What do the 99% and the Arab spring have in common?

My what short memories we have.  Arab Spring - peaceful sit-in protests in the middle east that led to a lot of changes, people died, some dictators were removed, the sheer will of the people did this.  Now cut to Occupy Wall Street, peaceful (mostly) protests all around the US (Salt Lake has an 'occupy' protest down in Pioneer Park) and in many cities around the world.  Our citizens saying that they've had enough of the culture of corruption that the banks have been getting away with for years.  Even after we bailed them out (remember that - your tax dollars paid for it) they're back to their old ways.  And when we try and do something about it - the police are ordered to break up these camps using force.  Laws are rushed through local government to rid us of this public nuisance.  These 'occupiers' are from every walk of life and they are expressing their discontent in the only public way they can.  They can't bring down these banks or large investment houses only the super rich can dismantle their little eyrie and why would they want to do that?

And what do we give these (mostly) peaceful demonstrators for their trouble?  Violence. Demonstrator Scott Olsen - an Iraq war veteran , 24 years old. He survives fighting for US freedom and he gets a fractured skull courtesy of a smoke grenade from the Oakland police force.  Using excessive force on your citizens here at home makes you look like a bunch of bullies. And unlike middle eastern countries where refusing to obey an order meant you could be shot, if the police refused to take these orders they would only lose their jobs not their lives and that would be a sign that the 1% were losing ground. Taking away the generators the NY protesters are using for warmth because they constitute a 'fire hazzard' also smacks of the 'the man' sticking it to us. Occupy Wall Street is a way for people to express their discontent with everything that's gone wrong in this country.  A safety valve if you will.  And neither negative media coverage, nor dismissive politicians have managed to put this upstart movement to bed - the protesters say they are in it for the long haul.  Six weeks in they've no clear message, they don't have an agenda, they're all ages, all races but they are still occupying.

There are those who read those post and will assume I'm a democrat.  Guess what I don't support any political party, the left is wet, the right is so far right that if we moved them back in time to Berlin in 1933 they'd fit right in.  Moderates are few and far between, if I could find one I would support them.  Oh and speaking of history, you might want to look up that time the French 99% turned on the 1%.  They skipped the peaceful protest - it wasn't pretty.