Give him a snack, it's his bedtime

Once again Rod Tam has shown that he is an embarrassment to the City and County of Honolulu and most of all to the people in District 6.

I have heard Tam speak several times over the years, and have now come to the conclusion that there is little or no sign of brain activity before he speaks. I feel it is now time to give Councilman Tam his snack and let him take his nap.

Tam used right word for illegal immigrants

Tuesday's front-page article mentioned City Councilman Rod Tam's warning developers that labor unions do not want developers using "wetbacks" in the Council's discussions on the zoning changes for the planned University of Hawaii-West Oahu. Many took offense at Tam's use of the word "wetback" as a racial slur. The American Heritage College dictionary defines "wetback" as "one who enters the U.S. illegally, from south of the Rio Grande," south of the U.S. border.

In my opinion the defined word "wetback" is the correct word to use for the 11 million-plus aliens who choose to enter our country illegally, placing increasing financial burdens on legal U.S. residents. Our tax increases to pay for illegal immigrants' cost of medical, education, social welfare and housing, along with causing the loss of jobs because of their willingness to work for less money without benefits, are enough to upset most U.S. citizens.

The dictionary defines "racism" as "the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others." Tam did not call all Mexicans or South Americans wetbacks, thus he is not a racist. He is against illegal aliens.

Many high officials believed in WMDs

I agree with Rick Lloyd's letter in the June 3 Star-Bulletin that the press did not do its job in the run-up to the Iraq war, but from a different perspective.

Lloyd said it was not true that "everybody believed that Saddam had weapons of destruction." The list of people who believed that Saddam Hussein had WMDs includes Madeleine Albright, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Sandy Berger, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Evan Bayh, John Edwards and others. Most of the world's intelligence agencies believed Saddam had WMDs. When the "Bush lied" campaign started, the press ignored the evidence that prompted Bush to go into Iraq. Had the press done its job this would not be an issue.

Lloyd says President Bush refused to let the U.N. inspectors do their job. Not so -- Saddam threw them out of Iraq. Even when the U.N. inspectors were in Iraq they were restricted to where they could go and constantly complained about it.

Elevated toll roads have all the answers

Yes, we do need relief from traffic congestion. How? An elevated toll road.

In the morning, buses pick up passengers at selected stops in neighborhoods and quickly enter the toll road. The number of buses can be adjusted up during peak hours. All onramps can become offramps in the afternoons. The four lanes take all buses in the morning east to various offramps to the airport, Kalihi, town, Waikiki, the University of Hawaii, Kaimuki and so on. Each bus, on exiting the highway, takes passengers to existing bus stops where the people can transfer to their individual destinations.

Owners of private cars can pay a toll and also use the elevated toll road. At a set time daily, the flow of traffic would change to go only west. Buses and cars reverse the flow toward Ewa. Buses pick up people at set locations and let them off at the same places in their neighborhoods. Buses, cars and people are quickly transported and disbursed twice a day.

Will people pay to drive or ride the super express to go fast and in comfort? The money collected can help pay for the buses, drivers and maintenance of the highway. Finally, whenever we have an accident on the H-1, the elevated highway can quickly come to the rescue for free.

When will smokers be welcome back?

I used to be a regular visitor to Hawaii. That stopped two years ago on my last visit with my family where we were introduced to the islands' no smoking policy. It actually never occurred to us to even check, we thought Hawaii with their open restaurants and need for visitors would never implement a no-smoking policy.

I am writing this from Dallas, Texas, where I had dinner last night in a smoking restaurant. Last week I was in Virginia, where I also had dinner in a smoking section of the restaurant. Both states have establishments that prohibit smoking. That is fine with me, everyone gets a choice. Those who do not want to be exposed to smoke do not have to. But those who choose to smoke can.

Please consider voting out those who have taken away the rights of your business owners. And if you do, let us smokers know. We will come back!