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" (Optional soundtrack to this blog post...)      As predicted this morning by someone looking very much like myself, and wearing my socks to boot, there has been a general birthing of cows all over the right side of the docks of Blogistan over Clint Eastwood&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Halftime In America&amp;quot; commercial during yesterday&amp;#039;s Game In Which We Shall Not Wallow. Nobody produced a more wholesome Holstein than did one Christian Schneider over at The Corner, aka Let&amp;#039;s Get Bill Buckley Up To 78 RPM Under The Sod. Schneider was particularly exercised by the glimpse we had in the commercial (above) of what appeared to be a labor demonstration, although the signs were mostly blanked out. This fleeting image brought to Schneider&amp;#039;s mind a vision of union thuggery. (So, one suggests, would the fleeting glimpse of a tackhammer, but we move on.) Before anyone could intervene, he leaped to a keyboard and \u2014 Moooooooo! \u2014 produced this bit of baying. Of course, the &amp;quot;division, discord, and blame,&amp;quot; in Wisconsin began when unions tried the burn the state down over Governor Scott Walker&amp;#039;s plan requiring them to begin paying into their own pension accounts.... Everyone knows the results. Union protesters calling the Lieutenant Governor a &amp;quot;f***ing whore&amp;quot; to her husband&amp;#039;s face after a Walker speech. Screeching demonstrators being dragged out while attempting to disrupt Walker&amp;#039;s State of the State address. WWII veterans being greeted with Nazi salutes at a capitol Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony. Protesters disrupting a Walker-led ceremony for Special Olympics award recipients. Forged recall petition signatures. Lawmakers having beers dumped on their heads. The list goes on and on. Just for fun, and to make sure the calf is in good health, let&amp;#039;s do a careful physical examination, shall we? Of course, the &amp;quot;division, discord, and blame,&amp;quot; in Wisconsin began when unions tried the burn the state down over Governor Scott Walker&amp;#039;s plan requiring them to begin paying into their own pension accounts. (And took away their rights to bargain collectively for their own work rules, and doing so at the bidding of a couple of Birchite billionnaires who don&amp;#039;t want anything burned down until they can make their last buck out of it.) Everyone knows the results. Union protesters calling the Lieutenant Governor a &amp;quot;f***ing whore&amp;quot; to her husband&amp;#039;s face after a Walker speech.  (Here&amp;#039;s a contemporary account of this. The line is attributed to &amp;quot;a young woman,&amp;quot; and not to &amp;quot;union protesters.&amp;quot; Mr. Schneider needs work on the difference between the singular and the plural.) Screeching demonstrators being dragged out while attempting to disrupt Walker&amp;#039;s State of the State address. (&amp;quot;Screeching&amp;quot; is, of course, in the ear of the beholder, and more than one protester was hauled away merely for standing up with a sign. And, in any case, so what? Free speech is as free speech does.One searches in vain for Mr. Schneider&amp;#039;s condemnation of Rep. Joe Wilson&amp;#039;s heckling of the president of the United States from the floor of the House.) WWII veterans being greeted with Nazi salutes at a capitol Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony. (Actually, no. The salutes were aimed at goggle-eyed homunculus Scott Walker, something that even Glenn Beck&amp;#039;s toy news operation acknowledged, who bravely rescheduled the tree-lighting for 8:30 in the morning, and who used the vets for cover. The lighting traditionally took place at noon, a busier time in the capitol. Which was entirely the point.) Protesters disrupting a Walker-led ceremony for Special Olympics award recipients.  (Here&amp;#039;s a video of the &amp;quot;disruption&amp;quot; from The McIver Institute, The Voice Of Free Market Wisconsin. The disruption consists of people standing in one place, and a guy with a sign that has the word &amp;quot;pissing&amp;quot; on it, which makes the narrator sad for the children. Jesus.) Forged recall petition signatures.  (Really? All one million of them? And, as it turns out, the &amp;quot;forged recall petition&amp;quot; argument is more of a two-tie, all-tie situation.) And, finally: Lawmakers having beers dumped on their heads. The list goes on and on. (Again, this is a matter of Schneider&amp;#039;s obvious difficulty with singulars and plurals. There was an incident where a GOP legislator apparently got a beer dumped on his head \u2014 something I can state with great authority happens at least two times a night in various Madison bars for reasons that have nothing to do with politics. The beer-dumper turned himself in immediately. Again, uncivil, and certainly a waste of good beer, but nothing like a list going on and on, unless, of course, someone is so steeped in wingnut victimology that you believe that union organizers staged all that in Wisconsin so they&amp;#039;d be on a TV commercial with Clint Eastwood one day.) The calf appears to be healthy, if somewhat confused. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12664/clint-eastwood-ad-wisconsin-6652090/>