by Rachel Allshiny

Occupy Wall Street has hit the streets of New York in force once again. This time, instead of protesting the symbiotic relationship between big banks and politics, they are organizing relief efforts in the hardest-hit areas of the city in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

In the immediate aftermath of the super storm, Occupy Wall Street activists began coordinating aid to those in need in conjunction with climate activist group 350.org and recovers.org – a site that offers tools for organizing disaster relief within affected communities. This effort, dubbed “Occupy Sandy,” combines the organizational power, established communication network, and autonomous agility of the Occupy movement to provide direct relief where it is needed the most. Occupy Sandy not only connects those who are able to donate supplies or volunteer their time with those looking for aid, but also fills in the gaps in services that organizations with non-profit status are not able to provide. For example, one recent Facebook post shows a photo of shopping carts full of perishable food that is unusable by Red Hook Initiative due to sanitation codes and the community center’s 501c3 status. The caption recommends picking the food up to redistribute “DIY style,” thus circumventing a frustrating technicality.

Remarkably, the Occupy Sandy effort is not limited to the hardcore Occupy activists who camped in Zuccotti Park and were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. The immediacy of the situation at hand and the speed at which Occupy networks were able to mobilize has drawn new recruits into a movement that had recently been losing steam.

Jeremiah Birnbaum, of Astoria, describes himself as apolitical and lives in a collective house with several activists, including some involved with Occupy Wall Street, but is not personally involved with the movement. He joined up with Occupy Sandy as a way to offer immediate help to those in need, particularly in poor communities that are often overlooked. “We asked: Who is not being helped?” Birnbaum explained in a phone interview. “I could have gone to Red Cross and done two hours of training, or I could help people right now.” He is working to coordinate efforts on the ground, matching abilities and resources to meet needs within the community, especially for those without access to the internet or social networking sites.

Birnbaum further described the process of contacting the city or other relief organizations as rife with red tape. “The bureaucracy is insane,” he said. When residents were unable to get in touch with ConEd about getting power restored to a nearby housing project, they turned instead to the Recovers.org network. When delivering the first round of donations to the stricken building, Birnbaum was asked specifically for less clothing and more lighting so that residents could get around the pitch-dark building. He immediately sent a text message asking his partner, who was at home, to request donations of flashlights, batteries, and candles through the local website they’d set up, providing his home address as a drop-off point. By the time he arrived home 15 minutes later, nearly 100 flashlights had been delivered. “I was stunned,” he admitted. “People have been given the ability to help.”

That, ultimately, may be the power of Occupy Wall Street moving forward; Restoring power to the people with their ability to organize and mobilize in a way that empowers individuals to make change within their own communities. “People ask me, are you from the Red Cross?” Birnbaum says. “We tell them no, we’re your neighbors, and we’re here to help you.” This is where a leaderless, horizontal movement can shine. As Birnbaum puts it, “There’s been this organic network created, and it works. It’s time to get away from process to focus on taking action.” Whether or not he will participate in future protests remains to be seen, but working with Occupy Sandy has initiated him into the Occupy community. “It’s made me appreciate what Occupy has been doing behind the scenes for the past year.”

Resources available for coordinating relief efforts through Occupy Sandy include a Google doc volunteer sign-up sheet, a donations page, and recovers.org pages for the communities of Staten Island, Red Hook, Astoria, and the Lower East Side. You can follow @OccupySandy on Twitter or search related hashtags, such as #SandyAid and #SandyVolunteer. You can “Like” the Occupy Sandy Facebook page or even sign up for text alerts by texting “occupysandy” to 23559.

All these resources and more have been collected on an Occupy Sandy hub by InterOccupy.

Photos by Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI), Julia C. Reinhart (@juliacreinhart), and @an0nyc.

by Shotgun Suicide

Today is a sad day for all of us metal-heads. It was announced this afternoon that Mitch Lucker, the lead singer of Suicide Silence, had passed away this morning due to injuries that he sustained during a motorcycle accident that occurred on Halloween night.

His band mates posted on Facebook today saying:

“There’s no easy way to say this. Mitch passed away earlier this morning from injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident. This is completely devastating to all of us and we offer our deepest condolences to his family. He will be forever in our hearts.

R.I.P. Mitchell Adam Lucker – We Love You Brother”

It’s hard to believe that we will never get to toss each other around in a mosh-pit to the sound of his voice again, especially considering that he was still in his 20s.

Three pig squeals for a man never forgotten!

“Breee, breee, breee.”

Rest in Peace Mitch.

by Greg Palast

For Mitt Romney, it’s one scary Halloween. The Presidential candidate has just learned that tomorrow afternoon (November 1) he will be charged by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and other public interest groups with violating the federal ethics in government law by improperly concealing his multi-million dollar windfall from the auto industry bailout.

At a press conference in Toledo, Bob King, President of the United Automobile Workers, will announce that his union and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics in Washington stating that Gov. Romney improperly hid a profit of $15.3 million to $115.0 million in Ann Romney’s so-called “blind” trust.

The union chief says, “The American people have a right to know about Gov. Romney’s potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue. It’s time for Gov. Romney to disclose or divest.”

“While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation’s most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others,” King added.

The Romneys’ gigantic windfall was hidden inside an offshore corporation inside a limited partnership inside a trust which both concealed the gain and reduces taxes on it.

The Romneys’ windfall was originally exposed in The Nation magazine – see “Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza” – after a worldwide investigation by our crew at The Guardian, the Nation Institute and the Palast Investigative Fund.

The full story of Romney and his “vulture fund” partners is in the New York Times bestseller, “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,” available from Truthout with a contribution by clicking here.

According to ethics law expert Dr. Craig Holman of Public Citizen, who advised on the complaint, Ann Romney does not have a federally-approved blind trust. An approved “blind” trust may not be used to hide a major investment which could be affected by Romney if he were to be elected President. Other groups joining the UAW and CREW include Public Citizen, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Public Campaign, People for the American Way and The Social Equity Group.

President Obama’s approved trust, for example, contains only highly-diversified mutual funds on which presidential action can have little effect. By contrast, the auto bail-out provided a windfall of over 4,000% on one single Romney investment.

In 2009, Ann Romney partnered with her husband’s key donor, billionaire Paul Singer, who secretly bought a controlling interest in Delphi Auto, the former GM auto parts division. Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, threatened to cut off GM’s supply of steering columns unless GM and the government’s TARP auto bailout fund provided Delphi with huge payments. While the US treasury complained this was “extortion,” the hedge funds received, ultimately, $12.9 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

As a result, the shares Singer and Romney bought for just 67 cents are today worth over $30, a 4,000% gain. Singer’s hedge fund made a profit of $1.27 billion and the Romney’s tens of millions.

The UAW complaint calls for Romney to reveal exactly how much he made off Delphi – and continues to make. The Singer syndicate, once in control of Delphi, eliminated every single UAW job – 25,000 – and moved almost all auto parts production to Mexico and China where Delphi now employs 25,000 auto parts workers.

A version of this story originally appeared on Buzzflash. Forensic Economist Greg Palast’s investigative reports can be seen on BBC Television. His latest New York Times bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, contains a comic book by Ted Rall and chapters by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

[..]

by Laurelin

There are moments in life when nothing has changed, yet all of a sudden everything is perfect. As I walk down the street from my house – the same street I walk every day with my head down – I suddenly look up and notice the leaves have changed colors and the sky is perfect. The wind blows and a single leaf falls into my outstretched hand, Tori Amos’s “Gold Dust” is playing on my iPhone, and I feel silly for being upset about such simple things when there is so much beauty in the world (“and then you’ll understand, we held gold dust in our hands…”). There are some songs you just remember, the songs you equate with moments, the songs that from that time forward will always remind you of autumn.

Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted” came through my ear buds on the way home from the bar one night two years ago on Boylston Street. I had met someone, our eyes connecting from across the bar, and after flickering away and back again a few times we wound up chatting; At the end of the night I had a new phone number in my phone and a smile on my face. She sang, “All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you, this night is sparkling, don’t you let it go, I’m wonderstruck, blushing all the way home.” And I was so hopeful, proudly wearing my newly blushing cheeks.

Ellie Goulding’s “Guns and Horses” reminds me of a year old summer fling, a boy who I would have done anything for after we broke up, even though I knew he and I never should have worked in the first place. He got a new girlfriend not long after our relationship ended, and I was devastated. His new girlfriend eventually broke up with him and it was his turn to be sad, and that’s probably why he and I started sleeping together again. I clung to those drunken nights with him, and always on the way home alone the next morning Ellie sang, “But I wish I could feel it all for you, I wish I could be it all for you, if I could erase the pain maybe you’d feel the same, I’d do it all for you, I would.” I wished so badly that he would choose me. He never did.

Oceanlab’s “Satellite,” while an upbeat electronic song, still makes me impossibly sad. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting to find different results. After being left not once, not twice, but three times by this abusive punk rock loser, I finally pulled what was left of my own self from the wreckage and managed to walk away with some shreds of my own personality and dignity left to cultivate and finally nurse back to full health. Each time I hear that beat and “You’re half a world away, but in my mind I whisper every single word you say,” I can’t help but cringe and remember the eight years when every day was spent feeling so hopeless and alone I could have just ceased to exist.

Taylor Swift’s “I Almost Do” has been on repeat as of late, and in my current state of mind I find myself reaching for the phone, wanting to reach out to someone and then remembering that I shouldn’t waste my time on people who don’t care. I delete his number and I feel foolish for wasting my time, silly for believing the things that came out of his mouth when I was as disposable as a Styrofoam coffee cup, only useful until you’ve sucked the last drop from the depths. It starts after I lock up the bar at 3 AM and I’m walking home alone as the city sleeps. “I bet this time of night you’re still up, I bet you’re tired from a long hard week, I bet you’re sitting in your chair by the window looking out at the city and I bet sometimes you wonder about me. And I just want to tell you it takes everything in me not to call you… every time I don’t, I almost do..”

I almost do. But I don’t, and I quicken my pace and I tuck the leaf that fell into my palm in the pocket of my black leather jacket. The wind picks up and I turn my head back towards the ground.

[..]

by Sandor Stern

Dear Republican Friends,

Regarding Your Hostility Towards President Obama…

I know you claim the hostility arises from his “failed four years in office” – but really? I grant you there wasn’t much publically aired hostility when he ran for the Democratic nomination. No one gave him much chance against Hilary Clinton; but once he won the nomination – boy did the knives come out.

He was accused of being foreign born and therefore ineligible to be president. His birth certificate from the state of Hawaii was deemed inadequate because it was a short form – the same form given out to every baby born in that state. His birth announcement published in the Honolulu newspaper on August 4, 1961 was decried as a hoax, a forgery, or (for some of your wing nuts) a conspiracy established at his birth. Despite the Christian religion he shared with his mother and grandparents, his marriage to a Christian woman and the church they both attended with their baptized daughters, he was branded a Muslim. Even his opponent, John McCain, could not stomach the lies and corrected an addled old woman at one of his rallies who called Obama a Muslim. And the internet was flooded with racist jokes. One that arrived on my computer I recall vividly: “Obama has chosen his vice president. He is Sylvester Stallone. From now on they will be addressed as Rambo and Sambo.”

This was the hostility accorded Barak Obama before he even won the presidency. Since then the questions about his birth and his religion have continued and grown louder as the election of 2012 loomed.

There were so-called learned men who postulated that his years living in Kenya and Indonesia from ages 4 to 10 left him with an anti-colonial outlook, which was not in keeping with a truly American view of the world. When President Obama addressed a joint session of congress on September 9, 2009, South Carolina Congressman, Joe Wilson, shouted, “You lie.” Congressional Republican Speaker, Jon Boehner, on August 31, 2011 became the first speaker in history to tell a sitting president that he would not be permitted to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on the date specifically requested by the White House.

During the run up to the Republican presidential nomination, the hostility broke the sound barrier. On January 25th, 2012, Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer confronted the president on his arrival in her state with a well televised angry finger in his face. Can you imagine anyone doing that to any previous president? And can you imagine any previous president facing the following attacks?

Newt Gingrich referred to this president as “the most successful food stamp president in American history” and during a November 23rd Republican debate mentioned the President’s name seven times without ever referring to him as President Obama – and was joined in that omission by the other two candidates.

Kansas House Speaker, Mike O’Neil publically cited a Bible verse calling for President Obama to be killed, his wife to be widowed and his children to be orphaned. This is the same man who forwarded an e-mail to state house republicans referring to the First Lady as “Mrs. Yo Mamma.”

Marilyn Davenport, an elected member of the Orange County, California Republican Central Committee in April of 2011, forwarded her own e-mail that included a doctored photo of the President and his parents as monkeys.

Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn said during a radio interview that he didn’t “even want to have to be associated with.. (President Obama). It’s like touching a tar baby.”

Donald Trump renewed the birther fantasy with his high profile pronouncements about sending investigators to Hawaii to dig up the hidden evidence. When that didn’t pan out, he followed up with an offer to send a $5 million donation to a charity of the President’s choice if he would release his college records and his passport application; a heavy handed way of questioning his birth and his qualifications to attend college. Even Trump’s suggested list of charities promoted his racist bias – the president could choose “inner city children in Chicago” (read African-American) or AIDS research (let’s be reminded of his attitude towards gays).

Ann Coulter tweeted after the foreign policy debate that she approved of “Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard” and Sarah Palin weighed in with the racially demeaning phrase of “shuck and jive.”

And then there’s Romney’s campaign co-chair John Sununu, who told Piers Morgan in an interview on October 24th that Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Obama was motivated by racial kinship. This is the same Sununu who previously stated that the President needed to “learn how to be an American” and, following the President’s performance in the first debate, referred to him as “lazy.” If you think that his word is innocent, think of any Caucasian president being labeled with that word? The unspoken adjunct is “shiftless.”

If you believe all of this is simply loose cannons within your party, let me remind you that unlike McCain – who stood up against racism in 2008 – Romney has not disavowed either Trump or Sununu. So please, stop the charade of pretending that your hostility towards President Obama is policy based. This is not about policy; this is personal – and ugly. To quote Justice Welch – who presided over another ugly chapter in American history, the Army-McCarthy Hearings on June 9, 1954, which confronted Senator Joe McCarthy’s lies and deceit – Have you no sense of decency?

The question lingers…

Your inquisitive friend,

Sandy

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Fernanda Suicide in The Red Couch

• INTO: Yes, everyone loves party…But that’s not all in life!!! I love to read a good book, to watch a good movie…to lose my time just doing silly things with my friends or feed my brain with something new…Design is my passion, to read, my hobby.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: My friends, my family, rain, dancing, and LOVE makes me happy…Oh, and chocolates!
• MAKES ME SAD: Any kind of cruelty…Wars!!! When my beloved ones are sad 🙁
• HOBBIES: Reading, designing, painting.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: My laptop, chocolates, my family, my friends, and MUSIC!
• VICES: I used to smoke a lot, now I smoke like 1-2 cigars per week. I’m trying to quit – I really am.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Breathing.

Get to know Fernanda better over at SuicideGirls.com!