As the police launched high velocity flash bangs, smoke bombs, and bean bag projectiles while a few demonstrators tossed hand-sized objects while fleeing the public street. In Oakland, a city so rife with economic and repressive tensions, Mayor Quan and Police Chief Howard seem intent on ignoring the needs of the public and grinding them under the department-approved 5.11 ATAC boot heel. In the mainstream media, Occupy Oakland participants have been typified as the aggressive instigators when, according to citizen journalism, they were only reacting to the upswing in violent action.

Article by Aaron Cynic Reporters Without Borders released its 10th annual Press Freedom Index, which found that while 2011 may have been Time Magazine’s “Year of the Protester,” it was also the year of government crackdowns on journalists. The opening of the report reads: “Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom [...]

Instead of trying to fix ourselves, failing, and then beating ourselves up about it, let’s consider a new concept of resolutions for this New Year. Let’s endeavor to better society for everyone, not just our individual selves.

New Hampshire legislature considers two anti-evolution bills.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 breezed through Congress and headed to the White House, even though public opposition to parts of the bill, now directed at President Obama in the hope of a hail Mary veto, remains strong. The most troubling aspects of the bill violate fundamental rights provided in the U.S. Constitution [...]

Income disparity is at its highest in 30 years

“It was a burning feeling in my throat for me…There was a lot of people who got it in their eyes. They were burning, they were screaming, crying.” “…Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.” “This one guy was coming up to my wife going, ‘Call an ambulance! Call [...]

The mass arrests at peaceful demonstrations prove how removed government is from the needs of its people and how determined it is to silence or ignore the very people it has been created to protect.

It seems sadly fitting the USA Patriot Act turned ten years old the day after police in Oakland, California assaulted peaceful demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. While police violence had been already rampant in New York in Zuccotti Park, Oakland marked one of the first major violent confrontations with Occupy demonstrators. Soon after, [...]

The Defense Department plans to ratchet up cyber security over the next five years, say chatter from a conference its research arm, DARPA, held on Monday. DARPA is seeking $208 million in funding to “prepare for hostile cyber acts that threaten our military capabilities,” an increase in $83 million reports Information Week. At the “cyber [...]

Earlier this week in the Tribune, Dennis Byrne made an attempt to dismiss poverty in America and criticize the Occupy movement by calling poverty an “overstated” problem. Using the typical conservative demon of welfare and government subsidies via research from the right wing Heritage Foundation, Byrne argues that the 46.2 million Americans the government defines [...]

That same ol’ catchphrase is still ringing in the ears of Americans everywhere: that of the “job creators.” In these hard times of high unemployment, it’s all about these mysterious job creators, whom we’re desperately awaiting to save us all. From my understanding, these supposed job creators are corporations owning a certain level of wealth. [...]