People in Hawaii Are Too Stupid ...

Don't Let Them Vote on Rail

The rail issue is front and center in Hawaii these days. Commercials, editorials, radio debates, articles and letters to the editors are flying from all sides of the issue as the battle plays out in the media. Stop Rail Now's citizen driven campaign to get the rail question on the ballot continues as the petition count has reportedly surpassed the 30,000 count on the way to an August 1 deadline.

Meanwhile, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, members of Hawaii's Congressional delegation, many State Legislators (mostly all Democrats), big labor unions, highly paid P-R firms and hacks (Keith Rollman, Bill Brennan) hired by the Mayor have waged an all out war of discredit against the leaders and supporters of Stop Rail Now.

Today I got this graphic message in email. Paints a great picture of what the rail loving steel wheelers want.

• Click here to see large version of graphic
  

The Biggest Used Book & Music Sale of 2008

The best bargains for used books, magazines, record albums (LPs), CDs and more are at this year's 61st Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale. The sale is bigger than ever, spilling out of the traditional McKinley High School Cafeteria into adjacent areas.

All of the books are spread out between the main cafeteria building, a tent on the "mauka" side as well as in the breeze way of an adjacent building. The music sale is being held in a big tent on the ocean side of the cafeteria where thousands of record albums (LPs) and compact discs are on sale, most for $3 or less.

Needless to say, this sale is the bookworm, music fan and pack rat's favorite. Today I got some great bargain books by Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, Art Bell and more for $1.50 each or less. And some of these are hard backs. I also got several record albums but so far only 1 CD, an out of print title by the rock group, The Connells.

The sale runs from now to July 6 with 2 days off on July 3 and 4 in observance of the Independence Day holiday. The last day of the sale is 50¢ bargain day on everything not sold during the week.

The book sale is a benefit for the Hawaii State Library System and for the first time, music sales benefit Hawaii Public Radio.


SciFi books can be had this week for as little as a dollar (or less)!


Books are also on sale in the building and a tent next to the cafeteria.

Links to more information & content:

• Friends of the Library
• Hawaii Public Radio
  
• Hawaii State Library System
• More Friends of the Library Book Sale Photos

Let's Draft Panos for Mayor

It's a longshot, but there is now a campaign underway to draft Dr. Panos D. Prevedouros for Honolulu Mayor. If he decides to run, there would definitely be someone for me to vote for in the upcoming Honolulu mayoral election. Dr. Prevedouros is definitely against the mass transit rail proposal that is being championed by well financed and well connected incumbent Mayor, Mufi Hannemann. He is also an engineer, which could be a huge benefit for the city and county, since he would probably shift the city's priorities from building new things to maintaining long neglected infrastructure such as roads and sewers.

Here is a letter I sent to the Draft Panos website:

Dear Dr. Prevedouros,

Four years ago I had to throw a blank ballot in for the Mayor's race because I knew back then both Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum were both for building rail transit.

Now with the rail debate front and center, we need someone to carry the flag of STOP RAIL NOW all the way to the Mayor's office and occupy it so that rail is never built. I'll make room for you in the HOTLANE if you run for Mayor.

Please do it, you're the last best hope for a better Honolulu.

Aloha,
MEL

Anyone interested in getting someone with a true alternate agenda into the Mayor's office, Panos is the guy. Visit the Draft Panos website today and urge the guy to run.

Additional Links:

Draft Panos.com
Dr. Panos Prevedouros - Civil & Environmental Engineering
Dr. Prevedouros Personal Website

King Kamehameha Celebration

The 92nd Annual King Kamehameha Celebration Parade was held today (June 7) in Honolulu. Several bands, colorful Pa'u riders mounted on horses, beauty queens in cars, dignitaries (also in cars) and a couple of floats made their way through Honolulu and into Waikiki. The parade is one of the longest in Honolulu, covering 4 miles from the Iolani Palace area, passing the nearby statue of King Kamehameha the Great and snaking its way on Punchbowl Street, Ala Moana Blvd., and Kalakaua Ave. before finishing in Waikiki at Kapiolani Park.

Thousands were on hand through the parade route. The weather was hot and sunny but people did not mind. As usual any parade is a natural photo opportunity. Shutterbugs were out in force snapping pictures at almost every step of the way. I took some time out to take several pictures as the parade made its way past Ala Moana Shopping Center.

There is a State Holiday on June 11 to commemorate the birth of King Kamehameha who is credited with uniting the Hawaiian Islands under one government.

Links to the photos are here, with a few more samples shown below.

Stop Rail Now Continues

People at this corner of Fort Street Mall signed the petition to put the rail issue to the ballot as the Stop Rail Now campaign continues. Volunteers were out in force yesterday in Downtown Honolulu getting signatures for the citizen initiative. Last I heard they were close to having 12,000 people signed up. For more info on the campaign, go to www.stoprailnow.com. You can download a petition from the website. Sign it and send it back.

Honolulu's mass transit project will be the biggest taxpayer boondoggle ever created in the City and County of Honolulu. The cost will be at least $6.4 billion to build (taking in possible cost overruns, eminent domain issues, etc.). How much it will cost to operate and maintain is still largly vague. Time to stop the Mufi train and explore other alternatives to this massive build-out is now.

Sharper Image Stores Closing

Another high tech retail store is going out of business. Sharper Image, a familiar high-end gadget retailer at Ala Moana Shopping Center is holding a close out sale along with dozens of other stores throughout the nation. Apparently the chain went bankrupt due to the weak economy. An auction firm bought the stores assets and decided to liquidate inventory and close stores. The new owners will concentrate on e-commerce and catalog sale retailing instead.

I was quite surprised to see the "Store Closing Sale" sign as I went by yesterday. While Sharper Image had all kinds of neat gadgets, there was nothing that I truly needed. While it was a great place to look at gadgets, I never had the motivation to buy anything from Sharper Image in all the years they were in Honolulu.

• Sharper Image Stores to be Closed and Liquidated (Reuters)

Photo taken outside Sharper Image's Ala Moana Center store on May 31.