1) When Dan Inouye was dying, he sent a letter to governor Neil Abercrombie begging him to appoint Colleen Hanabusa as his replacement in the US Senate.
Abercrombie decided to appoint his Lt Gov. Brian Schatz instead.
Some Inouye's fans were upset that Abercrombie didn't fulfill Inouye's request.
But you know what?
Neither Inouye nor Abercrombie should be allowed to appoint the replacement senator.
The voters should have voted for Inouye's replacement.
Here's a great editorial on the issue
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171918/no-senator-republican-or-democrat-should-serve-appointment
One new senator, Tim Scott, has been appointed by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, rather than elected by the people of that state. Another senator will be appointed by Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Dan Inouye. A third is expected to be appointed byMassachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to replace secretary of state–nominee John Kerry.
These appointed senators will be powerful players. They will have critical roles in deciding whether to approve or reject cabinet nominees and Supreme Court selections, they will vote on tax policies and budget measures, they will decide whether to send the United States over a “fiscal cliff”—or off to war. But they will do so without democratic legitimacy.
No member of Congress should serve without having been elected by the people of the district or state they represent.
Unfortunately, the new Senate will have at least three members who serve not as representatives but as mandarins—appointees assigned to positions by governors who have assumed unreasonable authority.
What all this means is that more laws will be proposed, more filibusters will be broken, more critical votes will be tipped in one direction or another by “senators” who never earned a single vote.
2) Another Inouye related topic
People looked to Inouye as "The Man" because "he brings federal dollars to Hawaii"
But with the loss of Inouye (to death) and to Dan Akaka (to retirement), Hawaii will no longer have such access to seniority in Congress, and the worry is Hawaii might lose out to federal funding.
What people in Hawaii need to start realizing is that it is more important for Hawaii to attract private investments than to attract federal funding!
Private investments create more jobs than government spending. Government spending is just money TAKEN from the private sector.
Hawaii shouldn't be so dependent on having one old guy in Congress!
Plus, federal funding requires that Dan Inouye also votes for projects in other states too! After all, Congress doesn't just give Hawaii money out of the goodness of their hearts. It's "favor for a favor". That means, if Inouye wants money for Hawaii's projects, he better vote for projects in Massachussetts and West Virginia and Vermont and .......................................etc, etc. That means we end up paying higher taxes in the long run, just for the prestige of having an "old man who brings the federal funds"
With more private investments, Hawaii grows a bigger pie to fund its projects on its own, instead of just relying on just one (or two) old guys in Congress.
3) Al Gore and oil
Former VP Al Gore has done a lot of things since he lost the 2000 elections.
He became a speaker for environmental causes, with his main speaking point being "we use too much fossil fuels, and that is contributing to global warming".
He also started a cable station named "Current".
Well, Current has been struggling to get ratings.
So guess what Al Gore is doing to Current?
He sold Current to the guys running Al Jazeera, a popular Middle Eastern news station based in Qatar!
So Mister "we should stop our massive use of fossil fuels" is selling his TV station to a bunch of guys who made their billions from .......................................the massive use of fossil fuels!
It is not the first time Algore (this is how Limbaugh spells the name) act in a hypocritical manner.
Al Gore was a flip-flopper before John Kerry and Mitt Romney made it an art form.
Al Gore went from being pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay (back when he was running for office in Tennessee in the 1970s) to an anti-gun, pro-abortion, pro-gay when he was running as the Democrat presidential nominee in 2000!
People saw Algore as a phony in 2000, and they were tired of it!
Algore had a great economy of the Clinton years to back him up! But his persona irritated people to the point that Algore lost a close election to George W Bush (who ironically was the son of the man Clinton/Gore beat in 1992).
That was a political failure of epic proportions!
