Dem Backlash?; Read The Ingredients

The author initially thought he’d found a healthy snack. Photo from Bob Jones

I am not a campaign-strategy guru, but my 51 years here give my nose a good scent for campaign strategies that resonate with local voters.

So I’m fascinated by those ads by two ex-governors and one politically-connected ex-banker telling us why we should vote Colleen Hanabusa for U.S. Senate.

They probably score with members of the Democratic Party caliphate that can be traced back to the late Gov. John Burns.

But might there be some backlash from those who do not like to be told by fading-out power brokers whom to vote for?

I’m uncomfortable about the late Sen. Dan Inouye trying to direct who should be his successor. That decision belongs to the governor, and if we disapprove, we can say so in the next election.

Ariyoshi and Cayetano also are opposing the re-election of Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who picked Brian Schatz rather than Hanabusa as interim senator.

I get the sense this is mostly Old Party at odds with New Party, with a little personal pique tossed in.

I do not have a clue how this will play out in the Aug. 9 primary election.

Maybe the Legislature needs to revisit the new law requiring disclosure of finances by members of state boards and commissions.

The law is a good and overdue move. Most appointees are noble people serving without pay and for the public good. But some could vote to benefit themselves or their cohorts and we’d never know it.

Here’s a sensible compromise: Make appointees list every company they are with, every board, and everything that gives them income. No need to say how much income, or what’s in your bank account. We just need to know your and your spouse’s associations.

To those who huffily resigned from the UH regents, I say good riddance. You’re the ones who mucked up the recent presidential search. You should have been fired.

My wife reminds me not to rely much on processed foods in my daily intake. So I try to avoid Spam, hot dogs, chocolate-crunch cereal, Cheez Whiz and bread that has sugar as the No. 2 ingredient.

I figured I couldn’t go wrong with Roasted Green Peas from the Kasugai Seika Company in Nagoya, Japan. Yum! With a little wasabi to boot! Only after polishing off the 3.5 ounces did I turn the package over and check the ingredients.

Green peas, corn starch, sugar, canola oil and palm oil, wheat flour, rice flour, salt, monosodium L-glutamate, disodium 5-ribonucleotide, hydrologized soybean, baking powder, ammonium bicarbonate, FD&C Yellow No. 5 tartrazine, F&DC Blue No. 1 Brilliant Blue FCF.

And then in tiny print: “Manufactured on shared equipment that processes MILK, SHRIMP, PEANUT, ALMOND ingredients.”

Gee, and I was just enjoying some roasted green peas!

BanyanTreeHouse@Gmail.com