Congressman Kimble Calls Madison "Our Valley Forge Moment"

It has long been said by patriots that it is in enduring great hardship that we reach into our reserves of individual liberty, and from those reserves is our greatness as a people born. Today, in Madison, Wisconsin I witnessed such hardship and the cold chill of Wisconsin did not beat us back, it only tempered our resolve until it became as steel.

Much as Cortes burned his own boats before conquering the savage Aztecs, the brave Tea Partiers who came here from Virginia saw the Koch Brothers order the buses to drive away after everybody was off so that none would be tempted to flee from confrontation with union thuggery. We huddled for warmth and support as we advanced through the blizzard that Madison was experiencing.

We were joined by 6 hearty souls from Wisconsin. Here I met Leo who at 82 years young was able to pepper me with memories of his childhood when his father used a club to disperse strikers during the 1935 Lindemann Strike. He believed in the cause so much he came out himself though he was far too old and frail to wield the ancient piece of wood he showed us.

We began protesting, but were soon driven inside by the howling winds. We gathered at a local Denny's where we faced our first adversity. My chicken noodle soup was tepid and watery and I was not alone, but driven by our patriotism, we would not let this break us.

Emboldened by our respite, we build a snow Obama, but found our heart wasn't in it. Cold, we none the less marched forward to the capital, where Joe the Plumber and Andrew Breitbart had just spoken yesterday and I led our brave patriots in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance before saying a few words myself. After, spending the evening at the George Webb, I made my way to the Howard Johnson's where I had reserved a room. The hotel was kind enough to let the other protesters wait in the lobby as they shivered and waited for the Koch Brothers buses to return. We should have worn heavier coats, but we came, we persevered, and we made our voices heard for freedom. This was our Valley Forge moment and it is one I shall not soon forget.

Congressman Kimble Arrives in Madison for Counter Protest

Whoever came up with the weekend sure had the right idea. With the end of the work week thousands of hardworking Tea Party activists arrived in Wisconsin to counter protest the union rioters in Madison. They came from as far away as Virginia by by bus because above all, they believe in the importance of Wisconsin's fiscal stability. I felt myself very lucky to be among what I estimated to be about 100,000 counter protesters dwarfing the union protesters who were easily identifiable by their Wisconsin accents.

Governor Walker's attempts to broker a compromise with the unions, appear to have fallen on deaf ears as the unions have agreed to give in on salary and pension demands, but have stopped short of agreeing to dissolve their unions and go home.

This is a very hard time for corporations in the state. Nearly 1/3 are forced to pay taxes even though they all contribute to the state in various ways from giving moral support to sponsoring little league teams to donating to political candidates. It's a time for shared sacrifices and corporations are hurting too even as they are seeing record profits---only it's a suffering on the inside kind of thing that is less visible to people outside the company.

So what would make patriots make the long trek to Wisconsin to stand up to firemen union thugs and police union thugs? I asked this brave Tea Party activists for their motivation:

A machinist from Iron Gate, Virginia named Larry explained it to me this way, "I don't have a union. I make $8.50 an hour and when my thumb got cut off, I not only had to pay for it out of my own pocket, I couldn't leave work to do so until my shift was over. Why should these clowns get unions just because they're public workers?"

Gale, a housewife from Tappahannock, Virginia said, "These union thugs are getting rich off of our tax dollars---or at least the tax dollars of the people of Wisconsin."

John, who was actually from Wisconsin, drove to Madison from Kenosha himself. "I'm on disability, so I'm able to watch a lot of news programming and I can't believe the number of people expecting the government to take care of them for the rest of their life. The ones behind this are the ones in the middle east. They want to start a caliphate here too."

Sadly, I will have to leave tomorrow, but I intend to let my voice be heard today. To the people of Wisconsin, I urge you to get out there and counter this rebellion. If the people in Virginia care enough to fight fr your hard earned tax dollars, you should too.

Congressman Kimble on Wisconsin Union Riots

My Friends,

I find myself becoming increasing alarmed by the rioting in Wisconsin this week. These people in Madison do not represent most of the people of the state regardless of what polls may say. The hearts of the people of Wisconsin are with the Tea Partiers on the bus from Virginia to come counter protest.

It bothers me that it has become so confrontational when this is really a simple economics issue. Everybody was thrilled when Scott Walker cut corporate taxes, but now comes the time to pay for those cuts and unfortunately it calls for shared sacrifice. Nobody likes to have their salary cut or their union crushed, but it's that spirit of all for one and one for all that has made our country great.

Word is that the rioters have agreed to make all the pay concessions the Governor is asking as long as he leaves their collective bargaining rights alone, but the problem is that collective bargaining inevitably costs employers money. When child labor was outlawed, businesses lost a valuable commodity as small children could fit their hands into machinery to unclog it in tight places where an adult hand could never reach. What has the 40 hour work week done except to give the American worker more time off from work, which requires him to spend more money. It becomes a vicious cycle as employees are forced to foot the bell for giant televisions, air conditioning, and indoor plumbing.

As you may know, I am on the executive board of Last Stand For Children First (www.laststand4children.org). I see that many of these protesters are teachers who are complaining that they will need to take second jobs. I can't think of anything more valuable that they could bring to their students than the life experience of outside work. Also, if you are frying your students' burgers, welcoming them to Wal-Mart, or taking their tickets at the movie theatre, it would give students a great chance to get to know their teachers in another setting.

Everybody wants something for nothing and we all were thrilled to see corporate tax rates drop around the country. When I heard that the income of the upper class exploded in the past decade, nobody was more thrilled than I was, but now comes the time to pay the piper. We all need to sacrifice and even union members must do their fair share. I hope that Governor Walker (or as I like to call him Moobarak), will continue to stand tall for the people of Wisconsin and the people from Virginia coming to protest.

NOTE: Some have pointed to the presence of Arabic writing in the photo. It is well known that Wisconsin has a very strong Arab influence so this is not uncommon. The Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA played in the MECCA Arena for 20 years.