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Busy moving

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Election Day - still moving

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The People Have Spoken

First, sorry for no post up to now. We've been really busy moving from the front house to the back. Our days started at 5:00 a.m. and we didn't stop until 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Even now, we are days away from being finished. We have so much stuff I don't know where we'll find the room for it all.

Anyway, I'll leave the national analysis to others. I will, instead, talk about the local gubernatorial race (insert the sound of all 11 people running for the exits). I've talked about how organizations hate to change, even when facing a credible external threat.

So too did the Democratic old boys. Not enough of the core of the party wanted to deal with having to change. To reform itself. To throw out those who called themselves Democrats but who in fact were in it for their own base self-interest. This was seen in the Primary election when the Democrat for change, Ed Case, lost to Hirono by about 2,600 votes. As I said then, Case was the last best hope for change in the local Democratic party. A chance that was missed because people were afraid of change.

Yes, I know, some people say give me a self-interested person over someone with the public interest in mind because I can buy they are responsive to my needs. But in the end, the people made the right choice because the Democrats refused to be relevant to the challenges that face us today. The Old Boys Democrats tried to get everyone to forget just how corrupt they are and to stay with the old ways. And in the end, this more than anything else, will be their epitaph.

More to Come

I think we are about 90 percent done in our move but that last 10 percent will just have to wait as we find the time. So far, we have most of the furniture but very little of the kitchen pots and pans nor our clothes. I also have to run a couple of phone lines to rooms that have none and I also need to run a length of cat5e line to SWMBO PC. I figure it will take us at least three more weekends before we are close to being done. I hope my body can take the strain because I'm not used to doing all this stuff.

Aloha!

Voodoo That You Do

The local Governor-elect ran on a platform of lowering taxes and increasing spending. If this sounds a lot like previous Republican voodoo economics you are right. It will be interesting to see how she tries to balance a budget based on these two objectives. If she actually tries to implement both, it will not take an economist, political or otherwise, to predict the failure of this policy.

Speaking of Republicans. If people think Democrats are arrogant, wait until they see how Republicans do it. They invented the word. Remember it was the Gingrich Republicans who first blocked the confirmation of judges.

I've said it before and I'm saying it here again now, when the light of freedom goes out over America, it will be at the hand of a Republican. And it will be the Bush administration that completes the U.S. journey to the Dark Side.

With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, expect most of the Constitution to be eviscerated in the name of national/homeland security. Expect the ways of the former republic to wither away and to be replaced by the jack boot of the Empire. Expect laws forcing their brand of politically correct ultra-conservative orthodox Christianity down the throats of everyone (including the pseudo-intellectuals that profess no religion, other than the cult of one).

These are indeed dark times, made darker by people searching for the illusion of safety, while giving up real freedoms.

Aloha!

And So It Begins

When is a tax increase not a tax increase? When it's called a fee! Some of how the governor-elect will finance her big spending ways is becoming clear. Think fees. Lots of them. Big fees. For everything. Want to drive somewhere? Pay a fee. Need a copy of a document? Pay a fee. Want to take a hike in the woods? Pay a fee. Want to go to the beach? Pay a fee.

It doesn't seem to matter that we've already paid for these things via our present taxes. It doesn't seem to matter that whether you call it a fee or a tax, it still comes out of my pocket. It still takes more and more of my money. Which means I have less and less of it to use as I choose.

I guess the motto of the new Republican administration will be "fee and spend."

Double Trouble

One of the platforms the governor-elect ran on was that she cared for the environment. As an indication of what she meant, she is proposing the creation of a double-deck highway cutting across half the island. While such highways have been proposed before, they have never been seriously considered because, in an economy based on scenic beauty, having your view blocked by a wall of gray concrete doesn't make a lot of sense. But I guess the governor-elect doesn't think that is as important as the fees that would be collected from people using it.

In related news, Honolulu International Airport will be renamed John Wayne Airport. Lihue will be rechristened as Anaheim. Kahului will be called Costa Mesa. Kahala will be Laguna Hills. And Honolulu will be called Tustin - Pacific Gateway to Orange County!

I'm going to love the next four years!

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

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