Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tried distancing herself from the Occupy movement this week after OWS protestors disrupted Capitol Hill and even assaulted a police officer.

That’s a far cry from her original comments to ABC anchor Christiane Amanpour in October in which she expressed veiled support for the movement.

But what are the former speaker’s real positions on unlawful protestors who stir up trouble on the Hill and is she alone in her demonstrator-sympathetic views?

I was not surprised last year when Pelosi came out in defense of the OWS movement because she had secretly sympathized and aligned herself with the unlawful protestors demonstrating against the war during the Bush administration—and inappropriately asked U.S. Capitol Police not to arrest unlawful protestors who invaded her office or any other area of the Hill.

During my time as a Washington, D.C. prosecutor from 2007-2009, I was charged with the task of prosecuting all unlawful protests that took place in the District especially those at the U.S. Capitol White House and national monuments.

In fact, I investigated and prosecuted so many protestors that Code Pink nicknamed me the “protestor prosecutor,” in the wake of successfully convicting Desiree Ali-Fairooz, the woman who accosted former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

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With the Occupy movement becoming increasingly confrontational nationwide, there are indications that the anti-capitalist movement is turning violent deliberately.  The adroit agitators intermixed among the idealistic but misguided young people, the street radicals bent above all on attacking the U.S. economic system, see violent revolution as a key route to the transformation of our country into their version of the socialist utopia.

A look at the organizers of the most recent pre-planned Day of Action spotlights a large, radical group, a latter-day Red Army of seasoned activists who have been discreetly guiding Occupy since the movement’s onset and whose history is colored with previous mayhem while their plans for the immediate future raise serious questions. Just yesterday, the Occupy movement posted online plans for “alternative forms of protest,” including flash mobs that can be deployed nationwide.

Just over a week ago, Occupy Wall Street held a three-day “Direct Action Preparation and Training” course in downtown Manhattan to gear up for the latest round of riots, including last Thursday’s three-course meal of in-your-face tactics aiming to block subways and bridges as well as shut down the stock market.

Revealingly, official resources provided on the Occupy site as part of the planning for last week’s chaos shows several manuals from the Ruckus Society, whose mission is to provide “environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals”; this includes training radical activists in direct action techniques.

The same Ruckus Society that helped to spark the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, which devolved into violent unrest, was listed as a “friend and partner” for last week’s Day of Action.

The Ruckus training manuals provided at the Occupy site leave little to the imagination. Titles include: “Blockading for Beginners,” “Anonymous Riot Guide,” “Define White Supremacy,” “Uncle Sam the Pusher Man” and, of course, the (still!) Communist Party-connected National Lawyers Guild’s “Legal Observer Manual.”

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UPDATE: Me? Not so much. I was in coach, with my peeps.

On the plane with me right now:

Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans said she is “part of the 1% who supports the 99%” and didn’t want to be photographed holding my Playboy interview.

My fellow Americans–and, I suppose, Canadians:

I regret to inform you that you are not the “99 Percent.”

The 99 Percent dislikes big banks, but also dislikes big government–and big messes.

The 99 Percent does not occupy property it does not own, public or private.

The 99 Percent does not steal from local businesses, does not attack police officers, does not storm national museums, and does not defecate in public.

Flyer at #OccupyWallStreet - the address for donations is a small building in Washington, DC shared by Code Pink and other "progressive" organizations

The 99 Percent does not rank people’s views based on their skin color, gender, or socioeconomic status.

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President Obama and liberal Democrats are almost orgasmic at the thought they have finally found a movement to counter the Tea Party in the Occupy Wall Street astroturf.

While the President, liberal Democrats, union leaders and some in the media have tried to convince Americans that this is  a grassroots movement that is raging against corporate greed on Wall Street and is being led by disenfranchised Americans, the truth of the matter is that this is the usual bunch of suspects on the far left such as International ANSWER, Code Pink, the Communist Party USA, and the Workers World Party, to name a few — a loose coalition of anarchist groups and angry trust-fund babies looking for their lot in life.

President Obama and liberal Democrats, in praising this bunch, are trying to give them mainstream exposure, but as the American people have come to find out more about this so-called coalition group and their list of demands, which read something like a Communist Redbook, they are coming to realize that this is the same bunch that show up at annual IMF/World Bank Meeting and engage in massive protests which includes general mayhem, destroying private property and battling the police in the streets. With that said, you can hardly call this group grassroots; they are professional protestors whose overall objective is to replace our system of individual freedoms with big government socialism, even if that means using violence to accomplish it. (more…)

On October 6, 2011, Medea Benjamin, head of radical anti-war group Code Pink, told MRCTV’s Joe Schoffstall at ‘Occupy DC’ in Freedom Plaza that unions are not behind the formation of the recent demonstrations, despite the SEIU’s Stephen Lerner being one of the people behind the initial ‘Day of Rage’.

On August 19, The Blaze reported the following on Lerner:

“Now, the US Day of Rage protests, staged by a collective of activist groups allegedly in conjunction with Lerner and Rathke, are planning the actual “occupation” of Wall Street September 17, complete with a tent city set smack-dab in the middle of Manhattan’s financial district.  Similar protests are purportedly set to take place across the nation — and even world — at the same time. Some Day of Rage organizers are even calling on activists to squat in Manhattan’s financial district for months at a time.”

When asked about the SEIU organizer, Benjamin- whose organization is supporting the demonstrations- said he was not part of it and the likes of Van Jones and Stephen Lerner did not want to even touch it, despite Van Jones promising an ‘October Offensive’ and progressive uprising. Jones held a rally outside of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on October 5, 2011.

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Freedom is more embattled in America today than ever. My group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), has begun tracking the activities of numerous active groups that are threats to freedom in the United States today on our Threats to Freedom Index. We plan to augment it periodically and publish it annually.

All Threat to Freedom groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign American Constitutional freedoms and/or lawful initiatives for American self-defense.

My colleague Robert Spencer and I compiled the list from records of Threat to Freedom group statements and activities as they appear in their own publications and websites, as well as from reports from concerned citizens and mainstream media reports.

Threat to Freedom group activities can include misrepresentation of anti-terror and other law enforcement initiatives, attempts to restrict the freedom of speech regarding Islamic jihad or other threats to freedom, defamation of freedom fighters, disinformation campaigns in the mainstream media regarding attempts by the U.S. and Israel to defend themselves, and more.

Listing as a Threat to Freedom group does not in itself imply that a listed group calls for or participates in violence or criminal activities, although it does not rule out their doing so.

Here are the first groups listed on our AFDI Threats to Freedom Index. There is more detail in my book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

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It is a time-honored tactic of radicals to accuse their enemies of what they do in order to convert a negative into a positive, as the master of political agitation Saul Alinsky taught.

This explains the Left’s newfound interest in the lie that the Tea Party is comprised of “terrorists.”

Unless you think petitioning the government for lower spending is somehow akin to flying airplanes into buildings, you’ve got to agree with Sarah Palin, whose recent salvos on the topic are dead-on.

As President Obama and his merry band of Marxists continue driving America off a cliff, Palin (and columnist Charles Krauthammer) have been pushing back hard against the liberal talking point that Tea Party supporters are terrorists.

Her comments came after Vice President Joe Biden, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), and their socialist buddies at MSNBC recently breathed new life into the “terrorist” smear. Because President Obama, who himself has ties to real, live terrorists, has not upbraided the vice president, we can safely assume he agrees with Biden.

Said Palin on Fox News Channel:

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This video has been circulating around the Internet over that past week. It appears to be a situation of implied excessive police force against a simple harmless form of protest. However you can see Madea Benjamin (Co-Founder) of Code Pink appear in the video, and intentionally agitate the police officers on the scene.

The claim that this is somehow a violation of these individuals’ rights is a perversion of the First Amendment. The First Amendment does not grant the freedom to individuals to act like morons anywhere they wish at any time they please. The First Amendment says, the Congress has no authority to make laws regarding the freedom of speech, and the right of the people to peaceable assemble for a redress of grievances.

While there are examples of excessive police force in the United States of America, this simply is not one of them. The police in this video were doing their job. They clearly warned the people to stop what they were doing, in a memorial due only the highest respect of the citizens and guests of this nation who wish to visit it. It is highly doubtful Thomas Jefferson would have ever danced alongside these fools in order to prove a necessity for the freedom from the federal government to protest.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh and Elizabeth Blackney to discuss the importance of Osama bin Laden’s death photos, and why waterboarding is an important tool in the war against terrorism.

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:

Closer look at bin Laden’s compound
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‘Cheney’s assassination squad’ just killed bin Laden
Pej: Means To An End
Republicans note harsh interrogation helped bin Laden operation

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Yesterday, we at the Media Research Center went to the MoveOn.org “We Are One” union rally in Washington, D.C. held outside of the Treasury building to ask the people why they were there protesting.

All of the groups taking part of the rally included: the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, CommonCause, Communication Workers of America, Greenpeace, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn, NAACP, National Education Association, SEIU, United Food and Commercial Workers, and USAction.

Given it was blatantly obvious beforehand they were rallying against the Koch brothers despite marketing it as standing up for MLK’s dream, I figured I’d ask them what that exactly was all about. Many people literally could not answer, some refused to answer, and some essentially repeated talking points liberal websites churn out- which shall remain nameless. Including Medea Benjamin of Code Pink.

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Many on the left, including the Center for Media and Democracy, are now challenging the veracity of Christian Hartsock and my separate but damning video selections taken at the Van Vones/Common Cause/Code Pink “Uncloak the Kochs” rally in Rancho Mirage, California, on January 30, 2011:

In a peaceful rally of more than 1,000 people, a crew of videographers who have worked with Breitbart egged a few into making outrageous, bigoted remarks on camera, then presented them as representative of the entire crowd and the rally sponsors. None of the interviewees was identified, and some looked to be wearing wigs or disguises. Given Breitbart’s history of promoting staged videos, it is difficult to have any confidence in the authenticity of the clips.

For two years the left has tried desperately to find video evidence of Tea Party participants to damn the whole. They have failed so miserably that it became necessary for the creation of the group, CrashTheTeaParty.org, which called for opponents of the Tea Party to dress up as Nazis or in other offensive uniforms, or to carry troubling signs, all in the hopes of getting the mainstream media to falsely portray the fake Tea Party protesters as authentic and representative of the whole.

Well, Christian and I needn’t instigate fake people dressing and acting foolishly, in a racist fashion, or threatening violence. Those at the Rancho Mirage anti-Koch rally (against capitalism, free markets, and gummy bears) have been more than forthright in their extremism. (And now look at what we found in Madison, Wisconsin!)

Since Lisa Graves and the Center for Media and Democracy has now challenged the authenticity of the videos we took, we feel it’s appropriate to isolate those who made the hateful remarks by name.

The first is self-identified “Roger Fraser from Chicago, and happy to be here!”

I found him yelling “revolution now!” as I was rollerblading amongst the anti-capitalism H8 chanters.

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I recently took a two-day trip down to Palm Springs to attend an event called “Uncloaking the Kochs” hosted by Common Cause. Accompanied by my dear friend, former assembly candidate Alvaro Day, I traveled as an independent investigative journalist, and not in any official capacity on behalf of Big Government or Breitbart.com (though I was pleasantly surprised to run into a familiar friend of mine on rollerblades jovially inviting everyone to Applebee’s).

Among Common Cause’s, well, common causes, are campaign finance reform, net neutrality, outlawing the filibuster, promoting cap and trade, and in this particular case, herding a mass of protesters outside a nearby hotel to yell at Charles and David Koch for being conservative and rich.

Unfortunately several “haves” have missed the memo that you’re not to be both rich and conservative at the same time, and that bankrolling your pet causes is an extra no-no if you’re conservative—thus exempting left-wing billionaire philanthropists George Soros (from whom Common Cause has received $2 million over the past eight years) Peter Lewis, John Doerr, Julian Robertson, Nicolas Berggruen, and many others from being yelled at too. (more…)

Last year Big Journalism chronicled Occidental College professor Peter Dreier, who served on the Obama campaign’s urban policy task force and as an adviser to ACORN, using his position with the university to recruit operatives for the “battle with conservative ideas” (new tone, anyone?).  According to an email obtained by BigGovernment.com, Dreier is at it again, this time drafting activists to protest a meeting headed up by conservative businessmen Charles and David Koch.

He also encourages people to attend a panel discussion before the protest featuring, among others, UC Irvine Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, U.C. Berekely Professor and former Obama adviser Robert Reich, and Van Jones.

The top activists on the left aren’t just confined to Soros-backed fringe groups like Code Pink or Media Matters; they’re often the professors we pay thousands to teach our children.  And it’s from their perch atop the ivory towers of academia that they recruit and reeducate the next crop of activists.

dreier pdf 2 –

In 1983, Ronald Reagan infuriated liberals worldwide by accurately labeling the Soviet Union as the evil empire. George W. Bush received a similar reaction following his “axis of evil” speech in which he used the politically incorrect term, evil, to describe the regimes of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Although most Americans found it refreshing to hear a politician speak so directly and honestly, the media and the rest of the liberal elites went berserk. Imagine that. It was not that the Kim Jong-il regime kept the people of North Korea in a state of poverty and near starvation that got liberals in a tizzy. Rather, it was that Bush had the audacity to use the word evil to describe it.

The nearly two years of corruption, plunder, and economic destruction—combined with the mockery of the American people and vilification of the private sector—has crystallized for many a realization of a home grown threat more destructive and imminently dangerous to America than any of the substantial external threats we faced over the last century. It’s a threat that has been building quietly for many years but has come to the fore since President Obama was elected. Have you wondered how the radical left managed to capture the reins of power and govern in direct opposition to the will of two thirds of the population?  The answer is the New Axis of Evil. It is the power base of the left (and the Democratic Party).

No doubt, the list can be debated and expanded, but here, at least is a starting point—the dirty dozen if you will, with a few prime examples included.

1. Old Media (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, NY Times)
2. Engorged Public Unions (SEIU, NEA, AFSCME)
3. Global Socialist Elites (Robert McChesney, Andy Stern, George Soros)
4. Liberal “Think” Tanks (Media Matters, Center for American Progress, ThinkProgress)
5. America Hating Academics (Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman )
6. Professional Victims Groups (La Raza, CAIR, NAACP, NOW)
7. Community Disorganizers & Activists (ACORN, Code Pink, ACLU)
8. Environmental Redistributionists (Greenpeace, EDF)
9. Social Justice Preachers (Jeremiah Wright, Reverend Jim Wallis)
10. Progressive Hollywood Elites (Oliver Stone, Sean Penn)
11. Bloated Federal Bureaucracy (DOE, DOA, TSA)
12. Public/Private Colluders (AARP, Government Motors, Goldman Sachs)

It almost goes without saying (but here I’ll say it anyway)—there are many good people scattered among these institutions.

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Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Capitol Hill staff is stonewalling a request by military mother Beverly Perlson for a copy of a reported diplomatic letter provided by the California Democrat to the leftwing group Code Pink/Global Exchange in support of the delivery of $600,000 in cash and aid to the “other side” in Fallujah, Iraq in late 2004.

Perlson, whose son has served four tours in the war on terror, is founder of the pro-troops group The Band of Mothers.

After initially telling Perlson the letter could not be found, Boxer’s staff has given Perlson the run around. Since she first made her request by telephone last week, Perlson says she has been passed from one staffer who, after failing to return several phone calls, referred her to another staffer who has not returned repeated phone messages. The receptionist refuses to give an e-mail address to Perlson so she can send her request in writing.

The stonewalling by Boxer’s office is in stark contrast to California Rep. Henry Waxman’s office which promptly provided Perlson a copy of a similar letter by Waxman.

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It should be noted that the so-called “peace activists” at the Code Pink organization are anything but peace activists. These anti-American radicals and Marxists supported the mass murderer Saddam Hussein who ran one of the most brutal regimes in the 20th century. Code Pink activists currently support the illegitimate Iranian regime, the Marxist Chavez regime in Venezuela and have even met with Taliban Islamists.

“Code Pink Kills American Troops Giving Money to Terrorists” (Target of Opportunity photo)

On November 22, 2004, the socialist anti-American group Code Pink sent out a plea to supporters to help send assistance to the “refugees” from Fallujah, Iraq.

Today, as CODEPINK was busily preparing a year-end humanitarian mission to Iraq, we received an urgent message. It was from our dear friend Dahr Jamail, an amazing American independent journalist who has been risking his life to get the true story of Fallujah to the American public:

“I have just come from a refugee camp in Baghdad with families from Fallujah. The suffering is beyond description. It’s worse than anything you’ve read or anything I’ve written so far.

This is a humanitarian crisis. They need medicines for their camp and the other camps immediately. We have an organization set up of doctors who can distribute the medicines and supplies. BUT WE NEED THEM NOW! THIS CANNOT WAIT!”
Solidarity,
Dahr

The next day, on November 23, 2004, Code Pink announced that they had raised nearly $20,000 in one day for “refugess” from Fallujah.

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The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has doubled-down on failure.

Ignoring the growing protests of its outraged members, the supposedly “independent” VFW Political Action Committee (VFW-PAC) has issued a new statement refusing to back off on the disgraceful set of endorsements that have threatened the venerable and (at least at the local level) respected organization with destruction.

The short version: “Our members are partisan morons who ought to sit back and let us decide what’s good for them.”  The long version:

VFW-PAC Stands By Endorsement Process

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct 13,2010 – The VFW-PAC was established in 1979 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) as a separate, nonpartisan organization charged with the single task of working in Congress to support candidates who have taken responsible positions on issues involving national defense and legislation pertaining to the nation’s veterans.

An eleven member Board of Directors reviews and establishes the criteria used for the endorsement process each election cycle. This cycle the Board chose a methodology for endorsement that was used successfully in years past; grading an incumbent’s support by the position taken on critical issues of importance to the VFW. Therefore, thirteen roll call votes in the House of Representatives and nine votes in the Senate that aligned with VFW priority goals were selected to grade the support of incumbent members of Congress. The bar was set high, as a Senator must have voted in concert with the VFW position on 7 of 9 votes and a Representative 10 of 13 to receive the VFW-PAC endorsement. If a member of Congress failed to make the grade, the Board would consider a challenger for that Congressional seat. The Board would also consider candidates running for open seats. Both challengers and open seat candidates would have to state in writing their position on VFW priority goals.

There are a few races out of 356 endorsed candidates in both the House and Senate, where emotions are running high, that are getting a lot of attention. In some cases there are veterans and even VFW members running against Congressional incumbents endorsed by the VFW-PAC. It would not only be unfair, but contrary to VFW-PAC By-Laws to disregard the incumbent’s record of support and endorse another candidate. The VFW-PAC will not abandon those in Congress that have supported issues of critical importance to our nation’s security and veterans.

In the political endorsement arena, there will always be party loyalists and individuals that will not agree with the VFW-PAC decision. The Board respects their position and appreciates their activism in support of the candidate of their choice. The VFW-PAC endorsement is not designed to tell people how to vote; but to point out who has demonstrated support for veterans and America’s security.

The VFW-PAC disagrees with those who claim the endorsement process is skewed, flawed, or unfair.

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