150K? 200K? Historic protest in Madison

We're hearing reports of astounding crowds in Madison. One speaker announced 150,000 had massed around the Capitol, and people are still arriving. The twittersphere is counting 200,000. By all accounts, it's the largest protest yet.

Fifty tractors drove from LaCrosse to protest Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to cut $1.6 billion in funds for education and health care. We watched a live stream of John Nichols, a Wisconsinite and Nation writer, ride in with the tractorcade. Nichols said Walker is destroyinig rural Wisconsin. Farmers get it, he said, because they've been fighting corporations for decades.

The only way farmers get a good price is to organize.. collectively .. get it? Collective bargaining.

Among today's celebrities are Tony Shalhoub (Monk), a native of Green Bay; Susan Sarandon; Willie Nelson; Michael Moore; Jesse Jackson; Jim Hightower; and the Fab 14 senators who fled the state to prevent a vote on Walker's bill to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights.

We liked this tweet from @gjzielinksi: 

Rookie mistake: Standing too close to the Teamsters rig. My left ear drum is pierced, think.