Occupy Wall Street: Not on major media but worth watching!

[DiscoBiscuit]

How can the dems let this expire?!?!
taking money from families at Christmas no less!!!!

lol

Another troll session seeking attention.

Mark my words, the extension will be passed. Republicans will bleed out another last-minute scenario, tempered by the desire to go home for Christmas.

Boener said he'd manage whatever McConnell negotiated. Boener went into conference suggesting the House republicans would comply, only to reverse course thereafter.

Republicans don't want to revisit the tax-increases-for-the-rich argument.

A one-year extension would delay this argument, cut further assistance and further deregulate the environment.

Sounds like something even dag could fathom.

 

[dagnabit]

But its Christmas!!!!
how could they even consider doing this to american families over politics????

spin is fun.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

What part of this-extension-will-pass escapes your grasp?

None of it. Once you're a troll, you're always a troll.

 

[dagnabit]

"Troll"
DB's soup de jour..

Relevance troll

Trite.

 

[dagnabit]

What part of this-extension-will-pass escapes your grasp?

None of it. Once you're a troll, you're always a troll.

Prestidigitation

Now do you scry with stones?
entrails?

does the guild know you are dabbling in this type of thing?

 

[onegreenday]

this is not about politics.

They should 'self immolate' for
their crimes against
humanity.

But its Christmas!!!!
how could they even consider doing this to american families over politics????

spin is fun.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Gub policy wasn't as bad before it was largely bought of, by and for the top. Politics has been, is and will be the device that has kept and continues to keep folks distracted from policy.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Help get Bradley Manning out of solitary confinement... please sign the petition

Help get Bradley Manning out of solitary confinement... please sign the petition

A Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse

Michael Moore
Posted: 12/18/11 11:28 AM ET

It's Saturday night and I didn't want the day to end before I posted this note to you.

One year ago today (December 17th), Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government's repression. His singular sacrifice ignited a revolution that toppled Tunisia's dictator and launched revolts in regimes across the Middle East.

Three months ago today, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York's Zuccotti Park. This movement against the greed of corporate America and its banks -- and the money that now controls most of our democratic institutions -- has quickly spread to hundreds of towns and cities across America. The majority of Americans now agree that a nation where 400 billionaires have more wealth than 160 million Americans combined is not the country they want America to be. The 99% are rising up against the 1% -- and now there is no turning back.

Twenty-four years ago today, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born. He has now spent 570 days in a military prison without a trial -- simply because he allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. He exposed what the Pentagon and the Bush administration did in creating this evil and he did so by allegedly leaking documents and footage to WikiLeaks. Many of these documents dealt not only with Iraq but with how we prop up dictators around the world and how our corporations exploit the poor on this planet. (There were even cables with crazy stuff on them, like one detailing Bush's State Department trying to stop a government minister in another country from holding a screening of Fahrenheit 9/11.)

The WikiLeaks trove was a fascinating look into how the United States conducts its business -- and clearly those who don't want the world to know how we do things in places like, say, Tunisia, were not happy with Bradley Manning.

Mohamed Bouazizi was being treated poorly by government officials because all he wanted to do was set up a cart and sell fruit and vegetables on the street. But local police kept harassing him and trying to stop him. He, like most Tunisians, knew how corrupt their government was. But when WikiLeaks published cables from the U.S. ambassador in Tunis confirming the corruption -- cables that were published just a week or so before Mohamed set himself on fire -- well, that was it for the Tunisian people, and all hell broke loose.

People across the world devoured the information Bradley Manning revealed, and it was used by movements in Egypt, Spain, and eventually Occupy Wall Street to bolster what we already thought was true. Except here were the goods -- the evidence that was needed to prove it all true. And then a democracy movement spread around the globe so fast and so deep -- and in just a year's time! When anyone asks me, "Who started Occupy Wall Street?" sometimes I say "Goldman Sachs" or "Chase" but mostly I just say, "Bradley Manning." It was his courageous action that was the tipping point -- and it was not surprising when the dictator of Tunisia censored all news of the WikiLeaks documents Manning had allegedly supplied. But the Internet took Manning's gift and spread it throughout Tunisia, a young man set himself on fire and the Arab Spring that led eventually to Zuccotti Park has a young, gay soldier in the United States Army to thank.

And that is why I want to honor Bradley Manning on this, his 24th birthday, and ask the millions of you reading this to join with me in demanding his immediate release. He does not deserve the un-American treatment, including cruel solitary confinement, he's received in over 18 months of imprisonment. If anything, this young man deserves a friggin' medal. He did what great Americans have always done -- he took a bold stand against injustice and he did it without stopping for a minute to consider the consequences for himself.

The Pentagon and the national security apparatus are hell-bent on setting an example with Bradley Manning. But we as Americans have a right to know what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. If the government tries to cover up its malfeasance, then it is the duty of each and every one of us, should the situation arise, to drag the truth, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the light of day.

The American flag was lowered in Iraq this past Thursday as our war on them officially came to an end. If anyone should be on trial or in the brig right now, it should be those men who lied to the nation in order to start this war -- and in doing so sent nearly 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths.

But it is not Bush or Rumsfeld or Cheney or Wolfowitz who sit in prison tonight. It is the hero who exposed them. It is Bradley Manning who has lost his freedom and that, in turn, becomes just one more crime being committed in our name.

I know, I know, c'mon Mike -- it's the holiday season, there's presents to buy and parties to go to! And yes, this really is one of my favorite weeks of the year. But in the spirit of the man whose birth will be celebrated next Sunday, please do something, anything, to help this young man who spends his birthday tonight behind bars. I say, enough. Let him go home and spend Christmas with his family. We've done enough violence to the world this decade while claiming to be a country that admires the Prince of Peace. The war is over. And a whole new movement has a lot to thank Bradley Manning for.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/micha...-street_b_1156128.html?ref=occupy-wall-street

Here's the petition site. You don't have to contribute to sign the petition. Even if you contribute, they recommend no more than $5 that covers the cost of printing your letter, stuffing it in a stamped envelope and mailing it to Washington.

 

[onegreenday]

Here's what's in store for anybody that protests too strongly
or 'occupies' too often...

Interesting about the law in place in the McCarthy era,
detention without trial. They did not teach us that in school...

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/19/obama_prepares_to_authorize_indefinite_detention

Obama Prepares to Authorize Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens for First Time Since McCarthy Era–Glenn Greenwald on NDAA


The $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last week includes controversial provisions that could usher in a radical expansion of indefinite detention under the U.S. government by authorizing the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial. "Congress, with the Democrats in control of the Senate and a Democratic president, is about to enact into law the first bill that will say that the military and the United States government do have this power," says Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com blogger and constitutional law attorney. "It’s muddled whether it applies to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, but it’s clearly indefinite detention, and there’s a very strong case to make that it includes U.S. citizens, as well, which, as we know, the Obama administration already claims anyway, and that’s what makes it so dangerous." [includes rush transcript]

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Glenn, I wanted to ask you about a not wholly unrelated issue, and that is the issue of the military authorization bill that President Obama threatened to veto if it continued to contain the provisions about the treatment of terrorism prisoners, people who could be picked up, Americans in the United States, without trial, without hearing, and held indefinitely. President Obama has dropped the veto threat, saying the changes have satisfied him. Your thoughts?

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, let’s remember that under the status quo, because of the way that the Bush and Obama administrations have interpreted their own powers in the original 2001 authorization to use military force, they already claim, the executive branch does, the power to indefinitely detain people. That’s what’s happening right now at Guantánamo. It’s what’s happening at Bagram and several other facilities. And the Obama administration has vehemently defended this power to put people into prison without any trial or charges for as long as they want to keep them there. Additionally, they—the Obama administration claims the power to target even American citizens as enemy combatants, and not just to detain them indefinitely, but to kill them, as well. That’s what they did with Anwar al-Awlaki, far from any battlefield, based on this theory that they already have this power, even before this bill is passed.

But what this bill will do, and it will be signed into law now by President Obama, as you indicated, is that it will be the first time that the United States Congress has codified the power of indefinite detention into the law since the McCarthy era of the 1950s. The 1950 Congress passed a bill saying that communists and subversives could be imprisoned without a trial, without full due process, based on the allegation that they presented a national threat, an emergency, a threat to the national security of the United States. President Truman, knowing that the bill would—the veto would be overridden, nonetheless vetoed it and said that it made a mockery of the Bill of Rights. That law was repealed in 1971 with the Non-Detention Act, that said you cannot hold people in prison without charging them with a crime. The war on terror has eroded that principle, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, but Congress is now, with the Democrats in control of the Senate and a Democratic president, is about to enact into law the first bill that will say that the military and the United States government do have this power. It’s muddled whether it applies to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, but it’s clearly indefinite detention, and there’s a very strong case to make that it includes U.S. citizens, as well, which, as we know, the Obama administration already claims anyway, and that’s what makes it so dangerous.

 

[dagnabit]

Wait i thought the president had nothing to do with this?!?
this is all an evil Republican thing!!!

how dare the writer even suggest O "claims the power to target American citizens"
tell 'em DB!!!
O is just a powerless pawn in this game. He wants ti stop this but those mean ole republicans wont let him.

 

[onegreenday]

He's a Republican 'mole' planted in the Democratic Party years ago.
People that knew him as a Senator said he was more radical right than even the most strident Republicans.

You got to give the Republicans credit for slipping him into the Democratic party though. Brilliant!

Wait i thought the president had nothing to do with this?!?
this is all an evil Republican thing!!!

how dare the writer even suggest O "claims the power to target American citizens"
tell 'em DB!!!
O is just a powerless pawn in this game. He wants ti stop this but those mean ole republicans wont let him.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I guess he'll really fuck you now, lol.

 

[mrcreosote]

You got to give the Republicans credit for slipping him into the Democratic party though. Brilliant!

LOL.
Guess they fooled all your pals at the Daily Worker. All the Commies were having a giant circle jerk when Obama was elected. But it figures...they don't tolerate 'diversity' of the party line in the ranks from the proletariat.

Look how they fixed your buddy Mr. Trotsky...

 

[onegreenday]

They never implemented Trotsky's plan in Russia (or the World)
they got Stalinism instead.

 

[trichrider]

what are we to call it now?

Fascism!

yes, obummer is just a face. a mask if you will. yes man. that is how he got in there; republicans had nothing to do with it. powers that be allowed him his four years, seems few recognize the theater involved.

now you understand why police departments received all that military surplus. (fighting two wars on the ground and one in cyberspace, seems they shouldn't have surplus to dole out, but they do).

heard comments about getting the f out of the states, good advice...just not one to cut and run.

be afraid, be very afraid. the Bradley Manning thing was just scratching the surface...that is why he is incummunicado, and why Assange is being harrassed.

you want to convince that 'o' didn't contibute/manage atrocities...commander-in-chief would have little meaning thereafter...

 

[onegreenday]

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/20/headlines#11

Study Finds 1.6 Million Children Homeless in 2010

In other economic news, a study has found 1.6 million children in the United States, or one in 45 kids, were homeless last year. The National Center on Family Homelessness said its study is a "call to action for all of us to address child homelessness before we lose another generation." The group said the child homelessness rate has jumped 33 percent since 2007.


Study: One-Third of Young People Will Be Arrested Before Age 23

Another study found about one-third of young people will be arrested before they turn 23. The study examined arrests, not including minor traffic violations, for kids ages eight to 23. Researchers said they found between 30.2 percent and 41.4 percent had been arrested.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Staff has to take some blame for letting this go on as long as it has. When this started, OWS had no leader, no goal, no agenda, no platform, no aspirations towards office and so, the thread was allowed to stand as an observation of a social gathering.

However, this thread has since turned into pure politics, bickering and reported posts. Political threads are outside the rules. Thread closed.