Disappeared News

Still has some errors, but in case you'd like to check out this newspaper format compendium of local blogs, just click for the second edition:

Act 2 of the 2nd special session of 2007 included the requirement for an audit, to be delivered on March 1:

The auditor shall conduct a performance audit on the state administration's actions in exempting certain harbor improvements to facilitate large capacity ferry vessels from the requirements of conducting an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement under chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes.  The audit shall also include the state administration's actions in not considering potential secondary environmental impacts of the harbor improvements prior to granting the exemption from these requirements.

So there could be some weekend reading if the report is ready on schedule.

Andy Parx pointed me to this in-depth discussion from PBS, Distinction Between Bloggers, Journalists Blurring More Than Ever. Since Hawaii's legislature is considering a shield law, HB2557, that would protect journalists and possibly bloggers as well, the issue is very important to me right now. Thanks, Andy!

There's a little four-question quiz near the front of the article. The answers may surprise you.

Ian Lind has been writing about the shield law both on his blog and in a Honolulu Weekly article. He kindly left me the last word in his article:

Larry Geller, author of the Disappeared News blog, points to the example of whistleblower protection laws which, while sometimes ineffective, protect people no matter what they do.

“No matter what your profession, whether you’re a secretary or an engineer, you can seek protection as a whistleblower,” Geller said, urging that shield law protections be similarly based on the kind of information to be protected rather than the professional status of the person involved.

While I think this would be a useful way to go, it's not the way shield laws are currently written.

First thing ought to be to protect working journalists IMHO. I'd like to see bloggers protected also, and the Hawaii law looks like it might do that.

Doug White is following the shield law also, with good discussion in comments: Shield laws introduced in House and Senate. And see also The shield gets tweaked on the Advertiser's Capitol Notebook blog.

Yes, blog.

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Ok now, if UH sends text messages and no one receives them, are they solving the problem of notifying students in the event of an emergency?

Doug Carlson takes up this issue on his CHORE blog.

Today's Advertiser story, UH offers emergency text alerts to students, describes a technology approach to getting the word out to students and faculty in the event of a campus emergency.

As the article points out, though, this is only partially effective. Students in class, professors, and those walking around may not see the messages. Text messages are certainly a good idea, but won't reach many students. As the article points out, few will subscribe.

The email approach UH chose in October was worth doing at the time, but even more  inadequate as a future solution:

The texts are limited to 130 characters and are designed to close the information gap experienced in October when a 46-year-old man was arrested in Moili'ili after threatening to shoot 30 UH-Manoa students.

UH officials immediately issued a campuswide e-mail alert after the man was overheard making the threats on a city bus. But students who didn't read their e-mails continued to walk the 330-acre campus unaware of the manhunt.

The article covers the problems and describes other parts of the solution.

For more discussion on the UH security situation, click over to Doug Carlson's article, Text Messaging Has a Role in Emergencies, but UH Needs Much More To Reach Everyone.

From the Daily Telegraph story (picture caption: Relatives of a Palestinian boy killed in an Israeli rocket attack):

A senior Israeli politician provoked controversy today when he warned that Palestinians firing rockets from Gaza would be punished with a "bigger holocaust" from Israeli armed forces.    

The use of the Hebrew word for holocaust, "shoah", tends to be used exclusively in Israel to describe the Nazi persecution of Jews.

Palestinian activists routinely claim to be suffering a "shoah" at the hands of Israel, but the Jewish state normally denies any moral equivalence between the suffering of Palestinians today and European jewry under the Nazis.

Matan Vilnai, deputy defence minister, broke that taboo when he used the term "shoah" during interview on Army Radio.

"The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," he said.

Israeli Minister Threatens Gaza “Holocaust”

In Israel and the Occupied Territories, at least 18 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Thursday’s Palestinian toll includes four young boys, killed by bombs as they were playing soccer. The youngest was eight years old. Another Palestinian child was killed along with two adult civilians. Palestinian officials say at least nine Palestinian militants also died. At least thirty-one Palestinians, including nine children, have died in the past two days of Israeli attacks. Israel says its responding to Palestinian rocket fire, with forty-five rockets launched from Gaza on Thursday. One Israeli was killed this week in the town of Sderot, the thirteenth Israeli killed by Palestinian rockets in the last seven years. A seventeen-year old girl was lightly injured Thursday when Palestinian rockets struck the Israeli town of Ashkelon.  [snipped from today's Democracy Now headlines]

This needs to stop. I don't think firing missles into civilian areas can ever be condoned. As the news item states, 13 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets in total over the last seven years. Israel killed at least 31 Palestinians in the last two days alone.

If one is wrong, the other is much more wrong. And to talk about escalating Israeli attacks into a "holocaust" is something I never thought I'd hear said. A "holocaust" is not something that a Jew does to other people.

Katy Rose and Jimmy Trujillo are back on KKCR today discussing a topic you won't likely find on NPR: racism and white privilege.

From a circulating email:

Today, after a two-month suspension for standing up in solidarity with our sister Ka'iulani, Jimmy Trujillo and I will be returning to the KKCR airwaves from 4 - 5:30. (90.9, 91.9 0r 92.7. Those off-island can listen on the web at http://kkcr.org/.)

We will be interviewing Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at University of Texas and author of several books, including "The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege" (our topic for today.) Listeners are encouraged to participate in the conversation.  (Call 808-826-7771 or 1-866-275-1112; or email dj@kkcr.org.) 

The controversy over the suspensions is far from over, according to Katy's email. I'll wait and see if she posts an article somewhere on the web before writing further on this.

For Oahu listeners, you can pick up KKCR on their Oahu repeater, but reception is spotty. It works better on the North Shore. Tune to 104.7.

There's a lot more coverage of the Superferry repairs over at Island Breath. You'll find much more in-depth discussion than I can manage over here. Even the drydock it rests in has a story behind it.

Check the satellite images, speculation about the source of the mysterious oil spill, and an article bout the drydock's history which involves complex litigation, Sen. Inouye's involvement, and problems for an island in Alaska. Click here to go there.

Who would have guessed all that?

There's much more at Island Breath. You can read about protests against the B-2 bombing at the Pohakuloa Training Area, GMO crops, the struggle to keep Ag  lands Ag, and much more.

Thanks to Will for posting a clarifying comment on my article yesterday. I had wondered if the SS Independence had always been "toxic," even when it was sailing in Hawaii. Will wrote:

Its always been toxic, but thats not why she is being turned away
Its a legal matter, as the Coast Guard corrected today. It is illegal to export ships containing PCBs and Asbestoses to a "lesser devolved" country without being first decontaminated.

If left undisturbed, these materials that were used in ship built near this time (like the SS United States was until she was de contaminated in Turkey...except the engine room)are harmless, but if they get broken, ripped apart and other things that happen when a ship is scrapped, they become dangerous to human health.

India does not have proper safty equipment (or any saftey eqipment for that matter..) to deal with these materials. The fact the ship was aloud to leave San Francisco in general is in violation of international law, Hawaii is protecting itself from being involved at all, as should the ship be scrapped, they would be partially responsible.

-Will
"Save the Classic Liners" North American Team Member
http://www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/savetheclassiclinerscampaign.html

Please check out the web page Will referenced. It is part of an effort to preserve historic ocean liners where possible:

The "Save the Classic Liners" Campaign is a passionate advocate of saving, reviving and reinventing classic ocean liners as hotel ships where appropriate in suitable locations. However essential to the approach to the "hotel ship concept" with these classic ocean liners is authenticity. The ship must be preserved or brought back to the styling of its original era but with the sympathetic insertion of the comfort and amenities (e.g. ensuite bathrooms, wireless, digital TV etc) expected in the present day. Where external alterations to the ship are retained it must be proven that they are advantageous and not detrimental for the ship in its new role. Other sympathetic adaptions to the interiors may be made to cater for the requirements of their new role as appropriate. Commercial companies showing interest in the ship will be turned down if their ideas do not fit into the concept and its respect for the heritage and authenticity of the ship. The success of the concept has a lot to do with recapturing the emotions, the pride for the ship and creating an authentic experience for the future customers and visitors.

I've often thought that Hawaii would be an ideal location for adopting an ocean liner to be used in the way described. I'm sad that others don't feel the same about preserving historic ships. Here's a letter that appeared in the April 15, 2007 Star-Bulletin:

Let's take better care of 'Falls of Clyde'

Has anyone else noticed the "Falls of Clyde" sailing ship lately? She is in a sad state of disrepair. Whoever is in charge of her maintenance should be ashamed of themselves for letting the stately vessel languish in the harbor.

This wonderful landmark, which adds so much ambiance and character to the Aloha Tower area, should not be left to deteriorate.

Unless some private or government organization provides funding to paint up, clean up and fix up the "Falls of Clyde," it appears she'll be heading for the scrap heap soon.

Ray Graham
Honolulu

When we lived in New York we helped preserve the Clearwater, Pete Seeger's favorite ship. It can be done if people care.

We have enough millionaires living in this state, you'd think a few of them would step up to the plate and help care for historic ships. It's the kind of thing millionaires do. Maybe no one has asked them yet.

How about it, Oprah? How about it, Chamberlain? Somebody?

In a November article I mentioned that an old New York joke

"Yes, we lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume" is no stranger to Hawaii.

Of course, I'm grateful that low fares make it possible to fly to the Big Island to visit the volcano again. But how long can airlines (or ferries) keep operating at a loss?

Are they "making it up on volume?" Impossible, of course. It's a mystery to me how these transportation companies can carry on without making money! Someone please explain.

The Superferry is still in drydock, not making any money at all. Of course, necessary repairs must be completed. Even on the few days it was operating, passenger counts, as recorded occasionally by volunteers, seemed too low to pay for the cost of running it, much less bring in a profit. Protests seem less important, for the moment, although threats like invasive species and whale hits are no less real. Why? Maybe because it's felt that the ferry may just self-destruct. Not physically, I mean economically.

And what about daily tug charges, the cost of the special-purpose barge in Maui, and other expenses? The state or some combination of taxpayers and harbor users are in the hole for plenty also.

So far, anyway, this doesn't look like a huge success to me.

So how long will it stay afloat? Should legislators be thinking now of how a viable interisland ferry service might be run, what it would look like, and how to put it in place? Should they wait for ferry failure before opening those discussions, or should they begin sooner, perhaps by holding hearings?

Last year I wrote about the failure of a ferry service in Learning about ferries- the Rochester ferry failure. Here's another failure, though this isn't a car ferry (snippet):

SEATTLE - An online auction for the high-speed passenger ferry MV Chinook has ended without even one bid.

The Washington state Transportation Department was asking at least $4.5 million for the vessel, but the auction ended Sunday night on eBay without any interest.

[ No one bids for $4.5 million ferry - Yahoo! News ]

Can you imagine the meeting in Washington State at which someone suggested (meekly? laughingly?) Well, let's try to sell it on eBay! Silence? Laughter? Loud clapping? I'd really love to have been there.

Ferry services can and do fail. This is why I suggest that the state review the current situation. Could this ferry also be headed for eBay one day, or might there be a better way to do an interisland ferry service? (After completing an EIS, of course.)

Remember the Independence?

Aloha Captain Wirkala (Dana):

"She is truly a grand lady, this is a digital picture taken from the ms PATRIOTS's navigational bridge of your fine vessel the SS INDEPENDENCE in the Lahaina Basin this afternoon (10/19) on the last full day of this glorious cruise. She truly represents the spirit of Hawaii and it's people and some of the finest American workmanship."

"We can all be proud of our concerted efforts and contribution which has provided countless memories to our island guests and has provided a truly rewarding and meaning purpose for many of us who affectionately refer to her as the Indy. The Indy has for over 21 years supported our local economy and is responsible for the resurgence and renewed interest in cruising, as in the yesteryears of the traditional white ships that graced our Hawaiian waters such as the Lurline, Matsonia, Mariposa and Monterey. The Indy joins the ranks of these gracious liners which previously served Hawaii with pride and distinction. Mahalo nui loa. - Aloha, Bill Anonsen, Vice President, Maritime Affairs, AMCV" [from MaritimeMatters]

I was sad to see this report. The "Indy" was just refused entry to Hawaii:

Coast Guard on Alert for Toxic Ship

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Guam Environmental Protection Agency are on alert for the possible arrival of the contaminated cruise liner, SS Independence, which is reportedly heading to Guam after being refused entry in Hawaii, The Variety reported.

SS Independence, which is believed to be loaded with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls or PCB and lung-damaging asbestos, is being pulled by the tug ship Pacific Hickory, on the way to India, where the 57-year-old cruises liner will be scrapped. With the disabled vessel in tow, Pacific Hickory reportedly attempted to stop in Hawaii to refuel but both ships were turned away by Hawaii EPA and the Coast Guard because of the health risk posed by PCB and asbestos contamination.

The international activist group called Save the Classic Liners has urged the U.S. Coast Guard and EPA to impound the SS Independence, warning that breaking it down in Asia would release toxic PCBs and asbestos. SS Independence was towed out of its berth on the San Francisco waterfront last week, after being mothballed for years. Source: Variety News [Marinelink.com].

I'm very fond of historical ships. Even maybe cruise ships.

Was the SS Independence always "toxic?" How come now? I don't know the story yet. I also wonder what the tug will do if it can't refuel anyplace. Does it just cut the ship loose, shrug its shoulders, and go home?

I don't understand Twitter. But it's huge, and getting more huge, so the problem must be me.

Even the two democratic presidential candidates are using this microblogging service:

http://twitter.com/barackobama

http://twitter.com/hillaryclinton

I couldn't find John McCain or Ralph Nader, though. How long will it be before they also tweet?

There was an article last week about this by Kristen Gorski on the Huffington Post which begins:

While traditional media outlets excel in wordiness during election season, one social media outlet proudly flaunts its brevity. Twitter is a free "microblogging" service that lets anyone share online what they are doing or thinking, in 140 characters or less (including spaces). Many Twitter users are now "tweeting"--sending out--their political views to their "followers", or readers. A new website called Politweets gleans the "tweets" which mention political candidates' names and then displays them on its site in real time. What Politweets captures hints at public opinion and trends regarding the election. It has also become a news outlet, where private citizens, traditional media, and even the candidates' themselves tweet about facts, opinion and web links to anyone who reads.

Check out the above-mentioned Politweets too. It's a great website for a weekend job.

I kind of doubt that either Obama or Hillary are thumbing out text messages all day. They have probably assigned the task to a young person on their staff. Although, looking at the tweets, maybe it's not someone who really understands how people tweet. It's just another support job. They do YouTube also, of course. And Flickr, Myspace and Facebook. But again, not the candidates, I'm pretty sure.

They'll do almost anything, it seems, except maybe talk about stopping the war in Iraq (find a tweet on that subject!).

Record number of whales counted around Maui

Advertiser Staff

A record number of whales were sighted yesterday during the Pacific Whale Foundation's 2008 Great Whale Count on Maui, which recorded a total of 1,726 whale sightings in a three-hour period. [Honolulu Advertiser, 2/24/08]

Awesome... maybe the whales were out in the water protesting the Superferry. I'm not sure if that's an original thought or if I read it on another blog, but it seems like it could happen. At least they're safe, which is what is important.

The ferry, of course, is stuck in drydock for an extended stay. It's probably like having a flu bug that just won't go away, which I can tell you something about.

Blogger Lee Tepley has assembled quite a bit of information, including some pics of the Superferry in drydock that fans won't want to miss. Just click on his illustration above. Lee is very concerned about the whales, as are others everywhere in the state. The main entrance to his website is here.

Lee has posted a wealth of discussion on rudder problems and (in the above-linked article), three pics of the Superferry high and dry in the drydock. Check it out.

Speaking of the Superferry, I'd like to elevate some comments from my earlier Superferry post by copying them here and providing real links. A question, raised by the Advertiser article/column by William Cole, concerned whether the Superferry was intended to carry Stryker vehicles, and the article said there was no contract (which doesn't really say much, of course). I wondered (speculatively) whether the military had changed their mind. On to the comments:

Did they change their mind?

Here is the direct quote from The Pacific Business News, March 28th, 2005.

With Lehman's expertise, the Superferry plans to operate a Westpac Express, essentially to carry military equipment and ferry vehicles from Oahu to the Big Island on a daily basis.

At present, the military has to make shipment plans six months in advance to put them on a barge, said Tim Dick, president and chairman of Hawaii Superferry.

"The ferry will save the military dollars and take 25 percent of the time," Dick said.

This logistical plan will make it easier for soldiers to train when the Stryker Brigade comes to Hawaii. The brigade will be stationed on Oahu and conduct training exercises on the Big Island, Lehman said. "The Superferry is strong enough to take Stryker vehicles," he said.

Hawaii Superferry provided the Army with a cost analysis and expects to negotiate a long-term contract, Dick said.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:42 AM HST

Regarding the Strykers and Superferry, Cole doesn't need to speculate. In addition to the quotes in the PBN, it is also in the Hawaii state law. Mr. Cole should do his research better. I reposted the following on Dec. 9th:

HI Superferry: Current Unanswered Questions?‏

Here you go Scott, I had a little difficulty finding them at first:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2004/bills/SR79_.htm
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2004/bills/SCR149_.htm
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2004/bills/HCR99_.htm

Posted by MauiBrad at 11:15 AM Dec. 9, 2007
# posted by Blogger MauiBrad : 8:51 AM HST

So read and form your own conclusion.

Superferry discussion has thrived on the web because we're talking about something that not only interests us, but has a direct impact on our lives. Through our discussion we can inform public opinion. The stats show that increasingly people are reading these articles. Google shows more info on ferry topics in the blogs and on YouTube than in the traditional news sources, and Google is where things begin.

I'd love to see the Advertiser or any paper undertake the same level of analysis that Lee has demonstrated in his blog. A salaried reporter, backed by the clout and reputation of a daily paper, could do a real service by digging deeply into this whole affair.

Meantime, expect more information on this and other Hawaii issues right here, on your computer screen. Stay tuned. All the news really does fit someplace, if you care to follow the links or the tags.

[Thanks to Scott for pointing out the bad links in my original post. Fixed now.]

I thought that if I'm stuck home with the flu, it would be a chance to catch up with paperwork and writing testimony and so forth. Flu is one virus that my computer cannot catch, so it's ok to be near it.

But I'm not safe from it. My computer came with Windows Vista, which feels something like living with a virus all the time and waiting for the cure to arrive. From what I have read, SP1, about to be released, can be another headache and not necessarily the cure.

This morning I felt like hurling more invectives in the direction of Redmond, Washington, but I don't really know which direction that is. There ought to be a program which anyone can run on their Windows machine that gives this essential information.

In truth, part of my anger should be directed at HP, the manufacturer of this machine. I'd like it to just work reliably, every day, like my electric typewriter used to. All I needed to do was change the ribbon when it ran out. Very simple. This should work at least as well.

Yesterday nothing would print, even from another computer on the network. I needed to print quickly in order to take some agendas and minutes to a meeting. Of course, heh, heh, said the computer, this is the perfect moment to give a human the shaft. I will not print, it said.

Overnight the computer, on its own, had re-installed my printer software from scratch, changing all the settings and removing the sharing permissions, as it turned out.

This morning I sat down just now to be confronted by the above box. Just what would it like to install? It doesn't say. I have plugged in nothing new. The message says I must click Retry. It probably is drooling at the chance to "update" some driver or other, the way it did yesterday. It didn't ask yesterday, why is it tormenting me today?

Vista initially blocked this update with one of those incessant questions about whether I would "allow" something to happen. You know, you tell your Vista computer to go do something, and instead of doing it, it gives you the third degree. Twice, usually. Like a two-year-old kid. "Do I haveta?" In this case, though it asked, I said nothing, and before my eyes, it turned things over to HP, which gave me the above box.

Whatever happened to the Vista security improvements? Like, I have to agree to something I ask for, twice, but it lets some unknown HP program do something it won't even tell me what it's about???? Grrrr.

No, I'm not going to buy a Mac, though it's tempting. I'm going to buy myself a good grimoire.

In a Advertiser column today, William Cole prints an article that could be interpreted as news. It's short, I'll quote it here for educational purposes.

It is possibly the first time that the issue of the Superferry owners' possible intent in bringing the service to Hawaii has been discussed (however briefly) in the paper, and one of the few occasions where views of the "blogosphere" are even mentioned. For "meat," though, better stick with the blogs, since this really is kind of short:

Here's the short piece, followed by my comments:

Army report says there's no plans to put Strykers aboard Superferry

Suspicion continues, mostly in the blogosphere, over supposed connections between the Hawaii Superferry and the Army's Stryker brigade, which is in Iraq.

In an environmental impact statement recommending that the Stryker brigade be permanently stationed in Hawai'i, the Army addressed the question of how the 19-ton armored vehicles would be moved to the Big Island for training.

The Army said its primary method of transporting the Strykers is by logistics support vessels operated by the Army.

If those aren't available, the Army said, it would use private contract vessels. Typically, those are barges, and the service said it is required to get bids from multiple vendors.

"The Army does not know if the Superferry would ever bid on such a contract or if it could even be configured to carry military equipment with the chains and bracing needed to transport Stryker vehicles," the service said. "No contract currently exists or is being formulated between the Army and the Superferry for transporting the (Stryker brigade)."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

First, thanks to Mr. Cole for involving the blogosphere. Really.

But the blogosphere has moved on. I think recent commentary recognizes that the Superferry may not have presented itself well if the military is watching. I wouldn't be surprised if military tongues aren't hanging out in anticipation of shipping anything on the ferry. And it's in drydock now, on an extended stay, not the most alluring place for a ship to attract future contracts.

The article actually says nothing about the future. That "no contract currently exists" is not news. That the source says "The Army does not know if the Superferry would ever bid on such a contract" isn't terribly useful. I don't know if they would bid, you don't know if they would bid, the military doesn't know if they would bid. That doesn't mean they will or won't bid! Governor LIngle could surprise us and bid on a contract.

We just don't know if anyone (outside of the Superferry company itself, see below) was previously looking seriously at the ferry for Stryker transport and has given up based on current difficulties or, of course, if the speculation was completely wrong.

As I said, the blogosphere has moved on. In particular, Joan Conrow has written several articles for her own blog and also one for the Honolulu Weekly on the role the Superferry may be playing in the Navy's selection of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). In the Weekly article Joan refers also to a couple of Pacific Business News articles:

[Hawaii Superferry chairman John F.] Lehman already has spoken publicly about the company’s plans to run military equipment and personnel from O‘ahu to the Big Island in much the same manner that the Westpac Express ferry serves the Marine Corps in the Western Pacific. The logistical plan was touted as a faster and cheaper way for soldiers stationed on O‘ahu to train on the Big Island when the Stryker Brigade comes to Hawai‘i. “The Superferry is strong enough to take Stryker vehicles,” Lehman told Pacific Business News (PBN) in March 2005. “HSF provided the Army with a cost analysis and expects to negotiate a long-term contract,” PBN reported. On Jan. 7 of this year, HSF carried Hawai‘i National Guard heavy equipment to Maui for removal of storm debris.

So we can't be too quick to dismiss the "blogosphere's" speculation on the Strykers, because it seems the concept has been put forth by the company itself, according to the PBN report.

(Note: I couldn't find this article when googling the Honolulu Advertiser website from Google's news page. It seems that it's a column, not a news article, and the columnists are are a different subdomain than the news. Anyway, now I've found the secret.)

(If you're looking for military news, as I was, go to Local News, then pull down the menu for Military News. You'll be taken to a section with items from 2006 and 2004. It looks like previous editor Saundra Keyes started a project that hasn't been continued. An article by Keyes reveals that columnist Cole was one of two reporters embedded with the military back in 2004.

I recall thinking, at the time, that regardless of how one feels about "embedded journalism," the paper was willing to make a substantial investment to get the news. Would Gannett do that today?)

I'll post some catchup on ferry repairs shortly.

The 2008 Hawaii Symposium on Palestine will present two readings of the
play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, Saturday, March 1, 7:00 p.m., at Harris United
Methodist Church, Miyama Hall, 29 South Vineyard Blvd., and Friday, March 14, 7:00 p.m., at Church of the Crossroads, 1212 University Ave. Both are free and open to the public.

Rachel Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003 while standing between an Israeli army bulldozer and the home of a a Palestinian doctor, his wife, and three children. The 23-year-old protestor was trying to protect the home from demolition.

I first read about the tragedy in a Christian Science Monitor article that appeared on March 18, 2003, two days after she died. I noticed that she had a connection to Hawaii through filmmaker James Delano, quoted in the article:

James Delano, a documentary filmmaker from Honolulu who had participated in missions with Corrie, said she wasn't prone to take unnecessary risks. "I wouldn't describe her as a zealot," he says. "Rachel was passionate about her work. She was an intelligent, caring human being. I'm sure she was doing what she saw as a reasonable action."

The ISM  [International Solidarity Movement] works in small teams with each member assigned a specific task. One person always photographs an event, and the pictures of Rachel's encounter with the bulldozer show a slim, tall young woman holding a megaphone as she stands in front of the massive machine. She is wearing a neon-orange vest with Day-Glo striping and is clearly visible.

Witnesses say Corrie was standing in front of a house set for demolition and shouting as the bulldozer approached her.

"Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," Greg Schnabel, a fellow protester from Chicago, told the Associated Press.

"She waved for the bulldozer to stop. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled 'stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her."

There is a memorial website to Corrie here.

A week after the CS Monitor article, a protest was held in New York City which included a mockup of the bulldozer that killed her (click for larger). 

New York was involved in further controversy around Rachel Corrie when the New York Theatre Workshop scheduled and then postponed its presentation of the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie which had won Best Play, Best Actress and Best Director in the 2006 London Theatregoers' Choice Awards.

In the New York Times article on February 28, James C. Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) which was hosting the play, said he decided to postpone the show after polling local Jewish religious and community leaders as to their feelings about the work.

In the Guardian, the play's director Alan Rickman denounced the decision as "censorship", stating "Rachel Corrie lived in nobody's pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard." [from an article in the Electronic Intifada, 3/2/2006]

The play eventually opened at the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. We were in New York during its run, but with tickets going for $65 each (if you could get them!), we reluctantly elected to skip.

An article about the New York production is here, including a short synopsis.

The readings in Honolulu are free, so there is no excuse for missing it this time.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie by Alan Rickman Read more about this title...

You know how fast and cheap printers are becoming. Imagine you could go into a Safeway or Longs, push a button, and get a newspaper created according to your specifications and printed on the spot.

Now that dream might give newspaper publishers just a few nightmares one day.

It's far from realization, but the technology is almost there. For example, if the Advertiser were shut down due to a strike, you could indeed print your own "newspaper" on demand, based on sources that syndicate their information via RSS feeds. You know, that little orange thingy on most blog pages.

Ok, so why not try it. If you click on the image above, you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. It's not perfect, but it's a beginning. What is it? It's  a brilliant new news reader (called Feed Journal) that presents as though it's a newspaper! Yes, it pretends. Not a bad job of it, either. Many people will like the format. And it's almost supermarket-ready, it's so automatic. It's supposed to do photographs also but I haven't figured that out yet.

I asked it to display a bunch of Hawaii blogs that published over this weekend. It could have displayed real headlines and even more conventional news.

So here you have it, the first issue of a "paper" that could be produced in the event the Advertiser doesn't hurry up and settle with its unions. No ads. Some extra white space for your doodles. All the blogs that fit, it prints.

This journal appears on your screen. You can just read it, or if there is a strike, print it out and give it to folks who don't have computers and miss their news.

Of course it's not the same news. In some ways, though, it's better.

Have a look, and if you like, let me know what you think. Remember, it's a news reader, you can set it up to display the blogs you are interested in.

A light bulb went on above my head this morning. Something that bolsters my belief that Gannett is pushing for a strike.

On December 28, 2007, after publishing USA Today on its new state-of-the art German presses for three years, the Advertiser announced that production will pull back to California. USA Today will now be delivered a day later in Hawaii and cost more. Hotel guests will get their news later.  Why??

It didn't compute for me then, but it does now: Gannett is protecting USA Today from being cut off during a strike.

Admittedly, this is pure speculation on my part, but those presses have incredible capacity, more than can be used for local requirements. They can print up to 70,000 papers per hour, including full color. The MAN Roland offset presses are the equal of anything else in their system. Sure, I could be off base on this, but I'm happy with my theory for the moment. If it turns out that USA Today still has distribution here during a strike, that will be telling.

I suggest we change the linguistic frame around labor/management disputes. The commercial media, and what has come to be popular usage, has it that unions (framed as the bad guys) plan strikes against poor innocent management.

The frame includes the prejudice that the problem is caused by the unions. Management suffers, often ordinary people suffer, and if the unions win or lose, they deserve the loss of pay because it's their fault. It's all part of the same frame. You see, it's the union action that is the cause of the problem, in this frame. It's only occasionally reported that CEOs often continue to draw exorbitant salaries, and paradoxically, if they successfully squeeze labor, they may earn even higher bonuses.

The media will say a company is having "labor problems" but you never hear or read about their "management problems."

Never mind that it takes two to make a contract, and quite often these days, management is squeezing labor as hard as it can.

In this Star-Bulletin article, we see that the unions have said they want to bargain:

While the possibility of a strike is not immediate, union officials hope the vote will send a message to management that employees want to continue bargaining.

"The idea isn't to get a strike; the idea is to get a settlement that can be fair and that we can live with," said Wayne Cahill, administrative officer of the Hawaii Newspaper Guild.

Speaking of squeezing, the article goes on:

Union leaders say the company has not bargained with the unions. The company did not meet with the union from June to November, then on Jan. 25 presented a final offer that could be implemented if not ratified within 30 days.

The proposed contract would be retroactive from June 10, 2007, and run to March 1, 2009. The employee's last contract expired June 9 but continues because of an extension agreement.

The company's offer includes a 1 percent pay increase effective Oct. 27, 2008, a 1.5 percent bonus and higher medical premiums and drug costs for both HMSA and Kaiser members. Costs for medical office visits would increase for Kaiser members.

So reading the first paragraph, is it the unions who are pushing for this strike, or is it the Advertiser/Gannett? Is management planning to dig in and impose their will on the unions?

The pullout of USA Today makes me think that's exactly what they have in mind. I hope I'm wrong.

Maui researcher Brad Parsons was interviewed this afternoon as part of a Radio New Zealand feature on sea sickness. The program isn't on-line yet, but you can hear the short interview with Brad here.

Il y a une lobbyiste dans toute les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la lobbyiste'.

There is a lobbyist in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the lobbyist'.

(With deep, deep apologies to Alexandre Dumas (père) and other speakers of the French language, both living and dead.)

Ok, McCain may have had an affair, or maybe he didn't. What has turned up in this case is that he is surrounded by lobbyists.

But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways. [Washington Post, 2/21/08]

McCain is clearly in bed with lobbyists, if not with Vicki Iseman specifically. But to catch up on what he did for her, check out tonight's Democracy Now (on Oahu, 10 pm channel 56) or Behind the John McCain Lobbying Scandal: A Look at How McCain Urged the Federal Communications Commission to Act on Behalf of Paxson Communications.

Corporate money corrupts. McCain is in focus now, but his scandal is just an illustration of the extent of the problem.

We can do something about corporate money in Hawaii. We need to stop SB2204 and HB2455 which remove Hawaii's current caps on corporate bribes campaign donations.

It's easier this session to submit testimony via email. Please do something to stop these bills. It will take people power. Stay tuned here for specific action.

There's also a rally to support passage of the Big Island Public Funding Bill, HB661 on Monday, February 25 at 10:00 am on the Capitol stairs on the mauka side. And a web page by Voter Owned Elections here.

I've used the old joke before, about Hawaii's typically low voter turnout: If God wanted us to vote, He'd give us candidates!

Last night saw a record of more than 37,000 people overwhelm the caucuses.

Let that be a lesson for local Democrats. Given candidates, people will come.

We would not now have the PR myth of Linda Lingle's popularity had Democrats been able to field a candidate who inspired the voters as we see they can be inspired. Can the party find someone by 2010? Hoping there will be a Democratic governor to follow Lingle might be an empty hope unless someone appears who is capable of earning the vote.

If, for some reason you are reading this on Monday night instead of watching TV, CNN is reporting that Fidel Castro has resigned as president of Cuba, with no further details yet.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I'm entitled to my quota.

Will any part of the planned Honolulu transit system be under water in 25-50 years due to global warming?

I have been looking for a comprehensive map of where the water line is expected to be on Honolulu over time. I only found one for Waikiki.

I'm honestly not too hopeful that the effects of global warming will be mitigated. If the high tide mark advances inland, will it overlap the transit route in Waipahu, Salt Lake, or parts of Honolulu?

Just asking.

Yesterday's headline 9,100 may find jobs working on the rail should worry you if you're adept at reading between the lines.

The article gives a hint at the problem:

Honolulu's $3.7 billion commuter rail project could generate an average of 9,100 jobs during the nine years it takes to build it.

Those direct and indirect jobs could provide a boost to Honolulu's economy — and the construction sector in particular — between 2009 and 2017.

The project's massive scale, Hawai'i's low jobless rate and the specialty skills required to build the rail transit system may result in an influx of workers from the Mainland.

The increased demand for construction workers and materials could also temporarily drive up commercial and residential building costs.

This is good?? The jobs won't go to people living here now, it will take that influx of out-of-state workers to build Mufi's rail. That's a windfall for developers, who will find an easy market for the houses they will build and sell to the workers.

Driving up commercial and residential building costs is not something you and I want, either. And then there's this:

The transit system is not expected to improve traffic conditions. Rather, the project is aimed at giving commuters another option and accommodating growth in the H-1 corridor.

Far from "not expected to improve traffic conditions," the new development, both for the additional workers needed and which the transit project itself will make possible, will drastically increase the number of cars and so worsen traffic congestion. Take a look at the Ewa end of the line. It's pretty barren now. Of course, they plan to build houses there. Instead of "accommodating" growth in the H-1 corridor, this will exacerbate it.

Elsewhere in the article some of these things are discussed. We should talk more. Given that the transit line doesn't go where people want it, we're potentially making life great for developers, engineers and construction firms but possibly far worse for the rest of us.

Imagine the combination: a train to nowhere, an overhead blight, higher housing costs and increased property taxes, and you can't even use your car except late at night.

Maybe they're just practicing for November, but this seems extreme:

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district. [Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote]

My thinking is that someone should be fired. I mean, you don't announce zero votes, you make it believable. Sounds to me like election fraud incompetence. They couldn't even rig the machines properly.

Of course, there's plenty of time till November to learn to get it right (which means wrong, of course).

Seriously, as this Brad Blog article strongly emphasizes, the NY Times article doesn't provide evidence for any theory. I agree with that, but at the same time, it seems that New York City should be able to get its vote straight. Our democracy has been voting for so many years that this process should be both sacred and perfected some time ago. Ok, I'm dreaming.

While this story has yet to play out, I think it's a valuable illustration of how fragile and undependable our voting procedures have become. This makes them vulnerable to rigging, and there are plenty of people who will be happy to take advantage. Crooks and politicians are not that far apart.

Hawaii should not follow the path of disassembling a more reliable voting system in favor of one that is more vulnerable to manipulation. If it can be rigged it will be. And how will you know that it's not?