Following the news that Sen. Daniel Akaka will not seek re-election comes word that Eric Shinseki, the retired U.S. Army General who now serves as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, plans to run.
The news was broken in an exclusive by Veterans Today:
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Shinseki has informed his private staff he plans to resign his post and run for the Senate seat to be vacated by Daniel Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii. Shinseki is considered a “shoo in” with no strong opposition in place.
We heard his talk, we heard his promises and we waited. While Shinseki met with the lobbyists and phonies, America’s vets suffered and died. Those that spoke up were investigated and jailed.
Shinseki took over Veterans Affairs at the lowest point in its history, underfunded, totally corrupt, medical system in collapse, two wars going and over a million vets queued for disability processing.
Two years later and 80% of the Bush disaster is still in place and Shinseki considers his job done. We disagree, he has yet to begin.
Well, it may be that he doesn’t consider his job done, he just wants a different one — one with more perks, more power, more acclaim and a lot more flower lei.
Meanwhile, I'm thinking it will speak volumes about Hawaii's role in the overall scheme of things if we end up with two hard-core military guys as our senators. It really locks in the occupation, if you know what I mean.
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Shinseki was born and raised on Kauai and is well known. He probably did his best at the VA but sounds like his best was not good enough. Shinseki has no legislative experience so I am not sure he is the best person for the job.
But he has the ethnic appeal from those who vote!
In regard to the ethnic appeal, if Shinseki became senator, all four of our Congressional representatives would be of Japanese decent. I think there should be more diversity from our delegation. Just saying...
Funny you should say that. All of our Kauai representatives to the state legislature are of Japanese descent. Kouchi, Morita, Tokioka, and Morikawa. Hmmmmmm.
Ah, check your facts. Mina Morita is Hawaiian as is Tokioka.
The elected reflect those that vote, no mystery or shame in that. Fortunately, democracy still works (mostly) in the outlying provinces, and probably better than in the mainland corporate and corrupt centers of power on the mainland. That's one thing I still like about Kaua'i, the politics are still real and meaningful--even if you're not on the winning side.
As for "occupation," I want to spread the idea that it would be much easier to de-colonoalize Kaua'i (or maybe Maui) than the whole state. It's not just the legacy of the separate kingdom and all, but from a practical and military sense. PMRF would be our Guantanamo, hopefully with better rent (though the Cubans never cash the rent checks because that would legitimize the occupation).
That said, I wonder how compatible paragraph number one is with paragraph number two. I'm a home owner on Kaua'i, raising a family here, and haole if you haven't guessed, and I'd love to see some form of sovereignty, independence even (hey, decolonialization has happened all over the world, from Ireland to East Timor), but I'd hate to see it all turn into some petty and corrupt third world country. It's not that I have so little faith in the Hawaiians or ill will, it is just a really hard thing to do right. I think it was some Algerian general who said somthing like "France left us standing at the edge of a cliff; we jumped."
I would love to see a rational, logical, and plausible timeline or story for decolonialization of Kaua'i. Of course, it has to be peaceful too. Something along the lines of: Kaho'olawe, you've got to be kidding, we'll take Kaua'i, resettle all the Kanakas there, and respect the residents who respect us. I would really like people to focus on a real story, not get divided by the colonial Akaka Bill-type colonialism.
Tokyo has radioactive water! Wow! Imagine if the political and financial heart of the country with the third largest economy in the world becomes uninhabitable.
Sorry if that last comment was out of context because General Shinseki had nothing to do with what is happening in Japan. I'd vote for him because he told the truth about Iraq. Hope he's not a cog in the military industrial arms machine.
Morita is not in the State Legislature :(
Turns out he's not running after all, according to Inouye's office, as reported by Civil Beat: http://bit.ly/exZClu Tammy Duckworth, while still ex-military, would be less hardcore and an interesting contender, imho.
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