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February 12, 2009 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4
An AP story in today's Maui News offers an update on the wrangling over pay raises for elected officials on Oahu. You'll recall that state lawmakers received a 36 percent salary hike effective January 1, while back in July Gov. Lingle's pay was boosted by more than $10,000 a year. Those raises were approved by the Salary Commission, a body created by voter mandate in 2006. The idea was to prevent politicians from getting to vote on their own paychecks, which, in theory, seems like a good idea. But the Salary Commission—the members of which are appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President and the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, aka the same people whose salaries they set—doesn't hold public hearings and its recommendations go through automatically unless specific legislation is introduced to override them. So basically, the Salary Commission, which was ostensibly formed to increase transparency and oversight, has in fact decreased both. Wow, a counterproductive government agency. Color me shocked. (The good news: several pieces of legislation that would freeze future raises and/or change the way the Salary Commission operates have been introduced. We'll see how far they get.)
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5
OK, OK. To be fair: according to that same AP report, even if state officials took a 5 percent pay cut and agreed to forgo raises over the next two years, it would save "only" $6.5 million, a fraction of the deficit Hawaii is facing. But you know what? It's something. And if anyone should be doing their part, it's the people who are always sanctimoniously telling us that we all have to do our part.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
This isn't a news flash, but it's painfully true: 2009 is going to be a brutal year for newspapers. The latest evidence came in today, as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin announced it will be converting to tabloid format (for those unfamiliar with industry terminology who associate the word "tabloid" with stories about Nicole Richie: in this case it refers to page size, not content) and laying off 17 newsroom workers and "an undetermined number of employees elsewhere in the company." The paper is also dropping its bureaus on Maui, the Big Island and Kauai, meaning any neighbor island news they run will either be pulled off the wire or written on Oahu. Get ready for a lot more stories like this one. Us media folks love to report on our own demise; writers are sadistic like that.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Seriously, we're just one step shy of self-flagellation. That's why your nasty letters don't hurt us; we've already thought worse things about ourselves (but go ahead and send them anyway).
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8
You know what's fun? Hearing the same tired, bankrupt argument repeated over and over again. So take it away Maui Police Chief Tom Phillips, quoted in a Maui News story about Hawaii's ongoing medical marijuana debate: "We have had murders, assaults, every other crime that goes along with marijuana." No, no, no. And no. Those crimes do not "go along with marijuana." Hostess cupcakes go along with marijuana. Laughing at infomercials goes along with marijuana. Forgetting where you parked your car goes along with marijuana. Murder and assault go along with illegal marijuana. See, when you make something that's otherwise mostly benign a crime, you invite criminal activity. Has law enforcement (and I know, just doing their job, blah, blah, blah) really not learned that lesson yet? Or are they choosing to willfully ignore reality? Either way, it's enough to drive a sane person to seek some form of mind-altering escape.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9
I've thus far avoided discussing the Michael Phelps bong scandal in the hope that if I ignored it it'd go away. But yesterday's entry provides a too-perfect segue. Plus, clearly it's not going away. Not only has Phelps been suspended and stripped of his sponsorships, which was predictable, now there's talk that some Podunk, attention-seeking South Carolina sheriff might try to bring charges against him. Seriously. I know everyone always says celebrities get special treatment, and that's sometimes true. But the exact opposite is happening here: Phelps' status as an Olympic hero has turned what would otherwise be a ridiculously ho-hum act (a 23-year-old smoking weed on a college campus—gasp!) into a headline-grabbing controversy clusterhump. Everyone: grow up. And please don't feed me any of this "role model" crap. If your parenting skills are so weak that your kids have to rely on a goofy athlete for life lessons, that's on you. OK, I'm done… In other news: Hey, looks like Grammy voters finally got wind of the fact that there's more to Hawaiian music than slack-key guitar compilations. For the first time since the award was created in 2005, the Best Hawaiian Album statuette was given to artists who actually made a whole entire record—Tia Carrere and Daniel Ho were recognized for Ikena. Of course, Ho and Carrere both live in LA and some might say they're as much Hollywood as they are Hawaii (a lot of insiders were pulling for lesser-known nominee Amy Hanaiali'i, the Honolulu Advertiser reports). But again, at least they've moved away from slack-key guitar compilations. Baby steps.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Attention slack-key guitar compilation fans: even though I actually like slack key guitar, I look forward to your hate mail. MTW
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