Mayor Kim might be dragged to Capitol

How come here in Honolulu our mayor and City Council are unable to take fast, clear, decisive, sensible and effective action to curb the tremendous increase in property tax and spare taxpayers undue hardship?

Look at what's happening on the Big Island of Hawaii. The mayor and the county council appear to be able to control and reduce the huge increase in property assessments by taking timely, sensible and uncomplicated action.

If Mayor Kim doesn't watch out and keeps helping his constituents and county quickly and appropriately, he might find himself to be a reluctant draftee running for the office of governor, or at least the recipient of a huge honorarium of write-in votes.

Alert motorist noticed another's flat tire

The aloha spirit is alive and working on the streets of Hawaii.

On the morning of March 8, as I was driving mauka on Ft. Weaver Road, a considerate motorist started honking his horn and pointing at my car. My windows were shut, but I could see him mouth "flat tire." I pulled to the side and sure enough, the tire was flat. Traffic was steadily flowing and I never had the opportunity to thank him even with a hand signal.

I hope he reads this because I want him to know that I am grateful for alerting me to the problem.

Why not sacrifice trash to the lava flows?

As I understand it, 61 percent of bottles and cans in Hawaii are recycled, and "dump" sites are filling! I also see lava flowing into the sea on TV. How about using the lava to get rid of the refuse? If the refuse were to be dumped into the lava, that's the end of the refuse! The lava would turn the refuse into ash and that ash would be deposited with the lava into the sea. The refuse would be a minute portion of the lava mass. The refuse would not fill valuable valleys and the years to wait to use the refuse sites would end. Let's give this the name: The Fromm Cycle.

Turtle Bay traffic will go which way, again?

Regarding the statement by Kuilima Resort Co. spokesman Doug Carlson concerning traffic at Turtle Bay (Star-Bulletin, March 9): "These new jobs are not going to be adding to the traffic problem. It's actually going to be going in the opposite direction from where they are going today."

Apparently all these people currently live at Turtle Bay, and now they will just be staying home to work.

Amazing logic. Does he really think us that gullible?

President's spying has no justification

Two legal arguments have been offered for the president's right to violate the law, both of which have been seriously questioned by members of Congress of both parties.

The first -- highly dangerous in its sweep and implications -- is that the president has the constitutional right, as commander in chief, to break any U.S. law on the grounds of national security. However the Supreme Court has never upheld the president's right to do this in the area of wiretapping, nor has it ever granted a president a "monopoly over war powers" or recognized him as "commander in chief of the country" as opposed to commander in chief of the armed forces.

The second legal argument in defense of President Bush's warrantless wiretaps: Congress authorized the administration to place wiretaps without court approval when it adopted the 2001 resolution authorizing military force. However, the force resolution doesn't mention wiretaps.