YOU GOTTA BELIEVE- YOU JUST GOTTA: Kaua`i Council Chair Jay Furfaro probably regrets saying many things but none more than his indictment of the county's various administrations- their oft-cited penchant "ready, fire, aim" management.
It's looking like another fiasco is in the making as the council once again considers an eight-year-old bill to re-establish camping at the popular Lydgate Park despite the fact that nothing has really changed- at least for the better- since the bill was shelved back in 2005.
Back in the 70's Lydgate was thought by haoles to actually be spelled "Lid-gate" where mainlanders could easily purchase a "lid" of pakalolo from one of the locals' back-yard "money trees," leading to a wild-west milieu and eventually a murder that ended camping there.
The bill was snatched from the jaws of passage out to the full council at last Wednesday's Public Works Committee meeting by Councilperson Mel Rapozo's request for a deferral for two weeks after the rest of the council didn't seem to care about the myriad lies and coverups from Parks and Recreation Department Director Lenny Rapozo.
Lenny Rapozo was aided and abetted by Furfaro who, as usual, put public testimony up front before Rapozo was questioned by the council, making sure that no one but the council itself could point out the naked nature of the emperor.
The biggest dirty little secret of the whole camping at Lydgate venture- other than that virtually no one thinks it's a good idea- is that there is one, count 'em' one, regular men's toilet for the whole campgrounds.
When camping is in full swing it is expected to accommodate up to 400 campers and that doesn't include those using the nearby three soccer fields who are also expected to use the same facilities.
Oh, and by the way, that toilet is broken.
But when council watcher and "nitpicker" Glenn Mickens asked Furfaro about the fact that the number of toilets didn't come anywhere near the state Department of Health (DOH) standards for people-per-potty, Furfaro tried to go into one of his classic misdirectional spiels about how the bathrooms were now American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant.
When Mickens tried to clarify what he was asking Furfaro threw one of his puffy-chested hissy-fits chiding Mickens for interrupting his non-responsive answer and refusing to not answer further until later in the meeting when no one was there to stop him from not answering.
The obfuscation didn't really get going until Rapozo took the hot seat, but first the United Public Workers union rep told the council that the three workers that were agreed to back in 2003 were no longer sufficient. With the additional soccer fields and the 150% increase in usage of the park now, even without camping they could barely keep the park clean, especially after picking up dog poop from the dog path first thing every morning.
Even worse were their concerns about workers' security and enforcement issues with overnight drinking permitted in county parks, not to mention the location of the park- snuggled between resorts in the middle of the visitor destination area, directly adjacent to the town of Wailua- and the lack of park rangers after 10 p.m.
The bottom line is apparently that Lenny Rapozo won't budge on the number of maintenance workers- an obstacle which councilmembers also tried to play down so the bill could be passed and the increase in cost for running the campgrounds could be dealt with later, no doubt as a "surprise" to the council.
One of the great moments came when Furfaro was finally free to do his "chronology" without Mickens there. First he told the union rep about the ADA compliance of the bathrooms- failing to mention how the whole campground had to be ripped out and rebuilt in '04 under then "Community Assistance" Director, current Mayor Bernard Carvalho.
Carvalho had authorized putting in the ADA campsites without any clearance or even consultation with either the state disabilities board or the mayor's ADA coordinator, whose office was just down the hall from Carvalho's.
The way they were constructed, people would have had to get out of their wheelchairs and crawl on their bellies to get onto the camping platforms, according to testimony at the time.
Furfaro was describing how the now-almost-rebuilt pavilion in the campground had burned down. The union rep asked "when was that?"
Furfaro responded "at night."
Anyway Rapozo was questioned by Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura whose first question was whether the ADA requirements were done and whether they "satisfied (and were) approved" by the DOH.
Rapozo answered that the "retrofits" were "done."
"Done?" asked Yukimura, seeming perhaps to have differing information.
"Well, in process," said Rapozo, who now admitted that they are still doing the "modifications" and, in answer to when they would be done told the assembled that the pavilion would be done "next week" and finally, after further prodding, that the ADA retrofits would be done "soon thereafter."
Following that little tooth-extraction Yukimura continued asking about the DOH requirements to which Rapozo responded that the bathrooms were indeed "clean."
When Yukimura finally asked specifically about the number of toilets per user and whether the DOH had signed off on that, she was confronted by what now has become a classic "Rapozoism."
"I'm gonna say yes," said Rapozo, "because I've gotta believe that when this concept first came," somebody must have checked with DOH and it was "done right."
Finally he admitted, under more questioning, that "the site hasn’t been changed since its inception."
But apparently no one bothered to go back and look at the minutes of the meetings in 2003 when the original bill was passed allowing camping and 2005 when the current bill revising the first one was introduced.
Because the fact that there weren't enough bathrooms was the reason why then Council Chair Kaipo Asing lit his hair on fire, finally "permanently" deferring the bill until that and a bunch of other matters were addressed by the administration of then-Mayor Bryan Baptiste and his "parks" guy, Carvalho.
Another indication of just how clueless Rapozo is came up when they were discussing the state-mandated administrative or "ad" rules that would have to be "promulgated" once the bill was passed under HRS Chapter 91.
During a discussion of whether the three workers currently employed for the park's maintenance were enough, Rapozo once again told the council that "I gotta believe that" the then-administration thought that there were enough for camping.
Then when Yukimura mentioned that the ad rules would require a public hearing, Rapozo actually responded by saying "not these."
Well Kaua`i does have its own way of doing things and in Lenny Rapozoland perhaps HIS ad rules don't require hearings. But in the state of Hawai`i they do.
Finally, as it looked like the bill just might be sent to the full council with the committee's approval Mel Rapozo- no relation- told the council that "there's one toilet and it's broken," calling for a deferral until they asked the DOH to provide, in writing, what the requirements actually were.
That, Mel Rapozo said, is because he remembered back in both '03 and '05 when one of Asing's famous PowerPoint presentations showed DOH documents stating that the bathrooms did not in fact meet the DOH requirements... they didn't even come close.
And that was just for the campgrounds- without the soccer fields or the pavilion which where not included in the original plans.
"That park is not ready for camping" said Mel before asking for and getting a deferral after embarrassing the rest of the councilmembers who previously had been poised to look the other way at all the same problems that had caused the bill to sit in committee for six years.
On Kaua`i if you want to be "made" in county government and be assured that no matter what kind of scandal you’re involved in- even if you're fired from one job for anything from incompetence to malfeasance- you'll always have an appointed job somewhere, you need to show all that you can sit there an lie to the council with "that's my story and I'm sticking to it" aplomb.
Lenny Rapozo's bonefides for appointment were apparently solely that he was Carvalho's campaign manager. But his ready, fire, aim hall of fame performance last Wednesday, has apparently assured us that we'll have him around to entertain us for years to come.
Showing posts with label Dog poop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dog poop. Show all posts
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday, May 3, 2010
TAKE A LOAD FOR FREE
TAKE A LOAD FOR FREE: The rabid dog ladies- a term we’ve taken to use in describing the string of middle-aged haole women who have been streaming through the testimony table at recent county council meetings- will no doubt be back in force this Wednesday when the bill to allow dog-walking on the whole “dog path” comes up for a final committee session.
Their stridency is something to behold as is their mantra that “everyone” supports their “right” to walk their dogs on the path.
Today Joan Conrow reports on “an email sent around by Mr. Path, Thomas Noyes” saying”
Based on park users' overwhelming endorsement for allowing responsible dog walking on all of Kauai's existing and future multi-use path systems, as documented in the survey conducted under the direction of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Kauai Path board of directors supports responsible dog walking on all of Ke Ala Hele Makalae and future path systems.
This “survey” was conducted by 11 of the most hydrophobic of the supporters of allowing dogs on what is of course a “transportation, not recreation” bike path according to the federal law under which the original $40 million was obtained- although Noyes has succeeded in getting everyone to buy into calling it the “shared use path”.
So it’s no surprise then that in answer to the question “Did you experience any problems with dogs on the shred use path” way over 92.9% percent said no. Funny how when “staff”- i.e. county employees- were asked over 20% of those who answered said yes- a statistic that had to be gleaned since it and many other stats weren’t calculated by those that “compiled” the survey.
Of course the selection of participants by the dog ladies and the fact that “no” was the answer the surveyors wanted and expected- in addition to the local custom of telling people what they want to hear- had nothing to do with the answers.
But, as we pause to remove our tongue from our cheek, the one question that stands out when one peruses the entire “presentation” is the question “Is dog feces on the shared use path currently a significant problem?
The result reported was that 90.1% said no. But a look at the results of the staff survey showed that, again, of those who answered yes or no, 24.1% said yes and only 20% said no.
In answer to the question “Do you feel safe with leashed dogs on the shared use path?” again while 97% of the public said yes, a whopping 51.7% of staff (or about 3/4th of those who answered) said no while only 13.4% said yes.
Something’s fishy and it sounds like it just could be the “push poll” nature of the 11 dog zealots who took the public survey.
So what is the real situation with both leash violations and dog poop? Well, as we reported last week the union has filed a grievance because picking up dog crap is not currently in their job description.
A look at the actual “comments” of those volunteers themselves may show why there’s such a discrepancy.
Although the survey conveniently leaves off this info, council questioning revealed that during the period the survey was conducted the volunteers spent little time on the path, most under a half an hour a session on intermittent days- actually most of the surveys were completed by one person.
As a matter of fact total volunteer hours were 30 in December (2008) 24 in January (2009) and only 19.5 in February and a measly 8 in March.
That makes the report of 65 “notations of dog feces along the path” an unfathomable amount of crap if extrapolated for 12 hours a day. And that was only in a two and a half month period.
Buried on page 46 of the report is the meat- the violations reported not by staff but by the volunteers themselves.
We’re going to post the whole list here so you can get the “flavor”. Remember that as time has gone by volunteer monitoring has gone from meager to virtually non-existent despite promises that if the council passes the proposed dogs-on-the-whole-path ordinance they would “pick it up”- the monitoring that is.
Monitoring Log Comments (all sic)
p46
12/2/2008 Dog chained to tree near pavilion, Kapaa Beach Park, noted by volunteer
12/2/2008 Dog feces removed by volunteer (at rest pavilion) Cat feces removed by volunteer (within 5' of path)
12/3/2008 Dog chained to tree near pavilion, Kapaa Beach Park, noted by volunteer
12/3/2008 Dog feces (2 piles) removed by volunteer (within 5' of path & on path)
12/8/2008 Dog feces removed by volunteer (within 5' of path)
12/8/2008 Man with dog off leash at Lihi, reported by volunteer, no indication if warning was done by volunteer
12/11/2008 Stray dog found on path and picked up by Humane Society (noted by volunteer who brought dog to Ranger)
12/19/2008 Dog running loose near Kapaa Beach Park Pavilion, maybe from house where guy carves tikis
12/22/2008 Dog feces (3 piles removed at pavilion Kapaa N/C); (1 pile removed at the large dispenser at Kapaa N/C)
12/31/2008 Dispensers need to be refilled (Kealia & Kapaa N/C)
1/1/2009 Dog feces (2 piles) in the area of Pavilion #3(?) reported by volunteer (within 5' of path & on path)(no notation if removed)
1/5/2009 Stray med sized white dog, at Lihi restroom, no license (no notation if Humane Society called for stray)
1/11/2009 Bicyclists w/dog not on leash - volunteer counseled riders & they complied
1/12/2009 Lady walker w/retracable leash (no indicate if spoke to walker)(AM)
1/12/2009 No bags at Lihi dispenser (empty several days), dispenser at Kapaa N/C stinks, not emptied in a couple of days (AM)
1/12/2009 Removed 2 piles of dog feces (1 on path other within 5' of path)(PM)
1/13/2009 Walkers w/two dogs, no visible poop bags (no indication if spoke to walkers) 1 pile of dog feces picked up within 5' of path
1/18/1900 Dog pot at Kealia overflowing & really stinks, also almost out of bags. "come on guys can't someone empty these"
1/20/2009 Graffitti path adjacent to Otsukas 6'x4' - red paint
1/21/2009 1 walker w/dog with a retractable leash (no notation if walker spoken to)
1/22/2009 Enforcement officer (Tony) picked up brown lab near Kapaa Pool. KHS picked up dog
1/26/2009 Removed 2 piles of dog feces near Kapaa Beach Park
1/26/2009 Lihi dispenser bottom missing & needs replacement parts ordered
1/26&27/09 Only poop on the path is chicken poop - Yahoo!
1/27/2009 Many chicken manure piles & dead & live slugs & snails
1/29/2009 2 walkers with dogs, no license, were informed
2/8/2009 No litter bags @ bathroom, rest site #1, Dogi pot #2 both sides full, Dogi pot #3 (pool) left side empty, Right full
2/8/2009 Dogi pot #4 upper empty, lower 1/4 full (lookout), Dogi pot #5 both full, Kealia Bridge, stray dog Kealia (no indication if Humane Society called)
2/8/2009 Walker didn't have dog on leash, conunseled her-she put dog on leash, 1 pile feces removed near Kapaa Neighborhood Center
2/12/2009 Launch bathroom doggie bags empty
2/13/2009 No dogs today
2/13/2009 Boat launch bathrooms/doggie bags empty, Kealia Lookout/dogi bag empty, 1 pile dog feces Kealia pavilion (no indication if removed)
2/17/2009 Dogi bag dispenser empty boat ramp bathrooms, Dogi bag dispenser police station bathroom empty, 2 piles feces within 5' of path (no location)
2/18/2009 2 walkers with dogs off leash, put them all on leash, 1 speeding ultra-fast bicyclist - no bike bell, 1 pile feces removed by neighborhood center
2/18/2009 No more poop bags at doggie pot dispenser scenic parking lot
If anyone wants to go through the whole presentation we have the “power point” file (you need PP software to download it) and we’ll forward to you upon request.
We should note that we don’t hate dogs. But what we do hate is allowing a small group to dictate policy through intimidation and falsified and manipulated information.
We do support the right of people who are genuinely afraid of dogs- especially little kids who are at eye-to-eye level with some of them- to be able to use the path, along with those on bicycles (whose use should be a priority) to not have to veer off the path when a dog, as they are prone to do, lunges at them, leashes notwithstanding.
Their stridency is something to behold as is their mantra that “everyone” supports their “right” to walk their dogs on the path.
Today Joan Conrow reports on “an email sent around by Mr. Path, Thomas Noyes” saying”
Based on park users' overwhelming endorsement for allowing responsible dog walking on all of Kauai's existing and future multi-use path systems, as documented in the survey conducted under the direction of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Kauai Path board of directors supports responsible dog walking on all of Ke Ala Hele Makalae and future path systems.
This “survey” was conducted by 11 of the most hydrophobic of the supporters of allowing dogs on what is of course a “transportation, not recreation” bike path according to the federal law under which the original $40 million was obtained- although Noyes has succeeded in getting everyone to buy into calling it the “shared use path”.
So it’s no surprise then that in answer to the question “Did you experience any problems with dogs on the shred use path” way over 92.9% percent said no. Funny how when “staff”- i.e. county employees- were asked over 20% of those who answered said yes- a statistic that had to be gleaned since it and many other stats weren’t calculated by those that “compiled” the survey.
Of course the selection of participants by the dog ladies and the fact that “no” was the answer the surveyors wanted and expected- in addition to the local custom of telling people what they want to hear- had nothing to do with the answers.
But, as we pause to remove our tongue from our cheek, the one question that stands out when one peruses the entire “presentation” is the question “Is dog feces on the shared use path currently a significant problem?
The result reported was that 90.1% said no. But a look at the results of the staff survey showed that, again, of those who answered yes or no, 24.1% said yes and only 20% said no.
In answer to the question “Do you feel safe with leashed dogs on the shared use path?” again while 97% of the public said yes, a whopping 51.7% of staff (or about 3/4th of those who answered) said no while only 13.4% said yes.
Something’s fishy and it sounds like it just could be the “push poll” nature of the 11 dog zealots who took the public survey.
So what is the real situation with both leash violations and dog poop? Well, as we reported last week the union has filed a grievance because picking up dog crap is not currently in their job description.
A look at the actual “comments” of those volunteers themselves may show why there’s such a discrepancy.
Although the survey conveniently leaves off this info, council questioning revealed that during the period the survey was conducted the volunteers spent little time on the path, most under a half an hour a session on intermittent days- actually most of the surveys were completed by one person.
As a matter of fact total volunteer hours were 30 in December (2008) 24 in January (2009) and only 19.5 in February and a measly 8 in March.
That makes the report of 65 “notations of dog feces along the path” an unfathomable amount of crap if extrapolated for 12 hours a day. And that was only in a two and a half month period.
Buried on page 46 of the report is the meat- the violations reported not by staff but by the volunteers themselves.
We’re going to post the whole list here so you can get the “flavor”. Remember that as time has gone by volunteer monitoring has gone from meager to virtually non-existent despite promises that if the council passes the proposed dogs-on-the-whole-path ordinance they would “pick it up”- the monitoring that is.
Monitoring Log Comments (all sic)
p46
12/2/2008 Dog chained to tree near pavilion, Kapaa Beach Park, noted by volunteer
12/2/2008 Dog feces removed by volunteer (at rest pavilion) Cat feces removed by volunteer (within 5' of path)
12/3/2008 Dog chained to tree near pavilion, Kapaa Beach Park, noted by volunteer
12/3/2008 Dog feces (2 piles) removed by volunteer (within 5' of path & on path)
12/8/2008 Dog feces removed by volunteer (within 5' of path)
12/8/2008 Man with dog off leash at Lihi, reported by volunteer, no indication if warning was done by volunteer
12/11/2008 Stray dog found on path and picked up by Humane Society (noted by volunteer who brought dog to Ranger)
12/19/2008 Dog running loose near Kapaa Beach Park Pavilion, maybe from house where guy carves tikis
12/22/2008 Dog feces (3 piles removed at pavilion Kapaa N/C); (1 pile removed at the large dispenser at Kapaa N/C)
12/31/2008 Dispensers need to be refilled (Kealia & Kapaa N/C)
1/1/2009 Dog feces (2 piles) in the area of Pavilion #3(?) reported by volunteer (within 5' of path & on path)(no notation if removed)
1/5/2009 Stray med sized white dog, at Lihi restroom, no license (no notation if Humane Society called for stray)
1/11/2009 Bicyclists w/dog not on leash - volunteer counseled riders & they complied
1/12/2009 Lady walker w/retracable leash (no indicate if spoke to walker)(AM)
1/12/2009 No bags at Lihi dispenser (empty several days), dispenser at Kapaa N/C stinks, not emptied in a couple of days (AM)
1/12/2009 Removed 2 piles of dog feces (1 on path other within 5' of path)(PM)
1/13/2009 Walkers w/two dogs, no visible poop bags (no indication if spoke to walkers) 1 pile of dog feces picked up within 5' of path
1/18/1900 Dog pot at Kealia overflowing & really stinks, also almost out of bags. "come on guys can't someone empty these"
1/20/2009 Graffitti path adjacent to Otsukas 6'x4' - red paint
1/21/2009 1 walker w/dog with a retractable leash (no notation if walker spoken to)
1/22/2009 Enforcement officer (Tony) picked up brown lab near Kapaa Pool. KHS picked up dog
1/26/2009 Removed 2 piles of dog feces near Kapaa Beach Park
1/26/2009 Lihi dispenser bottom missing & needs replacement parts ordered
1/26&27/09 Only poop on the path is chicken poop - Yahoo!
1/27/2009 Many chicken manure piles & dead & live slugs & snails
1/29/2009 2 walkers with dogs, no license, were informed
2/8/2009 No litter bags @ bathroom, rest site #1, Dogi pot #2 both sides full, Dogi pot #3 (pool) left side empty, Right full
2/8/2009 Dogi pot #4 upper empty, lower 1/4 full (lookout), Dogi pot #5 both full, Kealia Bridge, stray dog Kealia (no indication if Humane Society called)
2/8/2009 Walker didn't have dog on leash, conunseled her-she put dog on leash, 1 pile feces removed near Kapaa Neighborhood Center
2/12/2009 Launch bathroom doggie bags empty
2/13/2009 No dogs today
2/13/2009 Boat launch bathrooms/doggie bags empty, Kealia Lookout/dogi bag empty, 1 pile dog feces Kealia pavilion (no indication if removed)
2/17/2009 Dogi bag dispenser empty boat ramp bathrooms, Dogi bag dispenser police station bathroom empty, 2 piles feces within 5' of path (no location)
2/18/2009 2 walkers with dogs off leash, put them all on leash, 1 speeding ultra-fast bicyclist - no bike bell, 1 pile feces removed by neighborhood center
2/18/2009 No more poop bags at doggie pot dispenser scenic parking lot
If anyone wants to go through the whole presentation we have the “power point” file (you need PP software to download it) and we’ll forward to you upon request.
We should note that we don’t hate dogs. But what we do hate is allowing a small group to dictate policy through intimidation and falsified and manipulated information.
We do support the right of people who are genuinely afraid of dogs- especially little kids who are at eye-to-eye level with some of them- to be able to use the path, along with those on bicycles (whose use should be a priority) to not have to veer off the path when a dog, as they are prone to do, lunges at them, leashes notwithstanding.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
COPY!
COPY!: After twenty-five years plus of providing unending targets for ridicule it was a bit uncomfortable for us to gush over anything remotely related to our joke-of-a-local-newspaper during the brief period that saw reporter Mike Levine waste his talents on Kaua`i.
But if it’s possible, with Mike’s departure, the paper might just be the worst it’s been in at least a decade or more with the addition of Leo Azambuja who has quite apparently never seen the inside of a basic newswriting textbook.
As if the flighty fluffmeister “Business Editor” Coco Zickos and the always incomprehensible “police and courts reporter” Paul Curtis weren’t bad enough, Azambuja seems totally baffled after being hired to cover the all important “government beat”.
A new article is supposed to have what’s called a lead- or lede as it’s spelled in the trade. A good reporter sits down to file a story and takes a breath to come up with the most important thing that that happened and put it at the top- all in 25 words or less.
The rest of the story follows what’s called the “inverted triangle” and tells a story- another important element- with the more important information nearer the top and the less important depth and background to follow.
It’s kind of the opposite of normal writing and a writer who is not a journalist must unlearn everything he or she knows in order to be a good reporter.
In covering a meeting the one thing you don’t want to see is a chronological regurgitation of what happened and a lede something like “A meeting of the county council was held yesterday at 9 a.m. in the council chambers at the county building”.
But apparently Azambuja either missed that day’s lesson or never attended a class.
Take his wrap-up of the budget hearings- which individually were a minute by minute recap with no context or narrative. Here’s his lede:
NAWILIWILI — Kaua‘i County Council members have been keeping busy since April 9, reviewing Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s proposed $146.29 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts July 1.
Classic. It the type of thing that a frst day student might turn in- one who hadn’t bothered to do the reading or pay attention in class.
Another skill is deciding the most important story to report if there’s more than one. But today. while Azambuja was filing a somewhat disjointed report from yesterday’s planning commission meeting about an ongoing, weeks-old story about an art gallery permit in Hanalei, Joan Conrow was reporting about the Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) bill that was passed out of the planning commission- a bill will basically ditches all the restrictions the council placed on TVRs last year and could, if passed by the council, have repercussions for decades to come.
Perhaps the most egregious thing one can do is to “bury the lede”, waiting until halfway through the article until you report the most important thing.
Azambuja’s story last Thursday on the “dog path” bill started with the end, calling the deferral of the bill to allow dogs on the entire bike path a “surprise” and regurgitating much the testimony of the “dog ladies”.
Finally 634 words into an 874 word story in the 22nd paragraph of a 27 paragraph report he writes that
The Parks and Recreation new plan suggests leashed dogs be allowed from Kealia lookout to the north end of Kuna Beach, popularly known as Donkey Beach.
United Public Workers Business Agent Trina Horner said the union supports leashed dogs on the portion of the path proposed by Rapozo, because allowing them on the entire path would put an extra burden on maintenance workers.
And that was it- no other reference to the administration’s official recommendation that dogs be allowed only on the extreme northern section of the path rather than the entire path as the bill currently calls for. There was no reference at all to an all important grievance filed by the union that could make the use of the entire path as a dog walk difficult without a resolution to the filing.
Seems that the workers are willing to perform the added maintenance duties on the northern portion for now as a compromise. They could have said no to any additions since new job descriptions cannot, by law, be imposed on them unilaterally and must be negotiated.... especially, apparently, the job of picking up dog poop.
But you’d never know that from the story which only mentions the administration’s position in passing as if it had no consequence when in actuality it very well could cause the first veto of Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration.
Though the story ranted on and on about the survey there was no mention that it was as nonscientific as could be or that the information was gathered by dogs-on-the-path zealots and so predictably found that “everyone” wants dogs on the path- apparently including those who have been bitten or harassed by or just don’t like being around huge unpredictable animals.
Which leads us to the “surprise” deferral- one that was, as Parks and Transportation Committee Chair Lani Kawahara said, done to allow for the committee to decide on an amendment to give the administrations proposal it’s due consideration and then either accept or reject it... and do so in committee where council’s “work” is supposed to be done.
These are just a few examples of the piss-poor job being done by the one person who this community relies upon to inform the public of governmental doings via the self-proclaimed “newspaper of record”.
There’s no shortage of excellent reporters in the state and even the island and a slew more out-of-work journalists to come with today’s announcement that the merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin will proceed, initiating mass layoffs as the two staffs combine into one.
But hiring one of them would entail actually paying them a living wage, something the local paper avoids at all costs according to many past employees.
We don’t like denying anyone their job. But the tracking of the doings of government for the community is too important to be left to amateurs.
But if it’s possible, with Mike’s departure, the paper might just be the worst it’s been in at least a decade or more with the addition of Leo Azambuja who has quite apparently never seen the inside of a basic newswriting textbook.
As if the flighty fluffmeister “Business Editor” Coco Zickos and the always incomprehensible “police and courts reporter” Paul Curtis weren’t bad enough, Azambuja seems totally baffled after being hired to cover the all important “government beat”.
A new article is supposed to have what’s called a lead- or lede as it’s spelled in the trade. A good reporter sits down to file a story and takes a breath to come up with the most important thing that that happened and put it at the top- all in 25 words or less.
The rest of the story follows what’s called the “inverted triangle” and tells a story- another important element- with the more important information nearer the top and the less important depth and background to follow.
It’s kind of the opposite of normal writing and a writer who is not a journalist must unlearn everything he or she knows in order to be a good reporter.
In covering a meeting the one thing you don’t want to see is a chronological regurgitation of what happened and a lede something like “A meeting of the county council was held yesterday at 9 a.m. in the council chambers at the county building”.
But apparently Azambuja either missed that day’s lesson or never attended a class.
Take his wrap-up of the budget hearings- which individually were a minute by minute recap with no context or narrative. Here’s his lede:
NAWILIWILI — Kaua‘i County Council members have been keeping busy since April 9, reviewing Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s proposed $146.29 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts July 1.
Classic. It the type of thing that a frst day student might turn in- one who hadn’t bothered to do the reading or pay attention in class.
Another skill is deciding the most important story to report if there’s more than one. But today. while Azambuja was filing a somewhat disjointed report from yesterday’s planning commission meeting about an ongoing, weeks-old story about an art gallery permit in Hanalei, Joan Conrow was reporting about the Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) bill that was passed out of the planning commission- a bill will basically ditches all the restrictions the council placed on TVRs last year and could, if passed by the council, have repercussions for decades to come.
Perhaps the most egregious thing one can do is to “bury the lede”, waiting until halfway through the article until you report the most important thing.
Azambuja’s story last Thursday on the “dog path” bill started with the end, calling the deferral of the bill to allow dogs on the entire bike path a “surprise” and regurgitating much the testimony of the “dog ladies”.
Finally 634 words into an 874 word story in the 22nd paragraph of a 27 paragraph report he writes that
The Parks and Recreation new plan suggests leashed dogs be allowed from Kealia lookout to the north end of Kuna Beach, popularly known as Donkey Beach.
United Public Workers Business Agent Trina Horner said the union supports leashed dogs on the portion of the path proposed by Rapozo, because allowing them on the entire path would put an extra burden on maintenance workers.
And that was it- no other reference to the administration’s official recommendation that dogs be allowed only on the extreme northern section of the path rather than the entire path as the bill currently calls for. There was no reference at all to an all important grievance filed by the union that could make the use of the entire path as a dog walk difficult without a resolution to the filing.
Seems that the workers are willing to perform the added maintenance duties on the northern portion for now as a compromise. They could have said no to any additions since new job descriptions cannot, by law, be imposed on them unilaterally and must be negotiated.... especially, apparently, the job of picking up dog poop.
But you’d never know that from the story which only mentions the administration’s position in passing as if it had no consequence when in actuality it very well could cause the first veto of Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration.
Though the story ranted on and on about the survey there was no mention that it was as nonscientific as could be or that the information was gathered by dogs-on-the-path zealots and so predictably found that “everyone” wants dogs on the path- apparently including those who have been bitten or harassed by or just don’t like being around huge unpredictable animals.
Which leads us to the “surprise” deferral- one that was, as Parks and Transportation Committee Chair Lani Kawahara said, done to allow for the committee to decide on an amendment to give the administrations proposal it’s due consideration and then either accept or reject it... and do so in committee where council’s “work” is supposed to be done.
These are just a few examples of the piss-poor job being done by the one person who this community relies upon to inform the public of governmental doings via the self-proclaimed “newspaper of record”.
There’s no shortage of excellent reporters in the state and even the island and a slew more out-of-work journalists to come with today’s announcement that the merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin will proceed, initiating mass layoffs as the two staffs combine into one.
But hiring one of them would entail actually paying them a living wage, something the local paper avoids at all costs according to many past employees.
We don’t like denying anyone their job. But the tracking of the doings of government for the community is too important to be left to amateurs.
Monday, March 29, 2010
DOGGIE PEE, DOGGIE DOO
DOGGIE PEE, DOGGIE DOO: It won’t be long now until dog poop is once again on the lips of the citizenry what with the expiration of the experimental “bikes on the dog path” law and the new law before the council promising a long hot summer of dog path hearings a-comin’.
So get out you doggie-doodoo-bag and pin it to your shirt because it’s already being spread pretty thick on the pages of the local newspaper- all before the public hearing on the bill to expand dog-crapping to the entire path and also before the required survey is available.
Just this weekend we’ve already been hit with a flaming bag-o-crap lobbed over the wall in a predictable disinformation campaign from the brownshirts of the so-called stakeholders committee: Dr. Randall C. Blake, Sue Hansen, Thomas Noyes, Dr. Becky Rhoades.
Even Joan Conrow- who is usually more concerned with topics of real importance such as her upcoming Honolulu Weekly piece on the latest from the Naue burials debacle- has been busy with watching where she walks after describing a little walk on the “linear park”
After a meeting of the persons if not the minds between her and Councilperson Tim Bynum, who has introduced the latest dog path bill and was an original proponent of the path, she wrote:
Koko and I found ourselves meeting Tim at Lihi Park — the southerly end of the section where dogs are allowed — yesterday afternoon.
Now, readers of this blog know that I am no fan of the Path, but it was a lovely day and the ocean — turquoise and glassy under an offshore wind — looked absolutely ono. Of course, I couldn’t legally access it for a swim so long as Koko was at my side, so I focused instead on the task at hand: listening to Tim.
For those who don’t generally delve into underworld of the anonymous trolls in the comments section of Joan’s blog, it’s pretty much of a zoo where the bored, lonely sophomoric and adolescent-minded baboons gather to mindlessly throw their own feces at each other and Joan.
And today, after mentioning the lawsuit against KIUC for refusing to do anything but talk about stopping their wholesale slaughter of Shearwaters, she wrote about what one particularly dedicated defacer posted over the weekend:
This topic always makes me think of the thoughtful “f the birds” comment left by the shift-key impaired, short dash-fixated “dwps” — aka “mainland mentality,” “Darwin was pretty smart,” “young white atheist male” and “anonymous” — who recently left the comment:
“only here, and a few weird places on the mainland populated by strange people, would a bike path be seen as some sort of bag thing. its bizarre”
I’m assuming he meant “bad” and not “bag,” so let me spell it out for him. A bike path that is part of a road system, so as to truly facilitate alternative transportation, could be seen as a good thing.
But a bike path that runs over a beach or burials, is constructed of coastline hardening concrete, delivers hordes of people to places previously untrammeled, exposes you to possible $500 fines and puts you on the radar of an over zealous enforcement officer riding a bicycle with a poodle in a basket, well, in my opinion, that’s a bad thing.
Although we generally skip the troll-fest we happened on this one and maybe not so coincidentally it stood out to us too.
So a little Kealia and island history is in order.
In 1976 a Japanese developer wanted to put a resort where the Kumukumu camp- right across the highway from the beach- had recently been shut down.
People fought like hell to stop it and did so successfully but at one point those who opposed it but thought it inevitable had suggested Kealia be officially designated as a county beach park to “protect” it from development.
Being malihini at the time we at first blanch didn’t get it. But on second thought we had been around the island long enough to have seen the pattern and saw what happened whenever a “park” designation was made.
Many local people knew full well what happens on Kaua`i when you make a beach or any other gathering place into a “park”.
Where people once had free reign to camp, fish, even drive right to the camping spot and generally be free of rules and restrictions, all of a sudden we now had permits, rangers, prohibitions- including against bringing dogs- and generally had to go somewhere else to relax on weekends ad holidays.
So we stopped the beach park at Kealia. Some of us tracked it for decades and every time the proposal came back up we nipped it in the bud.
Now comes the bike path- that had it’s origins in Kealia Kai- and we thought we had nixed the beach park idea again with a plan that would have the path just run along the old haul cane road.
But Bernard Carvalho- then head of at first the Parks and Rec Division and later the newly-created Department of Parks and Rec- unbeknownst to anyone including the council until it was a done deal, formed a secret committee (later called the stakeholders committee), filled it with bike path proponents and then “secretly” built illegal un-permitted pavilions along the bike path because they had “extra money” (don’t ya just love that one?).
Finally they had to tear down and re-do some of the pavilions that dotted the path. But instead of leaving well enough alone, when the “dog path” bill came along all of a sudden Bernard and his cronies had somehow “declared” the bike path with pavilions to be a “linear park” where dogs would be automatically banned,
Even though by law official designation of parks is supposed to be done by the council- not to mention that no one had ever heard of a “linear park” on Kaua`i before and in fact the term didn’t appear anywhere in our charter, ordinances or administrative rules- their “done deal” stood, especially when Bernard became Mayor.
So through the back door Kealia has essentially become a “beach park” despite citizen vigilance, all due to Bernard’s lack of foresight and bending and breaking of laws, rules and regs and the lack of anyone on the council willing to challenge anything having to do with the bike path since Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho left
That’s just one of the corners cut and reasons why we have an ugly ribbon of concrete running along the beach instead of the natural unspoiled shoreline we used to enjoy.
As with many Kaua`i institutions, its not “bike paths” in general- or electric power co-ops or a dozen other mom-and-apple-pie ideas- it’s THIS bike path that causes us to have to sidestep another stinking pile.
So get out you doggie-doodoo-bag and pin it to your shirt because it’s already being spread pretty thick on the pages of the local newspaper- all before the public hearing on the bill to expand dog-crapping to the entire path and also before the required survey is available.
Just this weekend we’ve already been hit with a flaming bag-o-crap lobbed over the wall in a predictable disinformation campaign from the brownshirts of the so-called stakeholders committee: Dr. Randall C. Blake, Sue Hansen, Thomas Noyes, Dr. Becky Rhoades.
Even Joan Conrow- who is usually more concerned with topics of real importance such as her upcoming Honolulu Weekly piece on the latest from the Naue burials debacle- has been busy with watching where she walks after describing a little walk on the “linear park”
After a meeting of the persons if not the minds between her and Councilperson Tim Bynum, who has introduced the latest dog path bill and was an original proponent of the path, she wrote:
Koko and I found ourselves meeting Tim at Lihi Park — the southerly end of the section where dogs are allowed — yesterday afternoon.
Now, readers of this blog know that I am no fan of the Path, but it was a lovely day and the ocean — turquoise and glassy under an offshore wind — looked absolutely ono. Of course, I couldn’t legally access it for a swim so long as Koko was at my side, so I focused instead on the task at hand: listening to Tim.
For those who don’t generally delve into underworld of the anonymous trolls in the comments section of Joan’s blog, it’s pretty much of a zoo where the bored, lonely sophomoric and adolescent-minded baboons gather to mindlessly throw their own feces at each other and Joan.
And today, after mentioning the lawsuit against KIUC for refusing to do anything but talk about stopping their wholesale slaughter of Shearwaters, she wrote about what one particularly dedicated defacer posted over the weekend:
This topic always makes me think of the thoughtful “f the birds” comment left by the shift-key impaired, short dash-fixated “dwps” — aka “mainland mentality,” “Darwin was pretty smart,” “young white atheist male” and “anonymous” — who recently left the comment:
“only here, and a few weird places on the mainland populated by strange people, would a bike path be seen as some sort of bag thing. its bizarre”
I’m assuming he meant “bad” and not “bag,” so let me spell it out for him. A bike path that is part of a road system, so as to truly facilitate alternative transportation, could be seen as a good thing.
But a bike path that runs over a beach or burials, is constructed of coastline hardening concrete, delivers hordes of people to places previously untrammeled, exposes you to possible $500 fines and puts you on the radar of an over zealous enforcement officer riding a bicycle with a poodle in a basket, well, in my opinion, that’s a bad thing.
Although we generally skip the troll-fest we happened on this one and maybe not so coincidentally it stood out to us too.
So a little Kealia and island history is in order.
In 1976 a Japanese developer wanted to put a resort where the Kumukumu camp- right across the highway from the beach- had recently been shut down.
People fought like hell to stop it and did so successfully but at one point those who opposed it but thought it inevitable had suggested Kealia be officially designated as a county beach park to “protect” it from development.
Being malihini at the time we at first blanch didn’t get it. But on second thought we had been around the island long enough to have seen the pattern and saw what happened whenever a “park” designation was made.
Many local people knew full well what happens on Kaua`i when you make a beach or any other gathering place into a “park”.
Where people once had free reign to camp, fish, even drive right to the camping spot and generally be free of rules and restrictions, all of a sudden we now had permits, rangers, prohibitions- including against bringing dogs- and generally had to go somewhere else to relax on weekends ad holidays.
So we stopped the beach park at Kealia. Some of us tracked it for decades and every time the proposal came back up we nipped it in the bud.
Now comes the bike path- that had it’s origins in Kealia Kai- and we thought we had nixed the beach park idea again with a plan that would have the path just run along the old haul cane road.
But Bernard Carvalho- then head of at first the Parks and Rec Division and later the newly-created Department of Parks and Rec- unbeknownst to anyone including the council until it was a done deal, formed a secret committee (later called the stakeholders committee), filled it with bike path proponents and then “secretly” built illegal un-permitted pavilions along the bike path because they had “extra money” (don’t ya just love that one?).
Finally they had to tear down and re-do some of the pavilions that dotted the path. But instead of leaving well enough alone, when the “dog path” bill came along all of a sudden Bernard and his cronies had somehow “declared” the bike path with pavilions to be a “linear park” where dogs would be automatically banned,
Even though by law official designation of parks is supposed to be done by the council- not to mention that no one had ever heard of a “linear park” on Kaua`i before and in fact the term didn’t appear anywhere in our charter, ordinances or administrative rules- their “done deal” stood, especially when Bernard became Mayor.
So through the back door Kealia has essentially become a “beach park” despite citizen vigilance, all due to Bernard’s lack of foresight and bending and breaking of laws, rules and regs and the lack of anyone on the council willing to challenge anything having to do with the bike path since Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho left
That’s just one of the corners cut and reasons why we have an ugly ribbon of concrete running along the beach instead of the natural unspoiled shoreline we used to enjoy.
As with many Kaua`i institutions, its not “bike paths” in general- or electric power co-ops or a dozen other mom-and-apple-pie ideas- it’s THIS bike path that causes us to have to sidestep another stinking pile.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
TASTES LIKE IT- GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT
TASTES LIKE IT- GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT: Well it’s all over but the pooping as the Council reportedly made it official yesterday passing a law saying that the bike path is now the apparently the “Bryan Baptiste Memorial Dogcrap Repository”.
And as Joan Conrow reported this morning, county spokesperson Mary Dauber confirmed what we suspected Tuesday- that Bernard Carvalho will be “sidestepping” the bureaucratic dog pile he created and doing it at taxpayer expense by taking vacation time from the job he will no longer have when he returns.
But in another of those “only on Kaua`i” laws the council passed a provision saying that dog walkers must “visibly carry” a bag to clean up after their pets.
Now presumably owners will somehow be pinning their little plastic bags to their lapels although how to attach them without putting a hole in them might be somewhat of a challenge.
And woe be to the owner who only brings one bag because presumably they must always wear a crap-carrier even after their animal’s done their business.
We just can’t wait for the parade the dog-doody-bedecked citizenry. Perhaps a whole new line of pine-scented-aloha-shirts will spring up as the dog-poop-clad-denizens dance by the dog-poop receptacles in search of another carrying-container for fear of a $500 fine
Why Hilo Hattie’s may offer a free clothes pin with each perfumed mu`umu`u.
Who said the county isn’t creating new jobs.
But speaking of dogshit is there anyone who hasn’t smelled the stench coming out of Denver this week?
In case anyone missed the real story, the Democratic Party has apparently “grown up” when it comes to corporate teat-sucking as attendees lapped up the bribes just like Republicans.
Some of the alternative press such as reporter and “Official Hawai`i Democratic Convention Blogger in Denver” Ian Lind have mentioned the excesses for the privileged such as breakfasts for the Hawai`i delegates “complements” of Lockheed and Boeing.
But sitting through hour after hour of 37 TV channels of breathlessly-identical sycophantic-fluff was getting to be way too much to stomach until last night when a piece from ABC News– a whole three minutes and twenty seconds of it- appeared.
The must-see Brian Ross segment “Money Trail: The Democratic Elite” details how the “Pelosi 100” – those who raised more than $100,000 for the party- were wined and dined in private suites and fancy restaurants, clubs and hotels, day in and day out, throughout the week.
After showing us telescopic lens views through the window of a few of the venues the piece showed how the Denver police joined in the fun by roughing up a segment producer who dared to try to film it from a public sidewalk, replete with a stogie-smoking cop choking the newsman and arresting him for trying to take pictures of those attending one of the corporate sponsored galas.
Finally it juxtaposed the ring of luxury suites at the mentioned-once-every-four-second “Pepsi” Center, sipping champagne and dining on a hot buffet while a Georgia delegate downstairs in the lobby had to buy a $7 hot dog because “it’s all there is”.
But the fact that the Democrats have caught up and taken the lead in the race to sell our government to the highest corporate bidder is but a precipitating factor in explaining why they have gone along with every bit of constitution-shredding, war-mongering, corporate-theft that’s come down the Republican pike since 2001.
We’ll leave listing the crimes to the best candidate running for president, the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, who in 2006 as Georgia Representative to the US House introduced the first Bush-Chaney impeachment motion.
From funding the war to supporting the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act and from supporting the Gitmo gulag to caving on the telecom immunity bill the Democrats have been complicitous and have not just taken impeachment off the table it aided and abetted the Republicans by using their pen hand to support what their mouths bemoan.
How anyone can vote for these swine is beyond us but we suppose people have been eating their horseshit because at least it isn’t dogshit... and doing it for so long it’s beginning to “taste like chicken”
We’ll leave you with McKinney’s article in Counterpunch Magazine yesterday that- in case somehow you forgot- lists the Democratic eight-year efforts as partners-in-crime.
-----------------
It's Time for Real Change
How the Democrats Helped Bush Hijack the Country
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY
CounterPunch, August 27, 2008
Our country has been hijacked and the Democrats have proven themselves to have been in on the plan. When it came to the Constitution, the Democratic leadership showed us that aiding and abetting illegal spying on us was more important to them than protecting our civil liberties.
When it came to war and occupation, the Democratic leadership showed us that financing an illegal and immoral war, based on lies, was more important to them than the people's desire for peace.
And when the people, hurting from the financial mismanagement of this country, called for accountability for the crimes that have been committed against the people here, against the global community, against nature, itself, the Democratic leadership took impeachment off the table!
Grassroots Democratic Party activists want a livable wage! A "Medicare-for-all" type of health care system, repeal of the Bush tax cuts that have ushered in the greatest income inequality in this country since the Great Depression. But the Democratic Party has shown itself to be incapable of providing even a semblance of the values even of its own activists.
The Democratic Party's national leadership didn't even mention Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors in their Congressional agenda for the first 100 days.
The Democratic Party's national leadership gave us the Iran Naval Blockade bill, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and telecom immunity. They continue to fund war and occupation to the tune of $720 million a day while our children graduate from college tens--or even hundreds--of thousands of dollars in debt. Entire cities are going into receivership while the Democratic leadership in Congress gives the Pentagon one half trillion dollars annually with no accountability, no strings attached. That's over and above spending for war.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are the hallmarks of the new U.S. gulag Democrats are helping to create.
They want us to believe that China and Russia are our enemies, in addition to the 60 countries on Dick Cheney's list. They want us to believe that workers, who come to this country to support thier families after Democratic leadership in the country saddl3ed workers with NAFTA, are our enemies. But we are here today to declare that we know who the real enemies are: those false patriots that George Washington warned us of, who wrap themselves in the flag while betraying our values.
We are the true patriots!
We know that the strength of this country lies in the way it countenances dissent. And we are here to dissent. We are not deterred by reports of sleek, new detention facilities or recently-acquired taser guns that kill. For we come to dissent in peace. Indeed, we dissent for peace.
Today, we declare our independence from conformity and "go-along-to-get-along" politics. We declare our willingness to be radical in pursuit of peace and in our hunger for justice. We can see clearly now who the real stickup artists are and that's why we're in Denver!
Our actions here this week begin the disarming of the hijackers. We no longer are afraid. And we won't be deceived. We know that a vote for the Democrats is a vote for more war in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
But today, we are now free.
Free to stand on the four pillars guiding our political engagement: environmental wisdom, peace, grassroots democratcy, and social justice. And finally, we know our power. We know the power of the people. We know that true power rests in the hands of the people. People who are willing to take a stand.
We need look no further than Haiti, Code, I'voire, Spain, and India to see the power of the people at the ballot box. No further than Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Paraguay to know that if they can do it, so can we.
Provided our elections are fair!
And if the Democrats cave in, in the face of fraud, disfranchisement, and theft, then we will be there to demand election integrity!
All over this country, the signs are there. People from New York to Florida, Washington State to California, Colorado to Texas are liberating themselves. We must not stop! Our country is worth it! Let's take our country back! Power to the People!
And as Joan Conrow reported this morning, county spokesperson Mary Dauber confirmed what we suspected Tuesday- that Bernard Carvalho will be “sidestepping” the bureaucratic dog pile he created and doing it at taxpayer expense by taking vacation time from the job he will no longer have when he returns.
But in another of those “only on Kaua`i” laws the council passed a provision saying that dog walkers must “visibly carry” a bag to clean up after their pets.
Now presumably owners will somehow be pinning their little plastic bags to their lapels although how to attach them without putting a hole in them might be somewhat of a challenge.
And woe be to the owner who only brings one bag because presumably they must always wear a crap-carrier even after their animal’s done their business.
We just can’t wait for the parade the dog-doody-bedecked citizenry. Perhaps a whole new line of pine-scented-aloha-shirts will spring up as the dog-poop-clad-denizens dance by the dog-poop receptacles in search of another carrying-container for fear of a $500 fine
Why Hilo Hattie’s may offer a free clothes pin with each perfumed mu`umu`u.
Who said the county isn’t creating new jobs.
But speaking of dogshit is there anyone who hasn’t smelled the stench coming out of Denver this week?
In case anyone missed the real story, the Democratic Party has apparently “grown up” when it comes to corporate teat-sucking as attendees lapped up the bribes just like Republicans.
Some of the alternative press such as reporter and “Official Hawai`i Democratic Convention Blogger in Denver” Ian Lind have mentioned the excesses for the privileged such as breakfasts for the Hawai`i delegates “complements” of Lockheed and Boeing.
But sitting through hour after hour of 37 TV channels of breathlessly-identical sycophantic-fluff was getting to be way too much to stomach until last night when a piece from ABC News– a whole three minutes and twenty seconds of it- appeared.
The must-see Brian Ross segment “Money Trail: The Democratic Elite” details how the “Pelosi 100” – those who raised more than $100,000 for the party- were wined and dined in private suites and fancy restaurants, clubs and hotels, day in and day out, throughout the week.
After showing us telescopic lens views through the window of a few of the venues the piece showed how the Denver police joined in the fun by roughing up a segment producer who dared to try to film it from a public sidewalk, replete with a stogie-smoking cop choking the newsman and arresting him for trying to take pictures of those attending one of the corporate sponsored galas.
Finally it juxtaposed the ring of luxury suites at the mentioned-once-every-four-second “Pepsi” Center, sipping champagne and dining on a hot buffet while a Georgia delegate downstairs in the lobby had to buy a $7 hot dog because “it’s all there is”.
But the fact that the Democrats have caught up and taken the lead in the race to sell our government to the highest corporate bidder is but a precipitating factor in explaining why they have gone along with every bit of constitution-shredding, war-mongering, corporate-theft that’s come down the Republican pike since 2001.
We’ll leave listing the crimes to the best candidate running for president, the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, who in 2006 as Georgia Representative to the US House introduced the first Bush-Chaney impeachment motion.
From funding the war to supporting the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act and from supporting the Gitmo gulag to caving on the telecom immunity bill the Democrats have been complicitous and have not just taken impeachment off the table it aided and abetted the Republicans by using their pen hand to support what their mouths bemoan.
How anyone can vote for these swine is beyond us but we suppose people have been eating their horseshit because at least it isn’t dogshit... and doing it for so long it’s beginning to “taste like chicken”
We’ll leave you with McKinney’s article in Counterpunch Magazine yesterday that- in case somehow you forgot- lists the Democratic eight-year efforts as partners-in-crime.
-----------------
It's Time for Real Change
How the Democrats Helped Bush Hijack the Country
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY
CounterPunch, August 27, 2008
Our country has been hijacked and the Democrats have proven themselves to have been in on the plan. When it came to the Constitution, the Democratic leadership showed us that aiding and abetting illegal spying on us was more important to them than protecting our civil liberties.
When it came to war and occupation, the Democratic leadership showed us that financing an illegal and immoral war, based on lies, was more important to them than the people's desire for peace.
And when the people, hurting from the financial mismanagement of this country, called for accountability for the crimes that have been committed against the people here, against the global community, against nature, itself, the Democratic leadership took impeachment off the table!
Grassroots Democratic Party activists want a livable wage! A "Medicare-for-all" type of health care system, repeal of the Bush tax cuts that have ushered in the greatest income inequality in this country since the Great Depression. But the Democratic Party has shown itself to be incapable of providing even a semblance of the values even of its own activists.
The Democratic Party's national leadership didn't even mention Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors in their Congressional agenda for the first 100 days.
The Democratic Party's national leadership gave us the Iran Naval Blockade bill, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and telecom immunity. They continue to fund war and occupation to the tune of $720 million a day while our children graduate from college tens--or even hundreds--of thousands of dollars in debt. Entire cities are going into receivership while the Democratic leadership in Congress gives the Pentagon one half trillion dollars annually with no accountability, no strings attached. That's over and above spending for war.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are the hallmarks of the new U.S. gulag Democrats are helping to create.
They want us to believe that China and Russia are our enemies, in addition to the 60 countries on Dick Cheney's list. They want us to believe that workers, who come to this country to support thier families after Democratic leadership in the country saddl3ed workers with NAFTA, are our enemies. But we are here today to declare that we know who the real enemies are: those false patriots that George Washington warned us of, who wrap themselves in the flag while betraying our values.
We are the true patriots!
We know that the strength of this country lies in the way it countenances dissent. And we are here to dissent. We are not deterred by reports of sleek, new detention facilities or recently-acquired taser guns that kill. For we come to dissent in peace. Indeed, we dissent for peace.
Today, we declare our independence from conformity and "go-along-to-get-along" politics. We declare our willingness to be radical in pursuit of peace and in our hunger for justice. We can see clearly now who the real stickup artists are and that's why we're in Denver!
Our actions here this week begin the disarming of the hijackers. We no longer are afraid. And we won't be deceived. We know that a vote for the Democrats is a vote for more war in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
But today, we are now free.
Free to stand on the four pillars guiding our political engagement: environmental wisdom, peace, grassroots democratcy, and social justice. And finally, we know our power. We know the power of the people. We know that true power rests in the hands of the people. People who are willing to take a stand.
We need look no further than Haiti, Code, I'voire, Spain, and India to see the power of the people at the ballot box. No further than Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Paraguay to know that if they can do it, so can we.
Provided our elections are fair!
And if the Democrats cave in, in the face of fraud, disfranchisement, and theft, then we will be there to demand election integrity!
All over this country, the signs are there. People from New York to Florida, Washington State to California, Colorado to Texas are liberating themselves. We must not stop! Our country is worth it! Let's take our country back! Power to the People!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
SIDESTEPPING THE POO PILE
SIDESTEPPING THE POO PILE: In what can only be called a bizarre move mayoral candidate Bernard Carvalho “has requested a leave of absence from his position pending the outcome of the upcoming elections” according to a county press release.
This comes on the heels of the approval of the “Dog Path” bills in council committee last week and in anticipation of passage this Wednesday at the full council meeting.
Last week the main council debate was about how Parks and Recreation Department head Carvalho was designated to design, implement and administrate a “trail period” to see if dog walking on the dog, er bike, er multi-use, path will harass everyone but the dog owners as many claim
The most important part of that was to be how Carvalho would set up the bill’s convoluted and somewhat wacky rules including having dog walker visibly “wear” the “collection receptacles” for dog poop and then deposit the full ones in nose level receptacles.
Nathan Eagle’s article in the local paper on the contentious final committee session is pretty complete and describes how the council put the onus on Carvalho to design the criteria for what a successful 18 month “trial period” would look like and require that he and his Department observe, record and enforce the laundry list of restrictions on dog walker and the dogs themselves.
Eagle described the results of the meeting saying
The proposed legislation, as it currently stands, would create an 18-month trial period for people to walk their dogs on the county’s Eastside shared-use path on a roughly two-mile stretch from Lihi Park to the picnic shelter nearest Kealia bridge.
It was amended to require the handler to be in command and control of the dog at all times, have no more than two dogs under his control, leave if the dog gets aggressive, visibly carry the necessary instruments required for the removal and disposal of dog feces, pick up and dispose of any and all feces left by the dog, have the dog wear a current dog license tag and use a leash no more than 6 feet in length.
The bill also calls for the county Parks and Recreation Department and a stakeholder committee to develop measurable objectives so the success or failure of the trial period may be determined.
The “stakeholders committee” is one secretly set up and secretly run by Carvalho and, by his admission after a question from a councilmember, contains no one from the general public nor of course any of them opposed to dogs on the path.
But Eagle goes on to describe how the whole thing sits on Carvalho’s broad shoulders.
Carvalho said his department would need 90 to 120 days to pull all the pieces together to be ready to implement the legislation.
He said there are issues relating to the hiring of three new park rangers for enforcement, union concerns regarding hitting dog feces when mowing along the path, signage, maintenance schedules and finalizing with the county attorney a liability-related document pet owners would have to sign when they apply for dog licenses.
“I want to make sure everything is in place before we get this thing moving,” Carvalho said.Carvalho and his department- especially park workers who need to clean up the place- have been understandably opposed to having dogs on the path.
In fact Carvalho was the one who apparently made dogs on the path “illegal” in the first place with an insular decision to call the bike path a “lineal park”.
That supposedly made dogs on the path automatically illegal but was done without the official approval either from the council or through an administrative rule-making process as required by law.
This is in keeping with Carvalho’s secrecy management style and in keeping with that of his mentor, the late mayor Bryan Baptiste and whose penchant for closed-door decision-making was legendary.
Carvalho has taken all things bike path upon himself and organized his private “task force” consisting of a bunch of county insiders and departmental mucky-mucks who have held illegal unannounced and un-agendaed meetings to make decisions about the path.
At the meeting councilmembers grilled Carvalho about how long he needed to set up the criteria, which some councilmembers wanted contained in the bill.
Again, according to Eagle
Bynum questioned the timing, calling the 90 to 120 days “excessive.”
Kouchi said he was hoping the department could be ready in a time frame closer to 60 days. This way the bill could be implemented by November before a newly elected mayor takes office, he said.
“The reality is this is not going to be the most important issue the new mayor is going to have on their plate,” Kouchi said. “If it’s going to be 120 days ... it’s going to be passed on to somebody else.”
Despite what looked almost like he was about to have a conniption fits by mayoral candidate Councilperson Mel Rapozo over the matter even though he and sole prosecutor candidate Shaylene Iseri Carvalho opposed the bills, they advanced with B. Carvalho’s assurance that, although he didn’t like it, he would comply with whatever the law provided for.
(Parenthetically Rapozo also unintentionally pointed out a blatant violation of the sunshine law. during the meeting.
At one point Carvalho was adamant that he needed the 120 days to set up the “trial run”. Then all of a sudden out of the blue, Parks Council Committee Chair Tim Bynum- who introduced the bill and has been it’s chief proponent- called for a “10 minute recess”.
When they came back Rapozo told of what happened during the break describing the gaggle of intimidating council people surrounding Carvalho and trying to arm twist him into saying he could do it more quickly than the 120 days.
The Sunshine Law of Hawai`i strictly outlaws this type of public policy discussion among more than two councilpersons but apparently the secrecy of the Asing reign as council chair continues under the new council regime.)
So after carefully making himself indispensable, Carvalho has now announced that chewing gum and walking at the same time is too much for his pitiful pia mater and so, unlike the other two major candidates, he will take a “leave of absence” from his public service job because obviously administering Parks and Recreation and running for mayor at the same time would be much harder than running while being a council person.
And what the heck is this “leave of absence” business anyway? Only the dismal acumen of Carvalho could come up with this one.
Note that Carvalho isn’t resigning which would make sense since the only two things that can happen is that he will either win or lose the election.
If he wins he’ll be Mayor, not head of the Parks Department. And if he loses he will be out of a job as well with all department heads resigning in a new administration unless they are possibly re-hired by the new mayor.
Either way he’s out of a job Dec 1. But until then he presumably will still be collecting his handsome almost $100,000 a year salary for not working while he campaigns for mayor.
This shows how deep the still waters of Carvalho’s cranial capacity run and probably indicates his future management style should he be elected
When the going gets tough- as it will in the Parks and Recreation Dept. after the dog bills become law tomorrow- Carvalho ditches the process and resulting task upon which he’s insinuated himself and thereby for which he’s made himself indispensable..
All the while still on the government payroll enabling him to have us pay him so he can further litter the island with his obscenely-innumerable yard signs in a redux of Baptiste’s oft-criticized 2000 campaign tactic of plastering the roads with a plethora of posters.
What a public servant.
Now someone else will have to take over making the crucial decisions on the implementation of the new ordinances and the dozens of other responsibilities Carvalho has taken on in forming and designing the administration of a new department created specifically for him to have a good government job.
Because, after all he’s a football hero and so is entitled to whatever he wants whether or not he’s qualified, capable of or deserves it.
We don’t know what he was thinking last Wed at the meeting as opposed to what he was thinking the following Monday. The answer is, most likely he wasn’t.
Perhaps his management style if elected Mayor will be to cross your fingers when you speak and when all else fails, if the job gets too tough take a leave of absence and dump the problems you created in someone else’s lap.
Come to think if it, hasn’t that’s been the MO for the last two administrations? Obviously Carvalho has learned bungling deceit at the feet of the masters.
We can only look forward to more foibles in the next two years than during the last 6 if not 14.
This comes on the heels of the approval of the “Dog Path” bills in council committee last week and in anticipation of passage this Wednesday at the full council meeting.
Last week the main council debate was about how Parks and Recreation Department head Carvalho was designated to design, implement and administrate a “trail period” to see if dog walking on the dog, er bike, er multi-use, path will harass everyone but the dog owners as many claim
The most important part of that was to be how Carvalho would set up the bill’s convoluted and somewhat wacky rules including having dog walker visibly “wear” the “collection receptacles” for dog poop and then deposit the full ones in nose level receptacles.
Nathan Eagle’s article in the local paper on the contentious final committee session is pretty complete and describes how the council put the onus on Carvalho to design the criteria for what a successful 18 month “trial period” would look like and require that he and his Department observe, record and enforce the laundry list of restrictions on dog walker and the dogs themselves.
Eagle described the results of the meeting saying
The proposed legislation, as it currently stands, would create an 18-month trial period for people to walk their dogs on the county’s Eastside shared-use path on a roughly two-mile stretch from Lihi Park to the picnic shelter nearest Kealia bridge.
It was amended to require the handler to be in command and control of the dog at all times, have no more than two dogs under his control, leave if the dog gets aggressive, visibly carry the necessary instruments required for the removal and disposal of dog feces, pick up and dispose of any and all feces left by the dog, have the dog wear a current dog license tag and use a leash no more than 6 feet in length.
The bill also calls for the county Parks and Recreation Department and a stakeholder committee to develop measurable objectives so the success or failure of the trial period may be determined.
The “stakeholders committee” is one secretly set up and secretly run by Carvalho and, by his admission after a question from a councilmember, contains no one from the general public nor of course any of them opposed to dogs on the path.
But Eagle goes on to describe how the whole thing sits on Carvalho’s broad shoulders.
Carvalho said his department would need 90 to 120 days to pull all the pieces together to be ready to implement the legislation.
He said there are issues relating to the hiring of three new park rangers for enforcement, union concerns regarding hitting dog feces when mowing along the path, signage, maintenance schedules and finalizing with the county attorney a liability-related document pet owners would have to sign when they apply for dog licenses.
“I want to make sure everything is in place before we get this thing moving,” Carvalho said.Carvalho and his department- especially park workers who need to clean up the place- have been understandably opposed to having dogs on the path.
In fact Carvalho was the one who apparently made dogs on the path “illegal” in the first place with an insular decision to call the bike path a “lineal park”.
That supposedly made dogs on the path automatically illegal but was done without the official approval either from the council or through an administrative rule-making process as required by law.
This is in keeping with Carvalho’s secrecy management style and in keeping with that of his mentor, the late mayor Bryan Baptiste and whose penchant for closed-door decision-making was legendary.
Carvalho has taken all things bike path upon himself and organized his private “task force” consisting of a bunch of county insiders and departmental mucky-mucks who have held illegal unannounced and un-agendaed meetings to make decisions about the path.
At the meeting councilmembers grilled Carvalho about how long he needed to set up the criteria, which some councilmembers wanted contained in the bill.
Again, according to Eagle
Bynum questioned the timing, calling the 90 to 120 days “excessive.”
Kouchi said he was hoping the department could be ready in a time frame closer to 60 days. This way the bill could be implemented by November before a newly elected mayor takes office, he said.
“The reality is this is not going to be the most important issue the new mayor is going to have on their plate,” Kouchi said. “If it’s going to be 120 days ... it’s going to be passed on to somebody else.”
Despite what looked almost like he was about to have a conniption fits by mayoral candidate Councilperson Mel Rapozo over the matter even though he and sole prosecutor candidate Shaylene Iseri Carvalho opposed the bills, they advanced with B. Carvalho’s assurance that, although he didn’t like it, he would comply with whatever the law provided for.
(Parenthetically Rapozo also unintentionally pointed out a blatant violation of the sunshine law. during the meeting.
At one point Carvalho was adamant that he needed the 120 days to set up the “trial run”. Then all of a sudden out of the blue, Parks Council Committee Chair Tim Bynum- who introduced the bill and has been it’s chief proponent- called for a “10 minute recess”.
When they came back Rapozo told of what happened during the break describing the gaggle of intimidating council people surrounding Carvalho and trying to arm twist him into saying he could do it more quickly than the 120 days.
The Sunshine Law of Hawai`i strictly outlaws this type of public policy discussion among more than two councilpersons but apparently the secrecy of the Asing reign as council chair continues under the new council regime.)
So after carefully making himself indispensable, Carvalho has now announced that chewing gum and walking at the same time is too much for his pitiful pia mater and so, unlike the other two major candidates, he will take a “leave of absence” from his public service job because obviously administering Parks and Recreation and running for mayor at the same time would be much harder than running while being a council person.
And what the heck is this “leave of absence” business anyway? Only the dismal acumen of Carvalho could come up with this one.
Note that Carvalho isn’t resigning which would make sense since the only two things that can happen is that he will either win or lose the election.
If he wins he’ll be Mayor, not head of the Parks Department. And if he loses he will be out of a job as well with all department heads resigning in a new administration unless they are possibly re-hired by the new mayor.
Either way he’s out of a job Dec 1. But until then he presumably will still be collecting his handsome almost $100,000 a year salary for not working while he campaigns for mayor.
This shows how deep the still waters of Carvalho’s cranial capacity run and probably indicates his future management style should he be elected
When the going gets tough- as it will in the Parks and Recreation Dept. after the dog bills become law tomorrow- Carvalho ditches the process and resulting task upon which he’s insinuated himself and thereby for which he’s made himself indispensable..
All the while still on the government payroll enabling him to have us pay him so he can further litter the island with his obscenely-innumerable yard signs in a redux of Baptiste’s oft-criticized 2000 campaign tactic of plastering the roads with a plethora of posters.
What a public servant.
Now someone else will have to take over making the crucial decisions on the implementation of the new ordinances and the dozens of other responsibilities Carvalho has taken on in forming and designing the administration of a new department created specifically for him to have a good government job.
Because, after all he’s a football hero and so is entitled to whatever he wants whether or not he’s qualified, capable of or deserves it.
We don’t know what he was thinking last Wed at the meeting as opposed to what he was thinking the following Monday. The answer is, most likely he wasn’t.
Perhaps his management style if elected Mayor will be to cross your fingers when you speak and when all else fails, if the job gets too tough take a leave of absence and dump the problems you created in someone else’s lap.
Come to think if it, hasn’t that’s been the MO for the last two administrations? Obviously Carvalho has learned bungling deceit at the feet of the masters.
We can only look forward to more foibles in the next two years than during the last 6 if not 14.
Friday, June 13, 2008
BECAUSE THEY CAN
BECAUSE THEY CAN: It sounds like the dog-people carried the dog-day at the dog-path meeting Wednesday according to Nathan Eagle’s account in today’s local paper as well as yesterday’s .new blog entry at Councilman Mel Rapozo’s blog.
Mel’s tome drew more commentary doggerel from those who doggedly persist in thinking “dogs are people too” replete with the god-given constitutional right to “go” wherever they want.,
Mel did not however, despite two promises, clear up that pesky detail that makes the farce all the more farcical- whether the bike path actually is a park at this point in time where dogs would be banned by ordinance
But the newspaper story seemingly confirms- through lack of confirmation, as things usually get authenticated in Kaua`i government circles- what we’ve been saying to no avail- that the path has never legally been designated a county park and therefore dog walking is legal now.
We asked Eagle for a clarification a month ago after he wrote that the path was “considered a linear park” without attribution.
Today Eagle reports that, like Rapozo apparently, he still can’t get an answer out of the Parks And Recreation Department head Bernard Carvalho as to when and how the path magically became a county park without going through any process at all, saying:
Under the county Parks and Recreation Department’s management, the path is a linear park and as such falls under a county ordinance banning animals without permits.
Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho did not return calls seeking a more detailed explanation as to why the path falls under the park classification.
After a verbal warning process ended in March, the Kaua‘i Police Department started issuing citations to owners walking their dogs on the multi-use path.
We haven’t seen the testimony of the 50 some-odd people who testified at the hearing yet but from Rapozo’s Eagle’s and others’ descriptions it was a banding together of a bunch of dog-loving nut-cases who want to their habit of owning their precious little dirt-collectors shoved down our collective throats.
Many even claim they felt threatened after showing up to say “no” to having to deal with the mess and abuse of dog-lovers who are blind to the problems their pets perpetrate - so left without testifying.
It’s bad enough these days seeing these poor beasts chained up in little yards or in cages, yearning to run around more than an hour a day and being fed moist “animal by-products” if they’re lucky and essentially bread and water if they’re not. Even the stuff we say we wouldn’t feed to a dog is better than what most get... and that’s with the “responsible” owners.
But now everyone on Kaua`i must put up with the conditions created by people who, instead of taking their dogs to areas where people don’t congregate which is most likely what their dog would want, have to combine their own recreational activities with those of their pets.
Don’t have the time to do both? Then don’t have a dog. Life is full of choices.
This isn’t a rights issue. One person’s right to swing their fist ends at another’s jaw. If anyone has a right here it’s the right to walk without being molested by your dog.
And leashes don’t help. Are dog walkers on the path going to stay seven feet away from everyone else if they have a six foot leash? No, they’re going to ignore people who might not appreciate their wet muddy dog rubbing up against them.
There are plenty of dog owners who would complain bitterly if someone smoked a cigarette around them but have no compunction about exposing us to their smelly, filthy, disgusting habit of cohabitating with wolves.
The worst is Becky Rhodes the head of the Human Society. Her inane statements like
“This is a really important time for Kaua‘i.(and) (t)o be known as a dog-hating visitor attraction is not what we want to be known for”
are baffling enough if they weren’t a violation of the prohibitions against non-profits- especially those that operate through taxpayer subsidies- from lobbying for legislation.
It’s pretty baffling how that would happen anyway since tourists don’t bring their dogs and if anything would probably appreciate not having to step in anything or be attacked by dogs, whether leashed or not.
It’s one thing to advocate for the safety and good treatment of pets. It’s another to insist that we all be forced to deal with your pet If anything Rhodes should be saying that responsible pet ownership includes the rights of people who don’t like your pet, which is traditionally the position taken by responsible authorities.
The dog path lobby would have us believe that everyone loves dogs, mom and apple pie in that order and that “all local people have dogs” and that it’s only a bunch of malahini mainlanders trying to stop us from “living our island lifestyle” who are opposed to having dogs run roughshod over humans out for a walk in the park.
But the “local tradition” is to take care of your animals so they doesn’t bother everyone else. We saw enough of roving packs terrorizing neighborhoods as happened way too often 30 years ago as populations moved into residential rather than true rural areas.
Having a dog around is not only not a right but it is a privilege. And it’s one that is abused by those who bring their dogs to areas where people congregate.
According to the article “Veterinarians and community members said it would be a ‘huge disservice’ to not give residents ‘the freedoms that everyone else seems to have.’”
The freedom that everyone else has? What is this now a constitutional right to have your beast slobber all over our faces and terrorize our kids, who incidentally do have the rights you wish your dogs had but doesn’t..
If you want to treat your beast like your kid be our guest. There’s plenty of coo-coo people out there and you have a right to be one of them. But just because you like dog spit on your face doesn’t give you any “rights” to have it lick even our hands- hey we eat with those things- while you stand there saying “isn’t that cute- he likes you”.
Dogs have their place. They can be wonderful companions. But they are a huge responsibility. And their “place” isn’t among those that don’t want to be around them.. A six foot leash doesn’t mean people have to stay 12 feet away from you, it means the ones holding the leash have to control their dogs and keep them away from people without their permission.
Mel’s tome drew more commentary doggerel from those who doggedly persist in thinking “dogs are people too” replete with the god-given constitutional right to “go” wherever they want.,
Mel did not however, despite two promises, clear up that pesky detail that makes the farce all the more farcical- whether the bike path actually is a park at this point in time where dogs would be banned by ordinance
But the newspaper story seemingly confirms- through lack of confirmation, as things usually get authenticated in Kaua`i government circles- what we’ve been saying to no avail- that the path has never legally been designated a county park and therefore dog walking is legal now.
We asked Eagle for a clarification a month ago after he wrote that the path was “considered a linear park” without attribution.
Today Eagle reports that, like Rapozo apparently, he still can’t get an answer out of the Parks And Recreation Department head Bernard Carvalho as to when and how the path magically became a county park without going through any process at all, saying:
Under the county Parks and Recreation Department’s management, the path is a linear park and as such falls under a county ordinance banning animals without permits.
Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho did not return calls seeking a more detailed explanation as to why the path falls under the park classification.
After a verbal warning process ended in March, the Kaua‘i Police Department started issuing citations to owners walking their dogs on the multi-use path.
We haven’t seen the testimony of the 50 some-odd people who testified at the hearing yet but from Rapozo’s Eagle’s and others’ descriptions it was a banding together of a bunch of dog-loving nut-cases who want to their habit of owning their precious little dirt-collectors shoved down our collective throats.
Many even claim they felt threatened after showing up to say “no” to having to deal with the mess and abuse of dog-lovers who are blind to the problems their pets perpetrate - so left without testifying.
It’s bad enough these days seeing these poor beasts chained up in little yards or in cages, yearning to run around more than an hour a day and being fed moist “animal by-products” if they’re lucky and essentially bread and water if they’re not. Even the stuff we say we wouldn’t feed to a dog is better than what most get... and that’s with the “responsible” owners.
But now everyone on Kaua`i must put up with the conditions created by people who, instead of taking their dogs to areas where people don’t congregate which is most likely what their dog would want, have to combine their own recreational activities with those of their pets.
Don’t have the time to do both? Then don’t have a dog. Life is full of choices.
This isn’t a rights issue. One person’s right to swing their fist ends at another’s jaw. If anyone has a right here it’s the right to walk without being molested by your dog.
And leashes don’t help. Are dog walkers on the path going to stay seven feet away from everyone else if they have a six foot leash? No, they’re going to ignore people who might not appreciate their wet muddy dog rubbing up against them.
There are plenty of dog owners who would complain bitterly if someone smoked a cigarette around them but have no compunction about exposing us to their smelly, filthy, disgusting habit of cohabitating with wolves.
The worst is Becky Rhodes the head of the Human Society. Her inane statements like
“This is a really important time for Kaua‘i.(and) (t)o be known as a dog-hating visitor attraction is not what we want to be known for”
are baffling enough if they weren’t a violation of the prohibitions against non-profits- especially those that operate through taxpayer subsidies- from lobbying for legislation.
It’s pretty baffling how that would happen anyway since tourists don’t bring their dogs and if anything would probably appreciate not having to step in anything or be attacked by dogs, whether leashed or not.
It’s one thing to advocate for the safety and good treatment of pets. It’s another to insist that we all be forced to deal with your pet If anything Rhodes should be saying that responsible pet ownership includes the rights of people who don’t like your pet, which is traditionally the position taken by responsible authorities.
The dog path lobby would have us believe that everyone loves dogs, mom and apple pie in that order and that “all local people have dogs” and that it’s only a bunch of malahini mainlanders trying to stop us from “living our island lifestyle” who are opposed to having dogs run roughshod over humans out for a walk in the park.
But the “local tradition” is to take care of your animals so they doesn’t bother everyone else. We saw enough of roving packs terrorizing neighborhoods as happened way too often 30 years ago as populations moved into residential rather than true rural areas.
Having a dog around is not only not a right but it is a privilege. And it’s one that is abused by those who bring their dogs to areas where people congregate.
According to the article “Veterinarians and community members said it would be a ‘huge disservice’ to not give residents ‘the freedoms that everyone else seems to have.’”
The freedom that everyone else has? What is this now a constitutional right to have your beast slobber all over our faces and terrorize our kids, who incidentally do have the rights you wish your dogs had but doesn’t..
If you want to treat your beast like your kid be our guest. There’s plenty of coo-coo people out there and you have a right to be one of them. But just because you like dog spit on your face doesn’t give you any “rights” to have it lick even our hands- hey we eat with those things- while you stand there saying “isn’t that cute- he likes you”.
Dogs have their place. They can be wonderful companions. But they are a huge responsibility. And their “place” isn’t among those that don’t want to be around them.. A six foot leash doesn’t mean people have to stay 12 feet away from you, it means the ones holding the leash have to control their dogs and keep them away from people without their permission.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
SO IF WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT HOW COME I CAN STILL SMELL IT:
SO IF WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT HOW COME I CAN STILL SMELL IT: After taking blind stabs in the dark at Tim Bynum’s proposed “Yes we don’t not allow dogs on the bike path” law Bill #2265 yesterday we finally got a hold of the actual bill and if you enjoyed what we rightly ridiculed and revealed yesterday we’ve got more to whet your dog whistle.
First of all though the public notice explains the absurdity how the Council proposes to make something that’s legal stay legal by making it illegal and then creating an exemption for that illegality that may not be it’s primary effect if not purpose.
Turns out the whole bill may dead since it is apparently illegally posted and noticed
And that’s because no one let the public know that what the bill actually does is surreptitiously give the newly Charter-created “Department” of Parks And Recreation (DP&R) and its Director the responsibility for administration of the County’s parks, taking it away from the County Engineer and the Public Works Department where the old “Office” of Parks and Recreation resided.
It does this by apparently trying to change parts of the Definitions in Chapter 19 Section 19-1.3 although it is done so ineptly as to cause more confusion than it clears up, seemingly deleting the numbering system for some insane reason and deleting at least one references to the Public Works Department or DPW (19-1.3 [3]) but apparently leaving others in (19-1.3 [2]) referring to the County Engineer. It also allows references to the old Parks and Recreation Division of Public Works to remain (19-1.3 [5]) and deletes some words from provisions that were wrongly worded in the first place to refer to a “Department” of Parks and Recreation (19-1.3 [6]) when there was no such thing as a “Department” of P&R when the original ordinance was approved.
This has to be considered a major change of law contained in bill- changing control of all County parks from the DPW to the DP&R. Yet that information does not appear on the public notice filed with the Lieutenant Governor and submitted for publication, in violation of HRS 91 (Administrative Rules) and 92 (Sunshine/open meetings).
But midway exhibit aside, step right up and have your dollar ready – there’s more bizarro-world manipulations and big contortions under the side-show big-top.
We’ve been amused for weeks as County officials have been lying in saying that the bike path was, according to the newspaper “considered a linear park”.
The problem was that no one ever bothered to go through the legal processes to declare it such in just another one of those Henry VIII “I am the law” delusional propagations that supplant promulgations and are so typical of chest-pounding Kaua`i potentates
Yesterday- after reading the public notice for the public hearing next Wednesday- we reported that the new bill is apparently at least attempting to surreptitiously and retroactively declare the bike path to be a park.
But actually we were wrong- it is not going to be a “park” but a “recreational facility” because the part being amended doesn’t refer to parks. It appears in the definition of a “Recreational Facility” (19-1.3 [9]) prospectively adding a paragraph saying
“Shared Use Path shall mean the path surface, as area up to six (6) feet in each side of the surface, immediately adjacent rest areas, and direct access from parking areas.”
This would supposedly bring the path under Section 19-1.4 refers to “General Prohibitions applicable to all Parks and Recreational Facilities” and is where the specific prohibitions are listed.
But that isn’t really clear because it just may be a dangling definition and not part or 19-1.3 [9] at all- and if it is, the term doesn’t join “swimming pools, gymnasiums, community centers pavilions, (and) picnic tables” but just kind of sits there off in the corner... much like the dog turd it seeks to regulate.
But if indeed it is a “recreational facility” the problem is, as we have stated over and over and is documented by every county official directly involved in procuring the funding for this specific path, it is not a Shared Use Path, Multi-Use Path, Dog Path, Bridle path (or for that matter a Bridal Path) elephant path or anything else
No matter what Tim Bynum, Thomas Noyes or Mayor Baptiste- or for that matter that hilariously crazy “believe me not your lyin' eyes” anonymous troll who perpetuates the big lie on various blog entries on the subject- wish it were funded as. it is was and will always be funded as a “primarily for transportation”-use path.
Although recreational use was and is permitted by federal funding law for the specific appropriation for this specific project, the bike path has to be used “primarily for transportation, not recreation” by law and it still lacks the required signature of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation declaring that the County is abiding by the “primarily for transportation, not recreation” provision.
But Bynum, who apparently wrote the bill himself if we can judge by the lack of legal acumen and bill-writing skills is one of those “don’t confuse me with the facts” people.
And it’s no wonder since he actually rode the “it’s not a bike path it’s a multi-use path” bandwagon to elective office. That’s his and their story and he and they are sticking to it, even if they have to put it in a law that could jeopardize the funding and cause the feds who audit these projects to “de-obligate” the $40 million and take it out of the pockets not of the electeds who misrepresented the use but the taxpayers.
Until now it’s been public statements and newspaper articles that left the trail of bread crumbs to our make-believe gingerbread house of a multi-use path. But now it is due to be enshrined in the Kauai` County Code via an ordinance where no one can say they didn’t mean it when they said what a great “recreational” boondoggle it is.
Finally the bill does one more thing... sort of.
Remember a few years back when the Council was going to but didn’t ban all drinking in parks but added a provision banning alcohol in parks from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. if you didn’t have a camping permit?
Well what was not publicized much at the time was that the provision had a sunset date 18 months after it was enacted. This new Bill #2265 also deletes the section containing the 11-6 provision and the sunset date clause.
This could be considered a “housekeeping measure” but if anyone wants to bring up the ban and push for a new one or a re-upping of the sunsetted provision, this bill would give them an opportunity to bring it up at the public hearing and subsequent committee and council meetings under the State Sunshine Law since the section part is being changed.
We’re also starting a pool – guess the number of people who show up and how long the hearing goes and you win. Winner gets a scoop and a bag to pick up after their kangaroo.
I say 250 and six hours.
The Zoo opens at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hysteric County Building. Bring any barnyard beasts you wish. As a matter of fact maybe you can walk them there via the path.
They’re all apparently welcome to compete with bicyclists who whip around the corner at 50 mph while commuting to and from work... gee- wonder who’s gonna be left holding the liability bag when the ones who are legally supposed to have priority come upon your chicks and geese and ducks as well as your fringed surrey that fail to scurry.
IRREGULAR APPENDIX: For any who missed all the news and concurrent documentation regarding the funding and requirements for the coastal bike path the paperwork is available through the Department of Public Works’ Buildings Division.
Ask for Doug... he’ll fix ya up with the files for the funding mechanism and compliance with its requirements for the “coastal bike path” project. They’re public information and you can examine them or even get copies.
.
But Glenn Mickens (he’s in the book) has copies of them and if you want copies yourself he’ll probably give you a kiss for caring and meet you at the copy place. I have a lot of them myself. Ask Glenn for the “Sweeny Brief” and attachments.
Then you’ll also know why our “coastal multi use path” runs through the Safeway-Foodland parking lots...and over a bridge that took 30 years to build at taxpayer expense instead of making SW and FL pay by honoring a 1978 zoning condition.
First of all though the public notice explains the absurdity how the Council proposes to make something that’s legal stay legal by making it illegal and then creating an exemption for that illegality that may not be it’s primary effect if not purpose.
Turns out the whole bill may dead since it is apparently illegally posted and noticed
And that’s because no one let the public know that what the bill actually does is surreptitiously give the newly Charter-created “Department” of Parks And Recreation (DP&R) and its Director the responsibility for administration of the County’s parks, taking it away from the County Engineer and the Public Works Department where the old “Office” of Parks and Recreation resided.
It does this by apparently trying to change parts of the Definitions in Chapter 19 Section 19-1.3 although it is done so ineptly as to cause more confusion than it clears up, seemingly deleting the numbering system for some insane reason and deleting at least one references to the Public Works Department or DPW (19-1.3 [3]) but apparently leaving others in (19-1.3 [2]) referring to the County Engineer. It also allows references to the old Parks and Recreation Division of Public Works to remain (19-1.3 [5]) and deletes some words from provisions that were wrongly worded in the first place to refer to a “Department” of Parks and Recreation (19-1.3 [6]) when there was no such thing as a “Department” of P&R when the original ordinance was approved.
This has to be considered a major change of law contained in bill- changing control of all County parks from the DPW to the DP&R. Yet that information does not appear on the public notice filed with the Lieutenant Governor and submitted for publication, in violation of HRS 91 (Administrative Rules) and 92 (Sunshine/open meetings).
But midway exhibit aside, step right up and have your dollar ready – there’s more bizarro-world manipulations and big contortions under the side-show big-top.
We’ve been amused for weeks as County officials have been lying in saying that the bike path was, according to the newspaper “considered a linear park”.
The problem was that no one ever bothered to go through the legal processes to declare it such in just another one of those Henry VIII “I am the law” delusional propagations that supplant promulgations and are so typical of chest-pounding Kaua`i potentates
Yesterday- after reading the public notice for the public hearing next Wednesday- we reported that the new bill is apparently at least attempting to surreptitiously and retroactively declare the bike path to be a park.
But actually we were wrong- it is not going to be a “park” but a “recreational facility” because the part being amended doesn’t refer to parks. It appears in the definition of a “Recreational Facility” (19-1.3 [9]) prospectively adding a paragraph saying
“Shared Use Path shall mean the path surface, as area up to six (6) feet in each side of the surface, immediately adjacent rest areas, and direct access from parking areas.”
This would supposedly bring the path under Section 19-1.4 refers to “General Prohibitions applicable to all Parks and Recreational Facilities” and is where the specific prohibitions are listed.
But that isn’t really clear because it just may be a dangling definition and not part or 19-1.3 [9] at all- and if it is, the term doesn’t join “swimming pools, gymnasiums, community centers pavilions, (and) picnic tables” but just kind of sits there off in the corner... much like the dog turd it seeks to regulate.
But if indeed it is a “recreational facility” the problem is, as we have stated over and over and is documented by every county official directly involved in procuring the funding for this specific path, it is not a Shared Use Path, Multi-Use Path, Dog Path, Bridle path (or for that matter a Bridal Path) elephant path or anything else
No matter what Tim Bynum, Thomas Noyes or Mayor Baptiste- or for that matter that hilariously crazy “believe me not your lyin' eyes” anonymous troll who perpetuates the big lie on various blog entries on the subject- wish it were funded as. it is was and will always be funded as a “primarily for transportation”-use path.
Although recreational use was and is permitted by federal funding law for the specific appropriation for this specific project, the bike path has to be used “primarily for transportation, not recreation” by law and it still lacks the required signature of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation declaring that the County is abiding by the “primarily for transportation, not recreation” provision.
But Bynum, who apparently wrote the bill himself if we can judge by the lack of legal acumen and bill-writing skills is one of those “don’t confuse me with the facts” people.
And it’s no wonder since he actually rode the “it’s not a bike path it’s a multi-use path” bandwagon to elective office. That’s his and their story and he and they are sticking to it, even if they have to put it in a law that could jeopardize the funding and cause the feds who audit these projects to “de-obligate” the $40 million and take it out of the pockets not of the electeds who misrepresented the use but the taxpayers.
Until now it’s been public statements and newspaper articles that left the trail of bread crumbs to our make-believe gingerbread house of a multi-use path. But now it is due to be enshrined in the Kauai` County Code via an ordinance where no one can say they didn’t mean it when they said what a great “recreational” boondoggle it is.
Finally the bill does one more thing... sort of.
Remember a few years back when the Council was going to but didn’t ban all drinking in parks but added a provision banning alcohol in parks from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. if you didn’t have a camping permit?
Well what was not publicized much at the time was that the provision had a sunset date 18 months after it was enacted. This new Bill #2265 also deletes the section containing the 11-6 provision and the sunset date clause.
This could be considered a “housekeeping measure” but if anyone wants to bring up the ban and push for a new one or a re-upping of the sunsetted provision, this bill would give them an opportunity to bring it up at the public hearing and subsequent committee and council meetings under the State Sunshine Law since the section part is being changed.
We’re also starting a pool – guess the number of people who show up and how long the hearing goes and you win. Winner gets a scoop and a bag to pick up after their kangaroo.
I say 250 and six hours.
The Zoo opens at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hysteric County Building. Bring any barnyard beasts you wish. As a matter of fact maybe you can walk them there via the path.
They’re all apparently welcome to compete with bicyclists who whip around the corner at 50 mph while commuting to and from work... gee- wonder who’s gonna be left holding the liability bag when the ones who are legally supposed to have priority come upon your chicks and geese and ducks as well as your fringed surrey that fail to scurry.
IRREGULAR APPENDIX: For any who missed all the news and concurrent documentation regarding the funding and requirements for the coastal bike path the paperwork is available through the Department of Public Works’ Buildings Division.
Ask for Doug... he’ll fix ya up with the files for the funding mechanism and compliance with its requirements for the “coastal bike path” project. They’re public information and you can examine them or even get copies.
.
But Glenn Mickens (he’s in the book) has copies of them and if you want copies yourself he’ll probably give you a kiss for caring and meet you at the copy place. I have a lot of them myself. Ask Glenn for the “Sweeny Brief” and attachments.
Then you’ll also know why our “coastal multi use path” runs through the Safeway-Foodland parking lots...and over a bridge that took 30 years to build at taxpayer expense instead of making SW and FL pay by honoring a 1978 zoning condition.
Friday, June 6, 2008
SMELLS LIKE IT, TASTES LIKE IT, SURE GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT
SMELLS LIKE IT, TASTES LIKE IT, SURE GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT: The drivel of an uninformed populace is always good for a cantankerous curmudgeonly laugh as we said a while back.
But these doggie debaters are dead serious in their solemnity making them all the more entertaining.
The factoids and what can only be described as opinionoids at Mel Rapozo’s blog continue to mount and if you’re not among the blithering blatherous you’d better not get anywhere near the hysterical at the Historic County Building next Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. for the official public hearings on three “dog path” bills- three bills which no one seems to have actually read.
In fact we haven’t read the full bills because Council Services prefers to waste reams of paper (and gasoline to pick them up) by not posting them on line... along with a lack of the Kaua`i County Code (KCC) that the bills are intended to amend.
And if we only read the agenda at the County web site no one would know what the three bills are about except that one is about “Parks and Recreation”, another is about “stray dogs” and a third is about the creation of “dog parks”.
But a look at the actual published legal notices shows what’s really going on- and that apparently no one posting one of the 190 comments on the subject at Mel’s blog has even has a rain check for a clue.
The first thing we found in the brief public notices is that we were right all along- people cannot currently be ticketed for having dogs on the bike path because, although dogs are banned from “County Parks”, the bike path is not a park- at lest not unless one of the proposed bills actually passes.
How do we know? Did Rapozo actually answer our numerous queries as he promised?
Are you kidding? No. One of the news bills, #2265 is actually proposed in order to make the path a park where dogs would be illegal and then at the same time it would allow dogs on/in the path/park.
It says:
Bill #2265: This Bill proposes to amend (Chapter 19 KCC 1987) related to Parks and Recreation by adding the definition of “Shared-use Path system” and a provision to allow leashed dogs on the county’s shared use path system.
Note how it says “by adding the definition” meaning it is not now part of the KCC.
So let’s get this straight. Right now the path is not a “park”- where dogs are banned by ordinance- as we insisted from day one but could not get any government official claiming it was a park to prove otherwise... because they were lying through their teeth when some said to the press that it was already “considered a linear park” and the local paper refused to get the facts straight despite our queries
Therefore no tickets issued to date for walking your dog there is valid at this point in time.
So dogs are legal on the path now and we have a bill to propose “making” them legal on the path by first making them illegal by officially defining the path as a park and in the same breath making them legal by a magnanimous gesture of our esteemed geniuses on the County Council.
Only on Kaua`i – and only in an election year- do we pass new laws to maintain the legal status quo.
Well at least those who thought walking dogs on the bike path was illegal and wanted to make it legal, those who thought it was legal and wanted it to be illegal and those who thought it was either illegal or legal and wanted to keep whichever way they thought the law read can now be put into two categories instead of four.. as long as the bill’s final; version does both make it illegal and then re-legalize it.
Clear as the uncleaned path’s runoff into the nearby ocean after a rain?
But the second bill is not only more revealing but even more absurd because it turns out that, although there is a leash law on Kaua`i there is no anti-dog poop law.
Again, right now, legally, there is no law against your dog taking a dump anywhere it’s allowed to be as long as it’s on a leash. Despite any and all claims that it is illegal for your dogs to poop anywhere and everywhere it isn’t.... yet.
The bill has two part. The first changes the length of required leashes from eight to six feet. But the second change reads as follows in the legal notice for the public hearing:
Bill # 2266... Adds a new section 22 2.5 “Nuisances Committed by Dogs” which makes it illegal for dog owners to allow dogs to defecate on public and private property and to require dog owners to have some kind of implement or device to pick up any waste deposited by their dog.
Note again that it “adds a new section” so there is no section on picking up after Fido to be amended right now, as has been claimed by loudmouth ignoramuses both public and County-employed
What genius wrote that public notice and presumably the new proposed ordinance?
Can a dog “commit” a nuisance? For that matter can anyone or anything? Don’t people “create” a nuisance and “commit” a crime stemming from the “creation” of that nuisance? And how exactly does a dog defecate on public “AND” (as opposed to “or”) private property? Does it look for the public-private property line and lay one directly on the line? Or possibly by walking from public to private property while depositing a long one using a moving version of Senator Larry Craig’s “wide stance”?
Scatological humor aside this bill would make it illegal- that is it would if it were written by someone with a little more brains than the dogs whose digestive processes it intends to regulate- not to carry around your pooper scooper and act out the that scene that, if dogs could laugh, would leave them rolling over without being commanded to do so.
We just can’t wait to see the caravan of K9-kukae-carnival in the Council’s Chamber-pot next week with messes both opinion-based and possibly of the stinky kine if people bring their pooches to the meeting as many have pledged to do.
It all begs a variation on the ancient philosophical question: If a real dog turd falls at a Council meeting about dog turds, first, is it a legal turd, and then will anyone hear about or smell it or clean it up, what with all the figurative feces that are expected to fly.
But these doggie debaters are dead serious in their solemnity making them all the more entertaining.
The factoids and what can only be described as opinionoids at Mel Rapozo’s blog continue to mount and if you’re not among the blithering blatherous you’d better not get anywhere near the hysterical at the Historic County Building next Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. for the official public hearings on three “dog path” bills- three bills which no one seems to have actually read.
In fact we haven’t read the full bills because Council Services prefers to waste reams of paper (and gasoline to pick them up) by not posting them on line... along with a lack of the Kaua`i County Code (KCC) that the bills are intended to amend.
And if we only read the agenda at the County web site no one would know what the three bills are about except that one is about “Parks and Recreation”, another is about “stray dogs” and a third is about the creation of “dog parks”.
But a look at the actual published legal notices shows what’s really going on- and that apparently no one posting one of the 190 comments on the subject at Mel’s blog has even has a rain check for a clue.
The first thing we found in the brief public notices is that we were right all along- people cannot currently be ticketed for having dogs on the bike path because, although dogs are banned from “County Parks”, the bike path is not a park- at lest not unless one of the proposed bills actually passes.
How do we know? Did Rapozo actually answer our numerous queries as he promised?
Are you kidding? No. One of the news bills, #2265 is actually proposed in order to make the path a park where dogs would be illegal and then at the same time it would allow dogs on/in the path/park.
It says:
Bill #2265: This Bill proposes to amend (Chapter 19 KCC 1987) related to Parks and Recreation by adding the definition of “Shared-use Path system” and a provision to allow leashed dogs on the county’s shared use path system.
Note how it says “by adding the definition” meaning it is not now part of the KCC.
So let’s get this straight. Right now the path is not a “park”- where dogs are banned by ordinance- as we insisted from day one but could not get any government official claiming it was a park to prove otherwise... because they were lying through their teeth when some said to the press that it was already “considered a linear park” and the local paper refused to get the facts straight despite our queries
Therefore no tickets issued to date for walking your dog there is valid at this point in time.
So dogs are legal on the path now and we have a bill to propose “making” them legal on the path by first making them illegal by officially defining the path as a park and in the same breath making them legal by a magnanimous gesture of our esteemed geniuses on the County Council.
Only on Kaua`i – and only in an election year- do we pass new laws to maintain the legal status quo.
Well at least those who thought walking dogs on the bike path was illegal and wanted to make it legal, those who thought it was legal and wanted it to be illegal and those who thought it was either illegal or legal and wanted to keep whichever way they thought the law read can now be put into two categories instead of four.. as long as the bill’s final; version does both make it illegal and then re-legalize it.
Clear as the uncleaned path’s runoff into the nearby ocean after a rain?
But the second bill is not only more revealing but even more absurd because it turns out that, although there is a leash law on Kaua`i there is no anti-dog poop law.
Again, right now, legally, there is no law against your dog taking a dump anywhere it’s allowed to be as long as it’s on a leash. Despite any and all claims that it is illegal for your dogs to poop anywhere and everywhere it isn’t.... yet.
The bill has two part. The first changes the length of required leashes from eight to six feet. But the second change reads as follows in the legal notice for the public hearing:
Bill # 2266... Adds a new section 22 2.5 “Nuisances Committed by Dogs” which makes it illegal for dog owners to allow dogs to defecate on public and private property and to require dog owners to have some kind of implement or device to pick up any waste deposited by their dog.
Note again that it “adds a new section” so there is no section on picking up after Fido to be amended right now, as has been claimed by loudmouth ignoramuses both public and County-employed
What genius wrote that public notice and presumably the new proposed ordinance?
Can a dog “commit” a nuisance? For that matter can anyone or anything? Don’t people “create” a nuisance and “commit” a crime stemming from the “creation” of that nuisance? And how exactly does a dog defecate on public “AND” (as opposed to “or”) private property? Does it look for the public-private property line and lay one directly on the line? Or possibly by walking from public to private property while depositing a long one using a moving version of Senator Larry Craig’s “wide stance”?
Scatological humor aside this bill would make it illegal- that is it would if it were written by someone with a little more brains than the dogs whose digestive processes it intends to regulate- not to carry around your pooper scooper and act out the that scene that, if dogs could laugh, would leave them rolling over without being commanded to do so.
We just can’t wait to see the caravan of K9-kukae-carnival in the Council’s Chamber-pot next week with messes both opinion-based and possibly of the stinky kine if people bring their pooches to the meeting as many have pledged to do.
It all begs a variation on the ancient philosophical question: If a real dog turd falls at a Council meeting about dog turds, first, is it a legal turd, and then will anyone hear about or smell it or clean it up, what with all the figurative feces that are expected to fly.
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