"Sloop John B"

WASHINGTON – A new Rasmussen poll found Thursday that a clear majority of Wisconsin voters oppose Gov. Scott Walker's (R) efforts to strip collective bargaining rights for public employee unions.

Fifty-two percent said they oppose weakening collective bargaining rights, while 39 percent were in favor of it.

Recent surveys by the New York Times/CBS, Wall Street Journal/NBC, Pew, and Gallup all found majority or plurality support across the country for maintaining the collective bargaining rights of unionized state workers.

A national poll last month by Rasmussen, whose surveys tend to favor of conservative ideas and lawmakers, was widely cited by Walker's supporters after it found support for curtailing those rights. Its accuracy was disputed by New York Times polling expert Nate Silver.

The Rasmussen figures put Walker and his allies in a tough position over what has grown into a high-profile standoff in his state, as Wisconsin Democrats weeks ago fled the state to protest the measure.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/03/rasmussen-poll-wisconsin-voters-support-collective-bargaining-rights/

We come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home

Here's something for your "can this possibly be for real" file this morning. Over at the Buffalo Beast -- the former print alt-weekly turned online newspaper founded by onetime editor Matt Taibbi, typically best known for its annual list of "The 50 Most Loathsome Americans" -- there appear to be recordings of a phone call between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and current editor Ian Murphy. Now, why on earth would Scott Walker want to talk on the phone with the editor of an online site in Buffalo? Well, he wouldn't.

But what if said editor pretended to be David Koch of the famed Koch Brothers? Well, that's a different story altogether, apparently! And so Walker, believing himself to be on the phone with his patron, seems to have had a long conversation about busting Wisconsin's unions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/23/scott-walker-buffalo-beast-phone-prank_n_827058.html

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home

Gov. Scott Walker's office, meanwhile, would issue only a vague statement saying simply that the administration planned to carry out the law as required.

The move is just the latest in a series of parliamentary and legal maneuvers employed over the past six weeks to enact a bill that prompted Senate Democrats to flee the state to block a vote and brought on waves of Capitol protests that grew larger than 85,000 people as Wisconsin became the center of a national fight over union rights.

Ultimately, the law's fate likely will be up to the state Supreme Court to decide. A state appeals court earlier in the week asked the Supreme Court to take up one of several lawsuits challenging its approval.

The latest chaos began Friday after the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law at 3:15 p.m.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/wisconsin-union-law-publi_n_840870.html

The first mate he got drunk
And broke in the Cap'n's trunk
The constable had to come and take him away
Sheriff John Stone
Why don't you leave me alone, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home

A deputy prosecutor in Johnson County, Indiana, has resigned his job after it was revealed that in February, during the large protests in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union bill, he e-mailed Walker's office and recommended that they conduct a "false flag operation" -- to fake an assault or assassination attempt on Walker in order to discredit the unions and protesters.

As Wisconsin Watch, a project of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reports, Carlos Lam initially denied that he had sent the e-mail, which was part of the tens of thousands of e-mails released in an open-records settlement the Walker administration reached with the local paper the Isthmus and the Associated Press.

When contacted by Wisconsin Watch, Lam had initially denied sending the e-mail, claiming that he had been the victim of identity theft, and said he did not support the criminal activities described in the e-mail: , "I think he's trying to do what he has to do to get his budget balanced. But jeez, that's taking it a little bit to the extreme."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/indiana-prosecutor-encouraged-false-flag-assault-on-walker-to-discredit-wisconsin-unions.php?ref=fpb

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is rapidly losing support from his constituents as he continues to push budget proposals that would cut collective bargaining rights and benefits for most of the states public employee unions, according to new data from a PPP poll, a poll whose results TPM first reported on Monday. His support has slipped so much that, after just two months in office, voters are now evenly divided over whether he should be recalled.

A majority of Wisconsin voters now disapprove of Walker's job performance, a reversal from the positive approval rating he enjoyed immediately after election day. Further, most voters support collective bargaining rights for the state's public employee unions, and oppose Walker's proposal to cut those same rights.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/poll-wisconsin-voters-turn-on-gov-walker-back-state-unions.php

The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn
Let me go home
Why don't they let me go home
This is the worst trip I've ever been on

Walker: "I got layoff notices ready... and 5 to 6 thousand state workers will get notices [...] If they think I'm caving, they've been asleep for the past 8 years.... I don't budge."

Murphy-as-Koch: Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I’d do.

Walker: I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that. I have a slugger with my name on it.

Of course, that's pretty much what Walker has been telling state Democrats and voters, too. So this may be the first time in history a governor is actually saying what he  thinks.

The Nation’s John Nichols told MSNBC’s The Ed Show last night that Walker's attack on unions has mobilized the state's citizens, and their anger is spreading throughout the country. After Walker signed the bill to end collective bargaining for most public workers this morning, protesters took to the streets, and thousands more are expected to turn up tomorrow for rallies across the state

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don't you let me go home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdov2UIjUpY&feature=related