Ever since the Tea Party started making headlines and political accomplishments I have seen liberals bemoaning the fact that there was no liberal version of the Tea Party. With the recent Occupy Wall Street and other Occupier protests across the country, Democratic lawmakers and liberals finally believe they have what they wanted.The problem is now that they have embraced it, it is beginning to look like they grabbed on to something they have no hope of holding on to and associated themselves to it before figuring out that it is spiraling out of control and might just eat them alive.
Obama not only embraced them, he stoked the whole Occupy movement with his class war rhetoric, which has already led to death threats against the wealthy sent to NY Assembly members.
Nancy Pelosi is embracing them and stated at a press conference Thursday afternoon "God bless them, or their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective."
Leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have embraced them with Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)issuing a joint statement saying "We share the anger and frustration of so many Americans who have seen the enormous toll that an unchecked Wall Street has taken on the overwhelming majority of Americans while benefiting the super-wealthy."
Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) has embraced them and released a statement Wednesday saying, "The silent masses aren’t so silent anymore. They are fighting to give voice to the struggles that everyday Americans are going through."
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a leader in both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Back Caucus has embraced them saying "All of us should join that movement."
Democratic lawmakers want to "harness" all that anger.
It is too late for Barack Obama and Democrats to back away from it now, so let us take a look at what they have embraced, shall we?
In NYC, protesters are counting down and then attacking Police.
“What they did is they counted. They actually had a countdown — 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 — they grouped together, they joined arms and they charged the police. They attacked the police. They wanted to get into Wall Street, they wanted to occupy Wall Street,” Kelly told reporters.
Police arrested 28 people Wednesday — mostly for disorderly conduct. There was at least one arrest for assaulting a police officer and police said one protester even knocked an officer off his scooter.
Kelly said that if demonstrators targeted the police, authorities would respond with “force.”
“They’re going to be met with force when they do that — this is just common sense,” he said.
The commissioner said protesters were told to stay within the barricades that police had erected and when they crossed over them they began hassling the cops.
“These people wanted to have confrontation with the police for whatever reason. Somehow, I guess it works to their purposes,” Kelly said.
The reason is easy to figure out. Attack the police, then video the police response, slap it on YouTube and claim police brutality.
Occupy Wall Street costing taxpayers $2 million in police overtime - and counting - NYPD says:
The NYPD said Thursday that three weeks of anti-Wall Street demonstrations have cost the city $2 million in police overtime and defended the use of pepper spray and batons to control rowdy crowds.
In the Occupy DC protest, some Spanish protesters are being paid to be there and hold up signs in English, when they don't even speak English.
‘Kill the cops!’ shout reported during ‘Occupy New Orleans’ protest
In Portland, Occupiers are vandalizing police cars and spraying graffiti on several locations:
Portland police say they made two arrests overnight as part of Occupy Portland after the suspects were seen tagging a Portland Police Bureau patrol car.
Nolan MacGregor, 21, and a 17-year-old were taken into custody on first-degree criminal mischief charges.
They're accused of spraying graffiti on several locations, including the Pioneer Square Starbucks shop and a building at 888 SW 5th Ave. The graffiti tags said, "Occupy Portland," "Wall Street Loves No One," "Perspective" and "Occupy."
Then we have the death threats sent via email to the NY Assembly members:
"Hey King Andrew and friends! It's time to tax the millionaires!
If you don't, I'm going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League b****** I can find. I going to work with 3 other guys and we will hit 4 locations all at once. We can pre-position magazines and pipe bombs nearby and kill quickly and get away. Do you get the picture? The police are set up to assemble a massive response against one incident and can't handle trouble breaking out all over the place. We can get in and out before you can assemble a response. And if we die, so what !?? We have nothing to lose. We can hit one of the restaurants where the tech employees like to go to with their families after work. How hard can be for us to figure out which restaurants those are? Gee, do you think they like upscale restaurants with sweets like the Cheesecake Factory?
How hard is it for us to stake out one of the obvious access roads to some tech company and tail an employee home and toss a liquor bottle full of flaming gasoline through their nice picture window into their cute house – we can use 4 cars and swap positions, so they never know, or we just lookup all of the recent property transactions and find out who just bought houses. Do you understand? How hard is it for us to walk onto the RPI campus in Troy or one of the nearby neighborhoods and shoot every spoiled b****** we can find? Do you understand?
Arrests in Sacramento, Santa Barbara, 700 in NY for Occupying the Brooklyn Bridge... the list goes on and on.
To date there have been over a thousand arrests associated with the Occupier protests.
On April 15, 2009 when the Tea Party was still a generally new movement, they set up demonstrations in over 750 cities and there were no arrests.
The Tea Party has basically focused their attention on politicians, the very people that can make or change laws, they organized and supported candidates that they believed would represent them and the Tea Party is at least partially responsible for the major GOP gains in the 2010 midterm elections.
Who are the Occupiers focused on? Businesses, Wall Street, Corporations... none of which can make laws, pass laws or change the laws.
Mayor Bloomberg points out quite succinctly how the Occupiers are shooting themselves in the foot.
"Everyone's got a thing they want to protest, some of which is not realistic," Bloomberg said. "And if you focus for example on driving the banks out of New York City, you know those are our jobs ... You can't have it both ways: If you want jobs you have to assist companies and give them confidence to go and hire people."The question here is what do they think can be accomplished in the end from these protests against people that are not politicians, cannot make or change the law?
"The protests that are trying to destroy the jobs of working people in this city aren't productive," Bloomberg said in his weekly radio appearance with John Gambling. Taking a swipe at "some of the labor unions participating," Bloomberg added that "their salaries come from - are paid by - some of the people they're trying to vilify."
That resembled a refrain protesters have frequently aimed at the police: "my taxes pay your salary."
I want Democrats to continue to embrace the Occupiers because I believe that just as the Tea Partiers helped Republicans take control of the House, the ramifications of the out-of-control Occupiers, in the end, will help Republicans take the Senate and the White House in 2012.
Note to liberal Democrats: Embrace them, encourage them, join them...... OWN them, please.
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