Weary looking Russell Simmons, answering a reporter’s question about Occupy Wall Street after the movement survived a threat by NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg to “clean up” its camp in Zuccotti Park:

The message is coming out. It’s pretty simple. We are at Wall Street, and Wall Street controls our government, and we would like the people to control it. Simple.

I hear Russell, but it’s not that simple, and he knows it. First you have to find a way to separate government from the corporations and big investment banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which Matt Taibbi famously described as

…a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

This won’t happen while Obama and politicians like him continue to be elected. However, the fact that people like Simmons are on the streets protesting the unchecked power of the vampires and attracting long-overdue media attention is a big step in the right direction.

Update: According to Mediaite.com:

Hip Hop mogul and progressive activist Russell Simmons told CNN that Occupy Wall Street protestors will remain at Zuccotti Park possibly until Congress passes a constitutional amendment that says “money is going to leave Washington.”

Hmm… You want to run that by me again?