Los Angeles became the first city to officially endorse the Occupy movement when its city council unanimously passed a resolution affirming the group’s right to camp out on lawns in front of city hall. The council members had glowing words for the movement.

“These are things worthy of protest. And I thank you for speaking out and helping move the debate forward,” said City Councilman Paul Koretz.

Many of the protesters had similarly positive words for their local politicians, as well as local law enforcement. Reason.tv was on the scene to ask protesters about their general attitudes towards government power.  Is Occupy Los Angeles (and Occupy Wall Street) simply a pro-government movement, or is there room for libertarian sentiment within it?

The answer is… well, it’s complicated. While we spoke to a few small government libertarians at the event, others eschewed anti-government rhetoric and said that criticism of the Federal Reserve is a libertarian “pet issue” distracting from the real matter at hand: economic justice.

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Wisconsin State Representative Steve Nass says that if Madison law enforcement authorities don’t begin to crack down on the repeated and escalating harassment of lawmakers and staff “somebody is seriously going to get hurt…or killed.”

Will Madison authorities allow politically motivated harassment escalate until someone is hurt or worse?

State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) believes that Madison law enforcement leaders are partially to blame for the escalation of disorderly and dangerous conduct by protesters in the Capitol city. Nass believes that Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, DaneCounty Sheriff Dave Mahoney, Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne have been more interested in cooperating with protesters than enforcing the law.

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Big Journalism’s Larry O’Connor yesterday highlighted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s unhinged screed that marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11 — an attack on common decency for which Krugman (conveniently) refused to allow any comments. But in his mean-spirited and wholly inappropriate post, Krugman revealed more than he realized about the state of liberal/leftist thought in America today — and the frustration leftists foster about the current state of our politics.

To quickly recap, Krugman wrote:

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te [sic] atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

Such a passage makes me wonder if liberals of Krugman’s ilk even hear themselves? I know Krugman thinks Bush is a “fake hero,” because he hates him with a blinding passion. But he wedges W in there as almost an afterthought among his parade of “fake heroes” — ” … and even George W. Bush.” Before that, Krugman calls Rudy Giuliani a “fake hero.”

Now, Giuliani would be the first to reject the “hero” label, because he knows who the REAL heros are. He saw many of their dismembered bodies in the rubble of the WTC. He went to funerals for months on end. But what Giuliani did was of enormous value to the city of New York and the nation: He stayed calm in the face of enormous chaos and fear. And he acted as a leader — as did Bush.

Giuliani suffers in the measure of Krugman (as did Bush) for the same reasons. Both men were non-liberals (non-Democrats) who earned the admiration of the people. Krugman thought he’d be able to belittle Bush for the entirety of what he thought would be one quick term as a “pretender” who “stole” the election from Gore. Only now, of all days (but without comment), does Krugman feel the urge to scratch that long-neglected itch.

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Attorney General Eric Holder has a peculiar tendency to set loose militant black panthers.  Everyone is already familiar with the dismissal of the voter intimidation case I brought as a Justice Department attorney.  There, the DOJ dropped claims against Malik Zulu Shabazz, national head of the New Black Panther Party, and Jerry Jackson, a Philadelphia panther and Democratic Party official.  But Jackson and Shabazz aren’t the only militants Holder has set loose.

Marilyn Buck was a Marxist terrorist who participated in conspiracies that led to the deaths of multiple police officers.  Buck helped the Black Liberation Army, a violent Marxist offshoot of the black panthers, acquire weapons and ammunition.  She participated in the robbery of an armored car where a guard was murdered.  If that wasn’t enough, Buck was also charged with the bombing of the U.S. Senate, Ft. McNair, the Washington Navy Yard Officer’s Club and a New York City federal building.  In many states, Buck’s behavior might have led to a midnight reservation in the electric chair.

Yet Holder’s DOJ unlocked Buck’s jail cell and set her free last summer. Justice concluded that Buck “expressed a dramatic change from her previous political philosophy.”  Releasing Buck reflects an alien attitude that has caused the Obama years to be characterized by an ideological disconnect with most Americans.

The letters which persuaded the Justice Department were stuffed with crackpot arguments and have yet to be reported over the last year.  They are full of lawlessness and arguments from extreme fringes of political thought.  What’s worse, the letters are on the letterhead of government and private institutions, institutions most Americans incorrectly think are worthy of respect.

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Our continued annual deficits of over $1.5 trillion will eventually destroy our economy and consume our liberty.  We must deal with this crisis now.  The Left says that the rich need to pay more, that more taxes will solve the problem.  Here is the truth.  If we were to double federal taxes on all Americans, our deficits would still be in excess of $400 billion per year.  There is not enough wealth for more taxes to do any good.  Consider that doubling federal taxes means the top rate would be 70%!  With state and local taxes, Americans would have little left for food and shelter.  The debate is over.  We have no choice but to dramatically cut spending.

Entitlements are the major contributor to the spending crisis and Social Security has long been the most protected of all entitlements.  It needs to be reformed in order to reduce its growing burden on our economy.  The reforms being discussed will not result in anyone currently receiving, or about to receive, benefits having any less than they are expecting.  The Democrats will cry that restructuring Social Security will hurt those who have planned for it, but this is a lie.  All reform options being discussed will only impact those who will have the time to plan for the changes.  The truth is that if Social Security is not reformed, the program will fail.

Democrats point to a $2.3 trillion Social Security Trust Fund surplus.  This is not a cash surplus. It was spent on general government expenses and replaced with Treasury Bonds.  Who is responsible for payment of those bonds? The taxpayer is responsible.  Yes, the Social Security Trust Fund surplus is nothing more than a government I.O.U.  Bernard Madoff could not have done better.

Before the recession accelerated in the fall of 2008, Social Security payroll taxes exceeded benefits paid each year.  Surplus cash, though diverted and replaced with bonds, was being generated.  However, since the labor force lost eight million jobs in the recession, Social Security benefits now exceed payroll taxes collected each year.  With the surplus nothing more than part of the national debt, we have to borrow to make up the difference.

It gets worse.

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If I had a dollar for every time some tool during the health care debate brought up how “we’re the only industrialized” nation in the world without socialized health care I’d have a lot of money. Why, I could even retire from my current job of poisoning the environment and taking advantage of the working man. I could, you know, relax.

Even the U.K., the drones blather, has government run health care. I guess they think we can identify better with the U.K. because they’re mostly white and speak English. I don’t know. I won’t waste any time trying to figure out the left’s thought process. Doing so would be as dangerous and pointless as trying to decipher the Necronomicon.

Invoking the U.K. as a model should, naturally, have the opposite effect on the American psyche. I hate to bring it up, but we kinda fought a war a couple hundred years ago to insure that we were NOT just like England. We already had the English life. We were right there and we rejected it.

Think of all the things we missed out on, only to aspire to end up in the same place. Our fish and chips are inferior. Guinness served over here is never quite as fresh. We don’t have tea time. I really like tea. We also ditched the cool accents. I mean seriously, I could have sounded like Ian McKellan or Sean Connery if it wasn’t for those clowns Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Thanks to the American Revolution we can’t claim Led Zepplin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Arctic Monkeys, The Smiths, Blur or the Spice Girls as our own. James Bond is not our brother. Neither is Dr. Who. On top of it, I would probably be a Lord or Earl or something. Damn it, Lord Leigh Scott of Wauwatosa sounds freaking awesome! Thanks a lot Thomas Paine.

Jerks.

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While there may have been a collective sigh of relief across America after the news that the Census Bureau severed ties with ACORN, it made me wonder who other Census partners were.

In short, ACORN or not, the 2010 census will be an organizing tool for the American Left.

Here is a partial list of other census partners, according to the Census website:

AARP

A. Phillip Randolph Institute

AFL-CIO

American Federation of Government Employees

AFSCME

American Federation of Teachers

Coalition of Labor Union Women

Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

Community Action Partnership

Families USA

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Labor Council for the Latin American Advancement

League of Women Voters of the United States

National Black Justice Coalition

National Council of La Raza

National Education Association

Pride at Work

Rainbow Push Coalition

Service Employees International Union

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

United Workers Workforce Alliance

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