The Frontlines of American Protests: Madison, Wisconsin

Sea of Red: Protesters take over the Rotunda
No, that's not fans heading to a Wisconsin Badger football game, rather they are angered citizens of Wisconsin exercising their right to protest grotesque cuts in the state's budget, that will drastically affect their paychecks.

The frontlines have moved to Wisconsin, where 14 Democratic state senators fled the state in order to boycott a vote on a controversial budget that would have crushed any collective bargaining leverage that unions used in negotiations with state legislators (including outlawing the right to strike). When Democratic state senators failed to show up for a vote, their defiant act angered Tea Party/GOP Governor Scott Walker. The "14" state senators who skipped the vote were chased down by Wisconsin state troopers (via orders from Gov. Walker), but in a move straight out of The Dukes of Nazzard, they apparently evaded the fuzz by crossing over the state line and into Illinois (out of Wisconsin law enforcement officials' jurisdiction).

Meanwhile, for the last few days, throngs of protesters (a combination of state workers, teachers, and firemen) gathered at the capitol in Madison, WI to voice their dissent. As one writer put it, "Egypt's revolution has come to Madison."

For a second day in a row, classes in school have been canceled.

Here's stunning cool pics of the protests from Atlantic (including the image used above).

Here's last night's edition of The ED Show...