Free Republic

On Monday, militant Ron Paul supporters joined forces with Occupy Wall Street protesters to harass former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Fox News reported that Gingrich was forced to cancel an appearance at his New Hampshire campaign headquarters when Ron Paul supporters and Occupy Wall Street protesters swarmed the entrance: About 40 protesters showed up Monday evening carrying placards reading "Ron Paul" and "Occupy." One played speeches by presidential candidate Ron Paul from a loud speaker. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the former House speaker's private security detail decided to cancel the event because of...

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was only a few nights after the Occupy protesters began sleeping in his church sanctuary when the Rev. Bob Brashear realized that his laptop was missing. The refugees from Manhattan's Zuccotti Park had found their way to his cavernous Presbyterian church on a cold winter evening, hoping to stay for a few nights, maybe longer. It was the latest stopover for the nomadic group, which has been living in a rotating series of churches since the city shut down its camp in November. "There was a sense of shock and sadness that it had happened,"...

Occupy 2012: Firmly disorganized, driven by dreamsBy Laird Harrison and Michelle Nichols | Reuters – 1 hr 3 mins ago Oakland, Calif./New York (Reuters) - (Repeats with no change to text) It's been a long, cold winter already for Occupy Wall Street, the protest movement that burst onto the scene in September to focus national attention on income inequality and the perceived greed of the rich and powerful. Police have cleared the signature "Occupy" encampments in New York, Los Angeles, Oakland and other major cities. Cold weather, and perhaps protest fatigue, have weakened the handful of camps that remain around...

EXETER, N.H. — At a Sunday evening campaign rally for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie clashed with “Occupy” protesters and called President Obama “the most pessimistic man I’ve ever seen.” Christie, whose presence drew thousands to a local high school, said Obama was intentionally looking to exploit Americans’ anxiety and frustration with their government in “the most cynical re-election strategy you could ever think of.” “He doesn’t care that you’re angry,” he said. “He just wants you to be angry at somebody else.” When a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters tried to shout him...

Recently, Columbia University in New York proposed offering a class in Occupy Wall Street. I suppose the class will teach people how to camp out in a city park. Under a continuation of the Obama administration, this might actually become a good life skill.One facet of the class that I want to point out is its cost. There is an ongoing debate over the cost of a college education and if it is worth it. In general, a typical student completes a degree in four years. Masters students, course of study is compressed, two years. Time and money become a real constraint when selecting...

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing “guerrilla” protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com. The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted...

Liberal professor Cornel West told a Pasadena church Sunday that he backs an Occupy the Rose Parade demonstration, a newspaper reported Monday. The noted academic, who previously taught at Harvard University, was speaking at All Saints Church to discuss "The Role of Progressive Religion in the Occupy Movement" when he made the comments. "Any time you get a chance to bear witness for justice, I support that," the Pasadena Star-News quoted him as saying. "If I was around Jan. 2, I would be a part of it." ... Protesters who plan a post-parade march down Colorado Boulevard have promised not...

Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School is just a few blocks from the former Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza and not far from the starting point for Monday's Occupy demonstration at the Port of Oakland. But to King parents like Charlene Adams, the Occupy movement couldn't be farther away from her West Oakland neighborhood. And the reasons behind that distance help explain a disconnect between the larger Occupy Wall Street movement and the African American community. Adams and other King parents who stop by the school on Fridays for doughnuts and coffee sympathize with the core premise of...

Occupy protesters try to disrupt ports; police make arrestsBy Mike Pearson, CNN updated 5:27 AM EST, Tue December 13, 2011 (CNN) -- Occupy protesters succeeded in shutting down overnight operations at California's port of Oakland on Monday night after a day of similar protests in several other U.S. cities. The protests in Oakland have "disrupted workers trying to get to work and impaired the port's ability to operate," port spokesman Issac Kos-Read told CNN. Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said the port has told its members not to report for work for the overnight...

One month ago, one of the biggest stories was the Occupy Wall Street movement. But that was one month ago. From violence and murder to rapes and disease, OWS has been shown as the blight that it truly is. And because of it, despite the shrieking from the Main Stream Media, Americans have rejected Occupy Wall Street and its socialistic values. This is no more evident than OccupyWallStreet.org's website, which was created by the founders of the protests just before the "movement" went national. Their readership peaked in early October and has plummeted since. As the Web Information Company Alexa...

OAKLAND — As anti-Wall Street protesters attempt to regroup and settle in for winter after a series of police raids that stripped much of the movement of its signature camps, protesters on the West Coast are staging a comeback. On Dec. 12, Occupy movements from Seattle to San Diego say they will shut down their local ports, temporarily stopping the flow of capital on the West Coast. Organizers say they aim to disrupt the business of the “1 percent” — in this case, the corporations that own shipping terminals and do business at the ports. If successful, shutting down the...

However wrong the rankings might be, I have to admit Time’s ”Best of Everything” lists are pretty fun to browse. In fact, if I made a list of reasons to check Time.com, the magazine’s immortal lists would be the first and last item on it.But, really? The journalists at Time think ”Occupy Wall Street” is the No. 1 U.S. news story of the year — ahead of the GOP primaries, the economy, the Gabby Giffords shooting and the debt ceiling crisis? What, oh what, was the rationale? I know you’re dying to read this: To some, Occupy Wall Street is...

Sources on Capitol Hill tell Big Government that SEIU has organized a major effort to ‘Take Back the Capitol’ this week with a collective of community, labor and Occupy groups that are dedicated to “show Congress what democracy looks like, shine a light on corporate greed and the human suffering it has caused, and demand justice for the 99%.” According to Congressional sources, Occupy protestors have been visiting one Congressional office after another and demanding to speak with representatives while loitering in their waiting rooms and chanting. ‘Trackers’ are also being spotted roaming the hills of various Congressional buildings.

(CNSNews.com) - In a speech delivered at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets "speaks to our rugged individualism" as Americans, such a system "doesn't work" and "has never worked" and that Americans must look to a more activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more if they want to preserve the middle class. "'[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. 'The market will take...

<p>John Ford signed up for a revolution, but he’s running a clinic.</p> <p>In the early days of Occupy Boston, Ford, a 30-year-old bookstore owner from the white, blue-collar town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Alex Ingram, a 22-year-old African-American from Georgia who served in the Air Force as a linguist, would stay up late into the night in Occupy Boston’s library. Enveloped by Rousseau and Chomsky, they’d ponder big ideas about how to change the system. But tonight they’re grappling with a different set of issues: How do we deal with Henry, who’s drunk and pissed off again and recently threatened another Occupier with a hammer? What do we say to the furious young woman who’s on a manhunt for the guy who promised her forty bucks for sex and then ran off? And what the hell are we going to do about Phil?</p>

On December 12th, Occupy Denver seemingly plans to "shut down" the WalMart distribution center in Loveland on December 12th. Please, if you are able, join us this Saturday for the Free Markets - Free People Rally in the State Cap in downtown Denver. Word is 500 or so occupiers from Springs and Pueblo plan to come counter protest us. We do not know this to be accurate, but that is the word we are getting. So we can use all the bodies we can get. It will be cold out, so do dress warmly. Despite the given time frame, we...

The owner of an eatery in New York City's Lower Manhattan who said he was forced to let go 25 percent of his staff last month due to the Occupy Wall Street protests now says he might have to close his doors for good come next week. Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe, tells FoxNews.com that authorities have not taken down barricades around Zuccotti Park and along Wall Street despite the dwindling number of protesters since they were evicted from their encampment two weeks ago, keeping consumer foot traffic and his profits to a minimum. “It’s like a...

The “Occupy London” movement stormed the offices of a mining company called Xstrata today, as reported by The Australian, which found the story of great interest to its readers because Xstrata has extensive operations in Australia: About 60 protesters got inside Panton House, Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX) said, where the diversified Anglo-Swiss firm has its British office. Another 200 were held outside within a police cordon, in the heart of central London's West End entertainment district. Some covered their faces with masks as they swept through the building. The protesters reached the roof and unveiled a banner reading "All...

The rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement has brought with it a renewed emphasis on the impoverishing notion of envy. To the Occupiers, along with much of the political class, society’s economic rules favor the top 1 percent at the certain expense of the other 99. Great rhetoric for sure, but also quite a lot of nonsense. People who should know better bemoan the economic means possessed by the 1 percent, but rarely do they consider the gargantuan efforts required by those at the top to get there in the first place. To show why this is true it’s...

Hundreds of students and faculty members temporarily shut down a University of California Board of Regents meeting being held simultaneously today at campuses in San Francisco, Davis, Merced and Los Angeles by standing in the conference rooms and chanting slogans so loudly the regents could no longer conduct business. The meeting was going smoothly until the public comment portion ended at 9:30 a.m. and several demonstrators began yelling the Occupy movement's familiar "mic check!" call, signalling the desire to have a protest meeting. There were about 50 students at each campus' regents meeting, which was being conducted by speakerphone. "We're...