AP reporter Ryan Foley's update from Madison on Monday night included details about a rock musician causing the crowd to to roar: "At noon, guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine took to a stage on the Capitol steps to fire up the crowd. He said he flew in from California to lend his voice to the protest."
While reporters like Adam Nagourney "worry" out loud that the Wisconsin Republicans are going to look too extreme, AP somehow left out Morello's truly appalling and extremist stands, like speaking fondly of Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Maoist Shining Path terrorists in Peru. If that didn't seem pro-violence enough, then there's Morello praying for the drowning of President Bush in 2007, as reported in the Washington Post:
Onstage, when the Nightwatchman [Morello] sang, "I pray that God himself will come and drown the president if the levees break again," the Jammin' Java crowd's attitude was chilling. People were praying.
"The future of workers' rights will be decided in Madison, Wisconsin," he said. "You're making history here."
He joked that he could hardly play the guitar because his fingers were numb. He sang a song with the refrain, "For the union men and women standing up and standing strong!" Each time he repeated that lyric, the crowd roared.
He also skipped what London's Daily Mail reported: "Mr. Morello called [Gov.] Walker the ‘Mubarak of the Midwest’ in reference to Egypt's leader ousted by protests and said he will ‘rob American workers of their fundamental rights.'" The crowd-pleasing lyric is Morello's own song, "The Union Song," which also includes allusions to violence:
Hit em where it hurts
And bite the hand that feeds
You might get one to three
Or probation and a fine
But I know where I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be right on that front line
