Occupying the Occupiers - UNH

On Thursday (11/10/11), dozens of socially-conscious students and community members gathered on the campus of the University of New Hampshire to express their frustrations and solutions to the current state of affairs in America. Two not-wholly different groups gathered on Thompson Hall lawn that day: one organized in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, and one rallied around capitalism and free markets as a counter-protest, organized by Young Americans for Liberty at UNH and UNH College Republicans. They stood a fair distance apart, but over the 2-hour protest a practical dialogue arose among the attendees about the causes and solutions to the ills that weaken America in support of an elite few over the many.

Towards the end of the "stack," or speakers list, I submitted my name for a chance to address the assembly. Instead of devoting my time for comments on the future structure, organization or name for this group as most were discussing, I chose to spark an existential dialogue within the occupiers. 

The occupiers were there to express their frustrations with capitalism, pointing to the failures of a system propped up by large corporations and the US government. Some spoke about corporate person hood in elections and Citizens United as well as corporate welfare in the form of bank bailouts. As far as I could see, I agreed with the occupiers on this issue of rampant corporatism in America. The thing was, they would tell you that capitalism begets corporatism, and I would go to say that "ignoble politicians" perpetuate this unjust system. I believe solutions grounded in markets and free people -- capitalism -- will decentralize power away from state, a collection of powerful elites unaccountable to the public. We might as well call it "the 1%."

Gamers are under attack!

Senator Amy Klobuchar has introduced a bill S. 978, which would make it a criminal act to post movie clips or video of games online.  This includes videos that are not downloadable and that are simply video clips of you taping what is happening on your own TV screen.  

This has particularly enraged gamers as online walkthroughs or instructions to unlock achievements in a video game would become illegal.  This means no more Youtubing how to defeat Nazi Zombies or how to unlock the sweetest gun in Halo.  

Perhaps the worst part of the bill can be summed up from this paragraph of the story:

Critics of the bill believe that it could create extensive "gray areas" in the law, empowering prosecutors with huge amounts of discretion to target Web Sites, indiviudal internet users, or even entire video platforms like Youtube or Vimeo.

Although the story does not go as far to call this bill an assault on free speech or a shifty tactic to enforce the intellectual property racket, I will.

Secret, 'Special' Interests

The latest tactic progressives are attempting is to scare voters into thinking that behind every conservative, Tea Party or Republican candidate or group are secret, foreign corporations and individuals propping them up with funding. The implication is that these 'special' interests represent a threat to our system of democracy. 

Part of the issue stems from a recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, in which the majority of the justices ruled that corporations have free speech rights in respect to their ability to fund political opinion. Many Democrats and progressives, including Obama, have at many times railed against the decision.

One group under attack is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Recently, there has been an effort to insinuate that the Chamber is backed by foreign special interests, despite little evidence to prove it. The Chamber's head of government affairs has even asserted that the push to disclose donor information may be an attempt by the Obama administration to intimidate those who fund the organization. Other conservative-leaning groups, like Americans for Prosperity, have also come under fire from Obama and other Democrats desperately hoping to find a way to minimize the severity of their predicted election losses next month.

The Government Is the Problem, Part Five Million

If anything has made my blood pressure spike this week (and it's been a bad week), it would be today's Huffington Post article reporting the collusion of corporate banks and colleges across the country to exploit students' private information and push credit cards on them:

Some of the nation's largest and most elite universities stand to gain millions of dollars from selling the names and addresses of students and alumni to credit card companies while granting the companies special access to school events, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found.

The schools and their alumni associations are entitled to receive payments that multiply as students use their cards. Some colleges can receive bonuses when students incur debt...

"The fact that schools are getting paid for students to rack up debt is a disgrace," said congressman Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat and former professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He said that banks' payments to schools amount to "kickbacks."

While the typical statist spin on this would be to disparage the evils of unfettered capitalism and call for more regulations, it's important to remember that the biggest culprit here is the government.