Beaten But Not Defeated: Occupying Everywhere

Amanda Savage sits with the Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York. Savage, a military recruit, said she's staying in the park until her boot camp training starts. (Kathy Willens/AP)

Breaking news: NPR has decided to send two reporters on the road to "spend the month reporting from places we don't often visit, telling the stories of people we don't often hear from (sic)."  In case you're skeptical that NPR has re-discovered what the "P" in their name stands for, refer to their explanation that they are covering this story during November in order to find out from people,  "What are they thinking about when they are looking to next year's election?"

I'll bet you any money that NPR does NOT report that this is what people are thinking (though it's all over Facebook, so obviously not that hard to find):

I'm thinking that the presidential election of 2012 is becoming more irrelevant with each passing day. Why?

Source: Occupy Wall St.'s wall on Facebook

Here's the image on my mind after watching Occupy Denver last night facing police goons and keeping their morale up by telling dumb jokes, and then having the livestream go suddenly silent; and then reading this morning that Scott Olsen has lost the power of speech following his head injury by the Oakland police, who according to eyewitnesses were aiming at the Veterans for Peace flag he and other vets were holding. (You can support Scott Olsen here with a donation.)

The 99% to NPR: you can't fool people who have no home, no health care, no way to pay back their student loans, no jobs, and friends being shot in the head for standing in a park. Hats off today to the hero Bradley Manning and the organization Wikileaks, who have been credited with not only starting  the Arab Spring, and the cascade of Occupies that has followed, but even with ending Phase I of the illegal war for Iraq's oil. Their weapons? Just information.

Here's one last image in support of my belief that truth will win out over propaganda in the end. This is a photo at the biggest, tackiest war memorial I have ever seen (it's in Virginia Beach):

This is the kind of garbage that people in the U.S. have been fed for decades.

But the spin machine is breaking down as people realize that Aircraft Carrier is to Diplomacy as Getting Your Skull Cracked for Holding a Veterans for Peace Flag is to Being Protected and Served by Police.