High court rightly upheld human rights

God bless America. The Supreme Court decision striking down military tribunals is cause for celebration. All human rights seemed to have been taken away. The Supreme Court has restored our faith in democracy, laws and our government system of checks and balances. Hallelujah, there is still some sanity left.

Supreme Court erred in Guantanamo case

With regard to the latest ruling by the Supreme Court: Is there a bargaining body for terrorists? The Geneva Conventions cover prisoners of war between countries. Who will the court send to Bin Laden to make sure our detainees are treated in accordance with the conventions? At least the United States does not circulate on the Internet videos of prisoners having their heads cut off.

The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

Akaka was right in opposing Iraq war

So Ed Case -- who has up to now said he would have voted to invade Iraq had he been in Congress at the time -- is now saying that "if I knew then what I know now" he would have opposed the war.

Fortunately, Dan Akaka did know then what we all know now -- that invading Iraq was a very bad idea -- and he was one of the few people in Congress who voted against the Iraq war.

The question, then, is who would we prefer to represent us in the Senate: the guy who does the right thing when it's important, even though it's unpopular, or the guy who does the right thing when it's popular, even though it's too late?

Feds fail to prosecute those who hire illegals

Everyone is quick to blame the Bush administration for not enforcing laws about hiring undocumented laborers, and for not going after the businesses that employ illegal aliens. American businesses that violate that law number in the hundreds of thousands, we're told.

But remember, in 2004, the latest year for which federal statistics are available, Bush's legal beagles did charge three American businesses with hiring illegals. Records don't indicate if those three companies were Democratic or Republican or whether they donated to the Bush/Cheney campaign.

The GOP also is quick to argue that if Bush enforced the law, a majority of those law-breaking businessmen would go out of business. You wouldn't want that, would you?

Road accident victims die for no cause

I salute and thank all the members of our armed forces who fought and now are fighting for our country. My intention is not to minimize the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq, but to call attention to those opposed to the war and express their concern about the 2,500 who have paid the ultimate price during the last three years to rid us of Saddam Hussein and fight terrorism.

Do these same people give a rip that 43,000 men, women and children die each year on our roads? Three years of this equals 129,000 deaths. The 2,500 war deaths would perhaps fill half of a football field, while the road deaths would fill up three full stadiums of dead bodies. The 2,500 died for a cause, while 129,000 died for nothing. Some perspective and concern here, please.

We need synchronized lights, not costly trains

With all this pie-in-the-sky stuff about alleviating traffic congestion with multibillion-dollar trains, will somebody please try to fix the timing of stoplights in Honolulu? I simply dread driving into town and usually will add at least a half an hour to my drive time simply because of the frustratingly badly timed lights.

How many times have you sat at a red light and watched the light a block away turn green and then red just before you approach it. You have to stop and then get to watch the next light do the same thing.

Quite a freak show at Graceland

President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi toured Elvis Presley's home at Graceland (Star-Bulletin, June 30).

Seems Koizumi "channeled" Elvis and sang "Hound Dog" for Bush in the Jungle Room, while being served fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, Elvis' favorite.

Along for the ride were Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley. Let's see, Priscilla had an affair with her karate instructor, which destroyed her marriage to Elvis, and Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson and actor Nick Cage, which lasted for one month.

This group of freaks makes me feel warm all over that these two statesmen control nuclear weapons and that the leaders of North Korea and Iran are called insane.

Sugar might not be the comeback king

In your lead editorial last Wednesday, "Pump price not primary objective in ethanol mandate," you suggested that sugar is one of the best crops for conversion to ethanol. You cited Brazil "replacing 40 percent of its gasoline with the power of sugar-based fuel."

There are two questions we should consider when looking at sugar as a source for ethanol.

» Sugar uses a large amount of water. We are going to be adding many thousands of houses in Ewa, Kapolei and central Oahu. Where is the water going to come from for both the sugar and the houses?

» Historically, sugar has been grown on large plantations owned by a small handful of businesses.

We need to think in terms of family farms and small farm sizes -- agricultural diversification. The huge plantations represented concentration of power with a few families making millions of dollars and the workers taking home minimal pay. Do we want to go back to that?