Blogging the Superferry; expect Maui protests...

I haven't been covering the Superferry issue, except to highlight the military connections (here and here) and East Maui resource connections (here), but several other local bloggers have been following it closely, each of them bringing first-hand reporting, investigative research, and/or insightful analysis from their own angles. It has been interesting to watch the bloggers work together to follow the story and refer to each other as they dig up bits and pieces of relevant information. Anyone who learns about the issue only from the papers or TV is far less informed than someone who also gets their news from the blogs.

If you want to be informed, I highly recommend regular visits to these (and reading back through the this week's coverage to catch up with events since the court ruled):

Joan Conrow's Kauai Eclectric
Ian Lind's ilind.net
Larry Geller's Disappeared News
Doug White's Poinography

One small thought that I would like to add... Maui groups took a legal route to hold the state and the Superferry accountable to the law, and they succeeded. Thus far, large scale protests and civil disobedience have not been needed on Maui. However, should the legislature in a special session now choose to change the law to make an exception for this one business to be able to start operating without completing an EA and possibly EIS first, and the ferry tries again to come to Maui, do not be surprised when Maui folks, feeling they have exhausted the legal recourse and been betrayed by the legislature, turn to protests and civil disobedience similar to Kaua'i. I hear talk... And as Doug pointed out earlier:

Protesters would not necessarily choose (or need) to act on the first visits; a series of randomly unpredictable blockades would be nearly as effective in disrupting the service and causing passengers to form reasonable doubt about the likelihood of reaching their destination (and returning) as scheduled."

He was talking about Kaua'i, but if Maui joins in, his assessment is all the more true.

Meanwhile, let legislators know your views, so hopefully it won't come to that point. Emails to sens@capitol.hawaii.gov reach all state senators, and emails to reps@capitol.hawaii.gov reach all representatives.

Update: With the Superferry and politicians claiming public support for the Superferry, I also wanted to draw attention to Larry's analysis of the Star-Bulletin poll, and why the questions and the ways the results are presented are "deeply flawed and manipulative." But even given their misleading questions (and small sample size/high margin of error on neighbor islands), note that 68.7% of Maui respondents said the Superferry should do an EA, and a plurality (46.7%) on Maui say it should not be allowed to operate while the EA is being done. So according to this, even with problematic questions, overall Maui sentiment 1) supports the groups who took the Superferry and the DOT to court, 2) supports the position of Sen. English and other Maui legislators who oppose a special session and a special exception, and 3) will also support protests if it comes to that.

Posted: Thu - October 11, 2007 at 06:55 PM

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Blogging the Superferry; expect Maui protests...

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