493 Days until election day.
MORNING UPDATE:
If anyone wants to see a wonderful tribute to freedom to those who have paid the ultimate price, check out this video Sharon Wise sent over:
http://mfile.akamai.com/21772/wmv/gannett.download.akamai.com/21772/streaming/wmv/hancockportraits.asx
Granholm planning another junket…how about worrying about why Michigan companies keep moving. If the state is giving out corporate welfare, give it at home!
Universities are threatening tuition hikes…maybe state dollars should follow state students? Let’s change the funding formula to allow “our” students to have an affordable education.
Those looking out for taxpayers called “hostage” takers? Free Press says Senate Republicans not “realistic”. Living within one’s means appears a bit to “radical”?
THE REST OF THE STORY:
- Governor Granholm is planning another “junket”…I’m sorry, “trade mission” to an “undisclosed” site seeing location(s).
How about a trade mission to visit Michigan companies and find out why they are expanding in other states or even other countries, other than Michigan? If we are going to provide “corporate welfare” and “tax incentives” to others…how about our home grown companies that could use the boost to survive and expand…and are already here.
I keep hearing those “dumb and dumber” Jeff Daniels ads as I drive around Michigan. They are probably having as much effect as the Governor’s trade mission will.
No wonder folks are upset about state spending, leadership priorities and do NOT want to see the state raise TAXES.
Granholm and the Democrats have it wrong. Lower the cost of doing business here, reform the business climate to be more “job provider” friendly and make the reforms along with cost savings necessary to make Michigan live within it’s means.
We have been “blown away” by the Governor’s leadership, I’m glad she at least gets a chance to get up and way at taxpayer’s expense!?!
- Universities are starting to threaten a tuition increase 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.
By doing this, universities would have an incentive to “recruit” Michigan students, provide “perks” for Michigan families and help educate Michigan’s future!
- The Free Press yesterday took a shot at the Republicans for demanding REFORMS first before contemplating any tax increases etc.
They argued that the Republicans need to be “realistic” and negotiate with the Governor. Too bad they can’t take a crack at negotiating with a Governor who is all over the map. I would love to see what they would come up with…other than just a TAX INCREASE.
We have lots of options. So many in Michigan have been forced to lay off workers, hold off on pay increases, in some cases actually get concessions…yet when Republicans propose that state employees and institutions do the same before raising taxes…it’s considered NOT to be “realistic”.
Wouldn’t it be “realistic” to live within one’s means? To make the same or similar adjustments that just about EVERYONE else in Michigan has to make.
No one is picking on state employees…that’s not the point. They are well paid, get great insurance and benefits and in most cases deserve it. However, we are looking at way to save and reform the way we deliver services….or just raise taxes.
There are lots of options…for a short list and a place to start check Right Michigan. They have compiled a list of possible reforms and savings the state of Michigan could implement…saving over $1.5 BILLION…balancing the budget without raising taxes. To see and add to the growing list go to:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/06/right-michigan-.html
The 4th of July is just around the corner…taking some time to reflect on what our founding fathers said as they created this great country might be a good idea.
Freedom was the original idea!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1183270816106420.xml&coll=6
State debates switch to part-time Legislature
Sunday, July 01, 2007
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press
They command nearly $80,000 a year, receive $12,000 for expenses and enjoy lifetime health insurance that begins at age 55 after six years of service.
Michigan legislators found time this year to authorize Be Kind to Animals Month, pondered a bill on "Ride Your Motorcycle to Work Day" and considered a state poet laureate.
Oh, yeah, they also fiddled much of the spring while plunging revenues burned an $800 million hole in the budget and Michigan's bond rating fell again. Lawmakers elected last week to take a two-week vacation with no agreement in sight, a development Gov. Jennifer Granholm called an "inexcusable failure."
This is what a full-time legislature buys?
"It doesn't seem they are terribly effective," said Grand Rapids applications engineer Chris Hoffbech.
Hoffbech, 43, said he discovered on a trip to Atlanta that Georgia somehow manages with a part-time Legislature. Their salary: $17,342.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010305
Manny Lopez
New state business tax deserves skepticism, not celebration
Michigan has a new business tax and a group of giddy legislators and the governor are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for getting a deal done before going on vacation.
A few handshakes are certainly in order, and businesses in the state might release a collective -- but guarded -- sigh of relief because now they can plan for next year. But let's not break out the champagne just yet. What's happened isn't even worthy of a bottle of two-buck chuck.
Perhaps I'm too skeptical, but I'm having a hard time believing this is truly a "revenue neutral" plan. And I highly doubt it's not fraught with loopholes, problems and last-minute language changes that are designed to benefit specific sectors and special interests.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010308
Nolan Finley
Conduct budget talks in public view
Trust is the key ingredient missing from the state budget talks. The parties struggle to get to the point of publicly shaking hands on a deal because they don't trust each other to honor commitments made behind closed doors.
Several times since this aggravating process began, one side or the other has emerged from the negotiating room to declare an agreement had been reached, only to meet vigorous denials from the person they thought they had the agreement with.
It happened again last week, when Gov. Jennifer Granholm accused Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop of reneging on a promise to accept $1.5 billion in new taxes.
It's hard to imagine Bishop making such a commitment, since he's been unwavering in his vow of no new taxes until serious government reforms are in place. But we can't know for sure because all of the horse-trading is done in the dark.
Michigan's minimum wage increasing to $7.15 an hour
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan's minimum wage is increasing to $7.15 an hour from $6.95 an hour starting Sunday.
The increase is the second of three scheduled to take effect under legislation signed last year by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The law initially bumped the wage to $6.95 an hour from $5.15 an hour in October.
In her weekly radio address, Granholm on Friday said the increase will result in a raise for more than 500,000 Michigan workers.
"This increase will put a little more money in the pockets of Michigan citizens who are working hard every day to pay for rent, to fill up their gas tanks, and to put food on the table for their kids," Granholm said.
The minimum wage is scheduled to rise to $7.40 on July 1, 2008.
Granholm said increasing the minimum wage is one part of her plan to diversify and grow Michigan's economy. The state's reliance on automotive and manufacturing jobs has contributed to its economic problems.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION01/707010511/1069
Aim for quality time for the Legislature
July 1, 2007
BY GABE LELAND
Entering my third year as a Michigan legislator, and almost considered a veteran by my colleagues, I feel compelled to address the issue of reducing the Legislature to a part-time body.
I have had the good fortune to grow up in a household with my father and his 26 years of legislative experience. That upbringing and my own time in Lansing lead me to conclude that we could accomplish just as much, perhaps even more, as a part-time legislature. This approach works in other states; Michigan is one of just 11 with full-time legislators.
We could reduce the Legislature's budget by mandating a 120-day work cycle every year and provide the governor with the power to call special sessions as needed.
Limiting time in Lansing not only saves budget dollars; it affords legislators more time to spend in their districts among their constituents.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1183285275111420.xml&coll=9
Youth want their votes to count
Sunday, July 01, 2007
LINDSAY HENRY
THE SAGINAW NEWS
When it comes to voting, age isn't just a number for Rachel E. Lichon. It's also a restriction.
The 16-year-old from Swan Creek Township said she wants to vote in the November 2008 presidential election, but her Nov. 5 birthday threatens to quiet the voice she wants heard.
"I'm a late birthday, so it could be a long time before I can vote," said Lichon, daughter of Paul and Anne Lichon and a St. Charles High School senior.
"Registration ends in October, so in the November election (in 2008), I couldn't vote because I wasn't old enough in October to register, even if I would be old enough to vote in November."
Mount Pleasant Republican state Rep. Bill Caul introduced legislation Thursday that will allow 17-year-olds to vote in Michigan primary elections if they turn 18 on or before the general election.
Michigan's voting age last changed in 1971, when it dropped to 18 from 21.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION01/707010516/1069
Sickness or health?
Michigan's gay marriage ban is having cruel consequences. It should be changed to allow for shared benefits for partners and children.
July 1, 2007
The people of Michigan clearly oppose gay marriage, and resoundingly said so in 2004 by amending the state Constitution to outlaw it.
But that ban has wrought a series of undesirable repercussions that go far beyond the marriage question to deny basic protections to gay families, mainly in the public sector. Some are losing their health benefits, and it's possible the constitutional amendment could prevent them from caring for each other in sickness or protecting their children.
This kind of cruelty, rooted in the denial of ordinary human dignity, simply isn't what Michiganders bought into by passing Proposal 2 three years ago.
The problems with Proposal 2 will certainly require that government agencies be crafty in creating necessary exceptions to it in the short-term. But in the long run, the solution may need to be more drastic: another statewide referendum to amend Proposal 2 or repeal it.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/BUSINESS01/707010615
Talks likely to reshape industry
Companies, workers brace for fight over concessions
July 1, 2007
BY JOE GUY COLLIER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Chuck Brackney, a 43-year-old Ford Motor Co. worker and UAW member from Trenton, watched Delphi Corp. workers agree last week to concessions that lower wages of the most senior workers at the parts supplier by at least a third.
Brackney hopes the UAW holds tight on wages and benefits when Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group begin their contract talks this month, but he fears the Delphi deal sets the tone for what the automakers will try to get.
"They're going to want to slash us," Brackney said.
UAW leaders have said concessions are not guaranteed in the upcoming talks and warned a strike is an option if negotiations become one-sided. Delphi, a former GM parts division, had added leverage in its talks because the company is in bankruptcy court.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/BUSINESS06/707010530/1002/BUSINESS
Michigan firms ripe to be taken over
State is full of acquisition targets
July 1, 2007
BY KATHERINE YUNG
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Chrysler. Tower Automotive. Lear.
Like hunters chasing easy prey, private investors have gobbled up a growing number of Michigan's most prominent companies, prompting the question: Who's next?
The short answer: Nearly everyone.
In the biggest buyout boom in history, purchasers' access to billions in cheap debt is changing all the rules. Companies once thought too big for a takeover can no longer rest easy.
For employees, the effect can be greater stability as their company's operations improve, but slower wage growth, said Steven Kaplan, a finance professor at the University of Chicago.
Michigan contains plenty of potential acquisition targets, mostly in the troubled auto parts industry, buyout experts say, but also struggling companies such as Ann Arbor-based Borders Group or Troy's Handleman Co.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1182980411169310.xml&coll=1
Rough sailing for state's boating industry
Sunday, July 01, 2007
By Sarah Kellogg
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The undertow of Michigan's lagging economy and high gasoline prices are tugging at the state's boating industry.
Boat sales and registrations in Michigan are down over the last couple of years, and boating experts say that's largely due to the state's economic woes. Boating is a luxury when money gets tight.
"Sales of boats are sporadic and challenged because we're a discretionary expenditure," said Van Snider, president of the Michigan Boat Industries Association (MBIA), which represents the state's boat dealers and marinas. "I'd like to believe everybody should have a boat, but you have to take care of all your necessities before you can have extra money to use in some discretionary way."
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-24/1183263715164670.xml&coll=7
County may poll voters on new jail
Sunday, July 01, 2007
By Cedric Ricks
cricks@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8557
Early jail releases have slowed for the time being, but some Kalamazoo County officials are wondering when the time will be right to ask voters to pay for a new county lockup.
Members of a county task force that has been looking at the issue will ask the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday to support a voters' survey to gauge public support for replacing or upgrading the jail.
``Everybody has been bombarded with millages from everywhere. People may feel tapped out,'' County Commissioner Brian Johnson said. ``They may or may not feel the urgency of solving this problem.
``We don't want to ask for something that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing,'' said Johnson, who also chairs the task force.
The task force is recommending that EPIC-MRA, a Lansing-based survey research firm, conduct the survey, possibly in August, Johnson said. The cost would not exceed $27,800, he said.
Deb Buchholtz-Hiemstra, vice chairwoman of the county board, said the survey could measure public attitudes about what is needed in terms of improvements for the county jail.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-44/1183264408164680.xml&coll=5
Several school officials know financial troubles personally
Problems with money
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, July 01, 2007
By Bob Wheaton
bwheaton@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6375
They decide how to spend millions of taxpayer dollars, but many area school board members - plus Flint's interim school chief - have experienced serious personal finance problems or have failed to pay their own taxes on time.
Bankruptcies, foreclosures, temporary property forfeitures or tax liens have touched at least 13 current or incoming Board of Education members in Genesee County, including six of nine current or incoming school board members in the Flint School District.
School board members in Beecher, Grand Blanc and Westwood Heights also have similar financial problems.
http://info.detnews.com/weblog/index.cfm
George Bullard
Michigan Pharaohs demand more tribute
Former State Rep. Leon Drolet is talking tough about recalling state lawmakers who approve a tax hike.
His threats make House Dems hesitate supporting Gov. Granholm's call for higher taxes. The new Dem House majority is shaky. Recalls might kill it.
More than 40 states have a budget surplus this year, and many are scrambling to give the money back to taxpayers, according to the New York Times.
In Michigan, the talk trends toward extracting even more money from hardpressed Michigan workers in the way of a higher income tax -- sort of like Pharaohs demanding more and more grain tributes from ancient Egyptian serfs.
New state lawmakers learn to feed Capitol traditions
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch didn't spend much time at the Michigan Legislature.
Lawmakers often eat for free, sometimes with grub provided by their newest colleagues. They say it's honoring a legislative tradition that new lawmakers provide their entire chamber, either the House or Senate, with a token of appreciation after getting their first bills passed.
Taxpayer money doesn't pay for the spreads, which have become more elaborate and expensive in the past few years. Lawmakers typically cover their bill-passing lunches out of their own pockets or campaign finance accounts, although sometimes they are helped with donations from culinary schools, restaurants and businesses.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS06/707010561/1008
Great Lakes' history shows fears of low levels may not hold water
They're nearly as deep as in 1850s
July 1, 2007
BY JAMES JANEGA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO -- From one view of history, the Great Lakes are near record lows, approaching the bottom-scraping frustration of the mid-1960s.
But from another, longer view, the lakes are nearly as high as they've ever been, just a few feet below the high-water mark reached in the 1850s.
Both pictures are scientifically accurate and are getting increased attention from climatologists, lake scientists and environmentalists curious about history's large climate cycles and how they tip the lakes' eons-old balancing act of rainfall and runoff, heating and evaporation.
The fluctuations are posing new questions about whether climate change has begun to alter the depth of the lakes, though the picture is still too complex to yield definitive answers.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010304
Charles Krauthammer
Congress fails to face defects of fuel economy rules
The senator was vexed. The U.S. auto companies were resisting attempts by her and other Senate well-meaners to impose a radical rise in fuel efficiency by 2017. Why can't they be more like the Chinese, she complained. Or to quote Sen. Dianne Feinstein precisely: "What the China situation, or the other countries' situation, shows is that these automakers, in all of these countries, build the automobile that the requirements for mileage state. And they don't fight it, they just do it."
Yes. That is how things work in Communist Party dictatorships. It is odd to hold up China as a model of corporate-government relations. It is also poor salesmanship.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010306
Michelle Malkin
Clear the immigration backlogs first
Harry Reid boasts of his compassion for "undocumented Americans." President Bush wants understanding for "newcomers" without papers. The so-called Grand Bargainers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate tried to push forward this past week with their massive plan to "regularize" the unregularized and bring in hundreds of thousands of extra foreign guest workers on top of the ones who are already here or have been waiting for approval for years.
Why can't anyone in Washington pinpoint what's wrong with this picture?
During the last several years, I've noted the following immigration backlogs that continue to plague our homeland security system:
· The backlog of 600,000-plus fugitive deportee cases.
South Korea, US Sign Free Trade Deal
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States and South Korea signed a free-trade agreement Saturday that reflected U.S. calls for stricter labor and environmental standards.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab signed the agreement in Washington, meeting a deadline under President Bush's expiring special trade powers.
That "fast track" authority prevents lawmakers from amending the deal before voting on it. The trade deal still needs to be approved by lawmakers in both countries to take effect.
Bush said Saturday that the Korean agreement would generate exports for U.S. farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service suppliers. He urged Congress to ratify the agreement.
________________________________________________________________________
Bush Defends Military Buildup in Iraq
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) -- President Bush, who faces mounting congressional pressure to end the war, called Saturday for patience as U.S. forces conduct stepped-up operations in Iraq.
"We're still at the beginning of this offensive, but we're seeing some hopeful signs," Bush said in his weekly radio address, in which he likened U.S. troops deployed around the globe to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
"We're engaging the enemy, and killing or capturing hundreds," said Bush, who is losing GOP support for his decision in January to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad and Anbar.
The president said two senior al-Qaida leaders were killed this week north of Baghdad and U.S. troops are finding arms caches at more than three times the rate of a year ago. Despite an upward trend in May, sectarian murders in the Iraqi capital are down from January, Bush said.
Reid: Democrats' Agenda Is Progressing
WASHINGTON (AP) -- While some Republicans are "saying the right things on Iraq," they need to back up their words with votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday.
"Voting against a bill on a matter of principle is one thing," the Nevada senator said during the weekly Democratic radio address. "To go forward, we will need far more Republicans to put partisan politics aside and work with us for the American people."
While seeking their votes on defense legislation next week, Reid accused GOP lawmakers of blocking ethics reform and enactment of the 9/11 Commission recommendations.
"Republican obstruction has gotten so bad that now they're blocking bills that they actually support," Reid said.
His remarks followed a second failed attempt to pass immigration reform, which Reid described as "a rare chance to make progress on one of the country's top problems."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010301
Froma Harrop
Democrats who do billionaires' bidding
One of the less appetizing sights in politics today is Democrats defending laws that tax high-finance buccaneers at lower rates than the police who guard their Aston Martins. While many Democrats are trying to close these loopholes, some are trying not to. It's about raising money, of course.
Moneybag Democrats justify their stance by arguing that private-equity and hedge-fund billionaires do the public a great service and that taxing them like everyone else will reduce their incentives to get out of bed in the morning. Many Republicans say much the same thing -- but they believe it.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/the_court_does_democrats_a_fav.html
July 01, 2007
The Court Does Democrats a Favor
WASHINGTON -- It may have been purely coincidental that the Supreme Court banned the use of race to achieve racial diversity in public schools only hours before the year's first presidential debate to focus on minority issues.
Coincidence or not, the Supremes could hardly have handed Democratic candidates a better issue with which to energize their liberal base.
The 5-4 decision by Chief Justice John Roberts declared Thursday that public school systems cannot use a student's race to achieve or maintain integration. The decision invalidated programs in Seattle and metropolitan Louisville that tried to maintain schoolby- school diversity by using race to limit transfers or as a "tiebreaker" for admission to particular schools. Hundreds of school districts across the country have similar plans in place.
It is a sign of how complicated race has become as a legal and political issue that justices on both sides of the decision claimed to be acting in the best spirit of the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/30/AR2007063000859.html?hpid=topnews
A Political Force With Many Philosophies
Survey of Independents, Who Could Be Key in 2008, Finds Attitudes From Partisan to Apathetic
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 1, 2007; Page A01
Fred Wood, a Marietta, Ohio, retiree, voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and John F. Kerry in 2004. In last year's midterm elections, he voted Republican for Senate and Democratic for governor. Is he on the fence for 2008? "You bet I am!" he said.
Mary Welch, a program manager in Appleton, Wis., twice supported Bush for president and voted Republican in last year's hotly contested Wisconsin gubernatorial race. Looking ahead to 2008, she said, "At this point, I tend to lean toward the Republican Party."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/06/will_bloomberg_runand_can_he_w.html
June 30, 2007
Will Bloomberg Run--and Can He Win?
By Larry Sabato
The news media are a-twitter about the possibility of an all-New York race for the White House in 2008. Hillary Clinton (D) versus Rudy Giuliani (R) versus Michael Bloomberg (I) would somehow validate the Empire State (and the media's headquarters city). After all, it's been 64 years since New York could claim the major contenders (Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt and GOP New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey in 1944). Since '44, New Yorkers have been bust in the presidential process, including Dewey again in 1948, Nelson Rockefeller in 1960 and 1964, Bobby Kennedy in 1968 (only because of an assassin's bullet), John Lindsay in 1972 and Mario Cuomo in 1992. Note to observant readers: we're not including minor candidates here, nor do we count Eisenhower as a New Yorker in 1952 or Nixon as one in 1968. Yes, Ike's last U.S. address before the Presidency was New York-he had served as President of Columbia University before becoming Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe--but Ike was born in Texas and reared in Kansas; he was no New Yorker. Similarly, Nixon was technically a NYC resident, where he had practiced law since losing the California Governorship in 1962; still, Nixon was a Californian through and through.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21354
Will Newt Run?
by Robert Novak
Posted: 06/30/2007
Newt Gingrich is telling Republican insiders that his decision in September whether to run for president in 2008 depends on the progress of Fred Thompson's imminent candidacy.
If Thompson runs a vigorous and effective campaign, Gingrich says privately, he probably will not get in the race himself. If Thompson proves a dud, however, the former House speaker will seriously consider making a run. That implies that the others in the field look to Gingrich like losers in the general election.
A footnote: Gingrich has weighed in more heavily on the immigration issue than any of the major Republican presidential hopefuls. He has bombarded Republican Senate offices with material attacking the immigration bill backed by President Bush, even sending proposed talking points to senators about to meet with the president
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/30/AR2007063001034_pf.html
Whether or Not He Runs in 2008, Newt Gingrich Is Off to a Talking Start
By Lloyd Grove
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, July 1, 2007; D01
Newt Gingrich might be too huge to be president.
Not in the physical sense -- though, at 64, he has taken on ballast since his frenetic phase a decade ago as speaker of the House, and he's moving these days with a purposeful waddle. But the conceptual framework of the presidency seems, well, just a tad limiting.
"The presidency is a minor post on the scale of change I'm describing," Gingrich, still the history professor, declares with a dismissive wave.
"You get to appoint a lot of ambassadors. It isn't 50 percent, it's 5 percent of the whole process. I want to make sure by the time we're done that in 511,000 elective positions" -- apparently the whole of U.S. officialdom -- "there are people who understand the 21st century, understand American civilization, and have fundamentally changed government at all levels."
Giuliani Links Terror, Border Security
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The car bomb scare in London and the attack Saturday at the Glasgow airport underscore the need for secure borders for the United States, Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Saturday.
"This is the United Kingdom," he said. "They have security that is at least equal to ours; they have intelligence services that have even had more experience with terrorism than ours has, you know, they have to be subjected to this. We're in an era in which we need to know everyone who's in the United States."
Giuliani, who was mayor of New York at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, said the federal government needs to ensure that its borders are secure.
Romney Questioned by Conservatives
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, courting Iowa conservatives, found himself answering questions Saturday about the role his Mormon faith would play should he win the race.
Romney told one questioner at a forum co-sponsored by a Christian group that "we have exactly the same values" and said there is no religious litmus test for candidates. The former Massachusetts governor dismissed suggestions of a conflict between his religion and his ability to govern. He also hastened to offer assurances of his faith.
"The Bible for me is the word of God," Romney said. "I also believe that Jesus Christ is my savior."
The questions arose as Romney prepared to join five other Republican candidates at a forum sponsored by two of the most important forces in Iowa Republican politics - the Iowa Christian Alliance and Iowans for Tax Relief.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/mccains-campaign-faces-tough-obstacles/
June 30, 2007, 10:36 am
2008: McCain’s Campaign Faces Tough Obstacles
With this week’s failure of the immigration bill, loathed by many G.O.P. voters and championed by Senator John McCain, talk of trouble for his campaign is picking up volume. Michael Finnegan of The Los Angeles Times examines what one Republican strategist calls a “confluence of forces” working against Mr. McCain:
His push to overhaul immigration laws, which collapsed in Congress this week, has stirred a fierce conservative backlash. That widening breach with conservatives has helped rivals Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson advance.
At the same time, Rudolph W. Giuliani’s recent dip in the polls has been too slight to help McCain; the former New York mayor still undercuts the Arizona senator’s onetime base of support among moderates.
The robust competition also has stoked doubts about McCain’s general-election viability, already in question because of his outspoken support of President Bush’s unpopular troop buildup in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/us/politics/29cindy.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
Mrs. McCain Is Speaking Up in a Steely Tone
Published: June 29, 2007
PHOENIX, June 26 — Cindy McCain on the presidential campaign trail in 2000 was mostly a cheerful sidekick to her husband, keeping her positions on national policy to herself.
When her husband, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, saw his White House run collapse in the South Carolina primary — after a whispering campaign suggesting that he had fathered an illegitimate child and bringing up her onetime addiction to painkillers — Mrs. McCain burst into tears, but then joined her husband on a road of forgiving and forgetting.
Seven years later, with her husband making a second bid for the presidency, Mrs. McCain appears as a different kind of spouse. With two sons in the military, including one who is about to be deployed to Iraq, she is far from the demure campaign wife, especially when it comes to the winner of that South Carolina primary, George W. Bush.
“I’m angry at them,” Mrs. McCain, 53, said when questioned about the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq. She said that the administration was paying the price for not having listened to her husband.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/30/AR2007063000774.html
In Iowa, Clinton Camp Scripts Bill's Role to Keep Focus on Hillary
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 1, 2007; Page A04
When Bill Clinton joins his wife for their first major joint campaign appearances tomorrow, the former president is planning to play the role of "biographer in chief," telling "the story" of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- and directing some of his high-wattage charisma toward her.
But can the former president keep from stealing the show?
The extraordinary sight of the two Clintons on the stump in Iowa is expected to draw a media crush, dominating the holiday week news even as a handful of other presidential contenders campaign around the state. Clinton officials describe the former president's participation as an obvious next step for the campaign, given that Iowa is the key primary battlefield where Clinton (D-N.Y.) is so far faring the worst.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8Q3LAMG0&show_article=1
Clinton Slams GOP Rival's Cuba Remark
Jul 1 03:17 AM US/Eastern
By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.
"I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists," Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. "Apparently he doesn't have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn't know a lot of Cuban-Americans."
Thompson, who is polling strongly among GOP primary voters and is expected to join the race soon, made the comment at a campaign stop Wednesday in South Carolina.
The actor and former Tennessee senator was criticizing an immigration bill in the Senate, contending it would make the country more vulnerable to terrorism.
July 1, 2007
Perspective on Her Side, Mrs. Edwards Enters Fray
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and PATRICK HEALY
WASHINGTON, June 30 — Three months after Elizabeth Edwards said that her cancer had returned in inoperable form, her role and influence in John Edwards’s presidential campaign is undiminished. She has made a flurry of charged public appearances, become a regular presence advising Mr. Edwards on the campaign trail, and wields behind-the-scenes influence in many internal campaign decisions, aides said.
Mrs. Edwards has also become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political instincts as she advises Mr. Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, in his second White House bid.
When Mrs. Edwards called in to a television talk show this week to confront the conservative commentator Ann Coulter who had attacked Mr. Edwards this year, it was a decision that Mrs. Edwards said she made impulsively and on her own. The resulting dramatic four minutes of television created a surge of attention that at least momentarily electrified her husband’s campaign, winning applause from the left and apparently spiking contributions in the critical final days of this second-quarter fund-raising period.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/450392,CST-EDT-REF30b.article
Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
June 30, 2007
BY JAMES M. TAYLOR
In his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, "We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth." Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.
If Gore really means what he writes, he has an opportunity to make a difference by leading by example on the issue of global warming.
A cooperative and productive discussion of global warming must be open and honest regarding the science. Global warming threats ought to be studied and mitigated, and they should not be deliberately exaggerated as a means of building support for a desired political position.
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2007476.ece
June 30, 2007
A trail of terror stretching 200 years
What links Robespierre and the Haymarket bombers?
John Gray
At a time when Islamist terrorism seems to have returned to the centre of London, it is easy to forget that during the 20th century terror was used on a vast scale by secular regimes. Today suicide attacks are automatically linked with a belief in martyrdom followed by paradise in the afterlife. Yet suicide bombing of the kind we now confront is a terrorist technique that was developed by people with no such beliefs. Though they claim to reject all things modern and Western, Islamist terrorists are continuing a modern Western tradition of using systematic violence to transform society. The roots of contemporary terrorism are in radical Western ideology - especially Leninism - far more than religion.
Lenin saw himself as belonging in a European revolutionary tradition that began with the French Jacobins, whose use of terror he criticised only because he believed it was insufficiently merciless. For Lenin, as for Robespierre, terror was not just a means of defending the revolution against enemies but also an essential tool of social engineering.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/OPINION03/707010309
Clarence Page
Moore exposes 'Sicko' health system
America's got a terrific health care system, as long as you don't get sick.
That much, at least, seems to be conceded even by lobbyists for the nation's health insurance industry. That's judging by one of the few who showed up at Michael Moore's invitation for the Washington premiere of his new movie "Sicko."
"Look, identifying problems in our health-care system is like shooting fish in a barrel," consultant Claudia Schlosberg was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. The real issue, she said, is finding solutions.
That's easy to say when you represent the industry that grew those fish.
Numerous congressional proposals have offered wider, less expensive and more reliable coverage than Americans receive from our current patchwork, employer-based system. But no matter how workable, practical or desirable the proposals may be, the insurance industry reliably shoots them down, armed with billions of dollars for political campaign contributions, spin-doctors and attack ads.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS07/70701008/1001/NEWS
Israel to begin transferring millions to Abbas government
July 1, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — In a gesture to the new Palestinian government, Israel will begin releasing some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax money it has frozen for more than a year, Israeli officials said today.
Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said at least $50 million would be sent to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel is trying to bolster Abbas in his standoff against the rival Hamas militant group, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip last month.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010282
The Beeb's Bias
Britain's public broadcaster is a major source of anti-American propaganda.
BY ROBIN AITKEN
Sunday, July 1, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
I experienced a sense of vindication recently when I read that the BBC was about to publish a document admitting a pervasive liberal-left bias in its output. As this was the theme of my recent book, "Can We Trust the BBC?," it seemed I would be able to indulge in a spectacular bout of I-told-you-so-ing. Alas, that brief, heady moment proved premature. For while the report is a careful piece of research, it pulls its punches when it comes to bias within its own News and Current Affairs department--where it matters most. Richard Tait, chairman of the BBC's "Impartiality Steering Group," point-blank denied that there is any bias in its news output. The Beeb has never been distinguished by a culture of robust self-criticism.
I know this from experience: Toward the end of my 25 years as a BBC reporter I began writing a series of internal memos, first to senior news executives and finally to the BBC's Board of Governors, detailing an entrenched liberal-left bias that seriously undermined the BBC's claim to be an impartial news provider. Referring to well-documented incidents, I posed several questions: Why did we keep hiring established left-wing pundits, but never any journalists with right-wing credentials? Why did we use "right wing" as a yah-boo term to mean "anything we don't like"? Why did we never give U.S. actions the benefit of the doubt--in contrast to our strenuous efforts to be "fair" to Britain's avowed enemies?
