Occupy ROTH Army

[Dr. Love]

http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17196%3Aows-spurs-largest-mobilization-of-pro-bono-lawyers-in-40-years&catid=155%3Anonprofit-newswire&Itemid=986&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nonprofitquarterly%2Fhome+%28The+Nonprofit+Quarterly%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

OWS Spurs “Largest Mobilization of Pro-Bono Lawyers” in 40 years
OCTOBER 31, 2011
RUTH MCCAMBRIDGE

October 30, 2011; Source: Kansas City Star | As Occupiers are being arrested all over the country, a possibly record breaking number of attorneys are making their services available on a pro-bono basis to help represent protestors, draft and file motions, and provide advice. The Kansas City article is well worth reading in full for the range of involvement of attorneys across the country, but here are two noteworthy examples:

Carol Sobel, co-chair of the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild—which has defended the First Amendment rights of thousands since 1937—comments that "it's probably bigger than the anti-war movement, because there are so many simultaneous demonstrations. I've never seen anything like it."

Sobel got a call last week, for instance, when police tried to oust the Occupy Los Angeles protesters from their encampment along President Obama’s motorcade route. Sobel reports that she advised the group to stay put, since the street wasn't being shut down, no businesses had been asked to close, and other pedestrians weren't being searched or removed. This amounted, she argued, to unfair treatment.

"They stood their ground, the president came and went and there was no problem. But there's always that constant pushback . . . that's why the lawyers are so critical, because they can give information to the protesters and vigorously arm them with the law. And the law's on their side."

Criminal defense attorney Daphne Pattison Silverman of Houston who saw a television interview with a guild lawyer doing OWS defense work was energized enough to start a Houston based chapter of the Guild, now 10-strong, which is making itself available to the Occupy Houston group.

Silverman is a former attorney in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, and she comments that she sees no contradiction. "To me, the same oath I took in the military to support and defend the Constitution is the same oath I take as a criminal lawyer, and now as a budding First Amendment lawyer.” She says that sometimes her job is to tell the government that they've made a mistake.

Silverman feels she needs only take a light touch with the protestors she works with. "There are plenty of very educated (protesters) who are highly capable of doing their own negotiations. They just need a little encouragement and a little knowledge of what their rights are and where they need to ask for exceptions.”—Ruth McCambridge

[Dr. Love]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/01/citizens-united-constitutional-amendment_n_1069596.html?1320176417&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Citizens United Going Down? Democrats Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Ruling

Posted: 11/1/11 03:40 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court may treat corporations like people who can spend whatever they want on elections, but the American people don't have to accept it, said Democratic senators who proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to retake control of campaign spending.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), doesn't directly address the justices' legal finding that corporations have a right to free speech that was curtailed by election law. Instead, it would add to the Constitution language that says Congress and the states can regulate campaign contributions and expenditures.

The amendment would effectively reverse two landmark Supreme Court decisions -- the 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo, which said spending money in elections is a form of speech, and the 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled it unconstitutional to regulate the money spent to influence elections by corporations and unions.

The Citizens United ruling has unleashed a flood of cash from corporations and super PACs, which can spend as much as they want and do so nearly in secret.

"Letting this go unchecked is a threat to our democracy. Campaigns should be about the best ideas, not the biggest checkbooks," Udall said at the press conference.

The amendment has three main focuses: to authorize Congress to regulate the raising and spending of money for federal political campaign contributions and expenditures (including independent expenditures), to allow states to regulate that raising and spending at their level, and to permit Congress to pass campaign finance reform legislation that could withstand constitutional challenges. It does not specify what the reforms should be.

Also at the press conference, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the proposed amendment, called the Buckley case "one of the worst decisions that the Supreme Court has rendered in the last hundred years" and described the Citizens United ruling as "Buckley on steroids."

A constitutional amendment could be a welcome proposal for the thousands of demonstrators involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, which holds a reversal of the Citizens United ruling as one of its oft-repeated demands.

"The extent to which money and corporations have taken over the [campaign] process is reflected across our cities in the Occupy movement," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), another co-sponsor. "It is something we have to do something about if we are going to reclaim American democracy as the shining light to other countries that it has always been."

The amendment faces a long, unlikely path even to win initial congressional approval. Senate Republicans last year opposed a Schumer measure, the Disclose Act, that would have just required more disclosure about campaign spenders.

It's a start, but I would prefer a consitutional convention called by the states. Cut the federal government out of the equation and solve the problem between the states.

[Dr. Love]

[Dr. Love]

The Inevitable Has Happened: Occupy Foreclosures
Linette Lopez | Nov. 1, 2011, 5:56 PM

Last night Occupy Oakland's General Assembly did something that is likely to catch on with occupations across the country.

They voted to encourage the occupation of foreclosed properties across their city. After all, the bursting of the property bubble is part of why they're on the streets right now.
There is a movement similar to this under the overall Occupy umbrella, It's called Occupy Vacant Properties, and it has been most visible in San Francisco, where families are even reclaiming their old homes post-foreclosures.

Fire Dog Lake via The Home Defenders League:
My family has been in this neighborhood for 50 years, and since I’ve been evicted, the place has been vacant, like so many homes in the Bayview. Families have been ripped off by banks, scammed by brokers and nothing’s done to them. It’s time for the families and the community to stand up and take back what’s theirs.

Considering all the attention focused on Occupy Oakland right now, it wouldn't be surprising if this caught on like wildfire. Plus, in northern cities during the winter months, this could provide spots to house protesters and maintain the occupations.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/occup...#ixzz1cVo3yz6f

I dunno about this...

[Dr. Love]

[Nitro Express]

Operation Occupy Wall ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

[Dr. Love]

[Nitro Express]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...usaolp00000009



It's a start, but I would prefer a consitutional convention called by the states. Cut the federal government out of the equation and solve the problem between the states.

We are only five states short of doing just that. Both political parties have been bought off. We got fascism with Bush and we got more fascism with Obama. I think Ron Paul is the only one running who won't side with the banks. Even if he wins, they will be out to kill him.

What we can hope for is enough people in the government have woken up to not follow their orders. It doesn't matter how corrupt the leadership is when the piss ants refuse to do what they are told. I think if this next election turns out to be a failure things will start to come apart. You are already seeing county sheriffs organizing against the feds with different counties getting together. The feds are cutting off public access to public lands and shutting off irrigation water. People have had enough. I don't think these Occupy Wall Street rallies are going to do much good but the county rallies seem to have more level headed people.

OWS already looks tuckered out. Winter will come and it will die out. When the warm weather starts it will come back again but fall apart because too many people will want to lead the thing. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. Obama will try and be the leader of it but that will fail too. I predict more drumming and maybe body painting will come back into style. I doubt it will inspire music as good as what came out of the 60's.

[Dr. Love]

[standin]

I dunno about this...

Very similar to occupying abandoned corporate properties. Most cities do not have corporate parks, but every city has abandoned corporate property, sometimes managed sometimes not.

By the Occupation and Occupants using abandoned corporate property instead of city property, it allows a plausible ignorance for the city officials and LEOs. Trespassing is not trespassing until a complaint occurs. An abandoned corporate property *might* not have a person on local to register a compliant (call it in, go to court, etc...)

Abandoned corporate property is pretty easy to spot. First off it is empty. Second off it has been empty for a while. It may or may not be cared for. If it is a local might or might not actually manage the lease, that can be an issue for that local Joe whose duty it is to rent the place. If not managed locally it still may be kept up by long term property services. Such service usually subcontract out the care to some local (or non-local) company. And one can always check the tax records to be sure.

I have highly recommended that the Occupation and Occupants search out and use abandoned corporate properties. It gives the local judicial and city officials and LEOs a way to support the Occupation or at least not interfere. It *could* be classified as a civil issue, which would require resolution before a junction requiring LEO intervention would be issued.

[Satan]

[Seshmeister]

Very similar to occupying abandoned corporate properties. Most cities do not have corporate parks, but every city has abandoned corporate property, sometimes managed sometimes not.

By the Occupation and Occupants using abandoned corporate property instead of city property, it allows a plausible ignorance for the city officials and LEOs. Trespassing is not trespassing until a complaint occurs. An abandoned corporate property *might* not have a person on local to register a compliant (call it in, go to court, etc...)

Abandoned corporate property is pretty easy to spot. First off it is empty. Second off it has been empty for a while. It may or may not be cared for. If it is a local might or might not actually manage the lease, that can be an issue for that local Joe whose duty it is to rent the place. If not managed locally it still may be kept up by long term property services. Such service usually subcontract out the care to some local (or non-local) company. And one can always check the tax records to be sure.

I have highly recommended that the Occupation and Occupants search out and use abandoned corporate properties. It gives the local judicial and city officials and LEOs a way to support the Occupation or at least not interfere. It *could* be classified as a civil issue, which would require resolution before a junction requiring LEO intervention would be issued.

I think this kind of completely misses the point.

These people don't need somewhere to occupy.

Occupying is not the ends it is the means.

They could all go and sit in a disused factory and who would notice or care? The reason they need to occupy Wall Street or the centre of London is to get media attention. Marching doesn't work any more, no one notices or hardly reports on it.

The whole fucking point of civil disobedience and protest is that it is inconvenient. It's meant to be.

[standin]

I think this kind of completely misses the point.

These people don't need somewhere to occupy.

Occupying is not the ends it is the means.

They could all go and sit in a disused factory and who would notice or care? The reason they need to occupy Wall Street or the centre of London is to get media attention. Marching doesn't work any more, no one notices or hardly reports on it.

The whole fucking point of civil disobedience and protest is that it is inconvenient. It's meant to be.

It is no inconvenience to a corporation for an Occupant to be arrested.
It is an inconvenience to the Occupant and Occupation.
Media attention is not an ends to the means.

Moreover, the Jacks and Jackies of the media at a local level can only report a limited amount of local human-interest stories, which many have done with a positive light.

At a national level, the Occupation is dealing with a whole other set of rules for the Jack and Jackies. If they want to keep their job (and most people do), they report as they are told to report, the selection of human-interest stories are controlled. Even if Diana Sawyer wanted to report every night about the occupation, it is not her total call.

Perhaps, I should have clarified. Using abandoned corporate properties as a base of operations provides locations for amassing.

The Occupations are located in varied cities. Not all people live in these cities. There are Occupants that are traveling from the smaller and rural locations to join. The Occupations are becoming a tourist interest. Some people after “checking it out” may then choose to give service to the Occupations during their days off. To conserve resources, it is useful to have planned locations for pilgrim Occupants to rest unmolested. Thus, your old factory idea is actually great. Thank you.

The Occupation does not need the media to amass.

~ Pace yourselves. ~

A word of warning: Corporations administer parts of the judicial system, such as jails, prisons, and probation. There are, in recent history, judges at a local level who have taken kick backs to place persons under such corporate entities. Be aware of such corruption. Note not all are corrupt that work for such corporations. However, if one wants to work in judicial and LE fields at most any level must play ball with these corporations. There are those that indeed do not take part of corruption, but have witnessed in frustration events. Find them help them cull corruption and Occupy at their plane.

Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash' scandal

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-23/justice/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges_1_detention-judges-number-of-juvenile-offenders?_s=PM:CRIME

A Crooked Judge, A Son's Suicide, A Mother's Unrequited Grief
http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/0...equited-grief/

[Nitro Express]

Unless you hold political power or military power, you have no power. What good does occupying empty houses do? They are bulldozing them down in Detroit and bulldozing down new ones in California. It all boils down to the man with the gun in the end. If people stop following the rule of law then you have to make them follow the law and if you can't do that, you lose your power.

[standin]

Further clarification: there are abandoned corporate properties in the business district of various cities, also. these too *might* be able to be used for Opps bases.