Monday, May 31, 2010
Live reports from flotilla situation
by Larry Geller
Live blogging continues here.
Some tweets to follow tomorrow:
Sherine Tadros—see her tweets from today for a summary.
This video should go with tomorrow’s Advertiser story, I don’t want to be a spoiler by saying anything more.
There are plenty of stories out there for the googling, I suggest reading more than just the AP stories.
A thought about why one with ambition might choose to drop out
by Larry Geller
Ed Case’s sudden withdrawal from the 1st Congressional race has led to many questions, Why? Here’s a thought.
In a major political scandal orchestrated by the Obama Administration, a popular Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania has revealed that the White House tried bribing him to drop out of the upcoming U.S. Senate race.
Congressman Joe Sestak said in a television news show that the White House offered him a top federal job in an effort to keep him from challenging Senator Arlen Specter in the state’s Democratic primary. [judicialwatch.org, Obama Tried Bribing Arlen Specter’s Opponent, 2/19/2010]
Who knows. If Case gets appointed to something in DC, remember, you saw it first right here. Now, if he doesn’t, just forget you saw this at all.
Oil leak in perspective
by Larry Geller
Just trying to be not so Oahu-centric, here is a mashup of Kauai as if the oil spill had happened in Hawaii:
The website is In Perspective: Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster. You can plug in any city your like and watch it get covered with oil.
They’ve helpfully included a ticker with articles from the Oil Drum, a live video feed from BP, and a counter that resembles the display on a gas pump showing an estimate of how many gallons of oil have been spilled so far.
It turns out that the display is made available by PBS Newshour, so here it is. Scary, huh?
Will the number two candidate in the Dem primary be excluded from debates and news coverage?
by Larry Geller
Good riddance. A real progressive victory. ncRT @SwingState: Ed Case abruptly drops out of the race against Djou. http://is.gd/cx40C 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck
“Good riddance” seems premature. Ed Case will run again, just not this time. In his own words, “As for my own plans, our return to our formative years reconfirmed that service has been and always will be central to my very being. So the question is not whether but when, where and how I can best continue to serve, and I know that path will emerge in its own time.” Yes, Case is younger than either Akaka or Inouye.
So this leaves at least two for the Democratic Primary: Colleen Hanabusa and third-place finisher Rafael del Castillo.
Prior to the special election the newspaper coverage excised everything said by any contender other than Hanabusa or Case even when all candidates were invited to a debate (for example, on Hawaii Public Radio). If del Castillo does run in the primary, as expected, will there even be debates (such as they are), and will his views finally get the exposure that the Hawaii media denied him earlier?
Remember that the huge pile of cash amassed by the leading candidates goes to the media for TV spots and ads. Just as Congress is controlled and corrupted by corporate money, it seems the media is controlled by that same money as it is paid out to them.
Hawaii resident Col. Ann Wright on board flotilla
by Larry Geller
From the International Solidarity Movement:
The names of the dead are not yet known. The flotilla passengers included retired US diplomats Amb. Edward Peck and Col. Ann Wright as well as humanitarian aid and human rights workers, several Members of Parliament from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey, Malaysia, and Palestinian Members of the Knesset.
Follow peace convoy massacre on Twitter
by Larry Geller
There is a “flotillacam,” now looping, here.
The BBC is live-blogging events here: LIVE: Israeli raid on Gaza flotilla.
Glen Greenwald on the attack and costs of US support for Israel: Israel attacks aid ship, kills at least 10 civilians.
To follow events via Twitter, try hashtags #freedomflotilla or #Gaza.
Follow TwiddleEastNews, and check the messages for additional ways to follow.
Expect Israel to produce "weapons" to show the world they were attacked. But we witnessed events live. They will plant "evidence". 2 minutes ago via web Raed Salah seriously wounded: Israel braces for riots as protest erupts in Nazareth over #Gaza convoy deaths - http://ht.ly/1RZUu #Flotilla 4 minutes ago via HootSuite Retweeted by TwiddleEastNews and 1 other
AJE - #freedomflotilla was 5 miles w'in int'l waters during raid, reporter saw white flag raised, no passengers lifting weapons v @asteris 4 minutes ago via web
UK followers- Demos in solidarity with the #freedomflotilla: Manchester 5pm outside BBC Oxford Road 5 minutes ago via web
The twittersphere is now the main source of news for Gaza. Eventually MSM will have to take notice. #gazaflotilla 6 minutes ago via web
Peace Candidate Winograd Denounces Murders of Free Gaza Activists http://bit.ly/cuNns3 7 minutes ago via web
Audrey Bomse , Free Gaza movement "I can tell you that there were no firearms - all the boats were carefully inspected" 11 minutes ago via web
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Comment on conspiracy theory article
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " New conspiracy theory: Sinking of S. Korean ship w...":
President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbour by a Spanish mine and they supported the Spanish American War. There had been no mine.
Hitler told the German people that Poland had attacked first and staged fake attacks against German targets to convince them to attack Poland. World War 2 followed.
FDR claimed Pearl Harbour was a surprise attack. It wasn't. Tricked by the lie of a surprise attack, Americans marched off to war.
President Johnson took advantage of an inexperienced sonar man's report of torpedoes to lie about the Gulf of Tonkin and send Americans off to fight in Vietnam. There were no torpedoes in the water.
The USA and its allies went into the Iraq war based on the lie of the “Weapons of Mass Destruction”.
Bob of Brisbane
Oil spill compared again to Hawaii
by Larry Geller
Checking in again with Paul Rademacher’s website, How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?, I see that he has the image updated to May 21. You can click the link and play with it, putting in various cities.
Here’s Honolulu again, as though the spill occurred right here.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Research material on oils spills made available by journals
by Larry Geller
For serious researchers:
The international journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry this week released a special free virtual edition that makes available 25 previously released full studies on the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
It also provides access to abstracts of more than 70 oil-related science studies published over the publication’s 29-year history.
…
“We are providing these previously released studies for free to help educate decision-makers, the public and the media in the wake of the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”
…
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, a sister journal, also has made its collection on oil-spill-related topics available online.
(Thanks to Research Buzz for pointer to this information)
Reality TV update – BP camera, commentary
by Larry Geller
There’s been action on the official BP remote vehicle camera here, thugh it’s not exactly exciting footage, and they don’t say much about what is happening.
The Oil Drum live comment thread has moved to here. When the thread gets filled up and it takes too long to load, they make a note at the bottom of the thread and move to a new one.
There’s speculation that we won’t learn much until after 4 p.m. when the stock market closes for a 3-day weekend or until after 6 p.m. because it’s at the end of the Friday news day.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Microsoft hohm knows things about where you live??
by Larry Geller
This is a beta application that is supposed to help homeowners save energy. Hawaii already comes in tops in the country on average. But it is supposed to know all kinds of things about your home already. Like when it was built, size, number of bathrooms, etc.
There’s nothing private anymore.
It got the info wrong for the house we lived in before moving to the condo.
Check it out. You just find your house on the map and double-click on it, then look below. Or learn how many bathrooms your neighbors have, and approximately how much they spend on energy costs each year.
More explanation is here.
Imagine if this data got mixed up with Facebook data got mixed up with… the day will come. Somebody will put it all together for each of us.
Follow top kill live
by Larry Geller
Twitter:
#topkill or #oilspill or #oilpocalypse
This guy, a consulting engineer on the operation, got turned off by his management, wonder if he’ll be back:
Wow, just got a scathing call from mgmt, requesting I tone down my twitter info...
Live video and comments at the Oil Drum.
Honolulu media still churning with report of staff flight at Civil Beat
by Larry Geller
It was disappointing to learn from Ian Lind’s post this morning that Katherine Nichols and Treena Shapiro have already left the staff at Civil Beat. This is a tough time to walk away from a job in journalism. At the end of the same article Ian notes that Advertiser staff are about to learn whether they will have jobs after next week.
Despite my criticism of the site as a gated community guarded by a risky PayPal-powered paywall, I had hoped that CB would grow and change into a source of news and discussion for all of us. That would mean adding reporters, not subtracting.
Math is indeed at the heart of the issue, and of how we, as outsiders, might measure the success of the venture, at least on our terms. My measure of a journalism venture is how many people have access to the news product, and how a site competes with others in the market. I’m not so attached to the discussion part because there are plenty of alternatives on the web, and it’s easy to set up a new (free) site if there were a demand for that.
Checking in with their “Feedback” box yesterday, visitors seem to agree about the membership issue:
Presumably these comments are left by non-subscribers. No matter, even if they attract sufficient satisfied membership to become profitable and therefore a success in business terms, the site still remains a private club.
If indeed something is rotten in Kaimuki, they have the resilience to survive and (I hope) to change. Maybe they don’t agree. We who might have expected something else have no stake in the project. That’s why the internet invented IMHO , to encourage discussion.
The next big media event in Honolulu will be the replacement of the two dailies with an unknown new entity, the Star-Advertiser. Their website is already in place, though the home page is just a statcounter (visit staradvertiser.com and you will be counted). At some point a real page will appear. Since Gannett provided the Advertiser’s website, perhaps it will more closely resemble the present Star-Bulletin.
(I’m trying to find out if they will accept public input on what comics to carry. Maybe it’s already decided. If I get a response, I’ll let you know.)
Whatever website shows up, it is where we bloggers and thousands of others will go at least once per day for our local news fix. It will be the best place to click for breaking news throughout the day.
Now, that will be a success from the start, because it will really be the only game in town. Everyone else must struggle to succeed.
FCC opens public comments to inquiry on media consolidation that could relate to Hawaii TV station merger
by Larry Geller
The Federal Communications Commission has opened a notice of inquiry (NOI) as part of its review of its rules and regulations on media ownership and consolidation.
This means that the public has 30 days to submit. These comments, which are often formal positions composed by attorneys but which may be informal as well, could potentially influence FCC policy towards mergers such as Hawaii has experienced last year of KHNL, KGMB and KFVE.
The Media Council Hawaii filed a complaint through its Washington attorney that the merger was equivalent to a sale, since control of the operation passed to Alabama-based Raycom Media. The stations did not apply for a waiver of FCC rules before consummating their merger, holding that a waiver was not necessary.
Documents obtained under a FOIA request by the Honolulu Advertiser showed that Raycom reaps the lions share of profits from the merger and controls the operations:
Records obtained by The Advertiser under a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC show that Raycom is receiving more than 90 percent of the cash flow generated by all three stations, which exceeds thresholds previously allowed by the FCC in mergers.
Alabama-based Raycom, one of the country's largest broadcasters, not only provides news programming for the three stations but also handles all sales functions, promotions and back-office support, the documents show.
Raycom also pays for the salaries for employees at all three stations, including K5's staffers, who technically are employees of K5's owner HITV License Subsidiary Inc. [Honolulu Advertier, New data cast doubt on news merger, 5/18/2010]
The FCC commissioners appear split on the issue of consolidation, according to this article on a broadcasting industry website:
Commissioners Michael Copps and Robert McDowell appended comments to the issuance of the NOI. Copps leans toward tightening the rules up to counteract the harmful effects of rampant ownership consolidation; McDowell leans toward loosening the rules to take into account the new competitive realities of the internet age. [rbr.com, FCC opens Notice of Inquiry into media ownership rules, 5/25/2010]
To date, the FCC has not ruled on the Media Council complaint. Perhaps they are awaiting completion of their review of the rules and regulations. If so, public and industry responses to the NOI may be influential also in the FCC’s ultimate disposition of the Media Council complaint.
The article linked above includes comments by both commissioners made at the issuance of the NOI.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Missed it—today was Lahaina Noon
by Larry Geller
Lahaina Noon means “cruel day” and was coined in 1990 by Bishop Museum. It is the day at which the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and outside observers witness the disappearance of shadows. [The Molokai News, To celebrate Lahaina Noon today Kualapu’u School holds science exhibition, 5/25/2010]
But there is a second chance, according to the article: on Saturday, July 17, at 12:34 pm. Mark your calendar.
Read the complete article for more.
BP owns not only Obama, Congress and the MMS, but local cops too
by Larry Geller
Please go read Mother Jones It’s BP’s Oil.
It seems they own Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies also.
The article gives a good sense of the extent of the disaster.
The next day, cops drive up and down Grand Isle beach explicitly telling tourists it is still open, just stay out of the water. There are pools of oil on the beach; dolphins crest just offshore. A fifty-something couple, Southern Louisianians, tell me this kind of thing happened all the time when they were kids; they swam in rubber suits when it got bad, and it was no big deal. They just hope this doesn't mean we'll stop drilling.
Sheesh.
Obama’s moritorium on offshore drilling is not worth the paper it isn’t printed on
by Larry Geller
Yes, try locating that moratorium. Google for it. Ask your Congressperson for a copy. Where is it written? What does it say?
It turns out there is no moratorium. Perhaps that’s why 17 permits have been issued. And why not? There is nothing on paper saying what the “moratorium” means.
Read the sad story in NPR’s Obama's Leaky Offshore Drilling Halt Raises Eyebrows (5/25/2010).
Government expert Paul Light of New York University calls the decision not to put this order into writing "so ridiculous that it defies understanding."
Maybe they were afraid to displease BP.
Nukes also cannot be cleaned up
A snip from BradBlog by Brad Friedman:
You know, what I have been struck by over the last couple of days, is the lack of possibilities for being able to clean up. It simply cannot be cleaned up. And while that's true for an oil disaster like this, it's equally true for nukes! Yet, even Obama's Nobel-winning Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been calling for additional nukes, as have others. And the fact is nukes also cannot be cleaned up if things go wrong.
Don't sell me on anything that you don't know how to fix if something goes wrong.
Why we continue moving forward with such technology that cannot be corrected in the case of a disaster is beyond me.
Why Democrats, including Barack Obama, have not used this opportunity to demand passage of serious climate change and energy legislation --- including a Manhattan Project for clean, renewable energy for all --- remains an absolute outrage.
My variation on this: by promoting more offshore oil drilling and the possibility of additional nuclear reactors, our government shows that it is willing to put that boot on the neck of the American people and our environment. Old nuclear plants are leaking tritium into the water table, but they don’t care much about that.
Press conference announces end of Furlough Fridays
by Larry Geller
Furlough Fridays may be over. Here is the Advertiser breaking news and the Star-Bulletin breaking news.
The event was live tweeted by Georgette Deemer (good job!). Remember, start from the bottom and read upwards:
Gov says she has no plans to pardon the parents arrested for sit in.
Gov said without line of credit agreement not possible. she stays on position of the 57 million.
Governor reminds that solution reached without raising taxes or laying off taxes.
Speaker asks Horner if banks would also consider save our sports.
Speaker commends parties for coming together. says Matayoshi conducted shuttle diplomacy.
Sen Pres Hanabusa says time to move forward.
Don Horner here speaking on behalf of bank community. He says Line of credit extended as right thing todo.
acting superintendent Kathy Matayoshi says race to top appl to be submitted later this week.
last part is 10 million line of credit from local banks. if needed. no interest.
teachers agree to give up 6 planning days.
plan has 4 parts. gov agrees on 57.2 million. 2.2 million of ARRA funds for charter schools.
Gov says bottom line furloughs are over.
Gov thanks group that met last Thursday incl parents teachers principals.
Governor first thanks legislators for passing bill to use Hurricane Relief Fund.
at press conf on teacher furloughs. Governor conferring first with key stakeholders.
You be the judge, somebody should do it
by Larry Geller
Obama is facing increasing disapproval over his handling of the BP oil spill. One thing that doesn’t work to stop an oil leak is to pile rhetoric on the problem. That may be all the feds are doing.
Far from keeping the government's "boot on the neck" of BP, we read that BP is defying orders to stop using a toxic dispersant. Their neck can’t be hurting very much.
We learn that besides granting BP the exemptions they needed to make this oil spill possible, the Minerals Management Service has been complicit with the industry and that the feds declined to take action against them:
Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week.
The report, which describes inappropriate behavior by the staff at the Minerals Management Service from 2005 to 2007, also found that inspectors had accepted meals, tickets to sporting events and gifts from at least one oil company while they were overseeing the industry. [New York Times, Inspector General’s Inquiry Faults Regulators, 5/24/2010]
The report found that employees from the Lake Charles office had repeatedly accepted gifts, including hunting and fishing trips from the Island Operating Company, an oil and gas company working on oil platforms regulated by the Interior Department.
Taking such gifts “appears to have been a generally accepted practice,” said the report, written by department’s acting inspector general, Mary L. Kendall.
…
The report said the findings of the investigation had been presented to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana, which declined prosecution.
When exactly do BP executives, and then federal regulators, get to stand before a judge to answer for their actions?
Nor has the administration acted to prevent further spills. Quite the contrary, it’s practically inviting the next one to happen:
… And, the New York Times reveals that, despite a moratorium on new drilling permits, "since the April 20 explosion on the rig, federal regulators have granted at least 19 environmental waivers for gulf drilling projects and at least 17 drilling permits, most of which were for types of work like that on the Deepwater Horizon shortly before it exploded, pouring a ceaseless current of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."
Meanwhile, Shell Oil continues to ready its oil exploration fleet for a go at offshore drilling in America's Arctic Ocean this summer. Armed with a permit from the same MMS that let BP drill in extreme conditions in the Gulf without adequate planning, Shell is likewise heading into a risky situation with little assurance that it can handle a blowout scenario. [Earthjustice, Who's In Charge of Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup—Obama or BP?, 5/24/2010]
As the months and years went by and Katrina returnees remained in toxic mobile homes, we learned that FEMA couldn’t really handle a disaster, even given extra time and resources. It looks very much the same for this BP disaster. No one expects that the federal government will have every necessary expert on their payroll, but since the experts are out there, they could be contracting with some of them to make the cleanup effective and get that oil gusher stopped.
If (when?) another damaging oil spill occurs, it could mark the end of Obama’s political future even as the botched Katrina response was the beginning of Bush’s downfall. But Bush already had his two terms.
Update: Just after I posted this, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) emailed a media advisory, “Drilling Disasters Can't Happen Here: In run-up to BP spill, media touted offshore safety,” that gave many examples of media cheerleading for offshore oil drilling and nuclear energy. Here is their intro and are just a couple of examples from several they included in their email:
As the United States examines the origins of the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, one factor that should not be overlooked is media coverage that served to cover up dangers rather than expose them. When President Barack Obama declared a new push for offshore drilling (3/31/10), asserting that "oil rigs today generally don't cause spills" (4/2/10), corporate news outlets echoed such pollyanna sentiments:
You know, there are a lot of serious people looking at, "Are there ways that we can do drilling and we can do nuclear that are--that are nowhere near as risky as what they were 10 or 15 or 20 years ago?" Offshore drilling today is a lot more safer, in many ways, environmentally, today than it was 20 years ago.
--David Gergen, CNN's Situation Room (3/31/10)
…
The technology of oil drilling has made huge advances.... The time has come for my fellow environmentalists to reassess their stand on offshore oil. It is not clear that the risks of offshore oil drilling still outweigh the benefits. The risk of oil spills in the United States is quite low.
--Eric Smith, Washington Post op-ed (4/2/10)
Had the media done their homework, they would have discovered that all was not well with offshore drilling. More from the FAIR email:
A previous Time.com story (4/24/10) had noted that the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, reported 39 fires or explosions in the first five months of 2009 alone; though the magazine said the "good news" is that "most of these" did not result in death. The website Oil Rig Disasters tallies 184 incidents, dozens of which involved fatalities--and 73 of which occurred after 1988.
How Top Kill works
by Larry Geller
Here's an animation on how the top kill process, to be tried tomorrow by BP, should work.
A good discussion, and comments, can be found on the Oil Drum website. See: The Gulf Deepwater Oil Spill - the Top Kill Attempt (5/25/2010) for more explanation and graphics.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Teen tased, injured, arrested for being autistic
by Larry Geller
There is no excuse for tasing anyone to bring about compliance. Here is another case where a boy with autism was tased.
As you read these stories, keep in mind that it is not unusual for police to lie, particularly when they have done something wrong, whether it is killing a seven-year-old girl or tasing an autistic boy sitting on a curb.
Original story: WMBF, Autistic teen says he was beaten and arrested, (5/23/2010)
Follow up: WMBF, Tybee police chief defends actions, apologizes to autistic teen, (5/24/2010)
Police report: here
I did not see anything in the police report to indicate that they did a breathalyzer or any other test to verify that the boy was intoxicated, as they claimed. And of course, there were four police, making the use of the Taser inappropriate. The boy was unarmed and posed no threat. They didn’t even claim he did.
The Taser can kill, and police should be disciplined for using them inappropriately, and their superiors held responsible as well for letting them have the weapons in the first place without proper instruction.
BP spill beginning to affect shrimp, oysters, other seafood
by Larry Geller
See: Crain’s New York Business, Oil spill bites shrimp (5/24/2010).
Other types of seafood could be affected by the disaster, as well. F. Rozzo & Sons, a purveyor to luxury hotels and restaurants here, buys some red snapper and grouper from Florida-based fishing companies. Proprietor Louis Rozzo said he reads the regular reports from the National Marine Fisheries Service to make sure his vendors are fishing in areas that are not contaminated by the oil spill. “It was never important for me to read those reports before,” he added.
David Black didn’t buy the Advertiser as much as kill his competitor
by Larry Geller
I hate to say it, but this morning I found myself wondering which comics would be kept in the new Star-Advertiser when it debuts in a couple of weeks. Someone slap me.
This picture is fuzzy, but what is missing from it is the Star-Bulletin box that has been next to it forever. The other day it was gone. I went to where the next box was, and yes, the past tense applies there also. It was gone.
My thought was: It was the Advertiser that was sold, right?
Actually, what David Black did was buy himself a very capable German press in Kapolei, one that prints a variety of publications besides the Advertiser. He also bought subscriptions and probably advertising contracts.
What he is not using are the people who make the Advertiser what it is, and the building they still work in (which wasn’t part of the deal).
If the overwhelming majority of the Advertiser staff will not be kept on, then he has not bought the Advertiser, he’s just bought what he needs to transform the Star-Bulletin into a viable product.
Hawaii kissing its “high-tech future” goodbye
by Larry Geller
Everyone in Hawaii’s government, from the top down (and especially Governor Lingle) should note the editorial appearing in the Sunday New York Times unflatteringly titled Hawaii’s Race to the Bottom. Of course, they are talking about how we fail our children by declining to do anything about the notorious Furlough Fridays:
Here’s the heart of it:
The furloughs were rightly deplored by parents and denounced by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and showed Hawaii’s political and education establishment at its worst. When the first “furlough Friday” happened last October, we didn’t imagine that Hawaii — which has one statewide school district with a lackluster record of achievement — would slouch through the rest of the school year without getting its kids back in their seats.
But it did. Some parents staged a sit-in in the governor’s office to no effect. There was no special legislative session. No urgent arm-twisting to raise taxes, cut spending or make other adjustments to teachers’ schedules, salaries or benefits so that instruction time could be salvaged. No shared sacrifice, unless you count what the children lost. [New York Times, Hawaii’s Race to the Bottom, 5/23/2010]
Parents went above and beyond the call of duty. They not only sat-in, they got arrested (how about dropping charges, gov?). Everyone else must share responsibility for what Hawaii’s nationally documented bad rep will bring.
One thing it will not bring is high-tech business to Hawaii. Who would want to relocate here after reading what their children can expect for a public education? Read the editorial: we start with a “lackluster record of achievement” and it’s downhill from there.
Of course, our educational system, even at the bottom, is perfectly capable of turning out graduates who can make beds, mop floors and wait tables. If that’s all we want of them and for them, our schools are actually perfect for our economy. Someone please explain this to the New York Times.
To attract high-tech (or even medium-tech) businesses (and this is key), we need to provide an environment that will attract ordinary folk with necessary skills to relocate here. The CEOs may send their children to private school, but not everyone can do that.
Another factor is culture. Denizens of Silicon Valley like music and the arts, in other words, a vibrant cultural scene. At this moment, Honolulu can’t even keep its one symphony orchestra together. Would it be unusual for DBEDT to step in with some help? It’s sure not like them, but it would be a wise investment.
As to the medium-tech: try and get circuit boards made here, or find rubber drive belts. We are an island in the middle of the Pacific without the low- and medium-tech services that high-tech businesses require. The usual answer to this is that we’ll go for things like software development. It didn’t work in the late 1980s when DBED (no T yet) decided to support a software industry here, arguing that it can be done anywhere. It was done anywhere, anywhere other than Hawaii of course. I may have my timelines a bit off, but if I recall, Ireland was up and coming in the software world, and then “anywhere” moved to South Asia.
If we are giving up on high-tech then we don’t need to keep employing people to promote it. If we still have hopes, then the school system needs to be improved and the Governor and all other parts of government should be competing with each other to make it better.
The New York Times editorial will continue feeding the stain on Hawaii’s reputation. What it will take to counter this blemish would be to get our education act together, which requires investment rather than budget cutting, to the point where our schools begin to win awards. Should that happen, we’d have a better chance at ultimately supplementing tourism as the engine of our economy.
The Times editorial can’t be proven wrong, but it can be made obsolete.
Democracy Now segment on military bases features Kyle Kajihiro, AFSC Hawaii
by Larry Geller
The alleged torpedoing by North Korea of a South Korean ship resulting in 46 deaths has stirred up discussion about the need to keep US military bases in Okinawa. (See also this article). The Japanese Prime Minister has just reversed his campaign promise to shut down the bases.
On today’s Democracy Now, Kyle Kajihiro, Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee in Hawaii, along with activists from Guam and Japan, are interviewed about US bases on Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii. They discuss how the bases came to be established and the current situation. It’s a good historical overview, which will probably be new to most of Democracy Now’s audience.
Catch the program on Olelo at 10 p.m. on channel 56 on Oahu, or on the web at From Japan to Guam to Hawai’i, Activists Resist Expansion of US Military Presence in the Pacific (5/24/2010). The interview was actually conducted on May 3, 2010, before the sinking of the South Korean ship. Also, Amy refers viewers to the web for the complete interview, but I did not see a link posted there yet.
Update: The full interview is now available here.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
60 mph, 87 miles range would be nice for Hawaii if they would actually make this little electric car
by Larry Geller
Check out the pics of this electric car here and here. It’s called the Pininfarina Nido.
What a gorgeous small car. This all-electric city car can hit 60mph in 6.7 seconds and features a driving range of 87 miles per charge.
It appears to be a concept car, not in production. And I’m sure it has safety issues similar to other cars its size.
But wouldn’t Hawaii be better off with cars like this instead of electric golf cart variations? If it is ever produced, and if it is economical and otherwise practical, it would go on the highway.
I know, I know. There are lots of concept cars, they don’t get made. I just thought this one was cute and worth looking at the pics.
One day our car will come. Hmmm… could be a song.
Booming failure a glaring indictment of government inaction
by Larry Geller
Possibly the most popular diary this year on DailyKos is about how oil booms are supposed to be used and how BP is not using them. We’ll get to that in a moment. Why is this important? Because the feds are alleged to know how to do it, and they are not causing BP to make it work.
Also, did you catch the report that the EPA forbid BP from using the toxic dispersant but they continue to use it anyway?
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the firm 72 hours to stop using the controversial product. But BP refused, and was still using it yesterday. So far, 715,000 gallons have been pumped on to the slick. [The Independent (UK), Obama running out of patience as BP misses oil slick deadlines, 5/24/2010]
The amount of oil that BP is sipping through that little straw stuck in the pipe is down to only 1,360 barrels of oil a day. In other words, nothing.
I’ve been waiting for an adequate federal response to the BP oil disaster, but it hasn’t come. Meanwhile, BP gets to try one thing or another seemingly at their leisure.
Democrats are accusing Republicans of trying to tar Obama by claiming that the BP disaster is Obama’s Katrina. Guess what—it is. Worse, if you go by his actions (or lack thereof) rather than his speeches, he’s supporting BP by leaving everything to them. This exactly parallels the bank bailout, which saved the profitability and stock value of the bankers by letting them (or their ex-employees) supervise their bailouts.
Where is the evidence that BP is worthy of the trust? They grossly understated the size of the leak. They had no contingency plans. They tried to buy off their liability by getting people to sign papers. They withheld video, reluctantly releasing only a few seconds. And more.
But let’s get to this booming.
I’ve seen some pictures showing the oil booms and thought nothing of them. They look like oil booms. Orange or yellow, covered with oil stains.
Well, according to this diary (Fishgrease: DKos Booming School, 5/10/2010) posted to DailyKos, they are f-----g oil booms, to begin with, to apply the term usually used to describe them (there are worse adjectives in the article). And the article alleges that they are being misused, so they won’t work, and explains how they are supposed to be used.
I have no expertise, and Google hasn’t helped much so far, but the diagram in the article has the appearance of truthiness so that I suspect the author knows what he is talking about. He also wrote that BP doesn’t pay attention in booming class, and that the Coast Guard does know how it should be done, but are not intervening.
If Fishgrease is correct, the booming is being done wrong, and so the oil just goes over or under the booms. And the Coast Guard knows how to do it (see also the extensive comments attached to the article).
So Obama has left to BP both the job of stopping the oil volcano, now running for over a month, and of running the rescue operations, though it isn’t working. Meanwhile, the EPA forbids the use of a dispersant but BP continues to use it, the Coast Guard stands by while oil runs past the improperly set booms, and no one sets up offices on land to assist fishing families in safeguarding their families’ future.
I didn’t even get to the fish and the birds and the bayous, which are being allowed to be destroyed. The oil volcano continues to erupt, threatening not only the Gulf of Mexico, but ultimately any place the oil is carried to. And we, the American people, along with our leaders, do nothing and allow the disaster to continue.
Yes, allow. If the booming article is correct, much more could and should have been done.
Obama got upset in public only weeks after the leak started. He is only now about to send cabinet members to inspect. He seems to be trying to preserve his plan to do more drilling. He will save BP in the process. And yes, this will at least be his Katrina.
This isn't Katrina II, it's worse. As the oil keeps gushing and the damage keeps growing, we are squandering a rare chance to turn the tide against those whose laziness and greed and ignorance is imperiling every living thing on our wonderful and beautiful - and wounded - planet. [Huffington Post, The Great Shame: America's Pathetic Response to the Gulf Catastrophe , 5/23/2010]
Good dog, no mess
by Larry Geller
We’ve raised 17 cats but don’t currently share our little condo with any pets. I am not sure it’s fair to keep a cat confined in a small space. There’s also a problem with some cats that is euphemistically called “inappropriate elimination,” particularly as they get on in years.
Nevermind. Here is the condo pet of the future. I’m not sure, though, whether it really is a dog, or if it looks more like a giant cockroach or some other kind of insect. The domestic version of this should at least bark sometimes, or purr or play chess.
New conspiracy theory: Sinking of S. Korean ship was a “false flag” operation to keep US base in Okinawa
by Larry Geller
You be the judge.
Okinawans were outraged Sunday that Japan's prime minister reneged on his campaign pledge to move a strategic U.S. military base off their island, a broken promise that deepens political confusion ahead of nationwide elections.
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One reason for the change was the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, blamed on North Korea, they said. The possible attack underscored serious security challenges in the region and the importance of the U.S. military presence, they said. [MSNBC (AP), Japan leader apologizes over US base on Okinawa, 5/23/2010]
How convenient the timing. Just when Japan was about to shut down the hated military base, an attack comes out of the blue, splitting a South Korean ship in two but leaving big enough pieces of the torpedo so that it can be identified as of North Korean manufacture.
Whether or not Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama planned to shut down the base before, the attack provided perfect cover for him to give in to US pressure and keep it open. Japan fears an attack from a militant North Korea.
North Korea has denied that they were responsible. And the torpedo is of the same type that they have been selling to others. Could I have been the only one to come up with the idea that maybe North Korea was indeed not responsible for the attack? The attack sure worked for the US.
Knowing that this thought will be instantly dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” does not mean that it shouldn’t be explored. Google reveals that others have had the same idea already.
First, the definition of a “false flag operation” from Wikipedia:
False flag operations are covert operations which are designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities.
The same Wikipedia article lists several false flag operations carried out by countries including the US. For example:
In 1953, the U.S. and British-orchestrated Operation Ajax used "false-flag" and propaganda operations against the formerly democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq. Information regarding the CIA-sponsored coup d'etat has been largely declassified and is available in the CIA archives.
From False Flag in Korean Waters (Allvoices, 5/20/2010):
To prove this is a false flag let us first debunk this evidence with common sense (it is all we’ll really need). First is the report that scraps of an exploded torpedo match that of North Korean design. Okay if one torpedo is large enough to break a ship in two as the reports have indicated what are the odds it will have any pieces large enough left that could match anything? None. They would have an easier time getting me to swallow the lie that it was metal mined from North Korea. At least that would be easier to fake.
Second Piece of evidence is the piece with serial numbers on it matching North Korean markings on a torpedo that Seoul obtained years earlier (interesting little fact there). That brings me back to the last debunking. How would you find any piece large enough from a torpedo explosion off the bottom of the ocean that would have serial numbers on them? Isn’t that a little too farfetched to even consider that they would happen to find pieces large enough to match to a design and they happen to have serial numbers on them that link them to North Korea.
The writer hasn’t “proved” that the sinking was a false flag operation. It’s just a theory, and depends on the argument that the torpedo would have been destroyed in the explosion. Not unreasonable, but barring review by experts, not proof.
My initial thought, knowing nothing about torpedoes, was that such an attack by North Korea, for no apparent purpose, would be sure to impact Japan’s decision on the Okinawan base. So in fact, it would be better for North Korea not to do anything provocative until the bases were packed up and out of there. The attack, if it was by North Korea, defies logic in several ways.
This is very much a story in progress, let’s see what happens.
Small Electric Cars for Dummies—crash dummies, that is
by Larry Geller
On the Governor’s website is a picture of her sitting in a CT&T electric car.that looks somewhat like a golf cart with a funny windshield. It has no doors, much less side-impact air bags.
Next, here is a short video from a Wall Street Journal article, What Happens When An Electric Car Crashes? (Video) (5/20/2010). Please click and read the article, but if you’ve just looked at the pic of our Governor sitting in the electric vehicle, keep that image in mind as you view this video, from the WSJ article (they allow embedding, so here it is):
Now, our governor is no dummy, but you can see what the risk is should her security detail even allow her on the streets in one of those things. So many people run red lights here, you’d have to be concerned driving through an intersection in a golf cart or small, flimsy electric car.
Even the smallest gasoline-powered car can do major damage, and clearly the driver and passengers are at great risk in a collision.
In South Korea, where the electric car the gov is sitting in is made, an article mentioned that Korean police believe that the small, slow cars obstruct traffic. Putting slow-moving cars on the streets of Hawaii will guarantee that they will be closely tailgated. Heck, everyone is closely tailgated. Drivers behind will be impatient. The video should be a warning. That big SUV looming behind may not stop fast enough when the little electric car hits its brakes.
On the ground in Kauai
by Larry Geller
Congratulations to Kauai journalist and blogger Joan Conrow for her leading commentary on the front page of today’s Advertiser editorial section.
If you don’t have a paper, you can read Parallel universe: Living on Kauai, but not seeing the same place here.
The paper helpfully included a link to Conrow’s blog, KauaiEclectic where you can read more news and commentary from Kauai almost every day.
Update: The link above no longer works. But Google still has the article in their cache, at least for now. So try this link instead.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
BP oil spill—where is the outrage?
“This is the bitter reality of the American present, a period in which big business has cemented an unholy alliance with big government against the interests of ordinary Americans, who, of course, are the great majority of Americans. The great majority of Americans no longer matter.”—Bob Herbert, (New York Times, 5/21/2010)
It’s unfair to snip this, please click the link below and read this excellent op-ed.
A fisherman named Donny Campo tried to hide his anger with wisecracks, but it didn’t work. “They put us out of work, and now we’re cleaning up their mess,” he said. “Yeah, I’m mad. Some of us have been at this for generations. I’m 46 years old and my son — he’s graduating from high school this week — he was already fishing oysters. There’s a whole way of life at risk here.”
The risks unleashed by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig are profound — the latest to be set in motion by the scandalous, rapacious greed of the oil industry and its powerful allies and enablers in government. America is selling its soul for oil.
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No one knows how much of BP’s runaway oil will contaminate the gulf coast’s marshes and lakes and bayous and canals, destroying wildlife and fauna — and ruining the hopes and dreams of countless human families. What is known is that whatever oil gets in will be next to impossible to get out. It gets into the soil and the water and the plant life and can’t be scraped off the way you might be able to scrape the oil off of a beach.It permeates and undermines the ecosystem in much the same way that big corporations have permeated and undermined our political system, with similarly devastating results. [New York Times, More Than Just an Oil Spill, 5/21/2010]
