Occupy Medford is meeting at  Alba Park (Downtown Medford)
starting at 10:00 AM every Saturday!

Occupy Earth Day was a success in the Rogue Valley with over 35 people attending the joint General Assembly at the Talent Community Center. Roughly 20 full trashbags were gathered during our 6.6 mile treck from Medford to Talent taking a total of 4 hours. We'd like to thank Barely Used Beds [...]]]>

[UPDATE]

Occupy Earth Day was a success in the Rogue Valley with over 35 people attending the joint General Assembly at the Talent Community Center. Roughly 20 full trashbags were gathered during our 6.6 mile treck from Medford to Talent taking a total of 4 hours. We'd like to thank Barely Used Beds for the water and snacks, they helped us keep going and in fact we're certain the cool waters of the oasis saved one of our members from heat exhaustion! We'd like to thank Talent Tattoo Gallery for the gloves and Downtown Coffee for our water bottles and trash bags! We'd also like to thank the Medford Police Department for escorting our group while in Medford City limits, we felt much safer with you slowing drivers with your mere presence! Thank you!

Here is a gallery of our efforts.

[PREVIOUS POST]

Greetings to the Rogue Valley from Occupy Medford!

On April 22nd we will be marching along Highway 99 from Medford to Talent in support of our planet. Starting at the Medford Armory at 10 am we will proceed to march along the Highway, visiting local businesses and removing trash as we go. When we arrive in Talent a joint General Assembly will be held at the Talent Community Center involving Occupy Medford, Occupy Ashland, and the surrounding community. We will discuss current projects and future goals.

If you live closer to Ashland and would like to participate in the march, the meeting time is 11am at Peace House. You can visit the Occupy Medford Community Calendar for additional information.

Consider this our Mother's Day present to Mother Earth, the lady who raised us all in one way or another!

We hope to see you out there! 

Event Planner: Deb Herzogh

Also, check out this beautiful poster by Jeremiah Lynch!

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks [...]]]>

NOTE TO OCCUPY MEDFORD: GA IS IN THE LIBRARY'S CARPENTER ROOM THIS SATURDAY FROM 11-1.

Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story

By Omar R. Valdimarsson

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.

Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.

Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness

Paul Taggart/Bloomberg

“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”

The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.

The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.

Crisis Lessons

“The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it’s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here,” said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. “It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.”

Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.

Iceland’s $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates.

Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island’s “unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded.”

People vs Markets

Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.

Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island’s banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.

Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.

“There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven’t lost a penny with the measures that they’ve undertaken,” she said.

Fresh Demands

According to Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for Landsbankinn hf, the amount written off by the banks is probably larger than the 196.4 billion kronur ($1.6 billion) that the Financial Services Association estimates, since that figure only includes debt relief required by the courts or the government.

“There are still a lot of people facing difficulties; at the same time there are a lot of people doing fine,” Kristjansson said. “It’s nearly impossible to say when enough is enough; alongside every measure that is taken, there are fresh demands for further action.”

As a precursor to the global Occupy Wall Street movement and austerity protests across Europe, Icelanders took to the streets after the economic collapse in 2008. Protests escalated in early 2009, forcing police to use teargas to disperse crowds throwing rocks at parliament and the offices of then Prime Minister Geir Haarde. Parliament is still deciding whether to press ahead with an indictment that was brought against him in September 2009 for his role in the crisis.

A new coalition, led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, was voted into office in early 2009. The authorities are now investigating most of the main protagonists of the banking meltdown.

Legal Aftermath

Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.

Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.

That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.

The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don’t face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions.

According to Christensen at Danske Bank, “the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net

Starting in the morning, organizers will be in front of the Medford Post Office leafletting the last minute tax filers about were all the money they just gave away is being wasted! Then, later that same day they will be at it again. [...]]]>

April 17th is going to a busy day for local community organizers!

Starting in the morning, organizers will be in front of the Medford Post Office leafletting the last minute tax filers about were all the money they just gave away is being wasted! Then, later that same day they will be at it again. The literature they will be handing out can be found here. Tax Day Info Leaflet – MEDFORD.

Starting at 4:00 PM will be the Civic Engagement Forum. This is an event which will encourage the community to become civicly engaged. The event has been planned by Oregon Action's Tammi Spencer and Occupy Medford's Nick Patterson will be one of the panelists for this event. If you want to know how to become engaged in helping your community than this is your event!

We hope to see you at whichever event you can make it to!

-          Occupy Medford will now be meeting in Alba Park. The Library will be reserved for bad weather. Bad weather is classified as active rain. We will still Occupy Alba Park on a cloudy day.

-          April 23rd 1801 E. Jackson 7:00 PM. Jeff Golden Tea Party-Occupy Connection.

-          Good resources if you [...]]]>

Open Forum

-          Occupy Medford will now be meeting in Alba Park. The Library will be reserved for bad weather. Bad weather is classified as active rain. We will still Occupy Alba Park on a cloudy day.

-          April 23^rd 1801 E. Jackson 7:00 PM. Jeff Golden Tea Party-Occupy Connection.

-          Good resources if you must watch television for news: LinkTV and Free Speech TV.

-          Last date to register to vote is April 24^th. Ballots come out May 15^th. Ron has suggested the group write in Stephanie Rehder as a candidate to run against Greg Walden. She gave a moving breakdown of the NDAA at the recent Greg Walden town hall, inspiring him to suggest this.

Reports

-          Finance

o   ~$520.00

§  Will need to spend $40.00 at the flea market.

§  Will need to give Deb $20.00 for printing costs.

-          Resolution to Abolish Corporate Personhood

o   Response received from pro-bono lawyer who said some clauses were not specific enough, will rework them.

o   We need to begin speaking with the council members about this resolution, getting their “guidance” in order to move them to vote on it.

-          The Flea Market

o   Will be setting up around 7 am. Opens at 8:30 am. Open until 4:00 pm.

o   Any volunteers are appreciated.

-          SOSA

o   SOSA is in a reworking stage. I am preparing a new document, description, and approach for creating the event. Soon we will begin approaching other organizations to see an estimated size, thus being able to get a financial projection for the event.

o   Planning an event to bring involved groups together, raise awareness, raise funds, and discuss the idea.

-          Earth Day March

o   The march is the 22^nd of April from Medford to Talent (6.6 Miles) and Ashland to Talent (5.1 Miles).

o   Flyers are made. Copy to be posted.

-          Canvassing

o   Postponed

o   Robert mentioned it being advised by prominent figures to canvass for a $10.00 minimum wage this year because of it being an election year.

-          Tabling

o   Postponed

Proposals

-          For Occupy Medford to host a table at the Civic Engagement Forum at RCC. Mark and Angela to host. (Passed)

Announcements

-          Civic Engagement Forum on April 17^th, 2012 @ 4:00 pm. Nick Patterson will be speaking for Occupy in this event. We will host a table at the event as well.

-          CPJ/JWJ will be hosting a flyer event at the Medford Post Office at 10:30 pm to commemorate the last day to file taxes and the pillaging of the American people.

Open Forum

-          Gary has stopped making payments on his mortgage until the bank can prove who possesses the deed. Having traded it over and over again they have no idea who owns the house, therefore until Gary knows who he is paying to he will not pay at all.

-          Good Greif America has changed their name to Project REconomy.

Upcoming Events

- Civic Engagement Forum: April 17th @ 4:00 PM @ the RCC HEC Building

- Earth Day March: April 22nd @ 10 AM @ the Medford Armory. Marching from Medford to Talent, picking up garbage and visiting businesses along the way.          

Occupy Medford will be volunteering at Habitat for Humanity doing a build on Saturday, March 10th. We will meet at the build site listed above at 8:45 with the build lasting until 3:00 PM. There will be a modified General Assembly during the lunch break of volunteers and those who would like to [...]]]>

Occupy Medford will be volunteering at Habitat for Humanity doing a build on Saturday, March 10th. We will meet at the build site listed above at 8:45 with the build lasting until 3:00 PM. There will be a modified General Assembly during the lunch break of volunteers and those who would like to participate. If you would like to participate in this event please fill out this form and email it to habitatvc[at]roguevalleyhabitat.org as soon as possible. While they may allow a few people to bring their waivers the day of, it is heavily discourage for a few reasons. First and foremost would be courtesy, a late application is extra scurrying for the volunteers at habitat. Secondly, Occupy Medford must reinforce our good name when attending an event such as this. Lastly, we want things to run smoothly and it is best to do things such as this ahead of time. We are up to 6 volunteers for the day and would like to reach 10 at the very least, though we told the organization we would have 15-20 people volunteering.

This is an opportunity for you to work in the community towards the betterment of the people. This is an opportunity to highlight the benefits of having an Occupy in your town. Take this opportunity and create something great!

See you there! (Emergency Medical-Wavier Forms: Full Document)

https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/register.do?lang=eng&source=SOS

The time of the March 6th SOSA Meeting has been moved from the 6th to the 8th at 5:30 PM. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

There will be a meeting discussing SOSA's current situation with the city and how we will convince them this event [...]]]>

The time of the March 6th SOSA Meeting has been moved from the 6th to the 8th at 5:30 PM. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

There will be a meeting discussing SOSA's current situation with the city and how we will convince them this event is important March 8th at the ​Medford Library (Adams Room) at 5:30PM. If you want to help develop the presentation which will be delivered to the Parks and Rec department on March 20th then this is the meeting for you! The meeting will cover who we want to conditionally sponsor the event (see below) and ways to ensure our approval.

Remember to "Like" SOSA on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/events/332800180077273/.

If you'd like to read more about SOSA visit the blog at SOSpringAwakening.BlogSpot.com.

SOSA’s Current Situation & the Next 3 Weeks

The Southern Oregon Spring Awakening is still in full swing. On February 21^st an initial proposal was sent to the city requesting the use of Hawthorne Park over the weekends of either May 11-13 or May 18-20.

The next week a meeting was held in which the attending SOSA team discussed some logistical items as well as some theme items. When I speak of theme I am referring to the message this event should be sending to the community. What will people take from this? What will draw people to this event? What should we be teaching the community? Why is SOSA a necessary event?

It was decided to incorporate multiple messages including foreclosures, labor issues, healthcare, economic inequality, civil rights, homelessness, and some political components. All of these issues will be communicated through presentations, guest speakers, art, music, and booths. This all brings about a theme of “We have issues in our community so let’s work together in making our region a better place to live.”

Another great thing garnered from this meeting was a simple pair of questions. How do we get the youth to realize their future is slipping away with each day they live in apathy? How do we inspire the youth to become involved and active in their community? On the last day of SOSA there will be a General Assembly to generate and implement ideas for involving the youth in their community, their state, and their country. We live in times where we must be the vanguard to our freedom and the youth will be a massive portion of the demographic in coming years and they must be awakened to their potential. How appropriate that our event be named the Southern Oregon Spring Awakening!

The city’s response took a few days but on February 29^th it arrived. Parks Superintendent Charlie Elliot responded with a few key points of information. First he spoke about the sleeping situation. As Medford City Code doesn’t allow sleeping in the parks, SOSA would be required to go before City Council to gain approval for sleeping in the park.

Now, Bicycle Oregon has been allowed to sleep overnight in one of Medford’s parks. I was sure to mention this so the city would know I was aware of the precedence set by Bicycle Oregon. In his response, Mr. Elliot informed me the permit which Bicycle Oregon obtained was roughly $3,000.

The next key point was a request to present the SOSA proposal at the Parks and Rec Commission Meeting on March 20^th @ 5:30 PM. This will be a 1-2 person job in which the SOSA team has the opportunity to inspire the decision makers. If we can inspire them, rather than simply communicate our idea, it will be much easier to get this through the city.

I have responded to their invitation and confirmed SOSA’s presence at the meeting. I will prepare a power point or flip-pad presentation to visually assist our talking points. When in this meeting the fellow presenter and I must convey the proper necessity of this event. The community will benefit greatly both tangibly (healthcare and foreclosures) and intangibly (knowledge) from this event and the decision makers must understand this.

We will discuss the issues of sleeping, among other topics, at a meeting on the 8th of March at 5:30 in the Medford Library (Adams Room) to see if we can find a work around instead of being forced to appear before city council. We will need to contact a few big names in the community to get their backing. They will be endorsing the event on the condition we obtain permission from the city for use of the park for SOSA.  Specific organizations we will speak with this about will be persons from the Labor Council, La Clinica, Oregon Action, and others.

UPDATE: Today Occupy Medford, in coordination with over 70 cities nationwide, participated in Shut Down The Corporations. This national day of action was directed at corporations who use their profits to buy off our representatives to pass corporate sponsored legislation. This is done through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Today's protests focused on corporations who use ALEC [...]]]>

UPDATE: Today Occupy Medford, in coordination with over 70 cities nationwide, participated in Shut Down The Corporations. This national day of action was directed at corporations who use their profits to buy off our representatives to pass corporate sponsored legislation. This is done through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Today's protests focused on corporations who use ALEC to get their corporate agendas through state and national governments. 

In Medford, a group of about 25 people braved the snow and cold to protest in front of a Bank of America located in downtown Medford. A march was held from Vogel Plaza to the site of the protest, and following the march a group of protesters went inside to denounce Bank of America's rampant illegal foreclosures and their participation in ALEC. In response Bank of America locked their front door and did not allow anyone in for several hours, except for select customers through a back entrance.

Occupy Medford approves of these conditions and appreciates Bank of America's help in our efforts!

​________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While 70 cities nationwide set to stand up to corporate greed, local Medford, Ashland and Grants Pass Occupations to hold protest and march from Vogel Plaza at 11am on Wednesday February 29th.

 On February 29th at 11am, concerned citizens, students, and occupiers in over seventy cities across the nation, including Medford,  Ashland, and  Grants Pass are standing up to the corporations and legislators involved in American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The biggest corporations in America, including ExxonMobil, Bank of America, BP, Monsanto, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart use ALEC to buy off legislators and craft legislation that puts corporate profit over the well-being of ordinary people. Responding to a national call from Occupy Portland, this will be the Occupy Movement’s largest coordinated action this year and will confront ALEC corporations in the cities in which they do business throughout the nation.

The protest will be held at Vogel Plaza at 11 AM this Wed February 29th

At 12pm we will march to a national corporation that is sponsored by ALEC.

What is ALEC?

 ALEC  calls itself a non profit, but in reality acts as a  a tool for the corrupt to enact legislation beneficial to a minority of elite corporations. ALEC operates task forces that bring representatives from corporations together with lawmakers. Each ALEC task force is chaired by both elected officials and “private sector” members, writes Jesse Zwick of the Washington Independent they rig the system with dollars and access.  ALEC lobbyist work directly with legislators to draft and pass legislation that serves the interest of a the most powerful corporations at the expense of the people. ALEC propagates a wide range of “model legislation” that seeks to make it more difficult for people to hold corporations accountable in court; gut the rights and protections of workers and consumers; encumber health care reform; privatize and weaken the public education system; provide business tax cuts and corporate welfare; privatize and cut public services; erode regulations and environmental laws; create unnecessary voter ID requirements; endorse Citizens United; diminish campaign finance reform and permit greater corporate influence in elections.

If not us who?  If not now When?

Sign the 

Sign the petition on SignOn.org

The past week has been incredible, and it's all because of you.

More than 750,000 people have sent comments to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) demanding the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

This past October, when people like you – parents, farmers, health care professionals, and other concerned citizens – came together to launch this campaign, we only dreamed we would come so far, so quickly. It just goes to show how incredible our collective voice is and how out of step the FDA is with the desires of the American public.

You made this happen. It was thousands of people like you telling their friends and family about this issue that's made this campaign such a success. Just last week, you succeeded in convincing MoveOn.org to promote Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg's petition on SignOn.org. In less than 36 hours, more than 200,000 people signed the petition to the FDA via SignOn.org – and brought us one step closer to our goal of one million comments.

You're building a movement of people who care how their food is produced. This issue crosses partisan and ideological lines. Over 90 percent of Americans – left, right, and center – support labeling genetically engineered foods. Five hundred organizational allies from diverse perspectives have also partnered with us on this campaign.

At Just Label It, we've been working hard to create a big tent with many voices, all with a common ask of our government – label genetically engineered foods so we can make informed decisions. It's our right. It's time that the United States joins the more than 40 countries that require genetically engineered foods to be labeled.

Thank you for everything that you've done to help us get to 750,000 comments.

With deep gratitude,

– Naomi, Alex, Nancy, Sue, and the entire Just Label It team

​Sign the petition on SignOn.org.

Firstly, the original Occupy Medford website was hosted on Eric B's host and he also runs about 15 other websites from the [...]]]>

As you can obviously see, Occupy Medford Oregon is back online again!  Please read the rest of this article to be informed on why the site was down and what the change(s) were.

Firstly, the original Occupy Medford website was hosted on Eric B's host and he also runs about 15 other websites from the same account (he's kinda smart like that) and was started to get emails from his host that he was getting really close to his monthly bandwidth allotment, which would mean that if his account went over that allotment of bandwidth (which is a lot, but given the number of visitors on this website and his other websites – he was running very close), running over would then shut down all of the websites for the rest of the month until a new month started and the new 'countdown' and new bandwidth kicked in.  So we definitely didn't want that to happen to not only Eric's websites, but also Occupy Medford's website.

So!  Thank you to Jeremiah for stepping forward and getting a brand new hosting account for Occupy Medford, that now has it's very own bandwidth (which we won't probably ever run out of per month) along with many other cool things that weren't available while being hosted as an "Ad-On Domain" on Eric's account.  This new account is strictly for Occupy Medford!  

The reason that we were down for about a week is that we also initiated a full domain transfer so we could retain the same domain name on our new account.  This unfortunately meant that the site, obviously, would be down until the domain was propagated throughout the entire internet's DNS servers in order to point to our new hosting account and a bunch of other technical mumbo jumbo…

Anyways, we are finally back online with our very own server, bandwidth and a lot more than we had before and will never (hopefully) have any other down time again!  So…

We deeply apologize if this created any inconvenience for any of our members, visitors and readers that come to our site everyday for updated Occupy Movement & Occupy Medford News, Information and a lot more.  We can now move forward and start working on getting some other new projects going with our new host and will slowly start building new things for everyone to see or utilize, etc.

Thank you to everyone that supports Occupy Medford and those in Solidarity with Occupy Medford!  We truly appreciate each and everyone of our members, visitors and guests and hope that with this new move, we get new readers and hopefully even more part-time or better yet, full-time members of Occupy Medford!

Once again, sorry for the down time, but we're back.  Please login to your account, it should be the very same username & password as before, but if you do run into something weird, cannot login even with doing a reset password or what ever may happen, please let either Eric, Jeremiah or Ben know the problem/issue and we can fix and/or address it as soon as humanly possible!

We love you all!  Seriously!

Much love….  Namaste.

-Eric B.

[Washington Examiner]

In August 2010, President Obama used [...]]]>

Obama, among other presidential hopefuls, constantly use Sup-PACs to fund their campaigns of advertising terror. In 2010 the President denounced Super-PACs for their obvious evils, yet as we approach the election a politicians true moral stances always come out…weak and hypocritical. Here's the articles to prove it.

[Washington Examiner]

In August 2010, President Obama used his weekly address to denounce the flood of attack ads run by "shadowy groups with harmless sounding names."


"The worst thing of all they don't have to reveal who is having to pay for them." Obama said, criticizing Republicans for "keeping the American public in the dark."


"We can not allow a corporate takeover of our democracy," Obama added, vowing to fight this type of advertising. "Let's challenge every elected official who benefits from these ads to defend this practice or join us is stopping it." he declared.

"Millions of Americans are struggling to get by and their voices shouldn't be drowned out by millions of dollars in secret special interest advertising," Obama added, "Their voices should be heard."

[New York Time]

By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG

February, 4th 2012

Medford Library

Open Forum:

u   Rogue Valley Spokes Council

u  Facilitates actions and communications through each occupation, uniting our numbers and voices for effectiveness

u  Linda mentions that she will create a website whos specific purpose would be to unite all [...]]]>

Occupy Medford General Assembly

February, 4^th 2012

Medford Library

Open Forum:

u   Rogue Valley Spokes Council

u  Facilitates actions and communications through each occupation, uniting our numbers and voices for effectiveness

u  Linda mentions that she will create a website whos specific purpose would be to unite all actions and events from various grassroots movements and non-profit organizations.

u  General support for the idea, Linda will come back next week with a more formal proposal

u  Discussion on whether the flag burning in Oakland was called for

u  The burning was in response to the jailing of over 400 people by the OPD

u  Bev states that Oakland Police are notorious for violence and not afraid to assert their power

u  US Supreme court says flag burning is protected under freedom of speech

u  General feelings of Occupy Medford is that it was not okay to burn flag and will not take such actions here

u  Check out a book by Richard Wolfe, When Capitalism Hit the Fan

u  Get out the Vote! We are in a election year!

Ideas:

u  Considering ballot initiatives Bev states we would need 20 to 30 thousand more signatures than min 87,000 if we really want an initiative to get through and on to the ballot

u  Stay focused on tangible ways to create social and political change, ie ballots measures, legislation and of course organized civil dis-obedience.

u  Focus on Money out of Politics

u  Vibe check on Angela's idea of holding 2 events outside GA and committee meetings. One a tabling event to focus on initiatives, petitions and awareness of Occupy Medford at grocery stores and the other a soap box rally, preferably before ga so we can be more effective in working towards solutions. She will come back next week with a formal proposal. General consensus is in support of actions.

Upcoming Events:

u  Finance Fund raiser: Feb 19^th Tabling and Medford Flea market

u  Spring Awakening SOSA

u  Planning Meetings Feb 10^th (theme, message, activities, events) Feb 17^th (volunteers, coordinators, methods, documentation and internet media)

^u    Occurring May 11^th - 13^th OR May 19^th - 21^st

u  Will kick off first day at Alba March at 12pm with march to Vogel Plaza

u  Concern raised of violence that has occurred previously at Hawthorne Park

u  Ivend suggests we look into Lithia Springs for SOSA as it already has many of the amenities we will need

u  Bev brings up that we will need to have health insurance for event

u  Asked if Oregon Action would still support the Festival if we did not get permits, Bev said she would have to talk to the board but would more than likely create legal issues for Oregon Action. We imagine that will likely be the case with other organizations that would likewise support us

u  Shutdown the Corporations

u  Feb 29^th at Bank of America (exact location to be disclosed later)

u  Potential for banner drop, sit in, masks, clog the machine

u  Next meeting for planning can be found on website calender

u  Occupy Medfords Introduction to City Council

u  As of now there is no evening agenda on the 16^th of Feb, Angela will contact City to see if we can be put on evening agenda.

u  Might be a good idea to ask other organizations if they would like to speak after Oms introduction, especially if we ask city to hold a special evening agenda for us.

u  If anyone would like to present their ideas or concern in an organized fashion please let Angela know and send her an email at celestialhaji23@gmail.com

u  NDAA Rally Feb 13^th 11am Vogel Plaza

u  Joint action between all RV Occupations

u  Spreading the word to everyone including Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party and Wake Up America

THIS EVENT IS COMING UP QUICKLY, TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW. THIS IS AN ISSUE WE ALL FACE REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL OR SPIRITUAL BELIEFS      

Committee Reports:

u  Action-

u  Focusing on creating regular events and rallies

u  Creating date for making shirts for Flea Market

u  Putting together Canvassing binders

u  Finance-

u  Focusing on Flea Market Event

u  Receiving donations

u  Roughly 300 dollars in bank account

u  Education-

u  Keith is now POC for Education

u  Working on how to educate us a a group

u  Its seems we all educate ourselves, now to make that public knowledge, partner with tabling events

u  Outreach-

u  Will begin canvassing within the 2 weeks

u  Working on networking with various organizations to pull off NDAA rally effectively

u  Creating Press release for NDAA rally

Proposals:

u  Initiatives: Steve will look into the process of beginning one

u  Housing alliance is familiar with presenting initiatives

u  Ashland has gone ahead with initiative to present to their City Council about homelessness

Announcements:

u  Feb 16^th SOU 6:30pm Two Speakers in response to single payer health care

u  Feb 15^th SOU 6:30 pm Rogue River Room Fair Trade Council

u  Can we get someone to record this event? Can we contact Ack Nak? Jeremiah and Mike will connect to see if we can make this happen

Story by Russian Television [RT]

When authorities shut-down the Web’s most popular file-sharing site last month, the impact was felt by more than just the entertainment biz execs who said that the industry suffered $500 million in lost profits.

Roughly 150 million account holders were [...]]]>

Story by Russian Television [RT]

When authorities shut-down the Web’s most popular file-sharing site last month, the impact was felt by more than just the entertainment biz execs who said that the industry suffered $500 million in lost profits.

Roughly 150 million account holders were left in the dark by the closing of Megaupload.

The shutting down of the site and the subsequent imprisonment of its founder might make some sharers of illegal materials think twice about pirating music and movies. Being the biggest file hosting site of its kind on the Web, however, Megaupload provided legitimate services to clients with paid accounts that have since suffered as well.

At one point Megaupload was among the top-20 most popular sites on the Web, and operated in part by selling subscriptions to users so that they’d be able to use the site as a storage locker of sorts for their own material. As authorities paint the federal crack-down of Megaupload and indictment of founder Kim Dotcom as a step in thwarting piracy, legitimate users of the site have been unable to access their content nearly three weeks after the shut-down of the site. With potentially billions of personal files any moment away from permanent purging, the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that they will fight to help users once again be able to access their own data.

“In the media firestorm surrounding the recent Megaupload takedown, there has been little lacking in the way of drama,” writes the EFF in a statement posted to their site Tuesday. “The legal battles between the government and Megaupload are unlikely to end soon. In the meantime, however, many ordinary users of Megaupload’s services have been swept up in the government’s dragnet, and, as a consequence, have lost access to their own data.”

Citing users who employed Megaupload as a storage locker for personal and permitted material, the EFF adds that the government is on the verge of causing millions of users to be left forever unable to access their own content. “The government should try to avoid this kind of collateral damage, not create it,” writes the EFF.

As the government considers what route they will take with the massive loot of material on Megaupload’s servers, the EFF is partnering with one the website’s hosting companies in hopes that they will be able to return files to users who rightfully own them. In conjunction with the hosting company Carpathia, the EFF has launched MegaRetrieval.com, a site where former users of the now defunct file-sharing site can appeal to have their own data retriever.

“EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them. We think it's important that these users have their voices heard as this process moves forward,” the foundation says.

Ira Rothken, an attorney for Megaupload, explains to Wired that the US government has frozen the website’s assets, thus leaving the company unable to pay their hosting bills. He says he is in negotiations with authorities so that the company can “deliver consumer data back to consumers” but cannot promise how soon he'll be able to come through — or with how much. As of now, Carpathia and another hosting company used by Megaupload, Cogent, say they will not purge the data on their servers for two weeks.

Meanwhile though, the government says they have already copied an undisclosed number of files off of the servers. What chunk of that is personal, private files created by paid customers — or if they will ever see that data again — is still up in the air. In a court filing, Jay Prabhu of the Justice Department’s Cybercrime Unit says only that warrants authorized the government to seize “selected data.”

The EFF says that the government has already finished its investigation of the material hosted on the servers of both Carpathia and Cogent and they are free to delete the content hosted on there as Megaupload cannot afford to pay their bills. Both companies have agreed to wait though, in hopes that users losing personal data will be able to recover material through MegaRetrieval.

“We're very pleased that both Cogent and Carpathia have agreed not to destroy the users' data for the time being,” EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke tells the Washington Post.

While the fate of files uploaded by millions of users is in the hands of the federal government, a select few have much more at stake. More than half a dozen people allegedly linked to Megaupload have been arrested by authorities, and founder Kim Dotcom is currently behind bars as the US attempts to extradite him to America for charges.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

By Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when an overwhelming amount of Americans banned together and voiced their opposition to Congress over both the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Sites that dimmed the screen for a [...]]]>

January 24, 2012

By Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when an overwhelming amount of Americans banned together and voiced their opposition to Congress over both the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Sites that dimmed the screen for a day or two have gone back to normal — Facebook users have swapped their anti-SOPA images for their previous profile pictures.

We may have even believed that the postponement of the vote originally scheduled for January 24th was some sort of white flag of capitulation. But that is certainly not the MO of most lawmakers.

While the outcry did get the attention of Congress, they are simply returning unflinchingly back to the drawing board to wait out our attention spans. Articles whirled that SOPA was dead and the bill was pulled when the bill’s sponsor Lamar Smith said in a statement that there would be no further action “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

Lamar isn’t really listening. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Actually, SOPA is set to be reformulated in February. PIPA will be revisited with possible amendments in the coming weeks. Case in point, all is still open and possible — nothing is dead, pulled, or cancelled. If that wasn’t enough to keep us on our toes, a new, similar bill has surfaced.

Déjà Vu in the form of OPEN — The New Anti-Piracy Bill

As an alternative to SOPA-PIPA, Representative Darrell Issa (CA-R), and 24 co-sponsors introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) H.R. 3782 on Wednesday, during the Internet blackout.

From PCWorld:

OPEN would give oversight to the International Trade Commission (ITC) instead of the Justice Department, focuses on foreign-based websites, includes an appeals process, and would apply only to websites that “willfully” promote copyright violation.

The bill pretends to only target foreign websites, while keeping Americans free to surf and post, but the bill’s wording is wide open to pursue American sites. Just one example: when describing aninfringing site, it starts with those “that are accessed through a non-domestic domain name,” but continues in section (8)(A)(ii) for any site that “conducts business directed to residents of the United States.”

Also, none of these bills had been decided before the U.S. Government took down New Zealand owned Megaupload.com during the commotion. To which, Anonymous responded by shutting down the websites of the U.S. Department of Justice, Universal Music, Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Copyright Office, Broadcast Music Inc. and the Motion Picture Association of America.

“The [DOJ's] action ‘demonstrates why we don’t need SOPA in the first place,’ points out PCWorld’s Tony Bradley.” The government was enforcing a previous anti-piracy law called PRO-IPsigned by Bush in 2008.

OPEN is gaining support from groups like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Consumer Electronics Association and more.

While it seems admirable that the bill is transparent and open for public comment, most laws of this nature are broad and allow for bigger, no-common sense crackdowns later. Plus, there might only be a couple concessions and the pacifying effects of “being heard.”

One commenter of the bill aptly noted:

‘Reasonable belief’ and ‘credible evidence’ are too vague and have the appearance of inviting highly subjective interpretation with the option for the commission and/or the provider to exercise sweeping powers with impunity.

Whenever any group is appeased after a battle, it cannot be emphasized enough — the lawmakers’ modus operandi will be: aim high, brace for the outcry, make a couple alterations and sneak the bill back in when no one’s looking. Keep it going and going. Call it by a different name. Haggle. It appears there is compromise and reasoning now, but once the bill passes into law, reason goes out the window, and we are the only ones compromised.

Theft is a reality — although not one that has seriously damaged the growing entertainment industry, or caused massive death and devastation. If Hollywood, pitching the biggest fit, were actually going down, why should we go down with it?

It is more unfortunate that Americans must be so tirelessly vigilant to protect their online activities from the same lawmakers who are tanking the country in so many other truly devastating ways.

The dismantling of Internet freedom will not stop here. Let’s borrow an MO and not let up.

To SOPA — Say NOPA!

To PIPA — Pipe down!

To OPEN — Shut it!

Source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/SOPA_and_PIPA_Fully_Alive_%E2%80%94_And_a_New_Bill_Joins_Them_/17550/0/0/0/Y/M.html