With this scenario, the taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for the cleanup. The state and city wouldn't be using their manpower.

This hard labor would make these people think twice about how it feels to be the person who would normally have to clean up their mess.

U.S. DARK SIDE

DEBATE ON AKAKA BILL WOULD REVEAL TRUTH

The senators who are trying to block the hearing of the Akaka bill know that once the bill gets to be heard on the Senate floor, a lot of information about Hawai'i's political history that has been hidden will be revealed. The bill will stir an international debate on American foreign policy.

One thing is absolutely certain: The issue of the illegal annexation of Hawai'i via a joint resolution will surface.

Patriotic fanatics like the senators who oppose the bill cannot think rationally because they are brainwashed by their government and expansionism. Like most Americans, they cannot accept the truth about the dark side of U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. broke its own treaties and overthrew the governments of Hawai'i, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in the late 19th century.

The Akaka bill is no different from the Pratt amendment, instigated by Congress during the McKinley administration, that gave Cubans permission to rule themselves as long as they allowed the U.S. to veto any decisions they made.

Although I am totally against the Akaka bill, I would like the bill to be heard in the Senate and the House so the truth about the illegal annexation of Hawai'i will be revealed to the gullible, brainwashed American public.

MISLEADING

GAS CAP ADVISER FROM OUT OF STATE

Tim Hamilton is certainly Sen. Ron Menor's soul mate when it comes to the gas cap. In a long-winded piece for The Advertiser on Monday, Mr. Hamilton makes a series of false and misleading statements, trying vainly to defend Hawai'i's recently suspended gas cap — like the old standby phrase, "Prices go up but never come down."

On the same morning, NBC's "Today Show" reported the national average for gasoline was $2.93 (according to AAA). The photo in the Hamilton article shows a Shell station in Honolulu at $2.96 (Hawai'i gas taxes are about 20 cents higher than the national average).

I was in San Francisco over the weekend, where I paid $3.67 for regular. On Monday, the AAA reported the San Francisco average as $3.36 and the California average as $3.38. Yet, Mr. Hamilton insists the loss of the gas cap is a disaster for Hawai'i consumers. Really?

Mr. Hamilton also says there was a clear rationale for the "new formula" Sen. Menor tried unsuccessfully to push. As was the case throughout the legislative session, Sen. Menor and now Mr. Hamilton cannot provide a clear explanation for proposing to remove such obvious import costs as transportation.

Instead, they try to deflect the debate to whether or not Singapore should have been included as a source.

Even on that diversionary subject, Mr. Hamilton's reasoning is that Singapore was chosen because "it is the primary market used for index pricing of petroleum products in the Pacific." This, even though no gasoline has ever been imported to Hawai'i from Singapore, that the quality of Singapore gasoline would not even be usable in Hawai'i and that no retail gasoline price anywhere in the U.S. has ever been directly linked to Singapore.

Mr. Hamilton is the only adviser Sen. Menor has ever mentioned to support this discredited "new formula." So, who is this guy? And where was he in 2003-2005 when the gas cap was being conceived and passed? Well, he is a former gas station dealer in Washington state who publishes a newsletter to dealers in that state and who comments and testifies on gas prices whenever and wherever he can. He does not live in Hawai'i and, as far as I can tell, has never had any business here.

In fact, it appears he just comes down here to testify and communicates with Sen. Menor when needed.

In other words, he is a convenient, distant supporter of the gas cap who cannot be questioned directly.

I have no problem with that until such people start representing themselves as "expert consultants." Hawai'i's consumers deserve more than unsupported opinions in important lawmaking.

GOP SUPPORT

GOV. LINGLE HAS FAILED US OVER THE AKAKA BILL

Regarding the May 13 letter from Sam Aiona, "GOP is grand old party for Native Hawaiians, too": I concur with the success that Micah Kane and Gov. Lingle have had in bringing more Hawaiians to participate in the Hawaiian Homes program.

I welcome and commend Gov. Lingle for publicly supporting federal recognition of the political status of Native Hawaiians, as all major Hawai'i politicians have done. Her leadership and visibility are important.

However, she publicly and conspicuously claimed during the election that her access to and affiliations with national Republican leaders would count in the effort to pass the Akaka bill. That claim was targeted to attract support from Hawaiians who relied on it to vote for her.

That representation has simply not borne fruit. The position on this issue of a Republican governor has meant nothing to the Bush administration or to certain Republican members of the U.S. Senate (Kyl of Arizona, Alexander of Tennessee) who have led the opposition to the Akaka bill.

The truth is that national Republican leaders lay at the heart of the opposition and haven't changed their positions, despite Gov. Lingle's prior claim of access to and affinity with President Bush and his administration.

The truth is that it was his appointments to the formerly bipartisan U.S. Civil Rights Commission who recently brought the roof down on the Akaka bill. The truth is that the commission, without even the courtesy of prior consultation, disrespected its own Hawai'i advisory committee, which had reached the opposite conclusion and advised the commission to support federal recognition for Native Hawaiians in 2001.

As a member of that committee for over 20 years, I was shocked by this unprecedented refusal to accept our recommendations. It has never happened to us before.

Attempting to deflect attention from this national agenda of the Republican Party by pointing to actions of local Republican politicians, Mr. Aiona misses the crucial point: The buck stops with the Republican Party in Washington and President Bush in particular. Mr. Bush has never publicly supported the Akaka bill, despite Gov. Lingle's urging.