So, the GOP in Wisconsin went and did it.

The tactics that have been used all along in this union-busting debacle in Wisconsin have been overtly anti-democratic and bullying.  From the opening salvo a month ago when Governor Walker threatened to use the National Guard to clamp down on any demonstrations over his proposal to end collective bargaining rights for state workers--

what we've been treated to since has been a spectacle of unfairness and over-reaching.  There's this. And this. And this. And this. So why in the world would anyone be surprised that Governor Grabby and the Gross Old Party resorted to this?

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber's missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.

"You are cowards!" spectators in the Senate gallery screamed as lawmakers voted. Within hours, a crowd of a few hundred protesters inside the Capitol had grown to several thousand, more than had been in the building at any point during weeks of protests.

"The whole world is watching!" they shouted as they pressed up against the heavily guarded entrance to the Senate chamber.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair bill" - a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spends money. But Republicans on Wednesday took all the spending measures out of the legislation and a special committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly approved the revised bill a short time later.

Note to Teabaggers--this is what something being "rammed down people's throats" actually looks like.  And this is also what actual freedoms being taken away looks like, courtesy of the Republican party. And this is what very justifiably angry people with purpose look like. They aren't being bussed in by astroturf groups and treated to the stirring support of Joe the Plumber, a folk hero who once...asked then-candidate Obama a slightly contentious question. They have the support of people who demonstrated in all 50 states, and they have been sent pizza and water by people not just here in the States, but all over the world.

I just don't see how this can stand.