Speed reading on rail wrong

Let me see if I have this correct: Thirty-nine state House legislators want the governor, whenever she receives it, to take the large final environmental impact study document for Honolulu rail and sign off “;quickly.”;

Does that mean that the governor should not read the document? Since the Democrats signed the request for “;speed,”; maybe this illustrates that our local Democratic legislators want to match the national Democrats by voting or getting approval of bills without reading them.

Shipping garbage an obsolete idea

Shipping out garbage to the mainland is a totally obsolete concept. Worse yet, the program hasn't even gotten off the ground, literally.

As the huge bundles of Oahu's smelly garbage stack up awaiting transport to the mainland and with the city and county being forced to dump the overflow rubbish into our most pristine stream beds, it might be prudent to examine the successful solutions of other communities.

For example, an August 2009 TIME magazine article showed that the city of Hammarby Sjostad, which is a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, did away with the need for landfills altogether by recycling every single scrap of trash. Yes, with responsible planning, incentive and motivation, it can be done.

First, it banned the purchase of plastic bags and containers. (Aerosol cans are already prohibited in most areas of Europe.) Engineers designed a pneumatic system that was both cost-effective and created new jobs.

Next, they ground up all of their organic waste (food) into usable compost. Metals were separated for sale to facilities that provided for their timely pickup. All paper products were sent to local recycling centers.

The remaining trash was burned inside of converters, which they use for producing heat and electricity.

This was achieved through community outreach education, individual participation, citizen involvement and commitment. But most important, it is self-sustainable.

Isn't it about time to address this critical problem of trash on Oahu?

Ruling dooms average voter

To allow unlimited amounts of money from corporations to go into campaign ads is reckless and irresponsible.

People don't need a law degree to understand that a corporation is different from an individual person. This is what the U.S. Supreme Court verified by this outrageous decision.

This should be a wake-up call to our state and county legislators that we need to implement clean elections across the state. This is one of those times when legislators should put aside petty differences and political gamesmanship and think long and hard about what this means for the future.

Because of this ruling, corporations will be able to walk into a legislator's office and tell them they'll run a negative ad if the legislator doesn't vote a certain way.

Cowardly to hide civil-unions vote

“;We are not all cowards,”; announced Speaker of the House Calvin Say. But how do we know that, since the vote on “;postponing”; action on the civil unions bill was taken in secret?

As far as I am concerned, they are all cowards unless they come forth and tell us how they voted.

Whatever happened to open and accountable government in our Legislature?

Judge governor by her actions

The laudable intentions that people avow are often belied by their actions.

So it is with Gov. Linda Lingle. While she has repeatedly portrayed herself as committed to public education, her words have been drowned out by her actions. There is little doubt that the impetus for Furlough Fridays came from the governor's office.

When the unions and the Department of Education readily agreed to the idea, there was not a peep of protest from the governor, let alone a veto. After parents and the public realized that public school children had been made the scapegoats for the state's fiscal problems and protested, the governor backpedaled, blaming the union and the DOE for the idea.

However, when the DOE and the union twice—twice—agreed on contract modifications to restore some furlough days, the governor vetoed both agreements, still claiming that she wanted to restore all furlough days.

The result? No furlough days have been restored and half the scheduled furlough days for this school year have already occurred.

For the governor's part, the issue is resolved: She has the money from the school budget saved by furloughs, and that's all she ever wanted.

Flagpole bill waste of money

Rep. Kymberly Pine staffer Tom Berg is asking that House Bill 2311 be reheard and Rep. Pine is pushing the issue. While I believe our representatives should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, this single-minded issue is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Planned Community Associations are the problem in that they have too much power over us, the homeowners. Example: I cannot plant a single tomato plant in my very small piece of land. I cannot plant a dwarf fruit tree on my very small piece of land, so it stands to reason I cannot plant a flagpole on my very small piece of land. Notice I keep saying “;my.”; You see, the legislation should not be limited to flagpoles; it should de-fang the unlimited power of said associations.

When legislative issues do not address the real problems, then our tax dollar is thrown in the waste pit that is our government inaction. Case in point, shelving House Bill 444; all the time and energy just recently wasted. Where is Rep. Pine's outrage at shelving this bill that would have granted the gay community equal rights?