Otherwise the Gov't Will Shut Down ....

Like who really cared. After all the hoopla, the federal government didn't end up shutting down. Or, "Shut down was averted to the relief of the nation." On the other hand, it amounts to a huge disappointment for the federal workers who have to report to work on Monday. The last time the government shut down due to lack of funding, non-essential federal employees received their paychecks retroactively. Not a late paycheck. Because for the duration of the temporary furlough, they weren't physically there at the work place, but were paid irregardless to compensate them for the inconvenience. What a country. At any rate, the sure solution to our trillion dollar deficit is to enact an obesity tax, or a Fat Tax. As we speak, 65 percent of Americans are obese, albeit, the notion of a Fat Tax is ironic in the sense that the federal government stubbornly refuses to trim the fat from the body of it's own spending bills, but that's besides the point.




If you haven't heard, the latest polls show that Donald Trump has tied Mitt Romney for likable Republican candidates for president. In all probability, Trump's public campaign to prove Obama wasn't born in the US is responsible for the boost in ratings which doesn't speak well about the respondents of the polls in the degree that they're so hard up to replace Obama with a Republican president with the possible exception of the cult appeal shown for Sarah Palin in the wake of the Obama presidential victory even with Palin's equal lack of making any sense of her own mission. Trump mass appeal has been his trademark bluntness. He's been characterized as, "He says things that we think." Well, that's more due to the inherent advantage of being a billionaire. A billionaire is a billionaire is a billionaire. How many billionaires was that. The point is that it doesn't matter whether you have a paltry one billion dollars in the bank, or 70 billions and own the bank. You're still in the same billionaire's club. And you're more inclined to speak your mind whenever it suits your whims. However, when Trump demands that Obama show him his original birth certificate, or what was it, certificate of live birth, kinda confusing, just whom does Trump pretend to represent from which he derives the power of lunacy? In reality, a clear majority of 70 percent of Americans feel that Obama is a bona fide American citizen all the while Trump is trying to give the impression that he represents the nation.

7.1 Quake Hits off Japan

Japan's 7.1 magnitude earthquake this morning reminded me of something a blogger who I follow wrote last month. She and her family recently lived in Japan for a few years before moving to Qatar at the beginning of this year.

People close to me know that my greatest fear was to experience a large earthquake in Japan. For the first year we were there, it was my routine every night before I went to sleep to go through my personal earthquake drill. I needed to know the location of my keys, shoes, and coat. I went through the plan of where we would go if we had to leave our house in a hurry, and just how I would wake the kids in the event we had to flee in the night. Then my final prayer before I slept would be for protection.

Yesterday's News

Yesterday, I was watching the early morning local newscast (KITV), and I really don't know how long they've been doing it, but the morning hosts intermittently interrupted their regular programming to interview national celebrities in real time from different parts around the nation much like how the national tv shows do. The interludes were quite entertaining in light that the bulk of the early morning news is usually recycling yesterday's news stories. Their first celebrity was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the WWF wrestling champion. Stone Cold was promoting his reality tv show, but overall came across as a likable guy, which was a reprieve from having to endure listening to the female anchor's penchant, I won't mention names, of beginning every single sentence with an introductory laugh, and ending every single sentence with a closing laugh. After a while, her gig gets irritating, and I'd be replete not to mention, some local tv reporters do it better than others. It's like the song that gets stuck in your head but on a bad note.

Later, Donald Trump, was on the same broadcast. If you haven't heard, Trump's is busy advocating that President Obama wasn't born in the US and is thereof not American enough to be president. I think he meant president of the USA not the Trump empire. I don't quite understand the political strategy behind Trump resurrecting this claim, but Trump only comes off sounding as lolo as the Birthers before him whom never got anywhere with the same gimmick. If Obama was not born in the USA, than Obama would be essentially an illegal immigrant having never going through the process of been naturalized. And this is the same Trump that wants to run for president. Why the jackass be better of running as Sarah Palin's vice-president. It all strikes me as out of character from what I've watched of Trump. For example, Trump publicly stated that the Iraqi War was a needless war which very few fellow Repubs would have even allowed to enter their thoughts. Where went the credibility?

Much to my chagrin, the 2011 national basketball championship pre-empted this week's Hawaii Five-O episode.

Yesterday also marked the official opening of the World Trade Center's twin towers almost some four decades ago.

Southwest Airlines Mishap

The lesson in Friday's Southwest Airlines incident is that it's absolutely critical that passengers put on their oxygen masks before doing anything else whatsoever. For example, instinctively putting the child's oxygen mask on first. In the emergency, a passenger tried to assist an elderly man who had fainted in the aisle only to end up fainting himself. Both hadn't put on their oxygen masks. By all accounts you don't have too much time to act either. When the cabin looses air pressure suddenly, air whooshes out of your lungs. The ambient air pressure outside your lungs is so much lower at high altitudes than the air in your lungs, that the air in your lungs becomes instantly high-pressurized. A passenger's pen exploded due to the same pressure differential. Secondly, to restore cabin pressure, or diminish the negative effects of low pressure, the pilot will immediately dive bomb the airplane to a lower elevation. Understandably, the emergency decent might be misconstrued as a crash trajectory especially since the pilot is too busy under the circumstances to get on the plane's intercom and brief the passengers of the safety maneuver.

If You're Just Dying to Know .... It's, Mercury.

I don't know how much the Mercury mission cost NASA to the nearest billion, but I surmise the project was more inspired out of a spirit of, it's the journey not the destination, because obviously Mercury's landscape doesn't offer much in scenery on arrival. Apparently, Planet Mercury resembles Earth's moon. That we now know with 100% certainty courtesy of the fine folks at NASA. However underneath Mercury surface there might be gold glittering by the heapful and we all could use gold back on Earth. Or a mineral so potent that a bullet size portion of potent material would pack as much wallop as an intercontinental missile armed with multiple nuclear warheads.

Snooki gets $32K to talk ’GTL’ on Rutgers campus

Fyi, "GTL" translates into — gym, tanning, laundry. Why does Snooki command so lucrative a talking fee .... because Snooki is a cultural icon. Of course, so is Sarah Palin. What a ....

The Painters Were Back to Clean Off the Overspray .... Can't You Just Tell?

Obama Wants to Arm Libyan Rebels

President Obama announced yesterday that he may decide to arm Libyan rebels. What is wrong with this picture asides from the fact that only the day before, he proclaimed in a nationally televised speech to me and you and a war weary nation that the US is handing off the operation of the no-fly zone to the UN security forces to our collective sigh of relief? It doesn't take a 4-star general to assess that the rebels are out gunned by Colonel Ghadfi. Ghdafi has a larger weapons arsenal and billions of dollars at his disposal to buy more weapons along with hiring foreign mercenaries to snuff out the rebels with impunity. Whereas, the rebels have the equivalent of cork guns. You don't throw a civil war and show up with cork guns, not to mention ignore the dire situation when the corks run out. The revolution in Egypt was successful in large part because the Egyptian activists "studied the nonviolent tactics of Serbian and Ukrainian youth movements [ that overthrew Slobodan Milošević ] In the summer of 2009, Egyptian activist Mohammed Adel traveled to Serbia to take a course on strategies for nonviolent revolutions." Not so impromptu as it all might have seemed er releasing the genie in the bottle. Instead, somebody did their homework. The Egyptian activists knew before hand that if their protest rallies ever escalated into a military confrontation that Mubarak would trounce them. The Egyptian activists did themselves a favor. By extension they did the US a bigger favor. I'll go out on a limb and predict that the Egypt's April 6 Activists will be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize. Yea, like Obama received in 2009.

If you know the answer please clue me in, but what puzzles me is why Obama doesn't feel that the French, Italian, British, et al. shouldn't find it as morally urgent to arm the same Libyan rebels, and instead gather together a coalition among these nations to achieve the same ends, not withstanding the UN resolution that defines the humanitarian mission to protecting Libyan civilians not necessarily securing regime change by ousting Ghadafi. For the past few days, Obama has been mired insisting that the US won't, then the US will, but the US won't, type of public bulletins. Obama's latest "not rule out arming the rebels," appears to be a preamble to a done deal. Meanwhile, it's to the world's benefit that Ghadafi doesn't win the civil war because for one there'll obviously be an embargo imposed on Libya in the aftermath and oil prices will spike even higher in a not so distant future, so a Ghadafi victory spells bad news for anyone who drives a car. Honk if you like. Obviously, aiding the rebels with US weapons alone won't fortify the rebels enough to bring down the more powerful Ghadfi's army, but who knows with these things. That's primarily why Republican Party strategists are fumbling around to what degree to criticize the President's worthy goal. The Repubs don't want to be like the office worker who didn't chip in to buy the winning lottery ticket even though the odds of a rebel victory at this moment appears about the same.

The Lay of the Land

I happened to look down from my lanai (balcony) at 4am in the morning, and I see this person snoozing on the Ala Wai. Weather's great, undoubtedly. In all probability, Mr. Anonymous was bar hopping earlier in Waikiki and consumed too many alcohol beverages. For one, he bedded down right under a street lamp instead of the darker sections between two adjacent street lamps. Felt too lazy to get up and turn off the light switch. By the time he wakes up, Justin Beaver will have re-married already. Btw, it was a balmy 72° at 4am (weather bureau) and actually felt warmer. No chance of snow tonight.

The Onus

Another Hawaii Five-O tonight .... another re-run. What's up with that? Wasn't it just the other month that there was two Hawaii Five-O re-runs in a row. No can, la dat. On top of that, CBS removed the Five-O re-run video's from their website. So if you're late turning on the tv, 9pm HST, to watch Hawaii Five-O, you've missed out on the murder which happens at the very beginning of every episode.

I watched part of Obama's speech to the nation in which he justified his intervention in Libya establishing NATO's no-fly zone. It boils down to essentially a damned if you do, damned if you don't, type of situation and electing the lesser of two evils about which course of action to undertake, abeit, with this situation, if you tossed a coin up in the air to decide between Door One or Door Two, the coin would land on the floor straight up. Well, not as simple as that. Did Obama make the right choice? The bottom line is that you can't bring tens of thousands of dead Libyans back to life had Ghadafi rained down genocide upon them as he seemed ready to do. The victims would be dead permanently. But (paraphrasing).... "stained America's reputation permanently"....?? "While other nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities, America is not like that"....?? Just when did Ghadafi become this merciless dictator? Yesterday? It's not the scenario of the snake that escaped from the Bronx Zoo. Apparently, it remains inherently the US's manifest destiny to save the world or peril having a bad conscience. Of which there have been numerous encores and undoubtedly enough to follow. Somehow, Italy, and France, et al., a stone's throw across the Mediterranean Sea from Armageddon, aren't faced with the same dilemma. It doesn't appear neither that Russia nor China want a piece of the action. They avoid these situations like the plague. Is it then more of a strategy of positioning your nation to stay out of these quagmires? America wrote the book on how to get into military quagmires. Catch-22 on how to exit. It's almost amounts to an addiction, don't want to be an addict, but as soon as the next opportunity arises, back to the same drugs for the same high. Random thought .... would the Libyan rebels, if they win their civil war, will the Libyan liberators send a brigade of troops to Afghanistan to support US forces in the spirit of things? Whoopsie, it is sacrilegious for a Muslim nation to fight alongside infidels against a fellow Muslim nation. However, by the same virtue, isn't Ghadafi's army, Muslims who fight against Muslims rebels who would have been annihilated without air support from Nato, if you get the gist.

There It is Again....

If I see .... if I hear .... this ad one more time, I'm gonna scream real loud.

If you click the button, will the ad go away permanently?

Obama and His Libya War

Bruddah Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech this Monday explaining to the nation his decision to support the UN no-fly zone over Libya. In reality, "UN" is just a transactional label. The US always shoulders the heavy lifting in any of the UN's humanitarian missions. For example, of the 175 cruise missiles launched at key Libyan military installations, only 6 were non-US military cruise missiles. Obama's main reason for Monday's speech is to justify his use of the US military without first asking for and acquiring a formal declaration of war from Congress. According to the constitution (since 1973), a president can legally deploy the US military for wars under 60 days duration without a full congressional hearing, so forth.

I don't believe Obama's critics have the upper hand in this controversy. After all, Obama lectured as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, so he's himself an expert on constitutional law and I would think well versed on the how the constitution applies to the limits of presidential powers. The 60 day clause, itself, is confined to imminent threats to the US homeland or our citizens abroad. Obviously, a civil war in Libya does not constitute an imminent threat to the US. However, without a no-fly zone, Ghadfi would have massacred a lot of his countrymen. Granted, preventing genocide from taking place in a foreign country is not genuinely part and parcel of the 60 day clause, but I believe Obama is nonetheless entitled to a pass on the issue of arguably bypassing Congress by virtue that the alternative of standing by and allowing genocide to run it's course would have been an imminent threat to America's standing as the official caretaker of the world.

True, there are numerous nations in the world that the gov't have been and still are killing off their people like flies through one instrument of extermination or another, but the situation in Libya has arisen as part of the wave of the democratic revolution erupting in that Middle East region, which makes a genocide in Libya stand apart to the world's other killing fields. In addition, Obama can claim that he was simply fulfilling the America's obligation as a member of NATO who implemented the no-fly zone under the UN Security Council's umbrella. If that doesn't calm his critics, than Obama can still fall back on his penchant for being clueless. Or at least appearing clueless in the face of major issues. Gitmo. Afghanistan. BP oil spill. Health Care Reform.

Some members of Congress would like to make the most of this opportunity by impeaching Obama. The critics from the Republican Party realize that with next year's presidential elections, Obama, who had the least Washington DC related experience among all the candidates running for president in 2008, will now have the most experience under his belt on his 2012 credentials. Understandably, it is imperative that the Republicans bring down Obama now. By Sunday if they would have it their way. Otherwise, things look bleak for the Republicans to reclaim the White House in 2012. Mind you the same Republican critics accusing Obama of abusing presidential powers never muttered a word against Bush's indiscretions. Specifically, any time the constitution inhibited Bush's whims, Bush invoked the presidential privilege of submitting a "signed statement" which had the effect of excepting the president from a congressional law that limited the powers of the president in the relevant area. The problem with this, is that, the "signed statement" was signed by the president himself. Essentially, the president signed his own excuse slip.

The question in my mind because I care so much for world peace and watch too much 24-hour news channels is, "Just who are the Rebels that are opposing Ghadfi, and will the rebels have enough generosity to share power with the People if they defeat Ghadfi?" However, the question is moot, because as things stand, Ghadfi will annihilate the opposition. Ghadfi has way more fire power at his disposal, while the rebels are groups of disparate tribes whose only true unity will be sharing the same jail cell when the dust settles. Another question....why is Libya important asides from the prospect of becoming the newest Middle East nation to convert to democracy? Libya is ranked 19th in the list of oil producing nations in the world. However, Libya has the 9th most proven oil reserves globally and sweet crude grade which yields more gasoline and less tar. Why then does the nation with the 9th most proven oil reserves produce relatively so little oil in light of the world's growing demand for oil? They simply don't need the extra revenue with the size of their population. Libya has only 7.5 million people. New York City has more residents. Ghadfi could bribe off the revolters by offering every Libyan man, woman, and child a $1000 a month stipend for life which is a lot of money in Libya.

The Middleman

I was busy at work the past week and the Ides of March passed by without much fanfare. Union wages with $500 per day on weekends. Week days with comparable pay. Not too shabby, but therefore, no computer. Once you get on the computer there's a clear and ever present risk that you might end up still on it late into the morning hours. At daylight, you drag ass, and no if's, and's or butt's, about it, you get your ass kicked off the job. I just couldn't restrain myself from the previous sentence. Self-censor it yourself if it offends your sensibilities. Other than that, nothing substantive to report on except the job was a slam bam pace to finish up the project on schedule and the project is indeed done. And done well, if I may add myself. Oh, is it only me, or is a pound of margarine more expensive than a pound of butter at the grocery store?

The problem with a "few" carpenters, and won't mention names, is their lack of money management skills to a point where....this female carpenter at work, "I like drink soda for lunch, but I no mo $1.50 for the soda machine." That's not a rhetorical statement. It packs an agenda. Meaning, "Like, go and find the $1.50 somewhere else, LOL." Well, I only had a credit card but nonetheless, "I tell you what, the soda machine does accept credit cards, so I'll buy a soda for you, especially for you, when I buy mines at lunch." It's still a full two hours before lunch. No more than a ½-hour later, lo and behold, Female Carpenter is back informing me of a deal she just struck up to procure cigarettes fully aware that we both ran out of cigarettes for the rest of the day. She decrees that if I also buy a soda for the carpenter that she happened to be working with....

Apparently, the carpenter that Female Carpenter is working with, didn't bring one dollar bills to work. The soda machine doesn't accept denominations above one dollar bills. Of material, that aforementioned carpenter has cigarettes. As a standing rule, I pay 50¢ for every cigarette that I bum off from a fellow carpenter. Female Carpenter explains...."Well, since a bottle of soda costs $1.50, a bottle of soda equates to three cigarettes at 50¢ a cigarette by that exchange rate. Like, huh? How did I get to be a party to this transaction. But still, just about when I'm this far away from commending her, Female Carpenter spouts, "Now we get cigarettes to smoke." WE. Do the math, yourself. "I buy the cigarettes, not to mention the bottle of soda for you, and now, WE get to smoke the cigarettes that I get to buy. WE, didn't buy the cigarettes, and WE ain't smoking the cigarettes." Female Carpenter is a renown bi-polar in the trade quite famous for her frequent erratic outbursts, so I'll skip the details how that went over with her.

17th Annual Honolulu Festival Parade

The Japanese make up most of participants in the Honolulu Festival, and it's difficult to be in a festive mood in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, but today's parade was still a go. I've seen a video today on the tv of refugees at a meal station and there was a layer of snow on ground. Unimaginable situation. There'll surely be more first person videos to surface. Where could you upload those videos with power out everywhere.

Painting Update

The painters are still at it spraying our apartment building. Again, our building is the only high rise in Waikiki that has been spray painted instead of roller-brushed. Ever. And for obvious reasons. Just take a look at the overspray problem in the photo above. Our apartment manager said that the painting crew will perform a general clean-up once the painting stage is completed. The more they spray, the more overspray to scrape off, if that even begins to make any sense. What is not too reassuring is the lack of enthusiasm shown by the apartment manager to reconcile the overspray issue. According to the manager's grand plan, the painters are suppose to clean off solely the overspray on the top rail of the railing. The spindles aren't part and parcel of the same cleanup. The above pic is of the vertical post of the railing. Meanwhile, the rest of the narrower spindles are speckled to the same degree.

I think I know what's behind the manager's lack thereof. I'm inclined to believe he personally selected this painting contractor's bid which was half as much as other reputable painting companies. Probably thought that he had a feather in his hat having saved the apartment association a bundle and felt prematurely fuzzy all over. Unfortunately, the cleanup cost would exceed the painting contractor's low bid, itself, and the painting contractor would lose money in the process. Litigation is inevitable when, not if, the painting contractor balks at his obligation. Like the painting contractor will politely agree to take a lost without unleashing an army of excuses in defense of his wallet. Obviously, the situation will not bode well with the building manager's grand illusion as a financial genius to say the least. Meanwhile, he quoted the cost of the cleanup at $40 per apartment lanai (belcony). I mentioned perhaps, $100, but realistically, it's more like $200 per apartment lanai if you expect a professional quality cleanup.

In 2008, around there, the manager selected an inept tile man on the cheap to re-tile the lobby level floors. What a butcher job. Tiles crooked. Some corners of individual tiles sticking above the flat surface. I actually took the tile man aside and told him, "I'm in the trades myself. So, just between you and me, this is the way I suggest that you resolve the issue. Renegotiate your bid with the apartment association, so they pay you to fix your own mistakes. You're the low bidder by a large margin and the association can absorb the relatively low cost overrun. Either that, or the apartment association hires another tile man who is absolutely new to the layout with no guarantee that things wouldn't end up even more screwed up." Well, Mr. Inept Tile Man didn't take my worldly advice. But it's a free country. The gist of this is that apartment manager already screwed up big time trying to improve the common area of the apartment building only to end up accomplishing the diametrical opposite.

Honolulu Festival's Fireworks Display Cancelled

The Japanese make up the large majority of the visitors who have flown in for this weekend's 17th annual Honolulu Festival and as a show of respect there'll be no fireworks finale off Waikiki beach this year following Sunday's grand parade down Kalakaua Ave. (main drag). The fireworks were extra special this year, something about being under the direction of the City of Nagaoka that sets off one of the best fireworks shows in Japan. Under the present circumstances, a large portion of the Japanese contingent might not have full time jobs when they return home. And to return home, they have to re-book a departure which is sure to take a few days with the current backlog of flights. Not that Hawaii's troubles has any comparison, but the financial impact on Hawaii visitor industry will be in the hundreds of millions, even a billion dollars, as the number of Japanese visitors to Hawaii is sure to start to decline significantly in the coming months.

Saturday's Tidbits

That's former Hawaii radio broadcaster Kamasami Kong. Apparently, he's been living in Japan for a few years now. He was on CNN giving a first person account to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux about Japan's devastating earthquake. Podcast, here. The video takes too long to load, and Sypke quality anyways. Kamasami Kong was also on Bill O'Reilly on Friday. It seems that he's the unofficial point man for both major news channels.




This screenshot of the tsunami inspires thoughts of the Waikiki inundation zone. That green structure in the upper left hand corner of the photo is a dock crane to indicate the height of the tsunami surge. Waikiki is moated off by the Ala Wai canal on its inland boundary. A tsunami surge would simultaneously rush upstream and we'd be swamped from two fronts. Waikiki was mostly rice fields, before that taro farms, in swamp land, later filled in for where we stand now, that is, we're barely 2 feet above sea level at the highest elevation. And the Waikiki Zoo. In the back of my mind, I always wondered about the neighborhood if the lions and the tigers escaped their habitats and roamed the streets.

Friday Tidbits

Happy Aloha Friday. The cable clips that I ordered online arrived in the mailbox today. $2.90 online, $8.00 if bought locally. Free shipping with the online order. I think the cable clips are manufactured in China simply because there's no "Made in China" printed anywhere to be found on the package. These identical cable clips, 6 per set, sold locally, are usually labeled in English. These didn't even have English subtitles. Are they knockoffs? The factory mixes diced cardboard in the plastic for filler material. No that was with dim sim. At any rate I decided to check out the manufacturer's website and found 64-Gigabyte flashdrives sold for $16.00. 64-Gigabytes! Under the Kingston brand which I guess like any merchandise nowadays originate from China. The only catch is that you have to buy 10 flashdrives together. But you already knew that.



I was in Safeway in the morning and a cashier announced on the PA system, "No waiting in line on checkstand #9." I still had a few items to buy so I replied back to the PA system, "No thankyou." Than about 5 minutes later, another cashier on the PA system, "No waiting on Checkstand number something something." It's the sheer lack of customers. Many can't afford to buy groceries nowadays. Cashiers will be outta business if this keeps up.

8.9 Earthquake and Tsunami

This is yet unconfirmed, but all the water you see remaining in the wake of the tsunami in northeastern Japan....the lake hasn't receded because the elevation of the land along the coast has sunk below sea level and water has already seek it's own level. It's bad enough to have no warning that a tsunami is a minute away, but imagine if the land itself sinks, the height of the tsunami surge would increase in direct proportion. That part of the coastline would remain permanently submerged. But Japan is a resilient nation, for example, after the Kobe earthquake, and you don't get a sense of despair that as bad as the situation is, to the same degree had a 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami impacted a less modernized nation. Easy for me to say, from here, of course. And that's in regard to the long term situation not the immediate days. But there's absolutely no looting taking place. That type of mentality. The 17th annual Honolulu Festival kicks off tonight which has a couple thousand Japanese visitors and performers who have flown in for the event, and undoubtedly a large portion of the Japanese contingent would have flown home if the Japan airports were open. Kinda difficult to celebrate. Remember Kamasami Kong, the Hawaii DJ? Apparently, he moved to Japan, and he was on Piers Morgan Tonight Bill O'Reilly giving a first person account.