Territory: American Samoa

Type of election: Caucus

How it works: The territory has six delegates, but the caucus is nonbinding.

Official election results: American Samoa Election Office

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

Democratic candidates: There is no Democratic caucus.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney did not participate in the caucus, Paul finished third with 0 percent of the vote. Obama finished second in the Democratic caucus with nearly 42.5 percent.

Newspapers: Samoa Observer, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: Not aware of any.

Latest polling: Little to no polling has been done in the territory.

Bottom line: Very few delegates and very little attention being paid to the territory makes it the least newsworthy of the contests on Tuesday.

State: Hawaii

Type of election: Caucus

How it works: The state offers 17 delegates. 11 are awarded proportionately according to statewide results, the other six are based on congressional districts.

Official election results: Hawaii Office of Elections

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

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Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii's new governor, wants to give the country a Christmas present: He intends to finally demolish the conspiracy theories adopted by diehard Obama haters demanding to see the president's birth certificate, even after it has long been made available:

The governor, a Democrat and former congressman, said he has initiated conversations with the state’s attorney general and the chief of its Health Department about how he can release more explicit documentation of Mr. Obama’s birth on Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital. He said he has done so of his own accord, without consulting the White House, which declined to comment.

“He’s a big boy; he can take sticks and stones. But there’s no reason on earth to have the memory of his parents insulted by people whose motivation is solely political,” Mr. Abercrombie said. “Let’s put this particular canard to rest.”

Abercrombie, you see, knew Obama's parents and met the president when he was a baby:

Mr. Abercrombie, 72, said that although he did not see the elder Obamas at the hospital with their newborn son, he did remember the couple bringing the baby to social events. He says the critics who suggest that Mr. Obama’s mother slipped off to Kenya to give birth are engaging in a “demonological fantasy.”

An L.A, Times story has more:

"What bothers me is that some people who should know better are trying to use this for political reasons," said Abercrombie, 72. "Maybe I'm the only one in the country that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, 'I was here when that baby was born.' "

One of Abercrombie's aides said the governor is voicing the frustration of many Hawaiians who continue to be troubled by the rumors, which they see as emblematic of the view that Hawaiians are not Americans in the same way as those who live in the continental United States.

Of course, as the L.A. Times story points out, this really won't stop the birthers. But it will at least create the kind of hurdle to peddling their irrationality that will make it much, much harder to do so. And for that, he will have the nation's gratitude.

Remember all the pearl-clutching over Obama going to visit his childhood home in Hawaii last year, calling it "elitist"? Or when visiting his dying grandmother in her Oahu home, Cokie Roberts complained that it made Obama appear "foreign" and "exotic" to choose to go to Hawaii, instead of say, Myrtle Beach.

Well, you silly liberals expecting consistency, that was then. This is now. And NOW, Hawaii is the perfect location for the Republican National Committee to hold their winter meeting:

Republicans delight in depicting President Obama as hopelessly out of touch with average Americans, but the decision by the Republican National Committee to hold its winter meeting at a tropical resort is turning the accusation on its head.

As the president gave his first State of the Union address Wednesday against the backdrop of the nation’s wheezing economy, the opposition party marked the event by convening a conference here – on an “island paradise.”

“Imagine lush tropical gardens, waterfalls, exotic wildlife and priceless artwork,” boasts the website of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. “This one-of-a-kind Honolulu Hawaii hotel resort is the only true resort property in Waikiki.”

Which is to say that it’s a long way from Baltimore, where the House GOP will have its retreat later this month in a pointed effort to demonstrate their sensitivity to the tough economic times.

Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

Oh, but it's not all sunshine and pina coladas by the pool. No, no, no. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, resplendent in his Hawaiian shirt and lei, assures us this is no vacation.

"Relax," Steele said while sporting a Hawaiian shirt and a flower lei. "We're working hard here, trust me. This is not a vacation."

Steele said the the meetings will "expose Hawaii to the rest of America." He told KHON, a local TV station, that it was important for the RNC, "as a party," to be in Hawaii, the home state of President Obama.

You know, I hear a lot of people claim Obama is playing three-dimensional chess to the RNC's checkers, but in this particular case, I'm not even sure that the RNC isn't stuck playing Chutes & Ladders instead.

Last week, Republican strategist Kevin Madden chastised President Obama for choosing to vacation in a "foreign place" like Hawaii, concluding "it's much different than being in Texas." Rush Limbaugh, it turns out, couldn't disagree more. The right-wing radio host and avid golfer not only visits the islands every year. After his New Year's Eve scare with chest pains, Limbaugh had nothing but praise for the care he received there. And for good reason: while Hawaii ranks second in state health care performance, the Lone Star State is a dismal 46th.

For his part, Limbaugh predictably touted his emergency hospitalization as proof of an unrivaled American health care system which needs no reform:

"I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system," Limbaugh said. "I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms."

No different than virtually all Hawaiians, that is.

As the New York Times detailed in October ("In Hawaii's Health System, Lessons for Lawmakers"), Hawaii consistently outperforms almost every other state for health care access, quality and costs. While only about 10% of non-elderly adults are without health insurance in there, Hawaii's premiums and Medicare costs per beneficiary are the lowest in the nation. The Times explained a major reason why:

Since 1974, Hawaii has required all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more. If health care legislation passes in Congress, the rest of the country may barely catch up.

That system also paid dividends for Rush Limbaugh:

One result of Hawaii's employer mandate and the relatively high number of people with health insurance is that hospital emergency rooms in the state are islands of relative calm. In 2007, the state had 264 outpatient visits to emergency rooms per 1,000 people -- 34 percent lower than the national average of 401.

(That's a far cry from the GOP's "emergency room solution" to the American health care crisis favored by George W. Bush, Tom Delay and Mitch McConnell.)

The result is that Hawaii can be found atop the Commonwealth Fund's scorecard of state health care performance. After finishing first in its 2007 assessment, the Commonwealth Fund ranked Barack Obama's birthplace #2 across 30-plus indicators of health care access, cost containment, quality, equity and prevention.

Along with other recent studies, the Commonwealth Fund also confirmed what by now is a truism of the politics of American health care: health care is worst precisely where Republicans poll best.

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And it's not a pretty sight:

Hawaii public schools are closed most Fridays, rats scurry across bananas in uninspected stores and there may not be enough money to run the next election.

About the only parts of the state untouched by the foul economy are its sparkling beaches and world-class surfing.[..]

"There is community energy and outrage building up," said James Koshiba, a co-founder of the activist organization and Web site Kanu Hawaii, speaking about the cuts to education. "The people have to play a bigger role. Folks won't forget how this unfolds come election time."

— Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation after the state and teachers union agreed to shutter schools for 17 days a year, leaving 171,000 students without class on most Fridays. Negotiations to reopen them collapsed last week.

— Food establishments often go uninspected, a fact highlighted by an Internet video showing rats roaming freely across produce in a Honolulu Chinatown market. The state has just nine health inspectors on Oahu to handle nearly 6,000 markets and restaurants.

— The state Elections Office said it may not be able to afford a pending special election, which would leave half of the state's population without representation in the U.S. House of Representatives until September 2010.

— Homelessness is on the rise as mental health, child abuse, welfare and daycare programs run short on cash.

And next year may be even worse because tax revenues continue to plunge with the economy.

Hawaii is far from alone in cutting the size of government during the global financial downturn, with nearly every state resorting to across-the-board cuts, furloughs or layoffs to make ends meet. This tiny state of 1.3 million residents faces a projected $1 billion budget deficit through June 2011.

But Hawaii stands apart in how its government shrinkage has ripped into what are generally considered to be core functions: education, public health, elections and services for the disadvantaged.

Gov. Linda Lingle warned that government would not look the same after she ordered most departments to slash their budgets by about 14 percent.

I know it's tantamount to heresy amongst the teabaggin' crowd, but the root of "socialism" is also in "society". We pay taxes to benefit our entire society. Cutting taxes simply is not the answer, as should be obvious from what's happening in Hawaii. And what are the long term ramifications to education, and programs to the neediest among us?

This is infuriating. If there was any doubt in your mind as to whose side the political establishment is on, this should settle it:

An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.

Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.

Inouye's office, sources say, has been lobbied by defense contractors adamant that the language of the Franken amendment would leave them overly exposed to lawsuits and at constant risk of having contracts dry up. The Senate is considering taking out a provision known as the Title VII claim, which (if removed) would allow victims of assault or rape to bring suit against the individual perpetrator but not the contractor who employed him or her.

"The defense contractors have been storming his office," said a source with knowledge of the situation. "Inouye either will get the amendment taken out altogether, or water it down significantly. If they water it down, they will take out the Title VII claims. This means that in discrimination cases, they will still force you into a secret forced arbitration on KBR's (or other contractors') own terms -- with your chances of prevailing practically zero. The House seems to be very supportive of the original Franken amendment and all in line, but their hands are tied since it originated in the Senate. And since Inouye runs the show on this bill, he can easily take it out to get Republicans and the defense contractors off his back, which looks increasingly likely."

A Democratic aide on the Hill, also with knowledge of the situation, confirmed the account, as did a source who works on defense contracting matters outside of Congress. "The contractors are putting on a full-court press on this amendment... they are all doing it," said the latter source.

h/t Right Wing Watch.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) is not exactly known as a towering intellect, although he's a panderer to wingnuts par excellence. Just days *after* he assured an FDL crew that he knew that Obama was born in Hawaii, he told a town hall audience that he wanted to file a lawsuit demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate. It would appear Franks has calculated that there are votes in them thar wingnuts, because his statement at the Take Back America conference over the weekend is clearly tapping into that angry, violent undercurrent:

Obama's first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers' money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries...there's almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

You stay classy there, Trent. Remember when the GOP lost their minds because one of the Dixie Chicks said only that she was ashamed of being from the same state as the president? How in the world can they justify such over-the-top nastiness now? If the majority party wasn't so gutless, I'd think a formal censure in the House would be considered.

John Amato:

Calling Obama an enemy of the people puts a big fat target on his back. These elected officials are acting like militia members who fly to DC in black helicopters and are helping to plan a violent act against him. It's dangerous and disrespectful and he should be called out publicly for his behavior.

CNN:

Water with trace amounts of radioactivity may have been leaking for months from a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine as it traveled around the Pacific to ports in Guam, Japan and Hawaii, Navy officials told CNN Friday.

The leak was found on the USS Houston, a Los Angeles class fast attack submarine, after it came to Hawaii for routine maintenance last month, Navy officials said.

Navy officials believe the amount of radiation leaked was virtually undetectable. But the Navy alerted the Japanese government because the submarine had been docked in Japan.

I'm sure it's no big deal. Pay no attention to that three-eyed fish, that's what they're supposed to look like.

I haven’t followed college football in quite a while, but I remember that when I was a fan, the sport’s post-season system — known as the “Bowl Championship Series” — was thoroughly annoying. Playoff systems are utilized in college baseball, basketball, hockey, and Divisions II and III football, but Division IA college football relies on a bizarre, byzantine system, intended to allow the first- and second-ranked teams to play for the national title.

A team can go undefeated, but not be eligible for the big game (this has happened). A team can finish second in the polls, but be left out if computer rankings override the judgment of humans (this has happened, too).

But it’s one thing for fans to find this frustrating. It’s another for Congress to intervene.

Forget government corruption or corporate fraud. Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether college football’s Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, are introducing a resolution rejecting the oft-criticized bowl system as an illegal restriction on trade because only the largest universities compete in most of the major bowl games. The resolution would require Justice’s antitrust division to investigate whether the system violates federal law.

The measure also would put Congress on record as supporting a college football playoff.

“Who elected these NCAA people? Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?” Abercrombie said at a press conference Thursday on Capitol Hill, gripping a souvenir University of Hawaii football.

I’m afraid these guys have let their enjoyment of the game get a little out of hand.

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More blog links from Bob Morris of Politics in the Zeros (where I blog about antiwar, global warming, Left politics, etc.)

Subtopia, the amazing "field guide to military urbanism," has the scoop on the migrant detention center being built at Gitmo to house 10,000 people in case, y'know, there's a boat crisis or something.

Hawaii activists convinced a sugar plantation to burn sugar cane scrap to fuel an ethanol plant rather than coal. Using local biomass is way more carbon-friendly as it eliminates shipping coal from the mainland and the traditional burning of cane in the fields - and also saves the owner money. So, everyone wins. We need more solutions like this.

Ecosocialism joins green with red, saying we need new economic structures to deal with global warming and peak oil.

4th Generation Warfare is the military doctrine that says small, non-state players can damage and sometimes defeat much larger, more powerful forces - something with direct relevance to all manner of conflicts today.

And who would have guessed My Boyfriend is a Twat, her hilarious (and totally workplace safe) blog, would turn into a book?

Send tips to bob (at) polizeros (dot) com.