I did a panel

It's true, I did a panel. The New Organizing Institute was kind enough to invite me to take part in a discussion of the use of social media in organizing the protests at and occupation of the Capitol here in Madison earlier this year. Despite my nerves beforehand, it ended up being an interesting and fun conversation - attended by a packed house of engaged people who asked good questions (which is always nice). And like me and my fellow panelists point out several times, almost anyone from that audience could have taken our places up at the table. That's the beauty of crowdsourcing.

Anyway, video of the panel is now online for viewing - in case you missed the original livestream and/or wish to watch it again.

Madison Crazy

I can't help feeling a bit like an evangelist when people from out of town ask me why I like Madison so much. My answers tend to turn into long, drawn-out sales pitches with an inappropriate amount of detail and enthusiasm for how casual their initial interest likely was. But I can't help it, I love this damn city. It's the first place I've ever lived (and I've lived in several different cities/states...but no city-states, alas) that actually feels like home.

And after over 10 years of residing in this liberal lakeside paradise I feel fairly well qualified to expound on its particular quirks and stereotypes.

Which is why I had to laugh to myself today when I pulled up on my bike to the UW Credit Union ATM out front of the Willy St. Co-op - and there I was (already fulfilling several Madison archetypes myself), surrounded by:

1. The old guy who plays bluegrass guitar and busks,
2. A little girl making friends with a middle-aged fella and his shaggy German Shepherd, and
3. A not-entirely-right-in-the-head gentleman ranting at what I can only assume was an innocent bystander just trying to eat his late lunch about imperialist wars in Libya and Blackwater conspiracies and things of that nature.

The sun was (finally) shining, birds were singing lustily in the newly budding trees, and everywhere people on bikes were zipping around doing errands like me. After a long, few weeks of rainy, cold, gray weather it takes only a few seconds of sunshine to compel every good resident of more northern climes to come outside in droves.

The impulse can all too often lead to some craziness, as well.

Continuing on my errand route I made my way to Schenk's Corners for the post office in the corner store. When I arrived there were three firetrucks, several police cars, a huge crane, and a clutch of firefighters all gathered around the Chase Bank on the corner. I asked the store clerk what had happened. "Someone took the turn too fast and crashed into the bank building, right into one of the pillars," he explained. Not only that, but the force of the crash actually knocked over the pillar, causing its capital to crash through the car's windshield and into the passenger seat. Thankfully, there was no one sitting there and the driver was apparently all right.

Much of the neighborhood had come out to gawp (I did, too) at the totaled car and toppled pillar. Earlier, apparently, many of them had come to see if they could help. I took a moment to be grateful that no one was seriously hurt, and to marvel at how fast the car must have been traveling to not only get through the barriers that block off the front of the bank, but to completely upend one of the stone pillars.

Maybe it was the springtime crazies clouding the driver's better judgment. Maybe they'd had a bad day. Maybe they just shouldn't have been driving. Regardless, I love that I live in a city where your neighbors generally give a crap about what's going on around them/each others' well-being, are friendly (for the most part*) with strangers, and are a little more comfortable with everyone's eccentricities. Madison ain't perfect, but it's my kind of getting there.

*The gentleman who swore at me while I was working today would be the most recent exception to the rule that I've encountered.

Don't Attack; Engage: Un-asked for advice for tomorrow's Tea Party rally in Madison

And lo! Word has come that She of the Mother Grizzlies and Folksy Drawl shall be gracing fair Madison tomorrow for a "Tax Day Tea Party" at the Capitol.

That would be Sarah Palin, of course, apparently paid enough by one of the organizing groups (AFP?) to haul her and her Alaskan entourage to balmier climes here in Wisconsin to be the keynote speaker at tomorrow's aforementioned event.

It's no accident that Palin will be appearing here, alongside local conservative Monsters of Talk Vicki McKenna and John T. Harris, and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund. Madison has been ground zero of the grassroots, pro-labor groundswell that started in February when Gov. Scott Walker introduced his truly awful budget "repair" bill, and has continued ever since.

The Capitol has played host to hundreds of thousands of people from all over the state (and beyond - there's nothing wrong with support from fellow travelers, despite Walker's hypocritical cries to the contrary), who've marched, camped, testified, pizza'd, and sang their way through some deeply trying times.

So of course, come time for the Tea Party's now annual tax day rally, they'd choose to co-opt the location and bring in the "big" guns.

But you know what? I could care less about Palin. Or McKenna and Harris and Fund. They're the rabble-rousers, spitters of convoluted, often meaningless (or downright false) platitudes and generalizations meant to stir the pot for the sake of their own higher ratings and stuffed wallets.

We've got these folks on the left, too: Though I don't harbor the same disgust held for Palin and the like when it comes to them, I wasn't particularly thrilled when Michael Moore or Ed Schultz started popping up at the #wiunion protests, either. Their hearts might be in the right place - I don't know because I don't know any of them personally - but ultimately their high profiles serve as a distraction from the important message and meaning of the demonstrations.

It's about everyday people working to make things better.

It's pretty much the same case for the Tea Party. While there are certainly elements of the movement that are on the extreme fringe (there have certainly been elements of racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic ideas and attitudes on display), I've gotten the impression that a large chunk of the people who show up at Tea Party events are just regular folk struggling with some of the very same problems facing their counterparts at the pro-union rallies.

As I see it, the difference between us is twofold: 1) The information we've been given/sought out/been privy to, and 2) how we've chosen to react to it.

None of that makes any of us inherently better or worse, of course, it just means we're walking alternate paths. And I suggest that, rather than show up at tomorrow's rally ready to fight and yell, or wave insulting/condescending signs, or even focus your curses and derision on the celebrity speakers, it would be far more productive to simply shop the farmer's market and then maybe have a civil conversation with a Tea Party attendee.

Ask them why they've come, what struggles they're having personally. If they're at all inclined to listen, tell them simply about your own troubles and why you've chosen to tackle them in a different manner. Get a little nerdy and cite some factual research to back up your position, but always be willing to hear the other person out. Be willing to admit if you were maybe wrong about your initial perceptions regarding the people that go to Tea Party events. Or challenge them, gently, if maybe you were right.

Don't accuse anyone of being anything - challenge ideas, not individuals. This guy lays out the technique rather succinctly.

Most importantly, don't give Palin or any of the other talking heads any ammunition against you or the movement (believe me, they'll make up plenty on their own), and don't feed their egos by focusing on them at all. Focus on the regular folks who're there, and find the common ground you inevitably have with them. Show them, don't tell them, what democracy looks like.

And then go get some spicy cheese bread from Stella's - it's freakin' delicious.

#FirstBuffy live-tweet/blog EXTRAVAGANZA

You may or may not know this about me, but I'm a big fan of the "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" series. Recently, my friend Laurie stumbled into watching it for the very first time, recording her thoughts and (often hilarious) reactions to it via her Twitter feed, using the hashtag #firstbuffy.

She's been watching several episodes at a time for the last couple of week, but tonight invited yours truly and a handful of others to join together for a supremely geeky evening of liveblogging the show en masse. So we're all headed over to a friend's house, laptops in hand, to make it happen TONIGHT at about 8:00 p.m. CST.

Since I'm trying to keep my Twitter account more strictly dedicated to following news and politics, I've decided to dump my Buffy commentary into a proper liveblog - but the stream will also include tweets from all participants. If you're feeling bored/nostalgic/curious/whatever, please do tune it via the module below tonight at around 8 - or come back later to read the full archive.

Battle for Wisconsin: The dawn of week three

May you live in interesting times.


Said as a curse, not a blessing, this saying (allegedly of Chinese origin, but who knows really) certainly applies to the current situation in Wisconsin. I'm still attempting to nurse myself back to health from a particularly nasty and tenacious cold, but have been doing my best to keep up with events as they unfold.

I wrote a summary of today's public access crackdown at the Capitol for Dane101 if you'd like to check it out. Basically, just over two weeks in, the Department of Administration and, presumably, Republican officials have decided that the public's ability to enter the building should be severely limited. Even those who work in the Capitol have been trouble getting in, bags are being searched, and now the rumor is that the windows are being welded and/or locked shut in order to prevent food from being delivered to protesters who've either been inside since yesterday or managed to squeak in this morning.

This all comes after the optimism of last night, when police conceded to allowing demonstrators to remain in the rotunda even after the 4 p.m. shutdown time handed down by the Walker administration.

All of it is being done under the guise of needing time to clean the building (even though they were able to clean it while protesters were there, and even though protesters themselves have been cleaning during the entire occupation), and now, I can only assume, because Walker has decided to give his budget address from the Assembly instead of off-site as originally planned.

Interesting, because the Wisconsin State Constitution explicitly forbids the Legislature from restricting the public's access to the building for any reason.

In the meantime, Walker is now also trying to say that a flyer found in the Capitol proves that the union claims that they're willing to concede to increased pension and benefit contributions in order to keep collective bargaining rights (something the national press as almost entirely ignored, by the way) are false. Because we all know that 1) random flyers found in the rotunda should be taken as gospel truth, and 2) Walker and the GOP wouldn't possibly make shit up in order to demonize their opponents.

Lame.

I'll have more on all of this, plus a few other related items, in a comprehensive Emily's Post tomorrow. You can also check out a handy timeline of events so far over at Isthmus. Suffice to say that this ain't over, and I suspect times will get yet more interesting in the near future.

Lost Time: Battle for Wisconsin, Day 11

Sometimes technology just fails you. I spent several hours at the capitol today, sending information and photos about the protests to Twitter via my fancy schmancy new phone (specifically through HootSuite), only to come home tonight to find that none of my posts had actually, y'know, posted.

More than a little frustrating, but not the end of the world.

What I saw today was pretty amazing, though - a continuation of the impromptu community that's sprung up in the rotunda, with several tables of free, donated food (including vegan options, natch), a lending library, first aid station, and even a roped off "family area" for kids and parents to hang out and play.

The rotunda is covered in signs of all sorts - some showing solidarity from far away states, some displaying good humor about the situation, some displaying crucial information about events and organizing as well as background facts on the current situation. There's a huge paper banner covered in signatures from people pledging to go on general strike should the bill pass, and a whole wing on the second floor covered with messages from individuals to Scott Walker expressing their opposition.

The firefighters continue to rally to show support and almost always do so with the help of their bagpipe and drum corps. I ran into a gent dressed as the Predator outside on the capitol steps. The first piece of #wiunion related graffiti I've seen in nearly two weeks of action, which shows remarkable restraint, I think.

I'm told that tonight several elected officials are camping out with the protesters in the rotunda. On Saturday there's been a call to hold solidarity rallies at capitol buildings in all 50 states.

It's both strange and wonderful to find yourself in the middle of such an enormous and important historical moment. I have been nothing but impressed and inspired by the fortitude and dedication of the multitudes of Wisconsin residents and out-of-state friends who've committed to seeing this thing through. I can only hope that the momentum remains even after this particular battle is fought and done.

Tomorrow I'm taking an official day off from everything and heading to Milwaukee for a mountain bike clinic at Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park. I'm hoping it will go a long way toward refreshing me and rebooting my brain to tackle the days ahead.

Many thanks, too, to everyone on Twitter and around the internet who've been keeping up with all of this and doing what they can to help spread information. When my technology isn't acting up, you can follow me, too, for updates and the like @millbot.

Battle for Wisconsin: Day 9 personal update

It's official: I'm exhausted. But I can't stop paying attention, which means that I can't stop running around to cover as much of the goings on here in Madison as physically possible. I suspect I'm going to get very sick very soon if this keeps up.

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on a roundtable interview with SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. You can read more about that over at today's Emily's Post if you'd like, but suffice to say that she was very personable and very informed and seems like an excellent choice to lead that union group. Glad she came to town to show support.

Today I've been at the capitol since about 11 a.m., observing yet another rally on the State Street steps (it was only a matter of time before local political song group The Raging Grannies got their turn at the mic). I slipped inside about halfway through to find the rotunda as filled with people and drumming as always.

Only two of the entrances/exist to the building are open (north and west, I think) to the public, with a very heavy police presence guarding all of the rest, as well as upper stairways and galleries leading to Senate, Assembly, and Supreme Court chambers. I've seen cops and troopers from all over the state, too, including places like Waukesha and Manitowoc.

On the second floor of the capitol there are several impromptu stations set up by and for protesters, including a large free food set-up (I availed myself of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because I was about to fall over from hunger at one point), a first aid station, boxes full of free toiletries for those camping out, information booths, and more.

These folks know how to do it up right.

My only regret is that I physically can't partake of the boatloads of free pizza being donated from around the country/world to the protesters via Ian's Pizza. It's hard to catch wafts of delicious cheese smells and know that I can't eat any. Stupid lactose intolerance.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who's been in town for a few days now, also joined Rep. Tammy Baldwin at the head of a large parade of state firefighters as they walked around the rotunda and eventually gave some short, fiery speeches at the center of the crowd. Think I managed to snap a few good shots of the shindig, so keep your eye on my Flickr account if you're interested.

Anyway, this afternoon I'm going to attempt to cover the firefighters and nurses "address for the people" at 3 p.m. that will act as a sort of counterweight (I hope) to Walker's fireside chat at 6 p.m. - which is bound to be just as smug and infuriating as always.

A friend just brought me free food from Himal Chuli, so my day is pretty damn good.