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Politics, Commentary
Politics, Commentary Tuesday
21Nov
Opihikao voters on dope?
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 03:27PM A huge gust of hot air blew in from the online Hawaii Reporter Monday in an article suggesting "high levels of drug abuse" in Opihikao as the reason voters there rejected Linda Lingle at the polls on Nov. 7. Andrew Walden writes:
"Lingle’s weakest totals come from precincts with high levels of drug abuse such as Puna’s Opihikao precinct 04-07 which gave the governor 33 percent, down from 46 percent in 2002."
What an outrageous and gratuitous slur on the community and its voters.
Walden's convoluted post-election analysis tries, I think, to make the point that union voters broke free of the shackles and chains once placed upon them by union bosses, rose up en masse and helped re-elect Linda Lingle governor. But by the end of the article it seems once again that Hawaii is governed by union dictatorship that suppresses voter turnout yet sends masses of hypnotized members to do its dastardly bidding at the polls, and that to stop this the government must clamp-down on unions' rights to make campaign donations.
Walden struggles with the subtleties of logic and argument but give him credit for the nailing down the obvious. With Lingle enjoying a huge war chest and incumbency against an uninspiring, little known and underfunded challenger, more people voted for her this time than last. Whooee. There's your scoop.
But maligning Opihikao is another thing. Walden provides no evidence, reference or link to back up the drug abuse allegation, only his suspicion perhaps that a majority of people in a precinct who choose not to vote his way must be drug abusers.
Puna has been freely associated with drug use and dubbed the "Wild, Wild West" and worse for too long and we no longer should quietly accept these senseless insults. Problems exist here like everywhere else. It doesn't mean voters are whacked out. And it's intellectually lazy and dishonest to substitute the tired old "they're all just drug addicts" stereotype for sound elections analysis. Walden should first explain why he linked this characterization of Opihikao to voters in the precinct. Then he should apologize.
The reason I surmise Walden isn't cheerier about the overall turnout for Lingle is that the same voters also decidedly put Democrats in office everywhere else, derailing the unions-in-lockstep argument. These voters are showing that they vote their own way and not according to the endorsements of union leaders. They choose candidates they like and that serve their interests. Most often they choose Democratic candidates who support and are supported by Hawaii's largest labor unions. Sometimes they choose Linda Lingle. But they are making their own choices.
And something like that could keep a person like Walden wake nights. I mean, after gleefully proclaiming that union voters have freed themselves, they are still out there voting overwhelmingly for Democrats.
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Reader Comments (12)
... the numbers are cruel.
Lingle spent $27 per vote / 19 times the money for less than twice the vote.
Awase spent $2.50 per vote
Lingle may be many things but she is not "efficient".
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2664.html
High in the sky above the Hawaiian islands flies a large ocean-faring bird that looks like a dinosaur. The male frigatebird has a split tail and wide, bat-like wings. It could well have flown in Jurassic Park.
If you take a journey with the frigatebird, cruising over the Pacific Ocean toward the Puna district of the state's "Big Island," you'd see why Hawaii is revered as sacred land, scenic paradise, and home to "Pakalolo," otherwise known as "crazy weed," or "marijuana."
Humpback whales and dolphins frolic in turquoise waters above colorful coral reefs growing on hardened lava flows inhabited by octopus, sponges, sea turtles, sharks, and multi-hued schools of tropical fish that appear as hallucinations of living rainbows....
Hawaii did not become a state until 1959, and in the islands flourishes a persistently angry native Hawaiian movement that wants Hawaii to again be a Kingdom instead of a vassal of the US. Many native Hawaiians say that growing Pakalolo would be legal in a restored Hawaiian kingdom.
As the frigatebird flies along the Puna coast, it hovers above Kehena Beach on Highway 137. Below, on a black sand crescent fringed by steep cliffs and coconut palms, locals and tourists of all descriptions cavort nude and nubile, smoking herb, doing yoga, making love, meditating, sleeping in the healing heat of sparkling crushed lava sand.
The beach and its courageous bodysurfer-athletes are pummeled by white-topped waves that often top ten feet high. Walls of water sweep swimmers seaward, then smash them back to shore, like a cat playing with a mouse.
Gilding the scene with avian symphony are parades of wild parrots, dashes of delight syncopating with the hypnotic sound of pounding surf and the pounding rhythms of sunset drum circle jam sessions.
On cliff tops, under coconut palms, on sun-seared lava rock in sun, in backyards, savannas, steamy rainforests, pineapple plantations, parks and sugar cane fields, near waterfalls and miles from nearest water, frigatebird sees green beacons of Pakalolo's serrated leaves photosynthesizing cannabinoids.
infernal center.
Pakalolo grows fast and strong year round, but the government has other ideas. As the frigatebird circles, it is caught in the rotors of an Operation Green Harvest anti-marijuana helicopter, and ripped to pieces.
The majestic bird's dying cries echo across the lava landscape as the copter crew speeds away, hell-bent on causing more pain elsewhere.
Aaron Anderson has felt government pain. In 1991, Anderson and fellow marijuana activist Roger Christie decided to participate in a government-sponsored agricultural conference.
Anderson was already an outspoken advocate of industrial hemp. Along with Christie and activist-businessman Dwight Kondo, he had created a hemp products store in the Puna district's favorite hippie town, Pahoa.
"We wanted to make hemp food products, so we ordered 500 pounds of sterilized hemp seed from China, via this Wisconsin company that had a license from the DEA to sterilize the seeds by steaming them," Anderson told me when I interviewed him in his futuristic fiberglass and shade cloth home located within wave-sound of Kehena Beach. "I had 25 pounds sent to me special for the conference and went to Hilo to pick 'em up. Two guys in Fed-Ex uniforms and sunglasses come up to the counter. I recognized them as undercover narks. They asked me if I knew what's in the box, and I said, 'Yeah, sterile hemp seeds, can't you see them spilling out of the corner?'"
Hawaii County narcotics officer Dennis De Morales confiscated Aaron's seeds and tried valiantly to make them sprout, but his horticultural efforts were pathetically unsuccessful. A tiny percentage of the steamed seeds did germinate, but they produced twisted, mutated plants that didn't much resemble marijuana.
Court records and other sources allege that there was a love affair between De Morales and Hawaii County Prosecutor Kay Iopa, who desperately wanted to prosecute Anderson. Credible allegations indicate that the pair's pillow talk included ways to make sterile seeds grow into illegal marijuana plants.
His days and nights are spent in fear, his ears attuned for copter cops and "rippers" – gangs of meth-headed kids affiliated with cops who come to steal what the cops can't find.
When copters fly near, he runs a circuit throwing foliage on top of grounded plants while hiding potted plants under shadecloth. When rippers come, he hides in old cane with a walkie talkie and a shotgun. When they hear him cocking the big gun, he says, they haul ass.
Mickey grows Blueberry, Bubbleberry, Big Bud crossed with White Rhino, and a local specialty called "Puna Budder." His plants thrive in a special mix of lava dust, seashell calcium, macadamia nut compost, and chicken manure.
He's showing me how to remove pesky "budworms" that eat into his phat flowers and lay eggs,
--Bob Marley
Koala-CPA..thanks for those stats.
Anon...please don't drive while on that stuff okay? Mahalo..
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061125_marijuana.htm
Maybe Hunter Bishop should apologize for implying something is wrong with a little dope once in a while?