Since Sen. Barack Obama is gracing us with a visit, we’ll start with presidential politics as we “flASHback” on the week’s news that amused and confused:

• Obama plans to prepare for the Democratic National Convention while chilling out on our beaches. I hope we don’t see a parade of vice president hopefuls in swim trunks.

• Sen. John McCain, who hasn’t cast a vote on the Senate floor since April, knocked Obama and other senators for taking a break instead of staying in Washington to work on the energy crisis. Then he resumed his nap.

• Paris Hilton responded to McCain’s ad mocking Obama at her expense by calling him a “wrinkly white-haired guy” and referring to both candidates as “bitches.” You usually don’t get that kind of respect until after you’re elected president.

• Top legislators defended Hawai’i Tourism Authority CEO Rex Johnson, who was caught e-mailing porn from his state computer, saying he’s vital to reviving Hawai’i’s visitor industry. How, by stealing sex tourists from Bangkok?

• The Department of Education sent more than 650 people to a conference at the Disney resort in Florida for $1.2 million. No wonder the school board can’t find money to pay for $35 drug tests for teachers.

• Some state employees started a four-day work week. If they can get it down to 2 1/2 days, maybe they’ll get their pay doubled like Kamehameha Schools trustees.

• An attorney who’s suing Kamehameha Schools over its Hawaiians-first admissions again after collecting $7 million last time says it’s a matter of principle. Sad but true. Greed is one of the the oldest legal principles.

• An auditor criticized the city for a 44-percent increase in its energy costs. And that’s for just talking about trains. Wait until they start running them.

• University of Hawai’i enrollment is up as the local job market shrinks. These are mean times when you need a college degree to be unemployed.

• A Kaka’ako massage parlor was robbed by eight men masking their identities. In other words, they looked like any other men going into massage parlors.

• Theresa Harden of Kane’ohe followed a carjacker and his abducted victim across the Pali and guided police to him by cell phone. Looks like “Dog” Chapman can be replaced if he shoots off his mouth again.

And the quote of the week …

… from mayoral candidate Ann Kobayashi on Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s $2.7 million war chest:

“Money isn’t everything. Money is power but so is people power, and I think people power is greater.”

This campaign will test the power of wishful thinking.

If Gov. Linda Lingle follows through with her intention to veto Senate Bill 2878, the “Keiki First Steps” program to greatly increase access to preschools for 20,000 3- and 4-year-olds who could benefit, it’ll be interesting to hear her reasoning.

In her pre-veto message, she raised concerns about the $170 million it could cost to fully implement the system over 10 years, which is certainly daunting in the current economy.

But the bill passed by the Legislature provides only $250,000 in seed money to get us on the road to joining 36 other states that provide publicly funded preschool.

Presumably, the council that would be created to oversee the program would devote itself mainly to finding federal money and forging public-private partnerships to get something going that the state can afford.

The the Legislature’s Early Learning Educational Task Force and studies by Aloha United Way and the University of Hawai’i have suggested that greater access to preschools may be the most important step toward improving student achievement in our public schools.

It seems a no-brainer: If students, especially from disadvantaged groups, start kindergarten better prepared to learn, they’ll do better as they move through the system.

“Children who have access to high-quality early learning experiences are more likely to become high school and college graduates, avoid entanglements with crime, and successfully contribute to their communities as employees and citizens,” said Robert G. Peters of Hanahau’oli School.

You’d think the idea would be embraced by Lingle, who made improving public schools a major campaign promise and loves public-private partnerships.

She’s had little impact on education in her first six years; after failing to break-up the statewide school system into six local districts, she’s involved herself mainly with fighting the school board over relatively small amounts of money and a fascination with robotics competitions as a symbol of her innovation initiative.

The small initial investment in “Keiki First Steps” seems reasonable for the huge potential payoff, and appears a good opportunity for the governor to add her clout to the effort and leave a mark on public education.

Update: Lingle followed through with her threat to veto the bill, complaining that it “establishes a council with administrative and spending powers outside of the framework of existing State agencies that are responsible for funding, licensing, and regulating these programs.”

In other words, she sees it as another attempt by the Democratic Legislature to end-run the Republican administration by moving administrative functions outside of the administration — in this case giving a special council authority properly held by the Department of Human Services.

If the Legislature overrides the veto, the council won’t get much cooperation from the administration, and consequently will likely accomplish little in the next 2 1/2 years— much like the Hawai’i 2050 commission that lawmakers set up in a similar manner.

It’s a shame that important priorities keep falling by the wayside because of pointless politics on both sides. Surely they could have talked and worked this out in the public interest.

You can read the governor’s full veto message here:

The deadline for implementing drug testing for public school teachers passed yesterday with no program in place because of a childish dispute between Gov. Linda Lingle and the Board of Education over who will pay for it.

Lingle thinks there’s already money the schools budget to pay the $500,000 cost, but the Board of Education refused to implement the drug testing it agreed in the last labor contract with teachers unless Lingle provided additional funds to pay for it.

When the deadline passed last night with no program in place, the administration issued a dark warning that it will seek “appropriate remedies.” There were no specifics on what those might be, but in the past the administration has said that teacher pay raises provided in the same contract might be withheld.

That would likely draw legal action from the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which has cooperated in planning for random drug testing and can’t be held responsible for the funding dispute among the politicians.

The drug testing Lingle demanded in contract negotiations was highly controversial already, and it displayed poor judgment for the governor to make it more so by picking a petty fight over a relatively small amount of funding.

Members of the Board of Education aren’t blameless, either. If they had misgivings about moving forward on the drug policy, they should have had the backbone on say so when they signed off on the contract.

I keep waiting for an adult to step up and resolve this asinine dispute, but grown-ups are apparently in short supply in the hierarchy setting policy for our schools.

Weighted student spending was supposed to be the answer to what ails our public schools, but the Department of Education has gotten so bogged down in internal politics that it has lost sight of the goal.

As the centerpiece of Act 51 of 2004, which was supposed to reinvent public education in Hawai’i, the idea was that instead of allocating the DOE budget per school, money would be dished out per pupil, weighted so that those with the greatest needs would get the biggest share.

Schools with a lot of non-English speakers, kids from poor families and transfer students, for instance, would get extra funding to deal will the challenges.

But instead, the DOE has twisted itself in knots trying to figure out how to divide the money between big schools and small schools, with the original goal of getting the most funds to students who need the most help falling by the wayside.

The Legislature has been appointing special committees to investigate everything lately, and with the fifth anniversary of Act 51 coming up next year, it would be a good time to review whether weighted spending — and other mandates of the act such as school-community councils, more spending decisions at the school level and meaningful performance contracts for principals — have been implemented and achieved their goals.

Student test scores that remain dismal and the bureaucratic thrashing suggest Act 51 hasn’t reinvented education, and it’s time to either press for better execution or come up with new ideas.

Last week we pointed our cheeky tongue at the GOP state convention, and now it’s the Democrats’ turn in our weekly “flASHback” on the news that amused and confused.

For those who prefer watching to reading, click on the video link below.

[youtube Eu-gaRE5pJk]

And now back to the readers.

• Brian Schatz became the Hawai’i Democratic Party’s youngest chairman at 35. The Barack Obama campaign drew so many young, first-time delegates to the state convention that they had to set up burping stations at the end of the buffet line.

• Convention leaders were determined to promote harmony between Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters. Delegates who showed up wearing “Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo” t-shirts were sent home to change.

• Democratic State Sen. Ron Menor went to jail for part of the weekend after pleading no contest to drunken driving. That was one way to get out of listening to convention speeches.

• U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye had an even better ball-and-chain excuse, skipping the convention to get married in Beverly Hills. Now he goes forth to exemplify what they say — husbands are living proof that women can take a joke.

• Police hope to deter shady activity on the River Street mall by removing trellises that provided cover for troublemakers. If it works, maybe we should take the roof off the Capitol.

• Mayor Mufi Hannemann is so competitive. When Hawai’i’s average gasoline price passed $4 a gallon, he had to immediately top that by nine zeroes by pushing the cost of rail transit past $4 billion.

• Blaming high fuel costs, airlines raised fares by to Hawai’i by $80 and added a $15 fee for the first checked bag. Next they’ll charge extra for lost luggage to ding us for the fuel to send our bags to Helsinki instead of Honolulu.

• I thought I heard Mesa Air Group CEO Jonathan Ornstein promise his near-bankrupt airline is committed to keeping go! flying in Hawai’i, but I’m rusty on translating forked tongue.

• Several public schools will be fined up to $26,000 by the Department of Education for spending too much on electricity. Pretty soon, the kids will be flailing around in the dark just like the policy-makers.

• Consumers around the country are joining Hawai’i in eating more Spam as rising fuel costs cut into food budgets. If there was a way to harness the gas that Spam produces, we could tell the Saudis to keep their oil.

And the quote of the week …

… from U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie on Obama’s impact on Democrats:

“I think this is a real chance to bring the party into the 21st century.”

Talk about slow learners. The 21st century started eight years ago!