Big protest over on Kauai, where a developer is desecrating a graveyard with 48 burials by building a house on top of the remains.

It rained, and Palikapu [Dedman] invited the cops to come under the tarp that protected a picnic table from the elements. "Come inside, we’re not enemies," Palikapu said. "No, none of us are enemies," a cop replied, smiling, and he joined the protestors under the tarp. [Stand-Off Ends in Stand Down at Naue, KauaiEclectic, 8/7/2008]

Remember Seattle? Remember mass arrests at national party conventions?

Yes, today’s protestors came prepared to be arrested. Instead, they shared their tent with the cops.

Only in Hawaii, I think, and it’s something I hope is never lost.

Hawaii has had a $1000 cap on corporate campaign contributions which has made many lawmakers unhappy. The cap was very effective. For example between 2004 and 2005, before the cap took effect, Republican Governor Linda Lingle raised almost $1 million, but in 2006, with the $1,000 cap in place, she could rake in only $100,000, which is significant because 2006 was an election year, when the fundraising amounts are usually higher.

So this session lawmakers have determined to remove the cap. In a directed vote at yesterday's House Judiciary committee, they got halfway there. The rest of the deed may be accomplished today in the Senate.

Unless there is enough outrage to stop it.

The fate of the Superferry (and of course, whales and invasive species) rides with whatever action the State Legislature will take in the special session just convened this morning.

But, like a circus, this event has at least three rings.

Who would believe. If you've been following the saga of the Honolulu Zoo's missing meerkat, you'll remember that the story ended with speculation over whether the state legislature would hold a special session.

Thanks to the Superferry, the meerkat could be on Kauai now, where it would be an invasive specie (species?), dining on creatures that had no natural enemies before. The special session is designed to overrule environmental protections currently in place that now protect the delicate ecosystem of Kauai and the other Neighbor Islands so that the Superferry can operate. And it's a crying shame.

Press coverage of the mysterious disappearance of Hulu, a meerkat until recently residing at the Honolulu Zoo, has been overshadowed in the face of mounting tensions surrounding successful court challenges to the sailing of the Hawaii Superferry without completion of an environmental assessment.

Could Hulu's disappearance be related to the formation of a militarized "unified command" by Hawaii's Republican governor, Linda Lingle, designed to deal harshly with peaceful protests expected if the ferry should sail prior to completing an EA?

The "drug war" in Hawaii, as elsewhere, depends on keeping the populace in a state of fear. In order to do their work, drug warriors have to convince us (and the state legislature) that Hawaii is in the grips of a crime wave, or a drug epidemic, or that our children are about to be turned into addicts who stash illicit drugs or alcohol in their school lockers or in their backpacks.

In the latest skirmish, Honolulu city prosecutor Peter Carlisle ignored Hawaii's very favorable drug statistics to smear the state with bad national numbers.

The trouble is, many readers will believe him.

In today's corporate politics it's fashionable to blame the abandonment of traditional quality control precautions on tainted food products or hazardous toys made in China. This is shifting the blame, pure and simple. Not that Chinese manufacturers are innocent, their actions ought to be (and certainly are) criminal. But after years of looking the other way instead of testing and monitoring, American companies that have filled store shelves with these products should not be allowed to point the finger overseas and get themselves off the hook.

Quite the opposite--their profits and obscene executive salaries have been derived, it seems, by looking the other way when they should have been paying special attention to assuring the quality of products sourced overseas. The propensity of certain countries in Asia to adulterate food and other products is well known.

The problem isn't limited to pet food. Let's look at some of the ingredients in health food still on the shelves.

A tragic case of alleged child abuse and torture extending over the span of many years is unfolding in Hawaii's newspapers right now. A 12-year-old girl who was locked away at home in a state of starvation was discovered this past January by paramedics to be weighing only 50 pounds and almost unresponsive. She had been the subject of a Child Protective Services investigation in 2000 which was closed without followup. It turns out that relatives were aware of the situation and tried to intervene, but wouldn't call CPS to get help for the girl.

The parents were indicted this month on a charge of second-degree murder.

The case inevitibly raises questions of whether Hawaii's Department of Human Services has corrected long-standing problems with its child welfare services.

It's sad that these questions are raised, it seems, only when a tragic case comes to light. But at least they are being asked now, in the blogs, if not yet in the daily papers.

Strong language? Not really. The strong language was the governor's.

Pedestrians will be the losers in Hawaii unless dangerous intersections identified by an AARP survey in May, 2006 are corrected. The carnage has escalated until Hawaii now occupies the top of the list in elderly pedestrian deaths. Yup, it's no Paradise if you're crossing the street in Honolulu, the Big Island, or elswhere. AARP volunteers spread out and surveyed individual intersections in the hopes that the government would step in and correct them. That was more than a year ago. It seems that nothing has been done, and now the governor says she will not release funds appropriated by the state legislature from the highway fund to make the needed corrections. Go figure.

Hawaii's press has turned a blind eye towards the questionable activities of the state's governor on her trip to Indonesia this week. Even as Governor Lingle promises close cooperation with the hated TNI, the Indonesian military, the US House, according to foreign press reports, is considering cutting off military aid because of the TNI's human rights abuses.

Since there could be retaliation against Hawaii should it assist the Indonesian military, the question I have remains: Why is she doing this?

It appears that Hawaii's Republican governor Linda Lingle may be on a mission to further military cooperation between the US and Indonesia, a role that should properly fall to the White House or the State Department. The meetings she is holding during her trip to Jakarta imply close cooperation between Lingle and Washington, although her travels are on Hawaii's nickel.

And the military arrangements she is discussing could transform Hawaii from a tropical paradise into a terrorist target.

Who would think that a person often dismissed as "an eccentric real estate tycoon" would be responsible for an experiment that brings into play social issues such as race, class, occupation, overthrow, and even--it's not much of a stretch--reparations?

It's happening in Hawaii, a state that many people look upon as a true melting pot, but which is divided cruelly by its legacy of illegal overthrow, illegal annexation, and probably illegal statehood. All at the cost, of course, of the original residents who chose not to fight what would have been a bloody and losing war, and who are now confined to the margins of society.

The experiment: Genshiro Kawamoto has made his properties in a rich and (formerly) exclusive neighborhood available to low-income Native Hawaiian renters.

It seemed during the run up to the Iraq war that the invasion was led not by troops but by the drumbeat of New York Times articles. There was a sort of "mea culpa" long after the articles had their effect and after things had already started to go very wrong with the occupation. Public sentiment had switched against the war before the Times moved to admit, partially, their role in it all.

They're off again, creating a special "New York Times" version of foreign policy, with today's coverage of President Bush's visit to South America.

In a debate held at the University of Hawaii law school last week, Lt. Ehren Watada's attorney called for President Bush to pay for his acts, including, as the law requires, the ultimate penalty.

Will Eric Seitz's courage inspire others to openly discuss what has been simmering in the background for so long?

So you thought you understood why a mistrial was declared by Lt. Col. John Head on February 7, 2007? Prof. Francis Boyle reveals the hidden story of why the court martial was aborted just before Lt. Watada would have taken the stand.

Of course, the government couldn't let Watada speak. Confirm your own suspicions or trade them for new ones. Read Prof. Boyle's explanation of what happened.

Thanks to today's edition of Undernews for this intriguing story: Woman who ran escort service may sell phone records to pay legal fees. It seems that a Washington, DC area escort service owner, Deborah Jean Palfrey, has been accused of running a money-laundering scheme from her Washington-based prostitution business, according to court records. To raise money for her legal defense, she has proposed to sell the phone records from the business--13 years of detailed records.

A report by University of Hawaii Economist Lawrence W. Boyd, just release by the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, concludes that the $10 million spent on enforcement has failed to reduce the availability of marijuana in Hawaii:

...in fact, marijuana prices have dropped, indicating efforts to restrict supply through law enforcement have failed. Approximately 65 percent of marijuana cases are dismissed, not prosecuted, or stricken, making the risk of arrest or punishment for marijuana use low.

Proponents of clean elections have been working hard in Hawaii, as elsewhere across the country, to get bills through the state legislature. This year looked very promising. Both House and Senate bills advanced nicely.

That is, until this morning. By apparently breaking the Senate's own rules, a committee chair has gutted the bill and replaced it with unrelated text.

Can this be the end? No. The movement is too strong to die now.