People Slightly Disturbed in Wisconsin

Here, for the information of wingnut liars like Jim Hoft, is a picture of today's demonstration at Madison, Wisconsin:

 

This, Jim, is what a real demonstration looks like, as opposed to your pathetic teabag turnouts.  This is a picture of the real people of America, as opposed to the handfuls of bought and paid for suckers that show up at right wing rallies.  

Let me be clear that this crowd, in a small city, reacting to a local issue, is larger than any national crowd which the teabaggers have assembled, often after massive free publicity and heavy financial investment by the most antidemocratic forces in this country.

It is time we all stop collaborating with the lie that the country is "center-right," or that the teabaggers represent anything but a small minority of greed-maddened racists.  I saw how long it took the American people to wake up to what was happening during the Vietnam era, but when they finally snapped out of their daze, they could not be denied.  That can happen again if the collaboration of the Republicans and the mainstream press is not able to shout us down.

Now, a word about the Republican reaction, from a hilarious article in the Christian Science Monitor:

"Wisconsin protests: 'democracy in action' or 'mob rule'?

Some critics say Wisconsin protests were borderline unconstitutional because they threatened the orderly processes of state government. At issue is an obscure clause in the Constitution.

(The protests) were scenes that, in some respects, warmed the hearts of American labor: unions, for so long moribund and grappling with a loss of clout, infused with new energy and purpose. From the ashes of Wisconsin came the rebirth of union power and a powerful portrait of democracy in action, some proclaimed.

Yet others slightly less impressed by the spectacle are now offering a different interpretation: the masses came dangerously close to trampling the United States Constitution underfoot.

The argument is an arcane one, even by the measure of constitutional law. But it centers on a clause in Article 4..."

Here's the pertinent clause, in case you are interested: 

"Article IV Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

 

It is a sickening notion that this line can be used to force the Federal government to violently suppress peaceful protests- a notion, we would have thought, far more at home in Gaddafi's Libya than in Wisconsin.  But no, when faced with the real will of the American people, Republican leaders are showing themselves to have far more in common with African dictators than our founding fathers.  Apparently, they have forgotten this part of the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Yes indeed, the Republicans who are happy to sell the government to the likes of the Koch Brothers,  the Republicans who are just fine with the violent disruption of Democratic town meetings over and over again by synthetic "protest groups" organized and financed by Republican leaders, the same people that screamed bloody murder when Federal agents serving legal warrants tried to arrest Randy Weaver and David Koresh, are now demanding the use of Federal force to put down these demonstrations.  Remember their endless, baseless lies about troops ready to suppress the right?  Of course, the minute something like this happens, they instantly prepared to stand their own outrage on its head.  Well, they are conservatives, i.e. self-serving liars without a shred of human decency.

The constitution means nothing to these traitorous criminals, and neither does the clear will of the American people.  They are conducting a war on this country, and so far they are winning.