Thursday, February 24, 2011

'Get a little bloody,' Democrat said to cheering crowd, Capuano had scolded political discourse after Tucson

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P.S. Big, bad Walmart is a big contributor to the Center for American Progress. (item near end)

2/23/11, "Get a little bloody," James Taranto, WSJ, Best of the Web

"The rhetoric around Wisconsin's government labor dispute is getting more violent. NHJournal.com reports that Rep. Michael Capuano, a Massachusetts Democrat, said this yesterday at a Boston "solidarity" rally: "I'm proud to be here with people who understand that it's more than just sending an email to get you going. Every once and awhile you need to
The Boston Globe reports that the union crowd responded to Capuano's exhortation with "cheers, whistles and applause" and that Capuano, issued a written semiapology: "I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech. I wish I had used different language to express my passion and
  • I regret my choice of words."

It will not surprise you to learn that Capuano is another "civility" hypocrite. On Jan. 9, the day after a madman in Tucson, Ariz., got a little bloody, the Globe quoted him: "What the hell is going on? There's always some degree of tension in politics; everybody knows the last couple of years there's been an intentional increase in the degree of heat in political discourse. . . . If nothing else good comes out of this, I'm hoping it causes people

  • to reconsider how they deal with things."

As Michael Barone notes, public-sector unions "are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party," Capuano's party:

Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million
  • in the 2010 cycle.
Follow the money, Washington reporters like to say. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics,
  • almost all of it for Democrats.
Capuano's rhetoric at yesterday's rally was not just violent but authoritarian. He urged government employees to "get a little bloody"--to commit violent acts against citizens, as if this were Libya. As we noted yesterday, public sector "collective bargaining," in which public officials "negotiate" with the unions that helped elect them,
  • is essentially a conspiracy to steal money from taxpayers.
Capuano, it seems, would like to escalate that to armed robbery.

Accountability Journalism

"A prank caller pretending to be billionaire conservative businessman David Koch was able to have a lengthy conversation with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker about his strategy to cripple public employee unions," the Associated Press reports:

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed Walker took the call, which will only heighten widespread suspicions that brothers David and Charles Koch are pulling strings in Wisconsin's battle as part of a conservative agenda to limit the unions' power.

Really? Is it a fact that "suspicions" that the Kochs "are pulling strings" are "widespread" and will "only be heightened" by this story? No, it's AP reporter Ryan Foley's opinion

  • --or perhaps the opinion of his editor.

Seems to us blogress Ann Althouse, a Wisconsin state employee herself, gets it right: "Doesn't this prank call prove that Scott Walker is not close to Koch? He doesn't recognize his voice! He doesn't drift into a more personal style of speech. He treats him like a generic political supporter."

Meanwhile, Common Cause provides some levity with a press release that begins as follows:

Common Cause isn't expert on the fiscal challenges facing Wisconsin or how the state should answer them. But it's clear that the course chosen by Gov. Scott Walker, a bill to end long-held collective bargaining rights for government employees, reflects the political agenda of one his most generous campaign contributors.

We have no basis for our opinion, but we're going to issue a press release anyway, because corporations are bad! These guys are college know-it-all hippies: "You're playing into the corporate game! See, the corporations are trying to turn you into

  • little Eichmanns so that they can make money. . . . The corporations run the entire world."
The Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper notes that another left-wing group, the Center for American Progress, has attacked "pretty much every major organization, company, or individual who ever gave to Walker--and even some of the organizations that gave to organizations that supported Walker." With one exception:
Walmart, one of only two corporations to fall in the top ten list of donors to Walker's campaign, has never been mentioned in connection with Walker by the intrepid Googlers at the Center for American Progress. Not even once.
Coincidentally, Walmart has been, and by every indication continues to be, a major donor to . . . the Center for American Progress.

The Center for American Progress almost sounds like a protection racket: Hey, nice corporation you have there.

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Reference: 2/23/11, "Dem Rep to unions: Time to get ‘bloody’," NH Journal

"Capuano is considered a leading contender to take on Sen. Scott Brown in 2012.

This is not Capuano’s first brush with violent rhetoric. Last month Capuano said, “Politicians, I think are too bland today. I don’t know what they believe in.

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2/23/11, "New Tone: Union thugs assault woman, arbitrate 'badness' of Jews, berate black man," Lori Ziganto, RedState.com

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Side note: John Batchelor made sure to cast aspersions on the Koch brothers in tonight's show, in well enunciated syllables so his free speech-hating pals at the NY Times will be happy (Remember when freedom of speech was the the left's issue? That's why they're obsessed with the Koch brothers. Only the Soros left is allowed to speak). The Koch brothers are a drop in the ocean compared to the influence and money of George Soros, who controls every facet of life in America. At least James Taranto mentioned Soros' name after listening to Batchelor basting the Koch brothers. (No response from Batchelor of course). I've listened to Batchelor for about 8 years, have never heard him discuss Soros, the most powerful and influential person in the country for at least the past 15 years. He mentioned his name in passing a year or two ago, describing him as I recall as a philanthropist and 'refugee,' something of a romantic figure. WHY 8 YEARS OF SILENCE ABOUT SOROS, MR. BATCHELOR? Batchelor should take his act to Hollywood. ed.


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