"Recall Walker"

Hartford, Connecticut

At Saturday's St. Patrick's Day parade in Hartford, the Ironworkers Local 115 "float" had a special message in support of Wisconsin's union workers:

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On another front, the WPII Blog, so recently declared dormant, has suddenly awakened. Parades that come with the spring, and political events that come of necessity, will be featured in the coming weeks. Have a look at WPII.

Last Post from "Save the American Dream" Rally

Hartford, Connecticut

 

Still More from Save the American Dream, Hartford

Hartford, Connecticut

Opposing Sides

Hartford, Connecticut

As the Save the American Dream demonstrators gathered for the noon rally yesterday, at the corner of Capital Avenue and Trinity Street, a group of Tea Party supporters set up with the capital building behind them. About fifteen minutes into the main rally, there were eight of them. Toward the end of the main rally it looked as though their ranks had swelled to eleven. When I approached around 12:18 PM, they seemed relieved that at least someone wanted to take their picture. "They're the rich ones, you know," they told me. "We had to make our own signs. We had to buy our own gas to get here."

That was interesting. It's been reported that many of the Tea Party supporters in Madison, WI (who are outnumbered 30:1 to 50:1 by the pro-union demonstrators) arrive on buses supplied by the Koch-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity. It seems this has been spun—perhaps "projected" would be a better word—to a belief that the pro-union people are outside agitators. Just as a matter of observation, I saw no sign of buses anywhere around the Capital, and the hundreds of solidarity demonstrators arrived by the handful. I didn't see a single busload size, or even van size, contingent come marching in. With, call it ten, Tea Party demonstrators on hand, that would again make the ratio in favor of the Save the American Dream group 30:1 or 50:1 here in Connecticut, too.

More from Save the American Dream, Hartford

Hartford, Connecticut

More on the rally at The Public Eye Blog.

DEMOCRACY GOES BETTER WITHOUT $$ KOCH $$

Hartford, Connecticut

Just three days after Wednesday's home-grown rally at the Hartford, CT, capital in support of Wisconsin union workers, another was staged today. This was part of a nationwide set of "Save the American Dream" rallies held in all fifty state capitals and several dozen other major cities. The crowd at Hartford numbered into the hundreds easily, though I didn't have access to any vantage point that would let get most of the crowd into a picture, much less do an estimate of numbers.

The signs were fascinating. Most took a positive approach, or when negative injected humor or irony. More to come after I've had a chance to edit the take.

Wisconsin, We Are One

Hartford, Connecticut

Yesterday at noon, a large crowd assembled for a solidarity rally for Wisconsin's union workers at the Connecticut state Capital building. I have no training to do crowd estimates, but it was a lot of people, quite a few more than assembled in the same place for an astroturf "Tea Party" rally that I photographed last year. In stark contrast to Wisconsin and some other states involved in union busting under the cover of budget problems, the first person to address the crowd at Hartford was the state's newly elected Democratic governor (picture above).

Having been in this same place for a Tea Party rally, the thing that struck me most was that a number of speakers addressed the assembled people, each quite briefly, and the whole thing was done in about an hour. With no lies. The Tea Party rally had gone on for well over two hours.

Amazing contrast. Perhaps speaking the truth doesn't take as much time as lying.

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More later.