By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

A flier dropped from a financial office building in Chicago:

We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.

Read More

Posted on October 31, 2011

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

This is what democracy looks like.
1. Inspire the hell out of everyone.

Read More

Posted on October 28, 2011

By Bill Vassilakis

I.
I’d had a long, productive Saturday by 10 p.m. when I parked my bike in front of the Congress Hotel. I was conscious of the dirt on my hands and clothes from working in the garden my neighbors carved out behind our house, but didn’t expect any of the occupants to protest my filthy condition. The Occupation has leaned heavily on signs and symbols, both to define itself and to communicate, and the question of whether occupants should convey the appearance of our Sunday Best, Business Casual, “businessman’s armor” (usually with Guy Fawkes mask) or just wear clothes we wear every other day was a point of debate. I headed for the contested Horse as I was.
A strategy police use to maintain the Horse as their turf is preventing people from establishing necessities: the usual trio, food-water-shelter, plus the socially obligatory necessity of the shitter. The Horse remains without shelter, as police clear tents when we bring them. Substantial amounts of food and water haven’t been brought for fear that they’ll be confiscated, and so not available at for all the hungry occupants. Finally, there are no bathrooms. I asked a cop where I might take a leak; he suggested the barroom of the Congress, from whence I came, kitty corner from the Horse, back across both the Loop’s busiest street and the city’s only grade-level expressway.

Read More

Posted on October 27, 2011

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

This is what democracy looks like.
1. From The Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism:
“Peace and social justice activists upset at Chicago police harassment of Occupy Chicago and verbal threats against those planning to protest the May 2012 G8/NATO summits will launch a non-violent action dubbed ‘Occupy City Hall’ beginning at 2 PM, Wednesday, October 26 at the intersection of LaSalle and Jackson. The action will include a march on City Hall.
“In light of the City’s arrests of peaceful Occupy Chicago protesters exercising their 1st Amendment rights last Saturday night and the Saturday before that, activists will be demanding that the City drop all the charges against the protesters.
“During and after the arrests, senior CPD officers and other city officials repeatedly remarked that the City’s arrests of over 300 were a dry run for crackdowns on anti-G8/NATO protesters next May.”

Read More

Posted on October 26, 2011

By Jennifer LaFleur/ProPublica
UPDATE: 11/4/2011: Government Cans Proposal To Hide Records
–
A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don’t exist – even when they do.
Under current FOIA practice, the government may withhold information and issue what’s known as a Glomar denial that says it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.
The new proposal – part of a lengthy rule revision by the Department of Justice – would direct government agencies to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist.”

Read More

Posted on October 25, 2011

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

This is what democracy looks like.
1. By kgosztola: “John Carlos, an Olympic athlete best known for his black power salute during the national anthem during the 1968 Olympics, and Dave Zirin, a sports writer for The Nation magazine, are touring America with their book The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World. They visited Occupy Chicago for a teach-in on Saturday.”

Read More

Posted on October 24, 2011

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

This is what democracy looks like.
1. I am a Chicago middle-school teacher and I am part of the 99%.

Read More

Posted on October 21, 2011

By Andrew Thomason/Illinois Statehouse News

Illinois’ two largest utility providers have given $116,400 to the campaign warchests of lawmakers just weeks before the Legislature is expected to address a contentious rate-hike veto.
Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed legislation last month that would have allowed Commonwealth Edison Co. and Ameren to charge customers more to pay for statewide infrastructure upgrades.
Under this proposal, Commonwealth Edison Co. customers would have seen their bill jump by $36 a year and Ameren customers by $40 more annually.
The General Assembly likely will take up the measure when it returns here Oct. 25 during the fall veto session.
Commonwealth Edison Co. and its parent company, Exelon, and Ameren have donated to 38 legislators since Quinn’s veto Sept. 12, according to Illinois State Board of Election records.
“They are trying to reinforce positions, so they definitely give money to people that have supported them in the past. They give money to leaders, but they are also trying to influence votes,” said Kent Redfield, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Read More

Posted on October 19, 2011

By Braden Goyette/ProPublica

As protests supporting Occupy Wall Street have swelled in recent weeks, hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested across the U.S. This weekend, nearly 100 people were arrested in New York and 175 in Chicago. More than 100 protesters were arrested in Boston last week; a few weeks ago, 700 were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge.

So, if the First Amendment guarantees the right to peaceable assembly, why do peaceful protestors keep getting arrested – and sometimes pepper-sprayed and beaten up?

We take a closer look at the laws governing protests and how the government can limit them.

Read More

Posted on October 18, 2011

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

Let’s take a look.
1. “The Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign stood in Solidarity with different Activist groups and people of Chicago, the nation and the world for “Occupy Everywhere” on October 15, 2011.”

Read More

Posted on October 17, 2011