50 Days Until Election Day
September 16, 2008
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“I say there are simple answers to many of our problems–simple but hard.”
– Ronald Reagan
“It’s the complicated answer that’s easy, because it avoids facing the hard moral issues.”
– Winston Churchill
MORNING UPDATE:
REFORM TEAM COMES TO MICHIGAN…GRAND RAPIDS…McCAIN & PALIN… Wednesday, September 17 at Grand Rapids Community College at 4:30 for a “Straight Talk Town Hall Meeting”.
SORRY…but the tickets were scooped up within hours…when we turned off the reservation website, we had well over 3,000 more reservations that couldn’t be filled. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience…and disappointment.
CLIFF TAYLOR…Chief Justice Cliff Taylor continues to campaign across the state to retain his seat on the Supreme Court. Our conservative majority is critical to continue holding off the trial lawyers and activist Democrats who would love to legislate from the bench. Remind your local activists, Taylor for Supreme Court!
SCHAUER vs WALBERG…Mark Schauer is not only the deciding vote for the largest tax increase in Michigan’s history, but one of the Democrat leaders who pushed through this crazy tax…and now he’s trying to claim he “helped” Michigan businesses. Michigan is the ONLY state in the country to lose jobs 6 years in a row…we cannot TAX ourselves out of a recession. Schauer is part of the problem!
PETERS vs KNOLLENBERG…Gary Peters has been “teaching” at Central Michigan University while running for office. As Lottery Commissioner, he worked to expand gaming in Michigan. Joe Knollenberg has been delivering results for Oakland County and Michigan. Oakland County shouldn’t gamble on Gary Peters to get results.
FORBES PROPOSES BREAK UP OF FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC…in what is the boldest, yet the most common sense approach to the government bailout of the mortgage market, Steve Forbes proposes that these “two corrupt, mismanaged monsters” be broken up into 12 new companies…to help avoid backing the U.S. government into another bailout.
OBAMA & McCAIN ICE FISHING…so why does experience count? Check it out.
POVERTY…DEMOCRATS…so what is the correlation if any? Glenn Beck wrote an interesting article that lays out some of the problems and challenges.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED…we are opening up new Victory Centers daily and need more and more volunteers to make phone calls, knock on doors and put up lawn signs. The response has been overwhelming, but Michigan will be the key battleground state and we need EVERY person willing to help in anyway they can. Thanks again for all you do! For more info click here:
JACK HOOGENDYK FOR U.S. SENATE …to follow the latest on Jack’s campaign to defeat Carl Levin go to: http://www.jackformichigan.org/news/
THE BIG SHOW…every Tuesday morning, Democrat State Chair Mark Brewer and I go head to head on WJIM with Michael Patrick Shiels. We discuss the issues of the day the The Big Show is heard statewide on many local stations. You can hear it online at http://www.wjimam.com/article.asp?id=505870
************************************************************************
FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:
Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………
************************************************************************
THE REST OF THE STORY:
No further commentary today.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
Bad voter applications found
Clerks see fraudulent, duplicate forms from group
BY L.L. BRASIER
September 14, 2008
Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.
The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN’s Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.
Race, economy lead Mich. voters to waver on Obama
By Kathy Barks Hoffman
Associated Press Writer / September 15, 2008
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich.-Michigan’s history of racial tensions is tugging against its Democratic tendencies, giving Barack Obama fits in a state where almost everything else — a soaring unemployment rate, a shrinking auto industry and a depressed housing market — potentially benefits Democrats.
The first minority candidate with a serious shot at the presidency is not running as well as his Democratic predecessors among working-class whites in this pivotal Midwestern swing state, partly because of the color of his skin.
“I’ve got a lot of friends … (who) are like, ‘Oh, no'” when it comes to voting for a black presidential candidate, said John Martin, a 42-year-old Democrat from Macomb County’s Harrison Township who backs Obama. “They’re all working people, all in unions, plumbers and stuff like that. … A few of them have said they’re not even going to vote.”
Levin, Granholm urge passage of stimulus plan
9/15/2008, 12:29 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Michigan Democrats Carl Levin and Jennifer Granholm want Congress to approve a plan to stimulate the economy before the fall elections.
Senator Levin and Governor Granholm said on a teleconference with reporters Monday the plan should help states such as Michigan recover from the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and help rebuild roads and bridges.
Democrats want the plan to extend unemployment benefits, help states meet the demands for Medicaid and promote the research and development of alternative energy sources.
Cindy McCain says her husband would bring jobs to Michigan
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
PONTIAC — Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, said her husband would be the right man for the White House and the right person to help Michigan’s troubled economy. “He is not a man for all times but a man for these times,” said McCain Saturday evening during a 15-minute speech at the 119th Annual Lincoln Day Dinner. “He is someone we need right now.”
McCain spoke during the dinner, which was held at the Centerpoint Marriott. She said she was especially proud of her husband and his choice for a vice-president candidate.
“Sarah Palin has added such a spark for this race,” McCain said. “She is a tough reformer. She is someone who would not back down. My husband and Governor Palin would have the opportunity to rebuild and bring jobs to Michigan. The strength of the two will be remarkable.”
OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS’ IRAQ WITHDRAWAL
Amir Taheri
WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview. Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”
Give ’em Hell, Sarah
Like Truman, a natural-born executive.
by Steven F. Hayward
09/22/2008, Volume 014, Issue 02
Lurking just below the surface of the second-guessing about Sarah Palin’s fitness to be president is the serious question of whether we still believe in the American people’s capacity for self-government, what we mean when we affirm that all American citizens are equal, and whether we tacitly believe there are distinct classes of citizens and that American government at the highest levels is an elite occupation.
It is incomplete to view the controversy over Palin’s suitability for high office just in ideological or cultural terms, as most of the commentary has done. Doubts about Palin have come not just from the left but from across the political spectrum, some of them from conservatives like David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, and George Will. Nor is this a new question. To the contrary, Palin’s ascent revives issues and arguments about self-government that raged at the time of the American founding and before. Indeed, the basic problems of the few and the many, and the sources of wisdom and virtue in politics, stretch back to antiquity.
It’s Not Just Palin — Its the Message
By Joe Trippi
There is no question that John McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has changed the dynamic of the 2008 Presidential campaign, moved the current wave of polling to the GOP’s favor, and altered the terrain the rest of the election will likely be fought on. The Obama campaign’s ability to recognize the shifting ground, understand that it is real, and adjust accordingly will determine the outcome. And the outcome, for the first time, is in doubt.
The Obama campaign went into the Democratic National Convention believing that the race would be fought out on Washington experience and “more of the same” vs change. This was essentially the same frame of the race the Obama camp had sustained for the first 16 months or so of the nominating fight with New York Senator Hillary Clinton. It worked in the primaries until the Clinton campaign shifted from “35 years of experience” to a much more “woman for change” oriented message in the later stages of the fight and nearly came back to win the nomination.
Palin spells out her role in McCain administration
9/15/2008, 7:42 p.m. EDT
By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) – Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Monday she would concentrate on energy, government reform and helping families with special needs children if Republicans win the White House this fall, and drew cheers when she said, “too often government is the problem” rather than the solution.
Campaigning on her own, the Alaska governor also said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama “wants to raise income taxes and raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise business taxes and raise the death tax.
Rangel Pledges Cleanup of Records
New Discrepancies Emerge on Privately Sponsored Trips and the Sale of Florida Condo
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; Page A10
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) says he will hire a forensic accountant to untangle his confusing and error-prone financial records and eventually will make public his tax returns and the accountant’s report.
The announcement yesterday came as Rangel faced new questions about his annual financial disclosure filings, prompting a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to discuss his ethics troubles. Enveloped by three separate ethics inquiries, Rangel is under increasing pressure to step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee until the investigation is complete.
Ex-top aide to Detroit mayor rejects plea deal
9/15/2008, 6:08 p.m. EDT
By ED WHITE
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) – The former top aide to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick chose trial over jail Monday, refusing to plead guilty in a City Hall sex scandal and make a deal like one that is forcing her ex-boss from office.
“Everything was overly harsh. You know that because there was no acceptance,” Christine Beatty’s attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said outside court. Kilpatrick, a Democrat, leaves office Thursday after recently pleading guilty to two felonies and agreeing to a four-month jail sentence.
