Baggage checks and snoozy wrecks lead off as we plant tongue in cheek and “flASHback” on the weekly news that amused and confused:

• Go! airlines plans to ding passengers $25 for their second checked bags. It would be worth it if you could pack an alarm clock loud enough to wake up the pilots.

• Some sleep-deprived O’ahuans are questioning the propriety of the city hiring game breeders to control noisy neighborhood roosters. That’s like hiring Barbara Marshall to keep Rod Tam quiet.

• Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who resisted curbside recycling until voters passed a charter amendment forcing it on him, proclaimed tests in Mililani and Hawaii Kai to be great successes. Nobody can run to the front of a parade faster.

• Honolulu commuters rank as the 27th “greenest” drivers in the nation. With all the potholes we have to navigate, we’d be No. 1 for black and blue.

• Gov. Linda Lingle is catching grief for leasing a luxury SUV that gets only 12 mpg after preaching energy conservation. It takes all the fun out of amassing power when you’re expected to set a good example.

• Congratulations to Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, who’s getting married in the summer and teaching political communication at Hawai’i Pacific University in the fall. Nice convergence. Spouses and politicians both define good communication as you agreeing with them.

• Speaking of agreement, grammar teachers must have been horrified by the lack of such in this sentence from another publication about a police officer kicked in the groin while making an arrest: “He was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital, where they were treated and released.”

• Police arrested a suspected highway copper-theft ringleader known as “Freeway Jimmy.” If he’s found guilty, they ought to make him share a cell with a guy named “Lights-Out Larry.”

• A Big Island group is gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative to make marijuana offenses the county’s lowest law enforcement priority. Even lower than finding out what happened to Peter Boy?

• Lingle imposed 4-percent spending cuts on all state departments to deal with the soft economy. I wonder if she’ll lead the way by downsizing the fuzzy dice in her new $52,000 Infiniti QX56.

And the quote of the week …

… from former University of Hawai’i football coach June Jones on adjusting to his new job at SMU:

“The first week of spring practice, we got rained out. We got snowed out. I immediately knew we needed an indoor facility.”

The first thing he does is gripe about facilities. Anybody see a pattern?

I’ve always admired state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa as one of our brightest and most talented elected officials, but her problem is that sometimes she wastes her smarts on political games that aren’t as clever as she thinks.

The Pacific Business News provided an excellent example in a story by Linda Chiem detailing how Hanabusa appointed former Kaua’i Judge George Masuoka to the state Judicial Selection Commission after a fast shuffle to circumvent a constitutional prohibition against stacking a majority of lawyers on the panel that plays a key role in picking judges.

Masuoka would have been the fifth attorney on the nine-member commission, so the retiree resigned from the Hawai’i State Bar Association and gave up his license to practice law in order to technically qualify himself, according to PBN.

Masuoka has close ties to Chief Justice Ronald Moon of the State Supreme Court, who gets to make his own appointment to the Judicial Selection Commission in addition to Hanabusa’s two.

The betting here is that this is part of a political play to make sure Republican Gov. Linda Lingle’s options are limited when Moon hits the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2010 and Lingle gets to appoint his successor from a list of candidates provided by the Judicial Selection Commission.

The Judiciary is the one branch of government that needs to be protected from any taint of politics, and Hanabusa should know that as a practicing attorney.

There were plenty of qualified candidates for this appointment. Making a mockery of the Constitution to slip in Masuoka was shabby, unnecessary and destructive to public trust in the integrity of state institutions.

Let’s not return to the bad old days of the Bishop Estate scandal when the Judicial Selection Commission and the Judiciary itself were disgracefully rolled into the political patronage machine.

That sorry episode already left enough of a stain on the legacy of the Moon Court.

Kudos to Pacific Business News for breaking this important story that deserves more visibility and discussion.
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For another example of cheesy politics in the Hanabusa-led Senate, check out my column in the Opinion section of today’s Advertiser, “Senate is playing cynical game with public elections bill.”

What can you do but moan about today’s story by Andrew Gomes about Ko Olina developer Jeff Stone reneging on a promise not to collect on a $75 milion tax credit for a nonexistent aquarium at the resort.

Prompted mainly by now-Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, who represents the West O’ahu district, the Senate twice since 2002 approved the huge tax credit as though Hawai’i’s very economic future depended on building a “world class” fish tank at the Leeward resort.

When it became apparent last year that the aquarium was never going to be built, Hanabusa, who aspires to higher office, persuaded Stone to say so and promise not to collect on the tax credit.

But when the Legislature failed to agree on bills to either rescind the tax credit or reallocate the money to some other boondoggle, Stone said “what the heck” and filed for a $3.45 million credit on previous expenses for the not-to-be aquarium and plans to file for $322,952 more.

Hanabusa, who lives in Ko Olina, felt so strongly about the aquarium tax credit that she sued former Gov. Ben Cayetano when he vetoed the original version.

I can’t wait to hear her explanation of how the money Stone collected benefited Hawai’i taxpayers.

I hope he at least sent her a nice goldfish bowl for her office.