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Polls aren't final word about how Hawaii feels

Hawaii, please vote! Exit polls and projections have been wrong, please don't stay home because the "experts" tell you the election is already won. This is one of the most important elections our country has had. We need to hear every voice.

It's not hard to figure out -- support Bush

Is it really that confusing? Watching the campaign news during the past few weeks, here's what John Kerry and his parade of stars has asked me to believe about President Bush: That he is incredibly dumb, yet can concoct the most elaborate schemes imaginable when it comes to enriching his friends or stealing my vote; that he has a big enough ego and thirst for power to mount a successful presidential campaign, yet is willing to sit back and let (fill in the blank: Dick Cheney or Karl Rove) run the presidency; that he is smart enough and deceitful enough to con world leaders, intelligence agencies and Congress into a case for war based on lies about WMD, yet he is dumb enough or honest enough to allow the whole thing to fall apart by not scrounging up some WMD once we occupied the place; that he would shut down schools and ignore homeland security when he has overseen record spending increases for both; that he doesn't care about our troops, when he takes the risk -- personal and political -- to go thank them personally on the ocean and in the desert; that everything that's bad happens because of Bush and anything good, if there were anything good in this country, would happen in spite of him.

Throwing spears and Monday-morning quarterbacking are not leadership traits, they're petty tactics to take power at someone else's expense. We don't need an opportunist with a gripe sheet, we need a leader with a track record of decisiveness and consistency. I hope most people will vote with their interests and not with their pop stars on Tuesday.

Bush administration is like bad medicine

As local and national TV now focus on how close the presidential race is in Hawaii, I'm disturbed as to how this state could be so swayed from long-held democratic values.

Consider this logic: If you've been taking a prescribed medicine that has brought you violently disastrous side-effects for nearly four years, a medicine that has done little or nothing of what it's supposed to do, isn't it time to try a new medicine?

If this medicine was supposed to bring you peace of mind and security, but instead has filled your world with more strife, confusion and terror, isn't it time to try a new medicine?

Is reinstating the draft good medicine for our country? Congressman Neil Abercrombie was quoted by the Oct. 26 Honolulu Star-Bulletin as saying that he has found proof that the Pentagon plans to reinstate the draft. Whether this is true remains to be seen. But it should be obvious to all voters that the Bush administration has already exhausted our military to the point that soldiers have been lied to about how long they were supposed to serve in Iraq, and no veteran should ever be lied to in this way.

It's time for a new direction in a government that doesn't feed its coffers by lying to its people. It's time to cancel a bad prescription that kills instead of cures.

America unwilling to pay cost of victory

Washington is trying to win in Iraq with high-tech, weekend warriors and mercenaries. And it isn't working, exactly as Hawaii's Gen. Eric Shinseki had predicted. For us to prevail militarily in Iraq, we would need to make a commitment the breadth of which and pay a dollar and blood price the cost of which a majority of Americans are quite unprepared to support.

Kerry says Bush will have to start up the draft and Bush says he won't. But no matter who wins the election, the war will prove militarily unwinnable in Iraq without a draft and politically unwinnable in America with a draft.

Bush tenure marked by bad leadership

It disturbed me to see in the Sunday Star-Bulletin that President Bush had a slight lead in the latest poll. What are people thinking? Almost every day there is news about failures of his foreign or military or economic policy.

Bush started the war in Iraq with flimsy evidence, with little consultation with allies and without viable plans for winning the peace, although he was warned that winning the peace would be very difficult. That is bad leadership on three counts. He says that he will always defend the United States -- with our sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives doing the actual service. But where was he when it was his turn to serve?

There is more terrorism now than before Bush started the war. There are terrorist attacks every day in Iraq, mostly aimed at Americans, and it is getting worse. Bush's plan hasn't shown signs of working yet.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is less prepared than before to undertake another war. Defeating terrorism cannot be done by the U.S. alone. Kerry will turn things around by working with our friends in the rest of the world.

Thoughtful leader or just a big zero?

The Star-Bulletin's editorial headline yesterday, "Kerry would provide thoughtful leadership," reminds me of a football coach signaling a touchdown: His team might get a touchdown, but in the meantime we must be content with what's on the scoreboard.

In Vietnam, Kerry certainly didn't provide "thoughtful leadership" that's expected of military officers. He amassed three quick Purple Hearts -- all of which were inconsequential -- in four months and returned to the safety of home where he immediately became a central figure in the anti-war movement. His men? They remained in harm's way.

In 20 years in the Senate, I challenge anyone to name anything significant that Kerry championed or accomplished? He warmed a seat. Period.

So now, several wars and 20 years later, we're being told that he will provide thoughtful leadership. He might, but in the meantime, we must be content with what's on the scoreboard: "0".

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Government workers have several
reasons to support Democrats

This is in response to your Oct. 12 editorial ("Public employee unions want to keep grip on the state"). The Hawaii Government Employees Association is urging its 42,250 members to elect Democrats. I take this opportunity to share our reasons with Star-Bulletin readers.

In Gov. Linda Lingle's first two years, Democrats in the state Legislature showed they are more in touch with the needs of our state. They worked harder and smarter for solutions to Hawaii's social and economic problems, while still maintaining a balanced budget.

This was crystal clear in the 2003 special session when Democrats overturned the governor's vetoes that picked on the poor and helpless. Democrats restored $3.6 million for health and social service providers to help child abuse victims, foster children, the Maui AIDS Foundation and poor children needing dental care, among others.

Also in 2003, Maui County residents and lawmakers worked long and hard to fund a much-needed air ambulance service for Maui, Molokai and Lanai. The governor's veto sent shockwaves through Maui County, but Democrats overrode her veto to rescue this vital service.

The governor initially opposed the Hawaii Rx program, which provides affordable prescription drugs for those on fixed incomes. During the 2002 campaign, she dismissed the bill as a "feel good" measure. Once elected, she refused to release $200,000 in planning funds the Legislature appropriated to set up the drug purchasing pool called for by the Hawaii Rx bill.

During the 2004 legislative session, Democrats introduce and supported a Senate bill that eventually became the basis for the final Hawaii Rx Plus legislation. It was Democrats who provided prescription drug relief.

Also this year, the governor vetoed two measures demanded by the public. The first was the "ice" bill that emerged from a series of community meetings. This comprehensive plan toughened criminal penalties and promoted substance-abuse treatment.

The second veto was the much-anticipated education- reform package that empowered principals, changed how public schools are financed, reduced class size in grades K-2, provided new textbooks and created school-community councils to share in decision-making.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the public, Democrats overturned both vetoes.

The HGEA, like all unions, puts people first. So have Hawaii's Democrats. It's always people first.