Daily Caller - Activists affiliated with the tea party movement say they’re witnessing a double standard in the way the media is covering the “Occupy Wall Street” protests compared to the tea party.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | From a registered Democrat's Point of view, the GOP race for the 2012 Presidential election in Florida started out last year with tea party darling Sarah Palin leading the pack. It then shifted when serious candidates began their debates. During the summer, it was Michele Bachmann who surged in the polls after her Iowa straw poll victory.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Ever since the government raid on the Gibson Guitar factory, there has been concern about not only the prospect of driving guitar manufacturing jobs off shore, but also the spectacle of the federal government overreaching.

ContributorNetwork - Occupy Wall Street is a phenomenon sweeping across America. Some have referred to it as the liberal answer to the tea party, a wave of liberal patriotism, and others have decried it as angry people whining about their plight. Whether you love it or hate it, it's news. Here are five potentially damaging things you may not know about the "#Occupy" movement:

ContributorNetwork - Occupy Wall Street is either a disorganized group of malcontents with little to unite them or an organized protest set in motion by unions and other opponents of laissez-faire capitalism. They've been compared to the tea party so many times the tea party has taken umbrage. They've been hailed as visionaries who will return the government to the people. They have been condemned as anarchists.

AP - The tea party activists that packed the room picked up the refrain of a song as they waited for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to arrive.

The giant is stirring. The American people, left, right, and center are taking to the streets, the airwaves, and the polls in opposition to the failure of their leaders. In 2010, the conservative Tea Party movement catalyzed a seismic turnover in congress with the election of 106 freshmen (96 Republicans and 10 Democrats). This year has seen the rise of the self-described "sensible center" as centrist businessmen like Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and organizations like No Labels have called for greater cooperation among our fractured political class. Meanwhile Americans Elect has garnered millions of signatures in an effort to circumvent our polarized political parties and hold a national electronic primary for all eligible American voters providing fifty state presidential ballot access to the winner. And within the past few weeks the left has added its forces as people take to the streets in organized protest against Wall Street and corporations. The gang's all here.

Meanwhile, the political industrial complex goes about business as usual as if nothing has changed. The consultants are consulting. The pollsters are polling. The spinners are spinning. The fundraisers are raising. And the politicians continue to do what they have long done - seek self-serving tactical solutions to their personal electoral problems leaving the real problems of America unresolved and largely unaddressed.

In 2008 a sizable majority of Americans saw the need for change and voted to elect as president an inexperienced and untested man with a scant record of achievement. Unfortunately, even increasing numbers of his own party are beginning to voice publicly what most have reluctantly concluded privately. President Obama is a fine orator but a terrible leader. He has not lived up to his promise or our expectations. With 75% of the country saying we are on the wrong track and a historic low of only 11% of the country voicing confidence in government, he seeks reelection promising four more years indistinguishable from the first three - no change we can believe in, no bi-partisanship, no post racial politics, no mending of the red state blue state divide.

Meanwhile, the Republican contenders for their party nomination, like Lilliputians, wage war over the inconsequential: What line in what book was redacted? When was that offensively named rock in Texas turned over? When does closing a loophole become a tax increase? How many ways can I tell you what I am against without telling you what I am for? And when is a flip a flop?

Small wonder people are taking to the streets and in ever greater numbers "throwing the bums out". No one is happy with where we are or where we are going. As long as our elections are restricted to match races between two unworkable ideological extremes, America will be locked in a debilitating stalemate. As long as we base our votes on fidelity to orthodoxy and elect political technicians rather than real leaders, we will compound the sources of our discontent.

Americans should be out in the streets. We should be resisting the unresponsive and irresponsible leadership that has risen in government and industry. We should throw them out. But the solution is not to replace them with more of the same. We need new leadership that is competent, non partisan, pragmatic, responsible, and biased toward action - something we haven't seen in this country for a long time.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Polling strongly from the same base, a collaborative ticket between GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Ron Paul seems to be a match made in heaven for tea party conservatives.

Daily Caller - The Daily Caller visited the “Occupy Wall Street” protests at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. to speak to the protesters and a few tea party counter-protestors. Check out what we saw:

Scott Conroy, RealClearPolitics
MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. -- The last time Michele Bachmann was in New Hampshire, she was riding high.On the heels of her stellar first debate performance at St. Anselm College in Manchester, by the end of June the Minnesota congresswoman was suddenly nipping at the heels of front-runner Mitt Romney in the polls here.More than three months later, Bachmann's star has dimmed considerably. Amid a series of public stumbles, departures of top advisers, and the rise of other Tea Party-aligned GOP presidential rivals, Bachmann stands at just 2 percent in the Granite State, according to a WMUR/UNH...

Bill Keller, New York Times
Austin, Tex. Bill Keller This was supposed to be the Tea Party’s time. The incumbent president the rebels despise so much seemed vulnerable. The Republican establishment was AWOL, leaderless or intimidated. So the angry, God-fearing, government-loathing populist insurgents rushed into the vacuum, fired up the town halls, helped put a halt to any compromising in Congress and basically commandeered the national debate. Then, for much of this year, they dominated the auditions for a presidential challenger. In a spectacle about as...

With their favored candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination lagging or out of the race, many U.S. Tea Party activists are shifting focus to the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.

AP - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says she agrees with protesters from Wall Street to Washington who are saying most of the country isn't getting a fair shake from the financial and political establishments.

Reuters - With their favored candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination lagging or out of the race, many U.S. Tea Party activists are shifting focus to the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.

Paul Krugman, New York Times
There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but we may, at long last, be seeing the rise of a popular movement that, unlike the Tea Party, is angry at the right people.When the Occupy Wall Street protests began three weeks ago, most news organizations were derisive if they deigned to mention the events at all. For example, nine days into the protests, National Public Radio had provided no coverage whatsoever.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | The Tea Party Express' chairman, Amy Kremer, blasted President Barack Obama Friday over his American Jobs Act, stating that he was "playing class warfare" by attempting to tax the nation's millionaires. Senate Democrats, according to CNN , proposed a measure where the Act would be paid for via a surtax on those whose income exceeded a million dollars a year. President Obama endorsed the measure on Thursday. Kremer said that it was just another stimulus plan set to fail and a "blame Republicans" ploy by Democrats.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | The Occupy Wall Street movement saw its 21st day of occupations, demonstrations, and protests on Friday, October 7. With it and its spread to other major U. S. cities came more news coverage and the question: What exactly is Occupy Wall Street?

The Atlantic Wire - Related: Who to Blame for the (Likely) Government Shutdown

Politico - Movement has had it with the comparisons.

AP - Michele Bachmann surged into the Republican presidential race by preaching tea party fiscal conservatism. Now, as she struggles to remain relevant, the Minnesota congresswoman is trying to rally the evangelical voters who have powered most of her political career.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is taking advantage of his recent rise to fame. His direct speaking style and business experience have caught on with Tea Party supporters and social conservatives. And Cain is selling himself and his new book. But can he sustain the momentum?

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Politico - The two cable networks battling each other for the liberal mantle are embracing Occupy Wall Street.

The Ticket - Vice President Joe Biden likened the protesters who have camped out on Wall Street in New York City to the tea party movement Thursday, citing anger over the federal program that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bail out private banks in 2008. "There's a lot in common with the tea party," Biden said [...]

The Week - Tea Partiers keep bouncing from one candidate to the next — and that "fickleness" might cost them the chance to pick the GOP nominee