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Items tagged: daniel akaka

Colleen Hanabusa receives Inouye and Akaka endorsements

Good news out of Hawaii. Hawaii Senate President Colleen Hanabusa opened her campaign offices yesterday. Joining her were the state's two Senators, Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, as well as several prominent Union and political leaders. The endorsements give Hanabusa campaign a political edge in the special election to replace U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie who is stepping down to run for Governor.


Akaka Bill approved by Senate Committee

Great news for advocates of increased Native Hawaiian rights. The Indian Affairs Committee of the United States Senate has unanimously passed legislation to let native Hawaiians establish their own government. The new government would operate much like those formed by Indian tribes. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka who has authored similar legislation during previous congressional sessions, but has yet to get the measure passed by the full Senate. Here is the press release:


Inouye and Akaka support Obama's Afghanistan troop increase, Abercrombie and Hirono question it

Reaction to President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan continues to come in. Here's a report from the Honolulu Star Bulletin that shows the Hawaiian Congressional delegation split. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka have voiced their strong support for the escalation in forces while Representatives Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono have raised questions.


Eric Shinseki tours veterans center with Senator Daniel Akaka

As the politicians in DC continue their August recess, we find Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki joining U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka, chairmen of the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs, joint headlining a meeting at the Kaua'i Veterans Center in Hawaii.


Progressive Report Cards Handed Out to Congress

capitol Here's a nifty little site that calculates how progressive each member of Congress voted overall and in terms of particular issues:
ProgressivePunch is a non-partisan searchable database of Congressional voting records from a Progressive perspective. But we're convinced it's extremely useful irrespective of anyone's political positions. We show the performance of members within 160 different issue categories, and detailed vote descriptions, thereby empowering you to zero in on what matters to you.
The scorecard gives a lot of details, including the breakdown between "crucial" and "overall" votes, as well as votes by lifetime and in the current session. They also include the states general political tilt and a good breakdown of how they came up with their scores. The reason this list is so important is because we need to identify who are the true movement progressives so we can promote them as our leading voices. Let's make sure we turn to them as our spokespeople on key issues. Let's make sure that the ones who score highly are featured on the networks and in the media. Let's support them financially when we can. (Note: From a quick and completely unscientific glance, it seems like it's a lot of the moderates and conservatives who I tend to see on the TV.) Anyway, go check out where you Congresscritter is ranked. In terms of AAPI's, here are the lifetime scores of our two AAPI Senators on crucial and overall votes: 23 Akaka, Daniel (D-HI) 87.48 91.98 45 Inouye, Daniel (D-HI) 75.45 85.63 To check out our House members, join us on the other side: