Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘2012’

The Nation's Bridge

Source:Toande– Washington Key Bridge.

“Key Bridge & Georgetown Sunset View from the Roosevelt Island, Washington D.C (January 2012). Key Bridge and Georgetown in Sunset.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, more commonly known as the Key Bridge, is a six-lane reinforced concrete arch bridge conveying U.S. Route 29 traffic across the Potomac River between the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia and the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Completed in 1923, it is Washington’s oldest surviving bridge across the Potomac River.
The Classical Revival bridge was designed by architect Nathan C. Wyeth and engineer Max C. Tyler. It was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers between 1917 and 1923, and was named after Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner. The northern terminus of the bridge is just east of the site of Key’s Georgetown home, which was dismantled in the late 1940s; near that site, there is now a community park honoring Key.”

From Toande

The Key Bridge is on my summer bike route when I ride into downtown Washington from Glen Echo, Maryland which is about ten miles away from where I live About a 15-20 minute drive depending on traffic. Seems everything when it comes to getting in and around Washington depends on traffic with so many people living on top of each other.

The reason why I go on Key is no other reason than the view. Going to Roslyn, Virginia from Washington and you’re going right over the Potomac River and to your East you’re looking at the river going towards Georgetown on your right and Virginia on your left. And on your left get to see the monument and museum district in Washington, the Kennedy Center, the Watergate, Washington Monument and a bunch of other incredible buildings.

On a clear beautiful summer day, which is common in Washington just like our heat and humidity, you might not find a better lookout than the Key Bridge in Washington and many other big cities. And on my bike route I go across the bridge and go left and down and around and work my way down on the Potomac in Washington to the Jefferson Memorial Bridge which also has a great view of a lot of different impressive buildings like The Pentagon, as well as the Jefferson Memorial Monument and then I go to the Washington Monument and work my way back to Georgetown to go back home in the C&O Canal, which is also a really cool place, except if you hate heat and humidity. And just seeing these beautiful attractions on my bike route is really the only reason I need to live here.

Read Full Post »

The New Republic_ Cass R_ Sunstein- ‘Why Paternalism is Our Friend’

Source:The New Republic– New York City Nanny, I mean Mayor (call it a slip of the tongue) Michael Bloomberg.

Source:FRS FreeState

“The nanny state is in the news. A lot of people have been outraged by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to restrict soda sizes, recently overturned by a state court, and some people do not much like his proposal to ban cigarette displays in New York stores. If you share the outrage, you should recognize that various forms of paternalism are all around you, and at least some of them aren’t so bad.

Last year, new government regulations required automobile companies to increase the fuel economy of their cars, to a point where the fleet-wide average must exceed 50 miles per gallon by 2025. True, those regulations will reduce air pollution and promote energy independence, but the majority of the benefits come in the form of gas savings for consumers. For those who abhor paternalism, here’s the problem: Consumers can already buy high MPG cars, and many of them just aren’t doing so, even though they might well save money over the life of the vehicle. If the government is making the fleet a lot more fuel-efficient than consumers demand, is it operating as the national nanny, or the Gasoline Police? Should people be outraged about that?

Paternalism comes in a lot of shapes and sizes, and to come to terms with it, we need to offer a working definition. What seems to unify paternalistic approaches, however diverse, is that government does not believe that people’s choices will promote their welfare, and it is taking steps to influence or alter people’s choices for their own good.”

From The New Republic

“New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a two-time Nanny of the Month and 2009’s Nanny of the Year, is back to save us from ourselves yet again!

In order to promote breastfeeding, Bloomberg has ordered all public city hospitals to lock up free samples of baby formula. New mothers who are unable to breastfeed – or simply choose not to – can still get formula, but only after enduring a lecture from a hospital employee on the benefits of the boob over the bottle.

Reason TV’s Kennedy spoke with Susan Burger, a certified lactation consultant, who supports the mayor’s initiative on the grounds that “the real intent of that law is to protect breastfeeding mothers [and] their freedom of choice to breastfeed.”

The New Republic_ Cass R_ Sunstein- ‘Why Paternalism is Our Friend’ _ FRS FreeState

Source:Reason Magazine– New York City Nanny, I mean Mayor (call it a slip of the tongue) Michael Bloomberg.

From Reason Magazine

Before I get into what I really want to talk about, I’m going to start this post off with a question: What the hell happened to the New Republic? Because before they got new management and Chris Hughes became its new editor, this was a real liberal democratic magazine. The official liberal democratic magazine in America that had a healthy skepticism about governmental power. That all seems to be gone now and now they are sounding like defenders of the state, especially the nanny state.

The current version of The New Republic seems to believe that freedom is dangerous and that it shouldn’t be our goal or the job of government to protect our freedom, but literally to protect the people, as if we are morons or little children and can’t do that for ourselves. And even if that means protecting people from themselves and even locking them up for their own good when they make choices that aren’t in their best interest.

Reading the New Republic now, except for Jeff Rosen who is a real Liberal, is like reading the The Nation magazine or the AlterNet, or listening to the political commentary on MSNBC: it’s “big government knows best and has all the answers and individual freedom and choice are dangerous”.

They are paternalists on the far-left, people who I really don’t even call Progressives any more but paternalists or prohibitionists. Prohibition is a statist idea by the way, but I generally what I call people who think like this whether they are on the Far-Left or Far-Right, are nanny statists or nanny staters. People who believe that it’s the job of government to protect people even from themselves.

And when you combine paternalism when it comes to personal or social issues with socialism as it relates to economic policy and you believe in things like nationalizing the healthcare and health insurance systems, as well as the retirement system and perhaps even the banking system, maybe even the energy industry and you combine that nanny statism on social issues, you really have what looks like communism. You got a King Kong size big government there to protect people from themselves: “Because big government is our friend and freedom and freedom of choice is our enemy”. That it’s not big government that’s the problem, but that big government is our friend and should direct how we live our own lives.

Paternalism whether it comes from the Far-Left as it relates to the War on Drugs, alcohol prohibition, tobacco, junk food, soft drinks, or whether it comes from the Far-Right as it relates to violent video games or pornography, or trying to outlaw pre-marital sex, or adultery or divorce, it doesn’t work. Because if people want to do things bad enough, they’ll find a way to do it and damn the consequences.

One of the reasons why we have taxes and regulations in America is to encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior. Not to manage people’s lives for them. That if you want people to make healthy choices, you subsidize that and penalize them when they make unhealthy choices.

To respond to the argument that Cass Sunstein is trying to make which really sounds like he’s trying to pick up the pieces for the nanny state proponents: the regulations he’s talking about are regulations regarding businesses, not individuals. Businesses are also not allowed to hire people to whack out the competition for them. That’s also for the welfare for the general public, but that doesn’t help his case.

 

Read Full Post »

CSI_ Miami - Behind the Scenes_ Rest In Pieces

Source:CBS– One of the cast members from CBS’s CSI Miami.

Source:The Daily Press

“Raquel Welch guest stars as Vina Navarro, the matriarch of a powerful Miami family on CSI: MIAMI, Sunday, March 11 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS!”

From CBS 

Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch guess-starring on CBS’s CSI Miami last year. She plays the mother of an organized crime family in South Florida. I think she’s still way too cute to play a bad girl or scare anyone, but she’s also an excellent actress.

Raquel Welch

Source:CBS– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch guess-starring on CBS’s CSI Miami, in 2012.

Raquel Welch, not only playing a grandmother, but a bad girl on the same show. Nope! Sorry, not buying it. For one, she’s still too damn hot to be playing a grandmother. Maybe when she turns a hundred will she finally be able to pull off the grandmother. And maybe pigs will be flying and Mississippi will become an Islamic State by them. With Billy Joe and Jimmy Ray, wearing turbans as well.

And two, she’s too damn cute to be playing a bad girl. Well actually that works for her, because she would be one of the last woman people would assume as a bad girl, because she’s still real hot and has the baby-face going for her when she smiles, or is even pissed off. In all seriousness, this looks like a good show and I wish I had watch it. Because Raquel is on it, but it looks like a good episode as well.

Horatio, (played by David Caruso) I guess the lieutenant on this show, really has his work cut out for him. The lead criminal is a red-hot Latina goddess and his professionalism will really be put to the test on this show.

He’s going to have to try to catch a woman and put her organization away without falling for the urge to want to bang her. (Good luck, Chuck!) Or at the very least get very close with Vina Navarro, (played by the red-hot Raquel Welch) who is the leader of a very powerful crime family in Miami. Responsible for several murders and runs a narcotics operation. Perhaps has politicians in their back pockets. A really bad crew as far as the damage they can bring. And Horatio almost has to do this job blindfolded, at least when he’s around Vina, or has David Caruso put it in the promo for this show, he may fall for her power and sex appeal and be sucked in by her.

David Caruso, I believe at least is a great actor. He plays the tough smart cop very well, as you see on this show and if you’re familiar with the movie Body Count back in 1998, he also plays the wise-cracking funny bad guy stoned killer as well. Someone who knows what they want and won’t let anyone stop him. Who also can make you laugh knows how to put people in their place with humor.

Raquel Welch, is still so red-hot that she’s been banned from both the North and South poles, because they don’t want any more ice to melt. Scandinavia, doesn’t want her in the winter either. (Ha, ha) And yet she’s also a hell of an actress who uses her tremendous sex appeal and adorability as an actress to bring viewers in, but has this great charm and credibility as an actress that you believe whatever role she’s playing, because she’s playing it. This looks like a real good show and hopefully I’ll see it on demand, or in syndication.

Read Full Post »

Raquel Welch_ 'On Meeting Mae West- For Myra Breckinridge'Source:Boy Culture– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch, talking about Myra Breckinridge in 2012.

Source:The Daily Press

“On February 10, 2012, Raquel Welch sits for a Q&A with Simon Doonan at Film Society of Lincoln Center and speaks about meeting Mae West—including an impromptu impersonation.”

From Boy Culture

“RAQUEL WELCH on Meeting Mae West for MYRA BRECKINRIDGE + Impersonation”

Raquel Welch

Source:Tidy Baa– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch, talking about meeting Mae West, in 2012.

From Tidy Baa

A very funny sexy baby, Raquel Welch. She’s like 72 at this point and still sounds and looks this adorable and gorgeous and the body. I mean her with those curves at this point of her life gets me to thinking that maybe there is an afterlife. And that we don’t die, but come back as something better.

I think Raquel is a sexier woman now than when she was in the 1970s. Especially if you look at her bootie. But we’re not just talking about a red-hot adorable sexy goddess in Raquel Welch. But a woman who is a hell of an actress especially when it comes to satire. As you see with her impression of Mae West, (speaking of funny people. She has Mae down and it would have been priceless to see Mae’s reaction to Raquel playing her. I believe she would have taken it well and even made a joke about it.

Not sure if the Raquel Welch-Mae West combination was ever designed to work. If you look at Myra Breckinridge, I believe they only had one scene together anyway. Mae, came from an era that was learning how to drive basically. Where airplanes were only read about in sci-fi fiction stories. Where even radio was new where watching movies was like going to library except for a big screen in the room, because all the movies in the 1920s were silent.

Raquel, is about as modern of a woman as any woman has ever been. Actually, Myra Breckinridge might be as modern of a movie that has ever been and perhaps 10-20 years ahead of his time. When you’re covering both open homosexuality, where queens have a big role in public in the movie. But you’re also covering transsexuality. And men who were thought to be gay, not comfortable as gay men and they become women.

Mae West, who I believe is one of the best entertainers, as well as actress’s of all-time who was hysterically funny in Myra Breckinridge, had to be impressed with Raquel Welch when she met her: I mean I think you almost have to be blind, death and gay not to be impressed by Raquel Welch. I actually think gay men when meeting Raquel for the first time might say to themselves: “OMG! what have I been missing all of these years? Instead of acting like a woman, I could just have them instead.” A little tongue in cheek there, but that wouldn’t surprise me.

Raquel and Mae, weren’t a generation apart, but at least two generation’s apart. Mae, grew up when horse carriages were still a dominant form of transportation. And Raquel grew up with televisions and movies where people actually talked to each other. So they were very different, but they made a hell of a funny movie together.

Read Full Post »

CBS_ 'CSI_ Miami - Preview_ Rest In Pieces_' Raquel Welch Guess Stars

Source:CBS– Hollywood Goddess Eva Larue on CBS’s CSI Miami.

Source:The Daily Press

“When the ‘Miami Taunter’ kills again, Horatio comes face-to-face with the matriarch of the suspected killer’s family, who may or may not help his investigation, on CSI: MIAMI, Sunday, March 11 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS! Watch full episodes of your favorite show at:CBS.”

From CBS

I will admit, I’m willing to watch anything that has Raquel Welch in it just to see Raquel in it, at least once. And then if the show or movie sucks and even the greatest stars have done at least some garbage that they want to forget about, I’ll probably now watch it again. But CSI Miami is one of the best cop shows at least on right now, if not ever. And I really want to see this episode with Raquel.

CSI Miami

Source:CBS– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch guess-starring on CBS’s CSI Miami in 2012 with David Caruso playing a bad girl. Even though she’s still to cute to scare little girls.

Raquel Welch was in her early 70s at this point and I guarantee you she was the best looking woman on the show, at least that night. And CSI Miami has Eva LaRue, who is also gorgeous and baby-face and well-built. And Emily Proctor, very attractive with a nice body, whose as cute as a little girl and at times at least sounds like one.

But what makes Raquel a goddess for all-time, is that she doesn’t seem to age, at least in public. She’s always been hot and has always been baby-face adorable. It’s just that the years she’s lived have gone up every year. I haven’t actually seen this show, so I couldn’t tell you how Raquel did on it.

But I can tell you how she looked and the star power she still has on it, or CBS doesn’t promote the show the way it did. An actress at this point when this episode came out in her early 70s, who still commands that much attention and who is still a goddess physically, looking better than beautiful women young enough to be her daughter and perhaps even her grand-daughter, was probably unheard of twenty-years ago. But Raquel makes it seem so natural.

Read Full Post »

Don't Mess With Texas!

Source:The New Republic– don’t mess with Texas. We’re armed and dangerous. We also ain’t too bright and don’t always know what we’re doing. LOL

SourceFRS FreeState

“In the wake of news that more than 80,000 people have signed an online White House petition asking permission for Texas to leave the Union, a single grave concern has united the minds of Americans of all political colors: If the state secedes, where are we going to get our NFL-caliber wide receivers?

As a recent student not just of secession, but the traditionally Southern mindset that drives it in this country (similar petitions for Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina have all topped 20,000 signatures), let me be the first to say to the aggrieved liberal community: relax. No one is talking about building a Berlin Wall around the upside-down pistol grip part of Texas.

Texans may be stubborn, but they ain’t stupid. In the event of secession, mutually beneficial treaties would be drawn up between the United States and newly formed Texas Republic, ensuring both sides get what they need.”

From The New Republic

“Rick Perry on Texas’s right to secede from the US”

Rick Perry on Texas's right to secede from the US

Source:The Centrist Word– Hardball With Chris Matthews?

From The Centrist Word

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas even seceding from the United States, who the hell needs them. (From my point of view) They need us so they can fund their own roads and for all that welfare insurance they get from taxpayers in wealthy states. So their people don’t starve and so their kids can go to school and so-forth.

I mean do we really need a Alabama and a Mississippi in the union, couldn’t we get by with just one of them, or how about they combine and become one state. And we would have on less ignorant state in the union.

And do we really need to Carolinas and two Virginia’s? I’m not looking for Virginia to leave the union, but do we need a Virginia and a West Virginia.

West Virginia, is not seceding. Even they know like the rest of the country that they need America more than America needs them. But South Carolina might be a different story and the idea of an African-American, not only being elected, but reelected President of the United States, is appalling to a certain percentage of South Carolinians. And they may leave the country, some of the nuts in that state.

My whole point about this is that the people in these states that are considering leaving the United States, good riddance, as far as I’m concern. And maybe they can move somewhere and start some new Confederate Republic like they tried in the 1860s. And even if these states were to secede, which will never happen because even these states have enough intelligent people in them to know better. People who were perhaps educated outside of these states, to understand that they need America more than we need them.

As much as Southern Neo-Confederates may bash the U.S. Government and public assistance, a lot of their people still need that just to get by. Which makes this whole discussion a little ridiculous, because this will never happen.

Texas, won’t leave the United States, they have the most uninsured people in the country per-capita. They need us again for the public assistance that they collect. America, needs Texas to become energy independent and get off of foreign oil. Which would be a boom for both our economy and foreign policy. But if these third-world American states in the Southeast want to take a hike, I’ll help them pack. And see how well they can do on their own.

Read Full Post »

Romney Family

Source:Slate Magazine– meet the Romney Family.

Source:The Daily Press

“The exchanges weren’t the only things getting heated at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Two of Mitt Romney’s sons got a little hot under the collar watching their dad spar with the president.

Asked on a radio how he felt when Obama called his dad a liar, Romney’s eldest son Tagg said he wanted to “rush down to the stage and take a swing at him.” Tagg also took issue with the president’s campaign trying “to do everything they can to turn my dad into someone he’s not,” which seems like a tall order considering Romney himself has a habit of shifting where he stands.

The Romney sons’ aggression didn’t stop there: Tagg’s brother, Josh, was seen giving the president a death stare during the debate, and that spawned a mini-meme. Menacing maybe, but hardly enough for the Secret Service to get involved.”

From Slate Magazine

Not the most loving and respectful men of the presidency. The Romney Boys, they seem more like thugs working for their father. They seem to want to do what their father other than in the first presidential debate what their father couldn’t do, which is to beat up President Obama, or at least beat him somewhere.

I mean Mitt, clearly wins the first debate and is still clearly trailing the President in the Electoral College, despite now being neck-in-neck with the President in the popular vote. Mitt, doesn’t look like a winner right now, but someone whose trying to find any place where he can win. So he’s not the Mike Dukakis of the GOP. Someone who badly loses a presidential election that he should have won.

It’s hard to hear negative facts about your father especially in a political campaign. Especially when those facts are about one’s lack of experience, knowledge, judgement, honesty, and even credibility. The Romney Sons, might know who Dad is, but the problem is their Dad won’t let the rest of the country know. Because he keeps turning into someone else depending on what office he’s running for, what year he’s running and the people he feels he needs to have supporting him.

Mitt is Moderate Mitt in Massachusetts, he’s Religious Conservative Mitt in 2007 when he’s going for the Christian-Right in Iowa and South Carolina. And now he’s the businessman with results, even though as Governor of Massachusetts, he had a weak jobs record. And laid off a lot of people as a businessman.

Who is Mitt Romney and what do you believe in? Would be my question to him if I ever interviewed him. But I would be carrying a whole notepad of paper, or perhaps my laptop waiting for ten different answers to the same questions. As he’s telling us every different position he has on the same issue. And doing that for each issue.

Americans are funny this way in that we like our presidential candidates to tell us who they are and what they believe with some consistency before we decide who we’re going to vote for, not after. I guess we’re just stubborn that way and don’t have much faith in coin flipping when it comes to choosing our political leaders. But we’re into finger flipping when it comes to political leaders that we don’t like. As Mitt knows all too well right now.

Read Full Post »

Binder Full of Hillary?

Source:Slate Magazine– does Mitt Romney have binders full of Hillary Clinton?

Source:The Daily Press

“The most substantive moments of last night’s presidential debate may have been President Obama and Mitt Romney’s heated exchanges over Libya and energy policy. But the Internet has its own favorite: Romney’s pronouncement that he was given “binders full of women” to fill jobs in his cabinet when he was governor of Massachusetts. That came in response to a question about the glass ceiling and gender bias in pay.

Before the debate even ended, a meme had sprouted on social media. Within minutes, a Tumblr account appeared, with crowd-sourced parody images that included Hillary Clinton, an ’80s teen idol, and Beyoncé. By this morning, the Facebook community “Binders Full of Women” had more than 250,000 members.

In a debate full of curious phrasing, why did Romney’s binders comment stand out? Slate’s Amanda Marcotte wrote that the inelegant phrase resonated because it underlined Romney’s “utter unwillingness to address the true causes of inequality.”

From Slate Magazine

Is Mitt Romney capable of getting through an appearance, debate or otherwise, without making a gaffe? Or maybe these so-called gaffes aren’t gaffes and he actually believes in this, let’s say garbage and it just slipped out. Does Mitt even at this point where he’s clearly trailing in big Republican states like Florida, Virginia and Ohio (where he needs to win at least two of those states in order to win the presidency) even want to be president? Or is he writing a new book, perhaps political manual on how not to run for president if you want to win. The title of the book actually being: “Mitt Romney’s: How Not to Run For President.” Maybe he’s hoping he can get Congress even with a Democratic Senate in it, to repeal the 19th Amendment that guarantees all American women the right to vote. And with that he wouldn’t have to bother campaigning for female voters.

I imagine when it comes to life in general and in business, Mitt Romney is a tall, handsome, young-looking (for a Baby Boomer) intelligent, good man. But when it comes to politics, he must have slept in when God was handing out political brains. I haven’t seen a national politician this weak when it comes to appealing to average voters since George H.W. Bush in 1992. When he didn’t know the price of milk and his own Vice President miss spells potato. And this is probably because President Bush hadn’t been to a grocery store and bought his own groceries in over twenty-years at that point.

If I’m a woman (and no I’m not looking for a sex change) am I supposed to feel good about Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women”? Or should I take that as a guy who probably watches too much Cinemax late at night, because he can’t sleep, because from all the coffee he drinks on the campaign trail?

As a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney is a gunslinger who always has his gun pointed at his feet and forgets turn the safety off. I don’t know how the man walks around anymore having shot off so many of his own toes. He barely beats a man who wants to take America back to 1955 in a national time machine where women weren’t supposed to work and perhaps even vote. Where gays were locked in prison cells and mental institutions, as well as closets. That being Rick Santorum of course and is now running against a President who struggles to hit fifty-percent when it comes to his own popularity. With high unemployment and weak economic growth.

Mitt finds himself trailing in several big Republican states that he has to win, to a President who struggles to get to 50% approval. I mean is Mitt Romney really all the Republican Party has to offer for president? And is this the best they have?

Read Full Post »

Attachment-1-520

Source:ABC News– The cast of Melrose Place.

Source:The Daily Press

“Amanda, Kimberly and Billy, the stars of the hit ’90s TV drama, discuss their favorite moments.”

From ABC News

I only caught the last couple seasons of Melrose Place, because at first I thought the writing was kinda cheesy. And I’m not a big fan of soap operas to begin with, but I was flipping around one Monday night, in I believe 1997, looking for something to watch before Monday Night Football. Which at that point I watched every Monday night and I caught a little of Melrose Place and I figured what the hell, I would watch a little of this before the game.

And I couldn’t stop laughing, it was a very funny show with people constantly screwing over other people and doing it in such a casual way and the writing of it was actually pretty good.
I’m not a soap opera expert obviously, but I think a good soap opera has all the selfishness and people screwing others with very little fear about the consequences for themselves or the people they are screwing. As well as the crazy lives that only people in Hollywood could live and write into a script.

But a good soap opera has great writing, very funny writing and very funny people in it. Which is why I’m actually a late, but definite fan of General Hospital, because that show essentially has a cast for comedians or comedic actors. Who are also great actors and combine both roles very well. People who improvise and with writers who give them great lines.

Read Full Post »

YouTube_ Associated Press_ Occupy Wall Street _ One Year Later (2012) - Google Search

Source:Associated Press– Pete Dutro use to be one of the organizers of Occupy Wall Street.
Source:FRS FreeState

“To mark the one-year-anniversary of the Occupy movement on September 17th , current and former members talk to the Associated Press about the changes they see in the organization.”

From the Associated Press

Occupy Wall Street started off as a I guess left-wing social democratic (even though there are Communists who part of OWS) movement a year ago, that was pissed off at Wall Street and corporate America as a whole. And seeing them get bail outs while they saw the rest of the country as they put it got austerity and decided that they were: “Mad as Hell and weren’t going to take it anymore.” Or perhaps even stronger language than that)

OWS was a very focused and fairly disciplined movement, especially for Socialists who aren’t known for discipline or even believing in it. And that’s how they were successful in its first few months: “This is what’s bad, we have the people with us and we need to stop this.”

And then OWS could go about fixing the problems, instead of making them worst and were successful in not only getting attention from the national media, but getting people behind them as well. Even Democrats not so much the leadership, but some Congressional Democrats in both the House and Senate who are so far to the Left as they are and also have a hard time seeing the center and perhaps center-left with a telescope, such as OWS. And they even managed to not only communicate what they believe is wrong with the country, as far as the economy, but we’re able to start to put together their own social democratic agenda.

OWS moves from talking about what they don’t like about capitalism and corporate America, to preserving social insurance programs, especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But what they would do about the “too big to fail banks”, breaking them up or nationalizing them. As well as things like universal higher education, protecting organize labor and debt forgiveness for students and other things.

But now OWS seems to be about complaining about ever society ill that the country seems to be going through. Jump from one problem to another without any real focus or discipline and living up to one of the negative stereotypes that Socialists have. They’ve become like kids who when they get a new toy, they see something else that they want and now have lost all interest in their first toy. They’ve become like children.

That’s how Occupy Wall Street started out, but by the late spring and summer they had already lost whatever momentum they were able to build up from the fall and winter of 2011-12 and started looking more like rioters or anarchists and with all the arrests they started piling up. They were like fireworks that are lighted on July Fourth, that burn out with in minutes. And started piling up arrests at their rallies and events. And once a movement gets to that point, its hard for Americans who unless they are die-hard supporters of you, to take you seriously: “Why should I pay attention to them. They are just some whacked-out fringe: why should I take them seriously.”

And because of this, the Democratic Leadership, has never really gotten behind them. Because unlike Republicans, Democrats understand that there’s a certain responsibility to being part of a major political party. That you can’t afford to look like you are part of a fringe movement, because you are supposed to be the adults in the room.

Right now in America again unless you are a big supporter of Occupy Wall Street, they look like some whacked-out Far-Left socialist party, that are champions of big government and high taxes, which hasn’t played well in this country for a long time.

And even worst, OWS looks like anarchists people who are so out of their minds they aren’t capable of having an adult conversation, which is why they are struggling to be taken seriously.Even fringe movements need ties and have a base with reality and how the world works, so they can be as successful as possible. Even if it comes off as stale or old school to their supporters.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »