Box Has Got Lots of Online Extras
Like many other high school juniors, Christy Box of Melbourne is involved in lots of extracurricular activities.  She’s a Student Ambassador for her school, the editor of the student newspaper, the vice president of the Future Business Leaders Association, and a member of the Fine Arts Club.

But unlike most Floridahigh school students, Christy doesn’t actually go to school every day.  Christy is a full-time student in the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) and all of those student groups she participates in are online clubs for FLVS students.

That Box has become a quintessential “joiner” is somewhat ironic, because she first took an interest in online schooling to escape the impersonal mob scene at her large public school.  Yet, Christy has found that relationship-building is certainly possible in a virtual school.  And she says that one of the best things about being an FLVS student is that it allows her to establish a one-on-one relationship with her teachers.  (In addition to being “high-tech,” FLVS has a “high-touch” commitment to regular teacher-student phone calls.)

Having taken her “online school” with her on long trips, Christy says she “loves the flexibility of FLVS.”  She says her two siblings, both of whom are significantly older, “wish that they had had virtual schooling when they were coming along.”

Box hopes to study screenwriting at theUniversityofSouthern Californiaafter she completes her high school studies.  But for now, she’s busy taking honors classes and “attending” school club meetings – much like many other high school juniors.     

McCray Marches to His Own Virtual Beat
Freshman tuba player Tariq McCray of the Lake Howell High School Marching Band prepared for the fall football season last summer in a most unusual way.  He enrolled in an online Algebra class.    

Knowing that the demands on his time in the fall would be great, Tariq decided to “get a head start” on his studies by enrolling in a math class through theFloridaVirtualSchool.  By starting Algebra I in June, he not only bought himself some much-needed scheduling flexibility in the fall, but he put himself in a position where he could complete Algebra I and Geometry online by the beginning of his sophomore year.  

McCray hopes to enroll in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at nearby Seminole High next fall; yet, to do so, he needs to be ready to take Algebra II next fall with the other IB sophomores.  That’s where FLVS pays off – since it allows motivated students to work at a faster pace if they desire.

Tariq first got acquainted with FLVS when he took a keyboarding class in 7^th grade. He then knocked out his high school physical education requirement online in 8^th grade, beginning that course during the winter holidays “since I didn’t have any other schoolwork.” 

McCray says he likes the convenience and flexibility of online classes, but concedes that virtual classes sometimes face challenges.  “Group projects get complicated online,” he says.  “They usually work better in the classroom.”  Still, McCray says he wants to keep taking online classes throughout high school – even (or especially) if it means studying during his school “breaks.”

The McKay Scholarship is aimed at allowing the parents of students with learning disabilities the chance to choose a school in their area that best accommodates that disability.  However, school choice advocates want to see that ability to choose extended to all students and not limit our youth to the school to which they’re zoned.  This model mimics the university system which is a beacon for international talent and in turn, best accommodates the educational needs of its student body.  Competition is the underlying agent that allows for universities to develop programs that differ from other schools and offers more choice for parents looking to send their children off to college.  Doesn’t this sound familiar?  All businesses in the private sector have to develop ways of competing with each other to attract customers.  This makes for efficiently made, more attractive products.

If the tables were turned, and our university system was run similar to the public K-12 system, flagship universities in the state of Florida wouldn’t be able to harbor the students they house now, and small town folk like me would be limited to a 2 year degree in something in which we have no interest.  Supporters of school choice want to see the same university model applied to the K-12 system, promoting choice and competition where everyone will benefit. 

The current K-12 system mandates that if children want to attend public school, they are limited to enrolling in the school assigned to the zip code where they live.  On the surface, this seems like a reasonable model because of convenience.  But parents realize the difference in quality of schools between the public high school down the road and the private high school across town.  Parents who can afford to send their children across town usually do so.  Unfortunately, the current model lets only families who can dish out the extra cash have more choice.  I’d like to see that option extended to all families which will in turn benefit everyone.  A shift in the direction of more school choice will generate competition between schools, and that spirit of competition will benefit everyone, even those who can’t afford to send their children across town to that private high school.

I understand that this proposed new system would mean that the current funding formula would have to change.  Replace this complex formula, that basically throws money at schools based on per student enrollment, with a simpler model that attaches the funding to the student and follows that student wherever his/her parents choose to send their child to receive their education.  Unfortunately, teachers unions won’t budge on the issue.  Their narrowly focused objectives hurt Florida’s youth because they only look at the surface of the problem, at blindly protecting the jobs of all teachers, good or bad, and at protecting their revenue stream.  If they listened to the idea, they would realize that it actually emphasizes what their purpose should be in the first place.

In all, if parents had more school choice, they would be more satisfied with the schools to which they send their children, and the economic engine through which America educates its youth would be stronger heading into the future.

In a press release, the Foundation’s President/CEO Robert Enlow observes that “When it comes to school choice, the tide of reform is rising. Last year we saw unprecedented progress for school choice, and as 2012 kicks off with National School Choice Week, we expect this year to be just as successful.” Unfortunately, the very success of the school choice movement has stirred a pushback from opponents, notably the teachers unions. In particular they’ve been filing lawsuits against voucher programs that enable parents to choose any school, public or private, faith-based or strictly secular.

One weapon they’re using is the so-called Blaine Amendment, which appears in the state constitutions of Florida and 36 other states. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris that voucher programs enabling pupils to attend private schools – including those operated by religious organizations – do not violate the U.S. Constitution, some states’ interpretations of the Blaine Amendment could stand in the way of school choice. So it’s instructive to note the embarrassing origins of the Blaine Amendment. Herewith a bit of history that I recounted in an op-ed column recently published in the Tallahassee Democrat:   

The amendment “was named for James G. Blaine of Maine, 1884’s GOP presidential nominee. He narrowly lost to Grover Cleveland after an especially divisive campaign. It famously included a Blaine supporter’s quip that the Democrats were the party of ‘rum, Romanism, and rebellion.’ The ‘Romanism’ was an obvious attempt to harness the anti-Catholic calumny that Catholics owed more loyalty to the pope than to theU.S.   

“The Blaine Amendment almost became a part of the U.S. Constitution, passing in the U.S. House in 1875, when Blaine was Speaker, but failing in the Senate. Unfortunately, 37 states – including Florida– soon incorporated the Blaine wording into their state constitutions as a wave of immigrants from Catholic countries fed an anti-Catholic backlash.

“Of course, the Blaine Amendment’s wording offers no clue as to its origins in religious bigotry. Instead, it sounds like a mere expansion of the U.S. Constitution’s provision forbidding an establishment of religion. In Florida’s Constitution it reads, ‘No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.’

“The 2011 Florida Legislature passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment to remove this relic of post-Civil War bigotry from Florida’s Constitution. The proposal may be on the ballot next November so Floridians may vote on it – or maybe not. Ironically, the Florida Education Association and other groups that have blasted the Legislature for allegedly trying to ‘suppress the vote’ now want to go well beyond suppressing the vote; they want to totally block a vote on this proposal…. Thus far they’ve succeeded in getting a Tallahassee circuit judge to toss the measure off the ballot because they deemed its wording “misleading.” This triggered a new process wherein Florida’s attorney general got a chance to do a rewrite, and she did.

“Meanwhile, what the teachers unions apparently fear is that removing this wording from Florida’s Constitution might clear the way for more school vouchers, allowing parents to send their kids to schools whose teachers aren’t necessarily unionized. What a shame that the main impetus for keeping this relic of post-Civil War anti-Catholic bigotry in Florida’s Constitution is coming from a union purporting to represent the people who teach our kids.”

The Florida Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether Florida voters will get a chance in November to delete the Blaine Amendment from the state Constitution. If that happens, then Floridians will have more reason to celebrate when School Choice Week rolls around next year.

The Twinkies brand even survived the public-relations fallout in 1978 when the lawyers defending San Francisco Supervisor Dan White claimed that eating too many of the sugary snack cakes had brought about a “diminished capacity” that led him to shoot and kill fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk.The California jury swallowed this so-called “Twinkie Defense.” The court convicted White of manslaughter rather than murder, thereby turning Milk into a gay martyr whom Hollywood later profiled in an Oscar-winning film titled Milk.

Arguably the publicity over the Twinkie Defense also caused millions of nervous moms – fearing that a “sugar rush” might cause their toddlers suddenly to become homicidal – began omitting Twinkies from snack time in favor of celery stalks and carrot sticks.

Unfortunately, even though the company managed to survive the Twinkie Defense era, it could not survive a toxic legacy that accompanied its growth. Through the years, the 81-year-old company, which began in the nation’s Heartland, managed to spread nationwide by acquiring smaller companies and expanding its vast distribution network. In the process of acquiring those other companies, Hostess also acquired a slew of union contracts – 372 in all, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Many of these contracts include archaic work rules and unsustainable pension obligations that do not burden the company’s principal competitors – including Thomasville, Georgia-based Flowers Foods. A case in point: As the Wall Street Journal reported, “In some instances, work rules mandate that separate trucks must deliver bread and cake products.” So why can’t Twinkies and Wonder Bread share a ride? Ask the ever-truculent Teamsters, one of the two major labor unions representing Hostess Brands employees.

Granted, in the short run, making distribution more efficient by consolidating deliveries might cost a few unionized drivers their jobs. On the other hand, allowing the company to prosper so as to live another day could preserve more jobs in the long run. So by unreasonably insisting on clinging to inefficient practices such as separate deliveries of snack cakes and bread in order to protect drivers’ jobs, the union has placed all of the drivers’ jobs at risk. In the process, it is also eroding whatever value the company’s shareholders still had.

Will 2012 really see the Twilight of the Twinkie? It’s too soon to tell. The unions – even the Teamsters — now indicate that they may be willing to talk, so the company could conceivably avoid some of the costs that currently keep it from being able to compete successfully in a field where profit margins are slim in the best of times. This, in turn, might free up some of the revenue now wasted on union featherbedding for other purposes, including research leading to the development and promotion of new products.

Who knows? If Hostess Brands successfully transits this latest bankruptcy process and survives to bake on, perhaps a hungry public will eventually see a gourmet version of Wonder Bread and a brand new product beside the Ding Dongs on the snack aisle: Sugar-Free Low-Fat Twinkies 2.0.

If Chris Christie had decided to run for the White House, he would have set off a wave of nostalgia for the 1912 presidential election; because Christie, somewhat curiously, bears a striking resemblance to all three major presidential candidates from the 1912 election.

In girth, Christie certainly looks like a William Howard Taft Republican.  In style, Christie mounts the bully pulpit like that pugnacious Bull Moose, Theodore Roosevelt.  And in position, Christie holds the distinction of being the first New Jersey Governor since Woodrow Wilson to entertain a serious run for the White House.

While no one knows for certain which of the 1912 candidates a President Christie would have most resembled in governing, our hope should be that the next president actually draws greater inspiration from the winner of the 1812 election (James Madison) than from any of the 1912 candidates.

Moreover, our hope should be that the winner of the 2012 presidential election – and our leaders in the other two branches of government – will increasingly take to heart the Constitution thatMadisonlargely crafted.

In an age when the Supreme Court often imagines itself to be a legislative body, the President often acts as if he has the power to declare war, and the Congress often perceives that it has the power to do anything it “enumerates” (like requiring citizens to purchase health care), now would be a good time for all of us to reacquaint ourselves with our nation’s founding documents – and to insist that the winner of the 2012 presidential election govern in the way that the winner of the 1812 election intended.

Observers have cited various factors for the lack of hiring. Some say it’s because unemployment benefits – recently extended yet again – provide a disincentive for the jobless to seek work. Others say it’s because of a mismatch between the skills the nation’s workers have and the skills their potential employers need. Are our colleges graduating too many anthropologists and not enough engineers? Perhaps. Do too many high school grads head straight to college when vocational training may have been a better fit and offer a better return on their investment of time and money? Maybe so.

Still other observers claim that many employers who’d like to hire are taking a wait-and-see attitude because they’ve been spooked by the uncertainties created by Obamacare and by other troubling signs, including a series of pro-union edicts issued by the National Labor Relations Board. Sounds plausible.

Yet economist Jeff Thredgold points out yet another reason for the jobs paradox: Workers who in the past might have relocated to places with abundant job opportunities are now essentially trapped in their homes. Indeed, the chance for most workers to sell their homes for a profit – or even for more than they owe – simply doesn’t exist right now. This means that the geographic circle within which jobless workers may sensibly seek employment is circumscribed by the distance they’re willing to commute from their current home. In short, what was once an economic asset has become an economic albatross.

It’s more than a real estate problem. By hampering workers’ mobility, it’s also interfering with a time-honored American tradition in which folks who learned of places where the grass was greener pulled up stakes and moved – whether from the crowded slums of America’s big cities to the gold fields of California, the corn fields of Iowa, and the oil fields of Texas — or away from the cotton fields of Mississippi to the assembly lines of Detroit.

Mr. Thredgold elaborates:

“One of the common developments in ‘the olden days’ of five years ago and earlier was the concept that American workers typically had the ability to be mobile…to move from one geographic area to another…from one state or city to another…in order to fill an open employment position. … That was then…this is now.

“The movement of Americans is at its lowest level since World War II.  Weak housing markets of the past 4-5 years now find millions of people buried in their homes, with no chance of selling at a profit.  Note that roughly one out of every four homeowners across the nations is ‘underwater’ on their home…they owe more on their mortgage than the home is worth….

“This has profound implications for the American economy, with perhaps the greatest impact on manufacturing firms around the nation.  A recent survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche and The Manufacturing Institute noted that American manufacturers cannot fill 600,000 skilled positions, or 5% of all current manufacturing jobs (NADCA)…. 

“The survey showed that 67% of manufacturers have a moderate to severe shortage of available, qualified employees … The survey also noted that 64% of manufacturing executives lament the lack of skilled workers, which is making it more difficult to expand their operations or boost productivity.”

Mr. Thredgold also takes notice of another recession-related problem, one of particular interest to Floridians:

Mr. Thredgold also takes notice of another recession-related problem, one of particular interest to Floridians:  
“The lack of mobility has also had a major impact upon traditional retirement locales such asArizona,Florida, andNevada.  If people can’t sell their homes in colder climates following retirement, they can’t easily move to warmer destinations. This reality has contributed to the real estate busts or painful price corrections in one retirement community after another — inPhoenix, inTucson, inSan Diego, inLas Vegas, inMiami, inNaples, etc. of the past four years.

“It has not been unusual to see initial home or condominium prices down 40%, 50%, 60% and sometimes more in these communities.

The old mindset for a retirement community developer was ‘if you build it, they will come.’  The mobility issue rendered that view flawed in recent years.”

To read more of Mr. Thredgold’s insights on this and other economic issues, check out his website: http://www.thredgold.com/tea-leaf/. Meanwhile, it’s obvious that a real estate recovery means more than a bunch of guys with hammers and saws getting back to building homes. It’s also essential for a restoration of mobility for millions of workers and retirees who are now trapped in their homes and therefore not free to move away to take a job.

Take for example my aunt who teaches in Miami-Dade public schools. When I saw her on Christmas Day inMiami, she asked me what I thought of our Governor, Rick Scott. Her opinion of him is not so high. But after I asked her a few questions, it didn’t seem like she had all the facts on her side. She was, once again (sigh), repeating talking points straight from the teachers union reps.

I reminded her that just a few weeks prior, Governor Scott proposed to increase public education spending by $1 billion/year. 

Honestly, while I like many things about this Governor, I don’t agree with him that more spending is the answer. Consider this: because of the poor state of the current economy, there is a lower revenue stream coming into state government (via our taxes). Therefore,Florida’s Legislature will once again have to cut $2 billion in spending just to balance the budget. Unlike Washington, Florida actually has to balance its budget each year (as directed by the state constitution). So, the projections have us once again in a “revenue shortfall” by $2 billion this year. 

Taking the projected shortfall into account, if we do what the Governor wants to do, and INCREASE spending for education by $1 billion this year, we’ll have to cut $3 billion elsewhere. That’s awfully tough when you consider that education is already the #2 spending item in the state budget–roughly 13% of the state budget. (The largest spending item in the budget is health care, most of which is Medicaid.)

Plus, study after study shows that money is NOT the answer to improving education. Some of the worst school systems in the country (DC and NJ) are also the ones that spend the most on education.

The teachers unions like to say that conservative Governors like Jeb Bush and Rick Scott are anti-teacher. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Governors Bush and Scott have done more than any other Florida Governors in recent history to try to cut down on other spending items that strain the state budget (like Medicaid) and push positive reforms like merit pay for teachers (more money for good teachers) and the expansion of school choice (more options for poor and middle class students and parents such as charter schools and vouchers). 

In my opinion, the biggest thing hindering education reform is the teachers unions and the administrative bureaucracies. Local, state, and federal administration buildings are expensive monstrosities, and the bureaucrats in them know very little about what’s going on in individual classrooms, yet they put a lot of demands on teachers like my aunt. What we need is more local control of education–ultimately individual control–and I think that day is coming (especially with new technologies such as virtual school). The teachers unions realize they are losing their control over education–and thus money and power—and are fighting it in every way they can, even if it means giving teachers and school administrators false information.

The article, which cited many colorful examples of Mitt Romney’s personal frugality, sought to show that rich man Romney isn’t just a bit of a stiff – he doesn’t even find it easy to spend his own money.  In fact, according to the Times, the only time Mitt ever really splurges is when his wife wants something – especially something that their entire family can enjoy.

Two things struck me about the supposed irony in this Jekyll-and-Hyde portrait of Mr. Romney.  First, the article revealed just how little the Times editors understand about the true meaning of “thrift.”  While some falsely associate the word with miserliness and joyless self-denial, thrift actually finds its root in the term “to thrive.”  And Benjamin Franklin, in his best-selling book, The Way to Wealth, argued that thrift traits like frugality and industry hold the key to our financial flourishing.

Surely, nothing in my experience contradicts Franklin.  Most wealthy people I know have a knack for practicing thrift.  Most thrifty people I know have greater wealth than their non-thrifty peers.  And most married men I know practice some measure of thrift to help their loved ones thrive.  So, I see no inconsistency between the rich Romney and the thrifty Romney. 

Second, if indeed it’s true that “stiff Mitt” finds it hard to spend his own money, is that such a bad trait in a presidential candidate?  I could be wrong here – and I’m certainly not trying to make the case for a Romney presidency – but I suspect that people who are careful with their own money are more apt to be careful with the taxpayers’ money, too.  And the last thing our nation needs at a time like this is a president who finds it easy to spend and spend and spend. 

For as ol’ Ben Franklin understood well, thrift isn’t just “the way to wealth” for individuals and households – it’s the way to restored wealth for a once-thriving-but-now-debt-ridden nation.

To that end, 2011 saw this tremendous influence manifest itself in many ways.  JMI Senior Fellow Peter Schweizer appeared on numerous national outlets including 60 Minutes, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Bloomberg, The Politico, and Newsweek to promote his recent book: Throw Them All Out…a steely-eyed look at the insidious nature of crony capitalism inWashington. Moreover, we produced our legislative handbook and numerous studies from which fundamental public policy was established here in the Sunshine State: pension reform, Medicaid reform, the expansion of school choice, improvement in the regulatory environment, and the lowering of taxes, a spirited defense of state autonomy against federal healthcare overreach and an emphasis on greater government transparency at all levels. Our ability to educate, and thereby influence, the decisions of our elected officials has never been stronger.

There is more.  JMI hosted nearly 60 events in the Sunshine State while appearing in virtually every single media market in Florida, time and again. We reached more than 130,000 high school kids (that’s not a misprint), teaching them about the foundational principles that have made America that “shining city on the hill,” while winning a national award for our efforts in that area. Finally, our Capital Campaign is nearly complete, renovations of our new building, 60 seconds from the Capitol, are well underway, and we anticipate moving into our new headquarters in April. As I have said before, we are a “do tank,” not a think tank, and 2011 is full examples of The James Madison Institute getting things done.

And yet, 2012 is a crucial year in both our state’s and our nation’s history. It will be an important election season; we are facing strong headwinds to an economic recovery, and there are numerous important policy decisions to be made in both Tallahassee and Washington. Unfortunately, the attacks on our freedoms are always there. That is why JMI has been preparing for 2012 for quite some time now – outlining policy priorities, meeting with elected officials, expanding our staff, and planning various statewide events focused on protecting liberty. We’ve added a multimedia journalist to our staff, Will Patrick. He will be reporting on policy issues from a balanced and fresh perspective sorely lacking in parts of the mainstream media. He’ll also be working with “citizen journalists” around our state who do such a great job of holding our local elected officials accountable, giving these citizen journalists a bigger stage to connect with other like-minded patriots.

And we are really excited about this: on February 8^th JMI will be hosting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in Naples. Governor Walker has shown once again that freedom and the rule of law work every time they are tried. He has made Wisconsin a model for the country in so many ways, and despite the onslaught of attacks by the statists, he remains principled and unafraid.

In the meantime, let’s go forward protecting and promoting liberty together.

By Robert F. Sanchez, JMI Policy Director
Posted December 28, 2011
The death of brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il put a spotlight on the contrast in conditions on opposite sides of the 38^th parallel, which remains the dividing line between the Republic of Korea to the south and Kim’s stronghold, the laughably misnamed “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

Kim, who recently succumbed to a heart attack that was quite possibly related to his obvious obesity, reportedly enjoyed a gourmand’s taste in food and wine while an estimated 2 million of his tyrannized subjects perished during mass starvations. International observers say Kim’s regime might have done more to save the lives of his countrymen had he not been so preoccupied with persecuting Christians, snuffing out domestic dissent, developing weapons of mass destruction, and shipping arms to other tyrants and to terrorist groups around the world. Unfortunately for his nation’s hungry masses, Kim routinely spurned humanitarian aid that was offered on the condition that he end his nuclear program. Neither would he agree to make the political and economic reforms that could have allowed his backward and isolated nation to devote more of its resources to development and less to sustaining one of the world’s largest military forces.

Meanwhile, as North Korea stagnated for more than half a century, signs of South Korea’s remarkable economic progress continued to spread, from Seoul’s gleaming skyline and crowded highways to the millions of American homes where Korean brands such as Hyundai, Kia, and Samsung are found. The underlying cause of this stark contrast is no mystery: As the Heritage Foundation reports, “Since 2001, South Korea’s score on the Index of Economic Freedom has ranged from the high 60s to low 70s on a scale of 100.North Korea’s score for the same period has been no higher than 10, and currently stands at 1.0.” The contrast between the two Koreas is graphically evident in this Washington Post chart tracking their economic growth rates.

Granted, this contrast between a relatively free economy and a closed society should come as no surprise. We’ve seen it before, on the opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. There, the contrasts were as evident as the differences between the shiny BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes in the free portion ofGermanyandEast Germany’s notoriously dysfunctional attempt at an auto, the Trabant – a car high on Time Magazine’s list of “The 50 Worst Cars of All Time.” All of this is a reminder of the wisdom of Winston Churchill’s sarcastic warning when Britainwas beginning to flirt with socialism: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Of course, with some deluded Americans now staging “Occupy Wall Street” rallies that seek to make the U.S. economy more like North Korea’s – albeit while keeping all of the liberties that a free economy affords – it’s probably a good thing for all of us to be reminded from time to time of contrasts such as the two Koreas, which vividly demonstrate that socialism simply does not work. Yet in their posturing about the 99 percent vs. the one percent, socialism’s American promoters mesmerize their audience by focusing on “economic inequality” as an obstacle to achieving “social justice,” and folks oblivious toAmerica’s founding principles and economic realities still believe that socialism works, despite all of the evidence to the contrary fromPyongyang to Havana.

Then again, the socialists have a beguiling way of crunching the numbers. Consider, for instance, the announcement that Kim’s government-controlled media made the very first time he ever picked up a golf club. Miracle of miracles, playing 18 holes on a par 72Pyongyangcourse that’s more than 7,000 yards long, the chubby dictator reportedly made eleven holes-in-one for a remarkable total score of 34. That’s an astounding 38 strokes under par – a feat unmatched even by Tiger Woods when he was in peak form. And, of course, Kim’s feat was duly witnessed by his phalanx of security guards.

That whole scenario is absurd, of course, but it’s no more absurd than the whining of Occupy Wall Street’s rebels without a clue.