DEVELOPING -- 'Occupy NoVA' Plans March on Thursday

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by ARLnow.com November 16, 2011 at 2:11 pm 8,594 213 Comments

(Updated at 2:20 p.m.) A newly-formed group called ‘Occupy NoVA‘ plans to march from Ballston’s Welburn Square to the Key Bridge on Thursday afternoon.

The march is timed to coincide with a march by Occupy D.C. from McPherson Square to the Key Bridge — which some fear may snarl afternoon rush hour traffic.

“A national day of action is taking place around the country in the Occupy movement,” Occupy NoVA said on its website. “We are going to be marching on this day in solidarity with Occupy DC, from Welburn Square to join in a Labor-Community-Occupy Day of Action and March on the Key Bridge in Rosslyn/Georgetown in protest of the deterioration of our public infrastructure and public services.”

Protesters are expected to gather in Welburn Square at 2:00 p.m., before starting their march around 3:30 p.m. The marching route — which would take demonstrators through the heart of Clarendon, Courthouse and Rosslyn — includes parts of Wilson Boulevard, Clarendon Boulevard and N. Lynn Street. It’s not clear if protesters will be marching on the sidewalk or in the street.

So far, Arlington County Police have not had any comment on their planned response to the protest. Last week an Occupy D.C. spokesman told ARLnow.com that the movement was aware of the Occupy NoVA group’s existence.

Occupy NoVA has not yet set up any encampments, but the group says on its website that it will discuss further plans at meetings on Thursday.

BerryBerryCold

If the police escort to the illegal immigrants this past summer is any indication, they’ll get a full escort.

Hopefully this is not the case.
- TomR
  
  What kind of dumb ass tries to rally people to their cause by pissing them off? It’s not the 1 percent who will be inconvienced by this, it’s the 99 percent. Dumb asses. Clueless children. If they had an actual goal in mind, maybe they would know what exactly to protest. This plan appears to be protesting the middle class who have jobs and are trying to get home to their families. Maybe that’s what they object to – growing up and acting responsively.
  - You go Pops!
    
    Wag your finger at them some more!
    - TomR
      
      They should do what they seem to be best at: go get coffee and blog about it.
      - You go Pops!
        
        blog about it? you’re the one bitching on a blog . . .
      - TomR
        
        What’s wrong? Too much coffee?
  - Z
    
    Right. Ask any one of them what they’re really protesting and they’ll give you a parroted response about the greedy bankers and the “1%”. Most of these freeloading hippies are angry that they can’t become rich from their undergraduate degree in basket weaving. Most of them don’t even know why they are there, but their deep-seeded resentment for the “haves” keeps them motivated. Full disclaimer, I am not the 1%, nor do I plan to ever be. We can’t all be astronauts, folks.
  - Charles
    
    Because up to now, remaining quite and unnoticed has failed to cause change.
Frivolous

Totally fine with this, as long as they stay on sidewalks and try their hardest not to disrupt the traffic pattern.
- John Fontain
  
  They’ll be making a quick stop at the Clarendon Whole Foods to pick up some organic acai berry flavor infused water.
  - Lou
    
    And they can make another stop to pick up some $5 cupcakes.
    
    Conspicuous Wealth, FTW.
  - Jim Bob
    
    Watch out…when the Occupy Oakland group went to a Whole Foods they trashed the place—-the shoppers inside had to run out the back as the dopes on the Occupy Oakland march smashed windows in the front of the store.
- Curious George
  
  Fine as long as they stay off the sidewalk so they don’t disrupt pedestrian traffic.
  - Rick
    
    Yes lets shove them all into the street and let them march down Clarendon Blvd…
    - Curious George
      
      that would be AWESOME!!!!
- Mike
  
  YOU ARE INSANE if you think this wont overcome the streets hahahahhahahaha
- othersideoftheriver
  
  Hey, guess what: “Traffic” includes bikes and pedestrians.
  - Overgrown Bush
    
    Bikes and pedestrians do have to obey the law however. Jaywalking is not obeying the law.
Aaron

Wow, that’s got to be like a good 4 mile walk. I hope no one hurts themselves in this unprecedented display of sacrifice.

Note to self: expect Continental to be even more full of insufferable hipsters than usual tomorrow.
- Corey
  
  The Continental is full of anybody? Much less hipsters?
  - DarkHeart
    
    Didn’t that used to be Petitbon’s?
    - Lou
      
      Indeed.
    - NoVapologist
      
      And before that it was The Pawn Shop.
  - OX4
    
    I went to Continental once. Once.
- drax
  
  You can disagree with their message without denigrating their methods. How far must someone march before it’s good enough for you?
  - ArLater
    
    You are right, because their method of marching down busy streets/ bridges during rush hour, there by inconviencing commuters who more than likely have nothing to do with what the protesters are upset about is a very good method. Yes they may all stay on the sidewalks, but I find that hard to believe, especially with DC protesters joining too.
    
    All that is going to do, as you can see here, is turn people against the movement. Go protest outside a bank HQ, outside the capital, outside the DC govt office to have your voice heard. Protesting to the average tired worker who is just trying to get home after a long days work who now has to sit in traffic longer isnt going to get you many supporters.
    - OX4
      
      Except that just as many people in this city make a living lining politicians’ pockets with cash. I can’t think of a better place to choke traffic than in lawyer and lobbyist-filled Georgetown, and across the bridge into Defense Sector-owned Northern Virginia. I may just join them.
      - drax
        
        Do you think lobbyists and lawyers are going to give a damn though? Why should they? They don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. Do you think they’ll all change their minds and quit their jobs because somebody marched in the street?
        
        The ONLY people who are going to care about this are the people in Congress – and only if you either threaten to get rid of them, or actually do.
        
        Hold those who are actually responsible, responsible. Go to where the one and only source of actual power is. Until this movement becomes “Occupy Congress” it will be pretty pointless.
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        For once, I agree with you, drax.
      - TGEoA
        
        Damn, me too.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        Wow….me too.
      - Josh S
        
        Well, quitting their jobs isn’t the only answer.
        
        All protests are disrupting to some degree. That’s sort of the point. And the novelty of having tents in Freedom Plaza has basically worn off. Time to expand tactics. Marching in the street is one of them.
        
        It’s all about getting heard, getting your message out. Why do you think the elephants parade through the streets when the circus comes to town?
      - ArlingtonChick
        
        But WHAT, exactly, is their message?!?!? They’ve had two months to convince me that they are not just hanging out and protesting conservatives. I still don’t fully understand their message or their solutions.
        
        Hate the Tea Partiers all you want, but at least they had a clear message (with a tinge of racism) and a clear solution (that would never work). I could easily say no, you are too crazy for me, and walk away. Instead, I find myself wanting to take the police batons and beat the protesters myself to get from point A to point B without having a delay for their stupid motorcades. Where’s my motorcade?!?!!?
      - OX4
        
        “Do you think they’ll all change their minds and quit their jobs because somebody marched in the street?”
        
        No, of course not. No one’s that naive. But look at what’s happened over the last few months — we’ve gone from an extremist right-wing agenda in Congress (remember Boehner and his “no new revenue”?) to a national dialogue that hey, maybe raising taxes isn’t such a bad thing. And hey, maybe a financial transaction tax isn’t such a bad thing. And gosh, maybe the US really does have one of the worst income inequality indexes in the entire OECD. Those conversations were not taking place earlier this year.
      - bemused bystander
        
        +100
      - drax
        
        Um, we still very much have an extremist right-wing agenda in Congress. That hasn’t gone away one bit. It’s just that Congress isn’t doing much lately because its waiting for the super committee deadline.
        
        Yes, the dialogue is changing, and that’s good, but the ONLY actual change I see is Boehner’s movement on taxes.
      - Burger
        
        You are funny because you sound so clueless. The GOP which most Occupy groups would never vote for anyway changed because some 25 year old decides to camp out in a park. Please…
        
        And, I find it inherently funny that a group of people denouce greed but are asking for a whole bunch of money…
      - Sam
        
        Gosh – actually, those conversations were taking place.
        
        It doesn’t take a bunch of Urban Outfitted, Hudson Trail campers with Droids and iPhones and Dell laptops ordering from Domino’s and forcing local governments to expend their ever-decreasing public safety money to point out to the average person that it might be a good idea to make some changes.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        You have to be kidding. There is nothing new being discussed. Democrats want to raise taxes and give away individual welfare. Republicans want to keep taxes low and give away corporate welfare. This discussion has gone on ad nauseum from well before the time any of us were born. Very few people actually want to raise taxes and call those who want to lower both taxes (or at least not raise them) and government spending “extremist” even though that’s what most of the people in the country want. Nobody wants to raise taxes on themselves, except for Warren Buffet; apparently, they just want someone else to foot the bill. So what’s new other than a bunch of miscreants with nothing better to do congregating in public parks to protest everyone who makes money and do drugs, steal from everyone and vandalize what hardworking people have paid to build?
      - G::TheNativeArlingtonian
        
        Uh, yeah, me too.
      - ClarendonBound
        
        Don’t walk in the streets! Someone in an SUV that lives there might “accidentally” run you over.
      - Burger
        
        Yes, because those lobbyists and lawyers that live in G-Town do not go home at 3:30…most work late into the night…so your protest should probably around 8 or 9 (and that is early) to have much effect on them.
      - South ArlJD
        
        Oh yes. Aggravating an already intolerable traffic situation and denigrating the people who live here as tools of lobbyists and defense contractors is just the ticket to get them to join Occupy and support its goals (whatever they are).
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        Exactly!
    - Louise
      
      Great response. I totally agree.
    - drax
      
      I was referring to Aaron’s implication that they weren’t walking very far.
      
      I agree that blocking traffic is dumb.
nunya

marching in brown flip flops?
- Chris M.
  
  They will most likely be wearing these, http://zapp.me/7244112, the preferred sandal of the 99% (You know….because their 1%re parents have to get their unemployed, puppet-majoring children something for their birthdays).
- South ArlJD
  
  After first meeting at the Starbucks or the Starbucks or the Starbucks or the Starbucks …
Arrest Them

Democrat here who is FED UP with these idiots. They’re protesting deteriorating infrastructure by making infrastructure unusable to everyone else?

I’m going to be driving in the street, and I will not be moving aside for jaywalkers.
- OX4
  
  Well, you see, the point of a protest is to get noticed and hopefully start some dialogue between people that wouldn’t normally….sigh. Never mind.
  - ArlingtonChick
    
    They’ve had two months! Time to go.
- dogwood
  
  Also gotta wonder how many of them actually pay taxes that would be used to reverse the deterioration of our public infrastructure and public services.
  - drax
    
    Maybe. And if they do, it might well be a larger share of their income than the 1%.
    
    “Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent. Mr Buffett told his audience, which included John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley, and Alan Patricof, the founder of the US branch of Apax Partners, that US government policy had accentuated a disparity of wealth that hurt the economy by stifling opportunity and motivation.”
    
    http://tusb.stanford.edu/2007/07/warren_buffet_has_a_lower_tax.html
    - Suburban Not Urban
      
      Yea and the bottom 50% of earners paid 0%, nada, nothing in income taxes. That means buffet paid Infinity more % than the bottom 50%. Why wouldn’t you want to raise taxes and get more hand outs if you have no skin in the game!
      - Josh S
        
        Please support statement with facts.
        
        In any case, I think you’d have a hard time making a case that the bottom 50% of earners are a worthy target in any sort of discussion of public policy or politics. Unless maybe you were going to say they are preyed upon by the elite, fed whatever load of American family values crap necessary to maintain their power so they can continue consuming the nation’s resources at a furious pace.
      - madisonmanor
        
        Try this link. While it isn’t quite 50%, it does paint a pretty good picture. Even if the top 1% had their entire income withheld for one year, it wouldn’t make a dent in terms of deficit reduction or infrastructure improvements (which was one of the protest items listed).
        
        http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table1
        
        So the top 50% already pay 98% of income taxes, and the top 1% pay 37% while nearly half the nation pays nothing. Sounds equitable to them. . .
      - Scienceismylife
        
        47% of Americans pay no INCOME tax. Sales tax, payroll tax (a solid chunk of any paycheck), property tax, etc. all take a nicely sized slice out of their paychecks anyway. The 47% line is a transparent dodge of the actual issue, and you should feel insulted that the “Tax Foundation” thought you’d be fooled by it.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        So the 47% of Americans who pay no INCOME tax should pay SOME income tax. THAT is equality.
      - madisonmanor
        
        Okay, science, you don’t like taxfoundation.org’s numbers, how about the IRS’? http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in11si.xls
        
        For tax year 2009, $866 million in total taxes for 81 million returns (not individuals). 80 million returns paid $608 million in income taxes, or 70% of total taxes. 725,000 paid $258 million (the 1%), or 30% of total taxes. Even if you took an additional 50% in taxes from those 1%, the total would be $387 million out of a total of $995 million, or 39%. It never gets to the point where the rich can pay for everything. Even if you doubled their income taxes, it doesn’t make a dent in the budget or deficit and would still account for less than half the total collected.
        
        And last I checked, payroll taxes are dedicated funding for social security and medicare/medicaid. Property tax doesn’t come out of a paycheck, and if you pay it, it means you own something. And those 1% buy stuff that contributes a greater margin of sales tax and property taxes than the 99%. Hopefully science IS your life because logic isn’t
      - drax
        
        That’s only if you exclude payroll taxes like FICA and state sales taxes and the like. Which you shouldn’t.
        
        The bottom 50% have had an average increase in real wages of ZERO for the last 30 years. That’s the real issue here. You can’t pay much in taxes if you don’t earn much anyway.
      - Burger
        
        Umm… aren’t FICA taxes used to pay for something…oh, yeah, social security and there is a quasi-direct correlation to what a person pays in FICA to their benefits.
        
        And, you don’t make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor.
      - madisonmanor
        
        “The bottom 50% have had an average increase in real wages of ZERO for the last 30 years” – that’s a load of crap – you get out of life what you put into it. 25 years ago, I was the epitome of that bottom 50% (actually, I was in the bottom 25%). I decided I had enough and learned new skills in my spare time and worked hard and moved up – essentially giving myself a raise of 1000%, and I barely qualify for the top 5%. While there are certainly some in the 1% who inherited from colonial times, many of them got to where they were through hard work. While not a significant statistical sample, the half dozen people I know in this area that are in the top 1% all worked hard for it.
        
        Suburban’s comment was specifically about income taxes – not about payroll taxes, FICA or state sales taxes. 1.3 million people pay roughly 40% of all federal income taxes in this country. Even if you raised their tax rate to 50% more than they are paying, it only raises the aggregate to them paying 47% of all taxes paid. And it would be much less than that, since they would leave the country in droves.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Well said, and they’re already leaving in droves in a manner of speaking. Nearly all investors and large corporations with a lot of money have been moving money into foreign markets and leaving it there to escape the already ridiculously high taxes they’re charged. Everybody that complains about companies doing this also squawks about how we should raise their taxes; yeah, that’ll stop them from moving their money out of the country.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        This is, in part, an educational problem in this country. We are not steering our kids into disciplines that are needed. For example, there is a shortage of engineers in this country. There are lots of engineering jobs and many of them get filled with people who come from outside of the United States. If we would steer our education toward what was actually needed, this may not be as big of a problem.
      - Burger
        
        Exactly.
        
        most of the clowns in the occupy crowd have soft majors like African Women’s studies and then wonder why no one in the real world wants to give that person a job for wasted major.
        
        The issue really becomes one of self-entitlement. Most of the Occupy crowd (the millenials) have been told they are “special,” given trophies for ending up in last place and that all ideas are equal. The real world doesn’t work that way.
        
        What most of them do not want equal opportunity but equal outcome and that won’t happen.
      - Smark
        
        The millenials are a lost generation created by a failed education model. It is an unfortunate hiccup in the country but we need to just let them throw their tantrums and ignore them.
    - ArlingtonChick
      
      This is why a flat tax makes more sense.
      - OX4
        
        Except that 5% means a hell of a lot more to someone below the poverty line than it does to someone making $200K a year. But hey, why let concepts like “utility of a dollar” get in the way of a nice round number?
      - ArlingtonChick
        
        Look at how the Mormons do it–they have the best social welfare system ever. Everyone tithes, and the money goes back to programs that benefit the needier members of the church. How is this unfair and a problem?
      - drax
        
        Social welfare system? Interesting.
        
        The problem is that our taxes support alot more than social welfare. They support functions that cost MUCH more than that. You simply cannot have a flat tax that funds an adequate government – even a much smaller one – that doesn’t also devastate the poor. If it’s 5%, it’s not enough, if it’s 30%, it screws the poor. Either way, a flat tax just can’t work.
      - don’t tell the republicans . . .
        
        . . . that their nominee supports a social welfare system.
        
        As for me, I’ll wait for the pictures of you beating peaceful marchers with batons. Now that’s an Arlington Chick worth watching. Hawt.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        That is why almost all flat tax proposals include a generous personal deduction to pay for necessities with untaxed dollars.
      - Burger
        
        You do know the US has the most progressive tax system in the world, correct?
      - joker
        
        you are joking right? that was irony?
      - Burger
        
        I think you need to learn what a progressive tax is.
      - joker
        
        I think you need to learn what it is sonny
      - Warren Buffet’s Secretary
        
        yes It’s so progressive that I pay the same rate as my boss 🙂
      - Burger
        
        Sigh… yes, one example does not prove your are right.
        
        And, no, she doesn’t and Buffett is a complete hypocrite.
        
        There is absolutely no way she pays 30% tax rate on 60K – none.
        
        And here is your evidence on the US being the most progressive
        
        http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/27134.html
        
        (note that this income tax and payroll tax)
    - Zoning Victim
      
      The problem with this statement is that it’s a blind number with no analysis behind it. What Mr. Buffett is doing is attempting to compare the individual income tax of his secretary to the dividend tax that he pays, which makes the percentage he pays seem low in comparison to his secretary. This is classic equivocation. What he fails to mention is that he receives his dividend only after the money his corporation makes is taxed at the US corporate rate of 35%. He then receives the dividend, which in his case was taxed at another 17.4%. So, while the money his secretary received was effectively taxed at “only” 30%, the money that Mr. Buffett received was actually taxed at a rate of 52.4%. Furthermore, if Mr. Buffett was really so worried about his secretary, her tax burden, and the “income inequality” she faces, he could easily solve the problem. Either paying her a lot more so her tax burden wouldn’t matter and she wouldn’t have to suffer the tyranny of income inequality at his hand, or issuing her stock in the company and lowering or completely dropping her salary so that she could enjoy the same dividend rate he gets. Of course, this would also open her up to the same risks all investors share.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        What? We can’t get people reward without risk? The horror.
      - madisonmanor
        
        Nicely done and explained well. Of course, Congress can easily remedy that by making all income taxed the same, except that they make a majority of their income the same way as Mr. Buffett, which means it will never happen.
      - Ballstonian
        
        You raise a good point. Buffet’s INCOME tax rate — not counting exemptions — is higher than his secretary’s. The issue is that many of the highest earners don’t earn directly from income, but rather capital gains. The problem is that all of the talk of inceasing the tax rate for the rich focuses on raising the INCOME tax rate, which, absent reforming the exemptions and loopholes, won’t do a thing as many of those in the top 1% will continue to use those loopholes and/or minimize income in favor of capital gains.
      - Burger
        
        you mean loopholes like the mortgage tax deduction?
  - Chris M.
    
    Food for thought: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-infrastructure-argument-that-crumbles-upon-examination/2011/10/31/gIQAnILRaM_story.html
- drax
  
  I don’t think “deteriorating infrastructure” is that high on their list of grievances.
  - SomeGuy
    
    drax, according the statement on their web site (according to this very article as referenced above), that is exactly why they’re marching: “in protest of the deterioration of our public infrastructure and public services.”
    - drax
      
      Okay – I don’t see a website anywhere, just a twitter feed. Do you have a URL? Thanks.
    - drax
      
      Never mind – I see you got it from the AFL-CIO site.
      
      Yeah, that’s about jobs, not just infrastructure. Key Bridge is where Obama spoke recently about the need to pass his jobs bill that would involve rehabbing infrastructure (which is also urgently needed).
      - SomeGuy
        
        No. I got it from ArlNow.com. Last sentence of paragraph #3 of the article on which you are commenting.
      - drax
        
        Okay, now I see – ArlNow was quoting the website, not you.
- Josh S
  
  Deteriorating infrastructure? Isn’t that somewhat far down on the list of the things they are protesting?
  - SomeGuy
    
    Please read. End of paragraph #3 of the ArlNow article on which you’re commenting:
    “…Day of Action … in protest of the deterioration of our public infrastructure and public services.”
ArLater

So the 99% movement is going to disrupt the 99% commute home tomorrow. Great

60 percent of the time, it works everytime!
- Scienceismylife
  
  You’re fooling yourself if you think DC isn’t thick with 1 percenters.
  
  No 99 percenter should get caught in traffic, because they should take the day off to protest.
  - Zoning Victim
    
    That statement comes off this way to me: “Boohoo, other people make more money than me. I know what to do; I’ll stay home and not work. After all, not working will prove to those horrible high-wage earners that they should give me more of their income.”
  - NorthArlingTim
    
    Can’t afford to do that!
Don Ager

You all mess with rush hour traffic and NPS and the District council better give the order to clear out the Occupiers from the parks in DC THAT night.
Antagonizing the very people who you want to support you is asinine! Best to reschedule your action for noontime.
Overgrown Bush

They’d be better served marching themselves to a job fair.
- drax
  
  Because jobs are plentiful!
  - R
    
    Around here they are. Plenty of these people don’t want a job and plenty more of them just want anarchy.
    - R
      
      *there is* should have been what I typed. Doh!
    - drax
      
      Maybe they, like, actually care about those in other parts of the country who are desperately unemployed, not just themselves. Maybe they are actually employed themselves, and doing this for a larger purpose. Huh?
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        If the larger purpose is to create some havoc, while not working or contributing to the economy, then sure.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Maybe if they have a solution that works, they should present it for public debate instead of blocking traffic and shouting stupid chants that don’t mean anything. All I hear are complaints and bad solutions that amount to income redistribution to make up for the problem instead of fixing it.
    - Josh S
      
      So you’ve sat down and shared a bowl of chili and a beer with them and found this out have you? “Friended” them on Facebook? Followed their Twitter accounts? “Plenty” of people “don’t want a job?” Uh-huh. Sure.
      - drax
        
        Sure, because being unemployed rocks!
      - Zoning Victim
        
        It’s not that people don’t want a job; it’s that people don’t want to work and do what they’re told. There’s a big difference between those two things. I have a friend that has mad skills when it comes to building bicycles and doing almost anything having to do with construction work. The problem is that he has no work ethic. He shows up late, works on stuff that he’s not assigned to do because he finds the work he’s being paid to do more boring and when I pay him to help me out is impossible to keep on task. He always wants to do something a different way than what he’s told, and he always takes twice as long as a job should because he’s involved in things he shouldn’t be, like doing something he wasn’t asked to do or trying to completely redesign the planned job or process. Then when he realizes that he’s screwed around so much that he’s short on time, he does a rush job and screws stuff up. Does he want a job? Yes, or at least he wants to be paid to do something. The problem is that he wants it to be on his terms; he won’t just show up on time and do what he’s told. So he’s constantly getting fired (or quitting because of the horrible inequity of having to work for a “dumbass”), and he goes through long periods of unemployment through either not looking or applying only to jobs for which he’s not qualified. I see no difference between placing so many conditions on employment as to become unemployable and simply not wanting to work.
    - Louise
      
      If that is true, why do I know people who are getting laid off?
      - Sam
        
        It happens. People get laid off – then they find some other way to make money. They move to places where they can find jobs. Or, here’s an idea – let’s stop sending all of our kids to college to come out with useless degrees and allow some to actually learn a trade and not be embarrassed if they don’t end up in all the AP classes, going to a “good school”, etc.
        
        People wouldn’t be laid off if our labor pool was educated, in both blue collar and white collar jobs – or would be willing to learn a skill that can be transported.
        
        Tell your “people” who are getting laid off to take a look at North Dakota, where jobs are plentiful…but they probably wouldn’t want those kinds of jobs would they? Beneath them perhaps?
      - jack
        
        Isn’t the foundation of this whole “American Dream” to have your children have more opportunities, more education, to ultimately do better than you did?
        
        You tell your kids it’s time to skip college and learn a trade. Or to try North Dakota.
    - OX4
      
      Spoken like a perfect, middle-class American. Just keep watching CNN and reading the Post. Everything’s fine, really.
Home Owner

Listen up Occupiers! There is nothing that we Arlingtonians dislike more than having our leaves raked out of our yards. Stop; do not attempt to remove leaves as some type of civil disobedience. We will not take kindly to you coming on our property and raking up our leaves. Don’t even think about it!
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  LOL!
novasteve

http://i.imgur.com/HIo9C.jpg

This is how you lure and capture OWS/hipsters.
Brian

Also got an email 2 days ago from the afl-cio about this event at the key bridge tomorrow http://local.we-r-1.org/weareone/events/show/4902
- Zoning Victim
  
  I can’t imagine why the author the following two sentences might be having a hard time finding a job…
  
  “It’s not a lack of that work that needs doing that is keeping people out of work. ”
  
  “There’s work that needs doing and people who work to do.”
Garden City

How do you change things? You sit quietly at home.
- Arrest Them
  
  No, you write your elected officials, you blog, you write letters to newspapers. Making a nuisance of yourself only alienates people who might otherwise support your cause. I’m in agreement with their general views on banks/Wall Street–but nothing they have done has led or will lead to any reform.
  - drax
    
    I’d say you do BOTH.
    
    The Occupiers have completely changed the terms of debate. People are finally talking about wealth disparity. That’s awesome. But now they need to do something about it – turn it into a larger movement with political force, and win some elections working within the system. Like the Tea Party did.
    
    But what you don’t do is block traffic.
    - John Fontain
      
      “People are finally talking about wealth disparity”
      
      disparity: 1. The condition or fact of being unequal
      
      Is it your opinion that there should be no wealth disparity?
      - Thes
        
        Wealth disparity is like water. You need a little to stay alive, but too much and you drown. We have too much in this country right now.
      - the 1 %
        
        Just not this much….
        When Americans are asked how US wealth is distributed, they think the very richest fifth should own up to 40% of the national wealth – and that includes 90% of Republicans surveyed. In fact, that richest group owns 85% of the nation’s wealth. Those surveyed also thought the bottom 120 million people should own around 10% of the national wealth. The reality: 0.3%
        In fact, the super rich – the top 0.01% of the population – own more of the national wealth now than at any time since 1928, just before the Great Depression. And the richest 1% of the US population? They own a third of US net worth.
      - Thes
        
        Hmm. ArlNow’s comments no longer allow images to be posted 🙁
        
        Well, here’s an article that shows some good graphs of what you’re talking about.
      - John Fontain
        
        If we were able to redistribute the wealth in the manner you suggest, how long do you think it would take for the wealth distribution to return to its current state?
      - Josh S
        
        Excellent question. Sure, if you magically redistributed it overnight, by tomorrow night it would start to move back to a much greater level of concentration. It’s not really about the redistribution, it’s about removing or somehow curtailing the incredible structural advantages that the wealthy have. I’m not entirely sure what that entire set of reforms should look like, but I’d argue that raising the top income tax rate is one of them, as is changing the carried interest rule, etc.
        But what’s amazing is just the change in attitude that seems to have come about in the last few decades. It’s stunning to realize that the top rate was in the 90% range as recently as the 1950s. Eisenhower even VETOED a tax cut proposed by the Democrats. It was somehow just more accepted that wealthy folks, high wage earners, had to pay back into the society that helped create them. That expectation seems to have completely disappeared and I’m not sure how you can possibly legislate a return to those attitudes.
      - Thes
        
        You can’t legislate attitudes, but you can change them through grass-roots protest movements.
      - drax
        
        The point isn’t to simply redistribute wealth, it is to allow everyone to have enough breathing room to stay afloat so they can increase their own wealth, instead of sinking into debt, etc.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        The problem is that upping taxes on the 1% simply is a redistribution of wealth. We don’t need to go back to being a welfare society (as if we ever stopped); doing so doesn’t create opportunity for anyone. I’m pretty upset with established businesses, too, but not because they don’t want to pay any more taxes than they already do. The problem isn’t how much they pay in taxes; they can’t pay enough in taxes to solve the crisis we’re in. Even when the top tax rate was 92%, we still ran deficits. The problem is that big business has greased politicians to have them enact protectionist legislation and regulations that keep small businesses from going into competition with them. You can’t start a business in your garage, anymore. If Steve Jobs were to try assembling computer boards in a garage these days, he’d be breaking the law. Regulations aren’t just there to protect employees and the environment. Many of them are there as intentional barriers to competition. Fix that and setup a new tax code that makes it advantageous to setup a business here so the free market can have a chance to work and we’d see the unemployment rate go down. Raising taxes on the 1% will just mean less money in our economy as they seek to hide more and more of what they earn.
      - drax
        
        I’ll amend my statement for those who haven’t been paying attention:
        
        People are finally talking about the enormous, unprecedented and unsustainable wealth disparity that has led to the top 10% of income distribution getting 100% of the increase in income over the past 30 years, while the bottom 90% have average incomes equal to 30 years ago after accounting for inflation, despite that fact that workers are much more productive since that time.
      - TGEoA
        
        Productivity? Big deal. If anyone wants a bigger piece of the pie they need to have some skin in the game and invest.
        
        The shenanigans in the investment world is the big way the 99% are getting screwed.
  - OX4
    
    The whole point of this movement is that the US has become a corporate oligarchy, and politicians are bought and paid for by the people that can afford them. I have to admit though, it’s cute that you think “writing your elected official” might help. In a sad, lost-Americana kind of way.
    - CW
      
      “Johnny, once you finish writing that letter to the Senator, throw on your overalls and we’ll head up to the general store for some penny candy.”
      
      “Gee, thanks, Pop!!”
      - OX4
        
        “And maybe someday YOU’LL be president Johnny, just keep working hard!”
      - dk
        
        Pull a little harder on those bootstraps!
    - Burger
      
      You need to understand history…this has always been the case in the US and elsewhere. So it is sad you have never read a history book.
  - Josh S
    
    Gosh, you’ll have to go tell that to all of the Women’s Suffragettes, the Civil Rights protestors, the French Revolutionaries, the Arab Springers, Gandhi and his followers, the first Earth Day marchers, and all the other millions of humans around the world who have used protests and civil disobedience at various time to express their desires and affect change in their society. They must not have gotten your memo.
    - dk
      
      +1
    - Sam
      
      These boneheads should not in any way be compared to the Arab Spring, Gandhi or any of the others you’ve mentioned.
      
      Don’t minimize what these others have done to make a difference in our world by comparing them to our current group of “occupiers” with no message other than “I’m not getting what I want and I want you to give it me” buffoons.
- R
  
  I thought you get change by electing Obama…oh, maybe not.
Hattie McDaniel

Heaven forbid people execise their constitutional right to free speech.
- novasteve
  
  Why is it that I can exercise my first amendment rights without blocking traffic and squatting in public parks and defecating everywhere?
  - Swag
    
    Because you live on a website?
- R
  
  You’re right, they absolutely have a right to free speech…and I absolutely have a right to ridicule them.
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Michael H.

I think they should protest parking meters. And potholes. And weeds. Pollen too.

Are the Occupy groups going to keep piling up items to protest? Sure, there are many things that can be improved in society, but do we need to have a march about every single one?

Actually, I might participate in a protest against Ballston Common Mall, for being an incompetent mess of a retail facility. I could spit in their general direction or something.
- drax
  
  What exactly do you think they are protesting? And where did you get your list?
  - Michael H.
    
    It’s a “protest of the deterioration of our public infrastructure and public services” according to the article.
    
    How is this related to the Occupy Wall Street protest, and related “groups”? Infrastructure receives much of its funding from gas taxes. A major problem with that funding system is the failure of Congress to increase gas taxes to keep pace with inflation. High-mileage hybrid cars and electric cars that don’t use any gas at all but that still add to the wear and tear on roads and bridges contribute to the funding problem. I fail to see what any of this has to do with Occupy Wall Street, Occupy DC or income inequality.
    
    As for my list, if you couldn’t tell that I was kidding, then there is truly no hope of explaining anything. You honestly thought I wanted someone to protest tree pollen?
    - drax
      
      I meant where did you get your list of what you thought they really were protesting, not your joke list.
      
      The infrastructure part comes from Obama’s jobs bill, which calls for infrastructure improvements. So that’s how it relates.
    - Josh S
      
      It’s actually not that great of a leap.
      
      The Wall Street folks might object to raising taxes, saying we need to spend less and shrink government. Who else is going to repair bridges and replace aging water mains?
      
      Why do you suppose Congress has failed to increase gas taxes to keep pace with inflation? Might it have something to do with lobbyists from the oil companies? Who have their eyes on the quarterly earning report, demanded by Wall Street so as to keep their stock value high?
      - Michael H.
        
        It’s more than the “1%” who would object to a higher gas tax. Not saying that I agree with any particular side. Just that this is not necessarily a “Wall Street/income inequality” issue.
      - drax
        
        Congress has failed to increase gas taxes because the American people would freak out about it. They always do. No lobbyists needed.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        Maybe they realize that the majority of people in this country already have a significant monthly fuel cost and it doesn’t need to go higher in a depressed economy. Raising fuel taxes also increases the costs of goods, putting a greater squeeze on the consumer. Maybe, just maybe, a fuel tax increase now would be disasterous for the economy.
Bluemontsince1961

Deja vu – DC area had similar marches in the late 60s/early 70s. Made quite a mess of traffic back then. A fair number of my classmates at W-L skipped school for one of the marches and got suspended.
JamesE

Guy Fawkes masks half off at Target !!!!!!
Chris

Note the complete lack of South County inclusion. Fear us, for we have hills (both up and down), restaurants from countries that end in vowels, buses instead of trains and the green spaces in our parks ocassional open up and try to swallow you whole. In South County, even the Honey Badger fears to tread.
- FYI
  
  A few countries that end in vowels:
  
  America
  Australia
  Canada
  Germany (using the “sometimes Y” rule)
  Italy
  - Chris
    
    I love Canadian food!
    - FYI
      
      Extra maple syrup, but hold the pepper, eh?
      - Chris
        
        Smoked meat sandwhiches, mayonaise on all the things, gravy fries with cheese curds and syrup shots. Pardon me, I have to leave now and drive all night if I’m going to be there by breakfast.
      - AND….
        
        Ketchup Chips!!
- CrystalMikey
  
  LOL @ Honey Badger.
- ArlingTony
  
  All in favor of adopting the Honey Badger as the official mascot of South County Arlington wiggle your fingers in the air.
  
  North County has the brown flip-flop.
  - Chris
    
    wiggle wiggle wiggle
  - Cate
    
    +1
John Fontain

I’ll bet this Arlington march ends up being only a handful of people.
- Michael H.
  
  Especially with the cool temperatures tomorrow.
  - Good point
    
    Too cold on the toes for flip flops. 😉
Newtdog73

4 miles in brown flip-flops is going to suck!
Steven Abootman

These protestors should join us on Canada Appreciation Day. Come on guys!
- novasteve
  
  How much of a presence does the WGA (World Canadian Bureau) have here in Arlington? Is it time for a strike?
  - Steven Abootman
    
    They are already on strike guy! They took my idea and I demand some money for it!
    - novasteve
      
      Don’t call me your guy, friend!
TGEoA

I hope they occupy the Clarendon dog park.
No vaga!

“no vaga” could mean don’t loiter in Spanish. A bit odd for an occupy group to use it in their website…
- ArlingtonChick
  
  Maybe they’ll stop by the Beanie Weanie in Shirlington to strengthen their numbers?
- Ms. Azurduy
  
  Incorrect grammar my friend
  it’s no vagabunde
Malthus

Wealth disparity isn’t a good enough conceptualization of the problem. The ship has hit the iceburg of resource limits. The fed is trying to patch the hole up with paper. The politicians are basically rearranging the deck chairs. The Tea Partiers are in a panic and its every man for themselves and the OWS wants to dump the personal effects of the wealthy in the lifeboats to make room for the cooks and the maids and the stowaways.
- Burger
  
  Ah… Malthus…how did that world is going to run out of food back in the 18th century work out for you?
  - Malthus
    
    You need to work on your reading comprehension skills, “Burger”.
  - Rick
    
    Wow.
    - Burger
      
      Why, because Malthus was an idiot.
      - Josh S
        
        Well, he may have been wrong but I hardly think that makes him an idiot. The basic issues he raised are still worth paying attention to.
Justin

Lazy unemployed people?
novasteve

Curious, do the pooper scooper rules apply to humans as well?
- Curious George
  
  No idea but I hope so.
- Smark
  
  If it did all the marchers should be scooped up too.
Rick

99 people like Occupy Nova on facebook. Should be fun to watch. I hope none of them get arrested, they feel like they won if they get arrested. They’re going to lose when I moon all 99 of them out the window of a hummer though
novasteve

Would anyone object if they occupied the county council? Maybe it would stop them from wasting our money for a while.
- drax
  
  What will stop you from wasting bandwidth?
  - novasteve
    
    Gee, you couldn’t find the self control to not read my post let alone not respond to it. Congrats.
  - NoVapologist
    
    Pot, meet kettle.
R0bespierre

Bank transfer day was interesting, because the CU meme seems to have had some economic impact on the banksters.

Most of the rest of the movement seems chaotic and stupid. Those at its core seem mostly like people with just plain too little to do with their time.

They need to camp out somewhere like this, instead:
http://g.co/maps/u3euy

Then I will be impressed
- Rick
  
  If that isn’t a google earth image of the sun, please repost with a correct link
Carol_R

Maybe it can pour rain on these deadbeats. They better not mess up the traffic for me tomorrow.
edgar99

Occupy NoVa is seriously redundant – its the ultimate Occupy Occupy. Is there like even 1 percent of the population here that does not self-identify as self-righteous progressive. You could knock me over with a feather if I ever ran into two capitalists standing on a corner in Arlington.
- Capitalist
  
  Why is it that people think that Democrats and liberals aren’t capitalists? We are. We want to make money, too. We just want a playing field that’s a bit more level . . . like it was in the 50’s, that time of Republican nostalgia.
  - Jlo
    
    Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said, “You can’t always get what you want.”
    
    No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question
- Julio
  
  +1
Roquer

Must be the leftover schmucks from NYC.
- More like…
  
  The kids who tried to go to NY out of college (or instead of) and then realized they could live better if they came back home to Arlington and suckled off the teets of their parents. Hahaha… Oh well
charlie

i’d like to go but need to do some work stuff. spendnig too much time on arlnow and need to focus before THE MAN puts me on the street.
- Ms. Azurduy
  
  I work full time and I’m going!
  Love you guys, even the grumpy ones.
  Ditch your wage slave job
  and find an occupation:)
  Exercise your right to peaceably assemble!
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novasteve

So wait, they are planning on disrupting traffic to/from DC in both directions now? They are also planning on “Marching” from McPoop Square to Key Bridge as well. That will be wonderful for traffic. I mean, nothing like pissing off the 99%ers coming home from work, and no doubt sitting in heavy traffic with car engines running will work wonders for the environment, eh?
mickey644

The eye watering stupidity shown by these hairy faced, smelly idiots is astounding. The mere idea of me giving them my money so they can be rich also is absurd! My advice for them is get a job, haircut, shave, get rid of the tats and be normal.
Charles

From Ballston to Key Bridge, whoa, don’t tire yourselves out. Stay hydrated, maybe stay overnight in Clarendon, for this epic quest.
Hank Hill

time to bring out the dogs and waterhoses
- Hickory Shampoos
  
  ..for everyone.
brian

I’m hereby officially starting Occupy Annandale. The korean BBQ joints have gone too far…
Pdiddy

Great, so now my wife and I will not be able to get pick up our kids becausee we each have to use one of the roads they will be blocking. Sign me up as a supporter as I try to figure out how I am going to get my kids picked up.
YTK

Oh tell them to GET LOST and GET OUT OF HERE.
Jlo

Note to the Protesters – Occupy Reality: Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots, because colleges and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.
OWS – please go home and take a shower!

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