Tea Partier or Union Supporter?
With so many posts about the pissing match between Scott Walker and the public employee unions in Madison, Wisconsin, it would have been easy and trendy to jump into the fray and add fuel to the white hot online flame/bitch sessions in progress. Since I am not one for trends or following the crowd, I opted to watch the likes of Geoff Willis and Newbie go at it with some of the public employee union sympathizers on the board. It was much more fun sitting this one out and watching the figurative train wrecks in action. Who needs O’Reilly when you got the Orange Juice Blog? (Kill your TV….really!)
I personally can’t stand the state of Wisconsin and their citizens even though my wife has relatives near the Milwaukee area. The state is full of binge drinking drunken boors with annoying nasal accents that deserve one another. Want proof? Go to a minor league/semipro football game at Horlick Field in Racine and see Wisconsin’s finest in all of their Cro-Magnon glory. The only good things about the state are the water parks at Wisconsin Dells, a Las Vegas like resort town without the gambling, strip clubs and hookers, and the Minnesota and Illinois borders. There, that’s my two cents on that hellhole known as Wisconsin.
The real intriguing thing about protests like the one in Madison and the various Tea Parties are not the accusations of violence and the use of racial taunts/epithets that each side loves to fling at one another. These accusations get to be awfully tiresome . Nothing gets resolved in these pissing matches except who can scream louder, throw a better temper tantrum or who can be creative with doctoring a video. The accusations leveled at participants about leaving a mess behind after a protest or rally are a lot more entertaining. Why you ask? Because there are people that want you to believe that there is a direct link between litterbug tendencies and political ideology. ‘
Is it far fetched to make that assumption? Some conservative and liberal sites like Breitbart, Blue Oregon and Fox News don’t seem to think so. They take no prisoners when they compare the cleanliness of the labor union protesters at the Madison protests to the Tea Partiers at a Glenn Beck 9-12 Rally. They are usually chock full of compare and contrast photographic evidence with snide and often vicious commentary to boot.
Here are some photos I lifted from various web sites (Breitbart, Free Republic, Blue Oregon). Enjoy these photos and ask yourself this question. Is Oscar the Grouch a liberal that supports labor and public employee unions or a passionate Tea Partier/9/12er? If he affiliates with the latter, will his employment with PBS be on shaky ground ?
Without further ado, here are the photos for your consideration and judgment.
Here is some of Madison’s finest trash (notice no palm trees)
Give a hoot, don't pollute!
And another pile of trash
The only thing missing here is a roasted pig on a spit
Or as they call it in Green Bay...tailgating
This photo is a favorite that conservatives like to use a lot. This was from the Obama inauguration in 2009. Trash you can believe in or what Wisconsin natives call Racine.
Paradise Found by Oscar the Grouch
Here’s a picture from a liberal site called Blue Oregon accusing Tea Party groups of littering and leaving a mess.
Littering, Tea Party style
More litter by the Tea Party after a 9-12 rally. Where’s Waste Management when you need them?
Last but not least, the photo that Glenn Beck likes to use to show that his supporters follow the advice of Woodsy Owl and give a hoot about littering.
Does this pass the Woodsy Owl test?
.
I have travelled to Washington DC many times and have witnessed the aftermath of both conservative and liberal protest demonstrations. Conservatives are respectful and clean up after themselves – while progressives are litterbugs and pigs, leaving filthy trash and placards everywhere.
Well I’ve seen the opposite so whatever.
Plus conservative women smell bad.
Stayed at many progressive rallies to the bitter end. Always the last few people will look around and pick up. (I’m sure an exception can be found here and there…)
Sure Vern, … sure
Have you seen those NOW nags?
I’ve seen the NOW and Concerned Women of America nags. Sheesh!!!!!!
NORML women are more pleasant to be around
Wisconsin folks have to spend nearly 6 months of each year indoors because of the weather. Other than the Dells water park establshements that are places like Disneyland, (good for one expensive outing a year maybe, if you have kids that is), there is no place to go except for bars or one’s own home or, for those willing to risk their lives in the elements, a Packers or Gophers football game. Thus, there is a heck of a lot of drinking done in the winter months – attempted cure for sheer boredom plus the perception of bodily anti-freeze.
When the first spring-like day arrives, hordes of people swarm the countryside to see the outdoors and the sun – it is like the doors of San Quentin were opened up and everyone rushed out for freedom. It is a much different culture than what we in sunny, smoggy, over-crowded, traffic-congested but generally warm So. California are accustomed to.
As for the Dells, picture rows of large motels wtih water slide features inside and out, operating year around. Families go there for weekend reunions, etc. just for something to do. And I have sensed that the good fathers of Garden Grove want to bring a similar water-themed district to their fine city. Egads.
Not all Wisconsin residents spend time indoors during the winter. Unless you count ice fishing houses on the lakes as indoors.
I take it you’ve never seen the East side stands of Horlick Field on a Saturday night during a Racine Raiders game. Think of it like a binge drinking party with the guests from Jerry Springer’s show. The only place in the country where I have seen people drinking beer out of pitchers in public. At $4 a pitcher (and those suckers were large!), it’s a cheap way to get smashed. Quite a difference from the family environment of Wisconsin Dells.
FYI, The Badgers are the school mascot for the University of Wisconsin . Calling their mascot the Gophers may cause a riot in a town like Madison or raise the ire of my wife who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Minnesota. Whose mascot happens to be the Golden Gophers. 🙂
O’rielly, what a joke, didn’t he say “video comes in, video comes out, never a miscommunication”. Why is it that so many follow this liar? It looks like that the top republican candidates for president will be coming from “Fake News/ Fox News”, or should I say “Big Business”, how funny. I wonder if “Fake News” has a stable for likely republican supreme court justices (I am sure they will all attend the republican state of the union, unlike Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas, scum bags).
Way to stay on topic Montana. Don’t let the flashing lights distract you.
Look! Butterflies!
Well I am honored that Mr. Fawkes takes such pleasure in my posts, so I will oblige on here. He has several pictures of both purported Tea Party trash and purported liberal trash. Interestingly, of the two Tea Party trash pictures, one has the signs all neatly lined up in a row and the other has the trash all located around an over-filled trash can (you know, where it belongs).
There is also the little issue of the estimated $5 million+ it will take to restore the Wisconsin state house to its prior condition after the pro-union supporters leave (I have not seen any footage of Tea Partiers IN the state house, but I will stand corrected if that is the case).
My take – in every situation, there are dirtbags (like my play on words Mr. Fawkes?) on both sides who have no respect for the public lands that their taxes pay for (well, I doubt many of the college drunks in the Wisconsin state house actually pay taxes). However, the photographic and video evidence seem to show a lot more disrespect from the left than the right. What does that prove politically? I don’t know, but at least it seems that Tea Partiers clean up better than liberal protestors, despite Vern’s blanket smear of good conservative women.
Newbie:
I thought Blue Oregon’s photographic evidence about Tea Partiers littering was pretty weak. That has to be some of the most uniform litter I have ever seen in my life. Either that or the litterbugs have OCD. I tried googling “Littering at Tea Party” or a play on those words to find images that would show litter at different types of rallies.
I’m convinced most of the protesters were shipped in from Racine. They wanted to feel right at home.
…Vern’s blanket smear of good conservative women.
Ah, I was just raggin’ Junior.
Still, some of that perfume … phew!
And I was just raggin’ you. It’s fun to get a Vern shot in every now and then, even though I am a fan of the way you play that piano.
Gee, maybe some folks on the coasts really DO think that they’re better than everyone else.
I take it you haven’t been to Racine
I’ve been all over the midwest, as a matter of fact. But that’s beside the point.
I grew up in Ohio. I know the vibe you speak of. I just think this country needs a whole helluva lot more unity and a lot less division. Having lived in SoCal since 1985, I can assure you that we ain’t better than anyone else, and they aren’t better or more “real” Americans than us.
Guy – apologies for the mascot mix up. Of course, Minnesota suffers the same claustrophiobic kind of winter. One sypmptom there is the Mall of America – bored Minnesotans tend to go there winter weekends simply for something to do, some place besides home to go and “breathe a little”. And, yes, there are icefisherpeople and snowmobilers too. And, mysteriosly, Minnesota boasts the highest per capita ratio of golf courses to the population of most any other state – even though golfing is impossible for months at a time. But boy, when the thaw arrives the sampede is on. In the meantime, the bars are plentiful and busy.
I know that clausterphobia all too well. I went to Augsburg College in Minneapolis and lived right by the Megamall.
Minnesota also ranks at the top of the charts nationally when it comes to voter turnout. They even turnout in midterm elections and let people register to vote on Election Day and allow them to vote on that same day. That was one of the main factors in Jesse Ventura’s “surprise upset” victory in the 1998 Governor’s race. On that day, there was a huge spike of first time voters between the ages of 18-34. Then again, Minnesotans have always had a real maverick streak about them.
I wonder if we could put that up as a ballot prop? Same day voter registration and voting. It might improve the voter turnout in this state. Look what its done for Minnesota. But that’s another topic for a future post.
Guy, you are really ticking me off. This is the second post in a row that you have written that I read with interest, laughed, found entertaining and well written. It was much more fun to get my hackles up.
After looking at these pictures, I have entertained the thought of starting my own sanitation business. I would offer my services to various protest groups for a nominal fee allieviating them of any responsibility for cleaning up their own messes. A wonderful free market based solution that would save the taxpayers some serious cash.
Unfortunately, I would face two problems:
1) Certain sponsoring groups coordinating the protests/rallies would want me to provide my services for free. (Make your own assumption about political ideology here)
2) The “good and responsible” government would find a way to shut me down because they don’t like competition.