Fresh from stealing workers’ rights to bargain for good, middle-class jobs, Wisconsin’s Republican state legislators were met by hundreds of  protesters tonight in Washington, D.C.

Just what is behind the National Football League (NFL) owners’ lockout of the players this past weekend when talks for a new collective bargaining agreement broke off? James Surowiecki of The New Yorker writes in this week’s edition:

It’s about very rich businessmen thinking that they should be even richer.

A Bloomberg National Poll just out finds that 64 percent of Americans, including a plurality of Republicans, oppose Republican-led efforts to take away the right of workers to bargain for good middle-class jobs. The poll also finds public employees are viewed favorably by a large majority: 72 percent, compared with 17 percent who have an unfavorable view.

More info out now on the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll we reported on yesterday that shows 62 percent of the public believes it’s unacceptable to eliminate state employees’ collective bargaining rights. That’s nearly double the 33 percent who thinks it’s acceptable.

The chief of security for the Upper Big Branch Mine has been arrested and charged with two felonies for allegedly lying to the FBI and obstructing justice in the investigation of the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners last April.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told tens of thousands of workers that if they lose their jobs because of unfair trade practices tough luck, just pull yourselves up by your Chinese-made bootstraps.

The attacks on firefighters and other public employees by state politicians like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) are “like a tsunami rolling across the country….The attacks have never been greater, more serious or so vicious,” says Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger.

Across the country, state politicians are in “States of Denial.” Instead of creating jobs and solving the problems of middle-class working families, newly elected Republican legislators and governors are pushing legislation to cut good jobs and benefits, lower wages, threaten job safety and weaken unions.

How’s this for a demonstration of cause and effect?

Cause—Yesterday, some 200 activists, led by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) rallied outside Blue Shield’s San Francisco corporate headquarters to protest the health insurance giant’s premium hikes of as much as 59 percent for California consumers.

Alpha Natural Resources has reached an $8.5 billion deal to buy Massey Energy Corp., owner of the Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) coal mine where 29 miners were killed in an April explosion, and owner of other mines with long histories of safety and health violations.