Sunday Roundup

This week saw the rise of late-in-the-game Christie for President hoopla, and the dramatic, defeat-snatched-from-the-jaws-of-victory final fall of the Boston Red Sox. It also brought the start of Michael Jackson's doctor's trial (thrilling HLN's anchors, though Nancy Grace's wardrobe malfunction was caused by an energetic quickstep, not titillating testimony) and the end of Andy Rooney's run as America's favorite curmudgeon. Meeting a more final end was senior al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, whose killing prompted Leon Panetta to offer this classic shot of wry: "This has been a bad year for terrorists." Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street protests intensified, a welcome reminder that, for angry Americans, the Tea Party is not the only option -- and that the energy for real change will definitely come from outside Washington. Keep your eye on Zuccotti Square.

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[bab2116]

11:09 PM on 10/02/2011

I told all of ya......... Try to mass an big brother is gonna roll in bustin wigs. Where is the rest of the world condemming the gov's actions?

[bab2116]

11:16 PM on 10/02/2011

Oh yea, they been told to mind their own beeswax. Aint none of the world's concern what happens in the states.

[jabailo]

10:37 PM on 10/02/2011

I often would go to Stallone's bakery in South Ozone Park to get a Zucchotti Square and some canoles.

[Ameri Bunker]

10:21 PM on 10/02/2011

How about giving the Wall Street protests prime space - say like on a MONDAY.

[gilv3]

09:46 PM on 10/02/2011

Is simple really .

Our so called Democracy now more than ever allows the rich to buy politicians....And the bought and paid for Supreme court has made it absolutely legal .

So here we are in a country that increasingly is looking like a big Banana Republic. The top 1% of income earners now control 25% of our wealth ... But since they are called "job creators", and said to be paying 35%+ taxes .... The numbers reflecting the increasing disparity between rich and poor , and our incredibly shrinking Middle Class , most be the creation of some Liberal Mathematician !!You see my dear fellow Americans those tax loop holes , targeted tax brakes, tax safe heavens abroad, Armies of Lobbyists , and Lawyers hired by the rich to get them more goodies , and jobs created in foreign countries not in the U.S. Are just a product of your imagination , and the bias Liberal media !!!

Most be all a lie ......

But then again , a long time ago this wise Mat Teacher told me .... "NUMBERS DON'T LIE , PEOPLE DO" ... And you know what ?

The Teacher was right.

[sophiajim]

12:40 AM on 10/03/2011

With all the retirement money going into wall street they have ways to be able to devide it up. Soner or later that money will be all in the hands of the rich and the retires will be told you are on your own. Some corps has done done it

[Nightangle]

09:39 PM on 10/02/2011

Only Linkins is making noise about Christie.

[Gasparilla]

09:24 PM on 10/02/2011

I am a firm believer in troops on the border, and a fence, but Perry is out of his mind to suggest sending troops to fight the drug cartels in Mexico. Like Iraq, this would be another instance of us being blamed for everything by the local population, and what happens when they kidnap soldiers and hold them for ransom.

[sophiajim]

12:42 AM on 10/03/2011

Beside that look at how many so called US companys we would mess up their bussines.

[duane paulson]

09:19 PM on 10/02/2011

When a person decides to utilize the labor of another person for profit (that is, to take in more money than the laborer is paid), the utilizer of labor has an absolute responsibility to make sure that the laborer, at the end of their career, is better off than when they started, and has had the opportunity to increase their standard of living (whether or not they choose to take that opportunity -- that part is rightly up to the laborer alone). However, the idea that it is acceptable to take in far more than they give back has come to be regarded as an American entitlement. In fact, it is frequently called the American way. When an employer decides to subject an employee to a dangerous situation or environment, they have an absolute responsibility to make the employee whole in the event of an injury. This is true whether the injury is the result of a single, catastrophic event, or the result of long term exposure to a hazardous substance such as a dangerous chemical, or a dangerous environment, such as a high stress job. To do less is not only inhumane, it also weakens the worker, the worker's craft, and all of us as a society and a nation. An injury to one is a concern and an injury to all. Yet, treating workers as a disposable commodity has come to be regarded as an American entitlement. In fact, it is frequently called the American way.

[duane paulson]

09:59 PM on 10/02/2011

These practices, which are actually part of a single American business mindset, cannot simply be called collusion. We don't have the heads of every American industry actively conspiring together to deprive workers of their rights. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that such collusion exsists to a lesser extent. No, this is a mindset so pervasive in American industry that it must be called societal or systemic in nature. And as we all know, once an entity becomes systemically unstable, there are but two only remedies. The first is a radical reconfiguration of the system. The second is to retire the existing system and replace it with another. Which of these alternatives is ultimately implemented in this instance rests largely with the business community. As resistance to change escalates, so too does the liklihood of the second alternative being implemented. I don't think that this possibility is a pallatable solution to many on either side of the issue, but if history teaches anything, it teaches that people will ultimately choose an unpallatable solution rather than endure an intollerable situation. Business people, this one's up to you. -- Duane Paulson, former CWA (AFL/CIO), current IWW. We're back. You should have expected us.

[jerryengelbach]

01:53 AM on 10/03/2011

Go, Wobblies!

[getoffmedz]

08:55 PM on 10/02/2011

Dear Arianna - Thank you for mentioning the Wall Street protests.

Your old blog has been relatively quiet about them at least until some arrests were made.

[vestal99]

10:26 PM on 10/02/2011

some arrests??? 700 on Saturday

[emigholzjr]

08:51 PM on 10/02/2011

We have lost our ability to reason. Our national belief system is based on a prison yard mentality.

[dirtydog1776]

07:41 PM on 10/02/2011

Not sure if I heard about the Tea Party blocking busy bridges and in a sense, advocating violence. Sorry, but these kids are not true reformers, just kids that have grown up with a lot of entitlements and continue to want more as a right.

[Holymolly]

07:57 PM on 10/02/2011

How true, fanned and faved. :)

[nmcanopus]

08:38 PM on 10/02/2011

So its Ok with you for Wall Street and the Bankers to gamble and get to keep the profits while passing the losses on to the rest of us? How do you know anything about the Wall Street protests?
Were you there?

[Holymolly]

09:45 AM on 10/05/2011

No it's not okay for all the shinanagins they pull. But his problem should be handled by adults.

[MPatrick Dahlke]

07:21 PM on 10/02/2011

When we really think of all of who we are as Americans, there are certain times that regardless of our collective angst, life emerges before us in quite the remarkable manner.

This is our collective first weekend in October as a nation here in 2011. As it is, I for one choose to walk about and view the beautiful changing colors of fall and in doing so, forget entirely the impotent tragedy of DC.

[ntmessage]

06:01 PM on 10/02/2011

Seems interesting about those protests. The banks said they would need to pass on the Durbin/Obama swipe fee tax to consumers in fees or some other manner. Obama passed it anyway and now we are protesting the Banks. Is this a deflection?

In fact the government got what they wanted and the banks got what they wanted and we all pay. This is the problem with government excess. Taxes are like the Heroin for government. But no matter who you try to pin it on, one thing is for sure. We pay.

Seems like in reality we have all the money we need for those things we look to government to do. But we do not have the money to pay for the excesses, from government Solyndra deals, overpaid an under worked employees when compared to the private sector, government contracts as well as the incessant demand for more money to fix old problems.

Seems like government should prove that it can stop spending and pass a budget for example before demanding that anyone sign this bill, demonize banks and make ridiculous comparisons with the middle class and Buffet.

Not saying that Bush was not bad, or that we need no government at all. But until someone tells us the truth we should keep voting everyone out, except for any fiscal conservative. Most are socially agnostic anyway. They were against Bush and Obama and all business as usual politicians on both sides seem to hate them.

[gilv3]

09:21 PM on 10/02/2011

Your forgot to mention stupid wars costing TRILLIONS , drug prescription plans costing 700 unpaid billions, and sky rocketing deficits in the Bush years.....

Do you have amnesia, or is it just a bad case of hypocrisy ?

[ntmessage]

10:35 PM on 10/02/2011

Wars 1.2 Trillion. Bush doubled the debt, but starting with Obama's first and only budget as well as estimates; Obama has increased the debt more than Bush in only 3 years.

Deny and blame is not a solution to our problems. It is not an excuse for more bad behavior. We lost our AAA bond rating under Obama. This is serious and it is all on the Spending side.

[gilv3]

09:29 PM on 10/02/2011

Another thing....

Most of us don't "hate" our Bankers .....We would just love for them to stop making us pay 30% interest on our credit cards, and asking us to bail them out when they go broke ....Is that too much to ask?

As for Solyndra ....Let me put it to you this way .... The private sector get's government contracts every day of the week ...Boeing , Caterpillar, McDonell Douglass , General Dynamics , IBM, General Electric.... I guess you get the picture .... Now of all these companies billions of Dollars are WASTED every year , or you actually think we need yet another nuclear missile submarine , or another nuclear powered carrier with the name of yet another Republican President on it ?

But from all these waste , abuse , and frankly down right crooked favoritism over the decades ...You choose to get angry about a Government subsidy to create green jobs , that was abused by the private sector? Are you freaking kidding me pal?

[Oldmanalex]

10:24 PM on 10/02/2011

Agreed, what we actually need is to avoid getting the social structure of a banana republic. Most "fiscal conservatives" seem to be at the least curiously unperturbed by such a possible outcome, and a cynic might think most are paid trollops of those who fervently desire such an outcome.

[ntmessage]

10:42 PM on 10/02/2011

Clearly missing the point. Fiscal conservatives are anti graft be it for corporations or waste in excesses. The government needs to be investing in research not corporations if they want to change behavior. Every fiscal conservative is for revenue neutral tax reform. On the other hand it is like someone is being killed if you ask overpaid and underworked government union employees to take a hair cut on future gold plated pensions. Also there is that little thing about Bush rejecting that and the Ms Obama connection with the Solyndra thing.

[LondonDavid]

05:33 PM on 10/02/2011

"and that the energy for real change will definitely come from outside Washington"

Given the decades of "Buy-Your-Way-To-Power" Capitol Hill lobbying and campaigning, I think the only ground change that can occur in the US political system is an absolute nailing of senatorial and congressional fund raising.

The result of this would be immediate: single-issue dominance by wealthy groups and individuals would no longer be possible. It would prevent evangelical fundamentalists from forcing every senator to support Israel, it would stop big business from buying off congressmens' silence, and it would mean having to actually take a moral stance publicly.

THEN the political debate in the Capitol would return to something resembling the behaviour of genuine politics instead of the current horror where both chambers are essentially composed of non-entities who raised enough to get elected. Where are the Kennedys and Kings and Eisenhowers and Roosevelts of US politics?!

Rip a chunk out of campaign budgets and you will see an immediate change, America.
http://todayfreedom.blogspot.com/

[bucknecked]

07:49 PM on 10/02/2011

Add t what you suggest. Term Limits and remove a lot of the perks bestowed on the congressmen and make them work a 5 day week.

[Erna E N Boldt]

04:37 PM on 10/02/2011

TThe "belated" news of the Wall Street demonstrations, should be foremost in the media. The repression of the news for almost 2 weeks, and then only a mention of the outrage by the people, extending over several cities and states, is but an admission of a "do nothing" administration to eliminate the greed of Wall Street and control a totalian authoriity of the banking industry,

[Binks]

04:35 PM on 10/02/2011

Arianna,

Please devote an entire section to Occupy Wall Street/Occupy cities across America if you are really choosing to help this movement grow. This movement needs the coverage and it needs to swell to hundreds of thousands so that main stream media finally pays attention. The conversation needs to shift. You can help do this.