After years of pretending to be concerned about Hawaii's worst-in-the-nation voter participation, today the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has shown its true colors.

In an editorial titled "Religion risky for GOP", SB editors condemn a church-based statewide voter registration drive.  They complain bitterly that, "...the goal is to convince 80 percent of Christian churchgoers to register to vote and then persuade 80 percent of those who register to vote...."

This contrasts sharply with the Star-Bulletin July 21, 2009 which cried, "Hawaii dead last in voter turnout." 

In order to game the CBO scoring system (explained by former CBO Director Donald Marron here), Democrats have packed ten years of taxing, but only six years of spending, into the CBO’s ten-year budgeting window.  So what happens to the deficit in those years after the CBO budget window?  Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), a member of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition explains: “Every year, you lose ground. It’s likely after 10 years, we fall off a cliff.”

Crossroads will develop a comprehensive assessment of Maui’s present and anticipated healthcare needs, a comprehensive financial feasibility study and business planning for the proposed medical development at a site in Kihei.

For a family of four making $69,480 (300% above poverty) the Baucus bill mandates annual health insurance premiums of $8,338, which would be worth the equivalent of over ten months of food, four months of housing or almost two years of utilities.

Catholic and evangelical Protestant leaders hope to push Hawaii politics rightward, preparing an election-year effort in 2010 to organize their parishioners into voting blocks that can help elect like-minded candidates. And they are hoping to use the issue of civil unions to get them there.

The state Legislature next year is expected to reconsider a proposal to allow gay and lesbian couples to form civil unions. The measure, which is on hold in the state Senate, generated some of the largest rallies ever seen at the normally placid Capitol earlier this year.

First they come so subtly as to barely elicit notice; bundled in thick layers of effusive praise for Hawaii’s newly canonized Saint Damien.

According to protesters organized by 9-11 truther Jim Abertini's mis-named "Malu-Aina Peace center", US Marines training at Pohakuloa on the Big Island are unwanted "Dirty Bumbs."

On May 10, 1873, Damien arrived in Kalaupapa to meet the spiritual needs of the 600 residents. He soon realized that his presence provided much needed comfort to those suffering from Hansen’s Disease, and he served in different capacities, including doctor, carpenter, legal advocate and grave digger. He also organized religious associations, a children’s band and a choir. Through his work, Damien instilled pride and dignity in the residents of Kalaupapa, restoring the faith of the forgotten.

The homecoming ceremony will take place Sunday at 5:25 p.m. at Wheeler Army Airfield. Family and friends wishing to welcome the Soldiers home are encouraged check the 25ID Web site, www.25idl.army.mil, for the latest ceremony updates.

In spite of widespread anger by public school parents, few legislators have joined the call by former tax cheat and Lt Gov candidate Gary Hooser for a special session.  But that is not the only game in town. While the mayors stall for time, the UHPA has rejected the UH system’s contract offer--unsurprising since Dan Inouye's handpicked UH system President is a poster girl for profligacy.  UHPA boss AJ Musto, now calls for the legislature to return to session and enact tax increases.  They will head to arbitration.  The UPW is refusing to engage in serious negotiations, also insisting on arbitration—a strategy designed to bring a December arbitration ruling which will deliver the problem to the next legislative session in January. 

Every bit of this game is about next year’s gubernatorial election. 

 When the Nobel committee gave the prize to Obama, in spite of the fact that he has no accomplishment other than getting elected, it robbed Zimbabwean labor leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai became the Zim PM earlier this year after enduring over a decade of frame-up charges, beatings, assassination attempts, fraudulent elections--and the murder of hundreds of pro-democracy activists by the genocidal socialist Mugabe regime. 

The Nobel committee bypassed an opportunity to shine an international spotlight on the struggle of the Zimbabwean people against dictatorship and the socialist demolition of what was once one of the most prosperous countries in Africa.

This past Monday on Charlie Rose, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said a new value-added tax (VAT) is “on the table”.  A VAT is a type of national sales tax. However, instead of being collected at the cash register, it is imposed on manufacturers at each “value added” stage of the production process. Since everybody buys stuff, including families making less than $250,000 a year, any VAT would necessarily break Obama’s no tax hike promise. Worse, a VAT would expand the size of government, inadvertently increase income tax rates, and destroy jobs.

• It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
• Paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
• It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.

One more thing: "In California, bag manufacturers successfully sued Oakland and Manhattan Beach after those cities banned plastic bags. The bag makers complained that officials didn't prepare a report detailing the environmental impact, such as the increased use of paper sacks."  

The New York Times awarded Baucus with the headline that the White House has been searching for since the debate first began: “Health Care Bill Gets Green Light in Cost Analysis.”  But this headline and the accompanying article are fundamentally dishonest.  As the Politico reported yesterday: “While the media and lawmakers often shorthand a CBO letter as a “score” or “cost estimate,” today’s CBO letter is neither. Because the bill is still in “conceptual,” or layman’s terms, CBO’s letter today was a “preliminary analysis.” For it to be an official cost estimate, the bill has to be translated into legislative language.”

Ellen Bellerose rushed to Maui Memorial Medical Center's emergency room at her cardiologist's direction after she felt severe pain and pressure in her neck, chest and arms. As the pain intensified over the next two hours, she walked up to the counter three times to report difficulty breathing. She was told there were no beds available. "I was becoming terrified that I could die, unattended, in the emergency room." Although registered as a patient for 27 hours, she never entered the main hospital that February 7, 2006, but was billed as if she had.

Every version of Obamacare waiting to be merged into one bill on Capitol Hill cuts billions of dollars from the Medicare Advantage program.... The better option would be to move Medicare towards a true “premium support” system where the government would make direct contributions to all beneficiaries who could then control how to spend their own health care dollars. This would be the same model as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) which provides health insurance to Members of Congress.

However more than ever, the Hawaii Christian Coalition will be heavily involved in the upcoming elections in 2010. We are presently opening chapters on Maui and Kauai, and ask that you stand with us as we continue to be a strong to protect Hawaii's families against rising taxes,and insuring that our Keiki's receive quality education in our school system. We will also be strong advocates for traditional marriage and protection of the innocent child in the womb.

...much of the environmental movement blames Norman Borlaug for preventing the massive famines that would have solved the “population problem” quickly in the 1960s—with starvation.  But the starving would have raped the wildlife habitat before they allowed their children to die. Today, we’ve solved the population problem with affluence....

New chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) requested 46 earmarks worth $330.8 million and received 35 earmarks worth $206.5 million in the final bill. Inouye has received $173,000 in campaign contributions since 2007 from the companies he requested earmarks for. The biggest donor among them is Lockheed Martin, which operates a major facility in Hawaii and donated $61,300.