The New York Times, writing about Bloomberg’s crackdown on Occupy Wall Street, said this:
For the mayor, a champion of the First Amendment….
I am not sure what is required to deserve the title of “champion,” but was it a different Michael Bloomberg who was mayor during the 2004 Republican convention, which saw mass arrests, preventive detention and surveillance/infiltration of protest groups?
What’s next—Bloomberg the Fourth Amendment champion?
Should we contact Merriam-Webster to let them know of this definitive example?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/newspeak
To paraphrase Gass: The corporate media hates being bothered by public issues that interfere with its indifference.
Freedom of speech is not the right to squat on private property as you defile it.
You could beef this up a bit with Bloomie’s mistreatment of the anti-war movement in 2003. The huge March 2003 march happened despite denial of permit by the city and was harassed via cops on horseback and barricade blocking the whole time.
michael e: Luckily for you, freedom of speech does include the right to parrot corporate right wing talking points.
Bearpaw if there is a corporate entity in this country that wields a cohesive and well planned out arm of power(there is not)…..you can bet it gave more heavily to Obama than any one else in the last election.Money well spent.Wall street made more in BAMS first 18 months than in 8 years under Bush!So I guess you mean Corp left wing.Suffice it to say i don’t believe in corporatism in the clearest sense.And to incorporate is not to sign a pact with the devil.Freedom of speech on the left seems to be to say the silliest things and take it for granted that everyone agrees with you.Well we don’t.Come November you shall see that.
What i said was that although I am a tea party constitutionalist who reveres freedom of speech ….I do not believe anyone has the right to invade private property to exercise that right.Can we not agree that i have no right to set up a tent on your lawn, and pee in your driveway ,as i protest your left leaning beliefs?
michael e: OWS and its by now countless sister occupations across the globe are not fans of Obama. We understand very well the deception that was perpetrated in 2008. And not to believe that there is active political coordination among the largest corporations and banks to increase their share of income, avoid taxation, break unions, and lower wages is simply denial of very well documented reality. History has passed you and your co-thinkers by. You were a useful idiot, and you are no longer useful. Turn off Faux News and begin investigating reality.
What is clear enough is the diminishing authority of the financial elite which resides in its property, elusive as it is. Bloomberg draws around himself an American ideal notion, trying to cloak and make seem necessary the repressive violence so often deployed against democratic dissent. The amnesia of some Americans for the political meaning of violence is bound up with their refusal to question or think hard about hallowed ideals of freedom, property, etc. For them it is easier to scapegoat the weaker and more vulnerable members of our society. Bloomberg is not the champion of anything except Sen. Mitch McConnell’s “money is speech” doctrine. Endorsing this perverse doctrine the Supreme Court is facilitating the further destruction of democracy by corporate power wielded by myopic, greedy elites.
Michael your kida busy all over anything about OWS arent you? I guess it takes a lot of work trying to be “a majority” of 1. Your gonna have your work cut out for you in the weeks and months ahead too.
Michael e is a shill for the right wing-and yes he parrots everything we would expect from someone with a political ax to grind. We should not pay him any attention. Consider the thoughtless source and you will know his comments are not real.
Man, talk about sycophants! Not just the quote-the entire piece! Nothing but fawning worship of our King Bloomberg. Is the NY Times useful for anything besides lining Mr. Meowington’s litter box?
Okey, the original tea partiers did indeed break the law when they dumped the tea in the harbor. Since when are protesters supposed to work within the law? I don’t condone violence and am considered “peaceful”. Ghandi and Kind advocated “breaking the law” peacefully when there was injustice. And who really believes that the President (whoever it is) has any say in what goes on in this country? Our government is a puppet in the hands of our world overseers. A European financier once said “Let me control a countries banks and I control the country.”. All of you….do research on your own. Don’t let others tell you what you should think. You may be suprised. I was.
I’m convinced that the entire staff at the NYT is nothing more these days than a group of sold out lapdog toadies vying to see who can stick their nose the furthest up some politician’s ass. They are a disgrace to journalism.
The privatization and ownership of piss and poo is the next step I guess, then we all will have to remain as constipated as the tea party. Anybody who fears human bodily functions more then the ownership of EVERYTHING from seeds to air and water by 1% of the population should sell their souls to them pronto. Some of us don’t fool so easily however.
When you listen to hours of Lush Rimjob or Fox “news” a week as some people do, you can become an informed consumer of falsehoods presented over and over in the “big lie” fashion until they seem reasonable. I’ve watched it happen to a friend of mine and it’s sad. He is truly blinded.
Some people even believe that the media is liberal.
The media that is owned by big business that is.
I listen to many different sources of information and I can tell you that truly liberal media is very rare and hard to come by. Try listening to T.U.C. Radio or AR (Alternative Radio) if you want to see where the liberal media stands. Then watch ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX or CNN and you will see that they are not going to bite their masters’ hand to feed us the truth. Same with the NYT.
Don’t feed the troll, solerso. Same goes for you, Bearpaw. If you have to say something, try dripping contempt and foul invective.
Well it seems by these blogs that I am not the man of the hour.Im crushed.
I noticed I really did not read a cohesive thought from anyone -lauding the great pee party revolt in any way that brought it into perspective.Revealing.If nothing else most of you are very articulate.The lack of articulation says it all.Reminds me of being on the street in New York and talking to these folks.
Tim as always….. you are socialist on his soapbox trying to silence free discourse between consenting adults.
My guess……..OAS will fade with the cold weather only to return with the spring thaw.I mean who does not like a pee soaked parade?Who will benefit and fund it will be interesting by then.I hope We can open the biggest jobs fair ever seen to adjoin it.All that talent and drive in one place.lets hire them all off the parade groung.Make it a win win.When you have lemons…..Make lemonade!
Michael e, if you had actually been at Zuccotti park – as I and many members of over 1400 faith communities in the NYC area have been, you would understand that, first of all, their incredibly efficient method of consensus decision making is something a Tea Partier should applaud, and not scorn; and second, until forced by Bloomberg to withdraw his support, the OWS’ers were occupying Zuccotti park with the agreement of the owner. Zuccotti Park is private, not public, property. AND the site was amazingly clean and peaceful until police infiltrators began stirring up trouble around 3 weeks ago. Remember the dancing naked woman? She is a professional stripper – she was not part of the OWS – and probably got a nice spot of cash for her antic.
The NYC police force is a private army now: Chase, BOA and other banks are pouring millions into keeping the rabble quiet. When the only people with the right of free speech these days is a dangerous yahoo like Glenn Beck – who called for a Night of the Long Knives (referring to the mass political murders of the Nazis in the 1930s) – it’s not hard to figure out where our pathetic power people stand on civil rights and liberties.
Please – I know it is nearly impossible to get anything resembling ‘news’ these days because all mainline media (left, right, and center all feed at the same corporate trough) are required to tow the party line – there is, by the way, no left left: left is right of Reagan these days. But don’t drink the kool-aid. Try some other info sources. OccupyFaith.org is a good one for how the faith communities are involved – mainly just updates on how and why churches, synagogues and mosques are supporting the movement – but still informative.
Keep telling it, Roz!
To paraphrase Micheal e for the next 100 years
Fair is always wrong-repeat
The liberal press (where ever that may exist) is always wrong-repeat
I, Michael e however, am never wrong and always (repeat) have the correct view. So if you want to know the truth, just shut up and always listen to Michael e on all topics. repeat.
Roz
The agreement was to leave when construction began.By not leaving…tons of construction workers out of work.Funny huh?And they are all over private property as you well know.And it is not is any sense clean.Filthy is the word.How about Peter Dutro caught staying in a seven hundred dollar a night hotel ,along with one of OWS main contributors.Funny huh?And as far as when ,and if their consensus decision making becomes something to applaud …..this tea party member will do so.I have no problem with people protesting.Still don’t see it though.And their are no long knives or fascist police forces out to corrupt anyones rights.Everyone has been very pliable in trying to give everybody room to speak.Of course I think this protest is not over the right to equal opportunity.It is over the right of the ability for equal result.And that is never going to happen.
Ray Fair is strictly left leaning.Every word they write,every breath they take.You need to know there are other views.Enough out there to remove this standing president.