Occupy Chicago Protests Enter Seventh Day [UPDATED]

HEY  HO 
WHO STOLE
THE DOUGH!

Pass it on!
Thank you Megaphone Guy  @yahoo-7EMEQ5WSDZMS4XFUY5BLXTT5BY:disqus   Franklin and LaSalle.

We will not surrender until every man, woman, and child has equal access to bongo drums. Amateur percussion is a right!

My one demand, is to take back government completely from top to bottom, including reviewing every law ever enacted within a reasonable time frame, like 50 years, and  every one of them that is pending, as well as every single dollar coming into and going out of state and federal governments before the money is spent or another law passed. We also need to stop immediately the bundling of laws into packages that leads to the necessity of deal brokering to get anything passed. Laws need to be separated out from bundled packages and voted on individually so that we have a very clear idea on who voted which way and at what cost. These votes need to be posted to a website set up for this. We also need to get real about the total worth of every judge,legislator,governor and the president, listing everything they own and the source of its purchase, along with every corporation and special interest they have ever spoken with and the content of the conversation. In an ideal system such as this where we vote on everything and every dollar, the power brokers will go find somewhere else to play.

Wow. Your one demand . . . is actually like 30 demands, most of which either are already true (see, e.g. voting records) or are unworkable (see, e.g. reviewing every law passed for the last 50 years). I am leaving aside the fact that nobody gives a shit about your demands and getting to the substance of them. In doing so, I am probably giving you a false sense of relevance. Sorry for that.

I feel sorry for you ChicagoD. It's easy to troll with a fake name and pic. You are irrelevant.

After a mere 9 days we have an army of protesters numbered in the TENS? Astounding! It's a landslide!

I walked by there yesterday. Seemed fairly sedate to me, as far as anti-government/capitalism protests go.

Usual selection of non-working, scruffy, collegiate liberal dirt-bags who have plenty of funds to run around protesting anything and everything, without any real purpose.

You know that you're kind of an asshole, right Terry? I mean, I realize how stereotypical these people look, but your willingness to ignore any reasonable idea they might have is pathetic.

As opposed to old creepy tea party trolls.

Please, there is too much Chicagoist presence and soft news,like sports and entertainment, on this site for anyone to take you seriously. It hurts your presentation.Please clear off the commercialism from your site. You could put it on a link with nice photo. You could fill space and minds with OccupyWallSt.org live feed, great protest video libraries and still shots from other protests and even Europe, now that every country is involved. But as this is, there is not enough protest happening on this page. It will be getting cold and rainy soon, and winter is not your friend. You don't have long to drum up support. You need to concentrate heavily on recruitment.It only takes one person driving to one school daily with fliers to drive up numbers significantly. Concentrate on cafeterias at lunchtime and before.Hang fliers in lounges and bulletin boards.Ideally, wanted ads in papers get read.Concentrate on school papers and make them run story. Avoid faculty advisors. And more.Write me.I'm working in your area. Feel free to erase this once you have read it and past it on to your membership there. I'm working daily in your area and having a hard time from long distance.

Are they dirt bags because they're liberal? Or can some people be liberal with being dirt bags?  You seem to know their personal financials too.  What generalizations could we make about you?

That he works for Fox News and that he's Republitard and that he hates liberals but enjoys, with every breath in his body, the freedoms that they fought for before he was even born.
What is so funny about Republitards is that they sure like to bitch, but they are the last ones to give up anything from the woman's suffrage movement, hippy generation, civil rights movement or that liberals have been fighting for for years. The fact is that they don't want to live under their own laws, a lot like some other people we know.

Sure it starts with the fringe but many are college graduates who can't get a job and have a lot of debt. As a tax lawyer, you're part of the system they are protesting. So you could say they are protesting against you.

Actually, dumbass, Benshoof may be a jackass, but he sues the government in tax cases. He is on the "people's" side in those cases. If some of the people protesting are protesting against an advocate for them against the government they are morons.

Must you resort to name calling? Then your mind is closed and you are just a foolish troll. Tax law is made by the rich for the rich. Law in general is made to be complex instead of practical so lawyers can be paid big bucks. Why tax the middle and give it to the corporations? We don't need income tax and Terrence can go find another line of work.

It's called public financing. You can't address the problem with every politician bought and paid for. The only way to level the playing field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Wait. That's still my money, but now there is a threshold for who gets funding. That is good and bad, but it is not democratic. Banning corporate/PAC money and publishing individual donations makes more sense to me.

If the government funds campaigns how do you expect anything to ever change? Why would the system fund its own destruction?

A public venue for campaigning, not government financed individual campaigns. So rather than needing millions of dollars for attack ads and spin consultants, have a open venue for debate and public service announcements with candidates that have a required number of signatures.

Yeah. Gathering signatures (especially hundreds of thousands for a Presidential race) is free. So is public T.V.

Whatever. This discussion is a waste of time. "Special interest" is just another way of saying "people who think differently than I do." Everyone is in favor of regulating the other guy's campaign spending . . .

Didn't say anything is free. "Special interests" are the 5 main industries that control our government = Wall St/Banks, Military Industrial Complex, Energy, Insurance & Drug companies. They pull most of the strings. Go vote and pat yourself on the back but it won't change a thing and whatever system you believe in has failed.

It's quite simple actually. Demand a constitutional amendment eliminating special interest money: "No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office." http://www.getmoneyout.com/

This needs to be done also for state and local governments too. There is an organization called ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is a secretive organization of businesses paired up with specific legislators on both state and federal levels.Their goal is to draft bills ahead of public interest on a subject and which are against the public interest. They have 2000 state legislators either already in their program or targets for replacement by someone who is, according to their corporate interests.There are 22 major corporations on their secret Board of Directors, including Koch industries, and 180 of their model bills are enacted in state legislators throughout the country every year. They have made it harder for certain voters to vote in certain areas in 18 states, which they boast about. In the past 10 years, they have funneled 370 million dollars into campaigns on state and federal levels to legislators dedicated to their agenda. Needless to say, we have an enormous problem on our hands in clearing out the problem through campaign finance reform. We may need to draft some type of emergency legislation and just boycott their products or stocks. It's time to consult people who are skilled in government procedures to find out what we can do to take our country back. Personally, I believe we need to end all proxy voting at the state and federal levels and take direct voting back into our own hands. By this I mean that every law they have enacted and every law being considered for enactment be scaled down to a few paragraph description with net affects and costs listed. The ballot initiatives have been presented that way in the last few years. We also need to have the same thing done for all money coming into and going out of the state and federal governments, along with a financial worth statement on every legislator, judge,governor and the president. We can vote on all legislation by reviewing the question of retainment of past legislation within the last 50 years and reviewing the present pending as well as all expenditures online, just like we order pizza. And by review, I mean we review the plan and agree or disagree on the amount and issue involved before money is spent or the issue is passed. It is high time that we have as much control over what is being done in our government and what is being spent, as we do over the pizza that comes to our door.

"No person, . . . shall be allowed to contribute money, . . . to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office."
What? So, only people who can self-fund campaigns are allowed to run? That is quite simple. Looks like today without the occasional upstart.

How about you ocupy a shower?

"What is their mission?To mass occupy the financial districts in their respective cities until democracy is restored in America."
http://www.examiner.com/civil-...
Since it seems like they will be there for years to come, I think we can expect that at some point the police will stop sharing donuts with them. Also, the police have allowed them to park illegally to sleep and have shared food with them? How is it that you are able to maintain your breathless coverage of this?

In reading their blog, one comment read: "we need to come up with demands, without some kind of concrete goals we will end up losing momentum and if it is to grow there has to be some kind of structure for people to wrap their head around"I would agree - anyone can complain about the status quo. It takes a lot more effort to come up with an alternative that actually works.  What is their alternative? Why would that work?

So true. Don't spend too long thinking things to death.Military training would tell you that.Opportunities are few. Taking total control of this government on every  issue,law and dollar would be a real good goal. It would also chase away a whole lot of corp/government heisters because the fun and profit would be gone. and don't forget the state governments where real damage is done by lobbyists.