Tea Partier Plans to Go to Madison Posing as Union Member So He Can Start Fights

While the national media is busy yammering about nonexistent “chaos” even as the Madison cops still haven’t found anything that rates writing out an arrest warrant, a really stupid teabagger named Mark Williams wants to get together with his buddies and go to Madison to cause actual trouble while posing as SEIU members:

we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!” and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters.

[...]

Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines. Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.

This is exactly the sort of thing right-wingers love to do. See, for example, Mitch Berg and his buddies at “Protest Warrior”. So it’s no surprise that they’re trying the same old agent proschlockateur silliness.

Things The GOP/Media Complex Won’t Tell You About Wisconsin, Part 2

Since the national media is pretending that average Americans, unpaid by the Koch family, who protest for their rights are somehow agents of “chaos”, and that members of Koch front groups like the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity are solid citizens, I have decided to forego linking to them unless they tell the unspun and whole truth, or I can mock them in some way.

In this case, the mockery comes from a resident of Madison who is astonished at just how in the tank the national press is for the Koch-funded teabaggers:

I’ve been at the WI state capitol for the last 5 days. I run my own business a block from there and have been heading over during lunches and at the end of the days. The whole week has been unbelievable, and as you would expect, the national media isn’t doing it justice.

Today especially – the billionaire backed republican rally was so full of FAIL, I almost started to feel sorry for them. Almost.

It truly was laughable how small and insignificant the ‘baggers were. Official estimates are saying 70,000 just today alone, and I’d be shocked if the Koch Klan topped 1,000. So imagine my surprise when just checking in now to see how it’s being covered, and the AP article that seems to be all over the place online, focuses almost exclusively on the counter-protesters. I know we’re all aware of this thing they always do, but it’s extra disconcerting when you experience the deception so directly.

Whatever…It’s really incredible what’s happening here, and I’m very proud of how my fellow labor backers handled themselves going face-to-face with the crazies and being very respectful and staying on message, and not taking the bait. There are even volunteer groups forming each night to go around the grounds and cleaning up. Various unions are stationed around the grounds with grills set up and giving food and water for free. I’ve talked to some restaurant and bar owners around the square, and they’re saying this week will make their entire year, and having to place several orders a day with suppliers just to keep up (one is a friend and he’s ordering massive amounts from local farmers…they’re not sure if they’ll be able to meet demand if this keeps up). He also said many are placing large orders and asking them to pass it all out for free to protesters. It’s really great to see.

I haven’t seen any of this mentioned in any article I’ve read yet. Solidarity! Also. Too.

Another Wisconsinite chimes in to corroborate:

Yeah, I was there about 11:30 to maybe 1:30 or so and I would be surprised if there were more than 200 teabaggers there. The pro-union people were shoulder to shoulder filling the streets around the capital. I imagine Fox is reporting 80-100,000 teabaggers though. It’s nice to see liberals standing up for themselves for a change!!

By the way: Despite the obvious jonesing for violence by the teabaggers (who flew in disgraced media hack Andrew Breitbart to address their miniscule crowd before they all left for the day), the Madison police department reports that as of 5:10 pm Central Standard Time, there have been no arrests of anyone during the week of protests.

Some Things The GOP/Media Complex Won’t Tell You RE: Wisconsin

I see that the alleged fact-checkers of the rocking-chair media are trying to undermine the Wisconsin protesters. We have CBS Minnesota’s (formerly WCCO’s) Pat Kessler doing a typical divide-and-conquer piece on how allegedly rich are Wisconsin’s public employees, but what he chooses to ignore is that Wisconsin public workers haven’t had pay raises in two years and instead have done sixteen unpaid furlough days during that time.

There’s a reason that over two-thirds of Wisconsinites think Walker’s way out of line on this.

There’s a reason that even the Archbishop of Milwaukee, not known for lipping off to Republican pols, is calling Walker’s and the state GOP’s moves “immoral”.

By the way: That “budget deficit”? Walker created it, with his tax breaks for his buddies.

Also by the way, this is a Koch brothers production, from ALEC (the group behind the anti-worker bills in WI and elsewhere) to the “Stand with Walker” astroturf site to the teabaggers being bussed in from across the country much as Hosni Mubarak sent his paid goons to harass the protesters in Tahrir Square. (Though today’s teabagger presence is pitifully small — less than 1,000 compared to the 70,000-plus pro-worker folks, according to Madison residents — the national media continues to act as if they’re the only game in town.)

(Crossposted at Renaissance Post.)

No comment necessary

From http://twitpic.com/419nfm

Via fatster at FDL.

So, how are we doing?

Via Quentin Compson at Atrios:

From a column by Charles Blow.

Democratic medley

From Angry Arab blogspot, two posts:

The first:

In the last edition of his book (I think it was in 1970) The Arab Cold War, the late Malcolm Kerr lamented that Arab politics is not fun anymore. I wish Kerr lived to this day. I would have told him: Arab politics will be fun from this day forward. It may not be fun for Israel, but it is going to be fun for the rest of us. Sit back and enjoy the show.

The second:

For those who say that there are no foreign policy goals for Egyptian protesters, you need to watch this. In it, Egyptians (more than 2 million today) in Tahrir Square chant: “To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions.” (Yes, it rhymes in Arabic)

Egyptians are not going to march on Jerusalem. But they very well might open the border to Gaza, ending the shameful abuse of the people in that fragment of the Palestinian state.

Alfred McCoy, Professor of History (and a leading voice decrying modern “touch free” torture) on CBS News:

A soft landing for America 40 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting.
…
But have no doubt: when Washington’s global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life. As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society, regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation. As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.
…
Today, three main threats exist to America’s dominant position in the global economy: loss of economic clout thanks to a shrinking share of world trade, the decline of American technological innovation, and the end of the dollar’s privileged status as the global reserve currency.
…
Significantly, in 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council admitted for the first time that America’s global power was indeed on a declining trajectory.
…
Ordinary Americans, watching their jobs head overseas, have a more realistic view than their cosseted leaders. An opinion poll in August 2010 found that 65% of Americans believed the country was now “in a state of decline.” Already, Australia and Turkey, traditional U.S. military allies, are using their American-manufactured weapons for joint air and naval maneuvers with China.

While I think McCoy’s vision of the Chinese besting the US in space warfare is fanciful, and while I think he underestimates China’s internal strains, there’s no question but that the US is in trouble or that the wounds are self-inflicted. I think McCoy may have even been optimistic in seeing the demise of the empire as occurring in 2025. The Republicans are forcing us into disaster on all fronts, and the Democrats are too slow in seeing where this ends.

It does not end well for us, but probably not for anyone. Where As’ad AbuKhalil sees with glee the collapse of American-sustained tyrannies in the Middle East, I see with sorrow the ashes of American integrity. I see the collapse of the old order resulting in scarcity, war, and renewed tyranny. I only pray that what we see in Wisconsin represents the early stages of a rebirth from the ashes. The world, in so much pain, needs heroes.

Kochtopus Coming To Hosni Scott Walker’s Rescue

Scott Walker, the newly-installed and Koch-purchased governor of Wisconsin, is pulling yet another Hosni Mubarak move. First he threatened to sic the national guard on protesters; now he’s calling on the astroturf wing of the Republican Kochtopus, the Tea Partiers, to go after the peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square the State Capitol:

In response to the growing protests in Madison, Koch fronts are busing in Tea Party protesters to support Walker and his union-busting campaign. Last night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz reported on the involvement of Club for Growth and the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity in the pro-Walker protest scheduled tomorrow.

[...]

Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines in Wisconsin. While Koch controls much of the infrastructure in the state, they have laid off workers to boost profits. At a time when Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch awarded themselves an extra $11 billion of income from the company, Koch slashed jobs at their Green Bay plant…

Koch front group ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — helped Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans get elected, and also Republicans in other states, and is the driving force behind the anti-union legislation being readied in several states.

And now the Koch front group Americans for Prosperity is behind the “Stand with Walker” astroturf website: www.standwithwalker.com. Hosni Mubarak is green with envy.

Obama tax plan is not 100% the Bush plan

It’s only 81% identical. And the Republicans, ever willing to split the difference, will settle for 150% of Bush.

Citizens for Tax Justice:

Preliminary Analysis of President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget:
Plan Would Make Permanent 81 Percent of the Bush Tax Cuts
…

The budget outline released by President Obama this week, just like last year’s proposal,
includes about $3.5 trillion in tax cuts over ten years. Most of that cost comes from his $3.1
trillion proposal to make permanent most of the Bush tax cuts, which would cost 81 percent as
much as extending all the Bush tax cuts.

The President’s budget outline does include several laudable provisions to raise revenue, but
not nearly enough to offset the costs of the proposed tax cuts.

The net effect of the tax proposals in the budget plan would be to reduce federal revenue by
$2.8 trillion over ten years, compared to what would happen if the Bush tax cuts simply
expired (as they will under current law if Congress does nothing).

I can’t understand this man. He is killing the Democratic Party. Washington Democrats seem to be cheering him on.

Is the US stoking the drug war?

Bill Conroy, Narconews:

Another series of leaked State Department cables made public this week by WikiLeaks lend credence to investigative reports on gun trafficking and the drug war published by Narco News as far back as 2009.

The big battles in the drug war in Mexico are “not being fought with Saturday night specials, hobby rifles and hunting shotguns,” Narco News reported in March 2009, against the grain, at a time when the mainstream media was pushing a narrative that assigned the blame for the rising tide of weapons flowing into Mexico to U.S. gun stores and gun shows.

Rather, we reported at the time, “the drug trafficking organizations are now in possession of high-powered munitions in vast quantities that can’t be explained by the gun-show loophole.”

Those weapons, found in stashes seized by Mexican law enforcers and military over the past several years, include U.S.-military issued rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and explosives.

The State Department cables released recently by WikiLeaks support Narco News’ reporting and also confirm that our government is very aware of the fact that U.S military munitions are finding their way into Mexico, and into the hands of narco-trafficking organizations, via a multi-billion dollar stream of private-sector and Pentagon arms exports.
…
Narco News offered an answer to that question in March 2009, when it reported that the deadliest of the weapons now in the hands of criminal groups in Mexico, particularly along the U.S. border, by any reasonable standard of an analysis of the facts, appear to be getting into that nation through perfectly legal private-sector arms exports, measured in the billions of dollars.

Those exports are approved through the State Department, under a program known as Direct Commercial Sales. A sister program, called Foreign Military Sales, is overseen by the Pentagon and also taps U.S. contractors to manufacture weapons (such as machine guns and grenades) for export to foreign entities, including companies and governments.

Now, the reason I stumbled onto Conroy’s report is that there has been a very odd incident between the US and Argentina. Briefly, an official cargo from the US contained items that the Argentines didn’t like, including a sealed container which they impounded. Eventually the container was opened. Some of the cargo was rejected and a formal protest was filed. The State Department went into the familiar, “Brown people say the darndest things” routine:

More below the fold

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