http://www.wikio.co.uk/search=Hawaii Wikio - Hawaii http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68565748 Oh, a bit of campaign palaver here today, cause I've got nothing else to say. Besides, it was a fun day for the battle of campaign rhetoric . Cindy Hensley met John McCain more than 20 years earlier at a party in Hawaii . He was a 43-year-old naval officer, married at the time. She was 25. They married a year later — in 1980 — and they signed a prenuptial agreement, which was fairly rare at the time. Just so we are clear- visiting your grandmother while vacationing in Hawaii, the state where you were you were born- elitist. Meeting the millionaire heiress daughter (who you will soon begin an affair with and divorce your first wife and then go on and buy a ton of houses) in Hawaii and then going on and honeymooning in Hawaii – not elitist. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:56:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68565748 2008-08-22T02:56:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564166 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:53:03 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564166 2008-08-22T02:53:03Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564177 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:51:12 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564177 2008-08-22T02:51:12Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564482 Japan and Mexico will play for international crown Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:49:38 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564482 2008-08-22T02:49:38Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564959 First, the ad: Now, McCain's brass-knuckles-in-a-gun-fight response: “Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people “cling” to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans? “The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.” And my point-by-point rebuttal: 1. The McCain Family household income in 2006 was over $6.5 million. 2. McCain went on vacation in Columbia, which isn't even in the U.S, not to mention his current vacation at his "cabin" in Sedonia. 3. McCain's seven homes are worth an average of nearly $2 million each. And the Obamas own just the one home. 4. Keating Five. Google it. 5. Does a guy who wears $520 Italian Shoes while visiting 41 in Kennebunckport have room to talk about fancy desires. 6. 90% of Christians (and Jews and Muslums for that matter) cling to religion when times are tough. 7. Does a man who doesn't know how many properties he owns think he's in touch with everyday Americans? Not to mention that while we are saying "seven homes," we really mean seven properties. His "cabin" in Sedonia has 4-6 homes on it by itself. -Bob www.theworldaccordingtome.us Your Ad Here Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:49:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564959 2008-08-22T02:49:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564179 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:46:29 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68564179 2008-08-22T02:46:29Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68558144 Rex Johnson is keeping his job as president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:40:33 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68558144 2008-08-22T00:40:33Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68558145 First Insurance Company of Hawaii Ltd. said it has lowered its rates for homeowners, personal auto and personal umbrella insurance by an average of 8.5 percent. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:38:06 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68558145 2008-08-22T00:38:06Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68556583 Hawaii holds an open primary on September 20, a Saturday. The state has an open primary system. Traditionally, Hawaii has printed primary ballots for each party, and given a complete set of primary ballots to each voter. The voter decides in the privacy of the voting booth which party’s primary ballot to [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:29:44 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68556583 2008-08-21T23:29:44Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68555063 [Posted by WLS] The house is legal as a vacation rental, but only on a monthly basis. The community where the house is located — Kailua — has had an ongoing internal battle for years over owners of second homes using them as “short-term” rentals — generally meaning houses that are rented on a daily or weekly [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:14:09 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68555063 2008-08-21T23:14:09Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68545029 An alert commenter points us to something kind of amusing: Cindy Hensley met John McCain more than 20 years earlier at a party in Hawaii. He was a 43-year-old naval officer, married at the time. She was 25. They married a year later — in 1980 — and they signed a prenuptial agreement, which was fairly [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:12:14 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68545029 2008-08-21T22:12:14Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68552549 It appears the McSame campaign is having difficulty, erm, managing McSame's "I have no idea how many houses I own" gaffe. The level of whining and shrieking is an indication of just how bad a day it's been for Multimansion McSame. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:02:14 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68552549 2008-08-21T22:02:14Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68546453 Flailing furiously after their candidate’s ridiculously elitist gaffe today, the McCain camp goes into the lie volcano: Oliver Willis searches for Hawaii’s mythical private beaches while snorkeling at one of Hawaii’s public beaches “‘Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:38:06 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68546453 owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis) 2008-08-21T21:38:06Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68540490 from The Carpetbagger Report Posted August 21st, 2008 The initial response from the McCain campaign on the senator’s confusion about how many homes he owns was pretty weak. Put it this way, it talked about arugula and Hawaii. A couple of hours later, though, the McCain gang went with the one response that applies to every question. The McCain campaign is road-testing a new argument in responding to Obama’s criticism of his number-of-houses gaffe, an approach the McCain camp has never tried before: The houses gaffe doesn’t matter because … he was a P.O.W.! “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post. I see. When the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a close Bush ally, publicly questioned McCain’s marital infidelities, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war. When Dems attacked McCain’s healthcare plan in May, McCain responded by noting his background as a prisoner of war. Asked by a local reporter about the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain responded by talking about his background as a prisoner of war. Accused of possibly having heard the questions in advance of Rick Warren’s recent candidate forum, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war. There seems to be a pattern here. To be sure, McCain no doubt endured horrific conditions during the war, and it’s obvious that McCain’s detention as a young man in Vietnam helped shape his life. Given this, it’s not unreasonable that he’d want voters to know about his experience. But that’s not a license to force the “P.O.W. card” into every unrelated question. And all of this, of course, dovetails with the McCain campaign running multiple television ads talking about McCain’s background as a prisoner of war, literally including interrogation footage in the commercial. This hard-sell wouldn’t be quite so odd if McCain didn’t go around saying that he’s reluctant to talk about his Vietnam experiences. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:56:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68540490 2008-08-21T20:56:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68532931 Analysis: Why the Home Debate Matters - The Fix “Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses'” asked McCain spokesman [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:48:27 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68532931 2008-08-21T19:48:27Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68543068 The Wall Street Journal and other sources have been discussing the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack on the USA. The counter to these claims are that only 1% of the lights in Hawaii were effected by the Starfish Prime test (1.4 megaton thermonuclear weapon detonated 250 miles above Johnston Island in the Pacific in 1962). The 1962 bomb affected street lamps, circuit breakers, cars and radio stations in Hawaiian, 800 miles to the north. Still, even there the effect was far from comprehensive. Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Michael P. Bernardin said that "the 30 strings of failed streetlights [from Starfish Prime's EMP] represented only about one percent of the streetlamps on Oahu at the time." And noted physicist Richard Garwin said the Starfish detonation "had barely noticeable effects on military systems." Starfish Prime is discussed at Wikipedia Stanley Jakubiak's statement and research suggests that actual EMP damage would not be total Testing of commercial off the shelf (COTS) equipment has allowed us to make some observations regarding the vulnerability of COTS equipment to a range of EMP environments that may be of some use in assessing the impact of an EMP environment on the unprotected commercial infrastructure. In general, it is possible that some equipment upset can occur when the EMP environment field strengths are between 3 – 8 kilovolts per meter (kV/m). When the field strengths reach above 8 kV/m the risk that some equipment will upset becomes more probable. In the range of 7 – 20 kV/m there is a possibility that some equipment will be damaged, above 20 kV/m damage is probable. Results from some recent testing of COTS computer equipment in September 1998 reconfirmed these observations. So the Super-EMP threat is only credible at this time from Russia and China (20 megaton bombs that have amplified EMP effects that could have strong effects across a country). Systems hardening should be done but it should be performed with a prudent cost conscious upgrade plan. There is vulnerability but the 90% death figure is an overblown threat assessment. Many people have camping gear and would be able to heat water to purify. The obesity of many Americans would come into play to prevent starvation. Only a fraction of even unprotected equipment will be disabled in terms of an attempt at nationwide disruption. There is shielded equipment. There is a level of spare parts and hydro, coal and nuclear would be relatively easy to get back on line. There are some spare parts to get some level of water service back. It would be disruptive and a problem but there would not be a complete blackout. Plus there are old equipment at some older power plants and military bases from the cold war days, or some buildings just may have some Faraday cage (electromagnetic shielding) type setup. Since it would cost 1-5% to properly remediate, then there should be upgrades to key infrastructure against other vulnerabilities at the same time. There is the Critical infrastructure protection program. ( CIP ) The CIP researchers are aware of the issue and written papers on it. There is sufficient money going to the Departmennt of Homeland Security (DHS) and CIP. It is a matter of how much gets spent on pork and how much actually goes to fixing the problems. There have been about 2100 identified key installations that have been identified as needing protection. They should get some remediation over the next 5 years and for the military to get less complacent and back closer to cold war levels of pre-prep. FURTHER READING The EMP study (which may be making the issue seem bigger than it is and guiding more money than is needed at the problem) suggests: The cost recommendations for decent levels of hardening of key aspects of the electrical grid and generation systems (Less than $3 billion for some decent protection.) Only the costs for some of the larger or more system-specific initiatives are estimated here (in 2007 dollars). - There are several thousand major transformers and other high-value components on the transmission grid. Protective relays and sensors for these components are more than that number but less than twice. A continual program of replacement and upgrade with EMP-hardened components will substantially reduce the cost attributable uniquely to EMP. Labor for installation is already a part of the industry work force. The estimated cost for add-on and EMP-hardened replacement units and EMP protection schemes is in the range of $250 million to $500 million. - Approximately 5,000 generating plants of significance will need some form of added protection against EMP, particularly for their control systems. In some instances the fix is quite inexpensive and in others it will require major replacements. The estimated cost is in the range of $100 million to $250 million. - The addition of nonsynchronous interfaces to create subregion islands is not known with reasonable certainty, but it might be in the order of $100 million to $150 million per island. The pace of creating islands and their priority will be established by DHS in consultation with NERC and FERC. Moving to at least six or more fairly rapidly is a fair assumption. There will be annual operating costs of around $5 million per island. - The simulation and training centers are assumed at three — one for each interconnect — for a cost in the range of $100 million to $250 million plus annual operating costs of around $25 million per year. - Protection of controls for emergency power supplies should not be too expensive since hard-wired manual start and run capability should be in place for many, which is adequate. Furthermore, the test, adjust, and verification will be carried out by the entity that owns the emergency power supply as part of normal operating procedures. Retrofit of protective devices such as filters might be accomplished at a cost of less than $30,000 per generator for newer generators with vulnerable electronic controls. Hardening the connection to the rest of the facility power system requires a protected internal distribution system from the backup generator. - Switchable ground resistors for high-value transformers are estimated to cost in the range of $75 million to $150 million. - The addition of new black start generation with system integration and protected controls is estimated to cost around $12 million per installation. Probably no more than 150 such installations will need to be added throughout the United States and Canadian provinces. Adding dual fuel capability to natural gas-fired generation is done for the economic purpose of the owner, yet it has the same value as the addition of black start generation. The addition of fuel storage for the existing black start units is relatively small, about $1 million each. - The addition of emergency generation at the multitude of sites including fuel and transportation sites is probably around $2 million to $5 million each. - The cost for monitoring, on a continuous basis, the state of the electric infrastructure, its topology, and key elements plus for assessing the actual EMP vulnerability, validation of mitigation and protection, maintenance, and surveillance data for the system at large cannot be estimated since it falls under many existing government-funded activities, but in any event, it is not considered significant. - Research and development activities are a level-of-effort funding that needs to be decided by DHS. Redirection of existing funding is also likely to occur. - Funding for the initiatives above is to be divided between industry and government. Government is responsible for those activities that relate directly and uniquely to the purpose of assuring continuation of the necessary functioning of U.S. society in the face of an EMP attack or other broadly targeted physical or information systems attack. Industry is responsible for all other activities including reliability, efficiency and commercial interests. Industry is also the best source for advice on cost effective implementation of the initiatives. No cost is quoted, but $1 billion each in preventative hardening of key water, food and transportation. The unclassified DOD report on the starfish prime test 1964 Nasa report on high altitude EMP Personal Protection Steps Against EMP What can your everyday civilian do to protect themselves against the possibility of an EMT attack? 1. Have a lot of battery operated devices on hand and the batteries to use them. Further, these appliances should have cords and antennas 30 inches or less in length. The reason for this is simple: Metal pulls in EMP and makes it more dangerous. Thus, less metal is good. Further, keep these appliances away from metal. 2. Stay 8 feet from large scale metal fixtures yourself. In fact, when EMP is concentrated by metal it can actually be dangerous to man in and of itself. 3. Harden your equipment (another way of saying, protect it from EMP). Some considerations include the use of tree formation circuits (not standard loop formations), induction shielding around components, self-contained battery packs, loop antennas, and Zener diodes. In addition, grounding wires for each separate instrument into a system could help as well. 4. A new device called the Ovonic Threshold Device (Energy Conversion Devices of Troy, MI) is a solid state switch that opens a path to ground when a massive surge of EMP is encountered by a circuit. This would help in a big way. 5. Use a Faraday Box to store equipment in. Makeshift Faraday boxes can be made from metal filing cabinets, ammunition containers, and cake boxes. That said, the device you are protecting must not touch the metal container (use insulation: paper, cardboard, whatever). Further, there can be no holes. Last, if the box seems less than adequate, you may wrap it in aluminum foil for more protection. 6. Wrap your rooms in aluminum foil. Well, it's certainly extreme, but thought it worth mentioning. After you do so, cover it with some type of fake wood, etc. [Some drywall boards have a metal sheet, so select such boards when remodelling] 7. Cars are already a metal box. Thus, most of them would survive. That said, gas would be a problem. So have a lot of that and food on hand (remember that refrigerators and water sanitizing devices would go out). Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:36:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68543068 2008-08-21T19:36:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68534883 Just like the “guilt by association” attack, this is something Barack Obama shouldn’t have brought up. While he attacks McCain for owning 7 houses, he just returned from his beach home in Hawaii where he spends his time when he’s not living in the mansion he bought with the help of a convicted felon. The [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:23:14 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68534883 2008-08-21T19:23:14Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68531135 The other day I wrote about Obama’s Saddleback performance: You’d that after a week out of circulation in Hawaii, he would have practiced a little extemporaneous speaking. Well… According to several Democrat political consultants presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama spent part of his Hawaiian vacation working on weaning himself from a heavy dependence on teleprompters. Even [...] Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:19:57 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68531135 2008-08-21T19:19:57Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68531520 Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaii chapter, is stepping down after 10 years in the position. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:10:02 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68531520 2008-08-21T19:10:02Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68537737 The desert safari in Dubai and Hawaiian Luau in Honolulu both offered things that were so similar yet different. The luau obviously was more commercialized and marketed unlike the desert safari where I felt so much more can be done. Pooh compares experiences of an Hawaiin Luau party and the Dubai Desert Safari; both unmissable experiences. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:09:37 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/search/Hawaii?rinfoid=68537737 2008-08-21T19:09:37Z