Wisconsin Republican legislators will have you arrested for carrying a sign into the State Capitol - - and even a camera, (though concealed weapons are OK if you have one of the state's new, easy-to-get permits) - - and a couple of weeks ago a young man was arrested, he said, for carrying a piece of 8x11-inch paper with two words written by hand on it: "Stephen Colbert."
This is a perfect pretense for an on-scene Madison inspection and campaign by Colbert himself to free his good name - - and also to help the country get a major helping of truthiness about how far down the once-great State of Wisconsin has been dragged.
The limitations on free speech and assembly laid down by the Walker administration and the GOP-controlled legislature after last year's pro-worker demonstrations in and around the State Capitol have reached absurd proportions.
Signs are banned. Cameras are banned because, as Stephen Colbert once observed, "cameras are dangerous."
Even cameras that are not in use.
And now this absurd arrest of a young, active protester over holding a hand-written sign on a single sheet of paper that said "Stephen Colbert."
I'm hoping the recall movement and Democratic Party will invite Stephen to come to Madison and raise awareness both about the restrictions on free speech laid down in the heart of government in Wisconsin, and also about the very-much related extremist agenda pushed into law by these radicals on many fronts - - women's health, the environment, voting rights, redistricting, public education, and collective bargaining - - by the same people who would censor a sign that said "Stephen Colbert."
And what better place to spend some of that Colbert SuperPac money than in the Wisconsin recall elections, where Walker and four GOP Senators, including State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, have huge fund-raising leads with which to defend themselves.