Gag me.
In a sort of, kind of "response" to a media Open Records request on the cost of the massive police presence and use of DNR officers and State Troopers for daily arrests of folks for the dangerous act of signing in the State Capitol, state officials whined that it's cost $12,800 for removal of chalk slogans and graffiti left on sidewalks since protests began in March, 2011.
While not responding to the Open Records request:
But DOA (Wisconsin Department of Administration) officials did volunteer its figures on the cost of removing graffiti and chalk slogans that protesters have been writing on the sidewalks of the Capitol square since March of 2011. The DOA said they have had to spend about $12,800 to remove the chalk marks, though that spending may include salaries for existing staff that would have been paid out regardless.
(Information bolded or in italics is mine)
Yes, this is the same bunch that estimate several millions of dollars of "damage" caused by protesters in the State Capitol in 2011 when the actual cost (either never reported or buried in a tiny article near the back of the newspaper, of course, by our media) was less than $500,000 including scheduled maintenance and a planned in-ground lawn watering system). Most of the actual damage was found to be caused by tape used on marble floors by media videographers. Naturally, most citizens still believe the original mega figure because they haven't been told otherwise.
Are these guys so incredibly dumb they don't realize that chalk doesn't have to be removed? It washes off the next time it rains.
Or is Republican butt-hurt at what might be there so excruciating that crews have to be sent out to remove it immediately? Jeebus, these tough talking, "intimidated" (yeah, that's the title of Walkers new book), and supposedly "bold and courageous" guys are pretty sensitive. Or, perhaps, they felt the need to create another phony outrage for their base.
Take your pick.
So now the local RW radio haters are going to have another talking point on which to hammer those of us who won't go quietly into the long dark night that has settled over FitzWalkerStan. Naturally, they'll talk about protesters causing the state to spend EVEN MORE money "from the hard working taxpayers" to clean up after them. And there will be the inevitable call from "outraged taxpayers" and on and on the saga will continue, neighbor to neighbor about how mean and nasty those Libruls are and how much they're costing poor Scott Walker.
They won't talk about how much money Walker has wasted on WEDC handing out millions of taxpayer dollars to his favorite corporations while losing track of those "loans" or repayments, or how Walker has converted many Civil Service jobs to appointments so he can place his cronies in as many state positions as possible (with very healthy salary increases over the previous job holder), or how much is costs Scott Walker to commute daily from his Wauwatosa home to Madison with his massive security detail (and his wife later in the day so she can bring in their laundry to be done at state expense), or the vast sums spent for the unprecedented security detail he has used since taking office, or the money spent on a hand-picked, Republican law firm to gerrymander the hell out of the state so it could be done in private and under oath for non-disclosure, or how much the state has spent defending unconstitutional laws using law firms rather than our own Department of Justice, or how much it cost for a fully militarized dozen or so DNR officers and local sheriffs to go into a no-kill animal shelter to kill a baby deer because the shelter didn't have a permit, and the list goes on and on.
It's getting even more childish and petty now than it has been before. And the GOP will go much lower in it's quest to expand and keep power, suppress voices of opposition, and keep their base of Tea Partiers outraged so they keep coming after Walkers "enemies". I wonder if there's any limit or bottom to how low they will go.
Keep singing, keep chalking, keep lighting up the night with messages.
Solidarity.
.