Aloha, Boom! says Neil Abercrombie
Hawaii has got some extra attention over the last few weeks as the birthplace and childhood home of President Barack Obama. Most of the stories written about the Hawaii angle describe the state as a laid-back, peace-loving kind of place, all aloha and hibiscus flowers.
The Representative from Hawaii’s first congressional district likes to play up this aspect of Hawaii’s culture, dressing in brightly patterned shirts with garlands of flowers draped around his neck. The truth is, though that both Hawaii and Neil Abercrombie have a different side. Hawaii serves as a military outpost in the Pacific Ocean for the U.S. military, and Representative Abercrombie accordingly serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
In a recent speech, Congressman Abercrombie brags to his constituents about how much pork barrel military spending he’s brought to Hawaii through his position on the Armed Services Committee.
“The funding has included dollars to improve military facilities; to build, renovate, and maintain family housing; and to fund critical defense research projects. The research projects have helped to grow Hawaii’s high-technology industry and the role of the University of Hawaii in research that touches the global community.”
That phrasing ranks high among the chutzpah out of Congress so far this year. Did Abercrombie realize what he was saying when he declared that military research “touches the global community?”
Yeah, military research touches the global community alright – with an Aloha and a boom.
Reach out, reach out and touch someone… with a warhead? This is the Hawaii that people who live on the mainland don’t see, and it is a huge part of today’s Hawaiian culture, one that Hawaii’s politicians don’t want to poke at even with a ten foot pole.
[...] January of 2009 as the 111th Congress gaveled into session, Neil Abercrombie delivered a speech in which he praised his own delivery of pork for Hawaii military projects that “touch the [...]