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POSTED: Monday, September 29, 2008

Powerbrokers feel threatened by Con Con

It is no surprise that Mike McCartney, director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, and his entrenched friends in the Legislature oppose a Constitutional Convention. The unions and special interests have long had their way with our government and they will do anything to maintain the status quo. McCartney's association solicited $325,000 from a Washington lobbying group to run anti-Constitutional Convention ads that are designed to confuse and mislead Hawaii's voters

It is clear that the Legislature has been captured by special interests and we need a Constitutional Convention to fix our broken government. We could enact sunshine laws for the Legislature in the same manner we do for all other government entities. Gone would be the closed-door meetings and all-powerful committee chairmen who kill worthy bills without explanation.

And a Constitutional Convention would permit us to re-examine and modernize the structure of our government to make it more responsive to the people. It is the only vehicle for change the public can trust. As a Hawaii resident, I want a stronger voice in our government. I support a Constitutional Convention and hope you will, too.

Con Con puts power in hands of voters

The National Education Association sent $325,000 to an organization formed to reject the movement to have a Constitutional Convention in Hawaii (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 26). Why?

With all due respect to our great governors, do we really need someone from outside Hawaii, with a lot of money to tell us about having a Con Con or not?

A Con Con provides the vehicle to put power back into the peoples' hands, not the few legislators or special interest groups who wish to maintain power.

It is important to note that people in Hawaii will vote to have a Con Con if they believe that their vote really means something and will produce change.

The power to change government is in hands of the people, and not the government.

So whatever you think, get out and vote!

Obama outscored McCain in first debate

Barack Obama clearly won the first presidential debate on Friday.

I think the worst thing about McCain was his ranting about spending. Here is a person who has been a member of Congress for decades and is a member of the political party that has taken us from a surplus to a huge deficit. If he can't control his own party, how is he going to control the government? Such incompetence should not be tolerated. And what do we have to show for all this spending? Nothing but waste.

McCain obviously cannot see the difference between spending that could help the economy vs. spending that wrecks it.

Bill Clinton suggested the other day that if the money that was out there in 2001 after the technology bubble popped had been used to develop alternative energy, such as solar energy and fuel efficient vehicles instead of fueling the housing bubble, how much better off we would be today.

But no, thanks to McCain and the Republican Party our surplus was wasted away and a never-ending war started that will have costs for decades to come. So the Republicans are the last people voters should listen to in regards to spending.

Finally, it is just ridiculous to listen to McCain, who has been living off the federal government for health care all of his life, saying that he would not like to see health care turned over to the federal government. He should be questioned about what was wrong with the medical care he has received!

Living next to B&B is a losing game

Dear potential neighbor of a bed & breakfast,

Do you have single-wall construction? Do you leave your windows open to let in the tradewinds?

Do you have children and grandchildren who play outside? Would they like to have a playmate in the neighborhood?

Do you work a regular job and would you like to be asleep by 9 or 10 p.m?

If you answered “;yes”; to any of these questions, living next to a B&B may not be for you. Contrary to what was reported to the Star-Bulletin (Sept. 24) by proponents of legalizing B&Bs, many new B&Bs are noisy and stressful to the neighbors. I have lived next to an illegal B&B, with an operator living on site, and it made my family miserable. Most of the folks urging the City Council to reject Bill 6, CD1 have been subjected to disruption from constant tourists in their neighborhoods.

Those of you who have not experienced the stress associated with the constant upheaval and noise have no idea. I had no idea either until it happened to me. I do not wish it on you.

According to Bill 6, there will be only one B&B permitted in a residential area for every 500 feet. The Star-Bulletin equated the distance with roughly one-and-a-half football fields. I urge you to pray to whatever deity you believe in that it is not next to you. It's like being a quarterback with an extremely bad offensive line. You're going to get sacked with noise and disruption time and time again.

You never know where the hit is going to come from. Will it be the screaming baby, the partying couples or the sleaze checking you out through the lattice? There's no intermission, no time outs. Neighbors of B&Bs are in the game 24/7.

No one will be able to sit this one out; B&Bs will be island wide. The game continues at the City Council on Oct. 15. We need you and our City Council members who care about families and neighborhoods to protect us. Let's play offense and defend our quarterbacks.

Do research before declaring new bans

Before anymore laws are passed to outlaw plastic bags, I think lawmakers should do some research.

Most research will show that paper and plastic bags affect the environment about the same.

Both types of bags can be recycled, but most are not. Paper uses more space in landfills and breaks down in a few hundred years. Plastic uses very little landfill space and, depending on the type of plastic, can take thousands of years to breakdown.

Noise is bogus argument against rail

We recently spent the better part of two weeks in Honolulu and were amused by all the controversy over the proposed rail project. Especially silly was the so-called “;noise test”; we encountered downtown.

I suggest that opponents take a trip to San Diego and ride the rails. They will discover a comfortable, soothing, efficient and especially quiet way to move move about.

Rail would appear to be a no-brainer for Oahu.