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Occupy the American Bankers Association!!!

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US lobbyists aimed to smear Occupy Wall Street: report

NEW YORK — A top US lobbying firm tied to the financial industry pitched a $850,000 plan to smear the Occupy Wall Street movement and discredit sympathetic politicians, MSNBC television reported Saturday.

A memo written on the letterhead of well-known Washington lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford urged the American Bankers Association (ABA), a client, to conduct "opposition research" on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct "negative narratives" about the protests and its political backers.

Warning that the movement could lead to weakened support for Wall Street among both Democratic and Republican politicians, the four-page memo targeted specific states where the outcome of 2012 elections could have a major impact on the financial sector.

If Democrats make the OWS movement's anti-capitalist message a centerpiece of their campaigns, "this would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street," said the memo posted on MSNBC's website.

"It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hVelRnArxEc4NlRU9y1jO6IPOemQ?docId=CNG.f2a3a0fa4ad4e680720e79b2681beb07.321

And SURPRISE SURPRISE, the lobbyists who wrote the memo are all ex- Republican Congressiobnal staffers. Who could have seen that one coming?

EDIT: The full memo can be read here:

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/CLGF-msnbc.pdf

#politics