Transcendent^Blog

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cwnl:

Confirmed: More Than 1,000 Protesters Descend On The Very First Day of #takewallstreet

Demonstrators invoke Mideast rallies, call for end to corporate greed favoring rich

New York - Manhattan - More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on New York City’s Financial District on Saturday for what could be a days-long protest of what they said was corporate greed favoring the rich at the expense of ordinary people.

The rally, dubbed #OccupyWallStreet / #TakeWallStreet on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook where word was spread, spurred the New York Police Department to lock down Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, local media reported.

Pictures posted on Twitter and elsewhere showed police and barricades around the famous bronze bull statue on lower Broadway.

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knowyourmeme:

This weekend, protests on Wall Street began, inspired by the Tahrir movement in Egypt, to call for an end to corrupt money-influenced politics in Washington.

KYMdb - #OccupyWallStreet

cwnl:

Hundreds Of Protesters Descend To ‘Occupy Wall Street’

Hundreds of demonstrators took to The Streets of Manhattan’s Financial District on Saturday in a largely peaceful protest aimed at drawing attention to the role powerful financial interests played in wreaking havoc on America’s economy.

Modeled on the “Arab Spring” uprisings that swept through Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and other countries this year, Occupy Wall Street is a “leaderless resistance movement” orchestrated through Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools. The Twitter hashtags #OccupyWallStreet and #TakeWallStreet lit up Saturday with coordination messages and solidarity tweets. (See CNNMoney’s coverage in photos and tweets.)

Activist magazine Adbusters spearheaded the event, putting the call out two months ago for participants in a Sept. 17 demonstration in lower Manhattan. Protestors arranged to meet and discuss their goals at the iconic Wall Street Bull statue at noon, as well as at a “people’s assembly” at One Chase Manhattan Plaza at 3 p.m.

“The NYPD is aware of various protests and we have planned accordingly,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN late Friday.

Early Saturday morning, police barricaded off Wall Street, erecting barriers around the bull statue that protestors had planned to make their rallying point. Protestors instead took to the surrounding streets, blocking traffic. By 2 p.m., nearly two dozen uniformed police officers surrounded the bull, while others worked to disperse the crowd.

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fuckyeahdrugpolicy:

This is an awesome article detailing the militarization of domestic law enforcement in the United States.

A Decade After 9/11, Police Departments Are Increasingly Militarized | The Huffington Post

The trend toward a more militarized domestic police force began well before 9/11. It in fact began in the early 1980s, as the Regan administration added a new dimension of literalness to Richard Nixon’s declaration of a “war on drugs.” Reagan declared illicit drugs a threat to national security, and once likened America’s drug fight to the World War I battle of Verdun. But Reagan was more than just rhetoric. In 1981 he and a compliant Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act, which allowed and encouraged the military to give local, state, and federal police access to military bases, research, and equipment. It authorized the military to train civilian police officers to use the newly available equipment, instructed the military to share drug-war–related information with civilian police and authorized the military to take an active role in preventing drugs from entering the country.

A bill passed in 1988 authorized the National Guard to aid local police in drug interdiction, a law that resulted in National Guard troops conducting drug raids on city streets and using helicopters to survey rural areas for pot farms. In 1989, President George Bush enacted a new policy creating regional task forces within the Pentagon to work with local police agencies on anti-drug efforts. Since then, a number of other bills and policies have carved out more ways for the military and domestic police to cooperate in the government’s ongoing campaign to prevent Americans from getting high. Then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney declared in 1989, “The detection and countering of the production, trafficking and use of illegal drugs is a high priority national security mission of the Department of Defense.” +

(Source: andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)

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plantedcity:

A climate change denial cartoon from the Seattle Post Intelligencer’s David Horsey

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leftish:

And the median family income has decreased by more than $2500 in the last 10 years, too. (also in Senate Bill S.1323)

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fuckyeahdrugpolicy:

Karen Goldstein at a rally for Florida Attorney General candidate, Jim Lewis, who was running on a platform of legalizing marijuana on October 12, 2010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Getty Images)

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depressingfacts:

Hey, if it isn’t the 2 most important things to republicans!

depressingfacts:

Delayed-notice search warrants issued under the expanded powers of the Patriot Act, 2006–2009.  

[source]

Police break man's leg during arrest, found in contempt of court for "refusing" to stand

anarchyagogo:

A man who was eating a taco at a Raleigh bus stop says a cop swept-kicked him to the ground, broke his leg and arrested him, then hauled him before a judge who sentenced him to 30 days in jail for contempt, because he could not stand on his broken leg.

(Source: involuntaryrebellion)

Libya: Gaddafi regime's US-UK spy links revealed

verbalresistance:

US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror, according to documents discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi’s former spy chief.

UK officials were apparently keen for Tony Blair to meet Col Gaddafi in a tent

The papers suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli.

The UK’s MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.

The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified…

Alleged CIA letter

Dear Musa,

I am glad to propose that our services take an additional step in cooperation with the establishment of a permanent CIA presence in Libya. We have talked about this move for quite some time and Libya’s cooperation on WMD and other issues, as well as our recent intelligence cooperation, mean that now is the right moment to move ahead. I am prepared to send [XXX] to Libya to introduce two of my officers to you and your service, arriving in Tripoli on 20 March. These two officers, both of whom are experienced and can speak Arabic, will initially staff our station in Libya. [XXX] will communicate the details via fax. I will call to confirm this with you.

We are also eager to work with you in the questioning of the terrorist we recently rendered to your country. I would like to send to Libya an additional two officers and I would appreciate if they could have direct access to question this individual. Should you agree I would like to send these two officers to Libya on 25 March. Again [XXX] will communicate the details to you.

Steve

Thousands of pieces of correspondence from US and UK officials were uncovered by reporters and activists in an office apparently used by Moussa Koussa, who served for years as Col Gaddafi’s spy chief before becoming foreign minister.

He defected in the early part of the rebellion, flying to the UK and then on to Qatar.

Rights groups have long accused him of involvement in atrocities, and had called on the UK to arrest him at the time.

The BBC’s Kevin Connolly in Tripoli says the documents illuminate a short period when the Libyan intelligence agency was a trusted and valued ally of both MI6 and the CIA, with the tone of exchanges between agents breezy and bordering on the chummy.

Human Rights Watch accused the CIA of condoning torture.

“It wasn’t just abducting suspected Islamic militants and handing them over to the Libyan intelligence,” said Peter Bouckaert of HRW.

“The CIA also sent the questions they wanted Libyan intelligence to ask and, from the files, it’s very clear they were present in some of the interrogations themselves,” he said.

The papers outline the rendition of several suspects, including one that Human Rights Watch has identified as Abdel Hakim Belhaj, known in the documents as Abdullah al-Sadiq, who is now the military commander of the anti-Gaddafi forces in Tripoli…

Read More: BBC News

I’d start by legalizing marijuana.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, when asked for one federal regulation he would nix or replace - Reich on Clinton: ‘We didn’t inhale together’ | The Daily Caller
(via fuckyeahdrugpolicy)

depressingfacts:

unfavoredtruths:

Richard Dawkins thinks that evolution should be taught to children starting at age 5.

Isn’t that indoctrination?

Not really. We start learning math and basic language in kindergarten, I see no reason as to why children should not learn basic biology. 

That being said, I can see 5 as also being to young, so…meh. 

I wouldn’t say 5 but definitely sometime early into grade school.