661 Days until Election Day
January 17, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds."
– Samuel Adams
MORNING UPDATE:
NEWT GINGRICH…RIGHT MICHIGAN posts the video they recorded of Newt Gingrich speaking at the Mackinac Conference this last year…not a bad commentary. See their commentary and Newt’s commentary about me…
RNC CHAIR’S RACE WEB VIDEO…over 1,200 viewers watched this video the first 24 hours we posted it. I discussed the challenges the Republican party faces and how we need to be prepared to take on and challenge the Democrats where appropriate. You can see the 3 minute video here.
MICHIGAN REPUBLICAN PARTY CONVENTION INFORMATION…see below for details.
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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:
Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………
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THE REST OF THE STORY:
2009 MICHIGAN REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION
February 20 & 21, 2009 | Lansing Center
Click here for driving directions
Click here for hotel information / reservations
Tentative Schedule of Events | *Subject to Change*
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT CAUCUSES
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Times: 6:00pm – 7:45pm | Districts 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14
8:00pm – 9:45pm | Districts 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15
Location: Various rooms | Lansing Center, Lansing
Purpose: Election of congressional district officers / executive committee members
Election of state committee members
GENERAL SESSION
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Location: Exhibit Halls A, B & C | Lansing Center, Lansing
Purpose: Election of state party leadership
State Chair / Co-Chair
Administrative Vice Chair
Coalitions Vice Chair
Ethnic Vice Chair
Grassroots Vice Chair
Outreach Vice Chair
Youth Vice Chair
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
[email protected]
OR
517-487-5413
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
Study shows big drop in states’ tax collections
January 16, 2009
ALBANY, N.Y. – A new report shows that the weakening national economy is causing a large drain on states’ tax collections.
The Rockefeller Institute of Government estimates that tax collections in all 50 states declined by roughly 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the same three months in 2007.
The fourth quarter’s decline followed a 3.2 percent increase in third-quarter tax collections to a total of $180 billion nationally. Researchers say that uptick was due in part to a sharp increase in oil taxes in Alaska, where third-quarter tax collections jumped to $2.9 billion from $659 million a year earlier.
Rescue of U.S. banks hints at nationalization
Edmund L. Andrews
January 16, 2009
WASHINGTON: Last fall, as Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials rode to the rescue of one financial institution after another, they took great pains to avoid doing anything that smacked of nationalizing banks.
They may no longer have that luxury. With two of the nation’s largest banks buckling under yet another round of huge losses, the incoming administration of Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve are suddenly dealing with banks that are "too big to fail" and yet unable to function as the sinking economy erodes their capital.
Particularly in the case of Citigroup, the losses have become so large that they make it almost mathematically impossible for the government to inject enough capital without taking a majority stake or at least squeezing out existing shareholders.
Beware of the Big-Government Tipping Point
Socialized health care fundamentally changes the relationship between citizens and state.
PETER WEHNER and PAUL RYAN
For most of our nation’s history, our approach to economics has favored enterprise, self-reliance and the free market. While the American economy has never been entirely laissez-faire, we have historically cared more about equality of opportunity than equality of results. And while Americans have embraced elements of the New Deal, the Great Society and progressive taxation, we have traditionally viewed welfare as a way to help those in dire need, not as a way of life for the middle class. We have grasped, perhaps more than any other nation, that there is a long-run cost to dependency on the state, including an aversion to risk that eventually enervates the entrepreneurial spirit necessary for innovation and prosperity.
This outlook, once assumed, is now under attack due to a recent series of political and economic events.
Nation in crisis has high expectations for Obama
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
January 17, 2009
In person, Barack Obama’s trim shoulders don’t seem big enough to bear the weight he’ll take on when he’s sworn in Tuesday as the nation’s 44th president.
Deep recession. Two inherited wars. Global threats.
The mantle of first African-American president.
Obama hitting the road to sell his economic plan
January 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — Seeking an early victory on a top priority, President-elect Barack Obama is pitching workers in the ailing Midwest on his plan for some $825 billion in new spending and tax cuts to spur the troubled economy.
The president-elect on Friday was to tour a northern Ohio company that manufactures parts for wind turbines, a fitting backdrop to promote alternative energy dollars included in the mammoth stimulus package that could top $1 trillion by the time Congress sends it to the White House.
Obama’s campaign-style event is the first of a series he’s expected to hold to generate support for his plan to pull the country from recession. His trip comes a day after the Senate approved giving him access to the second half of last fall’s $700 billion financial industry bailout and after House Democrats unveiled a stimulus plan largely shaped by the president-elect’s team.
Martin Schram
January 17, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was eager to hit the ground running in 2009. Then, with the cameras rolling, he planted his first step firmly on an upturned rake. Thwack.
We can only hope the Lesson of Roland Burris left a lasting impression on the Senate leader. But so far, all we have seen is that the Democratic leader has much to learn about leading his newer, stronger majority in a new age that is driven not by the old muscle politics, but by the power of streaming video politics.
Facing the multiple crises of an economy in shambles, two wars and a conflagration in Gaza, Mr. Reid started 2009 by picking a fight he should have known he and his party were never going to win. And then looking bad losing it.
By Greg Sheridan
THE final word on George W. Bush’s foreign policy belongs, perhaps, to his successor, Barack Obama, who will be inaugurated as president of the US next week. In his most wide-ranging television interview on foreign policy, Obama was asked last week whether he stood by a remark he made in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which has been constantly shelled by Hamas rockets from the Gaza Strip. Obama said that if his town, where his daughters slept each night, was constantly being attacked by rockets he would want to do something about it.
In the light of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the TV interviewer asked if Obama still felt that way?
He replied: "That’s a basic principle of any country: that they’ve got to protect their citizens."
Rice departs predicting a world free from tyranny
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Capping four years as the Bush administration’s top diplomat, a teary-eyed Condoleezza Rice bade a spirited farewell Friday to an assembly of several hundred State Department employees.
Rice was greeted by thunderous applause as she appeared in the building’s C Street lobby to thank the staff in optimistic oratory that echoed President George W. Bush’s 2005 Inauguration speech in which he said he would fight for freedom in every nation with the "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
Rice said her own story — the first black woman to serve as secretary of state — showed how far the United States has come in making its ethnic, religious and racial diversity a catalyst for social progress.
Israel says it’s close to end of Gaza offensive
IBRAHIM BARZAK and AMY TEIBEL
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israel said Friday it was close to winding up its offensive against Hamas, and diplomats in Washington said the U.S. will provide assurances on ending weapons smuggling into Gaza as part of a cease-fire.
However, Hamas’ Syrian-based political chief Khaled Mashaal rejected Israeli conditions for a cease-fire and demanded an immediate opening of the besieged territory’s borders.
"I hope we are entering the end game and that our goal of sustained and durable quiet in the south is about to be attained," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.
Fresh Clues of Iranian Nuclear Intrigue
GLENN R. SIMPSON and JAY SOLOMON
WASHINGTON — U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles.
Iran’s efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper — which can be used in missile guidance systems — from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of Beijing. One March 2008 email between the firms mentions shipping 215 ingots, with more planned.
