Dash of Calabash

In a recent issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin were two letters to the editor which caught my eye. In the first, Robin Uyeshiro bemoaned the drug testing for teachers while noting that other important groups are not tested. The second, by attorney William Fenton Sink, discussed the generally low quality of legislators.
Both make good points. Why don’t we put them together and see what results? Obviously, all legislators should be frequently drug-tested and results made public. To do otherwise is to say their duties are less important than teachers, they are self-serving to exclusion of all else, or they are too dumb to get the connection. Perhaps all are true for many of them. We should demand better and replace most as soon as possible.

Dick Rowland is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. 

REQUEST TO THE IPCC
Syun Akasofu [sakasofu@iarc.uaf.edu] International Arctic Research Center University of Alaska Fairbanks

We encounter scientific terms, such as climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect, and carbon dioxide a few times every day in newspapers, radio broadcasts, TV news, as well as in conversations among people. It must be the first time in the history of science that a specific scientific field has gotten so much attention from the public. As a scientist, I am pleased about the public’s interest in science. Unfortunately, however, I am afraid that this great interest by the public in climatology is largely the result of a proliferating number of confusing stories in the media that are based on misinterpreted information about the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.
If the IPCC wants to represent this particular scientific field to the world, they are responsible for rectifying the great confusion and misinterpretation of scientific facts in the mind of the public.

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On November 14, Liberty Services, an Evansville, Indiana firm was victimized by a break-in. According to founder Bernard von NotHaus, the gang took everything but desks and chairs.

No ordinary burglars did this. It was government agents. Targeting a firm that dared to provide an inflation-proof safeguard against government money. Liberty’s latest offering was a Ron Paul silver dollar.

According to a leaked affidavit, Liberty Services is being investigated for “uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal,” or “making or possessing likeness of coins.” Mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy are the types of charges being bandied about. The affidavit says the company’s goal is to “undermine the United States government’s financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code.”

Sounds like thought-crime.

Liberty Services has been in business for years. The first Liberty Dollars were sold in 1998. NotHaus has sought to ensure that his company complies with relevant law. Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the Fed, has told the firm that “no law . . . says goods and services must be paid for with Federal Reserve notes. Parties entering into a transaction can establish any medium of exchange that is agreed upon.”

So why the raid now? What real crime has Liberty Services committed? Aside from inflation-proofing their clients? Maybe in court the government will have to say.

Meanwhile, Mr. NotHaus could use some help. To learn more, visit libertydollar.org.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Below are six actions our elected officials can take to make the coming years good ones for the residents of Hawaii:

1. Stop government overspending. If we cannot pay our bills, our kids and grandkids will. Wise individuals don’t overspend on an annual basis, because consequences are personal. We need to find a way to make overspending a personal issue for our elected officials.

2. Sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. This will force them to look at spending cuts when money gets scarce.

3. Usually I try to avoid new laws as they tend to backfire, but I like this one: “All lawmakers must sign a notarized pledge that they have read a proposed bill before they will be allowed to vote for or against it.” Just to add some accountability, the penalty for violation will be expulsion from the office held and a $10,000 fine or a year in jail, as the offender chooses.

4. Pass another law. (I’m on a roll.): “Effective immediately, there will be no new government retirement plans for any elected official in Hawaii.” Elected office was never intended to be a career. All current retirement plans will be frozen with no more funding. Period.

5. Starting 1/1/08, elected officials must start taking their oath of office seriously. That means that each of them must seriously ponder whether they have constitutional authority to vote to pass a law. Wow! Is that revolutionary or what?

6. Every official would sign a pledge affirming that every citizen will be treated equally under the law, no matter their ancestry, national origin, sex or religion, wealth, etc. There would be a penalty for violating this pledge, such as ten years in prison.

Now for my promise. If all the above is done and enforced, I will retire and start a career of enjoyable watching. Somehow I find myself doubtful of that retirement. Am I a pessimist, merely cynical – or a realist?

Dick Rowland is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.

Congress Seeks Praise from Environmental Activists for Pushing Bill With Little Chance of Becoming Law

DALLAS (December 4, 2007) - The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday is expected to debate amendments to a bill proposed by Sens. Lieberman (I-CT) and Warner (R-VA) that would create a “cap and trade” system designed to cut total U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet an expert with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) says the cap and trade system would slow economic growth with little if any environmental improvement to show for it.

“Back in 1997 the Senate took the sensible position that the U.S. should not adopt any climate treaty that would either harm the economy or that didn’t include meaningful participation by major developing countries,” said H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow at the NCPA. “Now, with an election year fast approaching, many of the same Senators are rushing to adopt a unilateral bill that violates both of those principles. The good news is this proposal has little chance of becoming law.”

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The animal “rights” activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are none too happy about the Center for Consumer Freedom’s PETAKillsAnimals.com. Thanks to us, millions of people have seen firsthand the irrefutable evidence that PETA, which publicly proclaims that bunnies and babies are morally equal, kills animals by the thousands. (Don’t believe us? Click here for the proof.)

Our damning documents come courtesy of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which requires “humane societies” to annually report their euthanasia rates. PETA filed the required “Animal Record” reports from 1998 to 2005.

These records show that during those years, PETA killed over 14,400 dogs, cats, and other shelter pets at its Norfolk headquarters. (Still don’t believe us? We’ve still got the proof.)

PETA is no longer complying with VDACS’ legal reporting requirement. Online records show PETA has only filed 2006 information on collected wildlife, not shelter animals. But even the incomplete figures are true to form: PETA employees killed 248 out of 249.

If they’re willing to admit to that, imagine what they’ve decided to keep secret.

The public has the right to know how many “companion animals” met their demise on the business end of a PETA syringe last year.
We won’t stop digging until we have answers.

Click here for the full story.

In case you missed it, our good friend Grover Norquist was one of the few non-Democrat “plants” who got to ask a question in the November 28th CNN/Youtube Republican debate. HERE is the link to the clip from the debate of Grover’s question and the candidates’ answers.

Additionally, HERE is a link to Grover’s response to the candidates’ answers to his question

Thousands of pork-filled giveaways have been stuffed into a bloated, end-of-the-year spending bill working its way through Congress this week.Practicing a dead-of-night thievery long associated with big budget bills, the Democratic House leadership released this 1,482-page monstrosity in the wee hours of Monday morning and quickly scheduled floor debate by 6 p.m. that same day. That left budget cutters scant time to uncover how much fiscal skullduggery their colleagues had perpetrated.

The so-called catchall, omnibus appropriations bill, tipping the scales at $516 billion, contained 9,170 parochial spending projects, according to Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who has become the GOP’s chief waste fighter on Capitol Hill.

Read the rest of Donald Lambro’s article on Townhall.com

Excerpt from The Pew Charitable Trusts report press release on funding government retiree benefits. Read the whole press release here. It’s a good summary.

Pensions

Nationally, state pension plans are in reasonably good shape. At the end of fiscal year (FY) 2006, states had set aside over $1.99 trillion of the $2.35 trillion they had made in pension promises—leaving about $361 billion unfunded.

But the good news nationally masks important variations across the states:

• Over the past decade, only a third of the states have consistently set aside the amount their own actuaries said was necessary to cover the cost of promised benefits over the long term.
• Twenty states had funding levels of less than 80 percent at the end of FY 2006—below what most experts consider healthy.
• Several states have seen particularly troubling drops in their pension funding levels. Some of the biggest drops have occurred in Hawaii, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington.

View the whole 73-page report here. View the Hawaii fact sheet here. Read the Honolulu Advertiser article that finds the report says “Hawaii’s $6.8 billion long-term bill for government retiree healthcare is the second-worst among states when viewed on a per-capita basis.”

Gary Rodrigues and his daughter, Robin Rodrigues Sabatini, don’t know the meaning of the word “quit.” In their case, that’s not such an admirable trait. Back in 2002, the two were convicted in federal court on nearly 200 charges of criminal misconduct, including embezzlement, mail fraud and money-laundering, in connection with the disappearance of nearly $380,000 from the United Public Workers (UPW). Rodrigues, 65, had been state director of the Honolulu-based union, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Sabatini was a union contractor. This past June, a federal appeals court in Hawaii affirmed the decision and prison sentences. But the pair is pulling out all the stops to avoid their fate. Now the court is signaling that its patience is limited.

On October 31, U.S. Circuit Court Judge David A. Ezra gave the convicted pair until January 7 to begin serving their sentences, rejecting arguments by Rodrigues’ lawyers to reduce his sentence from 60 months to 33 months (the daughter got 46 months). The evidence, argued Judge Ezra, “was overwhelming and sufficient to find beyond a reasonable doubt that (Rodrigues) engaged in abusing a position of public trust, obstructed justice and laundered…money.” Federal prosecutors had argued that Mr. Rodrigues’ behavior had taken place “over a long period of time,” was “carefully crafted to avoid getting caught” and “lined the pockets” of him and his daughter. The complaints pertained to payments made since 1992 from the union to Sabatini’s two companies for nonexistent work, and Rodrigues’ acceptance of kickbacks in connection with an ERISA-covered union benefit plan. (more…)