by Andrew Walden
Kauai Democrat Senator Gary Hooser was an anti-Superferry protester. A magazine business he owned didn't pay its GE taxes for 11 years. And when he announced his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor, Hooser's campaign website indicated that the anti-Semitic, Holocaust denier, 9-11 trooother website www.WhatReallyHappened.com was part of Hooser's "regular reading regime."
With credentials like these, the endorsements Hooser is receiving from Hawaii's so-called environmentalists should be of little surprise. An October 23 news release from the Hooser campaign proudly trumpets:
Two former directors of the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club, Jeff Mikulina (1998-2008) and David Kimo Frankel (1996-1998) as well as respected environmental professor/attorney Denise Antolini, and numerous other leaders in the environmental community have endorsed Senator Gary Hooser for Lt. Governor in 2010
"As someone who has been active in advocating for Hawai'i's sustainability for over a decade, I'm supporting Gary Hooser for Lt. Governor," said Mikulina. "Gary has earned my support through his honest, thoughtful, and smart approach to leadership and policymaking. He's not afraid to make the tough political decisions that will benefit many--today and tomorrow."
David Kimo Frankel, recounting his years of lobbying for the Sierra Club had shown him that "there are not many people who can successfully navigate the system with integrity, intelligence and a progressive ideology. Gary Hooser is the kind of person we need at the statewide level here in Hawai`i," he said.
Frankel, as head of the Big Island Sierra Club hired Jack Kelly to lead the successful assault on Hokulia. Mikulina's Sierra Club spearheaded the lawsuit which shut down the Superferry and chased it from these isles. Antolini is boss of the taxpayer-funded Environmental Law Program at the University of Hawaii Richardson Law School--from whence sprung many of the State laws and court decisions which create legal power for environmental shake-down artists. Unsurprisingly she once worked for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
When the so-called "Kona faction" of green Democrats took over the Hawaii County Council in December, 2004, Frankel was appointed as Hawaii County Legislative auditor. This writer described the council debate:
Dr Holschuh protested, "Frankel’s outward expressions of hostility, smart-alecky attitude and unprofessional conduct." Ikeda pointed to Frankel’s previous involvement in a term limits lawsuit against outgoing council chair James Arakaki, his bias towards the Sierra Club, and other legal actions against the County of Hawaii. Arakaki and Higa pointed to Frankel’s statement that he may be uncivil because he "belches and leaves the toilet seat up" but the United States is uncivil because it, "launches unilateral unprovoked war against innocent people" in Iraq. Higa questioned Frankel’s efforts to block tourists from Punalu`u Beach quoting Frankel as saying, "the County should prohibit tour busses from ‘vomiting out’ tourists every few minutes." Higa said, "Those are public beaches open to everyone -- including visitors."
No wonder Frankel likes Gary Hooser.
Hooser tells readers:
"Our State is entering an era where leadership, new ideas and unwavering core values are needed more than ever before."
He could have a point there. After all, 11 years is a long time to "unwaveringly" fail to pay one's GE taxes--and that kind of trans-decadal consistency combined with efforts to raise everybody else's taxes certainly shows that he "honestly" wants everybody else to carry his load for him. And Frankel, too, may be right about Hooser's "progressivism." Skipping out on one's own taxes while voting again and again to raise everybody else's surely means taxes get "progressively" higher for everybody except Hooser.
The vast majority of Hawaii residents identified anti-Superferry protesters as a small clique of arrogant snobs who felt they are smarter than the rest of the state and therefore within their rights to keep the rest of the state from sailing to Kauai. But Hooser "wasn't afraid to make the tough decision" to stand along the Nawiliwili Harbor shoreline egging the gangs of criminals into the water. One protester on Maui summed up the protesters' attitude toward the rest of Hawaii: "Stupid Ferry, Stupid Riders."
Hooser, completely "unwavering", proves that he does indeed believe that slogan--"Stupid Ferry, Stupid Riders"-- by running for a statewide office which requires that the "stupid riders" vote him in as Lt Governor.
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