Our # 1 story relates the differences between the TEA Party movement and the Occupy Movement and how they are treated by the press. #2 is ten things Conservatives actually believe. And #3 tells of how banks are preparing for a breakup of the euro zone.
1. The TEA Party vs the Occupy Movement
Regardless of one's feelings toward the Tea Party or policies it advocates, Tea Partiers have at least, during their short existence, conducted themselves relatively peacefully and responsibly.
Of course, this isn't to suggest critics won't still cry foul whenever a Tea Partier shows up to a public event concealing a firearm, or a Tea Partier displays signs at a rally capable of being interpreted as derogatory.
BUT AT LEAST THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH, UNLIKE RAPE, VANDALISM, AND DRUG USAGE -- ALL SEEN AT OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS -- ARE PROTECTED UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION.
As local and national news stations have now reported, rapes and sexual assaults have been regular occurrences at Occupy Wall Street protests across the country, from Seattle to New York.
Protests in Portland, Ore., alone have resulted in more than $19,000 in property damages, as well as a Molotov cocktail attack, and in Vancouver, multiple people have died of drug overdoses.
By contrast, one is hard-pressed to find a single incident in which a woman has ever been raped or sexually assaulted at a Tea Party rally. One is hard-pressed to find a single incident where a Tea Partier has ever died of a drug overdose at a Tea Party rally. And one is hard-pressed to find a single Tea Party rally where thousands of dollars in property damage was maliciously committed.
THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT IN ITS INFANCY HAD THE CORRECT SENTIMENT: END CORPORATISM, END THE FED. This sentiment, however, has since been diluted by progressive populism.
Occupy Wall Street's dialogue is no longer about whether government should engage in favoritism, interfere with markets and provide bailouts; or whether the Federal Reserve has too little accountability.
But rather, whether someone makes too much money. IT IS NO LONGER GROUND ZERO FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LIBERTY, BUT GROUND ZERO FOR COMPLAINTS ABOUT INCOME DISPARITY AND CALLS FOR THE REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH….
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-has-vindicated-tea-party#ixzz1euCD4Rq7
OWS will be a loadstone around the Democrat Party’s neck in the coming election.
2. 10 Things the Right Actually Believes
Chatting to some Occupy protesters this morning, I was struck by how wide of the mark were the beliefs they attributed to me as a Right-winger. In the interests of deeper understanding, here are ten things which – trust me – most of the Tory scum I hang around with think. Obviously, I don’t expect to turn my Leftie readers in a single post; still, they might get a clearer idea of what we actually believe….
…3. IF YOU WANT THE RICH TO PAY MORE, CREATE A FLATTER AND SIMPLER TAX SYSTEM. This is partly a question of closing loopholes (mansions put in company names to avoid stamp duty, capital gains tax exemption for non-doms etc). Mainly, though, it is a question of bringing the tax rate down to a level where evasion becomes pointless. As Art Laffer keeps telling anyone who’ll listen, IT WORKS EVERY TIME. BETWEEN 1980 AND 2007, THE US CUT TAXES AT ALL INCOME LEVELS. RESULT? THE TOP ONE PER CENT WENT FROM PAYING 19.5 PER CENT OF ALL TAXES TO 40 PER CENT. In Britain, since the top rate of income tax was lowered to 40 per cent in 1988, the share of income tax collected from the wealthiest percentile has risen from 14 to 27 per cent.
4. Those of us who believe in small government are not motivated by the desire to make the rich richer. We’re really not. We are, in most cases, nowhere near having to pay top rate tax ourselves; our most eloquent champions over the years have been modestly-paid academics. WE BELIEVE THAT ECONOMIC FREEDOM WILL ENRICH THE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE. YES, THE WEALTHY MIGHT BECOME WEALTHIER STILL, BUT WE DON'T SEE THAT AS AN ARGUMENT AGAINST RAISING LIVING STANDARDS FOR THE MAJORITY.
5. We are not against equality. We generally recognize the benefits in Scandinavian-style homogeneity: crime tends to be lower, people are less stressed etc. OUR OBJECTION IS NOT THAT EGALITARIANISM IS UNDESIRABLE IN ITSELF, BUT THAT THE POLICIES REQUIRED TO ENFORCE IN INVOLVE A DISPROPORTIONATE LOSS OF LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY….
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100119741/memo-to-the-occupy-protesters-here-are-ten-things-we-evil-capitalists-really-think/
A nice summary of what the right actually believes. Numbers 3-5 were the ones I found most important, but click the link and read them all.
Banks Look to Plan B for the Euro
For the growing chorus of observers who fear that a breakup of the euro zone might be at hand, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has a pointed rebuke: It’s never going to happen.
But SOME BANKS ARE NO LONGER SO SURE, ESPECIALLY AS THE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS THREATENED TO ENSNARE GERMANY ITSELF THIS WEEK, when investors began to question the nation’s stature as Europe’s main pillar of stability.
On Friday, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s credit standing to AA from AA+, saying it might not be able to cut its towering debt load any time soon. Ratings agencies this week cautioned that France could lose its AAA rating if the crisis grew. On Thursday, agencies lowered the ratings of Portugal and Hungary to junk.
While European leaders still say there is no need to draw up a Plan B, some of the world’s biggest banks, and their supervisors, are doing just that.
“We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front,” Andrew Bailey, a regulator at Britain’s Financial Services Authority, said this week. “WE MUST NOT IGNORE THE PROSPECT OF A DISORDERLY DEPARTURE OF SOME COUNTRIES FROM THE EURO ZONE,” he said.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/business/global/banks-fear-breakup-of-the-euro-zone.html?hp
One of the reasons the US dollar hasn’t fallen more in value.
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