A rebuttal of the Time Magazine smear piece

[mahina]

Hi all, are you aware that the sole target of the Time Magazine article was Senator Akaka?

Here is some background information about the five Senators named in the
article.

1. Mark Dayton, a Democrat from Minnesota and who is also a beneficiary of
the Target stores (multi-millionaire). He had already announced in January
2006 that he would not be running for reelection after his first term in
office. The unofficial announcement was well known in 2005.

2. Jim Bunning -- Kentucky -- up for reelection in 2010.

3. Wayne Allard -- Colorado -- up for reelection in 2008.

4. Conrad Burns -- Montana -- tarnished by the Jack Abramoff scandal.

5. Senator Akaka -- the only Senator up for reelection. Senator Akaka has
been a champion for the "little people."

That is why the White House, Karl Rove, and the Republican Party, who have
fattened themselves at the expense of working people, targeted Senator Akaka.

Senator Akaka has stood firm against President Bush and Karl Rove on the Iraq
war, Social Security privatization, cuts to health, education, and human
services programs, rollbacks in environmental protections, draconian
restrictions on civil liberties and civil rights.

On the contrary, Ed Case supported tax cuts for the rich and continues to
support the war in Iraq.

Ed Case also wrote to President Bush on the Patriot Act. Case told the
President why he supports the Patriot Act.

Senator Akaka opposed the Patriot Act in 2006.

So, please read the rebuttal, forward it to your list serves, and make copies
for your family, friends, and colleagues.

Here it is...

Representative Case would like you to believe that the Time Magazine is unbiased and is the sole source of information on Senator Akaka’s effectiveness.
I. TIME MAGAZINE HISTORY
“In 1987, it was announced that Warner Communications and Time Inc. were to merge. In early 1990, the combined companies were named Time Warner. In 2001, a new company called AOL Time Warner was created when AOL purchased Time Warner. There has been some speculation about the motivations of each party. Some observers believed that Time Warner was struggling to integrate “new media” into its business. Media companies felt that the vertically integrated AOL Time Warner would unfairly promote its own content within its outlets. AOL CEO Steve Case became executive chairman of the new company”. (Source Time Warner from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Steve Case is the cousin of Representative Ed Case...draw your own conclusion.

II. ANALYSIS OF SENATOR AKAKA’S LEGISLATIVE RECORD
This analysis uses the Library of Congress-THOMAS online service, which includes legislative actions by all Members of Congress, and because THOMAS corresponds to the internal bill tracking system used by the U.S. Congress.
Additionally, this analysis does not incorporate Senator Akaka’s co-sponsored legislation, even though Senator Akaka has lent his influence to thousands of his colleagues’ bills and amendments. This analysis uses only bills and amendments sponsored by Senator Akaka.
The following chart depicts Senator Akaka’s sponsored legislative record while in the Senate (1990 to present).
Congress # of Sponsored Legislation # of Agreed to Legislation # made Public Law Approval % (Total agreed to or made into law / total sponsored)
101st 26 1 7 31%
102nd 57 4 14 32%
103rd 35 4 10 40%
104th 41 1 11 29%
105th 28 3 7 36%
106th 32 2 14 50%
107th 49 2 26 57%
108th 65 6 22 43%
109th 107 24 19 40%
TOTAL 440 47 130 40%
As a point of reference, we compared Senator Akaka’s legislative record (sponsored bills and amendments only) to three other Senators and his opponent during this session of Congress, the 109th.
Senator # of Sponsored Legislation # of Agreed to Legislation # made Public Law Approval %

Kennedy 213 28 1 14%
Obama 141 25 0 18%
Clinton 156 25 4 19%
Akaka 107 24 19 40%
Case 16 1 0 6%

Other sources such as www.Congress.org do not include important actions such as resolutions and building namings, which benefit individual states. Even so, Senator Akaka was ranked 30 out of 100 for legislative activity. See www.akaka2006.org for a comparison of www.Congress.org ’s rating of Senator Akaka’s record with that of Rep. Case.

III. LEGISLATIVE EXAMPLES – MEASURES PASSED OR MADE INTO LAW THAT SENATOR AKAKA SPONSORED
Changing the face of veterans health services, with the creation of a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) center in Hawaii and Centers for Minority and Women Veterans in the Veterans’ Administration.
Passing the nation's very first apology resolution over huge odds – his resolution for Native Hawaiians came 13 years before serious discussions about a possible resolution apologizing for slavery.

Playing a key role to alleviate Hawaii's and the nation's dependence on fossil fuels. Most recently, he included hydrogen, methane hydrates, ethanol, and a Hawaii energy study provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. He also enacted a measure to ensure that Hawaii, in times of emergency, has priority access to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to forestall a local energy catastrophe.
Ensuring the preservation of Hawaii's natural resources, such as through numerous national parks expansion and improvement bills, and protecting endangered species through regulation of national park overflights.

Bringing consumer protection and financial literacy to national consciousness, between enacting the Excellence in Economic Education Act, revealing abuses by predatory lenders, mutual fund reforms, and working to create the Financial Literacy and Education Commission; he has won national awards for his work in this area.

Ensuring that Hawaii continues to have an adequate supply of drinking water.
Creating stiff federal penalties for the production, manufacture, sale or distribution of `ice,' a highly pure and smokable form of methamphetamine.

Through administrative (non-legislative) actions, he has ensured that the Department of Defense is a better steward of the environment. He has also been very effective in highlighting fraud, waste, and abuse within various federal agencies, which have resulted in the federal government overcoming numerous problems and saving billions of taxpayer dollars.

IV. LEGISLATION FROM REPRESENTATIVE ED CASE.
Ed Case quotes the Time Magazine article on Senator Akaka in his commercial where Time states Akaka is “A master of the minor resolution in a bill that dies in committee”.
Ed Case has 15 of his 16 sponsored legislative items sitting in committee and they have been there for some time.

Worse, he submitted only 1 piece of Legislation in 2006. (Source: Library of Congress- THOMAS)
We paid for him to “Talk Story” instead of legislating in 2006.

Please help get out the vote between now and then, talk to your neighbors, call your family members, offer to drive people, do whatever you can to make sure we do not lose our wonderful Senator to Ed Case. Thank you DU!

[PoiBoy]

1. Excellent info..

thank you.. :hi:

[mahina]

2. My joy.

How's it going in your neighborhood? How are your co-workers going to vote?
Mahalo for the encouragement! See you at the polls...