June 13, 2012

Resolve to Overturn 'Citizens United' Spreads Through the States

http://www.thenation.com/blog/168346/resolve-overturn-citizens-united-spreads-through-states?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook#

Writing for the majority in the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that independent expenditures by corporations “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

Since then, super PACs and corporations have spent record amounts of money in elections nationwide. Corporate spending soared during the 2010 election cycle to $294 million, 427 percent over the previous mid-term elections in 2006. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer both suggested that given these “huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates’ allegiance,” Kennedy’s assertion doesn’t hold and the court should reconsider its ruling.

It will have the opportunity to do just that on Thursday when it considers the Montana Supreme Court’s decision in December to uphold the state’s century-old ban on corporate political expenditures in state elections. In February the US Supreme Court informed the Montana that it could no longer enforce that law until further notice, and now it must decide whether to hear the state’s case. This is perhaps the most serious challenge, to date, to the Citizens United decision.

June 12, 2012

BREAKING: George Zimmerman’s wife arrested on perjury charge

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/06/12/498574/breaking-george-zimmermans-wife-arrested-on-perjury-charge/

June 12, 2012

Bloomberg Cuts Threaten Thousands With Eviction, NYC Homeless Population Hits Record 43,000

Published on Jun 12, 2012 by democracynow

DemocracyNow.org - The Coalition for the Homeless reports the number of people living in New York City homeless shelters has reached an all-time high of 43,000. Critics attribute the spike in homelessness to the Bloomberg administration's alleged failure to help move homeless families into permanent affordable housing. Housing advocates say the problem was exacerbated by city's cancellation of the "Advantage" apartment rental subsidy, with as many as 8,000 former aid recipients now facing eviction. We get a report from Democracy Now!'s Chantal Berman, who interviewed several aid recipients who could soon lose their homes; and speak to Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless in New York City.

To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/

June 8, 2012

Judge Allows Protesters’ Suit Against Police to Proceed (Brooklyn Bridge Occupy arrests)

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/judge-rules-against-police-in-brooklyn-bridge-arrests/?hp

A federal judge indicated Thursday that the police did not adequately warn Occupy Wall Street protesters against walking on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge before arresting about 700 of them in October.

The ruling, by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, allows a class-action suit filed by protesters to proceed against police officers and commanders involved in the arrests. But the ruling dismissed the mayor, the police commissioner and the City of New York as defendants in the suit, saying that there was insufficient evidence that those parties were responsible for any misconduct by the police.

Judge Rakoff’s ruling (see also below) addresses one of the most contentious questions to arise during the Occupy protests: did the police wrongly arrest hundreds of protesters by allowing them and even leading them on the roadway only to surround them minutes later with orange netting? Or did the protesters, as the police have maintained, leave the pedestrian walkway for the roadway knowing full well they could end up in handcuffs?

The evidence, Judge Rakoff held, favored the protesters.

June 8, 2012

ACLU Phone App Lets You Shoot the Cops

The New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has released an Android application allowing mobile-phone users to easily capture police patdowns on video, which is then automatically uploaded to the rights group’s servers.

The “Stop & Frisk Watch” application, which is soon coming to the iPhone, is in response to the New York Police Department having stopped, frisked and interrogated people at least 685,724 times last year alone. About 87 percent of those stopped were black or Latino, and 90 percent of those stopped were neither ticketed nor arrested.

The app is programmed to work only in New York City, and has three functions:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/06/cop-watching-app/

Citizen Journalist:

June 7, 2012

An Occupy LA member on the bank and housing debacle/theft

Bringing this over from the Good Reads forum:

"The big key is understanding that the banks have built a model that profits from tricking people into taking bad loans, screwing investors by selling those bad loans to them (bad loans offer high returns, and look good on paper), then taking out insurance policies that collect if the loan they just sold to sucker investors goes bad. Then when the loan explodes, they collected those insurance payouts which, when the insurance company (biggest was AIG) went out of business were backed by TARP bailout money footed by the U.S. taxpayer. They then evict the homeowner and collect a second set of huge insurance payouts (homeowners insurance pays out full value of home upon eviction, and this is setting aside all the equity money which is pure profit). When your neighbor gets evicted, your property value drops simply from the bad luck of being beside him. If enough neighbors get evicted, your house's value falls to a point it's no longer worth paying, you walk away, and now your house is part of the crisis too.

As the cycle continues, the all-consuming maw of the banks buys these houses backs, flips them into rental properties, and before you know it you've got a Corktown, MI story where the average home value is reduced to ~$14,000, or a mortgage payment of ~150/mo, yet 85% of residents are tenants and the average rent is ~450/mo. Why? Because the banks also have the power to grant the loans people need to own the homes, and have decided that no individuals and/or small investors can receive loans, even tiny ones like ~$10,000 mortgages. As a result, giant corporations and wealthy investors (many bank owned, and all bank-affiliated) are buying up massive tracts of housing that are suddenly affordable, with bank-provided competition elimination in the form of no small loans being granted, then flipping them into rentals and enslaving the former homeowners who can't even afford to move.

Do you see how the banks have figured out how to make this situation profitable at every step? I'm not even going to go into how, thanks to being part of the Federal Reserve (not government, privately owned, don't forget it) ownership team and most important in-crowd in the world, the banks have literally UNLIMITED money with which to buy up these homes, and the only person who loses as they do so is us, the taxpayer, AGAIN, because the more money that is printed to use to buy our homes out from under us, the less the dollar in our pocket becomes worth, a fact only relevant to those who do not have the power simply to crank up the presses more.

'We can promise money to pay any debt. What we cannot promise is its purchasing power.' - Alan Greenspan, while Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The game is rigged, and we need some time to unrig it. That's all we're asking for, and it benefits every person who is not a bank, while still allowing them to remain profitable throughout (even though they don't deserve it)." -Matt Occupy Ward

June 7, 2012

City Bans Tents in Parks in Not-So-Subtle Attempt to Curb Occupy L.A. Encampments

http://laist.com/2012/06/06/city_bans_tents_in_parks_in_not-so-.php

In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban tents from city parks, as a not-so-subtle means to prevent groups like Occupy L.A. from setting up camps.

The vote approved clarified wording of a city ordinance that now defines camping to mean: "to erect, maintain or occupy a camp facility for any purpose, including lodging or living accommodation," according to City News Service. Further, a tent under the language of L.A. law is a shelter that is partially closed and "`lacks an unobstructed view into the tent, shelter or structure from the outside.''

Members of the Occupy L.A. movement were on hand at the meeting today to protest the decision on the ordinance, but also pointed to the potential negative impact the ban on tents may have on the homeless population.

"The people that truly don't have homes, that's what this is really directed about,'' said Occupy L.A. activist Ryan Rice.

---

It is odd that after the city made so much noise about how much the lawn would cost to replace, that they decided to re-install a non-native species requiring far more watering and care than a native succulent species, for example. If you've seen the "lawn" directly across the street at the City Hall South building, you'll note that even without protesters, it simply dies despite any attempt to care for it.

June 7, 2012

Fuck Walker

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101409397123747&set=a.10101256851820757.3105706.8640027&type=1&theater

June 6, 2012

Anti-Walker march in WI assaulted by police

Global Revolution ‏@GlobalRevLive

#occupyMilwaukee anti-walker march attacked by police on horses, one hurt, arrests, situation developing fast live on http://www.globalrevolution.tv

BREAKING NEWS ! GlobalRevLive #occupyMilwaukee anti-walker march attacked by police on horses, one hurt, arrests, situation developing fast live on globalrevolution.tv

(The livestream is already offline)

June 6, 2012

Russia passes law to fine protesters $9,000

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/06/06/russia-protest-law.html

Major protest next week

"We're talking about citizens of our country here, and we must listen to them," said Lisovsky. "Where is the liability for the police who can potentially do more harm to our society?"

The Kremlin wants the new bill to become law by next Tuesday when the opposition plans a major protest in Moscow.

Alexei Kudrin, a former deputy prime minister who joined the opposition movement last winter, said in a statement on Wednesday that the bill violates a constitutional right of assembly. He urged a review of the bill.
Along with higher fines, the new bill would punish organizers of "large-scale public gatherings" which are not public events if they disrupt public order. Kudrin, who is believed to maintain strong ties to Putin, said that this provision would allow authorities to fine a bride and groom if some of their guests start a fight.

(First the US with HR347...then Montreal with bill 78...now this...it means the people are winning.)