Yesterday, I had a busy day.
Among my activities: Made preparations for Thanksgiving, did loads of laundry and housework, organized Christmas decorations, went shopping, ran errands, went to Mass, shared a nice dinner with my family.
At no point did I carry a sign, bang a drum, chant "hey, hey, ho, ho," or make a fist.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, between 25,000 and 30,000 people spent their day protesting in Madison, engaging in their rituals.
What did they accomplish?
They were marching and chanting and carrying stupid signs and worshipping at the feet of the defeated former U.S. senator and entrenched Washington liberal, Russ Feingold - fired by the wise people of Wisconsin over a year ago.
In a demonstration reminiscent of those that occurred in February and March, between 25,000 and 30,000 protesters took over Capitol Square on Saturday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's policies and to promote a signature drive to recall him.
The petition drive must amass 540,208 signatures by Jan. 17 to force a recall election for Walker. As of Friday night, four days into the recall process, organizers had collected more than 105,000 signatures, according to the organizing group United Wisconsin. The claim could not be independently verified Saturday.
Many more people signed at Saturday's rally, and others picked up blank petitions so they can gather signatures later.
Organizers have said their goal is 600,000 to 700,000 signatures.
The recall attempt has been in the works since February, when Walker introduced a bill to repeal most collective bargaining for public employees.
If the drive is successful, it would prompt only the third recall election for a governor in the history of the United States.
Demonstrator Scott Spoolman, 57, of Madison said he was working to collect signatures because Walker had broken his promises.
"The governor campaigned on a set of promises and then turned around and implemented a totally different agenda," Spoolman said. "It was deceitful. I don't think he's working for Wisconsin but for a few billionaires."
With all due respect, Mr. Spoolman, that's a load of crap.
Scott Walker is fulfilling his campaign promises, what the majority of the people in Wisconsin elected him to do. He's having great success in getting Wisconsin back on track toward restoring prosperity to the citizens of the state and providing opportunity for a better life. Walker has taken us off a path of self-destruction, doing what Wisconsinites asked him to do when we chose him to be our governor.
I wonder how much more could have been accomplished for the people of Wisconsin if Walker hadn't been met with all the force and fury that Big Labor and the national Democrat machine and their "willing partners" in the media and the White House spit at him.
It's been a dirty little war and I'm sick of it - all the outside influence and power rallying to overturn what we, the people of Wisconsin, chose for the future of our state, meaning the future of our families.
And then there's Feingold--
...Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold signed a petition as he helped kick off the rally about 9 a.m. Saturday.
"Thank you for being on the front line of taking back Wisconsin," he told several hundred volunteers gathered at Madison's Majestic Theatre.
Feingold, the longtime Democratic senator who was defeated in November by Republican Ron Johnson, encouraged volunteers to counteract two pieces of misinformation that he said have been circulated by the movement's critics: that recalls are allowed only in cases of criminal conduct or malfeasance and that the recall movement consists of out-of-state activists.
"Our law says you can do recalls if you simply attack the people of Wisconsin," as Walker has done, Feingold said.
He also praised the recall movement as "all grass roots and all Badger."
Recent polling has identified Feingold as the only Democrat running ahead of Walker in a possible recall election.
But despite shouts of "Governor Feingold!" and "Run, Russ, run!" from the volunteers, Feingold reiterated that he won't run against Walker if the signature drive is successful.
"I want there to be a new governor," Feingold said outside the theater. "There will be a new governor in a few months, but it won't be me."
"All grass roots and all Badger."
BS! That is BS!
Grass roots and Badger?
With Big Labor and Washington calling the shots, organizing to overthrow the state government we chose?
Give me a break!
Feingold is destroying his legacy, such that it is. He reminds me of Jimmy Carter, the anti-Semite. He was a terrible president and then he topped that by being an even worse ex-president.
...Those among the crowd cited the loss of collective bargaining, cuts to medical assistance programs for the poor and cuts to education among their reasons for backing a Walker recall.
"My major concern is kids who are sick, hungry and homeless who are not getting the education they deserve," said Marie Martini, 62, a retired high school English teacher who now teaches college part time. "It's shameful that we're allowing all this to happen. We're sacrificing our future."
Martini attended the rally with her singing group, "The Raging Grannies," which consists of about 50 grandmothers and great-grandmothers who specialize in protest songs.
Tim Magee, 59, of Evansville said Walker needs to be recalled to set a precedent for the rest of the country that it is wrong to balance the budget at the expense of children and the elderly.
"This is very unfair," he said. "You work all your life, and then they want to abandon you. That shouldn't happen. Not in the richest country in the world."
These people aren't the great unwashed. They're the great brainwashed, graduates of union reeducation camps.
For them, America isn't the land of OPPORTUNITY and FREEDOM. It's about entitlements and dependence, in effect, voluntary slavery.
...As speakers addressed the crowd, which spilled into the streets around the Capitol building, a few dozen Walker supporters marched among them.
One was Joan Hintz, 50, wearing a coat and holding up a T-shirt that said, "Scott Walker is my hero."
"We want Scott Walker to know he's got people that believe in him," she said.
She credited Walker for balancing the state's budget without raising taxes.
As the small group walked by, the pro-recall contingent shouted, "Shame! Shame! Shame!"
After the speakers left the podium, the crowd flooded the Capitol rotunda, chanting "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Scott Walker has got to go!" and "We are the 99%!"
Some waved signs picturing Walker as a clown. Another showed him as a Thanksgiving turkey.
I wonder who came up with the "Hey, hey! Ho, ho!" line.
It's so very last century, so very lame.
Union activists and other Leftists:
Circulate your petitions, gather signatures, but please, PLEASE stop the silly chants and drumming. Ditch the "Hey, hey! Ho, ho!" stuff.
Also, stop lying about Scott Walker. Admit this is a power struggle and you're threatened by the majority, the hard-working people of Wisconsin who want to be responsible and leave our children with a bright future rather than a bottomless pit of debt.
Here's video, from FOX6 News:
When will the rank and file of the unions wake up? When will they realize they're being exploited by greedy union leadership and politicians?
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