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[Nadaka]

That's hardly true at all. Admittedly, I've not been alive for that many election cycles, but there are plenty of times when the view towards the new President has been rather "meh". Bush's second term, to give an example I was able to experience myself.

Obama used campaign phrases like "Yes We Can", "Change We Can Believe In", and (Well, this one was coined by Oprah, but it still affected him.) "The One". With phrases like that he was practically setting himself up to be the Messiah, and it actually worked for a little bit. That's not too common.

Eisenhower in 1952, Kennedy in 1960, Reagan in 1980, to name a couple. And if you go back to the 1800's, pretty much every President was elected more based on personality and charisma than on substantial policy issues. We had a slew of Presidents who got elected mostly because they were former Generals and/or war heroes (Jackson, Harrison, Tyler, Pierce, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, T. Roosevelt, Eisenhower).

2nd terms aren't a good basis to judge by. The fact that Clinton's 2nd term was so well received (even with all his other baggage) is something of an anomaly and a testament to the guy's charisma.
[/quote]

Clinton was also damn good at his job. Certainly my favorite president ever.

[ECrownofFire]

Just thought I'd leave this here: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/nyc-occupy-on-march-again-dpgapx-km-20111015

Peaceful protest? Not on Citibank's watch!

[SalmonGod]

Global

[mainiac]

2nd terms aren't a good basis to judge by. The fact that Clinton's 2nd term was so well received (even with all his other baggage) is something of an anomaly and a testament to the guy's charisma.

I think it had more to do with the fact that we had the best economic growth of 1980-present, price stability, the only substantial wage growth since the 70s and a relatively peaceful world.  A dead halibut could be a popular president if it presided over eight years of that.

[Vector]

Global

 

Wow.  Those photographs are really something.

[ECrownofFire]

Global

 

Wow.  Those photographs are really something.

I kind of snickered at the tundra one.

But wow, I had no idea these protests had gotten so huge.

[Heron TSG]

FYI: If any of your are helping organize one of these, stay away from 'Occupy Resources'. They claim to be trying to spread information about the protests, but are actually just spreading their own ideologies. 9/11 conspiracy theories, fluoride 'facts', and downright lies abound. I think they're one of the many organizations started to undermine the movement. I wish people would just play nice. 

[Chaoswizkid]

Other countries generally show a lot more enthusiasm when they do stuff like this.  Greece is especially hardcore.  Americans just kinda mill about.  Walking from Point A to Point B with pre-approval of authorities is seen as the height of rebellious activity.  Anything beyond that is seen as some kind of radical extremism.

Unless a riot happens, that is. Detroit still seems to be in the process of slowly dying due to the 1967 riot. It's literally to the point that the crime rate is decreasing because there aren't enough people left to commit crimes against in the ghost neighborhoods.

Doesn't Urban Spelunking raise the crime rate? I wonder what portion of the crime rate if it is, because if it'd be really sad if it's ten percent or larger.

[Sheb]

As an European it's really fun to watch the difference in news coverage across the Atlantic. Over here, everybody depict the Occupy Wall St. as a copy of the Indignand movement, while in the U.S. it's the other way around. :p Come on, we're busy enough fighting our politics, we do not have the time to make "support rallies" for the kids in Wall Street. :p

[Bdthemag]

Fox News continues to piss me off, they're saying that the protestors that we're going into a bank to close their accounts "locked themselves in and refused to come out". When really they were locked in by the police and arrested.

I am unable to understand how a news station thats only job is to create bullshit stays on air for so long.

[Nadaka]

Fox News continues to piss me off, they're saying that the protestors that we're going into a bank to close their accounts "locked themselves in and refused to come out". When really they were locked in by the police and arrested.

I am unable to understand how a news station thats only job is to create bullshit stays on air for so long.

Fox news isn't a news station. It is the propaganda arm of the 1% (or more accurately Rupert Murdoch and friends).

[kaijyuu]

News sources are always going to be biased toward who supports them. Privately owned news sources are going to be biased to the private industries that fund them. Government run news sources are going to biased toward the government. Public news sources (like PBS or NPR, for those in the US) are your best best, because their support is donations; their support is their viewers, so they're going to try to appease them.

[SalmonGod]

I don't even pay attention to news anymore.  At most, I'll see a headline that alerts me to a current event.  Once I'm aware of the event, I don't look at news on it again.  I look for the people who are there.  I'm typically aware of things before they hit the news.  I knew about Occupy Wall St a couple weeks before it started.

I encourage everybody these days to ignore the main stream media as much as possible.  We don't need them anymore.  Keep your ear to the virtual ground, and catch information virally.  Then, go straight to the source.

[Osmosis Jones]

I would just like to say that, as an Australian, we apologise for producing Rupert Murdoch (also Ken Ham, but that isn't related to the topic at hand). If we'd known how he was gonna turn out, we would of sent him to NZ or something.

On the topic of news sources, the Australian broadcast corporation (ABC) is government funded, but known for very honest reporting. Indeed, up until he retired recently, going up against the reporter Kerry O'Brien was considered one of the single most challenging things a politician could do, regardless of which side of the political fence they were on. That was probably because he had an annoying tendency of actually listening to the politicians and calling them out on any contradictions... Anyhoo, it is posibal to have government funded critical thought. Possibly because any attempt to cut their cash will be used to drum up claims of stifling protest by the opposition.

[RedKing]

Well, well, well....looks like even here in peaceful old Raleigh the protests are not without some crackdown. 19 people were arrested last night for refusing to vacate the Capitol grounds. No slamming heads to the ground or pepper spray, but I'm still mildly surprised.