Homespun Honolulu

The parcel of land once known to all of us as Hawaii Raceway Park is scheduled to go on the auction block on Tuesday, February 2, 2010.  Once upon a time, (in years before 2006) hearts raced to the sounds of revving motors .  There will be no more of that kind of excitement near Campbell Industrial.

Some time ago I mentioned that it was a hard thing to lose Hawaii Raceway Park and that it affected a lot of people.  As dangerous as car racing is, Hawaii Raceway Park kept a lot of our youth in a legal racing environment, it kept them busy, and it kept them off the streets!  It was a passion they could share with others and it even provided potential career training for the automotive devotees.

I know that, at one time, there were people who blamed the closure of the Park for some of the motor vehicle accidents plaguing our streets.  We had a rash of racing on Honolulu’s roadways as young racing enthusiasts seemed to like using the public roadways and the H-1 freeway as outlets for their racing abandon.

Kapolei Raceway LLC had all of the intentions of restoring the park to its former glory, maybe better, but was apparently not able to manage the financial needs of this endeavor.  Despite all of the lobbying that fans did for its support.

Foreclosure is an ugly word for all but particularly for Honolulu’s racing community right now. This story seals it!  Sigh.  So many memories, so many stories.  The location has slid backwards in recent years with the loss of this and the feed lot.   I just know our beef tasted better back then.

Is Anybody Listening?

Meanwhile, Lt. Governor, Duke Aiona wants to talk about a Hawaii Sports commission.  Let’s see, race car driving is a sport.  Ya think?  Let me tell you where to be with Aunty Linda’s wallet on Tuesday!  Are you listening?!?

We should get that baby up and running again just in time to join in with Disney’s newest project, Aulani and… yeah baby!   Yo, Hawaii Tourism Authority, are you listening?   Keep the streets safer, bring the racing enthusiasts down here from the mainland for events, and put the burning rubber where it belongs — earning money instead of burning taxpayer dollars!

“Is anybody listening?  Let us know!”

Excuse me, Mr. Mayor?  I thought we were cleaning up Honolulu’s Chinatown.  How much are we expected to pussyfoot around crap like this?  I’m sorry guys but this has got to stop!  I work only five or so blocks away from these areas and I live only about a mile away.  I walk these streets and I run passed those areas.  My friends, family and loved ones do too. 

We all, at one time or another, shop in the vicinity of this drama — during the day time.  Something happens around here when the sun goes down.  The rule of thumb that I generally follow is to not travel west of Nuuanu after sunset.  There’s already blood on the street between Fort and Smith Streets because of the raunchy clientele over there; you don’t even have to get to Nuuanu. This is ridiculous.  Sometimes you even have to get mauka of Vineyard Blvd before it’s safe.    

Since other cities have no problem giving one-way tickets to homeless people (yes, we all know about it), why don’t we do the same for the non-resident homeless and the drug pushers?  Send them back!  

Send the drug lords skanks in a separate boat, a leaking one.  Vicious?  Perhaps.  But, Chief Correa of the Honolulu Police Department is right, they have no business here!  They have no right to shed blood on our streets and we have no desire to lose any of our officers to their shenanigans either!  

This is our home and they’re tarnishing all the beauty and camaraderie that we have tried so hard to create and propagate.  I’m not making this up.  The Honolulu Advertiser stated that both the residents and the merchants are concerned that the increase in crime will “undo years of revitalization efforts.”

It’s cool when our own local newspapers and media take these things to task but it’s a little troubling when blogs and media outlets elsewhere pick this stuff up.  I am pleased that The Snitch (I like that name) was kind enough to actually accept the ownership of this particular gang element.  Thanks, Joe.

Even the kama’aina homeless are afraid.  They don’t admit to their fear but when they talk among themselves you can hear it in their voices. Hello, Mr. Mayor?  We’re supposed to be focused on making our home green, not blood red. 

With tears in my eyes I ask you why.  Why is it that I, my friends, and my neighbors have to be afraid to take the dog for a walk or to go buy a damn soda?  Tell me!

Sometimes, patience is a virtue.  Sometimes falling behind in your blogging can be a blessing.  Check this out, back in January I started to write this post and then, for some reason, I thought better of it, saved it, and held off publishing it.

This is how I started:

“You have GOT to be kidding me!  What kind of a court master would recommend such a thing?  No, I’m not the only one who is reacting this way.   You’ve got to love the Honolulu Advertiser for letting people leave comments and share their opinion!

“For those who don’t know what all of the hollering is about, you might want to check out Samuel King and Randall Roth’s book, Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, And Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust.  See, the corruption that all of us remember so vividly resurfaces whenever something as preposterous as this makes the headlines.  This horrible story made headlines across the Nation about ten or eleven years ago. 

“Let’s put it this way, Bernice Pauahi would have thrown up her hands in horror if she had witnessed these now-historical events.  Of course, she also would have thrown up her hands in horror when they removed the Bishop name from the name of the school.  So great a love should not have been dealt such a horrible blow.  Perhaps we’ll talk about that at a later date.”

As luck would have it, my blogger muse held off pursuing this story, right at that moment.  Part of what held me back was a secret hope that the trustees would do something exactly like what they’ve done!

After the courts approved their raise, the trustees opted to take a 10% cut instead.  I’m serious — they cut their own pay!

In short, the answer to the question in the title of this post is, “No, there are no hairline cracks.  The Trust was mended some time ago and the trust of the people was restored.”

What did they say about it?

“The trustees are committed to the keiki our trust exists to serve, and to the careful management of resources that will allow Kamehameha Schools to educate native Hawaiians in perpetuity.”

A historical resource like this one needs to be protected and it sounds like the trustees are taking their fiscal and fiduciary responsibilities seriously.  Mahalo and kudos to the Kamehameha Schools trustees. 

Kamehameha Schools is a fine institution that produces some very fine graduates.  The students learn the subjects that all the schools teach, of course, but they also learn the history and culture of Hawai’i to a greater degree than most.  The trustees protect and preserve the trust and its ability to educate while the students leave with the benefit and ability to protect and preserve the culture.

I have other stories that I’ve held back on and I’ll share my initial, knee-jerk reaction with you guys and then tell you why I’m glad that I held back.  Yeah, this one could have been two blog posts but I have no desire to cut people down — until I find out that I’m justified in doing so.  I did not say that I would stop being a b*tch if I’m pretty darn sure that I’m right. 

Why am I writing this?  I have no idea.  Well, I had all of these pictures to start a blog post or two and I just have to talk about things that annoy me.  I have to admit, this all took some thinking on my part because the series and sequence of events all blended together at some point.  Let’s go back a few weeks and take it from the start.  Back on December 26th, Oahu’s power lines were hit by lightening.  They say lightening doesn’t strike twice but Hawaiian Electric Company took it in the electrical wires five (5), yes five times that day.

HECO Finds the Cause

I’m glad that Hawaiian Electric Company was able to pinpoint just how this calamity happened.  I will agree that nobody likes a company that sends them bills in the mail.  But, oddly enough, I’ve felt the need to jump in and back HECO up on this.  Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants and I’m afraid HECO was outflanked this time.  Most people were out of power for something over 12 hours — it was 20+ hours for us.  I have no problem being without power for a while but I really hate throwing away all of that food.  Ugh!  In spite of it all, HECO still offered to provide financial restitution to those who apply for it.

Mother Nature the Terrorist

We’ve been through a sufficient amount of natural disasters recently that have left some areas a little shell-shocked.  there have been heavy rains causing some very damaging flooding, we’ve had high winds taking the roofs off houses, and there have been combination storms that have kept us in the dark for several hours.  Now that these events are over and we’re sufficiently on edge, what happens when the weather service warns of a windy storm on its way?  State officials and the Department of Education decide to close all public schools.  “They what?!?” They never did that when I was in school!  We always braved the wind, rain, waves, mud, etc.  It did not take long for the private and charter schools to follow suit.  Fine, whatever.

Wait, it gets better.  All State and City & County offices are closed!  “You have GOT to be kidding me!”  Let’s see, Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the general consensus was that they all wanted a four-day weekend.  Fine, whatever. What happened on that Friday?  Nothing.  No hurricane.  Maybe a drizzle, maybe not.  Traffic was a lot lighter.

A Trashy Day Off

Absolutely amazing.  Road work?  It’s a holiday; what are they talking about?  Who put that sign there?  I’m nosy, I need to know.  I don’t see any road work, they must have forgotten to pick the sign up during the week — maybe they left in there on Friday when they were suddenly closed for the day.

Surprise!  They were indeed on the road side, on a holiday, picking up somebody’s opala (trash) that was dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road.

This stuff fries me!  It’s bad enough when people dump garbage and abandon vehicles in obscure locations, but when they dump it on the side of the road in a residential area, especially a rural relief area (that’s what I call them) that exists so very close to the city but is still so very peaceful and simple, it absolutely makes my blood boil!  Dump it in your own damn yard, you slobs!  Grrrr!

When I saw what was going on and successfully checked my temper, I realized that I needed to talk about this.  It took me all of about thirty seconds to turn my car around and head back to take these photos.  Doing so rattled the City & County workers.  Does that make me the terrorist?  :)  I think I’ve mentioned before that people are afraid of cameras.  But, when they heard my snarky reaction to the whole thing, they happily joined my rant and understood the intent.

This is what was left after they filled their trucks the first time.  They reassured me they would be back for the rest but this gives you some idea of just what a big pile it was.  A comment was also made that citizens like us hire people to do a job, pay to have the trash hauled away, and this is where it ends up.  It’s hauled away alright but I’m sure the homeowner did not have this kind of disposal in mind!

You know, if you’re doing a job that requires this kind of heavy hauling and disposal and you do not want to pay the fees at the dump, I suggest that you find some other line of work.  Those fees are part of the cost of doing business.  They are a legitimate, tax-deductible, business expense.  But then again, maybe you don’t pay your taxes either?  There was something else that troubled me — there seemed to be more than one line of business here.  There was a lot of flooring debris making up this pile but there were also several cans of paint.  Those paint cans do look old.  Alright, I suppose a homeowner could have done this themselves.  Auwe!

The City & County workers were the ones who pointed out that I “should see what’s over the wall.”  The river is right below this and we wonder why there are so many signs about dumping and cautions about contaminated water?

For the record, later that same day I saw a State employee leaving the Capitol and I said, “Don’t tell me you guys are working?”

“Yep, only half-day though. Since we had Friday off we came in to work half-day.”

Aha!  So they guilted themselves into working on the Monday holiday to make up for what didn’t happen on Friday.  Okay, you guys are forgiven.

There may have been a storm but this is where it really went.  The only real evidence of any storm that I saw was the kicking shore breaks on the west side of Oahu, a nice 30+ miles away from where the City & County was taking away all of that trash.  The water looked so inviting but the warning signs and little orange flags kept everyone out of the water.  Just watching the water and smelling the salt air is enough to make us forget the problems and focus on the beauty that is our home. Why did I write this?  I don’t remember.

Normally I would just ignore a story like this but I decided to read it.  I’m still angry about the so-called “hunter” who killed someone’s pet not too long ago.  This time is different.  An officer, charged with keeping the peace and protecting the environment for the State of Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, overstepped his bounds. I need to side with the hunters and their families on this one. 

I used italics and quotes around the word hunters at the beginning of this post because the idiot who killed someone’s pet was anything but!  He was stupid, obnoxious, on private property, and a slew of other things I could say.  I grew up around people who hunted regularly and  something like that was unheard of! 

I never liked the sport because I tend to hate anything that involves the killing of animals.  But, we really need to look at the big picture.  The goal is to catch the animal, not to torture it.  The animal is not discarded, it is used to feed those who are lucky enough to benefit from such a catch.   I speak from experience when I tell you that wild boar blows away the fatty pork you buy in the grocery store! It makes the best laulau. 

Okay, all of that aside, we need to remember that the wild pigs on Oahu are not indigenous to our islands, they are destructive to our rain forests, and they probably have a huge hand in all those leptospirosis warning signs we see posted near many of our rivers.  In short, the hunters (the real ones) are doing us a favor.   

I will say that, yes, on one reported occassion, there were youngsters who broke the rules and were trespassing.  Those rules are there to protect our property and safety.  Agreed.  But, I’m sorry, you don’t pull a gun on a bunch of minors because they were being stupid.  What was he thinking?!?  I am also of like opinion with those sharing the details that a loose canon like that should not be carrying a gun, nevermind any other kind of weapon.   

Let’s see, I do believe that the Honolulu Police Department would classify that as assault and terroristic threatening.  Even HPD would not hire an abusive person like that.  In the real world, we all know that you don’t uphold the law by behaving like a criminal yourself! 

If the DLNR officer in question is that caustic and confrontational, he should join the Army and go to Afghanistan.  This is not a war zone, it’s a community — a crowded one where tempers do flare, but it is a community nonetheless.  

Sending out a special aloha to Ollie Lunasco, the current President of the Oahu Pig Hunters Association, and to the community on the North Shore that I don’t write nearly enough about.  I have to admire you guys for standing up for what’s right and for following up and not just letting it slide — that’s a Neighborhood Watch at its best!   

I shouldn’t have to think like this but, I’m sorry, I have trust issues.  I don’t trust how the rail issue went down.  I have lost faith in the City government, the judiciary and the power of the people’s voice.

We need to work together and not have someone thrust things down our throats without any of us having a say.  I’m not one for sensationalism but I do tend to get excited when I think something is amiss or when I think my rights and the rights of my fellow citizens have been slighted.

Stop Rail Now may have run into a brick wall while trying to get the rail question on the November ballot but, in spite of the resistance, there will indeed be a question about this issue on the ballot.  KHON2 reports that the question will read, “Shall the powers, duties and functions of the city through the director of Transportation Services include the establishment of a steel wheel on steel rail transit system?”  The wording, the City’s wording, does not say much but it will show the overall view of Honolulu’s citizens as a whole.  If the vote is strongly against it, I can’t see how they can continue to pursue it.  However, this question does not stop them from putting rubber wheels in motion.

For the record, when I called the City Clerk’s office, they said there was no question on the ballot.  Seriously, that’s what I was told.  Like I said, my faith in our city’s governance has been severely shaken.  The question better not be tampered with when the ballot goes to print!  Trust me, I’m going to check!  The whole situation has my dander up and this incredible ignorance is just unbearable.  You know, “we’re not sure,” would have been a better answer.  It would have still been stupid but at least not as blatantly ignorant and borderline argumentative.

Kanu Hawaii has provided some interesting thoughts and ways to think things through.  I’m not saying I agree with it all, I’m just saying we should all think clearly on this matter and then vote!  Personally, I guess I have to come clean on my opinion, I’m still leaning towards the ‘HOT’ lanes like that pictured above.  There were be little to no damage to our skyline and would actually go somewhere useful, rather than nowhere like the rail is being set up to do.  Mahalo to HonoluluTraffic.com for that attractive rendering.

This issue has made it as far as New York!  Maybe we’re setting up a model of resistance for other states to follow.  They ask our opinions about other stupid things, why don’t they ask us about something we actually care about and that actually matters?  The whole idea needs to be ridden right outta town!  I’m originally from the Leeward side, Makaha to be exact, and I commuted to UH Manoa for over four years so, yes, I do know what that drive is like and I do have a vested interest both in the preservation of the beauty of my home and the liquidity of my City’s finances!

Remember when they covered the news with all of those stories about the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo? Remember we bombed the heck out of what was once Yugoslavia because of those claims?

Pure fiction! They lied to us! There was no such ethnic cleansing. It was all propaganda and false media reporting. How can we now look away and ignore this? Has our entire country become so parochial that we’re comfortably oblivious to the atrocities that are done with (and sometimes without) our citizen’s oblivious stamp of approval?

I know the newsies are laughing at me. Yeah, I know, you news experts are chuckling and wondering why I’m so surprised. You’re thinking, “They always lie to us, didn’t you know that?” Yeah, okay, I know. But this, for me anyway, is way beyond anything I have experienced in the way of deception by my own government.

If our government officials had said to us that we needed to protect our interest in the oil, we would have understood that. The problem is, they know we would have NOT understood, or tolerated, our country backing drug-trafficking terrorists! That’s what they were doing.

Are you mad yet? Believe me, it took me a while to cool down enough so that this post wouldn’t sound like raving lunacy. So, why am I writing about this? What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with Honolulu? Read on…

The United States is not without its share of Serbian Americans. Serbian Orthodox churches all over the United States held big demonstrations about our (the United States of America’s) condoning of the Kosovar Albanians claiming Kosovo as their own — declaring independence in a land that is not and never was theirs.

My friends and members of my Church family are deeply hurt by this — hurt from personal, historic, religious and ethnic standpoints. Comparatively speaking, the declaration of disgust expressed in Honolulu was very small, but just as sincere and heartfelt nonetheless.

They gathered a concerned few together and met in front of the Federal Building just outside of downtown Honolulu. What America has done, without the knowledge of its citizenry, is to create a stage for this mess to play out where the outcry is too soft to be heard. Nobody is talking about it. The media is disinterested because there is no mob and there is no violence in the street. The feeble cry of, “but Kosovo is Serbia!” falls on deaf ears.

Yes, people were more than willing to talk it through — more than willing to explain their position and why it hurts them. I was able to get the full impact of those explanations. But, where do I go for a disinterested party?

At this point of discovery I am angry. I needed more information to make a case for seeing the Serbian side of this Kosovo conflict. I needed more to disagree so vehemently with my own government — the government that is supposed to be doing good throughout the World.

Increasingly frustrated and still in denial that my country could be so deceitfully secretive, and leave us with no access to news from the other side, I kept searching. You see, it’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we just don’t know and we don’t fully understand the degree of our involvement.

Other countries think our calm is because we’re wimps. That is not the case. We are seeking knowledge and trying to ascertain the truth. I don’t want to hear governmental rhetoric that is laced with “creative” truths, aka lies, that are designed to sway public opinion. Give me the facts and let me make my own decisions on the movements of the people we voted into office!

Do we have culture clashes going on here? Definitely. Hawaii, of all places, should be used to it! Well, for the bulk of the population, the Slavic nations haven’t made a large enough impact on Hawaii to keep us all paying attention to what’s going on with their cultures and their homelands. We keep track of China, Japan and the Philippines, but, for the most part, the European Union seems to be kind of off our radar.

The media (I refer here to mainland media — our local stations are exempt on this topic) is obviously hell-bent on lying to us. Either that or they’re being strong-armed or paid huge sums to rewrite the facts. So, we need news sources that come directly from the people — people who are in the middle of it all and know the truth. Fox News is already on my list of places not to listen to because they shoot their mouths off before verifying their information — anything for headlines and to be first with breaking news — even if it’s false!

I really don’t want to add CNN to that ugly place of distrust. Sigh. This is a classic reason why we need something like the blogosphere if we expect to get the truth. We’ll get particles of truth, but at least they’ll be just that — the truth! When I say blogosphere I mean real people, not spin-off blogs from the news channels — those are just the same thing we already get from the media with some added editorial comment. They’re not bad, they’re just not reliable when the honesty of their station(s) is being questioned.

The blogosphere I’m talking about is the actual people living in the neighborhoods they’re talking about. The real people that understand the culture and current events and are living and sharing their lives with the world through their blogs.

While our local media and blogs are quiet about the topic of Kosovo, the blogosphere as a whole is not without its opinion and voice on this matter. Nothing Against Serbia tells us about how Zurich has heard the pleas of its Serbian population.

So, Now What?

Where do you think the United States stands with Serbia now? Our applauding this illegal drama has made Russia mad at us too. Have we made enemies out of our friends?

The damage has been done, so what will Washington do now to keep the peace? Anything? Hmmm… I wonder what Barack Obama would do to fix the situation? I don’t know. Perhaps he will open the lines of communication and help mend the rift and discuss options with all involved. What would Hillary Clinton do? NOTHING! Her husband was president when it started! What will McCain do? Nothing — he and his party want to continue it all in their “business as usual” manner.

What can we do? Not much. As citizens we can acknowledge the injustice done to our brethren so far across the globe, we can send venom-filled letters to our representatives in Congress, or we can pray for them as seen here.

Why does our Russian Orthodox Priest see this as important? Aside from the fact that Serbia gave refuge to the Russian Orthodox so many, many years ago, when so many were threatened by the communists, Father Anatole justifies his prayerful support in this way:

First of all, ANY immoral act, whether committed by an individual or by a government, must be condemned in no uncertain words. Let me just cite a few undisputed facts connected with the Kosovo debacle:

1. Kosovo is not only a territory which formed the heartland of Medieval Serbia, but by long standing tradition it is the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate. In addition, there are (or were) many historically important churches and monasteries in Kosovo.

2. When NATO, led by the United States, was threatening to bomb Serbia and Kosovo, the Kosovar Terrorists (a.k.a. ‘freedom fighters’ in the United States) were demanding full independence from Yugoslavia. At that time Clinton’s girdle saleswoman, Madeline Albright, told the Kosovar Albanians that ‘unless you only ask for autonomy, NATO cannot bomb the Serbs.’ Well, since the Albanians wanted Serbs to be bombed they changed their demand to ‘autonomy’.

3. NATO was originally formed to defend Western Europe from aggression from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries. Yugoslavia, at the time of the bombing was not allied with the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact had disappeared. Thus, the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO was not an act mandated to it – it was interference in the internal affairs of a country that had not attacked anyone.

4. During Miloshevich’s crackdown against the Albanian separatists in Kosovo it was the Serbian Orthodox Church that did its best to shelter and defend innocent Albanian civilians. And what thanks did it get after the Serbs were driven out of Kosovo? Churches, monasteries were burned and desecrated, and the NATO peacekeepers did little to stop the Kosovars from doing their ‘ethnic cleansing’.

5. There is so little law and order in Kosovo now that after NATO eventually pulls out, the remainder of the Serbs in Kosovo can only expect genocidal attacks against them. (And the Kosovars can be sure that they will be in no way punished by NATO and the United States for that.)

6. Finally, the Israelis, if not the United States government, have spotted the precedent, a very unfavorable precedent for them, in the Kosovo situation. If NATO can bomb a sovereign state because that state refuses to grant independence to one of its territories where a particular ethnic group is in the majority and even engages in terrorist acts against it, what is preventing the Palestinians from declaring independence in Gaza and the West Bank? After all, logically, NATO should be protecting them against Israel by bombing the Israelis. One may also add to this, the Kurdish separatists in Eastern Turkey, the Basque separatists in Spain, etc., etc.

Does he know what he’s talking about? You bet. A now retired linguistics professor from the University of Hawaii, Father Anatole has had his own ethnic reasons to follow the news of the Slavic regions all these years. He is Russian and he was born in Yugoslavia where his mother, like many other Russian people fleeing the Russian communist regime, was given sanctuary.

Peaceful by nature, with a strong and passionate Christian Faith, prayers over the icon of the Serbian saint, Saint Lazar, offer some peace to the distressed Serbs who continue to watch their ethnic homeland and the holy places of its national Church being desecrated. This is all the more hurtful when the land they now call home applauds these visual and mental horrors.

Why is America Being So Disagreeable?

Caution: The following is my paranoid opinion section based only on my own thoughts and observations.

Could all of this be the reason for the rise in the cost of gas? The new pipeline to transport the ever-coveted oil from one country to the next is an ongoing project. That pipeline runs right through Kosovo! Hello?!?

Okay, maybe that’s being just a little too paranoid but, $9 billion of oil revenue has suddenly vanished? (I was listening to Dianne Feinstein on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and had to go get the transcript just to confirm what I thought I heard.) Was that to fund the sending of more soldiers to “help” the citizens of Iraq or are we going there to distract the American public from the travesty in Kosovo? What ever they’re doing, it’s working.

Let’s think about it:

Tibetan Monks being persecuted by China, we say nothing. There’s no oil involved.

Darfur abuses are running rampant and we verbally condemn them, but nothing more. There’s no oil involved.

Yet phony genocide is retaliated with war with a country over it’s own property. That would be like Mexico taking over California or Cuba taking of Florida and calling it their own, with the help of the army from yet another country. What were we thinking? It’s all about the oil.

Okay, that’s the end of my paranoid opinion section.

I was almost ready to wrap this up and then I ran into this article about Russia, China, and India looking to revisit this very issue with Kosovo. The article opens with:

“The US administration rejected with derision Thursday’s joint call by Russia, China and India to resume talks on the future status of Kosovo.”

With “derision?” Who the hell do we think we are?!? I swear we have no diplomacy or shred of decency left! We have GOT to change what’s going on in the White House.

Still hungry for more? There are articles galore but here is just a bit more reading if you care to absorb more information about this fiasco. I just can’t stand this oil-based hypocrisy.

We’ve all been distracted by what’s going on in the political arena at the national level and the ability of candidates to ignite a country behind them and their campaigns. Honolulu has its own political drama going on over here. This is not as glamorous by any stretch of the imagination yet, suddenly, it’s another one that is winning the support of the people.

These are the real people! They’re taking this seriously and the media, at least for now, is taking it seriously too. I saw KGMB, KHNL, and K-5. The others may have been there too but I’m not sure. I love the sign, “If You Build it, They Won’t Come.” We’ve been saying that from the start but only in conversations among friends and co-workers.

You have to wonder why we weren’t consulted. How can someone, even if he is the Mayor, have this kind of unilateral control over our land, our skyline and our money?!? Because we let him. Dennis Callan (above left), a photographer for the Hawaii Geographic Society, and Dr. Michael Uechi (above right), a physician, are looking to change all of that. The purpose of this “grassroots” movement is to get 40,000 signatures in the next 90 days so that we can get this question on the November ballot — as it should have been from the start! What will it say?

“Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail transit.”

We should have been asked, we should have been the ones to make this decision and we’re going to try to take this decision making back! The Stop Rail Now! campaign was just ignited yesterday at Honolulu Hale. Of course I just had to be there because my feathers have been ruffled for a long time and I needed to flock with the birds of the same feather! In addition, there are so many ideas out there and there have been studies going on to work through the traffic problem without ruining our home.

Quite obviously, this whole transit thing has become a very volatile topic of discussion. I knew I had a lot of angst about it but I thought everyone had just thrown up their hands and walked away from the whole thing. Uh, no they haven’t! Someone did say that a couple of the Mayor’s secretaries were out there taking notes. As I walked by I snidely remarked, “Oh, let me give them a pen!” Attitude? You bet — it’s all about “By the People, For the People!” Darn! I forgot my t-shirt! Still in doubt? Check out this video!

Technorati Tags: Mass Transit, Stop Rail Now!, Honolulu Hale

I will apologize up front. I am angry and I’m not going to be very nice, or civil even.

This picture came from www.theage.com.au (via Yahoo!) and I hope they won’t yell at me for borrowing it. This little guy looks as angry as me and it seemed appropriate!

I have just about had it with the criminal element! This incident was the last straw for me when I heard about it. The incident in question apparently happened at the end of December but it wasn’t until recently that the media focused on it and I was able to hear about it first hand. That’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s a sickening story but there’s an article in the Honolulu Star Bulletin that gives the series of events more clearly and with the most detail.

Warning: If you’re sensitive to animal cruelty and/or have a weak stomach, don’t read it!

Although this is technically old news, I am even angrier now! These men confessed and now they go to court and plead not guilty?!? What?!? I’d like to throw their attorney in there with them! I wasn’t going to even talk about this because it was so nauseating. But, since I’m angry and still have one more angry story that I will talk about in a couple of days, I figured I might as well face it and get this one off my chest.

This crime is not only a legal issue, it is a social issue as well! Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, says it best in his blog article, Betrayal of Trust. I received an email from the Online Communications Department of the Humane Society’s mainland office that informed me about Mr. Pacelle’s article. Thank you, Meghan, for reaching out!

I wouldn’t waste tax payer money on these disgusting freaks. They did it. We know the did it. They confessed that they did it. What’s left? Lock them up and nail them to the full extent of the law! Sick bastards! We’ve got a new law that was long overdue so we should put it to work! I was not able to talk to anyone at our Humane Society office but I read in another article that they are doing some investigating into it as well.

So, I get to fuss and fume about it. Yesterday, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that a man reported “being robbed at knife point on Nuuanu.” This supposedly occurred at 1:30 AM. Thinking it was somewhere down near Chinatown (which wouldn’t be that uncommon at that hour), I ignored the story. However, I have it on good authority and from a reliable source, that this is where the caller was sitting in his car when the supposed incident happened…

According to the man reporting the incident to police, some hoodlum actually tried to cut him with a serrated knife that had a five-inch blade. What?!? So, he takes the guy’s DVD player and rides away on a bike (bicycle) according to the short article. He supposedly had a dark complexion and was wearing jeans and a gray shirt. Well, that’s not very helpful.

These pictures were taken around 6:00 PM or so last night — just before sunset. The parking lot, as you can see, is already deserted except for two, maybe three cars. What was the alleged victim doing there at 1:30 AM, on a Monday morning?!? As far as I’m concerned, I see them both as something to worry about — if the story is genuine!

I can’t even begin to explain how angry this makes me… on several levels. First of all, this is a quiet area and it is a church’s property, which neighbors another church’s property! Second and most important, just off to the left of this picture is the Soto Academy, i.e. an elementary school! Just off to the right, is Cathedral School! In addition, this parking lot is only about 200 yards or so away from Kawananakoa Middle School. On a personal level, I frequent this area, and sometimes after dark! Albeit, not at 1:30 in the frickin’ morning! Idiots! How dare these people!

This turf belongs to me and my neighbors! This is our home! Creeps! Don’t you be bringing your crime element crap, dangerous-weapon waving and loitering menaces around here! Hit the road, Jack(s)! I’ve been ripped off three+ times and I’m sick of it! Make your headlines elsewhere!