Wisconsin Republicans furious at the effrontery of 70.000 protesters gathering to show their outrage against their union busting scheme have struck back by blocking a pro-protest website from the State Capital. In doing this Wisconsin Republicans borrowed the pattern of internet censorship favored by Muammar Gaddafi and authoritarian despots around the world.
Pro-union website blocked in Wisconsin state Capitol
The website, defendwisconsin.org, could not be accessed on Monday and into Tuesday morning in the Capitol building, where crowds assembled over proposed legislation that would increase the costs of benefits to public employees and curb their collective-bargaining rights.
The Capitol internet service, which restricts access to certain websites considered inappropriate for lawmakers, revealed a "blocked page" when users tried to access the site using the building's wireless system.
Users were able to access the site elsewhere.
The outage comes on the heels of a speech by Walker, who defended the budget proposal and criticized unions for squandering state coffers and impeding fiscal reform.
Here is the website Republicans deem too inappropriate for lawmakers' tender eyes:
Defend Wisconsin
While the two situations aren't remotely comparable, this makes the symbolic similarities between what's going on in Madison Wisconsin and Tripoli Libya inescapable.