Articles of Interest 6-25-06
Tomorrow, Monday June 26th we will have our Lincoln Reagan Dinner at the Meadowbrook Hall with Senator John McCain. This is our largest annual dinner
This Gala is the Michigan Republicans biggest fundraising events for the year. I hope you will consider attending this event and supporting our party.
We are also organizing a series of events statewide with our RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. We have 7 different Dollar-A-Day events set up around the state and we encourage all our current members and various club members who have already paid their membership to come out and hear our national party Chairman share some of his excitement about our electoral prospects in Michigan.
For more information on RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman’s visit to Michigan go to:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/06/rnc_chairman_co.html
It’s going to be a busy week. I hope you take an opportunity and come out and meet our RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.
Saul Anuzis
State Stories
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/NEWS06/606250603
Granholm goes on the attack
Slogan questions DeVos' jobs record
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's re-election campaign is launching a more aggressive theme to rally worried supporters and subtly reinforce Democratic claims that Republican challenger Dick DeVos contributed to the loss of Michigan jobs.
A new slogan -- "Fight Back -- Put Michigan First" -- is a grassroots organizing label that will promote the notion that DeVos sent his company's jobs to China when he was president of Ada-based Amway Corp. in the 1990s, according to Granholm's campaign leaders.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1151231047317300.xml&coll=9
Finding the bull in a jobs pasture
Spending in the 2006 gubernatorial race is already in the stratosphere. Not coincidentally, so is the length of the long campaign season.
Republican challenger Dick DeVos began stumping with warm-and-fuzzy television advertisements in mid-February -- nine months before the election -- spending roughly $5.4 million of his personal fortune. The Michigan Campaign Finance Network reports that DeVos has spent a record amount for a gubernatorial race -- as much as President George W. Bush spent in Michigan at this stage of the campaign in 2004. It's paid off. The heir to the Alticor nee Amway billions has soft-scrubbed Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's 20 percentage point lead to the point where the race became a statistical tie in April.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/POLITICS/606250330/1022
Granholm, DeVos campaigns use the Web to reach supporters
Kathy Barks Hoffman / AP Political Writer
LANSING, Mich. -- When it comes to campaigning for governor these days, it's all about the Internet.
On Monday, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's campaign plans to unveil a new Web site that gives her grass-roots supporters ways to promote her record and defend her against attacks through letters to the editor, house parties and other tactics.
The candidates aren't the only ones using the Web to get out their messages. The parties are active as well. State GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis writes a daily Web log that regularly criticizes Granholm and other Democratic candidates while promoting GOP causes.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/OPINION01/606250572/1086/opinion
SBT work: If all agree tax has to go, why are legislators delaying?
A Lansing State Journal editorial
Dick DeVos' jobs plan for Michigan is about more than repealing the Single Business Tax. But SBT repeal is the centerpiece.
That just adds to the growing chorus for SBT repeal in Michigan. So, isn't it odd the Michigan Legislature hasn't enacted an SBT repeal to take immediate effect with the next budget year, which starts Oct. 1?
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1151231282317320.xml&coll=7
Costs pinching school budgets State aid is on the rise, but not enough to offset skyrocketing fuel, retirement and health-care costs and declining enrollment
Another school year, another round of budget cuts.
Gobles and Mattawan offered teacher buyouts. Comstock eliminated all-day kindergarten. Allegan may put off buying new technology and a school bus.
And this in a year when school districts are anticipating their largest increase in per-student revenue from the state since 2001.
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1151230466273790.xml&coll=2
GOP: No merit in scholarship change
Michigan's Republican Party leaders found little positive about Gov. Jennifer Granholm's idea to alter the state's college scholarship program, except to turn the proposal into a political liability for the first-time incumbent.
The plan would create a new, $4,000 scholarship for every student in Michigan who pursues at least two years of college or technical training after high school. The state currently provides a Merit Award scholarship of up to $3,000 to college-bound students who perform well on standardized tests.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis blasted the proposal, labeling it a costly attempt to fix a program that doesn't need repair.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/BUSINESS01/606250588/1002/BUSINESS
Auto's clout tested
U.S. carmakers face challenge on fuel economy
WASHINGTON -- Like fireflies at dusk, lobbying receptions pop up most evenings on Capitol Hill when Congress is in session. Corporations and organizations typically count themselves lucky if they lure a lawmaker or two.
But when the heads of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group held a reception May 18 on Capitol Hill, they drew about 60 senators and more than 250 House members. That came after the three chief executive officers -- Rick Wagoner, Bill Ford and Tom LaSorda -- marched through a series of meetings with every leader in both parties from both chambers, a level of attention rarely granted even heads of state.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1151217190216880.xml&coll=6
The retreat fallacy
Four votes in Congress on Iraq in recent days can easily be written off as mere politics, playing as they do to the election-year strategies of Republicans and Democrats both. But the votes send messages, too. They are that this nation isn't about to abandon the people of Iraq and their new government, but that America also is anxious to see Iraqis take full control of their country and for U.S. troops to come home.
The votes came on bills that, in various forms, dealt with leaving Iraq. Three would set dates for getting out or beginning troop withdrawals. Of the two measures sponsored by Senate Democrats last week, one was by Sen. Carl Levin of Detroit. It called for troops to begin shipping out this year, though not saying when the exit would have to be complete. The idea failed on a 60-39 vote -- mostly party-line -- with Michigan's Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, in the minority along with Mr. Levin.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/NEWS06/606250626/1008
State gets 1,000 ideas for new plates
Winner to be announced this summer
The next Michigan license plate could feature historic cars, images from the Great Lakes or one of the state's popular landmarks.
It's now up to a decision-making panel assembled by the Secretary of State to rifle through more than 1,000 ideas sent in during the past month as the state works to create a new lasting image on the tail end of Michigan vehicles.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/NEWS01/606250590/1001/news
Charge of racism raises rift in E.L.
Teachers' union president questions hiring process
EAST LANSING - Teachers' union President Edwina Marshall's accusations of racial discrimination in the East Lansing School district are creating a rift among staff, administrators, the board and the community.
Marshall, a respected educator, raised concerns earlier this month regarding the hiring process for the MacDonald Middle School principal. A black internal candidate became a finalist but was not chosen.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/NEWS01/606250582/1001/news
Michigan abortion rate in '05 lowest since 1970s
By Dawson Bell
At 25,209, the total of abortions performed in Michigan last year was the lowest since detailed record-keeping began in the 1970s.
The abortion rate - abortions per 1,000 women - also dropped last year, from 12.8 in 2004 to 11.9 for women ages 15-44, equaling the previous low rate in 1999.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1151230564297750.xml&coll=4
Schools of Choice legislation has forced districts to compete for students
Elizabeth Sochacki graduated June 11 under the purple-and-gold banner of Bay City Central, even though her family moved out of the district two years ago.
''My brother, my sister, my dad, they all went to Central,'' said Sochacki, 17. ''I wanted to carry on the tradition.''
By doing so, Sochacki continued the family legacy, and became one of 328 students attending the Bay City district under Michigan's Schools of Choice legislation.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1151014211213380.xml&coll=1
College loan costs to jump July 1
WASHINGTON -- The cost of a college education is about to get pricier for students in Michigan and around the country.
Beginning July 1, student loan interest rates will rise by as much as 40 percent. Financial aid advisers Thursday said students should consolidate their loans by June 30 to take advantage of lower rates.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/METRO/606250304
Michael Moore film festival to feature 60 films
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Michael Moore's second film festival will be headlined by a mock-documentary produced by Jeff Goldblum and the latest comedy from Woody Allen.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker is the founder of the Traverse City Film Festival, which drew 50,000 admissions last summer in the northern Michigan resort town.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/OPINION01/606250313/1008
Sweeping AuSable ruling on drilling must be challenged
Don't give environmentalists a veto over development
The AuSable is a storied river and should be conserved, along with the land around it. But that protection must be balanced with allowing the reasonable use of natural resources.
A ruling by a federal magistrate overturning a determination by two federal agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, to allow exploratory drilling for oil and natural gas on federal land near the river doesn't do a good job of achieving that balance. Federal attorneys should appeal it.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/OPINION03/606250314/1271
Nolan Finley
Use nukes to keep the bad boys in line
A merica spent more than $5.5 trillion amassing a nuclear arsenal that is mighty enough to destroy the world many times over.
But not mighty enough to dissuade every run-of-the-mill madman, demented despot and lunatic holy warrior from taking a swing at us whenever they get the urge to impress their subjects or honor their god.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/OPINION03/606250301/1370
Manny Lopez:
Flag-burning ban doesn't make Americans more patriotic
There are many reasons not to ban the burning of the American Flag, but one that's made news recently puts the issue in proper perspective. In making it illegal to desecrate Old Glory, America would join Iran, Cuba and China as countries that make flag burning illegal.
Is that really the company we want to keep? I mean, seriously, consider the dimwits and dictators who run these countries. We shouldn't be joining that club, but our elected officials are getting dangerously close to doing so.
National Stories
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/POLITICS/606250338/1022
Politics of 2006, 2008 at play in Democrats' Iraq maneuvering
WASHINGTON -- When two Democrats looking toward 2008 pushed hard for a firm date on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, they crashed headlong into Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's effort to retake the Senate this year.
Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin want to pull out all combat forces over the next year, a proposal that delights the left wing of the Democratic Party but that failed overwhelmingly in the Senate on Thursday.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/POLITICS/606250333/1022
E-mails detail Abramoff requests, administration contacts
WASHINGTON -- Wanted: Face time with President Bush or top adviser Karl Rove. Suggested donation: $100,000. The middleman: lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Blunt e-mails that connect money and access in Washington show that prominent Republican activist Grover Norquist facilitated some administration contacts for Abramoff's clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist's tax-exempt group.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bush pushes Congress on line-item veto
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is pushing Congress to give him more authority to slice and dice the budget, an idea that's popular with conservatives who think the White House needs more muscle to restrict federal spending.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062400802.html
ID Backers Bemoan Decades-Old Defeat
Card Called Immigrant Solution
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 25, 2006; Page A03
About 20 years ago, Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) were 30 minutes away from passing a landmark immigration bill that would grant amnesty to more than 3 million illegal immigrants. The measure also carried one of the most controversial proposals in American politics: a national identification system.
But moments before the deciding vote, Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Calif.) took the House floor and delivered a scathing speech that still rings in Simpson's ears.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062400469.html
In Election Year, GOP Lawmakers Loosen Link to President
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 25, 2006; Page A08
With elections barely four months away and their majorities at risk, Republicans on Capitol Hill say they are making calculations based on survival, not loyalty. President Bush has convinced them that sticking with him on Iraq and casting critics as soft on terrorism is a winning strategy despite public unease. But he has failed to convince them that his approach to immigration is good politics.
The result may be a third election campaign in a row focused on national security, yet it also may mean a second year in a row without a signature victory for the president in domestic policy. Just as Bush invested much of 2005 in pushing a Social Security plan that went nowhere, he has thrown his weight in 2006 behind an immigration proposal that increasingly appears doomed for the year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301502.html
Gone With The Wind, Indeed
Sunday, June 25, 2006; Page B07
Confined to her bed in Atlanta by a broken ankle and arthritis, she was given a stack of blank paper by her husband, who said, "Write a book." Did she ever.
The novel's first title became its last words, "Tomorrow is another day," and at first she named the protagonist Pansy. But Pansy became Scarlett, and the title of the book published 70 years ago this week became "Gone With the Wind."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/washington/25bush.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Bush's Immigration Plan Stalled as House G.O.P. Grew More Anxious
WASHINGTON, June 24 — For the White House, the Congressional picnic last week seemed like the perfect setting to mend strained relations with Republican allies on Capitol Hill: President Bush and his advisers eating taquitos and Mexican confetti rice on the lawn of the White House with Republican Congressional leaders.
But moments before Mr. Bush was to welcome his guests, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert told the president that House Republicans were effectively sidelining — and in the view of some Congressional aides probably killing — what had become Mr. Bush's signature domestic initiative of the year: an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/world/middleeast/25military.html
U.S. General in Iraq Outlines Troop Cuts
WASHINGTON, June 24 — The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25bobby.html
Another Kennedy Living Dangerously
ONE of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s family mementos is a boyhood photo of himself in the Oval Office with his uncle President John F. Kennedy. Then 9, Mr. Kennedy — who is still known as Bobby — had just given the president a spotted salamander in a small vase. The salamander appears to be dead.
"He does not look well," President Kennedy told Bobby as they observed the slimy pet. The president is prodding it with a pen, to no avail. "I was in denial," Bobby Kennedy said, explaining that he had probably doomed the salamander by keeping it in chlorinated water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html
Wary of U.S., Syria and Iran Strengthen Ties
SAYEDA ZEINAB, Syria, June 24 — For a long time, the top-selling poster in Hassan al-Sheikh's gift shop here showed President Bashar al-Assad of Syria seated beside the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon. A few weeks ago a slightly different poster overtook it, this one with the Syrian president, the Hezbollah leader and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008562
The Extremist Is Never Alone
Zarqawi is history, but the bigotry on which he thrived lives on.
BY FOUAD AJAMI
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's tribe in Jordan, the Al-Khalayleh, claimed last November that they had disowned the man who had sown havoc in Iraq. They made that public declaration in the aftermath of his attack on three Amman hotels. That day, Nov. 9, 2005, was dubbed by the Jordanians as their own 9/11. But blood has its claims, and in truth Zarqawi had been, and remained, a man of high standing in Jordan and in other Arab lands. After his death, the regime in Amman may have announced that his corpse would not "stain Jordan's soil," but his clan held a "martyr's wedding" for him, and four members of Jordan's Parliament turned up at that funeral ceremony. Grant Jordan's rulers their due: They know that a Zarqawi grave on Jordanian soil would become a shrine to his cult.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008564
The Voice of Iraq
"Nobody is for a withdrawal, even a timetable," says the foreign minister.
BY ROBERT L. POLLOCK
NEW YORK--"That was the center of all that happened in Iraq after the war. The people who were meeting there are the new leaders of Iraq, but nobody took them seriously in those days."
So says Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. He's talking about an unassuming little hotel in central Baghdad called Burj al-Hayat, where his Kurdistan Democratic Party set up headquarters in the heady days immediately following Saddam Hussein's fall from power. And his recollection of the period is vivid enough to include the hour or two he spent with your humble correspondent in early May of 2003. Perched on bar stools, we drank only water then to combat the heat of a sweltering afternoon. And Mr. Zebari held forth expansively and optimistically about the future of Iraq.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15760
We Must Protect Private Property Rights
The main reason I wanted to come to the floor today was to talk about the important issue of private property rights. Today marks the one-year anniversary of one of the most controversial decisions ever handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and that is the case of Kelo v. the City of New London. In that decision, the Court held by a 5-to-4 vote that the government may seize private property, whether it be a home or small business or other private property, for the purpose—not of public good but, rather, to transfer that same property to another private owner simply because the transfer would create an increased economic benefit to that community.
