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| A screen shot from live streaming video shows what appears to be Occupy New Orleans protesters in front of City Hall. |
The Occupy Wall Street movement that began three weeks ago in New York City as a protest against corporate greed and the increasingly disproportionate accumulation of wealth in the top income bracket spread to New Orleans today, Thursday, Oct. 6. According to a brief article in The Times-Picayune, protesters will march across the city and set up an encampment across the street from City Hall. Some of the protesters have vowed to live in the encampment for months. The group is also streaming the event live on its Facebook page, and based on recent video, scores of protesters are now in front of City Hall.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to at least 80 other cities. The Times-Pic article also has links to reports by other media outlets.
According to Occupy New Orleans’ Facebook page:
Occupy NOLA is leaderless non-violent resistance movement composed of people from various sociopolitical and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are all inclusive. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We want to make a positive difference. Join us and help us grow!
The time has come to deploy against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America. It’s time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY!Occupy NOLA exists solely to organize, publicize, and support the growing number of New Orleans residents showing support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. We stand by the developing mission of Occupy Wall Street.
As we watched the continuing marches on Wall Street and those across the nation reacting to the movement, we decided to set up a website and social media networks to provide a hub for those organizing in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Many of us cannot be there in NYC and, like them, wanted to do something.
Occupy NOLA is our way of participating in these events, in spirit and solidarity, in order to support those organizing and demonstrating in various cities and states across America.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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