The Occupation of Tucson (and dozens of other cities, including Phoenix) began yesterday, October 15, 2011. Early in the day, as many as 500 people came to Armory Park, south of downtown, to protest corporate control of the US government, to demand an end to our corrupt corporate-financed election system, to advocate for jobs, healthcare, and housing for the 99%, and to send a wake-up call to our do-nothing Congress.

People of all ages marched into downtown and back to the park around midday, while some peacefully took their protest into the Tucson Meet Yourself event, taking place in and around the city’s center.

Occupy Tucson was well organized with music, a kitchen, and several tents. According to the Arizona Daily Star, approximately 150 camped out over night. Some protesters were arrested in Tucson and Phoenix, according to the Star.

Here is a loneprotestor video showing the march from Armory Park to downtown (and the edge of Tucson Meet Yourself).

OK, I know Glenn Beck is nuts, but millions of people listen to him… unfortunately.

On his radio show today, Beck called the Occupy Wall Street protesters dangerous revolutionaries who want to take down the US government. He asked the federal government to shut down the Occupy demonstrations by sending in the Marines and called on capitalists and Democrats not to trust the protesters or work with them.

From the Huffington Post…

Speaking on his radio show Monday, Beck made his already-crystal-clear disdain for the protests, which have spread across the U.S., even more plain. He took a slightly surprising turn, though, in warning establishment Democrats like Nancy Pelosi (who has voiced her support for the movement) as well as any rich backers of the protests not to trust anyone in Occupy Wall Street…

“Capitalists, if you think that you can play footsies with these people, you’re wrong. They will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you…they’re Marxist radicals…these guys are worse than Robespierre from the French Revolution…they’ll kill everybody.”

A video link with Beck’s full rant is here.

For the opposite opinion, check out this video interview between Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore.

Between 50 and 75 Tucsonans attended the First General Assembly of Occupy Tucson this morning. The peaceful and respectful crowd initially gathered in the plaza adjacent to the Unisource Energy Building but moved to Veinte de Agosto Park after Tucson police and Unisource security asked them to.

The crux of the Occupy movement is to take back our country from the control of Wall Street and the corporatists who currently run it by manipulating all levels of elected officials through campaign financing.

Today, the Tucson group worked on next steps in their effort to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, which will be moving into its 2 week. As the Tucson group discussed options for dates and locations and voted on different ideas, I thought: Why can’t Congress or the Arizona Legislature or the City Council or the Rio Nuevo Board or the Tucson Unified School District Board conduct business so peacefully, respectfully, and efficiently?

According to decisions made in the park today, there will be another Tucson planning meeting in Veinte de Agosto Park (AKA Pancho Villa Park) on Sunday, October 9, beginning at noon.  Occupy Tucson will officially begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at the same downtown location. Occupy Tucson’s facebook page has grown to 599 members in less than a week.

Occupations around the US and the world are also slated to begin on Oct. 15– including one in Phoenix.

Now in its 11 day, 1000s of protesters continue to occupy Wall Street to protest the corporate greed that is running our country into the ground. Understandably, since most media is run by corporations, there has been a news blackout about our “Arab Spring”. This is not unlike the media blackout surrounding the early pro-union protests in Wisconsin and sympathy rallies in 66 cities across the US.

Here are some links from the Huffington Post. Their bloggers have been covering the Occupy Wall Street story, although it has been absent from the Huff Po front page– until yesterday when there was a small thumbnail story (probably due to the 14,000+ facebook Likes and the 7,700+ facebook Shares).

Occupy Wall Street Protest Escalates On Eighth Day (VIDEO)

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Dig In As Tensions Rise With NYPD (PHOTOS)

Here is today’s story from The Nation, who rightly points out dismal coverage of Occupy Wall Street by the New York Times.

Correcting the Abysmal ‘New York Times’ Coverage of Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street website has Live Streaming Video.

The photos and videos on these links are dramatic. It kinda makes ya wonder why we are hearing all of this yammering by the right about class warfare– against the rich– because we want to eliminate their Bush II tax cuts, which hearing no news related to Wall Street’s war on the rest of us.

I hope you can view the video that I linked to above. I had to sign in to You Tube to see it because You Tube said it may be “inappropriate”. (I thought that You Tube labeling anything inappropriate was a real lark. Come on, isn’t “inappropriateness” part of You Tube’s charm?)

Hmmmm… anyway, I didn’t see anything inappropriate in the video– unless you call NY police arresting people holding American flags and chanting “We are the 99%” (referring to the 99% of Americans who are not rich) inappropriate. (You can also check out other videos by the same videographer here.)