Advertiser closes out by considering self-censorship
Star-Advertiser planned over 15 months ago
Neil Abercrombies struts his Gay Pride in Waikiki Parade (complete list of politicians in attendance)
Politicians who took part in Honolulu’s Gay Pride parade, according to Civil Beat:
- Neil Abercrombie,
- Rep. Lyla “Islam Day” Berg,
- Sen Gary Hooser,
- Rep Jon RIki “DUI” Karimatsu,
- Rich Turbin candidate for City Council,
- Dem Chair Dante Carpenter,
- Eric Gill of Unite HERE Local 5 (instrumental in electing Kim Coco Iwamoto to BoE and in passing a law requiring hotels to rent rooms to men dressed as women), carried a “sleep with the right people” sign
- former Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Steven “Broken Trust” Levinson, the inventor of gay marriage (no judicial activist, he, eh?).
- “Honolulu Managing Director Kirk Caldwell gave parade organizers a proclamation but did not attend.”
The parade was coordinated by atheist and convicted thief Michael Golujuch Jr. who has pulled papers to run against Sen. Mike Gabbard in the Dem Primary.
HNN: Annual LGBT parade has political meaning this year
CB: Four Couples And The Civil Unions Bill
Golujuch’s “aka Bitch Bear” myspace page and comment board and “Aloha Bears”
Somebody didn’t read: The Overhauling of Straight America
ALSO: Drunks, tax cheats, and other wannabees: Scary Democrat Lieutenant Governor candidates
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SA: Gays, Atheists in court attacking Hawaii Family Forum finances
Until last year the forum reported on its federal tax returns that it had spent virtually nothing on lobbying -- $2,000 in 2007 and nothing in 2008. Instead the bulk of its money went to "community education" and "dissemination of educational materials": $67,800 in 2008 and $134,400 in 2007.
But things changed when the civil unions issue heated up at the Legislature and Arakaki took over the job. Hawaii Family Forum spent $74,000 on lobbying in 2009, mostly for media advertising, according to an expenditure report Arakaki filed with the state Ethics Commission. To justify that much lobbying, the forum would need to show overall expenses of $370,000 in 2009 -- more than five times what it spent the previous year.
"Where is that 80 percent that they're spending on charitable purposes?" asked (progressive activist & lawyer Hannah) Miyamoto. "They would have to be one of the most prominent charitable organizations in the state if they were devoting that much, and they're not."
Hawaii Family Forum has not yet filed its federal tax return for 2009, so its overall spending figure is not yet public, and the organization declined to disclose the amount to the Star-Advertiser. The tax form was due May 17, but the organization has requested and received an extension from the IRS.
If the nonprofit exceeded the 20 percent limit on lobbying expenses, it could be forced to pay a substantial excise tax, and it could lose its tax-exempt status if overspending on lobbying persists….
Equality Hawaii reported spending $11,150 on lobbying last year, mostly on newspaper and radio advertising in support of civil unions. In the first four months of this year, it spent $4,640 on lobbying. Human Rights Campaign spent $5,900 on lobbying in 2009 and $16,480 in the first two months of this year, mostly in compensation for its lobbyists.
Another advocacy group, Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, is a loose affiliation of volunteers that does not raise or spend money, according to its vice president, (atheist and convicted thief) Michael Golojuch Jr.
Acting as a private citizen, Golojuch filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission on May 4, alleging that Hawaii Family Forum was understating its lobbying expenses, including Arakaki's salary. On May 20 and 24, Arakaki amended his 2009 and 2010 ethics filings to include his salary in reports where it had been missing. He received $10,000 in compensation from Hawaii Family Forum last year.
Civil unions advocate Miyamoto, who is pursuing a doctorate in sociology at the University of Hawaii, said she just wants everyone to play by the same rules on public policy debates and not have some advocates enjoy tax breaks while others do not.
"This is not a question of religious persecution," Miyamoto said (without even cracking a grin). "Nobody is attacking Hawaii Family Forum because of their faith (she started snickering at this point). This is insisting that democracy depends on an even playing field, where both sides are not able to use tax-deductible donations (and then rolled on the floor laughing uncontrollably)."
Golujuch’s “aka Bitch Bear” myspace page and comment board and “Aloha Bears”
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Mark Recktenwald appears to be the leading choice for chief justice
Bennett, Gov. Linda Lingle's key legal adviser since she took office in 2002, told the Star-Advertiser last week that he has not applied for the position and plans to enter private practice after his term ends in December.
The decision means Recktenwald is the likely choice to become the state's fifth chief justice when Ronald Moon must step down from the job before he turns 70 on Sept. 4 because of the state's mandatory retirement law for judges.
The state Judicial Selection Commission has yet to send names of candidates for the job to Lingle. The Governor's Office said she would not comment because she has not received the list….
(And this article exists to influence them against Bennett and for Recktenwald by making it appear as if Bennett is not in the running. Why would they do that?)
Hanabusa, also a lawyer, said it would have been hard to say Bennett was unqualified for chief justice. "You cannot take away from Mark Bennett that he's a very competent attorney," she said.
But his active stance caused "hard feelings" among some legislators, Hanabusa said. She also noted his role last year in personally arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should essentially lift restrictions on the potential sale of ceded lands might have drawn opposition from some native Hawaiians. The justices agreed with him.
(Because the Hawaii Supreme court exists to give power to OHA and the enviro shake down artists, that’s why. Justices who will not toe that line are not desired by Hanabusa.)
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Star-Advertiser editors launch new paper by begging government to buy them out
Another factor cited in a new study by the University of California at Davis, entitled "Next Generation Unionism and the Future of Newspapers: Networking, Entrepreneurship and Hybrid Ownership": Newspapers since 2000 have had a precipitous drop in advertising revenue. The study concludes that the newspaper industry does have a future, but must embrace sweeping change that could include a public-private ownership model and a more mutually cooperative relationship with its workers' unions, instead of the traditionally adversarial one.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser realizes next-stage evolution is happening today. We, as a newsroom, will leave the financial conundrum to the business wizards. We trust them to do their jobs, as they trust us to do ours.
RELATED: Advertiser closes out by considering self-censorship
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SA confirms: Purchase of Advertiser over one year in the making
Despite Black's lack of financial success in Honolulu, the local board of directors took him seriously when he eyed the Advertiser, said Larry Johnson, a Star-Bulletin minority owner.
"The thought was at one time David was the slayer of Goliath and quite possibly history might repeat itself," Johnson said, adding that Black's assurances that he would cover the minority owners' losses bought him time.
Black took about a year and a half to reach an agreement with Gannett. The Star-Bulletin was offered for sale in March to satisfy U.S. Justice Department antitrust requirements. Unions at both papers and some lawmakers questioned the sale, but Justice officials cleared the purchase and consolidation after three prospective buyers failed to meet a minimum price.
As explained yesterday by HFP: Star-Advertiser planned over 15 months ago
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CB: ADV died because of WW2 “Japs”
CB’s John Temple: Advertiser had two strikes against it: Two stories about the newspapers kept coming up when I talked to journalists and to people in the community (in other words, when he met the cloud of progressives who have been arranged surround him since his arrival in Hawaii), and both were negative for the Advertiser and positive for the Star-Bulletin.
One was World War II and the way the Advertiser had used the epithet "Japs" in its headlines and articles while the Star-Bulletin never went down that road, even though it was the only Honolulu paper to publish the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. That single difference said a lot about the two titles in many people's minds.
The other was the "Broken Trust," the earth-shattering essay that exposed corruption among the trustees of the Bishop Estate and in the state's power structure. Advertiser executives had had the chance to publish it first, but had dithered so long that courageous editors at the Star-Bulletin beat them to the punch.
(And so boys and girls, remember to toe the line of political correctness or you too will go out of business… a 69 year old use of the word “Japs” is equivalent to failing to print the “Broken Trust” essay.)
REALITY: Advertiser closes out by considering self-censorship, Star-Advertiser planned over 15 months ago
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HC&S Manager: No Plans To Develop Sugar Lands
(This is the ‘hot’ question directed to HC&S Manager Chris Benjamin….)
ML: One thing I wanted to ask you, point blank. Have there been discussions at HC&S or at Alexander and Baldwin for potential other uses for this land like real estate or urbanizing development or turning it into a water company like Wailuku? Have there been discussions like that?
CB: Absolutely not. Land development is obviously one of our business strategies We have 180 acres (near Maui Business Park) that A&B has recently received entitlements for. That took over 15 years to get 180 acres entitled. We have 35,000 acres of sugar cane land. The dent that could be made in your lifetime or my lifetime in that land for entitlement purposes and development is really very modest. So I think that again the notion of going and someday converting all this land into homes or whatever, I don't think people that make those comments understand the magnitude of this farm.
(Of course any simpleton knows that it is a cut off of water would push all the cane land into development. This is because agricultural uses require much more water than residential uses. Duh! Now we know the riff being fed to progressives by OHA.)
INTERVIEW: short version
INTERVIEW: Full Transcript
Maui News: HC&S hires industrial processing plant expert
RELATED: OHA Trustees claim ownership of your drinking water, Lingle: Will agriculture survive Maui water diversion?, DLNR: State Water Commission decision balances competing demands
Military families are asset to isle schools
It is no secret that many military families coming from beyond our shores arrive with negative perceptions of Hawaii public schools. With recent high-profile national news coverage of Furlough Fridays, this can hardly be a surprise. But, in truth, it has been an enduring perception for some time.
This is despite clear evidence that both kamaaina and military students tend to do well when working side-by-side in our schools. For example, a recent examination of 2008-2009 test data from 56 "military-impacted" schools in Hawaii showed that their students overwhelmingly tended to score at the national average or better.
But negative perceptions persist.
The Joint Venture Education Forum (JVEF) is a partnership involving the military, public schools, businesses, Legislature and others with the goal of facilitating communication and action about schooling in Hawaii. As two JVEF members, we are very aware that schooling ranks at the top of military quality-of-life issues, especially in Hawaii.
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KGI: ‘What does it mean to be haole in Hawai‘i?’
The organizer, Marina Smerling, hopes to contribute to the healing of race relations in Kaua‘i by stimulating more “conscious dialogue” by which participants practice “truly listening” to one another about their feelings and experiences of race on an island ridden with old hurts and ethnic divides.
“It’s important to start the discussion within the white community itself,” said Smerling, “as a way of learning from one another, lessening our defensiveness to talking about race, and ultimately learning to become better listeners.”
Visit www.hawaiinvc.org/kauai-index.html for more information.
(If the progressives can make everybody see themselves as party of an oppressed nationality, then everybody will finally be socialist.)
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