Thursday, December 29, 2011

www.rebuildthedream.com

Charlie Chaplin final speech in The Great Dictator


NYPD non interference order on MSNBC

Ministry


Occupy Facebook: Protesters Planning Their Own Social Network

IT’S OFFICIAL, THE most words and phrases during 2011 were ‘Occupy’ and ‘Arab Spring’.

@Gothamist - 1 of most reliable #ows news sources - has been denied #NYPD press passes for 8 yrs:

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Dan Choi - Eloquent support for Bradley Manning


and on Democracy Now:

Economic downturn took a detour at Capitol Hill


When Representative Ed Pastor was first elected to Congress two decades ago, he was comfortably ensconced in the middle class. Mr. Pastor, a Democrat from Arizona, held $100,000 or so in savings accounts in the mid-1990s and had a retirement pension, but like many Americans, he also owed the banks nearly as much in loans.
Today, Mr. Pastor, a miner’s son and a former high school teacher, is a member of a not-so-exclusive club: Capitol Hill millionaires. That group has grown in recent years to include nearly half of all members of Congress — 250 in all — and the wealth gap between lawmakers and their constituents appears to be growing quickly, even as Congress debates unemployment benefits, possible cuts in food stamps and a “millionaire’s tax.”...................


Economic downturn took a detour at Capitol Hill

Reminders of 1999 WTO - Ex-Seattle police chief: ‘Appalling’ to use tear gas on peaceful protesters


LISTEN HERE:
Ex-Seattle police chief: ‘Appalling’ to use tear gas on peaceful protesters | The Raw Story


A former Seattle police chief says that the post-9/11 militarization of police forces across the U.S. has led to the abuse of non-violent activists in the Occupy movement.
Author and activist Norm Stamper told BBC that he resigned as Seattle’s police chief after the tear gas used on demonstrators at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting caused a passive protest to turn violent.
“After the tear gas, many previously non-violent demonstrators turned much more active, much more militant and in some cases violent in response to the violence they experienced,” he recalled. “We saw what looked and felt very much like a war zone over the next three days and in effect we started it.”
“The cop in me had made that decision not to step in and stop it,” he added. “But as police chief, I should have done precisely that, and I will regret forever that I didn’t do it.”

The War at Home: Militarized Local Police Tap Post-9/11 Grants to Stockpile Combat Gear, Use Drones




A new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting reveals that since 9/11, local law enforcement agencies have used $34 billion in federal grants to acquire military equipment such as bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets. "A lot of this technology and the devices have been around for a long time. But as soon as they have, for instance, a law enforcement capability, that’s a game changer," says George Schulz, with the Center for Investigative Reporting. "The courts and the public have to ask, how is the technology being used by a community of people—police—who are endowed with more power than the rest of us?’" Local police departments have also added drones to their tool kit. In June, a drone helped local police in North Dakota with surveillance leading to what may be the first domestic arrests with help from a drone. The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new report that calls on the government to establish privacy protections for surveillance by unmanned aerial drones, especially of people engaged in protests. "We believe that people should not be targeted for surveillance via drones just because they’re they are engaged in First Amendment-protected activity," says Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. [includes rush transcript]



November 17, 2011



Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper on Paramilitary Policing From WTO to Occupy Wall Street

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Timcast OccuCopter wishlist


Tim Pool's OccuCopter XMAS LIST!

If you would like to help the project we can use the following items!
If you would prefer to donate money to the project, you can do so at

http://wepay.com/donate/timcast

OccuCopter Presents go here --> 529 77th, Brooklyn NY 11209
Contact Team OccuCopter (Tim, Sam, and Geoff) here ---> 323.427.7412

More info - http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/OccuCopter

ArduCopter kit - 589$
https://store.diydrones.com/ArduCopter_3DR_Quad_KIT_Electronics_p/kt-ac3dr-03.htm

Clear Wireless 4G hotspot with a year of service;
Hotspot - 100$
1 year of service - 600$

Old Laptops
Old Cell Phones (preferably USB smartphones)
Old Flat screen monitors
Wii, XBOX, Ps3 controllers

GoPro HD camera - 300$

http://pastebin.com/XWfGB41m

Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down


Does your government have an Internet kill-switch? Read our guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut.




Take Your Tech Off the Grid



Start a Revolution With Your Personal Tech





Bob Dylan - Times They are a-Changin


Occupy's Next Target: The Iowa Caucus

Friday, December 23, 2011

Occupy Congress Jan. 17th, 2012

Government Blocks Access to Manning Hearing

http://www.nationofchange.org/government-blocks-access-bradley-manning-s-hearing-1324658122Private First Class Bradley Manning is facing life in prison or even the death penalty for leaking hundreds of thousands of documents about US wars and diplomacy to the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. Some of the documents in question are now posted online and have been the fodder for news articles and public discussion about world politics for well over a year. This case will show much about the United States’ tolerance for whistle-blowers who show the country in an unflattering light. Are we a nation that tolerates criticism and values transparency? Or are we willing to crack down on whistleblowers of conscience? Unfortunately, the military is taking steps to block access by the media and the public to portions of the trial, robbing the world of details of this critically important trial.Private First Class Bradley Manning is facing life in prison or even the death penalty for leaking hundreds of thousands of documents about US wars and diplomacy to the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. Some of the documents in question are now posted online and have been the fodder for news articles and public discussion about world politics for well over a year. This case will show much about the United States’ tolerance for whistle-blowers who show the country in an unflattering light. Are we a nation that tolerates criticism and values transparency? Or are we willing to crack down on whistleblowers of conscience? Unfortunately, the military is taking steps to block access by the media and the public to portions of the trial, robbing the world of details of this critically important trial.


http://www.nationofchange.org/government-blocks-access-bradley-manning-s-hearing-1324658122

http://www.firstpost.com/world/mannings-legal-strategy-could-lead-to-plea-deal-167827.html

This moment is so extraordinary

Compassion is Our New Currency


Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed -- and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same.
Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed -- and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same.
The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another.
The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another.....




NATO Forced to Admit Air Strikes Killed Dozens of Libyan Civilians, Contradicting Initial Denials


NATO Forced to Admit Air Strikes Killed Dozens of Libyan Civilians, Contradicting Initial Denials

Libya3
NATO has admitted for the first time Libyan civilians were killed and injured during its seven-month bombing campaign that led to the ouster and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The acknowledgment came after a New York Times investigation revealed at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by NATO air strikes, including at least 29 women or children. Others were killed when NATO warplanes bombed ambulance crews and civilians who were attempting to aid the wounded injured in earlier strikes. We speak to New York Times senior reporter Eric Schmitt, who co-wrote the investigation with C.J. Chivers. "We only saw a small sampling of the strike sites that may have been affected, so the death toll is probably much larger," Chivers says.


"It would be hard to convey in words the visceral anger toward the United States now being felt and expressed in Pakistan. The sense that a deadly U.S. attack on a border post near the Afghan border was deliberate rather than friendly-fire has resulted in a halt to NATO supplies through that nation."

http://worldmeets.us/ http://worldmeets.us/thenationpk000150.shtml#ixzz1hXm3pbf1

Government, Enron-Style


Long silent and now contradictory, President Obama needs to deliver a clarifying speech about our financial markets and the rule of law.


Strongly recommend this piece at the Huffington Post by Jeff Connaughton, a former aide to Senator Ted Kaufman. Jeff is one of the smartest guys on the Hill and is particularly strong on issues surrounding Wall Street and the regulatory system. In this piece, he takes apart the oft-stated mantra that what Wall Street firms did during and after the crisis was maybe unethical, but not illegal.
He takes particular aim at Barack Obama, who recently tossed that line out on 60 Minutes in what I thought was one of the real low moments of his presidency. Here’s Jeff’s take:
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/obama-and-geithner-government-enron-style-20111220#ixzz1hQCCPBmt

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/obama-and-geithner-government-enron-style-20111220

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-connaughton/obama-wall-street-laws_b_1157915.html?ref=email_share

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers 1971


Watch The Most Dangerous Man in America Trailer on PBS. See more from POV

Synopsis

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concludes that America’s role in the war is based on decades of lies. He leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg and a who’s-who of Vietnam-era movers and shakers give a riveting account of those world-changing events in POV’s The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers by award-winning filmmakers Judith Ehrlich (The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It) and Rick Goldsmith (Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press). A co-production of ITVS in association with American Documentary | POV.
Please note: This is an encore broadcast. Not all PBS stations choose to rebroadcast encore presentations. Please check local listings two weeks before June 7 to see whether this show will be airing. The Most Dangerous Man in America had its premiere broadcast on POV on Oct. 5, 2010..

Thursday, December 22, 2011

In cowardly fashion, Albany Mayor Jennings sent his storm troopers to evict Occupy Albany.


Today at around 2 PM, in cowardly fashion, Albany Mayor Jennings sent his storm troopers to evict Occupy Albany.  For the past several days representative of the occupation met with city staff and were lead to believe that this would not happen.  The police handed those present an order to leave.  They were given 10 minutes then trucks entered the park and people’s tents, personal belongings and other property of Occupy Albany was loaded into trucks and taken away.    

Calls went out and hundreds of people started arriving.  The large 20 person info tent was surrounded by occupiers to try and stop the cops from taking it. The cops left that one for last and when they came to get it in force; we picked it up in the air and marched with it across the street to the Albany city hall where a rally was held.  Then we took over the streets and marched with the tent throughout the downtown area of the city to cheers from all who saw us. 

When we returned with the tent to the park and started to hold a GA, the cops violently attacked us with horses, clubs and pepper spray.  Several people were hurt, a couple went to the hospital including a news reporter for ABC who may have been seriously hurt.

We held a press conference which included occupiers and the presidents of the Troy Area Labor Council and the Albany Labor Council. 

It was all caught on the TV camera and all the media was there.  FOX news in Albany preempted its regular programming and carried the entire thing live. People seeing the news coverage started to come to the site to support the occupation.  A large group marched to the police station where the arrested occupiers were held and surrounded it.  The cops came out with pepper spray and clubs and surrounded their own station to protect it.

Albany Mayor Jennings announced a press conference but quickly called it off when he heard that occupier where coming.

Our occupation was evicted but we won the sympathy of many in Albany and the mayor and police have been exposed to many.  We will be meeting to plan our next steps.



Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It's the longest night of the year. Tomorrow, Lets REALLY wake-up!!!

“We are our brothers’ keeper.”“We are our brothers’ keeper.”


Juan Antonio Frias y Escalante "An Angel Awakens the Prophet Elijah" 1667



Adam Lindemann - THE PRINCE OF THE ONE PERCENT




"OCCUPY WALL STREET Arte Povera, the semiotics of powerlessness, exploded all over the world, from Moscow to Boise to Oakland to Cairo"
Charlie Finch

Jerry Saltz
"There’s little doubt that the art world still seems like it’s barreling off a massive binging spendthrift cliff. The art-buying behavior of the super-rich and the merely wealthy, coupled with obscene prices paid for a more or less preapproved group of around 75 celebrity artists, seems less and less relevant -- and more odious. Yet art fairs, insane as they are, are still ways for artists and art dealers to maybe make money; gallerists to create connections with one another; newer dealers to heighten their profiles; the general public to see art outside a museum; and the art tribe to have a giant sleepover, stay up late together and (as I often say) touch antennae. Instead, Lindemann wants them to be hermetically sealed and purely transactional, because keeping the rabble out makes everything run smoother.

Here’s his proposal for fixing these events. First, “art fairs should be for collectors only; if you’re not coming to buy art, get the hell out.” Translation: stay away, the 99.9999 percent of you without money. Ditto the 0.0001 percent who can afford to buy but aren’t going to right now. Who’s allowed in: a selection of dealers who work at the very top end of the price range, plus a few hundred people with cash burning holes in their pockets, all of whom can stand around impressing each other. Next, there should be “gallery dinners only, preferably with a....... 


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Wall Street's 2011 Pay To Break Records Despite Layoffs/Canceled Holiday Parties

Police Crack Down on Occupy Wall Street Protesters, Journalists on Movement’s 3-Month Mark

Bradley Manning Faces Life Sentence, While Criminals WikiLeaks Exposed Have Suffered No Consequences–Glenn Greenwald

‘OCCUPY OAKLAND’ INJURED VETERAN ASKS DEFENSE SECRETARY FOR PRIVATE INTERVIEW BETWEEN BRADLEY MANNING AND U.N. TORTURE INVESTIGATOR


WASHINGTON, DC – A popular campaign on Change.org launched by veteran Scott Olsen is calling on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to grant the UN Special Rapporteur for Torture private access to accused Iraq War whistle-blower Bradley Manning to discuss the conditions of his detainment.


http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article/News/National_News/OCCUPY_OAKLAND_INJURED_VETERAN_ASKS_DEFENSE_SECRETARY_FOR_PRIVATE_INTERVIEW_BETWEEN_BRADLEY_MANNING_AND_UN_TORTURE_INVESTIGATOR/54154

Sign the Petition
https://www.change.org/petitions/secretary-of-defense-grant-un-rapporteur-on-torture-juan-mendez-access-to-bradley-manning

Letter to the Occupy Movement, its supporters, and its critics


Countrywide Gave Four Members Of Congress Discounted Loans


WASHINGTON — Four House lawmakers received VIP discounted loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp., the lender whose subprime mortgages was largely responsible for the nation's foreclosure crisis, according to congressional investigators.


"Between January 1996 and June 2008, Countrywide's VIP unit gave discounted loans to employees of the federal government, including the U.S. Congress."



He added, "My staff is also aware of the possibility that loans with VIP benefits were conferred to other members and serviced by a separate loan processing branch."
The ethics committee determines whether House members violated standards of conduct, including a virtual ban on gifts. The committee also can refer cases to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.
It was previously revealed that Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., while still a senator, had received VIP loans from Countrywide. Both said they did not know they were getting unique deals and Dodd maintained he received no preferential treatment.
Others named as recipients of the VIP program were James Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae who later stepped down as an adviser to Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, and Franklin Raines, who also headed Fannie Mae. Still other "friends" included retired athletes, a judge, a congressional aide and a newspaper executive.

The Senate's ethics committee looked at the Dodd and Conrad cases and cleared them of wrongdoing, but warned that they should have exercised better judgment.
The committee said the senators should have questioned why they were in the VIP program, because it should have raised red flags.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2010 said that Mozilo would pay a $22.5 million penalty to settle charges that he and two other former Countrywide executives misled investors as the subprime mortgage crisis began. Mozilo also was banned from ever again serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company.
He also agreed to pay another $45 million to settle other violations for a total settlement of $67.5 million that was to be returned to investors who were harmed.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/countrywide-congress-discounted-loans_n_1157486.html


Monday, December 19, 2011

Occupy Wiki

US More Unequal Than Ancient Rome

Occupy America / #OccupyAmerica


149 NDAA Dissenters in Congress



"Truthdiggers of the Week"
Though they couldn’t stop the freedom-crushing National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 from becoming law, Truthdig salutes the efforts of the members of the U.S. Congress who took a stand against the NDAA in the final round of voting this week. There are too many of them to list by name here, but unfortunately, there weren’t enough of them to block the bill’s passage, which a flip-flopping President Obama was slated to sign Friday. Nonetheless, for doing their part to protect our civil liberties, even in the face of formidable political pressure, the 149 senators and representatives who said nay to the NDAA get our vote as our Truthdiggers of the Week.
First, a little background. We have been watching this process with growing incredulity and concern as the bill climbed higher on Congress’ priority list, and for a while it seemed that two troubling clauses in H.R. 1540—specifically, Sections 1031 and 1032—would make the NDAA veto bait for Obama if it actually made it to that point in the legislative process. But this appears to be one of those issues that escapes the kind of public attention (read: outrage) it deserves because of a dismaying lack of information and discussion in the mainstream media, as well as some spin on the part of supportive legislators and a sneaky timeline for the holidays!
read more: