Memories of the Uprising- $7.5 million in damage!!

2 years ago, we had one of the great examples of how our media consistently was used and abused by the Walker Administration during the Wisconsin Uprising. The media ran with a claim from Mike Huebsch at the Wisconsin Department of Administration that protestors allegedly caused $7.5 million in damages to the Capitol, allowing the Walker Admin's meme if "union thuggery" to go out unchallenged. Of course, when actually asked how Huebsch arrived at the $7.5 million figure, the DOA hemmed and hawed and later showed where they came up with the number- out of their ass.



Of course, the actual damage turned out to be about $270,000, which really wasn't much more than average wear and tear, and was more than made up for in increased sales taxes from all the media attention and visitors that came to the Capitol over those 2 months. But the Walker boys were never interested in accuracy or fiscal concerns with that "$7.5 million in damages" claim. They wanted to play divide-and-conquer, so they had their AM propgandists at 620, 1130, and other stations around the state continue to repeat the number so it was ingrained into the heads of the simpletons who listen to that crap. What they did was follow the Mark Twain saying of

A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Of course, to get away with it, they need a compliant media who wouldn't call out "BULLSHIT!" And given that the media in this state is more than willing to oblige, out of fear of being called "biased", they were allowed to get away with it.

Interestingly, there has been another instance of major damage done to the Capitol since the Uprising, and it also has to do with Walker Administration policy. Last summer, a negligent out-of-state cleaning contractor caused serious stain damage to the Capitol floor after a floor-scrubber leaked fluid onto the floor, and the countractor was fired in late December. That damage was estimated at $16,000, plus the extra time it took for the union thug state workers to clean up the mess and do it right. It also might lead to more state costs, as the state indicated last month that it may try to sye the company for the shoddy work it put in.

But back to the original story of Uprising protestors allegedly causing damage, because it was an illustrative example of how much this administration would lie and deceive in order to get people onto their side and demonize the opposition. And it also showed just how little our media would do to stop them and how it wouldn't try to bring the truth to the forefront unless they were pressured to do so. With a Supreme Court election coming up in 30 days, you can bet the righties backing Roggensack will try to do the same (a good example is where Roggen-hack lying about a judge's endorsement, when the judge not only did not endorse her, but disapproved of her decisions in key cases). We have to confront these deceptions at every turn, and make the fact that this administration and its backers would lie to the public THE key issue over the next 20 months. That, along with the Walker Admin's economic failures, should be more than enough to take these bastards down.