Report from commentor Rozlyn, on the front lines:
Just returned home from Madison—it was another beautiful day at the capitol with great turnout. Police and fire were there in force, which really fired up the crowds (the governor has exempted them from this union battle in an attempt to divide and conquer)!
__
The counter protest was weak tea, folks. Turnout was low and their rally, which was scheduled from 12-3, wrapped up at 1:20!! No sign of Breitbart or Palin.
Also, a reminder: Nixonland book group “meeting”, tomorrow, Sunday, at 4pm EST. We’ll be discussing chapters 6 & 7, and new voices are always welcome!
Mark S.
Breitbart didn’t show up?
Served
I just posted this in the other thread, but it’s worth it to post again:
From Egypt to Wisconsin
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I heard SamJoe The notPlumber was coming, too.
Just Some Fuckhead
Sully attacks back.
My favorite line:
To personalize this and say it’s all because I have contempt for “people I will never meet” seems bizarre. I have met one of those who will be much worse off if we can end the federal debt on Bowles-Simpson lines and he’s staring at me in the bathroom mirror every morning.
Yes, he met one of these people and it’s- guess who!? His own privileged, Province-town-vacationing, taking-every-August-off self! This is why you can’t get through to these people. They are totally self-unaware.
Sully might wind up having to take three weeks off in the summer instead of four, or vacation in New Jersey..
Won’t anyone think of Sully?
pbriggsiam
Thank you for your update! My wife and I here in Pasadena, CA have been looking for anything to give us an idea how things went today in WI. We were very worried about the astroturf bused in Teatard protesters causing trouble.
Things seem so bleak with Republican controlled legislatures in other states trying to do the same thing that Walker and his minions are doing.
My wife had an idea to help show solidarity concretely with the people in WI. Having progressives in other parts of the country, including this household, adopting a household in WI. Writing emails, providing help if needed…. I wonder if that’s an idea that could take off.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Just Some Fuckhead: New Rule: Pundits calling for “austerity” have to post their net worth, especially if they’re claiming to be one of the austeritized.
BGinCHI
From he previous thread, re-posting the link to the WI State Journal (the WSJ that doesn’t lie), with pics from today’s rally.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/collection_0f10041a-3c45-11e0-b165-001cc4c002e0.html
Joe the Fuckhead Plumber was there, and one can only imagine the words of wisdom.
Hope we hear from other folks at the rally. Me and Mrs. BG plan on going up next weekend if there is still protesting. Or even if not, because there is beer.
Mark S.
Shorter Ann Althouse:
gbear
One of the tweets at this site had this to say:
Did he phone it in?
PurpleGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, absolutely. They want us to believe they will experience a negative impact, they should have to prove it with numbers.
feebog
Any estimate on the number of Teatards that did show?
Dee Loralei
@pbriggsiam: There’s an article in the previous thread for a pizza place near the Capital building. Seems people all over the country are phoning in pizza orders to deliver to the marchers. Make sure you specify for pro-Union marcgers, wouldn’t want Breitbart or Joe the Plumber of a GD teabagger to get a piece of your munificence. I think it was Ian’s Pizza. YellowPages.com prolly can get you a number.
JPL
3:25 p.m.: During what has been mostly a peaceful day of protest, at least one Walker supporter complains of a painful encounter.
I posted this in the previous post but think it’s worth highlighting again.
I can’t believe this guy is complaining about union benefits but not Wall Street. Your tea party at work, I suppose. There are more updates at this link.
JGabriel
Rozlyn via AL @ Top:
It will probably remain that way as long as the cops & firepeople stay vocal and on the unions side. None of GOP stalwarts and stars want to come out against first responders. Sure, they’ll do their manipulations and propaganda in the media, but they won’t put themselves in the position of getting booed by the police and other first responders.
It creates bad video for them.
.
Cat Lady
so begins the final drama, in the streets and in the fields, so comrades come on and rally, this is the time and place.
JenJen
Breitbart was there. Or, at least, he gave an interview to NRO from Madison. Not sure how involved he was other than that.
@Mark S.: I’ve been getting quite the kick out of Althouse the last few days. Not in the way she’d want, of course; more in the “pointing-and-laughing” sense.
manny
I was there for several hours today and made several rounds around the square. Do NOT believe the media hype that the Tea Party was there in an significant numbers at all. Of the 100,000+ that were there, there were [i]maybe[/i] 1,000 Tea Partiers there. That is not spin, 1000 may be a generous estimate. They were scattered around the sidelines and a few congregated per corner of the square, and that’s it.
inkadu
@JPL: I can’t believe this guy doesn’t come to the conclusion that he needs to start a truck driver’s union.
PurpleGirl
@JPL: So, let me get this right: He’s there at the march with his wife and teenage son. Another WALKER supporter tries to knock off his cap? He says he supported unions when they began? That’s what several decades ago — 60, 70 years ago, he’s that old? The story doesn’t make sense to me.
(So why isn’t he trying to bring back the old Teamsters union and get better benefits for himself and other private drivers?)
Omnes Omnibus
Just got back from about 4 hours at the protests in Madison. In my estimate, only about 1000 people showed up at the tea protest. There was a solid mass of real protesters moving around the Square the whole time I was there. In addition there were masses of people on the west steps of the Capitol, facing down State Street and on the opposite side from the tea folk. There were a large number of union people up from Chicago. Also a large number of people inside the capitol were speechifying and cheering away. On one corner of the Square, there were doctors doing “medical examinations: and writing medical excuses for people who “needed healthcare” and a doctor’s excuse for missing work. I probably spent 3 hours marching and the rest of the time taking photos.
jwb
@feebog: Read somewhere on the WI State Journal site that the counter demonstration was estimated at 2,000. One estimate I read of the main protest was around 60,000.
JGabriel
JPL:
Plenty Tuff And Union Made. It gives the right bad dreams. I like to see those dreams come true.
.
Apsaras
“Turnout was low and their rally, which was scheduled from 12-3, wrapped up at 1:20!!”
That just proves that they’re almost three times more efficient!
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Good job.
jwb
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for going and thanks for the report!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL:
So naturally he supports tax cuts for the rich, cuts in social security and Medicare, and opposed efforts to introduce a non-profit insurance program for Americans of all ages.
Excuse me, I need to go bang my head against a wall.
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: How about some pictures.
jwb
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s all assuming, of course, that he is who he says he is and not a paid agent of Koch, Inc., which is what I immediately suspect.
wobblybits
Protesters singing, “God Bless America”
H/T Julie Gulden, poster over at Dkos.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks!! How cold was it there today?
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks OO. Can you post photos?
Mark S.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Of course. Like Joe the Plumber, he’s worried about what happens when he moves up to the top bracket making $300,000 driving a truck.
JGabriel
PurpleGirl:
A lot older than that. In an interesting twist of irony, the original Boston Tea Party was thrown mostly by a carpenter’s union:
So you’d think the Tea Parties would support unions.
.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fox TV propaganda at work.
BGinCHI
If I go up to Madison next week, here’s my sign:
Any better ideas?
Cat Lady
@wobblybits:
Um, it’s the Star Spangled Banner, but OK. Are you from around here? Is that you Christina?
El Cid
If the Breitbart Brigades are too weak, then we need to set up a new American Protective League.
This time it can be Koch-funded.
If by some flight of imagination unions and working people in general start causing such unrest, you will see things like this.
It would take maybe a week to get Koch et al funding shock troop recruits for TeaTards so Republicans like Walker can suggest that they go out and protect the liberties of the free market from the collectivist terrorists.
Omnes Omnibus
@Apsaras: Their turnout looked really small. Some of the other areas of the Capitol Square where protesters were just sitting and resting looked almost as crowded.
ETA: I saw Wobblies. Real IWW Wobblies. How cool is that?
JenJen
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yes, that line is by far the winner, but for first runner up, may I offer
What does that even mean?
Martha
I just got home from the Madison rally too. Wow! What a great crowd! We guessed 100,000 and I just saw a CNN report that confirmed our guess. I would say the tea partiers/Walker supporters were maybe 2,000 (I’m being generous)
Loved the number of signs that mentioned the Koch connection…”Walker is a Kochhead” was a particular favorite. Everyone was friendly and smiling. Tons of parents with little kids and older folks too.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Awesome, man! Can’t wait to see pics.
@Martha: Cool! Did the mister make the ‘baggers cry?
@JenJen: It means he can’t speak to their arguments because he has no defense so he’s just going to whine about tone and them being so meeeeean to him.
jwb
@Omnes Omnibus: What’s your sense of how this is playing in Wisconsin, especially the teachers calling in sick? That’s a point the wingnuts, of course, are pounding, but I can’t tell if that’s because it has actual resonance or if that’s because it’s all they have.
wobblybits
@Cat Lady: I meant Star Spangled Banner (duh! head smack) No, I’m not Christina.
jwb
@Martha: Thanks for going! And thanks for posting about your experience. As I mentioned above, the Wisconsin State Journal listed the counter protest at 2,000 as well. It will be interesting to see if the wingnut multiplier gets applied.
Martha
Oh, my other favorite sign:
Evolution is a myth
WMD in Iraq
Unions cause deficits
Witches float
The guy was also carrying another sign below that one that said “Governor Walker, the world is watching”
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL:
@BGinCHI:
I am not a technical savant, so does anyone have a suggestion as to the best way to make them available?
@gbear:
It wasn’t too bad. Around 30 and sunny, but with a brisk wind.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Put them on Flickr and then link here.
@Martha: You got a good one there!
Martha
@asiangrrlMN: He didn’t, but he did ask them if they were enjoying their Saturday…when they were DUMB enough to say yes, he said….wait for it…then thank a union! The looks on their faces were priceless.
JenJen
@asiangrrlMN: Oh!! That’s it? Pretty banal, no? Thanks so much for being fluent in Sully. :-)
wobblybits
@Martha: BRAVO! I would love to have seen their facial expressions.
gbear
@Martha: HA!!
Omnes Omnibus
@jwb: I can’t really be sure how it is playing here. Most of the people I know, friends and family are in favor of the protests. The few who aren’t are known teabaggers. The problem si, I don’t want to fall victim to Pauline Kael syndrome.
@Martha: I loved the “witches float” guy. I talked to him for a bit. He said he was trying out for the Tea Party. I told him that if he went over to the east side, they might put him on the podium. Did you see me? I was the guy with LLBean Norwegian sweater.
PurpleGirl
Bread and Roses always brings tears to my eyes. So I went looking for other versions on YouTube.
The one Annie Laurie posted:
Boston Workmen’s Circle A Besere Velt (A Better World) Yiddish Chorus, performs “Bread and Roses/Makhnes Geyen” at the Rosenberg Fund for Children’s “Celebrate the Children of Resistance” event in Boston, MA, June 19, 2007. The song is a ballad from the 1912 Lawrence, MA textile strike, woven together with an anthem dedicated to the fighters in the Spanish Civil War. “The masses are marching in the struggle for victory.” http://www.rfc.org
There is also a beautiful one by Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Farina.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRcCa-ddOo&feature=related
asiangrrlMN
@JenJen: I am a stranger in a strange land. I must know how to read all the native species (and, despite Sully being a furrrrrner, he’s a native).
Martha
@wobblybits: It really was priceless. The thing I love about this state is that there really are a lot of really smart people. Not all are book smart, but what we call farm smart. And a lot of the tea baggers are neither.
Sly
@JGabriel:
This is a complete nitpick, but modern trade unions can’t really trace their origins to guilds. The enemies of most guilds were often one another, and were set up to pretty much establish what, in modern terms, would be a protection racket. Induct new members, isolate tradesman who wouldn’t participate, and wage turf battles with rival guilds. In the most charitable sense, they were more like a “small business association” than a modern trade union. More Chamber of Commerce than AFL-CIO.
Three-nineteen
Here’s an interesting tidbit: The WI state assembly was in session yesterday (only the senators left), and the Speaker “accidentally” started the day before the Democratic caucus showed up and passed the bill on a voice vote. They pulled it back when the Dems showed up (on time, the vote was taken about 2 minutes before the session was supposed to start) and protested.
ETA: Watch the video too, it has a righteous speech by the Minority Leader.
Martha
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh man, we must have been within spitting distance of each other. Mr m and I stood at that corner for quite a while and talked to a couple of union guys who were sitting on the steps resting. Then we walked up to the top of the stairs so we could see the view down State St and stayed there for quite a while and listened to the music.
Omnes Omnibus
@asiangrrlMN: Will I remain pseudonymous if I do that?
Benny
someone needs to get rid of the Jimmy Hoffa sign
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: I think so..just post under your bj name.
you can set up another account for friends and family..don’t put all your pictures under this account
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Wot JPL said. You can use whatever pseudonym you want. You post whatever pics you want, and you can control who gets to see them.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: @asiangrrlMN: Okay. Uploading now.
D-boy
I just got back from the protest as well and I would agree that the tea party presence was only about a couple thousand. I thought I heard Breitbart and possibly Michelle Bachman addressing the teahadists but I couldn’t see for sure.
Binzinerator
I was on the Square Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of people demonstrating, there were only a handful of pro-walker twits. One guy yells out ” Go Walker!” and a dozen demonstrators start chanting “What’s disgusting? UNION BUSTING! What’s digusting? UNION BUSTING!”
Lots of different ages of people demonstrating, lots of young college age people. Lots of parents with kids in strollers too.
I had heard a Fox News reports of “violence” on the Square. It’s bullshit. It’s propaganda to make tens of thousands of prosters look bad and to lay teh groundwork for a justifucation for any teabagger who shows up packing heat.
Omnes Omnibus
@Binzinerator: I have see no, none, nada, zilch, zero violence at all.
policomic
It was enough to allow NPR’s on-scene reporter to emphasize that “some” of the protestors were pro-GOP, with that supremely annoying, “now wait a minute, we all know that both sides,” etc. tone in her voice.
That was the opening of the report, after which I angrily switched the station, so I don’t know if there was any clarifying quantification. But, I doubt there was.
Binzinerator
Stayed home yesterday due to schools being closed, taking care of the schoolage little one. Parents are coming in tonight from out of state so they can do kiddie care next week. And also to come protest with me and Ms. B. and the kids tomorrow. Hoping the coming snow storm wont be too icy.
Martha
@Omnes Omnibus: I saw no evidence of any violence or even much bad temper over the past 3 days and nights.
kideni
Great rally today. I think official reports are 30 to 1 anti-Walker vs. pro. My friends and I ended up in the Tea Party area for a bit when they started their festival of misinformation (I think Breitbart might have been the guy blathering about what violent anarchists all those public workers and their supporters are). My friend the former social worker couldn’t help herself and had to strike up a conversation with a pro-Walker woman to make sure she understood what the bill means as a whole. My friend is one of those people who can have that sort of conversation, break through the other person’s initial defensiveness, keep it civil, keep it on message, and maybe even get the other person to rethink things. I don’t know if it worked, but at least this other person can’t (honestly) say that all of us are foul-mouthed, irrational thugs.
The signs were great, the bands were great, the chants were great. It was wonderful to see so many people (and their dogs) from so many places and so many walks of life out there exercising their first amendment rights. Inside the Capitol, in between people’s statements through a bullhorn, musicians led us in “This Land Is Your Land,” “If I Had a Hammer,” and various Wisconsin songs. It was beautiful.
Some day we need to have a Madison Balloon Juice meet-up.
Binzinerator
@Omnes Omnibus: Me neither. We’re going to try to make it downtown tomorrow with the kids if it isn’t too blizzardy. I wanted to go today but we had to get the house into shape for my parents arrival tonight. Actually I thought the place looked fine but Ms. B was insistent. Gotta go install a towelbar in the spare bathroom….
Omnes Omnibus
Flickr is a pain. I am trying to put all the photos in one group without dragging each one fucking individually. I am not having success at this.
hamletta
@Omnes Omnibus: Can you shift-click to select a bunch?
Omnes Omnibus
@hamletta: I don’t seem to be able to on the fucking macbook I am using. I will just link to the photos uploaded on this date.
Omnes Omnibus
Deleted…. Will try again in a bit.
Three-nineteen
This is my favorite sign from today.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Omnes Omnibus: The link worked.
This one caught my eye immediately.
Martha
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: We loved that one too…
Zuzu's Petals
@Omnes Omnibus:
Make sure you click the “everyone can see this” button (or whatever it is).
mellowjohn
LOVED LOVED LOVED the spellcheck sign. as a snarky teacher myself, i’m always glad to see another.
btw, judy collins does a pretty mean “bread and roses.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Zuzu’s Petals: My concern is having my yahoo ID plastered all over everything. I am creating a blind account and will post a link from it.
Omnes Omnibus
Photos from Madison.
jwb
@Omnes Omnibus: These are great! Thanks for posting.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: YAY! You did it!
::Goes to check it out naow::
Omnes Omnibus
@jwb: You’re welcome.
@asiangrrlMN: Flickr sucks monkey balls for spare change behind a bar in Mobile, Alabama.
Anne Laurie
@mellowjohn:
Yes indeed she does! — to be truthful, that’s the version I was looking for, unsuccessfully, when I decided this one was more appropriate for the moment anyways. But if anyone’s YT-fu is stronger than mine, I’d love a Collins link.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Aw, sorry. But, the important thing is you got them posted so we can see them. Kudos!
P.S. You funny.
Jeanne ringland
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for posting that.
There is one sign that puzzles me, the one that says “Aaron Rodgers is a shop steward”. I do not understand. Who is Aaron Rodgers?
asiangrrlMN
@Jeanne ringland: He’s the quarterback of the Packers (the pro football team) which is owned by the city.
Yutsano
@Jeanne ringland: @asiangrrlMN:
I’m more curious if this is actually true. If so, that is all kinds of serious win. Rodgers is a pretty decent chap. I’d even let my cousin date him.
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
Damn it, I couldn’t find Judy Collins doing “Bread and Roses,” but I kept finding clips of her doing “Someday Soon,” which always breaks me down. Just a minute, got something in my eye . . .