posted December 17, 2011 04:40 PM            

it also opened up the whole-continent thing which contributed to the trend to outsourcing enormously.

it also - if anyone was watching - exposed newt for non-presidential qualities!

posted December 17, 2011 04:47 PM            

quote:

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it also - if anyone was watching - exposed newt for non-presidential qualities!

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posted December 17, 2011 05:55 PM            

The Millennial generation is very capable and incisive. I voted for Obama in 2008 not because I expected concrete change, he got my vote because he represented the political change I was seeking as a voter. I don't expect much from those in power meaning I should probably move to another country but I'd rather be apart of a movement to bring about necessary change revolutionary style. (OWS)

The problems facing this country, this globe and our political and financial systems won't be fixed or even managed by any one President or leader. This generation, besides having formidable power in regards to the elections, being an immense part of our population and our culture heralded as the digital media generation, this grouping within our society is willing to do much in wake of revolutionizing our way of life. Including reforming our political and financial systems. Reforms that might not see fruition for many, many years.

posted December 17, 2011 08:36 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by NativelyJoan:
I voted for Obama in 2008 not because I expected concrete change, he got my vote because he represented the political change I was seeking as a voter.

---

quote:

---

The problems facing this country, this globe and our political and financial systems won't be fixed or even managed by any one President or leader. This generation, besides having formidable power in regards to the elections, being an immense part of our population and our culture heralded as the digital media generation, this grouping within our society is willing to do much in wake of revolutionizing our way of life. Including reforming our political and financial systems. Reforms that might not see fruition for many, many years.

---

I'm counting on it.

quote:

---

With the development and growth of global movements and protests including Occupy Wall Street, change will not rest on the shoulders of our future President, whomever that maybe, but on the people.

---

I'll agree with that!

posted December 18, 2011 02:19 AM            

"Right now children are being taught that were a Christian nation, that Christopher Columbus was a hero, and that America is always on the right side of history, which I guess would entail you leaving out that whole slavey period or women burning period or anytime we stepped foot in the middle east period and now a school board in Texas wants to add to their textbooks that creationism and exclude atheists, the poor, Latinos, transvestites, gays or as we like to call them in New York City everybody in front of me. Really Texas? Christopher Columbus was a genocidal money feebing, rape impinged, out of the stone age, apocalyptic, piece of sh$# monster who would torture Indians who didn't bring in gold, but we don't question it because we get a Monday off in October. Good work team, is that all it takes for us not to question authority. A f$%@$%g day off."

posted December 22, 2011 12:08 PM            

December 22, 2011
LA Mayor calls for budget cuts - cites Occupy LA costs
Rick Moran

Selfish, arrogant, and stupid. That's what adolescents and the Occupy movement have in common.

Selfish because they refuse to acknowledge that their protests have hurt ordinary people - their precious "one percenters" - by causing them to lose their jobs, dock their pay, and endanger their well being by forcing cities to pull needed police protection from other areas to make sure the OWS crew doesn't burn down the city.

Arrogant because they believe themselves entitled to special treatment - no fees for protest permits among other amenities they demanded.

Stupid because they have no clue how the real world works.

Now it appears that the city of Los Angeles will have to make budget cuts to pay for their antics.

CBS Los Angeles:

The City of Los Angeles reportedly faces millions of dollars in expenses brought about by the Occupy LA movement.

City agencies have been ordered to calculate what was spent on the Occupy LA protests.

Repairs to City Hall's lawn where the Occupy group set up camp on Oct. 1 will require an estimated $400,000. The police action to clear out the encampment on Nov. 30 cost more than $700,000.

Additional expenses are attributed to hauling away debris from the camp, and cleaning up graffiti that defaced City Hall marble walls and trees.

posted December 22, 2011 12:18 PM            

Send all the bills to the O'Bomber reelection campaign. That's who is really behind this screeching, howling, shrieking mob of Marxists, Socialists, Progressives and Anarchists.

‘OWS’ Costs NYC And Oakland $13M – So Far
From an unfazed Associated Press:
Occupy protests cost nation’s cities at least $13M
By MEGHAN BARR and RYAN J. FOLEY
November 23, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

$13 million dollars would feed a lot of hungry children.

But that is really just the tip of the iceberg. The AP only surveyed 18 ‘Occupied’ cities. In fact, by the AP calculations, the protests in just New York City and Oakland have already cost $10 million dollars.

Moreover, the AP is only estimating the cost of police overtime and services. They are not even calculating the cost to businesses, or even the cost of shutting down the Port Of Oakland for a day.

The heaviest financial burden has fallen upon law enforcement agencies tasked with monitoring marches and evicting protesters from outdoor camps. And the steepest costs by far piled up in New York City and Oakland, Calif., where police clashed with protesters on several occasions.

The AP gathered figures from government agencies in 18 cities with active protests and focused on costs through Nov. 15, the day protesters were evicted from New York City’s Zuccotti Park, where the protests began Sept. 17 before spreading nationwide. The survey did not attempt to tally the price of all protests but provides a glimpse into costs to cities large and small…

So the AP is not even counting the cost for the police and city services for all of ‘man-caused disasters.’ Just some of them.

But the price of the protests is rising by the day — along with taxpayer ire in some places.

The Occupy movement has intentionally never clarified its policy objectives, relying instead on a broad message opposing corporate excess and income inequality…

In other words, the protesters can’t say what they are protesting or what they want done. And we are supposed to believe that it is intentional.

Protesters blame excessive police presence for the high costs in some places. And they note the cost has been minimal in other cities, and worth the spending because they have raised awareness about what they say is corporate greed and the growing inequality between rich and poor….

Actually, we are tempted to say that it is almost worth the $13 million for the country to see the real face of liberalism. To see how our educational system and our media have indoctrinated so many kids with socialist gibberish.

To see how stupid and violent and dangerous the left really is.

"We’re here fighting corporate greed and they’re worried about a lawn?" said Clark Davis of Occupy Los Angeles, where the city estimates that property damage to a park has been $200,000…

Who are the greedy people here?

In Oakland, where protesters temporarily forced the shutdown of a major port, the city has spent more than $2.4 million responding to the protests. The cash-strapped city, which had to close a $58 million budget gap this year, was already facing an uphill battle when Occupy Oakland began Oct. 10…

Notice that the AP doesn’t even try to calculate the cost of shutting down the Port Of Oakland and many of its businesses.

Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said Occupy-related costs will soar past $3 million when it’s all said and done…

In New York City, the police department has spent $7 million in overtime on the protests… Pete Dutro, a protester in charge of finances in New York City, called the NYPD’s response "completely unnecessary."

So these protests have cost New York City and Oakland $10 million alone.

"It’s $7 million of taxpayers’ money that’s being spent to stifle our First Amendment rights," he said. "You know, they’ve consistently overreacted."

One of the things the Occupy protests have complained about is corporations donating to political campaigns. They hate the First Amendment when other people try to use it.

In Seattle… the city has already spent at least $625,000 on the protests, with the police department taking the bulk of the costs.

"These costs are currently being absorbed by the departments and may result in reduced service levels in other areas in the future," said Julie Moore, a spokeswoman for Mayor Mike McGinn. She did not specify which public services might suffer…

They might have to cut back on midnight basketball. And aid to women with dependent children.

But not all protesters have been the best neighbors. In Tennessee, where protesters have been camped outside the Capitol, a State General Services spokeswoman said two cleaning crew members have spent about three hours every morning pressure-washing entrances to the building using household cleaners to deodorize them.

Three hours, every day? What are the protesters doing? — On second thought, we don’t want to know.

And in Los Angeles, property damage to the park surrounding City Hall — where nearly 500 tents are jammed in — is estimated to be at least $200,000, including the destroyed lawn, sprinklers, graffiti on a fountain and damage to trees and shrubs. City Hall spokesman Peter Sanders says there’s not a definite estimate on damage yet because workers have not been able to properly inspect the site…

posted December 22, 2011 12:29 PM            

OWS has cost local businesses nearly $500K
By admin on November 14, 2011 in New York
From NY Post

The Occupy Wall Street movement has cost surrounding businesses $479,400 so far, store owners said.

A Post survey of a dozen restaurants, jewelry shops, beauty salons, a chain store and mom-and-pop establishments tallied almost a half-million dollars lost in the 53 days since the Zuccotti Park siege began on Sept. 17.

“We’re done with them!” barked one Broadway business owner. The restaurateur — who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals — said his profits drained as soon as campers moved in.

“My customers used to take food to eat in the park, but now they can’t,” he lamented.

With clogged streets, aggressive signs and stories of predators and criminals lurking among the knot of protesters, business owners and managers say shoppers are not taking the risk of coming to the area.
“They think the protesters are violent,” said Jewelry 21 manager Danny Nia.

It’s worst on Saturdays, when protesters parade up and down Broadway all day long, the businesses said.

“When they march on the sidewalk, everyone runs away,” said Mike Rauach, owner of VIP Men’s Suits on Broadway. “They kill business.”

Some businesses have suffered higher staffing costs. Stubborn occupiers, for example, often hold impromptu meetings inside coffee shop Pret a Manger, forcing workers to stay hours past closing time.

“They’d keep asking for 20 minutes, 20 minutes,” one worker complained.

And the coffee shop has lost loyal customers who now can’t find a place to sit.

“But we can’t tell [OWS protesters] to leave,” the worker added.

The movement costs the dozen businesses just over $9,000 a day.

That figure doesn’t include money spent on toilet paper, cleaning supplies and repairs, businesses said, as the tent dwellers turn bathrooms into personal washrooms.

On two separate occasions the owner of the Essex World Cafe has rolled up his gate to find someone had defecated on it overnight.

“It must be a good place for them to hide,” the owner cringed.

Next door at Ho Yip, a Chinese restaurant, filthy clothes and underwear carpet the bathroom floor, the manager said.

“I have to pick it up,” the manager groused.

At Cafe Health World on Maiden Lane, delivery calls have slowed down from Goldman Sachs, where mid-level analysts burning the midnight oil would often order takeout. Now, manager Alex Furkov said, no one wants to stay in the Financial District.

“They’re making it look like everyone’s Warren Buffett over there,” he said. “They’re our livelihood. That’s what keeps the lights on in this place.”
http://www.owsexposed.com/2011/11/ows-has-cost-local-businesses-near-500k/

posted December 25, 2011 11:55 AM            

"We are the 99 Percent."

"It was so much beyond a local slogan: the louder it was spoken, the more it began to say. My job, my streets, my economy, my riot, my skin. Cities shook their souls out. The yearning went global. Some protesters poured gasoline into bottles and lighted the sky with fire. Others unfurled hammocks under light poles. The idea was to be seen, to be heard, to be tweeted. The year 2011 was an evanescent spectacle of anger. Every corner was a world, and every world had its corners. The bankers stood back, the corporations hushed a moment, the politicians held their breath, and the cops took out their pepper spray. It might have begun in Wisconsin, had its adolescence in Greece, and shattered the night in London, but it lost and won its innocence in Zuccotti Park.

posted December 26, 2011 10:54 AM            

There's nothing spontaneous about OWS ignoramuses. Even your battle cry against the 1% came out of O'Bomber's mouth more than 2 years ago. Your self description of yourselves...the 99% is nothing more then the flip side of O'Bomber's 1%. Further, your name..the 99% is a lie. You represent a handful of Marxist Socialist Progressive and Anarchist chowderheads in America engaged in what is going to be a failing attempt to get O'Bomber reelected.

You are being used but like most mushrooms who are kept in the dark and fed a steady diet of horseshiiit, you don't even know it.

You point with pride to other groups around the world who you say are part of the same movement.

The mobs who are marching in Europe are cut from the same bolt of cloth as you. They've bankrupted their nations with demands for free lunches...at someone elses expense...and now, they're unhappy the gravy train of freebies has hit the brick wall.

You've compared yourselves to the Arab Spring, Nice going!

In Egypt, they've elected a cast of government heavy with members of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the Hitler supporting Islamic group responsible for spinning off al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups...which are now openly advocating for war with Israel.

Where ever we find groups with which you identify, we find chaos and instability.

posted December 26, 2011 03:07 PM            

only as relevant now as 40 years ago.

FYI jwhop, the 1% was not coined by obama either. no one claimed it was "original" -

in fact it's as old as the hills. go back to feudalism and even before, the 1% is ever present. and it also gets shaken up with astounding regularity.

the only difference today is that a FEW of the 1% - and it's really more like .1% - started out at the bottom of the ladder. by and large, however, the same few hundred families have had a hold of the CAPITAL in capitalism for centuries now.

and MOST of them understand that a financial safety net KEEPS THE DOLLARS COMING IN - to them! however those who don't care if the poor starve as long as they can expand their coffers by investments have got more than a little carried away with themselves and their powerlust.

you don't get to be a million/billionaire by SPENDING all your money. the poor put EVERY PENNY into the economy. and they now represent one HALF of the population! now when did THAT happen?

you can call me all the names you can think of, and others here too. it doesn't change the FACTS one bit nor does it change the FACT that congress is supposed to be looking after the GENERAL welfare, not just that of the superrich.

posted December 28, 2011 11:29 AM            

Sorry NativelyJoan but facts are facts...no matter how disagreeable you may find them.

O'Bomber's approval numbers are down across the entire spectrum of those who supported him in 2008. Btw, that's a FACT!

"Obama's approval rating is now 12 percentage points lower than his 2008 share of the vote among young adults (age 18-29)
AND
11 points lower among African Americans
And
10 points among college-educated white women
AND
he's tumbled 14 percentage points among independents
AND
[Among] upper middle-income families earning between $75,000 and $100,000 annually…. he's dropped from 51 percent of the vote with them to 44 percent approval."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203479104577125083165777436.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond

posted December 28, 2011 03:25 PM            

they aren't too keen on inheriting a world TRASHED by companies focussed on SHORT term gains at the expense of the food supply, water quality, and robot-worthy "wages"..

posted December 28, 2011 10:50 PM            

BS!

Now, your friends in the screeching, howling, shrieking mob are planning to disrupt the candidates and Caucuses in the Iowa Republican Primary.

Perhaps some of the morons will get their heads thumped but either way, go for it. I want Americans to see just who this mob of morons really are...and whom they're really working for.

Last time the Marxists Socialists Progressives and Anarchists tried to disrupt the election process in America they got Richard Nixon elected in a landslide.

posted December 29, 2011 12:25 AM            

"OWS really is independent of establishment partisan politics to a very significant degree. It is no adjunct of the dominant party system and does not focus on electoral objectives. Its targets reach down to taproot national and global capitalist financial institutions and corporations that hold leading national parties, policies, and governments hostage to the profits interests of the wealthy Few. It articulates a social movement and direct action orientation that rejects the candidate-centered election spectacles that big money and media masters stage for the populace every two and four years, saying “that’s politics – the only politics that matters.” Among other things, OWS reflects the fact that many young people have learned their lessons from the fake-progressive Obama Hope and Change ascendancy, followed by the in-power “betrayals” of Nope and Continuity. The OWS “kids” get it that American “democracy” is no less crippled by the dark cloud of big money and corporate rule when Democrats hold nominal power than when Republicans do. They grasp that real progressive and democratic change can only come from an epic peoples’ fight against concentrated wealth and power – a fight that goes to the economic root of social, environmental, and political decay." (Paul Street: Occupy Wall Street v. The Tea Party. Core Differences Beneath Surface Parallels ) http://www.zcommunications.org/occupy-wall-street-v-the-tea-party-by-paul-street

posted December 29, 2011 09:49 AM            

He's not going to get that done. The front and center issue in the coming election is going to be Barack Hussein O'Bomber and he's not going to be permitted to run away from his record. All the marching in the streets, attempting to disrupt elections by O'Bomber's mob of useful idiots is only going to reinforce in voters minds the fact that O'Bomber is unfit for any elected office in America.

We're already seeing demoscats up for reelection running away from O'Bomber..not that it's going to do them any good. After voting for all of O'Bomber's bullshiiit legislative agenda, their voting records are going to get hung around their necks like millstones too.

O'Bomber may have been "The One" you Marxists, Socialists, Progressives and Anarchists have been waiting for but O'Bomber and his war on the American economy, war on American jobs, war on American energy and war on the American Middle Class make the majority of Americans want to throw up. We stopped listening to what O'Bomber says a long time ago. We've been watching what O'Bomber has done and is doing.

O'Bomber and his Socialist congressional comrades have been governing without the consent of the American people. That's going to be fatal to his...and their reelections.

Neither do I discount the ability of some of our "Establishment republicans" to screw it up. But surprise! American voters and conservatives are as fed up with them as they are with O'Bomber.

The voters who will matter in the coming election...conservatives and Independents aren't paying much attention to anything these Establishment types, pundits and press idiots alike are saying either.

This might...at first blush...sound contradictory but it's not.

The hardcore leftist base of the demoscat party cannot elect anyone. You represent only about 12% of the electorate. The base of the Republican party are conservatives and they far outnumber you leftists but they cannot elect anyone either. It's the Independents who will decide the coming election.

You would do well to understand just who these Independents are and what they think.

For the most part, Independents are former Democrats and Republicans. Conservative Democrats gag over what you radical leftists have done to their demoscat party and left.

Many conservative Republicans have a similar gag reflex as they've watched Establishment republicans make common cause with, enabling what they see as a radical demoscat leftist agenda by compromising with radicals. Many of them left the republican party.

Just so you know, Independents despise what O'Bomber and his Socialist comrades have done and are doing. O'Bomber's disapproval ratings among Independents is almost as high as as it is among conservative Republicans.

posted December 29, 2011 02:18 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by jwhop:
It's Independents who will cast the deciding votes in the coming elections. A majority of Independents voted for O'Bomber's "Hope and Change". They're not going to make the same mistake in 2012 now that they've seen O'Bomber's "Hope and Change" in action.

---

I think they're wise enough to understand that Obama inherited a country in destruction thanks to our previous two term President. In addition Obama ran into endless stalemates from the very resistant GOP dominated House. The GOP did their best to make Obama look like a fool and Independents aren't idiotic enough to be deceived or manipulated by the GOP's guises. You made some valid points in your argument however they were mostly overshadowed by all that extra redundant politically biased nonsense.

The GOP has dug a hole for themselves that not even they can manage to get out of, it's just madness. Independents are probably more disinterested with the current state of our political system, then Obama's efforts to initiate substantial change among the overwhelming mountain of political and economic disarray placed on his shoulders by Bush. Basically the foundation that was the systems in this country toppled when Obama assumed the office. The cracks had already been successfully made thanks to Bush and the corruption of allowing the financial industry to run a mock while the government failed to hold anyone accountable.

posted December 29, 2011 04:30 PM            

No problem either if leftists wish to fool themselves into believing Independents favor reelecting O'Bomber.

But, neither the numbers or the intensity of voters to reelect O'Bomber are there. They're on the other side. The numbers say..."throw the bum out"!

posted December 29, 2011 05:06 PM            

I mentioned that it is unwise for us to presume what choices Independent voters will be making in the upcoming election. At best we can assume that their votes will be split because until election we can't accurately know for sure. As for the young voting generation, speaking for myself and my fellow 18 - 30 somethings, Obama is undoubtedly the most worthy choice in the upcoming election. Paul, Newt, Romney, Perry, it's just a joke. We'd rather not vote then choose anyone of those toxic phonies over Obama.

posted December 29, 2011 05:20 PM            

That's how out of balance things are. ...

posted December 29, 2011 06:05 PM            

You must be living in an alternate universe...or you have a faulty memory...or you never knew there was an election in 2010 when more than 60 demoscat bums got thrown out of the US House and 6 demoscat bums got thrown out of the US Senate.

Had O'Bomber been on the ballot in that election, he'd be on the ash heap of history today.

Nothing has changed since that election...except the economy is worse, the national debt is higher, more people are on food stamps and more people are living below the poverty line and political and financial scandals are breaking over O'Bomber's head with more to come.

However, O'Bomber along with every demoscat House member and 23 demoscat Senators WILL BE on the 2012 ballots.