Hawaii Department of Education Hawaiian Studies instruction statewide has suffered a "decade of decline" as funding for the salaries of "kupuna program" instructors and teaching assistants are diverted to other uses.  The diversion of resources out of the classroom stems from "vague guidelines" and "weak oversight" according to a January, 2008 Audit report prepared by Hawaii State Auditor Marion M. Higa.

The Audit cites the Hawaii Board of Education and the top leadership of the Department of Education for "leaving the program without direction and in decline for more than a decade."

Confronted this spring with a $468M DoE two-year budget cut, the HSTA, DoE, and BoE went straight to the "Washington Monument Gambit"--cutting the most sensitive and prominent services.  Hawaiian style, this means the HSTA, DoE, and BoE conspired together to make furloughs as inconvenient as possible in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Also targeted, high school athletics.  Will they now settle for a one-time shot of $50 million?

The Honolulu City Council has won release of a previously unpublished Qmark Research poll cited as showing support for rail by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is poised for another Saturday night cram down, forcing a Senate cloture vote mere days before his 2,074 page bill was given to Senators. Yet again, Congress will be forced to vote on a bill that none of them have actually read. More importantly, as we pour through the details, it becomes obvious that none of them even believe the plan will do what the bill says.

...a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run health plan.  It’s right there beginning on line 11, page 122, section 1303, under “Actuarial Value of Optional Service Coverage.”  The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Last Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other terrorists would be tried in a civilian court in New York City rather than before a military tribunal. Pressing Holder on this decision at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight hearing of the U.S. Department of Justice, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked: “Can you give me a case in United States history where a (sic) enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?”

Holder responded: “I don’t know. I’d have to look at that. I think that, you know, the determination I’ve made…”

VIDEO -- Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asks: "Where would Osama Bin Laden be tried if he were captured tomorrow?

In spite of the fact that Graham's question is hardly unexpected--having been at the root of debate over the handling of GTMO detainees for several years--Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, whose private law firm represents over a dozen GTMO detainees, again and again fails to come up with a clear answer....

Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. ET, the Treasury Department updated its calculation of the U.S. National Debt to: $12,031,299,186,290.07. That $12 trillion record high comes just eight months after it hit $11 trillion and is only expected to rise faster considering the federal deficit for 2009 was over $1.4 trillion. And what is the leftist majority of Congress going to do tomorrow about these skyrocketing deficits? They are going to pile on the spending faster.

Today, unions are dependent on government, not the private sector, for their livelihood. Therefore, unions like the SEIU have little interest in private sector job growth. Private sector jobs don’t help fund $60.7 million political campaigns. But government jobs do.

Combing through the data on the $18 million Recovery.gov website you’ll find tons of Obama stimulus success stories from across the country. In Minnesota’s 57th Congressional District, 35 jobs have been saved or created using $404,340 in stimulus funds. In New Mexico’s 22nd Congressional District, 25 jobs have been saved or created using $61,000 in stimulus cash. And in Arizona’s fighting 15th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending.

But none of the above Congressional Districts actually exist....

A report released Friday by the non-partisan and independent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of running Medicare and Medicaid, blows the lid off of every one of Obama’s claims.

By now everybody who is paying attention knows that "furlough Fridays" were made as inconvenient as possible by the Hawaii Department of Education (DoE) and the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Governor Lingle has proposed giving the DoE a $50M ransom payment from the "Rainy Day" fund if the HSTA and DoE agree to transfer furlough Fridays to non-instructional days.  But even without the extra $50M--and after the budget cuts made necessary by the decline of tourism--the DoE has plenty of money to keep schools open without cutting any class time. 

So what is the DoE wasting taxpayer money on?

"This is potentially very big news for the future of tourism in Hawai‘i. It will bring back a lot of jobs if we’re successful at bringing it about." -- Gov Lingle 

How this would be accomplished:

1.        Use 15 non-classroom days (between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011) when teachers are paid but do not teach classes to restore all teaching days lost on Furlough Fridays beginning Jan. 1, 2010.  (For those teachers who work on a 12-month schedule, a comparable adjustment would be made.)

2.        The cost of restoring the remaining 12 days would be achieved by using money out of the Emergency Budget Reserve Fund (Rainy Day Fund).  Estimated cost to Rainy Day Fund would be $50 million.

Many claim American foreign policy acts "create terrorists", but Osama bin-laden points to the importance of words--explaining their value best in an intercepted letter to Taliban chief Mullah Omar:

It is obvious that the media war in this century is one of the strongest methods (of struggle). In fact, its ratio may reach 90% of the total preparation for battles.

But which words?  In Osama bin-Laden's 1998 sit down with ABC's John Miller, his last face-to-face interview with an American journalist, the al Qaeda chief explains...

Last month, The Washington Post reported that President Barack Obama had asked senior officials for a province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan “to help determine which regions are being managed effectively by local leaders and which require international help.” He supposedly wanted “the clearest possible understanding of what the challenges are to our forces and what is required to meet the challenge.”  But now two weeks later the Associated Press reports that President Obama has rejected all of the options presented by his national security team and is now asking for “revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government.”

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle today said the selection of Hawai‘i to host the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting is an affirmation of Hawai‘i’s strategic role as a leader in the Asia-Pacific region, and will help build a stronger economic foundation for Hawai‘i’s future.  President Barack Obama, who will host the Hawai‘i meeting, announced Hawai‘i’s winning bid today during the APEC Leaders Meeting being held in Singapore.

The recent bill that passed in the House is quite explicit about this. If it becomes law, the state will force everyone to buy health insurance or suffer a penalty.

As recorded by ABC News' Jake Tapper on November 9, President Obama said that penalties are appropriate for people who try to "free ride" the health care system.

"What I think is appropriate is that…if you have the ability to buy insurance, and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you…there's nothing wrong with a penalty."

Under the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, signed into law as part of the Defense Authorization Act October 28 by President Barack Obama, ballots must be mailed to overseas voters--including deployed US military personnel-- at least 45 days before an election.

In reaction to MOVE becoming law, State election officials nationwide are scrambling.  Minnesota Secretary of State Marc Ritchie is asking legislators to move Minnesota's September 14 primary up by at least one month.  Colorado officials are working to move their 2012 primary to the first Tuesday in August...

Photo taken from mauka area of Hilo as clouds clear from summit just at sunset.  Snow is barely visible on Mauna Kea left of palm trees.  Check out time lapse video from summit... 

Five weeks after Honolulu Councilmember Charles Djou's formal request, the administration of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann has released a complete list of contractors and subcontractors currently or previously being paid to work on the Honolulu rail system.

“Our nation’s veterans have made tremendous sacrifices in defense of our freedoms. The least Senators should do is make the easy sacrifice of eliminating a small amount of wasteful spending to improve veterans’ health care."

Today, we at The Heritage Foundation will honor Veterans Day by pausing to remember those who sacrifice in defense of freedom for our country. Heritage honors all who serve past and present in the United States Armed Forces, their families, and all military retirees and veterans. We solemnly remember those fallen men and women who gave the last full measure of devotion and will also not forget those who have yet to come home and remain missing in action.

Hawaii does a below-average job managing its schools in a way that encourages thoughtful innovation. Ninety-four percent of teachers report that routine duties and paperwork interfere with their teaching, and only 22% of teachers like the way their school is run....Ninety-six percent of principals say that teacher unions or associations are a barrier to the removal of ineffective teachers, 35 percentage points above the national average of 61%.

Leftists in America do not want us to remember Reagan’s role in history. That is why President Barack Obama (the same man who found time to jet to Copenhagen at the drop of a rumor that his presence could win the Olympics for his hometown of Chicago) could not be bothered to attend the 20th anniversary of the wall’s fall last night. Instead, President Obama taped a video message that completely failed to mention Reagan or British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

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

The average October, 2009 temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20^th Century average and ranked as the 3^rd coolest based on preliminary data.  If you are surprised by global cooling like this, it means you haven't been paying attention. 

If you are like me, you are deeply disappointed that we lost, by an inch, the vote to stop Nancy Pelosi's trillion dollar takeover of health care in America.  You might even be thinking that the fight is over.  Not true. As Winston Churchill said, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps the end of the beginning.”

And, in fact, the narrowness of the House vote tells me the momentum is on our side.

Supporters of radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki--whose name has surfaced in connection with the investigation of Major Malik Nidal Hasan--are now championing Hasan's murder of thirteen U.S. military personnel last week at Ft. Hood in Texas.

Following last Tuesday’s election, the last thing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wanted to do was allow Members of Congress to go home and talk to their constituents about the $2.6 trillion health care bill she was marshaling through Congress. The centerpiece of Pelosi’s trap and pressure campaign was a Saturday address by President Barack Obama in the Cannon Office Building, where Obama warned Democrats: “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit [Democratic voters] and it will encourage the extremists.”

The extremists. That is how the President of the Unites States describes Americans who do not want to see the federal government control over half of all health care spending. 

...Sandwich Isles Communications is another worst 10 offender costing the USF fund $13,408 per phone line in a few tiny pockets in Oahu and Maui where Hawaii Telecom already offers full cellular phone coverage....

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA) noted that "Although an amendment passed to bar federal funding of abortion, Democrat leaders refused to guarantee that it will be in the final bill. The vote on the amendment may have been a ruse to gain pro-life Democrats vote for the bill."

"This bill will erode the best health care system in the world. In exchange for insurance, we'll lose access to proper health care. We'll lose health care providers who will leave the profession. CWA will fight to protect Americans from this government orchestrated destruction of America's health care system as it now goes to the Senate."

Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.  The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was killed during the shooting incident that left least 11 others dead and 31 wounded.

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

According to an October 26 editorial piece thinly disguised as a news analysis, Save Our Sports’ success in raising $1.2 million for Hawaii’s 55 public high school athletic programs indicates a “shift toward an ‘American Idol’-style system of public funding that rewards popularity over merit.”

Last week the Obama administration issued a report purporting to show that the President’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan had saved or created exactly 640,329 jobs. Such a precise number for such a fuzzy concept as jobs “saved or created” immediately raised doubts about the veracity of the report in any honest American’s mind.

And since that report was issued, a once compliant press has filed story after story tearing the credibility of the Obama administration’s job creation claims to shreds.

After dropping $50 -$200, those in attendance may then be invited to shell out some serious bucks for the books, DVDs, and CDs which keep phony psychics fat and happy.  Oh and don't forget to contribute to the "Daffodil Project"--its a "non-profit" for the 580 acre "healing center" that Altea got from a dying cancer patient. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis has found that cap and tax legislation would cost the average family-of-four almost $3,000 per year, cause 2.5 million net job losses by 2035, and a produce a cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) loss of $9.4 trillion between 2012 and 2035.

...Hooser's campaign website indicated that the anti-Semitic, Holocaust denier, 9-11 trooother website www.WhatReallyHappened.com was part of Hooser's "regular reading regime." ....

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii - The 25th Infantry Division (ID) Headquarters is scheduled to return to Schofield Barracks, Thursday morning. The homecoming marks the return of the last group of Soldiers from the 25th ID Headquarters, which assumed command of the Multi-National Division North (MDN-North) in December 2008.

HONOLULU — With less than a week before what could be a pivotal court hearing, a federal judge and lawyers involved in two lawsuits that seek to end Hawaii’s teacher furloughs may meet privately in the next few days to discuss settling the cases.

Lawyers representing parents of public school students said Tuesday they have not yet heard from U.S. District Judge David Ezra, but they expect to engage in talks with him and attorneys for the state before a public hearing scheduled for Monday.

Last night, elections were held in several states across the nation, and by most independent observations, the results served as a warning to liberals. Whether it was Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey or even in typical liberal bastions like Westchester County, New York, the post-analysis was framed on what does this mean on Capitol Hill, and more importantly, what does this mean for the conservative movement. However, last night did not represent a new day for conservatives. On Monday, the same could have been said: the state of conservatism is strong.

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has concluded a successful round of meetings in Beijing as part of the Administration’s ongoing strategic effort to strengthen the state’s long-term economy by promoting Hawai‘i as a visitor destination to China’s growing outbound tourism market, developing export opportunities for Hawai‘i products and services and forming partnerships in clean energy.

“The Republican Party’s overwhelming victory in Virginia and New Jersey is a blow to President Obama and the Democrat Party.  It sends a message that America has had enough of more government spending, higher taxes and bigger government.  The people of this great country are saying no more broken promises and no more change for the sake of change.

"The Hawai'i Democrat Party, who has proven to be ineffective for the people of Hawai'i, should learn from Democrats across the country. These victories prove traditionally Democrat states like Hawai'i can and will vote for Republicans.”

For the leftist base of the Congressional majority, the creation of a government-run health insurance company has been the defining issue of the health care debate. So, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has explained numerous times that: “The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps keep the private sector honest because there’s some competition out there.” But is this true? Would the public have more choices if a government run health insurance company was created?

--REPUBLICAN TAKES VA: 982,095 McDonnell [R] 653,687 Deeds [D]
--NJ: 514,692 Christie [R] 460,120 Corzine [D] 58,825 Daggett [I]

Contending they were treated unfairly, Asmus and Coker have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They are accusing Inouye’s staff of unevenly applying earmark procedures by dispersing federal dollars to an institute honoring the late Massachusetts senator without giving their outfit, Humanitarian Air Logistics, what they consider a fair hearing....

Walt Kaneakua, an Inouye aide who Asmus and Coker say accused them of insulting Inouye by questioning his decision-making process, did not respond to a request for comment....

Ellis thinks one thing is a pretty sure bet: “They are virtually guaranteeing they will never get an earmark from Inouye.’’

"UNICEF has been a major financier of Palestinian 'summer camps' which encourage children to become suicide bombers. One such camp is named for Wafa Idris…"

Not shy about involving church-goers in the electoral system, Hawaii conference organizers will be promoting the "I VOTE" voter registration drive which aims to register 80% of Hawaii church-goers and turn out 80% to vote at the polls.

Secular humanists are already alarmed at the prospect.  Hawaii has one of the lowest rates of voter participation in the nation but the Honolulu Star-Bulletin October 13 editorialized against the voter registration drive--a positive sign that voter registration can have a profound impact on the direction of the body politic.