| Special notice
Four Shih Tsu puppies in search of good homes. Click on the photo for more info and photos taken Sunday morning, Oct 6.
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October 12, 2002 - Saturday
Both Honolulu dailies raised issues about access to public records yesterday.
The Star-Bulletin complained after being denied access to telephone logs and appointment calendars of several city officials. The request for these particular records appears to be part of the newspaper's coverage of the ongoing investigation of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign. It's good that they're pushing on the issue, but unfortunately it's a minimal push. The S-B asked for an opinion by the Office of Information Practices, a process which has proved to be an exercise in frustration for most requesters. They really need to walk right down to Circuit Court and file suit, but the reality is that there's probably no budget to add bite to the bark.
Over at the Advertiser, more good stuff from reporter Jim Dooley, who is continuing his attempt to follow the footsteps of federal auditors who have reported serious shortcomings at the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii. Yesterday Dooley reported the agency has lost key documents relating to several controversial contracts, including the bulk of records pertaining to the selection of contractors.
Dooley's ongoing probe of the housing agency lacks the sizzle of the airport scandal, where several arrests have been made, but Jim gets credit for smelling a big story, then breaking away from the pack and methodically digging into it. It's a good guess that the lid will eventually blow off this situation and Dooley will have earned some of the credit.
I'll save my observations from the federal trial of union leader Gary Rodrigues for tomorrow, after I've had a chance to see how yesterday's hot testimony was treated in today's papers.
I notice that the HGEA web site prominently includes the stories on Rodrigues' trial in its daily summary of local news. On the other hand, I looked in vain for some mention of Rodrigues' legal woes by AFSCME, the United Public Workers' international union. Nothing there that I could find. Even here at home, it doesn't appear that AFSCME has an observer at the trial of one of it's key local leaders. That's a bit of a surprise.
October 11, 2002 - Friday
I got home last night just in time to see a news account of a Republican press conference held to accuse Democrats of "cybersquatting" by creating the web site www.linglefacts.com.
The legislature passed a law prohibiting cybersquatting in 2001. Interestingly, the bill was introduced by Mazie Hirono, now the Democratic candidate for governor.
A quick read of the law, in my view, indicates the Republican allegations are way off target. The domain name is not easily confused with www.lindalingle.com, the official domain of the Lingle campaign. Actually, while the GOP also owns www.lindalingle.net, it appears that www.lindalingle.org is registered by an unrelated person, although there's only a placeholder at the site. I would think that Democrats' use of the .net address would raise legitimate issues, but the current flap is without substance.
It did, however, give lots of free publicity to linglefacts.com, gives Hirono credit for successfully pushing the cybersquatting legislation, and probably will drive its hits way up today. There's no counter on the site, so there's no way to know whether anyone's been looking at it up until now.
It's also an indication that the race must be close enough to push Republicans into going public with such a lightweight issue.
October 10, 2002 - Thursday
There are rumblings up at UH about a move to eliminate the Chancellor of Community Colleges, Joyce Tsunoda, and her entire office. Provosts who head each campus would then each be retitled chancellors. Discussions are already quite advanced, involving faculty and staff at the various campuses. Tsunoda has always been an influential player in UH politics, and the move would be a significant shakeup in power relations within the UH system.
The Victoria-Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild is on strike at the Times-Colonist newspaper for over a month. They've already been on the streets for five weeks. This is the home turf of Star-Bulletin owner David Black, and he must be observing the scene with keen interest. The Guild local's web site has quite comprehensive coverage of the strike issues and is definitely worth checking out.
Meanwhile, preparations for a potential strike at the Honolulu Advertiser continue, although the two sides are reportedly talking again, which is a fundamentally good sign.
October 9, 2002 - Wednesday
Several people have helped to clarify my relation to "Mac" McPherson, the cousin it has taken me 50 years to meet in person. The best comment came from Mary H., who wrote: "You've probably been told already but Mac is your second cousin."
The best part was her signature line:
"From West Virginia, where you have to know this stuff, Mary"
For those who follow our cats, good news. Mr. Silverman has been around. We've only seen him at long intervals since early summer or so, but on Saturday he was sitting outside the front door waiting for someone to offer him a meal. Then on Sunday, he came back again, and for the past two nights he walked right through the cat door while we were having dinner and helped himself. Of course we fussed over him and opened fresh cans of cat food to reward him for appearing.
And last night, after he polished off the cat food, he hopped up on our dining table to see what the people were eating, and made off with his share of that as well.
He made it into today's entry by appearing again just a few minutes ago and helping himself to Wally's breakfast bowl.
| The sun doesn't come up until 6:25 a.m. at this time of year, which gives us more time to get down to the beach before it appears. It picks up speed over the next month, and by the end of the year sunrise in Kaaawa will be at 7:09 a.m. This makes it hard for us to make any morning meetings in town, but on the other hand it makes for a great excuse. Sorry, can't make it, unavoidable sunrise delay. |
click for larger photo |
October 8, 2002 - Tuesday
Two columns in Sunday's Honolulu Advertiser assessed the political speculation and controversy surrounding Rep. Patsy Mink's extended illness and death. I don't agree with their conclusions, but they've done a service by putting the issues up front for public consideration.
Editorial Editor Jerry Burris takes on speculation that political dynamics within the Democratic Party was behind the handling of Mink's unfortunate situation, and concludes that belief in behind-the-scenes political maneuvering is "to accept an absurd fantasy and dishonor the (Mink) family."
Absurd? I would think the most absurd scenario would be to believe that all the politicians and political strategists just sat on their hands and waited patiently without maneuvering for position. Given all that's at stake locally and nationally, that would indeed be "an absurd fantasy".
Does Jerry have any evidence of what actually was happening during those long weeks that Mink was hospitalized without disclosure of any information about her condition? Apparently not. Instead, his argument rests on this premise: "It is impossible to imagine how that scenario works to the benefit of party 'insiders.' "
Impossible? I don't think so. On the contrary, I don't think it's hard at all to find a workable scenario. After all, there were rich dynamics at work, combining the national interests in the possibility of an open seat, local campaign interests, and the dynamics of the small island Congressional Delegation in which Mink was more often than not at odds with her Democratic colleagues.
It seems to me that naming a replacement candidate at a very late date would have posed it's own set of burdens and risks for Democrats. This is a campaign year in which money is very tight, and focus is on the race for governor, which is basically up for grabs. The prospect of having to find funds for another statewide campaign at this point in the cycle would not have been pleasant for party planners. Although, as Burris observes, a wide open special election is not an ideal situation, it would at least place equal burdens on all candidates, would avoid any potential Lingle coat tails, and could easily have been seen as preferable to a last-minute replacement candidacy.
It's not a conspiracy. It's just straightforward strategizing.
Then Executive Editor Jim Kelly weighed in with a review of the Advertiser's handling of the story.
Kelly's bottom line: "I'm satisfied that we did our best to find out what was going on. I'm also convinced that only a handful of people knew how ill Patsy Mink really was and they chose not to tell us."
Kelly acknowledges that mainland newspapers would have more aggressively pursued information about Mink's condition.
And Kelly, like Burris, has nothing to hang onto except the absence of real news.
"I haven't heard anything beyond the usual cynical conspiracy theories from the usual loudmouths to suggest that the Minks or Democratic Party heavyweights somehow manipulated the timing of Mink's death. And what good would that have done them?"
The "usual loudmouths"? There's a revealing comment.
But it's an unfortunate situation. By deferring to family privacy and failing to report the facts of the situation, the Advertiser and other news organizations end up feeding the public speculation they treat so dismissively, although in the end they can only counter with more speculation of their own, rather than a perspective based on hard news.
October 7, 2002 - Monday
District Court Judge David Fong's current term expires November 3. The rules of the Judicial Selection Commission, which determines whether he will be retained for another term, require them to try to forward their decision to the appointing authority at least 30 days ahead, which means a decision might have been made last week. I've been told by several lawyers that Fong has been a good judge, despite the problems I wrote about, so it will be interesting to see the Commission's decision. It will also be interesting to see if the Commission explains their action. In any case, I'll have to chase the rumors later today.
Update (8:00 AM): It appears official. Fong will not get another term. A legal notice seeking applicants for Judge Fong's position in District Court appears in today's Star-Bulletin.
NOTICE OF ANTICIPATED VACANCY IN
JUDICIAL OFFICE
The Judicial Selection Commission, State of Hawaii, announces that is it accepting the submission of names of applicants for the office of Judge, District Court of the First Circuit, State of Hawaii. This anticipated vacancy will occur upon the expiration of the term of The Honorable David L. Fong on November 3, 2002. The names of qualified individuals may be submitted by any interested person, including an applicant for the judicial office referred to in this notice.
The Constitution of the State of Hawaii provides that the Chief Justice shall fill a vacancy in the District Court of the First Circuit by appointing a person from a list of not less than six nominees presented by the Commission. The Constitution requires that persons selected by the Commission be residents and citizens of the State of Hawaii and of the United States and have been licensed to practice law by the Hawaii Supreme Court for a period of not less than five years preceding nomination. All names submitted to the Commission will be kept confidential by the Commission and should be delivered by mail to the following address not later than November 1, 2002.
Amy Agbayani, Chair
Judicial Selection Commission
| Duke's last photo, taken yesterday afternoon just minutes before I lured him into a carrier and whisked him off to the vet for a bit of snipping. He'll be home, with fewer private parts, this evening. |
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October 6, 2002 - Sunday
Here's a devastating analysis of the Bush administration's push for war in Iraq from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, placing it in the context of larger, less openly stated policy aims. It really should be required reading. And as I said when forwarding this link to a friend, read and weep.
| My Friday night adventure was to meet a "cousin", local attorney Howard "Mac" McPherson. Our grandmothers were sisters, and his father and my mother were 1st cousins. So that means that we're, well, some kind of cousins.
We've never met before, as far as either of us can recall, although Meda and I spent time with Mac's grandfather and father when they were alive. It made for quite an interesting night.
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Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones was served a subpoena a few days ago to appear as a defense witness for UPW director Gary Rodrigues, now on trial in federal court on 102 counts stemming from an alleged scheme that skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars from union insurance contracts. What Rodrigues thinks Jones can say on his behalf is unknown.
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