If you outlaw throwing footballs on the beach, only outlaws will throw footballs on the beach:

The Board of Supervisors this week agreed to raise fines to up to $1,000 for anyone who throws a football or a Frisbee on any beach in Los Angeles County.

In passing the 37-page ordinance (PDF) on Tuesday, officials sought to outline responsibilities for law enforcement and other public agencies while also providing clarification on beach-goer activities that could potentially disrupt or even injure the public.

The updated rules now prohibit “any person to cast, toss, throw, kick or roll” any object other than a beach ball or volleyball “upon or over any beach” between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

My guess is that the Board of Supervisors, in an abundance of concern for the health of all beach-goers, is worried that overly active people throwing footballs and frisbees could eventually lead to an innocent bystander spilling his container of complimentary City of Los Angeles heroin needles all over the sand, where an illegal alien might then step on one — and that’s a risk that can’t be taken. Goodbye frisbees and footballs!

Digging holes in the sand over 18 inches deep is also prohibited — unless you’re filming a movie or TV show of course:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

New York University is no longer the only school offering OWS classes. The notion of competition seems so… capitalist… but there it is nonetheless:

Columbia University is offering a new course on Occupy Wall Street next semester — sending upperclassmen and grad students into the field for full course credit.

The class is taught by Dr. Hannah Appel, who boasts about her nights camped out in Zuccotti Park.

As many as 30 students will be expected to get involved in ongoing OWS projects outside the classroom, the syllabus says.

The class will be in the anthropology department and called “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.” It will be divided between seminars at the Morningside Heights campus and fieldwork.

On her blog, Appel defends OWS, arguing that “it is important to push back against the rhetoric of ‘disorganization’ or ‘a movement without a message’ coming from left, right and center.”

The course syllabus is here (PDF). Graduate thesis topic: A Brief History of Up Twinkles and Down Twinkles.

Hopefully the course also includes extra credit for an optional essay on the irony of going further into debt borrowing money to pay for a class that teaches students how to most effectively protest student loan debt. Or should we assume the class will be dramatically discounted from Columbia’s usual rates to avoid any hypocritical clash between Occupy Wall Street’s student loan philosophy and what Columbia charges to attend?

Update: Just got this Tweet wondering aloud how one would go about protesting the class. I’d suggest occupying the classroom.

(h/t Gothamist and Big Government)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Too bad. I was looking forward to watching the “99er squatting on a police car” float made entirely out of roses, marigolds and a few thousand torn-up deposit slips from Bank of America lead the parade while Miley Cyrus lip-synched Liberty Walk, but it won’t be happening:

(CNSNews.com) – Although an Occupy Wall Street protest group in Pasadena, Calif., tried to get a slot to march in the Rose Parade on Jan. 2, officials with the parade said no. The group now plans to march down the street behind a group of police cars that mark the end of the parade.

In November, the Occupy group announced its plans to “occupy” the parade, but the Pasadena Tournament of Roses provided a statement on Wednesday to CNSNews.com saying that protesters would “not be taking part in the Rose Parade” because only official entries, approved by the tournament well in advance of the event, can take part in the event.

Also, Lt. Plhunte Riddle of the Pasadena Police Department told CNSNews.com in a telephone interview: “The Tournament of Roses has the exclusive authority to issue permits for the entries in the parade. Occupy has not been issued a permit.”

They’re not giving up though.

Should OWS have any problem raising enough money to finance their own parade? The 25 richest “Occupy” backers are worth more than $4 billion. Come on, cough it up, supportive one-percenters — people are starting to think you’re all hypocrites!

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Nice try, Time, but this obvious and cheap attempt to sell magazines and make money for your Wall Street masters by exploiting those engaged in a struggle against the greedy upper one percent will not go unnoticed:

#OccupyTimeMagazine

From MSNBC:

TIME magazine revealed the 2011 choice for its iconic Person of the Year cover live on TODAY Wednesday. The Protester is this year’s choice, managing editor Rick Stengel told Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

“There was a lot of consensus among our people,” Stengel told the TODAY anchors as he revealed the magazine’s cover. “It felt right.”

As it has for the past 84 years, the weekly newsmagazine selected the person (or sometimes group, or thing) that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse.

I had a feeling this was coming… too bad they didn’t use my cover idea:

The 99ers’ adversary — the one percent — were also under consideration for Person of the Year, but since some of the one percent were choosing the winner it was deemed to be a conflict of interest.

Update: Ed Driscoll has a similar Time cover here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

My column follows up on Monday’s blog coverage of the West Coast Port Shutdown by the Occupy Wall Street movement (the D12 primer is here if you missed it) — and exposes how the so-called Big Labor progressives and their propaganda tools are the nation’s biggest enemies of economic and technological progress. It’s no coincidence that businesses using cutting-edge technology and automation are now being targeted and demonized while a man who blames ATMs (which have been around for four decades) and automation for his skyrocketing unemployment rate is sitting in the White House.

Chaos is the progressive Luddites’ goal. Chaos is the reality — and enablers like left-wing Oakland Mayor Jean Quan are reaping what they sow:

In Seattle, police used “flash-bang” percussion grenades to break-up demonstrators and made arrests. Police Detective Jeff Kappel said protesters hurled flares, bags of paint and debris at officers and police horses, injuring one officer. Two others were arrested in Oakland for ignoring orders to unblock a gate where trucks were entering the port, reported interim Police Chief Howard Jordan.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is concerned about how the protesters will affect the people of the city this holiday season. “People have to think about the consequences,” she said. People have to think about who they are hurting. They are saying, ‘We want to get the attention of the ruling class.’ Well I think the ruling class is probably laughing, and people in this city will be crying this Christmas. It’s really got to stop”…

They’re not getting the message. Neither are the clueless elites at Time Magazine, who celebrated “The Protester” as their “person of the year.” But it looks like more on the left side of the aisle are getting tired of the mob. The liberal Los Angeles Times editorial board pans Occupy’s second act:

“The shipping industry didn’t get America into this economic mess, and there is little it could do to get us out. In times of rising joblessness, it’s common to blame foreign competition for the losses at home. But blaming ports or shippers for the changes wrought by an increasingly global economy is sort of like fingering automakers for urban traffic congestion. In its search for a new direction, Occupy Wall Street would probably do better to occupy the National Mall than San Pedro.”

So did the Portland Oregonian:

As the picketers meandered from one terminal to the next, they took a day’s pay away from almost 400 International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers who were told to avoid the protests and stay home on Monday. It’s doubtful that large exporters and ship-owning companies such as Goldman Sachs were affected in any way by Monday’s protest — but hundreds of Oregon families took a holiday hit to their paychecks.

The Occupy movement shut down the port on Monday apparently to make some kind of garbled statement about big financial companies that contributed to the global economic meltdown. What they demonstrated, instead, is that if you’re looking for the beating heart of Portland’s and Oregon’s economy, you’ll find it down on the docks.

In related news, GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is challenging the White House on whether it is allowing Occupy DC to camp illegally in McPherson Square for political purposes. In NYC, Occupy Wall Street chief flack and former public school teacher Justin Wedes was caught attempting to commit Americorps fraud and refuses to answer questions about the ripoff. And following up on my reporting last week about the Scholastic News Occupy whitewash, Susanne Hiller at Hot Air illuminates Scholastic’s hypocrisy problem.

A NYC eatery closes down as a result of the Occupy blockades.

And in case you missed it, here’s Neil Cavuto schooling an Occupy Portland tool.

***
Port Whine: Big Labor’s Occu-punks
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated “West Coast Port Shutdown.” Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls “victory.”

Aging Big Labor bosses toasted one another from the sidelines as they declared the “rebirth of the labor movement.” What’s really going on? It’s an old-school power grab by a decrepit union wrapped in self-deluded social media do-goodism.

Peace-loving agitators wielding guitars and iPhones may earnestly believe they stood up to corruption and stood up for workers this week. A socialist website promoted the port shutdown as an expression of “solidarity” for the workers’ “struggle.” One Oakland, Calif., agitator decried “exploitation by capitalism” as the shiftless busily divided their work blockages into what they called — chortle — “shifts.”

In reality, it’s the young Occupiers who are being exploited as human shields for the economy-strangling agenda of the violence-prone International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). These ignorant punks are putting the “front” in “waterfront.”

Few remember now that the left’s three-month-long “Day of Rage” festivities kicked off in September at the Port of Longview, Wash. — a far cry from Goldman Sachs and the rest of New York’s financial district. Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage. They damaged railroad cars, dumped grain, smashed windows, cut rail brake lines and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on.

The violence followed a similar outburst in July, when longshoremen tore down a chain link fence on EGT’s private property and blocked railroad tracks to prevent a grain delivery — a clear violation of the 1946 Hobbs Act, which makes it a crime to employ robbery or extortion to impede interstate commerce.

Despite breaking federal law, violating a judicial restraining order and committing systematically planned sabotage and trespassing, most of the union thugs got away with wrist slaps. The ILWU received a $250,000 fine to cover damages from the vandalism — a fine that will be paid with rank-and-file workers’ hard-earned dues money.

So, what’s their beef? No, it’s not about the “right” of unions to “organize.” It’s not about the welfare of the “99 percent.” It’s about one union losing its seven-decade-old grip on West Coast port operations. It’s about six-figure-salaried union suits at the ILWU, established by bloody radical Marxist Harry Bridges, throwing a lawless tantrum against economic efficiency and technological progress.

The ILWU is trying to break the will of EGT Development, a multinational agribusiness that recently built a $200 million grain terminal in Longview. It’s a state-of-the-art facility with unprecedented automation features that will speed unloading, increase shipping capacity and bring in tens of millions of dollars in lease and tax payments alone to the region.

EGT needs a nimble 21st-century workforce. The entitled overlords of the ILWU, who have ruled West Coast ports since the 1930s, are demanding a monopoly on the company’s master control system, control over the work hour structure, excessive mandatory breaks and extortionist man-hour “premiums” to bail out the union’s underfunded pension. “We’ve worked these elevators since 1934, and we’ve always been in that master console,” local ILWU President Dan Coffman told public radio.

EGT refused and instead brought in an outside contractor with a different union to fill about 50 jobs. But the ILWU water-carriers in the Occupy movement don’t care about those workers. Or the American farmers who have been hurt by the port saboteurs. Or the independent non-union truckers who were forced to forgo work in the name of worker empowerment. Trucker Hai Ngo of San Leandro, Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this. I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts. It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.”

Unfortunately, Ngo and blue-collar workers like him are collateral damage in the ILWU’s ruthless battle for Big Labor survival. Coffman, who has stoked violence for months, vowed earlier this year that “we will fight to the end to secure what is rightfully our turf.”

And now the gasping longshoremen’s union has a whole new set of Occu-tools to do the dirty work for them.

Here we go again.

You remember where the “Day of Rage” 2011 festivities first broke out earlier this fall, don’t you?

If you were paying attention, you know the answer:

The port of Longview, Washington.

Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage in early September. They damaged railroad cars and dumped grain, smashed windows, cut brake lines, and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on. Despite violating a judicial restraining order and committing systematically planned sabotage and trespassing, most of the thugs got away with wrist slaps. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union received a $250,000 fine to cover damages from the vandalism. One of the mobsters arrested was this unhinged ILWU guy, who threatened to beat up KGW reporters:

After the fine was dealt, longshoremen’s union bosses threatened to “do what we have to do” and ILWU vowed that “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” All because a grain importer, EGT, chose a different union for 50 construction jobs on a $200 million grain terminal.

If you were paying attention, you also remember that this initial outbreak of violence and property destruction came right after the Labor Day incitement of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa Jr., who agitated the crowd in Detroit for President Obama.

“President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa bellowed. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.”

Obama stood by the violence-prone Teamsters and vice versa. It’s a brass-knuckle bromance sealed with boodle.

On November 2, the Occupiers led by the Oakland contingent went after ports again. My column on the planned riots reminded you of the Bay Area Left’s violent Oakland port shutdown in 2003 and the ignominious Oakland agitator and strike leader Boots Riley — and connected the dots between Riley, Oakland’s Van Jones, Occupy Oakland, and the violent ILWU thugs and their supporters who kicked off the Day of Rage warm-up show in Longview, Washington in September. The Oakland shutdown was:

…an expression of “solidarity with longshore workers in their struggle” against grain importer EGT. In Longview, Washington, wildcat union workers cut train brake lines, smashed windows, dumped grain, and took hostages earlier this fall to protest the company’s decision to employ not non-union workers, but workers from a competing shop. A federal judge fined the ILWU $250,000 after it defied a court restraining order; even Obama’s National Labor Relations Board was forced to issue a complaint against the union’s “violent and aggressive” actions.

Here’s a refresher on how that protest turned “peaceful” protest turned out:

Source: Twitpic

Source: Twitpic

Big Labor has sent mixed public signals over whether it supports today’s coordinated shutdown. See this San Francisco Chronicle article for union leaders playing Hamlet for political viability’s sake.

But the Worker’s World website is crystal-clear on who inspired it, who’s behind it, and who’s providing the muscle:

Battle lines have formed as the West Coast Occupy movements, from San Diego to Alaska, flex their collective muscle against the federally coordinated, brutal attacks targeting the pro-Occupy Wall Street movements across the country. They are organizing for blockades of West Coast ports on Dec. 12 in San Diego; Los Angeles/Long Beach; Port Hueneme, Calif. (central coast); Oakland; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and possibly more. Solidarity actions have been called by OWS in New York and inland locations, as well.

The pro-OWS movement is aligning itself with labor and the working class, as the West Coast Occupy movements organize to support the struggle of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Longview, Wash. Longshore workers there are waging a ferocious battle against transnational EGT, controlled by Bunge Ltd., of the grain cartel that controls most of the world’s trade in food products. EGT is trying to break the ILWU in an attempt to drive down wages and destroy the union. (Read “Longshore workers call for anti-racist unity in their ranks” at www.workers.org/2011/us/ilwu_0922)

The West Coast Occupy movements are also aligning with the struggle of port truckers, who are fighting for the right to organize for union representation. Twenty-six of them were fired in Los Angeles for wearing Teamster jackets to work. Occupy LA and Long Beach are targeting SSA, an anti-union port terminal operator, majority owned by Goldman Sachs, the notorious Wall Street investment bank. Teamster president, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., has publicly expressed support for the Occupy movement.

Michael Novick of Anti-Racist Action, one of the main organizers at Occupy LA working on the port shutdown action in Los Angeles, told WW that the strategy will be to shut down three main targets. Novick states, “When we put the resolution through at the General Assembly in support of the port shutdown, it was tied to building a general strike on May 1st of 2012 and building relations to the migrant rights movement.”

Finally, the West Coast Occupy movements are targeting the ports as major commercial centers, showing that they can strike at the institutions which help to aggregate the wealth of the 1 percent by disrupting Wall Street on the waterfront. It’s the history of the militant ILWU which enables this attack to have teeth. The ILWU rank and file have historically supported political struggles such as the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-war movement, in defense of Palestine in the face of attacks on Gaza, in support of the Wisconsin struggle against union busting, etc.

The 1 percent, under the banner of the Port of Oakland, launched the first volley of their assault on Dec. 4, with full-page ads in the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune against the planned Occupy port blockade. They know all too well how powerful this movement has become, evidenced by the historic general strike call and blockade of the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2, when the Occupy movement, with the support of the ILWU rank and file and port truckers, shut down the entire port.

Who bears the costs? Small business owners, independent truck drivers, and taxpayers trying to make ends meet, of course:

The mobilization of over 60,000 people that shut down the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2 is being used by organizers as the model for the West Coast efforts this Monday.

However, some independent truckers at the Port of Oakland told the Huffington Post they were dismayed by the plan.

“It’s going to have a snowball negative effect. I depend on the port to feed my family. Why should I have to be put in a predicament because these people lack the skills to get a job?” said Vladimir Torres, an independent trucker who is based out of Long Beach, CA, and comes to the port of Oakland on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Torres is an owner-operator who said he would be dually affected because he works at two West Coast ports.

Josh Thomas, a spokesman for the Port of Portland, told the Columbian that 88% of the exporters who call the port home are small and medium-size businesses. “We see this as hurting working people,” Thomas said of the Occupy movement’s port initiative.

“We consider it no laughing matter when there’s a large group of people threatening to either block or enter the terminal,” Thomas said, “and we’d have to work closely with local law enforcement agencies and our own marine security officers and potentially (the U.S) Coast Guard, if it came to that.”

Way to go, Occupiers:

The Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council’s secretary-treasurer, Andreas Cluver, said many of his union’s workers were recently hired at port building projects after long stretches on unemployment. Given that, a port shutdown aimed at punishing the 1 percent “makes no sense,” he said.

…Nearby, changing a tire on his rig before he also left with a load of paper, Hai Ngo 0f San Leandro said he resented the loss of income.

“The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this,” Ngo said. “I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts. It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.”

The “battle” over power at the ports has been building for months. And the progressives are only going to escalate from here. From the socialists’ website:

EGT is planning to bring a huge grain ship to the Port of Longview, sometime in December or early January, to unload the grain piled up there with the use of scab labor. That isn’t going to happen without a major fight. Plans are in the works for phase two of this struggle. Caravans will be heading up to Longview to support the ILWU’s fight to keep their jobs and maintain their union…The battle is on!

Like they said: “It’s going to get worse before it gets better”…

…and it’s all being brought to you with explicit support from teachers’ unions, Democrats, and the White House.

Remember in November.

***

9:40am Eastern…The Oakland agitators are up bright and early. ABC News 7 in the Bay Area reports that trucks have already been stopped as hundreds descend.

Occupiers in Portland and Vancouver are already congregating. Occupy Los Angeles is tweet-whining about police brutality already, setting up for a telegraphed “extension” of the port shutdown. Anti-police/anti-captialist agitator Boots Riley is spearheading the Oakland shutdown.

Livestream of mob at Port of Los Angeles.

Flash mob at the NYC World Financial Center, where shutdown sympathizers are protesting Goldman Sachs.

A few sign-holders at Port of San Diego.

More livestreaming here.

Don’t buy the ILWU double-talk.

Update 10:41pm Eastern #OccupySeattle and #OccupyOakland shut down their ports. Disruptions in LA, San Diego, Houston, and elsewhere, according to Occupy flacks.

Occupiers vow to do it again tomorrow.

ILWU Local 21 official Dan Coffman calls in to praise the Occupiers in Oakland and reportedly declares “rebirth of the labor movement.”

Oakland thugs say they’ll try and block 3am shift.

In Portland, late word is that occupiers have helped shut down Schnitzer Steel, which a KXL news radio producer, Jim Ferretti, points out supplied food to the occupiers.

In Bellingham WA, the Occu-morons chained themselves together with bike locks and blocked trains. Arrests and photos here.

I leave you with this What The Hell image of the night. Click if you dare.

NBC’s Law & Order franchise has had some fun taking swipes at the right — from the Tea Party to conservative talkers — but an upcoming episode of Law & Order SVU was set to revolve around the Occupy Wall Street protests.

It’s unlikely that the script calls for OWS to be cast in a negative light, but we may never know. As it turns out, Law & Order SUV’s “Occupy” set was… occupied:

More than 100 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators stormed the set for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” across from the Manhattan State Supreme Courthouse, shutting down production of an OWS-themed episode.

“We made it so that they could not exploit us and that’s awesome,” said Tammy Schapiro, 29, of Brooklyn.

The protesters arrived around midnight at Foley Square and roamed around the park inspecting tents and signs built by the production company.

“This is not us,” said Drew Hornbein, 24, of Brooklyn Heights. “We are not part of corporate TV America.”
[...]
After midnight, a police officer on a bullhorn announced that the film permit had been rescinded by the city, which drew cheers from the crowd.

The empathetic upper one-percent’s Hollywood dramatization of the Revolution will not be televised.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

If you have kids (or remember from your own grade-school days), Scholastic puts out news bulletins that get sent home weekly or monthly.

One of those items is Scholastic News, which bills itself as “America’s Leading News Source for kids.”

Reader Edward has a daughter in fourth grade who brought home the December issue of Scholastic News — and he wasn’t too happy when he saw the publication’s coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Read for yourself (click for full-size):

The news bulletin also included some quiz questions about OWS:

Talk about a whitewash. The Scholastic writers have great futures ahead as MSM writers.

Reader Edward wrote to Scholastic:

I grew up in Soviet Union and seeing your propaganda about Occupy Wall Street brings back my memories.

I’m neither Republican or Democrat but I would rather see my kids hear about both sides.

Scholastic responded:

Thank you for contacting Scholastic Book Clubs. I am happy to forward on your concern about providing both Democrat and Republican views. I apologize for any inconvenience you may have encountered while trying to offer different views for your children.

We truly appreciate your support of Scholastic Book Clubs.

Perhaps the next edition can provide kids with a full accounting of the Occupy-related illnesses, vandalism, rapes, deaths, and other criminal violations — and a related pop quiz on John Nolte’s Occupy arrest rap sheet.

The kids deserve the whole truth. The teachers unions’ Alinsky brigade won’t give it to them.

***

Mermaz tips me to this rather unbalanced piece on the Tea Party published by Scholastic last fall. Compare and contrast:

The Tea Party movement was founded in 2009 to advocate smaller government, lower taxes, and a smaller national debt. According to a CBS News poll, 18 per cent of Americans identify themselves as Tea Party supporters.

“The Tea Parties are filled with people who are average citizens,” Ross told the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. “We are the heart and soul of what the American spirit is.”

U.S. Senator Dan Inouye of Hawaii disagrees.

“I think they’re good Americans, but they go to the extreme,” he said. “They’re not covering the soul of America.”

Inouye is a former veteran and spoke to the Scholastic Kids Press Corps at a rally where the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) endorsed Senator Barbara Boxer for U.S. Senate in California.

…In Nevada, Sharron Angle, a Tea Party-backed Republican candidate, has become a real threat to U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who currently serves as the Senate Majority Leader. Reid called out the big guns to go up against his opponent. Former President Bill Clinton was recently in Nevada campaigning for him and warning voters against casting their ballots in anger.

“If any time in your life you make an important decision when you’re mad, there’s an 80 per cent chance you’re going to make a mistake,” Clinton said at a rally for Reid. “I don’t want people to abandon their anger. I want them to channel it so they can think clearly.”

***

A reader reminds me this isn’t the first time Scholastic has gone moonbatty:

Not the first time that Scholastic has whitewashed or succumbed to radical environmentalist (TreeHugger and Sierra Club) and liberal (Mother Jones, New York Times, Rethinking Schools, Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood) pressure. Earlier in the year they succeeded in shaking down Scholastic and won another liberal propaganda campaign that seeks to dictate average Americans’ lives down to the kindergarten level simply because a curriculum was not up to the standards of the environmental Left.

Of course now, Scholastic simply wants to focus on promoting environmental awareness child activism based on the book The Down-to-Earth-Guide to Global Warming, which was written by Al Gore’s co-producer of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Laurie David.

Background here and here.

***

Related today: Occupying the Classroom: NYU to Offer Class in Occupy Wall Street

***
Previous:

“Educate, collaborate, AGITATE!”: Alinsky’s teacher corps
Flashback: Bill Ayers declares education “the motor-force of revolution”
Obama’s classroom campaign: No junior lobbyist left behind
Brainwashed in New Rochelle
Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools
A public school field trip…to the local illegal alien day labor center
First graders take school field trip…to teacher’s gay wedding
Roses are red. Bees are swarming. We’re all going to DIE from global warming!
Anti-war educators exploit The Children in the name of peace
The 3 R’s in the Age of Obama: Rappin’, revolution & radicalism
Get Schooled: Nickelodeon & friends want your kids to “change the system”
Nickelodeon goes moonbatty
Nickelodeon is at it again

At some point prudent savers come to the realization that it’s unwise to put their money in a financial institution that may eventually be torched by a member of their own group. As a result, SF Occupiers are starting their own bank:

Members of Occupy SF announced their ambitious plans to turn protesters into bankers by creating the People’s Reserve Credit Union. According to Occupy SF’s Facebook page:

The goal of this project is to encourage San Francisco residents, businesses, as well as nonprofit and city agencies to keep their money out of the big banks and to redistribute that money locally. Initial services will include micro-loans for the working poor and homeless, and subsidized student loans at low interest rates.

People’s Reserve organizers say they plan to create 60 part time jobs for students and the homeless. Here’s the good news: These jobs will pay at least $20 an hour! How do I know that? Because it’s a part of Demand One and I expect the Occupiers to do nothing less than lead by example:

Zombie at PJ Media has a warning for the nation’s newest bankers:

Occupy SF will soon learn that micro-enterprise loans are incredibly risky, because most micro-businesses fail. Risky loans are what caused the banking crisis in the first place — remember? Or was that too long ago for you?

It’s all fine and dandy to start your own banking institution with good intentions, but at the end of the day, if you are hemorrhaging money due to risky investments, while calming depositors with the reassuring “Don’t worry, everyone’s money is safe in the hands of the students and homeless transients on our staff,” you’re not likely to last a year. That is, unless, you learn the hard way why banks do the things they do to survive and thrive, in which case Occupy SF will become the very “banksters” they loathe.

And they’ll really become that which they loathe if they lose everybody’s money and then accept a government bailout.

If the People’s Reserve ever has a credit card to promote, they’re in luck, because one of their supporters has plenty of experience in that area.

“Degree of difficulty” rules for Occupy Bank discussion in comments: No “deposit” jokes.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Just listen to the hate. It’s insane. Screaming at Target moms with kids and Wal-mart shoppers and workers with ear-splitting contempt? This is what Occupiers want to be remembered for? Be sure to watch at around the 4:00 minute mark when the cameraman is so outraged he can’t hold his camera straight.

Un. Hinged:

H/T SarahSuzy

The day is upon us when shoppers show up to stores in droves looking for deals, retailers make money, craziness occasionally ensues and Joy Behar wonders if the term “Black Friday” is rooted in racism.

As of this morning, the “Occupiers” were looking to occupy Target and other retailers (will FLOTUS cross the protest line?). If OWS thinks the police tactics are questionable, just wait until they get between a bin of $2 waffle makers and a stampede of shoppers who haven’t yet had breakfast (“crack kills” warning):

And look, there was a sale at a California Walmart that has temporarily changed its name to Mace-ys:

Twenty people, including children, were injured when a woman at a San Fernando Valley Walmart store used mace against other customers in what authorities referred to as a “competitive shopping” incident.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a scuffle broke out shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday night, just before shopping was to begin, among customers waiting to buy Xbox gaming consoles and Wii video games.

Others are reporting that it was pepper spray and not mace. In either case, what better way to shop for gifts to give to loved ones on the day we honor and celebrate the occasion of our Lord’s birth?

“Competitive shopping”? Sounds like a new professional sports league might be on the way.

Stay safe out there, all. I’m not leaving the house today except to try and exercise off yesterday’s dinner and dessert. I never did get an official pie waiver but went ahead and ate some anyway. Yesterday at my place, Al Sharpton was proven correct.

Update: Guess who else is having a Black Friday sale?

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

A couple of years ago while in Manhattan my wife and I stayed at the W hotel downtown. Why? Because we had a tremendous urge to stick it to The Man, that’s why. By the time we checked out, a feeling of satisfaction engulfed us because we knew we’d finally gotten even with the upper one percent. It was the kind of warm deliverance from a world of Wall Street greed that only paying hundreds of dollars to a publicly traded corporate hotel chain can provide.

As it turns out, we were “Occupiers” before Occupying was cool.

From the New York Post:

A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned.

The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.

“Tents are not for me,” he confessed, when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a “repeat” guest.

Spitzer, 24, an associate at financial-services giant Deloitte, which netted $29 billion in revenue last year, admitted he joined the protest at Zuccotti Park several times.

It’s unbelievable that Occupiers would even consider staying at the W… when there’s vacancy at the Ritz Carlton?

Just call the W Hotel “Zuccotti Park East.” This kind of thing isn’t unusual — nobody thinks Crosby & Nash actually camped out, do they? And OWS supporter Michael Moore also finds it’s much more desirable to fight against the greed of the one percent while disguised as the one percent. A part of Moore is at Zuccotti Park around the clock, however, because word is that a dozen Occupiers from upstate are using a pair of Michael’s pants as a bivouac tent.

I wonder if those guys will still show up for their free Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

For the record, the W chain is owned by Starwood Hotels, which closed on Wall Street at 49.08 on Friday.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Authorities say a Utah man has been arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Wells Fargo branch.

Police responded early Thursday morning in West Jordan, about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. A bank window was cracked, but authorities say the device didn’t explode.

…The threat comes on the same day Occupy protesters are marking the two-month anniversary of the movement. It wasn’t immediately clear if the Utah bomb was connected to the national protest.

If this had happened during the Tax Day Tea Party…

Hat tip – William Amos…

As of 4:10am Eastern.

Clean-up time.

Finally. NYPD is in full riot-gear tonight and the Occupiers are up in arms on Twitter. A police officer has reportedly announced with a bullhorn that the encampment at the private park is a “fire hazard” (among many other health hazards) and that those who don’t clear out will be arrested. Hope the police brought extra Lysol and rubber gloves. If not hazmat suits.

With a h/t to The Right Scoop and CBS News, here are some more screencaps I took of some of the activity taking place at the camp right now:

***

The Occupiers’ livestream is here.

Overheard: Occupier fumes, “We will not be moved.”

Famous last words. Now, move out.

1:56am Eastern. They are literally HOWLING in Zuccotti Park. I am thinking they shipped in the Occupy Denver dog leader to bolster the Occupier troops.

The same loons who shout “F**k the Police” are now screaming “WE LOVE YOUUUUUUU!!!!”

Occupier whines: “They’re throwing and breaking everything!” Ranting about 60 days of “work” going to waste.

Karma.

NYC has sent in a sanitation truck. Occupiers shriek in horror. Like garlic to vampires:

Fox News Radio’s Todd Starnes tweets that NYC Mayor Bloomberg will allow protesters back into Zuccotti Park “after it’s cleaned.”

Ummmm, how is it possible to “clean” the park without removing the human filth?

***

Here’s the NYPD scanner link (h/t Erick Brockway).

2:38am Eastern NBC News New York tweets that there have been at least 25 arrests, shoving of police by Occupiers, garbage cans thrown into the street.

Also: Protesters have reportedly turned away an ambulance.

WOO-HOO!!!!

Update 2:56am Eastern Occupiers tried to drown out an officer informing them of the fire hazard rules. They chanted some sort of Indian war chant “WAWAWAWAWAWAWA!” thing. It was…bizarre.

Then they’ll turn around and complain that they never heard the police warn them of anything.

From NYPD police scanner, a group of 200 Occupiers is trying to get into the park and has been stopped.

Here’s General Michael Moore directing #OWS troops from his Twitter feed:

An occupier screams that “30,000 people” are watching the livestream, ergo “THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!!!!”

Occupiers claiming media have been blocked from park. Also decrying use of tear gas (not confirmed by MSM), shut down of “the people’s kitchen.”

Local media say pepper spray was used during park evacuation, not tear gas.

3:59am Eastern The Kamp Alinsky Kids have now been split up into roving bands of brigands wandering NYC.

Here is NYT coverage.

Latest word from local NYC media: “From a producer on the scene with sources from the NYPD: Small group remains inside the park…they are chained together.”

Chained around their necks.

Occupy Locksmiths!!!

***

Update: Tuesday morning….Rise and whine! They’re baaaack. The Occupiers are marching back to the park. Reports of arrests as of 10:47am. There’s an 11:30am court hearing over the restraining order limiting the city’s ability to evict the campers.

Update: Hmmmmm….ACLU-tied judge who assisted Occupiers is ordered off the case:

When the cops raided Zuccotti Park, lawyers for Occupy Wall Street immediately woke up a judge with a civil liberties background and asked for help.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings signed an early-morning order temporarily barring cops from keeping protesters and tents out of Zuccotti Park.

But within hours, she was off the case as court administrators prepared to randomly choose a new judge — and excluded Billings’ name from the list of candidates.

Billings’ biography notes that before she became a judge in 1997, she spent 25 years as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“I have devoted my career to public service, especially the disadvantaged in desperate circumstances,” she wrote in a 2007 pre-election statement.

Lawyers for Occupy Wall Street phoned Billings after cops moved into Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicted the protesters and got rid of their tents and other camp equipment.

Asked why they called her first, protest lawyer Daniel Alterman wouldn’t say, remarking that he’s not a “gossip guy.”

The lawyers also called an emergency hotline set up to assign judges to after-hours cases. A staffer told them that since Billings had already been contacted, she should handle the Zuccotti matter.

He said Billings came to the lawyers and at 6:30 a.m. signed an order declaring cops cannot evict protesters who aren’t breaking the law or stop protesters from entering with tents.

Billings’ involvement will be short-lived.

At 11:30 a.m., court officials were scheduled to use a computer program to pick a new judge for an afternoon hearing on the restraining order — the proceeding that will determine if the tents can be erected again.

Meantime, The Blaze reports a nearby church — Trinity Church — has had its locks cut by Occupiers.

***

Update 5:03pm Eastern After several false reports on Twitter this afternoon, a judge announced that the eviction is being upheld.

Gird your loins and get our your surgical masks. The Occupiers will no doubt be raising a stink…

A Suffolk University law professor will not collect items for United States troops overseas and thinks it is “shameful” to do so.

Law professor Michael Avery sent a five-paragraph e-mail to colleagues in response to a school-wide appeal for care packages for deployed soldiers.

“I think it is shameful that it is perceived as legitimate to solicit in an academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to kill other human beings” wrote Avery.

Avery also wrote that he believes sympathy for troops in harms way is “not particularly rational in today’s world.”

The e-mail did not stop with Avery’s objection to the care packages. Avery went on to question the schools intent of the American flag hanging in the atrium:

“Since Sept. 11 we have had perhaps the largest flag in New England hanging in our atrium. This is not a politically neutral act. Excessive patriotic zeal is a hallmark of national security states. It permits, indeed encourages, excesses in the name of national security, as we saw during the Bush administration, and which continue during the Obama administration” wrote Avery.

More at My Fox Boston.

Background on Professor Avery:

Subjects:
Constitutional Law, Individual Rights, Evidence, Scientific Evidence

Professional Activities:
President, National Lawyers Guild (NLG) (2003 – 2006); Former President, Board of Directors, National Police Accountability Project; Frequently invited to lecture on the topic of constitutional law and/or police misconduct at law schools nationwide. Lectures at conferences sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center, Chicago Kent Law School, Suffolk University School of Law, A.L.I. – A.B.A., American Civil Liberties Union affiliates, National Lawyers Guild, Clark Boardman, Ltd., International Association of Chiefs of Police, various law enforcement agencies. President, Board of Directors, National Police Accountability Project, NLG,(1999 – 2003); Cooperating Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, 1980-present; Co-chair, Massachusetts Chapter, National Lawyers Guild, 1996 to 1998; Board Member, Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, 1983-1986; General Counsel, Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, 1978-1981; Chairperson, Civil Liberties Committee, National Lawyers Guild, 1977-1980; National Council Member, Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, 1976-1979.

Via Discover the Networks:

Michael Avery was the President of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) from 2003 to 2006. In that role, he consistently condemned the Bush administration, its war on terror, and its 2003 invasion of Iraq. “I’m afraid that if we want President Bush to go,” said Avery in 2003, “we will have to make that happen ourselves. The President repeatedly lied about the justification for going to war in Iraq, to the Congress, to the United Nations and to the American people. Where are the weapons of mass destruction? They don’t exist. If they find any now, we should look for the ‘made in the USA’ label on the bottom.”

On February 10, 2005, NLG published a news release expressing its support for the self-proclaimed “radical activist attorney” Lynne Stewart, who had just been convicted of providing material aid to the Islamic Group, an Egypt-based terrorist organization whose leader, Omar Abdel Rahman, helped mastermind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In the NLG statement, Michael Avery is quoted as saying: “The National Lawyers Guild strongly urges its own members and other defense lawyers to continue to proudly represent clients who are openly critical of government policies. We will not be intimidated and this prosecution has only strengthened our resolve to oppose the repressive attacks this government has made on the civil liberties of everyone in this country. We will also continue to stand by Lynne Stewart.”

Refresher on convicted jihadist-enabler Lynne Stewart here.