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Active-duty troops, vets launch campaign to help GIs resist Afghanistan war

June 27, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

‘Our Lives, Our Rights’ campaign asserts the right to refuse to fight

In response to the catastrophic, immoral war in Afghanistan and the ceaseless epidemic of military suicides, active-duty U.S. troops along with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have launched a nation-wide campaign to educate and assist service members in their right to refuse to fight. Click here for news coverage of the campaign.

The founders of the campaign are war resisters and active-duty service members who are currently refusing to participate in the war any longer.

Please make a donation to help launch this important campaign.

This campaign is called “Our Lives, Our Rights.” Its purpose is to reach-out to service members throughout the entire U.S. military in everyway we can—passing out flyers on bases, sending care packages, building an online and media presence, creating organizing teams in military units, and more—to spread the message that the officers and politicians do not care about our lives, and that we have rights as service members. Above all, we hold that the most fundamental right we have is to refuse to deploy to the absurd, immoral war in Afghanistan.

As the politicians lie and stumble over themselves to explain why we must endlessly occupy Afghanistan, and while the generals refuse to address the criminal negligence for troops with PTSD, countless lives are literally being thrown away. It’s a critical time for service members to know about their rights and how to exercise them.

Thousands of U.S. service members today qualify to become Conscientious Objectors, whether or not they have deployed before, entitling them to be exempt from deployment and a discharge with full benefits. Others who are compelled to go AWOL also have legal rights and options. Those with psychological trauma, diagnosed or not, have the right to demand adequate treatment and exemption from deployment. But these rights are unknown to most—so we want to make sure all service members know with this campaign.

Those who resist the war or advocate for their interests can face harassment, intimidation and denial of rights by their chain of command, or need help properly exercising their rights. This campaign will provide a community of support from other service members and veterans, expose mistreatment by the chain of command, and assist service members in the process.

We believe this campaign has the potential to save the lives of scores of U.S. service members and present a real challenge to the generals and politicians who are orchestrating the destruction of so many lives at home and abroad. To maximize the potential of the campaign, we need your help.

Here’s how you can help the ‘Our Lives, Our Rights’ campaign reach thousands of U.S. service members all over the world:

GLOBAL ELITES THROWN OUT OF ICELAND: Iceland Dismantles Corrupt Gov’t Then Arrests All Rothschild Bankers

June 26, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

freedumbnation.com

Since the 1900′s the vast majority of the American population has dreamed about saying “NO” to the Unconstitutional, corrupt, Rothschild/Rockefeller banking criminals, but no one has dared to do so. Why? If just half of our Nation, and the “1%”, who pay the majority of the taxes, just said NO MORE! Our Gov’t would literally change over night. Why is it so hard, for some people to understand, that by simply NOT giving your money, to large Corporations, who then send jobs, Intellectual Property, etc. offshore and promote anti-Constitutional rights…

You will accomplish more, than if you used violence. In other words… RESEARCH WHERE YOU ARE SENDING EVERY SINGLE PENNY!!! Is that so hard? The truth of the matter is… No other modern Nation on earth, except the Icelanders, have carried this out successfully. Not only have they been successful, at overthrowing the corrupt Gov’t, they’ve drafted a Constitution, that will stop this from happening ever again. That’s not the best part…

The best part, is that they have arrested ALL Rothschild/Rockefeller banking puppets, responsible for the Country’s economic Chaos and meltdown. What does all this have to do with? The answer… AGENDA 21. If you’re not educated, about Agenda 21, please watch these short videos now: http://www.freedumbnation.com/?p=1130

Last week 9 people were arrested in London and Reykjavik for their possible responsibility for Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008, a deep crisis which developed into an unprecedented public reaction that is changing the country’s direction.

It has been a revolution without weapons in Iceland, the country that hosts the world’s oldest democracy (since 930), and whose citizens have managed to effect change by going on demonstrations and banging pots and pans. Why have the rest of the Western countries not even heard about it? Read the rest of this entry →

UN Expert: CIA Drone Strikes “A War Crime”

June 26, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

www.uruknet.info

The UN’s expert on extrajudicial killings has described a tactic used by the CIA and first exposed by a Bureau investigation as ‘a war crime’.

Earlier this year the Bureau and the Sunday Times revealed the CIA was deliberately targeting rescuers and funeral-goers in its Pakistan drone strikes. Those controversial tactics have reportedly been revived.

Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur, told a meeting in Geneva on June 21: ’Reference should be made to a study earlier this year by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism… If civilian ‘rescuers’ are indeed being intentionally targeted, there is no doubt about the law: those strikes are a war crime.’

Heyns’ forthright comments were made at an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) event, linked to a UN debate into the US covert war on terror.

Ambassador Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva told the Bureau ‘we fully agree with what has been said by Mr Heyns.’ Ambassador Akram called on the US ‘to respect the growing international opinion’ that the use of drones ‘not only violates our sovereignty but also violates the UN charter in our view and also international law.’ Read the rest of this entry →

Smartphones now set up with automatic tracking to spy on you – Homeland Security wants your location at all times

June 26, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics

By Julio Ojeda-Zapata  –  twincities.com

For Christopher Lower of Minneapolis, severe-weather alerts via his smartphone are a matter of life or death.

Lower, who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant, keeps his current ticker going with medical equipment requiring power. He has set a weather app on his smartphone to send him a text and beep loudly when a major storm is headed his way so he can switch his life-preserving medical gear to battery power and not be affected by electrical outages.

Soon, Lower will have another means to receive “imminent threat” alerts, courtesy of the federal government and his wireless carrier — and this alert system will require no fiddling with apps and text-message settings.

Everyone will receive the “wireless emergency alerts” automatically, provided they have a newer smartphone or an older one with an up-to-date operating system. The WEA system is rolling out in Minnesota this week via the National Weather Service and Department of Homeland Security.

This nationwide mobile-alert system won’t only transmit severe-weather alerts. Phone users also will get an Ambert Alert if a child goes missing. If the United States faces a nationwide crisis of some sort, the president can transmit a mobile alert that pops up automatically on phones across the country.

Certain other alerts would originate at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety instead of the local National Weather Service office. These might include info about hazardous material spills and other emergencies not tied to weather, said Kris Eide, the public safety agency’s director of homeland security and emergency management.

This mobile alert system is designed to flag handset users based on their current locations — not where they live or work. Someone who lives in St. Paul but is visiting Cincinnati would receive the same alerts residents of that city receive. Read the rest of this entry →

Frontlines in the National Fight for a Moratorium on Foreclosure

June 20, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, Video Perspective

The Cruz family home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, went into foreclosure in 2011 when PNC failed to withdraw an online mortgage payment and then demanded two months’ payment as punishment. Unable to pay more than the current month’s installment, the family home fell into foreclosure.

by Occupy Homes MN  original article here

Despite acknowledging that the Cruz’s foreclosure was due to a bank error and repeated claims that they are working “behind the scenes” to get the Cruz family back in their home, PNC Bank has refused to accept the documents necessary for the loan to be modified. So Alejandra and David Cruz, along with several supporters, are going hand-deliver the documents to PNC’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA!

The community, as a whole, has rallied to help the Cruz family, and many other families defend their homes from unethical and often illegal bank foreclosures. [see videos below of these events, including one featuring musician Brother Ali talking about these issues and why this struggle is so important] – roguemedia

The Cruz family stopped today at the regional headquarters of Freddie Mac, the bailed-out secondary market lender that has posted guards and boarded up the doors and windows with reinforced steel to keep the Cruz family and supporters out of their home. After this, they marched, with supporters to a nearby PNC branch, where they refused to allow them to go inside and present loan modification documents.

Since April 30, Occupy Homes MN has been working with the Cruz family, whose home went into foreclosure when PNC Bank mishandled an online payment. Although PNC executives have acknowledged their error and repeatedly told Cruz supporters that they are working on a solution, their actions have shown the opposite.  They have refused to work with the family, instead working with Freddie Mac and the city of Minneapolis to launch a series of costly police raids against home, resulting in 23 arrests in less than a week.  Despite ongoing protests, PNC still thinks we’ll go away if they ignore us long enough.  It’s time to show them otherwise: on June 19, Alejandra and David Cruz will be travelling along with a team of supporters to PNC’s Pittsburgh headquarters to hand-deliver their modification documents and demand a meeting with CEO Jim Rohr! Occupy Homes MN is calling for a national day of action on PNC to coincide with the Cruz’s arrival on Thursday, June 21.   see videos below

Read the rest of this entry →

Transit fare hikes getting you down? Blame the banks.

June 20, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

By  Nicole Schlosser  –  metro-magazine.com

This week, the Refund Transit Coalition, a group of transit advocates, workers and supporters, including the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transportation Equity Network, released an interesting report. It alleges that a major cause of many recent fare hikes and service cuts is due to interest swaps: financial arrangements that transit systems across the U.S. made with banks on a percentage of their debts, which ended up working in favor of the banks when interest rates plummeted in 2008 and were kept artificially low because of the recession.

We got wind of the report, “Riding the Gravy Train – How Wall Street is Bankrupting our Public Transit Agencies,” through WNYC, which ran a story on how the deal has caused the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (N.Y. MTA) to lose almost $114 million a year and how the agency will likely continue to lose money on the deals for the next 30 years. Read the rest of this entry →

America Could Have Dropped Big Oil Decades Ago — What Happened?

June 20, 2012 in Editorial, Headline, Politics

Renewables are still just scraping by, while we’re beholden to dirty fossil fuels. An important history lesson explains why.

www.alternet.org   By Aaron Skirboll

This story is not new. Today, solar energy is picking up momentum. But despite the current numbers and the recent raves, the solar saga, and that of renewable energy as a whole, has been going on for decades. It is a history of false starts and stutter steps.

First, the good news. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), 2011 showed record-breaking numbers for U.S. solar installations. The industry’s best year ever saw demand rise by 109 percent over the previous year. With tremendous incentives and benefits for homeowners, and as prices continue to decline, the future looks bright for this alternative energy source.

However a quick glance to the past throws harsh light on the fact that we’ve been at this precipice before. In 1978, the White House Council on Environmental Quality issued this glowing statement: “Our conclusion is that with a strong national commitment to accelerated solar development and use, it should be possible to derive a quarter of U.S. energy from solar by the year 2000. For the year 2020 and beyond, it is now possible to speak hopefully, and unblushingly, of the United States becoming a solar society.”

The key words here being “strong national commitment,” because just as timber, coal, oil, gas, and nuclear received enormously strong federal support, solar needs the same kind of government backing, which as of yet, the sector has not seen. The statement should instead read, We could become a solar society, if only we wanted to become a solar society. Read the rest of this entry →

11th Hour Victory!:Citibank Cancels Foreclosure Auction of Minneapolis Mom’s Home; Commits to Loan Modification With Reduced Payments

June 20, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

Minneapolis, MN — After a several month campaign pressuring Citibank to negotiate with Colleen Mckee Espinosa and a last minute blitz of social media, petition signatures, and calls to the office of CEO Vikram Pandit, Citibank canceled a scheduled sheriff’s sale and approved a loan modification for the Espinosa’s home. An official with CitiMortgage’s Executive Response Unit contacted the Espinosa family with news that Citibank had approved a loan modification that would keep the family in their home and reduce their payments by one-third on a 7.5 year payment plan. The dramatic news came less than 24 hours before the house was to be sold at auction on Wednesday, June 13. Read the rest of this entry →

Political duality of the week: Electoral politics crushes anti-establishment networks of Ron Paul & Wisconsin uprising reframed as #WIrecall. What now, lolcats?

June 12, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Headline, Occupy, Politics

Submitted by HongPong

toles of the wisconsin recall election

Privatized ballot boxes, courtesy of IBM and Unisys

 

The ugly realities of modern electoral politics in America hit home this week with two body blows to self-styled anti-authoritarian political networks: The Ron Paul movement finally hit the brick wall as Rand Paul (R-KY Coal Mines) endorsed Mitt Romney (R-Rich Mormon Mafia) — utterly shocking & depressing tons of semi-libertarian Republicans along with the entire conservative side of the “Truther” and/or “Liberty” movements.

Days earlier, the Wisconsin recall election against Gov. Scott Walker (R-Petulance) turned in uglier-than-expected numbers as likely thousands of Wisconsinites were stripped of their Constitutional right to vote through ridiculous new regulations — and of course a bunch of shady electronic voting machines run from a company in a suburban St. Cloud strip mall. Fox News flacks and nasty Gloria Borger/Sarah Palin types cackled that the unruly, rebellious hordes had been licked for good. Now, the Paulistas and the rebellious Cheesehead hordes must ask: what’s next?!

Perhaps these movements never had too much in common, though you could find some overlapping supporters. Probably the biggest difference is the Liberty types are pretty darn hostile to mainstream unions while the #OccupyCapitol (which the Dems transmuted into #WIrecall) clearly ended up with unions as its main hub. But they shared a hostility to the party hierarchies, business as usual, and to some extent the elite financial/War Machine domestic & international complexes, which has triggered the financial/austerity crisis by sucking out trillions of dollars. Read the rest of this entry →

Financial Crisis at Hand

June 12, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

By Paul Craig Roberts   —   intrepidreport.com

Ever since the beginning of the financial crisis and quantitative easing, the question has been before us: How can the Federal Reserve maintain zero interest rates for banks and negative real interest rates for savers and bond holders when the US government is adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt every year via its budget deficits? Not long ago the Fed announced that it was going to continue this policy for another 2 or 3 years. Indeed, the Fed is locked into the policy. Without the artificially low interest rates, the debt service on the national debt would be so large that it would raise questions about the US Treasury’s credit rating and the viability of the dollar, and the trillions of dollars in Interest Rate Swaps and other derivatives would come unglued.

In other words, financial deregulation leading to Wall Street’s gambles, the US government’s decision to bail out the banks and to keep them afloat, and the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy have put the economic future of the US and its currency in an untenable and dangerous position. It will not be possible to continue to flood the bond markets with $1.5 trillion in new issues each year when the interest rate on the bonds is less than the rate of inflation. Everyone who purchases a Treasury bond is purchasing a depreciating asset. Moreover, the capital risk of investing in Treasuries is very high. The low interest rate means that the price paid for the bond is very high. A rise in interest rates, which must come sooner or later, will collapse the price of the bonds and inflict capital losses on bondholders, both domestic and foreign.

The question is: when is sooner or later? The purpose of this article is to examine that question. Read the rest of this entry →

MegaFail: Prosecutors fall short on evidence against Kim Dotcom

June 12, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

rt.com

Prosecutors in New Zealand have been unable to provide timely evidence to extradite Kim Dotcom, the founder of cloud-sharing website MegaUpload.com, to the US. The reason: there was simply too much to sift through.

­Crown attorney Fergus Sinclair said the New Zealand prosecution is unable to produce evidence by the set deadline because it is “too big a job.

They wouldn’t get a small way through it in that time,” Sinclair was quoted by Auckland Now as saying.

Prosecutors were tasked by New Zealand Judge David Harvey with rummaging through MegaUpload’s servers for evidence so that there could be a full accounting of Dotcom’s case before a decision is made on whether he is to be extradited to the US. Judge Harvey also told the FBI to collect evidence.

Dotcom’s case has been stirring controversy on both sides of the Pacific. His attorneys say the US illegally poached evidence from New Zealand, taking 18 copies of evidence despite an agreement with Kiwi prosecutors that it would remain in the country. That charge was deflected by prosecutors, who said that the clause only pertains to original data, and not copies of it, Radio New Zealand reported. Those prosecutors also said it would take another two and a half months to comb through the site’s archive before sufficient evidence is produced. Read the rest of this entry →

Spring in the northern hemisphere – Occupy after NATO 2012

June 12, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

Nigel O’Connor   —   opendemocracy.net

NATO Protest 2012 - Chicago Police Violently Oppress Protesters, using unnecessary violence and brute force batons to the skull, just as they had told some protesters in a May 9th video, as routine tactics. Snatch and grab tactics were also used, people were picked up on charges that did not float to the surface for weeks while they were in jail... Police state anyone ? It appears to anyone we have talked to that was on the frontlines, that protesting, and dissent are now illegal in the United States.

Six months after police violently evicted peaceful protestors from Occupy camps across the US, activists now see a program of local engagement and international coordination as central to advancing their movement.

Global economic and political systems continue to be delegitimised in the eyes of many, as communities are squeezed by the ongoing manifestations of the global financial crisis. While mainstream political forces attempt to absorb and deflect citizens’ dissatisfaction, activists within popular protest movements, rather than merely venting anger, are beginning to offer alternatives to the status quo.

In 2012, the Arab Spring appears to have become mired in sectarian conflict, repression and infiltration by religious fundamentalists, but non-violent direct action remains an effective tactic for movements in other parts of the world. Recent national and regional elections in France, Greece and Germany, saw voters reject parties advocating a continuation of economic austerity policies that cut government spending and services in order to service national debt, while in Spain the Indignados returned to the streets in their tens of thousands.

In the United States, the Occupy movement consists of no central organisational structure but is composed of independent collectives in various cities covering a variety of issues. Read the rest of this entry →

Bahrain Police Battle Biggest Protests in Weeks

June 8, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

By Reem Khalifa  world.time.com

Hasan Jamali / AP Riot police fire tear gas toward Bahraini anti-government protesters throwing petrol bombs during clashes after a march to recognize protesters who have lost their vision after being shot in the eye with bird shot, rubber bullets or tear gas canisters during past clashes Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Sitra, Bahrain

(MANAMA, Bahrain) — Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas and stun grenades Friday as tens of thousands of protesters staged the biggest anti-government demonstrations in weeks in the divided Gulf nation.

Opposition groups called for major rallies after a prominent rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, was placed back in detention earlier this week on fresh charges linked to his social media posts.

Bahrain has experienced near daily protests for 16 months caused by an uprising by the kingdom’s Shiite majority seeking greater political rights from the Western-backed Sunni monarchy. At least 50 people have died in the unrest since February 2011.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from Friday’s street battles, which left piles of burning trash and clouds of stinging tear gas in the western outskirts of the capital, Manama.

Bahrain’s rulers have crucial support from neighboring Saudi Arabia, but are under pressure from their U.S. allies to reopen dialogue with Shiite opposition factions. A new government initiative for talks is expected to be announced next week. But main Shiite groups have already signaled that negotiations are futile unless the ruling dynasty agrees to give up its near total control of government affairs in the strategic island, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Earlier Friday, a defense lawyer said a court hearing is planned next week for an 11-year-old boy detained for allegedly taking part in the anti-government protests.

The lawyer, Mohsen al-Alawi, said the sixth-grade student is scheduled to appear in court on Monday on charges of joining an illegal gathering and other claims related to the ongoing unrest.

Al-Alawi said the boy, Ali Hasan, was arrested last month and took his school exams behind bars. He is among the youngest suspects detained in Bahrain’s crackdowns.

By Reem Khalifa

SOLIDARITY WITH QUEBEC STUDENT STRIKE !

June 4, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, Video Perspective

occupyoakland.org

Over the last few months, we have been enheartened by the revolt taking shape in the streets of Montreal. The students of Quebec have taken a struggle against tuition hikes and mobilized hundreds of thousands against austerity and state repression. What began as a one-week university student strike has precipitated into an anti-capitalist revolt against universities, banks and police in what many are calling a general and indefinite social strike. In the face of intense state repression, including the draconian law 78 more or less banning protest, court injunctions against university picket lines, and mass arrests, the rebels of Montreal return to the streets night after night for over 100 days. They have called for solidarity actions from everyone and everywhere that can connect with the struggle, saying that if the strike “cannot inspire disruptions of its own, then it will die out quick.”

In the Bay Area, we, too, have seen revolt spread from universities into the community through Occupy, and we’ve seen tens of thousands come together against state repression for the November 2nd general strike and December 12th west coast port shutdown. And during those days of intense struggle, we drew strength and joy from the solidarity extended to us from as far as New York to Mexico City to Cairo.

It is now time for us to extend our solidarity to our comrades in Montreal and work to inspire the same solidarity and desire to disrupt business as usual in our friends, families and neighbors.

 

How did Quebec Students Mobilize Hundreds of Thousands for Strike?

Published on May 3, 2012 by

Keep striking and don’t ever stop!

Infinite solidarity with the infinite social strike!

We are all in the Red!

Bring pots, pans, and red squares of cloth. These are the symbols of solidarity with our Quebec comradies.

Take Action on CISPA: Criminal Internet Spying on People Act

June 4, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

  —  occupyboston.org

On April 26th 2012, the US House of representatives voted on HR 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) [1].  The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation voted against CISPA, but it still passed the house by a vote of 248 – 168 [2].  In the coming weeks, CISPA (or similar cybersecurity legislation) will likely come up for a vote in the Senate, so it is imperative that we contact our Senators and ask them to vote against this overreaching surveillance bill.  Here’s why: CISPA would legalize an oppressive degree of domestic surveillance with no accountability or democratic oversight.

(1) CISPA relies on an oppressive degree of surveillance.

CISPA invites private industry to a government-sponsored fishing expedition.  Sections (b)(1)(A)(i) and (b)(1)(B)(i), allow “cyber security providers” and “self-protected entities” to “…use cyber security systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information”.  This means that any business can eavesdrop, collect the contents of your communications, analyze who you’re talking with and what you’re saying, and turn that information over to the government, without a warrant — as long as they claim they are doing it in the spirit of cyber security.   Currently, laws such as the Wiretap Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act prevent companies from monitoring your private communications [4].  Would you feel comfortable if the post office opened all of your letters, photocopied them, and shared that information with the government?  Of course not!  But that is exactly what CISPA would do with your electronic communications.

Amendment IV – Bill of Rights

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Read the rest of this entry →

‘West won’t back down in Syria, Russia and China must be firmer’

June 4, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, Video Perspective, World News

rt.com

Neil Clark, a contributor to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, says Western states are using the recent tragedy in Houla as a pretext for a possible intervention – as they did in 1999 in Yugoslavia and in 2011 in Libya.

 


­Russia warns that the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution condemning the Syrian leadership for last week’s Houla massacre risks derailing the peace plan. Moscow called it premature because the investigation is ongoing, and said the resolution is putting pressure on the Security Council, where Russia is resisting foreign military action. Read the rest of this entry →

Freedom Of Speech

June 3, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

by    –  occupynewhampshire.org/2012/05/29/freedom-of-speech/

While at the first rally, the one sponsored by National Nurses United (the union which paid for the buses to get us to and from Chicago), I found my brand new phone didn’t work. I couldn’t get or receive texts or phone calls. So I asked one of the police officers why our phones were being blocked. He responded with “there are too many people trying to use their phones at once. No one is blocking them.” Frankly, I didn’t believe him. Later in the week I overheard two officers talking. One was saying how glad she was cellphones had been blocked. The other nodded his head. I believed this officer to be telling the truth.

Unfortunately, blocking cellphones became the norm.

By blocking cellphones live tweets weren’t sent, people couldn’t call one another, and there was a dearth of Facebook status updates. It seems to me by blocking our phones, the police (or whomever was the guilty party) curtailed Freedom of Speech since phones are no longer just for voice communications.

Speech is our most basic freedom. To curtail it, for any reason, is not only unconstitutional, it’s a sign of fascism. For city police to participate in such behavior is totally unacceptable. For any police to participate in the silencing of speech is totally unacceptable.

I wondered why my brand new phone didn’t work but others did. I saw cops and paramedics on their phones. I saw other Occupiers on their phones. So maybe the technology used worked only on new phones. I’m not that tech savvy so I can’t answer my own question. But what I can say is I felt stifled. I could not reach the woman I was supposed to meet so we never connected that day. I felt uninformed without my twitter updates. When the rally moved I couldn’t find where the climate people went because of the dearth of text messages. Read the rest of this entry →

Journalist arrested trying to document a home foreclosure in Minneapolis

June 2, 2012 in Documentary, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective

OccupyHomesMN was defending the Cruz family home from eviction, when a journalist is arrested without cause. This is the unedited video of the journalist being detained after asking what was going on and saying he was with the press.  The police officer arresting our camera man her is the same officer who latter that day was pepper spraying peacefull protests and choking them.

This same arresting officer is seen below from our April 7th video  that shows him assaulting a KSTP cameraman, destroying his camera,  and then arresting another independent journalist.

This journalist’s arrest [below] happened less than 30 seconds after the journalist was dropped off at the scene, and the journalist himself said later he felt he was being targeted for arrest and noted that there was no other media present, and the place the lady officer referred to as “the media / press spot” was over 1/2 a block away from the house where police were cutting people out of the house if they refused to leave…

roguemedia.org feels very strongly that our reporter’s rights were violated in a way that is intolerable.

This comes on the heels of several disturbing things in the last few months regarding members of the press being assaulted, unfairly scrutinized, and repressed from documenting the real news and what corporate media can not or will not cover.

.

We need a “blitz” against poverty

June 2, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

by Alan Maki  -  mnpolitics.gather.com

MPR on All Things Considered, aired this program on poverty:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/05/30/report-says-more-minn-children-living-in-poverty/

We need further discussion and concrete action if we are serious about eliminating poverty.

Governor Dayton, state legislators, the business community, organized labor and the foundation-funded outfits went into a “blitz formation” and scored a touchdown and the billionaire owners of the Vikings got their new stadium.

See: Vikings stadium backers go into blitz formation (Star Tribune article by Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, March 4, 2012)

Link: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/141313353.html

Apparently the “blitz formation” works as well in politics as on the football field so one has to wonder why after having scored this touchdown for the billionaire owners of the Vikings, Governor Dayton together with his friends in the business community, organized labor and the foundation-funded outfits don’t use the same “blitz formation” to tackle the problem of poverty?

I am assuming the crowds would cheer much louder if the governor and his friends in business and labor sacked poverty.

Governor Dayton was the primary cheerleader for a new Vikings Stadium although he is leading no cheers to alleviate, let alone eliminate, poverty.

Governor Dayton, during his tenure as governor of Minnesota, hasn’t even attempted to articulate an explanation as to why poverty still exists in a state where a billion dollars can be found for a new Vikings Stadium let alone bring forward any legislation to alleviate poverty.

Minnesota legislators have some kind of committee they call “Ladder Out of Poverty.” It seems the ladder must be missing quite a few rungs and constructed from rotting timber because no one can use the “ladder” for its stated purpose. Read the rest of this entry →