On Tuesday we announced our fund raiser for banners and t-shirts at Occupy the Rose Parade. You guys stepped up immediately and gave just over $2,000! Amazing! Small donations too. Thank you everyone who donated.

Our goal is $3,000 total. Organizers have told us that's what they need to do their float at this year's Rose Parade right. We are very, very close.

Occupy the Rose parade has coordinated with Pasadena police. They have a First Amendment right to march in the parade. They are float number 44 (as in Obama the 44th president). The Rose Parade is viewed by 50 million Americans and 200 million people world wide. The organizers are expecting anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 protesters to participate. Not only are there plenty of eyeballs to reach, five floats in the parade are sponsored by (wait for it) banks. Read all about their plans here.

So we are running this fund raiser one more day - this is last minute to give to allow time for the banners and t-shirts made in time for the event. Any amount you can give will make a difference.

Thank you so much for your donations!

You guys gave over $40,000 for pizzas to feed Occupiers. We sent our Occu-pies to over 50 cities. It was very successful and it was all you! Our readers gave in amounts as small as $3 and it added up to a lot!

What's the difference between Occupy and the tea party? Have you ever heard of a fund raiser for the tea party? No. Because they're funded.

Occupy the Rose parade has coordinated with Pasadena police. They have a First Amendment right to march in the parade. They are float number 44 (as in Obama the 44th president). The Rose Parade is viewed by 50 million Americans and 200 million people world wide. The organizers are expecting anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 protesters to participate. Not only are there plenty of eyeballs to reach, five floats in the parade are sponsored by (wait for it) banks. Read all about their plans here.

The one rub? They need more money for signs and t-shirts.

Organizer Pete Thottem said he raised around $500 for banners. He put in another $2000 of his own money. "I'm here to fight the good fight and now I'm out of money," he said in a phone interview yesterday.

They need around $3000 more to buy all the supplies necessary. The parade is in a week and a half. Whatever you have to give will help. Even the smallest donation makes a difference and makes that difference in front of millions and millions of viewers. Thank you guys!

We, as always, will let you know just how much we raise and how the funds are spent. We've been talking to activists about what they will need in the coming year. It may not be pizza, but we'll let you know. We're also open to any ideas.

We'll be starting an Occupy America email list very soon.

This picture was taken minutes before the protesters at Occupy LA were given a dispersal order and arrested. This is what you call nonviolent struggle; just sitting down, breaking arbitrary rules and waiting for 1,300 LAPD in riot gear to show up forcefully remove you.

This is Fox 11's Gigi Graciette. Gigi doesn't cover Dodger games or the Rose Parade by mentioning the debris discarded by attendees, but apparently that's how she covers a international protest's local chapter: they have trash left behind after they've been arrested en masse. Gross trash, too. Way to inform the public.

No question as to why 292 Angelenos all but volunteered to be arrested last night. No mention of what nonviolent struggle has accomplished in American history (ahem civil rights). No mention of the cruel irony of the protesters getting evicted because they brought homeless people to the steps of City Hall instead of the usual safe distance of two blocks east. No mention of the politics involved and how the City decided to support the protest, then negotiated with them and then suddenly reneged - made apparent by the 1400 LAPD officers in riot helmets on the streets of Los Angeles last night.

But here's the thing that really makes this clip disgusting from a basic journalism perspective: Gigi doesn't know and didn't find out what that mysterious white liquid was in those water bottles before she reported on them. She didn't know and instead of being hesitant to make accusations or start any rumors - she just does it without pause. I saw her there at around 11pm - she was there all night and never asked anyone what it was before she went live?! You're supposed to know MORE than the people on their couches watching you - because you're on the scene! This is hackery at its worse.

The white liquid is more than likely Maalox. They had it on site because it is supposed to neutralize the pain of pepper spray and tear gas. Yes, there's a story - there were hundreds of Angelenos willing to be pepper sprayed for a political statement. They were (their phrase) militantly nonviolent and had been spending days training and planning to be raided by police and THAT is what that mysterious white liquid symbolized - that's what it meant. They were willing, to quote Mario Savio "put their bodies upon the gears."

Since I will always assume the best in people, I will guess it's just laziness. Just not caring about telling a real story about Occupy LA and opting for the easy "look at the stuff on the ground" to fill up airtime. I say laziness and not incompetence or malice. But I'm feeling generous today.

LIBERTY SQUARE, NY--despite the early morning rain, morale is high. A reported 100,000 copies of The Occupied Wall Street Journal have just arrived. The young occupiers are busy handing out the four page broadsheet to curious passersby and the protest tourists, who linger on the outskirts of Zuccotti Park, snapping photos of signs and the occasional blue-haired hippie.

"The Revolution Begins at Home" reads a headline. "Learning from the World" reads another piece about Americans taking lessons from the spontaneous Arab Spring. In anticipation of an Oct 5th student walkouts and union marches, a caption reads, "New York Unites!"

The rained on, camping crowd of about 200 has swelled to a respectable 400--or so--with a march planned for 3 pm, which is said will attract more.

Some clothes are wet. Most clothes are wet. Everything is a little wet. Still. I'm told protesters could benefit from blankets, jackets, tarps. Anything to keep people warm and dry tonight, and into the coming...weeks?

The on-sight media people -- the only media to be found today, aside from freelancers -- are in need of large external storage devices. They're recording a lot of data.

The first aid people say they need non latex gloves, roller gauze, medical tape and general supplies.

Food is adequate, but storage containers would help organize the supplies and keep the damn pigeons off my bread.

And I need Vicodin. Send Vicodin. Now.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We sent New York occupiers some pizzas yesterday. And by "we" I mean you guys. We raised over $4000 yesterday (Friday) to feed the ground swell of solidarity demonstrations.

If you want to send these guys a slice all amounts are welcome and appreciated!

Here's a video from FOX & Friends with Cody James, a student at the university who wanted to see the recruiters and says the protesters were not violent.
Whatever your beliefs are regarding military recruiting at colleges, Michelle Malkin crosses the line of decency by printing the telephone numbers of the students that formed the protest. They have been receiving death threats non-stop. An email-er wrote me and said:

"The protest was reported on by Hannity and OReilly. Michelle Malkin put actual students' phone numbers on her blog and they've been getting death threats nonstop."

In her update to the post Michelle writes:

"SAW has removed the contact information from its press release and is now lying about the fact that it made the info publicly available on the Internet. I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."

Obviously the death threats are emanating from her blog and she knows it. Malkin understands the nature of the fear and outrage she causes. Will she take responsibility when somebody gets hurt? Here's another example of the fear-mongering she causes. Read Cathy Young's Boston Globe column.

Here's an article about the affair.

Another email: "She REPRINTED the numbers. The death threats have started again with a vengeance." She's basically blaming the victim, saying "we asked for it." But we only sent the contact info to the PRESS (not her site) along with our press release and then we specifically asked HER to remove them, when there were death threats (we've published some on our site), she's refusing."

"The basic thing is, she's trying to make us sound like lunatic vandals and criminals so that her fanatical audience feels justified in sending us death threats. The action was completely peaceful and it was blown out of proportion. Malkin says: "SAW is trying to cover its tracks again and has wiped the info from the cached version." Does she have any understanding of how google cache works? We don't have the power to "wipe it."

(If you contact her please don't stoop to the levels that her readers are.)

Update:

Here are some of the threats on SAW's homepage.

Politicususa: 40 reiigious leaders denounce Sarah Palin, and Fox's hate speech - challenge Gingrich

David Rosen: Know Nothings of 2010

The Hill's Congress Blog: GOP vilifies workers who serve the public

Rumproast: Douchehat doubles down: Straight marriage is 'thick,' Gay marriage is 'thin'

The Atlantic: The Great Lie

The Root: S.C. mystery Dem, Alvin Greene, indicted

The thing I find most frustrating about our party is the reluctance (or inability?) to inspire and lead. After the last eight years, is it really that impossible to sell the case for a Democratic Congress? They're always so damned defensive, and it comes across as weakness -- which is what turns so many people off.

Yes, I know some districts are more difficult than others, but they're not all like that:

As Democrats fan out across the country to campaign for reelection this month, many are surprisingly quiet about their hard-won accomplishments — the major bills they have passed under President Obama.

In an effort coordinated with the White House, congressional leaders are urging Democrats to focus less on bragging about what they have done — a landmark healthcare law, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation and other far-reaching policy changes — and more on efforts to fix the economy and on the perils of Republican control of Congress.

One year after many town hall meetings were upended by raucous anti-government protesters, congressional Democrats are trying to ensure that this summer's debate sheds a more flattering light on their party as they navigate a bruising midterm election campaign.
To bulk up their record on job creation, Democratic leaders have gone to great lengths — even calling House members back from recess for a special session Tuesday — to pass a $26-billion bill to avert public employee layoffs.

And in an effort to turn attention to their opponents, Democrats from Obama on down have taken to warning that giving Republicans control of Congress would be akin to reelecting George W. Bush.

"The question for 2010 is: Whose side are you on?" Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said to reporters Thursday. He spoke after a closed meeting with Democratic senators, where palm cards itemizing contrasts between the parties were distributed for lawmakers to carry around during the recess.

"Democrats moving us forward, while Republicans take us back," the card says.

Obama has been reading from the same playbook, comparing Republicans to bad drivers who want to retrieve keys to a car they had driven into a ditch.

"When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D,' " Obama said last week at a Democratic National Committee event in Atlanta. "When you want to go back, what do you? You put it in 'R.' "

Republicans see those attacks as an effort to divert attention from the weak economy.

If the Democrats can't figure out a way put the blame for this recession on the Bush policies that caused it, they're just not trying. Or maybe they're so used to feeling defensive, they don't know any other way to be.

Balloon Juice: We're movin' on up! To that deluxe...

Consortiumblog: Neocons, Likud conquer D.C. again

Gizmodo: BP foresaw its doom in a 1970s "Offshore Oil Strike" board game

FishbowlLA: The curious case of Carly Fiorina's protesters (h/t Tina Dupuy)

IntoxiNation: More from the party of 'Family Values'

Many thanks to Blue Gal and Batocchio for filling in so ably for the past couple weeks.

Peaceful G20 protest at Queen & Spadina from Meghann Millard on Vimeo.

You may ask yourself, why aren't lefties rioting in the streets because of the economy just like what we're seeing at the G20?

Digby has the answer: The Miami Model.

People keep asking where "the left" is and why they don't take to the streets in light of these neo-liberal policies wreaking havoc on working people everywhere. Where is the populist uprising from the left and why there isn't more direct confrontation of the corporatist mindset. It's a good question, but you have to wonder why we never cite these regular protests and why we don't bother to comment on the tactics that are used against them. Are we on the American left really not part of this? Do we philosophically disagree with the critique, even now, after everything that's been revealed during this economic crisis? Are these people wrong?

Now, I understand that these folks have gotten the reputation for being thuggish and destructive, largely based on the Seattle protests over a decade ago. But it's quite clear by now that this is a phony image, conjured up by the authorities to justify their police state tactics against the protesters:

They call it the Miami Model...read on

I'm going to do another post on this soon, but the shorter version is that beating the crap out of people after tasering them and then arresting them does put a damper on things.

Protesters were beaten with tear gas, sticks, rubber bullets . . . You can watch police stun cowering protesters with Tasers on YouTube. Last year, the city agreed it had trampled citizens’ right to free speech by forcing marchers back from planned protests and settled out of court with Amnesty International.

The above video shows protesters singing 'Oh, Canada,' and for no reason at all the police open fire and viciously attack them. It's safe to say that they have been emailed the Miami model and are implementing it quite nicely. Now they can add "singing" to their long list of actions that are forbidden by law enforcement when they encounter protesters.