Occupy Wall Street Birthday Chaos

Anniversary plan

By MAX ABELSON

Bloomberg

Last Updated: 2:42 AM, August 30, 2012

Posted: 12:34 AM, August 30, 2012

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Occupy Wall Street will mark its first anniversary by trying to block traffic in the Financial District and circling the Stock Exchange.

Planning for the Sept. 17 protest follows months of internal debate and flagging interest, according to interviews with organizers.

The morning action may include attempts to make citizens’ arrests of bankers, and some activists intend to bring handcuffs, they said.

“We are here to bring you to justice,” said Sean McKeown, 32, a chemist helping to organize the demonstration. “We’re offering you the chance to repent for your sins.”

Occupy protests sprouted up from San Francisco to Hong Kong after demonstrators established a camp in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park last September.

Police ousted that group in November, and governments around the world took similar action.

Organizers said there has been more fatigue than fresh thinking this year.

Occupy’s New York General Assembly, which oversaw planning by consensus, ceased functioning in April because of infighting, ineffectiveness and low turnout, according to organizers and minutes of meetings.

The group’s funds were frozen to preserve money for bail, ending most cash distributions, they said.

“Movements calcify,’’ said Travis Mushett, 26, who helped organize an Occupy reading group.

There’s been a cascade of banking scandals since May 1, the last time OWS organized major protests.

Regulators have accused Barclays of trying to rig global interest rates; Standard Chartered faces a probe over claims it funneled Iranian money through the US; Senate investigators said HSBC helped drug lords launder funds; and JPMorgan Chase & Co. lost at least $5.8 billion on trades.

But “it really hasn’t sparked the same outrage,” said Akshat Tewary, a lawyer who co-wrote a comment letter in February on bank regulation with the group Occupy the SEC.

“It’s harder to maintain that kind of momentum.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ows_day_chaos_vbx47Q7xSEtFEWknpMWNYO#ixzz252so3Pga

Occupy Wall Street Has Big Plans For The Republican National Convention

Linette Lopez | Aug. 23, 2012, 2:10 PM | 499 | 9

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It's been almost a year since Occupy Wall Street protests started sprouting up all over the country. In that time, camps have been broken up and demonstrators scattered...

But how could they miss the political drama-fest that is the Presidential election? Certainly not, and the biggest shows start off with the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.

Members of the movement tell Business Insider that hundreds of protestors are already camped out near the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where the RNC will be held, in a spot they've dubbed 'Romneyville'.

Tampa's city council has already ruled not to evict them from the area, and Occupiers say chartered buses will bring hundreds more to join them over the weekend. Another camp is being set up in Freedom Park, also near the Forum.

"The ironic thing," said one event coordinator, John Penley, "is that we're set up near an army supply store that sells gas masks."

Penley is coordinating an event called the "Let Them Eat Cake Drum Circle Dance Party" in Romneyville on Sunday night at 9:00 pm.

Protesters can head there after they demonstrate outside the RNC kickoff party at Tropicana Field. The coordinator of that event, Kelly Benjamin, told us that the movement does have a city permit to move along their planned route from Mirror Lake Drive to the field.

"It will be a fortified compound," said Benjamin. "The fact that they (RNC attendees) are separating themselves from the people they're representing... illustrates the problem with our country."

As for what he'll do about the incoming tropical storm, Benjamin pointed out that he's a Tampa native and that for him storms are just "par for the course."

On Tuesday at 5:00 PM protesters have planned another sanctioned march through downtown Tampa, this time to demonstrate against voter suppression.

"Downtown Tampa has become a cordoned off police state," Benjamin told Business Insider. He sees the newly installed video cameras as fear mongering. "Everyone is talking about anarchists...equating violence with protest... They're making sure only one version of America is in the spotlight at this event and that's a shame."

Here at Business Insider, we'll be watching to see how this all plays out.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-wall-street-has-big-plans-for-the-republican-national-convention-2012-8#ixzz24PioD8Vx

Occupy Wall Street protesters seek to block Twitter subpoena

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Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

Occupy Wall Street activists rest during a protest at Zuccotti Park in New York July 11, 2012.

NEW YORK -- An Occupy Wall Street protester who took part in a mass protest in New York last year is accusing a judge of overstepping his authority by ordering Twitter to hand over the demonstrator's tweets and account information to prosecutors.

Malcolm Harris, a Brooklyn-based writer, filed a civil proceeding on Monday seeking to block the judge's ruling.

Harris was arrested during a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge last October and charged with disorderly conduct in a case that is one of a handful in which authorities have sought to use social media to prosecute defendants.

Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino has rebuffed separate attempts by Harris and Twitter to quash a subpoena served on the company by the Manhattan district attorney's office seeking Harris' tweets for September to December.

Harris claims the information sought by prosecutors is akin to surveillance records, because computer logs will show his location when he connected to the site.

"In this case, anyone reviewing the information and material Twitter has been ordered to turn over will know each time - between September 15 and December 30, 2011 -- Harris logged into his Twitter account, where he was when he logged in, how long he remained there and both what he did and who he communicated with while he was logged in," Harris' lawyers wrote in a memorandum accompanying the petition.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office have said in court papers that Harris' tweets could demonstrate he knew police had ordered protesters not to walk onto the bridge roadway.

Harris' lawyer, Martin Stolar of the National Lawyers Guild, and other lawyers for the arrested protesters have said police appeared to lead the march onto the roadway before suddenly arresting hundreds of them.

Sciarrino ruled in April that Harris did not have the standing to challenge the subpoena, since Twitter owned his tweets. In June, he rejected Twitter's argument that turning over the tweets violated Harris' privacy and free speech rights, saying the tweets were publicly posted without any expectation of privacy.

Twitter has filed a separate notice of appeal, though it has not yet submitted its formal brief.

Criminal defendants typically are required to wait until the end of criminal proceedings before filing appeals. But Stolar said Sciarrino's ruling threatened Harris' privacy and required an immediate response.

Harris' filing also seeks an order requiring Sciarrino to recognize his standing to challenge the subpoena on free speech grounds and the Fourth Amendment's protection against warrantless searches.

The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment on the filing.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at:http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp.

Wall Street Lobbying Efforts Reach $4.2 Billion Since 2006, Or $1,331 A Minute, Report States

The Huffington Post  |  By Nick Wing Posted: 08/17/2012 10:27 am

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Financial Crisis, Congress, Video, Elect Democracy, Global Exchange, Wall Street Lobbying,Congress Wall Street, Lobbying, Lobbyists, Money In Politics, Wall Street Congress, Politics News

On Capitol Hill, it pays to pay. Wall Street certainly pays, and a new report unveils just how much, as well as what it gets in return.

Since 2006, the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sector, has poured around $4.2 billion into efforts to maintain influence in the halls of Congress, according to a new report by Elect Democracy, a nonpartisan effort by human rights organization Global Exchange. That comes out to $1,331 a minute.

Of that total, $879 million has gone to the campaigns of lawmakers. Like most influence peddlers in Washington, the FIRE industry takes positions on legislation that affects the way it operates. Donations can't guarantee that a lawmaker votes a certain way on a bill, of course, but the intrinsic goal of lobbying is to encourage them to support the cause, in part by padding their campaign coffers.

How well does FIRE's operation work?

Thanks to Elect Democracy's new legislative scorecard, which tracks FIRE sector donations to members of Congress and rates their Wall Street voting loyalty, we now have a better idea.

Below, the findings from Elect Democracy. How do your congressional representatives stack up?

Elect Democracy On FIRE

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