Openness added to lacking rail recipe

Recipe for mixing pineapples and macadamia nuts of Hawaii Nei:

» Gather 10 tons of Hawaii pineapples and 10 tons of Hawaii macadamia nuts grown in the football-size fields of open sunshine in Hawaii Nei.

» Cut pineapples into clear segments proportionate to logic and reason.

» Saw shiny, polished nuts to get to the meat beyond the glossy shell.

» Layer the sunshine-grown sweet pineapple segments with the opened macadamia nuts.

» Blend a meringue of truth, fiscal responsibility, affordability and environmental quality as the final topping over the substantive pineapple and macadamia nut meat of the issue, poured over the crusty cold political promotion and propaganda.

Suddenly we have the Governor's Sunshine-Grown Pineapple, Macadamia Nut and Truth Meringue pie molded in the light of open government. How sweet it is.

Legislators not doing their job

It is plain disgusting that our Legislature didn't act on controversial legislation — partly, by their own admission, because it is an election year. Poor babies! Why are they in the Legislature? For their own gain or to handle the affairs of the state?

Our household has only two votes, but you can be sure this group won't be getting ours in the future.

Put civil unions to popular vote

After the defeat of the civil unions bill, which will resurrect again after the November elections, we are left with three classes of people: those who lament, those who rejoice, and those who don't have to worry about whether or not they will be re-elected in November.

I have a solution. Our elected officials are supposed to be representatives of the people. Somehow, many of these alleged representatives do not truly represent the people. So, let's take all the pressure off them so they can go about their pretense and put this issue to a vote on the ballot in the next election. After all, if those so-called representatives do not have the guts to really represent the people on a particular issue, let the people decide. It will take the pressure off.

After all, the rumor is that we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people. So let us, the people, decide.

Hawaii's roads in bad shape

During the past weeks, I've seen a great deal about same-sex marriage and or civil union. That's well and good, but as far as I'm concerned, I really don't give a damn who marries whom or where the ceremony is performed. What I think the people of this illustrious state should be doing is worrying about the deplorable condition of the roads.

I've traveled somewhat more throughout the world than the average citizen, and I'd have to say that Hawaii may be the Third World in most respects, but I think we're batting for the Fourth World honors in the road department. It seems strange to me that our one-sided politicians in D.C. can get all sorts of “;pork'”; for their pet projects and heavy supporters, yet the roads here in Aloha Land look somewhat like those we see in the Middle East after a roadside blast.

Maybe there should be an organization set up (nongovernment) to make collections for pothole filling and road work repair. Possibly someone could ask for a donation from the Bill Gates charity foundation to help us out; this way the money collected would not slip into the pockets of the politicians and the roads would not be left wanting.

Lingle has done much for Hawaii

In Richard Borreca's latest “;On Politics”; column (Lingle's political math mostly about subtraction,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 27), he grossly minimized the substantial progress achieved by the Lingle-Aiona administration over the past seven years.

Yes, it is true, as Borreca pointed out, that Gov. Linda Lingle faced significant challenges over her two terms of office, including the worst economic downturn in state history and an “;unmovable”; public education bureaucracy. However, despite these and many other challenges, Gov. Lingle and Hawaii voters restored checks and balances in state government after 40 years of one-party rule by the Democrat majority.

Gov. Lingle also diversified the economy; reined in out-of-control spending; made our state more business-friendly; established a model for clean, renewal energy self-sufficiency; created greater transparency in government by overhauling the procurement system and making important decisions (example: judicial picks) open to the public for its input; established transitional homeless shelters for families; enhanced the transportation infrastructure; transformed child welfare services; moved mental health services from 51st in the country to No. 12; established new international partnerships; and put Hawaii on the path to becoming a global model for development and use of renewable energy, to name just several initiatives Borreca just plain ignored.

Clearly, this is not about the politics of subtraction, as Borreca would have us believe. And, he cannot rewrite history. Gov. Lingle has worked each day to make life better for all the people of Hawaii, while building a strong foundation and vitality to our state at the critical point in our history.

(Editor's note: Klompus is a Stadium Authority board member and the wife of Gov. Lingle's senior communications adviser)

Term limits limit corruption

With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing companies and unions to spend freely on ads that promote or target particular candidates by name, and that lifts the barring of union and corporate paid issue ads in the closing days of campaigns, both incumbents and new candidates for office will be even further exposed to corruption from corporations.

Term limits would greatly reduce this influence by making elected officials less exposed to corruptible campaign contributions. It would benefit the American voter to know what a candidate's viewpoint is on making Congress more accountable to the people by only having a limited amount of time to serve.

We have a term limit for President Barack Obama and there is no solid rationale as to why Congress should be exempt. Elections are not term limits because, if this were true, then there wouldn't be a presidential term limit.