At the Wisconsin Women Café...

... you can be whoever you want to be.

(Enlarge to read the signs.)

Protesters at the Capitol rally against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser.

It was a constrained and organized media event, with the sign-holders arrayed on the steps around the "Forward!" statue and the speakers in front of them facing the media...



... including the shameless New Media Meade:



There were lots of handmade signs and preprinted signs, and for some reason quite a few men were holding signs that said "We are Wisconsin Women":



"You can put lipstick on him, but it's still Prosser," declares this woman who is "Waiting 4 Justice":



It strangely seems to suggest that the judges ought to be women, but I assume it means he's a pig — an allusion to the old "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" remark. The lipsticked face of Prosser has a speech bubble that reads "Bitch," a reference to an incident, leaked to the press, in which Prosser, provoked by something that wasn't leaked, called Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a "bitch." Does that make him a pig in the sense of "male chauvinist pig"?

This is my favorite sign, because I love the way "GOP" is inserted:



You can see the whole sign in this enlargement of the first photograph. It begins "Prosser is Unqualified!" and then lists 4 problems. Given the insertion mark, I take it she originally wrote "Follows a political agenda," which really does make a person unfit to be a judge. I can only guess at the thought processes of whoever worked on that sign. Adding "GOP" like that shot the righteous indignation to hell.

ADDED: Here's a news report on the rally:

Progressive groups, elected officials and protesters led a call for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser to step down pending the results of an investigation into his workplace behavior at a rally Tuesday afternoon. Held at noon on the Capitol steps facing State Street, it was organized by Lisa Subeck, City of Madison alder and executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin.

"The Wisconsin state Supreme Court should not be allowed to choke out justice for women," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, who represented the Women's Medical Fund at the rally. "Prosser is a supreme disgrace."

At the Teabag Café...

... or do you want to call it the Coffee Teahouse? Well, you can say whatever you want in the comments. This is just a picture from the pro-Walker singalong at the Capitol today. This man with the pink posters is protesting the singalong. The signs say: "Teabag anthem/I want to be a singer to give freedom the finger" and "Teabag anthem/I am woman hear me roar/Cast me choked upon the floor." He looks quite serious, don't you think?

The protest today in Green Bay as Scott Walker signed the budget bill.

New Media Meade was there, not inside for the signing ceremony, but outside photographing the crowd of about 300 protesters. He brought home a lot of stills and video. Here's one:



This one is impressively up-to-date with "Walker: Take the 'Prosser-hold' off Wisconsin":

At the Class Warfare Café...

... which side are you on?

The billboard-style house.

"The SINGLE HAUS is designed to fill the niche for building in extreme/hard-to-settle landscapes such as marshes, cliff sides, lakes, and even in place of old highway billboards."

This is just a design, and there's no interior floor plan, but I'm fascinated by it. Maybe I'd just like to see a movie about people living in places like this... after the ocean levels rise, perhaps.

ADDED: The Single Hauz — spelled differently — was featured on BLDGBLOG 4 years ago:

Could you use the mast-and-cantilever model for other types of architectural structures, whether those are single-family houses – whole cul-de-sacs lined with modernist billboard homes! – or even restaurants and public libraries?

The Single Hauz shows how beautiful the effect could be.

What about the commercial potential? These pictures don't show the building actually being used as a billboard, but why not? You could pay for your housing by collecting advertising revenue.

Or perhaps the house could be a blog, covered in plasma-screen, with a column of advertising on the right, and new text appearing, typed up fresh by the resident of the billboard-house... BillboardHouseBlog.

ALSO: It taps into that part of us that imagines we'd like to live in a treehouse... or that likes to think about pillar saints, like Simeon Stylites:

This first pillar was little more than four meters high, but his well-wishers subsequently replaced it with others, the last in the series being apparently over 15 meters from the ground. At the top of the pillar was a platform, with a baluster, which is believed to have been about one square metre....

Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire describes Simeon's existence as follows:

In this last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the different postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty- four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life; and the patient Hermit expired, without descending from his column.

Even on the highest of his columns, Simeon was not withdrawn from the world. If anything, the new pillar drew even more people, not only the pilgrims who had come earlier but now sightseers as well. Simeon made himself available to these visitors every afternoon... In contrast to the extreme austerity that he demanded of himself, his preaching conveyed temperance and compassion, and was marked with common sense and freedom from fanaticism. 

The Silent Majority Walk and the Naked Bike Ride.

Today at the Capitol Square. Video shot and edited by me. Small glimpses of genitalia from 6:03 to 6:30. Breast alert.

The event I came to see was the Silent Majority Walk, an event planned to show appreciation for Scott Walker and the Republican legislature that passed the Budget Repair Bill this week.



0:00 — The pro-Walker walkers congregate a block away from the square and receive instructions to walk completely silently, confident in the rightness of their position, without response to "any of the mud that going to be slung at us today."

0:28 — The group walks by a sidewalk café (Graze) and an old man on a bench who says "Boo from me. Boo from me. You get a boo from me. You get a boo from me. Hold that flag up straight."

0:57 — More walking, past various street musicians and people enjoying the lovely day. Zero heckling.

2:40 — A young man — wearing capris over leggings — registers some objections.

3:02 — An older couple on bikes call out, naming some accomplishments of the labor movement —"Let's hear it for minimum wage" — then switch to a fairly polite "shame, shame, shame." The woman smiles. I suggest they catch up with the group since they are on bikes. The man says, "No, we're not going to harass them any more." I say, "People haven't really been heckling them at all. I'm surprised how civil people are being." The man says, "For some reason, we just got turned on." I laugh and say, "You're the only ones."

4:28 — A bagpiper gives them the thumbs down.

4:38 — "That's brand new. I'm shocked as shit," says a black man, laughing. I ask him some questions about why he's shocked and try to find out if he might perhaps actually be a Walker supporter himself.

5:54 — We hear a hubbub and I realize "These are the naked bike riders!" They ride by chanting "Less gas, more ass." I continue my discussion with the shocked-as-shit guy, who declares "That's America! That's America! That's the freedom!"

7:48 — An old guy in a protest contraption with pinwheels and palm trees.

8:04 — I talk to a young man who is tending a table marked "Madison Objectivists." "Is there much interest in Ayn Rand here?" I ask.

At the Wisconsin Capitol today: The Silent Majority Walk.

The pro-Scott Walker folks showed up today, with signs...



... and T-shirts:



They marched silently around the square and part way down State Street, competing with the bicyclists and the Farmers' Market...



... and a sprinkling of other politicos....



(Enlarge to read the signs. The guy under the red and white umbrella is promoting the philosophy of Ayn Rand.)

There were about 100 people in the silent walk. Here they are getting prepped about the route and the no-talking rules:



Madison is a street festival on a Saturday like this...



So silent walkers for Walker don't get too much attention:



But there was the occasional remark, boo, or thumbs down...



There was also the World Naked Bike Ride, but that's on video, and it will take a little longer to process. Hang on! Hang on tight...

The Blutarsky/Feingold Philosophy.

John Belushi as Blutarski in "Animal House":



Russ Feingold at the Wisconsin Capitol last Sunday:



And a few weeks ago, here at the Capitol:



"It's not over until we say it's over." That's the political theory. Meanwhile....

Unions representing public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday to block the state's new curbs on collective bargaining... [claiming] the controversial measure is unconstitutional because it creates two classes of public workers in the state -- those covered by the new rules and those exempt from them.

What? Treating police differently from teachers is supposed to be an invidious discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause?! There's no suspect or quasi-suspect classification, so the courts will give this minimal scrutiny. How is this anything but a frivolous lawsuit?

Blutarsky/Feingold marches on.

NOTE: The "Animal House" epilogue tells us what ultimately happens to each character, and the biggest joke is that Blutarsky becomes a U.S. Senator! (Thanks to Bruce Hayden, in the comments, for reminding me of that.)

What Panchito's did to The Fat Black Pussycat.

It's a terrible shame!

Panchito's owner Bob Engelhardt was a regular at the Pussycat which he described as a 'cesspool'. It was situated in a quiet street behind the tourist mecca MacDougal Street.

He said the nostalgia was misplaced, and that the preservation group did not understand the spirit of Greenwich Village.

Engelhardt added:'There are buildings that are worth preserving. Ninety per cent of what's in the Village isn't.

'The Village was freedom. The Village was not rules and regulations set in concrete. It destroys everything the Village was always famous for.'

Consider freedom and historical preservation. What if the history to be preserved was a time of great sleaziness? What if that sleaziness is connected to artists we love?

Pick the choice closest to your beliefs.
	Property owners deserve great freedom in the putting up of signs that represent their business.
	Historical preservation outweighs the interests of the current owner.
	The old sign is cool and the new sign is dull and transitory, so I'm for preservation in this case.
	The old sign is sleazy and I like the new business, so I'm against preservation in this case.
pollcode.com free polls

At the Square Events Café...

... you can be hip or square.

(Enlarge enough to read the 2011 Calendar of Events for Monroe, Wisconsin.)

Gifts/Candles/Birthday/New Age/Body Jewelry/Stuff/Tobacco/Bachelorette/Incense/Weapons.

A puzzling storefront in Monroe, Wisconsin:


(Enlarge.)


(Enlarge.)

"UW-Madison has been shackled by the UW System from the time it was merged with the UW System."

Says one UW professor at the faculty senate meeting yesterday. In the end, there was a vote in favor of the plan.

Although Gov. Scott Walker put the measure in his budget, leaders in the state Legislature say it is unlikely to remain there in its current form.

Under the plan, UW-Madison would get a 21-member board of trustees and more autonomy from the state to raise tuition, set salaries, build facilities and make purchases.

But the UW Board of Regents and other chancellors in the UW System oppose the split, arguing that all of the campuses in the System need more freedom from regulation.

ADDED: WisPolitics reports on an interview with Scott Walker:

He said the flexibility that would come with moving UW-Madison to a public authority model would help preserve it as a world-class institution in the face of cuts to state aide and that he supports offering other campuses more flexibility, as well.

This is a good time for me to post a picture of a sign Meade acquired in the Capitol rotunda during the protests:



Note the blue painter's tape, carefully preserved by Meade to establish the provenance of his acquisition.

"When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power/the World Will Know Peace."

Bumper sticker on a car that nudged into a crosswalk full of pedestrians... twice.

“These Brats Bust Unions!”

The anti-Scott Walker sticker campaign.

“You don’t have to be in Madison or NYC to participate!!... You can be anywhere where there are stores. Here’s the deal: the struggle in Wisconsin is not over. It has just changed course. One of the current tactics is a boycott of the companies that donated to the Scott Walker campaign last year. No matter where we live, we can support Wisconsinites, spread the word about the boycott, and let these companies know that we are taking action against them.”

So... vandalism is the tactic. Another "peaceful" protest. If you don't like this political attack on grocery stores, buy the products the protesters have targeted. Johnsonville Brats. You know you need toilet paper: Get Angel Soft toilet paper for your angel-soft ass.  Sargento Cheese and Coors beer — the menu suggests itself.

Meanwhile, there's this "Post-It Campaign" that Instapundit is pushing, which I never thought was cute. (Meade can verify that when I heard about it, I called it "littering" and expressed contempt for it.) "Ten Rules for Liberty Guerrillas." Ugh.

How about some respect for the work of people who run small businesses? Hang your scrappy signs on your own damned property.

Man, I have seen too many signs this year!


(Date of photo: February 25, 2011.)

Today's Wisconsin protest video: the meaning of string, is Althouse a Walker plant?...

... the languorous rotunda, and a long, long row of signs made of pizza boxes:



Meade shot the part where you see me, and I shot the rest and edited.

Friday at the Wisconsin Capitol.

"Walker — You are a despicable 'brown bag' of CRAP!" says a sign (that appropriates Scott Walker's "brown bag" theme). A bearded man bears a homemade depiction of Walker as Pinnochio:



A woman with lawn chairs supporting her peace-sign drum has a "General Strike!" sign:



A barefoot guy with take-out coffee pads around in the vicinity of a chalking that says "In Wisconsin there is always a place for the poor: PRISON," which has nothing to do with the recent protests (in service of the interests of well-paid — and free — state workers):



As a man poses in shorts, chalk wonders "Why can't we decided? Why no REFERENDUM?" — as if we didn't decide when we voted last November:



And a lone protester holds a sign, while most signs are consigned to the dirt:

Monday, in the Rotunda, and the protest goes on and on and on.

"Send in the CLOWNS":



Enlarge to see the little sign: "I'm from Illinois but the Koch Bros. are the OUTSIDE AGITATORS."

Meade has a long discussion with a guy who's wearing a Jesse Jackson '88 T-shirt:



Enlarge to read the sign: "Dear Scott Walker, Go back to college & take a Civics class. The only brain in your pants, is your Head Up Your Ass! Sincerely, Mrs. Slob, RN."

Meade with hand gesture that's only superficially similar to the guy in the plaid shirt:



There's the fist and there's the Flip.

Run, children!

3 protesters protesting.

"Common sense is dead."

Hey! Which side is she on?