via Amanda Terkel, The Huffington Post In 2008, the owners of a Sacramento ice cream parlor donated thousands of dollars to support Proposition 8, which would ban marriage equality in California. Gay rights activists, unhappy with the owners’ actions, posted negative reviews of the company online. Protesters also stood outside the shop and handed out free rainbow … Continue reading
via Erik Oster, The Faster Times November 16th was the first ever American Censorship Day, in response to the House of Representatives holding their first hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an act drawing comparisons to the Great Firewall of China. (And the method that would be used, DNS blocking, is the same website … Continue reading
via Reuven Blau, Helen Kennedy, Tina Moore and Matthew Lysiak, New York Daily News Occupy Wall Street hoped to show there was life after Zuccotti Thursday by staging a series of marches and rallies – starting with a sneak attack on the Stock Exchange itself. As the city braced for a “sizeable” crowd, observers on … Continue reading
via Colleen Long and Verena Dobnik, AP, TIME Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicting dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters from what has become the epicenter of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed and economic inequality. About 70 people were arrested, including some who chained themselves together, while … Continue reading
via Sarah van Gelder, David Korten, and Steve Piersanti, Truthout Before the Occupy Wall Street movement, there was little discussion of the outsized power of Wall Street and the diminishing fortunes of the middle class. The media blackout was especially remarkable given that issues like jobs and corporate influence on elections topped the list of … Continue reading
via Ken Burridge, KenBurridge.com Several Occupy General Assemblies are currently voting to adopt semi-official symbols to help represent and promote worldwide unity for the Occupy Movement. A worldwide royalty free logo license has been granted to Occupy General Assemblies and their Members for purposes or promoting and funding of the Occupy Movement for the design. … Continue reading
via Dan Whitcomb, Reuters Anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland rejected a call by the California city’s police union on Friday for them to leave their encampment, creating the potential for a showdown. The police request came one day after a man was shot to death near their protest site. But Occupy Oakland demonstrators said the … Continue reading
via Nick Baumann, Mother Jones Over the past six months, someone—or a group of someones—has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund an effort to change the rules of the 2012 presidential election tomake it very difficult for President Barack Obama to win reelection. But the shadowy lobbying group mounting this campaign hasn’t disclosed … Continue reading
via Glenn Thrush, Politico Embattled White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will hand off some day-to-day responsibilities to presidential confidante Pete Rouse after coming under fire from West Wing officials for his management style and ineffectual relationship with Congress, according to administration sources. The shift, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday … Continue reading
via Michael Grabell, ProPublica On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing. One after another, the experts convened … Continue reading
via David Bailey, Reuters Wisconsin Democrats will launch a drive November 15 to force Republican Governor Scott Walker into a recall election and are confident of getting the more than 540,000 signatures needed, a party spokesman said on Tuesday. The effort to recall Walker follows an unsuccessful bid by state Democrats to take control of … Continue reading
via Wendy Donahue, Chicago Tribune If a clean-cut colleague suddenly sprouts a third brow, this one just above the upper lip, don’t hesitate to confront him. For thousands of guys across the globe, getting questions is one of the goals behind growing a mustache in November, otherwise known as Movember. From its pencil-thin ambitions in … Continue reading
via Max Read, Gawker Let’s all give a big “thanks” to the heroes of the Oakland Police Department, who have now hospitalized two veterans of the Iraq War in the last week as part of their ongoing project to look like the worst police department in the country! Bar owner Kayvan Sabeghi, a 32-year-old former … Continue reading
via Sam Stein, The Huffington Post The Obama administration has been careful in its handling of the Occupy Wall Street movement, expressing sympathy with the sentiment behind it but never going so far as to formally endorse it. But on financial regulatory and consumer protection issues, there is a clear — and inviting — overlap … Continue reading
via Tamara Lush and Verena Dobnik, AP, Yahoo News Look at a photo or news clip from around the world of Occupy protesters and you’ll likely spot a handful of people wearing masks of a cartoon-like man with a pointy beard, closed-mouth smile and mysterious eyes. The mask is a stylized version of Guy Fawkes, … Continue reading
via Hayley Miller, The Huffington Post As temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, thousands of Occupy protesters are beginning to fear the approaching winter while many of their supporters worry the occupations will thin out. In an effort to combat both dwindling temperatures and participation, collaborative news blog FireDogLake has launched Occupy Supply, an … Continue reading
via Michael McAuliff, The Huffington Post Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid leveled a blistering attack at Republicans Tuesday that echoed the message of Occupy Wall Street, saying the GOP wants to protect the very richest Americans at the expense of everyone else. Reid (D-Nev.) was arguing against Senate Republican resistance to a $60 billion measure … Continue reading
via Lucia Graves, The Huffington Post The White House has rejected several marijuana legalization petitions, one of which called on the federal government to stop interfering with state marijuana legalization efforts. “As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem,” wrote Gil Kerlikowske, director of … Continue reading
via Tom Braithwaite, Financial Times Bank of America became the latest US bank to scrap plans for a debit card fee, acting after worries that customers of the second-largest US bank by deposits would move their accounts. BofA said its u-turn was a “response to customer feedback and the changing competitive marketplace”. Analysts had worried … Continue reading
via Ellen Brown, Alternet Among the demands of the Wall Street protesters is student debt forgiveness – a debt “jubilee.” Occupy Philly has a “Student Loan Jubilee Working Group,” and other groups are studying the issue. Commentators say debt forgiveness is impossible. Who would foot the bill? But there is one deep pocket that could … Continue reading
via Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt, CNN Demonstrators encamped in a Lower Manhattan park faced New York’s first snow storm of the season Saturday without the benefit of propane tanks and generators that they had been using to cook food and keep warm. “It’s pretty dirty, and we’re all freezing cold,” said Alec Courtney, who … Continue reading
via Kenneth Rapoza, Forbes The Occupy Wall Street movement is going for broke following a rash of police violence reports, especially one in Oakland, California this week. The adhoc headquarters at Adbusters magazine in Vancouver said the movement is testing the waters with its roughly 93,000 list serve members to gauge interest in calling for … Continue reading
via Rmuse, Politicus USA A little over a year ago the Supreme Court of the United States made a controversial ruling that says corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited. The case known as Citizens United v Federal Election Commission allows corporations to use their general funds to buy campaign ads that … Continue reading
via David Carr, The New York Times Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction. “The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street’s primary business,” the newspaper editorial stated, adding: “Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post Steve Jobs told Rupert Murdoch that Fox News was a “destructive force in our society,” according to the blockbuster biography of the late Apple CEO. Poynter was the first to uncover Jobs’ blunt words about the network in Walter Isaacson’s new book. Isaacson writes that, after speaking at a News Corp. … Continue reading