Collage of news from the net by Jack. . .
Note: My comments inserted in (parentheses).
Gallup Poll: 10/23/11 More than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protests, and even more – 58 percent – say they are furious about America’s politics.
The poll found that most protest supporters do not blame Obama for the economic crisis. Sixty-eight percent say former President George W. Bush deserves “almost all” or “a lot but not all” of the blame. Just 15 percent say Obama deserves that much blame. Nearly six in 10 protest supporters blame Republicans in Congress for the nation’s economic problems, and 21 percent blame congressional Democrats.
Six in 10 protest supporters trust Democrats more than Republicans to create jobs. (Not good for conservatives come 2012 – this needs to be addressed and fixed. )
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain reiterated his criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protesters Friday, saying the groups are “anti-capitalism” and “anti-free market.”(I agree with Cain, no matter which poll you believe they all indicate a good portion of the protesters are anti-capitalists) “They are not working on the right problem,” Cain said at a social conservatives convention in Washington. “Wall Street didn’t write those failed policies. Wall Street didn’t spend a trillion dollars. You can demonstrate all you want on Wall Street, the problem is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
“If you never work on the right problem, you’ll never get the right answer,” Cain added.
In a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday reported 2/3rds of NYC voters said they support the protests. An overwhelming majority, 87 percent, said it’s “okay that they are protesting” support the (mostly anti-capitalist) movement.
The signs carried by the occupiers range from “We are the 99 percent” to “Capitalism is Criminal.” There are salutes from passersby at times. The most consistent to honk their horns in support are truckers and taxi drivers.
Call for labor party – Socialist.net – 10 Oct, 2011 The time has come for US labor to sever all links with the Democrat Party, which is only the left boot of big business. The time has come to set up an independent Labor Party based on the unions, which will attract to its banner all the living forces of American society. The Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor points the way forward and is working to raise this idea in the unions. No effort must be spared to spread the campaign and raise this idea in every town and city, in every factory, workplace, school, and union local.
Maybe the people who demonstrated yesterday did not know exactly what they wanted. But they know very well what they do not want, and that is a very important fact. We are witnessing a major turn in the situation on a world scale. From Tunisia to Egypt, from Madrid to Athens, in one country after another, the masses are entering the scene of history.
It is not a case of this or that country. What we are seeing is a global crisis of capitalism, which as night follows day, must express itself as a worldwide movement in the direction of revolution. The causes of these movements are very similar, if not identical. It is the same spirit that moves the masses, the same feeling of burning indignation, the same sensation that what we have now is intolerable, does not deserve to exist, must be overthrown and will be overthrown.
by Tina Korbe, An overwhelming majority of Americans — 79 percent — agree with what has come to be the slogan of the movement: “The big banks got bailed out, while we got left behind” according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports.
From David Schoen, pollster for President Bill Clinton, is author of “Hopelessly Divided: The New Crisis in American Politics and What It Means for 2012 and Beyond,” forthcoming from Rowman and Littlefield. “Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn’t represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience (anti-capitalists) to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.
The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).
An overwhelming majority of demonstrators supported Barack Obama in 2008. Now 51% disapprove of the president while 44% approve, and only 48% say they will vote to re-elect him in 2012, while at least a quarter won’t vote.” (Well, finally there’s a bright spot! And on that I shall close.)
The anger at the lack of jobs and at the loss of homes and pension investment is understandable. The anger about the crony capitalism, bailouts, and, if it exists the habit of spending money on temporary fixes is understandable. What is insane is the utter ignorance that pervaids the majority in this movement as to cause. Examples:
Have they all been smokin dope for the past fivce years or are they just that stupid?
Again…have they not noticed who exactly is in bed with specific banks (and corporations like GE and GM)?
I’d be interested if any of these protesters was aware of the Carter/Clinton legislation that created this mess or the Barnie Frank stonewalling of all efforts to restore sound lending practices to avoid a meltdown…now that would be a poll worthy of note. I won’t hold my breath. I would bet that none of these people has a clue about what caused the problem or who bears most of the responsibility.
I would bet the percentage will be much higher if things remain as they are.
A few of pollsters poll likely voters in order to give a more accurate picture of what is likely to happen. Poll results can differ widely depending on how questions are asked.
The far left is hoping to turn this into a worldwide pitch for Social Democracy. We can’t let that happen in America.
How can the spoiled a$$ hole protestors be compared to people in other Countries who can be killed for speaking up or taken out by a terrorist with a bomb on a bus? How does that work? When the shit hits the fan a large majority of that 98% pro violence crowd will cut and run.
Tidbits reminds me of Bruce Sessions. Miss that show, used to call and listen frequently, I remember Tina and Jack looked forward to the interchange, usually on way home from work.
I know the comment does not contribute to column, just expressing a thought.
I thought the following article would go nicely with the tid bit angle of your post, Jack:
So now the financing arm of OWS doesn’t want to “give back”?
This is hillarious.
Read more from the disgruntled collectivists as their system proves to be somewhat totalitarian in nature. And notice the attitude tha makes the ideology a joke…whaaaa…someone in charge has to fix my problem:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/they_want_lice_of_the_occu_pie_9xKCxcI4aectFYkafMb8UJ#ixzz1beTXh8MC
I fully support and stand foresquare in solidarity with anyone who supports the OWS protests. The longer they are out there the more people will learn who they are and what they represent.
I found Quentin Colgan’s recent letter to the E-R and Jack McWherter’s reply elucidating, entertaining, and invigorating! Thank you Occupy Chico!
Letter: All must share in the American dream
Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted: 10/16/2011 12:09:17 AM PDT
The fun part about being a genuine liberal is that you can also truthfully claim to be a genuine conservative. Consider: Genuine liberals wrote the Constitution that genuine conservatives hold sacred.
Oddly enough, the Christian values of charity, equality (as best they could considering the times they lived in), and respect for human life, and the (somewhat unchristian) right to protect those rights, while written by great liberals seem to be abandoned by today’s so-called liberal left.
Similarly neo-conservatives are completely ignorant of this country’s roots. I note with mockery and disdain their complete lack of principles.
I am proud to be a conservator of liberal values which makes me a genuine conservative.
As a conservative, I am proud to occupy City Plaza until the principles outlined by our liberal founding fathers the American dream, if you will is once more shared by all Americans.
I plan to be there until then.
I humbly ask each and every one of the 2,609 Chicoans both liberal and conservative who supported me last November in the City Council election to come support me in this battle for the future of America. If you cannot camp out with me, won’t you please stand for a just a few moments to show your support for America?
Thank you, and God bless.
Quentin Colgan, Chico
Letter: Well, that explains things
Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted: 10/22/2011 01:33:18 AM PDT
Thanks to Quentin Colgan for clearing up my confusion about the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. After watching the TV news reports, I felt their ’60s-style love-ins looked pretty much like, well, ’60s-style love-ins. Some of you older citizens, those that didn’t participate in the accompanying psychedelic festivities, may remember them.
Colgan’s Sunday letter to the E-R gave me the insights I needed to understand the message of today’s protesters.
He said, “Genuine liberals wrote the Constitution that genuine conservatives hold sacred.”
You should read that quote again to appreciate the profound clarity of thought it required.
If that isn’t the most lucid explanation I’ve read since Charlie Manson described Helter Skelter, I don’t know what is.
And, to make sure we understand, Colgan added, “I am proud to be a conservator of liberal values which makes me a genuine conservative.”
See there? And all you doubters thought the OWS was nothing but a bunch of losers craving attention. It’s good they have wordsmiths like Colgan to speak out for them.
Colgan says he’s going to occupy City Plaza “until the principles outlined by our liberal founding fathers the American dream if you will is once more shared by all Americans.”
I have one minor suggestion. Colgan and his fellow travelers should mosey on over to One-Mile occasionally for a free shower. Long sit-ins tend to thicken the atmosphere.
And would they consider adding universal compulsory mental health to their list of demands?
Jack McWherter, Cherokee
Its a scream! An OWS drummer boy gets a good dose of bureaucratic reality and consensus Marxist style! This can’t hurt.
Pete Dutro, 36, a Brooklyn tattoo artist who is getting a masters in finance and sits on the Finance Committee, said big purchases like Smiths cant get immediate approval.
We dont have the power for that. They have to go to the General Assembly. If its approved, we pay out that amount and make sure everything is accounted for, he said.
Within the next few days, the Financial Committee will release a detailed report, he said.
Tina: “”Six in 10 protest supporters trust Democrats more than Republicans to create jobs.”
Have they all been smokin dope for the past fivce years or are they just that stupid?”
Neither. It’s a valid conclusions. The stimulus, which was supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, DID create jobs, according to the CBO, the Census Bureau, and many other institutions.
Harriet,
I miss Bruce too. Dearly. I loved his afternoon show and listened to it every day I could for as long as I could. I had been listening to Mr. Sessions almost his entire career at KPAY, before and after his come back. Then they canned his show and the fun was over.
For a while KPAY had the morning Bull Sessions with some jackass who was one of the station’s most obnoxious left-wing liberals. Bruce always treated him with respect, aplomb, and a raised eyebrow. (You could literally see Bruce’s eyebrow raise listening to the show, that is how good it was.) Then that was canned when the quintessential liberal dork Mike Baca opened his big fat yap and said something to the effect that all conservatives should be confined to Montana and Montana nuked. And that was the end of the Bull Sessions.
Thanks Baca, you’re such a swell guy! I wish you would just go away, but that tain’t never gonna happen. The best I can do is maintain a Baca Free Zone in my own home. Thanks a lot, you Judas.
When Bruce Sessions’ morning news contributions and the morning “Tidbits from the B.S. Notebook” was ended, I pretty much stopped listening to KPAY. I was burnt out on Rush and the rest of their lineup didn’t thrill me.
(I have always had burn out problem with Rush except for before he went nationally syndicated and worked at KFBK in Sacramento. Sure, the guy is brilliant, funny, and entertaining but sooner or later he just annoys me. I still listen in from time to time, but I never last long.)
I still do listen to the KPAY morning news now and then. They do a good job. But the moment Baca shows up, I’m gone. Gotta keep the Baca Free Zone pure.
Sessions was the local guy and I loved that. I guess broadcasting talk locally is too expensive or not lucrative.
Bruce was the best thing on KPAY, period. Oh, I like Lars Larson well enough, but Mr. Sessions was one of our own. The local guy who day in and day out would bring us news, interviews, and lively commentary.
I miss you Bruce. Best wishes wherever you are!
Chris the word “create” is being used very loosely..the idea that stimulus spending creates jobs is still a crock.
What Obama did was preserve (at least temporarily) a bunch of union jobs by bailing out GM and states like California. His stimulus also created 1 or 2 jobs here and there that cost tax payers millions of dollars for each job. He funded projects that, when the project is over so will the job be over. The jobs he has subsidized (a better word than create) don’t represent stable employment or new jobs sufficient to bring down unemployment levels or offer real lasting opportunities to those graduating from high school and college and those that are unemployed.
NOTHING Obama has done has stimulated the overall economy…he just does favors and makes gestures…he picks winners and losers…he pays back those who contributed to his candidacy.
If you can’t see this then all I can conclude is that you don’t want to see it or you are just that ignorant about how real jobs are created and what an utter and profound failur his policies have been.
Re Don Q’s:
Alas!
The inevitable result of cuts to education!
Y’know, Poe, many people have poor dictionary and reading comprehension skills, but you–and Cherokee–are the few who will readily advertise their stupidity. About twenty folks asked if I pay you guys!
Love you Don (Helter Skelter) Q! Keep up the good work! You are, without a doubt, my favorite fleabagger. Just be sure to try and dodge or bury any suggestion of universal compulsory mental health being added to the list of OWS demands. That would spell your doom.
Speaking of dictionaries and reading skills and education and such, why is you have such a problem spelling my name properly? Does it have anything to to with your teaching credentials being completely revoked a few years back?
Jack sure has your number. Dang, that letter was a hoot! A keeper fer sure. I loved Jack’s, “And all you doubters thought the OWS was nothing but a bunch of losers craving attention. It’s good they have wordsmiths like Colgan to speak out for them.”
It is positively bursting with nuance and dripping with irony. Did you get it?
Both are excellent letters. Yours and his, Don Q. Thanks for the great entertainment!
Tina,
Speaking of stimulating jobs, how about the 1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees handed over to SunPower to build another non-competive solar panel plant in …
Tah Dah!
… Mexico!
How about those Green Jobs for ya? The Solyndra debacle is small potatoes compared to SunPower.
SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For Obama
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46761
Actually, I thought that Mr. McWherther’s reply demonstrated his belief that a liberal is a liberal and a conservative is a conservative, and showed no inclination at all to delve into what these terms actually mean as applied to the current crisis.
This will be a great boon to whoever the Republican candidate turns out to be, but it won’t help us solve the problem at all.
OK, so Obama “created jobs” but he didn’t create “real” jobs…
And even if he did, it was only “1 or 2 jobs here or there….” or, you know, 3 million…who’s counting?
I mean, aside from all those elitist economists. Us real ‘Muricans know that they’re just a bunch of over-educated pansies…
And the stimulus only stopped unemployment from rising by 1 or 2 percentage points…so it would have been better if it had just never passed at all, right?
Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-08-30-stimulus30_CV_N.htm
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/09/did-the-stimulus-create-jobs/
Also…looks like Obama’s jobs record is already much better than Bush’s:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/01/07/137866/obama-more-jobs-bush/
October 24, 2011
The Hobbits March in One Year
By Lee Cary
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/the_hobbits_march_in_one_year.html
Re Libbya’s:
“Actually, I thought that Mr. McWherther’s reply demonstrated his belief that a liberal is a liberal and a conservative is a conservative, and showed no inclination at all to delve into what these terms actually mean as applied to the current crisis.
This will be a great boon to whoever the Republican candidate turns out to be, but it won’t help us solve the problem at all.”
Really, his letter did all that for you? What, precisely, is there to delve into? Colgan’s laughable and incoherent self-serving self-promotion as a true liberal-conservative gobbledygook? Please be specific, you know how dim I am in such nuanced matters.
Do you really think Mr. McWherter’s letter will effect “whoever the Republican candidate turns out to be”? Meaning the presidential race? Or any other race for that matter?
Wow. That is a fascinating take on his letter. I am intrigued. Please expound. Not just for me but for the benefit of all Post Scripts comments readers.
By the way, one might think that an English major would take the time to spell Jack’s name correctly. But I won’t delve into such trivialities. I leave that sort of thing to English majors (and English majors/felons who have had their teaching credentials revoked).
Substantive explanation of how McWherter’s letter will effect elections, Libbya? Perhaps I should put it in your favorite terms so it is easier for you to understand — substantive rebuttal to his inspired and incisive observations on Don Q and the OWS?
Anything?
I am waiting. 😀
Libby;
You have the same tendency to miss the point that Quentin and many other liberals demonstrate regularly. Quentin has proclaimed himself to be a wordsmith, historian, and former teacher, not to mention sole possessor of The Truth, and yet the phrases from his letter I quoted were, without any further explanation, incomprehensible gibberish that would get any high school freshman a failing grade in remedial English Comp. That’s standard for him.
THE POWER OF GREED
This could be satire, but if it is not it is THE SINGLE BEST QUOTE YET FROM THE “OCCUPY WHATEVER, DUDE” MOB.
Its weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when its time to go, theyre still there. I guess thats why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? Thats the power of greed. Jeremy, 38
Thank you Mark Schatzker of the Toronto Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/globe-to/occupy-toronto-the-one-week-anniversary-party/article2209898/
Q: “The inevitable result of cuts to education!”
LIE!
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1996_2016USb_12s1li111mcn_F0t20t
In 2001 we spent $420.71 billion on education at the federal level. That amount grew every single year thereafter to $894.17 billion in 2010. Education spending is projected to rise to $1140.77 billion by 2016. (source US Budget Historical Tables; US Census Bureau)
In California: Stupid fiscal policy, hostility to business, and out of control spending has helped to create revenue and budget problems. The left can take credit for any budget problems that education may face. You can also blame the fact that we have too many highly paid administrators per pupil.
But wait, what about the impact of prop 98:
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Mandatory_Education_Spending,_Proposition_98_(1988)
OooopsI guess education is doing all right after all in California. If 50% of the budget isnt enough for low quality education then the system is total broken and should be scrapped!
Anyone want to guess where that extra $1 billion was spent?
Oh, and let us not forget about the Obama bailout money that “saved” California teacher jobs.
Chris: “looks like Obama’s jobs record is already much better than Bush’s”
Theres a chart with analysis at the following link that illustrates the failure of Obama policy to stimulate the overall economyWHICH IS WHERE REAL JOB GROWTH HAPPENS. (Presidents dont create jobs)
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/comparing-job-creation-of-obama-vs-bush.html
This analysis seems to focus on recessions both presidents inherited and doesnt appear to take into account 911 which could have been a huge blow to our economy had Bush not handled it well.
Obamas record is dismal at best. People had JOBS under Bush. Fewer people were on food stamps under Bush. The number of people under the poverty level was fewer under Bush. You cannot buy the BS that the left spin machine is spewing and get these real world truths and call yourself honest.
NOW…GO READ JACKS LATEST POST!
Tina,
More On Drummers
(Maybe that introductory title should read Moron Drummers.)
Below is a link to the “Monday Night Urgent OWS Message” as appears on n+1 magazine out of New York. Evidently there is some conflict between OWS folks and OWS drummers and different OWS drummer groups about how to treat their neighbors. Clearly these issues will have to be discussed in the General Assembly of New York City. Its about fairness! Free the drummers! (Well at least from 12-2pm and 4-6pm, otherwise you guys get lost.)
http://nplusonemag.com/monday-night-urgent-ows-message
If you do not know what a General Assembly meeting looks like, take a gander at the following examples (they are totally awesome)–
New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odFygPMwbIM
Minnesota http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCyQxHTzcQ
Atlanta http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZlp3eGMNI
We are the 53% —
http://the53.tumblr.com/post/11869714109