As is the case with so many of her brethren, right-wing radio squawker Vicki Pyzysnki – more commonly known as Vicki McKenna – is fond of calling union members who dare exercise their Constitutionally-protected rights to free speech and free assembly “union thugs,” but while McKenna is fond of calling union members “thugs,” she’s no exactly an angel herself. Back in 1997 McKenna got “verbally and physically combative” with officers following a disturbance in the stands of a U2 concert in Madison, leading to her arrest (and the discovery of the wolf tattoo on her back and the snake tattoo on her chest).
I’m not entirely sure what Vicki McKenna’s definition of a “thug” is, but my definition includes being “verbally and physically combative” during a disturbance, behavior which McKenna certainly engaged in and which was absent from the rallies in support of public employees in Madison – rallies which were no doubt heavily attended by Vicki McKenna’s so-called “union thugs.”
H/T to Whallah!
Zack, are you going to hold A mistake she made over ten years ago against her? It’s funny how you defend tax cheating drunk drivers as making silly mistakes over ten years ago,and then attack someone for getting rowdy at A concert.Zack your turning into one of those mindless zombies.
Rowdy? The woman’s a rageaholic.
just for the record…there was no tax cheating.
Wow, we were in the same place at the same time. Know what that means?
Nothing at all!
While I’m no fan of McKenna, I’ve got to ask…Why exactly was it necessary to include the tattoo aspect to the story? I cannot fathom why that is pertinent.
Do you have some sort of prejudice against people with tattoos?
I included the tattoos because I thought it was a funny quirk…that’s all.
wold tattoos rare almost as cool as a three wolf shirt…the snake….well we’ll leave that to Freud
Zach is just pointing out that McKenna, who cynically and for strictly partisan reasons and/or ratings employs terms like “union thugs”, knows from personal experience what being a “thug” ACTUALLY means.
She’s just another hypocritical, cynical rightwing partisan hack/radio personality latching onto and endlessly repeating the latest wingnut “dog whistle” catch phrase cynically calculated to demonize political opponents and to stir up the base a la Rush (“I’m lucky I’m rich and had the one of the best criminal defense attorneyd in the country [Roy Black] defending me or my fat ass would be in prison”) Limbaugh.
Radio personalities like McKenna and Limbaugh use phrases like “union thugs” because it demagogues and demonizes, and because it speaks to and provokes people like bloggingblue.com’s resident inarticulate, grammar and syntax-challenged mouth-breather Notalib, not because they are accurate, true or justified. While such rank cynicism and pandering is bad enough, in McKenna’s case, the inherent hypocrisy makes it all the worse.
Try to keep up, boys. Zach’s point wasn’t really all that hard to divine.
Oh – OK. So having tattoos makes someone a thug. Gotcha.
@ Locke
I agree with you about the reference to McKenna’s tatoos. Unimportant and irrelevant, unlike the reference to her having a history of “thug” behavior in the past, while cavalierly and cynically throwing around the term in connection with unions in the present for no better reason than because she needs to pander to the mouth-breathing rightwing zealots among us if she wants ratings. That’s what I was talking about. You and I are in agreement with respect to Zach’s having included them in the post.
I don’t recall saying having tattoos makes someone a thug, and I think the point you’re missing is that I’m saying McKenna’s hardly in a position to pass judgment about “thugs” given her own propensity for violent behavior.
pick a parenthetical detail out of the whole article that was included for the sake of levity and twist it around a false conclusion while missing the point of the article itself… sir, you must be an… well i was gonna say republican, but asshole sounds more appropriate.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A
So equate McKenna’s conduct at a concert in 1997, and this weekend’s actions in Madison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IURPRHVuqvM&feature=player_embedded
Who’s the thug now? And I won’t dip to Zuma’s level in describing the protesters in the video.
There were 500 teabaggers and 5000 passionate counter-protesters there making a lot of noise. Throw in the rinky-dink sound system provided by Americans For Prosperity for its rally, and it’s not particularly surprising that the counter-protesters weren’t aware that someone at the rally had begun singing the Star Spangled Banner.
If you watch the video, once the counter-protesters became aware that the national anthem was being sung, they quietly down immediately. You can even hear the wingnut making the video take note of that, albeit in kind of a snarky way.
Your attempt to equate the counter-protesters’ passionate and non-violent expression of their first amendment rights with McKenna’s violent and verbally abusive behavior at a rock concert qualifies as the worst kind of false equivalency.
For the record, having been to a lot of concerts back in the day, and having seen lots of people over-indulge in various intoxicants at same, I have a pretty good idea of why McKenna was so out of control at that U2 show.
In any event, given her thuggish history, whether it was yesterday or 10 years ago, her use of the phrase, “union thugs”, makes it relevant, however inconvenient, embarrassing and disconcerting it might prove to be for the average wingnut who both supports her and likes indiscriminately throwing such phrases around, however wildly inaccurate and unjustified they actually are.
that is such a non issue video, it amazes me that the righties are sharing it so much. The yactually quiet down when they hear whats happening. It reminds me of the buzz of a crowd before a sporting event, during the national anthem.
Really? They quieted down?
And you ACTUALLY have been at sporting events where the chatter has been that loud during the Star Spangled Banner? Really?
Amazing how the left will downplay a video shot a few days ago, but make a huge issue out of transgressions 10 years ago.
@ Mark
There were 500 teabaggers and 5000 passionate counter-protesters there making a lot of noise. Throw in the rinky-dink sound system provided by Americans For Prosperity for its rally, and it’s not particularly surprising that the counter-protesters weren’t aware that someone at the rally had begun singing the Star Spangled Banner.
If you watch the video, once the counter-protesters became aware that the national anthem was being sung, they quietly down immediately. You can even hear the wingnut making the video take note of that, albeit in kind of a snarky way.
Your attempt to equate the counter-protesters’ passionate and non-violent expression of their first amendment rights with McKenna’s violent and verbally abusive behavior at a rock concert qualifies as the worst kind of false equivalency.
For the record, having been to a lot of concerts back in the day, and having seen lots of people over-indulge in various intoxicants at same, I have a pretty good idea of why McKenna was so out of control at that U2 show.
In any event, given her thuggish history, whether it was yesterday or 10 years ago, her use of the phrase, “union thugs”, makes it relevant, however inconvenient, embarrassing and disconcerting it might prove to be for the average wingnut who both supports her and likes indiscriminately throwing such phrases around, however wildly inaccurate and unjustified they actually are.
seems to me there was controversy about the crowd not quieting at the Super Bowl this year…
i guess as Americans they felt the right to do whatever the hell they wanted to despite the fact that some jerk with a bullhorn started to sing out of the blue. i guess we should just pipe the star spangled banner through speakers into the streets and into people’s homes 24 hours a day. then no one would speak, or beat their kids, or drink and drive. everything would be perfect. call George Orwell, folks. he had it right! not every occasion is appropriate for the national anthem. only jackboot, nationalist, jengoists believe it is something sacred. it’s a song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tjea4BBRWo
check for yourself…..
Speaking of dishonoring the flag:
http://www.dane101.com/current/2006/11/13/vicki_mckenna_refuses_to_tolerate_any_kind_of_dissent_period
Mark wrote:
“And you ACTUALLY have been at sporting events where the chatter has been that loud during the Star Spangled Banner? Really?”
Apples and oranges, Mark. At a sporting event, the start of the Star Spangled Banner is pretty obvious.
The start of the Star Spangled Banner here was not so obvious. The AFP/Koch/teabagger/pro-Walker rally was confined to a relatively small area, with partitions separating the rally from the counter-protesters, and the rally organizers used an anemic and fairly inaudible sound system, one particularly inaudible given the level of noisy passion on the counter-protesters side of the partitions.
Your “analysis” in this regard is more than a little disingenuous. Try taking the partisan blinders off, and being a little more objective, huh?
Dungeon master sez: while you guys are arguing anthem etiquette, a Pyzysnkisaurus walks up and kicks you in the jigglies.
Holy #@%@%. Now McKenna/Pyzysnki and her band of merry goons are tracking down protesters.
Yeah, nothing thuggish about that….nothing at all.
Let’s make sure I got this right. Huge crowd, crappy sound system, jingoistic playing of the national anthem. And hackles are raised because they didn’t instantaneously cease making noise? Just trying to center the thing here.
The 5000 passionate protesters remind me of the civil rights movement.They look like the police and the KKK sending in the dogs,and hosing down free speech.
Wait….you’re not really comparing the folks who were counter-protesting at the Tea Party to the KKK, are you?
That’s just beyond the pale, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Zach, you beat me to it!
Great minds think alike.
ray as Dr. Phil would say “some people get it and some people dont, you dont even come close to getting it.”
The tattoo thing is interesting and the comments here are damn funny. When you are arrested, your tattoos are documented and so you suffer an immediate loss to your privacy in that regard. The cops want to record tattoos because serial criminals change their names repeatedly and the tattoos are not so easily changed. Zach is just throwing in that extra little *mean* dig against this radio host personality who is pretty well known for being …oh gosh…mean! Oh, I say, good chap! You have delivered upon her that which she doth dish out! Love it.
The thing about the tattoo is that people select a tattoo because it has some meaning to them. Why would someone choose a wolf and a snake? And why would you choose to put the wolf on your back and the snake on the chest? Its a self-image thing which only Pyzysnki can explain. But I find curious. Other then that she is HUGE self-promoting loser with a few listeners.