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Loose Canons

Occupy Charlotte

By on 10.24.11 @ 6:08AM

It won’t be a real Democratic convention unless the Occupy Wall Street crowd adopts the next one as its home.

(Page 2 of 2)

If that young man goes to Charlotte, it will be on dad’s American Express card, and he’ll insist on a room at (at least) a four-star hotel. He won’t riot: he’ll whine about the injustice found in a bottle of lousy chardonnay.

The OWS crew is a loose collection of iPhone-totin’ tokin’ foodies who would rather walk a mile to get the best sushi than walk a mile in a poor man’s shoes. Seriously, the poor man doesn’t even have a decent pair of ASICS training shoes.

So why not invite the OWS crowd to occupy Charlotte and dominate the convention? Only one reason stands in the way.

Obama cannot be reelected if he remains the face of angry liberalism. The anger — built between George McGovern’s defeat in 1972 and Obama’s election in 2008 — spilled out in a tsunami of legislation aimed at transforming America into a European socialist state. The 2009 stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank financial “reform,” and so much more were the instruments of relieving the anger.

But even those massive changes to America didn’t relieve the liberals’ anger because it’s part of their character. And because their leader is — and always will be — a deeply angry man.

His polls notwithstanding, the likely nomination of Mitt Romney almost irrelevant, Obama’s greatest fear is that he won’t escape the popular backlash to the angry liberalism that is embedded so deeply in his character. His speeches have revealed too much. The “No Drama Obama” of 2008 has been replaced by the “All-Drama Obama,” the angry accusatory orator of 2011. He daren’t let voters see that in the 2012 Convention or in the campaign that will follow. His only hope is to conceal it.

So, to all the OWS’ers who may by accident read this, let me say that we need to hear from you next year. Go to Charlotte, and not just as protesters. Get a spot as a convention delegate. For those who aren’t delegates, please take your parent’s credit card and buy a good hotel room or a nice Eddie Bauer easy-to-pitch tent and all the gear that you’ll need with it. Camp out in some nice park and hog as much bandwidth for your iPhones and iPads, as much good wine and all the sushi you can find. You’re entitled to it all.

And the Democrats deserve you and thousands like you, in full plumage, in every bit of media time you can grab in Charlotte next September.

Page:   12

About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (89) |

Stuart Koehl| 10.24.11 @ 6:45AM

Party like it's 1968!

Alan Brooks| 10.24.11 @ 10:13AM

What does an old meatball such as Babbin know? He's merely goes into the stale argument that there's no Draft anymore so you suckers please vote for another George Mush in '12 and subscribe to American Spectator....

Mike Hawk| 10.24.11 @ 10:18AM

Meat head. That's you. Jed Babbin knows a heck of a lot more than you do.

Alan Brooks| 10.24.11 @ 10:21AM

You're right, it's those militant troublemaking potsmokers.
Babbin knows a heckuvalot more than I do.
Golly Geez Louise. Babbin is the cat's meow!
23 Skidoo.

Alan Brooks| 10.24.11 @ 10:18AM

Good for you:
hackwork requires no deep thinking, Babbin.

Mike Hawk| 10.24.11 @ 11:36AM

You cynicism is boring as well as tiresome.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:02PM

If only it was merely cynicism and not just being Alan Brooks.

Redstateboy| 10.24.11 @ 12:11PM

Hey Brooks... did you know your Slave Party booed the Boy Scouts of America at the 2000 Slave Party convention... probably makes someone of your ilk proud huh?

Alan Brooks| 10.25.11 @ 3:29AM

They to keep protesting, I need more entitlements and I don't think America embraces the ideals of NAMBLA, this must change, as a homosexaul I am just like everyone and I everyone acknowledge that homosexuals are special.

Alan Brooks| 10.25.11 @ 10:38AM

Okay, Clint- bad impersonation.

Occam's Tool| 10.26.11 @ 1:32PM

Stuart,

if ever we needed intense cops cracking protesters' skulls, that time is now.

Michael Tomlinson| 10.24.11 @ 7:00AM

"When delegates to the Democratic National Convention arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, next September, they may find the streets occupied by the same protesters who are now the darlings of the media: the "Occupy Wall Street" crew. President Obama has expressed his support for OWS in such glowing terms that the protesters should read it as a personal invitation to the convention." That would be a beautiful thing -- Barack Obama's version of the 1968 Democrat Chicago convention.

Timothy L. Pennell| 10.24.11 @ 9:42AM

I must disagree. When the Democrats show up, it'll be a Pristine Landscape with Butterflies and Unicorns.
Those Pig holes, lying around the streets, like so much garbage, will be Long Gone before their Messiah hits town. They'll be wherever they put the HOMELESS, every time they have a Convention.

Al Adab| 10.24.11 @ 11:15AM

These current "protests" are simply being used as a dress rehersal for the conventions (both of them) next year. The intent is to disrupt the process through which we exercise our self-government. One can imagine the events spreading into the urban centers, remember Detroit and Newark?, as the attempt is made to disrupt the elections as well. There is a clear and present danger here and the road so easily leads to Ceasar or Bonaparte.

Alan Brooks| 10.24.11 @ 10:15AM

GEORGE MUSH FOR PRESIDENT

Tim the Enchanter| 10.24.11 @ 1:24PM

When did you change your name?

Drunken Sailor| 10.24.11 @ 1:55PM

He had to. Obamagirl was already taken.

squalis| 10.24.11 @ 7:18AM

Why can't I convince my daughter, whom I love dearly, to not vote D. My mistake, I suppose, by sending her to college? By the way, she only has a Visa credit card.

Fast Johnny| 10.24.11 @ 8:45AM

Just reclaim the Visa and watch how how a liberal changes before your eyes.

Q: What is the definition of conservative?
A: A liberal that has been mugged.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:05PM

Q. What is the definition of conservative?
A. A liberal that has had to pay the bills.

Occam's Tool| 10.26.11 @ 1:33PM

Even better: announce you won't pay it any more. watch her become an R, el rapido.

RCV| 10.24.11 @ 5:37PM

Yes, education is a dangerous thing. You start to think for yourself.

Sam Deakins| 10.24.11 @ 7:29AM

Of course Obama's policies have not lifted all boats but, instead has grounded them. He did say that he would slow the rise of the oceans.

Johnny H| 10.24.11 @ 9:03AM

Nice and pithy

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.24.11 @ 8:05AM

Charlotte isn't too far a drive from FT Bragg where I am, so next year when their convention rolls into town, I might just have to put in a pass and attend it myself. I think I'll buy myself a good Grateful Dead wig, a tie dyed T-shirt, then I'll blend into the crowd up there, and start whipping them into a frenzy. It can't be too hard, because they're all idiots (or at least they all play Idiots on TV). I think all I'll have to do is, just start chanting mindless slogans, "You Can't Hug Children With Nuclear Arms", pump my fist in the air, and start spreading rumors that the "Man" won't let us do this, or the "Man" won't let us do that. Then when they get all crazy, like they always do, I'll go back to my car, go home, turn on the TV, and enjoy the show!! This OWS crowd is going to come back and bite the Democratic Party in the Ass, which is very fitting!!

Redstateboy| 10.24.11 @ 8:47AM

How about hoisting some signs.. like..."Communism only killed 100 million people, give it a second chance!" or "Marx was Right!" They'll think you're one of them.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.24.11 @ 11:42AM

Exactly Redstateboy!! How about, "Planned Parenthood is better than the KKK for minority population control"? They won't know what to do seeing that, cheer me or boo me!! I'll just pull out some of my old tricks from back in the day when I was a Hippie "Save The Whatever Needs To Be Save For The Day" douche-bag myself. I can talk their talk, hell I may have invented some of their words myself like, "Bush lied, my sneakers were untied"!! Yeah, yeah, I know, that kind of sucks, but most of their chants suck anyway, so what's the difference? And anyway, my sneakers were untied, and I ended up tripping (and not the good kind of tripping)!! The one thing I've got to be careful with is the wig, if it falls off, and they see my "high and tight", they'll know "I'm the Man".

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:09PM

Skinheads have successfully integrated into the mob. At least there was a dress code in '68.

JimH| 10.24.11 @ 8:07AM

They may be there, but unfortunately I expect most of the noise to be around the Republican convention here in Tampa. They will get to sweat all day in the heat and humidity. And in the evening they can try to avoid the lightning which accompanies the nightly thunderstorms. If we are lucky there could be a tornado or hurricane as well. For those not from around here, when camping out they may be amused when they spread their sleeping bags atop fire ant mounds.

TrueBlue| 10.24.11 @ 12:17PM

The Florida humidity is why you won't see any of them down there for more than a day. They couldn't stand to be that uncomfortable. They might be there long enough to get a nasty sunburn though.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:11PM

You don't understand, they enjoy this type of thing. They exist only to whine and pule, so the humidity would be one more thing to complain about.

Redstateboy| 10.24.11 @ 8:49AM

Were it not for the Washington Times, we'd probably never have known that the Boy Scouts were booed in the 2000 Dem convention when they carried the flag to the podium.

and this is the first I've heard of this. Democrats are swine.

chaussures ugg | 10.24.11 @ 8:54AM

what....

Petronius| 10.24.11 @ 9:05AM

Jed could have the wrong end of the stick. The southern Appalachian states are "bitter clinger" country. The Democrats would like nothing better than seeing armed rednecks show up intending to run their client pond life out of town. An excuse to declare Marshall Law and rule by diktat would suit them just fine. And they are bringing the troops home just in time.

C.K. Amos| 10.24.11 @ 8:53PM

Please don't presume that all Southerners who believe in God -- and here, I refer to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and, if Christian, also God Incarnate Jesus the Christ--Yeshua Ha-Maschiach, if you prefer -- are rednecks.

Even so, can't imagine Southerners who believe in God --and who own weapons and go to the woods in deer, turkey and other such seasons -- banding together to storm the Charlotte Coliseum area where the OWS "pond life" may be, to drive them from town.

Fact is, I can't imagine Southern non-believers would do the same.

It is certainly an image to consider, though.

Many in the South, but particularly in the Old North State, likely will just laugh about how much the Queen City and Mecklenburg County screwed up by inviting the Demobocrat/progressive/liberal/leftist Party and its road show to town.

The OWS types and any hangers-on may be the safest in Charlotte during the convention, if they chose to behave as they have in New York City or elsewhere.

However, and I'm just spit-balling it here, if said OWS "pond life" were to make the mistake of behaving so in some wide-spots, towns and cities in the Mid-Atlantic and South en route to Charlotte, and then back to where they came from, they may find inhospitable welcomes.

BTW, I agree that Obama and the DPLLs chomp at the bit to invoke martial law and rule by diktats.

Word of friendly advice to Obama and his tribe, though: Best try that martial law and rule by diktats anywhere other than the South.

That's because there are many, many, many men and women in the South who are veterans and know how to use weapons -- or who aren't veterans but still know how to use weapons -- that are very testy when it comes to someone infringing, with or without force, on their liberties

POST American| 10.24.11 @ 9:23AM

----Though some genuineness to be found,
alas, ----so co-opted by the usual 'CON-troll'
ops of Soros ---himself a frontman for Rockefeller
n' ROT-child 'SO shall' and 'fine-ants'
YOU-genics.

Mike Hawk| 10.24.11 @ 10:19AM

Lay off the Chloroform.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:12PM

Rather, remember to take your thorazine.

Dan Mathewson| 10.24.11 @ 4:52PM

The Men in Black are coming for him. Once they finish with Jeebs, of course.

Occam's Tool| 10.26.11 @ 1:34PM

PA, I have read some schizophrenics' notes in my time, but...

WTF?

Think Again| 10.24.11 @ 9:47AM

I'd be careful about the ridicule that the gray-haired set (the over 40 set) keep heaping on OWS types.

Why the obcessing over them?

Consider yourself lucky to be over 50, Mr. Jed Babbin, and within easily only 20 or 25 years of a natural death.

What does the 22 year old college graduate have to look forward to today?

You and your generation (and the one proceeding your generation) have given those under the age of 30:

1. Debt like we have never seen before. Mountains of it.
2. Fool politicians from the statehouses in Sacramento and Spokane to the halls of D.C.
3. Banks to big to fail. Ditto for AEG and the rest.
4. Debt to our mortal enemy China.
5. In excess of 19-22 million illegals here roaming about -- and who will never leave.
6. No secured borders.
7. Muslims now everywhere in our midst plotting jihad. Imams and mosques easier to find than a Hardees.
8. States and cities that are failing. States needing bailouts from Washington, further plunging us into debt.
9. A failed auto industry and manufacturing that have left not just the Rust Belt but left the States for overseas.
10. You gave us Bill Clinton+John Edwards+Mark Sanford mores and Saturday Night Live antics, demeanor, langauge, hijinks, and buffoonery as our everyday norms.
11. You allowed the family to be destroyed in America. How many kids under 30 have fathers at home or both parents at home?
12. You allowed the Roe v. Wade decision and have done nothing to overturn it -- setting our moral decline accelerator.
13. You stopped going to churches and made it just en vogue to sleep in on Sundays, then coffee in the den with the liberal, lying New York Times.
14. You've given us the welfare society -- and never rollled it back or gotten useless scum off the dole. You have created the single mothers and their offspring which fill our prisons to overcapacity.
15. You hand out employment visas like candy so we have to compete (very unfairly -- it is not an even playing field) with el cheapo techie guys from India, Taiwan, China, and Pakistan.
16. You've created the "anything goes" hedonism of the sex lifestyle, drug use, easy availablity of drugs for purchase in the U.S. situation. A lot of you do the hedonism thing all the time -- cocaine, meds, pills, hard liquor as part of the weekly diet.
17. Worried about the 19 year old using a fancy, pricey Smartphone? Why? Oh, he has misplaced values? Too materialistic? Too immature with his money? Well, just maybe he had life mentors like the adults in his life that try to live in $820,000 houses they cannot afford with two BMWs on the driveway.
20. You gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and no oversight.

One could keep going. The list would run to over 100 key points.


Also: You old geezers promulgated the myths about getting these over-priced, worthless college and grad school educations. You told us that unless we had them, you wouldn't even look at our job applications.

You allowed your alma matters to go hairbrained looney tunes liberal!!! (No, you cannot get the Dean to change his "thinking," policies, or hiring practices for new staff or faculty as a 19 year old sophomore.)

Some of you decry the liberal onslaught on campuses but then write the next alumni donor check.

The "State of the Nation" is not the fault of those under 30 years of age. It is not.

Those U.S. citizens born between the years of 1930 and 1970 are those who have destroyed the United States of America.

That is fair, candid, rightful criticism that cannot be excused.

The future sucks for those under 30 -- and those older are ALL to blame.

Sorry if a lot of the OWS types cannot - just for you - properly and thoroughly articulate legitimate grievances. Some are just interlopers looking for a good time. But some have thought long and hard about what kind of world and nation you've given us.

And it sucks.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.24.11 @ 11:49AM

You do realize, that almost all the grievances you listed are solely the fault of the Democratic Party, don't you? This is a website for Conservatives, who have never been in charge of Congress, and don't support the crap you listed, so you're crying to the wrong crowd!!

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 12:35PM

Lullabys, Legends and Lies,

While it's true that the Republicans were in the desert for 40 years between '55 and '95', there were six Reagan years when the Senate Majority was held be the Republicans with Howard Baker and then Bob Dole as leaders. Tip O'Neill had an iron grip on the House.

In the mid-term Clinton election of '94, the R's did capture the House and Senate for the first time which they held through the Clinton years. The first two Bush years had Tom Daschle over the Senate.

The important observation is that, the government was divided. The last undivided government was held by the Democrats during the Carter administration and we see how well that worked.

Unfortunately, between January '03 and '07 the Republicans were undivided and that didn't work out so well either. Although, I think, those were the good-old-days compared to the current situation.

My fear is that, while we will need an undivided government to undo the damage of Obama and his henchmen, the Republicans (certainly the old guard) cannot be trusted to do it.

The first order of business is to get rid of Obama. Almost as important is to get rid of the Old Guard Republicans (OGREs).

Al Adab| 10.24.11 @ 1:16PM

Do not make the same mistake that the opposition makes (to their advantage and by design) of confusing the GOP with the Conservative Movement. Conservatives offer the only Choice to continued policies of government growth and statism which both parties promulgate. GOP does it better with fewer losses of liberty but the result is the same. Hence a Romney administration would be only a short term respite from the onward march of statism.

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 1:40PM

Al Adab,

No confusion here. I quite giving to the GOP in '91 and sent all donations straight to the candidates of my choice. Romney would be more of the Democrat-lite Republicanism adopted by the party a generation ago.

Al Adab| 10.24.11 @ 3:50PM

Exactly the strategy I employ. There is great irony here. The DEMs chose Charlotte to attempt and keep NC in their electoral pocket. The street riots that will ensue next summer (and at the GOP convention too) will turn the voters of NC against the DEM candidate. Ultimately the election will turn on Ohio and Fla. It will be tight.

Indy| 10.24.11 @ 7:23PM

Charolette aka Wall Street of the South, home to Bank of America, a right to work state - the unions are not happy with the DNC choice to hold the convention in Charlotte. Who knows where OWS will be by then?

Camber| 10.24.11 @ 2:15PM

L.L.L., I worked for a spell in D.C. for a ironclad conservative on the Hill.

As the GOP lost the U.S. Senate majority in epic fashion in November 1986, I watched in disbelief.

Disbelief at the collective, nonchalant shrug of shoulders as if to say, "Who cares? No big deal."

There were some really nice, fancy, expensive parties in and around the Hill that election night as the numbers came in and made the losses very apparent. Didn't dampen the party atmosphere that much at all, as far as I could observe.

There was a very strange conservative response to this. It was silence. The only groans were from lower level staffers who lost jobs one month later and were not yet senior enough or connected enough to spring to other D.C. openings.

Other than those who see politics purely as sport (point totals, point spreads, TD spikes, and other metaphors that mean nothing to the well-being of the nation), the ho-hum "I don't give a ______ " response from "conservatives" and GOPers was deafening in 1986.

I will have to again examine the number of years since World War 2 that the GOP has controlled a house in Congress and the White House.

But I have to ask: If the Conservatives are such great people and so deeply in love with America, why haven't they gotten this message to the American people and won and held majorities?

Might it be a credibility issue?

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:41PM

No, but rather, the conservative movement, by nature, is sandbagged by "having a day job" and general contentedness in life. A liberal wins because a leftist, by definition, detests hard work and is perpetually miserable.

As such, the liberal is always motivated to deform society until he is content. Of course, being incapable of thankfulness and thus contentedness, the liberal never rests.

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 6:07PM

Patrick,

If I may presume to restate: the Conservative wants to be left to his own and the Liberal wants to meddle.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.24.11 @ 6:24PM

Camber: You say, ironclad conservative? Could you name a name for us, because you might be surprised that he/she really wasn't one? Despite the fact you thought they were!!

Conservatives have a hard time winning majorities because their answers to our biggest problems, are not the answer most people want to hear. The answer is NO, no we don't want bigger Government, No we don't want more Welfare, no, No, and NO!! We don't get invited to a lot of parties because we're kind of Party poopers!! We're not!! We like to have a good time, as long as the party ends by 2200 hrs!! Seriously, who do you want to vote for the most, the person that say it's your responsibility, or the person who says it's not your fault, and everything will be fine, and they'll pay the bill for you? It's hard to overcome that, even if we are Right!!

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 12:09PM

Think Again,

It may come as a surprise that a lot of us "old geezers" have been complaining about the same thing for a long time. Perhaps many of us were too busy making a living and putting our kids through school to concern ourselves over what the politicians were constructing but a few of us have been shooting from the rooftops to an uncaring world. I subscribed to the American Spectator when I was 22 and it was almost a broadsheet newspaper and to National Review when the perennial problem was smearing ink. My 22 year-old son graduates next April.

Now for some of the wisdom I didn't have when I was 22. The world really doesn't give a tinker's dam what you think. Nothing personal. So take your righteous indignation into the voting booth and make it better, persuade your friends, make your corner the best you can. You were never guaranteed anything. If you've been "screwed by the man" (and we all have) make damned sure these bastards aren't re-elected. If there is any good news, it appears that they have taken a step too far and the backlash is under way.

If the OWS crowds demands (stop foreclosures, forgive student debt, raise the minimum wage) seem reasonable to you (I hope they don't) then you will merely continue what you decry. You might also wish to revisit the number of employment visas actually issued. It's miniscule. Only 65,000 H1-B visas issued each year. During the Clinton years it was triple that.

Think Again| 10.24.11 @ 1:56PM

I'd only say that 15 - 20% of the OWS types are worth listening to. Got it? The serious voices here are NOT interested in class warfare or being used by organized, well funded union thugs.

Some of you need to actually walk to one of these and see the young people on the fringes. Talk to them. Not the hard core looking fools. No. Talk to the ones hanging on the edges that look a mixture of curious, serious but also apprehensive and unsure. You'll find common ground. Plenty of it.

No, the crowd I travel with doesn't want student loans forgiven. What we do want: Full chiseling away at lowering tuition, extra fees upon fees, etc. Do you know how much a college semester costs -- right now? Just one semester!

I am projecting down the road a little bit here: How on earth will I ever earn enough (if I get married in 5 year and start having children in 8 years), how on earth will I be able to help them afford college?

Mr. Navratil, I can tell you that every employment "line" that is a tech job is choked with foreigners. Some of them are not stupid. Some are okay and perhaps qualified. But they aren't remarkably better than the US "kid" trying to land his first job or move up. I have no idea why companies take risks on employees with iffy English language skills and no real long term prospects for staying in this town or seeing this firm/company to long term success. What real stake do they have in a software firm's long term success? The job market is clogged with foreigners perfectly willing to elbow past dilligent US people.

The previous four generations of Americans since WW II have pushed us to this place. I mean, it is not like President Bush and his economic team asked anyone under the age of 25 for permission to enact TARP in October 2008. It has been now the same in the current presidential years. Now nearly 15 trillion that the government is publicly stating. Does anyone believe that the real debt figure is not much, much higher?

And let's not forget the gorillas in the room: Social Security and Medicare. (I'd add all the government and military pensions as Booomers now retire en masse).

I wrote above that the serious young voices here are not interested in class warfare, class infighting. And they are not. But you've handed us a generational fight. We are going to have to be the ones to cut and slash at Social Security and Medicare to even provide those now 40's and 50's just 50 - 60% of what they think they are entitled to.

And that is what burns and irritates. The cast aspersion is that we are all into our "entitlements." Don't you hear old fogies your age whining every time there is a slight hint that SSN payouts might have to be reduced by just 10 or 15% Sounds like an "I'm enttitled!"mentality to me.

There is just no way to ignore it. Those over 40 have messed over the future. It is right to hold those over 40 responsible for our myriad of messes.

You've dished up a "soup sandwich" (that is what my uncle calls it) for those under age 30.

That's not the American way. The American way is supposed to be: Each generation hands off a better situation to the one that follows. Right? That is supposed to be what makes America and Americans a far better people, right?

It just isn't so. It was in the USA up to probably year 1985.

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 2:46PM

Think Again,

Listening to the groups in Houston, I'd suggest your estimate of 15-20% are worth listening to is vastly overstated. I saw a few "serious" people lecturing and hectoring about the Fed (to take but one example) and a mob lapping it up. Fools, all! Did anyone consider what would happen without a central bank? It's quite possible, but you'd have Citi and BofA printing the money (you do know that money is created by lending, don't you). Lots of grand ideas and absolutely no credible plan to implement it.

With two kids in college, I an VERY aware of what it costs. If you didn't like the deal, why did you take it? Did someone put a gun to your head and force you to get an education? Did you get an education for all that money? Who are you blaming for that one? You could have joined the military if you wanted the G.I. Bill. Was that not an option? If you want to help your children get an education, consider private primary and secondary schools. If you are so smart, you can educate them yourself for nothing. Of course, we have to consider opportunity costs, so consider marrying someone at least as smart as you are.

That employment line is choked with people, like you, who want a job. That line is long, right now, because this government has eaten the seed corn. It's also called the business cycle. The last one would have been when you were about ten and couldn't have cared less. Don't think this is the last downturn you will see or that you can do anything to stop the next one. The guy who gets the job is the one the employer likes best. Sometimes it's because he knows the kid's Dad and sometimes it's because the kid is smarter than the guy standing behind him in line. Where did you get the idea that you were owed a job? Is that some more of the high-priced education you don't want to pay for? Do you think you are done with that education? My field is computer science and at 55, I'm still having to compete with you and the Indians for business. I work at it every day, so your protestations about how tough you have it are falling on deaf ears.

Your arguments all center around the notion that each generation is owed by the previous one. Right now, people have spent their way into oblivion in Greece and are burning up the place because it's "unfair". When the tantrum is over, who is going to give them their bottle? At the end of all your whining, you say...

"I wrote above that the serious young voices here are not interested in class warfare, class infighting. And they are not. But you've handed us a generational fight."

Can you possibly put two more antogonistic sentences in the same paragraph? If this is what passes for social commentary, I'll pass. Enjoy your soup sandwich or get up and wrestle a bear.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.24.11 @ 6:35PM

John: Awesome slap down!!

Vic| 10.24.11 @ 10:17PM

Funny thing is, at 50, I don't remember Bush or anyone else in DC asking me my opinion on anything they were doing, ever. There has only been a few times that the people I voted for even got elected, federal, state or local. So how exactly is this situation my fault again?

Think Again| 10.25.11 @ 12:49AM

Vic, I'll try to put this kindly. Please take it that way.

You're stupid.

At 50 you are less than a decade younger than President GW Bush. No, he's not going to ask your permission for anything. I don't think any politician ever does.

That's the point. However at 50 you are smart enough to outsmart them. Are you not? If not, you should be.

They are to work for you and not the other way around.

So if you allow Bush (or now Obama) to enact dumb measures that further damage the country, that spells fault. Your fault.

At 50. You ought to be wise, cunning, connected, and capable. If the fat woman in my town who looks barely 43 (not sure) with 3 kids and a full time job can scare the ________ off our local officials as she lambasts and pillories the local politicans and now even those in the capital, well, what have you been doing?

She's a brand new baby of 43 years to politics. She joined the Tea Party just two years ago (maybe less) and she is a pugnacious streamroller.

She has the local officials rattled. Do you?

Yep. Your fault. Quite possibly. Or certainly. Ditto for John N. and LL Lies

John Navratil| 10.25.11 @ 9:05AM

Think Again,

Print your drivel and put it on the mirror for you to read in ten years. Then you will see who is stupid. As for your generational conflict.... bring it on. It's been done every generation. You are not special, you just think you are.

Grow up!

C.K. Amos| 10.24.11 @ 9:51PM

Think Again, perhaps you should think again before loading your cannon with grapeshot and then firing indiscriminately downrange.

The parents of the Baby Boomers allowed Roe v. Wade.

They also allowed prayer to be taken from school.

They did not stop going to church, though many of their offspring did.

Certainly the Sixties crackup damaged our culture and we see how the aged hippies and leftists and their progeny -- Barack Obama, for instance -- behave.

Didn't help, either, that the Democrat Party stole defeat from the jaws of victory in Viet Nam.

And how they, as Democrats or liberals or leftists or progressives, drove division as hard as they could culturally, morally, intellectually and spiritually in our country.

As for parenting, well, perhaps if Americans, even parents of the Baby Boomers, were less interested in material gain, both parents might not have had to work or might not work now.

And as Lullabys, Legends and Lies said, much of this came from the Democrat Party, which, during and after the Viet Nam War -- but especially when it chose George McGovern as presidential candidate -- became decidedly leftist and has morphed into the gaggle of socialist/Marxists/anarchists that their leaders, including Obama, appear to be.

As for welfare society, please, please, please, do some research. It's been in the Democrats', liberals', leftists', progressives' and others of their ilk's ideology and best interest -- not our country's -- to create and continually nurture the welfare state.

It's always the DPLLs' answer to any problem: throw money at the problem and see who becomes enslaved and beholden to them, keep making it appear they are the victims and keep increasing the handouts they receive -- and do anything, including dumbing down public education to the point of embarrassment and irrelevance, to keep them on the plantation.

I agree that everyone over 30 bears responsibility for the political debacle we see now in America.

But I ask: What about the under-30 crowd that voted for megalomaniacal, mendacious, Marxist Obama and his administration? What influences led to that?

Not going to spend more time responding to your allegations.

A FWIW: When I graduated from college in 1970, it was the worst year in hiring of chemical engineers, of which I had just received a B.S.Ch.E., since the Korean War, 17 years earlier. Garbage collectors in Baltimore, I seem to recall, who recently had taken the moniker "sanitary engineer," were making 40-50 percent more.

In 1968, ChemEs were getting double-digit visits to companies but fewer offers. In 1968, they were getting half the visits and even fewer offers, too. In 1969, even the brightest got only a few visits and, perhaps, a couple of offers. But if you had anything that had even the slightest scent of military commitment, you could not get hired.

And everyone faced the draft from 1965 to 1973.

Though it sounds cliched, life's not fair. Growing up can be hard to do. And things may not go as planned or wished. But most everyone I knew, whether it was in Chem. E. or something else, did the best or tried to do the best with what they were dealt in those days and drove on. I actually don't remember much p*ssing and moaning.

Word of friendly advice: Instead of so much P&V against the millions against whom you railed in your post, try to grasp that many of us are just as disgusted with the state of politics and culture in America. Maybe trying a bit of honey rather than vinegar might enroll them in your position--and you might even find you can work with them.

We have been trying and will continue to try to remake our country in some better image than it has now. Particularly with states' and national governance. But also through volunteer service and charitable contributions and other ways.

And many of us are very concerned about what faces our children and grandchildren, and theirs. That is why we do what we can to flush from governance those who we perceive, by their words and actions, are enemies of our Republic and Constitution.

Think on this: What kind of nation have you helped give yourself and us?

Like it or not, we're all in this together. But be aware, please: The current tactic of Obama and his administration and party is racial, social, intellectual and spiritual divisiveness. Some of us are concerned that they will stop at nothing less than open, perhaps violent, class and race war. We must no let that happen.

By the way, if they're to be taken seriously, yes, the OWSers should be able to articulate what grieves them. That they cannot reveals chaotic thought, lack of focus, failed education and more. They embarrass and depreciate themselves.

As long as they behave as they do, and try their best to reprise the Sixties, the less likely they are to gain favor with Americans--that is, Americans who are not Obama, his administration, the leadership of the Democrat/progressive/liberal/leftist Party, their shills in the once-mainstream-now-pimpstream media and those who follow mindlessly the execrable ideologies they espouse.

Occam's Tool| 10.26.11 @ 1:36PM

When I went off to college, JIMMY CARTER was running for re-election. Spare me the Sob stories, please.

So, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama destroyed the US? That's a fair cop.

Mike Hawk| 10.24.11 @ 10:22AM

A 22 year old College Grad these days is likely a clueless skull full of mush. You sound like a throwback to the late 60's. Get over it. Life doesn't owe you anything.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:55PM

Must have been a music major.

Seriously, there are even now jobs to be had. You just have to assess your talents, determine what will be marketable both today and twenty years from now, and from there, determine what lights your ambition.

Not everyone can be a marine biologist. Even so, there are a number of fields that are desperate for qualified workers. Even skilled trades can pay well, especially for those dedicated to mastering their field.

Think Again| 10.25.11 @ 1:17AM

Mike H., does the cousin I have in Afganistan also get to assert that?

Maybe as a soldier he is not owed good leadership in his battalion and brigade. So why harp on the unfit nature of President Obama to be the Commander in Chief?

There is a short article here today on Mrs. Michelle Malkin's long-time missing female cousin in Washington State. This article is written by Mr. Quin Hillyer. He seems to be strongly asserting that the parents of the missing girl are owed due dilligence by the police authorities. Maybe this family in distress has nothing to say because they are not owed good law enforcment and investigiation by the police.

Maybe you are not owed electricity, water, and heat though you pay your bills even before they come due.

Maybe you are not owed a diploma although you have more than fulfilled all the academic requirement for the last eight semesters.

Maybe you are not owed an explanation from your Congressman when he's voted six times this year in ways that further increase the national debt (and your personal portion of it) by at least another $1.8 trillion.

Maybe it is perfectly fine for you to be T-boned tomorrow in your town's busiest intersection as you drive home from work. After all, you are not owed any driver courtesy from the guy who paralyzes you. You are not owed that he should stop and respect a red light.

Lousy try. Failed written reasoning. Who has the skull full of mush?

This is not about what one is owed. It is about the ethic of fighting and perserving the best nation on earth. It is about responsibilities, sweat, and endeavor -- that never ends. It is about a very lazy set of people now between 40 and 75 who have gotten fat in every figurative and literal way possible, leading us to the cliff.

We are a failed nation - right now. Oh, this just happened? Nobody got us here? Nobody ushered in the demise?

I hope you love someone (other than yourself) You owe those you love, and yes, your neighbors too, better thinking. More doing. Something lasting and worthwhile.

Occam's Tool| 10.26.11 @ 1:37PM

Fat my ass. Try to do my job and watch your head explode.

daddy| 10.24.11 @ 11:56AM

Charlotte is a dangerous city with a huge ghetto. It is Atlanta's cousin city and gateway to Greensboro's drug routes. The city/state is going to have a hard enough time keeping every scam artist within 500 miles from ripping off the tourist let alone any type of OWS trouble. I have a feeling Mrs. Brady will have the N.C. troopers out in full force along with every other county and city cop she can get. This is her party's convention and her shot at moving up the ladder if all goes well. Screw it. Between the Anarchist, Tea Party, OWS and the criminals, they will have their hands full. Most likely, the bypass highways surrounding the convention will be shut down and the city's transit will be used to bring people into a highly secured green zone, miles away from any protests or unauthorized citizen.

Indy| 10.24.11 @ 12:05PM

Charlotte police are already training in preparation for potential riots
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/29518486/detail.html
Not sure I understand your comment about the Tea Party, I don't recall any arrests with TP protests unlike the OWS arrest count which continues to rise.

John Navratil| 10.24.11 @ 12:11PM

Indy,

He must have meant the 'D' party.

TrueBlue| 10.24.11 @ 12:22PM

Heck, most Tea Party protest areas end up cleaner than when they started.

Patrick| 10.24.11 @ 3:59PM

I think the problem may be when the OWS tries to get violent with the Tea Party.

And we know the routine, flail like a madman (though punching like a girl), then scream bloody murder the moment they get so much as a push.

Mike Hawk| 10.24.11 @ 12:56PM

Tea Party??? Why would we want to go to Charlotte in the first place?? Let the dregs have it and let the Dems deal with it. Besides, we don't cause problems.

LindaF | 10.24.11 @ 12:42PM

You are looking at the wrong end of the telescope in the ridiculing of the clueless OWS protester. They are uninformed, lazy, and overly filled with a sense of entitlement, but this event is being used to groom the "troops" for future action. The "People's Microphone" is an example of their tactics.

http://rau.3littlefoxes.com/?p=131

Ron| 10.24.11 @ 2:11PM

Thin Again...You need to think again...What? Those born between 1930 and 1970 have destroyed the country? I was born in 1965, and have worked since I was 8...Part time jobs, my uncle's farm, and newspaper routes (remember those?) until I was old enough to work full time. I also served in the National Guard starting when I was 17 and 1/2. I paid my way through school, and work and pay taxes.

How exactly, have I helped "destroy" the country? By voting for administrations that preferably wanted to reform welfare, would rather see America succeed, and not accept welfare handouts, by paying my taxes, and saving because I realized that SS and other government entitlement programs would never be there to support me? By living within my means, paying cash whenever possible, and not buying homes I could not afford? Yes, it was bad when GW proposed the TARP I, but I did not see Demon-Rats turning up their noses at it when the nut-cutting came...The postured about it, as is their wont, but they sure slopped up the benefits for all of their constituents and fellow cronies.

Think Again| 10.25.11 @ 12:35AM

Ron, you must listen to Sean Hannity. Your "Look what a great guy I am! (and I have no faults)" is right out of the Sean Hannity "I was washing dishes at age 13" playbook.

Why do you assume I was not working at age 15 and did not work to get through college? Or that others my age didn't try to deliver newspapers too.

Sounds like everything you've been doing in your life is good. Fine. Good for you. But it is not enough if you are a 46 year old man and we are about to lose the country.

Still too inactive.

There is a lot of blame to go around on everyone's shoulders.

But you do wear that blame too.

PS. Just saving extra for you and your wife because you know SSN won't be around to aid your retirement when your time comes to retire -- this is not enough. This is too passive. You've seen and known the problem for years. And the 65 year old is even more to blame. The question for you is: What reform have you enacted in your 30's and 40's to fix what you realized was completely broken?

A 20 year old college student cannot enact reform to right the ills of the nation. A 30 year old cannot either. But a 40 year old? Maybe. A 50 year old? Surely, yes. And a 60 year old? MUST.

My generation is opening its eyes and sees failure in the three generations proceeding. You can dodge and try to excuse all you want, but you wear this.

It is your fault. And your father's.

Drunken Sailor| 10.24.11 @ 3:55PM

Think again. If your 22 who did you vote for the last presidential election? Elections have consequences and if you voted for Obama, go take a good long look in the mirror. You helped elect the man that has made it worse, not better, like he told you.

Think Again| 10.25.11 @ 12:23AM

Why do you assume I voted for Obama? Isn't that one big assumption?

Didn't want to vote at all. Looked at the ballot for my state and did not see one good trustworthy name worth voting for or getting behind.

Drunken Sailor| 10.25.11 @ 9:12AM

I said "IF" you voted for Obama. Instead you were even worse. You were old enough to vote and didn't. Then you whine about not being able to change anything. You sir, are part of the problem if your not going to try to change things yourself.

Wayne| 10.24.11 @ 6:24PM

well if the Tea Party are the hobbits, the the OWS are the orcs.

Wayne| 10.24.11 @ 6:25PM

And Obama is Saruman. Um, I wonder, who is Grima Wormtongue?

Studs Dupa| 10.24.11 @ 6:47PM

Hi,

The articles in The American Spectator on the OWS are getting better. Keep up the good work!!

Love,

Studs

Christopher Holland| 10.24.11 @ 8:21PM

If people who crap on police cars, make antisemitic comments, have sex in public, use and sell drugs, leave garbage everywhere and disturb the neighborhood by banging drums and insulting residents want to go to the Democratic Convention, then I am all in favor it. Democracy is a wonderful thing, lets have more of it.

Scobe| 10.24.11 @ 9:16PM

What a very well written piece of crap. One of the most narrow minded and biased things Ive ever read. But written extremely well.

POST American| 10.24.11 @ 11:51PM

----Putting aside the laughably
inept, 11th hour Rockefeller front op,
and former ROT-child FED branch
director --HER--MAN CAIN, and ALLL
the other capstone EYE--con--ography-----

Let's dop the OWS farce.

Let's follow ALEX JONES'S 'Occupy the FED'
movement.

Should be joined by 'Occupy the EUGENICS
fronting TAX FREE foundations', and
'Occupy the DEADLY SINISTER U.N.',
'Occupy the world genocide formenting,
GMO mongering MONSANTO'.

-------------------UNDERSTAND-----------------------
--------THE COUNTRY'S BEEN HIJACKED-------

--------WE ARE DEALING WITH FULL-SPECTRUM TREASON--------

------------------------REALLY--------------------------

Osamas Pajamas| 10.25.11 @ 1:07AM

THE FLEA PARTY ---- OHBUMMER'S "WALL STREET OCCUPIERS" AND OTHER OHBUMMER STREET GANGS

A couple of months ago I began referring to OhBummer as a pathological flea, inasmuch as the majority of Americans see him as a bloodsucking fraud and a dishonest propagandist.

About a week ago I bumped into a blog comment referring to the Occupy Wall Street gang as "the flea party" and I warned the author that I would STEAL his ingenious reference and use it wherever it could inflict the most damage on the enemies of the American taxpayers.

More recently still, my favorite columnist, Ann Coulter [she a Christian and myself an atheist], published a column entitled "WINGLESS, BLOODSUCKING AND PARASITIC: MEET THE FLEA PARTY!" at her anncoulterdotorg website.

Clearly, things have gotten out of hand. This prairie fire of flea-mongers is raging out of control, wherever you turn. ~:

Osamas Pajamas| 10.25.11 @ 1:08AM

's a lot more people than just "the rich" who despise OhBummer and his rioting foot soldiers.

The Fleabaggers in OhBummer's Flea Party [Occupy Wall Street and its metastasized little cancers in other cities] are the ideological blackshirts, brownshirts, redshirts and no-shirt thugs tasked and directed in their riots by OhBummer allies Michael Moore, David Astroturf Axelrod, and Van Jones, by MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the Huffington Post, and OhBummer's former employer, ACORN --- and, naturally --- by Barak Hussein Hushpuppy Hoover OhBummer, himself --- with a cameo appearance by dopehead rugmuncher Roseanne Barr-The-Beheader.

Oh, the corporations! Oh, the banks! Oh, BOO HOO! Most of these demonstrators and rioters have a wind-up key sticking out of the middle of their backs with OhBummer's fingerprints all over it. He pooped all over their brains and they LOVED it, crying, "Oh! Oh! More poo, please! More poo!"

Osamas Pajamas| 10.25.11 @ 1:09AM

This so-called "spontaneous, leaderless civil unrest" is a White House operation, conceived in the bowels of Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer's fetid little mind --- while he sat ruminating in the bowels of the White House --- and enacted by OhBummer's chosen proxies, surrogates, cronies, and confederates.

OhBummer and the OhBummer Wrecking Crew have been promoting envy [mental illness] and trying to shift blame to "Greedy Wall Street" and away from themselves --- they who are what novelist Ayn Rand called "greedy for the unearned."

Yes. These are the lying, arrogant, GREEDY-FOR-THE-UNEARNED, bloodsxcking, tax-eating Democrat hoods, thugs, and gangsters. I advocate and I seek their destruction.

Osamas Pajamas| 10.25.11 @ 1:10AM

There are still approximately 120 million privately-employed nongovernment taxpayers in America today, and while this pathological flea, Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer, and his minions, are promoting street riots, I advocate that all 120 million of these privately-employed taxpayers stage a riot on the bridge of OhBummer's nose. That skunk wants race riots and class-warfare riots --- and he should get a riot that will make history.

$ $ $ $ $

Meanwhile, back at the hacienda.... In 2008, the top 1% of earners paid more than 38% of all Federal income taxes. Check this out at ntudotorg, "who pays income taxes."

And so to the President of the United States of America and to the so-called "99-percenters" in OhBummer's street-gang Fleabaggers who claim victimhood --- go blow smoke up your own axxes.

Anonymous| 10.25.11 @ 11:44AM

What an ass....

JP| 10.25.11 @ 2:09PM

There already is an Occupy Charlotte movement, in Charlotte. Leftist and Paulnuts.

Caroline| 10.25.11 @ 8:36PM

Barack Obama Led #OccupyChicago – Circa 1988
http://biggovernment.com/jpoll.....irca-1988/

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