KIBBLE AND BITS: Mel Rapozo’s post on his frustrations with County Attorney (CA) Matthew Pyun and the council’s deputy CA Harrison Kawate was lauded today by blogger Doug White as “(o)ne of the better posts from a politician’s personal blog”.

And it might appear so to anyone who hasn’t followed Rapozo and the Council’s efforts to play politics with every decision. Doug cites Mel’s complaints that Kawate leaves before the end of some late-night meetings wherein Rapozo revels that Kawate does so at least in part because he commutes daily from O`ahu.

Rapozo complains that during the non-televised budget hearings this week “(t)he County Attorney (Pyun) was questioned whether we could expect improved service by his office and he blatantly said ‘No’. He feels that it is a waste of time to have his Deputy sit in on council meetings doing nothing”

But perhaps Pyun and Kawate are just exasperated at councilmembers’ (read mostly JoAnn Yukimura’s) tortured nonsensical reading of various laws and documents, trying to raise questions no sane person would ever need to answer. They seem to all be raised so that decision makers don’t have to make politically inconvenient decisions.

Perhaps Pyun is a little peeved that Mel and the Council then hide the results when the CAs waste their time taking months going over stupid questions, predictably providing the Council with stupid answers, only to have the Council refuse to release the opinions to the public and instead start whispering campaigns to intimate the answer was whatever the councilperson wants them to be.

That causes the CA, not the council, to take the beating in the press and the blogs when he gets blamed because councilmembers apparently either can’t read plain English or, more likely, won’t take a stand on public policy without a secret treatise that they can base their actions on but are afraid of releasing because they lack even a shred of political will or courage.

Maybe if Mel et. al. didn’t go through all these contortions to force the CA’s office to take up their time telling them what they at least should if not do know already, the CA wouldn’t have to farm out all the lawsuits that are costing us an arm and a leg.

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Ever wonder why congress gives out all that money to the defense industry. Don’t wonder anymore and read the facts on the personal investments congress members have in the “military-industrial complex” as well as some facts on their wealth

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And while we’re on some national political news read up on what the Democrats idea of free speech is when one of their own mouthpieces exercises some especially free expression toward one of their own. Air America's Randi Rhodes was apparently suspended from the radio network for calling Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro 'whores' at a recent public appearance in San Francisco. Rhodes’ speech is of course, on You Tube

While most expect the Republicans to be, well Republicans some apparently still buy that the Dems are any different.

To find out how at least one presidential candidate speaks truth to power read or see former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s recent Woman’s History Month Symposium keynote speech at Rutgers University.