Office of U.S. Trustee vs. Harmon - Witness Andrew Winer

Andrew Winer is a former law partner of former Bishop Estate Trustee, Gerard Jervis; currently a partner in the law firm, Winer Meheula & Devens; past chairman of the Daniel Akaka campaign for congress.

Commercial litigation is a broad term covering many different types of cases. Although it is impossible to list every type of commercial litigation matter handled by the firm, the main categories of claims involve professional malpractice, property damage, construction and real estate. In these cases, Winer Meheula & Devens LLP primarily represents plaintiffs or claimants, but it will defend claims on a selective basis.

Andrew Winer and William Meheula have over 40 years of collective experience handling professional malpractice claims. During that time, Mr. Winer and Mr. Meheula have worked on professional malpractice claims involving lawyers, real estate agents, escrow companies, accountants, real estate appraisers, travel agents, insurance agents, bonding companies and financial planners.

In 2000, Mr. Meheula obtained a settlement for over $5,000,000 in a legal malpractice case involving complex tax and estate planning issues. In 1997, Mr. Meheula settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit where he represented thirty condominium purchasers against an attorney, several real estate agents and two escrow companies. In 1995, Mr. Meheula obtained a multi-million dollar jury verdict against the County of Maui in an unfair and deceptive trade practices lawsuit. In 1993, Mr. Winer obtained a substantial jury verdict against a bonding company which negligently bonded an unlicensed contractor. On the defense side, Mr. Meheula obtained a defense verdict in federal court for a law firm in a $2,700,000 claim involving the formation of a time share business, and Mr. Winer has successfully defended every arbitration involving a claim against a professional.

Property damage claims typically involve damage caused by floods and storms. In these cases, claimants have usually sustained significant damage to their businesses or homes.

In 1995, Mr. Meheula obtained a multi-million dollar jury verdict against the County of Maui and two adjoining landowners for a farmer damaged by soil erosion and landslides. In this case, the firm retained experts on hydrology, farm practices, economics and meteorology.

In 1993, Mr. Winer obtained close to a million dollars for an aquaculture business from its landlord for damage caused by flooding. This case involved the establishment of lost profits for a recently established business. To establish its case, the firm retained a civil engineer, a hydrologist and an expert on aquaculture economics.

In construction litigation, the firm concentrates on representing condominium associations and individual homeowners in claims for defective construction and nondisclosure of defects like termite infestation and soil erosion. Unlike many law firms, Winer Meheula & Devens LLP will consider handling these cases on a contingency fee basis.

In 2000, Mr. Winer obtained a $1,800,000 arbitration award against a developer on behalf of 23 Maui homeowners in a case involving expansive soil. Mr. Winer also obtained a settlement of nearly $3,500,000 for a condominium association in a claim against the developer, contractors and design professionals involving termite damage, substandard workmanship and drainage problems. The firm has also represented several condominium associations and individual homeowners in construction claims arising out of Hurricane Iniki, and in 1998 it assisted in the recovery of $2,000,000 from a property insurer for a claim arising out of the hurricane.

The firm also represents developers, contractors, subcontractors, real estate agents and sureties on an hourly fee basis. Mr. Winer has spoken at several seminars regarding construction claims, and he recently authored "Strategic Considerations for Sureties in the Defense of Bad Faith Claims: The Use of Arbitration as a Shield and a Sword" which will appear in the Torts and Insurance Practice Section's on-line journal E-Dicta.

Winer Meheula & Devens LLP has extensive experience in handling cases on behalf of real estate purchasers and sellers as well as developers. These cases typically involve disputes over the purchase and sale of real estate or the rights and obligations of developers with respect to their projects.

Mr. Winer and Mr. Meheula tried and eventually settled a specific performance case on behalf of a purchaser of a $12,000,000 property near Waikiki. Their efforts resulted in a net gain of over $2,000,000 for the purchaser.

The firm has also defended breach of contract claims involving the sale of substantial agricultural lands and commercial property.

If you are interested in discussing commercial litigation cases with Mr. Winer or Mr. Meheula, please feel free to contact either of them at winer@pacificlaw.com.

Winer Meheula & Devens LLP has extensive experience representing clients in mediation and arbitration proceedings. Over the past several years, the firm members have participated in well over one hundred arbitration and mediation proceedings in cases involving motor vehicle accidents, construction defects, premises liability, real estate contract disputes, real estate agent and legal malpractice. In these cases, Winer Meheula & Devens LLP has obtained numerous arbitration awards in excess of $100,000 including a $1,800,000 arbitration award in a construction dispute involving expansive soils and one of Hawaii's largest punitive damages award in an employment discrimination case. Furthermore, the firm has participated in several mediations which have resulted in settlements exceeding $1,000,000.

In addition to representing clients in mediations and arbitrations, Andrew S. Winer has an active practice as a mediator and an arbitrator. He has served on numerous arbitration panels in cases involving employment law, commercial and real estate disputes, construction law, medical malpractice, products liability, premises liability and insurance coverage issues. Mr. Winer has successfully mediated numerous commercial, real estate, professional liability, personal injury and construction suits, and he recently served on a Dispute Review Board for construction issues involving the First Hawaiian Bank Tower. Mr. Winer has a special interest in mediating wrongful discharge and employment discrimination cases, and he has successfully handled over thirty of these matters.

Mr. Winer serves as a neutral for the Distinguished Panel of Neutrals for Dispute Prevention & Resolution (http://www.DPR4ADR.com), the Hawaii Labor Relations Board's Arbitration Panel, the Court Annexed Arbitration Program and the Fee Dispute Program for the Hawaii State Bar Association. Mr. Winer has lectured extensively on issues relating to alternative dispute resolution to a variety of groups, he published "So You Really Want to be an Arbitrator?" in the Hawaii Arbitration Law Program, and he has successfully represented numerous arbitrators, mediators and ADR providers in cases involving arbitral immunity issues.

If you have any questions regarding the firm's representation of clients in mediation or arbitration or Mr. Winer's availability as a Mediator or an Arbitrator, then contact us at winer@pacificlaw.com.

New Discovery (10-14-08): Undisclosed financial and political relationships between David Farmer and numerous parties related to this case:

The city released yesterday a list of companies working on the $3.7 billion mass-transit system in contracts totaling more than $107 million.

Here are some companies or individuals hired to do public outreach on the city's mass transit system:

Norman Mineta, Hill & Knowlton: $120,000 The three companies contracted to the city -- Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc., InfraConsult and PB Americas -- are responsible for primarily the engineering studies being done on the elevated mass-transit system from Kapolei to Ala Moana.

But those companies also hired several other companies for work that includes public relations or community outreach. The city does not pay these subcontractors directly, but does approve the companies.

"I'm very concerned," said Councilman Charles Djou, who had requested the list. "I've always contended that the rail project is too expensive. All this spending of taxpayer money on public relations is basically bribing the taxpayers with their own money."

Djou pointed to two well-known consultants, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Elisa Yadao, who does public relations with InfraConsult. Mineta, vice chairman of international public relations firm Hill & Knowlton Inc., is getting $120,000 a year to do community outreach in Hawaii.

Yadao, who also worked with Mayor Mufi Hannemann on his campaign in 2004, is getting paid $425,000 over four years. Yadao also received $79,662 for work done with Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"I think it's worth every penny that we spend on this project," Hannemann said. "This is the biggest capital improvement project. This is very common and something that the Federal Transit Administration looks at. It's very necessary. Maybe if (the Council) weren't trying to delay and obstruct the project as much, we won't have to spend as much."

The mayor's spokesman added that the public-involvement expenses are a small fraction -- 2.5 percent -- of the project's total cost.

Nearly one in every three companies working on the city's $3.7 billion mass transit system has contributed to Mayor Mufi Hannemann's campaign.

In reviewing a list released by the city this week of subcontractors involved in this project, the Star-Bulletin found at least 19 of the 62 firms have given money to Hannemann's campaign since 2000.

Three contractors were awarded a total of $107 million to work on the beginning phases of the project, including the preliminary engineering, environmental impact statement and public outreach. Those three companies enlisted the help of several dozen companies, some of which were awarded multiple contracts lasting several years.

Hannemann defended the firms, saying they are doing good work and that contributing to his campaign is legal.

"There's nothing that prevents consultants who work with the city who happen to be supporters of mine," he told reporters yesterday. "As long as the contribution is legal, we'll accept the campaign contribution."

Three subcontractors working on public involvement have ties to Hannemann's campaign or administration. They have more than $1.8 million in subcontracts: Elisa Yadao and Laura Pennington, who worked on Hannemann's mayoral campaign, and Gary Omori, married to Clarice Hashimoto, who works in the Mayor's Office.

Meanwhile, the City Council is expected to make a final decision on the technology for the elevated system from Kapolei to Ala Moana. That vote is a mere "formality," said Hannemann, as the city moves forward with steel wheel on steel rail as its technology.

A campaign advertisement featuring Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was not sanctioned by the Obama campaign and does not amount to an official endorsement, local Obama campaign officials said.

The advertisement, featuring images from Obama's public rally last month at Ke'ehi Lagoon Beach Park and audio of Obama praising the mayor, also includes a picture of Obama with Hannemann and his wife, Gail Mukaihata Hannemann.

The ad quotes Obama saying "I want to thank one of the best mayors in the country who has just made Honolulu even better than it was before, Mufi Hannemann."

Staff members for Obama's Hawai'i campaign said they have been fielding calls about the ad and questions about whether Obama formally endorsed Hannemann.

Hannemann's campaign did not make a formal request to use Obama's likeness or public comments in a paid campaign advertisement, Obama campaign officials said.

"Senator Obama has not endorsed any candidate for mayor of Honolulu," said Andy Winer, Obama's Hawai'i campaign chairman.

A.J. Halagao, who serves as Hannemann's campaign coordinator and campaign spokesperson, was also a volunteer for Obama's local campaign prior to working for Hannemann's re-election campaign.

"We are not aware of an objection from the Obama campaign regarding our commercial. In fact, earlier this week, we were contacted by the Obama campaign to have Mayor Hannemann speak at an upcoming rally in Hawai'i and in addition, travel to Mainland municipalities to speak on Senator Obama's behalf," said Halagao. "Earlier in the year, Mayor Hannemann endorsed Senator Obama, who responded, 'Mahalo to Mayor Hannemann for endorsing my candidacy for president. I have known Mufi since my basketball playing days in high school, and I appreciate all of his efforts to make Honolulu a better place to live.' "

The ad featuring Hannemann and Obama was made at a rally at Ke'ehi lagoon — a public event that already had been broadcast throughout the country, according to the Hannemann campaign.

During his Hawai'i visit last month, Obama reiterated his praise for Hannemann during a fundraiser a few days after the rally, referring to Hannemann as an "outstanding mayor."

The fundraising event, which Hannemann co-chaired, generated more than $1.3 million in donations.

An appreciation of the history of
Bishop Estate, and being unable to effect
change from within, led him to
speak out in dissent

So when Jervis publicly accused three fellow Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate trustees of withholding information and icing out him and fellow trustee Oswald Stender on key legal decisions, he caught many by surprise.

His abrupt announcement Tuesday that he would align himself with Stender -- an outsider in Bishop Estate's boardroom -- runs counter to his reputation as a consensus builder and peacemaker, observers said.

What's more, his calls for stronger conflict-of-interest guidelines, reforms of trustees' compensation and more openness in the selection process for trustees represent a departure from current policy.

"(This) is something that's difficult for me to do," Jervis conceded yesterday in an interview with the Star-Bulletin, echoing remarks he made Tuesday in a speech to the Honolulu Rotary Club, when he said: "For myself, it comes with deep personal regret and frustration at not being able to effect change from within -- no matter how hard the effort."

Critics of the Bishop Estate say the about-face underscores the increased scrutiny of the estate, including an investigation by the state attorney general, an audit by the Internal Revenue Service and a court-sanctioned review of the estate's management of its schools.

"I have to look at this as a good sign," said Beadie Dawson, attorney for Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, which has criticized trustees.

Jervis, meanwhile, said he spoke out because he found it unacceptable that some trustees could make decisions without including other trustees. In his speech to the Honolulu Rotary Club on Tuesday, he said such actions "border on manipulations and violation" of a trustee's fiduciary duties.

While many of his efforts may not have been well-known, Jervis has been active in trying to resolve the controversy. During the past 12 weeks, for instance, he said he has met with estate employees, faculty and the general public, seeking their input on the estate.

Jervis, at 48 the estate's youngest trustee, also pushed hard to appoint a court-sanctioned fact-finder to use the probate courts to objectively sort through the allegations of mismanagement at Kamehameha Schools. Jervis said he has high hopes that much can be accomplished by the fact-finder, former Circuit Court Judge Patrick Yim.

Some critics aren't fully convinced that Jervis is sincere, saying he is only jumping ship now that things are getting tough.

But Randall Roth, University of Hawaii law professor and one of five authors of the "Broken Trust" article that prompted Attorney General Margery Bronster to open an investigation into the estate, said he's willing to give Jervis the benefit of the doubt.

“I was very skeptical until (Tuesday)," Roth said. "It's always better late than never."

Jervis began his legal career after graduating from the University of Hawaii Law School in 1979.

It was in law school that he met former Gov. John Waihee, although they were not classmates. Jervis would later serve on the state Judicial Selection Commission during the Waihee years thanks to then-Senate President and current Bishop Estate trustee Richard Wong, who appointed him to the post in 1987. (The other estate trustees are Henry Peters and Lokelani Lindsey.)

Jervis made his mark in the court room in 1980 when he and then-partner Gary Galiher sued asbestos manufacturers on behalf of about 50 former Pearl Harbor workers. At the time, few attorneys specialized in asbestos suits, and the Galiher and Jervis law firm was the leader in that field in Hawaii.

Later, he and then-partner Ronald Albu represented Kailua homeowners against the city over the 1987 New Year's Eve flood that damaged some 200 homes. The city eventually agreed to pay $5 million to damage victims.

As for his personal life, Jervis and his wife Avis are longtime Kailua residents. Avis Jervis -- who served as a state Representative for Waipahu and Ewa Beach district in the early 1980s -- is active in community organizations such as the Windward Spouse Abuse Shelter and works as an unpaid volunteer in the City Managing Director's office.

Trustee Jervis shares his wife's enthusiasm for community service, having served as a board member of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.

He also is a former teacher and counselor at the Kalihi-Palama Adult Education Center and was a Hawaii Job Corps Center teacher.

"I take this institution very seriously when I come to work each day," Jervis said yesterday in his interview.

"It's impossible to work in a place that's been in existence for 113 years and not be struck by its sense of history."

Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis was one of a group of lawyers accused of workers compensation fraud in a lawsuit filed by the attorney general last year.

Jervis denies the fraud claims and says a settlement has been reached with the state.

According to court records, Jervis represented a former state employee who was injured in a 1989 elevator accident at the state Capitol. A lawsuit against the elevator company was settled after the company agreed to pay $64,500 in damages.

The state, as the self-insured employer, was legally entitled to be reimbursed from the settlement for $98,000 in workers compensation payments to the injured employee, but Jervis and the other attorneys engaged in deception and fraud to block the state from getting its share, the suit alleges.

Other attorneys named in the suit were Jervis' former law partner, Andrew S. Winer; George K. Lindsey Jr., who joined Jervis and Winer in representing the employee; and attorneys Sidney K. Ayabe and Robin R. Horner, representing the Montgomery Elevator Co.

Lindsey is a political and personal associate of former Gov. John Waihee and in recent years has been among the ranks of attorneys doing legal work for Bishop Estate. Ayabe is a prominent attorney who served as president of the Hawaii Bar Association in 1995.

Cynthia Quinn, special assistant to Attorney General Margery Bronster, said she could not comment beyond the facts of the case because of a pending settlement.

Jervis yesterday referred questions to attorney James Duffy, who represents Jervis' former law firm in the case. Jervis is personally represented by former Attorney General Warren Price, records show.

Instead, Duffy said Jervis had simply been unable to get a large enough settlement from the elevator company to pay back the state's workers compensation lien and also provide something for the injured worker and his family.

"Under the law, the workers compensation carrier is entitled to be paid off the top of any settlement, so in this case everything would have gone to the state," Duffy said.

Duffy said in most similar cases the insurance carrier agrees to take as little as 10 cents on the dollar "just to get something rather than take the risk of going to trial and getting nothing."

In this case, Duffy said, the state agreed to reduce its claim by one-third but would not compromise further.

In order to salvage something for the injured worker, the attorneys involved "were willing to make this settlement without the state's approval and then just run the risk of this kind of dispute later."

The settlement was set up so the damages would be paid to the injured employee's wife while the employee got nothing and would not have to reimburse the state.

The state didn't have an opportunity to object because it wasn't told of the settlement. Instead, Ayabe and Jervis requested that the settlement be sealed and remain confidential, and Judge Marjorie Manuia agreed. The state was unable to get information about the settlement because of Manuia's secrecy order, and "met with strong opposition and unceasing resistance from Defendants each and every time it filed a document, made a request, argued its position, or took any action to protect or assert its Workers Compensation Recovery Rights," the suit claims.

"It is a very common thing," Duffy said. "In almost every case of professional or product liability, even automobile-type accidents, the settlements are sealed to prevent anybody from getting in and misusing the information. The sealing thing is pretty common in the civil court system, rightly or wrongly."

The state eventually appealed, and in September 1995, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the settlement "was invalid from the beginning" because it bypassed the state's rights under workers compensation laws.

The original case against the elevator company was reinstated and is now also pending, along with the state's fraud suit against Jervis and the others.

"I don't think it was really about Gerry Jervis or his law firm. It was about the attorney general saying, 'We are no longer going to sit back on these cases and are going to vigorously pursue what is owed us.'

Age: 48
Title: Trustee of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate
Appointed: November 1994
Term expires: December 2018
1996 salary: $840,109
Education: University of Hawaii, William Richardson School of Law
Outside interests: President, White Hat Development Corp.
Hobbies: Studying Hawaiian history and culture

Local volunteers for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois are hoping he comes to Hawai'i now that he has likely clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama, who was born here and graduated from Punahou School, missed his annual holiday visit with family last year because of his campaign schedule. He told local reporters before the February caucuses he wanted to return to the Islands after the nomination campaign was over.

Last night, in a victory speech in Minnesota — site of the rival GOP national convention in September — Obama dedicated the historic moment to his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, a retired bank vice president who lives at a Beretania Street apartment.

Obama described Dunham as someone who "poured everything she had into me, and who helped to make me the man I am today. Tonight is for her."

Andy Winer, an attorney and Democratic strategist involved with the local Obama campaign, said a personal visit or campaign stop is on the table now that Obama likely has the nomination. Unconfirmed news media reports last month speculated Obama might visit as part of a biographical tour of his life.

His maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who fought in World War II, is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Maya Soetoro-Ng, his sister and a history teacher at La Pietra Hawai'i School for Girls, lives here with her husband, Konrad, and their daughter.

Dunham, his grandmother, has declined interview requests. "Thank you for thinking of me," she said yesterday.

"I don't think that they're in a position yet to announce what they're going to be doing as far as plans for the general" election, Winer said of the Obama campaign. "We're certainly hoping that he decides to come out here, though."

Obama would be favored to take Hawai'i's four electoral votes in November over U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee. Hawai'i has been a reliably blue state in presidential elections since statehood. The only Republican presidential candidates who have won here are Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Winer said local Obama volunteers will continue to raise money and build grassroots support. Obama has raised about $1 million in the Islands, which activists believe is unprecedented for a presidential campaign, and helped draw a record 37,500 people to the caucuses.

Local volunteers will also provide some support for the Obama campaign in likely swing states in the West such as Nevada, Oregon and Washington, where there are many Hawai'i transplants. Volunteers made thousands of telephone calls to former Hawai'i residents living in Nevada before the Nevada caucuses in January.

"Hawai'i should be very proud of having a presidential nominee. It's obviously a historic day for the state to have somebody born and raised as one of the presidential candidates," Winer said. "Locally, we look forward to supporting his presidential campaign in any way that we can."

In Hawai'i, Democrats will have to repair any lingering rifts between Obama loyalists and supporters of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Unity was a theme of the party's state convention last month, but, behind the scenes, some emotions are still raw.

"It's going to take some effort on the part of supporters of both candidates to unite after a long and tough primary," said Brian Schatz, the new state party chairman who was active in the local Obama campaign. "What we have going for us, as a party, is that we've had an extraordinary gift of these two candidates that have generated unprecedented enthusiasm.

"If we are able to combine our forces, we're going to see a Democratic president."

Richard Port, a Democratic national committeeman and former party chairman who is a superdelegate, said, for now, he is staying with Clinton. Even on the day Obama captured enough delegates for the nomination, Clinton won the primary in South Dakota.

"It concerns me that she's winning so many of the states when the media has been pounding her," Port said. "I'm going to support the nominee. And if it is Barack, I'm going to support him. But I have real concerns about the current situation."

Obama won 14 of Hawai'i's delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August through the party's caucuses in February. Clinton won six delegates. Obama also secured endorsements of seven of the state's nine superdelegates to the convention. Hawai'i has 29 delegates to the convention in all.

Willes Lee, the Hawai'i Republican Party chairman, described the Democratic nomination campaign as divisive and said millions of "voters in his own party don't believe he is fit to be commander in chief."

"Mr. Obama might be able to fool the Democratic Party about his lack of judgment and experience but he won't be so fortunate with the majority of Americans in November," Lee said in a statement. "His policies of raising taxes on small businesses and families are the wrong type of change for America. John McCain is the trusted and experienced leader that will protect our country, grow our economy, and bring the right type of change that Americans desire."

State Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), said local Democrats celebrating Obama's delegate victory are being hypocritical. He said Democrats backed a bill, which became law after Gov. Linda Lingle's veto was overriden, that would commit Hawai'i to join a compact with other states to elect the president by national popular vote instead of the Electoral College.

Hawai'i's electoral votes would go to the winner of the popular vote, not the winner in the Islands. Hemmings said Clinton won the majority of the votes in the primaries and caucuses nationally while Obama took the most delegates.

He called it a "typical politically correct contradiction" for local Democrats to champion Obama while at the same time backing the national popular vote in electing presidents.

"Obviously, they have created a mess for themselves in their primary elections," Hemmings said. "I'm surprised they haven't tried to blame it on President Bush."

Jacce Mikulanec, a local Obama volunteer and state House staffer, is elated that the nomination campaign is over.

"It seems like this process has been going on for a long time, and now it's finally over," he said. "I think America chose the right candidate. And I think Hawai'i chose the right candidate. I think over the next few days, the party is going to come together, and the country is going to come together."

NEW DISCOVERY (05-10-08): Barack Obama outlines plans to debate John McCain, and says questioning McCain’s role in the “Keating Five” savings and loan affair is “fair game”:

BEND, Ore. - Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.

Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in "town hall" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain's ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain's proposal for a temporary halt in the federal gasoline tax a pander and a gimmick....

Speaking with reporters in Bend, Ore., Obama brushed aside suggestions that the fall campaign may be largely about his race, liberalism or patriotism.

"In a contest between myself and John McCain," he said, "there is going to be a very clear choice on policy that I don't think is going to have to do with ideology and who theoretically is more liberal or who's more conservative. I think it is going to have to do with who has a plan to provide relief to people when it comes to their gas prices, who has a real plan to make sure that everybody has health insurance, who's got a real plan to deal with college affordability."

"So rather than an abstract set of questions about, 'Is he too liberal, is he too conservative, how do voters handle an African American, et cetera,' I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future," he said.

Obama said he realizes he must continue introducing himself to millions of Americans who do not know him well, and acknowledged that some question his patriotism because he no longer wears a lapel flag pin.

He said the test of patriotism "is whether we are true to the ideals and values upon which this country was founded," and willing to fight for them "even when it's politically inconvenient."

Obama said McCain has received "a free pass" while he and Clinton have battled for months.

McCain, he said, "has a straight-talker image, but it's not clear that lately he's been following through on that image. I mean, this gas tax holiday was a pander. He didn't even have a way of paying for it."

The McCain campaign noted that Obama, as an Illinois state senator, once voted for a temporary gas tax suspension. Obama now says he made a mistake.

Obama was asked Saturday if the fall campaign might touch on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, in which the Senate Ethics Committee said McCain used "poor judgment" for allegedly pressing regulators to go easy on the owner of a failed Arizona savings and loan who was also a campaign contributor.

Obama said there is no doubt the Keating Five case is "germane to the presidency."

"I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that," he said....

NEW DISCOVERY (04-22-08): David Farmer’s undisclosed connections with AIPAC and Senator Barack Obama:

In his "MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO DEBTOR'S MOTION FOR ORDER TO DISAPPROVE APPOINTMENT OF DAVID C. FARMER AS SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE", filed with the Court on August 24, 2007, the Trustee's attorney, Steven Guttman, Esq., of the law firm, Kessner Umebayashi Bain & Matsunaga, stated to the Court:

"... Harmon is once again attempting to create issues of conflict where none exist by attempting to draw connections between phantom dots."...

Mr. Guttman does not elaborate beyond this simple statement of HIS PERSONAL OPINION, as to WHICH of the thousands of connections I have cited that he wishes the Court to accept, without question, as being merely "phantom dots". In other court filings, Mr. Guttman has characterized my Motions as consisting of "conspiracy theories" -- again with no specific references.

Despite these unnamed "phantom dots" and "conspiracy theories", the Court has blithely and unquestionably gone along with Mr. Guttman's opinions and has repeatedly denied ALL Motions that I have made. In fact, both Courts involved have ruled that the Court Clerk shall not accept any future filings from me without the Courts' prior approval - which it has repeatedly declined to give.

Therefore, due to the fact that I continue to discover new, material FACTS almost daily, I am preparing a set of NEW EXHIBITS in which I intend to document the financial, professional, personal, and political connections between the many various entities involved in this case.

The following is a listing of named witnesses in this case who have factual connections with the subject entity. Each underlined name has been linked to a detailed description of that witness to enable the reader to more easily CONNECT THE DOTS TO...

Insert a new twist to the political parlor game that involves following the moves of Rupert Murdoch and his clan: his daughter, Elisabeth, is hosting at her London home a fund-raiser for Senator Barack Obama.

Ms. Murdoch is one of a slew of “event chairs,” which also includes Gwyneth Paltrow, for the April 28 event at Ms. Murdoch’s home in Notting Hill. David Blood, who runs an investment fund with former Vice President Al Gore that specializes in environmentally-friendly companies, is also listed as an “event host.”

A contribution of $2,300 offers access to the V.I.P. reception; attendance to the main event only requires a $1,000 donation.

Mr. Murdoch, of course, is chairman of the News Corporation, which includes under its umbrella Fox News and the New York Post. Mr. Murdoch had a much-discussed rapprochement with Mrs. Clinton two years ago, when the Post endorsed Mrs. Clinton in her Senate campaign and he held a fund-raiser for her. Last year, he even contributed $2,300 to her presidential campaign.

But the Post endorsed Mr. Obama just before the crush of states that voted on Feb. 5 in a bruising editorial that excoriated Mrs. Clinton, causing media observers to declare that the honeymoon was over for this political odd couple.

Ms. Murdoch, 39, is Mr. Murdoch’s second daughter, one of three children from Mr. Murdoch’s second marriage, who as a group represent the locus of where the betting over who might succeed him has centered.

She holds dual citizenship in the United States and Britain and left British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation is a major investor and she was managing director of Sky Networks, in 2000 to start her own media company, Shine Ltd. She is married to Matthew Freud—great-grandson of Sigmund Freud—a prominent public relations executive in London.

Reached on his boat floating in the Tobago Cays today, Mr. Freud said not much should be read into his wife’s role as a host.

“I don’t think you can interpret the event as anything other than she is enthusiastic about Obama’s campaign,” Mr. Freud said.

In the world of retail, there's star power, there's celebrity endorsement and then there's Oprah Winfrey. Her Midas touch saves names from anonymity, best sellers from dusty storerooms and favorite things from Internet obscurity.

But as Winfrey has long chosen abstinence in the arena of political endorsements and campaign-trail theater, her capital remains untested. Until now.

In May, Winfrey affirmed her support for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy to Larry King, describing Obama's leadership as "worth me going out on a limb for." In September, the media titan feted Obama at a California fundraiser, raking in more than $3 million for the Illinois senator's White House bid.

And this weekend, Winfrey hits the trail with the Democratic candidate, making appearances alongside Obama in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Though Winfrey made a third-quarter contribution to Obama's primary bid, she acknowledged that because of contribution limits, "my money isn't going to make any difference to him. I think that my value to him, my support of him, is probably worth more than a check."

Political science professor Matt Baum, who published a research paper "The Oprah Effect" for a 2006 study, described Winfrey as a "nonpartisan, above-the-fray, trusted source for women" who politically "has been difficult to pigeonhole," which Baum said, "furthers her ability to come into it now."

Acknowledging the power of Winfrey's glitter, Baum believes that ultimately she'll have little effect on whether or not Obama can harness the numbers necessary to seize the Democratic presidential nomination.

"By virtue of having endorsed Obama, she's no longer above the fray -- she's in the fray," said Baum, a decision he said could erode Winfrey's capital, since she probably has "more credibility than any other celebrity that lives."...

Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton's campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted.

A major fund-raiser for Democrats since 2003, Hsu became one of Clinton's biggest bundlers - gathering scores of individual checks and sending them to her campaign. But since revelations last month that Hsu was a fugitive in a 15-year-old California fraud case, Clinton has said she would return the $850,000 she has taken from him and his associates.

In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records. There is nothing illegal about one politician steering wealthy contributors to another, but the New York senator's close ties to Hsu have become an embarrassment for her and her campaign.

Last fall, as the Nevada governor's race was heating up, Clinton agreed to help raise money for Democrat Dina Titus, a prominent party leader in a state that holds a key early presidential caucus. Clinton arranged for Hsu, at the time a little-known New York apparel executive with no apparent reason to take interest in Nevada politics, to give Titus $5,000 on Nov. 3, according to a person with knowledge of Clinton's fund-raising.

And in February, when former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack ended his own White House bid, he was about $450,000 in the red. A month after dropping out, Vilsack endorsed Clinton, and Clinton agreed to help him retire his debts. (Both insisted there was no quid pro quo.)

Over the next few months, some of Clinton's biggest fund-raisers gave Vilsack checks, including Hsu, who kicked in the maximum allowable contribution, $2,300, on May 3 after attending an event organized by Clinton's campaign, Newsweek reported this month. An associate of Hsu's, Paul Su, chipped in $1,000 on the same day.

In other cases, Clinton helped direct Hsu's money to influential politicians who have yet to endorse her but hail from key presidential primary states. Clinton raised at least $6,000 from Hsu and his network last year for Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, according to Lynch aides. Lynch has no plans to endorse anyone before the state's crucial January primary, aides said.

And at least some of the $17,000 that Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan collected from Hsu and his associates in 2005 and 2006 stems from a Nov. 29, 2005, fund-raising reception for her hosted by Steven Rattner, a New York investment firm executive and major Clinton donor seen as a candidate for US Treasury secretary if Clinton wins. Granholm's office said she has not made an endorsement decision.

Clinton's campaign acknowledged that they urged Hsu to give to fellow Democrats.

"We frequently encourage supporters of ours to donate to other Democrats - Mr. Hsu was no exception," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in an e-mail.

Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a separate criminal complaint against Hsu on Thursday, charging him with breaking campaign finance laws by giving to Clinton and other candidates in other people's names and with running a "massive" Ponzi scheme to defraud investors out of more than $60 million.

Clinton's critics have said that her relationship to Hsu dredges up memories of the fund-raising scandals that dogged her husband, Bill, in the White House in the 1990s. Hillary Clinton has sought to limit the damage by vowing more thorough background checks on major donors.

Campaign finance records show numerous contributions from Hsu and his associates to Clinton supporters.

In New Hampshire, Senate President Sylvia Larsen's Democratic Caucus committee received $5,000 from Hsu in September 2006; Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan collected more than $20,000 from Hsu and his associates; Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas took in about $11,000; and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California received at least $17,000.

Hsu and his network also gave nearly $50,000 to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Harkin has not endorsed anyone, but his wife, Ruth, is a major Clinton backer.

In addition, Hsu and his associates have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to state and local Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country, including more than $100,000 to Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, both of whom have endorsed Clinton. On Feb. 21, Hsu dipped into Chicago city politics, giving $3,500 to Alderman Danny Solis, the brother of Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's campaign manager.

Hsu is hardly the only "Hillraiser" - donors who raise at least $100,000 for Clinton - to have spread his or her largesse in key primary states. For example, Elaine Schuster of Chestnut Hill, one of Clinton's biggest supporters in Massachusetts, gave $5,000 in October 2006 to Chet Culver, then a Democratic candidate for governor of Iowa. Culver is now governor but has not endorsed anyone in the presidential race.

Clinton said in a National Public Radio interview last week that Hsu's past was "a rude awakening to all of us - I mean, not only in my campaign, but the dozens of campaigns going back to, I guess, 2003 and '04 who, you know, took contributions. None of us caught this and we all ran searches."

But the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that a California businessman had warned the campaign about Hsu in June and that a Clinton aide dismissed the concerns. "I can tell you with 100 [percent] certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT involved in a ponzi scheme. He is COMPLETELY legit," Samantha Wolf, Clinton's former West Coast campaign finance director, wrote in an e-mail to a California Democratic Party official, the Times reported.

Other Democratic presidential hopefuls have collected money from Hsu and his network, including Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. But Clinton has been by far the biggest beneficiary of Hsu, who was reportedly trying to establish himself as one of her elite fund-raisers by pulling in more than $1 million.

Most recipients of his contributions have said they will return the money or donate it to charity.

Senator Barack Obama has supported The Nature Conservancy’s projects in Illinois:

Conservancy Applauds Congressional Appropriations Bill for Shawnee National Forest

Congressional Action Demonstrates Commitment to
Protecting Important Natural Area in Illinois

CHICAGO—One of Illinois’ largest natural areas is expected to get even bigger with the FY ’06 Interior Appropriations Bill recently approved by Congress that designates $250,000 for Shawnee National Forest.

This funding will enable the U.S. Forest Service to acquire land within the purchase boundaries of the forest from willing sellers.

“The Nature Conservancy applauds Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL) for helping to ensure funding for important conservation work in Southern Illinois,” said Carl Becker, associate state director of conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy in Illinois....

The Shawnee National Forest is the largest publicly owned body of land in the state, but less than one-third of the acreage within its authorized boundaries is national forest system land.

Since 2001, The Nature Conservancy has acquired and then conveyed 180 acres of strategically located land in the western part of the forest to the U.S. Forest Service. The Nature Conservancy currently owns 382 acres within the forest.

“Our goal is to create a 100,000-acre block within the forest that is a safe haven for nesting songbirds,” said Mike Baltz, The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Illinois projects director.

The Shawnee National Forest is one of the most biologically diverse areas of Illinois. More than 500 species of wildlife have been recorded within the forest, including the endangered Indiana bat and six other federally listed threatened or endangered species....

Barack Hussein Obama is the closest Democrats can come to electing a foreign Muslim President of the United States without actually violating the constitutional requirement that American Presidents be native-born.

Obama’s nomination would follow in the footsteps of 2004 Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry, whose French-language Swiss boarding school education made him the closest thing to a European socialist able to run for President of the US without violating the constitution.

Not only does Obama’s name sound like some kind of sick Islamist joke on America—a candidate whose moniker invokes both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin-Laden—but he would be the first madrassa-educated American President. Moreover Obama is subject to a standing order of death to any Muslim who abandons Islam as Obama formally did when he finally joined Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in the early 1990s just prior to his first political campaign.

While it is tempting to dismiss Obama as a lightweight who is peaking too early in the election season, comparisons with another Democrat presidential candidate— Bill Clinton —should give pause to any who might dismiss his candidacy as a fad. The Clinton parallels include early dirty-money backing from Hawaii Democrats.

Obama, born in Honolulu in 1961, has not only a Muslim father, the late Barack Hussein Obama Sr. of Kenya, but a Muslim step-father as well. His first father left when Obama was two. His mother divorced and soon remarried Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager. Obama’s first campaign book is titled, “Dreams from My Father: A story of race and inheritance.”

The new family moved to Jakarta Indonesia in 1967 when Obama was six. Indonesia was still reeling from a Muslim war with the Maoists leading to the death of between 300,000 and 1 million Indonesians.

According to a March 2004 Salon.com article by Scott Turow, Obama in Jakarta spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school." He was then sent back to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandmother and attend the private secular Punahou School from grade five through high school graduation.

Growing up without a father in the house is not Obama’s only Clinton common denominator. There’s drug abuse too. In Dreams from My Father, Obama writes about smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine during his teenage years.

Obama studied for two years at California’s Occidental College then continuing at Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. He also studied for three years at Harvard Law School.

Occidental, Columbia and Harvard are all places where conservative students and faculty are denied academic freedom.

Obama’s life: Raised in Muslim lands and educated in Muslim schools, then sent to a secular high school serving the children of Hawaii’s Democrat-controlled political and business elite. Graduating to secular US colleges run by academic leftists. Not a pretty picture, as Obama himself explains in a June 28, 2006 speech:

“I was not raised in a particularly religious household, as undoubtedly many in the audience were. My father, who returned to Kenya when I was just two, was born Muslim but as an adult became an atheist. My mother, whose parents were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists, was probably one of the most spiritual and kindest people I've ever known, but grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion herself. As a consequence, so did I.”

Beyond corrupt Hawaii Democrats, leftist academia and cultural secularism, Obama has another Clinton characteristic: shady land deals. A standard method for bankrolling the lifestyle of up-and-coming Democrat politicians, in Obama’s case his associate in the deal is already indicted by a federal grand jury. The December 24 ChicagoTribune documents Obama’s relationship with political fundraiser Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko and Illinois businessman Joseph Aramanda —both of whom are named in a federal investigation of bribery of Illinois state officials. Rezko was indicted by a federal grand jury in October and Aramanda is named as an un-indicted co-conspirator.

According to the Tribune, “Rezko, a real-estate and fast-food entrepreneur, has emerged as a central figure in a series of state government corruption scandals. He began cultivating a friendship with Obama around 1990, becoming a key fundraiser…".

In June 2005, even as Rezko was widely reported to be under federal investigation, the Tribune reports, “Obama bought a $1.65 million South Side home on the same day that Rezko's wife purchased the adjoining garden lot for $625,000. Obama and Rezko then engaged in a series of private transactions to redivide and improve their adjoining parcels.”

Obama’s corrupt backers in Illinois’ seamy and fetid political swamps are matched only by the unsavory gaggle of politically-connected supporters assembling to back his candidacy in Hawaii. Obama’s Hawaii support comes from a group of Democrat politicos around former Governor John Waihee —considered by some the dirtiest figure in Hawaii’s very dirty politics. Waihee and his cronies were also early money backers of Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 bid for the White House.

The little-known story of Clinton’s Waihee ‘early money’ Hawaii connection is told in the 1997 PBS Frontline special “The Fixers”, a story which begins with poor Hawaii farmers being driven off their land in a mid-1980s deal to build Maunawili Valley Oahu golf course deal with Japanese investors flush from the Japanese market and real estate bubble. “Fixers” (and Waihee associates) Gene and Nora Lum go from buying the entire Hawaii State legislature for $50,000 in order to pass a bill allowing golf courses on agricultural land to becoming ‘early money’ Clinton financial backers. They engage in a series of transactions mixing Oklahoma gas leases, Democrat connections with Asian money and the sale of political influence to facilitate other Hawaii land deals.

The story continues into the Clintons’ better-known mid-1990s Asian money scandals involving John Huang, Charlie Trieh, Johnny Chung, the Lippo Bank of Indonesia, Clinton’s Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Hillary Clinton, and 938 documented visits to the Lincoln Bedroom by hundreds of people who paid thousands for the privilege.

“The Fixers” ends with then-President Clinton, ten days after winning his second Presidential term, on his way to Asia stopping in Honolulu and playing golf with Waihee in the pouring rain on the Maunawili Valley O`ahu course where it all started. The ‘early money’ backing of Clinton paid off handsomely for Waihee and his cronies. Clinton in 1993 signed the so-called “Apology Resolution” in essence apologizing for the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and 1898 US annexation of Hawaii and implicitly placing Hawaii Statehood in question.

The Apology Resolution quickly became a politically correct ‘guilt’ justification for corrupt Hawaii political operators to rake in millions operating lucrative state and federally funded programs and even private companies pretending to benefit Native Hawaiians. One deal alone, Sandwich Isles Communications, got $500 million in federal funds to provide nearly useless fiber optic connections to Hawaiian Homelands residential lots--most of which are undeveloped. Costs are estimated at $278,000 per utilized connection.

Today Hawaii’s political class is focused on passage of the so-called “Akaka Bill” a political descendant of the “Apology Resolution” which would create a sovereign native Hawaiian “tribal” government—a guaranteed source of billions for Hawaii’s venal elites, possibly making them able to drain all of Native Hawaiians’ patrimony without legal oversight. Obama has been such a strong Senatorial advocate for the Akaka Bill, he is often called “Hawaii’s third Senator.”

In addition to the Hawaii Democrat dirty money machine Obama is tied in with Goldman Sachs, investment houses specializing in highly regulated industries and many Clinton administration figures as described in the December 6 Harper’s Magazine article, “Barack Obama, Inc.”:

“He (Obama) quickly established a political machine funded and run by a standard Beltway group of lobbyists, P.R. consultants, and hangers-on. For the staff post of policy director he hired Karen Kornbluh, a senior aide to Robert Rubin when the latter, as head of the Treasury Department under Bill Clinton, was a chief advocate for NAFTA and other free-trade policies that decimated the nation’s manufacturing sector (and the organized labor wing of the Democratic Party).

Obama’s top contributors are corporate law and lobbying firms (Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, where four attorneys are fund-raisers for Obama as well as donors), Wall Street financial houses (Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase), and big Chicago interests (Henry Crown and Company, an investment firm that has stakes in industries ranging from telecommunications to defense). Obama immediately established a “leadership PAC,” a vehicle through which a member of Congress can contribute to other politicians’ campaigns—and one that political reform groups generally view as a slush fund through which congressional leaders can evade campaign-finance rules while raising their own political profiles.”

Goldman Sachs had substantial dealings with ex-Governor Waihee and the corrupt trustees of the $6 billion Bishop Estate exposed finally in the late 1990s and documented in the current Hawaii best-selling book, “Broken Trust”.

Is “Broken Trust” a thing of the past? Obama’s Hawaii steering committee taps into both Bishop Estate and the Waihee administration. As the December 13 Honolulu Advertiser explains, “Chuck Freedman, a retired vice president of corporate relations for Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) and former communications director for former Gov. John Waihee, said the committee has contacted Obama's aides and has received a positive response.”

Currently three of the five Bishop Estate trustees are also board members of Hawaiian Electric. HECO monopolizes power generation and distribution in Hawaii and through double-taxation (tax on fuel for generation, and on the electricity produced) under the General Excise Tax, supplies a large part of the State General Fund. HECO also provides many thousands of dollars of political ‘donations’ to legislative incumbents. Bishop Estate is Hawaii’s largest private landowner.

Voters rarely got the truth from Bill Clinton; will they get the straight story from Obama? Not judging by his December 6 comments to Harper’s: “Progressive candidates generally have a harder time raising money, he said, and at times some of them will ‘trim their sails’ on behalf of the people who are financing them.”

Hawaii may not amount to much in the Electoral College, but to the National Democrat Party money machine, these islands are a fountainhead of cash. If Waihee and his cronies could parlay their dirty land deals into the Presidency for their selected candidate in 1992, they could do it again.

Barack Hussein Obama will keep his Islamic past under wraps and his radical secularist sails trimmed. He will say whatever it takes to bring in the cash and win election. His candidacy, record and corrupt connections deserve close scrutiny now, before it is too late.

The Advertiser's Jerry Burris is retired from the newspaper, but is blogging on the politics and events of the day, from the Legislature to the presidential election and beyond.

Nowhere is the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished more true that in the world of politics.

So it is with U.S. Rep. Ed Case, now running against incumbent Daniel Akaka for the U.S. Senate.

While the two have finally agreed to a head-to-head debate, on Aug. 31 on public television, most of the campaign to date has been waged by proxy. Case complains, challenges and prods and Akaka responds through spokespeople or — and this is what most infuriates Case — by ignoring his opponent altogether.

The latest proxy needling of Case came from attorney William Meheula, a law partner of Andy Winer, chairman of the Akaka campaign. Meheula has circulated a memo attacking Case’s state record on legislation and issues of interest to Hawaiians.

While the memo was not officially part of, or produced by the Akaka campaign, there has been no attempt to disavow it.

Meheula argues in the memo that Case’s record from his days in the state Legislature show a determined interest in dismantling programs and rights for Hawaiians.

The keystone was Case’s 1998 “Native Hawaiian Autonomy Act,” which sought to end separate programs such as the Hawaiian Home Lands program and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and instead create one universal or umbrella organization for Hawaiians drawing together a broad range of political and physical assets.

The idea generated a firestorm of protest from Hawaiian activists and groups, who argued it would dismantle what small gains they had made toward self-determination and access to Hawaiian assets.

Case quickly withdrew the idea but insisted his idea was not to harm Hawaiians but rather to consolidate whatever potential they had under one legally recognized umbrella.

But Meheula, who has litigated many cases involving challenges to Hawaiian rights and entitlements, said the net effect of the Autonomy Act and other actions by Case would have been to set back Hawaiian progress.

“If you’re a native Hawaiian, you have to ask if this is the person you want representing you,” he said.

In response, Case issued a detailed statement outlining issues he has championed to benefit Hawaiians, the Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian environment.

These range from the Akaka (Hawaiian recognition) bill through supporting Kamehameha Schools admissions policy and a variety of Hawaiian-focused education, health, home ownership and economic opportunity measures.

On the Hawaiian autonomy bill, Case admitted there were strong objections from Hawaiian leaders.

But he pointed out that many of the ideas in the bill have since resurfaced within the Hawaiian community now that the Akaka recognition bill has stalled.

s true Case was snakebit on this autonomy bill. But his overall record does not suggest he should be thrown into the “anti-Hawaiian” camp.

The effort to slime Barack Obama has begun in the slimiest possible way. I received the following from an outraged reader, who had received it from a friend:

> > > Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

> > > When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

> > > Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.

> > > Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Osama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

> > > Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

> > > Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.

Now, this is nonsense of course. Obama's stepfather was not a Muslim extremist (among other things, he worked for Shell Oil). Obama attended public school for two years in Indonesia, in addition to the two years he spent in catholic schools--although, as Obama's staff points out, Indonesia is a Muslim country, so the public schools undoubtedly reflect the dominant relgious culture. The notion that the Obama's school was a Wahabi madrasa is laughable, given the moderate form of Islam practiced in Indonesia, especially in those days. I should add: that Obama actually spent four years attending local public and Catholic schools in a third world country--as opposed to the U.S. embassy school--should be considered a major advantage for a prospective American President.

Of course, you have to expect this sort of garbage to percolate through the internet. But, as Howard Kurtz points out today, Fox news actually "reported" this--based on spew from Insight, the Washinton Times Magazine. Another case of, "We report, you decide to get sick." I'd say that Fox owes Obama a full-throated, oft-broadcast apology, delivered by the network's flagship anchor, Brit Hume.

Yet it is also startling to see how quickly Obama’s senatorship has been woven into the web of institutionalized influence-trading that afflicts official Washington. He quickly established a political machine funded and run by a standard Beltway group of lobbyists, P.R. consultants, and hangers-on.

For the staff post of policy director he hired Karen Kornbluh, a senior aide to Robert Rubin when the latter, as head of the Treasury Department under Bill Clinton, was a chief advocate for NAFTA and other free-trade policies that decimated the nation’s manufacturing sector (and the organized labor wing of the Democratic Party). Obama’s top contributors are corporate law and lobbying firms (Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, where four attorneys are fund-raisers for Obama as well as donors), Wall Street financial houses (Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase), and big Chicago interests (Henry Crown and Company, an investment firm that has stakes in industries ranging from telecommunications to defense).

Obama immediately established a “leadership PAC,” a vehicle through which a member of Congress can contribute to other politicians’ campaigns—and one that political reform groups generally view as a slush fund through which congressional leaders can evade campaign-finance rules while raising their own political profiles.

He may have been more progressive in the Illinois State Senate. But, he didn’t have his eyes on the brass ring — or the White House — at that point....

University of Chicago	$130,512
Kirkland & Ellis	$93,888
Henry Crown & Co	$74,000
Sidley, Austin et al	$71,932
Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal	$69,250
Exelon Corp	$67,850
Northwestern University	$62,480
Soros Fund Management	$61,605
Jenner & Block	$59,710
Mayer, Brown et al	$59,400
Simmons Cooper LLC	$58,500
Goldman Sachs	$58,000
Tejas Securities	$56,250
Piper Rudnick LLP	$55,600
Ariel Capital Management	$51,800
JP Morgan Chase & Co	$51,300
Skadden, Arps et al	$50,221
Winston & Strawn	$49,950
Holland Capital Management	$40,250
Miner, Barnhill & Galland	$39,604

Hawaii - Top Political Contributors

LEADING INDUSTRIES, 2005-2006

Top of Form 1

Bottom of Form 1

Retired	$638,159
Lawyers/Law Firms	$563,473
Real Estate	$189,196
Construction Services	$149,655
Health Professionals	$121,650
Commercial Banks	$114,975
Leadership PACs	$111,600
Misc Business	$91,077
Civil Servants/Public Officials	$81,134
Misc Finance	$72,350

TOP CONTRIBUTORS, 2005-2006

Galiher, DeRobertis & Ono	$111,800
DANPAC	$111,600
DLA Piper Rudnick et al	$57,600
RM Towill Corp	$54,500
State of Hawaii	$51,037
Carlsmith Ball LLP	$46,300
Alexander & Baldwin	$45,050
University of Hawaii	$42,680
Cronin, Fried et al	$40,000
Estate of James Campbell	$36,000
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 675	$33,200
Pacific Century Financial	$28,700
First Hawaiian Bank	$28,150
Central Pacific Bank	$26,350
Campbell Estate	$24,000
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts	$21,650
Kfc Engineering Management	$21,200
Royal Contracting Co	$20,950
Resort Group	$20,900
Kobayashi, Sugita & Goda	$20,706