Occupy Pittsburgh Update

The official website is up.

There's a facebook page, too.

And, of course, a twitter account.

Potter's got some coverage at The Slag Heap:

On Saturday, October 15, 2011, Occupy Pittsburgh plans to hold a march from Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh's Hill District through the Downtown Financial District and end with a rally in Point State Park.

At 11:00 AM a rally at Freedom Corner will precede the march, which is scheduled to begin at 11:45 AM. En route the march will pause for brief rallies at BNY Mellon, Citizens Bank, the UPMC Building (formerly the Steel Building), the former Federal Reserve Building, Liberty Center/Federal Investors, and One PNC Plaza.

The march will pause to gather demonstrators unable to complete the longer walking distance at The City County Building and Market Square.

A rally will begin at 1:30 PM at the Fountain in Point State Park. The rally at the Fountain is scheduled to end at 3:00 PM. March and Rally plans for the 15th are still under review for permitting and are subject to change. Updated information will be available at www.OccupyPittsburgh.org

Taryn Luna of the P-G points out:

Protestors behind the Occupy Pittsburgh movement have filed for a permit from the city to march from the Freedom Corner to the business district Downtown and rally in Point State Park on Saturday.

The group said it is confident it will obtain a permit by the time the event kicks off this weekend and they are prepared to pursue legal action if it is delayed or denied.

While Bill Vidonic of the Trib takes a different angle:

The group Occupy Pittsburgh announced on Wednesday that it will gather on private property Downtown as part of a movement to protest corporate excesses and to call attention to economic and social problems.

Members of the group said they will encamp at Mellon Green, a small park adjacent to BNY Mellon Center, beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday, though they do not have permission.

Though they have a fall back position:

One organizer, Jibran Mushtaq, 22, of Monroeville, acknowledged protesters could face the risk of arrest. The group set up an alternate site, Monumental Baptist Church on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District, as a regrouping area if forced out of the park, and for those who fear arrest.

Of course, the wingnut press is on the story.

For example, there's my good friend Roger Vadum who brings up the Zombie lie about how ACORN is really in control of all this - and he's selling a book that say so.  Even though ACORN doesn't exist any more.

You remember Roger, right?  He's the cat who said that:

Registering [the poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country -- which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote.

My guess is that Vadum has a pretty good chance of being interviewed on Fox News in the coming days.