The New York-based movement aimed at protesting corporate greed became a global movement over the weekend. Hundreds of cities around the world joined in denouncing the global economy and its current inequalities. Miami was among the cities joining in protesting, as well as other cities in Florida.

The Washington Post reports: “Rallies were held in more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States, with some of the largest occurring in Europe. The demonstration in Rome turned violent, and more than 70 people were arrested in Manhattan on Saturday night, but crowds elsewhere were largely peaceful.”

There are reports that more than 1,000 people showed up this weekend to protest in Miami.

Early in the afternoon, hundreds of Occupy Miami supporters gathered at the Torch of Friendship in Bayfront Park. The crowd held signs and chanted as bus drivers and passersby honked and yelled in solidarity with the movement. Unemployed residents, students, union members and countless other groups were represented in the rally denouncing corporate greed.

Hundreds of protesters later marched down to Government Center to occupy the area.

Pedro Santana, who was among the protesters, tells The Florida Independent the group is hoping to occupy Government Center as long as possible.

“If we could make it to Monday,” he says, “I will be very happy.”

Once the work week begins, it is unknown whether an occupation in a busy part of the city will face problems. In the meantime, via Facebook and Twitter, the protesters are asking supporters to join them in occupying the area on Sunday. Occupy Miami’s Facebook page already has over 10,000 supporters.

Here are pictures of Saturday’s event:

Catch more images on our sister site, The Florida Independent.

PAC’s are used to distribute money to individual candidates, and observers see it as a sign that social media companies have an increasing stake in the political landscape, reported The Hill.

“FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy,” a spokesman said, “while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Legislative debates about patents, monopolies and privacy have been been the main preserve of Microsoft and Google, two large tech companies that both have PACs.

Facebook has four registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and spent $550,000 in lobbying fees in fiscal year 2011. This is a big jump from the $350,000 it spent in 2010. In fact, in the second quarter this year, Facebook spent more than it ever has before on lobbying.

According to Open Secrets, the majority of Facebook’s money is directed at copyright, patent and trademark issues and media information and publishing sectors, but it also has a stake in natural resources and trade.

Most recently, it lobbied on the America Invests Act, which enacted the most significant change to U.S. patent law since 1952, changing it from a “first to invent” to a “first to file” system.

Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan group that focuses on privacy issues, told The New York Times that he was not surprised  Facebook is looking to step up its lobbying efforts.

“Facebook is monetizing its platform,” Court said. “This is all about how much it is going to be able to push the envelope with consumers and not have the government require it to change.”

The student learned that someone had created a Facebook profile masquerading as the student, reports the Lansing State Journal. The mother of the teenager learned the fake profile identified her son as gay, and went to police. Despite pleas that the profile be removed by Facebook authorities, the profile remained active until after Sept. 6 and the beginning of the school year. It has since been removed, and a judge issued a search warrant on Sept. 8 for Facebook back up information.

Officials say they will seek felony charges against whoever was responsible for the false profile.

“This is an act of cyber bullying, which will not be tolerated at the Williamston Community Schools,” [Williamston Police Officer Nick] Stonebrook said in the report.

Michigan is one of four states that does not have a comprehensive anti-bullying law, creating a mish-mash of policies and a variety of responses to bullying by authorities. Bullying has been linked to the suicides of several Michigan teens, as well as dozens of teen suicides across the country.

The suicides last autumn led Dan Savage to create the “It Gets Better” project. That project features celebrities and everyday people telling young people that life gets better and to hold on. Many politicians have created videos for the project, but when Ari Adler, spokesperson for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, was asked if Bolger would make such a video, he responded:

“There are no plans for the Speaker to make one of these videos,” Adler wrote. “The Speaker is concerned and supports initiatives that treat bullying as a serious issue for everyone. He does not, however, support legislation that seeks to address only special circumstances.”

Multiple inquiries to Geralyn Lasher, communications director for Gov. Rick Snyder, went without response.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Whether or not the death of a young Waterloo man is eventually ruled a hate crime mattered little to the hundreds of vigil attendees who gathered in downtown Cedar Rapids Thursday night.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr. (letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963)

Andrew Harrison, of Cedar Rapids, is someone who has typically been involved with local vigils and demonstrations as an advocate of the local LGBT community. But when the Club Basix bartender learned of the brutal beating death of Marcellus Andrews, 19, and that anti-gay slurs that were reportedly a part of the incident that took Andrews’ life, Harrison felt compelled to step forward.

“I put this event on Facebook because I saw no one else was doing anything, and I was just outraged,” Harrison told The Iowa Independent Thursday night at the vigil. “I knew I couldn’t go up to Waterloo and be a part of any vigil there, and I thought we should do something here in Cedar Rapids because our community has always turned out for observances, vigils and demonstrations.

“I knew that Cedar Rapids could show our state and the nation that we’re not going to put up with bullying and taunting.”

Harrison’s quickly made Facebook event resulted in roughly 300 people converging near the Tree of the Five Seasons monument for a vigil consisting of official statements from equality advocates, prayer, moments of silence and singing of the gospel hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

Participants at the candlelight vigil for Marcellus Andrews represented at least four counties in eastern Iowa. (Photo: Lynda Waddington/The Iowa Independent) 

Harrison added that regardless of if law enforcement investigating Andrews’ death rule the attack a hate crime, members of the LGBT community are aware of witness reports that the man was taunted with anti-gay slurs.

“No matter what one’s sexual orientation is, or what it is perceived to be, no one should be treated that way,” he said. “No one should have to hear such things — especially not at the end of his or her life. … Whether or not it was premeditated, whether or not this was a year-long dispute as the police have said it was, there should not have been comments like that made.”

Tim and Lisa Hughes, a Cedar Rapids couple that will celebrate their 30th year of marriage next week, said they were shocked to learn of such a violent thing happening in nearby Waterloo and they were shocked to know police weren’t considering prosecuting the event as a hate crime.

“Based on what we’ve heard that was said and done, it was really shocking to know this wasn’t being looked at as a hate crime,” Lisa Hughes said. “Anytime you kill someone there is hate involved.”

The couple said they wanted to come and attend the vigil because “it is important to show tolerance and acceptance of all others regardless of their race, their color, their gender or their sexual orientation.”

“We are all people,” said Lisa, who added while motioning to those around her on the 1st Avenue Bride, “And these are all good people.”

The world we live in, said Tim, has enough war and hate. “We should celebrate love and life every chance we get.”

Several families brought their children to the observance. 

Maureen Hill, faculty adviser for the City High Gay-Straight Alliance in Iowa City brought a handful of students to the vigil after the organization’s co-president, Ruth Anne Riedl, called attention to Andrews’ death and the witness accounts. For some time the GSA has been working to raise awareness of gender-based bullying and to show young people how powerful it can be to stand up to such adversity. Before the national “It Gets Better” campaign was underway, the Iowa City students had developed T-shirts that called attention to suicide.

“I personally thought it was really powerful to come out tonight, given how much time the group has spent on the T-shirts and trying to raise awareness about how important it is to stand together and be safe,” she said. “That something like this happened in Iowa — we simply needed to come out and be here.”

Riedl, a student at City High, said she became furious when she read the reports about what happened to Andrews.

“We live in 2011,” she said. “There is no reason something like this should happen.

“It doesn’t really matter what a person’s sexual orientation is, or even if the bullying and taunting is related to sexual orientation — it’s not OK for people to make remarks against others like that. I just thought it was important to come out and stand together and send that message: It is not OK for things like this to happen. There is no reason this should have happened, and it should never happen again.”

Rev. Martha Rogers, rector for Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, offered a prayer at the vigil and stood as a member of faith in the candlelight observance the followed on the bridge.

“As a member of the clergy, it is my honor and obligation to say that God creates us all, and we should all be treated with dignity and respect,” she said.

“A brutal death is not the way to change the world.”

While speakers made brief remarks, some closed their eyes and others wiped away tears. 

The Cedar Rapids vigil was one of several held throughout the state in memory of Andrews and as reminders for tolerance for others. Those who were unable to attend a vigil were asked to leave their porch light on Thursday night, and individuals from California to Texas and New York left notes on that event’s Facebook page that their light was glowing.

Participants in Cedar Rapids collected $300 in donations, which will be given to the Union Missionary Baptist Church Drill Squad, the Crusaders, that Andrews helped train as a captain.

Formal services for Andrews will be held this weekend.

Following public remarks, participants lined both sides of the 1st Ave Bridge. 

The memorial continued until late in the night. 

On his Facebook page, Jones said, “I have just discovered that bridge cards are being used in Florida, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and cruise ships. In January and February tax payers paid for 2 million dollars so that bridge card users could go on vacation!”

Agema, on his own Facebook account, wrote, “Just thought you ought to know – your Michigan Bridge cards for food were used in Florida from Dec-March of this year equaled about $2 million. It’s truly a great country when the poor can winter in Florida. California and Nevada were also hot spots. Even some in Hawaii! WOW What a country of abuse against taxpayers!”

In an e-mail to Michigan Messenger, Jones says his information came directly from Department of Human Services. “I have talked with DHS and confirmed that bridge cards were used in Hawaii, Nevada, California, and Florida and also cruise ships,” he said. “In January and February alone it is 2 million dollars!!! I will be working with the new director to fix the legacy of Granholm who allowed this to run unchecked.”

Jones also went public with his concerns, telling the Detroit News about the out of state spending. “The abuse of tax dollars must stop,” he said.

But Brian Rooney, director of policy and compliance at DHS, says the Republican lawmakers’ Facebook statements don’t present the whole truth.

First, the claim that someone used a Bridge card on a cruise ship is simply false. “It’s not correct,” Rooney said. “That happened in Missouri.”

Secondly, Rooney points out, there is no prohibition on those receiving benefits from using them in other states. In fact, he says, there are a myriad of possible reasons the benefits might accessed in another state — including job searches, relative visits and military families.

Rooney was unable to give a clear picture on how much money was being used in other states, saying that the department was in the process of reviewing it at that point. He did, however, note that if a person is receiving benefits from Michigan, but is out of state for more than 30 days, the benefits are legally stopped because the person is no longer considered a Michigan resident.

On top of that, Rooney says, the department is instituting two new computer programs which will allow the state to see if a person is getting benefits in other states — which is fraud — or if they are cheating the system by getting benefits from Michigan but living somewhere else.

Michigan is not the only state where lawmakers are raising such concerns. In Missouri, law makers and media outlets are making similar claims. But an editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch analyzed the data from that state:

The only way to get to $11.83 million in “welfare benefits” over three months is by including food stamps as “welfare.” Almost one in six Missourians depends on food stamps, which pay about $1.40 per meal.

Food stamps make up the largest part of public benefits — by far. In January 2011, a typical month, according to a Department of Social Services spokesman, $119 million in federal food stamp assistance was distributed by the state of Missouri.

Of this, less than 3 percent, $3.5 million, was spent out of state, with $2.6 million spent in bordering states.

Food stamp benefits can’t be cashed out at an ATM. They can be spent only on food, and not on liquor, cigarettes or pet food. There’s no fixed residency requirement, and households receiving food stamp benefits may have good reasons to use them across state lines.

The same is true for payments under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, created by the 1996 federal welfare overhaul. Missouri households participating in the program receive an average monthly cash grant of $239, which can be accessed through many ATMs.

Missouri distributed $10.2 million in TANF benefits in January, again, a typical month. Of this amount, just 3.5 percent, $362,682, was spent out of state, with $251,631 spent in bordering states. One percent, $111,051, of TANF benefits was spent in non-bordering states. There were six cash withdrawals in Nevada and one in Hawaii, totaling less than $1,000.

Neal Rubin had a similar column in the Detroit News responding to Jones’ claims, arguing that some Republicans simply “want the poor to suffer.” He writes, “In the grand scheme of things, the $1 million spent on food out of state was peanuts: about one-fifth of 1 percent of the $520 million in food assistance for the first two months of the year. No one is using FAP at four-star restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip; the cards are programmed to work only in places approved by the federal government.”

Advocates for the poor in Michigan agree that real abuse of the system should be stopped, but that the mere assumption that any use of a Bridge card out of state is illegitimate is false and creates unnecessary stigma for those who receive benefits.

“We don’t want to defend anyone who is abusing the system, but these numbers don’t really prove anything. It seems more like a rush to judgment as part of an ongoing campaign to demonize poor people,” says Michigan League for Human Services spokesperson Judy Putnam. “It would make sense that people receiving benefits who live near our borders might be buying food over a state line and spending money ‘out of state.’ In Missouri, where similar claims were made, it was found that most of the out-of-state spending was near borders and the amount spent in ’vacation hotspots’ was minuscule.”

More than 17,000 people had joined the social media effort aimed and removing real estate mogul and 2012 potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as driver of the Indianapolis 500 pace car on the event’s 100th anniversary. Although support was slow at first, recent media reports of the group’s creation by Indianapolis attorney Michael Wallack produced a swell of attention Wednesday.

Speculation early Thursday was that officials with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be removing Trump as the official pace car driver, but once the news was made official, Trump said he was dumping the event because it could interfere with his other obligations.

A new pace car driver has not yet been announced. Fans are pushing several other celebrities as well as U.S. military personnel as possible replacements. Although a few have mentioned other politicians, there does not appear to be widespread support for anyone associated with politics.

Racing fans took exception to the selection of Trump after the New Yorker began voicing strong criticism of the certificate of live birth produced by President Barack Obama. In addition to the Facebook effort, a few religious-based organization such as an Indiana group of Baptist ministers had come out against Trump’s participation, voicing their opinion that the attacks against Obama’s birth are racially motivated.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Trump spokesman Michael Cohen told the IndyStar. “Donald Trump doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.”

Cohen contends that those who created the Facebook page and other movements against Trump were all Obama supporters.

Here’s Limbaugh’s review of Bachmann:

I don’t mind telling you that I’m a great admirer of Michele Bachmann’s. Far from being the fringe outlier depicted by the mainstream media — and all too often by some on the right — she is a strong spokeswoman for unapologetic conservatism. She is neither extreme nor unreasonable, which is why her philosophy has resonated with grass-roots conservatives. She is unafraid to speak out against the crushing debt crisis we face. She is energized, rather than deterred, by the caustic criticism she constantly endures.

Michele, 55, had ambition from the get-go. A stay-at-home mom of five children and 23 foster kids, she ultimately became a tax attorney, small-business owner with her husband and political firebrand who runs rings around her opponents. If she were liberal, she’d be celebrated from the mountaintops. But she’s conservative. So because she is smart, talented and accomplished and a natural leader — not to mention attractive — the left brands her as a flame-throwing lightweight. They underestimate her at their own risk.

Bachmann may have pushed for inclusion, but in a statement she said she’s “humbled to learn of my selection and grateful to be named among such a variety of notable people affecting our world.”

“My inclusion on this list is a reflection of the growing voice of everyday Americans who desire to preserve and further the liberty on which our great country was founded,” she added.

In a Facebook message on Thursday morning she was more pointed.

“While Democrats may call us extreme, we know our Tea Party values reflect the best of America — being included on TIME’s list is a welcome affirmation,” Bachmann wrote. “Click ‘like’ if you agree with Rush Limbaugh that the Left underestimates us at their own risk.

Bachmann campaigned hard on Facebook and Twitter to get included on the list. TIME ran a contest among readers who could vote from a list just shy of 200 figures. Over the last few weeks, she send out reminders urging her supporters to vote her up the list.

“Today is the last day to take a stand in the 2011 Time 100 Most Influential Poll,” she wrote earlier this week. “Show liberals & the mainstream media that constitutional conservatives are influential. “Like” this if you’ll consider supporting me.”

And on Twitter her campaign team wrote, “Michele is an American leader. Tell Time’s editors she belongs on their 100 list http://ti.me/gWwngy #TIME100?

Bachmann finished 45th on the list with 12,889 votes.

“Social Justice Begins in the Womb!”

That’s one of several Twitter/Facebook status updates available for use from a brand-new anti-abortion rights website called Abolish Abortion, whose aim is to mobilize young citizens to demonstrate their support for House Republicans’ measure to block federal funds from Planned Parenthood.

The site is run by Students for Life of America and sponsored by the same coalition of student-led anti-abortion rights groups responsible for the website Expose Planned Parenthood. Among the groups involved include: Live Action, Human Life Alliance, Susan B. Anthony List, 40 Days for Life, Americans United for Life, Stand True, Abort 73, National Right to Life, Pro-Life Action League, National Right to Life, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers.

On the Abolish Abortion site, many of these organizations advertise job openings, but most of these are internships that are either unpaid or offer a minimal stipend.

Users are encouraged to spend the next 10 days — leading up to when the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government expires and Congress will be forced to agree on a spending bill or shut the government down until a compromise is reached — constantly updating their Twitter and Facebook feeds with anti-Planned Parenthood messages using their own creativity or samples provided by the organization.

Examples of social media status updates gathered on the Abolish Abortion site*:

“Today is International Women’s Day. What are you doing to expose the truth about genercide [sic] and targeting of women for abortion worldwide?”

“Planned Parenthood commits 300,000+ abortions every year. That’s 40% of their clinic income. 300,000 innocent lives taken.”

Users are also encouraged to donate their Facebook pages — allowing the group to update for them.

Last week, Students for Life of America announced a YouTube video contest, calling on high school- and college-age students to create YouTube videos that describe why Planned Parenthood should be defunded. The contest was supposed to end on Monday at midnight but was extended through Thursday at midnight. The advertised grand prize is $1,000. The contest description on studentsforlife.org does not specify any restrictions on what is depicted in the video entries.

View entering videos on YouTube by searching for the tag “2011 Expose Planned Parenthood Video Contest”.

And for the more luddite young anti-abortion rights activists, Students for Life Executive Director Kristan Hawkins, who announced the media campaign at a teleconference Monday, suggested calling or e-mailing lawmakers, while 40 Days for Life director David Bereit told supporters they should consider fasting for the 40-day duration of Lent, which begins Wednesday.

*Correction: We previously referred to these status messages as samples offered by Students for Life of America and ExposePlannedParenthood.com. Instead they are examples of people’s individual posts.

Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of “friends” link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for [Fraud Detection and National Security, a department of UCIS] to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities.

This social networking gives FDNS an opportunity to reveal fraud by browsing these sites to see if petitioners and beneficiaries are in a valid relationship or are attempting to deceive [United States Citizen and Immigration Services] about their relationship. Once a user posts online, they create a public record and timeline of their activities. In essence, using MySpace and other like sites is akin to doing an unannounced cyber “site-visit” on a [sic] petitioners and beneficiaries.

The practice is legal, as long as the user provides access to their page, but Electronic Frontier Foundation points out some concerns: The memo does not set standards for when agents can or should conduct these types of investigations, and leaves open the possibility for agents to use false names to monitor users. The organization also points out that social networking sites are not always fully accurate or up-to-date — meaning someone accused of faking a marriage could simply not have changed his or her relationship status.

Foreign-born husbands or wives of U.S. citizens can receive a green card, or permanent legal residency, unless they have crossed the border illegally or are barred for other reasons. (This excludes same-sex foreign partners, although the Uniting American Families Act would allow citizens to petition for same-sex partners.) The rate of marriage fraud is unclear, but the agency has said its primary focus is on investigating large-scale fake marriage services and acting on tips from citizens.

“This is a baseless complaint, filed by a partisan group that fundraises off of the baseless complaints they file,” Collegio said. “Crossroads GPS carefully and cautiously follows all laws governing 501(c)(4) organizations. Meanwhile, liberal groups spent more than $400 million in undisclosed campaign money in 2008 alone, with nary a peep of protest from liberal lobbyist Fred Wertheimer.”

Today, Mike Allen reports that some potential corporate donors aren’t as sanguine about the potential investigation:

One of the city’s best connected Republicans e-mailed us: “We are telling all of our clients, do not give a cent unless you accept the possibility that one day your contribution will be well be public. … i do not think you will see many blue chip companies, this is more for the wealthy.”

Because donations are not disclosed, the question of how much corporations are donating to groups like Crossroads GPS remains a guessing game. Indeed, one of the biggest draws of 501(c)s is the anonymity they can grant donors, which implies that corporations, especially those with a large direct consumer base, would choose them as their preferred outlet of giving. That a potential IRS investigation would have a chilling effect on such donations seems unlikely — lots of requests are filed with the IRS that simply go unanswered and uninvestigated — but certainly possible.

For what it’s worth, Collegio also emailed Allen with the subject line, “interestingly,” to say that “Despite the left’s coordinated … attacks, we received more new ‘likes’ on facebook today than on any day in our history.”

*UPDATE: Democracy 21, not the Campaign Legal Center, wrote the language of the document. Both groups attached their name to the complaint.