For Occupy movements, "the point is to speak out, be heard and shed frustration in public"

Occupy Denver: Man in a hat reads his words and we amplify them

Occupy Wall Street is but three weeks old and Occupy sites are sprouting across America. I was at Occupy Denver yesterday to observe and to understand. I was fairly successful with the former and only partially successful with the latter. As I was casting about the web this morning, I came across some columns by Kevin Pinner on death + taxes out of Minneapolis. Minneapolis is a great alternative media city, a progressive city with a strongly Democratic mayor who supports Occupy Minneapolis. As Pinner points out, this outspoken stance is something that Occupy Wall Street lacks, as Mayor Bloomberg is obviously a charter member of the 1% (twelfth richest person in America) and a staunch apologist for Wall Street.

Still, this movement originated on the streets of Wall Street and not on Hennepin Avenue in the Twin Cities or Colfax Avenue in the Mile High City or Center Street in the Oil City of Casper, Wyo. When people gather in those places, they are taking their cue from OWS but it actually originates from a deeper place. Here’s how Pinner describes the many street protests in Greece:

Their causes are diverse, as are the people, which works for them, and can work for Occupy movements, too. The point is to speak out, be heard, and shed frustration in public, where the powers that be can digest it, where police can misbehave: that is part of the non-violent strategy’s power.

I felt that power yesterday in Denver. The point is to speak out, be heard and shed frustration in public. I wasn’t prepared for this. When Chris and I arrived on the State Capitol grounds, people were voicing concerns that covered a thousand topics: Unemployment, income inequality, expensive wars, bloated student loans, Wall Street, and so on. Each phrase that was uttered was repeated by the multitudes. At first that seemed redundant, even silly, until I realized that the speaker was counting on us to serve as his/her megaphone. One young woman spoke about her mom who worked two jobs to feed her and her sister. We all repeated her story loudly and suddenly her words were floating in the humid air above the state’s capitol building. Her story might drop into the consciousness of legislators as they enter the building to do business this coming week. We now knew her story and we might be carrying her story back to our towns and even writing about it on our blogs as I’m doing right now.

I am a veteran of many protests in rallies dating back to Vietnam. I am jaundiced and jaded. When I go to a protest, and because I am a Democrat, I expect to be harangued by an endless array of union reps, anti-war activists, aging Civil Rights marchers, lean-and-mean environmentalists, AIDs activists and so on. These are causes I believe in. These are causes that most Democrats believe in. In fact, the last time I was at a rally on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol, it was the Sunday before the start of the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. Speakers that day included Ron Kovic, Cindy Sheehan and Eldridge Cleaver’s widow. After the third speaker, my brain was fried. I went over to see what the counter-protestors were doing, hoping for some comic relief. I also visited with the young people crafting the puppets for that morning’s march. Later, the permitted march of about 1,000 souls got underway with a Denver Police escort.

The most important protest of the DNC convention happened on Wednesday. Rage Against the Machine played for a large crowd. The band then teamed up with  members of Iraq Veterans Against the War to lead an impromptu march to the convention center. It was a non-permitted march. The L.A. Chief of Police had warned the Denver Chief of Police to expect violence if Rage Against showed up. But the Denver Police took a different approach. They provided an escort for the non-permitted march by 3,000 fired-up young people. If I remember correctly, there were a few pot arrests but nothing serious. I was inside the convention hall, blogging from my seat. I should have been outside covering the march.

But in these “Occupy” days, it isn’t the march that is important. The people speak. Their words are amplified by the rest of us. In this way, we hope to bring about change that we all can believe in.


Read a sampler of Kevin Pinner’s “Occupy” columns here and here.

Is Department of Ed effort to make all employees at-will the start of WY anti-public worker effort?

On Monday, the AP reported that

"the head of the Wyoming Department of Education wants all new hires to be classified as at-will employees who serve without job protections."

At-will state employees usually are in management positions. Nothing particularly wrong with that. They get bigger salaries and take bigger risks. It's much different to try to classify all of your employees as at-will. That means that anyone can be fired at any time for any reason. State employees would have no job protections once they complete the one-year probation in which you can be fired without cause, If all of us are at-will, we could conceivably be fired any time for any reason by any of our superiors.

If this sort of anti-public worker effort looks familiar, that's because it is. Think Wisconsin. Think Minnesota. Think Florida. In fact, think of all those states that were taken over by Repub Govs and Republican-dominated legislatures in 2010. Some (WI) are heavily union states. Some (FL) are so-called Right to Work states. It doesn't seem to matter. If your state got an infusion of Tea Party politicians in 2010, public workers are under the gun.

Wyoming is a so-called Right to Work state. There is a union for public employees but workers don't have to join. On Sunday in the Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming Public Employees Association Director Betty Jo Beardsley noted that there are 1,600 union members throughout the state. This represents a minority of those eligible for union membership. Betty Jo did say that she's had a number of new sign-ups from the Dept. of Ed since January, which is when the wacko 2011 Wyoming State Legislature began its session. That began with a battle over tenure for teachers and their Wyoming Education Association union, with 6,500 members. Some Tea Party Republicans had some less than nice things to say about teachers and other public workers. Cooler heads prevailed and the anti-teacher bills were defeated.

Those bills will be back in the Legislature again, courtesy of right-wing anti-public education groups and other outside agitators such as the American Legislative Education Council (ALEC).

The WEA summed up its success against these Know Nothings with excellent ass-kicking videos by Ron Sniffin. Here's how Ron's vid summed it up:


The Education Legislative Session from Ronald Sniffin on Vimeo.

This time around, public workers will be the target. Cindy Hill's attempts to transform at Dept of Ed jobs to at-will status is the opening salvo.

Bachmann’s Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated And Disciplined’

Bachmann’s Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated And Disciplined’

When trying to figure out where presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) gets her stringent, anti-gay views, you only have to look as far as her husband. Dr. Marcus Bachmann, who has described himself as his wife’s “strategist,” runs a Christian-based counseling center in Minnesota that has been rumored to offer reparative treatment for those looking to “ungay” themselves.

Worth repeating: Closing Netroots Nation speech by MN Rep. Keith Ellison

Tonight CSPAN was replaying its live broadcast from Netroots Nation 11 in Minneapolis. Here's Rep. Keith Ellison's inspiring speech.

Wyoming Progressives -- you are not alone!

One of the most encouraging aspects of Netroots Nation was this: we are not alone. Lots of progressive bloggers out there -- lots of progressives, period! As one speaker said, NN is the annual occasion to recharge and then charge back into the fray at the local level. Netroots bloggers are globally connected but are most effective at acting locally. Where have I heard that before? I learned the tricks of the blogging trade from my fellow bloggers at 4&20 blackbirds and Left in the West in Montana, and from the Kossacks at Daily Kos.

Here's an invitation to progressive bloggers in Wyoming. Get connected with one another. I was a lone wolf for years. I'm a writer, after all, and an independent-minded westerner. Only lately have I started reaching out to my Wyoming brethren and sistren. We need to connect with on another. This blog has a news feed from active WY bloggers such as Out in the West and Blowing in the Wyoming Wind and Equality State Watch.

Next step: start planning for Netroots Nation 12 in Providence, R.I. Democracy for America, America's Voice, Presente and Sojourners. DFA will begin voting next spring for scholarship candidates. Vote early and often, as you did for me. And start saving now for a plane ticket.

Netroots Nation has many sponsors, including SEIU (my union), MoveOn.org, the National Education Association, LiUNA!, AFL-CIO, and a host of others. Hundreds of people contributed to the DFA scholarship fund. I contributed to next year's fund. As I wrote my check, other people at the closing keynote session slipped credit card slips and $20 bills into envelopes as the hat was passed. A generous bunch. We were thinking about how much we got out of this gathering and how energizing it would be for others.

NN12 will be June 7-10. We already know that our presidential candidate will be Barack Obama. But who will be the Republican choice? Whoever it is, he or she will not have our best interests in mind on the long campaign trail to the November elections. He (Mitt Romney?) or she (Michelle Bachmann?) will be actively working to kill union jobs, curtail voting rights, privatize Social Security, dismantle Medicare and Medicaid, and expand tax cuts for corporations and millionaires. Sounds like an anti-American agenda to me.

NN12 will be exciting and energizing. I will be there. Will you?

Jill Sobule: "They say they want their America back, WTF do they mean?"

Communing with "just folks" at Netroots Nation 11

At Netroots Nation, I was surprised by the people I met who were not bloggers and not affiliated with a progressive organization. It was the biggest crowd ever for NN's sixth year, with attendance of somewhere between 2,400-2,500.

There was Kathleen, a primary care physician from Minneapolis who, after 17 years, gave up full-time doctoring for life as a neighborhood activist. She has this idea that a neighborhood of no more than 200 homes can support itself with food, pay-as-you-go healthcare and education. A school or community center would be the hub of the neighborhood. I did not tell Kathleen this, but this seemed like a conservative's wet dream. Neighborhood schools. Mom and pop grocery store. Front porches and backyard gardens. And then I realized that this type of forward-thinking approach is opposed by Tea Party types as Leftist social engineering prompted by the scary U.N. "Agenda 21." Good luck, Kathleen! Leftie neighborhood organizers are the new conservatives!

I met a 50-something woman from southwest Kansas who came to Netroots Nation 11 just to hobnob with other Liberals. It's Kansas, after all. The legislature just killed its state arts agency and thinks that creationism should replace real science in school curriculum. I didn't catch her name but wish her all the luck in the world. She will need it.

I've already written about Pamela and her search for progressive policies in northern Virginia. She is a lifelong Catholic who attends mass in D.C. rather that putting up with the condescending anti-Liberal homilies from the narrow-minded Right Wing of the priestly fraternity. At least she can take the Metro to church.

There was the woman from North Dakota who was volunteering for the West Virginia organization working against mountaintop removal. She comes from the land of wind and cold and fracking and bad air. Sounds a lot like Laramie County, Wyoming.

There was the researcher from a San Antonio firm that does human testing for new medications. Not as scary as it sounds. Especially since his cause is revamping the U.S. electoral system. This was his fifth Netroots Nation conference. We rode the Light Rail together to the airport. It's one hell of a publicly-funded government transportation system. I am looking forward to the day when Denver's Light Rail extends to the airport on the eastern prairie.

It always comes down to this -- people, just people.

Dear Pops: Happy Father's Day from Netroots Nation

Thomas Reed Shay (a.k.a. Big Tom)

Alone on Father's Day. That occurred to me as I awoke this morning. I'm in Minneapolis, Chris is in Cheyenne, Kevin is in Tucson and Annie in Denver. By the end of the day, Chris and I will be together on Father's Day, which is important to both of us. Our kiddos have their own lives, as they should.

My father, Thomas Reed Shay, passed away eight years ago. Wonder what he would have made of the Netroots Nation conference? He turned my age of 60 in 1983, when we were knee-deep in the Reagan era. He was happy with the Reagan era and I was not. He was a moderate conservative, one of those people in the South who first went from Democratic to Republican for Nixon in 1968 and again in 1972. The beginnings of the vaunted Republican Southern Strategy, which culminated in two terms of Ronald Reagan chipping away at federal government programs and protections. And now look what we have.

My father would have found some common ground among the working people at Netroots Nation. He would have objected to some of the tough talk against Republicans. Not sure if he would have much in common with Tea Party Republicans such as Michelle Bachmann, a guest speaker at The Right Online conference held across the street from Netroots Nation. T.R. Shay was a William F. Buckley fan and watched him regularly. Free enterprise, hard work, small government. He believed in all of those principles. So do I.

He was the first in his family to go to college and he did it on the G.I. Bill after four years (two in Europe) as Government Issue (G.I.). He bought his first house with no down payment courtesy of the U.S. Government. He worked on government contracts for Martin-Marietta (now Lockheed-Martin) building ICBM missile silos across the West. Later, he worked on the space program with G.E. and NASA. Government programs.

He was a Florida state government employee (now an endangered species, thanks to wacky Republicans) and later had his own accounting business. He was the first one of us to own a personal computer -- the Apple IIe. We considered it a strange and wondrous thing. He seemed at home with it. He built his own crystal radio sets as a boy in the 1930s and, in the 1950s, built his own hi-fi. Not surprising that he was a radio operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II.

If my father were still alive, would he be a blogger? I have no doubt that he would be a confirmed user of Facebook. His handle would be Big Tom, which is what his grandkids called him -- at his insistence ("I'm too young to be a grandfather!") If he blogged, he would be somewhere in the middle, caught between moonbats such as myself and wingnuts such as Andrew Breitbart et.al. He might also find himself closer to what I do, as the center has moved to the Right at the insistence of the Right.

As you can see, I'm thinking about my father today. We didn't always agree. But he was always my father. I miss him.

NN11: Make Clean Energy Not War (through art)

Artwork by Susan Slavick

Minneapolis Convention Center protest by the group 10 Years and Counting, as artists try to put a face to 10 years of war. Protesters hold up a 13-figure number that represents the bill for a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and various other locales.

Sept 11 - Oct 7, 2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of our nation continuously at war. 10 Years + Counting invites artists and others to take this historic moment as inspiration and use the power of creativity to illustrate the costs of war and image a more peaceful world. 

Paint it, dance it, sculpt it, write it, sing it! Imagine peace and create connections. Concerts, public art projects, garden parties, bake-offs, gallery exhibitions, street art, flash mobs, walks and runs: the possibilities are endless. 

Turn the weeks of this anniversary of devastation into an unstoppable, irrepressible explosion of imagining the possible, a new beginning.

Add your creation, gathering or event to the 10 YEARS + COUNTING calendar by going to www.10yearsandcounting.org

Netroots Nation 2011: Day Two

Started the day with the "Big Steaming News Dump" with Lizz Winstead and friends. The Netroots Nation alternative to “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.

Panelists were pundit and author of the John McCain biography Cliff Schecter, lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding, Leftie media maven Shannyn Moore from Alaska, pundit Sam Seder and Jon Sinton, a co-founder of the late Air America.

Many snarky comments about the news that Pakistan had arrested five men who allegedly helped the CIA spy on Osama bin-Laden's million-dollar hideaway. Conclusion: This was a Casablanca-like "round up the usual suspects" moment.

Next topic: Tea Party-sponsored summer camp for kids in Tampa, Fla. Also known as (unofficially the Ayn Rand Camp for Kids. Motto: "Tea Party Camp -- when you're too f-ing crazy for Jesus Camp." Lizz proposed this course for the little Tea Partiers: "Timothy McVeigh's Gentle Side." And so on.

Sam Seder talked about the Politico story that Right Wing slush funds from Americans for Prosperity et.al.  finance Right Wing talk radio. Progressive bloggers have known (or at least suspected this) for years. This news also brings into question the old marketplace theory of radio talk. Left Wing talk can't survive in the marketplace so it must be no good. Well, Wingnut Radio couldn't compete in the marketplace if it wasn't for these slush funds.

"Right Wing Radio has been subsidized from Day One," said Seder. "Those reporters dump stories and the subsidies roll in."

Very difficult for indie bloggers to compete in this cash-rich environment. Right Wing Radio has all of the beachfront property and not nearly enough Leftie Richie Rich's (Lizz's term)  to keep them afloat. Cable TV is too expensive. However, there are some smartphone and tablet apps coming along that will help to even the media playing field. One is the Progressive Voices app that, according to Jon Sinton, will serve as a "one-stop-shop for everything progressive in audio, print and video." Maybe you'll even see hummingbirdminds on there some day.

"There are over 100 million users of smartphones and tablets," said John. "In 2013, it will be a billion."

That's reaching out directly to a lot of people.

He envisions the smartphone becoming as ubiquitous as the transistor radios of the 1950s and 1960s. I remember those -- every kid had one at his/her ear or next to the pillow at night. My transistor radio brought me pop and early rock from exotic locales such as Chicago.

"This app can help cut the strings to mainstream media," John said.

Pam Spaulding of pamshouseblend talked about the emergence of "fake lesbians" in the blogosphere. Two were recently unmasked -- one in Syria and one in the U.S. Several panelists agreed that this was a strange and alarming trend.

The next item to be discussed was the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, Shannyn Moore said that the mine will have a tailings' pond 20 miles long and will be perched at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the continent's largest salmon fishery. It's located -- as is most of Alaska -- along the Ring of Fire volcanic and earthquake zone. She noted that the state's biggest quake in recent history (1964) liquefied the soil -- and the shit will hit the fan when the earthen dam that holds back the waters of the tailings' pond turns to ooze. She brought lots of "No Pebble Mine" stickers to the conference. She also had a bunch of wild salmon shipped in for a party and fund-raiser tonight that I'm too tired to attend.

Lizz rounded up her show with a short interview of the mayor (the guy's everywhere, and he's not running for anything). He wanted us to know about the severe tornado that hit the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods on the side side of town. It didn't get much attention because it happened on the same day as the Joplin, Mo. twister. He said that 5,000 homes were affected. Most housed renters with no insurance and many of the homeowners lacked enough insurance coverage. He urged us to come out Saturday for a big repair and building effort hosted by Habitat for Humanity and Urban Homeworks. Hizzoner told us to go to his Twitter page at rtrybak to get more info. He does his own social media posting. "I don't think that any politician should have someone else doing his Twitter and Facebook.

NOTE: I was at this all day today. Many sessions, many notes. Not a fan of live-blogging because I miss too much. More posting tomorrow....

Netroots Nation 11: Day One

Mayor R.T. Rybak

R.T. Rybak, the mayor of Minneapolis, spoke to us tonight last night at a reception hosted by Democratic GAIN. (I meant to post this last night but couldn't get my my wireless to engage. So Austin, the IT guy from Democracy for America, tapped a few keys on my laptop this morning and engaged the wireless. If this clueless blogger can't find help at a "Netroots" conference, where can he find it?) 

Mayor Rybak is a Democrat speaking to a roomful of Democrats at Solera, a four-story tapas place along restaurant row. Maybe 100 or so, some drawn by the free beer and others drawn for the opportunity to be in a roomful of progressives.

I was a little of both. Hey, who can turn down free beer?

The mayor pointed out the facts that Minneapolis was a bike-friendly city, a green city, the best volunteer city in America, a gay-friendly city, a sleep-friendly city. I didn’t quite get that last part. I assume that Minneapolisians (Minneapolitans?) enjoy a good night’s sleep because they live in a diverse and forward-thinking city.

Meanwhile, over at the convention center, the American Association of Sleep Societies is staging its annual gathering. Coincidence?

We Liberals are losing sleep over the state of the nation. That’s just one of the reasons that we are gathering along one side of the Twin Cities. We are bloggers of the progressive stripe and, by gum, we are ticked off about it and need to find ways out of this mess.

And Minnesota is no progressive Garden of Eden. Michelle Bachmann reigns in the north country. A “real hockey mom,” said one Minneapolis elected official who shall remain nameless. “She knows how to cross check.”

This was an obvious dig at Sarah Palin, who’s a fake hockey mom and could only tough out two years of a four-year governor’s term in Alaska. She's a weiner (lower-case) when stacked up against Bachmann.

 

I’ve been here only seven hours. But already I’ve meet a number of bloggers from all over. I shared a bus seat with Whitney from Boise. There was Kevin from Eugene, Oregon, and Mike from Alaska. Before this is over, I expect to exchanging liberal chatter with bloggers from all 50 states.

One more thing about the mayor: he gave us restaurant recommendations. I look forward at eating at the place that Mary Tyler Moore would have taken Lou Grant for a steak.

This progressive blogger is off to the Netroots Nation 2011 Conference in June

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve received a scholarship to the Netroots Nation 2011 Conference in Minneapolis. Thanks to all my friends and acquaintances who voted for me. And thanks to Democracy for America. I’ll be hauling myself, my blog and my laptop off to one of the twin cities June 16-19.

I am told that the Minneapolis summer is warmer than Wyoming’s and a bit more humid. I am also told that it doesn’t snow there in June. In Wyoming, you can’t promise that.

As Minnesota Sen. Al Franken said at Netroots National 2010 in Las Vegas: "It's a little bit less glitzy and glamorous than Las Vegas, but it's also a little bit less hot. It's a place with great fishing, beautiful scenery and tons of energetic progressives ready to show Netroots Nation a good time."

"Lots of progressives." Wow. We have a small but mighty contingent of progressives in this state. And we are formulating big plans to push back against the Wyoming red tide. Now -- and in 2012.

As a Red State blogger, I often feel isolated. The conference is an opportunity to trade tips and organizing strategies with other prog-bloggers. I’ve been paying particular attention to Wisconsin bloggers the past few months. Those are some grassroots community organizers who know how to fight a Tea Party governor and his minions who are trying to dismantle 100 years of progress.

On Wisconsin! And, in June, on to Minnesota!