BUT IT MAKES ITS OWN GRAVY: Another day another “casualty” as we move toward a world where people won’t have anything in which to wrap fish or train puppies.
But of course you wouldn’t know that the demise of the corporate press is self-inflicted due to the friendly fire death of solid investigative content combined with a penchant for printing truth and lies side by said and calling it objectivity.
In the Honolulu Advertiser’s version of the story of the 23 layoff at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and MidWeek, Rick Daysong writes
The layoffs come as the nation's newspaper industry has lost thousands of jobs because of economic conditions and advertising revenue due to the Internet.
Yup- blame it on the economy and the internet, even though the problems started long before the current conditions and the fact that it is the newspaper industry’s own greed and competitive nature that has stopped them from micro-charges for the on-line news- probably because no one would pay for either the pap or articles that promote the corporate version of events they publish these days.
Sometimes you wouldn’t even know you were hearing about the same source content when you read the corporate version and the alternative or independent press reports,. as when the articles describing a study of the effects of sonar on dolphins was released recently.
Today the Advertiser’s “Military Writer” William Cole has an article headlined (what did you expect?) “Sonar's effect on dolphins minimal”..
He rotely regurgitates the apparent military press release version of what the study found:
In a study replicating Navy sonar, the Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology found that a captive bottlenose dolphin had to remain relatively close to a high-intensity sonar source for a prolonged period to experience even temporary hearing loss — a finding the Navy seized upon to say it "may have vastly overestimated impacts of mid-frequency active sonar on marine mammals."
But the day before independent reporter Joan Conrow reported on the study in her reporting blog quoting an Associated Press article on the study as saying
When the pings reached 203 decibels and were repeated, the neurological data showed the mammal had become deaf, for its brain no longer responded to sound.
You’ll want to read Joan’s entire entry. Turns out the “study” was done in what amounts to a swimming pool with short bursts, negating the effects on behavior such as rapid surfacing, which is how many marine mammals deaths have apparently occurred due to sonar.
So how far does the clutches of corporate press go?
Well in the broadcast realm the “news” is usually even more worthless than the modern “objective” newspaper.
Thank goodness we have PBS, eh?
Not so fast.
A couple of Monday nights back we watched “Sick Around America” on PBS’s program “Frontline”, public broadcasting’s signature, award-winning, investigative series.
And while we were stuck with the usual liturgy of horror stories about insurance companies killing their clients to make more money- similar to the stories in Michael Moore’s disturbing movie "Sicko"- the program quite blatantly pinned the whole problem on the fact that there are “uninsured” who are not paying into the system until they get sick and, therefore, promoting the Massachusetts model of “mandatory insurance”.
Though the first half of the program seemed to lead to the obvious conclusion- one that polls show the vast number of American’s hold- that only eliminating insurance companies from the equation and implementing a single-payer so-called “Medicare for All” system will really do anything about what all acknowledge is our “healthcare crisis”.
So it was with great interest that we read a piece by Russell Mokhiber of Corporate Crime Reporter entitled Something is Rotten at PBS.
He detailed how Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid had done a Frontline piece called “Sick Around the World” a few years back and Frontline had asked him to do another on America.
But when he turned in his work and the producers did their editing he found that “this is not my beautiful documentary”.
The article describes how apparently instead of presenting Reid’s work presenting the well known horrors of insurance company coverage and reaching the obvious conclusion that getting the profit motive out of the equation is the sensible way to proceed, the produces went 180 degrees on him.
As we said they stressed the “mandatory coverage” model saying the problem of high costs wasn’t due to insurance company greed and need to maximize profit but due to people not paying the insurance companies to be covered when they’re healthy..
The article tells the sorry tale in Reid’s own words:
.
“We spent months shooting that film,” Reid explains. “I was the correspondent. We did our last interview on January 6. The producers went to Boston and made the documentary. About late February I saw it for the first time. And I told them I disagreed with it. They listened to me, but they didn't want to change it.”
Reid has a book coming out this summer titled The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care (Penguin Press, August 2009.)
“I said to them -- mandating for-profit insurance is not the lesson from other countries in the world,” Reid said. “I said I'm not going to be in a film that contradicts my previous film and my book. They said – I had to be in the film because I was under contract. I insisted that I couldn't be. And we parted ways.”
“Doctors, hospitals, nurses, labs can all be for-profit,” Reid said. “But the payment system has to be non-profit. All the other countries have agreed on that. We are the only one that allows health insurance companies to make a profit. You can't allow a profit to be made on the basic package of health insurance.”
“I don't think they deliberately got it wrong, but they got it wrong,” Reid said.
As you can imagine the producers tried to defend themselves. The next week Mokhiber wrote that they accuse Reid of being the one with a bias and actually tried to deny that they promoted the mandatory converge model even though the whole second half hour essentially did nothing but present the case for it.
The single payer Medicare for all model was never even mentioned except in passing and then as being a political impossibility.
In reality PBS is nothing but a non-commercial version of the corporate press these days except the corporate world just pays them directly, using the phony term “underwriting” instead of “bought and paid for programming”.
Although there used to be a strict PBS rule forbidding underwriting for a specific program by a company who had any “interest” directly or even indirectly in the subject they abandoned that almost 20 years ago- a move which encouraged other non commercial media such as public access TV and community radio like KKCR on Kaua`i to justify doing the same and abandoning all pretense of lack of commercial control over content.
While the newspaper industry keeps up the drumbeat of their supposed investigative reporting being essential to a democratic America, the examples of it cited recently are few, far between and generally weak, especially when compared to the 99% of the fare consisting of essentially free advertising and “he said- she said” shilling for the same politicians they should be- and aren’t- investigating.
Instead of actually improving their product to be once again a commodity people will pay for, their penny-wise pound-foolish methodology is to fire more reporters and say they can’t afford to do real journalism any more out of one side of their mouths while claiming they are worth saving because they are still doing it out of the other.
As Conrow concluded in her blog piece today, where she links to her two excellent articles in the Honolulu Weekly- one on the Reinstated Nation’s case regarding their trip to Kaho`olawe and one on GMO's in Hawai`i- “Support your independent newspapers!”
The press is dead- long live the press.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
SIDESTEPPING THE OOZE
SIDESTEPPING THE OOZE: A stroll down Main Street, Anytown USA these days expose one to a panorama of boarded up windows and, with people furious at Washington over the federal bank bailouts and executive bonuses, the only store doing business is Ernie’s Pitchfork Sharpening and Torch Fuel Emporium.
Yet here on Kaua`i the we mushroom’s don’t seem to care we are being kept in the dark and fed a bunch of horse manure.
The Kaua`i County 2009-10 budget hearings are once again being conducted out of public view despite what sources say is the availability of funding for televising the all important sessions.
Despite promises by at least two councilmembers to make it their business to get them on pubic access TV, all powerful Chair Kaipo “the Minotaur” Asing, is apparently intent on, as the song says, keeping the dark as dark as can be and doing what’s wrong as long as he can.
But at least the local paper has seen fit this year to provide extensive cover of the first two sessions. In doing so reporter Michael Levine has highlighted how local governments like ours on Kaua`i are taking advantage of the so called “federal stimulus” money to stimulate nothing and rather, simply free up money already designated for essential services to spend, at best, on some “nice to have” but less than urgent needs of the people and at worst, paybacks for backing from well connected corrupt cronies and fat cat campaign contributors and supporters.
This highlights the absurdity of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- aka the stimulus bill- as we discussed a couple of months ago and the whole issue of “earmarks” which somehow has become the dirtiest word in national politics.
For those who can’t remember the whole idea of the stimulus bill was to add to, not supplant, money for actual “shovel-ready” projects that state and local governments would not normally be able to fund, with a bottom line of “creating jobs”.
But instead of allowing our duly elected representatives to designate these projects in the bill, because of the media-directed populist denigration of these “earmarks”, the bill instead just divides up $700 million among the various state and local jurisdictions to essentially use as they please.
In our Feb 17 column we detailed the projects Kaua`i designated for the “stimulus” funding showing how most were projects already in the pipeline and in most cases already funded, demonstrating how they simply freed up money for other things, whether essential or not, in the budget rather than making the tough choices on how to spend limited resources in a time of decreased revenues.
And sure enough Levine tell us that’s exactly what at least one of not all councilmembers are planning. Levine writes:
Budget and Finance Committee Chair Daryl Kaneshiro, who led the meeting, said potential stimulus funds should be looked at largely as a means of assistance, arguing the council should not rely heavily on the help it might receive from the federal government as it makes budgeting decisions.
Councilman Tim Bynum disagreed, saying the ARRA funds are “not just gravy” and will be an integral part of the county’s general fund, encouraging all departments to take a serious look at evolving stimulus grants for any and all opportunities.
“In the past, Kaua`i has not gotten its fair share of state and federal funds because we didn’t stand up and ask for them,” he said. “You have not because you ask not.
”Using county funds to finance programs that could be covered by stimulus grants with the expectation that if the stimulus funds eventually come through, the county funds can be moved elsewhere is dangerous because it could remove the motivation for departments to push hard for those grants, Bynum said, citing “the human factor.”
We don’t doubt that this same thought is driving local government budgets across the nation. It certainly is doing so statewide as our governor and legislature have been anything but shy about using the money to “balance the budget” rather than to “create jobs”.
They are actually taking the money and eliminating jobs by trying to balance the budget by carving savings out of the butts of their employees, setting the worst possible example for the business community by emulating the penchant for making human resources the most expendable.
But while the cruel businessperson discards their formerly “valued employees” like a dirty dishrag in order to maintain enough profits so the owner doesn’t have to forgo that ivory backscratcher he had his eye on, politicians use the excess to maintain that “free lunch” that comes with the demand for more services in one breath and lower taxes in the next.
Recovery and Reinvestment Act? More like another Incumbency Preservation Act.
Its all thanks to the Play-Dough-Factory type results of congress’s capitulation to the “earmark equals pork” fervor resulting in their refusal to specifically designate funding for important local projects that are politically tough but absolutely essential- something our congresspersons and senators should be well aware of if they are doing they representational jobs correctly.
Sure the system is abused by the corrupt to pay off campaign contributors. But the vast majority of earmarks are used for things like this week’s $5 million plus in monk seal protection funds that came from the federal government.
While these projects might be ridiculed by other jurisdictions they are often needed and popular but orphan projects locally.
What happens is that while we are busy hand-wringing over the potential for corruption by our federal representatives- where the scrutiny is magnified 100 times by all the public interest groups and investigative reporters from all over the country concentrated on the national’s capitol- the potential for a thousand crooked flowers to bloom at the local level remains unscrutinized and virtually unchecked.
As Levine wrote:
With essentially no members of the public in attendance and the Ho`ike television cameras powered off and covered up, the seven-member council started its work on likely its most important function and the task its members are elected primarily to manage: divvying out more than $150 million in projected expenditures for the year starting July 1.
While many scream for “home rule” the fact remains that the closer to home the government entity, the more the opportunity for corruption.
And on Kaua`i, where no one shows up and the machinations of the council’s budget sessions are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, where corruption is rampant and incumbency virtually guarantees re-election as long as it serves the greedy desires of the revolving-door, inbred, nepotistic barons, you can bet that as the finances shake-out the “stimulus money” will go directly into the pockets of the shake-down constituency.
Yet here on Kaua`i the we mushroom’s don’t seem to care we are being kept in the dark and fed a bunch of horse manure.
The Kaua`i County 2009-10 budget hearings are once again being conducted out of public view despite what sources say is the availability of funding for televising the all important sessions.
Despite promises by at least two councilmembers to make it their business to get them on pubic access TV, all powerful Chair Kaipo “the Minotaur” Asing, is apparently intent on, as the song says, keeping the dark as dark as can be and doing what’s wrong as long as he can.
But at least the local paper has seen fit this year to provide extensive cover of the first two sessions. In doing so reporter Michael Levine has highlighted how local governments like ours on Kaua`i are taking advantage of the so called “federal stimulus” money to stimulate nothing and rather, simply free up money already designated for essential services to spend, at best, on some “nice to have” but less than urgent needs of the people and at worst, paybacks for backing from well connected corrupt cronies and fat cat campaign contributors and supporters.
This highlights the absurdity of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- aka the stimulus bill- as we discussed a couple of months ago and the whole issue of “earmarks” which somehow has become the dirtiest word in national politics.
For those who can’t remember the whole idea of the stimulus bill was to add to, not supplant, money for actual “shovel-ready” projects that state and local governments would not normally be able to fund, with a bottom line of “creating jobs”.
But instead of allowing our duly elected representatives to designate these projects in the bill, because of the media-directed populist denigration of these “earmarks”, the bill instead just divides up $700 million among the various state and local jurisdictions to essentially use as they please.
In our Feb 17 column we detailed the projects Kaua`i designated for the “stimulus” funding showing how most were projects already in the pipeline and in most cases already funded, demonstrating how they simply freed up money for other things, whether essential or not, in the budget rather than making the tough choices on how to spend limited resources in a time of decreased revenues.
And sure enough Levine tell us that’s exactly what at least one of not all councilmembers are planning. Levine writes:
Budget and Finance Committee Chair Daryl Kaneshiro, who led the meeting, said potential stimulus funds should be looked at largely as a means of assistance, arguing the council should not rely heavily on the help it might receive from the federal government as it makes budgeting decisions.
Councilman Tim Bynum disagreed, saying the ARRA funds are “not just gravy” and will be an integral part of the county’s general fund, encouraging all departments to take a serious look at evolving stimulus grants for any and all opportunities.
“In the past, Kaua`i has not gotten its fair share of state and federal funds because we didn’t stand up and ask for them,” he said. “You have not because you ask not.
”Using county funds to finance programs that could be covered by stimulus grants with the expectation that if the stimulus funds eventually come through, the county funds can be moved elsewhere is dangerous because it could remove the motivation for departments to push hard for those grants, Bynum said, citing “the human factor.”
We don’t doubt that this same thought is driving local government budgets across the nation. It certainly is doing so statewide as our governor and legislature have been anything but shy about using the money to “balance the budget” rather than to “create jobs”.
They are actually taking the money and eliminating jobs by trying to balance the budget by carving savings out of the butts of their employees, setting the worst possible example for the business community by emulating the penchant for making human resources the most expendable.
But while the cruel businessperson discards their formerly “valued employees” like a dirty dishrag in order to maintain enough profits so the owner doesn’t have to forgo that ivory backscratcher he had his eye on, politicians use the excess to maintain that “free lunch” that comes with the demand for more services in one breath and lower taxes in the next.
Recovery and Reinvestment Act? More like another Incumbency Preservation Act.
Its all thanks to the Play-Dough-Factory type results of congress’s capitulation to the “earmark equals pork” fervor resulting in their refusal to specifically designate funding for important local projects that are politically tough but absolutely essential- something our congresspersons and senators should be well aware of if they are doing they representational jobs correctly.
Sure the system is abused by the corrupt to pay off campaign contributors. But the vast majority of earmarks are used for things like this week’s $5 million plus in monk seal protection funds that came from the federal government.
While these projects might be ridiculed by other jurisdictions they are often needed and popular but orphan projects locally.
What happens is that while we are busy hand-wringing over the potential for corruption by our federal representatives- where the scrutiny is magnified 100 times by all the public interest groups and investigative reporters from all over the country concentrated on the national’s capitol- the potential for a thousand crooked flowers to bloom at the local level remains unscrutinized and virtually unchecked.
As Levine wrote:
With essentially no members of the public in attendance and the Ho`ike television cameras powered off and covered up, the seven-member council started its work on likely its most important function and the task its members are elected primarily to manage: divvying out more than $150 million in projected expenditures for the year starting July 1.
While many scream for “home rule” the fact remains that the closer to home the government entity, the more the opportunity for corruption.
And on Kaua`i, where no one shows up and the machinations of the council’s budget sessions are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, where corruption is rampant and incumbency virtually guarantees re-election as long as it serves the greedy desires of the revolving-door, inbred, nepotistic barons, you can bet that as the finances shake-out the “stimulus money” will go directly into the pockets of the shake-down constituency.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
DOG DAYS ARE NIGH
DOG DAYS ARE NIGH: Feel free to skip today’s rant- it has nothing to do with politics, government or anything in which regular readers might be interested. But it did take up our whole morning’s research/prep time so it’s all we have ready to go.
In a round about way it’s about baseball- specifically Major League Baseball (MLB)... dot com.
We’ve been a San Francisco Giants fan ever since they were the New York Giants when our best friend’s big brother- he was four- sat us two year olds on the floor and repeated over and over “f—k da Dahjas” to which we’d each time respond “f—k the Dahjas” until we were fully indoctrinated in Giant fandom
They won the World Series that year- and never since- but we stuck with them even when they broke our hearts and moved to the left coast three years later.
And because we’re stuck with only LA Angels and Dodgers’ games on Oceanic Time Warner’s cable system throughout the state, it being opening day for the Giants, we decided to fork over $109.95 to get the MLB.TV package of “all out of market” games so we could get from the end of college basketball season until football season by watching the Giants’ games.
We signed up- and even got the premium package- rather painlessly and at precisely 9:59 a.m. clicked on the Giants game.
And the screen said “We’re sorry. You have chosen a game that is not available in your television market”.
Huh? Something’s surely wrong. The Giants are not our “TV market- the Dodgers and Angels are.”
We found a place to input our zip code and sure enough the only team listed was the Giants- not the Dodgers, not the angels only the Giants.
Surely they’ll want to know that something’s awry- they are apparently in violation of MLB policy.
Yeah, right Parx.
So we looked and looked and looked some more and finally found a customer service number.
“We’re sorry due to the high volume of calls your wait will be longer than usual” the machine told us with all the sincerity of the U.S. Apology for the overthrow. “Please stay on the line- your call is very important to us.”
Well apparently it was less important than others’ calls because after 15 minutes of repetition of the message we heard “All circuits are busy- please try your call again later” followed by that screeching sound you hear when the phone is off the hook.
What ever happened to the dial tome they get in the movies when someone hangs up on you?
Anyway, after scouring the web site further we found a note at the end of the blackout policy- not the one you can find by clicking through from the site but one only available in the confirmation email they sent- that, after listing the number from which we had been unceremoniously dumped, said if you are having trouble with blackout and you are traveling to a different market area, call a different number.
We did and presto- at last a human being. We were sure we’d be watching the Giants games within minutes.
“Larry” sat patiently through our p-o’d rant about the other number and even our “f—k da Dahjas” story before telling us that yes, the Giants games were in fact available on TV in Hawai`i because, well, MLB says so.
Despite the urge to scream “what am I a freakin’ liar- do you think I get my jollies calling customer service lines and makin’ s—t up?” I calmly explained about Oceanic Time Warner state wide cablecasts on Channels 20 and 31 of the Dodgers' and Angels' games and no Giants games and even read him the MLB policy on blackouts that said “live games will be blacked out in each applicable Club's home television territory”.
“Sorry- Major League baseball says the Giants games are blacked out in your area because they are your TV market” he repeated.
“No they aren’t- IT’S A MISTAKE, ya know as in wrong, not correct information, done in error ”.
At first we were offered an email response later and a tracking number and after some more “M-I-S-T-A-K-E” banter he finally put us on hold and came back to connect us to “Josh”.
After regaling Josh with the liturgy to that point, Josh actually told us “major league baseball doesn’t make mistakes” before entertaining us with a cock and bull story about all the “legal people” who had okayed the blackout in each market.
“But they’re wrong- wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong- We do not get Giants games on TV”.
“Perhaps your cable system has the rights to all the west coast games and just doesn’t carry them” he said.
Oh great- now he’s makin’ stuff up.
“No”, we said “ we’ve asked the cable company many times and they tell us they would love to broadcast more than one market’s games but MLB assigns them the LA market and disallows cable companies from carrying more than one ‘home market’ at a time and has assigned us the LA area because it is geographically the closest”
“We’ll maybe THEY don’t know that San Francisco is their home market” he said.
Oh great now he’s calling the cable company AND me liars. Sure, they’ve been televising the wrong games for 20 years and nobody said anything until now.
Sad to say even after 20 more minutes of that he said that still, there was nothing he could do and to take it up with MLB.
Yeah- I’ll just ring up my buddy Commissioner Bud Selwig.
“Oh great- do you have a number where we can ask about this?” we asked him.
“There’s a customer service number at their web site”.
Where I’m sure they’ll leave us on hold for an hour before hanging up on us.. if they don’t answer and laugh at us for questioning the infallibility of the all-knowing all-seeing omnipotent and omniscient Major League Baseball.
Well, we cancelled our subscription and will go back to holding the radio out the window to hear the Honolulu station that occasionally picks up the Giant games.
Whatever- Giants suck again this year anyway. And with the Knicks and Rangers looking more “out of the playoffs” every day we’ll slip into TV sports hibernation for the summer as we used to do back in the dark ages of communications technology.
We’ll just wait patiently for football season where the other Giants- the ones that only moved to New Jersey- might field a team good enough to get picked up on Hawai`i TV at 7 a.m. Sunday mornings.... we just love it when we over-sleep and wake-up at 7:30 to find our team 21 points down before we’ve even had coffee.
There- rant over... and we can’t tell you how particularly unsatisfying it was.
In a round about way it’s about baseball- specifically Major League Baseball (MLB)... dot com.
We’ve been a San Francisco Giants fan ever since they were the New York Giants when our best friend’s big brother- he was four- sat us two year olds on the floor and repeated over and over “f—k da Dahjas” to which we’d each time respond “f—k the Dahjas” until we were fully indoctrinated in Giant fandom
They won the World Series that year- and never since- but we stuck with them even when they broke our hearts and moved to the left coast three years later.
And because we’re stuck with only LA Angels and Dodgers’ games on Oceanic Time Warner’s cable system throughout the state, it being opening day for the Giants, we decided to fork over $109.95 to get the MLB.TV package of “all out of market” games so we could get from the end of college basketball season until football season by watching the Giants’ games.
We signed up- and even got the premium package- rather painlessly and at precisely 9:59 a.m. clicked on the Giants game.
And the screen said “We’re sorry. You have chosen a game that is not available in your television market”.
Huh? Something’s surely wrong. The Giants are not our “TV market- the Dodgers and Angels are.”
We found a place to input our zip code and sure enough the only team listed was the Giants- not the Dodgers, not the angels only the Giants.
Surely they’ll want to know that something’s awry- they are apparently in violation of MLB policy.
Yeah, right Parx.
So we looked and looked and looked some more and finally found a customer service number.
“We’re sorry due to the high volume of calls your wait will be longer than usual” the machine told us with all the sincerity of the U.S. Apology for the overthrow. “Please stay on the line- your call is very important to us.”
Well apparently it was less important than others’ calls because after 15 minutes of repetition of the message we heard “All circuits are busy- please try your call again later” followed by that screeching sound you hear when the phone is off the hook.
What ever happened to the dial tome they get in the movies when someone hangs up on you?
Anyway, after scouring the web site further we found a note at the end of the blackout policy- not the one you can find by clicking through from the site but one only available in the confirmation email they sent- that, after listing the number from which we had been unceremoniously dumped, said if you are having trouble with blackout and you are traveling to a different market area, call a different number.
We did and presto- at last a human being. We were sure we’d be watching the Giants games within minutes.
“Larry” sat patiently through our p-o’d rant about the other number and even our “f—k da Dahjas” story before telling us that yes, the Giants games were in fact available on TV in Hawai`i because, well, MLB says so.
Despite the urge to scream “what am I a freakin’ liar- do you think I get my jollies calling customer service lines and makin’ s—t up?” I calmly explained about Oceanic Time Warner state wide cablecasts on Channels 20 and 31 of the Dodgers' and Angels' games and no Giants games and even read him the MLB policy on blackouts that said “live games will be blacked out in each applicable Club's home television territory”.
“Sorry- Major League baseball says the Giants games are blacked out in your area because they are your TV market” he repeated.
“No they aren’t- IT’S A MISTAKE, ya know as in wrong, not correct information, done in error ”.
At first we were offered an email response later and a tracking number and after some more “M-I-S-T-A-K-E” banter he finally put us on hold and came back to connect us to “Josh”.
After regaling Josh with the liturgy to that point, Josh actually told us “major league baseball doesn’t make mistakes” before entertaining us with a cock and bull story about all the “legal people” who had okayed the blackout in each market.
“But they’re wrong- wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong- We do not get Giants games on TV”.
“Perhaps your cable system has the rights to all the west coast games and just doesn’t carry them” he said.
Oh great- now he’s makin’ stuff up.
“No”, we said “ we’ve asked the cable company many times and they tell us they would love to broadcast more than one market’s games but MLB assigns them the LA market and disallows cable companies from carrying more than one ‘home market’ at a time and has assigned us the LA area because it is geographically the closest”
“We’ll maybe THEY don’t know that San Francisco is their home market” he said.
Oh great now he’s calling the cable company AND me liars. Sure, they’ve been televising the wrong games for 20 years and nobody said anything until now.
Sad to say even after 20 more minutes of that he said that still, there was nothing he could do and to take it up with MLB.
Yeah- I’ll just ring up my buddy Commissioner Bud Selwig.
“Oh great- do you have a number where we can ask about this?” we asked him.
“There’s a customer service number at their web site”.
Where I’m sure they’ll leave us on hold for an hour before hanging up on us.. if they don’t answer and laugh at us for questioning the infallibility of the all-knowing all-seeing omnipotent and omniscient Major League Baseball.
Well, we cancelled our subscription and will go back to holding the radio out the window to hear the Honolulu station that occasionally picks up the Giant games.
Whatever- Giants suck again this year anyway. And with the Knicks and Rangers looking more “out of the playoffs” every day we’ll slip into TV sports hibernation for the summer as we used to do back in the dark ages of communications technology.
We’ll just wait patiently for football season where the other Giants- the ones that only moved to New Jersey- might field a team good enough to get picked up on Hawai`i TV at 7 a.m. Sunday mornings.... we just love it when we over-sleep and wake-up at 7:30 to find our team 21 points down before we’ve even had coffee.
There- rant over... and we can’t tell you how particularly unsatisfying it was.
Monday, April 6, 2009
CHASING ANOTHER TALE
CHASING ANOTHER TALE: This week’s Kaua`i Board of Ethics (BOE) meeting promises to be more of the same- a few hours of attempts to act unethically, cover-up past lapses of ethics by board members and hide everything else they do from the public, along with yet another attempt to strip the county charter’s ethics provisions of it’s conflict-of-interest section.
Testimony by designated BOE watchdog and “nitpicker” Horace Stoessel arrived in our inbox this morning and it’s too important to let it wait for later this week, if only so that perhaps it will motivate some to clear their calendar for this Thursday morning and show up, preferably with pitchforks and torches.
The first thing Stoessel addresses is a little item at the end of the agenda- an “executive session” closed to the public which is listed on the agenda as
ES-3: CONSULTATION WITH ATTORNEY
Discussion and consultation with the County Attorney regarding the process for releasing County Attorney opinions and is there a need for consistency throughout the County.
Horace wrote:
The primary fact confronting the public for months, now stretching into years, is that county agencies are not releasing opinions even though the authority and responsibility for releasing them resides with client agencies. Indeed, focusing on process and the need for uniformity has served as a prime excuse for not releasing opinions and not holding open discussions.
“Months” is an understatement since the refusal to acknowledge any public function to the office of the county attorney (CA) goes back to the beginning of Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration when he appointed Lani Nakazawa to the post and she redefined the job to eliminate any public component and only serve her “clients”- defined as county government officials and personnel.
At first that meant that any release of official written “opinions” had to be through the entity that asked for and got the opinion.
And that was, at first, routinely done.
But with the election of now former Councilmembers Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri Carvalho things changed in most part due to two related matters- an “investigation” of the Kaua`i Police Department the two cooked up and the council approved (but never officially executed after the council used the BOE to purge Police Chief KC Lum) and a matter known as the infamous “ES-177” where Rapozo. a former scandal-plagued KPD officer apparently said way too much behind closed doors about police matters and the then-upcoming investigation.
This led to a full clamp down on public release of all correspondence- even formal opinions on matters of law- from the CA’s office to the council.
Whereas before opinions were either released by the CA or by a councilmember if he or she originally sought it, an informal policy was used to release the opinions only after a “council approval”, where a majority vote was used at least once.
When Councilmember Tim Bynum came on board and tried to get the council to vote on the release of some of these opinions- as most councilmembers publicly promised to do- Chair Kaipo Asing and then member, now Vice Chair, Jay Furfaro claimed that before the vote there had to be a written formal policy for how the vote would be conducted and what percentage the affirmative vote had to be- just a majority, two-thirds or even unanimous.
This little ploy has now become the “de rigor” delaying tactic, not just for the council but for all boards and commissions on the island, This has especially benefited the BOE which has not just withheld opinions but constantly flouted the sunshine and open records laws, even codifying illegal activity in their administrative rules.
But that wasn’t enough of a delaying scheme to stand up forever and now, after a couple of years of playing Alphonse and Gaston the BOE came under pressure to simply enact a policy for the release of CA opinions.
Enter John Isobe, director of boards and commissions, a post created by a charter amendment in 2006 supposedly to oversee and assist commissioners and board members in fulfilling their duties.
Isobe- a long time entrenched member of the revolving-door old boys and girls network- has used his position to make sure that those citizen members did things the way they’ve always done things and not rock the boat.
In service of continuing the delay, Isobe has suggested that an individual board or commission should wait on creating a policy for CA releases until, as the agenda for ES-3 says, the question “is there a need for consistency throughout the County?” is answered.
The agenda promises to rehash an even more absurd but related matter- the attempt by the BOE to gut the county charter of the conflict of interest provisions in Section 20.02(D) of the county charter that prohibits board and commission members from representing private interest before the county, including of course boards and commissions... including the county council.
Seems some of the BOE members are still in blatant conflict of that pesky little provision.
Apparently is wasn’t enough of a rebuke to both the BOE and the charter commission when voters overwhelmingly rejected dropping the charter provision in 2008, because on the agenda this week is this item:
Letter of March 25, 2009 from Charter Review Commission requesting input from the Board of Ethics as to whether Section 20.05 D (2) of the Kaua`i County Charter should be amended and, if yes, suggestions on how it should be amended.
For years the 20.02(D) conflict provisions were just ignored by the well connected who routinely went before the council and county boards and commissions seeking, for example, things like zoning or even grants of money from the council or development projects’ approval permits from the planning commission, while serving on other boards of commissions.
But in 2007-8 a member of the charter commission, former state senator and attorney Jonathan Chun, was routinely appearing before the council representing the Board of Realtors on the vacation rental bill before the council at the time.
Chun then made a fatal error of judgment when he actually asked the BOE for a ruling on whether he was in violation of 20.02(D)
Stoessel’s testimony tells the story from there in what he calls “The Case Of 20.02D”
The issue of the County Attorney opinion related to Jonathan Chun’s request for an advisory opinion has been outstanding for more than a year. It may represent the only time the Board of Ethics has sought a legal opinion before issuing an advisory opinion. It is also interesting that the Board issued an advisory opinion involving similar circumstances just three months previously in which the Board felt no need to ask for a legal opinion or to meet in executive session.
Once the Board emerged from executive session in March, 2008 a motion was made and approved to allow Mr. Chun to continue the activities referenced in his request for an advisory opinion. The motion as approved failed to meet even the minimum test for public disclosure because it cited no statutory basis for the decision, instead making a vague and misleading reference to information in the Code of Ethics and the Charter.
The Board also refused to release the legal opinion it purportedly used to justify its decision. When I asked the Board to justify keeping the opinion secret, the chairman replied, “I do not intend to answer that, Horace. It could be that I don’t know; it could be that I just don’t wish to answer that question.”
But the BOE’s utter refusal to enforce the law- or state why- was only the beginning.
Chun wasn’t the only one engaged in this practice.
In fact then BOE Chair, now Vice Chair Mark “Mother” Hubbard was a vice president at land baron Grove Farm and he and his brethren- many also serving on boards and commissions- routinely made requests from the county council and administrative boards and commissions on behalf of themselves and/or clients.
BOE member Judy Lenthall is the Executive Director of the Kaua`i Food Bank which just received another grant from the county council this year after she appeared before them hat in hand.
Oh and by the way, the BOE has also cleared Furfaro, Asing, Rapozo and other council members from potential conflicts in the past.
So in appreciation for the clean bill of health for Chun’s apparently “dead on arrival” clearance, Chun turned around and, as a member of the charter commission, put a measure on the ballot to just eliminate that pesky 20.02(D) from the charter.
Stoessel’s testimony takes it up from the Chun decision:
In succeeding months the Board encouraged the Charter Commission to offer a charter amendment exempting all county personnel from having to comply with 20.02D rather than exempting only board/commission members. However, the commission restricted the scope of its proposed amendment to board/commission members and the amendment was then rejected by the voters in November, 2008. Their rejection revived questions about the Board’s handling of 20.02D and the March, 2008 legal opinion.
For my part as a responsible member of the public, I am still waiting for the Board to respond directly to the formal argument I offered in February, 2008 in support of basing a response to Jonathan Chun on 20.02D and to additional information I have since cited in support of that argument. The public has been prevented from further commenting directly on the Board’s actions by the Board’s failure to cite a statutory basis for its decision in the Chun case and its refusal to release the legal opinion.
The Board postponed discussion of 20.02D at the March meeting, and seemed to me to indicate that both 20.02D and the March, 2008 opinion would appear on the agenda for April. Did I miss something, or was I justified in being surprised that neither appears on the April agenda?
If it is within the scope of ES-3 (or the last item under BUSINESS), I would like to see the Board vote to release the March, 2008 legal opinion now. Failing that, I ask the Board to place on the May agenda a vote on releasing the opinion and a discussion of 20.02D. In view of the fact that the Board’s last formal statement regarding 20.02D was an expressed desire to exempt all county personnel from having to comply with it, I would like to hear what effect the November vote has had on the thinking of the Board.
So would we. If you’d like to know too go on down there and ask them.
The BOE meeting is at 9:00 A.M. this Thursday, April 9, 2009 in the Liquor Conference Room on the first floor of the Mo`ikeha Building in Lihu`e (the complex where the planning commission meets and where you get your car registered and drivers’ license renewed).
Testimony by designated BOE watchdog and “nitpicker” Horace Stoessel arrived in our inbox this morning and it’s too important to let it wait for later this week, if only so that perhaps it will motivate some to clear their calendar for this Thursday morning and show up, preferably with pitchforks and torches.
The first thing Stoessel addresses is a little item at the end of the agenda- an “executive session” closed to the public which is listed on the agenda as
ES-3: CONSULTATION WITH ATTORNEY
Discussion and consultation with the County Attorney regarding the process for releasing County Attorney opinions and is there a need for consistency throughout the County.
Horace wrote:
The primary fact confronting the public for months, now stretching into years, is that county agencies are not releasing opinions even though the authority and responsibility for releasing them resides with client agencies. Indeed, focusing on process and the need for uniformity has served as a prime excuse for not releasing opinions and not holding open discussions.
“Months” is an understatement since the refusal to acknowledge any public function to the office of the county attorney (CA) goes back to the beginning of Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration when he appointed Lani Nakazawa to the post and she redefined the job to eliminate any public component and only serve her “clients”- defined as county government officials and personnel.
At first that meant that any release of official written “opinions” had to be through the entity that asked for and got the opinion.
And that was, at first, routinely done.
But with the election of now former Councilmembers Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri Carvalho things changed in most part due to two related matters- an “investigation” of the Kaua`i Police Department the two cooked up and the council approved (but never officially executed after the council used the BOE to purge Police Chief KC Lum) and a matter known as the infamous “ES-177” where Rapozo. a former scandal-plagued KPD officer apparently said way too much behind closed doors about police matters and the then-upcoming investigation.
This led to a full clamp down on public release of all correspondence- even formal opinions on matters of law- from the CA’s office to the council.
Whereas before opinions were either released by the CA or by a councilmember if he or she originally sought it, an informal policy was used to release the opinions only after a “council approval”, where a majority vote was used at least once.
When Councilmember Tim Bynum came on board and tried to get the council to vote on the release of some of these opinions- as most councilmembers publicly promised to do- Chair Kaipo Asing and then member, now Vice Chair, Jay Furfaro claimed that before the vote there had to be a written formal policy for how the vote would be conducted and what percentage the affirmative vote had to be- just a majority, two-thirds or even unanimous.
This little ploy has now become the “de rigor” delaying tactic, not just for the council but for all boards and commissions on the island, This has especially benefited the BOE which has not just withheld opinions but constantly flouted the sunshine and open records laws, even codifying illegal activity in their administrative rules.
But that wasn’t enough of a delaying scheme to stand up forever and now, after a couple of years of playing Alphonse and Gaston the BOE came under pressure to simply enact a policy for the release of CA opinions.
Enter John Isobe, director of boards and commissions, a post created by a charter amendment in 2006 supposedly to oversee and assist commissioners and board members in fulfilling their duties.
Isobe- a long time entrenched member of the revolving-door old boys and girls network- has used his position to make sure that those citizen members did things the way they’ve always done things and not rock the boat.
In service of continuing the delay, Isobe has suggested that an individual board or commission should wait on creating a policy for CA releases until, as the agenda for ES-3 says, the question “is there a need for consistency throughout the County?” is answered.
The agenda promises to rehash an even more absurd but related matter- the attempt by the BOE to gut the county charter of the conflict of interest provisions in Section 20.02(D) of the county charter that prohibits board and commission members from representing private interest before the county, including of course boards and commissions... including the county council.
Seems some of the BOE members are still in blatant conflict of that pesky little provision.
Apparently is wasn’t enough of a rebuke to both the BOE and the charter commission when voters overwhelmingly rejected dropping the charter provision in 2008, because on the agenda this week is this item:
Letter of March 25, 2009 from Charter Review Commission requesting input from the Board of Ethics as to whether Section 20.05 D (2) of the Kaua`i County Charter should be amended and, if yes, suggestions on how it should be amended.
For years the 20.02(D) conflict provisions were just ignored by the well connected who routinely went before the council and county boards and commissions seeking, for example, things like zoning or even grants of money from the council or development projects’ approval permits from the planning commission, while serving on other boards of commissions.
But in 2007-8 a member of the charter commission, former state senator and attorney Jonathan Chun, was routinely appearing before the council representing the Board of Realtors on the vacation rental bill before the council at the time.
Chun then made a fatal error of judgment when he actually asked the BOE for a ruling on whether he was in violation of 20.02(D)
Stoessel’s testimony tells the story from there in what he calls “The Case Of 20.02D”
The issue of the County Attorney opinion related to Jonathan Chun’s request for an advisory opinion has been outstanding for more than a year. It may represent the only time the Board of Ethics has sought a legal opinion before issuing an advisory opinion. It is also interesting that the Board issued an advisory opinion involving similar circumstances just three months previously in which the Board felt no need to ask for a legal opinion or to meet in executive session.
Once the Board emerged from executive session in March, 2008 a motion was made and approved to allow Mr. Chun to continue the activities referenced in his request for an advisory opinion. The motion as approved failed to meet even the minimum test for public disclosure because it cited no statutory basis for the decision, instead making a vague and misleading reference to information in the Code of Ethics and the Charter.
The Board also refused to release the legal opinion it purportedly used to justify its decision. When I asked the Board to justify keeping the opinion secret, the chairman replied, “I do not intend to answer that, Horace. It could be that I don’t know; it could be that I just don’t wish to answer that question.”
But the BOE’s utter refusal to enforce the law- or state why- was only the beginning.
Chun wasn’t the only one engaged in this practice.
In fact then BOE Chair, now Vice Chair Mark “Mother” Hubbard was a vice president at land baron Grove Farm and he and his brethren- many also serving on boards and commissions- routinely made requests from the county council and administrative boards and commissions on behalf of themselves and/or clients.
BOE member Judy Lenthall is the Executive Director of the Kaua`i Food Bank which just received another grant from the county council this year after she appeared before them hat in hand.
Oh and by the way, the BOE has also cleared Furfaro, Asing, Rapozo and other council members from potential conflicts in the past.
So in appreciation for the clean bill of health for Chun’s apparently “dead on arrival” clearance, Chun turned around and, as a member of the charter commission, put a measure on the ballot to just eliminate that pesky 20.02(D) from the charter.
Stoessel’s testimony takes it up from the Chun decision:
In succeeding months the Board encouraged the Charter Commission to offer a charter amendment exempting all county personnel from having to comply with 20.02D rather than exempting only board/commission members. However, the commission restricted the scope of its proposed amendment to board/commission members and the amendment was then rejected by the voters in November, 2008. Their rejection revived questions about the Board’s handling of 20.02D and the March, 2008 legal opinion.
For my part as a responsible member of the public, I am still waiting for the Board to respond directly to the formal argument I offered in February, 2008 in support of basing a response to Jonathan Chun on 20.02D and to additional information I have since cited in support of that argument. The public has been prevented from further commenting directly on the Board’s actions by the Board’s failure to cite a statutory basis for its decision in the Chun case and its refusal to release the legal opinion.
The Board postponed discussion of 20.02D at the March meeting, and seemed to me to indicate that both 20.02D and the March, 2008 opinion would appear on the agenda for April. Did I miss something, or was I justified in being surprised that neither appears on the April agenda?
If it is within the scope of ES-3 (or the last item under BUSINESS), I would like to see the Board vote to release the March, 2008 legal opinion now. Failing that, I ask the Board to place on the May agenda a vote on releasing the opinion and a discussion of 20.02D. In view of the fact that the Board’s last formal statement regarding 20.02D was an expressed desire to exempt all county personnel from having to comply with it, I would like to hear what effect the November vote has had on the thinking of the Board.
So would we. If you’d like to know too go on down there and ask them.
The BOE meeting is at 9:00 A.M. this Thursday, April 9, 2009 in the Liquor Conference Room on the first floor of the Mo`ikeha Building in Lihu`e (the complex where the planning commission meets and where you get your car registered and drivers’ license renewed).
Friday, April 3, 2009
MOMMY WHAT ARE REX AND FIDO DOING?
MOMMY WHAT ARE REX AND FIDO DOING?: Another day, another way to insult and denigrate same gender couples and their families and friends.
This time it‘s from State Sen. Will Espero, who has a thus far unseen (at press time) 311-page whopper of a bill that, according to Honolulu Advertiser reporter Derrick DePledge’s blog entry today, would
expand the rights and benefits of same-sex partners under state law but would also reaffirm marriage as between one man and one woman. The draft is so long because it lists all of the areas under state law where same-sex partners would have rights.
Espero announced his intent to introduce the “amendment” to SB 444 on PBS’ Island Insights last night, sitting beside noted bigot Gary Oshino who said he wasn’t homophobic before launching into an absurd tirade denouncing homosexuality.
Of course even if Espero scoured HRS for all the rights and benefits of marriage and listed them in the 311 pages it’s just another way to send a message that gays and lesbians and others who sexually identify in a different manner that they are less than human and that its perfectly ok to spew hate and venom and in fact dehumanize them further in order to spread their intolerance.
The worst part of this is of course is the effect on children who grow up with other than heterosexual identities.
The most asinine of the arguments from Oshino and his ilk is that they are somehow doing this “for the children” who apparently have to be carefully taught how to hate. It’s particularly informative that they rely on the church for this.
Despite the reams of studies and research showing definitively that sexual identity is an inborn proclivity, these small-minded religious zealots – the same ones who think the earth is 6000 years old and all the animals in the world were saved from a really big flood... in pairs... on a really big boat- think they know better because they have interpreted a book of tall tales to say what they want it to say.
Depression and suicide rates among gay and lesbian youth are high enough because, at the precise adolescent time they are experiencing the peer pressure and angst of seeking a place in the adult world, those they love and trust hate them for who they are and they are unable to reconcile the two different realities.
The bigotry and attempts to dehumanize on the part of those who would send this message is nothing but a loaded gun and those who would deny civil rights to these kids are nothing but child abusers- and oft times murderers.
We can expect that from dullards who can’t or won’t think for themselves and adamantly relentlessly cling to their superstitions. What’s really obnoxious is that those who should know better- and sit in the legislature- are willing to send the same message.
When the horrendous constitutional provision enabling the ban on same gender marriage was passed in the 90’s we had the ignominious job of registering people to vote via the county participation in the state’s “Wiki-Wiki” program, standing outside the county building and helping voters filling out the forms.
Many came by and asked “is this where we sign up to ban same sex marriage?” allowing us an insight into what was motivating them.
While there were a handful of bigots and zealots most were seemingly every day normal people who said they just wanted to reserve the term “marriage” for opposite sex couples but weren’t opposed to granting full marriage rights to all.
That was the issue for the vast majority of those who voted for discrimination- that the word “marriage” should not be used to describe anything but their way of enjoying sex.
Whatever.
But now that even those effected have apparently temporarily given up the term marriage to be able to at least enjoy the rights marriage bestows, the true colors of the zealots who hid their real intent behind the argument over the word marriage has become all too apparent.
They now say the word isn’t enough- they want the rights too. They, as Oshino did last night, even claim the vote was one to deny those rights, not just one over the use of the word. But anyone who reads back through the commentary and even polls in the media from those days will find what really mattered to a vast majority was just the word marriage and that they were willing to bestow the rights that went along with it on any couple.
But the legislature failed to accommodate this when they banned marriage for all and instead of passing a promised full equal rights civil unions bill they instead passed a watered down “reciprocal benefits” law that was pitifully lacking when compared to the rights marriage bestows.
Nothing has changed today. Despite a scientific poll conducted by Q-Mark showing 81% now support giving those rights to all and agree that it is an issue of civil rights, our legislators are intimidated by a small band of nutty, red-shirted, insecure, bible thumpers who are apparently jealous that they can’t even get it up anymore for their “traditional” marriage partners while others can pull that off with members of their own gender.
As damaging as the ban on marriage was to those who would be excluded from being state-licensed to torture that one special person from the rest of their lives it has now degenerated into a full-on discriminatory debacle.
It’s time to start separating out the real bigots from the merely deluded.
Those that would deny the word “marriage” to those of the same gender but urge full state-granted rights for same gender couples are still sending the message that is causing teen angst albeit to a lesser degree in an age when marriage itself is seen as a joke to most of the population in a country where less than a quarter of families are of the mother-father-child variety.
But for the legislature- and the media for that matter- to conflate them and their possessiveness of the word marriage with the rip roaring homophobes who would deny the state-granted rights identical to marriage to all is “capitol” crime.
“Compromise” is one thing when you’re dealing with something like a budget or conflicting means to an commonly sought end. But when someone wants equal rights compromising is unconscionable when it’s a question of which of rights can one be stripped of.
It’s like saying “we’re want to cut off your arms and legs” and then saying “well ok- let’s compromise... pick one of the four limbs and you can keep it.
We’ll end with one of the comments on DePledge’s blog post that sums it up well.
Kolea said:
Civil unions, even full marriage equality, is becoming recognized in more states each year. Barriers are breaking down, following a pattern similar to that as states abandoned bans on interracial marriage in the 20th Century. (12 states had laws prohibited interracial marriage until 1967!).
Gay rights activists in Hawaii are not going to sign on to Senator Espero's deal offering them less than equal rights. Blacks didn't do it. Asians didn't do it. Women didn't do it. This is a civil rights matter and self-dignity will not allow a group which is being denied equality to affix their signature to a document codifying their less than equal treatment.
30 years ago, Hawaii's legislature was at the forefront of expanding the rights of our people and passing bold, progressive legislation. Today's legislators, with a few exceptions, are timid, uninspired and uninspiring opportunists, filling a seat, but unable to figure how to do their job.
This time it‘s from State Sen. Will Espero, who has a thus far unseen (at press time) 311-page whopper of a bill that, according to Honolulu Advertiser reporter Derrick DePledge’s blog entry today, would
expand the rights and benefits of same-sex partners under state law but would also reaffirm marriage as between one man and one woman. The draft is so long because it lists all of the areas under state law where same-sex partners would have rights.
Espero announced his intent to introduce the “amendment” to SB 444 on PBS’ Island Insights last night, sitting beside noted bigot Gary Oshino who said he wasn’t homophobic before launching into an absurd tirade denouncing homosexuality.
Of course even if Espero scoured HRS for all the rights and benefits of marriage and listed them in the 311 pages it’s just another way to send a message that gays and lesbians and others who sexually identify in a different manner that they are less than human and that its perfectly ok to spew hate and venom and in fact dehumanize them further in order to spread their intolerance.
The worst part of this is of course is the effect on children who grow up with other than heterosexual identities.
The most asinine of the arguments from Oshino and his ilk is that they are somehow doing this “for the children” who apparently have to be carefully taught how to hate. It’s particularly informative that they rely on the church for this.
Despite the reams of studies and research showing definitively that sexual identity is an inborn proclivity, these small-minded religious zealots – the same ones who think the earth is 6000 years old and all the animals in the world were saved from a really big flood... in pairs... on a really big boat- think they know better because they have interpreted a book of tall tales to say what they want it to say.
Depression and suicide rates among gay and lesbian youth are high enough because, at the precise adolescent time they are experiencing the peer pressure and angst of seeking a place in the adult world, those they love and trust hate them for who they are and they are unable to reconcile the two different realities.
The bigotry and attempts to dehumanize on the part of those who would send this message is nothing but a loaded gun and those who would deny civil rights to these kids are nothing but child abusers- and oft times murderers.
We can expect that from dullards who can’t or won’t think for themselves and adamantly relentlessly cling to their superstitions. What’s really obnoxious is that those who should know better- and sit in the legislature- are willing to send the same message.
When the horrendous constitutional provision enabling the ban on same gender marriage was passed in the 90’s we had the ignominious job of registering people to vote via the county participation in the state’s “Wiki-Wiki” program, standing outside the county building and helping voters filling out the forms.
Many came by and asked “is this where we sign up to ban same sex marriage?” allowing us an insight into what was motivating them.
While there were a handful of bigots and zealots most were seemingly every day normal people who said they just wanted to reserve the term “marriage” for opposite sex couples but weren’t opposed to granting full marriage rights to all.
That was the issue for the vast majority of those who voted for discrimination- that the word “marriage” should not be used to describe anything but their way of enjoying sex.
Whatever.
But now that even those effected have apparently temporarily given up the term marriage to be able to at least enjoy the rights marriage bestows, the true colors of the zealots who hid their real intent behind the argument over the word marriage has become all too apparent.
They now say the word isn’t enough- they want the rights too. They, as Oshino did last night, even claim the vote was one to deny those rights, not just one over the use of the word. But anyone who reads back through the commentary and even polls in the media from those days will find what really mattered to a vast majority was just the word marriage and that they were willing to bestow the rights that went along with it on any couple.
But the legislature failed to accommodate this when they banned marriage for all and instead of passing a promised full equal rights civil unions bill they instead passed a watered down “reciprocal benefits” law that was pitifully lacking when compared to the rights marriage bestows.
Nothing has changed today. Despite a scientific poll conducted by Q-Mark showing 81% now support giving those rights to all and agree that it is an issue of civil rights, our legislators are intimidated by a small band of nutty, red-shirted, insecure, bible thumpers who are apparently jealous that they can’t even get it up anymore for their “traditional” marriage partners while others can pull that off with members of their own gender.
As damaging as the ban on marriage was to those who would be excluded from being state-licensed to torture that one special person from the rest of their lives it has now degenerated into a full-on discriminatory debacle.
It’s time to start separating out the real bigots from the merely deluded.
Those that would deny the word “marriage” to those of the same gender but urge full state-granted rights for same gender couples are still sending the message that is causing teen angst albeit to a lesser degree in an age when marriage itself is seen as a joke to most of the population in a country where less than a quarter of families are of the mother-father-child variety.
But for the legislature- and the media for that matter- to conflate them and their possessiveness of the word marriage with the rip roaring homophobes who would deny the state-granted rights identical to marriage to all is “capitol” crime.
“Compromise” is one thing when you’re dealing with something like a budget or conflicting means to an commonly sought end. But when someone wants equal rights compromising is unconscionable when it’s a question of which of rights can one be stripped of.
It’s like saying “we’re want to cut off your arms and legs” and then saying “well ok- let’s compromise... pick one of the four limbs and you can keep it.
We’ll end with one of the comments on DePledge’s blog post that sums it up well.
Kolea said:
Civil unions, even full marriage equality, is becoming recognized in more states each year. Barriers are breaking down, following a pattern similar to that as states abandoned bans on interracial marriage in the 20th Century. (12 states had laws prohibited interracial marriage until 1967!).
Gay rights activists in Hawaii are not going to sign on to Senator Espero's deal offering them less than equal rights. Blacks didn't do it. Asians didn't do it. Women didn't do it. This is a civil rights matter and self-dignity will not allow a group which is being denied equality to affix their signature to a document codifying their less than equal treatment.
30 years ago, Hawaii's legislature was at the forefront of expanding the rights of our people and passing bold, progressive legislation. Today's legislators, with a few exceptions, are timid, uninspired and uninspiring opportunists, filling a seat, but unable to figure how to do their job.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
ELECTRIFIED FENCE
ELECTRIFIED FENCE: This year’s Kaua`i Island Utilities Co-op (KIUC) election is over and for the second time in a row a non corporate “people’s” candidate was elected- last year good governance advocate Carol Bain and this year renewable energy maven Ben Sullivan.
But the problems cited during KIUC’s purchase phase by the “nitpickers”- in fact the problems they found that gave them their name before they successfully challenged the original inflated purchase price, saving members almost $100 million- are apparently coming home to roost and it’s anyone’s guess whether these two new board members will try to tackle the core disconnect within “our co-op”.
One glaring bit of nonsensical jibber-jabber was highlighted in a recent article in the local paper if the report by reporter Michael Levine is accurate.
He wrote:
Just hours after the swearing-in ceremony and officer appointments, the board returned for its first regular monthly meeting under its new leadership and immediately received some gloomy forecasts.
Chief Financial Officer David Bissell said abnormally cold winter weather — February’s average temperature was a chill-inducing 70 degrees and the month’s 139 fueling degree days marked the lowest in more than a decade — allowed hotels to turn off their air conditioners, driving megawatt-hour sales even lower than was expected under the poor economic climate.
February sales were down some 12 percent from the budgeted total of 37,200 megawatt-hours, and down some 20 percent from the projected $10.9 million. KIUC has pulled in just $18 million through the first two months of 2009, compared to $29 million over the same stretch in 2008.
Now wait a gol-darn minute. While the challenge of integrating non-fissile fuel energy into the co-op’s energy portfolio is a hotly debated topic (although it really shouldn’t be- we’ll get to that in as moment) everyone agrees that cutting energy usage is the one thing everyone agrees will help insure a stable energy future.
So why is this a “gloomy forecast”? It should be time for celebration- we’re using less electricity.
It’s because in reality the co-op is, from top to bottom, when all is said and done, is still operated in the same manner as any for-profit electrical utility.
The business model of “we produce electricity and sell it to you” is a ubiquitous one in the “industry”. But the dangers of adhering to many of the particulars in that model was the chief apprehensions cited by the nitpickers who saw the future of diminished demand and knew that the purchase price was way overvalued- even at the lowered price and especially if large users decide to generate their own electricity as is already happening in some hotels and at the navy base.
It could and should be different when the customers own their electric company but a required indoctrination of board members and draconian rules- made up by the board and not approved by the members- to re-enforce the “training” make any difference between a for profit utility and a co-op strictly cosmetic.
Spending on advertising and other frivolous activities including these supposedly “educational” junkets- which are really just brainwashing sessions to insure that the board members operate the company like a for profit- are bad enough.
But nowhere is the “selling electricity” model more apparent than in the recent announcement that the “net metering” program has reached it’s limit and from now on there will be no more households enrolled in the program.
That essentially means that the price for new home generators to buy back the electricity they produce at home via solar or wind power is exorbitant compared to what they sell their excess back to the company for, whereas those who got in on the bottom floor sell and buy back their excess electricity at the same price.
A recent debate in the local paper was punctuated by a bit of distraction and selective fact-citations by one Walt Barnes, one of the chief prevaricators during the purchase phase who, as PR chair, constantly and verifiably lied over and over about the particulars of the purchase, citing “confidential” information of the sellers and making up “facts” our of whole cloth for as long as he could... sometimes even after he was “caught” by the nitpickers.
Barnes’ theory essentially says the co-op cannot afford to buy back the electricity at the same rate as it was put in saying the company has to pay for all the thing associated with producing and distributing a certain amount of electricity to the island because there are times when there is no sun and/or wind.
But that’s a bolus of bullcrap. There are no “extra” expenses for the grid when it’s used to serve those who install their own energy production. It’s there already. And a base fee for hooking up is already charged to all customers even if they don’t use a watt.
Plus, the saving in not having to produce more electricity should surely even save the company money if the model isn’t one of creating and selling electricity.
The reality that Barnes leaves out is that in modern grids and generation facilities the energy production needed is instantaneously “sensed” by the system and generation is controlled by demand at any point in time.
Even if our grid is not fully up to snuff the investment in this technology would surely pay for itself in the long run through generating less and not having to build any more generation facilities.
The proof of this is that the company generates electricity based on demand today. It peaks at certain time- late afternoon and evening- and drops dramatically at night. And current generation is synched to this cycle.
Technology for these “ smart grids” is not just “being developed” but is already actualized in many places across the country. But even current systems should to be able to accommodate another variable in usage- alternative home generate electricity.
But does our co-op seek to accommodate this? Certainly not.
Instead of working on ways to increase net metering and support home generation- with, say a program like the one for solar hot water where low or even zero percent loans are made from a revolving fund to allow people to purchase systems that will pay for themselves over time- they are planning "fields” of windmills and solar panels and other non-fossil sources so they can continue to sell electricity to you.
Because it’s not in their interest to allow people to generate their own juice under the model they are perpetuation. That would cause the gloomy future... and part of the reason why some nitpickers advocated buying only the grid and allowing the generation facilities- especially the old outdated “dirtiest in the state” one that that sits on the toxic waste dump in `Ele`ele.
As long as we- and those we elect to the board- buy into this “can’t do” attitude KIUC will remain a bum deal for everyone involved.
But the problems cited during KIUC’s purchase phase by the “nitpickers”- in fact the problems they found that gave them their name before they successfully challenged the original inflated purchase price, saving members almost $100 million- are apparently coming home to roost and it’s anyone’s guess whether these two new board members will try to tackle the core disconnect within “our co-op”.
One glaring bit of nonsensical jibber-jabber was highlighted in a recent article in the local paper if the report by reporter Michael Levine is accurate.
He wrote:
Just hours after the swearing-in ceremony and officer appointments, the board returned for its first regular monthly meeting under its new leadership and immediately received some gloomy forecasts.
Chief Financial Officer David Bissell said abnormally cold winter weather — February’s average temperature was a chill-inducing 70 degrees and the month’s 139 fueling degree days marked the lowest in more than a decade — allowed hotels to turn off their air conditioners, driving megawatt-hour sales even lower than was expected under the poor economic climate.
February sales were down some 12 percent from the budgeted total of 37,200 megawatt-hours, and down some 20 percent from the projected $10.9 million. KIUC has pulled in just $18 million through the first two months of 2009, compared to $29 million over the same stretch in 2008.
Now wait a gol-darn minute. While the challenge of integrating non-fissile fuel energy into the co-op’s energy portfolio is a hotly debated topic (although it really shouldn’t be- we’ll get to that in as moment) everyone agrees that cutting energy usage is the one thing everyone agrees will help insure a stable energy future.
So why is this a “gloomy forecast”? It should be time for celebration- we’re using less electricity.
It’s because in reality the co-op is, from top to bottom, when all is said and done, is still operated in the same manner as any for-profit electrical utility.
The business model of “we produce electricity and sell it to you” is a ubiquitous one in the “industry”. But the dangers of adhering to many of the particulars in that model was the chief apprehensions cited by the nitpickers who saw the future of diminished demand and knew that the purchase price was way overvalued- even at the lowered price and especially if large users decide to generate their own electricity as is already happening in some hotels and at the navy base.
It could and should be different when the customers own their electric company but a required indoctrination of board members and draconian rules- made up by the board and not approved by the members- to re-enforce the “training” make any difference between a for profit utility and a co-op strictly cosmetic.
Spending on advertising and other frivolous activities including these supposedly “educational” junkets- which are really just brainwashing sessions to insure that the board members operate the company like a for profit- are bad enough.
But nowhere is the “selling electricity” model more apparent than in the recent announcement that the “net metering” program has reached it’s limit and from now on there will be no more households enrolled in the program.
That essentially means that the price for new home generators to buy back the electricity they produce at home via solar or wind power is exorbitant compared to what they sell their excess back to the company for, whereas those who got in on the bottom floor sell and buy back their excess electricity at the same price.
A recent debate in the local paper was punctuated by a bit of distraction and selective fact-citations by one Walt Barnes, one of the chief prevaricators during the purchase phase who, as PR chair, constantly and verifiably lied over and over about the particulars of the purchase, citing “confidential” information of the sellers and making up “facts” our of whole cloth for as long as he could... sometimes even after he was “caught” by the nitpickers.
Barnes’ theory essentially says the co-op cannot afford to buy back the electricity at the same rate as it was put in saying the company has to pay for all the thing associated with producing and distributing a certain amount of electricity to the island because there are times when there is no sun and/or wind.
But that’s a bolus of bullcrap. There are no “extra” expenses for the grid when it’s used to serve those who install their own energy production. It’s there already. And a base fee for hooking up is already charged to all customers even if they don’t use a watt.
Plus, the saving in not having to produce more electricity should surely even save the company money if the model isn’t one of creating and selling electricity.
The reality that Barnes leaves out is that in modern grids and generation facilities the energy production needed is instantaneously “sensed” by the system and generation is controlled by demand at any point in time.
Even if our grid is not fully up to snuff the investment in this technology would surely pay for itself in the long run through generating less and not having to build any more generation facilities.
The proof of this is that the company generates electricity based on demand today. It peaks at certain time- late afternoon and evening- and drops dramatically at night. And current generation is synched to this cycle.
Technology for these “ smart grids” is not just “being developed” but is already actualized in many places across the country. But even current systems should to be able to accommodate another variable in usage- alternative home generate electricity.
But does our co-op seek to accommodate this? Certainly not.
Instead of working on ways to increase net metering and support home generation- with, say a program like the one for solar hot water where low or even zero percent loans are made from a revolving fund to allow people to purchase systems that will pay for themselves over time- they are planning "fields” of windmills and solar panels and other non-fossil sources so they can continue to sell electricity to you.
Because it’s not in their interest to allow people to generate their own juice under the model they are perpetuation. That would cause the gloomy future... and part of the reason why some nitpickers advocated buying only the grid and allowing the generation facilities- especially the old outdated “dirtiest in the state” one that that sits on the toxic waste dump in `Ele`ele.
As long as we- and those we elect to the board- buy into this “can’t do” attitude KIUC will remain a bum deal for everyone involved.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
KAUA`I CORRUPTION BUST NABS EVERYONE
KAUA`I CORRUPTION BUST NABS EVERYONE
(PNN)-- April 1— LIHU`E-- More than ten thousand people on island of Kaua`i were indicted and arrested on racketeering charges today as a result of what the FBI called “the biggest corruption and fraud investigation in the bureau’s history.”
“We finally pulled the trigger and busted em all” said Special Agent Richard Stauber. “We were going to arrest just the mayor, his department heads, the county council and most business leaders but after extensive investigation we found complicity from almost every citizen on Kaua`i. most of whom knew about it all but “nevah like say nahting” .
“We busted the whole lot of ‘em with the exception of a few radical activists who turned in the rest and a handful of hippies living in Kalalau Valley and on Secret Beach along with some organic farmers who were blissfully ignorant of anything political.”
“I told ya so,” said news commentator and blogger Andy Parx who, in his daily on-line column, ratted out his neighbors and what he called “my good friends down at the county offices”.
“I knew the corruption ran deep but even I never knew the depth of the entrenched good old boy’s and girls network who either turned a blind eye or actively perpetuated the multitudinous revolving-door, pay-to-play scams, extortion rackets and kickback schemes” said Parx whose reports also served as grand jury evidence.
Standing before a 50 foot by fifty foot chart diagramming the connections between those arrested, Stauber, who spent years undercover disguised as “that funny foreign guy who harasses the county council”, explained how he “disappeared” a few years back after he had gathered enough evidence to start putting together the cases.
“I can’t believe they all fell for the German accent and the slightly off-kilter persona” he said. “It just goes to show the arrogance that made the case so easy.”
Since only one local attorney, Daniel Hempey wasn’t arrested he was appointed to defend those who are currently being held at Vidinha Stadium awaiting processing.
“I have little hope for the higher-ups but am considering pleading “plantation mentality” on the part of the regular working people who didn’t benefit from the system but who knew and were silent” he said.
The cases will be tried in federal court because there were no Kaua`i judges that escaped arrest either.
“Why me” asked Mayor Bernard Carvalho from the federal detention center in Honolulu where he and Council Chair Kaipo Asing are sharing a cell.
“I just got here and was just doing what mayors have done for years- hiring my friends and big campaign contributors for county jobs and looking the other way while everybody took their cut... as long as I got mine” said the 300 pound behemoth while downing a box of malasadas.
Also indicted but not arrested were former Mayor Bryan Baptiste who, it was revealed in the indictments, faked his death last year and escaped to somewhere in South America, shortly after being interrogated by the FBI.
Parx said he’s not surprised but is dismayed because now he won’t have endless daily material for his column.
“With all these guys finally off the streets, I got nothin’ in the immediate future. But I am confident that Kaua`i people will do what they’ve always done- elect some equally or even more corrupt politicians to take their places” he said.
Former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and Police Chief Darryl Perry escaped arrest and are believed to be hold up in a secret love-nest/fortress in Koke`e where they are reportedly intent on setting up a government-in-exile.
State Department of Conservation and Enforcement officers are said to be closing in on them after the pair stumbled into DLNR’s meth lab in the Alaka`i swamp.
In other news today paramedics rushed to the offices of Governor Linda Lingle where she and Attorney General Mark Bennett were working on legal strategies for the ceded lands and Superferry cases. Efforts to remove their heads from their butts were as yet unsuccessful at press time.
(PNN)-- April 1— LIHU`E-- More than ten thousand people on island of Kaua`i were indicted and arrested on racketeering charges today as a result of what the FBI called “the biggest corruption and fraud investigation in the bureau’s history.”
“We finally pulled the trigger and busted em all” said Special Agent Richard Stauber. “We were going to arrest just the mayor, his department heads, the county council and most business leaders but after extensive investigation we found complicity from almost every citizen on Kaua`i. most of whom knew about it all but “nevah like say nahting” .
“We busted the whole lot of ‘em with the exception of a few radical activists who turned in the rest and a handful of hippies living in Kalalau Valley and on Secret Beach along with some organic farmers who were blissfully ignorant of anything political.”
“I told ya so,” said news commentator and blogger Andy Parx who, in his daily on-line column, ratted out his neighbors and what he called “my good friends down at the county offices”.
“I knew the corruption ran deep but even I never knew the depth of the entrenched good old boy’s and girls network who either turned a blind eye or actively perpetuated the multitudinous revolving-door, pay-to-play scams, extortion rackets and kickback schemes” said Parx whose reports also served as grand jury evidence.
Standing before a 50 foot by fifty foot chart diagramming the connections between those arrested, Stauber, who spent years undercover disguised as “that funny foreign guy who harasses the county council”, explained how he “disappeared” a few years back after he had gathered enough evidence to start putting together the cases.
“I can’t believe they all fell for the German accent and the slightly off-kilter persona” he said. “It just goes to show the arrogance that made the case so easy.”
Since only one local attorney, Daniel Hempey wasn’t arrested he was appointed to defend those who are currently being held at Vidinha Stadium awaiting processing.
“I have little hope for the higher-ups but am considering pleading “plantation mentality” on the part of the regular working people who didn’t benefit from the system but who knew and were silent” he said.
The cases will be tried in federal court because there were no Kaua`i judges that escaped arrest either.
“Why me” asked Mayor Bernard Carvalho from the federal detention center in Honolulu where he and Council Chair Kaipo Asing are sharing a cell.
“I just got here and was just doing what mayors have done for years- hiring my friends and big campaign contributors for county jobs and looking the other way while everybody took their cut... as long as I got mine” said the 300 pound behemoth while downing a box of malasadas.
Also indicted but not arrested were former Mayor Bryan Baptiste who, it was revealed in the indictments, faked his death last year and escaped to somewhere in South America, shortly after being interrogated by the FBI.
Parx said he’s not surprised but is dismayed because now he won’t have endless daily material for his column.
“With all these guys finally off the streets, I got nothin’ in the immediate future. But I am confident that Kaua`i people will do what they’ve always done- elect some equally or even more corrupt politicians to take their places” he said.
Former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and Police Chief Darryl Perry escaped arrest and are believed to be hold up in a secret love-nest/fortress in Koke`e where they are reportedly intent on setting up a government-in-exile.
State Department of Conservation and Enforcement officers are said to be closing in on them after the pair stumbled into DLNR’s meth lab in the Alaka`i swamp.
In other news today paramedics rushed to the offices of Governor Linda Lingle where she and Attorney General Mark Bennett were working on legal strategies for the ceded lands and Superferry cases. Efforts to remove their heads from their butts were as yet unsuccessful at press time.
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