Keystone XL

The Keystone Fight Is Uniting Tea Partiers With Environmentalists

Brian Beutler | February 27, 2012, 5:51AM

In Washington, DC, the fight over the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline mostly divides common enemies: Republicans and Democrats; environmentalists and fossil fuel interests; big business and the federal bureaucracy.

But though the project exists in a state of suspended animation, TransCanada -- the company that wants to connect the tar sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico -- is preparing to build anyhow. In particular, on the portion of the pipeline that would link Nebraska to Texas, TransCanada has threatened to use disputed eminent domain powers to condemn privately held land, over the owners' objections. And that's creating unusual allies -- Occupiers, Tea Partiers, environmentalists, individualists -- united to stop TransCanada from threatening water supplies, ancient artifacts, and people's basic property rights.

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Occupy Wall Street

Poll: Majority Of New Yorkers Disapprove Of Bloomberg On Occupy Wall Street

David Taintor | December 14, 2011, 2:23PM

New Yorkers apparently aren't thrilled that Mayor Michael Bloomberg approved a middle-of-the-night raid on Occupy Wall Street's Zuccoti Park encampment, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

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Lindsey Graham

Protestors Occupy Lindsey Graham's D.C. Fundraiser (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2011, 5:33PM

The same group that crashed Newt Gingrich's fundraiser on Wednesday night invaded a private fundraiser Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) held at a D.C. restaurant on Thursday.

Demonstrators with Take Back The Capitol walked into Johnny's Half Shell as Graham and his supporters were enjoying their salad course. Graham listened to the protestors tell stories about being unemployed as other attendees either listened to the protestors or awkwardly stared at their plates.

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Chuck Schumer

Schumer: GOP Message Machine Can't Save Them From Tax Debacle

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2011, 2:26PM

Elaborating on a premise that should be familiar to TPM readers, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters Wednesday that the political terrain has shifted so much over the last several months that the GOP's playbook isn't working -- and it has them badly wrongfooted.

"You have to follow the broad movements underground that affect our politics," he said. "And it's happening. And they seem to be just stuck on the wrong side of issue after issue after issue. They're very good at messaging. They're very good, you know, they have some media people who just follow their line....but the weight of the issues and the place where America is at is so overwhelming that's no longer enough to sustain them."

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi: Occupy Movement Enhances Dems' National Message

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 5:33AM

Despite some unfavorable polling, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi still thinks the Occupy movement has been politically helpful to Democrats.

In an interview with TPM on Friday, she said there's no recent precedent for the sort of election House Democrats are going into. In 1994 and 2010, Congressional Republicans ran against Washington controlled by Democrats. In 2006, Congressional Democrats ran against Republican corruption and President George W. Bush. This time around, President Obama will carry the national message for the party while individual candidates use it as they see fit to win in their districts. That national message, Pelosi said, has much greater salience thanks to the Occupiers.

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Occupy Wall Street

30 Tons Of Debris Left Behind At Occupy L.A. Camp

David Taintor | December 1, 2011, 12:55PM

Occupy protestors in Los Angeles were evicted from their encampment earlier this week, and sanitation officials on Wednesday said they are expecting to haul away 30 tons of debris from the cleared camp, the Los Angeles Times reports.

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Occupy Wall Street

Republicans Learn How To Spin Occupy Wall Street

Igor Bobic | December 1, 2011, 10:09AM

Yahoo News' Chris Moody knocks it out of the ball park with his latest report from Orlando, Florida, where the Republican Governors Association met with top GOP message-man-turned-Yoda Frank Luntz. The crux of their meeting? Learning how to wiggle out of uncomfortable moments whenever questioned about the politically inconvenient Occupy Wall Street movement.

Staring down a crazed youth angry about inequality? Don't panic, says Luntz. Instead, follow this handy-dandy guide guaranteed to help pacify your subject, explain that things actually aren't all that bad, and that Republican policies can make it better.

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The Daily Show

Jon Stewart: 'Pepper Spray Has Become America's New Car Horn'

David Taintor | November 29, 2011, 10:12AM

Jon Stewart

The Daily Show on Monday returned from a short break to take on a hot new story: pepper spray sweeping the nation.

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University Of California Davis

'Occupy' California Protesters Call For Strike To Shutdown College Campuses

David Taintor | November 23, 2011, 12:36PM

Protesters at the University of California, Davis

[Update: 2:26 pm ET]

Occupy Wall Street protesters in California are planning to shut down University of California campuses on Monday.

According to a post on the Occupy Wall Street website, the UC Board of Regents on Monday will propose "drastic" budget reductions and a massive increase of fees. And the protesters are calling for action.

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University Of California Davis

UC Davis Students Reflect: 'It's Going To Be A Really Different Campus'

David Taintor | November 23, 2011, 10:10AM

U.C. Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

UC Davis student government president Adam Thongsavat was in a meeting on Friday when he received an urgent text message: riot police were on the campus mall, pepper spraying a group of sitting protesters. You have to get down here, the message read.

When he arrived on the quad, people were yelling and had their cameras out. Some were crying, others were coughing.Thongsavat went up to a couple campus police lieutenants -- including Lt. John Pike, one officer implicated in the pepper spraying -- and asked what was going on and who gave the order. "It wasn't us," one of the officers replied. Pike was silent.

"I took a deep breath, and said, 'It's going to be a really different campus," Thongsavat told TPM by phone Tuesday evening.

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University Of California Davis

Amazon Users Post Rave 'Reviews' Of UC Davis Pepper Spray

David Taintor | November 22, 2011, 2:42PM

By now, if you've been following the news out of UC Davis, you've probably seen the internet meme of campus Police Lt. John Pike pepper spraying his way through art history (if not, click here).

But now that Fox News has declared pepper spray a "food product, essentially," the good people who post amateur reviews on Amazon.com have weighed in. "Once I realized that spraying whipped cream into my mouth was both bland and fattening, I had to try this out," one reviewer wrote. "WARNING - Not a condiment!!!" another reviewer wrote. "NOMNOMNOMNOM," yet another reviewer wrote, adding that the pepper spray is "great on salads, burgers, and pizza."

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University Of California Davis

The Big Picture: University Of California Students Face Skyrocketing Tuition Costs

David Taintor | November 22, 2011, 12:24PM

Students rally at University of California, Davis on November 21, 2011.

The shocking images of police officers pepper-spraying sitting protesters have been the focus of attention on the University of California, Davis, this week. But lost in the aftermath of that incident is the reality of skyrocketing tuition in the University of California system, which the students were protesting.

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Fox News

Fox News On UC Davis Pepper Spraying: 'It's A Food Product, Essentially'

David Taintor | November 22, 2011, 10:01AM

Fox News host Megyn Kelly

On Monday night, O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News host Megyn Kelly sat down to discuss what really happened at UC Davis on Friday and whether campus police acted appropriately in showering a group of sitting students with pepper spray. Their conclusion? No big deal.

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University Of California-Davis

UC Davis Chancellor Apologizes To Students For Pepper-Spray Incident

David Taintor | November 21, 2011, 5:59PM

University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi on Monday apologized to students for last week's pepper-spraying incident, where a campus police officer at point-blank range sprayed down a group of sitting protesters.

"I feel horrible for what happened on Friday, Katehi told a rally of students. "If you think you don't want to be students in a university like we had Friday, I'm just telling you, I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday."

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University Of California-Davis

UC Davis Chancellor Says She Won't Resign: 'The University Needs Me'

David Taintor | November 21, 2011, 9:56AM

Two police officers involved in a pepper-spraying incident at the University of California-Davis have been placed on leave, and over the weekend, the university's faculty association called for the chancellor's resignation.

But Chancellor Linda Katehi told ABC's Good Morning America on Monday that she's staying put. "I really feel confident at this point the university needs me," she told GMA (video here). "There are so many critical issues to be addressed and we really need to start the healing process and move forward."

On Friday, a police officer was captured on video casually pepper spraying a group of sitting protesters. The incident occurred after "Occupy" protesters were asked to take down their tents from the university's lawn.

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Stephen Colbert

Colbert Says Good Riddance To Occupy Wall Street

David Taintor | November 16, 2011, 11:48AM

Stephen Colbert

Police on Tuesday morning evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters from their encampment in downtown Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. And Stephen Colbert says good riddance!

"Clearly their expression was prohibiting other expression," Colbert said Tuesday. "After all, when a drum circle starts in Zuccotti Park, all other music in New York stops."

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Polls

Poll: Public Opinion Turning Against Occupy Wall Street

Eric Kleefeld | November 16, 2011, 11:02AM

A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds public opinion souring pretty quickly on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The poll asked: "Do you support or oppose the goals of the
Occupy Wall Street movement?" The result was only 33% support, to 45% opposed.

In the previous poll from a month ago, when the protests were fairly new and public opinion had not yet had the chance to set in, the result was a very close 35% support, to 36% opposed.

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Occupy D.C.

Occupy D.C. Marches In Support Of Occupy Wall Street

Ryan J. Reilly | November 15, 2011, 6:50PM

Protestors with Occupy D.C. just took over the D.C. headquarters of Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park (location of the Occupy Wall Street protests). TPM was there and took this video.

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street Hits The Road

David Taintor | November 9, 2011, 12:14PM

First they occupied Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, then Washington, D.C. and Oakland. Now they're going to "Occupy the Highway."

A small group of Occupy Wall Street protesters plans to march from Wall Street to Washington, starting Wednesday afternoon, inspired by Civil Rights-era marches. The two-week march -- covering about 20 miles per day -- will make stops at Occupy Philly, Occupy Baltimore and stops in between, and the marchers hope to pick up supporters along the way.

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Michael Bloomberg

Bloomberg: Blame Congress For The Mortgage Crisis (VIDEO)

David Taintor | November 1, 2011, 12:30PM

Are you upset? Looking for someone to blame for the mortgage crisis? Blame Congress, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday morning.

Bloomberg at an Association for a Better New York breakfast -- a New York business organization -- was asked his opinion of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, Capital New York's Azi Paybarah reports. "I hear your complaints," Bloomberg replied, before shifting the conversation to the housing crisis.

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Fox News

Fox Poll: 47 Percent At Least Somewhat Concerned Occupy Wall Street Will Turn Into 'Street Riots'

Kyle Leighton | October 29, 2011, 9:15AM

Well, this is one way to win the message war.

Fox News is on a roll with their latest round of polling -- the news network has been releasing bits of data over the week, and on Friday they came out with some new gems. Those crazy kids braving the cold in Zuccatti Park certainly are something.....but what exactly? Fox wanted to find out, so they asked the following question: "How concerned are you that the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations will eventually turn into street riots?"

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Occupy Wall Street

Not Helping: David Duke Supports Occupy Wall Street

David Teich | October 28, 2011, 11:05AM

Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke

From the department of unhelpful things...

In an October 20th video posted on his Youtube channel, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke expressed support for the Occupy Wall Street movement -- or, as he calls it, the "Occupy Zionist Wall Street" movement.

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Colbert Report

Colbert To Occupy Wall Street: 'Go Home!' (VIDEO)

David Taintor | October 28, 2011, 10:23AM

Stephen Colbert

America is "under attack" by the "Shockupy Wall Street" protests, Stephen Colbert said Thursday. And Oakland, California is ground zero for the "youth-stapo."

In Oakland on Tuesday, protesters sparred with law enforcement, throwing rocks and bottles at the police. So the cops were "forced" to respond with their own "improvised weapons," Colbert said: "tear gas canisters, flash grenades and bean-bag guns."

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Cliff Kincaid

Conservative Activist: Why OWS Should Protest The Super Scary George Soros

Brian Fung | October 27, 2011, 5:21PM

Numerous conservatives have slammed Occupy Wall Street for protesting the "wrong" people. Rather than the bankers who ran the global economy into the ground during the Bush era, it's the current White House that deserves the people's ire, they say.

However, conservative activist Cliff Kincaid has a new target for populist outrage: Democratic-leaning financier George Soros... and he's got the kooky conspiracy theory diagrams to prove it!

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Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart Horrified By Police Response To 'Occupy Oakland' (VIDEO)

David Taintor | October 27, 2011, 9:25AM

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart on Wednesday checked in with the Occupy Wall Street movement, to see how those protesting America's income inequality are doing. Turns out everyone's hanging in there.

"Aww, New York, adorable," Stewart said. "Philly, going very well. "Cincinnati, the Queen City. Oh, Washington D.C., so nice they won't let it join the union."

And then Oakland. "What the fuck happened in Oakland," Stewart asked.

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John Kline

GOP Opposes Obama's Decision To Lower Student Loan Payments by 5%

Susan Crabtree | October 26, 2011, 4:48PM

Rep. John Kline (R-MN), who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, isn't happy with President Obama's executive action aimed at helping students pay back college loans.

House Republicans, he said, believe the presidential push to scale back students' monthly payments will only increase overall student debt and do nothing to curb unemployment.

"Sadly, the President has once again chosen to put politics before policy, touting a plan that will do nothing to help the nation's unemployed workers," Kline said in a statement Wednesday.

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CBO

CHARTS OF THE DAY: Where'd All The Income Growth Go? To The 1 percent!

Brian Beutler | October 25, 2011, 3:47PM

At the request of the Senate Finance Committee, the Congressional Budget Office has produced a report analyzing trends in the distribution of household income from 1979 until 2007 -- just before the economy fell off a cliff.

The results will be familiar to economists and policy wonks, but they're eye-popping. These charts and graphs tell a story of a massive income growth in the Reagan and post-Reagan years, and particularly during the George W. Bush administration -- but only for the famous 1 percenters.

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Occupy Wall Street

'Bipolar Inequality': Did Americans Sign Up For This?

Kyle Leighton | October 25, 2011, 6:02AM

For the past few weeks, the questions about Occupy Wall Street have been about its direction and policy positions.

"Where are the protesters taking this thing?" media-types ask. "What are their demands?" people want to know.

The real question? Why are we trying to blast past the reason that people are down at Zuccotti Park, or in Madrid's main square, or on the streets of Tokyo? -- A combination of high unemployment (and maybe even moreso, underemployment), income inequality and easy access to the offending economic data has made people angry enough to get out and protest.

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Eric Cantor

UPenn Says Eric Cantor's Speech Was Always Open To Public

Benjy Sarlin | October 21, 2011, 4:31PM

Eric Cantor's office says the GOP Majority Leader cancelled an economic speech at the University of Pennsylvania because the school reneged on a deal to keep the audience restricted to students and faculty. But UPenn says the event, which was the target of planned protests, was always open to the public.

According to a statement from the school:

"Wharton deeply regrets that the event scheduled at the School this afternoon with MajorityLeader Eric Cantor has been cancelled. The University community was looking forward to hearing Majority Leader Cantor's comments on important public issues, and we hope there will be another opportunity for him to speak on campus.

The Wharton speaker series is typically open to the general public, and that is how the event with Majority Leader Cantor was billed. We very much regret if there was any misunderstanding with the Majority Leader's office on the staging of his presentation."

In announcing Cantor's decision not to deliver his much-anticipated speech on Friday, his spokesman said UPenn was "unable to ensure that the attendance policy previously agreed to could be met," citing concerns that the general public would be allowed inside and that protestors organized by Occupy Philadelphia and a coalition of progressive and labor groups would be permitted to gather on campus.

Although Cantor, didn't deliver his scheduled speech, his office released his prepared remarks to the campus paper.

Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor Called For 'A Steve Jobs Plan' In Prepared Remarks For Cancelled Speech

Benjy Sarlin | October 21, 2011, 3:20PM

Eric Cantor may have cancelled Friday's lecture on income inequality out of concerns protestors would dominate the audience, but you can still read his prepared remarks, in which the congressman calls on students to take after Steve Jobs and start their own business. The GOP Majority Leader's office sent the complete speech to The Daily Pennsylvanian, UPenn's campus newspaper.

"There is a ladder of success in America," Cantor wrote. "However, it is a ladder built not by Washington, but by hard work, responsibility and the initiative of the people of our country."

He offered his own family as an example, recounting how his grandmother managed to make a life in America after emigrating from Eastern Europe even though "in the early 20th century, the South wasn't often the most accepting place for a young Jewish woman."

Cantor addressed the growing debate over whether the rich are paying their fair share, but never mentioned the growing Occupy Wall Street movement, whose planned protests led to his speech's cancellation, by name.

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Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor Cancels Income Inequality Speech After Protests Planned

Benjy Sarlin | October 21, 2011, 1:41PM

Updated at 3:44 PM ET

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is abruptly pulling out of a scheduled Friday lecture on income equality at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School, according to the school.

Progressive and labor groups, including Occupy Philadelphia, MoveOn.org, the local AFL-CIO, and AFSCME, were planning a protest for the event. According to Cantor's office, the Congressman pulled out after discovering that the speech would be open to the public and seeing reports that the university was allowing protestors to gather on the campus itself.

"The Office of the Majority Leader was informed last night by Capitol Police that the University of Pennsylvania was unable to ensure that the attendance policy previously agreed to could be met," Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said in an e-mailed statement. "Wharton is a educational leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, and the Majority Leader appreciated the invitation to speak with the students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the UPENN community."

In a statement, the school denied that they had changed their rules as to who could attend the event in advance of the speech.

"The Wharton speaker series is typically open to the general public, and that is how the event with Majority Leader Cantor was billed," the university said. "We very much regret if there was any misunderstanding with the Majority Leader's office on the staging of his presentation."

Mike Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress, which is organizing the protests, told TPM that the demonstration will continue regardless of whether or not Cantor proceeds with the speech.

"If he has in fact cancelled it says he's willing to meet with the elites but not willing to meet with the 99%," he said. "As soon as he hears there's going to be everyday folks outside...he decides to cancel."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Mark Nicastre, condemned Cantor's decision to cancel the speech as well.

"Majority Leader Eric Cantor canceled his speech on income inequality after his office learned the speech was open to the public," he said in a statement. "It shows that Eric Cantor is afraid to face the public with his policies because he knows that Republicans are wrong on the middle class. Republican policies, driven by the Tea Party, have favored corporate special interests over the middle class - from the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it to Republican opposition to investments in middle class families."

Occupy Wall Street

CHART OF THE DAY: The '47 Percent' Pay Their Fair Share

Brian Beutler | October 21, 2011, 6:03AM

Conservatives are continuing their counter-protest against the so-called "47 percent." Specifically, that's the share of recession-era households that pay no federal income taxes. Most of them pay payroll taxes and other federal taxes (not to mention state taxes), but Republicans have chosen to depict them as the free-riding half of the country.

The fact of the matter, though, is that those other taxes constitute a huge chunk of federal revenues. Check out the charts below. Over the 58 years preceding the Lesser Depression, the share of federal revenues that came from individual income taxes has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between 40 and 50 percent, and peaking just before George W. Bush slashed rates in 2001.

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Economy

USA Today/Gallup: 44 Percent Say Current Economic System 'Unfair To Them Personally'

Kyle Leighton | October 18, 2011, 2:45PM

Vietnam veteran Bill Steyert of Queens at the Occupy Wall Street protests on September 20, 2011 in New York.

While Occupy Wall Street may not have a 59 point plan to improve the economy or even a new tax structure in slogan form, their general message is clear enough. OWS protesters are upset with income inequality and pervasive unemployment, while some parts of the economy -- read: the financial sector -- have continued to do well (although Tuesday's earnings report from Goldman Sachs shows that even financial firms are feeling the pressure).

But a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that this feeling is not reserved to just young people currently occupying Wall Street. 44 percent of American adults in the new survey say that the current economic structure is "personally unfair to them," hinting that overall frustration with the economy is not so much defined as pro or anti-capitalist as the accepted American belief, but that it's just not working particularly well.

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Occupy Wall Street

Dems In Tug-Of-War Over Occupy Wall Street

Brian Beutler | October 18, 2011, 9:18AM

Thousands of protesters march against Wall Street and the country's economic problems.

Whether individual Democratic pols realize it or not, a battle's underway to convince them that the answer to a key question has been settled: What will it mean for you in 2012 if you embrace the Occupy Wall Street movement now?

There have been multiple polls suggesting that pluralities or majorities of Americans support of the Occupy Wall Street protests. None of them suggest directly that embracing the movement would be a good or bad move for members of either party.

So for a particular kind of political professional, a Monday email from the centrist group Third Way attempting to answer that question verged on parody.

"Occupy Wall Street -- Bad strategy for dems," the subject line read. Third Way prizes itself on dividing politics into poles and seeking a middle path between the two, so their advice came as little surprise. But it also illustrated the extent to which the Democratic party is being pulled in opposite directions on a key question this election season.

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Occupy Wall Street

New York To Occupy Wall Street: We've Got Your Back

Kyle Leighton | October 17, 2011, 1:38PM

Occupy Wall Street protesters march across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Wall Street has been occupied by protestors for a month now, and the movement is showing no signs of slowing. And New Yorkers are apparently just fine with that.

A Quinnipiac poll released on Monday found that residents of the financial capital of the world are unfazed by the presence of the protestors, who have been mostly in the financial district's Zuccotti Park but also made their way to Times Square on Saturday night, and that two thirds of New Yorkers agree with the views of Occupy Wall Street.

72 percent polled in the city said that if protestors obey the law they should be allowed to stay as long as they want. 24 percent said they should be limited. There was a trend based on income within those findings, but not what you might think: the lower the income group, the more likely a the respondent would say OWS protests should be stopped at some point. Only 16 percent of those who make over $100,000 felt OWS should be halted in the future, while 34 percent of those who make less than $30-thousand thought so. Still, a majority of all groups said it should continue as long as the protesters aren't breaking the law.

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Occupy Wall Street

Legal Observer Under Arrest After Being Injured By Police Scooter In Occupy Wall Street Protests

Jillian Rayfield | October 14, 2011, 2:54PM

The National Lawyers Guild confirms to TPM that one of its legal observers was injured and arrested in an incident involving a NYPD motor scooter that was captured on video Friday morning during the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Gideon Oliver, who is on the executive committee of the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, confirmed to TPM that the man in the video is one of their legal observers. Oliver wouldn't give the man's name or confirm the extent of his injuries, but he did say the man is currently in the emergency room receiving medical attention -- and that he is under arrest.

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Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street Showdown That Only Went Down A Little Bit

Jillian Rayfield | October 14, 2011, 11:23AM

Occupy Wall Street protesters had been gearing up for a confrontation with law enforcement over a planned clean-up in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park on Friday morning that amounted to an eviction notice. But though there were some arrests made and a few fights with the cops, in the end the protesters were allowed to stay.

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Occupy Wall Street

Dems Press Eric Holder To Investigate Banks For Colluding Over ATM Fees

Brian Beutler | October 14, 2011, 5:50AM

Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)

If you're a member of Congress trying to rein in Wall Street, now's your moment, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) is seizing it.

Welch helped lead the effort in 2010 to limit the "swipe fees" banks can charge retailers for each debit card transaction -- fees retailers passed on to consumers. Those rules went into effect earlier this year and, as if to serve as recruiters for the anti-Wall Street protests spreading across the country, Bank of America and other financial firms decided to recoup the lost profits by imposing an ATM fee on their customers -- a penalty of sorts for having automated access to your own money.

In a functioning market this practice might have ended before it began, as disgruntled customers took their business to firms that didn't attempt to bilk their customers.

That's not happening. So Welch wants Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate these banks for collusive behavior.

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Taxes

CHART OF THE DAY: These Are The 47 Percent

Brian Beutler | October 14, 2011, 5:45AM

1971yes / Shutterstock

If the left and the right are proxies in a class war, then they're currently fighting to win a battle of public perception. Each side wants the public to see them as on the side of the beleaguered many against the powerful few.

Democrats are vying for victory by supporting tax increases on millionaires and the "Buffett Rule," which posits that all millionaires should pay at least the same effective tax rates as the middle class. The Occupy Wall Street protesters have turned "We Are The 99 Percent" into a rallying cry.

How do you argue against that? By obscuring what the fight's really about, and perpetuating the sense that hundreds of millions of people are gaming the system. To do this, conservatives and Republican elected officials are citing recent data to create the impression that a small majority of people in the country pay all the taxes, and nearly half (a large minority) pay nothing at all. It's a false impression, and when you break down who comprises this now-famous "47 percent" -- the poor, the disabled, and the elderly -- it makes you wonder why anybody thought it was a good idea to pick a public fight with them.

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Occupy Wall Street

Pew: More Americans Interested In Amanda Knox Than Occupy Wall Street

Kyle Leighton | October 13, 2011, 5:55AM

Every week the Pew Research Center tracks what news topics Americans are interested in. This past week, the stories ranged from the economy to the passing of Steve Jobs to the 2012 elections. But Pew also found that interest in the return of Amanda Knox, the American acquitted of murder in Italy, attracted more attention than the Occupy Wall Street protests, despite the same amount of news coverage.

Pew's "News Interest Index" showed that seven percent of respondents said they were interested in news on Occupy Wall Street, and ten said they wanted to know more about Knox. Both were dwarfed by interest in the economy and somewhat by Mr. Jobs, who was of interest to 14 percent. An equal seven percent of coverage was afforded to both Knox and Occupy Wall Street.

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