What’s missing here?

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The Wisconsin State Bar is going to be showing roughly 700 commercials during the farce that is the Beijing Olympics. Obviously, an organization formed in part to protect human rights and the rule of law should refuse on principle to have anything to do with games held in a nation as repressive and authoritarian as China.

Nevertheless, at its Website, the Bar is touting its commercials as if it is doing something grand for all of us.

Here’s the funny part of the post: “a survey and state and local bar leaders completed in 2000 revealed that more than three-fourths of the respondents believed that the State Bar should lead a message development campaign on behalf of members to improve the image of the profession.”

You know, I bet three-fourths of high-ranking members in the Chinese government think it’s a good thing to murder members of Falun Gong, sterilize women against their will, and roll over protesting students with tanks.

But I suspect that, among the citizens of China, support for their government’s repression is much lower. And I can guarantee that, among the rank and file members of the Wisconsin State Bar, three-fourths oppose the Bar’s squandering their mandatory dues on TV commercials.

Incidentally, the Bar’s post doesn’t say how much of our money they are spending (for our own good, of course, whether we like it or not). I talked to Tom Solberg this morning, and he informed me that the figure is roughly $17,000.

http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Inside_The_Bar1&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&contentid=73435