PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

February 6, 2010

Case Completes PDH Survey

Filed under: Elections, HI Politics, National Politics — frosty @ 10:00 pm

PDH is in receipt of surveys from both Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former Congressman Ed Case. However since Ed completed the survey first, I thought it only fair his responses be posted first. Look for Colleen’s responses to follow in the coming days.

REGARDING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

What steps do you think Congress should take to rebuild our economy on a more sustainable, yet economically viable basis?

All sustainable economies rest on three foundations: (1) the facilitation of private effort encouraging economic activity to enable people to pursue the lives they seek and to generate fair tax revenue for collective efforts through our government; (2) reasonable levels of taxation and regulation that do not stifle individual initiative yet do curb abuses and provide for common needs; and (3) stable societies where wealth is fairly distributed and collective needs are addressed. Congress must set the big pictures balance for all three, especially in terms of taxation and regulation and establishment of funding of core government efforts such as education, but cannot and should not micromanage economic activity. (more…)

February 4, 2010

Afghanistan Resolution

Filed under: National Politics, SHIPS platform, Stop War — rachel @ 3:56 pm

At our January general membership meeting, we discussed and passed a resolution regarding the situation in Afghanistan. It is now a month later and I am getting ready to go to our Feb general membership meeting… but I figured this was worth posting for people to see anyway.

If you agree with the sentiment, call your Congressional Representatives and let them know!

Afghanistan Resolution:

The dispatch of thirty thousand additional troops to Afghanistan is a profound mistake that is likely to undermine the credibility of the Obama administration and any of the progressive reforms it is trying to enact. Our soldiers will be used to prop up one of the world’s most corrupt regimes, one that has recently “won” a fraudulent election and has little if any appeal to the people of the country. In fact, its power does not extend outside of Kabul. American soldiers and firepower will alienate Afghans and drive them to support the Taliban.

The scenario we are following is familiar from Vietnam. As Under Secretary of State George Ball (the one senior advisor to advise Lyndon Johnson to withdraw) later recalled: “Nobody was prepared to concede that any particular step would require any further step.” We will send more and more troops under the guise that “progress” is being made. The casualties we take and treasure we expend will become justifications for deeper and deeper involvement. President Obama’s decision is sending us into a new quagmire which will split the Democratic Party and sabotage hope for genuine “change.” We urge the Hawaii Democratic Party to insist on withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan.

January 23, 2010

Abercrombie Completes PDH Candidate Survey

Filed under: Elections, HI Politics — frosty @ 3:03 pm

As Progressive Democrats of Hawaii gears up for the election season, we have sent out a batch of surveys to candidates in the races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Congressional District 1.

The first race PDH will be looking at is the Governor’s race. For the purposes of full disclosure, surveys were sent to both Congressman Abercrombie and Mayor Hannemann, however the Congressman was the only one who completed it. In response to my request to  the Mayor, here’s the message I received:

Hi Josh,

Thanks for your note to Mayor Hannemann, we appreciate the consideration. As Mufi is not yet an announced candidate in the gubernatorial primary, we are declining all requests right now for surveys, interviews, etc. That will most certainly change if and when the Mayor does throw his hat into the ring.

I imagine the message is from someone on his ‘exploratory committee,’ though no formal title is included in the response. I’ve chosen not to include the respondent’s name. (more…)

January 3, 2010

Progressives Come Out Asking Obama To Do Better

Filed under: Barack Obama, Economics, General, Healthcare, National Politics — frosty @ 4:15 pm

This past Saturday, a number of progressive activists, including a number of PDHers come out to Kailua to urge President Obama to do more, to do better.

A number of us have been disappointed by his position on a number of issues, including the health care reform bill that could be much, much better, and has provisions that don’t solve the problem, but rather serve as a boondoggle for private insurance companies. While many of us strongly support a Single-Payer system of health insurance, given the political realities we’re today faced with, we were happy to settle with a ’strong’ public option, which is in danger of being excluded from the final language.

We’re also unhappy about Obama’s decision to send more troops into Afghanistan, escalating a war that’s been waging for the better part of a decade, with no end in sight.

We also haven’t seen the financial reform he promised during the campaign. Instead, its been more of the same complicit favoritism toward the same financial firms and banks who’s irresponsible practices caused the worldwide financial meltdown and current economic crisis.

Obama can and must do better.

Here’s some pictures from the morning.

December 4, 2009

Howard Dean: Is the Current Healthcare Bill Worth Supporting?

Filed under: Healthcare, National Politics — Bart @ 7:09 pm

As the healthcare reform bills move through Congress, many progressives are starting to wonder if the bills are worthy of support. Former DNC Chair, Dr. Howard Dean, was a recent guest host on the Rachel Maddow Show and addressed this very question. An excerpt:

In order to have insurance reform, you need two things. The first is making sure insurance companies can‘t turn you down for any medical reason. That‘s called guaranteed issue—and that‘s in the bill. But that‘s only effective if you make sure that the coverage is affordable. And that‘s not in the bill.

As the bill is written now, the insurance companies will still be allowed to gouge their customers if they have illnesses, to charge you two or three times what your neighbor gets charged.

A lot of the insurance reform in this bill is gone. The only real reform that‘s left is the public option. If that‘s compromised away, this bill is no longer health care reform. It‘s just a huge gift to the health insurance industry from the same people who bailed AIG out, the American taxpayers.

Howard Dean discusses the bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt):

Dr. Dean interviews Rep. Anthony Weiner to get a perspective from the House. That video after the bump. (more…)

October 29, 2009

Special Committee Testimony Addressing Teacher Furloughs

Filed under: Economics, HI Politics, Legislature — frosty @ 7:51 pm

Below is testimony I’ve submitted for a special committee hearing to consider approaches to deal with the teacher furloughs.

Aloha Senators,

I am here, testifying before you today, on behalf of the Progressive Democrats of Hawaii (PDH).

Let me begin by applauding those Senators who have signed the petition to convene a Special Session of the Legislature to immediately address the financial crisis that continues to plague our state. I believe those Senators truly understand the immediate urgency resulting from the teacher furloughs and that this issue cannot wait to be addressed by the Legislature during the next regular session.

When times were good, our Department of Education (DOE) was struggling to provide a decent education for our children. Test scores in Hawaii repeatedly posted below the national average. And now that the DOE, put between a rock and a hard place by our Governor and this Legislature, has been forced to shorted the school year by 17 instructional days, making our school year the shortest in the nation. This unfortunate and shortsighted decision will only serve to compound problems already facing our state’s educational system.

While the State looks at these as cost saving measures, all the government is really doing is shifting costs on to parents, students, and employers who are already struggling through these hard times. With children out of school two Fridays a month, parents are forced to look for costly alternatives such as daycare, or taking time off of work to look after their children who should be in school learning.

As our economy shrinks, citizens look to the State to provide stability solutions. While the Governor works to shrink the State’s payroll by furloughing teachers and other State employees, she may find savings to close the budget gap, but what she’s doing for certain is exacerbating an already troubled economy by reducing income for employees, as well as its revenue stream through taxes by decreasing salaries. This is a wrongheaded and shortsighted strategy for dealing with our budget crisis.

We urge the Legislature to convene a Special Session so that alternative and reasonable solutions ca be suggested and debated. Among the options which might be considered are:

  • Tapping the Rainy Day Fund for some short-term budget relief
  • Tapping the Hurricane Fund
  • Raise the General Excise Tax 0.5% to 1.0% to increase tax revenues and evenly distribute the burden across all sections of our residents. Additionally, certain exemptions, such as on food, could be included to ease the burden on those low-income families.
  • Create a tax on such products like sugary beverages, like soda, on fast food and other unhealthy products. This would have the duel effect of creating another ’sin tax,’ in addition to tobacco and alcohol.

Mahalo for calling this hearing and for your time.

Funds raised by these options could be used as matching funds against funds being offered by the Federal government, funds the Governor has not bothered to apply for.

There are better ways and more effective methods available to us to solve these difficult problems and I want to thank you for not sitting idly by while the situation worsens and the education and future of our children is threatened. It is up to you, and your fellow legislators to immediately convene a Special Session and work quickly to deal with these problems.

During this financial crisis, the Federal government is working to improve the situation by stimulating the economy through increased spending. This tactic injects money into the economy by putting it in the hands of consumers and by creating jobs for workers. By cutting spending, the Federal stimulus cannot work to their full potential and cuts its benefits. And meanwhile, we are cutting spending on worthwhile projects, like educating our children.

Josh Frost
Co-Chair
Progressive Democrats of Hawaii

October 23, 2009

350 Rally for Climate Action

Filed under: HI Politics, SHIPS platform, Sustainable Environment — rachel @ 2:38 pm

Title: 350 Rally for Climate Action
Location: Hawaii State Capitol
Description: 350 signifies the safe upper limit of CO2 in our atmosphere. Send a firm statement to policymakers that we must act decisively on climate change. Group photo will be taken at 3:50pm.
Start Time: 2:00pm
Date: 10/24/09
End Time: 5:00pm

Click here for the event flyer.

September 7, 2009

Obama Caves to Corporate Pressure, Dumps “Green Jobs” Advocate, Van Jones: UPDATED!

Filed under: Barack Obama, SHIPS platform, Sustainable Environment — Bart @ 12:50 pm

Last week, Barack Obama caved in to pressure from corporate interests and an ongoing campaign by rightwing commentators, and fired Van Jones, the appointee in charge of overseeing the administration’s efforts to create “Green Jobs.”

From press accounts, we hear Jones had committed such unforgivable sins as signing a petition demanding answers to the US government’s response to the attacks on 9-11, and for saying Republicans are assholes at a public meeting at Berkeley several months ago.

I think the reasons Van Jones was dumped, rather than defended, by Obama are evident in this video of Van Jones’ speech at a mass environmental summit held in Washington D.C.. (more…)

August 29, 2009

Democratic Party Central Committee Upholds Reprimand of Gabbard!

Filed under: HI Politics, Legislature — Bart @ 1:40 pm

NOTE: For a deeper examination of Mike Gabbard’s ideas, involvement in the Chris Butler cult and political agenda, go to this earlier post, written shortly after Gabbard joined the Democrats:

Some Thoughts on Gabbard (Sept 8, 2007)

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

The State Central Committee of the Democratic Party voted today to uphold the decision of the Oahu County Committee to reprimand Senator Mike Gabbard for his “active opposition” to the civil rights plank of the party’s platform.

Unfortunately, the vote was fairly close, 37-31, which indicates to me that many SCC members are unwilling to stand up for the Party’s interests against even the most egregious efforts by nominal “Democrats” to work against the Party’s positions.

As the author of the motion to reprimand Gabbard, I wrote a lengthy email in advance of the meeting to explain my rationale to SCC members. That email follows the jump.

(more…)

August 9, 2009

Clueless

Filed under: HI Politics — Joe @ 7:43 pm
  
Lou Dobbs said recently that people are asking a lot of questions about that Hawaii birth certificate (Obama’s).
 
Yes, ……. it’s the same people who want to know where the sun goes at night.
 
And where you put the stamps on e mail.
 
Bill Maher
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The opinions and views are not necessarily those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.
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