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Occupy protesters gather in Manchester park
While most attention today is focused on the Republican presidential candidates, around 50 people gathered in the park to protest both parties. A continuation of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which aims to protest income inequality, a group of activists from Occupy New Hampshire have been gathered since Friday. Though they do not sleep in the park, the protesters have been meeting from morning until night, with lectures, rallies, films at a nearby church, and street theater. John Ford, of Plymouth, Mass., wore a button “No one for President.” “Coke, Pepsi, Democrat, Republican, I’ve seen no difference sine I was very small,” Ford told the group. Ford said he doesn’t believe any of the candidates will protect his civil liberties. Mark Provost, an economic journalist from Manchester, N.H., who was involved in the Occupy Boston and Occupy New Hampshire movements said he does not think either party will address issue of wealth inequality. The goal of the movement, he said, is to “raise awareness and change the narrative.” http://tinyurl.com/7yrjsd5 ACLU wants records open in subpoena of Twitter Ids The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed a motion yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court asking a judge to unseal some pleadings and transcripts related to its prior motion to quash a subpoena seeking information on a Twitter user tied to Occupy Boston. “It should be a matter of public record,” Boston attorney Peter Krupp, one of the lawyers arguing the case for the ACLU, said in a phone interview last night. http://tinyurl.com/8xreblj Vermin Supreme: The Presidential Candidate Who Promises Free Ponies Does it ever feel like politicians are afraid to address the issues that really matter? Well, not Vermin Supreme. If elected president, the self-proclaimed “friendly fascist” promises to instate a nationwide tooth-brushing law and provide a federally subsidized pony to every American citizen. Supreme’s political and social involvement, however, extend beyond his presidential pursuits. Blast Magazine reported that the performance artist has appeared at Occupy Boston demonstrations, temporarily shedding his signature get-up and donning a superhero/Uncle Sam/devil/clown costume. When asked about his reasons for occupying, he explained, “The system! The whole stinking ball of wax. It’s a scam!”
National Review’s Jim Geraghty complains that the candidates now all sound like Occupiers. The Club for Growth is pissed at Newt for his anti-Bain Capital attacks. Phil Klein accuses Romney’s rivals of Marxist rhetoric. Avik Roy diagnoses Romney derangement syndrome. (The American Spectator literally calls for Gingrich to be investigated for violating campaign finance law for perhaps coordinating with a Super PAC. What happened to the absolute defense of campaign funding as speech?) It looks like Republican opinion leaders are beginning to coalesce around Romney due in part to disgust over anti-capitalist attacks being levied against him. Of course, his rivals wouldn’t be pushing this line if they didn’t think it was effective. The irony is that the Republican candidates are shameless enough to embrace the exact arguments conservatives and centrists have successfully shamed liberals out of making. Rush Limbaugh says Newt Gingrich ‘sounds like an Occupy Wall Street flyer’ “When you have to play Obama to translate what Newt just said, basically, ‘Romney, it’s okay they made that much, maybe it’s okay they made that much, but at that point nobody needs to make that much, $180 million. No, you can leave some of that in there and not fire a bunch of people and what have you.’ It’s none of his business. It’s none of the government’s business,” Limbaugh said. “You could have read this in an Occupy Wall Street flyer,” he thundered. “The left could not improve on this.” Casino capitalist: Obama’s new chief of staff ran hedge fund operation that bet on housing market collapse [Article from last year when Lew was chosen to head the OMB. Yesterday, Obama announced he would become his chief of staff.] President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the White House budget office oversaw a Citigroup unit that profited off the housing collapse and financial crisis by investing in a hedge fund king who correctly predicted the eventual subprime meltdown and now finds himself involved in the center of the U.S. government’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs. Jacob Lew, named Tuesday as Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget to replace departing OMB chief Peter Orszag, served as chief operating officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments in 2008. He has served as a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton since the administration came into office. Important test case for whether self-described ‘impartial’ media ‘fact checker’ Politifact hurt it’s credibility when it claimed GOP ending Medicare was the ‘lie of the year’ [GOP politicians in the house voted to replace Medicare with a voucher system that progressively diminished in value over time, but still call it ‘Medicare’] When PolitiFact labeled the claim that the GOP voted to end Medicare its “Lie of the Year,” this was seen as a big deal in Washington, because it suggested Republicans might be able to get TV stations to refuse to air Dem ads making the claim against House GOP incumbents. But we’ve now had our first important test case since the PolitiFact decision, and it broke in favor of Dems: Despite GOP complaints, two TV stations have refused to pull the ad. Earlier this week, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee aired a TV ad, timed to the GOP presidential debate, attacking GOP incumbent Rep. Charlie Bass for voting to “end Medicare.” The Bass campaign sent letters to two stations that air in New Hampshire – WMUR and WHDH – demanding the ads be yanked. Crucially, the Bass campaign repeatedly cited PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year designation to bolster its case. Both stations refused. Occupy fallout: Declining mutual aid requests? Some city leaders in one East Bay city want their police chief to say no when Oakland asks for help when it comes to controlling future demonstrations. It’s the lingering effect of frustration with how Oakland handled Occupy protesters. “The mayor and I were really horrified by what we saw,” Richmond City Councilman Jeff Ritterman said. Ritterman says he and some of his colleagues didn’t have to see too many images like the ones of officers pepper-spraying protesters at UC Davis to know they wanted Richmond officers well away from this kind of action. Florida Occupy participates in statewide protests on first day of new legislative session About 100 labor and Democratic activists, Occupy Wall Street sympathizers, Planned Parenthood supporters, “Raging Grannies” and others gathered on Tuesday to blast Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Legislature on the opening day of this year’s legislative session in Tallahassee.
The “Awake the State” rally at the former West Palm Beach City Hall and current Occupy West Palm Beach encampment was billed as one of 19 around the state.
http://tinyurl.com/75y5x5d Occupy Nashville welcomes new legislative session with fake money downpour The first day back in session for Tennessee state lawmakers brought some surprises: new bills, protestors and a detailed look at the Governor’s agenda. The first big surprise of the day started with Occupy Nashville protestors throwing fake money down on lawmakers while they were in session. When protestors lined the entrance to House Chambers early Tuesday morning lawmakers knew it wasn’t going to be business as usual. Occupiers rained fake money down on legislators. Protestors said they believe that politicians are bought and sold by donations from big companies. http://tinyurl.com/6wpdg9v Sparks Fly At Colo. Springs Council Meeting as Occupiers speak against ‘free speech zones’ There was some hold-your-breath tension in Colorado Springs Council Chambers on Tuesday. City council listened to occupy protesters angry about the possibility of free speech zones in Colorado Springs. After Occupy Colorado Springs protests last year, council members briefly discussed predetermining the areas in which people would be allowed to protest, also known as free speech zones. That did not sit well with protesters Free speech zones were only briefly discussed by council and most members were against the idea. Councilwoman Jan Martin said it is unlikely that it will be discussed again anytime soon. http://tinyurl.com/7vmfnyy Barricades at NYC’s former Occupy camp are removed Barricades surrounding a park that served as a camp for Occupy Wall Street protesters were removed Tuesday, allowing protesters to stream back in. The atmosphere was celebratory but calm on Tuesday evening as about 300 protesters began filling Zuccotti Park a couple of hours after the barricades were taken down. Protesters milled around, eating lasagna on paper plates and playing chess. Security guards who were previously guarding the barricades stood off to the side, along with a handful of police officers. http://tinyurl.com/85qrzzu Protests Put Cities on Alert In Chicago, host of the overlapping North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Group of Eight summits in May, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed limiting the hours of demonstrations, tightening permit rules and jacking up fines. The minimum penalty for violating parade rules, for example, would soar to $1,000 from $50. In Charlotte, N.C., site of the Democratic National Convention in September, officials aim to ban demonstrators from throwing anything and from carrying a long list of items-from ice picks to felt-tip markers. Meanwhile, Tampa, Fla., officials are being more accommodating: They plan to offer demonstrators a stage with a sound system, relax rules on public rallies and streamline event permitting during the Republican National Convention in August. UC Davis protestors reestablish their occupation Five tents went up on the UC Davis campus Monday as part of the Occupy UC Davis movement. The movement was on hiatus during the school’s winter break, but organizers said the occupy movement will be up in full force on Thursday. http://tinyurl.com/7a62mky Occupy Edinburgh: We’re not going anywhere THEY sprang up in cities across the world in a flurry of righteous indignation, vowing to stay put until their demands for social justice were met. But while protesters at Occupy camps in Glasgow, London, Bristol and Sheffield have been served with eviction notices, the tent-dwellers of St Andrew Square in Edinburgh have pledged to stay put. In talks lasting more than four hours yesterday around 30 members of Occupy Edinburgh decided they would remain at their city-centre camp, set up three months ago, “for as long as gross inequalities exist”. http://tinyurl.com/8xrjnmy |