The chicken funeral

Here's an interesting protest video. 

These protesters are from Direct Action Everywhere.   In the video, they go into a supermarket, reverently and carefully select a (dead) processed chicken, put it in a little black coffin, and then harangue the other grocery shoppers with rants and speeches that their selections "are not food, they are violence". 

Or something. 

This is the Berkeley (California) wing of Direct Action Everywhere, which should surprise no one.

A quick look at the Direct Action Everywhere Meetup page leads me to believe that they're taking their identity politics too far.  Lordy....

Anyway, here's the video. 

Why am I posting this?  Because if you look in the background at the .15 mark, and again at the 1.49 mark, you can see some wooden orchard bin displays that were made at my shop in Texas !!

Heck YEAH!  We can now say that we built the backdrop for a chicken funeral !!!!

 

I want, I want, I want.....YOU to stop greed.

"Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel" - Let's interview the anti-Koch protesters

Oh Lord help us all.

There are rumors that the evil Koch brothers, Charles and David, might buy the L.A. Times.  Just having one libertarian-ish print rag on the west coast was enough to send The Great Herd Of Independent Minds into a frenzy. 

David Koch ran for Vice-President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980.  The platform he advocated included ending the Drug War (a war which the L.A. Times supports, BTW), recognizing marriage equality, eliminating business kickbacks subsidies, and all the other planks of the Libertarian platform that have been solidly in place since about 1971. 

The evil Koch brothers donated something like $20 million dollars to the ACLU to fight George Bush's Patriot Act.  I have a deep admiration for activist Radley Balko, who is partly funded by the Koch bro's.  Balko spends his days getting wrongly convicted death-row inmates released from Barack's jails, and fighting the Random Conviction Generator that is my home state of Mississippi's "criminal justice" system. 

Remember that.  Now, get up.  Make some popcorn.  Come back.  Hit play.  The folks from :40 through :59 are absolutely priceless. 

And when you're finished, help me promote the idea of the Koch brothers purchasing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  I promise to re-subscribe. 

Fort Worth - March Against Monsanto, May 25, 2013

Here's the rant that I delivered at the "March Against Monsanto" in downtown Fort Worth yesterday.  Good times, good times. 

My name is Allen Patterson, and I’m Chair of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party.

Check us out at the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup, The Tarrant County Libertarian Website, and remember to come to the NORML State Leadership Conference, Norris Conference Center, about 8 blocks north of here, June 7th 8th and 9th.

If you can’t remember all of that, Google Fort Worth March Against Monsanto sometime tomorrow. My website’ll be in the top 5 search results. Come see me over here any time this afternoon. I’ve got flyers, bumperstickers, and other info, and I’d love to talk to you about freedom and the Libertarian Party.

Why would the Tarrant County Libertarian Party participate in a "March Against Monsanto"? We’re supposed to be the small-government party, right?

Here’s why…. Monsanto developed some hybrid life forms. That's not problem for many of us.

Monsanto wanted a monopoly on these plants and started suing people who used "their" seeds without their permission. One of Monsanto's former lawyers, Clarence Thomas, was appointed to the Supreme Court, where he eventually wrote a majority opinion in a 2001 lawsuit, stating that "newly developed plant breeds are patentable under the general utility patent laws of the United States".

Sorry, Clarence, but if someone purchases a John Grisham novel and then re-sells it to Half-Price Books, that individual can't be sued because he didn't mail John Grisham a check. The same thing goes for purchasing, and then re-selling a car, a stapler, "Beyonce's Greatest Hits", or "Milli Vanilli - Unplugged". It's called the "First Sale Doctrine".

I own me. You own you. And if you grow some soybeans, you have a right to do what you want with the seeds. It really is that simple. Farmers have been growing plants and re-using the seeds for thousands of years, and should be allowed to continue doing so, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kegan, and Barack Obama’s FDA be damned!

But if you want Big Government, what you’re seeing today is exactly and precisely what it looks like.

Government puts a monitor in place (the FDA, the EPA) and within 25 years, the inmates are running the asylum. When you get a chance, Google the phrase “Regulatory Capture”.

Now....we’re going to play a game called “Name That President”.

I’m going to give you the name of a Monsanto employee, and you’re going to guess the name of the president who appointed him or her to regulate organizations like…..Monsanto.

It’ll be fun.

Which president appointed Monsanto director William Rucklehouse as acting head of the FBI? – Richard Nixon

Who was president when Monsanto’s VP of Government and Public Affiars was appointed as Deputy Administrator of the EPA? Clinton and Bush

Who appointed Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s Vice President of Public Policy, as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration? Obama

This is what Big Government Looks Like!!!


Which president appointed former Monsanto attorney Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court? Bush

William Ruckleshaus is a retired Monsanto Board member. Which president appointed him as the very first head of the Environmental Protection Agency? Nixon

Earle H. Harbison, Jr. was once President of Monsanto. Who was president when Mr. Harbison was working his way up to Deputy Director of the CIA? (It looks like Ford, Carter, Reagand and Bush)

Who elected Monsanto lobbyist Toby Moffett to the U.S. Congress? You did, if you voted for him. 

Who elected Monsanto legal Counsel Dennis DeConcini to the U.S. Senate? You did, if you voted for him.

Who was president of the USA when Monsanto’s Chemical Lab Supervisor Margaret Miller was Deputy Director of the Food and Drug Administration? Daddy Bush and Clinton

This is what Big Government Looks Like!!!

Which president appointed Marcia Hale, Monsanto’s International Government Affairs Director to his White House Senior Staff? Clinton

Which President appointed Mickey Kantor, a Monsanto Board Member, as Secretary Of Commerce? Clinton

Which Presidents appointed Linda Fisher, Monsanto’s Vice President of Government and Public Affairs, as Deputy Administrator of the EPA? Bush, Clinton

Which President appointed Roger Beachy, the Director of Monsanto’s Danforth Center, as Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture? Barack Obama

Folks, I could go on and on and on. There are about a dozen others on the list.

I often wonder if you move back and forth from Monsanto to Government, does it even count as a job change?

This is what Big Government looks like.

I’m Allen Patterson, Chair Of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party.

Check us out at the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup, The Tarrant County Libertarian Website, and remember to come to the NORML State Leadership Conference, Norris Conference Center, about 8 blocks north of here, June 7th 8th and 9th.

If you can’t remember all of that, Google Fort Worth March Against Monsanto sometime tomorrow. My website’ll be in the top 5 search results.

Come see me over here. I’ve got flyers, and I’d love to talk to you about Liberty and the Libertarian Party.

We’re the party that is pro-choice about EVERYTHING, including what you can do with your own damn soybeans.

This story is not true.

This story is not true. 

Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills


outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.

“Something just went wrong,” said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. “Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong.”The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activists, “growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats,” decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event “in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats.” “In fact,” said the organizer, “motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it, ergo, they should stop.”

According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960′s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting “you’re murderers” to passersby. This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.

“They peed on me!!!” charged one activist. “They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!”

Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers “farted on their heads.”

Police officials declined comments on any leads or arrests due to the ongoing nature of the investigation; however, organizers for the motorcycle club rally expressed “surprise” at the allegations.

“That’s preposterous,”said one high-ranking member of the biker organizing committee. “We were having a party, and these people showed up and were very rude to us. They threw things at us, called us names, and tried to ruin the entire event. So, what did we do? We invited them to the party!

What could be more friendly than that? You know, just because we are all members of motorcycle clubs does not mean we do not care about inclusiveness. Personally, I think it shows a lack of character for them to be saying such nasty things about us after we bent over backwards to make them feel welcome.”

When confronted with the allegations of force-feeding the activist’s meat, using them as ad hoc latrines, leaving them incapacitated in fast food restaurant dumpsters, and ‘farting on their heads,’ the organizer declined to comment in detail. “That’s just our secret hand shake,” assured the organizer. 

Fox News to cancel Freedom Watch !!

Fox Business News Network has announced plans to cancel Judge John Napolitano's Freedom Watch program. 

This is not a good thing. 

With the exception of John Stossel's show, there is no other program on TV devoted to Libertarian issues, and Stossel's program suffers from the same problem as this blog.....How many times and how many ways can you prove that the government is totally screwed before you get tired of the project?  How many wars?  How much debt?  How many drug war prisoners?   How many insane giveways to insiders?  How many illiterate and innumerate high school graduates?  How many generation of a family have to be on welfare?  What is it going to take?   

You've got the Welfare/Warfare Statists on Castro News Network and MSDNC.  You've got the Warfare/Welfare Statists on Fox News.    Napolitano is passionately anti-corporate welfare, anti-military industrial complex, anti-drug war, and anti-nanny state.  He found a home for several years on Fox Business, and has spent the last few months exposing the fundamental silliness of the Mewts and Santorum. 
 
Well, that explains the parent Fox network cancellation, doesn't it? 

Here's a video of someone discussing the issue with Wayne Allyn Root, the Las Vegas Libertarian oddsmaker.  (John Spivey and I once had a pleasant evening drinking most of the beer that was iced down in Root's hotel suite bathtub.) 

Fox Business has the right to broadcast whatever they choose to broadcast. (Some might say they have some responsibility to show some diverse viewpoints because of government licensing of the airwaves, but that's another conversation for another time.)

However, customers of the network's advertisers, and the suits who sell advertising for Fox need to know that some viewers aren't happy with this decision. Here are the people to contact:

FOX News Digital
Digital Media Sales
1211 Avenue of the Americas, 22 Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 301-5473

Fox Business Network
John McCann
VP, Advertising Sales, FBN
(212) 301-5009

Direct Response/Paid Programming Sales
Lisa Bortolato
Director, Direct Response
(212) 301-5418

Political and Issue Advertising
Digital Media Sales
John McCann
VP, Political Advertising Fox News Networks
(212) 301-5009

Email Fox Business at:
advertise@foxbusiness.com

Noted gay marriage opponent holds fundraiser at home of lesbian couple !!

Go here. 

Makes you wonder why they didn't hold a fundraiser for Mewt or Santorum. 

The Libertarian Party is THE party that wants to get government out of the marriage business.  If you care about gay and lesbian rights to marriage, we're the only way to go.   End of story. 

The protest against Obama's discriminatory politicies happened in Beverly Hills.  Pic came from here. 

Wikipedia and Reddit go Galt.

Go to Wikipedia.  They've shut it down. 
Go to Reddit.  They've shut it down. 
Go to Google.  It's still up, but they have a black "Censored" bar over their logo. 

In protest against Texas Republican Lamar Smith's anti-piracy law, these companies have "Gone Galt".  (If you're not familiar with the Galt concept, look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow.  Not today.  Wikipedia has gone Galt. 

This is what democracy looks like. 

Here's a link to Lamar Smith's website.  He's the author of the now-infamous SOPA bill (Stop Online Piracy Act.)  Piracy being potentially defined as stuff the government doesn't like. 

As of January 18th, there's some hilarious crap on Smith's site about job creation: "We know what will help create jobs in this country –lifting the burden of regulations that is strangling small businesses."   Good work today, Lamar. 

Here's a link to the site of the Libertarian who ran against this Statist last time.  James Strohm. 

Sign came from here. 

An honest question about the effectiveness of pepper-spray

Buzzfeed has published what they call The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011.  There are some great photos in there. 
Three of them caught my attention.....

A protester gets sprayed in the face with pepper spray at an Occupy Portland protest. (Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

A University of California Davis police officer pepper-sprays students during their sit-in at an "Occupy UCD" demonstration in Davis, California. (Jasna Hodzic)

84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com)

I've got one question.... Our government is pepper-spraying protesters who are rallying for more and more government power and control.  I repeat....Our government is pepper-spraying protesters who are rallying for more and more government power and control.
Have the protesters changed their minds already, or do they need to be pepper-sprayed some more? 

Hit this link to see the other pics.  There are some great ones in the Buzzfeed collection.
A fresh coat of Whitening to my friend Mike Coyne for opening my eyes to this phenomenon.   

Are you smarter than a Wall Street Occupier?

A representative of New York magazine ventured into Zuccotti Park to ask the Occupy Wall Street Protesters a few basic political and economic questions related to some of their demands.  Call it a civics test.   

Hit this link to take the test.  The pollsters have supplied you with helpful charts showing the answers given by the occupiers.  (heh heh heh....)  Hit the link beneath each chart to see the correct answer. 

(Obligatory chest-thumping.... I got 'em all right, including #8.) 

Please brag and boast about your scores in the comment field. 

Overseas correspondents may add 2 points to their total. 

The link and the pic came from Denny's site. 

Sometimes you don't learn what you think you're going to learn.....

For the last couple of weeks I've had a great, great time with the Occupy Wall Street people. 

Radley Balko recently provided a helpful link to a piece in Forbes, where a typist named Kyle Smith hopes that the OWS movement never ends. 
Why?
Because, after all the rapes, thefts, tent gropings, assaults, Anti-Semitism, old woman toppling, public urination and the like, the cute little buggers might actually be learning something about human nature and how the world works. 

Here's Mr. Smith:

Years from now, a major political candidate will come to the fore and say, “I got my political education as a member of a protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street. And it’s the reason I stand before you as a private enterprise-loving capitalist today.”

Some editorial writers have called for evicting the OWS squatters from downtown Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park (a better solution: Lock them in! Wouldn’t society be much better off without these malodorous whiners?), but the longer the occupation lasts, the more valuable the lessons being learned by these youngsters. Their college educations obviously didn’t include even rudimentary tutelage about how a marketplace — and by extension (since most things are connected to trade) society — works. But now they’re learning, for instance, that:

1) Rule of law comes first. It doesn’t matter whether your business is widget marketing or universal social justice: You can’t work until you have secured basic order, which requires a non-corrupt constabulary authorized in the judicious use of force. The Manhattan OWS site, which is largely covered with tents that lend shelter to peaceful protesters and privacy to opportunistic felons, is being linked to more and more reports of theft, sexual assault, random groping and even rape.

The occupiers, who operate on a foolhardy belief that they are a self-policing as well as self-governing organization, have reacted to crimes by forming “shame circles” in which, as if reenacting a scene from a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, they surround malefactors and cry, “Shame, shame, shame!” (What, without trial?) Desperadoes, unfazed by such non-punishment, have declined to flee. A society that fails adequately to punish lawbreakers will disintegrate into chaos.

2) Welfare breeds freeloading. The idealistic, studenty, ultra-left-wing quality of the Zuccotti proceedings has attracted nutritious, restaurant-caliber meals, large donations of clothing and other goods and large cash balances. All of this private charity is very much in the tradition of free enterprise, but the political types have been unnerved by the increasing presence of ordinary apolitical homeless people who don’t know much about satiric anti-capitalist puppetry, but would very much enjoy a sandwich.

OWS has been shocked to discover these folk aren’t “contributing” anything (nothing important, anyway, like slogans or resolutions), and derided them as “professional homeless people” (to distinguish them from the amateur kind). Food preparers instigated what one protester called “blacklisting” of such individuals to keep them from sharing the bounty the “productive” members of the movement have secured.

This is a crucial battle between inactivists and activists. Consider this comment on the official OWS forum:

“The money was sent for the protesters, not panhandlers. The protesters want jobs, but can’t find any. Panhandlers (In my experience, flame away) don’t want jobs. There is a difference for all the fogies spewing about hypocrisy. We should not allow people’s good intentions to be taken advantage of by miscreants and other parasites.

But exactly! Having granted the principle that you must be willing to work if you want to eat, OWS has done all the heavy lifting for those who would question whether the policies of social-democratic welfare states are even moral, much less practical. (OWS hasn’t yet run out of donated pizzas, but Europe proves you will eventually run out of other people’s money).

3) Private, profit-seeking businesses provide a social good.  Before OWS began, among the corporations you would have expected to be the least likely to receive its blessing would have been McDonald’s, which has been wolfsbane to the collegiate left since at least the 1980s. Previously known mainly as rainforest-despoiling animal-butchering obesity-inducing corporate goons, Mickey D is now A-OK with OWS. A downtown franchise half a block from Zuccotti Park allows protesters to use its bathrooms without purchase and fuels discussion of the revolution with its generous, barely profitable Dollar Menu.

There are no facilities in the plaza, suggesting the movement would have had to keep its collective legs crossed for the past few weeks were it not for the burger profits that keep the restrooms working. McDonald’s is an especially salient reminder of why dreamy idealists are able to function: Because someone, somewhere who gets up and goes to work making things people actually want to buy is subsidizing them. Just ask Karl Marx, who was sent money by his buddy Friedrich Engels to support him while he was writing “Das Kapital” — money that came directly from Engels’ father’s worker-exploiting apparatus, also known as a “factory.”

And speaking of Karl Marx, here's one of Samizdata's quotes of the day:

"I wish Karl would accumulate some capital, instead of just writing about it." - Karl Marx's Mama

John Spivey on the Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian Pride Parade

My friend John Spivey, chair of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party, posted story on Facebook today.  I've written about participating in the Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian parade before, and if you've got the time I hope you'll hit this link just to look at the pictures.  Here's my first paragraph:

Since I didn't think our transvestite could walk the entire parade route, I agreed to walk beside the Alamo, which was a good thing, because two different people handed me Jello Shots while I was handing out flyers and freebies, and I couldn't hear myself think because our DJ's on top of the Alamo had AC/DC techno-mixes cranked up to ELEVEN, and most of the crowd was screaming and clapping and shouting, and it was sometimes hard to stay in line behind the gay choir and the bicyclists with Aids.

It was a fun, fun day. 

Rather than repost the same pictures, I'm gonna throw in some other protest pics that I've been saving for an occasion like this. 
Here's Big Daddy John Spivey on that event.  Enjoy ! 

So - Allen Patterson, Michelle, Richard Forsythe and a bunch of Tarrant County Libertarians helped out the Dallas County LP with their float in the Alan Ross Pride Parade - a huge gay event in Dallas. It's a big event each year - and we think it's a pretty good 'recruiting spot' for us as many, many gay folk are fiscally conservative and obviously, socially tolerant. To paint a picture for you...


We're in a float that is shaped like the Alamo, with a sign that says "Remember the Rainbow" (the Rainbow Lounge raid was big news then).

We had Jeff Daiell, an LP Gubernatorial Candidate on board with his wife. He's wearing a nice suit, she's in a conservative outfit. They're just wonderful folks. We also had an awesome DJ on board John John John-Ra Weidenfeller who was playing some AWESOME music. I particularly enjoyed the 'techno version of Strawberry Fields Forever'. We even had our own transvestite!

Well, we had a GREAT time in the parade, as we were behind a giant float with a jungle theme, which featured mean dressed as women dressed as animals. In bikinis. - We gave (threw) pens, candy and other LP logo'ed items.

 At the end of the parade, we were instructed to 'move along - not clog up the ending spot of the parade - and find a clear area to park.

 As I mentioned this is a huge event, so we had to drive around to find a spot. So, Allen and I were up on the rolling Alamo with Daiell and his wife - and John-Ra was still spinning tunes with an awesome (and loud) PA system. Well, we couldn't find a spot so we started driving down Cedar Springs.

We pulled into a Starbucks Parking lot where a REALLY drunk - and flambloyant - gay dude quickly climbed up onto the float and screamed, "Oh MY GOD - I LOVE LIBERTARIANS!!" And started to dance to the music.

He is introduced to Mr. Daiell and began - er, 'overhugging' him. Jeff is a great person and was very nice as this guy attached himself to him.

We had to move from this spot - and our stow-away got trapped on the float with us as we drove around a Tom Thumb parking lot - and as we were dodging low hanging tree limbs, on a giant Alamo, with a overhugging, techno dancing, drunken and very noisy gay guy, "120 BPM 'Strawberry Fields' blaring - - Allen Patterson looks at me and says as deadpan as can be, "You know, this kind of thing happens to me every day."

I've never taken LSD - but I now feel I don't have to. I had a completely sober psychedelic experience.
 
Seriously, you've got to hit this link and look at the parade pics.  It was a fun, fun day.
Here's a pic of me on parade day with some Spokesmodels for a product that doesn't really matter.
 

 

A handy scorecard

From The Jawa Report comes a handy scorecard. 

Are you going to take your stand with the drummers of the Occupy Wall Street movement?

There will come a time when every man, woman and child will have to answer this question: Will you stand with The Drummers of the Occupy Wall Street Movement?

Or are you going to stand with The Man, The Oppressors, The 1%, Those Who Aren't Palestinian Enough, and The Evil Rich? 

There will come a time when you will all have to answer this question.  We, the drummers, we're taking names and keeping score.   

Pick a side, dammit !!! 

Here's an email from the so-called Occupy Wall Street "movement", outlining their strategy to silence the voices of the people.  OWS is over after Tuesday:

Friends, mediation with the drummers has been called off. It has gone on for more than 2 weeks and it has reached a dead end. The drummers formed a working group called Pulse and agreed to 2 hrs/day at times during the mediation, and more recently that changed to 4 hrs/day. It’s my feeling that we may have a fighting chance with the community board if we could indeed limit drumming and loud instrumentation to 12-2 PM and 4-6 PM, however that isn’t what’s happening.

Last night the drumming was near continuous until 10:30 PM at night. Today it began again at 11 AM. The drummers are fighting among themselves, there is no cohesive group. There is one assemblage called Pulse that organized most of the drummers into a group and went to GA for formal recognition and with a proposal…

At this point we have lost the support of allies in the Community Board and the state senator and city electeds who have been fighting the city to stave off our eviction, get us toilets, etc. On Tuesday there is a Community Board vote, which will be packed with media cameras and community members with real grievances. We have sadly demonstrated to them that we are unable to collectively 1) keep our space and surrounding areas clean and sanitary, 2) keep the park safe, 3) deal with internal conflict and enforce the Good Neighbor Policy that was passed by the General Assembly…

In the meantime, there are other drummers who refuse to acknowledge OWS or the GA as a body they are interested in, and these drummers show up on site when they fell like it and drum when they feel like it. Over the weekend, it was for 10 or 11 hours straight, until late night.

So in the meantime, while we are grateful for the negotiations and positive relations with Pulse, we recognize that the issue of whether we’re evicted over drumming or not remains. For that reason we are asking for people to show up during quiet hour shifts, to ensure that drumming does not start....

And from one of the other messages, here are some Wall Street sympathizing pigs, enemies of The People, calling for more pawns to enforce the whims of the non-rhythmic, reactionary agenda:

We’re in serious need of bodies here. The drumming will happen daily from 12-2 and 4-6pm, that’s OK. But that means that we need folks in these shifts:


2-4 PM: people here to make sure drumming doesn’t start

5:45–8 PM: ppl here to make sure drumming stops at 6 PM sharp and doesn’t start again

8–10 PM: ppl here to make sure drumming doesn’t start

This is an all-call. Really really need help, tonight. There are some fabulous drummers here who have been in mediation with OWS and the community board for weeks. There are a small handful of drummers who have been violent, agro, and committed to playing as loud as they can, for as long as they can (until 11 PM this weekend).

Tomorrow night is the community board meeting, they are logging when they hear drumming and keeping a record. If we can show that we’ve made progress in implementing the Good Neighbor Policy that limits drumming then they won’t call for our eviction (they in fact have been bending over backwards to support and defend us). If we can’t get support here tonight at 6pm, or tomorrow, then we are facing an eviction vote at tomrorow’s meeting, in front of all the cameras, and we lose the electeds and allies who’ve gone to bat for us.

This is a final ditch effort as it’s been weeks of false promises and failed enforcement, so we may be close to the end of OWS over this issue this week, but we have a fighting chance!

And finally, we see the traitors in our midst....

Unfortunately there is one individual who is NOT a drummer but who claims to speak for the drummers who has been a deeply disruptive force, attacking the drumming rep during the GA and derailing his proposal, and disrupting the community board meeting, as well as the OWS community relations meeting. She has also created strife and divisions within the POC caucus, calling many members who are not ‘on her side’ “Uncle Tom”, “the 1%”, “Barbie” “not Palestinian enough” “Wall Street politicians” “not black enough” “sell-outs”, etc. People have been documenting her disruptions, and her campaign of misinformation, and instigations. She also has a documented history online of defamatory, divisive and disruptive behavior within the LGBT (esp. transgender) communities. Her disruptions have made it hard to have constructive conversations and productive resolutions to conflicts in a variety of forums in the past several days.


DRUMMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE !  YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS !!!

Multiple Trustafarians exposed

There are moments that are so phenomenally delicious, so incredibly wonderful, so freakin' great, that I thank The Lord Zhool that I get to be alive for these moments. 

One was the release of the ClimateGate emails that showed the impartial scientists plotting to keep skeptics out of peer-reviewed periodicals, hiding declines in warming, and the like. 
Another was when John Kerry got busted for keeping his yacht out of state to avoid paying a ridiculous amount of taxes. 
And how can we forget Warren Buffett's advocacy for higher taxes, while his own Berkshire Hathaway has been in a two-year lawsuit to avoid paying a billion dollars in higher taxes? 

Yesterday I threw up a random video of an incoherent Occupy Wall Street protester. 
It seems I wasn't alone in thinking the guy was hilarious. 

It turns out, he's a Colombia Grad Student.  And what makes it better is that he has a freakin' trust fund set up by his grandfather. 



Where are all the "Trust Fund Babies Against Capitalism" signs?
Never mind.  I found one on Michael Shanklin's Facebook page. 

Mike's comment:

She needs guns pointed at her to share?!? Not sure why she can't just give her money away to those she feels needs it... it would be more efficient than any government monopoly. Sad, she can't even give charity on her own without government.... pathetic really. She is basically saying that she is too stupid to help people on her own,... and ironically enough, this stupidity extends into the belief that government is somehow efficient at it. What we are witnessing here is multiple stupidity syndrome.

That's the Trustafarian dilemma.  And they have absolutely no idea how the wealth on which they survive is created, and have no interest in learning about it or contributing to the process. 

But they could end their guilt by writing one big-assed check to Uncle Sam. 

You MIGHT Be A Fleabagger....

I've been kinda busy and haven't had time to comment on the Occupy Wall Street groups, and that has been frustrating.  As far as rationality goes, these characters make the occasionally confused "Keep Government Out Of My Medicare" Tea Partyers look like Mr. Spock.


Yeah, there's some bad stuff going on, and Washington is stealing from the middle to protect the top.  So why aren't they protesting in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C.?
 
Good Lord in heaven, what a crew.  Anarchists for Big Government.  Privileged Ivy Leaguers rioting for free tuition, supplied by working plumbers, retailers and electricians. An uprising against theft, but with nary a word spoken about the thieves in Washington who do the stealing.  And they have to pay Mexicans to show up to protest !!!   This is not the diversity we were promised !!!!

I mean, these children do know who Wall Street supported in the last presidential election, right?


And they do know who has given Wall Street its money's worth in bailouts and handouts, right?

Incredible.


For those who are interested, here's a sampling from the rolling Twitter Feed at #YouMightBeAFleabagger.  Constantly updated, of course, so hit this link.   

If you think everybody should have a job, as long as nobody gets rich enough to hire anyone, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the only reason you aren't receiving a government handout is because of those "Zionist bankers". #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hid your North Face jacket in the back of your Prius & bought a ragged Hoodie at Goodwill to protest in #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think sleeping in a park really changes the world #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if you protest for "justice" at the same time you demand other people's money.

If you think that only 1% of the population should carry the other 99% #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think government corruptly hands taxpayer money to preferred corporations, and the answer is more government, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the 90% unemployment rate amongst post-modern, bi-sexual haiku majors was caused by Goldman Sachs #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the immigrant guy who owns the convenience store should pay for your interpretive dance studies, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if U blame Jooooooooooos instead of Dodd/Frank Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If you're paying $50k/year for a college degree that will qualify you for a $20k/year job, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If your idea of a "good time" is spitting on women Coast Guard officers... #YouMightBeAFleabagger #fb http://nation.foxnews.com/occupy-boston/2011/10/14/occupy-boston-protesters-spit-coast-guard

* If you enjoy the smell of destitution in the morning and want the rest of the world to embrace it as well... #YouMightBeAFleabagger *

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if your Messiah Obama raised the most money evah from Wall Street donors.

If you think Obama is part of the problem...but you're probably going to vote for him anyway #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If your Mom urges you go out and protest so she can have a chance to clean the basement #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if you say you are for the environment and then trash and defecate in parks.
38 minutes ago »

If you use the iPhone 4 your parents gave you to send anti-corporate tweets from the park you've turned into a dump, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think you're cleaning up Wall Street by taking a dump in the middle of it, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hate Nestle Corp but plead for hot chocolate on #needsoftheoccupiers, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hate cops but love IRS agents, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

And in closing, if you can watch this tragedy without laughing, you have a heart of stone.

The worst two minutes you'll experience today

The Occupy Wall Street protest song

I don't care which side of the Wall Street protest divide you're on, this is funny.
It's from the geniuses at Reason magazine. 

Come gather round people
come and join your hands
we're taking Wall Street
and we're making demands
and we're heeding the call
and we're crying for help
only 1% of us have wealth

but first we need posters
we need to make signs
but to do so it seems
that we need some supplies

We need poster board
I can't make it myself
but it's 10 cents a sheet
at the store it's on sale
an example of economies of scale
it's so evil

They're saying that freedom
has done little to stop
Corporations from keeping
the wealth at the top
But at what point in history
would a kid and a king
both have clean water to drink?

George Washington was
the richest man of his age
But he lost all his teeth
at a very young age
Because they didn't have Scope
and they all crapped in trays
we're not wealthy?

now there's fountains on streets
from which clean water pours
Four dollar generics
at all big box stores
a sultan and student
both have iPhone 4s
it's not fair

Come gather young people
come on everyone
and I'll tell you a tale
of a fortunate son

He's born in a country
and given vaccine
and rendered immune
to all kinds of disease
the Kardashians are on
all his TVs
it's not perfect

Banks don't need bailouts
on that we agree
so let's start up a group
and let's take to the streets
because if we do that then
you know what that means
we're racist.

Steve Jobs - R.I.P.

"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.” - Robert Heinlein

“I don’t know what Steve Jobs’s politics were, I don’t much care, and in any case they are beside the point. The late Mr. Jobs stood for something considerably better than politics. He stood for the model of the world that works. . . . That old Motorola cinderblock would cost about $10,000 in 2011 dollars, and you couldn’t play Angry Birds on it or watch Fox News or trade a stock. Once you figure out why your cell phone gets better and cheaper every year but your public schools get more expensive and less effective, you can apply that model to answer a great many questions about public policy. Not all of them, but a great many. . . . I was down at the Occupy Wall Street protest today, and never has the divide between the iPhone world and the politics world been so clear: I saw a bunch of people very well-served by their computers and telephones (very often Apple products) but undeniably shortchanged by our government-run cartel education system. And the tragedy for them — and for us — is that they will spend their energy trying to expand the sphere of the ineffective, hidebound, rent-seeking, unproductive political world, giving the Barney Franks and Tom DeLays an even stronger whip hand over the Steve Jobses and Henry Fords. And they — and we — will be poorer for it.” - Kevin Williamson

Whiter than a Mormon choir

Here's a representative pic of the Occupy Wall Street movement. 
Remember when the Tea-Partiers were slammed for not having enough minority representation, even though the Tea Party rallies usually had a decent mix of minorities? 
Well check out this assortment of old hippies and middle-class Marxists from the suburbs....

Here's a sample:

These kids' anger is so mis-placed that I can't even get up a good rant about it.  If Washington D.C. is going to give away money, favors, porkulus, quotas and import tariffs, Wall Street will accept the money, favors, porkulus, quotas and import tariffs.  It really is that simple.
The question is:  How Long Are You Going To Put Up With It?
The protests need to be held on Pennsylvania Avenue.