President Obama praises Pentagon Papers Publisher, but not War Crimes Whistleblower

Obama eulogizes NYT publisher Sulzberger ; Still Persecuting Whistleblower Manning

After the death of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger was announced yesterday, President Barack Obama praised the courage of Mr. Sulzberger throughout his journalism career.

Although President Obama didn't mention Mr. Sulzberger's risky -- but legal -- decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, President Obama acknowledged the important role that Mr. Sulzberger has played in improving our democratic form of government.

"He was a firm believer in the importance of a free and independent press -- one that isn't afraid to seek the truth, hold those in power accountable, and tell the stories that need to be told," Mr. Obama said.

But Mr. Obama made no connection between his praise for Mr. Sulzberger, but his continued campaign to prosecute the government whistleblower, PFC Bradley Manning.

Activists question how could the Obama administration reward Bradley Birkenfeld for his acts of whistleblowing, but then prosecute PFC Bradley Manning for exposing war crimes ?

Mona Eltahawy arrested after defacing controversial MTA ad in Times Square

A camerawoman stands between a provocative "Pro-Israeli" ad and Egyptian-American activist Mona Eltahawy who defaces it in the name of protesting racism.

After having spent about 22 hours in police custody, Ms. Eltahawy was interevewed by Hala Gorani on CNN International.

In an attempt to deal with future hatemongering advertisements like the ones currently appearing in subway stations, the MTA yesterday amended the standards that govern what advertising it will accept. (Gothamist)

Christine Quinn Luxury Condo Nanny Bloomberg Meme

Christine Quinn : Moving on Up While Poverty and Homelessness on the Rise

American Autumn : An Occudoc - NYTimes Movie Review

Occupy Wall Street: A Documentary Look From the Inside

From The New York Times :

A year after Occupy Wall Street protests began some pundits are quick to declare the movement dead or pointless, a venting of unfocused frustration that wasted its opportunities. Occupy members would beg to differ.

“The world needs to change,” Mr. Trainor says, calling his film “an invitation for you to participate.”

In “American Autumn: An Occudoc,” part survey course, part recruiting tool, Dennis Trainor Jr. offers a concise review of the protests that first encamped in Zuccotti Park then swept across the nation and around the world. While eventually embracing a host of progressive causes, Occupy fundamentally opposed undue corporate power and influence over the levers of government. And it pressed the issue of income inequality and its social costs, defining this election season’s dominant theme.

“American Autumn” has plenty of shots of confrontations with the police; of protesters and their trenchant slogans and signs; of “we are the 99 percent” chants and “mike checks”; of speakers at rallies including Cornel West, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore. It will probably not persuade many Occupy critics to change their opinions. But as manifestoes go it is calm and smart, offsetting its stridency with discussion, music, even humor, while issuing a call to arms. “The world needs to change,” Mr. Trainor says, calling his film “an invitation for you to participate.”

Opens on Friday in Manhattan. Directed by Dennis Trainor Jr. 1 hour 16 minutes; not rated. Tickets and Screenings.

Anonymous Releases Videos Of NYPD Raid To Clear Zuccotti Park

From Firedoglake :

Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous have released sixty hours of footage of the raid by the New York Police Department against Occupy Wall Street on November 15, 2011. The footage posted is from the NYPD’s Technical Assistance Research Unit (TARU), a surveillance unit that is regularly present at political demonstrations to film police actions. It was posted as a torrent for download late in the evening on September 23, 2012. A tiny sample of the footage, including a statement read by a member of Anonymous, was posted on YouTube.

Here is the start of the Anonymous playlist on YouTube :

Read more about how the NYPD wrongfully use their authority and actually overstep legalities, including the Handschu Agreement.

Troy Davis Execution - One Year Later

Revisiting the New York City Protest and March in Honour of Troy Davis

One year has passed since the execution of Troy Davis, who was widely regarded as having been an innocent man. One day after the execution, citizens and activists from the brand new Occupy Wall Street movement gathered in Union Square and commenced a march to Zuccotti Park (aka Liberty Square).

Video by Ayman El-Sayed of Existence is Resistance. New Yorkers gathered in Union Square on September 22, 2011, to protest the killing of Mr. Davis by the state of Georgia. Protestors were peaceful, but the NYPD began harassing the demonstrators as they marched to Wall Street. Police were driving their motorcycles extremely close to protestors and honking their horns. This was before they decided to attack and arrest those remembering Mr. Davis.

Following is a video of the passionate protest and march, from the point at which the march reached Houston Street onward. The march grew by picking up passers-by, one day after the execution of Troy Davis, a man believed to be innocent of the crimes charged against him. Protesters were harassed by NYPD, pushed and shoved, and at least one protester was peeled away from the crowd, shoved the floor, and arrested. Note the brash display by NYPD of what appears to be pepper spray guns, and, in at least once instance, NYPD were caught video recording the lawful peaceful activities of activists -- in direct violation of the Handschu Agreement.

Occupy Activists Brilliantly Infiltrated Koch Brothers Anti-Occupy Rally

From The Guardian :

A conservative rally billed as an opportunity to "stand up to Occupy Wall Street extremists" fell flat on Thursday when it was co-opted by members of Occupy Wall Street.

Supporters of Americans for Prosperity, a Tea Party-esque group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, gathered at the Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan to demonstrate against both Occupy Wall Street and President Obama.

But almost half of the sparse crowd were Occupy Wall Street protesters, smartly dressed and bearing signs parodying Americans for Prosperity's ultra-conservative message.

Read more : Occupy activists commandeer anti-Occupy Wall Street rally

$10 billion bonanza, but none of it to save New York safety net hospitals ?

During the course of many years, New York politicians have gone along with a radical plan to close safety net hospitals in a scorched campaign against spiraling healthcare costs. Hospitals with charity missions, like St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village flat-lined as a way to cut off hospitals that served the uninsured, underinsured, and Medicaid-insured.

Related : St. Vincent's Hospital closing was a 'significant disaster,' says Bellevue chief (NYDailyNews

Now comes New York Andrew Cuomo, with news that his austerity program to slash Medicaid will yield a $10 billion bonanza from the federal government, but none of that money, nor any effort to reform any other parts of the state budget, were made to save the many hospitals that have been closed by NYS Department of Health officials : nine hospital have closed in New York City alone during the time that Christine Quinn has been speaker of the City Council.

Media outlets, that promote Gov. Cuomo's neo-liberal agenda, praise the governor's budget cuts and hospital closings, even though Gov. Cuomo delegating all the draconian work to Stephen Berger, who, together with the governor, are shredding the safety net and gutting the very programs that help people with the least.

Gangnam Style Craze

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE : The Korean singer Psy and his summer hit, "Gangnam Style," has gone viral : it was featured on "Ellen" and most recently "Saturday Night Live."

Original video :

Segment on ''Ellen'' with Britney Spears.

Mitt Romney on Obama's 47% Voters

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them.

Read more : SECRET VIDEO : Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters

Bloomberg, Quinn, NYPD, Winski Destroy OWS, Democratic Social Movements, Lawful Activism

Updated ! Sign the Change.org petition that calls on Commissioner Raymond Kelly to fire Deputy Inspector Ed Winski.

Systematic suppression of the Constitutional rights of lawful political activities of activists, politicians, and journalists to observe police actions against Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Deputy Inspector Edward J. Winski, on orders from City Hall : Mayor Michael Bloomberg and approval (either tacit or express) by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn engages in use of police force, misuse of authority, no professional, lack of respect and courtesy, not to mention abridgment of the Constitutionally-protected Freedoms of Speech and Assembly, to thwart the lawful political activities of citizens. Note how police officers selectively pick activists from within a crowd and use force to make false arrests. One person also provides testimony that a legal observer is arrested by the NYPD.

In this video, some activists deliver first-hand witness accounts of Deputy Inspector Winski misusing his official authority for the sole purpose of interfering, thwarting, and destroying the rights of these activists. The intent of Deputy Inspector Winski can solely be to destroy any chance activists have to peacefully and lawfully assemble and express themselves.

According to the video's description on YouTube, the above video was filmed on September 15, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it shows "some of the major events," which took place during livestreamer Luke Rudkowski's live broadcast at the "Occupy Wall Street #S15 action."

And no amount of independent monitoring, oversight, community regulation, not even the existence of the Civilian Complaint Review Board or Internal Affairs investigations, can correct the abuse of authority when it is ordered by and/or is carried out with the tacit or express approval of the politicians, who give orders to NYPD. Here is past evidence about how Deputy Inspector Winksi and the NYPD have misused their authority against peaceful and lawful #OWS activists, I'm sure this can't be the rest of it.

To change the system, you have to join community organising efforts to challenge the oppressive conditions, which violate citizens' rights, and this includes taking action to vote out of office the politicians, who give these orders to NYPD.

Vanity Fair Investigates Tom Cruise's Scientology Marriages

Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth reveals the alleged secret wife-auditioning process within Scientology to set up a so-called "arranged marriage" for Tom Cruise.

As far back as 2004, chief executives in the Scientology enterprise were worried about finding a girlfriend for Tom Cruise, according to an explosive new Vanity Fair report, ''What Katie Didn't Know : Marriage, Scientology-Style.''

Ms. Orth's disturbing report includes allegations that Scientology made secret videotapes of Tom Cruise’s audits, that Scientology CEO David Miscavige may have been indiscrete with celebrity audits, and Katie Holmes' father haggled over a huge pre-nuptial agreement with Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology before their 2006 negotiated wedding.

The Committee To Frack New York ?

Update #2 : My blog post below was written independently last night, but I just found a more detailed investigation posted on the Internet with the same title : Shift by Cuomo on Gas Drilling Prompts Both Anger and Praise (Revised : Monday 1 Oct 2012 6:20 a.m.)

Update #1 : My blog post below was written independently last night, but I just found a more detailed investigation posted on the Internet with the same title : The Committee to Frack New York ? (Revised : Sunday 16 Sept 2012 8:20 a.m.)

Shady Pro-Cuomo Lobby Group Allowed to Hide Donor Names

Are there any "straw donors," who gave money to the Committee To Save New York ? Are there any donors, who are fracking lobbyists or shale oil companies ? We'll never know, because Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is on the cusp of either approving or rejecting fracking near the precious and irreplaceable Hudson River, exerts undue influence over the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE).

Giving JCOPE and voters full transparency and disclosure about the Committee to Save New York would be one way for voters to have faith in the integrity of the fracking review process.

It's been revealed that environmental groups, government accountability activists, and advocates of greater government transparency are worried that the Cuomo administration has been going out of its way to cuddle with special interests linked to the oil and gas industry.

"New York regulators gave natural gas drilling industry representatives exclusive access to draft regulations for shale gas drilling as early as six weeks before they were made public, according to records obtained by the Environmental Working Group through New York's Freedom of Information Law," reported the Environmental Working Group.

Gov. Cuomo is setting off all kinds of alarm bells, because it appears that the Cuomo administration isn't even going to order a healthcare study about the impacts of allowing fracking to pollute New York state.

To make matters worse, nobody knows what influence campaign contributions will have on the Cuomo administration's fracking decision. And to murky up the waters, the state ethics panel, JCOPE, recently ruled that the Committee to Save New York, a lobbying group that promotes Gov. Cuomo's political activities, can "keep secret the identities of a vast majority of millionaire donors" who have been financing the lobbying group, according to The New York Times.

Read the investigative report : The Committee to Save 1% New York.

"Call Me Maybe" Video by Dowling Catholic

Faculty and Staff from Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa perform "Call Me Maybe" for the September 14, 2012, Homecoming Pep Assembly.

Call Me Maybe - for Choir and Orchestra

A YouTube video has gone viral showing a choral/orchestration arrangement of Carly Rae Jepsen's summer hit of 2012, "Call Me Maybe."

Arranged by Colin Britt and Arianne Abela, orchestrated by Colin Britt. Performed by the 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a volunteer pickup ensemble conducted by Arianne Abela. Recorded in New Haven on Sept. 3, 2012.