Entries for the 'Kauai Politics' Category

Hawaii Legislature's own papermill.  Built by feeeel-goood fake environmentalism.

Initiatives on the County level have included: Kauai Ohana in 2006-2007 attempting to use the initiative process to defeat high property taxes, Stop Rail activists who won the opportunity to vote on rail, and others who have used initiative for various causes on the Big Island.  Hawaii citizens do not have any statewide initiative and referendum rights. A majority of state citizens do enjoy local initiative and referendum rights. 

HONOLULU – Duke Aiona today announced five county chairs and co-chairs and 13 regional chairs for his growing campaign. The leadership team will provide grassroots support to mobilize and turn out voters for Duke Aiona in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Stroudwater didn't pull punches:  "HHSC is in a financially perilous condition. It received a 'Going Concern' finding as part of its 2008 independent audit report, calling the future financial viability of the organization into question. Its liquidity is at dangerously low levels with barely enough current assets to meet current liabilities. It is far behind in its payments to vendors (80+ days). The age of its facilities and other physical assets are well above national averages. Its future viability is at risk, particularly if the State is unable to provide increasing levels of operating subsidies for HHSC going forward."

Kauai 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.

The event will feature a presentation by national spokesman and former NFL football star, Riki Ellison, Founder and Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) a non-profit organization which advocates the deployment and development of a missile defense system.  Mr. Ellison has is an expert in the field of missile defense.

Water pours out of Al Hee's Waimana Enterprises Hydroelectric Plant in Hilo. Oddly, OHA, which Al's brother Sen. Clayton Hee used to serve as a Trustee, is not attempting to claim ownership of this water.

• It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
• Paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
• It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.

One more thing: "In California, bag manufacturers successfully sued Oakland and Manhattan Beach after those cities banned plastic bags. The bag makers complained that officials didn't prepare a report detailing the environmental impact, such as the increased use of paper sacks."  

Hooser prefers that we hold hearings and community discussions to debate the type and size of government we should have. Lawmakers can hold such hearings during the next legislative session, or even schedule them now while the Legislature is on its break. Frankly, the Legislature should have held such discussions three or four years ago, when the State had money to invest in our long-term future.

While Hooser is busy debating options, the Administration is facing up to our fiscal responsibility and obligation to the people of Hawai‘i by taking immediate steps to address the current financial crisis. Many of the decisions that are being made are not ones that we want to make, but we are doing what needs to done in order to ensure the State government does not run out of money, which will happen if we wait as Hooser suggests.

Read between the lines of Sen. Hooser’s commentary and you will see the only idea he has is to increase taxes on Hawai'i’s already overtaxed citizens.  We need elected officials who can make difficult decisions and solve complicated problems, not hope someone else will find a solution.

Photos from rallies in Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Lahaina, Kahului, Lihue . . . . 

Hawaii TEA Party invites everyone to local rallies in solidarity with the National TEA Party March on Washington September 12.  This is our opportunity to speak up against State and Federal Tax increases, the government takeover of health care and the cap and trade carbon tax.    

Here are some news articles which--strung together--tell the story you won't be able to read anywhere else.  The story ends with a Governor, a Party Chair, a Congresswoman and more....

The Democrats’ electoral strategy for 2010 is an attempt to manufacture chaos knowing it is Lingle who “needs to make the tough call."  Their goal: to replicate the labor-management strife of the Cayetano era—and blame Lingle--so a Democrat can re-take the Governor’s seat in 2010.  Their playthings?  Government employee jobs--and your wallet.

Last year, instead of enacting a law stating that the Supreme Court was wrong, the Legislature adopted special legislation exempting the Superferry pending completion of an environmental impact statement. The Supreme Court’s recent decision correctly struck down that exemption as violating the Hawaii constitutional prohibition against legislative special treatment for special interests.

The governor and Legislature were then handed a second opportunity to make the law pono by saying what everyone believed. The Legislature could enact simple language, such as the following which I recommended to the legislative leadership in March 2009, making clear that our environmental laws do not extend to "secondary" impacts:

"Significant effect" does not include or require consideration of “secondary impacts” on the environment that may result from government action. This latter provision is retroactive to enactment of this chapter.

By doing so, the law would state what everyone always believed it meant and the Superferry would have been allowed to continue providing essential transportation to Hawaii's citizens and competition to interisland airlines.

I inquired by email to Councilman Greenwell asking if the now infamous article on Guantanamo detainees was true.  In that email, I indicated that I would circulate his response to the same people.  Well here it is.

Mr. Greenwell opted to reply by phone on July 2.  My initial reaction to the call was “wow" “pleasant surprise”, “approval” and those kinds of feelings. But the pleasure was short lived. After but a few seconds, it changed to disappointment and dismay.

It wasn’t more than two or three sentences into the conversation that he became rude, arrogant, combative and boorish!

Here’s how it went…

All the details and contact info for TEA Party July 4 rallies on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii Islands.

Bermuda and Palau may not be the only beautiful tropical islands to host illegal Islamist combatants being released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. If a Hawaii County Councilman and a Kauai County activist get their way, some would get a new home—and complete freedom--on two of Hawaii’s most beautiful islands.

Residents who are interested in serving on the advisory council for their respective island should submit a letter and resume to the appropriate liaison office by June 30, 2009.

Earlier this year, OHA officials, led by Trustee Don Cataluna, blocked Kauai County from building a residential drug treatment facility for juveniles on a former Humane Society site about a half mile from Kauai’s Hanapepe Salt Pond. This as young Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians are literally dying from methamphetamines and other drug abuse.

With 125 mph hurricane Flossie still on track to pass August 13 just south of the Big Island, Hawaii County Civil Defense is opening ten emergency shelters in schools and other public buildings island wide. In Kau, likely to be hardest hit, the only available shelter is at Kau High School in Pahala.

Red Cross volunteers are working to get a second shelter opened up at an area church, but as yet have no firm commitment. Hawaii County Red Cross director Youlia Kalima explains the two buildings are the only hardened structures in the entire rural district of 5,000 people. The next nearest shelters would be at Konawaena HS in South Kona or Keaau HS in Puna—dozens of miles away.