Occupying the Occupy Narrative

The title describes what I’ve done all day.  I don’t recommend it.

“Why hasn’t the ‘Occupy Movement’ died out yet?” I asked myself yesterday.  You see, I’m a rube.  Once news about the crime, violence, and general mayhem started trickling (then pouring) in at a steady pace, I figured the Occupiers would pack up and go home.

In the early days, the mainstream media tidily airbrushed the movement, but surely they couldn’t keep that up.  Not when words like “rape” and “murder“ began popping up.  The media would be forced to ignore Occupy.  Without media attention, the whole affair would wither and die.

So I thought.

Analyzing news coverage is harder than it used to be, thanks to Google’s elimination of the “timeline” search feature.  Still, I found more than enough to fill a longer-than-usual post.  Settle in with some popcorn, readers.  Today, I googled “occupy.”

My search for current news produced predictable results.  The top four hits are for larger news entities, whose articles still sound like a whole lotta airbrushing:

1. Occupy Wall Street Plans Return to Spotlight – But in What Form?
2. Occupy’s Six Month Anniversary Promises a Revival
3. Legal or Not, ‘Occupy’ Movement Comes to Fort Greene Park on Sunday
4. Occupy Movement Seeks Renewed Physical Presence

One has to click onto local news, or a blog networking site Gothamist, or the town hall site Gather, or even (gasp) Faux News to get the latest sordid details.  You know, details like the Great Poopy Dumping, the Clever NYPD “Piggy” Taunting, and the Artistic Renderings on Stupid Boring Monuments.

Of course, Andrew Breitbart’s site tells it like it is:  Media Ignores Occupy’s Violent Hijacking of Trayvon Martin.  This hijacking occurred on Wednesday, March 21, when Hoodie Marchers fused with Occupiers.  Large crowds became “increasingly raucous.”  One guy walked over (thereby damaging) a slowly moving car.  (How frightening for the driver and any passengers.)  Others removed barricades.  A couple of glass bottles got thrown at NYPD when they cleared Union Square’s plaza.

Folks not informed enough to follow The Bigs, however, are not likely to hear these details.  They are more likely to read this bland article on Yahoo, where the fecal matter is discreetly buried at the bottom of the page.  They may see this photo on Yahoo, depicting the conflict between NYPD and Occupy as a mild verbal debate.  Possibly, the public at large will stumble onto AP’s announcement of Occupy’s upcoming “spring training:”

“Activists inspired by Occupy Wall Street are gearing up for spring training. They say they will teach thousands of people to lead nonviolent protests aimed at reinvigorating the spirit of the movement against economic inequality.”

Uh-huh.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin.  The Occupiers themselves are not using mild terms.  No sirree:

” . . . we are fearless in the face of state violence. . . . the police department broke up a peaceful Spring celebration in Liberty Square by kicking, punching and beating . . . .  Since then, NYPD has conducted nightly raids . . . to enforce arbitrary rules as an excuse to harass, intimidate, brutalize, and arrest those gathered peacefully . . . .”

This violence allegedly occurred on Saturday, March 17th, when Occupiers attempted to reoccupy Zuccotti Park in honor of their six-month anniversary.  (Cute.  Like teenagers in love, they can’t wait a whole year to celebrate.)

I say “alleged” because the video used to back up this claim is curiously devoid of kicking, punching, and beating.  (Also, it ate up seven minutes of my life that I can never get back.)  The police attempt to restrain a man.  He resists, and in the ensuing shuffle he careens into a door hard enough to crack the glass.  It’s impossible to tell who instigated what from this video, however.

The overall impression is that of a crowd trying to antagonize and provoke the police.

The Occupiers also claim Cecily McMillan as a victim of police brutality that same night.  A video at the link began with some real fightin’ words from protester Jen Waller:

“It is when we speak out against the 1%, and defy them, by fighting for public space that we are brutalized.”

Ms. Waller spoke of “bloodthirsty cops” who “stomped on their faces” at Zuccotti Park.  Yikes!  The Democracy Now! lady then interviewed a bruise-brandishing Ms. McMillan (who has either a broken or bruised rib, depending on who is speaking) ostensibly to expose all this violent, face-stomping bloodthirstiness with a little dose of actual, you know, evidence:

“I have an open case so I can’t talk about it, and I’m sure you can tell that it would be difficult to remember some things . . . .”

Or, not.

Well, scene footage is featured in the background of the interview, so maybe that has some evidence in it . . . hey, what?  The footage stopped playing.  At 6:40, the interviewer says to Ms. McMillan:

“We’ve also turned off the monitors because you said you couldn’t see the footage.  Why?”

“My friends have told me that I might want to refrain from watching because some of them have cried or even gotten sick when watching, and my therapist has said that if I were to watch . . . it might trigger further psychological damage.”

Whoo boy.  The footage must be awful.  As a public service, I have found, viewed, and embedded it below.  All six minutes and forty-three seconds.  Ms. McMillan is absolutely right:  this video features frightening and sickening behavior.

Just not the behavior of the police.

Let me guide you through it.

The police were arresting and loading onto a bus all protesters that refused to leave their new Zuccotti encampment.  Ms. McMillan apparently has a seizure.  She hits the pavement at 1:15.  You can’t see her, but you can see the police reaction.  Within the next ten seconds, she comes into view.  She is twitching and jerking on the ground.  The crowd gets angry at the way policemen are standing about.

By 2:33 (a whopping 93 seconds later), the crowd is screaming things like “you f***ing scumbag!”  At 3:10 they are screaming “call 911!” A policeman answers, “we’re on the phone ma’am; it’s already happening.”  At 3:14 they carry her off the street and to the sidewalk.  At 3:23 you can see that her hands are no longer cuffed.

4:02 is the point at which the crowd, quite simply, goes berserk.  For the next minute or two, they unleash a vile display of hatred and rage:  “f***ing animals!”  “these c**ks**ker f***ing police!”  “f***ing scumbag mother f***ers!”  “you incompetent mother f***ers!”

And the piece day la resistance?  The threat at 5:14:

“. . . check it out on the website!  Your faces!  And your family’s faces!  On the internet!  At the pizza shop!  At the bar!  Twenty four hours a day!”

 

What do the police officers do in the face of this barrage?  Nothing.  The stony, stoic looks on their faces made me feel both sadness and pride.  They have to just stand there and take it.  At least they are taking it like men.

The only other useful footage I found was another Democracy Now! report, which at 1:07 briefly shows Ms. McMillan rousing from her unconscious state on the sidewalk.  She looks more like a lady with a bad case of vapors than a victim of police brutality.  (If you click over to see it, be sure and stop viewing by 1:43, or you’ll get an eyeful of Michael Moore.)

Well, there you have it in a nutshell:  a frightening and volatile group that will continue provoking law enforcement as long as they are allowed, and a mainstream media that will continue to overlook and airbrush this group’s antics no matter what.

Not a good combination.  After reading and watching the Occupiers’ own words and actions for the better part of a day, I am well and truly disturbed.  These folks seem comfortable with lawlessness.  They seem comfortable demonizing a faceless, unknown Other.  They unblinkingly demand to be more equal than everyone else:  “This is god**** our park!  This is our park!  The real people’s park!”

If the situation is allowed to fester indefinitely, Occupiers will find the breaking point they seek.  Let’s just hope that local news reports and the blogosphere provide enough daylight to disinfect the whole dirty, sorry mess first.

So About These Occupiers . . .

What’s the best way to deal with them?

“Feh” is my initial gut instinct–who cares?  Let them beclown themselves.  I commented in this vein over at Conservatives on Fire.  Yeah, there are Soros and other Big Money connections–who cares?  All the better if these substantively empty protests drain the left’s coffers.

Then I got around to reading a post over at FilmLadd. (Drat.  I can’t remember who led me to FilmLadd, so I can’t do the via link.)  In that post, Mr. Ehlinger makes an unsettling point:

“My hunch is that these protests aren’t about accomplishing anything right now except to flex their muscles, test out the police, and see which supporters “they” (the White House) can count on.

In short: #OccupyWallStreet is a dry run for November 2012.”

Hmm.  That sounds bad . . . and yet plausible.

What do you think?

Chirping Away (UPDATED)

Meghan McCain is perhaps the single best example of a person who speaks with the authority of an expert but the comprehension of a, well . . . .

Perhaps you can fill in the blank for me.

I really dig the way Yos at Si Vic Pacem puts it, but if I quote him/her (which are you, Yos?), then I’ll have stolen the whole post.  So you’ll have to click over.

Anyhoo, Breitbart has Ms. McCain’s latest video clip in all its full glory.  It’s good for a laugh, in and of itself.  It also sets up nicely the following Sharp Elbows and Dana Loesch fisking. 

“Look at me on the elephant!”

Snort.  I’d say more, but Dana does a better job:

UPDATE:  It’s a boy!  Thanks for taking the time to comment here, Mr. Yos.  Yeah, my hubs is pretty bald manly too.

I’m Shocked I Tell You. Shocked!

Aw man!

Mr. Saddleburr beat me to the punch.  So did The Left Coast Rebel,  Patterico, new-to-me blog Fellowship of the Minds, and of course Hot Air.

Nevermind.  Linking to you early birds will hopefully generate a little more traffic.  Sometimes it pays to procrastinate, you know.

I got email notification of this shocking new video straight from Erica Payne herself yesterday.  Well you know I just had to watch it right that instant.  Only a couple hundred views were clocked at that time.  Today, the message is spreading fast.

Here it is guys, but I’m warning you.  This video is so shocking, you really should prepare to be traumatized.  I’m talking horrific images seared into your retinas forever.  Even so, it’s important that you steel yourself and watch.  As Ms. Payne explained in her personal email,

“Is it not far better to see a graphic representation of a possible reality, rather than to experience the actual reality that Paul Ryan, conservatives and some Democrats would like to impose on our country?  I hope you will understand that we did not mean to offend any individual or group of individuals by creating this video.  We hope it will serve as a catalyst for meaningful discourse on the moral document that is our nation’s budget.”

Ready for this shocking catalyst for meaningful discourse?  Are you sure?  Oh-kay, but get your hands ready to shield your eyes:

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha ha haha hahahhahahhahha!  Oh my.

At first I couldn’t remember why I was on Agenda Project’s email list, and then it hit me.  They were the evil geniuses behind the F*** Tea campaign, which gave me such a laugh that I wanted to stay abreast of their future efforts.  So I signed up.

Totally worth it.

Isn’t it nice of the Agenda Project folks to work so hard just to give us a hearty laugh?

Because they can’t actually be serious when describing that comedy skit as shocking, can they?

Cuz dude.  You didn’t even blow any kids up.  You’re way behind the bell curve.

Proof

The left knows the charge of raaaaacism© is false.  Via Big Journalism and The Other McCain comes my hero Breitbart on Maher’s show.  All you need is the last exchange of the video below, starting at 10:45:

Maher:  “What do you think the right-wing would do if he [Obama] grew that ‘fro again?”

Breitbart:  “Would you be willing to do a poll, where you put the Herman Cain/Allen West candidacy, and poll it to America, and especially the Tea Party.  They would go nuts for that.  So the idea that somehow you are framing Tea Party or Republicans as racist is outrageous.”

Maher:  “Okay.  Okay.  That’s what I do.  I’m outrageous.  Lemme go on to a different subject . . .”

Yep, move it right along Officer Barbrady:

Folks like Maher know the racism charge is a lie. 

Sadly, many everyday folks believe the lies they are fed.  I’ve seen in first hand, at protests and at a “Coffee Party” meeting.

Initially, I felt a pure, seething, white-hot outrage at being called “racist.”  Such a nasty insult.  After awhile, though, the insult lost its sting.  It became silly, so I almost forget it was a primary motivation for this blog.

It makes me sad, to revisit this subject.  Having to disprove an unsubstantiated charge is most unjust.  Probably pointless, too.  Here’s the video if you got time to kill:

More Civility Lessons From The Left

MayRant&Rave provides a peek at folks I suppose you could safely call our enemy.  Oooh-eee there’s some sour visages and vulgar tongues in this lot:

The videographer, daylight disinfectant, also captured the video at Breitbart, showing harassment of a black Tea Party member.

My heartfelt appreciation and admiration goes out to this citizen reporter.  I wouldn’t have wanted to get so close.  The agitation that his mere presence invoked from this crowd is a sight to behold.

But you know what?  I appreciate their honesty.  The truth is, the haters in this vid deserve more respect than those who look down on you, but mask this condescension in terms of care and understanding.

The Only Coffee Guaranteed To Help You Sleep

I’ll admit it:  my fascination with the Coffee Party is a little aberrant. 

Maybe it’s petty, too.  Picking on them is fun. 

Hopefully, my indulgent behavior also provides a public service.  Plenty folks out there don’t know MoveOn.org from PajamasMedia.com, nor Tea Party from Coffee Party from The Rent Is Too Damn High Party.  Perhaps a few of those folks will stumble onto my blog after googling for Coffee Party information.

(By the way.  You totally have to follow the Rent Party link for the theme song that automatically plays.)

Ah, the Coffee Party.  Bless ‘em.  It’s in my nature to give people the benefit of the doubt.  So, most Coffee Party folks are probably sincere about what they peddle:  transpartisanship, common ground, independence from party politics, positive solutions and all the other kumbaya nonsense in their Mission Statement.

This thick gloss of “nonpartisanship” will inevitably appeal to some of the voters who label themselves independents.  These voters may in reality be centrist, even right-centrist, but if they are a product of modern public brainwashing schooling, they may not notice the hard left, typical Marxist, class-hating rhetoric beneath the gloss.  Plus, the Coffee Party crew has that whole civility vibe working for ‘em.  They are so civil that they had a Civility Pledge before Jared Loughner’s awful shooting spree.  Of course, there is some indication that the Coffee Party is (gasp!) not really so inclusive after all, but let’s not get into that.

Then why bring them up again?  Duh.  Because picking on them is fun. 

All that bipartisanship, civility and inclusiveness sounds sweet, but it’s really just boring.  Yawn city.  No matter how hard Annabel Park and the gang work, this endeavor will fail for the simple reason that they put their potential audience to sleep. 

Case in point:  their Vol. 1, No. 7 newsletter.  The whole thing is dozy, but the ”Inaugural Report from the Coffee Party 2.0 Transition Team” really takes the cake, assuming that cake was made with crushed Ambien mixed in the batter.

Ready for some sleep, dear reader?

”Coffee Party USA Board of Directors – Annabel Park (president), Chris Rigopulos (treasurer) and Bruce Hoffman – charged the newly-formed Coffee Party 2.0 Transition Team (TT) with the task of establishing the following: set up a process to select a permanent Board of Directors; set up internal committees and processes to manage ongoing business; hire management and administration personnel to perform member services duties; provide process for organizer training; and design a process to communicate effectively with, and integrate the input of, members at large at various levels. The timeline is set for the Transition Team is to achieve its tasks by July 1, 2011, the beginning of our next fiscal year. The goal is to disband by July 31, 2011, once the permanent Board of Directors is put into place and given proper orientation. The deadline is not a legal mandate but rather self-imposed so that the team can deliberate and come to conclusions in an expeditious manner.”

Whew.  That’s a lot of establishing and processing and managing and integrating and administering.  Dilbert’s pointy-headed boss would be proud.  And that’s just the first paragraph.  Read the whole thing if you have insomnia at bedtime.

This newsletter is their best effort at promoting a supposedly vibrant, grassroots organization, and the contents are so dry and devoid of all grassrooty-ness that it’s comical.  The best visual in the whole thing is a picture of a talking elevator.  Cuz, you know, nothin’ says GOTV like a . . . talking elevator . . . .

A recent WORM post comes to mind, about Talkers v. Doers.  The Coffee Party is a perfect example of When Talkers Think They Are Doers.  The WORM laments the fact that “the Doers let the Talkers take over the Doings,” and posits that “this is the thing that actually brings down Western Civilization.”

Well, yeah.

But sod the doom and gloom.  I choose to laugh at the Dilberts.  If I don’t laugh, then I’ll cry.

The Good Wife

Little did I realize when I wrote “The Virtuous Wife,” that I would be posting next on a show called ”The Good Wife.”

I have never seen this TV show.  Apparently, the ER nurse chick has a starring role, as a once-lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mom-turning-lawyer once again after her husband cheats, or something like that.

So, another lawyer show.

One of my regular reads, Diary of a Mad Conservative, posted about the fact this TV show features a Tea Party character named . . . Kurt McVeigh.

Yeah.  Nice.

No, really, we mean it in a very nice way, says co-creator and writer Robert King:

“I haven’t commented everywhere because virus-like this story has spread everywhere, and it’s very hard to chase down a viral confusion. It really lends some truth to the epigram: ‘a lie runs halfway around the world before the truth can get its shoes on.’Having said that, I wish people would watch the episode in question. I know it seems like a lame justification, but the episode really is strangely a defense of Tea Party adherents. Most of the criticism of the episode has been taking the words of the obvious villain to be the meaning of the episode– when it’s actually the opposite.”

 Oh, kay.  I’ve not seen the show, so maybe.  Mr. King continued:

“It’s very hard to argue that now without seeming like an apologist. But look at the episode ‘Bang’ from last year (you can find it on line) and then look at the episode ‘Silver Bullet’ from this year. They are a defense of these character’s conservative values.

But anyway this has been an education for me– how the internet becomes a funhouse mirror of agendas and political opinions. It’s very dispiriting.

I hope you’ll give the show a chance. It’s not what you expect. Thank you”

In case you are thinking what I was thinking when I first read Mr. King’s words, I’ll share my initial response:

“I don’t feel sorry for assuming that ‘McVeigh’ was a slam. I mean, Mr. King feels dispirited?  The internet is a fun house mirror of agendas?

I wonder, does he really understand what it’s like to have been a libertarian-oriented Christian and conservative the last coupla decades. Almost every teacher and then college professor you have looks down on your beliefs. They tell you things like, “Republicans hate women,” and “conservatives are stingy.”

Virtually all of the popular culture that you enjoy, from movies to TV to major news networks to popular music, has a way of sneaking in insults, lies, and anti-right/Christian/etc messages in their products. You can’t even enjoy a live concert without the star shrieking some brainless anti-Bush or anti-Palin or whatevs to the audience.

It doesn’t feel good, does it? When people assume the worst outta you, just because of your particular label?  H’wood and the rest have been doing it to us conservatives for a long time. Frankly, the assumption that McVeigh was an insult is perfectly reasonable.

Mr. King, we conservative bloggers have lived our whole lives in a fun house of left-oriented agendas. The internet has finally given us a little side exit so we can have a little info sharing and fellowship with one another.”

Even after saying my part, the whole thing has continued to nag at me.  I resolved to watch the first episode in question, “Bang.”  But, I could not find it immediately available on the ‘net.  Netflix does not offer it as an instant watch, and neither does Amazon.  So, I’ve made do with a little Google research.

First, let us deal with the claim that “virus-like this story has spread everywhere, and it’s very hard to chase down a viral confusion.”

Perhaps this is the first time that Mr. King has felt personally contradicted on the internet.  If so, then it’s understandable that it felt like a “viral confusion.”  Yet, my Google search of “robert king the good wife” unearthed precious little confusion.  Once narrowed down to the category “blogs,” this search basically resulted in three objectionable opinions:  Roxy’s, NewsBusters, and theblogprof.

It would appear that Mr. King responded to Roxy and NewsBusters, but got overwhelmed before he could respond to the blog prof. 

How late would I have to stay up in order to log in all the internet stuff against the Tea Party?  Plus the things I have heard with my own ears.

Second, what do we conclude about the assertion that this episode is meant to be pro-Tea Party, rather than anti-?  Check out the info at NewsBusters yourself.  Perhaps Mr. McVeigh is written as a positive character, but it seems that other Tea Partiers in some photo evidence are not so positive.  Looks a bit debatable to me.  

And check out one of Mr. King’s comments there:

“I have no affection for conservatism.  I have no affection for liberalism.  I just hate cliches.  I hate watching a TV show and knowing that if a priest is introduced in the first act he will molest a child in the fourth act.  I hate the predictability and the dishonesty.  Conversely, I like being surprised by a show.  I like when a show has a 2nd Amendment-protecting, Palin-loving ballistics expert named McVeigh become the hero.  It’s unexpected and therefore fun.”

Someone who loves Palin and protects the 2nd Amendment is an unexpected hero.  Yep.

Here’s the rest of the stuff I found.  Draw your own conclusions, folks.

1)  According to Mr. King at the BBC News Blog:

“The Kurt McVeigh character was released mid-season our very first yr, and at that time, he was offered a identify which was supposed to play in to the anti-conservative prejudices with the additional liberal companion, Diane,” King informed Pop Tarts. “So no red flags had been elevated for the reason that the level was to satirize Diane’s prejudice in opposition to his title. The position with the McVeigh character was that he was one of the most truthful and forthright character within the display, and but he just occurred to become a robust conservative.”

2)  According to Entertainment Weekly.com, co-creator Michelle King has stated: “We can pretty much do it all except say f—. And s—.”  So they’ve got that going for them.

3)  Finally, I’ve learned that The Good Wife has a “sexed-up future“:

“So far on this season of The Good Wife, Peter Florrick performed oral sex on his wife Alicia in the bathroom, and Kalinda and Blake’s charged relationship developed a sexual undercurrent after she took a baseball bat to his car and then cupped him off-screen.”

Okey-dokey then.  If you want to learn more, then here is Robert and Michelle themselves, discussing their creation.

Meh.

I’m not interested in a binocular view from their Tea Party safari.  Are you?

I’m A Little Nosy Part 2

Ever since the Coffee Party burst onto the scene in March of ’10, I’ve been on their email list.  Now, we don’t hear much about them anymore.  Professor Jacobsen over at Legal Insurrection noted the movement’s decline back in August.

Yet, the Coffee Party is still chugging along in a sleepy fashion, which amuses me since it’s named after such a stimulating beverage.  I still get emails from them, thanks to signing a sheet passed around that fateful first local Coffee Party meeting at Starbucks. 

At first, local participants sent the emails, but that stopped quickly.  Now it’s the typical mass email from headquarters–you know, like the stuff you get from OFA or the RNC.

So I get a little nosy when a new name appears in the “from” box.  (Like the time I got nosy about the name Joshua Norris, listed as the coordinator of a local OFA event.  His Myspace page was . . . interesting.)

This time the new name in the Coffee Party “from” box was Bruce Schuman.  Google produced a few different Bruce Schumans, but I’m pretty sure this is the guy. 

Go ahead, click over.

He’s probably a really nice guy, but I’m not sure I follow his spiritual beliefs.

Oh and hey.  If you ever run out of Lunesta and need a sleep-aid immediately, click here.

UPDATE:  Yeah, I’ve definitely got the correct Bruce Schuman.  He’s written an article at the Coffee Party site about ”transpartisanship.”  You know, because bipartisanship is so ten minutes ago.  What is it with the constant rebranding of all things progressive?

He also started something called Shared Purpose.  Here is the list of groups participating so far.

And check out the info on this kinda mysterious website called Public Intelligence Blog:

Below the line is an email with several links that has been broadcast by and to what we think of as the “thinking man’s kum-ba-ya crowd.”  They have not gotten a grip on public intelligence in the public interest yet, they are still crawling around the edges of structured organization.  Think of them as raw material for GroupOn.  A mix of naivete, scary, and inspiring.  Please also note, as Tom Atlee has emphasized, that CITIZENSHIP makes “transpartisanship” a moot if not a counter-productive term.  The Coffee Party is seriously over-hyped in the material that follows, but the spirit of the note is authentic and merits respect.

Okey-dokey then.

Estate 44 Is No Longer With Us

Aw, man!  After a few short weeks, Estate 44 has shut down its Posterous blog site, its Twitter account, and its YouTube Channel.  I had posted about this mystery site back in September. 

What happened to it?  Back on 06 September, the Tea Party Tracker tweeted to Estate 44, just one minute after Estate 44 sent out its first tweet, so it seems like they were related somehow.

Strange.  Today, the Tea Party Tracker’s Twitter timeline says their most recent tweet occurred on 30 August.  What happened to the 06 September tweet to Estate 44?

The only proof I have of this Estate 44 is a saved “mhtml” file, so here is a screen cap from that:

It started out mysterioso, and ended mysterioso.  Rest in peace, Estate 44.