Photograph attributed to David Colburn.

UPDATE (10:40 PM PST): CourtneyOccupy is ustreaming from Oakland. Others will probably soon be doing so as well. Find them through the Twitter hashtags mentioned below.

INITIAL POST: This is breaking news at 10:22 PM PST. People in Oakland have smashed the windows of the Obama 2012 campaign office, unknown as to whether people involved in Occupy Oakland were involved, although Chris Hedges is probably already certain that Black Bloc elements were responsible. Could have been participants in a large Fuck the Police march, could have been people out for the art walk, could have been a spontaneous action by an amorphous group on the scene. We can certain, though, that Obama supporters will be horrified about this after tolerating his wars, his drone strikes, his indefinite detentions, his refusal to help millions of people who have suffered severe economic distress during his first term. For more information as it emerges, follow the hashtags #OO, #OccupyOakland and #FTP, among others, on Twitter. The Oakland Police Department reports an occupation at 19th Street and Telegraph.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street

Just to show how bad things have gotten at firedoglake, Pam Spaulding had a panic attack over gays and lesbians having a kiss in at Chick-fil-A today. After another instance of firedoglake historical revisionism analogous to Southern Dragon's claim that Marx abandoned his activism and limited himself to the understanding of a capitalist economy after 1850, wherein Spaulding states that the kiss in is incompatible with the past activism of ACT-UP, she is joined by numerous others complaining about the adverse consequences of public displays of gay and lesbian affection. It was left to slobeck to correct the record and bring some rationality to the discussion. Just imagine if Spaulding went to an Occupy event in NYC or Oakland, she'd probably faint and require help from the street medics.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, firedoglake, Gay Rights, Liberals

UPDATE 4 (1:05 PM PST): March of approximately 200 people through the working class neighborhoods of Anaheim to the police station in progress.

UPDATE 3 (12:55 PM PST): List of all streamers in Anaheim today.

UPDATE 2 (12:45 PM PST): Chant in front of the APD building, police represent the 1%.

UPDATE 1: crossxbones is back online here.

INITIAL POST: Protest march scheduled to start shortly (12:05 PM PST). Follow on Twitter at #Anaheim and numerous ustreams linked there, such as bella eiko and orangecrew and CourtneyOccupy. Interestingly, ustream has just shut down crossxbones for a purported violation of terms of service. The explanation is copyright infringement. This appears to be a new method for shutting down people by relying upon video of protesters singing a pop song or utilizing a pop culture icon in signage.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, California, Police, Racism

Alexander Cockburn liked pit barbeque. I know this, because, just prior to a planned road trip through Georgia and the Carolinas several years ago, he asked Counterpunch readers to recommend some good barbeque joints to visit. I e-mailed him the names of a couple, one in Ellijay, in north Georgia, the other in Jackson, just south of Atlanta. I explained that he would probably particularly enjoy the one in Ellijay, because the colorful owner, with a hill country gift for humorous self-promotion, enjoyed exaggerating his political association with people like Pat Buchanan with large photographs posted all around the restaurant. He thanked me for the referrals, saying that they were tempting, but that, unfortunately, his route was not taking him near them.

On Saturday, I was shocked to learn that Cockburn had died of cancer. Despite my disagreement with him on subjects like global warming and Occupy, I respected his intellectual independence. Cockburn rightly pilliored the emphasis that some on the the left place upon hostility towards religion, correctly observing that the US is one of the most Christian countries in the world. You aren't going to persuade many Americans to politically support you, he observed drily, by attacking Christianity. More importantly, he understood that both liberalism and the organized left had lost any political influence that they possessed long ago. Perhaps because of his close contact with direct action environmental protest movements on the West Coast, as personified through the efforts of people like Judi Bari, Darryl Cherney and Julia Butterfly, among others, he recognized the emergence of an anti-authoritarian left that integrated environmentalism with anti-capitalism. Living on the Lost Coast in Petrolia, he watched it happen right before his eyes.

Accordingly, Cockburn wasn't surprised at the eruption of confrontational protests against the WTO in Seattle on N30 in 1998, protests that he covered personally. And, because of his lack of surprise, he properly identified, in a compelling article entitled Seattle Diary, the flash points of contention that evolved out of it. He criticized the AFL-CIO for diverting a large march away from the downtown where locked down protesters were being tear gassed and pepper-sprayed by the Seattle police. Fearful of embarrassing President Clinton, who was scheduled to attend the meeting the following day, the AFL-CIO refused to come to the assistance of people in the streets who were fighting on its behalf against the neoliberal policies of the WTO. It was a classic instance of US labor unions serving in the role of mediating protest for the benefit of capital. In this, the AFL-CIO response to the street protests in Seattle prefigured the recent health care reform debacle where, after a similarly illusory campaign of opposition, it accepted a horrible program in return for a short-term carve out from a tax upon purported high cost health plans.

Cockburn also recognized the same tendency among NGOs that claim to oppose the reorganization of the global economy for the benefit of capital. He rightly criticized Global Exchange, and one of its founders, Medea Benjamin, for intervening on behalf of the police to protect Niketown, the Gap and McDonald's, from attack by angry crowds. Benjamin even went so far as to say that the people involved should have been arrested. Cockburn, upon being challenged by Benjamin's husband, Kevin Danaher, exposed them, like the leadership of the AFL-CIO, as being noteworthy for wanting a dialogue with the WTO while the protesters wanted to shut it down. Hence, Global Exchange was willing to assist the police in stopping the attacks because it impaired its prospects of serving as a self-selected intermediary between the anti-globalization movement, the WTO and the Clinton White House. It is one thing to argue that the left is not well served by instances of property destruction, as many in Occupy have done, and quite another to publicly state that those involved should be arrested. Just as the AFL-CIO was willing to serve in the role of ensuring that its members did not participate in unsanctioned protest that threatened its political and corporate relationships, Global Exchange attempted to fulfill a similar function in relation those involved in direct action.

For me, Cockburn's coverage of the N30 protests in Seattle was a seminal event, because it revealed a world of activism that I didn't know existed, or, if I did, seemed remote. At that time, I lived in a UC college town, Davis, California, where the boundaries of acceptable activism where dictated by the local Democratic Party apparatus, which was, of course, Clintonophile through and through. Cockburn intellectually legitimized the increasing centrality of anti-authoritarian activism, an activism that would be in the forefront of resistance to the so-called war on terror post-9/11, as most brutally manifested by the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and, more recently, in the Occupy movement. Like Tariq Ali, he insisted, despite criticism, upon the urgency of the creation of a broad based anti-imperialist effort that included the libertarian right. For both, saving the lives of people in the Middle East and Central Asia took precedence over the primacy of ideological consistency. The libertarian site antiwar.com periodically reposted his articles, and Justin Raimondo, the founder of the site, posted a heartfelt obituary. Cockburn understood that while, in the long term, the interests of anti-authoritarians and libertarians were at odds, they were congruent on the essential, contemporary question of US imperialism. Not surprisingly, liberals have taken the opposite stance, with the result that the interminable war on terror proceeds with little restraint.

Curiously, in one of his last articles, Cockburn posted a valedictory for Occupy. In it, he seems to have implicitly undergone a last minute conversion to an orthodox Leninism. For this, and other reasons, Louis Proyect found it objectionable, and while many of his criticisms are legitimate, he fails to recognize that Cockburn was saying a lot of the same things that sympathetic Marxists like Pham Binh have already said, especially in relation to the distortions created by the primacy of 24/7 activists and its opaque decisionmaking processes. Cockburn was especially sharp in his critique of the fetishization of social networking technology among some in Occupy, something that I had already expressed ambivalence about this in a post on my blog several months ago. My sense is that Cockburn may have again said the unmentionable, that Occupy is dead as we know it. He will not, however, live to discover whether the social conditions that gave rise to it will persist, if not intensify, resulting in future variations of like-minded anti-capitalist resistance.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, American Empire, Anarchism, Marxism, Neoliberalism, Religion

UPDATE 2: The implosion of firedoglake continues. TBogg, known for calling a critic of his support for drone strikes a fucking retard and telling that person to blow me without consequences, is now complaining that the conduct of others is driving people away from the site:

I’d like FDL to have a much bigger readership, but it is hard to do that when the same people keep showing with the same tired arguments, and the attendant goal post moving, which only makes regular readers run away, And, believe me, they do; I get emails from people all the time who say they won’t come back. That frustrates the crap out of me.

This, from someone who, in addition to hijacking the comment thread of a post written by someone else, frequently seizes upon the legitimate transgressions of the Catholic Church and turns them into offensive posts certain to drive even progressive Catholics away. Indeed, the anti-Catholicism of TBogg and, sometimes, Teddy Partridge, is arguably the most self-destructive feature of the site, if measured by Hamsher's aspiration to create a progressive town square.

UPDATE 1: Predictably, it didn't take long. Hamsher banned someone who made a comment in response to her post that she didn't like. There is no longer any evidence of this person associated with the site at all. Furthermore, if you inquire about it, or, even worse, post about it, you risk virtual disappearance. So much for being a town square where a fair discussion of the merits of all sides can take place. A better, more inclusive approach would have allowed members to vent in response to her post today, while firmly insisting upon future compliance with the new policy, but that would have run contrary to her reflexive need to assert control. In this instance, there was also the side benefit of expelling a strong, third party voice, and, probably, many of those who liked him, from the site as well. Hence, expect a manipulation of this standard for posts and comments to the benefit of those supporting the reelection of President Obama.

INITIAL POST: Jane Hamsher has spoken in response to intensified snark guerrilla warfare among the remaining die hards at firedoglake:

Accusing someone of having ulterior, nefarious and unacknowledged motives isn’t discussion. It’s nothing but an attempt to shut down discussion.

The rule is clearly stated. Don’t pee in the pool or you’ll be kicked out of the pool. If someone thinks their special brand of ambrosia-scented pee pee doesn’t count, and they want to give a good squirt and demand a deal in order to comply with the rules, they’re gone.

The no wee-wee policy could not be any more unambiguous. I suggest maybe zipping up and rethinking how you want to approach this conversation, rather than accusing us of an unacknowledged desire to to shut down criticism of the veal pen.

It is what it is. The rule is the rule, and it is iron-clad. If someone can’t accept that, this is the end of the road for them at FDL.

I guess that one of the privileges that comes with funding your own website is that you can say anything, no matter how ridiculous. In this instance, she has developed such an impenetrable sense of denial that she no longer recognizes that she is the one of the people that most frequently violates this rule to manipulate the content of the site, as she did in order to drive me away. Is she really so oblivious that she doesn't understand that the snark wars that have overwhelmed the site are being caused by people emulating her oftentimes arrogant, dismissive and insulting style of communication? Or, maybe, she cynically believes that the remaining members will uncritically accept anything she says. Only she knows. But, for those of us on the outside, it is becoming more and more evident that firedoglake no longer possesses any capability to motivate people to politically organize themselves. And, that, for reasons that I have previously explained, is a great loss. If she had candidly admitted her own shortcomings in relation to the current situation at the site, she might have been able to turn things around. But Hamsher isn't known for acknowledging that she makes mistakes. The reporters, Dayen, Walker and Gosztola, remain well worth reading, though.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, American Culture, Democrats, firedoglake

Over the years, I have been preoccupied with how radicalized people can be effectively organized in this atomized society. Hence, my interest in the demise of labor unions and their self-absorbed leadership that considers any sincerely motivated rank and file social activism as a threat. Instead of challenging the neoliberal order, they have aligned themselves with it, policing the boundaries of acceptable, innocuous protest, as they did in Wisconsin, with disasterous results. I find myself experiencing a kind of cognitive dissonance in regard to them, recognizing that they lost their historical agency decades ago, but incapable of identifying an alternative.

Similarly, I have looked to the Internet for places operated by people with a sufficiently independent turn of mind outside the progressive establishment. In 2006 or so, I discovered firedoglake, a progressive site operated by Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith, although Hardin Smith has not been involved with the site for several years, possibly for health reasons. firedoglake was interesting to me, as was the late Steve Gilliard's The News Blog, because anti-imperialists and leftists openly posted there without being moderated out of existence. Both were a marked contrast to mainstream progressive sites where the participants self-censored themselves in regard to challenging the Democratic Party and got rid of anyone who didn't do so. I posted comments on Gilliard's site frequently, he relished hard nosed political discussion, the more contentious, the better. I still remember going back and forth with him about whether US soldiers who enlisted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be held morally responsible for that decision. Conversely, I declined to post comments at firedoglake because I had an intuitive sense that I wasn't going to get along well with the kool kids who ran the site, epitomized by Hamsher herself, an intuition that was confirmed earlier this year. Even so, I was a lurker because I noticed that posters and commenters had a relatively ideologically free hand. Moreover, it was evident that the people forming the firedoglake community were going through a radicalized political evolution, the kind of evolution that many of us on the left hope, against all odds, to happen in this country. As with any such evolution, it was messy, erratic, abrasive and inconsistent.

But it was an evolution experienced by people who were trying to put into practice the old adage attributed to Lenin: Be as radical as reality. Accordingly, the initial approaches were reformist, with an emphasis upon more and better Democrats and an insistence upon subjecting the malefactors of the Bush administration to the rule of law. While I was indifferent to both approaches, ridiculing the expectation that US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald would accomplish anything of political significance through his investigation of Lewis Libby, I perceived that the people involved in these efforts were going through an important educational process. By 2008, after the bitter progressive disappointment with the 2007 Democratic Congress, a disappointment intensified by the betrayals of some newly elected representatives who had benefitted from firedoglake fundraising efforts, Hamsher had the good sense to stay out of the fight between Obama and Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, even though most of the people who posted and commented on the campaign were Obama supporters. firedoglake participants were not immune to the euphoria associated with Obama's candidacy. Perhaps, she perceived, in light of her experience with the 2007 Congress, that there was much worse to come.

If so, Hamsher was correct. To her credit, she put her personal resources to work through the site, exposing the mendacity of those involved in the Obama administration with the same rigor that she had done in regard to the Bush one. She hired journalists like Jon Walker and David Dayen to cover almost every aspect of Obama's capitulation to capital: the conscious refusal to provide sufficient stimulus for an economic recovery, the bank bailouts, the extension of the Bush tax cuts, the refusal to stem the tidal wave of foreclosures and, of course, health care reform. While she did not personally emphasize it, journalists and posters exposed the horrific violence of Obama's variation on the war on terror. For this, she was reviled by mainstream progressives aligned with the Democrats as they called people who identified with her site firebaggers. She even embraced the effort to defend Bradley Manning when everyone other than gays and lesbians and radical leftists considered him a pariah. Along with leftists like Louis Proyect, Pham Binh and Richard Seymour, she immediately recognized the importance of Occupy, and hired Kevin Gosztola to cover it, and raised money to provide supplies for occupations.

Unfortunately for firedoglake, however, Occupy has proven to be more polarizing than unifying, partially because it emerged just prior to the 2012 campaign. It emboldened those who had rejected the US electoral process to express themselves more aggressively, while those who remained aligned with Obama responded in kind. There have therefore been a number of nasty arguments on the site that have been poorly moderated by people who support Obama and the Democrats, a conflict that exploded, curiously enough, when someone was banned for posting an anti-Zionist article. If the number of comments are any indication, site traffic dropped significantly after this episode. Meanwhile, contemporaneous with this, Hamsher became paranoid about what she perceived as efforts to disrupt the site, as most embarrassingly revealed when she characterized me as either a Department of Homeland Security or K Street operative. Or, at least, she came across as paranoid, but it could have been an instance of crazy like a fox, hiding behind the absurdity of police and lobbyist infiltration to justify running off people like me from the site, people that she understands all too well. If so, she succeeded, as demonstrated by the melancholy tone of those who remain in the firedoglake community. One even comes across references to those who have been driven away, and elliptical statements to the effect that the damage is real and major.

Indeed it is. And while firedoglake is merely one website among many, it was, until recently, a popular one, and, more importantly, one that facilitated the social and political education of many sincere, highly motivated people. I doubt that it has the capacity to do so any longer, and, for those of us who understand that the radical transformation of this country is dependent upon spaces, however imperfect, it is a great loss. In this, it prefigures Occupy and efforts that will invariably emerge in the future. As with the struggles within Occupy Oakland, it is essential that we learn from them in order to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, American Culture, Democrats, firedoglake, Liberals, Neoliberalism, Occupy Wall Street

UPDATE 5: The conflict continues.

UPDATE 4: The firedoglake insurrection prevails. Cavlan has been reinstated, with an explanation that the moderator was confused about the nature of the video in question. But the fact that it took over 36 hours to address the situation when it is common for websites to resolve similar ones within hours, if not minutes, will certainly fuel speculation among firedoglake members. It is entirely possible that there were a significant number of cancelled memberships during this period. Hard liners, like Teddy Partridge and Phoenix Woman, who found themselves abandoned after going to the mat in support of arbitrary, non-responsive authority for site moderators, cannot be pleased. A commonly expressed belief is that Cavlan, who is also running for office as a third party candidate, was banned as part of a firedoglake retrenchment in preparation for support for the Democratic Party in the fall.

UPDATE 3: firedoglake is apparently breaking new ground in dubious Marxist revisionism as well. In subsequent replies to comments in response to his diary about Professor Richard Wolff's lectures about Das Kapital, SouthernDragon states that the content of the The Communist Manifesto should be discounted because Marx wrote it under contract and that, after 1850, he limited himself to understanding the operations of a capitalist economy. Marx, in the words of the Dragon, had made quite clear to his associates that he wasn’t interested in the future. Just another empiricist like Darwin. Of course, when Alan Maki disputed this, he was predictably accused of the heinous crimes of threadjacking, stalking, trolling. Shhh, shhhh, please don't tell SouthernDragon and his allies on the thread about Marx's involvement in the International Workingman's Association.

UPDATE 2: At 10:27 PM PST, there are over 700 comments in response to marsdragon's defense of Michael Cavlan. The prevailing ethos of those defending the behind the scenes censorship at firedoglake has been concisely stated by Teddy Partridge:

Whatever gives anyone this sense they are owed any explanation at all about any operation of this blog? Whence cometh this sense of entitlement?

And after 550+ comments, bleatings, demands, and whines, don’t you get it? No one’s going to explain, ever, when someone’s banned or given a timeout. It’s never going to happen, because the more explanations are provided, the easier it is for those who wish the blog ill to work around the criteria.

Besides, it’s essentially an internal matter between the blog and the commenter (you claim has been) banned: it would be inappropriate for management to comment publicly on its relationship with any commenter or diarist. The matter is between FDL and the commenter, who has allegedly provided an explanation to another commenter via email.

don’t think anyone else is going to explain anything to any of you, nor need they.

Translation: keep purchasing firedoglake memberships and just shut the fuck up while my diaries and Phoenix Woman's diaries get front page exposure on the website day after day. Why anyone would contribute a nickel to firedoglake to support narcissists like this is beyond me.

UPDATE 1: Actually, Anthony Noel is acquitting himself quite well in the ongoing debate over the banning of Cavlan and the video of Kaufman at firedoglake.

INITIAL POST: firedoglake bans Michael Cavlan after he posted an anti-Zionist video deemed offensive. David Seaton subsequently reposted it, a video of a speech by Sir Gerald Kaufman in the House of Commons. marsdragon will probably be shown the door shortly because of his aggressive defense of Cavlan and insistence for an explanation for the moderator's actions. One of the most humorous responses to this episode comes from Anthony Noel, who states that he has e-mailed Jane Hamsher about the situation and expects to get an explanation because she has responded to him promptly in the past.

Right. Just like Jane responded to my e-mail when I told her that she had falsely described me as a Department of Homeland Security or K Street operative, and provided documentary proof of my past interviews of firedoglake journalists. I will never get that response because she was attacking my character in the most transparently preposterous ways to get rid of me. My best guess is that she wanted to do it because she disliked me for being a leftist advocate for Occupy Oakland as revealed by my profile on the site.

Unlike Cavlan, I voluntarily left firedoglake because I had no interest in participating on a site where the person responsible for it can libel someone without any accountability. In this instance, there have been a number of anti-Zionist posts in recent days on the site, and I suspect that she has decided that a purge is in order. The naivete of FDL members who actually believe that firedoglake is an open forum for progressive political activity is on display in the comments to the posts of Seaton and marsdragon. Please let me know if the links to them go dead.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, firedoglake, Palestine, Zionism

UPDATE 2: So why are they making it seem like Uganda is one big hellhole because of Kony, because it's not.

UPDATE 1: This is the same narrative about Africa that we have seen for centuries.

Hat tip to Jews sans frontieres.

INITIAL POST: Blissfully, I live outside the universe of viral videos, so I only heard about the Invisible Children one about Joseph Kony and the Lords Resistance Army indirectly. I admit that I am late to the story, but I will share my responses: First, if Americans really care that much about gruesome, militaristic violence, they should confront the brutalities inflicted upon others around the world by their own government, instead of supporting a call for more US military assistance for a Uganda military known for its own human rights abuses.

Second, I thought, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Over the course of my life, Americans have flocked to claims that leaders of color are one of the primary sources of global violence. Mao, Castro, Arafat, Gaddafi, Noriega, Aidid, Hussein, Bin Laden, Ahmajinedad . . and, now, Kony. With the passage of time, succeeding figures have been described in more and more lurid terms that highlights their foreign, uniquely perverse character, paradoxically in contradictory ways, contrast, for example, the hedonism of Gaddafi, Noriega and Hussein with the puritanical extremism of Bin Laden and Ahmajinedad. If we could just get rid of these evil demons, the world would be such a wonderful place. The root of this phenonmenon go all the way back to the extermination of Native Americans by, first, the Spanish, and then, the US, with the whites of the time condemning the indigenous population for the interwoven existence of these seemingly oppositional attributes within their non-Christian cultures. As then, anyone who suggests that we should understand the circumstances that give rise to them and seek to address these conditions, instead of putting them on wanted posters, is frequently maligned as an apologist. Callum McCormick has aptly observed that any effort to comprehend the current situation in Uganda as anything more than a binary moral opposition is rejected as an unnecessary complication.

Predictably, one rarely encounters powerful white political figures presented in this way, consider, for example, Donald Rumsfeld, who, as Secretary of Defense, approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against Guantanamo detainees, personally monitoring the torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani. People like Rumsfeld are able to escape such condemnation because their violence is displaced by modern communications technology and allegedly objective processes for developing information and making administrative decisions, much in the same way that CIA officers evaded responsibility for the mass killings and torture associated with the Phoenix Program and Operation Condor. In the end, the outward appearance of rationality associated with the modernist effort to transform societies still afflicted by the residue of primitivism exonerates them. If Kony had come from an elite Uganda family and attended Harvard or Oxford prior to returning to Uganda to impose austerity with the assistance of a repressive security apparatus, he would be praised in the US media as an exemplary example, regardless of the number of child victims.

Curiously, the Israelis, perceived in a Eurocentric way, also avoid such a characterization, despite a documented history of calculated state violence in Lebanon and the occupied territories. Of course, it is not the fault of Invisible Children that many Americans reflexively respond in this way, but it is, whether consciously or not, exploiting a fundamentally neoconservative, racist discourse that privileges the state sanctioned violence of the US and its allies over others. If the objective is to truly help the people of Uganda, then an approach different from the failed, purportedly humanitarian interventions of the last 25 years should be considered. Otherwise, the arrest and trial of Kony, as sought by Invisible Children, is likely to be noteworthy for giving someone an opportunity to take his place. It would also be conveniently consistent with the rules of the game, whereby violent political figures in opposition to US interests risk finding themselves being prosecuted in The Hague for crimes against humanity, while similarly situated US allies have received billions in assistance.

Hat tip to Lenin's Tomb.

Labels: "War on Terror", Africa, Alternative Media, NGOs, Political Violence, YouTube

UPDATE: wendydavis posted a diary about the #F29 actions at firedoglake at 9:01am, just as I was putting the finishing touches on my post here.

INITIAL POST: First, more on the NYPD surveillance program directed against Muslims:

The Obama administration has pointedly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for. It remains unclear whether the White House knew how the NYPD was spending the grant money until the AP asked the White House about it last week.

We make very clear that we consider Muslim Americans partners in the effort to combat, you know, radical extremism, [Press Secretary] Carney said Monday. I think we've made that clear again and again. And that continues to be our position.

John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts heroic but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.

In other words, the Obama administration has no problems with it, and will continue to fund it.

Meanwhile, as noted here, there were numerous Occupy actions yesterday directed against banks and corporations associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization known for its lobbying activities on behalf of such interests. Oddly, I could find no coverage of them at all on firedoglake. I could find no posts in advance of them, nor any posts as they took place. If they were any such posts, they were buried within the site at a hard to find location. firedoglake does great work providing supplies to occupations around the country, but it is rather peculiar that there was a news blackout, whether accidental or deliberate, in regard to these #F29 actions. Stranger still, firedoglake is in the process of a membership drive wherein the site highlights its support for Occupy as a reason to join.

Of course, many of the posts at firedoglake are provided by members, so, perhaps, there were no members with knowledge of the #F29 actions. Even so, you'd think someone who blogs there on a daily basis would have reported on them, and it is perplexing to find a diary on The Magic of "29", and nothing about the #F29 actions. In any event, on Monday, there will be a large protest march to the state capital here in Sacramento as part of a nationwide Occupy Education day of action, with some reports that there will be an attempt to Occupy the Capital and conduct a general assembly inside the building. There are also walkouts taking place today in support of this effort. One hopes that firedoglake will find these actions newsworthy, as Occupy needs all the sympathetic coverage that it can get in the face of corporate media hostility.

As for the Monday protest here in Sacramento, it could result in confrontations with the highway patrol and local law enforcement officers responsible for policing the capital grounds, as they have historically utilized a zero tolerance policy towards any protest activity inside the building. In one notorious episode from the early 1990s, they arrested, and the Sacramento County District Attorney subsequently unsuccessfully prosecuted, about 10 disabled people in wheelchairs for protesting inside the lobby of the governor's office. They will not hesitate to respond violently, unless expressly ordered not to do so.

Labels: Alternative Media, Barack Obama, California, firedoglake, Muslims, NYPD, Racism, Sacramento

UPDATE 3: I received a very interesting e-mail this afternoon, with more background about this protest. Apparently, the students had the building surrounded during the press conference, and, after it was prematurely terminated, Katehi was fearful. Amazingly, a campus minister had to negotiate her departure. Students assured her that Katehi could exit without concern for safety, but they were insistent that Katehi face them. They were not going to allow to her leave without subjecting her to a withering public embarrassment. The account answers a couple of curious aspects of the protest. First, it explains how the students were able to position themselves along the route to Katehi's SUV. They were able to do it, because they dictated the route of her exit. Second, as Katehi walks along the line of students, someone asks her, are you still afraid of the students? One might initially believe that the question was prompted by the university's claim that the officers had to resort to the use of pepper spray to escape from a dangerous situation. But, instead, Katehi's fear of the noisy student protesters outside the media center provoked it.

UPDATE 2: I talked with one of my friends in Davis and obtained a little more information about this protest. Upon learning of Katehi's press conference, students went to the media center and disrupted it from outside with noisy chants, requiring her to cut it off early. She then, as noted by the Bee, waited inside the center for more than two hours in the forlorn expectation that she might be able to leave without confronting them.

UPDATE 1: The original YouTube video of the pepper spray incident posted here early Friday evening has been accessed over 745,000 times, with in excess of 15,000 comments. The one that I subsequently posted has been accessed over 55,000 times.

INITIAL POST:

As reported by the Sacramento Bee, Katehi walked through the silent student gauntlet after waiting for two hours in a media room in the misguided hope that she could avoid the assembled students:

After an afternoon press conference, Katehi said she had no intention of resigning and holed up in a media room for more than two hours while hundreds of students gathered outside, some carrying signs calling for her to resign.

At 6:50 p.m. Katehi left the building, walking to an awaiting SUV through lines of students that stretched two to three blocks. There was no exchange of words between her and the students, and the scene got very quiet as she passed.

Upon her departure, the students celebrated:

One gets the impression that the protest was spontaneous, one spread almost entirely by word of mouth through social media. Someone on campus encountered the media presence, asked what was up, and upon learning that Katehi was going to have a press conference, spread the word. It is possible that someone inside the campus administration leaked the information. In any event, the protest was an extraordinary achievement, an inversion of the power relations of the campus, as Katehi slowly walked helplessly passed along a seemingly endless of line of students, with many of them videotaping her humiliation for posterity. Every step along the way must have been agonizing. But there is no question that she deserved it. She initially defended the actions of the UC Davis Police Department without reservation, and only changed course after an explosion of public outrage. Hopefully, she'll be gone in the next few days.

Labels: Alternative Media, California, Occupy Wall Street, Police, Sacramento, YouTube

55 people have been arrested during an occupation which is ongoing at the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Most of the participants are from UC Santa Cruz, with others from the occupations in Oakland and San Francisco. ABC 7 in San Francisco has live video of the police arresting protesters inside the bank on the first floor, which is also a high rise office building. For a ustream of the rally outside in their support, go here.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Bay Area, California, Mainstream Media, Neoliberalism, Police, Sub-Proletarianization of America

Ustreams of simultaneous general assemblies at Zuccotti Park in New York City and Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Anarchism, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street

UPDATE 7 (3:28 PM PST): #3OccupySF ustream of Occupy Oakland march to UC Berkeley in support of the systemwide strike call.The march is proceeding down Telegraph Avenue, about half a mile away from UC Berkeley. #occupyberkeley has a ustream from downtown Berkeley as well. Follow the Twitter feeds at Occupy Oakland and Occupy Berkeley for replacement ustreams as necessary throughout the rest of the day, as those currently providing video may lose battery power for transmission. Meanwhile, at UC Davis, 400 students are involved in a sit-in at the Mrak Hall administration building in response to the it:

UPDATE 6 (3:18 PM PST): The Other 99, live ustream from Zuccotti Park.

UPDATE 5 (1:59 PM PST): The trial court rules against Occupy Wall Street and refuses to permit people to camp in Zuccotti Park. A cautionary tale about relying upon the courts for redress.

UPDATE 4 (1:22 PM PST): Denver, Portland, Oakland, Eureka, New York City, and, according to the Adbusters Occupy Wall Street Twitter feed, police preparing for raids in Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne . . . the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street is global. Impossible to keep up with developments as tweets are overwhelming the page, and the Occupy Oakland march hasn't even started yet. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has openly violated a court order permitting the return of the protesters to the park all day. At least 7 reportes have been arrested by the NYPD.

UPDATE 3 (1:16 PM PST): We want our park now! Protesters encircle Zuccotti Park as they await a trial court ruling as to whether they can reenter:

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters have returned to the financial district plaza they've used as a base of operations for the last two months. Citing a court order issued this morning establishing their right to enter Zuccotti Park – which they describe as Liberty Square – the demonstrators marched on the plaza late this morning.

As they approached the square, police officers directed the marchers into a chute of barricades that led to a dead-end. With the pen full, protesters demanded the police let them free. Individuals steadily began to create spaces between barricades and within a short amount of time took the sidewalk surrounding the perimeter of the plaza.

We want our park now! the protesters chanted, as the police directed them to keep moving along the sidewalk. Many carried this morning's court order in their hands and often challenged police officers to respond to it. Protesters repeatedly told the NYPD they were breaking the law by barring them from the park.

There may not be a court ruling until 5pm EST.

UPDATE 2 (1:05 PM PST): Today, November 15, is also the day of the systemwide UC general strike, called last Thursday after police attacked protesters with batons at UC Berkeley. At my alma mater, UC Davis, there is a growing crowd of 2000 people on the Quad. At 2:30pm, there will be an Occupy Oakland march in support of the strike at UC Berkeley:

UPDATE 1 (10:30 PM PST) : Protesters and journalists arrested after gaining access to ground owned by Trinity Wall Street Church at Duarte Square.

INITIAL POST (8:45 PM PST): Livestream of police in riot gear in Zuccotti Park, with protesters marching outside along the street. The situation is predictably tense. Go here to watch it. The New York Police Department did not permit the media to cover the eviction. At least 70 people were arrested. Despite a court order allowing people back into the park, police are now refusing to permit entry. For the Twitter feed, go to the Adbusters Occupy Wall Street here site. For background and updates, you can also go to the other Occupy Wall Street website. Police are surrounding all entrances and refusing to communicate with anyone. There is a Guardian live blog where one can also monitor the situation as well. Over 7000 people are watching the global revolution livestream.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, NYPD, Occupy Wall Street, Police

UPDATE (6:23 PM): Participants in Occupy Oakland plan to meet tomorrow at 2:30 PM at 14th and Broadway to march to UC Berkeley in support the UC strike tomorrow. According to OccupyMills, there will be another attempt to establish an occupation on campus. Meanwhile, the UC Regents cancelled their planned Wednesday meeting in San Francisco. Occupy Oakland reporting that 2000 people are participating in the general assembly.

INITIAL POST (5:28 PM): Live ustreams by OccupyMills and BellaEiko of the attempt by Occupy Oakland to recover Frank Ogawa Plaza. Approximately 700 people on the march. The mood is festive. People being allowed to gather in the park and the amphitheater, possibly consistent with an earlier Oakland Police Department announcement that people would only be confronted if they sought to set up tents again. A general assembly is now getting underway in the amphitheater with four police helicopters overhead shining lights on the crowd. Motorcycle cops are circling the plaza and there are about 40 cops, some in riot gear, at the back of the park. The amphitheater appears to be full, and there is a discussion about developing a plan for an upcoming action. Apparently, there will be a mass action on Saturday, November 19th, with a Sutter Health facility in Oakland as one of the targets. The San Francisco Chronicle is now reporting that there were 1000 people on the march, but, consistent with the policy of this blog, no link will be provided. For more information, you can also follow the Twitter feed at Occupy Oakland. I frankly didn't anticipate so many people will respond to the call. I guess I shouldn't underestimate those involved with Occupy Oakland.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street, Police

UPDATE 7 (November 13, 11:40 AM): Portland police dismantle Occupy Portland encampments at Chapman and Lownsdale Squares after a late night crowd in support of them goes home. In Oakland, some participants in Occupy Oakland forced their way back into Frank Ogawa Square and recovered it after being evicted and subjected to a police riot a couple of weeks ago. One wonders whether those involved in Occupy Portland will display the same resolve as it has been much less confrontational.

UPDATE 6 (November 13, 12:45 AM) : Police can't get through the crowd to reach the Occupy Portland encampment. Main Street is closed for three blocks out from it. Upon receiving the official announcement of the planned eviction, Occupy Portland treated it as a New Year's Eve invitation and invited everyone downtown. Interestingly, KGW News Channel 8 in Portland has placed the Occupy Portland livestream on its webpage. Bay Area news editors, especially ones that work for the San Francisco Chronicle, would rather eat rat poison than do something like that with Occupy Oakland. KGW also has its own livestream, where a police lieutenant, Robert King, is saying that the Portland Police Department anticipated a large crowd. Right. That's why the eviction notice was issued for midnight. Crowd continues to grow, while King says that the police plan to wait until the crowd dissipates. King and KGW keep emphasizing the good relationship with Occupy Portland. So why evict the encampment? Yes, the business community demanded it, just like in Oakland.

UPDATE 5 (11:56 PM): Occupy Portland eviction scheduled for four minutes away at midnight. An estimated 5000 to 6000 people awaiting police action. There is a livestream here, as well as a Facebook page and a Twitter feed on the Occupy Portland webpage:

The bike brigade has just arrived. Occupy Portland! #opdx

Mobile candlelight vigil encircling Occupy Portland. #opdx

Group on corner of Main & 4th have barricaded itself, chanting "We are non-violent. We are not leaving." #opdx

Mounted officers & riot cops on the ground, helicopters overhead, laughing overheard. #opdx

In this movement, it seems that the action doesn't get started until after 10:00pm. 6100 people watching the livestream.

UPDATE 4 (9:19 PM): Occupy Denver encampments dispersed by the police with 16 arrests confirmed and an undetermined number of additional ones. At one point, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of occupiers. Police followed protesters down side streets as they attempted to regroup. Rumors rampant that Occupy Oakland will be raided tonight, with video activists en route to the encampment to record it. The Oakland Police Department has warned journalists of potential risk to personal safety if they cover the assault.

UPDATE 3 (2:41 PM): Derrick Jensen speaking now on ustream at Occupy Oakland. He is exhorting the police to refuse to attack the encampment and join it instead. He is also, to his credit, confronting the failure of some occupations to report rapes to the police. He asserts that people involved in occupations should force the police to do their jobs by turning accused rapists over to them. He demands that the participants in Occupy Oakland express a zero tolerance towards rape, which the men in the crowd do. He says that a cop friend told him that cops protect us from sociopaths. He turns towards cops nearby and rhetorically asks why cops attack unionists and indigenous people instead of sociopathic capitalists He says, If they won't protect us, cops should have the common decency to get out of the way.

UPDATE 2 (2:18 PM): Police are massing and putting on riot gear in preparation for a raid at Occupy Denver. For updates, there is a livestream here, as well as the Occupy Denver Facebook page. Meanwhile, there is another one anticipated tonight at Occupy Portland. The Occupy Portland Facebook page is probably the best source of up to the minute information.

UPDATE 1 (2:07 PM): OakFoSho has a ustream from Occupy Oakland. A pleasant, sunny day. Veterans have apparently occupied a building in the area, and the police have informed them that it may be raided within a few hours.

INITIAL POST: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Oakland officials have approved another police assault upon Occupy Oakland, most likely in advance of the contentious UC Regents meeting in San Francisco next Wednesday, which will require a substantial, region wide police presence. Given that the Chronicle has been in the forefront of the hysteria to shut down Occupy Oakland, I am not providing a link to the article. For those of you interested in staying abreast of current developments, go to the Occupy Oakland website and follow the Twitter feed on the right side of the page. There is also a livestream here, and OakFoSho transmits live video from the encampment as well. They are likely to be your best sources of information in the event of another forcible eviction from Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Labels: Alternative Media, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street, Police

UPDATE 6 (November 10, 12:34 PM): Ongoing discussions in Sproul Plaza in advance of a general assembly scheduled for 6pm.

UPDATE 5: Photo of general assembly at UC Berkeley:

UPDATE 4 (November 10, 1:10 AM): There are about 1500 people left in the plaza. About half of them participated in the vote on the strike proposal. It passed the 90% threshold with 95% support.

UPDATE 3 (November 10, 12:36 AM): UC police say that 200 more officers have arrived, but no one has seen them. Meanwhile, assembly discussion has concluded in regard to a proposal for a systemwide UC strike on Tuesday, November 15th. People are breaking out into small groups of 20 to vote on it. It is, of course, expected to be approved overwhelmingly.

UPDATE 2 (November 10, 12:15 AM): Proposals now being submitted for a possible systemwide UC action, with attendant calls for solidarity. Crowd remarkably focused given the large number of people involved in this impromptu assembly.

UPDATE 1: In regard to my post earlier this evening about the proposal concerning the Black Bloc at the Occupy Oakland general assembly, which apparently allowed for a diversity of tactics, meaning property destruction outside of mass actions, there has been a report that it failed miserably, garnering just over 15% of the vote in a modified consensus process that requires 90% approval. For a more detailed presentation about what transpired during the discussion of this subject, as well as others addressed during the assembly, go here.

INITIAL POST (November 9, 10:54 PM):

OakFoSho's livestream is here. You can also follow at Occupy Oakland as well. OakFoSho reports 2000 to 3000 people, with more arriving from Occupy Oakland on BART. Others from Occupy Oakland, as well as people from Occupy San Francisco and Occupy Berkeley, are already there in a show of support. Apparently, the crowd in Sproul Plaza grew much larger after the second police attack upon the occupiers in the early evening. 39 people were arrested as a result of efforts to occupy the plaza earlier in the day. Right now, some Oakland Police Department and Alameda County Sheriff's Department officers are at the scene in addition to the UC police, but there are only 50 to 70 cops total. Meanwhile, occupy participants are forming groups of marshals in an attempt to prevent violence. There were rumors that Occupy Oakland was going to be raided, but that fear has ebbed. An estimated 30,000 people are watching the livestream all over the world.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street, Police, YouTube

UPDATE: The proposal concerning the Black Bloc, which apparently provided for a diversity of tactics, meaning property destruction outside of mass actions, was defeated as it only garnered 15% of the vote in a modified consensus process that requires 90%. For a more detailed presentation of what transpired during a discussion of this subject, as well as others addressed during the assembly, go here.

INITIAL POST: Large crowd of 700-800 people in attendance tonight under threat of police assault as previously directed toward occupiers at Occupy Cal earlier today. Black Bloc proposal under discussion now at 8:15 PM. The proposal states that people employing Black Bloc tactics should desist from engaging in property destruction and violence during mass actions as they did during the November 2nd general strike, but recognizes their possible utility of such activity in other situations. It also emphasizes that the street violence during the late evening hours of November 2nd and the early morning hours of November 3rd damaged local businesses that support Occupy Oakland. It looks like it is going to be an emotional discussion, but the participants seem good natured.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, Anarchism, Bay Area, California, Occupy Wall Street

Justin Raimondo describes it here. Looks like you should pretty much assume that the FBI has a large file on you if you oppose US militarism, unless your activities are so insufficiently publicized to escape notice.

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, American Empire, FBI, Police

UPDATE 1: A video of a cell extraction at the News from a Nation in Lockdown site, as pointed out by Yusef:

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Consider perusing the comments to the video, as Yusef suggests.

INITIAL POST: James Ridgeway and Jean Casella have done extraordinary work in revealing the brutalities of the US prison system through their blog, Solitary Watch. They have posted numerous accounts about the abuse of inmates by placing them in solitary confinement for indefinite periods, sometimes for years and years, as was the case with Ojore Lutalo, who spent the majority of his 26 year sentence for armed robbery in isolation because of his involvement in anarchist and black nationalist organizations:

Ridgeway and Casella have posted the accounts of other inmates on a YouTube channel, News from a Nation in Lockdown, as explained here. A cursory reading of Solitary Watch reveals that many of the practices of the purported war on terror originated in US supermax prisons. Consider, for example, this account by Pornchai Moontri:

Every day there was the same monotony: breakfast at 0530 followed by forty-five minutes alone in the rec pen. That was like a big dog cage. I could take exactly eleven steps inside it and then back again. It was about five feet wide and eight feet long with chain link on all sides and above. It really was a cage. I could have a fifteen-minute shower five times a week, and one fifteen-minute telephone call per week. There was no use of a TV or radio.

Lunch was always at 11:30 and dinner at 4:30. Four times a day guards would come to count me at the same time every day. I would have to stand up or sit on the concrete bunk. I was allowed to look at three books per week. I would take any books that were big so they would last a long time. I read the Bible cover to cover twice. I read Stephen King books because they were big. I also read Shogun and any other large novel I could get. At O7OO every day, someone would come by with a tube of toothpaste, put a dab on my finger, and I would brush with that.

Super Max was so depressing and so solitary that prisoners would try to cut themselves deeply or hang themselves just to get out of there. Since this Super Max prison opened in 1992, there have been three inmate deaths there by suicide (one was a suspected homicide), and hundreds of prisoners were seriously injured. One prisoner was extracted from his cell so he could not harm himself, and then he died from the injuries he sustained while being extracted.

The longer a prisoner stayed in Super Max, the more anti-social he became. Inmates would do anything to try to break up their day and entertain themselves. Some played with their own urine and feces, and others used those as weapons, throwing them at the guards after calling their names to get their attention. Some of the more manipulative would talk other prisoners into acting up. I know today that we acted like animals because we were treated like animals.

Supermaxed.com makes the connection explicit by means of a webpage that provides links to resources related to US prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan.

Labels: "War on Terror", Afghanistan, Alternative Media, American Empire, Guantanamo, Prisons, Sadomasochism

Labels: Activism, Alternative Media, American Empire, Police, wikileaks