posted December 29, 2011 06:06 PM            

joan has been trying to tell you, madeira, that the young are not impressed by either side. however she has a point...obama came into an exceptionally critical point and though everything his office does may not meet the "transparent" definition it is funny how much more has been outed since he got into office, isn't it? kind of makes his expressed wish for transparency a reality, doesn't it?

it wasn't just the bush administration that made things so bad. washington and everything that goes on there has been increasing in complexity for well over a century. POLITICS is about making deals! who would have figured that? apart from anyone who has been watching that is!

by now, it is worse than a spider's web...more like a big old ball of yarn that has been wound and rewound and tangled progressively for so long that to make anything actually happen is like wading through quicksand. it ain't going to be quick or simple, and it's not going to look very impressive for the most part.

that is where our current OX president is at advantage. one step at a time, taking up any loose thread that is available, and PATIENT...up to a point. i am sure he has a monster temper when he crosses the line. so far he has played it pretty close and let a LOT of folk hang themselves out to dry.

the mess that is american politics today is why i would NOT trust ron paul in the white house. his stance is consistent (mostly) which is admirable..but either he is being disingenuous or he is not very smart! to think he could go in there and cut back our military, reverse the layers of regulations and pork-filled bills that have taken decades to put in place..30 years ago it was hard enough for a president to get anything done but shuffle things around the structures that have been created on top of the constitution.

posted December 29, 2011 06:07 PM            

But who is to say that the herds are being led, maybe the sheep are scattered heading in different directions . Maybe they've chosen to live without following any appointed shepherds. In any case I'd actually presume the "truth" was somewhere in between the minority and majority opinion, not aligned specifically to either one. I think assuming that either one holds the truth specifically would be exclusionary because we live in a very gray subjective world and the "truth" cannot be measured nor qualified. The "truth" is presumably somewhere in the midst of everything that is in existence. Or maybe everything in existence is the "truth." And in this very moment as we exist we are living in the only truth there is.

posted December 29, 2011 06:10 PM            

i don't know how the numbers fall. i think it is still too early to say who will get in in '12, but i trust the american people not to be as stupid as the FAUX "news" folk seem to believe, EVEN after years of dumbing down.

posted December 29, 2011 06:23 PM            

It's unfortunate really and over time it has made been profanely clear the amount of hypocrisy and outrageous corruption that fills our current political system. My hope is that anyone who can vote, does vote because due to lack of interest we could have a Bush/GOP presidential situation on our hands all over again if we're not careful.

posted December 29, 2011 06:28 PM            

where-Ever a herd is being led in
a crisis, is usually not a good thing
you are taking the simple road and
following..

where as the few are strong enough
to go it the hard road..on their own..
Why?
Because we can't trust what our
government is going to do with us..

Lately, when I look into things, and
meditate, I'm being shone all the
Corruption, and it's everywhere, and
to be Honest, I AM Scared..
I don't want to be SCARED,
I want to be SACRED...

We don't get to see much truth
in the area of politics..
it's all covered up...

If we knew the Truth..
right here
right NOW

there would be an Up-Rising...
of chaos, and this could very
well happen..

the saying..

Ignorance is Bliss

comes to Mind...

And Ignorance just follows...

Never asking questions, like why?

posted December 29, 2011 06:41 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emeraldopal:
If we knew the Truth..
right here
right NOW

there would be an Up-Rising...
of chaos, and this could very
well happen..

---

posted December 29, 2011 06:50 PM            

A new beginning awaits,
a new cycle
Transformation

with disruption, comes change. ...

posted January 02, 2012 12:10 PM            

EVERY element of O'Bomber's reelection machinery are front and center with this crowd and have been months before there was a single protest anywhere in the US.

The reason...the only reason...mayors started evicting Occupiers is that these clowns are now hurting O'Bomber and demoscats...including the demoscat mayors who embraced them with open arms.

The lame brained leftist media gave the clowns lots of cover and neither made mention of who they really are nor published pictures of all the communist signs and banners.

But, the drooling O'Bomber media lost control over what was being told to the public when pictures and video began circulating on the Internet and Fox News waded in and began some honest reporting.

I want the Marxist Socialist Progressive and Anarchist clowns to continue; right out into the streets during the months leading up to the November elections.

Let America get a good look at the base of O'Bomber's support groups!

January 2, 2012
68 OWS protestors arrested in New York
Rick Moran

They came. They partied. They rioted.

And then they were taken to the hoosegow.

USA Today:

About 500 protesters gathered in the park Saturday evening, where they rang in the new year with songs and their now-familiar chant of "We are the 99 percent."

About 11 p.m., after a relatively quiet evening, some protesters began to tear down the barricades that have surrounded the park since New York police officers evicted Occupy Wall Street members on Nov. 15, protesters said Sunday. Police then moved in.

"They (police) got very aggressive and started pushing people and pepper-spraying people," protester Jason Amadi, 27, of San Jose, California, said Sunday. "I got pepper-sprayed in the face."

The protesters said they worked at sections of the park in teams of twos and threes, retreating only when police converged and pulled the barricades back.

"People were collecting all the barricades and making kind of a big heap of them in the middle of the park," said protester Melanie Butler, 30, of Brooklyn. "And we were standing on it with our Occupy Wall Street banner."

The New York Police Department said 68 people were arrested, and at least one person was accused of assaulting a police officer, who suffered cuts on one hand. Other charges included trespassing, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.

posted January 11, 2012 11:05 PM            

January 11, 2012
DC's Occupiers attract real rats
Ethel C. Fenig

It seems rats -- real ones -- have, as Annie Gowen the Washington Post bluntly puts it "City: Rat population has 'exploded' around Occupy D.C. camps":

The rat population around the two Occupy D.C. camps at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza has "exploded"since protesters began their vigil in October, according to Mohammad N. Akhter, the director of the District's Department of Health.

Akhter said in an interview Monday that city health inspectors have seen rats running openly through both camps and spotted numerous new burrows and nests underneath hay-stuffed pallets occupiers are using for beds.

Well yeah, these things do happen when people don't clean up after themselves. So now the boring taxpayers will have to pay to do this basic but essential task for people who are probably accustomed to having mommy and/or the maid do it; the occupiers are certainly too important to be bothered by such mundane concerns.

Akhter, originally from Pakistan, believes
that the situation in the two parks is reminiscent of refu­gee camps he has toured overseas in the Middle East and Africa during his public health career. He said he fears disaster could strike during a severe winter storm.

posted January 24, 2012 06:40 PM            

"Inequality has reached levels not seen since before the Great Depression. With this kind of inequality -- with the top 1% having as much income as the bottom 60%, according to the Campaign for America's Future -- the economy doesn't work well. The rich turn to speculation. The middle class sinks. And the country suffers.

Now conservatives are talking about sending the bill for Wall Street's excesses to the most vulnerable -- cutting Medicare and Social Security, slashing spending on public education.

Many of the kids in Occupy Wall Street are graduating from college with thousands in college debt and no jobs are to be found. They are the 99%.

The discipline of their demonstrations, the clarity of their moral voice, has touched a chord. Now groups are organizing to occupy financial districts all over the world. I've been to many of the occupy sites: in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Phoenix, Atlanta, just last month in London. I've seen the faces and places of the Occupy movement.

"Occupy is a spirit whose time has come, capturing the people and the world's imagination with a keen focus on the gaps of inequality, unfairness and corruption."
Rev. Jesse Jackson

But Occupy is more than places. Occupy is a spirit whose time has come, capturing the people and the world's imagination with a keen focus on the gaps of inequality, unfairness and corruption. The Occupiers' cause is a just cause, a moral cause. It cannot and will not be dismissed, but heard. Listen to the message:

They are the canary in the mine warning us of the dangers...

Too few have too much; too many have too little; too much poverty, too much wanting in the land of plenty; too many costly wars....Mandela was an occupier, his country occupied by the ruthlessness of apartheid. But Mandela occupied his jail cell on Robben Island, turning it into a library, a center for peaceful, non-violent revolution. He prevailed.

posted January 27, 2012 08:35 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by AcousticGod:
http://news.yahoo.com/davos-elite-capitalism-widened-income-gap-131143975.html

The title of the above article is poorly chosen, but it's an interesting article none the less.

---

posted January 27, 2012 10:36 PM            

has there been an #occupy madeira beach, then jwhop?

have you seen this clip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiPpG5Nk6X8

it is always possible that unless you saw it yourself you were being sold a bill (or clip) of goods...

posted January 27, 2012 11:30 PM            

The Occupy DC movement that began in early October may be on the cusp of coming into direct confrontation with the federal government and the Obama administration. At a recent House Oversight subcommittee hearing, the encampment at McPherson Square was declared to be operating illegally as well as being a public health risk.

The National Parks Service (NPS) has jurisdiction over the parks that Occupy DC has taken over, so ultimately it is the Obama administration that will have the final say in whether or not the occupants are evicted.

At the hearing, Republicans questioned NPS Chairman Jonathan Jarvis over his decision to leave the Occupy DC protesters in the parks without legal permits.

"It's not your job to determine which protest group, how to treat protest groups differently. They are breaking the law. Why aren't you enforcing the law?" said Rep. Joe Walsh (R.-IL) to Jarvis.

The people of Occupy DC released a statement to be read at the hearing. In the statement they said, “Citizens of a free country should not have to ask for permission to occupy public spaces. Our occupation of the McPherson Square is an expression of our right to free speech and peaceful assembly.”

While there are calls by Occupy DC for protection of their rights, the safety and rights of other citizens in a public place have been put in jeopardy. Besides being a general nuisance to people trying to enjoy the parks, there is serious concern that the fetid camps are breeding grounds for rats, vermin and disease.

"Camping is not a First Amendment activity. It is a violation of law. Sleeping (in a national park) is not a First Amendment activity, it is a violation of law," Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-CA) said.

A statement was released by the DC Department of Health about all the risks to the public being caused by Occupy DC.

On the list was the improper disposal of garbage, which is strewn all over the campsites. This has caused a large infestation of rats which can be seen even in daylight. Inspectors discovered rat nests all over the camp, including in the kitchen areas. Those kitchen areas are unkempt, with scattered, decaying food. This is clearly increasing the risk for communicable disease, especially with the large homeless population that dwells in and around the camp.

Occupiers have overloaded the two public toilets at McPherson Square and routinely pour fluids down the street drains, which is illegal. Lastly, the DC Department of Health explained that crimes have been committed in the camp, including a case of child abandonment in winter weather.

Washington D.C.’s Democrat mayor, Vincent Gray, has also voiced concerns about the camps, calling on the NPS to do something about the situation.

Gray said in a statement to the Oversight Committee:

Since both DC locations are under federal control, it falls on you to take immediate steps to remedy this dangerous situation. At a minimum, the Occupy DC sites at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza must be consolidated at Freedom Plaza to allow for the elimination of the rat infestation, clean up, and restoration of McPherson Square.

Beyond the health risks, the Occupy DC crowd has become hostile and aggressive, at one point barricading in attendees at an Americans for Prosperity event because it was funded by the Koch brothers. At the event an old woman was knocked down and had to go to a hospital. Occupiers also tried to stop cars on the road, which led to one being hit by a car.

If the decision is made to at least move the Occupiers from McPherson Square to Freedom Plaza, there could be a major confrontation.

Washington D.C. has had a few major confrontations with protesters in the past, including the famous clash in 1932 between federal troops under Chief of Staff General Douglas and retired WWI veterans, called the “Bonus Army”. The removal was handled as a political weapon against the Herbert Hoover administration. That confrontation was much larger as there were tens of thousands of veterans, but given the chaos and violence which occurred in the eviction of the Occupy Oakland protesters there is no telling what will transpire.

Even though President Obama appealed to the left in his State of the Union Address, the Occupy DC people still crafted an even more left-wing response to it. If there is a confrontation it will occur within just a few blocks of the White House and could cause friction between the president and his base.

posted January 28, 2012 12:42 AM            

On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.

A second, smaller Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the Roosevelt Administration was defused ...

the republicans and you appear to be rubbing your hands in glee at the prospect that obama hasn't read his history, right? the confounded thing about educated presidents is they DO read their history.

the funny thing this highlights for me is that with all your caterwauling about how roosevelt made the Great Depression worse, he really took many of hoover's rather scattered ideas and doubled down on them, and during the Depression all the repubs who ran against roosevelt basically pushed for doing the same sort of things!

in fact, they all accused each other of being socialists! some things never change do they?

posted January 28, 2012 10:18 AM            

We know at least 2 Socialists can't read. That would be Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Hussein O'Bomber.

If either could read, they would have read about the Depression of 1920-1921 and how Calvin Coolidge ended it quickly by cutting the size, scope and expense of government, lowering taxes and business regulation.

Had Roosevelt been able to read, he wouldn't have done the opposite and prolonged the Great Depression for an additional 7 years by raising taxes, drastically increasing the size, scope and cost of government and piling on a blizzard of new business regulations.

O'Bomber is busily copying the Roosevelt model...and producing exactly the same results.

posted January 28, 2012 10:54 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by jwhop:
I see you're not appreciative of the story I posted katatonic. I posted that story about the deplorable trash, vermin and rat infestations at Occupy Washington just for you and NJ who continue to deny reality.

---

posted January 28, 2012 11:07 AM            

In the same vein, neither do I need to travel to Washington or NY City to find out about the deplorable infestations of vermin and rats, or the trash piles everywhere the "Occupiers" congregate.

posted January 28, 2012 11:55 AM            

and let's not forget that the FOLLOWING 40 years were among the best this country has seen, with ALL those regulations in place.

in fact things got very much better and then in 36 we had a fall back. let's see 21,29,36, very similar gaps; had roosevelt completely locked up the economy the 36 blip wouldn't have happened, and by all reckonings the 20-21 dip was minor compared to what followed coolidge's policies, just like bush's.

posted January 28, 2012 11:58 AM            

you freely admit you have not SEEN one of these camps. have you seen any of the "bad lip synching" clips i have posted? they are only obvious from WHAT is put in the people's mouths.

and you obviously were not in germany when hitler was calling himself a socialist either. he was nothing of the kind!

posted January 28, 2012 10:41 PM            

And acoustic, I'm still not going to ressurect Hitler so he can whisper in your ear..."I'm a Socialist!"

Sorry, but as usual, you lose the argument acoustic.

HITLER WAS A SOCIALIST
John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)

"There is surely no doubt that the man Feser described is in fact a mainstream Leftist by current standards. But who is the man concerned? It is a historically accurate description of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was not only a socialist in his own day but he would even be a mainstream socialist in most ways today. Feser does not mention Hitler's antisemitism above, of course, but that too seems once again to have become mainstream among the Western-world Left in the early years of the 21st century."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1143131/posts

Hitler Was A Socialist, (And Not A Right Wing Conservative)

"Mussolini’s fascism was a state socialism that was explicitly anti-Marx and aggressively nationalistic. Hitler’s National Socialism was state socialism at its worse. It not only shared the socialism of fascism, but was explicitly racist. In this it differs from the state socialism of Burma today, and that of some African and Arab dictatorships.