As Wall Street protest enters 3rd week, movement gains steam

[yhendra]

It may happen around the world soon???

From: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/02/busin ... hpt=hp_bn1

As Wall Street protest enters 3rd week, movement gains steam

New York (CNN) -- A spirited and leaderless protest in the Wall Street section of New York has entered its third week, helping to inspire a growing number of demonstrations united in their passion if not necessarily their reasons for hitting the streets.

The hub of the movement, in Lower Manhattan, was abuzz with activity on Sunday as activists continued to vent their frustrations with everything from "corporate greed" to high gas prices to insufficient health insurance.

No single group or person heads the effort, which has adopted the name "Occupy Wall Street." While a "general assembly" is held daily for those gathered -- be it for a few short hours or by camping out long-term -- to discuss the goings-on and work toward a common mission, the stances being touted currently are diverse.

"We've gathered here in this place ... to shape a statement of what it is we want, and how we're going to get to it," said Robert Segal, one of the New York protesters.

The lack of coherent message has not stopped similar efforts from popping up elsewhere in the United States.

"Occupy Chicago," for instance, entered its 10th day on Sunday, a day after an associated website touted "a huge afternoon march."

The motto atop a website for "Occupy Los Angeles," which kicked off Saturday with a march from Pershing Square to City Hall, reads: "The revolution is happening ... It's just not in the news."

There are 34 organizations -- from unions to ethnic organizations to activist groups focused on everything from foreclosure prevention to climate change to justice-related issues -- listed as being involved in a like-minded activist coalition in Boston. This group, which held a festival and march Friday and Saturday and has explicitly targeted Bank of America in recent weeks, states on its website that its aim is to "stop their greed," "fight for an economy that works for all of us" and "build cities that are democratic, just and sustainable."

The website of Seattle demonstrators describes the nationwide effort as "a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions."

"The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%," the statement continues, referring to what it sees as a sharp divide between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of society.

Most demonstrations thus far have been peaceful and uneventful, though in a few cases they have led to numerous arrests.

The most high-profile such incident came Saturday, when New York police arrested more than 700 protesters who had occupied the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. They were cited for blocking the roadway, authorities said, and eventually released after being given tickets.

The confrontation came as protesters along the road banged drums and chanted, "The whole world is watching" as police moved in.

Paul J. Browne, the deputy commissioner for the New York City Police Department, said they were given "multiple warnings" to stay on the pedestrian walkway and not the main roadway. The incident led to a shutdown of Manhattan-to-Brooklyn bridge traffic for several hours.

Demonstrators have said they take their inspiration from the Arab Spring protests that swept through Africa and the Middle East this year.

The protest campaign -- which uses the hashtag #occupywallstreet on the microblogging site Twitter -- began in July with the launch of a simple campaign website calling for a march and a sit-in at the New York Stock Exchange.

It has gained steam since early September, with crowds taking up residence in a park in New York's financial district and calling for 20,000 people to flood the area for a "few months." In recent weeks, the New York demonstrators have addressed various issues, including police brutality, union busting and the economy.

[Dennis Ng]

yes, as I've warned, in the next Financial Crisis, with governments taking "austerity measures", ie pay cut, benefits cut for their country, many people will be unhappy and take to the streets, becos they see the rich and powerful, such as Goldman Sachs are prospering after government bailouts while the average person, is suffering...lost their job, lost their house...

When money stops flowing, blood will start flowing on the main streets.

Many governments throughout the world will be toppled...especially those facing high unemployment, high inflation etc.

Dennis Ng

It may happen around the world soon???

From: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/02/busin ... hpt=hp_bn1

As Wall Street protest enters 3rd week, movement gains steam

New York (CNN) -- A spirited and leaderless protest in the Wall Street section of New York has entered its third week, helping to inspire a growing number of demonstrations united in their passion if not necessarily their reasons for hitting the streets.

The hub of the movement, in Lower Manhattan, was abuzz with activity on Sunday as activists continued to vent their frustrations with everything from "corporate greed" to high gas prices to insufficient health insurance.

No single group or person heads the effort, which has adopted the name "Occupy Wall Street." While a "general assembly" is held daily for those gathered -- be it for a few short hours or by camping out long-term -- to discuss the goings-on and work toward a common mission, the stances being touted currently are diverse.

"We've gathered here in this place ... to shape a statement of what it is we want, and how we're going to get to it," said Robert Segal, one of the New York protesters.

The lack of coherent message has not stopped similar efforts from popping up elsewhere in the United States.

"Occupy Chicago," for instance, entered its 10th day on Sunday, a day after an associated website touted "a huge afternoon march."

The motto atop a website for "Occupy Los Angeles," which kicked off Saturday with a march from Pershing Square to City Hall, reads: "The revolution is happening ... It's just not in the news."

There are 34 organizations -- from unions to ethnic organizations to activist groups focused on everything from foreclosure prevention to climate change to justice-related issues -- listed as being involved in a like-minded activist coalition in Boston. This group, which held a festival and march Friday and Saturday and has explicitly targeted Bank of America in recent weeks, states on its website that its aim is to "stop their greed," "fight for an economy that works for all of us" and "build cities that are democratic, just and sustainable."

The website of Seattle demonstrators describes the nationwide effort as "a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions."

"The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%," the statement continues, referring to what it sees as a sharp divide between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of society.

Most demonstrations thus far have been peaceful and uneventful, though in a few cases they have led to numerous arrests.

The most high-profile such incident came Saturday, when New York police arrested more than 700 protesters who had occupied the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. They were cited for blocking the roadway, authorities said, and eventually released after being given tickets.

The confrontation came as protesters along the road banged drums and chanted, "The whole world is watching" as police moved in.

Paul J. Browne, the deputy commissioner for the New York City Police Department, said they were given "multiple warnings" to stay on the pedestrian walkway and not the main roadway. The incident led to a shutdown of Manhattan-to-Brooklyn bridge traffic for several hours.

Demonstrators have said they take their inspiration from the Arab Spring protests that swept through Africa and the Middle East this year.

The protest campaign -- which uses the hashtag #occupywallstreet on the microblogging site Twitter -- began in July with the launch of a simple campaign website calling for a march and a sit-in at the New York Stock Exchange.

It has gained steam since early September, with crowds taking up residence in a park in New York's financial district and calling for 20,000 people to flood the area for a "few months." In recent weeks, the New York demonstrators have addressed various issues, including police brutality, union busting and the economy.

[yhendra]

At first I was quite reluctant to post my view below. I keep it as a draft...
But, then, after some thoughts, and reading Dennis posting here
... and looking at this website "We are the 99 Percent"

I just post my views as well anyway...
(Is this herd mentality? I'm not sure, but what I know is that as a group here in this forum, we can make a difference by preparing our own family, relatives, friends or even strangers.. for the incoming crisis)

I know I am not an expert and I am not God!
I am just trying to make a stand, do more good to more people by sharing my views in this forum. I do really hope that world will have more peace while I am still alive and watching my children grow in more loving and peaceful environment.
So, I will do whatever I can while I am still alive.

here are my views:
============================================
Reading this news, just a simple question pop-out from my head...
Could this be the start of the tipping point for BIGGER unrest in US to happen?
When the blood flow on the street... What will the people do?
People not satisfied with the system, the gap of rich and poor, politics, jobless, just retrenched, people lost money in stock market, people lost their savings, inflation...

From US Bureau of Labor Statistic: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

"The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent. The rate has shown little change since April."

Because of this movement, when this 14 million people come together hand-in-hand... who can stop them? What about another millions in other countries??

It seems in U.S., the REAL STORM is COMING, the calm before the storm has gone...
Hopefully this will not happen here in Singapore...
I hope, we all graduates here maintain strong bonding between us to ride through the turbulence time ahead... supporting each other with whatever/however we can... and we can help our family, relatives, and friends... So we all can come out stronger from the crisis... And we all can be a millionaire with heart...
============================================

Protests against Wall Street spread across US
From http://www.chron.com/business/article/P ... 199696.php

NEW YORK (AP) — Protests against Wall Street entered their 18th day Tuesday as demonstrators across the country show their anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.

Demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the week as more groups hold organizational meetings and air their concerns on websites and through streaming video.

In Manhattan on Monday, hundreds of protesters dressed as corporate zombies in white face paint lurched past the New York Stock Exchange clutching fistfuls of fake money. In Chicago, demonstrators pounded drums in the city's financial district. Others pitched tents or waved protest signs at passing cars in Boston, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Los Angeles.

A slice of America's discontented, from college students worried about their job prospects to middle-age workers who have been recently laid off, were galvanized after the arrests of 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend.

Some protesters likened themselves to the tea party movement — but with a liberal bent — or to the Arab Spring demonstrators who brought down their rulers in the Middle East.

"We feel the power in Washington has actually been compromised by Wall Street," said Jason Counts, a computer systems analyst and one of about three dozen protesters in St. Louis. "We want a voice, and our voice has slowly been degraded over time."

The Occupy Wall Street protests started on Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds have set up camp in a park nearby and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

About 100 demonstrators were arrested on Sept. 24 and some were pepper-sprayed. On Saturday police arrested 700 on charges of disorderly conduct and blocking a public street as they tried to march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Police said they took five more protesters into custody on Monday, though it was unclear whether they had been charged with any crime.

"At this point, we don't anticipate wider unrest," said Tim Flannelly, an FBI spokesman in New York, "but should it occur the city, including the NYPD and the FBI, will deploy any and all resources necessary to control any developments."

Flannelly said he does not expect the New York protests to develop into the often-violent demonstrations that have rocked cities in the United Kingdom since the summer. But he said the FBI is "monitoring the situation and will respond accordingly."

Wiljago Cook, of Oakland, Calif., who joined the New York protest on the first day, said she was shocked by the arrests.

"Exposing police brutality wasn't even really on my agenda, but my eyes have been opened," she said. She vowed to stay in New York "as long as it seems useful."

City bus drivers sued the New York Police Department on Monday for commandeering their buses and making them drive to the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday to pick up detained protesters.

"We're down with these protesters. We support the notion that rich folk are not paying their fair share," said Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen. "Our bus operators are not going to be pressed into service to arrest protesters anywhere."

The city's Law Department said the NYPD's actions were proper.

On Monday, the zombies stayed on the sidewalks as they wound through Manhattan's financial district chanting, "How to fix the deficit: End the war, tax the rich!" They lurched along with their arms in front of them. Some yelled, "I smell money!"

Reaction was mixed from passers-by.

Roland Klingman, who works in the financial industry and was wearing a suit as he walked through a raucous crowd of protesters, said he could sympathize with the anti-Wall Street message.

[Dennis Ng]

Hi yhendra,

as I said, it'll be the Worst Financial Crisis anyone has ever lived through. There will be social unrests throughout the world. Many governments throughout the whole world will be toppled.

What can we do? We (all of us seminar graduates) will choose to live differently, we will reach out to as many people as possible with Selfless Love and Concern, and to help as many people to survive the Crisis as possible.

I highlighted what I think are really KEY in your posting.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng

At first I was quite reluctant to post my view below. I keep it as a draft...
But, then, after some thoughts, and reading Dennis posting here
... and looking at this website "We are the 99 Percent"


here are my views:
============================================
Reading this news, just a simple question pop-out from my head...
Could this be the start of the tipping point for BIGGER unrest in US to happen?
When the blood flow on the street... What will the people do?
People not satisfied with the system, the gap of rich and poor, politics, jobless, just retrenched, people lost money in stock market, people lost their savings, inflation...

From US Bureau of Labor Statistic: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

"The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent. The rate has shown little change since April."

Because of this movement, when this 14 million people come together hand-in-hand... who can stop them? What about another millions in other countries??

It seems in U.S., the REAL STORM is COMING, the calm before the storm has gone...
Hopefully this will not happen here in Singapore...
I hope, we all graduates here maintain strong bonding between us to ride through the turbulence time ahead... supporting each other with whatever/however we can... and we can help our family, relatives, and friends... So we all can come out stronger from the crisis... And we all can be a millionaire with heart...

[archonmage]

Meltdown - The men who crashed the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zZ_JfRO ... ture=share

[yhendra]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opini ... index.html

(CNN) -- Like the spokesmen for Arab dictators feigning bewilderment over protesters' demands, mainstream television news reporters finally training their attention on the growing Occupy Wall Street protest movement seem determined to cast it as the random, silly blather of an ungrateful and lazy generation of weirdos. They couldn't be more wrong and, as time will tell, may eventually be forced to accept the inevitability of their own obsolescence.

Consider how CNN anchor Erin Burnett, covered the goings on at Zuccotti Park downtown, where the protesters are encamped, in a segment called "Seriously?!" "What are they protesting?" she asked, "nobody seems to know." Like Jay Leno testing random mall patrons on American History, the main objective seemed to be to prove that the protesters didn't, for example, know that the U.S. government has been reimbursed for the bank bailouts. It was condescending and reductionist.

More predictably perhaps, a Fox News reporter appears flummoxed in this outtake from "On the Record," in which the respondent refuses to explain how he wants the protests to "end." Transcending the shallow partisan politics of the moment, the protester explains "As far as seeing it end, I wouldn't like to see it end. I would like to see the conversation continue."

To be fair, the reason why some mainstream news journalists and many of the audiences they serve see the Occupy Wall Street protests as incoherent is because the press and the public are themselves. It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped.

In fact, we are witnessing America's first true Internet-era movement, which -- unlike civil rights protests, labor marches, or even the Obama campaign -- does not take its cue from a charismatic leader, express itself in bumper-sticker-length goals and understand itself as having a particular endpoint.
Yes, there are a wide array of complaints, demands, and goals from the Wall Street protesters: the collapsing environment, labor standards, housing policy, government corruption, World Bank lending practices, unemployment, increasing wealth disparity and so on. Different people have been affected by different aspects of the same system -- and they believe they are symptoms of the same core problem.

Are they ready to articulate exactly what that problem is and how to address it? No, not yet. But neither are Congress or the president who, in thrall to corporate America and Wall Street, respectively, have consistently failed to engage in anything resembling a conversation as cogent as the many I witnessed as I strolled by Occupy Wall Street's many teach-ins this morning. There were young people teaching one another about, among other things, how the economy works, about the disconnection of investment banking from the economy of goods and services, the history of centralized interest-bearing currency, the creation and growth of the derivatives industry, and about the Obama administration deciding to settle with, rather than investigate and prosecute the investment banking industry for housing fraud.

Anyone who says he has no idea what these folks are protesting is not being truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they are upset about, and we all know that there are investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher. What upsets banking's defenders and politicians alike is the refusal of this movement to state its terms or set its goals in the traditional language of campaigns.

That's because, unlike a political campaign designed to get some person in office and then close up shop (as in the election of Obama), this is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. As the product of the decentralized networked-era culture, it is less about victory than sustainability. It is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus. It is not like a book; it is like the Internet.

Occupy Wall Street is meant more as a way of life that spreads through contagion, creates as many questions as it answers, aims to force a reconsideration of the way the nation does business and offers hope to those of us who previously felt alone in our belief that the current economic system is broken.

But unlike a traditional protest, which identifies the enemy and fights for a particular solution, Occupy Wall Street just sits there talking with itself, debating its own worth, recognizing its internal inconsistencies and then continuing on as if this were some sort of new normal. It models a new collectivism, picking up on the sustainable protest village of the movement's Egyptian counterparts, with food, first aid, and a library.

Yes, as so many journalists seem obligated to point out, kids are criticizing corporate America while tweeting through their iPhones. The simplistic critique is that if someone is upset about corporate excess, he is supposed to abandon all connection with any corporate product. Of course, the more nuanced approach to such tradeoffs would be to seek balance rather than ultimatums. Yes, there are things big corporations might do very well, like making iPhones. There are other things big corporations may not do so well, like structure mortgage derivatives. Might we be able to use corporations for what works, and get them out of doing what doesn't?

And yes, some kids are showing up at Occupy Wall Street because it's fun. They come for the people, the excitement, the camaraderie and the sense of purpose they might not be able to find elsewhere. But does this mean that something about Occupy Wall Street is lacking, or that it is providing something that jobs and schools are not (thanks in part to rising unemployment and skyrocketing tuitions)?

The members of Occupy Wall Street may be as unwieldy, paradoxical, and inconsistent as those of us living in the real world. But that is precisely why their new approach to protest is more applicable, sustainable and actionable than what passes for politics today. They are suggesting that the fiscal operating system on which we are attempting to run our economy is no longer appropriate to the task. They mean to show that there is an inappropriate and correctable disconnect between the abundance America produces and the scarcity its markets manufacture.

And in the process, they are pointing the way toward something entirely different than the zero-sum game of artificial scarcity favoring top-down investors and media makers alike.

[yhendra]

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Anti-W ... xzdHI-?x=0

Anti-Wall Street march shakes up New York

Thousands of anti-corporate demonstrators backed for the first time in large numbers by trade unions poured into New York's financial district Wednesday, raising the stakes in a more than two-weeks long street revolt.

At least 5,000 people, with streams of reinforcements arriving all the time, crammed into Foley Square in lower Manhattan, where the city's courts and government buildings are located. They then marched toward Wall Street.

Union officials estimated the number at 8,000 to 12,000 and it was clearly the biggest protest yet for the fledgling movement.

The mood was festive, with some even bringing babies, but there was also defiance as the crowd chanted: "This is what democracy looks like!"

What started last month as a ragtag sit-in protest against corporate influence and social inequality was transformed into a bigger, more serious event with the arrival of major unions including the AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, Transit Workers, and teachers' union.

Unions brought numbers and organizational skills to the rally, which, unlike others staged throughout the Occupy Wall Street protest, was authorized by the police.

And in another sign that the initial, youth-led campaign of civil disobedience had gained momentum, Democratic politicians for the first time voiced support for what some analysts are starting to herald as a potential left-wing rival to the conservative Tea Party movement.

A similar demonstration, with a focus on protesting the US war to subdue the Taliban in Afghanistan, was planned for Thursday in Washington.

In New York, crowds banging drums and carrying signs like "Save our Republic" and "Equality, democracy, revolution," crammed into the narrow, teeming streets around the financial district, symbolic headquarters of the US financial system.

Chanting "we are 99 percent," the loosely woven coalition of protesters flooded through lower Manhattan, watched by large numbers of police, who did nothing to intervene, other than to keep traffic flowing.

"More numbers, more power, more publicity," said Kelly Wells, 26, who said she came all the way from Oregon on the US west coast to join the peaceful street rebellion.

However, police made clear that Wall Street itself was off limits, barricading the famous thoroughfare leading to the New York Stock Exchange to all but residents and local employees.

Protestors have a huge list of grievances, ranging from the mountain of US student debt to shrinking retirement benefits for the elderly, as the United States struggles to regain its once powerful economic stride.

"Something is wrong in America," said Charles Jenkins, director of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, who spoke to the crowd from a makeshift podium. "When students went out of college and they can't find a job, something is wrong."

The protesters' main anger is directed at corporate influence in politics and the government bailout of financial institutions in 2008. It also comes against a backdrop of dismay at the lack of leadership from either President Barack Obama's Democrats or the opposition Republicans a year from a presidential election.

"I think everyone out here feels robbed. They are struggling to make a living, to keep a roof over their heads, they're struggling to pay student loans," Lindsey Personette, a 29-year-old dancer, said.

"This is a revolution. This is not going to go away. It's only going to get bigger."

As the protests -- ignored initially by much of the media -- grabbed growing attention, New York's liberal congresswoman, Louise Slaughter, gave the demonstrations her blessing.

"I'm so proud to see the Occupy Wall Street movement standing up to this rampant corporate greed and peacefully participating in our democracy," she said in a statement.

Also joining the protest movement were students, who, according to the Occupywallst.org website were staging a national walkout.

The march was backed by members of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents most of New York's public school teachers, as well as the Workers United and Transport Workers, which represents many of the city's bus drivers.

The Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (PSC-CUNY), which represents more than 20,000 professors and staff at the City University of New York, also gave its support.

The movement has had widening support, with franchises cropping up in towns and major cities across the United States, in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

The Washington protest dubbed Stop the Machine shows signs of similar levels of organization to New York, with a website http://october2011.org/statement, and preparations for people to camp out in the capital starting Thursday.

[yhendra]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-1 ... cisco.html

Anti-Wall Street Protesters March From NYC to San Francisco


Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Demonstrators from New York City to San Francisco took to the streets to protest what they call a growing wealth disparity between large U.S. corporations and average citizens in the wake of the financial crisis.

Picketers marched yesterday as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began three weeks ago in Lower Manhattan and has spread across the U.S. The New York crowd was estimated at 10,000, according to Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the effort.

“There’s power in numbers, and we outnumber the people we’re trying to hold accountable,” said Henry Liedtka, a 27- year-old pharmacy worker from New Jersey who said he’s protested since Oct. 2. “We should be bailing out the American public -- not corporations -- by raising the minimum wage, bringing jobs back from overseas and improving labor conditions.”

Protesters criticized the government for propping up hobbled financial giants, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., with a $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008, while leaving Americans to struggle with unemployment, depressed wages, soaring foreclosure rates and slashed retirement savings.

“We bailed them out and they are not lending the money,” JoAnn Herr, 60, a retired sheet-metal worker from Oakland, California, said in an interview yesterday outside the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where a march through downtown formed. “They are just holding onto it, giving themselves bigger bonuses and not paying their fair share of taxes.”

Union Support

U.S. labor unions are supporting the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations with rallies next week because the protests have tapped into the anger of unemployed Americans, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said yesterday.

“We’re not going to try to usurp them,” Trumka, leader of the nation’s largest labor federation, said on a conference call with reporters. “We’ll support them around the country and we’ll continue to work collectively with one another.”

In New York, members of National Nurses United, the profession’s largest U.S. union; Transport Workers Union Local 100, the biggest labor organization in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Working Families Party, a coalition of community organizations, marched to Wall Street from Foley Square, north of City Hall.

The Transport union “applauds the courage of the young people on Wall Street,” the union said on its website. “Workers and ordinary citizens are putting up all the sacrifice, and the financiers who imploded our economy are getting away scot-free.”

‘People Losing Hope’

Laurence Fink, the chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, said he understands the concerns of the protesters.

“These are not lazy people sitting around looking for something to do,” Fink, 58, said yesterday during an event in Toronto. “We have people losing hope and they’re going into the street, whether it’s justified or not.”

Not everyone watching the march near Wall Street yesterday supported the protesters.

“They’re just a bunch of wacko leftists trying to get on TV,” said Onel Delorb, 33, an unemployed office worker from the Bronx. “It’s my fault that I’m not doing anything for work. It’s not government’s fault.”

He said the demonstrators undermined their credibility by carrying iPhones and iPads made by Apple Inc., which is valued at $350 billion.

Sea of Tarps

Since Sept. 17, thousands of protesters have transformed New York’s Zuccotti Park, near the site of the World Trade Center, into a sea of blue tarps, sleeping bags and tables offering free medical care, food and library books. Their signs and slogans oppose everything from bank bailouts and corporate influence in politics to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and insufficient job prospects.

New York police arrested 23 people yesterday, mainly for disorderly conduct, said Paul Browne, deputy police commissioner. Last weekend, police halted a march over the Brooklyn Bridge and took about 700 activists into custody.

In San Francisco, demonstrators set up a camp of tents on a half-block stretch of Market Street outside the Federal Reserve building, where some have been meditating and playing guitars.

Mark Schwetz, 36, a carpenter from Berkeley who lost his home in Petaluma, California, to foreclosure in 2009, held a sign reading, “We’re not leaving!”

“I’ve been waiting for this moment, for this day for a long time now,” Schwetz said. “I worked really hard for my whole life for my home and it was just taken away from me.”

Movement Spreads

According to an Occupation Status Board at Zuccotti Park, the movement has spread to at least 147 cities in the U.S. and 28 overseas, and netted $35,000 in donations. The website www.occupytogether.org listed events planned in more than 45 states and in cities including Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.

The Occupy Wall Street coalition has the potential to become the “Tea Party of the Left” if the protesters can transform their disparate list of grievances into targeted policy prescriptions, said Brayden King, who’s written on social and political movements at Northwestern University.

Tea Party

“They have to figure out what it is they are about, in order to become the force of change in the Democratic Party, like the Tea Party has been in the Republican Party,” King, an assistant professor of management at the Kellogg School of Management, said by telephone from Evanston, Illinois.

The Tea Party, a loosely organized movement opposed to the growing size of government and rising federal spending. Sixty of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives now identify themselves as Tea Party supporters.

“You’re seeing possibly the roots of what may turn into a political party or at least a political movement that has a voice,” Eric Nielson, 34, a self-described healer, said in an interview yesterday during the march toward San Francisco’s Civic Center.

The protesters stopped at an office building in the Financial District whose tenants include Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, to chant, “We are the 99 percent!” and “This is what democracy looks like!”

Anonymous, a group of self-styled hacker-activists behind attacks on corporate and government websites, vowed to support the protests by erasing the New York Stock Exchange “from the Internet” on Oct. 10.

Stock Exchange Threat

The group posted a video message on YouTube declaring war on the stock exchange in retaliation for the arrests of Wall Street protesters. The message didn’t elaborate on the threat or whether it referred only to an attack on the Big Board website, which would have no effect on trading.

Occupy DC, which has an encampment in Washington’s McPherson Square, a few blocks north of the White House, is planning a rally today, according to its Twitter feed.

Celebrity supporters include activist and filmmaker Michael Moore, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and musician Peter Yarrow of the 1960s-era folk group Peter Paul and Mary.

Sit-ins are planned in at least four cities in Colorado in the coming weeks, according to an Occupy Denver organizer. The group, which hopes to attract 1,000 people for a march Oct. 8, started camping out in front of the state Capitol 11 days ago. Discussion topics among the crowd gathered in Denver last weekend included currency devaluation and the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

--With assistance from Henry Goldman, Thom Weidlich, Nina Mehta, Ted Richardson, Laura Marcinek and Chris Dolmetsch in New York, Jennifer Oldham in Denver, Blair Euteneuer in Chicago, Tom Moroney and Michael McDonald in Boston, Holly Rosenkrantz and Michael Riley in Washington, Amanda J. Crawford in Phoenix, Chris Christoff in Lansing, Christopher Palmeri and Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles and Matt Walcoff in Toronto. Editors: Pete Young, Ted Bunker

To contact the reporters on this story: Esme E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net; Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

[yhendra]

This is how politics are played...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10 ... z1a3oj7AN9

Obama Voices Empathy With 'Frustration' Behind Anti-Wall Street Protests

Three weeks into a growing protest movement targeting Wall Street and the nation’s financial services sector, President Obama expressed empathy Thursday for the demonstrators, even going so far as to elevate them as a force in the 2012 election cycle.
“I think part of people’s frustrations, part of my frustration, was a lot of [lending] practices that should not have been allowed weren’t necessarily against the law, but they had a huge destructive impact,” the president said at a midday news conference Thursday.

The protestors, he added, “are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works…and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond.”

The remarks represented Obama’s first public comment on the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which is now in its third week, and has led to more than 700 arrests in New York and elsewhere.

As the president spoke to reporters in the East Room, more than 1,000 anti-corporate protesters were gathering, less than a mile away, at Washington’s downtown Freedom Plaza. Waving placards and chanting slogans, the group marched to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – to protest the organization’s support of the Obama administration’s jobs plan – then moved on to K Street, the hub of lobbying and law firms that is the capital’s pinstriped cousin to Wall Street.

The action in Washington had been planned months in advance, said organizers with the October 2011 Coalition, and enjoyed no formal ties with the Occupy Wall Street movement. But it was clear the two groups largely share the same goals, tactics and fervor.

Obama, in remarks on the protests that extended to nearly 10 minutes, refrained from rebuking those arrested or mounting any defense of Wall Street. Instead, he further criticized bankers and lenders.
“We had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street,” the president told reporters, “and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place.”

The closest Obama came to defending Wall Street was when he added: “I have said before, and I will continue to repeat: We have to have a strong, effective financial sector in order for us to grow.”
In her own, weekly news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., went even further, praising the Occupy Wall Street crowds for their youth, focus, and effectiveness. “God bless their spontaneity,” she said.

But Rep. Peter King , R-N.Y., who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, blasted President Obama for siding with the protesters.

“What they're doing is disgraceful,” King said in an interview with Fox News. “They should be denounced; they're breaking the law; they're serving no real purpose at all….And for the president or anyone else to give them any credence or credibility is also irresponsible.”

Asked by the liberal website Slate.com if he sees the Occupy Wall Street protests as helpful in moving the president's jobs bill through Congress, White House Chief of Staff William Daley -- a former executive at J.P. Morgan Chase, one of Wall Street’s most prominent investment houses -- proved more circumspect than his boss.
"I don't know," Daley said.

Fox News’ Joy Lin, Steve Centanni, and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

[ilovecck]

This is how politics are played...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10 ... z1a3oj7AN9

Obama Voices Empathy With 'Frustration' Behind Anti-Wall Street Protests

Three weeks into a growing protest movement targeting Wall Street and the nation’s financial services sector, President Obama expressed empathy Thursday for the demonstrators, even going so far as to elevate them as a force in the 2012 election cycle.
“I think part of people’s frustrations, part of my frustration, was a lot of [lending] practices that should not have been allowed weren’t necessarily against the law, but they had a huge destructive impact,” the president said at a midday news conference Thursday.

The protestors, he added, “are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works…and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond.”

The remarks represented Obama’s first public comment on the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which is now in its third week, and has led to more than 700 arrests in New York and elsewhere.

As the president spoke to reporters in the East Room, more than 1,000 anti-corporate protesters were gathering, less than a mile away, at Washington’s downtown Freedom Plaza. Waving placards and chanting slogans, the group marched to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – to protest the organization’s support of the Obama administration’s jobs plan – then moved on to K Street, the hub of lobbying and law firms that is the capital’s pinstriped cousin to Wall Street.

The action in Washington had been planned months in advance, said organizers with the October 2011 Coalition, and enjoyed no formal ties with the Occupy Wall Street movement. But it was clear the two groups largely share the same goals, tactics and fervor.

Obama, in remarks on the protests that extended to nearly 10 minutes, refrained from rebuking those arrested or mounting any defense of Wall Street. Instead, he further criticized bankers and lenders.
“We had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street,” the president told reporters, “and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place.”

The closest Obama came to defending Wall Street was when he added: “I have said before, and I will continue to repeat: We have to have a strong, effective financial sector in order for us to grow.”
In her own, weekly news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., went even further, praising the Occupy Wall Street crowds for their youth, focus, and effectiveness. “God bless their spontaneity,” she said.

But Rep. Peter King , R-N.Y., who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, blasted President Obama for siding with the protesters.

“What they're doing is disgraceful,” King said in an interview with Fox News. “They should be denounced; they're breaking the law; they're serving no real purpose at all….And for the president or anyone else to give them any credence or credibility is also irresponsible.”

Asked by the liberal website Slate.com if he sees the Occupy Wall Street protests as helpful in moving the president's jobs bill through Congress, White House Chief of Staff William Daley -- a former executive at J.P. Morgan Chase, one of Wall Street’s most prominent investment houses -- proved more circumspect than his boss.
"I don't know," Daley said.

Fox News’ Joy Lin, Steve Centanni, and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Seems like he is playing both side of the game

[yhendra]

Now the Major speak out, playing both side games as well?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/ ... 4W20111008

New York's Bloomberg says protesters trying to destroy jobs


(Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused anti-Wall Street protesters on Friday of trying to destroy jobs in the city, even as he said he was sympathetic to some of their complaints.

Protesters complaining about what they view as corporate greed have been camped out in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan since last month, staging rallies and marches that have mostly proceeded peacefully but sometimes resulted in confrontations with police.

"What they're trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show, adding that the protests "aren't productive" and weren't good for tourism.

"If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city -- the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy -- go away, we're not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean our parks or anything else."

The protests have since expanded to other U.S. cities from Tampa to Seattle, picking up support from unions eliciting the sympathy of some senior political and financial officials.

On Wednesday, about 5,000 people marched on New York's financial district, the biggest rally so far, swelled by nurses, transit workers and other union members. Dozens of people were arrested and police used pepper spray on some protesters.

Wall Street is the pillar of the New York state economy, making up 13 percent of tax contributions.

"The protests that are trying to destroy the jobs of working people in this city aren't productive," Bloomberg said. "At the same time I'm sympathetic to some of their complaints." "There are some people with legitimate complaints."

The protesters are angry about the 2008 Wall Street bailout that critics say let banks enjoy huge profits while average Americans suffered high unemployment and job insecurity.

In addition to the bailout, protesters have raged against corporate greed and influence over American life, the gap between rich and poor, and what they see as hapless, corrupt politicians.

Bloomberg's comments came a day after President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged the frustration and anger of the protesters.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has also said he understood the anger being felt by the protesters but had to balance that with the economic importance of Wall Street to the state.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Greg McCune)

[yhendra]

More city joining...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... pport.html

Several hundred in 'Occupy San Diego' movement march downtown

Several hundred demonstrators under the banner "Occupy San Diego" took to downtown streets late Friday afternoon in support of their message that Wall Street is ripping off America.

San Diego police stopped traffic and blocked off streets so demonstrators could march from a gathering spot in the Gaslamp District to a plaza behind City Hall.

In its first few hours, the protest was exuberant but peaceful and no attempt was made to occupy any building. Demonstration organizers said marchers plan to remain all weekend in one or more city parks.

[yhendra]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 4188.story

Protests spread to more than a dozen cities

The Occupy protest movement expects to mark its 23rd day on Sunday, having begun in New York City as Occupy Wall Street and spread to more than a dozen U.S. cities, including Chicago.
The protests have tapped into widespread anger over the last three years of economic distress. Organizers maintain that 99 percent of Americans are suffering from the greed of 1 percent, a minority that they say includes members of the financial industry.
While the ranks of protesters in New York have swelled into the thousands at times, most demonstrations elsewhere have numbered in the hundreds.
Topics

Protests have been largely peaceful, although more than 700 people were arrested last weekend in New York when demonstrators blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Friday that the city has spent more than $1.9 million in overtime to dispatch police for crowd control during protests.
Other cities where protests have been held are Tampa, Fla.; Trenton and Jersey City, N.J.; Philadelphia; Norfolk, Va.; St. Louis; Houston, San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Los Angeles.

[ngtfook]

"anti western" ex-Malaysia PM speaks up...


Dr M warns of long financial crisis
By Shannon Teoh
October 08, 2011


KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad warned the ongoing global economic crisis will continue long into the future as the West continues spending in a “state of denial.”
The former prime minister said in his blog yesterday that Western countries continue “believing that they can somehow continue to remain rich. They are unable to behave like poor people.”

On the same day Datuk Seri Najib Razak tabled a budget that aims to rein in the deficit to 4.7 per cent, Dr Mahathir (picture) said the West “will not recover because they are still in a state of denial.

“They still believe they are rich, as rich as before they plunged into the crisis. They must keep up the big power wealthy country image even if their people have no jobs, riot and protest.

“The great financial crisis will be with us for a long time. Even when it is resolved the aftermath will see slow recovery for the giants of the West,” he wrote.

“How nice it would be if our pocket is picked, we are allowed to print some money to replace what is lost,” he said, mocking the United States’ quantitative easing measures which has seen its federal reserve print US$3 trillion (RM9.5 billion) since the start of the financial crisis in 2008.

“Now Britain is following in the footsteps of elder brother,” he added, referring to the United Kingdom’s recent move to print £75 billion (RM370 billion) to help distressed banks.
The debt crises in Europe and the US have caused the global economy to wobble in recent months and is likely to stunt Malaysia’s export-driven economy in the near future.

Analysts said yesterday that Najib’s prediction of a 5 to 6 per cent growth for 2012 is “too high” which may in turn see Putrajaya fail to meet its deficit forecast.

The prime minister tabled a budget yesterday which saw cash handouts, more money for civil servants, schools and a fund for “high-impact development” projects to put cash in the pockets of voters ahead of a general election expected soon.

[yhendra]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas ... 206699.php

Occupy Houston protestors converge on City Hall

Several hundred protesters - young and old, healthy and disabled - converged in downtown Houston Thursday to demand greater social and economic justice under the banner of the Occupy Houston movement.

The demonstration was an outgrowth of a New York event, Occupy Wall Street, focused on what protesters call corporate greed and disproportionate influence of the very wealthy. The local protest began at 8:30 a.m. at Market Square Park with about 150 protesters - many carrying placards and chanting - who then marched to the J.P. Morgan Chase Bank Tower before moving on to City Hall.

The crowd grew through the day.

"We have officially occupied Hermann Square Park," a speaker told the crowd, referring to the reflecting pool area on the east side of City Hall. "We are not going anywhere until the people are heard."

The protesters, many chanting, "They (banks) got bailed out, we got sold out," had plenty to say about what they believe is wrong with America.

"I think that money plays too big a role in our political process in this moment in history, and I believe it's damaging the country," said Eugene Hayman, 57, a chemical plant worker from Deer Park. "I'm afraid what the future holds if the people with all the money continue to run this country in way that profits them at the expense of everyone else."

Festive atmosphere

Another protester said she wanted to take part in the New York protest, but her husband didn't approve so she headed to downtown Houston when she learned of the march.

"I'm one of the 99 percent that's getting screwed in this economy," said Sue Ann Schwantes, 59, of Spring. "My savings are in the toilet. We can't make any money on the (stock) market because it is in a mess. I protested in the '60s and I didn't think that I'd have to be out here again doing something like this. I'm too old for this."

The event had a festival-like atmosphere, aided by mild temperatures and partly cloudy skies. The crowd was peaceful, but the chants came loud and furious.

"The people united will never be defeated," the crowd yelled. Others chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate greed has got to go."

The placards they carried were equally provocative.

"Wake up, sheeple," one sign read. "Land of fees, home of the slave," read another. "People, not profit," read yet another.

One by one, protesters took to the City Hall steps to address the crowd. None stated their full names.

"I was a teacher until two weeks ago," said a protester identified as Michael H.

"I was laid off. I am denied employment. I have no insurance because of corporate corruption of our wonderful democratic system. Occupy Houston!"

National attention

The movement held simultaneous protests Thursday in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Portland, Ore., Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

They drew the attention of President Barack Obama, who commented on the protests during a nationally televised news conference Thursday.

"I think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," Obama said. "The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that ... and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond."