Post by Aaron Cynic. Conservatives and President Obama alike are outraged over revelations the IRS has been targeting Tea Party groups. Last week, the IRS admitted to giving extra scrutiny to groups applying for non profit status if their applications contained the words “patriot” or “Tea Party.” Calling it an “organizational shortcut,” Lois Lerner, director [...]

Post by Aaron Cynic American law enforcement agencies continue to increase their surveillance on an otherwise fairly complacent citizenry, logging an incredible amount of requests for information regarding cell phone and social media use. Last week, a judge in New York ruled that Twitter must give a court close to three months of information from [...]

Post by Aaron Cynic On Saturday, April 7th, Occupy Chicago hit the streets in full force with a series of actions, marches, teach-ins, workshops and a “freedom feast,” fully kicking off what promises to be a spring filled with activism in Chicago. The mood was celebratory and jubilant, and between actions in 13 different neighborhoods [...]

Over the weekend, our very own contributor Natalie W appeared on a panel to discuss Occupy Chicago as part of the Open University of the Left’s regular lecture series in Chicago. Appearing alongside were Joe Macare, Rachael Perrotta and Brit Schulte. OUL welcomed the panel of participants in Occupy Chicago to highlight the movement’s actions [...]

Article by Aaron Cynic A subpoena by the New York City District Attorney’s office to Twitter should raise alarm bells for anyone who uses social media during demonstrations. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the DA subpoenaed the social media site for “any and all user information, including email address, as well as any and [...]

Article by Aaron Cynic A group of parents, students, teachers and activists occupied an elementary school in Chicago over the weekend to protest what the city calls a “turnaround,” which would shake up the staff and put the school under the authority of the Academy for Urban School Leadership, a private organization opponents say fails [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

For the second time, Occupy Chicago attempted to “take the horse,” a small plot of concrete at Congress and Michigan Avenue in Grant Park. For a second time, the Chicago Police arrested demonstrators attempting to stay past the 11pm curfew. This time, 130 activists were held in jail for a much longer period, some until [...]