6 Burning Questions About the Violent Crackdowns on Occupations Around the Country

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153083/6_burning_questions_about_the_violent_crackdowns_on_occupations_around_the_country

AlterNet / By Lynn Parramore

6 Burning Questions About the Violent Crackdowns on Occupations Around the Country

In the aftermath of a city-by-city crackdown featuring hundreds of arrests and evictions of Occupy encampments, plenty of questions demand answers.

November 15, 2011 |

- snip -

1. Who convened the mayors call? In an interview with the BBC, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan alluded to her participation in a conference call with leaders of 18 US cities just prior to the raids on encampments across the country. Mayors' associations do exist, but they do not typically organize police interventions or local decision-making in such detail. Given the abuses of the past, such as the notorious COINTELPRO and other intervention programs that the U.S. government organized during the Vietnam protests, the public has a right to know the details of who organized that call.

2. Was there an attempt to control press coverage? New Yorkers awoke to front-page stories and photographs in both the New York Post and the New York Daily News. Coverage by the two papers was supportive of the mayor and the police actions but disparaging toward the protesters. An AlterNet reporter, arriving on the scene at 1:30am, shortly after the raid began, could get nowhere near Zuccotti Park due to police barricades (and was subjected to pepper spray while attempting to report on events). How did the friendly reporters gain their access? Was there advance coordination to allow certain media outlets access and block the rest? Why was press access restricted? Were some reporters' credentials confiscated? How will reports of unwarranted force on the part of police toward the press be addressed?

3. What, if any, was the role of the White House? Who was in charge of following the nationwide Occupy crackdown at the White House? What does President Obama, the man who celebrated the uprisings in Egypt (and who is currently out of the US, in Asia), think about the raids and the encroachments on the civil liberties of peacefully protesting Americans? As a constitutional scholar, what is his view of the restrictions of the press and the arrests of journalists?

4. Was the Department of Homeland Security involved in the raids? Filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted this question, asking if the Department may have given the green-light to the raid. The DHS has been reportedly following Occupy Wall Street Twitter feeds and other social media networks. Did it play any role in the crackdown?

MORE

[daleanime]

1. K & R.....

but I bet no one answers any of those questions quickly.:banghead:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. These are the questions which will further strengthen us.

And to answer the first, un-numbered question: "Occurring without provocation..."

The movement itself is provocation! They are fighting us because they are frightened of an awakened, empowered America (where they will have no place)!

[Scuba]

3. K&R

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. This lady has burning questions too

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday,


I think this photo is one that everyone should send to

THE FUCKING WHITE HOUSE.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. +1!

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. THE FUCKING WHITE HOUSE WON'T CARE!

It would be nice if the Obama Administration would admit it's role in this crackdown, though. :silly:

[truedelphi]

18. Nah, their tactic will be to have Michelle and the kids go out

TO some very minor protest and act like they really really really care about the 99%

Which they do, because we are coming into an election cycle.

[certainot]

45. you sound like limbaugh

[liberation]

53. and you know how Limbaugh sounds how...

[certainot]

75. cause headache and nausea are small price to pay for knowing what's been kicking left ass for 20 yrs

[truedelphi]

68. Nah, first of all, limbaugh would have to have a sex change

To sound like me.

And second of all, I am truly disappointed in every thing this Administration has done, in its betrayal of the progressive message it brought to the voters in Fall Of 2008, whereas Limbaugh actually could care less about progressive values.

In fact, he wouldn't know a progressive value if it bit him in the arse.

[certainot]

76. left lets limbaugh define progressive values for america, obstruct obama

limbaugh is point man for a wall street/think tank megaphone that dominates messaging in the US while the left ignores it.

as long as there is no organized opposition to the right's best weapon the collective left cannot say it ever got obama's back- and that is a big part of why the right can keep obstructing and requiring supermajorities on everything- they dominate messaging to where the teabaggers can be sold as a popular movement enough to enable the corrupt republican sycophants and a few talk radio blue dogs- while the left blames obama.

the left has allowed those 1000 coordinated radio stations to swiftboat and take free pot shots at their candidates and reps for 20 years and have been analyzing US politics as if the right's best weapon doesn't even exist. lack of single payer had a lot more to do with that fact than anything obama could or couldn't do.

bush, iraq, wall st deregulation, voter suppression laws, global warming denial are all big successes for the talk radio monopoly and the left has wasted huge resources in terms of activism, volunteer hours and donations by ignoring it and analyzing their own and their reps performance in a talk radio vacuum, merely because it's non-written and it gives them headaches and takes too long to listen to it.

suggesting obama would use the kids in a cheap political move is the kind of thing limbaugh and his wannabes do all the time to 50 mil a week.

and the idea that obama could walk into the white billionaire's house in the middle of an economic sabotage, surrounded by departments infected with 8 years of bush/rove political operatives and fundamentalists and kick ass is not a realistic expectation for anyone who paid attention to what the republicans have been doing the last 30 years.

[truedelphi]

77. Uh, if memory serves, Obama already used the kids in

A tawdry political move.

Spring 2009 - Obama is forced by Limbaugh and progressives <---
<sarcasm alert> to appoint Monsanto people like Mike Taylor to positions of power. Mike Taylor is now the head of the FDA.

he also had appointed the governor of Iowa, a Monsanto clone if ever there were one, to head the Department of Agriculture.

So what do Michelle and the kids do? Michelle and the kids are all outside showing the press how wonderful their organic garden is. This activity is caught by dozens of newspapers and TV stations, while very few mention the (should be) headline news of the Monsan to appointments.


Meanwhile, across the nation, the small family farmers are unable to obtain any type of working capital from the banks, which have just received some 9 trillions of dollars from small farmers and people on Main Street. In the three northern Calif. counties that I do follow, over 100,000 dairy cows were slaughtered, and thousands of family farmers gave up.

Of course the Big Agri firms were eager to buy those farms so Hah Hah to small progressives who care about things like not having the bovine growth fact5or in people's milk.

[certainot]

79. so you don't think they should have an organic garden? media emphasis has little to do with the Obam

ma admin.

team limbaugh and 1000 republican radio stations have a lot more to with what the media reports on. i don''t know why and didn't like some of his choices but the ones that needed confirmation had to be chosen to get through the GOP obstructors who have a helll of a lot more power merely because the left ignores talk radio.

van jones was getting trashed for weeks on talk radio with no defense by the left, no one getting his back there, and it became impossible to get him through without a huge media distraction and screaming fits from republican blowhards and their politicians. the whole solyndra story is there because the left ignores RW radio and they pumped it for months - now it's a story with hearings. same with the ATF guns story. blaming fannie and freddy for the economy, etc, etc. the left wont get any real reform, maybe even with OWS, if they leave radio alone to keep leading the media. i suspect people like van jones in the ag dept would have made a big difference, but for the same reasons he had to drop out someone like that would have been impossible however much obama might have wanted someone like that. the GOP is the problem, not Obama. he's the best we're going to get as long as the left ignores the right's best weapon and sniping at him instead of concentrating on getting more progressives elected is just a good way to get more republicans elected.

[truedelphi]

86. What the hell does my opinion have to do with Limbaugh?

You are bringing into the discussion some of the most non relevant posturing that I have
encountered on this board. (And I have been here since 2005)

It's not possible to discuss much with you as you are insistent on mentioning unrelated matters.

I agree it's pathetic that the M$M continually focuses on the Solyandra story, on Fannie And Freddie.

And as far as Obama not being the problem, you are entitled to think that - but I am entitled to think otherwise.

And one reason that we on the left have had a hard time getting the needed progressives elected is because Obama's good buddy Rahm Emanuel made a career out of going into areas where Democratic primaries were happening, and throwing money at the Blue Dog candidates, and seeing that the FDR-style progressive got tanked. Those efforts by Rahm impressed Pres. Obama enough that he made Rahm Chief of Staff. Once he held that post, Rahm made sure progressives got called "retards" and told to shut up, while he also met with the big Insurers and the Big Pharma people to outline the Health Care Legislation.

[certainot]

87. you're making the common mistake of assuming dems can 'message' if they want

and can control media.

obama's as good as the left is going to get, and it got lucky with him, and it lets 1000 radio station stake free pot shots at him and everything progressive all fucking day long. FREE pot shots.

until there is some organized opposition to the right's best weapon team limbaugh has everything to do with your opinion.

as long as the left ignores talk radio much of the evaluation of motives and relative strengths is a waste of time. it goes back to the fact that the left as whole never got obama's back (individuals did, but as a whole, no, can't say it did) and the idea that he could walk into the white billionaire's house and kick ass is naive. the think tanks can pay large staffs of PR pros who watch for and anticipate dem messaging gains and then message over these gains and because the left gives them a free speech free ride on 1000 radio stations reaching 50 mil a week they are usually successful. and because the left has no clue what's happening on radio they analyze and react in a talk radio vacuum, end up playing catchup, with a big disadvantage, and then scapegoat obama. until the left starts dealing with the right's best weapon most of the left will be vastly overestimating what obama can do- especially people who weren't around or weren't paying attention during the last 20 years.

for eg., last night even rachel maddow gave fox credit for spreading the lie that the recent WH shooter was OWS related, missing the fact talk radio was used to spread that to millions more all day and the day before. much of fox's material gets prechewed on and is made possible only by unchallenged radio repetition.

obama's best chance to survive a govt infused with 8 yrs of bush operatives, free market wet dreamers and fundies was to bring along some people like emanuel and geithner.

in the case of emanuel, how much of that is just part of going with the likely winner? i suspect the failure of progressives in local races has a lot more to do with all those ignored national and local talk radio blowhards that local dems ignore blasting their communities with heritage foundation lies and distortions and other coordinated swiftboating.

[truedelphi]

88. Oh please, our Democratic President messages any time he wants to.

he gave the rich their extension of the Bush era tax breaks, and then went o the record proclaiming that the Bush tax era cuts were a bad idea, every other week starting in around March 2011.

He could message if he wanted to, he doesn't want to. Please visit my journal and see the topic header "The most political conversation ever."

Both sides of the political spectrum are controlled by Big Money. Which is why autorank has had all the articles about how we have a One Big Money Party Political system.

Should we ever get someone of FDR's integrity as a viable candidate, perhaps we can say we have a two party system. But my big hope for the nation is that we have a ground roots movement. Haven't thought it all out clearly - maybe people meeting in the Wall Street areas? Carrying placards and having rallies.

And maybe they could have fab speakers like Arundhati Roy at something they call a People's University.

I bet she would deliver a speech that would include ideas about how the media needs to be totally independent from those who have the polluting industries and those who have the bad financial programs for the purpose of destroying the earth, killing off the poor and middle class, and killing off the earth.

[certainot]

89. Arundhati Roy is another eg of a brilliant voice who has no clue that talk radio dominates much of

discourse in the US. there is no readable record of it.

OWS is one of the few examples the last 20 years of the left getting any traction in the media. it's almost impossible for obama and the dems to message anything in a significant lasting way- it all can be shouted over and that's what the think tanks use talk radio so well for. the left has to depend on truth and common sense and luck for messaging success and that can't beat 1000 coordinated radio stations pounding 50 mil a week to create made-to=order constituencies (small vocal minorities called popular movements and manifestations of 'what the people want') to scream in town halls or whatever they have to do to enable the lock step wall street republicans. it's team limbaugh that has been deciding the flavor of america the last 20 years, moving the perception of the political center rightward very effectively. there will be no major election or media reforms as long as the left ignores talk radio and lets that keep going. maybe OWS can do it but it may have to go a long way if OWS ignores talk radio too.

both parties are no the same and anyone who's been active and observant in politics the last 30 years would know that. there are individuals with strong principles who don't compromise who can say that but i'd they are very few. one party votes lock step against action on all these reform issues and even against global warming action.

BTW i've heard refs that RW radio model is being used in india (large rural areas) - roy should be watching it there.

[crunch60]

81. I saw MIchelle and kids planting their garden, and I

thought exactly the same thing you just said in your post. Wonder, are those organic seeds their planting or Monsanto?

[truedelphi]

85. Welcome to DU.

Glad to have you aboard.

[uponit7771]

78. Beck...that you?

[certainot]

34. if limbaugh and spawn say obama wanted the crackdown it can't be true

[ObaMania]

72. +1

:bounce:

[RueVoltaire]

13. How can we get this story to the top of DU front page?

Everyone should be looking at the face of this woman today.

[unkachuck]

48. "Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray..."

....this is totally disgusting and unacceptable....any government that does this to its people is bordering on illegitimacy and is well on the road to Syria....

[Raster]

60. Bordering on illegitimacy?

Silly unkachuck... government of the people, for the people and by the people is only a fairy tale.

The Lords of Money rule this country. And President Barrack Obama, though probably* elected by the people, is part and parcel of their high priesthood.
_________
*Probably elected by the people, because in this day and age, we really do not know. Voting and voting infrastructure is not transparent. Voting infrastructure is corporate owned and controlled.

[ret5hd]

6. Wow...#6 Where are the libertarians?

Yeah, where the fuck ARE the libertarians? Went and hid in john galts basement is my guess.

[vcc]

28. they're being very mum, it's true.

[Loge23]

7. I'll add one more: Where do they get all the money for this?

Cities, we are constantly told, are broke. Unions, including the one that provides benefits to the NYPD mercenary thugs, are being forced to delay raises and give back benefits.
So where do these municipalities get the dough to stage these riots?
...and a sidebar question: Why are the "counter-terrorism" quasi-military thugs being used to put down peaceful non-violent protest in this country? Is this, along with the silence from the WH, now official policy in the former U.S.A.?
This is not going away and people will die for this cause.

[truedelphi]

19. In last ten months, our nation has spent close to two hundred BILLIONS of dollars

Giving expensive hardware and ammo to the countries in the MidEast, and helping our Armed Services "modernize."

The nation has the money, but on account of the stranglehold that the Corporations, including the MIC, has over the Senate and the House and the Presidency, the money can only be found for programs that help the military (and thus the banks) and the Dept of Homeland Security.

[sabrina 1]

31. Cities receive money from the DHS budget.

It would be good to know if any of that money is being used to attack the American people with.

I think Occupy groups need to start assigning people to finding out these things. And maybe using some of the money they have received to hire Investigators if necessary. They need to step up their actions now, such as taking every case to court, and, as I said, hiring professionals to get the answers the people deserve but are not getting.

[woo me with science]

9. K&R nt

[RueVoltaire]

10. K&R

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. I want answers to those questions.

The attempt to shut out the media on this is most chilling.

[KoKo]

14. Good questions. There was a report that a NYT reporter got a tip off about raid

from Bloomberg.

Collusion is a possibility.

[EFerrari]

17. The last raid on Oakland was classic Pentagon micro manage the press.

They evicted all reporters and arrested the ones who resisted. They shut down the camp as a crime scene to prevent them from going in. They offered a tour with an Information Officer to the reporters who needed something to take back to their bureau.

They embedded the media.

[truedelphi]

20. I was about to say, sorry to hear that, but then I realized - We are the media

All of us on so many blogs from Alternet, to Firedoglake, to this one, to many many others.

Olbermann on Current TV. Also, Russia Today.

And we don't need to worry if our local cable people offer us any of this - we can use the internet.

[defendandprotect]

22. And they recognize that -- they're also after the internet ---

LOVE the video coverage of the OWS movements we've seen --

and gives great witness to the brutality of the police -- !!

[EFerrari]

27. You're right but we'd be foolish not to observe how the traditional media

is being treated.

I haven't relied on any corporate media for my own information at any point since #OWS began and it hasn't hampered me in any way. It's been great, actually, to find out how bypassed they are. We don't need them and their messaging seems to lose power day by day. :toast:

[snappyturtle]

59. I know exactly what you're saying. I, too, have relied on the internet lately

for information to the exclusion of the MSM. I turned on MSNBC yesterday morning for about ten minutes and they sounded more stupid and out of touch than I remember from before! You're absolutely right...we don't need them!

[EFerrari]

61. Now we have to guard the net like momma lions

because they are trying to control the hell out of it and out of us by extension.

[dana_b]

15. watch out!

you'll be accused of spreading rumors here!! You and Michael Moore, that is.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rhett o rick]

58. You cant be serious. Bloomberg would love it if someone brandished a weapon.

They could then kill indiscriminately. As I have said a thousand times, citizens with weapons cant fight the police state. Just ask Randy Weaver.

[kooljerk666]

70. I said not to carry or use........

but 100,000 concealed carry permits coming out of florida would send a
message we do have 2nd amendment rights.

They might be forced to try tighten dumb laws favored by the NRA which would be
another shit storm for them to deal with.

I agree if people start killin cops in self defense, occupy would probably be
turned into 911*11.

SO NO GUNS, just a reminder, we are allowed to own & carry.

Don't forget "During the course of human events............."

[sabrina 1]

66. Wrong, that is the last thing we need to do.

We do not need weapons, we are right and they are wrong, it doesn't matter how many weapons they have. But the power of this movement is its commitment to non-violence.

No weapons, other than the Constitution and the courts which is working just fine to expose them for what they are.

[defendandprotect]

21. K/R -- Michael Moore said Obama's Justice Dept involved -- and Homeland Security --

[russspeakeasy]

23. Think; cornered rats.

GO OWS.

[slipslidingaway]

24. knr nt

[emsimon33]

25. They can bulldoze tents and tarps but not ideas (and truth)

I had my computer turned to a live stream of the police action against OWS in NYC as it occurred (I am in California so it was still early here).

While many of us could not support an OWS action due to the realities of other commitments, many of us sent pizzas, etc. to the varies OWS groups.

By raiding and destroying the peaceful occupations, the police and the power elite directing the police have only strengthened our resolve. While I may not be able to encamp in a public space, I can definitely march and march I shall, despite flash weapons, tear gas, tasers, guns, rabid dogs, or whatever else the power elite and their puppets employ to deter us.

The police and the power elite controlling them and strangling our republic can not stand against 70% of the population, or even 60%.

The world as we have known it no longer serves the age in which we live. The revolution is not an American revolution or an Arab Spring or any other nation's or identity group's movement alone. It is the human spirit, whatever is good and right and just in each of us, that compels people of all nations; all religions as well as agnostics and atheists; all ethnic groups; all people to say, "Enough is enough!"

"We do not need to destroy our planet in order to live comfortable lives; no child needs to be hungry or go without medical care; there is more than enough food and shelter and care for the the elderly and infirm--the 'reality' that the power elite has constructed is a lie and it is time to expose the lie and destroy it forever."

This is a revolution of the spirit and neither guns nor imprisonment nor lies nor threats can quell it! If history has taught us nothing at least we should be comforted by the fact that peaceful protest changes the world where guns and drones and mercenary armies fail!

[grasswire]

46. you were so eloquent I'm repeating what you wrote

The world as we have known it no longer serves the age in which we live. The revolution is not an American revolution or an Arab Spring or any other nation's or identity group's movement alone. It is the human spirit, whatever is good and right and just in each of us, that compels people of all nations; all religions as well as agnostics and atheists; all ethnic groups; all people to say, "Enough is enough!"

[crunch60]

83. Excellent, ! nt

[FirstLight]

26. SEE!?

I'm not the only one asking this...but yet there's a lot of people here who think it's wrong to question TPTB? :shrug:

[fascisthunter]

29. EXACTLY.... just follow the money!

The 1% own our government and the police departments.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

[pam4water]

32. K&R

[Enthusiast]

33. Kicked and recommended!

If I had to guess I would guess that the White House played a major role.

[SteveM]

35. RE #3: Obama WILL NOT take the side of anything to the left of Eisenhower. nt

[Marnie]

36. These are perfect opportunities for police and HLS to practice

suppressing the common masses, so they will be ready to pull a massive repression if we should get so suppressed we are willing to die en masse for our freedom.

Which means they know that they are planing to continue to take away our freedom. So sooner or later the cops and the military will have to decide who's side they are on. We know who owns the military. Who then owns the cops?

Kind of a war game against your self.

USA USA USA.

[Mr.Liberty]

37. Dark times in America folks...the police state isn't coming...

it's already here.

[rbnyc]

38. + 1

Welcome to DU.

[ZombieHorde]

39. Welcome to DU. nt

[DallasNE]

40. These Raid Could Best Be Described As Military Operations

Overwhelming force, riot gear, tear gas/pepper spray, rubber bullets -- the whole nine yards.

And then there is the unprovoked violence by the police. Obviously, these are psychological operations intended to dispirit the protestors and crush them -- just like any tin horn dictator would do. This is another dark chapter in America's history, make no mistake. What's worse, the history shows that these type of operations always fail and will fail again this time. It is predictable and predicted. MSM cannot cover it up.

[DaveJ]

41. Ask them what they ask us. What in the world are they trying to accomplish???

We are patriotic Americans doing what we should do, but what is the goal of behind these attacks?

They do not seem to want to earn their power legitimately, but force their system on us.
Their goals seem unclear.
There is no leader taking responsibility for these attacks.
They were using unconstitutional tactics from the beginning.

Whoever is instigating this is hiding, likely because they want Americans to turn on one another rather than to be held accountable.

[Hissyspit]

42. Excellent. I am going to steal that.

[grasswire]

47. excellent insight

turn it around on them.

Their goals are not clear!

[Bozita]

43. All good questions! ... Recommended

[certainot]

44. #3 - white house connection is GOP/wall st /limbaugh bullshit.

limbaugh blamed the white house today for giving the go ahead- that makes it idiotic.

OWs is the best thing the DEM party has had in decades- one of the few political entities that can shout louder than 1000 coordinated radio stations.

wall street/GOP has been worried and dedicating local and national attacks on OWS, and the think tanks depend on the radio to start their attacks..

here's what limbaugh said today from 600 stations in first hour this morning....

praphrasing Limbaugh:

xxxxxx'
Bloomberg liberated Zuccotti Park.
lousy hippies thieves rapists purse snatchers
sexually transmitted diseases, murder, filth, gunfire, scabies
The protestors are so used to urinating and defecating in the streets so when they go back home to their parents they might need to be housebroken again. They’re going to have to put some newspaper down.
endless parade of human debris,
whining little wimps
looking for free meals free drugs free sex
it was never big, never any public support, not the backbone of America
white house wanted bloomberg to get them out because it was one big ad for the dem party.
'xxxxxx

[JoeyT]

64. Actually OWS being a Dem thing is the biggest right wing talking point I see there.

Why would OWS support a White House that hasn't met a Wall Street crook they won't appoint? It's starting to look like they actively seek out the most criminal and incompetent of the bunch.

[certainot]

74. i think the GOP has dems beat big time in the corruption department- "both the same" is lazy BS

a lot of that comes from people who finally started paying attention when the bush crime family got it so bad. others just recently started voting, aren't aware of what the repubs have been doing the last 30 yrs and naively thought obama could do anything he wanted and are now disappointed.

yeah there are also corrupt bought dems and talk radio state blue dog dems but part of that is a direct result of the GOP obstructing lock step any dem attempts to fix election finance and minimize money in politics and regulate wall street..

[burrowowl]

49. Good find Hissyspit!

Yes! We want answers!

DAMN THE PLUTOCRACY, DAMN THEM!

:mad: :grr: :mad:

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. It is far easier to hide head in sand, I swear

[OKDem08]

51. Obama will surely be mic ck'd on the campaign trail n/t

[Jakes Progress]

52. Washington is a company town.

They are doing the best they can for the ones who hired them - not the ones who elected them.

[chill_wind]

54. K & R. And they will remain burning questions.

These aren't questions that are going to go away.

[annm4peace]

55. Something to read from RNC 08.. when NORTHCOM took over

I hope this info from 2008 helps with what is going on know

http://rnc08report.org/archive/415.shtml

[AntiFascist]

84. Thanks for that!

What do you bet there's a Joint Task Force handling the response to OWS?

[WillyT]

56. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Blue Owl]

57. Pull back the curtain, Toto...

nt

[myrna minx]

62. K&R n/t

[Historic NY]

63. NYPD Joint terrorist task force.....

there are 16 nationwide.

[quinnox]

65. K&R, the recent news release by the mayors denying this makes me

even more curious to see these questions answered. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire.

[blkmusclmachine]

67. Right from the top?

Hmmm...

[Tx4obama]

69. Regarding your question #1 - see link below

The U.S. Conference of Mayors scheduled the conference call (which the mayors have more than once a month)

More info here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2327356

[BlueIris]

71. Interesting. I'm not the biggest OWS fan, but I am horrified to think

the White House had anything to do with the crackdowns. Ditto the idea that mayoral officials around the nation are organizing to beat down the protestors.

[Shining Jack]

73. "What does President Obama, the man who celebrated the uprisings in Egypt"

Er... He only did when it was clear that Mubarak was toast. Before that, nada, no support whatsoever for the people of Egypt.

[countryjake]

80. Kick!

.

[crunch60]

82. The powers that be in this country, learned from the best, Goebbels

The First Amendment has become largely without meaning. Perhaps, more than anyone else in the twentieth century, Joseph Goebbels recognized the absolute necessity of a free press to a democracy and the absolute imperative of control of propaganda to a tyranny.

Control the press, control the people. Give them lots of insidious television and lots of gadget's. By the time they figure out they have been screwed, it will be to late. Millions died because of it.
OWS are the true hero's in my book. No more silence.