Sunday, November 28, 2010

deficit commission targets Social Security

[11/12/10] The leaders of the deficit commission are baldly calling out the budget myths of both political parties, challenging lawmakers to engage in the "adult conversation" they say they want.

Their plan -- mixing painful cuts to Social Security and Medicare with big tax increases -- has no chance of enactment as written, certainly not as a whole. But the commission's high profile will make it harder for Republicans and Democrats to simply keep reciting their tax-and-spending talking points without acknowledging the real sacrifices that progress against government deficits would demand.

It's time for both conservatives and liberals to "put up or shut up," says Jon Cowan, head of the centrist-Democratic group Third Way, which praised the bold new proposals and urged politicians to show courage. Republicans failed to produce their often-promised deficit reductions when they controlled the government, Cowan said, and Democrats refuse to acknowledge that entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare must be trimmed.

***

In a politically incendiary plan, the bipartisan leaders of President Barack Obama's deficit commission proposed curbs in Social Security benefits, deep reductions in federal spending and higher taxes for millions of Americans Wednesday to stem a flood of red ink that they said threatens the nation's very future.

The White House responded coolly, some leading lawmakers less so to proposals that target government programs long considered all but sacred. Besides Social Security, Medicare spending would be curtailed. Tax breaks for many health care plans, too. And the Pentagon's budget, as well, in a plan designed to cut total deficits by as much as $4 trillion over the next decade.

The plan arrived exactly one week after elections that featured strong voter demands for economic change in Washington. But criticism was immediate from advocacy groups on the left and, to some extent, the right at the start of the post-election debate on painful steps necessary to rein in out-of-control deficits.

The plan would gradually increase the retirement age for full Social Security benefits -- to 69 by 2075 -- and current recipients would receive smaller-than-anticipated annual increases. Equally controversial, it would eliminate the current tax deduction that homeowners receive for the interest they pay on their mortgages.

No one is expecting quick action on any of the plan's pieces. Proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare are making liberals recoil. And conservative Republicans are having difficulty with options suggested for raising taxes. The plan also calls for cuts in farm subsidies, foreign aid and the Pentagon's budget.

***

[3/6/13] 5 ways to fix Social Security

Thursday, November 25, 2010

North Korean allies?

Was it a simple blunder or did a possible 2012 presidential contender really get her geography wrong?

That's the question being debated after Sarah Palin said in an interview with Glenn Beck Wednesday that North Korea was a U.S. ally.

When asked by Beck how she would handle a situation like the one that was developing in North Korea, Palin responded: "This is stemming from, I think, a greater problem when we're all sitting around asking, 'Oh no, what are we going to do,' and we're not having a lot of faith that the White House is going to come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea is going to do."

It is unclear whether Palin is talking about sanctions against North Korea, or U.S. sanctioning -- i.e. approving or supporting -- its actions.

Palin continued: "Obviously, we gotta stand with our North Korean allies," when Beck interrupted and corrected her to say "South Korea."

"And we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes," she responded.

Rod Tam

[11/2/11] Rod Tam sentenced to two days of jail

[11/25/10] City Councilman Rod Tam pleaded guilty yesterday to 26 misdemeanor counts of theft and falsifying documents, and for the first time admitted to overcharging the city for meals unrelated to his work as a Council member.

The guilty pleas came eight months after Tam admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay $11,700 in restitution and a $2,000 civil fine over allegations by the city Ethics Commission.

The commission said Tam improperly used his Council contingency fund for hundreds of personal meals -- totaling more than $22,000 -- unrelated to his city work.

Tam was unavailable for comment, but issued a written statement saying he was responding to the charges "out of embarrassment."

"Pursuant to compromise, I have pleaded guilty to a variety of petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors," Tam said. "I submitted vouchers that exceeded actual bill amounts. I also submitted vouchers that were below actual billing amounts.

"I should have practiced better bookkeeping methods. I take full responsibility and deeply apologize for my mistakes."

Tam previously admitted only to sloppy record-keeping and faulty math, while arguing that the rules covering discretionary expenses of Council members needed to be clarified.

Tam is completing his second four-year term on the Council, after serving nearly two decades in the state Legislature.

He is perhaps best known from his time in the Legislature for introducing a bill to provide naps and snacks for public workers and more recently for a bill in the City Council that would have allowed bus drivers to ban riders emitting offensive body odor.

[9/17/10] Why would you invite Rod Tam to a debate?

The same reason you'd put Paul Lynde in the center square or have Paula Abdul as a talent judge or book Dennis Rodman and his dress for an awards banquet.

Same reason you'd write a column about him.

He's a sideshow. He's a clown. He's for entertainment purposes only. You can count on Tam to sprinkle the goofy powder on an otherwise bland event.

The question is, why would anyone vote for him?

Tuesday night's mayoral debate on KGMB featured front-runner Peter Carlisle, acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell and last election's spirited underdog, Panos Prevedouros.

Rod Tam was just there for laughs. And, like he always does, he came through for the crowd.

***

Sometimes writing about Rod Tam feels like shooting fish in a barrel, yet the man keeps piling up the fish and handing out the guns. And, amazingly, he keeps running for public office and keeps getting elected.

That incredible winning streak might come to an end now that he's aiming for higher office and is facing other candidates who haven't billed taxpayers for every meal they've eaten for the past four years.

The 18-page document summarizing the Ethics Commission investigation into Rod Tam's bento-gate is the sort of thing you print up and pass around the office for comic relief:

He doesn't like to meet with people in his office because there are allergens in Honolulu Hale that bother his sinuses.

He took his brother and sister out to dinner, called them "constituents" and sent bills for $400 for city reimbursement.

He took his family to dinner at the Empress restaurant and claimed it was a "crime in Chinatown meeting."

On that Valentine's Day dinner, he claimed was meeting with two state employees to discuss how the economy affects Hawai'i's public education.

And not only did he say he was on city business when clearly he was feeding his family, he overcharged for the reimbursements. Ethics Commission investigators caught him when they went back to the restaurants and matched up the credit card slips Tam submitted with restaurant copies of the same bills. Ho! Busted!

Tam received repayments for hundreds of meals because he said they were related to council business. He justified the claims by saying the mealtime discussion was about "Hawai'i's economy," "economic development" or the "city's economy," which is what the rest of us talk about these days at all the meals we pay for ourselves.

It may be tempting to shrug it off with, "Yeah, well, I'll bet they all do it." But they don't. In the Ethics Commission report, it says by comparison, a few of the other council members have used their discretionary funds for the occasional staff lunch or as per diem when they're traveling on council business. Some council members haven't submitted meal reimbursements at all.

The whole thing is so classically Rod Tam. When other politicians are running up tabs on the taxpayers' backs, they're doing crazy stuff like ordering room-service lobster dinners and pay-per-view dirty movies or flying to Argentina pretending it's an international trade mission. Not Tam. He takes his wife to dinner at a low-end Japanese restaurant. That doesn't make it less wrong, but it does make it more Rod Tam.

-- by Lee Cataluna

***

City Councilman Rod Tam wants to be our mayor.

I would chuckle at the very thought, but ... wait. People keep voting for him. In fact, Tam has held public office for close to three decades - 20 years in the state Legislature and eight as a City Councilman.

Wow. Gee. That means there is actually a chance he could become mayor. Hoooo boy.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

North Korea shells South Korean island

SEOUL (AP) — North Korea bombarded a South Korean island near their disputed western border Tuesday, setting buildings ablaze and killing at least two marines after warning the South to halt military drills in the area, South Korean officials said.

South Korea said it returned fire and scrambled fighter jets in response, and said the "inhumane" attack on civilian areas violated the 1953 armistice halting the Korean War. The two sides technically remain at war because a peace treaty was never negotiated.

The skirmish came amid high tension over North Korea's claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent.

The United States, which has tens of thousands of troops stationed in South Korea, condemned the attack and called on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in Washington. He said the United States is "firmly committed" to South Korea's defense, and to the "maintenance of regional peace and stability."

The North's artillery struck the small South Korean-held island of Yeonpyeong, which houses military installations and a small civilian population and which has been the focus of two previous deadly battles between the Koreas.

One South Korean marine was killed, three were seriously wounded and 10 slightly wounded, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. Island residents were escaping to about 20 shelters in the island while sporadic shelling continued, the military official said.

North Korea's supreme military command threatened to continue military strikes against South Korea if it violated their disputed sea border "even 0.001 millimeter," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The firing came amid South Korean military drills in the area. North Korea's military had sent a message to South Korea's armed forces early Tuesday to demand that the drills stop, but the South continued them, another military official said.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

disasters strike Indonesia

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia -- A volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia -- spasms from the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth.

The eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday killed at least 25 people, forced thousands to flee down its slopes and spewed burning ash and smoke high into the air on the island of Java.

Meanwhile, off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles west of the volcano, rescuers battled rough seas to reach the remote Mentawai islands, where a 10-foot tsunami triggered by an earthquake Monday night swept away hundreds of homes, killing at least 113 villagers, said Mujiharto of the Health Ministry's crisis center. Up to 500 others are missing.

The twin disasters happened hours apart in one of the most seismically active regions on the planet.

Friday, November 05, 2010

spending silly season

We call elections the "silly season," but this year we should call it the "spending silly season."

Never has so much money been spent to say such nasty things about so few.

If you have a mailbox in the 1st Congressional District, you already know that Charles Djou ruined the economy, actively killed jobs and is now trampling our schools.

And you have learned that Colleen Hanabusa is a tax-and-spend tsunami intent on strangling our economy with job-killing regulations.

How could we have ever elected this despicable pair in the first place?

Negative advertising is fueled by the big political action committees. There's more of it this season, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in January to free up corporate and union money.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Republicans regain House

WASHINGTON » Republicans rolled up historic gains to seize control of the House yesterday as voters disenchanted with the economy, President Barack Obama and government dealt a strong rebuke to Democrats in every corner of the country.

The GOP ousted Demo-cratic freshmen and influential veterans, including some considered safe just weeks ago. Republicans piled up their biggest House gains since they added 80 seats in 1938: By early today they had netted 60 formerly Democratic seats and led in four more. The GOP victory eclipsed the 54-seat pickup by the so-called "revolution" that retook the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years and the 56-seat Republican gain in 1946.

In the Senate, Republicans have netted six Senate seats -- defeating incumbents in Wisconsin and Arkansas and winning Democratic open seats in Indiana, Illinois and North Dakota -- but will fall short of the majority and lost a major symbolic battle as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) defeated former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) in Nevada.

Democrats regain seats (in Hawaii)

Neil Abercrombie, who evolved from a fiery Vietnam War protester to a respected Democrat in Congress, was elected governor of Hawaii last night on a message of change after eight years of Republican rule at Washington Place.

Abercrombie easily defeated Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the Republican, to become the seventh governor since statehood. He is expected to be sworn in to replace Gov. Linda Lingle on Dec. 6.

***

Hawaii Democrats swept their three congressional races yesterday and now prepare to return to a vastly different landscape in Washington.

Colleen Hanabusa ended Republican Charles Djou's six-month U.S. House term with a victory that at one point seemed in doubt even in a Democratic stronghold such as Hawaii.

Hanabusa and fellow U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, who handily defeated GOP challenger John Willoughby, now head to Capitol Hill as members of the minority party, after Republicans won control of the U.S. House.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye cruised to a ninth term in the Senate over former state lawmaker Cam Cavasso. Democrats' continued control of the U.S. Senate means Inouye retains his post as president pro tempore -- third in line to the president -- and chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Ambercrombie vs. Aiona

Former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona have fundamentally different philosophies on the role of government.

Abercrombie, the Democratic candidate for governor, believes in an activist government that guides social and economic policy and helps solve problems. He wants the state to more aggressively compete for federal money that could steady state government during the economic recovery.

"Government can and should work to spark the private economy, particularly during tough economic times. This has always been the case," he said in a statement. "Reflecting the will of the people, government can invest in things like infrastructure so that businesses can expand and

operate more cost-effectively -- consider how boat tour businesses are adversely affected by the current neglect to our harbors. Government can invest in higher education to spark research and development by entrepreneurs that have commercial applications. Government can streamline regulations so that small businesses can expand. All of this takes smart use of government resources.

"In Duke Aiona's world every individual family and every business is on their own. My view is that we are all in this together and the people rightfully expect government to work."

Aiona, the Republican candidate, believes in a smaller and less intrusive government that cultivates but does not interfere with a business-friendly environment.

"Government does not create jobs. We're not job creators," he said. "It's the private sector, as we know, that creates jobs. It's the small businesses that create jobs."

Aiona believes government can prod job growth through initiatives such as the federal stimulus package, state capital improvement projects and tax incentives for businesses. But he argues that Abercrombie has exaggerated the potential for new federal dollars to help the state through the recovery.

"That's why I have asked him to show me. Show me where he gets all this federal money," he said. "And he hasn't because he can't."

war in Iraq

[11/2/10] Rapid-fire bombings and mortar strikes killed 76 people and wounded more than 200 across Baghdad's myriad neighborhoods Tuesday, demonstrating the insurgents' ability to carry out coordinated strikes from one side of the capital to the other.

The attack — blasts in at least 13 separate neighborhoods — was clearly designed to hit civilians at restaurants and cafes where many Iraqis were gathered to enjoy the warm evening. The sophistication and the targets — Shiites — suggested that al-Qaida-linked Sunni militants were responsible for the deadliest day in Iraq since May.

The strikes, two days after the bloody siege of a downtown church, were stunning in their scope — indicating a high degree of coordination and complexity from an insurgency that just a few months ago U.S. and Iraqi officials were saying was all but defeated.

"They say the situation is under the control. Where is their control?" said Hussein al-Saiedi, a 26-year-old resident of Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City slum, where 21 people were killed when a parked car blew up near a market in Tuesday's deadliest bombing.

[8/26/10] BAGHDAD - Bombers and gunmen killed at least 56 Iraqis in more than two dozen attacks across the country yesterday, mostly targeting security forces and rekindling memories of the days when insurgents ruled the streets.

The attacks made August the deadliest month for Iraqi policemen and soldiers in two years, and came a day after the U.S. said that the number of American troops had fallen to fewer than 50,000, the fewest since the war began in 2003.

"Where is the protection, where are the security troops?" said Abu Mohammed, who saw a car bombing near Baghdad's Adan Square that killed two passers-by. "What is going on in the country?"

Iraq's foreign minister said insurgents are attempting to sow as much chaos as possible, as lawmakers struggle to form a new government and Americans withdraw troops.

"Here you have a government paralysis, you have a political vacuum you have the U.S. troop withdrawal," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. "And, in such environment, these terrorist networks flourish."

[8/18/10] BAGHDAD—Young men from some of Iraq’s poorest areas waited all night outside an army recruitment center, only to become easy prey Tuesday for a suicide bomber who killed 61 in the crowd. Desperate for jobs, dazed survivors rushed to get back in line after the attack.

Officials quickly blamed al-Qaida for the deadliest single act of violence in the capital in months. Police said 125 people were wounded.

Bodies of bloodied young men, some still clutching job applications in their hands, were scattered on the ground outside the headquarters’ gate. Soldiers collected bits of flesh and stray hands and legs as frantic Iraqis showed up to search for relatives.

The early morning bombing in central Baghdad starkly displayed Iraqi forces’ failure to plug even the most obvious holes in their security two weeks before the formal end of the U.S. combat role in Iraq.

Army and police recruitment centers have been frequent targets for militants, underscoring the determination of the applicants to risk their lives for work in a country with an unemployment rate estimated as high as 30 percent.

“I have to get this job at any cost in order to feed my family,” said Ali Ahmed, 34, a father of two who returned to the bloody street after taking a friend to the hospital. “I have no option but to come back to the line. If there were other job opportunities, I would not be here in the first place.”

[7/27/10] Two car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims during a religious festival in the holy city of Karbala killed 25 people on Monday, Iraqi police and hospital officials said. Sunni extremists are suspected.

Militants detonated two parked cars filled with explosives about two miles (three kilometers) apart as crowds of pilgrims passed by. Police and medical officials in Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, said 68 people were injured in the attacks.

The pilgrims were on their way to Karbala to take part in an important religious holiday, known as Shabaniyah, that attracts devout Shiites from around the country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Monday bombings, but the method is the hallmark of Sunni extremists.

While violence has dropped dramatically in the past years in Iraq, suspected Sunni insurgents regularly target Shiite religious ceremonies and holy places in an attempt to re-ignite sectarian tensions that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2005 and 2007.

[7/19/10] BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber ripped through a line of anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters waiting to collect their paychecks near an Iraqi military base as nearly 50 people were killed in violence west of Baghdad.

The attack is the deadliest this year against the groups that turned against the terror network amid an apparent campaign by insurgents to undermine confidence in the government security forces and their allies.

The attacks on the Awakening Council members highlighted the daunting security challenges the country faces as the U.S. works to withdraw all combat troops in Iraq.

[7/8/10] BAGHDAD — Militants struck across the Iraqi capital Wednesday, killing more than 50 people, including 32 in a suicide bombing that targeted pilgrims commemorating a revered Shiite saint, Iraqi police said.

The attacks – the deadliest of which occurred in northern Baghdad's predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah – offered a clear indication of the push by insurgents to exploit Iraq's political vacuum and destabilize the country as U.S. troops head home.

Police said the bloody suicide bombing that killed 32 and wounded more than 90 people, split the hot Wednesday evening air as Shiite pilgrims were about to cross a bridge leading to the a shrine in the Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood where a revered imam is buried.

[4/6/10] The Web site WikiLeaks.org released a graphic video on Monday showing an American helicopter shooting and killing a Reuters photographer and driver in a July 2007 attack in Baghdad.

A senior American military official confirmed that the video was authentic.

Reuters had long pressed for the release of the video, which consists of 38 minutes of black-and-white aerial video and conversations between pilots in two Apache helicopters as they open fire on people on a street in Baghdad. The attack killed 12, among them the Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and the driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.

David Schlesinger, the editor in chief of Reuters news, said in a statement that the video was “graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result.”

On the day of the attack, United States military officials said that the helicopters had been called in to help American troops who had been exposed to small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in a raid. “There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,” Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad, said then.

But the video does not show hostile action. Instead, it begins with a group of people milling around on a street, among them, according to WikiLeaks, Mr. Noor-Eldeen and Mr. Chmagh. The pilots believe them to be insurgents, and mistake Mr. Noor-Eldeen’s camera for a weapon. They aim and fire at the group, then revel in their kills.

“Look at those dead bastards,” one pilot says. “Nice,” the other responds.

[4/5/10] Suicide attackers detonated three car bombs in quick succession near foreign embassies in Baghdad on Sunday, killing more than 40 people in coordinated strikes that Iraqi officials said were intended to disrupt efforts to form a new government.

The bombings followed the execution-style killings of 24 villagers in a Sunni area two days earlier, a spike in violence that suggests insurgents are seizing on the political uncertainty after the recent election to try to destabilize the country as U.S. troops prepare to leave. No clear winner emerged from the March 7 vote.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Chilean miners rescued

The last of the Chilean miners, the foreman who held them together when they were feared lost, was raised from the depths of the Earth last night -- a joyous ending to a 69-day ordeal that riveted the world. No one has ever been trapped so long and survived.

Luis Urzua ascended smoothly through 2,000 feet of rock, completing a flawless 22 1/2 -hour operation that unfolded with remarkable speed. Before a jubilant crowd of about 2,000, he became the 33rd miner to be rescued.

"We have done what the entire world was waiting for," he told Chilean President Sebastian Pinera immediately after his rescue. "The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing."

The president told him: "You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter."

The rescue exceeded expectations every step of the way. Officials first said it might be four months before they could get the men out; it turned out to be 69 days and about eight hours.

The crowd in "Camp Hope," downhill from the escape shaft, set off confetti, released balloons and sprayed champagne as Urzua's capsule surfaced, joining in a miners' cheer. In Chile's capital of Santiago, hundreds gathered in Plaza Italia, waving flags and chanting victory slogans.

One by one throughout the day, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. While the operation picked up speed as the day went on, each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause.

"Welcome to life," Pinera told Victor Segovia, the 15th miner out. It seemed no overstatement.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Post Office facing major changes

What to do with the U.S. Postal Service? It’s drowning in red ink, with a deficit that ballooned to nearly $8 billion for the fiscal year just ended last month. Operating costs are up and mail volume is in free fall in the face of electronic and other delivery options. Soon it may not be able to make payroll.

[via Zacks.com]

Friday, October 15, 2010

China's Nobel prize winner

BEIJING — China has long wanted a Nobel prize. Now that it has one, its leaders are furious. The Nobel committee awarded its peace prize to imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo on Friday, lending encouragement to China's dissident community and sending a rebuke to the authoritarian government, which sharply condemned the award.

In naming Liu, the Norwegian-based committee honored his more than two decades of advocacy for human rights and peaceful democratic change – from the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989 to a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.

President Barack Obama, last year's peace prize winner, called for Liu's immediate release.

***

The wife of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, was allowed to meet with her husband Sunday at the prison in northeastern China where he is serving an 11-year sentence for his pro-democracy writings, according to a message she posted on Twitter.

Liu Xia wrote that prison officials told her husband Saturday evening that he had been selected for the award, an honor that Chinese officials have vehemently criticized.

After Liu Xiaobo learned the news of his prize, "He was moved to tears," Wu'er wrote. "He said that this prize belonged to the souls of those who died at Tiananmen."

Hundreds died when the Chinese government sent troops and tanks to the center of Beijing on June 4, 1989, to crush the pro-democracy movement.

Liu, who was active in the 1989 demonstrations, spent the next two decades pressing for political reform in China.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

therefore we should cut their taxes

The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its largest margin ever, a stark divide as Democrats and Republicans spar over whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans – those making more than $100,000 each year – received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.

"Income inequality is rising, and if we took into account tax data, it would be even more," said Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in poverty. "More than other countries, we have a very unequal income distribution where compensation goes to the top in a winner-takes-all economy."

Thursday, September 23, 2010

1 in 7 in U.S. below poverty line

The percentage of Americans struggling below the poverty line in 2009 was the highest it has been in 15 years, the Census Bureau reported Thursday, and interviews with poverty experts and aid groups said the increase appeared to be continuing this year.

With the country in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, four million additional Americans found themselves in poverty in 2009, with the total reaching 44 million, or one in seven residents. Millions more were surviving only because of expanded unemployment insurance and other assistance.

The share of residents in poverty climbed to 14.3 percent in 2009, the highest level recorded since 1994. The rise was steepest for children, with one in five affected, the bureau said.

***

Thousands more Hawaii residents fell into poverty last year, driving up the rate here to its highest level since 1997, Census Bureau figures released yesterday show.

The poverty rate in Hawaii rose to 12.5 percent in 2009 -- with more than 156,000 people living below the poverty line -- the third consecutive year the state saw growing numbers of impoverished people.

In 2007, 7.5 percent of the state's population was below the poverty line. In 2008, the number rose to 9.9 percent -- or 125,000 people.

The new census estimates show the poverty rate among Hawaii children jumped nearly 5 percentage points last year -- to 19 percent -- up from 14.3 percent.

The figures, advocates say, illustrate just how much island low-income families are struggling in an economic downturn that has left thousands without jobs and many struggling to pay for necessities.

***

Worldwide, the poor are getting less poor, although not everywhere.

The share of the population of developing regions whose people live in extreme poverty is expected to fall to 15 percent by 2015, down from 46 percent in 1990, according to the United Nations. The gains stem largely from robust economic growth in countries such as China and India, the world's two most populous countries.

In China, whose economy this year officially surpassed Japan's as the world's second largest, the number living below the international poverty line fell from 60.2 percent in 1990 to 15.9 percent in 2005. By 2015, it is forecast to be 5 percent.

By a U.N. measure of living on less than $1.25 a day, some 254 million Chinese remain in extreme poverty. The Chinese government uses a poverty line of $190 in annual income, or about 52 cents a day, and 40 million Chinese fall below that. Those bedrock poor are mostly farmers and nomads, mainly from minority ethnic groups in remote areas.

City Council approves fireworks limits

Expect New Year's Eves on Oahu to be quieter and less smoky after the 2011 celebration.

A bill the City Council approved yesterday will continue to allow firecrackers by permit, but will bar sale, purchase or use of all other consumer fireworks, including sparklers, fountains and so-called "paperless" firecrackers.

The 7-2 vote after came after more than four hours of testimony and debate yesterday, and months of deliberating before that. Supporters of stricter fireworks legislation initially sought a ban on firecrackers, too, but backed off that idea after several Chinese community leaders said firecrackers are a cultural and religious custom for many of them.

Under the bill, Oahu residents would be able to get a permit to use firecrackers between 9 p.m. New Year's Eve and 1 a.m. New Year's Day, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Chinese New Year's Day and from 1 to 9 p.m. on the Fourth of July.

A permit could also be obtained for "cultural use" between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the day requested.

The bill says cultural uses include, but are not limited to, "births, deaths, weddings, grand openings, blessings, anniversaries."

While some critics have questioned the value in eliminating all "novelty" fireworks but leaving firecrackers, city fire officials pointed out that firecrackers make up only a small portion of all fireworks sold during the holidays.

Assistant Fire Chief Manny Neves said it's the duty of firefighters to protect life, property and the environment.

"We feel fireworks is bad on all counts," he said.

"It's not just illegal aerials," Neves said. "All fireworks start fires."

While the department would prefer a total ban, "we feel that limiting the use to firecrackers only ... is a great step in the right direction," he said.

Council members said they made the effective date of the bill Jan. 2 to allow vendors to sell off their stock for the New Year's holiday.

Carlisle elected new mayor

What looked like an easy victory just last month came down to the final printout last night, as former Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle edged out acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell to become the next mayor of Honolulu.

Carlisle emerged the winner in the special mayoral election with 40.8 percent of the vote. Caldwell was second with 36.6 percent. University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros, hoping to play spoiler in his second try at mayor, was third with 19.1 percent.

Carlisle will serve the two years remaining in the term of Mufi Hannemann, who resigned in June to pursue a run for governor. Hannemann lost in last night's Democratic primary to veteran legislator Neil Abercrombie.

Yesterday's vote brought a close to a sprint that officially began July 20, when Hannemann resigned.

Carlisle started the election season as a prohibitive favorite, and even held a 2-to-1 lead over Caldwell in a poll last month.

But Caldwell closed the gap in the final weeks with a strong push helped by a campaign war chest of almost $1 million.

The campaign was mostly on issues and stayed away from attacks, although there were some charges of negative campaigning in the final days as Caldwell took out a series of ads targeting Carlisle's budget practices and acceptance of pay raises while in office. Carlisle countered with newspaper ads downplaying the charges.

***

Election Results

Ambercrombie trounces Hannemann

Former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie rolled to victory last night in the Democratic primary for governor as voters eagerly embraced his call for change.

Abercrombie portrayed former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann as the candidate of the status quo and the establishment. He ran as an insurgent against a man who secured many of the most coveted endorsements from business and from public- and private-sector labor unions.

"And now, in 2010, a new wave of hope and change is coming to Hawaii and it starts tonight," said Abercrombie, who was joined on stage by Brian Schatz, the former Democratic Party of Hawaii chairman and state lawmaker who claimed the party's nomination for lieutenant governor.

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona easily captured the Republican primary for governor and will face Abercrombie in the November general election. State House Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan took the GOP primary for lieutenant governor.

Many voters who said they preferred Abercrombie, when asked to explain their vote, said it stemmed from their dislike of Hannemann.

"He lost me even before rail," said Maria Phillips, a nurse. "But when he said, 'You're going to get rail whether you like it or not,' Well ... he's always been the bully type."

The two Democrats both gave up elected positions for a shot at Washington Place: Abercrombie resigned early from his urban Honolulu seat in Congress; Hannemann stepped away from his final two years as mayor.

With little to separate them on public-policy issues -- their most substantive difference was over civil unions -- they made the primary about leadership ability. Abercrombie said he would be an agent of change against the status quo; Hannemann said he would be a consensus builder who could get things done.

Abercrombie and Hannemann had a strained personal history after a nasty 1986 primary and special election for Congress during which Hannemann knocked Abercrombie as soft on drugs. Hannemann won the primary and Abercrombie took the special election, but disappointed voters turned to Republican Pat Saiki in the general election.

While the primary between the two Democrats this year never turned as negative, voters showed no tolerance when Hannemann and his surrogates, even subtly, tried to contrast his personal background, education, ethnicity and religion with Abercrombie.

Hannemann's wounds were self-inflicted. In July, speaking to the Hawaii Carpenters Union, the former mayor, who is of Samoan and German descent, said the carpenters deserved a candidate they could personally relate to and told them, "I look like you, you look like me."

In August, the Hannemann campaign mailed a "Compare and Decide" brochure statewide that asked voters to compare where the candidates were born, their wives and their education. The brochure also mocked Abercrombie's accomplishments and noted he once won first place in the Lahaina Whaling Days beard contest.

Critics said the brochure, combined with Hannemann's carpenters union speech, was a ham-handed attempt to insert localism and identity politics into the campaign. Hannemann was born in Honolulu, has a Japanese-American wife, and graduated from Harvard University. Abercrombie was born in Buffalo, N.Y., has a haole wife and graduated from Union College in New York and the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Hannemann defended the brochure as factual but apologized at the start of the first televised debate if the mailer offended anyone.

In late August and early September, Island Values, a Christian group with ties to the Hannemann campaign, released a radio advertisement and flier that described Abercrombie as "unacceptable" to Christians because of his voting record in Congress and the fact he had declined to state a religion in congressional biographies. Abercrombie, questioned by the news media, said he is a confirmed Episcopalian.

Hannemann, a Mormon, disavowed the ad and the flier and urged his supporters not to distribute the information.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Hanneman vs. Ambercrombie: Compare and Decide

[9/14/10] Former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie has criticized a two-page newspaper advertisement that he said leaves the false impression that his opponent in the Democratic primary for governor, former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, is endorsed by U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka.

The Hannemann ad, which ran in the Star-Advertiser on Sunday, includes testimonials about Hannemann from the two senators and several other Hawaii leaders. Inouye, who urged Hannemann to run, has said he is officially neutral in the primary. Akaka is also neutral.

"In today's newspaper, Mufi Hannemann ran an ad that creates the false impression that Sen. Inouye and Sen. Akaka have endorsed him for governor. Both senators have said they are remaining neutral in the Democratic primary," Abercrombie said in a statement on Sunday. "It's yet another political game meant to confuse voters. In six days, the people of Hawaii will have an opportunity to reject politics-as-usual when they cast their ballots. I am confident that the people will move Hawaii in a new direction."

[9/12/10] As much as Saturday's Democratic primary may hinge on where the candidates stand on specific hot-button issues, it is also likely to reflect the degree to which former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie have been able to reconcile seemingly polar aspects of their public personas.

While Hannemann's supporters praise his ability to get things done, detractors claim that his record is sullied by his penchant for bullying opponents. Part of Hannemann's challenge this election season has been to convince voters that his leadership style is more about compromising and building consensus than steamrolling opposition.

For Abercrombie, who burst on the political scene as an anti-war crusader, the challenge has been to sell voters on the idea that he can still be "an agent of change" despite spending much of his 40-year career as a cog in the state's Democratic establishment.

[9/9/10] Hannemann: visionary leader / Hannemann: the collaborator

[9/8/10] Hannemann used hit-and-run tactics (David Shapiro)

[9/7/10] Mufi looks like you (Lee Cataluna)

Former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann clashed last night in the last televised debate before the Democratic primary for governor, a substantive and mostly positive encounter that forced both candidates to defend their records.

The candidates used the opportunity of a statewide audience to perfect their campaign themes: Abercrombie as an agent of change who will stand up for people who have no one to stand up for them, Hannemann as a chief executive and a collaborator who can get things done.

The most spirited and revealing exchanges, as in previous debates and forums, came when the candidates were able to question each other.

Abercrombie challenged the former mayor to explain how Honolulu allowed a property reclassification from residential to commercial-industrial that has led to substantially higher property tax bills for about 250 residents.

Hannemann explained that it was the city's real property assessment division that reclassified the properties for uniformity and said it was irresponsible for Abercrombie to suggest that the mayor or City Council had an influence. Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell and some Council members have proposed measures to help the residents involved.

Hannemann, referring to Abercrombie's lack of executive experience, said the former congressman did not understand how a budget is constructed.

"Once again, it's somebody else's fault," Abercrombie shot back. "And now somebody else has to fix it."

Hannemann questioned how Abercrombie, given the state's budget difficulties, would pay for some of the expanded government programs included in his "A New Day in Hawaii" plan, including a state Department of Early Childhood and a Hawaii Energy Authority.

"It's going to take somebody who understands how you actually do budgeting," Abercrombie said, adding that it is a matter of setting priorities, not about new spending.

***

Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann's campaign for governor has mailed out a comparison brochure to voters statewide that contains references to where Hannemann and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie were born, the names of their wives, and the fact that Abercrombie once won first place in the Lahaina Whaling Days beard contest.

Hannemann's campaign said all of the information in the "Compare and Decide" brochure is factual. But Abercrombie, Hannemann's opponent in the Democratic primary, said it is an example of negative campaigning.

"Our opponent continues to quickly dismiss any unflattering fact about his record as negative campaigning, yet he does not contest the accuracy of those facts," Carolyn Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the Hannemann campaign, said in a statement. "And he is doing it again."

Abercrombie, in a statement, said the brochure "is not what a governor does."

"He's asking you to compare the fact that he was born in Hawaii and I was born on the mainland," he said. "That he went to Harvard, and I went to the University of Hawaii. He dismisses my 35 years of service to the people of Hawaii. He even asks you to compare our wives and decide. Compare and decide? What's the message here?"

Neal Milner, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, said the Hannemann brochure does not contain any distinctions on public policy issues and instead portrays Abercrombie as an outsider with an insignificant record.

"This all becomes about character and leadership," Milner said.

Several Democrats, speaking privately because they did not want to appear to be taking sides in the primary, thought Hannemann was again trying to suggest Abercrombie is an outsider by noting he was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and that he and his wife are haole. In July, Hannemann, who was born in Honolulu and is of Samoan and German descent, told the Hawaii Carpenters Union that carpenters deserved a candidate they could relate to and said, "I look like you. You look like me."

The reference in the brochure to the Lahaina Whaling Days beard contest, some said, was gratuitous and belittled the record of someone who served in Congress for two decades.

Other Democrats, however, did not believe the brochure crossed the line into negative campaigning when taken as a whole. Biographical references are included in many news media profiles of the candidates, some said, and Abercrombie himself once listed the beard contest in an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign in 1970.

"It was hardball but not completely below the belt," one Democrat said.

***

Two eminently qualified candidates are front-runners in the race to become the Democratic nominee for the governor's job. The victor there will move on to a contentious general election -- and whoever ultimately wins that race will take over at a time when Hawaii must chart a path out of the current economic malaise and toward a future that can sustain its citizens.

There's so much serious talk that should be happening now, a month from voting day, that it's disappointing to see the race already starting to deteriorate. The downward spiral accelerated with the mailing of a "Compare and Decide" flier by the Mufi Hannemann campaign.

The format, a side-by-side comparison of the former mayor with former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, is standard campaign fodder. But the content of this one veered off into foolishness.

A few examples:

» The reference to the candidates' wives -- including Mrs. Hannemann's Japanese maiden name to underscore her ethnicity -- was irrelevant at best and offensive at worst.

» While Hannemann's cum-laude Harvard degree does him credit, was it really necessary to use that as an opportunity to smack down Abercrombie as a University of Hawaii graduate?

Those in the know already realize Abercrombie earned the more advanced degrees, not acknowledged in the brochure, and can dismiss this as a weak critique. But even the casual bystander has to wonder why any candidate would by inference insult the state university, alma mater for many of the voters Hannemann hopes to impress.

» The citation of the embezzlement conviction for an Abercrombie staffer is entirely lacking in context, including the involvement of his other aides in her prosecution.

» Listing Abercrombie's award in a Lahaina beard contest from the 1960s as his only recognition is simply sophomoric.

The importance of this race, at this juncture of the state's history, cannot be overstated. Hannemann and Abercrombie have differences in leadership style that can be legitimately contrasted, and have different approaches to solving the state's problems that should be debated.

But if this flier is a harbinger of what's still to come as the campaign heat rises, the voters have a reason to worry.

***

Your story on the Mufi Hannemann campaign brochure ("Hannemann spins facts to run down Abercrombie," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 17) did a good job in capturing the offensive aspects and fallacies of this particular advertising.

As one of 161,000 graduates of the University of Hawaii, I was particularly offended that his brochure implies that Neil Abercrombie's UH education is inferior to Hannemann's Harvard education when it comes to equipping someone for political office.

I would remind the former mayor that both U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and the late former U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink attended UH. They didn't do too badly. On the other hand, George W. Bush went to Yale and Harvard Business School. Draw your own conclusions.

Ben Yamamoto
Nanakuli


Neil Abercrombie has received numerous awards. One of the most prestigious was the Gandhi King Ikeda Peace Award for community building and upholding world peace from Morehouse College. Much more than a "best beard" award.

Abercrombie's refusal to return Hannemann's use of belittling innuendoes exemplifies Abercrombie's understanding that those are examples of passive violence and unbefitting a governor.

Mary Dias
Aiea

***

Ed Case is out of the 2010 election after withdrawing from the 1st Congressional District race, but he's still making his presence felt by calling out candidates who play the race and "local" cards in Hawaii elections.

In a recent commentary in the Star-Advertiser, Case said there's a fine line between candidates telling their personal stories and "purposefully playing to prejudices and divisions, tearing rather than strengthening our social fabric. Then it becomes about the candidate's character and capability to unite and lead a diverse society."

He specifically cited Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mufi Hannemann's pitch to the Carpenters Union that "when I look in the audience, I look like you, you look like me ... and even for our Caucasian brothers in the audience, I'm local to the max."

And mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell's radio ad in which he proclaimed, "I may not look it, but I'm a local boy -- born in Waipahu, grew up in Hilo."

Case noted that both are running against haole opponents who weren't born here.

"We have tolerated subtle racism and not-so-subtle localism in Hawaii politics for a long time now," he said. "It fosters the politics of division and exclusion (think the bumper sticker 'Locals Only' on the door of government)."

Case speaks from experience; he's taken hits in his own campaigns about his "localness" even though he was born and raised in Hawaii and his family goes back four generations.

It's Hawaii's dirty little double standard. Imagine the hue and cry if a haole candidate made a statement such as Hannemann's to a primarily white audience -- or if President Barack Obama said it to a black audience.

But thinly veiled haole-bashing remains an accepted part of Hawaii's political culture, and blowing the whistle on it is just seen as further evidence of your lack of "localness."

***

I believe the core intent of Mufi Hannemann's "Compare and Decide" brochure is to inform the public, not fear monger or personally to ruin his competitor. Yes, the information about Neil Abercrombie highlights his negative attributes; but this reflection results from his own actions, not a spin by the Hannemann campaign. The truth is that Abercrombie was ranked last in overall legislative performance by Congress.org (August 2008) for his congressional class.

The truth is Abercrombie had one of the poorest voting records for the 111th Congress.

The brochure offered information easily found on the Internet, but in a condensed format. It left the content open to interpretation, which can be spun by individuals based on their own assumptions.

Seanna Pieper-Jordan
Kaimuki

***

How often does a piece of snail mail go viral?

The first real bit of traction in the governor's race is Mufi Hannemann's Friday the 13th attack on Democratic opponent Neil Abercrombie. Flashing Hannemann's trademark Iolani colors, red and black, the former mayor's mailer asked all registered voters to "compare and decide."

Compare their wives, compare their high schools and even compare what kind of awards they win.

It lit up the campaign.

Hannemann seemed to be saying his birthplace, his wife's Japanese surname, his Harvard undergraduate degree and his Honolulu Magazine ranking as "Best Public Official" were the only reasons voters needed to pick him.

"It doesn't make you feel good if you think this is what it takes to win us over," says one long-time local Democrat.

Local-boy politics is not exclusive to Hawaii elections, but folks in Hawaii can understand how dangerous it is to divide people by ancestry and origin.

A former executive in the administrations of Govs. John Waihee and George Ariyoshi says the glossy, heavy-stock mailer was raising the ire of voters all over town.

"There were two older folks in front of me at McDonald's talking about it. One was saying 'What's wrong with UH? It was good enough for us.' And the other says, 'Why does he always have to brag?'" my friend reported.

The Republicans seized on it.

Dylan Nonaka, GOP executive director, went on television to say, "Mufi Hannemann has made a career of personally attacking and tearing down his opponents."

***

I got Mufi Hannemann's campaign flyer in the mail. He makes comparisons between his biography and Neil Abercrombie's.

I'm wondering what the education comparison is supposed to indicate?

Does the comparison suggest that a Harvard grad is superior to a University of Hawaii at Manoa grad and, therefore, better suited to be my governor? I hope that's not the case; Hawaii does not need an East Coast elitist mentality in Washington Place.

Especially for a candidate running on a "locals" platform.

David Heaukulani
Hilo

***

[8/22/10] Former U.S. Rep. Ed Case yesterday endorsed former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary for governor, concluding that Abercrombie is independent in thought and action and passionate about making government work for all.

In an e-mail to his supporters, Case said he once saw former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Abercrombie's opponent, as a future leader for the state but now views him "as the most dangerous politician in a generation."

"He is the product and clear choice of a political machine that must end," Case wrote of the former mayor. "While professing unity, he's practiced the politics of division, exploiting rather than healing differences of race, origin and economic status. He has governed by fear and intimidation, rewarding compliance and punishing disagreement.

"His policy decisions have too often focused on short-term avoidance at the expense of long-term solutions. All spin aside, none of that would serve us well as our governor."

Case acknowledged that endorsing Abercrombie may be a surprise to some of his supporters, since Abercrombie denounced Case for his primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, in 2006.

***

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mufi Hannemann yesterday slammed scathing criticism from former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who endorsed Hannemann's chief rival, Neil Abercrombie, over the weekend.

The exchange of statements from the three high-profile Hawaii Democrats turned up the temperature on an already sizzling contest for the party's Sept. 18 gubernatorial primary between Hannemann and Abercrombie.

It came three days after Abercrombie, a former Hawaii congressman, and Hannemann, a former Honolulu mayor, met in a barb-filled debate hosted by KHON-TV, and the day after a poll showed Abercrombie holding a tiny lead.

In e-mails sent Saturday, Case endorsed Abercrombie as an effective advocate for the state during Abercrombie's nearly 20 years in Congress, and an independent thinker who wants government to work. Case said his e-mail list, tallied over the last decade, numbers in the tens of thousands.

"In experience, character, perspective and commitment, he would serve us well as our governor," wrote Case, who in May dropped out of next month's Democratic primary for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District seat.

Case went further, calling Hannemann the "most dangerous politician in a generation." He accused Hannemann of being the "clear choice of a political machine that must end," though Case did not elaborate on the allegation.

"While professing unity, he's practiced the politics of division, exploiting rather than healing differences of race, origin and economic status," Case added, referring in part to a much-criticized flier Hannemann's campaign mailed recently and for which Hannemann apologized at the top of Friday's debate.

Case's remarks generated a stern response from Hannemann spokeswoman Carolyn Tanaka.

"This is negative campaigning at its worst," she said. "Case's hateful e-mail assassinates the character of Mufi Hannemann with accusations that are completely devoid of any facts."

Abercrombie, she added, "has consistently accused us of negative campaigning, yet he accepts the endorsement and apparently condones the negative messages being sent out by Ed Case."

Asked for a response, Case said in a statement, "Hannemann's character to lead is a central issue because we want leaders we can trust; that's fair game in any campaign."

Abercrombie has lauded Case's endorsement. Yesterday he dismissed Hannemann's complaints, saying in a statement, "Ed Case is an independent person and free to speak his mind."

***

Ed Case views Mufi Hannemann "as the most dangerous politician in a generation." Disturbingly, Case never backs up his views with any facts or evidence of truth.

Case fails to see the damage he could have done, and has done, to Hawaii's Democratic Party by his past two failed attempts for elected office.

First he tried to knock off our beloved and distinguished U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. He then gave the Republican Party a coveted congressional seat, which Neil Abercrombie vacated during a critical time for President Obama.

Who is really the most dangerous politician in a generation to Hawaii's Democratic Party?

Bob Iinuma
Honolulu


Though I have not been a fan of Ed Case, I must speak up for him now.

Saying what you believe, and what you feel to be very important for our community, is the duty of all of us. I'm not saying we should "talk stink" -- far from it. But Case expressed what lots of us feel after observing Mufi Hannemann for decades. He does not work productively with other viewpoints to reach agreement, but imposes his own "wiser" choices. It is my observation that he never addresses different viewpoints, except to belittle and marginalize them.

Cloudia Charters
Honolulu

***

[8/26/10] Like a disapproving uncle, Hawaii's senior Democrat on Tuesday urged the two leading candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to stop issuing negative comments about each other and instead concentrate on policy differences.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who is seeking a ninth six-year term in November, released a statement saying the gubernatorial campaigns of both former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and ex-Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann had issued remarks "that walk a very fine line between fair and foul."

"We're all better than that," the 85-year-old Inouye added.

The senator also chided former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who released a statement Saturday endorsing Abercrombie and criticizing Hannemann as the "most dangerous politician in a generation."

In a separate e-mail, Case on Monday endorsed former Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's campaign for Honolulu mayor while rebuking one of Carlisle's rivals, acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

"Unfortunately," Inouye said without naming Case, "nastiness is coming from not only within the campaigns.

"It is one thing to endorse a candidate," the senator added. "It is quite another to tear down and gut the opposition by engaging in character assassination. That has no place in Hawaii."

The senator ended his statement by saying, "Let's keep it clean."

Friday, September 10, 2010

Et tu Caldwell?

The two leading candidates in the race for Honolulu mayor traded barbs over a new campaign ad that appears to take the race negative for the first time.

The 30-second television ad was bought by acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who has been trailing former Prosecutor Peter Carlisle in most of the polls in the race thus far.

It begins by touting Caldwell's accomplishments, then contends spending in the Prosecutor's Office under Carlisle "spiraled out of control," increasing 60 percent.

Material provided by the Caldwell campaign cites budget figures from 2001 and 2009, a period when the local economy was growing before the global recession led to smaller budgets throughout all levels of government.

Carlisle said his camp was analyzing the source material, but added, "It appears they arbitrarily took two specific years out of the entire time I was the prosecuting attorney — one year where our spending was substantially under budget, the other year where our spending was on budget."

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Democrats losing control

WASHINGTON -- The Democrats are likely to lose 47 seats and control of the House of Representatives in November's elections, a top political analyst says in a new forecast Thursday.

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, also says that the Democrats are likely to lose eight or nine seats in the Senate, eight governors' offices and 300 to 500 seats in state legislatures.

"The numbers are eye-catching. Republicans are dramatically gaining in all categories," Sabato said in an interview. "It's generated by a rotten economy and a strong conservative reaction against President Obama."

The analysis marks the first time this year that Sabato and the University's Center for Politics have predicted a Republican takeover of the House.

Sabato is one of the most consistently accurate election prognosticators. His final pre-election analysis in 2006 got the exact number of Democratic gains in the House and Senate and was off by only one in governors' races. In 2008, he missed the final Electoral College count by only one, and missed the final House tally by only five seats.

"2010 was always going to be a Republican year, in the midterm tradition. It has simply been a matter of degree," Sabato said in a written analysis released Thursday.

Monday, September 06, 2010

GOP chairman judges Mufi and Neil

Jonah Kaauwai, state GOP chairman, sent a forceful letter to pastors and others asking them not to vote for former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in the Democratic primary for governor. Hannemann, a Mormon, has reached out to religious conservatives in his primary against former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

Kaauwai, in a letter that was posted on the Hawaii Christian Coalition website, said people of faith should stay with Aiona, a Catholic, in the GOP primary and the November general election.

"Duke will win because the Church has been behind him the entire time operating in the POWER and the AUTHORITY of the NAME OF JESUS!" Kaauwai wrote. "We are the HEAD and not the tail; we are the VICTORS not the victims!

"If Duke Aiona does not win it will be the burden of the Body of Christ to bear so rather than preparing to have to deal with either Mufi or Neil winning the Church, we should be preparing for Duke to WIN. Neither Mufi Hannemann nor Neil Abercrombie is righteous and a vote for either in the primary or general election is succumbing to fear and advancing unrighteousness!"

Aiona, in a statement, said he would appeal to all people regardless of their faith.

"While faith is a central part of my life, I'm running for governor to serve all the people of Hawaii -- regardless of their religion," he said. "The goal of our grassroots campaign is to connect with every citizen in every community of this great state, and chairman Kaauwai's personal comments are seen by many as divisive.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Glenn Beck's dream

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King's message. Civil rights leaders who accused the group of hijacking King's legacy held their own rally and march.

While Beck billed his event as nonpolitical, conservative activists from around the nation said their show of strength was a clear sign that they can swing elections across the country and much of the country is angry with what many voters call an out-of-touch Washington.

Palin told the tens of thousands who stretched from the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the grass of the Washington Monument that calls to transform the country weren't enough. "We must restore America and restore her honor," said the former Alaska governor, echoing the name of the rally, "Restoring Honor."

Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008 and a potential White House contender in 2012, and Beck repeatedly cited King and made references to the Founding Fathers. Beck put a heavy religious cast on nearly all his remarks, sounding at times like an evangelical preacher.

"Something beyond imagination is happening," he said. "America today begins to turn back to God."

Beck exhorted the crowd to "recognize your place to the creator. Realize that he is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life and protects us." He asked his audience to pray more. "I ask, not only if you would pray on your knees, but pray on your knees but with your door open for your children to see," he said.

***

WASHINGTON – In the shadow of the Capitol and the election, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert entertained a huge throng Saturday at a "sanity" rally poking fun at the nation's ill-tempered politics, fear-mongers and doomsayers.

"We live now in hard times," Stewart said after all the shtick. "Not end times."

Part comedy show, part pep talk, the rally drew together tens of thousands stretched across an expanse of the National Mall, a festive congregation of the goofy and the politically disenchanted. People carried signs merrily protesting the existence of protest signs. Some dressed like bananas, wizards, Martians and Uncle Sam.

Stewart, a satirist who makes his living skewering the famous, came to play nice. He decried the "extensive effort it takes to hate" and declared "we can have animus and not be enemies."

Screens showed a variety of pundits and politicians from the left and right, engaged in divisive rhetoric. Prominently shown: Glenn Beck, whose conservative Restoring Honor rally in Washington in August was part of the motivation for the Stewart and Colbert event, called the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. It appeared to rival Beck's rally in attendance.

Colbert, who poses as an ultraconservative on his show, played the personification of fear at the rally. He arrived on stage in a capsule like a rescued Chilean miner, from a supposed underground bunker. He pretended to distrust all Muslims until one of his heroes, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is Muslim, came on the stage.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Great Jam of China

China has just been declared the world's second biggest economy, and now it has a monster traffic jam to match.

Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 100 kilometers (60 miles) long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say.

In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting.

The immediate cause of the traffic jam that began Aug. 14 is construction on one of three southbound highways feeding into Beijing.

Authorities are trying to ease the snarl-up by letting more trucks into the capital, especially at night, said Zhang, the traffic director. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations and advised drivers to take the few alternate routes available.

"Things are getting better and better," he said, but he added that the construction would go on until Sept. 17.

Somalian insurgency

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali insurgents disguised in government military uniforms stormed a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and killed at least 30 people, including 4 lawmakers, laying bare how vulnerable Somalia’s government is, even in an area it claims to control.

The insurgents methodically moved room to room, killing hotel guests who tried to bolt their doors shut, Somali officials said. When government forces finally cornered the insurgents, two blew themselves up with suicide vests.

The attack shows that “operational momentum has shifted to the insurgents, who can go anywhere they want except where the African peacekeepers are deployed,” said J. Peter Pham, senior vice president at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

The most powerful insurgents are the Shabab, a militant Islamist group that has stoned civilians to death and pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. The Shabab seem to be constantly two steps ahead of Somalia’s transitional government, analysts say, even though the government receives tens of millions of dollars in security aid from the United States and other Western countries.

American officials have said the government, however weak and disorganized, is the best bulwark against a Shabab-ruled Somalia, though the Shabab already rule much of Somalia.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kalihi property tax quadruples

Kalihi homeowners whose properties were reclassified to industrial or commercial are facing a fourfold property tax jump they describe as unfair.

Jayme Cabais, 79, a lifelong resident of a Stanley Street house, said yesterday that he received no notice of the change until the end of July when he received this year's tax bill for $10,552.40, more than quadruple last year's $2,335.52 bill.

The retiree cannot afford $10,000 a year on a monthly $1,000 Social Security check. "I want to be able to afford to eat," he said.

City Council member Romy Cachola said his office has been flooded with complaints about the tax increase from the residential rate of $3.42 to $12.40 for industrial or commercial per $1,000 of assessed value. Cachola knows of 95 structures that were affected but suspects the number is higher.

"The Hannemann administration pulled the trigger" last year and decided to reclassify these residential homes without the Council's knowledge, Cachola said.

He believes the problem is islandwide, likely striking other older neighborhoods that had been rezoned to industrial and commercial, often hurting the needy and seniors on fixed incomes.

While many owners did not receive notices, some got letters in December notifying them of the zoning reclassification, but the letters failed to mention any tax increase. They only learned of the major increase when they got their bills in the mail.

They were told by the city they have no recourse but to pay this year's bills. Their only consolation is to file a form by September asking their land be reclassified as residential.

The Council passed a bill in July that would allow residential property owners to dedicate their properties to residential, allowing them to pay the lower rate.

The changes were made in response to "complaints of inequitable treatment by owners of similar properties who were already being assessed at the higher commercial or industrial class rate," said Gary Kurokawa, the city's real property tax division administrator.

***

City Council members are irate that, unbeknownst to them, the city administratively reclassified about 250 residential properties from Waipahu to Kapahulu, jacking up some homeowners' property taxes by more than 300 percent.

"I don't recall ever sitting down or having one conversation, one memo, one iota that this reclassification was occurring," said Council Budget Chairman Nestor Garcia on Friday.

He said he would have remembered "something that was going to hit this many people this deep in the pocketbook."

Council Chairman Todd Apo said the Council members should have been advised beforehand.

"Had we been informed, we could have, either through a new law or via the budget bill, created some form of relief for this situation," he said.

By today, owners of formerly classified residential properties must pay the first installment of quadrupled property taxes or face late penalties.

Last year the city reclassified some residential properties in areas zoned commercial or residential to commercial or industrial use. Some owners received letters from the city in December informing them of the reclassification but had no clue it would result in a huge jump in taxes.

Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell defended former Mayor Mufi Hannemann's administration on the issue, saying, "The change in classification of these apartment properties was not the result of any policy decision on the part of either the Hannemann or Caldwell administrations.

***

[8/26/10] I would like to provide clarification of the classification of real property ("Tax jump alarms Kalihi residents," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 20).

By law, the city's Real Property Assessment Division is the sole agency responsible for determining the classification and assessment of all taxable real property in the City and County of Honolulu. To suggest that the mayor or City Council could influence an assessment is irresponsible.

The main objective in assessing the city's real property inventory is to be uniform and equitable. The employees of the division work hard to maintain the integrity of the assessment system.

Recent changes in classification from residential to commercial/industrial were done to address complaints from taxpayers who were paying a higher tax rate than some of their neighbors. Unfortunately, application of existing laws sometimes results in unintended, negative consequences, as was the case here. Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Council are currently working to fashion a measure of tax relief to assist taxpayers impacted by the reclassification this year.

Gary T. Kurokawa
Administrator, Real Property Assessment Division, City Department of Budget and Fiscal Services

Friday, August 27, 2010

Jonathan Lee

BEIJING — A 13-year-old American boy who made a rare visit to Pyongyang says officials there welcomed his idea for a "children's peace forest" in the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea, although they said it would only happen if the countries signed a peace treaty first.

Jonathan Lee returned Thursday from an eight-day visit to the reclusive country during which he was taken on a tour of the DMZ. A hoped-for meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not materialize, although Lee said the officials forwarded to Kim a letter from him.

"On this trip, I discovered that both sides want reunification and that Korea is one, so I see hope on the Korean peninsula," Lee, who made the visit with his parents, Kyoung and Melissa Lee, told The Associated Press.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

the last American combat brigade leaves Iraq

[9/1/10] WASHINGTON — Claiming no victory, President Barack Obama formally ended the U.S. combat role in Iraq after seven long years of bloodshed, declaring firmly Tuesday night: "It's time to turn the page." Now, he said, the nation's most urgent priority is fixing its own sickly economy.

From the Oval Office, where George W. Bush first announced the invasion that would come to define his presidency, Obama addressed millions who were divided over the war in his country and around the world. Fiercely opposed to the war from the start, he said the United States "has paid a huge price" to give Iraqis the chance to shape their future—a cost that now includes more than 4,400 troops dead, tens of thousands more wounded and hundreds of billions of dollars spent.

In a telling sign of the domestic troubles weighing on the United States and his own presidency, Obama turned much of the emphasis in a major war address to the dire state of U.S. joblessness. He said the Iraq war had stripped America of money needed for its own prosperity, and he called for an economic commitment at home to rival the grit and purpose of a military campaign.

In his remarks of slightly less than 20 minutes, only his second address from the Oval Office, Obama looked directly into the TV camera, hands clasped in front of him on his desk, family photos and the U.S. and presidential flags behind him. His tone was somber.

Even as he turns control of the war over to the Iraqis—and tries to cap one of the most divisive chapters in recent American history—Obama is escalating the conflict in Afghanistan. He said that winding down Iraq would allow the United States "to apply the resources necessary to go on offense" in Afghanistan, now the nation's longest war since Vietnam.

As for Iraq, for all the finality of Obama's remarks, the war is not over. More Americans are likely to die. The country is plagued by violence and political instability, and Iraqis struggle with constant shortages of electricity and water.

Obama is keeping up to 50,000 troops in Iraq for support and counter-terrorism training, and the last forces are not due to leave until the end of 2011 at the latest.

[8/20/10] Baghdad - — Iraqis danced in the streets when U.S. troops withdrew from their cities a little over a year ago. After the last American combat brigade trundled across the border into Kuwait early Thursday, reversing a journey that began more than seven years ago, there was no rejoicing.

Instead, a mood of deep apprehension tinged with bitterness is taking hold as Iraqis digest the reality that the American invaders whom they once feared would stay forever are in fact going home - at a time when their country is in the throes of a deep political crisis that many think could turn increasingly violent.

"I'm not happy at all. I'm worried. They're leaving really early," said Wissam Sabah, a carpet seller in one of Baghdad's shopping districts. "We don't have a government and we don't know what is going to happen next. Maybe we will go back to civil war.

***

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait — As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos.

For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.

In a statement released by email, the president noted that the drawdown has been significant -- but isn't over yet:
Over the last 18 months, over 90,000 U.S. troops have left Iraq. By the end of this month, 50,000 troops will be serving in Iraq. As Iraqi Security Forces take responsibility for securing their country, our troops will move to an advise-and-assist role. And, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all of our troops will be out of Iraq by the end of next year. Meanwhile, we will continue to build a strong partnership with the Iraqi people with an increased civilian commitment and diplomatic effort.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, told MSNBC that this is "an historic moment" that marks the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but not the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

tax cuts good for economy?

The Republicans justify their desire to continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of the population by saying it will stimulate the economy and promote more jobs.

Haven't these cuts been in effect since 2002?

So how have they helped stimulate the economy and jobs over the last eight years? Haven't we just gone through the worst recession since the Great Depression during this same time?

All they have done is raise the income of the same wealthiest people and cost the jobs, income and homes of many lower- and middle-income workers. This is what we can expect if the Republicans increase their influence in Congress.

Vernon Wong
Waipahu

***

note: see voodoo economics

Monday, August 16, 2010

California's gay marriage ban overturned

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge overturned California's gay marriage ban Wednesday with an unequivocal ruling that could eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's strongly worded opinion in the landmark case — the first in a federal court to examine if states can lawfully limit marriage to a man and a woman — touched off a celebration outside the courthouse. Later in the day, a jubilant crowd marched through the city that has long been a haven for gays.

The ruling met immediate criticism from Mormon and Catholic church leaders and cheers from gay-rights advocates.

As word of the verdict spread, about 300 people assembled in a West Hollywood park waving rainbow gay pride flags. In New York City, a crowd of about 150 gathered outside a lower Manhattan courthouse. They carried signs saying "Our Love Wins" as organizers read portions of the 136-page decision aloud.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Missouri rejects universal health care

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.

Tuesday's vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement.

***

More than half a dozen states suing to overturn President Barack Obama's health care law are also claiming its subsidies for covering retired state government employees, according to a list released Tuesday by the administration.

About 2,000 employers have been approved for the extra help to cover early retirees, mainly private businesses. But the list also includes seven states suing to overturn the health care overhaul as an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government.

The seven are Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Nevada.

They are part of a group of 20 states that have challenged the law's requirement for most Americans to carry health insurance or face fines from the IRS. They argue that government cannot order individuals to buy a particular product. The administration counters that the mandate falls within broad powers conferred on Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

***

[9/1/10] More than half a dozen states suing to overturn President Barack Obama's health care law are also claiming its subsidies for covering retired state government employees, according to a list released Tuesday by the administration.

About 2,000 employers have been approved for the extra help to cover early retirees, mainly private businesses. But the list also includes seven states suing to overturn the health care overhaul as an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government.

The seven are Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Nevada.

They are part of a group of 20 states that have challenged the law's requirement for most Americans to carry health insurance or face fines from the IRS. They argue that government cannot order individuals to buy a particular product. The administration counters that the mandate falls within broad powers conferred on Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Reducing civilian casualties in Afghanistan also reduces attacks on American troops

Efforts to reduce civilian casualties by restricting U.S. airstrikes and other uses of force in Afghanistan are also sparing American troops from attack, according to a study to be unveiled Tuesday.

The study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, being released at the nonpartisan New America Foundation in Washington, undercuts the notion that the military faces a zero-sum choice between protecting its troops and protecting civilians, said one of the authors, Jacob Shapiro of Princeton University.

"Doing a little bit more to protect civilians looks like it reduces the rate of attacks" on troops, he said.

The study, funded by the Air Force and Stanford University, analyzed 4,000 civilian casualties and 25,000 fights between U.S.-led forces and insurgents over 15 months ending April 1. A typical incident that caused two Afghan civilian deaths provoked six revenge attacks in the district by the Taliban and other militants, the study found.

"The data are consistent with the claim that civilian casualties are affecting future violence through increased recruitment into insurgent groups after a civilian-casualty incident," the study says.

Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, have long acknowledged that civilian casualties were fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan, which is why McChrystal pushed hard to reduce them. Officials have noted that the Pashtun ethnic group, which dominates the Afghan insurgency, lives by a code of honor requiring men to avenge the deaths of relatives.

The study also examined Iraq, finding that civilian casualties in a particular district did not result in a similar long-term increase in insurgent violence in that district. The finding is consistent with what U.S. military officials have observed. In Iraq, the U.S. military has tamped down anger over civilian casualties by making payments to families. That approach has been greeted with affront in Afghanistan.