Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei report today:

President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.

After thousands of Americans attended hundreds of townhalls this summer, after the President of the United States delivered a rare speech to a Joint Session of Congress, after endless coverage of legislative markups in the relevant congressional committees, what if the Senate began actual floor votes on the health care overhaul and the drive-by media refused to cover it? Couldn’t happen? It already is.

HONOLULU – Following the ratification by Hawai‘i Government Employees Association (HGEA) members of a new two-year contract, Governor Linda Lingle today announced details of a plan that calls for two furlough days per month for the next 20 months for state employees that will start on Friday, October 23, 2009.  To minimize the impact on the public, most state offices will close all or portions of their operations on two specified Fridays per month.

The HSTA union bosses and the top-heavy DoE brass chose the furloughs as a way to convince us that they are indispensable and to justify raising more taxes, including a 20% jump in state excise taxes. More taxes will only deepen the recession and make things worse.

The union and DoE bosses' strategy is backfiring. More and more parents are asking why we need the DoE and the HSTA when they put union elites and the bureaucracy ahead of the classroom teachers, the parents and the students.

HONOLULU - Lt. Governor Duke Aiona today launched the centerpiece of his new media campaign that will help him connect and interact with voters on important local issues online.

The HSTA and the DoE worked hard to make Hawaii public schools' 17 furlough days as chaotic and inconvenient a possible.  Their goal: gin up pressure for tax increases.  But in order to do this they need an ally--a group which provides the illusion of being independent of the HSTA and DoE.  They have found it in the form of "KanuHawaii.org", a group headquartered on Bishop Street tied to the firm "3 Point Consulting."

In his primetime health care address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Barack Obama promised the American people: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future. Period.” But it is hard work adding $1 trillion in government spending while claiming with a straight face that you are not adding to the deficit. Enter White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who has just the solution: just strip out $247 billion of the spending in the bill, pass it separately, and voila … your job just got one-fourth easier.

The results are in and Republican Congressional Candidate Charles Djou's cash-on-hand total--a key early measure of political support--beats that of Democrat Ed Case by more than 2-1.  Djou, an outgoing Honolulu City Council member, also beats Senate President Colleen Hanabusa (D-Ko`olina) by more than 40-1.

This past Friday October 9, 2009, I was honored to be crowned Miss Hampton University 2009-2010. It truly was the best night of my life! With that being said, I am sad to say that my crowning was not widely accepted and many negative comments regarding my win have been shared throughout my campus.

It would be much easier to say that possibly some were not accepting of the news because I wasn't the most qualified contestant; however, the true reason for the disapproval was because of the color of my skin. I am not African American.

On October 7, Phelim McAleer joined the Society of Environmental Journalists. Three days later, he took advantage of his new membership to attend former Vice President Al Gore’s speech to the group in Madison, Wis., and to rush up to the microphone afterward to ask a question....The event’s organizers mobilized, cutting the sound on McAleer’s microphone as he continued to pose questions. Moderator Tim Wheeler called it a “Warholian moment,” implying that McAleer had wrought 15 short minutes of fame out of the encounter. He had a point. Within 48 hours, McAleer had appeared on “Fox and Friends,” “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” and “Lou Dobbs,” and video of the encounter had appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Thirsty? Get used to it. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) now claims ownership of most of Hawaii’s fresh water.

At a price tag of $829 billion, the SFC ’framework’ will reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 29 million, moving the overall percentage of nonelderly Americans with health insurance from 83% in 2010 to 94% in 2019. But of those 29 million with new insurance coverage, almost half (14 million), will get their coverage through the welfare programs Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). That is equivalent to adding every resident of Ohio and Nevada to the welfare rolls.

So far, CAIR has not challenged the veracity of the claims in Muslim Mafia. Instead, it has focused on the authors' political backgrounds and minimized the findings.

It is the fundamental issue of whether we will enable agriculture to survive in our state by ensuring that farmers have access to adequate water to grow their crops.

I am here to talk about achieving a meaningful, reasonable, and balanced decision by the Water Commission, and to offer caution that the decisions the Commission makes will have profound consequences for the future of Maui and our state as a whole.

The Commission will determine the allocation of stream water to meet a public trust.  Included in that deliberation is the examination of the beneficial uses for the water.  I believe because of its importance, water for agricultural operations should be given the same level of protection as that given to domestic consumption, the protection of traditional and customary Hawaiian rights, and the protection of fish and wildlife to achieve a proper ecological balance.

“Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,” Or so President Barack Obama promised to the American people in his health care address before a Joint Session of Congress on September 9th. But then why did the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops send a letter to Congress on October 8th writing: “No one should be required to pay for or participate in abortion. … No current bill meets this test”?  Who is telling the truth?

Written by P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, the investigation is based largely on the undercover work of Gaubatz's son Chris who spent six months as an intern at CAIR's D.C. headquarters in 2008. In that capacity, he acquired 12,000 pages of documentation and took 300 hours of video.

The scariest part about yesterday’s Senate Finance Committee vote passing its version of Obamacare, is not what is in their bill (to the extent that it even exists), but that the Finance Committee bill promises to be the high water mark for “bipartisanship” in health care reform.

Now all of the other bills will be merged together behind the closed doors. All the bills are fundamentally flawed and will only get worse as the leaders in the House and Senate have to commit to actual details.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, TIKRIT, Iraq - Nearly 1,000 Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division Headquarters will arrive in Hawaii from mid-October into early November after a year-long deployment to northern Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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.

the Hawai'i Republican Party is teaming up with the American Red Cross to raise money for relief efforts in American Samoa and the Philippines.  Please join us TOMORROW:

• When: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
• Where: Downtown Honolulu, intersection of King St. and Bishop St.
• Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm

One can think of American Samoa's economy as a three-legged stool, with one leg being the tuna industry, one leg being the local government (which actually employs slightly more workers than the tuna industry) and the third leg being the anemic remainder of the private sector. The remainder of the private sector is supported primarily--directly or indirectly--by purchases from the tuna industry and from local government. The government is supported primarily by revenues generated by the tuna industry; it is also supported somewhat by revenues generated by the rest of the private sector, which in turn is heavily dependent upon the tuna industry.

If you remove the tuna industry leg, the stool comes tumbling down, like a piece of debris tossed about by this week's tsunami. American Samoa is already poorer than any state in America and any other territory. It is about to get poorer still.

Another month, another 263,000 jobs lost under the Obama administration. According to Bureau of Labor and Statistics data released this morning, the United States economy has lost 3.6 million net jobs since President Barack Obama was sworn into office and the unemployment rate has risen from 7.6 % to 9.8%. It was not supposed to be this way. The experts in the Obama administration promised the American people that the President’s $787 billion stimulus package would create 4 million jobs by the end of 2010.

Last week, upon arriving in Copenhagen for his failed mission to secure the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago, President Barack Obama met face-to-face with U.S. and NATO Forces Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal on Air Force One. The meeting was just the second conversation between the two since Gen. McChrystal assumed command of what President Obama used to call the “central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism.” Just days before, while responding to questions about his recommendation for 40,000 more troops, Gen. McChrystal told the International Institute for Strategic Studies, “Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, nor will public support.”

Through a price guarantee, or feed-in tariff, for electricity produced by sun, wind, and hydroelectric sources, Hawaiian Electric Companies will now pay a set rate for renewable energy fed into the grid. This incentive will draw additional investment into Hawai‘i’s renewable energy developments and signify to the rest of the nation and global community that Hawai'i is a model for clean energy initiatives.

While having no qualms with voting to take money from taxpayers in one of the worst recessions in history, Colleen Hanabusa somehow feels entitled to give herself and fellow legislators a pay raise.

Baisa's motion is not mere symbolism.  Section Nine of the proposed ordinance reads:

"The transition of the County of Maui from the jurisdiction of the United States to the reinstated Kingdom of Hawaii will occur over a term of four years, having commenced on February 1, 2009.  All county officials and employees shall retain their positions during this transition period."

"I welcome Colleen Hanabusa to the race.  Like Ed Case, Colleen has run for the 2nd Congressional District multiple times before and I respect that she will be an experienced candidate for this race in the 1st District. If Colleen wins her contested nomination, I look forward to debating her on the issues," stated Djou.

If you or others you know are interested in running as Republicans, please email us at youlikerun@gophawaii.com.

Multiple sources on the Hill have told The Foundry that as early as next week, the Senate could be debating Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Reid has stated an intention to take the HELP Committee product and merge it with the Senate Finance Committee markup that is expected to be over by this Thursday or Friday. Their plan is to proceed to a House passed non-health care bill to provide a shell of legislation to give Obamacare a ride to the House and then straight to the President’s desk.

Hodges is asking the state and the unions to waive contract terms and regulations that may prohibit furloughed teachers from returning to work under private contract and to streamline approval processes so community volunteers can be mobilized quickly and effectively.

The discrepancies were due to errors in the recording of tax revenues collected in FY08 and FY09.  In FY09, $44 million was collected by the Department of Taxation as part of its Delinquent Tax Program.  This amount was incorrectly recorded when the Department of Accounting and General Services prepared its FAMIS reports.  A similar recording error of $800,000 also occurred for FY08.