September 21, 2012Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 PercentComments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 PercentOur readers sound off on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s psyche and the 47 percent. Sarah Arnold Share Copy Link Facebook X (Twitter) Bluesky Pocket Email September 21, 2012 [View the story “Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 Percent” on Storify] Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 Percent Storified by The Nation · Fri, Sep 21 2012 11:35:55 Each week, we highlight the best reader comments of the week from Twitter, Facebook and our own comment threads. This week, our readers were quite prolific on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Pennsylvania’s voter ID law and Mr. 47 percent himself, Mitt Romney. Also in community at TheNation.com, readers brought their best questions and comments to our live video chat with Astra Taylor, Allison Kilkenny and Nathan Schneider on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. You can watch a replay of the chat here. Be sure to join us at TheNation.com next week Thursday for a chat with George Zornick and Lee Fang on money in politics. As always, let us know what you think–in the comments! Despite media declarations of its demise, our readers expressed their support for Occupy Wall Street on the movement’s one-year anniversary, along with their dismay at the aggressive actions of the NYPD. @thenation – the dems were so peaceful-respectful, the police have to look like they’re doing something, to have a reason for being therezombiedisco101 Pam Daly: I met two boys from Philadephia, who were nothing but earnest and thoughtful. They were swept up by police for standing in front of a major bank for a several minutes, chanting "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out". Call me naive, but I was astonished. The incident triggered me to write a letter to the NY Daily News, the police commissioner and the mayor. The NY Daily News, by the way, will publish letters of this nature.More Than 180 Arrested on Occupy Wall Street’s First Anniversary | The Nation selfdoer: ever notice that tea party or anti-abortion protests don’t get the same police heavy handedness? these people are no less peaceful, yet heads are cracked, not only the participants, but also journalist observers. the NYPD has treated neo-nazi protesters better. i guess the handy excuse is OWS doesn’t have a permit or something equally as lame. below is the first amendment. lets see, looks like 3 violations occured at OWS. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.More Than 180 Arrested on Occupy Wall Street’s First Anniversary | The Nation In response to Leslie Savan’s “Does Mitt Romney Even Want to be President?” our readers attempted to delve deep into Romney’s psyche. I think he is running because as an educated, accomplished man, he thinks it is simply the next accomplishment for him. He doesn’t believe in anything, really, except in his personal life. But he really couldn’t care less about the rest of us. What kind of person runs for president, not caring about anyone? He is completely devoid of conviction about the role of government in the lives of Americans. Who can vote for this man? How can anyone believe anything he says (unless he’s being taped without knowing it)?Ernestine Thomas KQuark: I wondered about this myself but came to the conclusion that Romney just feels so entitled that being president is just checking off another box on his CV. Most pols have confidence bordering on arrogance but Romney’s got such a distorted and grandiose view of himself that running for president was a forgone conclusion. I thought the most telling portion in the 47% secret video was when Romney said he does not have to do anything to make the economy better. He actually thinks his mere existence as president would be enough. You simply cannot get more arrogant than that.Does Mitt Romney Even Want to Be President? | The Nation After the video emerged in which Mitt Romney dismissed 47% of the electorate, Ari Berman pointed out that Pennsylvania Representative Daryl Metcalfe, the chief sponsor of that state’s voter ID laws, went even further when he claimed the people who lack the ID his law would require were just too “lazy” to vote. Our readers had a lot to say about that. More likely they’re too disgusted to vote.Franklin Budd Siegle to date this insanity has cost the taxpayers of Pennsylvania $11 million and counting…..all to try rig an election, I really do wish the Republicans would be more careful about wasting the taxpayers money.Fred Wilder markk54: There are of course various types of voter fraud, like bad counts from officials and so forth. However voter identity fraud is the only fraud voter ID’s could possibly prevent, even though signature verification seems to work very well. Also from NPR: In a Pennsylvania court filing, the state says it has never investigated claims of in-person voter fraud and so won’t argue that such fraud has occurred in the past. As a result, the state says, it has no evidence that the crime has ever been committed. Also interesting is most fraud happens with absentee ballots, but the republicans are not targeting these. Possibly not "important" because the military uses a lot of these and they are more likely to vote Republican. And speaking of the military, does Daryl really mean to dishonor the 1 million veterans who are unemployed by considering them as part of the "lazy" 47%, since presumably they are receiving goverment assistance in the form of unemployment benefits?The ‘Lazy’ ’47 Percent’ Vote | The Nation DH Fabian: The reason people don’t pay taxes is because Republicans (and some Dems) have spent years favoring corporations that have been suppressing wages, causing wages to keep falling further behind the cost of living. Meanwhile, govt has utterly turned its back on the millions who have been pushed out of employment entirely, largely the result of taking all the money WE had paid into poverty relief entitlements and giving it to corporations to cover the costs of shipping our jobs out.The ‘Lazy’ ’47 Percent’ Vote | The Nation Finally, in response to Ilyse Hogues’ “It’s the 1 Percent, Stupid,” ballenn1133 summed up the election quite nicely. ballenn1133: I have a sign in my front yard that has been taken away twice. It says "I’m not rich enough to vote Republican. Are you?".It’s the 1 Percent, Stupid (the Case Against the 47 Percent) | The Nation Keep Reading Ad Policy
September 21, 2012Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 PercentComments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 PercentOur readers sound off on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s psyche and the 47 percent. Sarah Arnold Share Copy Link Facebook X (Twitter) Bluesky Pocket Email September 21, 2012 [View the story “Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 Percent” on Storify] Comments of the Week: Occupy Wall Street, Romney’s Psyche and the 47 Percent Storified by The Nation · Fri, Sep 21 2012 11:35:55 Each week, we highlight the best reader comments of the week from Twitter, Facebook and our own comment threads. This week, our readers were quite prolific on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Pennsylvania’s voter ID law and Mr. 47 percent himself, Mitt Romney. Also in community at TheNation.com, readers brought their best questions and comments to our live video chat with Astra Taylor, Allison Kilkenny and Nathan Schneider on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. You can watch a replay of the chat here. Be sure to join us at TheNation.com next week Thursday for a chat with George Zornick and Lee Fang on money in politics. As always, let us know what you think–in the comments! Despite media declarations of its demise, our readers expressed their support for Occupy Wall Street on the movement’s one-year anniversary, along with their dismay at the aggressive actions of the NYPD. @thenation – the dems were so peaceful-respectful, the police have to look like they’re doing something, to have a reason for being therezombiedisco101 Pam Daly: I met two boys from Philadephia, who were nothing but earnest and thoughtful. They were swept up by police for standing in front of a major bank for a several minutes, chanting "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out". Call me naive, but I was astonished. The incident triggered me to write a letter to the NY Daily News, the police commissioner and the mayor. The NY Daily News, by the way, will publish letters of this nature.More Than 180 Arrested on Occupy Wall Street’s First Anniversary | The Nation selfdoer: ever notice that tea party or anti-abortion protests don’t get the same police heavy handedness? these people are no less peaceful, yet heads are cracked, not only the participants, but also journalist observers. the NYPD has treated neo-nazi protesters better. i guess the handy excuse is OWS doesn’t have a permit or something equally as lame. below is the first amendment. lets see, looks like 3 violations occured at OWS. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.More Than 180 Arrested on Occupy Wall Street’s First Anniversary | The Nation In response to Leslie Savan’s “Does Mitt Romney Even Want to be President?” our readers attempted to delve deep into Romney’s psyche. I think he is running because as an educated, accomplished man, he thinks it is simply the next accomplishment for him. He doesn’t believe in anything, really, except in his personal life. But he really couldn’t care less about the rest of us. What kind of person runs for president, not caring about anyone? He is completely devoid of conviction about the role of government in the lives of Americans. Who can vote for this man? How can anyone believe anything he says (unless he’s being taped without knowing it)?Ernestine Thomas KQuark: I wondered about this myself but came to the conclusion that Romney just feels so entitled that being president is just checking off another box on his CV. Most pols have confidence bordering on arrogance but Romney’s got such a distorted and grandiose view of himself that running for president was a forgone conclusion. I thought the most telling portion in the 47% secret video was when Romney said he does not have to do anything to make the economy better. He actually thinks his mere existence as president would be enough. You simply cannot get more arrogant than that.Does Mitt Romney Even Want to Be President? | The Nation After the video emerged in which Mitt Romney dismissed 47% of the electorate, Ari Berman pointed out that Pennsylvania Representative Daryl Metcalfe, the chief sponsor of that state’s voter ID laws, went even further when he claimed the people who lack the ID his law would require were just too “lazy” to vote. Our readers had a lot to say about that. More likely they’re too disgusted to vote.Franklin Budd Siegle to date this insanity has cost the taxpayers of Pennsylvania $11 million and counting…..all to try rig an election, I really do wish the Republicans would be more careful about wasting the taxpayers money.Fred Wilder markk54: There are of course various types of voter fraud, like bad counts from officials and so forth. However voter identity fraud is the only fraud voter ID’s could possibly prevent, even though signature verification seems to work very well. Also from NPR: In a Pennsylvania court filing, the state says it has never investigated claims of in-person voter fraud and so won’t argue that such fraud has occurred in the past. As a result, the state says, it has no evidence that the crime has ever been committed. Also interesting is most fraud happens with absentee ballots, but the republicans are not targeting these. Possibly not "important" because the military uses a lot of these and they are more likely to vote Republican. And speaking of the military, does Daryl really mean to dishonor the 1 million veterans who are unemployed by considering them as part of the "lazy" 47%, since presumably they are receiving goverment assistance in the form of unemployment benefits?The ‘Lazy’ ’47 Percent’ Vote | The Nation DH Fabian: The reason people don’t pay taxes is because Republicans (and some Dems) have spent years favoring corporations that have been suppressing wages, causing wages to keep falling further behind the cost of living. Meanwhile, govt has utterly turned its back on the millions who have been pushed out of employment entirely, largely the result of taking all the money WE had paid into poverty relief entitlements and giving it to corporations to cover the costs of shipping our jobs out.The ‘Lazy’ ’47 Percent’ Vote | The Nation Finally, in response to Ilyse Hogues’ “It’s the 1 Percent, Stupid,” ballenn1133 summed up the election quite nicely. ballenn1133: I have a sign in my front yard that has been taken away twice. It says "I’m not rich enough to vote Republican. Are you?".It’s the 1 Percent, Stupid (the Case Against the 47 Percent) | The Nation
