i L i n d . n e t

My vote for the insane comment of the week goes to this one on the K5 early news at 9 p.m. Thursday in a story about Sen. Mike Gabbard’s switch to the Democratic Party.

Although some have questioned Gabbard’s motives for the party switch, he says politics had nothing to do with his decision.

Oh, my. He’s switched political parties after discussions with various politicians looking at the political future, including the partisan makeup of the Senate. But politics had nothing to do with it? What a bunch of kidders in that “news” department.

Earlier this month, the Dallas Morning News reported that the Department of Justice knew of abuses of inmates by staff occurring within Texas juvenile prisons but backed away from any prosecutions of those responsible or even insisting on reforms of the system.

The story reminded me that questions were raised here early last year over Hawaii’s move to rely on “experts” from that same Texas youth system to help respond to a federal probe of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility. It seemed like a bad idea then, and as news of the Texas fiasco has broken, it just looks worse and worse, at least from the outside.

Here’s another web resource for tracking down U.S. Supreme Court cases, including transcripts or audio recordings of arguments before the court, Oyez.org. I found myself in a section searching old cases, and came up with a transcript of oral arguments in a 1981 appeal, Weinberger v. catholic Action of Hawaii, in which I was one of the plaintiffs. The case started life as catholic Action v.