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September 18, 2004 - Saturday

I've been getting a lesson in island journalism history from long ago UH student Harold Marshall, one of those involved in putting out a 1960's underground paper called "Carrion Crow". Harold writes:

There were eight issues published between March, 1967, and May , 1968, so it finished up just as Jon Olsen started the Roach. Is John Witeck still around? I think he might remember. Also Ray Maeda used to do cartoons for the Crow, and I know he's done work for other local publications. I'm a little out of touch with people there, so I'm not the best one to give "references" for verifying the Crow's "credentials". What about Wally Fukunaga? Off-Center Coffeehouse was my hang-out....

Until I track down where I've stored the Crow material, at least I did think of a couple of more clues: The first issue was controversial because of a cartoon of Lyndon Johnson clutching a copy of "Mein Kampf" and holding aloft a skull with his other hand. He was smiling at a hawk, standing amidst a pile of bones, and dressed as a general.

There was an article mentioning this in the Star-Bulletin or Advertiser (I don't remember which, but it was early in March, 1967) and we were denounced by Aku on KGMB as the "same group of radicals that is always causing trouble on campus", which was interesting since almost all of us were freshman. There was no one really "in charge", and each issue depended on who was willing to do the work, a true exercise in anarchy. 

I was from California, but many involved were from Roosevelt High, and had been inspired by Setsu Okubo. Her brother was our first printer. Is Ellie Chong still at UH? She could tell you a bit, as we were always at her house...In March or April, 1968, Young Hawaii had an article (maybe about underground newspapers?) that gave the Crow a fond mention, in the sense that you talk about someone at their funeral. This inspired issue number 8, which wasn't really supposed to be the last issue. I'll let you know more as the past gives up its secrets...

A quick check shows Carrion Crow is listed in the UH library catalog:

Title:
The Carrion crow.

Publisher:
[Honolulu]

Description:
v.
No more published?
no. [1]-7 [May 2, 1967]-May 1968.

Subject(s):
University of Hawaii (Honolulu)
American newspapers Hawaii.

I've got to get up there and take a look.

September 17, 2004 - Friday

Taking a quick look yesterday at links from elsewhere to this site, I ran into this mention:

Best cat blog (and other very cool stuff) may be http://www.ilind.net/. Great coverage of Hawaiian politics, beautiful sunset pics, and cats everywhere.

Posted by: Bryant | September 4, 2004 02:02 AM

Well, they're actually sunrise pics, but, hey, many thanks Bryant!

The primary election is tomorrow, and the Democratic primary is a real cat fight out here in the 23rd Senate District, where incumbent Melody Aduja is facing a strong challenge by former legislator and OHA chairman Clayton Hee.

Clayton has been running television ads, very unusual in a senate campaign, and the two have been trading attack mailers.

Hee hit first with a large postcard mailer featuring Star-Bulletin quotes from Campaign Spending Commission director Bob Watada about questions over campaign funds paid to Aduja's husband. It was an effective piece except for Hee's unusual and interesting caveat, which I've marked (below):

So Clayton's "never been accused of mishandling any money as a State Senator." But the follow-up question is left just sitting there: What about mishandling money when he wasn't a State Senator?

Clayton Hee added a glossy endorsement mailer featuring former City Council member Steve Holmes and former senator and community leader Bob Nakata, along with other community figures, many attesting to Hee's honesty and ethics. I had a bit of trouble choking down those comments, which rang a bit hollow.

Aduja hit back with her own mailer this week, an 11x17 glossy color piece: "Candidate Clayton Hee, He lost our trust long ago". It uses various headlines to paint a negative portrait of Hee's performance at OHA, charging that Hee is "in politics for himself and personal power," and, citing the Honolulu Advertiser, "a petulant dissident working to thwart the rule of others." The latter quote is from a column by Dave Shapiro written when Hee was making a run for Lt. Governor.

Hee's record does precede him, always the problem for experienced pols. There were early allegations of "double dipping" during Hee's 1984 Senate campaign against Ralph Ajifu. Hee apparently was serving as a consultant to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs while a State Representative, and commingled his responsibilities to the point that he collected per diem travel expenses from both sources for a single trip to Washington, D.C.

Ten years later, when Hee was OHA chairman, I wrote about his solicitation of OHA contractors to buy advertisements in a publication he produced, and other problems involving potential conflict of interest. Just a small part of his extensive "baggage".

So Democrats out here in the 23rd district it's "Choose your poison", I guess.

September 16, 2004 - Thursday

This year, the oama were missing, as were the lines of people who usually gather in mid-to-late August to stand in shallow waters in search of the small silvery fish. Here in Kaaawa, traditionally a rich fishing area, their absence has been dramatic. Over fishing? Global warming? Diversion of water from streams? Pollution? The cause isn't clear, but the result certainly is.

Oama fishing, Kaaawa, 2001

From Mary in West Virginia:

Ok, Ian, we'll trade you one violation of civil rights West Virginia-style [two women arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts during presidential visit] . . . for one violation of civil rights Hawaii-style [man threatened with arrest and barred from library for reading gay news].

In both cases, the ACLU has filed suit over the alleged violations of rights.

Interestingly, the two Honolulu dailies reported the Honolulu case very differently. The Advertiser led with a description of the incident in which a man was barred from the library for a year for viewing a gay web site, while the Star-Bulletin buried mention of gay issues down in the last two paragraphs of a 15 paragraph AP story by B.J. Reyes.

The Maui County Council is questioning the future of the Hula Bowl, another local sacred cow, which faces money woes and an outstanding debt to the county.

It's very strange to be replaying the divisions of the Vietnam War era again during this presidential election. It's sent me back to the boxes of old negatives for photos of peace protests. Here's a batch from August 1967, when then Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was in Honolulu for a speech at the American Bar Association's convention at the Ilikai Hotel. Just click this photo for more. And you get a point if you recognized former state representative David Hagino carrying the "Peace in Vietnam" sign in this photograph.

Vietnam protest, August 1967

September 15, 2004 - Wednesday

Five years since Rupert Phillips and Gannett tried to close down the Star-Bulletin. And five years since the unexpected appearance of the cat we call Mr. Silverman.

When we arrived back in Kaaawa after the long flight from Chicago, we were surprised to see a new cat lounging on the back deck along with some of ours. And we were even more surprised when he strolled through the cat door for an afternoon buffet at the inside cat dishes. Most of our feline adoptees arrive as kittens. Silverman was an adult, perhaps a couple of years old. He knew about people and houses, but remained wary. It didn't take long for us to agree that he could stay, and he has more or less stayed ever since except for a "vacation" of several months when he took his meals at a house down around the corner. On her recent trip, Meda stopped to see his namesake, Alexandria, Va. antique dealer Maurice Silverman.

Mr. Silverman, the cat

Mr. Silverman, the person

He's still there and still wonderfully entertaining.

It turns out they had discovered their links to our Mr. Silverman via a Google search, and enjoyed the discovery so much that they set out Christmas cards featuring a photo of Silverman the cat.

There's still a lot of fussing about the CBS documents, but meanwhile The Nation again nails W's National Guard experience with a new detailed analysis of other available records. It seems W was put back onto the equivalent of training wheels well into his Guard term, apparently indicating learning difficulties. An excellent read.

September 14, 2004 - Tuesday

Five years ago Meda and I were flying back from Chicago following her third visit in as many months to the University of Illinois-Chicago, which had made a serious effort to recruit her away from the University of Hawaii. We had, however, finally sorted out our own priorities and reaffirmed our commitment to staying in Hawaii. After all, here we both had good jobs, a home in a place where you can regularly watch the sun rise on a deserted beach, and a history of roots in the community.

The following day, Wednesday, September 15, I returned to work at the Star-Bulletin. Before the day was out, word leaked out that the paper would be closed in six weeks. An official announcement followed, as did the beginning of this blog.

It's now been five years since those tumultuous day, and things have played out much differently than it seemed they would when we stepped onto that United flight out of O'Hare.

Moving on...a reader shared his comment on an unflattering wire service story and its lack of play here in Hawaii:

Did you see this?

This is a recent article about Army troops from Schofield (some are even named) in Afghanistan using loudspeaker-delivered taunts to provoke their opposition. I assumed there would be some local interest in this story, if nothing else from those who may recognize the names of the troops mentioned in the story. However, the sexist taunts are not the type of image the US forces would like to project back home.

I asked the SB and the Advertiser last week why they didn't run the story. SB said they can't run Knight Ridder wire stories. Advertiser has not responded. Is this a decent explanation, or are the dailies trying to not embarrass the hometown troops?

Actually, another reader swiftly pointed out that the story did appear in the Sunday Advertiser, "and it was not buried and with more KR (Knight Ridder) photos then they had on their web site."

Apologies to the folks at 605 Kapiolani.

I had a similar reaction to this AP report of a bus ride around Oahu, including quite an unflattering portrayal of our bus service out here in the "country" as hot, crowded, and too often irregular. Makes me think that the mayoral candidates should have to ride the bus to public appearances and then discuss the need for transit improvements.

The Washington Post ran a story yesterday on the economics of blogging, such as they are.

It's always rewarding to stop by the San Francisco Chronicle and see what columnist Mark Morford is up to. He hit another one on Friday with a spin on political polls, characterized as "the swarming gnats in your Jell-O salad" and with other endearing terms.

September 13, 2004 - Monday

Yesterday I happened onto an extraordinary collection of photographs from the work of the Christian Peace Teams. They are, by and large, extraordinary in their capture of ordinary moments in dangerous places where the struggle for peace by peaceful means gets regrettably little attention from the corporate media.

Perhaps you've heard of the discovery, in the midst of all the controversy over documents, that the Constitution has been exposed as a fake! Perhaps that's what Ashcroft has meant to say all along and just didn't articulate. Anyway, take a look.

This comment/question came in several days ago from a reader:

What's the news on KGMB going back to the old-style logo and emphasis on news. Are they working from the old Bob Sevey playbook when KGMB was THE station to watch for news? Are they making a play for the inheritor of the Sevey flame KHON? I figured that with Emmis, they would keep KHON as number one and make marginal KGMB. Not the case? What's the scoop?

If you've got a response, let me know, please (diary@ilind.net).

The latest batch of cat photos features fish on the stove, Harriet's favorite drink, Toby the construction supervisor, and more. Just click on Ms. Harry to see them all.

And speaking of construction, this was the scene in our yard over the weekend.

Someday it will all be back to normal, or so they say. I have my doubts.

[Early readers yesterday saw some fragments from Bob Jone's missive of last week which somehow got tagged on here by accident. The references to "my MidWeek column" were Bob's. Sorry for the confusion.]

September 12, 2004 - Sunday

The whole flap over the type on the latest Bush National Guard memos reminds you that only us geezers recall using typewriters as our primary writing instruments. In particular, for a while I used a hand-me-down IBM Executive model with proportional spacing. It looked like it had been through lots of heavy use before finding its way into our territory. Unfortunately, I don't recall whether this was when I worked with the American Friends Service Committee during the 1970's or later with Common Cause in the early 80's. I do remember it as a temperamental beast, large, heavy, etc., but with what was then the unusual ability to create proportional text.

For some quick insight into the Republicans campaign tactics, take another look at Wag the Dog, the political satire starring Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman. It underscores what can be done to manipulate the media and public opinion when the truth isn't on your side.

One quick exchange at the beginning of the movie sets the tone. DeNiro, cast as a master political strategist and consultant, is trying to ward off a public relations disaster in the final weeks of a presidential campaign. He advises that the president extend a trip to China to stay out of the media's grasp. Then he turns to a presidential aide and it goes something like this:

DeNiro: And why is the president in China?

Aide: Discussions of trade policy.

DeNiro: So it has nothing to do with the B-3 bomber?

Aide: But there is no B-3 bomber.

DeNiro: That's right, and I don't know how these rumors get started.

Rumor. Innuendo. Deception. Distraction. At times, an outright lie or two because the truth doesn't matter. All part of the package. And we're seeing it all in play right now in this presidential campaign, with much of the media reacting too slowly to avoid complicity in the mass deceptions.

Here's my latest, and perhaps last, run at the question of what islands are visible from Kaaawa on those clear mornings. This time around I tried estimating our line of sight, with one point at our location on Kaaawa beach and a second point just off Mokapu Point, as seen in the photographs. The exercise yields conclusions which appear to make sense, even if not totally satisfying. In any case, just click on the photo for my working answers.

View from Kaaawa

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