Thread: Inouye, Third in Line to Presidency, Backs Hawaii Separatism

Inouye, Third in Line to Presidency, Backs Hawaii Separatism
Monday, 28 Jun 2010 04:05 PM
By: Jim Meyers

With the death of longtime Sen. Robert Byrd, the position of president pro tempore of the Senate — third in line to the presidency — has gone to Daniel Inouye, who staunchly supports a bill that would in effect create two Hawaiis.

Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, died Monday morning at age 92, and Hawaii Democrat Inouye, 85, was sworn in as the president pro tem early Monday afternoon because he is now the longest-serving member of the majority party.

Inouye was first elected in 1962, and as president pro tem, he is constitutionally recognized as third in line to the presidency behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Inouye backs the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which has passed the House and awaits consideration in the Senate. The bill would create two Hawaiis, one governed by the state of Hawaii and the other governed by those who identify themselves as natives — direct lineal descendants of Hawaiians before Hawaii was annexed to the United States in 1898.

According to the 2000 Census, 401,162 people identified themselves as being "native Hawaiian" alone or in any combination, and 140,652 people identified themselves as being "native Hawaiian" alone.

The new government of native Hawaiians would be autonomous yet have no geographic borders, with its citizens living under separate laws and institutions throughout Hawaii and the United States, Newsmax magazine reported in the May issue.

In effect, native Hawaiians would become a tribe and have the ability to levy taxes and exercise eminent domain.

The bill would also grant native Hawaiians the right to negotiate for control over 1.8 million acres of land that the federal government ceded to the state when Hawaii was granted statehood in 1959.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published in late February, Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow — members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights — said the bill “might turn out to be this Congress’ single most calamitous decision.â€

Jim Meyers is talking racist bull shit the Hawaiian people were cheated out of independence by the sugar companies and they are deserving of as much autonomy as an American Indian nation. The country had been recognized as independent by several other countries before the take over of the Hawaiian nation by a small armed group. They forced Hawaii's union with the United States.