A new video from MoveOn.org features a daughter asking her mother to do what she can to ensure senators keep dangerous guns out of schools by passing the Assault Weapons Ban. This is part of MoveOn.org members' gun violence prevention campaign, which advocates background checks, limits on high-capacity magazines, and a ban on assault weapons.

A Texas public school employee was accidentally shot and wounded during a district-sponsored handgun safety class. According to local news sources KLTV and The Tyler Morning Telegraph, maintenance worker Glenn Geddie was accidentally shot after a training session aimed towards arming employees.

The Van Independent School District released the following statement on the incident:

At the conclusion of the CHL training on February 27, 2013, one certified person stayed for private instruction with the instructor and had a mechanical malfunction with his weapon. With the assistance of the instructor, the malfunction was addressed, but the gun misfired and the bullet ricocheted coming back to strike the VISD employee in the left leg. The VISD employee was attended to at the scene and transferred to Tyler for further treatment. The injury is not life threatening or disabling. Because of privacy and security issues we cannot make any further statement.

Anyone out there want to tell me what a good idea arming public school staff members is again?

"My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways."

Shane Koyczan

To This Day Project is a project based on a spoken word poem written by Shane Koyczan called “To This Day”, to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual.

Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. We can give them a starting point… A message that will have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying.

Animators and motion artists brought their unique styles to 20 second segments that will thread into one fluid voice.

This collaborative volunteer effort will demonstrate what a community of caring individuals are capable of when they come together.

http://www.tothisdayproject.com

http://www.shanekoyczan.com/

http://www.bullying.org

http://www.giantant.ca

Detroit Occupiers left Grand Circus Park nearly a year ago in the week preceding the city's Thanksgiving Day parade.

A new "mini-documentary" released on YouTube recently provides a glimpse of what it was like during those chilly days when the Detroit Occupy movement took root in October until the group left the park encampment in November 2011. "Occupy Detroit" depicts life in the encampment, from the medical tent to food preparation and the rallies it held in the streets of Detroit.

Although Occupy Detroit protestors are no longer visible on a daily basis in the public square, the movement continues to make its presence known. Members have taken an active role in supporting homeowners during bank foreclosures, occupied a school for the deaf and support other numerous causes, such as a women's rights march scheduled in Lansing later this week.

After leaving the park, a supporter donated Occupy Detroit use of a rent free building for one year. It now serves as the Occupy Detroit Activist Center at 5900 Michigan and many Occupy Detroit members have begun renting apartments above the center.

RT's Anastasia Churkina talks to Occupy activist and war veteran Scott Olsen on the state of affairs in the U.S. today, and the changes that have taken place since the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"Most likely people are either going to vote for Democrats or Republicans and I think both those are wrong choices. They are both working for the same system, they are both taking money from the same people, from the same banks and you can see in their policy that they are rewarding their donors. Voting for the continuing of this policy is not going to change anything at all," explains Olsen.

On alternatives in the coming election, Olsen said "You can vote for the third party that may not win. You may count voting for the third party as a waste of vote, but I think voting for a Democrat or a Republican is a waste of vote. You are shooting yourself in the foot if you are voting for either of those."

A great conversation with Scott Olsen. He talks about war, being a veteran, homeless veterans and the tragedy of 18 military veterans daily committing suicide in the U.S.

You'll also hear Scott's thoughts on the Occupy movement, and what's ahead for Occupy Wall Street now that it's approaching its first anniversary.

A full transcript follows below the fold...

Continue reading »

Network Executive Director Sister Simone Campbell kicked off the nine-state “Nuns on the Bus” tour at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Des Moines, Iowa. She spoke on the pressing need for solidarity in our society and the harm the House Republican budget would bring the vulnerable families.

In a spirited retort to the Vatican, a group of Roman Catholic nuns is planning a bus trip across nine states this month, stopping at homeless shelters, food pantries, schools and health care facilities run by nuns to highlight their work with the nation’s poor and disenfranchised.

The bus tour is a response to a blistering critique of American nuns released in April by the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which included the accusation that the nuns are outspoken on issues of social justice, but silent on other issues the church considers crucial: abortion and gay marriage.

The sisters plan to use the tour also to protest cuts in programs for the poor and working families in the federal budget that was passed by the House of Representatives and proposed by Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who cited his Catholic faith to justify the cuts.

“We’re doing this because these are life issues,” said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a liberal social justice lobby in Washington. “And by lifting up the work of Catholic sisters, we will demonstrate the very programs and services that will be decimated by the House budget.”

The bus tour is to begin on June 18 in Iowa and end on July 2 in Virginia. The dates overlap with the “Fortnight for Freedom,” events announced by Catholic bishops to rally opposition to what they see as the Obama administration’s violations of religious freedom. The bishops object in particular to a mandate in the health care overhaul to require religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to offer their employees coverage for birth control in their insurance plans.

Sister Simone, a lawyer who ran a legal clinic for the poor in Oakland, Calif., for 18 years, is not completely on board with the bishops’ religious liberty campaign. She said that financing for Catholic social services had increased significantly in the three years since President Obama took office: “We’re celebrating the religious freedom we have.”

She recently spent time with the Iraqi Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine, and said: “If you want to talk about religious liberty, look at them. Their mother house was in Mosul until it got bombed.”

But the nuns do find common cause with the bishops on the budget cuts, and their bus tour will publicize letters the bishops recently sent protesting the budget. The nuns are inviting bishops whose dioceses they will pass through to join them. The tour will stop at local Congressional offices and lobby along the way.

Network, where Sister Simone and two other nuns serve on a staff of nine, was singled out in the Vatican’s recent critique of the nuns. The critique focused on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group for leaders of about 80 percent of women’s orders.

Network is not formally affiliated with the Leadership Conference. But Sister Simone and other nuns angered some bishops by lobbying to help pass the Obama administration’s health care overhaul. The Vatican document criticized nuns for challenging bishops, “who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”

The tour, “Nuns on the Bus: Nuns Drive for Faith, Family and Fairness,” includes stops in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The bus, with a sound system, signs and a podium, will seat only 12, and Sister Simone said she had had to turn away many would-be riders.

A rotating group will be on board, including Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of Social Service, Sister Simone’s order. They plan to sleep at mother houses of the religious orders

Click here to view the Nuns tour schedule.

[Photo via Flickr]

In Chicago on Sunday, nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They said they're proud of the men and women with whom they served, but not of missions they were asked to perform.

Marine Vet, Scott Olsen who was severely injured when he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister during an Occupy Oakland event in 2011 drew loud cheers from the crowd as he stepped up to speak and throw away his medals.

The "NoNATO" protesters said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on lies and failed policies, and that the wars have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and consumed trillions of dollars which could have been spent on schools, clinics and social programs at home.

Some are calling for the dissolution of NATO, the 63-year-old military alliance.

"We see that the global war on terrorism is a failed policy and we don't want to be part of that mistake anymore," Aaron Hughes, who served in Iraq in 2003, said prior to the event.

Hughes said he especially wants to call attention to the medical needs of American servicemen and women who are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or are the victims of sexual assault. He said that too many are not having their needs addressed and instead are often being returned to combat.

"That's because of the generals and their failed policies, and not because of the service members. That's why we're going to march on NATO, and that's what this is really about. It's about them acknowledging that they made a mistake," he said.

In what is anticipated to become the largest protest of the year so far for the Occupy movement, Occupy Wall Street organizers are preparing for a general strike on International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, and Occupy Denver is calling for protesters, businesses and laborers to stand in solidarity with this international day of protest.

According to its website, Occupy Denver will hold a rally on May 1st at Civic Center Park and a march around Denver. In the afternoon, protesters will meet back up at Civic Center Park for activities for both adults and children, live music, food and teach-ins to round off the day.

Occupy Denver issued this statement earlier this year about the importance of May Day:

Now is the time for community, neighborhood, school and work groups to organize autonomous and direct actions. As long as we are attacked and deprived of our basic rights, we will not allow for business as usual. We will support independent efforts of people to claim control over their workplaces, schools, and community as the beginning stages of our journey towards reclaiming our lives and taking the power back.

May Day will be the beginning of a new chapter of struggle for justice and equality. As we occupy our streets, workplaces, neighborhoods, and other common spaces, we start to build a new world within the shell of this old world of injustice and inequality. Let May 1st be the beginning of a new chapter that has yet to be written.

For more information on Occupy Denver's May Day plans, visit their website here.

Citing Oakland Police's continued use of violent tactics against Occupy Oakland, the hacktivist group known as Anonymous has published sensitive personal information of several Oakland government employees and officials.

The cyber attack was announced on Twitter, with Anonymous posting links to a statement published on Pastebin. (Sorry, I'm not going to link to the information site.)

"Anonymous has been watching. Since the inception of Occupy Oakland, We have been actively monitoring your behavior, and exposing the identities and sensitive information of Officers of the Oakland Police Department; as they have continued to act in an unprofessional and violent manner. You tear gassed Us. You shot Us with your weapons."

"You arrested Us. You beat Us. You also did this to Our Friends, and to Our Families. We watched as you cut budgets, cut Our jobs, closed Our schools, Our parks, and Our libraries, while leaving your own salaries alone."

"The people on this list are supposed to represent the best of what the City of Oakland has to offer. If they are the best, why is there so much trouble within the Police Department, and in the City of Oakland?"

A little flash from the past that's worth taking note:

"The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state, and nation ... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and every agency created for the public protection ...

To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. This little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States Government for their own selfish purposes.

They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make cats paws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business ... these International Bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country."

--Mayor of New York City, John Hylan, March 26, 1922

[Title quote credit: George Santayana ]