Tag: occupy wall street

For most of the Republican presidential contenders, Occupy Wall Street and its assorted spin-offs such as Occupy Denver are bad news. Occupiers have been characterized essentially as lazy bums and their message as a cry for class warfare.

A Florida congressman has introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. The OCCUPIED Amendment would make it clear that corporations are not people and cannot spend money electioneering.

A funny thing is happening in America. Even as police and mayors are cracking down on occupiers around the country, people are talking about the issues that drew occupiers to the streets in the first place.

As has been widely reported, police crackdowns on the Occupy movement in cities across the country have extended beyond the protesters to include attacks on journalists as a way to stanch news of police action. Ten reporters were arrested in New York when police cleared Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, including reporters for the AP, NPR, and the New York Daily News, according to watchdog organization Free Press. The organization announced today it has launched a campaign "targeted at mayors around the country to demand they honor the 1st Amendment and drop all charges against journalists."

In a nod to the fact that some people just won't take the Occupy movement seriously until the group has a leader, Occupy Denver has taken the unusual step of actually taking a vote and electing a leader.

As the right paints the Occupy movement as a misguided menace to societyand the left looks to the movement as a force for good, one thing remains true to the end: You can't have a really good protest without really good music. Below Crosby and Nash perform in New York City.

He isn't the fifth Beatle. But Herman Cain just may be the fifth Koch brother. The former Godfather's Pizza CEO received a rock star ovation at an Americans for Prosperity summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday night when he declared he feels a deep kinship with the Koch brothers.

As the social media-sparked Bank Transfer Day approaches, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reports that over 650,000 people have joined credit unions in the last four weeks. In Colorado, the group reports 14,000 new accounts and $100 million in new deposits.

It would seem to be the exact kind of thing the Occupy movement is protesting. High-paid political elites commissioned by the financial sector to battle against the interests of the public. The New York Stock Exchange, targeted in the digital-social-media universe as a main stage for the bad-acting finance sector, is holding a “Social Media Day” on Friday to which it is inviting a high-profile roster of special speakers, according to Politico.

Before protestors were placed under arrest and escorted by police through the University of New Mexico, they shouted to their future apprehenders “Cops are the 99 percent!” More than a glib rhetorical device aimed at making their voices heard, the (Un)occupy activists were unwittingly or not using a tactical device employed by previous successful protest movements.