Hiding in Plain Sight

The MacIver Institute seems to claim through the posting of the picture on the right that no one showed to the March 10, 2012 rally commemorating the death of collective bargaining in Wisconsin. However the MacIver camera was not pointed at the crowd, and a photo by Jenna Pope tells a different story. Photos courtesy Jenna Pope (left) MacIver Institute (right)

Thursday night Jon Stewart cheesed Sean Hannity for trying to prove Barack Obama is a radical through ancient footage of him speaking in support of a controversial professor while Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review. (See video below, be sure to look for sandwich guy) It was so ancient Stewart spent the first two minutes of the introduction waving around an actual VHS tape.

 

Stewart’s point was that Hannity was trying to bring down the president three years after a plurality of voters were quite comfortable with turning over the reigns to him. So Hannity is a little late to the party with this one as are the folks at the right-leaning (some would say falling over) MacIver Institute. Late Saturday (March 10) they posted a picture of the capitol square in Madison which suggested no one showed for the rally.

Another series of photos was taken by activist Jenna Pope which proves its hard to hide tens of thousands of people. The Beast’s Ian Murphy (and at least one-time David Koch impersonator) adeptly deconstructs MacIver’s closing of the barn door after the horses have left, pointing out that its all about the angles.

Read Ian Murphy’s post at The Beast

Sustained Fire

Organizers estimate that 65,000 people gathered for a rally to mark the one year anniversary of the passage of Act 10, the legislation that eliminated collective bargaining for public unions in Wisconsin. Photo by: Nice Nice

It was a year ago that Act 10 was passed by the Wisconsin legislature over howls of protest from an obvious majority of Wisconsin citizens. On this brilliantly sunny and warm Saturday (March 10) an estimated 63,000 gathered for a rally on the State Street steps of the capitol to mark the occasion. In a scene that could easily be taken for a year ago, rally attendees filled the approach to the capitol as well as the adjoining streets and into the 100 block of State street.

The weather today was identical to a year ago (except 30 degrees warmer) when we gathered at the capitol for the last of the big rallies and somewhat mourned the loss of the initial fight to “kill the bill” that had passed the night before. I remember the final speaker that day, actor and Green Bay native Tony Shalhoub, urged us to continue the fight and turn our focus to recalls.  We promised we would, but many of us wondered if we could sustain the anger and fire that brought all of us in Wisconsin together.

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