Occupy Everywhere - Sept 17th - Day of Rage Against Wall Street and what it stands for!

[Keith Millea]

A very few City Councils have thus far officially supported OWS

Peter,I think I've read that the Seattle city council has endorsed OWS.

A Merry Christmas from the Seattle OWS.......

[Peter Lemkin]

[quote=Keith Millea][QUOTE]A very few City Councils have thus far officially supported OWS
[/QUOTE]
Peter,I think I've read that the Seattle city council has endorsed OWS.
Yes, I know there are a few more than I mentioned in that article [some where the City Council officially supported and the Mayor and Police officially raided and destroyed!]...but I don't know of a complete list...this below is probably not complete....
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When police forces have cracked down on local Occupy encampments, TV cameras have swarmed to cover it. But what's not being covered as closely are the numerous actions, symbolic and otherwise, on the part of local elected officials to endorse or otherwise support the protests of the 99 Percent going on in their cities.

On October 12 in Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States, the City Council resolved that the body "stands in support for the continuation of the peaceful and vibrant exercise in First Amendment Rights carried out by Occupy Los Angeles.'" The resolution included in its justification that 1 in 5 foreclosures in the U.S. have taken place in California, and that an investigation of the financial crisis and holding those accountable are particularly in the interest of Angelenos. The cities of Sebastapol and Santa Anna, California have also formally endorsed Occupy Wall Street.

On November 14 in Seattle, Washington, the nine-member City Council resolved to support the Occupy Seattle protest. They stressed that they condemn violence and any action taken that interferes with the police, but also that they would actively take steps to address the Occupiers concerns. "The City will review its banking and investment practices to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community," the resolution states.

Last Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, the City Council voted 18-1 to pass Np. 1720-11, which formally expresses support for Occupy Wall Street. The effort was spearheaded by Councilman Brian Cummings, a member of the Green Party, who has been active in Occupy Cleveland. The resolution states:

Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Cleveland…That this Council recognizes and supports the principles of the Occupy Movement and the peaceful and lawful exercise of the First Amendment as a cherished and fundamental right in the effort to seek solutions for economically distressed Americans at the federal, state and local levels.

The resolution also states that the Council will continue to work with the Mayor to "continue taking steps to minimize economic insecurity and destructive disparities in the City of Cleveland." A unique situation is developing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the City Council also endorsed their local OWS branch, Occupy Pittsburgh.

BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does support and declare solidarity with Occupy Pittsburgh and the Occupy Wall Street movement, exercising First Amendment rights in a free, open, peaceful, and productive manner, toward the better condition of our citizens and of these United States.

What makes this even more significant is that Occupy Pittsburgh sits on Mellon Green, the property of the financial giant BNY Mellon, last seen trying to use the occupy movement in its marketing materials. Under the pretense of the Occupiers' safety as the temperature drops, BNY Mellon has issued a warning that they will forcibly evict the encampment. The result of this standoff may set a precedent for the country are the actions of police forces dictated by large financial institutions, local City Councils, or Mayors? And who currently exerts the most influence over Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl: BNY Mellon or his own Council? BNY Mellon gave Sunday, December 11 as the deadline to evacuate Mellon Green, but as of Monday evening, the encampment remains.

[Peter Lemkin]

How Banks Cheat Taxpayers

POSTED: December 27, 12:28 PM ET


Matt Taibbi



A Municipal Bond Certificate
Buyenlarge/Getty Images

A good friend of mine sent me a link to a small story last week, something that deserves a little attention, post-factum.
The Bloomberg piece is about J.P. Morgan Chase winning a bid to be the lead underwriter on a $400 million bond issue by the state of Massachusetts. Chase was up against Merrill for the bid and won the race with an offer of a 2.57% interest rate, beating Merrill's bid of 2.79. The difference in the bid saved the state of Massachusetts $880,000.
Afterward, Massachusetts state treasurer Steven Grossman breezily played up the benefits of a competitive bid. "There's always a certain amount of competition going on out there," Grossman said in a telephone interview yesterday. "That's good. We like competition."
Well … so what, right? Two banks fight over the right to be the government's underwriter, one submits a more competitive bid, the taxpayer saves money, and everyone wins. That's the way it ought to be, correct?
Correct. Except in four out of five cases, it still doesn't happen that way. From the same piece [emphasis mine]:

Nationwide, about 20 percent of debt issued by states and local governments is sold through competitive bids. Issuers post public notices asking banks to make proposals and award the debt to the bidder offering the lowest interest cost. The other 80 percent are done through negotiated underwriting, where municipalities select a bank to price and sell the bonds.

By "negotiated underwriting," what Bloomberg means is, "local governments just hand the bid over to the bank that tosses enough combined hard and soft money at the right politicians."
There is absolutely no good reason why all debt issues are not put up to competitive bids. This is not like defense contracting, where in some situations it is at least theoretically possible that X or Y company is the world's only competent manufacturer, say, of armor-plated Humvee doors, or some such thing. It's still wrong and perverse when companies like Halliburton or Blackwater get sole-source defense contracts, but at least there's some kind of theoretical justification there.
But this is a bond issue, not rocket science. In most cases, all the top investment banks will offer virtually the same service, with only the price varying. Towns and cities and states lose billions of dollars every year allowing financial services companies to overcharge them for underwriting.
It gets even worse in the derivatives markets, where banks routinely overcharge state and local governments for things like interest rate swaps, for one very obvious reason swaps are not traded on open exchanges, so only the banks know how to price them.
Imagine what NFL gambling would be like if the casinos didn'tpublish the point spreads every week, and you'll get a rough idea of how the swap market works. If you couldn't look it up, how many points would you give the Dolphins against the Jets next week? Two? Five? Seven? The big casinos know, because they're taking all that action, that the real number is one point.
In the same vein, exactly how accurately do you think some local county treasurer might be able to guess the cost of an interest rate swap for his local school system? Answer: he'd probably do about as well as you or I would, guessing the odds on a Croatian soccer match.
The big banks know this, which is why there should never, everbe non-competitive bids for those sorts of financial services. In a sole-source contract for a swap deal, you're trusting a (probably corrupt) Too-Big-To-Fail bank to give you a good deal for a product whose price is not publicly listed anywhere.
There have been numerous investigations and lawsuits across the world connected with this sort of systematic overcharging, from Erie, Pennsylvania to the notorious Jefferson County, Alabama case, to Milan, Italy (which sued Chase and four other banks for misleading them about derivative prices).
In the Erie case, Chase recommended to the locals that they hire a financial adviser to review the deal. What they didn't tell the local government was that Chase had paid a fee to this adviser, a firm called Investment Management Advisory Group Inc., or IMAGE. They pulled the same scam with the school district of Butler County, Pennsylvania.
And in the oft-discussed Jefferson County case alone, Chase reportedly overcharged the locals $100 million for the crooked swap deals that, in a completely separate outrage, will probably leave Birmingham bankrupt for the next generation.
All of which is exactly what people like the OWS protesters are complaining about when they talk about greed and excess on Wall Street. Nobody is begrudging a bank's desire to make money, and nobody is saying a bank shouldn't be allowed to make money, even a lot of money, performing legitimate services for the state and the taxpayer.
But when you put a thumb on the scale in a financial services contract, the costs start to get outrageous very quickly. The banks would still do a very crisp, almost effortlessly lucrative business if they just stuck to submitting competitive bids for legitimate work but instead of that, they for some reason have to game the system, grease politicians, rig bids, and stick the taxpayer with overpriced products. Which sucks, of course. Hopefully politicians will catch on and go the Massachusetts route more often.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blo...z1htfxr0sC

[Peter Lemkin]

Shedding a little light on how rich Congress is and is getting richer by the minute.

[Peter Lemkin]

[Peter Lemkin]

Lawrence O'Donnell called for the New York Police Department to fire certain officers who he called "thugs with badges," on his MSNBC show Wednesday night. O'Donnell was referring to officers who violated the force's "non-interference" order during altercations with members of the press who were covering Occupy Wall Street in mid-November.

According to a Capital New York article, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly reissued the NYPD's "non-interference" order, after multiple New York news organizations complained about the treatment of journalists who were covering Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in November.

As the NYPD cleared Zuccotti Park of protesters, officers prohibited journalists from entering the area, therefore prohibiting them from covering the story. Members of the press tweeted "media blackout," and others who tried to get passed officers said they were "roughed up" by officers' heavy hands.

Days later, some journalists were beaten and arrested when they tried to cover Occupy Wall Street protesters. O'Donnell reread the order, which was reportedly reread to all officers in the force.

Members of the service who unreasonably interfere with media access to incidents or who intentionally prevent or obstruct the photographing or videotaping of news in public places will be subject to disciplinary action. Members of the service will not interfere with the videotaping or photographing of incidents in public places. Intentional interference constitutes censorship. Media access to demonstrations on private property will not be impeded by the Department unless an owner or representative indicates press is not permitted. The media will be given access as close to the activity as possible with a clear line of site and within hearing range of the incident.

O'Donnell described the only way he believed the police force should deal "with the outlaw cops who willfully or ignorantly violate" the "non-interference" order. "They must be fired...The NYPD could fire every one of the thugs with badges who have attacked reporters this year and not miss them for a minute," O'Donnell said.

He added, "the actual, real crime rate would drop instantly because these police criminals would no longer be assaulting and battering the people of New York and New York reporters."

[Peter Lemkin]

Young People More Likely To Favor Socialism Than Capitalism: Pew

The Huffington Post Alexander Eichler Updated: 12/29/11 06:45 PM ET

Young people -- the collegiate and post-college crowd, who have served as the most visible face of the Occupy Wall Street movement -- might be getting more comfortable with socialism. That's the surprising result from a Pew Research Center poll that aims to measure American sentiments toward different political labels.

The poll, published Wednesday, found that while Americans overall tend to oppose socialism by a strong margin -- 60 percent say they have a negative view of it, versus just 31 percent who say they have a positive view -- socialism has more fans than opponents among the 18-29 crowd. Forty-nine percent of people in that age bracket say they have a positive view of socialism; only 43 percent say they have a negative view.

And while those numbers aren't very far apart, it's noteworthy that they were reversed just 20 months ago, when Pew conducted a similar poll. In that survey, published May 2010, 43 percent of people age 18-29 said they had a positive view of socialism, and 49 percent said their opinion was negative.

It's not clear why young people have evidently begun to change their thinking on socialism. In the past several years, the poor economy has had any number of effects on young adults -- keeping them at home with their parents, making it difficult for them to get jobs, and likely depressing their earning potential for years to come -- that might have dampened enthusiasm for the free market among this crowd.

Indeed, the Pew poll also found that just 46 percent of people age 18-29 have positive views of capitalism, and 47 percent have negative views -- making this the only age group where support for socialism outweighs support for capitalism.

Young people have also been among the most involved in the nationwide Occupy movement, whose members have leveled pointed criticism at the capitalist ethos and often called for a more equal distribution of American wealth.

In general, income inequality -- which a Congressional Budget Office report recently pointed out is at historic levels -- has received more and more attention in politics and the media since the Occupy movement launched in mid-September. Usage of the term rose dramatically in news coverage following the start of the protests, and politicians from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to President Barack Obama have used the movement's language to describe divisions in the American public.

Still, the nationwide Occupy demonstrations notwithstanding, socialism doesn't score very well in other age groups in the Pew poll, or across other demographic categories.

Pew broke down its results by age, race, income and political affiliation, as well as support for the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements. There were only two other groups among whom socialism's positives outweighed its negatives -- blacks, who say they favor socialism 55 to 36 percent, and liberal Democrats, who say they favor socialism 59 to 39 percent. These were also the only two groups to show net favor for socialism in the 2010 poll.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3440[/ATTACH]Overall ratings of terms by all ages and groups.
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...and not directly related [but tangentially] from one of the staff of the Guardian, this: 'Last week, in the wake of David Cameron wielding his veto in Brussels, I was dispatched to tour the West Midlands and sample the views of the public. When I asked one woman whether we should stay in the EU or get out, her answer said it all. "Doesn't make a scrap of difference anyway," she said. "The country's fucked." Such is the spirit of the age.'

[Peter Lemkin]

Fighting The Good Fight
By Norman Lear

December 30, 2011
I was recently shown a picture from one of the Occupy protests taking place across the country. It featured a young woman surrounded by police. She was the only protester in the picture, but she didn't seem intimidated. All by herself, up against the police barricade, she held a handwritten sign saying simply "I am a born again American."

I've never met this woman, but I think I know exactly what she's feeling.

I had my first "born again American" moment 30 years ago, when I was moved to outrage and action by a group of hate-preaching televangelists who were trying to claim sole ownership of patriotism, faith and flag for the far right. One of them asked his viewing congregation to pray for the removal of a Supreme Court justice.

I did what I knew how to do and produced a 60-second TV spot. It featured a factory worker whose family members, all Christians, held an array of political beliefs. He didn't believe that anyone, not even a minister, had a right to judge whether people were good or bad Christians based on their political views. "That's not the American way," he wound up saying. I ran it on local TV, and it was picked up by the networks. People For the American Way grew out of the overwhelming response to that ad.

One of the most encouraging things to happen in 2011 was the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is giving the entire country the chance for a "born again American" moment. In calling attention to the country's widening chasm between rich and poor, the Occupiers have unleashed decades of pent-up patriotic outrage against the systematic violation of our nation's core principles by the "say good-bye to the middle class" alliance of the neocons, theocons and corporate America.

To those many millions of Americans whose guts tell them the Occupy movement is on to something but aren't the sort to camp out or protest in the street, I say find another way to let your voice be heard in the new year. Work with others who share your passion for equal opportunity and equal justice for all Americans, and find ways to channel outrage into productive action. I'm betting you'll find, as I have over my nearly four score plus 10, that you'll form some of the most rewarding relationships and have some of the most meaningful experiences of your life.

I have been lucky in many ways. I was raised by my immigrant grandfather to treasure the freedom and opportunities America offers. I also learned early to fear the power of demagogues with megaphones, as an 11-year-old listening to the anti-Semitic ravings and attacks on President Franklin D. Roosevelt from radio priest Father Coughlin, the spiritual godfather of those who poison our airwaves and online forums today. By the time I was a teenager, I knew that the values of individual and religious liberty were worth fighting for, which is why I dropped out of college to enlist in the war against Hitler.

Since then I have repeatedly seen Americans get off their couches to hold this country accountable to its stated values. They did it to fight for civil rights and the dismantling of the legal apartheid of Jim Crow; for the women's movement; for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. They have rallied to ensure that immigrants are treated with dignity and justice. All these efforts to overcome bigotry and institutionalized prejudice are still works in progress, but I am awed by the progress we have made.

Generations of Americans have worked to create a nation in which individual liberty can thrive alongside commitment to the principle that all members of a community should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and build a decent life for themselves and their families. In recent decades, that dream has been betrayed.

The religious right leaders who got me engaged in politics often portray such things as free expression and equal protection for all Americans no matter their race, religion or sexual orientation as anti-Christian and un-American, as symptoms of cultural decline. I couldn't disagree more. What strikes me as un-American are the greed, deception and systematic corruption that have infected politics, business and so much of our culture in recent years. Some of those with power and privilege have worked to create a system that continually reinforces that privilege and power, leaving ever-increasing numbers of Americans without reasonable hope for the kind of life their parents worked to give them.

Many Americans are in despair, and it has left them open to demagoguery and political manipulation. Blame gays, liberals, unions, immigrants or feminists for your family's struggles, for shrinking economic opportunity, for foreclosures and disappearing wages and benefits. Blame secularists or Muslims, or both, for the sense that our values have gone haywire.

A year out from the 2012 election, I am already tired of those who use the phrase "American exceptionalism" to reassert the far-right's claim that God, the Founding Fathers and any decent freedom-loving American must share their reactionary political agenda. I embrace the idea too that our nation should be a "shining city on a hill." We are the spiritual heirs to those Americans who struggled to end slavery and segregation, to end child labor and win safe conditions and living wages for workers, to enable every American to enrich his or her community and country by finding a place and a way to flourish in the world. We must make ourselves worthy of that legacy.

Call it the American dream, the American promise or the American way. Whatever term you use, it is imperiled, and worth fighting for. It is that basic, deeply patriotic emotion that I believe is finding expression bottom-up, small-d democratic expression in the Occupy movement. We can, and I would say must, fully embrace both love of country and outrage at attempts to despoil it. What better cause? What better time?

Television writer and producer Norman Lear founded People for the American Way.

[Peter Lemkin]

[URL="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/30/scott_olsen_us_vet_wounded_at"]Video HERE.
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JUAN GONZALEZ: As we broadcast our last show of 2011, we turn to someone who became one of the faces of the global Occupy movement. His name is Scott Olsen. While his name made headlines around the globe this past year, his voice has seldom been heard.

Just over two months ago, on October 25th, the 24-year-old Iraq war veteran was taking part in a protest in defense of the Occupy Oakland encampment. By the time the night ended, Olsen was hospitalized in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain swelling. He had been shot in the head by a police projectile while the police were firing bean bags and tear gas to clear the Occupy protesters.

At the time of the shooting Olsen, who served two deployments in Iraq, was wearing military fatigues and a Veterans for Peace T-shirt. Moments after he was shot, police fired a bright flash grenade at a group of Occupy protesters who attempted to help treat him. Soon after that, the protesters carried him away as blood streamed down his face.

PROTESTER 1: Medic!

PROTESTER 2: We need a medic! Medic! Medic!

PROTESTER 3: What happened? What happened?

PROTESTER 2: He got [bleep] shot!

PROTESTER 3: What's your name? What's your name?

PROTESTER 2: What's your name?

PROTESTER 4: Dude, wake up!

PROTESTER 3: What's your name?

PROTESTER 4: What's your name?

PROTESTER 5: Can you say anything? Medic!

AMY GOODMAN: Video and images from that evening in Oakland were soon broadcast around the world. Protests condemning the police use of force were held from New York to the Bay Area. The attack galvanized the Occupy movement in Oakland. Within a week, a general strike temporarily shut down the Oakland ports. Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace condemned the shooting of one of their own members.

But during this time, Scott Olsen remained hospitalized, unable to speak for days. Scott was released from the hospital mid-November, but the recovery process is only just beginning. Scott Olsen now joins us from a studio in San Francisco.

Scott, welcome to Democracy Now! It's great to have you with us.

SCOTT OLSEN: Good morning, Amy. It's great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you remember that day, what led up to those moments?

SCOTT OLSEN: Yeah, I remember almost the whole day. After work, I got off at five to six, and I went over to Occupy Oakland because I heard that they needed support over there, that they werethey had been removed from their camp. And then, so I went over there, and I met up with another Veterans for Peace member who I knew already, Josh. He was the one in the Navy blues standing next to me. So I was standing next to him, and then I stepped away for a while, and next thing I know, I'm on the ground. My left side was turned towards the cops, and that's where I got hit, right here.

And I woke up sooner on the ground and was being carried away by all these people. And I didn't want tonecessarily want them to take me away, because I didn't think that I was injured all that bad at the time. So, once they asked me my name over and over, and I couldn't muster up an answer of any sort, I knew that that wasn't the case, and I knew that they should take me away.

AMY GOODMAN: When we couldn't talk to you, Scott, I interviewed Jesse Palmer, the memberone of the other members of Occupy Oakland. And I wanted to play for you his description of what happened that night that your skull was fractured.

JESSE PALMER: It was about 7:45. People had marched at 5:00, and by the point that the first tear gas and concussion grenades were used, people had been marching for over two hours. At the time, there was a large group of people standing at 14th and Broadway, which is the intersection right in downtown Oakland closest to Oscar Grant Plaza. The police had given an order to disperse, but there was no aggressive behavior towards the police. It was basically just a standoff. People were standing around.

All of a sudden, you know, in just an instant, with no real warning, concussion grenades went off and tear gas canisters went off all around us. I was right in the middle of the intersection, and it was very shocking, because you just heard the explosions in every direction all around you. Most of the crowd I was with proceeded north on Broadway, but people went in every direction. The other two intersections, people left.

At that time, I didn't see that Scott had been struck. And in fact the tear gas makes it very hard for you to see. You can't see. So people fell back about a half a block down Broadway, then somebody said that somebody had been hurt. And so, a number of people ran back up into the tear gas. And he was lying on the sidewalk, and there were a couple of medics already with him, and they said, "We need to get him farther out," because it was very very unsafe at that location. And so, we picked him up, and we carried him about a block, around the corner from where they could safely work on him.

AMY GOODMAN: What exactly was his condition as you tried, with others, to carry him?

JESSE PALMER: So, we picked him up, and my initialI told him, "You're going to be OK. My name's Jesse. Can you tell me your name?" because I knew it was a terrifying situation, and I wanted to comfort him. But he didn't respond at all. His eyes were open. He just stared blankly. And that was when I realized. You know, there was blood coming out ofit was a little hard to say, but his eyes, his mouth, his nose, there was a lot of blood on his face. And it was a terrifying, you know, moment. I mean, he was alive, and we didn't know how badly he was hurt. And he didn't speak back to me. And I tried a few times, because I thought, "Oh, he'll be able to speak back." And he never spoke. We got him around the sidewalk, and then there werethe medics said they were EMTs, and they had experience. So that was when I left. But heyeah, he was seriously hurt.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Jesse Palmer describing what happened that night. Now Oakland officials say that they're hiring a team ofor they've appointed a team of outside investigators who will look into the use of force by police after they cleared the city's Occupy encampment. Mayor Jean Quan was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the raid and the evening protest that took place, but she's reviewed the video. And among those who are going to be included in this are the LAPD Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann, San Jose Deputy Chief Don Anders, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Richard Cashdollar, the former executive director of the public safety for Mobile, Alabama. Scott Olsen, does that satisfy you, a commission being appointed to investigate the violence at Occupy Oakland?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, they can appoint all the commissions they may want. I expect the truth to come out from them, but I'm not too hopeful that awell, I mean, look at the makeup of thethis new committee that they appointed. They're all former police. And we know how that has sometimes worked in the past. You know, they're an all-boys club, and I don't know if they'll be subjective or objective.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Scott, I'd like to get a better sense of you and how you got to Occupy Wall Street. How long had you been there? What brought you there? And my understanding is you had also previously been also atin Wisconsin, in the protests in Wisconsin. Could you talk about that?

SCOTT OLSEN: Sure. Well, early in the year, I went up to Madison. I was living a couple hours away, and I went up there the day I heard that the senators left the state. That was the budget repair bill. So I was up there for a couple weekends, even while I had a job. And I went up there, and I participated in it. And when I initially heard about Occupy coming up, before it started, it seemed like something that might have the same type of energy involved, and I thought it was almost like a continuation of what happened at Wisconsin. And I wanted to get involved with it and make it successful. So thatso that's what got me involved. And I was here at San Francisco's first Occupy on September 17th, I think, and then a couple weeks later, I started camping almost full-time.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how soon after you returned from Iraq did you start getting involved in the protest movement? And how did your two tours of duty in Iraq influence you or affect your thinking on these issues?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, I mean, the Wisconsin protests that I talked about earlier were probably my first protests that I went to of that nature. But after I got out of the military, spentI would spend a lot of my time just getting my life together, trying to get abuild my life, get a job. And I spent a lot of time educating myself and doing a lot of reading also.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to break and then come back to this discussion. Scott Olsen is with us on this last 2011 broadcast of Democracy Now!, served two tours of duty in Iraq, was born in Wisconsin, where he grew up, member of Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War. He's wearing a neck brace and a headband. He was hit by a projectile on October 25th, standing in front of police at Occupy Oakland. After we finish speaking with Scott, we'll be talking with Richard Cohen about the massive protests that are rocking MoscowStephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies at New York University. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is Scott Olsen, served two tours of duty in Iraq, grew up in Wisconsin, went home to Wisconsin, participated in the Madison protests, and then came out to the Bay Area, where he was involved in Occupy San Francisco and then went to Occupy Oakland, where he was hit by a police projectile on October 25th which fractured his skull. Actually, Scott, do you know who shot that projectile at you?

SCOTT OLSEN: I don't. The question is up in the air. I don't know particularly who, but there is no doubt that it came from the police, because of thewhere I was standing. I was standing with one side, my left side, towards the police, and there was a small gap right there. And I'm not sure who it was, and no one has come upfront with that.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, one of the more horrifying pictures at that time, when people, who didn't know you, came up to you after the pepper spray, tear gas cleared, and they saw someone was down, you were laying right in front of the police line. The police didn't break the line to help you. You were laying there bloodied. But young people came back, and they were asking who you were. They were trying to pick you up. And then they were hit by a flashbang grenade. So they had to back up, because they were so shocked by it. And then they came back again to try to help you and then carried you away. Do you rememberthis is what we see in the video and the photos at the time. Do you remember that period?

SCOTT OLSEN: I don'tI don't really remember the flashbang going off or that. I remember people coming and then going and then coming back again. But I meanbut what they did with that is just unbelievable, that they would terrorize people from coming to help me. And the police themselves were supposed to be providing medical care for when they use chemical agents.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Scott, I'd like to get back again to the time that you spent in Iraq, because we so often see these sensational events, but we don't really get an idea of what brings people to make the decision to participate in them or to stand up in one way or another. What was it about your experience in Iraq that made you decide you had to go tofirst to Wisconsin, your first protest, as you said, that you had ever participated in, and then to Occupy Oakland?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, basically, it was justI didn't reallyI went over there, and I didn't see what we were doing as a nation, as a military. I didn't see that we were actually helping these people. I wasn't convinced. And it was a slowyou know, a slow process throughout my time of being there. I can't really point to any one or two specific incidents which would clarify that, but

AMY GOODMAN: You

SCOTT OLSEN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: You went back. You served two tours of duty.

SCOTT OLSEN: Yeah, yeah, I wentI went again. And at this time, I was mostly, more or less, opposed to the war, but I thought it would be best to stick with the Marines that I was with and that I had under my charge and that I was responsible for at the time.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what about the otheryour fellow soldiers in the units that you were stationed with? How did they feel about the war?

SCOTT OLSEN: You know, it's really not a topic that comes up much very often among active-duty soldiers or Marines. It wasn't something that I talked with my peers with. We were there, and we were there to do a job. And that was kind of theyou know, the mindset.

AMY GOODMAN: Scott, as we travel around the country to Occupy encampments, there are veterans everywhere in these encampments. One of the Iraq War vets that you have been standing up for, speaking out for, is Bradley Manning. You, too, were interested in computers. Can you talk about whether you knew him, why Bradley Manning is important to you, who is now facing a court-martial, facing life in prison, possibly death, accused for leaking documents and videos when he was in Iraq, uploading them to WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website?

SCOTT OLSEN: Yeah. Bradley Manning, I didn't know him until he hit the news. And as soon as I heard about him, as soon as I saw the documents that he leaked, or allegedly leaked, I could see myself almost in his shoes, because Iyou know, I, when I was in the Marine Corps, I had access to many of the same types of files. And, you know, if I wanted to, I could have gone up and got them, andbut I didn't see any that, you know, were particularlypointed to any particular crimes. But he came across a lot. And what he did isthat's true heroism. I mean, he faced up against a real enemy. And I think that those documents also tie in with what we are seeing today with this global awakening, with all this information, has been another pile on top of the tinder that's sparked Occupy, that's sparked the Arab Spring. It's played into that, as well.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And Scott, in the days after you were so seriously injured, you became the face of the Occupy movement around the country and around the world. Were you surprised by the outpouring, the rage of your fellow occupiers at what had happened, and also the attention that was given to your case?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, kind of was surprised, because I'm not the first case of police brutality since Occupy, since 10 years ago, since whenever. But I'm glad that maybe me getting hurt sparked enough attention, and it got people involved to see that there is such a problem, that it is going on and that it continues to go on, even in our country. And I think the fact that it was, you know, me, a veteran, who got hit wearing my uniform took a big toll on people's minds. And they thought, you know, this is what we're doing to our veterans now. And I think that's what was kind of responsible for the outrage a little more.

AMY GOODMAN: IVAW, Iraq Veterans Against the War's membership has gone up something like fivefold since being involved with the Occupy movement. We're also speaking to you on this last daythe last days of 2011, when most U.S. soldiers are pulled out of Iraq. What are your thoughts about the end of the official war, U.S. involvement in Iraq?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, the end of it officially, it's

AMY GOODMAN: Looks like we just lost Scott Olsen. He's back on.

SCOTT OLSEN: can't help but think, what have we won? Like, what did we win? There's nothingnothing to look back on and think that we were victorious or that anyone benefited anywhere from our involvement in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: Scott, in the days after your skull was fractured, you couldn't speak. You are wearing a neck brace, a headband. How is your rehabilitation going, and what does it involve?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, my rehab has been going quite well. The neck brace is because I broke a neck vertebrae when I was injured, and I'm still recovering from that. And my speech is getting a lot better. I've been going to speech therapy typically once a week. And, you know, I'm satisfied with the progress I've been making. And I think that I am still recovering, and I will continue to get better, but I do feel very much stronger than when I look back at how I was when I first woke up in the hospital. I've made amazing progress, I think.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the way that the Oakland police and authorities dealt with the protest, not only on that day, but in subsequent days, trying to clear thefirst supporting the protesters, then clearing it, then allowing them back in, then clearing them again. The mayor there, Jean Quan, who has a liberal or even radical history, received a lot criticism for the way she handled the occupation. Your thoughts on how authorities dealt with you?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, I don't think that they're respectingfirst and foremost, they're not respecting our right to assemble and to protest and to redress our government for grievances. They're not allowing us to do that. They'reby the tactics they're using, they arein effect, they're terrorizing some of us from going out at all. You know, you look at me. This is at least the worst that could happen to you if you go out to one of these. And that's a sad statement for our country.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Scott, as you sit here talking to us, as you are being rehabilitated here, you could be any veteran of the war, any soldier who has returned who's been injured, but you were not injured in Iraq. You were injured here in the United States after you returned home. What are your plans, after all that you've been through, as a Marine in Iraq, increasingly becoming antiwar, coming to this country, then participating in the protests in Wisconsin, where your family lives, then coming out to the Bay Area? Has it changed your path in life?

SCOTT OLSEN: Well, it certainly has. It's made me who I am today. Everything from being in the Marine Corps to being involved with Occupy to going through this injury has all made me who I am today. And I'm going to use that in the future to effect even more change and toyou know, I look forward to being a part of the 99 percent here in 2012, being a part of IVAW here in 2012. But I'm also maybe looking forward to returning to work part-time and maybe starting my old life again soon and see how that goes for me.

AMY GOODMAN: Scott Olsen, thanks so much for being with us. Scott Olsen, a Marine, served two tours of duty in Iraq, came back to this country, on October 25th was standing in front of police at Occupy Oakland and was hit by a projectile. It fractured his skull. Thanks so much for being with us, and best to you.
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[Peter Lemkin]