Happy New Year? Our year started out well with an invite to brunch with friends just around the corner. And what a spread it was, complete with champagne and a table full of goodies.
After that, it was time to get ready to watch the game with a couple of other friends. Oh, my.
Here’s the lead from a New York Times story today:
On Georgia’s first possession of the Sugar Bowl, Bulldogs tailback Knowshon Moreno danced 17 yards, untouched, into the end zone. He celebrated by blowing a kiss to Georgia fans.
He might as well have kissed Hawaii and its undefeated season good night.
And a reader who commented on another NY Times item wrote:
As a UGA fan, if not for the National Championship, then I would have loved to see UGA v USC game. It was have been a great game!!! No hard feelings to the UH Warriors they never gave up, despite being overmatched.
So there we were, along with much of Hawaii, still trying to celebrate the new year as the Cinderella team saw midnight come and go.
Let’s see. Other bits of news.
Several people sensitized to the “B Word” sent me links to a story in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald about a Big Island brawl involving a crowd of 100 to 150 people, including some that may have been watching rather than fighting.
“I wouldn’t say this was a frequent occurrence,” (Police Captain) Apele said. “There are regularly a large amount of people out there on weekends.”
The State Capitol will be busy today as people hired to staff legislative offices during the session report to work.
If you missed it, Steve Laudig posted an interesting comment regarding the governor’s authority to restrict spending approved by the Legislature.
thanks for the info on spending. so as I read it the power to “not release” funds is statutory not constitution. this being so the legislature could, in particular funding bills establish dates for release. for example, and this is rough draft thinking, should the legislature want a particular recipient [say a charitable organization providing housing for those without] to receive funds it could, as part of the text of the legislation itself, instruct the release by a date certain. that would over-ride the 37-31 general authority since specific overrides general.
I’ll be interested to see if others have thoughts on this approach.
I was also interested to see a copy of Paumalu Press, a thin but glossy little magazine self-described as “an alternative news source from the North Shore of Oahu.” There’s also a web site with copies of past issues.
A lead editorial observes:
“We have managed to preserve much of the natural beauty of our ‘aina, but there are more and more signs of tackiness washing up on our shorelines every day. The scary thing is if there is ever a point where the plastic lei replaces the flower lei, forever.”
Articles in this issue describe the Cooperative of Organic Farmers, urge opposition to the Turtle Bay expansion, report on North Shore surfing issues, and so on.
An Associated Press story at the end of the year describes Missouri’s approach to juvenile crime, based on “group therapy and personal development over isolation and punishment.” The terrible thing is that not too many years ago, Missouri and Hawaii were both on the leading edge of the same movement away from the costly and ineffective traditional approach that puts imprisonment and punishment first, but Hawaii’s progressive policy was sidetracked by politics and personalities. We could and should have been leaders in this area. Instead, Hawaii’s juvenile facilities have been hit with federal investigations and suits on behalf of children damaged by their experiences.
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My understanding is that by statute the governor may withhold funds for two reasons: (1) lack of money, or (2) for policy reasons. For example, she withheld $3 million for pedestrian safety for policy reasons, since the legislature, through other bills, put more money into the highway fund than they took back.
There has been some talk about passing a law to take away #2, but I don’t know if it will succeed, since the next governor, of course, could be a democrat, in other words, someone not to be punished.
Strange to see “progressive” used for any Hawaii policy relating to children.
We provide them with an education that is widely criticized for its poor quality. Before the Felix lawsuit, if memory serves, Gov. Waihee boasted that Hawaii had the smallest number of special ed students in the country (I think it was all of 273 students receiving services). Thousands of students were cheated of an education and a livelihood each year. Homeless children not receiving education is not anything new, nor is the treatment of juveniles in prison.
Hawaii still has perhaps the highest per capita rate of due process hearings in the country because the attitude of educators has not been reformed. The prison situation goes on.
We say we love our keiki, but the evidence makes me wonder.
Firstly, I apologize for the ungrammatical “constitution” versus “constitutional”. Secondly, I persist in being troubled by the notion that the Executive gets to do whatever it feels like. That sounds like an absolute monarchy [something the Hawaiian Islands haven’t had since before 1893]
Instead the Legislature [yes, well, I did capitalize the “Legislature” like one capitalizes “God” even though [setting aside individual exceptions] the Legislature as a whole barely approaches the level of despicable [from the underside] and exists at the same level as an amoeba as in living cells collected looking for direction. Sorry I think I’ve gone on a bit longer here.
s
written but not proofed.
an additional correction. the monarchy was not absolute. It was reined in by a constitution which it observed. now as far as the legislature is concerned. it’s institutional reaction to the ferry situation was persuasive evidence of an essential unprincipledness. Indeed it showed a fundamental disrespect for [or perhaps incomprehension of] the rule of law. this linked with its lack of transparency in how it operates combined with its refusal, yes refusal, to address the critical issues [collapsing physical infrastructure, failing public institutions] [yet finding time to honor scofflaws such as a convicted racist bounty hunter] makes having any respect [let alone admiration] very very difficult.
but i’m mindful that over the long run [perhaps the very long run] in a representative democracy voters get what they want and the legislature is more evidence than crime. but my comment was a little ranty, for which I apologize.