tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196459042010-02-08T21:59:48.618-10:00News you may not find in the local media. Learn why it was disappeared.Larrynoreply@blogger.comBlogger1974125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-30812189390739986092010-02-08T21:59:00.001-10:002010-02-08T21:59:48.642-10:00

by Larry Geller The news is all over the place: Superferries could be back in Hawaii, either as military transport or as the state’s subsidized interisland ferry system. The first was expected, the two ferries should be great as military transports, as long as they don’t encounter combat. The speculation all along was that Hawaii Superferry was a trial for military use of similar vessels. Here’

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-54068358272542728742010-02-07T20:36:00.001-10:002010-02-07T20:42:32.454-10:00

by Larry Geller Obama may have scaled the hope thing up quite a bit, but ‘way back in 1974, when many readers of this blog may not yet have been born, the Democratic party line was pretty similar to today (sigh). Check out this audio clip from the Disappeared News audio archives. It’s a 5-minute speech by labor leader George Meany that aired on November 4, 1974, radio station WOR in New York

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-73488875998977148332010-02-07T17:59:00.001-10:002010-02-07T17:59:02.077-10:00

by Larry Geller HB2759 before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, in room 325 at 2:30 p.m. This bill would allow gambling on Hawaiian home lands. It has already passed the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs last week. HB146, which would add a new section to the state constitution to permit gambling in Hawaii, is also on the same agenda. If these bills are not stopped, they will

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-65794123370271612992010-02-07T17:39:00.001-10:002010-02-07T17:39:24.174-10:00

by Larry Geller In an interview today with Katie Couric, Barack Obama announced that he will be meeting with Republican and Democratic leadership in a summit conference on the stalled healthcare reform (will he serve beer?). This is, first and foremost, about defusing the lines of attack that have scared the hell out of Democratic legislators. If you talk to people on the Hill, there's

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-75018998119613251452010-02-07T16:41:00.001-10:002010-02-07T16:42:06.188-10:00

by Larry Geller Let me send you to my other blog. Need to get it started again. It’s just a click away. How credit cards or food stamps might be used at the Farmers Markets Technorati Tags: Hawaii, Farmers market, sustainable agriculture, credit cards, Square, food stamps del.icio.us Tags: Hawaii, Farmers market, sustainable agriculture, credit cards, Square, food stamps

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-15322026476765235442010-02-07T11:55:00.001-10:002010-02-07T12:35:32.592-10:00

by Larry Geller Reading today’s Honolulu Advertiser may be hazardous to your health. The lead article talks once again about potentially dangerous meddling by the Lingle Administration with health care for Hawaii’s most vulnerable citizens. Nowhere is there a hint that backing off from tax breaks for the wealthy or raising funds from other taxes could be used to reduce or eliminate the need for

Larrynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-81374765076015055532010-02-07T11:06:00.001-10:002010-02-07T11:06:48.064-10:00

by Larry Geller This week three judges of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear cases in Honolulu.  The court calendar is here (pdf). Two cases in particular may be interesting to follow. Both will be heard on Wednesday, February 10, in the calendar starting at 9:00 a.m.  There is no way to predict what time the cases will be heard. Some of the cases may take time, some may settle in the

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-11001339020069198952010-02-03T20:29:00.001-10:002010-02-03T20:29:05.557-10:00

by Larry Geller U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo’s campaign (see photo in this Advertiser breaking news story) succeeded this morning as the Senate confirmed him as a Circuit Court judge. The vote was 24 to 1. The article didn’t delve into all of the controversies that could have derailed Kubo’s approval, mentioning only: Kubo's nomination received widespread support in the legal and political communities.

Larrynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-1034855889751570212010-02-03T19:27:00.001-10:002010-02-03T19:27:26.109-10:00

by Larry Geller A New Jersey judge has handed down a ruling in a five-year-old battle by voting rights advocates in that state against insecure voting machines. There were several issues resolved, and I’ve highlighted in bold face the sections of this snippet that relate to Hawaii and especially to last year’s Babson v. Cronin lawsuit: Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg held that

Larrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-21266123927619762102010-02-03T16:38:00.001-10:002010-02-03T16:38:31.665-10:00

by Larry Geller Kick me. And kudos to Adrienne LaFrance. I wrote a couple of articles related to the way the Hawaii House postponed indefinitely, without a roll call, the civil unions bill HB444 last Friday. In one, I said that because we don’t know who voted for postponement, those who might want to take this vote into consideration on election day 2010 might look at the bill history to see who

Larrynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-71410578688954237652010-02-02T22:44:00.001-10:002010-02-02T22:44:44.582-10:00

by Larry Geller I’ve been asked about my beloved TC1100 Tablet PC many times at meetings as I take notes with its stylus pen, or at the Legislature as I read testimony from it. It’s as good as a teleprompter with the plus that I can write on the screen if I think of something new to say. Recently, though, people are asking “Where did you get an iPad?” So I made a screensaver with a “No Apple”

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-68393088404486857262010-02-02T17:40:00.001-10:002010-02-02T17:40:55.868-10:00

by Larry Geller Bob Babson emailed information on these three election-related bills introduced by Sen. Gary Hooser. Check them out by clicking on the bill number. It’s very easy to submit testimony this session by email or from the Capitol web pages, so please consider following them and helping them through the process if you feel you can support them (or if you oppose them, of course). Right

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-64199495927074389462010-02-02T16:48:00.001-10:002010-02-02T16:48:23.515-10:00

by Larry Geller Well, we get the Vog over here on Oahu, but don’t get to look at the volcanic eruptions that produce it. I was checking out some of the Hawaii blogs, and while realizing that I don’t link enough to them, I ran into this Kalapana Burning, which includes some videos of lava flows. It’s from Intercultural Twilight Zone, written from Pahoa (s. of Hilo).

Larrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-18211854028148436942010-02-01T18:30:00.001-10:002010-02-01T18:30:13.605-10:00

by Larry Geller Voters may or may not take revenge against House members who refused to vote for HB444, the civil unions bill, killing it again this session. But the issue may be very much alive at election time if a court challenge goes forward as announced today. A formidable legal team has been assembled for this project. Lambda Legal will be lead counsel, the ACLU of Hawaii will be co-counsel

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-14122668486885171392010-01-31T21:13:00.001-10:002010-01-31T21:13:23.875-10:00

by Larry Geller Three governors put a full-court press on education reform in today’s Advertiser. The article deserves detailed analysis, but without time to do that right away, I’d like to make some short and admittedly inadequate comments before the article gets too old. These are just things that popped out for me as I read the article. The snips are from Education reform must put kids first (

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-5185699471508531572010-01-31T14:53:00.001-10:002010-01-31T14:53:22.462-10:00

by Larry Geller “Their projected time frame after exposure is 10 – 20 years before symptoms appear. But that is far from the truth, as soldiers lay ravaged in VA hospitals across the U. S. — or their family’s, kneeling at the foot of a needless grave, know all too well. Privy to the VA data since 2003, the DoD is familiar with their diagnosis of an uncontrollable wildfire of rare cancer,

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-90351982363546401822010-01-31T13:15:00.001-10:002010-01-31T13:15:40.459-10:00

by Larry Geller “Haiti is one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. foreign policy because Haiti is a neighbor (as is Cuba, where a similar relationship has persisted) and we have treated Haiti with cruelty all through our history. When it became the first independent black Republic in this hemisphere, defeating the Napoleonic army, the administration of Thomas Jefferson (ironically, author of

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-62372922559709766822010-01-31T11:53:00.001-10:002010-01-31T11:53:11.316-10:00

by Larry Geller Utah progressives had an idea that looks transportable to anywhere. Even to Hawaii. They conducted a job search on Craigslist to recruit a candidate to replace a congressional incumbent. Here in Hawaii, House Speaker Calvin Say said he would not bring HB444, the civil unions bill, to a vote unless he had a veto-proof majority. There was no vote. The popular wisdom is that

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-44542402890962757932010-01-29T14:03:00.001-10:002010-01-29T14:03:05.112-10:00

by Larry Geller I do enjoy Wait Wait Don’t Tell me and Splendid Table. It’s down hill after that. I stopped even my occasional listening to Talk of the Nation when they put Juan Williams on it. He was pretty consistent in cutting off guests who looked like they were calling in from the left side of our country and gave air time to right-wing points of view. And then there’s Cokie Roberts… Perhaps

Larrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-16991747583771228482010-01-29T09:02:00.001-10:002010-01-29T09:02:18.038-10:00

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-61823207264919345852010-01-29T08:54:00.001-10:002010-01-29T08:54:46.168-10:00

by Larry Geller President Obama is expected to announce his job plan today. Democracy Now reports this will be in it: The $33 billion dollar package would provide incentives for hiring workers and raising wages. Businesses would receive a $5,000 dollar tax credit for each worker hired next year as well as reimbursements on Social Security taxes. Next year? So how will that help this year? If

Larrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-40467461626030860602010-01-29T08:26:00.001-10:002010-01-29T08:26:59.437-10:00

by Larry Geller A couple of emails have flown back and forth about the validity of the data on train vs. tram accidents originally posted by Ian Lind and then by me. What I have been looking for and not yet found is data on the reduction of car accidents resulting when transit is put in place. It may be that good numbers don’t exist. My reasoning is that if cars are removed from the highways and

Larrynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-46663827355417130922010-01-29T07:35:00.001-10:002010-01-29T07:35:13.620-10:00

by Larry Geller While Obama’s job approval ratings continue to slide, a certain other international figure is trying to make points in his own public announcements. Yes, without the benefit of teleprompters, Osama Bin Laden holds forth on climate change. I wonder if anyone is tracking the numbers on his approval rating within his own sphere of influence. There have been polls, but I haven’t yet

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-73062091179731571762010-01-29T07:13:00.001-10:002010-01-29T07:42:59.796-10:00

by Larry Geller U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday it risks diplomatic isolation and disruption to its energy supplies unless it helps keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. [AP, Clinton: China risks isolation over Iran, 1/29/2010] Hillary, you’re kidding me, right? China has the USA by the you-know-whats. They hold our debt. They make everything that the

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19645904.post-8499925023166799712010-01-29T06:49:00.001-10:002010-01-29T06:49:20.736-10:00

by Larry Geller Nate Silver posts a long and thoughtful analysis of the decline in President Obama’s approval ratings this morning over at FiveThirtyEight.com, What Killed Obama's Approval Numbers? (1/29/2010). I am frequently in awe of this well-respected site. While the analysis didn’t come to a firm conclusion, it did demonstrate some things along the way. For example, this chart, plotting

Larrynoreply@blogger.com0