The smokers’ lobby is back at work at the State Capitol with their daily deliveries of single-page pro-smoking diatribes. The problem is that they failed to learn one of the basic lessons of politics–never threaten if you don’t have the means to follow through.

Last year, after failing to roll back Hawaii’s strict anti-smoking law, pro-smoking lobbyists worked themselves into a rage and vowed to mobilize an army of smokers to defeat legislators who backed the smoking restrictions.

“Sweep them out or smoke them out,” they proclaimed. The Hawaii Smokers Alliance lists those targeted for defeat. Some of the daily flyers were much less polite.

Well, it’s a year and an election later. Every one of the legislators on the top of their hit list is back, many winning reelection in 2008, including Senators Roz Baker, Gary Hooser, David Ige, Clarence Nishihara, Kalani English, and Colleen Hanabusa.

The threatened smoker revolt apparently failed to gain much traction with the voting public. What they have succeeded in doing is demonstrate that their threats are empty.

Time to mark your calendars for Honolulu Community-Media Council’s Media Justice Conference on March 14.

The conference, which kicks off Sunshine Week in Hawaii, will feature nationally syndicated columnist Robert Scheer, as well as workshops and presentations on topics like net neutrality, community access media, freedom of information and open government.

Co-sponsors include the UH School of Communications, Society of Professional Journalists, the Hawaii Free Speech Coalition, Americans for Democratic Action, and the East-West Center.

The conference will be held at the UH Manoa Campus Center ballroom, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Click here for the flyer and registration information.

While on the subject of the Sunshine Law, you may be interested in browsing through the recent report of the Florida Commission on Open Government Reform. The commission was tasked with reviewing Florida’s open meeting and public records laws, considered some of the most stringent in the country, to identify outstanding issues and recommend changes.

Here’s a summary with comments from FloridaToday.com.

It’s quite interesting to see familiar issues popping up in their report, including disclosure of complaints against licensed professionals, data on transportation projects and development projects, costs and fees assessed by agencies for access to public records, etc.

It’s been 20 years since there was a comprehensive look at Hawaii’s open records and meeting laws. Perhaps it’s time to follow Florida’s lead and have another big picture update.

We had lunch yesterday with visitors from Germany, Martina Kruss-Leibrock and her husband, Clauss Leibrock.

She is the grand-niece of Emil Louis Kruss, who was my grandfather’s best friend for decades. There’s been a connection between our families for over a century. I tracked her down in about 2004 while looking for background on an old barometer that was manufactured by their family company and had originally been brought to Hawaii by Mr. Kruss.

Martina and Clauss were in Honolulu yesterday on the Queen Mary II on the way down to the South Pacific, including stops in American Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia.

Clauss is a former banker, and of course conversation turned to the international financial situation. He is quite concerned that the result of the unprecedented government intervention will be inflation, but believes the threat of deflation is a more serious concern.

But then he said that he had grown up in a war, and while the current situation is challenging, it is far easier to deal with than a world at war. I suppose that puts things in perspective, unless of course you happen to live in one of the too many countries where war remains a fact of life.

In the photo, from left to right: Martina Kruss-Leibrock, Helen Lind (my mom), Meda Chesney-Lind, Clauss Leibrock, your’s truly, and my sister, Bonnie Stevens.