One-Percent Progressives Honor the 99 Percent

Posted by Charleston Voice, 06.25.12
by Cliff Kincaid on 21 Jun 2012

Melissa Harris-Perry and Van Jones

“Thanks for the free booze” was the cry from the audience, as members of Occupy Wall Street were given the “Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award” on Monday night at the “Take Back the American Dream” conference. Several “occupiers” made it clear they were happy to be recognized at the Awards Gala Dinner, but it was unclear how they got into the event, since most tickets were $225 each. Once in and seated, however, they had the choice of red or white wine and apparently imbibed.


Paul Wellstone is the former liberal Democratic Senator from Minnesota who was killed in a plane crash that some progressivessuspect was an assassination engineered by right-wingers or the CIA.

Becky Bond

It didn’t seem to occur to the progressives at the fancy dinner that they were living like the one percent while honoring the 99 percent. I have already written about how they attacked Wall Street but ignored liberals and Democrats like George Soros and Jon Corzine who engage in questionable financial shenanigans.

The conference featured denunciations of Republican strategist Karl Rove for his involvement in a Super PAC targeting Obama for defeat. But the liberals havetheir own Super PAC associated with the telephone service company CREDO that is designed to “Take down the Tea Party Ten.” Becky Bond, President of CREDO Super PAC, gave a seminar on how to defeat conservative members of Congress by labeling them as racist, crazy, corrupt, or anti-woman.

Melissa Bradley of Tides

Jarvis Tyner and Joelle Fishman of the Communist Party were officially registered for the event and participated in various sessions as members of the audience. Tyner introduced himself during one session as being from the CPUSA and warned his fellow progressives against the dangers of racism and anti-communism. He was followed by another member of the audience saying it was time for progressives to openly declare that capitalism had to go.
A progressive from Vermont suggested a Google search of the name “Mitt Romney” with the word “psychopath” in order to discover the truth about the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

Despite all of this, conservatives and Republicans are the ones who get labeled as politically extreme by the major media.

Josh Lederman of the Associated Press wanted to interview me at the conference, but balked when I said I was a critic and that the hypocrisy of the expensive gala awards dinner was shocking. He ended up producing a predictable piece quoting activists at the conference as urging Obama to hit Wall Street harder but ignoring my observations about the liberal elites running the fancy show.

Barbara Ehrenreich

The award to Occupy Wall Street was given by Barbara Ehrenreich, one of the honorary chairs of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who apparently expected someone from the “movement” to come forward and accept the award. Instead, members of Occupy broke out into chants from the audience, with “Thanks for the Free Booze” being the loudest.

Entertainment at the dinner was provided by comedian Baratunde Thurston, who joked that anybody who didn’t buy his book, How to be Black, was a racist, and that a special “poverty issue” of the liberal magazine The American Prospect was too expensive at $5 a copy. He was right about that one.

Accepting the “America’s future Lifetime Leadership Award,” Jesse Jackson tried to make news by urging progressives to join his nationwide protest against gun shops. Earlier, Jackson posed for a photo with this writer, clearly unaware who I was. I didn’t have the opportunity to question him about his former aide Tommy Bennettcharging him with sexual harassment and discrimination.

Bennett attorney Thomas Leverso informs me that Bennett, who is gay, “has officially moved to default both Defendant Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Defendant Jesse Jackson, Sr. for their ongoing failure(s) to appear or answer in this lawsuit. After following all applicable procedure, Mr. Bennett will, as a part of this process, present proof against Rainbow PUSH and Rev. Jackson. Mr. Bennett will continue to work with any administrative agencies likewise seeking to investigate these matters. Both Mr. Bennett and I agree that no one in the State of Illinois or the United States of America can indefinitely evade the long arm of the law.”

A “default” is a penalty for not showing up to Court. The case number for the lawsuit is 2011-L-009756 in the Circuit Court of Cook County:

Leverso says that Bennett filed his formal affidavit on June 7, 2012, essentially saying under oath that the allegations are 100 percent true.

Jackson was introduced at the conference by Jim Hightower, whose liberal radio talk show failed for lack of listeners. Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation magazine received the “America’s Future Progressive Champion Award.”

Van Jones

Some conservative media attention has been focused on another speech at the conference, a rather bizarre presentation by MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry. Predictably, as a black liberal, she described America as a racist nation. But this Tulane University professor went on to describe America’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a search for a new “racial enemy” and the “imagined other,” as if Islamic terrorism did not exist.

The Patriot Act, designed to help law enforcement find terrorists, was a bipartisan response to “our fear,” resulting in a reduction of our civil liberties, she added. She acted like the victims of 9/11 didn’t exist.

She said Democrats were too moderate, even lamenting that in 2004 the party had offered up a “soldier” from the “war machine” named John Kerry as its presidential nominee. She reminded the audience that Kerry had accepted the Democratic presidential nomination by saying, “Reporting for duty,” a reference to his status as a Vietnam War veteran. This irked Harris-Perry and she said so. Finish reading much more @Source