IMHO

Register and vote November 2.

Let The People decide!

Mike Hu

-- or are they going to try to fake their way through all the issues?

Apparently the reporters at the Advertiser can't tell the diffrerence -- what with their no discrimination policies. But sometimes, we just have to be able to tell the difference between the good and bad, real and phony, etc.

Fortunately the Star-Bulletin seems to be actually getting to be one of the better newspapers in the nation. They've decided to write readable articles and editorials.

Why would anyone want to clone Helen Thomas?

Mike Hu

I'd go down myself and give testimony but I'm not in the habit of talking to people who aren't listening, are pretending to listen, or have their minds made up before they hear any of the facts. The body language at the Legislature is that of people having their hands over their ears telling you to "Go on, we're listening."

Where do they learn these techniques? At the Board/Department of Education?

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/current/op/david

Posted on: Wednesday, April 7, 2004 VOLCANIC ASH Legislature petty, self-serving

By David Shapiro

Wonder why Hawai'i's state government seems stuck in the mud?

Just look at the latest Advertiser poll showing that while only 39 percent of residents approve of the performance of the state Legislature, more than half approve of their own district representatives and senators.

Obviously, a lot of us who think we have a bad Legislature are perpetuating the problem by voting for bad legislators.

We won't likely move Hawai'i forward until we scrutinize our friendly neighborhood lawmakers more carefully ? and cast our votes more wisely.

The Legislature's low standing in public esteem is well-deserved. Lawmakers have failed for years to act effectively to reinvigorate our slumping economy, reform public schools, restore integrity to political campaign financing and modernize civil service.

Legislators consistently duck tough decisions that might offend the special interests they depend on to support their ownÊre-election ? especially public worker unions.

They've given us a government dedicated to serving itself ahead of the public interest.

Last year's signature legislative legacy was to grant binding arbitration to the Hawaii Government Employees Association in place of real collective bargaining.

The priority this year is pushing aside other public needs to find money in a tight budget to pay the predictably generous arbitrated raises.

Recent concern has focused on pointless squabbles between Democrats who control the House and Senate and Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, but the dysfunction runs deeper.

Former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano was similarly frustrated by a Legislature he sharply rebuked for engaging in small-time politics and pandering to special interests.

A year before he left office, Cayetano said, "Very few things today, in my opinion, are ... decided by philosophical or ideological basis. The people I served with had more life experience. The Legislature is different today, which, in a way, is why I'm kind of glad I'm going to be leaving. I'm not sure there's a lot of people there who really stand for anything."

Persistent small-time politicking is painfully on display this year in a legislative session that was supposed to be devoted to high-minded collaboration on pressing issues like school reform and drug addiction.

Legislators have instead harassed Lingle with petty proposals to abolish her tourism liaison, strip her ability to manage state spending and interfere with her appointments to state agencies.

Lawmakers threatened to kill administrative and judicial pay raises recommended by the Legislature's own salary commission ? after taking raises for themselves last year.

Other inglorious proposals would have gutted the Campaign Spending Commission's ability to police legislative elections and protected the right of union members to smoke at public schools in violation of federal law.

Lawmakers with a lick of political sense would see that such pettiness and self-serving is beneath them.

But nothing seems beneath this Legislature, which suffers from small-minded leadership and an arcane system in which committee chairs can arbitrarily veto good bills opposed by vested interests in whose pockets they reside.

These are the things that earn the Legislature its dismal approval rating, but lawmakers get away with the cheap politics because these are not the things we judge them on come election time.

We give local legislators too much credit for looking sharp waving signs on roadways and showing up at Little League openings and high school graduations, while failing to do our homework on their policy decisions and ties to special interests.

The only path to a better Legislature is better-informed voters less willing to hand out style points to public servants who represent their own interests before ours.

David Shapiro can be reached at dave@volcanicash.net.

Mike Hu

Everybody but the vested stakeholders and their highly-paid lobbyists can't be wrong.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?edd87ea7-bce2-4482-b8f0-d744beaa7e28

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Votes to Support Governor's Education Reform Plans

Hawaiian Community Must Weigh in on How to Fix Education; Hawaiian Children are Suffering Most

By Haunani Apoliona, 4/2/2004 7:22:10 AM

Editor's note: The following are remarks by Office of Hawaii Affairs Chair Haunani Apoliona on April 1, 2004, at 1:30 p.m. in the Governor's Executive Office:

This morning, (April 1) the Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs took a unanimous vote to support reform of the public education system in Hawaii.

The Trustees are governed by a constitutional mandate to work for the betterment of the conditions for Native Hawaiians. Education is key to improving these conditions.

Members of the Hawaiian Community must weigh in on the issue of educational reform. Based on the findings of the Kamehameha School PASE (Policy Analysis and System Evaluation) Report, rather than helping underprivileged students, the system further compounds social and economic disadvantages with inequitably distributed educational and teaching resources, disproportionately higher numbers of special educational referrals and academic and guidance programs that clearly fail to reach a large number of children who need help.

As a result, Hawaiian children are too often deprived of opportunities for intellectual engagement, social growth, and other aspects of a quality educational that provide the keys to lifetime opportunities and fulfillment.

We are at a critical threshold in the future of Hawaiian people. The paradigm is shifting from one in which Hawaiian students were not provided with the tools to succeed in Hawaii's public education system to a paradigm where the Hawaiian community can have a more direct say in how educational opportunities are provided to Hawaiian students.

Educational reform provides a better opportunity to create culturally appropriate learning models that will provide Hawaiian students with an opportunity for greater success. The action taken by the Board supports the concept of the community having a say on the issue of educational reform.

We have every confidence that Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians will arrive at a decision that will be in the best interest of Hawaiians and all of Hawaii nei.

See more on this story at "Left Behind: Hawaiian Children are Failing in Hawaii's Public Schools"

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?title=Left+Behind%3a+Hawaiian+Children+are+Failing+in+Hawaii's+Public+Schools

Mike Hu

"My current perspective has only strengthened my conviction that Hawaii's education governance structure, the only one of its kind in our country, is our main state/local obstacle to sustainable quality education. That model(not statewide funding, which works, but statewide BOE/DOE control), if it ever really did work, does not work today, and cannot be made to work even with the most adroit legislative massaging.

It is inescapable that local school districts by and large are doing better because they facilitate the community involvement our current governance discourages, just as is the fact that not one of my Congressional colleagues, from the most liberal Democrat to the most conservative Republican, wants to change local education governance to our statwide model. Voters are owed a basic decision this November on local school boards."

U.S. Congressman Ed Case Member, Subcommittee on Education Reform, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce

Mike Hu

Freedom of the press becomes freedom only for the press.

Freedom of speech becomes your right to hear only what they have to say.

No wonder Hawaii's "liberals" are passing resolutions in support of Saddam and other totalitarian regimes here at home.

Look what they tried to do to Laura Thielen at the Department of Education -- suppress her right to have her own opinion independent of the ruling clique. Anybody who's attended any of the education forums recognizes that she knows more on this issue than all the rest of the board combined -- all the rest of the room for that matter. All the objections against her were only personal attacks -- reported in the Advertiser as though it had some credibility and substance.

That's why forums like these are the wave of the future. It's Hawaii's chance for real democracy and authenticity. "Let the people decide."

Mike Hu

Here's a letter posted May 1, 2001 -- when the Advertiser used to allow such letters to be published, instead of suppressing them as they now do and defending the status quo.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/May/01/op/op02aletters.html

Absolute power back at Legislature

It is remarkable how quickly things can go backward at the state Legislature.

Many years ago, committee meeting times and places were not announced. After public pressure, they started giving notice so that the public could observe and improve decisions by giving input.

Ten years ago, chairs were often the only legislators present at committee hearings and made decisions unilaterally. The first step away from that, led by Les Ihara and other reformers, was requiring that a quorum of committee members be present at decision-making and that their votes be recorded.

The big remaining problem was conference committees. Often these hearings were recessed and reconvened at unknown times and places. Sometimes new bills and amendments were introduced and passed at the last minute. Often the committee chairs made unilateral decisions.

Finally, last year, the leadership agreed under public and legal pressure to announce all conference committee meeting times and places, to only discuss bills and amendments that had already been heard in public, and to require a quorum and recorded votes at decision-making. Some people predicted chaos, but in fact, things went more smoothly than usual.

Now, committee chairs suddenly have veto power over their members' votes. Whoa! First of all, why should some legislators' votes count more than others? How can citizens who voted for committee members be shut out? Isn't that a violation of equal protection?

Second, this seems to conflict with Senate Rule 22-3, which says that bills are passed with a majority vote. This rule hasn't changed, so how can the chairs suddenly overrule a majority?

Finally, this is big step backward toward a dictatorship of the chairs. Why should committee members bother to go to hearings and vote at decision-making when the chairs can do what they please during conference?

In the past, committee members occasionally overruled their chairs with a majority vote, serving as a check on the chairs' power. Now that is gone. The chairs have absolute power. And as Lord Acton said, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Larry Meacham Common Cause Hawai'i

Mike Hu

To Interested Persons:

This message is your invitation to join the "Citizens Campaign for Equal Votes" to urge the legislature to repeal their notorious chair veto rule. This is the 4th year Hawaii's legislature will be the only one in the nation to have a rule that violates the fundamental principle of democracy -- of one-person, one-vote.

The legislature adopted the undemocratic chair veto rule few weeks ago for their all-powerful conference committees. With this rule, conference committee members can never outvote their chairs, no matter how overwhelming their numbers are.

But fortunately, these committees won't gear up until mid-April. This will give residents enough time to mobilize and persuade legislators to repeal the chair veto rule by resolution scheduled for a vote on April 6.

Here's what you can do to help repeal the chair veto rule:

*Send an email to equalvotes@yahoo.com with your name, mailing address, and the statement: "Please add me to the petition urging the legislature to repeal their chair veto rule." Before the vote to repeal the rule, a list of all petition signers will be sent to legislators.

*Forward this message to your distribution list and friends

*Have your organizations adopt the resolution below (Word document available at www.newhawaii.org)

*Send emails, letters, and voice messages to your own representative and senator; to find out who they are, go to:

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/info/vstreet/voterinformation.asp?press1=info&press2=vstreet

* Write letters-to-the-editor -- and learn more about this issue at http://www.newhawaii.org

This campaign to repeal the chair veto rule is coordinated by the Hawaii Pro-Democracy Initiative, in partnership with many organizations whose numbers are increasing every day. Please keep us informed on what you're doing to expand and build momentum for this grassroots campaign.

Jackie Parnell, Coordinator Citizens Campaign for Equal Votes Hawaii Pro-Democracy Initiative HPDInitiative@hotmail.com www.newhawaii.org 528-6888 (Honolulu)

Whereas, equality and fairness are fundamental principles of democracy that Hawaii citizens expect to be practiced in the State Legislature, particularly regarding the voting rights, rules, and procedures affecting each legislator; and

Whereas, the Legislature's 2004 Conference Committee Procedures, #8b in particular, goes against the principle of one-person one-vote because it allows a conference chair to out-vote all other members of the committee, thereby giving a single legislator veto power over bills in the all-important conference committees; and

Whereas, the Legislature first adopted the chair veto rule in 2001, and annually since then, despite widespread public disapproval and calls for its repeal by civic groups and media organizations; and

Whereas, Hawaii citizens and organizations have launched a statewide campaign to mobilize public support for legislative resolutions to repeal the chair veto rule before major work of the conference committees begin, by means of this resolution and a petition that individuals can sign by emailing their name and mailing address to equalvotes@yahoo.com; and

Whereas, this resolution is also intended to inform legislators where members of the public stand on this issue in hopes that the Legislature will not ignore the call to end the undemocratic chair veto rule that gives chairs the power to outvote committee members, no matter how overwhelming their numbers are; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved that the _______________________________________ declares its opposition to the chair veto rule (#8b) contained in the 2004 Conference Committee Procedures because it violates the fundamental principles of fairness and equality, and the principle of one-person one-vote, which are essential in any democracy; and

Be It Further Resolved that the 2004 Hawaii State Legislature is hereby urged to adopt a resolution to repeal the conference chair veto rule.

Approved on: Signed by:

Organization: President:

Phone: Email:

Address: Zipcode:

Return Information: Fax to 599-5669 on Oahu and copies will be delivered to all legislators [mail original to HPDI, P.O. Box 15032, Honolulu, HI 96830].

Mike Hu

Mike Hu