I’m proud again, too.

I’m proud of the people of this country. Mostly always have been. As I’ve said here before, I don’t buy much into a common liberal/progressive meme that American voters are stupid.

Sometimes they’re fooled (I was 2008) but that doesn’t make them stupid.

They knew what they wanted and said it loud and clear at the ballot box “Get our of Iraq!” but instead George W Bush basically flipped the people the bird and said “Huh, you want out do you? I’m going to send MORE troops over there.” That wasn’t on the people, that was on Bush.

Likewise in 2008 American voters said loud and clear “Enough with this right wing crap” and once again, this time Obama, basically flipped them the bird and said “I’ll show you right wing, I’ll show a Democrat that is right wing.”

I have faith and am proud of the people. I have no faith, however, and am utterly ashamed of my government.

And I think at the end of the day that’s what’s behind a lot of what’s happening today.

Me too, and we can show that pride even if we can’t participate for one reason or another. We can donate. We took a carload of supplies to OccupyDC/Occupy KStreet today — a three hour drive but well worth it.
There’s probably an occupy within three hours of almost everyone by now. Or you can send money. For DC, you can check out what they need at

http://occupydc.org/

Tents, sleeping bags, blankets, etc. will be the big need in the coming months.

Oh, and thanks for another great post Lisa.

Sean Penn gets it. And he always has. Thoughtful and articulate American philospher indeed.

Most of the American people are naive and uneducated and trusting and were deceived. They were deceived into believing a pack of lies and lived it every day of their lives. Stupid may be too harsh a word.

Now burnt and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel they are waking up. Let’s see how many actually do… because if enough do… the game will end. But the odds are not good for success. But there appears no other options.

Good for OWS!

Well said, OFG, and right on. And I’m proud to be a Kiwi/American; Auckland is mah home town!

Incidentally, there were upwards of 2,000 protesters in Santa Fe also, and although my community is tiny, we’re organizing a march at least!

My post was for OldFatGuy@2 – didn’t connect, sorry.

“Today’s despots are in the corporate world.” Yep.

Pen also went on to babble that he would “very likely” vote for the president’s re-election, explaining that “Barack Obama is as capable of being a great president as anybody that we’ve got walking.”

I’m sorry my respect for Penn took a big hit on that idiotic take on the head pr man for the establishment.

Z

I was pretty surprised by that, too.

And Obama is saying “thank you, jeebus.”

I don’t buy much into a common liberal/progressive meme that American voters are stupid.

Neither do I. I used to, though, I’ll admit, but have changed my mind in the last few years. They get duped (I was in 2008, just like you), and they’re offered shitty choices. If you had a choice between White Castle and McD’s, what kind of a choice is that?

Can’t risk getting ostracized from the cocktail weenie circuit.

Penn’s still in Dem vs. Republican mode. The OWS is so much larger than that.

Sooo yesterday.

What I find so amusing about O strategy of Ds is what a spectacular failure it’s been

When W turned the whole world from U.S. friend right after 9/11, to U.S. enemy a year later, no one on our side was surprised and no one on the other side gave a ff.

It took a little bit longer for O to turn the U.S./world against him, but he’s been working at it diligently and seems to have achieved almost total success.

Oh dearie dearie me.

I guess selling out wasn’t enough. But they told Obama they wouldn’t let him get anything done and he kissed the rings anyway. Tough!

Penn IS thoughtful and articulater, and he’s also paid some good dues helping down in Haiti, after the decades of U.S. support for the Duvalier regime and the Macoutes.

I’m thinking they’re regarding him as a one-termer, and rats leaving a sinking ship. Too early to be more than suggestive, but hinting in that direction.

O has been really ham-handed. That was a surprise to me. I identified him as a bad dude from the getgo, he’s been much worse on policy than even I thought when I determined he was a winger plant, but thought he might be a little more sophisticated than he turned out to be. Rahm’s derision of lefties was the giveaway on that.

I posted elsewhere that I think I heard this bit from O’s remarks at the MLK site….He was talking about OWS..saying something like blame the street, but do not demonize the people. Could I have heard right…like the street is to blame. What a remark…that’s going along way to support his friends. O well, maybe I really did hear wrong….;)

Well, Manhattan streets do have a lot of potholes & some of them are doozies. So maybe that’s what O means by blaming the “street.”

Those “people” on the “street” are his kind of people. In fact they have a walnut paneled corner office reserved for him when he leaves Washington.

Its astonishing how many so called liberals are obama apologists.

I must say now that I went over and read the text of the Pres’ speech. It sounded ringing and inspirational with much recollections of themes and ideas from MLK. A sad juxtaposition with our struggles today. King would be challenging us and calling for work and hope. What an odd time for the dedication.

There is no one word to describe American voters. Some are naive and gullible, some are uneducated, some are lazy and don’t bother to dig deeper than the nightly news, some are apathethic; and then there are well-informed voters and voters who are smart and articulate and even among these voters, apathy exists. This is the reason OWS is SO IMPORTANT. This movement is bringing attention to all of the failings and corruption of both the democrats and republicans and to the fact that corporations and wall st. rule the politicians and thus, our government.

I was part of Occupy Merced yesterday. Merced is a small town in Central Califoria and yet we had 150 people show up. It was wonderful and as we stood along a main street, we got lots of honking horns, waves, and thumbs up. We came to a consensus yesterday that we will meet again next Saturday at which time we’ll decide whether or not to meet the following Saturday. We’re taking it one Sat. at a time.

As far as Sean Penn goes, maybe he should keep working in Haiti instead of touting obama. Haiti is still in deep trouble.

ruh roh!

Yes, its much bigger indeed!

I respected Mr. Penn until he announced that he will “probably” vote for Obama.

Sorry, anyone that still supports Obama is a disappointment. So your headline was misleading.

Proud of OldFatGuy@2; not proud of Sean Penn. He should not be using his privilege and podium to support the dronedropper. No way. Obama is the problem. I agree, the headline is completely misleading.

OWS doesn’t need this kind of a message. If he truly supported them he would not have made that comment at all. I think whenever a person or personality links OWS with either party they should be called out for it. Bravo to the commenters here who made that point. It is precisely because BOTH parties have failed us miserably that people are risking serious injury and stressful conditions in all the US occupations. You don’t give them “support” by adhering to the perpetrator-in-chief.