Richard Pohle.

By Maui Now Staff

Richard H. Pohle is a candidate for the State House District 12 seat. He is running on the republican ticket and faces democrat, Kyle T. Yamashita for the seat.

Full Name: Richard H. Pohle, PhD
Date and location of Birth:  September 15, 1939, Providence, RI
Current residence: 17100 Haleakala Hwy, Kula HI 96790
Occupation:  Staff Scientist Textron Systems (Maui). Retired
Elected offices held, if any: None. Candidate for Maui County Council Upcountry Seat 2012, unsuccessful
Education: BS: Brown University, 1961. PhD: University of Maryland, 1969. (Physics)
Community Involvement:  Founder of Upcountry Meter List Association at www.umla.ws; Driver for American Cancer Society.
Family status:  Married, 4 children, 8 grandchildren.

State Legislative Candidate Questionnaire:

Question 1. What is the number one issue facing the district you plan to represent? Why do you feel it warrants special attention and how do you plan to resolve this issue? If you have more than one item, please elaborate.

Answer:  We Need Smaller Government

Sixty years ago in high school science class, I held a single transistor in my hand. Now, $110 buys a 128 GB flash drive containing almost a trillion transistors which can contain every letter, article, text, and report I have ever written. Since 2005, computers can beat any human chess master. In 2011, a computer named Watson beat the best players in Jeopardy, a game requiring answers to common verbal questions.

The internet is becoming faster, more accessible, useful, and necessary. Soon, a “Rent a Watson” will answer all our questions via our ever present internet access. Every text, public conversation, transaction, place we visit, and question we ask will be recorded somewhere. Upgrades of NSA and commercial facilities with capability doubling every two years will provide unlimited, indefinite storage capacity. We will demand our data be stored automatically and durably for our own banking and living convenience.

In previous police states, individual monitoring required ever present observers. Not now. Government access to private data will be granted at the first major terrorist attack.

With extensive stored data, no one need be under surveillance until government finds it necessary. Then, government monitoring will be retroactive and extensive.

Current news shows how: NSA monitors texts and conversations; Obamacare controls healthcare, and, with the IRS, can selectively target individuals, leak data, and freeze assets; FBI raids homes and confiscates property; regulatory agencies take property and destroy business. Current news shows the Legislative Branch incapable of monitoring the Executive Branch without Executive cooperation. This is especially true if the Legislature is divided and the Executive acts as one unit.. Delay, deny, confuse, denigrate, demean, and, if necessary, apologize; with an uninterested, compliant media, eventually, the issues disappear.

In thirty years, imagine an unscrupulous, power hungry Executive and his agents heading the various departments listed above and believing in their goals. Their jobs, status, families, and living standards depend upon how well they preserve and defend their Executive. They will be aided by favored corporations, media, crony capitalism, and extensive government dependency. Imagine this power used against political enemies.

Executive action will be swift, punitive, and complete. Legislative and judicial recourse will be slow, expensive and incomplete. Elections will be held but with compliant, approved candidates. I submit that it will be impossible to unseat this Ruling Class.

If the data exists, the bureaucracy will use it. The only solution to this distopian future is a smaller, more local government. Keep people out of the loop where possible. Abolish the IRS: replace its revenue collection function by an automatic tax such as a sales or consumption tax. Reconsider regulations, which now consume 10% of our GNP, (we survived before they existed). Limit the FBI  in size and scope and make it independent. Phase out government programs and their controlling bureaucracies.

I am a Republican. We advocate smaller government, lower taxes, fewer programs, and less regulation. My positions on a host of issues may be found on www.umla.ws.

Question 2. The HTA is projecting visitor arrivals and expenditures to plateau in 2014.  What are some revenue generating ideas you have to stimulate the island economy?

Answer: Make Maui a More Inviting Tourist Destination

1. Set up axis deer hunting safaris. Axis deer must be culled and hunting is an efficient, profitable, and nutritional way to do this. Encourage our stores and restaurants sell the meat as Maui Venison. Allow hunters to serve as inspectors after a training session. We cannot control population by sterilization. Imagine we catch 50% of the deer each year for sterilization. In two years, they will be replaced and eventually, we will have old sterile deer eating the crops and just as many deer. Coordinate with existing Upcountry hunters.
2. Allow for a special zone to aid tours to Haleakalā. There is no reason tourists should have to start from Kīhei to see the Haleakalā sunrise or sunset. Let them overnight Upcountry with a special use permit. Ditto with bike tours.
3. Stop begrudging our beautiful island to the tourists. Lets be a more tourist friendly island.
4. Reinstate the Super Ferry which was killed by environmental groups and the Democrat legislature which drafted a bill so narrowly taylored that the State Court had no choice but to throw it out.
5. Have respect for local jobs and local employers. HC&S keeps Maui Green. GMO provides jobs. Otherwise, we will have a dust bowl in the valley and more homeless on the streets. Enough of this “I’m here. Too bad about you” mentality.
6. Use common sense to address the sad situation of the Upcountry Meter List people and the poor Upcountry water infrastructure. The Maui County Council has made one fine mess of the situation. This is detailed on the second page of my website: www.umla.ws. Happy people living off the street in affordable housing make happy tourists.
7. My platform advocates a smaller government. This means less government funding for pet projects. But I pledge to cooperate with enterprises and encourage and assist new ideas where I can.

***Candidate spotlight segments were compiled as a public service to further educate and inform Maui voters about the upcoming primary election on August 9, 2014, and the general election on November 4, 2014. The questionnaires  were distributed via mail following the primary election candidate filing deadline for select races affecting Maui County.  The responses do not reflect the opinion or position of Maui Now or Pacific Media Group.