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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat fun! I got hassled tonight collecting Recall Walker signatures!
My grandmother taught me it wasn't nice to pick on those less fortunate than yourself, but tonight I couldn't help myself.
I was parked in the Public Library parking lot, picking up the occasional signature and rendezvousing with members of my team of volunteers who had signatures to turn in (another 47 tonight - woo hoo!).
The Library is a great spot, 'cause their wireless internet service is unsecured and leaks enough to provide coverage out in the lot. I can keep up on DU between taking signatures.
Anyway, a couple hours ago a truck pulled up next to me. I grabbed my clipboard and jumped out.
"I'm not signing", growled the guy behind the wheel. "Do you have a permit to be here?"
We're not supposed to waste time on these morons, but I had nothing else to do at the moment, so I indulged myself.
"Yes I do", I replied, and gave him a big smile.
"You do?", he asked.
"Yep", still smiling.
He seemed confused for a moment, then asked "Well, where did you get it?"
"From James Madison and some friends of his", I replied. He looked perplexed. I waited a few beats and then helped him out. "The Constitution of the United States, First Amendment".
"Well, well, you can't be on private property" he sputtered.
"I'm not", I replied, "this is the Public Library lot."
"Yes, but it's also private" he said. "It belongs to the Village, and I'm a taxpayer."
At that point I probably looked confused. Then it hit me. "Do you know the difference between public and private property?" I asked.
"It's private public property, owned by the village", he said. "Anyway, that's no good here", he said, "we have local ordinances."
"And you think local ordinances trump the Constitution?" I asked.
I could see he was getting more frustrated by the minute. "I'm going to call the police", he shouted.
"Good idea", I replied, "they love crank calls."
"Well, I'm calling them", he was now spitting as the words came out.
"That's fine. Just wait a second while I take a photo of your license plate, will you please?" I walked around to the back of his truck.
At that point his engine roared to life and his tires screamed as he left the lot. Guy was abusing his truck - and wasting gas - because of his anger and stupidity. More work for Union mechanics and tire manufacturing workers I guess.
Cops never showed, but since I talked to the Sheriff weeks ago and he knows my schedule there at the Library (sometimes his wife drops off signatures she's collected) I only missed out on a few more laughs.
These Walker-backers are mostly dumber than a box of rocks. "Private public property." Priceless.
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now_zad
(44 posts)I am always amazed on blogs how someone can go line by line on a 4 minute conversation elaborating down to the smallest detail exactly what was said by who...
I guess you do not realize that some people who post here do not have a problem with short memory.
Obviously I do or I would have posted "short term memory" lol
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)The ones that have been here a long time have developed
abilities uncommon to the common man................
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)One is that they're much better informed than someone who only watches CNN and local news. The other is that it's a scientific fact that your mind works better if you use it more.
I'm always looking things up out of curiosity. (How did this bridge get its name?) I'm like a walking encyclopedia of obscure knowledge.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)most of the lyrics I hear (as long as they are intelligible)...
It has mostly to do with cadence and rhythm. But ask me to remember a name... fuggetaboudit.
Different people have different strengths.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)Wait, what was your name again?
When you forget a name, do you come clean with the person, or do you hope someone else happens to address him/her?
I usually go with the latter.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)If I've known them for a long time socially, I usually ask a close friend and/or spouse who knows about my kryptonite.
I find that if I write their name down or have email contact and read their name prior to meeting them... no problem. Funny how brains work.
1monster
(11,045 posts)centers of my brain, I have trouble remembering names and have to struggle to remember words and how to say them more often that I care to admit.
By telling them, I let them know that, no, it isn't that they are not important enough for me to remember their names, it is simply that I have to go the long way around (and that can be a darned long way) to recall their names, or take a short cut and ask...
Control-Z
(15,686 posts)Your symptoms sound exactly like the ones I have when taking it (topamax) for migraine. I've suffered trememdous embarrassment in the classroom teaching.
1monster
(11,045 posts)the aspirin to thin the blood and the niacin to dilate the blood vessels to prevent the constriction of blood vessels in the speech centers of my brain.
I take these at the first signs of a migraine (hand goes numb, and/or I have blind spots or an aura. Most of the time, if I take those two immediately, I can head off the migraine. Sometimes it lessens the severity and length of the migraine. Only rarely do I suffer the full force of a migraine. (Since you suffer from them, you know you feel like you are dying during one).
Please be advised, that when I told my doctor of the aphasia during my first full blown migraine, he told me that such severe constriction of the blood vessels in the brain can cause a stroke and are a medical emergency and you should go immediately to the Emergency Room.
It might not be the topamax that is causing your aphasia. Talk to your doctor!
On edit: I'm a substitute teacher -- I know what you mean about not being able to call up a kid's name. They do understand when I explain.
Swede
(39,497 posts)of a longtime DUer. But,hey,we all make friends differently.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)
Serve The Servants
(328 posts)Adrenaline has been known to enhance memory.
jerseyjack
(1,361 posts)They can do it word for word. Mine is called an Iphone and all I gotta do is press the button and say, "Turn on voice memo" and sommabitch, it just does it.
It's great when you are being stopped by cops.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)People don't have to 'elaborate down to the smallest detail' (which the poster didn't, by the way) in order to remember (big word coming) the pertinent details of an exchange.
It's not difficult to carry a 2 minute exchange for the several minutes to even an hour or so it takes to get it down.
So when someone like yourself doubts it can be done, I recommend ginko biloba.
AllyCat
(18,846 posts)I cannot remember DETAILS of WHAT EXACTLY someone said from a past conversation. I do remember (as you said pertinent details as well as big picture).
However, I am aware that many if not most other people DO remember exactly what a person said at a particularly time and am amazed at that ability. Ginkgo Biloba...might be a help 
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)They just hate hearing about how truly ignorant rightwingers are.
I have to wonder why that is.
AllyCat
(18,846 posts)However, there are many people (my husband included which leads to some interesting he said/she said!) who remember details of conversations. I'm sure the OP remembers well what was said. And the RW sympathizer is trying to find a way to discredit the exchange. Lots of that going on here in Wisco.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)They remember the most important parts.
PS: Welcome to DU, now_zad.
stlsaxman
(9,236 posts)now- what was i doing before i read your post? oh well i guess it weren't important.
Didn't realize the douchebag was tombstoned.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"am always amazed on blogs how someone can go line by line..."
Having read a few of your posts, I can easily understand why that would amaze you.
TygrBright
(21,362 posts)...probably.
(They never seem to learn. AND they have serious memory problems, which might be part of the reason they can't imagine what it's like to actually be able to remember stuff.)
amusedly,
Bright
progressoid
(53,179 posts)"Posting privileges revoked" Lame
quakerboy
(14,868 posts)You clearly have never had to write a behavioral report for a 4 hour visit with someone. A short conversation is nothing.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It took less than 5 minutes to have that conversation.
themadstork
(899 posts)and i think many writers develop an ear for it.
in a class on the personal essay i once wrote an essay recounting my adventure with a presumably homeless man whom i drove around town until he eventually tried to force me into oral sex. some classmates were suspicious that i could transcribe from memory an hour long conversation. . . seriously, just dont stare at the boob tube all day and memory improves. i can't remeber it now of course, but the exact wording of conversations is not hard to hold in your head for the few hours it takes to draft it out
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)why you think this first person narrative needs to be a recorded, verbatim transcript to be an acceptable description of what happened? Imagine a legal system that required the same standard for admissible evidence.
annabanana
(52,804 posts)priceless
badhair77
(5,182 posts)I like your reasoning of providing work for union mechanics. Thanks for fighting this fight.
muddrunner17
(155 posts)It defintely helps to keep a sense of humor when dealing with folks like that.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Great comebacks! Everytime I went to Madison to protest I carried my pocket constitution-my "permit".
OffWithTheirHeads
(10,337 posts)
malaise
(296,118 posts)Rec
Ellipsis
(9,454 posts)There are some crazy MF"S out there.
Walker has managed to polarize this state like no other in our history.
Just because he gets recalled will not eradicate the red necks 'round here. There sorta like burdocks. Leave 'em alone and they won't stick to you.
Keep on keepin' on brother.
Scuba
(53,475 posts).... Yeah, I'm careful. It'd be like one of these asshats to pull his state-licensed concealed weapon, but this one looked like he'd have only shot himself.
It's very red here, and a couple of our volunteers have been hassled. In fact, this same guy may have hassled one of us previously. He needs someone to bust his balls.
Thanks for doing your part!!!!
Ellipsis
(9,454 posts)I know where you are... 'tis indeed red.
Words are the best sabers.
Thanks
LiberalFighter
(53,544 posts)and take a picture of anyone suspicious.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)scare of my life when precinct walking for Dukakis in 1988.
I went onto the enclosed porch of a house somewhere south of the downtown area. I gave the little prepared Dukaks spiel. Guy listened to me in silence. "I'd like to vote for Dukakis . . . " (pregnant pause) "except for the fact that he's pro-abortion."
I sputtered a few shocked words about how I thought Dukakis favored a woman's right to choose and by then the guy was positively glaring at me. Right about this time, I noticed that I was standing on his enclosed porch and started feeling distinctly threatened by the guy - he may have even taken a step or two toward me - I high-tailed it out of there like my ass was on fire.
It's funny because I have subsequently been physically assaulted protesting alone against the Iraq War in 2004 here in LA. But I was never so frightened as I was that day in liberal Madison. To this day, I am sure that had I stayed on his porch 5 seconds longer I would have at the least been assaulted or worse. It was positively creepy.
Best (unsolicited 
) advice I can give you is to try to pair up with a kindred spirit so you're not out there all by yourself. My wife absolutely refuses to let me protest by myself any more. I have to have at least one other person watching my back.
Please do be careful. And thank you for your service.
recallsnyder2011
(7 posts)jtrockville
(4,266 posts)
oldhippydude
(2,514 posts)thanks for you service.. (that pisses them off too!)
WillyT
(72,631 posts)
T S Justly
(884 posts)
Terra Alta
(5,158 posts)This idiot clearly has no idea what the Constitution says. Or he does, but doesn't care. Keep standing up to folks like this; they obviously need to be educated.
SecurityManager
(124 posts)Belling has been on a tirade since the recall started on getting his minions to look out for violations at walker recall gatherings.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)For putting the moran in his place and for caring enough to spend your time to change things. Excellent.
unionworks
(3,574 posts)
harmonicon
(12,008 posts)What still sort of amazes me about so many right-wing people in the US is that they don't really seem to know what they stand for, because they haven't a clue about how the government is organized down to not recognizing the difference between public and private property. For all of their talk about the constitution, none of them seem to know anything about it. I'm probably giving them too much credit here, but maybe - just maybe - they figure there were enough racist bigots involved in writing it that it must be all about how all Americans should rightly be racist bigots.
Hassin Bin Sober
(27,461 posts)I had a similar conversation with my freeper sister-in-law.
It started with her enjoyment at an 80 year old woman being pepper sprayed on University property - you would have to know my sister-in-law to know what a hypocrite she is because she just became a gun owner last year and can't shut up about her guns and her second amendment rights....
Anyway, after she voiced, to me and the rest of the family, her glee at protesters being sprayed I couldn't help pointing out to everyone that Beth only knows about the 2nd amendment and never heard of the first.
That's when she went in to her denial mode about how state universities are on private public property.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts). . . needs to have a train dropped on their head because they're completely useless.
"YEAH!! I loves getting my wages suppressed! Take AWAY my bargaining rights, I didn't need them silly Comm'nist things any old way!!"
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)"Small minds make great playthings"
midnight
(26,624 posts)CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)Thank you for the hard work you are doing. It's amazing! You also handled that ignorant
bully with grace. I bet he's still fuming!
Good job--all the way around!
Mr Dixon
(1,185 posts)God job
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)and protest with what would normally be anathema to Cons, the petty bureaucratic ordinances that curtail freedom.
Then Big Gov't is okay.
Makes sense in Con World.
Thumper79
(116 posts)of the truck driver's face getting redder and redder and stiffening like a piece of rebar. I wish I was there to see it.
hue
(4,949 posts)Haha! It doesn't look like that guy is on a learning curve!!!
Bozita
(26,955 posts)
B Calm
(28,762 posts)are the same all over the country, DUMB. . and REALLY DUMB.
Hell I know a retired guy who is on a UNION PENSION, collecting SOCIAL SECURITY and MEDICARE and votes REPUBLICAN. TALK ABOUT STUPID!!
themadstork
(899 posts)the way they talk about paying taxes, how tax money is always still "their money" even after they've been paid, and how consequently any publically funded institution uses "their money" to push scary librul agendas.
if taxation is always theft, the idea of a "private public property" makes total sense. it really is the only way limbaugh-types can talk about communal property, communal responsibilities.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)the civic plaza downtown IS public property, you know who the chief complaint is to them dirty occupiers at the Plaza? The City.
AllyCat
(18,846 posts)We must keep up the push.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Roy Ellefson
(279 posts)I wonder if this private public property thing is a new meme from the right wing? Is Rush using that term now? Is FoxNews? They're hearing it somewhere.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)to distilled spirits. The most potent form of the element possible.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...Classic!!
Good grief, these people don't even know what they're mad about, really; they've just had their hind-brain buttons pushed so many times by the right wing noise machine they are in a constant state of frustration and outrage, with little or no factual basis for their anger but a need to express it towards any Evil Libruls they come across.
They're all for the Constitution, until someone they don't like starts to exercise their Constitutional rights. They don't understand that a right that cannot practically be exercised, is not a right at all. They also do not understand the distinction between a right and a privilege. They think "rights" are what they have when they want to walk around packing heat; but "privileges" are what you have when you want to gather signatures. In their tiny little minds, their rights cannot be infringed, but your privileges sure can.
Pathetic.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... our recall volunteers are sooooooo much smarter that we win every time.
recallsnyder2011
(7 posts)I spent many hours this summer with wonderful volunteers and concerned citizens collecting signatures to recall Rick Snyder here in Michigan. The police were called 3 times, several times people came up, said they would not sign and acted offended that we were out there. The local business owners at the strip mall sent their minions out to tell us to leave several times, but finally gave up. We were on public property, not interfering with the flow of traffic, not soliciting anyone except with our signs. Many people practically staggered towards us out of their cars hands outstretched wanting to sign even before we could ask them a few questions so we could get the correct petition.
It was a GREAT time. However, we did not have the support of the state Democratic Party, nor until late in the game the Michigan Education Association. I am glad you have more support and will make it. The working people of America are relying on you to energize the counter-revolution to all of this right wing stupidity.
Many of us were inspired by how you stood up last winter and spring. We are counting on you. Thank you for all you are doing.