"Production drives the economy, not spending."

Rick Perry has tumbled by more than 20 percentage points over the past month among Republican presidential primary voters and is now second to Herman Cain, who leads the field with 28%.

His plan is to have the city's Committee on Transportation pass Resolution 11-249 this Thursday that would urge the Hawaii State Legislature to allow the City and County of Honolulu to raise the General Excise Tax a half percent to fund road and bike lanes.

"I hope everybody can come together and move forward to win elections," said Dylan Nonaka, the former GOP executive director under Kaauwai. "We've got a lot of big opportunities next year, and it's time to move on and focus."

Yesterday, with Reid on the brink of forcing a government shutdown, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced things aren’t so dire. The agency has $114 million on hand for the remainder of the week, enough to get through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

• Senate: Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011
• House: Short-Term Continuing Appropriations
• House: Cumulative Regulatory Analysis

My very best goes out to 1st Vice Chair Beth Fukumoto, who by Party Rules will be the Interim State Chair. As a candidate in 2010, Beth understands the importance of a grassroots-focused party for all candidates. My hope is that everyone will offer their support, guidance and assistance as this transition takes place.

EUTF Board Member Dean Hirata Quietly Slipped Away from his Appointed Position as Deputy Director of Budget and Finance on July 30th. 

In an "urgent" call to action distributed as a bulletin insert at Catholic churches across the country on Sunday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that a new federal regulation proposed under President Barack Obama's health-care law "poses an unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom."

...on Friday, Obama doubled down, and did so by circumventing Congress and rewriting the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law unilaterally in the White House.

...federal and state tax credits behind Hawaii’s wind and solar development bubble are pushing even more money out of the pockets of Hawaii ratepayers and taxpayers and into the coffers of mainland hedge funds, banks, insurance companies, utilities, and even tobacco companies....

Initially set at a rate of 1.5%, it rose to a rate of 2% during the war years, and then just prior to statehood in 1959 to a retail rate of 3.5%. ...the retail rate was increased in 4% in 1965....

Both sides need to focus on the elections, not on their own factional interests....

(The UN) doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament. 

How many professional protesters will be flown in by the well-heeled socialists who fund this circus?

Perhaps this would be a good time for airlines to adopt strict body odor rules on Hawaii-bound flights.

This week there was discussion in the media concerning the Governor's use of emergency powers....

After blowing their first attempt to interfere in the Republican Senate primary, Hawaii Democrats are trying again.

Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April.

Disney must now submit updated consumer-disclosure materials to regulators and other states. The company will begin with Florida, California, New York and Illinois, its most-important sales markets....

“The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” – Barack Obama