Tuesday, November 22, 2011

(We MUST save our drinking water

OCCUPY MICHIGAN in LANSING & DETROIT
Okay, Folks, This is getting HUGE. I have collected more than 8,000 signatures on this petition: (We need to decide how we want to deliver it to the appropriate people in the Michigan government). Email? Making in-person appointments with our district reps would the best. Does anyone want to help?

Subject: We MUST save our drinking water.

Hi,
...
Natural gas hydraulic fracture drilling must be delayed to await impact studies by the EPA and environmental agencies inside states where drilling is to be carried out.

So I created a petition to The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, Governor Rick Snyder, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama, which says:

"4 bills introduced to the Michigan House on Nov. 3, 2011(HBills 5149-5151 and 4736) must be passed to protect the largest source of above-ground freshwater in the world, the Great Lakes and their feeder water system inside the State of Michigan, from use by hydraulic fracturing companies seeking to drill for natural gas in Michigan shale. A moratorium must delay drilling until impact studies are completed by the EPA and Michigan's DNR and Department of Environmental Quality."

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/we-must-save-our-drinking?source=c.em.cp&r_by=1396061

We MUST save our drinking water
signon.org
I just signed a petition to The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, Governor Rick Snyder, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama: Natural gas hydraulic fracture drilling must be delayed to await impact studies by the EPA and envir...
See More
signon.org
I just signed a petition to The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, Governor Rick Snyder, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama: Natural gas hydraulic fracture drilling must be delayed to await impact studies by the EPA and envir...

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption | Video on TED.com

OCCUPY MICHIGAN in LANSING & DETROIT
Surfing the web today, I found this great video. The theme..."Enough is enough". Think about the Occupy Movement nationwide. Protesters are trying to express that the greed of the 1% is enough and we need to come back down to Earth to support each other in smaller, less greed filled ways. This video will be shared my podcast show but, I thought I would share it w/ my FB buddies first. Let me know what you think!

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1037
www.ted.com
TED Talks At TEDxSydney, Rachel Botsman says we're "wired to share" -- and shows how websites like Zipcar and Swaptree are changing the rules of human behavior.

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here? | MichaelMoore.com

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here? | MichaelMoore.com
November 22nd, 2011 1:51 PM

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?

This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

"We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed." Read More | Here

Occupy Wall Street, Beyond Encampments: Lessons from Spain's Indigando Movement by Marina Sitrin and Luis Moreno-Caballud

Occupy Wall Street, Beyond Encampments: Lessons from Spain's Indigando Movement by Marina Sitrin and Luis Moreno-Caballud

Day of action by Brennan Cavanaugh

November 17 Day of Action celebrated the two month anniversary of OWS as well as the reoccupation of Zuccotti Park.

Marina Sitrin and Luis Moreno-Caballud—participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement and Spain's May 15 movement—share their advice for Occupy Wall Street's next step.


We write this letter as participants in the movements, and as an invitation to a conversation. We hope to raise questions about how we continue to deepen and transform the new social relationships and processes we have begun … to open the discussion towards a common horizon.

The evictions and threats to the physical occupations in the United States have again raised the question of the future of the movement. The question isn’t whether the movement has a future, but what sort of future it will be. For example, should our energy be focused on finding new spaces to occupy and create encampments? Should we be focused more in our local neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces? Is there a way to occupy public space with horizontal assemblies, yet also focus locally and concretely? Read Full Text Here | Encampments: Lessons from Spain's Indigando Movement

Ron Paul and Obama Get Mic Checked by Occupy Protesters

looking for the rest of this vid.. anyone?
www.youtube.com
Both Ron Paul and President Obama "1:25" were Mic Checked by Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Who do you think handled it better and why don't other candidates...

The unemployment rate fell in 36 states in October, but Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in the nation last month.

Sierra Nolan
‎"The unemployment rate fell in 36 states in October, but WISCONSIN LOST MORE JOBS THAN ANY OTHER STATE IN THE NATION LAST MONTH. Unemployment rates fell in 36 states in October and rose in only five, including Wisconsin, according to the latest monthly report released by the U.S. Department of Labor today. Unemployment rates were unchanged in nine states. Wisconsin reported the largest October job loss, a drop of 9,700, followed by New York, which lost 8,300 jobs."
www.biztimes.com
The unemployment rate fell in 36 states in October, but Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in the nation last month. Unemployment rates fell in 36 states in October and rose in only five, including Wisconsin, according to the latest monthly report released by the U.S. Department of Labor...

Occupy Movement tells MoveOn: Back Off! | Occupy Washington, DC

Occupy Movement tells MoveOn: Back Off! | Occupy Washington, DC
We will not allow MoveOn/Rebuild the Dream to co-opt the Occupy Movement. So we say to MoveOn and Rebuild the Dream, “Back off and stop using the language of the Occupy Movement.” If you would like to encourage your membership to attend Occupy Movement actions, you are welcome. However, you have no place creating an Occupy Newspaper, holding Occupy houseparties or claiming actions organized by the Occupy Movement as your own.

Why Iceland Should Be in the News But Is Not

Kevin Zeese
bellacaledonia.org.uk
By Deena Stryker An Italian radio program's story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember...Read More Here

News From The Associated Press

News From The Associated Press

Governor Walker, Wausau Mayor Arrange $2.7 Million in Corporate Welfare to Buy 200 Jobs |

Governor Walker, Wausau Mayor Arrange $2.7 Million in Corporate Welfare to Buy 200 Jobs |

Working on recalls full time.

Working on recalls full time.
"Before the recalls started, I had several people bring up the idea of getting funding so that I could work on recalls full-time, and travel around to places that need more volunteers without having to worry about coming back to Madison to work. I put a lot of thought into this, and I decided I would like to try to make it happen." Jenna Pope
Read Full Note Here | full time.

The Great Rope a Dope trick | TPMCafe

The Great Rope a Dope trick | TPMCafe

Barack Obama learned a political trick from Muhammad Ali called Rope a Dope. For you youngsters, this refers to the epic Rumble in the Jungle Heavyweight fight against George Foreman in 1974. Here is the Wikipedia explanation.

The rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes, and allowing his opponent to hit him, toward the end that the opponent will tire and make mistakes which the boxer can exploit in a counter-attack. By leaning against the ropes, much of the punch's force is absorbed by the ropes' elasticity rather than the boxer's body.

In competitive situations other than boxing, rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one party purposely puts itself in what appears to be a losing position, attempting thereby to become the eventual victor.


Last summer during the debt ceiling hostage crisis, Obama appeared to be the loser, but yesterday Republicans woke up to the reality that they lost Big Time--that we were going to get $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions, with 50% of the cuts coming from the military and none of the cuts from Social Security and Medicare. The Congressional water carriers for the Military Industrial Complex are in a panic. Read More Here | TPMCafe

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests | Politics News | Rolling Stone

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Much more than a movement against big banks, they're a rejection of what our society has become.

By Matt Taibbi
November 10, 2011 8:00 AM ET
taibbi ows
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

I have a confession to make. At first, I misunderstood Occupy Wall Street.

The first few times I went down to Zuccotti Park, I came away with mixed feelings. I loved the energy and was amazed by the obvious organic appeal of the movement, the way it was growing on its own. But my initial impression was that it would not be taken very seriously by the Citibanks and Goldman Sachs of the world. You could put 50,000 angry protesters on Wall Street, 100,000 even, and Lloyd Blankfein is probably not going to break a sweat. He knows he's not going to wake up tomorrow and see Cornel West or Richard Trumka running the Federal Reserve. He knows modern finance is a giant mechanical parasite that only an expert surgeon can remove. Yell and scream all you want, but he and his fellow financial Frankensteins are the only ones who know how to turn the machine off.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-ows-protests-20111110#ixzz1eTGldlnl

Unboxing Occupy Wall Street: We still don’t know what it is, and that’s good | Grist

Unboxing Occupy Wall Street: We still don’t know what it is, and that’s good | Grist
avatar for David Roberts

protest sign: "Think Outside the Box"Photo: Martin ReisWhen I first heard about Occupy Wall Street (henceforth OWS), I was dismissive. Worse, I was dismissive in a smug, insider, hippie-punching sort of way. I immediately put it into a box: confused and easily dismissed lefty protests filled with Free Mumia signs, giant puppets, and drum circles. As it turned out, I was right about the drum circles, but wrong about pretty much everything else.

My sin was not so much that I put OWS in the wrong box, but that I was so eager to box it at all. The most amazing thing about the entire phenomenon, to me, is how long and how totally it has resisted simple categorization. That is a rare thing in this era of late capitalism, when everything is instantly branded and marketed to death. The introduction of genuine novelty, of possibility, is a precious thing of great power; I should have recognized that.

I've been struggling for the right metaphor, and I keep coming back to wave function collapse (physics produces all the best metaphors). In quantum mechanics, a wave function is superposition of several possible endstates. When it is measured, it collapses, transforming from several possibilities to one actuality. Putting it more poetically: a jumble of possibilities, when observed from a particular perspective, becomes a single reality.

Something (metaphorically) similar happens when we create social meaning. It's not that OWS "really" means one thing or another and we're trying to discover that meaning; it's that OWS potentially means all sorts of things and we are, via our competing narratives and interpretations, choosing that meaning. Read More Here | Grist

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McDonald’s appears to have at least one scruple about farming practices | Grist

McDonald’s appears to have at least one scruple about farming practices | Grist
If you thought it was impossible to get McDonald's to take abusive and unsafe farm practices seriously, prepare to be proved wrong! Turns out, all it takes for McDonald's to break ranks with a supplier is 13 violations of salmonella-prevention regulations, an FDA citation for "significant ... and serious violations," and undercover video showing unsanitary conditions and animal cruelty. See Video Here | Grist

The #Occupy Movement and the Militarization of Policing | People Of Color Organize!

The #Occupy Movement and the Militarization of Policing | People Of Color Organize!

Posted on 22 November 2011 by bot

cops occupy portland The #Occupy Movement and the Militarization of Policing

"In our not-so-distant history, protest in the United States was handled by local law enforcement that treated demonstrations and marches as mere nuisance, mediating and directing as needed. Today, observing the interaction between Occupy movements and law enforcement suggests something different is afoot. Present Occupy protests are now being defined by a bewildering set of law enforcement strategies – and current practices display a worrying new trend.

While riot police are not necessarily an everyday feature at any given protest, the sheer frequency with which we are witnessing their presence on city streets throughout the United States is enough to give average citizens cause for concern; the excessive force being routinely deployed is alarming.

Within the first few days of Occupy Wall Street, protesters began to notice the presence of the NYPD’s Counter Terrorism Unit at Liberty Plaza. Joanne Stocker, who has become a fixture since day one at Wall Street, recalls within the first few days waking up to a Counter Terrorism Unit van, parked on the fringes of Liberty Plaza, which was taking video of her and her friends while they slept." Read More Here | Militarization of Policing

PolitiFact Wisconsin | State Treasurer Kurt Schuller says recall petitions must be signed in presence of another person

PolitiFact Wisconsin | State Treasurer Kurt Schuller says recall petitions must be signed in presence of another person

NYPD pepper sprays man to death — RT

NYPD pepper sprays man to death — RT

Mic checking Big Food | Grist

Mic checking Big Food | Grist

Food

Mic checking Big Food

RallyThe Occupy Big Food rally at Zuccotti Park on Saturday."Who's Food? Our Food!" This was the rallying cry at the first Occupy Big Food event on Saturday in Zuccotti Park. The rally, which I led with Erika Lade, a graduate student in NYU's Food Studies program, gathered about 100 people with the goal of connecting the larger Occupy Wall Street effort to the food justice movement.

NYU professor of Nutrition and Food Studies Marion Nestle was the event's featured speaker. Although Nestle was intimidated at the prospect of using the human microphone for the first time, she picked up the unusual speaking technique quickly. "I'm an academic who studies social movements," she told the crowd. "Occupy Wall Street is a social movement. Occupy Big Food is a social movement."

Occupy Big Food has three main goals: To raise public consciousness, to put pressure on food corporations to change their destructive practices, and to organize and unify Americans in an alternative food system. As I told the audience that day: We have two choices. We can create our own food system now, or we can watch as corporations continue their destruction of our food, our environment, our health, and our economy. Read More Here | Food

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