Ethics

The United States today hit an all-time high debt, passing $14 trillion, according to Associated Press reports. And with $45,300 of debt for every man, woman and child in the United States, it's clear as day that spending is the problem. Yet Washington has yet to come to an agreement on a way forward, either in the short term or the long term, though the budget plan passed by the House of Representatives would fundamentally alter this debt-ridden path the nation is on....

 The opportunity to directly vote on the Republican nominee is expected to bring out thousands of Hawaii Republican voters who have never before had a chance to directly participate in choosing the Republican Presidential nominee.

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...if those senators were truly serious about cutting the deficit, they wouldn't stop at just cutting subsidies for oil companies. They would also call for the elimination of subsidies for the president's pet projects such as renewable fuels, electric vehicles, wind and solar. Throw in clean coal and natural gas, too. That would be the right move for the American taxpayers. But good policy isn't their goal -- vilifying an industry is their end game.... 

Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to ensure that Defendants do not implement the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project...before complying fully with federal environmental laws.

In a speech in Boston, Mr. Tutu directly attacked the Jewish supporters of Israel as being in effect traitors to America, controlling U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of Israel and to the detriment of America. In that speech he compared American Jewish supporters of Israel to Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Milosevich, Stalin, and Pinochet.

School districts very often define spending categories in unexpected ways, making it difficult to distinguish classroom spending from operational costs....

Prominent journalists like ABC's Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalist's ethical code stating: "avoid all conflicts real or perceived."

Ms. Takaki is active in the Hawaii Chapter of The ESOP Association has served on the Executive Committee's State & Regional Chapter Council. From 2007 – 2009, Ms. Takaki served as Chair of The ESOP Association.

"I'm Newt Gingrich, and I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget."

With the nation’s spending and debt problems on the verge of destroying the American dream for future generations, the Heritage Foundation today released a comprehensive plan to balance the federal budget, reform entitlement programs and recast the tax code to promote long-term economic growth. 

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Confirmation John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, to be U.S. District Judge
• House: To repeal mandatory funding provided to establish American Health Benefit Exchanges
• House: To repeal mandatory funding for school-based health center construction
• House: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
• House: Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act

You might think that a U.S. company's decision to expand its manufacturing facilities and create 1,000 new jobs here at home -- rather than overseas -- would be hailed by the Obama Administration as a step in the right direction, especially with nine percent unemployment. You'd be wrong....

The real savings Medical Homes could give to HHSC do not come in the emergency room but in elder care and neo-natal care....

Says Washington’s Gregoire: “(Change in marijuana laws) must first come at the federal level."

...a shift towards whole-person health rather than focusing primarily on the treatment of illness....

Despite the good news this week about Osama bin Laden's demise, all is not rosy for President Barack Obama -- at least in the eyes of the American people. The approval of his handling of the economy hit an all-time low with only 34 percent of Americans giving him a thumbs up, according to a CBS/New York Times poll.

President George W. Bush put the correct policies in place, including the PATRIOT Act, Gitmo and increased intelligence gathering. President Barack Obama was wise to continue executing many of the same strategies.

For five and a half years, the US has hunted for Ahmed Hashim Abed--code-named "Objective Amber." Abed is the alleged ring-leader of an Islamist mob which murdered four US military contractors--including Pa`auilo resident Wesley Batalona--in Fallujah, Iraq on March 31, 2004.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed spent most of 1994 plotting to blow up or hijack 12 airplanes carrying about 4,000 passengers bound for Honolulu and 11 other locations as part of Operation Bojinka, based in Manila, Philippines.  He would later use operational experienced gained from his Bojinka failure to mastermind 9-11.

Now Hawaii's two Senators have voted to help spring Mohammed from detention at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. 

...NLIHC calculates Hawaii’s "housing wage" at $31.08 per hour. The “housing wage” which is the full-time hourly wage a household would need to earn in order to afford the fair market rent for an apartment....

Zawahiri...has a record "of alienating his colleagues, fighting over dogma, even within the Islamist movement," said journalist Steve Coll. "And as a communicator, he is less effective. His books are turgid and dogmatic." During a recent online chat with fellow jihadists, Zawahiri sounded "defensive and argumentative. He sounded unappealing as a leader."

The Jones Act has singularly failed to deliver on its declared objectives of "supporting foreign and domestic commerce and creating a merchant marine of the best equipped and most suitable types of vessels." The "must build in America" clause is the biggest problem. Today the U.S. builds 1 percent of the world’s commercial ships — with 95 percent being built in Asia....

Separately from the Army’s license application, a resident of Hawaii filed a petition on March 4, 2010, requesting the NRC take enforcement action against the Army if it found the Army possessed or released depleted uranium to the environment without a license in violation of NRC requirements. 

As the 2011 Hawai`i State Legislature moves closer to an end, boisterous applause, back-slapping, and high-fives erupted on the morning of Friday, May 1st in Conference Room 229 at the Hawai`i State Capitol as health insurance lobbyists congratulated themselves. They were celebrating the passage of Senate Bill 1274 that repeals a decade-old consumer protection law consumers have used successfully to overturn health plan denials approximately 80% of the time.... 

In the hours after the official announcement of Osama bin Laden's death, jihadi forums and extremist websites have been flooded with a mix of responses. Although some jihadists have welcomed the martyrdom of one of their greatest leaders, others have condemned America or appear to be in damage control mode.

With bin Laden's death, which came by way of a small, covert strike force, there will be an impulse to believe that this action validates that covert operations are a cheap and simple answer to the most vexing national security problems. They are not. They are just one tool in the tool box. Among those tools, too, is the strategic and lawful interrogation of detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay.

... despite a few early skirmishes — including the one that cost the English explorer his life — the people who preceded the Europeans to the so-called "Sandwich Isles" by at least a thousand years generally had good relations with the British empire....

…And another immigration memo, from June 1964, records that Harvard officials were trying "to get rid of him" and "couldn't seem to figure out how many wives he had."….

An extremely high cost of living, coupled with a fairly high tax rate, give Hawaii the lowest adjusted-average income....

The IMF's assumption that our economy will be weak indefinitely is all too reasonable. China might run its economy into the ground, but we are running our economy into the ground. Reasonable people can sharply disagree over what to do, but what's killing U.S. leadership is obvious to the IMF and anyone looking at the global picture: our budget deficit.

...here in the United States, as we face a $14.3 trillion deficit, some are calling for increasing our government's ability to borrow even more money without any concern for spending reform....

Pacific Office Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE Amex: PCE), a real estate investment trust owning interests in 45 office buildings primarily in Hawaii and California, reported today that it received notice from the NYSE Amex (the “Exchange”) indicating that the Company is not in compliance with the continued listing standards ....

Announcement from Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour....

Believing that the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has gone too far in an assault on individual and states rights, a new, national, bipartisan legislative caucus is emerging to take action.

Traditional history courses were torn down in favor of “queer” studies, black studies, Asian studies, women’s studies; language was deconstructed in order to remove its capitalistic foundations; traditional sexual mores were torn asunder in the name of “tolerance.”  President Obama was the result.

Tony Santos, former resident of Hawaii, Farrington High School student, and past Mayor of the City of San Leandro, California, has been actively advising Hawaii lawmakers to kill off a proposal to establish Instant Runoff Voting on the county level.

...at the same time our society is becoming more pluralistic on questions of basic morality, the government continues to intrude more than ever in both public and private areas of social life....

The ERISA Federal law of 1974 clearly stated that if Hawaii changed its health insurance law in any substantive manner, such as what is being proposed in HB 1134, then the Federal law would take over and Hawaii's health care program would no longer be in effect.

Fiscal 2011 Spending Agreement - Vote Passed (260-167, 6 Not Voting)

The House passed this bill to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year. Based on the agreement negotiated to prevent a government shutdown, the bill provides $1.055 trillion in federal spending. The Senate passed the bill later in the day, clearing it for the president. 

Rep. Mazie Hirono voted NO.....(Hirono alone voted for Federal Gov’t Shutdown.)

But it is a reflection of some of the concerns she’s voiced, and I think she’s supportive. The general concept, she’s for it.

From 2003 to 2008, the nation's general government debt varied between 2% and 5% of GDP....  In 2009, as the government increased spending to stimulate the economy, S&P said the U.S. debt load "ballooned" to more than 11% and has yet to come down….

More evidence that Birtherism is nothing but a scheme to help Obama get reelected....

 Seizure notice posted on Full Tilt Poker

In heart-stopping non-stop action, each of the four Hawaii teams competed with precision in the quarter final matches, but ultimately fell points short of playing in the semi-finals.

The man behind Donald Trump's possible 2012 presidential campaign is a registered Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008....

the legislation would suspend the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals sole jurisdiction over federal employee whistleblower cases for a period of five years....

Hawaii’s VEX Robotics students will join more than 570 robotics teams representing 14 different nations to compete for the World Championship.

 In an effort to save their careers, two pro-life pharmacists have fought an extensive legal battle asking the state to respect their religious objections to providing Plan B, an abortifacient drug. Last Wednesday, a circuit court upheld the rights of the two professionals....