RANT OF THE DAY: TO MSNBC, love US Uncut MN

We, the real 99% of people, versus the 0.01% who rule this country.  THEY have stolen not only our money but our civil rights. It grows worse by the day, as any self-respecting politician running for office who cares about social justice cannot get the money TO run OR they find that the right wing money (esp. via the K-K-K-Kochs and K-K-K-Karl Rove) moves in to revile them.

WE HAVE LOST TOO MUCH - hopes, dreams, rights, the social safety net is unravelled.   In the street, we are all EQUAL and there is no "glass ceiling."

Why doesn't MSNBC talk about the People's Assembly?  Why doesn't it mention how many states are organizing support occupations?  OccupyMN, OccupyLA, occupyChicago, OccupySF, etc. Why doesn't it mention how much caring social media is at work?  Why can't it realize that it is a multifaceted story with legs?  I'll tell you something - our local Fox News outlet does better reporting than MSNBC, by a loooong shot, too.

I do a paper.li paper on US Days of Rage Minnesota Daily.  Folks, take a look at it. Watch the videos that are posted.  Read the articles.  Decide which is more Important - People or Profit$?  Fooling one's self that oppy is just around the corner OR sticking up for yourself and your loved ones?

We are all sick of Grover Norquist, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Kochs, too), graft, corruption, #austerity, high co$t$ of higher education, fear mongering, endless war$, escalating poverty, privatization of prisons/executions, bailouts, sociali$m for the rich, voter fraud, gutting of the EPA, consumerISM, rampant individualISM and "optimism", voodoo economics, xenophobia/ Islamaphobia, WAR CRIMES, torture, campaign RHETORIC,  tax loopholes, offshoring, corporations holding trillions of dollar$ in asset$ as a liquidity hedge, hedge fund$, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the Supreme Court 5, Tim Greithner, the hahaha Super committee which is a junta of 13, laws against umbrellas and masks in NYC, Big Pharma, GMO frankenfood, hydrofracking, the teabagger stoopidity, Citizens United, imperialISM, racISM, sexISM, homophobiak, child abuse and BAD JOURNALISM - a bought off media.  The three legs of FASCISM;  military, money, MEDIA.
What did happened to Cenk anyway?  We hate insiders in the Beltway, btw.  We LOVE Cenk who exposes Wall Street CRIME and CRIMINALS.

There's more to come . You can bet on it. As in Tunisia, Egypt and other places - Revolution 2.0 will be tweeted, "liked" and shared.  We will win.

Shared at this link:
http://world-news.newsvine.com/_news/2011/09/24/7945486-80-arrested-at-occupy-wall-street-protest?pc=25&sp=50&threadId=3230346#discussion_nav  Page 3

Tim DeChristopher's Courageous Bid to Save Our World by Peter Yarrow

by Peter Yarrow

In March, Tim DeChristopher was convicted of two felony counts for a nonviolent act of civil disobedience. Acting out of his deepest convictions and his abiding concern for the survival of humankind, Tim bid on oil and gas leases on federal land that he didn't have the means to pay for. On Tuesday, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison for his actions.

Tim DeChristopher, who disrupted a federal auction of oil and gas leases, now faces as many as 10 years in prison. (Courtney Sargent / Deseret News)

The auction Tim disrupted was being conducted during the final weeks of the George W. Bush administration, in what many believed was a push to sell one last batch of public leases before President Obama took office. Tim's intention at the December 2008 auction was to prevent the parcels, some of them on scenic land near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, from going to oil and gas companies.

On the eve of Tim's trial, I went to Salt Lake City to give a concert for his supporters at his church with my daughter, Bethany, and cellist Rufus Cappadocia. I will return to Salt Lake City to support him and his cause on Tuesday.Tim is a hero to me, the kind of hero Peter, Paul and Mary stood up for consistently over the last 50 years. 

Throughout American history, acts of civil disobedience have led to change. Think about the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves to freedom, or about the courageous actions of people like Rosa Parks, who refused to stay in the back of the bus simply because of their skin color. Without this kind of defiance of unjust laws, our country would likely still be denying people of color basic freedoms.

Now Tim has taken a stand against federal energy policies and the way they further global warming. At our concert for him, Bethany and I sang "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin' in the Wind," the songs Peter, Paul and Mary sang at the 1963 March on Washington where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Why? Because Tim's act of civil disobedience grew out of a long American tradition of conscience.The judge should and will render his judgment in the case of DeChristopher, or "Bidder 70" as he was known at the auction. 

Part of committing an act of civil disobedience is facing the penalties. But because Tim's act was part of an attempt to prevent greater harm to humankind, I hope the judge will be merciful and will give him a token or suspended sentence.At his trial, Tim was prevented from explaining the ethical and moral motivation for his acts to the jury. It is appalling that both the judge and the government's prosecution team have pursued Tim's civil disobedience trial as if he were a simple criminal who broke the law without reason or conscience. Doing so deprived him of the opportunity to sway the jury with the moral force of his motive.In their sentencing memo, the government's attorneys wrote: 

"A significant prison term will promote respect for the law.... To be sure, a federal prison term here will deter others from entering a path of criminal behavior." 

The same might have been said of King, had our government been so odiously disrespectful of his moral courage at the time.The prosecution has maintained that Tim's actions cost the Bureau of Land Management — and hence taxpayers — hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, after the auction was concluded, an environmental group got an injunction against many of the leases on the grounds that the environmental consequences of drilling hadn't been adequately considered.

 Subsequently, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pulled back the majority of them for further review. Eleven of the 14 auction parcels on which Tim made the highest bid later were pulled back by the government for reanalysis, so his action cost the government nothing on those. As to the remaining three parcels, if they are brought to auction again, they might well fetch more than Tim's original bid. 

So how did this cost the government money?

It's true that Tim entered the auction building with the intention of impeding its progress, but the specifics of his actions were not premeditated. He has said that the option of becoming a bidder didn't enter his mind until he got to the registration desk, at which point he realized that registering as a bidder might be the best way to derail the auction, or at least to save some parcels of lands from despoliation.

His objective, of course, was to call the entire process into question and ignite public concern over the relationship between such auctions and global warming's ominous shadow. I believe he achieved this mightily.

There is a massive complicity in America today between the corporations that fund elections and the officeholders they elect. Actions like Tim's are aimed at disrupting that complicity. For our children, for our country and for the world, we should honor his courage and self-sacrifice and pledge to follow in his footsteps, each in our own way.

© 2011 Peter Yarrow

FIGHT BACK MEETING AGENDA, June 13th

1. INTRODUCTIONS
a. In pairs tell each other: Who you are, organization, and why you are here. 1 minute each
b. To the large group, briefly introduce each other.

2. OVERVIEW
a. Stop the cuts
b. Tax the rich


3. Brainstorm: Strategy and Tacticsd



a. Rally June 30th



b. Lessons of Wisconsin - Citizens' Comittees



i. Soup kitchen



ii. Chamber of Commerce



iii. Email and phone team



iv. street team/rally



v. communications team



vi. fundraising



c. Making a video to go viral



d. .......

4. ACTION STEPS -- scheduling and signing up



a. schedule a meeting to develop a vision statement



b. Soup kitchen set up



c. Other ...

5. EVALUATION OF THE MEETING