Day Six of the Sarah Palin Meltdown

October 31, 2008 Maui Curmudgeon, National Election No Comments

Screw My Boss – I’m Doing Things My Way!

By Maui Curmudgeon
Would John McCain really be in this presidential race if he had picked a running mate other than idiot (political) savant Sarah Palin? Yes.

Sarah Palin - Lipstoick on a PigIt might be the case. A new Pew Research Center poll shows that nearly half of America have an unfavorable opinion of Sarah, more than those who view her favorably. Further, for the first time in the history of the poll, how people feel about the vice-president is affecting – in this case negatively – whether voters will cast for the ticket.

Add to this mix some grumpy analysts. Conservative George Will writes that Sarah is “an even heavier weight in John McCain’s saddle than is his association with George W. Bush.”

Sarah continues to act clueless to all this feedback, choosing instead to admit as of yesterday that she was part of a losing ticket, and setting off on her own without the guidance of her running mate, the man who picked her.

Read the rest…

Election Trick or Treat?

October 31, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastCeltic Samhain
Day 305 of 2008
61 days left in this year
GOP War On Truth. Today’s Threat Level: RED - Latest Lies >McLie-O-Meter
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Apiki: Treachery, treason
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Hul: Grave
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “It’s a pig strangling.” (the act of a traitor)
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” – Keats
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — The Daily Beast - Tina Brown’s latest
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Hockey Momma for Obama
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — 23/6 – “Some of the News Most of the Time”
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — FactCheck.org

Halloween Moon

CELTIC SAMHAIN: “Summer’s End” in the Wicken year marks the death of the Sun-God, who then awaits his re-brith from the Mother Goddess at Yule (Winter Solstice). Among the traditional Celts, Samhain was celebrated as New Year’s Eve because their calendar year began on November 1st. More >

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ISLAND NEWS ARCHIVES – October 31, 1889
A Honolulu jury acquits Robert W. Wilcox on the charges of treason for the 1889 rebellion which he led against the “reform government” in his attempt to restore the Hawaiian monarchy to power. Wilcox was born in 1855 on Maui. His parents sent him to Haleakala Boarding School in Makawao. After graduation, Wilcox became a teacher upcountry. In 1880, Wilcox was elected to the Royal Legislature in Honolulu. He represented the citizens of Wailuku and surrounding area. More >
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EVENTS ON THIS DAY – October 31
1517: Martin Luther posts his “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany
1864: Nevada becomes the 36th state
1952: The first thermonuclear bomb is detonated (Marshall Islands)
1954: The Algerian Revolution for independence begins (to free the country from French rule)
1968: President Johnson orders a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam
1988: The first Monday Night NFL game is televised (in Indianapolis, Colts beat Denver 55-23)
1998: Iraq announces it is suspending all cooperation with international arms inspectors and would close down their long-term monitoring operations
1999: EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
2001: A 61-year-old New York hospital worker died from inhalation anthrax.
2001: Microsoft and the Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic antitrust case against the software giant.
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BORN ON THIS DAY – October 31
1632: Jan Vermeer, painter
1795: John Keats, romantic poet
1887: Chiang Kai-shek, Pres. of Nationalist China
1896: Ethel Waters, actress
1912: Dale Evans, cowgirl (Roy Rogers Show)
1920: Dick Francis, jockey/novelist
1930: Michael Collins, Mjr General USAF/astronaut
1931: Dan Rather, TV news anchor
1937: Michael Landon, actor
1937: Tom Paxton, folk singer/songwriter
1942: David Ogden Stiers, actor
1944: Kinky Friedman, country rocker
1950: John Candy, comedic actor
1954: Ken Wahl, actor
1961: Larry Mullen Jr, drummer (U2)
1964: Rob Schneider, comedic actor
1968: Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle), rapper
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DIED ON THIS DAY – October 31
1918: Count Stephen Tisza Hungarian PM assassinated by soldiers
1926: Erich Weiss better known as magician Harry Houdini, dies in Detroit
1964: Theodore C Freeman astronaut, dies at 34 in a T-38 jet air crash
1975: Joseph Calleia actor (Jungle Book, Gilda), dies at 78
1983: George Halas NFLer, dies at 88
1984: Indira Gandhi PM of India assassinated by 2 of her Sikh bodyguards
1987: Joseph Campbell mythologist (Mythic Image), dies at 83
1988: John Houseman actor, dies of spinal cancer at 86
1991: Joseph Papp Broadway producer (Chorus Line), dies of cancer at 70
1993: Actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose in Los Angeles at age 23
2006: P.W. Botha, South Africa’s apartheid-era president, died at age 90

Day Five of the Sarah Palin Meltdown

October 30, 2008 Maui Curmudgeon, National Election No Comments

Palin & McCain
Palin turning her back on her running mate.

Republican Ignorance vs. Loyalists’ Revulsion

By Maui Curmudgeon
Sarah Palin has taken off the gloves of pretense and admitted her baser instincts and long-term goals – not to mention abandoning her party and ticket partner. As ABC News reports:

“And while it is unusual for candidates to acknowledge the possibility of defeat, Republican running mate Sarah Palin said she intended to remain a national figure even if the ticket loses next week. “I’m not doin’ this for naught,” she told ABC News in an interview.”

It is indeed rare for any candidate to admit defeat before the polls close. This is especially true with Republicans, who follow, if the not the policies of fascist parties, definitely adhere to the brownshirt “loyal at any cost” mentality.

Time will tell if Palin’s appeal to the Republican Party’s conservative base of ignorance will be enough to overcome many party loyalists’ revulsion at her self-aggrandisement at the expense of her ticket.

The McMaverick Mutiny

October 30, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastCandycorn Day
Day 304 of 2008
62 days left in this year
GOP War On Truth. Today’s Threat Level: RED - Latest Lies >McLie-O-Meter
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Olohani: Mutiny
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — As: Anus
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “No particular food blocks the anus.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “When a rogue kisses you, count your teeth” – (Jewish)
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — The Daily Beast - Tina Brown’s latest
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Wassup 2008
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — 23/6 – “Some of the News Most of the Time”
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — FactCheck.org
Mitt Takes OverNATIONAL NEWS – TODAY
Locked in a tight congressional race, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut’s 4th district is the latest in a slew of Republican incumbents, including Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, to concede a near-certain victory to the Obama camp. “I just don’t see how [McCain] can win,” Shays said in an interview here on Sunday. “He has lost his brand as a maverick; he did not live up to his pledge to fight a clean campaign,” Shays said. More >
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NATIONAL NEWS – ARCHIVES
October 30, 2005
The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda. More >

ISLAND NEWS – ARCHIVES
October 30, 1933
Hui Manu – a Honolulu-based organization that was formed to to introduce songbirds to the Hawaiian Islands – releases Mockingbirds on Maui, because, evidently, Maui doesn’t have enough birds which sing prettily. (Mockingbirds are members of the Mimidae family, with about 17 species in three genera.) According to Robin Doughty in The Mockingbird: “Native birds, already buffeted by logging, agriculture (cane) and settlement, have had to cope with [introduced] alien species…. Since 1796, 170 bird species have been introduced to Hawaii, and many have succeeded in displacing endemic species.”x
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EVENTS ON THIS DAY – October 30
1270: The eighth and last Crusade is launched
1650: The members of the Society of Friends are first called Quakers when their founder, George Fox, testifies in a court case that members “quake and tremble at the word of God”
1925: The world’s first television transmission is seen in London England when John Baird succeeds in building a device in his attic from a tea chest, cardboard scanning discs, an empty biscuit box, old electric motors, darning needles, motorcycle lamp lenses, piano wire, glue, string and sealing wax
1938: Orson Welles panics a nation with his CBS radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” on the Mercury Radio Theater (the live drama uses fake news reports that panics listeners who believe its portrayal of a Martian invasion is true)
1944: Anne Frank (of Diary fame) is deported from Auschwitz to Belsen
1974: 32-year old Muhammad Ali KO’s George Foreman in 8th round in Kinshasa Zaire and reclaims the world heavyweight championship
1990: Three years after drilling began, the construction workers from both sides of the tunnel under the English Channel (aka the Chunnel) break through to each other.
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BORN ON THIS DAY – October 30
1735: John Adams, 2nd U.S. president
1871: Paul Valery, poet/essayist/critic
1885: Ezra Pound, poet
1893: Charles Atlas, body builder
1896: Ruth Gordon, actress
1932: Louis Malle, film director
1939: Grace Slick, rock vocalist
1945: Henry Winkler, actor
1946: Robert L “Hoot” Gibson, USN/astronaut
1951: Harry Hamlin, actor
1978: Gael Garcia Bernal, Actor (“The Motorcycle Diaries”)
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DIED ON THIS DAY – October 30
1626: Willebord van Roijen Dutch mathematician, dies at 35
1893: Sir John Abbott PM of Canada (C) (1891-92), dies at 72
1968 Pert Kelton actress (Cavalcade of Stars), dies at 61
1972: Alan Roth orch leader (Milton Berle Show), dies at 68
1984: June Duprez actress, dies at 66
1984: Mario Gallo actor (Delvecchio), dies at 61
1985 Kirby Grant Hoon Jr., Butte Mont, actor (Sky King), dies in an auto accident at 74
1991: William Shea (Shea Stadium namesake), dies at 84
2000: Steve Allen omedian, TV host, author and composer dies at age 78

Day Four of the Sarah Palin Meltdown

October 29, 2008 Maui Curmudgeon, National Election No Comments

Saks Thrift Ave Consignment shop in Anchorage.
Shown: Saks Thrift Ave Consignment shop in Anchorage.

Far from being a unifying force in the Republican Party, Palin has turned out to be a divider, and she seems to be relishing the role.

By Maui Curmudgeon
CNN reports that Palin has caused a rift in the party. Some believe she has lead the party astray and will continue to do so. Others like her mantra – anti-choice, racist, and a serious dearth of both intelligence and ideas – in short, what the Reagan Bush years have served up.

It’s one thing not to have foreign policy experience, it’s quite another to lack common sense.

In between trying to sell Barack Obama as a socialist in Shippensburg, PA, and professing to love a freezing drizzle in Fredericksburgh, VA (“I love this weather; it reminds me of home.”) Palin managed to visit with the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Sallai Meridor, to whom she said, “We look forward to working with your Jewish agency.” The Israeli nation is…an agency?

Later that same day, Arizona’s other senator, Jon Kyl, said that “I think John McCain might be added to that long list of Arizonans who ran for president but were never elected”. Ouch.

Palin’s exclamation point to the end of the day was to bring up her rich clothes again – when nobody asked her. “I’m not taking them with me. I’m back to wearing my old clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.”

Here’s hoping she gets to shop there locally real soon.

Black Tuesdays – 10/29/29 & 11/04/08

October 29, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastHermit Day
Day 303 of 2008
63 days left in this year
GOP War On Truth. Today’s Threat Level: RED - Latest Lies >McLie-O-Meter
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Ele‘ele: Black
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Blakpela: Black
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The black fluid of the learned.” (ink)
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.” – Harry Truman
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — The Daily Beast - Tina Brown’s latest
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Wassup 2008
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — 23/6 – “Some of the News Most of the Time”
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — FactCheck.org
NATIONAL NEWS – Today
Barack Obama addresses the nation for 30 minutes in prime time on most networks this evening. Read more >
Hawaiian Airlines
ISLAND NEWS – Archives
October 29, 1929: Inter-Island Airways (now Hawaiian Airlines) begins service between Oahu and Maui, with its first scheduled flight on the very day that the stock market in New York City collapses (“Black Tuesday”), heralding the beginning of the Great Depression. A ticket from Maui to Oahu cost $7.00.
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NATIONAL NEWS – Archives
October 29, 1969: The Internet is born when bits of data flow between computers at UCLA and Stanford Research Institute. Funded by the US Defense Department and called ARAPNET, it eventually became the Internet. (Just one more waste of tax payer dollars.)
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EVENTS ON THIS DAY — October 29th
-539: Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great, of Persia
1682: Pennsylvania is granted to William Penn by King Charles II
1833: the first U.S. college fraternity to have a fraternity house is founded
1863: The International Committee of the Red Cross is founded
1929: “Black Tuesday” – the NY Stock Exchange’s largest crash, losing $14 billion in stock value in only a few hours
1942: The Alaska Highway is completed
1966: The National Organization of Women (NOW) is founded
1967: The musical “Hair” opened off-Broadway.
1998: John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, returned to space 36 years later, at age 77.
2004: Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he had ordered the Sept. 11 attacks.
2004: European Union leaders signed the EU’s first constitution
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BORN ON THIS DAY — October 29th
1656: Sir Edmund Halley, London, astronomer
1740: James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s biographer
1884: Bela Lugosi, horror actor
1921: Bill Mauldin, political cartoonist
1947: Richard Dreyfuss, actor
1948: Kate Jackson, actress
1961: Randy Jackson, rocker
1971: Winona Ryder, actress
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DIED ON THIS DAY — October 29th
1618: Sir Walter Raleigh is executed in London
1885: George B McClellan Union army general, dies at 58
1901: Leon Czolcosz assassin of President McKinley, is executed
1911 Joseph Pulitzer American newspaperman, dies in Charleston, SC
1947: Frances Cleveland Preston former 1st lady, dies in Balt at 83
1957: Louis B Mayer MGM producer, dies at 71
1963: Adolphe Menjou actor (Front Page, Star is Born), dies at 73
1971: Duane Allman dies at 24 in a motorcycle accident
1975 John Scott Trotter orch leader (George Gobel Show), dies at 67
1981: William O Walker publisher of the Cleveland Call Post, dies at 85
1987: Kamal El Mallakh dies at 57
1987: Woody Herman bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds), dies at 74
1990: William French Smith attorney general (1980), dies at 73 from cancer

Maui Air Trajedy Anniversary

October 28, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays, National Election No Comments
Aloha

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastStuffed Animal Day
Day 302 of 2008
64 days left in this year
GOP War On Truth. Today’s Threat Level: RED - Latest Lies >McLie-O-Meter
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Ho’okalakupua: Magic
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Garans: Guaranteed
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The stars are the spies of heaven.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “The world makes you into a bitch, no matter how quietly you go, so you may as well go kicking and screaming.” – Roseanne Barr
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — The Daily Beast - Tina Brown’s latest
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Wassup 2008
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — 23/6 – “Some of the News Most of the Time”
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — FactCheck.org
ISLAND NEWS ARCHIVES - October 28, 1989:
Tragedy strikes Maui County - An Island Air commuter flight from Maui heading to Molokai crashes into a cliff near the Halawa Valley on Molokai, killing all 20 passengers and crew aboard. Eight of the passengers were the Molokai High School volleyball team The plane crashed into a cliff just below the ridgeline, spreading debris more than 300 feet away.

Molokai has the world’s steepest sea cliffs, rising vertically more than 3,000 feet from sea level. They have proved deadly a number of times, more recently in 1996, when another commuter plane, this one carrying State Democratic chair Robert McCarthy and Maui County Councilman Tom Morrow crashed into those same cliffs, killing all eight aboard.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — October 28th
1492  Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba
1636 Harvard University (Boston) established
1776 Battle of White Plains; Washington retreats to NJ
1790 New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin
1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated by Pres Grover Cleveland, it is celebrated by the 1st confetti (ticker tape) parade in NYC
1890 Last NL-AA World Series game Brooklyn ties Louisville 3 games & 1 tie
1891 Quake strikes Mino-Owari, Japan kills 7,300
1900 After over 5 months the Paris Olympic games close
1904 St Louis police try a new investigation method-fingerprints
1911 Bill Dobbie of Calgary Tigers kicks 10 singles in a game
1914 Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, founded at Howard University, incorporates
1918 Czechoslovakia gains independence as Austria-Hungary breaks up
1919 Volstead Act passed by Congress, start prohibition over Wilson’s veto
1922 1st coast-to-coast radio broadcast of a football game
1922 Benito Mussolini takes control of Italy’s government
1924 White Sox beat NY Giants 8-4 in Dublin, less than 20 fans attend
1929 1st child born in aircraft, Miami, Fl
1934 Brooklyn & Pittsburgh play a penalty free NFL game
1936 FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1940 Greece successfully resists Italy’s attack
1942 Train crashes into bus, killing 16 & injuring 20 (Detroit Michigan)
1946 German rocket engineers begin work in USSR
1948 Flag of Israel is adopted
1953 Bud Grant of Winnipeg Blue Bombers intercepts 5 passes (record)
1958 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, elected Pope, taking the name John XXIII
1959 Buffalo Bills enter the AFL
1961 Ground broken for Municipal (Shea) Stadium for NY Mets
1962 Khrushchev orders withdrawal of missiles from Cuba, ending crisis
1962 NY Giant YA Tittle passes for 7 touchdowns vs Wash Redskins (49-34)
1965 Gateway Arch (630′ (190m) high) completed in St Louis, Missouri
1965 Pope Paul VI proclaims Jews not collectively guilty for crucifixion
1966 Belgium’s Gaston Roelants runs 12-4/5 miles in 1 hour
1970 NBA Cleve Cavaliers 1st home game, lose to San Diego 110-99
1970 US/USSR sign an agreement to discuss joint space efforts
1971 England becomes 6th nation to have a satellite (Prospero) in orbit
1971 John & Yoko record “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” in NYC
1973 Elmore Smith of the Lakers blocks 17 shots in a game (NBA record)
1974 1st time 2 Islanders hat trick in same game-MacMillian & Westfall
1975 Calvin Murphy (Houston) begins NBA free throw streak of 58 games
1976 Billy Martin named AL Manager of the Year (NY Yankees)
1977 TV’s Rhoda gets married
1978 Donald Ritchie ran the fastest 100 Km ever, doing it in 7.2722
1979 Dick Howser (best Yank mngr win-lost pct .636) replaces Billy Martin
1981 Edward M McIntrye elected 1st black mayor of Augusta Georgia
1982 NASA launches RCA-E
1986 KOB-AM in Albuquerque NM changes call letters to KKOB
1986 KOB-TV in Albuquerque NM’s final transmission
1988 Jurors award $147,000 to Tacoma parishioner seduced by her minister
1988 Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen gives $10 million to U Wash library
1989 Oakland A’s sweep SF Giants in earthquake/BART series
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DEAD ON THIS DAY — October 28th
900   Alfred the Great English monarch, dies
1957 Anthony J Morabito co-owner of SF ’49ers, dies while watching a game
1980 Leon Janney actor (Hawk), dies at 63
1987 Andr‚ Masson France, surrealist artist (Labyrinth), dies at 91
1991 John Korbal film historian (Marlene Dietrich), dies at 51

Day Three of the Palin Meltdown

October 28, 2008 Maui Curmudgeon, National Election No Comments

“My Best Friend, um, Former Colleague, um Ted Who?”

Ted Stevens and Sarah PalinBy Maui Curmudgeon
Sarah the moose hunter continues her “maverick” ways. John McCain has called for Ted Stevens, the convicted republican felon who represents Alaska in the Senate, to resign.

Not good old Sarah. With an eye to every supporter she might have in her bid for the 2012 nomination, and with the practiced hand of a double-dealing conservative, she expresses her confidence in Ted, saying he’ll do the right thing for Alaska (whatever that means, which for Ted appears to mean hanging in there to the election): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27418294#27418294

At the same time, Sarah has removed all links to Ted Stevens from the Alaska governor’s website. You’ve got to hand it to her: Sarah has quickly learned that McCain can do nothing to her at this point. In fact, with the polls the way they are, she has fast understood that her best bet is to work on her image for post-election, and that post election, JOHN MCCAIN WILL BE WASHED UP and HARMLESS. Ted might be worth a vote or two, particularly if the Yahoos who vote in Alaska vote Ted in again anyway.

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