Handicapping Races; Fishy Farms
Wednesday - May 05, 2010
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Del.icio.usWe’re less than three weeks away from electing a temporary member of Congress for Oahu. We should have waited for the September primary. Who needs this at-taxpayer-expense for a fill-in lawmaker?
The Inouye-AkakaHannemann candidate is Colleen Hanabusa. She did a mailing calling herself a “maverick.” So why is U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye telling us that we must vote for her as a reliable team member? His words: “Neither of her opponents (Ed Case and Charles Djou) is good for Hawaii’s congressional delegation or our nation.”
Remember when Inouye told everyone to vote for Hillary, not Barack?
Almost everyone I encounter asks me who will win the governorship later this year. I recite this litany: Age, money, unions and visibility say Mufi Hannemann absent an unforeseen “gotcha.” The polls so far say no chance for Duke Aiona or the invisible John Carroll. Aiona attended the Merrie Monarch Festival this year. Governor Lingle did not. Afraid of some boos? She tanked with her inept handling of those anti-furlough parents. Should have met with them and then said nobody gets to sleep in the governor’s reception room overnight.
Neil Abercrombie has hardcore progressive supporters. But will you vote for 73-years-old-on-inauguration day? And he shouts too much. He is pro same-sex marriage. Hannemann is anti. That could be a key tilting issue. It is with me as a longtime “pro.”
About the mayor. We had the unknown Bernard Akana elected on the Big Island in 1988. Now we have the ethically challenged councilman Rod Tam (D) and the untested UH engineering professor Panos Prevedouros (R) running on Oahu. Might voters pass on the insider candidate Kirk Caldwell (D) and not want City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle (R) or City Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz (D)?
Prevedouros has held no office, has no executive or legislative experience and is mainly the anti-rail candidate who only drew 29,459 votes in 2008. He wants better road pavement, a crack-down on drugs and says of our energy future on his Web site: “Our best bets are with wind, Navy nuclear submarines, and an offshore nuclear plant.”
Whoopie!
Most intriguing possibility:
If Hannemann were elected governor and Caldwell mayor, we’d have the first hand-in-hand people in those offices since John Burns and Neal Blaisdell played kissy-face in 1962-68. They had their people raising money for both camps, even though Burns was a Democrat and Blaisdell a Republican.
I recently read a column by a business lawyer defending the $80 billion fish farming industry against attacks by scholars and environmental groups. He doesn’t like the “antis.”
But he conveniently left out many facts. To create one kilogram of farmed fish requires 4.5 kilos of fish-meal made mainly from small open-ocean fish. Some are moving to vegetables, but most are not. Nearly 40 percent of all global seafood is still being ground up into fish-farm food. Then there are contamination issues too complex to lay out here.
The “antis” are right to demand that we look for unintended consequences. To say full speed ahead with all aquaculture in Hawaii is irresponsible.
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