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Lexington Green. Dawn. April 19, 1775. Captain John Parker, commander of the Lexington militia, stood among seventy-some men, many of them kin, all of them neither rich nor poor, awaiting the arrival of the British Regulars. Facing overwhelming odds, Captain Parker turned to his men and said, "The first man who offers to run shall be shot down. Stand your ground! Don't fire until fired upon! But if they want to have a war, let it begin here!" Later that morning, on the training field just across the Concord River from the town of Concord, members of the colonial militia...

Obama just said in a live speech (9:18 AM EST) at a Prayer Breakfast that he wants to raise taxes on the rich because his Christian values tell him to personally give more to those less fortunate by raising his own taxes, just as Jesus would do. Not kidding.... now he just called federal welfare 'charity'... and just accused those of opposing tax increases as 'not having Jesus love of others in their hearts' Did Jesus really ask the Romans to raise taxes on the Jews and Samaritans to pay for the fish, bread and wine for the early Christians...

The lawyer has more in common with the prosecutor than he does with his clients and Republican and Democratic politicians have more in common with each other than they do with the people who come out to support them and vote for them. The hopes of ordinary people for the future, their ability to earn a living and their fears are only a job to the politician. This doesn't mean that politicians are villains, only that like the police officer and the ER nurse, other people's urgent calls are just another day at work for them. Mediating them and dealing...

Here's Rick Santorum's latest ad, and in my opinion, it's his most powerful broadside against Mitt Romney and the Washington establishment. REBELLION This comes on the heels of another Santorum ad that does exactly what the Not-Romneys should all be doing--demonstrating that there is no difference between Romney and Obama. EASY ANSWER These hard hitting ads should put to rest any ideas that Rick Santorum is running as a stalking horse for Romney or for the Vice Presidential slot. Santorum is doing exactly what many of us hoped he'd do--hit Romney hard, again and again. Win or lose, you've got...

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

America Is In Desperate Need Of A Revolution Politics / US Politics Jan 05, 2012 - 06:37 AM By: Money Morning Shah Gilani writes: Rampant profiteering by Congress and greedy bankers is forcing us to weigh the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune against honesty and transparency - both of which are being trampled by crony capitalists in pursuit of the almighty dollar. What's at stake is whether gross criminal activity and reckless disregard for the public will continue to be whitewashed by regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Federal Reserve, courts, and Congress, which encourage...

"General Washington and his troops had been defeated in September, driven from Brooklyn to Manhattan, from Manhattan to New York City, around the Palisades, across New Jersey. They declined from 30,000 troops in September to 2500 Effectives on Christmas Day. Of the 2500, one-third did not have boots. They were wearing burlap bags wrapped around their feet, as they marched; they left a trail of blood. General Washington knew that if he didn't win a victory soon, the entire army would disappear. And so he had to do something desperate. He proposed to cross an icy river, at night, in...

Warning to America's superrich: Think Occupy Wall Street disappeared in winter's cold? Wrong: The 99% just declared a new aggressive, covert special-ops war strategy to take back our democracy in 2012. No more peaceful tent encampments in parks. No more Mahatma Gandhi nice-guy stuff. Not enough. Escalation time. Wall Street, the superrich and their Washington lobbyists are tone deaf, blinded by greed, trapped in their post-2008 business-as-usual bubble. Warning; OWS tells us America's going to be shocked by not one but hundreds of wake-up calls in 2012. How? In a recent Washington Post column, OWS leaders say they are accelerating...

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Moscow today, in the largest of more than 70 protests across Russia, to voice their anger at alleged election fraud and to demand that the results of the parliamentary elections be cancelled, a new election be held, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin resign. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, one of the organizers of the rally, explained the protesters’ demands to ABC News. “Our demand is to cancel these criminal elections, because Putin stole about 13 million votes. Secondly, to fire Mr. [Vladimir] Churov, who is responsible for the election and to...

As'ad AbuKahlil—a political science professor at California State University, Stanislaus—spoke last month at a day-long "teach-in" at the University of California, Berkeley titled, "Building Solidarity with the Arab Spring." It consisted of a number of "workshop sessions" at the Valley Life Sciences Building, followed by a "plenary session" at the Multicultural Center, and was co-sponsored by the Arab Resource Organizing Committee, the Berkeley Muslim Students Association PAC, the International Socialist Organization, and the Syrian American Council. AbuKhalil's workshop on "The U.S. and the Arab Uprising" was held in a tiny, hot, windowless room filled with students wearing hijabs and keffiyehs....

Catholic Attitude Towards Capitalism 1113. Is it not a fact that the Church even opposes many wise reforms merely from ignorance or unwillingness to accept up-to-date ideas? That is not a fact. The Church has many of her clergy devoting their lives to sociological study, who are experts in such subjects. They are neither ignorant, nor in the least unwilling to abandon out-of-date ideas. But they insist upon weighing new ideas on their own merits and if they oppose some of them, they but seem to be opposing wise ideas to those who have not sufficiently studied the matter. 1114....

A destructive myth has wrapped itself around laissez-faire capitalism. It is the erroneous notion that the free market harms the "vulnerable" within society; specifically, it is said to harm women and children by cruelly exploiting their labor. The opposite is true. Laissez-faire capitalism offers the one element that the vulnerable need most to survive and to advance: choice. The most liberating choice individuals can have is the ability to support themselves and not be dependent upon anyone else for the food going into their mouths. Using this myth as an entering assumption, historians have been extremely harsh in analyzing one...

In April of 1775, one of America’s most promising young officers had an idea. A Connecticut merchant who joined up as soon as shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Arnold was a sharp idea man and a fine strategist, and he approached General Washington with a proposal to lead a mission to Fort Ticonderoga, up at Lake Champlain, to take it from the British. Oh, it was a decent enough prize on its own, sure, but its major value, said Arnold, was the opportunity to acquire all the artillery sitting in the fort. They moved forward and accomplished the...

"...In New Hampshire on Thursday, [Herman] Cain accused the [OWS] protesters of "trying to destroy the greatest nation in the world" with plans to stop traffic and subway commuters. He accused them of trying "to infringe upon people's right and liberty to go to work."

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The loss of their camp at Zuccotti Park doesn’t seem to be slowing down the Occupy Wall Street movement as protesters are calling for “a national day of direct action” on Thursday. It all starts with a rally in Liberty Square starting at 7 a.m. to “put an end to Wall Street’s reign of terror.” They plan on gathering at 16 subways stations around New York City to take their message to the trains. Finally, they say tens of thousands of protesters will end the day in Foley Square followed by a march to the Brooklyn...

At an Occupy Wall Street offshoot event, an Occupy Oakland protester had the following to say: (Headline: 1,000 at old Occupy Oakland camp to discuss future) "If they (police) take over the camp, we're going to reoccupy," Ronald "Rasta" Jones, 31, an Oakland resident who had lived in the Occupy Oakland camp since its first day, Oct. 10, said before officers moved in around 5 a.m. to evict people. "Our objective is for them to keep spending money. ... We're not going to stop." Jones has let the cat out of the bag. Occupy Oakland/Wall Street is the Cloward and...

I was an activist and organizer in the antiwar and civil rights movements of the 1960s and '70s - movements that are reborn today in the Occupy protests. I hope today's activists can learn from our experience. I was in Students for a Democratic Society and was affiliated with the Weather Underground. As a member of Weather's aboveground support network, I worked to forge bonds between clandestine and public activists. I ran bail bond money when people got arrested and the donors wanted anonymity. I helped a brave man find a place to hide from the police. I studied martial...

We all know there is a large contingent of radical socialists, even communist die-hards, among the Occupy crowd, but it’s still pretty jarring to see this sort of discussion being conducted in the light of day, probably no more then a mile or two from our nation’s capitol.

On Aug. 24, federal agents descended on three factories and the Nashville corporate headquarters of the Gibson Guitar Corp. Accompanied by armored SWAT teams with automatic weapons, agents from the Fish and Wildlife Service swarmed the factories, threatening bewildered luthiers, or guitar craftsman, and other frightened employees. A smaller horde invaded the office of CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, pawing through it all day while an armed man stood in the door to block his way. "I was pretty upset," Mr. Juszkiewicz says now, sitting outside that same office. "But you can only do so much when there's a gun in your...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland police believe that some protesters inside the Occupy Portland encampments are building shields and makeshift weapons -- including nails hammered into wood -- in preparation for when authorities attempt to clear the parks this weekend, police said Friday. Occupy Portland organizers have repeatedly said the movement is nonviolent and have appealed to demonstrators to resist peacefully when the camps close at midnight on Saturday. They planned public marches and a potluck dinner before the deadline and hoped the public would take part. But police said as many as 150 anarchists may come to Portland to take...

Rules for Radicals, p. 113, “The first step in community organization is community disorganization.” It’s no wonder that President Obama and other politicos on the Left have embraced the Occupy Wall Street movement. They do it, not in spite of the excesses, but because of the excesses. In true Alinsky fashion Obama finds affinity with a group of anti-capitalists who defecate on police vehicles. Obama is a product of his Alinsky training, and of the 1960′s counter-revolution. It is second nature for Obama to sanction the types of political dissent with which he is familiar. When he saw a peaceful...

Recently, the news media has been overloaded with stories about “income inequality,“ ”corporate greed,“ and the ongoing struggle between the ”99%“ and the ”1%.” Granted, these are probably issues that should be addressed, but one feels compelled to say that there is no need to riot over these things especially when one compares the situation in the U.S. to other countries. China is a good example. Some of the issues facing the workers in the communist country make the complaints of the average OWS protester pale in comparison. For instance, Since 2003, house prices in China have tripled. Not bad...

Dr. David Gerbi, a Libyan-born, observant psychologist living in Italy, spent the summer in a Libyan rebel encampment, joining the revolutionary forces and providing them psychiatric care. But their gratitude didn't last for long. He was nearly lynched and then booted out of the country when he tried to clean up a desecrated synagogue that hadn't seen a Jew since Muammar Gaddafi took over the country 42 years ago. --SNIP-- Although the new Libya is struggling for a more democratic identity, Gaddafi's 42-year rule succeeded in brainwashing the public with virulent anti-Semitism, propagating the myth that the Jews absconded with...

This Is Only Just The BeginningNovember 4,2011For a long time, there have been those that have warned that economic riots are coming to this nation. Anger and frustration with the economy and with our financial system have grown to unprecedented levels, and this has fueled the rise of the various protest movements that we have seen over the last couple of years. People are fed up and they want solutions. Unfortunately, anger and frustration can express themselves in dangerous and unpredictable ways. What we have seen in Oakland, in Seattle and in other major U.S. cities this week is only...

Occupy DC protesters violently injured peaceful Tea Party go-ers (some elderly) and attemped to force entry into the Washington Convention Center on Friday (Nov 4, 2011), where Americans for Prosperity is hosting their "Defending the American Dream Summit." The protesters also formed roadblocks, surrounding the convention center and only allowing non-luxury cars to pass. Parents with their children were caught in the violence. Some injured... Auto/pedestrian accidents occured as Occupy protestors rushed into the streets hurling profanities at drivers and attempting to block drivers' paths. This has to stop...

This “movement’ is supposed to be an organic representation of the people who have had enough – pretty much The Tea Party 2.0 – but only better. Suffice it to say – It is not. The tactics they use tells you a lot about them. Their actions speak volumes. Their high-powered and celebrity endorsements paint a disturbing picture. The official website of the Occupy Wall Street movement refers to the NYC General Assembly. Personally, I find it interesting that the leaders of this movement would refer to themselves using terms that generally refer to a law-making body. Then, right there...

Today, we all received the news that Gaddafi has been killed by rebels. Much rejoicing ensued. I, however, would like to suggest that this, and the entire "Arab Spring" is not a cause for rejoicing. I have many reasons for saying this, and I'll try to go through them here. In my opinion, aiding the Libyan rebels, and helping them to attack pro-Gaddafi forces was no business of America. Usually, I would be categorized as a "hawk," due to my support of military actions. In the case of Afghanistan and Iraq (I have internal debate about that one), I feel...

Protesters want government to punish Wall Street. Who’s next? Accolades are being heaped on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators by the Left and their mainstream media cheerleaders. President Barack Obama proclaimed, "The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works." Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "God bless them for their spontaneity!" The list goes on. OWS supporters paint the protesters as examples of what involved Americans should do. Since the original demonstrations began Sept. 17 the protesters have delivered numerous leftist socialist demands that would change our country, but they still been...

It seems that the unwashed masses littering the streets of major metropolitan ares such as New York City, A.K.A. Occupy Wall Street, are advocating revolution as a solution for the infirmities that plague the United States. Ah, yes, revolution. It rolls off the tongue and causes poets and politicians to wax nostalgic. It conjures fond memories of idealistic young men leading the charge into battle; fighting against the odds and achieving immortality through martyrdom. Dying for the cause and all that. Revolution is romanticized and revered by those ignorant of the truth. Only the ignorant would call for revolution if...

Cops surrounding Occupy OaklandDemian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, October 25, 2011 (10-25) 04:48 PDT OAKLAND -- Oakland police are arriving this morning in force, apparently preparing to remove hundreds of people from a plaza outside City Hall, two weeks after the protesters began building an intricate encampment as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement against corporate greed and economic inequality. Officers in riot helmets began arriving at Frank Ogawa Plaza at the corner of 14th Street and Broadway at 4:45 a.m. and formed a line in the street adjacent to the plaza. Some protesters began shouting, "Cops, go...

An evil capitalist goes to Occupy Portland looking to help people find work. Most people just pass by. One prospective worker is apparently a felon. Another gentleman declines after asking if the work is from a union... others merely mock the capitalist, or are more concerned with publicizing their marches. Out of the hundreds of people there, most of which complain about being out of work, only about 15 signed up for work.

She is just one of the legions of celebrities who have dropped by the Occupy Wall Street protests to show their support... and perhaps gain a few column inches. But critics have pointed to the timing of it Susan Sarandon's support of the protest and the launch of a her as the face of clothing manufacturer Uniqlo. Her latest appearance was to support a Teamsters protest on Tuesday and the 65-year-old Oscar winner has stopped by the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park several times since September 27. -SNIP- Two weeks ago, the Dead Man Walking star was revealed...

Debra Sweet, the organizer of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, has been arrested by New York police, just minutes before her interview with Press TV channel.

The U.S. Is Headed For Revolution, As Debt Slaves Whisper Treason Politics / US Politics Oct 21, 2011 - 04:26 AM By: Bill Bonner Nothing much from the markets yesterday. The Dow fell 72 points. Gold went down $5. Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement goes on in America. And 70,000 Greeks “clash with police,” say the news headlines. People are upset. They know something is wrong. But they don’t know what. The real explanation is too complicated. They won’t sit still for it. So, they look for scapegoats – the rich…the banks…the Chinese. There’s a joke making its...

Civil unrest is President Barack Obama's crutch, his comfort zone, and his trump card. That's why he has encouraged the "Occupy Wall Street" protest and its progeny across the country, despite significant political dangers to him for doing so. Closer looks at Obama's career roots and at the protesters' behaviors help explain both why the protests are worrisome developments and why the president actually likes them. First, it helps to understand just how radical most of these protesters are -- and just how obscene. Clearly, they are mostly socialist or communist in orientation. And reports are rampant about the lewdness,...

As the national media continues to promote the idea that these absurd "Occupy" protests demonstrate some groundswell of popular opinion, reports continue to emerge from localized media showing how ugly these encampments are becoming. A report out of Cleveland that  police are investigating a rape claim made by a 19-year-old woman last weekend has received little attention. Do you suppose if a rape claim was made against a tea partier that it would receive more attention?It's gotten so bad in Baltimore that organizers are discouraging alleged victims from going to the police (maybe they should go to Sheriff Biden).Meanwhile,...

"We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world."

NEW YORK (AP) - The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spent a month bashing banks and other corporations, has become a money manager itself. The movement has $435,000 - $85,000 of it donated in person at the Manhattan park that's become the epicenter of the global "anti-greed" protests and the remainder from online credit-card donations, said Darrell Prince, an activist using his business background to keep track of the daily donations. "It's way more support than we ever thought would come in," Prince said.

Some Islamist (Wahhabist/Sunni) fundamentalist anti-American terrorists have been uncovered and are apparantly in support of the "Occupy Wall Street Movement" in the United States, and providing moral and perhaps personnel support based on monitoring of their Arabic language website. FBI and local law enforcement anti-terrorist units should be notified. Apologies for the link to this group's site (and the specific web section in which they promote "Occupy Wall Street"), but it proves the wider point for evidence' sake. FR of course does not condone nor support such activity (disclaimer). For information and investigative journalist purposes only. The site supporting...

Seven American makers of solar panels filed a broad trade case in Washington against the Chinese solar industry on Wednesday, accusing it of using billions of dollars in government subsidies to help gain sales in the American market. The companies also accused China of dumping solar panels in the United States for less than it costs to manufacture and ship them. The trade case, filed at the Commerce Department, seeks tariffs of more than 100 percent of the wholesale price of solar panels from China, which shipped $1.6 billion of the panels to the United States in the first eight...

It is not often I vehemently disagree with Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets regarding trade. This time I do. Interestingly, there are some points of his recent analysis that I strongly agree with. Via Email, interspersed with my comments please consider the following point counterpoint discussion. Pettis: Expect Still More Trade Intervention Last week’s Senate bill on Chinese currency intervention predictably enough brought out all the same old arguments about international trade, and just as predictably has widened the opposing positions in the debate. Unfortunately the difference between a good outcome, intelligently negotiated, and a bad outcome, is pretty...

What's there to say about Occupy Wall Street? The answer isn't so simple. Some complain about taxpayer bailouts of businesses. Good for them. In a true free market, failing firms would go out of business. They couldn't turn to Washington for help. But many protesters say they're against capitalism. Now things get confusing. What do they mean? If by "capitalism" they mean crony capitalism (let's call it crapitalism), a system in which favored business interests are supported by government, I'm against that, too. But if they mean the free market, then they are fools. When allowed to work, the market...

Washington's recent deficit reduction deal is only the latest, not the last. Deficit reduction is neither a temporary nor a localized phenomenon. Washington finds itself in contradiction to Americans' sentiments, and, even more importantly, their actions. While Washington continues its leveraging, America is de-leveraging. Some may still question whether deficit reduction is good economic policy, but no one is questioning it as political policy. The latter debate is over: Deficit reduction won hands-down. It has become the touchstone of fiscal conservatism, reaching across party lines and the nation — at all levels of government. Why is deficit reduction suddenly such...

Obama: Occupy Wall Street ‘Not That Different’ From Tea Party Protests President Obama, who has become a target of the Occupy Wall Street protests sweeping the country, today embraced the economic frustration voiced on the streets and said in an exclusive interview with ABC News that his vision for the U.S. economic system is best suited to resolve protesters’ concerns. “I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests,” Obama told ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper in the interview to air this evening on ABC News “Nightline” from Jamestown, N.C. “In some ways, they’re not that different...

A little tourists' cornucopia from the big, bad OccupyWallStreet thingey. I took the images below on my way to work this morning - discarded most of 'em cause they were just too pathetic - and thought I'd share them. My absolute fave is that earnest-looking upper middle class white kid in the bottom 4 pix (my "vignettes") - especially the last one, where he's so neatly folding his Buzz Lightyear towel - probably still smells like the Downy fabric softener mommie used when she washed it for him. Please feel free to borrow as you wish, and to editorialize as...

A public relations firm closely partnered with the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation represented last week's anti-Wall Street march past millionaires' homes in New York, WND has learned. Fenton Communications has been behind the public relations strategy of a who's who of far-left causes, organizations and activists, from Soros himself to Health Care for America Now to crafting strategies for MoveOn.org and a litany of anti-war groups. Fenton, which works closely with Tides, first made its name representing communist dictatorships in the 1980s. Fenton's founder is tied to President Obama and to a slew of Saul Alinsky-style community organizing groups directly...

Re: Occupy Wall Street, 2011 He [NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly] said that following Wednesday's [Oct 12, 2011] 10,000-strong union march, a much smaller group tried to storm police barricades at Wall Street and Broadway. "They locked their arms. They counted down - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Then they decided to charge the police. That is going to be met with some physical force," Kelly said. (Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ... ********************************************************************************************************************* Re: Kent State, 1969 "the purpose of all this agitation at Kent State was to recruit as much cannon fodder as possible, and then to provoke...

NEW YORK - Thousands of demonstrators protesting corporate greed filled Times Square on Saturday night, mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan. "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away. Sandy Peterson of Salt Lake City, who was in Times Square after seeing "The Book of Mormon" musical on Broadway, got caught up in...

Twinkle, twinkle little star, Occupy Wall Street is bizarre.

Abraham Lincoln rightly denounced the “mobocratic spirit.” James Madison considered it the sa- cred duty of government to protect property rights from the violent whims of the mob: “That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.” Lincoln and Madison would not have looked kindly upon the pro-redistributionist political street theater under way in urine- and garbage-saturated urban parks across the nation. In an insult to the...