#OWS in New York are on their 5th week protesting for economic, political and social justice.
For #OWS Protests in America and across the globe here's an inspiring version of Bob Dylan's protest song "Chimes of Freedom" by Youssou Ndour.
Danny Glover's Inspiring Speech: "You Represent Troy Davis"
Is Danny Glover underrated as an activist and speaker? We saw him at a Nader rally in Portland, OR, in probably 2002, and he was the best speaker of the night on a roster that included Nader, Madea Benjamin, Jello Biafra and Eddie Vedder. No small potatoes there. Over the weekend at Occupy Los Angeles, Glover brought out his similar formidableness for a speech that everyone's talking about:
“Here we talk about this moment, this moment has to realize itself in a movement,” Glover said at the Los Angeles protests Sunday afternoon. “A movement that just doesn’t happen with an occupation. A movement that has to be organized, and organized, and organized!”
“Remember, you represent the 16.5 million people of those unemployed. You represent the 88 percent of workers who are not represented by a union. You represent the homeless men and women. You represent those who’ve been dispossessed. You represent those brothers in jail who were on strike, you represent them. You represent Troy Davis.”
He really cut to the gravity of the protests, the realness, that this movement reaches far beyond the financial markets. Watch the full speech, courtesy Raw Story:
Bank of America Calls Cops on Customers, Says They Can't Be Customers And Protesters At The Same Time. No Problem! by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd from Firedoglake via Alternet.org ,October 17, 2011
Bank of America made closing your account that much easier: in Santa Cruz, a branch manager told citizens that they could decide between being customers or protesters, but they could not be both. Possibly the simplest decision of the weekend
Tom Englehardt writes about the unnecessary and intimidating massive police presence in the Wall Street area in New York. For the 1% the area around Wall Street is considered sacrosanct and must be protected at all cost its as if they believe if protesters take over this piece of real estate the whole system might collapse so it is here that those in authority vow to make their last stand against the unwashed mobs of the 99%. It is like getting a peek at the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz that is the hidden hand of rapacious unfettered capitalism.
Why are a few hundred or even a few thousand citizens so feared by Wall Street which is protected by thousands of NYPD police and if necessary the FBI, the CIA, and the world's largest and best armed military that is the US military .
" Wall Street’s Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State: Are drones above New York City next as the police militarize Lower Manhattan?" by Tom Englehardt, Tomdispatch.com, via Alternet.org, October 17, 2011
These last weeks, there have been two “occupations” in lower Manhattan, one of which has been getting almost all the coverage -- that of the demonstrators camping out in Zuccotti Park. The other, in the shadows, has been hardly less massive, sustained, or in its own way impressive -- the police occupation of the Wall Street area.
On a recent visit to the park, I found the streets around the Stock Exchange barricaded and blocked off to traffic, and police everywhere in every form (in and out of uniform) -- on foot, on scooters, on motorcycles, in squad cars with lights flashing, on horses, in paddy wagons or minivans, you name it. At the park’s edge, there is a police observation tower capable of being raised and lowered hydraulically and literally hundreds of police are stationed in the vicinity. I counted more than 50 of them on just one of its sides at a moment when next to nothing was going on -- and many more can be seen almost anywhere in the Wall Street area, lolling in doorways, idling in the subway, ambling on the plazas of banks, and chatting in the middle of traffic-less streets.
...At one level, this is all mystifying. The daily crowds in the park remain remarkably, even startlingly, peaceable. (Any violence has generally been the product of police action.) On an everyday basis, a squad of 10 or 15 friendly police officers could easily handle the situation. There is, of course, another possibility suggested to me by one of the policemen loitering at the Park’s edge doing nothing in particular: “Maybe they’re peaceable because we’re here.” And here's a second possibility: as my friend Steve Fraser, author of Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace, said to me, “This is the most important piece of real estate on the planet and they’re scared. Look how amazed we are. Imagine how they feel, especially after so many decades of seeing nothing like it.”
Rick Santorum of the GOP who for ideological reasons is unable to point a finger at Wall Street mismanagement and malfeasance and corruption and greed argues that the financial crisis and budget crisis in America is the result of too many single moms in America.
Absurd Rick Santorum Tries to Blame Poor Economy on Single Mothers by Zandar via Alternet.org, October 17, 2011
GOP Clown Car crewmember Rick Santorum has figured out how to save our economy: marry off all the single mothers.
“Look at the political base of the Democratic Party: it is single mothers who run a household,” he said on the American Family Association’s radio show Today’s Issues.
“Why? Because it’s so tough economically that they look to the government for help and therefore they’re going to vote. So if you want to reduce the Democratic advantage, what you want to do is build two parent families, you eliminate that desire for government.”
Yeah that's right, Rick Santorum is blaming the economy on unwed single mothers, who of course only vote in order to further drain the resources of hard working men, the succubi they all are or something. Gosh, if we got rid of single moms, America would be great again.
“We need to have a policy that supports families, that encourages marriage, that has fathers take responsibility for their children,” he said.
“You can’t have limited government — you can’t have a wealthy society if the family breaks down, that basic unit of society. And that needs to be included in this economic discussion.”
Is this the part where I mention GOP Rep. Joe Walsh being a deadbeat dad who owes his wife and kids more than a hundred grand while loaning his campaign tens of thousands of dollars? If only we could be more like upright, family oriented Republicans like Newt Gingrich, eh? Would also help if Republicans stopped blocking efforts to equalize gender pay so that women can earn more, but that's apparently not crossed their minds either.
Nope, easier to blame women.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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