October 15, 2006

[Update: Power finally restored in Kaaawa at 1:18 a.m., almost exactly 18 hours after it was lost. Cats still jumpy. People frazzled. Neighbors who invested in a backup generator were able to power their refrigerator and lights, making dinner possible for all of us last night. We're woefully unprepared for life without power, although this is the longest outage in our 18 years in Kaaawa so perhaps is not the standard to judge by. I'm going back to bed.

Oh, check the photo gallery at West Hawaii Today.]

Well, it was raining this morning so our walk was delayed and I was here in the dining room when I heard what sounded like distant thunder. By the time I got across the room to check with Meda, the grinding roar and shaking had started and kept going. And going. There was a long moment when I thought the sound must be one of the big trees next to the house pulling out of the ground, and started moving to the other side of the house. But it finally passed, and all could do was count cats and exclaim to ourselves. The good news was that we had just brewed a pot of fresh coffee when the power went out, so we carried that most valuable of commodities down the street to share with friends.

It took the cats a couple of hours to calm down. Perhaps they could feel those after shocks that didn't register with us.

In any case, it's about 2:45 p.m. and still no power.

I'll try to post this via my cell phone just to let folks on the mainland know that we're okay. If the power isn't restored by late afternoon, we'll have the choice of red wine or luke warm margaritas. Or perhaps someone on the street has some ice in a cooler that they'll be willing to share.

Latest report--power just came on in Nanakuli. At this rate, perhaps it will be restored here by tomorrow morning.

October 14, 2006 - Saturday

I was finally able to make the connection and pick up the Ed Case campaign sign that I bought for $15.25 on eBay. It is said to be the very same sign that had its own 15-minutes of fame after being abducted from a public street in Manoa by Nancie Caraway, wife of Congressman Neil Abercrombie and a supporter of Sen. Dan Akaka, Case's primary election opponent.

I picked up the sign from Case supporter Richard Fassler, who had been with the sign at the time of the abduction. Fassler said candidate Case later added his signature and a note to Caraway. Both Caraway and Fassler live on the same short stretch of Haena Drive in Manoa, just a few houses apart.

It was classic "bad news - good news" for little Japanese White Eye yesterday morning. First was the bad news. If it had to fly into a window and fall stunned to the ground, a house with nine cats in residence was not the best place for the accident to happen.

The good news was that Mr. Duke was the first on the scene and, luckily for Mr. White Eye, Duke's tank never got topped off with killer instinct. This meant that I was able to get to the scene of the crash and retrieve the bird while Duke was deciding whether or not this was really food via special delivery. White Eye was stunned and I wasn't sure it would survive, but a half-hour rest in a cat carrier and away he flew.

October 13, 2006 - Friday

I can offer the following advice from all too direct experience. If you are sitting bleary-eyed trying to make sense of the morning news when that coffee contraption begins emitting more of the guttural strangling sounds dosed with unexplained hissing sounds, do not rush into the kitchen where you might unconsciously reach out towards the source of the unwanted gurgles and try to feel where the problem is. Oh, you'll feel the problem all right. Do you remember those physics classes with obtuse discussions of the characteristics of fluids heated to a gaseous state? It boils down to a simple lesson: Hand is no match for steam. Period. This is one of those cases where it's best to just deal with the symptoms and wipe up the mess. At least until you've had a cup of coffee to snap the brain into focus.

Friday the 13th? Aw, we don't believe in that kind of stuff....Do we?

Today's Friday Feline is Mr. Leo, joined in this instance by an unidentified Santa imitator. Obviously this was a set-up, but it wasn't going the way I hoped. In any case, just click for a larger version.

I forgot to comment earlier this week on Advertiser reporter Sean Hao's fine story last Sunday on the water needed to sustain rapidly expanding ethanol production. There's been an awful lot of talk and reporting about ethanol as an alternative fuel that will provide a local economic boost as well, but Hao has identified a rather significant stumbling block. The fact that little if any of the glowing reporting on ethanol production has dealt with the potential for a resulting water war is a measure of how quickly this idea gained the status of "sacred cow".

In any case, Hao produced a fine bit of reporting that raised new and unexpected issues and doesn't appear to have emanated from a press release or public event. That happens less often these days and I feel such good work needs to be acknowledged and savoured.

The four of us who appeared as guests on yesterday's Town Square program on Hawaii Public Radio's KIPO-FM had a good time, although program host Beth-Ann Kozlovich said she had never had a program that drew only a single phone call. Until yesterday. A dubious distinction we now get to share.

The issue of blogs and elections got me wondering about when political consultants will start aiming for the Super Bowl type of advertising, those broadcast ads that become instant popular hits and download favorites, circulating in the cultural aftermarket long after they are withdrawn from paid time. Of course, I immediately think about the cat herders ad from several years ago, but there are lots more you can browse on YouTube.

A reader pointed me to one example:

This is the commercial that the GOP refuses to run because it is "over the top", even for those mean ass bastards in Washington (ie Karl Rove, et al). It is by the producer of "Scary Movie" and "Airplane", one of the Zucker brothers and was made for the GOP. Needless to say, Zucker hates Democrats, but it still is funny in a non-partisan sort of way..

October 12, 2006 - Thursday

If you're not busy this afternoon, you can tune in to Hawaii Public Radio's KIPO-FM (89.3) from 5-6 p.m. for what will hopefully be an interesting discussion of blogs and this year's political campaigns featuring Advertiser columnist and now blogger (and former Star-Bulletin managing editor) Dave Shapiro, Advertiser public affairs editor Jerry Burris, Disappeared News' Larry Geller, and myself with moderator Beth-Ann Kozlovich. The program is Town Square.

I'm told you can also tune in from anywhere in the world via your computer and the Internet.

According to the station's web site: "Your phone calls are always welcome at 941-3689; toll free from the neighbor islands at 1-877-941-3689.

A friend passed along this note regarding the Lingle ad on Starbulletin.com: "For me, it does not pop up with Firefox, but it does with Safari." So mileage varies.

Another friend and former neighbor had this reaction to the earlier discussion of machine politics:

p.s.
my take on political machines in hawaii
it has more to do with
how you are taken care of if you lose an election
as much as what is expected of you if you win
as much as the expectation to know your place
that is
when it is determined
when it is your time to run and for what office to run
for

they will not hold you back
but neither will they support you
but if you lose
will they take care of you

look at Mufi
he was groomed for years
always taken care when he did not have an elected
office
that is my view anyway

I don't think there's any question that certain people in Hawaii are invited into the tent and taken care of as long as they don't stray too far politically. But that is a product of a power elite, perhaps even a power elite with competing factions. Does this necessarily indicate a political "machine"? Are they the same thing?

It would be interesting to take a more serious look at how power is distributed in Hawaii today, and whether it is more or less centralized than at statehood, for example. Perhaps someone at UH has done such a study already??

My friend also suggested viewing this segment of a much longer presentation by Noam Chomsky, this part dealing with mechanisms of control the larger population by powerful elites. It's available on YouTube, in the process of being purchased by Google, speaking of a power elite.

I ran into an interesting commentary on Swans.com referencing a description by Tom Reiss of a speech Columbia University historian Fritz Stern.

Reiss writes that Stern, "with a frankness that startled some in the audience . . . . talked about a group of 1920s intellectuals known as the 'conservative revolutionaries,' who 'denounced liberalism as the greatest, most invidious threat, and attacked it for its tolerance, rationality and cosmopolitan culture,' and about how Hitler had used religion to appeal to the German public. In Hitler's first radio address after becoming chancellor, Stern noted, he declared that the Nazis regarded 'Christianity as the foundation of our national morality and the family as the basis of national life.'" Sound familiar? Could it happen here? The blend of hyper-nationalism, xenophobia, religion, family values, secrecy, economic dislocations, competition for resources, militarization of culture, wars...all telltale signs of a creeping authoritarian corporatism.

Whew. I think that's enough of the big picture for this morning.

October 11, 2006 - Wednesday

Hey, cat people, listen up to this plea from a reader in Kaaawa:

 The reason I'm writing today is because I now have five kittens that are looking for a home. They are about 8-10 weeks old, cute, friendly and playful. I know that Meda and you love cats. I thought that maybe you knew of someone, neighbor or friend, who is looking to adopt a kitten (or two).

There are two males and three females. One of the boys is black and white, the other is white with a little bit of orange on the head and tail, but it's a very pale orange.  The girls are calico, one white with orange and very little black, the other two are almost exactly alike, calico with silver gray mixed with the orange and white.  

If you're tempted, or know someone who could be, please call (371-9129) or email (ian@ilind.net) and I'll put you in touch. Thanks.

I crawled out of bed this morning and, not long later, went to check the day's headlines on Starbulletin.com. I was surprised by a Lingle-Aiona video pop-up ad that covered the top stories. Well, technically not a pop-up, I suppose. Unlike other ads which require that you positively click on them in order to view, it seems that if you allow your cursor to accidentally drift over the Lingle ad at the very top right of the page it will immediately let loose the video window. I instinctively moved the cursor to the ad looking for a way to close the window, and that just started the video running. It's probably innocuous, but I found it annoying.

The S-B reports today, prompted by a press release from the Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, that DLNR has set up a 24-hour hot line "to encourage reports of threats to natural and cultural resources".

A bit farther down in the story we learn that it's really a tepid line, perhaps a lukewarm line, rather than a hotline. During working hours, calls will be routed to an DLNR enforcement office on the appropriate island. What's left unsaid is that the calls might then be answered if anyone happens to be around, but actually sending an officer out to investigate or enforce remains unlikely.

At night and on weekends, information from complainants will be held and forwarded on to staff the next working day where, unless things have changed dramatically in the last six months, it will sit in a stack along with earlier complaints. The press release and the department's statements really need to be read along with the results of the highly critical audit of the enforcement division published earlier this year, which found the enforcement structure to be woefully understaffed and mismanaged.

DLNR director Peter Young is quoted farther down in the story: "We have not added officers to implement this..." Aha.

We're in that stretch of October marked by Kona winds (very light winds from the south, rather than the typical Hawaii tradewinds) and a thick layer of volcanic haze that has drifted over from the Big Island. The combination has offered some great colors at sunrise and, I imagine, sunset. Here's what it was like in Kaaawa yesterday morning.

October 10, 2006 - Tuesday

Minutes. Not the kinds that tick away, the other kind that record official actions and decisions. They're a vital tool for exercising the public's right to know. But the state does not appear to be doing a good job at making sure the information is freely available to the public via the Internet.

The state's sunshine law takes minutes very seriously, requiring that boards "shall" keep written minutes and make them publicly available within 30 days of a meeting.

I presume public agencies follow the law and have their minutes in a file somewhere, but yesterday I was wondering how many make those minutes available on their web sites.

First things first. Here are the specific requirements for minutes as set by Hawaii's sunshine law:

§92-9 Minutes. (a) The board shall keep written minutes of all meetings. Unless otherwise required by law, neither a full transcript nor a recording of the meeting is required, but the written minutes shall give a true reflection of the matters discussed at the meeting and the views of the participants. The minutes shall include, but need not be limited to:
(1) The date, time and place of the meeting;
(2) The members of the board recorded as either present or absent;
(3) The substance of all matters proposed, discussed, or decided; and a record, by individual member, of any votes taken; and
(4) Any other information that any member of the board requests be included or reflected in the minutes.
(b) The minutes shall be public records and shall be available within thirty days after the meeting, except where such disclosure would be inconsistent with section 92-5; provided that minutes of executive meetings may be withheld so long as their publication would defeat the lawful purpose of the executive meeting, but no longer.

So, with a few minutes to spare yesterday afternoon, I browsed more or less randomly through some state agency web sites to see if they include meeting minutes. Names of agencies with minutes available online appear in green, while those with no minutes, or minutes I couldn't find, appear in red.

Employee-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund: Minutes are available. Last minutes for May 10, 2006 meeting, which could have been the most recent. Committee minutes from 2005 are available but none from 2006. No list of meeting dates or agendas is provided. Instead, a link is provided to a centralized state central calendar, which is not particularly convenient.

Hawaiian Homes Commission: No minutes, despite its immediate impact on thousands of people.

Ethics Commission: No minutes.

Land Use Commission: Minutes appear to be up to date. Latest minutes for meeting August 25. Next meeting was Sept 7, and those minutes would not be due until this week.

High Technology Development Corporation- No minutes

State Foundation on Culture and the Arts--Web page for commission meetings "under construction". No minutes.

Board of Education: Minutes appear current for both the board and its committees.

Board of Agriculture. No minutes. Instead, an agenda that includes "actions taken" but do not contain all the information required by law to be included in minutes.

Procurement Policy Board. Latest minutes, July 13, 2006.

State Procurement Office, The Community Council on Purchases of Health and Human Services. Minutes are available with the latest for a meeting on July 27.

Aloha Tower Development Corporation. Lists link to agenda and minutes, but no minutes are actually included there and only the latest agenda (9/27/06) is listed, so its impossible to even check what business was dealt with at prior meetings..

Hawaii Tourism Authority. HTA does include both agendas and minutes, although they are buried down several levels below the home page. But the latest available are for a meeting on June 1, 2006, while the link to minutes for July 13, 2006 brings an error message.

Hawaii Community Development Authority. Minutes appear up to date with latest from September 6 meeting.

Hawaii Film Office Development Board. Neither minutes nor agenda are available.

Employee Retirement System. No minutes, no agenda.

Professional and Vocational Licensing Boards of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. There are 26 boards. None appear to post minutes.

From this quick spot check, it appears that only a minority of state boards make minutes available on their web sites in a timely fashion.

A problem? For anyone concerned about the public's business or trying to follow a particular agency or policy, the answer is clearly a strong "yes".

October 9, 2006 - Monday

Star-Bulletin owner David Black's publishing empire made another recent acquisition, this time the "Little Nickel", a classified ads newspaper with editions in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, extending the reach of Black's Sound Publishing down to the south.

I also note that Sound Publishing just celebrated the 1st birthday of the Kitsap Free Daily, which it refers to as Washington State's first free daily, "available at hundreds of locations throughout the county including key ferry terminals, retail outlets, offices, restaurants and coffee shops every Monday to Friday."

Funny that Black, who came to Honolulu giving major advertisers free copies of an anti-Gannett and anti-monopoly book (Richard McCord's "The Chain Gang"), is now being viewed as a new "evil empire" by independent publishers in the Pacific Northwest.

"They already own just about every small community paper around Puget Sound that they could get their hands on," one independent publisher wrote me over the weekend. "There are a few holdouts, proud bastions of independent journalism."

This missive in from retired Star-Bulletin business scribe Russ Lynch:

Isn't it amazing -- and perhaps a bit scary -- how Amazon.com works?

I looked up some books there this morning and ordered Anthony Storr's "Music and the Mind."

I got around to your blog later in the day and there at the bottom was an Amazon.com ad for another book by Storr and three others on the same subject, how music affects us, obviously aimed at me personally.

Minutes later, I flipped back to remind myself what those titles were and there was another whole set, three on music and the brain and one on another subject I've viewed on Amazon recently, World War II.

Bingo.. I just looked again and now the ad at the bottom has a Kinky Friedman book and a couple on digital photography, other interests of mine. And a music psychology book.

As I said, a bit scary. But it's actually convenient. I even clicked on a couple for more information.

No different, really, from how much a supermarket chain knows about your habits if you use one of their discount cards.

Aloha, and keep up the good work.

And I should add "thank you" for any of you who end up eventually buying any of those products dangled before your eyes by the amazing Amazon product tracking system. A few cents from each of those sales comes back to support this site. So thank you for your generous support.

Poor Ms. Kili. She stayed outside until after we went to bed on Thursday night, but then slipped in and spread out between us soon after the lights went out. Early Friday morning she woke me up for breakfast, and when I turned on the lights I saw why she had been making herself scarce...there was a big abscess on her head, giving her that Conehead look.

Another $150 vet visit later and she's recuperating, albeit with a less than fashionable haircut. She obviously wasn't feeling 100 percent, but seems to have turned a corner yesterday and started fussing to go back outside. Interestingly, I checked notes in my calendar, and found that she suffered the same kind of injury a year ago at just about this same time. I'm not sure what to think about that coincidence.

October 8, 2006 - Sunday

From the campaign web site of Brian Schatz:

I want you to know that I wholeheartedly support Mazie Hirono, and I will be campaigning for her at every opportunity, and I hope you will too.

He appears to be the only one of the 2nd District democrats to publicly endorse Hirono and offer his active support. If you know of others, please let me know.

Have you noticed those Hogue banners and stopped to wonder what was so darned familiar about them?

I'm playing catch-up again on my Kaaawa photos. I finally got around to the batch from August and I'm now working on September's favorites. Just clock on this August morning photo to see the latest crop.

And thanks for visiting.