Heroic action by Rep. Brett Hulsey saves the day, and possibly Sen. Grothman’s life. What would have happened if Hulsey hadn’t been wearing that union T-shirt? Would enough people in the crowd have recognized him by sight for him to still have turned them back?
Via AllahP at Hot Air, who has more.
UPDATE: Goldstein. Collins. Malkin.
UPDATE 2: Althouse worries about the effect of sleep deprivation on the protesters.
UPDATE 3: Hoft.
UPDATE 4: Badger 14.
UPDATE 5: Debra of NiceDeb provides the obvious comparison. Fire Andrea Mitchell is on the case. And here’s coverage from Lonely Conservative.
UPDATE 6: The Memeorandum thread.
UPDATE 7: From my own comments, here–this is important:
I’ve been to a number of Tea Party events, including the rally at the Capitol the weekend that ObamaCare passed, and there was never any need for a chant of “Peaceful! Peaceful!” Tea Partiers don’t get violent. They don’t surround and harrass people. Those congressman that got booed walking to the Capitol building got booed, not surrounded.
I personally witnessed Barney Frank, alone, walking down the sidewalk outside one of the congressional office buildings and there was no one within three feet of him. There were lots of people within six feet of him booing him and criticizing him and asking him how the Democrats could twist the system like they were doing to pass the bill, but not one person approached him physically. He continued on his merry way down the sidewalk between the protesters without the least bit of physical harrassment.
When you have to chant “Peaceful! Peaceful!” to control your behavior it means you’ve already lost and shown your true colors.
UPDATE 8: The Anchoress also compares and contrasts this near-riot with the healthcare protests discussed above, and reminds us about some of the other things the Democrats tried to do to provoke a response from tea partiers near the Capitol, to no avail.
If I were on the other side, I would genuinely consider this a near miss. I’d be worried.
UPDATE 9: Moe Lane has an important point to make.
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Peaceful Protest.
The way Lord of the Flies was a camp-out.
“Peaceful! Peaceful!”
That could be spun as admirable, right? (And might very well be by the MSM, assuming they cover the story at all, which I wouldn’t bet any of my money on.)
The thing is, I’ve been to a number of Tea Party events, including the rally at the Capitol the weekend that ObamaCare passed, and there was never any need for a chant of “Peaceful! Peaceful!” Tea Partiers don’t get violent. They don’t surround and harrass people. Those congressman that got booed walking to the Capitol building got booed, not surrounded.
I personally witnessed Barney Frank, alone, walking down the sidewalk outside one of the congressional office buildings and there was no one within three feet of him. There were lots of people within six feet of him booing him and criticizing him and asking him how the Democrats could twist the system like they were doing to pass the bill, but not one person approached him physically. He continued on his merry way down the sidewalk between the protesters without the least bit of physical harrassment.
When you have to chant “Peaceful! Peaceful!” to control your behavior it means you’ve already lost and shown your true colors. But, again, I don’t expect any interest by the MSM in exploring this side of the story. Reverse the roles, of course, and it’s a front pager.
Too wild Cathy, The Lord of the Flies was my first thought as well.
Poor Piggy.
“Give me!” “Give me!” “Give me!”
Remember Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” – “Follow the shoe!! No, follow the gourd!!” Now it’s “You Suck!! Peaceful… Peaceful…”
Are these people still the teachers who started the demonstration? This is looking more and more like the people who trash protest sites in the name of anarchy.
I’m sure you’ll probably delete this comment, but after watching this video, I’m not sure what the big deal is. I saw 2 and a half minutes of people exercising their right to free speech by shouting “Shame!”, then a few minutes of people exercising their right to free speech by shouting “Peaceful!”. No one touched Senator Grothman, despite the tremendous economic violence he’s perpetrating on the people of Wisconsin. No one but Grothman has any reason to be ashamed by this video.
Well, I can understand that…. It must be hard to see anything through your Plexiglass Bellybutton.
A friend reports she was in fact in back of this group, and that most of the group was moving because they thought the movement at front signaled a door was being opened to the Capitol. Which, you may or may not recall, has been locked in violation of the Wisconsin State Constitution. I do agree that physically following someone is over the line, and if you’re going to chant at them you should stay still. I also don’t think you should chant “fuck you,” as it sounds like one woman did. This is very uncharacteristic of anything I’ve seen at the protests. I have always felt like I was in a cheerful crowd.
That said, this hyperventilating about the threat to his life is just ridiculous and disingenuous. He himself did not feel it. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_970dc490-44ee-11e0-855c-001cc4c03286.html I suppose you’ll say the shaken gentleman is putting on a brave show. But consider that possibly it wasn’t that big of a deal. Everyone is in fact used to huge crowds at the Capitol by now, and they are in fact, largely, quite nice.
It looks like a violent mob of entitlement-minded crybabies.
kcom, peace is just a tactic for these folks. Not a strategy, and not a goal. Just a tactic.
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Bob’s Musings: A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall