We’ve seen the green flash as the sun rise twice in the last week. Yesterday wasn’t one of those days. But it was incredible anyway.

We left home a few minutes late yesterday. It was already about 6:11 a.m. when we finally locked the house and started walking. The clouds hovering over the horizon were already tinged with red when we turned the first corner onto Olohu Road. After looping up around to the end of the road behind the fire station, then getting back tot he highway and stopping to greet Julia, Maka, and Lehua, three of our regular dogs, we got to the beach just a minute or so after the sun crossed the horizon, so no flash for us. But it was a most satisfactory dawn, as you can see.

As the colors faded, the sky shifted to a stark deep blue contrasting with a large patch of delicate clouds that captured the middle of the sky.

A sunrise like that leaves you feeling like you’ve just banked a lot of good vibes that can be drawn on to neutralize negative things that might lie ahead during the day.

Interesting ruling by Maui county in the case of a residency challenge to Sol Kaho’ohalahala’s run to represent Lanai on the county council. Sol lives in Lahaina but considers Lanai his home.

According to an account by Maui News writer Ilima Loomis:

In a ruling released Monday, Maui County Clerk Roy Hiraga said Kaho’ohalahala qualified as a candidate from Lanai in part because he intends to return there to live in a family home. Hiraga rejected challenges to Kaho’ohalahala’s residency.

State law “makes it abundantly clear that physical presence or absence from a particular place is not the deciding factor in determining the residence of an individual,” Hiraga wrote.

Instead, a person’s “state of mind” determines his or her residence, and it was clear Kaho’ohalahala intended to live on Lanai, Hiraga said.

For more details, you can refer to Kaho’ohalahala’s response to the complaints and the county ruling in his favor.

In the meantime, here’s the relevant provision from the fact sheet on residency rules prepared by the Office of Elections:

If a person resides with the person’s family in one place, and does business in another, the former is the person’s place of residence; but any person having a family, who establishes the person’s dwelling place other than with the person’s family, with the intention of remaining there shall be considered a resident where the person has established such dwelling

Over the weekend I took a call from the campaign of GOP State Rep. Colleen Meyer. The male caller asked if I would listen to a 30-second message from her campaign, and I agreed. He then read a statement praising Meyer for “working to reduce health costs” as evidenced by an award from the Hawaii Medical Association.

After listening politely, I’m afraid I disappointed the caller when he asked if Meyer could count on my support and I informed him that I’ll be voting Democratic.

It also struck me that Meyer’s vocal opposition to the state’s smoking restrictions and attempts to roll back the ban on smoking in public places undermine her claims on the health front.

In any case, I am urging friends and neighbors to support Jessica Wooley, who has been running a good campaign in our district and will pose a strong challenge to Meyer.

The “Do they really think we’re this stupid?” moment this morning was provided by Ricard Borreca’s story in today’s Star-Bulletin under the headline: “Obama would destroy economy, Lingle says“.

Whaaat? Maybe she’s been too business campaigning to see any of the news in recent days. Obama’s way too late to be held responsible for any future damage, the Republicans have already nearly destroyed the economy. Maybe Lingle has just learned the Karl Rove “big lie” strategy. Here we are, living through an epic financial upheaval caused at least in significant part by the refusal of this Republican administration to provide effective oversight of the financial system or to rein in it’s free market ideology in favor of the public good. But instead of recognizing that it was the GOP that has driven the global economy into the ground, or displaying even a hint of recognition of their policy contribution to the crisis, our governor has the audacity to make this kind of claim about a future Obama administration.

That’s really putting politics ahead of reality.

By the way, the news that the Bush administration has essentially been dragged kicking and screaming into a unified international response to the situation crafted by the Europeans is a strong signal that the U.S., under George W. Bush, has pissed away its claim to global leadership.