“Rep. Paul has strayed to the left of Obama and allied himself with the radical anti-war left by laying the blame on America for the unprovoked attacks of Sept. 11th. Additionally, Rep. Paul has not condemned the 9/11 "Truther" conspiracy theorists that support him, and he has repeatedly insisted, that the United States not bring justice to those who have murdered thousands of our civilians and soldiers at home and abroad...."

How long have I been telling you that the revenues to pay for government are inadequate to pay the cost of government?

It has been at least ten years. Ten years, I think. In that time, the economy has gone down, up, and down—but each down has been deeper and has taken a toll, and each up has not been enough to restore funding levels…as a result government has suffered… It is now a Potemkin Village — a shabby Potemkin Village.

The Senate Committee on Health on Monday voted to remove the non-alcoholic beverage tax from legislation that they voted on.  This is an initial victory for families and consumers across Hawaii!  However, the same committee will be debating a similar beverage tax proposal on Wednesday, February 16 at 2:45 p.m.

... since 2001 federal education spending has already increased by 100 percent. And going back to 1970, it has almost tripled. And what have been the results of this federal “investment” in our future?

The arguments surrounding this emotionally charged issue are varied and complex. Cutting through the rhetoric and euphemisms brings clarity to this issue both from an ethical and moral perspective. It is with this in mind that Hawaii Right to Life has partnered with KALO-TV, channel 38 (cable 25) to broadcast Death as a Salesman: what's wrong with assisted suicide ...

• House: Patriot Act Extensions
• House: United Nations Tax Equalization Refund Act

• Representative Barbara Marumoto addresses concerns on HB1225, which would allow bingo. 
• Rep. Gene Ward addresses Civil Unions on Chamber Floor
• Reps. Riviere and Ward on Tax Credits HB566

Add it all together, and this budget is a ten-year, $1.5 trillion tax hike over present law. 

Rather than continue a cycle of dependence with streams of anonymous government checks, policymakers can take steps to remove disincentives to marriage and demonstrate how healthy marital relationships can lead to self-sufficiency.

"As soon as the governor signs the final bill, Hawaii should move swiftly to finish the job by ending exclusion from marriage itself..." --Evan Wolfson, co-counsel in 1993 gay marriage case, Baehr v. Miike

Just two months into his term, Neil Abercrombie has led Hawaii politics into chaos.  From the White House to Honolulu Hale, progressive Democrats are duking it out with the old boys. 

 "A study of 11 other state education lotteries showed that states are likely to decrease their growth of spending for education upon operating a lottery designated for that purpose."

"This decrease occurs regardless of the revenue generated by the lottery," Sanders added. "Meanwhile, states without lotteries maintained and increased their education spending more than states with lotteries."

"I'll tell you this: We vetted him as carefully as anybody could be vetted and looked into his background, his family, his relationships," said John Radcliffe, a lobbyist who was part of the transition team that reviewed Abercrombie's Cabinet picks.

HB1627 which would create a State-run Indian Tribe will be heard by the House Judiciary Committee Thursday February 17, 2011.

During 2010 most Kona coffee went to Afghanistan , where it was very highly welcomed and appreciated.  Some also went to the P.I. and now here at the end of the year I am once again sending Kona coffee to the 25th Infantry Division folks who have recently deployed to Camp Liberty, Iraq.

Mayor Alan Arakawa will be attending and will make opening remarks, as well as speaking about his plans for West Maui....

Labor-Trafficking bill is SB960 with its identical House Companion HB577

Sex-Trafficking bill is SB959 with its identical House Companion HB576

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide a case about whether state laws which require elected officials to recuse themselves from considering matters on which they appear to have conflicts of interest, impermissibly infringe upon the officials' First Amendment rights.

"We already knew that bag taxes are an annoying levy that provide no environmental benefit; now we also know that they are an economically destructive job killer thanks to this new report. Unfortunately it is also D.C.'s poorest communities that are hit hardest by the bag tax," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Hundreds of community activists and aspiring political leaders across Oahu are preparing for Neighborhood Board Elections in April and May to fill 439 seats on 33 Neighborhood Boards.  February 18 is the last day to register to vote in the election and the last day for candidates to file nomination papers.  But NCO Executive Assistant Bryan Mick and the Neighborhood Commission (NCO) have a surprise in store.  On February 17, 2011 the Commission will be holding a “Special Meeting” to vote on a motion to cancel the election ....

  Legislators say this is illegal!

Multiple renewable energy projects are in rapid development on every island, and plans include $multi-billion inter-island undersea transmission cables.

But if this is all supposed to feel so good, how come our electricity costs are going up up up and it feels so bad?

The committee(s) on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs has rescheduled its public hearing to Saturday, 2-12-2011 at 10 a.m. in conference room 229.

• WHAT: Legislative Townhall Meeting 
• WHERE: Haha‘ione Elementary School Cafeteria
• WHEN: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  

Today, SB 232 HD1, Relating to Civil Unions, passed the House by a vote of 31-19 (with one excused - Rep. Cabanilla).   That means that the bill will now go back to the Senate for reconsideration.  It is expected that the Senate may accept the changes made by the House Judiciary.  If that happens, the bill could end up on Governor Abercrombie’s desk for signature as early as next week.  The Governor has publicly stated he would sign the bill.

AAP’s Freedom to Read director Judy Platt said: “The approach taken by this legislation would have a profound and unacceptable chilling effect not only on AAP members who publish travel guides, but on the robust free marketplace of ideas that the First Amendment is intended to protect. The courts have simply not allowed this to happen, and the Hawaii legislature needs to be reminded of that.”

The future role of the Muslim Brotherhood remains uncertain. The Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Sunni movement, seeks to spread Islamic law throughout the world. Its members have indicated a desire to revoke Egypt's peace treaty with Israel and increase support for Hamas and other terrorist groups.

The Senate Committee on Health heard testimony this week on a beverage tax and Senators heard loud and clear that beverage taxes are not popular.  This Monday, the Committee will vote on one beverage tax proposal. Then on Wednesday, they will hold a hearing on another proposal that would tax beverages.

the commission drew new maps that eliminated most of the canoe districts. The end result was that Hawaii had the largest population deviations in the country. The deviations hit 38.9 percent for the Senate....

If SB 232 SD1 HD1 (civil unions) passes the House, it will then go over to the Senate and they will have to agree to the changes. If they do not agree, the bill will go to a conference committee with members from both chambers so they can work out their differences. What you may not know, is only members who VOTED IN SUPPORT SB 232 can be appointed to the conference committee. In conference committee, no input from the public is accepted.

If the Senate agrees to the amendments, the bill could go straight to the Governor who has publicly stated he would sign the bill.

HONOLULU – The Regents Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) has presented a list of candidates to Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill four seats on the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents, including two City and County of Honolulu seats, a Hawai’i County seat and a Maui County seat.

According to Senate Bill 1425, relating to banning the acceptance of solid waste in landfills, no landfill in a county with a population greater than or less than 500,000 residents, will be allowed to accept deliveries of municipal solid waste - beginning  July 1, 2012, for Honolulu, and for the smaller counties, a date to be determined by their councils.

HB12, a bill introduced by State Representative Cynthia Thielen (R, 50^th District) which establishes monetary restitution to property owners who have been victimized by plant thefts, will be heard by the House Committee on Agriculture this Friday, Feb. 11, at 9 a.m. in Conference Room 312 at the State Capitol. 

The House Republican caucus has led the effort to keep invocations a part of the daily legislative sessions in the Hawai`i State House following the ending of the practice in the State Senate.

In November 2010, Hawai‘i voters approved a Constitutional Amendment that gives the Governor the authority to appoint members of the BOE. Governor Abercrombie is encouraged that the State Legislature has been moving expeditiously to establish the appointment process for BOE members. When that legislative process is complete, Governor Abercrombie intends to name Horner among his first appointments.

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote to block funding for President Barack Obama's signature healthcare overhaul when it takes up a budget plan next week, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Tuesday.

 First, it usurps rights that belong to parents, not the state. Parents get to choose what kind of toys their play with -- A. B, there's no evidence at all that the sale or use of toy guns by children leads to gun violence in later life. There's no study that affirms this. There's no longitudinal effort to look into this at all. This is clearly legislators acting out of their own unproved neuroses.

Three, the law completely overreaches. The Hawaii statute specifically calls for jail time for people who violate it.

This session, 3 bills introduced by Republicans and Democrats, are seeking to not count blank votes, over votes or spoiled votes when it comes to the outcome of proposed amendments to the Hawaii constitution.

The civil unions bill (SB 232) was passed in the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 11 (yes) to 2 (no) while 3 were excused.

In the early stages of any campaign to reach straight America, the masses should not be shocked and repelled by premature exposure to homosexual behavior itself. Instead, the imagery of sex should be downplayed and gay rights should be reduced to an abstract social question as much as possible. First let the camel get his nose inside the tent--only later his unsightly derriere!

Honolulu – Governor Neil Abercrombie today announced appointments for the following positions:  Chief Negotiator, Department of Human Resources Development (DHRD) Deputy Director, and Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control.

Pro-gay-marriage Senator Gary Hooser (D-Kauai), speaking on the Senate floor March 25, 2009 said:

“…it may very well be likely that this law would be challenged in court….”

Hooser invites readers to look at his campaign website www.GaryHooser.com. Listed on the right column of his site are links to other websites described as “Senator Gary Hooser’s Regular Reading Regime.” The 25 links include the Kailua, O`ahu-based anti-Semitic 9-11 conspiracy website www.WhatReallyHappened.com (WRH).

At WRH “Regular Readers” like Hooser may peruse an article from a Holocaust denier publication asserting: “(only) two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none in gas chambers.” Another WRH article touts a 1928 communist scheme to send Russian Jews to Siberia. There are literally hundreds of such articles interspersed between a selection of articles about Jewish child molesters, Jewish swindlers, and any other—mostly Jewish or “Israeli”--wrongdoing.

• Bills to Decongest Traffic
• Bills to Cut Taxes & Make Government More Responsive to the People
• Bills to Solve Problems within Homeowner Associations
• Bills to Stop Elder Abuse
• Bills to Solve Problems for Our Schools

House Judiciary Committee Feb 1 acted on over a dozen election-related bills....