Yes, that's right I'm getting on my horse (with the help of Chris Hayes) and spreading the word on my midnight ride to warn #OWS: The Lobbyists are Coming! The Lobbyists are Coming.
And in this case, they're come for you Occupy - they're coming for YOU.
PDF of Memo.
As also documented by BoingBoing.net.
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”
In other words, these guys see #OWS as a genuine threat, and their threat assesment is to Cut them off at the Knees using Secret Surrogates to smear and bash the protestors and undercut their credibility and influence.
And don't let any actual Democrats endorse #OWS or they'll get it like Dorothy's little dog Toto.
As Chris points out this is just one memo form one law firm to a lobbying firm that features a ton of former Beohner staffers. But it's not like this isn't already happening and clearly John Moody has probably fired off a similar memo with the same sentiment.
Just watch as Juan Williams gets kicked to the curb for daring to defend #OWS on Fox.
And Williams thinks he was treated badly on NPR? Seriously, just look at his whining defeatism as a smirking Wallace shuts him down cold.
More over the flip...
WILLIAMS: The Republicans, in this time of Occupy Wall Street, are the protectors of the super rich.
WALLACE: I’m not sure if we should talk about Occupy Wall Street as a plus anymore…
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think we should!
WALLACE: Really? With all the violence in the streets? You really think that most of the American people—
WILLIAMS: You know what? You are getting distracted, and you’re getting distracted by people who are crazy—
WALLACE: I think I’m in touch with what most people are thinking, which is they’re getting fed up with it.
Yeah, that obviously wouldn't include to 15-20,000 people who were out on the Brooklyn Bridge Marching in Support of #OWS just the other night would it?
In this section from Democracy Now, the former Police Chief of Seattle Norm Stampler decries his own actions during the "Battle of Seattle" and notes how he sees his own previous mistakes being repeated by current Police Forces such as NYPC and Oakland PD. Further a Legal Observer, who is also a former New York Supreme Court Justice, who was there during the evacuation of Zuccotti Park tells a story of how she watched a Police officer throw a woman to the ground and beat her because she was asking for help to find her missing daughter. And the observer objected, he began to get physical with her two even after she'd identified herself. And Wallace think's the violence is coming from the Protestors? Not hardly.
Judge Karen Smith: And as I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, "I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK." And he said, "Move on, lady." And he kept pushing—they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she said—and she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head. And I walk over, and I say, "Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that." And he said, "Lady, do you want to get arrested?" And I said, "Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer." He said, "You want to get arrested?" And he pushed me up against the wall.
The link to Norm Stamper's article on Paramilitary Policing is here.
My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose. Rocks, bottles and newspaper racks went flying. Windows were smashed, stores were looted, fires lighted; and more gas filled the streets, with some cops clearly overreacting, escalating and prolonging the conflict. The “Battle in Seattle,” as the WTO protests and their aftermath came to be known, was a huge setback—for the protesters, my cops, the community.
More than a decade later, the police response to the Occupy movement, most disturbingly visible in Oakland—where scenes resembled a war zone and where a marine remains in serious condition from a police projectile—brings into sharp relief the acute and chronic problems of American law enforcement. Seattle might have served as a cautionary tale, but instead, US police forces have become increasingly militarized, and it’s showing in cities everywhere: the NYPD “white shirt” coating innocent people with pepper spray, the arrests of two student journalists at Occupy Atlanta, the declaration of public property as off-limits and the arrests of protesters for “trespassing.”
The paramilitary bureaucracy and the culture it engenders—a black-and-white world in which police unions serve above all to protect the brotherhood—is worse today than it was in the 1990s. Such agencies inevitably view protesters as the enemy. And young people, poor people and people of color will forever experience the institution as an abusive, militaristic force—not just during demonstrations but every day, in neighborhoods across the country.
The reality on the ground is this is a non-violent movement, nearly all if not all actual violence has been initiated, unprovoked, by police.
But again that's not going to stop Fox and their Corporate Allies from Lying About it, as Rachel Described in a teaser for Chris's segment where Fox call the man who shot at the White House the other day the "Occupy Assassin".
Does this guy sound like an Occupier, (not to mention the fact that the Police say there is NO CONNECTION BETWEEN HIM AND OCCUPY DC.
Or does he sound like this guy who threatened to Kill Nancy Pelosi, whose mom says he did it - Because He Listens to too much Fox News?.
Or this guy who got into a shootout with police on his way the execute a Mass Murder Plot against the ACLU and Tides Foundation because Glenn Beck told him they were Evil
And I can't believe I nearly forgot this, there was the Knoxville Tennesse Shooting which killed 5 people by a giant Bill O'Reilly fan who was trying to kill every Liberal he could find.
"Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them....
"This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence."
"I thought I'd do something good for this Country Kill Democrats til the cops kill me....Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I'd like to encourage other like minded people to do what I've done. If life aint worth living anymore don't just kill yourself. do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.
Right now there is No Evidence of Violence being initiated by actual members of Occupy Wall Street, or any Occupy movement, but unfortunately Fox News Can't Say That.
If anyone is a violent threat to the Nation - it's FNC, not OWS.
Vyan