Welcome to Bizarro Amerika!

Apparently, New York allows protests trying to keep a mosque from being built, but won't allow protests against Wall Street and political greed.

Support Occupy Wall Street (https://occupywallst.org/)!



Yesterday, over 700 of these peaceful protesters were arrested. In the days when our own President can be maligned and threatened by the rich members of the right wing, it's about time middle America spoke out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Sa54JF6Cz6U

They are disrupting the flow of daily commerce....shame on them !

Damn it....get a better game plan...yo

What the fuck...

You don't hurt those guys that way....who the fucks in charge of this shit...seriously

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH99q2CRNZg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/cain-rails-against-wall-1195272.html

http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DxpOMlDVaXzc

this guy is an idiot..

I can't believe a person who has never been elected for anything, even dogcatcher, is 3rd in a presidential candidate race.. and wtf? he won our straw poll? really?

Jesus, we're idiots..

Eh, only CERTAIN types of protests are patriotic! *end sarcasm*

I wasn't hip with some of the TP protests, but I would never say they were un-american, that's just fuckin recockulous.  

Actually, the protests central theme seeks to protect capitalism, and objects to it being hijacked and legislated for a specific minority.  

This is our history, this is who we are.  We, as human beings (or at least some of us), cannot get away from the desire to horde wealth...and the aspirations for it become all consuming at the expense of the general welfare of the country at large.

We've done this before...and even after this is all straightened out...I'm quite sure years from now, we'll do it again.

Occupy Wall Street is OUR Arab Spring.
 You ain't seen nuttin yet!

For those questioning the motives of Occupy Wall Street, a good read: (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/protesters-against-wall-street.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper)

I'll be sooo glad when he's back in office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RZgZeAOaq4U

Arguably, one of the most contentious of the Occupy protests has been occurring in Oakland with the travesty of police violence capped by the critical injury of an Iraq War veteran.

Here is a live feed of the protest:

http://ustre.am/EqY3

Watch the police as they infiltrate Occupy Oakland...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0&feature=player_embedded#!

More police brutality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=buovLQ9qyWQ

Gawd...I feel like I'm turning into FaFa.  ;) :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhQCpXM-Sm4&feature=player_embedded

With even more sexual assaults!

Take that Egypt!

What have there been? Two? In public parks in the middle of the night? I'm confident there's more when there isn't thousands of Occupiers around.

Shit like this pisses me off, especially considering the protesters are there protesting (in part) what's happening to our police, teachers, and so on the past year or so. I don't recall any teabaggers being pepper sprayed or beaten with night sticks, do you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BjnR7xET7Uo

I think it's probably a few more than two, but they may depend on if you are counting "rape rape" or garden variety sexual assault.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2011/10/18/occupy-cleveland-protester-alleges-she-was-raped/ (http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2011/10/18/occupy-cleveland-protester-alleges-she-was-raped/)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/party_over_bum_ezkUNyRYN1Z94jCRyIddFM#ixzz1beHKwS00 (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/party_over_bum_ezkUNyRYN1Z94jCRyIddFM#ixzz1beHKwS00)

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/10/24/accusations-of-teen-runaway-sexual-activity-at-occupy-dallas/ (http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/10/24/accusations-of-teen-runaway-sexual-activity-at-occupy-dallas/)

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/10/31/woman-says-she-was-raped-at-occupybaltimore-begs-for-protest-to-be-shut-down/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+%28Big+Government%29 (http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/10/31/woman-says-she-was-raped-at-occupybaltimore-begs-for-protest-to-be-shut-down/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+%28Big+Government%29)

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/13/man-arrested-after-sexual-assault-at-occupy-philadelphia/#ixzz1ddAsI1tw (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/13/man-arrested-after-sexual-assault-at-occupy-philadelphia/#ixzz1ddAsI1tw)


Don't worry.  The fact that you only know about two shows the media is doing a pretty good job and sitting on this.  Can you imagine if this many sexual assaults were happening at TEA Party rallies?  It would never be off the front page or lead news story on the nightly news.

Let's look at your examples:

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2011/10/18/occupy-cleveland-protester-alleges-she-was-raped/ (http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2011/10/18/occupy-cleveland-protester-alleges-she-was-raped/)

So she was a 19 year old with a learning disability, still attending a "high school" who happened to show up and claim to be raped even though the organizers confirmed they don't assign sleeping arrangements, the protest had been peaceful up until the point, the "rapist" hadn't been caught, and nobody knew about it until two weeks later when she went to the police? Yeah, I'll believe her claim when the rapist is arrested.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/party_over_bum_ezkUNyRYN1Z94jCRyIddFM#ixzz1beHKwS00 (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/party_over_bum_ezkUNyRYN1Z94jCRyIddFM#ixzz1beHKwS00)[/quote]


So he was a panhandler and not a member of Occupy. Thank you.



Correct me if I'm wrongo...She was a 14 year old runaway who won't cooperate with investigators? Aside from the fact that a huge group of people assembled in a park like this would be the perfect place for a runaway to hide, I'm not buying her story. Apparently, the police aren't either.


Ok. This may or may not be the truth, even coming from Fox. We may or may not have one case nationwide of a possible sexual assault at an OWC camp, one of hundreds containing hundreds of thousands of people. But...then we hear about this and I'm becoming sceptical of any rape claims:


OMFG. BRETIBART? Teamed with a zealot FOX station trotting out an anonymous chick who tells them that she was raped but she didn't go to the hospital, police or anything???

Haven't you learned anything yet? Check this (http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/11/02/as-occupy-baltimore-rape-charge-fizzles-security-and-homeless-issues-remain/) out:


So we have Breitbart, Fox, and all these conservative websites trotting out potentially fabricated stories to discredit the OWC protesters. Gosh. Where's Jimmy O'Keefe  (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68628.html) whent they need him??


I guess Andy cut him off.  :D


Anyhow, I guess police agree with me. Most, if not all of the problems involved with the OWS movement are logistically challenged, based upon the groups taking over public parks and other areas frequented by lowlifes, rapists, and the homeless. Not the people within the groups.

So why are they beating peaceful protesters? Why are they tazing, pepper spraying, and arresting peaceful protesters?

I guess I'll address this. Sexual assaults at tea party rallies? Really? Do you really think the teabaggers even know what SEX is, considering the name they gave themselves?

How can they have sex wearing those silly outfits? Aren't most teabaggers, like, well 80 years old? We'll never know, considering the diminishing numbers of teabaggers out there. It's a shame, I'd love to see the headline on Breitbart:

I enjoyed your debunking of those sexual assaults. 

Hard to believe you were the same guy who wrote this:  http://popculturedoneright.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,979.msg9398.html#msg9398 (http://popculturedoneright.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,979.msg9398.html#msg9398)

It's a shame you never replied in that post. Of course, I knew your position, and that of your comrades on the right. There's no such thing as rape.

Actual sexual assault isn't the same as purported and planned sexual assault. In the case of Cain, we have a legitimate accuser, a legitimate aggressor, legitimate witnesses, and a signed, sealed settlement, oops agreement between the parties intended to shut them up.

If you gotta shut someone up, didn't someone do something wrong?

Meanwhile, back on the farm.

This, my friend, is an example of real rape: (http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/tea-party-leader-arrested-rape)



I'll try to meddle through google to find other specific instances like this. It's hard to do though, most hits have to do with a more general "Tea Party rapes America" type of stuff... ;)

That was shoddy from you. I get that you're anti anything 'progressive' even when it used to be 'conservative' but can we atleast pretend to want real facts and not bullshit smear campaigns?

I'm just so tired of all the make believe. What you did just now is the equivalent to what Perry and Romney have been doing with "Obama said Americans are lazy".. no he didn't, they just took that clip and edited it down to make it seem like he did..pretty nefarious there and it makes the GOP field look so petty and weak. Why would you want a President that has to resort to 'photoshop' to win? Is that statesmen-like somehow? Is that good leadership?

Yes, we went after Bush.. and we went after him hard. But it wasn't because he was the editor of Harvard law review or because he used a teleprompter.. no, it was for lies on Iraq, the torture, the leaks, the bad policy.. there is no equivalence in the right's attack on Obama for his ear being the reason he can't lead this country and Bush was a bad president because he disregarded FISA laws and wire-tapped Americans... one is a real issue, the other..? fabrication from a bitter populous..

Lets look at the facts.. have there been rapes at any OWC camp? Maybe, but considering the 1000's of people in the 100's of locations across the country.. even if the 3 you listed were valid, we're still talking 3 out of 10,000's of people. You can walk down the streets on your way home from work in each of those cities you listed, Philly,Baltimore,Dallas,Cleveland and NY and have a better chance of being raped and killed.. no? So let's not use make-believe or over-inflated hyperbole to knock OWC just because you don't agree with it..

yes, we knocked the Tea-party.. again, it wasn't from make believe though.. Yes, they carried guns to their rally, yes the held sign saying "Obama is a socialist, but don't cut my medicare or SS". Yes they had melt downs over the "death panels" that were really just living wills... which in 2009, Newt proposed as a way to to cut 30 billion a year from medicare since end-of-life care costs so fucking much and having a simply talk with your loved one and asking what they want when the time comes is better than just not knowing... trust me!

The individual mandate was another invalid meltdown, invalid since before Obama suggested it,it was a suggestion from the 90's GOP.. which they got from the GOP heritage foundation and Newt Gingrich..so if those folks aren't Kenyan socialist for that, neither is Obama.

I'm an utterly sick of seeing formerly smart and rationale people, such as  yourself, falling to this level of attack.. I know it's easy..hell I slip in and out of it all the time....But do you really want a leader that would rise out of that cesspool to lead the most powerful country in history? Is he really going to be good for this country?

so how about we change the national conversation and start demanding disagreement on real issues, not this photo-shop Breitbart, Jimmy O'keefe bullshit.. because if we don't, the only leaders we're going to have in this country are the Andrew BreitBarts and Jimmy O'keefe's of the world.. and even you can't want that.

That's the way they work. That's all they have left.


The "Obama says American's are lazy spiel is the most sickening thing I've heard in years. Especially since Romney actually said it in his book (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68508.html).


Not to mention Paul Ryan (http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201111180012), who said the same thing a couple of days ago:


and...

exactly.. why make a national campaign ad that  you had to photophop, when your party is saying so much worse? why make shit up at all.. come after Obama on his buddy-buddy ness with wall street and banks.. come after him on lack of clarity on sooo many issues, come after him over his almost lack of leadership when it comes to any issue trying to get thru congress.. come after him on not being ballsy enough to use his 60 majority when he had it..

there are just so many 'real' things to come after him.. same with OWC, that there isn't a need to make it up..


as for the stuff said above by Romney and Ryan... unfortunately, I fear that who they are talking about are the 'thems'... you know, 'those' people over there.. NOT real Americans.. whereas to Romney and Ryan, Obama, who was really talking about the lazy Gov't, meant Real Americans..because it plays better one Fixnews..

it's just so.... tiresome.

Good!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/19/uc-davis-police-pepper-spray-students_n_1102728.html

I guess since lilMike can quote Breitbart, I can pull out a TP story:

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/11/18/372290/fox-news-occupy-shooter/

Oh, shit! We're anti-American! (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/20/rep-joe-walsh-veterans-at-occupy-wall-street-protests-are-anti-american/)


This is, of course, the same Joe Walsh who (h/t Chuck!) refused to pay his child support. I guess that's the fault of the veterans too.  ::)

I may go back and respond to it.  But just to be clear, are you saying that my position is that there is no such thing as rape?

I just want to be clear on that.



I dunno.  Are you saying that every time there is an accusation of some sort of sexual harassment in which there is a settlement, does that mean there really was sexual harassment?  I thought after the Clinton years these accusers came from dragging "a $100 bill through a trailer camp and there's no telling what you will find."  

I wasn't even talking about Cain though just the OWS crowd.  



That's fine!  I think it was a lot easier though for me to google sexual assault OWS though.

Oh it was shoddy.  It was just a simple 30 second Google search.  No real research involved.  I only brought it up because of Howey's Arab Spring comment.  Really?  This is "our" Arab Spring?

There is no end to the attacks on this level I could back against OWS.  I don't know why you would be offended by it though since this is exactly the type of attack that you leveled against the Tea Party for years.  I always preferred to debate the content of their argument, which is something during the entire period of tea party gatherings, I don't think you ever once showed an interest in. 

The theater however... the Ed Show level of attack; thats what you enjoyed.

But now, if after all these years you would like to step it up and talk about the actual content of the OWS protests, I would love to do it. 

no, I don't believe you would love it, in fact I don't know that you can. You had the perfect opp to do so and chose to level invalid charges at me for my valid bitch with the tea-party, even after I listed my complaints and even said I was in the habit of doing exactly what you were doing but was trying to get out of it and offered you my hand so we could both get up out of the shit... and then, I don't watch the Ed Show so I don't know your reference but knowing where you're at right now, you throw what I know was not a compliment.. so No, I don't think you would love to talk about any issue unless it's been buried under 3ft of shit and distorted beyond any recognition..

but maybe you'll learn to love it again..

so, I'll put the hand out there again and go 1st.. what's your real beef with the protestors.. not the pot-heads out having fun that Foxnews searched for to get their Beavis and Butthead sound-byte.. but the real protestors who are out there for real reasons..How do they not want what you, a libertarian.. uh, a capitalist, would also want?

I didn't think you would ever get there, but you finally did, so congrats to that.

Although there is a lot of could say about the theater of OWS, such as the deaths, the sexual assaults, the anti-semitism, the violence, and the feces... so much feces..   But I don't come here to hippy punch, but to actually talk about the issues, for as  long as you can manage to do that (and history makes me think you will veer off of that soon enough).

I think that there are similar roots to both the tea party and OWS: they feel marginalized, don't think they have a seat at the table, disgusted at bail outs, and how the system seems to be gamed by those already in power.  When OWS first started, I mean that very first week, it seemed like their issues were crippling student loans and the unemployment that went with it.

(http://moonbattery.com/occupy-prostester.jpg)

I could understand that frustration.  You spent a lot of borrowed money for a degree, and then you graduate into the worse recession in decades.  However there really wasn't a policy solution to that. Some guy put on the OWS  website that they wanted all debts, including all student loan debts, erased, but I don't think the movement has coalesced around that idea, and it's totally impossible anyway.

Of course they got their name from the disgust at Wall Street.  They got bailed out, got their bonuses and those guys are doing great.  It's the whole rest of the economy that's in the shitter.

Then every old hippie and leftist started showing up to these things and you wouldn't get the same answer twice as to what OWS was all about.  Eventually that morphed into income inequality, which the policy solution for that is super high taxes on the wealthy.  But again, that doesn't seem to do much for the recently graduated, unemployed young person.  They are still out of work.  Thats a policy of strictly class envy, it doesn't actually help anything.

So maybe you know better than I, but what does OWS want now in terms of policy?  With the tea party, they had about half a dozen bullet points that they stuck with, but I don't have the same  list of OWS.  

I thought that sign looked a little too *perfect*. Note: We're not the muche. We don't fall for this bullshit. You should have remembered that. Take your fake libertarian and/or teabagger faked sign  (http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/sign-generator/simple.asp?text=%2496%2C000+for+a+BA+in+Hispanic+Transgender+Gay+%26+Lesbian+Studies+and+I+can%92t+find+work%21&align=Center&align2=Middle&fontsize=19&font=homework&color=darkblue&transparency=255&color2=tan&watermark=&move=0&move2=&parody=&rotate=&allow=9608&left=&right=&up=&down=&pic=Cardboard-Sign&x=103&y=62&w=213&h=125) and shove it up your ass.

The above is just another example of what ekg was talking about. Instead of discussing actual, real issues; you fuckwads come up with this shit.

FYI...

lilMike's sick little FAKE SIGN came from this place, home of many more adolescent fake signs.

http://moonbattery.com/

Well I admit I was punked.  I saw that on another forum and copied it. 

But I went to the site that generates them that Howey found and unfortunately the function to let you copy them is no longer operative (although you can generate and save your own).

Too bad.  I was going to do one that said, "No Toilets, No Peace."

I'm still waiting


still waiting..


it took you awhile to there didn't you. .. you spent that time pointing out my deficiency in debating an issue without 'veering off'.. the irony..

I couldn't agree more with most of everything you said, once we finally got to the meat of the issue. But, I don't find it to be the problem you do. OWS is a unique phenomena , given that there isn't a singular issue at heart in any of the cities they are occupying. They are a voice, and only a voice, crying out that things are not right.. and things need to change. What isn't right? What needs to change? The list, as you would probably agree is simply to long and convoluted to name.. But that doesn't make the 'wrong' any less wrong.. It is that tho, that bothers your 'orderly' style the most. You like black and white, cut and dried.. a collage seems anarchist to you.. so you cannot see OWS for what it is.. this not an insult, no more than it would be an insult to say you can't see the shapes in those 3d posters that were popular a few years ago.. it's just what it is.. To you, OWS is a jumble.. but that is what makes them beautiful and dangerous..

we are a broken country right now, just look at the super-committee.. or better yet, look at you and I. Sure, I had a hand in 'breaking' us.. but I don't think it was any more or less than your hand in it also. The difference is I accept that and you're still blaming and insulting... OWS is what would be our child if we were  to have had one, something is wrong, their wrath is loud,bitchy and a little psycho.. but their feelings of anger and despair are genuine.  But most of all, they are not going to go away.. Foxnews like smears, the kinds of things you've said about them, mayors and police pepper-spraying them.. all that is only going to make them grow.. They have already changed the national dialog from "Debt Reduction" to  "Jobs and padded capitalism gone wild".. keep ignoring them, keep belittling them, allow your GOP leaders to keep egging them on with "Get a job, loser" remarks and they will only grow into something all politicians will fear.. because there will be a single voice eventually and with that voice will come retribution..

These people are not going away quietly, they've felt for years that things were wrong, that their country was really taken from.. not because a black man was elected like some of the Tea-Party felt, but really taken from them. Illegal wars were waged in their name with their money, their neighbors phones were tapped,their money was stolen from them by greed all while everyone sat on their hands and let it happen... laws have been passed that have take the singular voice from them and giving it to corporation and the highest bidder..bailouts were paid to banks while families were foreclosed on and thrown into the streets..

something is wrong in the country and they are out there letting everyone know that they know it..

Japanese Admiral Yamamoto once said "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." ...That giant is awakening again with OWS...

christ...

really Mike?

I simply don't get it.. is it that this kind of shit is easier? I mean, why bother with impossibly hard to fix issues when you can just make shit up...

(http://www.emotionsmsn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/sad-emoticon-msn.gif)

I'd like to think that you  were not, in fact, punk'd.

After realizing the sign was fake, a little google search showed that the fake picture is embraced by oodles of right wing forums and blogs. Another example  of lemmingg loons incapable of thinking for themselves and spreading the exact same spurrious bullshit ekg and I are pointing out. Shoddy work. Tsk, tsk.

That's what I'd expect from Iceman, not you.

Here's a real pic for you, lilMike. Far more honest than yours.

Well you're right that I do see OWS as a jumble; no matter how much I squint the 3D just isn't' popping out to me, but I don't see that as a weakness.  Before I would throw my support to something, I would want to know what that something is.  OWS is vaguely leftish, but there is a whole lot of things that can fill in that gap.  I'm pretty sure it could be some things that you wouldn't like very much.  So although it could grow into something that could be a large political force in the same way the Tea Party did, as of now I would doubt that very much.  It would have to do a lot of morphing and the hardest part would be to actually corral behind some actual policy positions.  Then the grass roots organizing required to to make a difference in elections, such us going against incumbents to elect their own people in Democratic primaries, and then actually turning out to vote for their people on election day.  There doesn't seem enough time to do that.  The primaries are only a few months away.

Something is wrong, but you've just given a list of things you felt were wrong.  OWS lists may vary.  They are not your generation after all.

Yes we are a broken country, but you and I don't have a consensus on why or how to fix it.  I'm not sure OWS is even far enough along to have their own ideas on that.  And to me, I find that a dangerous situation to be in.  A lot of young people semi-organized but without a real concrete goal.  It sounds like they're ripe for a suitable demagogue. If it gets that far.



I'm double wrappin' it.



Ha! You just couldn't help yourself!

I don't think there is a need for your normal 'grassroots' movement on this.. I think the voice is strong enough to elicit change before a "campaign" is nailed down..  Hell, BOA dropped that $5 charge because of them and now other banks will think twice about doing the same. <1/2 a million people took their money out of large banks and put into local credit unions in a single month, when usually that is an annual number..and this was all on just a 'whim' that OWS put together over night..

do you really thing mayors,senators,congressmen and the president aren't vividly aware of this movement and aren't scared to death of them IF they ever organize? the irony is, they don't need to organize.. because just their presence alone lets these people know they are out there and the whole world is watching..

if you want to know just how scared TPTB are, just watch FoxNews..

and it's not just OWS.. it's national, with the Walker recall, Kasich losing the vote and having to restore union-rights he tried to abolish,New Hampshire voters striking down newly implemented laws disallowing same day registration/voting..

I'm telling you, someone finally poked granpa one too many times and he's waking up pissed..


very true.. but since I also see them as 'left-leaning' I don't think our lists would vary, very much..





help what? speaking the truth?  no, you're right.. I couldn't help myself.

So you see less traditional grass roots political organizing and more ... movement I guess would be the most appropriate word.

I think that's hard to sustain without those traditional steps and structures that I mentioned, but on the other hand, this might be something new, where social media allows you to skip all that and lets ideas just sort of flow out like a wave.

We'll know in a few months if these guys start knocking off Democratic incumbents for their own guys.

I don't think that's the idea. But I do think you know that...

I think that's exactly it.. a social media enhanced movement. because of social media it doesn't have to be 'traditional' with a 'grass-roots' organization.. it can't be organized anyway since everyone is there for different reasons, every 'occupy' has it's own agenda..

It's going to be very hard to sustain, but as long as FoxNews unfairly and inaccurately vilifies them, as long as newt disparages them, as long as the police pepper-spray the innocent.. it will only grow... and in the end, even if it OWS were to 'die' today, there would be another tomorrow.. like I said, look at the Walker-recall, John Kasich's loss.. the outrage for what these Govs did started their own massive protests.. this is the new world, massive protests in different states, different cities with different agendas... "Occupy" has only 'organized' those singular protests and made them more impressive.. so in a way, they have already organized, because just the name 'occupy' instill fear...

so yeah, it is our own 'Arab spring' if you will.


well they did 'mic check' Obama, but their goal isn't in get rid of leaders and install crazy fanatics like Joe Walsh.. it's to let those who are already elected know the whole world is watching..

What is this "Arab Spring" comparison?  I really don't get that.  Is Obama = Mubarak?

I thought this was a good breakdown of OWS now that the camps are gone.



http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/283927/second-act-ows-charles-c-w-cooke (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/283927/second-act-ows-charles-c-w-cooke)



We are also told by the likes of Douglas Rushkoff in the New York Times and the ever-reliable Naomi Klein in The Nation that it is precisely because OWS is not a political party and has no policy platform that it is powerful. Unfortunately for OWS, this somewhat anarchic approach relies heavily upon organic growth for success, and such growth never came. Despite claims to the contrary, neither Zuccotti Park nor the other encampments across the country were meeting points for ordinary and concerned citizens spontaneously taking to the streets. Instead, they were a veritable convention of the usual suspects. Members of the professional Left congregated and were soon joined by a steady procession of young acolytes, whose disappointment that their expensive college educations had not shielded them from the vicissitudes of the dire economy roused them to join the witch-hunt. Then — less innocuously — the homeless, the mentally ill, and the downright criminal joined the unholy partnership. The necessary dramatis personae for a successful insurrection never showed up and, if Act II is to be more successful, Occupy is going to need to expand its base to include the general public — the sort of people who are now bustling past Zuccotti Park as they did before, as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened there.

The OWS movement is not about Obama. As much as you guys wish it was. I would suggest a look in the mirror to see who OWS is protesting against.


Funny shit! The exact same thing can be said about the Tea Party. Except the OWS movement is growing in leaps and bounds and the Tea Party is withering at the vine.


Wow...this Charles C. W. Cooke is quite the writer! Look at all those big words that say absolutely nothing!

Who is this guy? Seems like he showed up out of the blue (or should it be red?) sometime in June writing for the NRO (btw - if you ever communicate with Jonah Goldberg tell him I say Hi!) and after learning how to write he went immediately after the OWS crowd, echoing all the invalid talking points you're mimicking.

So...do you know who he really is, lilMike?

Here's the video...Obama handled that so well! If it had been Boehner, McConnell, anyone of the presidential candidates...hell, any Republican, they would have been shackled and led out of the room and taken to the gulag!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7kS3Ic4-lE

I know you don't.. but if I wasn't sure that you didn't, wouldn't, and couldn't get it, even after having it explained.. all I had to do was read your 'good breakdown' of OWS in that slam-piece.. er, I mean, un-biased informative report..

here's a 'real' good read on OWS..


seems like the NRO has a history of getting OWS wrong.. go figure.

well I know that like Mitt Romney, he doesn't like to tell the whole story, he just clips what he likes and writes that..

Then — less innocuously — the homeless, the mentally ill, and the downright criminal joined the unholy partnership

Uh yeah, because NYPD dropped off and directed them to the park.. they told them there was free food there. Nice people the NYPD, but it worked out nicely since Cooke got to write a 'good breakdown on OWS'  (http://www.desismileys.com/smileys/desismileys_1814.gif)

heh, Bachman just walked out on her 'mic-check'..

Do you actually know Jonah Goldberg or have you just stalked him?

If people with Twitter accounts are stalkers, than yeah...Unfortunately, he read my tweet which took him here wherein he read my post and had a conniption fit.

http://popculturedoneright.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,916.0.html

Gee...the previously honored cop who took so much delight in spraying the UC Davis students with pepper spray food product has quite the history of hate!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63bia-XrioU&feature=player_embedded

How can this dude get awards even after this?

Wow, although I'm surprised that I got a mention even though I'd been gone for months at the time you posted that, I'm really surprised you mentioned Sam, since he's been off the radar quite a bit longer.  You really don't let go do you?  I'm pretty sure you are thinking of him a lot more than he's thinking of you.

Anyway, is this the conniption?


Sorry, I don't see that.  He doesn't seem to sound very afraid unless there is some other tweet you're holding out on.

Anyway, although as a writer I've known who Jonah Goldberg is for many years, I don't recall using ever using him as source or quoting him on the muche, much less on a daily basis.  I've probably quoted Whoopi Goldberg more than Jonah!

You're right, I don't get it, that's why I asked.

I don't know why you're feigning such ignorance, such as when ekg and I referred to OWC as America's "Arab Spring". You've always been intelligent enough to reason with a measured response, when it suits your needs of course.

You, and Sam, have been mentioned over the months as a sort of "shout out". We know he's been lurking and I suspect you were too. Glad you're back. It would be nice if he joined in the conversation too. I love proving him wrong time and time again!

Holding out on? Nah...You can only go back so far to find old tweets. So I went with what I had.

The simplified version, at least to me, is that OWS is a coming together of individuals who want change...serious change.

By in large, they're labeled as "envious" at their core, which is what supposedly makes them different than the TP movement...who also want change, but are hard work'in 'Mericans and don't want no handouts...accept for Medicare/Medicaid, blah, blah, blah.

"Envious" is incorrect.  As Matt Tabbi has said, if this was class warfare, why now?  There have been rich people and poor people in this country since forever.  Why not during the Great Depression?  Why not in the 80's when Reagan made it fashionable to dump on the poor?  Why not during the many recessions in our history when 9 to 5 families were stretched thin as paper?

Simply...no one hates the rich.  They do however have a strong, almost visceral dislike of cheaters.  Becoming rich is one of the American Dreams.  Here, anyone (seemingly) has a chance...because the playing field is SUPPOSE to be set up in such a way that it's level for all.  Any pretext of this stopped in the 80's and it's tilting has finally been noticed by the masses who simply can't ignore the reality anymore.

Wall Street, Big Bankers and a lot of Corps., through years and years of lobbying, have shit on the level playing field and unbalanced the greatness of the American Dream specifically in their favor and are now forcing the average American to choose items to loose because of that unbalancing.  Programs, one by one, are on the chopping block to be sacrificed...that had this massive unbalancing not taken place...would otherwise be "problems" that were manageable...but now are seemingly paramount.

Average Americans are being asked to live with less, work twice and three times as hard (for less)...for the basics...THE BASICS...ALL BECAUSE...the cheaters, the unlevelers, want to keep that fat cash rolling in...but to do so...something has to give somewhere else...and that somewhere is the level playing field.  Yin and Yang is destroyed in the process and our conversation is polluted by rhetoric pointing everywhere else...except the actual problem.  Fucking cheaters, who want it all, threw our economy...the stability of the average citizen away...for some sweet fuckin greenbacks.  They infected our political process, they infected the dynamic of the economy, they even infected and changed the conversation to make people believe this bullshit is because the atypical American is SUCH a greedy fucker...that "we" brought on our own economic demise.  It's god damn BEAUTIFUL!  It's a work of dark fucking art!  I haven't seen this much manipulation since I first discovered whack'in off!

can I get a HELL YEAH!

but he will still feign ignorance...

Well you two are not the only ones who've called OWS as America's Arab Spring, but the Arab Spring was a response to oppressive regimes.  Our current "regime" is exactly the one that you, ekg, and probably most of the OWS protesters, voted for. 

So the government is neither a tyranny nor even your political opposition.  Instead, it's exactly what you've voted for.  So trying to identify it as a tyranny just like the Arab governments that were replaced seems ridiculous to me.  Protesting against student loans, a poor job economy, and Wall Street corruption hardly seem to rise to that level.

Ahhh....so you still don't get it!

(http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/196/8/5/bang_my_head_against_the_wall_by_EeveeBlossom.gif)

Pleas stop being so obtuse. I know you get a little laugh out of it, but it simply doesn't suit one your age.

the term 'arab spring' was not meant to be taken for a literal 'arab spring' where the protestors were trying to overthrown an evil regime.. the term, as used here in this thread, meant only the massive amount of people finally getting up and protesting the status quo..the status quo being the rape of the economy by the right and the left..and the ripples that rape has caused through-out the country.

this was not hard to figure out, especially since you've been told OWS has nothing to do with overthrowing  gov't or anarchy..  unlike the tea-people whining about not touching their socialism, OWS it is not a political protest/movement! I know that your righty blogs tell you OWS are anarchist, and since they are lefty and not tea-people you buy into it.. but they are not, and the term 'arab spring' is not meant to be taken as a literal 'Arab Spring!".. it is a reference to the amount of people who are finally tired enough to go out and say something..

sheesh..quit being so goddamn literal.. live in the grey for once, you might like it

So Arab Spring doesn't mean, or have anything to do with... Arab Spring.

You could have said that a lot earlier. 

Your idea of living in the gray is unclear language and unclear ideas.  It's not about being so literal as it is that an allegory should have some relation to what is being allegorized [new word here!].  As you've just broken down and explained it, Arab Spring has nothing to do with...Arab Spring. 

One interesting tidbit of yours, and yet another way that Arab Spring is not Arab Spring, is that "OWS it is not a political protest/movement!"

Interesting.  Although I'm sure some real OWS would probably disagree with your characterization.