Ethics

Honolulu, HI — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) issued the following statement today, expressing relief that North Korea had released the South Korean fishing vessel, the Daesung 55, and its crew yesterday at the East Sea military demarcation line. Congressman Djou introduced a resolution at the time of its seizure, condemning North Korea’s provocations and calling for the release of the Daesung 55 and its crew. Congressman Djou’s statement also praises South Korea for joining the United States in trade sanctions against Iran and urges China to do the same

Furst cites a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad aired against Rep. Charles Djou (R) before the May special election vote in Hawaii.

Djou and the youthful new leaders reshaping the Hawaii Republican Party suggest that their opponents are living in the past and counting on tradition to overcome voter dismay with deficit spending, rising taxes and protracted economic crisis.

The Hawaii Republican Party filed a formal complaint this afternoon with the Office of Elections, raising concern about a violation of laws that prohibit campaign activity within 200 feet of a polling place.  Yesterday, Colleen Hanabusa held a press conference and had news crews film her as she filed her Primary Election ballot at Honolulu Hale. 

Cam is proud to have the endorsement of Honolulu City Councilman Gary Okino of Aiea. Councilman Okino's support shows that standing up for traditional values is a Hawaiian principle, not a partisan one--and that more people across the Islands need to be exposed to the facts on Senator Inouye's voting record.

Weekend retreats offer a safe, supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortive emotions to begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing.

Faced with predictions of staggering losses for his party in November's midterm elections, President Barack Obama today appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and said, "If the election is a referendum on 'are people satisfied about the economy as it currently is,' then we're not going to do well, because I think everybody feels like this economy needs to do better than it's been doing." The prospect of that referendum is casting a long shadow over Washington as the President and candidates alike wrestle with America's frustration over a still-stagnant economy, despite $814 billion in stimulus spending.

So what's President Obama's solution? Kick into campaign mode and turn to even more destined-to-fail stimulus gimmicks, loaded with increased government spending and higher taxes.

“Just last week, Congressman Charles Djou cast his vote in the Primary election for Hawaii’s First Congressional District. His main opponent, however, has not cast her vote yet. In fact, she will not be voting in this election. As a candidate asking for the vote of the people, it’s worth asking: ‘If Colleen Hanabusa won’t be voting for herself, why should anyone else?’"

Complete list of employers planning to attend tomorrow's job fair.

In yesterday's New York Times, International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen reported: "Since taking office, President Obama has reached out to the Muslim world as a whole, to China, to Turkey and to Iran, but has devoted scant serious diplomatic energy to Europe." Cohen then went on to quote prominent Paris-based defense analyst Camille Grand: "Europe is the object of benign U.S. neglect. Obama has not established or re-established a strategic relationship with any single European country or with Europe as a whole."

As thousands gather in Washington, DC, Hawaii Christian Coalition and Hawaii TEA Party groups will hold local rallies Maui, Kona, Hilo.

Local officials also predict an expensive future as new requirements—for technology, quality accounting and care coordination—start under the overhaul, which became law in March.

Moody's Investors Service said in April that many standalone hospitals won't have the resources to invest in information technology or manage bundled payments well. Many nonprofits have bad credit ratings and in a tight credit market cannot borrow money, either. Meantime, the federal government is expected to cut aid to hospitals….

Breaking technology is now offering a safe and affordable alternative to large nuclear reactors, called Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs.  Even enlightened environmentalists have changed their minds about energy and now support nuclear. Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore, Gaia theorist James Lovelock, Greenpeace UK Executive Director Stephen Tindale,  Friends of the Earth board member Bishop Hugh Montefiore and environmental icon Stewart Brand have all switched sides in the nuclear energy debate....

Honolulu, HI — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) appeared on Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” this morning to discuss returning to Washington, the President’s latest economic proposals and the First Congressional District Job Fair this week:

Washington- It’s been more than 18 months since Colleen Hanabusa's Democrat friends passed a trillion-dollar stimulus bill promising to keep unemployment under eight percent and create four million jobs and, so far, one thing is clear: It’s an utter failure. With unemployment at an unacceptably high 9.6 percent, the economy in a complete tailspin and the nation deeply in debt, Democrats now want to ram through a $50 billion spending bill in a last ditch attempt to salvage their crumbling political careers.

According to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released today, only 26% of voters think the economy is going to be better in the next year, and 61% think the country is on the wrong track. Desperate to show Americans he's fighting "every single day, every single hour, every single minute" to turn the economy around, President Barack Obama unveiled yet another economic stimulus spending plan yesterday. This time the President is promising to spend $50 billion over six-years....

Charles Djou opens his Campaign HQ and releases his first campaign commercial of the fall election season. (VIdeo)

This Labor Day marks a milestone in the history of the U.S. union movement. It is the first Labor Day on which a majority of union members in United States work for the government. In January the Department of Labor reported that union membership in government has overtaken that in the private sector. Three times as many union members work in the Post Office as in the entire domestic auto industry. The face of the union movement is not a worker on the assembly line but a clerk at the DMV.

Yet, as important as this their influence is, most Americans have no say in choosing their child’s teacher. Parents don’t have a choice when it comes to their child’s education, despite the fact their tax dollars pay for the public schools, and their children’s futures are at stake.

Parents in Los Angeles are getting some new transparency about their children’s schools this week.  The Los Angeles Times recently released the names of 6,000 elementary teachers and data showing how much each teacher’s students improved on standardized tests....

"Instead of an over-reliance on government spending, we must continue to focus our efforts on cultivating a business-friendly environment that creates job opportunities and instills confidence and transparency in government.

"Government doesn't create the jobs that fuel our economy over the long term, but we can make it easier for those who do."

...the U.S. economy lost 125,000 jobs in June and then the August report found another 131,000 jobs were lost in July. Today the Labor Department released the September jobs report, showing nonfarm payrolls decreased again by 54,000 and that the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.6%.

Washington- House Democrats’ summer recess is almost over and it’s time for Colleen Hanabusa and her out-of-touch friends to face the music. With another failed attempt at recovery under their belts, Democrats are facing a bruising uphill battle this November. With unemployment at an unacceptably high 9.6 percent and way above the once-promised eight percent, Democrats have officially run out of excuses. Their trillion-dollar stimulus failed to produce jobs and their runaway spending spree has left the nation in debt, putting their Democrat majority up for grabs this fall – and making Hanabusa accountable for supporting her party’s failed economic agenda.

Motorists in California and Hawaii have to look out for the most potholes on urban Interstates. In those two states, 25 percent of urban interstate pavement is in poor condition. ... Rhode Island, Alaska, California, Hawaii and New York have the least cost-effective roads.

THREE MONTHS after Intajak arrived in America, in October 2004, Global Horizons sent him to Hawaii to work for the Maui Pineapple Co. Here, the pay was better than in Yakima—$9.50 an hour—but the conditions were worse. One Global Horizons agent, Intajak and other workers told me, was in the habit of carrying a knife, a gun, or a baseball bat, and of threatening workers with "deportation" if they didn't behave or meet their quotas. Just four days in, Intajak says, he watched the man beat a coworker. 

The Maui Pineapple Co.'s land is nestled among gorgeous foothills, shrouded in mist and covered with volcanic soil the color of dark coffee. The now-defunct company was part of Maui Land & Pineapple Co., whose majority owner is Steve Case, cofounder of AOL; another primary shareholder is eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, a generous benefactor of anti-slavery organizations.... 

In 2004, Hawaii required 677 signatures to qualify an entire new party, and 3,711 signatures to qualify an independent presidential candidate.  Ralph Nader and Michael Peroutka each tried to qualify as independent presidential candidates.  Even though each of them submitted more than 7,000 signatures, Hawaii elections officials invalidated over half of them.  Hawaii tends to disqualify signatures if the signer failed to show either the last four digits of his or Social Security number, or the full birthday.

Hawaii’s usually voluble homegrown secular humanists are stone silent because they agree with Ka’auwai.  For the same reason, Hawaii’s pro-Abercrombie media have greatly tempered their response.  In a recent Star-Advertiser poll, Republican crossover voters were shown to be backing Mufi Hannemann 72% to 28% against Neil Abercrombie.

But the national groups aren’t thinking about short-term local political calculations....

You and I both know that hundreds of thousands showed up in DC this weekend, and that even more marched on 9/12 last year. The good news is, the American people are wising up, too. They aren't buying the mainstream media's downplayed story, not when there is obvious photographic evidence discrediting them . . . and a political agenda motivating them.

So we're marching on 9/12 again.

The President again evinced the impression that he viewed Iraq as a distraction, and he twice said he wanted to "turn the page" to other issues. As forgettable as the address was however, once placed into the broader context of foreign policy speeches and actions, a clear Obama Doctrine can now be defined, as James Carafano and Kim Holmes do in a new paper released today....

Alaska's incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has conceded to TEA Party-backed Republican Senate candidate Joe Miler.

“Today marks a historic and monumental shift—and we have our brave men and women in uniform to thank for that. The progress made in Iraq has been difficult and undeniable. It is remarkable to reflect on how far Iraq has come from a nation ruled by a tyrant to a functioning democracy in the heart of the Arab Middle East. This is what our courageous troops have accomplished.

Instead of uniting the country behind our effort in Iraq, this is how President Obama chose to open his remarks: "As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As President, that is what I am doing. We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office." The President's love affair with first person singular pronouns aside, this is just plain false.

Join Congressman Charles K. Djou and many prospective employers looking to hire at the 2010 First Congressional District Job Fair. This job fair is free of charge and is open to all residents of Honolulu who are unemployed or underemployed and are looking for better opportunities.

The Akaka bill is novel in that it is the first Congressional attempt to federally recognize a non-Indian entity, and to do so in a fashion inconsistent with the political history of the former governing entity it is ostensibly recognizing. Under a different view, the Akaka bill is novel in that it endeavors to federally recognize a government to collectively represent an entire ethnic group based upon shared indigeneity, rather than political history. But political history, not indegeneity, begets federal recognition.

The speeches were not incendiary, for the movement is not basically political. The deep feeling present came of itself from the crowd. The spontaneity of the marching, the emotional reaction to the singing, the quiet fellowship of the audience provided evidence; the profound devotion to this most sincerely embraced of all causes was obvious. If the democratic system is to be workable we must come back to this deep, non-political popular feeling as the primary sovereignty. The legislature of the nation can never lead the people; it would pervert democracy if it did. The noble spirit of the March is inescapable and its manifestations must eventually be found in Congress.

HONOLULU -- With Hawaii's primary election just three weeks away, elections officials were dealt a big blow Friday by the federal government.

The state may face a federal lawsuit because Hawaii’s primary and general elections are too close together to meet the requirements of a new federal law….

New Jersey was not the only state to lose out because of the Obama administration's slavish devotion to teacher union votes and cash. Proven education reform leaders like Louisiana and Colorado also lost points and finished out of the money because their state's chosen reforms threatened union priorities. Meanwhile Hawaii (which the Data Quality Campaign ranked 17th for education data systems, which the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked 34th for the strength of their charter laws, and which got a D- from the National Council on Teacher Quality) finished third and will receive $75 million. Oh, but they had 100% "buy in" from the unions.

Defenders of the proposed Ground Zero mosque are quick to write off opponents as bigots simply out to stir up hatred of Muslims.

While some of the rhetoric is excessive, the blanket dismissal hides a more difficult challenge for mosque advocates: A growing number of Muslims openly oppose the project too. Some agree it's the wrong place, while others are increasingly critical of what they see as tone-deaf and clumsy leadership from mosque planners.

"Even Mr. Carlisle, who promises to 'put our financial house in order' admits this is not fiscally responsible.  Despite this, he wants to build a mega rail system--even bigger than the one currently planned.

"It is our belief that Hawaii’s political class is purposely waiting until after the elections, at which time it will announce a 'November surprise' of massive tax increases to pay for rail, sewers, and pay increases."

Hawaii politicos have spent a lifetime snagging federal dollars and then doing what they please, so it is illogical and unreasonable to assume that RTTT will be any different. 

The HSTA’s worthless signature was a key to the DoE’s RTTT application being ranked third in the nation, how will they undo it?

“While today’s news is promising, it is just the beginning. The road to success in the public school system is long, but with the kind of resolve that the State of Hawaii has displayed, it is not one that is impossible.”

“We outlined an ambitious vision and long-overdue public education reform goals for our state, which included assisting struggling schools, improving school performance from kindergarten to college, and ensuring that all of our students are equipped and prepared to enter both college and the working environment.

“This is an historic opportunity, and we must continue to work together to implement the reforms necessary to cultivate a brighter future for our young people.”

Last Thursday, a who's who of the progressive movement met for a conference call organized by Families USA and hosted by the advocacy group for government-run health care, The Herndon Alliance. The Alliance's partners include AARP, AFL-CIO, SEIU, MoveOn and La Raza, among many others. Democratic pollsters John Anzalone, Celinda Lake and Stan Greenberg were the call's main event, and they were there to deliver some bad news.

"...the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims...."

Washington- In another attempt to distract from their record of runaway spending and economic failure, House Democrats have handed down new marching orders to Democratic candidate Colleen Hanabusa. Their latest strategy to gloss over their job-killing agenda is to instruct loyal followers like Hanabusa and her Washington friends to highlight the party’s so-called small business agenda. Likely missing from the latest directive, however, is any mention that Washington Democrats are pushing forward with a plan to slam small businesses with massive tax hikes that are certain to kill jobs, prevent businesses from hiring, and set the already-struggling economy back even more.

House Republicans this weekend continued to blame Democrats for a lethargic economy, charging that last year's stimulus bill has hobbled the country with debt while failing to prevent the job losses that supporters promised.

"For every problem facing our nation, the answer from Washington has been to spend and spend, and – if that doesn’t work – spend some more," Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii), said Saturday, delivering the Republicans' weekly radio address.

Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Voice of America, AP, Bloomberg, Politico...they're all talking about Charles Djou's speech.  And the local media?  Oh, that's right, they're busy doing point-by-point color commentary on the trash-talking Democrats who want to be Governor.

Rep. Djou: “Even if the powers-that-be in Washington do not support less government and less spending, they should at least provide those of us who do with a chance to give the American people the common-sense fiscal discipline they are demanding.”

Congressman Djou meeting with the Hawaii Restaurant Association