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Rich Lowry: Tea Party is “Polite, Patriotic”; Occupy Wall Street is “Pathetic, Toxic”

Rich Lowry, the esteemed pseudo-intellectual at the National Review is not someone you would ever confuse with Barry Goldwater or William F. Buckley, Jr. The intellectual horsepower is simply not there. He is a right wing hack whose prose by design is to wax poetic about those who work overtime in an effort to sustain a functioning Kleptocracy in America.  This week Lowry had the temerity to pen a piece that suggests he is even remotely qualified to determine who is or is not a righteous citizen and what qualifies as patriotic dissent by his fellow American citizens. To do so  at a time when the country is dealing with high unemployment, financial corruption that has ruined many lives while an untenable growing inequality spreads throughout the land, placing the system itself under question, is simply treasonous.

It may be feel like there are  Barbarians at the Gates.  I understand that this inconveniences many  and makes even more of us uncomfortable about what is happening in our own country and my hometown.  Yet even so, as I have stated previously, the painful growing inequality in America is more than a transactional externality that can be ignored, dismissed or otherwise managed safely.  Truth told Vanity Fair  forecast that this was something  the wealthy would soon come to regret. This is true whether you stand in support of these movements or think that those occupying Wall Street are seriously misguided and their mission unclear or disingenuous and that its ‘Time to  (un)Occupy Wall Street’. The simple reality is that it is happening. We cannot ignore that. If we do, we do so at our own peril as a people and as a nation. We simply just can not lock everyone up and think that things will be ok.  Capische?

It is simply to hard to ignore that something is awry in our land and too presumptuous to dismiss out of pocket those who are participating peacefully in our ‘democracy’. Consider his recent piece The Left’s Pathetic Tea Party wherein condemning the Occupy Wall Street movement (among other things)  he stated the following:

The Left’s tea party is a juvenile rabble, a woolly-headed horde that has been laboring to come up with one concrete demand on the basis of its — in the words of one sympathetic writer — “horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought.”

The Right’s tea party had its signature event at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial where everyone listened politely to patriotic exhortations and picked up their trash and went home.

In the words of BlueTexan on the Firedoglake blog:

Ah, those polite, patriotic Teabaggers — shouting down elected officials and their fellow citizens at Town Halls, hanging Democrats in effigy, toting offensive signs, putting billboards up comparing Obama to Hitler, brandishing guns at protests, sending out racist emails (remember this one?), comparing health care reform to the Holocaust, etc.

In the Gospel according to Lowry, only the Corporate funded Tea Party is “Polite and Patriotic”. You know the one.  It is that grassroots movement which was collapsed, dis-integrated,  co-opted and stolen by the National Republican apparatus with generous funding from the Koch brothers for their re-branding effort; fascinating only in America can the most powerful people in all the land funded by the Oligarchy effectively rebrand themselves as outsiders with fresh solutions.  Brilliant mask right? It beats the ones worn by anonymous that for damn sure. The fact is that the only thing left of the legitimate “Liberty Movement” is represented by Ron Paul and his followers.  That crew is actually open to an intellectual debate.  And America ought to be engaging them and their ideas more seriously, especially given the crossroads our country finds itself.  Ron Paul is a true liberal – a classical liberal – and stands in opposition to the welfare/warfare state. As one fair-minded commentator stated, “he offers a true alternative to the fascism of Democrats and Republicans.” While Paul’s rise gets limited coverage, likewise this American Revolution of 2011 with the Barbarians at the Gate, will similarly not be televised.

Lowry is, in effect, a poor man’s Rush Limbaugh. He is not even creative enough to hide the hypocrisy bordering on treason in his writing. But why should anyone be surprised. This is the same guy who nearly creamed all over himself back in 2008 during the Vice Presidential debates, at the mere site of visionary political orator Sarah Palin “when Palin dropped her first wink, [he] sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, ‘Hey, I think she just winked at me’” You got the sense that the poor guy was observing Palin “Projecting through the Screen” with one hand on the keyboard and a Lubriderm soaked palm “waxing” over her prose and likely forced to clean off his laptop shortly Sarah’s  wink. It was disturbing, disturbing that I did not read his column in Penthouse Forum where it belonged.

Wingnut Rich Lowry is a Profile in Conservative Douchebaggery moving up or down (depending on your perspective) the food chain from  ”Tea-bagger” to something else entirely.   The GOP should make this guy a fluffer at their conventions because he sucks up and deep throats power more proficiently, without even a hint of gag reflex, than any petite, tight bodied, busty, puffy lipped blonde working for  Vivid Entertainment in the San Fernando Valley.  GOP Messiah of the moment, Herman Cain may give him a run for his money, however, with comments like these.

It is beyond absurd that this journalistic goon is arrogant enough to think he is even remotely qualified to advise you, me or anyone else what qualifies as meaningful or rather patriotic dissent.  So who is Rich Lowry? He is the ‘Patriot’ who would have advised Paul Revere, “listen people are sleeping, its past curfew you may not want to awaken anyone, just put a post-it near the local Church and when folks wake up they will see your sign that says ‘the British might be coming with Tea & Crumpets’, as you ride through town quietly.”

Finally to those who ask what the protestors want from us, let me make it even more simple. WE NEED TO COME UP WITH THE SOLUTIONS so that what is happening downtown does not spread like wild fire across the United States.  Call me crazy, but I do not expect the folks protesting to become Economic Policy Czars. They did not create this mess.

HELPFUL LINKS

Occupy Wall Street Movement

-Occupy Wall Street
-Occupy Together
-Occupy Youtoube: Anonymous documents what the media blacks out.
-AnonOps Communicati0ns
-Anonymous Occupy Youtoube blog
-Global Revolution
-Adbusters
-OWS on Facebook
-OWS Livestream
-WaVe Movement (Facebook Page)
-Think Progress: The 99 Percent Movement
-Fair News & Opinion Portals: Truthout, Truthdig, Common Dreams, Think Progress, Mother Jones, The Nation, Media Watch, Media Matters, Countdown with Keith Olberman, The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur
-Paul Krugman: Panic of the Plutocrats, Fear the Oligarchs, not the Protesters, The Social Contract
-Cenk Uygur: “Washington is infested”
-Glenn Greenwald, “With Liberty & Justice for Some”

Key Editorial Perspective
-CBS News Coverage
-Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Winning Economist with the NY Times
-Naomi Klein:  ”This is not the time  to be looking for ways to dismiss a nascent movement against the power of capital, but to do the opposite: find ways to embrace it, support it and help it grow into its enormous potential. With so much at stake, cynicism is a luxury we simply cannot afford.” read more about what the author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” had to say at Moveon.org, Rachel Maddow Show and on Huffington Post
-NY Times, Protesters Against Wall Street: “It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. It is also the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge.”
-‘A New Shift in Power’: Documentary entitled “Nobody Can Predict the Moment of Revolution”Offers an Intimate Look at Occupy Wall Street
-Elizabeth Warren: “The People on Wall Street Broke this Country”: Elizabeth Warren is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is running for the U.S. Senate against Scott Brown. See also the Brad Blog for Elizabeth Warren’s commentary on ‘Debt Crisis’ & ‘Class Warfare’ and Vanity Fair: The Woman Who Knew Too Much.
-Chris Hedges, Truthdig: Why the Elites Are in Trouble / Truthout: Why the Elites are in Trouble
-Truthout News Analysis (Dean Baker): When Being Rich Makes Us Poor, People Should Occupy Wall Street
-New York Observer: Jesse LaGreca Continues to Destroy Media Bias of Occupy Wall Street on ABC’s This Week.
-Firedoglake, Kevin Gosztola: Why Establishment Media & Power Elite Loathe Occupy Wall Street
-Raw Story (Kate Wickman): WATCH: ‘I Am Not Moving’ compares Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street
-The Guardian, Occupy Wall Street: if banks are too big to fail, are people too small to matter?

Rebuild America: The Solution? Or one of them?

-Building America’s Future
-Our Future
-Rebuild the American Dream
-RAI
-Fareed’s Take: Obama should declare a jobs emergency
-Van Jones on Rebuilding the American Dream (see also: Van Jones)

Inequality in America: Basis for Revolt

-Inequality.org: The Program on Inequality and the Common Good focuses on the dangers that growing inequality pose for U.S. democracy, economic health and civic life. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies and based in Boston, MA
-The United States of Inequality
-Who Rules America?
-Vanity Fair by Joseph E. Stiglitz: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
-The Economist: The rich, the poor and the growing gap between them
-PBS, In Perspective: Tricia Rose on America’s growing inequality
-Robert Reich: Growing Inequality Is The Central Problem Of Our Age
-The Nation magazine:  Inequality in America
-The Nation Magazine by Robert Reich: Unjust Spoils
-Mother Jones: It’s the Inequality, Stupid

The American  System

-Nouriel Roubini: Marx was right about self-destruction of capitalism
-Vice Chairman of China’s CIC Says It’s Become Harder to Defend the U.S. Model
-Inside Job (trailer)
-Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (trailer)

The Danger

-The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (book) by Naomi Wolf
-The End of America (Trailer)
-“The End of America” Full Length HQ Film
-Bloomberg: Jobs crisis could spark riots here
-Kent State Massacre (Video): Could this happen in NYC? Will history repeat itself?

The Uprising

-Occupy Wall Street
-Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan: must-see site of the demonstrations
-In Protest the Power of Place (NY Times): As stated by Joe Mercurio on Facebook: “Just for background. Zuccotti Park, ironically formerly called Liberty Plaza Park was equally ironically renamed after John Zuccotti (Weil Gotshal & Manges) who was a deputy mayor under a Republican mayor of New York and company chairman of the owners Brookfield Office Properties on whose board the girlfriend of the current Republican mayor serves.”
-Global mass protests 15th October 2011
-Chris Hedges: [The Criminal Class that has seized power is scared but the]  Occupy Wall Street is ‘where the hope of America lies’
-My Great Depression (video)
-Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich Speak to Occupy Wall Street
-The Huffington Post – Occupy Wall Street: NYPD Arrests 700 Protesters On Brooklyn Bridge
-The Guardian: Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination: The young people protesting in Wall Street and beyond reject this vain economic order. They have come to reclaim the future
-Truthout: Wall Street Occupation Live Stream
-Occupy Wall St, SlutWalk, Hot Chicks, Van Jones by Zennie Abraham
-RT: Open-ended Wall Street occupation
-NPR by Joel Rose:  Wall Street Protests Stretch On, Reasons Vary
-Gothamist: Anonymous’s Occupation Of Wall Street
-UPI: Wall Street protesters morale ‘high’
-Michael Moore: The media ignores Wall Street occupation
-The Guardian, Occupy Wall Street: inquiries launched as new pepper-spray video emerges: NYPD officer Anthony Bologna faces two investigations as video emerges of a second pepper-spray incident
-NY Daily News: Pepper-spray videos spark furor as NYPD launches probe of Wall Street protest incidents
-Salon: Jon Stewart on the Wall Street pepper-spray attack
-Occupy Wall Street: ‘Pepper-spray’ officer named in Bush protest claim
-The Huffington Post: Anthony Bologna, NYPD Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Protester, Had Role In 2004 Incidents
-JP Morgan gave NYPD $4.6 million to strengthen security
-Truthout: Got Class Warfare? Occupy Wall Street Now!
-Greg Palast | Uber-Vultures: The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President
-Trumka: AFL-CIO Will Support Occupy Wall St. Protest ‘In Every Way’ It Can

POLICE ACTION vs. OCCUPY WALL STREET: Evidence of Police Brutality: Premeditated and Orchestrated Assaults on Peaceful Protesters

-MSNBC on NYPD: Police Brutality during Occupy Wall Street Lawrence O’Donnell with “The Last Word”
-Keith Olbermann: “Police brutality” at Occupy Wall Street
-Shameful Police Action & Brutality at Occupy Wall Street
-BRAVE Occupy Wall Street Protester Speaks Out
-NYPD Violently Elbow Peaceful Female OccupyWallStreet Protestor Knocking Her To The Ground
-NYPD Caught On Camera Punching OccupyWallStreet Protestor In The Face
-NYPD officers give peaceful protester a concussion during OCCUPY WALL STREET
-Cops turn Violent: NYPD drag girl across the street at OccupyWallStreet
-Anonymous WARNING to NYPD
-Police Brutality? Like 100 NYPD Cops Slam Some 100 Year-Old Asian Man To The Concrete And Arrest
-Occupy Wall Street Brutality
-“I CAN’T BREATHE!” – Police Shoving at 10:30AM at Liberty Plaza Occupy Wall Street
-Police Arrest Protester for Drawing with Sidewalk Chalk @ Occupy Wall Street 9/19/11
-‘Occupy Wall Street’ – Young man brutally knocked down and arrested for talking to an officer
-NYC Citibank Occupation Arrests Customers for Closing their accounts.

SILENCING THE TRUTH

-THE SILENCING OF BANK WHISTLEBLOWERS:  Occupy Wall Street Sept 17: Protester speaks out
-Florida Congressman Alan Grayson on Occupy Wall Street
-Florida congressman Alan Grayson laughs in Ben Bernanke’s face
-Eliot Spitzer on Occupy Wall Street and fraudulent banking activities (on Olbermann’s show)
-OccupyWallStreet talks to Fox News & Crushes Them
-CNN Wants This Video Banned SEE WHY
-Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich Speak to Occupy Wall Street – Original

Freedom to Fascism

-OccupyWallStreet George Carlin - Spreading The Truth!
-Charlie Chaplin
The Whole World Is Watching – Charlie Chaplin on Occupy Wall Street: Let Us All Unite!
Charlie Chaplin Speech – Occupy Wall Street! (Inception Soundtrack); see also United We Rise
-Aaron Russo: See Aaron Russo Memorial and Freedom to Fascism (Aaron’s last film)
-Anonymous Group: “We are Anonymous.  We are Legion.  We do not forgive.  We do not forget.  Expect us.” Yale Law refers to the group as an ‘Internet Subculture’. See: AnonNews.org, Why We Protest, AnonOps Communicati0ns
-Anonymous Educational Series: Freedom to Fascism (part 1)
-Anonymous Educational Series: Freedom to Fascism (part 2)
-Anonymous: Message to Ron Paul

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