Northwest Indiana Discussion

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) – A window at President Barack Obama’s Oakland campaign office was smashed Friday night as a group of protesters marched through downtown.

A group of 100-200 Occupy Oakland protesters began marching down Telegraph Avenue after being denied a permit to protest near the First Friday event at Art Murmur.

A few Obama campaign volunteers were working inside the office when the window was smashed in with a brick. No one was hurt.

Documents obtained by Judicial Watch confirm that somebody in the White House told officials with the General Services Administration (GSA) to “stand down” and not arrest Occupy Portland protestors who may have broken the law last year.

Former GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Robert Peck told a senior Department of Homeland Security official that the federal housekeeping agency had been instructed by the Obama White House to go easy on the Occupy protestors.

In a Nov. 6, 2011, DHS/National Protection and Programs Directorate Chief of Staff Caitlin Durkovich asked GSA’s Peck if it was true that his agency had asked Federal Protective Service officials not to take action against the Occupy Portland protestors.

“Yes, that is our position,” Peck responded. “It’s been vetted with our Administrator and Michael Robertson, our chief of staff, and we have communicated with the WH [White House], which has afforded us the discretion to fashion our approach to Occupy issues…The arrests last week were carried out despite our request that the protesters [sic] be allowed to remain and to camp overnight…”

In what appears to have been a coordinated action Thursday evening, Occupy protesters in Portland, Oregon and Oakland, California staged protests and have occupied the offices of Obama campaign headquarters in both locations.

A hostage negotiator is said to be speaking with a small group of protesters who, arms linked, locked themselves inside the Oakland office. It appears they may have entered the building during normal operating hours but have since remained inside beyond the office’s regularly scheduled closing time. Police have been on the scene and were arresting the protesters at the time of this writing.

One notable protester — Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran (pictured above) who was injured and hospitalized during a clash between Occupy Oakland and law enforcement in October 2011 — voluntarily left the building after the Oakland protesters were given a thirty minute warning tonight to leave or be arrested. Several of those who were arrested are said to have done so voluntarily. Olsen joked on Twitter that he felt a desire to urinate inside a police car.

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – Law enforcement officials are concerned about possible violence by anarchist extremists at the upcoming Republican and Democratic national conventions, according to an intelligence bulletin prepared by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

The seven-page bulletin, obtained by WBTV, outlines information about potential anarchist extremism-related violent criminal activity and threats to public safety during the national political conventions, which start next week in Tampa.

At one point, the Joint Intelligence Bulletin states that anarchists could try to use improvised explosive devices.

“Anarchist extremists and other domestic extremist groups probably lack the capability to overcome the heightened security measures at the RNC and DNC venues,” the report states, “but could target nearby infrastructure, including local businesses or transportation systems and law enforcement personnel.”

The report states that a majority of anarchist activities during major events usually involve acts of property damage, vandalism and trespassing. Past extremists have escalated to violent tactics such as assault and arson.

According to the unclassified document, individuals were reported coordinating criminal actions against the Bank of America in Charlotte, via a free downloadable software application, in May 2012.

A spokesperson for the Charlotte office of the FBI told WBTV that she could not comment on the document.

“I can tell you the FBI utilizes a variety of means to communicate with law enforcement and share information to assist in their overall situational awareness.” she told WBTV.

The document notes anarchists have a history of trying to disrupt major events.

“During past national and international political and economic events, anarchist extremists have blocked streets, intersections, and bridges to disrupt or impede local business operations and public transportation access and, in some instances have initiated violent confrontations with police,” the document states.

Dozens of protestors were glad to see the sun break through the clouds Monday as they began rallying for a march in protest of the Republican National Convention, gathering at Perry Harvey Park.

The protest, coordinated by the group “March on the RNC,” is likely to draw many throughout the day. It’s scheduled to run until 8 p.m. Monday.

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – the “supreme leader” of Iran – praised America’s “Occupy Wall Street” movement on Thursday, calling it a reflection of people around the world who are “losing their patience” with the dominance of the United States and Israel in the international community.

“Everybody has become tired of this faulty international structure,” Khamenei said in his inaugural address to the Non-Aligned Summit, a gathering of 120 nations now taking place in Tehran.

“The 99-percent movement of the American people against the centers of wealth and power in America and the widespread protests of the people in Western Europe against the economic policies of their governments show that the people are losing their patience with this situation,” Iran’s Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

Another documentary is drawing controversy at the Republican National Convention — the filmmakers of Occupy Unmasked, starring the late Andrew Breitbart, say they’ve received dozens of threats of physical violence in advance of Thursday’s screening of the critical look at the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Some of the messages target Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan, two former leftists who appear in the film, according to a spokesperson for Citizens United Prods, the company behind the film.

“We’ll be legitimately raping Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan for the next several days while they are tied up with the movie premier at the RNC,” reads an email from occupyaunmasked2012@gmail.com. The email includes Darby’s and Stranahan’s cell phone numbers.

One tweet reads, “While @Shanahan is in Tampa this week, should Texas rapists be told where to find his wife since he supports the rape of everyone else?”

“My wife is home with our four kids and freaked out,” Stranahan told The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s sick to her stomach.”

Stranahan and Darby each said their home addresses have been published online by those who claim sympathy to OWS. Stranahan said other OWS demonstrators have reached out to him to apologize for others in the movement who have “terrorized” him.

The Obama campaign apparently didn't look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, "Forward" — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.
Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name "Forward!" or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called "Forward (generic name of socialist publications)."
"The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications," the online encyclopedia explains.
The slogan "Forward!" reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

Connor Stevens, Doug Wright and Brandon Baxter — three men affiliated with Occupy Cleveland who were arrested in the spring for plotting to blow up a bridge — entered guilty pleas on Wednesday afternoon. A fourth man pleaded guilty earlier this year, while a fifth suspect is undergoing a competency evaluation. All three pled guilty to “conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device to destroy property used in interstate commerce,” according to the Justice Department.

“The defendants today made a voluntary choice to plead guilty, the same way they made voluntary choices to try to detonate what they thought were explosive devices they had planted at the foot of a bridge,” Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a statement.

As we’ve noted before, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a defamatory liberal hate group that seeks to shut down conservatives by tainting them as white supremacists. The problem for them is that all the major hate that is taking place these days is coming from the left. How do they rectify this “unhelpful narrative?” They brand radical leftists as radical right! On their “hate map” they preposterously label Black Panther leader Malik Zulu Shabazz as radical right. Now, Thomas Lifson of the American Thinker points out that they are doing the same for the Occupy Wall street Terrorists!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has left for the U.S. to pursue a crowded agenda that focuses on connecting with mainstream Americans including those who are part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

For a seventh successive year, the Iranian President will address the General Assembly session, which commences on September 25. Mr. Ahmadinejad will also represent the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as its rotating President.

But apart from rubbing shoulders with world leaders, Mr. Ahmadinejad has public diplomacy prominently in his sights. Not only would he meet activists of the Occupy Wall Street movement, he will also engage with American university students, artists and intellectuals. Mr. Ahmadinejad also plans to reach out to the public through interviews with CBS and CNN television networks as well with the Russia Today satellite channel.

According to a new study from sociologists at the City University of New York, more than a third of activists in the Occupy movement in New York City had household incomes above $100,000, placing them at the cusp of the top quintile of income distribution in America. Researchers surveyed 729 people who participated in a May 1 rally last year and were involved in the “occupation” of Zuccotti Park in the fall of 2011, and found that they were more affluent, whiter, younger, much more highly educated, and more likely to be male than the average New Yorker.

Non-Hispanic whites constituted 62 percent of all respondents, though they make up only 33 percent of New York City residents. While only about a third of Americans hold bachelors’ degrees, 76 percent of respondents who had completed their education had a four-year college degree and 39 percent had graduate degrees. Among college graduates, more than a quarter went to top-ranked schools, which might help explain why the majority of graduates under 30 had some student debt. While 10 percent of participants were unemployed, 71 percent were employed in professional occupations. Eight percent were “blue collar.”

University Study: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Were Disproportionately Rich, Overwhelmingly White