Barney Frank says everything I've been saying about OWS, but better. He was even harsher on the Maddow Show. Frank Advice for Wall Street Protesters www.nationaljournal.com
Why go to the old fogies rally actually calling for some concrete action when we're having so much fun playing drums and rolling cigarettes? Similar Message, Different Methods for NYC Labor Unions, Occupy Wall Street www.cityhallnews.com
Will Marshall: "Movements for radical change are sometimes necessary to force sensitive subjects onto the nation’s political agenda. But not all radicals are simply liberals in a hurry. Those that advance their demands in the name of the fuller realization of America’s creedal values have a shot at eventually winning wider public support. Examples include the anti-slavery, progressive, and civil rights movements. But radicals who demand revolution rather than reformation, and prescribe remedies contrary to those creedal values—see the Communists, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers—provoke a powerful backlash.
As a baby boomer of a certain age, I’m not immune to the resin-scented whiffs of 1960s nostalgia emanating from the OWS protests. But I also recall how the upheavals of my youth helped to unravel the New Deal coalition, drive working class Democrats out of the party, and dethrone a humane and expansive liberalism as the nation’s dominant political outlook." How Occupy Wall Street Will Hurt Liberals | The New Republic www.tnr.com
On the other hand…
Paul Berman: "Yes, yes, at Occupy Wall Street the madmen, the madwomen, the Groaners and the neo-Muggletonians will eventually have their day, and the movement will be ruined. Already the Maoists of the Revolutionary Communist Party are at work, together with Ron-Paul-ists, according to another of my informants. Visiting the demonstration on Thursday I noticed that the Workers World Party (which secretly controlled some of the big anti-Iraq War demonstrations, in the name of advancing the cause of North Korea) was already in evidence. The costumed neo-hippies and neo-anarchists will prove to be no match to the fanatics of Leninist discipline. Sooner or later the screw-ball groupuscules will wreck the whole thing. “Creative destruction” is originally Bakunin’s phrase, but the destructiveness of the Revolutionary Communist Party will not be creative. So the movement will stumble and fall, and a lot of young people will feel a little embittered and distraught.
But not every movement or street manifestation has to be what the wooden-head Leninists call a “pre-party formation.”… Occupy Wall Street is a festival. It is declaiming truth, and this is good. Wall Street has led the country and the world over a cliff. Somebody needs to say so….
…Anyway, the demonstrations, in their anarchist spirit, leave room for other people, more sensible or more sophisticated or, at least, more elderly, to put the protests in a properly institutional form. Last week I marched with the trade unions in support of Occupy Wall Street. The unions may not always be right, but they were not in fantasy’s grip. They were expressing the grievances of people with ordinary jobs, which is, in fact, the right thing to do….
.…So there is much that is good in Occupy Wall Street.” Why I Support Occupy Wall Street | The New Republic www.tnr.com
The smartest man in America does the math of Occupy Wall Street:
"Specifically, they tend to be more liberal than they are Democratic partisans. Take liberalism, subtract the Democratic Party, and the remainder might look something like Occupy Wall Street.
Oregon, for instance, which had among the highest per-capita rate of protesters on Saturday, has the fourth-highest fraction of self-identified liberals. But it also has a large number of independents — and its share of proud Republicans — so its partisan balance between Democrats and Republicans is fairly average.
By contrast, a state like West Virginia has a large number of Democrats but few liberals — and there were almost no accounts of protest activity there."
By contrast, a state like West Virginia has a large number of Democrats but few liberals — and there were almost no accounts of protest activity there." The Geography of Occupying Wall Street (And Everywhere Else) fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com
Ignizio raises the issues of OWS' cost to the taxpayers.
Would it not be ironic if WFP affiliated unions suffered layoffs as a result?
Perhaps supporters of OWS should be sending their checks to the City instead of the demonstrators (if there's anything left over, maybe we could even throw a few bucks to the schools). We’re paying the bill www.nypost.com
Cuomo compare sticking up for the rich with opposing the death penalty; the one big difference is, with the possible exception of Phil Spector, convicted murderers don't write big checks. Cuomo Compares Sticking Up For Rich People To Battling The Death Penalty | PolitickerNY www.politickerny.com
While it's sort of joyful to watch Ruben Sr. stick it (possibly not the best choice of words) to a Republican for a change, one does get the suspicion that this may have more to do with Skelos allowing same sex marriage to come to a vote, rather than with the budget Diaz Sr. Urges Boycott Of Skelos’ Event www.capitaltonight.com
City Hall News says Reshma Saujani was the first Indian-American to run for Congress.
Would it be hyper-technical (CHN'scomplaint about my work) to mention Bobby Jindal?
How about Dalip Singh Saund, a Democrat, who was a member of the United States House of Representatives serving the 29th District of California from January 3, 1957–January 3, 1963?
Besides continuing CHN’s efforts to sell the myth of Reshma (one of their 40 under 40) at variance with her spectacular electoral failure (19%!), this article serves as further proof that when one is Wall Street blessed, one is too big to fail, even when one fails big.
It also serves as proof that the DeBlasio family record of going back and forth between public and campaign or party payrolls (when not on both at once) has a few new sophisticated wrinkles. New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio hired aide Reshma Saujani after she hired his wife Chir www.cityhallnews.com
It's a story almost Shakespearean: if Lady Macbeth had married Falstaff. Brooklyn beep's wife Jamie Markowitz takes behind the scenes role in directing hubby's staffers www.nydailynews.com
"Historian" Rashid Khalidi embellishes a bullshiter's bullshit because it confirms his Zionist conspiracy theory. Columbia is obviously part of the Poison Ivy League. Exodus, myth and malpractice | Martin Kramer on the Middle East www.martinkramer.org