Laying Down Astro Turf
On Wall Street
Investor's Business Daily, by David HogbergThe Occupy Wall Street rally may not be growing, but press coverage of it is.
Even some members of Congress, like Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn, are endorsing it.Last night on the O’Reilly factor, Gretchen Carlson warned: “It would be dangerous for any politician to align themselves with this group. It’s dangerous if it continues to become more violent.†(Hat Tip: Alex Alvarez at Mediaite.)
Fortunately, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed them as “astroturf.†Oh wait, no, that’s what she said of the Tea Parties. These were her sentiments about the Occupy Wall Street folks: “God bless them,†Pelosi said, “for their spontaneity. It’s independent . . . it’s young, it’s spontaneous and it’s focused. And it’s going to be effective.†She added: “The message of the protesters is a message for the establishment everyplace. No longer will the recklessness of some on Wall Street cause massive joblessness on Main Street.â€
Pelosi did not comment on — and was not asked about — the law-breaking that occurred during the protest over the weekend.
Meanwhile, CNN tries to find moral equivalence between the Occupy Wall Street crowd and the Tea Party: With all of that rage, Tea Partyers can attest, trouble can brew quickly.
Violent clashes between Occupy Wall Street protesters and New York City police officers have raised obvious questions about the demonstrators’ intentions.
Open story: Are you involved?
“It’s a classic mob uprising. It’s utterly incoherent. They’re always left wing,†conservative commentator Ann Coulter said in a Fox News interview.
During the height of the Tea Party movement, there were few confrontations with police. But violent rhetoric was often caught on camera and immediately uploaded onto YouTube.
“If ballots don’t work, bullets will,†Tea Party activist and radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman said at a rally about the midterm elections of 2010.
Is CNN really so dense that it can’t distinguish between a violent clash and inappropriate, over-heated rhetoric? Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question. Here is the AFL-CIO blog boasting about union involvement:
http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/ ... -tea-party