LGBT/Pride Week
June is LGBT pride month. We have a variety of queer AAPI's, friends, families and allies posting about their experiences. Thanks to Be DeGuzman, one of APAP's 2009 Unsung Heroes, for coordinating this special week of posts.
To help with our upcoming hate crimes/Vincent Chin week (June 21) or Pacific Islander week (Aug), please let us know. If you have a topic you or your agency would like to coordinate, email us.
I know that Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye is revered in some Asian American and Pacific Islander circles, but lately he's been getting under my skin. Not only did he campaign and fundraise for corrupt former Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska in 2008, but there was the whole recent controversy of him trying to strip Senator Al Franken's amendment from a defense bill that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court.
Now there are a couple of articles in his hometown paper, the Honolulu Star Bulletin, about his famed abilitity to bring pork or earmarks back to Hawaii. The first one starts off describing the whole process. It's entitled, "Inouye's earmarks go to his donors" and here's a brief excerpt from a much longer article:
A team led by a small Hawaii company was competing to design a new generation of military transport ships when Navy officials dropped it from contention in late 2007 because the team's entry did not meet the Navy's criteria.
Not all was lost for Navatek Ltd., however. The Honolulu firm had a powerful ally in Washington, D.C.: U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.
Since 1997, executives of Navatek and its parent firm, the privately owned Pacific Marine, have contributed more than $29,000 to Inouye's campaign coffers, most of it since 2003.
And now the eight-term Hawaii Democrat is trying to direct $2.2 million in taxpayer money to the company to finance a model of an amphibious vehicle that the Navy rejected.
It is all part of a pattern for the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 earmarks guy" in the nation.
In the Senate version of the fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations bill, which Inouye was instrumental in drafting, he is sponsoring almost three dozen provisions that would spend more than $200 million on projects in Hawaii that the Pentagon generally does not want, an Associated Press analysis of federal election reports has found.
The second article is a list of the companies in his state that would benefit.
Hawaii companies that would benefit from earmarks sponsored by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye that are in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations measure. The firms' workers have contributed to Inouye's campaign committees since 1997.
» Pacific Marine/Navatek Ltd., Honolulu: $2.2 million to build model of amphibious vehicle. $16,300 in contributions, including $9,800 from CEO Steve Loui.
» Oceanit, Honolulu: Two $5 million earmarks for a network of telescopes to track objects in space. $22,900 in contributions, including $11,000 from CEO Patrick Sullivan.
» Referentia Systems Inc., Honolulu:$4.5 million to create 3-D images of battlegrounds. $17,200 in contributions, including $5,000 from CEO Nelson Kanemoto.
» Akimeka LLC, Maui: $2.5 million for a system to distribute intelligence information among agencies. $17,800 in contributions, including $2,600 from President Vaughn Vasconcellos. He also donated $1,200 this year to Inouye's leadership political action committee.
» Pacific Defense Solutions LLC, Maui: $4 million for "electro-optical assets" that peer into space. $7,600 in contributions, including $1,200 each this year from President Wesley Freiwald and CEO Donald Forrester.
» Makai Ocean Engineering Inc., Kailua: $2 million for a system to process large amounts of "battlespace" data. $2,400 in contributions from Vice President Reb Bellinger.
Political action panels
» Raytheon Co.: $1.6 million for an integrated information system for Hawaii National Guard/civil defense officials. $18,000 in contributions.
» Northrup Grumman Corp.: $2 million to develop systems at the Hawaiian Range Complex, a collection of onshore and offshore sites used for military training. $19,000 in contributions.
» Boeing Co.: $20 million to operate Maui Space Surveillance System. $27,000 in contributions.
» Lockheed Martin Corp.: $3 million for a counter-sniper system. $28,000 in contributions.
» Textron Inc.: $6.5 million to Space Surveillance System. $24,000 in contributions.
Here's hoping that when he retires, he's replaced by a more progressive Senator.
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I also am hoping he is replaced by a more progressive senator. I am John Roco, running as republican candidate for the United States Senate representing Hawaii. I have 0.00 dollars compared to his $3 million in his war chest for the campaign, kicking off soon. Mine will be a grass roots campaign in the true nature of the word. Years ago as an undergraduate, I protested South African investments due to apartheid. I am proud to have been a part of that, writing skits and participating in them during street fair and on campus at the University of Washington. To me, it seems that a vote for Inouye is a vote into the old boys network. He seemed to think that due to his power and stature, he could just make the Al Franken amendment go away.
I believe in doing the right thing. I have no money; I met at the republican party headquarters yesterday and was given the numbers situation as to the campaign fight. I am running on gruff alone, that my 0.00 dollars is better than his $3 million if his $3 millioin becomes dirty money that means he will try to squash an amendment meant to protect females who work for defense contractors, from sexual harassment.
I am Filipino. I know from family lore, vicariously, the dangers of being a female in a war zone. This is not just paper and words, but real lives being affected, not just those who donate $37,000. I plan to represent everyone else, who cannot come to the table with thousands of dollars, or hundreds at a fundraiser.
My name is John Roco. I ask for your vote, Hawaii.
Thank you.
I think that earmarks are getting a bad reputation,. Some members of congress over indulge the use of earmarks but they are sometimes used for good, specific purposes.
Golden Rule
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