‘Occupy Wall Street’ not as ‘fringe’ as some like to believe

First!

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as I said yesterday; will be interesting to see if this ends up like Woodstock or Altamont. the First Amendment and the entire Bill of Rights is a pacifier. it’s a chew toy the oligarchs and plutocrats toss the unwashed masses (or cite) when they want something in return (our money, our vote, our lives).

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“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.”

You can count me in that 79%.

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Cue the “shower” comments in 3…2…1….

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A little justice would be nice as well. As far as I know (which might be wrong) only 1 person has been tried in connection with the Great Recession’s banking meltdown.

My question is…why did this take so long to come about?

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This protest movement has been downplayed, derided, and dismissed by all of the MSM to date.

CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, newspapers, and the rest are all part of the 1%.

We are the 99%.

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Given these poll results, I suspect we’ll now be hearing that the Republicans are all of a sudden in favor of the Wall Street bailouts. They wouldn’t want to be seen as in any way supportive of those protesters especially if there happens to be some liberals and union folks and democrats and students and jobless and medicare recipients, etc., associating with them. Probably not a single person recognized as a “job creator” by the Republicans in the whole crowd so what good could they possibly be!

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All this…and no open check book from Dick Armey.

This IS what democracy looks like.

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Peadawg

I could just kiss you!

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Joe Mama, I think Ty was being facetious. I think the more interesting story is the 6 in 10 post 9/11 vets (Afghanistan & Iraq) who give a thumbs down to both wars, and believe the government needs to address domestic issues in the USA before addressing the domestic issues of sovreign nations. anyone (beside the neo-con/talking points crowd) think there might actually be some common DNA in the “occupy Wall Street” crowd and the “end the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq” crowd? what say ye? this is a no spin zone!

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I wonder if Dilbert is the same in every newspaper. Good take on the 1% of the innovators vs the 99% of the rest of us.

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Read their manifesto and tell me they aren’t extreme.

One thing on it is to forgive all debt. All mortgages wiped out. All student loans wiped out. Nobody owes anybody anything. Not extreme?

No, it isn’t extreme to be upset about the way things are going, and we all have our ideas on how to fix it. But this group is extreme, and they are certainly not representative of the 99%.

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gordon?? extreme?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36×8rTb3jI

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The rest of the American people will be heard.

These protests are not tiny tea parties.

They are the majority of the American people’s tea party.

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Maybe all these protests (Wall Street and the Orange Pekoe Brigade) are being secretly organized by Micheal’s hobby shop to sell more glitter and poster board.

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and what’s wrong with calling them “fringe”? I’d take being called “fringe” over being called “racist” anytime.

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Yes, if I was up there I would check it out and lend my voice. I’m not really an activist but even if a jehovah witness comes knocking, I will offer them a cool drink and some thoughtful conversation…

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Joe Mama -

Here’s something for you on the super majority, if you actually deny that I understand you better now…

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/05/democrats-lose-supermajority-brown-sworn/

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woodstock

Brown will be toast this next election..

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“CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE. No more GE paying zero or negative taxes. Pass the Buffet Rule on fair taxation so the rich pay their fair share. (If we have a really had a good negotiating position and have the place surrounded, we could actually dial up taxes on millionaires, billionaires and corporations even higher…back to what they once were in the 50’s and 60’s.”

good old class warfare.. i like it.. while we are at it.. i say anyone 10% over weight are on their on with health insurance.. anyone that has ever taken any illegal substance be taken off as well as their children.. that would save a bunch right there!

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Local flavor should you be so inclined:

http://occupyatlanta.org/

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“So this guy thinks that either banks should have been allowed to fail (the dumbest idea in history) or that the middle class should be handed money. Yeah that makes real sense…”

I never agreed w/ the bailouts to begin with, correct.

But hand outs to the middle class? You must not know me very well.

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Guy Ingognito

Lies?

No RRRRR RRRR for you.

Mr. Silly Pants.

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WOODSTOCK MIKE,

“Yeah that makes real sense”

How about making them take responsibility for the fiasco they created? Like maybe tossing the people who caused this mess out on their butts…instead of giving them million dollar bonuses?

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Mick,

“I will offer them a cool drink and some thoughtful conversation…”

I offer them a close view of my door knocker…If I didn’t invite you to knock on my door, it means I don’t want you there.

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[...] http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-not-as-fringe-as-some-like-to-be... [...]

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“I agree with this, but who bailed out the big banks and financial institutions? THE GOVERNMENT. Why are they not protesting our government?” – Very very good point.

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The fundamental test of the Occupy Wall St. movement is whether the Left can finally succeed in reclaiming the terrain of the POLITICAL.

This is what we’re watching to see. Thus far, the protests have continued to be anti-political, and this is what must change if the left is going to be re-energized and form a powerful challenge to the right.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/matt-stoller-the-anti-politics-of-occupywallstreet.html

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T. Head — “Why are they not protesting Frank Dodd, Barney Frank, or Dick Durbin?”

Why *would* those individuals need to be the object of protests, please?

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Oh gosh, Oh golly.

The big scarey union thug card.

Y’all are starting to sweat.

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Well…It could end up like Woodstock ‘99

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAcU_j7Hruw

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you know, had I the time (and motivation) I might pen an ironic missive on ‘class warfare’. in my brilliant treatise I might opine about the very nature of Fox News; the singluar purveyor, if not originator of the phrase (in the post-Obama era), as it would appear the blathering talking heads of Fox News are pre-school/kindergartend teachers, who summon their “class” to sit on the floor (criscross applesauce) so that they might be captivated and educated by fairy tales about big bad wolves, damsels in distress and the like. memo to all the neo-con rubes, you are being played. your overlords talk down to you. they present stilted, innacurate, myths and fabels; because they KNOW (or suspect) you do not have the intellectual curiosity or capacity to think freely. FOR THE LAST TIME; if you consider yourself to be “conservative” and an American, READ THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE (amconmag.com)!!! you’ll get your fix of right-wing pabulum, but you will find cogent, logical, CONSTITUTIONAL rebuts and retorts; and as the saying goes; if you’re not careful, you just might learn something.

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And if we’ve learned nothing else from the Middle East, when your country’s youth are disenfranchised and unemployed with no future prospects the establishment is looking at a heap of trouble.

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Okay, so why does OUR “occupy” thing happen in a park at 6 pm on a Friday? Who’s going to notice? (Besides, I have a date. Um…Hello? This last-minute invitiation stuff isn’t cool.)

Why don’t we occupy the Buckhead financial district during peak business hours instead? Waiting until 6 pm on a Friday to start a protest is kind of like calling somebody’s office at 4:50 on a Friday for something you need THIS WEEK.

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Why are they not protesting our government?

Some of us prefer to address the root of a problem.

Your Rush/Hannity solution of screaming at Democratic boogeymen hasn’t provided results, unless your desired result is making Rush and Hannity part of the rich overlords—-then it’s been mighty successful. The rest of us aren’t quite satisfied with that.

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“pabulum ”

Ohhh….I got a little twinge of delectation.

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“Poor Woodstock “Angry ” MIKE…… Like all Republican’s he was OK when the Bush Wars Bilked America, and OK when the Banks were helped, but screw the everyday American.

Yup hard to find the Patriotism in that !”

Peter please explain to me how the GOP has made your life so horrible. Give me exact reasons as to how the GOP changed your life. And than please tell me what policies from the Obama administration has made your life so fantastic. This should be good.

And Peter if you think anyone is happy about the Iraq war your’e sick.

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Scout — “Therefore, they have VIOLATED the First Amendment and should not be able to hide behind it.”

Well, then, when any of these protestors break the law, let’s see them arrested and prosecuted for their misdeeds.

Unless and until that happens, however, I’m afraid you’ll have to tolerate their lawful and peaceful protest.

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Matti,

“Why don’t we occupy the Buckhead financial district during peak business hours instead?”

Because then I’m going have to call Zone 2 on you…and I really don’t want to have to do that.

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Peter, are you aware that there is a Democrat in office?

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Talking Head,

“The system became unstable in 1913 with the creation of the FED”

Then please explain nearly 80 years of a stable financial system after the Great Depression.

“Regardless of who was lobbying, those who accepted the bribes are essentially guilty of not upholding our laws and should be thrown out of office”

And those proffering the bribes in out of their corporate suite.

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T. Head — “I guess I could have thrown in Republican names just as easy, but specifically threw in those names because of the Dodd-Frank bill which is making the situation even worse. Dick Durbin because of his amendment that capped what banks can charge vendors for using debit cards. A government created crisis that no doubt government will attempt to fix.”

Point well taken, but I respectfully submit that the problems you illustrate are most likely not what those protestors are angry about. I suspect they’re more upset about corporate involvement in elections, shady funding of political whispering campaigns, and a whole host of market-meltdown-related hijinks.

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Joe Mama -

If you really somehow don’t recognize the super majority that’s very scary, spin it and twist it any weird way you want, even Obama himself recognized the super majority?? More links, I guess they are all lies…

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6187663.ece

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Some of us would really like not to become serfs of the corporate overlords.

And with that I’m off for a briefing on SRTA’s HOT Lanes. This should actually be a meeting I do not sleep through.

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Manifestos are SO last century! In this century, we have “agile” rebellions. With no clear goal, we make it up as we go along.

(Snicker if you get that.)

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jewcowboy

Where have you been?

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Mick,

“Where have you been?”

work work work…I have to pay to keep our corporate masters in foie gras…

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Before I read the article:

THANK YOU SO MUCH Jay for posting about this subject. It is about time it got filtered into mainstream and finally, to us regulars on your blog.

Number 2) It’s Obama’s Fault! Solyndra! Soros! Socialist!

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RB from Gwinnett,

“Didn’t help the middle class any did it??”

Nah…just about middle class jobs saved. But who needs a job, right?

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“Are they protesting over at GM headquarters too?? They got bailed out too and I still have to pay the same for a new car. Didn’t help the middle class any did it??”

Bailing out the auto industry which helped keep jobs intact vs. bailing out big banks which helped fatten CEO and Wall Street’s wallets….see the difference?

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“Didn’t help the middle class any did it??”

Yes, I believe it saved about 1 million middle class jobs. Next silly question?

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Translation

Bug business is bad bad bad

Whatever

Lets ignore the fact that the most egregious and largest tax loopholes were created by a million small residential broker contractors, and the obscene health care tax exemption is promoted by labor unions

Look in the mirror jay. The biggest tax cheats are tour constituency.

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Reality is a tough pill to swallow isn’t it Grandma? The majority of the people protesting out there are proudly stating marxist goals, so you can call me a liar or whatever else you’d like. It doesn’t change the fact that this is a marxist movement by and large. Calls for ‘free everything’ are exactly what the marxist idiology is, and what i’m seeing and hearing come from most of these clueless kids.

Marxism: the system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, especially the doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a classless society.

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I watch this movement and cringe as the Unions and MoveOn move in to co-opt and lay claim to grass roots. The ORIGINAL protest against banks has more support than most would like.

What has the Obama Administration done about prosecuting Wall Street for what happened? Where is the rebuke of Fannie, and Freddie, and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd?

The Savings and Loan debacle of the late 1980’s resulted in HUNDREDS of prosecutions and convictions of banking execs. Where are the prosecutions in THIS debacle?

The Democrats are trying to mobilize the movement to pin blame of the great recession on Republicans… instead of prosecuting wall street. FAIL. Their signature legislation… Dodd/Frank… was written by the very folks who enabled this to happen in the first place…. and it will not prevent a future meltdown.

And that is where we really are: We have no prosecutions and no changes that will prevent a future meltdown. And once again, both Republicans AND Democrats are to blame.

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Buckhead has a “Financial District”? I thought they razed the Bank of America branch on the corner of Pharr and Peachtree.

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Too little

U r poorly informed

Libs know that prosecutions don’t prevent crime

That’s why the death penalty is stupid silly

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Irony, can you read? can you see? please direct us to the “free everything” demands of the protesters. and change your handle to dumbsh*t, it makes more sense.

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I think Scout is drooling. He so wants to get up there with Officer Bologna.

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Thanks for the Wikipedia tour, Irony.

Lost in your little exposition there is the posing of one simple question: Is Marxism RIGHT?

I ask you. Can you honestly look out at the brutality that is contemporary global capitalism and say with certainty that it is not? I dare you to.

“Calls for ‘free everything’ are exactly what the marxist idiology is, and what i’m seeing and hearing come from most of these clueless kids.”

You apparently don’t understand the first thing about social history or the world around you. If you were being honest, you would realize that ONLY ONE group and ONE only want “free everything” and that is of course the wealthy.

Now that doesn’t mean that they’re evil. It just means that the more that you have, the more that you will tend to act as though you already own everything, and thus you will not see any need to pay for what you want (since you want for nothing).

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“Big government’s partnership with Big Education”

Wow wowwee wow

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jm,

“Fact: liberals destroyed the economy.

Abetted by bankers.

Absent Fannie, freddie, and massive tax deductions for the middle class, housing mania would not have destroyed the economy”

You prove on a daily basis you have no concept of reality. Just repeat lies, rinse, repeat.

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@Trotsky

No, marxism is not RIGHT. it is CRAZY and DESTRUCTIVE. Sorry I left those out in my original wiki tour.

You show me one country or one instance in which marxism hasn’t resulted in the death and/or oppression of millions, and maybe I’ll be willing to reconsider.

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These people have every right to exercise the right to bare arms. In public even. I bet the Republicans would really have a hissy fit if the peaceful protesters started showing up with there permitted guns. Talk about a love-hate relationship! The Republicans would be yelling, “Take those socialists down… but be careful not to scratch that beautiful Glock!”

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History has repeatily shown that when a small minority of the people control the vast majority of the wealth and power, the “have nots” will finally start to act. There is no reason whatsoever to think that we Americans are somehow immune from the lessons of history, as we most certainly are not. This is not something that will just go away. Forewarned is forearmed.

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No worries Grandma. I went ahead and gave you enough credit for knowing when to apologize about being so horribly wrong and misguided. You’re welcome.

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Mm u have no rebuttal

Trotsky, u really are a commie. Don’t vote D next November

Cause they’re not commie

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Off topic but funny from TPM

Bad Sign For Ohio’s Guns In Bars Law: Ohio Barber Shot In Butt After Customer Drops Gun

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@Tom

“I mean, this is a democracy, isn’t it?”

Um, actually no. It’s not. It’s a Republic. You should try scanning through the constitution one of these days.

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Granny, how funny…..

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Granny:

How many wrecks were there in the U.S. last year by a driver who had just left a bar?

Let’s ban driving after drinking in a bar …….. regardless of amount of alcohol consumption.

What say ye ?

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Romney, Paul Ryan gotta make more donations

Commies must be stopped from turning America into Zimbabwe

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“Um, actually no. It’s not. It’s a Republic”

Ummm, actually it is. It’s Democratic Republic. Saying it’s not a “democracy, it’s a republic” is like saying that vehicle you are driving isn’t a “car” it’s a “Ford” It’s a “Ford car”
(and no, I DO NOT care what kind of vehicle you actually drive, if any)

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Holy Smokes Grandma! That was the best and most clever response EVER! Guess you showed me! Way to go!!

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The Fannie and Freddie hot sauce.

A classic flavor that hasn’t been sprinkled enough lately, I see

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@Doggone -

democratic is only the type of republic we have. It’s still a Republic first and foremost. But thanks for playing!

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I saw that one of those NY police even whacked a Fox 5 reporter with thier baton.

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Jay: “occupy not fringe, but tea party is ”

Whatever

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irony@2:49

I find it ironic that you don’t really understand what the protest is about…

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Good Little Irony

Is that true currently?

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Irony, did 20th C marxist movements end in disaster?

Most of the time, yes. (Notice my name does not evoke Stalin.)

But what is the alternative to global capitalism?

Some people, all the way from Bill Clinton’s DNC (which means Barack Obama and 99% of the Democratic party) to our esteemed blog namesake, think that there is none.

I say that just because there is not one on the horizon that is easy to recognize does not mean there is not one.

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Irony, you’re making progress; that’s good. you seem to have grasped an important concept (the concept of facts). namely, the Occupy Wall Stree demonstrators are not pro-Obama, they are anti-Wall Street. and kudos to you for seeing the “irony”, ‘cept there is no irony in protesting against Wall Street via an Apple laptop; it would be like seeing irony in the fact that Paul Revere warned the rebels “the British are coming” on a horse he likely imported from the UK (horses don’t come from Massachusetts)

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@Mick

That would put me in the same ‘ironic’ category as a lot of the people actually protesting. There is no cohesive message out there, no consistent list of demands or wants. I’ve seen signs about anti-capitalism, free this or that, anti-Israel, etc. I don’t begrudge these folks their right to protest, but it would help if they could actually stick to one or two messages rather than all over the board.

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carlos:

One more quick one and I must run for awhile :

1) I was talking about individual protection ……………. someone breaking into my house “in protest” for what I have earned, etc. …………….. also known as burglary.

2) You should study history. If any country gets bad enough that a revolution takes place ………….. then the military becomes fractured as well …………….. not just the civilian populace. That’s why some revolutions (ours for example) are successful.

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Mike — “If you really somehow don’t recognize the super majority that’s very scary, spin it and twist it any weird way you want, even Obama himself recognized the super majority?? More links, I guess they are all lies…”

Jay’s elaborated on the specifics of this point many times, Mike. Bringing it up again won’t change things.

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Jay, I’ll have to go hunting this evening

I certainly recall you setting a tone along the lines of: tea party people are crazy (for one reason or another)

I don’t ever, ever recall you defending their grievances

Of that I am almost certain, but I also know my memory isn’t perfect

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I was never in favor of ANY bailouts. But, I think those protestors ought to be in D.C. protesting at the Capitol, and not on Wall Street.

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@Joe – oh oka!. I get it now. Ironic like the president preaching to “BUY AMERICAN” while he travels the country in his bus made in Canada? Got it!

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Wonder why Jay wasn’t as kind to the Tea Party demonstrations? Will they be demanding Obama’s resignation?

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Hmmm…Trotsky – you are soooooooooo far off base. I don’t support the wall street companies that got bailed out and played an enormous part in destroying our economy. I’m actually able to hate wall street AND obama at the same time! So you don’t have to convince me that wall street is pro-obama. I’m very aware of that and actually the one who said that to begin with

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Irony, who died and left you arbiter of the “cohesive message”? ever look at a dollar bill? ever see the words E Plurbus Unum (”from many, one”), see; by defintion, “many” suggests we the People are not a “cohesive” lot; but we are “one” in our citizenship (except Obama and all the Mexicans, of course). listen, sport (sorry Kamchack); if you can only handle one message at a time that is a you problem, not a we problem. take small bites, chew thoroughly, and swallow. such things will be much easier to digest.

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1811 — “They have been arrested for not having a parade permit, etc.”

Then prosecute them on that basis.

“May I assume that if they are prosecuted and it sticks that you will agree with me that they have violated and prostituted the First Amendment …”

I don’t believe there’s an applicable Federal of New York State charge that remotely resembles ‘violating and prostituting the First Amendment.’ Your purple prose is showing.

“….. or is every citizen free to violate another citizen’s rights ?”

If you or any citizen feel that your rights are being violated, you have the Constitutional right to petition the government for a redress of your grievances. That’s *another* First Amendment right.

You sure are whiny for a Marine. I thought y’all were tougher than that.

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Irony: “Ironic like the president preaching to “BUY AMERICAN” while he travels the country in his bus made in Canada? Got it!”

The bus was ordered under Bush, Irony. Hope you’re enjoying learning

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Came across this (unrelated) beauty: April 13 2011 9:01 am

Jay:”politically speaking, mitt Romney is a dead man walking”

“he has no chance whatsoever of becoming 45th president of the united states”

Too funny

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Well, I can’t figure out why the NYC cops ain’t on horseback and beating up these dirty happies. That’s what happens when there’s protests at meetings of the G-8 and party conventions. Sure, the Constitution talks about the right to assemble, but that don’t mean it’s a right. I mean, you can’t take everything at face value no more than you can take the right to be secure in your person and things as a guarantee they won’t wiretap the hell out of you.

Anyhow, I always thought Wall Street was where the Job Creators stayed or at least made money at. That leaves me all bumfuzzled again about why we’re allowing these scrungy hippies to picket there. I mean, they’re all but saying they’re against Trickle Down and everything else our country holds sacred. Next thing we know they’ll be calling for Tax Increases and then the skids will be greased.

I guess there’s alot of things I don’t understand about this world. And these Wall Street protests is one of them. A few good slaps and kicks upside the head would get them all back to work.

Speaking of work, I got to get humping again. The drunks don’t let a little something like it’s Wednesday night keep them from guzzling. All days are the same to drunks. Have a good p.m. everybody.

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@Joe – I have to say I’m surprised. I didn’t peg you as a birther so that is a bit of a shock. I actually know obama was born here but I’ve heard about you folks who think he’s not. You do know he released his birth certificate, right?

Yes, i’ve seen a dollar bill a time or two, and I have seen the words on it. I actually agree with you – we are all individuals and personally accountable for our own lives, and not in some kind of populous category of people like most libs prefer to put everyone into. It’s refreshing to see we agree on that.

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The difference between steve jobs and the wall street banksters is that he actually made his fortune off of products that were sold. They, on the other hand, bundled up mortgages then sold and resold those instruments and figured out a way to make even more money when they knew it would collapse. Evil genius, I’ll say…money is the root of all evil or greed is good? You choose…

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@Trotsky – we actually agree. I completely support those protesters who are out there to decry the elitists who have dragged the rest of us into economic hell. I have a MAJOR problem with how our tax dollars are being spent (bailouts, TARP, solyndra) and in that regard I stand with those protesters who are there for that reason. I do not stand with those who want to destroy capitalism, who feel they are entitled to getting everything for free, etc.

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Psssst RC (R–spoi)

Today is Thursday.

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R. Convert — “and beating up these dirty happies.”

A Freudian sloop, uh, slip, wasn’t it?

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back to babysitting my little prosters !

There might be some medicine to help with that, whatever it is.

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Redneck C, yep and it seems to me that all these protests are distracting the job creators from creating more jobs.

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@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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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?)

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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.

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The gop are mad because the President is campaigning.

Hilarious.

Time to end the gop party.

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Does Sean Hannity spoon feed jm his posts. Inquiring minds.

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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.

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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?

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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?

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I see Woodstock calling for a revolution.

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I love you guys, sorry I make you so mad…

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“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

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Isn’t it odd that all the liberals on this site are screaming for a revolution?

Odd?

No.

A lie?

Yes.

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“Obama is right. Americans have gotten fat and lazy an just want everything spoon fed for them”

Are you referring to the top 1%?

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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.

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maybe the “occupiers” just found out the “we AREN”T the one we’ve been waiting for”…

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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I’m not screaming for a revolution I’m screaming for a evolution.

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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.

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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.

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Why allow corporations to fund campaigns? To allow candidates easy access to cash, not to improve democracy.

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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?”

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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.

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Fringe by any other name is still fringe. To suggest otherwise is sophomoric.

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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.

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“your inability to learn from past mistakes”

I know not what u speak of.

Noodle over that one

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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.

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“your inability to learn from past mistakes”

I know not what u speak of.

There’s your sign.

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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”

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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

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Paddy, have you signed the petition at http://www.getmoneyout.com to amend Constitution to get money out of elections.

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buck is frightened.

good

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Joe Mama — gun related imagery?…. Some of them actually showed up with guns

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79% agree with the 99%

leaving that funny 20% again…..

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Are the Koch brothers behind the “Occupy Wall Street” movement?

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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’.

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Liberals: more unemployed and angrier

Gimme those sane moderates any day of the week

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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?

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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

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Jm – do “you” even know WTF you’re talking about?

or are you just aimlessly throwing spaghetti against the wall?

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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…

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“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………………

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I also notice that when Bush passed his tax cuts, the Republicans, in their need to justify their net worth, were quick to proclaim that these cuts included the lowest of wage earners as well as the wealthiest but when Obama offers to cut payroll taxes, the Republicans declare that such cuts are are not allowed since they do not help the so-called job creators to create jobs. That’s odd given that money flow is the funding for all jobs and money in the hands of the poorest flows quite readily.

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Jm — “Wage stagnation and the unemployment rate is not the doing of wall st”

Rotten CDOs and radioactive MBSs *are,* however.

So are fraudulently-rated bond tranches.

So are NINJA and Liar loans.

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jm: Wage stagnation and the unemployment rate is not the doing of wall st

It is tied to the actions of Wall Street that were fueled by greed. Nearly all, if not all, of our economic woes can be traced right back to that. Political action has been fueled by Wall Street desire for a while now. Wall Street desire for making super amounts of money off of home loans drove the housing market bubble and subsequent crash. Do you really think otherwise?

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“It expresses the frustrations that the American people feel that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street,” the president said. “And yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place.”

Says the head of an administration that has yet to indict anybody for foul play in 3 years…………and was part of the “system” that threw money at the problem with zero conditions…………….

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Wage stagnation and the unemployment rate is not the doing of wall st

There’s another sign.

You got more signs than I-75 south of Macon.

Just sayin’.

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Those people protesting on wall street are getting a lot more exercise doing their “piddling” than jm’s fingers are doing for his overall health.

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Peadawg
October 6th, 2011
2:00 pm
“I agree with this, but who bailed out the big banks and financial institutions? THE GOVERNMENT. Why are they not protesting our government?” – Very very good point.

Who is advocating for less oversight of big banks and financial institutions?

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I am joining #OccupySesameStreet too!

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Dylan Ratigan, an afternoon MSNBC anchor who rails against what he calls financial and governmental corruption, has spent time at the park each day since Sept. 30, and spoke with Ms. Hall on her show on Wednesday. He sent an e-mail to fellow journalists on Tuesday that read, “If you haven’t been down to Zuccotti Park I highly recommend it. Not to simply get crowd shots, but to actually meet and talk with some of these people who are of all kinds, ages and economic standings.”

Kind of blows up Scout’s and others’ idiotic comments about the protesters being nothing but punks and losers, doesn’t it?

Like his arch-conservative forebears during the Civil Rights era, the only thing that will make him and the other louts here happy, is if there is a lot more police violence…

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Adam

I think wall st behaved stupidly

I think they should be highly regulated

I do not think, however, that they are responsible for our sick economy

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The following people should have been prosecuted for the housing crisis.

1. The rating agencies who gave “AAA” rating to Mortgage Securities when they knew they were junk.
2. Appraisers who knowingly over inflated the value of a home.
3. Mortgage Brokers who altered loan applications.
4. Any home purchaser who filed false loan applications.

The gang at #1 are the prime culprits for the housing crisis, their failure to honestly rate mortgage securities created a huge new volume of loans. The worst of these loans were created by Internet loan companies that advertised on TV and not your typical corner banker.

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@JM — keep in mind that BOA did acquire Countrywide Mortgages. And if there is one company that is the poster boy for mortgage fraud and corruption that’s your boy. Trust me I am not trying to take up for BOA because they are a behemoth with awful customer service. And why hasn’t the government gone after some of this lawlessness and corruption? I contend because many politicians and high level bureaucrats are just as guilty as those on “Wall Street”. Only Bernie Madoff goes to jail for a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Really??? But all the folks who were complicity in government ride off into the sunset.

Jay, on another note I’m glad you posted portions of the speech Steve Jobs gave a few years back. I shared it with my college students earlier this semester. It would be nice if someone passed this out to these young people who are occupying Wall Street. When I hear some of these young people share their opinions it sounds as if they have given up on life and are now angry and bitter because they feel someone else has cheated them. If I were an employer and were hiring, these bitter clingers resumes would fall into the trash.

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Jm — “U can’t have a CDO in a 401k silly.”

I didn’t say you could. Reread.

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Marie

The people engaged in mortgage fraud previously worked in
Mortgage brokerage offices all over the country. They are the people that signed fraudulent docs to buy a home they couldn’t afford.

They’re not the turkey traders that work on wall st

All they did was package up the garbage sent them by corrupt people all over our country

You or your neighbor are the problem. Not a finance dweeb in a cube on park avenue

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Jm — “Btw u did nothing to link cause and effect”

I invited you to ask questions. If you’re not going to ask any, then stop wasting my time.

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jm obviously has not kept himself informed regarding the shenanigans on Wall Street.

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TaxPayer

October 6th, 2011
3:28 pm

Does Sean Hannity spoon feed jm his posts. Inquiring minds

Do you mean like the DNC feeds and pays certain bloggers on this blog?

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Perhaps jm could start by splainin’ this one.

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Jm@4:51

They packaged garbage that they knew was garbage and they called it diamonds. An honest error isn’t criminal, laughing while you put a AAA on securities you think is garbage is.

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Brosephus: Says the “brainwashed” Democrat

Adam, I know. Sometimes that enhanced melanin leaves me suspect to liberal brainwashing and s**t.

jt

I know you hate it when this happens, but spot on, and I concur with your posts!!!

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jm are you employed currently as in now at this moment at work …or perhaps retired or on the off day ?

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Libs are salivating over this group of Gothic losers but wet all over themselves about productive Americans within The Tea Party as terrorists.

Do you see why you loons are slowly fading away as relevant within this state?

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“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.”

I love how Jay quotes the 1st Amendment correctly when it serves his purpose, but somehow finds the term “Separation of Church and State” in there when it isn’t.

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Steve USA

Rating agencies aren’t, strictly speaking, “wall st”

If so, then the occupiers need to relo to moody’s and the s and p offices

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Jm does your rant end when you leave the office today ?

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Jay, why do you extoll the rights of these people to exercise their rights, but not the tea party?

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Taxpayer I know more than you’ll ever know

When did you plan on starting to back up that claim. Written proof will suffice.

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@JM — my previous post was an answer to Joe Mama. But I could not agree with you more as I have never said or thought that the mortgage meltdown was the sole fault of Wall Street. Those on Main Street who were purchasing homes they could not afford or falsifying loan applications are just as guilty — if not more guilty. In a market economy the consumer has a responsibility to educate him/herself before engaging in a market purchase. And there was just as much greed on Main Street as there was on Wall Street. If you were only earning $20k annually, you had no business putting in a loan for a $40k home let alone a $200k one. This is as old as Adam and Eve, silly folks desiring something that was never meant for them.

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md: “Well, I’ll volunteer to be the someone that at least points out the tiny fact that many of them knew they couldn’t afford what they were buying (goes for the not poor too)……….only the homeowner actually knows what the true income to expense ratio was……..”

and

Steve – USA 4:52:

Wow. That’s some pretty stunning selective judgment there, both of you. You’re going to let the bankers who were making money hand over fist robosigning mortgages to keep the whole sham operation going, and now, even after benefiting from federal bailout dollars try to block reforming the whole mess?

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All you armchair revolutionaries shouldn’t get too giddy. The real middle America is out there wondering how these people can just up and go to a demonstration in NYC while the rest of us are still must go to our jobs to pay our bills and to pay our taxes. And don’t give me the crap about them not having jobs. First, from what I’ve seen of most of these people, they don’t appear to want a job and second, if jobs are what they are worried about, they would be burning Obama in effigy. If they are against big banks and corporations and their influence on Washington, again they would be burning little Barry. But they are not which means this a political movement most probably fomented by Obama supporters if not Barry himself. But it is only going to serve to make him look even worse, if that is possible.

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md, Steve/USA: correction, should read:

Wow. That’s some pretty stunning selective judgment there, both of you. You’re going to let off the hook the bankers who were making money hand over fist robosigning mortgages to keep the whole sham operation going, and now, even after benefiting from federal bailout dollars try to block reforming the whole mess?

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Joe go read your writing

You did say “funds” sheesh

You have to explain liberals own writing back to them apparently…

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Kamchak

October 6th, 2011
5:09 pm

Rep. Kucinich:

There’s your sign sport

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Trotsky……..it would be prudent to understand that pointing out a fact among many does not equate to taking a position………..there was ample blame to go around.

The fallacy arises when folks believe only one party is to blame on a contract that requires 2 signatures………..

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Rep. Kucinich:

There’s your sign sport

One that I proudly wear, mystery meat.

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Its called hedging

I have no illusions that some of what wall st did was unethical

Hedging! Unethical! Criminal and Delusional sound more apropos, jm. Come on now. Shirley you can do better. Tell us all how good old boy Lloyd was just doin’ God’s work.

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pogo

When you have a job like software developer and web design, for example, thanks to laptops and such, that job travels with you no matter where you are. As long as you have internet access, you can work.

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Although I fundamentally and adamantly disagree with what the protesters are saying, I agree with their right to peaceably protest. The AJC and Jay would have more gravitas if they would write an article like this about protests from groups they disagree with.

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“‘Occupy Wall Street’ not as ‘fringe’ as some like to believe’–JAY BOOKMAN

Especially if you are a SOCIALIST, right Jay.

[#OccupyWallstreet] Socialist Revolution at occupy wall street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKAnfDFuGSA

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Ok, Steve – USA, md, points taken.

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Yea what are people for it seems like they want jobs but they want Wall Street to fall and capitalism to if that happens which these people want than jobs are will hard to get hello Cuba and the cold war .

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“Capital is secondary to labor”

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Capital is used to pay for labor.

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USMC: “Trotsky, aren’t you the one who Comrade Stalin accused of being a FACIST and then exiled and ‘offed’ in Mexico???”

Offed?

That’s news to me.

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Folks, I here that North Korea is taking all applicants who want to live in a communist/socialist society.

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Ryan, want to try that again.

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“Capital is secondary to labor”

Boy, I’ll hire you all day long………free labor is always good.

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Usmc

Wazzup? I’ve been razzing the socialists all afternoon.

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Great Jm… Are You employed and your employer knows your blogging habit ?

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“Bailing out the auto industry which helped keep jobs intact vs. bailing out big banks which helped fatten CEO and Wall Street’s wallets….see the difference?”

Gee, I coulda sworn the tellers at the bank; probably some 30 or so of them at every branch, the loan officers, pretty much everybody at the place; would be a middle class wage earner. Guess they’re all “millionairs and billionairs” afterall. Hmmm. Wonder if they’re hiring….

You people are so pathetically stupid it’s just not funny. Would one of you silly liberals PLEASE try thinking for a change? Just once!!!

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Obama calls new GOP voting changes a “big mistake” and instructs DOJ to Investigate

http://www.thenation.com/blog/163774/obama-denounces-new-gop-voting-laws-says-doj-investigating

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md: “Boy, I’ll hire you all day long………free labor is always good.”

Good for whom? And in the short or long run?

As Henry Ford would have told you, you can squeeze the blood out of your workers all day long but without a prosperous class of earning laborers you have no market for your goods, and therefore, you’re back where you started.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/jonathan-silver-head-of-doe-loan-guarantee-program-to-step-down/2011/10/06/gIQAzQmlQL_story.html

Ah yes, another one thrown under the bus by “Obama the Incompetent”. The next will be Holder for his involvement in Fast and Furious (and for you liberals, no, I am not talking about the Vin Diesel movie). The members of this bunch of pathetic and sleezy Chicago-centric losers currently occupying the Whitehouse have begun to eat their own. Daley today stated that the Obama administrations treatment of women in their administration was “Rhams fault”. As I understand it, that treatment was pretty much comprised of, “yea, yea, I hear what you are saying but go fix me some coffee while us boys talk”. Of course Vallerie Jarrett wasn’t treated this way. She knows way too much on the corruption that is Obama and in many ways is the author of much of it.

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Jm — “Joe I’m done with you until you acknowledge your own words”

Good.

You dishonestly misrepresented what I said. I don’t think I care to speak to you any more, either.

You tried to claim that I said 401ks could own CDO shares, which I didn’t.

You tried to claim that I said that 401ks could own funds that held CDO shares, which I didn’t.

It’s not my fault that you didn’t know what I was talking about and didn’t have the strength of character to ask. So if you don’t want to talk to me any more, then bring it on. (laughing)

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I’m out, folks. Y’all go easy on Nitwitticus of Borg up there. He thinks resistance is futile, but y’all know how that episode turns out already, I think. (giggle)

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ryan, at the risk of being disrespectful, please save me that sanctimonious b*llsh*t about the government’s role in all of this.

OF COURSE they are unindicted co-conspirators in the corporate destruction of capitalism!

EXACTLY as the Republicans wanted it.

Are you gonna sit there and tell me that thirty years of giving these monied monsters pretty much everything they wanted wasn’t part and parcel of the entire fundamental Republican economic policy?

Deregulation is not an idea in the GOP. It is a sacrament! it has turned into such blithering nonsense that we have supposedly respected fools like Grover Norquist wanting to emasculate it to the point where he can “drown our government in a bathtub”.

I can and have listed example after example after example proving this very assertion from that unfortunate little meltdown of September 2008 to Deepwater Horizon.

You work relentlessly to take the cops off of the beat and then when the criminals go crazy, you blame the cops!

The mafia has NOTHING on Wall Street when it comes to bribing the police…

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“What the hell is the matter with you neo-cons that YOU ARE NOT?”

We’re angry – did you miss last November 2nd?

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Kamchak @ 509,

In other words, he wants STUFF from the people who in his tiny little mind, he believes are keeping it away from him.

You are such a political naif.

Dennis Kucinich has all the STUFF that he wants. He is a politician, and as such, he is looking to get on board a movement.

Quit trying to project your own petty wealth envy on everyone opposite you.

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You keep using the word Neo-Con. I do not think you know what it means. A Neo-Con was the name given by the press to someone who is a fiscal conservative and a social liberal.

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Hey JM,

How is Florida treating you??
I saw a new E-Class on the road today and thought how good of a job Mercedes did on this newest model..

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Guido,

Yeah, sounds pretty logical, wouldn’t you say? Bookman won’t go there. Neither will most of the liberals on this blog. It’s just that we should pay attention to this nonsense. Open borders….. forgiveness of all debt….. free college tuition….. 1T dollars spent on infrastructure……
restoration of a living wage, regardless of employment status….. Universal single payer health insurance…. who the hell is going to pay for all of this? We are already 14T in the tank. What nirvana are these people living in?

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LOL

Good one, Keep.

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I find the comments and thoughts across the media about the “Occupy Wall Street” a true reflection of how the goverment has truly beaten down the spirit of America.

Years ago standing up for what you believed in meant the “Boston Tea Party”, “Stamp Act Protests” “Vietman Protests” “Civil Rights March” the rise of such figures as “Martin Luther King” and “Paul Revere” “Abraham Lincoln” more…

Today..standing up for the American Dream which is slowly being erased by the greed of Wall Street and the Power of Corporations means being labeled a “deadbeat”, told “why are you protesting get a job”.. and more..

I have a job fortunately yet I know many who don’t…I have seen them try to hang onto their homes(yes HOME..they didn’t buy a McMansion or play the REFI/Equity game)..I have seen family members who are seniors who saved their whole life have to change plans that they dreamed of because their retirement money is earning next to nothing…

The American Spirit is like many things in this world..facing true extinction…

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Chronos, LOL.

I know it rubs fake conservatives the wrong way but if the PNAC foo sh*ts, you have to wear it…

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1T on infrastructure — great!
Universal single payer health care — great!

Republican ideas:
Eliminate EPA — dumb and dumber!
Eliminate all regulations — how stupid!
Build the dang wall! — how silly

There you go.

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oldguy, you’d be the new Barney Fife on the scene.

You’d probably just shoot your foot off, everyone knows it and won’t give you your one bullet…

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“Guido, I take it that you are unaware that there is no list of OWS demands? There is only a list of proposed demands posted by a single individual on a blog that the right then ordained the “official” list as a means to discredit the entire enterprise.”–JAY

Yeah, it’s all MADE UP stuff from Fox News. LOL!

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Did fairly well in Nam Amvet, where did you serve. Ft gordon?

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miss the 60’s ? go back and rent a few old Woodstock movies!
Give me an M60 and a few belts of ammo and I will show you how I feel about this scum.

Watch out for the old guy. When he gets all fired up, he huffs and he puffs and he… blows.

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Keep,

You didn’t address all of what they want. How do you feel about open borders….. forgiveness of all debt….. a standardized wage, regardless of employment status…..free college tuition? Or are these things just too ridiculous to comment on?

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looks like Old Guy has severe anger management issues.

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I made a protest statement of my own today. I ordered my second Gibson American made electric guitar in protest of the Obama administrations Justice Department raid of that company. The administrations extreme interpretation of exotic wood importation regulations and its far reaching implications makes one wonder if this administration is hellbent on destroying every American job, no matter how small the market. Gibson guitars have been responsible for some of the best guitar riffs that the musicians in this world have ever produced. And here is the Obama administration trying to shut them down. Gibson will not compromise on the quality of their instruments and they shouldn’t even if that means shutting down. And think of all the other small luthier’s out there that because they can ‘t get the woods they need for their trade, will simply quit.

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k71… I have not read their positions to comment appropriately. I suspect you have not either, only the recap from some rightnutwing blog. And not sure if there is any “official” position. So they are not “too ridiculous”. I want more info to understand the reasoning. Educating Americans is generally a great idea. In fact, I believe that is one reason we have many state colleges and university and until recently Hope scholarships.

However I have heard the Eliminate the EPA and No Regulations from the Republican candidates and many other ideas which are just dumb and nonsense. Were those too ridiculous for you to comment on?

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I fought Communists in Nam and I see these as the same, I, of course, would not shoot the place up, but I object to their taking over public rightaway and harrassing others who don’t agree.

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Jay,
I respect you and your opinions and many of the people who post here but I was there for the 60’s radical riots and I don’t like where the protests are likely to go.

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I don’t know which is sadder Old guy – that you refuse to apologize for your over the top comments, or the fact that you see your fellow Americans as the enemy.

been hanging around with Hank Jr.? Spouting nonsense went soooooooo well for him too.

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has anyone figured out exactly what outcome these protesters are hoping for?

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“In fact, two-thirds of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the size and influence of corporations in national life.”

How many say this about the federal gov’t?

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So, I you would like you can withdraw my previous post, I will, however, not apologize for having flashbacks to the 60s and the chaos (the Weathermen for example) growing out of those protests.

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Midori,

Some of these “fellow Americans” are the enemy. Our president is a “fellow American”, I hope, and he professes to “fundamentally change America as we know it”. The majority of the electorate do not want an Obama America. Look at the pols, the Nov 2010 election, the failure of Obamanomics to reduce unemployment, the lack of consumer confidence, 30% of Democrats want another candidate, the lowest approval since Jan 2009…… what does it take?

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Did anyone see DWTS last episode? After last week’s wardrobe malfunction, Nancy reportedly let one rip during her performance. Nancy Graceless? I guess they will have to change the name of the show to FWTS.

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Some of these “fellow Americans” are the enemy

Oy vey….

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Trotsky,

Take a closer look. It might surprise even you.

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“Restoration of the American dream”? These folks decry institutions that were once somebody’s American dream. Now, the mob wants it gone, or theirs? That’s more in line with Rhodesia.

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make sure you look under your bed, Kayaker.

They’re EVERWHERE!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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The irony in all of this is that those on Wall Street give substantially more money to the Dems, those that claim to be against Wall Street. You know what I got a great idea. Why don’t we send all of these Occupy Wall Street people to Haiti. They can show us just how well that economical system will work.

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Redneck – if you want to give away a M60, I’ll take it.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/914915035/Guns/Rifles/Class-3-Rifles/Class-3-Subguns/M60_C_R_Model_T161_Belt_fed_machine_gun.htm

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These folks decry institutions that were once somebody’s American dream.”

WAKE THE F UP.

They are decrying the hyper-criminality in these untouchable institutions.

The Goldman Sachs, AIGs, BoAs and Lehman Brothers among scores of others that have brought on the greatest economic collapse since the 1930s. The one that has laid waste to millions of innocent, hard working, taxpaying, law abiding citizens. Young, middle aged and elderly.

Or did you miss all of that? Apparently, even though you pretend to be offended about it all. There is no outrage in the right wing. Just slavish acceptance of the status quo.

That you willfully ignorant Reppubli-oafs want to paint all of the thousands and thousands of protesters, in a dozen US cities, as nefarious, law averse sewer rats says pretty much everything there is to say about you.

Not to worry, though. As is your wont, you will once again get decimated in the court of public opinion…

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Alex, You could always offer to pay their way to Haiti and maybe give ‘em free tours of Haiti. Show ‘em around.

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So these people, wearing clothes they did NOT make, assemble via public transportation, or bicycle, or car or motorcycle (all of which derive from similarly organized efforts), to stand on streets or sidewalks paved by similarly organized efforts, in order that they be seen by media (similarly organized) and be recorded by equipment made by similarly organized efforts so that they may be broadcast throughout the entire land via network news (and similarly organized efforts) through the miracle of electricity and all its descendants (generated and propagated and transmitted by similar organizations). If they scream until they are hoarse or catch cold from their screaming neighbors, they might seek comfort from medicines or other curatives (wrought and delivered by similar organizations). Of course, if a terrorist attacks while they protest, they will depend on guns and airplanes (from similarly organized sources) to protect them and their First Amendment Rights.
The Constitution of the United States of America is a wonderful thing, but it provides no vaccination for the individual against his/her own stupidity.
I am so tired of people who rail against evil corporations. Be honest, quit being AGAINST corporations and be FOR mob rule and looting and chaos. Take all the greedy corporations money, shut them down, starve, die, rot. Or you could just move to Russia, but wait!!! it did not work there did it? you proletariat fools, you pawns of greedy self serving politicians!

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Step One is to disconnect our “veterans” from FOX. The effects will slowly wear off and they may even be able to return to society as functioning members again.

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AmVet, you have anger problems, you should get help.

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AmVet…. those docs are also Weatherman?

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I thought it was the abortion doctors that killed the fetus………I am all confused.

You got your bioillogical processes all wronged. The Viagra makes it and the Pill breaks it. It’s this simple 2-step process that has the Republican sin of approval. All other methods are just plain wrong and have to be banished.

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Just as I thought, mystery meat. You have no balls.

And you wonder why I don’t suffer fools like you gladly?

Keep, some idiot has name jacked me.

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Thanks for the illuminating column, Jay. It really made me think. It occurred to me that you are not as “fringe” as some believe. You are WAY out there, to be sure – but not in the farthest outlands.

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Oh, and your “Bookman class” hair (as one of your regulars put it) makes up for a lot.

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Ok, here you go it’s your post AmVet:

“Move along, nothing to see here.

Nope, no concentrated, unregulated power by a relatively small handful of monied elites.

No sustained orgy of greed and reckless behavior on Wall Street.

No letting criminals completely off of the hook.

No systemic crime by corproate crooks, swindlers and speculators.

No occasions where entire *industries* have been grossly and grandly rewarded for outsourcing millions of American jobs to fascist and communist regimes.

The American people are angry. What the hell is the matter with you neo-cons that YOU ARE NOT?

You are in that tiny minority once again. Becasue by overwhelming percentages and regardless of political affiliation and background, American people of conscience and courage are DEMANDING that we hold these corporations accountable to the rule of law.

No more casino capitalism. No more criminally negligent banksters plundering other people’s money with impunity.

We the people, the rightful sovereigns of this republic, have no allies in Washington anymore, so WE must take back our sovereignty.

And you obsequious ostriches can all go ____ __________.”

CINTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL

Make people be the way you want them to be AmVet, and if they won’t, FORCE them!

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“…obsequious ostriches…”

LOL, I missed that. What a mental image this phrase evokes. Are these birds fawning so much they forget to put their heads in the sand?

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Oh well another fine article from Jay and again I am late to the blog so many other people ahead of me.Sigh! I wont even bother to put in my two cents worth. I am with the protesters though if anyone happen to read all the way to the five hundred comment.

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I thought I heard or read somewhere that the unemployment percentage for college graduates was 4.5%. Need to research that…does anyone know about the actual statistic?

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Dear Mr. Reiner:

The solution lies in adaptation. You have a college education, managerial experience and probably a host of marketable skills. While you are job hunting, retool in order to seek employment in field that is hiring. You may not make quite as much as you were, but you’ll make a lot more than your wife. I am able to work in there entirely different fields and get recruiters contacting me all the time for two of them.

Sincerely,

Steadily Employed For Many Years

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Usmc they are sweet

Occupiers want business out of politics and government

No worry

It’s mutual

When government gets out of business then there’s plenty they can discuss

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Straw, I’m a big fan of alliteration.

Just stirring up the hornets nest tonight.

Recon,

Last month’s increase in unemployment was especially discouraging for the well-educated.

At the same time, unemployment in the “management, business and financial” category leapt to 5.5% in November from 4.3% in September and is the highest on records back to 2000.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-12-06-collegegrads06_ST_N.htm

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