Capitol Police: To Protect And To Serve - But Whom?

Commandant Dave Erwin and his troops are there allegedly to protect and to serve.  But the question is whom are they protecting and whom are they serving?

Apparently, it's not the people of the state.

Watch this video as they completely mishandle a real crisis as they try to bully people around in their artificial crisis of illegal sign holding:



Please note how the cops' first concern was to try to intimidate the group with their fascist rules, then to cover their butts when they slowly realize that they have a real emergency on their hands.

The woman having the medical emergency is Dawn Henke. She is, fortunately, OK.

But she did have a word for the people that flooded her page with concern and love:

Absolutely overwhelmed with comments/messages/feedback.
Thank you everyone for all of your well wishes and concern. I appreciate all of it.

I am now safely home in Wausau with my husband who is very relieved to have me home, especially after seeing the videos and such before I could make it here. He was about as close to wanting to throw some CP over railings as one could imagine. He is taking g
ood care of me.

I just want to say this, and I'll keep it as vague as possible intentionally:

The decision to "unarrest" me was not something the CP made out of feeling bad about what they had done or feeling compassionate toward me- it had more to do with the fact that once that ambulance was on VA property, I was in federal jurisdiction and they no longer had any right to "detain" me while was in the VA hospital which has federal jurisdiction, which trumps state jurisdiction. Do not think for a second that they "unarrested me" to be kind.

I will also say that I was only "unarrested" after giving up my identification and address so that the CP can now perhaps pay me home visits with citations for whatever the ticket of the day is, or maybe they'll decide to mail them to me. Either way, I will not back down. I will not stop. They will not silence my voice, or OUR voice in OUR house!

Further, I am forever grateful to Ted Voth who was a true gentleman and hero today by speaking up when he saw injustice. I hope that people will only be encouraged and find even more resolve in our fight against those that wish to silence us.

As it has been said by a few musicians, but sticks out most notably by Kurt Cobain's use of it, "it's better to burn out than to fade away."

My heart may well go someday whether far off, or someday soon, but I have already come to terms with the fact that our time here is finite. It is not how much time we have, but rather, how we spend our time that matters.

To everyone, thank you, truly. Solidarity forever and always! ♥ ♥ ♥"

As far as I can tell, there's not been one news story about this, much less a statement from Erwin, much much less an apology from Erwin.

Like I said, the Capitol Police are there to protect and serve...but whom?

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LIII

Scott Walker says the state is flat broke and doesn't have the money to pay it's employees.

Walker said that his budget, which took hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy and concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy campaign donors, would miraculously create jobs, lots of them.

The reality is because of his stagnating the economy, our job market is much, much worse than the rest of the nations and the state's economic activity is dead last in the entire nation.

But the real kicker is that if it wasn't for Walker's failure, we'd have had a massive inflow of money which would have made things a great deal better here:

The Wisconsin Budget Project today released a report showing that since Republicans have taken control of state government, Wisconsin has lost out on $1.3 billion in federal funds.

"It's troubling to see how much federal money was left on the table at a time when Wisconsin needs every dollar it can get," says Jon Peacock, research director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, which initiated the budget project. "State officials maintain that they didn't have the necessary funds to draw down the federal money, but that doesn't make much sense when you consider that the Legislature found some $200 million in tax breaks to hand out to corporations."

The biggest chunk of federal money turned down by the state was the more than $800 million grant for a high-speed rail system connecting Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and the Twin Cities, which Gov. Scott Walker turned down even before he took office.

There is no defending this kind of malfeasance. Walker and his ilk have to go before he bankrupts us all.

"Whose House? Our House!" by Tom Kastle

The following is a video featuring the music of my good friend, Tom Kastle, a seafaring troubadour:



I understand that Tom has also written a couple other songs stemming from the protests and other events of Fitzwalkerstan, including one about the corporate media.

I certainly hope he puts them to video soon, so I can post those too!

Breaking: Walker Bans Republicans From Capitol

On Facebook, a group called Wisconsin State Workers Against Scott Walker posted this photo from the Capitol Building:

It might be a little difficult to read, but the first line of banned items reads:

Animals/Snakes (exception: service animals)

This does raise a couple of interesting questions:

• Is Walker and his staff really so stupid that they think snakes aren't animals?
• If snakes are banned, doesn't that mean that the Republicans cannot enter?

Historical Omen

A friend pointed out to me this part of the Wikipedia entry for Wisconsin State Capitol (emphasis mine):

1904 Fire 

On the night of February 26, 1904, a gas jet ignited a newly-varnished ceiling in the third capitol building. Although the building had an advanced fire-fighting system, the nearbyuniversity reservoir which supplied the capitol was empty, allowing the fire to spread substantially before the switch to alternate city water supplies could be made. Madison firefighters could not handle the blaze on their own, so additional men and equipment had to be brought in from Milwaukee. The effectiveness of the reinforcements was initially hampered by the bitter cold temperatures; by the time they reached Madison, the equipment had frozen and needed to be thawed. As a result, the entire structure, except the north wing, burned to the ground. Numerous records, books, and historical artifacts were lost, including the mount of Old Abe, Civil War mascot. However, through the efforts of university students, much of the State Law Library was saved.[3];The fire occurred just five weeks after the State Legislature voted to cancel the capitol's fire insurance policy.

One can only hope that when Walker comes out with his budget this afternoon, he wouldn't be as short-sighted or foolish, but there is little to lead me to expect otherwise.