With each passing day that the #Occupy Wall Street protests remain in place, violence seems to escalate and any comparison to the Tea Party is increasingly and grossly misplaced. There have been countless numbers of arrests (over 4000 at last count), there have been rapes, assaults, vandalism, theft, millions of dollars in damage, and now two shooting deaths. We're long past the point when any responsible politician or leader should express support for this movement. Perhaps some grace could be extended to some who showed support early on but now?
Colin Powell was interviewed by Piers Morgan and referred to the #Occupy protests as being as 'American as apple pie.' Though he was somewhat effective in his word smithing, Powell sounds almost exactly like Barack Obama in this exchange. Again, it is inexplicable for people of Powell's stature - who is a Republican, no less - to not see this movement for what it is. He comes across as a left wing statist who wants to give a derelict movement legitimacy. He does absolutely NOTHING here to squelch class warfare. After the video, have a look at what Powell had to say about the Tea Party one year ago.
Here is a great find by Hapblog, who points out that Powell didn't seem to care much for the Tea Party in 2010. Check out what Powell said then:
[And the tea party movement] doesn't become a real force until it's — until it starts to talk to the issues. You can't just have slogans. You can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda." —Republican and former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Meet the Press this morning.
I'm sorry but I have more respect for a Marxist with a "D" next to his name than a socialist like Powell who deceives people by putting an "R" next to his.
Military service and rhetorical mastery aside, Powell's stance on the Tea Party in 2010 vs. his stance on OWS in 2011 should tell you everything you need to know about who he really is.
I will be covering this in greater detail during tomorrow's program but in the wake of the shooting death near the Occupy Oakland encampment, it's important to revisit the Van Jones dynamic. Oakland has by far been the most consistently violent of all the #Occupy protests. The shooting death serves to underscore that reality; it trumps the critical head injury sustained by the left wing Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. Perhaps some more pieces to this puzzle can start coming together.
First, as I wrote about HERE, Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oak) all support OWS. Van Jones is from Oakland and got his radical start there. He is also one of the main organizers of OWS. Here is Jones on September 29th on MSNBC, telling Lawrence O'Donnell that October will be the dawn of an 'American Autumn.' Fast forward to the 2:00 mark to see the relevant excerpt:
Catherine Evans at American Thinker brings a new character into the mix - and it is significant. His name is Jakada Imani and he took over for Jones at the Ella Baker Center before Jones took his Green Jobs Czar position at the White House in 2009. Imani, as Evans points out, was chosen to serve on the Board of Commissioners for an entity that was a flashpoint within the Oakland protests on the November 2nd General Strike:
A Van Jones protege, Jakada Imani, was sworn in as the newest member of the Oakland Port Board of Commissioners Tuesday October 20, a mere twelve days before Occupy Oakland protesters marched to the Port of Oakland and "effectively shut down" the fifth largest containerized port in the U.S.
Oakland's Port was shut down by Occupy Oakland protesters just two weeks later. Please read the entire piece by Evans; it does an excellent job of connecting Jones, Imani, and the Oakland Port.
However, I'd like to bring in another puzzle piece here. Back on November 3rd, the day after the strike, in a video posted at the San Francisco Chronicle, a woman the press in Oakland believed to be a spokesperson for the group - Barucha Peller - called the shut down of the Port historic and unsuccessfully tried to put a happy face on the protests but after she decided not to take any questions, a man named Shake Anderson began speaking to the press. Anderson said something quite significant but at the time, it seemed Peller was the only one to notice.
Shortly after introducing himself, Anderson said the following:
"Yes, we were here yesterday. I was in the media tent, working with Occupy Oakland, the same media tent that worked on this press release this morning."
This establishes the fact that Anderson had inside access to the inner workings of the movement. Then, Anderson makes a claim that causes Peller to interject herself back into the press conference. Anderson tells the media that when the violence started, Occupy Oakland called the mayor's office:
"We called the mayor's office the moment we understood what was going on over there."
Shortly after that, Anderson was interrupted by Peller:
"Just to be clear, Occupy Oakland does not... if individuals called the mayor's office, they do not represent Occupy Oakland... Occupy Oakland did not call the mayor's office. If individuals called the mayor's office, that's what individuals are doing... we do not negotiate with politicians, police, and we do not involve political parties."
Peller then adamantly stated that the press conference was over and managed to get a visibly perturbed Anderson to stop talking.
Clearly, Peller's problem was with Anderson's claim that Occupy Oakland called the mayor's office during the general strike. She also went out of her way to reject inferences that weren't made (negotiating with politicians). HERE is the video. Fast forward to the 3:00 mark to watch the relevant exchange:
So, the question that needs to be asked - based on Peller's reaction to Anderson's words - is: Why did she not want it known that Occupy Oakland was in communication with Mayor Jean Quan's office? Was it because they were in the process of coordinating, among other things, the shutting down of the port? After all, Van Jones protege Jakada Imani had only been on the Port Board for two weeks. Yet, that port was shut down by Occupy Oakland.
In much the same way that the Obama administration may have the blood of Border Agent Brian Terry on its hands in operation Fast and Furious, it might also have the blood of the shooting victim in Oakland on its hands.
Assuming Florida Senator Marco Rubio doesn't vacate his seat to be the VP nominee, a Connie Mack victory over Bill Nelson next November could give that state the best 1-2 conservative punch in the nation. Of all potential Republican candidates, Mack - at least so far - has the best chance of beating Nelson. He's young, he's been a congressman for a few terms, and he's a Tea Party favorite. If you remember, he's also the guy who came up with the 'Penny Plan' during the Debt Ceiling debate. It was, by far and away, the best idea for how to deal with the crisis, which meant it would be discarded.
Congressman Connie Mack’s entrance into Florida’s moribund U.S. Senate race has propelled him into instant-frontrunner status in the Republican field and threatens incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, according to a new poll.
Mack garners 32 percent of the theoretical vote, while his fellow Republicans are polling in the single digits, the Quinnipiac University poll shows. In a general-election matchup, Mack would get 40 percent of the vote and Nelson 42 percent.
“The entrance of Congressman Connie Mack into the Senate race changes what had been shaping up as an easy reelection for Sen. Bill Nelson into a tough fight that the incumbent could lose," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The fact that Mack is essentially tied with Nelson, who has been a statewide political figure for two decades, should set off warning bells at Democratic headquarters.”
Nelson is the only Democrat elected to statewide office in Florida. The fact that he’s nearly tied speaks volumes about the challenges of running as a Democrat in 2012.
What makes the numbers so surprising is that Mack has yet to campaign and hasn’t made an official announcement that he’s even running. But he’s the son and namesake of a well-liked former Florida Republican senator, who was the grandson and namesake of a famous baseball player. So Mack, a Cape Coral Republican, could be enjoying some residual benefits of having high name recognition.
If you're not all that familiar with Mack, here are some good clips from him. First, with Piers Morgan during the Debt Ceiling debate, Mack warns the CNN host not to turn his show into a 'joke.'
Here is Mack pressing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about operation Fast and Furious. Look for this testimony to rear its head as the investigation continues to get bigger. Clinton did damage to herself here thanks to Mack's questions. So far, he is the only congressman or Senator to press Clinton on the failed operation that resulted in the death of a Border Agent. One should walk away from this exchange with the strong sense that Hillary has culpability. If so, Mack did a huge service to the Oversight committee's investigation. The questions Hillary wouldn't answer were so straight forward that she sounded like she was pleading the fifth by not answering them:
Let's also not forget former Obama manufacturing czar, Ron Bloom. Mack, as best I can tell, is the only congressman to call Bloom on his outrageous comments about the free market being 'nonsense' and that Bloom agreed with Mao about how to gain political power.
If Mack is elected Senator of Florida in 2012, it will be a significant victory for conservatism.
