Nor have I, or any of the other fishermen here, seen any long term decline in numbers of aquarium fish. We've been diving the same reefs for more than 4 decades, and the fish always return year after year. If this supposed depletion was true, we'd have been out of business long ago. The state has been monitoring the fishery since the early 1970s, and there has never been any declining trend.

Five years ago, Hawaii passed a law requiring that gasoline sold in the state must include 10 percent ethanol. The intent was “to provide energy independence from foreign oil, reduce statewide gasoline consumption, and establish industrial plants to produce ethanol locally.”

Fast forward to today and the intention of the law is shown to be a bust -- all of Hawaii’s ethanol comes from overseas and no ethanol plants have been built here. Because of this, Sen. Mike Gabbard has introduced a bill to repeal the 10 percent ethanol requirement for gasoline sold in Hawaii.

This will be Governor Abercrombie’s first appointment to the BOE.  In November 2010, Hawai‘i voters approved a Constitutional Amendment that gives the Governor the authority to appoint members of the BOE. The state Legislature is discussing legislation specifying the appointment process.

“It is my intention to replace Dr. Isa with a member who will continue serving on the Board of Education for the long term,” added Governor Abercrombie.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu responded to a question about the situation in Egypt, saying: "Certainly any disruption in the Middle East means a partial disruption in the oil we import. It’s a world market and [a disruption] could actually have real harm of the price. The best way America can protect itself against these incidents is to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, in fact to diversify our supply." This is a nice sentiment. Unfortunately, everything the Obama Administration is doing is only increasing our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

PRINCETON, NJ -- About 7 in 10 national adults, including 88% of Republicans, say it is important that Republican leaders in Congress take the Tea Party movement's positions and objectives into account as they address the nation's problems. Among Republicans, 53% rate this "very important."

Although the Flag Bill (HB1468) must eventually be heard – the Flag Bill will NOT be heard tomorrow.  This delay however gives all us who are passionate about displaying our flag on our own property more time to contact and urge Representative Cabanilla, Chairman of the House Committee on Housing, to put the flag bill – HB 1468—on the schedule for a hearing.

However, the bill that will be heard tomorrow, HB 1464, also deals with homeowner community associations and the lack of transparency by some homeowner community association boards in their decisions and actions and the lack of fairness by some of these boards in their treatment of their association members. 

“The President has stated unequivocally that he will veto any legislation containing earmarks, and the House will not pass any bills that contain them,” Inouye said in a statement. “Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law.”

The move also comes after House and Senate Republicans have agreed not to seek earmarks for the two years of the 112th Congress.

It looks as though Sen. McConnell has determined a way to force Sen. Reid to allow a full repeal vote in the Senate today or tomorrow.

In detective novels and television crime dramas like "CSI," the nation's morgues are staffed by highly trained medical professionals equipped with the most sophisticated tools of 21st-century science. Operating at the nexus of medicine and criminal justice, these death detectives thoroughly investigate each and every suspicious fatality.

The reality, though, is far different. In a joint reporting effort, ProPublica, PBS "Frontline" and NPR spent a year looking at the nation's 2,300 coroner and medical examiner offices and found a deeply dysfunctional system that quite literally buries its mistakes.

And Knight laments that while the Hawaii Senate has bought into the "separation of church and state argument," it does not seem to have any trouble promoting Islam.

"In 2009, the Hawaii Senate chamber approved an Islam Day resolution, and it shows that there's a double standard here," the senior writer decides. "Something that celebrates or acknowledges Christianity, it's verboten. But when you celebrate Islam or anything else, then it's OK. That's multiculturalism; that means anything but Christianity."

"It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be ‘difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power’ and we would have a Constitution in name only."

The bill says that every qualified applicant “is required to authorize the attorney general to collect and transmit the necessary personal information required for registering the qualified applicant with the county clerk.”

 Along with Massachusetts and Connecticut, Hawaii leads the country with the highest ratio of bonded debt to personal income as well as having some of the highest long-term debt as a percentage of the state gross domestic product.

When are you just going to leave us alone to live our lives in peace?

Just because Maui and Kauai and San Francisco and other progressive enclaves have done it does not mean we have to be so foolish also.

"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

It isn’t the first time around for Roger Dale Stockman, arrested in the parking lot of a Dearborn, Michigan mosque last week.  Stockman, allegedly caught with illegal fireworks after making threats against Arabs at a Dearborn bar, has a long criminal and psychiatric record.  At least two of his previous federal arrests involved threats.  In 1985 he was sent to a Federal Prison psychiatric ward after placing a pipe bomb in the Reno, NV airport.

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Secret Holds Elimination
• House: Non-Security Discretionary Spending Limit
• House: Presidential Campaign Fund Termination

This bill, HB 1468, brings Hawaii into compliance with the federal law as well as ensuring that these home owners may display their American Flag continuously 365 days a year despite any association board's regulation, covenant, or similar binding agreement to the contrary.  It also removes any fee you would have to pay to display our Flag.  HB1468 IS BEING HEARD WED FEB 2, 8:30AM IN CONFERENCE ROOM 325 AT THE CAPITOL.

The most important message is what it doesn't tell us. It doesn't tell us whether the person who died consented when the lethal dose was administered.

Further to that, the physician is rarely present at the time the lethal dose is administered. If the person does not consent, who would know?

The reporting system has a conflict of interest, whereby the physician who wrote the lethal prescription submits the report. The physician will not admit to abuse.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, chaired by Senator Clarence Nishihara and Vice Chair Gil Kahele, will hear SB 711 relating to genetically engineered fish at a hearing immediately following the joint hearing with the Committee on Energy and Environment which is hearing the other two anti-biotech bills.

Four assisted suicide bills have been introduced in the State House and Senate.  None of them have yet been scheduled for committee hearings.  The bills can be tracked here ....

Oahu:  Wednesday, Feb. 2nd, 11:30 am to 1 pm

Maui: Wednesday, February 2nd, 5:30 to 8pm

Adding to its developing reputation for secrecy, the Abercrombie Administration has now clearly lied about at least one aspect of the sudden withdrawal of Dr Neal Palafox’s DoH nomination.

The bill will now crossover from the Senate to the House.  We are anticipating the bill will be heard in the House Judiciary committee and will let you know once the hearing is scheduled.

Today, Moody's Investors Service just put a price tag on the failed leadership of the Democratic Party in Hawaii.  According to Moody's, Hawaii has the highest debt burden in the nation.  Because the Democrats keep spending beyond our means, every man, woman and child in Hawaii now owes the State $7,987.00. 

The Hawaii Meth Project today announced its inaugural Teen Advisory Council, formed to promote and facilitate peer outreach.  Members of the Teen Advisory Council are playing a key role in the Hawaii Meth Project’s community action plan by encouraging teen volunteerism and identifying peer outreach opportunities at school and in the community to raise awareness about the dangers and risks of methamphetamine use.

SB 712 would require the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture to make public the location of field tests of genetically engineered plants.

SB 713 would require a label that says "Genetically Engineered" to be placed on whole foods sold in Hawaii.  Since the transgenic papaya is currently the only produce that would be targeted by this law, its passage would have catastrophic economic consequences on Hawaii's papaya farmers since the label is intended to scare people from purchasing the fruit.

The DOT has a bill in both the Senate (SB1131) and House (HB1531) that calls for $4 billion for a 6-year plan to provide safer and well maintained roads and bridges statewide. This is a far cry from the current $250 million funding per year the department gets to pay for the $7 billion in infrastructure and program needs it says currently exist.

While some may find genocide morally repugnant, environmentalists had a different concern:  Would re-forestation be enough to overcome the greenhouse gases released by all those decaying bodies?  Julia Pongratz, who headed the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology research project from the Institution’s Stanford University campus offices, provides the answer ...

Honolulu—Today the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii released the “The Real State of the State: An Uncensored Look at the Fiscal Challenges Facing Hawaii.” Responding to Governor Neil Abercrombie’s recent “State of the State” address which only scratched the surface, this illuminating expose dives deep into the evidence and causes of the state’s financial crisis.

"The State House of Representatives needs to address the lack of transparency and public participation in the legislative process by using the technology we have at our disposal today by immediately communicating to the public through video, webcasting and audio transmission," said Representative Thielen.

...that could imperil a cherished practice of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.  Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has long defended earmarks as a constitutional prerogative. He once called himself the "No. 1 earmarks guy" in Congress.

Do you think that gay marriage advocates just want ‘equality’--they just want to have same-sex marriages made legally equivalent to traditional marriage? 

According to the activists themselves, you’re wrong....   

Moody's says that the evaluation of current and projected pension liabilities is an important area of focus in its rating reviews.

• Gregory Jackson, Director of the Office of Veteran Services
• Jesse Souki, Director of the Office of Planning
• Russell A. Suzuki, First Deputy Attorney General
• Keith Kamita, Deputy Director of Law Enforcement for the Department of Public Safety
• Martha Torney, Deputy Director of Administration for the Department of Public Safety

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that our nation simply can’t afford President Obama’s failed leadership for much longer. This new CBO 10-year budget baseline shows an unprecedented $1.5 trillion deficit for this fiscal year—an increase of $95 billion over their last estimate. This will be the third consecutive year of trillion-dollar deficits.

This information also applies to Native Hawaiian firms, many of which are doing exactly the same thing.

Governor Abercrombie’s nominee to head the State Department of Health, Dr Neal Palafox MD, has suddenly withdrawn his name from consideration. HNN and the Star-Advertiser report that Palafox may be “involved in a medical reimbursement investigation.”  Palafox was picked over Senator Josh Green MD of Kona.

Hawaii lacks the most basic protections for women, unborn children, and the terminally-ill. The state fails to provide for informed consent for abortion, to require parental involvement in a minor's abortion decision, or to ensure that abortion clinics maintain minimum health and safety standards. It also fails to ban destructive embryo research, human cloning, and assisted suicide.

In going through your bills and the other priorities you outlined in your speech, we have a few questions that will help us as we move forward. While we understand more questions and answers will arise as we go through the legislative process, these are the top 10 questions we would like to have discussed as soon as possible.

Thanks to the high cost of motor vehicle fuel--which in Hawaii includes the second highest gasoline taxes in the country at 63.5 cents per gallon--people have started buying alternative cars and cars which get better fuel mileage. The unintended consequence of increasing the cost of motor vehicle fuel is that there is less money going into the state coffers....

I’d like to address several issues with you this morning: our mission, our caseload, our programs, and our needs that have been impacted by the economic downturn.

Republicans expect states and local governments to beg Congress for relief from their underfunded pension programs sometime soon. But unlike Congress' haphazard, expensive responses to the Wall Street and automaker crises, GOP lawmakers intend to be ready this time.

Their plan has three parts: First, a nonbinding resolution that Congress will not bail out the pension programs; second, a bill to codify that into law and require transparent public pension accounting; and finally, a managed bankruptcy bill for the states.

Last night, in his State of the Union, President Barack Obama claimed, “We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. ... That’s how our people will prosper. That’s how we’ll win the future.” This is true. But then he went on to say: “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time.” No. No, he doesn’t. The rest of the President’s speech made it very clear that he has no idea what makes America the best place on earth to do business.

In this very room, the House will produce, debate, and advance a budget. Last year — in an unprecedented failure — Congress chose not to pass, or even propose a budget. The spending spree continued unchecked.

We owe you a better choice and a different vision.

...for many, the change has been painful.  I've seen it in the shuttered windows of once booming factories, and the vacant storefronts on once busy Main Streets. I've heard it in the frustrations of Americans who've seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear -- proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game. 

They're right. The rules have changed.....

The Senate Judiciary committee voted today 3 to 2 to pass the civil unions bill (SB 232) out of committee.  The bill will now move to the full Senate for a vote.  The vote in committee today was as follows:

• Senator Clayton Hee (SUPPORT)
• Senator Maile Shimabukuro (SUPPORT)
• Senator Mike Gabbard (OPPOSE)
• Senator Les Ihara, Jr. (SUPPORT)
• Senator Sam Slom (OPPOSE)

Introduced by Sen. Wil Espero (D) on January 21, 2011, to require the Department of Public Safety to establish a pilot program on Oahu that electronically monitors committed persons who are permitted to live and work in the community, in lieu of continued incarceration; and to appropriate funds.

Hawaii scores high in categories which measure money spent and low in categories showing the results of those expenditures.  Notably Hawaii scores 6th in “Net Formation of High-Tech Establishments per 10,000 Business Establishments 2002”—this reflects the large number of fake “hi-tech” companies being formed to sop up ACT 215/221 tax credits.