April 13, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

April 13, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:47 PM :: 6613 Views

LINK>>>Larry Mehau supporting Neil Abercrombie

LINK>>>VIDEO: Tied for lead, Djou launches new campaign commercial

LINK>>>Lingle to SoS Protesters: DoE selected furlough schedule to “maximize disruption to the school calendar”

LINK>>>SB2434: Furloughs? Legislature finds funds to raise Matayoshi's salary

KITV: New Poll: Case, Djou Tied In Special Election

In January, when KITV4 and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin conducted the last poll that went public, Case was the clear leader. The former congressman had 37 percent of the vote, followed by Senate President Hanabusa in second place with close to 25 percent. Councilman Djou, a Republican, trailed in third with 17 percent of the vote.

But according to a more recent poll reported by Atlantic magazine, Case and Djou are now tied with 32 percent of the vote, with Hanabusa in third place at 27 percent. About nine percent of the respondents were undecided, Atlantic reported, citing a Democratic source who’d seen results of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee poll.

Djou is elated with the results, saying, “Momentum has clearly shifted in favor of our campaign and this is certainly something that I'm very excited about."

"It clearly shows that our message is resonating with the people of Hawaii. That Congress is taking our nation in the wrong direction and we need a greater sense of fiscal responsibility," Djou said.

HFP: Poll: Djou tied for lead in Congressional race

Hawaii oil tax hike nears final vote: Bill that blocks DHS cuts also expedited to force Lingle to take quick action

Expecting vetoes by Gov. Linda Lingle, state House and Senate leaders yesterday placed several potentially contentious bills in position for final votes this week, including an increase in the barrel tax and an attempt to block the state from closing eligibility offices on the Neighbor Islands that ~~help~~ rope in the poor….

Some lawmakers and environmentalists were disappointed yesterday that much of the barrel tax hike would go to reduce the state's budget deficit. Lawmakers estimated that $13.2 million would go toward the deficit, while $8.8 million would be ~~directed to~~ wasted on ~~alternative energy and food security programs~~ make-work for eco-activists and fake businesses for people like Neil Abercrombie’s campaign chair.

(The ecos have to be paid off because they invented and promulgated the idea that an oil tax is in and of itself a good thing because oil it too cheap. Those who have fallen for such an idiotic idea are a valuable voting bloc to the unions who need taxpayers to keep forking out so that their members can play solitaire on the computer at the State office 8hrs a day.)

SB: Bill would increase tax on oil

9 protesters cited for trespassing: Gov. Lingle says Save Our Schools has falsely characterized her effort to get kids back in class

The nine people were scheduled to appear in Honolulu District Court at 8:30 a.m. May 10. (Cue circus: Clowns! Lights, camera, action!)

SB starts digging into the political alliegances of the protesters. Just a bunch of Democrats.

Hanusz, who was cited Friday but not last night, works as a lawyer assisting immigrants (a progressive)
Kleiber, 66, of St. Louis Heights, who works as a religious educator for the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, was a University of Hawaii lecturer until a year ago, when her position was cut. (Obama’s progressive surrender church and a UHPA member)
Marguerite Higa, another Save Our Schools member, works as an assistant professor in zoology at the University of Hawaii and brought her 8-year-old daughter. (UHPA member)
Doyle, a junior at the University of Hawaii who lives in Kapolei, said he works on weekends as a service assistant at a movie theater. Doyle formed a student group called Defend Hawaii Education (A progressive student activist)

ADV joins SoS: Lingle should have stopped this sideshow (Blames Lingle for not talking to union shills of SoS. ADV insults readers by promulgating idea that these protesters are just concerned parents instead of professional activists.)

Full Text: Lingle to SoS Protesters: DoE selected furlough schedule to “maximize disruption to the school calendar”

Furloughs: How Unions and the DoE aim to co-opt protesting parents

Furloughs: Advertiser sides with “sustainability” billionaires against “Save our Sports”

Prison Guard’s Alleged threat against senator probed: Statement tied to proposed cuts at Hālawa facility

The officer allegedly told one of Kim's staffers that it would be Kim's fault if she were to get shot while driving around.

"It seemed like a threat," Kim said.

Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, said internal affairs investigators spoke with Kim's staff on Friday and yesterday.

"It's a formal investigation," Frank said.

Kim said the union has apologized and tried to explain that the woman was referring to the potential for the senator to be shot by a gang member.

(Right: A member of the notorious UPW gang.)

Tax collections down 1.6 percent

General-excise and use taxes, the largest single category of revenues, are off 4.4 percent. Hotel-room taxes are up 5 percent. Income tax revenue is up 9.3 percent. Corporate tax revenue is down 26 percent.

Council seeks 'careful' cuts property tax hikes, gas tax hike to feed HGEA, UPW

Members haven't yet decided whether to accept a new property tax rate proposed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann for the "nonhomeowner" category comprising residential properties with absentee owners.

If the new rate is rejected, the council would have to find about $18 million somewhere else, Garcia said.

Also under consideration is a proposed 3-cent-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax….

Several city department heads told the committee yesterday that they already are operating on lean budgets, and a 1.5 percent reduction in spending would likely translate into layoffs or program cuts.

Gordon Bruce, director of the Department of Information Technology, told members the proposed cuts would "result in warm body" reductions and would force the city to hold off on a project to replace a decade-old e-mail system.

SB: Council ax hovers over programs

Panos: Rail is a gravy train only for its promoters

The ACEC-Hawaii article urges us that "we need to trust the process." Let me explain why the process does not work:

Three scientists—Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University and Massimo Garbuio and Dan Lorvallo of the University of Sydney—analyzed 44 urban rail projects and found that the average construction cost overrun in constant prices was 45 percent. For a quarter of the projects, cost overruns were at least 60 percent. Passenger ridership was 50 percent lower than forecast. For a quarter of the projects, ridership was at least 70 percent lower than estimated.

A slogan they offered was "over budget, over time, over and over again."

SB: Cooperate on Turtle Bay

Gov. Linda Lingle proposed more than two years ago that the state buy the Turtle Bay Resort to preserve the 850 acres of undeveloped resort-owned land and resell the existing resort to a hotelier. Similar transactions had been employed at Waimea Valley and the Pupukea-Paumalu coastal bluffs to the North Shore.

Good idea in concept—but those deals were completed in better economic times, and the state no longer is capable of carrying through with such a strategy at Turtle Bay. That means the consortium is likely to continue looking for a buyer that can offer a price without risking another legal collision.

If the court battle has ended, community groups that brought the lawsuit under the moniker Keep the North Shore Country, joined by the Sierra Club, should seek a solution that includes prosperity and jobs. Turtle Bay's owners should welcome such cooperation.

(Land swap for construction of affordable housing on Oahu—except that the Sierra Club is against it…unless A&B could somehow benefit, in which the Sierra Club is for it.)

The Plight of Aloha Airlines is Emblematic of What Ails Hawaii

While individual lawmakers bask in their efforts to protect the “aina” or to protect families, or to protect education, the one thing that almost all lawmakers have forgotten is to protect is our state’s economy. And that is what is now striking home as state revenues shrivel, families leave the state and businesses are forced to close down. It is not that lawmakers were not given fair warning as Hawaii has gone through these cycles before.

What is a first this time is that Hawaii’s draconian economic climate has been overlaid with a national and global downturn that has underscored what a poor business climate Hawaii maintains. That, indeed, has to change if Hawaii and its people are to survive.

Two Hawaii hospitals win national awards (a first)

Hawaii Medical Center-East and Tripler Army Medical Center have won the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer outstanding achievement award for 2009.

Hawaii House Race: Turf Fight in Paradise

Clearly, Democrats are concerned about Djou, as they should be. It appears that the Republicans are running the best candidate the GOP has fielded in years. Djou, 39, started fundraising for this campaign years ago, and has lined up respected advisers such as Web guru Patrick Ruffini and The Tarrance Group, a respected polling firm. His advantages don't end there. Djou tells me he is the only candidate in the race who actually resides in the 1^st District. Nor are those Democrats exactly political giants: Case previously defeated Hanabusa for the 2^nd congressional seat in a 2002 special election. He then abandoned his seat to run against Akaka in 2006. Hanabusa narrowly lost a congressional primary in 2006 in the 2^nd District.

Honolulu is the capital and largest city in Hawaii, and Djou, who serves on the City Council, is well known and highly qualified. He served as minority floor leader in the Hawaii Legislature, has a military background (he serves in the U.S. Army Reserve), is a law professor (on sabbatical at the University of Hawaii). He also is self-deprecating and easy-going -- always a plus in laid-back Hawaii -- and mainstream in his views. He is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate -- something that might harm him in other states, but which benefits him in Hawaii. In other words, he is a difficult candidate for Democrats to demonize.

DCCC attacks Hawaii Republican for signing no tax increase pledge

According to Mr. Norquist, this is the first time the ATR pledge is being attacked in a campaign ad. "The pledge is not new. Its not something that started last week. The language is clear itself. The actual wording of the pledge has been up since 1986."

"When Democrats have taken the pledge in some cases, the unions have gone after them, but I don’t think they have gone after [the pledge] with ads. I can’t think of a case where a candidate has been attacked for promising no to raise taxes. It’s a unique approach to campaigning. It raises the question, ‘what taxes are you for?'

Mr. Norquist also pointed out that President Obama made his own personal pledge which was no tax increases on anyone who made less than $250,000 a year, but that there are about seven or eight tax increases on people who don’t fit into that category in the health care bill.

"Sixteen days into his presidency he signed a bill which raised taxes on tobacco users. It was a specific tax targeting lower income and middle income earners. Democrats will to have to explain why they want to get into conversations about pledges, since the one pledge that the president did take, they have repeatedly broken."