Health Care Crisis In America
Is Government The Cure?
By Professor Ken Schoolland
During a national crisis, people usually turn to government. It is easy to sympathize with the clamour for government action, but there are often unintended consequences. Is government the solution to problems with health care in America, or is it the cause of these problems? With a history of interference leading to decreasing competition, increased prices, less innovation and diminished services in medicine today, let's take a look at the government track record.
(To read more, click here.)
GRASSROOT PERSPECTIVE
Veteran Journalist Signs On
Transparency expert now on contract to probe for waste, boondoggles, mismanagement in government
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has notched up its government transparency efforts by engaging the services of a 30-year-veteran investigative reporter and producer. Don Ray, a multimedia journalist, public records specialist and author has joined the Institute to monitor and write about waste, fraud, and abuse in Hawaii state and local government.
“For us, it’s all about ensuring that there’s openness and accountability in government,” Grassroot Institute President Jamie Story said, “so it’s only fitting that we call on someone with decades of investigative experience to lend us a hand."
(To read more, click here.)
An Apologist for Deficit Spending?
By Guy C. Monahan
I wish I could have called into a talk radio program I heard recently. The guest basically made excuses for the mismanagement, failed policy and lack of fiduciary duty of financial and political leaders in America. Washington, D.C., the states, and municipalities across America have bought into the idea that deficit spending through taxation and the manipulation of the money supply to finance warfare and welfare are somehow acceptable. Wall Street and corporate America have followed along down the same path with little care for prudence.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may be a self-sacrificing guy for leaving the private sector to help his country in time of need, but with all due respect, he is not the solution, he is part of the problem. He got where he is by accepting seriously flawed business practices, the most serious one being the continued devaluation of our currency to reward those who have promoted dubious military campaigns, failed government social programs, pork-barrel projects, and bad business investments. Why should the average American citizen continue to condone this behavior with his or her own money? I know some people believe the regular guy doesn't get it, but what exactly is so complicated that they don't understand? It is illegal and unethical for businesses to counterfeit money or defraud a receipt in trade, so why is it okay for the United States Treasury?
-GIR-
Guy C. Monahan was a Judicial Policy Analyst and the first Treasurer of The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
GRASSROOT LAUGHS
FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii created the Fresh Perspective column exclusively to publish the work of high school and college students. In addition to work appearing on GRIH’s website, their work is also submitted to Hawaii Reporter. Submissions are welcome from any interested young adult, and we will publish work that is clearly written and grammatically sound. For earlier Fresh Perspectives please click here. Please contact tom@grassrootinstitute.org for more info.
GRASSROOT REVIEWS
Have you read a good book or viewed a good DVD on liberty or a free market subject recently? Let your follow GRIH members know and share your views with 'Grassroot Reviews'. Please send your book or movie review
to tom@grassrootinstitute.org.
Book Review: Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai’i?
By Malia Hill
Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai’i? by University of Hawaii professor and attorney Jon Van Dyke hearkens back to a simpler time, a time when white guilt combined with an embarrassing over-romanticism of pre-European-contact Polynesia to create a wonderfully slanted perspective on both history and law. In other words, an age stretching back to at least the mid-1990s. It would be inaccurate to call Van Dyke’s take on historical analysis post-modern, as post-modern histories are generally impatient with the kind of meta-narrative embraced by Van Dyke’s work. Rather, the historical sections of the book remind one of nothing so much as early 19th century accounts of noble and untainted natives—though in this case the villains aren’t shifty and murderous local tribes so much as shifty and murderous (and greedy) Europeans. It’s endearingly retro in a way—I had believed that we had gone past the point of people “going native” in the Islands, but Van Dyke has proven me wrong.
(To read more, click here.)
GRASSROOT TV
Grassroot TV at YouTube.com features videos relating to public issues in Hawaii and beyond, as well as statements from the Institute on various concerns facing our communities.
Check out the new video of our recent featured speaker, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.
We've also loaded the library at the online TV station with new videos from The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and more.
Please visit 'Grassroot TV' at http://www.youtube.com/user/GrassrootHawaii.
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GRASSROOT INSTITUTE PODCASTS
In our "Grassroot Insight" podcast series, GRIH Director of Communications Tom McAuliffe interviews VIPs, community leaders and special guests from the liberty and freedom movement. The audio interviews are available for download to your iPod or for listening via the Internet. This issue features interviews with Liam Day, Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships at The Pioneer Institute in Boston, MA; and Jack McHugh, Senior Legislative Analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan.
Click here to listen to the interview with Liam Day.
Click here to listen to the interview with Jack McHugh.
Please check out our other recent podcasts with:
• Gerard Robinson, President, The Black Alliance for Educational Options
• Jennifer Butler, Vice President of the State Policy Network
• Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform
-GIR-
GRASSROOT EVENTS
Information on the Institute’s upcoming events, research publication dates and speaking engagements are always available and updated via our website.
GRIH Family Brain Gain (THIS THURSDAY!)
Please join us for our very first presentation, "The Birth of Freedom", on Thursday, November 13 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Trinity Christian Church and School, 875 Auloa Road in Kailua. This is the first showing in Hawaii of the newly released film by the Acton Institute.
Call Lora Burbage at 772-0787 for more information.
-GIR-
LIBERTY NEWS
HPU Speaker Series
As part of its 2008 Speakers Series, Associated Students of Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) is hosting Dr. Tim Kane, Ph. D., and State Representative Matt Wingard (R-OR) on Tuesday, November 18th from 5 to 6 PM at the HPU downtown campus at 1164 Bishop Street in Honolulu, Hawaii. The topic of the evening's talk will be, "Is Individual Freedom Fading in America With Each Passing Decade?" The event is co-sponsored by Professor Ken Schoolland, the Entrepreneurship Center and The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
(To read more, click here.)
School Choice Movement Launches Major National Campaign
School Choice Works campaign aims to recruit 10,000 activists in the first national outreach effort for voucher and tax credit proponents.
The national school choice movement has launched an aggressive campaign to recruit 10,000 new activists. Coordinated by the nonprofit Alliance for School Choice, the School Choice Works campaign will promote the benefits of school vouchers and tax credit scholarship programs. The effort will coincide with the start of 2009 state legislative sessions across the country.
(To read more, click here.)
GRIH Salute
 The Grassroot Institute congratulates Congressional District 1 candidate Li Zhao, who received 7,591 votes in her bid as the Libertarian Party’s candidate here in Hawaii. Zhao is married to GRIH Board of Scholars member Ken Schoolland, a frequent contributor to GIR and author of the award-winning book The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible. While GRIH is always nonpartisan, Zhao shows how one person can make a difference.
With no money for campaigning, she managed to earn more votes than all of Hawaii's third party presidential candidates combined. It is reportedly one of the best results for a national seat by any Libertarian candidate. Although she did not win, we hope she and other patriots will consider running for public office in the near future.
-GIR-
"Being An American"
Essay Contest Open To High School Students Nationwide
High school students nationwide are invited to participate in the 2008-2009 "Being an American" Essay Contest, which explores the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. Administered by the Bill of Rights Institute, a non-profit educational organization in Washington, DC the contest offers cash prizes totaling more than $189,000 to both students and their teachers. Top prize winners and their teachers also receive all-expenses paid trips to our nation's capital.
(To read more, click here.)
GRIH Members Honored
Congratulations are in order for two of our Board of Scholars members!
Congratulations are in order for two of our Board of Scholars members!
• Dr. Ken Schoolland was recently made a member of the prestigious Mont Pelerin Society. Created in 1947 by Professor Friedrich von Hayek, the society facilitates an exchange of ideas between scholars to study the workings, virtues, and defects of free-market-oriented economic systems. Schoolland is the only member in the state of Hawaii. He is also Associate Professor of Economics and Political Science at Hawaii Pacific University and author of Jonathan Gullible: A Free-Market Odyssey and Shogun’s Ghost.
• GRIH Board of Scholars member Mike Fox, who for years was listed in A Journalist's Guide to Nuclear Experts by the Nuclear Energy Institute, has recently been listed in the Heartland Institute's A Journalist's Guide to Global Warming Experts. The Heartland Institute is one of the most extensive clearinghouses for the work of free-market think tanks, with more than 22,000 studies and commentaries available from over 350 think tanks and advocacy groups around the world.
The Grassroot Institute congratulates both of these outstanding individuals.
-GIR-
Grassroot Media Hits
Honolulu Advertiser Letter to the Editor: "Con-Con Would Force Some Vital Questions" by Policy Analyst Pearl Hahn
"The 1978 Constitutional Convention illustrated the impact that 102 everyday citizens could have in shaping Hawai'i. The diverse group of delegates gathered not in pursuit of selfish interests but with a commitment to exercise their right to be heard. It was the start of political careers for some like future governor John Waihee III and former mayor Jeremy Harris, and a highlight for civil servant Bill Paty and public interest attorney William Burgess. Thirty years later, we are presented with the same opportunity in a time of new concerns."
Hawaii Business Magazine, SpinZone Column, Nov. Issue: "Is TheBoat a Good Idea?" by Jamie Story
GRIH President Story faces off with Honolulu Director of Transportation Wayne Yoshioka to discuss the merits of the city's ferry system.
"TheBoat has proven to be an unwise use of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. In August, one year after its launch, TheBoat carried approximately 6,700 passengers one way between Kalaeloa pier and Aloha Tower at a cost of $417,000. That’s $62 per trip. With ticket prices of just $2, passengers are paying only 3 percent of the cost while taxpayers float the rest."
Honolulu Star Bulletin Letter to the Editor: "Who Gains if Rail System is Built?" by Dick Rowland, GRIH Founder
"To analyze local political events recently, use the 'follow the money and power' system. For example, the mayor gains power and campaign money if he wins. But he loses no personal wealth if he's unsuccessful. He even gets to keep campaign donations if he's not re-elected!"
Hawaii Reporter recently published several news releases from GRIH.
Please visit their site at www.hawaiireporter.com.
Townhall.com
The nationally recognized and popular site http://www.townhall.com has recently picked up for national distribution many of the articles you read in Grassroot in Review.
-GIR-
TRY THE GRASSROOT BLOGS
Join the conversation and express your views! Use these links to access our member blogs.
Dash of Calabash
http://dashofcalabash.grassrootinstitute.org/
The Mystery of Hawaiian History
http://historymystery.grassrootinstitute.org/
Read what others have written and add your own thoughts. See you there!
-GIR-
NEED A GOOD SPEAKER?
From taxation to education and health care to transportation, the Institute’s staff is excited to address your group regarding the important policy issues facing all citizens of Hawaii. Call (808) 591-9193 to check availability and make arrangements, or e-mail us at tom@grassrootinstitute.org.
-GIR-
SUPPORT GOOD PUBLIC POLICY IN HAWAII!
Please help us continue to provide independent research on issues important to Hawaii! The Grassroot Institute operates only through the generous donations of friends and benefactors from around Hawaii and the United States, and even the smallest of donations can be used to accomplish great things for the future of our beloved state.
Will you please consider becoming a supporter today? Donations are tax deductible and it's quick, easy and secure. Click here!
-GIR-
Grassroot Institute is a proud member of the State Policy Network, Townhall.com,
Americans for Tax Reform, The Sam Adams Alliance and more.
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