Labor Pains In Hometown Grow Louder Against Paul Ryan

JG Excerpt:
JANESVILLE — At Monday's Labor Day parade through downtown Janesville, people cheered and applauded for Janesville native and 1st District Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.

In the same article from the Janesville Gazette they wrote, "When a small group of labor supporters went by holding "Recall Scott Walker" signs, however, the cheers turned to whoops, and the applause got louder." Let's put it this way, despite Janesville being Congressman Paul Ryan's hometown, the overall tone from the labor crowd toward him was only slightly less "enthusiastic" to that shown towards Scott Walker.

Due to an embarrassing technical difficulty at the worst possible time, I do not have photos or video proof. But I walked about half the route in step behind Paul Ryan and heard plenty of boos and jeers for him and saw individual spectators holding anti-Ryan signs along the Main Street parade route. I also noticed significant areas of spectators that did not acknowledge him at all, almost as if they were respectfully giving him the cold shoulder when he passed by. Remember this is Ryan's hometown and many of these folks know each other. So did “people cheer and applaud him?” Sure, he had pockets of diehard supporters along the route, but to imply he was widely cheered is blatantly false. The Gazette at least acknowledged that their report was covering only a city block of the parade. The parade stretched for a mile.

Speaking of Ryan, he was pushing a baby stroller during the event, which I think shows extremely poor judgment on his part if he believes in his own fearmongering rhetoric. Remember, Ryan referred to the labor protests in Madison earlier in the year as riots similar to those going on in Cairo, Egypt at the time, and a few years ago smeared union members as violent thugs similar to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party. So why would he subject his young children to that potential for harm if that's what he really thinks of labor? Or is he just a 24/7 lying hyper-ventilator who can't pass up an opportunity to demagogue those who disagree with him at every chance he gets?