Schatz chosen over Hanabusa to replace Inouye

Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, who is expected to be sworn in today as the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's successor, said Wednesday that he understands the magnitude of the appointment and promised the islands: "I won't let you down."

Gov. Neil Abercrombie selected Schatz on Wednesday over U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who was Inouye's choice as his successor, and Esther Kia‘aina, the deputy director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Inouye, before he died Dec. 17 at 88 of respiratory complications, had asked Abercrombie in a letter to grant him his "last wish" by naming Hanabusa, 61, who represents urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District. The letter was hand-delivered to the governor by Walter Dods, a retired banker, and Jeffrey Watanabe, a retired attorney and chairman of Hawaiian Electric Industries, two of the senator's closest confidants.

Several Democrats said privately that Abercrombie's decision could cause a schism within the party that could lead to a serious primary challenge to the governor or to Schatz.

Abercrombie is up for re-election in 2014. Schatz will serve until voters in 2014 elect a senator to fill out the remainder of Inouye's six-year term, which runs through 2016.

"Senator Inouye conveyed his final wish to Governor Abercrombie. While we are very disappointed that it was not honored, it was the governor's decision to make. We wish Brian Schatz the best of luck," Jennifer Sabas, Inouye's chief of staff, said in a statement.

Abercrombie said that Inouye's wishes were taken into account.

"The law makes explicitly clear, as does the rules of the Democratic Party, that while everyone's voice is heard, and everyone's view is taken into account, nonetheless, no one and nothing is preordained," he said.

The governor said Schatz's ability to build seniority in the Senate was a factor in his decision, as was the fact that a Hanabusa appointment would have triggered a winner-take-all special election that could have left the 1st District in Republican control. He also said that he took into consideration Hanabusa's post on the House Armed Services Committee, which is important because of the state's large military presence.

Asked afterward whether he may have ignited a civil war within the party, Abercrombie said: "If it is an issue for anybody, then I suggest they can take that to the people and present that as an argument. But I think, with regard to 2014, my view is that will take care of itself. My responsibility is to do the right thing by what is in the interest of the party, the state and the country as a whole."

Schatz said he has good relationships with Inouye's staff and would work toward a smooth transition.

Schatz said his priorities would be to continue to identify federal money for Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill, and strategies to respond to global climate change.

"To the people of Hawaii, I can assure you this: I will give every fiber of my being to doing a good job for the state of Hawaii," Schatz said. "We have a long and perhaps difficult road ahead of us, but we can succeed if we work together. I understand the magnitude of this obligation and this honor. And I won't let you down."

the best year ever?

In so many ways, 2012 was another year of disappointments. Unemployment is still high. Average incomes are still low. Fear and distrust still dominate the discussion.

But the U.K's The Spectator takes a different view. It claimed in an article this week that 2012 "was the best year ever," explaining:

Never in the history of the world has there been less hunger, less disease and more prosperity. ... The West remains in the economic doldrums, but most developing countries are charging ahead, and people are being lifted out of poverty at the fastest rate ever recorded. ... The death toll inflicted by war and natural disasters is also mercifully low. We are living in a golden age.

***

More reads

Dan Inouye

Daniel K. Inouye died today of a respiratory ailment at a Bethesda, Md., hospital, ending a life of remarkable service for his country and Hawaii that included sacrificing his right arm in World War II combat and spending 50 years as a U.S. senator. He was 88.

The senator succumbed to respiratory complications at 5:01 p.m. Eastern time at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he had been hospitalized since Dec. 9. Inouye was first brought to George Washington University Hospital on Dec. 6 after fainting in a Senate office. He was transferred to Walter Reed three days later.

A statement from his office said that his wife Irene Hirano Inouye and his son Ken were at his side and that last rites were performed by Senate Chaplain Dr. Barry Black.

When he was asked recently how he wanted to be remembered, he said, "I represented the people of Hawaii and this nation honestly and to the best of my ability. I think I did OK," according to the statement.

His last words were, "Aloha."

preparing for the end

[3/19/13] OK, I see 12/21/12 has been added to the list

[12/22/12] Um, I'm still here.  No word on what (didn't) happen from the official web site.

NASA explains.  (Yeah, sure.  If we're able to read it today after the (non)fact, of course you're going to be right..)

Meanwhile, here's 38 movies about the end of the world.  [3/16/13] Another good compilation.

[12/15/12] The clock is ticking down to Dec. 21, the supposed end of the Mayan calendar, and from China to California to Mexico, thousands are getting ready for what they think is going to be a fateful day.

The Maya didn’t say much about what would happen next, after a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count comes to an end. So into that void have rushed occult writers, bloggers and New Age visionaries foreseeing all manner of monumental change, from doomsday to a new age of enlightenment.

The 2009 disaster flick “2012″ helped spark doomsday rumors, with its visions of Los Angeles crashing into the sea and mammoth tsunami waves swallowing the Himalayas. Foreboding TV documentaries and alarmist websites followed, sparking panic in corners of the globe thousands of miles from the Mayan homeland of southern Mexico and Central America.

As the big day approaches, governments and scientists alike are mobilizing to avoid actual tragedy. Even the U.S. space agency NASA intervened earlier this month, posting a nearly hour-long YouTube video debunking apocalyptic points, one by one.

The Internet has helped feed the frenzy, spreading rumors that a mountain in the French Pyrenees is hiding an alien spaceship that will be the sole escape from the destruction. French authorities are blocking access to Bugarach peak from Dec. 19-23 except for the village’s 200 residents “who want to live in peace,” the local prefect said in a news release.

As the clock ticks down, scenarios have mounted about how the end will come.

Some believe a rogue planet called Nibiru will emerge from its hiding place behind the sun and smash into the Earth. Others say a super black hole at the center of the universe will suck in our planet and smash it to pieces. At least two men in China are predicting a world-ending flood. They’re both building arks.
Lu Zhenghai has spent his life savings, some $160,000, building the 70-foot-by-50-foot vessel powered by three diesel engines, according to state media.

“I am afraid that when the end of the world comes, the flood will submerge my house,” the 44-year-old ex-army man was quoted as saying.

China’s most innovative ark builder, however, may be Yang Zongfu, a 32-year-old businessman in eastern China.

His vessel, Atlantis, a three-ton yellow steel ball 13 feet (four meters) in diameter, is designed to survive a volcano, tsunami, earthquake or nuclear meltdown, according to the state-run Liao Wang magazine.

Jose Manrique Esquivel, a descendent of the Maya, said his community in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula sees the date as a celebration of their survival despite centuries of genocide and oppression. He blamed profiteers looking to scam the gullible for stoking doomsday fears.

“For us, this Dec. 21 is the end of a great era and also the beginning of a new era. We renew our beliefs. We renew a host of things that surround us,” Esquivel said.

For Esquivel and other modern-day Maya, Dec. 21 is a chance to raise awareness about rescuing the planet, not prepare for its demise. People all over the world need to focus on the very real damage people have done to the Earth, he said, and sound the alarm about growing catastrophes, such as climate change.

“We’re putting in danger the existence of our world,” Esquivel said. “It’s our goal for this date to create consciousness about our Earth. We want to say to everybody that the Maya live and we want to gather our strength to save the Earth.”

[more on my other blog]

Is the GOP dead?

Consider ethnicity. Hispanics were 15 percent of the U.S. population in 2008 and 7.4 percent of the electorate. Both percentages will inexorably rise.

The GOP must work harder to win Hispanic votes, we are told. But consider the home economics and self-interest of Hispanics.

Half of all U.S. wage-earners pay no income tax. Yet that half and their families receive free education K-12, Medicaid, rent supplements, food stamps, earned income tax credits, Pell grants, welfare payments, unemployment checks and other benefits.

Why should poor, working- and middle-class Hispanics, the vast majority, vote for a party that will reduce taxes they don’t pay, but cut the benefits they do receive?

The majority of Latinos, African-Americans, immigrants and young people 18 to 25 pay no income taxes yet enjoy a panoply of government benefits. Does not self-interest dictate a vote for the party that will let them keep what they have and perhaps give them more, rather than the party that will pare back what they now receive?

If your racial and ethnic voter base is aging, shrinking and dying, your moral code is being rejected, and the tax-consuming class has been allowed to grow to equal or to dwarf the taxpaying class, the Grand Old Party has a problem.

-- Pat Buchanan

***

GOP needs to get with the times.

school shooting in Connecticut / gun control

NEWTOWN, Conn. » A shooting at a Connecticut elementary school today left 27 people dead, including 18 children, an official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown was killed and apparently had two guns.

The shooting appeared to be the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

The gunman, identified as Ryan Lanza, 24, was also found dead at the scene, a federal law enforcement official said. Lanza is the son of a kindergarten teacher at the school, reported WNBC's Jonathan Dienst.

One of his parents was later found dead at a home in New Jersey.

*** [12/17/12]

As lawmakers continue to grapple with the aftermath of last week's mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., a handful of pro-gun Democrats are beginning to speak out in favor of stricter gun laws - but Republicans remain all but silent on the matter.

Amid national attempts to piece together a coherent picture of what led 20-year-old Adam Lanza to allegedly open fire on an elementary school last Friday morning, a number of liberal Democrats are resuming longstanding calls for the tightening of gun laws.

On Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation to restore the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004; Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., meanwhile, announced plans to reintroduce a high-capacity magazine ban. President Obama, too, signaled a renewed commitment to strengthening gun-related laws in remarks last night honoring the victims of the massacre.

Perhaps more significant, however, is a new sense of openness to tighten laws among some pro-gun and moderate Democrats, few of whom have previously expressed an eagerness to take on the famously powerful pro-gun lobby.

Earlier today, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the National Rifle Association-backed hunting enthusiast and conservative Democrat, expressed the need for a "common sense" discussion about gun laws with groups like the NRA.

"I want to call all our friends in the NRA, sit down and have this - bring them into it. They have to be at the table. We all have to," he said. "This has changed the dialogue and it should move beyond dialogue -- we need action."

A series of similar calls have since trickled in from pro-gun Democrats: In remarks on the Senate floor today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has a "B" rating from the NRA and is generally considered pro-gun rights, called for Congress to engage in a "meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allows violence to continue to grow."

"I think part of the healing process will require Congress to examine what can be done to prevent more tragedies," he said.

"Enough is enough," added Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in an interview with Richmond, Va., CBS affiliate WTVR. Noting his own "A" grade from the NRA, he added: "I think most of us realize that there are ways to get to rational gun control. There are ways to grapple with the obvious challenges of mental illness."

Still, passing new legislation through Congress promises to be a major challenge for advocates. Republicans have for the most part remained silent on the subject, and have shown little willingness to take a stand against the gun lobby.

In remarks on the Senate floor today, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed sorrow over the shootings and lauded Mr. Obama's remarks about the "singularity of parental love," but declined to reference the possibility of legislative action. When asked shortly thereafter if he thinks it's time to debate gun laws, McConnell ignored CNN reporter Lisa Desjardins, who recorded and posted his non-response online.

NBC's David Gregory faced similar troubles this weekend, when trying to book pro-gun senators for his show, "Meet the Press": All 31 senators on record as pro-gun rights refused to appear.

"We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning," he said. "We had no takers."

***

Had Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung kept a gun in her office, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, argued today, the Newtown, Conn., shooting Friday that left 20 students and six faculty members dead would have had a far less tragic result.

"I wish to God she had had an M4 [carbine rifle] in her office locked up and so when she heard gunshots... she takes his head off before he can hurt those kids," Gohmert said of Hochsprung - who was among those killed - on FOX News Sunday. The alleged gunman, Adam Lanza, murdered his mother at home before driving to the school and killing 27 more, including himself.

"Every mass killing of more than three people in recent history has been in a place where guns were prohibited," he continued. "They choose this place, they know no one will be armed."

A vocal leader in the right-wing tea party movement, Gohmert stands out among conservatives who have been lying low since President Obama on Friday suggested the tragedy will give way to "meaningful action" on the gun issue; Gohmert and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, were the only pro-gun lawmakers or advocates to accept the networks' requests for interviews on the Sunday political shows.

Republican congressional leadership, like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have been silent on the issue since Friday, while the airwaves have been flooded with pro-gun control supporters, rendering Gohmert and Chaffetz the de facto spokesmen for congressional Republicans today.

***

I remember reading something about gun control in Freakonomics.  Let me take a look.

Debates on this subject are rarely coolheaded. Gun advocates believe that gun laws are too strict; opponents believe exactly the opposite. How can intelligent people view the world so differently? Because a gun raises a complex set of issues that change according to one factor: whose hand happens to be holding the gun.

It might be worthwhile to take a step back and ask a rudimentary question: what is a gun? It’s a tool that can be used to kill someone, of course, but more significantly, a gun is a great disrupter of the natural order.

A gun scrambles the outcome of any dispute. Let’s say that a tough guy and a not-so-tough guy exchange words in a bar, which leads to a fight. It’s pretty obvious to the not-so-tough guy that he’ll be beaten, so why bother fighting? The pecking order remains intact. But if the not-so-tough guy happens to have a gun, he stands a good chance of winning. In this scenario, the introduction of a gun may well lead to more violence.

Now instead of the tough guy and the not-so-tough guy, picture a high-school girl out for a nighttime stroll when she is suddenly set upon by a mugger. What if only the mugger is armed? What if only the girl is armed? What if both are armed? A gun opponent might argue that the gun has to be kept out of the mugger’s hands in the first place. A gun advocate might argue that the high-school girl needs to have a gun to disrupt what has become the natural order: it’s the bad guys that have the guns. (If the girl scares off the mugger, then the introduction of a gun in this case may lead to less violence.) Any mugger with even a little initiative is bound to be armed, for in a country like the United States, with a thriving black market in guns, anyone can get hold of one.

There are enough guns in the United States that if you gave one to every adult, you would run out of adults before you ran out of guns. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. homicides involve a gun, a far greater fraction than in other industrialized countries. Our homicide rate is also much higher than in those countries. It would therefore seem likely that our homicide rate is so high in part because guns are so easily available. Research indeed shows this to be true.

But guns are not the whole story. In Switzerland, every adult male is issued an assault rifle for militia duty and is allowed to keep the gun at home. On a per capita basis, Switzerland has more firearms than just about any other country, and yet it is one of the safest places in the world. In other words, guns do not cause crime.

...  One deterrent that has proven moderately effective is a stiff increase in prison time for anyone caught in possession of an illegal gun. But there is plenty of room for improvement. Not that this is likely, but if the death penalty were assessed to anyone carrying an illegal gun, and if the penalty were actually enforced, gun crimes would surely plunge.

... Then there is an opposite argument—that we need more guns on the street, but in the hands of the right people (like the high-school girl above, instead of her mugger). The economist John R. Lott Jr. is the main champion of this idea. His calling card is the book More Guns, Less Crime, in which he argues that violent crime has decreased in areas where law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons. His theory might be surprising, but it is sensible. If a criminal thinks his potential victim may be armed, he may be deterred from committing the crime.

Handgun opponents call Lott a pro-gun ideologue, and Lott let himself become a lightning rod for gun controversy.  ... Then there was the troubling allegation that Lott actually invented some of the survey data that support his more-guns/less-crime theory. Regardless of whether the data were faked, Lott’s admittedly intriguing hypothesis doesn’t seem to be true. When other scholars have tried to replicate his results, they found that right-to-carry laws simply don’t bring down crime.

*** [12/24/12]

After a weeklong silence, the National Rifle Association announced Friday that it wants to arm security officers at every school in the country. It pointed the finger at violent video games, the news media and lax law enforcement — not guns — as culprits in the recent rash of mass shootings.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A. vice president, said at a media event that was interrupted by protesters. One held up a banner saying, “N.R.A. Killing Our Kids.”      


LaPierre said that the NRA is calling on Congress to put armed security guards in every school. The NRA has set up a website to advance the cause.

"The only way — the only way — to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan for protection," LaPierre said. He added that gun-free zones "tells every killer that schools are the safest place" to go and carry out mass shootings.

The N.R.A.’s plan for countering school shootings, coming a week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was met with widespread derision from school administrators, law enforcement officials and politicians, with some critics calling it “delusional” and “paranoid.” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, said arming schools would not make them safer.

***

But having armed security on-site failed to prevent the deadliest mass shooting at an American high school.
In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people and wounded 23 more at Columbine High School. The destruction occurred despite the fact that there was an armed security officer at the school and another one nearby -- exactly what LaPierre argued on Friday was the answer to stopping "a bad guy with a gun."

***      

Leaders of the National Rifle Association said Sunday that they would fight any new gun restrictions introduced in Congress, and they made clear that they were not interested in working with President Barack Obama to help develop a broad response to the Connecticut school massacre.

During an appearance on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," Wayne LaPierre, vice president of the powerful gun lobby, was openly dismissive of a task force established by Obama and led by Vice President Joe Biden that is examining ways to reduce gun violence.

"If it's a panel that's just going to be made up of a bunch of people that, for the last 20 years, have been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I'm not interested in sitting on that panel," LaPierre said, adding that the "NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people."

At a widely watched news briefing Friday, LaPierre said the NRA's solution to prevent mass shootings like those that have occurred in the past few years — several of them on school campuses — was to put armed guards in schools nationwide.

***

OK, call it peace on Earth, goodwill toward men, or whatever … but I have to say the president’s words in his speech in Newtown, Conn., two days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school were right on:

We really have to do better, especially in four specific areas:

1) Accessability of automatic weapons designed for military combat with oversized ammunition magazines that combined can kill scores of people in seconds.

2) A legal system that makes it nearly impossible to temporarily institutionalize proven mentally disturbed individuals until, through appropriate medication and rehabilitation, they can be introduced back into society and pose a minimal threat.

3) An “entertainment” culture (TV, movies, music, video games) that too often glorifies violence, especially killing, to the point that human beings are simply objectified to the point that “sanctity of life” is no more than an alien concept.

4) The continuing secularization of our society, which dismisses the concept of “evil,” where the Ten Commandments are considered an affront to too many among us (“Thou shalt not kill!”), and where even the slightest suggestion of “God” is being scoured from our governmental and educational institutions, our commercial enterprises and our communities, mostly in the name of “civil rights.”

-- Jerry Coffee, Midweek, 12/26/12

***

in modern America mentally unstable young men can possess high-powered military weapons with clips that allow them to shoot at least 30 times or more before reloading, and that can be done in the blink of an eye.

Here’s what the Second Amendment, ratified in December 1791 along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, actually says: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Banning the sale of certain combat weapons does not infringe upon this right.

Neither does banning the sale of clips that hold more than a few rounds.

Nor does banning the sale of hollow-point bullets that penetrate, tumble and explode, inflicting maximum injury.

Nor does requiring more stringent background checks on would-be gun buyers.

Statistics can be twisted, but these are straightforward: The 20 children killed in Connecticut are among the 6,000 American children who annually die from gunshot wounds. And last week Bloomberg News reported that deaths from guns in the United States are roughly equal to deaths from automobile crashes – slightly more than 30,000 – and that by 2015 the number of deaths from guns is expected to exceed those from car crashes.

This is a civilized culture? This is American exceptionalism? This is as good – and safe – as America can be?

Clearly, something needs to be done. And as Jerry Coffee writes so eloquently on Pages 14-15, smarter gun laws need to be part of a package that includes better mental health care and supervision.

The tide seems to have turned on this issue, better late than never, and we need to hold the president and Congress accountable.

-- Don Chapman, MidWeek, 12/26/12

***

Regarding editor Don Chapman’s column on guns: You can’t have our guns. Never. The first instinct of totalitarians is to throw away a constitution and confiscate guns. Chapman is a fascist, and I hold him in high disregard.

Michael Boutte, Honolulu,
MidWeek, Letters to the Editor, 1/9/13

[2/20/13] Joe Biden's advice for self-protection?  Buy a shotgun.

[2/24/13] Only 10 percent of Hawaii’s households own a firearm, the least of any of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii also boasts the lowest rate of gun violence among the 50 states: 3.2 incidents per 100,000.

There would appear to be a correlation between strict gun laws, limited gun ownership and little gun violence.

curbing the cost of health care

A new study conducted by the pharmaceutical company Novartis and McKinsey and Co. shows a stunning difference among countries with regard to health-care efficiency.

For example: Smoking rates are higher in France than in the United States, so the French population has higher rates of lung disease. Yet the French system is able to treat the disease far more effectively than happens in the United States, with levels of severity and fatality three times lower than those in this country. And yet France spends eight times less on treatments per person than the U.S. system.

Or consider Britain, which handles diabetes far more effectively than the United States, while spending less than half of what we spend per person. The study concludes that the British system is five times more productive in managing diabetes than is the United States.

To understand the issue better, I spoke with Daniel Vasella, the chairman (and former chief executive) of Novartis and a physician by training. He is also frankly pro-market and pro-American, both of which have made him a target for some criticism in Europe.

Vasella emphasized that there is no single model that works best, but he explained that France and Britain are better at tackling diabetes and lung disease because they take a systemic approach that gives all health-care providers incentive to focus on early detection and cost-effective treatment and that makes wellness the goal.

“In America,” he said, “no one has incentives to make quality and cost-effective outcomes the goal. There are so many stakeholders and they each want to protect themselves. Someone needs to ask, ‘What are the critical elements to increase quality?’ That’s what we’re going to pay for, nothing else.”

I asked him whether the lesson he has drawn is that only the government can produce system-wide improvements. “It pains me to say this as a free-market advocate, but you have to have [the] government act in this case. Health care is very complex. Only at a systemic level can you figure out what works best based on the evidence, and what procedures and treatments are not worth the money,” he said.

-- Fareed Zakaria

Oahu rail transit?

[11/16/12] Cliff Slater isn't giving up

[10/5/12] Mayoral contenders Kirk Caldwell and Ben Caye­tano continued to poke holes in each other's mass transit plans during a final forum on live television Thursday night.

A majority of the hourlong "Insights on PBS Hawaii" program on KHET was devoted to the city's $5.26 billion rail project, which Caldwell supports, and Caye­tano's alternate $1.5 billion Flexible Affordable Smart Transportation plan.

Cayetano was put on the defensive first, with Caldwell questioning its actual cost and funding sources.

Tunnels through the Kapiolani corridor that are part of the FAST plan will cost more than anticipated, Caldwell said, because "you will basically have to trench or tunnel for long distances right through the heart of our city."

Further, he said, "there's no financing for this project."

Cayetano said Caldwell's questioning of the tunnel segments "shows his ignorance" of the FAST plan.

"The tunnels are short," he said. "They're basically underpasses."

As for his plan's Nim­itz flyover, Caye­tano said that Gov. Neil Abercrombie told him just before the forum that "he's game" for a partnership with the city.

[10/4/12] Former Gov. Ben Cayetano's campaign team revised the cost of the transit plan he unveiled last week, increasing the projected cost to $1.5 billion from $1.2 billion.

The cost of construction has not been revised, said Cayetano staffer Sam Callejo. Instead, the total price tag was increased to include a 20 percent contingency plus finance charges, making the plan a more “apples and apples” comparison with the city’s $5.26 billion rail transit plan.

[9/30/12] Star-Advertiser editiorial / Cayetano on FAST / Caldwell on FAST

[9/27/12] Former Gov. Ben Cayetano unveiled a transportation plan today that features new Bus Rapid Transit routes, high-tech traffic signal systems to instantly respond to traffic snarls and plans for two-lane underpasses to ease the flow of traffic on Kapiolani Boulevard and other thoroughfares.

The Cayetano plan would also feature a two-lane extension of the double-decked segment of Nimitz Highway, and would route express buses along a newly created dedicated bus shoulder lane on the Moanalua Freeway.

Cayetano estimates his plan, dubbed the Flexible Affordable Smart Transportation or FAST, would cost $1.1 billion, or about one-fifth the cost of the Honolulu rail transit project.

Cayetano is running for mayor, and promises to halt the city’s $5.26 billion rail transit project if elected.

[8/27/12] The city has agreed to temporarily halt all construction on the $5.26 billion rail project apart from some short-term tasks required for an orderly shutdown, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. said today.

NHLC lawyer David Kimo Frankel met with city and rail officials Monday afternoon, and issued a statement that “It is our understanding that the City has halted construction of the rail project.”

“For all intents and purposes, construction of the project has been halted although there may be some narrowly tailored, low-impact exceptions,” Frankel said in a written statement. 

Frankel said the city plans to complete “a few short-term tasks for public safety” such as backfilling open trenches, and plans to continue longer-term maintenance activities such as erosion control measures.

The city also plans to complete the required archaeological inventory survey for the 20-mile rail line, and undertake other “miscellaneous activities,” Frankel said in his statement.

He said the city is drafting a list to specifically describe those activities, and will discuss the list with Native Hawaiian Legal Corp lawyers to determine whether those activities should be allowed to proceed, Frankel said.

The NHLC sued the city and state over the rail project, and the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Friday that the State Historic Preservation Division violated its own rules by allowing the project to proceed before an archaeological survey was completed for the entire rail route.

In a unanimous ruling, the court found that rules governing the SHPD do not allow the SHPD to agree to the rail project until the city finishes the survey to determine if there are Native Hawaiian burials or other archaeological resources in the path of the rail line.

[5/3/12] The three candidates vying for Honolulu mayor engaged in the first debate of the campaign season Wednesday night, touching on a variety of subjects but ultimately trying to score points against one another on the singularly contentious issue of rail transit.

Both Mayor Peter Carlisle and former city Managing Director Kirk Caldwell support completion of the $5.27 billion project, while former Gov. Ben Cayetano has vowed to kill it. Construction began last week.

[3/28/12] Rhetoric is heating up over the financial impact of the city's planned $5.27 billion rail transit project as two top contenders for the mayor's job traded accusations Tuesday of reckless spending and misinformation.

Former Gov. Ben Caye­tano said the city's prioritization of rail has taken as much as $17 million away from core city services such as public safety, flood control, road paving and street lighting.

"I have contended throughout the course of this campaign that the city's policy of spending without doing due diligence is leading this city to a financial disaster of epic proportions," Caye­tano said at a news conference Tuesday.

Mayor Peter Carlisle accused Caye­tano of trying to create "fear and confusion" about the cost of the rail project by misrepresenting budget presentations made by his administration.

"This is tired old politics as usual," Carlisle said. "From the very beginning, my commitment has been to spend our money wisely, no matter what the spending is for.

[2/23/12] Mayor Peter Carlisle delivered his second state of the city address today, highlighting some of his administration's achievements and outlining his vision for the future of Honolulu.

He repeated his commitment to the city's $5.27 billion rail transit project, calling it the only option for sustaining a city that is expected to top one million in population in the next decade.

"This is the only viable option for building this 21st century and providing a sustainable future for all of Oahu that has made it through decades of vetting and is poised to employ people now," Carlisle said in prepared remarks.

Carlisle also pledged greater transparency by the city as the project moves forward.

"It starts with leadership and expecting the (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) board to provide the necessary oversight to satisfy the public," Carlisle said. "It means setting clear rules regarding change orders, delays, shoddy workmanship and oversight."

Carlisle has said he and his administration will be providing more facts on the rail project to combat negative information being spread by rail opponents. A recent poll indicated that public support for the rail project has declined, with more people against the completion of the project.

"I recognize many residents question the city's ability to answer questions transparently, to address issues that have been raised, and to deliver the project on time and under budget," he said. "Given its price tag, you have a right to scrutinize it and to feel concerned. I feel those concerns, as well."

[11/16/11] Keith Haugen responds to Bob Jones

[11/2/11] Bob Jones on rail: ugly, expensive, but necessary

[9/21/11] Although retired now, Cayetano has plenty of insightful opinions regarding Hawaii politics and the decisions being made for our communities, including his opposition to the rail system.

“Other than my family, it’s the only thing I’m really involved in these days,” he says.

“As chairman of the (state Senate) transportation committee, I was opposed to it even then, and that carried over to my lieutenant governorship and finally my governorship and now. As I look further, I believe it would be financial disaster as the construction costs are being estimated low and the ridership is unrealistically high, and that seems to be a pattern with most rail projects,” says Cayetano, who was featured on MidWeek‘s cover Oct. 30, 1996.

“There are many alternatives that the city hasn’t looked at,” he adds. “One of the big issues is the city failed to include other alternatives in the Alternative Analysis Report, which is required, which is supposed to be provided by these policy makers.”

Cayetano favors the idea of a bus rapid transit system that, to him, would “do substantially everything that light rail would do, but at substantially less cost.”

[8/21/11] Walter Heen, Ben Cayetano, Cliff Slater, Randall Roth are challenging the processs by which the city chose elevated heavy rail.

The city has paid more than $2 million in taxpayer money to 10 different public relations firms to promote its heavy-rail project. Here's what they have not yet told you

[2/12/11] Make that February

[1/19/11] Rail project to break ground in March

[10/26/09] Is modern Oahu like ancient Greece? Full of tyrants and myths? At least when it comes to rail, yes. Only a tyrant would tax people for a rail project years before the proposal has been found to be environmentally acceptable and federally funded. Only a tyrant would award contracts unlawfully for a project that has neither state nor federal environmental and other approvals. Only a tyrant would manipulate the process in order to ignore superior and lower-cost alternatives such as bus rapid transit and true light rail. -- Panos D. Prevedouros

[10/13/09] Even when I disagree with former Gov. Ben Cayetano's positions, such as his anti-rail stance, I have always respected his honesty. In that spirit, I would like to correct the misinformation in his Oct. 9 Star-Bulletin interview about the Honolulu rail transit project. ... the ridership projections utilize forecasting models that have been approved by the FTA. Our partners in the federal government would not have allowed the project to advance this far if our facts and figures did not meet their stringent standards. -- Kirk Caldwell
Managing director, Honolulu City & County

[10/9/09] Ben Cayetano on transit: First of all, the mayor's rail transit plan is so expensive. They estimate $5.6 billion, something like that. If the historical patterns on the mainland follow through, you can probably add another $2 billion or maybe even $3 billion to that. And they're forecasting unreasonably high ridership. That means that real property taxes are going to go up, and the cost of living is going to go up. And I don't think it's going to relieve traffic congestion to the point that it's worth the cost.

[10/1/09] Rail still being debated
Oahu will benefit from rail, but make sure it's elevated
All-elevated rail will be costly, inflexible and ugly

[8/19/09] The sad truth is that the city has been promoting the Vancouver overhead rail, which was built many years ago for a city twice the size of Honolulu. Since then, many cities much larger than Honolulu have determined that overhead rail is just too expensive, and that light rail at grade or managed traffic lanes are a better alternative. The city, however, continues on its Web site to erroneously misinform the taxpayer by promoting the Charlotte and Phoenix rail projects, which are light rail at grade and are nothing comparable to the Honolulu project. -- Geoffrey Paterson, AIA Emeritus

[6/24/09] An executive with one of the largest architecture and planning firms worldwide said rail projects such as the one planned on Oahu will help increase business along the transit line. "It's not just about moving people around. ... I think it's a catalyst for change," said Ian Mulcahey, a lead planner for the London-based firm Gensler. "It will enable the city to grow."

[6/20/09] A former government official in Canada who helped to build the Vancouver SkyTrain said he thinks Honolulu is making the right decision in developing an elevated rail system. Dan Doyle, former deputy minister of British Columbia's Ministry of Transportation, said the SkyTrain has significantly increased efficiency, reduced the need for motor vehicles, and enabled the city to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. "Without those rail lines, we would not be able to do it," said Doyle, now executive vice president of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

[6/9/09 writes Panos Prevedouros] Honolulu's City Council, which represents almost 900,000 people on Oahu, is about to make a major fiscal and political error. It is about to grant the authority to the city administration to start rail without environmental approvals and without federal monies. It also plans to approve to start the project about a mile outside Kapolei and develop a six-mile elevated rail to Waipahu.

Worse yet are plans to approve the float of $1.1 billion in bonds for rail with no stipulations or accountability controls. This $1.1 billion obligation must be paid back by the Oahu taxpayer, plus interest.

[4/30/09] Wayne Yoshioka responds to Bainum

[4/27/09] Architects propose street-level rail (writes Duke Bainum)

[10/22/08] This Honolulu Rail Transit Q&A provided by the City and County of Honolulu was turned into a glossy brochure distributed with the Star Bulletin and Midweek (and I assume the Advertiser)

[10/16/08] The Star Bulletin editorializes. A radical change at this point would undoubtedly jeopardize federal funding, especially during the nation's current economic meltdown. Not only is Kobayashi wrong in assuming that revenue from the general excise tax surcharge could be spent on her plan, her hope for $2.4 billion in federal funding to foot nearly the entire bill is preposterous.

[10/15/08] Mayoral candidate Ann Kobayashi unveiled her new mass-transit plan yesterday to build elevated three-lane highways for zipper lanes and buses that she says would be 62.5 percent of the cost of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's proposed rail transit system.

[10/15/08] Dan Boylan writes The construction of a rail transit system will do more than provide a long-term transportation alternative. It also will provide an economic stimulus that could help sustain us in these difficult times.

[10/4/08] Rail will bring jobs and federal dollars

[9/5/08] Car expenses higher than rail?

[9/4/08] Stop Rail Now fails to get proposal on ballot

[8/23/08] Numbers on rail don't makes sense

[8/21/08] City Council approves ballot question on transit

[8/5/08] City Clerk refuses anti-rail petition

[7/28/08] Poll on Hannemann handling rail: 35% above average, 30% below average.

[7/28/08] 40% say they're likely to ride rail

[7/25/08] Hannemann working with City County on charter amendment

[7/24/08] The City Council yesterday voted unanimously to put the issue of whether to build a commuter rail line on the November ballot. The 9-0 vote was the first of three needed to adopt the measure, which could be vetoed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

[7/20/08] "We now must let the people of Oahu vote at the ballot box and settle this debate once and for all," writes Charles Djou

[7/17/08] Stop Rail Now consider legal action

[7/16/08] Stop Rail Now petition derailed by City Clerk

[7/15/08] In his latest promotion of the city's proposed $4 billion rail transit system, Mayor Mufi Hannemann called a news conference yesterday at which four former state transportation directors endorsed the project.

[7/12/08] Lingle signs petition

[7/4/08] Hannemann says Lingle waffling on rail

[7/3/08] Lingle likely to sign anti-rail petition

[7/2/08] Rick Hamada's take

[7/2/08] A continuing debate on the Internet between the pro- and anti-rail groups has shaped much of the conversation surrounding the city's planned $4 billion rail transit system.

Panos Prevedouros to run for mayor against Hannemann.

[6/30/08] Rick Tubania says Callan and Uechi are full of it

[6/29/08] Cayetano enters the fray

[6/29/08] No Rail (says Stop Rail Now). Go Rail (says City Department of Transportation Services).

[6/29/08] Jamie Story responds to Hannemann

[6/26/08] Local bank economists and real estate developers openly admit that rail is about property development - not a transportation solution. The Hannemann Committee ad in both dailies on Sunday was a diversionary tactic to deflect public attention away from important facts and issues [says thee Hawaii Highway Users Alliance]

[6/26/08] Mayor Mufi Hannemann criticized the media for doing a poor job of challenging opponents attempting to stop the city's planned $4 billion rail-transit project, prompting him to spend campaign funds to take out advertisements.

In his first interview since ads ran in Honolulu's two daily newspapers last weekend, Hannemann said yesterday he stands by his assertions that the local anti-rail campaign is backed by mainland companies and individuals connected with the oil and automobile industries.

[6/24/08] Mayor Mufi Hannemann has launched a series of ads using his campaign funds against a group attempting to stop his plans to build a $4 billion rail transit system.

[6/18/08] Reader can't figure out Al Chase

[6/15/08] Al Chase can't figure out anti-rail logic

[3/2/08] While managed lanes, HOT lanes or bus lanes can be a useful complement to a fixed guideway system, such approaches are no substitute for a permanent rail-based system as the backbone of a regional transit program.

[11/14/07] Hannemann wants experts to decide on fixed-guideway technology

[10/17/07] Kobayashi responds to Kaku

[10/9/07] Melvin Kaku responds

[9/28/07] Rail critics complain to Federal Transit Authority / editorial / response to editorial

[9/11/07] Jerry Coffee compares transit alternatives [again, guess which one doesn't sound so hot]

[9/2/07] Melvin Kaku counters claims of Dela Cruz and Kobayashi

[8/26/07] Guided bus system is serious option for Honolulu say Donovan Dela Cruz and Ann Kobayashi.

[1/31/07] Mayor Mufi Hannemann wants the city to build a $3.8 billion 20-mile rail line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center as its first mass transit segment.

"We have kept in mind that we want to serve a populace area, a major employment center. We also wanted to have this line where we would carry the most future riders and would best meet what the (federal government) calls the cost -effectiveness criterion," Hannemann said yesterday.

The initial line -- called the minimal operable segment -- will begin at the future site of the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center just above Kapolei Parkway in Ewa and move up the proposed North-South Road to Farrington Highway. Circulator buses will transfer riders from Ewa, Kapolei and other parts of West Oahu to the rail line.

The line will then run through Waipahu, Pearl City and Aiea before passing Pearl Harbor, Hickam Air Force Base and the airport. It will then go through Kalihi, downtown and Kakaako, and end at the shopping center.

"The (minimal operable segment) says what we can afford to do in the short-term so this is what we call 'the first project,'" Hannemann said.

[2/7/07] Michael Lauck responds to Coffee's article

[1/12/07] Jerry Coffee touts the HOT lanes alternative

[12/23/06] The City Council, in a 7-2 vote yesterday, gave final approval to a fixed guideway mass transit system for Oahu but left it to Mayor Mufi Hannemann to decide key segments of the route.

[12/8/06] City Council chooses rail

[12/3/06] Expanded bus system would be better than rail

[11/26/06] Enhanced bus system could be the way to go

[11/21/06] We need to get cars off the roads, not put more on

[10/31/06] Estimated cost for rail transit raised 20 percent (responses)

[10/15/06] Rail or a real solution?

[10/15/06] Mufi is P-R-O R-A-I-L

[10/11/06] more on toll lane capacity

[10/6/06] Councilman Gary Okino responds to David Rolf

[10/1/06] So what's the solution to traffic?

We've now learned that rail will not solve the traffic congestion problem, so voters likely will question any candidate who proposes it as a solution. Particularly since the proposed rail for Honolulu would cost more than $4,000 per person to build -- more than 20 times the cost of other city rail systems. The Dallas rail system cost $204 per person to build.

That's why more and more elected officials and candidates for office in Hawaii are examining the elevated tollway solution proposed by a nonprofit organization known as the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance, [writes David Rolf, executive director of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association]

[6/23/06] Councilwoman calls proposed rail transit ugly

[6/21/06] Jerry Coffee on collecting the 0.5% transit tax

[6/6/06] Details of mass transit options are starting to emerge

[5/24/06] Light rail won't reduce traffic says Jerry Coffee

[4/18/06] HOT lanes have been added to the mix of transit alternatives

[1/5/06] It's a done deal says Rick Hamada

[12/10/05] There are two public meetings scheduled and the website is honolulutransit.org (from Mufi's radio commercial)

[12/4/05] City consultants have identified three likely technologies — light rail, monorail and magnetic levitation — and four routes that could be used for a new mass-transit system between Kapolei and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

[10/9/05] Start small. Get a high-profile leader, preferably not a politician. Be prepared to stay the course. Those are the things Honolulu needs to do if it hopes to see its latest push for mass transit become a reality, according to transit experts nationwide.

[10/4/05] Hannemann impressed with Sumitomo's rail system

[8/11/05] City Council approves transit tax

[8/9/05] Star Bulletin opinion: new mass transit system is essential

[8/8/05] Transit tax approval not assured

[7/30/05] Hawai'i would get federal authorization for a long-debated Honolulu rail transit system and almost $146 million for roads, bridges and transit systems in a massive $286 billion federal transportation bill approved by the House and Senate yesterday in Washington.

[7/12/05] Lingle won't veto bill after last minute compromise

[7/10/05] The Mayor is not backing down from his viewpoint

[7/7/05] is the title of Susan Page's article in the June 29, 2005 issue of Midweek. There's a lot more on the anti-rail viewpoint at honolulutraffic.com.

Patraeus resigns

CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the leading U.S. spy agency on Friday, saying he had engaged in an extramarital affair and acknowledging he "showed extremely poor judgment."

In a letter to the CIA workforce, Petraeus, 60, said he met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday and asked "to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position."

"After being married for 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair," he wrote. "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."

Obama, who was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday, said in a statement he had accepted Petraeus' resignation, praising him for his work at the CIA and for leading U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Petraeus' revelation of the affair appeared to end the public career of a widely admired warrior-scholar who played a key role in the Iraq war, led the U.S. Central Command and commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

2012 Hawaii Election

[11/27/12] Abercrombie wants future elections to be done entirely by mail

[11/7/12] The results
Caldwell defeats Cayetano 53.9% to 46.1%
Hirono thrashes Lingle 62% to 37%.
Hanabusa defeats Djou 55% to 45%
In other results:
For State Representative, Dist 27, newcomer Takashi Ohno defeated Corinne Ching 58% to 42%.  I thought Corinne did a good job, but Takashi really hit the streets.  I probably saw him about 4 or 5 times doing the rounds.  We'll see what he can do when he faces the system.

[11/17/12] Campaign 2012 hits new lows [by Dan Boylan].

Let’s start at the top. President Barack Obama’s presence on the Democratic ticket this year insured long coattails for Hawaii Democrats running for Congress. All they needed to do was promise strong support for the president during his second term, a promise that would resonate with an electorate that is 70 percent brown and had watched the first non-white President of the United States thwarted at every turn by overwhelming white congressional Republicans, a disproportionate number of whom spoke in the accents of the Old Confederacy.

So that’s what Senate candidate Mazie Hirono and District 1 Congressional Colleen Hanabusa did. Too often, that’s about all they did, particularly Hirono. Neither said much about the fiscal cliff that awaits in Washington, both vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security no matter how close such a defense brings the country to bankruptcy.

Closer to home, Hirono and Lingle have piled television advertisement upon television advertisement (an estimated $4 million worth for Hirono, $5 mil for Lingle), at least half of which are negative, characterizing Hirono as an absentee member of Congress and Lingle as the architect of Furlough Fridays. Both charges are a good part nonsense, but when campaign coffers overflow and Super-Pacs ante up additional cash, nonsense – and worse – become the intellectual capital of the campaign.

That’s especially true in the Honolulu mayoral race. There was always going to be an enormous amount of money spent in support of the pro-rail candidate for mayor. Construction jobs, development projects, planning goals, and traffic solutions, however slight, depended on it.

But when Ben Cayetano, a candidate with total name recognition and a large ethnic base of support, announced that he was joining the contest with the single objective of stopping rail, the stakes grew higher. Pacific Resource Partnership gathered the cash and went after Cayetano with an unremitting series of ads that criticized him for running “pay-for-play” fund-raising efforts and pardoning a record number of convicted criminals, thus putting them on the streets to terrorize us all. The take-down-Cayetano effort cost PRP $2.8 million, and a “Workers for a Better Hawaii” $700,000 more.

Cayetano fought back with a defamation of character suit that will not be heard until long after thisweek’s election.

[10/24/12] Q&A with Kirk Caldwell

[10/22/12] Cayetano files libel lawsuit against Pacific Resource Partnership

[10/21/12] Hawaii: the state that doesn't vote

[10/21/12] 2012 General Election guide

[10/4/12] Mayoral candidates Ben Cayetano and Kirk Caldwell re-staked their positions on the city's $5.26 billion rail project in their first head-to-head mayoral election debate Wednesday night on KITV.

Cayetano, who has vowed to kill the rail project if elected mayor, criticized Caldwell for going "with the hype" when he was former Mayor Mufi Hannemann's managing director and misleading Oahu residents about how much traffic would actually be taken off the road with rail.

"Both the city and the federal government agreed that rail would not relieve traffic congestion and, in fact, congestion would be worse in the future with rail than it is today without rail," the former governor said. "And yet you kept quiet and went along with the hype. And when you became mayor, you didn't tell the public the truth."

Caldwell said the final environmental impact statement for the project makes it clear that "within the urban core, traffic congestion is going to be reduced by about 30 percent. There's going to be 40,000 less cars than there otherwise would be (without rail)."

[9/22/12] Former Gov. Linda Lingle's campaign for U.S. Senate released a video advertisement Friday that claims Lingle would partner with U.S. Sen. Daniel Ino­uye and that Ino­uye would retain his influence regardless of which political party controls the Senate — an ad the Hawaii Demo­crat called "grossly misleading."

In the video, retired Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, Lingle's campaign manager, thanks Ino­uye for supporting the military and praises Inouye and the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, for delivering for Hawaii no matter which party held the majority.

"I am not supporting Linda Lingle's Senate candidacy and I would ask Gen. Lee to stop using this misleading ad," Ino­uye, who has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, Lingle's Demo­cratic opponent, said in a statement. "Neither General Lee nor former Gov. Lingle discussed this advertisement with me. If they had, I would have objected because it is grossly misleading and suggests a relationship that has never existed.

"To claim that Gov. Lingle could replace my brother Ted Stevens is outrageous and as I have said previously, Linda Lingle is no Ted Stevens. After watching the ad, I would like to state that I am Daniel K. Ino­uye and I do not approve that message."

[8/16/12]  Tulsi Gabbard resigns from City County saving city $150,000.

[8/12/12] Honolulu will have a new mayor in 2013. But whether it will be an anti-rail former governor or a former city managing director committed to seeing the $5.26 billion project through will be determined in November.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano was the runaway winner in the primary election Saturday, but he fell short of the majority needed to win outright.

Second place went to former Managing Director Kirk Caldwell, who beat Mayor Peter Carlisle, ending his incumbency after just 20 months.

With all precincts reporting on Oahu, Cayetano received 44.8 percent of the vote. Caldwell was next with 29.5 percent and Carlisle third with 25.1 percent.

Caldwell's strong showing and the likely joining of his and Carlisle's pro-rail backers has Cayetano running as an underdog, a position with which he is more familiar.

***

U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono scored a decisive victory over former U.S. Rep. Ed Case in the Demo­cratic primary for U.S. Senate on Saturday night and pivoted toward a November showdown with former Gov. Linda Lingle.

Hirono held a 57 percent to 41 percent gap over Case after most votes were counted in the primary to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. Lingle glided to victory in her Republican primary against former state lawmaker and attorney John Carroll.

The November general election will be a rematch of the 2002 governor's race, when Lingle defeated Hirono after Hirono had ousted Case in the primary.

Hirono said Hawaii needs a senator "who shares our values."

Hirono, 64, said a Republican Senate could lead to the repeal of the federal health care reform law and the permanent extension of President George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. She also said that Social Security and Medicare would be at greater risk.

"Regardless of what we think about Linda Lingle and her ‘extreme makeover' efforts, she's going to be one vote closer for Republican control of the U.S. Senate," she said. "That would be bad for seniors, for women, for working people of this country.

"And I'm going to fight that agenda every chance I get."

Lingle, 59, has campaigned on a bipartisan message intended for the moderate Demo­crats and independents she will need on her side to offset the state's Demo­cratic history.

"I think now that the primary is over, the people of Hawaii are going to have a clear choice between an experienced leader who has made tough decisions and worked in a bipartisan fashion and, in her case, a hyperpartisan Washington, D.C., insider with no record of accomplishment, with one of the most one-sided voting records in the United States Congress," Lingle said.

"I think the choice is very clear."

*** [8/12/12]

Honolulu City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard won a resounding and surprising victory Saturday over former Mayor Mufi Hannemann for the 2nd Congressional District Democratic nomination.

Gabbard, 31, a war veteran, capped an improbable jump from distant underdog to beat Hannemann, 58, and put herself in perfect position to win a seat on Capitol Hill, something that has eluded Hannemann since he first ran for public office in 1986.

Gabbard gave a short victory speech at 10:15 p.m. after being congratulated by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

"You are going to hear me say this many times tonight, and you are going to hear me say this many times in the future — that (this) is about serving the people, serving the people of Hawaii, serving the people of our country and the world," she said.

Hannemann conceded the race at about 9:45 p.m., about 90 minutes after arriving from Maui, where he spent much of the day campaigning. "There are worse things in life than to go through another campaign and come out on the short end," Hannemann told supporters gathered at his Kalihi headquarters.

[7/4/12] You’ve probably seen the ad by now. An off-camera interviewer stops a muumuu-clad local woman on the street, hands her a sheet of paper, and says, “Excuse me. Have you seen the facts about Ben Cayetano’s illegal contributions?”

“A half-a-million in illegal contributions?” she asks.

Cut to a bald-headed man in an aloha shirt reading the half-million figure. “It’s all here in black and white.”

It’s tough stuff, and I suppose we should have seen it coming – or something like it. When a politician threatens a $5.3 billion infrastructure project backed by years of planning, an apparent approval by the electorate, and powerful labor, political and business interests, there was bound to be pushback. Pacific Resource Partnership, a strong supporter of the rail project, sponsored the ads (which come with a few different riffs, but the same basic structure).

Cayetano has fired back that he knew nothing of the “false name contributions” to his gubernatorial re-election campaign:

“During my 1998 campaign for re-election, our supporters raised more than $5 million in campaign contributions. I did not handle fundraising. There was a committee of several supporters that did the work.”

When he became aware of the violations, Cayetano “called Bob Watada, who was Chairman of the (Campaign Spending) Commission back then and informed him that there was no way the funds could be returned because it had already been spent for the campaign.” Watada instructed him to return what was left in the campaign account, and the case would be considered closed.

Since PRP began to run its ads, both Watada and former campaign spending commission member Della Au Bellati have come forward in support of Cayetano. Watada and state Rep. Bellati are upright public servants. So is Cayetano.

*** [10/5/12 from MidWeek 5/16/12] Dan Boylan on Kirk Caldwell's Listening Tour

vote for Mitt (or Barack)

11/29/12 - Mitt Romney makes it to the White House

11/17/12 - GOP needs to get with the times

11/10/12 - Yes, Barack Obama born in Kenya.  And Mitt Romney too!

11/10/12 - Obama wins Florida too

It's not just the economy.  It's the demographics -- the changing face of America.

Nonwhites made up 28 percent of the electorate this year, compared with 20 percent in 2000. Much of that growth is coming from Hispanics.

The trend has worked to the advantage of President Barack Obama two elections in a row now and is not lost on Republicans poring over the details of Tuesday's results.

Obama captured a commanding 80 percent of the growing ranks of nonwhite voters in 2012, just as he did in 2008.

Republican Mitt Romney couldn't win even though he dominated among white men and outperformed 2008 nominee John McCain with that group. It's an ever-shrinking slice of the electorate and of America writ large.

White men made up 34 percent of the electorate this year, down from 46 percent in 1972.

11/7/12 - Obama's victory speech
Romney's concession speech

Final Results:
National: 303 to 206 electoral votes, 60,482,607 to 57,688,453 popular votes
Ohio: 2,686,609 (50%) to 2,586,467 (48%)
Virginia: 1,885,188 (51%) to 1,772,304 (48%)
Not quite final, they're still counting in Florida, but Obama leads 50% to 49% with 97% in.

I sure see a lot of red states on the map though.  I count 24 red, 26 blue, 1 gray.  DC is counted.  Obama took the west coast, the northeast, and the Great Lakes area.  Romney pretty much took the rest: The mid-west, the south.

Romney won in a landslide if you go by land mass.  This guy says 80%.  Well, for one, Alaska is the largest state at 663,300 square miles.  Texas is second at 268,800 square miles (and the second most populous).  California is the third largest state at 163,700 square miles (and the most populous).  And believe or not, the fourth largest state is Montana at 147,042 square miles.  Obama took California, Romney the other three.

The four largest states by population are California (37.7 million), Texas (25.7 million), New York (19.5 million), Florida (19.1 million).

By electoral college votes, it's California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Alaska (3), Montana (3)

What about population density?  DC tops the list.  Then New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Massachusetts, Guam, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Illinois, Hawaii, Virginia, North Carolina (which is the first red state I see).  The least dense are Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico (which is the first blue state I see going from the bottom).  (In other words, the dense went to Obama.)

11/6/12 - FoxNews says it could either way.

Obama would need to win Pennsylvania, Michican, Wisconsin, Ohio.  Then either Nevada or Iowa.
Intrade has every state as solidly Obama except for Iowa.

Romney would need to win Florida, North Carolina, Virginia.  Then Ohio and Colorado.

Intrade has Florida leaning Romney, North Carolina solidly Romney, Virginia leaning Obama (60% Obama), Ohio solid Obama (73.3%, though it was leaning earlier), Colorado tossup (53.9% Obama).  Wait now Virginia is a tossup too.

If Romney loses Ohio, he can still win if he takes Wisconsin and Colorado plus one of New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada.  Wisconsin 75.1% Obama.  Colorado 54.0% Obama. New Hampshire 79.0 Obama. Iowa 74.0% Obama. Nevada 85.0% Obama.

So it's an uphill battle for Romney.  According to intrade anyway.

How accurate is intrade?  90%+ according to somebody.  They had Florida for Bush in 2004, when others had Florida for Kerry.

11/6/12 - Election day!  Intrade says Obama 69.4%, Romney 30.8%.
That mirrors the race in Ohio: Obama 69.0%, Romney 32.0%.
Florida: Obama 25.5%, Romney 74.6%
Pennsylvania: Obama 84.0%, Romney 16.1%.
Hawaii: Obama 97.5%, Romney 10.0% (I assume that's highest for Obama)
Nope, California has Obama 98.9%, Romney 2.0%.
Washington has it 99.7% to 5.0%.
Texas has Romney 98.9% to 2.0%
Oklahoma has 97.0% to 0.1%.

In the electoral solid votes: it's Obama 253, Romney 235.  They have 31 votes leaning Obama and 19 as tossups.  The tossup states are IA (6) and VA (13).  The Obama leaning states are CO (9), OH (18), NH (4).  WAIT, as I write this, CO has become a tossup.  (Exciting eh?)

So if Romney takes the tossups, that's 28 votes bringing his total to 263.  And if he takes NH, that's 267.  He's still short.  Sure looks OH is the difference maker.

WAIT.  Ohio has just gone solid for Obama.  That puts Obama at 271 in sold votes.
WAIT.  Ohio has gone back to leaning, putting Obama back at 253.
1:47PM: Now only one tossup state: VA.  IA has gone leaning Obama.  So that puts Obama at ... WAIT!  OH has gone solid (70.1%).  Obama at 275.  Stay tuned.
1:50PM VA has gone leaning Obama.  Now no tossup states with CO, IA, VA leaning Obama.  I wonder if Obama voters are gaming the system?
1:55PM VA has gone back to tossup.  CO, IA, OH leaning Obama.
4:10PM VA now leaning Romney (63.0 to 40.0). CO tossup.  IA and OH solid Obama.  The score is now Obama 281, Romney 248.  Romney needs CO which will take him to 257.  Then 13 more.  Ohio would do it.
4:17PM.  CO now leaning Obama at 60%.  FL now a tossup (52.5% Romney).
4:25PM.  Looks bad for Romney.  FL is now leaning Obama (64.0%).  The solid vote is now Obama 281, Romney 206.  Odds are now Obama 91.0%, Romney 6.0%.  Ohio is now 89.9% Obama.  Colorado is now solidly Obama too at 80.0%.  If Romney loses FL, it's over.  FoxNews still thinks Romney will win Florida.  Some of them anyway.
4:46PM.  Obama up to 93.3%, Romney 5.6%. Obama is up to 319 solid votes.  Boehner is gloating about the House retaining the Republican majority.  Florida 85.0% Obama.  Colorado 89.5%.  Ohio 94.1%.
4:53PM.  Scott Brown loses in Massachusetts.  So the Democrats pick up a Senate seat and looks to retain their majority.
4:56PM.  Liz Cheney on Fox still waiting on FL, VA, OH.  The odds for the Republicans are now 11.9%, 50.0% (tossup), 9.0%.  Says the MA senator-to-be Elizabeth Warren lied about being of Cherokee ancestry.  Or was that Tucker Carlson?  And who's this Kirsten Powers? A liberal.  Palin still blasting Obama.  Van Sausteren says no mandate.  Palin can't believe people think it's OK to run up more debt (in effect calling them stupid).
5:17PM.  Up next: Karl Rove. Obama up to 94.9%.  Down to 94.7%.  Down to 94.1%.  Down to 93.9%. Here's Rove.  Says the momentum is for Romney in Ohio.  We'll see if he knows better than intrade.  Ohio odds?  13.1% Romney.  Still holding out the 3-2-1 plan.  Ohio (up to 14%), Virginia (45%), Florida (9%).  Which calculates to a 0.6% chance.  And he still has to take one more state.
5:28PM.  Solid vote is now Obama 319, Romney 206.  Odds for Obama down to 92.2%.
5:36PM.  Peggy Noonan is now on who predicted a Romney victory.  Who's Nate Silver?  (a statistician).
5:39PM.  Robert Gibbs (Obama campaign adviser) is on.  Saying it looks pretty good now for his side.
5:41PM.  Fox now calling Colorado too close to call.  Intrade has it 90.0% Obama, 9.8% Romney.
5:43PM.  Solid vote is now Obama 332, Romney 206 with no leaning states.  Virginia has gone solid blue,  72.5% Obama.  Obama odds however have slipped to 92.1%.
5:55PM.  Florida 7.9%.  Ohio 5.0%.  Virgina 17.0% (though Romney leading 50% to 49% in votes).  Fox calling it very close.  CNN also says too close to call.  Romney is leading in the popular vote 50% to 48%.  Looking at cnn.com, Ohio 50% to 48% Obama.  Florida 50% to 49% Romney.  Virginia 50% to 49% Romney.  Why is intrade so off?
So say Romney takes Ohio, Florida, Virginia.  That gives him 18+29+13=60 electoral votes, taking Romney up to 266.
6:11PM.  What about Brit Hume?  Said Obama is in the race because people think of him as a hero and a historic figure.  [How else to explain why he isn't getting wiped out due to high unemployment and the monstrous national debt?]
6:17PM.  FoxNews is saying the Obama war room is saying it's over.  Fox News projects Ohio goes to Obama and wins re-election.  So much for Karl Rove and staying up all night.  Fox News is blaming the negative campaign of the Democrats.
6:24PM.  Analysis on FoxNews.  Celebration on CNN.  Don't know how they could project a Obama victory in Ohio when it's tied 49% to 49% though.  Hey it's not over.  intrade has Obama only at 99.6%.
6:27PM.  A divided country.  Apparently Romney will lose the election despite winning the popular vote.
6:41PM.  Wait a minute.  Romney campaign not conceding Ohio.  CNN now has the results at 2,248,065 to 2,246,541 for Obama with 77% of the votes in.  49% to 49%.  That's close.  In Florida it's 50% to 49% Obama with 91% of the votes in.  In Virginia, it's 50% to 49% with 85% in.

Final Gallup poll had Romney ahead 49% to 48%.  They may have been right.

11/4/12 - Updated Intrade odds: Obama down to 64.8%, Romney up to 35.2%

11/3/12 - Republican campaign defends critical ads criticized by Democrats (and Chrysler and General Motors) (and so on).

Colin Powell endorses Obama

The Whoppers of 2012 (final edition)

11/2/12 - Fox & Friends questions NBC's Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together telethon (will Kanye West appear?)

11/2/12 - Polls favor Romney (according to Karl Rove)

What does RealClearPolitics now say?
RCP National Average: Obama 47.5, Romney 47.2
Looking at the 10 recent polls: Obama leads 5, Romney leads 2, with 3 ties
Intrade Odds: Obama 66.9, Romney 33.3 (that adds up to 100.2)

In the electoral college, it's Obama/Biden 201, Romney/Ryan 191, Toss Ups 146 (so that's really close).
Tossing out the toss-ups, it's Obama/Biden 290, Romney/Ryan 248
Take away Ohio's 18 votes and it's Obama/Biden 272, Romney/Ryan 266
Can Romney win without Ohio?  (Will Axelrod shave his mustache?)

What if it's a tie?  Romney-Biden! (highly unlikely)

What?  Why is Sally Kohn still on foxnews.com?

What about this slippery slope commercial? (more comments on Thomas Peterffy).  Wow, interactive brokers only charges .005 (a half-cent per share) commission with a minimum of $1.00 per trade.  Minimum cash or equity deposit of $10,000 ($5000 for IRA).

11/2/12 - My Vision For America: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama (thank goodness for the helpful editor's notes)

[10/31/12 E.J. Dionne] The right wing has lost the election of 2012.

The evidence for this is overwhelming, yet it is the year’s best-kept secret. Mitt Romney would not be throwing virtually all of his past positions overboard if he thought the nation were ready to endorse the full-throated conservatism he embraced to win the Republican nomination.

The right is going along because its partisans know Romney has no other option. This, too, is an acknowledgment of defeat, a recognition that the grand ideological experiment heralded by the rise of the tea party has gained no traction.

10/29/12 - Romney takes lead in Ohio (according to Fox News)

RealClearPolitics reports 10 polls for Ohio, Romney is leading in 1, Obama is leading 7, with 2 ties.

10/25/12 - Presidential performance on the economy (a limited perspective).  Among the 19 presidents since 1900, Obama ranks #4 in stock market performance, #1 in growth of corporate profit growth (largely due to W's #18 rank), #11 in GDP growth per capita, #8 in inflation (assuming more inflation is bad, but probably avoiding the extremes is bad so the middle would be good), #9 in unemployment (0% change in unemployment rate, W is #16 but was much better than Hoover, Wilson, T. Roosevelt).

So it doesn't look too bad.  But the GOP says Obama should have done better, like Reagan.  How does Reagan rate?  #7, #9, #5, #14, #5.  So he beats Obama in unemployment, but not in the other four categories.

10/25/12 - Surprise.  Romney now leads Obama among women

10/24/12 (posted 2/24/15): Equal pay for women

10/23/12 - Front page news: Bayonets still in use

More Fox News headlines:
Chris Matthews says they hate Obama more than Al Queda
Professor Drew Weston calls Fox News listeners ignorant

No wonder Fox News is popular (and polarizing).

10/23/12 - I previously (see 10/12/12) looked at the foxnews poll on who won the VP debate (it was Ryan 91%, Biden 9%).  Now I see they have a poll on who won the final presidential debate.  WTH, I'll vote for Romney.  Let's see if foxnews readers agree.  WTF!  They have Obama 53.78% Romney 46.22%.  Something's gotta be wrong there.

Let's look at some previous results:
Second Presidential Debate: Obama 53.32% Romney 46.68%
Vice Presidential Debate: Biden 33865 (10.52%)  Ryan 287778 (89.48%)
Presidential Debate: Obama 16903 (6.32%) Romney 250437 (93.68%)

It must be some Obama supporter figuring out how to auto-vote or something.  Interesting that I see they have the number of votes cast in the oldest two results.  But not in the latter two.  Maybe they're filtering out duplicate votes?  Anyway, they state "this is not a scientfic poll".

Yep, I just entered two votes for Romney and two votes for Obama.  And it took them.  So apparently you can vote as many times as you want.  Kind of like American Idol.

10/22/12 - Donald Trump will have a big Obama announcement (stay tuned) / Trump's announcement

10/22/12 - Third presidential debate / transcript, politifact

10/18/12 - Paul Ryan washes dishes (so what if they were clean?  wait! some were dirty)

Mitt Romney, garbage man

10/18/12 - Billy Graham organization removes Mormonism from their list of cults

Pat Robertson endorses Mitt Romney

10/18/12 - Romney takes six point lead in Gallup poll, err make that seven (other polls are closer)

10/18/12 - Jerry Coffee on Obama (letters)

10/17/12 - binders full of women

10/17/12 - David Stockman on Romney.  (On the one hand, he was Ronald Reagan's budget director.  On the other hand, he's writing for thedailybeast.)

Stockman said Obama should be pushing for tax increases for everybody

How David Stockman became Democrats' Favorite Reaganite

10/16/12 - debate #2 / fact check, politifact, factcheck.org, cbs

10/13/12 - Romney campaign slams Obama administration on China trade policies

10/12/12 - looking at this article, I saw a poll on who won the vice-presidential debate.  It was Biden 8.78%, Ryan 91.22%.  The poll is on the fox news website.  At least it states "this is not a scientific poll."

This report called it a draw.  Hey I voted for Biden.  Now he's up to 8.79%!  So far, 131,681 votes cast.  Hey it let me vote again.  Votes up to 131,698.  Biden still at 8.79%.

This report says Ryan won 48-44 (cnn), Ryan 54-46 (Yahoo).

But CBS had it Biden 50-31.

How about the presidential debate?  Obama 5.17%, Romney 94.83%.  (So Biden did much better than the President.)

10/11/12 - VP debate / fact check, politifact, factcheck.org, SNL

10/10/12 - Obama and Romney on the issues

10/8/12 - Romney takes the lead, odds still favor Obama in electoral vote (but dropping)

10/8/12 - CNN fact check
job creation vs. unemployment
green energy
would repeal of ObamaCare hike senior's drug costs?
is Donald Trump a small business?
oil and natural gas production under Obama

10/7/12 - The Rumble in the air-conditioned auditorium (best moments)

10/4/12 - During the first of three debates between the two presidential candidates, Romney himself appeared to have made a few choices, less than five weeks before the November 6 election.

On issues from taxes to Medicare to financial regulations, the former Massachusetts governor steered a more moderate course than he did while wooing conservatives during the Republican primaries this year, even embracing parts of Obama's record that have been targets for conservative Republicans.

"We obviously are going to have to adjust for the fact of Mitt Romney's dishonesty," senior advisor David Plouffe said. "It's hard to remember a time in American politics when you have someone who is a major nominee for the presidency being that fundamentally dishonest about core parts of his campaign platform."

10/3/12 - Romney will kill PBS (Big Bird), ObamaCare / Sesame Workshop responds

10/3/12 - Obama, Romney sit down with Oprah (for O Magazine)

10/3/12 - Paul Ryan looks to Ayn Rand for monetary policy (but now rejects her philosophy).

10/3/12 - Debate #1 - what to watch for, CNN, Reuters, transcript, GOP, PolitiFact, FactCheck, Fact Check,

10/3/12 - Questions we want answered in the debate

9/25/12 - “I’m going to start off with something that was really troubling that occurred last night. Did you guys watch that Packer game last night? I mean give me a break!” Ryan complained. “It is time to get the real refs.”

Ryan then drew a parallel between NFL’s struggle with replacement referees and President Obama’s economic job performance during his term in the White House.

“It reminds me of President Obama and the economy. If you can’t get it right, it’s time to get out. I half-think that these refs work part-time for the Obama administration and the Budget Office,” Ryan said.

9/18/12 - Trump to Obama, you're fired!

9/18/12 - Romney says 47% of Americans believe they are victims who believe that the government has a responsiblity to care for them.  [David Brooks commentary, NYTimes editorial, Hitler, Linda Lingle]

Romney would help the people who don't vote for him.  [10/5/12] Romney now says he was completely wrong

9/15/12 - Obama Revealed (transcript) / Romney Revealed (video, transcript)

9/6/12 - DNC final day
Barack Obama: the choice you face (politifact, factcheck)
Joe Biden: Osama Bin Laden is dead, General Motors is alive
John Kerry: ask Osama Bin Laden if he's better off

9/6/12 - Clinton's speech hits the marks (factcheck)

Day 2 Convention canards

Did Obama save the auto industry? (It was Bush too.)

Jennifer Granholm:  in Romney's world the cars get the elevator and the workers get the shaft!

9/5/12 - Romney would cut taxes for the rich and raise taxes for the middle [Generally speaking, Romney’s plan would lower tax rates for everyone while getting rid of exemptions, deductions and loopholes.]

[9/10/12] Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney cited a group of economic studies to show that his tax-cut plan won’t increase the U.S. budget deficit or shift the tax burden to middle-income taxpayers. Yet Romney won’t provide specifics on what he would cut, and the analysts he cites have had to create their own assumptions. / US News

Five ways Obama and Romney differ on taxes / politifact

9/5/12 - Michelle Obama supports her husband

9/5/12 - Julian Castro gives keynote speech

9/5/12 - Romney is multiple choice

9/5/12 - Republicans and Democrats blame each other for the deficit (and the tea party too)

9/5/12 - Paul Ryan an hour off (he forgot OK?)

9/5/12 - The middle class vs. the 1%

9/5/12 - Democratic Disinformation from Charlotte

Anyone watching the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night heard the number 4.5 million several times. "Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs," San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the party's keynote speaker, said.

The number Castro cites is an accurate description of the growth of private-sector jobs since January 2010, when the long, steep slide in employment finally hit bottom. But while a total of 4.5 million jobs sounds great, it's not the whole picture.

Since the recovery started in July 2009, the working age population has grown by 213,000 people on average each month. Normally about 60 percent of the working age population is working. Thus, it would have been necessary to add about 128,000 jobs each month just to keep the share of the working age population employed from falling.

That means that a minimum of a little over 4.7 million jobs had to be created during the recovery just to keep us treading water. That growth wouldn't have done anything to make up for the huge job losses that we had suffered up to that point. In fact, only 2.7 million jobs have been added over that time period - 2 million jobs short of what we needed just to keep from falling further behind.  [also see 9/4/12 below]

9/4/12 - Michelle Obama speaks at the DNC (reactions)

9/4/12 - Are we better off under Obama?

[The New Republic] There can be little doubt that Americans are worse off, economically, than they were in 2008. Median household income has fallen since 2008, and (according to one study) it’s fallen even more steeply during the recovery than it did during the 2007-2009 recession. Back in 1980, Ronald Reagan tormented Jimmy Carter with the “misery index,” which was the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate. At the moment the misery index is 9.7 (8.3 percent unemployment plus 1.4 percent inflation), compared to 7.8 (7.8 percent unemployment plus 0 percent inflation) the month Obama took office. So by that venerable metric we’re worse off than we were four years ago. We just are.

Baker argues, and Krugman agrees, that reporters who ask, “Are Americans better off than they were four years ago?” are “not qualified to do their job” because it’s “a pointless question.”  It’s like asking a firefighter who has just extinguished a fire whether the house is in better shape than when he got there. That, Baker says, would be a “ridiculous question.” I don’t follow Baker’s logic, because the firefighter could say, “Of course the house is better, you moron. It's not on fire anymore!”

[The Atlantic]Compared with the summer of 2008, median household income has fallen, unemployed has increased, and the misery index (joblessness plus inflation) is up. Of course, this is starting our timers five months before Sen. Obama became President Obama. In the administration-adjusted count, in which "four years" equals "three years and eight months," the record is slightly different. The most dramatic increase in job losses that you see above happened before or during the changing of the White House. In fact, the unemployment rate is the same today as in Obama's first full month in office.

[another left-leaning response] “Yes, we’re better off — if only because George W. Bush is no longer president.”

Four years ago, the U.S. economy was dropping rapidly with no bottom in sight, owing to the irresponsible and incompetent policies pursued by Bush. Most Americans – indeed, many people around the world – were deeply frightened by the financial crisis. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month and seemed to be sinking into a global depression. By February 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen to around 6500.

Today the economy is returning to growth, slowly but steadily. The stimulus and other Obama policies prevented far worse consequences that we might have faced without them, inadequate as they were to improve employment rapidly. Nevertheless, the U.S. economy has gained about four million jobs since Obama assumed office, while the Dow is around 13,000, or roughly double its three-year low.

To ask whether we are better off today is a misleading question, however. Given the economic conditions that Obama inherited – including a severe recession, a ruined banking system, and a burst housing bubble – there is no truthful economist who would predict that most households would be “better off” after only three years of recovery.

The more honest question is whether we are better off today than we would be if Bush – or Mitt Romney, who has offered his own critique of Obama’s actions – had been in power during those years.

Again, the answer is plain. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Bush, a rigid, simplistic right-wing ideologue, would have been adequate to deal with the crisis. Having reluctantly gone along with the Troubled Assets Relief Program to bail out the big banks, would he have implemented any stimulus spending as the recession grew worse in 2009? What would he have done about the failing auto industry?

As for Mitt Romney, we know what he would have done – which is nothing —  because he has told us so. No stimulus and no assistance to the auto industry, which would have meant the loss of millions more jobs and a freefall into depression; more tax cuts and more cuts in public services, which would have also have meant more jobs lost by teachers, firefighters, and cops.

[I dunno.  The Republicans seem to blame Bush too.]

[On the other side] Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom begged to differ and reacted on America’s Newsroom. “I think this Democratic convention could represent a whole new genre in television – the unreality show – things are not better off. Saying that things are better off is an insult to the 23 million Americans who are either out of work, or underemployed. Let’s just look at the facts. The unemployment rate is higher – it went from 7.8 percent when Obama took office to 8.3 percent today. Gas prices have doubled. Incomes have declined on average by about $4000 per household … I think the biggest challenge for president Obama at the convention is to explain why it is that he didn’t do what he said he was going to do.”

8/31/12 - Start with two numbers that are horrible for Obama. The first is his poll rating, which remains stubbornly below 50%. History suggests that incumbent presidents unable to break the 50% barrier at this stage end up serving just one term. The second figure, which goes a long way to explaining the first, is the statistic that puts US unemployment at 8.3%. Joblessness has not stood below 8% since the month Obama took office. Again, the historical record is brutal on sitting presidents seeking re-election against such a bleak economic backdrop. The last one to pull it off was Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936.

Viewed like that, the fact that Obama is even in a statistical dead-heat with Romney nationally is quite an achievement.

8/31/12 - Eastwooding (spur of the moment)

8/31/12 - why waste time watching anything?  Just check FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

Mitt Romney avoids major falsehoods (applause) but...

"The majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future."  (true, but not a new phenomenom)

Callista Gingrich "President Barack Obama has "weakened the respect for America abroad."
(Using the most reasonable yardstick -- comparing Bush’s last number to Obama’s most recent number -- the United States on average has higher favorability ratings in most countries)

President Obama was saying success "is the result of government," not "hard-working people," when he said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." (out of context and more authoritatively Jon Stewart)

Barack Obama “never even worked in business." (false)

8/29/12 - Paul Ryan speech at the RNC (transcript, MSNBC reaction)

President Barack Obama broke his promise to keep a Wisconsin GM plant from closing (the Janesville plant shut down before he took office)

Sally Kohn: Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. (and a rebuttal to the rebuttal)

Condoleeza Rice calls for compassionate immigration laws

8/22/12 - MediScare

8/11/12 - Mitt Romney selects Paul Ryan as running mate

8/9/12 - A television ad by Priorities USA Action, the main super PAC backing President Obama, linking Mitt Romney to a woman's death continues to dog the Obama campaign. (It's a very heart-wrenching story, but it’s not accurate.)

8/3/12 - More reasons to vote for Mitt.

Not only will the U.S. will be energy independent by the end of his second term, the country will have a balanced budget!