From the Washington Post:

Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.

Obama’s key advantage is his ability to collect bigger checks from fewer donors, because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his reelection effort. As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all the other GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data.

This fundraising edge might seem counterintuitive in light of Obama’s thorny relations with business groups and Wall Street executives, who strongly opposed his financial reform law and have bristled at proposals to close corporate tax loopholes and raise income taxes on millionaires. In fact, he has raised just $3.9 million from the finance sector for his campaign committee itself, aside from the DNC, compared with Romney’s $7.5 million. (more…)

Scott Johnson of the Oakland Tribune reports that violence has spiraled out of control in the tent camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza at Occupy Oakland.

A substitute teacher living in the camp was “throttled.” Women have been attacked. And a knife was pulled in one of several confrontations.

The demonstration, which has been addressed by celebrities such as Danny Glover, and by the American hikers recently released from Iran, has descended into anarchy.

A police officer has compared the tent camp to the savagery of the feral children in the novel Lord of the Flies:

One Oakland police supervisor said that the participants first appeared to him as “freethinking activists” but have since devolved into something more sinister. He said it was “interesting for a group that claims to be against current civilization and rules to set up a far more oppressive society than our own.”

Drugs and drug dealers have also been spotted at the Occupy Oakland tent camp, although the city’s Democrat mayor, bizarrely, denies that illegal and unsafe activities are taking place.

Journalists have been barred from the Occupy Oakland tent camp–despite the fact that it sits on public grounds–according to a consensus decision of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly (twinkles).

One journalist was attacked by an activist’s dog.

(more…)

On October 20, 1947, The House Un-American Activities Committee began investigating Communist infiltration in Hollywood.

Over the past few weeks, journalists, pundits, and regular citizens have been clamoring to find the answer to one question:  What is this whole “Occupy Wall Street” movement about? Who are the protesters? What brought them together? Do they hate the government or the banks more? What do they plan to do to the government or the banks if they get their way? What is their way– what policy platform do they stand for? Do they plan to run any candidates for higher office, like the Tea Party?

While none of these questions can be answered definitively, we here at Big Government will attempt to answer them the best way we can, through the gold standard of Web 2.0, video clips. Though this is not an exhaustive collection of videos relating to Occupy Wall Street, we hope this snapshot–this collage, this moving picture kaleidoscope–gives our readers a revealing look inside the ideology, tactics, and tone of the Occupy movement.

To start, let’s take a look at the communication and organization tactics of OWS. The protesters have moved beyond the passé systems of democracy or republicanism and, instead of bitterly arguing and letting the slightest majority make choices for the group, they make their decisions through wider “consensus.” There are a few novel techniques they employ to reach consensus.

First is what’s been dubbed the “human microphone’: with such big crowds and little opportunity to set up sound systems, individuals who speak for or to the movement speak in short phrases which the masses then repeat so everyone can hear. For instance, protesters used “human microphone” discussion to reach the consensus that civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis should not be allowed to speak… through the human microphone:

To determine consensus, the crowd must communicate non-verbally to whomever is speaking through the man mic. This is their system: (more…)

They’re taking away my right to work. I have a right to work in this town. I pay rent on that spot, whether I’m there or not… I think it’s selfish for them to just not think about four or five hundred people, almost, who are going to lose their jobs on Saturday. Because we can’t work because that space is occupied.

The Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, spoke to University of Pennsylvania students on October 18th. That’s usually not a huge deal. The VP gives speeches all over the place. What is a big deal is that during the speech, Biden said he wished that opponents of Obama’s “jobs bill” knew what it was like to be robbed and raped.

[Opponents of Obama's jobs bill say] this is just temporary. Well, let me tell you, it’s not temporary when that 911 call comes in and a woman’s being raped if cop shows up in time to prevent the rape–it’s not temporary to that woman. It’s not temporary to the guy whose store is being held up and has a gun pointed at his head, if a cop shows up and he’s not killed, that’s not temporary to that store owner… I wish they had some notion what it’s like to be on the other side of a gun or a 200-pound man standing over you telling you to submit.

(more…)

January 23, 2013

White House, Cabinet Room

First meeting of President Obama’s new team

OBAMA: Listen up, people. I got myself across the finish line but couldn’t bring Congress along.  That’s why you’re here.  Except for Defense, you represent the first entirely recessed Cabinet in American history.  Do me proud.  Michelle?

MICHELLE: I’m the new Chief of Staff. You want to see him, you gotta get past me. Waste my time, I’ll cut your budget 10%.

OBAMA: So, let’s hear some fresh ideas.  HHS?

MICHAEL MOORE: Now that the World Court has overturned the Supremes and ruled the PPACA [ObamaCare] constitutional, sir, amend the program to cover all humanity.  Eventually, include lesser beings, as well.  Innumerable uninsured creatures are suffering out there.

OBAMA: Easy, big guy; we’ll do it in stages.  After people, we insure the remaining mammalians; then, things with legs; finally, air breathers.  Treasury?

PAUL KRUGMAN: I’ve run the numbers, sir: Stimulus IV should tip the worldwide economy into depression within a year.

OBAMA: Good.  That gets us closer to the one-world government mankind will demand I lead to left the—I mean, to right the ship.  I’m getting bored with the Presidency, anyway. OMB? (more…)

Pardon us for stating the obvious, everyone knows this, along with knowing that if there were a Republican in the White House, Washington is precisely where the main protest effort would be held. Funny how things change with Barry, the community organizer-in-chief in the House.

More Americans blame Washington than Wall Street for the country’s economic problems, a new poll shows.

Will last night’s debate revive Perry’s struggling candidacy? Reuters and others seem to think  so.

“This is the start of Romney vs. Romney. We’ll have him debating himself before this is over,” said one senior Perry adviser, explaining the strategy.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, or so they say; however, what happens throughout the state of Nevada does not, obviously. They may have placed a bet, but there’s still seems room for hedging it, somewhat.

“It’s not necessarily a different answer. It’s just the more discussions you have the more you take into perspective,” she said after Tuesday night’s GOP debate in Las Vegas. “You just have to weigh pros and cons — so, as of now, we are still on the 14th.” Five GOP presidential candidates have said they will boycott Nevada’s caucuses if the date is not altered to accommodate New Hampshire.

Keep your eyes on Greece. Occupy Wall Street may be more entertaining, but only so long  as there is a Wall Street to occupy.

(Reuters) – Greek unions began a 48-hour general strike on Wednesday, the biggest protest in years, as parliament prepared to vote on sweeping new austerity measures designed to stave off a default that could trigger a crisis in the wider euro zone. (more…)

From Gallup:

The latest round of Gallup polls shows less than 40% of Americans approve of President Obama’s job performance . Polling data for October 16-18 shows the President’s approval rating at 39% and disapproval at 53%. President Obama had previously dipped to 38% approval during the polling periods of October 4-6 and October 11-13, but a trend is emerging. (more…)

From Bloomberg:

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.

The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor.

“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.” (more…)

Mike Flynn, BigGoverment EIC: Rick Perry bought himself some time. His performance was uneven, but he showed glimmers of real energy and a fighting spirit. It was his best performance to date. His plan to boost energy production is a solid plan and, since it can be done largely through executive action, very achievable. That said, he needs to do a better job of linking his plan to the overall economy and how his policies will benefit voters in non-energy-rich states. He’s running for President of the US, not Texas.

Throughout the debate I kept having to remind myself that Ron Paul is a little bit crazy, because he turned in a very good performance. His campaign this time around is tacking more to mainstream GOP issues, rather than some of the more fringe issues he focused on in the past. He and Gingrich are acting as a kind of Greek chorus, providing something of a conscience for the other candidates.

As expected, Mitt Romney gave a solid debate performance. He’s good in these venues. He is very good at playing the role of President; the problem for him is that many conservatives worry about what he’ll do once he is actually President. I don’t think conservatives saw anything last night to make them more comfortable with Romney, but I expect mainstream GOPers will start to openly endorse him.

Cain will fade. There is too much ambiguity around his 9-9-9 plan and he isn’t doing anything to build up a campaign infrastructure. My private theory is that he is a stalking horse for Romney. His role is to block Perry from consolidating the anti-Romney vote. Cain is running to be Romney’s VP or a cabinet secretary.

Larry O’Connor, Breitbart.tv EIC: It seems that every debate thus far has had a front-runner or “flavor of the month” go down under an assault by all of the other candidates. Bachmann and Perry both came into debates over the past months with weekly news magazine cover stories, momentum and targets on their backs. Each could not live up to the expectations they brought. Last night it was Herman Cain’s turn, and as long as the discussion stayed centered around domestic and fiscal policies, he actually maintained his presence as the most interesting and inspiring candidate. But he truly showed his lack of preparedness on foreign issues and Republican voters tend to want a candidate who knows his way around tricky world affairs.

(more…)

The latest iteration of No Child Left Behind comes before a Senate committee tomorrow with bipartisan support. But if Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has anything to say about it, the bill won’t go anywhere fast.

“I think the whole process stinks from top to bottom,” Paul said. “The bill is 867 pages and we got it yesterday? I talked to committee members today and said this isn’t the way government should work.”

A Tea Party favorite who won election last November, Paul has promised to introduce 100 amendments to No Child Left Behind which comes before a Senate committee tomorrow, including a complete repeal of the legislation.

Paul also addressed the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest in New York and similar demonstrations taking place across America. “I see a lot of hypocrisy in the movement,” he shared. “But I also see some lurking danger in the sense that they are saying that people who are successful got it somehow immorally and that it’s immoral for them to have it.” (more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Benjamin Domenech moderates a super-sized panel with Guy Benson, Matt Lewis, and Pejman Yousefzadeh on their reactions to last night’s debate.

We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Matt Lewis and the News
Guy Benson’s Townhall Columns
Pejman Yousefzadeh’s Chequer Board
Benjamin Domenech’s daily email, The Transom

(more…)

Americans for Prosperity’s Phil Kerpen has released a new book: Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America – And How to Stop Him.

In this work, Kerpen lays out the Obama Administration’s serial abuse–in fact, outright violation–of our Constitutional republican form of government. President Obama is using the panoply of federal Departments, Commissions, Agencies and Boards to illegally force feed us new “laws.” Yet they aren’t laws at all, as Obama is bypassing Congress and the legislative process.  They are being foisted upon us by executive branch regulatory fiat. This is not democracy but dictatorship, as Kerpen’s excellent tome exhaustively proves.

Here is but a sampling of the research he presents to make his case. Chapter II: Democrats can’t pass the energy sector-assault that is Cap & Trade?  No problem, President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will start imposing large swaths of it as if it has. Chapter IV: Democrats can’t pass the workplace-assault that is the Big Union-payoff Card Check?  No problem, President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)  and Department of Labor will start imposing large swaths of it as if it has.

Chapter V: ObamaCare–which did get shoved, bribed and cajoled through Congress–left WIDE latitude for Health & Human Services (HHS) regulators to go to town on our health care sector. And here’s a shocker; they already are. Chapter VI: The Dodd-Frank financial sector-attack slipped through Congress under cover of economic crash-fueled panic and also left WIDE latitude for a host of regulatory agencies to go to town. Shocker– so are they. And the list goes on, and on, and on… (more…)

As a result of years of budget deficits and wasteful spending by the state legislature, California faces difficult budget challenges for the next ten years. This bad news is courtesy of a recent analysis of the state’s long-term debt obligations by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer. The analysis adds to a growing list of bad fiscal news for California, a state already struggling under the nation’s worst credit rating and suffering the highest unemployment in the country at 12%.

Even as California deals with this financial crisis, a career politician is pushing a ballot measure that would raise taxes by nearly $1 billion — but doesn’t allocate one penny to balance the state budget, pay down its debt, or to fund existing critical programs like education and public safety. This measure, the so-called California Cancer Research Act, would mandate a new bureaucracy with six political appointees that can spend tax money on buildings, salaries and benefits. This includes $16 million spent on overhead and $117 million on new buildings and facilities. These are not one-time expenditures, as such spending will continue year after year.

(more…)

Today, in 1781, the British formally surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.

Hat tip – GetOffWallStreet.com:

Superintendent Deasy Issues Statement on Employee’s Controversial Remarks

Los Angeles – As Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), I want to emphasize that we condemn the remarks made recently by Patricia McAllister.

Her comments, made during non-work time at a recent protest rally, were her private opinions and were not made in the context of District services.  At LAUSD, we recognize that the law is very protective of the freedom of speech rights of public employees when they are speaking as private citizens during non-working time.

I further emphasize to our students, who watch us and look to us for guidance, to be role models and to represent the ideals by which LAUSD lives, that we will never stand for behavior that is disrespectful, intolerant or discriminatory.

As a day-to-day substitute teacher, Ms. McAllister was an at-will employee.  As of today, she is no longer an employee of the LAUSD.

(more…)

Tonight, at 8pm EDT, CNN hosts another GOP Presidential debate. Will Romney pull away? Will Cain consolidate his position as a contender or stumble? Can Perry revive is floundering campaign? How blatantly will Anderson Cooper try to smear the candidates? Check back at BG after the debate for reactions from Breitbart editors.

A debate preview from Joel Pollak, Breitbart.com EIC:

These debates have become so predictable that I’m going to write up my review in advance. Herman Cain withstood an assault from all sides as the fading candidates tried to knock him off his perch–just as they have done to every previous contender who threatened to turn the contest into a two-person race. Mitt Romney turned in a bland but solid performance, taking a few jabs but otherwise still cruising comfortably at or near the top of a field that cannot summon the will to challenge his views squarely or effectively.

(more…)