Faith is good, but not with this president

How did this happen? How can that many people make that bad a decision? Did I completely miss a memo somewhere, or does the entire middle of the country not own television sets? Apparently there's no CNN in Tennessee. Are there no newspapers in Ohio?

I thought there would be no way — absolutely no way — people could possibly grant President Bush another term. I don't want to use the word hate so I will just say that I strongly dislike those red states right now.

Morals are subjective. The president should not legislate based on faith, but that's exactly what Bush does. Separation of church and state is not about whether or not a stupid sculpture of the Ten Commandments should be allowed in a stupid courthouse; it's about not allowing the Constitution to be used to aid a particular religious agenda that fails to represent all the people of the United States. John Kerry knew this. He said it's not right to legislate his faith because it's not necessarily the faith shared by the rest of the country.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with having faith. In fact, faith is our best hope: faith in each other; faith in compassion and understanding; faith in people on the ground level, social workers, parents and teachers who make a difference in their communities; faith in humanity. We can have faith that countless numbers of small good acts can somehow outweigh the corrupt, reckless, irresponsible acts of this administration.

Personally, I hope President Bush can prove me wrong, but I can't see that happening. I guess I just have to have faith.

Jesus' teachings don't belong to right-wingers

Apparently the majority of Americans believe strongly in President Bush's religious values and moral ideals.

I have heard members of the Catholic Church say that John Kerry isn't a good Christian because he supports abortion rights. What do they say about a president who presided over the first increase in abortion rates in the last 20 years? Women have more abortions when their future looks bleak, when there are fewer jobs available, and when quality healthcare is lacking.

What is Bush doing for the poor of our country?

Was starting the war in Iraq keeping with true Christian doctrine? Has he forgotten that Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9) or "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44)?

More importantly, has America forgotten these words?

Jesus and his teachings do not belong to right-wing conservatives and President Bush. Jesus' life was a testament to peace and justice. Bush's legacy has been war, fear and neglect.

How can anyone who professes to follow the teachings of Jesus support a man like Bush?

Kerry endorsement came back and bit you

Well, Advertiser, it looks as if you made the wrong choice at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Perhaps your organization and this traditionally liberal state need to reach the political majority of the nation.

I think the American people are not as stupid as the liberal media like to think they are, especially if they thought we believed Michael Moore's movie.

By the way, President Bush won the most popular votes in the history of the United States.

Good luck with your future predictions and candidates!

Bush administration must make changes

Now that the election is over, we need to unite as one people for the good of our country. Whether we supported the victor or the vanquished, we need to move forward.

But we also need to keep the pressure on our elected and appointed leaders to become honest, more forthcoming and less secretive. They need to learn how to admit mistakes so that they can learn from them. They need to learn how to apologize. They need to rethink their arrogance and try to build alliances around the world. They now need to earn the respect of Americans and the whole world. And they need to put the good of the American people ahead of their own good and that of their close friends and business associates.

They need to stop crying wolf about imagined terrorist threats and stop trying to make Americans live in fear. They need to address problems of our failing economy, our record unemployment, record deficit and debt, record spending, and the need for health insurance for all.

At this point in time, it might be good if they tried to regain the conservative ground, instead of following the "borrow and spend" policies of Reagan and Bush Sr. Look at how Bill Clinton won the respect of the world and how he fixed our failing economy and left a huge surplus as part of his legacy.

Our country can survive four more years of the George W. Bush administration, but only if it makes some major changes, starting today.

National election results were disgusting

In the aftermath of Tuesday's election results, I'm feeling lots of negative emotions.

While I'm depressed, discouraged and disappointed by the outcome, my primary sentiment is one of disgust.

I'm disgusted that such a vast number of American voters didn't take the time or make the effort to inform themselves about the issues. I'm disgusted that they allowed themselves to be misled and misinformed by the Bush/Cheney propaganda machine. I'm disgusted by the media that, for four years, have failed their responsibility to accurately inform, examine and assess the river of deceptions, half-truths and outright falsehoods that have flowed out of the White House.

I fear for our great democracy. Four more years under the hidden leadership of Richard Che-ney and his neoconservative fellow travelers is a recipe for disaster.

Democratic Party must move forward

I'm glad this election is over and President Bush won. No, not because I voted for him — I didn't — but because hopefully a defeat for the Democrats will be a fountain of fresh stimulus to be victorious next time.

Four years from now, I hope people change their vote when we have thousands more dead in Iraq. I hope people change their vote when we have fewer jobs than now. I hope people change their vote when their retirement savings remains unchanged in value. I hope people change their vote when healthcare costs are soaring. And so on.

For half the nation, these events during the last four years did not convince them we needed to change. But four more years of worse than the same will eventually have a toxic effect. Dirty tactics — more skillfully employed by the Republicans — overwhelmed the Democrats. Ideas became lost in catchy, hateful, untrue one-liners.

So let us hope the party of optimism remains optimistic if it is to survive and grow to be a viable alternative in 2008.

Last-minute cheap tricks didn't work

Shame on the Republican Party! After the polls closed in Hawai'i, I received two prerecorded messages (one from Ah-nald the Barbarian of California) urging me to vote for Republican candidates. I would not have picked up the phone, having heard other such messages, but the callers got around my caller ID program by using pseudonyms.

Yet despite these cheap tricks, as Gov. Lingle noted, the GOP did not achieve its goals in the Legislature.

America will suffer

If the voters of America bothered to pay attention to the real issues facing our country, they wouldn't have re-elected the most incompetent president since Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter. You get what you deserve. Unfortunately, America will have to suffer for many years for this stupidity.

Political moderates, please step forward

The 2004 election is over. Thank goodness. I look ahead to 2006 with these pleas:

• Moderates. No more right-wing conservatives or left-wing liberals. We desperately need politicians who can negotiate to do the right thing for the people whom they are supposed to be serving. It is time for the politicians to stop serving the special-interest groups, like labor unions and big business. So, will the moderates among us please step forward.

• Political ads. What can we do to restrict political ads over TV and the telephone to one week before the primary and two weeks before the general election? Not only was this enough to make one sick, it was a waste of a large amount of money.

Information lacking on state amendments

Why weren't those amendments brought out earlier? I don't recall receiving information regarding those questions on the ballot. By lack of information and study, I may or may not have made the sensible choice.

I voted absentee ballot to avoid the lines at my district. I believe, by the lack of ample information, we voters were not aware of the depth of these amendments.

Misinformation at the polling stations

I voted in the 43rd District at Kaimiloa Elementary School. I arrived early and must have been one of the first 20 voters or so. One of the precinct officials was instructing all the voters in line that blank votes for all state Constitution and city Charter amendments were considered "no" votes. Isn't this a false statement? Didn't blank votes count as "no" votes only for the state Constitution amendments, and didn't the blank votes not tally at all for the Charter amendments?

My wife voted briefly after me, my daughter in mid-day, and my son in the late afternoon, and all said a precinct official was giving the same instruction — that all blank votes count as "no" votes for all Constitution and Charter amendments.

Also, as I was about to sign in to vote, a voter left her booth and approached the sign-in table. She said she had made a mistake and she wanted to correct it. The precinct official that she approached told her that there wasn't anything she could do about it. After a second thought, she asked another precinct official, who had to ask a third precinct official if there was anything that could be done about a mistake made by a voter. As it turns out, there is a process to correct mistakes on ballots. Initially, at least two precinct officials didn't know.

It makes me wonder how much more misinformation was given by precinct officials at all polling sites.

Hannemann helped by his home roots

No matter what the Bainum camp wants us to believe, Mufi Hannemann's background and home roots helped him to become mayor of Honolulu.

Our city needs a strong leader with a solid agenda. Now this is an "honest change."

Congratulations, Mayor Hannemann!

Sinking feeling back over smear campaign

I feel a great sense of déjà vu after viewing the mayoral election returns. It is an amazing coincidence that Duke Bainum was smeared as effectively in this campaign as was Neil Abercrombie back in the election of 1986. Each was facing the same opponent.

It is really a shame that some people have felt it necessary to resort to this kind of vicious mudslinging in both of these elections. It casts a cloud not only over the winner, but over the whole electoral process and certainly doesn't start the newly elected mayor off on a very happy or unified term of office.

Money didn't work

Duke Bainum, you blew it. You had the election in the bag. But when you started spending your own money, that turned off the voters. Like you were trying to buy the election. Come on, get with the program.