In Portland, Oregon, Occupy Oregon (also known as Occupy PDX) re-occupied Shermanski Park last night. They setup tents, tarps, and folding tables at 4:35 pm PST. A police officer drove by and informed the occupiers it was illegal to “camp” in a public park. The occupiers continued to setup the new encampment. Families with their children were there and a kitchen went up in the park too. They even had a bat signal shining on a building that was able to broadcast text messages from people all over the world.

An AP report on costs cities are facing for police to deal with occupations raises more questions than the AP report mentions. Cities need to be asking whether they wish to be spending money on police actions that have often been unnecessary, highly questionable or worse, as the contrast between different cities shows.

It was a perfect example of the aspirational 53% who want so badly to be 1% that they’ll defend the Oligarchs against the truth chanted by their own natural allies. These people, represented on the street yesterday by Raging Man, cannot see their own natural affinity with the 99%. And so they scream and holler their allegiance to the 1%, thinking that they’ll be admitted to the club if they defend “their” team in the street.

When, actually — to the Oligarchs — they are all just street rabble yelling at one another, to be ignored and belittled and crushed beneath their boots when necessary. All of them cogs in The Owners’ machine, some more aware of their role as indebted serfs than others.

So, if your high schooler comes home one day smelling of patchouli and wearing a peace sign amulet, and blames it on “the recruiters” — don’t worry, it’s not the Air Force Academy going soft. It’s simply the Army of One Hippie: the Peace Recruiters will provide a view of an alternative lifestyle to the video-game, shoot-em-up, go-to-war, get-your-education-paid-for, (did-I-mention-lose-your-legs?) United States Military recruiters.

From athena1 at The Dissenter, a roundup of Occupation stories and pictures from around the country and beyond.

I was a little worried, as I prepared to head to the waterfront to assemble for Occupy Portland; I had just gotten an email from Daily Kos asking me to “pledge” to occupy, and it said I would be joining 37 other hardy souls.

“Really?” my friend Denise asked, “there’s only going to be 37 people?” I assured her that for any lefty event, even in the crappiest weather, we always get at least 5000, but maybe we ought to head down anyway. I grabbed my sign, which said “Let Them Eat Koch,” and we set out.

A government filing submitted last month addresses the defense’s requests for notes regarding various interactions Mohamud had with the FBI. It describes two sets of hand-written notes from a FBI agent(s). The first are the notes an FBI agent took after Mohamud got stopped at the airport last year.

Those handwritten notes were preserved.

But there was another set of handwritten notes–those documenting the July 30 meet at which a recording device failed. Those notes were not preserved.

At first, the government didn’t admit that “Bill Smith” worked for the government (and it remains unclear who he works for). Only after the defense confronted them with that fact did they concede he was, but they claimed these earlier contacts have no connection to this case.

As long as there’s a public defender alert enough to recognize the potential for entrapment, and the import of the missing recording and recording device of the first meeting between Mohamud and the FBI, I think we can presume this defendant is in competent legal hands.

Here’s one of my biggest concerns: that the quickness with which the government slaps a WMD charge on someone experimenting with explosives reflects its interest or disinterest in fully investigating that person’s goals and associates.