Tuesday 1 November 2011

The "Occupy" movement update, and other news.

In Zucotti Park, the love may be free; however, the consequences are anything but, as the New York Post bluntly reports:

Occupy Wall Street protesters are flocking to nearby health clinics for STD and HIV testing after getting their freak on in ’60s-style hookups with crusty strangers, sources told The Post yesterday.

Crusty strangers? No, thank you. Meanwhile, in Australia, Tim Blair gives us the lowdown on a bunch of Occupiers who won't be dissuaded by typographical and grammatical errors that stand out like dogs' balls.

The first most of us learnt of this was at the Treasury Gardens on the 29th when Jeff from the Logistics Working Group gave a report back to the crows what marched there with the intention of re-occupying.
 
Blair points out quite correctly that the Spelling Working Group might have been consulted:
 
On Sunday night and Monday during the day, the State Library Occupation limjped on only due to the persistence and tenacity of those present in the face of ongoing harassment and threats made by the management of the State Library and without the presence of structures.  

I suspect they mean "limped". When someone's literacy is this poor, their failure to find adequate employment ceases to be a mystery. In fact, all sorts of other things cease to be a mystery too - they have a Logistics Working Group and a Kitchen Working Group, and God only knows how many other Working Groups, all sitting around making decisions... but are any of these Groups actually achieving anything? Or are they living up to John Howard's assessment of the current Labor government - that there is an obsession with the process of governing which overshadows the actual task? I'm also reminded of the saying that one should not mistake effort for achievement.

In other news, the sharp-tongued but rarely inaccurate Professor Bunyip gives the lowdown on one man's efforts to shape the news. And not for the better. This is very serious and extremely worrying, as this chap, his fellow travellers and his political enablers are basically working towards the "right" to control, at least within Australia's borders, who publishes or comments on the news and in what way. That includes personal blogs. Combine that with a national broadband network owned and operated by the government, the removal of parallel infrastructure (the good old copper wire, some of which has already been ripped up), and the same government's desire to filter the entire nation's internet access, and you have the recipe for a slippery slide towards totalitarianism.

Gay Republicans, you say.  Surely they're in the closet? No, they're very much out and about, proving that what you are is irrelevant so long as you bring the right ideas to the GOP table:

During a press gaggle as McDonnell was about to depart the fundraiser, another reporter asked the governor if supporting an openly gay candidate like Forrest will hurt him or other Republicans in rural parts of Virginia.
“No,” said McDonnell emphatically, pointing out that “Patrick Forrest is all about creating jobs, controlling government spending.  He’s a fiscal conservative.  He has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the Fairfax and Arlington communities.  He’s a great messenger for the fiscal conservative message and that’s what people care about right now.”

Unfortunately, it appears that there are some people for whom his homosexuality is everything. Moving on from the sexuality and concentrating on the policies, the article continues:

“...it would be nice to see a current or former governor be the next president, people who know how to balance budgets, create jobs, and get stuff done on time without making excuses.  That’s exactly the kind of leadership we need in Washington.”

No wonder some people are eagerly backing Herman Cain, irrespective of his outsider status. So now we have openly gay Republicans, presidential-hopeful black Republicans, and in my mind at least, an erosion of the stereotype that the GOP is automatically racist and homophobic. We must also remember that George W. Bush appointed the first two black Secretaries of State in US history, one of them a woman. It's interesting and heartening to note that where I've seen conservatives pick Cain's candidacy to bits and think him unfit for the office (or at least, less fit than other candidates), the one thing they have not attacked him on is the colour of his skin. The general gist of their criticisms, as I understand it, seems to be that while he has a fine record as an economic manager in the cut-and-thrust of real world business, and is good at turning financial basket cases off the road to perdition, he is weak on policy at a level that really matters. There are of course other things being said about him, but how much of this is truth and how much is smear will need time to sort out.

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