Online readers are able to respond immediately to Star-Bulletin stories through our Web forum, which can be accessed at the end of stories, editorials and columns here on starbulletin.com. Below is a selection of forum comments that appeared last week. Most forum contributors use pseudonyms; their “;names”; have been omitted here.

”;Abercrombie critical of Obama's Iraq plan,”; Star-Bulletin, March 2: Good for Rep. Neil Abercrombie for being able to disagree with the president on a very important issue and explaining his position relatively well. Iraq was a mess when we went in and it will be a mess when we leave. I just hope it's a bit better for the people, by their standards, when we exit.

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Who knows better what is going on in Iraq? The foot soldiers and the generals, who are there and see what's happening on a daily basis? Or these armchair generals, who enjoy flapping their gums, like Neil Abercrombie, Nancy Pelosi and Harry “;White Flag”; Reid? I don't support many of Obama's policies but he had made a good call by listening to what the generals have been saying and making a responsible decision.

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”;Mayor's plan uncorks flood of price hikes,”; Star-Bulletin, March 3: Real property taxes, sewer fees have nearly tripled in the last four years. And they want more! All these taxes and fees generally affect the middle class and lower-income individuals, who are the very individuals needing the money in these bad economic times. Perfect timing. More fees!

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With all the hikes in our lovely state fees and taxes our so-called “;stimulus”; won't even be received by us because the state has already spent it! Wonderful. Maybe we need to tax the states that send their welfare people here knowing that the weather is more suitable for them to be homeless.

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Mufi has a soft heart for businesses because he isn't raising property taxes on businesses. On the news, he said something to the effect that he didn't want to burden them since they are being asked to stay open and employ people. In the meantime, we are being asked to stay out of foreclosure and keep paying taxes, but we get the shaft and get stuck with the property tax increase. Gotta love that Harvard thinking!

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Come on all you haters! Now is the time to blame the mayor for everything under the sun and act like the sky is falling because he proposed a minor property tax hike now that assessed values are falling. Come on, you can act like it's the end of the world because it would cost a little more to go to the zoo.

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Don't raise taxes, cut services. I'm not voting Mufi for governor if he's going to raise taxes.

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If we all gotta pay higher property taxes, fees at the zoo, pay for trash collection, etc., one of the first things the city has to do is sink TheBoat and all of its outrageous subsidies.

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Think about this. Obama and the federal government thinks that the solution to our economic problems are not to increase taxes but to decrease taxes (we can argue that it is not enough, or too much, but that is what they are doing). Now comes the mayor of Honolulu who says, to solve his budget problems, he needs to raise revenue. Does anyone beside me see a serious disconnect here? One hand is doing one thing, and the other hand is doing just the opposite. Can both be right?

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”;Hawaii ranks second in use of porn sites on Internet,”; Star-Bulletin, March 4: Obviously Harvard Business School (which conducted the study) has too much money. What kind of a useless study was this, and how much did it cost? Sheesh, who cares?

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I have to wonder how accurate this is. How do we know this high number isn't attributed to the large number of tourists in Hawaii. Sometimes, there are four or five tourists per resident. People watch porn in their hotel rooms on pay-per-view. How do we know they don't go online for that, too?

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I find it interesting that Hawaii and Utah are the only two states that don't allow gambling, any correlation?

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”;Teacher's alleged killer has long police record,”; Star-Bulletin, March 5: There were some serious violations by the state and others in charge of this man. How in the world was he released and allowed to roam the streets? Asa Yamashita's death should never have happened. The warning signs were all there and Tittleman Fauatea is exactly the kind of dangerous, mentally delusional individual who should be confined away from society.

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Thanks, Star-Bulletin, for providing other details to this story that were not found at other news sites ... praying that this man is confined forever to a facility that can keep him from hurting anyone else.

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With a history of violence, “;assault behavior,”; harassing women, hypersexual behavior, psychotic episodes, even threatening to kill his sister's children, Fauatea was deemed functional to live among the community. Sounds like the system — both the state and medical community — are dysfunctional. Pass laws to prevent this from happening again!

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There are about 200 more like him on Oahu alone. They are in the parks, on the beaches, at the bus stops and wandering the shopping areas. You can hear them arguing with themselves and with others. Our “;plan”; is to keep as many as possible “;mainstreamed”; into society. This is what we get. Many are subsidized with the recycling bill, which provides an incentive for them to remain in the parks and shopping areas where the cans and bottles are found.

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Kapiolani Park is a perfect example of a very dangerous situation waiting to happen. Not if, but when! Mufi cleaned up the westside parks and gave them back to the people. Please do the same for our gem, Kapiolani Park. Every evening a church group feeds derelicts and homeless by the Queen's Beach concession pavilion. It's like feeding cats; they come from everywhere and stay. Take the food to another area and they will follow. What will it take for officials to get motivated? An injured or murdered tourist, Japanese national, and worldwide news of the incident?