West Point Grad Arrested For Defending Woman Abused By Austin Police

Occupy Austin Courts! January 19th

Uploaded by MikeHansonArchives on Jan 4, 2012

Scott Olsen, U.S. Vet Wounded at Occupy Oakland, on Recovery, Protests, Iraq and Bradley Manning
Friday, December 30, 2011
For our last broadcast of 2011, we turn to someone who became one the faces of the global Occupy movement this year.

Uploaded by democracynow on Dec 30, 2011
DemocracyNow.org – Democracy Now! interviews someone who became one the faces of the global Occupy movement this year. Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former U.S. Marine who served two tours in the Iraq war, was critically wounded after being shot in the head by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland. In a rare interview, Olsen joins us to discuss his life-threatening ordeal, his involvement in this year’s historic Wisconsin and Occupy protests, the case of accused Army whistleblower Bradley Manning and how he too had access to similar types of information, and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. “They aren’t respecting our right to assemble, protest and redress our government for grievances,” Olsen says of police repression of the Occupy protests. “They are terrorizing us from going out [to demonstrations]. That is a sad statement for our country.” Olsen also says he expects to rejoin the Occupy and antiwar protests as his recovery progresses. “I look forward to being a part of the 99 percent and Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2012,” he says.

Scott Olsen, Vet Wounded at Occupy Oakland, on Recovery, Protests, Iraq & Bradley Manning – YouTube.

11am, we are meeting at the Capitol for our December 3rd: Be Heard rally. In an unintentional coincidence, a Ron Paul march is also scheduled to rally and march at the same time and location. We are a non-Partisan movement, we do not endorse any candidate, but we welcome anyone to attend our event.

www.facebook.com/events/313765835300900/

Occupy Austin – Capitol Police Clarify NEW Memo Confirming 24/7 Access to the Capitol Grounds

MEMO Released by DPS on 12/1/11:

Anyone may visit the Capitol at any time to exercise his or her rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution. Visitors may remain in the Capitol building during operating hours. The Capitol grounds are open 24 hours a day.

To balance the needs of all Texans who wish to visit their State Capitol, as well as ensure the safety of visitors, the State Preservation Board adopted rules regulating the conduct of any person who visits the Capitol. These rules were adopted in 1994 and amended in 2000. They can be found in the Texas Administrative Code at section 111.27. The State Preservation Board enforces these rules regardless of the stated purpose of the individual violating the rules. These rules are in addition to any other generally applicable laws.

Many groups follow the State Preservation Board procedures for scheduling an event and reserving a location on the grounds or inside the building. These groups will receive priority over visitors who have not scheduled an event. Visitors will be asked to relocate to a different area of the building or grounds if necessary to accommodate a scheduled event.

The State Preservation Board is responsible for preserving, restoring, and maintaining the Texas State Capitol for the benefit of all Texans. Ensuring that the building and grounds are safe and accessible for all visitors is a priority. The restrictions that are in place are necessary to maintain this historic building and its grounds for the enjoyment of all visitors.

www.OccupyAustin.org

Bank of Ideas

Alessio Rastani Speaking At The Bank of Ideas

Ron Paul Message to Occupy Wall Street – LETS END THE FED!

• 2011: A Brave New Dystopia By Chris Hedges
  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227/
• Marine veteran fights for life after suffering skull fracture and brain swelling from police gas canister during Occupy Oakland clashes
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053502/Occupy-Oakland-protests-Marine-veteran-shot-face-police-rubber-bullet.html
• Occupy Oakland Protesters The Day After Eviction
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1ie8W41qHM
• Occupy Oakland video: Riot police fire tear gas, flashbang grenades
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QngE6kKk8Lg
• RAW VIDEO: Ground footage of Occupy Oakland march and crowd dispersal
  Ground footage of Occupy Oakland march and crowd dispersal / KTVU.com (Video)
  http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
• Oakland Police Use Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades, And Smoke Bombs To Evict Occupy Oakland (Video)
  http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/25/352378/oakland-police-evict-occupy-oakland/
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KwRiBge9r4
• “I am very pleased with the way things went,” interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said at a news conference. “In the end, I think we allowed people to exercise their rights to free speech and free assembly.”
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/25/BAUB1LLTC9.DTL
• 20 Photos Of Police Violently Breaking Up Occupy Oakland
  http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/photos-of-police-violently-breaking-up-occupy-oakl
• Goldman Sachs v. Occupy Wall Street: A Greg Palast Investigation (Video)
  http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/25/goldman_sachs_v_occupy_wall_street
• A discussion about Occupy Wall Street with Chris Hedges and Amy Goodman in Current Affairs (Video)
  http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11961
• Don’t Protest, Resist: Occupy the System
  http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/25/occupy-the-system/
• New York cops defy order to arrest hundreds of ‘Occupy Albany’ protesters
  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/24/new-york-cops-defy-order-to-arrest-hundreds-of-occupy-protesters/

Song of the Day: ‘Electric Avenue,’ Eddy Grant
By Tris McCall/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 3:00 PM

In May, the warning shots were fired in Madrid. This weekend, Rome was burning. Even in New York City, where the marches were peaceful, more than 70 people were arrested. In what must have felt like a flashback to the 1968 Democratic Convention, 175 were cuffed by Chicago police in Grant Park on Sunday evening. Saturday was another international Day of Rage, and, increasingly, that is no hyperbole. The anger is palpable, and the action is real.

It is right, but irrelevant, to point out that many of the protesters don’t exactly know why they’re there. For better and for worse, that is the hallmark of a consequential movement. It may yet end in tears, but it’s not going out in a whimper. During the revolutions that swept through Europe in 1848, few of the rioters on the barricades had full understanding of what they were doing on the streets and why they were risking their lives. They were there because they felt like they had to be; that it was the only recourse available to them. Pull aside a protester at Zuccotti Park, or in Grant Park, or in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and you will find the same resolve. People are there because they feel like they have to be. At the moment, that’s the only rationale that matters.

Populist uprisings often act as inkblot tests. After time has passed, those who appoint themselves the narrators of history conduct a public search for reasons. Ask five political theorists or newspaper journalists to explain why London rioted this August, and you will get five different answers — each one tailored to reinforce the storyteller’s version of events. One will tell you that it was a blow struck against capitalism, another that it was a reaction to a runaway police force, and another will blame it on hooligans who need to meet the business end of a billy club. But history is not logical, and effects proceed from causes messily at best. A spontaneous action is something like a Spin-Art: colors splattering all over a canvas that’s anything but fixed, and nobody really sure what it’s going to look like when it sets. The middle of a popular uprising is a zone of pure kinetic energy, one that shares much of the hypnotic power of the disco (which is why so many of the songs that come from uprisings are so danceable). How that energy will be channeled on any given day is impossible to predict — and impossible to recover afterward. Historians are still arguing about what happened in Brixton and Lambeth in 1981. Margaret Thatcher and Eddy Grant will never see eye to eye about Bloody Saturday and the riots that shook Brixton in ’81, and again in ’85. They’ll go to their graves with separate and wholly incommensurate accounts of the events; both will walk away, as Phil Ochs put it so forcefully in “Flower Lady,” knowing they are right.

Grant’s account has the force of documentary realism. Electric Avenue is not just a metaphor for the high street during a protest — it’s the main shopping district of Brixton, and the first market in Greater London to be lit by electric streetlamps. Many of the complaints in “Electric Avenue” resonate strongly with the feelings of inequality that make these days smolder with rage. And in Grant’s attempt to determine “who is to blame in what country?,” there’s that inevitable search for a scapegoat. What would Grant’s narrator do if he ever could “get to the one,” as he sings in verse three? What would the current worldwide protesters do?

I was ten years old when I first saw this video. I knew nothing about the Brixton riots and little about the reggae tradition of dissent that Grant was drawing from; I might have heard Bob Marley on the block, but his struggle wasn’t mine. At least I didn’t think so. All I knew was that it bugged me out.The graininess of the film, the seediness of the avenue, the faceless paramilitary motorbikers, the self-righteousness of the narrator, the weird whiff of eugenics in the last stanza; none of that made sense, but it sure was suggestive. A few years later, I would realize why Grant kept drowning and washing up on the beach — I’d understand why he couldn’t make it to the television set that he abhorred. Years after that, I’d see friends of mine falling in that bottomless pool between the sofa and the TV, and I’d even see a few wash up on the shores under police searchlights. Everything Grant communicated so effectively in “Electric Avenue” still applies. The resentment is still with us; as the dollar continues its inexorable fall, it’s going to get worse. Anybody who is not worried right now — police, protesters, and Presidents, bankers and broke students all alike — hasn’t been paying attention.

More #OccupyNews

• Ron Paul on Occupy WallStreet CNN Las Vegas Debate 10/18/2011
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cGwDJ0C0X8
• Occupy Wall Street And Anonymous: Turning A Fledgling Movement Into A Meme
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/occupy-wall-street-anonymous-connection_n_1021665.html
• Commander Who Pepper-Sprayed Protesters Faces Disciplinary Charge
  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/nyregion/commander-who-pepper-sprayed-wall-street-protesters-faces-disciplinary-charges.html
• Occupy Wall Street officer Anthony Bologna ‘broke pepper-spray rules’
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/18/occupy-wall-street-pepper-spray-officer
• Occupy Tampa 10.15.11: We’re gonna stay right here
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gutpzSrR69U
• Chris Hedges: “This one could take them all down.” Hedges on OWS w/ OccupyTVNY — 10/15/11
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj8UlxhfJLw
• #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
  A shift in revolutionary tactics.
  Adbusters , 13 Jul 2011
  http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html
• Guillotine Revival
  http://guillotinerevival.com
• Naomi Wolf Arrested While Occupy Wall Street Protests
  http://gothamist.com/2011/10/18/naomi_wolf_arrested_while_protestin.php
• Meet the “Lower Manhattan Security Initiative”
  Wall Street Firms Spy on Protestors In Tax-Funded Center
  http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/18/wall-street-firms-spy-on-protestors-in-tax-funded-center/
• Occupy Wall Street and “The American Autumn”: Is It a “Colored Revolution”?
  Part I by Michel Chossudovsky
  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27053
• OWS: Are Mindless Americans Falling Prey to the Collectivist Trap?
  http://www.infowars.com/ows-are-mindless-americans-falling-prey-to-the-new-revolution-business-and-its-collectivist-trap/
• Marine Sargeant/Military Veteran Scolds, Shames NYPD For Beating Unarmed Protesters (Videos)
  http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/681748/marine_sargent_military_veteran_scolds,_shames_nypd_for_beating_unarmed_protesters/
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmEHcOc0Sys
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEgymHDUYVQ 

15 October – United for Global Change.

Occupy Everything on Vimeo

Mos Def + The Brooklyn Philharmonic – “Life In Marvelous Times” – Restoration Rocks

Jack Blood Austin TSA rally 6 – 4 – 11.

Young activist and Canadian parliamentary Page “disrupts” the Speech from the Throne which opens each new session of Parliament.

Page disrupts throne speech with ‘Stop Harper’ sign

A young Senate page disrupted the opening of the new parliamentary session today, holding up a sign that read ‘Stop Harper’ in the middle of Governor-General David Johnston’s Throne Speech.

Brigette Marcelle DePape, 21, was immediately ejected from the Senate Chambers.

The University of Ottawa graduate had prepared a statement explaining her actions.

“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” she wrote. “We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.”

Brigette has also appeared at the Youth portion of the famous TED TALKS:

TEDxYouthOttawa – Brigette dePape – 03/04/10.