Front-Page ABC News: "Occupy Veterans Movement Growing Across U.S."
Since Occupy Wall Street protests have broken out in cities across the U.S. and abroad, support has come from what might seem like an unlikely corner: war veterans.
***
“We are a collection of prior service Marines intent on protecting American citizens and their ability to exercise their First Amendment rights,” a spokesperson for the group said.
“These riot squads deploy unlawful excessive force against Americans all service members swore to protect, and many veterans have sacrificed their lives in that honor. We at OMC will not stand idly by as these cowards continue to abuse the Constitution, hurting American citizens. We will use any nonviolent means to convince law enforcement agencies to understand that brutality will only strengthen our resolve,” the spokesperson said ….
Astronomers discover complex organic matter exists throughout the universe
Astronomers report in the journal Nature that organic compounds of unexpected complexity exist throughout the Universe. The results suggest that complex organic compounds are not the sole domain of life but can be made naturally by stars.
Middle East propaganda 101
When it comes to American propaganda about the Middle East, this New York Times article — detailing U.S. plans to bolster its influence in the region after it “withdraws” from Iraq — is a masterpiece. Here’s the crux of the new American strategy and its ostensible rationale:
With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.
Concerns Raised about Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes
what could possibly go wrong!
These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children.
Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.
The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.
Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phones | UK news | The Guardian
"Britain's largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.
The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as "Listed X", it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person's movements in real time."
'via Blog this'
The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as "Listed X", it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person's movements in real time."
'via Blog this'
The importance of protests
In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets) . . . .But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests—financiers, in the case of the U.S.—played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.
Enacting the Impossible (On Consensus Decision Making)
"The direct democratic process adopted by Occupy Wall Street has deep roots in American radical history. It was widely employed in the civil rights movement and by the Students for a Democratic Society. But its current form has developed from within movements like feminism and even spiritual traditions (both Quaker and Native American) as much as from within anarchism itself. The reason direct, consensus-based democracy has been so firmly embraced by and identified with anarchism is because it embodies what is perhaps anarchism’s most fundamental principle: that in the same way human beings treated like children will tend to act like children, the way to encourage human beings to act like mature and responsible adults is to treat them as if they already are."
Urgent: Winter Donation Needs | OccupyWallSt.org
"With the NYPD and FDNY confiscating six generators on Friday and this unprecedented October snow, those occupying Liberty Plaza in downtown NYC are in need of emergency supplies crucial for cold weather survival (and occupation)."
Wells Fargo is not your amigo
Wells Fargo has a history of targeting vulnerable communities for risky financial products. At the height of the subprime lending mania in 2006, the bank was more likely to loan subprime mortgages to Latinos and African-Americans than whites, according to a September 2009 report by the Center for American Progress, a process known as “reverse red-lining.” For financially stable borrowers, the targeting was even starker: Middle-class blacks were four times more likely than middle-class whites to get a dangerous mortgage. Middle-class Latinos were nearly three times more likely.
This allegedly illegal, race-based lending led the city of Baltimore to file suit against Wells Fargo in 2009, claiming it had robbed the city of tax revenue by mounting a systematic campaign to push risky mortgages on African-Americans through the targeting of black churches and neighborhoods. The suit was dismissed and reintroduced many times as lawyers from both sides battled, and is still unresolved.
Marine Veteran Whose Skull Was Fractured In Oakland Protests Was Peacefully Standing When Attacked by Police
Unbelievable what the cops did to this kid!
With Liberty and Justice for Some
new book from Glenn Greenwald
The book focuses on what I began realizing several years ago is the crucial theme tying together most of the topics I write about: America’s two-tiered justice system – specifically, the way political and financial elites are now vested with virtually absolute immunity from the rule of law even when they are caught committing egregious crimes, while ordinary Americans are subjected to the world’s largest and one of its harshest and most merciless penal states even for trivial offenses. As a result, law has been completely perverted from what it was intended to be – the guarantor of an equal playing field which would legitimize outcome inequalities – into its precise antithesis: a weapon used by the most powerful to protect their ill-gotten gains, strengthen their unearned prerogatives, and ensure ever-expanding opportunity inequality. This is how I described that development in the book:
The law itself wields tremendous power. The legal system’s reach is unparalleled: it can deprive a person of property, liberty, even life. It may compel people to transfer their material goods to others, block them from engaging in planned actions, destroy their reputations, consign them to cages, or even inject lethal chemicals into their veins. Unequal application of the law is thus not merely unjust in theory but devastating in practice. When the law is wielded only against the powerless, it ceases to be a safeguard against injustice and becomes the primary tool of oppression.
Senior S&L Prosecutor: Bank of America Pulling a Decades-Old Scam
"The scam is always the same when it comes to abusive deals with affiliates – they transfer bad (or overpriced) assets or liabilities to the insured institution. As S&L regulators, we recurrently faced this problem."
GAO Finds Serious Conflicts at the Fed
"The GAO detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves. "Clearly it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power," Sanders said. "Not only do they run the banks, they run the institutions that regulate the banks.""
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
The killing of Awlaki’s 16-year-old son
unbelievable!
"It is unknown whether the U.S. targeted the teenager or whether he was merely “collateral damage.” The reason that’s unknown is because the Obama administration refuses to tell us. Said the Post: “The officials would not discuss the attack in any detail, including who the target was.” So here we have yet again one of the most consequential acts a government can take — killing one of its own citizens, in this case a teenage boy — and the government refuses even to talk about what it did, why it did it, what its justification is, what evidence it possesses, or what principles it has embraced in general for such actions. Indeed, it refuses even to admit it did this, since it refuses even to admit that it has a drone program at all and that it is engaged in military action in Yemen. It’s just all shrouded in total secrecy."
How hemp got high: Canadian scientists map the cannabis genome
A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant's drug-producing properties.
Jon Page is a plant biochemist and adjunct professor of biology at the University of Saskatchewan. He explains that a simple genetic switch is likely responsible for the production of THCA, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the precursor of the active ingredient in marijuana.
"The transcriptome analysis showed that the THCA synthase gene, an essential enzyme in THCA production, is turned on in marijuana, but switched off in hemp," Page says.
Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 Trillion Of Bank Of America’s Derivatives Trades
unfreakingbelievable!
Spain: Catholic Church Child Trafficking Network
Spain is reeling from an avalanche of allegations of baby theft and baby trafficking. The trade began at the end of the Spanish civil war and continued for 50 years – hundreds of thousands of babies are thought to have been traded by nuns, priests and doctors up to the 1990s. This World reveals the impact of Spain’s stolen baby scandal through the eyes of the children and parents who were separated at birth, and who are now desperate to find their relatives.
Exhumations of the supposed graves of babies and positive DNA tests are proof that baby theft has happened. Across Spain, people are queuing up to take a DNA test and thousands of Spaniards are asking ‘Who am I?’
Katya Adler has been meeting the heartbroken mothers who are searching for the children whom they were told died at birth, as well as the stolen and trafficked babies who are now grown up and searching for their biological relatives and their true identities.
U.S. Troops Will Soon Get Tiny Kamikaze Drone
AeroVironment, manufacturer of many tiny drones, is offering a different paradigm. Instead of carrying a missile, the drone is the missile. Unfolded from a size small enough to fit in a soldier’s rucksack — like a Switchblade; get it? — and launched from a tube, the spy cameras on board the drone scout an enemy position before the soldier controlling it sends it barreling into the target. It’s a strictly one-way mission.
Darpa Wants to Master the Science of Propaganda
Mark Twain once tried to distinguish between the storyteller’s art and tales that a machine could generate. He observed that stringing “incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities,” was the province of the American storyteller. A machine might imitate simple formulas behind yarns, but never quite master them.
Occupy Protests’ Seismic Effect
"Today’s Wall Street protests represent the left’s decoupling from Obama and the Democratic Party, something that the global nature of the movement will only reinforce. That doesn’t mean the movement has a clear critique of unregulated capitalism yet, let alone a concrete agenda for reform, but it means that the left finally is forcing those questions onto the public agenda. By confronting Wall Street, it is creating the populist energy that Obama himself has not."
thanks to Mr. C for the tip
'via Blog this'
thanks to Mr. C for the tip
'via Blog this'
NYPD Chief Joseph Esposito intervenes between thug cops & OWS protesters at Times Square
well worth the viewing. shows what a good cop can do and restores a bit of faith in humanity.
Chief of the Department Joseph Esposito, the highest ranking uniformed member of the NYPD, pulled his officers back with one hand and pushed protesters away with the other. He signaled to the protesters for calm, then patted his cops on the chests and shoulders. It wasn't the first time. Two weeks ago during the large march on the Brooklyn Bridge, when a policeman tried to yank a mask from a protester's face, Esposito grabbed the cop by the back of the belt and pulled him back from the police skirmish line. He visibly scolded the policeman, and when a scuffle broke out, Esposito was in the center to end the tension. More than 700 marchers were arrested that day, but overall there was little violence. Perhaps the protesters in Times Square remembered this. They started screaming, "Esposito! Esposito!" The chief gave an acknowledging smile and a little wave. Then a chant of, "Overworked and underpaid! We do this for you." After another 20 minutes, Esposito returned to the barricade, where protesters yelled that their only demand was to cross the intersection. Esposito yelled "Mike check"—the signal the protesters shout when they want to speak— and smiled as the crowd erupted. When the cheering subsided, Esposito asked if they would cross the street peacefully should the barricades be opened. After receiving an affirmative cheer, the chief nodded at one of his captains.
Marine Sergeant Stands Up to Protect Wall Street Protesters from NYPD
Last night at Occupy Wall Street in Times Square, Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas boldly defended the occupiers. Sergeant Thomas calmly asked the NYPD why they aren’t protecting the peaceful protestors. The NYPD ignored his questions and continued telling protestors to leave the sidewalk otherwise “they’d get hurt.”
Then, in an epic scene, Thomas approached the line of NYPD officers who held their batons.
While many Occupy Wall Street demonstrators had been arrested for merely crossing the street, he exclaimed, “These are U.S. citizens peacefully protesting! These are the people you are supposed to protect!” The 10-15 NYPD officers he addressed dared not to touch him.
Sergeant Thomas continued denouncing the NYPD’s actions shouting, “This isn’t a war zone! I’ve served overseas, that’s a war zone! Get rid of your batons and helmets!”
After five minutes of severely and loudly criticizing the NYPD, the Sergeant walked away leaving the scorned officers behind. The few people who were there applauded and cheered.
Occupy Wall Street assault: lawyer demands action on policeman's punch | World news | The Guardian
"A lawyer acting on behalf of an Occupy Wall Street protester who was allegedly assaulted by a New York police officer on Friday has called for an investigation into the behaviour of the deputy inspector involved after video evidence appeared to show the same officer engaging in the rough handling of a woman protester in an earlier incident.
Ron Kuby, a Manhattan-based criminal defence lawyer who specialises in cases of alleged police brutality, has written to the New York district attorney Cyrus Vance calling for a "full, complete and lengthy investigation" into Friday's incident. He said that his client, Felix Rivera Pitre, would co-operate fully with any such investigation."
'via Blog this'
Ron Kuby, a Manhattan-based criminal defence lawyer who specialises in cases of alleged police brutality, has written to the New York district attorney Cyrus Vance calling for a "full, complete and lengthy investigation" into Friday's incident. He said that his client, Felix Rivera Pitre, would co-operate fully with any such investigation."
'via Blog this'
Meet the Guy Who Snitched on Occupy Wall Street to the FBI and NYPD
"Since the Occupy Wall Street protest began on September 17, New York security consultant Thomas Ryan has been waging a campaign to infiltrate and discredit the movement. Ryan says he's done contract work for the U.S. Army and he brags on his blog that he leads "a team called Black Cell, a team of the most-highly trained and capable physical, threat and cyber security professionals in the world." But over the past few weeks, he and his computer security buddies have been spending time covertly attending Occupy Wall Street meetings, monitoring organizers' social media accounts, and hanging out with protesters in Lower Manhattan."
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
US to Play 'Very Major Role' In Helping Europe: Geithner - CNBC
someone should just punch Geithner in the face...
[Video Updates] 24 Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested At CitiBank Sit-In: Gothamist
UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE!
Update 4:45 p.m.: The NYPD has announced that 24 people altogether were arrested at the Citibank incident earlier today. They were all charged with criminal trespass, while one was also charged with resisting arrest. Many of those protesters had gone to the bank to close their accounts.
Update 5:00 p.m.: Marchers are still walking slowly to Times Square mostly without incident. But according to witnesses, the NYPD just confiscated the press pass of an Italian journalist "with Italian TV, covering the march. Accused of failing to remain on sidewalk." Reporter Allison Kilkenny described an NYPD white shirt ashaving "ripped the press pass off Italian camerman's neck."
Update 5:20 p.m.: Below, you can see video of some of the protesters in the bank trying to close their accounts who are then arrested by police. That includes one woman who argues she is a customer, and allowed to be in the bank—and then she is picked up by a policeman and taken away.
October 15th - Global Day Of Action | OccupyWallSt.org
- 6:35 p.m. A horse just went down. Crowd is going wild. NYPD says anyone near barricade is going to jail. This is is inexcusable. (Source)
- 6:22 p.m. Police on horseback arrive. Police pulling people out of crowd and attacking them. Protesters are rushing barricades.
- 6:10 p.m. Police in riot gear retreat.
- 6:05 p.m. Police are in riot gear.
- 6:00 p.m. Backup has arrived. Estimated 15,000 in Times Square
- 5:49 p.m. Orange nets along Broadway.
- 5:45 p.m. Five thousand more on their way from Liberty Square and other locations.
- 5:30 p.m. Thousands arrive in Time Square. Now livestreaming:http://www.livestream.com/occupywallstnyc
115 year old electric car gets same 40 miles to the charge as Chevy Volt!
"If you didn’t know there are electric cars as old as the Roberts, you aren’t alone. Prior to today’s electric v. gas skirmishes, there was another battle: electric v. gas v. steam. This contest was fought in the market place, and history shows gas gave electric and steam an even more thorough whooping than Coca-Cola gave Moxie.
But while the Roberts electric car clearly lacked GPS, power steering and, yes, air bags, the distance it could achieve on a charge, when compared with its modern equivalent, provides a telling example of the slow pace of the electric car."
'via Blog this'
But while the Roberts electric car clearly lacked GPS, power steering and, yes, air bags, the distance it could achieve on a charge, when compared with its modern equivalent, provides a telling example of the slow pace of the electric car."
'via Blog this'
Cops Run Over a Protester's Leg, Punch a Guy at Occupy Wall Street
Video of the NYPD running over a National Lawyer's Guild legal observer's leg with a scooter is above. He reportedly broke his leg, and was arrested after kicking the scooter over to free himself, since, you know, the cop just parked it there and walked away.
And then another angle of the cop punching the protester...
Move On Tries to Take Over Occupy Wall Street Protests
David DeGraw – one of the primary Wall Street protest organizers – just send me the following email:
Top MoveOn leaders / executives are all over national television speaking for the movement. fully appreciate the help and support of MoveOn, but the MSM is clearly using them as the spokespeople for OWS. This is an blatant attempt to fracture the 99% into a Democratic Party organization. The leadership of MoveON are Democratic Party operatives. they are divide and conquer pawns. For years they ignored Wall Street protests to keep complete focus on the Republicans, in favor of Goldman’s Obama and Wall Street’s Democratic leadership.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg orders Occupy Wall Street protesters out to clean up 'unsanitary' park
Love that they went to the restaurant where he was.
Protesters surrounded downtown's Cipriani restaurant as the mayor attended a dinner in an attempt to hand him a petition with 310,000 signatures supporting their right to remain in nearby Zuccotti Par.
Their anger was triggered by the mayor's endorsement of a planned clean-up of the 'unsanitary' Occupy Wall Street encampment which was postponed at the last minute today."
Occupy Wall Street protester hit with pepper spray demand arrest of NYPD Deputy Inspector Bologna
“It is now 17 days since D.I. Bologna discharged the spray felt ’round the world,” Kuby wrote Vance. “While there are published accounts that you are conducting an investigation, you have not attempted to interview my client or obtain her medial records.”
Kuby said there was enough evidence in a YouTube video for an immediate arrest warrant on misdemeanor charges.
"
Kuby said there was enough evidence in a YouTube video for an immediate arrest warrant on misdemeanor charges.
"
AFP: Anti-war protesters disrupt US defense budget hearing
"Anti-war protesters repeatedly disrupted a congressional hearing Thursday on US defense spending, with one demonstrator shouting "You are murdering people!" as police dragged him out of the room.
One by one, protesters clad in pink shirts stood up and voiced their opposition to US military action, forcing a grim-faced chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon, to repeatedly bang his gavel to suspend the proceedings.
"How many lives?" said an elderly woman clad in a pink shirt, as a police officer pulled her out of the hall. "How many lives?"
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had to halt his opening statement several times as protesters interrupted him."
'via Blog this'
One by one, protesters clad in pink shirts stood up and voiced their opposition to US military action, forcing a grim-faced chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon, to repeatedly bang his gavel to suspend the proceedings.
"How many lives?" said an elderly woman clad in a pink shirt, as a police officer pulled her out of the hall. "How many lives?"
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had to halt his opening statement several times as protesters interrupted him."
'via Blog this'
My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters | Politics News | Rolling Stone
Tax hedge-fund gamblers. For starters, we need an immediate repeal of the preposterous and indefensible carried-interest tax break, which allows hedge-fund titans like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson to pay taxes of only 15 percent on their billions in gambling income, while ordinary Americans pay twice that for teaching kids and putting out fires. I defy any politician to stand up and defend that loophole during an election year."
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
In Less than a Minute Alan Grayson Explains Occupy Wall Street to the 1%
Watch Alan Grayson OWN P.J. O'Rourke. Less than 2 minute video. Well worth it.
O’Rourke joked that Occupy Wall Street has found their spokesman, then Grayson continued, “Listen, if I am spokesman for all the people who think that we should not have 24 million people in this country who can’t find a full time job, that we should not have 50 million people in this country who can’t see a doctor when they’re sick, that we shouldn’t have 47 million people in this country who need government help to feed themselves, and we shouldn’t have 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home, okay, I’ll be that spokesman.”
A99 Operation Empire State Rebellion - Communication #1
- We are a decentralized non-violent resistance movement, which seeks to restore the rule of law and fight back against the organized criminal class.
- One-tenth of one percent of the population has consolidated wealth in unprecedented fashion and launched an all-out economic war against 99.9% of the population.
- We are not affiliated with either wing of the two-party oligarchy. We seek an end to the corrupted two-party system by ending the campaign finance and lobbying racket.
- Above all, we aim to break up the global banking cartel centered at the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund, Bank of International Settlement and World Bank.
- We demand that the primary dealers within the Federal Reserve banking system be broken up and held accountable for rigging markets and destroying the global economy, effective immediately.
- As a first sign of good faith we demand Ben Bernanke step down as Federal Reserve chairman.
- Until our demands are met and a rule of law is restored, we will engage in a relentless campaign of non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience.
- In our next communication we will announce Operation Empire State Rebellion.
Ex-CIA warns US 'dangerously wrong' on Iran
"The former intelligence analyst, Robert Baer, joins The World Today and warns the Obama adminstration to step back from blaming Iran for the foiled assasination plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington. The former CIA case agent says the attack doesn't appear to have been planned by Iran, and that the US may have got its assessment dangerously wrong. He says the US must open a direct diplomatic channel with the Iranian regime .. or risk igniting an uncontrollable war."
Financial Giants Put New York City Cops On Their Payroll
"The corporations pay an average of $37 an hour (no medical, no pension benefit, no overtime pay) for a member of the NYPD, with gun, handcuffs and the ability to arrest. The officer is indemnified by the taxpayer, not the corporation.
New York City gets a 10 percent administrative fee on top of the $37 per hour paid to the police. The City’s 2011 budget called for $1,184,000 in Paid Detail fees, meaning private corporations were paying wages of $11.8 million to police participating in the Paid Detail Unit. The program has more than doubled in revenue to the city since 2002."
New York City gets a 10 percent administrative fee on top of the $37 per hour paid to the police. The City’s 2011 budget called for $1,184,000 in Paid Detail fees, meaning private corporations were paying wages of $11.8 million to police participating in the Paid Detail Unit. The program has more than doubled in revenue to the city since 2002."
#OWS Stands In Solidarity With 100 Arrested At Occupy Boston | OccupyWallSt.org
"Occupy Wall Street would like to express our support and solidarity with both the people of Boston and the 100+ arrested at Occupy Boston last night. We commend them for their bravery in standing their ground at great personal cost to assert the right of the people to peaceful assembly in public spaces.
http://occupyboston.com/2011/10/11/boston-police-brutally-assault-occupy-boston/
We condemn the Boston Police Department for their brutality in ordering their officers to descend upon the Occupy Boston tent city in full riot gear to assault, mass arrest, and destroy the possessions of these peaceful women and men. We condemn them for ordering this attack in the middle of the night. These people were not simply protesters holding a rally, it was their home, it was their community and it was violated in the worst possible way by the brutal actions of the BPD. Furthermore:
The Boston Police Department made no distinction between protesters, medics, or legal observers, arresting legal observer Urszula Masny-Latos, who serves as the Executive Director for the National Lawyers Guild, as well as four medics attempting to care for the injured. [emphasis mine]"
http://occupyboston.com/2011/10/11/boston-police-brutally-assault-occupy-boston/
We condemn the Boston Police Department for their brutality in ordering their officers to descend upon the Occupy Boston tent city in full riot gear to assault, mass arrest, and destroy the possessions of these peaceful women and men. We condemn them for ordering this attack in the middle of the night. These people were not simply protesters holding a rally, it was their home, it was their community and it was violated in the worst possible way by the brutal actions of the BPD. Furthermore:
The Boston Police Department made no distinction between protesters, medics, or legal observers, arresting legal observer Urszula Masny-Latos, who serves as the Executive Director for the National Lawyers Guild, as well as four medics attempting to care for the injured. [emphasis mine]"
Occupy Wall Street: Coming to a mansion near you
The march begins a very short walk from my old apartment in the Upper East Side. Madoff's former penthouse apartment is not far either.
The millionaires and billionaires are being targeted for what event organizers called a "willingness to hoard wealth at the expense of the 99%."
"
Fraught with conflicts...
"Joseph Stiglitz – former head economist at the World Bank and a nobel-prize winner – said yesterday that the very structure of the Federal Reserve system is so fraught with conflicts that it is “corrupt” and undermines democracy.
Stiglitz said:
If we [i.e. the World Bank] had seen a governance structure that corresponds to our Federal Reserve system, we would have been yelling and screaming and saying that country does not deserve any assistance, this is a corrupt governing structure.
Stiglitz pointed out that – if another country had presented a plan to reform its financial system, and included a regulatory regime that copied the makeup of the Federal Reserve system – “it would have been a big signal that something is wrong.”"
'via Blog this'
Stiglitz said:
If we [i.e. the World Bank] had seen a governance structure that corresponds to our Federal Reserve system, we would have been yelling and screaming and saying that country does not deserve any assistance, this is a corrupt governing structure.
Stiglitz pointed out that – if another country had presented a plan to reform its financial system, and included a regulatory regime that copied the makeup of the Federal Reserve system – “it would have been a big signal that something is wrong.”"
'via Blog this'
Occupy Wall Street Protests Rankle the Rich - Yahoo! News
"If a joke, it was one many protesters didn't get. "I thought [the sign] was extremely disrespectful," a special education teacher named Corey, 35, told TimeOut Chicago. Mike Polski, 53, from Joliet, disagreed, telling TimeOut, "These people wish they were the 1 percent! The 1 percent are billionaires."
He's wrong. According to IRS tax data, anybody earning $380,354 or more qualifies for membership in the top 1 percent. That would include some of the better-paid traders at the Board of Trade. (IRS data shows, too, that the top 1 percent holds 35.6 percent of the nation's wealth, not the 50 percent claimed by Occupiers.)"
'via Blog this'
He's wrong. According to IRS tax data, anybody earning $380,354 or more qualifies for membership in the top 1 percent. That would include some of the better-paid traders at the Board of Trade. (IRS data shows, too, that the top 1 percent holds 35.6 percent of the nation's wealth, not the 50 percent claimed by Occupiers.)"
'via Blog this'
Why Did the New York Times Change Their Brooklyn Bridge Arrests Story?
more details in the Brooklyn Bridge arrests:
"It's worth noting that one of their reporters at the scene, freelancer Natasha Lennard, was among the over 700 arrested. The original City Room report that Lennard contributed to says that police did in fact allow protesters onto the bridge:
After allowing marchers from the Occupy Wall Street protests to claim the Brooklyn-bound car lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge and get partway across, the police cut the marchers off and plunged into the crowd and began making arrests around 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
That paragraph is now nowhere in the story. Currently, the only mentions in the piece of police telling protesters they were allowed onto the bridge are in the words of the protesters themselves."
'via Blog this'
After allowing marchers from the Occupy Wall Street protests to claim the Brooklyn-bound car lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge and get partway across, the police cut the marchers off and plunged into the crowd and began making arrests around 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
That paragraph is now nowhere in the story. Currently, the only mentions in the piece of police telling protesters they were allowed onto the bridge are in the words of the protesters themselves."
'via Blog this'
Well, There’s Your Problem Right There … Insider Trading Rules Don’t Apply To Congress - Washington's Blog
"The chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University (Donald J. Boudreaux) says that it is inaccurate to call politicians prostitutes. Specifically, he says that they are more correct to call them “pimps”, since they are pimping out the American people to the financial giants:
Real whores, after all, personally supply the services their customers seek. Prostitutes do not steal; their customers pay them voluntarily. And their customers pay only with money belonging to these customers.
In contrast, members of Congress routinely truck and barter with other people’s property…
Members of Congress are less like whores than they are like pimps for persons unwillingly conscripted to perform unpleasant services."
Real whores, after all, personally supply the services their customers seek. Prostitutes do not steal; their customers pay them voluntarily. And their customers pay only with money belonging to these customers.
In contrast, members of Congress routinely truck and barter with other people’s property…
Members of Congress are less like whores than they are like pimps for persons unwillingly conscripted to perform unpleasant services."
Dream of homeownership has felt its biggest drop since the Great Depression
News from The Associated Press: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American dream of homeownership has felt its biggest drop since the Great Depression, according to new 2010 census figures released Thursday.
The analysis by the Census Bureau found the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year. While that level remains the second highest decennial rate, analysts say the U.S. may never return to its mid-decade housing boom peak in which nearly 70 percent of occupied households were owned by their residents."
The analysis by the Census Bureau found the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year. While that level remains the second highest decennial rate, analysts say the U.S. may never return to its mid-decade housing boom peak in which nearly 70 percent of occupied households were owned by their residents."
Mayan documentary to show 'evidence' of alien contact in ancient Mexico
I knew it!
note the comments for the mistaken switch in Presidents...
note the comments for the mistaken switch in Presidents...
The documentary is believed to focus in part on previously unexplored sections of a Mayan site at Calakmul, Mexico, as well as a number of sites in Guatemala, where officials are also backing the documentary.
"Guatemala, like Mexico, home to the ancient-yet-advanced Mayan civilisation … has also kept certain provocative archeological discoveries classified, and now believes that it is time to bring forth this information in the new documentary," Guatemala's minister of tourism, Guillermo Novielli Quezada, said in a statement."
'via Blog this'
World facing worst financial crisis in history, Bank of England Governor says - Telegraph
“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act calmly to this and to do the right thing.”
Against the Institution: A Warning for ‘Occupy Wall Street’ « Andrew Gavin Marshall
Interesting thoughts.
Mayor Bloomberg Says Occupy Wall Street Poses "Societal Concerns," We Should "Help the Banks" | AlterNet
Really???
"The protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line," Bloomberg said, presumably meaning service workers on Wall Street, adding that "we all" share blame for taking on too much risk, not just the financial industry.
"And people in this day and age need support for their employers. If the banks don't go out and make loans we will not come out of our economic problems, we will not have jobs so anything we can do that's responsible to help the banks do that is what we need.""
'via Blog this'
Marines Headed to Occupy Wall Street to Protect Peaceful New York City Protesters? | Muncie Free Press
"The Marines are coming to Wall St...(to PROTECT the protestors)
"I'm heading up there tonight in my dress blues. So far, 15 of my fellow marine buddies are meeting me there, also in Uniform.
I want to send the following message to Wall St and Congress:
I didn't fight for Wall St. I fought for America. Now it's Congress' turn."
'via Blog this'
"I'm heading up there tonight in my dress blues. So far, 15 of my fellow marine buddies are meeting me there, also in Uniform.
I want to send the following message to Wall St and Congress:
I didn't fight for Wall St. I fought for America. Now it's Congress' turn."
'via Blog this'
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