Occupy Movement's Plan to Choke Off Major West Coast Terminal Ignored by National Press

The Occupy movement's unmasking as the radicals they really are and always have been continues, conveniently almost completely outside the notice of the establishment press.

As far as I can tell, only one press report by Erik Olson at the Daily News based in Longview, Washington is reporting, and even then with the use of a very inadequate headline, that Occupy Longview intends to "thwart" shipping activity at the Port of Longview. Specifically (bolds are mine throughout this post):

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Protest planned for first ship to dock at EGT grain terminal

The U.S. Coast Guard will escort the first ship coming to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview this month, and the Occupy movement and local labor groups say they are planning to greet the vessel with a massive protest.

EGT officials say they have not scheduled a date for the ship's arrival. The freighter is expected to haul thousands of tons of grain to Asia, but opposition groups are already marshaling their forces to support the lengthy protest by union dock workers at the grain terminal.

"We just want to swell the population of the city to show there are people behind us," said Jeff Washburn, president of the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Central Labor Council, which passed a resolution calling for a protest this week.

He added that the labor council plans no attempt to stop the ship, a sentiment echoed in a similar call for protest by leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

However, the Occupy movement it taking a more aggressive stance, calling for members nationwide to gather outside Port of Longview gates and thwart efforts to load the ship, said Paul Nipper, an organizer for Occupy Longview. The group shut down the ports coastwide, including Longview, Dec. 8.

The Coast Guard will deploy one or two vessels to escort the grain ship up the Columbia River, with more on call if necessary, said Lt. Lucas Elder, a spokesman for Coast Guard's Portland-based marine safety unit. Other law-enforcement agencies will also be present, he said.

... Mark Holliday, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701, said the union supports the Occupy movement but feels its message has been co-opted by the ILWU.

This is the same port which has been the subject of a long-running and often violent labor dispute between the ILWU, which had represented workers at the port, and the Operating Engineers, who do now.

Only a few center-right blogs and outlets have picked up the story, most notably The Blaze, Gateway Pundit, OWS Exposed, and BigGovernment.com. The Associated Press, as seen in a search on "Longview" at the AP's national site and in a different search on ["Associated Press" Longview] at Google (typed exactly as indicated between brackets), appears to have nothing. The New York Times? Likewise (search is on Longview Washington).

An Investor's Business Daily editorial on Friday put the planned Occupy Longview actions, and the blame for the tactical escalation, in proper perspective:

It's time elected leaders interested in a functioning economy got tough with the fringe lunatics of Occupy who insist on interfering with the livelihoods of others without any consequences to themselves.

Coddled by President Obama, left-wing local governments, mainstream media and Big Labor, Occupy has taken this soft underbelly of establishment support as a license to act in increasingly lawless ways, hurting the very working people they purport to champion.

They're now openly disrupting trade, vowing to stop shipping at the port of Longview, Wash. In normal civilizations this is known as piracy.

... The threat was serious enough for President Obama to call in the Coast Guard to escort ships from the Columbia River to their final Pacific-bound destinations in coming days.

The president had good reason, given the importance of grain exports to the nation's economy, starting with the grain grown by the farmers of the Midwest, to the processors who clean it, sort it and bag it, to the truckers, riverboat pilots and train men who transport it, and to the longshoremen who load it on ships bound for Asia.

... The gutless reactions of Occupy cities have encouraged the lawlessness. For instance, New York last week opted to dismiss arrest charges against hundreds of Occupy protestors, in effect sending them the message that they won't be held accountable for their acts.

... Was there ever any incident even remotely parallel to this kind of descent into lawlessness associated with the far larger Tea Parties?

There was not, and a big reason is that the Tea Parties were a true civil society group seeking to work within the system.

Occupy has no such pretenses. Its aim is to smash the system, put working Americans out of work, and win adulation from the establishment left and its media allies.

The press appears to be holding the adulation in this instance until it sees how successful Occupy Longview is. Seriously, we're getting more informative news on this from the World Socialist Workers' web site.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.