Monday, November 2, 2009

PUPPY LOVE

PUPPY LOVE: You can’t pick up a newspaper, watch the local TV news- or what passes for “Hawai`i News, Now”- or for that matter hold a conversation these days without someone bemoaning how our keiki are suffering by “missing out” on 17 instructional school days.

Everyone that is but the kids themselves. Oh sure the media has managed to scrounge-up a handful of Goody-Two-Shoes, “I’m gonna teeeeeell” types and stick cameras in their faces so they can parrot what their parents told them to say about “sacrificing our future” because a petty vindictive governor and a pompous and lazy legislature fiddle while education burns.

But move outside the ear-shot of the grown-up and ask any red-blooded kid- especially those who are bored to tears at this year’s “long division again” curriculum- and you’ll hear nothing but “Hip Hip Hooray for “Furlough Fridays

They’re ecstatic about the fact that the so-called adults are so busy fighting over political considerations that they can’t come up with a lousy $60-85 million to keep the schools open despite the half-a-billion federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be spent specially for education but instead went for everything but.

$60-85 million?... hmmmm- why does that number sound familiar?

Oh yeah- that’s the same range of the estimate of how much the self-same governor and legislature blew trying to pull a super-fast-one and ram the super-fast-tracked super-fast-Superferry down our gagging throats.

When you include not just the base $40 million bucks for the unneeded, now-useless harbor improvements but stuff like keeping the half-assed barge loading system running, the millions in legal fees and state-worker time and expenses as well as dozens of other costly incidentals, it comes out to... let’s see, divide by the arrogance, carry the corruption, multiply by the “legal bribe” corporate campaign contributions.... oh, around $60-85m.

So kiddies, the least you could do with all your free time is get busy writing to your military-madness-mindset-muddled senator, your Stepford Wife governor and your bought and paid for state legislative leadership and thank them for the gift of “Superferry Fridays”.

With any luck these dolts will figure out a way to fritter away another $60-85 million and make all weekends the three-day variety.

2 comments:

Mauibrad said...

Ha ha ha ha ha...omg...that's funny Andy!

I'm gonna dig up the link to the spreadsheet that DOT put out on this. Will post that next.

Mauibrad said...

Here it is on page 23 of the Final Report of the Oversight Taskforce Committee:

http://hawaii.gov/dot/harbors/file-links/hiilfvotf/reports-to-the-legislature/OTF%20FINAL%20REPORT%20-%20DEC%202008.pdf/view

They come up with about $45 million but that does not include all of the AG's and legal expenses. It also does not include the cost of the Act 2 Special Session. It also does not include all of the extra money spent fixing the Kahului barge. It does not include the State's additional expenses presently in Bankruptcy Court on a lost cause trying to recover their 3rd mortgage. I forget what else, but when I added it all up a few months ago, I figured it was probably between $50 and $60 million for the State, not including the Coast Guard's extra costs.

So your comparison is well taken.

FUG dat!