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Thanks to the Alter.net for the commentary on Alan Grayson smacking down conservatives on Real Time with Bill Mahr.
“Prior to O’Rouke’s entry, Grayson was relatively subdued, making occasional jokes. There was not that much need to challenge from Nicolle Wallace, the other conservative on, who weakly employed Tactic No. 4 in the right wing repertoire: “If any Democrat does something questionable, it’s irrelevant that all Republicans do the same thing.” Thus, because four Dem. Senators oppose the jobs bill based on oil subsidies, it’s irrelevant that all the Republicans oppose it for that and worse reasons. Or because Jimmy Carter supports some kind of voter ID, all of the onerous Voter ID laws are OK!
But O’Rourke is capable of sounding authoritative and knowledgeable when he lies. He also is a master of condescension and an expert in Right Wing Tactic No. 5: When you’re losing an argument, just make a joke — even a stupid joke works because the issue goes away. So O’Rourke was mocking the OWS protestors because they supposedly didn’t have specific goals, were just DFH’s playing bongo drums and had no leader:
Grayson said (I’m paraphrasing)
If you want someone who cares about millions of unemployed.
If you want someone who cares about 45 million people without health insurance
If you want someone who cares about millions in poverty. Then I’d be proud to call myself that leader.
The crowd went nuts and O’Rourke was reduced to even more of a blubbering fool. Grayson had cut right through Tactic No. 5 by citing devastating statistics and showing that while he can be funny like he was earlier, he can cut to the heart of problems that prigs like O’Rourke minimize and joke about.
Then the discussion turned to the amounts of cash businesses and banks are sitting on. His mocking tactic lying on the floor in a pool of piss, O’Rourke resorted to Right Wing Tactic No. 1: A simple lie that sounds authoritative. He said that the banks are sitting on cash and not lending because of the capital restrictions of Dodd-Frank.
I yelled at the screen — “Please Alan, call him on that!”
And Alan did not disappoint, saying directly to O’Rourke’s face: “Nonsense,” and explaining that the banks are getting huge interest on their cash and their failure to lend had nothing to do with Dodd.
Once again O’Rourke was reduced to blubbering, nearly falling off his seat onto Maher.
O’Rourke may be smarter than a lot of right wingers, but when challenged with facts and passion, he folds into a pitiful heap of goo.”
Haven’t heard much about the protests going on in the financial districts in the US? Are you surprised? When the interests of the elite are challenged getting the mainstream media to notice is like trying iceskate uphill (go see what al jazeera has to say on OWS). I repost this nugget about the OWS demonstration, find the full post on Whatever Works.
“POSTED BY ORHAN
The MSM continues to ridicule #OWS for not having a specific list of demands. The absence of demands, and consequent absence of a divide-and-conquer target, that’s driving the media into such a tizzy is not specifically a “tactic”, but, as far as I can tell, is a byproduct of the radical democratic process being practiced by the General Assemblies (nicely described by Matt Stoller).
Here is the closest thing I’ve found to an “official” statement on demands from The Occupied Wall Street Journal, a paper published and distributed by #OWS:
What are the demands of the protesters?
Ugh—the zillion-dollar question. Again, the original Adbusters call asked, “What is our one demand?” Technically, there isn’t one yet. In the weeks leading up to September 17, the NYC General Assembly seemed to be veering away from the language of “demands” in the first place, largely because government institutions are already so shot through with corporate money that making specific demands would be pointless until the movement grew stronger politically. Instead, to begin with, they opted to make their demand the occupation itself—and the direct democracy taking place there—which in turn may or may not come up with some specific demand. When you think about it, this act is actually a pretty powerful statement against the corruption that Wall Street has come to represent. But since thinking is often too much to ask of the American mass media, the question of demands has turned into a massive PR challenge.
The General Assembly is currently in the midst of determining how it will come to consensus about unifying demands. It’s a really messy and interesting discussion. But don’t hold your breath.
So it appears #OWS is specifically addressing the anger of the majority of Americans at the power, arrogance, and lack of accountability enjoyed by the coterie of the richest 1%, and the marginalization, disempowerment, and impoverishment of the remaining 99%–and doing it in a way that is “horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based”, which most people–let alone members of the political class–find it almost impossible to wrap their heads around.”
The message needs to be disseminated far and wide, and people need to see who is responsible for much of the financial ruin in their lives.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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