Observations on 2011

#STATEOFREVOLUTION: A 2011 Visual Retrospective of Activism in New York – SNEAK PEEK from Rhodes Pictures on Vimeo.

Observations from the Window 12.28

Last Thursday marked the 1 year anniversary of President Obama's signing of the bill ending “Don't ask, don't tell” (DADT) and was also the 3 month anniversary of its official end. The end of DADT didn't bring the collapse of the military or the end of society as predicted. All it seems to have done is make many people extremely happy and freed gay members of the military and their straight friends from the constant fear of discovery or accusation. All this at virtually no cost to anybody and actually saving hundreds of millions of dollars that had been wasted on investigations and prosecutions, waisted on spying on our own troops. The only question remaining is does it even matter anymore? The Rick Perrys of the world be damned, there is no going back to what was in essence legalized prejudice.

As it did with the equal rights for black Americans the military might possibly lead the way for the rest of society. We were told that the open serving of gays would weaken the military, lead to a mass exodus of others, and destroy western civilization. Now the same arguments are used to oppose equal rights for all gays and the lesson learned from the military can't be overlooked. Still if you think the fight will be easier now think of General Colin Powell who was an outspoken opponent to DADT's repeal even though he directly benefited from the courage of earlier leaders.

Between the end of DADT and the legalization of gay marriage in the state of New York 2011 was a historic year. With the coming Presidential election one can argue about what President Obama promised to do and what he has done. That argument should always be made in the context of the Congress he was forced to deal with. Even though there is so much yet to do what has been accomplished shouldn't be forgotten.

If you look through history you will see that generational shifts are rarely easy and this one has just begun. Still, for me, the photo at the beginning of this post says it all. That photo of Petty Officers Gaeta and Snell's kiss was the most popular one online for days after its release with hardly a bad comment to be heard. How could there be?

As Dan Savage remarked, "Wow, just wow. I love me some smart, articulate, photogenic lesbian sailors!"

Don't we all?

Observations from the Road 12.27

Christmas always seems to come and go in a heartbeat. Shopping, stressing, and traveling and than you wakeup on the couch at 1:30 in the morning and realize it's past for another year. I always stress and get a bit depressed this time of year and this year was no different but it was better than it has been. Either I have been keeping so busy I didn't think about or it is true that time heals all things, I just didn't let it get to me this year. At the same time I had this lurking suspicion that after this year Christmas will never going to be the quite the same again. I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way, just the feeling that we as a family have reached one of those moments in time where the dynamics change. My brother with a girl friend, my sister a constantly amazing young woman who is soon to be a political science major, and me with my mind drifting off to other things.

For better or worse I now seem to be more at home in the Village than I ever have. I woke up in the middle of the night Christmas morning and never did get back to sleep. Even though I had nothing special on my mind but I couldn't stop thinking. The only theory I can come up with is that it was just too damn quiet. I love going home and go every chance I get but lately I can't stop wondering what is happening while I am there, maybe a sure sign I need more downtime.

And what was happening? Christmas Eve night about one hundred protesters held a candle light vigil outside the New York Stock Exchange. The hand made candles were a clinched fist with a raised middle finger, the flame rising from the tip. On Christmas day, in celebration of both Christmas and the hundredth day of occupation, OWS planed a potluck supper at the still fenced off Liberty Square. In a totally petty move straight out of Dickens NYPD stopped some from taking trays of cookies and pies into the park. Not to be stopped the Christmas dinner, and for some a communion, was held on the sidewalk outside the barricades.

I found this in a blog, “Just as you don’t need a tree to celebrate Christmas, you don’t need a park to Occupy Wall Street. Merry Christmas, Wall Street. You are still occupied.”

And so it goes.

A belated Merry Christmas to everybody.

The Corrs - Merry Christmas, War is Over

Observations on 2011

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yes Virginia, we are still at war

Sunday morning after 9 years, $800 billion, and 4,474 American lives the last US troops drove out of Iraq and the war came to an end. There is a video that was taken by a drone flying over the last convoy as it drives into Kuwait at dawn. If you watch till the end the camera zooms in as the Kuwaiti border guards close the gate behind the convoy and close a tragic chapter in our history (l). Very few people know who David Emanuel Hickman was, probably fewer still will remember him for long, but he has his place in history. He was the last to die in the senseless war. 

When asked if we had won the war President Obama answered, "I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future."

I'll let you decide what that means but before you get too celebratory let we remind you, as Mother Jones tweets each day, we are still at war. With that reminder comes a sad update. Back in July I wrote about a photo of an unknown woman who was one of the first female commandos in the US military and a member of a team of women deployed to Afghanistan (l). I'm not going to repeat what I said than but I was simply proud because, even though I might not agree with what she was doing, there she was proving that a woman can do any so called man's job and do it just as well.

On October 22^nd Army 1^st Lieutenant Ashley White was killed along with two other soldiers in southern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb while serving with this Cultural Support Team. She was 24 years old and is survived by a husband, both parents, a bother, and a twin sister. Lieutenant White was the first member of this special team to be killed.

I don't know if the photo I wrote about is of her, I like to think that it's not, but yes we are still at war and too many people seem to forget that fact.

Observations from Amerika 12.18

Some updates on my post of 12.2....

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) passed both the House and the Senate this week. Despite earlier promises to the veto the bill President Obama now says he will sign it yet outside certain sectors barely a whimper can be heard. It seems the American people don't know about or more likely simply don't care about the provisions that allow the military to detain US citizens without trial. My cynical side can almost hear them thinking “well as long as it doesn't happen to me.” Supporters of the bill say it no longer requires the military detention of suspected terrorists, but it does allow it. President Obama has said that if the provisions negatively impact the nation he and the authors will work to fix it, don't hold your breath on that one. So what we are left with is the Constitution of the United States turned on its head and the knowledge that everything Adolf Hitler initially did was perfectly legal.

Any vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been pushed back but probably not for long. An 11 hour committee hearing stalled Thursday after Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) tweeted that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) was “boring.” Any further discussion was put on hold until next week. Over fifty amendments have been added to the bill by opponents yet Congress still seems dead set on destroying the internet as we know it. One interesting provision would grant immunity to financial companies that choose to boycott suspected pirate sites even if they haven't been told to do so. You might ask why they are singled out but it seems obvious to me, always follow the money. The hacker group Anonymous announced the beginning of Operation Blackout, what it calls its declaration of war on Congress because of SOPA.

This could get very interesting.

Observations from the Edge 12.17

Today is D17, the three month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street, the one year anniversary of the self-immolation of Tunisian vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, and the 24^th birthday of alleged wikileaker Bradley Manning. A strange karmic brew if there ever was one.

The schedule calls for an all day music and arts festival reminiscent of Occupy Broadway beginning at noon in Duarte Square, a mixed public and privately owned lot. Scheduled performers include Lou Reed and there is rumored that Patti Smith is to appear. If the Patti Smith rumor turns out to be true all my shopping plans are out but as of now she doesn't appear on the schedule. What happens after the festival is anybody's guess at this point. 

Trinity Church, now known as Trinity Wall Street, was founded in 1697 and now its Trinity Real Estate arm is the 3rd largest property owner in Manhattan with holdings valued close to $10 billion. It is the single largest land owner in lower Manhattan, even the NYSE sits on land it owns. The members of its vestry include high placed executives currently at or retired from Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, the insurance giant AIG, and the ever present Brookfield Properties. Under the Episcopal governing system this small group, many of whom aren't even church members, have complete control over Trinity's land holdings and thus the decision on whether or not OWS can use Duarte Square. Trinity Church has repeatedly said that they won't allow the occupation.

A forced occupation of Duarte brings with it a potential downside as any reports on event will note that the land is owned by Trinity Church and not the City of New York or evil Brookfield Properties. It is after all a church and a church that has previously supported OWS with free food and meeting places plus allowed the use of its bathrooms and WiFi network.

Many New York clergy members who disagree with Trinity have called on the church to allow OWS use of Duarte and plan on attending today's event. On Thursday they along with protesters erected a nativity scene outside Trinity that featured Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and a tent with a sign that said "there was no room for them at the inn, you have plenty of room Trinity." Over a dozen clergy members have said they will help take down the fence surrounding Trinity's part of the lot and thus risk arrest. Among them will be retired Bishop George Packard, formerly the Episcopal Church's chief chaplain and a decorated Vietnam Veteran, the Occupied Bishop.

"The story of Christmas starts with Mary and Joseph's search for a home," said Reverend Michael Ellick of Judson Church. "It's thus especially ironic, and tragic, that Trinity Church, one of the largest landowners in New York City, refuses even a tiny, unused piece of its vast land to OWS, which points to the same spirit of transformation that Jesus represented. This is truly a theological line in the sand."

Stay tuned.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.16

I mentioned yesterday how I don't have much use for the year end best of lists but I do like to look back at the past year. The Google video I posted had me looking at some others and I started to think of what I would pick as the story of the year if anybody cared to know my opinion. To me the Egyptian rebellion and its protests in Tahrir Square are the rather obvious choice. Why wouldn't I pick the Occupy movement? Because I think without Tahrir Square you would have never had Zuccotti Park, the first led directly to the idea for the second. Obviously something was bound to happen in the US sooner or later but I don't think it would have taken the form it did.

The Arab Spring actually began on December 17, 2010 when a street vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest government harassment. This act sparked the Tunisian Revolution which forced President Ben Ali to resign on January 14^th after 23 years of power. That act inspired Egyptian opposition groups to declare January 25^th the 'Day of Revolt' and tens of thousands of protesters flowed into Tahrir Square where they would remain for weeks, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands. President Hasni Mubarak resigned on February 11^th but the military remains in power to this day and protests continue.

As I finished writing this I saw a report that protesters and Egyptian military police met in a series of bloody clashes in Cairo today. The clashes were sparked by a military predawn raid on the protester's camp near Tahrir Square. And so it seems to go all over the world.

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Interview with pro-democracy activist Miral at Tahrir Square Feb 1. 2011 for documentary Zero Silence. Interview by Gert Van Langendonck, camera work by Jonny von Wallström.

"Among other topics, the production will explore the impact of the Internet and non-traditional media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and whistle-blowing sites on the Arab world and beyond and to what extent these digital media tools can spur society change."
Zero Silence

Observations from the Window 12.15

It's that time of year again, all the best of lists are coming out now. The best of this, the best of that, the best movies, tunes, reads, and the best new toys. I should clarify, the best new electronic toys. It's really something I could do without but I do have a sentimental side that likes looking back at the past year before moving on to the next. Today I saw this video made by Google that made me think back.
It really has been one hell of a year.

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Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.
Wikipedia

"To compile the 2011 Year-End Zeitgeist, we studied the aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search this year. We use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search and internal data tools. We also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect the spirit of the times. All of the search queries we studied are anonymous, no personal information was used."
Google Zeitgeist 2011

Observations on Art 12.13

You know I just love time-lapse videos and this one is way cool. It's something about the swirling colors and the scooters weaving through each other but never touching. I'd love to try and do a time-lapse of an NYPD scooter parade, maybe I should pass on that given the current situation.

Rob Whitworth is a freelance photographer who specializes in time-lapse and lives in Hoi An, Vietnam. He graduated from the Norwich School of Art & Design with an honours degree in Graphic Design and currently works for The Guardian and the BBC among others. Unlike normal time-lapse this short film was made by sequencing 10,000 RAW images of Ho Chi Minh City. A camera's RAW image file contains unprocessed data not ready for printing or editing.


Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam from Rob Whitworth on Vimeo.

"Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is an amazing up and coming city.
This time lapse is a culmination of 10,000 RAW images and
multiple shoots capturing some of the cities relentless energy
and pace of change.
Everyone who has visited Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam knows part of the magic (love it or hate it) is in the traffic.
Ever since I first set foot in HCMC I have been captivated by the
cities energy. Saigon is a city on the move unlike anything I have
experienced before which I wanted to capture and share.
Thanks to everyone who helped with the film and thanks also
to the numerous kind people who allowed me access to some
amazing locations."

Observations from the Edge 12.12

A confusing day when I was supposed to be getting some work done at home, some thoughts.

There was a rather small OWS march in support of the west coast port protests today. It culminated in a comparatively large police reaction at the World Financial Center where, after entering the Winter Garden, protesters were met by a man who said if they didn't leave they would be arrested. The World Financial Center just happens to be owned by Brookfield Properties who also own Zuccotti Park. The police said the man worked for Brookfield but Brookfield had no comment when asked. After the announcement something quite disturbing happened. Police moved in and arrested targeted people first, targeted for live streaming video and carrying cameras, for simply broadcasting or recording the event. Reporters were pushed outside, electronics were confiscated, and dozens of arrests were made. This just weeks after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent a memo to all members of NYPD reminding officers not to interfere with members of the media covering news and warning that members who do so could face disciplinary action. Maybe the financial industry's yearly $5 million in donations to the New York City Police Foundation speaks louder than even commissioner Kelly.

The march began earlier at a freezing cold Zuccotti Park, the wind blowing from both the harbor to the south and the Hudson to the east. Still a few hundred marchers headed off too Goldman Sachs to go squidding. Yes I said squidding, something I didn't quite grasp at first but than I saw a sign with a quote and the sometimes dark light bulb went off in my brain. “The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Those are the first two lines of an article in the April 5, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone titled “The Great American Bubble Machine.” It was written by Matt Taibbi who also wrote “The People vs. Goldman Sachs” for the May 11, 2011 is of the same magazine. Both are worth reading if you want to try and understand what the hell happened to this country's economy.

In an unrelated matter, over lunch I saw some of President Obama's press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in which he said these were truly times of homecoming. I truly wonder what all the thousands of troops stationed in Afghanistan will think when they hear that line.

Finally one of those you just have to laugh at. During this morning's march came this one, "@PennyRed: Chant from inside van - 'whose tweets? Our tweets!' (people arrested for tweeting)."

12/13 update - Matt Taibbi in his Rolling Stone blog today, "I almost shed tears of pride this morning when I read this hilarious passage in the Daily News: Earlier Monday, about 300 protesters in squid costumes surged outside the offices of Goldman Sachs investment bank shouting, "We fry calamari!" and "Everyone pays their tax – everyone but Goldman, Sachs!" You can read the rest here.

Observations from the Edge, Mockupy

There is an old saying that a fool and her sleep are soon parted, or something along those lines. Thursday night I was at the apartment trying to read but at the same time keeping an eye on some of my twitter lists because after a judge's ruling opened the door it was assumed Occupy Boston would be evicted that night. In the end Occupy Boston wasn't raided, possibly because close to a thousand people descended on Dewey Square in support.* A couple even got married as they awaited the arrest that never came. But to the south, in New York, something truly surreal was about to happen.

“ALERT: Midnite tonight: Fun action in solidarity w @Occupy_Boston! Charge yr phone, dress warm, hang out somewhere downtown, await info!”

That is the tweet that initially got my attention and more facts began to emerge quickly, 140 characters at a time. Producers of the TV series Law & Order had set up a fake Zuccotti Park in Foley Square to film an upcoming episode. At midnight the true occupiers of the real Zuccotti Park were going to descend on the faux Zuccotti Park using the hash tag #Mockupy.

“We have reoccupied.” “We're a revolution not a plot point.” “We can take a joke but fauxcotti is just too soon man.” “Livestreamer to cop: "are these real barricades, or a set piece?” “Chants of "NYPD does not respect law and order!" as cops rush in.”

Just before midnight I had had enough so I grabbed my camera bag and headed out into the frigid night to see what was happening. Even with Boston in the back of my head I couldn't help but laugh as the tweets flew endlessly. I got there just in time to see a very real NYPD preparing to raid a mock camp that was that looked very real down to the functioning, and fully stocked, kitchen and library. There was even mock netting for rounding up fake protesters at the fake Zuccotti in the real Foley Square.

“NYPD Captain saying, "i need to find someone from Law & Order." “Whose fake Zucotti? OUR fake Zucotti.” “Police are holding fake Zuccotti. Someone just yelled "whats are your demands?!" "U guys just cleared a fake Zuccotti Park," I said to Cpt Jaskaran. "We didnt clear a fake Zuccotti," he insistd. "Theyr takng the set down."” “NYPD tells occupiers to leave #Mockupy so crew can remove set. Isnt that the cops' job? After adequate pepper spray, of course.”

Every tweet included or ended with #Mockupy and at 1:07 AM Friday morning I tweeted #Mockupy is trending, and it was, worldwide.

Not long after my phone went to black as I had failed to follow those very important initial instructions.... I didn't charge my damn phone.

*postscript - I wrote most of this Friday at the gallery but never got it finished or posted. After ten weeks Occupy Boston was evicted from Dewey Square in a pre-dawn raid Saturday morning. For a change it was a rather peaceful raid that lasted barely an hour and included 46 arrests for trespassing and disorderly conduct. His Majesty the Mayor Mike Bloomberg and what he calls his 'army' could learn a lesson from this raid.

Observations from the Edge 12.10

I wanted to try out the new twitter's embed option and this seemed like a good one to use. I rarely fav tweets unless I want to save a link for later but this one I rather like.

WE DID THAT!!! “@KcNightfire: #mockupy is trending”

— OWS_Tactical (@OWS_Tactical) December9, 2011

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Observations from the Gallery 12.8

With longer holiday hours at the Gallery I have some time to kill so I've been working on something new. My first crude attempt at translation.

Samedi Matin

Pendant que vous dormez hors de la cognac, petit,

ma main pourrait trouver son chemin de retour à l'endroit

il sait si bien, maintenant. Même avec votre visage

s'est détournée de moi, de dormir dans jusqu'à midi,

vous déplacez à travers moi. 

Après que nous ayons fini de parler, que le cognac, jusqu'à quatre

AM, vous, dans l'obscurité, a joué trois chansons pour

moi pendant que je m'assoupis, si fatiguée que je ne pouvait pas venir

lorsque vous avez essayé pour moi. 

Ainsi vous vous êtes assis sur le plancher

à la guitare, à côté de moi, troubadour,

puis, nu, vous m'avez réveillé pour vous, m'a acheté

vers le bas sur votre bouche, il a acheté le bas et m'a attrapé

dans l'aube grise, dont le rayon de soleil était votre nom

comme le cognac dans ma bouche que je suis venu et est venu.

"Amour, la Mort, et le changement des saisons."

from "Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons" by Marilyn Hacker

Observations from the Gallery 12.7 Randomness

Governor Rick Perry, gay or not gay? All the world wonders. Maybe all the world doesn't wonder but rumors do continue to swirl. If you have never seen it this would be a good time to watch Outrage a documentary by Kirby Dick about politicians who push an anti-gay agenda to cover the fact that they themselves are gay. Methinks you doth protest too much.

One of the stranger conversations I've had recently concerned the artistic merit of Resident Evil: Afterlife versus Resident Evil: Extinction. No decision was made but my thinking is Mila Jovovich looks rather stunning in either one so I don't really care. Extinction does have that slow cam shot up the legs in the opening sequence, deff a point in its favor.

In geek news I just discovered a Twitter app called Buffer. The free version allows you to load up to ten tweets in your 'buffer' and have the tweets spread out over preset times. The awesome part is you can download a Google Chrome extension that adds a button to Chrome. Click the button and it writes a tweet for whatever page you happen to be looking at. Now if you happen to follow me on twitter don't be surprised if I seem to be constantly tweeting, I'm not really there. 

It seems my little family is spreading farther and farther apart. My brother spends most of his days in the wilds of northern Pennsylvania working. I'm really happy for him because he always wanted a job where he could work outside and that is what this is. As always with us though he seems a little torn by it all. It's a good job, pays well, and he gets to go four-wheeling in his new jeep but in the end his salary is paid through his employer's contract with Shell Oil and its new fracking operation. The sis is continuing to move down her own beaten path and will be transferring out of Penn State after this semester. From art school to uncommitted to a political science major all in one year, seems we have more genes alike than we ever knew. I so miss spending time with her so hopefully we will get to over the holidays. As for myself, I'm always just a dream flight away from Paris. It is what it is, I guess the three of us will just conquer the globe one day.

With the holidays the days get longer at the gallery and the weekend days even longer. I think I need to get home, light some candles, slip into a hot tub filled with those black raspberry vanilla bubbles, and soak.

Maybe some wine is called for too.

Rihanna - We Found Love

Observations from the Edge 12.6.2

I was talking to my sister earlier today and she happened to ask me how the Occupy Wall Street thing started. It's actually something I have wanted to write about but other things always seem to come up and I never do. This is a little something I wrote up for another project that does a good if spare job of answering that question.

A short history of the beginning of Occupy Wall Street....

It all started with an email sent out by Adbusters magazine that included a hashtag, #OccupyWallStreet, and a date, September 17th. It quickly spread with the help of a poster depicting a ballerina dancing atop the Wall Street charging bull statue. When September 17 finally arrived, people came from all over the country but they numbered closer to 2,000 than the hoped for 20,000.

The plan was to hold a General Assembly meeting at Chase Manhattan Plaza and then figure out the next step from there. But the plaza had been closed off the night before. Leaflets showing a map and alternate locations were circulated through the crowd and a decision was made to go with plan B, Zuccotti Park, right between thoroughly barricaded Wall Street and the World Trade Center site. The name Zuccotti Park once had is still on a building across the street and it was too good to be true. Zuccotti Park was quickly renamed Liberty Square, not unlike Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Cairo. The first week there was rarely more than a few hundred protesters at Liberty and they were constantly harassed by police. The began to call themselves 'the 99%' as opposed to the 1% who control majority of the wealth.

Each time there was an incident with the police media attention increased. It sometimes seemed as if the police were trying to do the occupation a favor. Young women pepper sprayed without provocation, teenagers slammed onto the pavement, about 700 arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, each episode brought more cameras, more sympathy, more people and more momentum.

The movement was born.

Observations from the Edge 12.6.1

At the end of my day of wandering Saturday I stopped in at a bar close to home for a quick drink. While I was there I ran into a guy I had meant weeks ago at Liberty Square but hadn't really talked to since. I honestly don't know if he knows as much or knows as many 'insiders' as he said he did but we did have an interesting conversation about where OWS goes over the winter.

One thing we agreed on was that the eviction of November 15th probably wasn't a bad thing. There really was no way the camp could survive a winter like the one we had last year. Being close to the water the winds would howl up the streets in a storm and anything approaching last year's snowfalls would have buried them, all their energy would have been spent simply surviving. Imperial Mike may have done everybody a favor in shutting Zuccotti down and would have better served himself by letting everybody freeze.

That being said the winter months are going to be very important to the movement's future. A time to organize, grow, and prepare for its part in the coming presidential election campaign including the rumored occupation of both the Democratic and Republican conventions. During a recent visit to OWS Jesse Jackson said, “At some point, movements must take on some form, some identifiable agenda. At some point, water must become ice.” Whether those in attendance liked hearing it or not, and I'm thinking not, this is very true. Not that I think the movement needs some set of concrete demands, everybody seems to have their own, but I do think it needs a clear direction, maybe destination is a better word, an end game to strive for.

I'll have to get back to that conversation some other time because I wanted to mention something that began today and ties in somewhat. Organizing for Occupation (O4O), a 200 member squatter group, and Occupy Wall Street today launched the Occupy Our Homes campaign. The idea is to disrupt foreclosure proceedings, liberate foreclosed properties, and help people facing eviction. With squatting on the rise O4O was formed months before OWS but in recent weeks over 50 new squatting support groups have sprung up, many affiliated with local occupy groups. Banks seem to be sitting on foreclosed homes at record levels akin to the trillions of dollars in cash they are sitting on overseas. In parts of the Bronx as much as 40% of the housing is foreclosed and empty as the unemployed go homeless.

“The Occupy Wall Street movement and brave homeowners around the country are coming together to say, "Enough is enough." We, the 99%, are standing up to Wall Street banks and demanding they negotiate with homeowners instead of fraudulently foreclosing on them."
You can read more at OccupyOurHomes.org.

Tis the Season

And so it seems the Christmas season is here, grudgingly on my part. I may have mentioned last year that I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year but I'll stay away from that for now. I did some uptown shopping and wandering yesterday that included visiting the ice at Citi Pond and I suppose it has put me in a better holiday frame of mind. One thing is certain, this little holiday video will keep making me smile no matter how grumpy I get.

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Observations from the Edge 12.4

I just wanted to pass along a pair of things I think are worth reading. The first is an article from today's New York Times and but the second a report from the Cato Institute so it's a bit longer.

"Riot police officers tear-gassing protesters at the Occupy movement in Oakland. The surprising nighttime invasion of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, carried out with D-Day-like secrecy by officers deploying klieg lights and a military-style sound machine. And campus police officers in helmets and face shields dousing demonstrators at the University of California, Davis with pepper spray Is this the militarization of the American police?"

From "When the Police Go Military" an analysis by Al Baker of the New York Times and published in the December 4^th edition of the paper.

"Americans have long maintained that a man's home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home."

From the summary of "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" by Radley Balko for the Cato Institute and also quoted in the Times column. This report is rather long but a pdf file can be downloaded free of charge. 

Observations from Amerika 12.2

It should come as no surprise that what follows occurred in the dark of night. I don't know how 93 US Senators, elected by the people of this nation, can look themselves in the face this morning. It boggles my mind how little media attention this whole thing has gotten.

Yesterday the Democratic controlled US Senate quietly passed the 680 page National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (s.1867) by a vote of 93-7. Included in sections 1031 and 1032 of the bill is wording that for all purposes declares the whole of the United States, actually the whole world, a battle zone. As such the US Military could for the first time since the Civil War be allowed to detain United States Citizens within the US and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial. These same US citizens could conceivably face a military and not civil court. That is if they are given a trial at all. As it always seems today the purpose of the provisions is to make it easier to fight and prosecute terrorists but now it seems we are all suspect.

The sections are opposed by President Obama who promises he will veto the entire appropriations bill if they are included. Its is also opposed by the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and many retired military leaders. Friday morning the White House said the veto threat still stands.

"The bill is an historic threat to American citizens and others because it expands and makes permanent the authority of the president to order the military to imprison without charge or trial American citizens," said Christopher Anders, ACLU senior legislative counsel. It should be noted that a compromise was reached in order to pass the bill. The compromise? It only includes US citizens “if we want it too.” One can only wonder what any future President Dick Cheney would think of that.

It all reminds me of a quote....

“For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: All Animals Are Equal But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm

notes:
Those voting against the bill were Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Ron Wyyden (D-OR).

update - To clarify what "if we want it to" means.
A compromise amendment was passed which just pushes the entire matter down the road. The compromise simply leaves it to the Supreme Court to decide should some future president decide to assert the authority the bill specifically authorizes him to do. Our current crop of politicians can't even seem to get taking away our freedom right.