Had you made this pie with delicious and masculine scotch, I would have come ashore.

The room was a bit tiny. It made for a nice atmosphere, but wasn’t the best setting for people without stellar hearing.

FUCK THIS. I'M PUTTING AN END TO THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW. YOU DON'T GET TO SPEAK FOR THE BOAT COP MOVEMENT. YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE HOW OR WHEN BOAT COP CHIMES IN. WHAT, NEXT ARE YOU GOING TO OPEN A BOAT COP 501c3 AND BUY A BUNCH OF HORRIBLY-DESIGNED T-SHIRTS?!

@3, Definitely Someone needs to register "The Real Boat Cop," ASAP.

Say what you will. Your limp-wristed attempts to stymie my machismo are unwarranted. I am the 1% of boat cops that are actually Boat Cop.

I was (briefly) there for this, and Reid's right. I was sitting about 5 feet from Reid, and I could barely hear him, or anyone else.

I came to see a panel discussion by the thoughtful people who've been closest to the movement. Instead, I got a painful unintentional parody of Occupy's problem: a barely-focused, incoherent cacophony where the least informed were often the most willing to talk (and talk the loudest).

I like to think I'm similar to a lot of people who would like to get involved in whatever the next iteration of the movement is, post-encampments. I'll just say that as a busy person who would like to help out, what I want to come to is an organization that a) knows what it's about, b) knows what it ISN'T about, c) knows where it wants to go, d) knows how to get there, and e) knows how I fit into that.

In short, I have no problem being told what to do (E) if I believe in Occupy's leaders on points A-D. Unfortunately, Occupy seems almost fatally obsessed with purity achieved by radically egalitarian process, and OccuPIE (what I saw, anyway) was an unfortunate microcosm of that glaring flaw in the movement.

I found the suggestion of “takeover the Democrats like the Tea Party” to be the most interesting discussion of the night…

Guest: “Do we even need to work inside the political process?”
60-something man wearing Obama shirt: “Use the Tea Party playbook!”
Micaiah: “Except we’re not democrats…”
Man: “Hey, speak for yourself!”
Micaiah: “I meant Occupy.”
Reid: “Correct—I’m independent. I’ve met Communists, Anarchists, Socialists, Libertarians, and Greens at Occupy. We’re already working outside the ‘political’ process.”

Has attempting to work 'outside' the political process showed any progress towards goals? I assume shutting down ports and occupying parks is 'outside' the system, right?

This sounds like a good thing that happened. I'm glad sarah didn't get that asshole throwing pie at her.
But as constructive as this hopefully was, it didn't change the fact of what happened today - which to me was waaayyyy wrong.

I heard a port was shut down today.

Are we discussing any of the issues as to why it was shut down in the news?

Nope, we're not hearing anything because nobody understands why a port was shut down in the first place.

Ports have been around for thousands of years. They're not going anywhere, and we're not going to stop exchanging goods between people for money and/or other goods.

If the issue is the off-shoring of jobs due to manufacturing going overseas, doesn't it make sense to educate the public in a positive manner, through an act of legal protest, by telling people the perils of buying goods made in China, etc.?

Instead we'll just be debating how people lost money, people didn't get to work, and our (Oregon) goods didn't get exported.

All the while someone's buying some Made in China widget at Wal-Mart while everything from Intel to hay is sitting at the port or idle in trucks.

Yeah, you guys showed them who's boss.

Kids in search of a 'cause'.....
Life is so much more romantic when you are part of a cause....