"Human Megaphone." It's a technique protesters use when they aren't allowed to bring actual amplification electronics with them.

It's basically a call-and-repeat thing. I'd expect to see more of it, assuming some new restrictions aren't placed on those kinds of activities or the police don't get some weird DARPA sound-dampening gizmo at some point.

I've heard of the human megaphone before, and I understand its purpose, but both this and the Bachmann video refer to "mic checking". And then I'm disappointed when Phife Dawg doesn't make an appearance

"Mic check" is what they yell first to get people started, make sure people can hear the speaker and let people know they're about to start the human mic. It's pretty standard for all the Occupy movements, just most videos start after the mic check took place. And all the rappers have already left.

Well Karl's stepfather is gay and Grover married a Muslim, so as far as the Tea Party is concerned they were always living on borrowed time.

I think the TP realize that Karl Rove is muscling candidates without any democratic approval from them. He has been pushing Romney since day once and I imagine that pisses them off.

I know you are but what am I???

ATTICA ATTICA!

Yeah, people should be more polite to war criminals.

Don't hurt his feelings, you guys!

They need to make special shoes out of iron to throw at people like Karl Rove. There is no reason to ever listen to a word fuckers like him have to say.

Then why waste your time showing up to him speaking? Its not like he busted in to your living room

You're right, he just sent my brother to Iraq for a year. Big deal, I guess. Why do you hate Ameica Sugah Rain, why do you want to use our Constitution as toilet paper?

Yeah, he only helped near-bankrupt the country and got people that I know killed and.or injured in a pointless war he helped engineer so he could pad his bank accounts and feel good about his tiny dick. IT'S NOT LIKE HE HAD ANY EFFECT ON OUR LIVES OR ANYTHING, GUYS, SHEESH LAY OFF. HE HAD A HARD DAY.

Also Sugah Rain I'm really happy to have a new brainless fuck toy. Maybe you and Cena can do some ass to ass for our amusement.

So everyone bitches and moans when people respond to Cena Marks trolling. Why does Sugar Rain get a pass?

To shut him up, because he should not be allowed to speak. He forfeited his human rights with his humanity.

Im not trolling, I was just pointing out that not 99% of the audience was acting like jack asses.

Do you think that the current climate does not call for organized, peaceful protest against people that caused a lot of the problems we're experiencing right now, or do you think everything is okay and will sort itself out naturally?

Everything will be okay. It will all sort itself out naturally. However, part of that natural sorting involves mass reaction to discontent, to include protest.

However, the basically credible nature of what is going on here makes it no less absurd. Ol' Karl is just another spin doctor past his time. In his day he was an extremely intelligent and somewhat ruthless political animal who exploited ALREADY EXISTING CIRCUMSTANCES to his vast personal gain. To be more explicit, the emphasis there is that pointing the finger at Karl Rove is pointless, no pun intended. Maybe cathartic to some, I don't really know.

Raging against the Machine may be fun, but in this day and age it is not much more than that. These kinds of stunts will always be condemned as childish, pining attempts at affixing some meaning to a vague sense of social injustice that is anything but new. The unwashed masses (I fucking doubt that considering Johns Hopkins tuition is nearly 60 grand a year) could probably learn more from listening to Rove.

Rove was successful because he played the system to his advantage. Granted, he did so with little to no regard for anyone around him, and I would assume and hope that is not the ideal most people are striving for.

You need to face facts. The system exists. It is very tenuously balanced, and can be improved or degraded infinitely. Yet still, somehow, it is effective, at the absolute least, moreso than the next closest alternative. Nobody is going to tear the system down and rebuild some dirty commie utopia/Empire of Hank Williams XIV in its place. However, by working within the system, and learning to play by its rules, one might be able to affect some meaningful change in the long run.

For Hank

"You need to face facts. The system exists."

I'm not sure if I need a lecture on pragmatism, realism, political strategy and moderation, but thank you, I'm sure it comes from a completely genuine concern for the direction the country and the world is going...

If you honestly believe all this is just a bunch of people "raging against the machine," you aren't really involved and you haven't done your homework, which means you have no idea what you're talking about.

are going

Yes, people are extremely discontent with the current state of affairs. However, in my opinion, most people don't know what they are talking about. I doubt the "protesters" in this video have a good grasp on what the reality of Karl Rove's role in the creation of the problems they are complaining about was... is? People get into it mostly because they percieve social injustices and seek an affirmation of their own sense of right and wrong by participation in spectacular but pointless and low risk activities such as this. And everyone loves to complain. It's a fundamental right you possess as an American to complain about shit, regardless of its relative severity or deeper importance. They have every right to do this. But it's still stupid.

BTW when did your bro join the Navy?

If you want to do the Steve Urkel dance,
All you have to do is hitch up your pants,
Bend your knees, and stick out your pelvis;
(I'm telling you, baby, it's better than Elvis!)

Do the Urkel.

Do the u-u-u-u-u-u-rkel

^*****

I really wish I could believe that it was going somewhere. I've been watching it carefully from the beginning in hopes that it would be something, or become something, more than a glorified flash mob. I still dimly hope that. But as of now it's not. Seriously, evaluate it detached from your hopes (and mine) if you can. The second it becomes a real threat to established authority, out will come the truncheons. That's it.

Run for office. Champion legislation. Build awareness of concrete issues, not vague discontent. Be media-savvy enough to know you've got to find a way to appeal to Middle America. Have leaders worth the name. Have a set of well-defined objectives. This isn't the Arab Spring. If we were very very lucky, we might get France of May 1968. But I doubt it.

I have to wonder if the Boycott the Kardashians movement is going to achieve more (and more quickly) for the common good than the Occupy stuff. The clock is ticking.