1 Leavanworth's too good for him. Let the troops serving under him know what he did, then deploy him and put him on point for every patrol...let' see how long he lasts

2 Note how the dude seems to be parroting, word for word, all the cheesy slogans the leftards have been using. He is not giving one single argument of his own to support his decision. I think he is trying to get out of the military because of some fuckup he doesn't want anyone to know about and is just trying to use this "not in our name" bullshit as a cover.

3 At one time they had a well oiled noose at Leavenworth .... use it!!!

4 With the exception of the Sergeant who breached security and screwed a subordinate, abu rated company punishment for all others.
As for the brave Lieutenant, max him all down the line.

5 At least someone is showing what is like to be a real human being. Seems like all you scumbag republicans can't use your brains to know what's right from wrong.

6 HIS DADDY WAS A PINKO PEACE CORPS GRADUATE...GLAD WE ARE CONSIDERING GIVING HAWAII BACK TO THE NATIVES...THE JAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN OUT THE WHOLE ISLAND, WITH HEROS LIKE THIS LT.

Bob Watada Honored for Herculean Effort to Clean Up Corruption in Government
By Malia Zimmerman, 11/4/2005 2:13:21 PM

Bob Watada

To many, Bob Watada is an honorable and courageous man, who despite his quick laugh and big heart, has not hesitated to bring to their knees and to jail some of the most powerful and corrupt political insiders in Hawaii.

To others, the recently retired state Campaign Spending Commission executive director is a despised scoundrel accused of having a political agenda and the gumption to use the powers of his office to forward that agenda.

To people at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Watada is a hero whose Herculean effort over the last decade dealt a major blow to corruption in Hawaii. And because of that, the non-profit free market think tank presented Watada with the Unsung Hero award at a Nov. 4, 2005, dinner being held at the Hale Koa Hotel in Waikiki.

Those who have followed Watada’s career say he leaves behind a trail of broken politicians who misused campaign funds, including some jailed for their crimes, and a number of corporate directors who gave illegal contributions to gain favor in government procurement. For the most part, the people he investigated paid the price for participating in what Watada deemed Hawaii’s "pay to play" system.

Under Watada’s direction, nearly 100 companies were fined between 2002 and 2005 for making "false name" contributions and excessive contributions primarily to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and former Gov. Benjamin Cayetano. The city prosecutor and federal government took over some of Watada’s cases charging corporate executives of those companies with money laundering, making illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion. The companies participated in the scheme to boost their chances of getting government contracts, concession rights or zoning clearances.

Watada also either headed investigations, or uncovered information, that led to a long line of powerful politicians going to jail. Those include Daniel Kihano, former speaker of the House; Milton Holt, one of the most powerful state Senators of his time; Andy Mirikitani and Rene Mansho, former council members; and Marshall Ige, a former legislator who served in the House and Senate for 16 years. While in the past all politicians involved in the campaign "pay to play" scheme were Democrats, most recently Watada helped secure a federal case against Republican candidate for Congress and Lieutenant Governor, Dalton Tanonaka.

Honolulu City Council Chair Jon Yoshimura, former Senator Cal Kawamoto and former Senator Melodie Aduja were investigated and subsequently fined for their campaign spending violations.

One of Watada’s primary investigations centered around former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, who served as Honolulu mayor for a decade, and was the target of the state Campaign Spending Commission for more that three years. While he escaped prosecution and jail time, more than 100 of Harris' supporters who laundered an estimated $1.5 million to his campaign were prosecuted and fined. The investigation is still under way.

But after taking on the Harris case, and the trail of high-paid lawyers who came with Harris, Watada suffered severe and frequent retaliatory actions by the Harris campaign. There was the ethics complaint, two federal lawsuits and one state lawsuit -- all of which ended favorably for Watada. At commission hearings, armed state security officers were present at the door, because commissioners had been threatened and investigated by the Harris campaign workers.

In addition to bringing down politicians and blowing a major hole in the Democrats’ well-established fundraising machine, Watada was involved in the investigation into Bishop Estate, a multi-billion dollar trust for Hawaiian children that was considered the land and power arm of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. The five trustees of the Bishop Estate eventually resigned or were forced out after a series of scandals, including cultivating Democrat candidates and funding their campaigns with trust monies, were revealed by Watada, IRS agents and the state attorney general.

The Campaign Spending Commission wasn’t always so aggressive, in part because Democrat political operatives were once in Watada’s position. The first executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission was Robert Klein, who later was appointed a Hawaii Supreme Court judge. Klein, who served as the executive director from 1974 to 1975, is now a political operative and attorney for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, former Mayoral Candidate Duke Bainum and the Bishop Estate.

Wally Weatherwax took over the Campaign Spending Commission for three years beginning in 1975. He was recently fired as the city Liquor Commission executive director in part because eight of 15 Honolulu Liquor Commission inspectors working under the Democrat-appointed liquor commissioner, were indicted on 57 counts of racketeering and extortion for allegedly taking bribes from bar owners in return for ignoring liquor law violations.

Jack Gonzalves was the next director of the Campaign Spending Commission after Weatherwax, but was fired in 1994 after being arrested by federal agents for his involvement in a ponzi scheme. Gonsalves is still serving his 16-year term in federal prison. Watada, who was a commissioner on the state Campaign Spending Commission at the time of Gonsalves’ arrest, took over the position for the next decade.

Clearing the black cloud over the commission took years of hard work, honesty, integrity, dedication and consistency by Watada, his supporters say.

However, Watada took each day and each new case in stride. Taking the ups and downs during his career with a sense of humor, and taking time out for himself to play tennis or join in an aerobics class, was one of the keys to Watada’s success. He also spends quite a bit of time volunteering at Waialae School, a charter school, where he is a board member.

Lucky in his career -- Watada also was lucky in love. He recently married Rosa Sakanishi Miyakawa whom he fell in love with more than three decades ago while he was in the Peace Corps, but had to leave behind in Peru.




Rosa and Bob Watada

When time allows, Watada and Rosa, who live in Hawaii Kai, visit her 32-year-old son, Jorge, who lives in Japan and they plan to spend more than a year with him in Japan beginning in 2006. They also spend time in the mainland visiting Watada’s two grown sons, Lorin and Ehren.

7 Keko, how about putting forth a argument in defense of your position rather than just ad hominum attacks on "scumbag republicans"?

LT. Watada made a committment, to his nation,to his superiors, and most importantly, to the men he was to lead. He made that committment with full knowledge of what it entailed.

It is obvious that the terms Duty, Honor, and Country have no meaning to you personally, but in a Servicemans life, they are the core root.
Kt. Watada lost his Honor when he refused to do his Duty, and in doing so, he has failed his Country.
I do think he can be given a slight amount of praise in that he apparently did try to resign his commission, but his subsequent actions are anathema to anyone that has ever served. And the facts that he made public his intentions on D-Day, of all days,and that he states that he is NOT a C-O, only prove that what he is doing is out of a political agenda, and not true core moral belief.

"Robert"....just what is your point? In the future, please just put a link to whatever story your trying to use for whatever your point is?

8 Delfts, what happened to your trolls? One is barely literate, the other rambles on about nothing in particular, sucking up the bandwidth. The first troll is easy enough to understand. Some pimply little teenage loser huffing glue in his daddy's garage, in between trips to his mom's room to try on her bras and to troll web sites from her computer in search for attention, and for an outlet for his pathetic angst against the unfair mean world.

As for Ramblin' Robert... If he had just put down that "peace pipe" for a day, he would probably write a bit more coherently. As it is, his post appears to be a spam post, and I will not be surprised if he copied and pasted it on other blogs.

9 OK, what else did he do, save a busload of first-graders, then invent a cure for cancer before lunch? I'm currently deployed, and I dare say he violated the UCMJ as well as his oath of service, and after JAG gets done with him, he'll MAYBE be able to get a day labor job, or wash dishes at Joe's corner bar and grill! He knew the consequences, and now it's time for him to face them. Don't even try to feed me any of that moonbat drivel, I've heard it all, and I've paid my dues, and served my country in a combat zone!

10 Keko thinks that anyone who dosen't think along the Communist Party line is a Republican. It was FDR who negotiated on behalf of Europe at Yalta, it was Truman who engineered two Koreas, it was Kennedy & Johnson who gave us the Vietnam war then the Democrats abandoned it, it was Carter and his bumbling who set up present day Iran and it was Clinton who let Bin Laden have a pass. The feckless U.N. gave us the Iraq war, because a Democrat regime didn't have the gumption to enforce a negotiated treaty that Hussein violated on a daily basis.
Watada will always have a home amongst the likes of you Keko. Scumbag!!!

11 Wild Bill, you don't seem to get it, do you? Those wars were fought with the purpose of keeping our world free from communist domain. Iraq is just an excuse to make "your President" and his "base" richer. Therefore, the lives of so many of our boys are being lost. My son is in the marines and is now in Iraq. I support the troops but not the fact that this war was orchestrated way before Dumbo, meaning Dubwa, became President. Remenber the "decider", whatever that means.

12 This cracks me up ... this guy states he will desert, the next day Zarqawi is killed!! Ha! Now what are you going to say?? Had he waited merely one day (in fact, he said he was going to make is official announcement today) he would have probably NOT said he would defect. Why? Because with Zarqawi dead our chances for success have increased dramatically. He would have not taken the chance of defaming himself and looking like a loser when we're on the cusp of success. Too bad his press conference scheduled for today will not generate ANY interest (Im sure hes cancelled it). Nice job moron!!

13 Hooray, al Zarqawi is dead. Your're all invited to an Al Zarqawi-is-dead Bar-B-Q party. Now it's time to go after the No. 2 man resposnible for the more than 2000 murders or our troops, i.e., George W. Bush.

14 "..fact that this war was orchestrated way before Dumbo, meaning Dubwa, became President."

Your correct, KeKo, "regime change" was a Clinton policy..so why blame Bush for it?

ZZ BBQ...sounds tasty to me. I would honor Bush for it, not place him on the menu.

15 This piece of DOG DUNG joined the military after the war had started then refuses to actively participate !!!!! What a POS!!!! he had no problem going to OCS after college, where the GOV/Military probably paid for his college !!!!

As for the rest of the people protesting about the war and the people in the military protesting , please remember nobody forced them to join the military!!!!!!