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A federal judge yesterday issued a temporary restraining order requested by Occupy Nashville, putting a stop to arrests of protestors for curfew violations. Aided by the ACLU, Occupy Nashville protestors sued Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and two others in his administration over what they say is an illegal curfew aimed at breaking up their encampment. Governor Haslam established the curfew less than 24 hours before the first arrests of Occupy Nashville protestors last week. Over the weekend Occupy Wall Street protestors in Texas, Oregon and Austin were arrested. On Saturday afternoon during a crackdown on the Occupy Denver encampment in Colorado, Denver police in riot gear used pepper spray and arrested 20 people who refused to dismantle their encampment at the city’s Civic Center Park. Meanwhile low temperatures and snow are posing a challenge to Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York, and other areas. A weekend storm surprised residents in the northeast, dropping up to a foot of snow in some places. Occupy Wall Street protestors lost their generators last week when New York police and the fire department confiscated them, claiming a fire hazard.

Meanwhile, a handful of Occupy camps have been treated to surprise visits by musician Tom Morello, who told Rolling Stone, “[e]very successful progressive movement has had a great soundtrack. And that’s what I hope to provide…” While on tour for his new album and just before his new comic book, “Orchid” hits store shelves, Morello stopped by Occupy Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Wall Street and Occupy LA. The Rage Against the Machine guitarist, and solo artist billed as “The Nightwatchman,” is becoming the Occupy generation’s Pete Seeger. With a harmonica and acoustic guitar, Morello doesn’t perform as much as lead raucous group sing-alongs to favorites like his own hit, “The Fabled City” and the classic Guthrie song, “This Land Is Your Land.” Morello is one of few musicians whose star-power is as rooted in talent and panache as it is in progressive politics, allowing him to move easily from the concert arena to the protest circle. Morello’s newest album “World Wide Rebel Songs” as The Night Watchman features The Freedom Fighter Orchestra and was inspired by what he’s called “the troubled times we live in.” In the same vein, his new comic book series, Orchid, imagines a post-apocalyptic world where the poor are literally slaves to the rich. The title character, Orchid, is a teenage prostitute who begins to fight against the tyrannical system imposed by a monstrous elite.

GUEST: Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman and guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, and author of Orchid

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