A little 'shibai' goes a long way for Dems

Even to the casual observer, the recent special session of the Legislature did not come as a surprise. But what did it really accomplish?

Back in the day, we used to call the political game of drawing the public's attention to one issue in order to sneak through other legislation "shibai," which comes from a Japanese word meaning an elaborate stage play.

In the final analysis, the only real accomplishment of the special session was the veto override of SB 768, which restores binding arbitration to the Hawaii Government Employees Association and will eventually cost the state millions of dollars it can ill afford.

This was nothing more than a blatant attempt by Democrats to win back the hearts and minds of public workers. Other veto overrides were either unnecessary or rendered moot because of the governor's authority to withhold funding.

Roy Yanagihara
Kaneohe

Politics motivates critic of governor's trip

Jackie Kido's July 14 letter to the editor regarding Governor Lingle and the KITV/HVCB issue is based on misinformation and obvious political motivation. As a spokeswoman for a former governor, Kido should know the importance of basing statements on facts, and refrain from irresponsible allegations.

Lingle has never berated any Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau executive. She has responded to the recent audit of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which contracts out the state's tourism marketing to HVCB, with much concern. Her administration is taking an active role to ensure that a corrective plan of action by HTA is implemented.

The recent trip to Japan, though called the Governor's Ohana Mission, was organized by HVCB, as has been the case every other year since 1997. While the governor's office provided input on the focus of the trip and scheduling of the governor's media events, all costs were handled by HVCB. For the record, KITV asked to go on the trip, HVCB offered to pay some expenses and KITV accepted.

Since tourism affects everyone in the state, the desire by the governor's office and HVCB to have local media cover the trip was meant to keep the people back home informed about the delegation's tourism promotion efforts, meetings with the country's leaders and business development opportunities in Japan. Such community relations and communications efforts are part of the HTA's overall strategic plan.

It's unfortunate that Kido prefers to use the KITV issue to distract from what's really important to the people of Hawaii. She seems to be more intent on playing politics than learning the facts about what the governor, Mayor Baptiste, Mayor Arakawa, other county representatives and tourism officials are doing to rejuvenate Japanese tourism, pursue business opportunities in Japan and identify ways for Hawaii to play a greater role in Japan-U.S. military relations.

Russell Pang
Chief of Media Relations
Office of the Governor

What false impression did Lingle give Japan?

There's a whole lot of concrete that decorates about half of Oahu, helping to maintain the consistently high daily temperatures.

Add to that the jumbo-jet equivalent of half-hourly ambulance sirens, fire engine horns, police car trumpets, truck reversal horns, routine traffic bedlam, screaming lawn trimmers, droning leaf blowers, noon-time air raid sirens, wilting tradewinds, 3 a.m. car anti-theft devices, 4 a.m. departures from a plethora of karaoke bars ... and Governor Lingle in Japan, wearing ear mufflers whilst pushing Hawaii as a stress-free zone.

John L. Werrill
Honolulu

Governor's trip was a costly waste

The governor vetoed bills that help the needy because she said there is not enough money in the budget. That sounds reasonable, except that the governor just spent taxpayer funds (through the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, which is partially funded by the state) on a trip to Japan under the guise of bringing more Japanese tourists to Hawaii.

If she wanted to get more tourists from the Land of the Rising Sun, a visit from Carol Kai or getting Michelle Wie to play a round of golf in Japan would likely get more of a response than sending a politician.

It is likely that businesses would have underwritten a Kai or Wie promotional trip and saved taxpayers' money.

Ron Rhetrik
Mililani

Lingle's spin on KITV-Japan trip is dizzying

Governor Lingle and her PR machine are at it again. Are we now to believe her spin that this KITV fiasco is the fault of a state Legislature that has a "political motive" and a press that has to improve coverage of Hawaii's government ("Lingle denounces hearings on media junket as a waste," Star-Bulletin, July 15)?

Please.

More investigative coverage of government is exactly what Lingle's PR people don't want. Taking 44 people on a costly promotional tour in a state with a boutique economy of less than $35 billion is irresponsible at best. Asking a TV news station to go along is unethical and criminal at worst.

I encourage the Legislature to hold Lingle and her administration responsible for this humiliation to our state's image.

Spin is simply the power of suggestion -- it only works if you buy into it.

John S. Mill
Honolulu

Lingle's trip to Japan will pay off for tourism

Is the governor's visit to Japan worth the effort? Absolutely.

Tourism is Hawaii's core business; the Japanese have loved and will continue to travel to Hawaii; and consistency and visibility are the foundation for a successful flow of visitors from Japan.

It is axiomatic in business to maximize your largest client.

In this case, Governor Lingle has continued the effort to be there for the Japanese tourist. This takes time, but to avoid it will cost us much more. Aloha to our friends from Japan; you are always welcome.

Randy Harris
Honolulu

How did pot-growing UH coach get hired?

How in the world did a fellow like Laron Kortgaard get hired by the University of Hawaii in the first place ("Former UH coach gets 7 years for growing pot," Star-Bulletin, July 16)?

When I and most of my friends and associates worked for the university system, the qualifications for being hired for whatever position were rather high and competitive.

How did Kortgaard get hired? No check of references? No screening process?

Maybe it is all a mistake, as he states. But still, something is wrong if his history and background, including character references, did not point out difficulties in his past.

Ted Gugelyk
Retired
University of Hawaii-Manoa

Decriminalization is answer to ice problem

The public needs to just say "no" to the law enforcement approach to controlling drugs. The chilling ideas of city prosecutor Peter Carlisle and U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo bring to mind a North Korean-style police state. Each decade we are subjected to a new drug scare; heroin in the 1970s, cocaine in the '80s and now crystal methamphetamine. Each one brings a wave of public hysteria fueled by lots of misinformation. Each time, the law enforcement community suggests the answer is to give it more money and power. No real progress in dealing with addiction is ever made, but more tax money is spent, crime continues to rise and the people calling for these phony solutions just say we need to do even more of the same.

We have more than 30,000 addicts in Hawaii. We now have about 5,000 people in our jails at a cost of more than $40,000 per year each. Do the math. We will never get a hold of this problem until we decriminalize addiction and give control of these harmful substances to a responsible party such as the Department of Health.

Tracy Ryan
Chairwoman
Libertarian Party of Hawaii

Underage drinking threatens our future

The state of Hawaii should spend more time educating our youth about underage drinking. The youth of today are jeopardizing their lives and futures with underage drinking.

In my youth, people used alcohol as an escape from issues concerning school, friends and family. Now that I am older, nothing has changed. People of all ages drink for the same reasons, as an escape.

The facts about the consequences of underage drinking are not publicized enough. I will hear maybe a couple of radio announcements or see a few television commercials about the issue, but these do not provide the full facts. As a community, we should make it a priority to educate them about alcohol.

These minor drinkers will be our future leaders. Their immature judgments will affect each and every one of us if nothing is resolved. Minors look up to elders as a source of guidance. We must properly educate them about the facts and outcome about underage drinking.

The state of Hawaii must make it a top priority to educate our schoolchildren about the dangers of alcohol.

Jay Mateo
Honolulu

Spiral of spending, destruction must end

I reacted with alarm (and little surprise) to learn that the new estimated federal budget deficit for the fiscal year ending this Sept. 30 is expected to be a whopping $450 billion. This new record will stand for only a year, since the estimate for next year's deficit is an even more outrageous $475 billion. Our nation's treasury is hemorrhaging.

What has caused this flood of red ink? The gross mismanagement of our nation's finances by this administration, aided and abetted by legislators who supported two unnecessary and irresponsible tax cuts and a costly fiasco in Iraq that drains another $1 billion-plus every month out of our treasury. Many of these legislators now sit idly by, watching this disaster in the making and hoping people will not notice as they inevitably vote for yet another increase in the national debt ceiling, to accommodate successive rounds of borrowing to keep the government afloat.

The war in or occupation of Iraq may take another four years, and the cost in this fiscal year, through next June, will be $3.9 billion per month! We could accomplish so much more in our own land with such money going toward programs that would be constructive, not destructive. True national security is found in this way, not in the homeland security mentality and wars abroad.

We must halt the spiral of destruction, and end the gross misuse of our tax money and national treasury on such horrendous policies and escapades.

John Witeck
Honolulu

'Big lie' is catching up with the president

The Bush White House now is trying to deflect the blame for the "big lie." The CIA director takes the blame for the faulty data regarding the nuclear dangers of Iraq. What a joke!

How do they explain the military's quick action in taking control of the oil wells but not the nuclear waste sites? Why did the White House announce that anyone who damaged an oil well would be treated as a war criminal, and no mention was made of damaging nuclear waste sites?

Why didn't they give orders to protect the nuclear sites?

President Bush and the war planners knew there were no nuclear weapon projects or WMDs in Iraq to protect. We are now in Iraq because of what Saddam did to Bush's daddy.

Benjamin Toyama
Ewa Beach

What takes us so long to do the right thing?

I am ashamed to live in a society where we find Britney Spears' virginity, or lack of it, newsworthy, while not much is said of the millions murdered worldwide.

When we finally do the right thing, continual insinuations are made about the righteousness of our intent. We ignored the plight of people who lived in one of the richest oil-producing nations and yet were poor. We looked aside as Saddam Hussein killed 1.5 million human beings and we saw his vengeance when he polluted hundreds of miles of Gulf water with oil, killing the birds and destroying the coastline.

Saddam was an evil person who, if he felt he was losing the war, would have used whatever weapons he had, including weapons of mass destruction.

If this doesn't scare you, then can we ignore the horror of men, women and children all killed to see if biological warfare worked? Were no human rights violated by the murder of these human beings? Is human life too inconsequential to defend? Must there have been weapons of mass destruction? Does the world need to be at the brink of annihilation before we can act? How many human beings must be murdered before it is proper to act in their defense?

If we will not defend human life, what will we defend?

Beatrix Shishido
Mililani

It's not the first time Bush has 'misled' us

Regarding your July 14 editorial "Iraq uranium blunder should prompt inquiry": "President Bush was wrong in citing British intelligence that Iraq sought uranium from Africa," you note, in endorsing a congressional probe into this matter, "but the flaw in his State of the Union address does not mean he deliberately misled the American people."

Yet in that same speech, Bush also said that "Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaida" and that "Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas." Neither of those claims can be substantiated.

Unfortunately, Bush's mendacity last January on this issue was not an aberration. On Oct. 6, 2002, Bush unequivocally told his Cincinnati audience that:

>> "Iraq is exploring ways of using (unmanned aerial vehicles) for missions targeting the United States."

>> "Iraq and al-Qaida have had high-level contacts that go back a decade."

>> "Saddam Hussein is moving ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon."

>> "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

In a rare moment of candor, George W. Bush once told syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, "I am a pit bull on the pantleg of opportunity." Meanwhile, the Star-Bulletin reassures us that it's merely raining.

Donald R. Koelper
Honolulu

The First Amendment only goes so far

I agree with the gist of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that limits Internet access in public libraries (Star-Bulletin, June 24). There are all sorts of exceptions to First Amendment rights that are well established in law. Freedom of the press is limited by defamation and libel. The "right to know" is not absolute, and members of the media have to respect the rights of others just as the common people do.

Freedom of speech does not give people the right to threaten, slander, defame and unlawfully conspire. Freedom of speech usually applies to words spoken with the vocal chords and the written word.

Some people construe the First Amendment as giving them some sort of blanket "freedom of expression." This is not always true. For example, we can be sued for mental anguish if we express ourselves to another too zealously, or in a hostile fashion.

One more thing, I think it's a big government lie to say we are all free. We have to obey the rules just like the politicians. Nixon and Clinton learned that they were not above the law; neither are we.

Phil Robertson
Honolulu

Let's revive the 'Bows if only for a day

What a great gesture it is for Don Murphy to allow the highest bidder to change the name of his bar for a day -- all for the benefit of the UH football team.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if diehard Rainbow fans could combine their money, turn back the clock if only for a day, and successfully bid to change the name of Murphy's to the "UH Rainbows," a name that pulls at islander heart strings, a name so potent and powerful that it scared coaches of a football team to change its name from "Rainbows" to "Warriors." Go 'Bows!

Richard Y. Will
Honolulu

Price controls would make food affordable

I think there should be a price-control law on food products, which are the most important of our daily needs.

Price controls would prevent local businesses from raising the prices of our basic necessities unnecessarily. This also would protect the consumers against hoarding and overcharging business establishments. As a consumer, I feel like I am being robbed every time I go to a local store. Paying $5 for a gallon of milk is just ridiculous, knowing that I can get it at Wal-Mart for half the price.

I know that everything has to be shipped to the islands, and the merchants have to make a profit. Nevertheless, I don't think it's right to charge people for things such as milk, at twice the price they're worth, and make a 100 percent profit.

Having a price-control law could lower the number of starving people in our society, for the food would be more affordable for all.

Henry Castillo
Honolulu

Why did nature group help with land buy?

Why is the Nature Conservancy purchasing lands in Hawaii for federal use ("Volcanoes park adds 116,000 acres," Star-Bulletin, July 4)? If the United States has eminent domain in Hawaii (the power to take private property for public use), why didn't it condemn the recently acquired 116,000 acres on the Big Island for the U.S. National Parks?

According to its Web site, "The Nature Conservancy pursues nonconfrontational, pragmatic, market-based solutions to conservation challenges."

Did the Nature Conservancy need to get involved because the Big Island lands were part of the Samuel Damon Estate, which most likely has breaks in the land title going back to the annexation in 1898 that encumber the lawful transferring of title to those lands?

The Nature Conservancy earlier purchased the island of Palmyra for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department. The transfer of Palmyra from the Territory of Hawaii to the United States was part of the Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959. That might not hold up in a court of law, either, but having TNC step in does seem to keep it all "nonconfrontational" -- for now.

Toni Auld Yardley
Honolulu

Most of our trash is recyclable

I would like to commend Mayor Harris and his continuing efforts to implement a mandatory recycling program in the city (Star-Bulletin, July 9). The pilot program will show Hawaii residents and the City Council that a mandatory recycling program can work for us.

If you really think about it, the majority of our "trash" consists of recyclable material:

>> Paper (newspapers, magazines, computer paper)

>> Glass (beer and wine bottles)

>> Plastics (soda bottles, bags, water bottles, containers)

>>Aluminum cans and other metals

>> Organic materials (banana peels, rotten vegetables/fruits)

With our small land mass and increasing population, a recycling program can help alleviate some landfill stress and promote a healthier environment. If we all just give a little effort to sort out these materials and maybe reduce some of the waste we produce, then there will be less trash and no need for a second, $8 garbage pick-up. The program is just one more step toward sustainability.

Amor Del Rosario
Honolulu