March 4, 2011

The Wisconsin Capitol closes at 6 — no more sleepovers.

With the slumber party over, there's some dancing on the Capitol steps. Meade gets inside just a few minutes before 6 to check out the compliance level. He runs into the woman who appears at 3:13 in the "free-speech countervoice" video to suggest that our free-speech hero move his conversation out of the center of the rotunda.

57 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

What is the song playing at the beginning of this video?

kent said...

"This is what the adults saying 'Bedtime now, kiddies' looks like."

Chip Ahoy said...

Hah! Found it. Days Gone By.

Praise, sound matching technology.

Chip Ahoy said...

*buys*

Anonymous said...

Yuuup!

Is there something being left unsaid?

Unknown said...

Gee - and it only took a week.

David said...

Your song matching technology has failed you...or more likely a typo.

The song is Days Go By by

Dirty Vegas

here is the music video of the song that is playing

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4427678202491591769#

The best thing is that the lyrics talk about missing someone who is gone. Ha.... get it? Someone planted that song in the mix and got the anti-walkerites to dance to a tune about missing people who are gone. What are the chances that that is a coincidence?

Days Go By lyrics
You
You

You are still a whisper on my lips
A feeling at my fingertips
That's pulling at my skin

You leave me when I'm at my worst
Feeling as if I've been cursed
Bitter cold within

Days go by and still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Days go by and still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Without you
Without you

You are still a whisper on my lips
A feeling at my fingertips
That's pulling at my skin


You leave me when I'm at my worst
Feeling as if I've been cursed
Bitter cold within

Days go by and still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Without you
Without you

Days go by and still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Days go by and still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Without you
Without you
Without you
Without you
Without you

Toad Trend said...

Is there any doubt where these folks will be going now that their big party 'fighting the man' is over?

The basement futon and a supply of Hot Pockets awaits.

wv - phalical

Almost Ali said...

Poppin' & Lockin' to Dirty Vegas.

(Great Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial, 2006)

Unknown said...

Is it appropriate to compare the folks who camped out in the capitol to children? I visited and met adults.

Is this metaphor something more than an attempt to minimize the people who stayed in the capitol?

If you disagree with what they did, there are numerous other criticisms that could be leveled without condescention.

BTW, didn't someone once say, "The Children Are Our Future."

And-- where exactly are the adults?

PeterK said...

love the chant "this is what a police state looks like". wonder what all the victims of the various former Communist regimes would think of that chant

kent said...

If you disagree with what they did, there are numerous other criticisms that could be leveled without condescention.

Personally, I always enjoy apportioning a healthy, heaping slab of scorn towards self-appointed message board nannies who cluck schoolmarmishly about condescension, without actually being able to spell said scolding properly in the process. YMMV, however.

Skay said...

"love the chant "this is what a police state looks like". wonder what all the victims of the various former Communist regimes would think of that chant"

Exactly. If it were a true police state he would not be sitting there chanting.

PaulV said...

ban smokers from capitol grounds.

Anonymous said...

Best video yet Meade; kinda sums it all up there at the end ... great close!


Also thanks to AA for the blog, the editing and posting (never forget one's editor in the process!)

.

Issob Morocco said...

Meade, is that the young woman, who they called when you confronted them at the War Memorial? She came up and took charge and told you what you wanted to here, albeit, she did not quite follow through on her promise. Sounded and looked like her. I think if you go back and review that video, you will find it is the same woman which says a lot.

She seemed like the floor leader at that time and from what she describes here, same MO with the counterprotest in the rotunda.

I guess tolerance has it's limits on the left, eh?

Winding down said...

For a not-widely articulated perspective on current events--public employee unions, big govmit deficit spending, etc-- check John Derbyshire--Derb Radio at National Review on-line. He advocates a Mussolini end for Qaddafi and walling off north africa for several hundred years. A weekly dose of fresh air for troglodytes. Enjoy

mike said...

Is this now a hoedown? Because from the type of dancing going on in this video (especially the guy who begins dancing a jig at :17)it appears that the "protest" has devolved into a hoedown. There's nothing wrong with that. I just didn't realize hoedowns were practiced in Wisconsin.

Unknown said...

Kent,

Thanks for the spelling tip. I am a lousy speller. (BTW, I do not hold spelling mistakes against anyone.)

Scorn is not what Wisconsin needs right now. Scorn divides and derails meaningful dialogue.

This post exemplifies my earlier remark that Althouse is losing perspective and credibility.

Let's stop condescending and nitpicking at the protestors and get this sorted out in a constructive way.

Thoughts?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Gimme gimme gimme... mine mine mine...the tax payers must shut up an pay.. no matter who’s in line

Union busting union busting waa waa waaaa... I want my government bottle NOW!... watch me have a cow

Free speech is just for whiney proggies... boo hoo hooo.... we hate Scott Walker and we want to turn WI in to CA.. So.. Screw.. You!

lemondog said...

Meade and Althouse say

ricpic said...

Lay my head upon the marble
Feel your sweaty clammy body next to mine
Hear the whisper of the footsteps of the coppers
For the last time
For the last time

Phil 314 said...

Professor;
You and NMM need to really consider putting this all together into a longer piece/documentary. There's so much here. I'm sure you can find someone who has experience putting something like that together.

All in all and in spite of some of the looniness (i.e. rave dancing on the Capitol steps, masked marchers, a rotunda squatter protesting the "police state") this really says a lot positive about Wisconsin.

Finally, I wish someone had surveyed the participants to outline what percent were Wisconsin teachers, what percent were UW students, what percent out of state union members etc. What I miss is a perspective on who these folks are and how representative they are of the state.

Anonymous said...

Chris said:

BTW, didn't someone once say, "The Children Are Our Future."

Yeah. That was Whitney Houston. The crackhead diva who married Bobby Brown.

Geez dude, you'd score more points by quoting Flavor Flav.

Anonymous said...

More Schiller (more trance), and less house, please

They can't even get the music right.

Marilee said...

Great video. Impressions..
1. Chalk on the sidewalk..really??
2. Police state? Agree with others. Have you SEEN a police state. Turn on your freakin TV and check out Libya folks.
3. Do the signs stay up? Why re-taping?
4. Dissenter entitled to free speech, but not in the middle of the room.
5. You're messin with my mellow, man.

traditionalguy said...

Now walker has gone too far. Banning sleepovers sounds like a BYU move.

Toad Trend said...

@cafb86b6-

;) YEAH BOY

wv - credalli

A good yeah boy does the cred good

Paddy O said...

I just read the added email you posted on your "waiting in line" post.

"This is what grown-ups do," he writes.

Now here, you write, "With the slumber party over..."

I see what you did there.

The professor, by the way, seemed to be making the same basic points that jr was in the comments. So, kudos to good commentators willing to put up substantive comments.

At the same time, the response to such comments is the same. Why are some policies valid and others not? Why do the protesters, or a polisci prof, get to be the ultimate moral authority over which should be allowed?

That the protesters want order is good, but they want it on their own terms, defying what doesn't work in their favor.

But, now I'm spilling that comment thread over to this one. Grownups don't spill, so I'll not continue on to my usual 27 paragraphs.

traditionalguy said...

Chris...Your point that Althouse is losing her credibility implies that she had credibility before. Is it all of the real reporting by real observers with real videos of real interviews with the real demonstrators that you see as a lack of credibility over the last two weeks? Or is it the scandal of the secessionist's struggle against Democratic system being seen for what it really is? Exposure is a bitch.

Roux said...

She seems to "like" really "like" be into the protest thingy...

Sheesh...

AllenS said...

Thoughts?

Yes, let's get the Democrats who ran away back here and have them help the Governor fix this debt/deficit that this state is experiencing. And, unless you're taking a tour, or working in the capital building, get the fuck out.

Roux said...

Merrilee said...

5. You're messin with my mellow, man.


It's "You're like messin with my mellow, man, like comeon."

Mr. D said...

In a police state, the police actually follow orders and execute them. If Scott Walker had the power and the ruthlessness some of these folks ascribe to him, they'd all have been in jail weeks ago.

Marilee said...

Roux, thanks. I'm just so, like, wasted man. This is just such a bummer....Ah, never mind. I'm too old for this shit.

Trooper York said...

Chris said.....
BTW, didn't someone once say, "The Children Are Our Future."

Yeah that was a crackhead.

I don't think we want to set public policy based on what Whitney Houston has to say.

"Bobby where's my pipe at!!!!"

Trooper York said...

Oh sorry. Someone beat me too it.

I can't get into reading the comments on this interminable protest threads. I mean when will this hostage crises end.

You're turning into fucking Jimmy Carter!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

This nitwit seemed to think the protesters owned the center of the rotunda. Can she complete a sentence without the word "like".

Unknown said...

If I had an extra million dollars, I would endow a semester abroad program--in Tehran--for these "oppressed" students.

michaele said...

More Harriet...she recognized Meade and we recognize her.

BJM said...

@Chris

And-- where exactly are the adults?

Here.

deborah said...

I like the way the boy is dancing, imitating the music video. Cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIyVABf1rtk&feature=related

Issob Morocco said...

Yes Harriet recognized Meade because she is trained to do that. That is how she spreads the message. Go watch her reaction on Meade's first encounter with her. She is to whomever she meets what they want her to be.

Meade has not confirmed back that she is the same, but she is from a visual and voice recognition standpoint.

She did well at Oyster Bilingual Grade School in learning how to sway people.

That is how con artists work.

Meade said...

Issob, yes, that is Harriet. I think she recognized me because I spoke to her earlier in the day when I found her in the lost and found room. I'm not saying you are doing this, Issob, but I reject any attempt to vilify Harriet. I think she believes in her cause and is working hard to be successful. It's my personal opinion that her cause is wrong. She is an intelligent young person so I have a lot of hope that she will eventually rethink her way out of something I consider to be an ideological cult.

Chip Ahoy said...

:-(

I downloaded the wrong version. I was so eager to have it I ended up with a shit remix.

:-)

Now I have two versions. But you know what? The song is making me a little bit sad.

deborah said...

Hang in there, Chip :)

Issob Morocco said...

Hi Meade,

Thanks for the response and your comments. Unfortunately I don't share your opinion of her.

She may certainly believe in her cause, but what is that cause?

She seems rather hard to pin down to specifics (again from my distant view and knowledge only from your video's and the news articles) short of very soothing comments. Is it the removal of collective bargaining or having to pay their way on healthcare/pensions that rankled her to take action? If she said that, I am open to listening, but when I have seen her, she glosses over very well and I commnented on that at the War Memorial Desecration Confrontaton blog post. Let me know if she had discussions with you that did give that info.

She is, in my opinion, a smooth operator and those type of organizers are trained to be that way. I say that from experience in politics and Washington D.C.

My reference to con artistry is to say that is how they gain confidence or adherance to the cause, whether yours or mine by working on the person, in shades or incrementally.

If she is so inclined to her position, I do believe she should be straight up about her role in it, rather than putting up a Potemkin Village facade as has been propagated in the articles and features where she is just a student or a leader.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant and gives rise to the truth. I don't believe she has been forthright in what she has communicated.

So my quick research shows someone not from Stevens Point, DePere or any other place in Wisconsin who feels compelled to join in a state wide issue and the resulting protest, but someone who seems well equipped to marshall forces and actions in a short amount of time to push the cause.

But is that cause the pay/collective bargaining-budget issue or is it the damaging of Republican Brand prior to the 2012 election in a state that is needed by Democrats to win the White House and maintain power?

If you have not been engaged in political campaigns and in D.C. perhaps that will explain your lack of cynicism to her role. But I have seen, met and interacted with dozens of Harriets on both sides of the aisle.

She is smart, but I want her to be honest as well in what she is doing. I don't think the Left feels they should be honest in a lot of cases, as when they are honest to their intentions, they are resoundingly defeated in the arena of ideas and in elections.

Issob Morocco said...

Meade, to bolster my opinion of Harriet, see below from Badger Herald. At bottom she is a campaign worker in a local election. Not vilfying just using their own words to prove my point.
Again she is welcome to her beliefs, but be honest as to who you are.

"Opinion: Guest column
Szarzynski: A potential local counterweight to anti-student GOP forcesShare By Harriet Blair Rowan
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 12:00 a.m.
Updated Monday, February 14, 2011 10:30:06 p.m.


Many students might be unaware, but the local primary elections are today. Considering the disappointing and even frightening outcome of the last election, we as students need to look to the future. We need to focus on how we can ensure our interests are taken into consideration.

As a student here on campus, I understand that it is sometimes hard to get involved in local politics, especially for students who plan to be in Madison for only four years. But we need to recognize our needs as residents and members of this community and advocate for ourselves. The university community relies on the student body, so we as students can demand our concerns be addressed.

Kyle Szarzynski is one of the candidates running for alder in District 8, a district comprised almost exclusively of students. His platform represents the true interests of those students, of which he is one. Like many people, including current and former elected officials, I have come to the conclusion that he will be our community’s most effective advocate if elected.

The main facets of Szarzynski’s platform are issues that speak to all students on campus. He hopes to refocus campus law enforcement on campus safety, de-emphasizing the pursuit of individuals for minor non-violent drug and alcohol offenses. His basic goal is to improve the relationship between law enforcement and students, creating an environment of cooperation and mutual trust that will increase safety for everyone on campus. Fully funding the Rape Crisis Center is one of his highest priorities.

Another issue, which almost all students are familiar with, is the tenant-landlord relationship. Szarzynski is dedicated to advocating for student and tenant rights. We live in an environment where high turnover and young inexperienced tenants make it all too easy for landlords and property companies to take advantage of their tenants. We as students and renters need to vote for someone who will tirelessly advocate for our rights and fight against the powerful management companies that profit so greatly off of us.

A third priority of Szarzynski’s campaign is to broaden the entertainment options in the neighborhood. Students and residents of District 8 should have more of a say in the city’s alcohol policies. Also, Szarzynski will push for entertainment options to be made available for those who are under 21, a large proportion of students on campus.

Beyond the specific and focused platform that will directly improve the lives of students on campus, Szarzynski has a broader dedication to social justice and fighting inequality. When we elect a representative, we are not only choosing who is going to advocate for us, but how they will do that and how they will represent our goals and needs. We as students are not interested just in our immediate surroundings, but in broader social issues, and Szarzynski is someone who can represent our specific needs in an appropriate local, state and even global context.

If the people in the state Capitol no longer represent our interests, we need our local representatives to pick up the slack, represent us accurately and fight for our interests. As a fellow student, I encourage you all to get out there on Tuesday and vote as informed citizens. I am confident that Szarazynski, if elected, will fight as hard as possible for us and our community. In the dark times ahead, I trust Kyle Szarzynski to represent us accurately and courageously.

Harriet Blair Rowan is a Senior majoring in Latin American Studies and is doing campaign work for Kyle Szarzynski."

Issob Morocco said...

Sory to repost but I was on the wrong thread.

Hi Meade,

Thanks for your response and comments. No I am not vilifying Harriet, just pointing out that she is not just a student who was suddenly driven to be heavily involved in such a large protest. She has done this before.

In my personal experience in both politics and Washington, D.C., I have met dozens of Harriets. They are eager to show their ability to deliver to move up the ranks.

That would explain my cynicism as to her role, which seems to change with the outlet she is involved with from student volunteer to protest organizer. Even your own video at the War Memorial shows this as they call her to come and deal with you and Ann.

As to her cause which you believe she believes in, where does she clearly state that? What caused her to stop being a student to coordinating a large protest? Was it the collective bargaining issue? Or perhaps the increased payments for healthcare or pensions? She says many words but not a lot of specifics as to what drove her to her actions. Again if you have more detail, I would be happy to hear it.

I just don't know from what I have seen, read or heard what she is against, just that she needed to protest to show democracy in action. I just see a smooth operator at work, trying to gain the audiences' confidence. Hence my con man reference, by which I stand. If you have video to the opposite, please share as I will be happy to change that opinion basis documentation.

My opinion is she is not there because of the cause on the ground but because she is part of the DNC led effort to damage the Republican brand ahead of the 2012 election.

She is certainly smart, but I don't believe she has been honest in describing herself or her role in this affair. That is why I have shown via quick research, how she is not a Wisco resident, upset with the Governor's actions but a political campaign worker, a Washington D.C. resident and a capable campaign logistics person.

Anonymous said...

Harriet is blinded by ideology: "Students and residents of District 8 should have more of a say in the city’s alcohol policies."
I believe the "alcohol policies" she is referring to is state law. She's one of the many protesters I spoke to that just like to hear themselves talk whether it makes any sense or not.

Issob Morocco said...

Hi Meade,

Thanks for your response and comments. As for Harriet, she has quite a lenthy history of protesting, since she was 11 years old. I stand by my statement, that she is not being honest as to who she really is or what her purpose is. I am not trying to vilify but disclose more about her than she has offered up to the media.

As for the cause you claim she strongly supports, listen closely to what she actually says. Like a good con artist, she talks in generalizations, not specifics as to the bill. Her focus is on the protest itself and propagating it rather than the specifics as to the bill. Did she talk with you as to specifics on the bill? Was the collective bargaining piece the reason she suddenly went into action? Or was it the healthcare payment increases? If you have video, please share. Otherwise she is a very smooth political operative.

I have experience in both political campaigns as well as Washington D.C. I have met, interacted and worked with dozens of Harriets. They are the NCO's of campaigns and her performance with you and Ann at the War Memorial Descecration Confrontation, was classic. You stunned the useful dupes, they called in their leader who assuaged you and told you what you wanted to hear, even if she didn't not quite follow through on her promise.

My opinion of her cause, is that she is part of the DNC efforts to damage Republican brand prior to the 2012 election. Not the bill itself at play in Madison. That is merely the catalyst to protest against Walker and the Republicans to present them in a bad light in the media in a crucial state for Democrats.

She is a campaign worker on a local election and depending on which new outlet you read, she is either an energized student volunteer swept up with the emotion of the day or a protest organizer. Seems a bit
suspicious, does it not?

She is smart, but she is not very honest in her own role. Hence her being very engaged in news articles out of all of the potential student voices from which to choose. That is odd is it not?

So like most cases with the left, they don't want their true intentions known, because when they are, they usually lose in the arena of ideas and in elections.

Meade said...

Issob,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your insight and respect your opinion.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"You're like messin with my mellow, man, like comeon."


Sorry dudes. It is: "Back off man, you're harshing my mellow."

AND..I learned something really valuable from this thread today.

Dirty Vegas is a great band.

michaele said...

Whew, Harriet sure tossed off a lot of community organizer type buzz words and phrases in her letter...
social justice, inequality,
frightening outcome of the last election, global context.
She's obviously intelligent and would be a fascinating person to check in after about 20-30 years.

Chris said...

"This is what a police state looks like".

OK, I will personally buy anyone who chanted that a one-way ticket to Belarus. Or Egypt. Or Libya. Or China. Or North Korea.

Unknown said...

That's why I suggested Tehran as well, Chris.

It's not that these people disagree with my POV so much that annoys me, but the fierce anti-intellectualism of the crowd is stunning. Chanting, drums, dopey dancing, slogans. They have access to knowledge, the people in the French Revolution didn't! Wake up, people, do your homework, even if it's not fun. The people's revolutions were all lies!

Unknown said...

Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..

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