Ethics

Watada implicitly calls for the United States Armed Forces to impose its will on the elected civilian leadership of the nation saying, "If soldiers realized this war is contrary to what the Constitution extols – if they stood up and threw their weapons down – no president could ever initiate a war of choice again."

Watada closes by calling on soldiers to stop "allowing" the U.S. government this liberty.  "Those who called for war prior to the invasion compared diplomacy with Saddam to the compromises made with Hitler. I say, we compromise now by allowing a government that uses war as the first option instead of the last to act with impunity."

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from the House-Senate Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. 

(This fee would be added to your federal taxes each year if you do not buy health insurance.  If you refuse or fail to pay this portion of your taxes, that would be misdemeanor tax evasion and here is what happens....)

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead.

Accused 1992 of sexual misconduct with St. Lawrence Seminary HS students. Reportedly fired in 1988 for similar allegations then rehired. Criminally charged 1/93 with enticing child for immoral purposes and intimidating victim. Judge dismissed case, but noted evidence that Gardipee had disrobed in front of boy. Lawsuit 4/93 cited sexual abuse, harassment, and stalking of teen; expanded 1994, accusing Capuchins of racketeering; dropped 1995 due to WI S.C. ruling Pritzlaff v. Arch. of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee, WI.

Attorney and "main organizer" of “Islam on Capitol Hill”, Hassen Ibn Abdellah is President of the Elizabeth, New Jersey Dar ul-Islam, Inc.  Abdellah was, described October 25, 1993 by the New York Times, as the “most aggressively combative of the lawyers” representing the terrorists who staged the 1993 World Trade Center attacks.  His client, the Egyptian-born Mahmud Abouhalima, was convicted of helping to manufacture and transport the bomb detonated in the 1993 attack and is now incarcerated in the Federal "Supermax" prison at Florence, Colorado.

The United States elected 43 presidents before the current occupant graced the office with his presence. We fought, and won, two world wars, liberated millions of people worldwide from tyranny, and worked cooperatively with other sovereign nations to rebuild entire continents. Some might even say the character of our nation is well established considering we have been a democracy for just over 230 years now.

Not President Barack Obama, who told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, “For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months.” 230 years versus just nine months. No wonder, the New York Times reports, were UN delegates not only applauding Obama, but snapping photos of their hero like tourists.

Co-sponsored by Rep Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) and Rep Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and their comrades in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep Jerrold Nadler, September 15, introduced H.R. 3567, a bill that would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

HR 3567 would require Hawaii and all other states, territories, and Indian Tribes to recognize same-sex marriages performed in jurisdictions where such marriages are now legally recognized.

Rod Blagojevich has a message to his former political cronies: "If I'm going down, I'm taking all of you with me."  And given his close, 14-year relationship with Barack Obama and Tony Rezko, this can only be bad news for the White House. 

UPDATE: If you needed help with your ... uh ... "business", the Hawaii ACORN office is was located at 949 Kapiolani in Honolulu right next to the offices of the leftist Hawaii People's Fund.  But you can't pull on your beaverskin fedora and hop in your '73 Coupe Deville and cruise on over--because they've abandoned their office.  But be sure to thank Mazie Hirono for her support anyway.

If this is how Obama handles missile defense for Europe, what will he do to protect Hawaii?

One of the speakers, Michelle Rhee, is the chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools System, the seventh person to hold the post in the past 10 years.  Intent on reforming the D.C. school system, Rhee has fired non-productive teachers, principals and central office administrators, and proposes to make D.C. teachers the best paid in the country by partnering with private philanthropists to create financial incentives for improved teacher performance.  The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, in 1997, Rhee founded the New Teacher Project, which in 10 years has recruited 10,000 teachers for hard-to-staff inner-city schools in 20 states.

Many have wondered how ANYONE AS EXTREME AS Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones – a self-described “Communist” obsessed with racial conspiracy theories – could have been named to head a federal agency. David Horowitz described the radicalization of the Democratic Party as the appointment’s subtext. Closer to the fore, Jones owed his elevation to another new factor: the unparalleled influence of Valerie Jarrett.

To call Jarrett a presidential adviser, even a close adviser, is misleading. She is an alter ego, an inner conscience, a touchstone of clarity for both President Obama and first lady Michelle. In the frenzy of the presidency, she reminds both Obamas of their identity and deepest-held beliefs. In exchange, the president makes no decision without her and has said she can “speak for me.” Unfortunately, she is also a racially polarizing elitist.

RALLY: Photos, videos and news links....

One would think that President Obama would take the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to educate Americans about the link between the fight in Afghanistan and the still very real threat posed by al-Qaida today. No such luck. Instead, President Obama has chosen to use 9/11 to promote his own domestic policy agenda. 

Charles Djou: "But we need to do healthcare reform right.  The continued push for a massive $1 trillion government healthcare insurance program is the only key aspect of the address I disagree with.  Our nation should focus on real reforms that make sense without breaking the taxpayers’ bank including medical malpractice tort reform, allowing the inter-state sale of health insurance and equalizing the tax treatment of corporate and individual health insurance.”

“There remain some significant details to iron out.” Thus spoke the President of the United States last night, in an address in which, with a straight face, he told an awaiting nation that he was finally delivering not lofty rhetoric, but his grand plan on health care....

In fact, while he kept referring to “our plan” he never explained whose plan he meant. One of the two House plans? The one Senate plan that exists or the Finance one that’s under construction? What’s he actually for? What’s the President against?

Most Americans wanted to hear the president tell Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and the rest of the Congress that it's time to start over on a common-sense, bipartisan plan focused on lowering the cost of health care while improving quality. 

That's what I've heard over the past several months, in talking to thousands of my constituents. 

Replacing your family's current health care with government-run health care is not the answer. In fact, it will make health care much more expensive. 

That's not just my personal diagnosis as a doctor or a Republican. It's the conclusion of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the neutral scorekeeper that determines the cost of major bills. 

When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.

As any American who is still looking for work or a way to pay their bills will tell you, we are by no means out of the woods.... 

...And while there remain some significant details to be ironed out, I believe -- (laughter) -- I believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan I just outlined....

As for the legislation's promise of "reconciliation," we are wondering what or who exactly is in need of reconciliation. When Hawaii accepted statehood in 1959, a mind-bending 94.3 percent of Hawaii voters cast ballots in favor of joining the union. They did so because statehood brought great benefits, not burdens meriting reconciliation.

If the Van Jones resignation is blamed on his statements about Republicans and 9/11, a great lesson will have been lost. As we argued in a previous column, "It's the communism, stupid." If people don't recognize the dangers of having a communist in the White House, then the nature of the scandal will not have been understood. Blogger Trevor Loudon of New Zealand broke the story on April 6 and has some thoughts on what happened and where this story is heading.

Since the June 11 House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on HR 2314, the Akaka Bill has been the subject of an intense battle--largely un-reported in the pages of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin, even as the various players battle it out with op-eds.  The August 6 hearing of the US Senate Indian Affairs Committee showed no progress in resolving the dispute. 

Register today and join over 1,000 of Hawai`i's women from fields of business, marketing, media, health care, government, international relations, and community service at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and Resort September 22, 2009.

When President Barack Obama sold his $787 billion stimulus package to the American people, he set one metric for success: jobs. Specifically, President Obama promised the American people he would create 4.1 million jobs by the end of 2010. According to the President’s plan, the stimulus should have lowered the nation’s unemployment rate below 8% by this August. That is the objective standard the President set for himself.

And according to objective data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, President Obama’s policies, and his stimulus package, have been complete failures. BLS reports that the number of unemployed persons increased by 466,000 in August raising the nation’s unemployment to 9.7% … the highest it has been in 26 years.

Today, the Department of Labor reported that 570,000 Americans filed initial claims for jobless benefits last week. This follows news from ADP Employer Services on Wednesday that private employers cut 298,000 jobs last month. As bad as these numbers sound (and they are bad) the real threat facing our nation’s economy is that, as Gallup’s Chief Economist Dennis Jacobe puts it: “job creation in August is just not taking place in the U.S. economy.”

Mr. Jones signed a statement for 911Truth.org in 2004 demanding an investigation into what the Bush Administration may have done that “deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”

Earlier this year, The Lewin Group released a study showing that under the July 15th draft of Obamacare, enrollment in the public option would reach 103.4 million people including about 83.4 million people who would lose their private insurance and be nudged onto the public plan.

If the students who dropped out of Hawaii’s Class of 2009 had graduated, the state’s economy would have benefited from more than $1.6 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes, according to a new issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

The Kennedys are largely responsible for making African Americans dependent on an alliance with liberal Democrats. The result--highly unstable in a democratic society -- 90% of black voters regularly pull the Democrat lever. 

The 90% solid black vote tips the balance in favor of Democrats in Missouri, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland. Without these votes, Democrats would simply cease to function as a national party.  Without the Kennedys around to check anti-black electoral dynamics within the Democrats' ranks, it is an open question as to how much longer this arrangement can continue. The end of the dynasty could mark the beginning of the liberation of black voters from dependency on government.

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.

Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.

And now for the real kicker: none of these numbers include the costs of Obamacare which would create another $1.5 trillion health care entitlement on top of our existing unsustainable entitlement obligations. The OMB’s Mid-Session Review should serve as a wake up call to the American people. President Obama’s policies are leading us down a path of unsustainable spending and borrowing.

“I’m pleased with the over 200 people that turned out for the townhall discussion on healthcare reform this evening.  I think this forum offered a balanced presentation, educated all attendees, and showed the real concern the people of Hawaii have regarding the future of American healthcare,” stated Djou.

Congressman blasts Holder probe: "It's disgraceful... you wonder which side they're on"

The economic stimulus funds build upon the five-point recovery plan my Administration launched last year and position Hawaii to re-establish the conditions for growth.  Our state Congressional delegation has supported this effort and their role is appreciated.

Finally, we believe key competitive grant opportunities will lay the foundation for a new economic base in the decades ahead.  That economic base will be built on swift, accurate communications of voice and data; clean, renewable energy that is domestically produced; harbors and transportation systems that are state-of-the-art; and a skilled, well-educated workforce that is ready to compete nationally and internationally.

Last week NBC News released a poll showing that while 36% of Americans believed President Barack Obama’s health care plan was a “good idea,” 42% of Americans believed it was a “bad idea.” NBC’s explanation for this inconvenient truth? “[M]isperceptions about the president’s plans for reform … that nonpartisan fact-checkers say are untrue.” Specifically NBC found that 55% of Americans believed Obamacare “will give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants,” 54% believed it “will lead to a government takeover of the health care system,” 50% believed it “will use taxpayer dollars to pay for women to have abortions,” and 45% believed it “will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing medical care to the elderly.”

The President has since copied NBC’s diagnosis, devoting his Saturday Weekly Address to debunking these “phony claims.” The problem for NBC News, and the White House, is that every one of these concerns has rock solid foundation in fact.

The meeting will be in the cafeteria of McKinley High School on Tuesday, August 25th.  It will begin at 5:30pm and end at 7:00pm.

For years, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has expended every resource to create a Hawaiian Indian tribe. Now, with its goal finally in sight, disputes over how much of Hawaii the Akaka Tribe should grab and how quickly to grab it threaten to torpedo the entire project.

Yesterday was the six month anniversary of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Since the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” became law, the United States economy has shed nearly 2.8 million net jobs. When Obama signed the stimulus the nation’s unemployment rate stood at 7.6%. Today it is 9.4%. Nationwide, a total of fifteen states are now suffering from 10% unemployment. No wonder 57% of Americans recently told Gallup that the stimulus package is either having no impact on the economy or making it worse.

While Hawaii is ninth in a Gallup's list of top liberal states, Aloha State conservatives have a 5% edge--29% to 24%--over liberals.  Hawaii is tied with Rhode Island as the top state for self-identified moderates at 43%.

Six videos presented on the Sean Hannity program.  See them for yourself:

The headlines are encouraging: The AP reports, “White House appears ready to drop ‘public option’.” Politico reads, “White House backs away from public health care option.” And the front page of USA Today says, “Obama may drop public option in health care.” These headers all stem from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ comment on CNN Sunday Morning that the public option “is not the essential element” of President Barack Obama’s health care plan. But by Sunday night the White House was already walking back Sebelius’ statement.

In an August, 2008 interview with Maui’s Akaku Public Access TV, Roggasch claims there was no assault.  He also explains his belief that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore ineligible to be President.  Like many “birthers” the Akahi group are “9-11 truthers” as well.  An entire page of their www.FreeHawaii.org website is dedicated to arguing the 9-11 attacks were "a time of reckoning" and "our fault".

Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care.

SB: "Most of the cuts would come from revision of reimbursements for doctors, discounts for prescription drugs and elimination of co-payments for preventive services — changes that would affect providers, not beneficiaries."

So with Hawaii already suffering an MD shortage caused in large part by low medicare reimbursements, Obama is going to cut them even more. And that won't affect beneficiaries, just providers???  It will when the MDs leave Hawaii.  And this isn't a "cut"?

Julia's mother was an early Obama supporter in Massachusetts during the presidential election, so she had previously met First Lady Michelle Obama, the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia, and Vice President Joe Biden.

Kathleen Manning Hall, Julia's mother, was shocked when her daughter said she wanted to ask a question. They wrote it down beforehand, and Julia didn't miss a beat when Obama called on her. 

The bill says that the government agents, "well-trained and competent staff," would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development."

(This applies to Indian Tribes as well, so if the Akaka Tribe is ever formed, Hawaiian families will find themselves inspected by US Government social workers with the power to remove children from the home.  "Sovereignty", eh?)

PHOTOS Left: Sun at peak of warming, 1998.  After 10 years of cooling, 2008.  NASA reports that the absence of sunspots continues today. 

More than 400 record low minimum temperatures and 1,300 record low maximum temperatures (lowest high temperature) across the nine-state area that make up the Central region.  Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania experienced their coolest July on record. Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Michigan each had their second coolest July on record, while Minnesota and Tennessee had their third coolest July on record.

Reviewing the month’s polling data, Gallup’s Frank Newport sums it up: “The bottom line is a sense that, while Americans apparently favor some type of healthcare reform in the long term, they are in no hurry to see healthcare reform legislation passed in the short-term on a rushed schedule. … A Pew Research poll released this week shows that those who are worried about new health care legislation are most likely to say it is because it involves too much spending and would increase the deficit.”

Wrapped in their liberal Washington cocoon, however, the leadership in Congress simply do not want to hear this message. Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) have chosen to pen an op-ed in today’s USA Today calling those who want Congress to hear their concerns about health care “simply un-American.”

(And who are we to pass up the opportunity???)

"Presidential" leadership:  In Tampa, Florida, protester Barry Osteen was pushed in the face by Democratic Club Treasurer Karen Miracle and union members allegedly assaulted another concerned citizen. Both of the events were organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Asked about the possibility of people concerned about Obama showing up at their event, in Tampa, SEIU spokeswoman Kim Diehl told the St. Petersburg Times: “We’re prepared. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up.”

As this video plainly shows, one of those strategies is to lock out dissenters while letting in purple-shirted SEIU members. The desire to silence dissent on Obamacare goes all the to the top. At a Democratic rally in Virginia last night, the President told supporters: “I don’t want the folks who created the mess doing a lot of talking. I want them to just get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”

The White House wants people to believe they are losing the health care debate because “scary … videos are starting to percolate on the internet” that are spreading “disinformation” about Obama’s health care plan.  The White House is even encouraging Obama supporters to help them identify people spreading this “disinformation.” The official White House blog now asks Americans: “If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will conduct a hearing on S. 1011, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009.  The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 2:15 PM (EST)  which is 8:15AM Hawai`i Time and will be held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building room 628.   UPDATE: Names of hearing tesifiers have been released....