Spring training's underway, so time to get into baseball mode again. If you'll recall, last season Roy Halladay no-hit the Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS, only the second no-hitter ever thrown in postseason history. The other, of course, was Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.
I intend to prove to you today that Roy Halladay went to bed having had the better day than Don Larsen did.
Let's run through all the particulars:
STATUS OF GAME
Halladay: No-hitter (walked Jay Bruce in the 5th)
Larsen: Perfect game
PREVIOUS NO-HITTERS
Halladay: 1 (a perfect game earlier in the season; lifetime record so far is 169-86 with 1,714 strikeouts)
Larsen: 0 (Larsen was otherwise a journeyman pitcher with a lifetime record of 81-91 and 849 strikeouts)
ROUND OF PLAY
Halladay: NLDS
Larsen: World Series
STATUS OF SERIES UPON CONCLUSION OF GAME
Halladay: Phillies lead Reds, 1-0
Larsen: Yankees lead Dodgers, 3-2
STRIKEOUTS
Halladay: 8
Larsen: 7
GROUNDOUT/LINEOUT/FLYOUT RATIO (groundballs are preferred)
Halladay: 12/1/6
Larsen: 6/4/10
PITCH COUNT
Halladay: 104
Larsen: 98
RUN SUPPORT
Halladay: 4 runs off 5 hits
Larsen: 2 runs off 5 hits, with a home run by Mickey Mantle
HOW THE PITCHER DID WHEN BATTING THEMSELVES
Halladay: 1-3, 1 run, 1 RBI
Larsen: 0-2, 1 strikeout, sacrifice bunt in 6th that sent Andy Carey to 2nd (Carey would score on the next at-bat)
TIME OF GAME
Halladay: 2:34
Larsen: 2:06
So far, it looks rather debatable. Larsen had the better result, brought his team closer to a title, and got his game over in 6 fewer pitches, 28 minutes faster. However, Halladay had his second no-hitter of the season, kept the ball on the ground more, had that one extra strikeout, got more support, and drove one of the Phillies' runs in himself.
There is, however, one more category to examine. Remember, we're asking who went to bed happier.
DID WIFE FILE DIVORCE PAPERS ON SAME DAY?
Halladay: No.
Larsen: Yes. They would split a month after the season; Don remarried a month after that. It was the prototypical shotgun marriage: Larsen had gotten his spouse, Vivian, pregnant, and married her out of a sense of honor. However, according to Vivian, he bolted three months afterward and failed to provide support; in addition to divorce papers, she wished his World Series money withheld.
Seems like a bit of a tiebreaker.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Who The Hell Is George Soros?
One shadowy puppetmaster down, one to go. Today, a primer on George Soros.
Born in Budapest, 80-year-old Soros, a Jew, was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. Obviously, he survived or we wouldn't be discussing him right now. He moved to England in 1947, beginning a life in the financial sector.
Soros is sometimes referred to as "the man who broke the Bank of England," as on what is there known as Black Wednesday- September 16, 1992- he made over $1 billion US by short selling the pound, believing it would go down in value as England, which was giving out double-digit interest rates, had already tried just about everything else to prop up the pound and none of those plans had worked either. It did, to such a degree that the pound dropped out of Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to the euro. Soros is still vilified for this in some circles.
In 1997, Soros was one of the actors in an Asian financial crisis, becoming rivals with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bim Mohamad. Mohamad had proposed that currency trading be made illegal. Soros called Mahathir "a menace to his own country." Soros had short-sold Malaysia's currency, the ringgit, as well, and Mahathir made anti-Semitic remarks in his placing of blame: "We do not want to say that this is a plot by the Jews, but in reality it is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge, and coincidentally Soros is a Jew. It is also a coincidence that the Malaysians are mostly Muslim. Indeed, the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress." The two kissed and made up in 2006.
In 1988, he was approached about assisting in a takeover of French bank Societe Generale. He said no, but then went on to buy shares on his own. In 2002, a French court ruled that this was insider trading, fining Soros in the amount of money made from the trade, $2.3 million, going no further because of the 14-year delay. The ruling was upheld by France's supreme court in 2006; Soros has appealed further to the European Court of Human Rights, stating that the knowledge he traded on was public, and that court has agreed to hear the case.
Soros does his political financing chiefly through his think tank of choice, the Open Society Institute. Soros founded it in 1993, focusing largely on Eastern and Central Europe (remember, he's Hungarian). It is commonly cited as a key player in Georgia's 2003 'Rose Revolution'. He didn't get overly involved in American affairs until 2004, when he spent heavily to attempt to deny George W. Bush a second term, ultimately an unsuccessful effort. In the wake of that, Soros created another think tank, the Democracy Alliance, aimed at funding a variety of liberal causes.
Soros made an attempt in 2005 at becoming a minority shareholder in the Washington Nationals. It was scuttled when Republicans in Congress threatened to revoke baseball's antitrust exemption.
That should be enough to bring you reasonably up to speed. Just to recap one facet of our notes: If you see "Americans For Prosperity" tossed around in an ad, that means the Koch Brothers. If you see "Open Society Institute" or "Democracy Alliance", that's George Soros.
Born in Budapest, 80-year-old Soros, a Jew, was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. Obviously, he survived or we wouldn't be discussing him right now. He moved to England in 1947, beginning a life in the financial sector.
Soros is sometimes referred to as "the man who broke the Bank of England," as on what is there known as Black Wednesday- September 16, 1992- he made over $1 billion US by short selling the pound, believing it would go down in value as England, which was giving out double-digit interest rates, had already tried just about everything else to prop up the pound and none of those plans had worked either. It did, to such a degree that the pound dropped out of Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to the euro. Soros is still vilified for this in some circles.
In 1997, Soros was one of the actors in an Asian financial crisis, becoming rivals with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bim Mohamad. Mohamad had proposed that currency trading be made illegal. Soros called Mahathir "a menace to his own country." Soros had short-sold Malaysia's currency, the ringgit, as well, and Mahathir made anti-Semitic remarks in his placing of blame: "We do not want to say that this is a plot by the Jews, but in reality it is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge, and coincidentally Soros is a Jew. It is also a coincidence that the Malaysians are mostly Muslim. Indeed, the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress." The two kissed and made up in 2006.
In 1988, he was approached about assisting in a takeover of French bank Societe Generale. He said no, but then went on to buy shares on his own. In 2002, a French court ruled that this was insider trading, fining Soros in the amount of money made from the trade, $2.3 million, going no further because of the 14-year delay. The ruling was upheld by France's supreme court in 2006; Soros has appealed further to the European Court of Human Rights, stating that the knowledge he traded on was public, and that court has agreed to hear the case.
Soros does his political financing chiefly through his think tank of choice, the Open Society Institute. Soros founded it in 1993, focusing largely on Eastern and Central Europe (remember, he's Hungarian). It is commonly cited as a key player in Georgia's 2003 'Rose Revolution'. He didn't get overly involved in American affairs until 2004, when he spent heavily to attempt to deny George W. Bush a second term, ultimately an unsuccessful effort. In the wake of that, Soros created another think tank, the Democracy Alliance, aimed at funding a variety of liberal causes.
Soros made an attempt in 2005 at becoming a minority shareholder in the Washington Nationals. It was scuttled when Republicans in Congress threatened to revoke baseball's antitrust exemption.
That should be enough to bring you reasonably up to speed. Just to recap one facet of our notes: If you see "Americans For Prosperity" tossed around in an ad, that means the Koch Brothers. If you see "Open Society Institute" or "Democracy Alliance", that's George Soros.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Who The Hell Are The Koch Brothers?
As of late, you've probably been bombarded with two names that, as far as the two respective parties are concerned, are secretly pulling the strings and running the country: the Koch Brothers on the right, and George Soros on the left. They're rich, they're shadowy, they're quietly funding everything that threatens to bring America down from the inside and fattening their wallets in the meantime.
Just one thing, though.
Who the hell are the Koch Brothers and George Soros?
That's the thing about shadowy types running everything. They're shadowy. The public knows jack and squat about them except EEEEEEEEVIIIIIILLLLLLLL. This is, of course, an easy fix. They may be shadowy to the general public, but that's because the general public hasn't taken the time to look up who they are.
Here's a primer on the Koch Brothers. George Soros will be tomorrow.
Charles and David Koch, namely. (Pronounced 'coke'.) The two run Koch Industries, a private conglomerate based in Wichita. Charles is CEO, but both have an equal share in the company. Koch is ranked by Forbes as the second-largest private company in America, behind Cargill. They employ approximately 70,000 people.
Among Koch's holdings are Flint Hills Resources (which operates three refineries that handle 800 barrels of crude oil a day, and among other things produces and sells midwestern asphalt); Koch Pipeline Company (which owns or operates about 4,000 miles of oil pipeline); Koch Alaska Pipeline Company (which owns, among other things, 3% of the Trans Alaska Pipeline); Matador Cattle Company (which owns about 425,000 acres and 15,000 cattle); INVISTA; which makes Lycra, Antron and Tactel fibers, Cordura fabric and Stainmaster carpeting; and paper company Georgia-Pacific, which is the one you're most likely to run into. They make, among other brands, Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft 'n Gentle, Sparkle, Vanity Fair, and Zee. Georgia-Pacific has had an at best questionable environmental record; however, the bulk of their violations occurred before Koch Industries took over in 2005.
David, age 70, ran for President in 1980 as the Libertarian running mate of Californian corporate lawyer Ed Clark, running against incumbent Jimmy Carter and eventual winner Ronald Reagan; Salon has more on that. The ticket wished to, among other things, abolish Social Security, welfare, corporate taxes, the Federal Reserve, and minimum-wage laws, along with the SEC, OSHA, FTC, FBI, CIA and Department of Energy. They also wished to legalize recreational drugs, prostitution and suicide. The ticket's goal was 10% of the vote. They got 1.1%, which is still the Libertarians' best performance to this day. David became a Republican in 1984.
Charles (warning; disputed Wikipedia page), age 75, has not run for President, but he has co-founded the libertarian Cato Institute, which he and David have supported throughout its life. They have donated over $10 million each to try and defeat the Patriot Act, alongside George Soros-- again, we'll get to him tomorrow. They also fund the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which most recently has been heavily involved in the battle in Wisconsin on the anti-union side.
Most notably, although the Kochs officially deny it, financial records show them as having had a major hand in the origins of the Tea Party, with any lingering doubt shattered in October by video evidence provided by the online documentary [Astro]Turf Wars.
Just one thing, though.
Who the hell are the Koch Brothers and George Soros?
That's the thing about shadowy types running everything. They're shadowy. The public knows jack and squat about them except EEEEEEEEVIIIIIILLLLLLLL. This is, of course, an easy fix. They may be shadowy to the general public, but that's because the general public hasn't taken the time to look up who they are.
Here's a primer on the Koch Brothers. George Soros will be tomorrow.
Charles and David Koch, namely. (Pronounced 'coke'.) The two run Koch Industries, a private conglomerate based in Wichita. Charles is CEO, but both have an equal share in the company. Koch is ranked by Forbes as the second-largest private company in America, behind Cargill. They employ approximately 70,000 people.
Among Koch's holdings are Flint Hills Resources (which operates three refineries that handle 800 barrels of crude oil a day, and among other things produces and sells midwestern asphalt); Koch Pipeline Company (which owns or operates about 4,000 miles of oil pipeline); Koch Alaska Pipeline Company (which owns, among other things, 3% of the Trans Alaska Pipeline); Matador Cattle Company (which owns about 425,000 acres and 15,000 cattle); INVISTA; which makes Lycra, Antron and Tactel fibers, Cordura fabric and Stainmaster carpeting; and paper company Georgia-Pacific, which is the one you're most likely to run into. They make, among other brands, Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft 'n Gentle, Sparkle, Vanity Fair, and Zee. Georgia-Pacific has had an at best questionable environmental record; however, the bulk of their violations occurred before Koch Industries took over in 2005.
David, age 70, ran for President in 1980 as the Libertarian running mate of Californian corporate lawyer Ed Clark, running against incumbent Jimmy Carter and eventual winner Ronald Reagan; Salon has more on that. The ticket wished to, among other things, abolish Social Security, welfare, corporate taxes, the Federal Reserve, and minimum-wage laws, along with the SEC, OSHA, FTC, FBI, CIA and Department of Energy. They also wished to legalize recreational drugs, prostitution and suicide. The ticket's goal was 10% of the vote. They got 1.1%, which is still the Libertarians' best performance to this day. David became a Republican in 1984.
Charles (warning; disputed Wikipedia page), age 75, has not run for President, but he has co-founded the libertarian Cato Institute, which he and David have supported throughout its life. They have donated over $10 million each to try and defeat the Patriot Act, alongside George Soros-- again, we'll get to him tomorrow. They also fund the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which most recently has been heavily involved in the battle in Wisconsin on the anti-union side.
Most notably, although the Kochs officially deny it, financial records show them as having had a major hand in the origins of the Tea Party, with any lingering doubt shattered in October by video evidence provided by the online documentary [Astro]Turf Wars.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Random News Generator- Indonesia
The Oscars are coming up, and you know what that means: the annual speculation on who will win the Montage of Dead People. (Come on. You know you do it.) Also there will apparently be some awards handed out for whatever people thought was halfway decent this year.
One thing you might hear about is people who use the nomination list for Best Picture as a kind of homework assignment: they feel obligated to watch everything nominated that they have not yet watched. In Indonesia, they would love to have this problem. Right now, however, they are fighting for the ability to be able to watch any of them, as the MPAA is ordering Hollywood films removed from Indonesian cinemas.
There are two reasons for the MPAA taking this step. First, the taxes on importing the film to Indonesia has more than doubled, from 20 cents per meter of film to 43 cents, plus an import duty tax and a cut of the profits. This is too expensive for Hollywood. Second, it's not like they see much of the profits anyway, as piracy is rampant. European and Asian distributors have thought along those lines as well.
So okay, maybe Indonesia is watching the movies. Just not the way they're supposed to.
'Why not just watch the locally-produced films', you might ask. Because, by their own admission, the locally-produced films suck, nobody actually watches them, and there aren't enough of them to meet demand anyway, that's why. In response to immense pressure from all corners, distributors, theaters and filmgoers alike, the tax has come under review; it will take about two weeks to render a final verdict.
Indonesia's Finance Ministry, for their part, has called it a misunderstanding, claiming that the taxes were simply being moved from the back end to the front end of the import process. It doesn't appear to be convincing anyone.
One thing you might hear about is people who use the nomination list for Best Picture as a kind of homework assignment: they feel obligated to watch everything nominated that they have not yet watched. In Indonesia, they would love to have this problem. Right now, however, they are fighting for the ability to be able to watch any of them, as the MPAA is ordering Hollywood films removed from Indonesian cinemas.
There are two reasons for the MPAA taking this step. First, the taxes on importing the film to Indonesia has more than doubled, from 20 cents per meter of film to 43 cents, plus an import duty tax and a cut of the profits. This is too expensive for Hollywood. Second, it's not like they see much of the profits anyway, as piracy is rampant. European and Asian distributors have thought along those lines as well.
So okay, maybe Indonesia is watching the movies. Just not the way they're supposed to.
'Why not just watch the locally-produced films', you might ask. Because, by their own admission, the locally-produced films suck, nobody actually watches them, and there aren't enough of them to meet demand anyway, that's why. In response to immense pressure from all corners, distributors, theaters and filmgoers alike, the tax has come under review; it will take about two weeks to render a final verdict.
Indonesia's Finance Ministry, for their part, has called it a misunderstanding, claiming that the taxes were simply being moved from the back end to the front end of the import process. It doesn't appear to be convincing anyone.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
No 'Koch' Puns; I Have Dignity Today
Okay, I guess I'm getting screechy after all. Ian Murphy, the editor of the Buffalo Beast, an alternative newspaper that later went exclusively online, decided to pose over the phone as David Koch, one of the conservative financier Koch brothers. His goal was to get through to Scott Walker.
Normally when someone tries this kind of thing, they either get busted immediately, or best case, they get through but are busted partway through the call.
Murphy, meanwhile, not only got through, but held an entire conversation with Walker, whose office later confirmed the call as authentic. (As the Beast's website is throwing out 404's right now, I link to the Huffington Post instead.)
This is the audio of that call, evidently held at 2 PM yesterday, which means I was in Madison while this call was taking place.
EDIT: You know... it might help if I posted the second half of that audio too.
Normally when someone tries this kind of thing, they either get busted immediately, or best case, they get through but are busted partway through the call.
Murphy, meanwhile, not only got through, but held an entire conversation with Walker, whose office later confirmed the call as authentic. (As the Beast's website is throwing out 404's right now, I link to the Huffington Post instead.)
This is the audio of that call, evidently held at 2 PM yesterday, which means I was in Madison while this call was taking place.
EDIT: You know... it might help if I posted the second half of that audio too.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Madison Protests
Today, as advertised, I was in Madison, joining the protest against the budget proposed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to remove collective bargaining rights for public employees. (Full disclosure: My sister-in-law is a special-ed teacher, one of the key groups participating, and the ones targeted by the next items on the agenda: stripping funds from the Milwaukee Public School system, and to break UW-Madison off from the rest of the UW school system.)
On this, Day 5 since the departure of Wisconsin's Democratic state senators, the teachers themselves weren't actually there- they had returned to class for the proverbial sake of the children, resulting in a smaller crowd than there had been previously- but some substitute protesters were out in their place, some with signs stating who they were there on behalf of.
Since I've clearly taken a side, I'll let that speak to that aspect of the protests and downplay it the rest of the way. Does me no good to get screechy about it. If this Gallup poll is correct, there's a 61% chance we share viewpoints anyway. (My current employer and I do not. I do not begrudge them their views, I will not force my views on them, and as long as they don't force theirs on me, we're cool all around.)
So let's instead talk about the atmosphere in Madison. I arrived around 10:30-ish and saw what would be the first of many, many parades down Capitol Square, and the three chants that would dominate the day:
"Kill the bill!"
"Tell me what democracy looks like?" "This is what democracy looks like!"
"Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go!"
After making a loop around the square, I entered the capitol building itself.
It was as if the Seattle Mariners were back in the Kingdome and in the playoffs. The Capitol Rotunda has acoustics that greatly benefit a protest, and full advantage has been taken of this, with the vast majority of indoor demonstrators hovering around the Rotunda. Signs, letters, banners, flags, pamphlets, leaflets, people gathering signatures, and anything else that can be printed up... they were inescapable. A live feed of Wisconsin Eye, the Wisconsin equivalent to C-SPAN, was displayed on the top floor. Anyone that wished to address the crowd did so from the middle of the ground floor, where they might not be seen by everyone, but their voice would most easily bounce off the hollow dome above and through to the rest of the building.
For the record, I only noticed two comparisons to Egypt all day: a sign recalling a Paul Ryan quote that said Cairo had come to Madison, and this picture of an Egyptian at Tahrir Square standing with the Wisconsinites. That's about right. There are certainly parallels to be drawn if one wants: governmental leader trying to ram through something widely hated, large-scale multi-day protests that have been met with total obstination by leadership, solidarity from abroad, that old threat to pull out the National Guard (who subsequently told Walker to get bent). The drive to protest may even have been partly inspired by the recent successes in Tunisia and Egypt. But at the same time, nobody's getting shot, nobody's getting into any fights, Walker's term can only be measured in weeks, not decades, the media's not in any way being suppressed, protesters have had almost free run of the capitol building. It's like Egypt, but it's not like Egypt. So we're all clear on that.
There was a 'quiet study area' on the top floor, next to the Senate Gallery. This only meant 'less ear-splitting'. With fewer people than previous, it was viewed as quieter. To which I say: that is one loud quiet. (The major business for the Senate today: congratulating the Green Bay Packers on winning the Super Bowl.)
I may have chanted. I may not have. I can't tell. I couldn't hear myself talk. I may have said 'hey hey ho ho', I may have said 'salt my finger snakes'. I was mostly taking notes anyway, a tough thing because my pens kept dying.
The mood, however, was quite jovial. Intense, yet good-natured, as if all that had happened was the Wisconsin Badgers making the Final Four. It's a very Wisconsin mood. We are largely the nice, pleasant folks we and the rest of the north-central United States are stereotyped as. But underneath that niceness, below the surface outsiders normally see, there's a low-simmering sense of drama. It manifests every so often in daily life here, but not enough for you to notice. We have a fuse. It is a long fuse, but we are no Pollyannas.
For the love of God, do not let that fuse run out.
Once that fuse runs out, Wisconsin goes relatively crazy. We're considered a laboratory of progressivism, but it wouldn't be a lab without failed experiments. We are the state of William Proxmire, Russ Feingold, and 'Fightin Bob' LaFollette. But we are also the state of Aldrich Ames, Jeffrey Dahmer and Joe McCarthy. We are the state that created the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln's day (now unrecognizable to this era), but we are also the state where Teddy Roosevelt was shot. We are the home of Bob Uecker, but we are the home of Latrell Sprewell.
Reminders were everywhere to inform protesters that this is supposed to be a peaceful thing. Just in case.
For lunch, I visited Ian's Pizza. This unassuming pizza place, about a block and a half from Capitol Square on State Street- a pedestrian-only street connecting the capitol to UW-Madison- is the go-to place for hungry protesters. Around the world, people have been phoning in orders to Ian's on behalf of them, with the effect that the protesters- and anyone else that stops by- have been eating free for a while now; one employee stated that $25,000 in donated orders were recorded yesterday alone. All 50 states and DC have called in with orders. Someone from China has called in an order, Russia, Armenia, Turkey, Morocco, Antarctica. While I was there, an order came in from Jerusalem, Israel. The way it worked was, you're asked how many slices you want and if you want a drink or something, and they simply tally up the total number of pizza slices and drinks. There was no active register. Every time a foreign order came in, the nationality was announced to the dining room.
How can a little place in Madison feed tens of thousands of people? Not without employees imported from Ian's Chicago branch. (For further details, head to Ian's website and click on the State Street branch.)
The pizza, by the way, is excellent.
Back at the Rotunda, preliminary signatures were being gathered to help determine where to allocate resources for a recall effort. Not of Scott Walker; that can't happen until he's been in office for one year. Of eight Republican state senators. Three would be needed to flip in order to kill the budget bill, but should that not happen, Plan B is to recall enough Republican legislators to wipe out the advantage, and in turn, wipe out the bill. The preliminary signatures are needed because once paperwork is officially filed, a 60-day clock starts, and all recall petition signatures must be gathered by then.
Meanwhile, a group in Utah, the American Patriot Recall Coalition (great name; managed to shoehorn both 'American' AND 'Patriot' in there, just to show you're twice as American), has started the clock on a similar measure against eight Democratic state senators. Yes, apparently you can do that. A group in Utah can apparently try to have legislators in Wisconsin thrown out of office. So now everybody is recalling everybody else. And nobody is giving an inch.
As it stands, people are protesting in shifts; shuttle buses are active all over the state to get people into and out of Capitol Square, if protesters didn't show up in their own vehicles. If Wisconsinites need a break, out-of-staters have been perfectly willing to pick up the slack with bused-in protesters of their own. And with nobody conceding on collective bargaining, and everybody digging in their heels, the result is a virtual siege operation.
We could be here for a long time.
On this, Day 5 since the departure of Wisconsin's Democratic state senators, the teachers themselves weren't actually there- they had returned to class for the proverbial sake of the children, resulting in a smaller crowd than there had been previously- but some substitute protesters were out in their place, some with signs stating who they were there on behalf of.
Since I've clearly taken a side, I'll let that speak to that aspect of the protests and downplay it the rest of the way. Does me no good to get screechy about it. If this Gallup poll is correct, there's a 61% chance we share viewpoints anyway. (My current employer and I do not. I do not begrudge them their views, I will not force my views on them, and as long as they don't force theirs on me, we're cool all around.)
So let's instead talk about the atmosphere in Madison. I arrived around 10:30-ish and saw what would be the first of many, many parades down Capitol Square, and the three chants that would dominate the day:
"Kill the bill!"
"Tell me what democracy looks like?" "This is what democracy looks like!"
"Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go!"
After making a loop around the square, I entered the capitol building itself.
It was as if the Seattle Mariners were back in the Kingdome and in the playoffs. The Capitol Rotunda has acoustics that greatly benefit a protest, and full advantage has been taken of this, with the vast majority of indoor demonstrators hovering around the Rotunda. Signs, letters, banners, flags, pamphlets, leaflets, people gathering signatures, and anything else that can be printed up... they were inescapable. A live feed of Wisconsin Eye, the Wisconsin equivalent to C-SPAN, was displayed on the top floor. Anyone that wished to address the crowd did so from the middle of the ground floor, where they might not be seen by everyone, but their voice would most easily bounce off the hollow dome above and through to the rest of the building.
For the record, I only noticed two comparisons to Egypt all day: a sign recalling a Paul Ryan quote that said Cairo had come to Madison, and this picture of an Egyptian at Tahrir Square standing with the Wisconsinites. That's about right. There are certainly parallels to be drawn if one wants: governmental leader trying to ram through something widely hated, large-scale multi-day protests that have been met with total obstination by leadership, solidarity from abroad, that old threat to pull out the National Guard (who subsequently told Walker to get bent). The drive to protest may even have been partly inspired by the recent successes in Tunisia and Egypt. But at the same time, nobody's getting shot, nobody's getting into any fights, Walker's term can only be measured in weeks, not decades, the media's not in any way being suppressed, protesters have had almost free run of the capitol building. It's like Egypt, but it's not like Egypt. So we're all clear on that.
There was a 'quiet study area' on the top floor, next to the Senate Gallery. This only meant 'less ear-splitting'. With fewer people than previous, it was viewed as quieter. To which I say: that is one loud quiet. (The major business for the Senate today: congratulating the Green Bay Packers on winning the Super Bowl.)
I may have chanted. I may not have. I can't tell. I couldn't hear myself talk. I may have said 'hey hey ho ho', I may have said 'salt my finger snakes'. I was mostly taking notes anyway, a tough thing because my pens kept dying.
The mood, however, was quite jovial. Intense, yet good-natured, as if all that had happened was the Wisconsin Badgers making the Final Four. It's a very Wisconsin mood. We are largely the nice, pleasant folks we and the rest of the north-central United States are stereotyped as. But underneath that niceness, below the surface outsiders normally see, there's a low-simmering sense of drama. It manifests every so often in daily life here, but not enough for you to notice. We have a fuse. It is a long fuse, but we are no Pollyannas.
For the love of God, do not let that fuse run out.
Once that fuse runs out, Wisconsin goes relatively crazy. We're considered a laboratory of progressivism, but it wouldn't be a lab without failed experiments. We are the state of William Proxmire, Russ Feingold, and 'Fightin Bob' LaFollette. But we are also the state of Aldrich Ames, Jeffrey Dahmer and Joe McCarthy. We are the state that created the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln's day (now unrecognizable to this era), but we are also the state where Teddy Roosevelt was shot. We are the home of Bob Uecker, but we are the home of Latrell Sprewell.
Reminders were everywhere to inform protesters that this is supposed to be a peaceful thing. Just in case.
For lunch, I visited Ian's Pizza. This unassuming pizza place, about a block and a half from Capitol Square on State Street- a pedestrian-only street connecting the capitol to UW-Madison- is the go-to place for hungry protesters. Around the world, people have been phoning in orders to Ian's on behalf of them, with the effect that the protesters- and anyone else that stops by- have been eating free for a while now; one employee stated that $25,000 in donated orders were recorded yesterday alone. All 50 states and DC have called in with orders. Someone from China has called in an order, Russia, Armenia, Turkey, Morocco, Antarctica. While I was there, an order came in from Jerusalem, Israel. The way it worked was, you're asked how many slices you want and if you want a drink or something, and they simply tally up the total number of pizza slices and drinks. There was no active register. Every time a foreign order came in, the nationality was announced to the dining room.
How can a little place in Madison feed tens of thousands of people? Not without employees imported from Ian's Chicago branch. (For further details, head to Ian's website and click on the State Street branch.)
The pizza, by the way, is excellent.
Back at the Rotunda, preliminary signatures were being gathered to help determine where to allocate resources for a recall effort. Not of Scott Walker; that can't happen until he's been in office for one year. Of eight Republican state senators. Three would be needed to flip in order to kill the budget bill, but should that not happen, Plan B is to recall enough Republican legislators to wipe out the advantage, and in turn, wipe out the bill. The preliminary signatures are needed because once paperwork is officially filed, a 60-day clock starts, and all recall petition signatures must be gathered by then.
Meanwhile, a group in Utah, the American Patriot Recall Coalition (great name; managed to shoehorn both 'American' AND 'Patriot' in there, just to show you're twice as American), has started the clock on a similar measure against eight Democratic state senators. Yes, apparently you can do that. A group in Utah can apparently try to have legislators in Wisconsin thrown out of office. So now everybody is recalling everybody else. And nobody is giving an inch.
As it stands, people are protesting in shifts; shuttle buses are active all over the state to get people into and out of Capitol Square, if protesters didn't show up in their own vehicles. If Wisconsinites need a break, out-of-staters have been perfectly willing to pick up the slack with bused-in protesters of their own. And with nobody conceding on collective bargaining, and everybody digging in their heels, the result is a virtual siege operation.
We could be here for a long time.
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