Monday, December 21, 2009

Mayor Kenoi Responds to Governor’s Plan to Take Counties’ Share of the TAT « Damon Tucker’s Blog

Mayor Kenoi Responds to Governor’s Plan to Take Counties’ Share of the TAT « Damon Tucker’s Blog

2009 BOOTLICKER/BACKWARDS INSIDE OUT COCONUT HALL OF FAME

OK, I am starting a new tradition here on my blog. Each year, I will give out certain awards. The first award, will be going out to what I consider the top bootlickers/inside out coconuts. This award goes to what we mostly like to call "traitors" and "embarrasments". These are both men and women, or organizations, or groups from both the public and the private sector that have bowed to the 7 deadly sins.


These are:

Now there are so many who qualify this year, that it was really hard to get a real idea of who, was going to win the coveted award.


However, for your amusement, pleasure, and joy, here is my  choice for this years award.

WINNER 2009 Bootlicker/Backwards inside out coconut of the Year award goes to:

 Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele 

Yes, Mr. Steele qualified at the top of this list in every catagory? Why? Well, isn't it obvious. Because like a good bootlicker he was willing to be the puppet boy for the racist, kkk agenda to make sure that he was safe from lynch mobs, after the tea party folks took over the country. 

I mean, does any one remember Sarah Palins comment to Katie Couric about how the Jewish poeple should be allowed to expand anywhere they wanted becasue she expected a "mass exodus of them" soon, flooding into the country, then gave one of her famous winks, and cheek clucks as she grinned from ear to ear. Yep, the racist GOP. Out in full bloom and glory. Andf good old Michael steel willing to be their puppet, and be mastered by them.

Of course, due to his ethnicity and racial makeup we have to also give him the top inside outside coconut award as well, for a man that has not only spit on the graves of all of his ancestors, but actually sat on the heads of every single African American person in the world.

Yes, Michael Steele gets our reward with flying colors.

But what has this to do with the 7 deadly sins you might ask> Plenty.

Here is how it breaks down, kids.
ENVY. Michael Steele has a LOT of envy. He always wanted to be white, and respected. He wanted what the white poeple had. White poeple could be mean, say whatever they wanted and be bigoted becasue it was expected of them. THis, to Mr. Steele was real freedom, and he wanted in.

LUST...lust for POWER. Mr. Steele wanted it so very badly that he literrally sold his soul to get some

GLUTTONY...like all the other elephants, he wanted to eat from the trough of the rich and opress the poor, so he could feel equal to the opressors. Way to go, Steele!

WRATH...I assume someone did not want him in a protest march or something, or made fun of his socks or he couldnt dance, or something was up with his "blackness level". Something had to trigger this insane need to bootlick at the feet of the KKK...um, sorry I mean ytthe OPatriots...err, Sarah Palin...er, I mean the REPBUBLICANS

SORROW...he felt very veyr very very very veyr very very very sorry for himself. He also felt very sorry for the poor, opressed white poeple as well. He wanted to be their savior. But they said he could only be head of the GOP until they found a suitable white replacement, or Sarah Palin accepted the job.


Vain/glory/pride/greed


Oh please this is a no brainer. The man was greedy, the man had pride in that he could do what no other person of color could do. Represent the racist white southern baptist minority in this country. Vain/glory/. Yep, thats Michal. very vain, and hoping for glory. He wants to be Martin Luther King Jr.....for the White Caucasion Racist Southern RIght Wing Supremacist Patriot Gun toting South.


So, again, to Michael Steel, we congratulate you. We hope you covet this award, since that is also part of the 7 deadly sins. Perhaps you might eat it with shoyu, or maybe lust after it, or be greedy with it and not show it to anyone.


Whatever you do with it, please, just keep on doing what you are doing.


We liberals are grateful.


Have a great 2010.

YouTube - Patriot Idiots in Hawaii

YouTube - Tea Tax Party at the Hawaii State Capitol

Patriot Idiots protest what REpublicans did to the nation. (The guy talking is from the GOP HAHA)

TheGardenIsland.com News Kauai News Residents grapple with affordable housing ‘realities’

TheGardenIsland.com News Kauai News Residents grapple with affordable housing ‘realities’

Immediatly I fired off a letter to the Garden Island

"When Coco called me up and asked my opinion on this issue, I pretty much burned her a new hole in her ear. There are a few things I want to clarify however. It seems that the article was perhaps unintentionally slanted in the direction of my saying that Habitat and Kalepa were unaffordable.

The problem lies in not knowing the difference between "affordable" housing, and Low income housing. Habitiat for Humanity is a terrific organization. When Coco and I were discussing this issue, I specifically mentioned them as doing a great job, and that we needed a whole lot more of what they were doing on this island as part of the solution to this problem.

When Coco asked me what I thought a solution would be to this housing situation, I was very blunt. Large developers that want to build high end housing for the wealthy must build addordable and low income units for employees, or employee housing that would be affordable based on what they will be paying those future employees.

I mentioned that the first people to do this was Princeville Corporation but they were required to do it as a condition of approval of their project. Many of the larger developments have also been required to do this as of late, but as I testified many times at the meetings they were still looking at "affordable" units being at the 50, and 80 percent median income range which did nothing to address the problem.

I did praise one developer. and that would be the Ritz Carlton Kauai, whose development would be building not only affordable units, and employee housing, but also some low income units as well, and accepting HUD. I have praised them many times for the way they have tackled the housing units and held them up as an example for others.

Kalepa is a county project that is a HUD project. So those rentals will be doable, and Habitat is a charitable organization that helps to make housing truly affordable for many families that could otherwise not afford a home by using sweat equity.

Mahalo for letting me add onto my comments on the article
Anne Punohu
Kauai Fair Housing Law Coalition"

So, now lets get down to the real nitty gritty. I mentioned to Coco everything I did here, and a whole lot more. What I did not get a chance to tell her, was that a way that some people were addressing their own homeless issue, was to work overnight jobs and try to sleep during the day. They can park their cars at work and its a win win for everyone. However, with strict new laws against sleeping in their cars or even on the beach and possibly getting a ticket for it, this sort of complicates matters. Without any sleep, how can you do your job? Overnight jobs are extremely physical, since most involve heavy cleaning, or stocking shelves with heavy items or ioperating machinery, or performing guard duties which requires a lot of walking for a n entire shift.

I also told her that most of the people I met while I was working overnight jobs were on their second 8 hour job and had just come of a full day shift. These poeple some of them worked 5 and 6 days a week at full hours with overtime. It still did not put a dent in their finances much.

I also discussed the catch 22 of some social programs which can make it hard to save enough money for housing, and the possibility that in the future legislation may be written to put a time limit on how long poeple can ,live in low income units in State projects.

Here is the math. You are say a single mom, 2 kids. You have a job that pays minimum wage, and you work 8 hours, five days a weel. Your rent is set at 30 percent of your income, and you qualify for some foodstamps, medical and insurance for your car, childcare, ect. You don't have any money left however, and it is very hard to pay bills like gas, phone, electric, and extras like a phone, cable or internet. There is very little left over for essential items, clothing for the kids, even toilet paper. SO, you try to better yourself. You get a job that starts at a higher rate of pay, and in three months to six months you are now earning 12.00 to 13.00 an hour. You lose your foodstamps, insurance, and childcare. You must now pay a higher rate for childcare out of pocket, cover your insurance expenses and pay for your food with cash. Another issue is that now, your rent will now increase incrementally due to your having a higher rate of pay. SO, what you have gained by almost doubling your pay, will be eaten away by an increase in rent, gas, insurance and food costs. SO technically you are no better off than if you had one job and stayed on benefits. So, as you can see there is very little opportunity to save the thousands of dollars that would be needed for a downpayment on a house, even a "affordable" one.

However, the rumour mills are flying that an attempt to put a stopper on the amount of years someone can live in State Housing are more than likely going to come up for a debate at some point in the next year or so. If that is so, it will be a debated issue during campaigns I am sure. Most people see low income housing dwellers as lazy, and poeple that don't work, and are just "free loadning" in public housing for decades and not moving out and moving on so that others can get into the units.

hHis is ridiculous. The obvious reason why people cannot get ahead, is the rules and regulations of the system, and the fact that no one is building affordable low income housing that matches the pay scale here, and the rentals are far too high. Not only that, when we fought to change regulations last year at the State level, and make discrimination against a renter illegal just because a renter would be paying for his rental with a HUD voucher , it did not pass. that makes it even harder for poeple to move out of State low income housing.

The answer is to either build more state housing, and complete repairs, or rebuild aging state housing, and pass laws that will forbid discrimination agianst HUD voucher holder,s and build low income pay scale amenable affordable rentals and housing.

This can be accomplished by loosening the restrictions for developers whose purpose is to do just that. Developers that are willing to build the kind of housing that will keep workers on island should be given every type of ecxemption allowable. Those that wont should not be allowed to build. It is as simple as that. Housing discrimination based on HUD should not be allowed. And for a term of 5 years, a families maximum amount of rent paid in a state housing unit should be frozen, allowing any amount to be earned. A portion of money and earning are to be set aside each month for that family in a dedicated account, and at the end of five years, can be used towards the purchase of a home outright, and will be held by the State for the renter. After five years, the rent can be increased incrementally and work with the renter to help overcome any obstacles to finding a decent rental or home. Welfare laws should be reformed to allow 2 years of payments to continue, frozen while a family gets back on its feet agfter acheiving a raise and a better job and still be allowed foodstamps, since that is the single most expensive burden,

THere are ways to tackle this problem, but it will require will, determination and drive to get these problems solved.

Feel free top debate the issue here. You know the rules

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Should Costco Accept Food Stamps? Join the debate.



Of course you might guess my take on this issue. It is especially offensive to me that Costco seems to be for some sort of higher end shopper. Becasue that is not how they sold themselves to Kaua'i, No indeed-ee. They said they were here to help Hawaiis large families, and ESPECIALLY Native Hawaiins.


They make items that families cannot really afford enticing, and then refuse to allow food stamps to be used to purchase bulk items, which would of course help larger local cfamilies to stretch their budgets for food, which is exactly what they testified on when they wanted to build here.


Can you say Pinochhio? Or liar, liar pants on fire? How about elitist? Cutting off your nose to spite your face? But now, COstco, far from keeping its "high- makamaka" (yes, I Hawaiianized that. get over it) nose in the air, they are now whistling a different tune now that profits are punching out their teeth in record numbers in the all important bottom line.


Let us really take the Costco mentality to its fullest consclusion. Let us assume that the argument that Costco is private, and should not have to give "charity" to food stamp "people" who "probably can't afford to buy the bulk items anyway",  Now let us assume that everybody who sold food in a store had the same idea. Let us assume, that in costcos perfect little world NO ONE accepted food stamps.


Think about that. 38 million Americans who qualify for help, including the sick, elderly, children with disabilities, the disabled and the WORKING poor had no where to go to buy food.


COuld you imagine that? Well, apperently Costcos has changed its mind and is now accepting food stamps at at least half of their stores nationwide. Why, you ask? Becasue they did some sort of a no brainer "test" that showed that poeple with foodstamps came in to buy food. Apparently Costco executives were SHOCKED.
When elitist, conservatgive organizations and corporations try to shut out the poeple of this country from shopping for a bargain, watch out. Eventually you will feel the pinch.


After all, we are the back of the land. The spine. The maka ainana for a reason. WIthout your back, you fall flat on your face.


Ok, comments will be moderated. You know the rules.

Mark Hyman, MD: Diabetes & Obesity: Why Conventional Medicine Makes Things Worse

Mark Hyman, MD: Diabetes & Obesity: Why Conventional Medicine Makes Things Worse

YouTube - Furlough Friday song

YouTube - Furlough Friday song

YouTube - Frank Delima - Furlough Friday

YouTube - Frank Delima - Furlough Friday

LINDA lingle the grinch that stole christmas 2009

Hawaii teachers say Lingle’s $50M offer won’t end furloughs | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Obama hails 60th Senate vote for health care - Yahoo! News

Obama hails 60th Senate vote for health care - Yahoo! News

A Christmas Message from our ohana to yours



We are the world. This year, as we are driven to our knees, and we fight to rise there is only one thing that will unite us in the battle to keep our dignity.
That thing is hope. As we express joy, hope is the enevitable aftermath. We all do have hope. But there is one thing that we must do to have it.

Recognize that we are all part of this world, and interdependent on the salvation and survival of one another.

In our home, Christmas is never about trees, lights or presents. We very rarely have those. We celebrate a spirit that comes from the pausing of the world, if only for the briefest moment to acknowledge something greater than themselves.


Each other.


Aoha to the world.

Ke 'Ao Nani. (The Beautiful World)



Aloha,
Anne, Kanani, and Kaulana

Friday, December 18, 2009

YouTube - Sarah Palin in Utah!

YouTube - Sarah Palin in Utah!

SARAH PALIN SPOOF YOU CANNOT TELL IT IS NOT REAL<>

please come to my Sarah Palin Bookburning, Tomorrow at Lydgate Park from 9-11 Its a POTLUCK, so go to COSTCO!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

Costco Protects Palin From Tomatoes By Taking Them Off Shelves

Costco Protects Palin From Tomatoes By Taking Them Off Shelves

OK this is PRICELESS. Literally. Costco, a huge place with one very annoying rule, they do NOT ACCEPT FOODSTAMPS, yet they want to sell food, in bulk, to large families, in a ddepressed economy, with a lot of poeple out of work, many of whom are on foodstamps recently took ALL THE TOMATOES OFF THE SHELVES becasue Sarah Palin showed up there, and they wanted to throw them at her.

Now THAT is really big business and Republicans taking care of each other. And they complain about the UNIONS. SHEESH

PALIIN BOOTED FROM CANADIAN HOSPITAL FUNDRAISER

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/palin-to-speak-at-fundrai_n_388758.html


Get it here, first folks.


Her comments on Health Care Reform really got the Canadians red under the collar.


One of her closest neighbors, and international allies, (or so she thought becasue she can see them from her house I guess), Canada, has booted her out of an event over her remarks about health care reform.


Canada, who actually has national health care, and doesnt need to reform anything decioded enough was enough.


We need to do the same thing here.


Join me for a Sarah Palin Bookburning tomorrow, Saturday from 9am -11am. Its potluck so bring something to share.


We will roast hot dogs over the embers of her bookcovers. LOL

Palin's Father: She Left Hawaii Because Asians Made Her Uncomfortable

Palin's Father: She Left Hawaii Because Asians Made Her Uncomfortable

THE ONION REPORT GOP RAISES REAGAN FROM THE DEAD TO LEAD THEM


Zombie Reagan Raised From Grave To Lead GOP

PALIN-TOO CHEAP TO BUY A VISOR AT ABC STORE FOR 3 BUCKS RUINS VACATION

 THE FAMOUS SARAH PALIN I RE USED AN OLD CAMPAIGN VISOR HAT BECAUSE I AM TOO CHEAP PHOTOS





 

WOW Sarah, I thought I let MYSELF GO, (which of course I have, but who cares about me, I am a little nobody.)  GIRL FRIEND LOOKS AWFUL


Guess when you have that Alaska sun in your face it is a lot more flattering. Maybe I should go there, it might take 20 years off of my looks too)


Palin cuts short Hawaii vacation over photos of redacted McCain visor | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Even though my Sarah Palin Bookburning was nmeant to coincide with her trip, and she left early and came back home to Alaska today, I am still going to have the event at Lydgate Park from 9-11 Am bring a downloaded printout of the front cover of her book, and attach it to a book so we can get a pic of you with it. We will then burn it in the lflames, (Not the book, the paper with the bookcover printed on it). Bring something for the potluck, too.

ALoha, and ALOHA OE SARAH PALIN

IMPEACH LINGLE SHE STOPPED THE BUS SERVICE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL KIDS



http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11684673

This is ridiculous.


Here is how this breaks down. The Union wanted to increase bus fees. The leg admitted it costs more for gas, employee costs, ect. But lawmakers refused to increase the bus service dues.


This meant the DOE would run out of funds to keep the bus service going. SO the lawmakers said oh well too bad. So now, the bus will not be rinunning past march.


This will force most children to walk to school, if they live a mile and a half from their school. That means on dangerous shoulders on the highways, across places where there are no stoplights, and in the pitch dark at this time of year.


What is the matter with those lazy parents you say? Well, popular to local folklore, Hawaiis parents sometimes work 2 jobs to support their children. They have to get up early for work. Hence the I cant take the kids to school, you will take the school bus.


I was one of those parents. I worked overnight, came home at 6 30 and collapsed. My kids had to learn how to take the school bus.
Not only that, My daughter lives miles from school.  We have no Jr High in our area, and next year she starts High School which is even farther away. Encouraging the kids to get off the school bus and onto the county bus service would be disastrous. How are you going to pack 60 kids onto our county buses? You arent.


Do the buses coordinate with the times for school? No. Why? Becasue there are school buses for that. Will the sceduals change? Will the Kauai bus add more buses? HEY TOO BAD THERE ISNT A NICE WALKING BIKE PATH THAT IS SAFE FOR THEM TO GET THE !@ MILES TO SCHOOL< HUH?


Ok to say that I am !*@&#%!&@#%  about this is a huge understatement. A phonecall to the governors office from me today got me this response:


"It is the unions fault. We gave them money. They have to figure it out  Well, we actually gave them a lot less money so they had to prioritize. Classes, or no classes, school bus or no school bus. It was their choice. We are not going to give them any more money.

Hey Lingle, I hope you enjoy your holiday season WE won't.


IMPEACH LINGLE NOW