‘Occupy Wall Street’ not as ‘fringe’ as some like to believe
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Federal Hall National Memorial was built at the site where Congress held its first session, at the foot of Wall Street in New York City.
The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified by Congress meeting at Federal Hall in New York City on Sept. 25, 1789. Today, a motley, disorganized group of American citizens is exercising its First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and to petition their government, literally within steps of where Congress met to acknowledge those rights.
The movement’s goals are at best uncertain, and to the extent they can be determined, in some ways extreme and unrealistic. And as has been demonstrated convincingly with other large political gatherings, it is certainly possible to wade into the crowd to find people whose antics and beliefs can be used to discredit the larger effort.
The protesters are at least pretty clear about what they don’t like: They don’t like the fact that Wall Street and the financial sector benefited enormously from taxpayer-funded bailouts, while insisting that ordinary Americans neither need nor deserve such assistance.
As the protesters like to chant, “The big banks got bailed, but the middle class got left behind.” Rasmussen reports, 79 percent of Americans say they agree with that sentiment. Only 10 percent disagree.
As Rasmussen assesses its poll findings, “The bailouts of the financial industry still leave a sour taste in the mouths of most Americans, who feel as strongly as ever that the government was looking out for bankers rather than taxpayers and that crimes on Wall Street remain unpunished.”
Earlier this year, Gallup conducted what has become an annual polling of Americans on their attitudes toward major corporations. Not surprisingly, given the role that Wall Street greed and arrogance played in creating this economic crisis, the public isn’t all that happy with them.
In fact, two-thirds of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the size and influence of corporations in national life.
But take another look at the charts above and below. This sense of dissatisfaction and distrust began to grow long before the crisis of 2008. Those events merely helped to crystallize sentiments that in fact had been building for years.
In other words, it’s easy to dismiss “Occupy Wall Street” as the work of the radical fringe, because in some ways it is. But what makes it bigger than that is the fact that the misgivings and distrust it is expressing are felt much more broadly, not just in campus coffee houses but in small-town diners, and not just in liberal chat rooms but in Tea Party meetings as well.
You don’t have to agree with the solutions they propose in order to recognize that the problems they dramatize and publicize have merit. Tens of millions of American citizens understand that .
– Jay Bookman
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
658 comments Add your comment
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:15 pm
back to babysitting my little prosters !
There might be some medicine to help with that, whatever it is.
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
3:16 pm
Midori — “Jm I’ll bet you’re really strong.”
Smell’s not everything in life, Midori.
Joe the Plutocrat
October 6th, 2011
3:16 pm
Redneck C, yep and it seems to me that all these protests are distracting the job creators from creating more jobs.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:16 pm
Mick
I wouldn’t completely unequate product and financial innovation
Irony
October 6th, 2011
3:17 pm
@Tom – I LOVE learning, thanks! Unfortunately I wasn’t talking about who BOUGHT the bus, only about who travels in it preaching about BUY AMERICAN.
Learning is awesome, but listening is something you may want to put a little more effort into.
Mick
October 6th, 2011
3:17 pm
joe – go here
http://americansworking.com/
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
3:17 pm
J. Plutocrat — “seems to me that all these protests are distracting the job creators from creating more jobs.”
Then those protestors have some serious mojo, because the not-creation of jobs has been going on for a few years.
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:19 pm
Ann Coulter compared the protesters to Nazis while on FOX. Unlike Bocephus and his loss, she’ll probably be given a raise by FOX along with more air time.
Adam
October 6th, 2011
3:19 pm
Jm: I do recall that Jay defended the Tea Party’s overall “the government is spending too much” grievance, however I also recall him indicating the way they do it and the policies they support do more harm than good. I do not, however, have an example and I am admittedly too lazy/busy to find one.
Joe COOL
October 6th, 2011
3:21 pm
I saw we go down to Centennial park and Occupy Sean Hannity’s shindig!!
Joe the Plutocrat
October 6th, 2011
3:21 pm
Joe Mama, pay attention… I was giving an IRONIC nod to RC. see: the people who refer to themselves as “job creators” don’t actually create jobs, but these protests will serve as excellent fodder for the Fox Niws; “…we can’t create jobs with all these subversive, anti-American, ne’er-do-wells clogging up Wall Street” (Dow up 140 last time I checked)
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:21 pm
BofA call center employees are probably less than ecstatic with moynihan’s plan
AmVet
October 6th, 2011
3:21 pm
Yeah, baby, great stuff.
Paul and I have laughed regularly at the seeming fact that “20% will believe ANYTHING!” (Well in this case, the 12% who think corporations should have MORE control over our lives!?!?)
The first major challenge to the corporatocracy and who does it begin with?
John Boner?
Eric Cant-er?
Barack “George Jr.” Obama?
Nope.
It starts with we the people.
And while the misguided, self-destructive lunatic fringe of the GOP continues to support the War Against the Middle Class, working men and women of courage are gonna stand up to the plutocrats in their ivory towers.
And say, NO MORE.
All because those three men, and many others in similar positions, with the sacred obligation to do so, won’t.
Rock on America!
(Is that John’s searing guitar intro to Revolution that I hear in the background?)
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:22 pm
Meanwhile, the house Republicans continue to just say no to passing Obama’s jobs bill. After all, there’s no political gain for them in doing so and it is not as though they were elected based on some campaign about jobs! I mean, really!.
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:25 pm
Whatever happened to that young lady at that tea party gathering for Rand Paul that had that tea party tool there with his foot on her face.
AmVet
October 6th, 2011
3:25 pm
Taxpayer, Ann Coulter is an anti-Semite’s wet dream come true…
getalife
October 6th, 2011
3:26 pm
The gop are mad because the President is campaigning.
Hilarious.
Time to end the gop party.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:26 pm
Occupy wants a Marxist revolution
Whatever
Obama is right. Americans have gotten fat and lazy an just want everything spoon fed for them
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:28 pm
Does Sean Hannity spoon feed jm his posts. Inquiring minds.
Granny Godzilla
October 6th, 2011
3:29 pm
A Marxist Revolution! Hail! Hail!
pat
October 6th, 2011
3:30 pm
Anybody can bitch, solutions are in short supply. It helps to know what your bitching about instead of ‘You’e bad’. Washington is to blame for the bailouts. I don’t see people running to return welfare checks either.
WOODSTOCK MIKE
October 6th, 2011
3:30 pm
Banks were bailed out by the government so why are liberals blaming the banks? In many cases, like Wells Fargo, banks were forced to take the bailout to sure up their books. The money has long been repaid besides a few companies. Can a liberal please explain what exactly the protest is about? What specific change needs to be made on Wall Street? What practice on Wall Street is taking place now that must be changed?
Tom Middleton
October 6th, 2011
3:31 pm
Irony: “@Tom – I LOVE learning, thanks! Unfortunately I wasn’t talking about who BOUGHT the bus, only about who travels in it preaching about BUY AMERICAN.”
So, Irony, you would have our current president waste taxpayer money by not using the bus ordered by Bush? Really?
Sorry, Irony, but you’re part of the problem – a problem we can well do without. I mean, if you love learning so much, why am I having to do your thinking?
Jay
October 6th, 2011
3:31 pm
jm, you apparently have that June post right in front of you. You apparently believe it somehow validates your claim that I dismissed the Tea Party as “fringe.”
Oddly, however, you do not quote from it. One wonders why.
Perhaps because there’s not the slightest suggestion in that post that the Tea Party is a fringe group? Those who would like to test that claim can do so at http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/06/07/is-this-what-the-tea-party-truly-stands-for/
And as to Romney, I of course confess to being wrong about that. I failed to account for the inability of the conservative Tea Party wing of the GOP to produce even a barely credible candidate to oppose him. I didn’t think that would be a high hurdle, but I was wrong. I even thought for a time that Perry might be that person, but upon closer inspection, that too proved wrong.
The willingness to admit that you’re wrong sometimes isn’t such a bad thing, jm. It sure beats digging the hole ever deeper.
Can you hear me way down there jm?
WOODSTOCK MIKE
October 6th, 2011
3:32 pm
Isn’t it odd that all the liberals on this site are screaming for a revolution? Hey guys, a Democrat is in office, are you saying he needs to be removed?
Granny Godzilla
October 6th, 2011
3:33 pm
Banks forced?
Repository Rape?
They shouldn’t dress like they are asking for it.
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:35 pm
I see Woodstock calling for a revolution.
WOODSTOCK MIKE
October 6th, 2011
3:36 pm
I tell you these liberals are so oblivious to the fact that it’s very clear Obama has an uphill battle to climb. You would think by these posts that Obama was on a clear path to victory. Sorry guys, America looks for results, we chose Democrats in 2008 for a reason, we wanted to go another direction, now that the Obama administration has failed we will once again be going in another direction…
WOODSTOCK MIKE
October 6th, 2011
3:36 pm
I love you guys, sorry I make you so mad…
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:36 pm
They shouldn’t dress like they are asking for it.
Touche, Granny.
Doggone/GA
October 6th, 2011
3:36 pm
“I get it now. Ironic like the president preaching to “BUY AMERICAN” while he travels the country in his bus made in Canada? ”
Canada is American too
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
3:37 pm
“Washington is to blame for the bailouts”
Yeah, damn right…. No blame for those who got themselves in a position to need the bailouts. It’s not their fault!
[snark]
Kamchak
October 6th, 2011
3:37 pm
Isn’t it odd that all the liberals on this site are screaming for a revolution?
Odd?
No.
A lie?
Yes.
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
3:38 pm
we will once again be going in another direction…
don’t let that screen door hit y’all on the way out.
mm
October 6th, 2011
3:38 pm
“Obama is right. Americans have gotten fat and lazy an just want everything spoon fed for them”
Are you referring to the top 1%?
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:39 pm
Squeak
Armed Liberal
October 6th, 2011
3:40 pm
Geitner on the Wall St. elites:
They resent the huge amount of public anger they’ve been subjected to because they caused the crisis — they sometimes claim, they think it was created by us, which I think is a deeply unfair judgment. And they react to what is pretty modest, common-sense observations about the system as if they’re deep affronts to the dignity of their profession. And I don’t understand why they’re so sensitive. But they’re very wounded, and they’ve seen a huge amount of damage to peoples’ confidence in their capacity to not just manage risk and to meet the needs of their customers, but in the broader public consciousness. And they’d like us to heal that for them, and they ask me all the time, Why can’t you heal that for us? And I say to them, i think reasonably, that’s something you’ve got to earn back yourself. We can’t do that for you.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
3:41 pm
Woodstock will keep going in different directions until the 360 is completed 5 or 6 times like a dog chasing its tail….and then wonder why he’s not gotten anywhere.
ty webb
October 6th, 2011
3:41 pm
maybe the “occupiers” just found out the “we AREN”T the one we’ve been waiting for”…
AmVet
October 6th, 2011
3:42 pm
BTW, earlier today, I sent my RMIA (Representative Missing in Action) Tom Price a short but scathing email asking his opinion as to why he and his colleagues have abrogated their sworn duties to protect us from long term systemic corruption and injustice?
And even if he never responds, it is no matter.
We will figure out a way to represent ourselves without these sycophantic millionaire screw ups on bended knees before their Wall Street paymasters…
FrankLeeDarling
October 6th, 2011
3:42 pm
If you are having a problem understanding what “occupy wall street” is about here is a simple techno dubstep video that I think will help clear things up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXstxFoayxI
getalife
October 6th, 2011
3:43 pm
Just real Americans wanting their country back.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:43 pm
Jay
Lets just say most people would have viewed your headline as a rhetorical question.
Let’s be honest here. You think the tea party is a bit loony, uneducated, partially unhinged
That’s fine. I think occupy is partially unhinged. And you allude to as much as well. And I would say there’s a significant part of TPers that are either clueless, hypocrites, or just morons.
But let’s not delve into fantasies that like the idea that you think the Tparty is mainstream or “not fringe”
When we let the crazies dictate the agenda, nothing gets done
Romney 2012
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
3:43 pm
Armed, good quote.
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
3:44 pm
J. Plutocrat — “Joe Mama, pay attention… I was giving an IRONIC nod to RC.”
Sorry, didn’t notice that you were using the (Ironic) tag.
Joe COOL
October 6th, 2011
3:44 pm
“and then wonder why he’s not gotten anywhere.”
Or wonder why no one will respond to his silliness.
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
3:46 pm
Mike — “I love you guys, sorry I make you so mad…”
D00d, *you* are the one incessantly posting little bits and nibbles.
Maybe *you* should cool off.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 6th, 2011
3:48 pm
Psssst RC (R–spoi)
Today is Thursday.
I know, I know, Kamchak. I’m out here repairing the wreckage from Wednesday night, though. I’m not getting out of the sack to do it Wednesday night.
FrankLeeDarling
October 6th, 2011
3:48 pm
I’m not screaming for a revolution I’m screaming for a evolution.
Joe the Plutocrat
October 6th, 2011
3:48 pm
AmVet, Clash/Lond Calling response #2, re: your missive to Price (from Guns of Brixton)
“when they kick at your front door, how you gonna come?
with your hands on your head, or on the trigger of your gun?
when the law breaks in, how you gonna go?
shot down on the pavement, or waiting on death row?
actually, the visual of Tom Price (unsuccessfuly) attempting to kick down a door is amusing; but that’s why we have SWAT units; so weasels like Price don’t chip their nails.
Jay
October 6th, 2011
3:49 pm
jm writes:
“Let’s be honest here. You think the tea party is a bit loony, uneducated, partially unhinged.”
jm, your inability to learn from past mistakes — particularly very recent and public past mistakes — leads me to worry about you. If you promise to put the shovel down, and I’ll drop a very long rope down that hole so you can climb out.
Seriously, please do not try to put your words in my mouth in an attempt to discredit me. I post more than enough words of my own here to give you ample fodder, but rather than do that, you find it easier to manufacture false thoughts and words.
It’s dishonest.
Doggone/GA
October 6th, 2011
3:50 pm
“Maybe *you* should cool off.”
actually, it’s kind of sad that someone can apparently only justify their existence to themselves by pretending they made someone else mad. Truly sad.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
3:51 pm
Am…. you’ll get a nice form letter citing some bills he’s been “working” on that have great names about protecting the country from this or that while the text of the bill typically does the exact opposite. You know “Protect America’s Beauty and National Park Act” by allowing corporations to harvest the forests and be exempt from liability for failing to maintain or replace oil pipelines running through or near National Parks”. Or “Keep America Beautiful” by eliminating the EPA.
Paddy O
October 6th, 2011
3:53 pm
Count me as one that agrees with them. Why pass NAFTA & give permanent MFN status to China? To help corporations increase profits – How? Gut the ability of unions to collectively organize and strive to improve working conditions & wages of the employed. Also, to provide employees for the US’s military.
buck@gon
October 6th, 2011
3:53 pm
Jay,
The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified by Congress meeting at Federal Hall in New York City on Sept. 25, 1789. Today, a motley, disorganized group of American citizens is exercising its First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and to petition their government, literally within steps of where Congress met to acknowledge those rights.
So, you’re sancitmoniously droning….. “motley”, “disorganized”?? Seems you’re missing something. These guys sound like the Borg from Star Trek when they talk. They are obedient drones for SOMETHING, and evidence leads to a Canadian firm called adbusters.
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet
Look at the front ad, people. We have there a rock-throwing bandit. Did the tea party invoke such violent images? Don’t think so. Did the Tea Party call for global revolution? Don’t think so. Who in the tea party violated private property rights, attacked police officers and yelled racial epithets? No one; at least no one on film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Y9CARUwio
This guy sounds like a typical brown shirt 60 years removed from Germany. What a churlish baby! The kind of guy you’re pretending doesn’t exist here, Jay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q55OAozWeNo
Here we have more….
The movement’s goals are at best uncertain, and to the extent they can be determined, in some ways extreme and unrealistic. And as has been demonstrated convincingly with other large political gatherings***, it is certainly possible to wade into the crowd to find people whose antics and beliefs can be used to discredit the larger effort.
***As YOU, John Lewis, the CBC MSNBC, ABC, the NY Times, the ajc, CNN and all major media outlets except Fox tried to do with the Tea Party.
Boy, what a dilution of truth–the goals are at best, uncertain? No, they’re pretty well-known: Jew-bashing, truthers, socialists, young college-age dopes. Just look at Soothsayer, getalife and Kamchak here on your own blog. They’re perfect for modeling the nitwittiness of these bozos in the streets. If the media coverage per capita of the occupy wall street loonies and the Tea Party were compared, one would find a million to one advantage for the idiot fringe doing the college-age degenerate hang-out bit for occupy wall street.
The protesters are at least pretty clear about what they don’t like: They don’t like the fact that Wall Street and the financial sector benefited enormously from taxpayer-funded bailouts, while insisting that ordinary Americans neither need nor deserve such assistance.
I don’t hear that Jay. Now you’re purposefully conflating the Tea Party and these bunch of kooks. If the bailouts were such an issue, as they were to the Tea Party, how come we have the two-year awareness delay? That “ordinary Americans neither need nor deserve such assistance”?
You got something half right. The dum-dums on wall street issues several demands early on, Jay, including free college tuition, free healthcare, a “living wage”. You can only be sending up flack for these head-cases to ignore these demands and non-chalantly dignify their position.
The question is: why are they protesting on Wall Street for these things when the legislation they want can only be enacted by a strong-armed government? Don’t we see the sign for “global revolution” all around these idiots? Got a blind-spot in your eye, Jay?
So, why protest Wall Street?
You have no answer to that, do you Jay? and neither do the protesters, whose presence begs to many questions–unasked by you– that your portrayal of them looks silly, fawning and absurd, to say the least.
Typical liberal. Full of baloney and no answers.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/money/jobs-and-careers/unfocused-occupy-wall-street-protesters-make-list-demands
You’re so full of crap, Jay Bookman, that you stink. Go out, sew your own sleeping bag and protest the rich Cox family that pays your undeserved salary.
md
October 6th, 2011
3:54 pm
“Meanwhile, the house Republicans continue to just say no to passing Obama’s jobs bill”
Doesn’t surprise me about this talking point omitting the little part about the other side having problems with it too………….Harry’s not sitting on it because he can’t reach the table………..
Paddy O
October 6th, 2011
3:54 pm
Why allow corporations to fund campaigns? To allow candidates easy access to cash, not to improve democracy.
Scooter
October 6th, 2011
3:54 pm
Politicians will be happy as long as the protesters ire is focused on the private sector and not how the GSE’s promoted the mission statement of HUD.
That mission includes, in part; “HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” The GSE’s are legislatively required to promote HUD’s mission so of course they had nothing to do with providing affordable homes to ALL.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:55 pm
Oh I might add
While I don’t in the least agree with occupy’s solutions, I can certainly sympathize with their feelings and view
Buy honestly, TP and occupy are on the same page sort of
Tho TP said let banks go down and occupy says:”where how and when do I get mine?”
AmVet
October 6th, 2011
3:56 pm
Yep, the corporate owned suck ups worst nightmare is unfolding in slow motion and promises to keep on growing…
Thursday marked the 20th day of Wall Street protests,.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia hundreds turned out Thursday morning near City Hall in a similar demonstration.
Crowds also gathered in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas in Texas, while more protests cropped up in Seattle, San Francisco and Tampa.
University students staged walk-outs a day before on college campuses such as North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
And more demonstrations were scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C.; Jersey City, New Jersey; Austin, Texas, Los Angeles and others.
Dozens gathered in Boston; Hartford, Connecticut; and Savannah, Georgia.
Crowds in St. Louis gathered Wednesday in protest near a downtown Bank of America building.
Others congregated at a park near City Hall in Seattle and a Federal National Mortgage Association (commonly know as Fannie Mae) building in Los Angeles.
I think the joy and relief in this nation is absolutely palpable, now.
(Is that CSN&Y’s Long Time Gone that I hear?)
No more sitting around waiting for the Washington weasels to do what needs to be done.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
3:57 pm
Since Scout is in his hidey hole, I’ll post this for him. I am sure he would do it if he were around
Sadistic NYPD cop relishes idea of beating protesters: ‘My little nightstick is going to get a work out tonight’.”
I am sure he will only beat those who don’t have a permit.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
3:57 pm
Jay fine then. Why don’t you write as you wish about the tea party….
Jack
October 6th, 2011
3:58 pm
Fringe by any other name is still fringe. To suggest otherwise is sophomoric.
Paddy O
October 6th, 2011
3:58 pm
I’d like to see speculators removed from the futures markets. I’d wish George Bush had NOT allowed the oil companies to merge.
Tom Middleton
October 6th, 2011
4:01 pm
And Irony: Karl Marx predicted that the world’s wealth would fall into fewer and fewer hands until there was a worker revolution. Wasn’t there something in your civics course about this, too?
Seems to me that there is a political party in America inadvertently favoring Marxism – the Republicans. Oh how they love their 1% – to the detriment of all the rest of us.
The problem is that they don’t realize who they’re really supporting with all that love; and unfortunately for the rest of us, won’t be figuring it out anytime soon.
Jack
October 6th, 2011
4:02 pm
“…corporate owned suck ups..” That’s not being uninformed; that’s being plain stupid. Go home, AmVet; your mom’s calling.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:04 pm
“your inability to learn from past mistakes”
I know not what u speak of.
Noodle over that one
Peter
October 6th, 2011
4:04 pm
Well WOODSTOCK MIKE….tell us how Obama has Failed, and better yet tell us how Bush Succeeded ?
Seems allot of folks have written it will take us 10 years to get out from under the Bush mess.
You know that 300 Million dollar war..and the balanced budget he promised, after Cheney said “Deficits don’t matter”.
I will say I am not super happy with Obama, but after what the Republican’s and Bush / Cheney did, don’t think America will forget so fast as you hope.
Plus tell me which candidate America will believe in from a Republican point of view ?
TaxPayer
October 6th, 2011
4:05 pm
Republicans campaigned on jobs but fail to put forth a jobs bill. Instead, they complained and whined and moaned about how Obama was doing nothing to deal with jobs. Obama gives the house Republicans a jobs bill and they do nothing.
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
4:06 pm
J. Plutocrat — “so weasels like Price don’t chip their nails.”
I knew a sergeant in the Army who just would not curse, no matter how angry or upset he got. And he had a great euphemism that I think applies very nicely to Congressman Price. Where other men might call someone a ‘d-bag’ or a sack of s***,’ Sergeant Niceguy would call them “a crapweasel.”
I think that “crapweasel” is a very nice description for Tom Price.
Kamchak
October 6th, 2011
4:07 pm
“your inability to learn from past mistakes”
I know not what u speak of.
There’s your sign.
buck@gon
October 6th, 2011
4:07 pm
Message couldn’t be clearer. Here’s another hateful leftist, ranting…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfxC0YTSc-w
Here’s a romanticization you couldn’t be troubled to notice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZajkgodLIQ
Here’s a fine example of human being/trailer trash for the protesters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvr-RDxAn5k
These are NOT principled people who want rights. These are looters who want STUFF.
And their President is right with them!
Adam
October 6th, 2011
4:07 pm
Jm: Why don’t you write as you wish about the tea party….
If I was Jay, I would DEFINITELY respond with “Why THANK YOU SO MUCH for your permission”
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
4:08 pm
Buck — “Did the tea party invoke such violent images? Don’t think so.”
Come now. Sure they did.
Plenty of gun-related imagery and posters reading things like “We Came Unarmed — This Time.”
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:08 pm
Amvet 3:56
Your statements are borderline delusional
Nothing has happened other than a bunch of fast food consumption and music playing in downtown manhattan
Adam
October 6th, 2011
4:08 pm
TaxPayer: But they have “passed hundreds of bills to deal with the ENVIRONMENT for creating jobs (i.e., more tax cuts).
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
4:09 pm
Paddy, have you signed the petition at http://www.getmoneyout.com to amend Constitution to get money out of elections.
Adam
October 6th, 2011
4:10 pm
Jm: Your statements are borderline delusional
Nothing has happened other than a bunch of fast food consumption and music playing in downtown manhattan
Jm, sometimes I wonder if you understand terms such as “delusional” and “fact.” You accuse AmVet of being borderline delusional, and then you post something right after it that is ACTUALLY delusional. Either that, or you really have no clue what has happened down there from not paying attention to it.
Granny Godzilla
October 6th, 2011
4:11 pm
buck is frightened.
good
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:11 pm
Adam if I think I’m being misunderstood, I do the common sense thing and state my opinion
Rather than pout solely with a response of “that’s not what I said or think”
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
4:11 pm
Joe Mama — gun related imagery?…. Some of them actually showed up with guns
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
4:11 pm
Buck — “If the bailouts were such an issue, as they were to the Tea Party, how come we have the two-year awareness delay?”
If the deficit was such an issue to the GOP and the Tea Partiers, how come they never noticed how ugly it was getting while President Bush was in office?
Granny Godzilla
October 6th, 2011
4:13 pm
79% agree with the 99%
leaving that funny 20% again…..
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:15 pm
I think it seriously comical that is jay is now defending the teaparty as mainstream or some such thing
If that’s not what he thinks, or his thinking has evolved, maybe he’ll enlighten us at some point
willie lynch
October 6th, 2011
4:15 pm
Are the Koch brothers behind the “Occupy Wall Street” movement?
Joe COOL
October 6th, 2011
4:16 pm
jm is mad the Occupy ppl are stealing their thunder.
Kamchak
October 6th, 2011
4:17 pm
Just look at Soothsayer, getalife and Kamchak here on your own blog.
Poor wittle bucky-poo.
Ass still chapped ’cause a asked you to show your work, I see.
A real engineer coulda done it.
Just sayin’.
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
4:17 pm
Keep Up — “gun related imagery?…. Some of them actually showed up with guns”
Yes, but I feel certain that our conservative friends will try to argue that conservatives with firearms don’t constitute a threat of violence. I can’t count how many times conservative friends of mine (both while I was in the GOP and out of it) expressed the view that people like themselves were no threat to anyone. It was OTHER people with guns who were the threat.
It never occurred to them that there’s no easy way for an observer to tell which group a given gun-toter belonged to just by looking.
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:17 pm
Liberals: more unemployed and angrier
Gimme those sane moderates any day of the week
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 6th, 2011
4:18 pm
Many Americans waited to see what would happen after the bailouts and to see how things would change….and as they realize that its not going to change and that Wall Street, the corporations and the 1% are working to squeeze them even more and they continually here about more “breaks” for “job creators” that they will have to pay for. The 99% are seeing that it is time to stand up and say “this is our country too”
Marie
October 6th, 2011
4:19 pm
Didn’t the banks pay back the government with interest and the government actually made money from the bailout? And how can you blame the banks for what Congress (Democrat controlled at that time) decided to do? Congress ultimately made the decision to bailout the banks and the US auto manufacturers. Why isn’t this protest occurring in DC and on Capital Hill?
Midori
October 6th, 2011
4:20 pm
speaking of delusional, can someone throw a Valium Buck’s way?
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:21 pm
Joe poor guy
Just sosad your people are so unemployed they can spend their days twiddling their thumbs in the streets
These really are the people too lazy to find a job, start a company, get an education
I can understand being mad at wall st, but these people are so idle they can spend all day piddling
Amazing
Peter
October 6th, 2011
4:22 pm
jm are you employed currently as in now at this moment at work …or perhaps retired or on the off day ?
Midori
October 6th, 2011
4:22 pm
Jm – do “you” even know WTF you’re talking about?
or are you just aimlessly throwing spaghetti against the wall?
AmVet
October 6th, 2011
4:24 pm
Looks like Jack lost his Jill and is taking it out on moi!
Jack if you want an highly detailed slapdown of the corporate takeover of our government, let me know. And if I want nothing but sophist, unprovoked insults, I’ll get in touch with you, OK?
And Jm, yo do realize you have firmly planted yourself at the very apex of discredited, laughable bloggers here, right? And that takes some determined effort.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/us/gallery/u-s-ows-protests-gallery/index.html?hpt=hp_t1.
Armed Liberal
October 6th, 2011
4:24 pm
jm is just ticked off Bookman owned him several times over just recently. Now, as any pre-school aged child would do, he is throwing a petulant tantrum.
If only there were a time-out room around here…
Joe Mama
October 6th, 2011
4:25 pm
Marie — “Didn’t the banks pay back the government with interest and the government actually made money from the bailout? And how can you blame the banks for what Congress (Democrat controlled at that time) decided to do?”
I think it is reasonable to blame banks for their actions *before* and *leading up to* the meltdown, as well as their treatment of depositors and mortgage-holders *since* the meltdown. There are several instances of banks attempting to repossess homes which were either not in a delinquent or default status, or which didn’t even have outstanding mortgages at all. In one case, BofA attempted to repossess a home that had *never* been subject to a BofA mortgage at all.
In addition, there is more than ample evidence that banks completely failed in their legal and fiduciary responsibility to maintain proper legal documentation pertaining to the ownership and transference of outstanding mortgages, and that fraudulent means were used to conceal that fact. While some posters like Buck may cry foul about how long it’s taken people to clue into what was going on, it’s worth pointing out that it took over two years for Nixon to get found out and then hounded out of office for Watergate — and I feel pretty sure that Buck’s not going to try to handwave Watergate away.
md
October 6th, 2011
4:27 pm
“Many Americans waited to see what would happen after the bailouts and to see how things would change….”
The structure of the bailouts didn’t make it too hard to guess…………no conditions meant back to business as usual………………
Jm
October 6th, 2011
4:27 pm
Wage stagnation and the unemployment rate is not the doing of wall st
Sorry