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• Anonymous

  Last I knew unions such as the teamsters may have a tiny bit of government influence.  What a group of misguided unemployed moonbats!!

• Anonymous

  Where do I sign my name to be opted out of this so called “99%” I’d prefer not to be represented in any way by a group that I don’t affiliate with. Maybe then they can call it the “98.999999%”, but I’m sure once they budged on that it would go down quite a ways.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1628932330 Naran Row-Spaulding

  Translation:
  Greed is good when it benefits the unions;  Greed is bad when it doesn’t benefit the unions.

• Anonymous

  Chaos is coming from the top.  These protestors are being paid by the unions and most likely the billionaire who wants to bring down America.  So, I guess they did find a temporary job in trying to subvert capitalism and freedom.

• Anonymous

  that is understandable. I have never seen a lazier group of individuals than union memebers. most of teh ones demonstrating should be putting their efforts to finding a job, not demonstrating. the 60′s are far behind us. get a life. 

• Anonymous

  Shouln’t all these crackpots be working instead of protesting other people’s success. This is another sign that class warfare is here.

• Anonymous

  Unions=Organized Crime

• Anonymous

  If you want to stop corporate welfare support Ron Paul, otherwise the status quo will continue, whether republican or democrat. 

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

  These are the same type of people behind legalizing POT in Maine.  That is  what a former POT smoker said yesterday on a radio station

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5823658 Jared Sawyer

  its ok to play 1700s dress up and protest about social security or or government health care…but this is some union conspiracy to bring down america? Come on…these people are rightly concerned about the future and a system that is bought and paid for by this 1%…I think its time to lay off the koolaid

• Anonymous

  “Where do I sign my name to be opted out of this so called “99%”
  At your bank. 
  Bring proper ID and your bank statements to see if you are entitled. 

  Good luck. 
  But, do you have a  plan “B” for both your family and most Americans ? 

  http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141078608/the-multimillionaire-helping-republicans-win-n-c

• Anonymous

  Run to the hills, that’s always the last resort.

  I read your article, from what I understand, there are a number of people supporting the Democrat party who utilize the same tactics. It’s not anything new, I don’t like it, I prefer people to be straightforward and honest, but people like that don’t get elected these days. I see now, you are trying to connect the fact that there is one person influencing elections, and that is exactly what these protestors are against. Well the only thing I can say is that these people really don’t have anything to bring to the progress the situation, there is only a desire to tear things down but no suggestions to build up. To me this is not a progressive movement, but a destructive movement. Even many liberals are criticizing this movement due to its lack of direction. In the past when things like this have happened in other countries, the result tends to have horrible consequence in the form of revolution and then tyranny, because a select few people come to power when the time is right while there is disarray. I don’t think that will happen any time soon here.

  As far as those rich people are concerned that influece elections, any time you have some one wielding that much power I think you need to keep a close eye on them, regardless of the party. The big danger for people like that is if they do something over the line and get caught, all the money they put in for campaigning and whatever other political contributions will be all for naught when they taint every politician that they have dealt with. Although this doesn’t always work, look at President Obama and the Tony Rezko scandal, Hillary Clinton really nailed him on that during the democratic debates in 2008, and now he’s president. The teflon might not work as well on the next election but we’ll see. These people are the ones that really have the power though, not the bankers on wall street that die off from heart attacks at 45.

• Anonymous

  That line of B.S. would almost fly Jared, that is until you read the demands of these “protesters”. Then things get interesting. Free college educations for everyone? (who pays for THAT?) Trillions of dollars in spending on “infastructure” (which means another union kickback) or get this one; outlawing all credit reporting agencies. Now why eliminate credit agencies? (unless you are a deadbeat with no credit it makes no sense) Even better they want to eliminate all debts. These degenerates havent the first clue about how to buy a new house or car, and if we followed their “plan” they never will. The demands of these people border on being irrational to say the least. To try and call them “rightly concerned” when they advocate these insane demands makes you the kool-aid king.

• Anonymous

  Before the press, the corporate and big government agent provocateurs, 
  and the other yahoo usual suspects, 
  demand that the protester’s goals MUST be stated so they can be judged ,  
  and that  few disfranchised young people and their supporters  MUST solve the problems of the world’s capitalistic economic systems issues, it is to be taken seriously, 
  after Wall St., the experts,  crashed it into  tree,
  there should be some discussion of the concept of standing in witness for peaceful social change :

  “  … it means recognizing the dignity of others alongside our own.

  In particular, it means managing our part in conflict without seeking the destruction or subjugation of our opponent.
  It means a commitment to the  community, which is itself a school of peacemaking and a witness to social order without violence. 
  It means considering the impact on the world of our life choices, for example how we earn money, as well as how we spend and invest it. 
  And it means supporting the processes of peace in the world and challenging the prevalence of violence, for example through dialogue with decision-makers, active nonviolence, community action and support for organizations working for peace.
  Underlying all these is a discipline of the spirit that helps us to revisit again and again our relationships with others at a fundamental level and an awareness of our own power and responsibility.”
   http://www.quno.org/newyork/Resources/peacetestimony.htm

  The difference between  a movement, and an organisation is one has specific goals, 
  the other provides a voice,  a quorum , will to identify the problems.  
  In that a few people have  begun that, have provided the opportunity to ask all the experts, the power that be,   if capitalism is all that can ever work, why isn’t it, yet  ? 

  The protesters have already succeeded , in that have provided a context such that the question of :

  If capitalism is still working, why did it get have to bailed out, …. against all its own fundamental rules,  …. by big   government centralized economic planning and intervention ?

  Then, sir, why is it that even that still is not benefiting the mass of, not promoting the general welfare  of,  the American people ? 

  … even , here, in the BDN.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q4AP5EYCYRCGZGIJGWI6TLIUEA Tom

  Also, greed is when a citizen has too MUCH money.
  But it’s NOT greed when the government wants it.

• http://twitter.com/joncob Jon Coburn

  how about getting a job then you can be as greedy as you want to be…like me!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q4AP5EYCYRCGZGIJGWI6TLIUEA Tom

  Support for legalization cuts across all socio-economic and political lines. Some of the most conservative people in America have argued in favor of full repeal of cannabis prohibition.

• Anonymous

  For any of you who posts against the protest I suggest you read the Constitution ——
  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.
  …………………………………………………….. U.S. Constitution, Amendment I.

  If you don’t like that then move the hell out of the USA. Now leave them alone and let them protest and lets hope a few of the idiots in Washington pay attention and do something good for a change.

• Anonymous

  “Unions=Organized Crime”————————————————

  Ayup, that might be the case, Goomba, 
   but  Wall St. represents the Godfathers, 
  with their fingers in everything, even the union pension funds, 
  and inside the Beltwy BIG Government, too.

• Anonymous

  Degenerates? Have you looked at the livestream?
   http://www livestream.com/globalrevolution   These people are highly intelligent and most are employed, in college, or retired. You need to do some research before you spout nonsense.  The twisted message is coming from your corporately owned biased so-called media and the NYPD protecting the 1%. It is Day 21 and there are still Americans who have heard NOTHING about this or if they have heard a little bit here and there, it’s full of lies and misinformation just like what you are repeating!

• Anonymous

  They might have had jobs … many would like one, to be sure,  if they only could find  good  one.
  You’d know that if you’d  actually listened to these Americans. 

  So when are the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy going to start creating  full employment, and increased tax revenues,  or get fixed because they have not done so  ? 

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5823658 Jared Sawyer

  I stand by what i said…that 1% ruined our economy, then were bailed out by our bought and paid for political hacks…our courts have even made the corporations these 1% own “people” which in turn can now cause even more chaos in our elections…As for their demands…college for all? sounds like a good investment…we already pay for 12 years + of school whats 4 more?  Infrastructure? seems to me that the roads and bridges in bangor could use some work.  Credit Agencies? They shouldnt exist…and oh by the way owned by this same 1%   Think about this…some people look at the demands of the tea party with the same ire as you with this groups demands…lets get rid of the EPA…thats a great idea…

• Anonymous

  They had my full support until the “UNION” got involved, before they know it, if they are not careful the “UNION” will take over.

  The “UNION” is as involved with OUR Government as “WALL STREET” and “BANKERS” and are as corrupt.

• Anonymous

  “Chaos is coming from the top.”______________________________

  Ayup, there is a fine point that we all should be able to agree upon. 

  So when are the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy going to start creating  full employment, and increased tax revenues,  or get fixed because they have not done so ? 

  Or what are YOUR other solutions to the Nation’s economic problems, sir ? 

  Be sure to get to us with those, okay, Boss ? 

• Anonymous

  Most are probably living off the taxpayers buck,so they don’t have to

• Anonymous

  Where have you seen these “demands” you speak of?

• Anonymous

  Isn’t Ron Paul a Republican???

• Anonymous

  “If you want to stop corporate welfare support Ron Paul”
  __________________________________________________

  Is that the only possible option ? 

  But what about if you want to protect the good work already done in cleaning up the environment, too ? 

  Do you think his Ayn Rand style of economic anarchistic, everyman for himself, approach will do that, too ? 

  Personally, I think keeping ALL the anachrists out this is the better idea.

• Anonymous

  When Nancy Pelosi says this garbage is spontaneous and
  meaningful and God bless them….then I KNOW it is garbage. This is the same
  dummy who claimed other Americans were trash for their
  stances against socialism and big govt. Has anyone taken
  a look at who is behind all this? Grassroots my rear. Stephen
  Lerner the former guru of SEIU is doing seminars on how to
  shut things down. How to smear people and get the kiddies to hate
  conservative talk media. Van Jones, a self acclaimed communist is
  rallying these nitwits. The groups involved are communist/socialist/
  marxist radical organizations. Most of these people never worked, never
  owned property, never had to make it on their own. Yet they want to
  bring the system down? What a bunch of clueless sheep. I see the
  Rev Jessee Jackson and Mikey Moore are rallying around the misinformed
  so we know for sure that these people are just dupes for the progressive/libber
  fiasco taking place. Comparing them to the tea party is another joke by the
  media. But the guppies will jump up and down and be reeled right in.
  BRING THE SYSTEM DOWN! WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
  Obama is really getting his money’s worth for his socialist transformation
  of America through these pawns.

• Anonymous

  The current unemployment rate for those with college educations over the age of 25 is 4.3%.

• PaulNotBunyan

  They’re going to let this get hijacked by other agendas. A music, yoga and art making festival doesn’t seem like the right approach. “Bread and water only” day would make more sense. Any “movement” of this type needs to stay focused and present a clear message, not a confusing one.

  UPDATE: After posting this I saw a national news headline related to it. So I googled “occupy wall street movement hijack” and found even more.

• Anonymous

  They are just as dumb as the protesters back in the 1960′s.  Get off your butt, get a job & work your way up to a better job.  NO ONE owes you anything!

• Anonymous

  I also know; 

  “ graduate, the average loan debt was $17,600 in 2004 – $22,581 in the case of private colleges, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Ms. Kamenetz says those averages are too close to the $23,000 maximum that undergraduates may borrow from the federal Stafford loan program over four years.”If students need to go over that maximum, it means they need to take out private loans with higher interest rates,” she says. “That means they’ll likely be paying more over a longer period of time, which slows down life even more.”

  http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p01s02-usec.html

• Anonymous

  wow you must not have read a single comment on here.  No one said they didnt have the right to protest. What we all said is these morons dont even know what they’re protesting and the few things they think they know, we disagree with.  I believe this constitution you speak of is the reason we can call them morons for protesting.  This constitution you speak of also in no way shape or form says you have a right to be entitled.

• Anonymous

  By your logic, speaking out against the protesters is unconstitutional?  What constitution did you read?  You should go back to civics class.  No one has said anything about making a law forbidding free speech.   Wow. 

• Anonymous

  So you don’t think he is actually  a Libertarian, RINO, 
  who is even less respected on Wall St. than hippies ?  ROTFLOL

• StillRelaxin

  No I think you’re confused again.  Greed is simply bad.  People don’t get into unions out of greed, they do so for PROTECTIONS from the greedy. 
   
  Unionized workers do tend to make a little more money than the average Jane/Joe, but then again they also “tend” through time, expense and effort to have higher levels of education or aquired skills that one would expect to pay a little more for.  To call them greedy is just silly.  But then again, we’ll all take your comment from whence it came…with a billion grains of salt.

• Anonymous

  Ron Paul is not an anarchist.  If you don’t know anything about him try Googling his name and educate yourself.

• Anonymous

  That is my fear, too, Paul.

  But if you understand the consensus decision making process, the best move is to not declare goals, just to stand witness, and make those authoritarians,  who claim to be in charge of everything, to tell us all what their solutions are,
  given we all see what has been done, so far, does not work, does not promote the general welfare of the Nation. . . 

  Just standing witness to that reality is enough. 

  Why tell anal compulsive people who refuse to compromise , as matter of THEIR principles, what your positions really are ? 

  Calling them out on theirs, calling their hand,  is better poker, isn’t it ?  

  If others, if some allies, want to take action, be it political or direct action, fine.

  But they should stand aside from  those only committed to standing witness, 
  and declare their own goals … as  a different organisation.
  It is just respecting what has been working, so far. 

  Think about how the Tea Party is  NOT REALLY REPUBLICAN, is it ? 
  That silly political convention is a good example of how it is supposed to work.  

  But it’s hard to do less, to stand firm,
  when there are cameras in you face, demanding answers, NOW,  
  if  you’re going to the  make the six o’clock news, 

  … as just one example  of all pressure to be just like the authoritarians who demand that think that there  must be a leader, El Duce’, that some people,
  that any would be spokespersons, are under to be  just like they are. 

  You don’t want to be all, you know, like,  how Israel will not recognize the existence of the State of Palestine, now, do you ?  

  I hope that those that understand what is meant, technically, by “standing aside” and supporting the core organizers’ vision, respecting the moderators and the consensus,  see that I’m using this media to lend all the support that I’m able. 

  Good luck, and keep the faith.

• Anonymous

  Silly racists and ageists. Have you noticed the all white and young crowds? They must hate blacks and the elderly.

• Anonymous

  What a freakshow. Notice how the Tea Party holds it rallies on the weekend and these tools can take the entire two weeks off? I think that says all we need to know.

• Anonymous

  Occupy WallStreet? I guess it’s better than their old phrase, “Occupy mom’s basement!”

• Anonymous

  Spokesman for Occupy Portland

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU274uGEEpM&feature=player_embedded#!
  “Hey Dude, don’t bogard that joint!”

• Anonymous

  “When Nancy Pelosi says this garbage is spontaneous and
  meaningful and God bless them….then I KNOW it is garbage”
   ____________________________________________
  Otay, Homer.
   
  But if I give you that the Tea Party is really a grassroots, non partisan, member supported movement, what are  you going to throw in to make it  fair deal ? 

  D’oh  !

• Anonymous

  No see, you got it all wrong. Its not class warfare because the protesters drove on the same road we all paid for….err..wait…If you build a factory, you owe the liberals because the workers you hire all dropped out of school…err..I mean..were educated by tax dollars. Basically just give any money you have to the liberals and we wont have class warfare. And thank you Elizabeth Warren for explaining how you paying your taxes entitles you to some of my money.

• StillRelaxin

  It would appear that for you the only time you will ever be happy will be when American wages and employment “protections” (Safety standards, working hours etc.) equalize with those in China.  Is that your American Dream?  Please do keep pushing that message.  Americans need to know who and what they’re up against.

• Anonymous

  Little do they know that as they protest Wall Street, their parents 401k is about to get whacked by Congress with a little tax initiative.  

• Anonymous

  You wish. It is a growing and powerful movement. Turn off fox news.

  The Guardian newspaper out of the UK is covering the real story.

  Democratic Underground, Raw Story and Firedoglake are online sources of the real story.

• Anonymous

  If you looked at the young people’s signs and listened to them talk on video, you would see that they know the issues are articulate and well mannered. 

• Anonymous

  Did you know our jobs are gone and that is exactly what is being protested? And no, McDonalds is not a career.

• Anonymous

  Read up. Turn off fox news. You might be surprised at what is going on in the US.

• PaulNotBunyan

  When the tea party thing started, I thought it might be a movement about unfair and unreasonable taxation. That quickly changed. The primary reason I’m a small business person is because that’s the way I manage to survive. The full time jobs that match my skills are getting rare. I’m way below those 1% folks. It’s been over seven years since I was able to provide somebody else with 20 hours work per week. It’s been over 12 years since I had a full time employee. Some of the best employers we had in this country were the smaller businesses and they are getting crushed along with the workers. This is not a new phenomena to me. For years, I’ve viewed regulators like the SEC as nothing but show business. I hope these people can focus and bear down.

• Anonymous

  Paid by the unions you say. Would you care to provide proof of that?

• Anonymous

  So what do you think, if you’re not  corporate person, are you treated like real a person, at all by the financial and political system ?  

  I read somewhere that when Republicans talk about small businesses, that is less than 500 employees, to them. 

• Anonymous

  Soooooo, maybe they should be spending their time looking for a job instead of protesting the fact they think everyone else is to blame for their situation. Judging by the age of most of these protestors they are still having their noses wiped by mommy and daddy and have never had, or have had to, have a job.

• Anonymous

  The last thing I want to do is listen to a bunch of liberal college kids that think they truely represent 99% of the population. If we would let business take care of itself and get government and all it’s regulations out of their way we would see some job creation. The government should concentrate on cutting all the waste and overspending on “entitlement” type programs and overpaying for everything from nuts and bolts to guided missles.

• Anonymous

  Maybe the ones protesting here in Maine are well mannnered, unlike the “Occupy Wall Street” bunch in New York.

• Anonymous

  Remember that most of the financial mess started when the housing market went south. The pressure from the left and organizations like ACORN for the banks to dumb down their lending standards, so even people that cannot afford homes got a chance at the “American Dream” of home ownership. It is not possible for someone with an income in the 20K range to own a home and expect that they will be able to make the payments. This is not to mention that interest only type loans were a recipe for disaster. You can try and blame the Bush tax cuts, Bush this and Bush that all you want, remember that was all with a liberal led congress and the “Great One” Obama has been in office long enough that he owns this mess.

• Anonymous

  You will be waiting a long time!!

• Anonymous

  So, is there a problem that somebody that wants that expensive education pays for it? Or should we the taxpayers foot the bill for them….I think not.

• Anonymous

  Also notice when the TEA party (NB: Taxed Enough Already) has a rally, they clean up after themselves.  Not these moonbats, though–can’t be bothered.

• Anonymous

  I will stick with my ” fair and balanced ” Fox News thank you. Why does the Democrat need to be underground anyway? Yes, we need to get the real story from a UK newspaper.

• PaulNotBunyan

  If you have a small corporation, the rich might pretend to tolerate you but they really think you’re a poser. They won’t really trust you. You’re not an insider. They might use you and you might make some money (but you might be the fall guy).

  I consider 500 employees to be medium business. The waters are muddied by all the outsourcing and independent contracting that goes on these days. You could have a business these days with 50 employees that has the same clout they had 30 years ago with 500 employees. Vendors and contractors are easier to fire than employees. You could say they have the same “economic footprint” as always. Anyway, it feels about the same to the person getting stomped on.

  My idea of a small business is 1 to 100 employees and/or contract workers. Obviously, there are businesses that could never operate with only 100 employees. I worked for a few of those manufacturing businesses that were run by a family and their grandpa was the chief dictator. In that case it makes no difference if it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation. Gramps holds the majority interest and everyone’s hoping he dies soon.

• Anonymous

  Should America be # One, semloh ? 

• Anonymous

  Anyone else find it funny that the “Occupy” Maine thing is in Portland. Also could the BDN please print out what business this Union belongs to. I would like to boycott them anyway I can.

• Anonymous

  “You could have a business these days with 50 employees that has the same clout they had 30 years ago with 500 employees.”
  __________________________________ 

  If so, how much clout does   unemployed recent college grad, for whom it is illegal to declare bankruptcy becuse of college loans ,
  like all the corporate presons, and business people can , really have ? 

  What happened to equal protection under the law?  

  BTW :   here is the voice of  the independant press; 

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uz5RxhahHK0

• Anonymous

   Shouldn’t your fellow Americans be protesting in a free society?

• Anonymous

   Open a window, you need some fresh air.

• Anonymous

  good observation. the tea party was hijacked very shortly after it was started.

• PaulNotBunyan

  It’s not equal protection for the creditors either. The college loan gets paid but other creditors get nothing. Sometimes those creditors are individuals and small businesses. For example, you might have a civil judgment against the person. Unless it’s tied to a willful malicious act (like OJ Simpson’s judgment for killing 2 people) it can be discharged through bankruptcy. I think that college loans should be treated the same as other debt. It’s up to the lenders to make better loan decisions. In the case of guaranteed student loans, it’s the guarantor’s problem. Next they will bring back indentured servitude and debtor’s prisons.

• Anonymous

  I always hate it when someone says they speak for me without asking me first. Class action suits. Democrats who speak for the “people” that sort of thing. But it takes a special sort of arrogance for a bunch of losers with granola bars and union jerks demonstrate in the streets on my behalf without my permission.

• Anonymous

  Well it sucks anytime you have to work for that sort of person. I only wish you or the union had been able to see the principal disciplined for that sort of behavior, but I suspect the same union that protected you from him also protected him from you. You should know as well as anyone how impossible it is to fire a teacher with tenure. Even if its the correct thing to do. This principal probably harassed more teachers than just you. Its just too bad the teachers union had this back the whole time he did it.

• Anonymous

  That is the good thing about living in a free society, you have the right to protest. My comment tried to stress that instead of protesting they should maybe look for a job and solve their problems for themselves.

• Anonymous

  Id kinda like to get our jobs back from the Chinese, but a lot of things will have to happen before that comes to pass. I thought now the new American dream was to get free stuff from rich people? (At least thats the dream you advocate) Oh and lest I forget, in your case, call them racist if they dont want to pay for the free stuff. Thats your American dream, or at least how you go about trying to accomplish it.  To you the “pursuit of happiness” means calling fellow Americans fed up with out-of-control spending “racists” for opposing more of that spending. And as long as you use those tactics more and more voters see your manipulation for what it is and come over to our side. So please, dont stop race-baiting, its going to help put Obammy into one of the very unemployment lines he helped create.

• PaulNotBunyan

  Too bad because I’ve liked the original tea party concept since I was a young boy. What we should be doing today is raiding ships at the big ports like Long Beach and throwing those import goods overboard.

• Anonymous

  Please elaborate. Let me know which part of my above post is not correct.

• Anonymous

  So then why is it that the owners of the park want to kick these losers out ASAP for being dirty slobs? When the Tea Party has a rally the location winds up being cleaner AFTER the rally than it was before it. Cant say the same for your little marxist cherubs hun? They cant even manage to wash themselves, cleaning up a park would be like flying to the moon for these deviants.

• Anonymous

   What is your point ?

• Anonymous

  Corporate greed is the ruination of our country. When corporations that
  give huge campaign donations to elected officials they get what they
  want in return. Take for example the recently bankrupt Solindra Solar
  company. They had many visits to the White house after they made
  contributions to Pres Obama. They got half a billion of our money and
  then filed bankruptcy. They got the president to turn the bankruptcy
  laws on their head and the investors were first in line for the proceeds
  of the bankruptcy instead of the government. Impeach Obama Nov 6th,
  2012

• Anonymous

  Look how freaked out Fox News is over this, it’s kind of funny. They’re trying any and every sort of smear and seeing which one works, even though their complaints aren’t compatible. They want to argue that these protestors are marxists and socialists with anti-American agendas, but then they also want to argue that the protestors don’t have an articulated point of view. Um, then how do you know they’re marxists and socialists?

  Then, they want to complain that these protestors are being arrested and breaking laws, yet they praise the Tea Party. Are they forgetting that the original Tea Party broke the law as well to prove their point?

  It’s just ridiculous and it goes to show that the Tea Party is a farce. Either you support the 1st Amendment or you don’t. Don’t pretend like some people are more deserving of the right to protest than others. That’s wrong and that’s what’s really un-American.

• Anonymous

  I am not a fan of liberals either, but is that not a little harsh?

• Anonymous

  Think about it… when a nation makes it easy, as in cheaper and without monetary penalty, to offshore its manufacturing, that nation inevitability receives boatloads of import goods on its docks.

  I understand your sentiment however.

• Anonymous

  ” I always hate it when someone says they speak for me without asking me first.”
  _______________________________

  Yeah, you are so right, Cheesecake ! 

  I feel just that way about the hypocritical, conservative, fundamentalist, anti-science  Christian political movement saying they speak for God and so for all other Christians, too. 

  It has been going on for years, plus it can even be argued that they they are heretics, to boot.

  The Moral Majority ? 
  What are saying about you if don’t buy their political agenda lock, stock and barrel ? 

  Imagine the nerve it takes calling that traditional American values !

  Will the crap dividing America ever end until we find more common ground, like this ?

• Anonymous

  How do you think well informed people know what is going on in the U.S…….They watch Fox News to get a fair and balanced viewpoint. I suppose we could try Rachel Madcow or Keith Gooberman, but I guess we would not get fair reporting then would we.

• Anonymous

  The people beating them up in NYC are the same people who can’t win the war on drugs, too, thought aren’t they ? 

  Think of all the money the State would save in prison costs, but I bet we both agree that it should not be taxed, because of that no tax increase oath thingy, right ? I don’t think the protesters are into bath salts. Making them not the worst of the all them damned young people huh, Skow Rez ?  Can admit to that, at least  ? Being positive about America, finding common ground and being able to compromise is so very important to supporting real American values, don’t you think ?  

• Anonymous

  you have your definition of “small business”, and politicians have the theirs. and if one thing is for certain, they love to bandy that term around.

  http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/republican-contract-america-koch-industries

• Anonymous

  I didn’t  see what vhiwter said like that,  at all.  
  What kind of people could ? Isn’t slander a  form of false witness ? Are those your conservative  traditional values ? How funny is that  a liberal saying just what conservatives always end up saying, anyway, first, is so very wrong. LOL 

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  The FOX is in the hen house and stealing chickens!

• Anonymous

  Hmmm.

  How do YOU define a “small business”?

  http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/republican-contract-america-koch-industries

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  “Spirits are definitely high,” Levesque said. “There are no plans to leave any time soon.”

• Anonymous

  tea party people like howie carr are upset they do not have a government permit to assemble.

  imagine that.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  Thats not what you say when the tea party runs amuk!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  Yeah !

  They are Flippin Burgers, to pay their student loans while living in thier parents basement!

• PaulNotBunyan

  They choose whatever definition is most convenient on any given day.

• Anonymous

  The banksters always get theirs. 

  But there is nothing new under the sun, either. 

  http://youtu.be/e_nPA57rpr4 

   

• Anonymous

  I ;wonder if this is how the brownshirts got their start in the 1930″s?  They had an “organizer” guiding them also.  This one just isn’t all that popular.

• Anonymous

  The real problem is that government pumping money into higher education does nothing to make it more affordable and in fact increases the cost by distorting market forces that would keep costs in check.  The only winners in the college aid game are the colleges. Since government attempts to make college more affordable it has become less and less affordable every year.  Of course what would you expect from a government program.

• Anonymous

  Politicians and the IRS use it when referring to so-called “pass through” S Corps and partnerships. Profits pass through to individuals who file individual tax returns. Individual tax returns are confidential documents.

  So, with perfectly straight faces, politicians may use the term “small business” and at the same time know that huge companies like Bechtel, Price Waterhouse Cooper, and Koch Brothers, etc, are set up as “pass through” S-Corps and partnerships.

  Nobody would consider those to be small businesses.

• Anonymous

  if the organizer had a pocketful of tea bags you might be on to something

• Anonymous

  Hitlers version of the Koch Bros, were people called Thyssen and Krupp. 

  At the end of the day, that deal’s Maine connection is a compound in Kennebunkport. 

  http://www.rense.com/general26/dutch.htm

• Anonymous

  The buffoons have teabags, the boss has pockets full of money, and his only real goal is getting more money and/or power, given that after a certain point, they are the same currency. . . 

• Anonymous

  The big losers are people who have done things just as they were told is the best way, starting their first real job already in big time debt. 

  Who are they really working for ? 

  http://youtu.be/tfp2O9ADwGk

• Anonymous

  You couldn’t be more wrong bdnisbiased.  Of course you either haven’t been to the park, or you are lying to give the cause a bad name, because they are a very clean bunch.  I really have to assume that your name on here is as cynical as your outlook on life. BDNisbiased.  I guess you are biased.  Good luck with that.

• Anonymous

  What Democrat?  And Really…Fair and Balanced.  Come on now, I know you don’t really believe that.  You really, really do don’t you?  The fight isn’t left or right “Holmes”, and you aren’t fooling anyone but yourself. “Holmes”

• Anonymous

  How clever you are sir.  Warm are you?  Well fed?  Got your insurance paid for do ya?  Come talk to us when they drop your coverage, and give your job to someone younger and less qualified.  But I bet you are a business owner.  Just enough time to write in this post though.  Since you are here in the common man’s post, you are just a wanna be conservative industrialist, but what you really are is a fool swallowed by a propaganda machine.  Just curious, can you show in this post one shred of proof that Bangor Daily News is biased?  Give me two examples.

• Anonymous

  I am as entitled as you are.  I guess you will write Social Security and tell them you don’t want any “entitlement” when you retire?  You are are rich enough after all the tax breaks you got through a lifetime of exploiting others.

• Anonymous

  OK Holmes, we understand, you paid all the taxes and we never paid any.

• Anonymous

  That comes straight from the howie carr show … he said that this afternoon. so what do you have to say?

• Anonymous

  How’s the KoolAid Holmes?

• Anonymous

  Good one Occupy Lumpbahls lap.

• Anonymous

  Oh spare us please. the economy is in a shambles for the tea party people, occupier people, and everyone in between … all of us … due to the same crooks who ruined the housing market by turning our mortgage into securities. you are such a shill

• Anonymous

  Bisquits, throw in what? For what? How about we say
  one is a pure bunch of crap and the other wants to see
  real change in govt and spending? One wants to change
  the way govt operates and gives money away, the other
  wants to get the money the govt is willing
  to take and give them for doing nothing. One is supported
  by Americans who want to see this Country be back to
  what it once was. The other wants to destroy it. One demonstrated
  at town meetings and openly addressed the politicians who are the
  chief cause of this economy. The other thinks by taking down
  the system all will be equal and all will benefit and all will
  become the rich. One has done their protesting legally, with permits,
  with no or very very few arrests. One has done their protesting and
  cleaned up after themselves and not stunk or trashed a plalce.
  One has shown class and the other has claimed to be anarchists
  and want to destroy capitalism.
  Plain and simple, you think like a bum…you will probably support
  bums. Now go get a copy of the communist manifesto and read it
  dilligently, it’s all in there. Try Mao’s little red book, it’s there
  too. If you can’t get the similarities then you just don’t get it period.

• Anonymous

  Right you are and for proof all one needs to do is look no further then our current Senior Senator and her hubby the last Republican Governor before LePage.

• Anonymous

  No compromise, huh ? 
  Check. 

• Anonymous

  Damned right poleaxed, those damned lazy police, fire, nurses, next time you really need help call fox news, or a tea party member. You wouldn’t want to disturb one of those lazy union members. This radical right bs that all of the problems in this country are caused by working people is getting old. 

• Anonymous

  It’s the democrats version of a tea party .

• Anonymous

  Oh please spare us. The economy is in a shambles for tea party people and occupier people and everyone in between because these crooks turned our mortgages into securities.

• Anonymous

  I think that the “owners” of the park are the people of Portland, and I wasn’t aware that anyone had asked them if it’s all right that they are there.

• Anonymous

  The Democrat I refer to is in the post I replied to “Democratic Underground”. I do believe it is fair and balanced reporting. I will admit that the commentary is very right leaning by design. It is a conservative based news organization. The fight as you call it, is left and right, liberal ideals vs. conservative. You, I think by your comment would like to make it a class warfare issue and it is not. You seem to be very proud that you were able to figure out a word that was spelled backwards….congratulations, you win the prize. Now give me some intelligent arguments for your point of view that are better than thinking that I drink some thought controlling Kool Aid. Social Security is not an entitlement if you have spent a lifetime paying into it. It becomes entitlement when someone has paid nothing into it but spends a lifetime collecting from it. I am not wealthy as you in other posts have implied. I am far from it. I have worked all my life and struggle just like everyone else. This itself helps form my opinions that we need a smaller, better run government that is not so intent to support those that choose not to take care of themselves. Please note I said choose versus cannot.

• Anonymous

  I do not recall the Tea Party running amuk.

• Anonymous

  I also have to wonder why the person pictured feels the need to wear a mask.

• Anonymous

  Hi Naran Row-Spaulding – It is not greed to protest corporations sending  American workers’ jobs overseas so they can make more money by using really cheap labor ($1 per day average in Haiti and China, for example) in truly unsafe working conditions. 

  It is not greed to join together with other workers to demand corporations provide safe working conditions with reasonable working hours – instead of 6 days, 80-hour weeks with $5 a week pay as in the early 1900′s. 

  Check out terrible working conditions and child labor with long, hard hours before unions in the 1700′s, 1800′s, and 1900′s before unions gathered enough members – despite being beat up and fired by management -  to demand safety.

  Remember – all wealth accrues from LABOR.  Nothing without labor. 

  For corporations to pay their CEO’s millions a year while the people who created that wealth go hungry is sick and immoral.  

  Unions would not exist if they were not a necessity.  Unfortunately, they are necessary to stave off the worst of the gluttony and stolen wealth from the people who created that wealth – the workers.

  This telling others to ”get a job” is simply not dealing with the reality of today’s world. 

   The entire world’s economic system is about to crash.  There are few jobs for anyone to get, and fewer still in the future because people can’t afford to buy the “stuff” they used to spend their money on, so fewer people are needed to make that “stuff.”

  For the real story along with videos of what’s going on with the “OCCUPY” movement, I suggest a trip to http://www.commondreams.org  with is Maine-based and considered a world-class news/commentary website. 

  YOU, unless you’re really wealthy, are part of the 99 percent.  Please find out the truth about what’s going on.  Get rid of your “I hate Portland people” prejudices just for now and be objective and honest about this – - it affects us all. 

• Anonymous

  Spot on Jared, and this isn’t just college kids…Im nearly 50 Ive been working since I was 15, and I can tell you for a fact that the majority of us have not seen raises nearly as high as inflation over the last 30 years the whole time corporations and there CEO’s are making record profits…..If you wanna play dressup and listen to Rush and Beck you are more than welcome too   this is afterall still America???

• Anonymous

  Hope one starts up in Bangor. I’d be sure to show my support after I got home from my JOB…I’m nearly 50 and I just want my kids and grandkids to have a fair shot….These multinational corporations own the congress (Dems and Republicans) and they have us by the balls…they pay little or no taxes and exploit workers in foreign countries….I am, You are, We are the 99%

• Anonymous

  Politics : Maine Republicans Trash Classroom « The Million Word Year millionwordyear.com/megaword2010/?p=3379

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  “I thought now the new American dream was to get free stuff from rich people? (At least thats the dream you advocate)”

  What utter drivel!  How about we look at some indisputable facts?  Let me present them in the form of a timeline:

  1920 — Warren Gamaliel Harding elected president; he (and his Vice President Calvin Coolidge after his death) drops top marginal tax rate from 73% to 24%, lighting the match to the Roaring 20′s mad fury of stock speculation.

  1924 — “Keep Cool With Coolidge” wins re-election

  1928 — Herbert Hoover 3rd Republican in a row elected.  Takes office in January, but  9 months later October 24  Black Thursday, the crash. Hoover raises the top tax rate (TOO LATE!) to 79% below which it never fell till Kennedy.  This was only the beginning of sorrows.  As Roosevelt was to say in 1936 in the campaign:

  “Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge!  Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the bread lines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that government is best which is most indifferent.”

  1932 — Roosevelt elected with 70% majorities in both houses, invulnerable to the all-time high of blocking tactics that are preventing Obama, with only 59 senators, from repairing the damage left by Bush.

  1933-1936 — GNP grows by 12% per year.

  1937 — Under intense pressure from “deficit hawks” FDR backs off his New Deal borrowing, and the recovery stalls.

  1939 — December 7th, Pearl Harbor bombed.  That undeniable trump card, war, enables the necessary borrowing once more, and the building begins anew of what will be the greatest industrial power in the history of the world.

  1946 — The Proud Primate is born in Denver Colo.  In other news, US federal debt reaches 120% of GDP (formerly known as GNP) an all time high.  Later, in 2011, when debt is less than 90% of GDP, Republicans threaten to default on payment, resulting in the first ever downgrade of US credit rating.  Thanks, guys.

  1952 — Dwight Eisenhower elected.  By this time, the Truman administration has already paid down that towering debt to 70% of GDP in only 6 years, while, need I add? Rebuilding Europe under the Marshall Plan.

  1960 — JFK elected.  In his two terms, Ike continued to pay down the debt to 55% of GDP — by scrimping and starving the poor?  No, by building the Interstate Highway System, thousands of schools, bridges, and infrastructure of all sorts, just the thing to grow the economy taller than the debt!

  1968 — Nixon elected by prolonging the Vietnam War by several years and several million lives by, as is now known from tapes of LBJ on the phone with Everett Dirksen, sending Anna Chang Cheneault to President Thieu with promises of “a better deal” convincing him to refuse the 1968 peace treaty which would have confirmed the election of Humphrey.  But even Nixon and Ford reduce the debt during their terms.

  1980 — Carter defeated for reelection after further paying down the debt.  The Reagan team makes their first payment on Iran Contra missiles and spare parts to Iran in return for cash and delaying hostage release until the moment Reagan sworn in.  Later that year, then Prime Minister (and recent Green candidate) Moussavi gets on the phone with the White House saying, “We did our part.  Now you have sent us the wrong missiles!”

  During the Reagan campaign, he went on TV (and I remember this personally) saying “Oh! The debt is going to crush us!  A trillion dollars!  Enough to reach the moon four times over!”  What he didn’t say was that the debt was, as a percentage of GDP, the lowest it had been since 1930.  Inflation had made a perfect platform for a lie with true words, and he rode it to victory.

  But what did Reagan do with that debt he was so worried about?  He borrowed more than all his predecessors combined, from Washington through Carter COMBINED, tripling the debt in one term.  He lowered taxes on his fatcat friends, and raised taxes on the poor and middle class by raising the payroll tax.  Instead of putting that payroll tax excess in the lockbox, he spent ever penny of it, and left us IOUs in a file cabinet in Parkersburg VA where they remain, pieces of paper with no market value.  He took my Social Security money and gave it to his fat friends and to the Military Industrial Complex that Ike, a respectable Republican, so carefully warned us about.

  When Reagan came to office, we were the #1 industrial power, the #1 EXPORTER of finished goods, and the #1 CREDITOR nation. When he left office, and ever since, we have been the #1 IMPORTER of finished goods and the #1 DEBTOR nation. That’s what is meant by VOODOO ECONOMICS.

  The Middle Class, which is such a bother to the rich and powerful, meddling where they don’t belong, is now on its knees. Thanks guys.

  I’m out of ink, and still haven’t started on Bush! <sigh>

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  don’t confuse me with facts — my mind’s made up

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  … turned our mortgages into securities, sold them to funds holding our pensions, then entered into massive (naked, i.e., entirely with borrowed money) short positions against them, making more money on their collapse than they did on their creation and sale!

  In point of fact, it can be shown that this was the plan all along. As Max Keiser points out, they were making so much money betting against these bad debts, the only problem was there wasn’t enough bad debt to go around, so they created a whole lot more by fraudulent and deceptive lending practices.

  Two weeks after he published his OpEd in the Washington Post, entitled “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime —How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers”, where he stated that “The federal government’s actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules” — two weeks later, I say, NY governor Eliot Spitzer was toast: the FBI was on him like a duck on a junebug.

• Anonymous

  Excellent.  I will speak in generalizations because it appears it is your language.  So everyone, including myself at OccupyMaine have a job, a child, or a class to get to.  We all pay into the pool of taxes which run OUR government.  Yours and Mine.  Those who need federal loans to go to school(which is everyone except 1% of the people) have no choice but pay them back with interest.  6.8-7.9 currently, which has more than doubled since since 1992.  So EVERYONE at OCCUPYMAINE pays taxes everyday for anything they buy, pay taxes, medicare, Soc. Sec. in their paychecks weekly, and none of them can afford a tax lawyer to find loopholes in the tax code to bring their taxes down to spit.  So please look clearly at who doesn’t pay their taxes Holmes.  You have been supporting the 1% for so long, all they had to do was put down some pocket money on a news station specifically designed to repeat and repeat that they aren’t the problem it is those liberals.  Your rhetoric on this post is only a repeat of their repeats. 
  Would love to chat some more but I have to go back to the protest, then work on some homework than go to my job.  Yes Holmes, I don’t have time to watch the tube.  I quit the day I found out that Rupert Murdoch owns both satellite companies.  Check this out Holmes.  Rupert lives with his Chinese wife and two children in Beijing.  Really, I ___t you not.  Look it up for yourself.  The owner of FoxNews lives in Beijing with his Chinese wife and children.  News flash Holmes, you’ve been duped.

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  Actually they are being paid by space aliens and Red Chinese

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  Read this OpEd by then-NY Governor Eliot Spitzer, “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime — How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers. A mere two weeks after this was published, the FBI was on Spitzer’s tail, providing the excuse you so badly need right now, to help you avoid admitting the truth of this OpEd.

• MARINE73

  If you’re going to protest, at least show your face.  Are you ashamed of what you’re doing so much you need to wear a mask?  

• http://proudprimate.com Anonymous

  The price of college for residents in California before Gov. Reagan was essentially zero, likewise at CUNY till 1971.  In general, the price of state colleges has exploded out of the reach of the average citizen, except they take on loans that take a lifetime to pay back, loans that again go into the parasites’ pockets.

  The cybernetic revolution, which makes this conversation of ours so exciting and instantaneous also did the same for the fatcats on Wall Street.  Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase locate their servers as few inches from the Stock Exchange as they can, and via computer pump in millions of bogus transactions a second, called “stuffing”, thus bogging down the system, inflating and depressing the price of stocks, bonds, and commodities, and at opportune moments, skimming off what amounts to a hundred billion dollars a years, for “work” that provided no good of any kind.  It’s no different than a pair of alligator clips on a power line that steals power without paying, or a tap that steals gasoline from a pipeline.

  Sen. Maria Cantwell asked Rex Tillerson, CEO of EXXON, how much of the price of gasoline was speculation, to which the essential answer was 30-40%.  She points out that 70% of the traffic in petroleum is not by users or producers of the same, but by speculators who never take delivery.

  The obvious solution, the excellent solution to this parasitic element in our lives, which has ballooned out of sight with the advent of computerized trading, is to reinstate the STET tax, of even .05% on every Securities Transaction.  That used to be the funding mechanism for the SEC, and could do even more now that transactions are not handwritten.  It would also act as a brake on this runaway ripoff, which is in great measure responsible for the lack of wherewithal to fund the lofty society America used to be, with its leadership in education and innovation, before Reagan and his Voodoo Economics.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5823658 Jared Sawyer

  Their demands from their facebook page:
  National Demands● We demand an end to corporate personhood.● We demand the removal of private interests from public policy and the instatement of publicly funded elections.● We demand a progressive tax on the wealthy and the elimination of tax loopholes.● We demand re-regulation of financial institutions and the prosecution of financial criminals.● We demand the return of Bank and investment firm bailout money to the People ● We demand an end to capital punishment.● We demand the restoration of “sound” money and competition in currency.Local Demands● We demand affordable heating oil for Mainers.● We demand bringing the men and women of the Maine National Guard home.● We demand amending corporate personhood.● We demand viable public transportation infrastructure.

  seems pretty reasonable

• Anonymous

  As far as I know Christians are speaking for themselves and their adherents. They of course have the right to participate in the process and are doing so. The Occupy types are telling me straight out that they represent me. Well they don’t.

  Common ground does not mean we march in Goose Step like these nouveau authoritarians want me. They are arrogant to include me in their numbers.

• Anonymous

  As far as I know Christians are speaking for themselves and their adherents.
  ____________________________________________________

  Right.
  That would explain why they want their religion taught in everyone’s science classes. 

  So are hypocrites that generalize about others just speaking for themselves, too ?

  Or when people are saying stuff, like how others acting differently should use their own freedom,  telling those others, about whom they are generalizing, how to behave ?

  Don’t you just hate people who do that ?

  Have a nice day.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-Lachowicz/100000535475609 Edward Lachowicz

  And a “news” organization shouldn’t be “conservative” — it should report the news.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-Lachowicz/100000535475609 Edward Lachowicz

  Really? You’ve never watched V for Vendetta?

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QYOBB7GDZSEQ2WMLQXXNFJYD6E JG

  The mask is a specific reference to something.  I know you don’t know that.  They don’t explain things like that on Fox “News.”

• Anonymous

  You state that EVERYONE at Occupy Maine pays taxes. I am sure they do pay some sort of tax through purchases. I do wonder what percentage pay income taxes. You state that nobody there can afford a tax attorney to reduce their taxes to spit, is that to say if you could you would? The comment about paying back student loans at twice the rate as in 1992, guess what most everything is considerably more than in 1992. I do not care where Rupert Murdoch has decided to live, would it have been worth mentioning if he lived in the UK with his British wife and children. You seem to have some infatuation with my name, or is that your beaming pride that you figured out such a complex puzzle.
   I do commend you for going to school, working and standing up for what you personally believe in, even if I and others disagree. Is that not what makes this country great that we are afforded the right to do all that we want; within reason

• Anonymous

  FOX News makes no attempt to hide their conservative values, not as much could be said about the “mainstream media” outlets that lean very hard to the left and deny that they do.

• Anonymous

  I cannot disagree with some of the points made in the article. I do disagree that it is implied that these practices magically began when Bush took office. There was pressure from the liberals and organizations such as ACORN to make more loans available to lower income families that had no chance to ever pay back their home loans. I am not beyond admitting that the Bush years were not the best we have seen. Our government as a whole has forgot who they are their to represent. I personally think that we must begin with curbing the spending in Washington from top to bottom without comprimising our national security.

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/J7SW7DUFNA6I54WNGCPGBCU5TQ Capn

  We want to take the money out of politics
  We demand that the government provide all our basic needs

  no problem

• Anonymous

  You seem a little thick. Let me again point out the difference.

  The Christian may want to teach their beliefs. These protestors are telling me right they are protesting on my behalf. No education necessary.

  By the way I am not a christian adherent.  There is no com parables between the two.

• Anonymous

  You are correct everything has gone up since 1992.  Guess what hasn’t?  Taxes on the 1% of the richest people in the country.  They got a tax break.  Can you believe that? 
  So, let me make it clear, I don’t care where Rupert lives.  I thought you would be dismayed that about the richest most powerful capitalist in the world was cozying up to the most powerful Communist nation in the world.  Really?  You are a bigger man than I, because I think it’s disgraceful.  It just pangs of being a traitor to the conservative movement.
  Holmes, you got me.  I am clever and proud of it.  But you still puzzle me.

  Now hold your breath, I hope you have national health care for this one…but this country isn’t great, it WAS great.  When I was growing up, it was Reagan’s “evil empire”, the Soviet Union, who invaded Afghanistan for it’s own interests,  they also spied on their own people, they also tortured and detained people without due process.  Sickeningly familiar isn’t it.  I was also taught that the Communists had extremely wealthy leaders and that all of the citizens there were poor, under-employed, and had no way of voting themselves out of the mess they were in.  Next thing you know, they collapse.  They collapsed under their own weight.  They collapsed under the weight of a patriotism that was broadcast on their television and radios, but this patriotism was no longer in their heart, because they knew that their government had grown corrupt. 

  I also just don’t know how to break this to you, but you are a part of the 99%.  We are occupying Portland’s financial district for you.  Because you are entitled to the social security you paid into, because you haven’t saved a dime while corporations see record profits, and because you are a part of the old American dream gone rancid, we are occupying for you, because you too deserve to be a part of the rebuilt American dream, and lastly, because we love you Holmes.

  Oh I almost forgot, if you want your children to work for .40 cents an hour, keep calling out for de-regulation.  But that’s a conversation for another night.

• Anonymous

  So what are your answers to our dilemma, “Hope and Change” does not seem to be anything more than the same old politics of any other administration. I personally am not any more accepting of corporate welfare than I am of a failed social welfare program. You find it disgraceful that Mr. Murdoch is cozying up to the most powerful communist nation in the world, where do you think all the money to fund Obama’s failed stimulus came from. Talk about being cozy. How do you propose to rebuild the American Dream, by taking away any incentive to become successful, to be loathed by anyone who has less? Everyone seems to be on the bandwagon of demonizing the wealthy, What about the millions of people that abuse and defraud our welfare system to the point where receiving assistance carries the stigma that everyone who does is deemed as lazy and useless. I also agree that we are no longer a great nation, capitalism is not to blame, a large bloated government that cannot and will not control it’s spending is. How about a flat tax, 10% federal and 5% state: for every dollar earned by every person and corporation. Would that solve the problem of everybody paying their fair share?