(H/T: Instapundit) The Economist has the right idea about the problem that the Left is having right now:

The other reason to doubt whether Occupy Wall Street will become a tea-party movement of the left is its fixation on protest. But Zuccotti Park is not Tahrir Square and America is not Egypt. It is not even France. In France street demos are tolerated, sometimes glorified, as a way to blow off steam and win the attention of deputies who neglect voters or forget their election promises.

America is different. It is, indeed, the sort of democracy that some people in Tahrir Square lost their lives asking for. With endless elections and permanent campaigns, it is exquisitely sensitive to voters’ wants.

[snip]

The tea-partiers grasped all this. They, too, took to the streets. Some strutted about in tricorn hats. But at the same time they learned their way around the machinery of elections and how to scare the bejesus out of any candidate they did not like.

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Over the last three weeks, as the world has watched the spectacle of the Zuccotti Park protesters in lower Manhattan, some have been inspired and, in many cases, repulsed at the protesters occupying the park. Since the protests have now garnered the backing from the professional protesters from the AFL-CIO‘s 56 unions and the SEIU, as well as implicit and explicit support from the Obama Administration and Democrats, there is more relevance to examining not just what the protesters are protesting but what they are promoting.

Meet “the Collaborators” [aka Baklava [sic] Boy and his friend]. It was a chance encounter (the taking of this picture and the subsequent conversation) on Day One of #OccupyWallSt that gave some insight into the minds of the Neo-Communists protesting across the country.

Since most observers know that the #OccupyWallSt protesters are protesting capitalism and free-markets (generally), as well as banks and “corporatism” (specifically), other than a general destruction of America’s economic system, there has been a lot of questions as to what protesters’ end goals are.

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I originally blogged about this speech by Rep. Tom McClintock (R, CA) to the Council for National Policy over at AoSHQ*, but it is simply too good not to share.  Tom’s in full Post-Apocalypse Survival mode in this speech, and you will not find a dull word in it:

I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer.

Yes, this is what Barack Obama’s second term would look like.

Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country.

And that’s just the intro.  The rest of the three-page speech is just like the above.

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Yesterday at the Value Voters Summit, Texas Governor Rick Perry was introduced by the Reverend Robert Jeffress. This, according to the Washington Post, is how the introduction went.

2:27 pm: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is introduced by Southern Baptist Convention leader Robert Jeffress, who endorsed the candidate recently. Jeffress called Perry “the most pro-life governor in the United States of America.” He also alluded to Perry’s recent debate fumbles, saying, “do we want a candidate who is skilled in rhetoric, or one who is skilled in leadership?”

Perry came on stage to loud, enthusiastic applause.

What generated the news were remarks made by Rev. Jeffress after Governor Perry’s speech when Politico’s Alexander Burns he was asked if Mitt Romney is a Christian.

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(Via Hot Air Headlines) It would seem that the people who actually live and work in NY-08′s Eighth District (epicenter of the “Occupy Wall Street,” or “OWS,” protests, at least according to this map) are getting sick and tired of the dirty filthy hippie freeloaders:

Panini and Company Cafe normally sells sandwiches to tourists in Lower Manhattan and the residents nearby, but in recent days its owner, Stacey Tzortzatos, has also become something of a restroom monitor. Protesters from Occupy Wall Street, who are encamped in a nearby park, have been tromping in by the scores, and not because they are hungry.

Ms. Tzortzatos’s tolerance for the newcomers finally vanished when the sink was broken and fell to the floor. She installed a $200 lock on the bathroom to thwart nonpaying customers, angering the protesters.

The article goes on to point out that this sentiment, while not universal, is widely shared among local businesses and residents; particularly the ones that have to directly deal with Occupy Wall Street’s lack of porta-potties and love for drum circles. I suggest, however, that if anybody living or trying to do business in this district has a problem with the aforementioned dirty filthy hippie freeloaders then they should take it up with their Congressman Jerry Nadler, who is reportedly encouraging the continuing degradation of local property values. His local contact information is below: I’m sure that Nadler’s staff would love to hear from those of his constituents who are enjoying the tip of his rhetorical spear right now*…

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Net Neutrality goes to court. Great news, too: Verizon’s preferred venue won the lottery, and the Net Neutrality fight will happen in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. This is, of course, the same circuit that slapped down Net Neutrality last time in Comcast v FCC.

Oh, but here’s a big surprise. Despite the FCC claiming previously that “We look forward to defending our open Internet framework in court,” they’re actually doing everything they can not to have to defend it in court by attempting to get Verizon’s appeal dismissed. So much for that day in court.

As for Sprint Nextel, even as they sue claiming competition will be impaired if T-Mobile and AT&T join up, their own strategy update presentation admitted the truth. See the 9:46AM slide, showing the growth rate of the year-on-year net postpaid subscribers across the top four providers. In 2010, Sprint was the only one to accelerate, while AT&T saw the biggest drop in its growth. In the first half of 2011, Verizon and Sprint are accelerating, while would-be deal makers AT&T and T-Mobile look on pace to notch their third and fifth (respectively) years of slower growth.

Yes, that’s right. Sprint’s gaining subscribers at a faster clip, and is trying to keep the laggards from combining to keep the pressure (and 4G prices) up. And they’ve gotten the Barack Obama/Eric Holder Department of Justice to help, using your taxpayer dollars.

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So I wound up being home alone tonight. After filling in for Hannity and then doing my own radio show, I went out and had a beer and quesidilla and then decided to go see George Clooney’s new movie “Ides of March.”

I like good political movies. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, made one of my favorites, “Journeys with George.” Then there is “The War Room” for political dramas.

But I like political campaign movies too because they always start with the idealistic sap who winds up drunk, jaded, and sleeping with interns by the end. That’s pretty much how every campaign goes it seems.

Oh, and let’s not forget the moral conundrum where typically, at the end of the movie, the protagonist becomes his own antagonist and sells out with all the foreshadowing of the veteran, cynical reporter.

“Ides of March” might be the most predictable movie since the Titanic sank. Again.

But it was still a good flick for political junkies.

I can describe it to you in a nutshell (spoiler alert kind of).

John Edwards and Barack Obama have a love child named George Clooney who runs for office on Barack Obama’s rhetoric and John Edwards’ morals against Hillary Clinton as a man, gets the intern pregnant, the idealistic staffer pays for the abortion, and then everyone ends up either dead or jaded — mostly all jaded.

And the circle of political campaign life goes on circling the drain.

I think the key take away is that George Clooney must feel totally screwed by Barack Obama — having bought into the hopey, changey rhetoric, even Hollywood now sees Barack Obama as just another damn dirty politician like the (you guessed it) veteran political reporter from the Times warned the idealistic staffer at the beginning of the movie said he would be.

In fact, if you go watch the movie from the perspective that it is the movie of the year for liberals who realize Barack Obama is everything they thought he was not, it’s actually pretty damn schadenfreudolicious.

The end.

You should be able to listen in via here: the program is Cam & Co., which starts at 9 PM EST and goes on until midnight. I should be on some time after 10 PM.

Meanwhile: Attorney General Eric Holder is very upset:

In his most forceful criticism of Republicans during his time as attorney general, Holder said that he had said little so far about the gun-smuggling probe because the Justice Department inspector general is investigating it but that he could not sit idly by while a Republican congressman suggested that law enforcement and government employees be considered accessories to murder.

Actually, ‘sitting idly by’ would be a bit of an improvement there, Mister Attorney General. For that matter, ‘sitting idly by’ is more or less the basic defense that Holder is trying to make in the first place: to wit, that the Attorney General had not lied when he falsely claimed that he was unaware of Operation Fast & Furious* before April of 2011 or so. Apparently, Holder had somehow missed the import of multiple memos from July 2010 that spelled out that the operation involved straw purchasers who were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels;” it’s an interesting thing to see a Cabinet official attempt to make the argument that he’s too intellectually incurious to be guilty of perjury, but I guess that you have to play the hand that you’re dealt.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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[promoted from the diaries]

On Thursday, a friend and I made the trip to downtown Cleveland to check out the #OccupyCleveland protest. The Facebook page predicted there would be 800-ish people attending, but the actual number on opening day was closer to 200.  We dressed to blend in with the crowd so we could fully embrace the experience, spending the better part of the day with the protesters.

The first thing we noticed was that this event was barely planned. #OccupyCleveland had a few individuals who appeared to be coordinating the day’s events, but it was clear there was no schedule and there was no real preparation for the adult pajama party that was supposed to happen that night.

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From 4pm to 8pm ET tonight, I’ll be on WSB Radio out of Atlanta, including filling in for Hannity’s spot tonight while he’s out.

There’s a lot of polling to talk about, Herman Cain to defend against Lawrence O’Donnell, etc. Oh, and Moe insists I talk about Snooki and the Situation.

And you can participate. It is a call in show, after all. You can call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com.

Consider this an open thread.

Mitt Romney’s supporters have been dogging Governor Perry on him acting as Texas campaign manager for Al Gore’s abortive 1988 presidential run as one of the Seven Dwarfs. The critique runs, dishonestly I might add, that Al Gore was an environmental kook then, ergo Perry is an environmental kook. Because something.

This is just balderdash. In 1988, Al Gore was a moderate-conservative senator from Tennessee who was a very attractive candidate. His descent into self parody started much later.

I rarely resort to publishing oppo material circulated by campaigns but I am making an exception today. File this particular story under “sauce for the gander.”

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There is a tendency by some to look down their noses at politics; viewing it as the grubby fight for power and the inevitable disappointment that results from politicians who promise everything during election years only to deliver hot air and favors for friends once safely ensconced in office.  To be fair, all too often this is what politics actually offers.

But in his biography of founding father James Madison, Richard Brookhiser argues that politics is the working out of our ideals; that for freedom, democracy and republican government to function in the real world requires politics and all the baggage that entails.

We pay much less attention to James Madison, Father of Politics, than we do James Madison, Father of the Constitution. That is because politics embarrasses us. Politics is the spectacle on television and YouTube, the daily perp walk on the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report. Surely our founders and framers lefts us something better, more solid, more inspiring than that? They did. But they all knew - and Madison understood better than any of them – that ideals come to life in dozens of political transactions every day. Some of these transactions aren’t pretty. You can understand this and try to work with this knowledge, or you can look away. But ignoring politics will not make it stop. It will simply go on without you – and sooner or later will happen to you.

Madison is one of, if not the, smartest of the founders but he lacked the stature of Washington, or the eloquence of a Thomas Jefferson or a Patrick Henry, and so his intelligence is sometimes overlooked. Madison may not have been an eloquent speaker – he often spoke so quietly that the audience couldn’t hear him – or writer but he learned to master many of the important skills necessary to move public opinion, pass legislation and build coalitions.

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