February 20, 2012

A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests, I video'd Madison city salt trucks circling the Capitol Square, blowing horns in solidarity with the protesters.

"Two city salt trucks circle the block at least twice, with horns blaring. Only one is visibly spreading salt."
The protesters wave and hold up fists, indicating that it is their interpretation that the city workers are sounding support for the protests. Obviously, we taxpayers pay for the salt trucks and the employees who drive them and we expect those trucks to be used to make the streets all over town safe, not to circle the Capitol Square for other purposes.
The next day I would receive a death threat: "whoever video taped this has no life and needs to be shot in the head."

Inside the Capitol, the drum beating and hooting, the signs and the dazed, pacing protesters felt lurid and surreal.



"This is what class warfare looks like," reads one sign.

A sign indicates that people are staying overnight in the Capitol, and I talk to a security guard and find out that is indeed happening: "The doors are locked at a particular time, but people are not cleared out of the building."

This, then, was the day when things really did cross the line into weird. Late that evening, we got the word that Madison school teachers would take another day off from work, after a somewhat strange voting process in which union members were required to leave the meeting room and walk back in through one of 2 doors, to indicate a "yes" or "no" vote.

More Hitler comparisons:
"Do you think Scott Walker deserves to be compared to the Nazis?" I ask and the answer is "Yes, I do."

31 comments:

edutcher said...

I remember the threat.

You had then and still have a great many people in your corner, Madame.

Alex said...

Remember garage supports union thugs.

Alex said...

Anyways instead of all this stupid political nonsense, go listen to some Edit Piaf - La Vie En Rose

bagoh20 said...

Maybe we've had Hitler all wrong. Did you ever think of that?

Beta Rube said...

Didn't one of the teachers hold a sign that said "Adolph, I taught your children"?

Meade said...

Alright, alright... bring on the Hitler jokes. Let's get them all out.

garage mahal said...

Is it wrong to compare you political adversaries to Hitler?

Meade said...

garage, don't you think your question is just a little... stalinesque?

garage mahal said...

Just checking what the latest rules are...

Irene said...

That was a memorable day. By the time the salt-truck incident occurred, the protest already seemed old. It's interesting to go back and see how early in the game it was.

Chip Ahoy said...

Alex, I have that. I also have Grace Jones version. I love singing along with the Grace Jones version but it hurts too much to overdo too often. You have to thrust your head like an out of control sledgehammer to sing,

LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LA BEA on Hoze
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZE.

MikeR said...

Please stop. I don't care what happened a year ago. Just because Glenn Reynolds does it doesn't make it a good idea.

Lipperman said...

I took this picture at the the Tea Party rally a few weeks later but it's uplifting, and relevant:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2j1q4d2.jpg

I have a few more pictures of this strong, proud, and defiant teacher. I call her "Stands With Fist".

Alex said...

Chip - I don't know why you would listen to Grace Jones instead of the original.

Ann Althouse said...

@MikeR It's painful, isn't it? But it builds character, facin g reality.

garage mahal said...

The gal with the sign is right about one thing. Hitler hated unions. As did Stalin and Mubarak. Now of course that doesn't mean *everyone* that hates unions today is in love with autocratic tyrants like Hitler.

Beta Rube said...

Stalin was a fan of large, intrusive government. That doesn't mean that everyone who wants this killed millions of Ukrainians.

Anonymous said...

And again, just what did this glorified temper tantrum accomplish?

That's correct. Nothing.

The legislation was signed into law. Both houses remain in Republican control. The state Supreme Court remains in Republican control. And Walker will most likely survive the recall.

Must be frustrating to be so filled with rage and unable to do a damn thing about it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

As time goes on, the sheer thoughtlessness of comparing Walker to Hitler seems more apparent.

That kind of cognitive dissonance is not readily on display like that.

Posterity.

buddy larsen said...

If Hitler dropped by Madison to recruit some brownshirts, which group would he want to talk to, the unions or the tea partiers?

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...
The gal with the sign is right about one thing. Hitler hated unions."

False. He got rid of the independdant unions for government unions. He formed the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF), which was consisted of the National Socialist Factory Organization and the National Socialist Trade and Industry Organization. It was through these organizations that he controlled power and Germany.

Hitler loved what you love! Government Unions! Fortunately for Hitler, he had no Walker. You and your lazy selfish brethren aren't so lucky.

Chip Ahoy said...

The reason I would listen to Grace Jones cover of La Vie en Rose, you see, is because I like it.

As a smatter a fact, I'm putting it on now.

Ah. The dulcet tones of Grace Jones.

But that doesn't answer anything.

My copy of Edith Pief is a poor recording. It's all scritchy scratchy. I do not care for the orchestration, it is poorly produced. Too many twirly things and the mute thing on a trumpet. It seems unfortunately beyond remastering. I would like her to redo it, but she's dead. Her voice no longer holds the allure it once held. It cloys. Plus, on top of all that, I've developed an unhealthy and unjustifiable attitude against excessively wealthy short people who are not named Danny DiVitto who totally cracks me up all over the place.

buddy larsen said...

--good theme song for Governor Walker!

buddy larsen said...

Wisconsin economics teachers present alternative state budget plan!

Rusty said...

Hitler hated unions. As did Stalin and Mubarak. Now of course that doesn't mean *everyone* that hates unions today is in love with autocratic tyrants like Hitler.


The use of the word ,'hate' reveals a lot about a persons character.

The fact is Hitler, Stalin and Mubarak had no use for unions that did not serve their purposes. to say they hated them is overreaching. If they existed at all, and they did, it was to serve at the tyrants pleasure.
Their unions existed to serve the state. Today's unions in the US exist to wield political power at the expense of the members and the public at large.

Brian Brown said...

"Do you think Scott Walker deserves to be compared to the Nazis?" I ask and the answer is "Yes, I do."


And a year later I'm sure that person is just as ignorant of "Nazi's"

One must wonder what these people think of President Obama who decides when the Senate is in recess, alters private insurance contracts, and kills or indefinitely detains US citizens based soley on the executive branche's descretion.

MikeR said...

"@MikeR It's painful, isn't it?" Ann, I don't find it painful, just painfully dull. At least Glenn's are from ten years ago, and maybe I've forgotten them.

How about just a single (very long) post, with a timeline, instead of torturing the reader for the next several months as this drags out - just in time for you to start again with the two-year recap!

GMay said...

What strikes me is just how often lefties (including our resident ones) like to trumpet their ignorance from the rooftops.

pst314 said...

"The fact is Hitler, Stalin and Mubarak had no use for unions that did not serve their purposes."

Sort of like how Garage has no use for schools that do not serve the state. ;-)

Fen said...

"We'll leave our baseballs in your yard"

means "We were in striking distance of you and your family as you slept, and you didn't even know it. Next time..."

edward said...

Garage is apparently comfortable with thugs as arbitrators of "good"?
Scary......

When the Obamaists came for the conservatives,
I remained silent;
I was not a conservative.
When they locked up the second amendment,
I remained silent;
I was afraid of guns.
When they came for the tax payer,
I did not speak out;
I was not a tax payer.
When they came for the parents,
I did not speak out;
I was not a a parent, I chose to abort.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Friedrich Gustav Martin Niemöller's words still ring true.