#OWS Driving Conservatives Crazier

 

Occupy Wall Street roundup, Day 25

By Hunter for Daily Kos      Tue Oct 11, 2011

 

Pay to the order of John Paulson (@elliottjustin/twitpic)

Reactions from conservatives and the financial sector are picking up, perhaps because they realize this thing isn't just going away on its own. Significantly, much of the reaction falls into the "delusional, possibly insane" category, which perhaps speaks to a wee bit of panic in the upper echelons. Or maybe they've just lost the ability to come up with any responses to anything that aren't delusional and/or insane.

Among the Occupy-related events, punditry, and other things-of-note for today:

• Today Occupy Wall Street protestors marched to the homes of some of New York City's wealthiest people leaving giant "checks" made out for $5 billion, the amount of state money that will be lost when New York's "millionaire's tax" expires at the end of the year. The targets were Rupert Murdoch, David Koch, hedge fund manager John Paulson, and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Wait, Murdoch and Koch live in New York City—an ultraliberal den of high taxes so very oppressive to the wealthy that even conservative stalwart Rush Limbaugh turned tail and ran, rather than pay his share? I don't know if I'm impressed by their apparent courage in the face of such rampant liberalism, or just surprised that they're rich enough to live literally anywhere on the planet, and yet they still chose New York. Huh.
• John Paulson, meanwhile, says, "Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow." (Note: John Paulson is not related to ex-Treasury Secretary-slash-ex-Goldman-Sachs-CEO Hank Paulson. Also note the giddy praise of the reporter in that piece, relating how some wealthy financial speculators are finally saying "what many are thinking." Sheesh.)
• The situation in Boston continues to be among the most tense, nationally. Last night, over 100 protestors were arrested. A first-hand account can be found here. Boston Mayor Tom Menino exclaimed, "I will not tolerate civil disobedience in the city of Boston," which sounds like satire until you realize he was serious. I guess we just don't like tea parties like we used to?
• Eric Cantor continues to be confused about the protests. While no longer quite willing to call the protestors a "mob," he still doesn't like them. You see, the tea partiers were protesting the government, but Occupy Wall Street is "pitting one part of our country against another":

  “The ire from the tea party’s standpoint is at Washington,” Cantor said. “It is about the government and its policies, and how that affects this country.”

  “Do you not see the government as representing the people?” [Politico's David Rogers] asked.

  “Sure, it’s of the people,” Cantor responded. “But we’re in an elected position and trying to lead, to solve problems. I don’t believe that our role is to inflame a division between different parts and sectors of American society.”

  If it doesn't make sense to you, just remember that Eric Cantor has made a political career out of making no sense at all on issues of taxes, economics, government and public opinion.

• Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, says the protests are a plot against the Jews. Wait, what? Aside from being nonsensical (see: Cantor), I think it also means he's stealing Glenn Beck's only remaining schtick ... so I eagerly await that lawsuit.
• Conservative fundraiser and consultant Nathan Wurtzel, on the other-other-hand, keeps it classy:

  

• It turns out conservative mostly-ex-wunderkind James O'Keefe, who is on probation and lives with his parents, was indeed in Liberty Plaza yesterday in order to edit together a film about (I think?) how those crazy hippies in the park are really just all money-hungry or something. A rather lackluster effort; I'm not sure what about that made O'Keefe think it was worth the possible probation violation.
• Rounding out crackpot conservative reactions to Occupy Wall Street day: my God, David Brooks is an idiot. Still, if you had told me that Brooks would write a column linking the Occupy Wall Street protests to the need for a third party that would pursue all of his great conservative ideas like cutting corporate taxes, etc., I never would have believed you. No, I would have said: it's just too stupid. Dean Baker responds here.
• A Ben & Jerry's flavor coming soon? Nope, not quite. Just photoshop. Good name, though.

Technorati Tags: #OWS,Occupy Wall Street,Conservatives,Wall Street,Current Events,An American Gothic

Herman Cain: Typical Republican Hypocrite

   it seems that the Teabagger Party still does not quite understand that the voting records of all of our elected officials can easily be looked up on the Internet, or they just simply have memory lapses when it comes to their darling critters running for the highest office.

   The Tea Party dislikes the TARP ( bailouts ) idea, but they love one of the candidates who supported it. Their current darling is one Herman Cain, asshat from Florida. He supported Bush’s TARP, as did Romney and Perry, and they are all three of them trying to get their followers to not remember that.

Jed Lewison          Fri Oct 07, 2011

Here's the story tea party Republicans like to tell: infuriated with the TARP bank bailouts (passed in 2008 during the Bush administration), tea partiers decided to take control of their party from establishment politicians and replace them with true conservative outsiders. You know, guys like Herman Cain.

The only problem is that back in 2008, guys like Herman Cain were the exact same establishment figures telling Republicans why they should support the bailouts.

Here's Cain in October, 2008:

Far from Nationalization, Purchase of Bank Stocks Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers

Earth to taxpayers! Owning stocks in banks is not nationalization of the banking industry. It’s trying to solve a problem.

The unprecedented financial crisis has caused the Treasury of the United States to take unprecedented measures to help solve the problem of frozen credit and cash flow for U.S. businesses.

Now Cain tries to spin his support by saying that it's the implementation that he didn't like, not the program, and that he warned people it could go wrong. But this is what he said back then:

These actions by the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank and the actions by the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are all intended to help solve an unprecedented financial crisis. Unlike steps taken prior to and during the Great Depression, these actions have a high probability of success.

In order for these collective actions to work, the media needs to calm its crisis rhetoric, and Congress needs to just shut up with its political rhetoric.

Now don’t tell Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, but if this works, and I believe it will, the Bush Administration will have gotten this one right.

And he still makes the case that bailouts were a good idea—just that they were expected incorrectly.

Of course, it's not like today's Republican primary voters have any great options if they don't want to be complete hypocrites on their "fundamental opposition" to the TARP bailouts. Mitt Romney was a big supporter, and even though Rick Perry didn't specifically mention the word bailouts, he did urge Congress to pass an economic rescue package at the same time that it was voting on TARP. At the time, everybody took his words to be an endorsement of TARP, and he didn't push back until long after they became unpopular.

So that leaves Republicans with either Michele Bachmann or Ron Paul—if they want to be consistent. Or they can listen to what Herman Cain told them to do in 2008, and just shut up.

Originally posted to The Jed Report on Fri Oct 07, 2011

Also republished by Daily Kos.

Technorati Tags: Herman Cain,Tea Party,2012 Election,Politics,Current Events