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Monday, August 29, 2011
Letters to the Editor, August, 2011
By Letters to the Editor @ 12:17 AM :: 6012 Views

Hirono Supporter: “9-11 was an inside job”

Dear Editor,

Congrats to Hirono for following her conscience. She obviously recognizes that the so called wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan are all illegitimate and a shameful disgrace on our country. The Hawai'i Free Press is directly insinuating that Hirono should support the senseless killing and phony wars of our out of control Federal Government simply because the military is responsible for 18% of Hawaii's economy. Shameful beyond belief.

Its really difficult to understand how you could be so callous, ignorant, and downright evil. Callous for encouraging an out of control Federal Government to continue killing people in our name, ignorant for not recognizing that not only are all the so called declared and undeclared wars without any basis or legitimacy (9-11 was clearly an inside job with controlled demolition bringing down all three buildings) and, evil for suggesting that we should continue to kill people in the third world and support evil policies so as not to jeopardize 18% of our economy. Truly unbelievable.

I've got another solution: REDUCE the dependence the Hawaii economy now has on the military.

Here's another idea: Why not educate and inform your readership about the hidden, unstated, but very real war - the people vs. the banking cartel.

The worldwide fiat monetary system is failing. Paper money created solely by bankers from thin air is the reason for the financial crisis, the disparity between rich and poor, and our shameful devolution into welfare and warfare. The ridiculous and completely useless Dems vs. Repubs feud is a dog and pony show - bankers run the government, write the laws and the textbooks, own the media, and control all of our so called 'free markets'.

With a little thought, one can clearly see how the government and media are using age old tactics to control and 'snow' the people: keep them ignorant, dependent, divided & distracted.

The loss of value and purchasing power of the US Dollar, and how we all suffer because of it, along with an expose of exactly who benefits from this fraudulent Ponzi scheme of banker created debt should be topic number one on your list. Restoring some tangible backing to the dollar is the only solution to our banker created world of debt slavery.

Kindly cancel my e mail subscription to Hawai`i Free Press effective immediately, or, publically admit you've made a monumental error in suggesting that Hawaii politicians should support all the phony wars and senseless and needless killing worldwide simply because the military has a large presence in Hawaii.

Sincerely,

Jim Farrell, Honolulu

  *   *   *   *   *

Kenoi Should Veto Building Code

Dear Editor, August 1, 2011

We would like to emphasize the single most important major concern about the recent County Council’s narrow decision (5 to 4) regarding building codes. Every citizen needs to be alarmed by this whole process.

The new law on building codes adopts entirely the 2006 International Building Codes and International Energy Conservation Codes, and now with criminal penalties for violations.

Councilmen Blas, Ford, Hoffmann, Pilago and Smart voted “aye” without having read these codes, without even possessing copies of these codes, without knowing the impacts of these codes, and not even caring what impacts this law would have.

They would not even agree to a 2 week extension so that community building professionals could give a complete detailed list of their concerns about the impact.

They just do not care. The laws are not even readily available for any one else to read either, as they must be purchased at significant cost.

The County administration as represented by Public Works Director Warren Lee says the new codes will save lives, but deliberately refuses to do any kind of an analysis on the cost / benefit, or even the efficacy of the results. He claims they don’t have the resources to do so, but actually he does not want to know. He just doesn’t care about that, it is not important to him.

Building Division plan examiner / architect Neil Erikson has told us it would be “no problem” to review all 667 pages and make appropriate changes that actually make sense for the Big Island.

Between these 5 councilmen and the County Administration, what we have is a total neglect of the responsibility of their offices, a total disregard to the impact of their actions, and an alarming laziness in their approach to their duties.

Unfortunately, this is typical of what our government delivers more and more. They just do not care what effect their actions have, and refuse to even consider the effects before they pass laws.

As a result, our lives all become a bit more expensive, a bit more difficult, and a bit less free, every day.

Mayor Kenoi should veto this law, and all others similarly passed, unless responsible cost / benefit analysis are first done and considered fully.

Walter Moe, President

Edward Gutteling, Vice President

The Conservative Forum for Hawaii

* * * * *

Honolulu Hale Should Fix Its Toilet, Before It Buys a New Rail Car

Dear Editor: August 3, 2011

Our sewers are going to cost five billion dollars to fix. That's what the EPA says anyway. Five billion dollars is a lot of money. A lot of money we don't have. It probably wouldn't seem so outlandish if the city hadn't already committed to building a rail for 5.3 billion dollars (which we can also not afford). These politics (and politicians) are very alarming. They are showing us that our government no longer functions for the people, but more for unions, public interests groups and land developers. Or to fund future campaigns. We have seen the man behind the curtain and it is not a wizard, more of a wolf billionaire who doesn't care about anything but making more money, even it damages the middle class.

For those who still believe rail is about reducing traffic that ship sailed long ago when even Hannemann and his cronies admitted it was not about traffic reduction (it wouldn't even reduce traffic). Hannemann later claimed it was about jobs but most of the jobs attributed to the building of the rail will go to the mainland and Italy. So what is this really about? And please don't tell me its green; there is nothing green about 60 foot concrete high-rises that will ruin more beautiful landscape. Is rail for the people? To me it doesn't sound like it, it just sounds like more plutocracy (the rich making the decisions) run am muck. When the lies the politicians normally tell the public didn't work, they just decided we don't really care what the people think, we're going to do it anyway. The problem, of course, is we cannot afford the sewer upgrades but for some strange reason can afford the rail. Come on mayor you wouldn't buy a new car, if your toilet needed to be fixed, you'd fix the toilet. So why are these politicians still jamming rail down our throats when our toilet is broke? But that's okay when one of these trucks of sludge flips over on H1, I'm sure it will be all over the news and hopefully people will wake up to the fact the mayor of our great city has been neglecting his duties so he can raise money to try and get re-elected.

Joe DeMarco

Kailua, Oahu

* * * * *

Aina Koa Pono based on Flawed Assumption

Dear Editor, August 5, 2011

I am writing to share my concerns about the proposed venture that Aina Koa Pono plans to build in Kau. I oppose any ventures that will increase our electric rates. We are already paying four times the national average, which is unacceptable. The purpose of the PUC is to find a balance in protecting rate payers and the utility companies, not giving the electric utilities a free pass to do as they please.

The success of this venture is based solely on the flawed assumption that the price of oil will continue to rise, eventually making alternative energy projects such as this viable. If that prediction fails, then rate payers are stuck with the cost of funding an unnecessary and expensive venture. We are not depleting fossil fuels. New deposits are identified each year, and new technology such as hydraulic fracturing make deposits that were once thought inaccessible recoverable.

The price of oil has always been volatile, but it has never increased to the point of making alternative energy affordable. Recently the price of gasoline decreased and leveled off, not surpassing $5/gallon as was expected.

Now, when rate payers are hurting financially, is not the time to be raising our electric rates to fund questionable ventures. The argument that we need to keep money in Hawaii is unrealistic. We live on an island that wishes to preserve its natural beauty. We are constantly shipping in material and products so that industry leaves a small footprint in the State. We should not arbitrarily give preferential treatment to certain industries because of an invented crisis that does not exist.

My other concern is the amount of trucking that will be necessary to transport biofuel to the Kona plant. This is an expense that will continue to drive up the cost of supporting this venture. It will slow down traffic and wear down and damage the highway much faster than the County or State will be able to maintain. I encourage the PUC to carefully consider rate payers and the cost of such a venture, instead of focusing primarily on the State's mandate to achieve a certain threshold of alternative energy production by a certain date.

Lee McIntosh

Discovery Harbour, Hawaii

* * * * *

Horizon Lines Troubles Show Need for Reform of US Build Requirements

Dear Editor, August 23, 2011

Recent news indicates that Hawaii ocean carrier Horizon Lines is in a precarious financial position. The loss of Horizon Lines would of course mean that Matson Navigation Company Inc. would become the sole provider of liner container service between the United States West Coast and Hawaii. Matson has had a competitor in the Hawaii trade since the mid-1960’s when the Sea-Train service was inaugurated using the Pier-51A container terminal in Honolulu Harbor. Horizon Lines’ Hawaii service is the direct successor.

Two weeks ago the New York Stock Exchange put Horizon on notice that their market capitalization had fallen below the minimum requirement to remain listed and they were given 18 months to rectify the situation. Delisting would dramatically reduce Horizon Lines ability to raise capital and take on new debt. Horizon Lines is put further in a difficult financial position by the very old domestic Jones Act fleet they inherited from Sea-Land Service Inc., which they desperately need to replace.

Replacement containerships are prohibitively expensive to build in a U.S. shipyard and are not readily available in any case as they would be from a foreign shipyard specializing in the class of containerships needed by Horizon Lines for its domestic trade lanes in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. It is also highly unlikely that Horizon Lines could raise the capital necessary to construct a series of at least a dozen containerships in the United States on a schedule that would address their requirements.

Horizon Lines operates a string of five Foreign-Built U.S.-Flag containerships from the U.S. West Coast to Guam and the Far East as the domestic Guam trade is exempt from the U.S. Build requirement. However, that means that their competitor Matson operating fully Jones Act U.S. Built U.S. Flag containership on the USWC/Guam lane obtains most of the military preference cargo as Matson, operating U.S.-Built ships, enjoys a higher Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement (VISA) priority rating. (For more on VISA see: LINK)

This situation points out the real and immediate need for Jones Act reform, especially in respect of the U.S. Build requirement in the domestic noncontiguous trades – i.e., in the Alaska, Guam, Hawaii & Puerto Rico trades.

Regards,

Mike Hansen, Honolulu, Oahu


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