Items From the What-the-Hell-Are-They-Thinking Department

The obsessive die-hards who insist that Barack Obama is not legally entitled to be president and his Hawaii birth certificate is a fake had a set-back the other day when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear their case.

The birth certificate is genuine, of course, but the issue may not yet be resolved. According to Honolulu Advertiser columnist Dave Shapiro, “the conspiracists who brought the suit say they’ll appeal to the high tribunal on their home planet.”

Most Hawaii citizens are down on our Republican governor, Linda Lingle. She stepped into deep kukae (that’s Hawaiian for doo-doo) by declining to attend the National Governors Conference two weeks ago where most of the other govs met with Obama to ask for federal help with their states’ budget shortfalls.

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Hawaii has a budget crisis, too, but Lingle has already taken bold steps to address it. For instance, she’s not giving State employees the traditional half-day off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a gesture that will please Republican ideologues, piss off 53,000 public employees, and not to a damn thing to fix the problem. Senators Shelby and McConnell (see previous post) were doubtless her inspiration.

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Hawaii’s Governor: No Aloha and No Class.

Hawaii’s Republican Governor, Linda Lingle, campaigned across the mainland U.S. for the McCain-Palin team. OK … fine. Her Party. Her choice.

Of course, she could have done that without saying that Barack Obama wasn’t really a native son of Hawaii and sneering that he never even bothered to call her when he visited here. (As if, indeed, there was the least little reason for him to do so.)

But now the election is over and there is, at least for the time being, happy talk of non-partisan cooperation aimed at dealing with common problems.

One problem common to many of our 50 states is budget shortfall. It’s certainly an issue here in Hawaii where, just to give one example, $24 million has been cut from the States Adult Mental Health Division.

The nation’s governors are meeting in Philadelphia this coming week and our President-elect will be there to meet with the governors and talk about how the federal government might help states facing these financial difficulties.

Well, not all the governors will be there. Our governor, Linda Lingle, says she has a scheduling conflict and won’t be able to be there for the meeting with Obama.

Are you kidding me? Her administration is whacking millions out of critically needed social services, the new president is ready to meet with her … and she can’t fit that into her schedule?

That’s petty, ridiculous and irresponsible. And it’s an embarassment to the entire state.