Occupy Somerville protests potential MBTA cuts and fair hikes

With Occupy evicted from Dewey Square in December, [Jay] Jubilee now spends much of his time riding MBTA trains and buses, spreading the word about the possible effects of the T’s financial problems and encouraging riders to attend a Feb. 28 MBTA hearing at Somerville High School. The new mission is very different from his old one, but he says the same political philosophy drives him.

“It’s very much in the spirit of Occupy,” he said, “which is to say defending public services against austerity cutbacks and, more generally, trying to find ways to unite and defend the interests of the 99 percent.”

http://tinyurl.com/7l2o7o7

Boston Phoenix writer responds to Breitbart hit piece that used extensive excerpts from her article to attack Occupy

The first person I am calling out is a lady who calls herself Liberty Chick. Last week she penned a piece directly in response to my January 31 piece for the Phoenix regarding Occupy Boston’s attempts to create safer spaces for women, LGBTQ folks, and victims of sexual violence in general. Hiding behind her pen name, LibChiqq wrote the piece for Andrew Breitbart’s website “Big Government.”

LibChiqq basically cut and pasted my whole piece into their super right-wing content farm and then tried to re-contextualize my writing to point out the ways in which Occupy is at fault for being a breeding ground for rapists and misogynists. She then uses my words as a means to discredit the movement as a whole.

http://tinyurl.com/775rp5g

Judge says Breitbart must face defamation lawsuit

Former U.S Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod’s lawsuit against right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart survived a motion to dismiss, clearing the way for her to pursue the high-profile defamation suit she filed against him and a colleague last year.

Sherrod sued Breitbart, Larry O’Connor and a third, unidentified individual in 2011 for allegedly editing down her 43-minute speech at the March 2010 NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet into a 2 minute 36-second clip meant to mislead the public into believing that Sherrod gave preferential treatment to black farmers in doling out federal funds.

The short video, in which Sherrod spoke of her own feelings about helping a poor white farmer, went viral and within days had her pulling her car over at the behest of the White House to “email her resignation from her blackberry,” claimed Sherrod in her federal complaint.

http://tinyurl.com/7vmldq4

Occupy URI Begins (University of Rhode Island)

Students and faculty at the University of Rhode Island have set up their own Occupy Wall Street protest group.

So far, the group has had two organizational meetings and plans to put up a tent on campus as a symbol of their efforts.

A teach-in is scheduled for later this month and there’s a rally planned for March.

http://tinyurl.com/7a8qa3s

700 gather outside San Quentin for Occupy protest

As many as 700 peaceful Occupy demonstrators gathered outside San Quentin State Prison this afternoon as part of a nationwide effort to call for prison reform.

Among the reforms protest organizers are calling for are elimination of solitary confinement, a ban on the death penalty and an end to California’s “three-strikes” law. The protest was one of about 15 taking place at prisons across the country today.

http://tinyurl.com/7scvb7s

Occupy movement stages day of protests at US prisons

Occupy demonstrators participated in a nationwide day of action to protest against the US prison system on Monday, with demonstrations carried out at over a dozen sites across the country, including prisons in California, Chicago, Denver and New York.

The call to protest was issued by activists with the Occupy Oakland movement and was co-ordinated to coincide with waves of prison hunger strikes that began at California’s Pelican Bay prison in July. Demonstrators denounced the use of restrictive isolation units as infringement upon fundamental human rights. The hunger strikes followed a US supreme court ruling in May which stated that overcrowding in the California prison system had led to “needless suffering and death.” The court ordered the state to reduce its overall prison population from 140,000 to 110,000, which still well-exceeds the state’s maximum prison capacity.

Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer – the American hikers who were held for over a year by Iranian authorities – took part in demonstrations outside San Quentin prison in Marin County, California. Addressing the crowd, Shourd described the psychological impact of solitary confinement, saying her 14 and a half months without human contact drove her to beat the walls of her cell until her knuckles bled. Shourd noted that Nelson Mandella described the two weeks he spent in solitary confinement as the most dehumanising experience he had ever been through.

http://tinyurl.com/6n4t4qw

Support for Occupy from within the assisted-living community: ‘Hard times – we made it through and we have faith that you will too’

In every generation there is a passionate group of people who seek to do battle with whatever injustice there is going on. Good for them, we hope they do. We’ve lived through a few movements ourselves. Many of us were shocked when we saw segregated restrooms in our travels around the country. One of us even recalls getting in the wrong line. Who knew? A toilet is a toilet. Then, we witnessed a movement that led to change for the better.

Though we aren’t very familiar with the Occupy movement, we do know, the world is changing, our country is in a recession, and for many people, things don’t seem to be getting better. Are you unsure about what direction our world is going right now? We understand that.
. . .

If you think times are hard, if you think it’s scary, and you think there is no hope for the world, come and “occupy” the nearest assisted living community near you, and ask us how we found hope in our time. We made it through, and we have faith that you will too.

http://tinyurl.com/87pluwy

Occupy medics give first aid to 7-year-old struck by car [NM]

A 7-year-old girl was hit by a car while crossing Main Street at Orchard Avenue on Saturday.

The girl, whose name has not been released, was walking with her family, when a car turned east off Orchard onto Main and struck her.

“She must have flown at least between six and 10 feet,” said Cornelia de Bruin, who was protesting with Occupy Farmington at Orchard Park at the time. “Luckily, we had some medical personnel occupying with us.”

According to De Bruin, the medical personnel included a physician, Lynne Portnoy, and trained medic Brandon Prince. Both ran to the girl’s side to administer aid.

http://tinyurl.com/6rfbfd5

Occupy the Sec roundtable discussion with Chris Hayes

(video)

http://tinyurl.com/83zzrvj

Climate peaceful at ‘Occupy Koch Town’ protest

About 150 protesters marched through downtown Wichita on Saturday afternoon as activists from across the country gathered for the weekend “Occupy Koch Town” rally. Although the block-long line of protesters temporarily blocked several major intersections, the march was peaceful, and police made no arrests and issued no citations.

Among the marchers was Doris Ravenfeather, a retired nurse from Wichita, who said her concerns about the environment prompted her to join the protest.

“My major thing is protecting nature,” she said as she walked toward Century II. “We’ve got to save our land. I’m tired of seeing it abused.”

http://tinyurl.com/7wv6q6g