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This is really good news.<br>
David DeGraw is the Real Deal. <br>
He wont be co-opting for any partisan interest.<br>
<br>
DeGraw has appeared on MaxKeiser's show "On The Edge" a few times. He
is quite radical.<br>
<br>
DeGraw had this to say a few weeks ago:<br>
<blockquote><font color="#3333ff">"Top MoveOn leaders / executives are
all over national television speaking for the movement. fully
appreciate the help and support of MoveOn, but the MSM is clearly using
them as the spokespeople for OWS. This is an blatant attempt to
fracture the 99% into a Democratic Party organization. The leadership
of MoveON are Democratic Party operatives. they are divide and conquer
pawns. For years they ignored Wall Street protests to keep complete
focus on the Republicans, in favor of Goldman's Obama and Wall Street's
Democratic leadership.</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#3333ff"> If anyone at Move On or Daily Kos would like
to have a public debate about these comments, we invite it."</font><br>
</blockquote>
here is DeGraw on Dylan Ratigan.<br>
<span class="vote-it-up"><span id="voteid9392"><embed name="msnbc668c38"
src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640"
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width="560" height="315"><a
href="http://owsnews.org/dylan-ratigan-and-david-degraw-on-the-99-percent-movement-ows-and-getting-money-out-of-politics/">http://owsnews.org/dylan-ratigan-and-david-degraw-on-the-99-percent-movement-ows-and-getting-money-out-of-politics/</a></span></span><br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/12/2012 8:20 AM, David Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:46A3C663098744B2AD906D9A7AE2483A@owneryr3fp4mcb"
type="cite">
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<div
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Original Message -----
<div
style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><b>From:</b>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" title="lduncan@igc.org"
href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry Duncan</a> </div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="lduncan@igc.org"
href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry Duncan</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:36 PM</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> Occupy Wall Street joins Occupy The Dream: Is It
Cooptation, or Growing the Movement? -- by BAR executive director Glen
Ford (reprinted from Black Agenda Report)</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 27px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6"><b>Occupy Wall Street joins Occupy The Dream: Is
It Cooptation, or Growing the Movement?</b></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6"><b>By BAR executive editor Glen Ford</b></font></div>
<div
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</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">The Democratic Party may have entered the Occupy
Wall Street movement through the "Black door," in the form of Occupy
The Dream, the Black ministers' group led by former NAACP chief and
Million Man March national director Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Baltimore
mega-church pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant. Both are fervent supporters of
President Obama.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Occupy The Dream's National Steering Committee
is made up entirely of clergy, as are its Members at Large, but its
secular inspiration comes from media mogul (and credit card purveyor)
Russell Simmons, who was a frequent visitor to Manhattan's occupied
Zuccotti Park. Simmons is co-chairman, with Dr. Chavis, of the Hip Hop
Summit Action Network, whose website is now mainly dedicated to the
Occupy The Dream project. It is through Simmons that the ministers hope
to attract entertainers and athletes to Occupy The Dream events.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Occupy Wall Street organizer David DeGraw tied
the knot with the Dream team at a Washington Press Club conference on
December 14, invoking Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's campaign
and the need to "penetrate deeper into the African American community."
Dr. Chavis said, "If Dr. King were alive today, he would be part of
Occupy Wall Street," and Rev. Bryant, pastor of Baltimore's
10,000-member Empowerment Temple AME Church, pledged that Occupy The
Dream will work "in lock-step" with OWS. The OWS/OTD alliance would
begin, they announced, with a multi-city action at Federal Reserve Bank
offices on MLK Day, January 16.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">The very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his
pulpit exhorting his congregation to get out the vote for the president.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Dr. Chavis is also an active Obama booster. In
his November 30 syndicated column for Black newspapers, titled
"Brilliant First Lady Michelle Obama," Chavis wrote:</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"As we are about to enter into the heated
national political debates and campaigns of the 2012 national election
year, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be
under intense pressures to maneuver through what may be one of the most
difficult periods of time to maintain resilience and hope.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"I am encouraged and optimistic, however, that
President Obama will be reelected if millions of us do what we are
supposed to do and that is go out and vote in record numbers 12 months
from now."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Chavis followed with an even more direct appeal:</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"All of us should be responding by lending a
helping hand, giving of our time, energy and money, and to make our own
contributions to push forward for more progress to ensure the
reelection of President Barack Obama. Let's determine the future by how
we act today."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">It appears that Occupy Wall Street's new Black
affiliate is also in "lock-step" with the corporate Democrat in the
White House, whose administration has funneled trillions of dollars to
Wall Street and greatly expanded U.S. theaters of war.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"The very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his
pulpit exhorting his congregation to get out the vote for the
president."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">There is, however, a certain historical logic at
work, here. Dr. Martin King's Poor People's Campaign, disrupted by his
assassination, is seen by many as a prime inspiration for OWS. But of
course, King's persona and the whole saga of the Sixties has been
methodically co-opted over the intervening decades, most directly by
Black ministers claiming to be acting in furtherance of his "Dream"
while selling their congregants' votes to one or the other of the two
Rich Men's Parties. President Obama and his operatives have attempted
to draw a straight line between Dr. King's "Dream" and Obama's own
political ascent ever since his "coming home" speech at a Selma,
Alabama, church in March of 2007, where the candidate assumed the
mantle of Joshua and asserted that Blacks had already come "90 percent
of the way" towards equality (with the transparent implication that his
entrance to the White House would complete the process.)</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Perhaps the most historically and politically
corrupt poster of the 2008 campaign superimposed Obama's head on
Malcolm X's body in the only known picture of Dr. King and Malcolm,
shaking hands. So, there is nothing novel about labeling a 2012 Black
church-based, pro-Obama electoral campaign as "Occupying the Dream."
Black ministers in campaign mode routinely depict Obama's political
troubles as indistinguishable from threats to "The Dream," whose
embodiment is ensconced in the White House. That's simply common
currency among Black preachers pushing for Obama.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"President Obama and his operatives have
attempted to draw a straight line between Dr. King's 'Dream' and
Obama's own political ascent."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Russell Simmons brings bling to the mix. As the
Occupy The Dream website states: "Teaming up with entertainers such as
Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, and Kanye West, Dr. Bryant
encourages citizens of every race, color and creed to join Occupy the
Dream." Simmons is a genius at transforming social capital into the
spendable kind - which is why he has been courting OWS so diligently.
He is now fully "inside" the movement, flanked and buttressed by loyal
Obama Black clergy.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">It is highly unlikely - damn near inconceivable
- that Occupy The Dream will do anything that might embarrass this
president. Its ministers can be expected to electioneer for Obama at
every opportunity. Their January 16 actions are directed at the Federal
Reserve, which is technically independent from the executive branch of
government - although, in practice, the Fed has been Obama's principal
mechanism for bailing out the banks. Will the ministers pretend, next
Monday, that the president is somehow removed from the Fed's massive
transfers of the people's credit and cash to Wall Street over the past
three years? Is Obama to be absolved by clergymen wearing "Occupy"
buttons?</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">Far from tamping their Obama fervor, the OWS
brand equips the "Dream" ministers (and Simmons' entertainment assets)
to accomplish a special mission: to insulate the president from the
Occupy movement and the national conversation on economic equality -
or, better yet, to make him appear to be part of the solution. If they
so choose.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"Simmons is a genius at transforming social
capital into the spendable kind - which is why he has been courting OWS
so diligently."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">OWS has, to date, been effective in warding off
cooptation by Democratic Party fronts such as Rebuild The Dream and
MoveOn.org. But, it seems their antennas were not so finely attuned to
the political structures of Black America: who the players are, and how
the game is run. The Obama campaign may have found its niche on "the
Black-hand side" of OWS.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">At this late stage, there is no antidote to the
potential cooptation, except to rev up the movement's confrontation
with the oligarchic powers-that-be - including Wall Street's guy in the
White House. Let's see what happens if OWS demonstrators join with
Occupy The Dream at Federal Reserve sites on January 16 carrying
placards unequivocally implicating Obama in the Fed's bailouts of the
banksters, as Occupy demonstrators have done so often in the past. Will
the Dream's leadership be in "lock-step" with that? Maybe so - I've
heard that miracles sometimes do happen.</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">In his December 30 newspaper column, Dr. Chavis
offered these thoughts:</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">"2012 will be a test for the United States.
There will be a political test in terms of how millions of people will
vote for the future. There will also be an economic test between the
99% and the 1% on the issues of income inequality and economic justice."</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">We do, indeed, face a test in 2012: Will the
Democratic Party be enabled to swallow up the Left - as it does every
four years - including the fragile and tentative structures of the
Occupy Wall Street movement? And, will the Democrats enter through the
Black door?</font></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; min-height: 26px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">----------</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"
face="Arial" size="6">BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com">Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</a>.</font></div>
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