Pono Press, January-February 2014, Page 1 Highlights and Spotlights: Would you like to hear talks from business leaders or conservative journalists? TEA Party Maui meetings have all that and more! Visit Page 2 for the upcoming schedule. Lee Aldridge covers some recent exciting local conservative meetings. Don’t miss the news on Page 4. A Maui County debate catches the attention of Grassroot Institute. View their testimony on Page 6. Joe Kent investigates a questions on many people’s minds… “Why is rent so expensive in Maui?” on Page 3. Jim Wagoner offers insight into the school choice debate on Page 10. In This Issue: TPM Happenings Pg. 2 Local Issues Pg. 3 National Issues Pg. 9 January-February 2014 The voice of The TEA Party Maui In Support of a Fiscally Responsible, Constitutionally Limited Government & a Free Market Economy Volume 4, Issue 1 By Valerie Sisneros TEA Party Maui was pleased to host Dr. Keli’i Akina and Dick Rowland from Grassroot Institute of Hawaii (GRI) on Oahu for our January meeting. GRI is Hawaii’s public policy think tank and is linked with groups like CATO Institute and the Heritage Foundation. We always enjoy having them bring their ideas and passion for liberty across the pond to share with us. Dick Rowland, former president and founder of GRI gave a brief talk about how we the people have failed in our responsibility to hold elected officials accountable. He stated that although we have 100 years of atrophy behind us, that the power of the people is still there. He encouraged the Tea Party to go to meetings with elected officials and remind them about the Declaration of Independence and that the main purpose of their positions is to represent the people. He feels that the first and foremost job of the Tea Party is education: educating ourselves about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Secondly, it is our responsibility to train others. He prompted members to “Get off your a** and get on your horse!”. Mr. Rowland reminded the crowd that it doesn’t matter what party is in power, there has been out of control spending for the last 100 years He stated that the bigger part we play in the governing process, the smaller the government gets. He compared the struggle for smaller government to “climbing up the down staircase”, because the down staircase has been blocked by the onslaught of progressive policies. Dick expressed his belief that the answer to all of our challenges is in the Declaration of Independence because it provided the purpose, vision, and principles for our new nation and these ideas are still relevant today. The job of “We the People” is to form the government by electing and policing our elected officials. The Tea Party came out of nowhere because of big government intrusion. Dick believes in the “Power of You, 2 by 2”, which means if each one of us could bring just two people into the movement each year, we could comprise the majority within five years. Next, the current GRI president, Dr. Keli’i Akina expressed his belief that (Continued on page 2) Grassroot Institute on Maui TPM Welcomes Dick Rowland and Dr. Akina Dr. Keli’i Akina (above) and Dick Rowland (below) speak at the January TPM Meeting.
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Pono Press, January-February 2014, Page 1
Highlights and Spotlights:
Would you like to hear talks from
business leaders or conservative journalists? TEA Party Maui meetings have all that and more! Visit Page 2 for the upcoming schedule.
Lee Aldridge covers some recent
exciting local conservative meetings. Don’t miss the news on Page 4.
A Maui County debate catches the
attention of Grassroot Institute. View their testimony on Page 6.
Joe Kent investigates a questions on
many people’s minds… “Why is rent so expensive in Maui?” on Page 3.
Jim Wagoner offers insight into the
school choice debate on Page 10.
In This Issue:
TPM Happenings Pg. 2
Local Issues Pg. 3
National Issues Pg. 9
J a n u a r y - F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4
The voice of The TEA
Party Maui In
Support of a
Fiscally Responsible,
Constitutionally
Limited Government
& a Free Market
Economy
V o l u m e 4 , I s s u e 1
By Valerie Sisneros
TEA Party Maui was pleased to host Dr. Keli’i Akina and Dick Rowland from Grassroot Institute of Hawaii (GRI) on Oahu for our January meeting. GRI is Hawaii’s public policy think tank and is linked with groups like CATO Institute and the Heritage Foundation. We always enjoy having them bring their ideas and passion for liberty across the pond to share with us. Dick Rowland, former president and founder of GRI gave a brief talk about how we the people have failed in our responsibility to hold elected officials accountable. He stated that although we have 100 years of atrophy behind us, that the power of the people is still there. He encouraged the Tea Party to go to meetings with elected officials and remind them about the Declaration of Independence and that the main purpose of their positions is to represent the people. He feels that the first and foremost job of the Tea Party is education: educating ourselves about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Secondly, it is our responsibility to train others. He prompted members to “Get off your a** and get on your horse!”. Mr. Rowland reminded the crowd that it doesn’t matter what party is in power, there has been out of control spending for the last 100 years He stated that the bigger part we play in the governing process, the smaller the government gets. He compared the struggle for smaller government to “climbing up the down staircase”, because the down staircase has been blocked by the onslaught of progressive policies. Dick expressed his belief that the answer to all of our challenges is in the Declaration of Independence because it provided the purpose, vision, and principles for our new nation and these ideas are still relevant today. The job of “We the People” is to form the government by electing and policing our elected officials. The Tea Party came out of nowhere because of big government intrusion. Dick believes in the “Power of You, 2 by 2”, which means if each one of us could bring just two people into the movement each year, we could comprise the majority within five years. Next, the current GRI president, Dr. Keli’i Akina expressed his belief that
(Continued on page 2)
Grassroot Institute on Maui TPM Welcomes Dick Rowland and Dr. Akina
Dr. Keli’i Akina (above) and
Dick Rowland (below) speak
at the January TPM Meeting.
Pono Press, January-February 2014, Page 2
TPM HAPPENINGS
the Tea Party philosophy is the right philosophy, because it is based on the Declaration of Independence and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He reminded us that it is the duty of the people to set the government right, and that change in the world by begins with change in our neighborhoods. Dr. Akina told us that to implement change, it is critical to understand the power structure, which is a triangle of monopolistic control. One side of this triangle is the oligopoly of business which includes a monopoly over labor, education, power, and shipping. Another side is the Central Government control which is funded by big business, which then supplies legislation to protect big business. He said that venture capital has all but dried up in Hawaii, much of this due to the Superferry fiasco, whose failure is used as an example worldwide for not investing private money in Hawaii. The third side of this triangle is the power shift by the takeover of land, money, assets, and autonomy under the Akaka bill. GRI has been very vocal about defeating the Akaka bill and the dangers of this legislation. We heard quite a bit about the Jones Act, the 1920 shipping law enacted to protect U.S. ship builders when we were #1 in this industry. As most of you know, this law requires that any ships transporting goods to and from Hawaii must be built and owned by U.S. companies, fly the U.S. flag, and the crew must be at least 75% American. This federal statute, which is not regulated by the PUC, has done damage to the state and to the industry by coddling it and ruining productivity. By 2010, the U.S. had become one of the smallest ship builders in the world. The Jones Act has also driven costs up tremendously. Matson currently pays around $200 million per ship in the US, when they would be able to buy 2 or 3 ships elsewhere for that amount. Singapore is the largest shipping hub for world trade today. Alaska has quite a few exemptions from this law and although some
Hawaii lawmakers (Lingle), have attempted to get exemptions for our state, to date we are still held hostage by this statute which allows the monopolies and government stay in power. Dr. Akina referred to it as “the Mother of all protectionism”. The solutions he offered included: repeal, the Supreme Court, exemptions, dismantling, and most importantly—informing the public about how bad the Jones Act is for Hawaii. He stressed that exemptions, and informing the public are the most likely paths to success. Next, Dr. Akina spoke more about the Akaka Bill, which is designed to build a political government for the Hawaiian People. He feels that the government creating a race-based nation is not a good idea and that it violates the principle that All men are created equal, and the Constitution. GRI says that we should protect ALL peoples. Dr. Akina brought up the example of the Indian reservations and how they benefit the tribal leaders, not the tribes. Dr. Akina concluded his talk with a plan to “Win the Battle”:
Be constructive, not destructive by having solutions and not just negativity, to bring along the hearts and minds of the public.
Earn a seat at the table. Current decisions are made by whoever we put in power 20+ years ago. Put your money and time into candidates who can present the best plans. Do not promote one-issue candidates, but the interests of the economy and the broad public.
Unify the people and de-politicize the issues. Just do Good and Right. The greatest good for the greatest number of people.
The final thought was that you owe it to your philosophy to KNOW how to WIN!!
(Grassroot Institute on Maui, Continued from page 1)
Upcoming Speakers for TPM General Meetings Our speaker for the February 13th general meeting will be Maui Chamber of Commerce President Pamela Tumpap.
Pamela will speak about what the Maui Chamber is doing towards building and maintaining a free market culture on
Maui and how local business owners and concerned citizens can assist in these efforts.
Our speaker for the March 13th general meeting will be Hawaii Free Press Editor Andrew Walden. Andrew will
speak about how TPM and conservatives in general can deal with the obvious bias of the mainstream media. He will
also address how TPM members can more effectively engage in activism for conservative issues.
Both meetings will be held at Kalama Heights in Kihei in the Garden Room (101 Kanani Rd.) at 6:30 pm. Please call
The Maui County GMO Issue By Lee Aldridge The latest news is that the Maui County Council is considering some kind of government enforced GMO labeling or even an outright ban of GMO foods similar to, if not exactly the same as an ordinance passed by the Kauai County Council a short time ago. When you read the local news or the free left- leaning diatribes (MoveOn.org supports the ban on GMO foods) or food/recipe/cooking pamphlets at the various health food stores, you will be overwhelmed with negative press about the health and safety of GMO foods. At the same time, if you really are concerned about it, you will already find that almost all health food stores carry many products labeled as GMO-free. Why bring big brother government into the picture? TEA Party Maui members have their own diverse opinions about the GMO issue, so I think it is worthwhile to hear what one conservative voice has to say about it.
Grassroot Institute Testimony to Maui Council on GMOs
Maui Council: Please Protect Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers from Anti-GMO Hype Campaign
January 27, 2014 To: Maui Council PIA Committee RE: PIA 58 From: Keli’i Akina, Ph.D.President GRI Hawaii Aloha Council Committee Members, Fact – There is no conclusive scientific evidence that human beings have been harmed by the genetic modification of food crops. Moreover, anti-GMO activists have failed to produce even one peer-reviewed, scientifically accepted study demonstrating any health risk from GMOs. In spite of these facts, Hawaii agriculture is being forced through a gauntlet of wild-eyed accusations. Anti-GMO leaders have threatened farmers and, in Big Island papaya fields, it appears that some may have acted on those threats. Now these same activists are demanding that Maui County require farmers to submit reams of triplicative (Federal, State, County) pesticide paperwork on pain of thousands of dollars in daily fines levied against any who fall short. Maui County Council is being asked to pass a bill copied almost word-for-word from an ordinance enacted November 16, 2013 by veto override vote of the Kauai Council. The Kauai ordinance has already landed Kauai County in court. The legislature is now considering HB2506 and SB3058 to strip counties of any authority they may imagine they have over pesticide use and GMO crop production. A lengthy legal opinion drafted by the Kauai County Attorney and released October 31, 2013, outlines the flaws in their bill–yet in both the original and amended versions, the Maui Council is being
asked to follow the same ineffectual path towards triple-regulation of agriculture. Why? In a December 31, 2013 column, former Honolulu Advertiser reporter Joan Conrow describes a conversation with anti-GMO Kauai Councilmember Gary Hooser in which he gives the answer: “…the movement was orchestrated by mainland groups that funneled in money, expertise, activists, and infiltrators, playing Kauai as a pawn in a bigger battle. That’s why Gary told me it didn’t matter if the bill was never enforced — all that mattered was getting it passed.” This so-called protest movement is really a new kind of ad campaign. Instead of buying ad time on TV, ‘organic’ and ‘natural supplements’ industry leaders abuse the democratic process for their money-making scheme. They are paying local mis-leaders hundreds of thousands of dollars to generate protest hype as an advertising tool to herd consumers into overpriced ‘organic’ stores. The Star-Advertiser, January 13, 2014 reports Hawaii anti-GMO activists have received over $373,000 in Mainland funding. Forbes Magazine, October 2, 2013, points out tens of thousands of dollars of illegal mainland political contributions to anti-GMO leader Walter Ritte’s failed 2012 OHA campaign. The article is aptly titled: “Hawaii anti-GMO activists rely on Mainland Millionaires for ‘Grassroots’ campaign.” How much organic marketing hype is out there? The January 4, 2014 New York Times requires 5,500 words to tell the story of Hawaii County Councilman Greggor Ilagan as he struggles to investigate anti-GMO claims. One-by-one, every single claim is debunked. Does this ad campaign work? Anti-GMO State Senator Russell Ruderman of Puna, himself the owner of a so-called natural foods store, in a January 22, 2014 Civil Beat column admits: “Today, the biggest driver of organic food’s growth is the desire to avoid GMOs.” A New York Times article, March 8, 2013, explains: “A. C. Gallo, president of Whole Foods, said … ‘We’ve seen how our customers have responded to the products we do have labeled (GMO-free). Some of our manufacturers say they’ve seen a 15 percent increase in sales of products they have labeled.’” The Maui Council is being asked to suppress one of Hawaii’s few non-tourism growth industries. It is not the business of government to pick winners and make Hawaii agriculture into losers by participating in a marketing effort designed to benefit multi-billion dollar mainland corporations. Maui Councilmembers can reject misuse of the democratic process for advertising hype by voting “No” on any version of the Kauai bill. Reprinted with permission from Grassroot Institute http://new.grassrootinstitute.org/
I'm paying $1000 a month to live in a tiny studio on the
west side of Maui. This is comparable to rent in New York
City, except that gas and groceries are cheaper in New
York. Why is rent so expensive on Maui? I decided to find
out.
Ask anyone and they'll know the answer, "It's because of
greed. Landlords are just too greedy on Maui." But
landlords are greedy all over the world, and they have
been since the dawn of time. It must be something else.
In 2006, the County Council of Maui enacted the
"Workforce Housing Policy", which was supposed to
increase housing for residents, but did exactly the
opposite. The law says that anyone who wants to build
an apartment must make 50% of it affordable housing.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
But not if you are a developer. 50% is -- half your
property! Under the new 50% rule, it's unprofitable for
developers to build any apartments at all -- especially if
half their renters qualify as affordable. So developers just
decide not to build any apartments at all.
A real estate expert on Maui said, "It's a classic case of a
well intended law meeting the law of unintended
consequences. I've been told by developers that between
the red tape, inconsistencies with the permitting process,
and the 'affordable housing' requirements many of the
developers have elected to build elsewhere."
David Cailles, a law professor at UH Manoa said, "It
makes more financial sense for a landowner to build
relatively expensive condominium apartments for sale
than apartments for rent . . . only the most expensive
projects could afford such high percentages of workforce
housing." In other words, it's cheaper to just build hotels
and golf courses.
Another reason that apartments on
Maui are so expensive are zoning laws.
Apartments can only be built in
apartment zones. It could take more
than 10 years just to get approval for an
apartment building on Maui -- and after
all that waiting, it might not be approved!
No wonder there aren't any places to rent on Maui!
The solution? Get rid of the zoning requirements, and
especially the 50% "Workforce Housing Policy". This
would do wonders for lowering rents across Maui.
Without all those restrictions, developers might find it
profitable to build enough apartments to compete again.
Rents would fall, and the local people might actually have
a place to live again. Let's not forget that the apartment
complex that I live in, Sunset Terrace, houses 288 rentals
on just a tiny 6 acres of land. For another 6 acres, that
could be doubled, and rent would fall. This would only
take up .00001% of Maui.
To summarize: Rent is expensive on Maui because there
aren't enough apartments. There aren't enough
apartments because of all the regulations and red tape,
like the "Workforce Housing Policy", and zoning laws,
which can take 10 years to approve.
One landlord replied, "I would also add that due to the
high prices of mortgages, property taxes, condo
association fees, repairs, upgrades and utilities, we as
landlords have no choice but to rent out our properties as
vacation rentals. Either that or go broke. I would like
nothing better than to rent to one party for a long term
rental. Unfortunately, market forces will not allow that to
happen. It leaves the Maui residents in a lousy
predicament. ~An ethical and honest landlord."
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Schatz isn’t paid to fight against the Tea Party
Submitted by Lisa Gapero to the Maui News
Senator Brian Schatz is advertising on TV for the
upcoming 2014 elections. He states that he is working
hard in D.C. on renewable and alternative energy.
That’s fine, but he goes on to state that he is fighting the
Tea Party. I’m a bit shocked. I didn’t know that was what
we paid him for. As a founding member of the Maui Tea
Party, I was taken back by this. Is he opposed to fiscal
responsibility, limited government, or freedom of speak
and thought? Hey, I bet he wants higher taxes. We do
not want higher taxes to pay for failing government and
over-reaching programs. Our government is wasting
loads of our tax money.
I want to invite Schatz and everyone else to a Tea Party
event or monthly meeting. All are welcome. We are your
neighbors, co-workers, and longtime taxpayers. We are
Americans who don’t agree with the direction we see our
country going.
Personally, I have paid taxes for more than four decades
and have lost faith in this big government direction we
are going in. Limiting government intrusion in our lives is
healthy. History tells us this. It creates innovation and
free markets, which are part of the American dream. I’d
like the next generations to enjoy what we have taken for
granted.
Pono Press, January-February 2014, Page 8
By Valerie Sisneros
I LOVED this book! I am a huge fan of James O’Keefe. He was brought into the spotlight when he presented Andrew Breitbart with his sting videos of the ACORN employees advising him on how to get taxpayer funding for his new business: Teenage Prostitution. Since then, he has amassed and released a collection of videos confirming the corruption and fraud at Planned Parenthood, NPR, Medicaid, the labor unions, The New Jersey Educational Association, and multiple instances of voter fraud, to name just a few. One of the most well-known videos is the sting where James hopes to prove to our esteemed U.S. Attorney General, that voter fraud does exist, despite Holder’s proclamation that this is a myth. Without showing voter ID, one of O’Keefe’s associates is offered Eric Holder’s ballot with very little prompting. This kid is so dedicated to getting out the truth and making a difference. He calls his organization Project Veritas, which is Latin for TRUTH. So far, he has enlisted about 25 other young videographers and citizen journalists, willing to pose as whatever character is needed to shed the light on as many of these corrupt enterprises as possible. Because of their dedication to the cause and fearless determination, in just 2013 some of the Project Veritas accomplishments have been: 4 Obamacare Navigators fired or suspended: 1-- Organizing for America and Enroll America directors to resign 1-- Congressional hearing exposing Obamacare Navigator fraud 1-- National retraining of all Obamacare Navigators 3-- Obamaphone employees fired and FCC warnings to Obamaphone carriers, demanding income verification Removal of the Journal News’ Gun-Owner Map and the firing of 17 of their employees. The Voter ID law in North Carolina being signed into law Congress has blocked funding for ACORN 13 times, to date This is just a sampling of the impact that this young patriot has made in a short time. He is regularly and viciously attacked by the media that fails to do the job of reporting on these crimes, and he is constantly under scrutiny by the powers that be. He was arrested and held, and then restricted from traveling outside of Louisiana for 3 years. This happened while working on a sting video that went awry. This project was an attempt to prove that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu was purposely blocking access to Tea Party members who were trying to call her in opposition to Obamacare. The details of this fiasco are an entertaining read, as is the entire book. One of my favorite parts was when he had two young men pose as rich Muslim Brotherhood men who were expressing interest in giving $5 million to NPR, to offset the threat of Republican defunding and to keep NPR on air, since “the Jews control the rest of the media”. The NPR execs were anxious to take the bait since, in their opinion, the (R) party has been hi-jacked by the “radical, racist, Islamophobic, Tea Party people”. The day after the release of this video, the NPR CEO was forced out of her job. My favorite quote from the book was “People think you need talent to do what we do. No, what you really need is the will to act and the resolve to follow through. Willpower and courage--these are the most important qualities…” I do not want to give too much info about this book, JUST READ IT! It will make you mad, make you smile, and probably want to do all you can to cheer on these brave, young citizen journalists. I am always happy to see my belief once again validated, that one person CAN make a difference. Even if you do not have time to read the book, please check out O’Keefe’s website at ProjectVeritas.com to see what he is up to next. You can sign up for updates and yes, he will be asking for funds to finance his projects. But, in my opinion, this is one cause that is not only important, but fun to support. Go get ‘em James!!
Milwaukee city officials are working together to block high-performing private and charter schools from buy-ing vacant, unused schools buildings that the city owns. Their stubborn-ness is costly to taxpayers and even more costly for the city's children. Milwaukee's public schools are in crisis. Statewide, it is Wisconsin's "only" failing school district. Just 16% of their fourth-graders are profi-cient in reading and only 4% of black eighth-graders can do math at an acceptable level, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Sadly, only 62% of high-school students graduate in four years. One alternative for parents is school choice. More than 25,000 children in Milwaukee take advantage of state government-provided scholarships of $6,442 to select a school that best meets their individual needs. In the-ory, this would allow the high-performing schools to prosper and the failing school to close. The pro-gram is gaining popularity, and last year it was expanded to include an-other 500 students. Teacher’s un-ions, state bureaucrats and the far left have campaigned vigorously for years to shut down the school-choice program and preserve the public-school monopoly. These attempts have failed. Now they are trying to block schools in the choice program from expanding. In 1998, there were 98,185 students enrolled in Milwaukee's public schools. Today there are roughly 71,304 students enrolled. The re-sults: According to records, the city currently owns at least 15 unused buildings, which cost taxpayers more than $1.4 million each year to main-tain. These buildings do not have to
sit idle. A recent release by the Wis-consin Institute for Law & Liberty concludes that, based on school dis-trict records and interviews, private and public charter schools have in-quired about purchasing or leasing every one of them. Instead, Milwau-kee, in an arbitrary administrative policy, prohibits private schools in the choice program and for-profit public schools from purchasing or leasing empty school buildings. The few buildings that have been sold have a restrictive deed on the building to prevent the buyer from ever selling them to a choice-school. The monopoly mind-set behind this policy was eloquently expressed by Milwaukee Public School Board pres-ident, Michael Bonds. When asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a proposal to compel Milwau-kee Public Schools to sell their un-used buildings to choice schools, he proclaimed that it would be "like ask-ing the Coca-Cola Company to turn over its facilities to Pepsi so that Pepsi can expand and compete with the Coca-Cola Company”. St. Marcus, a private Lutheran school in the choice program, has cracked
the code for urban-education suc-cess. Even though 90% of its 730 students are from low-income fami-lies, more than 91% graduate from high school in four years or less. Last summer St. Marcus offered more than $1 million to purchase an
abandoned school building conven-iently located on the same block as its main campus. St Marcus would also invest more than $5 million into the neighborhood, hire hundreds, and more importantly provide 600 new children with a top-quality edu-cation. Milwaukee's deputy commis-sioner of the Department of City De-velopment sent an email to St. Mar-cus stating “Choice schools are not eligible to purchase vacant MPS property”. Education is the great driver of up-ward social mobility, and school choice gives children the freedom to leave failing schools. No one should be sentenced to a life of poverty simply because he or she was born in a ZIP Code that is full of bad schools. Shame on the Milwaukee teachers, unions, and elected offi-cials. They have completely aban-doned their charge.
“Education is the great “Education is the great
driver of upward social driver of upward social
mobility, and school choice mobility, and school choice
gives children the freedom gives children the freedom
to leave failing schools.” to leave failing schools.”