Revolution Come & Gone: Wisconsin & Libya


This week's revolutions are coming to a head. In Middle America, the Wisconsin State Assembly has voted to end collective bargaining by state employees. Let the fist shaking begin!
Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.

The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.

...

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Friday that the Assembly's passage of the bill did not change Senate Democrats' intent to stay away.

With the Senate immobilized, Assembly Republicans decided to act and convened the chamber Tuesday morning.

Democrats launched a filibuster, throwing out dozens of amendments and delivering rambling speeches. Each time Republicans tried to speed up the proceedings, Democrats rose from their seats and wailed that the GOP was stifling them.

Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.

Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting "Shame!" and "Cowards!"

Spare me. I thought the sight of thousands of protesters showing up in DC to protest the passing of Obamacare was unusual, if not unprecedented. But, a bunch of elected officials, wearing orange union T-shirts and waving their fists after a legitimate vote is something else. Isn't this how they do roll call votes in Caracas?

Democrats are already vowing revenge, and the 14 State Senators continue to refuse to return to work, so we're not going to bust any unions anytime soon. Still, the endgame looks to be in hand at this point.

And, in the Middle East, the Libyan Luke Skywalker is descending into the trench and getting ready to blow up the Death Star.
Protesters demanding Moammar Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets Friday when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in the Libyan capital. The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation.
...

The U.N. Security Council met to consider possible sanctions against Gadhafi's regime, including trade sanctions and an arms embargo. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged it take "concrete action" to protect civilians in Libya, saying "the violence must stop" and those responsible for "so brutally shedding blood" must be punished.

But Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In the evening, he appeared before a crowd over more than 1,000 supporters massed in Green Square and called on them to fight back against protesters and "defend the nation."

"Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," Gadhafi said, speaking by microphone from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a Crusader fort overlooking the square. Wearing a fur cap, he shook his fist in the air, telling the crowd, "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

He warned, "At the suitable time we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire." The crowd waved pictures of the leader and green flags as he said, "I am in the middle of the people in the Green Square. ... This is the people that loves Moammar Gadhafi. If the people of Libya and the Arabs and Africans don't love Moammar Gadhafi then Moammar Gadhafi does not deserve to live."

Earlier his son, Seif al-Islam, was asked in an interview with CNNTurk about the options in the face of the unrest. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he replied.

Give Qaddafi credit for melodrama, but it's hard to see how he gets out of this weekend alive.

2011 has already been full of surprises, but the scope and speed of the Libyan uprising is amazing to watch from afar. How street protests could grow into an armed rebellion leading to the near-overthrow of a totalitarian regime within a couple of weeks is beyond me. Surely this has been brewing for some time. (Cardinalpark has floated the theory that, somehow, US Special Forces infiltrated Libya and have been taking the lead, a la 2001 Afghanistan). Just as Wisconsinites will now know what it's like to take away public employee union's perks, the world will soon learn what it's like to live without Col. Qaddafi. Somehow, I think we will be able to adjust to both quite well.





This entry was posted on at 2:12 PM and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can

Best Retirement Invesments Auto Search