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Protesters target millionaires' N.Y.C. homes
Protestors affiliated with the "Occupy Wall Street" protests chant outside 740 Park Avenue, home to billionaire David Koch and David Ganek, in New York, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. / AP Photo/Andrew Burton
NEW YORK - Hundreds of protesters, emboldened by the growing national Occupy Wall Street movement, streamed through midtown Manhattan on Tuesday in what they called a "Millionaires March."
They marched two by two up the sidewalk, planning to pass the homes of some of New York City's wealthiest residents. An organizer said they didn't have a permit and wanted to avoid blocking pedestrian traffic.
"No Billionaire Left Behind," said a placard hoisted by Arlene Geiger, who teaches economics at Manhattan's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Gallery: Anti-Wall Street protests, coast-to-coast
Occupy Wall Street "isn't your average protest"
Protesters expressed concern about how much less the wealthy will pay — and who would be negatively affected — when New York's 2 percent "millionaires' tax" expires in December.
In the closest they've come to naming names, the protesters planned to visit the homes of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and oil tycoon David Koch, among others.
Protesters have been camped out for weeks in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street, saying they're fighting for the "99 percent," or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.
Their causes range from bringing down Wall Street to fighting global warming. The movement gained traction through social media, and protests have taken place in several other cities nationwide.
Anti-Wall Street protests, coast-to-coast
In Boston, hundreds of college students marched through downtown Boston on Monday and gathered on Boston Common, holding signs that read "Fund education, not corporations."
The protesters are angry with an education system they say mimics "irresponsible, unaccountable, and unethical financial practices" of Wall Street.
About 50 protesters in Boston were arrested overnight after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week, police said.
Several hundred protesters were arrested in New York more than a week ago after police said they ignored warnings to stay in place. There was no word on any arrests in Tuesday's protest in New York.
The protest comes as New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report showing that Wall Street is again losing jobs because of global economic woes, threatening tax revenue for a city and state heavily reliant on the financial industry.
"Excessive risk-taking on Wall Street was a major factor leading to the financial crisis and the recession," DiNapoli said. "Regulatory changes that reduce risk and focus attention on long-term profitability rather than short-term gains will enhance stability."
Christopher Guerra, a 27-year-old artist and Occupy Wall Street protester from Newark, N.J., said he thought the job losses weren't necessarily bad.
"That means more people on our side," said Guerra, who calls himself an Eisenhower Republican but says he's opposed to today's corporate behavior. "The companies are destroying this country by helping themselves, not the people, and pushing jobs out of America.
"If they get shafted, they will realize that what we are saying is true."
The protesters continue to gather support, with sympathy demonstrations underway across the country, and some unions joining their rallies, which were not without incident:
Josh Reynolds
Boston resident Matt Hollander, 25, said a group of veterans carrying American flags were standing in between police and the protesters when officers advanced on them. One veteran, he said, was pushed to the ground and a group of protesters fell in a heap.
"If they wanted to arrest us they could have done that without pushing us...without tramping the flag," Hollander said.
Chicago: Thousands of protesters - consisting of Occupy Chicago demonstrators and members of labor groups, the Chicago Teachers Union and other organizations - flooded downtown Chicago at five different locations Monday to participate in simultaneous marches to "Take Back Chicago."
At least one arrest was reported and several participants were ticketed, CBS Station WBBM reported, but overall the demonstrations were orderly.
The march converged on the sites of two banking conferences - the Mortgage Bankers Association Convention and Expo, and the Futures and Options Expo.
Chicago-Kent law student Dan Massoglia told WBBM correspondent Vince Gerasole that the Occupy Chicago message resonated with him. "Did I ever see myself being here? It's like, no - you didn't see the civil rights movements coming for the most part ... but now we have another civil rights movement, an economic civil rights movement," he said.
Cincinnati: For a second night, Occupy Cincinnati protesters have accepted citations and fines rather than leave a downtown park. About two dozen demonstrators lined up late Monday at Piatt Park to receive their tickets from police. Citations that come with $105 fines were given to roughly the same number Sunday night.
Des Moines: A day after 32 Occupy Iowa protesters (including two juveniles) were arrested for camping out on the grounds of the Iowa Statehouse, demonstrators have moved their encampment across the street, and will request a permit to stay (grounds must be cleared of visitors by 11 p.m.) rather than face further trespassing arrests.
Curtis Compton
"Occupy Atlanta" organizer Tim Franzen told CBS Affiliate WGCL that he met with Atlanta Police Chief George Turner late Monday night and is worried officers will arrest anybody left camping in the park.
The group is planning a march Tuesday to the Bank of America building.
Colorado: Tent camps of protesters have appeared near the State Capitol in Denver and in Colorado Springs.
San Diego: A man jumped to his death from a multi-story parking structure at Civic Center Plaza, near the site of an Occupy San Diego demonstration. Police ruled the man's death a suicide and said he was not part of the protest. One protester who witnessed the man's fall told CBS Affiliate KFMB it was "just horrible."
Seattle: Participants in the Occupy Seattle protest in downtown Westlake Park have been warned by police that the park is closed and that they face arrest if they do not leave. Last week police arrested about two dozen demonstrators.
Washington, D.C.: Officials with the National Park Service offered a coalition of anti-war and anti-corporate greed protesters - who were facing arrest yesterday when their permit to camp out in Freedom Plaza expired - with a demonstration permit extension in a meeting with representatives of protesters.
"I never dreamed we would have a four-month extension," said Margaret Flowers, one of the demonstration's organizers who met with the Park Service. She called the offer a "transformative moment."
Despite the extension, questions remain about logistics, such as food and showers for the group. There are also questions about the extent to which authorities will continue to tolerate camping in the plaza.
The demonstration, organized to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan, was formed under the title "October 2011/Stop the Machine." There have been discussions about merging with the Occupy DC protesters who have been demonstrating up the street. The groups have said they support each other but are independent.
NYSE: The New York Stock Exchange's website was apparently hobbled twice Monday, possibly the result of computer attacks as part of the anti-Wall Street protests, according to a company that monitors website response times. San Mateo-based Keynote Systems Inc. said the NYSE website experienced a one-minute outage around 3:30 p.m. Eastern, then a half-hour outage about two hours later.
But NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia said an investigation by the stock exchange showed no disruptions to its website.
Ground zero of Occupy Wall Street
What began as a protest in lower Manhattan's Financial District has morphed into a self-operating mini-community, with a complimentary breakfast buffet of fresh fruits and bagels.
CBS News correspondent Bigad Shaban got an inside look at the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park and found, this isn't your average protest.
At the tent village set up by the demonstrators, yoga classes are taught in "off" hours. A makeshift library has at least 1,500 books. The camp even has a medical tent, and its own newspaper, The Occupy Wall Street Journal.
Occupy Wall Street "isn't your average protest"
WCBS reports that the protest - now in its fourth week - has divided businesses in the Wall Street area. Some are deeply frustrated by the steady stream of protesters who come in to use their facilities.
"They want to take showers, want to wash up and use the toilet paper to dry up. It becomes... you gotta have one person assigned just to clean the bathrooms," said Steve Zamfotis, manager of Charley's Restaurant. "They expect everything, everything for free, nothing to pay."
Other area businesses take a different view: "Oh, no problem," said Alfonso Alfi, manager of Pronto Pizza. "We let them use the bathroom because all the fancy places close the bathrooms for them."
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But this is clearly wrong. In fact, calling the protests "anti-capitalist" seems like it is mainly designed to discredit the protests by painting them as anti-free enterprise and anti-free markets. But if we actually had free markets, would we have felt the need to bail out banks and huge multi-national corporations? Or would CEO have received huge bonuses even though their companies lost money and laid off employees?
As Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out at a teach-in at the site of the occupation, it is not capitalism when you socialize losses and privatize gains. Nor is it capitalism when corporations have more political power than real people.
If you don't get it, Douglas Rushkoff explains what is important about the Occupy Wall Street protests and why the mainstream media is clueless at http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/
The fact that terrorists (Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), the Unions, MoveOn.org, Communists, Marxists, Socialists, the Democrats, and Obama himself are siding with the Occupy protesters reveals just what radical, violent and anti-American Leftists they all are.
And here's some more evidence:
Call For Violence At #OccupyLA Protest: 'Long Live Revolution! Long Live Socialism!'
http://www.breitbart.tv/call-for-violence-at-occupyla-protest-long-live-revolution-long-live-socialism/
And citing a conservatrive propaganda site like Breitbart is hardly doing research or using non-partisan information.
How disgusting, can their behavior be?
The person who has done the most damage to their household budget, resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC. They should go tell him what they think about his mismanagement of this country......but being menacing, will get them arrested there.
And the destruciton of the economy happened longf before Obamaa took office, if it wasn't for his action on the first stimulus we would be far worse off now than we are.
Lobbying Client Total
US Chamber of Commerce $770,655,680
American Medical Assn $252,037,500
General Electric $251,940,000
AARP $207,432,064
Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America $204,433,920
American Hospital Assn $203,648,736
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $169,655,236
National Assn of Realtors $166,150,553
Northrop Grumman $164,845,253
Exxon Mobil $163,512,742
Verizon Communications $158,014,841
Edison Electric Institute $154,005,999
Business Roundtable $150,550,000
Boeing Co $147,884,310
Lockheed Martin $142,374,763
AT&T Inc $126,449,336
Southern Co $124,130,694
General Motors $121,899,170
PG&E Corp $119,190,000
Pfizer Inc $114,757,268
Note there is not a single union on the list. As a point of comparison, while Pfizer spends on average 8.2M per year, and the ACLU (the largest single union lobby spender) spends less than 1.8M
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/index.php
The ACLU was not the largest spending union, that's an error, but no unions are close to coporations in lobbying dollars.
Of course unions do spend millions on lobbying, and of course if we get money out of politics that means union money as well as corporate money. But let's be clear, union s have a tiny fraction of the influence that corporations have.
The hatred for the rich has been part of this Administration's agenda, calling them fat cats and other names is what brought these people to Wall Street. These people are uninformed to how the rich got rich, not only hard work got them there but the help from our elected officials also got them there! The same people on the hill that talks about the rich as THEY AND THEM are actually THEY AND THEM themselves! Have you ever heard a speach that the person says "you need to tax ME or US more because we are rich" before? I think I have heard it once or twice come from their mouths! They talk about themselves as a third person just so they don't get blamed because they want you to blame the Wall Street Fat Cat's not the WASHINGTON DC FAT CATS!!! They are even more discusting the Bernie Madoff's since they are making money from the WALL STREET FAT CATS and then BLAMING everyone else for everything in life! AND THEN they stop being in office and they go to work for the exact people the 99% is protesting! Come on people OPEN YOUR EYES, this is pitting American's against American's just to keep the American People from figuring out who really is to blame!!
AND YES IT'S CLASS WARFARE but it's also DISCUSTING for our own elected officials to go along with this just to keep themselves from being blamed!! The AMERICAN DREAM can be reached again if we hold our government to higher standards and keep them from only thinking about themselves and their FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES!!!