Posted on 04/19/2007 11:51:03 AM PDT by Thunder90
After rallying down State Street, University of Wisconsin students from the Campus Antiwar Network and members of the Madison community stormed the office of Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin, and staged a teach-in.
Several protesters expressed their displeasure with Kohls voting record regarding the Iraq war.
Were here to tell Senator Kohl were not fooled by his little trick where he tells us hes against the war but then authorizes paying for it, said UW junior and CAN member Paul Pryse.
Kate Losey, one of the CAN event organizers, estimated that more than 200 people attended the rally. However, group members later estimated that approximately 100 people had filled the senators office at one point.
The event lasted through the night, as protesters demanded a public meeting with the senator be scheduled and refused to leave his office until it was done.
They arent going to have coffee with Kohl in D.C. they wanted to have it with him in Madison, UW sophomore Emily Harris said of her fellow protesters in Kohls office.
In response to the protest, Kohl released a statement, saying he supports the protesters criticism of President Bushs broken war policy.
I respect and admire the efforts of the UW students that have assembled today to protest the presidents broken war policy and join them in calling for a safe return home for our brave men and women serving in the region, Kohl said in a statement late Wednesday.
The 1 p.m. rally, peppered with chants of This is what democracy looks like, featured speeches from members of CAN and other antiwar student groups, as well as drumming and spoken word performances.
We are boiling, but we are boiling together, said UW student Laurel Franklin, another CAN member. We are boiling revolutionaries for change through counter-movements across the globe.
Immediately following the rally, a portion of the group marched to Kohls office. Steve Burns, a member of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and a UW faculty assistant in the Physics Department, explained the reasoning for the march and recounted the difficulty of meeting with Kohl in person.
Some people call him Wisconsins invisible senator, Burns said.
The group reached the senators office around 3 p.m., where organizers connected by phone with antiwar activist Howard Zinn and antiwar sports columnist Dave Zirin, who addressed the group as part of the teach-in.
At approximately 6 p.m., Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, later joined by members of the Madison police force, met with aides in the office and informed the group that only five people would be allowed to remain after 7 p.m. As of press time, roughly 25 people remained in the office.
Assistant press secretary to Senator Kohl Joe Bonafiglio said protests have occurred in the senators office before.
Our staff does what they can to accommodate free speech per the senators request, he said.
Also at the rally, several members of Iraq Veterans Against the War spoke about their firsthand experiences at war.
How many more people need to die for us to learn that our troops being there are not going to do anything but cause more death? IVAW member Patrick Wilcox said.
Wilcox also related Mondays Virginia Tech shootings to the war, asserting that Americans have relative apathy toward death of anyone not from our own country.
This happens every day in Iraq, Wilcox said.
Campus Antiwar network members protesting in Senator Herb Kohl's (D-Wisconsin) office.
From what I have heard, some of the moonbats are still sitting in at Kohls office at the time I right this.
I bet it smells funky in that picture!
Havin’ a hard time not laughing out loud at how seriously these people take themselves...
Colonel, USAFR
I need a nap. I read the headline and thought: “What’s wrong with Kohl’s? I shop there all the time. They have good sales.”
I feel stupid now LOL.
Here’s to hoping that the moonbats force the rest of the Democrats down the moonbat trail.
MADison is the only place in the country where they were able to convince the owners of the Air America station to keep
their format (instead of changing to sports). Lefty heaven.
If Kohl is stupid and weak enough to allow this, he deserves it. I’d have called the police within 30 seconds of seeing the first moonbat walk in my office door.
If it were my office that they invaded, I would have turned the dogs loose on them, followed by the high pressure water hoses....
If that were my office, the tear gas would have been released hours ago, and hickory shampoos applied all around.
I would have used copious amounts of OC spray (Pepperspray) on them if they would have entered my office and tried a sit-in like that.
“Madison goes mad” PING!!!
Isn’t it grand when their own slime hits the fan and blows back in their faces?
Unlike the liberals who have an apathy towards death of Americans, especially soldiers and babies.
Can’t understand why they are picking on Kohl......he waves the white flag just as much as Butt Boy Rusty.
No, Laurel, you are not a boiling revolutionary.
You are an ignorant child living in a place that is out of step with the real world. I hope when the real world shows up on your doorstep - and it will - that it is not too harsh.
We are boiling revolutionaries for change through counter-movements across the globe.
Don’t you just love commie-speak?
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