"OccuParty" a Great Success
Thanks to all of you who attended our "Occuparty" at Roscoe's BBQ January 5th. The place was packed with people and the music by Pete Herzog & Patrick Tovatt, followed by the Rogue Suspects, was incredible.
As most of you know, the 'Medford 6', who occupied Rep. Greg Walden's Medford office on Dec. 5th until the staff called police and had them arrested for trespassing, got sentenced in Medford Municipal Court. Judge William Haberlach disposed of our cases all in one batch as quickly as he could, accepting our "No Contest" pleas and fining us each $150. The judge refused to allow us to explain to him why we did what we did, but because reporters for all three local TV news stations showed up for our rally before the hearing along with a Mail Tribune reporter, we were able to state our case to the public through the news media.
In brief that case is that Walden (who no doubt is a nice guy personally) has allowed himself to become an effective tool in Congress for the 1% -- the wealthiest of the wealthiest and the large corporations they run. He accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars each election cycle from these sources and then votes for their interests in the House and is an assistant GOP whip who works closely with Speaker John Boehner to cut budgets for educations, health care, environmental regulation and increase spending for wars and "defense." Walden also voted recently for the amendment to the National Defense Appropriations Act that allows our military to imprison anyone, even an American citizen, who they label a "terrorist" for as long as they like without a hearing or trial. Remarks and pictures by Allen Hallmark, Citizens for Peace and Justice.
