The Milgram Experiement

Everybody should know about this experiment.

This study was undertaken to see why Nazism happened. Turns out, anybody can get tricked into doing terrible things, unless you hold true to your own internal moral compass, and dare to tell authority to f**k off.

Kevin Gosztola on The Alyona Show about Wikileaks and Stratfor

Wikileaks is at it again, with their latest dump called "The Global Intelligence Files". They began publishing some of what they claim to be more than 5 million emails, dated between July 2004 to December 2011 from Stratfor, the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company that some have described as a privatized CIA. So what can we gather so far from the emails? FDL's Kevin Gosztola discusses.

Thom Hartmann: Jill Stein For President!

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party Candidate for President 2012 joins Thom Hartmann. Our nation needs a bold new plan for the future - but Republicans and Democrats can't seem to make one. Is anyone willing to create an FDR style new green deal - and if so - what would it entail?

Thousands Call Upon Congress to Include 'Political Intelligence' Provision in STOCK Act

Public Citizen Delivers Petition Signed by 46,000 People to Reid, Boehner

WASHINGTON, D.C. - More than 46,000 people called on Congress in a petition delivered today to reinstate the transparency requirement for political intelligence activities in the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge" (STOCK) Act, and to send a strong STOCK Act to President Barack Obama for his signature. Public Citizen delivered the petition today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Political intelligence is a lucrative and shadowy industry, with some 2,000 lobbyists and Wall Street operatives raking in anywhere up to $400 million in business annually. The political intelligence provision of the STOCK Act would not ban mining public information from congressional sources for investment purposes, but its disclosure requirements would facilitate enforcement against illegal trading on non-public information.

"When Wall Street learned of this provision, it mounted a full-scale lobbying campaign to strip it from the bill," said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen. "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, long indebted to Wall Street for campaign cash, did exactly that."

The Senate on Feb. 2 approved a comprehensive STOCK Act, complete with the critical political intelligence transparency provision. The House was on track to do the same, until Cantor intervened and substituted a watered-down version. Cantor introduced his substitute measure under rules that prohibited amendments, forcing the House to accept his weakened bill or none at all. The different Senate and House versions now must be reconciled.

"President Obama is waiting to sign a strong STOCK Act, complete with a disclosure requirement for the political intelligence industry," said Lisa Gilbert, deputy director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "The public expects and deserves no less."

The petition is available at: http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9494. Pictures of the petition delivery are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/publiccitizen/sets/72157629104184116/.

###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.

Wikileaks Press Conference: The Yes Men, Julian Assange, and others

Private Corporations are spying on activists.

Video streaming by Ustream

Ralph Nader on Third Parties vs Least Worsts

As part of a discussion during the annual Nation Magazine Cruise Ralph Nader describes the peril if voters continue to vote for the least worst Presidential Candidate against third party candidates because they fear the best candidate won't win the election.

#f28 Stop the Supression of the Occupy Movement

Lee Camp on Countdown with Keith Olberman

Logic: An owners manual for your Brain.

A breif and crucial history of the United States Global Empire

Santorum Thinks Humans Should Be Allowed to Kill the Earth?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It Sucks To Be A Millenial

Open Letter to the 99%: Say #NoWarWithIran!

via Dennis Trainor Jr


This bullshit is happening again.

Indiana Appellate Court: Commenter on Newspaper Website May Have First Amendment Right to Anonymity

Case Was Closely Watched by Media Companies

WASHINGTON, D.C. - People who post comments on newspapers' websites may have the First Amendment right to remain anonymous, an Indiana appellate court ruled today.

As a result, the plaintiff who sued for defamation must produce evidence that a particular anonymous commenter's post on The Indianapolis Star's website was false, and the lower court must weigh whether the commenter's identity should be revealed, the appellate court said.

Public Citizen argued in December 2011 in support of The Indianapolis Star, contending that to unmask the commenter, the court must notify the commenter, prove that the comment was false and balance the commenter's First Amendment right of anonymous free speech against the merits of a defamation claim. Public Citizen acted as amicus in the case.

"With this decision, Indiana joins the growing consensus in state and federal courts around the country that the Dendrite balancing test is the best way to reconcile the free speech rights of anonymous Internet speakers against the interest of plaintiffs who really have been wronged by online speech in pursuing genuine legal claims," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen attorney who argued the case. "Requiring proof and a showing of genuine need for the speaker's identity can help prevent powerful interests from discouraging criticism by the threat of baseless litigation."

The case began after a March 2010 story was published in The Indianapolis Star about whether Junior Achievement, a local charity organization, misappropriated grant money. An anonymous person - using the pseudonym "DownWithTheColts" - posted a comment on the newspaper website alleging that the organization's missing money could be found in the former president's bank account.

One of the organization's former presidents, Jeffrey Miller, filed a suit for defamation, among other claims, against Junior Achievement, the foundation whose grant was in question and their respective presidents, and the anonymous commenter. A lower court ordered the newspaper to reveal the identity of the commenter.

In December 2011, Public Citizen, along with two separate groups of media organizations and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, submitted amicus briefs urging the appellate court to consider the First Amendment right to speak anonymously before unmasking the commenter.

To read the amicus brief and the appellate court ruling, visit http://www.citizen.org/litigation/forms/cases/getlinkforcase.cfm?cID=675.


Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.

#F27: Occupy the Food Supply: GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION

On Monday, February 27th, 2012, OWS Food Justice, OWS Sustainability, Oakland Food Justice & the worldwide Occupy Movement invite you to join the Global Day of Action to Occupy the Food Supply. We challenge the corporate food regime that has prioritized profit over health and sustainability. We seek to create healthy local food systems. We stand in Solidarity with Indigenous communities, and communities around the world, that are struggling with hunger, exploitation, and unfair labor practices.

On this day, in New York City, community gardeners, activists, labor unions, farmers, food workers, and citizens of the NYC metro area, will gather at Zuccotti Park at noon, for a Seed Exchange, to raise awareness about the corporate control of our food system and celebrate the local food communities in the metro area.

At 2pm, this event will take to the streets, to educate the public about the effects of GMOs on our health and environment, with GMO labels and GMO buying guides. Also at 2pm, the Seed Ball Bike Ride will depart, launching seed balls to remediate soil & green NYC en route to the La Plaza Community Garden, where Lower East Side Community Garden Tours will commence at 3pm.

Join us throughout the day in this community celebration, and help us realize our shared healthy food future together!!

CREATE: Local, Just, Fair Solutions
RESIST: Corporate Control of our Food Supply

The NYC Events ...
Noon - Symbolic presence at Stock Exchange
Noon - Seed Exchange at the "Stock Exchange" (location: Zuccotti Park)
2pm - GMO labeling (leave from Zuccotti Park)
2pm - Seed Ball Bike Ride (leave from Zuccotti Park)
3pm - LES Community Gardens Tours - (meetup location La Plaza Community Garden)

NYCGA Event: http://www.nycga.net/events/event/f27-global-day-of-action-to-occupy-our-food-supply/
National Event - Facebook page Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/311358372241948/
Seed Ball Bike Ride - Facebook page Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/182636558511497/


In Solidarity,
OWS Food Justice

Poor America - BBC

Sometimes when you're in denial, a friend has to show you exactly how fucked up you are...

[infographic] Generation Screwed: It sucks to be a millenial

Created by: Online Graduate Programs

As a millenial myself, I can tell you why I personally have no loyalty to my employer: they have no loyalty to their employees. We have adopted their attitude towards us. Don't like it? Tough shit.

Capitalism is a bitch, ain't it? It's eat or be eaten, and we've adapted. It's fuck or be fucked, and we've adapted. Burn or be burned, and we've adapted.

We've learned to play your game. We watched as our parents, who came up when you could work a job and make a career out of it, had their jobs downsized, outsourced, mechanized, eliminated, etc. They sat idly by. And they got fucked over.

We're not going to repeat our parent's mistakes.

Why should we be grateful to barely scrap by? Why should we be grateful to have no benefits? Why should we be grateful to work tirelessly while continually sinking further into debt?

You created us. You fuck us over, and we will fuck you over. We are the product of every cost-cutting, labor-outsourcing, underhanded management technique you have ever pulled. And now it's coming back to bite you in the ass.

Boo fucking hoo.

CPAC has thoughts on #OWS; but #OWS has thoughts on CPAC

So the Conservative Political Action Committee had a panel in which they discussed the Occupy Movement vs the Tea Party.

It's on C-SPAN, and is currently not available for embedded playing. So here's a link: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/304376-8

I would say, "Enjoy!" but I think you're going to have a REALLY hard time doing so. It's extremely cringeworthy.

Thankfully:

The Occupy Movement Shared Their Thoughts about CPAC

via Teamster Nation

The annual corporate greedfest known as CPAC was turned upside down today by thousands upon thousands of union members, community activists, unemployed workers and our good friend the giant Fat Cat. Dozens of reporters trained cameras on the sprited Washington, D.C. scene. Union banners waved as throngs of marchers surged into the street and up the hill to the hotel entrance. Protesters chanted, sang, drummed and danced while grandmothers sat down in the street to protest attacks on Medicare.


Police gave up trying to keep the huge crowd on the sidewalks. They blocked off the street as the peaceful protesters vented their thoughts about greed, tax dodging, unemployment and the war waged on working families.


Teamsters with "Stop the War on Worker" signs joined autoworkers, sheetmetal workers, firefighters, elevator constructors, UFCW, SEIU, AFSCME, UNITE. Community groups from as far away as Baltimore showed up by the busload.

Some of the entitled jerks attending CPAC had gleefully predicted violence, the way they always do, then did their best to provoke it. With expensive suits and camera equipment, they waded into the crowd hurling belligerent questions at the protesters. A security official -- was it a Secret Service agent -- took one entitled jerk away from the group he was badgering and gave him a talking-to.

The rally got off to a slow start around noon, as steelworkers, UAW members and Teamsters formed a picket line around the Fat Cat chanting, "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Union busting's got to go." But at 12:30 someone shouted "Oh my God, thousands of marchers!" Led by drummers they filled the street, waving signs and banners as cars honked and police officers tried to herd them onto the sidewalks. "Our DC" and "We Are The 99%" signs joined "Recall Walker" and "Greed is Good--Romney-Gekko."

Soon the huge crowd surged up the hill, past the police and security, bellowing, "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" Then they peacefully marched down again and regrouped in the street. Two women sat down on the pavement, soon to be joined by many more. Some gave speeches, some chanted and some sang along with pro-movement songs made up on the spot.

The CPAC one percenters had some charming things to say: @BossyMother called them "mutant scum." The delightful @stephenww tweeted, "I think we all can agree that the #OccupyCPAC crowd should get free contraception." @JimForbes_Pasco refers to the peaceful protesters as "OccupyCPAC goons."

Bill Moyer: What Does It Mean to be an Organizer?

Jason Read on the nature of parasitism and economics

Firefighters vs Police

Firefighters on strike in Brussels, Belgium, hose down police officers guarding the Belgian Prime Minister's office.

Zombies, Cats, Fungus, Protozoa, and Schizophrenia

Kathleen McAuliffe in the Atlantic wrote an article about Toxoplasma gondii which I found fascinating, and I highly recommend reading all the way through.

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.

One hell of a way to start off an article, eh?

It turns out, it's all true.

In the Soviet-stunted economy, animal studies were way beyond Flegr’s research budget. But fortunately for him, 30 to 40 percent of Czechs had the latent form of the disease, so plenty of students were available “to serve as very cheap experimental animals.” He began by giving them and their parasite-free peers standardized personality tests—an inexpensive, if somewhat crude, method of measuring differences between the groups. In addition, he used a computer-based test to assess the reaction times of participants, who were instructed to press a button as soon as a white square popped up anywhere against the dark background of the monitor.

The subjects who tested positive for the parasite had significantly delayed reaction times. Flegr was especially surprised to learn, though, that the protozoan appeared to cause many sex-specific changes in personality. Compared with uninfected men, males who had the parasite were more introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other people’s opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules. Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women.

The findings were so bizarre that Flegr initially assumed his data must be flawed. So he tested other groups—civilian and military populations. Again, the same results. Then, in search of more corroborating evidence, he brought subjects in for further observation and a battery of tests, in which they were rated by someone ignorant of their infection status. To assess whether participants valued the opinions of others, the rater judged how well dressed they appeared to be. As a measure of gregariousness, participants were asked about the number of friends they’d interacted with over the past two weeks. To test whether they were prone to being suspicious, they were asked, among other things, to drink an unidentified liquid.

The results meshed well with the questionnaire findings. Compared with uninfected people of the same sex, infected men were more likely to wear rumpled old clothes; infected women tended to be more meticulously attired, many showing up for the study in expensive, designer-brand clothing. Infected men tended to have fewer friends, while infected women tended to have more. And when it came to downing the mystery fluid, reports Flegr, “the infected males were much more hesitant than uninfected men. They wanted to know why they had to do it. Would it harm them?” In contrast, the infected women were the most trusting of all subjects. “They just did what they were told,” he says.

Why men and women reacted so differently to the parasite still mystified him. After consulting the psychological literature, he started to suspect that heightened anxiety might be the common denominator underlying their responses. When under emotional strain, he read, women seek solace through social bonding and nurturing. In the lingo of psychologists, they’re inclined to “tend and befriend.” Anxious men, on the other hand, typically respond by withdrawing and becoming hostile or antisocial. Perhaps he was looking at flip sides of the same coin.

Closer inspection of Flegr’s reaction-time results revealed that infected subjects became less attentive and slowed down a minute or so into the test. This suggested to him that Toxoplasma might have an adverse impact on driving, where constant vigilance and fast reflexes are critical. He launched two major epidemiological studies in the Czech Republic, one of men and women in the general population and another of mostly male drivers in the military. Those who tested positive for the parasite, both studies showed, were about two and a half times as likely to be in a traffic accident as their uninfected peers.

Not only that, but the disease rewires the male brain to cause it to be sexually attracted to the scent of cat piss.

"That's not possible!" you might be saying. Well, there IS in fact, other examples of "zombification" in nature, in which a parasitic organism infects the nervous system of their host to manipulate their behaviour:



What's more, Toxoplasma have a high rate of incident coinciding with Schizophrenia.

Many schizophrenia patients show shrinkage in parts of their cerebral cortex, and Flegr thinks the protozoan may be to blame for that. He hands me a recently published paper on the topic that he co-authored with colleagues at Charles University, including a psychiatrist named Jiri Horacek. Twelve of 44 schizophrenia patients who underwent MRI scans, the team found, had reduced gray matter in the brain—and the decrease occurred almost exclusively in those who tested positive for T. gondii. After reading the abstract, I must look stunned, because Flegr smiles and says, “Jiri had the same response. I don’t think he believed it could be true.” When I later speak with Horacek, he admits to having been skeptical about Flegr’s theory at the outset. When they merged the MRI results with the infection data, however, he went from being a doubter to being a believer. “I was amazed at how pronounced the effect was,” he says. “To me that suggests the parasite may trigger schizophrenia in genetically susceptible people.”

Which brings me to the curious case of Louis Wain, the English painter, whose main focus was anthropomorphic portraits of cats.

Given the extremely high incident of connection between brain deterioration, and infection, I think it's likely that one could conclude that Louis Swain had latent Toxoplasma gondii in his brain, causing his obsession with cats, and his "post-schizophrenia" period is actually just post a period in which the Toxoplasma gondii cysts began to destroy his brain.



Read the entire article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/1/

Kate Sheppard: Obama helped to cover up extent of BP Spill

via MoxNews.com

I am proud to have sat for her cat, George. Who has his own twitter profile.

Also, you can follow Kate on twitter here: click it!

Chris Hedges: Empire is Over; the Decent Will Be Terrifying.

January 01, 2012 C-SPAN
via MoxNews

What is the true cost of gasoline?

The Price of Gas from CIR on Vimeo.

SCIENCE! Why it's important

via Potholer54

The Very First Punk Patriot Video EVER

This video was made before I had a YouTube account!


Nancy Pelosi Must Be Held Accountable!

The Punk Patriot | Myspace Video

Citizens United and My Cassandra Complex

I made this video prior to the Citizens United vs FEC hearing.
Nobody cared then.

Now that everything is completely fucked up, people are asking, "why is everything so completely fucked up? How did we get here?"

Here's your answer:

How Intellectuals Betrayed The Poor

Lee Camp: How Much Is That Election in The Window?

A small group of millionaires and billionaires got together last week and pledged $100 million to beat Obama. Thanks to the Citizens United decision they can do that now.... [Also get the Moment of Clarity BOOK at www.LeeCamp.net]

Gregory Brothers (AutoTune The News) with the ACLU

You Can't turn the lights off now

Death and Taxes

The Battle in Oakland

The Battle of Oakland from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.

Free Market Capitalism

Congress Watch News: What *IS* Universal Healthcare?

I made this video in 2009 as part of a failed venture called "Congress Watch News."

[Infographic] Medicated America

Created by: Medical Billing and Coding Online

2012 Superbowl Halftime: A Pagent about Occupy Wall Street & Impending Collapse of US Empire

Madonna was trying to do us all a huge favor this SuperBowl sunday, but I don’t think many of us got the message. So let me break it down for you.

Her half time show opened with a display of Roman Sentinels, a display meant to create a visual metaphor of the Roman Empire, and make more plain to see, the parallels between ancient rome and today’s United States.

Ancient Rome, during it’s bread and circus years was just on the cusp of total collapse.
The plebeians of Rome had no voice in their government. The Roman Senate was extremely corrupt and changed laws of Rome not to benefit the common good, but to further enrich themselves. The Roman empire had, at this point before collapse, so overextended itself around the known world, that it was unable to effectively govern. And so this projection of power created resentment, leading to popular uprisings, and terrorist attacks on the soldiers stationed in the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire. The Plebeians, certain beyond the shadow of a doubt of the corruption of their government, were extremely apathetic towards politics, and instead spent their free time watching gladiatorial games at the Bread and Circuses.

This Superbowl, nay, football in general, Madonna was quite blatantly stating, is our modern day Gladiatorial Games. The halftime show, with its celebration of hedonistic sexuality, is our modern day bacchanalia. The SuperBowl is the convergence and amplification of everything about our society that parallels ancient rome, condensed into a money and testosterone drenched nugget of our collective American id.

Madonna was warning us of the impending collapse of the United States.

Further parallels are drawn with the appearance of LMFAO singing “I’m sexy and I know it” a song which was clearly chosen to illustrate the hubris of American Exceptionalism, while clearly casting light on the gaping discrepancy between the song’s lyrics and the average American viewer, which in a self-recursive, or “meta” moment, draws a parallel between the bloated corpse of the American empire, and the bloated bodies of those watching the game.

What of the hippie on the slack line, dressed as an ancient roman plebeian? He is representative of the 99% of Rome, and the 99% of America, the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Balanced precariously on a thin line of credit, his station in life moves up and down, and he is totally at the mercy of the fluctuations of the economy. Our day to day balancing act of securing employment and living paycheck to paycheck is made literal in the visual metaphor of an actual balancing act. As this Occupy Protester is vaulted up into the air in a final flourish, suddenly finding himself no longer moving up or down, but moving sideways, into a new dimension of reality. As he turns end over end, the world, relative to him, is flipped upside down, and then righted again. He lands this time not on the insecurity of the slack-line, but on the solid foundation of a steady-state economy many yards away from the area he was suspended above.

Finally, through the magic of special effects, the football field is torn away, revealing the vacuous expanse of space, a nietzscheian void that is outside of the illusory world of our modern day crumbling roman empire. Madonna then after the destruction of the field, evolves into a being of pure light and energy, which disburses to form the words, “World Peace” making clear that this whole display was meant to mock the very game it divides, which itself is an analogue for regional warfare.

Neil DeGrass Tyson Agrees: America Sucks Because YOU SUCK

So a while ago, I made this video:

America Sucks because YOU SUCK

And unbeknownst to me, Neil DeGrasse Tyson had posted this much more eloquent and nonpartisan blog entry:

The question, “If I were President I’d…” implies that if you swap out one leader, put in another, then all will be well with America—as though our leaders are the cause of all ailments.

That must be why we’ve created a tradition of rampant attacks on our politicians. Are they too conservative for you? Too liberal? Too religious? Too atheist? Too gay? Too anti-gay? Too rich? Too dumb? Too smart? Too ethnic? Too philanderous? Curious behavior, given that we elect 88% of Congress every two years.

A second tradition-in-progress is the expectation that everyone else in our culturally pluralistic land should hold exactly your own outlook, on all issues.

When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.

One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
New York, Aug. 21, 2011

If you aren't a Green, you probably won't find this interesting

Here is Roseann Barr's GPUS questionnaire: http://www.gp.org/committees/pcsc/documents/rfp_gpus_questionnaire_1_23_12.pdf

And here is Jill Stein's GPUS questionnaire: http://www.gp.org/committees/pcsc/2012/candidate-questionnaire/stein.shtml

Read both of them through till the end.

The Pink Ribbon Scam

Yale Business School's Jonathan Macey on the Daily Show

It's interesting how he comes on to make the point that capitalism isn't a rigged game, and then in explaining how capitalism really works, demonstrates how rigged it is.

And now you Ron Paul libertarian types are going to rush to Capitalism's defense. You're talking about Markets. Markets and Capitalism are not the same thing and should not be conflated. So shut up and watch the interview.

Part 1

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 2

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 3

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Occupy Oakland Serves people, while Oakland City Hall Slashes Public Services

Oakland Council to Make Deeper Cuts to Vital City Services While Maintaining Enormous Funding Level for Largely Outside Agitator Police Force

Initial Occupy Oakland Research Survey Results Show that Occupy Served The People

OAKLAND, CA - As the Oakland City Council voted Tuesday night to layoff 80 city workers (eliminating 105 positions) and cut $28 million to already less-than minimal City services, the Occupy Oakland Research Working Group released initial survey results that show the Occupy Movement provided food, healthcare, and other social services to Oakland residents in three months.

“Oakland is spending millions to prevent Occupy from providing vital services to Oakland residents when they need it most. These funds should be used to prevent further cuts to schools and social services, instead of being wasted on the violent repression of activists and community members who are trying to fill in the gaps where local government has failed.” said Sarah Thomason, member of Occupy Oakland Research Working Group and graduate student at University of California, Berkeley.

Over the past four years, Oakland has slashed $97 million from its General Purpose Fund, and $34.2 from other sources, cutting transitional kindergarten and adult education programs, reducing library services by one day each week, eliminating the senior shuttle and elderly nutrition programs, among other cuts, and laying off 277 City workers.

Initial survey results from Occupy Research show that:
Three quarters of the respondents obtained food through Occupy Oakland
Almost half of Oakland’s Occupiers are Oakland residents
95% of Occupy Oakland participants are from the Bay Area
Occupy Oakland’s medics have provided basic healthcare for almost a quarter of those surveyed
Occupy Oakland provides literacy programs, film-screenings, book discussion groups, and offers access to dozens of free workshops.
Meanwhile, the City continues to spend $155 million each year, 40% of the City’s general purpose fund, on Oakland’s true outside agitators, the Oakland Police Department. Most of this spending has no positive impact on the city’s local economy because 93% of Oakland’s police officers lived outside of the city.

As of January 23, 2012, the City spent an additional $3 million or $50,000 a week to have 100 officers--20% of the city’s total patrol force--on hand at Oscar Grant Plaza.

According to an email obtained by KTVU from Oakland Police Chief Jordan to Mayor Quan’s office, the crime rate in Oakland fell 19% in the last week of October when the Occupy movement was violently evicted from Oscar Grant Plaza and organizers abused by the police, including Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. “Not sure how you want to share this good news,” wrote Jordan. “It may be counter to our statement that the Occupy movement is negatively impacting crime in Oakland.”

“Instead of spending millions to police the people, the city should be paying attention to the real outside agitators: the Oakland Police Department. Only 7% of OPD live in our city and yet they abuse our residents when we try to care for our community. It is the police and the interests of the 1% that the city officials should be concerned about,” said Yvonne Yen Liu, a policy researcher at a nonprofit think tank and a member of the Occupy Oakland Research Working Group.

###

The Occupy Oakland Research Working Group is an independent research committee of volunteers dedicated to the self-determination of local communities.
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the Occupy Oakland Research Working Group, please call Yvonne Yen Liu at (510) 371-5710 or e-mail us at OccupyResearchOakland@gmail.com or visit: http://occupyresearch.net/oakland.

---

So I got the above press release in my inbox.

I can't help but think of this fable I wrote back before Occupy Wall Street was even an idea, back when things were just starting to get going in Wisconsin:

Hitler Finds Out: You Can't Evict an Idea

via AcronymTV because you stand for... something.

[infographic] Mitt Romney's Taxes

Created by: Online MBA Programs

If Fox News was around in the 1960s

This would be funny if it weren't the exact same racist bullshit they say today about demanding "special rights" and "special treatment."

This "parody" is too close to reality to be funny.

But then, that's Poe's law.

I did not create this image. I reposted it from an email that was sent to me.