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March 6, 2004 - Saturday
I noticed a terribly misleading subhead in Thursday Star-Bulletin. The headline: "Court defers enticement charge". Then the subhead: "A convict who sought sex with a minor girl could have his record expunged in five years".
But the defendant was not a "convict". He was an Air Force firefighter. And, apparently, a well respected one who was strongly supported by his former supervisors. That's why he was granted a deferred no-context plea. That subhead made it sound like a hardened con had somehow gotten out of prison and gone after young girls, which most people would probably think was a very different matter.
The Star-Bulletin was way ahead on the story that most local folks were most interested in yesterday morning--the outbreak at the California Hotel! That's real news!
I also noticed that the Star-Bulletin included bill numbers and links to the full text of bills referred to in a story today on education measures facing a vote in the House next week. This should become standard practice.
| Okay. So I'm peering into the end of this Apple gizmo that's sitting on the top of my laptop screen just minutes after I pulled it out of its box, trying to figure out how you can tell if it's turned on. And then zip, up pops my mug on the screen. Ouch. They shouldn't demonstrate the downside of video communications so graphically this early in the learning process. |
Anybody home?
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In any case, now I've got this snazzy looking Apple iSight camera which, according to all the ads, makes video conferencing simple and foolproof. Now I need folks to chat with. Any regulars out there set up for this? If so, let me know, please, so I can see if this setup actually works.
March 5, 2004 - Friday
First, a bit of media commentary appearing in an AP compilation of comedians riffs on the presidential campaign, this one from Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn:
"Republicans have launched round-the-clock commercials promoting George Bush. Don't we already have this -- it's called Fox News."
And here's some additional background from the Corporate Crime Reporter on Halliburton's internal investigation into corrupt payments allegedly made in Nigeria while Dick Cheney was CEO. CCR reports that the company has hired a Bush family lawyer to conduct its probe. Another small world moment.
An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times questions the role of the U.S. government in the coup that toppled the Aristide government in Haiti, as well as the media's failure to test the Bush administration's explanations of these events. A quick search at news.google.com finds substantial right wing spin aimed at discrediting the Congressional Black Caucus, but precious little hard reporting on the controversial coup and its roots in U.S. foreign policy.
| From Thursday's email:
"aloha, attached is an interesting recent photo regarding the state of san francisco's newspaper scene and a certain corporate news giant. it's open to some interesting interpretations. feel free to post it if you think your readers would be interested. please no attribution other than 'a reader.' enjoy"
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 SF symbolism?
Click for larger photo
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March 4, 2004 - Thursday
Jim Dooley hit again this morning with perhaps an even better story than yesterday, again based on a careful analysis of the financial dealings of state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa. Excellent work, definitely setting the pace that the competition has to try to match. You've got to love reading stuff this good!
UH President Evan Dobelle may be having trouble here and suddenly avoiding the local limelight, but he apparently graces the cover of the American Council on Education's quarterly magazine and has penned its lead article.
If your tastes run to the quite irreverent, try this offering from the L.A. Weekly.
The Campaign Finance Institute, affiliated with George Washington University, has issued a guide to the Supreme Court's massive campaign finance decision upholding the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The CFI guide is the latest in a series examining the campaign law and FEC regulations.
It took three full days, but I'm finally free of the arbitration case that held me captive since Monday morning. I have to say that it was strange being the only person in the room not earning a substantial hourly fee or having a direct financial interest in the outcome. Not an experience I'm eager to repeat any time soon.
March 3, 2004 - Wednesday
Don't miss Jim Dooley's story in today's Honolulu Advertiser, which looks like it could lead to the resignation of Gov. Lingle's appointee as State Sheriff. It also reveals interesting personal and business ties of Sen. Colleen Hanabusa. What a small world it is.
The Advertiser also has a story about the flooding which has frequently closed Kamehameha Highway through Waikane. We couldn't get out of Kaaawa yesterday morning until almost 9:30 a.m. because of another round of flooding, and then worried all day whether it would be clear when we turned around and headed home at the end of the day.
Another must read is yesterday's Paul Krugman column in the New York Times. Krugman hits the nail on the head--the Bush administration has simply given away your hard earned retirement benefits to the small group of Americans who reaped a bundle from the "trickle down" tax cuts. And the scene is repeated here in Hawaii, where tax cuts, passed with promises that they would fuel growth and fill government coffers, have instead left us worrying about how to pay for needed services.
A former Northeasterner writes: "Do you think Rumsfeld will send a 'shock and awe' force to Killington to keep it from seceding from Vermont?"
March 2, 2004 - Tuesday
I'm stuck in an arbitration proceeding for several days involving the condominium where my office is located. I earned this sentence by allowing my self to be elected the condo association president. It just means that I won't have time for much work on these updates until later in the week.
The storm is back. After a calm Monday, it roared back over night. The wind started gusting just after midnight with the rain following not far behind. The Advertiser reports that two tornadoes may have hit the Big Island. It's been that kind of storm.
| Remember the little ms. piggie that I caught in a cat carrier back in January? I had a little visit over the weekend as she was being walked by her adopted family, harness and all.. Well, she wasn't really being walked. I suppose grazed was more like it. She was getting to munch a bit of lawn, apparently a special treat for her. |
Ms. Maisy
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And for a laugh for two, check out Funny Times online, the e-version of their great monthly compilation of cartoons and humor. And no laughing matter is this article in The Hill, the newspaper about Congress, "How Bush camp's lies keep Guard issue in the spotlight."
March 1, 2004 - Monday
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy made a lengthy and informative statement on the Bush administration's amended landmine policy, a policy which again puts the U.S.at odds with our alllies.
And it's looking like it will take some time to sort out what really happened in Haiti, and to understand the full role of the U.S. in these events. There are allegations of covert U.S. involvement in instigating or backing the anti-Aristide "rebels", but for those of us lacking knowledge of the area the whole episode is chaotic and confusing.
| It's taken me two months to get around to another batch of Kaaawa photos. It isn't that our early mornings yielded fewer images. I've just been slow in getting to them. But here are the lastest--just click on this sunrise or the "Kaaawa Gallery" banner to the right. Enjoy. |
Sunrise in Kaaawa
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February 29, 2004 - Sunday
What do you say on this day? Happy Leap Year? Merry Leap Day? Happy Leap Year Day? What is this thing, anyway? Who made this up? It's something like that last few elusive cents when trying to balance the check book. Just stick a few cents in there and make it come out right. So the calendar doesn't really work? Stick another day in there every few years and make it come out right. It should at least be a holiday.
One reader sent a quick reaction to yesterday's entry, noting that PBN editor Gina Mangieri announced her resignation at 3 p.m. last Wednesday, to be specific, and left the PBN building soon afterwards. An error in my report was also noted:
She started at PBN in the middle of February, 1999 as the Managing Editor. She became Editor in the second week of August, 1999.Gina left PBN almost exactly 5 years and one week since she arrived. She just made 5 years at PBN in Feb. as announced.
Currently, Jim George is the acting Editor until someone can be found. PBN is looking for someone, most likely from the mainland, and preferably from one of the sister papers in the ACBJ chain.
I made another error in attributing the old Gordon Morse "Kids Quiz" clipping to the Star-Bulletin. Morse spent 16 years with the Honolulu Advertiser before taking refuge on the Island of Owhyhee, as his own web site puts it.
A sobering extension of federal law now makes it illegal to edit otherwise legal works by authors in countries covered by U.S. trade embargoes, which now include Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba, as reported by Democracy Now!
Cat people aren't all pussy cats, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times, which describes how pet owners in one community fought an attempt to evict their cats.
| This was one very happy duck taking advantage of a small pond of rain water that took over this section of Kekio Road over on the other side of Kaaawa. Just one indication of how wet the last several days have been. |
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