This Associated Press report on events in Wisconsin is interesting. For example, we read, “As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed ‘Freedom! Democracy! Unions!’” That’s what you want in the gallery, right? Screaming. How democratic and civilized.
We also read, “Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber, beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill.”
“Beating on drums”? Beating on drums? These were public-school teachers, right? In any case, they were public employees. Beating on things is what little kids do when they’re not getting their way, or demanding something. Of course, the beating of drums is meant to menace and intimidate too.
America’s liberals must be very proud. Mobbing the legislature and beating on drums! Bear in mind that the Left is the thinking, sophisticated, and humane party in America.
The AP story — and remember that this is supposed to be a news report from a wire service — contains the line, “Elsewhere in the Statehouse, Democrats showed up in the state Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families.”
“Working families,” huh? What do you call the families with taxpayers who support what Governor Walker and the Republicans are trying to do, and oppose the unions and their thuggish tactics? Non-working families?
Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.
P.S. One thing about the schoolteachers who called in “sick,” shut down school systems, and went rallying and beating at the capitol: They weren’t working.
Fire those "sick" teachers and replace them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not going to argue the overall press-bias point -- I've certainly seen plenty of it with this Wisconsin coverage -- but is the "working families" bit really the most compelling piece of evidence?
What if that's what the T-shirts read? "Support Working Families." What is the reporter supposed to do in that case? Parse the semantics of the phrase? Offer a rebuttal? Point and laugh?
Presumably the shirts said what they said. The reporter relayed what they said. I understand why it's frustrating, but the blame needs to go to the Democrats who are abusing their other working constituents, not to the reporter who is dryly recounting events.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis reminds me of an old rock song from the 70's or 80's.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I don't want to work. I want to bang on the drum all day."
Well, it's really up to the governor at this point. The legislature has effectively abdicated, so he needs to dissolve them entirely and rule by martial law. Fire the strikers, delegitimize the union, privatize the state school system.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe old-guard media is firmly on the side of the government class.
What would really be surprising is the AP reporting fairly on the rigged nature of public sector union "bargaining." Taxpayers have been effectively disenfranchised for generations -- but progressives can not, will not, see any injustice in that.
The people see it, though. Finally.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow about the parents in working families who had to stay home with their kids because the school was closed?
What are the Dems doing to support them?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe need to see the photos of the aftermath. Will union teachers clean up as well as those hated, racist Tea Party thugs?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIndeed, Jay. I heard a TV news teaser last night on this story that framed it as teachers protesting "anti-union legislation." Well, I see it as pro-taxpayer legislation, so there.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"We need to see the photos of the aftermath. Will union teachers clean up as well as those hated, racist Tea Party thugs?"
Althouse had just such a post yesterday:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe've learned not to expect objective reporting from the liberal media, so the AP's lean to the left on the Wisconsin situation is no surprise. At least the AP didn't jump aboard Obama's "assault" bandwagon.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Democrats showed up in the state Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families"
See, even the Democrats have given up support for overpaid union goons who don't bother to show up for work ;-)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf someone were to ask me what the one overriding characteristic of liberals is I would say "immaturity". What we are seeing in Wisconsin is mass acts of childishness. It is as if the whole of the Left has missed its nap. Sad.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope that the Wisconsin teachers who called in sick only to protest at the Statehouse are at least docked a day of pay. It must be a violation of the teacher's sick leave policy to call in sick and then go out, beat drums, and look otherwise ridiculous. A lot of people work in businesses where they would get fired for that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope that the Wisconsin teachers who called in sick only to protest at the Statehouse are at least docked a day of pay. It must be a violation of the teacher's sick leave policy to call in sick and then go out, beat drums, and look otherwise ridiculous. A lot of people work in businesses where they would get fired for that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere is one word (and its variants) missing from the AP article that would surely have appeared in an AP report on a Tea Party rally and its ralliers: angry.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI want to know why ABC's George Stephanopoulos won't disclose the secret location of the dodgy Democrat WI Senator he interviewed this morning?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNobody guarantees my employee's or my jobs, pensions, gold plated health benefits, higher than average wages, obscene number of days off, short hours, early retirement, or provides us with tenure or work rules that inoculate us from our own incompetence.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe either keep our customers happy and paying their bills every day of every month of every year or we find ourselves looking for a new job.
Jay, I saw that AP report too, but I read it as essentially a report of what the reporter saw, not as a mouth piece. We may say that printing the picket line activities and words somehow gets their message out. But I would argue that the more these people talk, the worse it gets for them.
Anybody who has children has a pretty good sense of how the unions up there are behaving. Just replace union members "beat drums" and screaming "Democracy! Union!" with a 13 year old girl "stomping feet", "slamming doors" and yelling "it's NOT FAIR!"
Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake. And, I'll add that the protestors are violating the old John Wayne-ism, "Talk Low. Talk Slow. And don't say too much."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan you imagine if conservatives acted this way...if we chanted "kill" anything, the next time someone died, it would be proof that conservatives have gone too far.
After we destroy labor unions, the next order of business should be to fix the media...they are the reason for this double-standard...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course, the beating of drums is meant to menace and intimidate too.
Hi there Jay, have you ever been to a parade?
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