First Draft

More Rampant Union Thuggery

Just look at those scumbags, cleaning the floor on their hands and knees.

Hello again from Madison, Wisconsin.  I've got a question for you all.  Have you read The Grapes of Wrath?

If not, you should.  I read it between 10th and 11th grade--I also tried reading The Scarlet Letter (couldn't finish) and Walden (ditto).  But I read the shit out of that Steinbeck book.  Up to that point, I'd never even heard of the Dust Bowl or the Okies, and it kind of pissed me off--I mean, they could spend pretty much a whole year telling us about asshole Civil War generals, but they left this out?

Anyway, I really, really liked that book.  But I always felt like it was a kind of propaganda--especially the part where the Joad family goes to the itinerant camp run by fellow-workers, and it's a little slice of heaven; the workers keep it clean and organized, they establish security and keep troublemakers at bay, and they even provide music and entertainment.

"Silly," I thought.  They couldn't possibly have been focused on those sorts of things.

If anything, I'm now convinced that's the part of the book that's closest to the truth, because that's exactly what's gone on here for the last week.  Look at that picture up there.  People down on their hands and knees cleaning the public space that they use.  The photo was taken about 10:45 Sunday evening, after the protests had subsided for the day and people were bedding down on the marble floor (Sealy PosturePedic it ain't).  Check out some of these other images:

 

Yes, even the trash is neatly stacked.

People giving what they can to out-of-town sympathizers.

These people were doing a Dixieland version of "Solidarity Forever." It was fucking awesome.

My god, look at the thuggery on display.

These pictures are from Sunday night and Monday morning.  So remember--when you hear about how violent and disrespectful we are here in Madison, you can be 100% certain that the person talking is as full of shit as the sewer system the day after Thanksgiving.

Part 2

Another great video from Matt Wisniewski

Wisconsin "Budget Repair Bill" Protest Pt 2 from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.

Rollerskate Skinny

I had a long day so all I got for you is a live version of this swell Old 97's tune. It was, however, filmed in Milwaukee in 2007, which means I can get away with dedicating it to my colleagues Scout and Jude who not only rock but rule:

 

Thanks World

OK I owe a Thank You to someone out there for the 2 slices of Ian's pizza I had tonight. This is how it looks to get that pizza in the Capitol.

 

Also  a Thank You to the Pennsylvania Prison Workers for the coffee that they purchased for us through a great local establishment called Indie Coffee:

 

Oh and the pizza boxes are then used for signs:

 

UPDATE: Pics via Twitter. Chalkboard at Ian's Pizza

 

People doing the clean up in Capitol:

 

The Most Gosh Darn Nicest Protest Ever!

There are so many people to give props and shout outs to for the generosity, kindness, patience and helpfulness they have displayed at the WI Capitol protests. It has been just amazing to truly see the BEST of people. And anyone out there claiming there is chaos or violence or any disturbances whatsoever are just big fat liars. That simple.

Because the people are just Nice. And the police are Really Nice. It's just the way it is folks. Sorry but it's all so Very Nice. And here is the story of just one of the many examples of such that I have witnessed.

Tonight there was to be a 5:00 rally outside the Capitol but it was moved inside because Gov Walker was giving a press conference. People moved into the halls and stairwells by the governor's office to chant--LOUDLY--so as to perhaps be heard in the background on tv because that's the only way to be heard by this guy. So here is a portion of that crowd:

 

Well the chanting and general nose making became Very loud. Next to me was an officer from the Green County Sheriff's Dept. He was doing a great job. He was helping direct people if they wanted to get closer. But he was also vigilant as to what was going on around him...keeping an eye on the crowd. A woman did ask him how it's going and he said "Crowd control is easy when it's so peaceful like this."  Yes that's a direct quote.

Still he was doing his job and keeping an eye out on things. So much so that he noticed a little boy behind me with his father was having trouble with all the noise. I then saw this officer reach into his pocket and give the father a package.

 

It turns out the package contained ear plugs which I suspect were intended for the officer's use as I did see other police wearing them. But he gave them up for the young boy:

 

This is the officer:

 
So next time you hear some news outlet or talking head bellowing about the chaos or violence in the WI Capitol remember that smiling face above and that we are having the MOST GOSH DARN NICEST PROTEST EVER.

OK

On Pushing Back The Right, On Wisconsin

So I really, really, really don't recommend venturing into the wingersphere at the moment. To hear them all talk, Wisconsin is a nonstop riot of violent union thugs (see Jude's post below for exactly what kind of thugs) who are trashing the Capitol, spitting on cops and defiling our governor's office with their unruly yelling and taping of things to the walls. I read about 20 minutes' worth of Twittering from these clowns and started to get that curdled feeling in my stomach I got whenever Sarah Palin would open her mouth during the election, like, that's so wrong and I don't even have the words for how wrong it is.

I told you all yesterday how things actually were, how they seemed to me, but what I didn't tell you is that I'm ragingly homesick for Madison right now, homesick for my city, the first place I ever felt like I belonged. I got there a scared college freshman and left reluctantly six years later, because I couldn't get a job and Mr. A could and it was here, so here we came. I threw a coffee pot and a hockey stick into my car and drove for two hours, and every single mile I wanted to turn and go back, back, back. The first few years, until I found a neighborhood here I liked and settled into a life, I felt like I was in exile.

It's hard to explain to somebody else why you love a place the way you do. I can talk about the spirit of public debate and about the bookstores and the coffeehouses and about the bike paths and the farmer's market, and my tiny apartment with its weird, low-ceilinged kitchen. I can talk about the light in the early morning on a midsummer day, standing on the bridge between Humanities and Vilas looking out over University Avenue. I can describe it all to you but I can't describe the feeling that floods my chest when I get off the freeway and come around the curve on John Nolen and see the skyline rising over the lake. It's like a singing in the blood, home, home, home.

This is my city and these are the people who built it for me, marching around the Capitol Square. These are the people who made everything just click, who made a place into which I fit like a train settling into the track. And seeing them together, seeing them standing up and saying just this far and no farther, not one inch more, you will not take what makes this place special away from us, not anymore, inspires me more than I can say. So to come home, and read this, or this, fills me with disgust.

I was just settling into defeatism again when I got a phone call from Scout, and in the background it sounded like a rock concert, and all she could talk about was how fantastic everything was, and how there were 60,000 people, and you can't believe, and when I told her what people were saying out here, she couldn't believe it. 

We talk a lot around here about pushing back right wing narratives, about the way the national press buys into whatever spews out of the puke funnel, and what it comes down to is that events overwhelm what they're trying to push. We saw it in 2008 with the Obama campaign, we saw it before that with the response to Katrina when even Fox couldn't convince itself of the lies, and we're seeing it here. I wish I could drag everybody who thinks this is some kind of choreographed shitshow into the Capitol rotunda to show them what Scout's seeing:

That's my home. That's my home.

A.

Deep Presidents Day Thought

I remember when we celebrated Washington and Lincoln's birthdays. That was before our corporate overloads decided to squish them together into one generic Presidential holiday. I guess that means we can celebrate the tenures of Millard Fillmore and the guy with the best middle name ever: Warren Gamaliel Harding.

Tourists in the French Quarter are celebrating by getting drunk as skunks. I wonder if that means their favorite Presidents are Grant and Andrew Johnson...

Well, Now It's a Party

From Scout:

The Daily Show's John Oliver has arrived and is interviewing people on the Capitol Square.

 

Dear Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Fox News, et al.:

Flee in terror!

There's your typical "union thug," you repugnant liars. 

 

More to come later, folks.

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - Putrid Potpourri edition

Good morning, everyone!

Well, I followed Kibitzer's advice and cleaned the iso room filters, and feel a lot better now. This time I'm putting on extra protective gear before we open the drums of toxic Freeper sludge:

First up - Musta been a drunk!

 
Drunk? CBS Reporter Speaks Utter Gibberish at Grammys
Nation.Foxnews.com ^ | February 14, 2011

Posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:43:37 AM by Lazamataz

CBS Los Angeles reporter Serene Branson is a hometown girl gone good who’s been nominated for Emmys. But tonight after the Grammys, her 13-second report from outside the Staples Center was more notable for the way it seemed to auto-translate itself on the fly.

I can give this translation a try: Anchor: "Serene Branson says Hi from the Staples Center, with highlights and backstage coverage that we're seeing for the very first time.... Serene...."
Serene Branson: "Well, a VERY very, have a, heavy bit.. blurtation tonight, we had a very daris, darisson bite, let's go ahead, terrace tazing, lesko dett beeheight the peck."

1 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:43:38 AM by Lazamataz

Fox has since scrubbed this unbelievably offensive article title, but I'd like to thank Lazamataz for preserving it for us.

To: Lazamataz

Ish not vat meery clear what said?

6 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:45:58 AM by SoCal Pubbie

.

.

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

Everyone in Hollywood understood exactly what she said.

9 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:46:28 AM by LachlanMinnesota (Which are you? A producer, a looter, or a moocher of wealth?)

.

.

To: Lazamataz

That’s easy for her to say!.....

11 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:47:28 AM by AngelesCrestHighway

.

.

To: Lazamataz

Well, I certainly can’t argue with anything she said in her report...

15 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:48:12 AM by WayneS (Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. -- James Madison)

Now watch reality set in - and watch the Freeperati turn on a dime from mocking the Emm Ess Emm to faux concern and piety...

To: Lazamataz

She wasn’t drunk. She was having a stroke.

5 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:45:50 AM by vg0va3 (I don't plan to quit the fight until it is finally over. Although, I am getting tired...)

.

.

To: Lazamataz

You’d still hit it-Fo’shizzle!

7 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:45:58 AM by Dr. Ursus

.

OK - well, most of them, anyway.

.

To: Lazamataz

Other news sources indicate she was having a stroke on live television...G-d help her if that was the case; and shame on FOX for implying that she may have been drunk. She is clearly frightened...

10 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:47:14 AM by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)

"Shame on FOX"? Exactly when has FOX shown any shame?

.

To: vg0va3

Wow! I heard this last night from the other room while my wife was watching the news. Had no idea. Now my little joke post above makes me a heel.

17 posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 9:48:23 AM by SoCal Pubbie

If the foo shits.....

More moronic mendacity after the jumpola.

On Wisconsin: 'This is too big to ignore'

The Wisconsin Capitol is a beautiful building.

Schoolchildren and bus tourists gawk at it. I take friends who come with me to Madison there, and they walk its marble halls and ornate staircases and stand in the splended rotunda and stare up, up, up, four and five and six stories up, all the way up to the golden dome and echoing heights of the top of the ceiling. The few times I did any reporting in the statehouse, I wondered how anyone could simply think of it as an office, or a place of business, and become used to the sights and sounds within, and not feel awe. On any day of the year, it is a beautiful building.

On Sunday, it was magnificent.

Some people had rededorated it, you see. They'd hung a small sign in one dark corner: "Home Sweet Home." In another, "Madison 14: We Thank You." A woman with a baby in a stroller circled on the second floor, her hand-lettered shirt reading, "I do not work for the state. I do support the unions." Around and around and around the marble railings, people proclaimed their home towns, their affiliations, their passions: Sauk Prairie Teachers. UW Department of Geography. People of Color Supporting Freedom.

Protesters were fighting to retain the rights of organized labor everywhere, now under siege by the newly elected governor and Republican legislature. Democratic state senators fled the state, avoiding a quorum call on the governor's budget bill, and in their absence the citizens of the state decided to move in. Some carried instruments, a flute, a drum. Others pounded on plastic buckets. A child banged a pot lid and sleigh bell together. "What's disgusting?" they called out during a lull in the music.

"UNION BUSTING!"

Upstairs, in a steamy hearing room, people packed the seats and sat on the floor as Democratic members of the state assembly took testimony, hour after hour.

Library student Alison Gerherd wore scrubs and carried a sign to support her roommate, a CNA who works in a nursing home, caring for the very old and very ill. "She has done things you can't imagine, for $15 an hour," Gerherd told Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, her voice trembling. "To disrespect someone who cares for others like that just isn't right."

Republican Governor Scott Walker's budget bill, SB 11, would strip collective bargaining rights away from unions that have had such rights for decades. Not without going through Gerherd,  who has been protesting since Monday. 

"I have been here every day and I will be here every day until this is over," she said. "I am not going away. None of us are."

Down in the rotunda, the drumming began again, so loud it could be felt in vibrations in the walls. "Tell me what democracy looks like!"

"THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"

Mary Hughes-Greer's 89-year-old mother didn't want her child going out in the rain. Not on a bus, anyway, not all the way from Beloit in the cold. But Hughes-Greer needed to disobey her mother in order to honor her.

Her mother taught school in Racine's Unified School district during brutal strikes in the 1970s. Before that, she demonstrated for civil rights, instilling in her daughter a lifelong compassion for others and a bedrock belief in social justice.

"I remember walking around this same square with my mother for civil rights, and this is about civil rights," she said. "We don't need to take people's rights away. We don't need to divide people. We succeed by coming together and having hope, not by taking hope away."

Down in the rotunda, protesters carried signs decrying Walker not only for his move against the unions, but for his extreme right-wing views in general, and especially as enshrined in the bill. "Dread Scott," one sign read. "FORWARD: Our State Motto 1848. BACKWARD: Our State Motto 2011," read another. "Whose house?" people called.

"OUR HOUSE!" 

In the hearing room, Sam Kellerman leaned forward into the microphone and read part of the governor's bill aloud:

"16.765 (1) Contracting agencies, the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, the Fox River Navigational System Authority, the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority, the Health Insurance Risk−Sharing Plan Authority, the Lower Fox River Remediation Authority, the Wisconsin Quality Home Care Authority, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and the Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corporation shall include in all contracts executed by them a provision obligating the contractor not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of age, race, religion, color, handicap, sex, physical condition, developmental disability as defined in s. 51.01 (5), sexual orientation as defined in s. 111.32 (13m), or national origin and, except with respect to sexual orientation, obligating the contractor to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunities."

"Except with respect to sexual orientation," he repeated, his voice shaking. "They have to take action to ensure equal opportunities ... unless you are gay. I am appalled that this state would discriminate against my mother, because she chooses to love my other mother."

As the hearing room rang with applause, he leaned over to his mom, sitting next to him, and folded her into a hug. Out in the hallway, they both wiped away tears.

"I have no intention of backing down from this," he said. "We're going to privatize the state and encourage private contractors to recruit, but not gay people, because they couldn't possibly have anything to contribute."

The governor will formally introduce his budget to the state on March 1. Kellerman said he'd already requested the day off from work so he could be in the streets or the halls of the Capitol, demonstrating with others who believed, as he did, that the state belonged to the public. "This is too big," he said, "to ignore."

Down in the rotunda, a woman carried a large sign. "WE ARE THE REAL CITIZENS UNITED."

"Kill the bill!" protesters shouted. "Kill the bill!"

A.

The People Sing

Posted by Scout

I've been in the Rotunda all week and seen moments that give you chills. This is especially true when everyone joins in song.  Here are excerpts from last night singing of This Land Is Your Land and after that and a bit of chanting the crowd decided to follow with the Star Spangled Banner and chants of USA.

For more on Saturday--Jude has a great write-up below.

Saturday's Pics

Posted by Scout

 Here are a few pics from Saturday's protest with more after the jump. For more on Saturday read Jude below.

 

 

Further Updates From Wisconsin's War On Workers

Do you really want this to be your model, Wisconsin?

Greetings all.  The more geographically inclined of you may recognize that the above map is of the state of Mississippi.  Or, you know, you could have just read it right off the map.  You people are clever like that.

Anyway, that's my home.  I was born in Biloxi (my French Creole ass), and spent most of my childhood on the Gulf Coast.  I lived so far south that you'd have to get your feet wet to get closer to the equator.  I, like a quarter of my fellow Magnolia staters at the time, grew up in poverty (Down to just one in five now!  Woo!).  I went to high school there, then got the hell out thanks to the US Navy.  But eventually, I returned (for a number of reasons too complicated to detail here) and went to college in Hattiesburg, MS.  Then I bagged ass again, and ended up in Wisconsin. 

Being from Mississippi is usually not something to brag about, because Mississippi is a national joke.  People in Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana are fond of saying "Thank God for Mississippi," which is kind of like a second-grade dropout teasing a first-grade dropout for being ignorant.  But you get the point.  It's America's third world.  It routinely comes in at or near dead last in all desirable measures of health, safety, prosperity, and, well, every goddamn thing.  Naturally, the state comes in at or near the top in all undesirable measures of the quality of life.  Sure, the food's great, and the musical legacy is incredible, but, you know, Muddy Waters can't make up for the fact that the state is 50th in median income and 1st in percentage of residents in poverty.  Funny how those two might go together like that.

Mississippi, though my home, is a shithole.  I know, I know.  Some of you are going to bitch about my casting aspersions at the place.  But I know the place.  I lived there for a long time, and I drove around that motherfucker, so I've seen lots of different corners of the state.  I've also read a metric butt-ton of literature that explains just how fucked the place is from the perspective of anyone who isn't already rich.  Now think--what sane, intelligent person wants to take Mississippi as a model?

If you said "Scott Walker," you're wrong.  He's not sane or intelligent.  But he does want to make this state into Wississippi, so give yourself partial credit.  By busting up unions and giving the state over to businesses that are free to rape the hell out of the land, water, and laborers, he wants to recreate the conditions of the good ol' Hospitality State right here. 

If he starts importing fire ants, I'm issuing a general call to arms. 

Now--regarding yesterday's gigantic demonstrations.  I've seen estimates that the anti-retrograde, pro-human crowd numbered from 60,000 to 80,000.  I believe we'll get a more reliable estimate in a day or two.  The tea party bootlickers were here as well, and if there were 2,000 of them, I'd be impressed.  They just didn't show up in force.  No one saw Breitbart, although he may have been distracted by one of our many lovely taverns (yes, that's a cheap shot), and Sarah Palin couldn't be bothered to make a trip where there wasn't a substantial honorarium involved (that's not really a cheap shot at all).  

And even though they were small in number, those motherfuckers were MAD, son.  I haven't seen a group of white folks that pissed off since the OJ verdict.  That said, I only saw one instance of someone losing his cool.  It happened when some of the anti-worker folks were marching around with us--which, you know, more power to them; I wouldn't want to be the one union advocate surrounded by 1,000 tea partiers.  Well, one of the pro-human protesters called a tea party guy an asshole, which really wasn't called for.  And the person so insulted kind of lost his shit (he was wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt, so he apparently has no concept of irony).  The mad tea party dude started walking toward the guy who insulted him, yelling loudly and gesticulating pretty intently.  But a number of people got in between them and cooled the guy out a bit.  Then the cops pulled the tea party guy aside and told him to chill out.  No arrest was made, and no one was ever touched.

So that's the extent of the unrest that I saw.  The angry guy's buddy was walking next to me, so I started talking to him (I was carrying a sign that said "Veterans for Labor" and wearing an old uniform cap, so I figured I could get away with chatting to anyone).  He was a nice enough guy, but angry because he thought public sector workers were overcompensated regarding pay and benefits.  So I just, you know, talked with him.  He was pretty misinformed about what public workers actually get, and I told him what I knew about my profession, the state of  public employees in general, and the importance of collective bargaining.  It was a nice, polite, peaceful exchange.  I told him that I appreciated him being there, and that I wanted good things for him in his workplace, as well.  Actually, I said that to a number of counter-protesters yesterday.

I don't know if I reached him at all.  He'd been pretty thoroughly lied to, and was envious of what he thought were unjustified perks for public union workers.  So I asked him this--instead of wondering why I do have something, why don't you wonder why you don't?  Yes, that's Athenae's constant refrain here, and I shamelessly appropriated it for myself.  I told him that I wanted him to have a good pension and benefits, and that stripping it away from one group doesn't do anything to make anyone better--it just increases the misery in the world, and elevates no one.  I let him know that I wanted the good things--the roses, not just the bread--for all workers, and that if we all acted in concert, we had a better chance to secure those blessings.

Again, I don't know if I made an impact yesterday, either marching or talking with individuals.  But I'd rather try and fail than sit on my ass and do nothing. 

I'll be back today.  The weather is a crappy wintry mix today, so there will probably be fewer protesters out in that mess.  But come find me if you're here. 

UPDATE:  FUCK YEAH CHARLES WOODSON!  Now tell Aaron Rodgers to get on board.

Saturday Night Music: Lonely Holiday

I never had an imaginary friend but always sorta wanted one. Maybe Rhett Miller did too but frankly my dear I don't give a damn. So sue me, I watched Gone With The Wind whilst sick and still don't know nothin' about birthin' no babies. I could go on like this for hours but I'll spare you:

 

Koch Brothers Concocting Opposition to WI Protests

 

 They are involved in a very important scientific experiment

 

Just Smile out there today, all day. But if you see Mr Beeks, cover your pockets

Feel free to insert your fav Trading Places quotes in the comments.

(Posted by Scout)

Got a Pepperoni Pizza here for Protester... from someone named Phil in Poughkeepsie

 
(Photo: CRAIG SCHREINER - State Journal)

Posted by Scout:

Thank You America:

Protesters in Madison are getting support from near and far, whether it's the offer of a couch to crash on near the Capitol or Ian's Pizza ordered from around the country.

As of Friday, more than 200 people had been invited to a Facebook event aimed at finding out-of-town protesters a place to sleep. Capitol-area residents offer couches, sleeping bags and even floor space on the page, which is "in support of all American workers!" It can be found at go.madison.com/protesthousing. 

And staff at Ian's Pizza one block west of the Capitol said Friday a couple dozen of their pies have gone to protesters — purchased by supporters from coast to coast.

People have called in orders from New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Illinois, Arizona and California, said Nick Stratman, a manager at Ian's. 

Brendan Wilson, another manager, said a call came in Thursday night from someone in San Francisco who ordered $300 worth of pizza.

For the out-of-state orders, which began Tuesday, Stratman said the restaurant takes the first name and location of the person placing the order so employees delivering the pizzas can announce to hungry protesters who and where they're from. They've been received "very well," Stratman said.

'Carpet Badgers'

I wish I could take credit for that but I can't.

Breitbart and his merry band of fuckwits roll into Madison today. Smile and sing:

A.

Weekend Question Thread

What's the most memorable demonstration you've ever been to?

I covered the pro-marriage equality protests in downtown Chicago in 2004, and those were pretty fucking amazing.

A.

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

Post away.

A.

Shorter Joke Line: Unions Suck and Protest Sucks and Your Face Sucks

Why? Just BECAUSE, okay?

An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that. There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can't be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter. We hold elections to decide those basic parameters. And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker's basic requests are modest ones--asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do. He is also trying to limit the unions' abilities to negotiate work rules--and this is crucial when it comes to the more efficient operation of government in a difficult time.

Can somebody please explain to Joke the point about the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances? I swear I read that somewhere once. Yes, elections have consequences. I don't think anybody's arguing that legally Scott Walker can't do what he wants to do. They're arguing that what he wants to do fucking sucks and he shouldn't do it. BIG difference. 

Our premier political journalism, folks. Our best and brightest. Memo to Joke: Our Twitterers on the ground haven't heard any chants of "freedom, democracy, union." Not for four days. Also, maybe pay attention to actual events instead of the ones happening in your head. Reading on, it becomes clear that Joke once couldn't get a shitty teacher fired on his say-so:

When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year) had negotiated the "right" to mop the cafeteria floors only once a week. And we all know about the near-impossibility of getting criminal and morally questionable--to say nothing of less than competent--teachers fired. The negotiation of such contracts were acts of collusion rather than of mediation. Government officials were, in effect, bribing their most activist constituents.

An anecdote, which is so totally the same as data! Backed up with inflammatory language about teachers committing crimes who still can't be fired! Damn, if I'd known that was all it took to get hired by Time magazine ...

But we've had far too many state legislatures, of both parties, that have been cowed by the political power of the unions and enacted contracts that force state and city governments to be run for the benefit of their employees, rather than for their citizens. This situation is most egregious in far too many school districts across the nation. The events in Wisconsin are a rebalancing of power that, after decades of flush times and lax negotiating, had become imbalanced.

Yes. After all those years of you strapping young bucks teaching schoolchildren in the state with your pensions and your T-bone steaks, Joke Line is here to balance the scales! It's only right! After all, both parties are at fault here, and Wisconsin should feel bad about not fucking workers hard before this, and should start fucking them now extra-hard to make up for it.

I'd demand he cite a source for "freedom, democracy, union" and most of the rest of this bullshit, but I'm just some blogger, after all. He wouldn't have anything to prove to me.

A.

United

Posted by Scout:

Short video below of the firefighters with bagpipes in lead as they march to the Capitol today.

The firefighters are exempt from Walker's bill however they are out here each day standing with labor and the crowds here love them.

 

Late Thursday evening....On a lighter note after a long and serious day, some high school kids amidst the chanting in the Rotunda broke out into break dancing which brought smiles to all.

Friday Night Music: Living On A Thin Line

 

 

Wisconsin’s week in review (Part II)

It’s the back half of another shitty day in paradise. Managed to contract some sort of lung bug that’s knocking me on my ass. Couple that with two shots of NyQuil and a dark room and you’ve got the post below. Had to write it, so please forgive the typos. The vitriol, however, is something you can feel free to let seep in like wet grass saturating the knees of your jeans while pick weeds on a dew-filled morning.

- Here’s what I want to happen, although confrontation and reality have never been among the Republicans’ strong suits: I want every kid who sat in my class over the past year or two who showed up wearing a GOP shirt, a Walker for Governor shirt, a Rebecca Kleefisch shirt (Yes, they actually made those) or any other similar waste of cotton to make an appointment with me. I then want them to come to my office, sit down and tell me, to my face, that I’m an overpaid, worthless state worker and that, for what little good I did for them, I deserve to get hosed in any way Scott Walker sees fit. Then I want them to tell me that the secretary who managed to wedge them into their classes so they could graduate, the janitors who swept up after they ignored the “NO FOOD!” signs in the reading room, the counselors who helped them navigate the university’s bizzaro rules and the hundreds of other people who helped them walk out of this place with a degree (or get to this point at least) are over-paid, coddled, spoiled brats who don’t deserve what little they have. Do it and I’ll gladly shut up.

 - Speaking of our esteemed lieutenant governor, I found that she’s revamping her website. However, a cached version of her old page had this gem as the main thrust point:

Don’t just stand aside and allow politicians to make your choices for you. Make your voice heard.

Wonder if she still feels that way…

- Trying to parse the public sector/private sector debate, I chatted with a colleague who just made the move from MBA-land to academia. The money, she said, was better, the bennies worse, but there was something else no one understood. She said that when you took things away from private workers, there was a possibility that those items could come back. You can find another job or demand a raise or such. It doesn’t always work, she said, but it is possible. When a public worker loses something, she said, it’s gone for good. Worth pondering.

- If I read one more damned editorial telling the Democrats to “get back to work” I’m going to personally find the Dems, get them together and film them singing this. (Come to think of it, why isn’t someone working on a Wisconsin set of lyrics for this? Wonder if I could get Matt Damon out there to reprise his role…) I’ll play in never-ending loop on every available media outlet. They want to work. They want to do what they were sent to the state house to do: represent their constituents. However Darth Walker has made these desires mutually exclusive. Keep running, guys, if for no other reason than it has the media writing that they’re speaking to you from “an undisclosed location.” Feels very espionage-y. (Yes, I just made that up.)

- Why hasn’t more been made about the TWO MISSING REPUBLICANS on Thursday? Get back to work wrecking our state, you assholes. That’s what your party and the corporate interests pay you for.

- Welcome to the party, pal...

 - Haven’t spoken to Mom yet, but at least I know where she is. Dad left me a voicemail today, noting that things are “interesting.” That’s Dad-speak for “Holy shit, I can’t even comprehend what the hell is going to happen next.” Mom’s school district remained open. Not only did she go and teach today, but the reason I couldn’t get a hold of her was this: It’s the opening weekend for the high school play she’s directing. No way in hell she’d bail on those kids who worked so hard for this. So she’s directing and helping to run stage crew while the only union she’s ever known over 43 years may be crumbling. Dad volunteered to sell tickets.

Yup, just another money-grubbing, over-paid, worthless-assed, (hyphen-whoring) state employee.

 

Good night and good luck, y’all.

 

Doc

Listen to Wisconsin Live

Via noblejoanie, live stream from Madison's public radio station.

Be warned, someone near the mic screams pretty goddamn loud.

Inside the Rotunda.

A.

Very Special Wisconsin Ferretblogging: Bucky vs. Bucky

Bucky encounters his stuffed doppelganger and is DISPLEASED:

A.

Feel It...We Are One

Posted by Scout

There was a very special moment today in the WI Capitol Rotunda when Assembly Democrats passed through on their way to do the people's business. You have to watch the video below because I doubt you've ever seen anything like this before. I know I hadn't. At least not in politics.  And I, like one of the Reps you'll see, had misty eyes and brushed away a tear. It was just that moving.

The crowd erupted in applause as the united Dems wearing their now signature orange T-Shirts stopped to greet the throng. When the People chanted "Thank You" to the Dems, the Dems chanted the same back to the People.

When they returned with cameras to take pics and video of the crowd, that was taking pics and video of them, the crowd erupted once again. 

These are our representatives going in to fight for us. We know it, they know it. We all know we fight this one together, as one. We are all the same, united and not backing down.

And as I witnessed this I thought...we love these guys.

Democrats everywhere should see this and know that if you fight for the people, we will love you. You'll feel it. We'll feel it. We will be One.

 

Something You Can Do to Change the Conversation

Reader Sue sent this idea along. If businesses don't have demand for their products, it doesn't really matter what happens to their taxes because they won't have the money to pay anybody anything. So if you support the rights of unions to organize, in Wisconsin or in your state, you can send your favorite local business the following letter:

Wisconsin’s week in review

To quote Alec Baldwin from “State and Main” after the traffic crash: “So, that happened…”

I spent the beginning of the week explaining the reason behind this debacle in a simple way: The Democrats care too much about what everyone thinks while the Republicans don’t give a shit about what anyone thinks. I ended the week finding that only half of that is really true. The Democrats actually did something we didn’t see coming. They put their hand into the bag and took out a stone and slung it. Whether it topples the Philistine remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Republicans figure this will end quickly once the Dems run out of 8-tracks to listen to near Bloomington-Normal or when Mark Miller drinks one Vanilla McShake too many and fumigates the VW Vanagon.

While Athenae is making up here “Run, Sconnie, Run!” shirts, here’s a brief look at the weirdness you deal with when you a) can think, b) are a state worker and c) have crazy-ass friends all over the political spectrum:

Friday Catblogging: Her own biggest fan

Not only is Della Street convinced that she's more awesome than Jude, she checks catblogging every Friday. If she's not the star, there's hell to pay.