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    The OB Media Rundown for 1/15/12

    January 15th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown One comment
    Harvard Administration seizes, dismantles Occupy Harvard domeOn Day Sixty-Six of the longest occupation in Harvard’s history, and in a direct reversal of their previously stated commitment to ensure free speech in Harvard Yard, university administration removed and dismantled Occupy Harvard’s geodesic dome this afternoon at 4:55pm.

    http://tinyurl.com/84ql225

    MLK anniversary inspirational reading: Posthumous letter from an assassinated journalist (2009)

    In the course of the last few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print institutions have been burned, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last.

    http://tinyurl.com/7sph9z

    New York Times editor asks public: ‘I’m looking for reader input on whether and when Times reporters should challenge ‘facts’ that are asserted by newsmakers they write about’

    The comments at Brisbane’s blog post are blistering. . .  I will just quote one to give you the tone. Matt Talbot in California: “That this should even be an open question is a sign that our supposedly independent press is a cowed and timid shadow of its former self.”

    http://tinyurl.com/6uk9u23

    Bus drivers’ union wins historic contract

    Following nearly a year of bitter struggle, the 800 members of the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, United Steelworkers Local 8751 rang in the new year, having won a successful contract. It contained the first-ever “Retirement with Dignity” package for those who have served the city’s schoolchildren and the cause of equal, quality education since 1974.
    . . .

    The union rallied daily with the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square and Occupy the Hood in Roxbury’s Dudley Square. They led militant marches with Verizon and hotel workers, set up sound trucks for anti-war and labor marches, and participated in teach-ins, community speak-outs and veterans’ demonstrations.

    The bosses noticed, even docking union officers’ pay when they left a meeting early to join the occupation, hoping in vain to slow the workers’ momentum. The union gained the upper hand in the yards, on the streets and in the communities.

    http://tinyurl.com/7l4ueny

     

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 1/15/12” »

    The OB Media Rundown for 1/14/12

    January 14th, 2012 · · News and Announcements One comment
    BPD arrests federal air marshal in assault on Boston Occupier

    It’s unclear why a federal air marshal, the armed undercover Homeland Security agents who accompany select commercial flights, was hanging around near the camp at 3 in the morning. According to witnesses, he entered the camp a little over an hour before the police evicted the 72-day-old camp from Dewey Plaza, after the protestors lost a court battle to get a permanent injunction against police action.

    [TSA air marshal Adam] Marshall is now being investigated by TSA’s internal affairs, according to the iPhone’s owner Robin Jacks, who says she met with DHS officials Wednesday.

    http://tinyurl.com/7u5e4og

    Michael Steele and Juan Williams voice approval of Occupy

    Michael Steele is former chairman of the Republican National Committee. When John Ford of Occupy Boston pressed Steele about why those who caused economic collapse have never been criminally investigated, Steele said “The system moves to protect itself.” When asked by Ford, “What can we do?” Steel replied, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” In regards to the protests and political birddogging the occupiers had done in New Hampshire over the previous few days, Steel said, “You did a great job. Keep it going.”

    A while later, activists including Eric Binder of Occupy Boston talked to Juan Williams, a writer and commentator appearing on Fox News Channel. When asked his opinion of Occupy, Williams said “I like it.” When Binder mentioned freedom of speech, Williams laughed in a friendly way and said “imagine what I feel about freedom of speech” (probably referring to a 2010 incident when comments he made on “The O’Reilly Factor” led to NPR terminating his contract). Williams, agreeing with many of the protestors’ gripes, said “there’s a lot to be changed.”

    http://tinyurl.com/7jo2uqo

    US Uncut: The Movement That Helped Spark Occupy Wall Street

    Back in February 2011, I started reporting on a movement called US Uncut that formed in opposition to the practice of tax-dodging. As it turns out, corporate tax avoidance is a huge, huge problem. In fact, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in revenue every year as multinational corporations hoard their cash overseas in havens.
    .. . .

    That includes Chris Priest, who was instrumental in the founding of both Occupy Boston and Boston Uncut. “Literally every US Uncut organizer I know has been deeply involved with their local Occupy chapter since the beginning. That’s no coincidence,” says Priest. “Occupy Wall Street provided a priceless opportunity for every progressive organization to unite and fight on multiple fronts.”

    Priest sees US Uncut as merely one of many events that snowballed into Occupy. “US Uncut began in February 2011, and shouldn’t be discounted as an influence for OWS. The same can be said about Wisconsin, Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen,” he says.

    http://tinyurl.com/7fpm5yp

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 1/14/12” »

    The OB Media Rundown for 1/13/12

    January 13th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 1/13/12

    Citizens United uniting citizens across the country

    [For information about actions against Citizen’s United in the Boston area Jan. 20-21, go here: http://tinyurl.com/6ueezzw]

    “The U.S. is a great place to be a corporation but increasingly a desperate place to live and work.” – A member of Occupy Boston, challenging Mitt Romney on his statement that corporations are persons.

    Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the controversial Supreme Court case decided by a narrow majority of 5 justices in 2010, may have the consequence of uniting citizens across the country at the local level – in opposition to the ruling. “Occupy the Courts” actions, sponsored by Move to Amend and other groups including various Occupy sites, are being planned to mark the 2-year anniversary of the decision which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections.

    http://tinyurl.com/7qdebja

    Protest foils Lynn foreclosure auction

    Sixty-one-year-old Cheryl D’Amico spent the past few months going to bed afraid. “I was fearful someone would knock on my door and ask me to leave my house,” she said on a sidewalk outside her Lynn home. D’Amico came close to that nightmare scenario Tuesday when a foreclosure auctioneer arrived at her Lexington Avenue home to sell it to the highest bidder.

    http://tinyurl.com/8yb2bnc

    Coast Guard deployed to protect grain ship that will be met by union and Occupy protesters

    The U.S. Coast Guard will escort the first ship coming to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview this month, and the Occupy movement and local labor groups say they are planning to greet the vessel with a massive protest.

    EGT officials say they have not scheduled a date for the ship’s arrival. The freighter is expected to haul thousands of tons of grain to Asia, but opposition groups are already marshaling their forces to support the lengthy protest by union dock workers at the grain terminal.

    The Coast Guard will deploy one or two vessels to escort the grain ship up the Columbia River, with more on call if necessary, said Lt. Lucas Elder, a spokesman for Coast Guard’s Portland-based marine safety unit. Other law-enforcement agencies will also be present, he said. Small boat captains who refuse to get out of the way of the ship could face hefty civil penalties, Elder said.

    http://tinyurl.com/6lk6qg5

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    The OB Media Rundown for 1/12/12

    January 12th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown 2 comments

    Rule of law triumphs in resolution to Occupy Boston

    THE RISE AND fall of the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square has been hailed as a model of how police and city officials should respond to peaceful political dissent in the public sphere. Compared with video footage of cops pepper-spraying and clubbing protestors in Oakland, San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere, Boston looked pretty good. After nine weeks of occupation, most of the Boston protesters peacefully left Dewey Square-their statue of Gandhi held high, their message against economic and power inequalities heard by millions. Their banners proclaimed: “You can’t evict an idea.”

    Media pundits praised police and city officials for showing “uncommon restraint.” It’s a narrative that, while true in part, misses the real story. In truth, it was a court’s intervention-not benevolent cops -that protected both the peace and the right to protest in Boston. And who brought in the courts? It was the Occupy Boston protesters themselves.

    http://tinyurl.com/79g22n9

    Today is the anniversary of Roosevelt’s ‘Second Bill of Rights’ Speech

    [Roosevelt] We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

    In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.

    http://tinyurl.com/82fj4yj

    Fighting Cynicism Without & Within

    Among the dozens of attempts to launch a movement against greed and inequality this year alone, no one will ever know exactly why Occupy Wall Street actually worked. Now cynicism and inequality face hard questions from all corners. The challenges to inequality unfold more publicly than those to cynicism. There are at least three examples of tortured cynicism we can assume with confidence are occurring, even if the actors don’t report to duty in the twitterverse.

    1) Established activists, organizers, and the institutional forces of progressivism feel hella butthurt over OWS. We spent decades shouting into the abyss, hoping our shenanigans would spark a national movement for economic justice. Then a movement started without us, and it didn’t even have the decency to give us credit or accept our obviously superior leadership. It turned out we never planned for what we would do if the uprising we always wanted to happen actually happened. We can assume that every union leader, lefty intellectual, or nonprofit operative lingering at the margins is really thinking, “Why isn’t this MY movement?”

    http://tinyurl.com/7lcf724

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    The OB Media Rundown for 1/11/12

    January 11th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 1/11/12
    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!”

    http://tinyurl.com/7gyk72f

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 1/11/12” »

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