Washington, DC — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) gave the following speech today from the floor of the U.S. House, advocating for a stronger and deeper relationship with the Republic of Korea...

Sen. John Cornyn,R-Texas – who co-sponsored MOVE – wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on July 26 saying he is concerned that the Department of Justice is allowing states to opt out of the new law. ...

"... according to recent information, the Department of Justice has expressed reluctance to protect the civil rights of military voters under the new law. All our men and women in uniform deserve a chance to vote this November, and the Obama administration bears responsibility for ensuring that they have it.

The Congressional Budget Office employs talented economists whose job it is to study every aspect of every bill and predict how much each will cost – or how much each will save – years into the future.

They are good, but they are not infallible soothsayers. Economic predictions that are off just a little in a year can become wildly inaccurate over the course of decades.... 

When costs are higher than or savings lower than predicted, the Truth in Spending Act creates a fast-track process to reduce excess costs through legislation.

HONOLULU - Lt. Governor Duke Aiona today issued the following statement regarding Mufi Hannemann's recent comments that his "opponents haven't spent one day in the private sector."

"Mufi Hannemann's comments are incorrect, and the record must be made clear on this matter. 

"I have not only worked in the private sector, but I have also owned my own business. ..."

“Hawai‘i’s Race to the Top application represents a collaborative effort among our Administration, the Hawai‘i Department of Education, non-profit organizations, legislators and community leaders."

“To stimulate the economy and help small businesses, I am proud to join my colleagues in co-sponsoring the Small Business Assistance and Relief Act. Whoever is in the majority—whether Democrats or Republicans—we need fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C. and tax relief for every working family and small business to get our economy moving again.”

H.R. 5554, the Small Business Assistance and Relief Act, will help small businesses thrive by providing tax relief, reducing regulatory burden and boosting lending in the currently tight credit environment.

“After supporting a Democrat agenda that has buried Hawaii taxpayers under a mountain of reckless government spending and record-high debt, it looks like Colleen Hanabusa could once again support a job killing tax hike that would devastate the economy even further,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Small businesses are looking for some much-needed relief, but all they’re getting from Washington is the uncertainty that comes from the Democrats’ harmful agenda. If Hanabusa can’t finally stand up against the Democrats’ tax-hiking agenda, it will prove once and for all that her loyalties do not lie with Hawaii businesses and families.”

Based on Admission Act, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision announced yesterday upholds the State’s right to create OHA.  The use of the Admission Act to support this decision undermines the argument that an Indian tribe must be created to protect Hawaiian programs against discrimination complaints.  In this regard it is similar to the US Supreme Court decision in the Ceded Lands case.

Thursday July 29 and Friday July 30 -- four events on three islands.

“Raising $3.8 trillion in new taxes at any time is a bad idea. Raising these taxes in the middle of an economic downturn is a terrible idea. The current majority in Congress has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to try and turn around the economy with the so-called ‘stimulus’ package. It has utterly failed.”

During the most recent legislative session, the Republicans in the State Legislature introduced bills calling for a periodic comprehensive review of the DOE. Despite the groundswell of support from parents, students, and teachers for the Republican bills, the Democrat Majority in the Legislature allowed these bills to expire in committee without any explanation. What are they afraid an independent auditor will find? As Lieutenant Governor I will support Duke Aiona's goal for an independent audit of the DOE. An independent audit has not been conducted since 1973. The audit must be comprehensive, and include examining financial and management practices, and personnel administration. I will fight to make sure the audit is released to the public.

In 2009 the US House Energy and Commerce Committee nailed Sandwich Isles as one of the nation’s “10 worst abusers” of Universal Service Fund (USF) tax dollars—which every telephone customer pays with their monthly phone bill.

SIC’s cables run to Hawaiian Homelands properties-most of which are unoccupied and are not going to be occupied anytime soon.  The cost per actual user of broadband services is estimated at $278,000 per customer.

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle today appointed Caroline S. Wong to the Board of Education to fill the seat vacated by Breene Harimoto, who resigned last month.  Wong will serve on a temporary basis until a new member is elected in the November General Election to serve out the remaining two years of Harimoto’s term.  Her appointment takes effect immediately.

The legislation penalizes entities that assist Iran in importing refined petroleum or in maintaining or expanding Iran’s domestic refining capacity. These sanctions penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, aid Iran’s nuclear program or support Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism. I was proud to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in supporting these sanctions.  

The bill that I co-sponsored has now become law, signed by the President on July 1, 2010.  

The DoE is paying millions of dollars to contractors for software when equal or superior alternatives are available elsewhere at lower cost--often free of charge. This wasteful spending is the direct result of the cozy, revolving door relationship between the contractors and the DoE officials who direct business their way.

We've done an informal survey of the 2010 output of the ICA (and the Supreme Court in reviewing the ICA's work) to pick out those cases in which Judge Leonard authored the opinion, or served on the panel in an interesting case. We tried to focus on published opinions, but there were several unpublished opinions which also caught our attention. Here are the results, in reverse chronological order:

The SPEECH Act will guard American authors and publishers from frivolous foreign libel suits, filed in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections....

Each legislator has been scored based on his or her performance in the 2010 legislative session. Scores indicate the percentage of votes in which legislators voted in favor of limited government and greater individual liberty. While a few legislators seized the shortfall as an opportunity to make tough spending decisions, the vast majority voted to continue for the status quo-excessive spending and even higher taxes for the people of Hawaii.

Hawaii’s natural advantages continue to mask its political failings.

Setting snark aside, there is a real issue here: Is it appropriate for a state to require parents to declare their races so they can be stamped on to their children’s birth certificates, where they will remain in perpetuity? As of 1993, only five states had such policies in place. Now, over 15 years later, we have a multiracial president in the White House. Is it still necessary to insist upon racial identification on birth certificates — or is it time to discard such policies as outdated and counterproductive?

What valid purposes are served by such policies? Don’t they just exacerbate the problem of excessive race-consciousness in this country? To quote the wise words of Chief Justice John Roberts, “[t]he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” And the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop knowing or caring what race a person is. [FN1]

Ms. Leonard, who turns 51 next month, joined the Intermediate Court of Appeals after Governor Lingle nominated her in November 2007 to fill a vacancy created by the death of Associate Judge John Lim.  She was confirmed unanimously (23-0) by the Senate and took her seat in January 2008.

The FTA has said that the City’s current financial plan is insufficiently robust to warrant entry into the next stage, Final Design. The Governor has said that she needs to see a plan that is robust enough to warrant entry before she will “accept” the Final EIS.

Mufi can continue this standoff by not having the City produce a new financial plan; Caldwell will do what he is told. Mufi can then continue to blame the Governor for holding up the project while deflecting blame from himself.

This case did not garner the broad public interest of the Superferry litigation, but the case could be more important. The core issue in the case was whether Hawaii's statewide zoning laws are "laws relating to environmental quality" which may be privately enforced, or whether they are classic Euclidean zoning laws which can't.

Bob Jones: Absent evidence otherwise, we have to take his word. It’s just hard for us skeptically-inclined old-timers in journalism to accept that a man with a City job and a history of doing “opposition research” didn’t even ask some high Hannemann campaign official if it was okay to portray Abercrombie as a brain in a glass jar controlled by former Gov. Ben Cayetano, as a “flailing gasbag” and his wife, the scholar Nancie Caraway, as “a witch.”

…And it’s just going to get nastier at least until the primary, perhaps beyond.

VIDEO of Djou interviewed on Fox News...

“With the economy reeling from an unprecedented national debt and an unsustainable addiction to expanding the size and spending of government, and with traditional values mocked and marginalized by an unaccountable, out-of-control Congress, we must bring sanity back to Washington, D.C.  More than any other Beltway politician, Daniel Inouye personifies the Pelosi-Reid Congress’s big spending, anti-family agenda. If we are to repair our economy and restore our nation, the reign of Daniel Inouye must end.”

Hanabusa said that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's preference for former Rep. Ed Case (D) in the special election was based on "bum information" in an interview with the Fix Monday. "I'm president of the Senate. I'm not a neophyte when it comes to understanding political alignments and misalignments," she added.  (Is that why she "aligned" with Mehau against Bronster?)

The Aloha State may be renowned as one of the most beautiful states in the Union, but that beauty comes at significant cost: the average Hawaiian paid out $1,010 in state taxes in the first quarter of the year, the highest of any state. The two biggest components to the state's revenues were income and excise taxes. 

The four politicians running for this office all have clearly represented their support of the status quo with even prosecutor/politician Peter Carlisle pledging to have rail all over the island and through the Koolaus. Is Peter's 30 Billion Dollar Rail Plan prudent fiscal policy for our Oahu?

I am the only candidate who is an engineer, not a politician, and I will stop the rail project, repeal its tax, and work with everyone who wants to make Honolulu the great city we all know it deserves to be.

Here are some questions for Abercrombie and Caraway:

At first blush, Hawaii’s First Congressional District doesn’t look like a potential Blue to Red conversion target. Obama did carry HI01 by a lopsided 70-28 percent spread, but that margin seems to be grossly distorted in favor of Honolulu’s Favorite Son. President Obama was born and spent some of his schoolboy years in this very district. 

Djou’s Honolulu-based district is historically Democratic, but it is not utterly inhospitable to Republican candidates. As the Washington Examiner’s senior Political Analyst Michael Barone mentions in his Almanac of American Politics, HI01 is home to “many military families in modest neighborhoods who may vote for Democrats but can be attracted to Republicans.”  

HONOLULU— Hawaii Republicans are celebrating candidate filing deadline this year with a bang. Hawaii Republican candidates are contesting nearly every seat in the State House and Senate.

“Mr. Speaker, the American people expect Congress to act responsibly and to be trustworthy. But how can this happen when this Congress has no plan?

“No plan for a budget. No plan to create jobs. No plan to turn around our economy other than to spend, spend, and spend some more of the people’s money.

“We spent more than a trillion dollars to ‘create jobs,’ but as of yet our unemployment rate still languishes at over 9.5%. Our nation is plagued with debt and not creating a budget further amplifies the problem."

...the recommendations center on creating a National Ocean Council to coordinate regulation of oceans and the Great Lakes, and on a principle of "ecosystem-based management" for marine areas….

The first draft of the policy, released in September, drew heavy criticism from some quarters, including industry and recreational anglers concerned that sport fishing might be restricted or banned.

Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust....  Today's ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters -- speaking the "in" language -- serves as a badge of identity. ... America's ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government.

Despite having served for less than two months, Hawaii Congressman Charles K. Djou is influencing national policy in Washington.  He has rapidly become one of the most active and outspoken representatives in the U.S. today.

Neil Abercrombie’s campaign is responding to reports that Abercrombie has been a secret member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The company said it expected to settle the civil damages case for $137.5 million. That is in addition to $80 million WellCare agreed to pay in May 2009 to defer criminal prosecution on a felony charge of fraud....

“After more than 10 days of political maneuvering, Hannemann must have reviewed his polls and discovered that taking a clear stance on HB444 was politically beneficial. 

"Is this the kind of pono leadership Hannemann promises in his latest television ad?  Hawaii deserves a principled Governor who is not afraid to make decisions and take positions on controversial issues.”

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) pulls the trigger and moves to proceed to the bill, Senator Murkowski may be the 60th vote to join liberal Democrats to break a filibuster....

 A source that closely follows progress of the Native Hawaiian bill tells Red State Insider that “despite the recent spinning and posturing in the press, the likelihood of the (Native Hawaiian Bill) passing in the Senate this year is nil … unless .. a few votes can be wrangled from the Republican side to break any Republican (threat of a filibuster) and stop time-consuming amendments.”  The Senator who is tasked to round up votes is Murkowski, and sources tell me that she has been specifically tasked with rounding up the votes of the other three Republican women Senators. 

 Brian Schatz at 2006 Akaka campaign rally in Larry Mehau’s barn.

Thursday’s editorial in the Washington Post: “Wrong way in Thailand” highlights an issue of personal significance to Congressman Djou. He is the first Member of Congress of Thai descent and still has family living in Bangkok. 

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has appointed former Maui Public Works Director Charles Jencks to serve as an interim commissioner on the state Land Use Commission (LUC).  Jencks will replace Ransom “Randy” Piltz, who resigned on July 2 to run for Maui County Mayor.  Jencks will complete Piltz’s remaining term, which runs through June 30, 2011.

Washington, DC — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) appeared on the CNBC program “Worldwide Exchange” to discuss, among other things, the flawed financial regulatory reform bill that passed the U.S. Congress, the ballooning national deficit and debt, and Congress’ failure to pass a budget.

“This is an important bill that has stalled in Congress for far too long. This legislation will re-authorize Title VIII of the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA), which has been waiting for reauthorization since 2005. This legislation will expand opportunities for Native Hawaiians, particularly those of limited means, to access affordable housing. This is a good idea and will benefit not just Native Hawaiians, but to Hawaii as a whole.  I look forward to working with my colleagues in both parties to ensure that this legislation becomes law.”

“The sewer fix and the EPA consent decree (these are two different things) are likely to cost about $4.5 billion.  Add $5.5 Billion for the rail and Oahu taxpayers face a $10 Billion fiscal liability.  For a city with a typical capital improvement program (CIP) of no more than One Billion dollars per year this spells mismanagement.

“The rail project and the mismanagement of sewer and water mains leaves Honolulu with record tax increases, chronic homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, and some of the worst roads in the country. 

“And let's not forget corruption....

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the so-called “stimulus,” was enacted in February of 2009 when the national unemployment rate was 8.2% and Hawaii’s unemployment rate was 6.3%. Today, unemployment is at 9.5% nationally and remains at 6.3% in Hawaii.

Congressman Charles K. Djou is entering the general election with a strong showing of support from 4,137 individual donors for the quarter that ended June 30, 2010. The Djou campaign raised $935,435 in the second quarter, receiving nearly $200,000 of that in the five weeks after his special election victory.  Djou has entered the third quarter with $379,046 on hand.