“I don’t want to say we’re making our own Facebook. But, we’re making
our own Facebook,” said Ed Knutson, a web and mobile app developer who
joined a team of activist-geeks redesigning social networking for the
era of global protest
"Blase Bonpane, Director of the Office of the America & Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard join Thom Hartmann. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement started more than 3 months again - it's taken on many forms. From physical occupations in cities across America - to occupying individual homes to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure - to occupying corporate media headquarters - to occupying the Iowa Caucuses - to occupying Christmas. The movement has so many different dimensions today. And now - there could be a bond developing between the Occupy Movement and Christianity. So what does that look like? Just what does Occupy Wall Street and Christianity have in common?"
A must watch video: In defense of Bradley Manning featuring civil rights attorney and writer Chase Madar who outlines the case
against--and the defense on behalf of Manning charged with supplying hundreds of thousands of
classified government documents to WikiLeaks, as well as the now
infamous "Collateral Murder" video.
The truth is that the real terrorists are the administrations, politicians of both American political parties and war profiteering corporations who lead the US into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place.
Banks often use the "moral hazard" argument to defend not restructuring bad loans facing foreclosure. These are the same banks of course that ran the economy into a ditch in 2008 because they ignored their own moral hazard when they turned the banking industry into a giant ponzi scheme in the name of the quest for obscene profits.
As SOPA works it way through the Congress the need for more independent, secure and unfettered wireless networks is obvious to protesters and anyone else with half a brain. Given the role the internet plays in organizing protest here and around the world, it's obvious that any restrictions on internet access serve as a direct attack on individual freedom of association and speech. The modern internet in effect has become the public square that needs to be occupied.
One of the projects that sprung up at Zuccotti Park in New York was the Free Network Foundation. Basically they're a group of Occupy Wall Street geeky protesters who built an independent network within the park that provided secure internet access to the protesters camp there. Based on the success of that project the goal now is to create global independent networks everywhere.
"We are the Free Network Foundation - builders and advocates of distributed and
decentralized communication systems. We believe that the Internet should
be used to connect people, not to spy on them, oppress them, or turn a
profit. We envision technologies that will transform the network into
something owned and operated by humanity itself, rather than by
governments or profit-driven corporations."
A group of economists who want to change the conversation about the current crisis have joined together to show support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The University Bridge is a gear of the machine that we put our bodies on yesterday. That would be me on the bridge in the yellow poncho in the photo above.
Occupy Seattle and the King County Labor Council's joint protest rally and march yesterday resulted in the direct action of blocking the University Bridge for several hours during rush hour. One of the purposes of the protest was to bring attention to the fact that jobs could be created if government would just approve a plan to repair crumbling infrastructure, like the University Bridge.
If you read any of comment sections of local news reports about the protest and University Bridge blockade you'd find lots of bitching from individual commuters that took this tone, "Who do these people think they are?" Or, "can't you see I'm not getting my needs met here because of the inconvenience of having to be detoured around the protest."
Please excuse us for inconvenience.
But there comes a time when just robo-voting for ineffective and corporate controlled politicians just won't do anymore. As citizens we feel that something dramatic has to take place to shake you from your sleep and day to day routine. When it's all over I'm sure you'll thank us for putting our "bodies on the gears, and the wheels, upon the levers" of the machine, as Mario Savio pointed out in his now famous 1964 speech about free speech and the right to assemble, which is the subject of the two videos below.
The protesters believe that the time has passed for us to continue to rely on the normal channels to bring about the change we feel is needed. The nation is at a crossroads. The destruction of our country's political institutions through corporate corruption, greed and incompetence must be stopped. Or there may not be a commute for you to get stuck in at all.
Join Occupy Seattle's rally and march tomorrow at SCCC 2pm (see below) or Our Bridges Need Work - So Do We rally and march organized by the ML King County Labor Council. Looks like Occupy Seattle's rally and march will meet up with the Labor Council march at the Montlake Bridge (Montlake Blvd NE & NE Pacific St.) around 4pm.
The truth about fracking from All Frack Up versus what the oil and gas companies would like you to believe.
I want to upchuck every time I see one of these oil and gas industry commercials on TV pushing their homey bullshit version of the environmental impacts and need for fracking.
To think I spent and entire year and a half of my life walking across the back-roads of several states in 2007 and 2008 to get Obama elected only to have his administration play a part in stomping on a citizen's right of assembly and free speech sickens me. News reports that the attacks and evictions of Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country by para-military police have been coordinated by the FBI and justice department is one big deal breaker.
So, the question is Mr. President what do you know about this and when did you know it? Did you approve these coordinated attacks by the Justice Department, FBI and the Homeland Security apparatus on post 9/11 Patriot Act steroids that are in effect a direct attack on citizen's constitutional right of free speech and assembly? If so, you can kiss my support goodbye.
