Occupy Charlotte movement hanging on (showdown at the RAT National Convention)

Occupy Charlotte movement hanging on
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 (Updated 5:06 am)
By The Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE -- Despite colder weather and a possible crackdown by city officials in January, Occupy Charlotte protesters are pushing forward -- with meetings, fundraisers and eventually what they say will be a showdown at the Democratic National Convention.

Compared to October, when the occupation began, fewer tents dot the old City Hall lawn at 600 E. Trade St. Fewer people attend the daily meetings and fewer show up for protest marches.

So far this month, protesters have demonstrated in the city's banking district and at the headquarters of Duke Energy.

Darcy Richardson—Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination
http://www.darcy2012.com/
http://www.darcy2012.com/2011/10/10/darcy-on-the-issues/
The Obama Administration is a case study in the corrupting influence of Wall Street money in American politics.

The President, after all, is a center-right Democrat whose political career has been awash in Wall Street money. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the President received $37.6 million from the financial services industry between 1998 and 2008 and — according to a recent Washington Post analysis — has already raised more money from the financial and banking sector in the 2012 election cycle than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate. As of September 30, Obama had raised $15.6 million from the financial sector.

The President’s administration, moreover, has been one major disappointment after another, beginning with his failure to resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 — legislation that could have prevented the financial meltdown in the autumn of 2008.

President Obama also failed to push for cap-and-trade and needlessly saddled the country with a free trade deal with South Korea and similar trade pacts with Colombia and Panama — all three of which were championed by the Lords of Finance on Wall Street — that will likely result in the closing of additional U.S. manufacturing facilities, leading to even greater levels of unemployment in the United States.

Throughout his presidency, President Obama has allowed the GOP to frame the debate on almost every issue, none of which was more painfully devastating to his progressive base than his failure to include a public option in health care. Simply put, the President gave in without a fight.

It was a harbinger of things to come.

Sadly, the President has continued to capitulate to the Republicans on Capitol Hill on issue after issue. Despite his recent populist rhetoric — a phony attempt by David Plouffe and his other handlers to portray him as a working-class warrior pitted against the titans of Wall Street — President Obama has also failed to adequately protect Social Security and Medicare.

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