An unusually dynamic and lively Manhattan Community Board 1 Meeting took place blocks away from Liberty Park yesterday. The Quality of Life/Financial District Committee met to deliberate over Occupy Wall Street and hear remarks from residents. The board members, which have been in support of Occupy Wall Street, have been receiving an increasing amount of complaints about the occupation.

Occupy Wall Street is a healthy and robust occupation right now. It is swarming with media, so much media that occupiers are likely growing tired of interviews (which means the best reporting is coming from people who just sit there and observe the occupation). Each and every day there is some kind of an action that pulls into focus how poor, working class and middle class Americans are being made to shoulder the burdens of society while corporations and the richest 1% receive tax breaks, bailouts and enjoy increased influence over government. During the night when the occupation is most vulnerable to raids or a forced dispersal, the camp is at peace because the occupation has largely won this struggle.

Kevin Gosztola is stopping by #OccupyPhilly this afternoon on his way to New York. Occupy Philadelphia launched last Thursday at Dilworth Plaza, and today issued a press release indicating that there are about 80 tents currently set up on the west side of City Hall. Kevin will be livestreaming his visit and interviewing the protesters.

Today’s events include a concert from 1-4pm organized by Parliament Funkadelic’s Bruce Mays featuring JiLil Timmons, Jason Balmer, GQ, Tre Austin and Amada Gilson. There will be a 3:30 solidarity march with the State Hands Union of Philadelphia (IATSE 8), and a 7 pm general assembly meeting at 15th and JFK.

You can follow #OccupyPhilly on Twitter.

Now, leaders who are working on the Obama 2012 re-election campaign or progressive groups that will be canvassing door-to-door to convince people to not abandon Obama are looking to tap in to Occupy Wall Street’s energy. The country is about to see, as Salon’s Joan Walsh suggests, what happens when a movement without leaders meets leaders without a movement. The segment MSNBC host Ed Schultz did on October 5 indicates liberals, whom the Democratic Party counts on to deliver votes, will be working to contain this movement and make it seem these are really frustrated Obama supporters.

Over the past ten days, hundreds of people have occupied Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan in New York as part of Occupy Wall Street. Citizens have faced down a city that has fortified Wall Street with blockades so corporate criminals responsible for the economic collapse in 2008 can avoid confrontations with angry, passionate Americans.

Drawing inspiration from Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Egypt and other countries where occupations have taken place in the past months, organizers are preparing to occupy Wall Street in New York on September 17. They have spent weeks planning logistics and building support for the action and hope to see 20,000 swarm lower Manhattan and set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy the area.

The US has no problem with pressuring, even meddling in a country’s affairs, if only to get the outcome it desires—whatever will be best for US interests. Yet, it knows that it must consider all the variables, stick to talking points and not apply too much or too little pressure in order to achieve success in getting whatever the US wants from a country’s government.

Unnamed sources and materials discovered in Tripoli, where the regime’s spies monitored telecommunications, show Amesys, a unit of the French company Bull SA, assisted in the spying. Sources and materials also indicate Chinese company ZTE Corp provided equipment to Gaddafi.

BART spokesperson Linton Johnson held a press conference to address the need to disrupt communications in advance of a lawful, peaceable assembly.

He spoke of a US Supreme Court case from 1969 that he said supported BART’s right to do so. Indeed, there could be no other case that Mr. Johnson was referring to besides Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the 1969 case that said that prior restraints upon seditious speech were valid in such narrow circumstances that the government must prove that the seditious speech was going to cause an “imminent lawless action” before a restraint on speech could stand.

No case following Brandenburg has ever held speech to constitute an “imminent lawless action.” BART, as judge, jury and executioner of free speech, is the sole body to reach that conclusion.

The shutting down of services has sparked a legal debate that is definitely worth having. An action like this had never been taken by a government agency. On one hand, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) contend it violated citizens’ First Amendment rights. EFF Austin (not affiliated with EFF) thinks BART likely violated section 333 of the Communications Act posted a statement showing. (Users have been using Twitter to urge people to file complaints with the FCC.)

On the other hand, there are those who do not think this could be challenged in court. The ACLU condemned BART’s move but a staff attorney with the ACLU now tells Wired that there could be times when a government agency would be justified in shutting down mobile services.