Ian's Pizza and Tom Morello in Wisconsin

It has not been confirmed that Ian's Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin received an order for a pizza from Egypt for the protestors. But they did get orders from 38 states and over a dozen countries for the pizzas in solidarity with the demonstrators.

But Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine did get a letter from one of the leaders of the Egyptian uprising in support of the Wisconsin demonstrators. Last I watched he read the letter twice --once outside with the demonstrators and again inside the capital rotunda.

Rasmussen thought he was quick to produce a poll which showed support for Governor Walkers' position against union. Unfortunately, this was quickly debunked by an AFL-CIO poll that showed 67% support for public workers,62% for the demonstrators and 59% for unions in the state. Greenberg polling's results mirrored those of the union polling.

The Tea Party Express issued a memo to members to try and infiltrate the demonstrators and alter the "optics" of the rallies by appearing to make provocative statements to the press and taking actions to bring criticism on the demonstrators.

This must have been a raging success because the State Police wrote a thank-you letter to the demonstrators for their conduct and stated there had not been a single arrest the whole week while they were protesting.

Our own mainstream press has been slowly getting around to understanding that this demonstration is against union-busting and that it's not about budgets. The Diane Rehm show had a discussion on NPR yesterday with a CATO Institute writer, the economist for the AFL-CIO and the head of ASCFME. It was no contest--the CATO institute guy kept referring to himself as working in the private sector--the non-profit--and claimed that public workers earned more than workers in the private sector. He also claimed that public workers were the "new elite" of the country with a monopoly. Even the callers to the show didn't buy his argument. The AFL-CIO economist just eviscerated his arguments and raised the issue of who did create the deficits in the country. In my mind, the argument was won by the President of ASCFME who reminded the audience that the average pension of one of his union members is a whopping $19,000.

Even the Washington Post and New York Times finally caught on to the Wisconsin scam. And scam it is. Buried in the same budget bill is a little clause that the Governor can sell its heating and cooling plants to the private sector on a no-bid basis. Bubbling up from the leftwing blogs was an analysis of how this was tailored made for the Koch Brothers, who already own alot of the state. Now this story has moved to the Huffington Post and hopefully will make the mainstream media. Don't hold your breath.

As I noted around election time, Walker won because of a concentrated voter suppression campaign run by the tea party. Also in this session's bills are attempts to tightened the requirements for Voter IDs so as to further restrict the voting base. Wisconsin had started a same-day registration process ,which also will be rescinded.

Walker, who had a whopping 41% approval rate just after the election, also wants to throw 1.5 million off Medicaid and the programs like Badgercare, etc.

What Wisconsin highlights in dramatic form is the New Republican agenda. Even a Walker friendly newspaper commented that the whole deficit could have been wiped out with an additional 6 cent a keg tax on beer! Instead, this is the full scale ideological shock therapy. If we were talking about states like California with massive budget issues, the situation would be more confused as such a state would be fighting for its financial survival. But Wisconsin is not. Walker did the nation a great favor by letting it all hang out. This has fueled the labor demonstrations in Indiana and Ohio.

What's interesting is that newly elected Michigan governor Snyder, a Republican, has been forced to make at least two speeches saying he would not do the same thing. Like-wise Chris Chrissie of New Jersey faced with a Democratic legislature has also said he would not engage in union-busting.

While the Wisconsin demonstrators have captured the imagination of the nation, let's be honest--Democrats and Independents together compose an overwhelming majority in the state but they did not come out to vote in 2010 like the Republicans and the results we see today. You get the government you don't vote for. Now all the non-Voters are responding to the disaster they allowed to happen.