I hesitate to give the guy so much credence but it is a sensational accusation and even the supermarket tabloids get some stories (for example, space aliens) right.
Kyle Szarzynski, a Prog Dane soldier whom a UW campus newspaper calls a chronic malcontent (pardon the redundancy), alleges that Mayor For Life Paul Soglin originally bought into a plan to blockade the Capitol Square on Monday but then reneged.
Among the marchers were dozens of participating vehicles fire trucks, union cabs, tractors, AFSCME vehicles that drove around the Capitol Square. The original plan was to use these vehicles to surround the square, blockading it and utilizing it as a space for political protest in the same way it was during the original protests over the collective bargaining law.
The agreement was that the protest vehicles would be allowed to to block off the various entrances to the the Capitol Square, not allowing any other traffic in the area for most of the day. The agreement stipulated that the police would not interfere in this activity. [Forward Lookout: Why Did Soglin Call in the Cops on Union Protesters?]
Szarzynski alleges that Soglin then had a change of heart and countermanded his original directive and ordered police to intervene.
I have asked the mayor to respond.
Opposed to recalls before they were for them
One year ago I recounted the pious disclaimers from The Capital Times in purporting to disavow recall elections. But only when the targets are solely Democrats. On June 3, 1010, I noted that the CT backs a recall effort against Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth, a Republican.
I wrote that my old alma mater puts on the fig leaf of non-partisanship, however unconvincingly. The CT wrote then:
Officials should not be recalled simply for the purpose of achieving a partisan result that was denied at the previous election.
The Capital Times gave itself some wiggle room by allowing that a recall could proceed "When an official has gone off the deep end."
"The deep end?" Now, there is a constitutional concept that did not occur to the Founders.
The CT claims that it opposed efforts to recall Tommy Thompson as it did Russ Feingold. There was never an effort to recall Tommy Thompson. And when a group of citizens began a drive to recall Chuck Chvala, The Capital Times opposed it. Chuck Chvala, who was accused of multiple felonies, including taking monetary bribes. If that is not "the deep end" what is?
But not a trace of disapproval for recalls today, when six of the nine recalls are aimed at Republican senators. In fact, The Capital Times now supports recalls, as it makes clear in Wednesday's editorial, Bogus budget deserves backlash:
Walker's actions have so offended voters that they are preparing to remove his allies from state Senate seats and shift control of that legislative chamber to the Democrats.
Perhaps trying to balance the state budget by requiring public employees to pay something toward their generous pensions and health insurance is going off the deep end. Perhaps allowing state and local government employees more bargaining rights than President Obama allows federal employees is going off the deep end.
Or, perhaps The Capital Times is just that partisan and cynical.
Today's encomium:
Blaska is "the brilliant Isthmusian" -- Patrick McIlheran, Milw Journal-Sentinel on-line, 11-23-10.
