December 26, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, December 26, 2010

December 26, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:01 PM :: 9257 Views

Precisely as Predicted: Birthers see conspiracy enhanced by Abercrombie

Orly Taitz, a prominent birther based in California, (who is also a $1000 Democrat donor) said that even if Abercrombie produced everything she would be suspicious of his motives. "To me this sounds like a very co-ordinated effort. As soon as a friend of the Obama family gets into the governor's office he has access to all the documents. I would put nothing past this establishment." Taitz said she would only be satisfied if she and a private detective she works with were granted access to all the original paper work and allowed to carry out tests.

Precisely As Predicted: “Birthers” smell profit in an Abercrombie governorship?

Maui News on Birther Battle: Don't do it, Neil

If I were a Democrat -- which I am not -- I'd be at least content if not actually pleased to have these nuts loose in the other party. When it comes to the primaries, Republican candidates are going to have to deal with birthers, one way or another. What partisan -- nobody ever accused Abercrombie of having any nonpartisan leanings -- wouldn't want his opponents to face the dilemma of fighting off the racists or embracing them?

Isles facing drought in earmark funds

For decades, the billions of dollars that U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye wrangled out of Congress for Hawaii-specific projects flowed into many of the state's business, educational and governmental corners.

But now, the earmark spigot appears to have gone dry….Among the earmarks backed by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka were $5.7 million to restore a historic seaplane hangar at Midway Island. (Who was getting the contract for this critical project?)

(How will Inouye and Akaka buy votes without earmarks?)

Gov calls for shared sacrifice on 4-part economic plan

» First, we will reconfigure, retool and strengthen our fractured government services to become a better partner with the private economy and to better serve our people. (Meaning: Hike taxes and build a casino.)

» Second, we will create jobs with a significant capital improvement program that simultaneously improves the infrastructure and economic landscape for sustained economic and social advancement. (Lingle already did that. You gonna borrow even more, or are you just going to take credit for what Lingle started?)

» Third, we will pursue every federal funding and private partnership opportunity to supplement state efforts in all sectors. (See above article: “Isles facing drought in earmark funds.” Abercrombie has failed to identify even a single federal funding opportunity which the State is not already taking advantage of.)

» Fourth, we will consistently invest whatever means we have into factors that will sustain our long-term economic and social well-being—clean energy, food security, technology, education, good health and other aspects of our human capital. (Key word: “whatever.”)

» Fifth: I will hunt the Birthers to the end of the Earth.

Best Comment: In the Governor’s 4 part economic plan, just replace the following words he uses: “Focus, strides, reconfigure, retool, strengthen, serve, support, secure, pursue, supplement, create, improves, stimulates, sustain, invest and reinvest”; With, “tax, steal, beg, borrow and spend”.

Something Abercrombie won’t do: Justify change with efficiency in government

REALITY: Gaming Industry Lobbyist, Progressive activist screen Abercrombie cabinet picks

Hawaii County Officials racked up $222K on county credit cards in past 2 years

HILO -- Top officials in Mayor Billy Kenoi's administration have racked up $222,083.28 in credit card charges over the past 22 months.
A listing of charges, turned over by the administration after a public records request by West Hawaii Today, shows 1,865 entries for airfare, rental cars, hotels, per diem food charges and events for Kenoi, his top management staff and department heads.
Uses varied from stays at a posh San Francisco hotel to omiyage and events for visiting dignitaries.

Paying for power jolts some military families

Come Saturday, 6,400 military families in Hawaii will start to get electricity bills where there weren't any before, and although the change is intended to reduce consumption, not all are viewing the effort with holiday cheer.

The Navy and housing contractor Forest City Military Communities are testing the utility bills as a pilot program at Navy and Marine Corps housing in Hawaii. A similar test is under way at military housing at Beaufort/Parris Island in South Carolina.

For at least six years in Hawaii, Forest City has collected military members' housing allowances—which are substantial—as full payment for rent, utilities and all other costs under a public-private venture (PPV).

Now, military families will have to pay for electricity if their usage exceeds 20 percent of an established average for their neighborhood.

Maybe Forest City could just use some of THIS money: Follow the money: $10B Guam pork project benefits Abercrombie contributor

SA: Power outage at Ala Moana looks like 3rd World Country

Sometimes it's tempting to make a joke out of it, although it's pretty dark humor—on more than one level. Could it be a new Christmas tradition that at least once during Hawaii's holiday season, a power outage turns out the lights? The fact that the first family was witness to both recent episodes—in 2008, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, and again last week—adds to the irony and the embarrassment. Again Hawaii looks like a Third World country, struggling with its infrastructure, just at the moment when the national spotlight is tracking the president's vacation routine.

(Most expensive electricity, most blackouts. Its socialism.)

Costs add up for shippers

The cost of shipping goods to Hawaii from the mainland will jump again next month, continuing an upward trend that has far outstripped the pace of inflation in recent years.

Increases in ocean freight rates, terminal handling costs, fuel surcharges and government fees add up to a 50 percent jump in the price of shipping a container of produce to Hawaii from California since 2003. That compares with a 27 percent increase in Honolulu's consumer price index during the same period.

The increase explains why in many cases goods cost much more in Hawaii than on the mainland, and highlights Hawaii's dependence on shipping. An estimated 80 percent of what is consumed in Hawaii is imported, and 98 percent of that comes by sea.

The jobless stigma: Being out of work for a long time complicates the search

Nationally as well as locally, anecdotal reports about the joblessness crisis abound. One dispiriting conclusion that's easy to draw: The longer a person is unemployed, the tougher it becomes to climb out of the hole.

Elaine Young, who heads the state's Workforce Development Division, has heard all the stories.

"Nationally, that's what they're saying," Young said. "Employers would rather hire the warm body who just got unemployed, or the one who can get picked up before they get laid off. There's a stigma for those who continue to collect unemployment."

(Now you know why Democrats were so eager to extend unemployment. To create more welfare recipients.)

Family sues city, Police Department over fatal shooting

Loewe was trying to drive from the second-floor parking lot at Pearlridge Center Phase III after police tried to arrest him for unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle.

Carlisle said Loewe's car collided with occupied and unoccupied cars and he placed several police officers at risk of serious injury or death.

Carlisle said the officer believed he had to fire the shots to prevent Loewe from harming officers and the public if he left the area.

No legal aid for officer accused in HPD scandal

A police officer charged with falsifying records has been denied his request for legal counsel by the Honolulu Police Commission.

Veteran officer Brian J. Morris is among seven officers implicated in a scandal involving allegations that police reports were written to say that two sergeants were at DUI checkpoints when they were not in a ploy to gain overtime pay.

The commission, in a 4-1 decision released last week, rejected Morris' request.

The six other officers also have requested legal representation, and their cases are scheduled to be heard by the commission next month.

Obama meets Marine families at Kaneohe: One kid punches him, another sticks tongue out

see the photos for yourself….