"Tear Down This Wall"

20 years ago today, the Berlin Wall was torn down. It was the symbolic end to Soviet style communism in East Germany and the rest of the European block. Check out the videos.

President Ronald Reagan's famous speech from 1987 (excerpt):



Video montage: Rise & Fall of the Berlin Wall

Homeowner Occupants Get Tax Break

I am quite pleased that the Honolulu City Council passed a tax shield law for owner occupant home owners. This is good news for anyone who owns their home and lives in it.

Of course there are two sides to every issue. The downside is that it is quite possible that landlords, investors and commercial property owners will face higher taxes and pass the cost on to renters and consumers.

In another property related matter, the City Council passed a bill that will allow for a limited number of new bed and breakfasts on Oahu. B&B's offer visitors an alternative when it comes to lodging in the State. As long as B&B owners follow the regulations, things should be okay for them and their neighbors. The bill will probably impact most of the neighborhoods in the Kailua area, though B&Bs operate island and statewide.

Senator Slom on Furloughs, Education, Taxes

State Senator Sam Slom comments on school furloughs, education and taxes.

Hundreds Turn Out For Furlough Friday Protest Rally

About a thousand people -- school aged children and adults came to the State Capitol today (October 23) to protest the first day of forced public school closures in the name of "Furlough Friday". The State Department of Education (DOE) and the Hawaii State Teachers Assocation (HSTA) labor union recently ratified a contract that reduced teacher pay through forced work furlough days.

Nobody likes Furlough Fridays. The teachers don't like. Other public sector workers subject to furloughs don't like it. Politicians and the public also hate it - especially when it comes to the schools and the reduction of class instruction days.

The public has risen through this one day protest to demand that the Governor, legislature, DOE and HSTA do something to end the furloughs. That something being advanced by the group Hawaii Education Matters and their supporters call for more funds.

They along with the labor unions want the state to raid special funds or raise new taxes in order to fund education and keep the "status quo."

That is where I have a problem. Hawaii is one of the highest taxed states in the nation. We cannot afford more taxes. The State Dept. of Education needs to continue to find new ways to meet the budget shortfall while keeping its obligation to provide public school students with their education.

There are ways to do this without raising taxes or raiding special funds. Try that.



Photo slideshow: Taken October 23 at the Hawaii State Capitol. Furlough Friday Protest Rally.

Be Careful What You Wish For

No one likes furloughs. Certainly people who are impacted by the possible closure of Hawaii's public schools during "Furlough Fridays" have spoken loudly about it in recent days, to a point of filing lawsuits against the State of Hawaii and Dept. of Education to organizing a rally that could be the biggest ever seen at the State Capitol set for tomorrow, October 23.

The people whose children are most impacted by the furloughs have a legitimate bone to pick in regards to the "Furlough Fridays" issue. No one wants class instruction days to be taken away from Hawaii's public school students.

The problem I have with the supporters of "Hawaii Education Matters" is the fact that the first thing they are asking for is MORE MONEY. Asking for more money to fund public schools only plays into hands of the public worker labor unions. Union leaders have asked for more money to fund their worker payrolls long before they finally accepted the fact that furloughs are the best way to go.

The state does not have the money.

Raiding special funds is one fix that Governor Linda Lingle will entertain for the upcoming session. Raiding special funds dilutes the purpose of the fund for was set up for. Often mentioned is the State Hurricane Relief Special Fund. Hello? Weather experts are predicting an active late hurricane season this year. Plus we are in an El Nino cycle, which could mean more hurricanes in the future. It is not if a hurricane will hit but when. I think most people would want the hurricane fund to remain intact should the islands be walloped by a big one.

Raiding other special funds will not work either because they are actively used for whatever purposes they are set up for.

So where does that leave us?

Increasing taxes. This is exactly what the labor unions want and this is what they are hoping for. You can bet your bottom dollar (of which we have very little of these days) that all of the public labor union leaders and their lobbyists will be back at the Capitol during the next legislative session asking for more money and funding it with more increases to your taxes.

People and supporters of "Hawaii Education Matters": Your huge rally could hit you in the pocketbook as your efforts play into the hands of labor unions who will ask for funding through more taxes. The labor unions will use images, video and audio from this rally to say "see, Hawaii's parents, students and supporters of public schools want more money. They want more taxes. Give us more money. Increase the GE Tax."

A more practical approach to alleviating Furlough Friday's for Hawaii's public schools is to either get rid of non-classroom assigned DOE administrators, have everyone take an overall payroll deduction, or reschedule those Furlough days so that they fall during non-instructional class days. The latter is the best solution. It was never considered because the unions probably wanted this negative reaction to Furlough Fridays to occur so that they can advance their real agenda of getting more money through increased taxes.

Be careful what you wish for!

Graphic: Hawaii Educations Matters website.

Merged Airlines Mean Higher Ticket Prices

I agree with most analysts and pundits that the announced merger between Mesa Airlines' Go! and Shuttle America's Mokulele Airlines is a good thing for both firms. In the very competitive interisland market, this was the smart thing for the two smaller firms to do. They will be taking on their major rival, longtime market leader, Hawaiian Airlines.

The result of the merger will be a new airline branded Go Mokulele.

Mokulele Airlines' three Embraer ERJ 170 twinjets will leave the Hawaii marketplace as Shuttle America and their parent firm, Republic Airlines will re-position those aircraft to other markets in the mainland that they serve.

Questions remain how many if any of the employees at both airlines will be laid off as a result of the major. Many of the employees at Mokulele Airlines are former Aloha Airlines people who blame Mesa/Go for running their old firm out of business in 2008.

Go Mokulele will operate their jet service with Go's CRJ 200 50 passenger jets. I assume Mokulele will still be in business running their smaller Cessna aircraft to the state's smaller airports.

One thing for sure is that the sometimes ridiculously low interisland airfare prices that were offered while Go and Mokulele were competitors will disappear. The current advertised low intersiland fare is $49 each way.

Flying interisland will cost conusumers more as the combined airline faces less competition with each other.

Hawaiian Airlines will remain the market leader, Go-Mokuelele will be the #2 jet airline in the market with Island Air filling out the share by concentrating on the smaller island markets with their bigger than a Cessna Dash 8 prop planes.

The one thing that I regret is never flying on Mokulele's ERJ 170 jets. The planes are set to leave Hawaii by next month. I already have a trip booked with Hawaiian.

Additional Links

• Joining Forces, StarBulletin.com
• Hawaii Interisland Carrier Mokulele to Merge with Go, Honolulu Advertiser
• Mokulele, Go to Combine Operations, Pacific Business News
• Mokulele and Go Airlines to Merge Wednesday, KGMB 9 News

Photos: Mesa's CRJ 200 Go jet and Mokulele Airlines' ERJ 170 by macprohawaii.

LCROSS - No Lunar Impact Cloud

Early this morning at 1:30 AM, NASA crashed the LCROSS space probe and Centuar rocket booster into the moon. The goal is to confirm whether or not there is water at the polar regions of the moon.

Upon impact the LCROSS booster was supposed to kick up a huge cloud of lunar stuff into the barren air. The smaller LCROSS space probe loaded with sensitive instruments and cameras was supposed to record the impact for 3 to 4 minutes on the way to its own impact with the lunar surface.

There was a lot of media and NASA hype building up this event. The public was told that the stuff kicked up by the vehicle impact would be visible to anyone with a good telescope and certainly to those large ground based scopes and the live TV coming from the LCROSS.

I watched NASA TV early this morning. Sad to report at impact time I saw nothing of the fact. There was no impact cloud of stuff strewn into the air. NASA did get confirmation that both vehicles did impact the moon.

NASA TV was broadcast online as well as on Olelo Channel 56 in Honolulu.

With all the build-up of this event, I was expecting a spectacular explosion like the one that happened a few years ago when a space probe was sent crashing into a comet or when comet fragments impacted Jupiter many years ago.

Regardless, it is hoped that NASA did get some kind of data from this $79 million experiment and that results and photos be released to the public later.

Photo: The moon as photographed by LCROSS, courtesy of NASA.

This Year's Aloha Festivals Parade

Honolulu's 63rd Annual Aloha Festivals Parade rolled down the street from Ala Moana Park to Waikiki today. The colorful parade featured a variety of marching bands, beauty queens, floral floats, Pa'u riders on horseback, flags, banners, people lining the roadway, sunshine, heat, a politician or two, and an occasional drizzle. The parade lasted for more than 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Photos in this presentation were taken with a Minolta XD-11 35mm camera using Kodak film which was scanned to a CD. The JPG images processed with Apple's iPhoto software on a MacBook Pro laptop computer. Mac OSX 10.5.8

• Aloha Festivals Parade Photos on Flickr

Thunderbirds Are Go!

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team made its triumphant return back to Honolulu for a 2 day spectacular show this past weekend, September 19 and 20. Thousands of people flocked to a rare open house at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. The open house featured displays of various military aircraft with the highlight being the 2 public performances of the Thunderbirds each afternoon.

The Thunderbirds never disappoint their mesmerized audiences as they perform a series of in-flight routines that scream with speed, finesse, altitude and sonic noise. All for the good as everyone looks on in awe and wonder, with many trying to keep time with the fast moving jets to get that picture perfect photograph.

The Thunderbirds have been flying since 1967 and currently deploy with the Lockheed Martin built F-16 Flying Falcon. The Falcon is a single seat fighter jet that has a long distinguished record of service with the Air Force. It can fly at speeds of up to 1,500 mph or 2 times the speed of sound. For demonstration purposes the Thunderbirds usually push their planes to about 600 mph.

This year's public show was the 2nd in the past two years in Hawaii. The Thunderbirds also came to Honolulu in September 2007.

The photo slideshow below depicts both the 2007 and 2009 performances.




You can view a larger version of the slideshow by going to its Flickr page or to my website.

Additional Links

• US Air Force Thunderbirds Website
• Mel's Thunderbirds Flickr Photos
• Thunderbirds Slide Show
• Flickr: Many Thunderbirds Photos slideshow (various members)
• Thunderbirds Roar & Roll - StarBulletin.com
• Air Force Thunderbirds Swoop Up Praise - Honolulu Advertiser
• Air Force Thunderbirds Bring Thunder to Hickam - KGMB 9 News
• Thunderbirds From the Cheap Seats - my shaky video
  

Corvette Summer 2009

The Chevrolet Corvette is one of the most celebrated automobiles to roll off America's assembly lines. An instant classic the moment it is made, enthusiasts from all over the world as well as in Hawaii love to showcase their 'Vettes. I was lucky enough to catch such a show in Waikiki earlier this month. Here are pictures of dozens of Hawaii's coolest Corvettes around. Enjoy!

• Corvette Summer 2009 Photos @ Flickr.com