http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110217/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

The moral is, if you can't win through a voting democracy, flee the state and have your chronies protest and upset the system.  What a disgusting show of politics. 

Another state JUST did this too. There's just no words I can string into a sentence to express how sickening and pathetic this is.

Must be Sara Palin's fault.

Republic - A government system in which adherence to a charter is law.

Representative Democracy - A government system where elected officials decide the outcome based on majority. Unless they don't like what's being proposed and they know they're the minority. Then they can just run away.

Gov Walker as well as Abercombie and others have got to understand that if the unions are broken, then it is a return to the "Robber Barons" of industry.

For a long time, the unions leveled the playing field and help raise the standard of living not only for them but for the rest of the general public.

Why do you think that government wants to break the power of unions?

Admittly, Some unions have gotten too greedy.

They should understand their faults and work to change the SystemS accordingly.

Abercombie and I went to the UH at the same time.  Never knew him personally,

I considered him an Anti-Viet Nam Pot Smoking Hippe then and I Still consider him the same NOW.

He did INHALE

Never liked him then and I still don't.

Unions did get too greedy.  They overstep their purpose and goals of fair work practice and wages. FAIR.  They killed, and are killing this state too.  I envision Hawaii's deficit too grow to ridiculous proportions, such as we are seeing in Wisconsin now. Our legislature, at the moment, seems to not even care about the MAJOR issues that are banging on the door here today. Instead they make up stupid laws about banning toy guns, speakers, and cramming legislation down our throats that the people of Hawaii already voted for, and denounced.  Sad part about it is I doubt the people here will ever elect a government that will stand up for the tough issues.  There will be even more tents lining the streets of Honolulu, more sink holes on the H1, more people standing in the line with food stamps in hand,  while these people sit up in their office, in that square building, trying to figure out how they can separate the few remaining people with jobs from their hard earned money! /rant

THIS article in the WSJ compares and contrasts Tea Party gatherings against the current Wisconsin public employee union protests (guess who is actually guilty of the things they accuse the other of?), but also goes into the important distinction between public and private sector unions:

"Industrial unions are organized against the might and greed of ownership," writes Time's Joe Klein, a liberal who understands the crucial distinction. "Public employees unions are organized against the might and greed . . . of the public?"

This makes sense to me.  Except that we can see what happened to the likes of GM and Chrysler since those private sector unions are too powerful.  The HGEA here are the same as those we see protesting in Wisconsin right?