Thursday, July 31, 2008
This does not compute
by Larry Geller
What is wrong, wrong, wrong with this picture?
ExxonMobil Profit Record: Investors Unimpressed
Shares fall 3% even after the oil giant broke its own quarterly profit record. Investors are concerned about future growthExxonMobil (XOM) beat its own record for the highest profits ever by a U.S. company, but that wasn't good enough for Wall Street, which traded down the company's shares July 31. The trouble in part was expectations: Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI) thought Exxon would report earnings of $2.52 a share for the second quarter, but the $2.22-per-share profit announced was 12% below that. In all, Exxon reported profit of $11.68 billion, 14% more than the $10.3 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the same period last year.
Indeed, it was the second consecutive quarter in which ExxonMobil has missed analysts' expectations. In mid-afternoon trading, the company's shares were down around 4.7%, to 80.43. [Business Week, 7/31/2008]
What's wrong is that high oil prices are wrecking the US economy and endangering the viability of families across the country.
Exxon soaks us at the pump, makes world-record profits, and Wall Street would have them soak us for even more?
Now, it's not "supply and demand" keeping prices up. You can google for discussions debunking that argument, which is a mantra of the commercial media.
Exxon and other oil companies have chosen to hold back on research and exploration and instead take profits. Hey, it works for them. So they are the winners. In fact, the biggest winners in the whole wide world.
And we are the losers.
If corporations really run this country, how come they're not hopping mad also, and banging on politicians' doors to control these obscene profits and get the oil market under better control?
This does not compute.
Does military adaptation of Superferry deserve its spot on the obituary page?
by Larry Geller
I found my name on the obituary page today! Yes, it’s there. Scary, huh?
It’s at the bottom of a story on the Superferry, Ramp will give next Superferry vessel increased flexibility, based on an interview with Superferry CEO Admiral Thomas Fargo by Advertiser government reporter Derrick DePledge. At the end of the story DePledge credited Disappeared News with turning up a mention of the ramp plan on BYM Marine & Maritime News.
And the Advertiser, reverting to past practice, placed his story on the obituary page. Shouldn’t it have been in the funny sideways business section?
Of course, in terms of content, my blog post was never as alive as DePledge’s. If I were to phone Adm. Fargo and ask for an interview, I doubt I’d get it (“Disappeared News?? Go disappear then!”). All I did was take a few moments to quote a paragraph, DePledge did actual work to create his story. And then they buried it at the bottom of the obits!
On the other hand, maybe that has deeper meaning. Maui activist Dick Mayer emailed comments on Joan Conrow’s article yesterday, pondering whether the installation of loading ramps could be an "Exit Strategy."
Update: Joan Conrow adds additional detail from an article in the Alabama Press-Register. I haven’t linked it, because Joan has developed the context, so it’s better if you read her article. [Aside: I love the freedom of a blog to send you to the best place to read a story. Will KHON ever send viewers over to KITV, or the Advertiser send you to the Star-Bulletin? If it happens at all, it can’t be very common.]
In case you don’t go there, here’s a snippet from Joan that I think sums up well why so many bloggers follow the Superferry closely:
Now I don’t mind if HSF 2, or even the Alakai, for that matter, is made into a military ship, although it bothers me that the HSF spent so much money lobbying in an effort to get us taxpayers to pick up the tab. But I’m a fan of full disclosure, and when Hawaii Superferry came to town, asking for all sorts of state help and public acceptance for what is proving to be a rather dubious commercial enterprise, I think they should have been totally up front about their military aspirations.
Then we all could have weighed the issue more carefully, and asked such probing questions as whether HSF really is committed to the state for the long haul, or if we’ll be left holding the bag for those expensive harbor improvements, tugboat operations and litigation — and have no alternative form of transportation to show for it.
Well put, Joan. No one wants to be “used.” Let’s see how this turns out.
Update Update: Ok, someone emailed me. The reason you might want to jump on over to Joan’s article linking to the Alabama news story is summed up in this tiny snippet, ambiguously referring to either the current or second Hawaii Superferry vessel:
…company officials could be positioning the vessel for sale to a third party.
So go there, read, be informed.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Newspaper meltdown 4: Rise of the free dailies--a paradigm with promise?
by Larry Geller
There is always hope . Could this be it?
(Click for larger)
This clipping is snatched from the blog free-daily.com. Stay tuned through that blog ("Covering the emerging free daily newspaper industry") and other sources of information on this growing counter-trend to the meltdown of traditional paid-circulation papers.
Residents of Palo Alto, California, can't get enough of the free daily newspapers available in their town. The first free daily was the Daily News, which started in 1995 after the collapse of the town's paid circulation daily. The founders of the Daily News, after selling to Knight Ridder four years ago, returned in late May to start the Daily Post. So Palo Alto — the home of Stanford University and many high-tech firms like Hewlett Packard — is seeing a rebound in printed newspapers. It's what the techies might call "Old Media." And, as the Post reports in its July 22 issue, demand for the printed word is soaring. [Readers love free daily newspapers, freedaily.com, 7/24/2008]
But it's free, you say, how can they make money (an old family joke: "They make it up in volume"). Ads, of course. Just like the paid papers. There must be something different, though, to make it work. Lots different. (I don't know how to account for all the free papers the Star-Bulletin gives away. Maybe they can be considered a partially-free daily(?). )
Another article on the Post from the blog Newspaper Innovation ("Daily blogging on free daily newspapers"):
- In less than 10 years free daily newspapers have been introduced in almost every European country and in several markets in the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and Asia. As of December 2007, there were free newspapers in 52 countries.
- Market leader Metro distributes more than eight million copies daily, while other companies publish more than 32 million. These copies are read by at least 70 million people daily.
- In four European countries (Iceland, Denmark, Spain and Portugal) more free than paid papers are distributed from Monday to Friday, while in more than a dozen European countries, the newspaper with the highest circulation is a free paper.
Why can "free" save the news biz? Maybe because it's in sync with the times. While older generations expect to pay for quality, younger folks are used to getting things free. More than just strangely-named Internet services. Everything. Really. Read more about this in the Wired article: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.
I think this bears watching, anyway.
Newspaper meltdown 3: No alternatives
by Larry Geller
To produce a public print newspaper generally requires a printing press (though one can conceive of alternative technologies, they're not here yet). So competition is hard to find; new papers can't just spring up to compete with old.
In the past, a reporter might go elsewhere. With 6,000 newsroom layoffs in the past few months, there may be no elsewhere anymore.
The work of the 54 Advertiser staffers to be axed by Gannett likely will be largely lost to us as news consumers. So no more Dick Adair cartoons, at least in print (I'd like to be wrong about this).
We can expect the paper to be filled with more imported stories like the feature today on boutique chocolate, taken from the LA Times. It omits anything about Hawaii's own chocolate industry. Not a mention. But I guess it's cheaper to buy the story than to pay a reporter. Couldn't we have had even a tiny little box on the state of the local cocoa bean biz? Nothing.
But check the back of the Taste section, the one with the chocolate article: A full page ad on the Advertiser's 2007 Journalism awards. A space filler. Yup, Dick Adair's name is there, he's an award-winning cartoonist, the kind you want to have in your daily paper.
Speaking of cartoons, don't miss cartoonist John Pritchett's color thumbnail of his Lee Webber caricature. You can find it in Ian Lind's story, here. I like it better than the original.
No alternative press either
Speaking of alternatives, Hawaii is also suffering a meltdown in the alternative press department. First the loss of the Big Island Journal, and now the Honolulu Weekly. Has the Weekly gone out of business? No, but it's not looking very much like an alternative any more.
It still has the ads, movie reviews and is a good reference for movie, music and art schedules, but I wonder whether it can be counted as an "alternative" paper any longer.
This week's article on the scramble to file election papers is already old news and has been covered better in the dailies and the blogs. The other feature informs us that they are playing classical music on Fort Street Mall near Hotel Street, and there's a mini-article about babies booming at Tripler, 9 months after four 25th Infantry Division units came back from Iraq. Hey, hot alternative news! Babies!
And a strange quote from Mufi about how rail transit bids will be broken into packages so that local firms can get some of the work. Gee, Mufi said a lot last week but I somehow missed that, good thing it's in the weekly, where all the contractors go for their alternative transit news. Sorry. I'm caught up in grieving over the loss of my alternative political news.
In retrospect, we never had much, compared to other cities with fatter weeklies, chock full of local news and features.
What's supposed to fill the vacuum, as the dailies become less local? TV? We're doomed.
Newspaper meltdown 2: Town Square podcast, Democracy Now
by Larry Geller
The audio file of Thursday's Town Square program is available for a few weeks here. Get it soon, because Hawaii Public Radio takes it down after awhile. The program featured Mark Bowden, correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, journalist and blogger Ian Lind, administrative officer of the Hawaii Newspaper Guild Wayne Cahill, and former long-time Star-Bulletin reporter Crystal Kua.
On yesterday's Democracy Now (video just a click away on their web pages), host Juan Gonzales hosted a discussion: Newspapers Suffer Spate of Layoffs, Decline in Circulation, Ad Revenue, Stock Price: A Roundtable Discussion on the State of the Industry. Guests were Bernard Lunzer, President of the Newspaper Guild, Chris Hedges, senior fellow at the Nation Institute and co-author of the book Collateral Damage, and Linda Jue, past president of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter.
Austal contract confirms military use of the Superferry is intended
by Larry Geller
In a BYM Marine & Maritime News report today on Austal’s final Joint High Speed Vessel proposal to the US Navy, we find this:
Austal was recently awarded a new contract to provide additional features and equipment on the second Hawaii Superferry to facilitate its use by the military. This follows on from the long term charter, since 2001, of the Austal built 101 metre vehicle-passenger catamaran “WestPac Express” by the III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) based on Okinawa, Japan. As an adapted commercial vessel “WestPac Express” has demonstrated the enormous flexibility, cost savings and efficiencies achievable by commercial fast ferry technology over conventional air or sea transport.
See also: Superferry lobbies for military upgrade:Company spends $210K on lobbyists to obtain funds for vehicle ramp, Advertiser, June 18, 2008.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Neocons vs. Japan’s homeless population, a struggle for corporate happiness
by Larry Geller
In Japan, homeless people organize and often win:
A staggering 30,000 people live on the streets of Japan, most of whom are single, older men. Not only are they faced with precarious working conditions and diminished welfare programs, but the Japanese government works aggressively to hide them away, forcibly removing them from the parks, sidewalks, and other public spaces where they live. In addition, private developers and corporations run massive work programs which "hire" these same people who have been displaced, to work on job sites where they have to pay for every meal as well as their housing. At the end of a job, workers often have little or no money left, having spent all of it to pay for the meager living conditions they were provided.
In response to these conditions, several communities of homeless people have organized amongst themselves, building tight-knit encampments where people look out for each other, share resources, and fight against government attempts at eviction. In some cases, NGOs have joined in the chorus of voices advocating for the rights of the homeless to maintain their communities.
The organizers we met last night took us to the site of a government "beautification" project. They explained that over the past year, the government has been trying to "clean up" the area around Miyashita Park, commissioning art students to paint the walls beneath a nearby bridge where homeless people sleep. Of course this entailed evicting the residents of the neat row of cardboard boxes that lined the underpass. But homeless organizers fought the eviction and eventually won back their camp.
As we walked under the bridge, we were struck by the orderliness of the cardboard houses, some beautifully decorated by their inhabitants with dangling chimes or painted images. One cardboard house - belonging to a homeless activist - was built out of Nike boxes, with painted yellow stars covering the black swooshes. [G8 Dispatches: What Does Nike Have to do with Tokyo's Homeless?]
The Japanese government has found a way to get even, though:
Used for a wide range of activities by the community and activists during the day, Miyashita Park is home to dozens of people by night. But change is on the horizon for the park: it has been sold by the municipality to Nike.
Yup, Nike. The brand name, the sneaker, the swoosh that just does it. Nike has bought the park. It is private now, no longer the domain of the people of the neighborhood. Nike is in the process of building walls to keep out the community, and of course closing it at night so it is no longer anyone's home. Privatization of parks by international corporations, causing more displacement and homelessness - thanks, Nike, for helping us make the connection.
So next time you see that swoosh and are tempted, remember that Nike is responsible not only for sweatshop labor but now it builds walls to keep people out of their parks. As the article points out:
The Japanese economy is characterized by free market trade policies, an overwhelming private sector, low tax rates, and a minimal social safety net. At virtually every bump in the road over the past several decades, from the world oil crisis of 1973 to the bubble burst and economic recession of the 1990s, the Japanese government has responded with aggressive privatization measures. Safety nets for the poor and elderly have been stripped away while public goods and spaces have been sold off to large corporations. Such policies have made Japan the darling of transnational organizations like the G8, WTO, IMF, and World Bank, who claim that Japan's aggressive pursuit of neo-liberal policies have transformed it into a prosperous nation.
We don’t often read about conditions in Japan. Our papers no longer have overseas bureaus, and anyway, they wouldn’t say anything mean about neocons/neo-liberals, would they.
In Hawaii, it’s like we’re not part of the wide world out there. Who would know the extent that our corporations are playing in the Japanese economy? We never get that picture.
There is life outside Hawaii and the United States, and transnational corporations are big players out there.
We no longer manufacture much in this country, and as economic conditions worsen, we won’t be much of a market for the goods and services of our own corporations. But they’re not worried, they know that economic life exists elsewhere in the universe.
Nike buying a park!
We’re in trouble. American corporations don’t need us anymore. As we lose jobs and healthcare, and our purchasing power, so what.
The American worker and the American consumer are both expendable. Nike can be happy in Japan.
Monday, July 28, 2008
TSA bad for tourism but good for farmers
by Larry Geller
Air travel is getting really inconvenient. It's bad enough to be put through TSA's demeaning, invasive and probably useless searches (I say "useless" because it seems that when they test the system, all kinds of stuff can get through). It's bad enough that you have to be afraid of having a name the same as someone on the infamous No Fly list, or that they make no secret that they engage in racial profiling.
But it really hurts to know that while they are checking through my belongings so carefully, any number of others have found they can easily get through TSA with their shoes on.
A July 22 Associated Press story reported the arrest in Waipahu of 33 undocumented ("illegal") farm workers:
Immigration and Customs special agent-in-charge Wayne Wills says it was the largest arrest in a single raid so far this year. He says all of the men worked for a business called the Farms.
Earlier immigration arrests included 22 restaurant workers on Maui and 19 construction workers in Honolulu.
Wills says the arrests are part of a crackdown on employers who use illegal immigrants.
I want to know where was TSA when all these folks arrived in Hawaii? Were they distracted by the smell of all the shoes they were processing?
Basically, why are they harassing innocent travelers while anyone who wants to get into Hawaii can do so easily?
Farm workers aren't my concern. If we hadn't forced NAFTA on their country, chances are they would have job opportunities there. Maybe a few of them would be able to afford holidays in Hawaii. No, I'm wondering why our government tells us Hawaii is safe, when they can't even keep non-threatening farm workers from arriving in large numbers.
Implications for transit project
Farmers said more places hire illegal immigrants than most people might think.
"There are probably more today then there were five years ago, and I mean it's because they're needed," says Dean Okimoto, Hawaii Farm Bureau.
Okimoto says many local farmers can't find workers to do the hard labor anymore - not at a wage they can afford.
"I need at least probably eight more, and I can't even find one," he says.
Many farmers feel forced to look elsewhere.
"It's not surprising at all because just to keep the farms going or to expand, it's really difficult," says Okimoto. "I do think immigrant workers are key to the agriculture industry. It's how it's survived all these years, even on the mainland." [seattlepi.com, 7/22/2008]
Won't companies that land lucrative construction contracts for Mufi's heavy rail system find that they, too, need to look elsewhere for their labor needs? And who will clean the tracks and the stations?
Sunday, July 27, 2008
What, your newspaper didn’t cover the impeachment hearing?
Thanks to Patricia Blair for spotting a list of links to these videos. They may be out of order.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Election irregularities require investigation of Honolulu City Clerk's offic
by Larry Geller
It's good that Rep. Kirk Caldwell is asking for a review of whether he properly filed as a candidate for the Honolulu City Council yesterday (see: Caldwell asks for review of his filing for City Council seat).
There's another angle to this that I haven't seen in the newspaper yet: the City Clerk's office itself should be investigated.
Why? According to the Star-Bulletin article by Richard Borreca Wednesday,
After 4 p.m., Trudi Saito, city deputy managing director and one of Hannemann's closest advisers, started organizing city employees who live in Manoa to sign the petition for Caldwell to run for Kobayashi's open seat.
At 4:29 p.m., one minute before the filing deadline, Caldwell submitted his petition with 18 signatures. Twenty minutes later, City Clerk Denise De Costa informed him that he had just enough signatures -- 15 -- but only 14 of the signatures he turned in were valid.
A Manoa resident working in the City Clerk's Office signed the petition to ensure Caldwell had enough signatures. "We want everything to be legal," De Costa told Caldwell.
If this is accurate, then on City time and in a City office, City workers worked on behalf of Caldwell's election.
Ian Lind suggests that adding a signature after the petition has been accepted could be considered to be tampering with an official document.
Summing up, it seems that someone should investigate the City Clerk's office for
1. Use of city facilities on behalf of a candidate
2. City workers spending work time on behalf of a candidate
3. Tampering with official documents
4. Accepting candidate petitions after the legal deadline.
I'm not sure who investigates this. Anyone know?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
How come desecrating someone else’s graves is ok in Hawaii?
by Larry Geller
Would you agree to a new shopping center going up in Punchbowl Crater (National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific)?
I know that I would be very upset if someone were about to build a house over the graves of my parents, in Queens New York. Let them build someplace else.
Most people understand this, I think. If you want to build something, it's not ok to choose a graveyard as your site. That's called "desecration" and is even prohibited under state law.
But this seems to be what's happening on Kauai.
Check over at KauaeEclectic for the current situation. A site with at least 30 sets of remains is about to be covered over with a house, unless the community is successful in stopping it. 30 sets means that the location was more than just a backyard family plot. Some people have expressed outrage, disappointment, grief, and more over this, so it’s not like nobody cares.
Andy Parx described in detail an Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) request that the attorney general’s office send a cease and desist order to halt all construction there. (Andy’s blog, Got Windmills? is an excellent source of Kauai news, but he’s not exactly trapped on his island, his news takes us anywhere he thinks we should go.)
In an earlier article, Parx described what a builder has to do to get a desecration permit:
Hello, Office of Desecration Authorization and Permitting.
Yes I’d like to perform some desecration. Have I reached the right person?
You sure have. What can I help you defile today?
Well it seems like I have these old bones on my property and those jerks put them right where I want to put my obscenely obtrusive illegal vacation rental....
Are they Hawaiian bones?
Yes – they aren’t even white people!
Well nonetheless you have to have a permit to commit sacrilege in this state even against those godless Hawaiians.
…
As you will read, the desecration goes on. Even the local chief of police doesn’t agree this is ok. It looks like it will take legal action, which thankfully is just beginning.
Update: Check out Joan Conrow's article:
Details of Naue Burials Lawsuit, 7/29/2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Newspapers are melting down nationwide and in Hawaii—find out more on Town Square, Thursday 7/24, 5-6 p.m. 89.3 FM KIPO
by Larry Geller
It’s not just the Advertiser, which recently announced a round of layoffs. Something like 6,000 journalists nationwide have lost their jobs, and overseas bureaus have been shuttered. Print papers are fleeing to rushing to the web as their business model falters. Property advertising has deserted them, followed by employment ad revenue. The cost of newsprint (and shipping it to Hawaii) has increased.
What to do? What does the future hold for national and local papers? Will there be any investigative reporting after newsrooms are further depleted?
Tune in to Town Square on Hawaii Public Radio on Thursday, 5-6 p.m. on 89.3 FM or streaming via the web at hawaiipublicradio.org.
Beth-Ann’s guests will be Mark Bowden, correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, and Hawaii journalists Ian Lind and Crystal Kua.
 | Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden Read more about this title... |
Will you still be reading a newspaper 5, 10, 15 years from now? Where will you get your news?
Tune in, call in, they’ll be talking about disappeared news(papers).
Elections in our Banana Republic
by Larry Geller
Doug beat me to it with a good article on his Poinography blog on the shenanigans over at the City Clerk’s office yesterday. You can read his account here. Both Doug’s article and mine are based on Richard Borreca’s story in today’s Star-Bulletin.
If Borreca’s story is correct, and there’s no reason to doubt it, Rep. Kirk Caldwell, hoping to run for the City Council seat vacated by Ann Kobayashi, failed to come up with the required 15 signatures by the 4:30 filing deadline yesterday. He needed one more valid signature. After the legal deadline passed, the City Clerk, Denise De Costa, arranged for or allowed a staff member to provide the missing signature. Can you beat that?
This is an example of how things are run in our Banana Republic. If the law is to have any meaning, it looks like Caldwell didn’t make it. His name should not be on the ballot.
There’s more:
On the state side, [Chrystn] Eads said she was standing in line to get her filing papers at 3:50 p.m. but didn't get them until 4:25.
Her friends, waiting to sign her nomination papers, were crowded outside when election officials closed the door at 4:30 p.m.
At first, election officials said Eads could not file, but Hawaii Democratic Party Chairman Brian Schatz told an election official they should "err on the side of allowing people to be candidates."
"The line was backed up and it was not the candidate's fault," Schatz said.
Of course, it was the candidate’s fault. She should have showed up in time. Schatz’ appeal was a good try but should have been refused, IMHO. Instead, again, the law seems to have been violated so Eads could qualify.
If someone files a lawsuit over this, the city will be spending taxpayer’s money to defend the Clerk’s illegal actions. The city should just admit that their clerk acted in error. Of course, then, there could be lawsuits from the other side (sigh).
Finally, the city should be looking for a new clerk, one who can understand the meaning of a legally mandated “deadline.”
Monday, July 21, 2008
Plaintiff’s statement on why suit was filed to block Hawaii from using Hart voting computers
by Larry Geller
I’ll repeat a suggestion I’ve made before: why doesn’t Hawaii (or any other state) commission the writing of open-source voting software so we know what these machines are doing? Hmmm? Or could it be that the powers that be really want a machine that can manipulate the vote?
An article appeared in OpEd News by Bob Babson of Maui,the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit to block the use of Hart machines in the upcoming election in Hawaii:
We filed a lawsuit on July 14, 2008, asking the Court to order the Hawaii Chief Elections Officer to stop using telephone lines or the internet for transmitting ballot counts and election results for final tabulation until such time as administrative rules can be legally promulgated in accordance with Hawaii Administrative Law, Chapter 91, HRS, and all other laws can also be legally followed.
Hart InterCivic (Hart) of Austin, Texas, has the contract to conduct elections for the State of Hawaii. They write the software and design the hardware and it is top secret. No one can inspect it because it is "proprietary property." They claim the version they are using has been inspected by an independent testing agency (ITA) on the mainland. But we don't know if what they inspected is the same as what is
actually used here in Hawaii. We must blindly trust them to be honest.Each voting machine at the precincts has a memory card with votes on it. After the polls close on election day, the current procedure is to forward all memory cards to the county count center (8th floor of the Maui County Building for Maui) and hand them to the Hart technician who then "reads" them into the Hart tabulator (a laptop in 2006). The laptop is connected to a telephone line and the vote count files are then supposedly transmitted directly to the State count center using a wide area network (WAN). WAN's use the internet. We believe the transmission method is either by email with files attached or file transfer protocol (FTP).
Not only can outsiders hack into anything on the internet but we believe Hart itself, our election vendor, could actually transmit the files to a bogus remote email address or a remote website where the files could be flipped and immediately transmitted directly onto the State count center. Flipping votes means taking votes from one candidate and giving them to another. Since the total vote count remains the same, no one would know the difference. On top of all of this, the Office of Elections never manually counts the absentee ballots precinct (aka AB-Mail) because it is "too big." So there you have it. Hart could easily flip votes in the AB-Mail precinct and no one would ever know. AB-Mail is the biggest precinct in all four counties.
…
Why impeachment matters, but will we ever get there?
by Larry Geller
[Dennis Kucinich, in a statement last week] "Our Constitution is being destroyed. We are losing our nation to a war based on lies. I am determined to get this bill to committee for a hearing," he said. "The President has conducted the affairs of the nation in a manner which cries out for justice and it is the Constitutional obligation of Congress to check his wanton abuses of U.S. and international law. We have troops whose lives were put on the line because the President told them Iraq was a threat to the United States and it was not. The loss of lives of our troops and of innocent Iraqi civilians is a direct result of the lies this president told to Congress. He must be held accountable."
Judiciary Chairman John Conyers will hold a hearing on Bush’s “imperial presidency.” The vote was 238-180:
There were no Democratic votes against holding the hearing. While 180 Republicans voted to follow their Dear Leader lock-step over the cliff, 10 Republicans abstained and nine Republican members of Congress voted with the Democrats.
…
Kucinich, who earlier this week smartly summarized why Impeachment matters, promises a surprise witness against Bush. Also from CQ Politics: "An unidentified government official of a U.S. ally wants to participate if and when Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich makes his case to impeach President Bush before the House Judiciary Committee, according to the Ohio Democrat."[article in bradblog.com, 7/17/2008]
Nancy Pelosi will resist letting the hearings move towards impeachment if she can. Maybe it depends on who squawks at the hearing.
I wonder who the surprise witness might be?
This could feel so good if it moves forward, but so bad if the Democrats protect Bush. And they will. They funded his war, remember, and gave him unprecedented powers to spy on us. It’s like they love the guy.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Richard Borreca calls it like it is on Honolulu transit bulldozer
by Larry Geller
It’s not fair snipping from Rich’s column today. Please click on over to read the complete article, City forgot 3 little words: We the people.
Although most cities let the electorate decide in one form or another about issues as big as building a new transit system, Honolulu plunged ahead without any citizen approval.
First there was the jerry-built coalition stapled together by Mayor Mufi Hannemann to convince the Legislature and the governor to allow the city to raise taxes to fund a transit system. Implied in the tax increase was the acknowledgment that Honolulu wanted a transit system, but nothing letting the people say yes or no.
Then the Council busied itself for a year with the "whither rail" question and never said "Hey, what do you people think?"
Maybe I’m among the few who say it’s not right to steamroller over us (and the communities we live in). Maybe we don’t want that. Maybe we would like to plan our own communities first.
The question of whether We the People want transit is premature. We the People could use some time to talk together, and then we’ll let you know, Mufi. Maybe we will come up with a train. Maybe not.
If the community were allowed to weigh in, perhaps we’d also ask for bus maps and even route numbers on the bus stop poles. Maybe they’d ask for buses that don’t show up early, or for convenient locations based on the needs of the riders. Maybe we’d like to have some transit connect to the airport to start with. Maybe we’d like it to connect to UH Manoa to start with. The city doesn’t know what we want, hence all this opposition. Heck, we don’t even know what our neighbors want.
Maybe we’d ask for free buses and light-rail in town, the way Portland has. How come the mayor isn’t offering us those free rides? Wouldn’t that help get cars off the streets? He could do that now, no need to wait for his buddies to make their profits building a system that much of the public had no part in choosing.
I’m sure even those who support rail would have liked to have their say about it.
I thank Richard Borreca for getting down to basics on this.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Failure to use the technology we have
by Larry Geller
SF IT System Lockout Continues
Administrators still cannot access San Francisco's main IT system, thanks to a now jailed employee who changed all the passwords and won't give them to authorities.
An IT employee who is charged with gumming up the works at the City and County of San Francisco's main data center by changing access passwords for administrators could have been stopped short of crippling access to the system if IT management had had the right security software in place.
…
[Terry} Childs, who was arrested July 13, refuses to divulge to authorities the new secret password he concocted—even four days after his arrest.
…
A city spokesperson estimated that this internal breakdown will cost millions of dollars in repairs. Though the network is running, there is still no way for IT administrators to access it at this time.
I thought waterboarding was legal. So what are they waiting for? Either get the information out of this guy or impeach Bush. Those seem to be the choices.
Or, why can’t he be sent to Syria?
C’mon, you guys in San Francisco, get with the technology we Americans use in such circumstances.
On the bright side, this is going to make a great movie one day.
Obama—Not an agent of change, but the beneficiary of change
by Larry Geller
Many insights from Sam Smith in Undernews on Obama and the Black Ivies. Of course, I recommend that you read his entire article:
Michael Niebauer of the DC Examiner called the other day with a question that had been wandering aimlessly around in my head for some time: what did Barack Obama and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty have in common?
I suggested that he expand the question to include Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, and Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, NJ.
They all share two big things. First, they are of the first generation of modern black leaders who have gotten where they were by passing exams rather than crossing police lines and, second, they are of the first generation of black leaders to have been both educated and vetted by the white establishment.
Or, to put it another way, they are the first generation of modern black leaders who are not agents of change, but primarily beneficiaries of change.
…
Read what Sam has to say about Obama’s move to the right. It’s a long, comprehensive article. When done, you can go back and read today’s articles, that one was from yesterday. He starts with Obama has some explaining to do.
Don’t take me wrongly on this, but I am grateful for Sam Smith’s longer view so that I can adjust my expectations of our next president.
Letter from Advertiser publisher Lee Webber
I'm honored that Lee Webber, president and publisher of the Advertiser, answered a letter from a humble blogger. I assume it's ok to reproduce his reply here.
Dear Mr. Geller -- Thank you for, subscribing, writing and sharing your views.
As publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser and someone who has lived in the Pacific region since 1967, I am mindful of the critical role our newspaper plays in the political, social and economic life of our island and state. The Advertiser is a private enterprise, but our newspaper also serves a vital public purpose - to inform readers like you to participate effectively in the civic processes that set our common course as an isolated community in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So, in addition to my private, fiduciary obligation to the owners of our newspaper, I also have an important public obligation to those who rely on our newspaper for information.
As the steward of an important institution, I have a duty to look out for the long-term health of our newspaper and to act prudently to ensure the organization will remain stable and viable into the future, so it can continue to support quality journalism. To support a staff of professional journalists is no small task, but to fail in this responsibility would have serious adverse effects on our community. I believe actions such as these will help ensure the enterprise remains to serve Hawai'i.
The Advertiser has served the people of this state for more than 151 years and it is my responsibility to ensure that fine service and quality journalism continues for another 150 years.
Aloha
Lee Webber
Letter to the Advertiser
by Larry Geller
17 July 2008
Mr. Lee P. Webber, President and Publisher
Honolulu Advertiser
Dear Mr. Webber:
I got a bill in the mail at the beginning of this month for renewal of my Advertiser subscription. The charge for 52 weeks delivery was listed as $208.00.
Yesterday I read the lead article in the funny sideways Business section, Advertiser laying off 54 workers, and wondered what kind of a paper will I get for my money in the future. I don’t know the details of who has been let go, except for Dick Adair. So you’ll be using someone else’s cartoons, I imagine, probably someone on the Mainland. Or maybe there will be no cartoon at all. That’s a loss, he’s an award winning resource for readers.
What else will be missing from my paper? Shouldn’t you offer discounts? Say, the same 9% that staff is being cut, at least?
The closing paragraphs of the story bothered me also:
[Gannett Chief Executive Officer Craig] Dubow, while noting the difficult environment for newspapers, said the current situation should not overshadow the progress in transforming the company into a world-class digital business while making enhancements to its newspaper and television operations.
As such Gannett has been building up its Internet business. Locally, the Honolulu Advertiser Web site has been growing and is now the largest online news site in Hawai'i with the most page views and unique visitors.
Good for you, you’re getting more page views! But I am paying for a print paper. You may become a digital business, but I want quality in that paper dropped at my door each day.
I expect more investigative reporting, more attention to Hawaii’s political scene. More of the news that a local paper is supposed to deliver to its readers.
As for the web page, before long you’ll be running that out of India, no doubt. There’s nothing about a web site that needs to be local. Heck, from India they can monitor Hawaii events and probably write not bad stories for the web.
It also appears that Gannett doesn’t like unions. Here in Hawaii, we do like unions. If they didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them. I wish you could get used to that. Everyone deserves a living wage with adequate benefits. If I am paying for your newspaper, I expect that it will be operated according to the values we expect in our community. You can say it’s none of my business, but someone has to buy your paper. That’s me, among others.
Remember, we have choices.
Sure, the newspaper business is under pressure in the USA, the UK, Spain and probably elsewhere as well. A paradigm shift is taking place, and audiences are shifting. I can tell you what keeps me subscribing, though: good journalism, including incisive and informed articles by experienced local hands. Take that away and you might as well fold up your presses and leave town. That would be a shame, though.
Hope you can fix this somehow and stick around. And good luck.
Sincerely,
Larry Geller
Today on KKCR 4-5:30 p.m.: Funding social change in Hawaii
From Katy Rose on Kauai:
TODAY ON KKCR
Today, Thursday, July 17, 2008, from 4 – 5:30, Katy will be discussing grassroots
social change organizations in Hawai’i and the funding opportunities available to
them with Richard Rodrigues of the Hawai’i People’s Fund. (Jimmy Trujillo is on
vacation.)
Also joining us will be Kat Brady of Community Alliance on Prisons and Life of the
Land, and Darlene Rodrigues (no relation to Richard) of CHOICES, an O’ahu-based
organization which provides public high school students with an alternative point
of view on military recruitment and war. The organizations these women represent
are grantees of Hawai’i People’s Fund. We will discuss the valuable work they are
doing.
Richard Rodrigues is a long-time community organizer and fundraiser for social change.
About Hawai’i People’s Fund:
“Hawai‘i People's Fund is a publicly supported community fund established in
1972 to provide grants to progressive grassroots social change organizations
working in Hawai‘i. We are a unique partnership of donors, activist
grantmakers and grantees committed to positive social change and a more
equitable distribution of wealth, resources and power. Hawai‘i People's
Fund assists groups considered too small, too new, or too controversial by
traditional funding agencies. Hawaii‘ People's Fund brings together those
who want to invest in justice with those who are actively pursuing justice
in a united vision for social change. Our philosophy of community-based
strategic philanthropy offers a unique alternative to traditional charitable
giving. Individuals who contribute to Hawai‘i People's Fund are investing
in our community's future by supporting projects that seek out the root
causes of social problems and pose new solutions.”
Please join us from 4 – 5:30 today. Your calls are welcome at 826-7771 or
866-275-1112.
The program can be heard at 90.9, 91.9, and 92.7, or at kkcr.org.
Advertiser cuts look like labor action
by Larry Geller
The main article in the Advertiser’s funny sideways business section is no joke—it looks like war against the union. Advertiser's 54 layoffs reflect industry trend doesn’t jibe with the facts, as Ian Lind points out today in an extensive analysis of the situation (see also his short Wednesday article).
There are two ways to frame these cuts. One is the larger newspaper industry woes, but the other is the labor problems here at the Advertiser which is one of the last Gannett newspaper with strong unions representing most of its workforce in the newsroom as well as in sales, production, and distribution.
As Ian notes (in an excerpt from KHON’s coverage), Gannett did not announce layoffs in any of its other papers, only the strongly unionized Advertiser.
He also speculates that Dick Adair will be back on the job soon as the union moves to have him reinstated (assuming Dick wants his job back). I hope to see his cartoons back again soon. I’ve been following Adair’s cartoons since the Pacific Stars and Stripes when we lived in Japan.
At the very end of the Advertiser article today is this indication of what’s to come:
Dubow, while noting the difficult environment for newspapers, said the current situation should not overshadow the company's progress in transforming the company into a world-class digital business while making enhancements to its newspaper and television operations.
As such, Gannett has been building up its Internet business. Locally, The Honolulu Advertiser Web site has been growing and is now the largest online news site in Hawai'i with the most page views and unique visitors.
Gannett obviously looks to the web to replace its traditional news business. This is bad for readers, but also bad for Gannett. Sooner or later Advertisers themselves will notice that the browsers they use increasingly skip ads. The second most popular add-in for Firefox, for example, is Adblock Plus:
Yup, right up there after video downloading is ad blocking. The program that does it is free. The Advertiser site is particularly vulnerable to some of the other available ad blocking programs. All of their ads disappear.
So what will happen as they decimate their core news business at the same time as web readers decimate their web advertising? This is not just a question for the Advertiser, of course, but they seem hell-bent on moving to a web presence that may not work out for them economically in the long run.
The lesson for the newspapers may be that the gods of the Internet are fickle. As are web surfers. Print paper subscribers may be for life, but a web audience can disappear at whim.
Of course, if they can buy their national news cheaply and get rid of local reporters, it could still be viable for the three or four people they’d need to run a website instead of a print operation. Would that skeleton staff even need to be located in Hawaii? I wonder. Websites can be managed from anywhere. Even from another country…
That would be sad.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Poinography discovers a promising stop-rail strategy
by Larry Geller
Doug White (poinography.com) is exceptionally good at digging down to the basic rule, regulation, law or (in this case) charter as the basis of his nightly analysis of the news. While I was pondering, along with many Honolulu newspaper readers no doubt, “what is gonna happen next with this stop-rail petition, now that the city clerk won’t accept it?” Doug has discovered what might be the stop-rail conspirators’ hidden strategy.
If they haven’t actually thought of this on their own, they owe Doug big time.
This is a snippet from his article this evening:
I see nothing in the charter language about the duties of the clerk to prohibit the clerk from simply accepting or taking any action on a petition for a special initiative election within 180 days of a general election. The charter only says that a special initiative election may not be held if an election is scheduled within 180 days of the submission of the proposal. Further, the charter also says that the duties of the clerk are to verify the signatures, reject petition pages that are not accompanied by the proper affadavit, and that the clerk shall process the petition within 20 days. That’s it. There is no language prohibiting the clerk from processing, rejecting unaffadavited pages, and verifying signatures within 180 days.
Ironically, since the petition has been described in the media as being short a few thousand signatures of the 15% threshold, that “failure” would seem to work to the petitioners’ advantage here. The
charter also says “provided that if the clerk certifies less than fifteen percent but at least ten percent, the proposed [special initiative election] ordinance shall be submitted at the next general election or scheduled special election.”Thus, if I were a lawyer or advising the petitioners (and I’m not either of those things), I would suggest that they submit the signatures already on hand (greater than 10% but less than 15%) and thereby become entitled to a spot on the next general election ballot. Which is what they want anyway, so far as I understand it.
Since everyone important reads Doug’s blog, let’s see what both sides make of this.
… and they want to bomb Iran?
by Larry Geller
I don’t think most Americans have any sense of the beauty, complexity and sophistication of the area of the world that they look upon simply as a source of oil.
Check out, for example, this recent article on one of my favorite art forms, Persian calligraphy:
Persian calligraphy: Gentle curves of beauty
Iranians have always been known for their appreciation of beauty and their artistic taste in creating masterpieces from elements. A brilliant example of such artistry is Persian calligraphy.
Ancient Persian script, which developed between 500-600 BCE, provided Achaemenid kings with magnificent monumental inscriptions. Cuneiform scripts were later replaced by 'Pahlavi' and 'Avestan' lettering.
Pahlavi script
In the 7th century BCE, the beginning of the Islamic era, Persians added four letters to the 28-letter Arabic alphabet to develop the contemporary Persian alphabet.
Considered one of the highest Islamic art forms, calligraphy soon became an indispensable part of Persian society so that it was not only practiced by professional artists but also by royalty and nobility.
Jumping forward to the Iran (and the Iranians) of today that Bush would like to bomb:
(Click to enlarge)
More fashion here.
A calligraphy video:
Before moving on, I must mention that Rumi was Persian. Here is his theory of evolution (from the Wikipedia):
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
'To Him we shall return.
Original Persian:
از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم --- وز نما مُردم بحیوان سرزدم
مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم --- پس چه ترسم کی ز مردم کم شدم
حملهء دیگر بمیرم از بشر --- تا برآرم از ملایک بال و پر
وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو --- کل شییء هالک الاوجهه
بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم --- آنچه اندر وهم ناید آن شوم
پس عدم گردم عدم چو ارغنون --- گویدم کانا الیه راجعون
Rumi's "universality"
It is often said that the teachings of Rumi are universal in nature. For him religion was mostly a personal experience and not confined to logical arguments and sense perceptions. Creative love, or the urge to rejoin the spirit to divinity, was the goal towards which every thing moves. The dignity of life, in particular human life (which is conscious of its divine origin and goal) was important.
From Persian to Arabic
Arabic calligraphy is also beautiful and an outstanding art form, practiced and developed over the millennia:
Calligraphy is of course just one cultural aspect of a civilization. When we destroyed Iraq, we trampled on and may have destroyed one of the world’s oldest and best developed cultures.
Now that Iran is in the crosshairs, I hope Americans will pay a little attention to the art, architecture, language, and of course the people of Iran. There is more to the country than the photo of its president that Bush has placed on his dart board. Look at the images above and google Iran for yourself. Remember that the bombs are directed against civilians, if they are dropped. Don’t ask me why.
But this is all disappeared news. We’re not supposed to think of the Middle East except as a source of energy. Forget I mentioned it.