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The Oklahoman, Ogle Mock Occupy OKC

October 13, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

If they want to know what they're up against locally, the Occupy OKC protesters need to look no further than a recent scathing editorial in The Oklahoman that labeled them "idiots."

Of course, you can also read the editorial as a collective expression of deep fear among the local, corporate oligarchy, and in that sense it serves as a form of flattery, showing the protests are working on some level. The rhetorical attack, coming from one of the most conservative newspapers in the country, indicates the entire "Occupy" movement has the throughout the world unnerved.

In a Wednesday editorial ("Occupy Wall Street movement: Raging against what exactly?," Oct. 12, 2011), The Oklahoman plays on the term "useful idiots" in describing the protesters here and across the nation and then makes these mocking, outlandish claims:

Jobs: Obama Administration Announces Selection of Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project and 13 Others to be Expedited Through Permitting/Review Process

October 12, 2011 by Democracy for N...

Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced the selection of 14 infrastructure projects around the country that will be expedited through permitting and environmental review processes. The administration says it's an important next step in its efforts to improve the efficiency of federal reviews needed to help job-creating infrastructure projects move as quickly as possible from the drawing board to completion. 

One of the 14 selected for expedition is the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project, which will build two water treatment plants and deliver water through approximately 280 miles of pipeline, 24 pumping plants and numerous water regulation and storage facilities bringing a clean and sustainable water supply to the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation will work to improve coordination between Federal and non-federal entities and to expedite land acquisition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management.

Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District applauded the move by the Obama Administration.

OKC Occupation Begins

October 11, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

"Whose streets?"

"Our streets!"

And with that chant, the occupation of Oklahoma City began early Monday evening when approximately 150 people gathered at downtown Kerr Park to demand economic justice and fairness in the face of growing wealth disparity dictated by our corporate-controlled political system.

The group, Occupy OKC, a spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, have a three-day permit to camp at the downtown park, which is primarily concrete and decorated with fountains, and it has even brought in portable bathroom facilities.

Protests Grow Nationally, Locally

October 9, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest in New York and its spinoffs, such as Occupy OKC, are part of a broader movement expressing general frustration and even outrage with growing wealth disparity and a lack of economic justice in this country.

The movement's strength, of course, is just what the establishment pundits and media claim is its weakness, which is a decentralized, inclusive and local focus. It seems messy and without a precise frame but any movement that can really challenge the status quo will be diametrically opposite in shape and tone to what it challenges.

Its historical roots are protests in late nineteenth-century Gilded Age, which came after similar, growing wealth disparity between the wealthy and the middle-class, and protests in the 1930s in the Great Depression era, which led to worker protections and Social Security.