Monthly Archives: March 2009

Tuesday…The Superferry decision, Aloha to another major metro newspaper, and Mr. Leo in character

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Process, process, process.

That’s the briefest summary I can muster up of the Hawaii Supreme Court’s 113 page decision yesterday which found the Legislature’s Superferry rescue unconstitutional because it carved out a very narrow law applying to that single company.

Lingle and company can’t blame partisan politics on this one since the opinion was crafted by Associate Justice Jim Duffy, who Lingle appointed to the court in 2003.

The Lingle administration and the Legislature fumbled this issue from the beginning by forgetting their basic procedural checklist and getting caught up in a high-stakes speculative corporate gamble by Superferry investors. Despite DOT staff advising that they needed to begin with an environmental impact study, the state instead tried an end run at the Superferry’s behest.

The court also upheld the circuit court’s award of legal fees and costs incurred by the Sierra Club to be paid jointly by the State and Superferry.

Congratulations to Maui attorney Isaac Hall, who carried this case on his back against the collective legal talents of the state administration, the legislature, and the company while operating out of a tiny law office. A career capstone for him to be proud of, for sure!

I defer to Joan Conrow’s assessment in her KauaiEclectic blog:

Indeed, the Justices wrote in their conclusion:

That our Constitution prohibits laws which provide disparate treatment inended to favor a specific individual, class or entity or to discriinate against a specific individual, class, or entity is a fundamental principle of the democratic nature of our government: equal rights and treatment for all persons under the law.

I’m sure we’ll hear the usual cries and moans about how this sends out a message that Hawaii is a bad place to do business. But what it really sends out is the message that it’s a bad place to pull a fast one, conduct shady business and work the political process to get special favors for your business.

And it seems to me that’s a good message to send to the world.

I also have to wonder whether this ruling will have an impact on Sen. Hanabusa, who got the credit for pushing the special legislation.

And what about Gov. Head-in-the-Sand Lingle, who continues to say that her administration did everything correctly despite this series of huge legal blunders.

Here’s the Guv as quoted by the Advertiser:

“I’m sure there are all sorts of political opinions out there,” she told reporters. “But we know from the beginning we were correct and accurate, did the right thing, and we’ve been able to provide a great service for the people of Maui and O’ahu, one that they’ve come to appreciate and in some cases to depend upon, especially in the case of small businesses.”

I guess the idea is just snap your fingers, close your eyes, and the bad stuff magically goes away!

She seems to be taking the same approach to budget planning.

On to other things.

Aloha to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which prints its last edition today.

And a friend in Minnesota recommended this essay, which she describes as “a very thoughtful consideration about the differences and connections between newspapers, journalism, and the internet.”

And I just ran into this image of Leo at his prime in the role of the character “Thunderstep” in an online game. Just scroll down to his photo, which appears just above the Thunderstep annotation. His character is described this way:

“Very wise and noble. Thunderstep is feared by most cats beacause of his very tall muscular body. Yet, this tom is quite sweet and kind.”

And so he was.

Monday…Abercrombie poll, cats killed at industrial park, legislative schedule

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A reader emailed some interesting observations on the Advertiser’s online poll results regarding Neil Abercrombie’s announcement that he’s running for governor. You’ll recall that only 1/3 of those responding to the poll said they would vote for Abercrombie.

Couple of things about the Abercrombie poll. First off, if you spend much time perusing the comments on Advertiser.com and watching the way polls go, they often skew FAR to the right of where we know Hawaii in general lies. In fact from what I have seen, most newspaper sites’ comments skew far to the right of where we know the whole country lies. I’m not sure why this is, but in at least some cases, there is actual organization behind the skew:

If you have not heard of “freeping,” it is a process by which partisan organization and Web sites rally members to basically “stuff the ballot box” in online polls. It is named for the right-wing activism site Free Republic, which apparently recognized the usefulness of skewing polls. Depending on the type of poll software, it can either be manually stuffed or stuffed by a “bot.”

As news organizations shrink and as they have turned to the Internet for news and commentary (a dubious practice to say the least), the unscientific results of online polls have found their way into more and more legitimate news stories and as a result have become a part of public discourse — and can even move stories themselves.

Given the razor-thin GOP victory in 2004, freeping could very well have made a difference. It is a little-reported but IMHO significant story that this past election cycle, left groups realized the power of freeping and made strong efforts to respond to right-wing freeping, particularly after the debates. Sure enough, the likes of CNN reported Obama ‘winning’ the debates by huge margins thanks to the results of snap online polls. The Advertiser’s polls were routinely freeped, and showed “Hawaii” thought Obama “lost” several of the debates.

Such organized responses can also be targeted at the comments portion of any site that allows them, and the whole thing is really an interesting study in the political power of the internet vs the legitimacy of the information gleaned therefrom.

Bottom line is, I don’t think the Democratic candidate for governor in 2010 can possibly lose the election, given what has happened nationally and how badly Lingle has damaged the Republican brand locally.

And another reader reported criminal attacks on cats on the Windward side. It’s the second report I’ve heard about the situation.

Spayed and neutered felines have been maimed and killed by gunfire at Kapaa Quarry Industrial Park for about a year now. Friends and I have been reporting these crimes to the Hawaiian Humane Society who have turned this matter over to the H.P.D. I feel both departments have dragged their feet, while more cats have gone missing.

He went on to say that the most disturbing thing is that the person allegedly responsible for the shootings works for one of the businesses in the area.

I’ll check in with the Humane Society and see what additional information they can provide on this case.

The Legislature’s Public Access Room sent out a reminder that things will move very swiftly at this point in the legislative session.

By next Friday, March 27, bills with multiple referrals have to have moved to the last committee or they’re likely dead for the session, barring last minute re-referral. So expect these two weeks to be crammed with hearings and committee decisions.

And the House budget worksheets are now online, providing an easily accessible and very detailed look at the current state of the proposed budget.

Welcome to the new week.

Sunday…Venture capital fears could impact local economy, S-B pop-ups disappear, more

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Another cold Sunday morning in Kaaawa.

We had dinner with a friend last night who is a general contractor. He started out his contracting career doing small home renovations, later building houses and, over the past five years or so, specializing in luxury custom homes for high-income owners.

His high flying clientele had insulated his company from the contracting slowdown until very recently. But when we asked about the outlook last night, he said several clients have deferred or shelved their plans while reassessing their financial priorities.

On job was abruptly halted. He said that when he called his concrete supplier to cancel a planned future pour, the supplier said it was his fourth cancellation of the day.

He also said that at least one client who has pulled back is in the world of venture capital. The Obama tax plan proposes to treat profits from venture capital investments as regular income rather than as capital gains, kicking that income from a 15% federal tax rate to 39.6%. No wonder their pulling in the sails.

Hawaii has been courting that same venture capital industry with the high tech tax credits and other programs, but I don’t recall seeing much discussion of the impact of the Obama plan on this segment of our economy. It seems likely to take a big bite out of this type of investment, pushing investors back to stocks, real estate, and other assets that will qualify for capital gain rates. Whether you think that’s good or bad policy isn’t the question. The immediate issue is how it will impact our local economic plans.

I’m holding my breath on this next one. Has StarBulletin.com eliminated those terrible pop-up ads that cover the lead story on its main page? Several visits there this morning have been pop-up free, and I think it happened yesterday as well and it just didn’t sink in. If they’ve reconsidered the use of this particular advertising mode, I salute them! It may be too early to say “thank you”, but I’m hoping that’s the case. It will make for a much better reader experience and may draw back former readers who fled to escape the pop-up plague.

The Star-Bulletin has also been having some editing issues in recent days. This morning’s story on yesterday’s high surf brought another example.

In the story summary:

“On Kauai, searchers were not able to recover the body of a 35-year-old surfer missing since Friday afternoon.”

But from the main story:

The 34-year-old man, from Moloaa, was reported missing at about 1:41 p.m. Friday when he failed to return to shore after losing his surfboard.

Was he 34 or 35? Not sure.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Newspaper Guild members at the Seattle Times approved a pension freeze and other concessions after a union economist confirmed the newspaper’s continued losses.

Hearst is expected to announce plans for the Seattle P-I this week, probably to include the date of the newspaper’s last print edition. Meanwhile, this collection of photos celebrates the work of its photographers. It’s worth browsing.

And journalism isn’t the only profession facing uncertainties. This entry in my cousin’s blog says a lot about what’s happening on university campuses these days. To be more precise, Leslie’s a 2nd cousin. He mom is my first cousin. I keep up with their part of the family via her Clutter Museum blog.

I should mention two good stories in today’s Honolulu Advertiser. Andrew Gomes reports on the surge in “short sales”, the first substantive piece I recall seeing about this change in the local market. And Derrick DePledge has a detailed account of the legislative struggle with Hawaii’s network of public hospitals. Both good reading.