Now, WHO, exactly, "damaged" the Wisconsin State Capitol?

[img_assist|nid=50776|title=Capitol|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=76|height=100]Besides the fact that original fears of damage were vastly overhyped, there's one other problem no one has really mentioned: It wasn't just the protesters who put up signs at the Capitol. All the protest messages are gone, and preservationists have since said that for the most part they were carefully affixed and removed, leaving no marks. Yet, some of the government's own architecturally questionable signs are still taped to wooden doors and marble columns throughout the mostly pristine building. PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF, BELOW THE FOLD; HIT "READ MORE"

By latest estimate, damage (or "wear and tear," if you prefer a more value-neutral label) resulting from weeks of protests in the Capitol will be $279,000. Which probably is about what a Koch brothers building maintenance subsidiary would charge for a month of floor polishing. The good news is this new estimate is way down from the $7.5 million that the Department of Administration orgiinally estimated, prompting wingnuts to decry all the "destruction" at the Capitol. The bad news is that conservative bloggers and politicians and pundits are still shouting that "thugs" and "slobs" inflicted great and expensive harm upon the people's building. In particular, they point to preservationist worries that, in using some kinds of sticky tape to hang their protest signs, citizens may have damaged the building's spectacular marble floor, hand rails and columns.

But now, given the photos below, which show government signs taped to wooden doors and marble columns, someone needs to ask: How much of that $279,000 in thuggish, slobbish damage should we re-allocate to the Walker administration itself? Ah, but I can foresee the Walker administrations Vietnamesque answer: The government was forced to risk damaging the building -- along with the public's right to enter it freely -- in order to save it.

Yes, it's true: What's wrong and possibly illegal behavior for ordinary citizens is perfectly acceptable behavior on the part of your governor and his minions.

Check out the following photos, which are from a larger collection showing similar signs throught the Capitol (these snaps were passed along to me, so Man MKE doesn't deserve a photo credit). Also, ask your favorite Republican legislator next time you encounter them whether "no firearms allowed" signs in the Capitol are at all cognitively dissonant, given their party's rush to enact a concealed weapons law for pretty much every other place in Wisconsin except where they, themselves, work: