The Fitzwalkerstan State Fair 2013

Thanks to some friends gifting us a pair of tickets, my wife and I went to the State Fair for the first time in almost a decade.  We used to be annual attendees, but after a number of years, it had become a tad boring.  Add to that the Bush/Cheney Great Recession and the Walker/Abele attacks on Milwaukee, it also became harder to justify spending the money on it.

It was gratifying to see some of our old favorites were there and did not go up too much in price over the years (except for the cheese nuggets, which had almost doubled in price).  We were able to eat some of the traditional foods, like the New Berlin's Roasted Corn, corn dogs, ice cream, Herb Kohl's flavored milk and, yes, the Illinois cream puffs. (Even though the they were not the original cream puffs, we have a family tradition about them that had to maintained.)

We could not bring ourselves to try the bizarre food that they have come up with such as chocolate covered deep fried butter wrapped in bacon.

We were also glad to see some of the old sights.  There were the traditional Fitzwalkerstan animals like cows, horses, pigs, rabbits, baboons and white tigers.

My favorite part of going to State Fair though is hitting the expo hall.  I get a kick out of seeing all the Grade A cheap crap that they are trying to hawk in there - Ginsu knives, chamois cleaners and all the other gadgets and gizmos.

Among the most fun is hitting up the Republican table for some invigoration conversation.  Unfortunately, they weren't feeling very conversant that day.  Maybe because it was the same three people that were there all day long.  Maybe it was because they did not have any answers for my questions.  Maybe it was because they could not defend their governor's poor track record.

Anyway, since they weren't talkative, I decided to take a few photos because I found what they were selling to be as depraved and warped as their ideology.  Among the things that the Republicans were trying to sell were these shirts promoting violence and paranoia - a great combination that:

They were also shamelessly admitting that they have been taken over by the teahadists:

And what Republican stand would not be complete without a dose of racism?

The thing I found most comical though was that the WISGOP wouldn't or couldn't support either of their favorite corporate lackeys for president.  Instead they had to go out of state for their craziness, ineptitude and corruption:

Now, let's compare and contrast this to the message that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin was sending to people:

Hmm, I personally find the messages of making things better, mutual respect and love to be much more appealing than the fear, bigotry and violence than the GOP.

Maybe when we take our state back and make it Wisconsin again, the Wisconsin State Fair will also come back.

Scott Walker Wants State Fair Stormtroopers

Rebecca Kemble of The Progressive took some very interesting video of Department of Administration Executive Assistant Wendy Croomer trying to justify having the fascist Capitol Police Chief Dave Erwin take over the control of the State Fair Police:



My, she is stammering a lot! I suppose it could be nerves. After all, the stuff she was trying to peddle reeked more than the cow barn on Day 10 of the Fair.

The reason Walker is pushing for this has nothing to do with more efficient use of staff, as if having a police chief trying to handle troops 75 miles away is even remotely efficient.

The real reason Walker wants the stormtroopers to pick up the cream puff patrol is because he wants to be president. And, as I'm sure the gentle reader has picked up by now, Walker is all about image because he has no substance. But even this college drop out is savvy enough to know that something like this won't help his image at all:



It would be interesting to see Erwin try to send his troopers to all those people's homes after the fall of night in order to give them citations for exercising their Freedom of Speech.

I wonder if Erwin will also demand that anybody going to State Fair will need a permit before being allowed to do so.

We've not gone to State Fair for the past few years, mainly because we can't afford to anymore. I think this year we might save up our pennies in order to go. It promises to be rather entertaining, and that's not even with the booked stage acts.