I am so proud of the protesters in Wisconsin right now. I went to UW-Madison as a grad student and was a member of the Teaching Assistant's Association: I'm now a member of some other unions (California Faculty Association, NEA, etc.) But as I watch, I'm worried about something specific: fake "union violence."
Fox is already pushing this meme, and pushing it hard. Media Matters has already detailed a lot of these so-called "reports." http://mediamatters.org/...
The Tea Party is already planning to be at the Capitol on Saturday. I fear that they are going to provoke "violence" to sway public sentiment.
Bill Lueders at the Isthmus already suggested this as early as last Sunday: "Protests are exactly what Walker wants, because they can only lead to two outcomes: Either they are peaceful and accomplish nothing; or they turn violent and create a massive backlash against the unions and their members. Either way, Walker wins." (full article here: http://www.thedailypage.com/...)
I've seen this kind of thing happen before, and I am scarcely an expert in civil disobedience. Less than a year ago, a group of neo-Nazis provoked a "violent assault" here in Los Angeles. Poor old guy with his neo Nazi tattoos on his knees, calling to Jesus or someone to save him from the scary counter-protesters. Only he had removed his false teeth and bounced backwards into the crowd, so he could be "pushed" forward and onto his knees. http://www.foxnews.com/... Before that, it was the little old lady with her paper mache cross wickedly being stomped by big scary gay guys at a Prop 8 rally, only the only thing that was hurt was the paper mache cross. Both of these people were practiced and calculated. It was intended to look like an attack.
The mainstream media has only just started to pay attention to the protests in Wisconsin. The right wing media is, as usual, way out in front of this story. Don't let them take it!
When the counter protesters are bussed in by Club For Growth, pushing the seemingly fragile senior citizens out front, and provoking, maybe causing violence: do not rise to the bait! And try to keep an eye out for the cameras, although in these days of cell phone videos, you can never be sure.
And a big thank you to Ed Schultz: please keep them cameras running, and calling them out on their lies.
Thanks for listening.