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…. but he is so damned popular that he had to bus in some supporters to make himself look good for television (FoxNews)?
Wed Mar 02, 2011
Suppressing Dissent: An Inside View of WI Governor Walker's Budget Address by lil bird
This afternoon Governor Scott Walker gave his budget address, in which he presented his proposed budget for the next two years. This comes on the tail of the union-busting bill that has had hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites out in the streets and occupying the Capitol for the past two weeks.
Walker seems to like to pick a fight with the people of Wisconsin, but like many tyrants he goes to great lengths to pretend that the public is on his side. I thought folks might be interested in the reports I heard from the few members of the general public let into the chamber where the address was given.
The Capitol has been on lockdown for the last few days, with very limited entry and exit and thousands of people outside trying to get in. Most of us on the inside have been here for days, and we're certainly not here because we are Scott Walker fans. So, to provide a friendly audience for his speech today Walker bussed in a crowd of right-wing supporters to pack the chamber.
The Governor apparently wanted to be able to claim that members of the general public were also allowed to attend, because he had officers hand-pick 20 clean-cut, mostly older individuals out of the crowd outside to receive special passes to watch his speech. These people were shepherded inside, in some cases without being told where they were being taken.
When they reached the chamber in which the governor's address was to be delivered, these individuals were not offered any of the regular seating already filled to capacity with nearly 200 right-wing activists. Instead they were put in a row of uncomfortable folding chairs behind the normal seating area, and surrounded by state troopers who watched them like hawks the entire time.
After the pledge of allegiance and a prayer, the Governor began his address. The rest of the audience cheered and applauded throughout the whole thing, but those in the back were told not to so much as make any expression in response to what the Governor was saying. One middle-aged woman I spoke with said she was very frustrated with being herded into the chamber and having to listen to the address without being permitted to react in any way, especially given the loud cheering allowed for everyone else.
Near the end of the speech everyone rose to their feet, with most of those in the chamber applauding wildly. One woman in the back stood up with the rest of the crowd but booed softly, at which point the state troopers surrounded her and told her she had to leave. The troopers also rounded up two other nearby individuals who had not been doing anything besides standing, and told them they would be escorted out as well.
One of these two asked whether the address was over, and when she was told that it was not, she said that she had a ticket and wanted to stay. The officer refused. She asked what she had done wrong, but rather than answer the trooper grabbed her, twisted her arm painfully behind her back and told her she was under arrest. He would not tell her why she was being detained, and when she asked if someone could bring her jacket along as she was led out, he refused. She and the others were escorted from the chamber, and then from the building.
Another person I spoke with was one of several who stood and turned their backs at the end of the speech in silent protest. They were also forcibly removed from the chamber by the state troopers, who roughly pushed one short woman because she was not moving fast enough.
That was the situation inside the chamber during the Governor's address today - members of the public being used as props for the Governor's speech but manhandled and arrested at the slightest sign of disagreement. However, despite the Governor's iron-fisted enforcement of approval within his audience, those of us inside the building, but shut out of the chamber, chanted and beat drums so loudly throughout the speech that we could be heard within it. So despite the Governor's best efforts, the voice of the people still made it to the Governor's ears - I only hope that it makes it into the media coverage as well.
FoxNews will have a great spin on all of the public support that Walker had at this little charade, bet on it.
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