Latest on Rail Controversy, Mufi’s Lie, The Payoff and More

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Panos Prevedouros, PHD
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BY PANOS PREVEDOUROS PHD –

ANNOUNCEMENT

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Smart Business Hawaii Monthly Sunrise Networking Breakfast Meeting with Panos Prevedouros – Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012.  Panos will discuss the new FAST transportation alternative program to the $9.03 billion Honolulu elevated rail.

Call Darlyn at SBH 396-1724 for reservations (darlyn@smartbusinesshawaii.com).

 

THE LATEST INFO ON RAIL

Will 28,000 people use the rail from Ewa and Ewa Beach to Town?

Kioni Dudley explains …

The Rail Emperor has no clothes (rail costs 5 times more than BRT)

Bus vs. Rail – 2007 Comparison and 2012 Opinion from Los Angeles

Fixing the Basics on Rail for Mr. Caldwell and Pro-rail Politicians.

 

THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR THE CANDIDATE AND NOT FOR THE PARTY

Thank you to all those conservatives, libertarians and republicans who support Gov. Ben Cayetano for Honolulu Mayor.

The majority of people in our state lean democrat and Ben is a democrat. So far so good.  Here is a problem as I see it: If you lean democrat, how much of the Dan Inouye / PRP / Pro Rail ticket will you vote for?

The pro-rail politicians up for election include Hirono for US Senate, Hanabusa for US House, and Fukunaga for City Council District 6.

If for the sake of fiscal sanity you vote for Ben Cayetano, and then you vote a full pro rail Hawaii delegation for Congress (that is, you chose to vote for the establishment power structure), what kind of political situation are you creating?  A lose-lose situation comes to mind.

Mazie Hirono is clearly a political party representative and a power game player. Her value to Hawaii has been minimal and we will be worse off with her as a US Senator.  Hirono would not be in this election without Senator Inouye.  Linda Lingle is much better qualified for Washington and less partisan.

Colleen Hanabusa did not support rail when Hannemann was in charge. Now she goes with the pro-rail establishment. She clearly stated her pro-rail position in last night’s debate. Also it upsets me to no end that she claims to understand veteran issues better than Charles. And she supports the status quo on Social Security which means certain default without reforms.

Charles Djou has moderate views, plans to ease the Jones Act grip on Hawaii, and has a credible economic agenda for Hawaii and the nation. In last night’s debate he clearly stated that “it makes no sense for Congress to fund rail if Ben Cayetano gets elected.” Of course it doesn’t!

Thank you to all democrats and progressives who vote for the better candidates for Hawaii, Djou and Lingle.

For District 6 there are two good choices to support Ben’s position on rail and bring fiscal sanity to City Council: Sam Aiona and May Mizuno. Also both Ann Kobayashi and Tom Berg should be re-elected to Council.

As for Kirk Caldwell, Save Our Honolulu has two informative TV ads: https://youtu.be/KAV0GhwyWSg and https://youtu.be/EoUPxlGNX7M. Dennis Callan caught Kirk in a blunder: https://youtu.be/f7Uu5DOGBkI.

MUFI’s LIE

Mufi Hannemann’s statement quoted below is an unabashed lie. I supported his 2004 campaign against Duke Bainum. None among the transportation agencies of the City, State or OMPO had any rail system on any planning or priority list. Only Bainum was running on a Light Rail platform.

Once Mufi was elected, I turned in an application and was interviewed to serve on his cabinet as Transportation Director. The final qualifying question of his review committee was: Mufi wants to work on rail. Are you supporting rail for Honolulu?

It does not get any more top down and dictatorial than this.  In the absence of any official data supporting or even suggesting rail, Mufi and his insiders had decided that rail is the ticket, three months before he took office.  Then the professionals-for-hire at PB (and a couple of handpicked committees*) declared that Mufi’s rail is the right alternative, just six short years after the same professionals-for-hire had proclaimed that BRT is the best alternative for Honolulu!

Enjoy the smooth serving of a lie by Mufi, below. He’s good…

Last week Hannemann said “…when it comes to our rail system, if expanding Honolulu’s highly successful bus system or implementing a bus rapid transit program would have been cheaper, more efficient, and accompanied by federal funding, I would have pushed that proposal instead of rail. The fact of the matter is that all the studies and expert advice, including from those who operate Honolulu’s bus system, have all affirmed that buses cannot replace rail as an effective transportation solution.  Rather, rail is a complement to the bus, with both working in tandem to alleviate our mounting traffic congestion problems and reduce our dependence on our personal vehicles.”

Read this article for more information: Former Gov. Cayetano Slams Previous Honolulu Mayor  for ‘Dirty Campaign Tactics’ and ‘Disgraceful Past Actions’

 

(*) Note: The same Cindy McMillan that develops PRP’s slanderous anti-Cayetano ads was one of the six votes (out of seven) in favor of choosing rail as the Locally Preferred Alternative.  What qualified Cindy to be on the Council’s Transit Advisory Task Force to judge buses, rails and HOT lanes?  Rail politics. And since then she’s been collecting rail $$$.

 


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1 COMMENT

  1. I have followed this from the first meeting held out in Kapolei. I remember coming away from that first meeting realizing that it was already a done deal with the city council. Thank you for continuing the fight to inform people. I attended the forum at Kalani HS and thought the presentation was very well done.

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