474 Days until election day.
MORNING SUMMARY:
Granholm criticizes a ruling by the State Supreme Court to uphold a law requiring photo id - which she signed into law? Hypocrite!?! Why did she sign it?
Congressional Democrats fail again. Democrat Congressional approval polls are at an all time low…the Democrat majority cannot/has not delivered on anything???
Democrats propose Sex Ed for kindergartners? Have the Democrats completely lost it?
Foundation Grants for Michigan students to attend Michigan universities is a good idea…let the dollars follow the kids! More ideas…
Does religious adherence matter? Where to find God in America?
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/07/where-to-find-g.html
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THE REST OF THE STORY:
- Democrats swept congressional races last year across the country. They promised to “work 5 days a week” and get all kinds of things done in their first 100 days.
NOTHING…NOTTA…their biggest success to date as been successfully managing to keep Senators in an all night session for a publicity stunt….and to pass devastating CAFE standards that will cost domestic automaker billions and Michigan jobs.
Carl Levin couldn’t stop his fellow Democrats. Bart Stupak, Pelosi’s new “leadership” member isn’t having any better luck. What good is it to have Democrats in power if they have NO power???
As voters pay attention to the Democrats rhetoric…their record…and watch how they act and what they do…eventually they will figure out that the Democrats nationally and here in Michigan have really “blown us away”!
- Sex Ed for kindergartners…NO WAY!
For the second day in a row, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney blasted Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for believing "age-appropriate" sex education should begin as early as kindergarten.
After Obama reaffirmed his belief Tuesday that age-appropriate sex education should begin as early as kindergarten, Republicans attacked this misguided absurdity.
How much sex education (from liberals) is age appropriate for a 5-year-old…ZERO.
- Here is a great set of graphics that compares religious adherence to voter patterns. Now obviously, this is not conclusive, but God does act in mysterious ways!?!
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/07/where-to-find-g.html
Jack Hoogendyk in his latest issue of “Core Principles writes:
K-12 public education is funded primarily through the School Aid Fund (SAF). Public schools receive a "foundation grant" of at least $7,085 for every student enrolled from kindergarten through high school regardless of achievement.
There is no formula for higher education funding.
Each of the 15 public universities in Michigan receives a "gross appropriation" from the general fund. Funding levels vary widely with no logical rationale.
For example:
Grand Valley State receives $65 million, which averages out to only $3,340 per full-time student. Michigan Tech, in the Upper Peninsula, receives $49 million, $8,297 per student. Western Michigan gets $113 million, but only $4,702 per student.
Michigan State gets $292 million, $6,984 per student.
On average, taxpayers contribute $5,852 for every student who attends a public university, a total of $1.5 billion, even though one in ten students are not from Michigan and their parents have never paid taxes in this state.
What if we completely rethink how we fund education? Two simple policy initiatives would literally change the face of education in Michigan:
Award up to $3,500 to any high school junior or senior who is accepted to a community college or public university full-time.
Create a "foundation grant" of $5,852 for every Michigan high school graduate who is accepted to a public university.
A number of positive things might occur as a result:
--High school juniors or seniors could get all of their education at a community college paid for or much of their university tuition covered.
--Students could earn their degree and be ready for the workforce two years earlier.
--College would become affordable for many who might not otherwise attend.
--Students would become consumers, using their grant to shop for the best quality at the best price.
--Because non-residents would be ineligible for grant funding, Michigan would save about $150 million in the higher education budget.
--Every high school student who attended college would save the SAF $7,085 which could then be used to further fund public education.
--Students who are not feeling challenged or can't get the courses they want can get a jump start on college or get their associates' degree and work in a skilled trade.
Right on Jack! To see more of Jack’s writing, visit his blog at:
http://coreprinciples.blogspot.com/
On a similar note, my argument is that as universities are starting to increase tuition, if the state doesn’t increase the level of support they are getting. So they are saying that tuition increases are directly tied to state support. OK….let’s fund our universities that way.
Let’s take every college bound Michigan student in our state, divide up the higher education dollars on a per pupil bases and allow those dollars to follow Michigan students to Michigan universities.
Yeh, yeh…we set aside “x” for research and/or capital spending….but the bulk of our support for higher education should go directly to Michigan families to give Michigan students an affordable option to attend a Michigan university or college.
Estimates are that every Michigan resident who goes to a state university could receive somewhere between $4,000 to $10,000 per year for 4 years. So if you have been a resident of Michigan for at least say 3 years, we could provide up to 4 years of support as long as you maintained some minimum grade point average etc.
The option, possibilities and future for a real “Michigan promise” program for our children are boundless. Let’s call the universities bluff and come up with a better way of funding higher education.
This way universities would have an incentive to “recruit” Michigan students, provide “perks” for Michigan families and help educate Michigan’s future!
Here are a few ideas for REAL reform to provide affordable college education to “our” kids…Michigan kids. Lets talk about it!!!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION03/707200341
Daniel Howes
Your tips are really welcome, governors
Welcome to Michigan, governors, where we ease the nation's sharpest economic pain with tart cherries, the winning ways of the Detroit Tigers and an unerring belief that our malaise will soon be yours, too.
Or so claimed Gov. Jennifer Granholm this week in preparation for your National Governors Association annual meeting, beginning today in Traverse City. But my guess, considering reports in USA Today and the New York Times that more than 40 states boast budget surpluses and 23 governors have proposed tax cuts, is that you wouldn't buy much of any economic assessment she might be selling.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NEWS06/707190422
Photo ID now a must to vote
Mich. opponents: It's discrimination
July 19, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michiganders may have to show photo identification to vote, under a Michigan Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that upheld a never-enforced 1996 law and reignited a contentious debate.
Democrats and the Detroit Branch NAACP strongly denounced the decision and the law, which requires prospective voters to produce photo ID at polling stations, comparing it to a poll tax used in the past to keep black citizens from voting.
"We have been bushwhacked once again," said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP.
Still, there's the question of whether the law would go into effect.
Supporters say the law helps prevent fraud at the polls, noting that adults must produce photo identification for many things they do. They also said people could vote without the photo ID if they sign an affidavit saying they don't possess one.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NEWS06/70719024/1008/NEWS06
Granholm criticizes photo ID law as targeting Democrats
July 19, 2007
By DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU
The Michigan law requiring voters to produce photo ID at the polls, upheld Wednesday by the Michigan Supreme Court, is a deliberate effort to suppress Democratic turnout, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday.
“I think there is an effort to make it harder for people to vote, particularly for people who traditionally vote Democratic” Granholm said.
I’m in favor of making it easy to vote,” she said. “Let’s get every body the ease in ability to vote.”
The Democratic governor did not suggest, however, that she could take action to block the requirement, which was enacted in 1996 but suspended after then-Attorney General Frank Kelley deemed the photo ID law unconstitutional.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION01/707200340/1069
Governors should fight Real ID plan
July 20, 2007
When the nation's governors gather in Traverse City this weekend, they ought to do themselves and their states a service by serving a definitive notice on Washington that the Real ID Act is not just unworkable but unacceptable and ought to be repealed before it takes effect next year.
The National Governors Association already has adopted a "fix it and fund it" position on Real ID, but the federal government seems determined to go ahead with this ill-conceived idea that is supposed to help secure America but is more likely just to make millions of Americans even more vulnerable to identity theft.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/POLITICS/707200364/1022
Cash-strapped Michigan keeps it simple for governors meeting
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
TRAVERSE CITY -- Economically shipwrecked Michigan opens its Gold Coast today to some 1,200 visitors-- governors, their families and aides de camp-- for the four-day National Governors Association's summer convention.
Aside from their official business, debating issues such as global competitiveness and how to protect children from online predators, the expected 38 governors and others will sip Michigan wines and microbrews, while away a summer evening at a Lake Michigan beach party, board tall ships anchored in the bay, sample cherry pie and other state cuisine and play golf at the sprawling Grand Traverse Resort and Spa just east of town.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION01/707200329/1008
Editorial
Granholm should lobby governors on fuel laws
The Detroit News
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's role as host to her fellow governors this weekend provides her with the perfect opportunity to stand up for her state's bread-and-butter industry.
The National Governors Association meets in Traverse City starting today, bringing to Michigan many of the governors who are determined to slap impractical and unworkable regulations on automakers.
Granholm has been reluctant to counter the assault on the auto industry by many of her fellow governors, who want to write their own clean air and fuel economy laws.
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/OPINION01/707190592/1202/NEWS12
TOM WATKINS: Does a part-time Legislature equal half the mess?
"The right to criticize government is also an obligation to know what you are talking about."
Lent Upson, first Executive Director of Citizens Research Council of Michigan
The anger with politicians in Lansing and Washington is palpable. The endless political posturing, the "he said, she said," and the general feeling that, as a group, "they are not getting the job done" is fanning the flame for the public's desire for change.
Most of us like our individual legislator. However, as a group, there is a disdain for what many see as a dysfunctional body. It seems the public is ready to get out their collective pitchforks and run the whole bunch of politicians out of town.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1184886609299920.xml&coll=1
UAW, automakers prepare for history-making talks
Friday, July 20, 2007
By Rick Haglund
Detroit Bureau
DETROIT -- As officials from the United Auto Workers union and the Chrysler Corp. shake hands to kick off auto contract negotiations today, experts say the whole future of the beleaguered domestic industry is riding on the outcome.
Similar hand-shaking ceremonies will take place at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. on Monday.
"My general feelings are that these negotiations are the most important ones that have taken place in the last 20 years," said Bruce Belzowski, associate director of the Automotive Analysis Division the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.
Company picks Michigan for $100M wood ethanol plant
Eric Morath and Charlie Cain / The Detroit News
LANSING -- Michigan could be at the forefront of technology that could help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, with the announcement Thursday that a Massachusetts company will build a $100 million cellulosic ethanol plant in the state.
It would be one of the first commercial plants in the country to produce cellulosic ethanol, which is fuel made from plant material such as switchgrass, sugarcane or, in this case, wood.
Biofuel experts believe plant cellulose is among the most promising sources for ethanol, because unlike the better-known corn-based ethanol it does not divert grain from the food supply and drive up food costs. Some also contend that it takes more energy to produce corn-based ethanol than it actually yields in energy to power vehicles.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/BUSINESS06/707200401/1019
Retailer gold rush in metro Detroit
Commercial projects pump $1 billion into area
July 20, 2007
BY GRETA GUEST
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
More than 30 retail developments representing more than $1 billion in investment are in the works in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
The list of budding developments, expansions and redevelopment projects was released Thursday at the 2007 Michigan Idea Exchange in Novi. The event was hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Hot retailers this year include Meijer, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Target, Kohl's, JCPenney and dozens of specialty stores such as Organized Living and PacSun, plus restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory and Bar Louie.
"In this economy, people say they can't believe there is this much going on in retail," said report compiler Bradley S. Rosenberg, a partner at Landmark Commercial Real Estate Services in Farmington Hills.
University of Michigan system raises tuition
The University of Michigan's governing board approved tuition increases for its three campuses Thursday, joining a long list of public state universities where students will face higher bills in the upcoming academic year.
The increases in part reflect uncertainty about the level of aid from state government, which is struggling with budget problems. But in most cases, the University of Michigan percentage increases won't be as large as those planned at some of the state's other public universities.
http://info.detnews.com/dcblog/index.cfm
Deb Price
Thu, Jul 19, 2007 at 5:03 PM
90,000 Michigan kids could get health insurance
As early as next week, legislation could hit the U.S. Senate floor that would greatly expand the health insurance program for low-income kids. In Michigan, about 90,000 more kids could be enrolled in the program, which is known as "MIChild" in the state.
Under the plan, Michigan would get about $210 million a year -- $60 million above its current annual amount -- at a time when the rocky economy is putting even more demands on the state's safety net programs.
Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan's junior senator, sits on the Finance Committee that, by a bi-partisan 17-4 vote, today passed legislation authorizing $35 billion over five years for the Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The program helps kids whose parents make too much for Medicaid but not enough to buy health insurance.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1184853975261260.xml&coll=3
Walberg subject of recall
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
A Jackson man has started a recall campaign against U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, six months after the Tipton Republican took office.
James Carr, 77, filled a recall petition in Lenawee County, where Walberg is registered to vote as a Tipton resident, said County Clerk LouAnn Bluntschly.
Carr submitted petition language earlier this month saying Walberg should be recalled because his support of the Iraq war is increasing the federal deficit.
"I wanted to recall him the day he was elected, but you can't do that," Carr said.
The Lenawee County elections commission will meet Monday afternoon to determine if the recall language is clear enough to be understood by voters, Bluntschly said.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/BUSINESS06/707200304/1019
State gives $1 million for health info system
July 20, 2007
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
Michigan has awarded $1.1 million to the Altarum Institute, a nonprofit Ann Arbor health research and analysis company, to plan a computer health-information exchange system in southeast Michigan, the company announced Thursday.
The grant is part of $4.5 million allocated statewide by the Michigan Department of Community Health. It pays for the preliminary planning needed to develop the system over the next 15 months.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-24/1184856628120340.xml&coll=7
State bars reopening of nursing home Metron owner fighting to have license reinstated
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By Alex Nixon
anixon@kalamazoogazette.com 388-2783
The former Metron of Kalamazoo nursing home won't be reopening anytime soon, if state officials get their way.
A Baltimore-based company wants to bring back the 140-patient nursing home, which was shut down in November for safety violations. But state Department of Community Health officials say that home lost its license when it closed and that Kalamazoo County has too many nursing-home beds anyway.
``Those 140 beds are gone because Kalamazoo (County) is over-bedded already,'' Community Health spokesman James McCurtis Jr. said this week.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/AUTO01/707200347/1001/BIZ
Delphi labor contract gets OK
Highland Capital will still try for a stake in company, despite rejection of $3.3B offer.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
NEW YORK -- Delphi Corp. moved closer to emerging from bankruptcy Thursday with court approval of its wage deal with the United Auto Workers even as a twice-spurned private equity firm vowed to fight for the right to invest in a reorganized Delphi.
The Delphi-UAW deal offers veteran workers cash payments in exchange for accepting lower wages, among other terms.
"I will approve the settlement," said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who called the pact fair, reasonable and thoughtfully negotiated. "It's clear to me that the settlement meets all of the tests."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION03/707200345
Brian O'Connor
Dow: Big number, big disconnect
If 14,000 means 'healthy' economy, they forgot to tell the rest of us
After days of toying with a closing level above 14,000, that flirty Dow Jones Industrial Average finally came through, eking out a Thursday close of 14,000.41, up 82.19.
This new record comes less than three months after the Dow first closed above 13,000.
All of America has been fixated because, like Barry Bonds' home run total, Britney Spears' days between rehab visits and the current per-screen gross of "The Transformers," The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a Very Important Number.
As a reflection of the biggest and best public companies in the nation, a healthy Dow means a healthy stock market, and a healthy stock market means a healthy economy.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/POLITICS/707200353/1022
Capitol report
House office gets green award
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Michigan's Anderson House Office Building is among the top 25 percent of energy-efficient buildings in the nation and is saving money for taxpayers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials said while presenting a federal Energy Star plaque to state officials this week.
Improvements to reduce energy loss in the structure, which contains offices for House members and their staff across from the State Capitol, have saved at least $850,000, officials said. The building was completed in 1999 at a cost of $40 million.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION03/707200313
Mark Gaffney: Labor Voices
Labor pacts help nonunion workers
Report proves that unions make government work for all employees
While union members know that their contract protects them on the job and ensures that union work pays more and provides better benefits, people in Michigan don't realize that unions help unorganized workers, too.
Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and nonunionized workers. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute -- "How Unions Help All Workers" -- proves it.
That report concluded that while unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20 percent and raise their members' benefits about 28 percent, the impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large. Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION01/707200316/1008
Opinion
Ending union requirement creates more jobs, income
Tim O'Brien
Michigan has been overwhelmed by unpleasant news. The unemployment rate has jumped to 7.2 percent, compared with the national average of 4.5 percent. In 2006, ours was the only state where the real gross state product -- the market value of all goods and services -- declined.
Michigan's political leaders are still trying to balance next year's budget. Many of them claim that spending already has been "cut to the bone" and seek up to $1.8 billion in "revenue enhancement" -- through an increase in the income tax or an expanded sales tax or both.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1177754741290940.xml&coll=3
Bevy of shops is the plan
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By Kristin Longley
klongley@citpat.com -- 768-4917
Developers of a new outdoor shopping center in Blackman Township are planning for upscale retailers, a state-of-the-art movie theater and about 800 permanent jobs.
Northpointe Town Center, north of I-94, also will feature walkable streets, park-like landscaping, fountains and unique architecture, Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust executives said Wednesday.
The 575,000 square feet of space will be designed as a "lifestyle center," which is typically an upscale, outdoor development with a mix of retailers, restaurants, entertainment space and offices. It would be the largest retail center in the county.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1184854519308880.xml&coll=8
Politics leaves jury panel short-handed
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By Steve Gunn
The Muskegon County Jury Commission is supposed to consist of three dedicated individuals who do a lot of important but monotonous work for little money.
But the commission has been short one member for about seven months, creating extra work and frustration for the two remaining members.
Part of the frustration comes from the fact that two replacement candidates were nominated by the county's circuit court judges, but both were rejected by Muskegon County commissioners.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1184860222303670.xml&coll=5
Council candidates discuss possible merged fire service
BURTON
THE FLINT JOURNAL
BURTON - Some candidates for City Council are talking about merging the city's fire service with neighboring fire departments.
Gary Isham is the only incumbent among the 18 people running for Burton City Council in the Aug. 7 primary. Eight primary winners will compete for four seats in the November election.
Isham likes the idea and economics of combined fire service.
"We need to see more collaboration, maybe with Genesee Township, Grand Blanc and Davison," he said. "A combined fire department would save tax dollars."
http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-23/118485605780710.xml&coll=2
Road Commission under fire
County board can't agree on how to shake up management
Thursday, July 19, 2007
BY TOM GANTERT
News Staff Reporter
The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners is headed for a showdown with the Road Commission.
In a sometimes fiery meeting Wednesday night, county commissioners attacked the Road Commission's management, but couldn't agree on the best way to shake up the road agency. In the end, a plan to add two new members to the current three-member Road Commission board was put on hold.
The meeting also exposed a rift between some county commissioners from the townships and those from Ann Arbor over the proposed appointments. That expansion plan was tabled by a 6-to-4 vote with claims of pre-determined appointees for the two new Road Commission seats, which are allowed by a recent change in the state law.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1184858202177020.xml&coll=4
Road Commission borrows $750,000 from another department
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By RYAN J. STANTON
TIMES WRITER
The Bay County Road Commission took out another loan Wednesday, the second time in the last year that the organization has needed help getting by due to lacking funds.
The Road Commission's Board of Commissioners agreed to borrow $750,000 from the county's Department of Water and Sewer, a loan to be paid back by
Oct. 24.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1184858286177020.xml&coll=4
Bay County residents building fewer new homes
Thursday, July 19, 2007
By TOM GILCHRIST
TIMES WRITER
Marjorie A. Knoerr's family would like to be busier.
Knoerr, 65, is one of the owners of Larry
Knoerr Builder Inc. in Frankenlust Township.
''My husband and I have been in the home-building business for 40 years, and last year and so far this year, it's the worst we've ever seen it,'' she said.
The company isn't building any new home right now, but the workers have kept busy with excavating work, using heavy equipment to dig basements or haul soil, she said.
''We are keeping busy, and I'm very, very thankful for all the small jobs we do have, but it's so much nicer if you do have a large job that keeps you busy for a few months,'' Knoerr said.
Larry Knoerr Builder Inc. is one of many home-construction firms in Bay County feeling the pinch. Countywide, a Times survey of all 18 townships and cities shows the number of permits issued for construction of single-family homes or condominiums has dropped dramatically during the past two years.
http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-23/118485617380710.xml&coll=2
Counsel defends EMU case response
In response to reprimand, McKanders says others kept details about slaying from him
Thursday, July 19, 2007
BY GEOFF LARCOM
News Staff Reporter
A disciplinary letter placed this week in the file of Eastern Michigan University's general counsel accuses him of failing to adequately monitor whether the university was in compliance with a federal campus crime reporting law.
But in a written response that accompanies the reprimand, General Counsel Kenneth McKanders blamed other university officials who kept details from him about the rape and murder of a student in her dorm room last December.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/METRO/707200407&theme=Metro-1967riots
Detroit's racial divide: 40 years later
Stark reality: Black-white economic gap widens
Mike Wilkinson, Darren A. Nichols and Amy Lee / The Detroit News
In the decades since black frustrations erupted in violence, the economic gap between African-Americans and whites in Metro Detroit has grown, according to several key indicators.
Today, blacks have less buying power than they had in 1967 and they haven't kept pace in education. Daunting challenges remain: The region's black infants are three times more likely to die and joblessness among African-Americans is more than twice the rate of whites.
African-Americans have made progress since 1967 -- more are finishing high school, graduating from college, buying homes and reaching leadership positions -- but a gap with whites remains, according to a Detroit News study of leading indicators of economic independence.
NATIONAL STORIES
A CYNICAL SCORE
DEM 'STUNT' DOES ITS JOB
July 20, 2007 -- IS it possible to humiliate yourself politically and score a political triumph at the same time? That would seem to violate the laws of physics. Yet that is the story of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's week.
In conventional terms, Reid stage-managed a disaster on Tuesday when he had the Senate stay up all night to debate the Iraq war in preparation for a vote on a bill to start withdrawing troops in three months.
What Reid did came to naught. He failed to get a vote on the bill he wanted. He acted peeved and peevish. He retaliated against those who'd opposed him by refusing to allow a vote on a bill to increase pay for military personnel serving in Iraq, which is politically stupid any way you look at it (not to mention morally questionable).
H.R. 2834 - Proposed Tax Increase?
By Paul Weyrich
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Guess what? Prominent Democrats in Congress may soon pass a huge tax increase. This tax increase will affect all, not just Wall Street. Because what is proposed is almost unknown to the American people and unless you, the American people, learn about this tax increase and protest to high heaven, they will succeed.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/POLITICS/707200410/1022
$152B bill approved by House faces veto
Andrew Taylor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A bill filled with money for job training, health and education faces a veto from President Bush, who complains that Democratic add-ons have made it too expensive.
Some of the president's fellow Republicans, worried about re-election, say it's actually too skimpy.
The bill, containing $152 billion for social programs including special education, community health centers, Head Start and health research, easily passed the House on Thursday by a 276-140 vote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071901395.html
Plame's Suit Against Top Officials Dismissed
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 20, 2007; Page A05
A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and other top officials over the Bush administration's disclosure of Plame's name and covert status to the media.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and the others could not be held liable for the disclosures in the summer of 2003 in the midst of a White House effort to rebut criticism of the Iraq war by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said that such efforts are a natural part of the officials' job duties, and, thus, they are immune from liability.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110010361
Senators and Generals
The best political strategy is still victory.
BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Friday, July 20, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
When Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar broke with President Bush on Iraq last month, he was hailed by antiwar groups as brave. When the Republican this week bucked Democrats and refused to vote for an immediate troop withdrawal, he was hailed by conservatives as wise. Mr. Lugar might well be both brave and wise, but before he's any of those things he's a politician.
And it's politics, not principle, that explains the seeming disconnect this week between the growing number of Republican senators who loudly distance themselves from the war, yet refuse to join Democrats in their antiwar votes. As Mr. Lugar, New Mexico's Pete Domenici and Ohio's George Voinovich, all successively bailed on the surge, the headlines built it up as a great Republican Rift, a "turning point" in the war, which would finally deliver Harry Reid the votes he needed for withdrawal.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTgwNzhhMzFkNTY2OTk3OWRlZDhjZjdhY2I5ZTNlMWQ=
Can Do
An invitation to the world that works.
By Newt Gingrich
“We don’t have problems, just solutions.”
This was the motto of Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey, the man responsible for destroying more tonnage of Japanese shipping than any other submarine commander during World War II. I can’t think of a phrase that better explains the can-do spirit of America, the attitude that propelled our country to be the powerful and wealthy country in history.
Americans still clearly possess this same can-do spirit. More small businesses and scientific breakthroughs are produced in America than anywhere else in the world. However, there is a growing gap between the world that works - the innovation and efficiency that (with some notable exceptions) we see in the private sector - and the world that fails — the exponentially expanding parade of waste and incompetence with which we suffer from our government bureaucracies.
Candidates Shift as G.O.P. Field Alters
Published: July 19, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 18 — The decline of John McCain’s presidential campaign, and the rising profile of Fred D. Thompson as a prospective contender, are forcing candidates to rewrite their strategies as they adjust to a playing field vastly different from just one month ago.
Seeing an opening created by Mr. McCain’s problems, Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York headed for Iowa on Wednesday, the start of a two-day trip that reflects the campaign’s confidence that he now has a shot to win in the state, after Mr. McCain cut his Iowa staff by half. And Mitt Romney of Massachusetts released a television advertisement Monday emphasizing faith and family values in what aides said was an effort to stir unease about Mr. Giuliani among conservative voters who have gravitated toward him.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3395856
Sex Ed for Kindergartners? Romney-Obama Debate Heats Up
Romney Asks, 'How Much Sex Education Is Age Appropriate for a 5-Year-Old?'
By TEDDY DAVIS and LINDSEY ELLERSON
July 19, 2007 —
For the second day in a row, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney blasted Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for believing "age-appropriate" sex education should begin as early as kindergarten.
Obama, who has family members and friends who suffered sexual abuse at early ages, believes young children should know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching. The legislation he supported in the Illinois Senate would have revised the state's law so that sex education would begin in kindergarten and run through high school, rather than running strictly from grade six through 12.
After Obama reaffirmed his belief Tuesday that age-appropriate sex education should begin as early as kindergarten, Romney saw his opportunity to pounce.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGI2Mzg1ZjQwOWM0ZmI2ODQ3YTExZWI2NDY1OTMxNjI=
Thompson’s Turn
By The Editors
Fred Thompson’s campaign has hit its first bump even before it has officially begun. The Los Angeles Times claimed that Thompson, 15 years ago, did lobbying work for a pro-abortion group. Thompson’s campaign denied the story at first. Then Thompson argued that a lobbyist can help his clients promote their positions without sharing them. Now the New York Times has found billing records showing that Thompson did indeed lobby to make it possible for family-planning clinics that make abortion referrals to get federal funds.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/
Posted at 03:24 PM ET, 07/19/2007
The Thompson Effect
Ever since former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) floated the idea of a presidential candidacy earlier this year, we've been grappling with where he fits in the field.
We've talked to any number of Republican strategists -- both those working for other candidates and those who are unaffiliated -- in an attempt to learn who Thompson helps, who he hurts, and whether or not he belongs in the top tier. Some believe Thompson is the frontrunner-in-waiting, a movie star with a southern drawl -- the answer to the prayers of conservative voters looking for a candidate to call their own. Others suggest the early days of the Thompson campaign-in-waiting reveal a candidate not all that interested in campaigning, and an operation that has already committed a major faux pas in its handling of the questions over Thompson's work for a pro-abortion rights group.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-07-18-ann-romney_N.htm
Ann Romney's delicate balance wins her admirers
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ann Romney had met Elizabeth Edwards only once and in passing, but the day after Edwards announced in March that her cancer had recurred in an incurable form, Romney called her.
"I expressed my gratitude for her for continuing to fight on" in the presidential campaign and for the "courage she's giving to other people that are struggling," Romney says. "And I said, 'I totally understand why you're still fighting. I totally get it.' "
When she hung up the phone, Elizabeth Edwards told adviser Jennifer Palmieri she felt a "special kinship" with Romney.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071801964.html
Author of His Own Undoing
Thursday, July 19, 2007; Page A19
At noon on April 25, in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., John McCain announced his presidential candidacy. Less than two hours earlier, in the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer who had been solicitor general in the Clinton administration spoke in the name of McCain. The senator had filed a brief urging the court, in a case arising from an application of the McCain-Feingold law regulating political speech, to uphold the constitutionality of suppressing the speech of a small grass-roots lobbying organization.
July 19, 2007
The Optional Flat Tax
People often laugh when I say on the campaign trail that the tax code should be taken behind the barn and killed with a dull axe. In fact, one man in Iowa was so excited by this proposal that he presented me with an axe before I finished my remarks (fittingly, I was speaking in a barn).
There's a reason people welcome my proposal to kill the tax code -- it's a monster of inscrutable complexity, and I say that as a former lawyer who took every tax law class I could.
Today's tax code -- which is sixteen times longer than the Bible -- is unpredictable, manipulative and hinders the economic growth that generates more prosperity for all Americans.
EDWARDS GOT RICH HURTING THE POOR
July 20, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Trailing in the polls, John Edwards spent the past week telling the poor and downtrodden how much he cares about them.
He even insisted that his Kennedy-esque "poverty tour" was not part of his campaign to capture the White House.
Yeah, just like all those years he spent latched to the back bumper of an ambulance were all out of the goodness of his heart.
That and the $38 million fortune he amassed as the most successful personal-injury lawyer in North Carolina history.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070719/D8QFUN500.html
Pentagon Rebukes Sen. Clinton on Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.
In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.
A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Obama: Don't Stay in Iraq Over Genocide
SUNAPEE, N.H. (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.
"Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven't done," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea," he said.
TWISTING INTEL
By RALPH PETERS
July 19, 2007 -- DEMOCRATS on Capitol Hill have complained for years that the White House "cherry-picks" intelligence. Yesterday, that's exactly what the Dems did themselves with the just-declassified summary of a National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism.
While preparing for their congressional pajama party Tuesday night (D.C. escort services reportedly had a slow evening), the Dems showed once again that, as wretched as the Bush administration can be, it remains a safer bet in the Age of Terror.
The Dems want to have it both ways. They claim we're not fighting al Qaeda. Then they insist we abandon Iraq to al Qaeda.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
Secrets of a Small Town
Robert Novak reflects on a half century in political journalism.
Friday, July 20, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Robert Novak's new memoir of 50 years in journalism, "Prince of Darkness," is 638 pages of storytelling and score settling by a Washington institution who paints himself, convincingly, as churlish, brave, resilient, petty and indefatigable. I got it as soon as it came out and found it entertaining and, in spite of the usual pitfalls of such books--a rote "When Clinton came in second in New Hampshire I was not surprised" unspooling of year-by-year events--human, and frank. It's not a big book, but it tells you, or reminds you of, a few things, and those new to Washington might learn things from it. As in:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/19/none_of_the_above/
None of the above
Bill offers voters a way to put action in dissatisfaction: force a new election
July 19, 2007
Massachusetts voters sick of holding their noses on Election Day could get another option: none of the above.
The proposal would let voters reject all candidates and demand a new election.
"Occasionally, when you get an application for a position, none of them are qualified," said William H. White , a retired systems analyst from East Dennis spearheading the scheme, who testified yesterday before state lawmakers.
The measure, pending before the Legislature, would add the line "None of the Above; For a New Election" to every state and local race on the ballot. If that option won the most votes, another election would be held in 60 to 80 days, and other candidates would be allowed to run.
