Watercooler: America

Happy Independance Day, y’all.

You’re hearing it from me a little early because instead of editing MyFDL tomorrow, I’ll be with Occupy Austin for our Occupy Your Capitol event. We start at 9am at the Texas State Capitol and spend all day learning, sharing food & music, and writing our own Declaration of Independence using the same process as the Philadelphia National Gathering.

Like David Byrne in the song, I love America. These days I often actually feel patriotic. That wasn’t always so; I am a cynic about our government and even our whole political system. I don’t believe elections will make a difference. I don’t think anyone in power has or ever will have my interests at heart until we make radical changes.

It is Occupy, and all the other rich, recently tapped veins of activism and direct action that make me feel this way. What I love about this country is its people: the ones who are awake, the ones who stand up and speak and are unafraid — or do not let their fear keep them quiet. We might not always agree on the solutions, but we know things have to change.

What makes you feel patriotic (or not)?

P.S. I will liveblog tomorrow’s events here as much as possible, but follow me on Twitter for the most complete coverage.

What’s on your mind? This is our latest open thread.

Watercooler: Authority

6:25 pm in Watercooler by Kit OConnell

Hi, y’all.

Who’s in charge here?

Can you remember a time when you thought someone was in charge serving all our best interests? I remember when I was a kid being fascinated by the idea of the United Nations, and the belief that they could hold any country in the world to task for bad behavior.

I had a brief moment of childlike pleasure reading recently about the United Nations criticism of human rights violations in police attacks on the Occupy Wall Street movement:

Frank La Rue, the UN’s special rapporteur for the protection of free expression, and Maina Kiai, the organization’s special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly, will present their reports at this week’s meeting, the twentieth edition of the annual conference. Particularly in focus, though, will be how the United States government has failed to act on requests made by the two experts during the last year to address growing concerns over how law enforcement has acted towards the Occupy movement.

In one letter sent from the envoys to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the rapporteurs urge the Obama administration to “explain the behavior of police departments that violently disbanded some Occupy protests last fall.”Elsewhere they say that they’ve been concerned that excessive force waged on protesters “could have been related to [the protesters'] dissenting views, criticisms of economic policies, and their legitimate work in the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

And against Canada for Quebec’s anti-protest Bill 78. Even though we all know these threats have no weight behind them, it’s a pleasure to see someone hold the West to the standards that we hold the rest of the world — even if the reality is that it’s more like the mafia are in charge.

That’s what’s on my mind tonight? What’s on yours?

This is tonight’s open thread.

Tags: Act 78, banks, Barack Obama, Bill 78, Canada, Frank La Rue, Heart-Sick Groans, Hilary Clinton, human right, mafia, Maina Kiai, Obama, occupy, occupy wall street, ows, police, Quebec, UN, United Nations, united states, USA, watercooler
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