oLANDIK3mJAMadison — Just when you think things are winding down at the Capitol, something else happens.
Two members of the Solidarity Singers got into an argument with a group of people observing the noontime sing-along, including University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and political blogger Ann Althouse.
The Solidarity Singers normally meet in the center of the Capitol rotunda at noon to sing pro-union protest songs, but they take their sing-along outside on Fridays.
A heated political argument ensued between one of the singers and another man who was observing the sing-along. Meanwhile, another singer confronted Althouse, who was filming the encounter. According to the singer, Kirby Jones, Althouse forced her camera in his face and he pushed it away from him. Althouse denied that she forced her camera, saying Jones tried to grab her camera out of her hands and “swatted” her arm. Althouse’s son struggled with Jones to hold onto the camera, and had a small cut on his wrist after the altercation.
Capitol Police did not cite anyone involved in the incident, and the state Department of Administration could not immediately be reached for comment.
Michael Dickman, the singer involved in the political dispute, was cited for disorderly conduct in June following another sing-along altercation with a Green Bay man, who was arrested for battery after Dickman said the man punched him in the face and chipped one of his teeth.
Althouse doesn’t have a reputation for being an aggressive blogger; in fact, her work documenting the mob in Madison is some of the first field journalism I remember her ever doing. The video footage immediately debunks the narrative from the excitable progressive male that Althouse showed any signs of aggression; the aggression that is visible on camera is the man manhandling her, blowing a horn in her face, and yelling at her friend.
This isn’t the first time that Althouse has been targeted by Wisconsin union folk, either, before anyone leans towards the “it’s not all the Wisconsin union” response. This isn’t even the first, second, or third time that violence has been perpetuated on citizen journalists or even those who feel differently than the union protesters.
I’m not even sure who the blabbermouth on camera is — the one who bastardizes the teachings of Jesus while screaming obscenities at a woman and covering for his buddy who believes roughing up women is OK — but his math that “only like, two percent of people in the county” believe what Althouse believes is logic that’s been beaten at the polls twice.
Wisconsin union intimidators wonder why they are routinely beaten at the ballot box? Because their actions don’t endear anyone to their cause. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to support an ideology that believed that any of this is OK.
You won’t see any of this in the mainstream national media. They’ve done all they can to make sure none of the Madison fascism you see via bloggers on the ground because it’s easier to obfuscate than it is to tell grown men to stop behaving like women-hating barbarians.