At the Last Day of Winter Café...

... a walker into the light.

This evening, the Wisconsin protests had veered far to the left.

In the past month,the protests have been overwhelmingly — almost embarrassingly — white, but the event I encountered today was in-your-face of-color:



I drifted off to the side where I ran into a small table displaying socialist literature and buttons, tended by 3 young people. I conducted an impromptu interview:



The protests began with the teachers — well-paid, privileged Wisconsin professionals. After a few days, students took over, aided by union folk bused in from wherever. But the weeks wear on, and people have other things to do. The bill is passed. But the people still show up to the Capitol. Earlier today, there was an anti-war rally. And then, this evening, there were these muddle-headed lefties. A vivid public square is a fine thing. I love it. I celebrate diversity. But the cause of the teachers and the public employees unions brought out the crowds and made the Capitol square the cool place to hang out, and the opportunistic politicos have descended.

"I really hope that in the future, people will be able to do more of the 'contrast' and less of the 'compare' with regards to Iraq and Libya."

Says Prof. Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns, and Money. In the comments, Meade responds to the plea:

Contrasts:

Iraq – blood for oil, war for neocon corporate interests and U.S. hegemony only
Libya – no blood, no oil. Obama’s motives pure because, well, good women are running the show for him – Hillary, Susan, Samantha – and everyone knows that when women (and the French of course) run a war good things happen!

Iraq – weapons of mass destruction what weapons of mass destruction?
Libya – no weapons of mass destruction because, well, okay, because Bush invaded Iraq and Gaddafi shit his pants and gave up his nukes. Pshew!

Iraq – benign dictator who never hurt anyone, wasn’t a threat to his neighbors, did not support terrorists, and, through the Oil for Food program, only wanted to share his oil with Europe in exchange for food and medicine for his long suffering people
Libya – Gaddafi is acting like a big jerk.

"I didn't have a sign and she was like 'Take this one'" says a lady with a "Hi, Everybody/Fuck You" sign.

In case you wonder why people carry the signs they carry.



Maybe they just got that from a friend.

Wisconsin protesters branched out to an anti-war rally just as President Obama takes us to war with Libya.

Today's rally was planned before the news came of Obama's shift on Libya:

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will be coming from around the Midwest for the Saturday protest.......

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice helped publicize Saturday's rally and its members will be hitting the pavement as they have every weekend in recent weeks, says program director Steve Burns.

"People were asking what is the march this weekend," says Burns. "It was nice to have something to slot people into."

Burns says it's an honor for Wisconsin workers to have their struggle recognized by a national veterans organization in this way. He says the goal of his group "has always been to encourage people ‘to connect the dots' between the challenges we face at home and our endless wars abroad.

Did any of the speakers attempt to deal with the news about Obama and Libya? I don't know, but Meade confronted a few of the protesters, like this woman with the classic "War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things" sign:



Listen for the "oh, well." (Meade wants me to link to Fleetwood Mac.)

And then there's this man with a Hitler-and-Scott Walker sign:

Scott Walker is like Hitler because "he doesn't do nice things."

Meade interviews a protester at the Wisconsin Capitol today:



Keep watching for the second woman, who says Walker is undemocratic because he's not listening to the people who didn't vote for him.

"Ann Althouse is on the list, too."

Um. Uh. Yeah. In a total drive-by smear.

"I will not patronize any place in Wisconsin that has a fist in the window, or solidarity sticker."

A reader emails. Well, then, you'll want to stay away from Savoir Faire:


(Enlarge to read all the signs.)

By the way, you know that threat — "A Communication from Operation:Countertroll to Ann Althouse and 'Meade'" — that we've been talking about for the last few days? It claimed there was a conspiracy of Madison protesters — "We all know each other" — who had "citizen-BANNED" us from various restaurants and shops in town. I won't name the places in this post, but they are named in the threatening screed. Yesterday, Meade and I went around to most of the named places. (This was Meade's idea.) We had copies of the screed to give to the manager/owner of each place, and we discussed the situation. Meade directly asked them if we were welcome, and, as you might imagine, they all said we were. In fact, they didn't like seeing the names of their places used in such an ugly context, and they weren't happy with the claim, made in the screed, that they had workers who would discriminate against their customers based on politics.

"I wanted to write about aspects of human behavior that sicken me, but I never had to look further than myself."

"I just thought, 'What do I hate about myself today?' I'm constantly selling out my friends in order to get somebody's approval, or I'm blaming sick people for being sick, or I'm stabbing somebody in the back, or I'm lying... I'm a horrible person."

As 3 women push him into war, President Obama goes to Brazil, with 5 women, to see Brazil's female President, who gives him the cold shoulder.

"One of the main reasons for my trip is to strengthen economic partnerships abroad so that we create good jobs at home," Obama said, using what could be a stock justification for any presidential trip. I'm not buying it. In times of crisis, the President belongs in the White House.

The NYT channels the insipid campaign 2012 PR:

Mr. Obama’s visit has also been billed as way for him to connect more generally with Latin Americans, especially in Brazil, a multiracial society where he has been wildly popular since his presidential campaign. But the White House’s plans to stage a speech in a plaza where thousands of Brazilians could see him were aborted in favor of one indoors, at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, because of the Secret Service’s security concerns.

Oh, the theater — the teatro —  didn't even work out. Obama in Brazil was supposed to look like Obama in Berlin. The photo-op... botched. My advice: You're President. The security in the White House is ideal. The imagery is ideal. Be President.

Ugh. I can't believe I'm reading this on the same day I'm reading about 3 women prodding him into action in Libya. Accompanying him on his trip to South America are: his wife, Michelle Obama; his daughters, Sasha and Malia; his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson; and his daughters’ godmother, Eleanor Kaye Wilson. 5 women.

And why is he going to Brazil?

The Brazilians under the new presidency of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, are eager to build closer economic and political ties to the Obama administration. 

Females, females, females!

But their occasional differences on the international stage were reflected on Thursday night when Brazil was one of five nations to abstain in the vote of the United Nations Security Council to authorize force against Libya.

There's imagery for you: The male, emasculated by female abstention.

After a bilateral get-acquainted meeting with Ms. Rousseff, Mr. Obama was to [blah blah]...

“She has been very positive about the type of relationship that she wants to pursue with the United States,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, in a briefing before the trip.

But the Obama-Rousseff relationship-building got off to an inauspicious start when, before Mr. Obama boarded Air Force One, came word that Ms. Rousseff was refusing to hold the scheduled joint press conference with Mr. Obama here on Saturday after their first meeting. 

Looks like that first date bilateral get-acquainted meeting didn't go too well. One world leader is playing this relationship for powerful imagery, and it's not Obama. He must feel so used. He went all the way to South America, and all he got was a lousy indoor stage show. No massive, multiracial crowd scene, no presser with Dilma.

I'm picturing Obama banging on a closed door yelling "Dilma!" — like this.

Radio alert.

Ed Morissey writes:

Today, Mitch and I will talk with Ann Althouse about the threats she has received since writing about the standoff between the unions and the state legislature. 

Stream the show here. I'll be on at 1:30 CT (2:30 ET).

Warren Christopher has died.

He was 85. I most remember him from his role in Florida recount in the 2000 election:

Mr. Christopher came under criticism at the time, and later in “Recount,” the 2008 HBO dramatization of the Florida vote dispute, over a lack of legal and political aggressiveness against Mr. Bush’s legal team, led by a former secretary of state, James A. Baker. The movie, in particular, portrayed Mr. Christopher as overly concerned with the niceties of the law while Mr. Baker was waging a bare-knuckled campaign on all fronts.

Mr. Klain said that was an unfair characterization. “Like all dramatic portrayals, they sought dramatic tension by exaggerating people’s personalities,” he said on Saturday. “People often confused Chris’s reserved style and personal sense of propriety with a lack of fierceness on behalf of his client. That would be a mistake.”

He said it was Mr. Christopher’s decision to challenge the Florida result, even as most Republicans and some prominent Democrats were urging Mr. Gore to concede. “People don’t remember how controversial that effort was. Without Chris’s stature and credibility, I’m not sure we would have gotten as far as we did,” Mr. Klain said.

I remember Christopher solemnly intoning: "We need to count all the votes." It was a mantra. And the other side had its mantra. James Baker would say: "The votes have been counted. They've been counted and recounted." Chez Althouse, we were for Gore, so Baker's "votes  have been counted" line drew hoots of derision. Analyzing the litigation calmly, afterward, I accepted the soundness of Baker's point. These were ballots designed to be read by machines, the ballots had gone through the machines twice, and there was no showing that the machines had malfunctioned. Switching to human readers introduced much more ambiguity and risk of deviousness than accepting the verdict of the machines. The machines, as they processed each card, didn't have political preference and awareness of which side was being helped.

The criticism of Christopher— that he was too nice and too proper — fails to take into account that he was arguing on the side that would strike many people as scarily chaotic and power-grasping. Baker was arguing for the security of the result delivered by machine.  Baker's attitude of belligerence was used to argue for ending the struggle. Transpose the Baker attitude onto the Christopher side of the argument — struggle, chaos, litigation, and the unknown. Would it have worked better than Christopher's mild demeanor?

A feminist milestone: Our male President has been pulled into war by 3 women.

It's the opposite of the Code Pink idea that women bring the peace. How long have I heard this feminist plaint: If only women had the power, we would have peace, not phallocratic war.

But no:

In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton... changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.

Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Mr. Obama that the United States had to act...

... Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.

Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention....

To ally with Power and Rice, Clinton had to make "an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution." Oh, timid men. Step aside! Yield to the boldness of women.

So... man, the power.

Today's Wisconsin protest video: the meaning of string, is Althouse a Walker plant?...

... the languorous rotunda, and a long, long row of signs made of pizza boxes:



Meade shot the part where you see me, and I shot the rest and edited.

"[P]eople are getting ready for serious actions. Stuff that makes my letter to Althouse look like a childish prank..."

"... All of us are against SB11, and everyone is willing to go as far as their comfort zone allows to make sure it doesn’t happen.... I really want both sides to take a look at how far this really has to go, and whether some of us who are serious about taking our country back regardless of their supposed political allegiances can agree to turn our efforts against the apparatus of big government, big media, and wall street before running around beating each other up in the streets."

Dan Riehl has some more interactions with Jim Shankman, the man who wrote a vicious screed threatening me.

Supermoon.

The biggest full moon in 18 years. Tomorrow night.