Madison, WI . Democracy in action.

I drove the 110 miles south of where I live to go see first hand what the ruckus was all about down in Madison, WI. I'm not going to get into the details of THE BILL, but anybody who wants to know about it can easily find out. Just google "walker wisconsin budget repair bill" and you will get more than you ever wished for. If you have FaceBook, this link sums up things rather nicely from my perspective.
My goal for this posting was to just get some pics and see where the day would take me.

I took my bike with me as it was great February day in WI. 30-35 degrees and sunny. Most all of the snow had melted off from the few warm days we had just experienced so I could ride the bike most anywhere I desired.
While riding the 2-3 miles to the Capital building, I started seeing folks walking to a large area. There were buses involved, so I thought it was a staging area for one of the 2 sides that were involved in the political debate.
I was wrong! It was a some kind of fund raiser, WI style.




Further along the bike route the Capital building came into view.
Following are just a flavor of the various signs that people were carrying.
The Union supporters had the most varied and shall I say interesting signs. See if you can tell which signs go with which faction.



Now this was an interesting guy. He was standing on the curb trying to get his point across to the Union protesters. Most of the Bill supporters weren't there to try to out shout the opposition, but to show physical support for the Governor and his Bill.
Security was there to make sure there weren't any serious confrontations. A few folks for the other side stopped marching long enough to give him and some others a piece of their minds, but all in all nobody got out of hand.
Crowd estimates were somewhere between 60-70 thousand. The Union marchers had all but 10 thousand of that, so it was really pointless to try to out shout them, but some tried.



This guy was very proud of his sign. Not sure the Gov. of WI can be compared to these chaps. Say, did he leave out any Cuban or Central American dictators?

2 guys tried to disable a speaker for the TEA Party, a group formed to reduce the size of National Government, combat debt and bring back fiscal responsibility.
No arrests were reported on the day, so they must have left the 2 would be vandals walk. I was somewhat surprised to see that they were as old as they were.
I have to be careful how much I crop my iPhone pics, they down load rotated.

WI Super Bowl party. Why should Green Bay have all the fun?


Maybe he was at the wrong rally.
This maybe made the most sense of all. I had just finshed up a couple beers with some friends that were supporting the Unions (I am a TEA Party supporter) when I was riding back to my Jeep and I go this shot. I had talked to a number of folks throughout the day from both sides about this topic. Greedy Rich are resident in all political parties, are we really just pawns?

AZ under fire?

Click to enlarge if you can't read it.
The guy must have been planted, right? Or is a photo-shop job? Can't be real, can it?

What is the answer?

I've purposely decided not to get political in my blog, but from time to time there is something bi-partisan I think we all should be interested in. This is one of those times, maybe?
I haven't fact checked every detail in this and I don't necessarily think it's required. I think we all can get the drift of the point of the test.
Would SOME type of profiling in airports have any benefits? See below and decide for yourself.

Take the following multiple choice test.
These are all actual events. They really happened! Do you remember?
HERE'S THE TEST

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a.. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by :
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d . Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c.. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d.. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Foot note: Fort Hood Texas......another Muslim extremist 39 years old killed 13 people and wounded 30 some odd others...


NOW OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TOLD EVERYONE, BEFORE CHANGING HIS STORY A FEW DAYS LATER, THAT THE YOUNG MUSLIM THAT ATTEMPTED TO BLOW UP A NORTHWEST/DELTA JET AS IT APPROACHED DETROIT ON CHRISTMAS DAY 2009 WAS (QUOTE) "AN ISOLATED INCIDENT"?