Sixteen months separate us from general election day 2012, but political storm clouds stretch from Hawaii to upstate New York. Many of them take the configuration of angry old geezers staring down on politicians gone mad. Consider the case of Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a certified old geezer himself. The newly elected, 72-year-old chief executive, faced [...]
The elections of November 1868 were run under a congressional Civil War reconstruction plan that enabled newly freed former slaves to vote and hold office. Allied with a minority of Southern whites, blacks joined the party of the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican Party took control of legislatures throughout the defeated Confederacy. In [...]
Don’t look now, but Hawaii’s election year 2012 has begun, a full year and half before general election day. Oh, I know, I know. If you’re like me, you are still shaking from election year 2010: The special 1st District congressional election; the Democrats’ hotly contested gubernatorial primary; the multi-candidate races for the remaining two [...]
As a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, more than 11,000 bodies have been recovered and the final death toll could exceed 18,000. The physical damage has been so great that I’ve yet to hear anyone venture an estimate of the cost of rebuilding, or a timeline. Fortunately, Hawaii’s losses to the tsunami [...]
When I last talked to House Finance chairman Marcus Oshiro about a biennium budget it was 2008. Republican Linda Lingle was governor and Oshiro was in a very bad mood. “I admit it,” he says, “I was mean, nasty and short – all doom and gloom.” He had reason to be disagreeable. The nation’s Great [...]
On the Feb. 24 Insights on PBS Hawaii, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said that “If he (Daniel Akaka) should decide to run (for reelection to the United States Senate), I would support him.” But he also cautioned that his support would be minimal. “In the last election, 2006, when Danny ran, I was able [...]
A tune from my long-ago youth has been running through my head lately. I suppose it’s from watching unionized state workers storming the Wisconsin capitol last week and Tunisians, Egyptians, Bahranians, Libyans and others in assorted Middle Eastern capitals taking to the streets. I know my 11 aging, regular readers know the song. It came [...]
By the time you read this, Gov. Neil Abercrombie may well have signed the civil unions bill, making Hawaii the seventh state to extend to gay and lesbian couples the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by married heterosexual couples. There will be some gnashing of teeth at the bill’s signing, some doomsday talk of God’s vengeance [...]
Hawaii’s voters honor their kupuna. Come September, our two United States senators will celebrate their 87th birthdays. At 86, the two Dans,Akaka and Inouye, are a full quarter-century older than the median age of the Senate’s membership. Then there’s Gov. Neil Abercrombie. In June, he will blow out 73 candles on his birthday cake. Yet [...]
No one could accuse Gov. Neil Abercrombie of sugar-coating the situation. In his first “State of the State” address, he told us that we’re not only talking about an $844 million deficit over the next two years, but that we face “a severe operational deficit in government. In other words, as difficult as it will [...]
