Articles of Interest 6-19-06
Boy Scout camp was great! We had 172 camper show up for the weekend and were able to get everyone settled in and lined up for the program ahead. My youngest son Marius received his boy scout tie, moving up from the cub scouts. I went through the same ritual 35 years ago and was proud as a father and Scout Master to have all four of my sons participate in scouting as their father and grand-father have before them. A little personal privelage, but it was a great weekend and I wanted to share.
Good news on the blog front…we are now averaging between 600-800 hits a day on our blog and periodically get some 1,300 to 1,800 when our blog is mentioned by one of the “national” blogs…either by link to a story or commentary. Considering we are only “6 months” old, this is a great accomplishment and much thanks is due to you for helping share the word and get out the link to other activists throughout Michigan.
We have a busy week ahead. Goal #1 is to get things set up for our Lincoln-Reagan Gala coming up June 26th at Meadowbrook. This is the State Party’s main fundraiser for the year and we really need all of your help. Dave Trott and Robert Shumake are co-chairing the event this year….we have been calling many of you and asking for your help…I hope you join us as we get ready for the fall elections. Senator John McCain will be our special guest.
The other fundraising event we are currently setting up is a series of “Dollar-A-Day” events with our RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. Ken will be in Michigan June 27, 28 & 29…traveling the state to discuss how important Michigan is in the upcoming elections and why he shares our enthusiasm for the races ahead. Nationally, pundits have continued to point to Michigan as an “island” or “unique opportunity” to take the U.S. Senate seat and the Governorship back into Republican hands. Please join us and hear one of America’s brightest political strategist share his insights with us. For more information on dates and locations go to:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/06/rnc_chairman_co.html
The last article in the clips is from national pundit Stuart Rothenberg who does an analysis of the Governor’s race here in Michigan. He calls it “Falling Star: What ever happened to Jennifer Granholm?”. Interesting.
Victory Centers are up and operational. We are recruiting callers, door-to-door volunteers and other activists to be part of what we hope will be the biggest grassroots effort ever put forward in Michigan. Please join us…we need your help!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1150633244118730.xml&coll=5
Should they stay or go? Deadline looms for Delphi, GM workers on buyout offers
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, June 18, 2006
By Matt Bach
mbach@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6330
It's a tough decision John Ebner has yet officially to make.
On one hand, the Shiawassee County resident could retire from Delphi Corp.'s Steering Gear Plant in Saginaw and get $35,000 in cash if he decides to leave by Friday's buyout deadline for General Motors and Delphi workers. Anyone taking a buyout must declare their intentions by Friday and retire by Jan. 1.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_1299216.html
Ford Motor to revamp three Mexican plants
Saturday, June 17, 2006 8:51:47 AM ET
NEW YORK, June 17 (newratings.com) – Ford Motor Co (F.NYS), the second-largest US automaker, Friday announced its plans to expand three factories in Mexico over the next several years as part of its efforts to restructure its North American operations.
Without specifying the estimated costs involved in the expansion of the three plants, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said on its website that it would upgrade and expand auto assembly plants in Cuautitlan, which produces about 15,000 F-250-550 models per annum, and Hermosillo and an engine plant in Chihuahua. Ford Motor, which had announced its intention in January to build a low-cost manufacturing facility as part of its "Way Forward" plan, added that it has not as yet decided on the location of the plant, which might be built in the US, Canada or Mexico.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION03/606190303/1008/OPINION01
Monday, June 19, 2006
Paul W. Smith
GM must make great cars, ignore Friedman
O utta' my mind on a Monday moanin':
· Breaking news: The world is not really flat, and our country will notbe better off if General Motors gets taken over by Toyota.
I tried to stay out of this one.
I ignored New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's first column that began with the question: "Is there a company more dangerous to America's future than General Motors ?"
I ignored the hyperventilation that occurred in several local responses in the media and even from GM.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/BUSINESS06/606190324
CAROL CAIN: Scorecard a way to study firms' progress
June 19, 2006
Forgive Small Business Association of Michigan President Rob Fowler if he has been a little frustrated.
Fowler -- who has been president for three of the six years he's been with the group -- and his organization have been discussing with the state's business, academic, political and community leaders ways to help the state's entrepreneurs. Conversations have included taxes, raising capital and training people to become business owners.
But Fowler, who has worked for similar business organizations in Ohio and Illinois, says he has been having a hard time seeing results.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION03/606190356/1283
Monday, June 19, 2006
Neal Rubin:
Developers didn't stand a chance with Tiger Stadium
T he refrain has been the same every time someone floats a proposal for Tiger Stadium. Show us the money, says the City of Detroit. Show us blueprints and details.
"We're looking for a plan with financing in place," George Jackson told me this spring.
He's the president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the repository for proposals about the ballpark, and never mind that would-be developers barely got drive-by looks inside the building. The DEGC wanted concrete proposals from people who'd barely been able to run a hand over the cement.
http://www.sturgisjournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=65&ArticleID=21522&TM=75423.36
Community Co-op ready for business
By Terry Katz
Staff writer
Dignitaries from Sturgis,
St. Joseph County and Michigan attended the St. Joseph County Community Co-Op grand opening of its work center on South Jefferson Street Friday afternoon.
Brown read a special letter of praise from Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos who was unable to attend.
State Rep. Rick Shaffer said, “This subject is close to my heart. We are fortunate to have so many people in the county dedicated to helping the more vulnerable of those among us. I wish everyone the best in the co-op’s future success.”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION01/606190311/1008
Monday, June 19, 2006
Editorial: Don't let lawmakers gut Prop A tax cut
Legislation would help school districts hike spending
Proposal A, adopted in 1994, cut Michigan's outrageously high property taxes. But the state's property tax burden is again above the national average, and there's a move afoot in Lansing to hike these taxes even more.
What's disappointing is that a number of Republican lawmakers have signed up as backers of these bills -- which weaken one of former GOP Gov. John Engler's most significant political legacies.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION01/606190304/1068
JEFF GERRITT: Needless death sentence
Level of care in state prisons is putting health of inmates at risk
June 19, 2006
This is the first in an occasional series of columns on problems with the health care system for state prison inmates.
Michigan doesn't have the death penalty, but the state of health care in its prison system makes you wonder.
Prisoners who get lousy health care don't get much sympathy from politicians or the public, especially when so many people on the outside are uninsured and struggling to get decent care. Still, most people would agree that negligent medical care leading to serious health problems, virtual torture and, yes, even death should not be part of a prison sentence.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/AUTO01/606190343
Monday, June 19, 2006
Ethanol
Hype or fuel solution?
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- With gas prices stalled near $3 a gallon, everyone, it seems, is touting ethanol as the alternative fuel of choice.
But is ethanol -- a gasoline substitute and additive derived from corn and other grains -- the homegrown cure for the nation's energy woes?
Detroit's Big Three, politicians and environmentalists say ethanol is the best immediate solution to America's foreign oil dependency -- though they each have different reasons for promoting it.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/AUTO01/606190364
Monday, June 19, 2006
Scientists: Ethanol's water demands cause for scrutiny, not alarm
JIM PAUL / Associated Press
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- City officials in Champaign and Urbana took notice when they heard that an ethanol plant proposed nearby would use about 2 million gallons of water per day, most likely from the aquifer that also supplies both cities.
"There was concern about impacting a pretty valuable resource," said Matt Wempe, a city planner for Urbana. "It should raise red flags."
The proposal for a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant is just one of many that have popped up in the past several months across Illinois, which already has seven operating plants and is the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer after Iowa.
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/115064049364180.xml?fljournal?NEE&coll=5
Single-sex schools
Lawmakers have good case to OK all-boy, all-girl classes
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Critics of voluntary, single-sex public schools worry that they could lead to unequal education, and it's implied by some that girls likely would be the losers. However, a three-year trial in one Flint middle school shows girls have benefited more from gender separation, which the Legislature seems ready to endorse.
Based on Flint's experience and that of communities elsewhere, the state House should pass and Gov. Jennifer Granholm should sign legislation the Senate approved last week that would allow all-girl and all-boy schools.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS03/606190382/1005/NEWS
TODAY IS JUNETEENTH: A celebration of freedom
Southfield pastor says it's important to recall end of slavery
June 19, 2006
The thought of slavery conjures images of a brutal chapter in American history. The end of it, for some African Americans, offers a reason to celebrate.
And for members and friends of Hope United Methodist Church in Southfield, the end was commemorated with a 4-day celebration of Juneteenth, the day recognized by many as the official end to slavery in America.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS06/606190352/1008/NEWS
GPS to keep eye on sex offenders
June 19, 2006
The state Department of Corrections is expected to award a $3-million contract Tuesday to buy electronic ankle bracelets to track paroled sex offenders, particularly those who victimized children.
But authorities say that while the Global Positioning System technology will be a great help to parole officers, the technology has its limitations.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS05/606190339/1007/NEWS
BRIAN DICKERSON: Now marketplace rules Michigan's roads, too
June 19, 2006
Luckily for the rest of us miscreants, uncompromising idealists like Ervin have all but disappeared from the political landscape. Even law enforcement types are pragmatists now. Last week, for instance, the realists at the Michigan State Police announced that speed limits on four metro Detroit freeways will soon be raised to 70 m.p.h., the better to reflect the de facto rules by which 8 out of 10 motorists play.
According to 1st Lt. Thad Peterson, commander of the state police traffic services section, speed limits aren't being raised, but merely corrected in order "to reflect optimal conformity in traffic speeds."
What Peterson means, in case you don't have a teenager of your own to translate, is: "Geez, Dad, everyone else is doing 70."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS05/606190322/1007/NEWS
Blogging becomes a civic duty
But online critics dog public officials
June 19, 2006
A blog brought him down.
It still hurts, three years later.
The relentless criticism of Dante Lanzetta on a gadfly Web site forced him to spend more than $25,000 righting his name after he suffered through what he calls outright lies about his record as Birmingham's longest-serving city commissioner. He believes the blog is the reason for his failure to be re-elected in 2003.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS01/606180303/1002
Board to go ahead with cuts
$100 million budget reflects Jones' work to trim expenses
By MOLLY MONTAG
Times Herald
After months of long meetings, angry crowds and much debate, the Port Huron Area School District Board of Education expects to vote Monday on the 2006-07 budget.
The proposed budget includes nearly $5 million in budget cuts to mitigate what district officials anticipated would be an approximately $5 million shortfall at the end of that year.
Farm pollution bills head back to House committee
6/18/2006, 8:35 a.m. ET
By TIM MARTIN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state House committee this week is scheduled to revisit legislation related to pollution controls in Michigan's agricultural industry.
Farm groups say the bills would give more consistent direction on environmental regulations affecting their operations, potentially helping both the environment and the economy.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1150612395137260.xml&coll=6
The trouble with boys
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Father's Day ought always to be a celebration of what fathers do all the year within families and, through them, in building good neighborhoods and communities. But increasingly there is another dimension to Father's Day, one that points up the problems of boys and young men and how much those are tied to the absence of fathers.
The situation underscores the worth of Michigan's numerous mentoring programs, matching volunteer men and women with youngsters needing a caring adult's influence.
http://lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/INGHAM04/606180333&SearchID=73248128179433
Published June 18, 2006
[ From the Ingham County Community News ]
Power: Milliken's legacy endures in biography
"The temper which does not press a partisan advantage to its bitter end, which can understand and respect the other side, which feels a unity between all citizens ... which recognizes their common fate and common aspirations; in a word, which has faith in the sacredness of the individual ... this is what we have striven for."
— Former Gov. William Milliken, quoting Judge Learned Hand
Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the sad pleasure of reading Dave Dempsey's new biography: William G. Milliken: Michigan's Passionate Moderate (University of Michigan Press, $29.95.)
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION03/606190304/1008/OPINION01
Monday, June 19, 2006
George Will:
GOP plays dangerous game on immigration
G eographically, Pennsylvania is a long way from Laredo. But politically, every state may be a border state this year. As evidence, consider a radio ad being run by Rick Santorum, a Republican seeking a third U.S. Senate term in a state that has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. Titled "He Needs Glasses," the target is Santorum's opponent, Bob Casey:
"Bobby Casey announced his support of a Senate bill that grants amnesty to illegal immigrants, shocking hardworking taxpayers all across Pennsylvania. Now Casey's trying to wiggle out of it by saying the bill doesn't offer amnesty and requires illegal immigrants to pay their back taxes. Either Casey didn't read the bill, or he's trying to deceive you. The Washington Times reports the legislation gives amnesty to 11 million who are here illegally, and paves the way for 66 million more immigrants to enter the country.
Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized
Politics, 9/11 Cited in Lax Enforcement
By Spencer S. Hsu and Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 19, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.
Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $212,000, according to federal statistics.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/OPINION03/606190302/1008/OPINION01
Monday, June 19, 2006
Deb Price
Why won't Chief Justice Roberts call us 'gays'?
F or those of us trying to detect how the newly configured Supreme Court has shifted on the rights of gay Americans, its new chief, John Roberts, and new associate justice, Samuel Alito, have provided frustratingly few clues.
The court undoubtedly will continue to play a key role in determining the pace of gay Americans' progress toward full equality. But as it nears the end of its first term without the consistently anti-gay William Rehnquist and late-blooming gay-rights supporter Sandra Day O'Connor, we're left to ask:
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS01/606180463/1001/NEWS
Published June 18, 2006
[ From the Lansing State Journal ]
Vets lobby to save flag
ID theft, Iraq also concern Legionnaires
By Tricia Bobeda
Lansing State Journal
Walter McVeigh waved an American flag during a parade Saturday at the 88th annual American Legion convention.
McVeigh, of Grand Rapids, said the flag means a lot to him - and he doesn't want anyone to desecrate it.
That's why he and other Legionnaires are lobbying U.S. senators to pass a constitutional amendment making it illegal to burn the flag. A Senate vote is expected later this month.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SUGAR_TO_ETHANOL?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
U.S. lawmakers push sugar as fuel source
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the market for corn-based ethanol booming, lawmakers from sugar-producing states are hoping that beet and cane growers can soon jump onto the renewable fuel bandwagon.
They cite the model of Brazil, which produces ethanol made from sugar cane. But critics, pointing out that sugar is much cheaper in Brazil than in the United States, question whether the economics of sugar-based ethanol would work in America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Call of the Gun Lobby
Published: June 19, 2006
It is a ghastly fact of public safety that for the past three years the most basic information about illegal gun trafficking in America has been hermetically classified as a state secret — kept off limits to the public and the news media. The nation used to be told, for example, that 57 percent of crime guns came from just 1 percent of gun dealers, and something should be done about that. But — shhh — not any more: not since a malleable Congress and administration buttoned up reams of vital information by putting the privacy of unscrupulous gun dealers over the safety of the public.
And now the Republican-led House is preparing to make the secrecy restrictions even more lunatic by actually leaving police officers subject to felony conviction if they dare to share interesting data on illicit dealers with colleagues in other departments.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HIV_DOORWAY_DRUGS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Side effects cast shadow over new HIV meds
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The excitement over a novel class of drugs being developed to fight HIV has been dampened by fears they could pose serious safety risks, including the possibility they might actually speed the progression of AIDS.
The new class of drugs, called CCR5 receptor antagonists, blocks a secondary but crucial doorway typically used by the human immunodeficiency virus to enter cells in the body. Researchers have known for more than a decade that people who lack a working version of that doorway, called a receptor, are, at best, highly resistant to infection by HIV and, at worst, slow to develop AIDS once infected.
Sen. Clinton taking her politics national
ALBANY, New York (AP) -- A recent fundraising letter from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seeking re-election this year in New York, does not mention the state, but it slips eight references to "America" or "Americans" into two pages.
The letter points to a fact of life in the world of New York's junior senator, who many think may be a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination: The national stage is there, and she is making use of it.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CLINTONS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Clinton speculates on wife in White House
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Former President Bill Clinton says if his wife becomes president in 2008, his role would be to quote "do whatever she wants" because that's what a good citizen would do.
Clinton spoke to about 500 journalists in his former home of Little Rock, Arkansas, yesterday. He says he doesn't know if his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, would run for president in two years, but predicted that a woman could win the most powerful office in the world.
Homeland security officials opting out
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lured by high salaries and generous perks, many members of the Bush administration's homeland security team are quitting their government posts for private sector jobs in the security business.
The New York Times reported Sunday that dozens of members of President Bush's security team assembled after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now working for companies that sell security products and services to the government agencies they once helped manage.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0619/p01s02-usgn.html
from the June 19, 2006 edition
America finds gaps in security hard to close
Federal, state, and local governments lag in emergency preparedness, a report finds.
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Nearly five years after 9/11, the United States remains far too vulnerable to natural disaster and major attack.
That's the consensus of security experts and a new federal report released Friday. Most states and local authorities lag in emergency planning, the report found. At the same time, the federal government is still struggling to close big security gaps in airline passenger screening and port security and at chemical plants, these experts say.
Kappes Is Expected to Boost CIA Morale
As Deputy Director, Famed Operative Will Work to Reestablish Spy Network
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 19, 2006; Page A04
Stephen R. Kappes, a legendary CIA clandestine operative, will become as soon as today the No. 2 at the agency in a move that CIA Director Michael V. Hayden hopes will lift morale there. Kappes's top priority will be to help rebuild the agency's human intelligence capabilities when the United States needs spies within the jihadist community and elsewhere.
Battered for past failures and downgraded as leader of the intelligence community, the CIA nonetheless has been given new authority as home of the National Clandestine Service, which under Hayden and Kappes will coordinate all overseas human intelligence carried out by U.S. agencies, including the Pentagon and FBI.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Spokesman: Bush polls don't rule Iraq war
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush understands there is growing U.S. concern over his handling of the Iraq war but will not rely on polls to determine when to withdraw troops, his spokesman said Sunday.
"The president understands how a war can wear on a nation," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "Whatever the bleakness is, whatever the facts are on the ground, you figure out how to win. You can't do that by reading polls."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008537
Iraq and Congress
The Murtha withdrawal policy is a counsel of defeat.
Monday, June 19, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
American and Iraqi forces are on the offensive once again, deploying around the terrorist stronghold of Ramadi and beginning a drive to bring order to Baghdad. This is welcome news, not least because it underscores how wrong and defeatist Congressman Jack Murtha and his Democratic colleagues are in demanding an immediate U.S. withdrawal in Iraq.
With a new Iraq government finally in place, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi dead, now would be the worst time to tell Iraqis they are on their own. This is the moment to capitalize on this recent run of good news to show the Iraqi public, Sunnis and Shiites both, that the insurgency cannot win. If this requires more American troops and more offensive operations for some months to come, then that is what the Bush Administration should now consider.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110008535
Trying to Get Even
Democrats keep betting on failure in Iraq.
Monday, June 19, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
During last week's congressional debate over the war in Iraq, critics of the Bush administration's policy made three arguments: that President Bush more or less lied when claiming Saddam Hussein was a threat to the U.S., there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that no progress is being made in the war there.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0619/p01s01-uspo.html
from the June 19, 2006 edition
Do Democrats need to be united on Iraq?
Their varied opinions on the war cloud message for fall.
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – Democrats are known for speaking in many voices, and the past week was no exception: Even as the party released its plan for governance, should it retake control of Congress in November, its lack of unity on voters' top concern - the Iraq war - took center stage.
As expected, the House Republicans' resolution favoring staying the course in Iraq without a timetable for withdrawal passed easily last week, including 42 votes from Democrats. And when Democratic congressional leaders held a press conference Friday to discuss their "New Direction for America" platform, they faced as many questions on Iraq - not mentioned in the plan - as on the issues that were discussed, including healthcare, energy, and the minimum wage.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS06/606190430/1008
Soldiers to return from Iraq
June 19, 2006
Two Michigan Army National Guard units are expected to return to Michigan today after a tour of duty in Iraq.
The 122 soldiers from the Saginaw-based Company B, 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry and 11 soldiers from the Lansing-based 1st Battalion, 119th Field Artillery are scheduled to arrive at Delta College in Saginaw at 12:45 p.m.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NKOREA?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
N. Korea gets reminder on missile freeze
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States expects North Korea to maintain a freeze on missile tests, and a test-fire would draw an appropriate response, President Bush's spokesman said Sunday.
"We do not want to have a missile test out of North Korea," Tony Snow said.
His comments came amid signs that North Korea was preparing to test a long-range missile that could reach the continental United States.
"The North Koreans themselves decided in 1999 that they'd place a moratorium on this kind of testing, and we expect them to maintain the moratorium," Snow told "Fox News Sunday."
The Detention Dilemma
What is to be done with captured terrorists who are neither prisoners of war nor charged with a crime?
Monday, June 19, 2006; Page A20
ONE OF THE hardest questions in the fight against al-Qaeda is what to do when you catch a dangerous terrorist abroad. But that can't excuse the Bush administration, nearly five years into the war, still not having an answer.
Currently no federal statute governs where or how long a detainee may be held or what his rights are. Nor do the Geneva Conventions, which President Bush in any event wrongly set aside. No law governs whether he will be prosecuted, released, transferred to another country or indefinitely detained. No law guarantees him judicial review or access to counsel. The result is a haphazard system driven more by convenience to the administration than by reason or justice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/opinion/19mon2.html
Mexico's Election
Published: June 19, 2006
Something unusual is going on in Mexico — a normal presidential election. Mexico's relatively new democratic institutions are not being strained, and are not at risk. There are three major candidates, and while they have been doing a lot of mudslinging, they offer voters a real ideological choice.
Mexico lived through 71 years of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which fell in 2000 to an opposition candidate, Vicente Fox, who proved to be a lackluster president. In other new democracies in Eastern Europe and Latin America, voters at this point have tended to grow nostalgic for dictatorship or eager to find an outsider who promises revolution. The first democratic election after dictatorship is always joyous; the second one can be deadly.
Falling Star: What Ever Happened to Jennifer Granholm?
By Stuart Rothenberg
Roll Call Contributing Writer
June 19, 2006
If only Canadian-born Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) had been born in the United States, many state and national political commentators said a couple of years ago, she might well have become the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2008 or the party’s White House candidate in 2012.
More than a few observers cited Granholm alongside California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) as poster children for a constitutional amendment that would allow naturalized American citizens the right to hold the presidency.
Granholm eventually may regain her status as a star of the Democratic Party. But right now, she is more concerned with her political survival in November.
Granholm, the only sitting governor in the nation to be a contestant on “The Dating Game,” faces a formidable challenge from wealthy Republican businessman Dick DeVos, whose father was a co-founder of Amway and whose wife previously chaired the state Republican Party.
An early June EPIC/MRA survey of 600 likely voters conducted for the Detroit News and WXYZ-TV showed the extent of the governor’s problems.
Granholm’s job approval in the poll stood at 40 percent, while 59 percent said they disapproved of her performance. Not surprisingly given those numbers, only 30 percent of respondents said they would vote to re-elect her, while 33 percent said they would vote to replace her.
DeVos held a 48 percent to 40 percent lead over Granholm in the poll, with almost one in five Democrats selecting DeVos over the governor. Ominously, independents preferred
DeVos over Granholm 46 percent to 30 percent.
Not everyone believes DeVos’ lead is that large. Some private polling suggests the race is closer, though it confirms that the Republican has the edge and that Granholm has serious electoral problems across the board.
Everyone agrees that Granholm’s greatest problem, and potential downfall, is the state’s economy. The American automobile industry’s illness has become acute, and it has spread to companies that survive off the auto sector.
“I’ve never seen an issue pop as consistently and to the exclusion of other issues as the economy in Michigan,” one veteran insider told me recently. “It has been building for two years.”
DeVos went up on television with paid advertising in March, with help from his own checkbook, and he has been on the air ever since. And he is likely to continue the air assault all the way to November, without a major break.
Democrats who know the state and are watching the race closely blame Granholm for spending too much time “listening” and for not being nearly aggressive enough in dealing with the state’s economic problems.
One Democratic political veteran, who says DeVos “isn’t a great candidate,” admiringly adds that the Republican has performed well in his own ads and that he has successfully “presented himself as someone who understands [the state’s economic problems] and is going to do something.” Voters want action, and they see DeVos as someone who will act.
Of course, Democrats have yet to launch an all-out assault on the GOP candidate, and Republicans already say they know what will be coming. They predict that Granholm will attack DeVos for allegedly “outsourcing” U.S. jobs and therefore for being part of the state’s problem, not its solution.
Granholm already has tried to blame President Bush for the state’s economic condition, and she is sure to return to that argument. But she is also likely to emphasize her proposals to deal with creating more jobs in the state.
Republicans are expecting a strong counterattack. As one DeVos ally joked, “We’d be happy to have the election next week.”
But Republicans have to feel that they are fortunate to be in the position that they are, with a one-time star of the Democratic Party now scrambling to survive past November.
Given the state’s fundamental partisan alignment, Granholm surely has the ability to recover and re-establish herself as the frontrunner in the race. But for now, it’s up to the governor to attack DeVos, and he has the resources to answer her attacks and launch new ones of his own.
Finally, Granholm’s problems should serve as a warning to those in the media who become enamored with a new political face and immediately turn that person into a political icon. Officeholders must prove themselves every day, and true political stardom, if there is such a thing, takes years to develop.
Stuart Rothenberg is editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
