Who are they going to call out when they are one in the same?

Continued civil disobedience, costing millions and risking public safety, is alientating the 99% that might otherwise support the message. On the other hand, waiting for the likes of Earl and his buddies to fix things on wall street gets us no where. A classic no win.

I agree with a change in course toward the polititians who make the laws. Fix your sites on the place where it will really make a difference. Vote your heart, and while you're at it, pick an articulate spokesperson or two for your message.

Whose City Hall? Our City Hall!

Would pay a dollar to see that mic check in PDX

Words can't even capture my disgust for Earl Blumenpenis. He is one of politics' most contemptible figures, IMHO.

Naturally, #Occupiers give him a free pass. That's the world in which we live.

Earl is all about bikes and kids like 'em.

I give big 'down twinkles' to Occupy Portland.

Here's a charming guy using a child as a human shield while he heckles the cops in Pioneer Square.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKa4ibE9SAg#!

I got called on carpet by someone here the other day when I said I hoped no one would use a child in protest.
I can say "I told you so."

"Congressman Earl the Pearl is also inching his way toward living in the 1%."

Don't forget, either of Wu's replacements are both 1%-ers.

It'd be interesting to see if Occupy could get any liberal politicians to live up to their bonafides and see if they are for real. Once they go back to DC, they live in a bubble.

How long will it take before the Occupy Portland folks start disrupting meetings of government bodies? If anyone has failed them, one would think it was the politicians

~~~~>This is EXACTLY what really needs to happen.

Go to the source, the banks themselves and the politicians that enable them.

The whole occupy movement smacks of the Tea Party Movement, just the other side of the coin. Are these people allowing themselves to be manipulated, there are some who think so, just like the tea party people.

A bunch of people camping out in a public park actually think that will change things?

Now if they started disrupting the power players lives, well............the imagination just runs wild!

OR, if 100,000 people started marching around Pioneer Square,or Times Square that might get a few people nervous.

But a few hundred/thousand people ruining the park grounds?

Something ain't right if you ask me.

It sure is not the 60's, for those of us that remember them and were there.

Now that was protest that changed the world, at least for a little while.

ICED BORSCHT,

You might be interested in reading what Jane Hamsher had to say about Blumenauer on her national well known blog, Firedoglake. Some excerpts below.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/08/27/earl-blumenauer-leading-the-way-for-progressive-democrats-to-cut-social-security/

........But thought I’d add some perspective on the man himself. Bottom line: I’ve had pieces of toilet paper dragging from my shoe that were more principled than Earl Blumenauer.

July 2007: Earl Blumenauer signs a letter saying he won’t vote for any more war funding that doesn’t have troop withdrawal provisions.

June 2009: Earl Blumenauer votes for war supplemental without troop withdrawal provisions — when his votes actually counts. 39 Democrats could have stopped it; only 32 voted “nay.”

July 2009: Earl Blumenauer is one of 60 members of Congress who sign a letter pledging to vote against any health care bill without a public option:

September 2009: Online public option supporters raise $433,000 for those members of Congress. Blumenauer received $3200 of that money.

October 31, 2009: Blumenauer steps forward and gratuitously smacks Alan Grayson when he said the GOP health care plan is to “die quickly.” Here he is concern trolling in the New York Times:

“You cringe,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon and an unabashed liberal but also a buttoned-down gentleman. “We’re at risk of having a self-reinforcing corrosive process that drives reasonable people away.” He added: “It breaks my heart.”

January 2010: People who gave money to Blumenauer start calling his office and asking him if he’ll keep his word and vote against a bill without a public option. His office responds by asking them “if Jane Hamsher is taking money from Scott Brown.”

March 2010: People who gave Blumenauer money because of his public option pledge start calling and asking for him to give it back (in a poll, 90% of our readers thought he should do so, or at least donate it to Haitian relief). Blumenauer derides anyone who would even think of keeping the pledge he made, saying “People need to use their ‘inner wonk,’ not outsource analysis to idiot ‘shouting heads.’ Facts are clear.” He keeps all the money.

Basically, Earl Blumenauer is Lanny Davis in a bow tie. He’s an unprincipled hack who hides behind schtick, wagging his finger in exhortations to “civility” while shamelessly betraying every promise he makes.

This is not a departure for him.

There is more to the article.
Firedoglake has had several threads on our Congressman Blumenauer. Too bad the people must think he is great, as he skates through with high numbers on elections. What excuse does the Democratic Party have for him?

From Occupy, a member's invitation

My name is Jessie Sponberg, my friends call me Ozone.
I helped lead the N17 march downtown yesterday, alongside Portlandia.
I would like to talk.
Please consider this my press release.
I am giving you notice of an event Dogcupy Portland.
It will be a protest of the three banks surrounding the area of SE 39th and Hawthorne.
Saturday, November 19th from 11am-3pm
It will include leashed dogs. Everybody loves leashed dogs.
My dog and I will be doing thoughtful interviews.
We are using this opportunity to establish a dialog regarding the unfair portrayal of the Occupiers.
This includes the media and the police.
The recent manipulations of the "rape card" by Chief Reese and the release of biographical information on those arrested at the bridge protest make this an ideal time to have this conversation.
I would like to invite anybody who is interested in this dialog, or is interested in shooting some great footage of dogs with protest signs...
xxxxxxxxx

Jessie Sponberg
Ozone
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/314923_2169494677518_1251242201_31774689_1395935799_n.jpg

another Occupy voice...

The Portland Police Bureau is really screwing things up.

1) ARMED THREAT. Normally I'd put the actions of individual officers in context. Cops are human. Things go wrong. But video from yesterday shows an officer needlessly and provocatively aiming a weapon at unarmed protesters - which is bad enough, but this particular officer, Ryan Lewton, has a documented history of violence, and contributed to the fatal shooting of an unarmed innocent black man in January 2010. Aaron Campbell. Shot in the back.

Why is Officer Lewton still on the force? Why was he aiming a weapon at us?

2) THE RAPE CARD. Yesterday's offensive, idiotic comment by Chief Reese about Occupy delaying police response to a rape was not only untrue, upon explanation it gets worse and worse. That 9-1-1 call dated from November 6. That call was ELEVEN DAYS OLD yesterday and that whole issue is now being carefully walked backwards in the Oregonian. Chief Reese thought he could score some cheap political points off Occupy in the run-up to his mayoral candidacy. Thankfully this backfired on him.

Why does it take the police eleven days to respond to a rape call from a 15-year-old girl? Why does Chief Reese lay this apparent incompetence at the feet of Occupy Portland?

3) RIOT GEAR. The PPB continues to respond to peaceful protests in riot gear. After seeing this pattern three or four times now, yesterday's delivery of two dozens black-cloaked Robocops clinging to the side of two armed vehicles escalated tensions downtown. There was no riot. A riot was very unlikely. Even if they had to prepare for a riot, they should do it out of sight, without deploying. They block traffic, and yell at us for blocking traffic. They close the Steel Bridge and blame us. We're peaceful. If we weren't so patient and understanding, THEY would have caused a string of riots by now.

Is the bureau smart enough to avoid creating the very problems of traffic and tension and violence they're supposed to be resolving?

4) NUMBERS. One report has the number of police downtown yesterday at 900. Many have seen the clusters of two, three, four police surrounding the empty and floodlit parks where the camp was, texting each other, hanging out. Sure as hell, Occupy Portland is going to get blamed for $1M in police overtime and counting - that was the point of the rape comment, that Occupy has been an expensive proposition for the city. The public safety budgets are under severe pressure to begin with. The teabaggers are going to get cranked up about that in the next few months. Get ready.

So, what's the market price for free speech?

Leaders? We have leaders in our government? I see activists and carpetbaggers.

"We had a rape victim stand by for three hours until we could get an officer to take a report," Reese said, "and that makes all of us very sad."

Yeah. This guy want to be Mayor? Thinks he has leadership qualities?

Any skilled manager or supervisor drives the agenda. Blaming others is not leadership. Pouting, mock or otherwise, is neither professional nor responsible behavior during a crisis. If Chief Reese is not capable of deploying is assets to maximize the safety of the citizens during this tiny pimple of civil unrest, how could he handle triage in a major disaster? If he kept insufficient reserves for the usual business while deploying officers to stare at "smelly hippies" he has revealed his weakness. Thank you, sir, for doing so.

I applaud the overwhelming number of Portland police officers who, somehow, kept their cool while standing motionless while having epithets and insults and spittle flung at then from inches away.

The ones who, tiring of incessant verbal abuse, shoot pepper spray into the gaping maw of the offender... not so much.

And the bureaucrats who deployed them into the confrontation as so many pikers in a Greek tragedy? Shame.

Leaders? Someone point 'em out to me.

Great find, clinamen. Thanks for the link.

Clinamen, that's quite an easy question to answere. Blumenauer has a "D" next to his name and that's it in a nutshell.

According to Oregonians all "D's" are good and every other party is bad for Oregon.

I hope then that a lot of D's here are checking into Jacks blog
and can read what has been said about
their Congressman on the national blog.

The creepy mic-check reminds of this monty python scene linked below. In fact, a lot of OWS reminds me of Monty Python skits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqq3e03EBQ

Sounds like it took 11 days for the 15 year old to call Police...So he stepped in it when he made it sound as if the PPB was unable to respond to a emergency call.

I do hope the victim is taken seriously, despite the politicization of her personal suffering.

The possibility of finding any DNA evidence is remote, unless she saved some clothing. Which leads to a likely " he said/she said" if the perp is 17 or younger, unless there's a witness.

If he's over 18, then he's probably toast, even without DNA. Reese is toast either way.

Many of us "Ds" have been aware of Earl the Pearl's antics for some time. He is however supported by the (almost but not quite) 1%ers in Portland because like Sam the Sham and his cohorts he does what he is told.
The problem is that our so called "elected representatives" are no longer representative of the interests of their constitutants nor are the vast majority of those sent to DC really interested in doing what is necessary or best for the country as a whole, hence the total gridlock in government.
Ds and Rs all the same these days....

One of the qualities required in leadership is the ability to prioritize in real time.

This is a skill that is essential to the job; unfortunately, it's one that Reese, Adams, Leonard, Fritz, and others have never acquired.

Portland Native - if the Rs are the same as the Ds, then I suspect you won't be voting for Blumenauer or your local Democrat candidate?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I am not at all suggesting that a Republican or conservative politician is "better" in all cases or always has the right answers, but when one party knows they have the populace in their pocket out of sheer habit or laziness, there is little incentive to cater to the popular sentiment.

...Ds and Rs all the same these days....

Think more and more people are figuring that out.

What ever happened to the D Party platform?
or have they dismissed any adherence to former values?

The R's seem to have been hijacked as well.

Remember the conventions when issues were discussed...now it is pre-pick the candidates and certain topics to be discussed.

Since the D's appear to have already selected Obama for the election, and the R's are having trouble finding a candidate...

At this point, I think people would vote for an Independent - waiting for one to appear.

Same problem locally, looks like the insiders are running through their list of who to put out to continue the agenda.

If the people of the city become engaged and have had enough, and start paying attention to names, it just might become more difficult for any insiders to run and/or stay in.

Unfortunately, Sam/Rand and current council still have a good year to put finishing touches on perks for the 1% before any elections/changes can be made. Or will the investigations and potential lawsuits put a stop or slow down their plans and the enormous debt?

I'd actually love the Occupy folks if they bombarded and took over (or, to use their terminology Occupied) TriMet and Metro.

Those two government bodies are absolutely undemocratic, beholden-to-special-interest agencies that have little to no regard for the average Joe Citizen.

TriMet should be focusing new transit services on riders, not for developers. Why do suburban residents - who, by the way, count THREE out of every FOUR Metro area residents - take the transit cuts, while downtown Portland developers (who get all sorts of tax abatements and even below-cost land, and lots of government-paid-for infrastructure) then build above-market-rate condos, sell them to less than affordable folks, and then on top of it go bankrupt, and laugh all the way to the bank? Who gets stuck paying the bill?

TriMet has no business being a development agency but it is acting like one. TriMet has no business picking and choosing who will win and lose in its little transit lottery...but it is. It's time to Occupy TriMet. Tell TriMet we're sick and tired of the blatant abuse of power and waste of funds, and it's time to restore quality service to all residents, provide service in an efficient manner, and eliminate the bloated management structure that puts emphasis on art, sustainability and development over safety and service.