Pelican,

"loony right" - LOL

C'mon, Yabby, you're a critic of the likes of Bush and Cheney and their merry band of neo-cons. That lot made an art form of syphoning off taxpayer's money and funnelling it into the pockets of corporations. Heck, they even went to the trouble of invading Iraq more as a free lunch to corporations than for any altruistic purpose. They made a squillion from blowing it up and knocking it down (arms manufacturers)...and then the likes of Halliburton and Blackwater (to name only a couple) made squillions building it back up......and then the taxpaying mug was expected to bail out Wall ST when that balloon went up.

Why are you surprised that these people are staging a peaceful protest? (not that they can expect anything to come from it,imo)

I love to laugh
Bit cheeky with a few beers in me, but no drunk.
Runner and others give me ample opportunity to laugh.
This phantom left,as Pelican says ,has enought power,with help, to blow out a candle.
Here in a matter fast becoming a bigger one.
NEVER A left only one, we see counterfeit Christians, forgetting it was THEIR GOD who on form,WOULD throw the one percent out on the street.
This issue is not of the left, unless you say left of, greed, power, privilege, uncaring theft, of others cash.
Last laugh, leave em laughing.
Rechtub, has started a thread defending? Negative gearing!
Our anti welfare/wages/workers poster is asking us subsidize? those with INVESTMENT PROPERTY'S.?

*C'mon, Yabby, you're a critic of the likes of Bush and Cheney and their merry band of neo-cons.*

Poirot, of course I'm a critic! I was a critic before Bush and
Cheney even gained office. for the outcome from those two was much
as expected.

But the people voted for them, as they voted for Yeltsin in Russia
and then wondered when disaster struck.

Sadly democracy is the least worst option that we have and clearly
people need pain to learn. Don't blame corporations for the
public's stupidity. There are terrible corporations and great
corporations, much like we get all sorts of small business and
all sorts of people.

*however you can only fool people some of the time, people are beginning to see through the spin, hence the protests.*

Lol Pelican, so people are complaining about their own foolish
political choices. As Susan Greenfield pointed out, the brain
is more like a gland which sometimes thinks a bit. She is clearly
correct!

Given the "woe is us" about corporations on OLO, with few
seemingly understanding how and why they function, perhaps somebody
has to provide a bit of balance to extremists such as yourself :)

Yabby,

Perhaps you'd be so kind as to explain to us just what political choices Americans have. Can you enlighten us as to where they went wrong....and why do things seem to be operating as business as usual even after the great hope, Obama, was elected....?

I'd say I stand halfway between the skepticism of Yabby and Shadow Minister, and the more optimistic commentary of pelican.

The first thing everybody needs to realize, is that the idea of adding more 'soul' to capitalism is retarded.

The very concept of capitalism is competition. It has no soul, if it was profitable, capitalism would eat you up and spit out your bones... then use those bones to create fertilizer for erection-enhancing medication, or whatever other demeaning fad is the cause du jour.

Yet, this is not a bad thing. This is why we have government - governnments are there to ensure capitalism doesn't eat you and your family in the name of shareholder profits.

Capitalism is still a damn sight better than the alternatives. Which is why ranting against capitalism is just plain silly. Capitalism is here to stay, the alternatives are far far worse.

On the other hand, I don't think the Occupy Wall Street movement can be dismissed out of hand - the fact is, although we are going through a recession, CEOs and banking organizations continue to raise the salaries of senior executives.

In a recession economy, there is no justification for this. The fact that this can happen, shows that regulations are indeed far too lax.

More importantly, with the US going through a recession and high joblessness, there is a groundswell of support for such a movement.

The overly cynical also need to take a reality check and digest this salient fact:

Americans are pissed off. If history is anything to go by, the time is ripe to launch a protest movement. If it's not through this protest, public disillusionment and anger will find other outlets.

Personally, I think the biggest liability here is what I like to call the "equal pay for gay whales" theory.

Essentially, this theory of my own devising says that if you take disparate causes, which individually may have merit, and combine them into a single movement, you will sound like an idiot and fail to achieve your objectives.