When Hate Consumes Reason:The Fox News “Hate-a-Thon” against Occupy Wall Street

Stacey Hessler is a 38-year-old mother of four from Florida who was so inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement she moved to Zuccotti to join the protestors.

I’m starting to think that Fox News hates the Occupy Wall Street movement almost as much as they hate President Barack Obama, and that’s really saying something.  One does not have to think hard to find examples of the anti-liberal vitriol that oozes from this cable news channel on a daily basis.  What amazes me is the lengths that the Fox News channel will go to,  just to discredit the fledgling Occupy Wall Street movement.  Their latest example came just this morning when they tried to demonize a woman from Florida named Stacey Hessler, who is participating in the Occupy Wall Street protest.  Stacey isn’t someone famous, she’s actually just a normal American citizen, exercising her right to Freedom of Speech.  The creepy thing is, Fox News did a background check, and research into their Expose’ of a normal American, in their overreaching effort to stigmatize the entire Occupy Wall Street movement.  Watch this Fox News segment entitled ” From Mom to Mob”.

As if the Fox News segment on Stacey Hessler wasn’t bad enough,  another Rupert Murdoch/NewsCorp entity, The New York Post, also jumped into the fray attacking Stacey Hessler in their own expose, calling her a “middle-aged flower child”.  The New York Post writes…….

The Florida mom who ditched her banker husband and four kids to live in Zuccotti Park squalor is a hippie homemaker whose neighbors are horrified by her latest antics — but are hardly surprised that she flew the coop.

New York Post:Neighbors ‘not surprised’ ‘hippie’ left family to join Wall Street protesters

The Village Voice ran a story regarding the attack on Hessler……..

​Stacey Hessler is a 38-year-old mother of four from Florida who was so inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement she moved to Zuccotti to join the protestors. Hessler made the trip almost two weeks ago and has been living in the park ever since. The New York Post reports she “ditched her banker husband and four kids, ” but would the paper turn Hessler into some sort of caricature? Why, they would never do that to the “Flower-power flake,” as she is described in the headline that graces the top band of the Post‘s website when you open the story.

The most incredible part of all of this, according to people who find all of this incredible, is that her husband is a banker. The odds! Fox News, who picked up the Post‘s story, says that Hessler is “keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn. ”

The following are a series of colorful terms and adjectives from the Post article used to describe Hessler, who will clearly inspire your wife to leave you and live in a park with a Brooklyn waiter:

• “Hippie homemaker”
• “Self-described ‘vegan freak'”
• “Into dreadlocks, roller derby and ‘unschooling’ her kids”
• “Acts like a self-obsessed college sophomore”
• “Middle-aged flower child”
• Boasted of “California-style beliefs.”

California-style beliefs, we assume, are beliefs about cucumber, crabmeat, and avocado.

The Post reports that Hessler describes herself on her Facebook page as a “radical unschooling mom of four, midwives assistant, roller-derby queen, rock-star musician, activist, dreadlock princess, African-bee keeper, organic vegan freak and a surrogate for the second time.”

“I’m not disgusted she took off [to protest] — because I’m not surprised,” a neighbor apparently “seethed” to the Post. “She’s very bizarre,” another unnamed neighbor added.

Should you have sympathy for Stacey Hessler, this roller-derby freak who “ditched” her kids to, as Fox News says, “become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park?”

Lauren Napoli, Hessler’s friend, told the Post that Hessler and her family are “one of the most amazing and beautiful and loving families that I’ve ever encountered.”

“She had been following this movement on her own through Facebook and YouTube and whatever, and she decided she wanted to come up to New York. And her family said, ‘Go, mom, go. This is what you want to do,'” Napoli said. “From what she said to me, she said, yeah, her family supports her.”

Hessler’s aforementioned Facebook page also features a post  from her on her wall dated October 15th:

I have a plea for my friends. I need your help and support. I want to stay occupying wall st. I feel my presence is very important in the support of non-violent communication and sanitation(keeping the park clean) I am willing to work tirelessly on these efforts. I need help with getting my kids to activities and stepping up with the things I help lead, such as one small village, jr roller derby, …

Friends responded to her request and offered help and assistance. She appears to have a network of support and, according to Napoli, Hessler’s husband and kids are fully behind her.

And that Brooklyn waiter who is supposedly “keeping her warm” at night? “It’s not like that,” Napoli says, “everyone who’s there, we’re trying to support each other, and when it rains you need to be under a structure.”

Typical ditch-prone hippie flake.

The scary thing about this is…everyone who is participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests, are part of a family.  They are your neighbors, your co-workers, brothers, sisters,  sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers.  Today it’s Stacey Hessler getting demonized, tomorrow……..it just might be you.

by Richard O. Emanuel Jr. (Occupy Cyberspace/Reclaim America from the Lunatic Fringe!)

Naomi Wolf Explains Our Constitutional RIGHT To Peacefully Assemble

Author and activist Naomi Wolf was among about a dozen people arrested on Tuesday night outside of a Huffington Post event in New York.

A group of approximately 50 demonstrators from Occupy Wall Street showed up at the event–held at Skylight Studios in Manhattan–to protest in front of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was being honored as a “game changer” by Arianna Huffington’s site.

Wolf, who contributes regularly to the Huffington Post, was a guest at the event. According to Gothamist, the modern feminist icon challenged a police officer’s claim that the protesters needed a permit to use a megaphone.

“After numerous warnings that she would be arrested,” Bucky Turco wrote on the Animal New York blog, “she ignored the police and was promptly arrested.”

It was rare appearance together for Andrew Cuomo and his father, Mario. (Onstage, Andrew made no mention of the protests outside.)

Wolf,  was cuffed and carted away with several others.

According to Gothamist, the protesters left the event to march to the 1st Precinct, where Wolf had been taken by police. She was released from police custody early Wednesday.

Wolf wrote on her Facebook page. “I was completely complying with the law and the permit as it was described to me by police and I was arrested for standing lawfully on the sidewalk.”

The protesters were being told that they needed to leave the sidewalk outside of the Huffington Post event because “Huffington Post had a permit” to control the use of the sidewalk. I have a chapter in Give Me Liberty on NYC permits so I knew that could not be accurate. Sidewalks are public spaces and can’t be leased by private entities. I asked for a copy of the permit. A spokesman finally acknowledged that the permit allowed for pedestrian access as long as it did not obstruct foot traffic on the sidewalk. I said, okay, we won’t obstruct pedestrian traffic, we will just walk. SO I invited the OWS protesters to come back from across the street and walk with me in a single file so no one obstructed the flow of pedestrians.

A phalanx of white-shirted police then approached us and with a megaphone said, “you are disobeying a lawful order to disperse and will be arrested. I approached (respectfully and peacefully) the officer with the megaphone and said I was confused: the permit allowed us to walk if we did not obstruct traffic and we were not doing so.

He stood before me and said “Will you get out of my way?” I did not say anything but I could not fall back because I knew he was misinterpreting the law. The sidewalks were being properly handled by the protesters even according to the restrictive permit. I did not step aside so he indicated that I should be cuffed, and my hands were cuffed behind me with plastic handcuffs. My partner and I were taken, cuffed, in a police van to I believe the seventh precinct (they had planned to take us to the first, I am so grateful to protesters who appeared on our behalf at the first) where we were held in separate cells for about half an hour. My cell had blood or feces on the wall.

The staff were very courteous. But I was told that I would be released with a summons but that if I rejoined the protesters and got arrested my fingerprints would be taken, the sergeant gestured at a camera and said my photo would be taken, it would all be entered into a federal database and follow me forever. He also said if I spoke I should be careful not to say anything that could be construed as ‘inciting a riot.’ I said hadn’t broken the law—my summons was for ‘disorderly conduct. Many witnesses will confirm I stood perfectly still and addressed the officer with great courtesy. I said that we hadn’t broken the law according to the permit in question. He said that when an officer deems a situation as safety issue, it trumps the permit. I asked, then how can any situation not be subject to an officer deeming it a ‘safety issue’? He did not explain but gave me a section of the criminal code to look up.

I was arrested for disorderly conduct although my conduct was peaceful respectful law-abiding and orderly. I was arrested for not backing down when a police officer told me contrary to what I knew about the law and the permit process that a private entity owned the sidewalk. He was mistaken and I was correct. I behaved entirely lawfully and my arrest was unlawful.

via Yahoo News

Homeless around the country benefit from Occupy Protesters

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – When “Occupy Wall Street” protesters took over two parks in Portland’s soggy downtown, they pitched 300 tents and offered free food, medical care and shelter to anyone. They weren’t just building, like so many of their brethren across the nation, a community to protest what they see as corporate greed.

People line up for free lunch Wednesday at the “Occupy Portland” camp in Portland, Ore. “Occupy Wall Street” protesters camping out across the country are rubbing shoulders with homeless people.

People line up for free lunch Wednesday at the “Occupy Portland” camp in Portland, Ore. “Occupy Wall Street” protesters camping out across the country are rubbing shoulders with homeless people.

They also created an ideal place for the homeless. Some were already living in the parks, while others were drawn from elsewhere to the encampment’s open doors.

Now, protesters from Portland to Los Angeles  to Atlanta are trying to distinguish between homeless people who are joining their movement and those who are there for the amenities. When night falls in Portland, for instance, protesters have been dealing with fights, drunken arguments and the display of the occasional knife.

However, many homeless say the protests have helped them speak out against the economic troubles that sent them to the streets in the first place.

“The city wasn’t giving us what we needed,” said Joseph Gordon, 31, who trekked his way from Cincinnati two months ago and noted that there is nearly always enough food but never enough shelter. “You can’t feed your problem away. It took this camp to show people how it really is.”

As protesters across the country try to coalescence around an agenda in the coming weeks and months, they are trying to make life work in camps that have become small-scale replicas of the cities in which they were erected. And just like those cities, they are dealing with many of the same problems the local governments have struggled for decades to solve.

Some organizers see the protest and the inclusion of the homeless as an opportunity to demonstrate their political ideals. They see the possibility to show that the homeless are not hopeless and that they, too, can become a functional part of society.

In Portland, the protest has swallowed up two square blocks. There are shaggy haired college kids, do-gooder hippies, and couples with their young children. They came by the dozen, in cars and vans, on bikes and on foot and in rides hitched on the highway. Rain falls daily and dry socks are at a premium.

At the center of the camp are the medical, information, library and wellness tents. Along one side are families, who established a play area for children. On the opposite side is the “A-Camp” — for anarchist. It’s where the city’s anarchist faction and long-term homeless sleep.

“We’re here to spoil each other,” said Kat Enyeart, a 25-year-old medic who says she spends half her time tending to the homeless, some of whom are physically and mentally ill. “It’s a big, messy, beautiful thing.”

As the occupation enters its fourth week, divisions have begun to emerge. Without the ability to enforce laws and with little capacity to deal with disruptive or even violent people, the camp is holding together as it struggles to maintain a sense of order and purpose.

One man recently created a stir when he registered with police as a sex offender living in the park. A man with mental health problems threatened to spread AIDS  via a syringe. At night, the park echoes with screaming matches and scuffles over space, blankets, tents or nothing at all.

Last week, a homeless man menaced a crowd of spectators with a pair of scissors. Micaiah Dutt, a four-tour veteran of the Iraq War , and two other former soldiers had no problem tackling and subduing the man. Other members of the protest’s volunteer security detail have been punched and threatened with knives.

Dutt said he felt helpless at times and noted that the man he helped subdue could, in theory, press assault charges against him.

“I served four tours in Iraq, and I felt more safe there at times than here,” he told a gathering of protest organizers under a drizzly evening sky. “There, I had a weapon and knew the people around me were with me. Here, I don’t know.”

Dutt said the protests are not just about the radicals and the politicians. “It’s about our community taking care of itself because the city, county and federal governments have neglected this population,” he said.

In Los Angeles, protesters are dealing with similar issues: Homeless transplants from the city’s Skid Row  have set up their tents within the larger tent city. No violence has been reported, but protest organizers are attempting to discourage people who are only at the encampment for the amenities.

Some, like Steven Pierieto, said they’ve fallen on difficult times but are at the protest because they support the movement. They scorn those who come for the sandwiches but never lift a protest sign. Life in camp, Pierieto said, is far better than life on Skid Row.

“I’m very comfortable right here,” Pierieto said. “I don’t have to smell urine. I don’t have to see people smoking crack. I have porta-potties right here. It’s peaceful.”

In Oakland, Calif., where the camp on the City Hall  lawn has become a tourist attraction, organizer Susanne Sarley said getting along for a common cause will be an ongoing challenge. “This is the homeless people’s turf,” Sarley said. “This area we’re occupying is their home. We can’t move them. We have to cooperate and respect the community that we’re in.”

The friction between the homeless and the protesters has not been the case in other cities. In Atlanta, for instance, it has been a benefit. The homeless have helped newbie protesters learn how to put up tents that can withstand wind gusts, maintain peace in close quarters and survive the outdoors.

Billy Jones , 28, provides security at the protests. Jones said he’s not just looking for free food.

“Don’t have the misconception that most homeless people are always out for a meal,” Jones said. “I’m here because there are things I can lend that are helpful to the movement. I can get food anywhere. I don’t have to be at ‘Occupy Atlanta’ to get food.”

In Salt Lake City, protesters see working with the homeless as an opportunity to demonstrate their political views. “We can help people get out of homelessness,” said organizer Jesse Fruhwirth, 30. “We have already surpassed any effort the state or city has ever made to create a sober, happy space for the homeless.”

Brent Jackson, 46, is one of the homeless who has been recruited as a volunteer and is an active member of a planning group. He said the protest’s message rings especially true with homeless people. “The homeless are the bottom of the 99%,” Jackson said, referring to the percent of Americans the protest says it represents.

“We have a lot of disillusioned Americans, but they don’t think what happened to us can happen to them,” he said. “Except it can.”

By Don Ryan, AP

Occupy Wall Street Explained for Dummies (like me…lol)….

The Stupid Persons Guide to Occupy Wall Street……..

This video is also available in our Resources Section.

Never too Old to Occupy! Folk singer Pete Seeger, 92, joins Occupy Wall Street

(AP) NEW YORK — Folk music legend Pete Seeger and ’60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie joined Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in their campaign against corporate greed while residents near the protest park encampment pushed to regain some peace and quiet in their neighborhood.

Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City’s tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores. The 92-year-old Seeger, accompanied by musician-grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out the verses of protest anthems as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted. They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle.

Police watched from the sidelines. Occupy Wall Street began a month ago in lower Manhattan among a few young people, and has grown to tens of thousands around the country and the world.

A recent Associated Press-GfK poll says more than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protesters, and even more — 58 percent — say they are furious about America’s politics.

Folk singer Pete Seeger, 92, joins Occupy Wall Street by marching from a concert at Symphony Space to Columbus Circle, in New York Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Protesters sang his songs on the march, and in Columbus Circle he sang his songs with accompaniment from other musicians, notably his grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (far left). (AP Photo/Stephanie Keith)