If you want to keep up to date on the Occupy movement, you’ve come to the right place. This is Breitbart.com’s running chronicle of Occupy’s chaos, political machinations and internal power struggles as we head towards the Occupy movement’s planned Spring rebirth.

The Occupy movement is the Obama administration’s shadow campaign; community organized shock troops helping to spread the President’s strategic 2012 campaign message that we need to stop income inequality. With Big Labor calling the tactical shots, Occupy is President Obama’s direct action to bring real radicalism into the mainstream American politics, while another faction of Occupy organizers struggles to extract the movement from the grips of the Democrat Party establishment.

The crowds may have dwindled with the cold weather, but there’s still a tremendous amount of Occupy activity preparing for an “American Spring.”  We’ll be keeping this page updated with links to all of our Occupy coverage.  Catch it all right here, in one place.

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I’ve come to a cross roads, and I believe many of you are with me. I no longer have faith that members of the Grand Old Party can represent me as a classical liberal or more specifically as a Conservative-Libertarian, and neither do I believe the majority of the members of the party share true forms of those ideologies.

This feeling began developing after the 2010 election when several friends and colleagues of mine and I developed ConservativeCongress.com to assess every single candidate self-proclaimed to be running as a conservative in the entire country. Thousands of unpaid and thankless hours were put into the project by myself and my friends. I myself put in roughly 2,000 to 3,000 hours alone. Then I watched as various state Tea Party groups and supposedly conservative minding groups signed off on the status quo. I became sick as state after state sent D.C. main stays and beltway insiders back to flap their gums about conservative principles while we all watched continuous compromise and a lack of any leadership with the House at their disposal.

The final blow personally for me was when I watched a man take my home district who had not lived in his home state in 18 years and also did not even own property in the state in which he was running for office. I’ve had the great privilege in my lifetime to travel extensively and live in various areas of our great nation. I remember very clearly living abroad in Australia some seven years ago and then upon returning spending the next four years moving around for graduate school and work. When I made it back home I hardly recognized the place in which I grew up. Everything had changed.

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As the city of Troy, NY, awaits jury selection in the first trial involving two Democrats and their alleged roles in a “massive” voter fraud scheme, new details have emerged from the investigation.  Details involving two other veteran political operatives that have already pleaded guilty.

According to a recent Fox News report, Anthony Renna, a Democrat guilty of second-degree forgery, and Anthony DeFiglio, a Democrat guilty of first-degree falsifying business records, are trying to drag all local politicians, regardless of party affiliation, down with the ship.  Thus far, eight people have been charged in connection with the ballot fraud investigation, four of which have pleaded guilty.

Reports emerging from the investigation indicate that the Democrats are trying to implicate Republicans of the same conduct they have been charged with.  According to the state police, Renna and DeFiglio both claimed that, ”voter fraud is an accepted way of winning elections, and faking absentee ballots was commonplace.”

Renna explained that the process of handing in forged ballots and fake votes ensures that “ballots are voted correctly.”  He adds, “‘Voted correctly’ is a term used for a forged application or ballot.”

DeFiglio added that such fraud is actually “an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle.  What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic.”

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Novembers during off-election years in Washington, D. C. are typically pretty serene. The autumn colors stream up and down Georgetown by the Potomac, while lawmakers gingerly ease into the holidays, knowing full well the next year will have them in complete campaign mode — not so for 2011. In their infinite wisdom following a contentious budget showdown just a few months prior, Congress and the White House silently swore they didn’t want to face that political debacle again. So 523 elected “responsible” lawmakers surrendered their roles as committee chairs, appropriations cardinals and oversight hawks to an intrepid 12 colleagues to begin the work they so eagerly avoided. That shifting sound you hear is our Founding Fathers turning over in their graves.

The die is cast, and for reasons I will explain, there is ample evidence that leads to but one conclusion: For the good of the Congress, the President, and the nation writ large, this band of 12 can not fail. To be clear, it’s entirely possible the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction can fail to meet its mandated purpose of recommending reductions from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion from the federal budget by Thanksgiving. That’s a tall order. But they must not fail if we expect our governing institutions to retain what little credibility that remains among them.

The first casualty of an empty Super Committee is our nation’s economic health. Set aside for the moment the sheer need for austerity. If the panel were to miss its mark, economic chaos could ensue. Moody’s Investor Service has already lowered our nation’s stellar credit rating. And just last week, the credit house said that, while no downgrade is automatic, the Super Committee would serve it and Congress well by tackling big budget busters such as entitlement reform. Put another way, Congress should get out of its own way. Not long ago, Democrats led by the President blamed consumer demand as the key inhibitor to economic growth in 2011. Then Republicans piled on and said it was looming uncertainty that paralyzed investors and businesses alike, freezing precious capital. Even Obama later subscribed to that reasoning. So why is it now, when they are singularly responsible for that very uncertainty, they refuse to execute the steps to end it?

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Mitt Romney is always quick to lambast other Republicans for being career politicians, as if this is his first rodeo and he is a political newcomer. However, the truth is he’s been in politics for over seventeen years, many of which have been spent appealing to liberals and moderates and fighting to keep from being identified with Ronald Reagan.

Yet the more one goes back and listens to the things Romney’s been saying during his nearly two decades of public service, the more one has to wonder why he thought someone would link him to Reagan in the first place.

For example, while trying to unseat Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994, Romney said:

“I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it. And I sustain and support that law.”

Someone needs to corner Romney on this statement and force him to explain whether he still holds to it in part or in whole. (more…)

The past week was very interesting in Presidential politics.  The darlings of the rank and file Republican Party, New Jersey governor Chris Christie and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, have concluded it is not time to run for President. Herman Cain (who was recently labeled a racist by a Democrat strategist on CNN) has become the sweetheart of the white-supremacist, right-wing Tea Party.

The popular press is lauding liberal Democrats for having finally found their own voice in the Occupy Wall Street protests. And Missouri’s Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill, did not even show up for President Obama’s (who polls below 30% in MO) fundraiser in St. Louis. And a rumor is circulating that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has told Obama he cannot win passage of the jobs bill as proposed and will only take it in pieces to the Senate floor, thus distancing himself from the President.

Does anyone need to know anything else about the 2012 elections?

The problem for decades in Washington has been that lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, have spent their way to political success. Now that there is no more money, nobody knows what to do.  In fact, there is only one Congressman, Darrell Issa (R-CA) who has started (not inherited) a successful company that sold a product and wasn’t just in the service industry, law, accounting, insurance, medicine, banking, you get the idea.  The genesis of American capitalism is an agrarian society taking the risks necessary to make something from nothing and selling it.  He is likely the only one that has made the sacrifices necessary to build something from nothing, and make a profit.  The concept is that without actual profit you can’t spend money.  Everyone else, Democrat and Republican more resembles the Occupy Wall Street group who want to tell everyone where money should be spent, decisions based on personal interests and taxes, not capitalism.  The situation is exacerbated by the contempt and lack of cooperation between the congressional parties, as well as between members of Congress of both parties and the executive.

For some time, the question of when that animosity began has gone unanswered. Certainly there have always been hard-fought ideological battles in the halls of government. But there have also been famous relationships between party leaders, relationships that helped bring these leaders and the country together. When did our modern politics deteriorate so much? Recently a longtime friend and Washington insider suggested that it began with the defeat of the nomination of Judge Robert Bork, the highly respected and superbly qualified candidate, for the Supreme Court. (more…)

It wasn’t that long ago that news outlets everywhere were running headlines about how dull the 2012 GOP field was shaping up to be. The mainstream media had anointed McRomney as the candidate to beat, and the ebb of excitement was so low that people actually watched Jon McHuntsman give a speech announcing his entrance into the race.

But everything changed once Gov. Rick Perry threw his hat into the ring. He galloped in like the cowboy the left loves to hate, and he’s yet to apologize for it. In fact, as you watch his gestures and listen to his accent he’s as undeniably Texas as Dallas itself, and because of that, he’s not one to lie down and let the Republican establishment walk on him.

Heck, Perry might even have spurs that “jingle jangle jingle.”

I’m serious folks: Perry is Texas personified. He is bigger than life, and that’s why he’s shellacking his Republican competition in the polls.

Just think about it – there are videos circulating (via the Houston Chronicle’s Kathleen McKinley) that show Gov. Perry teaching her and other bloggers and reporters how to shoot a handgun. And I don’t mean the video shows him standing at a podium, talking them through it. Rather, it shows him standing beside them as they shoot, chambering a bullet in the gun for them, and telling them what to expect as far as recoil goes, etc. (You can see the video here.)

Folks, Gov. Perry has a handgun named in honor of him.

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Recently it was concluded that the era of recovery under Obama is dead. In fact, it was never really born. President Obama chose more regulation and more spending as means to reverse our declining economy. Businesses are loath to hire, invest, and expand it an unfriendly, insecure environment. To show this is more than just election time rhetoric consider this point. “About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months – a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.”

There has been no recovery; in fact, things have gotten worse since Obama has held office.

As a result, he has lost the bin Laden “bounce“. An accomplishment that he should have been able to hang his hat on. However, perspective and priorities are what a president must contend. A bad economy his foremost in people’s mind. After all, the daily lives of millions hinge on opportunity and financial security. The awesome action in taking out bin Laden was a blip on the radar when it comes to what really matters. It doesn’t put people back to work, raise wages, or keep people in their homes. Obama owns this economic mess and now he and his fellow Democrats are prepared to trademark it.

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Democrats are celebrating their victory yesterday in the special election in New York’s 26th congressional district by touting it as a repudiation of House budget committee chair Paul Ryan’s proposal for Medicare reform.

Never mind that, as in NY-23 in 2009,  Democrats needed a three-way race to win. Never mind that, also as in NY-23 in 2009, they needed one of those three candidates to be a second Democrat in disguise.

They’re not just proud of taking a Republican seat; they’re proudly claiming that they have made Medicare reform the “third rail” of American politics, together with Social Security.

Never mind that Ryan’s reforms poll better among seniors than any other age group. Never mind that Ryan’s proposals would not affect anyone over 55 years old–except by making sure Medicare is still there for them by the time they reach their 70s.

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Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney announced on April 11 that he is “formally exploring a presidential bid”. As such, because a 2012 Romney run would be a repetition of his 2008 attempt at presidential power, a look back is reasonable due diligence for every voter.

When Michael Dukakis, another Governor of Massachusetts, ran for the great office in 1988 there were many who considered him a serious contender. After all, he had the much-touted but highly questionable “Massachusetts Miracle” claim of economic prosperity in that state during the mid to later parts of that decade to bolster his profile. Many voters in Massachusetts were skeptical (Dukakis carried his home state, but few others).

George Bush appeared a lackluster candidate in comparison and almost “too easy” to beat it seemed at the time. But there were ghosts that haunted Mr. Dukakis. As the Democratic candidate seemed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Mr. Bush became “Bush #1” it was clear that, for Mr. Dukakis’ campaign, the man and the hour had certainly not met.

Analysts and voters during the 1988 election cycle found at least three negatives about Mr. Dukakis that he could not overcome – and which seemed to unavoidably bring him to defeat. The first was his bizarrely cold and politician-like answer during the second presidential debate to moderator Bernard Shaw’s question: “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”

Dukakis’ spiritless, calculating, politician-like answer stunned the nation. “No, I don’t, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.” This unfortunate, but honest, answer essentially ended the debates. Dukakis lost.

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Am I surprised over Trumps’ early success in testing the waters as the Republican nominee for 2012? To be perfectly honest, yes I am. The man is in second place in New Hampshire, within single digits of Romney, and according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, he’s second nationally and tied with Gov. Huckabee with 17%. My friends, he hasn’t even spent $500 million yet.

Speaking of which, do you think he is going to take public financing? Paaalease. I understand the need to make a campaign feel like the people own it but in Trump’s case, he is a multi-billionaire. I don’t see him getting a lot of financial support from the average taxpayer who is fighting through high unemployment and a recession. Most importantly, a point to avoid for Trump is when he does receive lackluster fund raising because of that from average citizens, the media will try to spin it as an indicator that Trump enjoys little support. When in actuality people just don’t ordinarily give to billionaires who have billionaire friends. So Trump should definitely consider financing a large part of his campaign and rely on ultra wealthy donors for support. It is all about the early contests. There’s reasons they are held in the order they are. So the candidate can win early and often. If you need a illustrative point, consider Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous attempt to wait until Florida.

If Donald Trump runs for President, he should forgo public finance and federal matching funds not just because, as a mega-wealthy billionaire, he can, but because doing so would allow him to spend in the early primary and caucus state’s without federal limitation. A candidate who accepts matching funds also agrees to observe strict spending limits in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, and all the primary and caucus states. A candidate who self-funds and doesn’t accept Federal matching funds is under no such limitations.

Bypassing public finance, Trump can leverage his wealth to outspend his opponents in the early states, gaining a significant strategic advantage. Sadly, Trump advisor Michael Cohen, a vice president of the Trump organization, doesn’t seem to understand this. City Hall newspaper recently reported “Cohen said that Trump would raise money from average citizens, rather than just funnel his own money into a campaign.”He wants citizens in the country to have skin in the game,” he said. ( Roger Stone)

Does he have the Trump name brand on his side? Absolutely, and, of course, that helps. But there is something more going on here. He’s saying things that are resonating with people. First and foremost, he certainly doesn’t talk like a politician.

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UPDATED***

The left is afraid of the election of Marco Rubio as Senator of Florida in the exact same way as they were afraid of Sarah Palin when she was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee by John McCain. It has been clear from the beginning that both are ascendant as potential game-changing political stars and need to be destroyed. So it’s no surprise that Arianna Huffington tweeted the following:
The reason why so few Senators are chosen as Presidential nominees is that the job is not an executive position; Governors tend to be preferable because they have executive experience. Rubio was just elected to to vote “yes” or “no” on things, which is why Arianna’s analogy of “dictator” is incomprehensible and utterly unrelated to his leadership position. There is nothing dictator-like about a Senator. So what exactly was the Queen of social news media’s tweet really about? (more…)