RJ Mendoza did a follow up blog entry here on this group’s boycott of Hawaii because the state of Hawaii refused to release President Obama’s birth certificate. It seems the primary backer of this group (Andy Martin) has a very questionable background.On top of that he obviously has huge issues with President Obama.
Thus it wouldn’t surprise me that he is trying to uncover if President Obama is a naturalized US citizen (In a recent e-mail exchange, he asserts that his group has no position if President Obama is a naturalized citizen. His group wants the actual document because of its historical nature).
The questioning of President Obama’s citizenship is absurd. Thus Andy Martin is wasting everyone’s time with this frivolous boycott that could harm Hawaii’s bread and butter industry, tourism.
It is absolutely insane that Hawaii County has spent (or committed) 23 million dollars over the last 10 years to lease commercial space for government offices.The list of lessor is a laundry list of political & business insiders. Thus there is a need for better controls and transparency when these leases are executed.
Margaret Wille wrote up a very insightful blog post here detailing the severe consequences if the legislature suspends paying the counties their share of the Transient Accommodation Tax.
Lastly, RJ Mendoza for pointed out this HTH article about the latest in the Hawaii County employee Internet scandal.It looks like there might be an initial release of county employee Internet usage data by late May. The latter is certainly a very good sign.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:24 PM
I just posed the question on how he may go after county employees using county “Time” on their own laptops and wireless cards?
People could be gambling left and right or visiting porn on CHOKE county time and totally get away unscathed on their own laptops, while some other county members might be spending less time on blogs around the world and get busted for using county time unwisely.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Why not just release the document? One can’t help but wonder regardless of political leanings.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Regarding the post about Hawaii County renting space, you mention a “laundry list of political and business insiders.” How did you get that? Certainly not from Ms. Lauer’s article, which mentioned one political insider, Tajiri, and several others not particularly prominent in the political circles I have been following for 20 years. A little short of the claim that “Many of the leases have gone to politically connected individuals….”
The article had other unsubstantiated claims, including the “double” rent aspect apparently taken from a previous article which contained that miracle of mathematics in which $1.93 becomes twice $1.50 or $1.20. And of course, neither article mentions that when the first was established in 2006 it was during the height of the real estate boom, and the later numbers reflect rental rates during the current recession where empty commercial space is common. Apples and oranges.
This list provided by WHT does mention some prominent businesses and real estate businesses doing the renting. Go figure. Real estate companies with properties to rent. Will wonders never cease.
Of course, not listing the time frame for those properties in the list makes it rather meaningless. Why dilute the effect of saying the county is paying “$23 million” in rent “with virtually nothing to show for it.” Can anyone say “county services”? How WHT would howl if those weren’t provided.
What’s absolutely insane is depending on vague generalizations and faulty logic for the basis of criticism, especially since all of this information has been readily available for years.