Soft Hope in Hard Times – May 20, 2008
If you've been reading this column lately, you'll have noticed that it usually has bad news to offer. That's pretty much the standard here at the National Affairs Desk, where we try to shine some light onto the dark side of current events whenever possible. The end result is rarely a pretty sight...
Onward, Christian Torturers – June 3, 2008
Meanwhile here in the real world, we actually do sanction torture. Cheney speaks openly about the decision in 2001 to "take the gloves off" and journey to "the dark side" in order to "deal effectively with suspected terrorists" and protect America from the bad guys.
The Genetic Food Fight – April 22, 2008
In a world where every living thing is a food source for some other living thing, from the ultimate predator to the most primitive microbe, the quality of life for every species and plant genus is directly related to the quality of food available. We are what we eat.
Since the dawn of Time humans have had WYSIWYG food - when you sat down to eat, What You Saw Is What You Got. If it looked and tasted like a potato, it was a potato. But you can't be as sure as your ancestors were about what's on your plate, because scientists are genetically modifying edible things in an ever-growing number of ways.
Rapid withdrawal: the Iraq solution – April 22, 2008
"...it gives me pause to learn that our vice-president and some members of the Senate are aligned with al-Qaeda on spreading the war to Iran."
Lt. Gen William Odom, Ret.
Gen. David Petraeus came to Washington this month and told Congress and the nation that we must continue the occupation in Iraq until – well, he never did say when he thought we might "succeed" at whatever it is we're trying to accomplish with our meddling in Mesopotamia. The general spoke in mostly vague terms but that's not necessarily his fault. Nobody in the current chain of command from President Bush to Ambassador Ryan Crocker seems to have a clear idea of what will constitute "success" in Iraq.
Senseless Images in Strange Times – April 9, 2008
What was the point, George? Why do this thing? Were there weird promises made that must be kept? Why face a certainly hostile crowd when you're almost home free, when by some strange twist of Fate you'll stroll out of office in less than ten months without being indicted or impeached for violating your Oath of Office in ways that no other President even dreamed of? Why, indeed...
Just spend more – it's the American Way – March 25, 2008
"Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that..." George W. Bush, Feb. 29, 2008
We need to spend more money fighting the GWOT, the Global War on Terrorism. I don't really know how much we spend altogether right now; you don't either, nor does anyone else, including the alleged experts on government spending. Their highly informed best guesses all tend to hover in the general vicinity of three billion dollars per week just for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. At home we spend about $4 billion per month to keep the Homeland free from Terror. We also know that we spend a secret amount of money to do all kinds of secret things all over the planet, but even the secret-keepers have no idea what the bottom line is for all those secret projects. Whatever the true total may be, it's apparently not enough.
Blasting them out of the water – March 25, 2008
There is a body of research that describes the adverse effects on human divers exposed to ordinary levels of active sonar. Those effects include dizziness, seizures and a loss of memory. The source of that research? The Navy, which conducted those tests and makes now makes certain that its own divers aren't in the water during LFAS tests. Rear Admiral James Symonds, who directs the Navy's environmental readiness program, has stated publicly that, "The Navy will continue to employ stringent mitigation measures to protect marine mammals during all sonar activities." Adm. Symonds use of the word "protect" is both incorrect and misleading. The Navy is taking active measures to lessen the impact on marine mammals; that's not the same thing as protecting them. The only way to "protect" cetaceans from LFAS blasts is by not firing those blasts at all.
Eighteen percent is all you need – March 11, 2008
Democracy is a wonderful thing. We should get one. The electoral process we have in America isn't democratic because it doesn't provide full representation of the wide variety of views that any nation of 300 million citizens will naturally hold. Instead we have a state-by-state, winner-take-all system that requires our president to be selected by electors, not by the direct vote of the people. It's riddled with arcane rules that are enforced differently by each state and political party. The end result is a kind of semi-controlled chaos that favors the best manipulators instead of the best representatives.
The Rising Tide of Rhetoric – February 26, 2008
I watch the various national news programs on television because that's part of what I do for a living, although I get the honest news from a myriad of better sources. While listening to political talk shows lately I keep hearing certain words and phrases being used as if they mean the same thing to everyone. They don't. Often those words have no common meaning; some have no real meaning at all. Here's just a few...
The Greatest Heist In History – February 12, 2008
The “ownership society” that President Bush was so proud of three years ago turned out to have a very short life. The housing market is in the middle of a serious dive that may end up in a fiery crash, and the rest of the world is buying up all the paper that mortgage companies are unloading as they attempt to maintain the illusion of control. According to a recent Pew Research poll, half of the Americans surveyed now think that they live in a society of haves and have-nots. That’s nearly twice the number of folks who felt that way 1988, and most of them see themselves as one of the have-nots.
Dinosaurs, Democracy and a Doomed Republic – January 29, 2008
The business of extracting fossil fuels from the earth is at its peak; a slow but steady decline in production looms in the immediate future. The practice of democracy in America has also peaked – but unlike crude oil, democracy hit its peak some fifty years ago and has been declining ever since. That slow slide into the abyss is quickening in these days, however, and the democratic process might die out completely long before the oil from the last dead dinosaur is burnt away.
Say what you mean – and mean what you say – January 15, 2008
The keyword in politics this election year is "Change", a word that means many things to many people. It's a word that candidates for president are embracing as their own, but only Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have offered any real definition of what the concept of change means to them.
Chipping Away Your Privacy – January 15, 2008
“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.” - William Gibson
If your passport is less than one year old, the future has certainly arrived for you. Implanted in all US passports after October of 2006 is a tiny radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that can transmit your name, nationality, sex, date and place of birth along with your digitized photograph. If the improperly named Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has its way – and it probably will – that data will soon include fingerprints and iris scans as well.
The Geocratic Revolution – January 3, 2008
Another kind of revolution in our country will be necessary before we can properly repair the damage we have done. It will be the Geocratic Revolution, a peaceful but persistent movement towards an Earthocracy, a system of governance that values equality for all human beings and holds jurisdiction over all human constructs. It will have no fixed ideas of how things must be, but will simply seek to find a relative balance for all things.
The Year We Hit Rock Bottom – December 20, 2007
The past twelve months have been historic on several levels, with much of it involving the loss of human rights that once were considered a fundamental part of American life. 2007 will be remembered as the year when the last crumbling pieces of a moral and ethical facade were stripped away and the true face of American government was exposed.
An Enduring Presence – December 20, 2007
You can forget about seeing all American troops withdrawn from Iraq anytime soon. All the front-running presidential candidates have made it clear that they envision keeping a large force in Iraq during their first term in office, if not longer. Congress had the chance last year to pass legislation forbidding permanent military bases in Iraq, but decided not to include that provision in the final vote. And most of the soldiers sent to Iraq in the future will live on four huge US bases that are already in place.
Everywhere is up from here... – Nov. 8, 2007
When it comes to living up to our own ideal as a nation, we've just about hit rock bottom. We kidnap and torture suspected terrorists, we owe nine trillion dollars to everybody and our soldiers are dying in a country we invaded "by mistake". How low is that?
A time for intervention: get in the way – Oct. 9, 2007
In 1866 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an explicit ruling that no emergency – not even an open civil war like the country had just suffered through – can justify the suspension or removal of any rights recognized by the Constitution. Although five of the justices were appointed by Abraham Lincoln, the Court delivered a message that Lincoln’s deliberate disregard of the law of the land during his “war presidency” was illegal. Their words were clear: “The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.”
War on terror a booming business – July 5, 2007
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military expenditure in 2006 – the total cost of maintaining armies across the globe – is estimated to be at least $1.2 trillion in current dollars. That's a 3.5 percent increase over 2005 and a 37 percent increase since 1997.
And all the King's Men: laying down the law on Bush and his cronies – February 13, 2007
In March 2002, more than a year before the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush interrupted a meeting between National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and three U.S. Senators, who were in her office discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations.
“Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out,” he said.
According to one of the participants, the senators laughed uncomfortably at the President’s comment while Rice merely smiled. Bush then left the room, as he wasn’t part of the work being done there...
A Government Rises From Exile
The Hawaiian Nation reclaims its place in the world – November 21, 2001
The nation of Hawaii has never ceased to exist - it was only the government that was taken over and driven into exile. A nation is essentially the physical area of the land as defined by its borders, and the citizens who reside within those borders. It’s not the government - governments come and go, are overthrown and can be restored. The nation remains, existing above and beyond the government unless it surrenders its sovereignty to another nation. That never happened in Hawai’i...
Fear Defeats Freedom – March 2, 2005
That’s not to say that I think I’m off the radar screens of the Thought Police, but I always figured I was a pretty small blip on those screens. I’ve operated under the assumption that my phone is probably tapped for a long time now, and I’m used to that, but facing travel restrictions is something new to me...
For The Record – a few published editorials against the invasion of Iraq
Voicing my opinion in print got me placed on an airport watch list – inconvenient for my family and illegal under the Constitution, but not so bad in its effect on my life. I never really enjoyed flying around with someone else at the controls anyway – but the fact that I was targeted is deeply disturbing...
Guest Essays
The Undoing of America
Gore Vidal on war for oil, politics-free elections, and the late, great U.S. Constitution
"Europe, after all, is more populous than the United States, better educated, better quality of life for most of its citizens. And it has actually achieved, here and there, a civilization, which we haven’t."
Fatal Vision
The Deeper Evil Behind the Detainee Bill
By Chris Floyd
"That's right; from the earliest days of the Terror War - September 17, 2001, to be exact - Bush has claimed the peremptory power of life and death over the entire world. If he says you're an enemy of America, you are.
This is not hyperbole, liberal paranoia, or "conspiracy theory": it's simply a fact, reported by the mainstream media, attested to by senior administration figures, recorded in many official government documents - and boasted about by the president himself, in front of Congress and even a national television audience."
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Dick Cheney – The Mask Behind The Throne
A three-part series that offers a retrospective of Dick Cheney
Draft Dodgers and Warmongers: Dick Cheney's early years
The darkest voting record in politics: the Vice's paper trail
History of the Vice: the Halliburton Years
Bypassing Pa‘ia
Who owns the best right-of-way? – April 13, 2005
Long before there was a Hana Highway, those three roads existed much as they do today. Linked together with Kala Road – as they still are – they mark the historic roadway used by residents of the North Shore region for over one hundred years. They also offer a sensible route for the long-anticipated Pa‘ia bypass road today. An 1893 map of the Spreckelsville plantation shows a fairly straight, inland route marked as “Makawao Road” running from Maliko Gulch, passing through Hamakuapoko and above Pa‘ia Town, then down to where Kahului Airport stands today. A more detailed 1896 map prepared by Hugh Howell shows that same roadway...
“The tragic results of war...” – January 19, 2005
So we sent our soldiers off to die, in blind support of our 'leaders' and to ease our own nameless fears. We carry that guilt together as a sovereign people...
They Knew...
They lied about it then and they’re lying about it still – September 15, 2004
But the truth is not in George W. Bush, or in his cronies and henchmen...
Patients Without Time
Cannabis advocacy group empowers patients to manage their own medication – February 2, 2005
From a small office in the Pa‘ia Plaza, a group of folks who represent both the future and the past are working to bring relief to people whose lives have been altered by pain and disease. They help patients and doctors re-learn an ancient herbal medicine with a 4,000 year history, and they’re changing attitudes about pharmacology in the Western world along the way...
Free speech and free access are quickly becoming less free – March 16, 2005
No form of communication is perfect, but modern society has created a deeply flawed method of delivering information to the public..
Spending The People’s Money – February 16, 2005
...just the tip of a massive, ugly iceberg of spending priorities that Vice-President Cheney calls “fair and reasonable”. It provides a clear picture of the Crusade this Bush administration wants to lead, here in the New World Order...
Welcome to Baghdad – you can see Tehran from here – May 19, 2004
A vital element in our current government’s long–term strategy is the creation of permanent military bases in Iraq to maintain a strong presence the Middle East. That plan is spelled out clearly in the “National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” a document President Bush released on September 20, 2001, just nine days after the Twin Towers were brought down. That statement of American policy is a close match to an earlier report issued by the Project For A New American Century. In many places, it uses the same language.
A hui hou – April 13, 2005 editorial farewell to Maui
...I decided to print stories that were not being told anywhere else, to find strong social and political commentary from all over the world that was still fit to print in a newspaper that is mailed to people’s homes. Editorially, I criticized the current administration policies as often as possible – but I would have done that, anyway, because they deserve it...
Hawaiians – a Nation, a Tribe, or wards of the State? – September 3, 2003
True believers in the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Nation don’t really care what U.S. law says about their legal status. Most folks who are part of the sovereign movement are law-abiding people, but they don’t respect American law as being historically valid in Hawai‘i...
Orwell would be proud, as Bush perfects “newspeak” – August 6, 2003
Although government in America wasn’t begun as a democracy, it was formed from a belief in honesty and open behavior. The Founding Fathers were mostly upper-class citizens who feared the instability of a democracy. They preferred a republic, so they designed one based on their personal ideas of honor and justice. It was an elitist system that was doomed to fail, but it worked fairly well at first and lasted for several decades...
The Crusade of the Shadow Men
Haleakala Times editorial, February 19, 2003
Decades ago, about a week or so after the US-supported Shah of Iran was overthrown by fundamentalist Muslims, the American government - the real one, the shadow men backstage who make the rules and own the actors who front for them - began cozying up to the Iraqi government. When Saddam Hussein took control of Iraq and started a war against Iran, the shadow men supported Hussein. They helped Iran, too, just in case things went badly for Hussein. But Iraq got most of the technology for making chemical, biological and nuclear weapons from US-based multi-national corporations, with US government approval...
A society of sinners, casting stones…
July 16, 2003 editorial
“No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.” – William Howard Taft
It’s almost a crime now to be young – and often a crime to be different. Generations that came of age between 1960 and 1990 lived through one of the most excessive and indulgent eras since ancient Rome, yet the survivors of those years seek to deny others the same freedoms that they themselves enjoyed and abused...
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