While there are now clearer signs of an imminent recovery, risks abound, including possible additional fallout from state and local government fiscal crises and a possible stall in the global upturn. The beginning of local recovery will not quickly yield tangible benefits for many local households. Jobs will still be hard to find for several years, social welfare needs will abate only slowly, and income losses for public and private sector workers will persist for some time.

With President Bush no longer wielding a veto and a Hawaiian in the White House, Democrats would need to stumble badly to botch the passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act. Fortunately for conservatives, that's exactly what's happening.

Throughout the conference, one of the biggest obstacles to an agreement was the insistence of developing nations that rich countries sign a binding treaty that included a large transfer of wealth to the developing world. If there were any doubts that wealth distribution was at the heart of climate cap-and-trade agreements, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chavez put them to rest when he delivered his anti-capitalist diatribe that drew thunderous applause from the convention’s delegates Wednesday....

Like the failed House amendments, the new version of S1011 creates a previously unknown category of "Qualified Native Hawaiian Constituents" which will exclude tens of thousands of Native Hawaiians from membership in the Akaka Tribe while at the same time opening the doors to people who are not ethnically Hawaiian.  It is likely that the vast majority of Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii will be excluded from becoming the Akaka Tribe under the rules laid down in Section 12 of the S1011.

This 10 minute video lays out the primary themes of Duke Aiona's campaign for Governor. See it here...

Will Dan Akaka introduce the existing version of S1011 or will he introduce a new version of S1011 modeled on the version of HR2314 which blew up in Neil Abercrombie's face yesterday?    

Explaining why he would vote against the Senate version of Obamacare if he were a Senator, former-Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told MSNBC last night: “You’re going to be forced to buy health insurance from a company that is going to take on average of 27% of your money … and there is no choice about that. If you don’t buy that insurance you are going to get a fine.” For this heresy, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Dean was irrational....

HSTA has side-stepped the primary issue by proposing to reopen portions of the original contract unrelated to the furlough issue and is seeking changes that would compromise the safety of the children and limit their after-school programs.  The HSTA is now saying they do not want teachers to participate in campus and playground supervision responsibilities during lunch hours.  And they no longer want teachers to voluntarily participate in school-related activities after the regular school day – such as glee club, debate team, robotics, or prom night.

This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. And, honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill and go back to the House … You have the vast majority of Americans want the choices, they want real choices. They don’t have them in this bill. This is not health care reform and it’s not close to health care reform.

At the outset of the hearing, Republicans expressed their fundamental constitutional concerns with this effort to create a separate governing entity for Native Hawaiians, and served full notice to Committee Democrats that we intended to use every House rule and parliamentary tool available to us to insist our concerns be heard.  Until Representative Abercrombie stated his intentions to not push forward the proposed changes, Republicans demonstrated their dedication to using all tools available to them.

Over the years, they’ve both traveled here to Washington, D.C. and testified to Congress in favor of the original text of the bill.  Now that the bill has been substantially rewritten behind closed doors, they’ve been compelled to send a five-page letter expressing opposition to the proposed changes the Committee is scheduled to consider today.  The Attorney General and Governor have only had the full text of the proposed changes for a matter of, literally, hours. Postponing until February 24^th will allow them time to fully review the changes and have their concerns understood and considered by this Committee.

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) denies there is an "Akaka Bill Sneak Attack".  He claims that the Akaka Bill process is "transparent."  Yet only now--as the US House Committee on Natural Resources is debating Abercrombie's proposed Akaka Bill rewrite--has a complete copy of Abercrombie's proposed rewrite been made available to the public.  Clcik here to read the full revised bill being proposed by Neil Abercrombie. 

The live webcasts will begin approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the hearing.  Hearing begins at 5AM HST (10AM EST) Weds December 16.

A new poll of registered Hawaii voters, conducted by Zogby International, has found that a majority of those surveyed oppose the Akaka Bill. The poll was conducted from November 18 to 23, 2009.  Zogby International surveyed more than 500 registered voters in Hawaii.

These changes, taken together, change the bill from one where the status quo and the relations between the United States, the State of Hawaii, and the Native Hawaiian governing entity can be changed only after negotiations and after passage of implementing legislation, to a model in which the status quo immediately changes, pursuant to an Indian law model.

For years (since 1999), Daniel Akaka has been trying to make the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act law. On Friday afternoon, the minority on the House Natural Resources Committee got word that there will be a mark-up on it on Wednesday. Apparently there's an agreement on the bill, but Republicans on the committee haven't seen it.  The Hill rumor is that Democrats plan to attach Akaka to the Department of Defense funding bill before this session ends — basically, sneaking it in at a busy, contentious time of year to avoid full debate.

Early last week, an agreement was reached with the Democrat Majority that Wednesday’s markup would consist of non-controversial bills that could be considered quickly.  Democrats issued notice on Friday that the Native Hawaiian bill would be added.  The Majority has had no communication with Republicans regarding this legislation since they canceled a markup on this bill without explanation in early July....

The magnitude of the changes being proposed deserve careful consideration and an opportunity for all those who may be impacted, especially the people and elected leaders of the State of Hawaii, to properly review the rewritten text.  The proposed changes have only been available to the Republican side of the Committee for a matter of days, and the State of Hawaii has had the full text of the proposed changes for only a matter of hours.

New York’s stubborn resistance to the data revolution not only harms the education our children receive; it leaves hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table during a massive budget crunch. The Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant competition will distribute $4.35 billion to states that pursue modern education reforms. According to the competition’s rules, however, any state with a law that prohibits the use of test-score data to evaluate teachers is immediately disqualified from consideration. A state’s application also becomes more attractive under the guidelines if its data set matches students to teachers. Currently, New York fails on both counts.

And so does Hawaii....

The climate treaty negotiations inside Copenhagen’s Bella Center at the United Nations Climate Change Conference ground to a halt yesterday when the G-77, the largest group of developing nations, walked out. These poorer nations demanded that richer nations sign a treaty that includes a large transfer of wealth to the developing world to compensate for the developed world’s historical contribution to global warming. The G-77 countries ended their walkout after less than two hours, perhaps because global warming has had no apparent impact on December Copenhagen temperatures.

Dozens of protesters gathered this morning on one day's notice in downtown Honolulu to denounce what they termed an "Akaka Bill Sneak Attack"--purported efforts to insert the Akaka Bill into unrelated "must pass" legislation.  In a statement released today Senator Dan Inouye (D-HI) denied the protesters specific claim that he had planned to attach the Akaka Bill to a Defense Appropriations measure and called the Akaka Bill process "fully transparent".