BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE: Well the scumbags on the fifth floor of the Capitol are at it again, this time with the inexplicable almost unfathomable attempted evictions of the `Ohana Kahana from Kahana valley.
But the heart wrenching genocide being performed by the Lingle-Thielen team was actually initiated and compounded by the bankruptcy of legal integrity at the hands of the last member of the triumvirate- the most corrupt attorney in Hawai`i, Attorney General Mark Bennett.
The same weasel who has perpetrated fraud after fraud on the community in the form of bizarre legal maneuvers and abusive and twisted interpretations of law has outdone himself this time by essentially changing the law through a new “interpretation”- and he did it quietly at the end of the last legislature when it was to late to introduce a bill to countermand his edict.
According to an article in a Honolulu paper yesterday’s about the massive gathering of kanaka and their supporters to try to prevent the evictions:
Several of the families to be evicted were promised leases, but a new interpretation of the law in March said the state could not issue any new leases.
Bennett’s move came after all new bills for the session legally had to have been introduced and apparently no one even knew about his “ruling” in time to make sure this one-man-legislature couldn’t pervert the process.
But although Bennett is the architect of this latest chapter in the genocide of the native people and their culture he could not get away with it without the complicity of the Hawai`i legal community.
It comes on the heels of two recent statements from Hawai`i Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon, one on racism and one on the dearth of- and new requirement for- pro bono work on the part of Hawai`i attorneys.
According to journalist-blogger Dave Shapiro Moon told the Hawai`i State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division.
“The diversity of America’s people has played a major role in making this country both strong and dominant,” Moon said. “Unfortunately, this same diversity has been the source of discrimination and bigotry — an ugly part of this country’s legacy that still exists today. And, even with our demographics, Hawai`i has not been immune from racially or ethnically charged events occurring here.”
But was Moon talking about the systematic genocide of the native people, committed by state administrations during his reign?
Are you kidding? According to Shapiro:
He cited racial incidents involving athletics at Radford High and Hilo high, racial comments that have tainted local jury trials, a Caucasian couple beaten in Waikele after the assailant referred to them as “f-ing haoles,” City Councilman Rod Tam’s reference to undocumented workers as “wetbacks” and the resignation of Rex Johnson as CEO of the Hawai`i Tourism Authority over racial slurs.
Then unfathomably Moon said:
“I have mentioned these cases and incidents to emphasize the continuing existence of, and the need to eliminate, negative stereotypes of certain minorities — which, in Hawai`i, ironically includes whites,”
Ironically includes whites?
The real irony here of course is Moon’s blindness to fact that these conditions were in part established by his courts’ refusals to hear all the legally legitimate claims brought by kanaka maoli over the years- claims brought in order to get back the rights and land they are legally entitled to from the whites who stole it.
Time after time fully documented claims are rebuffed by Moon’s Court of last resort at the behest of the occupying American nation in favor of the same rich land thieves who overthrew the Hawaiian nation more than a hundred years ago.
Yet he sees the outrage on the part of people- expressed in the form of hatred of a group perceived to be the bandits- as the racism that needs to be curtailed, rather than the type his court has perpetrated.
And of course his decrying of the lack of pro bono work earlier this year was directed at the indigent who need civil representation in personal cases. He had nothing to say about lawyers working for the public interest in cases where attorneys like Bennett abuse their power to subvert public policy.
As we’ve discussed before race bias and racism are arguably separate realities. Moon’s bemoanment is of race bias, the personal irrational hatred of all people of a certain race.
But the institutional support for white privilege that Moon epitomizes in his words and deeds are the real intractable racism and the fact that Moon can’t see it would be the funniest joke in the world if it weren’t the most serious and saddest of circumstances..
Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
CAN’T YOU HEAR THAT WHISTLE
CAN’T YOU HEAR THAT WHISTLE?: Tin political ears are often the coin of the realm on Kaua`i. It’s a tradition going back at least as far as Smokey Louie Gonsalves, who in the 50’s purportedly, approximately said “people will know what they think about that when I decide and tell them what they think”.
Kauaiians rarely cared in the olden days because the paternalism was so strong that people expected the roguish behavior that recently departed Bryan Baptiste’s father Stan exhibited by running the island as Mayor from a jail cell.
No matter how many times pundits cite “changing demographics”- a code for the exponential increase in the influx of mainlanders- nothing has changed since the first time we heard this during the 1980 elections.
So when Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) Chief Darryl Perry got off on the wrong foot by playing up high-tech abusable cop equipment , jacking up a peaceful sovereignty activist , pledging to “take care of” protesters if the Superferry came back and finally writing a condescending tone-deaf commentary in response to suggestions for instituting community policing techniques, people figured that the anyone upset about the desecration of the burial site at Naue had already been stuck with the proverbial fork.
All that was left was for the cultural defenders occupying the location was to count down the hours to the day of reckoning, scheduled for yesterday at dawn.
It was assumed that this would be the final nail in the coffin, solidifying the impression in the community that this was the official end any illusory “our friends and neighbors on the force” era of policing on Kaua`i and that the interests of money and power were to be protected at the point of a taser and a riot shield.
But they didn’t count on Perry being smarter than the average bear and having a political ear that could serve him well if he ever chooses to exercise it in the electoral arena.
Nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary had he ordered his force to round um up and cart um off in the paddy wagon and give the thumbs up to the construction crew.
Although people would have shaken their heads in disgust we’re used to doing that on Kaua`i. We would have gone on with our lives and perhaps occasionally bemoaned the day that Perry brought us into the era when the department fully served the new plantation bosses as they had enforced the laws made up by lunas since the first commercial sugar cane stalk was plunged into the `aina in Koloa.
No one knows what will happen from here in the courts. Apparently the law Perry cited regarding “desecration (such).that the defendant knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the defendant's action“ has never been court tested, especially as it may conflict with the Burial Council processes.
But the fact that Perry took the chance at angering the all powerful land use lawyer Walton Hong and acknowledged that there are people who Hong and his client know full well have their “sensibilities outraged” speaks as much as the action itself.
It would have been easy for him to say, like the small but growing part of the “haole” crowd - the ones for whom we commonly use the word in conjunction with a certain copulatory adjective- that they’ve been doing this for years so why stop them now.
He could have ignored the obvious desecration of his own people’s culturally iconic bones and no one would have said anything but “well, same as it always was”
Today the progressive, culturally-sensitive haole community is singing Perry’s praises. These are the self-same people who were calling for his job if not head yesterday.
With his action Perry gained a bank-full of political capital in future endeavors. How he spends it could put those that were critical of his previous words and deeds behind the eight-ball for some time to come if he abuses it
Should he seek to spend it allowing the rogue element in KPD to abuse innocent until proven guilty suspects and non-violent activists, the funds could disappear quickly, although he has established enough credit to have a no-minimum-balance account for the time being.
People say Perry’s snatching victory from the jaws of defeat shows that he has a good heart in his chest. Maybe. But what was most useful to him yesterday at Wainiha was the uncommon-for-Kaua`i size of the brain in his head and those uncommonly astute ears.
Kauaiians rarely cared in the olden days because the paternalism was so strong that people expected the roguish behavior that recently departed Bryan Baptiste’s father Stan exhibited by running the island as Mayor from a jail cell.
No matter how many times pundits cite “changing demographics”- a code for the exponential increase in the influx of mainlanders- nothing has changed since the first time we heard this during the 1980 elections.
So when Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) Chief Darryl Perry got off on the wrong foot by playing up high-tech abusable cop equipment , jacking up a peaceful sovereignty activist , pledging to “take care of” protesters if the Superferry came back and finally writing a condescending tone-deaf commentary in response to suggestions for instituting community policing techniques, people figured that the anyone upset about the desecration of the burial site at Naue had already been stuck with the proverbial fork.
All that was left was for the cultural defenders occupying the location was to count down the hours to the day of reckoning, scheduled for yesterday at dawn.
It was assumed that this would be the final nail in the coffin, solidifying the impression in the community that this was the official end any illusory “our friends and neighbors on the force” era of policing on Kaua`i and that the interests of money and power were to be protected at the point of a taser and a riot shield.
But they didn’t count on Perry being smarter than the average bear and having a political ear that could serve him well if he ever chooses to exercise it in the electoral arena.
Nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary had he ordered his force to round um up and cart um off in the paddy wagon and give the thumbs up to the construction crew.
Although people would have shaken their heads in disgust we’re used to doing that on Kaua`i. We would have gone on with our lives and perhaps occasionally bemoaned the day that Perry brought us into the era when the department fully served the new plantation bosses as they had enforced the laws made up by lunas since the first commercial sugar cane stalk was plunged into the `aina in Koloa.
No one knows what will happen from here in the courts. Apparently the law Perry cited regarding “desecration (such).that the defendant knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the defendant's action“ has never been court tested, especially as it may conflict with the Burial Council processes.
But the fact that Perry took the chance at angering the all powerful land use lawyer Walton Hong and acknowledged that there are people who Hong and his client know full well have their “sensibilities outraged” speaks as much as the action itself.
It would have been easy for him to say, like the small but growing part of the “haole” crowd - the ones for whom we commonly use the word in conjunction with a certain copulatory adjective- that they’ve been doing this for years so why stop them now.
He could have ignored the obvious desecration of his own people’s culturally iconic bones and no one would have said anything but “well, same as it always was”
Today the progressive, culturally-sensitive haole community is singing Perry’s praises. These are the self-same people who were calling for his job if not head yesterday.
With his action Perry gained a bank-full of political capital in future endeavors. How he spends it could put those that were critical of his previous words and deeds behind the eight-ball for some time to come if he abuses it
Should he seek to spend it allowing the rogue element in KPD to abuse innocent until proven guilty suspects and non-violent activists, the funds could disappear quickly, although he has established enough credit to have a no-minimum-balance account for the time being.
People say Perry’s snatching victory from the jaws of defeat shows that he has a good heart in his chest. Maybe. But what was most useful to him yesterday at Wainiha was the uncommon-for-Kaua`i size of the brain in his head and those uncommonly astute ears.
Friday, May 2, 2008
RUNT OF THE LITTOR
RUNT OF THE LITTOR: News from Hawai`i Superferry (HSf) builder, Mobile Alabama-based Austal, filled the inbox today with various items of interest.
The most sadly comical was the news from Austal union organizer Swan Cleveland that “it has been reported to me from a reliable source that when they put the LCS in the water the bow thrusters leak so bad they had to flood the stern of the boat to get the bow out of the water so it could be fixed”.
Ah the competent craftsmanship of briefly-trained, non-union, reportedly $12/hour welders.
As we reported this week, according to a NY Times article Austal’s version of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was to be set in the water Saturday, as also detailed in one of those fluff pieces by WKRG-TV in Mobile about how great it all was with a piece called “Austal Unveils New Warship”. It contains quotes anticipating a “win” for General Dynamics and Austal to build 55 such vehicles, based, as the Times article detailed, on the design of the Superferry.
But that was minor news at Austal because on Friday it was reported on both WKRG and in the Birmingham Press Register that there was a noose hung in an Austal break room.
The article said:
Noose found in rafters at Austal Shipyard
Friday, May 02, 2008
By SUSAN DAKER
Staff Reporter
An employee found a noose hanging from the rafters of a building Thursday morning at Austal USA's shipyard downtown, police said.
Mobile police were called to the Mobile River shipyard about 9:45 a.m. and found the noose, made of nylon rope, hanging in a break room, police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant said.
"We completed a report for what we deem suspicious circumstances. Other than the item, there was no note. There were no other overt threats," Gallichant said.
Police officers did not take the noose as evidence, Gallichant said. He declined to identify the employee who made the emergency call.
Austal issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying it will not tolerate any offensive behavior among its employees.
"Our preliminary investigation has revealed the possibility of a personal agenda as the motivation behind this incident and does not reflect the culture that Austal has worked so hard to build,(emphasis added)" company spokesman Bill Pfister said in the statement.
The statement did not elaborate on the "personal agenda" that Pfister described.
Pfister said Austal notified the FBI about the incident.
FBI spokeswoman Angela Tobon said that the agency had not determined whether the matter warranted investigation.
Austal is being sued by a group of 22 current and former black employees who claim that company managers have participated in and condoned widespread racial discrimination.
One of those former employees, Jermaine Roberson, notified the Press-Register Thursday that the noose had been found at Austal that morning.
The lawsuit was filled in March in Mobile federal court. It claims racial discrimination at Austal is "standard operating procedure rather than a sporadic occurrence," and maintains that black employees aren't afforded the same salaries, promotions or training opportunities as white workers.
Bob Browning, Austal's president and chief executive, has insisted that his company does not discriminate or turn a blind eye to racist behavior by its employees.
Given the discrimination lawsuit, Austal statement is bizarre on the face, although perhaps only to anyone outside the deep south. What were they thinking about the obvious hate crime?
Take credit where credit is due Austal- it is exactly the culture you’re apparently trying to build.
An interview in the video version of the story at WKRG identifies Roberson, who quit and joined the discrimination suit in March, as saying “this is not the first time” a noose had been used as a threat to black employees.
For a thoroughly disgusting example of how racism is alive and well in Alabama in 2008 check out the comments at both the newspaper and TV web sites.
We also received the actual “you’re soooo fired” letter sent to Wayne Jenkins, the welder who first reported defective welds, quick-concrete-fixes of Superferry leaks and a general shoddiness during construction and recent dry-dock repairs of the Superferry.
It says
Mr. Jenkins,
This letter will inform you that your employment is terminated as of April 18, 2008 for disloyalty and disparagement based on your recent public comments on the Superferry in service in Hawai`i which you never worked on and about which you have no firsthand knowledge. You will receive information soon regarding your rights pursuant to COBRA to continue insurance coverage if you so choose at your own expense.
Jeff O’Dell
Human Resources Director
Note the letter doesn’t deny the allegations just the alligator. The question of “disloyalty”- as if it were in fact a military job- aside, it makes one wonder if reporting true facts- even if related by numerous knowledgeable coworkers- can be called “disparaging”... perhaps they meant “damning”.
According to Cleveland, Jenkins- who first told the whole story on the Katy Rose and Jimmy Trujillo radio program last month as reported here and in the Honolulu Advertiser Capitol Notebook - has landed a good union job at Goram Htg + Air.
Jenkins was one of the victims of illegal anti-union actions on the part of Austal and was reinstated with back pay recently after being fired, along with other workers, after winning an almost unheard of victory in an National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling earlier this year.
It is unknown at this time whether Jenkins will file another unlawful termination suit.
In other less than widely reported Superferry news Ian Lind broke the story, picked up in Derrick DePledge's now defunct Honolulu Advertiser “blog” Capitol Notebook that HSf lied about their lobbying expenditure to the tune of more than a third of a million dollars but must rely on Dan Mollway’s wishy-washy, afraid-of-their-shadow Hawai`i Ethics Commission to hold hearings- and then access, if they want, a reported maximum $500 fine for not revealing how much they spent to buy the Special Act 2 Session of the Legislature.
And, for those who somehow can still doubt that there is a military connection with the Superferry, Lind has reported on a lawsuit filed against HSf Inc. by The Argent Group, the financial consultant who put together the money for the HSf. If you go to the documents in the case , you’ll find the agreement, which includes the responsibilities of Argent Group- including not only consultation and negotiations with the federal Marine Maritime Administration, all the investors and money people and the Superferry execs but- shockingly enough- “the military”.
The comments at both the newspaper and TV site on the noose hanging (be sure to see the TV video with a pic of the noose at WKRG) make the police’s “nothing to see here- what hate crime?” statements seem tame.
So glad things those days are gone. Have fun on the Show Boat- Ol’ man ree-bah...
The most sadly comical was the news from Austal union organizer Swan Cleveland that “it has been reported to me from a reliable source that when they put the LCS in the water the bow thrusters leak so bad they had to flood the stern of the boat to get the bow out of the water so it could be fixed”.
Ah the competent craftsmanship of briefly-trained, non-union, reportedly $12/hour welders.
As we reported this week, according to a NY Times article Austal’s version of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was to be set in the water Saturday, as also detailed in one of those fluff pieces by WKRG-TV in Mobile about how great it all was with a piece called “Austal Unveils New Warship”. It contains quotes anticipating a “win” for General Dynamics and Austal to build 55 such vehicles, based, as the Times article detailed, on the design of the Superferry.
But that was minor news at Austal because on Friday it was reported on both WKRG and in the Birmingham Press Register that there was a noose hung in an Austal break room.
The article said:
Noose found in rafters at Austal Shipyard
Friday, May 02, 2008
By SUSAN DAKER
Staff Reporter
An employee found a noose hanging from the rafters of a building Thursday morning at Austal USA's shipyard downtown, police said.
Mobile police were called to the Mobile River shipyard about 9:45 a.m. and found the noose, made of nylon rope, hanging in a break room, police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant said.
"We completed a report for what we deem suspicious circumstances. Other than the item, there was no note. There were no other overt threats," Gallichant said.
Police officers did not take the noose as evidence, Gallichant said. He declined to identify the employee who made the emergency call.
Austal issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying it will not tolerate any offensive behavior among its employees.
"Our preliminary investigation has revealed the possibility of a personal agenda as the motivation behind this incident and does not reflect the culture that Austal has worked so hard to build,(emphasis added)" company spokesman Bill Pfister said in the statement.
The statement did not elaborate on the "personal agenda" that Pfister described.
Pfister said Austal notified the FBI about the incident.
FBI spokeswoman Angela Tobon said that the agency had not determined whether the matter warranted investigation.
Austal is being sued by a group of 22 current and former black employees who claim that company managers have participated in and condoned widespread racial discrimination.
One of those former employees, Jermaine Roberson, notified the Press-Register Thursday that the noose had been found at Austal that morning.
The lawsuit was filled in March in Mobile federal court. It claims racial discrimination at Austal is "standard operating procedure rather than a sporadic occurrence," and maintains that black employees aren't afforded the same salaries, promotions or training opportunities as white workers.
Bob Browning, Austal's president and chief executive, has insisted that his company does not discriminate or turn a blind eye to racist behavior by its employees.
Given the discrimination lawsuit, Austal statement is bizarre on the face, although perhaps only to anyone outside the deep south. What were they thinking about the obvious hate crime?
Take credit where credit is due Austal- it is exactly the culture you’re apparently trying to build.
An interview in the video version of the story at WKRG identifies Roberson, who quit and joined the discrimination suit in March, as saying “this is not the first time” a noose had been used as a threat to black employees.
For a thoroughly disgusting example of how racism is alive and well in Alabama in 2008 check out the comments at both the newspaper and TV web sites.
We also received the actual “you’re soooo fired” letter sent to Wayne Jenkins, the welder who first reported defective welds, quick-concrete-fixes of Superferry leaks and a general shoddiness during construction and recent dry-dock repairs of the Superferry.
It says
Mr. Jenkins,
This letter will inform you that your employment is terminated as of April 18, 2008 for disloyalty and disparagement based on your recent public comments on the Superferry in service in Hawai`i which you never worked on and about which you have no firsthand knowledge. You will receive information soon regarding your rights pursuant to COBRA to continue insurance coverage if you so choose at your own expense.
Jeff O’Dell
Human Resources Director
Note the letter doesn’t deny the allegations just the alligator. The question of “disloyalty”- as if it were in fact a military job- aside, it makes one wonder if reporting true facts- even if related by numerous knowledgeable coworkers- can be called “disparaging”... perhaps they meant “damning”.
According to Cleveland, Jenkins- who first told the whole story on the Katy Rose and Jimmy Trujillo radio program last month as reported here and in the Honolulu Advertiser Capitol Notebook - has landed a good union job at Goram Htg + Air.
Jenkins was one of the victims of illegal anti-union actions on the part of Austal and was reinstated with back pay recently after being fired, along with other workers, after winning an almost unheard of victory in an National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling earlier this year.
It is unknown at this time whether Jenkins will file another unlawful termination suit.
In other less than widely reported Superferry news Ian Lind broke the story, picked up in Derrick DePledge's now defunct Honolulu Advertiser “blog” Capitol Notebook that HSf lied about their lobbying expenditure to the tune of more than a third of a million dollars but must rely on Dan Mollway’s wishy-washy, afraid-of-their-shadow Hawai`i Ethics Commission to hold hearings- and then access, if they want, a reported maximum $500 fine for not revealing how much they spent to buy the Special Act 2 Session of the Legislature.
And, for those who somehow can still doubt that there is a military connection with the Superferry, Lind has reported on a lawsuit filed against HSf Inc. by The Argent Group, the financial consultant who put together the money for the HSf. If you go to the documents in the case , you’ll find the agreement, which includes the responsibilities of Argent Group- including not only consultation and negotiations with the federal Marine Maritime Administration, all the investors and money people and the Superferry execs but- shockingly enough- “the military”.
The comments at both the newspaper and TV site on the noose hanging (be sure to see the TV video with a pic of the noose at WKRG) make the police’s “nothing to see here- what hate crime?” statements seem tame.
So glad things those days are gone. Have fun on the Show Boat- Ol’ man ree-bah...
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