toomey's impeachment for his allegiance to corporations and big banks. And while One Pittsburgh and the People's Lobby aren't directly part of the Occupy Pittsburgh movement, or vice versa, activists like Buckner say the movements go hand-in-hand. "We're all here for the same thing," he said. "We want what Americans have been promised people forever: freedom and the ability to work."
After protesting for about 45 minutes, the group headed back across the Smithfield Bridge and into Downtown, shouting rants against Toomey and singing: "Everywhere we go, people want to know who we are," one lyric went. "So we tell them: We are the 99!"
Onlookers seemed mostly amused or inquisitive. One man yelled, as he flicked his cigarette in the trash, "This is what you get for voting against Arlen Specter, you dumbasses!" Another man, walking behind the protest, asked, "Are they shouting against Toomey?"
Told they were, he smiled. "I can agree with that."
Meanwhile, Downtown workers have been scoping out the Mellon Green encampment that has suddenly appeared amidst the city's skyscrapers. Some workers milled around the encampment during the morning rush and lunch hour, reading signs posted on the fence around the parklet's fountain.
"Keep up the good work!" one woman in a business suit yelled as she passed by on Grant. Another man sidled up to protestor Steve Cooper and said, "Ok, what do I need to know?"
Not everyone was receptive to the message: Occupiers have been keeping a tally of how many times a passerby instructs them to "get a job!" -- and that number is now in the dozens.
But as camper Doug Placais, 27, of the city's Allentown neighborhood puts it: "For every one person who walks by and yells 'get a job' there's been a positive honk or someone yelling in support."

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Excellent post! I'm so glad to hear someone bringing this up and correlating it to corporation action - the creation of monocultures, "pesticide ready" plants, GMOs and "terminal seeds," the wildly indiscriminate use of antibiotics in stockyard animals" as a natural (or unnatural) impetus and cause for the creation of superbugs like drug-resistant staff infections.

Persiphone, I've encouraged my students to write about a variety of topics, including OWS and this one. Do you have any sources for this that you like? One student is writing about this, and she's already accessed an article form The Altantic (6/11) and the PBS survival series segment. What else have you read that you like?

there are antibiotic resistant genes in GMOs as well. what i find interesting is that there was DNA specifically engineered to be antibiotic resistant in a lab in America and then it was pumped into the food supply all nice and quiet. meanwhile, the media is all about telling us that OVERuse of antibiotics is the real problem...not that that ISN'T a problem...but i suspect it's not THE problem. same with the use of antibiotics in meat. is it a good practice? no. is it bad for you to eat meat that has been grown with antibiotics? probably. but what we're NOT talking about is the specifically engineered DNA that was specifically made to be antibiotic resistant floating around in GMO foods that are neither labeled on products nor regulated.

to understand this, one would have to look at how foreign or new DNA is taken up by an organism, lets say for example e.coli. there are a couple ways this happens naturally. one way is called horizontal gene transfer where different strains of bacteria are capable of uptaking each other's DNA. some organisms release their DNA upon death and leave what we call DNA litter. so let's say you ingest an e.coil organism that is carrying antibiotic resistant DNA (cuz e.coli is what they use in agrotech to introduce new DNA into plant cells) and that antibiotic resistant DNA litter is now in your digestive tract and your natural e.coli that is swarming around your intestines picks up the DNA via horizontal transfer. and voila! a superbug is born. i believe that we've actually become human farms for these superbugs unwittingly via GMOs. and i suspect i'm not the only one. there seems to be a timeline correlation between the emergence of superbugs and GMOs that i find unsettling.

i've not found books on this stuff. but i do read a lot and i've taken enough microbiology classes to be sufficiently scared to death of our food. you won't find anything in the news either. i would say google some science journals on the matter and possibly news sources that are not in America. Europe is vehemently antiGMO. protestors even went as far as to invade and cut down GMO crops while the police just stood and watched. i think those vids are floating around youtube. if we did that here we would be arrested and sued. on a side note....GMOs aren't only in the food supply. there are acres upon acres of GMO trees growing in our forests, in the amazon, and gawd only knows where else. veggies will pollinate once. trees, however, will pollinate many times in their lifetime. and the location of many of these GMO tree palntings are a secret. why?

[Cin]

[Cin]

Occupy Oakland: Officials shift into damage control

OAKLAND -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan shifted into damage control Thursday, asking hospitalized protester Scott Olsen and other Occupy Oakland demonstrators to cooperate with police investigating Olsen's head injury.

Quan visited Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, on Thursday morning at Highland Hospital. She shook his hand, and apologized for what happened to him. She also encouraged him and fellow demonstrators to speak with police, a hospital spokesman said. Olsen was knocked down -- apparently by a tear-gas canister or other police projectile -- Tuesday night as authorities tried to keep protesters away from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of Oakland City Hall.

The protest group had been dislodged from their tents on the plaza by police earlier in the day.

Oakland police have promised a thorough investigation of the incident, which left Olsen with a brain injury that has impeded his speech. Alameda County prosecutors and federal investigators also planned to look into the violent clash.

The city has tried this week to recover from the confrontation, which attracted an avalanche of criticism from pundits, politicians and protesters. Television host Keith Olbermann called for Quan's resignation, and White House press secretary Jay Carney called on U.S. cities to preserve "a long and noble tradition in the United States of free expression and free speech."

Protesters started rebuilding their tent city Thursday, with at least a dozen tents erected on the plaza lawn by the evening. Quan had planned to speak to a large crowd that had gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday night, but she left without speaking because she would have had to wait in line, said her attorney, Dan Siegel.

She would have had to wait in line? I wonder what that implies.
For the whole article:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_19205555

[SoNotHer]

My reactions today are more emotional than logical. There is no logic or good explanation for what has happened. I was reading one of the articles posted here -

http://www.occupytogether.org/2011/1.../#comment-9248

and discovered this comment which has garnered many comments, rightly so. It says a lot.
__________________________________________________ ____________

22 Responses to “Tonight: Vigils Across America for Scott Olsen”

Concerned American on October 27th, 2011 at 1:13 pm #

To the Mothers and Fathers of America:

This may not be clear to you yet, but those protestors out in the streets are your bravest children. They now hold the front for all of us in the centuries-old battle against tyranny. Many are fighting the corrupting influence of money in American politics, others against a system no longer functional for a majority that will only grow.

Some do not know exactly what they want–only that something has gone terribly wrong in a country in which they would like to believe.

They have not articulated one focused message, or one set of demands–and they do not need to. This is not a battle of right against left, red against blue, or liberal against conservative. It is not made-for-TV politics. It is a battle of right against wrong. America has lost, in its political discourse and behavior, the ability to distinguish between the two. Many of its practitioners seem not to care.

Those who support this movement in all its myriad shapes, sizes, sexes, colors, ideologies, income levels, and nationalities–have no sound bite. They get the problem, in general, and are massing to change it. Like the old thinker, they would rather be approximately correct than precisely wrong.

They give their nights, their sleep, their weekends, and their comfort to fight an uncertain battle for you, for all your children. They face police lines and mainstream scorn. They face the indifference of the vast armies of complacency and distraction, who keep waiting for the channel to change, the web page to update, and this movement to end. They face cynics who believe nothing will change, they face the often well-intentioned defeatists who believe nothing can change. They face politicians who patronize, tell them they don’t understand–that they, the politicians, support the movement, even as they make plans with their police forces to clear them.

On Tuesday, October 25th in Oakland, California, Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine and Iraq veteran, standing beside another veteran, a naval officer in dress, was critically injured by a weapon used against him by a police officer from one of 17 jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Area. A group of occupiers running away from the scene, amidst police flash grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets, rushed back when they saw Scott Olsen lying still on the ground. As they rushed in to pick him up–a dozen of your bravest, America–an unidentified officer tossed, from behind police ranks, another flash grenade at their feet. A handful of these unarmed protestors persisted, carrying Scott Olsen, dazed with a fractured skull, away from the police line, shouting for medics as the explosions and smoke recalled the nightmare of American battlefields.

Like this, the guns have again been turned back on your bravest children, most fighting only for the core values they were taught as children: people in need should be helped; democracy should be uncorrupted; citizens must gather in peace; and this country belongs to all of us, not a political elite increasingly indistinguishable from a financial and industrial corporate elite. Like all of us, they see clearly and abhor this crony capitalism now ascendent. They are doing something about it.

These are not trouble-making hippies, America–you mistake them as such at your peril. These are your better angels, trying to save you from yourself. They are your child that cannot help tell the truth, the sometimes inconvenient one that thinks of safety last and justice first. They are fighting the war that rages inside you when you see the circus on TV, in print, or online and can only shake your head. You ignore them, laugh at them, demean them, or discount them at your peril. They may be our last hope of transformation for this country reeling from war, from a crisis of confidence, from scandal, division, corruption, and poverty. Let no demagogue–especially talkers at the service of money and power–convince you, a thinking American, that these are not patriots of the truest kind.

So go out and support your children, America, and with them the fundamental ideas upon which this country was founded. Take a walk by the protest in your town at night, in the morning–drive by or bike past. Stop and talk to someone for a minute. Listen and watch. Gather your friends and neighbors. Everyone has their own place and their own role.

For every Scott Olsen, now lying in a hospital bed in critical condition, there should be 100,000 witnesses, who by their presence lend this movement strength and legitimacy.

As long as they occupy the centers of our cities, big and small, we–who wish to create a more perfect union–have an opening to change something vital, such as removing money from politics once and for all. It is possible. It has been done elsewhere. These children have brought the season of democracy, the days and especially nights of renewing democracy, and they need your protection.

Even your bravest children need to feel your strong hands on their back.

[atomiczombie]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/2...reet-leaflets/

[Cin]

that is hilarious. i would love to punch those bullying better than thou smirks right off their arrogant faces along with a good amount of their capped teeth.

So we have been on their backs? Really. And they will take over teaching America's kids for 40,000 a year and toss a ball around with them for another 5k in the summer. Well, I say good onya. And landscape their own land. Maybe people shouldn't own so much land they need landscapers anyway. and no longer leave 35% tips after their business lunches. Well, perhaps we need to look at the how the food industry works anyway.

You arrogant son of a bitches. You think you work hard? And we are just a bunch of lazy good for nothings looking for a hand out. I don't think you would recognize hard work if it hit you in the teeth.

Apparently we have come to place where something like Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is not a bit of satire that gives one pause but an acceptable course of action. It is threat to the 99% by the 1%. They really will eat our young and develop a popular meme explaining how we deserved it.

I guess something is scaring them because here they come again trying to terrorize us with version number 22 of the same old song. If you try to get the 1% to pay their fair share, they try to convince you that no matter what you do their fair share always comes out of the hide of the 99%. And it can be done the easy way with anesthetic or they can just tear it off you. So be nice and shut up. Signed the financial mafia.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

I support a real jobs plan, which will reduce burdensome regulations that are preventing businesses from hiring; ratify three pending free trade agreements that will increase Pennsylvania's exports; simplify and reduce business and individual tax rates to encourage job-creating business expansions; and get our federal deficits under control, among other pro-growth measures. This plan will actually create jobs.

You know it concerns me that our elected officials, elected by the people and supposedly working for the people, can continue to spout this rhetoric. I am sure they have an understanding of how the economy works and how it could be fixed, they know what they are saying are lies, yet they continue to spread these untruths.

How will continued and increased tax breaks for corporations, who if not stopped will continue to bring jobs out of the country where there is cheaper labor, ever, ever create jobs for Americans? How can our elected officials not know this? They do know it. Yet they continue to tell us different because they believe the majority of people are too stupid to figure it out. So there is no harm for them in lying to us.

Free trade agreements aren’t very helpful for creating jobs when we continue to import so much more than we export. No jobs there. It would be helpful if, at least, we could tax imports from. U.S. corporations that are U.S. in ownership only. Meaning they provide no U.S. jobs, no goods are produced in U.S., no raw materials are purchased in the U.S. These corporations should be treated like foreign corporations and should pay to import their products to the U.S. So why don’t our elected officials understand this simple reality. Free trade agreements won’t get us jobs. Are they stupid or do they believe we are stupid?

I shudder to imagine what could define burdensome regulations. We don’t even have enough regulations in place to stop the financial sector from destroying the economy of the world. How much less regulations could we possibly survive with? How can any official, given the jam that a lack of regulation just got us into, say with a straight face that we need less of these burdensome regulations? It’s like the mayor of Oakland saying that Oakland needs a more aggressive police department. She would never say that because it would be political suicide. But politicians feel no such qualms about telling us we need to deregulate. Why? Do they think we are so stupid they can get away with that? They seem to be getting away with it.

The federal deficit would get in control much easier if we hadn’t had to bailout those poor over-regulated financial terrorists. But I doubt curtailing handouts to the wealthy is what the 1% has in mind when they speak of getting the deficits under control. They mean austerity measures (social genocide).

So let me see if I can get this straight. The deficit is so bad because the financial sector engaged in actions that [purposely (hard to believe that they could ignore all the warnings and still plead ignorance) or accidentally because of greed and disinterest in consequences – you choose which you believe] are destroying the world’s economy (which destruction, if they place their bets correctly, could even make them money –so really what is in it for them if we have economic recovery) and we the 99% had to bail them out. And we had to bail them out despite the reality that of all the people hurt by their actions they suffered least, if at all, and that the 1% has plenty of money, the banks have plenty of money, everyone who is anyone in finance is still making money hand over fist, but just they don’t have money they wish to share. Then to add injury to insult we have to be squeezed and nickel and dimed to death. The 1% continues to insist on tax breaks and deregulation and bailouts and bonuses and whatnot that benefit them and that will inevitably erase the middle class, crush the working class and leave the poor hopeless. Rather than raise taxes for the rich they would rather subject the rest of us to untold pain and suffering.

They talk like the things they are saying make perfect sense and deserve to be taken seriously as an answer to our economic woes. It’s as though we should take seriously the idea that perhaps the sun does indeed revolve around the earth after all.

[Sachita]

Does anyone remember this? How profound George was. RIP

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Occupy Oakland: Officials shift into damage control

OAKLAND -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan shifted into damage control Thursday, asking hospitalized protester Scott Olsen and other Occupy Oakland demonstrators to cooperate with police investigating Olsen's head injury.

Quan visited Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, on Thursday morning at Highland Hospital. She shook his hand, and apologized for what happened to him. She also encouraged him and fellow demonstrators to speak with police, a hospital spokesman said. Olsen was knocked down -- apparently by a tear-gas canister or other police projectile -- Tuesday night as authorities tried to keep protesters away from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of Oakland City Hall.

The protest group had been dislodged from their tents on the plaza by police earlier in the day.

Oakland police have promised a thorough investigation of the incident, which left Olsen with a brain injury that has impeded his speech. Alameda County prosecutors and federal investigators also planned to look into the violent clash.

The city has tried this week to recover from the confrontation, which attracted an avalanche of criticism from pundits, politicians and protesters. Television host Keith Olbermann called for Quan's resignation, and White House press secretary Jay Carney called on U.S. cities to preserve "a long and noble tradition in the United States of free expression and free speech."

Protesters started rebuilding their tent city Thursday, with at least a dozen tents erected on the plaza lawn by the evening. Quan had planned to speak to a large crowd that had gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday night, but she left without speaking because she would have had to wait in line, said her attorney, Dan Siegel.

She would have had to wait in line? I wonder what that implies.
For the whole article:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_19205555

Also, the rest of the council members are speaking out about the mayor not bringing the coucil together to discuss approaches to the demonstrations. Frankly, I agree with these members as this could have been avoided with looking at more ideas and safety concerns. One member said she would never have backed any kind of police action in which unarmed citizens of Oakland would be subjected to "riot squad" mentality.

After a fair amount of time in which it was clear not only in Oakland, but all across the US, that people are going to continue airing their complaints about these issues (that affect every part of their lives), city governments should have sat down with appointed reps from the protests and worked out how to have a safe and peaceful way for our rights to assemble and take our dissent to our public officials. There have been many, many supporters with the means offering financial help for things like porta-potties, food and food distribution as well as park cleaning and sanitation in order to take the financial burden of of city budgets that have been cut to shreads.

What bothers me the most about this is that this has become just another layer of the blockade the 99% feel is at the core of why our complaints are not heard. And there are solutions out there that can stop these kinds of things from happening.

News I have heard today about Olsen is that the surgery (for the brain swelling) planned has been postponed for today and he still is unable to speak. He is stable and his family is here from WS. There was a candle light vigil last night and more planned. he has support from other vets that stand up against war and want our troops out of Afghanistan.

Let's all throw out a "best wishes" for his full recovery from all corners of the Planet.

There is a lot of passing of the buck going on with Mayor Qwan that is just discusting. She needs to take responsibility, especially since she acted quite unilaterally- which to me, puts another layer of discust concerning the fact that we send troops off to wars under the guise of fighting for freedom and democratic (action bt consensus) ideals.

Sorr- not spell checking or getting typos- tired today.

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by atomiczombie

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/2...reet-leaflets/

this makes me laugh. paper pushers and mathematical engineers don't strike me as the kind of people to run around mowing lawns for a living or working in the farm fields for minimum wages or less.

i think it's really funny considering the currency is actually backed by human labor and not gold. i'd LOVE, absolutely LOVE, to see a wall street "trader", work on the farms that i have doing the kind of labor that i do and pull up in their 80 thousand dollar sports car. hell, i'd pay to see that.

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

You know it concerns me that our elected officials, elected by the people and supposedly working for the people, can continue to spout this rhetoric. I am sure they have an understanding of how the economy works and how it could be fixed, they know what they are saying are lies, yet they continue to spread these untruths.

How will continued and increased tax breaks for corporations, who if not stopped will continue to bring jobs out of the country where there is cheaper labor, ever, ever create jobs for Americans? How can our elected officials not know this? They do know it. Yet they continue to tell us different because they believe the majority of people are too stupid to figure it out. So there is no harm for them in lying to us.

Free trade agreements aren’t very helpful for creating jobs when we continue to import so much more than we export. No jobs there. It would be helpful if, at least, we could tax imports from. U.S. corporations that are U.S. in ownership only. Meaning they provide no U.S. jobs, no goods are produced in U.S., no raw materials are purchased in the U.S. These corporations should be treated like foreign corporations and should pay to import their products to the U.S. So why don’t our elected officials understand this simple reality. Free trade agreements won’t get us jobs. Are they stupid or do they believe we are stupid?

I shudder to imagine what could define burdensome regulations. We don’t even have enough regulations in place to stop the financial sector from destroying the economy of the world. How much less regulations could we possibly survive with? How can any official, given the jam that a lack of regulation just got us into, say with a straight face that we need less of these burdensome regulations? It’s like the mayor of Oakland saying that Oakland needs a more aggressive police department. She would never say that because it would be political suicide. But politicians feel no such qualms about telling us we need to deregulate. Why? Do they think we are so stupid they can get away with that? They seem to be getting away with it.

The federal deficit would get in control much easier if we hadn’t had to bailout those poor over-regulated financial terrorists. But I doubt curtailing handouts to the wealthy is what the 1% has in mind when they speak of getting the deficits under control. They mean austerity measures (social genocide).

So let me see if I can get this straight. The deficit is so bad because the financial sector engaged in actions that [purposely (hard to believe that they could ignore all the warnings and still plead ignorance) or accidentally because of greed and disinterest in consequences – you choose which you believe] are destroying the world’s economy (which destruction, if they place their bets correctly, could even make them money –so really what is in it for them if we have economic recovery) and we the 99% had to bail them out. And we had to bail them out despite the reality that of all the people hurt by their actions they suffered least, if at all, and that the 1% has plenty of money, the banks have plenty of money, everyone who is anyone in finance is still making money hand over fist, but just they don’t have money they wish to share. Then to add injury to insult we have to be squeezed and nickel and dimed to death. The 1% continues to insist on tax breaks and deregulation and bailouts and bonuses and whatnot that benefit them and that will inevitably erase the middle class, crush the working class and leave the poor hopeless. Rather than raise taxes for the rich they would rather subject the rest of us to untold pain and suffering.

They talk like the things they are saying make perfect sense and deserve to be taken seriously as an answer to our economic woes. It’s as though we should take seriously the idea that perhaps the sun does indeed revolve around the earth after all.

they're still clinging to the notion of trickle down economics, which, as we've seen, doesn't work. they keep talking this trash but never mention that the largest corporations in this country are literally sitting on a collective trillions of dollars in cash. TRILLIONS! of CASH! they aren't spending shit and we are the most deregulated we've ever been since after the Depression. the bottom line is they have no other answers. it's all lip service. they really don't have any other ammo in their arsenal. the same old spewing of nonsense is all they've got.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by persiphone

they're still clinging to the notion of trickle down economics, which, as we've seen, doesn't work. they keep talking this trash but never mention that the largest corporations in this country are literally sitting on a collective trillions of dollars in cash. TRILLIONS! of CASH! they aren't spending shit and we are the most deregulated we've ever been since after the Depression. the bottom line is they have no other answers. it's all lip service. they really don't have any other ammo in their arsenal. the same old spewing of nonsense is all they've got.

Well, actually it works just fine for the 1%. And they don't need any other answers. People are still buying this crap by the bushel. Truthfully these financial terrorists scare everyone with there doom economics. If they don't get what they want the economy will collapse, if they fail we will all shrivel up and die. The 99% needs to protect the 1% because they are our ticket to prosperity. Well we've all been riding that train for awhile and I don't know about you but I don't seem to be prospering so much at all. But they threaten us with if you think it's bad now wait and see if any of the shit storm we've created ever gets spattered on us there will be hell to pay. They threaten us saying if anything happens to move us toward a more equitable distribution of the wealth we will take your jobs and eat you alive. Hell I got news for them they've already done that.

Oh, I'm sure they have plenty of ammo in their arsenal. I bet we get a first hand look at it real soon.