Occupy the NH Primary: ‘Bird-Dogging Political Candidates’
The Occupy schedule shows a busy weekend, starting Friday in Manchester with music and entertainment and a teach-in called, “Bird-Dogging Political Candidates,” led by activists Arnie Alpert and Olivia Zink. There is a “funeral procession for the American Dream” scheduled to be at Saint Anselm College during Saturday’s debate. Other catchy lecture titles include:
http://tinyurl.com/7m7mhuf
Occupy New Hampshire Primary
Two Occupy protesters braved freezing temperatures in Laconia, New Hampshire, on Thursday to stand silently outside a Rotary lunch meeting where Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman made his 130th campaign appearance in the state. They held a sign that read “Occupy NH Primary” and also a large mock ballot with a tick next to a “We the People” option instead of the Republican or Democrat options.
Occupy Iowa caucus protesters storm Democrats’ war room
A newly-opened Democrat “war room” in Iowa found itself under siege on Sunday night, when a group of Occupy Iowa caucus protesters infiltrated the premises and demanded to meet senior Democrat officials.
Abour 15 protesters entered the base at the Renaissance Savery hotel, complaining they were being prevented from meeting with Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Some gained access to what the DNC is calling their war room – a centralised space set aside for providing press briefings during the Iowa caucuses – before being escorted out by police.
Democrats continue to stonewall Occupiers in Iowa: Protests respond by holding mass ‘die in’
The event was conducted at the Hotel Savery at 401 Locust Street in downtown Des Moines Monday afternoon. Witnesses said protesters laid down on the floor of the hotel’s lobby and refused to leave. Twelve people were arrested for trespassing. The group said it wanted to talk to Democratic Party officials that were working in the building. The protesters said the die-in showed how corporate money in politics is killing U.S. democracy.
http://tinyurl.com/88jkdso
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DNC chair finally acknowledges she refused to meet with Occupy; 12 more protesters arrested
Twelve more were arrested after Occupy protesters attempted to occupy the Democratic National Committee in Des Moines Monday morning, Jan. 2, after Debbie Wassermann Schultz, chairperson of the DNC, refused to meet with the group.
http://tinyurl.com/7eyro2d
Mitt Romney Gets Occupied at Iowa Rally
CLIVE, Iowa – For the first time since launching his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney got a visit from Occupy Wall Street protestors during a rally Monday night just outside Des Moines, Iowa.
Midway through his stump speech, Romney was interrupted by protestors shouting their rallying cry, “Mic check!” Nearly immediately, the protestors were drowned out by cheers from the crowd of more than 500 with chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” One member in the crowd screamed back at the protestors, “Get a job!” Romney, audibly laughing at the outspoken crowd member, addressed the protestors. “Thanks guys, let’s talk about the Constitution again,” said Romney.
http://tinyurl.com/8xbtjto
Clueless Bachmann Blames Occupy Iowa Protesters On President Obama
It should not be surprising that Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann is desperate to reclaim her former glory, and to get back into the race. It is also not surprising that she is completely out of touch with way the average person these days. In fact, she decided to blame the Occupy Iowa protesters on President Barack Obama.
http://tinyurl.com/732hw3o
Westboro Baptist Church protesters face off against Occupy Dallas demonstrators
(photos)
There to protest the recent sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, Westboro protesters held signs expressing hate for Jerry Sandusky, who was charged with dozens of accounts of sexual abuse of boys. Protesters also carried signs against Joe Paterno, Penn State’s coach for more than 40 years who was fired during the sex abuse scandal. But perhaps not to leave Penn State’s rival team Houston out, protesters also carried signs against Houston’s mayor Annise Parker, the first openly gay mayor in a major metropolitan city in the U.S.
There to oppose the Westboro Church members were Occupy Dallas protesters, who strutted, shouted, and even engaged in a woman-on-woman kiss to prove their different views.
http://tinyurl.com/77gec8o
Commercial journalists ‘declare our activism dead with ritualistic regularity’
Naomi Klein rightfully observed back in 2001 that “our activism has been declared dead before. Indeed, it is declared dead with ritualistic regularity before and after every mass demonstration: our strategies apparently discredited, our coalitions divided, our arguments misguided” (Fences and Windows 236). The critique of OWS seems to be more of the same. Commercial journalists largely dismiss actions and structures that do not easily fit into the compartmentalized worldview that journalism school and newsrooms have imposed upon them.
Yet, by all standards, OWS has been immensely successful in changing the terms of the debate within the United States. Discussions of debt ceilings and austerity have been replaced with those of wealth gaps and economic inequality. OWS has become a global meme that the Left has been yearning for over the last ten years; this is not entirely surprising since OWS, in a very different form, initially emerged from Adbusters, the Canadian culture jamming franchise that reroutes advertisements to expose their insidious assumptions and crippling psychological and physical demands.
http://tinyurl.com/6rzqtqk
U.S. arrests 5,800 Occupy protesters
The U.S. police have arrested over 5,800 anti-Wall Street protesters since the beginning of the anti-corporatism movement in September last year.
http://tinyurl.com/7mwuv5p
Occupy protest follows 123rd annual Rose Parade
On the heels of the two-hour parade came several thousand anti-Wall Street protesters in a pre-arranged demonstration.
The thunder of the retreating marching bands mingled in the air with chants of “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” as the Occupy the Rose Parade demonstrators retraced about 1.5 miles of the 5.5-mile parade route before veering off for a rally near City Hall.
They carried a 250-foot-long banner that said “We the People” to represent the U.S. Constitution. Some also held a 70-foot-long octopus made from recycle plastic bags that represented the tentacles of perceived corporate greed.
http://tinyurl.com/77gants
Occupying the Rose Parade’s TV Audience With Anything but Occupy Wall Street Marchers
The corporate banks and military industrial complex received premiere TV coverage right off the bat, prominently featured at the top of both corporate network and local television broadcasts.
The thousands of marchers — LA Weekly pegged it at some 5,000 — from the Occupy Wall Street movement, who had been granted a permit to march, and who had come from all over, on their own dime, to participate in the parade? Not so much. Not at all, actually…
Iprotest: A study of the 4 top tools for protest organisation
Perhaps the 140 character limit of Twitter can make the platform seem like a strange contender for the top spot in ‘protest tools’, but the sheer rapidity of information exchange and networking potential sends it flying across the finish line.
Not only does Twitter allow instant co-ordination, promotion and broadcasting of protest activities, it can also be used as a means to promote other broadcasting solutions like Ustream or YouTube.
The networking functionality is why Twitter is the ‘best’ option for organising demonstrations. In some manner, all activists know each other, and the this potential is far more than Facebook can offer. To test this, I followed an Occupy Boston protester and found an Egyptian activist; which then carried on to a linked French student who had participated in the pension riots, and back to a member of Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy DC demonstrators bolstered by migrating NYC Occupiers
Some “Occupy” demonstrators who’ve clashed with police in New York City have migrated south as the new year begins, joining their colleagues in the nation’s capital where authorities continue to allow protest camps at two locations.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/02/us/occupy-migration/index.html?npt=NP1
The 99% of Us Are 100% Committed to Change
Some have tried to portray OWS as a rag-tag group of hippie wannabes and the homeless, but over time these protesters have come to represent the overwhelming majority of Americans, and of citizens in many lands. As Unitarian Universalists, we see Occupy Wall Street as an important messenger to the world, waking us up to the fact that these economic inequities are not only unethical, but that they place all of us in great peril if they continue unchecked.
http://tinyurl.com/6pwaer6
Cops to reporters covering Occupy: ‘That’s a boss. You do what a boss tells you or we’ll take your pass away’
Three nights ago, at a New Year’s Eve demonstration at Zuccotti Park, a captain began pushing Colin Moynihan, a reporter covering the protest for The Times. After the reporter asked the captain to stop, another officer threatened to yank away his police press pass. “That’s a boss; you do what a boss tells you,” the officer said, adding a little later, “You got that credential you’re wearing from us, and we can take it away from you.”
Reporting and policing can be high-adrenaline jobs, but the decade-long trajectory in New York is toward expanded police power. Officers routinely infiltrate groups engaged in lawful dissent, spy on churches and mosques, and often toss demonstrators and reporters around with impunity.
When this is challenged, the police commissioner and the mayor often shrug it off and fight court orders. The mayor even argued that to let the press watch the police retake Zuccotti Park would be to violate the privacy of protesters. “It wouldn’t be fair,” he said.
Kids, Minivans, and Drug-Dealing: How the Recession Pulls Ordinary Families Into the Weed Game
For some time, I’d been hearing stories from my sources in the interstate marijuana racket about law-abiding “civilians” turning to the game because of the recession, and so, armed with introductions, I hit the road to meet some of these unlikely criminals face to face. That’s how, on a hot evening in June, I found myself in Dan’s Northern California kitchen.
http://tinyurl.com/7a2vepv
Occupy San Diego Calls for Resignation of Police Chief
The petition reads:
Chief Lansdowne has mishandled the Occupy San Diego Protest. He has facilitated the waste of over 2.4 million dollars in 30 days on suppressing free speech at Civic Center Plaza in San Diego.
He has ordered the macing and beating of peaceful protesters and continues to waste over $57,000 per day on intimidating, harassing, and suppressing the peaceful protest rather than protecting and serving the interests of those exercising their freedom of speech and assembly.
We the Citizens of San Diego call on Chief Lansdowne to resign his post as Chief of Police immediately.
Jakarta: It’s time for a new idea, a new ideology
It is time for a new world ideology to sweep the world. Capitalism as it is practiced in much of the developed democracies of the West is virtually bankrupt, both financially and morally. Developing democracies like India and Indonesia are plagued by systemic and endemic corruption, the ugly nexus of big business and big politics paying scant respect to the voter.
Occupy Peru Blasts Gold Mining
Occupy Wall Street has spread to the South American continent as leftist Peruvians are demanding an end to gold mining in their country on the grounds that miners are ignoring “Mother Earth” green policies.
The Houston Chronicle reports that, “demonstrators in Peru resumed their protests on Monday against plans to develop a $4.8 billion gold mine, saying they fear the mine will harm their water supplies.”
Approximately 2,000 Occupy Peruvians joined the demonstration in the northern city of Cajamarca displaying signs reading, “let’s defend our sources of water, now or never.”
In Ireland, Occupy Cork seizes six-story building
MEMBERS OF the Occupy Cork protest movement have taken control of what they claim is a Nama property in Cork city centre. The group has announced plans to turn the glass-fronted building into a community resource centre.
Members of the Occupy Cork group claim an unknown person left keys to the building, along with instructions, under a Christmas tree at their protest camp on Christmas Day.
http://tinyurl.com/7glqdy4
2 Responses to “The OB Media Rundown for 1/3/12”
should stop saying occupy, should call yourselves campaign obama. On another note, saw campaign obama sneak into the the rose parade with a sign for a general strike on may 1st; isn’t that the communist mayday/ Just wondering why you picked a communist celebration day for your strike? Don’t reply, the majority of the people know what you are, who you are and what you are about. May day/ are you serious?
Everyone knows that May Day or “International Worker’s Day” day predates Communism. To paraphrase Wikipedia: “International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labour movement … throughout most of the world. [It] is a NATIONAL HOLIDAY in more than 80 countries; it is also celebrated unofficially in many other countries.” It began as the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago. That’s USA, not USSR.