Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

Los Angeles is no New York City. Following a torrential down pour on Wednesday, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a hundred rain ponchos over to those who had been encamped outside of L.A. City Hall since last weekend, as the core of the Occupy Los Angeles movement.

Later that same day, the Los Angeles City Council filed an extraordinary Resolution [PDF] in support of the L.A. "occupiers" and of the larger "Occupy Wall Street" movement as a whole.

The resolution, to be adopted "with the concurrence of the Mayor" (and supported by the L.A. County Federation of Labor), comes very close to a formal governmental endorsement of "Occupy Wall Street," a movement which Michael Moore describes plainly enough as "an uprising of people who have had it."

Amongst the powerful WHEREAS statements in support of the L.A. City Council Resolution, adopted "with the concurrence of the Mayor," was a recognition that "corporations hold undue influence and power;" that wealth disparity in the U.S. is greater than many of the nations in the Middle East that have been racked by "violent revolutionary protests;" that "our economic system" is "broken," creating an "economic crisis" that is "eroding the very social contract upon which the Constitution of the United States of America was founded"...

Via #OccupyAustin..

[Now UPDATED with audio archives below!]

The occupation of your public airwaves continues tonight as I guest-host the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show one again (and again tomorrow) while Mike is in D.C. rallying with the October2011.org / OccupyWashingtonDC.org demonstrations kicking off today.

Once again we'll be BradCasting LIVE 9pm-Mid ET (6p-9p PT), coast-to-coast and around the uprising globe from the studios of L.A.'s KTLK am1150 in beautiful downtown Burbank. Join us by tuning in, chatting in, Tweeting in and calling in! Our LIVE room will be up and rolling right here at The BRAD BLOG, as usual, while we are on the air. Please stop by and join the fun while you're listening! (The Chat Room will open at the bottom of this item a few minutes before airtime, see down below, just above "Comments" section.)

Scheduled tonight (so far):

• MIKE MALLOY, the boss checks in from the October2011.org/OccupyWashingtonDC.org demonstrations today in D.C.
• JOSHUA HOLLAND, senior writer/editor at Alternet.org from the #OccupySF demonstrations on what happened last night after we went off the air and police moved in to clear out tents and other property of protesters in San Francisco. And on his latest article on decades of increasing inequality as the top 1% has robbed the bottom 99% blind.
• NANCY TOBI, Founder and Chair of the NH Fair Elections Committee, Adviser to Election Defense Alliance and the Election Transparency Coalition and author of Hands-On Elections: An Informational Handbook for Running Real Elections, Using Real Paper Ballots, Counted by Real People.
• PLUS! More calls from "Occupation Nation" and "Occupiers" around the world (leaving Hour 3 open for calls from you all again!) and anything else that you'd like to talk about at 877-520-1150 and with your tweets to @TheBradBlog!...

The Mike Malloy Show is nationally syndicated on air affiliates across the country and also on SiriusXM Ch. 127. You may also listen online to the free LIVE audio stream at affiliate GREEN 960 in San Francisco or at WhiteRose Society or via MikeMalloy.com.

POST-SHOW UPDATE: The uprising continues. And it's all heard in audio archives below, with the commercials removed for your uprising pleasure! (The chat room archives are there too.) Enjoy!...

On my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show yesterday, I spoke with Lisa Clapier, media rep from OccupyLosAngeles.org on the growing protests outside of the LA city hall, and the remarkable cooperation --- including an extrarodinary resolution of support(!) [PDF] --- they've so far received from members of the L.A. City Council.

[Update: More now on the L.A. City Council's remarkable resolution from Ernest Canning here.]

Download MP3 or listen online below [appx 28 mins]...

More on Occupation Nation tonight, as I continue to guest host the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show. Tune in tonight at 6p PT / 9p ET. We'll have live listening links and an occupied chat room right here at The BRAD BLOG! (Audio archives of last night's show are here.)

Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!...



(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Coal is a drag on the economy; Coast Guard said 'NO!', but Arctic drilling a 'GO' anyway; Surprise! Koch Industries lied about profiting from Keystone XL Pipeline; PLUS: Occupy Wall St. protesters rally to save the future with action on clean energy & climate change ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Floods drown Asia's rice bowl; AZ utility sued over Four Corners pollution; Stepping up construction of new power lines; Doctors: NY should weigh health risks of fracking; Salazar: 'Fracking' can be safe and responsible; IEA warns of ballooning world fossil fuel subsidies; Mussels, nutrients damaging Great Lakes; Supreme Court ends Bush-era grazing regulations; Florida's invasive species problem worst in the world; Solar Leaf: while Tea Party slimes energy progress, innovators build the future; Climate change and the end of Australia ...PLUS: Attack of the armadillos?: roving bands of "fairly destructive" armadillos may march on DC thanks to climate change ...

Douglas Rushkoff's CNN article from where the above was found --- in which he slams his colleague, CNN's Erin Burnett as "condescending and reductionist" --- is well worth the read as well.

We will continue to #OccupyYOURPublicAirwaves and cover the uprising on tonight's nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show, which I'm guest hosting through Friday night as Mike emcees at the kick off for today's OccupyWashingtonDC.org.

(Last night's very lively show is now archived, commercial-free, right here, in case you missed any of it!)

[Now UPDATED with tonight's audio archives below!]

The revolution may not be televised...but it will be radio-active as we #OccupyYOURPublicAirwaves!

I'll be guest-hosting the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show tonight, tomorrow and Friday as Mike heads to D.C. to emcee the kick off of the October2011.org demonstration and we'll be

As ever, we'll be BradCasting LIVE 9pm-Mid ET (6p-9p PT), coast-to-coast and around the uprising globe from the studios of L.A.'s KTLK am1150 in beautiful downtown Burbank. Join us by tuning in, chatting in, Tweeting in and calling in! Our LIVE room will be up and rolling right here at The BRAD BLOG, as usual, while we are on the air. Please stop by and join the fun while you're listening! (The Chat Room will open at the bottom of this item a few minutes before airtime, see down below, just above "Comments" section.)

Scheduled tonight (so far):

• MIKE MALLOY, host of some radio show or another, checking in with a preview of the October2011.org/OccupyWashingtonDC.org protests in D.C.
• JESSE LAGRECA, the protester who gave Fox "News" what for in an interview that will not be airing on Fox "News" from the #OccupyWallStreet demonstration.
• DR. ROGER JOHNSTON, of Argonne National Laboratory's Vulnerability Assessment Team on his recent, chilling $26 remote control hack of a Diebold (and Sequoia) voting machine.
• PLUS! Calls from "Occupations" and "Occupiers" around the nation (leaving Hour 3 open for calls from you guys! #OccupyYOURPublicAirwaves!) and anything else that you'd like to talk about at 877-520-1150 and with your tweets to @TheBradBlog!...

The Mike Malloy Show is nationally syndicated on air affiliates across the country and also on SiriusXM Ch. 127. You may also listen online to the free LIVE audio stream at affiliate GREEN 960 in San Francisco or at WhiteRose Society or via MikeMalloy.com.

POST-SHOW UPDATE: The uprising begins. A helluva show tonight. You can check it all out below in the commercial-free audio archives (along with the chat room archives). Enjoy!...

The St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments, along with the U.S. Secret Service, have agreed to pay $100,000 in compensation as part of a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed after the inappropriate arrests and detentions of journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and two of her producers at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

The settlement also includes an agreement that the St. Paul police department will "implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public."

As we originally reported in September of 2008, the three journalists were arrested (along with other members of the media) while covering protests and mass arrests outside the GOP convention, despite clearly identifying themselves to the police as members of the media.

In addition to the mass arrests of active protesters, footage later emerged showing an absolutely bizarre, and seemingly indiscriminate, police crackdown on peaceful citizens otherwise having gathered in a nearby city park (See video below.)

Democracy Now! producer Nicole Salazar was even roughed up by police in the course of her apprehension. Goodman, who had rushed out from the convention floor after hearing of the arrests of her producers, was cuffed and taken in despite no hint of inappropriate behavior, as seen in the two short video clips below...

Well, now we know how much the NJ state Republican Party --- if they were the ones who really picked up the tab --- were willing to spend to send Gov. Chris Christie out to secretly hob-nob with the millionaire and billionaire corporatists at the Koch brothers' super-secret conference near Vail, CO, last June.

In a story headlined "Christie Comes Clean on Trips as N.J. Governor Seeks Donations," Bloomberg News reports that Christie "has made at least 35 political appearances outside New Jersey since he took office in January 2010, according to a review of his public schedule, published reports and Republican State Committee finance records filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission."

"Those trips became a political issue after Christie's June attendance at a private Colorado gathering hosted by the Tea-Party-backing Koch brothers came to light," the news agency says. "Christie, who pledged a 'new era of transparency' in his inaugural address, didn't notify the public or legislative leaders that he left the state that day."

But buried in that story was this little gem...

Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!...



(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Koch Industries did business with Iran, despite trading ban, alleged to have bribed several other countries; Shell Oil bribed Nigerian officials; Republicans' investigation of Solyndra halts military solar program; PLUS: The future is here: Winning clean energy home designs at the Solar Decathlon ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Hansen: Southern US will become almost uninhabitable; Current 'crazy weather' will 'become the norm a decade from now'; Some sea lice with your farmed salmon?; Tuvalu runs out of water; Mapping organized climate deniers; Who's bankrolling the climate-change deniers?; Study: organized climate change denial played crucial role in blocking legislation; They won't pay: shipping industry opposes waterway maintenance; GOP wants more logging In nat'l forests; Salmonella stays on chickens; Grim Prediction: 9 more years of TX drought?; Cleaning up Washington's Hanford Nuclear Site; Fed oil spill regulations lacking: report; Cleanup approved for largest abandoned uranium mine in Navajo Nation ...PLUS: "I, for one, Welcome our New Hairy, Crazy Overlords"...

Let's see. #OccupyWallStreet is an ever-growing group of American citizens actually doing something unprecedented, while facing impossible odds and putting their lives on the line in hopes of positively changing the course of the nation. NJ Gov. Chris Christie isn't.

No wonder he gets so much more national media attention.

[UPDATE: LaGreca joined me on Wednesday night's Mike Malloy Show, which I've been guest hosting this week. You can now listen to my archived interview with him, about his experience with Fox seen below, right here.]

For some reason, this interview with brilliant 'Occupy Wall Street' protester Jesse LaGreca is unlikely to make it on to Fox "News," as their regular ambush reporter for these sorts of affairs, Griff Jenkins, doesn't seem to have gotten exactly what he was likely hoping to get.

Courtesy Drew Grant at the New York Observer (who has more details, along with the full transcript)...

By the way, we've been buried with several other things ourselves and haven't been able to cover the still-growing Occupy Wall Street protests up until now, other than here and there on The Twitters. But we'll recommend this story by Micah L. Sifry at techPresident, if you're trying to figure out what these very real grassroots uprisings (unlike the fake Fox "News" sponsored "Tea Party" protests) are all about...and how they may be coming to a justifiably outraged population near you.

Also, as we'll be sitting in to guest host the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show again this week (Wed-Fri, 6p-9p ET) while Mike heads out to D.C. himself to take part in the Occupy DC demonstrations that are beginning there, I suspect we'll be covering all of the above much more --- in one place or another --- in the coming days...

Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

"What is a vote worth?" Venango County, PA's Election Board Chairman Craig Adams, a Republican, asked last week. "If the vote is counted it is priceless. If it is not counted, I don't care what it costs. Let's get a right."

"After months of legal wrangling," Marybeth Kuznik of the non-partisan Election Integrity advocacy group VotePA told The BRAD BLOG last week, Venango County's landmark independent forensic examination of the notoriously unreliable and 100% unverifiable ES&S iVotronic Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, most often touch-screen) e-voting system finally got under way.

Kuznik explained that the study comes in the wake of the heavily Republican-leaning county having experienced "numerous reports of vote-flipping, candidates missing from screens, write-ins missing, and high undervote rates in their May 17 Primary." Some candidates on the ballots even were reported by the voting machines to have received zero votes...

Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

Perhaps the only positive thing one can say about GOP voter suppression is that it is relentless.

In 2008 the ME Legislature killed a Republican-backed bill designed to prohibit out-of-state college students from voting in the communities in which their schools were located. The state's Democratic Attorney General Steven Rowe said at the time, that the proposal was unconstitutional under the 1979 ruling in Symm vs. United States, establishing the right of college students to treat their dorms as their residence for voting purposes.

This year, on July 25th, the clueless ME GOP Chairman Charlie Webster asked Maine's Republican Sec. of State Charles E. Summers, Jr. to investigate 206 out-of-state college students whom he believed committed "voter fraud" because they registered and voted in the Pine Tree State.

Summers, after a two month investigation, was forced to admit that every one of the students was lawfully registered to vote in ME; that there was no evidence that any one of them committed voter fraud.

But why let a little thing like the absence of evidence of any crime get in the way of dissuading college students from exercising their right to vote? That's exactly what Summers decided to do...

"The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation." - President Jimmy Carter
(Inaugural Address, 1/20/1977)

Oh, well. It was a nice idea at the time.

Nonetheless, happy 87th birthday (yesterday), Mr. President!

[Hat-tip @WestWingReport.]