Those Damn Lefty Scumbag Pro-Union Destroy-Free-Enterprise WI Protestors Show Their True Colors

[filkertom]

The terrible truth.

Comments

[ilyena_sylph]

Heya, I've been stalking your journal for days because you've got some great news pieces.

I'd love to see the vid, but some imbeds aren't working on DW because of some easily exploitable code from the source side... mostly youtube, but I think a couple of others, too?

Got a plain link?

[filkertom]

Thanks. And, yeah, I just replaced the scrweed-up embed with a direct link to YouTube.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Well, as we know from Walker's own statements, Right-wing protests are the voice of the people speaking up to an unjust government. Left-wing protests are mere street theatre which can be ignored since it is just people blowing off steam.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I thought left-wing protests were terroristic existential threats that had to be dealt with by any means necessary this week?

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Well, they were singing about bombs bursting and violence and stuff.

[malada.livejournal.com]

They forgot the ending: "Play ball!" or "Racers, start your engines!"

-m

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I admit I thought, "Play ball!" ;)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

At least one of them.

[sweetmusic-27.livejournal.com]

Here's to learning how to entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine...

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely inspiring!

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

So, two people with money don't like unions. So they throw a ton of money at a governor's race to get a candidate that agrees with them in office. This is democratic, how, exactly?

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

IOKIYAR, natch.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

Tea Party Patriots and the 'Americans for Prosperity' have shown up at the protest. Their signs have apparently been attacking the protesters as much as supporting the governor, with such charming slogans as "Your Gravy Train Ride Is Over -- Welcome To the Recession" and "Sorry We're Late, Governor -- We Work For A Living."

I wouldn't be as irritated if they were there to just support the removal of collective bargaining, but they seem to be just as eager to mock the people whose livlihoods are on the line.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

So their solution to unemployment is to put MORE people out of work?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Remember that we are dealing, in this case, with people who've been lied to for years. Always reference that speech at the end of The American President:

... whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

And follow it with Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black:

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals....

Multiply them by the readership of The Washington Post, the listenership of Rush Limbaugh, and the viewership of Fox News, and you have the Tea Party. Part of this is to save them, too, even if they'll hate us for it.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

There is no "gravy train" in government work. At least not for the WORKERS. We make--even in good times--less than what we would make in the public sector, and we're expected to be GRATEFUL to have been given the OPPORTUNITY to serve the people. People who want us to stay out of their lives unless we can stop something that is negatively affecting them. Right. Those people wouldn't last a day in a government job. They probably wouldn't last an hour in a classroom.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my fellow prole. Add to that our understanding of "bonuses" as something that happens off in the mythical private sector we've heard about; our wages frozen this year and the next; and the charming way people like the Teabees instantly assume "government worker" = "lazy, incompetent fat-cat."

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

+1000 (fellow govt. worker here)

You and I know what sort of abuse government workers have to put up with. And then they complain that we make too much money (total falsehood) and that we have benefits that they don't. Well, if you don't have good enough benefits, dammit, FORM A UNION!

[jeffreycwells.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm trying not to talk too much about this issue, but the thing I don't get is this: the Unions have outright said that, if only the Governor would sit down with them, they would accept the financial provisions of the bill, i.e., the thing that, you know, would actually address the possibly-fictional budget "shortfall". Which means one of four things:

(a) Gov. Walker thinks they are lying.

(b) Gov. Walker fears that an a active Union would make his fix too temporary to be any good, as his cuts to labor costs would be quickly negotiated away at the local level.

(c) Gov. Walker is actively divorced from reality.

(d) Gov. Walker is taking a public emergency everyone knows and sympathizes with (the 9/11 attacks / the housing collapse) and using the power of said emergency to advance a feebly-related goal he's been aiming at for far longer than the "crisis" has ever existed (the second Iraq invasion / destabilization of the Unions).

I'm voting (d). I'm sure he means well in his own mind -- all of us *believe* we are working for the betterment of society, one way or another -- but I take strong issue with his methods, which seem, unfortunately, all too familiar. "Tea Party" is nothing more than "Neo-Con 2", which saddens me.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I work for the state of Wisconsin. I vote for (c) and (d).

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

I think Gov. Walker effectively admitted to (d) in his phone conversations.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

A couple of summers ago, I visited that building--a mile or two down the street from sweetmusic_27's apartment, and a block or two up the hill from her husband's workplace. The wonderful thing about the place, as pointed out by a tourist visiting from Tennessee (where this is apparently not the case), is that you can walk in without going through security theater, and the accoustics are wonderful. As much as the new governor is an ass, it's a cool place, so it gives me extra warm fuzzies to see the people address their grievances there.

[sweetmusic-27.livejournal.com]

The acoustics are GREAT. There are some alcoves I've been playing in (mostly patriotic songs and a few marches) and all that marble echoes up and down, it just sounds wonderful. It helps that there are a lot of warm bodies nearby absorbing sound and creating some of their own, of course. People walk by, and come down the stairs right next to where I'll be playing, and every once in a while, one will stop to sing along, so I'll sing too, while I'm playing, and our voices will echo and reverberate along with the violin. There are a lot of warm fuzzies in those moments for me, too. 8)

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Our national anthem is difficult to sing as a solo.

But when you've got a crowd to work with, everybody can find at least one part they can sing, and it all works out.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Mantra: Tea Party Terrorists Who Hate America. Repeat that over and over and over. I mean, they don't pay taxes because they'd rather use their money to buy politicians. Is that the activity of a loyal American?

"What kind of a word is ye-et?" --some comedian, my memory fails me, might have been Robert Klein, or George Carlin.

[violinsontv.livejournal.com]

There is no doubt in my *mind* that Walker is bringing "shock doctrine" to bear here.

One side note: story on ABC News last night dubbed "A Tale of Two Teachers." Featured a male teacher in his home, with his wife, and en route to the state capitol for the protest. Also featured a Tea Party member, en route to the state capitol for a counter-protest.

Who was the other teacher? The Tea Party member's *wife*. Whom we did not see on camera, at home or at her school, where she was, presumably, teaching. The only word we had on it was the TP member's statement, "My wife is a teacher."

What's wrong with this picture? Fact checker, anyone? (Especially since showing the teacher *in the classroom.* would have made it a much better story to begin with!)