131 Days until Election Day

June 26, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

CONNIE BINSFELD DINNER TONIGHT…with Governor John Engler as our special guest up in Traverse City. Local Republicans are raising money for a plaque to honor Connie at our headquarters.

PRESIDENT BUSH FIRES UP THE TROOPS…with a stirring speech he delivered in Livonia last night. Hundreds of volunteers and donors showed up to hear the president and support our efforts for the fall election. He did a great job, honoring some of our first responders, thanking some Boy Scout heroes and firing up our Republican activists to fight on this fall and send John McCain to the White House.

CHANGE…OBAMA’S PROMISE…is something we need to understand. The President highlighted the “change” the Democrats were offering. Higher taxes, a cut and run strategy in Iraq, more government, and a false sense of optimism….it sounds like Granholm’s promise to “blow us away”. Unemployment…foreclosure…deficit spending…thanks to the Democrats.

BUSH PUSHES HOOGENDYK, TAYLOR AND THE STATE HOUSE…as he talked about how important it was to send good Republicans to fight for a stronger Michigan and America. He also thanked AG Mike Cox and Sheriff Mike Bouchard for their service to our state and the GOP!

GREAT NIGHT FOR THE MICHIGAN GOP…as everyone who attended attested to. We are excited and united to elect John McCain the next President of the United States.

SPECIAL THANKS…to Dinner Chairman Attorney General Mike Cox and some of our top ticket sellers State Representative Bill Huizenga and Ingham County Chairman Norm Shinkle. Great teamwork by all involved. Thanks again!

LATEST GALLUP POLL…TIED…McCain and Obama are tied in the latest national Gallup Poll…45% each! These are great numbers for us at this stage of the race.

WHY THIS ELECTION MATTERS…RAPE…The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.
In a 5-4 vote, the court says the law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in cases of child rape violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. We can’t afford any more liberal judges…the kind Obama would appoint.

VOTER FRAUD…is it really an issue. Check this site to get a better idea of what we might be up against this fall. http://www.gop.com/ycmtu.htm

ATTENTION REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES, CAMPAIGN MANGERS, AND ACTIVISTS…The Michigan Republican Party, in partnership with the Republican National Committee, is excited to announce…GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) TRAINING SEMINARS (more below).

 

 

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GOTV TRAINING SEMINARS…led by the RNC’s Political Education Team, are a great resource for first time candidates and campaign managers, as well as veterans alike.

Also very valuable for grassroots activists who simply want to get involved to help elect our Republican candidates at all levels!!

WHO: Any Republican candidate for office (any level) or grassroots activists

WHAT: GOTV Training (putting together a campaign, essentials of voter contact, Voter Vault training, and more)

WHEN: Two identical seminars to chose from:

SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
Saturday, June 28th
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Ram’s Horn Restaurant Banquet Center
56129 Van Dyke, Shelby Twp 48316

MID MICHIGAN
Sunday, June 29th
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Radisson Lansing Hotel
111 N. Grand River Avenue, Lansing 48933

COST: FREE….lunch included!! SPACE IS LIMITED!
PLEASE RSVP by Wednesday, June 25th to JASON GEER (jgeer@migop.org or phone: 517-487-5413).

 

 

 

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

 

 

Bush touts McCain’s experience, judgment at Livonia fund-raiser

BY KATHLEEN GRAY and ERIC LAWRENCE • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 25, 2008

His approval ratings may be at historic lows, but President George W. Bush still attracted more than 300 people who wrote checks totaling about $500,000 for a Livonia fund-raiser this afternoon to support Republican candidates in the 2008 election.

“Hey, he’s human,” said Susan Evans, 36, of Rochester Hills, who was one of about half a dozen people who stood at the steps of Air Force One and greeted the president when he arrived Wednesday afternoon at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus.

“Everything is cyclical with the economy, especially in Michigan, but you have to look at all sources to blame. With Bush, you have to look at him from a historic perspective,” she said.

Bush visits Michigan, says McCain will win state

by The Associated Press
Wednesday June 25, 2008, 5:44 PM

LIVONIA — A jovial President Bush spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of 300 Republican donors, promoting Michigan candidates and presidential hopeful John McCain.

The president said he thinks that, with Michigan Republicans’ hard work, McCain will win the state in November.

He said the country needs a leader who is up the challenges the nation faces, including war, natural disasters and economic troubles.

Granholm, lawmakers have deal on state budget

Posted by David Eggert | The Associated Press June 25, 2008 18:21PM

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Top lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday tentatively agreed to a spending plan for state government next year, leaving some key details such as school funding to be sorted out by negotiators in coming days.

The state would spend about $44.4 billion in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, or 1.8 percent more than this year. That is at least $400 million less than what Granholm proposed in February.

Her budget plan had to be trimmed because Michigan’s sluggish economy is generating less tax revenue than expected. The federal economic stimulus plan, a poor housing market and successful new state tax subsidies luring the movie industry to the state also will shrink the budget, according to state economists.

Budget boosts school funds

Lawmakers, governor reach deal that would increase spending by about $72 per student.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm have reached agreement on a new budget that will result in about a $72 per-pupil average increase in the basic state K-12 grant to public school districts throughout Michigan.

The amount is not final under Wednesday’s deal, but rather is a goal that will have to be finalized in House-Senate conference committees that today will start putting the closing touches on departmental budgets that make up the $44-billion state spending plan.

Matt Marsden, press spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, confirmed that leaders and Granholm had come to an understanding on the budget late in the afternoon.

‘Reform’ petition is a grab for control of the courts

The Detroit News

Getting rid of some state lawmakers and cutting politicians’ salaries may sound good — but it’s sucker bait for a power grab of this state’s judiciary. The effect of a so-called government reform petition being circulated for the fall ballot primarily would be to oust a number of elected Republican judges.

The ballot proposal would rewrite substantial portions of the state Constitution. This is not the proper way to do so.

The ballot proposal is being circulated by a group called Reform Michigan Government Now. Its spokeswoman, former Democratic state Rep. Dianne Byrum, declined to say whether the petition drive has the financial support or organizational backing of the state Democratic Party, commenting only that it would file a statement when required by state law, which is this August.

Worthy hires extra staff for mayor’s case

Ten temporary workers to cost cash-strapped Wayne County $400K for five months.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT — Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has hired 10 temporary employees — seven attorneys and three investigators — to help cover the extra work generated by the criminal investigation and prosecution of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Worthy said Wednesday.

The extra hires will cost the county $400,000 for the five months between May and September, county officials said. The total cost will depend on how long the Kilpatrick prosecution lasts and how long Worthy needs to keep them onboard.

Worthy’s prosecution of Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty on perjury and other felony charges related to the text message scandal — already controversial because of the nature of the case and the high office Kilpatrick holds — is stirring further controversy due to its expense as the county faces a $33 million budget deficit and the possible layoffs of more than 100 employees.

McCain-Obama So Far: Positively Negative

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008; Page A06

A campaign between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain once offered enormous possibilities for something new. Instead, the two presumptive nominees have opened their campaigns for the White House with what looks and sounds like a repeat of the kind of politics both have promised to leave behind.

Since Obama (D-Ill.) wrapped up the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, he and McCain (R-Ariz.) have served up a series of indignant exchanges over foreign policy, terrorism, the economy, energy and campaign money. Their aides have gone further, with snarling put-downs in conference calls and taunting e-mails that flow constantly out of the Chicago and Crystal City headquarters.

McCain vows U.S. energy independence by 2025

‘Lexington Project’ still omits ANWR drilling
Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Thursday, June 26, 2008

Sen. John McCain vowed Wednesday to break OPEC’s stranglehold on U.S. energy and to have the country achieve what he termed “strategic” energy independence by 2025, saying he will pursue almost every option for conservation and new production.

“Never again will we leave our vital interests at the mercy of any foreign power,” Mr. McCain said in a speech in Las Vegas, casting energy as a national security issue and calling for “new production, building nuclear plants, perfecting clean coal, improving our electricity grid, and supporting all the new technologies that one day will put the age of fossil fuels behind us.”

Assessing the Dem Primary Fallout

Posted by TOM BEVAN

Since the end of the Democratic primary the $64,000 question has been, “how many Hillary Clinton supporters were so disappointed and disillusioned by the outcome that they won’t support Obama and will cross over and vote for John McCain this fall?”

It’s an impossible question to answer, especially at this point in the campaign when the general election is just barely underway. But we do have some recent polls that give us a glimpse at where things stand right now.

In addition to breaking down the general election vote by party, the most recent Fox News and Newsweek polls drilled down to focus on how Hillary Clinton primary voters are indicating they will vote in November.

Justices Bar Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child

By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: June 26, 2008

WASHINGTON - The death penalty is unconstitutional as a punishment for the rape of a child, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The 5-to-4 decision overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana and five other states. The only two men in the country who have been sentenced to death for the crime of child rape, both in Louisiana, will receive new sentences of life without parole.

The court went beyond the question in the case to rule out the death penalty for any individual crime - as opposed to “offenses against the state,” like treason or espionage - “where the victim’s life was not taken.”

147 Days until Election Day

June 10, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

MICHIGAN BUSINESS TAX….the new and worst version of the Single Business Tax… The Granholm Fix. Check out how to take advantage of some of the new tax breaks.
http://www.rightmichigan.com/section/Multimedia

OBAMA’S RECORD ON TAXES…doesn’t make sense for Michigan. Barack Obama’s self-proclaimed “change we need” should read instead as the change Michigan working families cannot afford after an examination of the Democrat’s record shows a long list of supporting Democrat tax increases that have raised the cost of living on middle class families. More below.

OBAMA BACK IN MICHIGAN…for a third time in less than a month. Michigan is a battleground state and Obama has to explain why he boycotted our state for 2 years, why he bashes the domestic auto industry, why he thinks Jennifer Granholm’s failed tax and spend policies will work in America….look what they have done here.
If you like what Jennifer Granholm has done for Michigan, you’re going to love what Barack Obama is going to do to America.
Taxing production, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship is NOT going to work. A huge increase in the federal government, government programs, and government spending is NOT going to help our economic situation. Obama is wrong for Michigan…and wrong for America. Pay attention folks, it’s going to cost us dearly.

OBAMA’S LEGISLATIVE RECORD…here is an interview that Chris Matthew’s conducted asking about Obama’s legislative record…his accomplishments…it almost hurts to watch it…almost J
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2008/06/obamadoesnt-hav.html

ELLY PETERSON RIP…longtime Republican activists and former State Chair died this week. She was 95. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.

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Michigan Republican Party Press Release:

Obama’s Agenda will skyrocket MI’s cost of living
Déjà vu for Michigan residents as Democrats select Obama
Nominee has record of raising taxes and failed judgment

LANSING - Barack Obama’s self-proclaimed “change we need” should read instead as the change Michigan working families cannot afford after an examination of the Democrat’s record shows a long list of supporting Democrat tax increases that have raised the cost of living on middle class families.

Barack Obama voted 94 times for tax increases that raise the cost of living on working families in just three short years as a U.S. Senator. As a candidate, he has promised higher income taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and tax hikes on job creating businesses. Less than a year after Granholm and Democrats rammed the largest tax increase down the throats of Michigan families and small businesses, Obama’s seemingly limitless spending proposals will continue the Democrat’s assault on Michigan’s middle class.

“Obama’s laundry list of taxes is all too familiar to Michigan residents,” said Daniel Acciavatti, Republican vice-chair of the House Appropriations committee. “Michigan families and businesses have been battered with more taxes than they can afford, an ever increasing cost of living, and remain the nation’s leader in unemployment.”

“Obama continues to ignore Michigan’s feeble condition as he voices support for change, change through more taxes. We need change we can afford. Government needs to live within its means, led by a proven leader who has a record of frugal fiscal responsibility,” added House Republican Leader Craig DeRoche.

Last year, residents of Michigan were promised by their governor that her tax only cost pennies, but those pennies to date have exceeded $85 billion taken from taxpayers’ pockets-the cost of living has soared and will continue to increase through the Obama agenda. During just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes. Obama’s record is too familiar to the businesses and families, the victims of Michigan’s economic recession since Democrats have controlled the executive branch and state House.

“I am shocked he has the audacity to suggest we can afford this change. He doesn’t understand Michigan’s economy, he continues to lambaste the auto industry, and unfortunately Michigan residents have seen first hand that further taxation will remove more families from prosperity and place them into the gripe of poverty, he is not ready to be president,” Acciavatti said.

 

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

 

Obama courts Michigan, focuses on economy

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Barack Obama kicked off a two-week campaign swing Monday seeking to focus the presidential campaign on the economy — a tour that will include stops in Michigan next week.

Aides said Monday that Obama will be in Detroit for a fundraiser at the Renaissance Center, and a public event of some sort — though there were no details on the event.

Obama’s third visit to Michigan in a month will focus on the No. 1 issue for Michigan voters and those in most other states across the country: the economy.

Council trio to gov: Drop mayor action

Letter to Granholm says Kilpatrick didn’t deceive them on whistle-blower case.
Christine MacDonald and David Josar / The Detroit News

DETROIT — A faction of the City Council opposed to ousting Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is urging Gov. Jennifer Granholm not to remove him, saying they weren’t deceived into an $8.4 million whistle-blower settlement at the heart of the mayoral scandal.

Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers sent a letter May 27 that asks Granholm to refrain from using state powers that allow governors to unseat elected officials for misconduct. The letter disputes the council’s claim that Kilpatrick violated the city charter, claiming there is “no factual basis whatsoever” that members were duped into the deal.

That claim is “self-serving for some,” an apparent dig at Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who backs Kilpatrick’s removal and would temporarily become mayor.

Ex-Kilpatrick bodyguard files whistle-blower suit

By BEN SCHMITT and M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 9, 2008

A former bodyguard for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick filed a whistle blower lawsuit today claiming he was harassed and intimidated during his tenure on the security detail and told by supervisors to keep quiet during an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by the mayor and his inner circle.

Officer Tony Davis, who now works in the department’s gaming division, filed the lawsuit Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court, laying out serious of allegations which include mayoral philandering

One of Kilpatrick’s lawyers, Jim Parkman, called the lawsuit “ridiculous,” during an evening press conference in response to the allegations.

City contracts for mayor’s friend to get a second look Detroit
Panel to review water main bids

BY BEN SCHMITT and M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 10, 2008

A Detroit City Council committee placed a hold on two water-main contracts Monday totaling about $4.4 million that were destined for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s friend Bobby Ferguson, citing a need for further analysis.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel told members of the Public Health and Safety Committee to hold off on sending the contracts to the full council until other bids are re-examined.

“There is a question of appearances,” Cockrel said of Ferguson’s close relationship to the mayor after Monday’s hearing. “And a question of setting proper boundaries.”

Congress, Get Off Your Gas, and Drill

By Chuck Norris

Last Thursday, oil prices increased $5.50 per barrel in one day. Last Friday marked the biggest single-day surge in oil price history, rocketing $11 more to $138 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In just two days, oil costs increased 13 percent.

Average Americans literally are driving to the poorhouse on financial fumes. With gas at $4 per gallon, roughly two cars in every household, and the average annual gas usage at 700 gallons, you do the math. Americans are being forced to use their hard-earned money that once put food in their stomachs to put petroleum in their tanks and to drive the exact same distances they drove a decade ago for four to five times the price.

McCain says using Google to vet VP candidates

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - It turns out choosing a vice president isn’t that complicated after all.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain joked on Monday that Google, the popular Internet search engine, had made investigating his list of potential candidates a little bit easier.

“You know, basically it’s a Google,” he said to laughter at a fund-raising luncheon when asked how the selection process was going. “What you can find out now on the Internet — it’s remarkable.”

Obama Veep Vetters Meet Pelosi, Other Top Dems

Right now, according to a Democratic aide, former deputy AG Eric Holder and Perseus LLC vice chairman James Johnson are meeting on with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The meeting is in Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill.

Here’s what this tells me:

The veepstakes process is in the information gathering phase; the vetters will interview dozens of Democratic officials and get a sense from them what they think about any number of candidates and potential issues. After the information gathering phase comes the vetting phase, where candidates turn over reams of information and sit through hours-long interviews with discrete lawyers.

Dream On

by The Editors

The race for the Democratic presidential nomination may be over and Barack Obama may be its winner. But the Clinton family drama goes on. Early this week, as the final primaries took place and the mathematical reality of delegate counts became impossible to deny, Hillary Clinton let it be known that, yes, she’d consider accepting the vice-presidential nomination if Obama offered it to her. The statement gave instant political credibility to an idea already popular in some quarters. For many of Clinton’s disappointed supporters, putting her on the ticket is a moral imperative: By virtue of her close second- place finish in delegates and popular votes, Clinton earned the vice presidential nomination. To more disinterested observers, choosing Clinton would represent a savvy strategic choice: During the primaries, her strongest support came primarily from those voters–the white working class and Latinos– with whom Obama has famously struggled. Putting Clinton on the ticket, according to this argument, solves that problem. It is, say proponents of the scheme, a true Dream Ticket.

What Should Hillary Do Now?

A Symposium
Tuesday, June 10, 2008; 12:01 AM

Now that she’s officially announced the end of her presidential campaign, what’s next for Hillary Clinton? The Post asked five opinion leaders, representing a variety of viewpoints, to weigh in. Here are their responses:

John Zogby, pollster and president of Zogby International:

As his basketball career was coming to a close, Bill Bradley wrote eloquently about what happens when the lights dim and the cheerleaders and fans start following the younger starts. He did just fine proving that there are second acts in life. Other great second acts include Ted Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, who both reached for the brass rail but found their meaning in the Senate. Jimmy Carter defines second-act stardom, his most effective years coming after his presidency.

Elly Peterson: 1st woman to lead state Republicans

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF • June 10, 2008

Elly Peterson made history as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party in 1965 — the first woman to head either state party.

She made a mark recruiting young moderates to run for office in what was then a moribund party.

She made waves in 1982 when she endorsed Democrat James Blanchard for governor over Republican nominee Richard Headlee, whom she labeled too conservative.

 

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  Why are we paying for our own copies of the US CONSTITUTION?!

148 Days until Election Day

June 9, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

OBAMA’S LEGISLATIVE RECORD…here is an interview that Chris Matthew’s conducted asking about Obama’s legislative record…his accomplishments…it almost hurts to watch it…almost .

CARD CHECK…Protect the workers’ right to a secret ballot. The vast majority (around 81%) of Americans believe that American workers have a right to have a secret ballot election before they are forced to join a union. Last year the House Democrats passed a bill that would strip American workers of the secret ballot. A new bill should be introduced reaffirming that right, and it should be brought up again and again until marginal Democrats are forced to vote with the American people against the union power structure.  This, coming from a Teamster.

TALK RADIO 1400 AM…I’ve become a weekly guest on the Hughes Sullivan Show on WDTK-AM 1400, which is broadcast in metro Detroit every evening.  I am scheduled to regularly appear Mondays and Fridays between 8:15-8:45 pm. Good, conservative talk radio.  You can hear it here.

THE BIG SHOW…every Tuesday morning, Democrat State Chair Mark Brewer and I go head to head on WJIM with Michael Patrick Shiels and discuss the issues of the day.  The Big Show is heard statewide on many local stations.  You can hear it online at here.

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No further commentary today.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Barack Obama returns to Michigan next week

Posted by The Associated Press June 09, 2008 04:52AM

DETROIT — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will hold a campaign stop and a fundraiser in Detroit on June 16.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois senator made the announcement Sunday.

It will mark Obama’s third campaign stop in Michigan in a little more than a month.

Obama Maps a Nationwide Push in G.O.P. Strongholds

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
Published: June 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - Senator Barack Obama’s general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging Senator John McCain in typically Republican states - from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana - as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said.

On Monday, Mr. Obama will travel to North Carolina - a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 32 years - to start a two-week tour of speeches, town hall forums and other appearances intended to highlight differences with Mr. McCain on the economy. From there, he heads to Missouri, which last voted for a Democrat in 1996. His first campaign swing after securing the Democratic presidential nomination last week was to Virginia, which last voted Democratic in 1964.

Obama’s VP hand

Monday, June 9, 2008

Barack Obama has considerable time to undergo the kind of vetting process he will need to select the best possible running mate. He already has exposed his hand (unlike his chief opponent, Republican John McCain.) The most important factor is putting together a winning ticket now that Democratic primary and caucus voters have proven that theirs is a party deeply divided.

Mr. Obama announced his vice-presidential selection team following his victory over Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Already, he has come under fire, and rightly so. Mr. Obama is being criticized for naming former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder as one of three people vetting his vice-presidential selection. Mr. Holder (who had previously served as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia), failed to notify the Justice Department and New York prosecutors during the Clinton administration’s consideration of a pardon for Marc Rich - the tax-evading, illegal-trading, racketeer billionaire, who avoided prosecution by fleeing to Switzerland and renouncing his citizenship. Then-President Clinton pardoned Mr. Rich during the closing days of his second term.

A Campaign We Can Believe In?

By William Kristol
Published: June 9, 2008

Hillary Clinton’s concession speech Saturday was the story of the weekend. But the dueling speeches by John McCain and Barack Obama on Tuesday night, after the last primaries, are what voters - and campaign operatives - should be revisiting.

McCain chose to speak early in the evening, before the polls closed in South Dakota and Montana, thereby getting the jump on Obama. He read a disjointed set of remarks at a badly staged rally at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, La. Here’s part of an e-mail message I received as McCain spoke, from a Republican who admires him: "They could have done so well tonight, shown a tone of confidence. Instead it looks like a bad Congressional race: dumb green puke background, small crowd … Makes me want to cry."

Campaign Adds to Complicated Clinton Legacy

By JOHN M. BRODER and ROBIN TONER
Published: June 9, 2008

WASHINGTON - Bill and Hillary Clinton have stirred virulent passions in their nearly two decades in the national spotlight. They have been known as many things, good and bad - brilliant policy analysts, manipulators of facts and friends, tireless campaigners, skillful political tacticians, monumentally self-absorbed baby boomers. But most of all they were known as winners.

Until now.

Mrs. Clinton, who survived public humiliation as first lady and then easily won two Senate races in New York, entered the 2008 presidential primary season as the odds-on favorite because of money, connections and celebrity. But through a series of blunders and the appearance of a once-in-a-lifetime opponent, Mrs. Clinton saw the prize slip through her grasp despite a valiant personal effort that lasted through the final contests in South Dakota and Montana.

Debate still rages on impact of tax cuts

David M. Dickson THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Monday, June 9, 2008

At a White House event last week commemorating the fifth anniversary of the 2003 tax cuts and the seventh anniversary of the 2001 tax cuts, President Bush hailed the "52 months of uninterrupted job growth" that commenced shortly after the 2003 tax cuts were passed.

"There’s no question that the tax cuts provided economic vitality," Mr. Bush said.

However, politicians and economists disagree about the extent of the economic benefits generated by the tax cuts.

Biz tax, surcharge threat to job creation

Stardock Corp. is the kind of company Michigan could use more of.

It’s a 21st century technology and entertainment company. It makes computer games and software. It employs 55 people. Revenue this year may reach $18 million.

But it may be leaving Plymouth Township because its state tax liability has soared from about $1,200 under the Single Business Tax to as much as $168,000 under the Michigan Business Tax, with its surcharge. (See story, Page 1.)

Mayor Kilpatrick’s pal thrives on Detroit water dept. contracts

Change orders pump up cost of Ferguson’s deals; Kilpatrick, water board deny there’s favoritism
Robert Snell and Ron French / The Detroit News

DETROIT — A friend of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s has received at least $170 million in city contracts — $109 million from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department alone — since the mayor took office in 2002.

Bobby Ferguson, who has been at the mayor’s side at black-tie social events and on the backs of motorcycles, has long claimed the relationship hurts his general contracting company’s ability to land contracts. But an analysis of records by The Detroit News shows his share of water department contracts has jumped more than 20-fold since Kilpatrick took office. Half of them have doubled, tripled or almost quadrupled in price because of additional work — a cost that is spread among customers in 126 communities across southeast Michigan.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel called The News’ analysis "explosive."

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should have skipped Wings’ parade

June 9, 2008

The mayor should have stayed away Friday.

Instead, Kwame Kilpatrick made himself part of the story during the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup championship reception at Hart Plaza. The volume and decibel level of the booing were so deafening, you would have thought Matt Millen just stepped on stage.

I asked Wings owner Mike Ilitch on the ice at Mellon Arena following the clinching victory Wednesday night if he thought Kilpatrick should be present at the celebration, despite his political and legal difficulties. And Ilitch told me he couldn’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t be there.

I said I could think

Right-to-work laws benefit states, workers

Douglas C. Buckler’s recent commentary ("Right-to-work laws hurt business climate," May 30) grossly mischaracterizes the economic benefits of allowing workers to freely choose whether or not to associate with a union.

Buckler suggests that right-to-work states suffer economic "penalties" for protecting workers from coercive unionization. While it’s hardly surprising to find a union official defending an arrangement that ensures his organization can pay him using the dues workers must pay or be fired, his selective use of statistics fails to capture the numerous economic advantages of Right to Work states.

The National Institute for Labor Relations Research has published a response to the deceptive, union-backed study cited by Buckler. The institute demonstrated that states that protect employees’ freedom of association enjoy higher real wages and lower costs of living. In other words, workers’ paychecks go much further in economically vibrant right-to-work states because the goods they purchase are significantly more affordable.

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149 Days until Election Day

June 8, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

CAMPAIGN SCHOOL…ends, after over 50 managers for various State Representative campaigns finished a 3-day, intensive campaign strategy and tactics seminar.  We feel we have recruited one of the strongest classes of candidates from across the state and are helping provide them with the tools to prepare for the fall campaign.

STATE COMMITTEE…ended with the adoption of the rules for the August state convention, which will be going out to all State Committee and County Chairs.  We also passed a resolution to consider Newt Gingrich’s Platform for the American People at our state convention, encouraging the national Platform Committee to consider adopting as many of those planks as possible.

STATEWIDE CANDIDATES…attending this weekend’s meetings included University of Michigan Regent candidates Carl Meyers and John LaFond…Wayne State Board of Governors candidates Torion Bridges and Danialle Karmanos and State Board of Education candidate Scott Jenkins.

McCAIN CAMPAIGN….coming to Michigan.  Scott Greenlee, Holly Hughes and Matt Hall updated us on the progress of the various campaign efforts.  We hope to have operations open and on the ground sometime next week.  There was a lot of excitement and commitment to take Michigan on behalf of Senator McCain.

WEST MICHIGAN FOR WALBERG… Doug DeVos, J.C. Huizenga, Mike Jandernoa and Steve Van Andel are hosting a luncheon fundraiser June 16th at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel from 12:00pm to 1:30pm.  For more information and RSVP contact Sandra Baxter at (616) 803-0496 or email her at SandraBaxterE@aol.com.

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No further commentary today.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Clinton throws ‘full support’ to Obama

By BEN SMITH | 6/7/08 2:37 PM EST

In the final speech of her bid for the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton said things that she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, say during the 16 months she spent running for president.

She offered an unstinting, repeated endorsement of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, putting to rest any suggestion that she would play coy after a bruising primary campaign.

And she broke what had been a disciplined silence on women’s rights and women’s grievances, expressing an open feminism that she’d deliberately understated during the campaign.

How choosing Hillary would reflect on Obama

An axiom. When voters watch a presumptive presidential nominee considering this or that running mate, they think: What if the president dies? When the presumptive nominee considers this or that running mate, he thinks: What if I live?

Which brings us to the dotty idea that Barack Obama should choose to have Hillary Clinton down the hall in the West Wing, nursing her disappointments, her grievances and her future presidential ambitions while her excitable husband wanders in the wings of America’s political theater with his increasingly Vesuvian temper, his proclivity for verbal fender benders and his interesting business associates. That this idea survived her off-putting speech Tuesday night, after Obama won the right to choose a running mate, is evidence that many Democrats do not fathom the gratitude that less-blinkered Americans feel for Obama because he has closed the Clinton parenthesis in our presidential history.

After some of the boilerplate geographic pitter-patter that today’s candidates consider Periclean eloquence (" … from the hills of New Hampshire to the hollows of West Virginia … "), she obliquely but clearly identified herself as the person who would be "the strongest candidate and the strongest president" and, pointedly, the person most ready to "take charge as commander in chief." There is a fine line between admirable tenacity and delusional denial, and Clinton tiptoed across it.

For Clintons, an old dream finally fades

By JOHN F. HARRIS | 6/7/08 12:29 PM EST

This is not the end of the Clinton story. If we know anything about Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton it is that there is always another chapter, and it will not fail to be interesting.

But her departure from the presidential race Saturday almost certainly does mark the end of the longest and most important thread of the Clinton story.

For nearly 40 years, the presidency has been the organizing principle of their lives together. Her appearance at the National Building Museum to thank supporters and endorse Barack Obama represents the final, fading light of a shared dream.

Granholm, four other Michigan superdelegates endorse Obama

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

The core of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s support in Michigan threw its support to Sen. Barack Obama today, releasing a list of endorsements as Clinton suspended her campaign and gave her full-throated support to Obama as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Saturday’s endorsements came from Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Lt. Gov. John Cherry and U.S. Reps. John Dingell, Sander Levin and Dale Kildee.

"More than any other state in the nation, Michigan needs a president who will fight for Michigan and our working families," Granholm and Cherry said in a statement released just after Clinton completed her concession speech in Washington.

Some Clinton supporters refuse to back Obama

by Kyla King | The Grand Rapids Press
Saturday June 07, 2008, 7:22 AM

GRAND RAPIDS — Sen. Hillary Clinton may be ending her campaign Saturday and endorsing Sen. Barack Obama as the democratic presidential nominee, but don’t expect the same from Judy Hackett, one of Clinton’s Grand Rapids supporters.

The 67-year-old will not be voting for Obama and wishes her preferred candidate would start a "third independent party."

"I would never vote for him even if she’s on the ticket," said Hackett, a retired social worker. "There would be a lot of Republicans I would not vote for; I would just stay home.

More states go into play for presidency

Almost precisely at the midpoint between the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the general election on Nov. 4, the general election campaign is on. Neither party’s nominee swept the primaries. John McCain’s narrow popular vote margins in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and most of the Super Tuesday states, combined with the Republicans’ winner-take-all delegate allocation rules, effectively gave him the Republican nomination on Feb. 6. Mike Huckabee made it official by withdrawing after the March 4 Texas and Ohio primaries.

Barack Obama’s big delegate margins in caucus states, combined with Democrats’ proportionate representation rules, gave him what proved to be an insurmountable lead in February, when he won 11 straight contests. Hillary Clinton carried the popular vote (unless you allocate all the "uncommitted" votes in Michigan to Obama), but could not overtake Obama’s delegate lead. The super-delegates gave Obama a delegate majority by the evening of the last primaries on June 3. It took Clinton another 24 hours to decide to end her candidacy, after it became clear that Obama wouldn’t be stampeded into making her his vice presidential nominee.

State House hoists anti-business flag

CEO Magazine asked the top executives of 605 American companies to rank the states based on the best and worst places to do business. Michigan finished third from the bottom.

But don’t worry — House Democrats are working for all their worth to claim the No. 1 worst state title for Michigan.

Since the start of the year, the Democratic-controlled House has moved a flurry of bills that, if adopted, would make Michigan even less competitive for jobs and investment. Among them:

• An identity theft package that would require businesses to notify individuals each time their personal information is transferred outside the company’s data base. The result would be a costly paperwork nightmare for nearly every business and organization in the state that maintains computer files on customers, members or employees.

State House fuss over Ford Airport funds may be misguided

Posted by Ken Kolker | The Grand Rapids Press June 07, 2008 23:12PM

GRAND RAPIDS — State House Republicans are expressing outrage over what they call political games by Democrats that could cost Gerald R. Ford International Airport millions of dollars and leave two projects on the drawing board.

But airport officials say the situation is not as dire as it is being portrayed locally, and some of the critics concede they are fuzzy on facts.

"I don’t know the details of what the projects are, but I know they’re crucial," said state Rep. Kevin Green, R-Wyoming, who is quoted in a Republican press release slamming Democrats and describing the potential loss of $9 million in federal funds to Ford airport.

Don’t bet on Fieger fallout

Case won’t faze campaign finance law, experts say
BY DAWSON BELL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 8, 2008

Geoffrey Fieger’s acquittal in federal court last week — cleared of campaign finance crimes after admitting to reimbursing friends and employees for their campaign donations –might make some people believe such practices are kosher.

But don’t count on it.

Campaign finance experts contacted by the Free Press last week were unanimous in their view about what Fieger’s acquittal means for the future of campaign finance law enforcement: next to nothing.

Imposing fiscal discipline

Newt Gingrich
Sunday, June 8, 2008

total spending must be less than total revenue. Of course, just because this model is simple doesn’t mean it is easy to achieve. However, it is possible.

I know because from 1995 to 1997, John Kasich, Budget Committee Chairman; Bill Archer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman; Bob Livingston, Appropriations Committee Chairman; Majority Leader Dick Armey and I worked to balance the federal budget. We applied a set of common-sense principles that worked, leading to budget surpluses from 1997 to 2000.

First, we were prepared to reduce discretionary spending, eliminate waste, challenge traditional inefficiencies and take on fraud. We also were ready to tell stubborn bureaucracies they had to achieve more with less, just like the private sector had been doing for years.

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Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking of producing a podcast of district news and events summed up in a 30 minute show or even a continuous stream over the Internet.

 

But of course, I cannot do this alone.. If you have a microphone and can talk and produce a simple wav file for me to cut and edit your in!

 

Contact me if you are interested in helping out in the project.

 

Webmaster@firstgopblogs.com

 

Keith Almli

150 Days until Election Day

June 7, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:FDR’S D-DAY PRAYER…President Franklin Delano Roosevelt leads the nation in prayer on June 6, 1944 as the Greatest Generation launched its mightiest battle of the Second World War. This prayer was replayed around the country yesterday.

PIZZA & POLITICS…a big success as usual. State Committee meets this morning.

CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT SCHOOL…ends a second day, into the final stretch as we prepare to battle for a conservative, Republican House majority.

FLINT TV…Genesee County Chair Denise Graves and I taped the Republican response to the Democrats "dream ticket" of Obama and Clinton yesterday. I said that dream ticket will be a "nightmare for America." Watch "Newsmaker" on channel 12 Saturday and Sunday. Tax and spend policies don’t work…see Michigan.If you like what Governor Granholm has done for Michigan…you’ll love what Barack Obama is going to do to America.This will be a race about McCain’s experience, knowledge and judgment vs. Obama’s inexperience. Who’s ready to be Commander in Chief?

PANDER ALERT…writes NBC Political Director Chuck Todd and his Team in their excellent political blog Frist Read: "Obama’s lucky we’re all so obsessed with secret meetings, because his apparent reversal on Jerusalem — telling AIPAC that the city must remain "undivided" and then backtracking yesterday by saying …that the city should be up to negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians - could be used by McCain as an example of inexperience. Did Obama, in his exuberance to win over Jewish voters, just say what the group wanted to hear regarding Jerusalem? Or did he not realize what he was saying? All in all, this wasn’t a good moment for Obama." He’s just another politician who will say anything to get elected.

MEET BARACK OBAMA…the new web page launched by the Republican National Committee…the more you know, the more you and your neighbors will worry.

QUESTIONS FOR OBAMA…FROM GEORGE WILL…like only George Will can ask them. If you haven’t seen these, please take the time to go to the original article.

FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING…RE-START NUCLEAR POWER…America wants peace and prosperity. We need to become less dependent on foreign oil and have more domestic sources of power. Cheap, reliable and affordable energy will change the world. More below.

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- NUCLEAR POWER…is the world’s largest source of emission-free energy. Nuclear power plants produce no controlled air pollutants, such as sulfur and particulates, or greenhouse gases. The use of nuclear power in place of other energy sources helps to keep the air clean, preserve the Earth’s climate, avoid ground-level ozone formation and prevent acid rain.Nuclear power has important implications for our national security.

Inexpensive nuclear power, in combination with fuel cell technology, could significantly reduce our dependency on foreign oil.Nuclear power plants have experienced an admirable safety record. About 20% of electricity generated in the U.S. comes from nuclear power, and in the last forty years of this production, not one single fatality has occurred as a result of the operation of a civilian nuclear power plant in the United States. In comparison, many people die in coal mining accidents every year and approximately ten thousand Americans die every year from pollution related to coal burning.

More information here and here.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The followingstories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Job Losses and Surge in Oil Spread Gloom on Economy

By PETER S. GOODMAN / The New York Times

The unemployment rate surged to 5.5 percent in May from 5 percent - the sharpest monthly spike in 22 years - as the economy lost 49,000 jobs, registering a fifth consecutive month of decline, the Labor Department reported Friday. The weak jobs report, coupled with a staggering rise in the price of oil - up a record $10.75 a barrel to more than $138 - unleashed a feverish sell-off on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down nearly 400 points. The dollar plunged against several major currencies.

Text Message Scandal: Mayor, Beatty forced to talk

BY JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick can be questioned under oath in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Free Press, Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. ruled Friday. The judge rejected the mayor’s claim that his pending criminal case offered him blanket protection under the Fifth Amendment to refuse to testify.

City boards move to recoup $30M from Kilpatrick backer

Christine MacDonald and David Josar / The Detroit News

DETROIT — Two city employee pension funds may be out as much as $30 million in loans that helped a member of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s legal defense fund buy a freight airline company.

Boos drown mayor’s speech

George Hunter and Catherine Jun / The Detroit News

DETROIT — For the first time in memory, Detroit hockey fans booed free beer. That’s because it was Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick making the offer.

Woes, expectations mount for DPS chief

BY ROCHELLE RILEY • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

The Detroit Public Schools budget deficit has grown from $45 million to $65 million — and could grow higher, Superintendent Connie Calloway said.

Bush weighs more economic stimulation

BY TERENCE HUNT • ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush is considering new measures to help stimulate the battered economy, the White House said Friday as unemployment and oil prices soared and Wall Street sank.

Canvassers: Schauer can run for Michigan’s 7th District seat

Posted by Kathy Barks Hoffman | The Associated Press

LANSING — State Sen. Mark Schauer has enough valid signatures to run for Michigan’s 7th District congressional seat, despite allegations of fraud by fellow Democratic candidate Sharon Renier, the Board of State Canvassers said Thursday.

McCain campaign says lean mode will win

By: Mike Allen Politico.com

Advisers to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters Friday that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will get a sharp bounce in the polls that could last most of the summer, but they said Republicans have built a muscular campaign that can prevail in a brutal political environment. "We’re not the Obama campaign - and don’t NEED to be," said one PowerPoint slide showing during a during a 100-minute strategy briefing aimed at reassuring donors and supporters while rebutting press skepticism about McCain’s campaign structure.

Veepstakes: Pawlenty Aims to Raise Profile Within GOP

By Chris Cilliza / The Fix

Publicly, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) demurs when asked about his interest in serving as John McCain’s running-mate. Privately, however, Pawlenty is doing all the right things to make sure he keeps his name in the mix as spring turns to summer.

Laura Berman: Clinton’s defeat crushes women

They counted on her, clamored for her. And when Hillary Clinton’s defeat came, many women took it like a body blow.

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By Nick, Section News
Posted on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 07:08:22 AM EST

Hey, look mom, renewable energy!  And from trash!  The Grand Rapids Pressreports this morning on a big win-win for Kent County residents and the private sector as a deal has been struck to tap the county landfill for it’s methane gas.  

A county board Thursday approved a $6 million project that will turn methane gas produced by rotting garbage at the South Kent Landfill into renewable energy.

County officials said the landfill is expected to produce 3.2 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power 2,000 homes.

It also will generate profit for the county: an expected $380,000 a year to begin with and as much as $787,000 annually by the year 2030, Department of Public Works Director Douglas Wood said…

Bonus, the company tapping the gas is going to build a community education center to teach kids on field trips about alternative energy production.  And unlike the city of Lansing, it doesn’t look like there are any immediate plans to tax those field trips here in Kent County.

Of that $6 million up front cost Granger, the private sector waste disposal folks behind the deal, is going to cover two thirds.  That leaves taxpayers with a $2 million investment that by the most conservative estimates will be paid back in the next five years.  (There have been no reports of discussions about imposing any sort of extra tax or fee to up-front that two-mil either.  Neither will it be accompanied by a rate hike at the meter.)

Figure that takes us through 2014… If we’re pulling in only $500,000 a year between then and 2030, a much more conservative estimate than the County’s, that’d pump $8 million into the coffers. 

Oh, and by the way, the more garbage in the dump the more methane is produced the more the taxpayers benefit.  And that’s just on the public side of things. Granger is, last time I checked, a job maker.  That means this deal is going to create jobs.  Now just imagine if the Democrats weren’t so incensed by the idea of importing garbage to open dumps via the free market process.  Suddenly we’d be talking about a whole mess of new jobs and even larger County profits.

Read on…

Full Story

By Nick at RIGHTMICHIGAN, Section News
Posted on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 12:06:12 PM EST

Traveling with Dick DeVos during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign I heard him sound what became a familiar caution again and again.  At the time the national economy was (and in many ways still is) going gangbusters in it’s post-Clinton recession / 9/11 recovery.  Expansion was good.  Job growth was steady and new jobs numbered in the millions.  Revenues to the US Treasury were at record levels.  But Michigan lagged painfully behind.  Heck, we were headed in the exact opposite direction.  

Many Michiganders had the perception that what was happening in Michigan was happening nationwide.  That everyone was in recession.  DeVos’s caution?  What passed for leadership in Lansing was doing far more harm than good and Michigan was in danger of missing an entire national recovery.  And nothing good could come from that.

That warning shot immediately to mind when I read the headlines in almost every news outlet this morning.  `Jobless rate jumped to 5.5%,’ they screamed.  `Increase biggest rise since ‘86, payrolls cut by 49,000.’

Here in Michigan we look at 5.5% and laugh.  Not a little snicker but a full, hearty, deep-from-the-gut sort of laugh.  Five point five?  Child’s play.

Sadly, we’re not unlike Monty Python’s Black Knight.  So used to being rendered by Lansing the nation’s official economic backwater we’ve become accustomed to lunacy.   Go ahead, sever a leg.  "That’s just a flesh wound!"

But with the left political opportunism trumps reality a thousand times out of a hundred.  I’ll go out on a limb here and make a daring prediction.  Both the regressisphere and the MSM will attempt to use these new national unemployment numbers to hammer the Bush administration and John McCain.  They will simultaneously ignore the Democrat controlled Congress.  And here in Michigan?  They’ll continue to ignore the legacy being built by "leaders" like Jennifer Granholm, John Cherry, Mark Schauer and Andy Dillon.

So how do you respond without pulling out your hair in frustration?  The facts, ma’am.  Just the facts.  Today’s MSM reports cite Bureau of Labor Statistics data based on seasonally adjusted non-farm payroll.  So where do we stand here in the land of long-standing Dem leadership?

National unemployment (May): 5.5%
Michigan Unemployment (April, latest): 6.9%

Jobs lost nationally in May: 49,000
Jobs lost in Michigan (January-April): 30,400

National population: 304,267,395
Michigan population: 10,071,822

That’s 3.3% of the nation’s population.  Three point three percent suffered in four months time more than 3/5ths the number of job losses inflicted on the other 97% of the nation during this sudden, fearsome, ballyhooed economic collapse. 

But things get much scarier when you look at the broader track record during Granholm and Cherry’s time in the Executive Office.  Since taking their oaths on the Capitol steps in early 2003 Michigan has lost 272,000 jobs.

One state.  Pure Dem controlled Michigan.

The broader United States during the same period of time?  From 130,183,000 to 137,754,000 for an overall gain of 7,571,000 jobs. 

Is that giant-sized national recovery over?  We Michiganders had better hope not.  Democratic leadership lost a quarter of a million jobs here at home while things were going so well beyond our borders… I’d rather not imagine what things might look like if the storm clouds gather nationally.  But suddenly, frighteningly Dick DeVos looks that much more like a prophet.