Wisconsin Saturday protests and US Day of Rage being censored?

[the_future_modernes]

Huge Protests in Wisconsin today That is, yesterday which was Saturday.

Today's protests in Wisconsin are bigger by far than ever before. Farmers on tractors, workers, teachers, firefighters, senior citizens, and more. They've been joined by the heroic Wisconsin 14, who have now returned to the state to take on the Governor and continue efforts to recall the Republicans who passed the "Budget Repair Bill" that is as yet unpublished and which specific provisions are unknown at this time.

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Updated Wisconsin - Can we throw a protest rally or what! (Photo Diary)

AY TO GO BADGERS! Farmers driving their tractors on the square; a mass of humanity all out on a chilly, windy Saturday morning with one common goal. To take our democracy back.

Not going to be a lot of commentary on this one...just a lot of photos. Oh...and this is my first trip out with my new DSLR...I hope the photos are as good as the ones I took with my old point and shoot camera.

Scroll to the bottom update for a link to the rest of the photos I took...there are over 300 of them.

Follow me below the fold for some Cheesehead awesomeness!

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That sign kills me DED. :DDDDDDDDDD



Rally In Madison: The 'Wisconsin 14' -- Plus Over 85,000 People

Another large scale Saturday rally occurred in Madison, Wisconsin, protesting Republican Gov. Scott Walker's newly-passed law curtailing public employee unions -- and this time with some special guests, the 14 Democratic state Senators who had fled the state in an attempt to block the three-fifths budget quorum for the bill. And in all, their starring role likely helped boost attendance at this rally, held to demonstrate continued opposition to Walker's policies, to between 85,000 and 100,000 people as the largest crowd yet.

The Capital Times reports:

"You go away for a couple of weeks and look at what happens," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who, along with his smiling colleagues, kept surveying the crowd, seemingly awed by the turnout. "It's so nice to be home in Wisconsin."

Saturday's crowd, estimated by Madison Police to be between 85,000 and 100,000, surrounded the podium on the State Street side of the Capitol and showered the senators with shouts of "Thank you! Thank you!"

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Democrats return to Wisconsin Capitol
Thousands of supporters cheer the 14 lawmakers, who vow to continue their fight against legislation stripping workers of collective-bargaining rights.

Reporting from Madison, Wis. The 14 Democratic state senators who fled Wisconsin last month in a failed attempt to block legislation stripping most public employees of nearly all collective-bargaining rights returned to the Capitol on Saturday, welcomed by the cheers of thousands of supporters and promising to continue their fight.

"It is so good to be here, Wisconsin!" said state Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, the first senator to address the crowd. He and his colleagues had just marched around the Capitol, shaking hands with protesters as they followed union firefighters playing bagpipes and carrying U.S. and Wisconsin flags.

Madison police estimated that 85,000 to 100,000 people gathered at the Capitol and on surrounding streets Saturday, making the rally the largest since protests began about a month ago.

No arrests or citations were reported, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.

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Saturday started quietly in Madison, with a few dozen people gathered in clusters outside the Capitol. Groups of police officers also huddled outside the building.

As the morning went on, however, more people streamed toward the Capitol, including farmers driving tractors around the building. The crowd soon filled the streets.

Several protesters stood on benches, trying to get a better look, while hundreds of people filled the broad staircases leading to the Capitol's entrances.

By late morning, thousands of protesters were marching as chants of "This is what democracy looks like!" echoed off the buildings surrounding the Capitol's square.

Ernie Luedke, a teacher and union member from Rothschild, Wis., said Saturday's protest was needed to show Walker that a majority of the state's voters were opposed to his bill.

"He thinks there's a silent majority out there, and we're here to show him there's not a silent majority," said Luedke, who wore a sign that said, "I will never vote Republican again."MORE

Mythic Trailers on the MArch in Wisconsin

At around 10:30, Teamsters and other union semi-trucks parked around the square began blasting their airhorns, signaling the arrival of the much anticipated Tractorcade. It very slowly arrived, and it was truly marvelous! I grew up in farm country, and used to work around tractors as a kid, yet have never before yesterday truly appreciated the tractor as an American icon, a category of vernacular sculpture.

They are things of beauty: orange Allis-Chalmers, with their curvilinear forms, showing off their open engines under the manifolds; rectangular International Harvesters with their big boxy design, square and upright and battered by field work; little Fords, faded gray, looking more and more like artifacts from bygone days; and those brilliant emerald green John Deeres, proud testaments to American manufacturing. I've been to many parades, Rose Bowls, junkyards and art museums, and this Tractor Procession beat them all!

And, my god, the huge crowd was enthusiastic! We danced to the various drum cells that grew organically around us, we laughed at the creative ingenuity of the farmers, with their manure spreader tableaux of Scatological Scott Skits, and we reflected on their signs and reminders that they, too, are worried citizens working the backbone functions of our society, threatened by the same forces of mass unification and absolute corporate hegemony that have lurked behind the protests of the last three weeks. Many people have stated this recently, but I'll say it again: I've never been so happy and proud to call Wisconsin my home!MORE

Chirpstory's Wisconsin Links

A Useful Blueprint for a general strike


A US DAY OF RAGE being censored?