Today the Wisconsin State Assembly voted on AB 426, a bill which is explained here. I was sitting outside of the assembly gallery posting live updates to my Facebook and Twitter during the hearing. Things got a little crazy part way into the hearing, and below I will repost my live updates (including pictures and video) from the night:
-Repubs arguing that mining bill has a "lazer-like focus on jobs" and that it's "for our future generations"
-At the assembly hearing on the mining bill. Dems asking who authored the bill. Repubs avoiding answer.
-Lots of coughing and throat clearing in disapproval from citizens in the gallery.
-Some of the coughs from the gallery during the mining bill hearing are sounding a lot like "bullshit"
-Threatening to clear gallery. Rep. Pocan argued they can't clear whole gallery. Rep. Fitzgerald arguing they can.
Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald - "If I hear one more obscenity, that gallery will be cleared."
-Staffer used walkie talkie to ask to open other gallery (one side was already full). Person on other end asked if it was filled with "regular people" or protestors.
-Via Rep. Andy Jorgensen: "Well, I put Republicans on the spot - and now they're on the record. They are ALL the authors of the mining bill."
-Several people have been arrested then unarrested without citations for holding signs or filming in assembly gallery.
-Banner drop in the assembly gallery during the mining bill hearing:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
-They're closing the galleries!!!!
-People chanting shame outside of assembly room because they cleared us from the gallery.
(People start telling me that they can hear us chanting from outside of the assembly chambers on Wisconsin Eye, which is a livestream of the assembly hearing)
-Happening right now outside of the assembly room!
-Via Rebecca Kemble: Fifty people shouting and jumping around outside Assembly Lobby "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!"
-Right now outside of assembly chambers:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
-Singing "we shall kill this bill" to the tune of "we shall overcome" outside of the assembly chambers.
-Chanting "ALEC wrote the bill" outside the assembly chambers!
-We're all writing notes to our representatives while they're in session, telling them that we're locked out of the gallery, and asking what they're going to do about it.
-Rep. Chris Taylor came out to speak to us. Said they stand in solidarity with those of us locked out of the gallery. Agreed to ask to open the galleries back up.
-Via Lisa Wells: "7:05pm: I can hear you outside the doors on WISEYE. Louder!"
-Rep. Kelda Helen Roys responded to my tweet asking her what they're going to do about us being locked out of the gallery. She said: "I will do my absolute best - we support everyone's right to watch the proceedings"
-From Rep. Kelda Helen Roys: "I first asked unanimous consent to reopen the galleries, and then when Republicans objected I moved to reopen them. Rep. Kramer, the speaker pro tempore, said my motion was out of order because he and he alone is responsible for decorum in the body."
-CJ and Damon just arrested and dragged away by cops for drumming.
-Bill passed on a party line vote. Of course.
-Craig Spaulding and his daughter Emma were in the basement of the Capitol to make a complaint after an officer put his hands on her. While they were down there, they saw CJ strapped to a gurney. WTF?!
-Well, tonight has just been one big shit storm.