January 25, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, January 25, 2010

January 25, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:48 PM :: 7417 Views

LINK>>>Hooser, Hanabusa predict HB444 will bring gay marriage back before Courts

State of State: Lingle to focus on Hawaii's recovery

Lingle said last week that closing the state's projected $1.2 billion deficit through June 2011 was only the minimum task for the state Legislature this year.

"My sense is that this may be one of the most important speeches the governor gives as the State of the State," said Linda Smith, the governor's senior policy adviser. "We're going to be looking forward, in terms of what can be accomplished together over the next 10 months, as opposed to spending a lot of time talking about the many accomplishments the administration has achieved over the past seven years."…

With win behind them, Brown strategists are in demand (in Hawaii)

A congressional candidate in Hawaii wants to hire one of Brown’s fund-raisers….

“Scott Brown has certainly put a lot of wind in the sails of my campaign,’’ said Charles Djou of Hawaii, whose campaign said it is considering hiring Brown’s chief of Internet fund-raising, Patrick Ruffini.

Like Brown, Djou said, “I’m trying to emphasize the needs of the average person and take a common- sense approach. We don’t need another insider.’’

Democrat Bulletin: Republican gathering in Waikiki comes at a time of internal strife

But riding high after Republican Scott Brown's surprise victory in last week's Senate race in another Democratic stronghold, Massachusetts, 168 RNC delegates are arriving Wednesday unconcerned about this state's past political proclivities.

On the heels of Massachusetts, plus GOP triumphs in New Jersey and Virginia governor's races last fall, Republicans are invigorated. . . .

Just as in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey, the GOP has tasted success in recent years in Hawaii in gubernatorial elections. In 2002 Hawaii elected Linda Lingle its first Republican governor since William Quinn in 1959, when statehood was granted. Lingle was re-elected by an almost 2-to-1 margin in 2006.

(They managed to write the entire article without a single mention of Charles Djou. Antonio Gramsci is pleased.)

Law that sank Superferry could also halt rail transit (Blame game begins!)

(So how does Mufi run for Gov with rail dead? Does he say, getting me elected is the only way to see this project through?)

While the environmental review law is the common thread connecting the ferry and rail, how it is used in each case is different.

Courts ruled that Lingle's administration should have required an environmental impact statement for the Superferry before giving it the go-ahead, a decision that eventually resulted in the ferry company filing for bankruptcy last May.

The rail project has gone through the environmental process, but its opponents argue that the review neglected consideration of its high cost and the possibility of street-level service.

Lingle objects to the suggestion that the projects are similar. "This is a silly comparison with no basis in reality," Lingle said at the American Institute of Architects' forum last Monday.

Rail backers disagree.

The project could fail depending on Lingle's decision, which is what happened to the Superferry, said Honolulu Managing Director Kirk Caldwell.

"She's playing a game of walking along the edge of a cliff, and the whole project could fall over it and die," Caldwell said. "It's the political decisions of the governor that would be to blame."

(Attention anti-railers. This is the sound of victory approaching. The pro-Railers are already pointing fingers of blame for a failure they see coming.)

2 former staffers oppose Kubo (typical Dem bs--Kubo will not be judge)

ICE Special Agent Evelyn Delos Reyes Ramo obtained a restraining order in November 2008 against her former boyfriend, who worked as an immigration enforcement agent.

The restraining order, which is in effect until May, was granted after Ramo alleged that Jonathan Winnop threatened to kill her on multiple occasions and physically abused her by "punching, kicking, slapping ... spitting on me ... choking me with his hands, holding a knife to me ... and put(ting) his foot on my throat until I would pass out."

Kubo's office filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case in March 2009, which Inciong alleged was an improper attempt to "ease the conditions" of the restraining order against Winnop….

When Muehleck, a U.S. Army Reserve officer, returned to work in 2008 from a yearlong deployment to Iraq, he was upset to learn that a parking space he had previously used at the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area offices here was no longer available to him, Kubo told the committee. (Did he say parking space? Why yes he did!)

He was so angry about the issue and other matters that at one point he said about Kubo, "If I had a hand grenade now I would frag him," Slom said Kubo testified.

(This is typical Hawaii Democrat playbook bs which will now serve as an excuse to deny Kubo his judgeship. That’s OK, Kubo will make an excellent candidate for Honolulu County Prosecutor after Carlisle takes Mayor’s seat from Captain Kirk. Then in 8 years, Kubo can become Mayor when Pete becomes Gov and in 8 more years Kubo will be Gov. After 32 years of Lingle, Aiona, Carlisle, Kubo will there be any Democrats left? Just something for Mr Taniguchi to think about. The future of his party hangs in the balance.)

ADV instructs Mazie Hirono to stop being such a bone-headed socialist

(The election of Scott Brown) changed the narrative about health care reform, from talk of a near inevitability to the tale of a creature bound for extinction.

That can't be allowed to happen. Congress must start the process of reform with the vehicle most likely to succeed — the Senate bill, paired with a raft of amendments aimed at improving affordability and strengthening elements that "bend the cost curve," as Obama likes to say.

(This editorial exists solely for the purpose of shifting Hirono out of the “socialism or bust” caucus. It represents a futile effort to salvage the Senate version Obamacare bill which could go to Obama’s desk if it passed the House un-amended. Fortunately there are too many bone-headed socialists like Hirono who won’t vote for it. So it has no chance. The fact that the ADV writes many such editorials which focus solely on the internal discipline of Democrats, shows that the ADV is a Democratic Party organ concerned not with te public interest, but with the narrow interest of internal Party discipline.)

Former OHA trustee to head Hawaii Democrats

"I think Dante will serve the party very well," Schatz said. "He's got a lot of credibility. He'll be a great leader in a very important year."

Carpenter is to serve as interim head until the 51,000-member party holds its convention May 28-30.

Carpenter, 75, who served as Big Island mayor from 1984 to '88, said he is taking the job only on an interim basis. "I'm making sure the ball's not dropped," he said. "These are serious times."

Hawaii needs to reform its health care system, too (by Hospital Assn Head)

Sens. Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka have been successful in including a provision that would permanently re-instate federal funds to support hospitals that provide care to patients who do not have health care insurance and who are so poor that they cannot afford to pay for their care. Hawaii is currently one of only two states that do not receive these federal funds, called Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, on a permanent basis.

These federal funds, which have been available to Hawaii on a year-to-year basis, must be matched by state funds. For several years the state Legislature has approved these appropriations, and the governor has released the state funds, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of combined state and federal funds to support Hawaii's hospitals for uncompensated care. This year the governor withheld state matching funds. Representatives of her administration are trying to develop an alternate source of funding. If they are not successful, she should release the state matching funds.

No mention of this: Legislative Report: Convert HHSC to non-profit, dump civil service (full text) or this …

CRCH Faculty: Greenwood conducted fake search for Cancer Center head

But the new resolution says a vote of the full search committee "to advance the in-house candidate to finalist status reportedly never occurred, raising questions as to how Dr. Carbone was included among the finalists," and a full committee discussion about the finalists was not allowed.

"The chancellor inappropriately interjected herself into the final deliberation of the committee," the resolution said. "It does not appear that legitimate negotiations ever took place between the chancellor's office and other qualified finalists for the position." The measure also says the chancellor ignored a requirement for five years of administrative experience and "written concerns of the majority of CRCH faculty."

Nineteen of 22 cancer researchers in a vote favored Steven Patierno, executive director of the George Washington University Cancer Institute, for the permanent appointment. A close second choice was Anthony Shields, associate center director for clinical research at Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit.

Greenwood is as Greenwood does: Executive compensation at UC: MRC Greenwood and the $871 million secret

SB: Flawed ruling intensifies push for clean (socialized) elections

Supreme Court defends free speech, socialists respond by seeking to nationalize elections.

REALITY: 5-4: Supreme Court rejects FEC bans of books, movies critical of candidates

Abercrombie (D-Hezbollah) out as chair of Terrorism Subcommittee

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., has been selected to head the u.s. House Armed Services terrorism, unconventional threats and capabilities subcommittee, and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., will head the air and land forces subcommittee.

The changes were made possible by the coming departure of Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, who is leaving Congress to run for governor. Abercrombie resigned as chairman of the air and land forces subcommittee Jan. 20.

(While one may be inclined to celebrate the departure of Neil Abercrombie (D-Hezbollah) from his position overseeing terrorism, Loretta Sanchez is from the district from which Adam Gadahn was recruited to alQaeda. Gadahn is now in Pakistan serving as an alQaeda spokesperson. In this fall’s election Sanchez will be depending in part on Orange County Muslim voters, making her susceptible to the demands of CAIR and others.)

Neil Abercrombie (D-Hezbollah)

International Study nails Honolulu as least affordable US housing market (8.2 times median income)

The just released 6th Annual International Housing Affordability Survey, covering 272 markets in 6 nations (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand), documents Honolulu as the least affordable market in the United States and only 5 markets have worse affordability out of the 6 nations.

With a Median Multiple (median house price divided by gross median household income) of 8.2, Honolulu housing is more than 2.5 times the historic norm of 3.0.

What was the ceded lands case all about? Oh that’s right OHA was trying to block Waihee from building …(drumroll please)…affordable housing. (Cymbals clash)

Full Report: http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

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Kalapa: Yes, even a white lie can come back to haunt

With a downturn in the economy during the mid-1990s, lawmakers turned to their stashes of money they had set aside in special funds and raided those funds to keep state government operating. While this all may have sounded like prudence on the part of the Legislature, what it amounted to was deception as lawmakers were less than honest with taxpayers that the state had accumulated a substantial surplus, excess money if you will, that could have been put back into taxpayers' pockets and could have been spent by taxpayers in the state's economy.

More importantly, this led lawmakers to the practice of creating special funds with dedicated revenue sources for their own pet projects. These are projects that probably could not have competed for state general funds because they were not critical services or the services they provided did not provide a good return for the dollars spent. So, lawmakers set up these programs with special funds and gave them their own dedicated sources of funding.

The problem with that is technically the size of government has grown, but out of the watchful eye of not only taxpayers, but lawmakers who pay little attention to these programs because they are financed with special funds. Nonetheless, these are programs and resources that should have been financed through the general fund. Thus, Hawaii's taxpayers are being asked to pay for a government that is much too large for the state's economy to support.