PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

so i’ve become a big fan of podcasts. i know they’ve been around a while, but i’m just now getting on the bandwagon, so to speak. i listen (or try to) everyday to a handful of various news podcasts, including the bbc, democracy now, the economist, and the rachel maddow show. its this last one that has, over the last week or so, repeatedly covered or commented on the auto industry bailout… or lack thereof.

admittedly, i was against the bailout of the mortgage industry, big banks, and wall street. there is no doubt in my mind that they, with the help of lax regulation and oversight, have put us in this mess. it was their blind gluttony at the expense of everyone else that has pretty much tanked the US and world economy. (more…)

Jeffrey Mikulina, a longtime environmental activist in Hawaii, is making waves, so to speak, with the Blue Planet Foundation.

An editorial in the New York Times quotes him in the lead sentence about “a new campaign to wean Hawaii from fossil fuels in 10 years.” According to the editorial,

A green consciousness is beginning to take root in Hawaii. In January, the state approved a plan to cut its reliance on foreign oil by 70 percent by 2030. Mr. Rogers doesn’t want to wait that long, so his [Blue Planet] foundation is trying to turbocharge the effort. Mr. Mikulina, the foundation’s executive director, says this will mean more than just throwing up lots more solar panels and windmills and making lavish investments on exotic technologies.

The editorial concludes,

Hawaiians have a long tradition of self-sufficiency, community action and a deep attachment to the land that sustains them — leadership in a clean-energy movement could powerfully reaffirm those values and perhaps spread them to the rest of the nation.

You’ve probably heard about this effort before. Perhaps you read about the ambitious conference in Ko Olina last April, bringing together dozens of experts in the field to develop tangible ways to advance the goal of clean energy for Hawaii (Blue Planet Summit taps array of experts). If not, check the summit’s website.

Anyway, it is not often that Hawaii is recognized by the New York Times for its leadership. Now, how can we engage the political process to promote achieving this campaign to wean Hawaii from fossil fuels in 10 years?

Bob

The Blogger known as “EmptyWheel,” who wrote the book on Scooter Libby and live-blogged his trial more effectively than anyone else, has made an interesting proposal, now that Henry Waxman seems headed over to chair the Commerce committee in place of Dingell. That is, she is proposing Kucinich to head the U.S. House Oversight  committee.  Kucinich would certainly be interesting as chair, although, as EW writes in her blog, he’d have to learn how to manage Rep. Issa as Republican Minority leader, which can be a major challenge in itself.

As an alternative to Kucinich, she is proposing Rep. Elijah Cummings. Going by seniority alone, the senior member on Oversight, after Waxman, is Edolphous Towns.  Um, yes, I don’t know anything about him either,  and neither does EW.

Wouldn’t it be fun to see Dennis with a gavel? Kucinich has a strong following here in the Isles, so perhaps some messages to Abercrombie and/or Hirono might help.

Bob

The national blogosphere is abuzz with the news of the death of Obama’s grandmother, known as “Toot,” which apparently is how Obama shortened the Hawaiian “Tutu”. There have been leading posts on the event at DailyKos (with a number of other diaries on the subject as well), MyDD, FireDogLake, and other progressive blogs.

The Huffington Post also has a relatively long AP article,  Obama’s Grandmother Dies At Age 86, by Herbert Sample. This article includes 8 historic photos, most of which I had not seen elsewhere.

When Obama visited his Grandmother a week or so ago, the newspaper accounts only said that she was back from the hospital after breaking her hip, but the news today was that she died of cancer.  Obama’s mother died of cancer, as well.  Obama looked grim on this last trip, so I’m supposing that he knew how gravely ill his ‘Toot” was. I’m so glad that he got back in time to say thanks again, and goodbye.

We all owe Madelyn Payne Dunham a debt of gratitude for raising a President for the Twenty-First Century– assuming that he is elected. If so, ISTM he will be the first real 21st Century President that we’ve had. I don’t think George the Pretender counts. In any case, he governed (I use the word loosely) with a 20th century mindset.

Bob

“Don’t mourn! Organize!”

If they steal the election this time, we cannot become depressed, we must become resolute.

The polls are showing Obama with a good lead in both the nationwide polls and in the state-by-state analysis which focuses on electoral votes.

What is not yet known will be how successful the Republican voter suppression tactics will be this year. In its simplest terms, if Obama is ahead 5% in the polls, will the Republicans be able to suppress over 5% of the vote and steal the election (again)? (more…)

Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) has this announcement on his website:

Senator Inouye Assures Alaskans Senator Stevens Will Keep Senate Seat During Legal Process

Former AG Cole says verdict against Stevens will likely be overturned

Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), a 42-year veteran of the Senate and a revered Democrat in Congress, today told Alaskans that Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will retain his Senate seat while the legal process moves forward. Senator Inouye also echoed the sentiment of legal scholars across the United States saying that Senator Stevens will be vindicated through an appeal.

“As the Senate has done in every other instance in its long 220-year history, I am absolutely confident that Ted Stevens will be sworn into the Senate while he appeals this unjust verdict,” said Senator Inouye. “I am certain that this decision in Washington, D.C., will be overturned on appeal.”

As twolf1 points out over at FireDogLake, however, Majority Leader Harry Reid has a different view:

“While I respect the opinion of Senator Daniel Inouye, the reality is that a convicted felon is not going to be able to serve in the United States Senate. And as precedent shows us, Senator Stevens will face an Ethics Committee investigation and expulsion, regardless of his appeals process. This is not a partisan issue and it is unfortunate that Senator Stevens has used his longtime friendship with Senator Inouye for partisan political gain.”

Of course, Stevens is running for re-election, and tomorrow the voters will voice their opinion.

Bob

One of our members asked about where PDH stands on some of these questions. While the organization officially hasn’t taken a stand on most of the amendments, the membership did vote to officially oppose the Con Con. Since PDH hasn’t taken a stand on some of the other questions, I thought I’d share how I voted (I’m not one of those people who doesn’t like sharing how they voted) and some of my thoughts and reasons for goining the way I did. I can’t guarantee it will be terribly helpful.

1) “Shall the Prosecuting Attorney be allowed to initiate, develop, and perform or coordinate programs, projects and activities, as determined by the prosecuting attorney, on the subject of crime, including but not limited to crime research, prevention and education?” (more…)

(NOTE: This piece is in need of a great deal of re-writing, but time is getting short and I felt the need to post something, as I am getting lots of questions over the phone, via email and in person about the merits of holding a ConCon. Feel free to disagree and, if your ideas are any good, please post a comment in response in order to continue the dialogue.)

-Bart Dame

A few weeks ago, the membership of PDH voted overwhelmingly to recommend a “No” vote on ConCon. Despite efforts to solicit opinions from both our formal membership and our larger email list of supporters, we remained somewhat unsure that we were reading their views correctly. So we prepared to receive some angry pushback. It didn’t come. We got a very tiny number of emails disagreeing, but a whole lot more in agreement. In case there are some folks out there still undecided on the question, I’d like to explain the evolution of my personal thinking on the issue. Feel free to write back with your disagreements and continue the discussion.

I am something of a “policy wonk,” And, maybe even more so, a “process wonk.” At the time of the last ConCon in 1978, I was very active in non-electoral political activism: helping the farmers and residents of Waiahole & Waikane Valleys block the police from evicting them from their homes, landing on Kahoolawe as part of the PKO’s last “illegal” occupation of the island in a successful campaign to stop the bombing and wrest the island from the Feds, joining the retired workers of Chinatown in their (again) successful campaign to stop evictions and win affordable housing. Each of those campaigns (and many others) required a large-scale campaign to to educate the public about the issues at stake, hear their concerns, answer their questions and gain their support. Each of them also required acts of civil disobedience as a means of drawing a line on what is just and what is unjust and exposing how the law was being used unfairly against Hawaii’s people. (more…)

The Scorecard for the 110th Congress, as calculated by the League of Conservation Voters, has come out. The scores for Hawaii’s delegation are as follows:

Sen. Daniel Akaka: 100%

Rep. Mazie Hirono:   92%

Sen. Daniel Inouye:  91%

Rep. Neil Abercrombie: 77%

Unfortunately, they provide no easy way to discern the reason for the scores.

Why is Rep. Abercrombie’s score so much lower than the others? My mind goes back to the bills that Abercrombie co-sponsored with ex-Rep. Richard Pombo, one of LCV’s “Dirty Dozen” congressmen of the 109th Congress. One was their Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, which  allowed new oil drilling leases between 50 and 100 miles, unless a state specifically passed a law to forbid them. And it would allow new leases beyond 100 miles, and give sole authority over that remote region to the federal government. The House voted 232 -187, to approve this bill. But that was not their only collaboration. (more…)

As we debate the need for a Constitutional Convention (ConCon), I think it is important to know the history of previous ConCons. Two questions about previous ConCons are of particular importance:

1) Was there a compelling need for a ConCon at that time? If so, what was it?

2) What did the ConCon accomplish? How did that reflect the political & social atmosphere of the time?

I will attempt to outline these things based on the debates I have listened to and the documents I can find online. [There are several good references on the League of Women Voters site, including this summary.]

Click to next page for details… (more…)