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Justice and politics collided and it wasn’t pretty, as we see in our "flASHback" on the week’s news that amused and confused:
» The state Senate rejected Katherine Leonard’s nomination to be the first woman to head the Supreme Court after the Hawaii State Bar Association torpedoed her in a secret vote and refused to disclose its reasons. The technical term for this form of justice is "drive-by shooting."
» The filming of Disney’s "Pirates of the Caribbean" is drawing large crowds to Kaneohe Bay. Fans got excited when they thought they saw Johnny Depp and his hearties on the ship’s deck, but it was only Senate Judiciary Chairman Brian Taniguchi consulting with the bar association.
» U.S. Rep. Charles Djou and his election opponent, state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, accused each other of having "gone Washington." Unfortunately, after the election we’ll have to take one of them back.
» Scientists are studying glaciers that existed on Mauna Kea after the last ice age. They’re filling in the blanks by looking at rock formations on the mountain and tapping the childhood recollections of Hawaii Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka.
» Kirk Caldwell, Peter Carlisle, Panos Prevedouros and Rod Tam officially filed to replace Mufi Hannemann as Honolulu mayor, and acting chief exec Caldwell was the first to run radio ads introducing himself to voters. He just wanted to say, "Hi, I’m the new train guy."
» The city got no bidders when it attempted to auction off 450 surplus copies of former Mayor Jeremy Harris’ book, "The Renaissance of Honolulu," and is dropping the price to $1,500 from $3,000 for the lot. It tried to use the books to fill potholes, but hubris shrinks in the rain.
» A new city service would allow Oahu residents to receive emergency warnings about earthquakes and tsunamis by cell-phone text alert. Civil Defense plans to keep the message simple: RUNNNNNNN!
» The city is moving to cancel a contract to ship Oahu garbage to Washington state after a tribal group filed suit. It appears that unlike our congressional representatives, this opala won’t be "gone Washington."
» State Rep. Gene Ward insists that Hawaii’s thinning ranks of Republican officeholders can still compete with Democrats in the "marketplace of ideas." Only when there’s a sidewalk sale.
And the quote of the week … from Devin Wolery, who was seen on a widely viewed video getting sucker-punched by thugs at his Internet gaming shop in Kaneohe: "It is nice to kind of walk around the street and you’re that guy that got punched in the face; yeah it still hurts." Katherine Leonard knows just how he feels.
David Shapiro can be reached at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
