Council member criticizes too much

While millions were being spent to fix sewers in City Councilman Charles Djou's district he was lambasting Mayor Mufi Hannemann for "massive city spending." He now blasts the proposed transit route because it doesn't go by the airport. Of course, when he had the opportunity to support that particular route he voted against it too! We can count on Djou for constant criticism but not for solutions to our problems. And if he really knows how to fix everything without money he should please let somebody know.

How could someone be so against a transit system that will help our Hawaii in the long run? I'm sure we had doubts when former Mayor Frank Fasi started TheBus, but it is now one of the best things that happened to our state. Just because the transit won't run from Nanakuli or Waianae (where I live by the way) and I would have to drive to Kapolei, where it could be a possible pick-up site, doesn't mean I won't support it.

A complete change of heart should come quickly for Djou, if not, maybe someone else should be councilman.

Public funding gives pols a free ride

The Star-Bulletin has been getting a well-organized flood of letters from a special interest group pushing a bill for Special Interests Owned Elections. Well, technically, they're calling it the Voter-Owned Elections bill, but even a little reflection will show that this title is as false and misleading as calling people "liberals" who oppose virtually every principle held by those who actually believe in classical liberalism.

Basically, the Special Interests Owned Elections bill would force taxpayers to fully finance the "election" campaigns of anyone who could raise a $5 donation from just 200 people. Let's say that such "candidates" would each receive $50,000 in tax dollars. What do you think would happen?

Well, imagine someone gathered 201 libertarians and economic conservatives in a large room, each with $1,000 they are willing to spend to promote their special interest cause -- pro-life, anti-gay, anti-gun control, pro-prostitution, pro-drug legalization, pro-private owning of nuclear weapons -- whatever. Each "candidate" donates $5 to each of the other prospective candidates in the room, so they each still have $1,000 after the shuffling of cash. All 201 then take these "donations" and file to run for office, and get $50,000 in tax dollars apiece. That's more than $10 million in your taxes that would go to this tiny group of special interests. And then all 201 "candidates" spend all their taxpayer largesse on mailers pushing their special interest, with a tiny little disclosure in fine print saying that they're running for office.

Sound like a wise use of taxpayer money to you? Any politician so incapable of thinking through the unintended (but entirely foreseeable) consequences of this Special Interests Owned Elections bill loses any possibility of getting my vote.

Government can't maintain roads or rail

It was great to see the History Channel recently feature Hawaii's amazing H-3 on its show "Modern Marvels." Yet missing from the show was any mention of the state's (and Honolulu's) not-so-marvelous collective incompetence at maintaining our roads and keeping the lighting working on our highways, including the H-3 itself. Now the city wants to build a train system that will be a fiscal black hole that perpetually absorbs billions of dollars, money that Honolulu and Hawaii don't have.

We had all best learn to drive with even greater care -- while grasping our ever-thinner wallets.

A person's teeth are nobody else's business

Regarding your Feb. 27 editorial, "Don't surrender to those who resist fluoridation": Surrender? Are you at war with people who disagree with you?

If the editors of the Star-Bulletin want to consume fluoride, a toxic waste of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries, great! Knock yourselves out. But how dare you even think of forcing it on me or anyone else. My teeth are not your business!

Obama would be ideal world leader

I just read the preface to Barack Obama's book, "Dreams from My Father." Suffice it to say that if we are fortunate enough to experience this brilliant man as our president, the country and the world will experience a transformation approaching the magnitude of Europe's emergence from the Dark Ages. Obama is the closest to Plato's ideal of the "Philosopher King" I have ever seen.