Lingle planning to lobby for Akaka bill during Bush visit

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Oct/23/ln/ln05a.html

Gov. Linda Lingle plans to lobby Bush for help in persuading Congress to pass a bill that would foster the creation of a U.S.-recognized Native Hawaiian government with some amount of sovereignty. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, could help protect federal entitlements for Hawaiians but has stalled in the Senate and appears dead for the year.

"I want to make certain that President Bush understands the issues from our point of view," Lingle said. "The majority of the people in our state of all ethnic backgrounds support recognition for Native Hawaiians. They know that what's good for Native Hawaiians is good for Hawai'i. No. 1, we want to protect all the existing Native Hawaiian programs and secondly we want to set up a process where Native Hawaiians can establish a relationship with the federal government the same way that the American Indians and the Native Alaskans have."

[KamaAina]

1. Great! This way she gets to suck up to Hawaiian voters

while secure in the knowledge that there is no way the Repuke Senate will ever allow the Akaka bill to move. Once again, a "hold" has been placed on the bill by an unnamed Repuke Senator, believed to be James Inhofe of Okla.

So here we have a Repuke governor lobbying for Federal recognition, while pretty much the entire rest of the Repuke party has been devising ways to stick it to Hawaiians, as with the Rice v. Cayetano case that allowed non-Hawaiians to vote for, and even run for, trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (which was created by the State of Hawai'i because the Feds shirked their responsibility to our indigenous population in the 1959 Admission Act).

Is she sincere? Or, is this yet another Repuke ploy to "get the chickens to vote for Col. Sanders"?

Local Fox TV had an hour-and-a half special on the issue from OHA last night, in the slot left vacant by the baseball game. Anyone here see that?

Edit: NICE graphic! Maika'i no, E Sushi!

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. Mahalo

I like your comment about "get the chickens to vote for Col. Sanders"

Frankly, I dont know where the Gov realy stands on this issue...One would think that the long time she spent on Molokai gave her a sincere passion for this issue... or it was just all election-speak.

[KamaAina]

3. J. C. Watts' dad said that about African American Repukes

"get the chickens to vote for Col. Sanders

I dont know where the Gov realy stands on this issue

It's all coming back to me now... many longtime Hawaiian activists, especially those of a more pro-independence bent, hold a grudge against the local Dem party for what they see as obstructionism and paternalism. And so, in rush the Repukes, smelling votes in the water, and promising the world to them... Another textbook example of how to get peiople to vote against their own interests. All the challenges to Hawaiian programs and to things like Kamehameha Schools are coming from Repukes -- but vote for 'em anyway, 'cause you don't like the Dems and we're different! </sarcasm>

One would think that the long time she spent on Molokai gave her a sincere passion

One would also have thought that so many years in the midst of the rural poverty on Moloka'i would have given her enough compassion to resist the siren call of the big-bucks Repukes, too, but it didn't happen that way, now did it?

[Cha]

5. Thanks for this news, Sushi Bandit! I like news from

Hawaii..I'm going back in 3 years!

[Cha]

4. lingle can "Suck up" all she wants but the proof will

be in what she does for Hawaii by 2006! I hope the Dems have someone Fantastic waiting in the wings to run against her.