Kung Hee Fat Choy - Year of the Ox

Thousands turned out in Downtown Honolulu and Chinatown for the annual Chinese New Year celebration and parade. There was an all day block party in Chinatown that lasted into the night. I showed up for the parade and captured the photos you see on this page as well as on my Flickr site. Hotel Street has never been so crowded with a family oriented crowd as it was late this afternoon. Firecrackers, lion dancers, beauty queens, music, noise, crowds, celebration, food, folks and fun were all part of the festivities ushering in the Year of the Ox on the Chinese calendar. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.


The beauty queens are always beautiful in this and any parade.




My favorite dragon.





MORE PHOTOS ARE POSTED ON MY FLICKR SITE.

All images are Copyright Melvin Ah Ching Productions, © 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Unlawful to reproduce for commercial use and other purposes without authorization of the publisher.

Life is Not on Obama's Agenda

From National Right to Life:

Yesterday, President Obama signed an order that will put hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of organizations that aggressively promote abortion as a population-control tool in the developing world.

Obama’s order overturned the “Mexico City Policy,” under which funds in the U.S. “population assistance” program go only to overseas organizations that pledge not to “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.”

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), commented, “This is the first in an anticipated series of attacks on longstanding pro-life policies, as the new administration pushes Obama’s sweeping abortion agenda. That agenda includes repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which would result in tax-funded abortion as a birth control method in the U.S., and imposition of sweeping pro-abortion mandates on private employers through health-care reform legislation.

“One effect of Obama’s order will be to divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are the most aggressive in promoting abortion in developing countries. President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control.”

Contrary to some misunderstandings, enforcement of the Mexico City Policy did not reduce the amount of money spent on the program, nor will Obama’s order increase the amount (which is $461 million in the current fiscal year). Rather, the policy affects what type of groups qualify for grants under the program. “Obama’s order will predictably result in a redirection of funds to groups such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which are ideologically committed to the doctrine that abortion on demand must be universally available as a birth control method,” Johnson said.

Although Obama’s order will result in major subsidies for organizations that promote abortion overseas, the direct use of the U.S. funds to perform abortion procedures will remain unlawful under the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. “The Helms Amendment can be changed only by an act of Congress, but because the Obama Administration is joined at the hip with the abortion lobby, we will be watching carefully for any evidence that the Administration is failing to enforce the Helms Amendment,” Johnson said.

The details of the Mexico City Policy are spelled out in an official handbook issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is available on request from NRLC (in PDF format). Basically, the policy required grantees to refrain from performing abortions (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest), or lobbying to legalize abortion, or otherwise promoting abortion as a family-planning method. The policy explicitly allowed responding to questions about where abortions may be obtained, in countries in which abortions are legal.

The liberal agenda is taking over and want to take away more lives. That is one of the reason why I did not vote for the God Known as Barack Obama. He is not God and should not be playing God. Only God should decide when a life is to come to an end.

Additional Link: National Right to Life

Stop Abortion Now, Defend Life

On the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision on abortion, hundreds showed up for a noisy and colorful rally at the State Capitol to protest the federal legislation. Speeches from a pro-life viewpoint were given, songs were sung, people chanted and marchers marched.

With a new liberal government in control at the Federal level, it will be tough times ahead for everyone who values life over pre-mature death. American tradition is also at risk as liberals once again push to extend abortion rights even further and erode those small gains made during the previous administration. Legislation to prohibit partial birth abortion, punish those who commit crimes against the unborn, prohibit physician assisted suicide need to be advanced on both the state and federal levels. It's time to contact your legislators and congress people and let them know how you feel on these most important life and death issues.

More photos from yesterday's Right to Life march and rally appear below and on this Flickr page.



Abortion kills children. Do you want to kill your child? Thank God your mother did not suck you out before you were born.





Are we beyond hope with liberals in control of government? Where are Hawaii's and the nation's conservatives? Liberals have an agenda to snuff out innocent lives.





Stop abortion now, Defend Life.

MORE PHOTOS & COMMENTARY AT THIS LINK.

New President, New Legislative Session

So we have a new President. Barack Hussein Obama took over as Commander in Chief at noon yesterday (7 am Hawaii time) before a cheering crowd of at least a million people in Washington DC and countless numbers on TV. The essence of his inaugural speech outlined responsibility and the theme of "we're in this together" as well as change.

After the formal ceremonies of the inaugural* were over, the Obamas got to party along with their millions of friends for the rest of the day. The parties were covered on various TV networks including the usual suspects as well as MTV of all places. President Obama has probably connected the most with young people like no other since at least John F. Kennedy. It is scary as this signals a generational change in America's direction, tradition and values to a left leaning social and fiscal agenda.

Already right to life supporters are afraid that the Obama administration will erode some of the small gains made during the previous administration. Gains made in prohibiting partial birth abortion, prohibiting marriage rights to same sex couples, loosening conditions on stem cell research and repealing tax cuts made by President Bush are all at peril under the new regime.

I was probably one of the few people to feel sad on seeing the departure of George W. Bush and his wife Laura yesterday afternoon. The former first couple departed Washington D.C. in a U.S. Marine helicopter and later one of the Boeing 747s designated as Air Force 1 when the current president is on board. Yesterday that 747 flew under a different call sign. The Bush's were flown to their home in Texas where they were greeted by country music performers and 20,000 hometown supporters.

Today the new President seriously tackles the nation's problems as he begins his real work. Many of his cabinet nominees still await final Senate confirmation and today his Secretary of State designee, former rival, Senator Hillary Clinton undergoes further questioning and debate in the Senate. Good luck to them all.

HAWAII STATE LEGISLATURE RETURNS

Here in the islands, the 25th Legislative session of the Hawaii State Legislature is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. Thousands of people will flock to the State Capitol today to view the pomp and circumstance of opening day ceremonies that include colorful, promising speeches and musical entertainment. After that it's a free for all food fest as many legislative offices entertain constituents and citizens in their offices.

The real business starts tomorrow as the Legislature gets bogged down tackling the budget crisis, the education system, economy, tourism, energy and divisive Hawaiian issues among many other things. Taxes will be a battleground as the overwhelmingly liberal body considers ways of "enhancing revenue" while continuing with various government programs. Revenue enhancement on any governmental level always means taking more money out of our pockets. Hold on to your wallets!

NOTES

* President Obama may have to retake the oath of office since the lines were flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Photo: Screen capture of the new president pulled from Fox News Channel.

20 Days into the New Year

So I haven't blogged in nearly 20 days. Today is the last day of the Bush administration, tomorrow a new America supposedly starts with the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president. The hoopla and celebration surrounding Mr. Obama's inauguration will climax at noon ET when he is sworn in and makes his first speech as Commander in Chief shortly after.

I voted for the other guy and girl last year. Despite that, I wish Mr. Obama the best of luck in the next 4 to 8 years. Hopefully he can use his skill and wisdom to carefully guide the United States in these challenging times. Good luck Mr. President and God Bless.



January 14 saw the commencement of the 33rd annual Small Business Hawaii Conference. This year's conference like others before was held at the Ala Moana Hotel and featured a line-up of speakers from the business and government sectors of the state. The keynote speaker was Mr. Robert Kiyosaki, author of the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He spoke on how to become successful in what you do.

My favorite 2 speakers of the conference were Mark Dunkerly President & CEO of Hawaiian Airlines and Peter Kay, web and internet commerce guru of "Your Computer Minute" and Cybercom fame. Dunkerly spoke on Hawaiian Airlines' history and importance to the State of Hawaii. He said that airlines have to play with the discount carriers by matching their low prices in order to stay in business. He stated that is just part of business. When I asked Mr. Dunkerly later about Hawaiian Air's decision to go with the Airbus A330 and A350 series of jet aircraft, he told me that decision was made mainly for the carrying capacity of each plane. He also said that Hawaiian's Boeing 717's will remain in inter-island service for at least another 10 to 15 years.

Peter Kay spoke on content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal and WordPress. He made remarks regarding blogging, using blogging and content management systems for corporate websites and touched upon online social networking as part of doing business. Familiar social networking sites such as Facebook and Linked-In were mentioned. I asked him about firms turning to hosting companies that build custom content management systems. Is it a good idea to go with these custom systems or go with free open source software such as Joombla and WordPress. You don't want your firm's content to be stuck in a "walled garden".

January 15 was a landmark day for Hawaii television broadcasting. Analog TV broadcasting came to an end and digital broadcasting became Hawaii's standard. It will soon be the standard for the entire country as all high power TV stations are being mandated to abandon analog and switch to digital broadcasting in an effort to free up more bandwidth for other uses. The switchover went fairly smoothly though some households lost their over the air signal due to a variety of factors. Cable and satellite TV subscribers were largely uneffected by the switchover. I'll blog more about digital TV at a later day.

Besides the inauguration of President Obama tomorrow, on Wednesday, January 21, the 25th Session of the Hawaii State Legislature will begin. Talk in the capitol focuses on more taxes, belt tightening and Hawaiian issues. Hold on to your wallets!

2008: The Year in Music

MEL'S WEEKLY TOP 20 - THE TOP 100 HITS OF 2008

Here is a re-cap and review of some of my favorite songs and albums that were released in 2008. All of the songs listed on my chart below initially appeared on my Weekly Top 20 list that I maintain throughout the year. I'm largely a singles kind of guy, and even though I buy a lot of albums, I tend to listen to a mixed assortment of tracks whenever I have a music device playing. This is made easier with a combination of Apple's iTunes, iPod and other media players.

Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" which is a derivative of 2 classic rock tracks, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynard and"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon stood out as one of my favorites for 2008. Rock cleverly combined elements of both to craft an almost entirely new song that borrows a lot from both. This is probably the first hybrid song of its kind that I truly liked. Surprisingly, it only made it to #7 in my year-end wrap, largely because it held on to #1 for only 3 weeks and did not spend that much time on my weekly chart.

For geek rock, nothing came close to Weezer whose red album echos songs from their green, black and blue albums of years past. If you like tracks such as "Buddy Holly," "Say It Isn't So", "Island in the Sun" and "Beverly Hills," you certainly bought and enjoyed Weezer's red album. The leading tracks for me were "Pork and Beans," "Troublemaker" and "Heart Songs". Weezer took the pork straight to #1 on my personal chart and ended up with my song of the year. "Heart Songs" is the band's recollection of artists and hits from years gone by. A brilliant album track that never made it to my weekly chart.

I liked R.E.M.'s album Accelerate. It was a return to their rock style of the past. It proved a winner on my chart as "Supernatural Superserious" burned its way to the #1 position and stayed there for 4 weeks. Other good tracks include the title tune, "Man Sized Wreath" and "Hollow Man".

A lot of young ladies burned up my chart with an assortment of tracks. Marie Digby was a fave with "Fool", "Say It Again" and "Umbrella" the latter being a hit for Rihanna in 2007. I also grew to like a lot of Rihanna's tracks. She can sing soul, R&B and even rock n roll. Favorites this year included "Disturbia," "Take a Bow" and "If I Never See Your Face Again" in which pairs her with the band Maroon 5.

My favorite albums of the year include those listed above as well as Sheryl Crow's Detours which produced the hits "Love is Free," "Gasoline," and "Out of Our Heads", Coldplay's Viva La Vida, Ringo Starr's Liverpool 8, Metallica's Death Magnetic, and the debut album from Lenka which yielded the tracks "Trouble is a Friend" and "The Show".

I heard some of my favorite tracks on TV commercials before they became hits. These included Apple iPod promotional tunes that became hits: "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" by CSS from late 2007, "Bruises" from Chairlift that promoted the iPod Touch, "Shut Up & Let Me Go" by the Ting Tings and "Around the Bend" by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour which went to #1 on my Weekly Top 20. Noah and the Whale hit #1 in 2008 with "5 Years Time," a track used in a Saturn car commercial.

Without further fanfare, here is a list of my 100 top hits from 2008. A comprehensive version of this same list can be found on my Top 100 Hits of 2008 page.

THE TOP 100 HITS OF 2008

1 - Pork and Beans - Weezer
2 - Supernatural Superserious - R.E.M.
3 - Viva la Vida - Coldplay
4 - Mercy - Duffy
5 - Tattoo - Jordin Sparks
6 - Apologize - OneRepublic
7 - All Summer Long - Kid Rock
8 - Around the Bend (Radio Edit) - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
9 - Disturbia - Rihanna
10 - Funplex - The B-52s
11 - Give It 2 Me - Madonna
12 - 5 Years Time - Noah And The Whale
13 - I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
14 - Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex - CSS
15 - Shut Up & Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
16 - 4 Minutes - Madonna & Justin
17 - Boys With Girlfriends - Meiko
18 - Womanizer - Britney Spears
19 - If I Were A Boy - Beyonce
20 - Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5
21 - Human - The Killers
22 - Stop And Stare - OneRepublic
23 - Realize - Colbie Caillat
24 - Paradise - Ana Laan
25 - Busy Being Fabulous - The Eagles
26 - Be The One - The Ting Tings
27 - Troublemaker - Weezer
28 - That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
29 - Bruises - Chairlift
30 - If I Had Eyes - Jack Johnson
31 - New Soul - Yael Naïm
32 - Surrender - Lunascape
33 - So What (Main Version) - P!nk
34 - Paper Planes - M.I.A.
35 - Trouble Is A Friend - Lenka
36 - The Day That Never Comes - Metallica
37 - Clumsy - Fergie
38 - Saving My Face - KT Tunstall
39 - I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry
40 - You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor
41 - Say It Again - Marié Digby
42 - Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield
43 - No One - Alicia Keys
44 - Only Fooling Myself - Kate Voegele
45 - No Air (Main Version) - Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown
46 - Take A Bow - Rihanna
47 - Tailor Made - Colbie Caillat
48 - Over You - Daughtry
49 - Warwick Avenue - Duffy
50 - Love Is Free - Sheryl Crow
51 - Pump - The B-52's
52 - Seven Days of Lonely (Radio Edit) - I Nine
53 - Don't Think I Don't Think About It - Darius Rucker
54 - Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
55 - Be OK - Ingrid Michaelson
56 - Just A Dream - Carrie Underwood
57 - Sugarbaby - Morningwood
58 - My Moon My Man - Feist
59 - Shake It - Metro Station
60 - Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead
61 - Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
62 - Don't Stop The Music - Rihanna
63 - Take Back The City - Snow Patrol
64 - Out Of Our Heads - Sheryl Crow
65 - You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
66 - If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon 5 & Rihanna
67 - Say Hey (I Love You) - Michael Franti & Spearhead featuring Cherine Anderson
68 - Violet Hill - Coldplay
69 - Lost! - Coldplay
70 - I Better Run - The Rosebuds
71 - Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band
72 - Whatever It Takes - Lifehouse
73 - In Love With a Girl - Gavin DeGraw
74 - Never Miss A Beat - Kaiser Chiefs
75 - Requiem for a Dying Song - Flogging Molly
76 - If This Is Love - The Saturdays
77 - Rockstar - Nickelback
76 - Addicted - Saving Abel
77 - Her Hairagami Set - The Brunettes
78 - L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold
79 - Shattered [Turn The Car Around] - O.A.R.
80 - Come On Get Higher - Matt Nathanson
81 - All-American Girl - Carrie Underwood
82 - Liverpool 8 - Ringo Starr
83 - I'd Rather Be With You - Joshua Radin
84 - After All These Years - Journey
85 - It's Not My Time - 3 Doors Down
86 - Gasoline - Sheryl Crow
87 - Sleeping Lessons - The Shins
88 - Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
89 - You Can't Count On Me - Counting Crows
90 - Never Walk Away - Journey
91 - The Weight Of Her - Butch Walker
92 - Stronger Woman - Jewel
93 - If It's Love That You Want - Ringo Starr
94 - Life In A Northern Town [Live] - Sugarland
95 - Say - Ryan Cabrera
96 - All I Want To Do - Sugarland
97 - Check Yes Juliet - We the Kings
98 - Valerie Plame - The Decemberists
99 - Same Mistake - James Blunt
100 - Dead Sound - The Raveonettes