Voters in Franklin County, MA, oppose corporate personhood

The Occupy Wall Street movement may have garnered plenty of media attention last year, but it’s in town halls that the grass-roots movement has paid off this spring: Half of Franklin County’s 26 towns have either voted to reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s giving corporations the same rights as people or are scheduled to do so.

The town meeting votes in 11 Franklin County towns, together with similar actions in nearby Amherst and Northampton, plus Boston and Worcester, are among resolutions by 55 Massachusetts communities supporting a U.S. Constitutional amendment.

Votes in Charlemont and Wendell next week will complete the list of 13 towns that have considered the corporate non-citizenship articles being considered as a result of coordination by a group of volunteers that grew out of Occupy Franklin County meetings this winter.

http://tinyurl.com/6q3w8lm

[For news on the thousands of Occupy protesters in Chicago at the NATO summit, see the Daily Digest today]

Amendment to legalize use of military propaganda on American audiences inserted into latest Defense funding bill

An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill. The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts-the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987-that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.

The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.

http://tinyurl.com/c78hhg9

Human Moral Weakness and its consequences

The rule today is that you break the law if breaking the law maximizes profits and you won’t go to jail as a result. Fines are considered a cost of doing business, the legality or illegality is irrelevant.

This flows from the very top of our society. It is how our CEOs and executives think, and as our politicians and prosecutors refuse to investigate or charge those who are guilty of widespread fraud, it is clearly how our political and legal class thinks.

Authority, in other words, says that it’s all right to do illegal and immoral things in pursuit of profit.

Well, so long as you’re told to do so by someone important.

http://tinyurl.com/7tvo88b

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/20/12” »

NATO-Chicago Dispatch: Long-haul road-trip with the Boston Occupiers

It really was a whirl. I’m not sure how the Complaining About Free Shit working group felt about the bus, which came courtesy of National Nurses United, but I full engaged the road show. When I felt like resting, I rested. When I felt like reading, I read. Otherwise, when I felt like being entertained, I just listened, and got two ears filled with everything from credible conspiracy theories to at least one comparison of the situation to Christ’s expedition in the wilderness.

In short I had a great time reading, writing, and interviewing Occupiers whose personal stories add up to the reason that more than 50,000 people are heading to Chicago this week. I was hardly even fazed when some movement members who were not on the bus started flaming me on Twitter for mooching off of Occupy resources, which I’d actually feel badly about if there weren’t empty seats. They also accused me of sacrificing whatever little bit of objectivity I had left in covering Occupy by riding along.

That’s completely understandable, or at least it was until I touched down in Chicago and got the briefing for independent journos who are covering NATO. Reliable word is that police aren’t distinguishing between reporters and protesters, writers and anarchists – we’re all subject to the military-grade aggression that’s already being thrust upon folks who are courageous enough to stand up to war profiteers and murderers. At least in that regard, I’d argue that we’re all on the same bus after all.

http://tinyurl.com/739j754

Another road trip to Chicago report

If the Flower Power generation was reacting against the buttoned-down sexual prudery of its parents, the post-hope generation is engaged in rejecting a culture that promised opportunity, family and security and delivered nothing but hurt, loneliness and debt. If the 1960s were about confronting hypocrisy with hedonism, the 2010s are about confronting alienation with community.

The poor: Targeted for extraction by lenders and governments

Lenders, including major credit companies as well as payday lenders, have taken over the traditional role of the street-corner loan shark, charging the poor insanely high rates of interest. When supplemented with late fees (themselves subject to interest), the resulting effective interest rate can be as high as 600% a year, which is perfectly legal in many states.

It’s not just the private sector that’s preying on the poor. Local governments are discovering that they can partially make up for declining tax revenues through fines, fees, and other costs imposed on indigent defendants, often for crimes no more dastardly than driving with a suspended license. And if that seems like an inefficient way to make money, given the high cost of locking people up, a growing number of jurisdictions have taken to charging defendants for their court costs and even the price of occupying a jail cell.

http://tinyurl.com/d4bl59n

Suburban protesters converge on NATO summit

Protesters throughout the suburbs have been speaking out against NATO’s current war policy – especially concerning the Middle East.

Cameron Halas, 26, a history major at Harper College in Palatine, is an Iraq War veteran. He joined the Army in 2003 right after high school and served four years, one of them in Iraq.

Halas said he decided during his tour the military strategy was unethical and immoral. He went from being an enthusiastic supporter of the war effort after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to an anti-war protester.

http://tinyurl.com/76s59n8

Nurses’ pre-NATO rally expected to draw thousands

Thousands of anti-NATO demonstrators are expected to converge at a downtown plaza Friday for a rally that promises to be a prelude to a much larger march Sunday, when world leaders begin two days of talks. Meanwhile, many office buildings will be shuttered after workers were told to stay home amid warnings about heightened security, snarled transportation and the possibility of unruly protests.

National Nurses United officials have said they expect about 2,000 nurses to attend Friday’s rally, where they will call for a “Robin Hood” tax on financial institutions’ transactions to offset cuts in social services, education and health care. But city officials have said the rally likely will draw more than 5,000 because of a performance by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, an activist who has played at many Occupy events.

The union had scheduled the rally to coincide with the G-8 economic summit, which originally was to be held in Chicago but was moved to Camp David, Md. Midwest Director Jan Rodolfo said the nurses decided to go forward with the rally in the hope that their message would reach a worldwide audience.

http://tinyurl.com/6wqvcdu

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/18/12” »