The world is watching Wisconsin. Because it’s clear if Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature succeed in their attacks against the middle class there, it can happen across the United States.

Wow. Amazing support for Wisconsin workers under siege. This in from Maine state Rep. Diane Russell.

I grew up quite poor in western Maine. The only reason I have the chance to serve the people of this great state is because of public financing. The great thing about public financing is that I am entirely beholden to the best interests of my people, not to the Corporatocracy that has taken over our democratic Republic.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on working families are not about shoring up state finances, economist Paul Krugman correctly points out today.

New Yorkers looked particularily festive in their bright yellow swiss cheese hats today, as hundreds became honorary Cheeseheads while marching in solidarity with embattled workers in Wisconsin.

Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga will be on the Union Edge radio program today to discuss the assault on the state’s middle class by Republican Gov. John Kasich and Republicans in the state legislature.

Listen here between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET.

Hats off to economist Dean Baker for putting into perspective Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attempts to decimate family-supporting wages and benefits and take away state employees’ freedom to bargain. Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, writes today:

You have to give Gov. Walker and his wealthy patrons credit. Here we have a situation where Wall Street fat cats wrecked the economy—people like Richard Fuld, Robert Rubin, and Angelo Mozilo—and they’ve  somehow managed to blame schoolteachers and the highway patrol.

Democratic members of the Wisconsin state legislature will stay out of the Capitol until Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators drop their assault on workers, reports Greg Sargent on The Washington Post’s Plum Line blog.

Just got a report from some of our folks on the ground in Columbus, Ohio: more than 5,000 people—firefighters, teachers, small business leaders, community members and other public-service workers—filled the statehouse again today to show their opposition to Senate Bill 5 which would  eliminate collective bargaining rights for all state workers, including faculty and staff at Ohio state colleges and universities.

Law enforcement officers have been sent to hunt down Wisconsin Democratic state lawmakers who are boycotting a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attempts to gut pay and destroy bargaining rights for state employees. Walker earlier threatened to call the National Guard on public employees and their allies if they protested or went on strike against his attacks on the middle class.

This in from Organizing for America‘s Jessie Lidbury, live from Madison, Wis.:

“Protect our state!” came the cry from the Capitol streets. They were lined with workers, students and rights activists who hope that Gov. Walker and our state legislature will hear their voices above the noise of their own interests.