Occupy Wall Street

[Dtrain323i]

I will counter your rhetorical query with my own: If every corporation has a right to exercise free speech (in the form of political campaigns), then why don't we give "corporate persons" a voter registration card when they pick up their corporate tax ID?

There is no reason that I see, consitutionally, why a.) limited liability for corporations, and b.) free speech for corporations, and c.) voting rights for corporations all have to be tied together. I'm perfectly fine with granting (a.) while limiting (b.) and denying (c.).

You know, I wonder if you could form a corporation and give it voter registration. It probably would run afoul of state election laws, but I wonder if it's ever been tried.

As for the free speech issue. This provision is what allows PACs to operate. PACs are a great way for people to get together and lobby for an issue that is important to them. When a campaign manager or chief of staff looks over political donations and sees that Tom, Dick, and Harry each donated $100 to the campaign funds they're not going to even raise an eyebrow. However, what if Tom, Dick, and Harry get together and form the "Issue X" PAC and solicit donations? They then use some of those donated funds to hold a fundraiser for John Doe, who is running for congress. After the fundraiser, Tom, Dick, and Harry then write a $50,000 check over to the John Doe for Congress campaign. Now that campaign manager/chief of staff has Issue X on his radar and advises John Doe to advocate for Issue X.

I believe that before you can get change the system, you'll have to beat it at it's own game first. Corporate Personhood and free speech is a vehicle for that. Same with Lobbyists.

Lobbyists (namely my mom), are why Illinois residents aren't being forced to spend thousands of dollars to retrofit their homes with fire sprinkler systems.

OWS would be a lot more effective if the leadership got together, formed a PAC, got donations from the rest of the OWS protestors, and hired a lobbyist to advocate for 5 or 6 concrete issues.

You take away the voice of the corporate "person" and you run the risk of taking away the voice of a lot of people.

In other news, even though most spineless MSM outlets are not reporting it this way, I attribute to #OWS the retraction of debit card fees that a number of banks have done, like this: http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp...517LR0BBIO . For me, telling how this comes right in advance of Bank Transfer Day.

I did see this and it's a great development

[Versus]

it would probably help if you included your replies outside of his quotebox

[Dtrain323i]

it would probably help if you included your replies outside of his quotebox

derp

[at0m]

Put your money in a credit union. IMO thats how banks _should_ work anyways. Beholden to the interests of their accountholders, instead of shareholders.

[k0ala]

They're not looking to incorporate, make a front office, fire off press releases, hire lobbyists, or any of that shit, because that's "the system" that led us into this mess.  That's how the TEA party got co-opted into just another division of the Republican Party.  The TEA Party hired the same lobbyists and image consultants and press handlers as the Republicans, and they were all brought into line. made to stay on the same page.

[Dtrain323i]

They're not looking to incorporate, make a front office, fire off press releases, hire lobbyists, or any of that shit, because that's "the system" that led us into this mess.  That's how the TEA party got co-opted into just another division of the Republican Party.  The TEA Party hired the same lobbyists and image consultants and press handlers as the Republicans, and they were all brought into line. made to stay on the same page.

And look what happened. "Tea Party" candidates won elections in several traditionally Democrat congressional districts.

[Surf314]

[quote author=k0ala link=topic=6040.msg229303#msg229303 date=1320250435]
They're not looking to incorporate, make a front office, fire off press releases, hire lobbyists, or any of that shit, because that's "the system" that led us into this mess.  That's how the TEA party got co-opted into just another division of the Republican Party.  The TEA Party hired the same lobbyists and image consultants and press handlers as the Republicans, and they were all brought into line. made to stay on the same page.

And look what happened. "Tea Party" candidates won elections in several traditionally Democrat congressional districts.
[/quote]

Yea, all you have to do is get rid of the parts of your platform that made the movement popular in the first place and refocus it on the parts that can be exploited by moneyed interest groups.

[EarthlingJohn]

News of rapes in the occupy (city) movements.
This isn't going to help the movement.

[k0ala]

[quote author=k0ala link=topic=6040.msg229303#msg229303 date=1320250435]
They're not looking to incorporate, make a front office, fire off press releases, hire lobbyists, or any of that shit, because that's "the system" that led us into this mess.  That's how the TEA party got co-opted into just another division of the Republican Party.  The TEA Party hired the same lobbyists and image consultants and press handlers as the Republicans, and they were all brought into line. made to stay on the same page.

And look what happened. "Tea Party" candidates won elections in several traditionally Democrat congressional districts.
[/quote]

And those people who were voting TEA Party because it was a third party, neither Republican or Democratic, do you think they felt betrayed when all the TEA Party people turned out to be Stealth Republicans?

[ZargonX]

News of rapes in the occupy (city) movements.
This isn't going to help the movement.

The report of rape in Baltimore turned out to be completely fabricated. So the question is, random crazy person, or someone trying to discredit the movement?

[at0m]

[quote author=EarthlingJohn link=topic=6040.msg229488#msg229488 date=1320385078]
News of rapes in the occupy (city) movements.
This isn't going to help the movement.

The report of rape in Baltimore turned out to be completely fabricated. So the question is, random crazy person, or someone trying to discredit the movement?
[/quote]Crazy person's story picked up by media to discredit the movement.

Also:

[k0ala]

OKAY now that everyone's riled up and feeling that Something Must Be Done --

GO AND CAST YOUR VOTE TODAY.  ;D

[rumsfald]

I was #2 in line this morning to vote.

[at0m]

I changed my residence too late to get a voter registration in :x

[Evil Cheese]

Voted.

[Dtrain323i]

there were no elections by me yesterday

[k0ala]

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Occ...59263.html
Last night at 3 A.M. Cops cut down trees in Zucotti Park so they can drive bulldozers through it. Riot armor and baton strikes used indiscriminately to remove all people still occupying for arrest. All property left behind is summarily destroyed. Including books, but they were just thrown in a dumpster. Mayor Bloomberg said the decision to clear the park was his.

http://www.politickerny.com/2011/11/15/c...reet-raid/
City councilman among those arrested last night

http://nlgnyc.org/2011/11/15/press_rel_libert/
Judge disagrees with Bloomberg and NYPD, says protesters can go back to occupying Zucotti Park

http://capitoilette.com/2011/11/15/oakla...-movement/

[Didzo]

Watched the live streams last night. Too bad they all went down when the police started to move in.

Also:
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35aqqe/

[k0ala]

Haha oh Pushing Patrick, there are ALWAYS protests in Washington, the media wouldn't bother to report on it UNLESS we got in their way. Didn't we cover this on page 2?

[k0ala]

Hey, whatever happened to the Department of Homeland Security, now that we took care of all the nation-threatening terrorist networks?

http://wonkette.com/456282/surprise-home...nationwide

...oh.