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March 1,2003 - Saturday
There are rumblings about a big restructuring at the Star-Bulletin, with a so-far unconfirmed report of a merger of the Star-Bulletin into it's corporate sibling, MidWeek. Effective May 1, S-B employees would be rehired as new MidWeek employees. It isn't clear yet whether this is a bald attempt to strip S-B employees of their union and accrued seniority rights, or simply a streamlining of owner David Black's corporate structure.
I'm sure visions of the SF Examiner are being conjured up in many quarters this morning.
The S-B is currently operating under the amended terms of a five-year contract that commenced at the time of the original sale. Just over three years remain on that contract.
Word is that management is also balking at the 2% across the board wage boost scheduled to go into effect in two weeks.
When I heard this news, I thought someone was jumping the gun on April Fool's Day, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I'm sure we'll all hear more about this soon.
This is also the 1-year anniversary of the big rescue of the cat we named Cybelle and several others from a house in Ahuimanu.
February 28, 2003 - Friday
Here's a small example of missing the point. Last week, in it's "What's Up" listing of performances of all kinds, the Honolulu Advertiser had this apparently straightforward listing:
PLAY READING : March 3
"Lysistrata," the anti-war Greek comedy by Aristophanes, will be featured in a "Lysistrata Project" play reading session, March 3 at The ARTS at Marks Garage. Joyce Maltby of Hawai'i Pacific University conducts; Eden Lee Murray has the title role. Tickets: $15 at the door.
7 p.m. March 3 / The ARTS at Marks Garage / 391-7300
But the main point is missing--this is part of a global protest against the Bush Administration's planned war against Iraq. The World Wide Lysistrata Project has organized simultaneous March 3 performances or readings of Lysistrata, now set for 823 performances in 53 countries including dozens of cities across the U.S.
It is really quite an extraordinary indication of the global wave of revulsion against American policy. But you didn't read that in our daily papers. If I simply missed the story, hopefully someone will let me know this morning and I can correct this.
February 27, 2003 - Thursday
Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein was quite a coup. I don't know what the general reaction will be, but my dad's reaction signals that it could be a problem for the Bush administration. When I stopped by yesterday to visit with my parents, Hussein was an immediate topic of conversation. My dad, age 89 and a Republican voter who cast his ballot for Bush, surprised me with his assessment that Hussein was sensible and straight-forward. A regular kind of guy. "He looked like a businessman," was one assessment. Basically, my dad liked what he saw. And his reaction to Hussein's proposal for a debate with Bush was immediate: "That's one debate I would like to watch!" And he thinks Bush would be the loser.
| Yesterday morning was clear, but today is quite different. It's been raining for a couple of hours, although it's too early to say whether it promises to be wet enough to deter us from walking. A little rain is okay, and even hard rain for short periods is OK. Wind is a complicating factor because it defeats umbrellas. So far, this morning appears just a bit of everything. |
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At 5:40 a.m. the rain has tapered off, but there's thunder in the distance.
I've spent the last hour shuttling cats in and out. They don't want to be in the rain, but they don't want to be inside, either. So they fuss to go out the door, then try to sit on the deck under the eaves and watch the rain. Of course they end up wet and want back in. So it goes.
February 26, 2003 - Wednesday
There is a very sobering story by Anthony Shadid in the Washington Post describing the reaction to American neo-imperialism in the Arab world. It should be widely read.
I liked Jim Dooley's little vignette of a $156,000 government screw-up in today's Advertiser.
According to Debbie Sokei's "Scoops" column in Pacific Business News this week, Jay Leno had a little fun with the Star-Bulletin on a recent Tonight Show. Leno reportedly held up the January 26th S-B with the headline, "Like father, like son" and photos of Bush (the younger) and Ronald Reagan. I can't find Sokei's column in PBN's online edition, and I haven't hit the S-B item yet while browsing through Leno's headlines.
A column by Robert Fisk in Britain's Independent newspaper gives a chilling look at CNN's script approval process, a self-imposed censorship system already in place even before the Pentagon's own controls triggered by war in Iraq have been revved up.
A reader caught a shift in the S-B's headline story yesterday:
Subtle? Not so subtle? change in headlines in the Star Bull from morning to afternoon editions:
a.m. Akaka bill hinges on Lingle
(over Richard's story)
p.m. Inouye: Gov key to Akaka bill
And another reader weighed in with this assessment of the substance of the story:
Fascinating to watch the maneuvering on the Akaka bill by the Hawaii politicians in Washington. Obviously, if the bill does pass, Lingle will be seen as making the difference. Big gain.
But, with Inouye acknowledging it has only a 50-50 chance while praising Lingle's efforts, he deftly drops in the point that Lingle is the key to the bill's success. He's therefore set her up for a fall if the bill once again fails to pass. This time it would be the failure of the Republican governor who claimed during her campaign that being a Republican would mean the difference for the Hawaiian bill. The congressional delegation would be clear of responsibility this time.
If it does pass, how does Inouye retrieve credit for it? Or is he so sure that it will fail that he's not worried about a fallback strategy? No one knows better than him what's going to happen in Congress.
February 25, 2003 - Tuesday
A teaser at the top of the front page of Friday morning's Star-Bulletin announced authoritatively, "UCLA sweeps UH volleyball team." Oops. UH was swept in three games, but they were actually playing BYU in Provo, as the sports section correctly reported.
Have you noticed that the Star-Bulletin's capitol bureau chief, Richard Borreca, has been filing stories from Washington, D.C., where he has been traveling with Gov. Lingle? It appears to be an indication that the Star-Bulletin has a bit of money to invest in better coverage, always a good thing.
For a more critical look at the National Governors Association meeting and the governors private meeting with President Bush, both attended my Lingle, check this story by AP's Robert Tanner.
And the Washington Times reports that Lingle has reconsidered her decision to withdraw from the National Governors Association.
Miss. Lingle told (Idaho Governor and incoming NGA chairman) Mr. Kempthorne this was her first and last meeting. But the Idaho governor argued that he needed her help to change things and finally persuaded her to remain in the organization, even if Hawaii didn't pay dues for a while.
| I did manage to pull together a few photos of Vancouver. Enjoy. |
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| It's the original Mr. Silverman! I was cleaning up a few things yesterday and ran across this photo of Meda with Maurice Silverman, an antiques dealer we enjoyed visiting in Alexandria, Virginia. We borrowed his name when searching for an appropriate one for our own Mr. Silverman back in 1999. |
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February 24, 2003 - Monday
| A few of you may have figured out that last week's schedule suffered because I was actually on the mainland--in Vancouver, B.C., to be exact. Meda was attending the Western Society of Criminology. I just went along for the ride. I posted daily courtesy of Fatport, a commercial wireless operation with a growing number of access points in Vancouver, and the Internet connection in our hotel's "business center". |
logging on to Fatport
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What do you say about a trip that began with a quick passage through layers of security at Honolulu Airport, at least until Meda was pulled aside by a TSA agent with a straightforward question: “Can you think of any reason why your suitcase would have tested positive for TNT?”
What is the right answer to this question?
Cat piss? It was the best either of us could offer. He responded by asking if I was into guns. Fertilizer? Our faces were blank. He watched as we struggled for an answer. Nothing came.
We chatted a bit as burly guys a few feet away removed everything from Meda’s suitcase, piece by piece, wiping everything with those little test strips and feeding them into the screening machine. For a while I thought they might start cutting into the sides of the suitcase, but before that happened we came across the apparent answer. Hand lotion. Lots of lotions are heavy on glycerin, the TSA guy finally lets on. As in the other half of nitroglycerin. Sets off those screening machines all the time.
But this incident was duly noted, paperwork in multiple copies sent off to god knows where.
And in a couple of minutes more we were off to the gate to wait for our United flight.
By tomorrow I'll have a bit more to say about Vancouver, a city that we gave loved visiting since we first were there in 1979. Hopefully I'll also have a few pictures.
The San Francisco Examiner begins another phase today as it turns into a free weekday's only paper. The move was accompanied by the layoffs of most of the newspaper's staff, leaving just two reporters, three editors, and a columnist, according to a story in the SF Chronicle.
"It's over," reporter David Kiefer told the Chronicle after getting his walking papers. "They'll continue in some form, but this was the last attempt to make it a real newspaper."
The "new" Examiner started about the same time and under the same conditions as the "new" Star-Bulletin, a forced spin-off from a former joint operating agreement, but the Star-Bulletin's has so far proved more adept at survival.
Freshman City Council member Mike Gabbard apparently just ran across the mention of his name on this site just before election day in November. The mention of Gabbard came in a longer comment from a reader:.
"Still, Midweek's fawning over the Gabbard's didn't affect the S-B's endorsement of Mike Gabbard's city council race opponent, Pam Witty-Oakland. Thank God."
In belated reply, Gabbard sent this missive a couple of days ago:
aloha Ian...since when did Midweek fawn over the Gabbards? Just curious...You obviously missed the huge hatchet job SB did on me and my daughter Tulsi just before the election insinuating we were violating campaign spending laws. Then after all charges were dismissed, their article consisted of one paragraph buried at the end of an article on Harris' troubles with campaign spending commission.
While you're obviously disappointed in my win, my plan is to do the best I can to help not only District 1 constituents, but all the people of Oahu. If I can help in any way, please let me know. Best wishes, mike
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