We Were ALL Waiting For This To Happen-- Weren't We?

A couple night ago Montana populist Democrat Franke Wilmer was campaigning in Pablo and she added some inspiration she had gotten from Van Jones's comment that the OccupyWallStreet protesters show that we need to "take back the American Dream and rescue the middle class." Her paraphrase was "restore the American Dream and take back the middle class." Once she paraphrased Granny D to me: "I like corporations OK. I just want them to make our cars, not our laws." I asked her how she felt the demonstrations are going. Here's what she told me today:

CEOs now make 343 times more than their average worker, the largest gap in U.S. history. CEO pay keeps going up, while companies continue lay off workers and ship jobs overseas. Wall Street's irresponsible business practices led our country into one of the worst recessions in our nation’s history. There was a time in this country when Wall Street was held accountable and the DOW prospered along with the middle class. I am not surprised to see that people are fed up and are drawing attention to the issue. I know I have had enough, that's why I decided to run for Congress.

If you'd like to donate to her campaign, you can do so here. 


UPDATE: Brutal Out-Of-Control NYPD Thugs Go On The Attack

Late tonight, it's being reported that undisciplined New York police officers are attacking, unprovoked, peaceful demonstrators at OccupyWallStreet. The video at the link of a baton-wielding fascist is horrifying. I kept expecting to see a contingent of these things come charging up Broadway on camels brandishing whips. Aweful about that Fox reporters who got maced and roughed up too.

And A Late Night Update From Franke

Just returned from teaching a class, she wrote, "Van Jones provides the kind of leadership/articulation we need. But we all have to do the work. It was not easy to found this country; it's founding was not perfect either, and it will not be easy to keep the Dream alive and at the same time, and collectively, develop our character.

"I have often said the Framers of our Constitution expected us to become better people than they were" and I mean that from the bottom of my patriotic heart. I will pass that dream along-- believing that those who follow us several centuries into the future can be better people than we were because we gave them a system that enabled, and even expected them to be exactly that. And because we lived up to the promise of those who preceded us. We are entrusted with that promise... They said 'liberty and justice for all'... I just think there's no liberty without justice. That in itself is hard to live up to."