...the surprise development raises concerns about its impact on Pyongyang's ongoing leadership transition, regime stability, and North Korean security and foreign policies....

It is a hopeful vision of the future of broad prosperity.’ But it's hard to see how voters are going to see any hope at all.” (John Dickerson, “Obama’s Victory Plan,” Slate, 12/13/11)

 Egyptian Scientific Institute: December 17, 2011

In a short dispatch, KCA stated, "Chariman Kim passed away in the train on December 17th, 2011 at 8:30am due to physical overwork."

This week’s closure of Hawaii Medical Center hospitals in Ewa and Liliha—with the loss of 1,000 jobs--will be the first of many unless the Abercrombie administration abandons its suicidal policy of dismantling the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act.

Another consideration is the amount of participation that will be needed to make a gaming industry a lucrative source of public revenue.... Will the cost, time and distance be attractive enough to gamble in Hawaii?

We must work to ... require local and out-of-state internet service providers to comply with Hawaii law enforcement and explore the idea of licensing web designers.

...Comments on page 23 of the 71 page-long Technical Review of the Hawaii DoE proposal point to a previously unknown DoE scheme to link up with Abercrombie’s much maligned Medical Homes proposal and use federal Medicaid money to screen—and therefore designate--even more children as Special Needs or High Needs....

...there is not a single mention of delisting, crashing solar panel prices, expiring tax credits and subsidies, difficulties in completing the Pocatello plant, nor the crashing price of the polysilicon Pocatello is supposed to produce....

Unfortunately, it was opposed by members of the House, who wanted a variety of devastating anti-environmental riders which, if the Senate accepted, would have set back our nation’s air and water protections for many years to come. 

Rather than produce a timely budget by way of standard operating procedure, congressional leaders again butted up against the deadline and reached a deal on a trillion-dollar "mega-omnibus" nine-bill appropriations package that sadly is yet another disappointing failure to rein in government spending.

No matter how powerful or pervasive a regime is, it can still be overrun by the sheer superior numbers of the people it governs. However, this traditional political framework has been undermined by the development of the modern welfare state ....

The akamai reader will note that this short and information-free announcement purports to identify the problem, identify the culprits, and pronounce sentence -- without actually identifying anybody or anything.

The Hawaii Public Housing Authority Board of Directors voted unanimously Thursday morning to appoint Muslim Association of Hawaii President Hakim Ouansafi as HPHA Executive Director.

Case said he just finished a six-week swing across the islands and spoke with 5,000 people. He said he’s using that as his poll guidance for now. “They will not vote for the status quo, period,” Case said ....

America's tax code needs reform, plain and simple. The current tax system discourages saving, investment, and entrepreneurship. It's a drag on productivity, job growth, international competitiveness, and wages. It's complicated beyond belief, and it needs to change.... 

...the membership has voted down the company's offer, 283-216....

Already, education policy experts who are watching progress in Race to the Top states are urging the Education Department to make an example out of Hawaii for its lack of progress—real or perceived—on its teacher-evaluation component.

The Hawaii Republican Party announced Friday that Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have registered to be on the ballot for the March 13 Hawaii Republican Caucuses.

In case you’re not keeping track, it has been nearly 1,000 days since the United States Senate passed a budget. Meanwhile, America’s fiscal nightmare keeps growing, and those on the left—including Members of the Senate—keep advocating for even more spending ....

Electric bills have skyrocketed in the last five years, a sharp reversal from a quarter-century when Americans enjoyed stable power bills even as they used more electricity, says USA Today.

...media outlets and opposing politicians in other states have a tendency to start jumping up and down, hollering and pointing fingers when an incumbent’s contributor receives an earmark. Strange, but true....

Federal prosecutors Tuesday charged Ayman Joumaa, an accused Lebanese drug kingpin and Hezbollah financier, of smuggling tons of U.S.-bound cocaine and laundering hundreds of millions of dollars with the Zetas cartel of Mexico....

When it comes to solar power, Hawaiians are in a race. And for a small but growing number, the competition is already over....

Life of the Land believes that HECO has failed to justify ratepayer recovery for any of the Big Wind studies. HECO was required to meaningfully look at alternatives. They failed to do so. HECO was required to examine comparative costs. They failed to do so.

This proves that Inouye has been grooming Hirono to look like she’s actually doing something by letting her co-sponsor his earmarks for an entire year now.

Attempts to solve drug shortages with more regulations could actually worsen the problem ... the only way to alleviate the drug shortage is to make generic drugs more profitable.

Last week, President Obama announced his intention to veto the bill when he warned, "Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject."

“The Canadian Government’s decision to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol is an important victory for common sense .... "

The documentary showed a former Iran senior official accepting a plan to launch from Mexico a cyber war on the United States, one that would cripple U.S. computer systems, including the White House, the FBI, the CIA and several nuclear plants....

•  Senate: Cloture on the Nomination of Richard Cordray to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
• Senate: Motion to Proceed; Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2011
• Senate: Motion to Proceed; Temporary Tax Holiday and Government Reduction Act
• House: Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2011
• House: Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011

Today was the day we were to have found out whether the Supreme Court would review Corboy v. Louie....

“I’ve been to events that have already raised in excess of six figures for her,” Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks said. “This is going to be a real priority race for the organization.”

… and yet, oddly, Inouye & the AFL-CIO have been dead set against switching to a closed Democratic Primary ….

There will be a savings match component where families that save up to $2,500 will receive $15,000 in matching funds to help with purchasing a house anywhere in the state.

I don’t want to say, ‘I told you so’ but the person in office (Abercrombie) right now, leading our state, I believe that he fooled a lot of people. The thought they saw a heart in this guy, but that wasn’t true.…

The occupiers were flown in from the mainland. This is the perception that everyone in Honolulu has .... 

Hawaii homebuyers average a 13.37% mortgage downpayment.

...forecasts made by the tax department weren’t very reliable. In fact, it was pointed out that the department’s numbers included revenues from taxing the sales of sugar from independent sugar growers, sugar growers who have not been around for nearly two decades....

Who owns the new land created when lava flows over private property and into the sea and hardens into fast land?

"...as a native Hawaiian how can I accept that this will be a (suicide) state like Oregon and Washington?" 

...

... Another Old Boy ....

The federal renewable energy production tax credit, which allows wind producers to take a 30 percent investment tax credit or receive a 2.2-cents-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit, has been around since 1992. The tax credit expires at the end of 2012 ....

It is because — not despite — that massive and misguided nature of U.S. assistance to Micronesia that China has initiated a startling series of economic and infrastructure projects and proposals across the islands of Micronesia....

Sunday, Dec. 11, 3-4 p.m. at Ralston Field, Schofield Barracks. Members of the Miami Marlins, featuring one of baseball's best young sluggers Mike Stanton, will conduct a baseball clinic in support of Army youth ....

“It’s just unfortunate, and unworthy of the people of Hawaii, that Ed Case lets those frustrations with his own candidacy get the better of him,” Nielsen said.

If U.S. history is a painting on giant canvas, President Barack Obama's speech this week in Osawatomie, Kansas, is a thick coat of whitewash layered all over it, and the failure of the last three years lies underneath.

Any program in which 60 percent of the graduates failed to find work for two consecutive years would face funding reductions ....

Thirty seven states will be affected by these reductions with the majority of personnel cuts occurring in those states with the largest military and Army civilian populations.