Pro-tax Occupation Protests Held Across U.S. (O.W.S. Thread)

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INDY500

Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
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The American Resistance
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Let's compare and contrast shall we?

This Is What A Mob Looks Like - Page 1 - Ann Coulter - Townhall Conservative

This Is What A Mob Looks Like

I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point.

Tea partiers didn't block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama's unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare.

Then they picked up their own trash and quietly went home. Apparently, a lot of them had to be at work in the morning.

In the two years following the movement's inception, the Tea Party played a major role in turning Teddy Kennedy's seat over to a Republican, making the sainted Chris Christie governor of New Jersey, and winning a gargantuan, historic Republican landslide in the 2010 elections. They are probably going to succeed in throwing out a president in next year's election.

That's what democracy looks like.

Sorting Out the ‘Extremists’ - Jonah Goldberg - National Review Online

The difference between Wall Street protestors and the Tea Party

Brian Phillips is the head of communications for the NYC General Assembly, the group primarily responsible for occupying Wall Street. “My political goal,” Phillips says, “is to overthrow the government.”

Now, he’s not advocating violence or dictatorship. No, he just wants the government to work on the same non-hierarchical, consensus-based, extremely deliberative form of direct democracy that they’re using down in Liberty Plaza. How that would work for some 300 million Americans remains a bit of a mystery.

The reason I bring this up is that I think this is extreme.


“Extreme” is a funny word these days. It’s often used by mainstream news outlets to describe the tea parties and the tea-party-friendly caucus in the GOP.

For instance, when those hotheads in tricorn hats were trying to get the government to borrow slightly less than 40 cents for every dollar Washington spends, the conventional wisdom among enlightened liberals, the Obama administration, and the other usual suspects was that they were “extremists.”

Meanwhile, the sock-headed spokesman for the protesters wants to “overthrow the government.”

Another criticism of the tea parties has been that they are an “astroturf” organization funded by the nefarious Koch Brothers and other right-wing groups. And there’s some truth to that. Conservative groups — opposed to Wall Street bailouts, mind you — did join the tea-party cause after it was up and running.

We are now seeing the same thing with Big Labor and the progressive wing of the Democratic party. They’re backing the protesters in ever larger numbers. But don’t expect cries of astroturfing any time soon.

The Left’s Pathetic Tea Party - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

The Left’s Pathetic Tea Party

In the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Left thinks it might have found its own tea party.

MoveOn.org and some unions have embraced the protesters. The left-wing Campaign for America’s Future is featuring them at its conference devoted to reinvigorating progressivism. Liberal opinion-makers have celebrated them — Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne welcomes their spirit, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof compares them, astonishingly enough, to the demonstrators at Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

This is a sign either of desperation to find anyone on the left still energized after three years of Hope and Change, or of a lack of standards, or both.

The Right’s tea party had its signature event at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial where everyone listened politely to patriotic exhortations and picked up their trash and went home. The Left’s tea party closed down a major thoroughfare in New York City — the Brooklyn Bridge — and saw its members arrested in the hundreds.

What was remarkable about the Right’s tea party is that it depended on solid burghers who typically don’t have the time or inclination to protest anything. Occupy Wall Street is a project of people who do little besides protest. It’s all down to a standard operating procedure: the guitars, the drums, the street theater, the age-old chants. If the perpetual rallying cry of demonstrators is to be believed, “the whole world” does little else than “watch” activists stage protests.

The Tea Party had such an impact because it had a better claim on the middle of America than its adversaries. It wrapped itself in our history and patriotic trappings. It plugged in to the political system and changed the course of the country in the 2010 elections. The Left went from denying it, to ridiculing it, to envying it.

Occupy Wall Street is toxic and pathetic, the perfect distillation of an American Left in extremis.

A few articles from the conservative POV to kick off the festivities. Feel free to post articles that either explain or praise the Occupy Wall St protests.
 
Indy, why do you hate the 22-year old girl with purple hair who reeks of ganja, but are first to praise the 70-year old lady with a tri-corner hat and wacky slogan t-shirt who reeks of poo?

:cute:
 
what they have in common was that they both hate the banks.

the old white people got distracted by the rich white people telling them that the black guy was taking their money.

remember, the Tea Party really started with TARP, a late Bush administration policy in response to the near end of the global economy in September 2008.

they do differ on snacks, though. corn syrup vs vegan.
 
Entertaining to see the Right resort to some good old hippy-bashing / trampling on the ideals of the young in this day and age. I am just waiting for Indy to tell them to get a buzz cut and to stop emulating that rebel, Joe Nameth

 
Tea partiers didn't block traffic,
Actually Glenn Beck did in my town.

sleep on sidewalks,
Many were nodding off during the same decades old speeches. Does that count?

wear ski masks,
No but Obama masks would be considered the same by Ann wouldn't they?

fight with the police
No, they just strapped on automatic machine guns.

or urinate in public.
Depends...
 
One is propped up by big business to support particular politicians. The other is a grassroots movement that wants accountability for the financial crisis.

Hint: the Tea Party Sponsored by Koch Industries is the one propped up by big business.
 
Notice they're not calling for the abolition of corporations.

And notice the Tea Party isn't for the abolition of government.

Corporations? Occupy Wall Street is about the financial institutions who allowed the financial crisis to happen and haven't received any punishment.

You've been able to deduce a coherent message? Wow. They seem to all be saying a hundred different things, many of them unrelated. And by watching some of the videos (and the fact that people are being paid to be there), it's clear that some people have literally no idea what they're doing down there. :shrug:

Is it fair to call these rallies nothing more than "bitch-fests," since that's how some in here defined the Tea Party?
 
The media are the only ones saying there's no coherent message.

This is the Tea Party, only they're blaming the right people (the financial institutions, not the Democratic Party) and they're not backed by corporate interests (like the Tea Party with people like the Koch brothers).
 
One is propped up by big business to support particular politicians. The other is a grassroots movement that wants accountability for the financial crisis.

Hint: the Tea Party Sponsored by Koch Industries is the one propped up by big business.

Then its fair to say Occupy is now propped up by Big Labor.
 
Entertaining to see the Right resort to some good old hippy-bashing / trampling on the ideals of the young in this day and age. I am just waiting for Indy to tell them to get a buzz cut and to stop emulating that rebel, Joe Nameth

As it happens I have a Joe Nameth autographed card on my wall. Super Bowl III is the first one I remember watching.
 
As Philsfan points out, the Tea Party is orchestrated by shadowy puppetmasters whereas the Wall Street protests spring from a genuine grassroots protest movement. Any amount of propaganda from fans of the corporatist far right can't change that essential fact.
 
Octopi+Wall+Street.jpg


Are you going to camp out until the dead of winter sets in and your numbers dwindle to nothing? Or are you going to turn this into a real political movement and send a clear message to Washington that we're not going to sit idly by and watch you destroy what's left of this country and our future?
 
Sure, who do think bankrolls the Democratic Party?
By saying "bankrolls" you are grossly distorting the financial reality to fit with your preconceived notion of who runs national politics in the U.S.

DlApo.png

via: Interest Groups | OpenSecrets

Also contained in those statistics: why you can be certain the bailouts would have still occurred under President McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin.
 
By saying "bankrolls" you are grossly distorting the financial reality to fit with your preconceived notion of who runs national politics in the U.S.

DlApo.png

via: Interest Groups | OpenSecrets

Also contained in those statistics: why you can be certain the bailouts would have still occurred under President McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin.

Oh for Pete's sake.

Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2012 | OpenSecrets
Total '89-'12 Dem % Repub % Tilt
1 ActBlue $55,093,735 99% 0%
2 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $45,820,853 94% 1%
3 AT&T Inc $41,660,404 44% 54%
4 National Assn of Realtors $40,020,510 47% 49%
5 Service Employees International Union $37,151,289 75% 2%
6 National Education Assn $36,433,925 81% 5%
7 American Assn for Justice $34,328,421 89% 8%
8 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $33,824,355 97% 2%
9 Laborers Union $31,640,067 89% 7%
10 American Federation of Teachers $31,342,403 91% 0%
11 Teamsters Union $30,858,309 89% 6%
12 Carpenters & Joiners Union $30,629,437 86% 9%
13 Communications Workers of America $29,952,424 94% 0%

14 American Medical Assn $27,490,855 39% 59%
15 United Auto Workers $27,344,832 98% 0%
16 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $27,094,834 93% 0%
17 National Auto Dealers Assn $26,762,492 32% 67%
18 Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union $26,747,874 98% 1%
19 United Parcel Service $24,667,293 37% 62%
20 American Bankers Assn $24,510,714 39% 60%
21 National Beer Wholesalers Assn $23,904,782 34% 65%
22 National Assn of Home Builders $23,358,164 36% 63%
23 Altria Group $23,200,871 26% 73%
24 National Assn of Letter Carriers $22,188,393 85% 10%
25 Goldman Sachs $21,084,295 60% 39%
26 AFL-CIO $19,487,579 92% 4%
27 Credit Union National Assn $19,417,786 48% 51%
28 Sheet Metal Workers Union $18,955,848 95% 2%
29 International Assn of Fire Fighters $18,533,507 78% 17%
30 National Rifle Assn $18,431,521 17% 82%
31 Plumbers & Pipefitters Union $18,128,935 94% 5%
32 FedEx Corp $17,741,022 41% 58%
33 American Dental Assn $17,617,497 46% 53%
34 Lockheed Martin $17,368,571 44% 55%
35 American Hospital Assn $17,161,509 53% 46%
36 Operating Engineers Union $17,133,140 85% 13%
37 Verizon Communications $17,032,942 39% 60%
38 Air Line Pilots Assn $16,784,447 83% 15%
39 Citigroup Inc $16,743,163 46% 52%
40 Natl Assn/Insurance & Financial Advisors $16,305,019 42% 57%
41 Microsoft Corp $15,845,587 47% 52%
42 General Electric $15,494,796 48% 51%
43 AFLAC Inc $15,348,117 45% 54%
44 United Transportation Union $14,794,360 88% 11%
45 Blue Cross/Blue Shield $14,759,730 38% 61%
46 JPMorgan Chase & Co $14,702,960 46% 52%
47 United Steelworkers $14,632,651 99% 0%
48 Ironworkers Union $14,459,298 92% 6%
49 Union Pacific Corp $14,184,110 25% 74%
50 Bank of America $14,105,833 44% 54%
51 Deloitte LLP $13,985,975 33% 66%
52 American Postal Workers Union $13,669,853 96% 3%
53 American Institute of CPAs $13,596,290 42% 57%
54 Boeing Co $13,578,033 46% 53%
55 Ernst & Young $13,556,771 44% 55%
56 National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn $13,518,905 50% 48%
57 PricewaterhouseCoopers $13,374,731 36% 63%
58 Pfizer Inc $13,214,797 31% 68%
59 Time Warner $13,201,117 67% 32%
60 Reynolds American $12,930,839 24% 75%
61 Morgan Stanley $12,323,070 44% 55%
62 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $12,238,018 79% 20%
63 Northrop Grumman $11,950,115 43% 56%
64 General Dynamics $11,534,702 47% 52%
65 BellSouth Corp $11,520,559 46% 53%
66 Anheuser-Busch $11,440,887 48% 51%
67 Natl Active & Retired Fed Employees Assn $11,351,500 77% 22%
68 Honeywell International $11,281,063 45% 54%
69 GlaxoSmithKline $10,719,179 30% 69%
70 Associated Builders & Contractors $10,566,671 1% 98%
71 Raytheon Co $10,550,895 46% 53%
72 American Crystal Sugar $10,518,664 61% 38%
73 National Restaurant Assn $10,507,445 16% 82%
74 Exxon Mobil $10,483,933 11% 88%
75 Newsweb Corp $10,448,446 90% 0%
76 Chevron $10,387,093 24% 75%
77 Human Rights Campaign $10,371,376 90% 9%
78 American Health Care Assn $10,280,360 52% 47%
79 American Academy of Ophthalmology $10,262,683 52% 47%
80 American Society of Anesthesiologists $10,140,337 42% 56%
81 Indep Insurance Agents & Brokers/America $10,078,864 39% 60%
82 Koch Industries $9,831,715 11% 88%
83 National Cmte to Preserve Social Security & Medicare $9,813,629 81% 18%
84 Saban Capital Group $9,782,637 99% 0%
85 KPMG LLP $9,732,748 31% 68%
86 American Optometric Assn $9,705,013 59% 40%
87 UBS AG $9,618,593 38% 61%
88 Associated General Contractors $9,553,912 14% 84%
89 Comcast Corp $9,494,857 53% 46%
90 Wal-Mart Stores $9,455,444 28% 71%
91 Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn $9,286,123 43% 55%
92 American Maritime Officers $9,275,272 47% 51%
93 New York Life Insurance $9,260,808 50% 49%
94 Transport Workers Union $9,002,599 95% 4%
95 CSX Corp $8,861,762 36% 63%
96 Eli Lilly & Co $8,853,982 30% 68%
97 Seafarers International Union $8,840,765 84% 14%
98 Painters & Allied Trades Union $8,732,370 87% 11%
99 National Cmte for an Effective Congress $8,695,668 99% 0%
100 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance $8,626,348 39% 60%
101 MetLife Inc $8,625,233 54% 45%
102 Freddie Mac $8,615,809 43% 56%
103 Southern Co $8,566,765 34% 65%
104 National Fedn of Independent Business $8,552,330 7% 92%
105 News Corp $8,504,303 57% 42%
106 Walt Disney Co $8,396,795 66% 33%
107 Credit Suisse Group $8,359,647 42% 56%
108 American Financial Group $8,116,521 24% 70%
109 General Motors $8,019,295 37% 62%
110 UST Inc $7,989,027 22% 77%
111 National Assn of Broadcasters $7,971,034 46% 53%
112 Amalgamated Transit Union $7,912,934 93% 6%
113 American Council of Life Insurers $7,822,808 39% 60%
114 Aircraft Owners & Pilots Assn $7,773,567 45% 54%
115 Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp $7,666,279 32% 67%
116 Amway/Alticor Inc $7,662,249 0% 99%
117 Marine Engineers Beneficial Assn $7,599,205 74% 24%
118 American Airlines $7,311,757 47% 52%
119 Ford Motor Co $7,091,934 36% 63%
120 MCI Inc $7,066,484 48% 51%
121 American Trucking Assns $6,932,575 31% 68%
122 Prudential Financial $6,870,275 51% 48%
123 Archer Daniels Midland $6,748,793 50% 49%
124 AIG $6,644,212 53% 46%
125 DLA Piper $6,521,342 58% 40%
126 MBNA Corp $6,360,271 19% 80%
127 Bristol-Myers Squibb $6,349,034 22% 77%
128 Merrill Lynch $6,348,283 35% 63%
129 Fannie Mae $5,976,302 51% 48%
130 Enron Corp $5,340,190 29% 70%
131 EMILY's List $5,324,269 95% 0%
132 BP $5,162,045 30% 69%
133 Lehman Brothers $4,879,853 48% 51%
134 Wachovia Corp $4,870,072 26% 72%
135 MGM Resorts International $4,665,379 43% 50%
136 Andersen $4,585,941 38% 61%
137 Vivendi $3,943,123 64% 35%
138 Skadden, Arps et al $3,666,043 74% 25%
139 Bear Stearns $3,381,925 54% 45%
140 Club for Growth $1,549,205 0% 41%

Based on data released by the FEC on April 25, 2011.


10 of the top 15 top donors are labor unions. 9% is the largest amount any one of them gave the GOP.
 
Why do I care about 1989? I even used the word "anymore." We're talking about today's economy. Let's have a little bit more relevant information here.
 
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