Chapter 4 of Anthony Sommer’s new book KPD Blue digs below the surface of the image of a delightful multi cultural and ethnic stew to reveal chunks of the racism, sexism and bigotry that bubble up and express themselves in a special Kaua`i brand of corruption.
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KPD Blue
by Anthony Sommer
Chapter 4 : Kauai Style
In 1998, Mary Thronas, chairwoman of the Kauai County Council, veteran politician and member of a well-known cattle ranching family, had just filed her papers to run for mayor of Kauai against incumbent Mayor Maryanne Kusaka
After handing her nominating petitions to the county clerk, Thronas ambled over to the local newspaper for the obligatory interview.
She sat down in an office with the managing editor and a reporter who asked her how much she expected to spend on her campaign.
“Last time, each candidate spent about $50,000,” she said. “I’m going to try to Jew that down to about $30,000.” The reporter just kept nodding his head and scribbled it down. He was well aware that Jew is a noun, not a verb or adjective.
Thronas, who was part-Hawaiian, had strong support from the Native Hawaiian community, which likes to label itself “The Host Culture.”
In fact, Native Hawaiians (Kanaka is the term they prefer) have become, thanks to America’s peculiar brand of expansionism (the word colonialism never was used, although in Hawaii’s case it certainly applied) a century ago, a conquered people and a small minority in its own land.
The swing vote on Kauai really belongs to the Filipino community, the poorest but most numerous ethnic group. In recent elections, it is the Filipino vote that has inevitably proven to be the deciding factor and the Filipinos are courted openly by Kauai’s politicians.
Kusaka was popular among Filipinos. Thronas conceded that would be a tough hill to climb.
“Well, the mayor has been handing out part-time jobs to the Filipino community for a long time. That way, she can hire lots of them for a few hours a week without having to bother with civil service and the unions.”
No fool, the incumbent mayor.
But then Thronas added: “You go over to the county building and it’s so packed
with Filipinos, it looks like a Manila taxicab.” Goodbye Filipino vote. Goodbye mayor’s office. Hello, big story.
The Associated Press picked it up and Thronas’s racist comments were reprinted all over Hawaii.
The National Public Radio station in Honolulu (which has transmitters on every island except Kauai, ironically) used it as a topic for a statewide call-in show.
The transplanted mainland limousine liberals and thirdgeneration hippies on Maui, of course, phoned to vent their politically correct furor at Thronas. The B’nai B’rith Anti- Defamation League (ADL) sent Thronas a sharp rebuke the
same day the story appeared. Who would have guessed a board member of the ADL, a retired doctor, lived on Kauai?
But those were all haoles, outsiders, mainlanders and they are a minority in Hawaii, comprising about 40 percent of Kauai’s population.
The majority is local and an astounding number defended what Thronas said.
“That’s just the way we talk,” was said over and over. “It doesn’t mean we discriminate against people.”
Thronas’s response fell a bit short of an apology: “How did I know the reporter was Jewish?”
The use of racist terms by local KPD officers is not unusual. Almost every KPD officer was born and raised on Kauai where racist slurs are part of every day vocabulary among locals..
During Randy Machado’s trial, Monica Alves testified that after she had been released the next morning, she made several calls asking when Richie would be released and how much bail he would be required to pay.
Machado answered one of the calls.
“’Why would you want to help that nigger (Richie is African-American) out?’” Alves testified that Machado asked her.
A month later, after she had been indicted, Alves was arrested again and booked into jail by Machado.
At Machado’s trial, she testified: “He told me I had two choices: I could go to jail for five years and not see my kids or I could help him ‘get the nigger.’”
There is no county or KPD written policy about the use of racial epithets. No Kauai government employee ever has been disciplined for using them.
And it’s made worse by the absence of the normal checks and balances found in government in the most of United States.
The civil rights revolution on the mainland was led by the courts. Brown vs. the Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended racial segregation in the schools, was the foundation on which the outlawing of racism was built.
Ten years later came the Civil Rights Act.
If anyone on Kauai noticed, it still is hard to tell. There has been no similar trend toward diversity in either the Kauai court or Kauai County government. To a great extent, the rogue nature of the executive (mayor) and legislature (County Council) on Kauai were validated and endorsed by the judicial branch.
Up until very recently, the law on the Garden Island, as Kauai is known, was determined by a single judge, who was a local politician first and a jurist second.
The judge’s comments from the bench often were seasoned with racist statements. A defense attorney’s characterization of his Portuguese client as an honest citizen during sentencing typically brought a comment from the bench: “You’re wrong, counsel, I know that Portagee!”
The term “Law West of Honolulu” often is used by Oahu lawyers to describe Kauai’s court, a reference to the sign that hung over the door of Judge Roy Bean’s saloon/courthouse in Vinagaroon, Texas: “Law West of the Pecos.”
It’s not a term intended to be flattering to Kauai.
Kauai had its own Judge Bean. His name was Fifth Circuit Judge George Masuoka. He was Japanese-American (AJA or American of Japanese Ancestry is the term they prefer), an ethic group that considers itself elite and, in fact, the ruling class in Hawaii.
Masuoka, who retired in December 2006, was the scourge of criminals and the devoted friend of the Kauai County government (and an even closer personal friend of the chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, which is how he kept his job).
He almost never gave probation. According to statistics published annually by the state, Masuoka handed out criminal sentences that, by a huge margin, were harsher than any judge in the state.
Whether intentional or not, Masuoka’s “law and order” stance in criminal cases was giving a green light to the KPD to violate the Constitutional rights of citizens however and whenever they chose.
In civil cases, Masuoka almost always sided with Kauai County when citizens brought suit against it. That was another signal to KPD that just about anything its officers did would be considered legal.
As a result of Masuoka’s foot dragging (and, to be fair, his heavy case load; he has been replaced by two judges) lawsuits against Kauai County tended to stall for many years.
The county’s strategy was to hope the plaintiffs would give up in frustration or from lack of money to pay lawyers, or they would simply die of old age waiting for a trial date. The county has plenty of money to pay lawyers and lots of patience.
The playing field isn’t at all level in the courthouse on Kauai.
That’s why, whenever they could, plaintiffs’ attorneys steered their cases against Kauai County toward federal court in Honolulu.
If the cases were filed in U.S. District Court, Kauai County almost always offered a huge settlement rather than going to trial. Kauai County knew it would lose in federal court and they certainly didn’t want public trials with witnesses testifying about the facts of the cases.
When a court like Kauai’s Fifth Circuit has a monopoly on justice the only judge abdicates his role as a sentinel guarding the “Rule of Law,” the politicians, the bureaucrats and, most important, the police happily follow.
Because the presiding judge for so many years refused to condemn or punish local officials who bent or broke the law, the government of Kauai County operated outside the law and was damn proud of it.
Kauai is a cultural (and judicial) (and political) backwater but it’s one of the most famous and popular tourist destinations in the world.
There are only 58,000 permanent residents on Kauai but more than one million tourists – many of them owners of time shares and second homes on the island and who pay taxes on Kauai – visit every year.
Ask visitors their thoughts about racism on Kauai and the tourists say it doesn’t exist.
In the words of one part-time Kauai resident from Missouri:
“The bag boys at the golf course are great guys. And I give them big tips.”
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED
Coming tomorrow: KPD Blue Chapter 4- Kaua`i Style
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED: It’s been a rough week for our governor with the local press ridiculing her speech introducing the book-banning, wacko Alaskan governor BS artist and would-be-in-a-parallel-universe Vice President Sarah Palin at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, MN.
Now in all honesty we might have said a few disparaging words about- and so are not exactly waiting by the phone for an appointment to an advisory board from- Linda “one of the Stepford Wives” Lingle, as our brother “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” characterized her at the 2004 Republican Convention.
But her suck-up to the right-wing-nut fringe was apparently worthy of a slew of mocking and scornful print pieces even from former supporters.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Kauai’s own Lee Cataluna, noted her stilted delivery which was bizarrely deliberate even for the emotionless, humorless, supposedly centrist GOP leader in touting the bible-thumping cross between Tina Fey and the pregnant cop in “Fargo” saying:
Who was that person who introduced Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night? She looked like Linda Lingle, had that same Paulie Walnuts hairdo Lingle has these days. She was introduced as Linda Lingle, but she didn't sound like Linda Lingle at all.
She ... spoke ... soooooo ... slowly. It took her over 17 minutes to get through a speech that was roughly 1,200 words. That's 3 1/2 pages double-spaced. You can clip through that in five minutes if you pause a lot and have a coughing fit. Lingle is a deliberate speaker, but she's also a facile speaker and this performance was way off. Sure, stop and wait for the wild applause, but the applause wasn't THAT wild.
But the real meat of the “what-the-heck-were-you-thinking” commentary was courtesy of oft-times Lingle apologist Dave Shapiro who, in his regular Wednesday Honolulu Advertiser column, opined:
Whenever Gov. Linda Lingle tries to inflate her importance in national leadership, as she’s done this week at the Republican National Convention, it causes me to reflect on what little leadership she’s provided at home during her six years in Hawai’i’s top job...
At the GOP convention this week, Lingle has taken on a major role in selling Palin as qualified to assume the presidency after serving as mayor of a town of about 7,000 and two years as governor of one of our least populous states...
This presidential year, she'll again spend a lot of time on the Mainland campaigning for McCain, but it won't make much difference in Hawai'i legislative races; the local GOP she leads isn't even fielding candidates for 22 of the 51 House seats or six of the 12 Senate seats up this year....
Lingle's national party activity suggests that Washington is exactly where her personal political radar is pointing — presumably toward the U.S. Senate as Hawai'i's octogenarian Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka near retirement.
The only question seems to be whether she'll take the seemingly suicidal step of running against the iconic Inouye if he follows through with plans to seek another term in 2010 or wait until 2012 and duke it out with Ed Case and Mufi Hannemann for Akaka's seat.
Or she can hold out for vice president on the next Republican ticket.
It’s getting pretty obvious that Lingle hasn’t got a prayer of even getting elected Maui dog catcher after her six year royal reign of taking cronyism, misplaced loyalty, political parsing and partisan pugnaciousness to a level unimagined by the past Democratic despots like former Hawai`i governors Waihe`e and Cayetano.
Even her devoted minions have ditched her if a letter in today’s Star Bulletin is indicative of her supporter’s current sentiment.
John Cheever of Honolulu writes
Did Lingle reveal true colors in GOP speech?
I used to feel sorry for Gov. Linda Lingle having to contend with an overwhelming Democratic majority in the Legislature.
However, after hearing her speak at the Republican convention, I'm beginning to be very thankful — despite the frequent dysfunction of the Hawai'i Democrats — for that check on her power.
To hear her celebrating Sarah Palin's socially conservative values and strict adherence to freetrade ideology certainly contrasted with what she says in front of local crowds and seemed very out of step with most Hawai'i residents.
I realize she was speaking to a partisan crowd and had to highlight certain important talking points, but in agreeing to do the bidding of her party did she also reveal her true colors?
I, for one, will think twice about voting for her again when she most likely runs for national office in 2010 or 2012, and I hope other local people listened to what she had to say and will remember that in the future.
In a politically progressive state like Hawai`i where the Republicans meet in a roomy sardine can as it is, you’d think that if a lame duck like Lingle has any further political ambitions the last place she’d want to be seen is sucking up to the worst of the evangelical fascist crowd.
Perhaps Lingle has realized that no one in Hawai`i is going to vote for her for anything anymore and the only prayer she has for future employment rests in a McCain administration where she hopes to fit right in with an ain’t-gonna-happen third term for Bushista regime.
But the press is always timid when it comes to actually pointing out the emperor’s lack of suitable attire so it was left to a Democratic partisan- our own State Senator, Majority Leader Gary Hooser- to lay it on the line by describing how little Lingle apparently cares about the people of the state when it comes to a choice between her own future and ours.
People may criticize the piece with a “what would you expect from the Senate majority leader” but it’s hard to argue with what he says about the grand imperial wizard of Washington Place.
In a piece from his on again off again blog that was rejected by both Honolulu papers as well as the Kaua`i daily fish-wrap Hooser took advantage of Lingle’s fanatical foibles to lambaste her in a gutsy manner and in a tone you don’t hear much from elected leaders in a piece titled “Lingle/Aiona: Out of step and out of touch”.
He wrote:
While local and national conservatives alike praised Governor Lingle's recent speech before the Republican National Convention, for most in Hawaii it is just further evidence of how out of touch she really is.
It is no wonder that Republicans in Hawaii are fleeing their party in droves. Like GenXer's caught at a Polka fest, they can't get to the door fast enough. Unable to field competent candidates in the upcoming election they have left some 32 seats totally uncontested, and filled others with marginal conservatives totally out of touch with mainstream Hawaii.
Whether delivered by John McCain or Linda Lingle, the Republican message is simply the wrong tune - out of step, out of style and out of touch.
The de facto head of the Hawai‘i Republican party, Governor Linda Lingle, along with her chief wing man Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, are both in St. Paul this week, praising the failed administration of President Bush and Senator John 'Four More Years' McCain, and working hard to defeat Hawai‘i-born Senator Barack Obama.
Why on earth would they be doing this?
Party politics aside, there is no question whatsoever that the vast majority of Hawaii residents support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Opposing Senator Obama is akin to cheering for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl and hoping for the defeat of the University of Hawaii Warriors.
Without a doubt, the candidate who will offer Hawai‘i the greatest direct benefits would be Barack Obama. Clearly he would continue to visit his place of birth—our island home—to spend time with family and friends. The attention would serve Hawai‘i well, and our Congressional delegation would surely benefit from having a Democratic President with strong Hawai‘i ties.
Governor Lingle once called President Bush 'the best President ever,' so it is not surprising that she believes John McCain 'is a perfect person to elect president of the United States at this time,' as was reported in the Honolulu media.
Senator McCain has been quoted often in support of the Bush administration’s decisions over the past eight years, and he voted with the President over ninety percent of the time. Except perhaps for Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove and now apparently Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona, few people will deny that the past eight years of the Bush administration have been an unmitigated disaster.
'Bush lied and people died' is more than a catchy slogan on a t-shirt - it is the truth. Lingle, Aiona, and the John McCain's of our country may look the other way in denial but the world community, backed by the overwhelming weight of the evidence knows it is the sad and brutal truth.
The election of Senator John McCain will only perpetuate the policies—and errors—of the past. Our country, our world and our community cannot afford four more years of this downward spiral.
McCain and the Republicans do not support Native Hawaiian recognition, and yet our Native Hawaiian Lieutenant Governor and our supposedly pro-recognition Governor still insist on supporting them. And they oppose Barack Obama who has pledged his support for the full recognition of Hawaii's indigenous people.
In light of the Hawaii connection and the obvious strong support for Obama by their state’s voters, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could easily have refused an active role in the Republican convention and the McCain campaign. The leaders of their party would have understood. No one in either party would expect the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to campaign actively against their state’s 'favorite son.
'The role they have embraced at the convention is not simply an appropriate response to a party obligation; this is political pandering at its worst. Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona will be stumping this week for candidates who not only oppose Barack Obama, but who oppose Native Hawaiian recognition, oppose a woman's right to choose, oppose sex education in our schools, oppose equal rights being granted to all people, oppose environmental regulation, and oppose universal health care.
And why would our Governor and Lieutenant Governor be doing this?
It has to be about the money because it can't be about the votes. Lingle and Aiona are more likely to lose votes in their next elections as voters recall their opposition of Obama and support of Bush/McCain. Their aggressive support for McCain and opposition to Obama isn’t about votes, and it’s not about principle. It is about money.
While losing votes and working to reduce our state’s political capital, Lingle and Aiona will gain national recognition and make points with national Republican funding groups. Both will likely do quite handsomely in the fund-raising department during the coming run-up to 2010, and both are most likely betting the memory of the electorate will be short while the pockets of their mainland contributors will be deep.
The elephant in the room that no one has quite stated in so many words is that in these days of upcoming economic calamity it seems Lingle is all too ready to push her constituents under the bus for her political ambitions.
If given her druthers she’d apparently deal a vicious blow to our local economy by putting the kibosh on the expected “Obama Birthplace Tourism” that will follow his election, as it has every other president.
Activist songwriter Jackson Browne has sung “I ain’t no Democrat, but I sure ain’t no Republican” and we resemble that remark.
Unlike Gary we’re not quite hungry enough to choke down whole the bland if not distasteful lack of choice servings on the public policy menu that Obama/Biden presents no matter how much smothering salt and spice it has.
Just like McCain, Obama’s lips have never met a corporate butt they’re not willing to kiss and no matter what happens in November the USA Inc. will still be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune 500.
We’ll be savoring a dish truly to our liking by voting for Cynthia McKinney who, along with Ralph Nader, serves up blue-plate-special policies that we can actually support rather than merely stomach some less vomit-inducing slop.
Though Hooser touts Obama’s support of “Native Hawaiian recognition” the Akaka bill is a piece of century-old fish designed to steal the lands of the Kanaka Maoli “one last time fair and square”.
And Obama still supports all those little erosions of women’s control over their own bodies and though he apparently opposes “abstinence only” sex education still favors stressing abstinence in a bow to church-addled zealots.
And Obama is ready willing and able to compromise away many environmental protections, slip-sliding toward off-shore drilling, nuclear power and wherever else he can find “the middle ground”
And “universal health care” under Obama is a joke. Single government payer or “Medicare for all” is something we’ll never see when Obama takes over... just like all the other things like an end to the current wars, a dismantling of the war machine and an end to the cockamamie wars on terror, drugs and people as contained in the new FISA act and other repressive homeland insecurity legislation..
It could be worse- be thankful for term limits.
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED: It’s been a rough week for our governor with the local press ridiculing her speech introducing the book-banning, wacko Alaskan governor BS artist and would-be-in-a-parallel-universe Vice President Sarah Palin at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, MN.
Now in all honesty we might have said a few disparaging words about- and so are not exactly waiting by the phone for an appointment to an advisory board from- Linda “one of the Stepford Wives” Lingle, as our brother “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” characterized her at the 2004 Republican Convention.
But her suck-up to the right-wing-nut fringe was apparently worthy of a slew of mocking and scornful print pieces even from former supporters.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Kauai’s own Lee Cataluna, noted her stilted delivery which was bizarrely deliberate even for the emotionless, humorless, supposedly centrist GOP leader in touting the bible-thumping cross between Tina Fey and the pregnant cop in “Fargo” saying:
Who was that person who introduced Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night? She looked like Linda Lingle, had that same Paulie Walnuts hairdo Lingle has these days. She was introduced as Linda Lingle, but she didn't sound like Linda Lingle at all.
She ... spoke ... soooooo ... slowly. It took her over 17 minutes to get through a speech that was roughly 1,200 words. That's 3 1/2 pages double-spaced. You can clip through that in five minutes if you pause a lot and have a coughing fit. Lingle is a deliberate speaker, but she's also a facile speaker and this performance was way off. Sure, stop and wait for the wild applause, but the applause wasn't THAT wild.
But the real meat of the “what-the-heck-were-you-thinking” commentary was courtesy of oft-times Lingle apologist Dave Shapiro who, in his regular Wednesday Honolulu Advertiser column, opined:
Whenever Gov. Linda Lingle tries to inflate her importance in national leadership, as she’s done this week at the Republican National Convention, it causes me to reflect on what little leadership she’s provided at home during her six years in Hawai’i’s top job...
At the GOP convention this week, Lingle has taken on a major role in selling Palin as qualified to assume the presidency after serving as mayor of a town of about 7,000 and two years as governor of one of our least populous states...
This presidential year, she'll again spend a lot of time on the Mainland campaigning for McCain, but it won't make much difference in Hawai'i legislative races; the local GOP she leads isn't even fielding candidates for 22 of the 51 House seats or six of the 12 Senate seats up this year....
Lingle's national party activity suggests that Washington is exactly where her personal political radar is pointing — presumably toward the U.S. Senate as Hawai'i's octogenarian Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka near retirement.
The only question seems to be whether she'll take the seemingly suicidal step of running against the iconic Inouye if he follows through with plans to seek another term in 2010 or wait until 2012 and duke it out with Ed Case and Mufi Hannemann for Akaka's seat.
Or she can hold out for vice president on the next Republican ticket.
It’s getting pretty obvious that Lingle hasn’t got a prayer of even getting elected Maui dog catcher after her six year royal reign of taking cronyism, misplaced loyalty, political parsing and partisan pugnaciousness to a level unimagined by the past Democratic despots like former Hawai`i governors Waihe`e and Cayetano.
Even her devoted minions have ditched her if a letter in today’s Star Bulletin is indicative of her supporter’s current sentiment.
John Cheever of Honolulu writes
Did Lingle reveal true colors in GOP speech?
I used to feel sorry for Gov. Linda Lingle having to contend with an overwhelming Democratic majority in the Legislature.
However, after hearing her speak at the Republican convention, I'm beginning to be very thankful — despite the frequent dysfunction of the Hawai'i Democrats — for that check on her power.
To hear her celebrating Sarah Palin's socially conservative values and strict adherence to freetrade ideology certainly contrasted with what she says in front of local crowds and seemed very out of step with most Hawai'i residents.
I realize she was speaking to a partisan crowd and had to highlight certain important talking points, but in agreeing to do the bidding of her party did she also reveal her true colors?
I, for one, will think twice about voting for her again when she most likely runs for national office in 2010 or 2012, and I hope other local people listened to what she had to say and will remember that in the future.
In a politically progressive state like Hawai`i where the Republicans meet in a roomy sardine can as it is, you’d think that if a lame duck like Lingle has any further political ambitions the last place she’d want to be seen is sucking up to the worst of the evangelical fascist crowd.
Perhaps Lingle has realized that no one in Hawai`i is going to vote for her for anything anymore and the only prayer she has for future employment rests in a McCain administration where she hopes to fit right in with an ain’t-gonna-happen third term for Bushista regime.
But the press is always timid when it comes to actually pointing out the emperor’s lack of suitable attire so it was left to a Democratic partisan- our own State Senator, Majority Leader Gary Hooser- to lay it on the line by describing how little Lingle apparently cares about the people of the state when it comes to a choice between her own future and ours.
People may criticize the piece with a “what would you expect from the Senate majority leader” but it’s hard to argue with what he says about the grand imperial wizard of Washington Place.
In a piece from his on again off again blog that was rejected by both Honolulu papers as well as the Kaua`i daily fish-wrap Hooser took advantage of Lingle’s fanatical foibles to lambaste her in a gutsy manner and in a tone you don’t hear much from elected leaders in a piece titled “Lingle/Aiona: Out of step and out of touch”.
He wrote:
While local and national conservatives alike praised Governor Lingle's recent speech before the Republican National Convention, for most in Hawaii it is just further evidence of how out of touch she really is.
It is no wonder that Republicans in Hawaii are fleeing their party in droves. Like GenXer's caught at a Polka fest, they can't get to the door fast enough. Unable to field competent candidates in the upcoming election they have left some 32 seats totally uncontested, and filled others with marginal conservatives totally out of touch with mainstream Hawaii.
Whether delivered by John McCain or Linda Lingle, the Republican message is simply the wrong tune - out of step, out of style and out of touch.
The de facto head of the Hawai‘i Republican party, Governor Linda Lingle, along with her chief wing man Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, are both in St. Paul this week, praising the failed administration of President Bush and Senator John 'Four More Years' McCain, and working hard to defeat Hawai‘i-born Senator Barack Obama.
Why on earth would they be doing this?
Party politics aside, there is no question whatsoever that the vast majority of Hawaii residents support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Opposing Senator Obama is akin to cheering for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl and hoping for the defeat of the University of Hawaii Warriors.
Without a doubt, the candidate who will offer Hawai‘i the greatest direct benefits would be Barack Obama. Clearly he would continue to visit his place of birth—our island home—to spend time with family and friends. The attention would serve Hawai‘i well, and our Congressional delegation would surely benefit from having a Democratic President with strong Hawai‘i ties.
Governor Lingle once called President Bush 'the best President ever,' so it is not surprising that she believes John McCain 'is a perfect person to elect president of the United States at this time,' as was reported in the Honolulu media.
Senator McCain has been quoted often in support of the Bush administration’s decisions over the past eight years, and he voted with the President over ninety percent of the time. Except perhaps for Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove and now apparently Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona, few people will deny that the past eight years of the Bush administration have been an unmitigated disaster.
'Bush lied and people died' is more than a catchy slogan on a t-shirt - it is the truth. Lingle, Aiona, and the John McCain's of our country may look the other way in denial but the world community, backed by the overwhelming weight of the evidence knows it is the sad and brutal truth.
The election of Senator John McCain will only perpetuate the policies—and errors—of the past. Our country, our world and our community cannot afford four more years of this downward spiral.
McCain and the Republicans do not support Native Hawaiian recognition, and yet our Native Hawaiian Lieutenant Governor and our supposedly pro-recognition Governor still insist on supporting them. And they oppose Barack Obama who has pledged his support for the full recognition of Hawaii's indigenous people.
In light of the Hawaii connection and the obvious strong support for Obama by their state’s voters, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could easily have refused an active role in the Republican convention and the McCain campaign. The leaders of their party would have understood. No one in either party would expect the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to campaign actively against their state’s 'favorite son.
'The role they have embraced at the convention is not simply an appropriate response to a party obligation; this is political pandering at its worst. Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona will be stumping this week for candidates who not only oppose Barack Obama, but who oppose Native Hawaiian recognition, oppose a woman's right to choose, oppose sex education in our schools, oppose equal rights being granted to all people, oppose environmental regulation, and oppose universal health care.
And why would our Governor and Lieutenant Governor be doing this?
It has to be about the money because it can't be about the votes. Lingle and Aiona are more likely to lose votes in their next elections as voters recall their opposition of Obama and support of Bush/McCain. Their aggressive support for McCain and opposition to Obama isn’t about votes, and it’s not about principle. It is about money.
While losing votes and working to reduce our state’s political capital, Lingle and Aiona will gain national recognition and make points with national Republican funding groups. Both will likely do quite handsomely in the fund-raising department during the coming run-up to 2010, and both are most likely betting the memory of the electorate will be short while the pockets of their mainland contributors will be deep.
The elephant in the room that no one has quite stated in so many words is that in these days of upcoming economic calamity it seems Lingle is all too ready to push her constituents under the bus for her political ambitions.
If given her druthers she’d apparently deal a vicious blow to our local economy by putting the kibosh on the expected “Obama Birthplace Tourism” that will follow his election, as it has every other president.
Activist songwriter Jackson Browne has sung “I ain’t no Democrat, but I sure ain’t no Republican” and we resemble that remark.
Unlike Gary we’re not quite hungry enough to choke down whole the bland if not distasteful lack of choice servings on the public policy menu that Obama/Biden presents no matter how much smothering salt and spice it has.
Just like McCain, Obama’s lips have never met a corporate butt they’re not willing to kiss and no matter what happens in November the USA Inc. will still be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune 500.
We’ll be savoring a dish truly to our liking by voting for Cynthia McKinney who, along with Ralph Nader, serves up blue-plate-special policies that we can actually support rather than merely stomach some less vomit-inducing slop.
Though Hooser touts Obama’s support of “Native Hawaiian recognition” the Akaka bill is a piece of century-old fish designed to steal the lands of the Kanaka Maoli “one last time fair and square”.
And Obama still supports all those little erosions of women’s control over their own bodies and though he apparently opposes “abstinence only” sex education still favors stressing abstinence in a bow to church-addled zealots.
And Obama is ready willing and able to compromise away many environmental protections, slip-sliding toward off-shore drilling, nuclear power and wherever else he can find “the middle ground”
And “universal health care” under Obama is a joke. Single government payer or “Medicare for all” is something we’ll never see when Obama takes over... just like all the other things like an end to the current wars, a dismantling of the war machine and an end to the cockamamie wars on terror, drugs and people as contained in the new FISA act and other repressive homeland insecurity legislation..
It could be worse- be thankful for term limits.
Friday, September 5, 2008
ONE SICK PUPPY
ONE SICK PUPPY: Kaua`i politics is rather grim. Though the characters themselves are laughable they’re deadly serious. Though the politicians generally lack a sense of humor, most of the electorate can’t help laughing at their foibles.
But lo these many years one county council candidate has given us no end of guffaws and tee-hees and the occasions belly laugh.
And once again this year we have Bob Cariffe to kick around.
We first met Cariffe years ago when, apparently after hearing that you have to “walk the island” to get elected- meaning knock on every door from Ha`ena to Mana- he thought people meant he had to literally walk along the highway from one end of the road to the other.... which he not only did but touted as a qualification for the job
But over the years his over the top genuinely certifiable insanity has lived up to the hype in almost every election.
One year he told us he was campaigning as the President of Earthlings Against Communism, since apparently he thinks those fighting the world wide Marxist conspiracy were not only not cuckoo enough but were wasting their time while he was fighting to rid the entire universe of the real commie scourge- those Venetians and Martians.
But Bob does get votes every election and has even NOT come in in last place on occasion.
One of them was the year we went to the Farm Bureau Fair where the various council candidates were speaking. We watched a few of them give their spiel live and then got into the car to go home and listened to the rest on the live radio broadcast.
First thing we heard was long time councilman Kaipo Asing talking about what he was going to do if re-elected. He told everyone that he was going to spend 30 million dollars of taxpayer money on solid waste, rambling on about our then as now crisis-point need for a new landfill.
Next up was good old Bob who pledged- as he has every year- that if elected he would rid the island of mosquitoes.
Now if that was the only thing you heard from them that year who would you vote for?
So to make a long story longer, yesterday in the local papers’ “County Council Candidates Answer” column when it was Cariffe’s turn to answer the seven timid questions asked to all candidates we were disappointed to find that twice the paper decided that a couple of poor Bob’s answers were “not fit for publication”,
Well as connoisseurs of the Bob-isms (no not the Dylan type) we had to see what was so bad that the editors had to censor it..
Could it be another of his pateneted rants about how he was running to show his ex-wife that he wasn’t a wacko? Had the mosquito lobby finally gotten to editor Adam Harju? Had publisher Mark Lewis found out that the communists about take out full page ads?
Well a little digging brought forth the missing Bob passages passed on by a source that cannot speak its name.
The first omission was as to his specific credentials. It asked:
What specific credentials do you have for being a county council member? Why are you the best for our county? Again, let’s get specific. What positions of power have you held in the past? What connections do you have that will benefit the county?
Bob’s censored answer?
“I am president of.. Kauai Christian Orgy Club”.
How that was more offensive than being the head of “Forces United Combating Muslim Extremism” which was published is unclear.
But perhaps Bob’s final answer to the question “What is the single, most important issue to you?” might go a long way to deciphering the bizarre neural activity (well, actually that term may a bit too generous) of Cariffe.
He actually said, no joking:
The shortage of girls available to white men for sex. Many white girls are golddiggers who only mess with rich men or nonwhites. That shows they are not prejudicial when they mess with nonwhites. Asian girls already have enough people asking them who they did the nasty with to get into America.
Having them with a white man makes more people ask about their reason for being with Mister Whitey.
My answer to this problem is to implement a “dial a stud” program open only to girls. Unlike Kamehameha School it will be open for all men to register. It is amazing Kamehameha has tax free status with their racist policies. Would Bill Gates have tax free status if he started a school which would admit only whites? Not a chance in hell or heaven.
And so, in our first official endorsement for council this year we ask you to save one vote for Bob Cariffe.
There certainly aren’t seven candidates running who are worthy of election. We’ve found only four- Lani Kawahara, Ken Taylor, Bruce Pleas and Linda Pasadova- who appear to have the brains and stomach to battle the entrenched good old boys’ and girls’ corruption, secrecy and all-around abuses of power.
But if we are to send a message to the other 17 candidates we can’t just not vote for them, they won’t know the difference.
If we really want to send them a message we must do as a few of us have done in every other election listing Cariffe’s name and say to them “You know how bad it is?- I’d rather vote for a maniac like Bob Cariffe than you”.
If we have to sit through all the standard drivel and self-important bloviating and chest thumping and all these decisions to sell our island to the highest bidder we can at least put someone in for comic relief.
Besides, we’ve got a column to write every day and funny material doesn’t just grow on trees.
And he couldn’t be any worse than Derek Kawakami..
But lo these many years one county council candidate has given us no end of guffaws and tee-hees and the occasions belly laugh.
And once again this year we have Bob Cariffe to kick around.
We first met Cariffe years ago when, apparently after hearing that you have to “walk the island” to get elected- meaning knock on every door from Ha`ena to Mana- he thought people meant he had to literally walk along the highway from one end of the road to the other.... which he not only did but touted as a qualification for the job
But over the years his over the top genuinely certifiable insanity has lived up to the hype in almost every election.
One year he told us he was campaigning as the President of Earthlings Against Communism, since apparently he thinks those fighting the world wide Marxist conspiracy were not only not cuckoo enough but were wasting their time while he was fighting to rid the entire universe of the real commie scourge- those Venetians and Martians.
But Bob does get votes every election and has even NOT come in in last place on occasion.
One of them was the year we went to the Farm Bureau Fair where the various council candidates were speaking. We watched a few of them give their spiel live and then got into the car to go home and listened to the rest on the live radio broadcast.
First thing we heard was long time councilman Kaipo Asing talking about what he was going to do if re-elected. He told everyone that he was going to spend 30 million dollars of taxpayer money on solid waste, rambling on about our then as now crisis-point need for a new landfill.
Next up was good old Bob who pledged- as he has every year- that if elected he would rid the island of mosquitoes.
Now if that was the only thing you heard from them that year who would you vote for?
So to make a long story longer, yesterday in the local papers’ “County Council Candidates Answer” column when it was Cariffe’s turn to answer the seven timid questions asked to all candidates we were disappointed to find that twice the paper decided that a couple of poor Bob’s answers were “not fit for publication”,
Well as connoisseurs of the Bob-isms (no not the Dylan type) we had to see what was so bad that the editors had to censor it..
Could it be another of his pateneted rants about how he was running to show his ex-wife that he wasn’t a wacko? Had the mosquito lobby finally gotten to editor Adam Harju? Had publisher Mark Lewis found out that the communists about take out full page ads?
Well a little digging brought forth the missing Bob passages passed on by a source that cannot speak its name.
The first omission was as to his specific credentials. It asked:
What specific credentials do you have for being a county council member? Why are you the best for our county? Again, let’s get specific. What positions of power have you held in the past? What connections do you have that will benefit the county?
Bob’s censored answer?
“I am president of.. Kauai Christian Orgy Club”.
How that was more offensive than being the head of “Forces United Combating Muslim Extremism” which was published is unclear.
But perhaps Bob’s final answer to the question “What is the single, most important issue to you?” might go a long way to deciphering the bizarre neural activity (well, actually that term may a bit too generous) of Cariffe.
He actually said, no joking:
The shortage of girls available to white men for sex. Many white girls are golddiggers who only mess with rich men or nonwhites. That shows they are not prejudicial when they mess with nonwhites. Asian girls already have enough people asking them who they did the nasty with to get into America.
Having them with a white man makes more people ask about their reason for being with Mister Whitey.
My answer to this problem is to implement a “dial a stud” program open only to girls. Unlike Kamehameha School it will be open for all men to register. It is amazing Kamehameha has tax free status with their racist policies. Would Bill Gates have tax free status if he started a school which would admit only whites? Not a chance in hell or heaven.
And so, in our first official endorsement for council this year we ask you to save one vote for Bob Cariffe.
There certainly aren’t seven candidates running who are worthy of election. We’ve found only four- Lani Kawahara, Ken Taylor, Bruce Pleas and Linda Pasadova- who appear to have the brains and stomach to battle the entrenched good old boys’ and girls’ corruption, secrecy and all-around abuses of power.
But if we are to send a message to the other 17 candidates we can’t just not vote for them, they won’t know the difference.
If we really want to send them a message we must do as a few of us have done in every other election listing Cariffe’s name and say to them “You know how bad it is?- I’d rather vote for a maniac like Bob Cariffe than you”.
If we have to sit through all the standard drivel and self-important bloviating and chest thumping and all these decisions to sell our island to the highest bidder we can at least put someone in for comic relief.
Besides, we’ve got a column to write every day and funny material doesn’t just grow on trees.
And he couldn’t be any worse than Derek Kawakami..
Thursday, September 4, 2008
SALTY DOG
SALTY DOG: Dividing lines on the Hawaii Superferry (HSf) were reportedly drawn at Tuesday’s mayoral debate with candidates Mel Rapozo and Bernard Carvalho giving unqualified support and JoAnn Yukimura and Rolf Bieber coming down on the skeptical side.
Seemingly though, for most the determining factor is completion of the environmental impact statement (EIS) currently being undertaken.
Kauaians overwhelmingly, whether they favor or despise the HSf want to know all the impacts island wide and how they are going to be dealt with.
But ever since the Eco-Roundtable candidates’ forum there’s been a question as to the validity of the current Belt Collins EIS that was called the “Act 2 EIS” in a question to the candidates, as distinguished from a normal EIS under the Hawai`i and National Environmental Protection Acts, HEPA and NEPA respectively.
Though we’ve asked numerous people during the last month what the exact difference was we were unable to even get an approximate answer... until now.
Intrepid Superferry researcher and foe Brad Parsons- who was MauiBrad until he recently moved to our shores to become KauaiBrad- has a post at his Hawaii Superferry Unofficial Blog, explaining that Act 2 will not contain one of the most important elements of an EIS- the “no action alternative”.
Apparently one of the council members didn’t get it either and asked Brad to clue us in on what others have been referring to.
Brad wrote in reply
From reading Act 2 and Chapter 343 and from a speech I heard Dan Hempey give based on a conversation he had with Isaac Hall, my understanding is that Act 2 does not allow for the 'no action' alternative on the project being studied, further it does not provide for the governing authority to reject and not allow the project. The 'no action' alternative is a part of a real EIS under HEPA Chapter 343 and a federal NEPA EIS.
What this essentially means is that it’s a given that the EIS will not have to provide for mitigation of the environmental, cultural and social impacts because it doesn’t really matter whether they do or not.
In other words the boat is already in service so therefore the impacts somehow don’t matter and can and will be ignored.
But does the Hawai`i state legislature really have the right to say this? Apparently not.
HEPA is the state version of NEPA which details the federal mandates states must follow in preparing EIS’. And one of the most important is the evolved standard “no action alternative” which is in EIS’ for the “accepting” entity to use if they determine that either all the impacts are not identified or more importantly that the impacts are so great that they simply cannot be sufficiently mitigated.
Many think the latter would probably be the case in an “honest” EIS without spending hundreds of millions of dollars on improving our infrastructural capacity and protecting our resources
In the federal courts it has become quite clear that the “no action alternative” (NAA) is an essential element of any EIS.
Just recently here in Hawai`i, in cases involving both the Army’s use of the sacred Makua Valley on O`ahu and the Navy’s use of sonar, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of the NAA is reason enough to go back to the drawing board and has stuck down the EIS’ that didn’t contain them.
But the whole history of the HSf is littered with a total regard of federal law. That’s because it has suffered from a dearth of cases filed in federal court except for one that was thrown out, not on the merits but on technicalities, well before many pertinent facts were known and more than a year before the ferry first attempted to travel.
As PNN detailed in a series of articles last year, from the State Department of Transportation’s original “exemption” for the HSf that was struck down by the Hawai`i Supreme Court to the state’s lack of adherence to the federal Coastal Zone Management act by playing a shell game with the local Special Management Area permitting process, the state has routinely ignored federal laws that trump the state statutes.
But none of the attorney’s involved in getting adherence to State law have chosen to go to the Federal courts to get state compliance since that long ago ruling
Parsons closed his piece by saying
The following is a passage written by a legal expert involved and further explains it, "Act 2 changed the very purpose of HEPA just to accommodate the Superferry Corporation. Until November 1, 2007 (the day Act 2 took effect), HEPA had been based on the fact that EA studies were “critical to humanity’s well being,…and that an environmental review process” was necessary to “alert decision makers to significant environmental effects which may result from the implementation of certain actions.” Act 2’s stated purpose is to “facilitate the establishment of interisland ferry service and, at the same time, protect Hawai‘i’s fragile environment (italics added) by clarifying that neither the preparation of an environmental assessment, nor a finding of no significant impact, nor acceptance of an environmental impact statement shall be a condition precedent to, or otherwise be required prior to … operation of a large capacity ferry vessel company.”"
Rapozo has been duped- as has Carvalho, as have thousands of people on Kaua`i- into thinking that a there is an EIS being prepared that adheres to federal standards.
But as feared, the legislature’s “Act 2”- which threw out the "condition precedent" requirements of Chapter 343 of State law aka HEPA - not only allowed the HSf to operate while an EIS was being done but threw out any question of operation after it was done.
As mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura was quoted as saying at the debate
Yukimura said she needs assurance the issues that may be identified in the environmental assessment — such as traffic, drugs, overcrowded parks, invasive species and cultural theft — will be operationally addressed and “not just with words.”
It’s like asking if we want a chocolate bar and then giving us a chocolate-covered turd. When we break it open and look at it closely we complain that “this is nothing but a piece of shit”.
Apparently Rapozo’s, Carvalho’s and the Chamber of Commerce crowd’s answer to us is “yeah but it’s really great shit”
Seemingly though, for most the determining factor is completion of the environmental impact statement (EIS) currently being undertaken.
Kauaians overwhelmingly, whether they favor or despise the HSf want to know all the impacts island wide and how they are going to be dealt with.
But ever since the Eco-Roundtable candidates’ forum there’s been a question as to the validity of the current Belt Collins EIS that was called the “Act 2 EIS” in a question to the candidates, as distinguished from a normal EIS under the Hawai`i and National Environmental Protection Acts, HEPA and NEPA respectively.
Though we’ve asked numerous people during the last month what the exact difference was we were unable to even get an approximate answer... until now.
Intrepid Superferry researcher and foe Brad Parsons- who was MauiBrad until he recently moved to our shores to become KauaiBrad- has a post at his Hawaii Superferry Unofficial Blog, explaining that Act 2 will not contain one of the most important elements of an EIS- the “no action alternative”.
Apparently one of the council members didn’t get it either and asked Brad to clue us in on what others have been referring to.
Brad wrote in reply
From reading Act 2 and Chapter 343 and from a speech I heard Dan Hempey give based on a conversation he had with Isaac Hall, my understanding is that Act 2 does not allow for the 'no action' alternative on the project being studied, further it does not provide for the governing authority to reject and not allow the project. The 'no action' alternative is a part of a real EIS under HEPA Chapter 343 and a federal NEPA EIS.
What this essentially means is that it’s a given that the EIS will not have to provide for mitigation of the environmental, cultural and social impacts because it doesn’t really matter whether they do or not.
In other words the boat is already in service so therefore the impacts somehow don’t matter and can and will be ignored.
But does the Hawai`i state legislature really have the right to say this? Apparently not.
HEPA is the state version of NEPA which details the federal mandates states must follow in preparing EIS’. And one of the most important is the evolved standard “no action alternative” which is in EIS’ for the “accepting” entity to use if they determine that either all the impacts are not identified or more importantly that the impacts are so great that they simply cannot be sufficiently mitigated.
Many think the latter would probably be the case in an “honest” EIS without spending hundreds of millions of dollars on improving our infrastructural capacity and protecting our resources
In the federal courts it has become quite clear that the “no action alternative” (NAA) is an essential element of any EIS.
Just recently here in Hawai`i, in cases involving both the Army’s use of the sacred Makua Valley on O`ahu and the Navy’s use of sonar, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of the NAA is reason enough to go back to the drawing board and has stuck down the EIS’ that didn’t contain them.
But the whole history of the HSf is littered with a total regard of federal law. That’s because it has suffered from a dearth of cases filed in federal court except for one that was thrown out, not on the merits but on technicalities, well before many pertinent facts were known and more than a year before the ferry first attempted to travel.
As PNN detailed in a series of articles last year, from the State Department of Transportation’s original “exemption” for the HSf that was struck down by the Hawai`i Supreme Court to the state’s lack of adherence to the federal Coastal Zone Management act by playing a shell game with the local Special Management Area permitting process, the state has routinely ignored federal laws that trump the state statutes.
But none of the attorney’s involved in getting adherence to State law have chosen to go to the Federal courts to get state compliance since that long ago ruling
Parsons closed his piece by saying
The following is a passage written by a legal expert involved and further explains it, "Act 2 changed the very purpose of HEPA just to accommodate the Superferry Corporation. Until November 1, 2007 (the day Act 2 took effect), HEPA had been based on the fact that EA studies were “critical to humanity’s well being,…and that an environmental review process” was necessary to “alert decision makers to significant environmental effects which may result from the implementation of certain actions.” Act 2’s stated purpose is to “facilitate the establishment of interisland ferry service and, at the same time, protect Hawai‘i’s fragile environment (italics added) by clarifying that neither the preparation of an environmental assessment, nor a finding of no significant impact, nor acceptance of an environmental impact statement shall be a condition precedent to, or otherwise be required prior to … operation of a large capacity ferry vessel company.”"
Rapozo has been duped- as has Carvalho, as have thousands of people on Kaua`i- into thinking that a there is an EIS being prepared that adheres to federal standards.
But as feared, the legislature’s “Act 2”- which threw out the "condition precedent" requirements of Chapter 343 of State law aka HEPA - not only allowed the HSf to operate while an EIS was being done but threw out any question of operation after it was done.
As mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura was quoted as saying at the debate
Yukimura said she needs assurance the issues that may be identified in the environmental assessment — such as traffic, drugs, overcrowded parks, invasive species and cultural theft — will be operationally addressed and “not just with words.”
It’s like asking if we want a chocolate bar and then giving us a chocolate-covered turd. When we break it open and look at it closely we complain that “this is nothing but a piece of shit”.
Apparently Rapozo’s, Carvalho’s and the Chamber of Commerce crowd’s answer to us is “yeah but it’s really great shit”
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
KPD BLUE CHAPTER 3- LETTING LYING DOGS SLEEP
KPD BLUE CHAPTER 3- LETTING LYING DOGS SLEEP: In our next installment of reporter Anthony Sommer’s new book “KPD Blue” the cover-up begins with a complicitous local press refusing to provide the slimy details about the self-serving arbitration ruling reinstating the three fired officers and the County Council’s secret settlement with Alves,. beginning an new era of unbridled “racism, sexism and dishonesty” that characterizes Kaua`i politics to this day.
Watch this space for information on next week’s official release of KPD Blue and our next serialization installment, Chapter 4, which details the mayoral administration of “Queen” Marianne Kusaka.
Without further ado, “got windmills?” proudly presents Chapter 3- Aftershocks.
KPD Blue
A Decade of Racism, Sexism, and Political Corruption in (and all around) the Kauai Police Department
by Anthony Sommer © 2008 Anthony Sommer All rights reserved.
Chapter 3 : Aftershocks
Revelations of continuing racism, sexism and dishonesty continue to haunt the KPD. They all circle back to the arrest of Monica Alves.
Immediately following the Lap Dancing Incident, newly appointed Police Chief George Freitas fired patrolmen Randy Machado, Todd Tanaka and Sgt. Mel Rapozo. The two other officers accused of molesting Alves resigned.
Machado, Tanaka and Rapozo filed union complaints. The case was submitted to binding arbitration and KPD was forced to reinstate all three.
One of the arbitrators who ordered the officers reinstated was Kauai lawyer Max Graham, an attorney for many of the biggest developers on Kauai.
Rather than take an ethical “zero tolerance” stand, Graham chose to bow down to SHOPO and the local politicians who wanted the officers reinstated.
Because of the nature of his wealthy mainland clients and their need for many Kauai County permits, it was in Graham’s best interests to please and placate the county government on Kauai.
So, Graham placed the blame not on the officers who were directly involved but on their superiors who never were named or disciplined.
“It further appears,” Graham wrote in his findings, “that more senior officers knew or should have known that better control was warranted.”
The logic seems to be that KPD officers and sergeants couldn’t possibly have been expected to know that stripping, fondling and photographing a woman they had just arrested was wrong unless a senior department official was standing right there to tell them so.
Rapozo turned down reinstatement, which would have required him to accept a demotion to patrolman, and instead became a private investigator. He later was elected to the Kauai County Council where he has become the KPD’s loudest and most passionate critic.
Despite Judge Masuoka’s feigned outrage, he sentenced Machado to only 30 days in jail for destroying evidence. Machado could have received a two-year term.
Shortly after he returned to duty, Machado was named “Officer of the Month” by the Kauai Police Commission. In 1999 he was awarded the “Top Cop Award” by the Hawaii Joint Police Association.
Clearly, there was no shame in the police community about the Alves incident.
Machado later died in a freak skate-boarding accident in front of his home. He received a full-blown police funeral and was accorded a hero’s obituary in the local newspaper. There was no mention of the lap dancer.
The news media in Hawaii develops a highly selective sense of recall when a controversial public figure dies. The evil they have done conveniently disappears when the obituaries are written.
Even though the trial of Randy Machado was recorded on video tape that is public record, it never has been presented to the people of Kauai before this book was printed.
There would be a striking similarity to the reportage of Macahdo’s death when Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste died in office a decade later.
Baptiste’s many controversial and ethically questionable deeds and decisions (he was re-elected to a second term by only two votes) vanished as far as the reporters writing his obituaries were concerned. In death, he was universally hailed as “The Aloha Mayor.”
Proper observance of local custom, perhaps, but astonishingly poor journalism, which is supposed to be about presenting the facts to the public.
Gone from public view but certainly not forgotten, The “Lap Dancing Incident” carried a curse, tainting everyone involved in it. Its evil spell continues today.
Alves sued the KPD and the county for sexual harassment and received a $250,000 settlement, a measure of how desperately Kauai County wanted (and still always wants) to avoid a potentially humiliating public civil trial.
Most of the money Alves was paid by Kauai County went up her nose and into her arms in the form of drug purchases.
The settlement contained a confidentiality agreement that was insisted on by Kauai County and that was totally illegal. Settlements paid by tax dollars are supposed to be public record.
But, there is much in Kauai County that is supposed to be public that Kauai County government keeps secret. And no one, certainly not the Hawaii news media, challenges Kauai County in court.
Shortly afterward, Alves and her husband Mitch Peralto were convicted of the brutal torture and murder of Alves’ niece, a KPD drug informant.
Four adults at the house where the victim was being held witnessed the couple beat, bind and gag Kimberly Washington Cohen, 23, and drive off with her in their car on July 11, 1997. The witnesses did nothing.
It was only later, when the owner returned home, that the police were called.
Apparently, Alves knew Washington Cohen was a confidential informant (although KPD records showed she never provided them any useful information) and believed she had tipped off the police. KPD vice officers had stopped Alves and searched her for drugs.
While beating Washington Cohen, Alves tried to seal her lips shut with fingernail glue, telling her, according to a witness, “You’re never going to be able to talk again.”
The four witnesses watched Alves and Peralto bind Washington Cohen’s arms, ankles and beasts, gag her mouth so tightly “her face was deformed,” duct-tape a blanket over her head and torso and drag her struggling into the back seat of their car and drive away.
The next day, police found the woman’s body in a shallow grave less than a mile from the house where she had been beaten. The cause of death was suffocation.
Alves, sobbing when she heard the guilty verdict, and Peralto were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
If Monica Alves, from her prison cell, is aware of all the twisted turns KPD has taken ever since her arrest for lap dancing, she must be laughing at all of them.
Watch this space for information on next week’s official release of KPD Blue and our next serialization installment, Chapter 4, which details the mayoral administration of “Queen” Marianne Kusaka.
Without further ado, “got windmills?” proudly presents Chapter 3- Aftershocks.
KPD Blue
A Decade of Racism, Sexism, and Political Corruption in (and all around) the Kauai Police Department
by Anthony Sommer © 2008 Anthony Sommer All rights reserved.
Chapter 3 : Aftershocks
Revelations of continuing racism, sexism and dishonesty continue to haunt the KPD. They all circle back to the arrest of Monica Alves.
Immediately following the Lap Dancing Incident, newly appointed Police Chief George Freitas fired patrolmen Randy Machado, Todd Tanaka and Sgt. Mel Rapozo. The two other officers accused of molesting Alves resigned.
Machado, Tanaka and Rapozo filed union complaints. The case was submitted to binding arbitration and KPD was forced to reinstate all three.
One of the arbitrators who ordered the officers reinstated was Kauai lawyer Max Graham, an attorney for many of the biggest developers on Kauai.
Rather than take an ethical “zero tolerance” stand, Graham chose to bow down to SHOPO and the local politicians who wanted the officers reinstated.
Because of the nature of his wealthy mainland clients and their need for many Kauai County permits, it was in Graham’s best interests to please and placate the county government on Kauai.
So, Graham placed the blame not on the officers who were directly involved but on their superiors who never were named or disciplined.
“It further appears,” Graham wrote in his findings, “that more senior officers knew or should have known that better control was warranted.”
The logic seems to be that KPD officers and sergeants couldn’t possibly have been expected to know that stripping, fondling and photographing a woman they had just arrested was wrong unless a senior department official was standing right there to tell them so.
Rapozo turned down reinstatement, which would have required him to accept a demotion to patrolman, and instead became a private investigator. He later was elected to the Kauai County Council where he has become the KPD’s loudest and most passionate critic.
Despite Judge Masuoka’s feigned outrage, he sentenced Machado to only 30 days in jail for destroying evidence. Machado could have received a two-year term.
Shortly after he returned to duty, Machado was named “Officer of the Month” by the Kauai Police Commission. In 1999 he was awarded the “Top Cop Award” by the Hawaii Joint Police Association.
Clearly, there was no shame in the police community about the Alves incident.
Machado later died in a freak skate-boarding accident in front of his home. He received a full-blown police funeral and was accorded a hero’s obituary in the local newspaper. There was no mention of the lap dancer.
The news media in Hawaii develops a highly selective sense of recall when a controversial public figure dies. The evil they have done conveniently disappears when the obituaries are written.
Even though the trial of Randy Machado was recorded on video tape that is public record, it never has been presented to the people of Kauai before this book was printed.
There would be a striking similarity to the reportage of Macahdo’s death when Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste died in office a decade later.
Baptiste’s many controversial and ethically questionable deeds and decisions (he was re-elected to a second term by only two votes) vanished as far as the reporters writing his obituaries were concerned. In death, he was universally hailed as “The Aloha Mayor.”
Proper observance of local custom, perhaps, but astonishingly poor journalism, which is supposed to be about presenting the facts to the public.
Gone from public view but certainly not forgotten, The “Lap Dancing Incident” carried a curse, tainting everyone involved in it. Its evil spell continues today.
Alves sued the KPD and the county for sexual harassment and received a $250,000 settlement, a measure of how desperately Kauai County wanted (and still always wants) to avoid a potentially humiliating public civil trial.
Most of the money Alves was paid by Kauai County went up her nose and into her arms in the form of drug purchases.
The settlement contained a confidentiality agreement that was insisted on by Kauai County and that was totally illegal. Settlements paid by tax dollars are supposed to be public record.
But, there is much in Kauai County that is supposed to be public that Kauai County government keeps secret. And no one, certainly not the Hawaii news media, challenges Kauai County in court.
Shortly afterward, Alves and her husband Mitch Peralto were convicted of the brutal torture and murder of Alves’ niece, a KPD drug informant.
Four adults at the house where the victim was being held witnessed the couple beat, bind and gag Kimberly Washington Cohen, 23, and drive off with her in their car on July 11, 1997. The witnesses did nothing.
It was only later, when the owner returned home, that the police were called.
Apparently, Alves knew Washington Cohen was a confidential informant (although KPD records showed she never provided them any useful information) and believed she had tipped off the police. KPD vice officers had stopped Alves and searched her for drugs.
While beating Washington Cohen, Alves tried to seal her lips shut with fingernail glue, telling her, according to a witness, “You’re never going to be able to talk again.”
The four witnesses watched Alves and Peralto bind Washington Cohen’s arms, ankles and beasts, gag her mouth so tightly “her face was deformed,” duct-tape a blanket over her head and torso and drag her struggling into the back seat of their car and drive away.
The next day, police found the woman’s body in a shallow grave less than a mile from the house where she had been beaten. The cause of death was suffocation.
Alves, sobbing when she heard the guilty verdict, and Peralto were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
If Monica Alves, from her prison cell, is aware of all the twisted turns KPD has taken ever since her arrest for lap dancing, she must be laughing at all of them.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
‘TIL THE LAST DOG DIES
Coming tomorrow- Chapter 3 of KPD Blue
‘TIL THE LAST DOG DIES: We awoke today to a e-mailbox full of stories about the Gestapo-like raids of more than a dozen locations in St. Paul, MN, rousting and arresting protesters gathered in local people’s homes the day before the Republican convention greeted us.
After seeing some excellent video reports from The Uptake we turned to Disappeared News where Larry Geller provided more video links confirming the reports that these yahoos in the Ramsey County sheriff’s department even beat up and arrested Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! while she and her staff were covering the raids and police violence.
So we figured that it would be all over the papers and certainly on CNN.
Turn on the tube and not a word- not even a mention- of these atrocities all day until just before 7 p.m. eastern time when a 30 second piece showed the footage of Goodman being arrested, preceded of course by a top city cop stating with a straight face they “broke up a ring... intent in rioting”.
And also barely an MSM peep about the real specifics of this piece of work from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s three-so-far scandals- except for of course pregnancy-gate because it is tangentially related to sex.
We still haven’t heard a mainstream report of the fact that she kept the money from the infamous “bridge-to-nowhere” and barely a peep about how her much ballyhooed statement that she “told congress ‘no’ to the bridge-to-nowhere” was a bunch of BS and that she actually supported it during her campaign for governor.
But the unreported story is that the only reason she refused the bridge was that she was able to take advantage of indicted Senator Ted Steven’s congressional earmark by keeping the money and using it for something else.
And the trooper-gate story remains only a mere mention with the line that it’s “being investigated by the Alaska legislature”. Anyone wanting the eye-opening real story on that can search out the Mudflats blogger who calls himself AKMuckraker (thanks to Ian Lind for the link).
Today he reports this recent quote from Palin:
“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.”
So for the whole tale we have to turn off Blitzer and turn to an Alaskan blogger who has gone from a tiny-little site to getting thousands of hits in the last few days because Wolf’s wusses can’t or won’t do the job
What the heck is going on these days with the press? It’s more non-existent than ever. Even the usual sycophantic gruel is thinner than usual.
It’s easy to blame the corporate mainstream media itself. In the past 30 years the road from watchdog to lapdog is well trodden ground. Noam Chomsky does some excellent analysis of how the corporately-trained journalists know their marching orders and don’t even have to be shown the drumbeat to dance to if they hope to move up to become the editor and gatekeeper.
But now we are beginning to hear from journalists- even alternative types – who seem to forget all that in favor of faulting the de-staffing of newsrooms that has spread the coverage so thin that there’s no time to report the stories that matter much less give them perspective and depth..
But the fact that reporters now spend more than 10 minutes at google and call it investigative reporting notwithstanding, it’s days like this that make you wonder whether this “no-time” excuse from our friends working in the MSM is really valid.
Because it certainly wouldn’t have taken any extra time to cover this outrage in St. Paul or find news about Palin other than the pregnant-teenage-daughter drivel.
Commenting on our labor day piece yesterday a former long-time MSM reporter emailed to say:
When I started working as a union member, the unions were strong and their value wasn't that clear to folks without a grasp of labor history. In these difficult times, particularly in the news industry, the values of solidarity are much easier to see.
And yet those swept away in the bloodletting at places like the Honolulu Advertiser seem to still follow the self-interested all-for-one-and-all-for-one” credo we detailed yesterday until it’s too late.
Maybe it’s reporters’ inability to self-criticize the corporate newsroom as it developed over the years that’s led them to find the end of the primrose path after all.
When people have to go to the alternative press for the mainstream news it doesn’t bode well for the so called news industry.
Perhaps we should all just wish them well and warn them not to let the door hit them in the ass on their way out.
‘TIL THE LAST DOG DIES: We awoke today to a e-mailbox full of stories about the Gestapo-like raids of more than a dozen locations in St. Paul, MN, rousting and arresting protesters gathered in local people’s homes the day before the Republican convention greeted us.
After seeing some excellent video reports from The Uptake we turned to Disappeared News where Larry Geller provided more video links confirming the reports that these yahoos in the Ramsey County sheriff’s department even beat up and arrested Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! while she and her staff were covering the raids and police violence.
So we figured that it would be all over the papers and certainly on CNN.
Turn on the tube and not a word- not even a mention- of these atrocities all day until just before 7 p.m. eastern time when a 30 second piece showed the footage of Goodman being arrested, preceded of course by a top city cop stating with a straight face they “broke up a ring... intent in rioting”.
And also barely an MSM peep about the real specifics of this piece of work from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s three-so-far scandals- except for of course pregnancy-gate because it is tangentially related to sex.
We still haven’t heard a mainstream report of the fact that she kept the money from the infamous “bridge-to-nowhere” and barely a peep about how her much ballyhooed statement that she “told congress ‘no’ to the bridge-to-nowhere” was a bunch of BS and that she actually supported it during her campaign for governor.
But the unreported story is that the only reason she refused the bridge was that she was able to take advantage of indicted Senator Ted Steven’s congressional earmark by keeping the money and using it for something else.
And the trooper-gate story remains only a mere mention with the line that it’s “being investigated by the Alaska legislature”. Anyone wanting the eye-opening real story on that can search out the Mudflats blogger who calls himself AKMuckraker (thanks to Ian Lind for the link).
Today he reports this recent quote from Palin:
“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.”
So for the whole tale we have to turn off Blitzer and turn to an Alaskan blogger who has gone from a tiny-little site to getting thousands of hits in the last few days because Wolf’s wusses can’t or won’t do the job
What the heck is going on these days with the press? It’s more non-existent than ever. Even the usual sycophantic gruel is thinner than usual.
It’s easy to blame the corporate mainstream media itself. In the past 30 years the road from watchdog to lapdog is well trodden ground. Noam Chomsky does some excellent analysis of how the corporately-trained journalists know their marching orders and don’t even have to be shown the drumbeat to dance to if they hope to move up to become the editor and gatekeeper.
But now we are beginning to hear from journalists- even alternative types – who seem to forget all that in favor of faulting the de-staffing of newsrooms that has spread the coverage so thin that there’s no time to report the stories that matter much less give them perspective and depth..
But the fact that reporters now spend more than 10 minutes at google and call it investigative reporting notwithstanding, it’s days like this that make you wonder whether this “no-time” excuse from our friends working in the MSM is really valid.
Because it certainly wouldn’t have taken any extra time to cover this outrage in St. Paul or find news about Palin other than the pregnant-teenage-daughter drivel.
Commenting on our labor day piece yesterday a former long-time MSM reporter emailed to say:
When I started working as a union member, the unions were strong and their value wasn't that clear to folks without a grasp of labor history. In these difficult times, particularly in the news industry, the values of solidarity are much easier to see.
And yet those swept away in the bloodletting at places like the Honolulu Advertiser seem to still follow the self-interested all-for-one-and-all-for-one” credo we detailed yesterday until it’s too late.
Maybe it’s reporters’ inability to self-criticize the corporate newsroom as it developed over the years that’s led them to find the end of the primrose path after all.
When people have to go to the alternative press for the mainstream news it doesn’t bode well for the so called news industry.
Perhaps we should all just wish them well and warn them not to let the door hit them in the ass on their way out.
Monday, September 1, 2008
A HARD LABOR DAY’S NIGHT
A HARD LABOR DAY’S NIGHT: The old saying goes that a recession is when your neighbor loses her job. A depression is when you lose your job.
But you have to wonder who these workers are who don’t get the meaning behind the bit of obvious absurdity this description of the blind, self-defeating, union-bashing employee depicts
It’s bewildering that there are working people who aren’t smart enough to support- or perhaps even understand- the concept of labor unions.
How dumb can you be to think that you as an individual don’t need the support of your fellow workers to battle the black-hearted, anything-for-a-buck business owners who will take the first opportunity to cut you wages, benefits and your job itself if they think they can squeeze another few bucks in profit from the sweat of your brow.
You hear people complain about union management’s penchant for ripping off their members and point to it as a reason to abandon unions entirely. But that isn’t unique to unions and doesn’t justify throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The real problem lately is that union leadership has been unable or unwilling to treat management as what they are- the enemy.
Because you can bet your non-living-wage that most owners see their employees as enemies.
If we have any criticism of union leadership it’s not that a handful are corrupt. Corruption exists in every hierarchy- power creates it and union are no different than any organization.
The problem is that they see the slimeball owners as some kind of “partner” to be placated with “givebacks” rather than seeing them as the ones who are causing the misery of the underpaid and overworked.
Those that steal from their members are perhaps less troubling then the leaders who think they have a stake in increasing the profits of the individual businesses for which their members work every time book-juggling owners sneeze.
Rather than support only businesses whose business plans provide for living wages and make the continued employment of their workers their first priority, they continue to sell their members down the river in the warped notion that no one would fill the niche of services or products if the boss who is ripping off their workers goes out of business.
But if every single business that doesn’t take care of their workers went out of business and unions worked like they are supposed to- and how they actually worked before anti-union legislation like Taft Hartley was passed- the new businesses with better, employee-centric business plans would take their place and the power of the workers would far outstrip any of the intimidation and union busting activities prevalent in almost every business these days.
Then all businesses would have to be run putting the employees first if they hope to have employees... run even perhaps as– gasp- profit sharing cooperatives
But that would take universal solidarity of workers, a concept that for some self-defeating reason many American workers have abandoned.
The problem is that some people can’t see an inch beyond their immediate self-interest. They’d rather take half of what they merit every day. Though they complain their wages are far lower than what they deserve they continue to be the type of leaches that work non-union jobs while still benefiting from whatever gains unions have bought them.
That insures that they and everyone else will lose the bargaining handle that comes from the unity of every worker.
It’s beyond us what interest workers have in making the profits of business owners higher. The mumbo jumbo of trickle down economics is demonstrably ridiculous.
But that for some reason that doesn’t stop some from working for a income way below what they deserve and need, against their own self interest. They don’t just ignore the benefits of supporting the person working next to them but actively work against their co-worker and in fact themselves.
50-75 years ago when unions were stronger workers at least understood the concept. These days it’s apparent many have become as brain dead as the mule chasing carrots at the end of the stick.
Class war? You bet. Why shy away from it? There’s been a class war against working people ever since workers moved out of the actual slavery of serfdom and indentured servitude into today’s corporate-government coalition’s pseudo-slavery.
No one but the truly deluded or dishonest can deny that the fascist-by-definition coalition of business owners and their lackeys in government keeps getting richer while real earnings continue to drop an average of up to 100% a decade in a display of class war seldom seen in history.
It’s time to fight back because, the lack of vision and shortsightedness of union bashing workers who go it alone notwithstanding, we’re all in this together.
But you have to wonder who these workers are who don’t get the meaning behind the bit of obvious absurdity this description of the blind, self-defeating, union-bashing employee depicts
It’s bewildering that there are working people who aren’t smart enough to support- or perhaps even understand- the concept of labor unions.
How dumb can you be to think that you as an individual don’t need the support of your fellow workers to battle the black-hearted, anything-for-a-buck business owners who will take the first opportunity to cut you wages, benefits and your job itself if they think they can squeeze another few bucks in profit from the sweat of your brow.
You hear people complain about union management’s penchant for ripping off their members and point to it as a reason to abandon unions entirely. But that isn’t unique to unions and doesn’t justify throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The real problem lately is that union leadership has been unable or unwilling to treat management as what they are- the enemy.
Because you can bet your non-living-wage that most owners see their employees as enemies.
If we have any criticism of union leadership it’s not that a handful are corrupt. Corruption exists in every hierarchy- power creates it and union are no different than any organization.
The problem is that they see the slimeball owners as some kind of “partner” to be placated with “givebacks” rather than seeing them as the ones who are causing the misery of the underpaid and overworked.
Those that steal from their members are perhaps less troubling then the leaders who think they have a stake in increasing the profits of the individual businesses for which their members work every time book-juggling owners sneeze.
Rather than support only businesses whose business plans provide for living wages and make the continued employment of their workers their first priority, they continue to sell their members down the river in the warped notion that no one would fill the niche of services or products if the boss who is ripping off their workers goes out of business.
But if every single business that doesn’t take care of their workers went out of business and unions worked like they are supposed to- and how they actually worked before anti-union legislation like Taft Hartley was passed- the new businesses with better, employee-centric business plans would take their place and the power of the workers would far outstrip any of the intimidation and union busting activities prevalent in almost every business these days.
Then all businesses would have to be run putting the employees first if they hope to have employees... run even perhaps as– gasp- profit sharing cooperatives
But that would take universal solidarity of workers, a concept that for some self-defeating reason many American workers have abandoned.
The problem is that some people can’t see an inch beyond their immediate self-interest. They’d rather take half of what they merit every day. Though they complain their wages are far lower than what they deserve they continue to be the type of leaches that work non-union jobs while still benefiting from whatever gains unions have bought them.
That insures that they and everyone else will lose the bargaining handle that comes from the unity of every worker.
It’s beyond us what interest workers have in making the profits of business owners higher. The mumbo jumbo of trickle down economics is demonstrably ridiculous.
But that for some reason that doesn’t stop some from working for a income way below what they deserve and need, against their own self interest. They don’t just ignore the benefits of supporting the person working next to them but actively work against their co-worker and in fact themselves.
50-75 years ago when unions were stronger workers at least understood the concept. These days it’s apparent many have become as brain dead as the mule chasing carrots at the end of the stick.
Class war? You bet. Why shy away from it? There’s been a class war against working people ever since workers moved out of the actual slavery of serfdom and indentured servitude into today’s corporate-government coalition’s pseudo-slavery.
No one but the truly deluded or dishonest can deny that the fascist-by-definition coalition of business owners and their lackeys in government keeps getting richer while real earnings continue to drop an average of up to 100% a decade in a display of class war seldom seen in history.
It’s time to fight back because, the lack of vision and shortsightedness of union bashing workers who go it alone notwithstanding, we’re all in this together.
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