Martin Luther King Day

MLK Day is coming up, and it is time to pay respects to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for standing up to segregation and bigotry. His courage under fire is an inspiration for anyone going through tough times. He inspired Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu to fight against the aparthied system. He inspired not only African Americans, but also Latinos, Native Americans, etc to fight for respect.

King was also inspirational in being unintimidated by racist black militants who wanted to "Kill Whitey". King believed in racial reconciliation, not racial retaliation. Unfortunately, too many non-white radicals still believe in racial retaliation! Racial retaliation is the most counter-productive thing anyone can be involved in. King understood that 2 wrongs dont make a right!

I dont agree with King's socialistic economic ideas, but none of that erase all the good things he has done for America and the World.

Defense of Hawaii football scrap and Vili!

1) featured on Star Bulletin

http://starbulletin.com/2004/01/09/editorial/indexletters.html

Taunting led to fracas at bowl game

Seems like there is an organized effort to slam Coach June Jones and the University of Hawaii football team for the fight at the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Day.
I was sitting one row behind the Houston fans section. Most of them were well-mannered, and we even made friends with some of them. But there were Houston fans who turned around and taunted UH fans while Houston was winning. When Houston started losing and Hawaii fans started cheering, these Houston fans were giving the finger to Hawaii fans. I also saw Houston players giving the finger to UH fans.

The fact is that Houston and Conference USA hate losing to the WAC. I've never seen the winning team start a fight, and I clearly saw Houston players start the fight and several who kept it going just when you thought it was under control. To those saying that Hawaii players should have just walked away, let's punch out one of your family members and see how long you stand around and watch!
Craig Watase
Honolulu

AMEN Mr. Watase

2) Featured on 1/9/04 edition of Honolulu Advertiser

Condemnation of Vili the Warrior uncalled for

Sandra Williams' personal attack on Vili the Warrior mascot in your Dec. 28 issue is offensive.

Every institution in America that has a football team at the collegiate level has some kind of "obnoxious mascot" representing its fine institution and has, from time to time, said or done things that have left a bad taste in people's mouths.

For her to insinuate that Vili is a disgrace and should be banned from any University of Hawai'i athletic event is ludicrous and outright ridiculous. Vili is a wonderful husband to his wife, Linda, and their four beautiful sons, and he is the epitome of what a Warrior is. Vili has been a blessing and an asset to the UH athletic department and does his job with the utmost professionalism in preparing for every event.

A Samoan saying, "Fa'amalosi," means "be strong." Vili, you will persevere no matter what.

Lua Tuiasosopo
'Ewa Beach

AMEN Lua Tuiasosopo!

Mascots are supposed to be menacing towards it's opposition and friendly to its allies. That is what Vili does. We need an aggressive mascot, and Vili gives us that! We dont want any wimpy mascot like the previous Hawaii mascots (ie. marshmallow man, some guy in a fake warrior costume which didnt look aggressive as Vili)

More on the Hawaii-Houston scrap

Here is one letter to the Honolulu Advertiser defending the Hawaii football brawl, appearing on 1/7/04


Warriors were simply defending themselves

After reading the initial blast of negative letters about the Hawai'i Bowl game, the UH players and June Jones, I thought I should balance the scale.

I was working on the field and had close-up observations from start to finish, which included Houston players trying to intimidate UH players with overly abusive taunting and cheap-shot punches throughout the game. It actually started from the warm-up period. Seemed that a Houston strategy was to scare the Hawai'i boys into losing the game.

Do the letter writers expect UH players to let Houston players continue to punch and kick them throughout the entire game if the refs don't stop the offenders?

The Hawai'i players were defending themselves and their teammates. After the initial pushing and shoving, the Houston players initiated the vicious punches and kicks, including flying blindside kicks. The Hawai'i players fought back. Some of the Houston coaches were double-palm-thrust pounding Hawai'i players in the chest instead of concentrating on pulling their own players back. When several Houston players got a Hawai'i player pinned down on the turf and pummeled him with vicious punches and kicks, the Hawai'i players went berserk. Does anyone think that the other Hawai'i players should run away from a teammate in peril?

The UH players played their hearts out and left it all on the field for themselves and for us, the people of Hawai'i. They deserve much more from the uninformed false-crack critics.

Danny Black
Wahiawa

Thank you Danny Black :)

BCS - Bull Crap System

All the whining about the college football Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has been about Southern Cal not being in the Sugar Bowl! But that stuff is miniscule on my beef with the whole BCS system!

BCS only allows schools from big-time conferences and Notre Dame (if it's team has enuff wins, which it didn't this season) to compete in its bowl games. That means Boise State (WAC), Utah (Mountain West), Southern Miss (Conference USA) and North Texas (Sun Belt) and Navy (independent team with winning record) are locked out! But how do we know if those teams can go toe-to-toe with the BCS teams come postseason!

What college football needs is a playoff system. The champions of 11 Division 1-A conferences, and 5 at large bids (with independents and major conference 2nd place teams) will play in a 16 team playoff! (Credit to Ferd Lewis of Honolulu Advertiser for this idea). Or have a 32 team playoff! This is how championships are supposed to be determined. Not with polls!

Plus, it will give Hawaii more incentive to win more games, instead of relying on the Hawaii Bowl.

But the people's love of bowl games, plus the $$$ generated by bowls will keep the playoff system from happening anytime soon!

The Hawaii Bowl Scrap

We've heard all the indignation and the whining about this past Christmas' football game between Hawaii and Houston, which ended in a big fight! All the letters to the newspapers all said that this fight, as well as Hawaii's mascot (Vili the Warrior) gave Hawaii a bad rep!

I say lighten up!

Fights at sports games happen worldwide! If someone refuses to visit Hawaii over this football fight, they might as well not visit anywhere!

And about Vili, I say we keep him as a mascot! Sure he might go too far, but the positives outweigh the negatives! He gives Hawaii a hardcore rep, which is what any college football team needs! Plus, he reps Polynesian culture to the max! Remember, he reps University of HAWAII, not University of Mainland!

The snobs whine that he makes Hawaii look unsophisticated! ! If those snobs dont like Polynesian culture, they can leave and dont come back! Just reminds me of this one guy who complained about Hawaii street names being in Hawaiian! Eh, this is Hawaii dammit, of course the street names will be in Hawaiian! You want European street names, go move to Europe!

I say we keep Vili and his drummer boys!

Prez nominess

I know, I know, this blog is getting too political, but now that I have more time to update my blog, I'll just make another commentary about 2004

I'll go over what I think the weakness and strenghts are in those running for Prez in 2004! Those weakness and strengths are measured by what I think make or dont make a candidate one that I would vote for!

1) John Kerry

Strength : military service, risked his life in Vietnam, pro-choice
Weakness: confuses the public over whether he's for or against the war on Iraq! A man like that has no business running for President! Take a stand or get out of the way!
Kerry is also elitist who can't relate to the regular man, and a gun control fanatic!

2) Dean Gephardt

Strength : willing to get tough on Saddam, can relate to the working class types
Weakness: his anti-trade agenda does more harm than good

3) Howard Dean

Strength : though considered left, he has been able to relate to private sector types, entrepreneurs, etc. Allowed for civil unions for same-sex couples. Also, willing to let states decide their own gun laws, whereas previous Dems wanted the Feds to force excessive gun laws on all of us. Also, pro-Balanced Budgets, not afraid to cut spending when gov. of Vermont. Also, not afraid to criticize the so-called partial birth abotion bans.
Weakness : A HUGE ONE is his lack of enthusiasm for the capture of Saddam and the deserved death of Saddam's sons! A man like that has NO bizness being Prez! Plus, his idiotic comment on the Confederate flag, which patronizes Southern whites and alienates blacks.

4) Joe Lieberman

Strength : tough on Saddam, pro-welfare reform, pro-private sector
Weakness : holier than thou attitude, whines excessively about violent and sexual entertainment, flip-flopped on affirmative action due to political convenience.

5) Al Sharpton

Strength: someone who can put white liberals on the defensive, especially when white liberals claim to sympathize with non-whites, when what they do is patronize. Can relate to ghetto residents and has experience empowering them. Stood up to excessive police brutality and racial violence
Weakness:THE HUGE ONE is his statement on Bill O'Reilly's show 2 MONTHS B4 9/11, when Sharpton said there was no threat to national security. A person who says that at any time has NO BIZNESS being Prez. Also, supports affirmative discrimination AND has abused the race card. Plus, his big government proposals will break the bank!

6) Dennis Kucinnich

Strength : has came to campaign in Hawaii whereas most candidates ignore it. That shows his humility and respect.
Weakness: soft on America's enemies, excessively socialist proposals on health care, education, etc. will bankrupt the nation without improving anything! Also, changed his stance on abortion JUST WHEN HE DECIDED TO RUN FOR THE DEMOCRAT NOMINATION!
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020527&s=pollitt
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&s=pollitt

7) Carol Mosley-Braun

Strength: an alternative to Sharpton, forcing Sharpton to not to take blacks for granted. Only woman running!
Weakness: too cozy with ex-dictator of Nigeria, corruption charges, couldn't win re-election for Senate

8) Wesley Clark

Strength: military career, giving Dems a tougher image without compromising Democrat positions on issues, fought against genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo, though wasn't for war on Iraq, at least he had more enthusiasm for Saddam's capture than Howard Dean
Weakness: Was at a GOP fundraiser in 2001, and now he wants to be a Democrat? Yet he expects to be taken seriously?

9) John Edwards

Strength: stood up to Howard Dean on the Confederate flag comment, demands that coastal elites respect the South and the Heartland
Weakness: too cozy with trial lawyers who put out frivolous lawsuits!

10) George W. Bush

Couldn't leave out the Republicans

Strength: tough on Saddam and Al Quaida, allowed concealed weapons when gov. of Texas, not willing to the politically correct fanatics when it comes to foreign policy and the environment
Weakness: claims to be for smaller government while increasing spending on everything, unwilling to end an excessively punitive drug war policy, Ashcroft's hatred of civil liberites, too cozy with the Religious Right, too-anti-abortion!

More on Howard Dean

Here are few clips from Mark Steyn's hilarious analysis on the idiocy of Howard Dean

You can find the whole thing at

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004441

The Bike-Path Left
Saddam? Osama? Whatever, dude!

BY MARK STEYN
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

Like Susan Lucci at the Emmys, Howard Dean is getting better at putting a brave face on things. When Saddam Hussein fell from power, the Vermonter said churlishly, "I suppose that's a good thing." When Uday and Qusay bit the dust, the governor announced that "the ends do not justify the means."

So what does get the Dean juices going? A few days later, the governor was on CNN and Judy Woodruff asked him about his admission that he'd left the Episcopal Church and become a Congregationalist because "I had a big fight with a local Episcopal church over the bike path."

And that's our pugnacious little Democrat. On Osama bin Laden, he's Mister Insouciant. But he gets mad about bike paths. Destroy the World Trade Center and he's languid and laconic and blasé. Obstruct plans to convert the ravaged site into a memorial bike path and he'll hunt you down wherever you are.

That's what Howard Dean represents--the passion of the Bike-Path Left.

Vermonters marked the end of the Dean era by electing a Republican governor and a Republican House. To Democratic primary voters across the land, Vermont is a shining, rigorously zoned, mandatory-recycling city on a hill. And the only way up the hill is by the bike path.


A little over an hour north of that Burlington bike path is Montreal, the visits to which (for kids' hockey fixtures and his appearances on a Canadian TV show) Dr. Dean cites, seriously, as his main foreign-policy experience. Montreal is home to North America's largest Iraqi émigré community and on Sunday night the streets were full of honking horns celebrating Saddam's downfall. You don't have to go far to see the world beyond the good doctor's bike-path parochialism, but it's farther than most Dems are willing to go.

My commentary : If Dean wins the Democrat nomination, he WILL NOT win the general election, regardless of whatever flaws George W. Bush has! All Bush has to do is show commercials with Dean's comments on Hussein's capture saying in a sarcastic manner "I suppose that's a good thing." Then the commercial will say "Suppose?" and a few more comments, and that's it! Dean will be finished!
It will implicitly say that Dean appeases dictators and terrorists, just like Bush Senior's ads saying Dukasis coddles violent felons.

The only way Dean will win is if W. Bush doesn't make that ad and doesn't remind people of what Dean has said!