The Boston fishing party and Australians’ rights online
An Australian activist is fighting an attempt by Boston authorities to subpoena information about her from Twitter in relation to the #occupy movement.
Asher Wolf, a transparency and information activist, is based in Melbourne and over the past 18 months has quietly become one of the key people on Twitter for following news about transparency issues, WikiLeaks, net surveillance and the Occupy movement, via her extensive and systematic retweeting of information from around the world.
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Australian lawyers Doogue & O’Brien, acting for Wolf and another, have told Goldberger and Twitter that they will resist the subpoena, given its broad scope and the “fishing expedition” nature of the request. “The ultimate effect of your subpoena is to pose a direct challenge to our client’s right to free speech. This is particularly concerning in light of the fact that one of our clients is a journalist who uses Twitter, amongst other media, to report on current affairs. Twitter encourages the free flow of information and reportage. The course which you have taken will inevitably stifle this important function.”
Actor: ‘Paul Robeson would have supported the Occupy movement if he was around today’
On Tuesday, Tayo Aluko – performing as Paul Robeson in his one-man play “Call Mr. Robeson: A Life, with Songs” – took to the Hopkins Center’s Warner Bentley Theater stage carrying a chair on his back, accompanied by soft pangs of a reverberating piano that supported his deep baritone vocals. The performance, which mixed Aluko’s singing with a more traditional spoken one-man show, was a part of Dartmouth’s celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
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In the program notes was a message from Aluko that documented his recent stay with a member of the Occupy Boston movement while on tour. The Occupy protester had recently been arrested for partaking in a sit-down in the lobby of a Boston bank.
“Robeson would have supported the [Occupy movement] if he were around today, and it’s great to see the movement is literally worldwide,” Aluko said.
http://tinyurl.com/89bj23x
Globe regrets story
A story in Monday’s paper about relationships that began during Occupy Boston featured a man, Robert Stitham, who is a registered sex offender. Had his status been discovered during reporting, the story would not have been published.
Boston Globe mistake raises questions about how media covers sex offenders
Stitham’s girlfriend is aware of his sex offender status. “Yes, I am perfectly fine with it,” she told the Herald.
The person who didn’t know about Stitham’s criminal past was the Globe reporter, and therefore Globe readers. That’s undeniably a big problem, a glaring omission.
But what if Stitham had disclosed this to the journalist, or if it had come out in the course of reporting the story? Should the Globe have killed the piece, as Peter and the editor’s note both say it would have?
http://tinyurl.com/82ysa3x
As Occupy Boston struggles with a sex-offender ban, its weaknesses have been laid bare
It was after 10 pm on Tuesday, January 10, in the stale, bright basement of the Arlington Street Church, where now-nomadic Occupy Boston was holding a meeting. At issue was something that would seem straightforward: a proposal to prevent level-three sex offenders from being a part of Occupy. But suddenly, it felt as if the entire movement could be splintering.
http://tinyurl.com/7sjlnnr
Cambridge Historical Commission inserts itself into protest suppression efforts by declaring temporary protest structures a code violation
Harvard administrators removed the last vestiges of the Occupy Harvard encampment from Harvard Yard on Friday afternoon. Administrators and Cambridge police cited potential safety hazards as reason to dismantle the weather-proof dome and information tent-the only structures remaining since the protest movement decamped in December.
On its website, Occupy Harvard called administrators’ decision to dismantle the dome “a direct reversal of their previously stated commitment to ensure free speech in Harvard Yard.”
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On that same day, the University had received a letter from the Cambridge Historical Commission claiming that the geodesic dome’s presence put Harvard in violation of a code forbidding structures erected on a historical site without a permit. A University official declined to comment on whether the letter influenced Harvard’s decision to remove the dome.
Latest protest targets anti-privacy bills
Protests yesterday over the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills ratcheted up recent online activism marked by movements such as the Arab Spring, Occupy Boston and consumer revolts against new fees from Bank of America and Verizon Wireless.
http://tinyurl.com/849rxfl
Sopa and Pipa would create a consumption-only internet
The scary bit of legalese here is the idea that the law would apply not just to actual copyright violations (the nominal goal of the law) but to any site that was “facilitating the activities” of copyright infringement, a term nowhere defined but vague enough to include mentioning the existence of such sites, which is enough to make them findable. Like a fast-spreading virus, the proposed censorship moves outwards from the domain name system, to include any source of public web content in the US.
If the phrase “any source of public web content” seems like a dry detail, substitute the name of your favourite web publisher: you.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman calls website blackout protest a “publicity stunt”
Smith dismissed Wikipedia’s blackout as a “publicity stunt” and said his committee would continue the markup of SOPA in February.
“It is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act,” Smith said in a statement on Tuesday. “The bill will not harm Wikipedia, domestic blogs or social networking sites. This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts. Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy.”
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), one of the leading supporters of piracy legislation, echoed Smith, attacking the protests as “stunts” aimed at turning Web users into “corporate pawns.”
But consumer groups and Web companies warn the bills would stifle innovation and censor free speech. They say the legislation would impose an unreasonable burden on websites to police user-generated content and could lead to legitimate websites getting shut down.
http://tinyurl.com/6vylejo
Voters: Citizen’s United hurting our democracy
A majority of voters who are aware of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowing Super PACs believe the unlimited campaign spending is having a negative effect on the race, a new poll finds.
Group Sues Over Denial of Permit to Protest at Courthouse
A group that is planning to protest at a Manhattan courthouse around the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, which eliminated barriers to corporations’ political speech and spending, sued federal officials on Wednesday after its request for a permit to gather was denied.
Groups protest during media tour of DNC venues
A coalition of about 30 organizations, including labor, community and social justice groups, fired a warning shot Wednesday in Charlotte in front of Time Warner Cable Arena, where the Democratic National Convention will be held in September.
“There will be people here – thousands of people – from all over the country, all over the world,” said Efia Nwangaza, founder and director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, based in Greenville, S.C., and founded in 1991.
“We want to shatter the notion that because President Barack Obama is an African-American he cannot be criticized by the black community,” she said, adding that his handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has taken money away from domestic concerns, including programs for housing, education, health care and job opportunities.
The groups referred to their alliance as the Coalition to Protest at the DNC. Their protest Wednesday came as hundreds of journalists were touring convention venues. Nwangaza spoke after a news conference, during which representatives of various groups, including the National Lawyers Guild, Veterans for Peace and Occupy Charlotte, spoke against what they see as the widening gap between rich and poor, and against the Charlotte City Council’s move to control the potentially large demonstrations during the DNC.
http://tinyurl.com/7a5oja9
Occupy the Neighborhood: How Counties Can Use Public Banks and Eminent Domain
These homes [abandoned and foreclosed properties for which the chain of title has been broken] could be acquired by eminent domain both free of cost and free of adverse claims to title. The county would simply need to give notice in the local newspaper of an intent to exercise its right of eminent domain. The burden of proof would then transfer to the bank or trust claiming title. If the claimant could not prove title, the county would take the property, clear title, and either work out a fair settlement with the occupants or restore the home for rent or sale.
Even if the properties are acquired without charge, however, counties might lack the funds to restore them. Additional funds could be had by establishing a public bank that serves more functions than just those of a land bank. In a series titled “A Solution to the Foreclosure Crisis,” Michael Sauvante of the National Commonwealth Group suggests that properties obtained by eminent domain can be used as part of the capital base for a chartered, publicly-owned bank, on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. The county could deposit its revenues into this bank and use its capital and deposits to generate credit, as all chartered banks are empowered to do. This credit could then be used not just to finance property redevelopment but for other county needs, again on the model of the Bank of North Dakota.
Bloomberg News Joins the “Inside Job” Team, Objects to Economics’ Inadequate Conflict of Interest Standards
It’s surprising and refreshing to see Bloomberg News, via an editorial, take on the way the economics profession has failed to clean up its act not simply in the wake of a massive intellectual failure but after the movie Inside Job highlighted some examples of corruption in the ranks of Famous Economists.
As the Bloomberg piece notes, the American Economics Association has responded to criticism about conflicts of interest, but the remedy is insufficient. The AEA will now require economist making public pronouncements or presenting papers to disclose any funding they received. That’s better than nothing, but short of what is necessary.
Occupy Providence to consider day center proposal
Activists with Occupy Providence are expected to consider a counteroffer from the city on the opening of a homeless day center the protest movement has made a condition of its departure from a city park.
The protesters are expected to review and possibly vote on the proposal Wednesday evening. They’ve asked reporters not to attend because of the ongoing talks with the city.
Greek rescue blocked by hedge fund greed
A group of hedge funds is threatening to block a last-ditch attempt to save Greece from defaulting on its huge debt pile, unless they are guaranteed a significant payout.
Sources familiar with the talks, which collapsed at the end of last week, have said that a number of hedge funds are holding up the restructuring deal to ensure that they make a fat profit, after snapping up Greek bonds at distressed prices.
http://tinyurl.com/7tvqs3o
Colombia’s El Quimbo in Limbo
The Occupy Movement reached Colombia’s Upper Magdalena River on January 3, 2012. Communities affected by the proposed El Quimbo Dam project paralyzed dam construction by blocking a bridge and road access for 15 days. Inhabitants of this area are concerned that flooding 21,000 acres of fertile lands will wash away the lives of communities that have made these valleys their homes for centuries. Their struggle against Goliath- the project is of a subsidiary of powerful Italian Enel Construction Company- has prevented dam construction from moving forward, and brought new public attention to this problematic project.
http://tinyurl.com/6tvfteo
World Bank warns of global recession
The World Bank has warned that the crisis in the eurozone will lead to a sharp slowdown in growth in rich and poor countries this year and could spiral into a rerun of the 2008-09 recession.
“An escalation of the crisis would spare no one,” said Andrew Burns, manager of global macroeconomics at the World bank and the report’s author. “Developed and developing country growth rates could fall by as much or more than in 2008-09. The importance of contingency planning cannot be stressed enough. It is clear that whatever probability is attached to this downside scenario, it has increased since June last year.
2 Responses to “The OB Media Rundown for 1/19/12”
The Boston Teachers Union (BTU) Rally On January 18, 2012 At 26 Court Street (Boston School Department Headquarters)-Observations Of A Participant (Al Johnson)
On a clear, if cold and windy, January night upwards of one thousand whistle-blowing, cowbell-ringing (literally), chanting BTU militants and their supporters, including rank and file militants from other unions, gathered at 5:00 PM in front of 26 Court Street in Boston to rally around the demand for a new teachers contract. This was the largest rally/march/ action in Boston since the demise of the Occupy Boston Dewey Square site and the largest labor-centered action since the Jobs rally on last November 17th. The 7000 plus member BTU (including retirees like me), the largest teachers union in the state, has been without a new contact for twenty months (meanwhile working under the terms of the old contract). The unresolved issues, as usual, center on increased hours of work with no increase in pay, general wages increases and other conditions of work, and the seemingly endless School Department demands to gut seniority, the heart of any union.
The one and one-half hour rally was addressed by the leader of the BTU, Richard Stutman, several Boston city councilors, and representatives of other unions including the recently elected head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Steven Tolman. I did not, wandering through the crowds, see any Occupy Boston, Mass Occupy, Socialist CaucusOB, GeneralStrikeOB working group, Veterans For Peace, Boston Occupier newsies, or Veterans For Peace contingents or individuals. At least none that I recognized. This would have been an excellent opportunity for Occupy Boston get back into the streets, for Mass Occupy to spread the word about its upcoming General Assembly to be held on February 18th at the BTU union hall, for the Socialist CaucusOB to link to the labor movement, for General StrikeOB to spread the word about the May Day 2012 General Strike, for Veterans For Peace to spread the word about its Saint Patrick’s Day Anti-War March in South Boston (near BTU headquarters), and for the Boston Occupier newsies to distribute the paper to a friendly crowd of labor militants.
If you agree with the feminist Women’s Caucus proposal to ban registrants from participating in the Occupy movement, you may be in violation of state laws against abuse of the registry and harassment.