Spotting The Outside Agitators

Hint: they aren't here—
Photo: AP/Andy Manis

On behalf of law enforcement agencies, the City of Madison thanked the demonstrators: for their peacefulness and for showing

... how democracy can flourish even amongst those who passionately disagree. discourse and discussion was - at times - loud and heated. That was to be expected... the goal of law enforcement has been to provide a safe environment for democracy to take place.

When Walker's allies directed capitol police to start removing camping gear on the 25th (Friday night), others differed—to the point where—

Police union official urges officers to sleep among protestors, keep Capitol open.

Nor are the outside agitators this group of disabled people who, panicked at the likelihood of being sacrificed to Walker's "Budget Repair," occupied the state GOP headquarters for a couple of hours.

The tens of thousands who came to Madison have expressed themselves publicly; behind the scenes orchestration is the M.O. of the true outside agitators.

Joshua Holland explains how Walker created a budget crisis from a projected surplus, and then—

He used a law cooked up by a right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the table in Ohio and Indiana.

Adele Stan describes how Rupert Murdoch and David Koch Collude Against Wisconsin Workers.

As for "thugs" at the scene: how about the members of the GOPolitburo who staged this?

"Under cover of darkness, in a practice that Scott Walker denounced while he was campaigning for governor, the Republicans of the Wisconsin Assembly... Upending seven decades of labor peace and putting Wisconsin up for sale to the likes of their Koch Brothers masters, they voted to sanction the most divisive piece of legislation in our state's history."