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October 14, 2011

The American Fall Series #3: Resistance to Corporate Greed is NOT futile!

Hello Every One!

Things are moving at breakneck speed and although I've sent you a compilation just one week ago, I feel the need to keep you posted with the latest developments. May I suggest you give a look first at this Russian TV video which shows how widespread the Occupy Wall Street has grown and keeps spreading like wildfire in the US and around the world, having now reached 80 countries and 1 691 cities. Tomorrow could very well be a major milestone for this movement about which you'll find a good number of perspectives, background info and news in this compilation - and if you still need to know what this movement is all about, check their FAQ.

You'll also find a bit of material on the neo-cons' plot to trigger a war of annihilation against Iran in the wake of the ludicrous cooked up allegations by Obama of a ploy to kill an ambassador from Saudi Arabia.

Finally, after reviewing some of the latest alerts about the geological situation in the Canary Islands, I felt compelled to bring you a slew of rather alarming news about the potential for a mega-tsunami across the Atlantic Ocean - something that is obviously highly unpredictable and about which there is not much that can be done, except to decide to move inland if you are near any of the exposed areas - if you feel these warnings must be taken seriously... And I am not recommending any specific course of action as this is not my role to do so. Please, check you inner soul compass if you need directions on this.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com

The normal and special features in this compilation are...

- THE QUOTES
- WORTH NOTING RIGHT AWAY
- SPECIAL UPDATE ON THE GROWING GLOBAL PROTESTS AGAINST CORPORATISM AND GREED
- KEY INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- OTHER RECOMMENDED NEWS AND INFORMATION
- THE MAIN ARTICLES

CONTENTS OF THE MAIN ARTICLES SECTION

1. Panic of the Plutocrats
2. Who's behind the Wall Street protests?
3. Panache! Why we must fight
4. Why the Elites Are in Trouble
5. The Great American Bubble Machine
6. A New Bush Era or a Push Era?
7. A soldier's prayer

This compilation is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2011/AmericanFall3.htm

STATS for this compilation: Over 32,000 words and 194 links provided.

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THE QUOTES

"I fight for my children. It is not about me. It is about them. The deep despair I feel over our collective inability to acknowledge, much less confront, the catastrophic dislocations ahead of us is offset by a fierce desire as a father to make sure I have summoned all my energy and resilience to defy the corporate systems of death that are exploiting human beings and the natural world until their exhaustion or collapse. At least, I hope, my children will look back and see that their father did not remain passive as the ecosystem was destroyed in the name of profit, and the world was reconfigured by corporations into a terrifying neofeudalism, a kind of totalitarian capitalism. At least they will see, I hope, pictures of their father being hauled off to jail in defiance. I resist not out of hate but out of love, a love for all the things the deformed culture of corporate profit finds meaningless and sentimental – children, lakes, mountains, trees and the song of a wood thrush deep in the forest."

- Chris Hedges -- Taken from Panache! Why we must fight (7 Oct 2011)


"Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always."

- Ghandi


"The U.S. Dollar and the Euro are on the verge of collapse. When that happens, it will bring the whole world a step closer to a global currency and one world government. Most people don't understand where the American dollar comes from. They don't understand that the Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation that prints and controls the circulation of money and then holds America hostage for the àest. The U.S. government and all its citizens are in debt to this central bank for 14 trillion dollars. Other central banks operate in much the same way in other countries. They use fractional reserve banking to devalue the world's currencies and cripple the economies. Their ultimate plan is a one world currency and one world government, where they will rule and enslave the masses. The solution that is needed in the United States is to pass the Monetary Reform Act. This legislation will ban fractional reserve banking and take the power to print money away from a few mad men and give it back to the government. It's not a perfect document, but it's probably the quickest way to stop the Fed in their tracks because it's already been drafted. The only thing needed is to get Congress to vote on it. The call to action is for thousands of U.S. Citizens in every State to write their representative and ask them to sign this into law."

- Janet (granitejanet@gmail.com)


"Just wanted to add my 2$ to the mix. Through my own personal experience on Sept 11th where I was asking for forgiveness as the Shadow Masculine for all the wars, violence and killing that was committed, to Oct 11th where the Mayan 7th day commenced and the re-patterning of Mother Earth potential time lines were reset. The energies around the old archetypes of domination and control are being systematically dismantled and a 'new' space is being opened up to create a world of peace and understanding. This new consciousness is being seen, felt and now realized in the Occupy movement, yet the third and perhaps most powerful transition point is yet to come... 11-11-11. Somehow our consciousness yet needs to make the final shift from whatever, to Love. I have found it put very succinctly in Matthew's latest message - "... the masses have not yet achieved the spiritual clarity that includes knowing the power of thoughts and feelings. They don’t know that they can’t manifest what they do want as long as they are preoccupied with what they don’t want..." My realization is that this shift happens when I'm in my Heart."

- Zackoree Harrison (zackoree@gmail.com)


"I am Gaia, the soul of the planet you call Earth. Just as you, I can feel heavyhearted or lighthearted. For long ages I wept, when my spirit was broken. My people were hateful to each other and my body was soaked with their blood. I weep no longer because there is so much to feel joyful about, so much to feel thankful for. My light is not yet in full force, my body is not yet balanced. That is because some of my children still are being hateful to one another. Some of them are without love, without compassion, without the understanding that differences can be absolutely splendid when harmony and respect flow along the heart-lines.Yet, I am joyful because I am on a journey like no other soul in this universe ever has traveled. I am going home, and you who are holding the light that is helping me move steadily and quickly forward are coming with me. Can you imagine a greater distinction than this journey we are sharing? Can you imagine a greater excitement than our ascension? I cannot! I asked to speak this day to tell you of my gratitude for all of you. You were chosen from a great number of souls, triple the number that could incarnate and participate. This level of light service never before has been undertaken. We are playing a part in the grandest show ever performed in this universe. I feel the humility that mingles with sublime satisfaction for a job well done˜in the continuum, our job is completed. As our travels continue, many wonders are in store for you and this world of ours. You have been told of many, so you can think of them and look forward to them, but actually living in the glorious times soon coming is beyond your imagining. All beings in this universe are watching this unfold, did you know? I cannot imagine such a vast audience! All the souls of light are cheering for us, so we shall continue giving them a good show, an experience worthy of even God‚s applause. I share my heart with you and my love for you is overflowing."

- Matthew -- Taken from his October 10, 2011 message which also covers ""Arab Spring"; unstoppable momentum of changes; focus for, not against; collective consciousness; sharing knowledge as way-showers; life in the Golden Age; self-discoveries; planetary alignment; bodies in fourth density and beyond; guidance for novice telepathic communicators."


"The massed power of goodwill, the dynamic effect of intelligent and active understanding, and the potency of a trained and alive public opinion, which desires the greatest good of the greatest number are beyond belief. This dynamic power has never been employed. It can today save the world."

- Master Djwhal Khul -- Taken from HERE


"I have been to plenty of places but I have never been in Cahoots. Apparently you can't go there alone, you have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've never been in Cognito either. I hear that no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport, you have to be driven there. It's not hard to get there and I've made several trips."

- Famously Anomymous




WORTH NOTING RIGHT AWAY

Note from Jean: We could be mere days away from a deadly mega-tsunami hitting the entire eastern seaboard of North, Central and South America as well as the coast of Europe and Africa near the Canary Islands. I recommend you pay attention to the following material. According to insider information mentioned at the beginning of the following video, there is presently absolutely unprecedented frenzied activity at the United States Northern Command as they are frantically getting as much extra food as they can in their headquarters... There could be tens of millions of deaths and the USGS authorities refuse to warn anyone here for fear of triggering a massive panic...

GLOBAL ALERT: John Moore - Mega-Tsunami from the Canary Islands! (8 oct. 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsvHmR86X58
According to John Moore, in a recent interview with Dr. Bill Deagle on the Nutrimedical Report, there is an increased possibility of a super mega-tsunami coming from the Canary Islands in the coming weeks. El Hierro Volcano: Is one of the smallest of the Canary Islands, the origins of the island date back some 100 million years when the ocean floor shifted with the movement of the Earth's mantle. The crust cracked into a three pointed star releasing flows of magma. After 3 eruptions, the island emerged from the ocean as an imposing volcano more than 2,000 meters high. It has now been over 200 years since the last eruption but El Hierro. Although being the smallest island, it has the largest number of volcanoes with over 500 open sky cones and another 300 covered by the most recent outflows. There has been uncertainty surrounding reports of a historical eruption taking place in 1793. Meanwhile, scientific research is predicting that an eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, at La Palma in the Canary Islands would result in a massive mega-tsunami that would reach the East Coast of America. Geological evidence suggests that during a future eruption, Cumbre Vieja Volcano on the Island of La Palma may experience a catastrophic failure of its west flank, dropping 150 to 500 km3 of rock into the sea. Using a geologically reasonable estimate of landslide motion, we model tsunami waves produced by such a collapse. Waves generated by the run-out of a 500 km3 (150 km3) slide block at 100 m/s could transit the entire Atlantic Basin and arrive on the coasts of the Americas with 10-25 m (3-8 m) height. Lateral collapses of oceanic island volcanoes rank amongst the most spectacular natural events on Earth. Although no such lateral collapse punctuates the historical past, residual debris found on the seafloor evidence their abundance in recent geological time. Moore (1964) first identified the remains of lateral collapses off the flanks of Hawaii. Since then, dozens have been recognized adjacent to island volcanoes in nearly every ocean (Moore et al. 1994; Keating and McGuire, 2000). These observations constrain not only the geography and frequency of lateral collapses, but also their magnitude (up to 5000 km3 of material), extent (to 300 km length) and ferocity (underwater speeds to 140 m/s). CHECK ALSO WARNING USGS NO WARNING WILL BE GIVEN FOR CANARY ISLANDS AND PEOPLE WOULD PANIC

Canary Islands - MASSIVE activity happening NOW ! (7 oct. 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7Yw474eMo

From: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Could_a_Mega_Tsunami_Wipe_Out_the_Eastern_Seaboard_999.html

Could a Mega-Tsunami Wipe Out the Eastern Seaboard?

by Staff Writers Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2011

As scientists have been baffled by earthquakes in the U.S. and a tsunami in Japan, there is one thing some of them seem to agree on - something really bad is about to happen and it's going to happen soon.

That's the news uncovered by New York Times best-selling novelist Steve Alten from the research he performed for his new book, Phobos: Mayan Fear, a fictional tale of the Mayan 2012 doomsday prediction.

His story incorporates the very real existence of a volatile volcano in the Canary Islands that some scientists believe could pose a catastrophic threat to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. What's worse is that many believe the volcano is close to erupting.

"Scientists have been tracking this since 2001," said Alten.

"Ten years ago, Dr. Simon Day, of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College London, predicted that if the volcano, called Cumbre Vieja, was to erupt, it would cause a landslide, which in turn would create a massive mega-tsunami.

"Moving at roughly the speed of a commercial jet, these waves would be about 100 to 160 feet high by the time they crossed the Atlantic to strike U.S. shores."

What's worse is that El Hierro, another volcano only 80 miles from Cumbro Viejo, is set to erupt soon.

"At the end of September, the Canary Islands government raised the alert level for the El Hierro volcano in the Canary Islands (Spain) to 'Yellow,' the highest alert status since an unprecedented earthquake swarm commenced in mid-July," Alten added.

"Now, that volcano won't cause a massive tsunami, but I can't imagine that a volcano erupting 80 miles away from another more volatile volcano is something that will add to the geologic stability of the region."

Alten's research for his book also revealed that most scientists don't consider a Cumbro Viejo eruption just a possibility. They believe it is a probability.

"Dr. Steven Ward from the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California co-authored a paper with Dr. Day in which he stated that in the case of Cumbro Viejo, it is not a matter of if, but rather, a matter of when."

According to the paper, entitled "Cumbre Vieja Volcano - Potential collapse and tsunami at La Palma, Canary Islands," the volcano would cause a massive landslide on the island of La Palma, forcing a massive chunk of land into the ocean.

Immediately thereafter, an unprecedented mountain of water about 3,000 feet high would form and crest only to collapse and rebound back into the ocean.

The tsunami would cover about 155 miles in about 10 minutes, and rumble past 500 miles per hour as it spread through the Atlantic toward the U.S. coast. Waves as high as 164 feet would pound the lower part of the Eastern Seaboard.

"People were surprised by the earthquakes here in the states and shocked at the Japanese tsunami," Alten said.

"I may be a writer of fiction, but when it is based on facts this strong and this compelling, I can tell you I won't be surprised when we get a tsunami warning to evacuate to East Coast. After all, the facts have been here the whole time."

---

Related articles:

Strong sustained swarm now taking place at El Hierro (October 8, 2011)
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/strong-sustained-swarm-now-taking-place-at-el-hierro/
CANARY ISLANDS – An intensified sustained earthquake swarm is now taking place at the Canary Islands and it appears the magma is now on the move again bubbling closer to the surface and incinerating more rock in the process. Over the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the depths of the tremors rising up to within 11 km from a depth average of about 14.5 to 15 km. The number of seismic volcanic tremors has also doubled at El Hierro since Wednesday. On Wednesday, October 5, there were 79 recorded seismic events. On Thursday, there were 160 and on Friday, October 7th, there were 177. – MORE ON THIS HERE

Geological Time Bomb: Red Alert Issued For El Hierro Volcanic Region in Canary Islands; Possible Tsunami Threat To U.S. East Coast (October 13th, 2011)
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/geological-time-bomb-red-alert-issued-for-el-hierro-volcanic-region-in-canary-islands-possible-tsunami-threat-to-u-s-east-coast_10132011
The IGN, Spain’s USGS equivalent, has issued a Red Alert warning for the El Hierro volcanic region in the Canary Islands amid thousands of earthquake swarms and volcanic activity which started in early August

(...) Given that the entire region is under earthquake warnings and parts of the Canary Islands are now being evacuated, with a red alert having been issued in the Hierro area, we find it necessary to, at the very least, inform our East Coast readers of the possible threat should a massive earthquake in the region cause a breaking away of parts of the island(s). The USGS is apparently refusing to issue news, alerts or warnings to East Coast residence regarding the progressively deteriorating circumstances surrounding the El Hierro volcano in the Canary Islands, and a search of the USGS web site resulted in no information, news, alerts or warnings for how these events may affect the United States. Primary news channels remain silent on any possible threats as well. Modern Survival Blog’s research indicates the activity is so significant that the Canary Islands have been sinking since July of this year and we are now receiving reports of widespread volcanic flows in the ocean: A look at the GPS stations there, reveals quite evidently that most of them (6 of 10) in the area are literally sinking, and have been doing so since about July of this year. My own observations of other volcanic regions have shown that there is often ‘inflation’ or rising of the land mass prior to volcanic eruption. In this case though, there is rather dramatic deflation to the northeast of El Hierro, particularly ‘Canarias’. The region is sinking… CHECK ALSO Canary Islands Sinking Into The Ocean AND 300 Foot Tsunami and East Coast Destruction

Mega Tsunami Hits New York Written by Peter 11 September 2009
http://www.theoratorium.com/yaf_postst595_Mega-Tsunami-Hits-New-York.aspx
After many weeks trying to understand the following experience, I have concluded to believe that I have been witness to a future event through the eyes of another person during a dream/nightmare which has greatly disturbed me. The dream or premonition was no longer than two minutes in length but I can recall it with astounding detail. This dream takes place on a high street in New York where I step out of a building, (possibly the place of work for the person who's eyes I have seen through). I turn right and begin walking down the high street, as I do so more and more people appear from the surrounding buildings to convene on the streets. I keep walking towards the crowd which is gathering with increased density to the point where I can not traverse through it. The street is now packed from side to side with people like sardines in a tin and there is a sense of confusion and fear all around. No one knows why there are so many people gathering however no one is panicked at this time. As I can go no further I decide to look for an area of safety away from the crowd, to my surprise I find a recess in a building to the right of me where there are no people. I rush to safety and stand with my back toward the wall breathing heavily and look out in the same direction as I was walking before. I'm there for no longer than ten seconds before the crowd begins to panic and point directly behind and upward of my position. Seeing this I lean my body to the left and then turn my head to peer out from the recess to see what they are pointing at. As I look out from the recess I see an enormous wall of water or 'Mega Tsunami' more than twice the height of the largest skyscraper in view, (which was to the right and up to 3 miles away from me). Panic ensues as I look down from the tip of the tsunami (which is a normal sea blue in colour) to street level where I see two cars being pushed at very high speed by the water towards my direction (the water at this level is dark green in colour). Water begins to rush at my feet, I look down to see it has an intense bright green colour which is non transparent and has a white wash with waves of cyan running through it. The water levels rise incredibly fast and I realise that I'm staring death in the face. Knowing that I'm about to die I retreat fully back into the recess still with my back to the wall and only have enough time to say "bye" before the wave hits, at which point I awoke.The voice at the end saying "bye" was not mine.In my wakening I felt the sorrow for such a mass loss of life, so much so that I could not even shed a tear. This dream has haunted my mind ever since so I felt it necessary to search for some answers. I got onto the Internet and typed in 'tidal wave New York' to see if at first anyone else had had the same dream and posted it some where, but to no avail.

(...) I then decided to search for the skyscraper I could see in the dream, as I have never been to New York or even any part of the U.S. I thought it best to study photos of every significant skyscraper in New York to find to correct one. My conclusion without a shadow of a doubt was that it was the Chrysler building. - http://www.gothereguide.com/chrysler+building+new+york-place/ - Knowing that I then used Google Earth - http://earth.google.com/ - to locate the Chrysler building and the Cumbre Vieja volcano in order to find a link between the two. Unfortunately I found a whole lot more than I expected, the recess in a building along the same road was exactly where it was in my dream and even more frightening the direction of which the tsunami came from is exactly the direction it would come from should this nightmare ever become a reality.

Nostradamus Proven: The True Prediction for the Destruction of New York City
http://yowusa.com/nostradamus/2007/nostradamus-2007-10a/1.shtml
Millions of Americans living along the East Coast are in the cross hairs of a deadly La Palma mega-tsunami threat. Scientists warn us that we face a clear and present danger. Their evidence is clear and compelling, and now, there is more. A new analysis of Nostradamus demonstrates that he predicted this impending calamity with equally clear and compelling precision.

(...) Professor Lock's analysis demonstrates a clear and present danger to America's East coat, from Maine to Florida, because it echoes the warning of the nation's leading broadcast and cable television networks. They're sounding the alarm and telling us exactly how this will happen!
National Geographic
End Day: Mega-Tsunami
If La Palma encounters a catastrophic flank failure, an immediate and massive breaking off of the island into the ocean, scientific models predict the mega-tsunami will move outward in an arc, hitting the African mainland with 150-200 foot (46-61 meters) waves.
Discovery Channel
Extreme Earth: Earthquakes
Some geologists are predicting that the volcano on La Palma in the Canaries could explode at some time in the future. The result would send a mega-tsunami 500 metres high across the Atlantic, which could engulf parts of the UK.
NOVA (PBS)
Wave That Shook the World
The western flank of the island's active volcano has the potential to give way in a future eruption. If it did, a huge mass of rock weighing 500,000 million tons would fall into the Atlantic Ocean. Experts in Switzerland have simulated the potential effects of such a collapse. Their model shows that it could generate a wave capable of engulfing every port on the east coast of the U.S., which they believe may have happened during a similar tsunami 120,000 years ago.
Before you succumb to the science-illiterate debunkers and naysayers, consider the fact that these organizations vet their information with careful attention, using considerable resources.

CLIP

BBC - End Day (part 1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1uXO-F5jZE
End Day is a docu-drama produced by the BBC, that depicts various doomsday scenarios. The documentary follows the fictional scientist Dr. Howell, played by Glenn Conroy, as he travels from his London hotel room to his laboratory in New York City, and shows how each scenario affects his journey as well as those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster as it unfolds.Mega-Tsunami. In this scenario, a volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma triggers a massive landslide wherein a sizable portion of the island collapses into the sea, causing a massive mega-tsunami to race across the Atlantic ocean and strike the east coast of the United States, inundating most of New York City, but leaving many buildings intact. CLIP

For more on the scientific background for this threat, check...

EVALUATION OF THE THREAT OF MEGA TSUNAMI GENERATION FROM POSTULATED MASSIVE SLOPE FAILURES OF ISLAND VOLCANOES ON LA PALMA, CANARY ISLANDS, AND ON THE ISLAND OF HAWAII
http://www.drgeorgepc.com/TsunamiMegaEvaluation.html

---

Evidence Builds: Deadly Gravity Wave Approaching Earth (12 octobre 2011)
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1225/548/Evidence_Builds:_Deadly_Gravity_Wave_Approaching_Earth.html
Gigantic gravitational waves up to 100 billion light years long could be warping the universe into a twisted maze compressing and squeezing out the edges of space-time like an old rag being wrung dry. Now evidence is mounting that one of these rogue waves may be on its way towards Earth. (...) What to watch for: At first, the strong possibility of the loss of high technology, increasing planetary superstorms, an encroaching Ice Age, more frequent and massive earthquakes and volcanic activity, tsunamis and the Earth exposed to deadly radioactive baths from space can occur. Then the gigantic, merciless gravity wave will come roaring into the solar system inundating it like a titanic space tsunami. If humanity's lucky, it might survive a glancing blow. But if the belt scores a direct hit… CLIP

---

A Strange Sunrise Over Argentina
http://bigwobblepics.blogspot.com/2011/10/strange-sunrise-over-argentina.html
Why would a rising Sun look so strange? No one is yet sure. What is clear is that the above unusual sunrise was captured last month from Buenos Aires, Argentina. CLIP

Fascinating holographic projection in Berlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74




SPECIAL UPDATE ON THE GROWING GLOBAL PROTESTS AGAINST CORPORATISM AND GREED

NOTE from Jean: After a major global mobilization of support to prevent authorities from emptying Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park) from the Occupy Wall Street's ongoing protest - see further below for many examples of this mobilization - the 'cleaning up' of this park has been postponed for now, but vigilance must continue as the oligarchs are getting more and more nervous about the growing scope and influence of this peaceful 'r'evolutionary action.

New York Police Arrest 14 Wall Street Protesters in Lower Manhattan Clash (Oct 14, 2011) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-14/wall-street-protesters-arrested-in-lower-manhattan-police-say.html
New York police said they arrested 14 anti-Wall Street protesters in lower Manhattan following a decision earlier today to postpone the closure of Zuccotti Park, the site of demonstrations against the financial industry. Protesters arrested included those who stood or sat down in the street, New York City Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said in an e-mail. Others taken into custody included individuals who allegedly overturned trash baskets or hurled bottles, Browne said. At least one demonstrator was detained after he allegedly knocked over a police scooter.The arrests took place in the vicinity of Broadway and Exchange Place, in lower Manhattan. They came after a decision earlier today to keep Zuccotti Park, near Liberty Street and Broadway, open rather than close it for cleaning. The postponement averted a confrontation there between demonstrators, who had gathered in greater numbers overnight, and police who threatened to remove tents and sleeping bags. As protesters filed out of the park and marched on lower Manhattan streets, across the Brooklyn Bridge more than 30 police cruisers and 50 officers gathered near the federal courthouse at the span’s eastern end. A march Oct. 1 onto the bridge by protesters resulted in hundreds of arrests. Protesters arrested in the march sued New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly for allegedly violating their constitutional rights. Five of the protesters, seeking to represent about 700 people arrested, filed a civil rights complaint Oct. 4 in Manhattan federal court. They claimed officers from the New York City Police Department lured them onto the bridge’s roadway to trap and arrest them.

Constitutional Rights Lawyer Michael Ratner: Failed Occupy Wall Street Evacuation Order is Illegal (October 14, 2011) EXCERPT DEMOCRACY NOW VIDEO - Must watch!
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/14/constitutional_rights_lawyer_michael_ratner_failed
Speaking from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, attorney Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights says New York City’s efforts to displace Occupy Wall Street protesters in order to clean the park violates their First Amendment rights and would have led to a major confrontation. "Apart from the illegality of it, it was just too massive," Ratner says. "It would have been a bloodbath. The idea that they were going to come in here when there were thousands of people all over the place, union people everywhere, they could not have successfully closed this park down... It’s too big now. This park is becoming a permanent feature of the next generation of protests." Ratner was a co-signer of a letter sent last night from the Occupy Wall Street Legal Working Group to Brookfield Properties, who must maintain the private park for public use, that claimed the enforcement action it requested to New York City in order to clean the park raised serious First Amendment and other legal concerns, and warned that police action in the park without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful. We also speak with an Occupy Wall Street organizer about plans for a global day of action tomorrow, October 15, called "United for #GlobalChange." [includes rush transcript] CHECK ALSO NYC Withdraws Cleaning Evacuation Order in Face of Defiant Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Wall Street protests present political dilemma (Oct 14, 2011)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gAKe9iWyJqzVsqlcNezrfbaTKnMA?docId=6b2e1064aa86485b901d22e54db6bf3a
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans alike are struggling to make sense of the Wall Street protests and figure out how to respond to the growing nationwide movement a month after young people pitched a tent in front of the New York Stock Exchange and began demonstrating against economic inequality. The political establishment's quandary centers on this question: Do the protests have long-lasting political consequences or are they simply a temporary reflection of voter frustration with the economy? Democrats have been largely supportive of the so-called Occupy Wall Street movement, which has drawn attention to the economic concerns of the country's middle class, Wall Street greed and high unemployment. The protesters have referred to themselves as the "99 percent," or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. The spontaneous protests have taken root in New York's Zuccotti Park and spread to other U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, at a time when President Barack Obama's poll numbers have declined and Democrats have privately grown wary that they may be suffering from an enthusiasm gap compared with Republicans.

(...) Several protests are planned this weekend in the U.S., Canada and Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa. Plans to clean up the New York plaza where protesters have camped out was postponed early Friday, a boost to demonstrators who had worried it was the first step in evicting them.

(...) Liberal Democrats think the movement draws bright lines between Democrats and Republicans, arguing that the Republican presidential candidates have uniformly supported tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. The growth of the movement has prompted speculation about what role the protests could play in the fall debate in Congress on the economy and spending — and whether Obama should try to meet with the protesters as a way to show that he is listening to them."It would be a super bold move on his part. I can't imagine his political advisers ever telling him to do it," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org. "But there are voices down there with important perspectives that have mostly not been heard in American politics and the president, just going there, would open up some spaces for those (voices)."Van Jones, a former Obama administration official who has helped organize an effort by liberal activists and unions to recapture the American Dream, said the movement "is about a wholesale political failure of the entire political class and the financial elite to respond to the American people. That creates opportunities and dangers for all politicians."

URGENT: Stop a Canadian company from evicting Occupy Wall Street

13 Oct 2011 22:44

Dear friends,

At 7AM tomorrow morning, a Canadian company, Brookfield Asset Management, is threatening to evict Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park in New York. We need your help right now to stop Brookfield from shutting down the beating heart of a new global movement.

Zuccoti Park is the birthplace of the Occupy movement that has swept across the United States, and starts in Canada this Saturday. This new movement is spreading like wildfire because it powerfully speaks for economic justice and the need to reclaim our democracies.

Brookfield owns Zuccotti Park and wants to evict the participants to “clean” the park. Worse, they are threatening to impose new rules that will prevent the participants from bringing sleeping bags or tarps back into the park, effectively ending the occupation.

The New York police have said that they can only evict the participants if Brookfield labels them trespassers. Mayor Bloomberg has promised to order the police to clear the park once that happens. We need a massive Canadian outcry right now. Send a message directly to Brookfield’s executives demanding that they respect democratic rights:

http://www.leadnow.ca/stop-occupy-wall-street-eviction

Tria Donaldson, Leadnow’s communication coordinator, will be in Zuccotti Park tomorrow morning at 6AM to join a non-violent defense against the eviction -- and making sure that the Canadian press covering the story know just how many Canadians have spoken up to oppose Brookfield’s action.

“Cleaning” has been used over and over as a pretense to shut down peaceful occupations -- already this year it was used to evict protesters from the Wisconsin state house, and New York Mayor Bloomberg himself used it to shut down a peaceable demonstration against budget cuts. We can’t let it happen again.

Brookfield and Mayor Bloomberg are expecting an outcry in the US, they are not expecting a massive public outcry in Canada. This is a Canadian company. As Canadians, we have a special responsibility to tell Brookfield’s leadership not to dare interfere with the democratic rights of our southern neighbours.

Let’s show our American friends that we’ve got their back. Occupy Wall Street is about challenging the power of the richest 1%, and defending the economic and democratic rights of everyone else. Don’t let our 1% bail out America’s 1%. We need your help to send a message to Brookfield’s executives here in Canada, right now:

http://www.leadnow.ca/stop-occupy-wall-street-eviction

With hope and respect,
Jamie, Tria, Matthew, Ryan, Emma and Adam on behalf of the Leadnow.ca team

References:

1. Occupy Wall Street’s original call to action:
http://occupywallst.org/article/emergency-call-action-prevent-forcible-closure-occ/

2. Brookfield has to call them trespassers:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2011/10/3640197/end-game-zuccotti-park-according-nypd-landlord-has-push-political-bu

3. Protesters fear eviction:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/13/occupy-wall-street-protesters-fear-eviction-from-park/

4. “Cleaning” was the excuse used to shut down the Wisconsin occupation
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/10/13/first-step-in-eviction-of-occupy-wall-street-advanced/

Leadnow.ca is an independent community that brings Canadians together to hold government accountable, deepen our democracy and take action for the common good.

Check also How To Hold Your Ground

Update: Friday 14 Oct, 1pm – People power has won a crucial victory by postponing the imminent eviction of Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park by a Canadian company, Brookfield Asset Management. Now we need your help to protect Occupy Wall Street.Brookfield has a long-standing agreement with the city to keep Zuccotti Park open to the public 24 hours a day. Now, we need a clear public statement that Brookfield will respect the protestors democratic rights on land assigned to a public purpose.At a minimum, as Canadians, we ask that Brookfield Asset Management publicly state that it supports the right of the protesters to: - Continue occupying Zuccotti Park without interference. - Supply themselves with the minimum requirements for safety and sanitation: such as toilets, showers, tents, warm bedding and other necessities that they decide they require. Click here to send a message to secure the victory and check out the inspiring video of the Occupy Wall Street protesters learning that Brookfield backed down, and an on-the-scene update from Tria Donaldson

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Canadians join fight over feared eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters (October 14, 2011 )
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1069673--canadians-join-fight-over-feared-eviction-of-occupy-wall-street-protesters
(Photo caption) Members of Occupy Wall Street pick up brooms to clean Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York on October 13, 2011. Protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement spent the night cleaning Zuccotti Park following Mayor Bloomberg's demand that the demonstrartors leave the park for city officials to clean it. --- More than 7,000 Canadians signed an online petition Friday opposing the feared eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from New York’s Zuccotti Park, a property owned by a Canadian holding company.Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the park where protesters have been camped out for four weeks, said it delayed the planned cleanup of the park at the request of local political officials.The move came after thousands of people sent online messages to Brookfield and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and also showed up prepared to be arrested in defense of the right to protest in the park. Among the online protesters were more than 7,000 Canadians who signed a petition at Leadnow.ca, a website run by a Canadian advocacy organization best know for sponsoring “vote mobs” in the last federal election.“Frankly I think they backed down in the face of overwhelming public pressure,” said James Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.ca, said of Brookfield’s about-face. “I don’t think either Brookfield or Mayor Bloomberg wanted to have a huge, messy, ridiculously violent confrontation, which would have been the only way to get them out of there,” Biggar said. Brookfield Properties said the delay was temporary.“At the request of a number of local political leaders, Brookfield Properties has deferred the cleaning of Zuccotti Park for a short period of time while an attempt is made to reach a resolution regarding the manner in which Zuccotti Park is being used by the protesters,” the company said in a statement.“Any such resolution will be respectful of the laws of the City of New York and will ensure that the park is used in a way that maintains the health, safety and viability of the surrounding residential and business community.” The Leadnow.ca petition targeted Brookfield Asset Management, the Toronto-based holding company that owns Brookfield Office Properties, one of North America’s largest commercial real estate companies. The Canadian firm’s board is lead by a who’s who of corporate titans, including chairman Frank McKenna, the former New Brunswick premier. Brookfield Properties’ assets include seven high-profile office towers in Manhattan, including the World Financial Centre, and Zuccotti Park, a property named after its chairman John Zuccotti. Friday’s standoff began after Brookfield Properties announced it planned to clean up the park and asked New York City Police to enforce city bylaws, which would prohibit tents, sleeping bags and other items the protesters had been using to camp out in the plaza. Protesters feared the move would amount to a permanent eviction.

(...) The “mother” protest in New York that began a month ago has spawned similar encampments in cities across the U.S. and world, including Toronto Saturday, and in places beyond New York it was clear that officials’ patience was wearing thin. Near the Colorado state Capitol in Denver, hundreds of protesters were told to clear out of a park or risk arrest, and dozens of police in riot gear moved in and declared the area closed. In Trenton, N.J., protesters were ordered to remove tents from their encampment near a war memorial. Boisterous cheers floated up from the crowd in New York as the announcement of the cleaning postponement circulated, and a small group soon marched away with brooms, saying they were going to clean up Wall Street, a few blocks away. CLIP - Check also Denver Police Dismantle Protest Site (October 14, 2011)

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Date: 13 Oct 2011
From: "Emma Ruby-Sachs - Avaaz.org" (avaaz@avaaz.org)
Subject: Emergency - Occupy Wall St Eviction

Dear Friends,

Urgent -- tomorrow at 7 am, the New York City police plan to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The only way to stop the eviction is a roaring outcry to New York's billionaire mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and to the owners of the protest park. We must show them that their global reputations are on the line.

Let's flood their offices with phone calls! Avaaz will tell the media about the numbers of calls made, multiplying their impact on the public image of Bloomberg and Richard B. Clark -- the CEO of the company that owns the park. If enough of us call now, we could turn the tide and stop the eviction--but only hours are left!

Call the Mayor and Brookfield Properties Here:

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-NEW-YORK (639-9675)
Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063
Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000
Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300
Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000

After calling, post a message about how the call went -- to help Avaaz count the number of calls made, and demonstrate the wave of worldwide support for the protesters.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/emergency_callin_to_stop_eviction/?vl

Suggestions for your call:

- Say that you have a message for Brookfield CEO Richard Clark or NYC Mayor Bloomberg (depending on who you are calling)
- Stop the eviction of Zuccotti Park
- We have a constitutional right to protest.
- This is one of the biggest shows of public outrage in decades and these people represent hundreds of thousands across the world who stand with the protesters and the movement for real democracy.
- The protesters are cleaning up the park, keeping it clean and safe

http://www.avaaz.org/en/emergency_callin_to_stop_eviction/?vl

We can help make sure the thousands of protesters rights to freedom of speech and assembly are respected by calling Billionare Bloomberg and Brookfield. Forward to everyone!

Emma, Morgan, Maria Paz, Alice, Ben, Rewan and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Occupy Wall Street protesters fear eviction from park
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/13/occupy-wall-street-protesters-fear-eviction-from-park/

Update: Occupy Wall Street Responds to Bloomberg’s Cleaning ‘Eviction Notice’
http://www.observer.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-responds-to-bloombergs-eviction-notice/

NOTE from Jean: I signed this AVAAZ alert and left the following comment: "Bloomberg is going to get the 99% of us all so enraged if he carries this eviction that the Occupy Wall Street will quickly grow a hundred fold. Even if he succeeds in "cleaning up" the plaza, the occupiers will soon have no choice but to retreat in various indoor havens to spend the nights because it will be too cold to sleep outside anyway. This eviction will thus create a huge wave of sympathy and open many doors where the protesters will be invited to sleep over and then go back to occupy multiple locations around Wall Street. In short Occupy Wall Street will metastasize and become an unstoppable force until the corporate dictatorship in America is disbanded."

Anti-Wall Street protesters to block clean-up (14 Oct 2011) with a video
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/10/201110146148372343.html
Showdown feared at site of 'Occupy Wall Street' camp as protesters say planned clean-up is a ruse to evict them. -- Anti-Wall Street protesters are preparing to block efforts to clean up the Lower Manhattan park that they have occupied since September 17. The move has raised fears of a possible showdown with authorities as the clean-up gets under way on Friday at Zuccotti Park, where hundreds of protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement are camping. Brookfield Office Properties, the private owner of the publicly accessible Zuccotti, plans to start cleaning at 7am (1100 GMT). It said conditions at the park were "unsanitary and unsafe," with no toilets and a shortage of rubbish bins.Protesters fear the clean-up is an attempt to shut down the movement, which has sparked solidarity protests in more than 1,400 cities, and have accused Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, of being behind the move. "Be warned, this is a tactic that Bloomberg has used to shut down protests in the past, and a tactic used recently in similar protests throughout Europe," protest organisers said on a Facebook page. Occupy Wall Street has called on protesters to "defend the occupation from eviction" on Friday. There are also plans for global rallies on Saturday in 71 countries, according to Occupy Together and United for Global Change. Progressive group MoveOn.Org also called on its supporters to "stand with the protesters at the moment when they need us most". Brookfield said the clean-up was necessary as neighbours at Zuccotti Park had complained of lewdness, drug use, harassment and offensive odours from the protesters. Brookfield representatives, escorted by police, handed out notices to the protesters on Thursday to tell them that the park would be cleaned in three stages and would re-open for public use consistent with park regulations.But the rules ban camping, tents or other structures, lying down on the ground, placing tarpaulines or sleeping bags on the ground and the storage of personal property - everything the protesters have been doing since they set up. "Brookfield respects the rights of free speech, assembly, and peaceful protest," the company has said in a statement. Police said they would be on hand to ensure public order, but it is up to Brookfield Office Properties to enforce the rules of its park. Police will only become involved if laws are broken or if an official complaint is made by the park owners. Protesters are upset that the billions of dollars in bank bailouts paid out during the recession allowed banks to resume earning huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and job insecurity. They also say the richest one per cent of Americans don't pay their fair share in taxes. Hundreds of people have been arrested at rallies in New York and police have used pepper spray. Dozens have also been arrested during the past couple of weeks from Boston and Washington DC to Chicago, Austin and San Francisco. Solidarity rallies have also sprung up at more than 140 US college campuses in 25 states, according to Occupy Colleges.

---

Date: 12 Oct 2011
From: "Emma Ruby-Sachs - Avaaz.org" (avaaz@avaaz.org)
Subject: The World vs Wall Street -- Amazing response!

Dear friends,

Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall St -- an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. They are the latest ray of light in a new movement for social justice that is spreading like wildfire from Madrid to Jerusalem to 146 other cities and counting, but they need our help to succeed. 

As working families pay the bill for a financial crisis caused by corrupt elites, the protesters are calling for real democracy, social justice and anti-corruption. But they are under severe pressure from authorities, and some media are dismissing them as fringe groups. If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we'll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change. 

This year could be our century's 1968, but to succeed it must be a movement of all citizens, from every walk of life. Click to join the call for real democracy -- a giant live counter of every one of us who signs the petition will be erected in the centre of the occupation in New York, and live webcasted on the petition page: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?vl

The worldwide wave of protest is the latest chapter in this year's story of global people power. In Egypt, people took over Tahrir Square and toppled their dictator. In India, one man's fast brought millions onto the streets and the government to its knees -- winning real action to end corruption. For months, Greek citizens relentlessly protested unfair cuts to public spending. In Spain, thousands of "indignados" defied a ban on pre-election demonstrations and mounted a protest camp in Sol square to speak out against political corruption and the government's handling of the economic crisis. And this summer across Israel, people have built "tent cities" to protest against the rising costs of housing and for social justice.

These national threads are connected by a global narrative of determination to end the collusion of corrupt elites and politicians -- who have in many countries helped cause a damaging financial crisis and now want working families to pay the bill. The mass movement that is responding can not only ensure that the burden of recession doesn't fall on the most vulnerable, it can also help right the balance of power between democracy and corruption. Click to stand with the movement: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?vl

In every uprising, from Cairo to New York, the call for an accountable government that serves the people is clear, and our global community has backed that people power across the world wherever it has broken out. The time of politicians in the pocket of the corrupt few is ending, and in its place we are building real democracies, of, by, and for people. 

With hope,
Emma, Maria Paz, Alice, Ricken, Morgan, Brianna, Shibayan and the rest of the Avaaz team

SOURCES

Unions, students join Wall Street protesters (Businessweek)
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q6CA3O0.htm

Spanish youth rally in Madrid echoes Egypt protests (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13437819

Anti-austerity protesters block Greek ministries (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/04/greece-idUSL5E7L40BV20111004

Occupy Wall St - online resources for the occupation
http://occupywallst.org/

Occupy Wall St primer (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-wall-street-a-primer/2011/08/25/gIQAbX7oHL_blog.html

Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park (Mic Check/Occupy Wall Street) (10/10/11)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ambiguous-upsparkles-from_b_1003908.html
I have been watching and listening to all kinds of views and takes on Occupy Wall Street. Some say it's backed by the Democratic Party. Some say it's the emergence of a third party. Some say the protesters have no goals, no demands, no stated call. Some say it's too broad, taking on too much. Some say it is the Left's version of the Tea Party. Some say its Communist, some say it's class warfare. Some say it will burn out and add up to nothing. Some say it's just a bunch of crazy hippies who may get violent. I have been spending time down at Zucotti Park and I am here to offer a much more terrifying view. What is happening cannot be defined. It is happening. It is a happening. It is a response to injustice and inequity and poverty and Wall Street corruption and soaring college debt and unemployment and homelessness, institutionalized racism and violence against women, the murdering of the earth, fracking and the keystone pipeline and the wars that the U.S. has waged on other countries that have destroyed them and bankrupted us here.It is a cry against what appears to be scarcity and what Naomi Klein calls a distribution problem and, I would add, a priority problem. It is a spontaneous uprising that has been building for years in our collective unconscious. It is a gorgeous, mischievous moment that has arrived and is spreading. It is a speaking out, coming out, dancing out. It is an experiment and a disruption. We all know things are terribly wrong in this country. From the death of our rivers, to the bankruptcy of our schools to our failed health care system, something at the center does not hold. A diverse group of teachers, thinkers, students, techies, workers, nurses, have stopped their daily lives. They have come to gather and reflect and march and lay their bodies down. They have come from all over the country and the world. Some have flown in just to be here. I met students last night from a college in Kentucky who had just arrived committed to sleeping out for two nights in solidarity. Occupy Wall Street is a work of art, exploding onto a canvas in search of form, in search of an image, a vision. CLIP

Occupy Wall Street and "The American Autumn": Is It a "Colored Revolution"? Part I by Michel Chossudovsky (October 13, 2011)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27053
There is a grassroots protest movement unfolding across America, which includes people from all walks of life, from all age groups, conscious of the need for social change and committed to reversing the tide.The grassroots of this movement constitutes a response to the "Wall Street agenda" of financial fraud and manipulation which has served to trigger unemployment and poverty across the land. Does this movement constitute in its present form an instrument of meaningful reform and social change in America? What is the organizational structure of the movement? Who are its main architects? Has the movement or segments within this movement been co-opted?This is an important question, which must be addressed by those who are part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement as well as those who, across America, support real democracy.

(...) CANVAS-OPTOR is currently involved in the Occupy Wall Street Movement (#OWS).Several key organizations currently involved in The Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) movement played a significant role in "The Arab Spring". Of significance, "Anonymous", the social media "hacktivist" group, was involved in waging cyber-attacks on Egyptian government websites at the height of "The Arab Spring". (http://anonops.blogspot.com/ - http://anonnews.org/) In May 2011, "Anonymous" waged cyberattacks on Iran and last August, it waged similar cyber-attacks directed against the Syrian Ministry Defense. These cyber-attacks were waged in support of the Syrian "opposition" in exile, which is largely integrated by Islamists. (See Syrian Ministry Of Defense Website Hacked By 'Anonymous', Huffington Post, August 8, 2011). The actions of "Anonymous" in Syria and Iran are consistent with the framework of the "Colored Revolutions". They seek to demonize the political regime and create political instability. (For analysis on Syria's Opposition, see Michel Chossudovsky, SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO "Humanitarian Intervention" Global Research, May 3, 2011) Both CANVAS and Anonymous are now actively involved in the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The precise role of CANVAS in the Occupy Wall Street Movement remains to be assessed. Ivan Marovic, a leader of CANVAS recently addressed the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in New York City. Listen carefully to his speech. (Bear in mind that his organization CANVAS is supported by NED). Click link below to listen to Ivan Marovic's address to Occupy Wall Street in New York City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM3BBtc7N0 - Marovic acknowledged in an earlier statement that there is nothing spontaneous in the planning of a "revolutionary event": "It looks like people just went into the street. But it's the result of months or years of preparation. It is very boring until you reach a certain point, where you can organize mass demonstrations or strikes. If it is carefully planned, by the time they start, everything is over in a matter of weeks." (Quoted in Tina Rosenberg, Revolution U, Foreign Policy, February 16, 2011) This statement by OTPOR's spokesperson Ivan Marovic would suggest that the protest movements in the Arab World did not spread spontaneously from one country to another, as portrayed by the Western media. The national protest movements were planned well in advance. The chronology and sequencing of these national protest movements were also planned. Similarly, Maravic's statement also suggests that The Occupy Wall Street movement was also the object of careful advanced planning by a number of key organizations on tactics and strategy. It is worth noting that one of OTPOR's tactics is "not try to avoid arrests", but rather to "provoke them and use them to the movement's advantage." as a PR strategy. (Ibid)

CAW throws support behind growing ‘Occupy’ movement (Oct. 14, 2011)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/caw-throws-support-behind-growing-occupy-movement/article2201340/
The Canadian Auto Workers endorsed Occupy Wall Street on Friday, giving a boost to the nascent Canadian movement as activists across the country prepare for their own demonstrations against what they consider to be corporate greed and inequality. “We are encouraging people to participate in peaceful demonstrations,” said CAW president Ken Lewenza. “The issues being fought on Wall Street and this weekend on Bay Street are issues that we have been talking about for quite some time.” Activists say they will gather in Toronto on Saturday to highlight the gap between the wealthy few and the rest of the world. Hundreds of similar events are planned to begin in cities around the world on Saturday. Mr. Lewenza said he doesn’t know how many people from the union will attend, but he sent a note to CAW Locals asking members to show up in force.The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada also endorsed the movement and said its members will take to the streets on Saturday. “We believe it’s sending the right message, that money is not well split in this country, as in the United States, and things need to change,” said Gaetan Menard, secretary-treasurer of CEP.At a Toronto planning meeting on Thursday that attracted more than 250 people, an organizer said he asked for the support of several local unions. “The labour unions want to help us out,” the man said. “Do we want to accept labour’s help?” The group, which makes decisions by consensus, clapped and cheered. In New York, a group of powerful unions joined Occupy Wall Street last week, bolstering demonstrators’ numbers and amplifying their message. And in Canada, the BC Federation of Labour announced this week it would lend formal support to protesters in Vancouver who plan to convene near the city’s art gallery on Saturday. CLIP

Steve Jobs on those who dare to change the orld
http://ampedstatus.org/steve-jobs-on-occupywallstreet-video/

US Soldiers Stand Up In Defense of Their Country – #OccupyWallStreet (October 5, 2011)
http://ampedstatus.org/us-soldiers-stand-up-in-defense-of-their-country-occupywallstreet-opesr/
AMONG THE COMMENTS POSTED THERE, THIS ONE STANDS OUT: "They have a leader, we have a leader. It's called human consciousness and we all have one. It is what guides us, it is what guides those to whom we give the title leader to. Every single human protester is at this point in time are exhibiting the qualities of leadership. They are there by the character of their consciousness and could be know where else if they wanted to. Humanity is a human organism, a physical human organism connected by our consciousness. Just like every organ in the human body has a job every individual in the body of humanity has a job and particular talent that will come to light once the truth is known in an effort to eradicate whatever disease or parasite attacks the body. History teaches that in all movements as in all wars there are many heroes who come to the forefront when need be and do the job that need be done. These heroes aren't leaders there like the red blood cells in the human body which automatically acts once the germ cell is known. The rich are like the aids virus and have become unrecognizable as a disease to the body of humanity. They have done this with lies and propaganda through the media. Henry Ford said it best when he said "If they understood the banking system they would protest and overthrow the government." CLIP

Iraq Veterans at Occupy Wall Street Decry Financial Crisis Soldiers Face Returning Home (October 11, 2011)
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/11/iraq_veterans_at_occupy_wall_street
Protesters at Occupy Wall Street include veterans of the U.S. military, many of whom are struggling with their multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, mental and physical trauma and illness, and the hardships of pulling their lives back together when returning to civilian life. "It’s no secret that a lot of veterans are facing unemployment, homelessness, and a lot of other issues that are dealing with the economy," says Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War. [includes rush transcript]

Independent Media Stalwarts Katrina vanden Heuvel & Danny Schechter Speak Out at Occupy Wall Street (October 11, 2011) VIDEO
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/11/independent_media_stalwarts_katrina_vanden_heuvel
"The moral clarity of this movement is what I think has moved people to get up and walk and be in motion," says Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine. "And what’s so interesting to me is—I was here last Wednesday for the march to Foley Square—that so many groups, which have been trying to get some energy, are finding the spark in here and coming together." (...) "I think what we have here, an independent spirit, people who don’t want to be involved in partisan squabbling, who don’t want to propose things, because they feel that to propose things recognizes the validity of the system, and they don’t feel the system really can solve anything, so they don’t do it. And I think that’s a smart move, because what they’re trying to do right now is to build numbers and to build influence. And they’re doing that. You know, this thing is spreading across the country and across the world, and it’s very exciting."

Occupy Wall Street March Gets Massive Turnout; 28 Arrested in Police Crackdown (6 oct. 2011) THE VIOLENCE DISPLAYED BY THE POLICE IS REALLY DISGUSTING! THIS STRATEGY REMINISCENT OF EVERY OTHER BRUTAL CRACKDOWN AGAINST PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS IN THE ARAB WORLD WILL ONLY HEIGHTEN THE RESOLVE OF THE PROTESTERS AND WILL ULTIMATELY SPELL THE END OF THIS CORPORATE REGIME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPdDAyGLEWA
Labor unions and students joined the growing Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City on Wednesday in the largest march since the protest began 20 days ago. Tens of thousands marched from Foley Square to Zuccotti Park, renamed "Liberty Plaza," the site of the protest encampment where hundreds have been sleeping since Sept. 17. The march was peaceful, but police later beat a handful of protesters with batons after they toppled a police barricade in an attempt to march down Wall Street. Police say a total of 28 people were arrested. Democracy Now! reports from the street and hears from eyewitnesses to an altercation between police and protesters at Wall Street.For the complete transcript, podcast, and for additional Democracy Now! reports about the Occupied Wall Street protests, visit http://www.democracynow.org/tags/occupy_wall_street

Occupy Wall Street Protest Heads to Millionaire’s Row, Home to Murdoch, Koch, and JPMorgan CEO (October 12, 2011) VIDEO
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/10/12/occupy_wall_street_protest_heads_to_millionaires_row_home_to_murdoch_koch_and_jpmorgan_ceo
Hundreds of protesters participated in a "Millionaires’ March" Tuesday that wended its way through New York City’s wealthy Upper East Side neighborhood. They called for an end to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and sought to pressure Governor Andrew Cuomo to extend a surcharge tax on the state’s wealthiest residents known as the "Millionaire’s Tax." The march stopped at the homes of several billionaires, including John Paulson, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, conservative billionaire David Koch, Emigrant Savings Bank chairman Howard Milstein, and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. The march was organized by 99 New York, a new coalition of groups formed around the growing Occupy Wall Street movement, and included trade unionists, retirees, students and an activist brass marching band. CLIP - CHECK ALSO Occupy Wall Street Organizer: Protest Expands Despite Police Effort to "Silence" Demonstrators (October 11, 2011)

Kucinich & Hedges on the 99% Movement: “The Best Among Us” (Audio)
http://ampedstatus.org/kucinich-hedges-on-the-99-movement-“the-best-among-us”-audio/
This week on Truthdig Radio in collaboration with KPFK: Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Chris Hedges explain why the 99 percenters are “the best among us.” Plus: Occupy L.A., Obama’s “secure communities” and modern midwifery.

Protesters to #OccupyLondon Stock Exchange (14 October 2011)
http://anonops.blogspot.com/2011/10/protesters-to-occupylondon-stock.html
Protesters are preparing to set up camp outside the London Stock Exchange, expanding Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that began in New York.About 6,000 people have signaled their intent to attend a peaceful demonstration that will start at noon on Oct. 15. The group plans to mass in Paternoster Square, close to the London offices of both Bank of America Corp. in King Edward Street and Goldman Sachs Group on Fleet Street.The words ‘corporate greed’ ring through the speeches and banners of protests across the globe. After huge bail-outs and in the face of unemployment, privatisation and austerity we still see profits for the rich on the increase. But we are the 99%, and on October 15th our voice unites across gender and race, across borders and continents as we call for equality and justice for all.In London we will occupy the stock exchange. Reclaiming space in the face of the financial system and using it to voice ideas for how we can work towards a better future. A future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.Bring your energy and excitement, and be ready to create a better world! Occupy London , CHECK ALSO Riot police deployed for Wall St copycat protest in City

Occupy Wall St. Goes Global, Secret NSC "Kill List" of US Citizens, DEA Corruption, More
http://www.WantToKnow.info/11/10_occupy_wall_st_secret_kill_list_dea_corruption

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Matt Taibbi on His Advice for Occupy Wall Street Protesters (October 13, 2011 - Video)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/my-advice-to-the-occupy-wall-street-protesters-20111012

My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters: Hit bankers where it hurts

I've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower Manhattan are a great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and a long-overdue middle finger to the financial elite. The protesters picked the right target and, through their refusal to disband after just one day, the right tactic, showing the public at large that the movement against Wall Street has stamina, resolve and growing popular appeal.

But... there's a but. And for me this is a deeply personal thing, because this issue of how to combat Wall Street corruption has consumed my life for years now, and it's hard for me not to see where Occupy Wall Street could be better and more dangerous. I'm guessing, for instance, that the banks were secretly thrilled in the early going of the protests, sure they'd won round one of the messaging war.

Why? Because after a decade of unparalleled thievery and corruption, with tens of millions entering the ranks of the hungry thanks to artificially inflated commodity prices, and millions more displaced from their homes by corruption in the mortgage markets, the headline from the first week of protests against the financial-services sector was an old cop macing a quartet of college girls.

That, to me, speaks volumes about the primary challenge of opposing the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption, which is that it's extremely difficult to explain the crimes of the modern financial elite in a simple visual. The essence of this particular sort of oligarchic power is its complexity and day-to-day invisibility: Its worst crimes, from bribery and insider trading and market manipulation, to backroom dominance of government and the usurping of the regulatory structure from within, simply can't be seen by the public or put on TV. There just isn't going to be an iconic "Running Girl" photo with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or Bank of America – just 62 million Americans with zero or negative net worth, scratching their heads and wondering where the hell all their money went and why their votes seem to count less and less each and every year.

No matter what, I'll be supporting Occupy Wall Street. And I think the movement's basic strategy – to build numbers and stay in the fight, rather than tying itself to any particular set of principles – makes a lot of sense early on. But the time is rapidly approaching when the movement is going to have to offer concrete solutions to the problems posed by Wall Street. To do that, it will need a short but powerful list of demands. There are thousands one could make, but I'd suggest focusing on five:

1. Break up the monopolies. The so-called "Too Big to Fail" financial companies – now sometimes called by the more accurate term "Systemically Dangerous Institutions" – are a direct threat to national security. They are above the law and above market consequence, making them more dangerous and unaccountable than a thousand mafias combined. There are about 20 such firms in America, and they need to be dismantled; a good start would be to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and mandate the separation of insurance companies, investment banks and commercial banks.

2. Pay for your own bailouts. A tax of 0.1 percent on all trades of stocks and bonds and a 0.01 percent tax on all trades of derivatives would generate enough revenue to pay us back for the bailouts, and still have plenty left over to fight the deficits the banks claim to be so worried about. It would also deter the endless chase for instant profits through computerized insider-trading schemes like High Frequency Trading, and force Wall Street to go back to the job it's supposed to be doing, i.e., making sober investments in job-creating businesses and watching them grow.

3. No public money for private lobbying. A company that receives a public bailout should not be allowed to use the taxpayer's own money to lobby against him. You can either suck on the public teat or influence the next presidential race, but you can't do both. Butt out for once and let the people choose the next president and Congress.

4. Tax hedge-fund gamblers. For starters, we need an immediate repeal of the preposterous and indefensible carried-interest tax break, which allows hedge-fund titans like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson to pay taxes of only 15 percent on their billions in gambling income, while ordinary Americans pay twice that for teaching kids and putting out fires. I defy any politician to stand up and defend that loophole during an election year.

5. Change the way bankers get paid. We need new laws preventing Wall Street executives from getting bonuses upfront for deals that might blow up in all of our faces later. It should be: You make a deal today, you get company stock you can redeem two or three years from now. That forces everyone to be invested in his own company's long-term health – no more Joe Cassanos pocketing multimillion-dollar bonuses for destroying the AIGs of the world.

To quote the immortal political philosopher Matt Damon from Rounders, "The key to No Limit poker is to put a man to a decision for all his chips." The only reason the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie Dimons of the world survive is that they're never forced, by the media or anyone else, to put all their cards on the table. If Occupy Wall Street can do that – if it can speak to the millions of people the banks have driven into foreclosure and joblessness – it has a chance to build a massive grassroots movement. All it has to do is light a match in the right place, and the overwhelming public support for real reform – not later, but right now – will be there in an instant.

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Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? By MATT TAIBBI (FEBRUARY 16, 2011)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216
Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.
(...) Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.This article appears in the March 3, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive February 18. The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars. Invasion of the Home Snatchers - Instead, federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice. "If the allegations in these settlements are true," says Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, "it's management buying its way off cheap, from the pockets of their victims." CLIP

Banking - the Greatest Scam on Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9IH-XKQpOI
The Greatest Scam on Earth - The Money Scam! The Money Scam is hidden right out in the open, yet buried in complication and confusion. A retired banker describes simply, the world's Money Scam and the reason every country is now going bankrupt. Private bankers have stolen the money creation process, and whereas once our money was created by the governments, debt-free, it is now created out of thin air and issued as debt with interest charges. In today's banker controlled world, money = debt, debt = slavery and therefore money = slavery --- our monetary systems have become systems of enslavement. Money is created out of nothing, issued as debt, not enough money is created for the future interest payments and inflation steals our savings. The money creation process should be taken away from the banks and given to the governments who can create money debt-free, interest-free. This is how it used to be done and we needed no income taxes. Finally, it is explained what we should do to stop supporting the money scam.

Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes, then and now. 1 of 6 (Oct 9, 2011)
http://dailycensored.com/2011/10/09/occupy-this-us-history-exposes-the-1’s-crimes-then-and-now-1-of-6/
Occupy Wall Street (and nationwide) has three emerging objectives:Public recognition of the 1%’s crimes, centering on war and money. End war and money crimes that annually kill millions, injure billions, and loot trillions of our dollars. Build a brighter future for 100% of humanity, centering on full constructive employment and the creation of money that maximizes public good. My Open proposal for US Revolution: end unlawful wars, parasitic economics explains and documentswar and money crimes so they are “emperor has no clothes” obvious, Gandhi and Dr. King’s strategy for victory, with recommendation for a Truth and Reconciliation window to encourage criminals’ peaceful surrender. Historical consideration and today’s possibility of the US creating money to cause full employment and optimal infrastructure. This replaces the Orwellian “debt supply” the 1% creates and controls as their main weapon of dominance (more on economic solutions here). This 6-article series documents the history of criminality of the 1%’s Wars of Aggression and War Crimes. The power of this history is to reveal that the 1% lies, kills, and loots as their usual business. We the People, the 99%, have historically been distracted by political and media rhetoric that propagandized the crimes. For whatever reasons of greed never having “enough,” the 1% overplayed their hand. We the 99% have reached a critical mass stage of engaged attention. The criminals among the 1% have a rapidly closing window of opportunity to reclaim their humanity, have “Scrooge conversions,” and contribute to causing the above objectives. The facts that the 1%’s war and money policies are massive and obvious crimes is important. The 99%’s recognition is a trigger for those of us with Oaths to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Arrests will follow; the 1%’s houses of cards will collapse in tragic-comedy. These six articles are taken from an assignment for my high school seniors to understand current events. The 11-part series will be available under the title, Teaching US History of empire/terrorism to recognize it today. The 1%’s crimes will end because the 99% embrace the political, economic, and spiritual ideals of our Declaration of Independence. CLIP

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Evolution of the Spanish Indignant Movement - The movement goes global on October 15 (11 Oct 2011)
http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/evolution-spanish-indignant-movement.html
On October 15th people from all over the world will take to the streets and squares. From America to Asia, from Africa to Europe, people are rising up to claim their rights and demand a true democracy. Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end. United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us. On October 15th, we will meet on the streets to initiate the global change we want. We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen.It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen. People of the world, rise up on October 15th! - WATCH ALSO THIS RELATED VERY INSPIRING POWERFUL VIDEO (With English subtitles) SHOWING WHAT OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE DOING IN SPAIN WHERE IT ALL STARTED

Global mass protests 15th October 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyziG5bUuBE

'Indignant' Protests to Sweep Across World (13 October 11)
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/316-20/7860-indignant-protests-to-sweep-across-world
"Indignant" protesters, angered by a biting economic crisis they blame on politicians and bankers, vow to take to the streets worldwide Saturday in a protest spanning 71 nations.It is the first global show of power by the protest, born May 15 when a rally in Madrid's central square of Puerta del Sol sparked a movement that spread nationwide, then to other countries. As governments cut deep into welfare spending to try to trim huge sovereign debts, protests have grown and this weekend's demonstrations are being organised in Madrid, New York and around the world."United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future," organisers said in a statement on http://occupywallst.org/forum/10-15-call-to-action/
Over the last 30 years, the 1% have created a global economic system - neoliberalism - that attacks our human rights and destroys our environment. Neoliberalism is worldwide - it is the reason you no longer have a job, it is the reason you cannot afford healthcare, education, food, your mortgage.Neoliberalism is your future stolen.Neoliberalism is everywhere, gutting labor standards, living wages, social contracts, and environmental protections. It is "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." It is a system that ravages the global south and creates global financial crisis - crisis in Spain, in Greece, in the United States. It is a system built on greed and thrives on destablizing shocks.It allows the 1% to enrich themselves by impoverishing humanity. This has to stop!We must usher in an era of democratic and economic justice. We must change, we must evolve. On October 15th the world will rise up as one and say, "We have had enough! We are a new beginning, a global fight on on all fronts that will usher in an era of shared prosperity, respect, mutual aid, and dignity." Actions in NYC

Pay US Back Actions Alerts
http://showdowninamerica.org/pay-us-back
It’s not only Wall Street that’s occupied … Across the Country, Americans Say Wall Street Must “Pay U.S. Back” Thousands of homeowners, clergy, congregants, unions, and students across the country are conducting direct actions demanding that banks such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America pay their fair share of taxes, end the mortgage crisis, and create jobs. For more information and our demands, go here. For downloadable posters and signs, go here.

Why Occupy Wall Street? Take this video VIRAL, NOW!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/09/1024636/-UPDATE-2:-OWS:-Take-this-video-VIRAL,-NOW!
So, a ton of people including many in my family members have been taking the attitude of "I understand why they're pissed, but I'm not exactly sure what their demands are" when it comes to the Occupy movement. Well, a guy named DC Douglas has put together a brilliant 3-minute video which boils down the situation and just what the hell should be done about it. CLIP

Ralph Nader: Obama is a Dictator! + Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich Speak to Occupy Wall Street (Oct. 12, 2011 )
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/ralph-nader-obama-is-a-dictator-nader-ron-paul-kucinich-speak-to-occupy-wall-street/

The $41 Million Question (9/26/11)
http://showdowninamerica.org/supercommittee-wallst
Members of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction have received $41 million from the financial sector during their time in Congress, according to a new report from Public Campaign and National People’s Action, “Wall Street and the Supercommittee: The $41 Million Question.” At least 27 current or former aides for the “supercommittee” members have lobbied on behalf of financial firms. “Wall Street bought the deregulation that led to our economic collapse and the American public has paid the price,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. “The supercommittee should not give Wall Street and big banks another free ride because of their campaign cash.” Tax reforms such as closing the “Hedge Fund Loophole” and instituting a Financial Speculation Tax can generate over a trillion dollars that can be used for housing, jobs, and repairing our nations’ frayed social safety net, according to National People’s Action. -- Download The $41 Million Question report -- “Wall Street and the big banks are trying to buy their way out of paying their fair share. We know where the money is to rebuild our economy and it’s not in the pockets of school children or in Grandma’s pension – it’s on Wall Street,” said George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action. In addition to summary data, the report provides individual details for each member of the committee, including their campaign contributions from financial interests, former aides working for the industry, and fundraising activity. The 12 members of the supercommittee have received at least $41 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector during their time in Congress. They have received nearly $900,000 from three of the top American banks—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells FargoSince 2000, the industry has spent over $4 billion lobbying elected officials. Nearly 30 former aides to the 12 members work as lobbyists for financial industry interests. The report concludes, “The decisions this supercommittee makes in the coming months will show whether Wall Street influence guides policymakers or the hardships faced by everyday Americans are taken into account. Regular people didn’t create toxic assets or ship jobs overseas. Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed a political system that allows those who caused the economic disruption we see on Main Street in town after town and city after city to buy their way out of responsibility.” In August, Public Campaign and National People’s Action signed a letter with two-dozen organizations urging the supercommittee members to give up fundraising and provide complete transparency of their meetings with lobbyists, donors, and corporate CEOs. So far, five members of the committee have announced that they would slow or curtail fundraising. Think Wall Street should pay their fair share? Sign our petition to the Super Congress

President Obama Gets Pounded With #OccupyWallStreet Questions
http://ampedstatus.org/president-obama-gets-pounded-with-occupywallstreet-questions-winning-video/
Congrats 99%ers! At Obama’s Jobs Act press conference he was pounded with excellent #OccupyWallStreet questions. Jump to the 21-minute mark... Note from Jean: As many people as possible must come down in the streets to express - peacefully and constructively as they now do! - their demands for a different America and a different world, so as to eventually help tilt the balance back towards a true push for the deep changes Obama initially stood for, which he could not deliver both because the forces opposing him were too formidable and because he perhaps was not forceful enough to actually go all the way - in a futile bid to rally his opponents and create a broader consensus for the vision he embodied when he was elected. There is still one year to go before the next presidential elections... Perhaps the voice of the people heard in the streets will be loud enough to counter the destructive, pro-Wall Street spin in the disinformation media and make the political system in the US - and elsewhere around the world - work again for the disenfranchised 99% instead of solely for the pampered 1% . If that does not happen soon, this planet will continue its long descent into ecocidal oblivion and billions more poeple will suffer the consequences of the Tyranny of the self-chosen few.

BBC Does It Again: "In The Absence Of A Credible Plan We Will Have A Global Financial Meltdown In Two To Three Weeks" - IMF Advisor (Oct 6, 2011) With video
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bbc-does-it-again-absence-credible-plan-we-will-have-global-financial-meltdown-two-three-weeks-
A week after the BBC exploded Alessio Rastani to the stage, it has just done it all over again. In an interview with IMF advisor Robert Shapiro, the bailout expert has pretty much said what, once again, is on everyone's mind: "If they can not address [the financial crisis] in a credible way I believe within perhaps 2 to 3 weeks we will have a meltdown in sovereign debt which will produce a meltdown across the European banking system. We are not just talking about a relatively small Belgian bank, we are talking about the largest banks in the world, the largest banks in Germany, the largest banks in France, that will spread to the United Kingdom, it will spread everywhere because the global financial system is so interconnected. All those banks are counterparties to every significant bank in the United States, and in Britain, and in Japan, and around the world. This would be a crisis that would be in my view more serrious than the crisis in 2008.... What we don't know the state of credit default swaps held by banks against sovereign debt and against European banks, nor do we know the state of CDS held by British banks, nor are we certain of how certain the exposure of British banks is to the Ireland sovereign debt problems." But no, Morgan Stanley does, or so they swear an unlimited number of times each day. And they say not to worry about anything because, you see, it is not like they have any upside in telling anyone the truth. Which is why for everyone hung up on the latest rumor of a plan about a plan about a plan spread by a newspaper whose very viability is tied in with that of the banks that pay for its advertising revenue, we have one thing to ask: "show us the actual plan please." Because it is easy to say "recapitalize" this, and "bad bank" that. In practice, it is next to impossible. So yes, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this brief relief rally driven by the fact that China is offline for the week and that the persistent source of overnight selling on Chinese "hard/crash landing" concerns has been gone simply due to an extended national holiday. Well, that holiday is coming to an end. - Recommended Larry Stell" (lstell@glasgow-ky.com) by who wrote: "Second warning appears. Of course, of course, they are priming the plunge."

World facing worst financial crisis in history (6 Oct 2011)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8812260/World-facing-worst-financial-crisis-in-history-Bank-of-England-Governor-says.html
The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s “if not ever”, the Governor of the Bank of England said last night. Sir Mervyn said the Bank had been driven by growing signs of a global economic disaster.“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act calmly to this and to do the right thing.” Announcing its decision, the Bank said that the eurozone debt crisis was creating “severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets”. The Monetary Policy Committee [MPC] also said that the inflation-driven “squeeze on households’ real incomes” and the Government’s programme of spending cuts will “continue to weigh on domestic spending” for some time to come. The “deterioration in the outlook” meant more QE was justified, the Bank said. Financial experts said the committee’s actions would be a “Titanic” disaster for pensioners, savers and workers approaching retirement. Sir Mervyn suggested that was a price worth paying to save the economy from recession. CLIP - AND THE "SOLUTION" TO THIS IMMINENT CRISIS IS...

BREAKING: Obama & Israel to Launch War with Iran!! Alex Jones suggests within 2 weeks – Israeli backed by USA to strike Iran (Oct 13, 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-6J0bTskRg

Sources: US Gives Israel Green Light For Iran Strike (October 13, 2011)
http://www.infowars.com/sources-us-gives-israel-green-light-for-iran-strike/
(...) With neo-cons rushing to support aggressive measures against Iran, Obama will now be given right cover to pursue yet another act of regime change. As we postulated back in February last year, Obama is being blackmailed into supporting an attack on Iran as the only way to save his presidency. We also speculated that an assassination attempt would be used as the pretext to implicate Iran. Geopolitical experts have been consistent in their warnings that Israel was preparing to strike Iran this fall. CLIP

FBI Insider: Obama Administration Likely Manufactured Dubious Terror Plot (October 13, 2011) http://www.infowars.com/fbi-insider-obama-administration-likely-manufactured-dubious-terror-plot/
No information about plot exists within FBI channels -- Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer says that an FBI insider told him the dubious terror plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador which has been blamed on Iran was likely manufactured by the Obama administration, because no information about the plot even exists within FBI channels.
(...) “The FBI’s had a record lately and I did talk to one of my inside guys and he is saying he thinks the same thing, you know why, because he can’t find any real information and he’s got a clearance – so that tells him that there’s something going on that’s extraordinary by the fact that he’s an inside investigator, knows what’s going on and yet, I’m gonna quote here, ‘There’s nothing on this within the DOJ beyond what they’ve talked about publicly’ – which means to him that there’s something very wrong with it,” said Shaffer. Even the New York Times is now reporting that the dubious nature of the plot has caused “a wave of puzzlement and skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.” The military-industrial complex has long been searching for a pretext that could be used to justify military strikes against Iran.In a 2009 report entitled “Which Path to Persia?”, the elitist Brookings Institution wrote, “It would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be.” The dubious plot has been instantly seized upon by the likes of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to push for Iran to be further isolated by the çnal community. Kerry’s comments were perhaps the most bellicose, telling reporters yesterday, “I don’t think anything should be taken off the table at this point in time.” It has also served as a useful distraction for Attorney General Eric Holder, who is currently under investigation for his role in the infamous Fast and Furious program, which saw the federal government deliver thousands of military-grade weapons to leaders of Mexican drug gangs. “That the current “alleged” plot pinned on Iran revolves around yet another undercover federal agency conducting a long-term sting operation defies belief,” writes Tony Cartalucci. “That we are expected to believe one of Iran’s most elite military forces left such a sensitive, potentially war-starting operation to a used-car salesman and a drug gang reported in the papers daily for its involvement with US government agencies (and who turns out to actually be undercover DEA agents) is so ridiculous it can only be “made up” as Secretary Clinton puts it. More accurately, it is the result of an impotent US intelligence community incapable of contriving anything more convincing in the face of an ever awakening American public, to bolster its morally destitute agenda. The cartoonish nature of the plot and the arms’ length even its proponents treat it with to maintain plausible deniability is indicative of a dangerously out of control ruling elite and an utterly incompetent, criminally insane government.”

FBI Insider: Obama Administration Likely Manufactured Dubious Iran Terror Plot - WHAT A LIAR OBAMA IS!! HE IS PULLING A GEORGE W BUSH ACT ON US TO MIND-PROGRAM THE GULLIBLE PUBLIC TO SUPPORT MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN - AS DIRECTED BY ISRAEL'S GOVERNMENT...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOHKvT77m3Q

The supposed Iran plot: Immunised by Neocons (14 Oct 2011)
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011101464319670974.html
Author urges skepticism about the Neoconservative rush to war against Iran. (...) But for the lies and manufactured evidence that led us into Iraq, we might actually accept the idea that the Iran plot is thoroughly genuine and in no way linked to the determination of so many inside our government and out of it who are hell-bent on war with Iran and who would do anything they can to achieve it.Fortunately, however, and this may be the only fortunate thing about the Iraq war, the Iraq experience taught us to be skeptical, especially of anything and everything championed by the hawks.So let's go slowly here. If the plot turns out to be both real and sanctioned by powerful people in Tehran, a strong response of some kind is warranted. But first let's make sure. The neocons' "drop bombs now and ask questions later" approach has been thoroughly discredited. How stupid would we have to be, then, to allow the same gang to lead us into yet another reckless war, one that would be infinitely more deadly? Count me among the skeptics.

No Background Support for Iran Strike: Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer Reports 1/2 (PART 2 HERE)
(14 oct. 2011) No military capability appears available for an all-out attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-iwuy2icegA
Alex also talks with Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer about the Iran op and the move toward war. Shaffer is the author of the government censored book Operation Dark Heart.

The fast and furious plot to occupy Iran, by Pepe Escobar (12 Oct 2011)
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/201110121715573693.html
Tehran would have to be terminally foolish to try to snuff out an ambassador on US soil, author says. -- No one ever lost money betting on the dull predictability of the US government. Just as Occupy Wall Street is firing imaginations all across the spectrum - piercing the noxious revolving door between government and casino capitalism - Washington brought us all down to earth, sensationally advertising an Iranian cum Mexican cartel terror plot straight out of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise. The potential victim: Adel al-Jubeir, the ambassador in the US of that lovely counter-revolutionary Mecca, Saudi Arabia. FBI Director Robert Mueller insisted the Iran-masterminded terror plot "reads like the pages of a Hollywood script". It does. And quite a sloppy script at that. Fast and Furious duo Paul Walker/Vin Diesel wouldn't be caught dead near it. (...) Holder was adamant: "The United States is committed to hold Iran accountable for its actions." Yet he stopped short of stating the plot was approved by the highest levels of the Iranian government. So what next? War? Hold your horses; Washington should first think about asking the Chinese if they’re willing to foot the bill (the answer will be no).Predictably, the proverbial torrent of US "officials" came out with guns blazing, spinning everything in sight. An alarmed Pentagon will be increasing surveillance over the Quds Force and "Iran’s actions" in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. Former US ambassadors stated that, "it's an attack on the United States to attack this ambassador". Washington is about to impose even more sanctions against Iran; and Washington is urgently taking the matter to the UN Security Council.What next? An R2P ("responsibility to protect") resolution ordering NATO to protect every House of Saud minion across the world by bombing Iran into regime change? Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at least introduced a little bit of common sense. "I think the US government is busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown both the US government and the CIA have a lot of experience in fabricating these scenarios ... I think their goal is to reach the American public. They want to take the public's mind off the serious domestic problems they're facing these days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country." Iran has not even established yet that these two characters are actually Iranian citizens. The Iranian government - which prides itself on a logical approach to diplomacy - would have to have been inoculated with a terminal Stuxnet-style foolishness virus to behave in such a counterproductive manner, by targeting a high-profile foreign policy adviser to King Abdullah on American soil. The official Iranian news agency IRNA described the plot as "America's new propaganda scenario" against Iran.

As for the Washington mantra that "Iran has been insinuating itself into many of the struggles in the Middle East", that's undiluted Saudi propaganda. In fact it's the House of Saud who's been conducting the fierce counter-revolution that has smashed any possibility of an Arab Spring in the Persian Gulf - from the invasion and repression of Bahrain to the rash pre-emption of protests inside Saudi Arabia's Shia-dominated eastern provinces.The whole thing smells like a flimsy pretext for a casus belli. The timing of the announcement couldn't be more suspicious. White House national security advisor Thomas E. Donilon briefed King Abdullah of the plot no less than two weeks ago, in a three-hour meeting in Riyadh. Meanwhile the US government has been carrying not plots, but targeted assassinations of US citizens, as in the Anwar al-Awlaki case. So why now? Holder is caught in yet another scandal - on whether he told lies regarding Operation Fast and Furious (no, you can't make this stuff up), a federal gun sting through which scores of US weapons ended up in the hands of - here they come again - Mexican drug cartels. So how to bury Fast and Furious, the economic abyss, the 10 years of war in Afghanistan, the increasing allure of Occupy Wall Street - not to mention the Saudi role in smashing the spirit of the Arab Spring? By uncovering a good ol' al-Qaeda style plot on US soil, on top of it conducted by "evil" Iran. Al-Qaeda and Tehran sharing top billing; not even Cheney and Rumsfeld in their heyday could come up with something like this. Long live GWOT (the global war on terror). And long live the neo-con spirit; remember, real men go to Tehran - and the road starts now.

Iran Scoffs at U.S. Account of Alleged Assassination Plot (October 13, 2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/world/middleeast/iran-broadens-counter-rhetoric-on-alleged-plot-calling-it-a-joke.html
The government of Iran on Thursday escalated its rebuttal of American criminal charges that it was behind a murder conspiracy in Washington, calling the claims that Iranian agents had plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador with the help of a Mexican drug gang so ludicrous that even politicians and press in the United States were expressing skepticism about such a scheme. The latest rejoinder added to the response of Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his subordinates, who said on Wednesday that the suspected plot was concocted in Washington to distract Americans from their own traumatic economic problems, highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street movement. At the same time, however, Saudi Arabia, which is deeply suspicious of Iran, suggested that it accepted the American accusations as fact, and Britain said it was taking the accusations seriously. The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, told reporters at a news conference in Vienna that “this dastardly act reflects the policies of Iran.” The Saudi government has not yet decided whether to withdraw its ambassador from Tehran in protest, he said. CLIP

Iran Alleged Assassination Plot: Emboldened by Nuke Program? (October 13, 2011)
http://www.fpif.org/blog/iran_alleged_assassinatiran_alleged_assassination_plot_emboldened_by_its_equally_alleged_nuclear_programion_plot_emboldened_by_its_equally_alleged_nuclear_future
Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution is the author of the 2002 book The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, which he'll probably never live down. Weighing in on Iran's alleged attempt on the life of the Saudi ambassador to the United States yesterday at the Daily Beast, Pollack wrote:… while this plot—a mass casualty attack on U.S. soil—would go well beyond what Iran has attempted in the past, it would represent an extrapolation of another pattern, namely the emergence of a more aggressive, risk-tolerant Iranian regime over the past two years. Be that as it may, part of the case those who are skeptical of the plot's plausibility make is that Iran wouldn't dare because it would be concerned with retribution even more crippling than the "crippling" sanctions we've already imposed on it. Pollack's view is …That the regime may no longer be concerned about a massive American conventional military retaliation. In the past, that fear has been an important restraint on Iranian action against the United States. Again, if true, this plot suggests that the Iranians may believe either that the United States is so consumed with its own internal problems and so determined to avoid another war in the Middle East that the American people would not countenance any action that might risk escalation with Iran. Alternatively, it may suggest that Iran believes its nuclear program is far enough along to deter conventional American military retaliation.Hold on a minute -- a program that's at least a couple of years from producing nuclear weapons is capable of deterring an attack from another country, even if it's not via nuclear weapons? Granted that might be true if Iran had reached the point where it wasn't necessarily manufacturing nuclear weapons but was capable of building them (known as virtual deterrence). But even Israel and the most rabid American hawks don't believe Iran has either built any nuclear weapons, nor is capable of it. It's gives Tehran little credit to infer that it was operating under the delusion that just the intention to develop nuclear weapons would deter an attack. Suggesting it only makes Pollack appear ignorant.

Obama steps up pressure on Iran over 'plot' (14 Oct 2011)
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/10/2011101319225807167.html
US president says Tehran knew of alleged Saudi envoy murder plot and that US will explore all options over its response. -- Barack Obama, the US president, has said there is no doubt members of the Iranian government knew of an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington and that they must be held accountable for the "reckless behaviour". Obama said on Thursday that one of the suspects was an individual of Iranian-American descent and had "direct links, was paid by, and was directed by individuals in the Iranian government". "Our first step is to make sure that we prosecute those individuals who have been named in the indictment," he said. In addition to prosecuting the men, Obama told reporters that the US would continue "to apply the toughest sanctions and continue to mobilise the international community to make sure that Iran is further and further isolated and pays a price for this kind of behaviour". Iran has denied the charges and expressed outrage, saying the allegations threaten stability in the Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and Iran, the biggest regional powers, are fierce rivals and Washington has a huge military presence.Obama said evidence of Iranian government complicity had already been shared with key US allies. "There will not be a dispute" over Iran's role, Obama said. The president said Washington would not take any options off the table in dealing with Iran, a phrase US officials regularly use toward Tehran that is diplomatic code for the possibility of military action. CLIP

Analysis: U.S. plot charges face skepticism in Middle East (Oct 12, 2011)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/us-iran-saudi-arabs-idUSTRE79B57H20111012
Accusations of an Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia's envoy to Washington highlight the deepening Saudi-Iranian cold war for power in the Gulf, but some Middle East analysts questioned the evidence and timing behind the U.S. announcement. Washington said Tuesday it had foiled a plot by two men linked to Iran's security agencies to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel Jubeir, a close aide to King Abdullah. Iran denied the charge but Saudi Arabia said it would "pay a price." The accusation follows tensions between U.S.-backed global oil giant Saudi Arabia and Iran over the upheaval sweeping the Arab world, with both countries suspecting each other of inciting unrest against them or their allies.Shi'ite Iran's close Arab ally Syria has for six months been battling protests against President Bashar al-Assad, who blames the unrest in his country on foreign-backed armed groups. Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia has faced protests in the Shi'ite Eastern Province and sent forces to neighboring Bahrain to help crush sustained demonstrations there by majority Shi'ites -- seen by Riyadh as proxies for Tehran. "There is a secret war going on between the Saudis and Iranians and it does not surprise me that one of its battlegrounds could be the U.S. because of its major role in shaping policy toward the region," said Mohammad Masri, researcher at Jordan University Center for Strategic Studies. CLIP - CHECK ALSO Alleged Iran plot "dangerous escalation": Clinton - "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Iran's alleged ties to a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington marked a "dangerous escalation" of Tehran's sponsorship of terrorism." AND Alleged bomb plot seen heating Middle East Cold War - "Rivalry between powerful Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and Iran has entered a dangerous new phase after the United States accused Tehran of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington."

Petraeus’s CIA Fuels Iran Murder Plot (October 13, 2011)
http://consortiumnews.com/2011/10/13/petraeuss-cia-fuels-iran-murder-plot/
The U.S. media and public are being riled up again with a new set of allegations against Iran, this time for a bizarre assassination plot aimed at the Saudi ambassador in Washington. But former CIA analyst Ray McGovern wonders if this is propaganda from David Petraeus’s CIA. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, in his accustomed role as unofficial surrogate CIA spokesman, has thrown light on how the CIA under its new director, David Petraeus, helped craft the screenplay for this week’s White House spy feature: the Iranian-American-used-car-salesman-Mexican-drug-cartel plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.In Thursday’s column, Ignatius notes that, initially, White House and Justice Department officials found the story “implausible.” It was. But the Petraeus team soon leapt to the rescue, reflecting the four-star-general-turned-intelligence-chief’s deep-seated animus toward Iran. Before Ignatius’s article, I had seen no one allude to the fact that much about this crime-stopper tale had come from the CIA. In public, the FBI had taken the lead role, presumably because the key informant inside a Mexican drug cartel worked for U.S. law enforcement via the Drug Enforcement Administration.However, according to Ignatius, “One big reason [top U.S. officials became convinced the plot was real] is that CIA and other intelligence agencies gathered information corroborating the informant’s juicy allegations and showing that the plot had support from the top leadership of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the covert action arm of the Iranian government.” Ignatius adds that, “It was this intelligence collected in Iran” that swung the balance, but he offers no example of what that intelligence was. He only mentions a recorded telephone call on Oct. 4 between Iranian-American cars salesman Mansour Arbabsiar and his supposed contact in Iran, Gholam Shakuri, allegedly an official in Iran’s Quds spy agency

(...) The public record also shows that former Gen. Petraeus has long been eager to please the neoconservatives in Washington and their friends in Israel by creating “intelligence” to portray Iran and other target countries in the worst light.One strange but instructive example comes to mind, a studied, if disingenuous, effort to blame all the troubles in southern Iraq on the “malignant” influence of Iran. On April 25, 2008, Joint Chiefs Chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, told reporters that Gen. Petraeus in Baghdad would give a briefing “in the next couple of weeks” providing detailed evidence of “just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability.” Petraeus’s staff alerted U.S. media to a major news event in which captured Iranian arms in Karbala would be displayed and then destroyed. Oops. Small problem. When American munitions experts went to Karbala to inspect the alleged cache of Iranian weapons, they found nothing that could be credibly linked to Iran. At that point, adding insult to injury, the Iraqis announced that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had formed his own Cabinet committee to investigate the U.S. claims and attempt to “find tangible information and not information based on speculation.” Ouch! The Teflon-clad Petraeus escaped embarrassment, as the David Ignatiuses of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) conveniently forgot all about the promised-then-canceled briefing. U.S. media suppression of this telling episode is just one example of how difficult it is to get unbiased, accurate information on touchy subjects like Iran into the FCM.As for Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, some adult adviser should tell them to quit giving hypocrisy a bad name with their righteous indignation over the thought that no civilized nation would conduct cross-border assassinations. The Obama administration, like its predecessor, has been dispatching armed drones to distant corners of the globe to kill Islamic militants, including recently U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki for the alleged crime of encouraging violence against Americans. CLIP

Report: Pentagon doesn't know where the money is going (Oct 12, 2011) The Pentagon money black hole must be plugged if the US ever hopes to avoid bankrupcy!
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/13/8294595-report-pentagon-doesnt-know-where-the-money-is-going
The Defense Department, which has promised to publish a reliable account of how it spends its money by 2017, has discovered that its financial ledgers are in worse shape than expected and that it will have to spend billions of dollars in the coming years to make its financial accounting credible, the Center for Public Integrity reported Thursday. The U.S. military has spent more than $6 billion to develop and deploy new financial systems, but the effort has been plagued by significant added overruns and delays, defense officials told the CPI, a nonprofit investigative news organization. The Government Accountability Office said in a report last month that although the services can now fully track incoming appropriations, they still can't demonstrate that their funds are being spent as they should be. CLIP




KEY INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Syria is heading for full-blown civil war, top UN official warns (14 October 2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/14/syria-protesters-defections-security-forces
Large rallies urging further defections from the Syrian security forces have been attacked by government gunmen, as a senior United Nations official warned that the country was sliding towards a full-blown civil war. At least 10 people were killed across Syria, taking the death toll in the six-month uprising to more than 3,000, not including loyalist members of the security forces who continue to target demonstrators. Deir Azour in the Kurdish north was a scene of violent clashes between security forces and defectors who had been urged to swap sides by thousands of chanting activists.In recent weeks a largely passive rights movement inside Syria has taken on a more militant tone, with activists openly seeking weapons and soldiers who have fled the army battling with their former colleagues. The Syrian government says around 1,100 security officers have been killed. On Thursday, at least 36 people were killed nationwide, 25 of them either former or serving security force members. Friday's demonstrations were called in support of the defectors, who Syrian activists say hold the key to the future of an uprising that has become a grinding struggle. "We know the world is not coming to help us," said one man speaking by phone from Homs. "We will do what we have to do. Our brothers in the security forces are increasingly waking up. And soon we will fight alongside them in large numbers." The UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, called for more to be done to stop the violence. "The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war," she said in a statement."As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle." The UN and the international community have been accused of being flat-footed in their response to the crisis, in stark contrast to the enthusiastic intervention in Libya that led to Muammar Gaddafi's ousting in August. The US and Europe have ruled out military intervention and Washington's push for more aggressive sanctions against Damascus was stymied last week by the UN security council after Russian and Chinese vetoes. CLIP

News Analysis: Prisoner swap deal with Israel serves Hamas interests (2011-10-14)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/14/c_131190113.htm
GAZA, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Five years after the indirect talks with Israel to reach a prisoner swap deal, observers believe that the timing of hammering out the deal to release 1,027 prisoners for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is apparently calculated by the Hamas movement to serve its interests. As the deal to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners was declared on Tuesday, the leaders of the Islamic movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, described the deal "a great victory." However, the deal, that has been waited for a long time, would not include some jailed prominent Palestinian leaders, including Marwan Barghout from the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Sa'adat, the chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The deal was reached while 6,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners keep on a hunger strike in all Israeli jails since Sept. 28 in protest to the tightened measures of the Israeli Prisons Authorities against them and their deteriorating living conditions.Mustafa Sawaf, a pro-Hamas political analyst based in Gaza said that the deal "had strengthened Hamas and its credibility among the Palestinians, mainly its ideology based on the principle of the armed resistance," adding that "there is no doubt that the deal was a great achievement for Hamas." "Hamas will soon pick up the fruits of such a historic achievement," said Sawaf, adding that Hamas proved that it is a strong movement that managed to keep Shalit in captivity in Gaza for five years, where all the Israeli security and intelligence forces failed to find his place. Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in 2007, is hoping that the release of Shalit would end a tight Israeli blockade imposed on the coastal enclave for more than four years, which almost strangled Gaza's economy and Hamas' finance resources. CLIP

Minister: Israeli authorities refuse hunger strike demands (4 Oct 2011)
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=426026
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israel's prison administration has refused Palestinian detainees' demands as prisoners enter their eighth day on hunger strike, the minister of detainees' affairs in Ramallah said Tuesday. Issa Qaraqe said a meeting between prisoner representatives, the assistant general director of prisons and Israeli intelligence officers in Ramon prison failed to yield any results. Prisoner representative Jamal al-Rojoub said Israeli officials called on detainees to end the hunger strike and said they would respond to the detainees' list of demands within one week. Detainees' demands include an end to solitary confinement and collective punishment, fines and what they say are provocative cell raids, as well as better medical care and to be allowed to take university courses. They are also protesting against the practice of chaining their hands and legs during family visits and meetings with lawyers. Thousands of people in the West Bank and Gaza staged demonstrations on Monday in solidarity with Palestinian detainees on hunger strike in Israeli jails. Director of the Abu Jihad center for prisoners affairs at al-Quds university Fahd Abu al-Hajj said Sunday that 3,000 or so prisoners were taking part in the hunger strikes. According to latest reports from the Palestinian Authority, 6,000 Palestinians are being detained in Israeli prisons, including 219 in Administrative Detention who are held without charge. MORE ON THIS THROUHGH Activities Launched To Support The Striking Detainees (October 04, 2011) AND Political Prisoners (OCT 12, 2011) It is good news that over 1000 Palestinian political prisoners will be released in a prison swap deal. But there are still thousands of Palestinian political prisoners. CLIP

October 13 statement by Physicians for Human Rights: An update on the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike
Last month, on Tuesday, September 27, 2011, more than 100 Palestinian prisoners embarked a hunger strike, and true to today, the number of participants has risen to over 300. The prisoners have announced that their strike will be an open strike, it will not end on a certain date; it will continue until demands are met or until lives are lost. Despite the large scale of the strike and its potential consequences, there has been very little coverage of the strike in the Israeli press. We feel it is important to get the word out and release the information we’ve gathered in hopes that it will raise awareness and generate a more potent public debate. Over the last years, Palestinian prisoners have faced declining incarceration conditions, to level of collective punishment. The conditions under which Palestinian prisoners live violate their basic rights, and defy the rights enshrined in Israeli and international law. There has been close to no international criticism of their holding conditions, nor of how they are treated. The malevolent treatment of Palestinian prisoners has gathered momentum and has been institutionalized in laws and regulations that, according to those on strike, leave no way out. According to the prisoners, the only means left to them to protest their treatment and conditions is by engaging in a hunger strike. The prisoner’s demands are as follows: •Remove all Palestinian prisoners from solitary confinement, including political leaders. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has been working for many years to stop the use of solitary confinement, which causes physical and emotional damage that is often irreversible. Solitary confinement is considered cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and even qualifies as torture. •End the holding of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, which violates international law. •Reinstate family visits for prisoners from Gaza, which Israel has fully restricted for the last five years. Reinstate family visits for several hundred Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank whose rights have been taken away, and refrain from making it difficult for families to visit. •Put and end to daily searches of prisons cells that are often conducted with force. •End strip searches of prisoners and of family members who come to visit. •End the shackling of prisoners at their ankles and wrists during visits with their families, lawyers, and during medical exams at hospital •Fulfill their right to education •Allow in books and newspapers, allow Palestinian prisoners to watch Arabic television •End severe and aggressive punishment, including the use of isolation, fines, and prohibiting the visits of family members or access to canteen. •End violations of the basic rights of Palestinian detainees. Allow all detainees to meet with a lawyer during the span of their interrogations and address the dwindling of judicial review during the length of imprisonment and interrogation. CLIP - Received from AmanyDayif@phr.org.il

Pakistan's Little-Known Payback to the U.S. for Drone Attacks on Its Soil (October 13, 2011)
http://www.fpif.org/blog/pakistans_little-known_payback_to_the_us_for_drone_attacks_on_its_soil
In the course of an October 3 article at MEMRI titled The Failing U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan, Tufail Ahmad and Y. Carmon puncture the myth that the Taliban is negotiating, or preparing to negotiate, with the United States. (MEMRI is the Middle East Media Research Institute.) Even more of a revelation -- at least to me --they report that Pakistan mounted a series of military attacks on Afghanistan this year. Here's a sample:In February 2011, Pakistani planes also bombarded Afghan Border Police posts and civilians' homes in Afghanistan's Nangarhar and Khost provinces. … In June 2011, Pakistan launched a series of missile and artillery attacks on the Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktia, killing dozens of civilians which were described by the Afghan government in a resolution as an "act of invasion" by Pakistan. On June 26, 2011, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of firing 470 missiles into the eastern Afghan provinces. … In a July 2, 2011 testimony before the parliament, Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak confirmed that two Pakistani helicopters entered the Afghan territory sometime in the summer of 2011. On July 5, 2011, Afghan border police commander Aminullah Amarkhel reported that hundreds of fighters from the Pakistani Taliban crossed the border into Afghanistan's Nuristan province, where they attacked police outposts and torched homes. … on the eastern borders of Afghanistan with Pakistan, and that Pakistan has established 16 security checkposts inside Afghanistan's territory; 31 Pakistani security checkposts on the border with eastern Afghanistan were also seen as a threat to Afghanistan.It's embarrassing enough for the United States that Pakistan not only refuses to clamp down on, but enables, the Haqqani network's campaign in Afghanistan. But when Pakistan's military itself invades Afghanistan, it nudges our campaign there into the realm of the farcical. At least, though, it permits Pakistan a degree of payback for our drone attacks on Pakistan's soil, as well as the raid on Abbottabad.

Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan: A Prophetic Perfect Storm
http://www.paulmcguire.org/articles/articles_israel_iran_afghanistan_pakistan.html
There is a convergence of military, economic, spiritual and political events that amount to a Prophetic Perfect Storm. First we have a global economic meltdown which has turned up the heat hot for the United States, the EU, Russia, the Arab nations, Iran, Pakistan, Israel, China, Mexico and just about every nation on Planet Earth. Global economies are reeling and nation-states are desperate to economically survive and prosper. Now comes the big crisis which is Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and nuclear weapons in the hands of militant Islam. If Pakistan falls to the Taliban, al Qaeda will have 60 nuclear weapons. The balance of power will radically change for militant Islam!President Obama’s sympathies appear to lie with the Islamic world and not Israel. The U.S. State Department is applying enormous pressure on Israel to accept a two-State solution and a dividing Jerusalem. In fairness to President Obama, this was the Bush plan. President Obama’s Administration is reaching out to Iran and Syria. Yet the President has stated publicly that he will not allow Iran to attain a nuclear bomb. But, the reality is that underneath the rhetoric, at Natanz and Bushehr and numerous other locations Iran moves quickly forward developing nuclear weapons When President Obama meets with Netanyahu, he will be starkly reminded that Israel will not allow a nuclear Iran.To compound the problem, Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, warned that Pakistan is now the center of al Qaeda’s global operations. Petraeus believes that al Qaeda now runs global terror operations from Pakistan into Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa, Europe and the United States. General Petraeus warned that Pakistan is in imminent danger of falling under the complete control of the Taliban. This would give al Qaeda nuclear weapons and control of a nation more powerful than Iran. At this moment the Taliban is planning a counter surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan to confront U.S. troops and seize Pakistan. CLIP

World's newest nation faces prospect of famine (October 06, 2011)
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1006-hance_sudan_famine.html
As East Africa reels from a devastating famine, which is hitting Somalia the hardest, there are new fears that another African nation could soon slip into a similar situation. On July 9th of this year, South Sudan became the world's newest nation; however a few months later drought, conflict, refugees, and rising food prices could push the eastern region of South Sudan into a famine, warned officials from the fledgling nation yesterday. "Lower harvests due to unreliable rains coupled with the rising food prices world-wide, have created a severe food shortage leaving more than 1.3 million in need of food aid," Joseph Lual Acuil, South Sudan’s minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, said in Juba as reported by the Sudan Tribune. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have poured into the region over the past year according to the UN, straining resources. In addition, late rains and conflict have meant that many agricultural areas are not being utilized. Finally food prices have risen rapidly: Salah Barkawi, local Beja party spokesperson, told the AFP that prices of a staple food, sorghum, have more than doubled recently. In East Africa, officials estimate that 13 million people are threatened by hunger, while 30,000 children have died in the past three months alone. South Sudan borders Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, and some have suggested that food shortages there are a part of the wider problem facing East Africa.

The Wanton Destruction Of Sirte: Extraordinary Pictures Show Libyan City Shelled to Smithereens
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29405.htm
Buildings are crumbling, heavily armed fighters stand on every street corner and snipers lurk on rooftops - welcome to Sirte. Check the comments at the end!

Fighters, Gaddafi forces battle in Tripoli (Oct 14, 2011)
http://presstv.com/detail/204600.html
The National Transitional Council (NTC) has reported gun battle between forces loyal to the fugitive Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi and revolutionary fighters in the capital of Tripoli.The two sides exchanged fire in the Abu Salim district, a stronghold of support for Gaddafi, on Friday. Medics say several people have been injured in the clashes which sent shock waves through the capital. The gun battle broke out after Gaddafi loyalists held a demonstration in the troubled capital. This is for the first time that serious fighting has broken out between the two sides since the capital city fell into the hands of NTC forces in August. The developments come as forces loyal to Gaddafi still control large parts of Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte and the desert town of Bani Walid. NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil has said that at least 25,000 people had been killed and 50,000 others injured during the months-long revolution. Libya's NTC chairman said on Wednesday that he expected to declare total victory in less than a week, which would pave the way for the formation of a transitional government and elections within eight months.

US drone strike kills 78 in Somalia (Oct 14, 2011)
http://presstv.com/detail/204501.html
An attack by a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has killed at least 78 people and injured 64 others in southern Somalia, Press TV reports. The Friday attack took place near Qooqani town located in southern Somalia, a Press TV correspondent reported. In a different incident on Friday, another US drone attack killed 11 civilians and wounded 34 more in Hoosingow district in the south of the country. Somalia is the sixth country where the US military has conducted drone strikes. The US has employed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen to launch aerial bombings. Washington claims the airstrikes target militants, though most such attacks have resulted in civilian casualties. Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.




OTHER RECOMMENDED NEWS AND INFORMATION

Street Smarts (Sept 30, 2011)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2094362,00.html
(...) A smarter approach to America's infrastructure crisis is brewing underneath Philadelphia, where an aging "combined sewer system" that collects wastewater and storm water in the same pipes dumps raw sewage into the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers during heavy rains. Engineers have proposed a $9 billion storage tunnel under the Delaware to stop overflows and comply with EPA regulations. But Mayor Michael Nutter doesn't have $9 billion, and if he did, he wouldn't want to bury it 150 ft. underground. Instead, the city has launched a remarkably aggressive campaign to keep storm water out of its sewers in the first place with the help of rain barrels and rain gardens, vegetated green roofs and permeable green roads, new trees and new parks. A green road looks like any other road, but rain that falls on it slowly percolates underground instead of zipping into a storm drain. The eventual goal is to capture runoff from one-third of the city's impervious surfaces and make 15 sq. mi. of man-made, urban jungle function more like a natural forest.Nutter, who has pledged to turn Philadelphia into the greenest city in America, has a nice riff about treating water as a resource instead of a waste product and how it's fun to convert parking lots into parks. But he isn't some tie-dyed hippie tree hugger. He wouldn't be so excited about green infrastructure if he didn't think it could help him comply with the Clean Water Act for about $7 billion less than a giant tunnel would cost. "It's revolutionary, but it's really a no-brainer," Nutter says. "We help the environment, and we don't have to waste all that money tearing up the city."What Nutter and his team are doing with porous basketball courts and man-made wetlands is a model — not just for wastewater projects, which the EPA expects to cost the U.S. nearly $400 billion by 2030, but also for the reconstruction of a cash-strapped country.

(...) Smart building, whether of a more efficient water-management system or a smarter grid or a better transportation network, depends on three principles. First, reduce demand. Philly's strategy of decreasing the volume of storm water that its sewers need to manage instead of building capacity can apply well beyond sewers. Most people don't think of electricity conservation as related to infrastructure, but every "negawatt" saved through efficiency mandates for buildings and appliances that waste less energy is a megawatt from a new coal-fired power plant that doesn't have to be built. The same logic applies to strategies that reduce driving, water use and trash; think nega-roads, nega-reservoirs and nega-dumps. CLIP (See pictures of New York City going green.)

Jerry Brown legalizes 12-year-old children giving 'consent' to Gardasil vaccine injections, but bans tanning beds for those under 18 (October 10, 2011)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033831_Jerry_Brown_Gardasil.html
(NaturalNews) Insanity prevailed in California once again today as Governor Jerry Brown signed bill AB499 allowing 12-year-old children the ability to consent to being injected with Gardasil vaccines without their parents' knowledge; yet at the same time the Governor banned the use of tanning beds by anyone under 18 unless they received parental consent. For the record, HPV vaccines are widely linked to maiming and even killing countless children while contributing absolutely nothing to the body's real defense of cervical cancer. The entire fabrication of quack science behind HPV vaccines is nothing but a corporation fantasy created to drum up sales for vaccines. In contrast to that, tanning beds have actually been scientifically shown to increase vitamin D levels in people who are deficient in vitamin D -- and that includes the vast majority of the population living in California.

(...) The whole idea that 12-year-old children can give "consent" to being injected with HPV vaccines is a total violation of common sense and yet another encroachment of the nanny state upon the rights of parents.The idea that 12-year-old children can consent to invasive medical procedures that carry a very real risk of death is absurd. Is the state now going to say that 12-year-old children are adults and can buy beer, drive vehicles and consent to sexual encounters with other adults, too? If Jerry Brown is saying that 12-year-old children are old enough to make such major decisions about their sexual health, then by implication he's also saying that 12-year-olds have the right to decide, for example, that they want to have sex with a 20-year-old.But that's crazy. This is why we have laws about sexual predators who target minors. It's based on the premise that minors do not yet have the worldview understanding to make well-informed decisions about their own wellbeing, and that they are thus easily preyed upon by those who would approach them with their own selfish agenda. Such as the vaccine industry, for example. Now, by removing parental consent from the decision-making process for HPV vaccines, the vaccine industry can medically exploit children's bodies which sounds a lot like rape. And just as physically raping a child will leave permanent scars, HPV injections often cause their own permanent damage -- or even death! What I'm saying here -- and I want to be completely clear in my choice of words -- is that Jerry Brown promotes the chemical raping of children by the vaccine industry. That he has sided with the vaccine industry over the lawful rights of parents is an outrage. This is disgusting, immoral behavior from a dangerously overreaching politician who now feels he has the power to usurp parents' rights and turn over their children to the whims of the criminal vaccine industry -- the same industry that uses children as guinea pigs to run outlandish medical experiments in countries around the world. CLIP

Deepwater oil spill likely to hurt fish populations over decades (September 28, 2011)
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0928-hance_oil_killifish.html
Oil pollution doesn't have to kill fish to have a long-term impact, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers found that Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) that had been exposed to very low to non-detectable levels of oil contamination from the Deepwater oil spill last year, still showed developmental problems that are likely to impact fish populations for decades to come. "Though the fish may be 'safe to eat' based on low chemical burdens in their tissues, that doesn't mean that the fish are healthy or that the fish are capable of reproducing normally," explains Andrew Whitehead with Louisiana State University. Whitehead and colleagues measured water contamination and took tissue samples from Gulf killifish and spawning marshes three times following the Deepwater spill. While the water showed little to no contamination, the fish's tissue revealed another story. The liver showed responses connected to developmental abnormalities that likely impaired the fish's ability to reproduce successfully. Gill tissues showed stress linked to oil exposure, which didn't go away even after the little recorded oil did. As an important prey species, Gulf killifish provide food to a host of other Gulf marine organisms, including the commercially sought-after red snapper. "Early life-stages of many organisms are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of oil and because marsh contamination occurred during the spawning season of many important species," Whitehead says. Research from the Exxon Valdez oil spill backs up the study's prediction that the Deepwater disaster will have long-term impacts on fish and fisheries. Two decades of research follow Exxon Valdez, showed that the biggest predictor of fish populations was not direct fish mortality, but non-lethal impacts that hit fish reproduction. - CHECK ALSO Dead baby dolphins washing ashore in Gulf of Mexico AND Gulf of Mexico bottom still coated in oil, recovery long way off

Deepwater spill 'meets the Titanic': groups sue to stop Arctic drilling (September 29, 2011)
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0929-hance_arctic_lawsuit.html
Following the Obama administration's approval of Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea, a wide-swathe of environmental have filed a lawsuit to stop the drilling, which could begin as early as next summer. Those filing the lawsuit today blasted Shell for what they perceived as a pathetic oil spill response plan, and the Obama administration for acquiescing to the big oil company. "If you liked the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, you will love Shell’s plan for Alaska," said Mike Daulton with the National Audubon Society, one of the plaintiffs, in a press release. "Shell has never demonstrated the ability to effectively clean up a large oil spill in the Arctic Ocean. In addition to the usual problems handling a major spill, Alaska has huge ocean waves, gale force winds and widespread sea ice. A major oil spill in Alaska would be Deepwater Horizon meets the Titanic."

(...) Shell's plan, in which it has already invested 3.5 billion, is to begin exploratory drilling offshore just north of the western edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the Beaufort Sea, home to bowhead and beluga whales, seals, walruses, polar bears, and a wide variety of migrating birds. In July Admiral Robert Papp, top officer with the US Coast Guard, said that if a spill occurred in the area, the Coast Guard lacked the infrastructure and equipment needed to deal with it. "If this were to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we'd have nothing," said Papp, as reported by Platts. "We're starting from ground zero today." Along with environmental groups, local indigenous groups have also come out against Shell's plan. "We have a right to life, to physical integrity, to security, and the right to enjoy the benefits of our culture. For this, we will fight, and this is why we have gone to court today. Our culture can never be bought or repaired with money. It is priceless," Caroline Cannon, president of the Native Village of Point Hope, said in a press release. Just over a year since the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration has been quietly opening up offshore drilling again along the US's coastlines. The US consumes more oil than any other country in the world, and has long focused on raising production (the Obama administration has raised production significantly), instead of increasing efficiency and lowering consumption overall. Now, rapidly melting summer ice due to climate change is opening up long-closed off areas—sea ice this summer was the second lowest on record— of the Arctic and providing the US and other nations with a new source of oil. However, many environmentalists warn that the Arctic melt should be seen as a warning of global dependence on fossil fuels and not an opportunity to burn more, thereby exacerbating the warming that is already overturning the Arctic's fragile ecosystems.

Arctic open for exploitation: Obama administration grants Shell approval to drill (August 08, 2011)
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0808-hance_shell_arctic.html
(...) The drill sites in the Beaufort Sea will take place 20 miles off shore in 160 feet deep water, which Shell says would allow divers access to the wells if need be. In the midst of its victory in the Arctic, Shell is expected to pay $1 billion to clean up decades of oil pollution in Nigeria, where a new UN report found that the company did not live up to its own, or the Nigerian government's, standards. Shell admitted last week to spilling 11 million gallons of oil in Nigeria in 2008. BOEMRE director Michael Bromwich said the decision to grant Shell approval to drill in the Arctic was based on "the best scientific information available," but Harris blasted the bureau, saying the regulatory body put 'oil company profits and power' over 'scientific integrity'. "BOEMRE’s decision to disregard science and gamble with a region that is crucial to endangered bowhead whales, seals, polar bears and other marine wildlife and that Native subsistence communities rely upon so heavily is inexcusable," she said, adding that, "today’s decision is nothing more than the administration’s decision to roll the dice with the Arctic." Arctic oil drilling is also raising eyebrows in Russia. The nation's first proposed oil drilling in the off-shore Arctic by Gazprom has garnered considerable criticism from environmental groups. CLIP

Climate change shocker: Canada's ice shelves halved in six years (September 28, 2011)
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0928-hance_canada_shelves.html
After the Arctic sea ice extent hit its second lowest size on record this summer—or lowest (depending on the source)—comes another climate change shocker: in the past six years Canada's millennia-old ice shelves have shed nearly half their size. One ice shelf—the Serson shelf—is almost entirely gone, while another—the Ward Hunt shelf—has split into two distinct shelves. The ice shelves have lost 3 billion tons in this year alone. "These unique and massive geographical features that we consider to be part of the map of Canada are disappearing and they won’t come back," Derek Mueller, a researcher with Carleton University, says in a press release. Mueller attributes the ice loss to warming temperatures, while cracks in their foundations expose them to open water, quickening the melt. The Serson ice shelf measured 120 square kilometers until it split in two in 2008. Today the two parts equal only 32 square kilometers. The Ward Hunt shelf split into two this summer for the first time, while the Ellesmere Island ice shelves have shed 480 square kilometers of ice in six years. "The ice shelves were formed and sustained in a different climate than what we have now. As they disappear, it implies we are returning to conditions unseen in the Arctic for thousands of years," Mueller adds. CHECK ALSO Northwest Passage open as sea ice falls to lowest cover ever recorded (September 12, 2011) AND Mass walrus haul-outs, polar bear cub mortality linked to climate change (September 01, 2011)

Colombian president: no oil drilling in award-winning Seaflower marine reserve (October 03, 2011) OBAMOIL SHOULD FOLLOW COLOMBIA'S PRESIDENT EXAMPLE INSTEAD OF GIVING A FREE PASS TO OIL DRILLERS IN THE ARCTIC
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1003-hance_seaflower_nooil.html
Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced over the weekend that there will be no oil exploration in the award-winning Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and Marine Protected Area (MPA). Spreading over 65,000 square kilometers (6,500,000 hectares), Seaflower MPA is home to over a hundred coral species, over 400 fish, some 150 birds, four marine turtles species, and the magnificent mollusk, the queen conch (Strombus gigas). "We have been studying the issue with the Minister of Environment and will not allow signing of exploration," President Santos said while visiting the island of San Andres. CLIP

Mobile towers hurting biological systems of birds: Study (Oct 12, 2011)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Mobile-towers-hurting-biological-systems-of-birds-Study/articleshow/10328750.cms
NEW DELHI: Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from mobile towers was interfering with the biological systems of birds, a study released by the environment ministry said and called for a law for the protection of flora and fauna. Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from mobile towers was interfering with the biological systems of birds. "The review of existing literature shows that the EMRs are interfering with the biological systems in more ways than one and there had already been some warning bells sounded in the case on bees and birds, which probably heralds the seriousness of this issue and indicates the vulnerability of other species as well," the study found. The ministry in September 2010 had constituted a 10-member committee under Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) director Asad Rahmani to study the impact of mobile phone towers on birds and bees and formulating guidelines for their installations. The expert group reviewed 919 studies done in India and abroad on the ill effects of mobile towers in animal, birds and insects. Of the 919 studies, the team found that 593 showed the negative impact of mobile towers on birds, bees, human, wildlife and plants. Quoting from an international study that radio frequency pollution appears to constitute a potential cause for the decline of animal populations, it said there was urgent need to focus more scientific attention to this area before it would be too late. CLIP

EMF Omega News 8 October 2011
http://www.buergerwelle.de/en/news/newsletter/newsletter_20111008.html
Pulsed Electromagnetic Devices Pose Health Risks - The human body as a walking RF antenna - Tumour fear cuts chatter as woman switch off their mobile phones - Why Our Urban Trees are Dying - Barrie Trower predicts economic and ecological systems collapse - Scientists manipulated research played down brain tumour risks in children - Cancer Industry: Profits Before Lives - Killer Cell Phones: Why Honeybees Are Dying Worldwide - The Latest Danger: 'Smart Meters' - SmartMeters and Electropollution - Smart Meters: not so smart an idea - Cellphones ring in alarm bells - Wi-Fi making kids, teachers sick? - Brennan Park phone tower fight looms - Money for masts - Phone mast plan fury residents in blockade - Parents worried at new mast scheme - B.C. Hydro program sparks up a storm of controversy - CTIA again tries to block San Francisco cell phone radiation ordinance - People power halts roof mobile phone mast, in Sutherland Grove, Teddington - Next-up News - News from Mast Sanity




1.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html

Panic of the Plutocrats

By PAUL KRUGMAN - October 9, 2011

It remains to be seen whether the Occupy Wall Street protests will change America’s direction. Yet the protests have already elicited a remarkably hysterical reaction from Wall Street, the super-rich in general, and politicians and pundits who reliably serve the interests of the wealthiest hundredth of a percent. And this reaction tells you something important — namely, that the extremists threatening American values are what F.D.R. called “economic royalists,” not the people camping in Zuccotti Park.

Consider first how Republican politicians have portrayed the modest-sized if growing demonstrations, which have involved some confrontations with the police — confrontations that seem to have involved a lot of police overreaction — but nothing one could call a riot. And there has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.

Nonetheless, Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, has denounced “mobs” and “the pitting of Americans against Americans.” The G.O.P. presidential candidates have weighed in, with Mitt Romney accusing the protesters of waging “class warfare,” while Herman Cain calls them “anti-American.” My favorite, however, is Senator Rand Paul, who for some reason worries that the protesters will start seizing iPads, because they believe rich people don’t deserve to have them.

Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor and a financial-industry titan in his own right, was a bit more moderate, but still accused the protesters of trying to “take the jobs away from people working in this city,” a statement that bears no resemblance to the movement’s actual goals.

And if you were listening to talking heads on CNBC, you learned that the protesters “let their freak flags fly,” and are “aligned with Lenin.”

The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

Last year, you may recall, a number of financial-industry barons went wild over very mild criticism from President Obama. They denounced Mr. Obama as being almost a socialist for endorsing the so-called Volcker rule, which would simply prohibit banks backed by federal guarantees from engaging in risky speculation. And as for their reaction to proposals to close a loophole that lets some of them pay remarkably low taxes — well, Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group, compared it to Hitler’s invasion of Poland.

And then there’s the campaign of character assassination against Elizabeth Warren, the financial reformer now running for the Senate in Massachusetts. Not long ago a YouTube video of Ms. Warren making an eloquent, down-to-earth case for taxes on the rich went viral. Nothing about what she said was radical — it was no more than a modern riff on Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous dictum that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”

But listening to the reliable defenders of the wealthy, you’d think that Ms. Warren was the second coming of Leon Trotsky. George Will declared that she has a “collectivist agenda,” that she believes that “individualism is a chimera.” And Rush Limbaugh called her “a parasite who hates her host. Willing to destroy the host while she sucks the life out of it.”

What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens.

Yet they have paid no price. Their institutions were bailed out by taxpayers, with few strings attached. They continue to benefit from explicit and implicit federal guarantees — basically, they’re still in a game of heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families.

This special treatment can’t bear close scrutiny — and therefore, as they see it, there must be no close scrutiny. Anyone who points out the obvious, no matter how calmly and moderately, must be demonized and driven from the stage. In fact, the more reasonable and moderate a critic sounds, the more urgently he or she must be demonized, hence the frantic sliming of Elizabeth Warren.

So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth.

---

Related article and video:

Elizabeth Warren: The Woman Who Knew Too Much (11 October 11)
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/7839-elizabeth-warren-the-woman-who-knew-too-much
Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown's Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor's emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians.

Elizabeth Warren's Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwJhpeOWp4A
Watch Elizabeth's story, in her own words, and learn why she'll fight for Massachusetts' working families in the United States Senate.




2.

From: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-wallstreet-protests-origins-idUSTRE79C1YN20111013

Who's behind the Wall Street protests?

By Mark Egan and Michelle Nichols - Oct 13, 2011

(Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men.

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

"I can understand their sentiment," Soros told reporters last week at the United Nations about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, which are expected to spur solidarity marches globally on Saturday.

Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in. But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh summed up the speculation when he told his listeners last week, "George Soros money is behind this."

Soros, 81, is No. 7 on the Forbes 400 list with a fortune of $22 billion, which has ballooned in recent years as he deftly responded to financial market turmoil. He has pledged to give away all his wealth, half of it while he earns it and the rest when he dies.

Like the protesters, Soros is no fan of the 2008 bank bailouts and subsequent government purchase of the toxic sub-prime mortgage assets they amassed in the property bubble.

The protesters say the Wall Street bank bailouts in 2008 left banks enjoying huge profits while average Americans suffered under high unemployment and job insecurity with little help from Washington. They contend that the richest 1 percent of Americans have amassed vast fortunes while being taxed at a lower rate than most people.

BANKING LIFE SUPPORT

Soros in 2009 wrote in an editorial that the purchase of toxic bank assets would, "provide artificial life support for the banks at considerable expense to the taxpayer."

He urged the Obama administration to take bolder action, either by recapitalizing or nationalizing the banks and forcing them to lend at attractive rates. His advice went unheeded.

The Hungarian-American was an early supporter of the 2008 election campaign of Barack Obama, who will seek a second term as president in the November, 2012, election. He has long backed liberal causes - the Open Society Institute, the foreign policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations and Human Rights Watch.

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros' Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors, directing their contributions to liberal non-profit groups. Among others the Tides Center has partnered with are the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

Disclosure documents also show Tides, which declined comment, gave Adbusters grants of $185,000 from 2001-2010, including nearly $26,000 between 2007-2009.

Aides to Soros say any connection is tenuous and that Soros has never heard of Adbusters. Soros himself declined comment.

The Vancouver-based group, which publishes a magazine and runs such campaigns as "Digital Detox Week" and "Buy Nothing Day," says it wants to "change the way corporations wield power" and its goal is "to topple existing power structures."

SLOW START

Adbusters, whose magazine has a circulation of 120,000 and which is known for its spoofs of popular advertisements, came up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, said Kalle Lasn, 69, Adbusters co-founder.

"It came out of these brainstorming sessions we have at Adbusters," Lasn told Reuters, adding they began promoting it online on July 13. "We were inspired by what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and we had this feeling that America was ripe for a Tahrir moment."

"We felt there was a real rage building up in America, and we thought that we would like to create a spark which would give expression for this rage."

Lasn said Adbusters is 95 percent funded by subscribers paying for the magazine. "George Soros's ideas are quite good, many of them. I wish he would give Adbusters some money, we sorely need it," he said. "He's never given us a penny."

Other support for Occupy Wall Street has come from online funding website Kickstarter, where more than $75,000 has been pledged, deliveries of food and from cash dropped in a bucket at the park. Liberal film maker Michael Moore has also pledged to donate money.

The protests began in earnest on September 17, triggered by an Adbusters campaign featuring a provocative poster showing a ballerina dancing atop the famous bronze bull in New York's financial district as a crowd of protesters wearing gas masks approach behind her.

Dressed in anarchist black, the battle-ready mob is shrouded in a fog suggestive of tear gas or fires burning. Some are wearing gas masks, others wielding sticks. The poster's message seems to be a heady combination of sexuality, violence, excitement and adventure.

Former carpenter Robert Daros, 23, saw that poster in a cafe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Having lost his work as a carpenter after Florida's speculative construction boom collapsed in a heap of sub-prime mortgage foreclosures, he quit his job as a bartender and traveled to New York City with just a sleeping bag and the hope of joining the protest movement.

Daros was one of the first people to arrive on Wall Street for the so-called occupation on September 17, when protesters marched and tried to camp on Wall Street only to be driven off by police to Zuccotti Park - two acres of concrete without a blade of grass near the rising One World Trade Center.

"When I was a carpenter, I lost my job because the financier of my project was arrested for corporate fraud," said Daros, who was wearing a red arm band to show he was helping out in the medic section of the Occupy Wall Street camp.

Since its obscure beginnings, the campaign has drawn global media attention in places as far-flung as Iran and China. The Times of London, however, was not alone when it called the protests "Passionate but Pointless."

Adbusters' co-founder Lasn dismisses that, reeling off specific demands: a tax on the richest 1 percent, a tax on currency trades and a tax on all financial transactions.

"Down the road, there will be crystal clear demands coming out of this movement," he said. "But this first phase of the movement is messy and leaderless and demandless."

"I think it was perfect the way it happened."




3.

POIGNANT! IN MANY WAYS, MY OWN SENTIMENTS...

From: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/98/chris-hedges.html

Panache! Why we must fight

Chris Hedges - 07 Oct 2011

My three-year-old son’s favorite book is Out of the Blue. It has large color photographs of sea animals, from plankton to clownfish to orcas. I often find my son, dressed in his pajamas, on the floor of his bedroom in the morning carefully turning the pages of the book. And every time I hear him naming out the magnificent creatures before him, my heart breaks. Within my son’s lifetime, if there is not a radical reversal in human behavior, the oceans of the world, and the life systems they support, will die.

I fight for my children. It is not about me. It is about them. The deep despair I feel over our collective inability to acknowledge, much less confront, the catastrophic dislocations ahead of us is offset by a fierce desire as a father to make sure I have summoned all my energy and resilience to defy the corporate systems of death that are exploiting human beings and the natural world until their exhaustion or collapse. At least, I hope, my children will look back and see that their father did not remain passive as the ecosystem was destroyed in the name of profit, and the world was reconfigured by corporations into a terrifying neofeudalism, a kind of totalitarian capitalism. At least they will see, I hope, pictures of their father being hauled off to jail in defiance. I resist not out of hate but out of love, a love for all the things the deformed culture of corporate profit finds meaningless and sentimental – children, lakes, mountains, trees and the song of a wood thrush deep in the forest.

The consequences of severe climate change are unavoidable. The freak weather patterns, the wild fires and tornadoes sweeping across Midwestern states, along with the droughts and severe flooding in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia, along with the soaring temperatures across the Earth, are upon us. And this is only the start. But what is most frightening is that the rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, have been met with collective denial and self-delusion. Global temperatures have already gone up one degree and begun the rapid melting of the Arctic. Every rise of one degree Celsius means a ten percent reduction in grain yields. If we stopped all carbon emissions today temperatures would continue to rise by at least a degree, perhaps more. A sudden epiphany would not save us from drastic climate change, large scale human migrations, rising sea levels, famine and endemic food shortages. Welcome to our brave new world.

The only viable option to save the human species from self-immolation – ending our dependence on fossil fuels – is ignored by the industrialized world’s power brokers, who have shredded the tepid climate agreement made at Kyoto. The last thin hope for reform and reversal will come through sustained acts of civil disobedience and open defiance of the formal systems of power. It means getting arrested. This is the conclusion drawn by many of our most prescient and important voices, including Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben.

Working within the system to reform it has failed. Working outside the system to defy it may also fail. Let’s be honest about this. The corporate structures of power are indifferent to the needs, rights or desires of the ordinary citizen – not to mention the planet – and have hijacked all systems of power from mass communications to electoral politics to the courts.

It is understandable that a realist would despair. And if I was to retreat into self-absorption I would find a small plot of land where I would never have to hear another leaf blower, and find what comfort I could in my family, my books and the whispers and beauty of the natural world. But to give up is not morally permissible. It is to condemn, as Sitting Bull reminded us, the born and the unborn, as well as the flora and fauna, which Sitting Bull also considered sacred, to misery and death. We have no right to do that. We must stand and fight for life.

We must fight for those who come after us, for those who at this moment are too small, too weak and too disempowered to fight, for the born and the unborn, for those who, like my son, have not yet lost the capacity for wonder and awe before the natural world. We owe our children that. The hardest moral stance and the greatest act of courage will be to see clearly, like Sitting Bull, the darkness and the power of the forces of death arrayed against us and yet find the fortitude to resist. Sitting Bull’s greatest fear at the end of his life was that he had not fought hard enough for his people and that they might revile him.

Resistance preserves our personal dignity as autonomous human beings. It means we have not allowed ourselves to be classified as objects. It is a way to defy our obscurity. Life is short. We all die. Nearly all battles for justice will long outlive us. I find my solace in faith. It is not the faith of any orthodox creed or religion but the faith that we are called to do the good, or at least the good in so far as we can best determine it, and then to let it go. We do not know where this good goes or if it goes anywhere. The Buddhists call this good karma. But faith means that acts of resistance – for true spirituality is always about resistance – are never meaningless, although all tangible signs may point toward failure and defeat. This faith gives me great comfort.

It is the faith that Cyrano de Bergerac expressed as he lashed out in his final battle, a battle he knew he could not win. Mortally wounded and facing Death, he suddenly rises. “Not here! Not lying down!”

His friends spring forward to help him. “Let no one help me,” he tells them as he props himself against a tree. “Only the tree … Let the old fellow come now! He shall find me on my feet, sword in hand … ”

“What’s that you say?” Cyrano calls out to the darkness. “Hopeless? Why, very well! But a man does not fight merely to win! No! No, better to know one fights in vain! … You there, who are you? A hundred against one. I know them now, my ancient enemies: Falsehood! There! There! Prejudice, Compromise, Cowardice!”

He swings with his sword. “What’s that? No! Surrender? No! Never, never! Ah, you too, Vanity! I knew you would overthrow me in the end. No! I fight on! I fight on! I fight on!”

He stops, breathless and dying. “Yes, all my laurels you have riven away And all my roses; yet in spite of you, There is one crown I bear away with me, And tonight, when I enter before God, My salute shall sweep all the stars away From the blue threshold! One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom. Mine own!”

He springs forward, his sword aloft.

“And that is … ”

The sword falls from his hands. He totters and falls into the arms of Roxane and his friends.

“That is … my panache.”

Chris Hedges is married to Canadian actress Eunice Wong They live with their children in Princeton, New Jersey. Hedges’ latest book is a collection of his essays called The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.

In case you haven't watched it yet check this 50 min interview with Chris Hedges...

Occupy Wall Street Interview – We have a moral imperative to fight for life (September 25, 2011)

AND WATCH...

Sylvia Earle on the Future of the Oceans (5 oct. 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vP4lL-fip1g
Renowned oceanographer, explorer, and author Dr. Sylvia Earle, shares her insights with Earth Focus correspondent Miles Benson.




4.

From: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/why-the-elites-are-in-trouble-by-chris-hedges/

Why the Elites Are in Trouble

by Chris Hedges - Oct. 10, 2011

Ketchup, a petite 22-year-old from Chicago with wavy red hair and glasses with bright red frames, arrived in Zuccotti Park in New York on Sept. 17. She had a tent, a rolling suitcase, 40 dollars’ worth of food, the graphic version of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and a sleeping bag. She had no return ticket, no idea what she was undertaking, and no acquaintances among the stragglers who joined her that afternoon to begin the Wall Street occupation. She decided to go to New York after reading the Canadian magazine Adbusters, which called for the occupation, although she noted that when she got to the park Adbusters had no discernable presence.

The lords of finance in the looming towers surrounding the park, who toy with money and lives, who make the political class, the press and the judiciary jump at their demands, who destroy the ecosystem for profit and drain the U.S. Treasury to gamble and speculate, took little notice of Ketchup or any of the other scruffy activists on the street below them. The elites consider everyone outside their sphere marginal or invisible.

And what significance could an artist who paid her bills by working as a waitress have for the powerful? What could she and the others in Zuccotti Park do to them? What threat can the weak pose to the strong? Those who worship money believe their buckets of cash, like the $4.6 million JPMorgan Chase gave a few days ago to the New York City Police Foundation, can buy them perpetual power and security. Masters all, kneeling before the idols of the marketplace, blinded by their self-importance, impervious to human suffering, bloated from unchecked greed and privilege, they were about to be taught a lesson in the folly of hubris.
Even now, three weeks later, elites, and their mouthpieces in the press, continue to puzzle over what people like Ketchup want. Where is the list of demands? Why don’t they present us with specific goals? Why can’t they articulate an agenda?

The goal to people like Ketchup is very, very clear. It can be articulated in one word—REBELLION. These protesters have not come to work within the system. They are not pleading with Congress for electoral reform. They know electoral politics is a farce and have found another way to be heard and exercise power. They have no faith, nor should they, in the political system or the two major political parties. They know the press will not amplify their voices, and so they created a press of their own. They know the economy serves the oligarchs, so they formed their own communal system. This movement is an effort to take our country back.

This is a goal the power elite cannot comprehend. They cannot envision a day when they will not be in charge of our lives. The elites believe, and seek to make us believe, that globalization and unfettered capitalism are natural law, some kind of permanent and eternal dynamic that can never be altered. What the elites fail to realize is that rebellion will not stop until the corporate state is extinguished. It will not stop until there is an end to the corporate abuse of the poor, the working class, the elderly, the sick, children, those being slaughtered in our imperial wars and tortured in our black sites. It will not stop until foreclosures and bank repossessions stop. It will not stop until students no longer have to go into debt to be educated, and families no longer have to plunge into bankruptcy to pay medical bills. It will not stop until the corporate destruction of the ecosystem stops, and our relationships with each other and the planet are radically reconfigured. And that is why the elites, and the rotted and degenerate system of corporate power they sustain, are in trouble. That is why they keep asking what the demands are. They don’t understand what is happening. They are deaf, dumb and blind.

“The world can’t continue on its current path and survive,” Ketchup told me. “That idea is selfish and blind. It’s not sustainable. People all over the globe are suffering needlessly at our hands.”

The occupation of Wall Street has formed an alternative community that defies the profit-driven hierarchical structures of corporate capitalism. If the police shut down the encampment in New York tonight, the power elite will still lose, for this vision and structure have been imprinted into the thousands of people who have passed through park, renamed Liberty Plaza by the protesters. The greatest gift the occupation has given us is a blueprint for how to fight back. And this blueprint is being transferred to cities and parks across the country.

CLIP - To read the rest, please click HERE




5.

From: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

The Great American Bubble Machine

From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again.

By MATT TAIBBI - APRIL 5, 2010

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

Invasion of the Home Snatchers

By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup — which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the asshole chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multi-billion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden-parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman — not to mention …

This article appeared in the July 9, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available in the online archive.

But then, any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

The bank's unprecedented reach and power have enabled it to turn all of America into a giant pump-and-dump scam, manipulating whole economic sectors for years at a time, moving the dice game as this or that market collapses, and all the time gorging itself on the unseen costs that are breaking families everywhere — high gas prices, rising consumer credit rates, half-eaten pension funds, mass layoffs, future taxes to pay off bailouts. All that money that you're losing, it's going somewhere, and in both a literal and a figurative sense, Goldman Sachs is where it's going: The bank is a huge, highly sophisticated engine for converting the useful, deployed wealth of society into the least useful, most wasteful and insoluble substance on Earth — pure profit for rich individuals.

The Feds vs. Goldman

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

If you want to understand how we got into this financial crisis, you have to first understand where all the money went — and in order to understand that, you need to understand what Goldman has already gotten away with. It is a history exactly five bubbles long — including last year's strange and seemingly inexplicable spike in the price of oil. There were a lot of losers in each of those bubbles, and in the bailout that followed. But Goldman wasn't one of them.

CLIP - To read the rest please go at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405




6.

From: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_new_bush_era_or_a_push_era_20111011/

A New Bush Era or a Push Era?

By Amy Goodman - Oct 11, 2011

Back when Barack Obama was still just a U.S. senator running for president, he told a group of donors in a New Jersey suburb, “Make me do it.” He was borrowing from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used the same phrase (according to Harry Belafonte, who heard the story directly from Eleanor Roosevelt) when responding to legendary union organizer A. Philip Randolph’s demand for civil rights for African-Americans.
While President Obama has made concession after concession to both the corporate-funded tea party and his Wall Street donors, now that he is again in campaign mode, his progressive critics are being warned not to attack him, as that might aid and abet the Republican bid for the White House.

Enter the 99 percenters. The Occupy Wall Street ranks continue to grow, inspiring more than 1,000 solidarity protests around the country and the globe. After weeks, and one of the largest mass arrests in U.S. history, Obama finally commented: “I think people are frustrated, and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.” But neither he nor his advisers—or the Republicans—know what to do with this burgeoning mass movement.

Following the controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allows unlimited corporate donations to support election advertising, the hunger for campaign cash is insatiable. The Obama re-election campaign aims to raise $1 billion. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the financial industry was Obama’s second-largest source of 2008 campaign contributions, surpassed only by the lawyers/lobbyists industry sector.

The suggestion that a loss for Obama would signal a return to the Bush era has some merit: The Associated Press reported recently that “almost all of [Mitt] Romney’s 22 special advisers held senior Bush administration positions in diplomacy, defense or intelligence. Two former Republican senators are included as well as Bush-era CIA chief Michael Hayden and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.” But so is the Obama presidency an expansion of the Bush era, unless there is a new “Push era.”

The organic strength of Occupy Wall Street defies the standard dismissals from the corporate media’s predictably stale stable of pundits. For them, it is all about the divide between the Republicans and the Democrats, a divide the protesters have a hard time seeing. They see both parties captured by Wall Street. Richard Haass, head of the establishment Council on Foreign Relations, said of the protesters, “They’re not serious.” He asked why they are not talking about entitlements. Perhaps it is because, to the 99 percent, Social Security and Medicare are not the problem, but rather growing inequality, with the 400 richest Americans having more wealth than half of all Americans combined. And then there is the overwhelming cost and toll of war, first and foremost the lives lost, but also the lives destroyed, on all sides.

It’s why, for example, Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was down at Occupy Wall Street on Monday night. He told me: “It’s no secret that a lot of veterans are facing unemployment, homelessness and a lot of other issues that are dealing with the economy. A lot of people get deployed multiple times and are still struggling. … I’ve met a lot of veterans who have come here. I just met a guy who is active duty, took leave just to come to Occupy Wall Street.”

The historic election of Barack Obama was achieved by millions of people across the political spectrum. For years during the Bush administration, people felt they were hitting their heads against a brick wall. With the election, the wall had become a door, but it was only open a crack. The question was, would it be kicked open or slammed shut? It is not up to one person. Obama had moved from community organizer in chief to commander in chief. When forces used to having the ear of the most powerful person on earth whisper their demands in the Oval Office, the president must see a force more powerful outside his window, whether he likes it or not, and say, “If I do that, they will storm the Bastille.” If there’s no one out there, we are all in big trouble.




7.

From: Stanford Penner (stanp@mymts.net)
Subject: A soldier's prayer
Date: 8 Oct 2011

Remembrance Day is again approaching and you may be looking for suitable items to publish. Kindly consider the poem below. If suitable to you, I would, in fact, like to see it published on an annual basis.

The poem was written by Nicholas Peters just after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Peters, who lived for some years at Grande Pointe, Manitoba, had emigrated from Russia in 1925 as a boy of 10 and had seen firsthand the horrors of revolution and war in his native country. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942 and trained as a flying officer. He died on the night of March 7-8, 1945 after his aircraft was hit by enemy fire. The poem is from a collection of Peters' work entitled Another Morn.

The Peters family has given permission to have the poem published.

THE WARS WE MAKE

I gaze into the world with sorrowing eyes
And see the wide-abounding fruits of hate.
We fight, we say, for peace, and find
The wars we make
To be a spring of hate and source of future wars.

Is there no peace for man?
No hope that this accursed flow
Of blood may cease?
Is this our destiny: to kill and maim
For peace?
Or is this 'peace' we strive to gain
A thin unholy masquerade
Which, when our pride, our greed, our gain is
touched too far,
Is shed, and stands uncovered what we are?

Show me your light, O God
That I may fight for peace with peace
And not with war;
To prove my love with love,
And hate no more!                     

- Nicholas Peters

Some years ago, my wife, Rose, and I stood beside Peters' grave in an Allied war cemetery in Germany, with a huge sword on a cross backdrop, and grieved for him and the countless others buried there "row on row" in those graveyards of Europe. Quietly they lie now, sometimes friend and foe close together with so much of life still waiting to be lived.

Most of the last verse of Peters' poem is inscribed on his tombstone with "me" and "I" changed to "US" and "WE".

SHOW US YOUR LIGHT, O GOD,
THAT WE MAY FIGHT
FOR PEACE WITH PEACE
AND NOT WITH WAR.

I say to one and all the world over, „Let‚s listen to this soldier‚s prayer.‰

Yours sincerely,


Stan Penner




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