Allison, great article! it’s possible i saw you there that sunday, since my kids an i have been using the capitol as our own playground on most sundays for years. great place to play hide and seek and run up and down the stairs. Many times it has felt like we had the place to ourselves, and I throw in the occasional history lesson-let’s just say they love the Bob LaFollette statue! This was all long before I ever heard the name scott walker, and now he is doing this to us? We went again this past sunday, and while my little elementary school (now) kids were perplexed why they did not have the place to themselves, and there were signs covering every inch of every wall, they liked the drumming and we have started talking about the issues behind why all those people are there now.
Please keep up your good work. These new restrictions brought on by the Walker administration better be temporary, or his term as governor will be very temporary.

the big players in the local media are making some minor mention of this…between their near constant stream of republican talking points.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_eb54a3dc-3ca3-11e0-b5ab-001cc4c002e0.html

“Ian’s Pizza on State Street announced it was suspending its normal in-store and delivery operations to keep up with the high volume of calls it was receiving from people all over the country and the world seeking to buy pizza for the protesters at the Capitol.

“We are only processing orders donated to the protesters,” the business said on its Facebook page Saturday. “By our (rather harried) count, we’ve heard from 30 states and five countries, including Egypt, Korea and our northern friends, Canada.”

This is a high volume popular place and when I went by yesterday it was packed like a sardine can and a line down half the block. They also do a good job of using local product, so those calls are relly helping the local community too. Thank you!

Thanks. probably won’t be able to do more than an occasional comment any time soon, but feel free to spread around whatever I wrote. I looked around a little this morning at coverage, and saw a perfect wrap up here in a really great diary at Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/20/947392/-Madison-Observations

Best thing I’ve read yet about it all. I know the business community around the square pretty well, and will keep asking around about the impacts for them, since it doesn’t seem like there is much coverage of that aspect.

I’ve been at the WI state capitol for the last 5 days. I run my own business a block from there and have been heading over during lunches and at the end of the days. The whole week has been unbelievable, and as you would expect, the national media isn’t doing it justice.

Today especially – the billionaire backed republican rally was so full of FAIL, I almost started to feel sorry for them. Almost.

It truly was laughable how small and insignificant the ‘baggers were. Official estimates are saying 70,000 just today alone, and I’d be shocked if the Koch Klan topped 1,000. So imagine my surprise when just checking in now to see how it’s being covered, and the AP article that seems to be all over the place online, focuses almost exclusively on the counter-protesters. I know we’re all aware of this thing they always do, but it’s extra disconcerting when you experience the deception so directly.

Whatever…It’s really incredible what’s happening here, and I’m very proud of how my fellow labor backers handled themselves going face-to-face with the crazies and being very respectful and staying on message, and not taking the bait. There are even volunteer groups forming each night to go around the grounds and cleaning up. Various unions are stationed around the grounds with grills set up and giving food and water for free. I’ve talked to some restaurant and bar owners around the square, and they’re saying this week will make their entire year, and having to place several orders a day with suppliers just to keep up (one is a friend and he’s ordering massive amounts from local farmers…they’re not sure if they’ll be able to meet demand if this keeps up). He also said many are placing large orders and asking them to pass it all out for free to protesters. It’s really great to see.

I haven’t seen any of this mentioned in any article I’ve read yet. Solidarity! Also. Too.