(Photo from Black Agenda Report)
GLEN FORD TO OCCUPY HARLEM: NEVER MIND WHAT THOSE WHITE KIDS IN ZUCOTTI PARK ARE THINKING: WHAT ARE WE THINKING WHEN WE SUPPORT THE BLACK MISLEADERSHIP CLASS?
(Black Agenda Report)
Ford addresses the convening meeting of the Occupy Harlem movement at a Harlem Church, and gives a “power to the people” speech about the necessity of African-Americans clearly identifying their enemy of finance capitalism and their own so-called black “leaders” including the President who are sleeping so cozily with this enemy.
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IN THE 10-MONTH CIVILIAN KILLING DERBY IN AFGHANISTAN, U.S. BEATS AFGHAN INSURGENTS, 1588-904 IN THE NUMBERS KILLED BY THEIR ACTIONS.
(Counterpunch)
Gareth Porter uses data from a UN report on civilian casualties in the conflict, comparing the number of such casualties, mostly from U.S. night raids and from insurgent planting of IEDs.
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THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN HIGHLAND PARK.
(Yahoo Finance)
This Detroit suburb, developed and then abandoned by first the Ford and later the Chrysler motor companies, has fallen into economic hard times and an accumulated electric bill on which the city was unable to make required monthly payments. The city determines, in desperation, to cut its electric bill by ripping out most of the city’s street lamps, leaving residents literally in the dark and fearful for their safety as the night-time of “austerity” descends on them.
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CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW INDIANS IN OKLAHOMA: DON’T SEND OUR WATER TO TEXAS—OR OKLAHOMA CITY.
(The Oklahoman)
As state Water Resources Board moves to sell water from Lake Sardis in southeastern part of the state to these destinations, these tribes complain that the reservoir is on their tribal lands and, as such, should remain there for their use. The tribes sue to stop the water diversion and a judge hopes the litigators would not “take 20 years” to settle the matter as he says they usually do.
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EPA SAYS NEW WATER POLLUTION RULES PROPOSED BY STATE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ARE OKAY BY THEM.
(St. Petersburg Times)
New rules “negotiated” between the DEP and leading paper mill and phosphate mining operators in Florida are designed to respond to the political heat generated by the EPAs “interference” with pollution management in the state. Environmentalist groups decry this process of allowing the regulated be part of the process of determining the nature of the regulations on them, and condemn the actions of both the EPA and the DEP.
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Quote of the day…
Make no mistake about it, reclaiming the right of the poor, jobless and discontented to peaceably assemble, while politically paralyzing mayors and police forces used to cracking heads and dispersing malcontents is a project only white protesters could have accomplished without police violence and massive arrests.
Bruce Dixon, commenting on racial disparity in official tolerance for street protest.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that the most profound purpose of OWS all over the world is to create permanent, local direct democracy institutions to operate alongside traditional elected government. That’s what these General Assemblies are – they are the rebirth of the Greek democratic polis, where citizens all made decisions. Regardless of how parochial or how abstract one’s motives for supporting this are, the positive potential is, I think, far beyond what most people are envisioning.