Today Occupy Chicago protesters stormed City Hall to let Mayor Rahm Emanuel know their displeasure in the recent arrests of the Occupy campers at Grant Park on Michigan Avenue.

They were lead by radical anti-war activists Joe Iosbaker and Andy Thayer, who we have reported on in the past for their ongoing investigations by the FBI. In September of 2010 they were targeted for suspicion of providing material support to Hamas, the F.A.R.C. and other terrorist organizations.

Photo H/T: FoundingBloggers

Here is footage of Thayer last spring addressing a Chicago crowd and calling for “action” like we saw in Egypt.

Thayer and Iosbaker have played a key roll in organizing massive demonstrations in Chicago this coming May for the G-8 and NATO summits. The recent anti-war and Occupy protests have served as a clear rally cry to build momentum and support for these demonstrations next spring. The tandem duo worked their message and demands for G-8 and NATO protest permits into todays Occupy City Hall protest.

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…Or, Unions Win, Right-to-Work States Win, You Lose

With less than two weeks before the November 8th elections and with the polls leaning toward repealing SB5, it appears that Ohioans are ready to vote to increase their taxes and unemployment. Ultimately, that is a choice Ohio taxpayers will be making and fiscal self-immolation is certainly within their rights and, frankly, there are states who would be all-too happy to see Ohio’s unions put the final nail in the coffin in the Buckeye State.

Curiously, though, after months of being pounded by a multi-million dollar union campaign of fear-mongering and deceptive propaganda, there seems to be very few Ohioans who know the true economic consequences of what happens when they repeal SB 5—and the unions, in their attack ads, certainly aren’t telling them either.

Even before John Kasich attempted to wrest control of Ohio’s budget from union bosses’ death grip, the state has had one foot in the dirt (so to speak). Thanks to Ohio being a forced union state and its years of union-cronyism (a state where non-union business owners are shot), the state’s private-sector has been shrinking while its public sector payroll has remained obese.

This public-sector bloat has led to liabilities that, with the repeal of SB 5, are only going to get worse. Below is a graph (view here) that shows the projections of Ohio’s school district deficits, using data from 2010. (more…)

Shocked? We are….

Is this the sort of thing you would expect to hear from John Tillman, the chairman of the Illinois Policy Institute, a “conservative” think tank, after walking through #OccupyChicago?

“It was delightful.”

Delightful? When I think of delight, I think of lying on a sunny beach with an ice-cold tropical fruit drink; I think of laying in a hammock on a breezy day reading a mind-stimulating book or sinking my teeth into a delicious cheesecake. But when I am at an Occupy protest, the last thing that comes to mind is anything remotely delightful.

In fact, I find the whole experience miserable and terrifying: the constant banging of over-turned garbage cans, the blowing of bull horns, and the repetitive hypnotic chanting of brainwashed flea-infested loons. When I head down to an Occupy protest, it is certainly not with any intent to have a delightful experience. It is with the intent to expose what is really driving these radical left-wing nut-jobs. It’s a responsibility I feel that is necessary to preserve whatever freedom and liberty we still have, and quite frankly to help do whatever is in my power to save our great country.

Here is some footage you may have already seen about who is behind this movement, from EAG Foundation:

I certainly understand that there are some halfway “sane” individuals down there. And I can also agree there are a couple of similarities in the displeasure with our economy between the “Tea Party” and Occupy protesters. Namely, the opposition to bank bailouts, for which we on the “right” have been ridiculed and deemed racist, for the last two and a half years.

But I can hardly see how it is effective for the tea partiers to join forces with these well-documented card-carrying members of the Communist Party U.S.A., Party for Socialism and Liberation, anti-Semites, American Nazi Party, 9/11 truthers, and the rest of the dirty hippies that are now receiving training from domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

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UPDATE: Rahm offers talks, Occupy leaves…

President Barack Obama’s friends in Occupy are clashing with Obama’s former White House chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in an ongoing protest at Chicago’s City Hall.

Activists are staging a sit-in outside Mayor Emanuel’s office, demanding to speak with him about dropping charges against Occupy activists who have been arrested for various offenses, including battery against a police officer.

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Somehow the Mitt Romney campaign thought it’d be awesome to stop at a Cincinnati call center for Ohio Issues 2 & 3, and then not endorse a Yes vote on both issues. Since Yes is the obvious conservative choice on two of the most important ballot issues in state history, this created an opportunity for other GOP primary candidates.

In short order, Rick Perry pounced into the new space on Romney’s right:

“As a true conservative, I stand with Gov. Kasich in promoting S.B.5 for fiscal responsibility and job creation in Ohio,” Perry said in a statement to CNN. “Gov. Kasich and the Republican leadership of Ohio are to be commended for their efforts.”

With D.C. union bosses spending millions to smear Senate Bill 5 as unfair, dangerous, and racist, Issue 2 is hardly a sure thing. It’s disappointing that instead of backing reforms which will empower Ohio taxpayers, Mitt Romney handed unions a rhetorical win by dodging a volatile issue that’s behind in the polls.

Here are some key elements of the bill Rick Perry endorsed:

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Around lunchtime on Tuesday I sat down in front of my computer, opened foxews.com, and immediately texted my brother: “Gov. Perry is back!” I did this because the largest portion of the Fox News homepage was taken up by a photo of a confident looking Gov. Perry telling Americans about his economic plan – “Cut, Balance, and Grow” – and it was obvious he was swinging at pitches that were in his wheelhouse.

In such a setting, and on such a topic, Gov. Perry exudes the kind of confidence that took him to the top of the polls in August.

Far less complicated than McRomney’s “59 point” plan, Perry’s plan can be easily summed up thus:

Introduce a 20 percent flat rate on individual and corporate income, down from the current top rate of 35 percent.

Provide an exemption of $12,500 per person, so that a family of four would face no tax on its first $50,000 in income.

Preserve deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations, and state and local taxes on incomes below $500,000.

Allow anyone to file under the current system if they choose.

Shift to a territorial system of corporate taxation, allowing corporations to repatriate profits still parked overseas at a 5.25 percent rate.

This plan is a winner for Gov. Perry because it’s self-explanatory, brief enough for everyone to get their minds around, and, most importantly, rooted in the pursuit of decreasing the size of government while simultaneously increasing liberty. (more…)

Lisa Fithian–the radical organizer whose role in Occupy was first exposed at Big Government–has apparently confirmed that ACORN-linked organizations are leading the Occupy movement’s next major protest action against banks nationwide.

Fox News reported earlier today that remnants of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the radical community organizing group that collapsed after its corruption was exposed by Big Government, are playing a “behind the scenes” role in organizing the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

The Fox News investigation followed Matthew Vadum’s report two weeks ago at Big Government that ACORN was paying people to attend the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York through the Working Families Party, an ACORN front group.

Now, Big Government has learned that in an email (below) sent by Fithian to Occupy organizers and supporters on October 22, 2011, she reported that the “New Bottom Line”–an effort to move as much money out of major banks as possible on November 5th–is being led by several ACORN-linked organizations: “National People’s Action, National Pico Network, and Alliance for Just and Sustainable Economy and other key state groups like ACCE in CA, NYCC in NY, or MORE in St. Louis.”

Fithian New Bottom Line

ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), NYCC (New York Communities for Change), and MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment), are apparently nothing more than reconstituted ACORN branches.

National People’s Action, PICO National Network, and Alliance for a Just Society are all closely linked to ACORN. At the time of ACORN’s collapse, National People’s Action in particular vowed publicly to pick up where ACORN left off: “Organizations can come and go, but what’s important is that people who want to come together should have the opportunity to…identify their interests and work on them together.” These groups have also collaborated on similar ACORN-style campaigns against banks in the recent past.

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We’re cutting through the noise of the Big Labor-funded protesters and the overheated rhetoric of the Big-Labor funded politicians to spread the news:  when it comes to budget reform in Wisconsin, It’s Working.

We’re proud to introduce the ItsWorkingWisconsin website. We heard some say the sky would fall, that there would be massive layoffs of state and local government workers and teachers. Some asserted that Wisconsin’s budget reform would mark the end of the state as we know it. But the sky’s still there, and Wisconsin is stronger than ever, thanks to Wisconsin’s budget reform.

As a result of Wisconsin’s budget reform, the state has cut the deficit and reduced the strain on local governments by giving them the tools to reduce their labor costs without massive program cuts or layoffs. This website is committed to providing the facts to Wisconsin taxpayers. Every week there are more examples of how It’s Working. Together, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy have chronicled success stories from across Wisconsin. (more…)

Far-left social justice teachers never miss an opportunity to push their agenda in the classroom.

As you’ll see in my upcoming book, “Indoctrination: How ‘Useful Idiots’ Are Using Our Schools to Subvert American Exceptionalism,” leftist teachers use moments like the #OccupyWallStreet protests around the country to push their agenda of shifting America leftward away from a free market system.

One such teacher, Bob Peterson, who moonlights as the president of the Milwaukee teachers union, fawned all over a music video produced with footage from the various protests.  He called it “a great video rich with teaching possibilities.”

In one part, the camera is panning across pictures of Bush administration officials, to these lyrics:

War mongers only make the war longer

More sons and daughters sent on tour for slaughter

Pure mongers no conscience – killin’ machines

Ten years later and we’re still on the scene

Bush passed the hot grenade – now Obama gotta save the day

Before we waste away it’s safe to say

We need to make a change – celebrate the slain

Maybe take the blame and tear down the main frame

It’s called “Occupy Stand Up” by the Royal Kush Band and can be seen here on YouTube.

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From Fox News:

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 Congress to cut off federal funds.

NYCC’s connection to ACORN isn’t a tenuous one: It works from the former ACORN offices in Brooklyn, uses old ACORN office stationery, employs much of the old ACORN staff and, according to several sources, engages in some of the old organization’s controversial techniques to raise money, interest and awareness for the protests.

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day – to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.

At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that’s used to support the protests. (more…)

We have often discussed the incredible peril Network Neutrality poses when placed in the hands of government — it’s the incredible economic and First Amendment damage that can (and will) be done by the federal Leviathan once it gets its Net Neutrality tentacles around the World Wide Web. Nearly as pernicious, are the private big companies who benefit from big government generally – and the incredible Big Government power grab that is Net Neutrality specifically.

We’ve heard a little about Netflix – the gigantic pro-Net Neutrality Internet movie delivery company.  Netflix is pro-Net Neutrality because Netflix wants grandmothers to pay more to email their grandchildren so that they can continue to use tons and tons of Internet bandwidth to make tons and tons of money – and not pay for it. This is one of the terrible things Net Neutrality does: It prevents Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – the people who spend billions of dollars building and perpetually bettering the highways and byways of the World Wide Web – from charging people who use more bandwidth more money.

Let us disabuse ourselves of a pro-Net Neutrality myth – the Internet Superhighway is not a free ride (nothing, of course, is).  Roads cost money, whether to your house or to your computer and Net Neutrality allows some of the biggest riders to do so without paying for the privilege. Net Neutrality outlaws per-use pricing.  It’s like telling a grocery store they must charge people purchasing one steak the same price as people purchasing fifty. It’s Socialism for the Internet – and we’ll end up with everyone getting equal amounts of nothing. And as we go down, your Grandma’s – and your, and my – Internet prices shoot skyward so as to subsidize the incredible bandwidth hogs like Netflix and Google.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Pejman Yousefzadeh and Kevin Holtsberry are joined by Ian Morris, the author of Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Futureto discuss that while it is difficult to tell the future, geography helps significantly shape destiny, how it explains the rise of the China, and the possibility that it may overtake the West.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and 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:

Buy Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future on Amazon
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There was a time when being American helped to instill a sense of self-reliance. If that time isn’t gone, Obama is doing everything he can to make it go away.

At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.

Bail-out, or buying votes, most know what Obama is up to with regard to student loans. What’s more shocking; the gross amount loaned, or the lack of quality for the investment given the state of academe?

Two weeks ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported the latest stats on student loan debt: The amount of loans taken out by students last year hit the $100 billion mark for the first time. What’s more, the total amount of outstanding student debt will reportedly pass $1 trillion for the first time ever this year.

Meanwhile, tuition costs soared this year, doubling inflation with an 8.3% jump.

Events are escalating quickly at #OccupyOakland, the Thunderdome of the #Occupy tantrum. Last night, hundreds of protesters (aka Kids with lots of student debt) attempted to defy a city order to vacate their protest site. Police used tear gas to disperse the mob. Tear gas. In Oakland. California.

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ATLANTA (AP) – Police guarded newly-cleared plazas early Wednesday in Atlanta and Oakland, Calif., after clearing Occupy Wall Street protest camps in both cities. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested in swift crack-downs by riot squads after local authorities lost patience with the rallies.

Helicopters hovered and trained spotlights on downtown Atlanta as police in riot gear moved into a small city park just after midnight and arrested more than 50 protesters who had been there in tents for about two weeks.

Police and some neighbors in cities around the country have started losing patience as protesters prepare to settle in for winter in camps without running water or working toilets. Businesses and residents near New York’s Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September, are demanding something be done to discourage the hundreds of protesters from urinating in the street and making noise at all hours.

In Oakland, riot police cleared protesters from in front of City Hall on Tuesday morning, leaving a sea of overturned tents, protest signs and trash strewn across the plaza. Hundreds of officers and sheriff’s deputies went into the two week-old encampment with tear gas and beanbag rounds around 5 a.m., police said.

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American Exceptionalism has routinely been underestimated by America’s adversaries. We have argued for the last year that powerful trends are reshaping U.S. that will lead to result a rebirth of American manufacturing, coupled with positive business trends, and just as powerful political trends are shrinking the size of government and its capacity to intervene in the economy. The combination of these trends will create a sustained upward spike in the American economy.

Last week the Financial Times newspaper published an editorial: “America Must Manage Its Decline”. The jest of the FT article was that United States must develop an effect foreign policy, similar to Great Britain’s in 1945, to manage her economic and political decline:

“If America were able openly to acknowledge that its global power is in decline, it would be much easier to have a rational debate about what to do about it. Denial is not a strategy.”

President Obama, the American press, the rabid right wing, and even a Harvard professor were all excoriated by the FT for their pathetic reliance on such homilies as: “Decline is not a condition. Decline is a choice.” From the high floor in the FT’s office tower, the author cynically snarled down at America’s inability to take “determined action” to increase higher education funding and “self-indulgent episodes such as the summer’s near-debt default” as prime evidence of America’s “declinism” and the inevitable rise to economic dominance by China.

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Occupy Wall Street has often been compared to the Tea Party; I think it’s usually meant as an insult. By comparing the grass roots protest of the Tea Party to the amalgam of radicals at Occupy, they can diminish  the Tea Party’s success and make all protests distasteful to the general public.

There is little similarity. While the Tea Parties were neat and orderly, the Occupy protests are noisy, juvenile, and stinky. The Tea Parties were friendly while the Occupy movement is violent, angry, and crime ridden; they have the same problem with lawlessness that plagues most Democrat-controlled cities.

#OccupyBastille

This explains why there is such a vast difference between the two. The Occupy movement is not only mostly Democrat; it is also democratic. Likewise, the Tea Parties are both a republic and Republican. They are microcosms of the political philosophies they each represent.

Tea parties are controlled by the rule of law and are planned in advance. They acquire proper permits, rent PA systems, Porti-Potties, and Tents. When they’re over, people pick up the trash and go home.

Occupy is famous for creepy chanting after every speaker finishes a sentence and a guy relieving himself against the side of a police car.  Some of the Occupy residents have, ironically, used the facilities of McDonalds and Starbucks and even took ironic shelter from the rain in a Bank of America ATM kiosk (I’m sure the irony is lost on them, though).  They loudly proclaim that “this is what Democracy looks like!”

Constitutional author James Madison would agree. In Federalist # 10 he wrote: “Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.“ (more…)

Big Government has learned that Occupy Wall Street activists and supporters are circulating this blog post from the left-wing site Firedoglake, entitled: “What to Do When the Media Says a Protester Attacked a Cop.”

The plan is simple: find someone else to blame for Occupy violence against police.

The Firedoglake post was published on Saturday, October 22. By then, there had already been several incidents of violence and attacks on police at Occupy demonstrations throughout the country. Moreover, it had become clear that some Occupy activists were determined to initiate or provoke clashes with police, such as those witnessed on the streets of Oakland last night.

Once posted on Firedoglake, the proposed public relations strategy for dealing with accusations of anti-police violence was then circulated via email to organizers of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations.

One activist suggested: “Might it be useful to put it out to the media that OWS is expecting infiltration and agent provocateur violence, and OWS is concerned about how it will play out, since OWS is peaceful?” (See below – email addresses redacted.)

OWS Media Strategy

The Occupy strategy outlined on Firedoglake consists of five steps:

1) Challenge the assumption that the violent protester(s) are actually Occupy Wall Street protesters…

2) Scour all the footage and photos you can find of the instigators of the violence at the protest…

3) Crowd-source the images and ask for help identifying them…

4) Write a post about it on a blog with info on the person(s) andtheir background…

5) Contact the media and point out who that protest was started by…

“That is what you do in this age of easy access to video, photos and social media,” the post continues.

The problem is that video, photos, and social media from the Occupy activists have often captured evidence of their own enthusiasm for violence and provocation. (more…)