I agree that Barney Frank was mistaken a bit. I love him though. The mistake is that he is too close to the politics and not paying much attention to how his struggle is coming across in the media. I think part of what made Occupy Wall Street happen was people saw how unfairly he was treated. And people are reacting that, -along with the ridiculous concessions that the President allowed the Republicans to have over the debt ceiling issue. I think Barney Frank could be considered the "God Father of Occupy Wall Street."

However, I think Mr. Frank is right - protests without votes changes nothing.

I'll view Barney Frank as a legitimate progressive when he returns his campaign contributions from Wall Street. I think the entire United States Congress should be considered the Godfather of Occupy Wall Street, it was our National Suicide Watch this past spring and summer that ignited this fire, the tinder had been piling up for years. All it took to light it was a couple of months of watching our government in action, to figure out that none of them cared how they were affecting real lives. This fire is going to be a really tough one to put out, without losing part of the house.

Well said.

Saw the video, nice. 1/2 million views. Excellent.

Good luck with the violent change thingy, though. If there is one thing that empires have been able to do very well for the last 5000 years is deal with people trying to make violent change. Whole industries have been built just to deal with that.

When the 1% start taking so much from the rest of us that the top 9% start hearing from their managers that they are having trouble making their quarterly profits increase as much as they did last quarter... then that's when change will happen. That's when the main stream media will be allowed to take notice. That's when people will be told that they should be angry. - Without the support of the 9% even MSNBC would not givethese protests this much coverage.

There is so many horrible things going on in the world, so many horrible things that have gone on in history, and only reason they ever get focused on in the media is when they fit the story of the rich.

Occupy Wall Street fits the wishes of the rich because it is a call to stabilize the capitalist system. With an unstable and untrustworthy system no one makes money. The 9% know this and that's why the protests are allowed to happen. Your violent change will never happen because the 9% would never allow it to go that far.

You showed me a movie where 3 women are paper sprayed, and people have a knee on their neck. Maybe it's shocking because they look like middle class white people. Blacks, in the Pullman Porters Union for example, were killed on mass and there was little out cry. The American Indians had a campaign of genocide and there was little outcry. In Europe the pagan people (now the Wicca) religion were killed by the hundreds of thousands and there was little outcry and no moral uprising from the people. This is all because the ruling class condoned this slaughter.

Now you have Occupy Wall Street - which I fully support - but you have to understand that this protest is being allowed. It is not any kind of rebellion. There will be no violent uprising -(do you have any idea what one single predator drone could do to a crowd of unarmed people carrying signs). If the protests threatened the system they would end in a second.

There may be some violence, there may be civil disobedience to gain media attention - all good stuff - but it is for publicity, not to change "the unsustainable system," as you call it.

So, be outraged! Chant and Yell! Make noise! dedicate your life to a cause - all good stuff. But you are not changing the system. You are sustaining the system.

Changing the system is like going onto a football field during the Super Bowl and saying, "You guys have so much anger and competition. Lets change all that. Lets plant a vegetable garden in the middle of the field.. Look! It will be fun, the line backers can dig the furrows and the quarterback can choose what seeds to plant." - that's real change. And it will never be allowed to happen.

In other words, turning Wall Street into a vegetable garden is real change, and Wall Street will never become a vegetable garden by peace or by violence - but only by vision. (..which means, envisioning it, planing for the obstacles, and making it happen) For now, the only thing you can do is vote.