7 Days Until Election Day
October 28, 2008
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
-Ronald Reagan
MORNING UPDATE:
ONLY 7 DAYS LEFT…THIS IS IT…WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!
FIGHT TO THE FINISH TOUR…Republican leaders and elected officials are traveling throughout our state this week to help lead the final push towards Election Day. It isn’t over until it’s over and Michigan Republicans are going to knock on every door we can, make every phone call we can and get every last piece of literature out in the voters hands. I hope to personally visit many of our Victory Centers and various Republican events to thank all of you who are out there making a difference!
CONGRESSIONAL & STATE REP CANDIDATES NEED YOUR HELP…in the final days of this campaign, we need to make sure we get all our fellow Republicans out to vote. It’s not just for the McCain/Palin ticket, but we have critical races down ticket that need our support. Please talk to your friends and neighbors…there will be some close races across Michigan and every vote counts.
HOOGENDYK TRIES TO CLOSE GAP…article notes Hoogendyk’s U.S. Senate popularity among small government, limited spending voters. Read more here…
GENESSEE COUNTY GOP…county Republicans continue their push for state rep candidate Paul Scott and many joined in a "Stop Obama" rally yesterday in Grand Blanc. Michigan Republicans across the state are ready for the final "push" for all our candidates running down ticket! This is it…go for it!!!
REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH…SENT BY A FRIEND…I am going to become an actor and win an Academy Award. I expect to receive my "fair share" of audience, accolades and awards. Just because there are those who claim to be more talented, took risks, made sacrifices and worked hard at performing does not mean they should selfishly refuse to share the wealth with me. After all, I’ve been an audience member at live theatre, movies, concerts and television, paying into the system that rewarded an elite few at the expense of the rest of us. If that isn’t rationale enough for distributing the entertainment wealth, keep in mind that the incumbents all benefited from favorable tax treatment and free publicity. Should my acting appearances not bring an audience, the press should be ready to pounce on the public for being uninformed, bigoted and close-minded. If there are unfavorable reviews, I will simply state that the critics are "out of fresh ideas" and are doing nothing but trying to maintain the status quo. So vote for me at the Academy awards and never, ever, question my qualifications, preparation or performance skill. Sent by Michigan entrepreneur and philanthropist Richard Helppie.
MICHELLE OBAMA’S SNACK…so what does Michelle Obama eat while she’s on the road? Here is a copy of her hotel bill for an afternoon snack. Just a great example of "wealth distribution".
AND…if that’s not enough, listen to this radio interview where Barack Obama expresses disappointment that the Supreme Court didn’t do more to help with "wealth distribution". Look out America…change is coming?
VOTER FRAUD…concerns about voter fraud grows as ACORN and the Obama campaign push voter registration policies that have clearly cause thousands of illegal and ineligible voters to be put on the rolls. Voter fraud and registration fraud should be prosecuted to the broadest extent of the law to deter this kind of activity in the future. Elections should NOT be stolen…by either side.
ITALIAN AMERICANS…and other grassroots, independent organizations across the country are speaking out…every efforts helps.
A VERY POWERFUL VIDEO…RESPECT COST NOTHING…about our troops overseas and the price of freedom…please take a few minutes to view it.
JOIN US…DON’T BE FOOLED…IT’S CLOSER THAN THE PRESS IS PITCHING…GRASSROOTS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED…as we reorganize Victory Centers and Call Centers around the state, volunteers continue to make calls, knock on doors, and make contributions to fight for Republican candidates up and down the ticket. Please check this link for a Victory Center near you. We need you now, more than ever.
TEAM "BRAIN DRAIN" ANNOUNCES "GET OUT THE BRAIN DRAIN" ….GOTBD is coming to your city…Please join Republican Youth from across Michigan SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1st and SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2nd in two convenient locations for our final push! All Party activists young and old are welcome to help us defend our most valuable natural resources: Our college graduates.
PLEASE JOIN US BOTH DAYS FROM NOON TO 8PM FOR CALLS, DOORS, and Conservative COMRADERIE.
In West Bloomfield: Amy Peterman’s Office
Near the corner of Maple and Orchard Lake
Address: 5640 Maple Road, #304
Candidates: Pat Dohany, Amy Peterman, Gail Haines, Shelly Taub, David Law
RSVP: Anthony Markwort: [email protected] 517-243-5961
In Downtown St. Joseph: Candidate Contact Center
Address: 513 State St., St. Joseph, MI 49085
Candidates: Sharon Tyler
RSVP: [email protected] 517-331-5631
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Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………
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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.
Obama’s ‘Redistribution’ Constitution
The courts are poised for a takeover by the judicial left.
By STEVEN G. CALABRESI
One of the great unappreciated stories of the past eight years is how thoroughly Senate Democrats thwarted efforts by President Bush to appoint judges to the lower federal courts. Chad CroweConsider the most important lower federal court in the country: the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In his two terms as president, Ronald Reagan appointed eight judges, an average of one a year, to this court. They included Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, Kenneth Starr, Larry Silberman, Stephen Williams, James Buckley, Douglas Ginsburg and David Sentelle. In his two terms, George W. Bush was able to name only four: John Roberts, Janice Rogers Brown, Thomas Griffith and Brett Kavanaugh.
Although two seats on this court are vacant, Bush nominee Peter Keisler has been denied even a committee vote for two years. If Barack Obama wins the presidency, he will almost certainly fill those two vacant seats, the seats of two older Clinton appointees who will retire, and most likely the seats of four older Reagan and George H.W. Bush appointees who may retire as well. The net result is that the legal left will once again have a majority on the nation’s most important regulatory court of appeals.
McCain Seizes On Gaffes Of Democrats
By Stephen Dinan
Monday, October 27, 2008
MESILLA, N.M. | When Republicans began booing the mention of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. at a McCain rally on Saturday, Sen. Lindsey Graham told them to cut it out. "Oh, no, no, no, no, keep talking, Joe, please," Mr. Graham, a close confidant of Mr. McCain’s, told the crowd – and for good reason. At this point, Sen. John McCain’s campaign message is almost entirely a response to gaffes from Mr. Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Most of the ads the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee have announced in the past 10 days are based on Mr. Obama’s "spread the wealth" comment to "Joe the Plumber" or Mr. Biden’s guarantee that enemy nations will create a crisis early in an Obama administration. Mr. McCain’s stump speech is almost entirely a riff on those two comments, which he uses as a chance to counterpose his own tax plans and to promise that he’s already been tested as a national security leader.
McCain says Bush wrong on economy
by Mike Glover
Monday October 27, 2008,
CLEVELAND – Republican John McCain says he’s breaking with President Bush’s economic policies and would put a tight lid on government spending. Speaking in Cleveland on Monday, the Republican presidential candidate bashed Democratic rival Barack Obama but also made clear he would steer a different economic course than the current administration.
As McCain put it: "We both disagree with President Bush on economic policies. My approach is to get spending under control."McCain says his plan will create millions of jobs, protect savings and get the stock market rising again. McCain spoke after meeting with economic advisers including former rival Mitt Romney and former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp.
Almost Everyone Would Do Better Under the McCain Health Plan
His tax credit is larger than the current tax subsidy for insurance.
By ROBERT CARROLL
The McCain health-care insurance tax credit may well be one of the most misunderstood proposals of this presidential election. Barack Obama has been ruthless in his attacks. But the tax credit is highly progressive and will provide a powerful incentive for people to purchase health insurance. These features under normal circumstances should endear Democrats to the proposal. There has been a lot of rhetoric and misstatements, but what exactly does Sen. McCain have in mind? He would replace the current income tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with a refundable tax credit — $5,000 for those who purchase family coverage and $2,500 for individual coverage. Mr. McCain would also reform insurance markets to stem the growth in health insurance premiums.
What many may not realize is that the federal government already "spends" roughly $300 billion to $400 billion through the tax code to encourage people to pay for their health care through employer-sponsored health insurance. This subsidy takes the form of the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance from both income and payroll taxes. Still, some 45 million Americans are uninsured; and the growth in health-care spending continues to outpace the growth in incomes and the economy, which portends further increases in the number of uninsured. The employer-based system itself is eroding. Voters should be wondering whether there is a better approach than this subsidy.
McCain attacks Obama on redistribution
October 28, 2008
John McCain yesterday sought to use a seven-year-old radio interview to buttress his argument that Democrat Barack Obama wants to redistribute wealth.
The interview – first reported by the Drudge Report and highlighted by conservative bloggers and websites – was with a Chicago radio station on Sept. 6, 2001, while Obama was an Illinois state senator and a law school lecturer.
Obama, talking about the civil rights movement and Supreme Court, says: "I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order [and] as long as I could pay for it I would be OK. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society."
Palin: Dems will raise taxes, ‘punish hard work’
by Matthew Barakat
Monday October 27, 2008
LEESBURG, Va. – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says Democrats would raise taxes and "punish hard work." The Alaska governor spoke Monday as she began a three-city swing through conservative Virginia, where Democrat Barack Obama is challenging the state’s 40-year preference for Republican presidents.
Palin told a cheering crowd in Leesburg, outside Washington, that Obama would raise taxes while she and Republican hopeful John McCain would cut them and freeze government spending. She also warned that voting for Democrats in the Nov. 4 election could give the party too much power. As Palin put it: "If big government spenders control the House and the Senate and heaven forbid the White House, they will have a monopoly in Washington."
Halloween Palin Prop Sparks Controversy In WeHo
Oct 27, 2008 6:39 pm US/Pacific
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) – A Halloween decoration showing a mannequin dressed as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hanging by a noose from the roof of a West Hollywood home is drawing giggles from some passers-by and gasps of outrage from others. The mannequin is dressed in brunet wig, glasses and a red business suit. Another mannequin dressed as John McCain emerges from a flaming chimney.
Chad Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told CBS 2 News that drivers and bus passengers have been stopping to snap pictures of the macabre scene. Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other time of year, but it’s within the spirit of Halloween.
White House says Big Three financing arms could get bailout
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday automakers’ financial arms could get a government bailout. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that GMAC, Ford Motor Credit and Chrysler Financial could be part of the Trouble Asset Relief Program — the $750 billion Wall Street rescue package approved by Congress. "It’s possible that some of those financing arms could be a part of the rescue package — the TARP, as they call it at the Treasury Department. So that’s why — that’s one of the reasons Treasury has been in contact with them," Perino said.
The White House said it was monitoring the automakers mounting woes. "It’s clear that the automakers are dealing with a very serious situation, they have been for some time. And I know that the Energy Department, the Treasury Department, and Commerce Department have been in contact with the automakers," Perino said.
She said they were working to finalize regulations to provide $25 billion in low-cost direct loans to automakers and suppliers that were signed into law Sept. 30. "We’re working as quickly as we possibly can to get those regulations finalized."
Sheriff: Kilpatrick must pay $60 a day for jail stay
George Hunter / The Detroit News
DETROIT — Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans intends to keep disgraced ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick safe from "fringe lunatics" during his stint in the jail, Evans said Monday morning, a day before Kilpatrick begins serving his four-month sentence.
Evans said he’ll keep other inmates away from Kilpatrick and make sure he has respectful deputies watching the mayor in his "spartan" room on the jail’s second floor.
The sheriff, who is running for mayor in February’s primary, said inmates such as Kilpatrick are lightning rods for both inmates and deputies. Evans said "no one is ambivalent" about high-profile inmates, "you either love them or hate them."
Wayne Huizenga wants to sell Dolphins before Barack Obama raises tax
Obama campaign disputes figures
By Sarah Talalay
October 27, 2008
Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Sunday no date has been set for selling up to 45 percent more of the team to Stephen Ross, but the presidential election is among the issues weighing on his decision. That’s because a Barack Obama administration is expected to mean higher capital-gains taxes.
"He wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it," Huizenga said. "I’d rather give it to charity than to him." Ross purchased 50 percent of the team and Dolphin Stadium for $550 million earlier this year with the intention he would eventually become majority owner. NFL owners approved the eventual transfer this month, meaning it can take place anytime.
