Free Republic

At least 28 Senate Democrats plan to spend hours Monday night and early Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor in a push for congressional action on climate change. It's a strategy that's been in the works for several months, organized by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who've been seeking to raise awareness about their concerns on and off the Senate floor. Adopting a strategy used in the past year by some Senate Republicans, the Democrats will begin speaking Monday night after a series of votes and continue until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to...

Imagine going online and, with a single click, printing out any physical object. With a miniature production plant in every home, there would be no need for retail stores, factories, shipping or the pollution associated with those activities. Large-scale automation of a huge segment of the workforce, combined with free worldwide-Internet, 3D printing and renewable off-grid energy will free humanity to achieve anything without worrying about basic material needs. FREE WIFI FOR ALL In the next few years, everyone on the planet with a wireless device will likely have access to high speed, uncensored Internet. A futuristic project spearheaded by...

The Los Angeles Times details how despite high hopes Obamacare deniers had for welfare-friendly Hawaii, thus far only 4,300 people have enrolled in Obama’s home state. That’s $27,906 per enrollee. Aloha! Which, fittingly, in can be translated in English to mean "hello" and "goodbye." And of course, 4,300 is not the number of insured people-- those who have paid for an Obamacare policy-- just the numbers of people who have completed applications. And I suspect I know what SEIU employees have been doing in their free time. Aaaand… So do you. I think the same people who filled out...

A member of Hawaii’s House of Representatives is criticizing an ambitious, federally funded sex education program currently in use in 12 of the state’s public schools. The pilot curriculum, called “Pono Choices,” targets 11- to 13-year-old students. (“Pono” is a Hawaiian word that basically means “good” or “moral.”) Its creators include the University of Hawaii and, of course, Planned Parenthood. Rep. Bob McDermott, a Hawaii Republican, claims that the curriculum is “not age appropriate and not consistent with state policy” for a slew of reasons, reports EAGnews.org. McDermott’s biggest complaint is that the curriculum is wrong on a pretty major...

Lawmakers in Utah and Colorado are promoting legislation to raise the legal age for tobacco use to 21, a higher standard than imposed by any other state, saying they want to discourage young people from picking up a lifelong smoking habit. Supporters say keeping tobacco out of the hands of young adults will save thousands of lives, even as critics complain that Americans who are old enough to vote and serve in the military should not be deemed too young to decide on their own if they should smoke. In a dramatic display of the risks of smoking, lawmakers in...

t's a racial rant that has been seen by more than a quarter of a million people. A 21-year old man, with a criminal past, was caught on cell phone video unleashing racial statements against a Kihei couple and their friends at Kalama Beach Park. According to the man who posted the video on YouTube, it was shocking. He only wants to be identified as ‘John Doe', but says he's the man in the video wearing the blue shirt with long sleeves. He says his group was eating on a picnic table when a man on another table threw an...

"Anybody you see around here dressed in a Tyvek suit will be someone from Greenpeace," David Stoltzfus joked as we surveyed the thousands of carefully numbered corn plants growing in the stony rust-colored soil of a former sugar cane plantation just a few miles inland from the spectacular Wailea Beach. Stoltzfus, who heads Monsanto's Piilani seed production farm on Maui, was referring to the white disposable coveralls that protesters wear for the TV cameras when "decontaminating" biotech crop fields. Hawaii is the epicenter of a furious campaign to shut down production farms that yield genetically modified seed. It was September,...

Drew Paahao, 21, and Koa Alii Keaulana, 30, were arrested for criminal property damage and criminal trespassing. Paahao is accused of kicking the glass door of the palace, causing irreparable damage. They have not been charged. Both suspects appeared in court today on another legal matter, pleaded no contest to unrelated petty misdemeanor charges and were released this afternoon. When asked why she did it, Paahao responded, “because that’s my house. Yeah, that’s my house.” Those were the same comments Paahao made when she was first arrested Saturday morning. The glass door Paahao is accused of breaking is an original...

Authorities say the cause of death for the Hawaii health director who died after an airplane crashed off the island of Molokai was cardiac arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat. Loretta Fuddy died due to the stress from the horrific Dec. 11 plunge into the water after the si … Article Link: Hawaiian health director died of irregular heartbeat after plane crash - U.S. News (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/13/22294162-hawaiian-health-director-died-of-irregular-heartbeat-after-plane-crash?lite) Posted with Article Posting Assistant: (http://code-happy.bahits.com/?p=62)

State Rep. Bob McDermott, who enrolled his eight children in Hawaii’s public schools, doesn’t want his 11-year-old son exposed to a controversial taxpayer-funded sex education program... “The program normalizes a homosexual lifestyle and anal sex, while failing to warn students of the extreme dangers of anal sex; it references multiple sex partners, while failing to inform students about the health benefits of monogamy; it fails to warn students about the ineffectiveness of condoms against HPV, herpes, and anal sex; and fails to educate students on the stages of human reproduction,” McDermott said, providing Hawaii Reporter with an early copy of...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told law students at the University of Hawaii on Monday that the nation's highest court was wrong to uphold the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, but he wouldn't be surprised if the court issued a similar ruling during a future conflict. Scalia was responding to a question about the court's 1944 decision in Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu for violating an order to report to an internment camp. "Well of course Korematsu was wrong. And I think we have repudiated in a later...

The formal process to build a library housing President Barack Obama's presidential records and artifacts began Friday with the formation of a new foundation, launched by top supporters with Obama's blessing, that will develop and build the monument to his legacy. The nonprofit Barack H. Obama Foundation will be led by Marty Nesbitt, a close Obama friend from Chicago, and Julianna Smoot, a former White House social secretary and top official in Obama's re-election campaign. A vigorous competition to host the library is already underway. Hawaii, where Obama was born, and Illinois, his longtime home, have been lobbying the Obamas...

As part of the alleged bribes, Nagin's family members received a vacation in Hawaii; first-class airfare to Jamaica; private jet travel and a limousine for New York City totaling $23,500; and cellular phone service, the indictment said. According to the indictment, the bribing businessmen allegedly received city contracts of $1 million for consulting, more than $3 million to build a project at Louis Armstrong International Airport, and $1 million for another airport project, the indictment said. Other contracts were for sidewalk repairs in the French Quarter and professional services, authorities allege. Among the conspiracy charges is an accusation that Nagin...

The facts 1. There are 21 US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2014 election. 2. There are nine US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2016 election. This is likely to be 10 due to a special election in HI in 2014. 3. Republicans need to pick up six senate seats to have a majority. The Analysis The failures of ObamaCare and broken promises by Democrat senators create a target rich environment in 2014. This is a year Republicans have to do well. Winning a majority in the senate by only one seat or maintaining the status...

HB744 will prevent discrimination on the basis “race, religion or sexual orientation” in any “…activity receiving state or county financial assistance or utilizing state or county facilities.” Activities that constitute discrimination include: exclusion “from participation in, be(ing) denied the benefits of, or be(ing) subjected to discrimination”. Using this broad language, any church or religious organization holding services at a state or county facility (such as a public school cafeteria or auditorium) could not deny services or benefits associated with their organization. This could include participation in services, membership to the religious organization or even the sanctioning of a same-sex marriage....

Teddy Bear Paradise, a 57-year-old former Santa Cruz woman, has been indicted in Texas for allegedly threatening to kill President Barack Obama. Paradise, also known as Denise O'Neal, mailed a handwritten, 16-page letter to Obama, said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. "I am coming to Washington D.C. to murder you," Paradise wrote in the Nov. 28 letter. "I am permanently physically and mentally disabled," she wrote. "All I wanted to do was rent a home for myself." Paradise described herself as a lesbian and said she'd been harassed by workers at jails, prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

Michelle Obama at an earlier vacation in Spain.There have been no media reports on First Lady Michelle Obama’s extended Hawaii vacation since it was abruptly announced she was staying behind when her husband and daughters returned to Washington from the family’s annual Christmas vacation to the state where the president was raised as a teenager. A Google News search shows only a handful of articles just after New Year’s Day based on local reports Obama was staying at the Maui estate of Oprah Winfrey. Those articles mentioned Maui locals upset by road closures near Winfrey’s estate. Since then there have...

Maui County police says the late state health director Loretta Fuddy died due to cardiac arrhythmia as a result of stress after a Makani Kai Air plane crashed off of Molokai last month. An arrhythmia is a problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. Fuddy's death has been ruled as accidental. On Dec. 11, the plane lost power off of Kalaupapa. Nine people were on board the plane including Fuddy. The pilot and seven other passengers survived the crash. The pilot and a passenger who swam to shore have said Fuddy appeared fine while bobbing in the water...

(HONOLULU) -- The dramatic images of a small plane crash in December that killed one person off the coast of Hawaii were made public Thursday. A passenger was recording video as the Dec. 11 crash occurred. In the images, the Makani Kai Air’s 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop can be seen about to hit the water. It descends straight down to the ocean and crashes on the surface. In the video, the passengers can be seen making their way out calmly. They clutched the wing to stay afloat. In two groups, they floated for an hour in choppy waters until...

If rumors are true that the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, is on Maui, the security around Oprah Winfrey’s Upcountry Maui estate is compelling evidence, as is the national attention via various media outlets.