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[Zangi]

I'm amazed they actually called it the patriot act. A deliberately attention grabbing name.

That is how politics works. 
You are not a patriot if you vote against the patriot act.  You are actually a traitor to the nation if you do vote against the patriot act.

[Scoops Novel]

You mistake me. As evidenced by this board, you 'Mericans don't always live in Texas. I suppose there's a certain degree to which you couldn't hide something like this for long, but I'm surprised it's not off the books, or at least called something more subtle then the patriot act. Sounds like a distraction to me, and then some.

[Zangi]

The name of the act is definitely made to be a vehicle for distraction.  It allows its proponents to make stupid accusations, so yea, they can muddle the actual facts by being loud and accusatory... especially after the scathing from 9/11.
And the far less informed constituents can and will believe that the patriot act is a good thing.  Well, some believe it a good thing anyway, knowing what it can do.

A satire game based on being Congresspeople...

[Graknorke]

A satire game based on being Congresspeople...

I love this thing.
Those "half-hearted punditry" lines are beautiful.

[Reelya]

There was a good article outlining the Occupy Sandy relief effort a friend of mine just linked:
http://prospect.org/article/how-sandy-saved-occupy

Spoiler: Excerpt (click to show/hide)

How did we get here? This is the question occupying “occupiers,” as they call themselves, at their first post-Sandy community-wide meeting. On this cold November night just before Thanksgiving, “here” is the St. Jacobi Lutheran church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where at least 300 Occupy Sandy volunteers have crammed into the pews. But “here” is also the uneasy juncture of political protest and disaster relief where this newly formed organization finds itself.

Occupy Sandy’s story began in the hours just after the superstorm hit, when “a few of us occupiers were just texting each other at like 2 a.m. seeing how we could help,” recalls Bre Lembitz. A lanky 22-year-old whose blond curls are shaved close on one side of her head, Lambitz suggested bringing meals to the shore, and “everyone was totally down to do relief work.” So the next morning, she and a few others from Occupy Wall Street created an Occupy Sandy Twitter account and Facebook page, and headed down to Breezy Point with hot food, though they didn’t mention their affiliation to the residents of the relatively conservative community at the time. “It felt like people might not trust us to eat the food,” says Lambitz. “It was about helping the people—not pushing Occupy values.”

Four adrenaline- and caffeine-fueled weeks later, while the question of how the Occupy movement’s founding values jive with relief work is still a matter of debate, there is no question how much the mammoth, headless, volunteer-run disaster-relief organization has helped people. Since those first days, Occupy Sandy has cooked and distributed between 10,000 and 15,000 meals each day; enlisted more than 7,000 volunteers; created three major distribution hubs from which it dispatches both workers and supplies; and established dozens of recovery sites in New York and New Jersey. Perhaps most stunning, the group has raised more than $600,000 in cash for its efforts and received more than $700,000 in supplies donated through repurposed online wedding registries.

[SalmonGod]

VIDEO: Bloomberg Praises Occupy Sandy During Surprise Trip to the Rockaways

Well... I suppose it's an improvement over a year ago...

[SalmonGod]

Thinking about it... Occupy Sandy is a perfect expression of what Occupy is all about.  It's not just the fact that they're addressing inequalities, but how they're doing it. 

One of the main ideas behind OWS is that society needs to be deeply re-thought.  This may not be a universal sentiment, but it is a widespread one.  This is part of the reason remaining leaderless has been such a big deal -- to practice and demonstrate de-centralized organization as an ideal.  It just didn't have anything to demonstrate that most people could relate to at a glance, and it had opposed forces weighed against it with vast resources.

Now these relief efforts, and Occupy Sandy is not the first, gives the movement an opportunity to put decentralized organization into action in a way that directly, positively effects people.  They've shown that all it takes to make a huge difference (comparable to centralized institutions with more resources, infrastructure, and practice) is strong, technologically enabled social networking and the willingness to quickly transform mutual agreement into action.  I believe and hope that it's only a matter of time before initiatives like these earn recognition outside of ideology, and the methodology begins to take root more broadly throughout society.

[SalmonGod]

Bloomberg Praises ‘Occupy Sandy,’ Then Sends Police To Shut It Down

[Scelly9]

Wow. I know kneejerk reactions against occupy are pretty par for the course at the moment, but come on.

[dei]

I haven't been paying attention to this because honestly at first they simply weren't doing anything useful. After the news of their actual activism with Occupy Sandy however I think I might keep an eye on these protesters to see if they do something else that is useful.

There was a bit of an Occupy movement here where I live last year by the way. Half-a-dozen college students camping out in the park. It lasted for a few weeks and then nothing was ever heard of them again. Seeing as I live near a party university I suppose they decided their youthful years could be better spent having fun when they don't know the first thing about activism.

God damnit I hate my generation, or at least the select individuals that make it seem like some kind of lolcow. However I hope this Occupy movement does something good in the near future. Either way, I'll keep an eye on it I suppose.

[Reelya]

Ghandi and Martin Luther King didn't do anything "useful" either ...

The only difference is that "Occupy" doesn't have a clear figurehead to go out and make epic speeches.

[SalmonGod]

More info

God damnit I hate my generation, or at least the select individuals that make it seem like some kind of lolcow. However I hope this Occupy movement does something good in the near future. Either way, I'll keep an eye on it I suppose.

Occupy has already done a lot of good things.  They're just not as visible, concrete, or ideologically transcendent as the hurricane relief efforts.  Mainstream media exclusively focused on the encampments and street marches, and most people who never bother to dig deeper than a passing glance at tv news assume that the movement has died out.  The movement is much broader than that.

There are foreclosure resistance efforts across the country organized under the Occupy banner, that provide legal aid, sit-ins, etc to stall or prevent foreclosures.
They've considerably brightened the spotlight on global corruption and inequality, to the point that it's finally being acknowledged in mainstream media and politics.  It was barely acknowledged previously.
It prompted serious grassroots discussions about social change (necessity/variety/strategy).
It's revitalized awareness and networking for activism for younger generations, which was almost non-existent previously.
They've provided relief for the homeless.
They're involved in resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline, which is a very important fight.
They're involved in multiple worker's rights missions, such as Occupy Walmart.
I know there's more, but that's what I can rattle off quickly off the top of my head.

Oh, yeah... how could I forget the awesome debt elimination scheme recently put together by Occupy founders?

[Sheb]

Also, dei, you only got the right to complain about your generation if you move your own arse. (Not saying you don't, I don't know the first thing about you.)

Deep in myself I know that the opportunity to feel smugly superior play a really minor if not insignificant part in my motivation to do activism. That and the fact that I want to be able to face my children.

[SalmonGod]

This is one of the bravest protest actions I've ever seen.

The only comparable I can think of right now is when four activists climbed a construction crane to hang a giant banner from 300 ft, kicking off the Battle in Seattle.

[sneakey pete]

As a random aside, I thought it would be bigger.

As a less random aside, I don't get the pipeline hate. But honestly I think that any amount of discussion on it wouldn't change either of our positions on it, so i'm not going to come back here and discuss it except to say that I respect that you have your opinion on it, but you should also remain aware that there's probably a large section of the world who doesn't care or thinks that it is a fine thing.