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    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 27th from 16:28 to 17:01

    These are my links for February 27th from 16:28 to 17:01:

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    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 27th from 16:09 to 16:16

    These are my links for February 27th from 16:09 to 16:16:

    • The story behind the "Roger Ailes indictment" story – On Sunday morning, the economics analyst and TV commentator Barry Ritholtz dropped a bombshell on his blog: Roger Ailes, the powerful president of Fox News, will be indicted in connection with allegedly telling a News Corp. executive to lie to federal investigators, according to Ritholtz's blog post.

      The story, which was based on what an unnamed source told Ritholtz, quickly boomeranged around the Web and Twitter. Several well-read web sites, including Business Insider and Political Wire, picked up the report.

      As it turns out, Ritholtz's source for the post was a man he happened to meet and strike up a conversation with at a Barbados airport over the weekend, he told me in an interview this afternoon.

      Here's what happened, according to Ritholtz, who just got back from a vacation on the tropical island: He was sitting in the Barbados airport waiting for a plane to arrive and he struck up a conversation with an older man sitting next to him.

      ++++++

      Read it all.

      Which means this is a story about maybe something…..

    • Protesters defy deadline to leave Wisconsin Capitol as of 6:49 PM EST – About 200 pro-union protesters left the Wisconsin Capitol on Sunday, but police stood by as many hundreds of others remained in defiance of a deadline state officials set for clearing the building after an almost two-week-long sit-in.

      The state agency that oversees the Capitol asked the throngs of demonstrators who have been camping out at the Capitol since Feb. 15 to leave by 4 p.m. Sunday or risk arrest, saying the building was in dire need of a cleaning. But in the hours before the deadline came and went, it was clear most protesters did not intend to leave voluntarily.

      One medic instructed the crowd how to prepare for the worst, telling demonstrators to clench their firsts so handcuffs or restraints would not cut off the blood flow and to remove contact lenses in case police sprayed anything that could harm their eyes.

      Police standing nearby said none of that would be necessary, and Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said no one had been arrested as of about 5 p.m.

      He said officers would continue trying to get protesters to vacate voluntarily, but he deflected questions about whether police would arrest demonstrators who refused to leave.

      +++++

      Will there by arrests if they don't leave?

  • Los Angeles Times,  Scott Walker

    LA Times Headline: “Protesters Out in Force Nationwide to Oppose Wisconsin’s Anti-Union Bill” – I Don’t Think So

    This is what the LA Times Headline screams: “Protesters out in force nationwide to oppose Wisconsin’s anti-union bill.”

    Say what?

    Promoters, such as David Dayen at Firedoglake, were predicting a million-person turnout nationwide.  But reports as of 7:00 E.S.T. today make clear that other than in Madison, Wisconsin, the crowds were sparse.

    The turnout in Madison was sizable, with estimates ranging over from 50-70,000, which included protesters bused in from other states.  (Dayen is trying to pump the crowd estimate to over 100,000.) But elsewhere, the crowds numbered only in the hundreds or low thousands.

    In Washington, D.C., only about 500 people showed up (go to link for good photos of crazy signs). (Note, WaPo says 1000.)

    In Columbus, OH, where you would expect a big crowd given a similar controversy, only “several thousand” people protested

    Other head counts, based on news reports, include: Boston (1000), Portsmouth, N.H. (few hundred), Augusta, ME (small crowd), New York City (“several thousand“), Chicago (1000), Miami (100), Austin (several hundred), Chicago (1000); Lansing, MI (2000), Nashville (hundreds), Los Angeles (2000), Richmond, VA (300), Denver (1000); Frankfurt, KY (several hundred), Jefferson City, MO (several hundred), Harrisburg, PA (several hundred). 

    While I don’t have a complete count, based on these numbers from some major cities and labor states, total protesters nationwide (excluding Madison) likely totaled under 100,000 combined.
    Outside of Madison, there were no reports of sizable crowds.  And if you read the news reports, almost all the protesters were other union members.  Despite the efforts, the organizers failed to motivate significant numbers of non-union members to come out for protests.

    The 50-state protest was a failure, plain and simple, although the images from Madison may create the false impression of massive nationwide protests.

    The subhead at the LA Times reads more accurately: “Up to 100,000 rally in Madison while hundreds show up in dozens of other cities to combat the Republican-backed measure that would limit collective bargaining rights for most public workers in Wisconsin.” But, the subheadline contradicts the headline because the protesters were not out in force NATIONWIDE.

    This is NOT true.

    But, there is MORE:

    Nearly two weeks into a political standoff, tens of thousands rallied in Madison and in dozens of cities around the nation to oppose a bill that would severely limit collective bargaining rights for most Wisconsin public employees.

    Joel DeSpain, spokesman for the Madison Police Department, said the rally — in steadily falling snow — drew between 70,000 and 100,000 and may have been the largest protest in Madison since the Vietnam War

    Again, NOT true and implying that the protest crowds outside of Madison, Wisconsin were on the massive scale.

    Later on in the piece they admit the protest crowd in Los Angeles was not so much:

    Elsewhere, hundreds of boisterous pro-union demonstrators gathered on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, loudly voicing their support for the Wisconsin workers while speaking of concerns that the perennially forceful labor movement in California could one day face a similar crisis.

    “If it can happen in Wisconsin, it can happen anywhere,” said Pasquale Gazillo, a merchant marine, referring to Wisconsin’s long history as a union stronghold.

    “States like that, they’re the ones that started the eight-hour workday and made sure workers got paid if they got sick. The Republicans are pushing, and if that state falls, the rest of the country is going to be in trouble,” he said.

    Nice try at spin LA Times. Gotcha…..

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    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 26th from 17:01 to 17:29

    These are my links for February 26th from 17:01 to 17:29: