» Why police acted: The protesters arrested Monday were in the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which officials say they don’t want protesters in because it recently underwent expensive renovations that would cost a lot to repair. Police did not move on nearby Dewey Square, where the protest originally began, and emphasized they wouldn’t. But that wasn’t enough for protesters. “From the beginning, occupiers have worked tirelessly to maintain a positive working relationship with city officials,” a statement from Occupy Boston organizers said. “Today’s threats by the Boston Police Department represent a sudden shift away from that dialogue.”
The Occupy movement’s first casualty? While authorities aren’t entirely sure whether or not the death — a 42-year-old man who jumped eight stories off a parking structure near the protest site — was directly related to the protests, the death nonetheless cast a bit of a pall on the still-young protest, which has drawn a crowd of hundreds in San Diego. The man had flyers in his pockets (officials haven’t released details on what was said on the flyers), but it was unclear whether they were directly related to the Occupy protest happening nearby, or whether his death was a suicide. Nonetheless, organizers said there would be a moment of silence on Monday in honor of the man. source
The Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading quickly to many cities and states, and could possibly become a nascent third party within the Democrats. Predictably, it is being attacked from the right as “socialist.” Actually, it is capitalist, but believes in the regulation of capitalist institutions. What we live under now is a system of Corporate Socialism, a welfare state for the rich. It seems to me that your politics can be defined by whose side you are on. Tea Party members are mostly on their own side. They believe they should pay lower taxes, or none. If we can’t pay for health care, tough luck. The Occupation forces, who seem more affluent and might benefit more from lower taxes, are on the side of those being exploited by an unregulated Wall Street.Roger Ebert (via azspot)
Getting in the act: That Wallace Shawn (he of “The Princess Bride” and a notable dinner with a guy named Andre) chose to align himself with Occupy Wall Street shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody familiar with the man’s politics — he lent a hand to Michael Moore for a few scenes of “Capitalism: A Love Story,” for example. That said, the ever-expanding sphere of Occupy Wall Street’s influence continues to draw in bigger organizations (support from major unions) and famed personalities (hey look, it’s Mark Ruffalo) — as we mentioned, even a GOP presidential candidate, albeit the hopelessly unknown Buddy Roemer, plans to stop by. We’ll take this guy over Kanye any day of the week. source
Not a banner day for Geraldo Rivera: In a crowd with fresh memories of Jesse LaGreca’s epic takedown of Griff Jenkins, Geraldo’s not-so-warm welcome is a tad heartwarming. Now, granted, his coverage of the protests — complete with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West talking from a studio — was pretty balanced, and not in that “Fair and Balanced” way, either. But his network affiliation led to some chants over his news broadcast — not fun — and eventually led to this rough exit, captured by Russia Today. source
Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) offered support for some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have built up in lower Manhattan over the weekend in an interview Friday with Reason magazine, where he also denounced the “militarization of our police forces.”
“If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed — I would say, good!” Paul said following a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire.
Still, the fact that Buddy Roemer’s actually heading down to the protests is very significant.
As far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator — and I wasn’t giving up before I had my story. Under a cloud of pepper spray I forced myself into the doors and sprinted blindly across the floor of the Air and Space Museum …American Spectator assistant editor Patrick Howley • Discussing his role in the Air & Space Museum protests on Saturday, which (in a story since deleted from the site, but repeated elsewhere) he claims to have helped escalate. Howley claims he did this in an effort to commit an act of journalism (and to mock the protesters in the process, which his article most certainly did), but the result appears to have been a large amount of negative press for a James O’Keefe-esque act. source (via • follow)
Some might see a crass corporate attempt to latch onto a movement that fits well with the company’s branding. We see a progressive company showing its pre-corporate roots. (via Percolate)
Members of Occupy D.C. react to pepper spray after the group tried to push its way into the National Air and Space Museum Saturday.
Photo by Jose Luis Magana (AP)
Hit the link for some more details about the antiwar protest we mentioned last night.
I realize [White House Chief of Staff William] Daley has taken it as his personal challenge to repair relations with the business community. But the first thing to point out is that the business community isn’t Wall Street. More significantly, however, you can’t “repair” relations with the business community while its members are pushing back against virtually every one of your initiatives and generously financing the Republican opposition. The way to “repair” your relationship with the business community under such conditions is to provide convincing political evidence that they need to repair their relationship with you.
Now, not everything Pearlstein says is an absolute gem — the part about the lack of of organization is much less an issue now than it was three weeks ago — but the overarching point, that the Obama administration should take a much-larger role in supporting the basic idea behind the protest, is a solid one.
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They were protesting a drone exhibit. The antiwar movement got a real kick in the pants today after a high-profile protest tied to Occupy DC and the similar Stop the Machine demonstration led to the shutdown of a well-known Smithsonian museum. One protester was arrested and another was pepper-sprayed during the protest. Honestly, we’re not sure how we feel about this one. We’ve been here before (there’s an IMAX theater here) and the museum is fairly innocuous and family-oriented. A lot of kids go there, a cred point underscored by the fact that the second “Night at the Museum” movie was partly set there. And based on a lot of the comments on the YouTube video, that seems to be what’s angering people — not the protest itself. What do you all think? Was this the right venue for this protest? source
My mom just lost her job that supported a household of four- at the end of the month 3 of us will no longer have health insurance to pay for my mom & sisters’ medical conditions, antidepressants, and the A.D.D. medicine that if I don’t take I can’t sleep for a week at a time. Now my boyfriend working for $5 an hour under-the-table at a shaky job trying to support us while all of us are concurrently attending college. I was miserly for all 19 years of my life saving up bu even that is dwindling fast while we’re all looking avidly for work to no avail- one of us for 4 YEARS. WE ARE THE 99%
Hey, 53 percenters, reblog this one instead of completely missing the point.
This could be the tipping point. I marched against the Vietnam war before I was drafted into the army and this movement is now getting towards that critical mass.Former Silicon Valley executive Dick Steinkamp • Explaining why he’s chosen to take part in the Occupy Seattle protests. Folks like Steincamp, a 63-year-old firmly in the “Baby Boomer” camp, have added themselves to the Occupy movement in recent days, giving the movement significant age diversity and making it something that’s becoming much larger than its original starting point. Roughly 70 major cities now have their own Occupy movement, as well as 600 smaller communities. Last week’s Brooklyn Bridge arrests really gave the movement a spark — now it’s spreading at full speed. source (via • follow)
I am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and other cities across our country.House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, talking about Occupy Wall Street. “Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans,” he continued. “But you sent us here to fight for you and for all Americans. You sent us here to bring about real change in Washington, real change to your federal government. And we’re committed to do that.” Pitting of Americans against Americans? Isn’t that what you do, Eric? Let’s be honest with ourselves before we criticize others.
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