Is the Occupy Toothpaste out of the Tube?

The OWS protests have become a liability for the Democratic Party in general and the Barack Obama administration in particular. That might help explain why mayors across the country seemed to act in unison when shutting down the encampments. However, Occupy Oakland doesn't appear to be going quietly. On November 19th, they were at it again, marching through the streets and setting up tents. Then, when they came across a chain link fence with 'no trespassing' signs on it, they tore it down.

This is the result of taking paddling out of the schools.



If the Obama administration put out the order to shut these protests down due to political damage and protesters are not complying, the president has a serious problem on his hands. If the protests pick up again and he cracks down, Obama will be fighting the community organizing that's so near and dear to his heart. If he allows it to continue, public opposition to him is almost certain to grow. Here is a report from the local ABC affiliate:



 h/t The Blaze

Video: Is Chris Matthews Waking up or just Schizophrenic

While talking with MSNBC's Alex Witt, Chris Matthews goes on an uncharacteristic rant about Obama. In essence, he seems to state quite clearly that the current administration hasn't done much and Chris wants the man who inspired his leg thrill to tell America what the mission is. Perhaps the most important charge levied by Matthews is that Congress never hears from the president. One would think that at some point, Democrat Senators would stop being such partisan martyrs for him. Then again, pride is a powerful thing.

 

 h/t GWP

Occupy Oakland Calling for Pacific Coast Port Shutdown on 12/12

On November 2nd, Occupy Oakland's 'General strike,' which was encouraged by none other than the city's mayor, Jean 'I don't know what's going on' Quan, shut down Oakland's port and caused millions of dollars in damages. Now the Occupy Oakland website is announcing that it will attempt to shut down all ports on the west coast of the United States on 12/12/11. The interesting part, is that the group claims to be ratcheting up its behavior because of 'coordinated attacks' on their movements across the country:

In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation: Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement. We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

This is indeed very interesting because the Obama administration has been in support of these derelicts. There are some who believe that these 'coordinated' shutdowns of Occupy protests all across the nation came at the behest of the administration because the protests are becoming a political liability and public relations disaster. According to Salem-News, these alleged 'coordinated' shutdowns served as the impetus for Occupy Oakland to call for a 'Re-Occupation' on November 19th:

(OAKLAND, Calif.) - Leading members of the Oakland Occupy movement are questioning the evictions of a dozen Occupy camps across the country, following news that they have been coordinated by conference call between mayors’ offices and police departments and a private law enforcement think tank named PERF (Police Executive Research Forum). According to a just-published report in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, PERF, an international non-governmental organization with ties to law enforcement and homeland security, has been coordinating the conference calls to advise major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs.

Why would mayors get together and coordinate shutdowns of these protests? Who would be responsible for initiating such a coordination? Also, who is in charge of homeland security? Uh, that would be DHS, right? Obama / Napolitano, right? To quote Van Jones, 'you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.' If mayors acted in response to members of the Obama administration and Occupy Oakland is calling for a 'General Strike' on steroids, they apparently didn't get the memo.

h/t Free Republic