Sigh, tumblr is making me so much more liberal

[Dawson 1st MRB]

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

[Gooderham 1st MRB]

Wow. Great find Dawson.

[Englebretson 1st MRB]

I still want everyone to know they will not be receiving a xmas present because my political agenda does not allow me to spend money on people I hate.

[Parker 1st MRB]

[Marsden 1st MRB]

What I think people have lost sight of, inside and out of our government is the fact that the power that our elected officials have is on lease from the people (If you control the mob, you control Rome) and that we as voters and with our Constitutional rights to protest can simply take back what the elected officials have so blatantly abused. For gods sake even the land that the White House sits on, as government property, does not belong to the Executive Branch of our government but to the people of the United States of America. I do not believe that because it belongs to the common man of the country that we should all have free run through government offices and military bases, security is necessary as is in some cases a level of confidentiality, but when that confidentiality is because the American people would not accept what is going on and not to protect us from enemies abroad there is a problem there. And as far as kicking campers out of a federal park, sorry Mr. Fed, it's not your fucking land so kiss my ass.

While many Republicans will see this notion as socialist or communist lies and prattle I believe it is quite the opposite. Communism, You can own nothing. Socialism, You must share all that you gain. A capitalist Laissez Faire system of government is supposed to be just that, Hands Off of business and the private sector as a whole. That means that while all of these politicians have the right to invest as they please, for they are still citizens, they do not have the right, nor the option under the way our government is supposedly laid out, to make legislation on any company at all. Federal trade regulations are one thing because they keep a company in Oregon from selling Tobacco tax free and 3 dollars cheaper in Oregon, because federal laws state that all Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms can only be processed for sale in one state or another (hence why most packs of cigarettes will have a different little seal stamped onto the bottom of the cellophane in different states) . A trade law that governs the flow of goods ACROSS state lines is perfectly acceptable in the form of government that the American people have been taught to believe in, but when legislation begin popping up that limit what companies that don't have "key investors" (aka congressmen) that is crossing a line bordering on the size of the bearing straight. I personally couldn't care if you follow the Republican dogma of smaller federal government or the Democratic prattle of security through legislation that takes away my guns. Be aware of what your elected officials are doing with the power you give them, and most of all go out and vote for what YOU believe in not what the party says you do, look at 1930's Germany if you don't know what can happens when you start to let a political party think for you (extreme example I know, but gets the point through).

Now I personally am only 20 years old, so maybe I'm still a little bit naive with what I believe our government should be run and how it should work, but I will not be voting for a smooth talker who failed to hold up on the premise that we elected him on, nor will I vote for a new smooth talking moron, I am going to be thoroughly researching any candidate before i place my vote for them, but to be honest the mainstream candidates don't look to promising.

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

Nothing (and I mean nothing) frustrates me more than the "tea party" and "occupy wall street". I have the pleasure (or perhaps dis-pleasure) of being friends with a mayoral candidate of a fine city of around 30-40,000 people. We've been friends around 13-14 years now... so he knows he can trust me and speak his opinion.

I asked him about the occupy movements and this is what he had to say:

"It's pathetic, how about instead of occupying things - they get a job? There's no real common theme among them; if there were - people would take notice. But like everything the people do these days everyone has their own spin on it and tries to push their ideas onto it. If they had 1 common goal, or even a strong outline of "this is what we want" then people would care - but the only people who give a shit about them is the media. The politicians don't really care because you can't take them seriously. "occupy this", "occupy that", how about you "occupy a job" or "get a goal" then we'll sit down and talk about it."

I'm inclined to agree. How many hundreds of thousands of people can tell you EXACTLY what the Occupy WallStreet (or Occupy anything) is truly about? I'd venture to bet the vast majority couldn't explain it precisely.

Tea Party was the same way... the ideas are too big, and too loose.

That same buddy of mine said "you could arm 20 citizens with cell phones and have them all call their local office and leave a message on the voicemail - something would probably get done the next day to fix their issue. You could have 200 of the same citizens throw a 'protest' in a local park - and the people at the office won't even give them the time of day."

People today are so all about 'me, me, me', and think demonstrating is the best way to get their point across - it's not. They'd be FAR better off calling their local politicians and leaving voicemails and encouraging others to do the same. Start getting your local officials to fight for you against the greater powers and you'll start seeing change.

Being jobless sitting in a park taking up public resources (cops) that could be better spent elsewhere actually protecting the city isn't doing anything but accelerating the downfall of this once great country called America.

But most Americans are too stupid to realize that and it won't get them the immediate results the media has been spoon-feeding them all these years and may require work and thinking ahead; so the politicians rest easy knowing it will never happen.

[Dawson 1st MRB]

WHEEEEE FACTS!

from the first article

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

I don't think anyone is protesting against local politics, but the national ones.

The Tuesday Podcast: Inside Washington's Money Machine

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/01/...s-money-machine

[Dawson 1st MRB]

Yes, dawson that is true, but you're forgetting:

The top 1 percent did not pay less income tax in 2009 than in 2007 because they stopped paying their fair share, but because their average incomes fell by at least 40 percent. The only way higher tax rates on the top 1 percent might reduce those incomes even further would be by provoking another recession.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/28/...come-gap-part-i

[Englebretson 1st MRB]

[Takel 1st MRB]

Yes, dawson that is true, but you're forgetting:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/28/...come-gap-part-i

are you replying to yourself here?

The Occupy movement could do a lot more about what it's protesting if it started sending masses of letters and phonecalls. It could be called the "Occupy important people's mailboxes and answer-phones movement"

(Occupy I.P.M.A.P for short)

[Marsden 1st MRB]

I personally don't think that these month long protests are the right way to go about getting reform but it is a public show of the dissatisfaction people have with the federal government.

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

I personally don't think that these month long protests are the right way to go about getting reform but it is a public show of the dissatisfaction people have with the federal government.

If they did that, along with calling people who gave a shit and writing letters - things would happen.

But it won't - and the politicians know it. People are too lazy to do that - sitting in a park is easy. Figuring out who to contact and barking your way up the chain via letter/phone is hard.

[Cozad]

If they did that, along with calling people who gave a shit and writing letters - things would happen.

But it won't - and the politicians know it. People are too lazy to do that - sitting in a park is easy. Figuring out who to contact and barking your way up the chain via letter/phone is hard.

let me get this straight...

living in a crowded park and getting harrassed by police is easy, but using a phone to call politicians is hard??????

that makes very little sense.

i am all for trying to contact public officials with problems. unfortunately most people don't have success with that route regardless of what your mayor friend says.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

let me get this straight...

living in a crowded park and getting harrassed by police is easy, but using a phone to call politicians is hard??????

that makes very little sense.

i am all for trying to contact public officials with problems. unfortunately most people don't have success with that route regardless of what your mayor friend says.

You'd be surprised. Unless you did it once, and only once, and did not bother to follow up, write letters, organize, and threaten to form an opposition to said incumbent or public official. A journey taken should only be quit when you got what you wanted or sufficiently derailed/harassed/dead.

Most people are rebuted once and say it's hard and the system doesn't work. I've seen it work. We had the Tea Party takeover in 2010 because afgter our rallies, we broke up with our own local, state, and regional agendas. Organized, pushed candidates, studied the lay of the land, and either pressured our own GOP incumbents or pushed in our own guys.

I will never see #occupy do that. It is, as Goodwin says, 'hard'.

/relurk

[Cozad]

You'd be surprised. Unless you did it once, and only once, and did not bother to follow up, write letters, organize, and threaten to form an opposition to said incumbent or public official. A journey taken should only be quit when you got what you wanted or sufficiently derailed/harassed/dead.

Most people are rebuted once and say it's hard and the system doesn't work. I've seen it work. We had the Tea Party takeover in 2010 because afgter our rallies, we broke up with our own local, state, and regional agendas. Organized, pushed candidates, studied the lay of the land, and either pressured our own GOP incumbents or pushed in our own guys.

I will never see #occupy do that. It is, as Goodwin says, 'hard'.

/relurk

i'm not saying it can't work, just that it usually doesn't because most politicians at the state and national level have little interest in hearing what constituents have to say. additionally, unless you can somehow get media attention, its improbable that a persons point of view will actually get heard. thats exactly why occupy is being successful regardless of their shortcomings; they are actually getting people talking, getting attention and motivating other people to do something.

regarding the tea party, i think thats a very different situation. the tea parties goal was to get as many of their people into office as possible in hopes that would allow them the power to make their desired changes. occupy isn't interested in political power, they are interested in political reform. to me there is a difference.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

And in order to enact reform or a change of power in a federal republic, it requires organization and the usage of the system itself to manipulate it to your desired end. #occupy has not done that at all besides complaining to the point even cities that once supported them grew tired of their antics.

The reason I keep pointing out the Tea Party was not only did I attend the rallies, I voted for a Tea Party candidate (lost by a narrow margin in a heavy blue area) and understood the time and effort some of the organizers in the local parties did to get us motivated and knowledgeable of the local issues at stake.