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March 28, 2008

Articles of Interest 3-28-2008

222 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

"So the Democrats are losing the stupid people, and that's kind of scary because we always used to do very well with them."

Who said that??? Democrat Mark GREBNER of Practical Political Consulting in discussing recent demographic numbers that show the Democrat Party gaining in popularity with college-educated voters, but losing ground among the working class.

Welcome home Reagan Democrats! What an insult. As someone who grew up in a working class, union household in Detroit, I shouldn't be surprised by the arrogant characterization of the liberal elite, "smart" Democrats. If that's the Democrat's get out the vote effort, it sounds like President McCain in the making!

Looking ahead to the General Election in November, John McCain continues to lead both potential Democratic opponents. McCain leads Barack Obama 51% to 41% and Hillary Clinton 51% to 41%. See the Rasmussen poll:

Barack Obama's $Million$ a year earnings and charitable giving revealed in tax returns pretty interesting, more below.

Visit Senator McCain's website at www.JohnMcCain.com and sign up for updates from the campaign, and ask your friends to do the same.  While the Democrats are busy tearing each other up, we have the opportunity to build our bench of volunteers and activists now to carry Senator McCain and our entire Republican ticket to victory.

I taped "Michigan Matters" with Carol Cain, which will air this weekend. "Michigan Matters" airs Saturday on CBS Detroit at 11 a.m. and is repeated on Sunday on CW 50 at 11:30 a.m.

TAX season is upon us. Here are a few reforms we should consider:

1)      Simplify, the one-page, "optional flat tax" or a consumption based "Fair Tax".

2)      Replace depreciation with expensing common sense and a stimulus.

3)      Expand IRAs/401(k)s and index them to inflation.

4)      Abolish the "Death Tax" mom and dad earned it, let the family keep it.

5)      Abolish the Capital Gains and Dividend Tax taxing savings & investment?

6)      Abolish the AMT Alternative Minimum Tax - outdated and punitive.

7)      Establish "Tax Me More" accounts for those who feel under-taxed.

8)       A federal Balanced Budget Amendment fund it or spend less!

As April 15th approaches and we start working on our tax returns and realize how backwards and punitive our tax system is, let us think about, discuss and push for some real changes/reforms. Real change requires real change.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

NOT EXACTLY A PARAGON OF GENEROSITY   At least not with his own money -- as revealed by Barack Obama's stingy charitable giving record in his publicly disclosed tax returns. But hey, the liberal agenda is never about personal, voluntary generosity. It's about them forcing you to be generous with your money for their causes.

Here are the year-by-year portions of AGI that went to charity -- and this includes his contributions to "reverend" Wright.

2006: 6.1%

2005: 4.7%

2004: 1.2%

2003: 1.4%

2002: 0.4%

2001: 0.5%

2000: 0.9%

Thanks to Americans for Tax Reform for the link.

STATE STORIES
Kilpatrick scandal sparks dueling rallies
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Supporters and detractors of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will hold separate rallies Thursday evening to voice their feelings about the city leader and the recent felony charges leveled against him by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Kilpatrick supporters will hold a rally at 6:30 p.m. at the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1 at 7625 Linwood near Hogarth on the city's west side.
The mayor's critics will hold a demonstration at 6 p.m. at the Let Them Come Church at 10320 Hamilton on the city's west side.
TV judge Mathis denies role in Detroit mayor's defense fund

by The Associated Press
Thursday March 27, 2008, 2:37 PM
DETROIT (AP) -- Television judge Greg Mathis says he is not part of a committee raising funds for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's legal battle against perjury, misconduct and other charges.
The TV personality and former Detroit district court judge was responding Thursday to reports listing him as part of a group contributing money to help pay Kilpatrick's private lawyers.
Mathis said in a faxed statement he told Kilpatrick Wednesday he supports due process "but I could not support him" and recommends Kilpatrick "resign so the city can heal and move forward."
The Reverend Horace Sheffield III says he is a member of the committee and had been told Mathis also was part of the group.
Fired cop Gary Brown may challenge Kilpatrick’s mother for job in Congress
Robert Snell and Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Fired Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, fresh from beating Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick during the police whistle-blower trial, is mulling a campaign for mayor or against the mayor's mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.
Brown and one of his consultants confirmed today that polling will begin soon to gauge his support for a run at mayor next year or a campaign this year for the 13th District, which spreads from the Grosse Pointes to Downriver.
Brown insists it's not personal and would only discuss his interest in taking on Cheeks Kilpatrick, 62. But his candidacy could turn what has traditionally been a campaign cakewalk for the six-term congresswoman into a bitter race with a subplot of the decorated deputy police chief against the mother of the man who ended his law enforcement career.
Mayor Kilpatrick: 'They're trying to lock me up forever'
Kilpatrick tells rally he's afraid of going to prison, 'started to pass out' at arraignment.
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told 1,000 supporters at rally for him Thursday night that he is afraid of the threat of being sent to prison in connection with perjury charges filed by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office earlier this week and that he "started to pass out" at his arraignment.
"I felt like Spike Lee (in the movie Malcolm X)," he said, referring to a scene in which Denzel Washington, playing the black Muslim leader, appeared in court as a laundry list of charges were read.
In a rare glimpse into Kilpatrick's feelings surrounding the charges and the text-messaging scandal, Kilpatrick spoke of possibilities.
"Seventy years. What did I do? They're trying to lock me up forever. For text messages?" Kilpatrick told the standing-room-only crowd at the Shrine of the Black Madonna on the city's west side.
Detroit City Council votes to release Kilpatrick, Beatty texts
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The City Council approved a resolution Thursday afternoon authorizing the city administration to release all of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty's text messages that have been sought in a lawsuit by The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.
Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. submitted the resolution to the city clerk's office this morning. Councilwoman Monica Conyers was the only no vote in the 8-1 move.
The newspapers have sued the city of Detroit in Wayne County Circuit Court to obtain selected text messages from Beatty's SkyTel pager through the Freedom of Information Act.
Michigan suffers if mayor stays on

Posted by Jackson Citizen Patriot March 27, 2008 10:32AM
Categories: Editorial
The following is the Jackson Citizen Patriot's editorial for March 27:
All of Michigan should take more than a passing interest in the ongoing meltdown of Detroit's mayor. Criminal charges against Kwame Kilpatrick stand as a huge roadblock to economic progress in this state's largest city.
If Kilpatrick indeed stays in office while awaiting trial, he will continue to scare away business investment in Detroit and add to the city's sorry image of civic corruption.
Kilpatrick should think of more than himself here. He should resign today.
Already, the once-promising mayor has done significant damage to the city he says he loves. He authorized an $8.4 million legal settlement largely to hide text messages showing that he and his former chief of staff lied in a whistleblower trial. Those same text messages, obtained by The Detroit Free Press, also suggest the mayor fired police officers for personal motives and steered city work toward friends.
40 turn out for Walberg forum on foreclosures

Nick Schirripa and Justin A. Hinkley
The Enquirer
For some, foreclosure is a looming threat. For others, it is a harsh reality.
Many of the 40 or so people at Burnham Brook on Wednesday had their own foreclosure stories, and all had concerns about the local and national increase in the number of people losing their homes.
"In two years, I'm going to be facing losing my home," said Dorothy Long of Battle Creek.
The 63-year-old retiree said she lives on a fixed income and is worried she might not be able to pay a balloon mortgage payment due in a few years.
Senate tries to boost home sales with tax changes

The Associated Press
LANSING — The state Senate has passed legislation aimed at spurring homes sales in Michigan.   Republicans say bills approved today would address the so-called “pop-up” tax that results when someone buys a home.
Under Michigan’s property tax system, a home’s taxable value rises to the home’s market value when it’s sold. Critics say that’s a disincentive to buy a house in Michigan.
The Senate plan would give people who buy a new house an income tax credit against the amount their property taxes would rise over the previous owner’s taxes.

Editorial: Allen, McManus must use clout to achieve equity

For years now a handful of Michigan school districts have been enjoying a level of per-pupil state aid that other districts -- including most in northwest Lower Michigan -- can only dream of.
It is the continuing price most public school students and their taxpaying parents are bearing for the political clout of a handful of Oakland and Wayne County districts that has nothing to do with education, fairness or need.
It's long past time the rest of the Legislature stood up and did something about it.
Righting that inequity would be a perfect career-ending goal for the region's two state senators -- Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, and Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau -- who are both term-limited and facing the last two years of their tenure in the Legislature. Most members of the region's state House contingent are in the last months of their final terms.
Mich. Senate votes to make state government use green energy

3/27/2008, 7:06 p.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press   
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Senate on Thursday voted to make state government use more green energy but didn't ask the same of residents and businesses because of Republicans' worries that renewable power costs too much.
Legislation approved unanimously would require that 10 percent of electricity in state buildings come from wind, solar or other renewable sources by 2010. The standard would rise to 25 percent by 2025, though the government could avoid mandates if it turns out the cost of renewable energy is more than 5 percent higher than traditional power.
Sen. Patricia Birkholz, a Saugatuck Republican and sponsor of the bill, said it would help Michigan make progress on the renewable issue "without putting a strict mandate on the people."

Homeland Security makes final ruling on border crossings

Times Herald
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a final rule today, implementing a change in documents accepted at border crossings.
The rule formalizes information previously released by the department regarding the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The new requirements, which affect people, including U.S. citizens, entering the country at land and sea border crossings, will take effect June 1, 2009.
At that time, people must present documents denoting both citizenship and identity when crossing the border. Only passports, a passport card or a few other forms of identification, including a NEXUS card, will be accepted. The regulation is already in place for air travel.
Southfield Muslim charity executive indicted as spy
Feds: He helped Saddam, paid for trip for Bonior, others
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A former top official with the Southfield-based Muslim charity Life for Relief and Development spied for the regime of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and organized a 2002 congressional junket to Iraq secretly paid for by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges.
There is no evidence the congressmen knew Iraqi intelligence paid for the trip. The indictment does not identify the congressmen, but records show former U.S. Rep David Bonior, D-Mount Clemens, and two other congressmen made that trip to Iraq. Bonior could not immediately be reached.
Muthanna Al-Hanooti, 48, of Dearborn Heights received a potentially lucrative contract for the right to purchase 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil in return for his work for the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the indictment alleges.
Governor speaks on energy, education

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — During her visit to Marquette Monday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm promoted renewable and alternative energy sources as an attainable goal for the Upper Peninsula, as well as the rest of the state.
“The Upper Peninsula is in a unique position to have us lead the nation in alternative and renewable energy,” Granholm said. “It’s not just a pipe dream.”
Granholm — who spoke at a joint meeting of the Marquette Noon Kiwanis, Rotary and Economic clubs at the Ramada Inn — spent a lot of time explaining to the packed audience the potential of biofuels, wind and solar energy.
Governor answers U.P. questions

Gov. Jennifer Granholm sat down with The Mining Journal Monday during her Marquette visit to answer questions about the Upper Peninsula and how state policies will affect the area. Granholm’s responses have been edited for length.
Q: Marquette County is struggling with the issue of the Kennecott Mineral Co.’s proposed mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. Is there a way to balance the economic benefit of the mine against the impact on the area?
A: “I wouldn’t sign on to a mine that was going to damage the resources or the ability of the tourism economy to thrive here. You know, I signed into law the most rigorous mining laws in the nation. It’s gone through the most rigorous review of any mine that has ever been permitted in the history of Michigan, as it should. And if there is an indication in some way that the resource would be damaged, believe me, that thing will be shut down faster than you can blink an eye. So we are committed to making sure this is done in a way that balances out the wise use of the resources plus the tourism economy.”

Question: Who served in Congress longest?

by by AP and Evening News staff , last modified March 27. 2008 11:21AM
John Dingell, the dean of the U.S. House, is seeking re-election to what could be a record-setting term in Congress.
The Dearborn Democrat plans to file his re-election nominating petitions today in Lansing and hold a campaign rally and fundraiser in Ypsilanti.
Rep. Dingell is the second-longest serving member of Congress in history and could set the record for longevity in February. The 81-year-old lawmaker first was elected to Congress in late 1955.
"The problems we face across Michigan and the 15th Congressional District aren't news to the families here," Rep. Dingell said in a statement.   "The skyrocketing cost of gas and groceries, the mortgage crisis, the cost of sending your child to college, the cost of health insurance, jobs being eliminated or shipped overseas - these aren't news stories, they are the reality here.
Lawmakers warn CDC not to terminate whistleblower

3/27/2008, 6:18 p.m. EDT
By KEN THOMAS
The Associated Press   
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee warned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday not to fire a whistleblower who was involved in a controversial draft report that suggested pollution is causing health problems in parts of the Great Lakes region.
Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., wrote CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding that they were concerned the agency might be taking steps to terminate the scientist in charge of the project, Christopher De Rosa.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Dingell chairs, is investigating the draft report, which was produced by CDC scientists and later released after allegations of a cover-up.

Economy, education, environment key for 23rd state House district candidate

by Dean Cousino , last modified March 27. 2008 11:22AM
Bringing Michigan into a global economy and boosting higher education and early childhood education are among the goals of Deb Kennedy in her bid for the Democratic nomination for the 23rd state House seat.
Mrs. Kennedy, 53, will vie for the nomination in the Aug. 5 primary election. A Brownstown Township resident, she is the first female to file a nominating petition to succeed state Rep. Kathleen Law, D-Gibraltar, who is leaving because of term limits.  Rep. Law is endorsing her.
"She recruited me," Mrs. Kennedy said. "We knew each other as friends and she was looking for a woman to replace her."
Strike fallout may spread to GM car plants in Michigan, Ohio

3/27/2008, 9:06 p.m. EDT
By TOM KRISHER
The Associated Press   
DETROIT (AP) — The increasingly bitter monthlong strike at auto parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. is starting to hit General Motors Corp. where it hurts.
Two GM factories that make cars in Michigan and Ohio soon will be affected by the strike, which already has fully or partially shut down 28 GM plants in the U.S. and Canada due to parts shortages.
GM confirmed Thursday that the strike will force it to idle the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant after Friday's lone shift, and a local union president in Lordstown, Ohio, said Thursday that his complex will be shut down on April 4.
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/032708/loc_local02.shtml
Magistrate won't be charged
Evidence 'insufficient' of driving drunk, prosecutors say

By Norb Franz
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
James Conrad, the 37th District Court magistrate and court administrator arrested in January on suspicion of drunken driving, won't face criminal charges because the evidence is insufficient, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office has ruled.
Prosecutors were surprised Warren police did not seek a search warrant to obtain a blood sample from Conrad to determine his blood-alcohol content, after he had refused to take a breath test following a traffic stop.
"I am surprised there was no attempt to obtain a search warrant," said assistant prosecutor Edward Cibor, chief of warrants for Oakland prosecutors. "You put the horse before the cart, and that's what you need to do."

Housing factories plan May closing, layoffs

The Associated Press
LaGRANGE, Ind. — About 250 northwest Indiana workers will lose their jobs in May when a Dutch Housing factory in LaGrange closes and a Redman Homes plant trims half its staff.
Unexpected housing and economic market factors were cited for the reductions in a letter dated March 24 and sent to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The modular and manufactured home plants are operated by Troy, Mich.-based Champion Enterprises.
NATIONAL STORIES
THE EXCLUSIVE: RNC Last Chance to Fix 2012 Primaries

by Jed Babbin (more by this author)
Reorganization of the 2012 presidential primaries will be at the top of the agenda at next week’s meetings of the Republican National Committee. First the Rules Committee, beginning on April 1, and later the “committee of the whole” will vote on plans offered by Ohio, Texas, Michigan (and others) to change the system that many party leaders concede has failed this year.
Those party leaders are rightly concerned about the undue influence the small states that lead the primary schedule -- Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in particular – have on the nomination process.
In his March 24 memorandum to the RNC (a copy of which has been obtained by HUMAN EVENTS), Ohio Republican Chairman Robert T. Bennett cites the conflict between the “form” -- the style and timing of a state’s primary or caucus -- and the “function,” to nominate a candidate for national office.
Ex-GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee remains 'very active and outspoken on issues'

Posted by Matt Vande Bunte | The Grand Rapids Press March 27, 2008 18:28PM
Categories: Breaking News, Election news
GRAND RAPIDS -- A pro-life emphasis and support for traditional marriage will remain at the forefront of the Republican Party platform if Mike Huckabee holds sway.
The 52-year-old former Arkansas governor and former Republican presidential nominee is in Grand Rapids today, speaking at a fundraising dinner for North Hills Classical Academy, a private Christian school at 2777 Knapp St. NE.
"I hope to remain very active and outspoken on issues that got me into the presidential race in the first place," Huckabee said this afternoon at Kent Country Club, prior to an evening speech.
"I think (Arizona Sen. John) McCain understands he has to have the strong, conservative values voters. The fabric of a nation is like that of the fabric of a family."
A former Baptist pastor, Huckabee surged into the presidential picture by winning the Iowa caucuses in January, and went on to victories in seven more states, mostly in the south, before bowing out to McCain earlier this month.
A Tax McCain Could Cut

By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, March 27, 2008; A17
A major strategist in John McCain's campaign was asked privately this week whether his candidate might propose cutting the payroll tax. "Yes," came the reply. "No problem. Not a big deal." He was wrong on both scores. Cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security, would not be easy but would offer a rich economic prize in this lean Republican year.
Republicans have been wary of touching Social Security, the third rail of politics, ever since a reelected President Bush abandoned his reform under withering Democratic fire. Moreover, Republicans talk about offsetting losses in payroll tax revenue by cutting future Social Security benefits, which contains seeds of electoral catastrophe.
Neither McCain nor his advisers seem to realize the value of the political prize that they can grasp. The regressive payroll tax oppresses most Americans, especially young men and women, and burdens small businesses that must match the tax that their employees pay. With dogma-bound Democrats unable to remedy this, the GOP has an opportunity to reach out beyond top-bracket taxpayers, big business and high finance.
About 41 percent of Americans have no income tax liability or do not file a return. But every wage-earner is hit by the payroll tax, amounting to more than they pay in income taxes for 86 percent of them. Young people are often stunned when they find out how much is withheld from their first paycheck under the FICA label. As they marry, have children and earn more money, they come to hate the 6.2 percent taken out of their first $102,000. In 1990, then-Sen. Robert Kasten, a Republican from Wisconsin, wrote: "These excessive taxes have struck at the heart of the American family."
One-time bitter rivals, McCain, Romney campaign together

3/27/2008, 6:46 p.m. EDT
By LIZ SIDOTI
The Associated Press   
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In a show of Republican unity, one-time bitter foes John McCain and Mitt Romney raised money and campaigned together Thursday for a single goal — getting McCain elected president.
"We are united. Now our job is to energize our party," the Arizona senator said in an airport hangar, flanked by Romney and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., an early McCain supporter. Both have been mentioned as potential vice presidential picks, and McCain praised each.
Romney, a Michigan native, lauded McCain and promised to do all he can to help, saying: "He is a man who is proven and tested" and without question the right man to be president.
McCain Veepstakes: Possible Palin?

by John Gizzi
Posted: 03/27/2008
Since John McCain captured the Republican nomination for President last month, speculation in the press mounts about who he will name as his runningmate. Possibly the most intriguing name in the “veepstakes” is that of Sarah Palin, the first-ever woman Governor of Alaska, its youngest (44) governor, and the first to have been born after Alaska became a state. A onetime beauty queen, high school athlete, and TV reporter Palin was elected mayor of Washila in 1996 and, two years ago, made national headlines by defeating present and past governors to win the state’s highest office. Running on a solidly conservative platform and calling for Alaska to be more independent of Washington, Palin dispatched incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the 2006 GOP primary and went on to defeat former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in the fall by a margin of 48% to 41%.
Dedicated to making her state more self-reliant and freeing Alaska from unique federal constraints placed on it when it joined the union in 1959, Palin is a stalwart conservative on cultural issues. A proud member of Feminists for Life, the governor also opposes same-sex marriage or benefits going to couples that would equate to same-sex marriage. When a state court ruled last year that civil unions are to be permitted for same sex couples, Palin called for amending the state constitution to upend the ruling and to place it on the ballots before the voters.

GOP Looks to 'McCain Democrats'

By: David Paul Kuhn
March 27, 2008 12:54 PM EST
A new analysis of March polling data suggests that John McCain's cross-party support surpasses that of either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton.
According to data provided by the Gallup Organization at Politico’s request, in a hypothetical contest between McCain and Obama, McCain wins 17 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic, while Obama wins 10 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners.
In a potential contest with Clinton, McCain wins 14 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners while Clinton wins 8 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners.
By way of comparison, exit polls in 2004 reported that George W. Bush won 11 percent of Democrats and John F. Kerry won 6 percent of Republicans.
The new analysis, calculated from a compilation of Gallup’s daily polls between March 7 and 22, seems to indicate that there are more “McCain Democrats” than the much-ballyhooed “Obama Republicans” — or “Obamacans,” as they are sometimes referred to.

McCain — the press corps' best friend
Sen. John McCain knows how to treat the press.

Unlike the reporters orbiting around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama — who complain daily about lack of access to their candidates — Mr. McCain feeds his press corps daily, so much so that your blogger has heard more than once from reporters that they wish the straight-talking guy would just shut up for once.
But they really don't mean that, and they appreciate that Mr. McCain goes to great lengths to keep his gaggle of regular reporters happy. For those few American reporters who caught up with the Republican candidate in London and Paris? Mr. McCain took questions from nearly all of them, even though he had to dodge past pushy Brit reporters and sulking French journalists to do so.
And how about his weekends? After pushing nonstop on the road during his early run, once he sewed up the nomination, Mr. McCain began to weekend at his sweet pad in Cornville, Ariz., not far from Sedona.
DNC: McCain is taking 'tactical advantage'

The Democratic National Committee is circulating a quote that a liberal blog dug up from John McCain five years ago in which he says candidates should not try to game the public financing system for presidential elections for "tactical advantage."
They argue that's exactly what Mr. McCain is now trying to do by opting out of the system for the primaries, just months after he asked to be included.
On Nov. 21, 2003, Mr. McCain introduced a bill with his campaign finance partner Democratic Sen. Russell D. Feingold that would have revamped the public financing system, boosting the spending limits and making candidates have to take public financing for both the primary and general elections, or to reject it for both, but not pick and choose.
McCain cites breaks with Bush foreign policy

By Stephen Dinan
March 27, 2008
Sen. John McCain yesterday said the United States can no longer assume the mantle of lone democratic superpower, attempting to break with President Bush's early foreign policy by saying the country is a first among equals and should increasingly rely on an emerging "league of democracies."
Declaring himself a "realistic idealist" in a speech articulating his foreign policy priorities, Mr. McCain highlighted some areas in which he differs with Mr. Bush: He called for closing the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; said the U.S. could lead on nuclear disarmament; and put efforts to combat climate change at the top of America's leadership role.
But he continued to adopt the same stance as Mr. Bush on the need to stay in Iraq, warning that Democrats' withdrawal plans would only create a bigger war, but he did not offer his own plan to speed political progress.
"Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is the establishment of peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic states that pose no threat to neighbors and contribute to the defeat of terrorists," the Arizona senator said.
'A Rank Falsehood'
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 28, 2008; Page A19
Asked at a New Hampshire campaign stop about possibly staying in Iraq 50 years, John McCain interrupted -- "Make it a hundred" -- then offered a precise analogy to what he envisioned: "We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so." Lest anyone think he was talking about prolonged war-fighting rather than maintaining a presence in postwar Iraq, he explained: "That would be fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."
And lest anyone persist in thinking he was talking about war-fighting, he told his questioner: "It's fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world."
There is another analogy to the kind of benign and strategically advantageous "presence" McCain was suggesting for postwar Iraq: Kuwait. The United States (with allies) occupied Kuwait in 1991 and has remained there with a major military presence for 17 years. We debate dozens of foreign policy issues in this country. I've yet to hear any serious person of either party call for a pullout from Kuwait.
Parties Differ on Whom Economic Aid Should Help
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON — When an election campaign coincides with both a crisis on Wall Street and soaring home foreclosures across the country, the traditional ideological battles over “more government” or “less government” become blurred.
Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic candidates for president, claim to have proposed a more activist role for government than either President Bush or the likely Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, and the Democratic rhetoric makes the contrast appear even sharper.
But while their philosophies might seem starkly different, in reality both parties have come to the conclusion that major government involvement is needed to rescue the financial and housing markets. The ideological clashes are less about whether the government should intervene in the economy, and more about whom it should try to rescue.
Obama blames 'ethic of greed' for economy
By: Jeanne Cummings
March 27, 2008 06:55 PM EST
Barack Obama went to New York Thursday and blamed lobbyists, greedy businessmen and complacent Washington politicians for creating “an ethic of greed” that led to today’s foreclosure crisis.
Not long after he left the stage, the Democratic presidential hopeful attended a fundraiser held by his campaign in a room in the Manhattan headquarters of Credit Suisse, one of the major investment companies caught up in the subprime lending mess.
While the fundraiser was not sponsored by the mortgage lender, Obama’s dual appearances highlight a challenge for all three of the remaining presidential candidates: convincing ordinary citizens they have the right formula for fixing the economy and enough independence from the nation’s financial mandarins to push it through Washington.
Obama Rewriting Rules for Raising Campaign Money Online
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2008; Page A06
When Christen Braun decided it was time to learn more about the presidential candidates, the 28-year-old high school teacher from suburban Pittsburgh turned to Google -- right where Sen. Barack Obama's campaign was waiting for her.
Her search triggered an ad for Obama's Web site, which prompted Braun, a Republican, to sign up for the Democratic senator's e-mail list -- and then to make her first political contribution, for $25.
Such transactions help illustrate how Obama has shattered fundraising records and challenged ideas about the way presidential bids are financed. While past campaigns have relied largely on support from small circles of wealthy and well-connected patrons, Obama has received contributions from more than 1 million donors. He raised $91 million in the first two months of 2008 alone, most of it in small amounts over the Internet.
Tories Who Can Teach McCain
By Michael Gerson
Friday, March 28, 2008; Page A19
LONDON -- On a street not far from Parliament stands a neglected historical site that symbolizes the unique closeness of British and American politics. Originally known as Surrey Hall, it is the place where William Wilberforce began his anti-slavery campaign and where Lord Shaftesbury later set up the Ragged School movement, dedicated to the education of poor children. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination, his family and friends donated money to construct a tower above the building, honoring the inspiration Lincoln had taken from these Tory social reformers -- the compassionate conservatives of their day.
As Republicans prepare for the coming presidential election and take stock of their ideological commitments, British conservatives may have some lessons to offer once again.
Certainly the political circumstances faced by Republicans and Tories could not be more different. At the tail end of an eight-year run in power, Republicans are challenged by public weariness. After nearly 11 years in political exile, British conservatives are counting on it. The current Labor prime minister, Gordon Brown, is a man of considerable political strengths. In contrast with the flashier Tony Blair, Brown has a reputation for buckle-down seriousness that appeals to the British middle class.
Decision 2008: Dems, McCain split on fix for economy
Maura Reynolds and Noam N. Levey / Los Angeles Times
The deteriorating economy took center stage in the presidential election Thursday as Democrat Barack Obama called for tighter regulation of financial markets and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed more retraining for displaced workers, creating a sharp contrast with Republican John McCain over how much the government should intervene.
The economy has been the No. 1 issue for voters for months, but the candidates have embraced the issue more slowly. This week, however, all three gave major addresses that added significant detail to their prescriptions for the ailing economy.
Obama called Thursday for an overhaul of the nation's regulatory system, immediate relief for homeowners caught in the subprime mortgage crisis and a $30 billion economic stimulus package. Clinton, who had proposed a $30 billion fund to help prevent foreclosures a week ago, offered a new proposal to spend $12.5 billion on job training programs.
Pennsylvania voters feeling 'neglected'
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
March 28, 2008 04:41 AM EST
PITTSBURG – After envisioning Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama stumping from one end of the state to the other, dipping into diners and delis, all but taking up residence here in the run-up to the state’s critical April 22 primary, Pennsylvania
Democrats are teetering on the edge of a letdown.
Having seen far less of Clinton and Obama than they had expected and nearing the halfway point between the last contest in Mississippi and their big primary day, they want to know: Where’s the love?
“We feel neglected here,” said Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who has not yet endorsed a candidate. “People just assumed that, because they had such a long period, they would spend a lot of time in the state.”
Indeed, many Pennsylvanians expected the state’s suddenly consequential primary would be bigger than Iowa and better than New Hampshire.
Hillary Clinton's wealthy pals warn Nancy Pelosi on superdelegates
BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton's megabucks donors picked a fight with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday, pitting the most famous woman in politics against the most powerful.
Angered that Pelosi wants Democratic insiders to follow the will of voters when they cast their own "superdelegate" votes in the nomination race, 20 of Clinton's top fund-raisers issued a veiled threat to Pelosi and warned her to change her tune.
"We have been strong supporters of the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]," they wrote, referring to the House fund-raising arm overseen by Pelosi. "We therefore urge you to clarify your position on superdelegates and reflect in your comments a more open view." Sources said Pelosi was infuriated by the implied threat the donors would quit giving cash to the committee.
Despite the Fighting in Basra, Bush Emphasizes Progress
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2008; Page A15
DAYTON, Ohio, March 27 -- The images from Baghdad and Basra bristled with explosions, burning buildings, angry street protests, rocket smoke wafting from the Green Zone. The words from Dayton were "remarkable" and "victory" and "rebirth."
"Normalcy," President Bush said, "is returning back to Iraq."
The juxtaposition of image and sound crisply illustrated Bush's challenge in pleading for more patience from his own weary public for a war that has now surpassed five years and 4,000 American dead. Bush came here Thursday to make the case that Iraq has made impressive progress in political reconciliation in recent months even as his argument was overshadowed by the latest outbreak of violence.
Fed Leaders Ponder an Expanded Mission
Wall Street Bailout Could Forever Alter Role of Central Bank
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2008; A01
In the past two weeks, the Federal Reserve, long the guardian of the nation's banks, has redefined its role to also become protector and overseer of Wall Street.
With its March 14 decision to make a special loan to Bear Stearns and a decision two days later to become an emergency lender to all of the major investment firms, the central bank abandoned 75 years of precedent under which it offered direct backing only to traditional banks. Inside the Fed and out, there is a realization that those moves amounted to crossing the Rubicon, setting the stage for deeper involvement in the little-regulated markets for capital that have come to dominate the financial world.
A Brief for Whitey

by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted: 03/21/2008
How would he pull it off? I wondered.   How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"
My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables. Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."

Hillary's List of Lies
Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:40 AM
By: Dick Morris & Eileen McGann 
The USA Today/Gallup survey clearly explains why Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is losing. Asked whether the candidates were “honest and trustworthy,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won with 67 percent, with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right behind him at 63. Hillary scored only 44 percent, the lowest rating for any candidate for any attribute in the poll.
Hillary simply cannot tell the truth. Here's her scorecard:
Admitted Lies Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.) Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)

Factory-Sized Deception
Obama, freely trading in dishonesty.

By Stephen Spruiell
In the days leading up to the March 4 Ohio primary, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign aired a TV ad that featured a man named Steven Schuyler standing in front of a Delphi Packard Electric plant in Warren, Ohio. In the ad, Schuyler says he worked for Delphi, an automotive supplier, for 13 years until NAFTA enabled the company to ship his job to Mexico. “Barack Obama was against NAFTA,” Schuyler says, adding, “We need a president that will bring work into this country.”
The Delphi ad might qualify as the most deceptive of the 2008 race. First, Delphi did not exist as an independent company when Congress passed NAFTA in 1993. It was part of General Motors until it was spun off as an independent supplier in 1999. Second, foreign competition did not drive the company to eliminate American jobs.
It declared bankruptcy in 2005 because the legacy labor costs it inherited from GM made it impossible to compete against other U.S.-based suppliers. Third, workers at the Warren, Ohio plant were offered generous buyouts and early-retirement packages. Its employees were not just kicked to the street.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/us/politics/28clinton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

If Elected ...
Clinton Details Premium Cap in Health Plan

By KEVIN SACK
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview on Wednesday that if elected president she would push for a universal health care plan that would limit what Americans pay for health insurance to no more than 10 percent of their income, a significant reduction for some families.
In an extensive interview on health policy, Mrs. Clinton said she would like to cap health insurance premiums at 5 percent to 10 percent of income.
The average cost of a family policy bought by an individual in 2006 and 2007 was $5,799, or 10 percent of the median family income of $58,526, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. Some policies cost up to $9,201, or 16 percent of median income.
The average out-of-pocket cost for workers who buy family policies through their employers is lower, $3,281, or 6 percent of median income, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group.
Obama Would Have Left if Wright Stayed

WASHINGTON (AP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama's campaign, not stepped down.
"Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying at the church," Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View."
The interview will be broadcast Friday.
Dem challengers do not yet believe in Sen. Obama 

By Aaron Blake 
Posted: 03/25/08 07:07 PM [ET] 
Despite Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) promises, many Democratic congressional candidates in conservative districts remain unconvinced that he can redraw the general election map by competing in red states.
While Obama is popular among some challengers seeking an edge in contested primaries, other non-incumbents have shied away from endorsing him. Most are staying out of the fray, endorsing neither Obama nor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Many of those who have picked sides either have personal ties to their candidate or are running in the home states of the presidential hopefuls.
Most of the free agents who have chosen sides face difficult primaries and have picked Obama, suggesting they see his appeal as a boon in Democratic contests but not necessarily in the general election.
Inside Politics

By Greg Pierce
March 27, 2008
Losing Christians "After months of speeches and debates, and nearly $1 billion in total campaign spending to date, the presidential race is a dead heat," Joel C. Rosenberg writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
"A head-to-head showdown between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama is now too close to call — 45.9 percent to 44.6 percent — based on an averaging of national polls by realclearpolitics.com. A head-to-head showdown between McCain and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is also razor-thin, 46 percent to 45.7 percent," Mr. Rosenberg says.
"Now, a poll of likely Christian voters offers evidence of why the McCain campaign is struggling to gain real traction and a lead that can last. The poll was conducted among 1,000 likely Christian voters early last week, on behalf of November Communications Inc., the company I founded in 2000. McLaughlin & Associates, a leading polling firm for many Republican candidates, but unaffiliated in the current presidential campaign, conducted the survey.
5 Ex-Chief Diplomats: Close Guantanamo

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Five former U.S. secretaries of state today urged the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran.
The former chiefs of American diplomacy, who served in Democratic and Republican administrations, reached a consensus on the two issues at a conference in Athens aimed at giving the next president some bipartisan foreign policy advice. Each of them said shuttering the prison camp in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad.
"It says to the world: 'We are now going back to our traditional respective forms of dealing with people who potentially committed crimes,'" said Colin Powell, who served as President Bush's first secretary of state.
Powell was joined by Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, who sat in a round-table discussion sponsored by the University of Georgia at a sold-out conference center in downtown Athens.
EDITORIAL
Social Security/Medicare reforms needed soon

Once again trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs are waving a red flag, trying to catch politicians' attention. The trustees warned Tuesday that unless reforms are instituted, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041 and Medicare won't be able to pay hospital benefits by 2019.
It's the same warning they issued last year, yet Congress has failed to take a serious look at changes that can help make the two programs financially solvent for years to come.
It is no "Chicken Little" threat. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost of Medicare and Social Security currently amounts to 8.4 percent of our nation's Gross Domestic Product (the total of all goods and services produced in the country). By 2050, the two programs will account for 18.6 percent of GDP if no changes are made. To give that number some perspective, the entire federal budget currently makes up about 20 percent of GDP.
Rice: 'No benefit' in games boycott

By Nicholas Kralev
March 27, 2008
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that boycotting the Summer Olympics in Beijing would be an ineffective way to address China's "troublesome policies" and called the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games in Moscow "feckless."
"They invade Afghanistan and the best you can think of is to boycott the Olympics and keep athletes who have been training their entire life from going and competing," Miss Rice said of the Carter administration's decision to protest the Soviet regime at the time.
"Who are you kidding? I do not see the benefit of boycotting," she told reporters and editors at The Washington Times. "I do not think the boycott of the 1980 Olympics was very effective. In fact, I think it looked feckless."
Conservative Economics 101

By Quin Hillyer
Published 3/27/2008 12:08:23 AM
Conservatives need a new economic platform, one that the media can't write off (no matter how unfairly) as the "same, old, tired nostrums that got us into the current mess." Herewith, the planks it should include:
Strengthen the dollar while letting interest rates "float." I wrote on this here here, among other places. Eliminate the corporate income tax. I wrote about this last week.
Immediately cut all ethanol subsidies in half and immediately cut all future biofuel mandates in half. Ethanol subsidies and requirements are pushing up the price of gasoline and of food across the board. New scientific studies show that biofuel production actually adds to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rather than decreasing them, and that it will take 167 years before the so-called "benefits" of the fuels will eliminate the "carbon debt" caused by these added greenhouse gases.
Finally, new studies show that ethanol is more dangerous than ordinary gasoline, because the fires it sometimes fuels are more difficult to extinguish.
Calif. regulators vote to lower target for zero-emission vehicles

The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — California air regulators today slashed the number of battery-powered and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that must be sold in the state, a setback for environmentalists and health advocates.
The decision is expected to affect 12 other states that had adopted California’s target for zero-emission vehicles.
The California Air Resources Board voted to lower by 70 percent the number of those vehicles that automakers must sell here and in the states that intended to follow California’s get-tough rules for vehicle emissions.
Instead, the air board said the six largest automakers must sell nearly 60,000 hybrid vehicles while they develop the more advanced technology that will allow mass production of pure zero-emission vehicles.
Weak dollar making US a business bargain

by Vinnee Tong | The Associated Press
Thursday March 27, 2008, 11:00 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Thanks to the weakened dollar, the U.S. has leapfrogged France, Britain and other European countries as a cheaper place to do business.
A new study released Thursday by the auditing and consulting firm KPMG shows that the U.S. moved up on the list of places around the world that are the most cost-efficient. Researchers compared 136 cities in 10 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, but did not include fast-growing China.
Mark MacDonald, the global director of KPMG Competitive Alternatives, said the survey authors found the U.S. to be more cost competitive than they'd ever seen because of the plunging dollar.
Immigrants Into Patriots

By Shawn Macomber
Published 3/27/2008 12:08:32 AM
When Civica Americana President Paul Crespo was 12 years old his parents, politically-active Cuban exiles who had fled Fidel Castro's terror state for U.S. shores in the early 1960s, asked him whether he considered himself Cuban or American. "I said I was 100 percent American -- and 50 percent Cuban!" Crespo recalled. "I thought: You can't be half an American, you have to be all-American but that doesn't mean you can't have an extra 50 percent on top as gravy."
Although born and raised in Southern California, Crespo came of age in the political and cultural milieu of a Cuban exile community fervently hoping for repatriation. "Cuban political refugees in those days were very different from regular immigrants, since most thought their stay in America would be brief and they would return to Cuba once democracy was restored," Crespo said. When it became apparent Fidel Castro was no temporary aberration, however, Crespo's Cuban freedom-fighting parents became U.S. citizens and full-blown Hispanic American patriots. Following this example, their son joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from Georgetown University.
China warns European countries to not interfere with Tibet
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 27, 2008
BEIJING: China warned Europe on Thursday not to interfere with the situation in Tibet ahead of a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the 27-member European Union.
The unrest and violence in Tibet are China's internal affairs, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular news briefing. Beijing hopes European countries will not send "erroneous messages" to the Dalai Lama, Qin said.
"I believe there are criminals, especially violent criminals, in the European countries. How do the policemen handle these cases in Europe? You can think yourself, so I hope that Europe will not adopt a double standard in this regard," Qin said.
Protests by Buddhist monks turned violent on March 14 in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, leading China to heavily increase security in the region and in several provinces with sizable Tibetan populations where protests also broke out.
U.S. Armor Forces Join Offensive In Baghdad Against Sadr Militia
Americans Appear To Take the Lead As Iraqis Wait
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 28, 2008; A01
BAGHDAD, March 27 -- U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
North Korea Expels All South Korean Officials

By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Thursday that it was “deeply regrettable” that North Korea had ordered South Korean officials to leave its territory, but that the South was undaunted.
The predawn expulsion on Thursday followed an announcement on Wednesday by the new South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, that his government would not expand economic cooperation with North Korea unless it cooperated in dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
All 11 South Korean government officials who were based in a jointly operated factory complex in Kaesong, a small town 37 miles from Seoul on the north side of the border between the countries, returned to South Korea early Thursday after the North Korean authorities gave them three days to leave.
South Korea warned on Thursday that North Korea was worsening its own isolation by disrupting budding economic cooperation between the Koreas. That cooperation can be seen in the industrial complex in Kaesong, where 69 South Korean companies employ 23,000 North Koreans to produce shoes, clothing, watches and other goods.

Posted by sanuzis on March 28, 2008 at 06:37 AM in Daily Articles of Interest |