45 Days Until Election Day

September 20, 2008

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"For I have learned the truth: There are greater pursuits than self-seeking. Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. It is not a prize for being the most clever, the strongest, or the boldest. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself. No misfortune, no injury, no humiliation can destroy it. This is the faith that my commanders affirmed, that my brothers-in-arms encouraged my allegiance to. It was the faith I had unknowingly embraced at the Naval Academy. It was my father’s and grandfather’s faith. A filthy, crippled, broken man, all I had left of my dignity was the faith of my fathers. It was enough."
-John McCain in Faith of my Fathers

MORNING UPDATE:

PBS POLL ON SARAH PALIN…PBS has a short video on Sarah Palin on their website. Also included is a poll that asks: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be VP?  Here’s the link:

VOUNTEER YOUTH EFFORT…CALLING ALL COLLEGE REPUBLICANS…The Michigan Republican Party launched its "Brain Drain Express" in a coordinated effort to stem Michigan’s loss of human resources. The MIGOP Youth Counts! Initiative, the parent program of the express, is a logistical support tool for state-wide GOP efforts. The program seeks to do three things. It seeks to raise awareness that under current Democrat leadership in the Michigan house and the governor’s office, the state continue to lose its most valuable natural resource; college graduates.  It also delivers critical volunteers to candidates who are running to stem Michigan’s Brain Drain as well as provides networking opportunities to politically and public policy minded teenagers, college students, and young adults across the state. 

Every weekend from now until the election Michigan students will be picked up from campuses across Michigan and transported to state house districts where they are needed most. The Brain Drain Express will be making stops in cities across the state; from Escanaba to Saint Joseph. At each stop students will get a chance to see a little more of the state they call home as well as campaign for candidates who don’t want to see them leave.  For more information please contract Program Director Anthony Markwort at mailto:[email protected]

CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE…yesterday I participated on a panel discussion on why conservatives and libertarians should vote for McCain.  Hundreds of conservative leaders and activists from around the country gathered for this conference…it was a great networking opportunity for all.  Over 600 participants from around the country gathered to discuss strategies for conservative activists and the current political climate.  A great conference…people do believe!

NEWT ON SARAH PALIN…this is a video you MUST see.  Newt Gingrich does a great job explaining why the far left Democrats are freaking out about Sarah Palin and don’t know how to handle this "conservative" woman.  Please view it.

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.

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.

MSU v NOTRE DAME…off to catch the game of the week!  Have my McCain lawn signs ready for the tailgate…love the "open" discussions on presidential politics on game day!

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

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

Start Your Engines: Michigan Will Have A Real Race This Year

By HENRY PAYNE

Last year, the Big Three auto makers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union reached a historic labor agreement. In a move, fundamental to domestic automakers’ competitiveness, the union reluctantly agreed to restructure workers’ salaries and benefits and give Detroit a chance at erasing the $1,500 per-car labor-cost edge Japanese auto makers enjoy. This altered the state’s political landscape in ways the Obama campaign has yet to understand.

Without the new labor contract, Detroit would have little hope of turning a profit on small cars as consumers shun gas-guzzling SUVs. And there would be no talk of $25 billion in federal loan guarantees to retool Detroit for the future because without the agreement there wouldn’t be a future for Ford, Chrysler or General Motors.

This is the backdrop for the presidential campaign in Michigan. Ironically, the "change" candidate in the race, Barack Obama, fought the labor agreement.

Obama, McCain campaigns expand Michigan presence

9/19/2008, 5:08 p.m. EDT
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

LANSING, Mich. (AP) – With fewer than 50 days left until the election, Republicans and Democrats are opening up new campaign offices and recruiting more volunteers around the state.

The increase comes as Republicans feel new energy from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joining presidential candidate John McCain on the GOP ticket and as Democrats see Sen. Barack Obama picking up support amid the week’s financial turmoil.

Democrats and the Obama campaign are preparing to open their 45th campaign office on Saturday, while Republicans and the McCain campaign have opened 22 campaign offices and plan to make that 30 within two weeks.

Pinning The Tail On The Donkey

By Michael Reagan
September 19, 2008

When I was a little boy we used to play a game where we wore a blindfold and tried to put a slip of paper on a drawing of a donkey we couldn’t see. I thought of that as I watched the chattering class, blindfolded and frantically trying to pin the blame for the Wall Street debacle on everything but the real donkey, the Democrats, whose symbol is… guess what?

Right, a donkey, and that’s where the blame lies, on Barack Obama’s Democratic Party. To find the donkey you need to go back to the Clinton administration, which decided that everybody and his kid brother was entitled to a mortgage even when they didn’t begin to qualify for a home loan.

In saner days, banks designated certain areas as no-loan zones — depressed neighborhoods where lending money to potential home buyers was not just a risky investment, but a certain future foreclosure. Critics of the practice called it "redlining" and President Clinton and his chums on Capitol Hill decided that banks should no longer act like banks and lend money only to home buyers who could afford to handle the monthly payments. Now all bets would be off and people not the least bit creditworthy — and speculators — would be entitled by law to obtain mortgages even when it was obvious they couldn’t afford to handle them.

McCain Wins Endorsement of Democrat

By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER

As Barack Obama and John McCain battle for the Hispanic vote, a leading Latino backer of Hillary Clinton is crossing party lines to support the Republican presidential nominee.

In an interview Thursday, Miguel D. Lausell, a Puerto Rican businessman and longtime Democratic activist and fund-raiser, came out for Sen. McCain. While he said he doesn’t agree with all the policy positions of the Republican candidate and his running mate, Sarah Palin, Mr. Lausell added: "I find McCain to be a sound person and a man with a track record. I know where he is coming from." Mr. Lausell had been a major backer of Bill Clinton and served as a senior political adviser to Sen. Clinton’s unsuccessful bid this year for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Lausell said he feels Sen. Obama "doesn’t really regard the Hispanic community as important." Sen. Clinton won a large majority of the Hispanic vote in most primaries, and Latino voters are an important bloc in swing states such as Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. Most polls show Sen. Obama leads Sen. McCain among Latinos.

McCain says Fed should stop government bailouts 
 
Sep 19 09:27 AM US/Eastern
By BETH FOUHY
 
GREEN BAY, Wisc. (AP) – John McCain says the Federal Reserve needs to stop bailing out failed financial institutions. Addressing a business group in Wisconsin, the Republican presidential hopeful said the Fed should get back to what he called "its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation."

The Fed engineered an $85 billion takeover of insurance giant AIG this week, one of a series of failures of major financial companies that have rocked Wall Street. The government seized control of housing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae earlier this month.

U.S. Bailout Plan Will Have Massive Price Tag

Liz Moyer,

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will spend the weekend finalizing a plan to rescue the ailing banking system by buying up toxic assets, at a potential cost of "hundreds of billions of dollars." "We must now take further, decisive action to fundamentally and comprehensively address the root cause of our financial system’s stresses," Paulson said at a press conference Friday.

"I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative–a continuing series of financial-institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion." The announcement comes amid growing consensus in Washington that the federal response to the credit crisis has fallen short of a solution that would restore confidence and stability in the financial markets. The creation of a new entity to deal with the crisis is just one solution being explored. Paulson said he hoped Congress could act next week on the plan. Markets soared for a second day on the news.

Palin to Meet With Karzai

By Elisabeth Bumiller

Sarah Palin will meet with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during the United Nations General Assembly next week, an official at the Afghan embassy in Washington said. The official said that Ms. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee who has been governor of Alaska for 20 months, requested the meeting several days ago as part of an effort to become familiar with the leaders of key U.S. allies.

The official was unclear on what day the meeting would occur, but said it would be held without Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Mr. Karzai is expected to have telephone conversations with Mr. McCain as well as the Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama, during his trip to the United States.

Meanwhile, the Other No. 2 Keeps On Punching

By MARK LEIBOVICH

FLAT ROCK, Mich. – As the economy reels, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. – the Other Running Mate – has been absolutely butchering Senator John McCain across the Rust Belt this week. It is not clear who has noticed. "John is so out of touch, he just has no idea," charged Mr. Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who called his "old, dear friend" someone who "just doesn’t think," who is behaving in a repugnant manner and who is peddling "Republican garbage," and malarkey.

The older woman who introduced him at a rally here called Mr. Biden’s Republican counterpart, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a "bucket of fluff," and he rewarded the woman as he took the microphone with an "I love you" and a gentle kiss on the head. "If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry," Mr. Biden told a few hundred people gathered at a high school football field. Yes, he sounds angry, yelling through his stump speeches, flailing his arms and telling a (supportive) member of the audience to "Shush up, will you?" ("I’m kidding," he added, but did not sound it.)

Rangel pays IRS, complains of ‘guerrilla war’

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 19, 6:08 PM ET
 
WASHINGTON – Rep. Charles Rangel wrote six checks for about $10,800 in back taxes, and then penned an open letter to New Yorkers Friday, saying he has done nothing dishonorable and is the target of a GOP "guerrilla war."
 
Rangel, the dean of the New York congressional delegation, has faced a string of embarrassing revelations – he didn’t pay taxes on rental income for a beach house in the Dominican Republic; he used three rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, including one for a campaign office; he used his congressional stationery to drum up private donations to a college center named after him.

He ended up writing a number of checks to cover taxes due on his 2004, 2005, and 2006 returns, related to the unreported rental income, said his chief of staff, George Dalley.

Cockrel removes top Kilpatrick appointees on 1st day in office
New leader spares about a dozen department heads

BY ZACHARY GORCHOW
September 20, 2008

The ax fell on former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s top staff Friday. Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. broomed several powerful Kilpatrick aides: Anthony Adams, the interim water and sewerage director; Corporation Counsel John Johnson Jr., and Lucius Vassar, director of the Workforce Development Department.

Kandia Milton, Kilpatrick’s deputy mayor and chief of staff, also is leaving, but Kilpatrick preemptively removed him from his position Thursday, Milton said.

But Cockrel also kept at least 11 department or division directors from Kilpatrick’s administration, most notably Chief Operating Officer Cathy Square.