A-s-t-r-o-t-u-r-f

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More proof #ows is a partisan fraud

Yesterday, 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters ran down to Goldman Sachs headquarters on the mere rumor that President George Bush was visiting the buliding. Bush was apparently inside pitching Goldman staff on the Keystone XL pipeline. The OWS crowd chanted “Arrest George Bush” before convening an General Assembly outside the building.

One can understand why the occupiers would be upset with Bush. His Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson bailed out Wall Street after all. But Bush and Paulson are no longer in office. President Obama, and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (who helped Paulson plan and implement the bailouts as President of the New York Federal Reserve), are. If the OWS movement really cared about Wall Street’s influence over Washington, they would be marching on the White House to demand Geithner’s resignation. Or at least demanding that Obama return all the money that MF Global chairman and chief executive Jon Corzine bundled for Obama’s 2012 campaign. The Washington Post reports:

Employees of the company have given $108,650 to Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to federal records. MF Global’s chairman and chief executive, former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, has raised at least $500,000 for the campaign and the DNC as a “bundler,” or volunteer fundraiser. … MF Global declared bankruptcy Monday, becoming the first U.S. victim of the European debt crisis. The FBI plans to conduct a preliminary probe into reports that hundreds of millions of dollars are missing from client accounts, federal law enforcement officials said.

Why isn’t Occupy Wall Street marching to MF Global headquarters? Why aren’t they camping out on Jon Corzine’s front lawn? Freddie Mac just requested another $6 billion in taxpayer bailouts. Their executives are taking home million dollar bonuses. Where are the OWS marches on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

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I have no problem with people peacefully protesting outside an appearance by George Bush or any other politician. Go for it.

But where are the protests against the #1 recipient of Wall Street cash? Why aren’t they camped out on the White House lawn?

As some of our readers here have noticed, anyone who starts bashing Obama in a OWS livestream will soon get banned and have all their comments deleted.

What’s that you say? OWS is not pro-Obama?

I didn’t say they were. I said the purpose of OWS is to divert attention away from Obama and to dissipate progressive energies. Zucchini Park has been “occupied” for about a month and a half and what have they accomplished? Nada planada.

Meanwhile the media isn’t talking about Solyndra, Fast and Furious and/or all the money that Obama is raising from those 1%ers.

And next year the OWSers will vote for Obama because (repeat after me):

“The Republicans are worse!™”

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1%er Bloomberg Outraged at 99%er Rape Cover Ups

Speaking of mangling the message, two more rapes were reported at Zuccotti Park today, this time by a perptester working in the kitchens.

26-year-old Tonye Iketubosin of Crown Heights allegedly raped an 18-year-old woman from Massachusetts early Saturday morning, and sexually assaulted another 18-year-old woman on October 25th at the park. According to Beau Sibbing, a Wisconsin resident who has been working in the kitchen at Zuccotti Park for the past three weeks, Iketubosin was banned from the park after word spread of the allegations; but he kept showing up, and on Tuesday night, “a whole bunch of people came and made him leave the park. Then the NYPD picked him up. I wasn’t sure if it was for his own safety or if he was being arrested.”

A randomly interviewed female protester had this to say about the incident:

“I think this is an isolated incident,” Greenfield says. “I don’t have any reason to believe that the victim would lie, and I don’t want to believe that anyone would lie about this, but I still think that it’s always important to hear both sides.”

Mayor Bloomberg, however, had a different reaction:

“If this is in fact happening—and it’s very hard to get good information—it is despicable. I think it is outrageous and it really allows the criminal to strike again making all of us less safe.” [bolding in original article]

He went on to say:

The mayor called the occupiers’ version of vigilante justice “disturbing,” and was asked if he was “very” concerned about the practice: “‘Very’ understates it. It is a very high priority. We have an obligation to protect everybody in the city.”

A Citizen Journalist from All Voices had this introspective comment:

I am put off that not more has been said about the two sexual incidents or other crimes in the park. When police were allegedly brutal with protesters, it was all over the headlines. Non-stop coverage. And now, one would be hard pressed to learn of the aforementioned stories or other petty crimes taking place at the site. It is even more disturbing when the protesters arrange family night sleepovers and children’s day. Clearly something is wrong with this picture.

Obviously it muddles the message when Occupiers defend against rapes in their midst and the 1% mayor has more of a clue about how to address sex crimes against women than the supposedly woman-friendly occupiers. The problem appears to be one of simple math.

I thought a bonus was a reward for good performance?

Solyndra

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SJ Murky News:

Solyndra executives collected hefty bonuses in months before Fremont company filed for bankruptcy

Senior executives at Solyndra collected hefty bonuses — ranging from $37,000 to $60,000 apiece — as the Fremont company bled cash and careened toward bankruptcy this summer.

Bankruptcy documents filed in Delaware earlier this week reveal that more than a dozen senior executives at the defunct solar manufacturing company were awarded sizable quarterly bonuses April 15 and again July 8. Solyndra ceased operations in late August and filed for bankruptcy Sept. 6. About 1,100 employees were laid off without severance pay.

The bonuses, awarded to more than a dozen executives, came on top of what were already highly competitive salaries. Karen Alter, Solyndra’s vice president of marketing, had an annual base salary of $275,000; she was awarded a $55,000 bonus in April and again in July. Ben Bierman, Solyndra’s executive vice president of operations and engineering, had an annual base salary of $300,000; he was awarded $60,000 in April and again in July. Will Stover, the company’s chief financial officer, was also awarded a $60,000 bonus in April and again in July.

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But wait! There’s more!

But a former Solyndra employee, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said the bonuses were put in place in an effort to retain talent at Solyndra, which suffered from enormously high turnover during its five years in operation.

“There was a retention bonus to keep people until July since turnover was around 30 to 45 percent,” the former employee said. The former employee said he believes the retention packages began in late 2010 under Brian Harrison, who was named CEO in July 2010.

Jason Kilborn, a resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute, said Wednesday that the payments to Solyndra executives could have been standard practice, since quarterly bonuses are a common form of executive compensation. He also said they could be retention bonuses.

“It’s not uncommon for companies facing serious financial distress to say ‘we need you now more than ever, will you agree to stay?’ ” Kilborn said.

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Retain talent? The only talent at Solyndra was the amazing ability to hemorrhage money.

Why would a company that is steadily losing money in vast quantities be paying any bonuses at all? A bonus is a reward for good performance and the company was failing.

Which reminds me – where did all that money go anyway?

(via Hot Air)

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Getting in the way of your message

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CNN:

More Americans supporting Occupy Wall Street

As Americans learn more about Occupy Wall Street, they are becoming more supportive of the movement’s positions, according to a new poll from ORC International.

The survey, taken Oct. 28-31, shows more adult Americans saying they have heard of Occupy Wall Street than when the question was asked in early October. Sixty-four percent of respondents now say they’ve heard of the movement, compared to only 51% in the earlier poll.

The new poll also shows more Americans supporting the movement. Thirty-six percent say they agree with the overall positions of Occupy Wall Street, while 19% say they disagree.

But wait! There’s more!

National Journal:

Poll: Voters Viewing Occupy Wall St. Unfavorably

A sign that the Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t the best long-term vehicle for Democrats to connect themselves with: A new Quinnipiac poll, showing a plurality of voters viewing the group unfavorably.

The poll, released today, show 30 percent of voters surveyed view the movement favorably, 39 percent unfavorably, with an additional 30 percent not hearing enough to have an opinion. It’s one of the first national polls to suggest voters are growing skeptical of Occupy Wall Street- and it comes as police have clashed with protesters in several cities. Previous national polls have shown a plurality of adults supporting the movement.

These numbers comes as Democrats, from the White House on down, have struck a decidedly populist tone in recent months, from President Obama calling on the wealthy to pay a higher share in taxes, Senate Democratic officials rallying behind the campaign of Elizabeth Warren, who has embraced the Occupy Wall Street movement, and House Democrats, who sent out a petition last month aimed at leveraging the Occupy Wall Street movement against the Republican Party.

The poll found that Occupy Wall Street’s negatives aren’t quite as high as the Tea Party’s unfavorables, but aren’t far off. Just 31 percent of voters view the Tea Party unfavorably, 45 percent unfavorably, and 24 percent haven’t heard enough.

Among independents, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Tea Party movement are now viewed equally unfavorably. Occupy Wall Street has a net -13 favorable rating with independents (29% favorable/42% unfavorable), while the Tea Party holds a net -11 favorable rating (34% favorable/45% unfavorable).

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Those two polls are not contradictory. If you read carefully you will see that the OWS message is more popular than OWS. This is what happens when you hurt your cause with bad tactics and visuals. Or as we used to say in the army, “Don’t step on your own dick.”

There is a myth that the anti-war movement caused the end of the war in Vietnam. But the anti-war movement remained unpopular with the general public even as they soured on the war. The hippies liked McGovern, but Nixon won in a landslide.

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Not so peaceful after all

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After Oakland’s Occupy strike, some turn to chaos

A long day of mostly peaceful protest on Wednesday in Oakland descended into chaos after midnight. Masked vandals shattered windows, set fires and plastered downtown businesses with graffiti before police moved in, dispersing crowds with tear gas and concussive grenades and making mass arrests.

The street clashes – which hospitalized at least three protesters and left several officers with minor injuries – happened near Occupy Oakland’s tent city in a plaza outside City Hall, which had been the center of Wednesday’s “general strike.” That event peaked when thousands of people angry at economic inequality marched to the Port of Oakland, shutting it down.

Most of those people had gone home by 11 p.m. Wednesday, when dozens of protesters took over a vacant 2-story building at 16th Street and Broadway – two blocks from the City Hall encampment – that once housed the nonprofit Travelers Aid Society.

Hundreds of others looked on as protesters barricaded the block at both ends with wooden pallets, trash cans, tables and tires. They hung banners from the building’s roof, spray painted its exterior and chanted, “Whose street, our street!” One group of protesters broke cement blocks into baseball-size rocks.

Police had kept their distance from Occupy Oakland protesters since coming under scrutiny for deploying tear gas and concussive grenades, and firing projectiles, in a clash last week that left one demonstrator with a serious head injury. Police critics said officers used excessive force and violated city policies on crowd control.

But late Wednesday, hundreds of police officers responded to the area just before midnight. They found that protesters – many covering their faces with bandanas, and some in gas masks – had started a massive trash fire at 16th and Broadway that sent flames 15 feet high.

Police said later that they were concerned that the flames endangered the many residents in the area, not to mention the 500 or so people on the street.

Just after midnight, police ordered the crowd to disperse as an “unlawful assembly.” Soon, one officer on Broadway was struck on his face shield by a bottle, staggering him. Within a minute, officers began to launch concussive grenades and tear gas canisters. Protesters scattered and a fire crew put out the blaze.

The crowd quickly regrouped and entered into a long standoff with officers on Broadway, shouting at them and taunting them. Another confrontation happened at 16th Street and San Pablo Avenue, where police officers surrounded several dozen people and arrested them just before 1:30 a.m.

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That “mostly peaceful” protest during the day included breaking windows and other vandalism. They even hit a Whole Foods store – talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

Then they marched over to the Port of Oakland and shut it down. Why? Because it was there.

The Port of Oakland is the largest non-governmental employer in Oakland. It provides (union) jobs and tax revenues. It is not a bank nor was it involved in the financial meltdown. It’s located a long way from Wall Street.

What right, moral principle or theory of law entitled the protesters to shut down the Port of Oakland?

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