As a member of the occupy movement and a proponent of economic justice, I realize that getting corporate and billionaire money out of politics is key to getting a government for the 99% instead of the 1% who own most members of both parties of Congress right now. Tactically speaking, though, I feel the way to make the change is not to go back to many of the same corrupt incumbents who have been blocking real campaign finance reform and public campaign financing, and expect them to vote for a Constitutional Amendment that would regulate where a majority of their campaign donations come from. The way to get money out of politics is to use our social networks to replace bribe-inducing TV ads and elect pro-99% candidates who refuse corporate money and promise to vote to ban corporate campaign contributions. We need different politicians to pass different laws and create a system that works for the 99%. That's why I like the ten "fresh democracy" candidates who launched this week with www.BeYourGovernment.org . We need hundreds like them. THEY will VOTE TO AMEND in January 2013. Not the corporate bought politicians we have in Congress now.

BeYourGovernment.org supports the important policy objective of the Move to Amend effort, to end the corruption of our political system by huge corporate donations. We feel that the most immediate and effective way of bringing about this essential change is for we, the people, to use our social and personal networks to become, and support, Congressional candidates who run without corporate money. A core transparency question for all candidates is whether they will vote for an end to corporate funding of campaigns, and public campaign financing. We believe that electing many new members of Congress who refuse corporate donations can help Move to Amend build a Congressional majority to get the buck out of the ballot once and for all.

OWS is a mob. Who cares? LOL.

It's obvious these folks have no personal goals or ambitions so they hang with many of the same so they can feel as if they "belong" to something.

Uhmmmm.....

OK.. I haven't said this before, but on this ONE topic, I will agree with the people supporting this.

We The People have permitted corporations and extremely wealthy people to control the political process of this country.

I've indicated before that I have been adamantly opposed to the SCOTUS decision permitting corporate and other special interest monies to plague and corrupt our political process.

I feel the campaigns of people running for office at the federal level, and similarily for state office should be as follows:

Representatives campaigns should be financed by INDIVIDUAL VOTERS from the District he/she will represent. NO special interest, corporate, PAC or any other funds. INDIVIDUAL contributions only with a $250.00 limit.

Senators campaigns should be financed by INDIVIDUAL VOTERS from the State he/she will represent. (Senatorial districts within a state) NO special interest, corporate, PAC or any other funds. INDIVIDUAL contributions only with a $500.00 limit.

Presidential campaigns should be financed INDIVIDUAL VOTERS. NO special interest, corporate, PAC or any other funds. INDIVIDUAL contributions only with a limit of say $2,500.00.

Thank you for a well thought out and civil minded comment. There will be those who will fight against you and their own self interests, resort to character assassination, name calling and patronization. I take heart that intelligent substance will always win over narrow ignorance. Without definite examples refuting the factual evidence of corporate corruption, fraud and exploitation, some people only have empty hostility and even bad, accusatory language to fall back on. I applaud your courage and energy and find hope that this upheaval in true Democracy will prevail and succeed. I believe the Occupy Movement can save us from the road that has been paved, for the last 30 years, toward corporate fascism. Again, much thanks.

as usual the organised crime syndicates called corporations in the u.s. are calling the ows movement names while thes super criminals (corp.) continue to put million,s of us About 50% children into the street to starve or die for lack off shelter , and still have the nerve to protect the supeer rich including corporation,s This is the same bunch that did it when i was a kid in the great depression.these same mamenist,s worshipping the aura of wealth who had a fit in 1937 when we passed the child labor act and, deprived them of thier slaves labor. this bubch will never quit thier destruction so if they are not banned exiled or executed will allway,s return to destroy the happless citizen.

Americans have the right to peacefully assemble and protest. Disruption and chaining oneself to the doors of a bank is not peaceful protest. OWS is losing credibility by trying to shut down things.

Better not try to occupy my house. I worked hard to afford it and am working harder to keep it.

Isn't the rainbow family having a gathering somewhere. The bongo drum beaters and occupiers need a coherent message. The place to protest is Washington D.C..

What? Only ELEVEN(11) comments on this in 3 1/2 hrs.? Where are the Progressives? Where is the support?? Nobody cares about the Occupy people. Nancy,Harry,Barack,Micheal and the SEIU have abandoned them. Why is MSNBC putting this out as a news event???

If you are happy with your life, and unconcerned about others, I caution you; your view is flawed, and your vision of reality is unsustainable. The illusion which is your life will be swept away, just as every other "civilization" has been, since the dawn of time. Our world, except the tribal societies, polarizes people against each other: Rich/Poor, Democrat/Republican, Black/White, 1%/99%, My God/Your God, Nation/Nation, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Our view determines our world; fostering illusions is a terminal illness, to which we will succumb before the world enters the third millennium. This may not concern you, since "My Life is Good!", but it will concern your children, and your children's children.

That said, there is no way back. There is only a way forward, and the course we are on will take us to oblivion. How would you recommend we alter course? Increase the polarization? Remain in denial? Keep doing what we've always done, and expect different results?

The Gods are laughing.

4 1/2 hrs now. Occupy better Occupy a Graveyard. In the immortal words of Chick Hearn "Stick a fork in 'em,they're done"!!

So when are they going to live up to their namesake and OCCUPY WALL STREET? Get a map and head there now! Camping out in the park with your favorite homeless hippie and vagrant isn't going to move your group in any direction.

I am glad they are keeping the movement alive through the winter. It will emerge in the spring stronger than ever

Our political system and its officers are a joke

The entire country should boycott the elections and just not vote

Something has to change

To all the people mocking OWS and the like: wake the @!$%# up and take a look around!! Are you living in the land of the free anymore? Newsflash, Obama signed a bill that basically says "nope, not anymore." Cut through all the extreme leftist bull@!$%# and you will see OWS is fighting for you whether you realize it or not.

Tea Party, OWS, and all the deriders of both are on the same side and just don't realize it yet. Your government has become tyrannical and the responsibility to restore the principles of your Constitution will likely fall to "We The People."

"I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." That applies to every single one of you who believes in fundamental freedoms as a right, military or not.

I am a scientist and when I apply for any government grants to do research, I have to write a proposal, include all relevant science, and also prove my education including my CV (resume for those not in the academic world). Why can't the political system be run like government grants?

For example, if you are a perspective presidential candidate, first you have to take a test. Why? Well, if a Naval Officer has to take a test in order to even be considered to be an officer, then the Commander in Chief should have to take a similar test proving he or she is not an idiot. We really do not need people in office that think that the internet is a "series of tubes" or cannot comprehend basic science and math.

Second, you apply to run as a candidate. Now, if you pass the test, you can be approved. (This is probably the most sketchy part of the plan...to avoid bias of a panel approving people, you let the test results do it.) Maybe have 5 spots and the top five are selected and approved.

Those that are approved receive a Political Office Grant. This is a fund that contains a limited amount of money (to be determined but enough to run an election). The thing is, in order to be legal, you can only spend money in the fund for campaigning and advertising for the Political Office. You cannot spend it for anything else and you cannot spend any extra money (gained from any source including your own) to campaign. Any violation does two things...ends the run for office by getting you kicked out of the election and also results in a fine/jail depending on the abuse. So you cannot just apply and then go to Disney World with the money or you will instead find yourself behind bars. The source of the fund would have to be inventive...just don't tax us more...but use the current money more wisely like foreign aid to countries that don't like us anyway.

What this would do is level the playing field. Each candidate gets exactly the same amount of money to spend. Each candidate maybe would get the same amount of commercials as well...maybe 100 per state or something.

I would much rather have a system like the one I just described. That way, the candidate makes it based on merit and smarts, not money. It makes it an even race and the only thing that separates the candidate is the person. As it stands now, someone who might be a wonderful president but is not a millionaire does not have a chance.

Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

You Can't Fool Mother Nature For Long: Mainstream Media

The Corporate Media in the U.S. is a handmaiden to the Financial and Political Elites, issuing simulacra of "news" and "analysis" in service of the Status Quo.

If there is any America "industry" ripe for widespread discrediting, it is the U.S. Corporate Media--the six corporations that own most of the media outlets the conventional American sees, hears and reads. This week's theme is You Can't Fool Mother Nature For Long, and this is how it plays out in MediaLand: when the disconnect between the actual economy and what the American people are told is factual and true about the U.S. economy and its Financial Elites by their Corporate Media widens to surrealism, then the conventional American who has passively accepted propaganda in place of reality will finally abandon belief in the "fairness and integrity" of the Mainstream Media, and see it for what it is: a corporate house of prostitution, where everything is for sale to the highest bidder.

Ask yourself how many hard-hitting, high-visibility series on the underbelly of American sickcare have been issued by any Mainstream Media outlet. Then look at how many of these outlets live off the revenues of adverts for pharmaceutical products, health insurance, fast foods and packaged foods-- all industries that are profiteering from the current sickcare system.

The answer, as far as I can discern, is (unsurprisingly) zero.

Present-day journalism in America has an unspoken double-standard. Any "news" story or analysis based on press releases from Central State fiefdoms such as the CBO, Medicare, BLS, etc. is accepted without reservations or independent inquiry, or indeed, even basic journalistic skepticism, while any reports that are critical of the Status Quo are treated quite differently: sources are treated as suspect, critical comments are always countered with official assurances, high-visibility "experts" are tapped to dismiss the criticism, and finally, the story is buried: it runs on a public-service broadcast in the wee hours of the morning, it is relegated to page B-19 in the newspaper, and it briefly appears at the bottom of a list of web stories that is quickly "refreshed" before too many people can spot it.

This gives the Corporate Media "plausible deniability" when critics question the veracity and quality of its analysis. The Corporate Media digs up the buried story and presents it as "proof" of hard-hitting journalism.

We now live in an era of unmitigated propaganda that is accepted much as propaganda in wartime: we all know it's been censored or gussied up with positive spin, but we accept it as "necessary" because the Status Quo is under threat.

This "rally round the flag" mentality in wartime allows horrendous officially sanctioned errors and the resultant loss of life to be glossed over or simply buried, lest the Home Front get discouraged by official incompetence or error.

There is a subtext of this very belief system in the constantly cheery presentation of the "economic recovery" in painfully bogus unemployment statistics and analyses that are lacking in even Journalism 101 skepticism: we know it's all bogus but we fear the truth. So we accept the propaganda as "necessary for morale."

There is a difference between now and World War II, though. In a full-blown global war, the nation itself was at risk. Now, it is the Financial and Political Elites who are risk. The Corporate Media's first and most critical line of propaganda is that if America's Financial and Political Elites fall, so too does the nation.

This is of course false. The nation would be infinitely better off if its current crop of craven, corrupt Financial and Political Elites were revealed as financially and ethically bankrupt and delivered from great power into ignominious disgrace.

A truly independent media would have been highlighting this reality daily since the financial house of cards began collapsing in 2007. Instead, the Corporate Media has presented the saving of the financial and political Status Quo Elites as the equivalent of saving the nation itself. This is self-serving, of course, but it is also fascist: the Corporate Media and the Central State are now essentially one.

"I don't see how a real democracy of the people can take place when so much money is in our electoral system,"

Simple. Don't vote based on 30 second attack ads. Invest a bit of time and understand the positions of the candidates yourself. Get off the salacious, and focus on meaningful issues.

This is almost too funny. "Knowing the mortgage was fraudulent, we just couldn't keep on paying," Donna Vieira's husband, Nuno said, they stopped making mortgage payments in September of 2009.

(psst. This was on their second home.)

The story about the Grasshopper & the Ant bears a striking familiarity.

great example of a disjointed effort. The article is talking about big businesses now having no restrictions on how much they can contribute to politics. fine, all well and good. And then you have a woman complaining about how the bank took her house "unfairly." She is probably one of the thousands of people that bought a house completely outside of their means with no way to pay off the loan the bank gave them. This is what caused the housing bubble. quit whining

If the government want to restrict campaign donations, it probably should apply to all groups, not just corporations and unions. Non profit organizations should not be allowed to influence elections with money either. Only private individuals should be allowed to contribute and not special interests.

You may think "Occupy Wall street " is over. I'm not a college student, nor a slacker, I have however been effected by our economy. That makes me believe in a national movement to take our nation back from the excessive corruption that rules now. Whether it be Banks, politicians, or unions. There is a place in our nation for all three of these things but the immoral people in charge must be rendered helpless to save our nation. I don't know if you were paying attention before the housing bubble burst, but anything less than $100,000 was quickly bought up. They weren't more than a person needed, if you were lucky enough to score on one of these, they were small two bedroom, one bath homes on small lots in sometimes not a place where you would want to bring up your children. Not everyone bought more house than they could afford. It was after that that many people lost their jobs or had hours cut back. People will buy what they can afford if it is offered. Modest homes weren't being built. Is it not a surprise the stock market tanked just as Baby Boomers were retiring? Is it not a surprise that there is legislation now to monitor and limit the internet. If we don't take advantage of this time in our nation to use the tools we have to make this a great place to live, we may lose all and forever be in slavery, which is what we have become. A nation of slavery once again. There are a lot of people like myself out there just watching for the right opportunity to do the right thing....and protest loudly so we can not be hushed. Not violence, however I'm concerned some people who are in worse shape than I will likely bust,(I believe that is happening now by all these random shootings of innocent people). That energy needs to go somewhere, positive and collectively. There has to be some middle ground from Tea Party to Occupy Wallstreet. We need to pay attention to both so when and if we have a chance to support a new movement, we will be ready. Occupy Wallstreet, no matter how much I believe in their cause I cannot condone their actions no more than I can the Tea Party. If you read up on the making our constitution you will see not everyone got their way 100%, we would not be the United States.