October 14, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, October 14, 2010

October 14, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:56 PM :: 11348 Views

Roll Call: With Djou on Appropriations, Hawaii could have outsized influence

New RGA Advert: Neil Abercrombie says that people in Hawaii “are not interested in how politicians will balance the budget"

Punchy National Democrats: Aiona doesn't love Obama enough

Blowback: Obama attacks boost funds for pro-Djou commercials

Chamber of Commerce rebuts Obama deceit on Foreign Money and Political Spending

Accretions: Cato Institute jumps into Hawaii beach ‘takings’ case

Court declines to expand meaning of "preserve in place" in Naue burial case final disposition

Obama robo calls annoy Honolulu voters at dinner time

Hanabusa tacitly admitted Obama doesn’t have much left to stand on after nearly two years of disaster, allowing only that, “"President Obama is still someone from Hawaii….”

Downtown Honolulu resident Audrey Sunada said, "As far as robo calls go, I don't care if it is President Obama or Dan Inouye or anybody else calling me. I don't like them."

Ala Moana resident Dorothy Hayden said the president's call won't influence her vote.

"Getting a call from him might be exciting, if it is not at dinner time, and I would consider how he feels,but I will go with my own gut feeling," she said.

Liliha resident Joyce Paea said the president doesn't have to bother….

Hawaii congressional debate focuses on federal spending and waste

U.S. Rep. Charles Djou said he would use unspent federal stimulus money to pay the nation's debts, oppose tax increases and remove government red tape.

"I do not believe the future of our economy is going to come from a bureaucrat," Djou said. "The future of our economy is going to come from an individual, an individual American who takes a chance, goes into the marketplace and creates a job."…

Djou said he's met with many small businesses since he was elected, and they want less government intrusion into their operations.

"What they tell me is, 'Charles, I don't need a handout. I don't want a handout. What I want from the government is clear consistent rules and a low tax rate,'" Djou said.

KITV: Djou, Hanabusa Spar On Deficit Fix 2hr

Djou being sought for a money panel

HONOLULU - House Minority Leader John Boehner on Tuesday announced that Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Djou will win a spot on the House panel that doles out federal dollars if Djou wins re-election.

In a statement from the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House's top Republican said Djou would fight to curb government spending on the appropriations committee while securing government funding for Hawaii's military installations and personnel.

GOP: Dems' ads take quotes out of context

The Republican Governors Association released a new television ad yesterday that depicts Neil Abercrombie, the Democratic candidate for governor, as out of touch with Hawaii for voting to raise taxes and take from Social Security during his two decades in Congress.

"Neil Abercrombie says that people in Hawaii 'are not interested in how politicians will balance the budget,'" the ad states. "Really, Mr. Abercrombie? Maybe people in Washington don't care how you handled the federal budget ... by printing money, raising taxes and increasing the deficit. But in Hawaii, we do care."

The ad uses Abercrombie's statement in his recovery and reinvestment plan that people "are not interested in how politicians will balance the budget," but does not include what followed: "What they really want to know is how we will do the things we need to do with the budget we have."

(That additional line would be even more embarrassing to Abercrombie because he apparently does not know that as a Governor he would have to balance the budget and control spending by making decisions about what not to release. This contrasts to his role as a congressional “Follower” looting as much money as possible for his campaign contributors from “the budget we have.”)

While Abercrombie did vote to raise taxes several times through 20 years in Congress, the Social Security claim is based on a 1999 vote against a Republican amendment to a $1.3 billion federal spending bill. The amendment was intended to prevent Social Security surpluses from being used to finance the spending bill. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, which failed.

(So, thanks to Abercrombie, Social Security taxes are looted to pay for wasteful federal spending on campaign contributors.)

Hawaii Gov., US House Candidates to Debate Live

Democratic gubernatorial contender Neil Abercrombie and his Republican rival, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, will meet first on PBS Hawaii's "Insights on Hawaii" program, starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Next up will be GOP U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, who is defending his House seat against state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat.

All four will be queried by the show's host, former University of Hawaii history professor Dan Boylan, who also will read questions from viewers.

PBN: What do you want to ask Hirono, Djou?

The 1st District race could play a key role in the makeup of the House as Democrats and Republicans fight for control of Congress.

As we have in the past, PBN invites you to submit questions so we can press the candidates on issues important to you. We will be updating this site to let you know what they had to say.

Gary Hooser flips out, babbles about ‘revolution’, bucks for top DLNR post

Tax cheat Hooser: So how can it be possible that 48% of Hawaii residents are ready to elect him as Hawaii’s next Governor? Are people so shallow, so busy and so uninformed (this from an anti-Superferry guy who touts his readership of a Holocaust-denier site as part of his ‘see i am in intellectual’ “regular reading regime”) that they will vote for him just because he’s young, he’s Hawaiian and he’s pretty? Is it the religious dogma and tea party frenzy of the “new right” that drive his numbers? Has our democracy become so broken and so driven by money, marketing and media that substance matters not at all?

It is on days like this that I wonder. I wonder about the wisdom of our forefathers. I wonder if perhaps our system is broken and in need of radical perhaps revolutionary change.

Carlisle's early agenda getting all wet

For those who believe in omens, underground forces appear to be sending Carlisle a message on what a top priority should be for his administration. On the weekend before his swearing in, water main breaks in Hawaii Kai and Moiliili closed streets, cut power and snarled traffic. Then, on Tuesday night, a break in East Honolulu where the H-1 meets Kalanianaole Highway halted commutes for thousands of drivers.

New outreach center will help Army families cope with their soldiers' deaths

Lis Olsen, who is the Army Community Service outreach director and also is in charge of the Survivor Outreach Services Center, said 248 active-duty, National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers with Hawaii ties have died or been killed since 2001 -- the start of the war in Afghanistan. Her goal is to create photo tributes to them all.

But the center also is a place where families can turn to receive counseling, financial advice, or just spend some time with other families who have experienced the death of a soldier.

"That's the Army's goal, that there will be a partnership and then a warm hand-off (to the outreach center) when the casualty assistance officer's duties are done -- so the families will not be forgotten," Olsen said.

Olsen herself lost her son, Spc. Toby Olsen, a Mililani High School graduate, who was killed along with three other soldiers in western Iraq when a roadside bomb hit their Humvee on Jan. 20, 2007.

Sidewalk tent ban approved

Mayor Peter Carlisle must now decide whether to sign Bill 39. Because the vote was 5-4, an override would be unlikely should the mayor veto the measure.

City police, attorneys and other officials said the Carlisle administration supports the intent of the sidewalks law. But what constitutes a "pedestrian use zone" on each block needs to be delineated and the city will need to clearly mark the zones, they said.

The issue arises because the bill would not apply on state, federal or privately owned sidewalks (and the ACLU is ready to do whatever it takes to keep the homeless out of shelters so they can be used as a source of revenue for the homelessness industry.)

Maui 'Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance' to take effect January

WAILUKU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Paper or plastic? On Wednesday, the County of Maui Department of Environmental Management announced that businesses will no longer be allowed to dispense single-use plastic bags to customers at check-out counters.

It's all part of the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, which will go into effect come Jan. 11 of next year.

KPUA: Kauai County Council to discuss plastic bag ban

REALITY: Save The Plastic Bag

Rate of empty warehouse space in state hits 4.7%

The report by commercial real estate brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis said the local warehouse property market had a net occupancy loss of 156,079 square feet in the July-September period.

The loss roughly equates to the size of a Costco store, and pushed up the state's industrial space vacancy rate to 4.7 percent from 3.4 percent in the third quarter of last year and 4.3 percent at the end of the second quarter.

UH Manoa perfessers use your tax dollars to party with Maoists

HW: The launch of “Tinfish #20” takes place at Revolution Books. An appropriate venue for such a revolutionary work in local publishing. Like the issue’s theme, print media may be aging and dying, but it’s nice to know that in a couple years, we can count on Schultz and Tinfish to return.

Since Mao Zedong murdered 70M Chinese people, the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party HQ, Revolution Books, may be the right place to discus dying. Maoists are very good at making other people die.

From its website: Tinfish was supported from 2006 to 2008 by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) (your money) and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA), (more of your money) celebrating over 40 years of culture and the arts in Hawai‘i. The SFCA is funded by appropriations from the Hawai‘i State Legislature and by grants from the NEA.

Hawaii earns an education ‘World’s First’

The task of education integration from preschool to graduate school, or P-20 education, has become a major focus in Hawaii, the Continental United States, and in other countries. An international accrediting body, the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, recently awarded its first accreditation to such a P-20 system – the Hawaiian Mauli Ola Education System.

Leaders of the Hawaiian language revitalization movement acknowledge this accreditation as a major milestone – an educational “world’s first” recognition honoring UH-Hilo’s Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke’elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language and its P-20 programs. The system is unique and distinct in its use of Hawaiian as the language of instruction and has a proven record of producing college- and career-ready high school graduates. Advocates believe that such a revitalized system of Hawaiian medium education can re-establish Hawaii as a world education leader, as was the case in the 1800s.

Hilton Hawaiian Village Workers Strike: 1,500 Workers Plan To Picket Until Monday Morning

HONOLULU -- About 1,500 hotel workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki went on strike early on Thursday morning.

The hotel and the union representing the workers, Local 5, had been in talks for months. Local 5 represents about 6,000 hotel workers in Hawaii.

Read this until you find the reference to Local 5: Beyond Marriage The Confession: Hawaii Gay marriage advocates let the polyamorous cat out of the bag

Hawaii ninth worst in U.S. foreclosures

Hawaii's 1,617 foreclosure filings last month were enough to rank the state as the ninth-highest in the nation, a dubious honor and its worst ranking yet.

Last month's count represented a nearly 67 percent increase in foreclosures from 969 in the same month last year, according to data from real estate research firm RealtyTrac.

Hawaii's rate in September amounted to one foreclosure filing for every 317 households.

Hawaii sets precedent as state regulators permit selling excess solar power

Benefits abound for homeowners and businesses using solar power panels in Hawaii. The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission ruled on Wednesday that those whose panels contribute to the electric grid will be paid nearly 0.22 cents per kilowatt hour, a feed-in tariff program used in Germany, under consideration in California….

SA: Revamped tariffs streamline selling of power to HECO

Kauai Councilwoman files harassment report

Kawahara, on the brink of tears, gave an emotional statement describing how she feels she has been a victim of harassment while serving on the council. She filed a police report in July after allegedly being threatened verbally and gesturally by another council member.

Maui Mayor issues guides for ban on bags

The plastic bag reduction ordinance bans what's known as "T-shirt bags" in the industry, or the typical plastic bags less than 1 millimeter thick found everywhere from department stores to gas stations.

Essentially, the law will only allow for the use of the bags for the sale of raw meats.

Thanks, enviros. We’ll start chopping down trees to make paper bags now.

Story to address cutting pork from sacred cows

Jamie Story, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, will address the Conservative Forum for Hawaii on "Cutting the Pork from Hawaii Legislature's Sacred Cows," at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Sandalwood Room in Hilo.

read more

Campaign Spending Commission Chooses New Director

Izumi-Nitao currently is a deputy state attorney general with responsibility for the Hawaii Internet and Technology Crimes Unit. It investigates and prosecutes crimes involving the Internet and children.

Earlier in her career, she was legal adviser to the board that oversees the state Employees' Retirement System, a Honolulu deputy prosecutor and a law clerk for a chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Naeole-Beason to face ethics investigation: Campaign work with county staff, office alleged

Robert produced copies of e-mails to and from Naeole-Beason's council staff showing discussions and directives about campaign work in July and August. She also related to the board that the councilwoman directed her to use council office staff and county e-mail to work on a photo project for Naeole-Beason's Facebook page, where she solicits votes and financial contributions.

read more