The Hawaii Files Blog Has Ended at This Location

The Hawaii Files Blog has ended at this location on Google's Blogspot server. Currently the site has moved to a new location and a Wordpress blog will be set up at a later time. For now enjoy the photos and video here as well as at the new main site URL.

It's been fun publishing here at Blogspot but circumstances in my life have changed and so is the focus of The Hawaii Files.

I am still regularly publishing photos on my Flickr pages and those are still being syndicated to other websites I currently manage including the new Hawaii Files, HonokaaHawaii.com and macprohawaii.com.












Watch the HawaiiFiles Channel right here. It will be periodically updated.



If for some reason you decide to actually view the archival content on this site, please note that images, video and links may not show up or work. This is what I think are called "dead links". You will find many of these here as the site continues to stagnate and grows older.


Copyright 2015 Melvin Ah Ching Productions.

Video: What Gay Marriage Did to Massachusetts

Hawaii will probably be going down this slippery, liberal slope now that same sex marriage has become law. People who believe in traditional values are being marginalized by the progressive, liberal agenda of the gay activist movement.

Watch the video. It's about a half hour long. The sound levels in the video do change from "normal" to "very loud" between some of the segments.

Hawaii is at risk. Beware.

Mass Resistance

Moments Before Disaster

Moments Before Disaster, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

I was only 6 years old when this happened. I remember coming home from school and my Mom was all teary eyed. I don't remember any of the TV or radio news coverage. It was not until a few days later, when pictures in LIFE and other magazines depicted the sequence of events along that motorcade route that led to the President's untimely death. In my little mind at that time, to me it was like someone had killed God.

John F. Kennedy 1917 - 1963

books.google.com/books?id=U1IEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&sou...

This photo is in the public domain. This is the Photo of the Day for November 22, 2013.

June Wrap - News & Comment

The following are some comments about recent news items this past month.



LWV Rail and Budget Forum

About 35 people showed up for a forum put on by the League of Women Voters to discuss issues related to rail and the city budget. What I got out of the forum is that 1. the city will be using more taxpayer money to fund the maintenance of rail.

Most of that funding will come from property taxes. 2. Property taxes are the biggest source of funding for the city. Depending on how you look at the accompanying graphics below, property tax revenues make up 35% to at least 50% of total city funding. 3. Property taxes hit everyone, whether you own, rent or go to a business. 4. Property taxes will probably go up to fund the maintenance of rail in the coming years. This is in addition to other things that property taxes fund - police, fire, infrastructure (roads, water, sewer, etc.).

Transportation which includes rail will end up being the biggest cost for the city in the coming years. This is one of the reasons why I continue to oppose rail. We are going to be paying for this huge boondoggle forever. Very, very sad.

Below is a graphic from Councilmember Ann Kobayashi's office that shows where city funding goes and where it comes from. Click on the graphic to see larger version options via Flickr.

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U.S. Supreme Court Ruling

I am once again disappointed by the latest rulings coming out of the United States Supreme Court extending marriage rights to gay couples and overturning California's Proposition 8 vote by upholding a lower court's ruling that declared it "unconstitutional".

The result has been a rush of new gay marriages in states that have a law and an effort to get the Hawaii State Legislature to convene a special session to overturn our law on traditional marriage.

Frankly a costly special session should not be convened to overturn Hawaii's marriage law. Not having gay marriage in the books is not an emergency situation. Supporters of gay marriage can wait until the start of 2014 and have the legislature tackle the issue during the course of the regular session that starts in January.

Hawaii already has a civil unions law which is just fine for them. Hawaii's definition of marriage law should not be overturned.

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Friends of the Library Book Sale

The 66th annual Hawaii Friends of the Library book sale was held June 22 to June 30 at McKinley High School's cafeteria. I stopped by yesterday afternoon (June 29) and bought a few CDs and one book. I have several books that I bought in previous sales that I have yet to read. Lately I been trying to not buy too many things that add to the clutter of my small apartment. Buying books and more CDs doesn't help.

The annual book sale will be a huge success once again for the Friends of the Library as it was packed with people yesterday. I am sure all previous days were just as busy.

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The Super Moon

Went up to Tantalus on June 23 to take a picture of the Super Moon. Did not get any photos from there. We were shut out by rain. I did get a decent rainbow picture before the sun went down up at Tantalus. After waiting for more than an hour for clouds and rain to clear, my friend and I opted to go to Diamond Head where I did manage for pull off a couple of photos of the full moon with 2 different cameras.


Super Moon through the trees. Taken with Canon Powershot G5 point and shoot camera.


Manoa sunset rainbow taken from the Tantalus lookout area.


And finally, yesterday's sunset at Ala Moana Beach.

All photos except for the U.S. Supreme Court building are from my Flickr photo stream, taken by me.

Hawaii Political Platter: The U.S. Senate Race

Barely in Support of Linda Lingle

Back in 1998 I was a very enthusiastic supporter of Linda Lingle's bid for Governor. Back then she was running against the then-current incumbent, Governor Ben Cayetano. Like many others I was disappointed when Lingle lost that race and secured a second term for Governor Ben.

Linda Lingle was elected Governor in 2002. She beat then Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono to capture the state's top seat. We were enthused that after 40 years the state of Hawaii finally got another Republican Governor.

In a few years though, I was disappointed with Governor Lingle's leadership, most notably after she let HB 1309 pass into law without her signature on July 11, 2005. This is the bill that became Act 247 that authorized the counties to increase the general excise tax to pay for mass transit or road improvement projects. Three of the four island counties turned down the proposed tax.

But not Oahu. Mufi Hannemann who was at that time the mayor of the City and County of Honolulu lobbied hard to get that tax and was with Lingle at the press conference announcing the passage of HB 1309. In fact at that press conference not one Republican stood with Lingle as she announced the passage of the tax increase for rail.

By 2007 the City and County of Honolulu authorized the GE tax increase thereby allowing the now $9 billion rail project to come to fruition. Governor Lingle created a pocketbook nightmare for all of us living in Hawaii in terms of paying higher taxes to support rail. Very, very wrong.

Despite all of that, I will end up voting for the former Governor because once again her opponent is current U.S. Representative and former Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono. Hirono is probably a do-nothing Congressperson and has been alleged by the Lingle campaign for not showing up to vote many times. Plus she is far left and supports all of those socialistic Democrat party issues such as "Obamacare", gay marriage, rail, higher taxes, the Jones Act, the Akaka Bill and more.

The sad fact is that Lingle touting herself as always being "bi-partisan" (I'm tired and quite disappointed with that as her campaign centerpiece) supports some of the same issues that Mazie Hirono supports.... Jones Act and the Akaka Bill among others.

Choices, choices...

Since I have never ever voted for Hirono, that leaves me with two other choices.... vote for Linda Lingle mainly on the fact that if she is elected, it could help the Republican party get a majority in the U.S. Senate..... or just leave the race blank... re: blank ballot. There are no third party alternatives in this race, so it is either Lingle or a blank ballot. As of this writing I am leaning towards Lingle... but I could change my mind and go to "blank".

Finally in a funny footnote to this, is the fact that I am definitely voting for Lingle's 1998 opponent, Governor Ben Cayetano who is now running for Mayor of Honolulu and vows to kill the $9 billion rail project. And that is a good thing. Stop rail now.

Photo: Linda Lingle speaking last year at the Milton Friedman birthday celebration.

Red Ink Could Shut Down the U.S. Post Office

With just about everyone doing communications via computer, tablets and smart phones these days, it is no wonder that the U.S. Postal Service is trouble. Hardly anyone ever sends out cards or letter these days. So quaint. So slow. Email and social networks via computers gives all users instant communication and gratification. The only good reason to keep the post office in business is for delivery of packages and bulk mailers for many businesses. Fact is the "junk mail" business is what keeps the most revenue coming in to the U.S. Post Office.

I cannot even remember the last time I got a letter. I still get a few Christmas cards and a birthday card on occasion from my mother. That's it. Once or twice a year for mail that is worth opening. Everything else, if I did not ask for it, is either junk advertising mail or paper bills. The only time I look forward to getting any mail is if I order something from a place like Amazon.com and they deliver the hard goods in the U.S. Mail... or maybe Federal Express (a private competitor).

The U.S. Postal Service is seeking help from the U.S. Congress. According to the ABC News report referenced in the embedded video, the postal service doesn't want money. They want authorization to make some big changes like closing rural post offices, cutting Saturday deliveries and laying off personnel. One of their largest expenses is paying for employee retirements.

Of the 3700 or so post offices that may close nationwide, at last report only 3 or 4 of them were targeted in Hawaii. I however suspect more. In time people in outlying areas of the islands who rely on the Post Office will have to travel quite far to get and deliver mail or adopt to new methods of communication, which most of us already use. Tablet computers, desktop and laptop computers or at least a smart phone. Times they are a changing.


Post offices such as this one in Honokaa could someday close if the U.S. Postal Service is to survive on reduced resources and facilities.