SHHHH: There was a plethora of reported jaw dropping among Governor Linda Lingle and her cronies over the “Hawaii State Bar Association's board of directors' rating of appeals Judge Katherine Leonard as ‘unqualified’ to be Hawaii's next chief justice”.
Strangely enough the news of the rejection of Leonard by the bar wasn’t Starvetizer courts reporter Ken Kobayashi’s lede but instead he stressed the professed outrage of Lingle and her republican cronies in the legislature over the secrecy of the bar’s vote.
But we’ve got a lowered mandible ourselves over Lingle’s colossal nerve to criticize the closed vote, especially considering her own legacy of clandestine operations and the notorious way judges in Hawai`i wield their retaliatory sway over attorneys and others in the judiciary, according to many we’ve spoken to over the years.
Lingle and her administration’s abuse of Hawai`i open records laws has been notorious but for those who want to hear the ultimate story of fear and loathing they need turn no farther than legislative staffer Doug White’s recently revived Poinography blog.
Doug finally explained what he was up to in the year plus absence of his popular blog by telling one of those hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-so-serious tales of the runaround he got over a simple record request of the Lingle administration- not to mention the invoice for his temerity in requesting the records for Lingle’s requests for input on the bills she threatened to veto after the 2009 legislative session.
In My UIPA saga – a $1582.15, twelve month struggle White recounts the evasions, lies, delays and the incredible barriers he experienced at the hands of the Lingle administration making any charges of secrecy from her a joke.
We won’t even attempt to truncate the tale- you’ve got to read it for yourself as well as the indexing and posting of the results which White is busily compiling which are already painting a picture of consultation with everyone who is guaranteed to support her position and avoidance of anyone who might dissent.
Also notable is the lack of consultation with the Lt. Governor and current gubernatorial candidate Duke Aiona regarding which we’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions.
Lingle’s legacy of covert governance and feigned outrage over every perceived slight takes a backseat to no other past state administration’s- and that’s saying a lot.
Showing posts with label Lingle Administration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lingle Administration. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
PEA POD POLITICS FOR PEABRAINS
PEA POD POLITICS FOR PEABRAINS: As many read last week Goofy Mufi Hannemann had his usual blinders on in ignoring an Associated Press article the week before that confirmed what we all knew- that Hawaii Superferry (HSf) Inc.’s claim that they were victims of the courts and those crazy environmentalists was a bogus piece of PR from a company that was actually drowning in red ink created by their own lack of a realistic business plan- although the article missed a chance to dig deeper and find out the ferry was created to fail as part of a military demonstration project for the littoral design.
Mufi’s pledge to bring back the same vessels- even though their size was half the reason for the bankruptcy- demonstrates just how much more damage there is to be done if a Hannemann administration gets it’s hands on the already damaged machinery of the state under the equally mentally and morally challenged Linda Lingle.
And as if to underline some of that damage, in an article about the delays in obtaining an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a UH coral reef research project it was reported that:
Part of the delay is that the state body that could grant UH an exemption to the EIS requirement has not met since Aug. 17 of last year...
The council tried to hold a meeting in late June, but was unable to book adequate state videoconference facilities, Steiner said.
"It seemed like we were moving forward, then it just stalled," she said. "I think that it is not a priority to our state or to our administration to have an active Environmental Council."
Steiner said council members have expressed concern that the group is being penalized possibly for ruling in 2007 that the state Department of Transportation erred when it exempted Superferry harbor improvements from an environmental review. That decision was later supported by a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that eventually led to the demise of the interisland ferry.
Though the administration pooh-poohed the connection it’s just another symptom of how the state apparatus- especially for environmental protection- is still addled by Lingle’s denial of what even proponents view as the boneheaded way she handed the Superferry EIS and how it continues to hamstring the state EIS process, having created a pissed off Environmental Council and an administration bent on revenge.
Hannemann and Lingle apparently share one thing- a pig-headed battering ram style that scares the heck out of those who have been looking forward to a change of approach in November.
Mufi’s pledge to bring back the same vessels- even though their size was half the reason for the bankruptcy- demonstrates just how much more damage there is to be done if a Hannemann administration gets it’s hands on the already damaged machinery of the state under the equally mentally and morally challenged Linda Lingle.
And as if to underline some of that damage, in an article about the delays in obtaining an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a UH coral reef research project it was reported that:
Part of the delay is that the state body that could grant UH an exemption to the EIS requirement has not met since Aug. 17 of last year...
The council tried to hold a meeting in late June, but was unable to book adequate state videoconference facilities, Steiner said.
"It seemed like we were moving forward, then it just stalled," she said. "I think that it is not a priority to our state or to our administration to have an active Environmental Council."
Steiner said council members have expressed concern that the group is being penalized possibly for ruling in 2007 that the state Department of Transportation erred when it exempted Superferry harbor improvements from an environmental review. That decision was later supported by a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that eventually led to the demise of the interisland ferry.
Though the administration pooh-poohed the connection it’s just another symptom of how the state apparatus- especially for environmental protection- is still addled by Lingle’s denial of what even proponents view as the boneheaded way she handed the Superferry EIS and how it continues to hamstring the state EIS process, having created a pissed off Environmental Council and an administration bent on revenge.
Hannemann and Lingle apparently share one thing- a pig-headed battering ram style that scares the heck out of those who have been looking forward to a change of approach in November.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
RABID REPROBATE
RABID REPROBATE: As November approaches it gets harder and harder to stomach Governor Linda Lingle and her corrupt, incompetent, self serving, government-by-sound-bite administration.
It’s guaranteed that the closer the end of her slash and burn reign of terror, the more bizarre it will get.
Now she’s claiming that State Auditor supreme Marion Higa is the one who is incompetent and does "shoddy," "unprofessional" and "politically motivated." work for detailing the way the state, seemingly illegally- put taxpayer money into hair-brained investments that ended up essentially frozen when they got taken by some slick wall street firms, selling supposedly liquid investments that have suddenly become all but worthless if we need the money right now... which apparently we do.
The report is only a draft and apparently unavailable in full but media accounts show how, as usual, Lingle answers charges never made and uses personal attacks to substitute for facts, just like she did the last time Higa uncovered corruption/incompetence (take your pick) in Ted Liu’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism when Higa said Liu “should be relieved of his duties due to a ‘troubling pattern on nondisclosure’ of financial details surrounding an overseas trade mission and federal grant program” according to today’s press account.
Higa is know nationally as one of the best at what she does and Lingle’s known as one of the worst- except among the delusional Rush-Rove-Chaney crowd- so it’s pretty obvious why Lingle is left with nothing to do but to attack Higa personally when she “outs” Lingle’s Department of Budget and Finance team as the boobs they have shown themselves to be in this and most other fiscal and financial management blunders.
We’re lucky to have Higa statewide but when it comes to our own newly appointed auditor we’ve yet to see anything out of former Deputy County Clerk Ernie Pasion’s County Auditor’s office except that he’s searching for one.. an office that is.
But even once he sets up shop we don’t expect much from affable, good old boy Ernie whose former job consisted of serving the council in the role of boat-rocking attendant.
The appointment of Pasion was one of the biggest slaps-in-the-face of good governance advocates who waited years through the “hold me back boys” antics of some of the beaten down, former council reformers who, due to pubic outrage almost 10 years ago over illegal land rape by the likes of Jimmy Pflueger and Tom McCloskey, first threatened and funded an investigation under charter provision- 3.17 which allows the council to perform administration investigations.
But there was so much screwed up stuff in the Department of Public Works under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s administration that they couldn’t decide on what to investigate and then called the matter too expensive anyway.
Next they set up and funded an auditor position by ordinance and then never appointed anyone. That was followed by the last and latest stall tactic of placing a charter amendment to create the new County Auditor position before the people. which passed last fall.
While the promise was to set up a “Marion Higa-style-auditor” the search for a tough, competent, experienced and independent auditor started and ended in the council chambers with the appointment of someone who could be counted on to continue his anti-boat rocking activities when wave-making is exactly what is called for in a management auditor.
For all those who think good governance lies in passing laws and charter amendments- like the one to peg tourism development to growth figures in the general plan, which has apparently died a death by disregard- it’s time to recognize that until we say “enough” on election day we’ll never escape the management-by-incompetence and corruption typified by our current gang of self-serving incumbents whether at the county council/mayor or the state representative/senator/governor level.
---------
We’re losing our editor for the next few weeks to a mainland jaunt so our incomprehensibly long sentences will probably be even more unwieldy and the typos and spell-checker caused glitches will most likely proliferate until then. We’re also going to be a little more intermittent in posting over that period, what with so much college basketball and so little time. Go ‘Cuse.
It’s guaranteed that the closer the end of her slash and burn reign of terror, the more bizarre it will get.
Now she’s claiming that State Auditor supreme Marion Higa is the one who is incompetent and does "shoddy," "unprofessional" and "politically motivated." work for detailing the way the state, seemingly illegally- put taxpayer money into hair-brained investments that ended up essentially frozen when they got taken by some slick wall street firms, selling supposedly liquid investments that have suddenly become all but worthless if we need the money right now... which apparently we do.
The report is only a draft and apparently unavailable in full but media accounts show how, as usual, Lingle answers charges never made and uses personal attacks to substitute for facts, just like she did the last time Higa uncovered corruption/incompetence (take your pick) in Ted Liu’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism when Higa said Liu “should be relieved of his duties due to a ‘troubling pattern on nondisclosure’ of financial details surrounding an overseas trade mission and federal grant program” according to today’s press account.
Higa is know nationally as one of the best at what she does and Lingle’s known as one of the worst- except among the delusional Rush-Rove-Chaney crowd- so it’s pretty obvious why Lingle is left with nothing to do but to attack Higa personally when she “outs” Lingle’s Department of Budget and Finance team as the boobs they have shown themselves to be in this and most other fiscal and financial management blunders.
We’re lucky to have Higa statewide but when it comes to our own newly appointed auditor we’ve yet to see anything out of former Deputy County Clerk Ernie Pasion’s County Auditor’s office except that he’s searching for one.. an office that is.
But even once he sets up shop we don’t expect much from affable, good old boy Ernie whose former job consisted of serving the council in the role of boat-rocking attendant.
The appointment of Pasion was one of the biggest slaps-in-the-face of good governance advocates who waited years through the “hold me back boys” antics of some of the beaten down, former council reformers who, due to pubic outrage almost 10 years ago over illegal land rape by the likes of Jimmy Pflueger and Tom McCloskey, first threatened and funded an investigation under charter provision- 3.17 which allows the council to perform administration investigations.
But there was so much screwed up stuff in the Department of Public Works under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s administration that they couldn’t decide on what to investigate and then called the matter too expensive anyway.
Next they set up and funded an auditor position by ordinance and then never appointed anyone. That was followed by the last and latest stall tactic of placing a charter amendment to create the new County Auditor position before the people. which passed last fall.
While the promise was to set up a “Marion Higa-style-auditor” the search for a tough, competent, experienced and independent auditor started and ended in the council chambers with the appointment of someone who could be counted on to continue his anti-boat rocking activities when wave-making is exactly what is called for in a management auditor.
For all those who think good governance lies in passing laws and charter amendments- like the one to peg tourism development to growth figures in the general plan, which has apparently died a death by disregard- it’s time to recognize that until we say “enough” on election day we’ll never escape the management-by-incompetence and corruption typified by our current gang of self-serving incumbents whether at the county council/mayor or the state representative/senator/governor level.
---------
We’re losing our editor for the next few weeks to a mainland jaunt so our incomprehensibly long sentences will probably be even more unwieldy and the typos and spell-checker caused glitches will most likely proliferate until then. We’re also going to be a little more intermittent in posting over that period, what with so much college basketball and so little time. Go ‘Cuse.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
TWO BITS A YELP
TWO BITS A YELP: The Honolulu rail debate has been a circus.
And one of the pro-rail’s biggest of clowns Doug Carlson has now been exposed by Disappeared News’ Larry Geller today for putting up a blog of hypocritical drivel and getting paid for it with his supposed “full disclosure” buried and blurred. In it, though it’s an ordeal to find it, he “admits” he’s being paid to produce this pro-rail blog- although by whom isn’t quite clear- but pooh-poohing any concerns he’s unduly biased.
And in a comment on Geller’s post today Carlson refused to tell Geller who is financing him claiming it would violate his financial privacy.
But the most galling part of Carlson’s little shilling adventure is his contention that only the anti-rail people are engaged in below-the-belt distraction-from-the-real-issues discourse while his pro-rail crowd would never stoop to that, all the while maintaining that the whole purpose of his blog is to separate the “Sideshow” from the “Big Tent” .
Carlson who has held various jobs as a corporate spokesperson and worked for Hawaiian Electric Company as their mouthpiece for 10 years, tries in his blog to paint the anti-rail people as not addressing the issues while he is focused on debating as to core rail issue.
He says:
After reading hundreds of letters to the editor and comments in the newspapers about rail, it seems to me they fall into one of two groups – the Big Tent or the Sideshow.
The Big Tent’s center ring features the primary reason to build this system, which is traffic avoidance. Commuters who can’t tolerate the lost time and immense frustration caused by traffic congestion or for whom reliance on their own car is too costly are attracted by this reason to ride the train. They want back their mobility, which they’ve lost. That’s the reason to build this system.
The anti-rail crowd pretty much avoids the Big Tent altogether. For whatever reason, they can’t or won’t even look at the traffic-avoidance issue and instead hang out in the Sideshow where everything but the main issue is on stage.
The Sideshow’s leading “barkers” are well known, and some have been shouting about what’s behind their tents’ curtains since the last time this circus was in town. You’ve heard it all – how HOT Lanes will be the cheap and easy solution to traffic; why a vote on this issue would be the democratic way, etc.
Yet the only arguments Carlson raises- again and again and again- boil down to “we need rail therefore we need THIS rail system”.
His writings are filled with the wonders of rail transit in general and the benefits of getting cars off the road but not once does he relate those arguments to the specific controversial- and some say corrupt- proposal for Honolulu.
Geller on the other hand has written entries on the subject and they are perhaps the only intelligent discourse we’ve read on the subject, saying that “rail or no rail” is not the issue as much as is the absolute dearth of any community based planning on the system’s specifics like location, stops, need, type etc.... especially given that the lines seem to go places where the intent appears be to open up certain areas for development rather than serve the already populated neighborhoods..
Yet, Geller says, there was never any community based planning, which is typical of Honolulu in all development matters.
Geller says he is not against mass transit or even rail per se, he just wanted to back up a little and get a real plan going, asking rhetorically if anyone has even heard of “smart growth”.
And we’ve agreed with both statements wholeheartedly.
But more significant is the fact that the rail system has been turned into a revolving-door boondoggle for Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s administration as we also detailed.
Here’s what the Honolulu Advertiser had to say on June 29
The project's largest contractor is Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has an $86 million deal with the city. The other major contractor is InfraConsult LLC, which has an $11.5 million deal to manage the rail project for the city. InfraConsult was founded in part by former Parsons Brinckerhoff employees.
The train project is run by the city transportation department, which is led by director Wayne Yoshioka, a former Parsons Brinckerhoff engineer. Yoshioka has promised to recuse himself from key decisions regarding his former employer.
And this on May 4"
Contractors on Honolulu's $3.7 billion transit system and their employees have contributed $163,000 to Mayor Mufi Hannemann's re-election campaign.
Between November 2004, when Hannemann was elected, to December 2007, he has raised $2.26 million for his campaign, and $163,000, or 7.2 percent, has come from contractors involved in the planning of the project, their employees and families, according to an Advertiser search of Hawai`i Campaign Spending Commission records.
The $163,000 donation figure includes companies already receiving money from the city but does not include contributions from land owners and developers, labor unions, other future beneficiaries of the transit project.[Honolulu Advertiser 5/4/2008
Carlson doesn’t mention these issues at all in his blog but rather sounds like Frankenstein describing food, smoke and fire
“Mass Transit, gooooood. Rail gooooood. anti-rail – arrrgh”. No further debate needed. And if you don’t agree Doug claims you’re just a name-calling, partisan sideshow geek.
That’s rational, focused “Big Tent” discussion of the real issues? Sounds more like his little side show might just have more headless chickens than you can shake a blog at.
And now he is calling Geller’s revelation a “part of the side show” although in questioning Carlson's ’s credibility Geller does only what the rest of Carlson’s blog attempts to do.
The difference is Geller is spot-on right about Carlson while Doug apparently makes up things to attack.
The blog appears to be one of those “Wizard of Oz on steroids” sites: i.e.-. more straw men than Ray Bolger and Buddy Ebsen combined could have depicted.
His most recent entry tries to excoriate Governor Linda Lingle’s recent signing of the stop-rail petition and although she- genuinely or disingenuously- is saying she is just doing it to “let the people decide via the ballot box”, Carlson belittles any such notion by saying
Governor Linda Lingle’s signature is now on a petition whose sole purpose is to prevent the construction of Honolulu’s proposed rail transit system. Since signing a petition implicitly supports its intent, her insistence that she’s not advocating for or against rail rings hollow.
He then goes on to say what he wished she had said, misrepresenting, mocking and personally deriding her but not making any real arguments for rail, just against her and what he imagines her motives are.
That had been preceded on the blog with another personal attack that avoids any of the issues:
People sign petitions to support the intent of the petition, which in this case is an unambiguous attempt to kill Honolulu’s rail project now and forever, once and for all time. Her signature – if it’s actually been affixed – sends a clear message, no matter what his 800-word explanation says.
No, you da liar- no, you da liar- no, you da liar. Yeah- real erudite and honest argumentation Doug... during a trash talk session with 12 year olds.
One has to wonder if Mr. Carlson’s M.O. is based on the famous legal case of Rubber v Glue.
His previous posting before the one where he attacked Larry for disclosing the corporate and/or governmental funding for his blog, attacked rail opponent, Honolulu Councilperson Charles Djou personally because he used the word “propaganda” on a radio program in characterizing the city’s use of taxpayer money and Hannamann’s own campaign funds to promote the project and discourage those signing the petitions.
One of the more bizarre red herrings is this little previous ditty:.
We talked yesterday with a friend who has signed the anti-rail petition and asked what his big objection to rail is, and it came down to Honolulu’s alleged inability to maintain a rail system due to our climate, rust, etc. So I pointed out that dozens of elevators and other key equipment in town are maintained with no apparent problem and that train systems apparently are maintained well around the world in caustic conditions. He had no response, because the “maintenance issue” is another Sideshow act that attracts attention but has no substance.
Where did he dig someone up who claimed this? We’ve read almost every article in the mainstream papers and dozens of alternative news sites and blogs and no one has ever seriously said “oh it’ll rust too quick here so we shouldn’t have rail”. Gee- it couldn’t be one of those corporate spinmeister tricks of making up a bad argument, creating something to rail against (pun intended)...could it?
Boy it’s a good thing he’s concentrating on the issues and not just personally attacking those anti-rail people who he actually criticizes for not doing anything but criticizing the pro rail people... otherwise we might think that his disingenuity stems from his being a paid hack.
Preceding the circus post were various other attacks on anyone daring to question the wisdom of the project as it is currently designed and sited including an excoriation of former Governor Ben Cayetano who wrote an essay in the paper before he and his wife were character-assassinated by Carlson without discussing specific issues
Before that was a piece promoting a big pro-rail demonstration containing no discussion of the merits but plenty of attempted ridicule of the anti-rail people and another post with a bunch of attacks on the reputation and temperament of Panos D. Prevedouros, a UH Engineering professor and outspoken opponent of rail itself (he prefers to spend the transit money on high occupancy freeway lanes) who is now running for mayor against Carlson’s presumed employer, Hannemann.
As much as Larry Geller represents the best of journalism- a reasoned and well researched web site “appearing” the Disappeared News- Carlson represents the worst.
Carlson says he used to be a journalist but now, as we can see, he is an anything-for-a-buck con artist who, unlike any journalist with ethics, doesn’t feel like he needs six showers a day after running his three-card-Monte and shell-game public relations and marketing scams.
Mainstream media pundits like to deride and question the accuracy of on-line citizen-journalist postings. But few things are more reprehensible than people who trade on their good name for being honest and factual reporters to do the paid dirty work of crooks, whether they basically agree with them or not.
This kind of thing isn’t acceptable in an ethical newsroom. If the Advertiser has big banner ads for the Superferry at least it acts as disclosure. A site like Carlson’s needs a “sponsored by” box at the top of the side column at the very least.
Otherwise it’s a trick- a PR ploy to try to get your marketing campaign to look “grassroots” and “go viral”
Larry Geller says today that “I am still a great fan of Doug Carlson’s writing and his work”. That may be the only thing we’ve ever read at from Larry that really doesn’t make sense.
And one of the pro-rail’s biggest of clowns Doug Carlson has now been exposed by Disappeared News’ Larry Geller today for putting up a blog of hypocritical drivel and getting paid for it with his supposed “full disclosure” buried and blurred. In it, though it’s an ordeal to find it, he “admits” he’s being paid to produce this pro-rail blog- although by whom isn’t quite clear- but pooh-poohing any concerns he’s unduly biased.
And in a comment on Geller’s post today Carlson refused to tell Geller who is financing him claiming it would violate his financial privacy.
But the most galling part of Carlson’s little shilling adventure is his contention that only the anti-rail people are engaged in below-the-belt distraction-from-the-real-issues discourse while his pro-rail crowd would never stoop to that, all the while maintaining that the whole purpose of his blog is to separate the “Sideshow” from the “Big Tent” .
Carlson who has held various jobs as a corporate spokesperson and worked for Hawaiian Electric Company as their mouthpiece for 10 years, tries in his blog to paint the anti-rail people as not addressing the issues while he is focused on debating as to core rail issue.
He says:
After reading hundreds of letters to the editor and comments in the newspapers about rail, it seems to me they fall into one of two groups – the Big Tent or the Sideshow.
The Big Tent’s center ring features the primary reason to build this system, which is traffic avoidance. Commuters who can’t tolerate the lost time and immense frustration caused by traffic congestion or for whom reliance on their own car is too costly are attracted by this reason to ride the train. They want back their mobility, which they’ve lost. That’s the reason to build this system.
The anti-rail crowd pretty much avoids the Big Tent altogether. For whatever reason, they can’t or won’t even look at the traffic-avoidance issue and instead hang out in the Sideshow where everything but the main issue is on stage.
The Sideshow’s leading “barkers” are well known, and some have been shouting about what’s behind their tents’ curtains since the last time this circus was in town. You’ve heard it all – how HOT Lanes will be the cheap and easy solution to traffic; why a vote on this issue would be the democratic way, etc.
Yet the only arguments Carlson raises- again and again and again- boil down to “we need rail therefore we need THIS rail system”.
His writings are filled with the wonders of rail transit in general and the benefits of getting cars off the road but not once does he relate those arguments to the specific controversial- and some say corrupt- proposal for Honolulu.
Geller on the other hand has written entries on the subject and they are perhaps the only intelligent discourse we’ve read on the subject, saying that “rail or no rail” is not the issue as much as is the absolute dearth of any community based planning on the system’s specifics like location, stops, need, type etc.... especially given that the lines seem to go places where the intent appears be to open up certain areas for development rather than serve the already populated neighborhoods..
Yet, Geller says, there was never any community based planning, which is typical of Honolulu in all development matters.
Geller says he is not against mass transit or even rail per se, he just wanted to back up a little and get a real plan going, asking rhetorically if anyone has even heard of “smart growth”.
And we’ve agreed with both statements wholeheartedly.
But more significant is the fact that the rail system has been turned into a revolving-door boondoggle for Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s administration as we also detailed.
Here’s what the Honolulu Advertiser had to say on June 29
The project's largest contractor is Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has an $86 million deal with the city. The other major contractor is InfraConsult LLC, which has an $11.5 million deal to manage the rail project for the city. InfraConsult was founded in part by former Parsons Brinckerhoff employees.
The train project is run by the city transportation department, which is led by director Wayne Yoshioka, a former Parsons Brinckerhoff engineer. Yoshioka has promised to recuse himself from key decisions regarding his former employer.
And this on May 4"
Contractors on Honolulu's $3.7 billion transit system and their employees have contributed $163,000 to Mayor Mufi Hannemann's re-election campaign.
Between November 2004, when Hannemann was elected, to December 2007, he has raised $2.26 million for his campaign, and $163,000, or 7.2 percent, has come from contractors involved in the planning of the project, their employees and families, according to an Advertiser search of Hawai`i Campaign Spending Commission records.
The $163,000 donation figure includes companies already receiving money from the city but does not include contributions from land owners and developers, labor unions, other future beneficiaries of the transit project.[Honolulu Advertiser 5/4/2008
Carlson doesn’t mention these issues at all in his blog but rather sounds like Frankenstein describing food, smoke and fire
“Mass Transit, gooooood. Rail gooooood. anti-rail – arrrgh”. No further debate needed. And if you don’t agree Doug claims you’re just a name-calling, partisan sideshow geek.
That’s rational, focused “Big Tent” discussion of the real issues? Sounds more like his little side show might just have more headless chickens than you can shake a blog at.
And now he is calling Geller’s revelation a “part of the side show” although in questioning Carlson's ’s credibility Geller does only what the rest of Carlson’s blog attempts to do.
The difference is Geller is spot-on right about Carlson while Doug apparently makes up things to attack.
The blog appears to be one of those “Wizard of Oz on steroids” sites: i.e.-. more straw men than Ray Bolger and Buddy Ebsen combined could have depicted.
His most recent entry tries to excoriate Governor Linda Lingle’s recent signing of the stop-rail petition and although she- genuinely or disingenuously- is saying she is just doing it to “let the people decide via the ballot box”, Carlson belittles any such notion by saying
Governor Linda Lingle’s signature is now on a petition whose sole purpose is to prevent the construction of Honolulu’s proposed rail transit system. Since signing a petition implicitly supports its intent, her insistence that she’s not advocating for or against rail rings hollow.
He then goes on to say what he wished she had said, misrepresenting, mocking and personally deriding her but not making any real arguments for rail, just against her and what he imagines her motives are.
That had been preceded on the blog with another personal attack that avoids any of the issues:
People sign petitions to support the intent of the petition, which in this case is an unambiguous attempt to kill Honolulu’s rail project now and forever, once and for all time. Her signature – if it’s actually been affixed – sends a clear message, no matter what his 800-word explanation says.
No, you da liar- no, you da liar- no, you da liar. Yeah- real erudite and honest argumentation Doug... during a trash talk session with 12 year olds.
One has to wonder if Mr. Carlson’s M.O. is based on the famous legal case of Rubber v Glue.
His previous posting before the one where he attacked Larry for disclosing the corporate and/or governmental funding for his blog, attacked rail opponent, Honolulu Councilperson Charles Djou personally because he used the word “propaganda” on a radio program in characterizing the city’s use of taxpayer money and Hannamann’s own campaign funds to promote the project and discourage those signing the petitions.
One of the more bizarre red herrings is this little previous ditty:.
We talked yesterday with a friend who has signed the anti-rail petition and asked what his big objection to rail is, and it came down to Honolulu’s alleged inability to maintain a rail system due to our climate, rust, etc. So I pointed out that dozens of elevators and other key equipment in town are maintained with no apparent problem and that train systems apparently are maintained well around the world in caustic conditions. He had no response, because the “maintenance issue” is another Sideshow act that attracts attention but has no substance.
Where did he dig someone up who claimed this? We’ve read almost every article in the mainstream papers and dozens of alternative news sites and blogs and no one has ever seriously said “oh it’ll rust too quick here so we shouldn’t have rail”. Gee- it couldn’t be one of those corporate spinmeister tricks of making up a bad argument, creating something to rail against (pun intended)...could it?
Boy it’s a good thing he’s concentrating on the issues and not just personally attacking those anti-rail people who he actually criticizes for not doing anything but criticizing the pro rail people... otherwise we might think that his disingenuity stems from his being a paid hack.
Preceding the circus post were various other attacks on anyone daring to question the wisdom of the project as it is currently designed and sited including an excoriation of former Governor Ben Cayetano who wrote an essay in the paper before he and his wife were character-assassinated by Carlson without discussing specific issues
Before that was a piece promoting a big pro-rail demonstration containing no discussion of the merits but plenty of attempted ridicule of the anti-rail people and another post with a bunch of attacks on the reputation and temperament of Panos D. Prevedouros, a UH Engineering professor and outspoken opponent of rail itself (he prefers to spend the transit money on high occupancy freeway lanes) who is now running for mayor against Carlson’s presumed employer, Hannemann.
As much as Larry Geller represents the best of journalism- a reasoned and well researched web site “appearing” the Disappeared News- Carlson represents the worst.
Carlson says he used to be a journalist but now, as we can see, he is an anything-for-a-buck con artist who, unlike any journalist with ethics, doesn’t feel like he needs six showers a day after running his three-card-Monte and shell-game public relations and marketing scams.
Mainstream media pundits like to deride and question the accuracy of on-line citizen-journalist postings. But few things are more reprehensible than people who trade on their good name for being honest and factual reporters to do the paid dirty work of crooks, whether they basically agree with them or not.
This kind of thing isn’t acceptable in an ethical newsroom. If the Advertiser has big banner ads for the Superferry at least it acts as disclosure. A site like Carlson’s needs a “sponsored by” box at the top of the side column at the very least.
Otherwise it’s a trick- a PR ploy to try to get your marketing campaign to look “grassroots” and “go viral”
Larry Geller says today that “I am still a great fan of Doug Carlson’s writing and his work”. That may be the only thing we’ve ever read at from Larry that really doesn’t make sense.
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