May 22, 2004 - Saturday

Googlewar was making the rounds in the Star-Bulletin newsroom yesterday pitting the S-B against rival Honolulu Advertiser. Unfortunately, given the oddities of Google, it was easy to find both victory and defeat. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin outscored "The Honolulu Advertiser" nearly 4-1, but "Honolulu Advertiser" led the second round by about 22 percent. As in so many cases, how you phrase the question makes all the difference.

We were watching a long interview with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on the PBS News Hour last night, and Meda wondered out loud--somewhat facetiously--whether George Bush could attend this summer's Olympics and do an interview in Greek.

It only took a second for me to reply: The more immediate question is whether George Bush can attend this summer's Olympics and survive an intervew in English.

That's how cynical he's forcing us to become.

Speaking of cynical, I was awe struck by the comments of a Marine general in Iraq after reports that his forces mistakenly attacked a wedding party in a remote desert town:

"How many people go into the middle of the desert 10 miles from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?" asked Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, whose unit operates in western Iraq. [Washington Post]

It's a statement that distills the ignorance and arrogance of the American world view, which to this day fails to comprehend the society we claim to be delivering to Democracy.

I'm also struck by the contrast between the Washington Post and other U.S. reporting, relying heavily on statements by U.S. military officials who were not present at the attacks, and those based on reporting closer to the ground, like Friday's story in The Guardian. An AP story appearing in USA Today adds similar details.

It all makes for grim morning reading.

Say hello to Ms. Wally. I was in the yard with camera, luring cats into the fine late afternoon light, when I noticed Wally on the deck checking me out. It's her "I'm in charge here" look. Click on the photo for a larger version.

May 21, 2004 - Friday

The Honolulu Advertiser, citing a report in the Wall Street Journal, reports that the Washington D.C.-based Carlyle Group is expected to announce its purchase of Verizon Hawaii "as early as this week".

Just what we need. Carlyle, on paper at least, looks like a world government in exile, or a privatized version of a global governmental alliance, boasting current or recently retired honchos like George Bush Sr., former secretary of state James Baker, former Philippines president Fidel Ramos, and John Major, former prime minister of England.

Carlyle is also reported to be a key to the links between the Bush family, middle east oil, the Saudi government, and the Bin Laden family. Here's a link to just one of many examples found with a quick Google search. It's a gold mine for conspiracy theorists. And in the current Iraq war, Carlyle has walked away with a very hefty chunk of taxpayer dollars from a variety of profitable contracts.

And by buying Verizon Hawaii, Carlyle also cements its relations with Verizon's biggest customer, the Department of Defense and the Pacific Command. More grist for the conspiracy mill.

And from old friend and former Hawaii resident Charles Smith (no, not a pseudonym):

Good point about the diminishing coverage of government processes and the analogy to football coverage (maybe you should send that to Dennis Miller). I would add three adjuncts to that: the growing complexity of local govt (at least here, but I suspect everywhere) and the buying up of the last independent newspapers, the small-town locals and the weeklies.
Used to be either the local paper covered local gov't, or an "alternative" (i.e. irreverent reviews of Hollywood movies and lots of ads for clubs and restauants) weekly might publish a major piece on a local topic. Alas, both have been swallowed by media chains (here in Berkeley and elsewhere).
As for complexity--I'm doing a piece on transit villages (A New Urbanist concept finally making it off the drawing boards), and one such project in Oakland required the cooperation of 36 municipal/quasi-municipal and funding agencies. Anyone trying to make sense of the issues and choices would have to have followed it for some time--an investment that's hard to make.
Lastly, your point about the "story" taking precedence over process seems to me to be part of the "Hollywood-ization" of the media in general. Concepts which used to reside in the craft of screenwriting such as "story arc" are now the essential ingredient of a "news story," which must feature an individual struggling against some obstacle or trying to overcome some tragedy. This reductionism used to be the purview of TV news, but it seems to be spreading into the print media as well.
So all the complexities of reworking an urban landscape, of addressing the environmental and social costs of suburbs are reduced to "John and Suzie Citizen's fight to make their neighborhood better." Auwe.

May 20, 2004 - Thursday

Don't miss the piece by Los Angeles Times editor John S. Carroll on the misdeeds of right wing "pseudo-journalists".

I should have known that there's no idle idol chatter. Here's an email from David and Glenda Chung Hinchey stating their assessment in no uncertain terms:

As former music majors at UH and Columbia, let us throw in our two cents regarding American Idol. Fantasia Barrino may be a good performer, working the crowd, but she definitely has a nasal, strident voice, which has an edge to it. If she wins, we will not buy her CD. We love Jasmine Trias' voice, which has a wonderful, mellow tone. Even Diana DeGarmo is better than Fantasia.

There's a difference between screeching a song and singing it. Fantasia will not get our vote if she makes it to the final round.

Despite this strong endoresement, Jasmine won't be one of the two finalists.

This whole Idol phenom makes quite a strange case study in the manufacturing of celebrity, and should cause us to reflect back on the less overt but equally manipulative corporate creations that we see every day.

And yesterday's mention of the Kodak falcon cam prompted this reply from Ray Barrington, news editor of the Green Bay News-Chronicle:

We've got one in Green Bay, too:
http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/news/falcons.asp

I've had to cover the nearly annual banding of the falcon chicks on the roof of the power plant. Hardhats are mandatory, not because of the power plant, but because ma and pa falcon are flying overhead and aren't terribly happy about the whole thing. It's a bit nerve wracking.

I'm sorta picturing your cats sitting there, watching the screen and daydreaming of lunch...

Actually, most of our cats know it's not wise to bother the chickens, so I doubt that falcons will be on their dream menu.

May 19, 2004 - Wednesday

What a strange world. Here we are, embroiled in several foreign wars which are draining the economy, creating deficits that threaten future generations, facing the possibility of a serious energy shortage, watching our foreign policy crumble as Americans become hated around the world, and what do we do? Fill the news and minds with "American Idol". Bizarre.

My father, age 90 and counting, displayed the wisdom of age when he suggested a scenario for Hawaii's finalist. What if Jasmine had listened to the judges last week, shed a tear, and then looked at the camera and asked her fans to be honest, accept the fact that her voice just can't compete with the other finalists, and announced her withdrawal from the show in favor of the other contestants.

Such a display of simple honesty could have taken her to a level of national respect that her talent can't yet earn. It would have transformed the moment and her stature in a few seconds, but I'm sure it never occurred to anyone involved.

Hank Chapin suggested this wonderful link, falcon cam!

Since you love cats so much, it just might interest you to follow the falcon website which is a link on my website. The chicks (eyas) have just hatched and the next six weeks will show tremendous change.

The cameras are set up in a special nesting area at the top of Kodak's office tower in Rochester, NY. It's a great site!

There's a new camera in the house. It's a little pocket-size beauty that I bought for Meda (wink wink) so she can take it to conferences and such. In between, of course, I'll be able to make use of it around town. It's a little Canon S410, quite a compact wonder. Here's one of the first test shots of Duke which shows off his pale blue eyes.

Mr. Blue Eyes click for larger photo

May 18, 2004 - Tuesday

Today is the 30th anniversary of Sonny Kaniho's experiment with nonviolent civil disobedience in Waimea on the Big Island, which was aimed at lease policies of the Hawaiian Homes Commission which favored commercial over homestead use of certain lands. I was fortunate to be part of the group that went to Waimea to support Sonny and take part in the protest, and my photos of the day (and the aftermath of the subsequent trial) are among the photos elsewhere on this site.

The Star-Bulletin's Big Island reporter, Rod Thompson, did a brief "Whatever happened to..." column on Saturday about Kaniho, which described the 1974 protest.

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent review of recent reporting on the Bush administration's rejection of internal objections from military lawyers, the secretary of state, and others in their rush to approve new guidelines for treatment of prisoners which appear to have opened the door for abuse and torture. It's just unfortunate that the reporting on this persistent dissension within the administration comes long after the fact. But, in this case as in so many others, better late than never.

Unfortunately, Editor & Publisher reports that the Christian Science Monitor is facing cutbacks ahead that could include staff cuts and new subscription fees.

I sure would like to know more about the dispute between Secretary of State Colin Powell and a staffer that disrupted this weekend's "Meet the Press" interview.

On the flap over Presidential candidate Kerry being upstaged by his daughter's revealing appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, the Washington Post column gathered my favorite comment:

Former Washingtonian Karen Fawcett, who has lived in France 17 years and runs the Web site bonjourparis.com, also yawned at the hubbub. "The French would say c'est normale -- it's absolutely normal. No one would look twice. They are much more bothered by war than they are by somebody's breasts."

May 17, 2004 - Monday

Here we go again, another rainy Sunday at home with the cats meant a lot of feline photo ops. So I just had to grab another round of favorite cats. Click on sleeping Silverman to view this batch.

Here's another quick pick-me-up: www.freewayblogger.com.

Former neighbor Bob pointed me to this NY Times column with an interesting take on the impact of the Internet on publishing.

And Gannett has released their latest monthly financial data showing advertising revenues continuing to rise.

May 16, 2004 - Sunday

For a quick lesson in how secretive Hawaii remains in comparison to some other parts of the country, check out this report on salaries of public employees compiled by the Washington State Office of Financial Management. From the Supreme Court to the Horse Racing Commission, employees are identified by name along with the amounts they were paid during the period. Nothing like this is available at any level of government in Hawaii, and it's certain that our public employee unions would argue that release of such data is illegal under state law. It's embarrassing to realize how inured we've become to this degree of secrecy.

Citing a "high-level military strategist", columnist Sidney Blumenthal, writing in The Guardian, reports this popular sentiment within the U.S. Army: "Support Our Troops, Impeach Rumsfeld"

Blumenthal goes on to describe an essay making the rounds among military strategists, "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012". A quick search found the essay available online via the U.S. Army War College.

Our early walk was rained out again yesterday, but threats of flooding overnight failed to materialize and it the rain has not started again, so far. But the cloudy mornings have had a beauty of their own.

We spent yesterday in a low-key celebration of my mother's 90th birthday, introducing my parents to the wonders of Antique Alley before heading to The Willows for their lunch buffet. My dad had the find of the day at Antique Alley--three colorful deep sea fishing lures for $100, a price he considered a real score for such primo items.

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