Monday, October 31, 2011

It's a Snow Party!

Gotta love the way they try to seem cheerful, in the face of one of the earliest snowstorms in New York's history. I also enjoyed the "great soups" like tofu chowder. Mmmmm, tofu!

Is Incorporation Next?

Occupy Wall Street has applied for a trademark for its name:

Occupy Wall Street is looking to make its mark — on everything from tote bags to t-shirts.
The Occupy Wall Street movement applied for the trademark to its name on Oct. 24, filing for the use of the mark on its website, in periodicals and newsletters, and on clothing and bags.
How long before the clothing and bags are made in China?

Call It Zoo-Cotti Park

Or, east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet.

And there’s the rub: The “model” civilization that’s sprung up at Zuccotti is itself increasingly divided between the stakeholders in the nascent movement who feel invested in the emerging economic, social and cultural causes of “the 99%,” and hangers-on, including a fast-growing contingent of lawbreakers and lowlifes, many of whom seem to have come to Zuccotti in the last week with the cynical encouragement of the NYPD.
The dedicated participants’ stronghold is on the park’s east side, facing Broadway. The stragglers tend to cluster on the park’s west side, facing Cedar. The rift between them is growing. And two of OWS’s core values, generosity and inclusion, are being put to a crucial test.
 Translation: They resent spongers who don't want to work.  Kind of like the rest of society.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Chris Hedges Gets All Verklempt

It doesn't come until the end, and you have to put up with his endless bloviating, but it's worth it when he suddenly chokes up at the thought of what the OWS crowd are doing for his three-year-old.

The Inspiration for OWS Is....

Madagascar.  No, not the animated movie.

It was on this island nation off the coast of Africa that David Graeber, one of the movement's early organizers, who has been called one of its main intellectual sources, spent 20 months between 1989 and 1991. He studied the people of Betafo, a community of descendants of nobles and of slaves, for his 2007 book, Lost People.
Betafo was "a place where the state picked up stakes and left," says Mr. Graeber, an ethnographer, anarchist, and reader in anthropology at the University of London's Goldsmiths campus In Betafo he observed what he called "consensus decision-making," where residents made choices in a direct, decentralized way, not through the apparatus of the state. "Basically, people were managing their own affairs autonomously," he says..
And they even had their own way of dealing with criminals:
When necessary, criminal justice was carried out by a mob, but even there a particular sort of consensus pertained: a lynching required permission from the accused's parents.

Speaking of consensus, Occupy DC is working on seceding from the United States. They have a preamble to their manifesto, which made their spokesman cry. There's just one little problem: So far the group has only approved one sentence. That would make me cry, too!

Occupy Movement's Model Is....

Madagascar.  No, not the animated movie.

It was on this island nation off the coast of Africa that David Graeber, one of the movement's early organizers, who has been called one of its main intellectual sources, spent 20 months between 1989 and 1991. He studied the people of Betafo, a community of descendants of nobles and of slaves, for his 2007 book, Lost People.
Betafo was "a place where the state picked up stakes and left," says Mr. Graeber, an ethnographer, anarchist, and reader in anthropology at the University of London's Goldsmiths campus In Betafo he observed what he called "consensus decision-making," where residents made choices in a direct, decentralized way, not through the apparatus of the state. "Basically, people were managing their own affairs autonomously," he says..
And they even had their own way of dealing with criminals:
When necessary, criminal justice was carried out by a mob, but even there a particular sort of consensus pertained: a lynching required permission from the accused's parents.

Speaking of consensus, Occupy DC is working on seceding from the United States. They have a preamble to their manifesto, which made their spokesman cry. There's just one little problem: So far the group has only approved one sentence. That would make me cry, too!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Violence in Denver, Capitulation in Oakland

The Denver police moved in to remove the tents of the protestors:

In the most violent Saturday in more than a month of Occupy Denver demonstrations and marches, Denver police fired mace and pepper balls at a crowd of protesters in Civic Center today and arrested 20 people.


Two of the protesters were held for felony charges after police said an officer was knocked off his motorcycle and other officers were kicked, as they moved into the park to tear down illegal tents.

Some video of the tiresome chanters challenging the police:

Meanwhile the Vichy government of Oakland has decided to collaborate with their occupiers:

Dozens of new tents sprang up outside Oakland City Hall on Friday, a sight that encouraged some Occupy Wall Street supporters but infuriated others, who expressed frustration at the city's about-face on the encampment.

In a matter of weeks, Oakland has welcomed campers at Frank Ogawa Plaza, warned them to leave, forcibly removed them, blocked their return and then allowed them to retake the grounds.

To Bong Or Not to Bong

That is the question:

There are two things that strike you when you come upon the Occupy LA encampment. The first is the sheer density of the tents: not a single thatch of grass pokes through; the lawn is bursting with tents and spray painted signs that carry slogans about everything from 99 percent to Wall Street criminals to 9/11 conspiracy theories. The place is packed. The second thing you’re likely to notice is the undeniable thick scent of weed smoke in the air. This is a curious aroma, given that the encampment is lodged between the California state courthouse, the offices of the City Council and LAPD headquarters.
Nobody ever said these people were overburdened with common sense.  Get this bit:

Because even by the time the General Assembly was ready to meet at 7:30 p.m., things were unraveling. A large group, made up almost entirely of men, stood in a circle denouncing the General Assembly and their efforts to "police" the camp, particularly regarding drinking or smoking weed. Anyone who spoke in favor of a code of conduct was aggressively booed. Adding to the morass were four different men looping in and out of the circle, each armed with his own megaphone, shouting their own grievances and rhetoric. When a runner from the General Assembly made the announcement that they would begin the meeting, he was thunderously shouted down, then someone yelled out “The GA is dead!” and the crowd erupted in both celebration and shock: "We don’t want you or your fucking procedure!" One male protester, in an army helmet and no shirt, cried out as shoving matches erupted between several groups of men. The young man who was leading the informal group yelled: "This is the People’s Forum! There are no committees, there are no rules, everyone gets to speak. Get in a circle! GET IN A CIRCLE!" A majority of the crowd abided, although they were openly chastised when the circle took on non-circle shapes.

Occupy Phoenix: When Is It Okay to Shoot A Cop?

Check out this chilling story:
A disturbing flyer is making its way around the Occupy Phoenix camp. And it’s targeting cops. Yesterday, the Arizona Counter-Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC — a division of the Arizona Dept. of Public Safety) released a bulletin announcing the chilling document that seems to endorse and justify the killing of law enforcement officers.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Public Masturbation and Pimping Out Underage Girls

It just gets worse:

A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters.
In addition, officials agreed further occupation should not be allowed to continue without restrooms on site to avoid further public health violations.
"You can't be affecting the safety and health of other people around you," Madison Fire Prevention Officer Jerry McMullen said. "With the public health violations and the complaints I've heard, I don't believe it meets the spirit of the ordinance to a street use permit."
 And worse:

A city woman is accused of pimping a 16-year-old girl she met in Victory Park during the Occupy NH demonstrations.

Justina Jensen, 23, of 341 Hanover St., is charged with felony prostitution. Police allege Jensen met a teen at the local protest, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, and used the Internet to arrange a first liaison for the girl with a man who turned out to be an undercover police officer.
What's next?

Not With a Bang, But a Shiver?

Bloomberg pulls the plug:
When no one from Occupy Wall Street surrendered the generators, more than 30 uniformed FDNY and NYPD officials entered the park to seize them, witnesses and officials said.

"We did send 30 or 40 firefighters through the park, the police department had its community affairs department there to make sure everyone was safe," Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show Friday.

"Our first two concerns are the First Amendment and safety, and this was about safety."

The protesters say five generators were seized in total, including one which was biodiesel and ran on used vegetable oil.

New York Magazine notes that this will make things a lot chillier:
However it happened, the safety sweep was a success for the city in more ways than one. Preventing fires is a reasonable concern when you're dealing with a densely packed tent city, but the raid also, conveniently enough, makes it much harder for the protesters to stay warm as the temperatures drop into the low thirties, which will happen as soon as Saturday night. In that sense, seizing generators and gasoline was as much of an offensive maneuver as firing tear gas and flash grenades — and without the PR mess.
 Is this the way OWS ends? Not with a bang but a shiver?

A Fox reporter certainly got a frigid reception:
What has been an otherwise violence-free period during his six weeks covering the Occupy Wall Street movement, took a turn for John Huddy. He explained what happened during Good Day New York:

"This is somebody I've come across several times for the last few days. He threatened to stab me in the throat with a pen. He ripped the mic out of my hand," said Huddy.

"I have a meeting with Bloomberg," said the incoherent protester. The man was soon arrested by the NYPD.

Meanwhile, turns out that marine (who's doing better by the way) who got hit by a tear-gas canister in Oakland, founded an interesting website.

The site is no longer live, but Olsen was the founder of IHateTheMarineCorps.com, a private user forum apparently dedicated to bashing the Marine Corps. (click to enlarge)

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Those Non-Violent Protestors in Oakland

Even Mother Jones, no right-wing megaphone, admitted the Oakland protestors were out of hand:
Xavier Manalo, a 25-year-old tennis instructor holding the forward-most protest banner, admitted there were "rogue elements" in the group but insisted the "pressure of the peaceful will be the deterrent" to the violence. Manalo was wrong. I saw groups of protestors arguing, not only with the police—who were the constant subject of heckling and catcalls—but with each other. There were calls to retaliate by throwing things like eggs back over the barricade, just as a big group of around 40 people started to chant, "Don't Throw Shit! Don't Throw Shit!" No one appeared in control and the group was divided into two groups: the largely peaceful, and a small, visible, determined group of agitators. At the height of this melee, I saw two men throw bottles at the police. People screamed and scrambled for air ahead of the inevitable: a half-dozen canisters of tear gas—some crackling and echoing off the Rite Aid building. A brief lull, then this scene repeated. The group came back together—around 800—with protesters calling to those who were still cowering behind bus shelters or cleaning their eyes to "not be afraid," to "not run away." And so it began again: talks, disagreements about engagement, improvised debates about the meaning of nonviolence, and a swirling sense of anticipation. The breaker: Another bottle was hurled from the crowd and tear gas canisters were lobbed back. Accord between the protestors had not been reached.

Some Are More 99% Than Others

And they resent doling out food to the lowest among them:
For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad. They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.
Suggested new chant: Whose food? Our food!"

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Zuccotti Park Drawing More Rats

Gee, who could have imagined that free eats, a sleeping bag and naive hippie chicks could attract less than noble people?
Digioia said she recently met a man who just before getting sprung from Rikers, was told by a fellow inmate to hit Zuccotti for the free accommodations. The frustrated organizers said they’re brainstorming how to launch a protest within the protest to target the drunken, stoned layabouts.
They are part of the 99% too!

"Stand Your Ground!"

NSFW, but huge entertainment value, when the guy finally realizes that maybe standing near tear gas ain't quite as easy as he thought:
A communique from Occupy Mom's Basement: "I have a pair of handcuffs and I know how to use them." Let's see, first your girlfriend cuffs you to the bedposts....

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

It Could Happen Anywhere...

But it happened in Zuccotti Park:
Three men are wanted for threatening to kill a 24-year-old Occupy Wall Street protester because she was pressing charges over an assault at the group's Zuccotti Park encampment. The young protester was roughed up at the Downtown sit-in by a man named Garfield Leslie, 19, police said Tuesday. Leslie offered to sell the woman drugs, and when she declined that offer and his romantic advances, he punched her in the face and dished out more blows to two friends who had come to her defense, police said. The woman filed a complaint with police, and Leslie was arrested at Zuccotti Park about 8 p.m. on Saturday
Might be a good idea for that gal, and anybody who looks remotely like her to get out of Dodge.

Another Celebrity Endorsement

Who would have dreamed that the American Communist Party and David Duke would be on the same page?

And the Beat Goes On...

Who says they can't agree on anything?  Well, they do, for starters:

On Oct 13th, the General Assembly of Liberty Square passed a resolution to limit drumming times to 2 hours a day, between the hours of 11 and 5 as part of a good neighbor policy.
 But:
Many drummers rejected this. A group of mediators began to work with the drummers and reached an agreement that they would instead drum for 4 hours per day, from 12pm - 2pm and 4pm - 6pm.
But:
As a result, drumming dropped from consistent 10 + hours a day, but is occurring more than the 2 hours consensed to by the General Assembly, and more then the 4 hours consensed to by the drummers.
Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain....

Occupy Oakland Is No More

85 Occutards arrested for illegal camping.

At 6:15 a.m., police arrested at least six protesters at a smaller encampment at Snow Park at 19th and Harrison streets near Lake Merritt. One man went limp, but those arrests also happened quickly and without incident amid cries of protest by onlookers yelling, "Cops! Pigs! Murderers!"
As she was led away by police from Snow Park, Mindy Stone, 43, said, "I'm not camping, I'm demonstrating. What they're doing today is disgraceful."
 No, what you were doing was disgraceful.

Monday, October 24, 2011

You Can't Make An Omelet Without Breaking a Few Eggs

CNBC put up a podium, microphone and cameras, and let the protestors address the TV audience. My favorite is this gal, who starts out by saying that she will protest by not speaking. This becomes uncomfortable for her a few seconds later, and she continues to speak. Be sure to stick around to the end where she gets in a scuffle with one of the media people for OWS, and breaks an egg over the microphone: A 9-11 Truther gets his chance on the podium and recites many of the familiar tropes of that gang of idiots:

Grammar, People!

The two official goals are freedom and happiness. And a comfy chair. Arggghh! The three official goals are...

You Already Can Print Your Own Money...

It's called counterfeiting:

Angry and Stupid Protestor: **** the Flag, **** the Military

NSFW, plenty of profanity:

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Money Is the Root of All Weasels

As the Occupy Wall Street crowd is discovering:
Occupy Wall Street’s Finance Committee has nearly $500,000 in the bank, and donations continue to pour in -- but its reluctance to share the wealth with other protesters is fraying tempers. Some drummers -- incensed they got no money to replace or safeguard their drums after a midnight vandal destroyed their instruments Wednesday -- are threatening to splinter off. “F--k Finance. I hope Mayor Bloomberg gets an injunction and demands to see the movement’s books. We need to know how much money we really have and where it’s going,” said a frustrated Bryan Smith, 45, who joined OWS in Lower Manhattan nearly three weeks ago from Los Angeles, where he works in TV production.
Seriously, Occupy Wall Street is now hoping that a man who made billions on Wall Street will audit their books. You cannot make stuff like this up.

The Poverty of Ludicrous Expectations

Great blog post on the kind of poverty Occupy Wall Street has experienced:
Revolutionaries of old were shaped by philosophy, known science, literature, practical life experience, and a deep sense of morality and justice. Today’s little park piddlers are shaped by an aching sense of unfairness, a terrible fear of human-kind (that would be the AGW shtick), and a morality shaped by Oprah and whichever fabulously rich Hollywood Leftist happens to grab the microphone on any given day.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Mother of the Year

Reading the lefty blogs you might think she has a chance. The New York Post has the details:
A married mother of four from Florida ditched her family to become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park -- keeping the park clean by day and keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn. “I’m not planning on going home,” an unapologetic Stacey Hessler, 38, told The Post yesterday. Hessler has spoken with her family -- husband Curtiss, 42; son Peyton, 17; and daughters Kennedy 15, Sullivan, 13, and Veda, 7 -- just three times since leaving them. “Friends are taking care of them,” she said. Not everyone has supported her decision. “My mother told me I was being very selfish,” she admitted.
Obviously this is a pretty sad situation for the family. More amusing is the reaction of the lefty blogs. It's pretty hard to put enough lipstick on this pig to make it look good, but they're trying. Gothamist tries media criticism:
Speaking of tourists, the Post featured an out-of-towner today who has decided to make Zuccotti Park her semi-permanent home—and every graf in the story seems to scream "BAD MOM" reading between the lines.
That's funny; I didn't have to read between the lines to get that message. Gawker tries "She's not a bad mom, she's a good leftist":
Of course, it's not every banker's wife that has dreadlocks, so maybe Hessler is the sort of person who would always have been inclined to join a burgeoning nationwide left-leaning protest? A look at her Facebook profile, which reveals her to be an organic beekeeper who protests against genetically modified foods (and calls herself a "Pieceful War Rior"), suggests that she is.
So she abandoned the bees as well? Hat Tip: Memeorandum

Oh, Crap, You Mean We Need Some Bosses?

You've gotta love this article:
All belongings and money in the park are supposed to be held in common, but property rights reared their capitalistic head when facilitators went to clean up the park, which was looking more like a shantytown than usual after several days of wind and rain. The local community board was due to send in an inspector, so the facilitators and cleaners started moving tarps, bags, and personal belongings into a big pile in order to clean the park. But some refused to budge. A bearded man began to gather up a tarp and an occupier emerged from beneath, screaming: “You’re going to break my fucking tent, get that shit off!” Near the front of the park, two men in hoodies staged a meta-sit-in, fearful that their belongings would be lost or appropriated.

Aussie Police Show How It's Done

No molly-coddling here, just yank and cuff:

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Cindy Sheehan Busted

She oughta be used to it by now.

How Not to Get Sympathetic Media Coverage

Check out the news reporter's expression when they come back from the taped interview with the guy in the mask; it's pretty obvious that she's getting fearful for her personal safety.

The Selective First Amendment

Apparently the Occupy Oakland crowd thinks it's "Freedom from the Press".

New Chant for Occupy Toronto

All day, all week! Sniffing on women's feet!

Occupy New Hampshire Eviction Video

Kind of amusing; the cops and protestors are so mutually respectful of each other that they agree to have the busts over near the sidewalk where the media can film them without being arrested. And at about 8:10 one of the protestors offers to "form a line" to get arrested.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Flasher In Seattle, Rapist in Cleveland

Suggested new chant for Seattle: "Show me what your penis looks like!"
A man accused of exposing himself to children at least five times across Seattle was arrested early Tuesday morning. Seattle police say he was taken into custody at his Kenmore residence around 1 a.m. Officers had been given a composite sketch of the suspect and detectives learned he had been at Westlake Park taking part in the Occupy Seattle protests.
Meanwhile an Occupy Cleveland protestor says she was raped by a tent-mate:
According to police reports, the 19-year-old student was instructed by “Occupy Cleveland” personnel to “share a tent with the suspect due to a shortage of tents.” The suspect identified himself as “Leland” to the woman. The woman told police that after she had thought the suspect went to sleep in his own bed, she slept in a sleeping bag provided to her by the rally.
But hey, not to worry that latter person is probably no longer welcome at the Occupy Baltimore protest.

Anti-Semitism and Conspiracy Nuttery in LA

And in San Diego:

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Democrats Discover Backing OWS Has Cost

That's gonna leave a mark.
Banking executives personally called the offices of DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and DCCC Finance Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last week demanding answers, three financial services lobbyists told POLITICO. “Most Wall Street guys, they feel like they’re going to be burned in effigy,” said Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, who gave to Obama in 2008 but is now fundraising for Mitt Romney. Some moderate donors, who have given to both parties, “fled from Obama in his support of the Wall Street protests,” he said.

Roundup

Biggest problem facing OWS? Thievery in the ranks:
“Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale. “I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get the message out to our supporters that we needed food!”
I can't imagine how a protest that wants something for nothing could possibly attract people with less than admirable moral qualities. Former Clinton pollster Douglas Schoen does an informal poll of the protestors at Zucotti Park and discovers that they are far-left kooks:
What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas. Sixty-five percent say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement—no matter the cost. By a large margin (77%-22%), they support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but 58% oppose raising taxes for everybody, with only 36% in favor. And by a close margin, protesters are divided on whether the bank bailouts were necessary (49%) or unnecessary (51%).
The 9-11 Truthers find themselves much more welcome at the Phoenix OWS festival than they did at the Tea Party:

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Yay, Communists!

Anybody still buy the line that these are just ordinary, frustrated Americans? Hat Tip: Rebel Pundit, via Memeorandum

More Crap from the OWS Kids

Note the reactions of the onlookers.  Note the little girl.

Friday, October 14, 2011

When Even The Daily Show Thinks You're Hippies and Bums...

Taking a Dive for the Team



Note the slow-moving motorcycle and the presumably even slower-moving protestor; not much of a challenge there. I do give the cop credit for one thing, however. When we first see the idiot screaming on the ground (about 6-7 seconds in), it's the front wheel that rests atop him. The crowd yells at the cop to move and he does--just enough to get the guy's foot with his back wheel. Sniff. I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Throw Him a Bong, More Like....


Hat Tip: The Awesome Allahpundit at Hot Air, who notes that The New Republic has basically panned the demonstration.
And it is just not the protesters’ apparent allergy to capitalism and suspicion of normal democratic politics that should raise concerns. It is also their temperament. The protests have made a big deal of the fact that they arrive at their decisions through a deliberative process. But all their talk of “general assemblies” and “communiqués” and “consensus” has an air of group-think about it that is, or should be, troubling to liberals. “We speak as one,” Occupy Wall Street stated in its first communiqué, from September 19. “All of our decisions, from our choices to march on Wall Street to our decision to camp at One Liberty Plaza were decided through a consensus process by the group, for the group.” The air of group-think is only heightened by a technique called the “human microphone” that has become something of a signature for the protesters. When someone speaks, he or she pauses every few words and the crowd repeats what the person has just said in unison. The idea was apparently logistical—to project speeches across a wide area—but the effect when captured on video is genuinely creepy.
Yes, particularly when the speaker is talking about sex with animals. You know what the whole Occupy Wall Street phenomenon reminds me off? Cindy Sheehan. Remember, initially the antiwar people were very skeptical of Cindy; they knew she had a tendency to be a flake, and they worried about supporting her. But the media jumped on her bandwagon, and so they had to come along for the ride. And, of course, Cindy started flaking out again.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Something for Everyone!

Feminut Eve Ensler on the protestors:

I have been spending time down at Zucotti Park and I am here to offer a much more terrifying view. What is happening cannot be defined. It is happening. It is a happening. It is a response to injustice and inequity and poverty and Wall Street corruption and soaring college debt and unemployment and homelessness, institutionalized racism and violence against women, the murdering of the earth, fracking and the keystone pipeline and the wars that the U.S. has waged on other countries that have destroyed them and bankrupted us here.
Who says they don't have a unified message?

Pair of Occupy Philly Mao Apologists


Dude, Your Cover's Blown

Gotta love this picture of a revolutionary:
But that mask isn't doing him much good, as he apparently told his name to the photographer:
Joshua Galindo of San Jose, Calif., holds a sign as he stands with other protesters at the Occupy Wall Street encampment and protest at Zuccotti Park in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, as the protest entered it's fourth week. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Let's Hear It for the Guillotine

An LA revolutionary gives the game away.

Photo of the Day

Found at the Pirate's Cove.

This Is What Law Enforcement Looks Like


Predictable bitching about desecration of the American Flag and harsh treatment of veterans from those nationalists at Think Progress. BTW, among the causes supported by the veterans at the Occupy Boston site? An accused al-Qaeda supporter:
The downtown protest group Occupy Boston threw its proverbial doors open yesterday, and played host to supporters of accused terrorist Terak Mehanna, who are looking to raise awareness of the Sudbury man’s upcoming trial. The Tarek Mehanna Support Committee came to Occupy Boston’s ever-evolving tent city on the Rose Kennedy Greenway to say Mehanna, a Muslim American pharmacist, is a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment. The U.S. government says Mehanna, 28, provided “material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” and acted as a “media wing” for al-Qaeda.

$22 Per Hour?

I would tend to doubt this guy's story except for two things; he's exceptionally well-spoken despite looking rather grungy, and he mentions Dorothy Day.



Dorothy Day was a Catholic lay worker and an activist for radical causes from the 1930s onward.   She is certainly not someone that your average disaffected young man would be familiar with, as she died in 1980.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Anything Is Possible...

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Paid Protestors?

Powerline links to this Craig's List Ad:
FIGHT TO HOLD WALLSTREET ACCOUNTABLE NOW! MAKE A DIFFERNENCE GET PAID!
The Working Families Party (WFP) (www.workingfamiliesparty.org) is New York's most energetic, independent and progressive political party. Formed in 1998 by a grassroots coalition of community organizations, neighborhood activists, and labor unions, we came together to build a society that works for all of us, not just Wall Street CEOs and the well-connected. WFP is independent from corporate and government funding and in-addition we are community based; community funded and equally uninfluenced by both major parties. Our agenda focuses on economic and social justice, corporate accountability, job creation, environmental protection, and investment in education and healthcare.
Hot Air points out the offered salary is not quite a "living wage":
For full-time work, $350 works out to $8.75 an hour … in New York City. Not exactly a living wage, is it? It’s probably not quite as low as flipping burgers at Mickey D’s, but I’d guess that a Big Apple barista makes more to start, especially when counting tips. Always good to see that those protecting the masses from exploitation are sticking to the declared principles of labor relations that they decry. At least we know what the lowest-paid job on Wall Street is — and I’m guessing it’s not a union shop, either.
On the other hand, there is the free pizza, cheap drugs and sex with hippie chicks:
“I’ve been smoking and drinking in here for eight days now,” said Dave, booze on his breath and his eyes bloodshot as he lay sprawled on a tattered sheet of cardboard. “I need to get some methadone. Every day, I wake up, and I’m f--ked up.” Drugs can be easy to score -- a Post reporter was offered pot for $15 and heroin for $10.
Such a deal!
And some couples have taken advantage of the free condoms distributed by organizers to do the nasty in full view of other protesters. “It kinda makes me think of what Woodstock must have been like,” said one protester, Sarah, 19 from the Upper West Side. “I haven’t hooked up with any guys ... but one of my friends did have sex in a tarp with a guy last night.”

The Growing Demand for a Better Commentariat

I love this article on the OWS crowd:
The signs of dissatisfaction, disaffection and just plain discontent are everywhere in America today. The thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters, who have congregated for more than three weeks in downtown New York’s Liberty Square, and at spinoff rallies in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and Seattle, to protest the financial sector’s mismanagement of the U.S. economy, are now joining forces with a wide array of groups — including Move¬On.org members, union activists, community organizing groups and ordinary disgruntled citizens nationwide.
Yes, they are now joining forces with groups that run the gamut from A to B. The writer's argument is that this opens the way for a third-party candidate. I wouldn't mind seeing a leftist alternative to Obama, ensuring his defeat, but the notion that a credible candidate could arise and actually take the White House is risible. A more pompous, overwritten defense of the OWS crowd is here:
Indeed, I’d long suspected the financial crisis, policy foibles, chronic unemployment, and general corruption of our politics would sooner or later fuel a measure of social unrest in this country as it has elsewhere. We are not immune to a deadening of hope fused with deep-seated suspicion of having been swindled via policy decisions resulting from a politics that is largely broken and denies a sense of genuine progress and possibility. Almost immediately after espying this nascent protest movement I left for a three week business trip to Asia before returning to New York only yesterday, where incidentally, I was asked on several occasions overseas about the growing movement.
It would probably help if you read that latter one as if it were being spoken aloud by Kelsey Grammer.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

This Will Surely Bring Down the System

The latest proposal from the Billy the Kid gang:

In an effort to send a message to big banks, some protestors, who seem to be associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, have organized an event to remove all funds from banks and into credit unions. Protestors are calling the event "Bank Transfer Day" and are encouraging people nationwide to participate November 5.
I can imagine the bank tellers asking the crucial question: Do you want that in nickles, or are dimes okay?

Democracy Inaction

You Tube embedding seems funky today. Here's the link.

How funny can you get?

Here's the Real Movement


The New Meme

Yes, they're dirty hippies, but they've gotten the Left to come together like during the Battle in Seattle.

When I got off the train, there was a much larger crowd than I expected in front of me. But my feelings of solidarity quickly waned. As someone who's covered—and attended—many protests, I was dismayed to see all of the things that had soured me on protest in recent years.
First, there were the far-left Fox News-bait folks, who threatened to overshadow hundreds of innocuous signs about job creation and fair taxation—and clever signs, like "Run with the People, Not the Bulls" and "I am Buffett's Secretary"—by unfurling banners like "Marx Was Right— Destroy Capitalism," passing out 9/11 truther fliers, or hoisting a disgusting, bloody faux-severed head of Lloyd Blankfein, as one guy did.
 But in the end, the music swells and:
I thought about the drugged-out dude with the banjo: one of the crazy ones. And the dude with the upside-down flag and the one with the severed head and the anti-fracking obsessive and the people jonesing for a confrontation with the cops: all crazy ones. Crazy ones who sparked the first mass outpouring of left-wing activism in years, who have finally provided a visible counter to the free-market fanaticism of the tea party. Crazy ones who have reignited a conversation about class in America.

Friday, October 7, 2011

A Suggested Chant

Per this story:

Organizer Anthony Bondi said he has what he referred to as a “message team” working on the primary goals of the local protests, which he admitted “was kind of vague.”
"What do we want?"
"We don't know!"
"When do we want it?"
"Stop asking us questions!"