Another round of thanks to Ryan Ozawa, who has expanded his Hawaii Open Data Project with the addition of a list that includes the names and salaries of more than 1,900 employees of the State Judiciary. It’s in the form of a Google Docs spreadsheet and open to free use.
In an email, Ozawa comments:
in contrast to the OHRD, the Judiciary was very forthcoming. Rather than wait the full ten days, they responded with all requested information in under 72 hours. I talked to someone who even spoke of
the former CJ’s “commitment to transparency,” and said the new CJ is even moreso, pointing to the various ways they’re working to upgrade antiquated computer systems to make more and more records freely available online.
I’m sure the Judiciary Intranet will be busy today passing this information around!
Hmmmm. Politics. The prosecutor becomes mayor, and he appoints as managing director his former deputy who appears to have the same limited, prosecutorial perspective. That doesn’t provide a lot of confidence that the new administration will have a handle on the range of routine problems and issues involved in managing the city.
And Duke Aiona’s “challenge” calling for a series of debates with Democratic opponent Neil Abercrombie? Lame. Neil has been running a good campaign, he’s got momentum and visibility for his message. Why would he stop in order to provide Aiona the visibility that comes with this kind of debate? If Duke feels like he lacks public recognition, could it be that he hasn’t done much of anything for the past eight years?
I’m also conservative on the issue of controlling campaign signs. I know that the Outdoor Circle considers them a blight. When they see political signs, they just see visual clutter. I see look at those signs and see evidence of candidates and campaigns trying to involve people in the political process, pointers to hot political issues, and efforts to extend the political debate.
How can we bemoan the lack of public participation and voter turnout, but then turn around to disdain and discourage the external trappings of political activity?
While I wouldn’t want to see unregulated signs as a general practice, I also don’t want to discourage this relatively inexpensive form of political communication.
Oh, no! Now Time Magazine is telling the world, “Life in Hawaii leads to early death“.
But a quick look at the article reveals the problem. The writer takes a report on health problems of Native Hawaiians and confuses “Hawaiians” with “people living in Hawaii”. Issue understood. The headline is screamingly incorrect.
Finally, do check out this academic study of whether teacher salary incentives translate into better student performance. You might find the answer surprising.
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NYTimes has no excuse. I, and presumably others, have written to the editors when they conflate “Hawaiians” with “people living in Hawaii” for years. This is poor and disrespectful writing that they affirmatively choose to maintain.
actually it is not the New York Times, but Now Time magazine, whatever that is. Writing to the editors of the NYT may merely create the image you are trying to get rid of.
About that NYT article…the image now accompanying the article is one of people actually holding and chucking spears.
Awesome.
I remember all the people we met in the 70’s when we moved to the continent who asked if we really live in grass huts. They weren’t kidding.
Oh well, that and the headline may stave off at least some of those inspired to relocate by Hawaii 5-0.
People in the 1990s were still asking if we live in grass huts!!! An no, they still weren’t kidding! o.O
Im ok with Peter naming Doug. I think anyone would want a familiar, helpful, trusted person helping them. Plus, Doug is really a thoughtful, diligent professional. He’s is a good, steady, cheerfully conservative (and I dont mean that in a religious way) balance for big-personality-Peter. Doug will be just fine. In fact, I think we all will come to adore him. Theres just something very endearing about Doug.
Surely, they will have their hands full. But like any new administrators, they will have to look to the professional staff to help guide them as they learn their jobs.
I suggest we accept that Peter won this seat and do our collective best to support him in assuming it. Rest assured, Im sure there will be more than sufficient opportunity to take substantive swipes at Peter in the future.
I don’t know Doug Chin but it is good to get someone intelligent in there. Hannemann city hall did not read or examine. Important decisions were made by who you knew or would it look good for Mufi. Rationale, reason and merit did not matter. It’s about drama and politics.
This is how bad City Hall was under the Mufi Hannemann Administration.
Additionally, you cannot even believe the written word in city records. The public records do not necessarily reflect what actually happened.
Teacher salary incentives are yet another reform that failed to take past research into account. At the ground level, teachers who play the adminstrator’s game get rewarded, and those who buck the system to try to assist their students get punished. Surprise surprise.
That article on the health of Native Hawaiians appears on Time Magazine’s website, so NYT is off the hook.
My mistake.
A friend sent that link with an email note attributing it to “MY TIme”, which I misread as NY TImes, in my bleary, before-coffee, cat-harrassed morning fog.
Apologies to the NY Times. Auwe to Time.com.
Could we at least expect the losing candidates remove their signs the day after elections?
I can accept that Carlisle has won. The people have spoken (or at least a percentage of those who are registered to vote have). What I find baffling is that he didn’t have commitments from qualified people to serve on his cabinet.
Although Acting Mayor Caldwell has issued a directive for current cabinet members to assist in the transition, I know that a few have already notified the mayor elect that they will not be sticking around beyond their two weeks notice.
Do furloughs have a significant impact on Carlisle’s ability to bring qualified people in from the private sector? If the answer is ‘yes’, then it would appear that the mayor elect may find himself in a quandry: he has not choice but to keep as many of Mufi’s people on payroll as he can. His other option would be to bring in as many of his people over from the prosecutor’s office or a combination of both.
I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on this.
qualified person is a very subjective term — it is easy to denigrate or spin away quality people because they don’t fit in politically or fit in a bureacratic box of what is “required” for the job
hire intelligent people that are willing to learn, have the interests of the people at heart, and have leadership skills
meanwhile keep much of the talent you got so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel
a leader will combine both and have them work together
Regarding campaign signs, I’m for greater restrictions. Over the years, I’ve noticed it’s gone past the self-imposed limited signage where most candidates put up one sign of modest size around the community.
Now you get these movie-screen sized banners with the candidate’s face or multiple signs on the same fence.
I don’t quite get the logic that you need to post ten signs on the same fence to get your message across.
Its cheap, easy advertising. Kinda the slightly-less-poor-mans equivalent to sign waving.
Too bad we couldnt limit the number each candidate could put up in each community. Say 20 for all of Kalihi, another 20 for all of Nanakuli, etc. Sure would make candidates more strategic and accountable for where they put ‘um up, monitoring them for theft, and then perhaps even taking ‘um down.
Darn that pesky freedom of speech.
It always seems very odd to me whenever we see these reports that Native Hawaiians are more likely to get diabetes, or heart disease, or early death, etc.; than other ethnic groups. The simple fact is that most people classified as “Native Hawaiian” have most of their racial heritage coming from something other than “Native Hawaiian.” Why should someone who has 1/8 Native Hawaiian ancestry be classified as “Native Hawaiian” when he has 7/8 Chinese or Filipino or Caucasian? The correct way to analyze racial data is to give 1/8 of a tally mark for early death to “Native Hawaiians” when someone is 1/8 Native Hawaiian, and 1/2 of a tally mark to Chinese, and 1/4 to Filipino, and 1/8 to Irish, if those are the individual’s percentages of heritage.
Does anyone actually claim that there is something about the Hawaiian “gene” which makes it so poisonous that even a small percentage of it causes horrible diseases and early death? There’s one way to do this research to find out, but nobody seems willing to do it. Ask each person what percentage of his racial heritage is “Native Hawaiian.” And then compare the percentage of “Native Hawaiian” against the rate of incidence of a disease, or of early death, to see whether people with a higher percentage of the “Hawaiian gene” actually have a greater incidence of the bad outcomes than people with lower percentages of that heritage. If not, then the difficulties would seem to be related to lifestyle rather than to race.
Duke setting up debates “lame” ? Excuse me? Now if I was Neil Abercrombie and knew that I was ahead in the polls and wasn’t really prepared to have my voting record and future plans questioned, I wouldn’t want to debate either.
And if I was Ian Lind and supported Neil and didn’t want him to lose any lead, I wouldn’t want him to debate either.
But those are both besides the point. Candidate debates are an important part of the Democratic process and hopefully illuminates the differences between Left vs. Right of center policy and values. Sure, Duke is trying to gain the upper hand and should have probably scheduled debates in private, but either way, those debates should be scheduled and held asap to give the dialog plenty of time to play out.
although I wouldn’t call it lame — calling for a debate every week seems bit unrealistic
Ambercrombie is in the driver seat with momentum — so keeping the ball out of Aiona’s hands as long as possible seems like a good strategy
on another note — I just got the Aiona brochure in the mail box and it is all positive — no compare and decide out of that camp
Aiona’s Coup d’état will occur if he is elected. From my point of view a person should never vote for a republic candidate. Never.
If he does manage to get Abercrombie to accept a debate challenge, in the self-interest of fairness, he might want to reconsider having KHON host it: http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2010/09/23/4914-sticker-shock-at-dukes-hq/
It’s especially troublesome when this cynical, Machiavellian tactic is employed by the candidate who has tried to pull onto himself the mantle of “change” as someone tired of the “status quo” and “politics as usual.”
That’s laughable — the candidate in the lead who ducks debates IS politics as usual.
I think that mantle is a few sizes too small for Neil in this case.
@hipoli, that pesky freedom of speech is not an absolute right.
You can yell, “Theater!!” in a crowded firehouse but try and yell “Fire!!” in a crowded theater.
The courts have frowned upon such forms of free speech.
anyone can easily go back and check Neil’s comments early in the primary where he was LOUDLY complaining that Mufi wouldnt agree to enough debates. CUZ, at that time he thought he was behind and Moof thought he was ahead….so NOW we get the shoe on the other foot BUT cuz you all love Neil you don’t see the irony. Another example where when the Moof does something you all go da kine but when your boy does same same it’s all good in love and war. Just wait till Neil blows a gasket and you all splain that away too…..gotta love it. Not. peace.
I don’t think the debate challenge thing that comes up again and again gets much traction
once in awhile the empty seat might have meaning if a candidate never shows up
Duke lost his legitimacy when he got rid of George. Now he’s doing commericals that make him look like a Christian Hawaiian Sammy Davis, Jr. with two-eyes.
Duke lost his legitimacy when he got rid of George.
What?
Pono’s reference is likely to a former Duke aide in the first Lingle-Aiona term — another member of the “Hui” (UH law school graduates from the early classes like the current Lt. Gov.) who had been active with Democratic campaigns (i.e., JDW III).