Articles of Interest 4-1-08
233 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
The North Oakland Republican Club (NORC) had a fantastic meeting on March 27, 2008 with two excellent guests and an opening like they have never experienced before. We were led in the Pledge of Allegiance and an incredible rendition of God Bless America by Serena and Chloe Chiappelli, granddaughters of Jim and Denise Thienel. See the video here.
Michigan State Rep. Fulton Sheen and Michigan Director of Americans for Prosperity Amy Hagerstrom gave very informative presentations about taxation, government reform, and government accountability in Michigan.
This week we have our RNC meeting in Albuquerque where we will discuss options for the presidential primary process for 2012 and beyond. We will also be discussing the McCain national strategy going into the fall, and reviewing our Victory Programs to win in November!
Here is a summary and audio clips of Newt Gingrich’s rebuttal to Barack Obama’s speech on race…very well done…right on point.
CRAIN’S Detroit raises “the” question of leadership (do anything?):
“Regardless of any legal authority, the governor has a moral authority as the top elected official in the state of Michigan.”
Granholm is a lawyer, a former state attorney general, former general counsel for Wayne County and a former assistant U.S. attorney. How could she listen to the mayor's attorney offer a sneak preview of his defense strategy and doubt she could act? Each of the strategies outlined by defense attorney Dan Webb last week were based on legal technicalities and not proof that the mayor and his top aide did not conspire to fire a police officer who was investigating possible wrongdoing and later lie about it.
Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing. But Detroit's — and Michigan's — image and reputation should suffer no further.”
Republican activists Ed Wyszynski suffered a stroke, was hospitalized and is in a coma. Please keep Ed and his family in your prayers.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
Chuck Muth shared this: What struck me as the best commentary on the Clinton/Bosnia story came from a blog poster called ‘GI Joe’ who wrote in to a news blog: “Actually Mrs. Clinton was too modest. I was there and saw it all. When Mrs. Clinton got off the plane the tarmac came under mortar and machine gun fire. I was blown off my tank and exposed to enemy fire. Mrs. Clinton without regard to her own safety dragged me to safety, jumped on the tank and opened fire, killing 50 of the enemy.
Soon a suicide bomber appeared, but Mrs. Clinton stopped the guards from opening fire. She talked to the man in his own language and got him [to] surrender. She found that he had suffered terribly as a result of policies of George Bush. She defused the bomb vest herself‚ Then she turned to his wounds. She stopped my bleeding and saved my life. Chelsea donated the blood.”
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/NEWS01/804010349
Mayoral staffers urge citizens: Push back against media
BY BEN SCHMITT, KATHLEEN GRAY and M.L. ELRICK
April 1, 2008
Members of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's city hall staff, including a cousin, have launched an e-mail campaign to encourage Detroiters to "push back" against what they contend is unfair media coverage of the mayor. City officials said the e-mail requests, dubbed Media Watch, were sent from personal accounts during private time. They defended the use of city hall phones and fax machines for residents to respond to the campaign. "We weren't privy to this e-mail," Kilpatrick spokeswoman Denise Tolliver said. "This was sent from a personal e-mail account. It's our job to monitor the press. People call us all the time. I don't think that's a misuse of city funds. It's part of our job."
Detroit mayor talks business with City Council president
3/31/2008, 7:49 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick met for about a half-hour to discuss policy issues with the City Council president, who has called for Kilpatrick's resignation amid a text message scandal. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News report Monday's meeting between Kilpatrick and Ken Cockrel Jr. at The Detroit Club didn't include discussions of the scandal. A statement sent by Kilpatrick's office says they discussed the mayor's proposed economic stimulus package, the proposed leasing to Windsor, Ontario of Detroit's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the city's budget. Kilpatrick and former aide Christine Beatty are facing perjury and other charges in the scandal. Kilpatrick has repeatedly said he will not resign. Cockrel would succeed Kilpatrick if he left office.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/METRO/804010367
Lawyer says city in contempt
He vows to push for release of text messages in slain stripper suit
Paul Egan and Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
DETROIT -- A lawyer for the family of a slain exotic dancer said Monday he is planning contempt of court proceedings against the city of Detroit after the city missed a court-ordered Friday deadline to supply him with certain text messages and police records related to a federal lawsuit. Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, an exotic dancer linked to a rumored party at the mayor's Manoogian Mansion, was killed in a drive-by Detroit shooting on April 30, 2003. Birmingham lawyer Norman Yatooma represents the father of Greene's 14-year-old son in a lawsuit against the city, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and police officials. The suit alleges that Detroit police, for political reasons, failed to properly investigate Greene's killing.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/NEWS06/804010346/1008/NEWS
Judge on mayor's case denies conflict of interest Detroit
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
April 1, 2008
The 36th District Court judge randomly picked to conduct the preliminary examination of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty contributed at least $300 to Kilpatrick's campaign fund in 2006, but said he would be fair. "It won't have any affect" on the June 9 hearing, Judge Ronald Giles said Monday. "Although I know the mayor, I know him like most people know him. ... We're not friends. I've never even had a conversation with him." Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy plans to ask Giles to disqualify himself from the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest. Worthy has said she does not want any 36th District judges handling the hearing because a fellow judge in that courthouse, Ruth Carter, is a prosecution witness. Carter headed the city's law office at the time of the 2003 firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, whose ouster remains a key issue in the charges against Kilpatrick and Beatty.
Michigan delegate compromise offered
Ken Thomas
March 31, 2008
A Michigan congressman proposed an alternate plan Monday for seating the state's delegates at the Democratic National Convention, awarding delegates based partly on Michigan's Jan. 15 primary results and partly on the popular vote in all the nation's presidential primaries. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., in a letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, proposed that Michigan's 83 pledged delegates be chosen at congressional district conventions according to the results of the state's primary. The party stripped both Michigan and Florida of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries to January dates that were earlier than party rules allowed. Under Stupak's formula, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received 55 percent of the primary vote, would receive 47 delegates.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/POLITICS01/804010380
GOP unlikely to move up 2012 Mich. Primary
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
While Democrats continue to bicker about Michigan's role in the 2008 presidential nomination, Republicans are already focused on the primary process for 2012 -- but the state's voters may not fare much better in that debate. Michigan is unlikely to get a preferred early spot on the 2012 calendar when Republican officials meet beginning today in New Mexico to craft rules for the next presidential campaign, the chairman of the GOP's rules committee told The Detroit News. And the Republican rules stand a good chance of preserving the traditional, early roles for New Hampshire and Iowa. Michigan officials of both parties believe that preference is blatantly unfair. If any states receive permission to hold early contests, "I expect them to be Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada," said David Norcross, a Washington, D.C., attorney and chairman of the Republican National Committee's rules panel. That would leave out Michigan, which along with Florida broke GOP rules to move into an influential position in this year's Republican campaign.
Movie incentives come with price tag
3/31/2008, 5:08 p.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — When Gov. Jennifer Granholm signs tax incentives aimed at making Michigan the country's most attractive place to make movies, they may come with a hefty price tag. The marquee piece of legislation will give film studios a 40 percent refundable credit on production expenses in the state. For example, if an out-of-state studio has no Michigan Business Tax liability and spends $10 million on production in the state, the state will cut it a check for $4 million. The credit otherwise can be used by in-state studios to reduce their state taxes.
http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/033108/opi_20080331281.shtml
Film, tourism bills would help ailing state economy
Oakland Press
March 31, 2008
The Michigan Legislature currently is out on break and obviously there's a number of pending bills that are sitting, waiting for our state leaders to return.
The House is scheduled to return April 8, while the Senate is taking the first two weeks off in April. When they all return from their Easter breaks, we hope the Legislature doesn't lay an egg in reference to two packages of bills that would seem to help our ailing economy. One set is a 16-bill, bipartisan and bicameral package designed to attract more film and television production to Michigan. Part of that package is Senate Bill 1180, whose primary sponsor is Rep. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, and includes as co-sponsors state Sens. Gilda Z. Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, and Deborah Cherry, D-Burton. The meat of the package is a 40 percent cash rebate to film companies that make movies here, with an extra 2 percent if they film in one of the state's 103 designated distressed communities, such as Pontiac.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/OPINION03/804010372/1408/LOCAL
Lansing looks to the stars for help
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Laura Berman
Hooray for Hollywood! The prospect of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt breezing through town or perhaps the thought of Jeff Daniels making movies right here in Michigan, rather than commuting to another state or country, has united the state Legislature in an act of magnanimity no other state can match. The governor is poised to sign a package of bills that offers moviemakers breathtaking rebates on their production costs, if they shoot and hire here. When signed next week, the Michigan laws will transform the state into a movie and TV producer's land of plenty: up to 42 percent of the costs of filming in Michigan will get returned to the moviemakers.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/OPINION01/804010332/1069
Prison oversight smartly restored
Detroit Free Press
April 1, 2008
Legislators deserve credit for having enough foresight to restore their Corrections Ombudsman's Office. The House has set aside $1.25 million for the office, and the Senate $500,000 from next year's budget. Given what's at stake and the size of the prison system, the House version of this reauthorization bill is better. The two sides should reach agreement on an amount that enables the office to hire enough field investigators to handle thousands of complaints a year, and then send a final plan to Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The Michigan Department of Corrections hasn't had proper oversight since 2003, when the Legislature closed its Corrections Ombudsman's Office to save $500,000 a year. The department has its own grievance procedure, but it essentially investigates itself. Legislators apparently understand that, in the long run, a corrections department with little outside scrutiny will cost much more. Michigan also needs the office to field questions from inmates' families, who have problems getting even routine information about prison procedures and policies.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/OPINION01/804010314/1007/OPINION
Choose carefully among foreclosure remedies
'Save the Dream' promises help without burdening taxpayers
The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Michigan lawmakers must choose carefully among the many proposals to counter the foreclosure crisis. Some ideas have merit. But others dabble too deeply in private financing. The state cannot possibly save every homeowner who cut a bad deal. Some people took iffy loans on second homes or investment homes. And buyers have some responsibility to stay within their budgets. However, credible state help is on the horizon. One promising assist is Michigan's "Save the Dream" legislation. It deploys a state agency to help homeowners convert an adjustable-rate mortgage to a more affordable fixed rate loan. Such deals would come under the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The agency has long had a role in developing and preserving homes, so the principle here is well established. Any bonds issued to back new loans are the obligation of the authority. That insulates the state treasury and taxpayers from the refinancing risks in a shaky market.
Marijuana: Pols leaving it to voters; let's keep it that way
April 1, 2008
From Lansing State Journal
For once, inaction by Michigan legislators is the right course of action - on medical marijuana anyway. Proponents of allowing legal use to a select group of sufferers gathered enough petition signatures to require the Legislature to act on the idea, or leave the question to the voters this November. Based on leadership comments, the Legislature appears to have no plans to take on the question. The voters will get the say, as it should be on this controversial issue. Now, lawmakers, up to and including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, should continue their hands-off policy by sticking to their tasks and staying out of the marijuana debate this year. There will be plenty of information for voters to consider; lawmakers who opted out of the process don't need to muddy the waters via their official positions.
USDA: Michigan corn growers to plant less corn this year
3/31/2008, 3:18 p.m. EDT
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Farmers are expected to plant less corn this year, which could mean continuing higher costs for consumers at the grocery store. Corn prices have skyrocketed in recent years, helped by the burgeoning ethanol industry, which turns the crop into fuel, and rising worldwide demand for food. The higher prices have hurt poultry, beef and pork companies, who use corn to feed their animals. Farmers are expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II. The decreased supply could drive corn prices even higher — a cost for food producers that could be passed on to consumers.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/BLOG2504/80331052/1068/OPINION
Hot metal
April 1, 2008
Ron Dzwonkowski
Across the country, around Michigan and particularly in Detroit, with its high number of empty homes and buildings, the destructive theft of copper and other metals has reached epidemic levels. In some neighborhoods, phone service is regularly cut off because thieves steal copper wiring. Copper and galvanized steel pipes are being ripped away, sometimes leaving homes filing with natural gas. Another trend: catalytic converters are being sawed off the undersides of parked cars. Why? They contain enough platinum and other metals with resale value to make stealing them worth the trouble. There’s obviously a market for this stuff, or it wouldn’t be disappearing. Scrap metal dealers and recyclers buy most of it.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/SCHOOLS/804010371/1026
Detroit may get smaller schools
Superintendent calls for specialty facilities with no more than 450 students.
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
DETROIT -- Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway on Monday announced a plan to create a fleet of small high schools that she said will revolutionize the way students achieve in the classroom. Five large schools will be redesigned to house three or four smaller, autonomous schools -- called turnaround schools -- on a single campus. The new schools will cap enrollment at 450 students and focus on academic themes that will be developed over time with community input. But parent Sharon Kelso is already concerned about the plan. "All high schools are supposed to be equal," said Kelso, who added students who transfer from a non-specialty school may fall behind. "The curriculum should be equitable for all students to have the same opportunity. I don't think we can continue to change our high schools if you're not offering the same things."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/SCHOOLS/804010308/1026
Study: Detroit schools rank last in graduation rate
Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
DETROIT -- Detroit has the worst graduation rate among principal school districts serving the country's 50 largest cities, according to a national study released this morning by a coalition of education policy makers. The region as a whole placed 11th among the country's large metropolitan areas, according to the report by Washington, D.C.-based America's Promise Alliance. Graduation rates are controversial since they can be calculated in a variety of ways, but the study follows several others that have concluded Detroit has a serious dropout problem to address. A study released Feb. 25 by Michigan State University researchers found a 31.9 graduation rate for Detroit Public Schools students--just 25 percent for boys, and 39 percent for girls.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/METRO/804010376/1408/LOCAL
Cultural hub needs a hand: Detroit looking for $7.5M for Paradise Valley project
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
DETROIT -- It looks like Africa Town may be coming after all. But unlike areas such as Mexican Town and Chaldean Town, the district will likely get off its feet with a hefty dose of city money. Nearly $17 million has been spent on the Paradise Valley Entertainment District, and another $7.5 million is needed for renovations before the project can debut. The district will take over the existing Harmonie Park Entertainment District and will honor the city's former Paradise Valley/Black Bottom area. "Someone suggested to me it would be easier if we said Harmonie Park/Paradise Valley. I said no," said Detroit City Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins during a recent council economic development committee meeting. "This is Paradise Valley. This is not Harmonie Park anymore." Collins and Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said the new district will serve as Africa Town, even though it is not going to be called that. It should serve as a draw for black-owned businesses, but there are no provisions for loans specifically for African-Americans like those that drew outcry from the community in 2004 and shuttered the idea of an Africa Town.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/SCHOOLS/804010386/1026
Police lock down Pontiac high schools
Recent attack on teacher prompts hall monitoring, tightened security at Northern and Central.
Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
PONTIAC -- A modified lockdown will continue indefinitely at Pontiac's Northern and Central high schools until the district's new chief of security feels order can be maintained. On Monday, the first day of the lockdown, students were not permitted to roam the halls between classes, were not issued passes, and in cases of emergency, were escorted by hall monitors or other adults to restrooms. "Students will see this new mechanism in place until I see a difference, and it could go on for weeks," said Darryl Cosby, chief of security, who retired last week as a sergeant with the Pontiac Police Department after 23½ years. "We will repeat it the next day and the next day and the next day until we're satisfied we have the undivided attention of students who don't want to be in school."
http://blog.mlive.com/bctimes/2008/03/bay_county_and_state_officials.html
Bay County and state officials debate: Should road commissions be abolished?
Posted by Ryan J. Stanton
March 31, 2008 08:23AM
Bay County Commissioner Vaughn Begick says he subscribes to the belief that less government is better government. And that's why he wouldn't mind abolishing the Bay County Road Commission's governing board and sweeping its duties under the arms of the Bay County Board of Commissioners. "I probably would be in favor of eliminating another level of bureaucracy and taking it under the county's control," said Begick, the lone Republican on the nine-member board. His Democratic counterparts, however, aren't as quick to support the idea. "I don't think Bay County wants to do that at this time," said County Board Chairman Patrick H. Beson, D-2nd District, relaying the philosophy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Road commissions have been a part of the fabric of Michigan government since 1883, and it all started in Bay County with the creation of the Stone Road District.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102510.html?hpid=topnews
As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine
By Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; A01
As his Democratic presidential rivals squabble, Sen. John McCain has moved to transform his ragtag primary campaign into a general-election operation by boosting fundraising, establishing control over the Republican National Committee, and beginning a conversation with voters who live in states where he has not campaigned. One of McCain's first decisions has been to assemble a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 "regional managers" who will make daily decisions in the states under their direction, his advisers said. The managers will gather today in New Mexico to plot strategy with GOP state officials. Some Republican strategists have said that McCain has not made the best use of the extra time that the prolonged Democratic nomination battle has given him. They have criticized the pace and direction of his decisions and have questioned why the senator from Arizona has not held more fundraisers to close the huge financial gap between him and his rivals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102362_pf.html
A Campaign Tour of Places From His Past
By Michael D. Shear
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; A08
MERIDIAN, Miss., March 31 -- Sen. John McCain returned to his ancestral home state Monday to begin a week-long tour aimed at reintroducing himself to the American people and highlighting his military background. Speaking not far from McCain Field, the naval air station named for his grandfather, the senator from Arizona called himself the "son and grandson of admirals" and recounted in detail his family's decades of military service. "My grandfather was an aviator; my father a submariner," McCain said. "They were my first heroes, and their respect for me has been one of the most lasting ambitions of my life. They gave their lives to their country and taught me lessons about honor, courage, duty, perseverance and leadership." The speech was largely a condensed version of his book "Faith of My Fathers," a biography that traces his upbringing and the Navy careers of his grandfather, his father and himself.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-03-30-mccain-poll_N.htm
McCain polls well amid war, economic worries
Associated Press
March 31, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — He robustly backs the unpopular Iraq war. The U.S. economy is in a tailspin under the stewardship of President Bush, a fellow Republican whose favorable ratings with Americans stands at 30% or lower. His stance on some hot-button American issues like immigration rankle his party's conservative base. So how has Republican presidential nominee in waiting John McCain — according to the latest polls — managed to stay so close in the race against Democratic opponents, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton? Conventional wisdom has held the race for the White House is the Democrat's to lose.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/age_as_an_asset_mccains_appeal.html
Age as an Asset: McCain's Appeal To Boomers
By Suzanne Fields
March 31, 2008
Echoes of the famous cry, "Don't trust anyone over 30," rebuke the boomers who took it as words to live by. Not only are many of them closing in on 60, they may soon be asked to put their trust in a president over 70. When John McCain's tongue slipped the other day to say that Iranians are training al-Qaida insurgents when he meant they were training "extremists," few doubted his mastery of the details of terrorism, but his critics suggested the slip was a sign of aging. The video clip played continuously for days, watched by many who hadn't caught the mistake in the first place. How would his age play against an "inexperienced" Barack Obama or an "experienced" Hillary Clinton? Others asked whether remembering things that never happened was better than forgetting a detail of something that did.
Blogger outreach boosts McCain
March 31, 2008
By Stephen Dinan
Even as talk radio was brutalizing Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries, conservative bloggers reached a respectful truce with the Arizona senator over touchy issues and gave him what the campaign called a "tremendous positive psychological" boost. The main reason: Mr. McCain's blogger outreach, the most extensive of any presidential campaign in either party, helped keep him afloat in the dark days last summer when the major press was sizing up his campaign grave. During those times, Mr. McCain got attention and digital ink from the bloggers he invited to biweekly conference calls, and got a chance to talk policy. "During the unpleasantness, whenever Senator McCain put himself in front of reporters, the question was always, 'How much did you raise today, when are you dropping out,' " said Patrick Hynes, a conservative blogger who Mr. McCain hired in 2006. "And then we'd put him on the phone with bloggers, and they'd want to talk about Iraq, and pork and chasing down al Qaeda."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/us/politics/01fight.html?ref=politics
Carrying Primary Scars Into the General Election
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JULIE BOSMAN
April 1, 2008
President Jimmy Carter and Senator Edward M. Kennedy had been sharp adversaries with a bad history, and in the 1980 presidential campaign they let it bleed into a bitter nomination fight. The Carter administration challenged Mr. Kennedy’s patriotism and refused to debate, while Mr. Kennedy dragged out their fight for nine months, all the way to the Democratic convention. A weakened Mr. Carter prevailed and won the nomination, but he went on to lose in November. Convention fights often spell ruin for a party. The 1980 experience for Democrats — as well as a fight in 1968, and one in 1976 for Republicans — all suggest that a bruising primary carried through the summer can contribute to defeat in November. Today, nervous Democrats are worried that history will repeat itself as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lags in delegates and the popular vote, has refused to concede the nomination to Senator Barack Obama. Despite the increasing rancor of the campaign, Mrs. Clinton says she is staying in until the voting is over.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0f6390f1-526e-4509-9321-8f886c529b3c
Bush's Last Laugh
The New Republic
Post Date Wednesday, April 09, 2008
In the recent history of presidential campaigning, April is the time when hope springs eternal. When every Democratic general election candidate--Michael Dukakis! John Kerry!--looks like he might have the stuff to pull off a landslide. It is the time to heal from the knocks and bruises suffered during the primary season. You raise money, you begin building a case for the fall, you vet vice presidential candidates, you start to knock around your opponent, and you still have time to head to Florida to work on your tan. That's what makes the road to the Denver convention so damn frustrating. John McCain is heir to a presidency whose accomplishments now include an economy careening toward a deep recession; on issue after issue, public opinion mirrors the Democrats' policies. This should be the one election that even the party of Dukakis couldn't screw up.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9272.html
Dem elite working for June solution
By JOHN F. HARRIS & MIKE ALLEN & DAVID PAUL KUHN
3/31/08 12:20 PM EST
Hoping to avoid a summer-long bloodbath for the Democratic presidential nomination, some party leaders such as Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen have urged a convention of superdelegates in June, after the caucuses and primaries are over. The idea sounds exotic, but recent public declarations and Politico interviews with top Democratic officials have made clear that something like what Bredesen proposed is already underway — not with a big meeting but with an intensifying series of exchanges among party elites. The early voting in this virtual convention is bad news for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her hope that Democratic leaders will settle the nomination is starting to come true — with Barack Obama so far emerging as the beneficiary.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9269.html
Obama had greater role on liberal survey
By KENNETH P. VOGEL
3/31/08 4:35 AM EST
During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion– positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he’s projected during his presidential campaign. The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat. Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire. They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize(d) his position.” But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago non-profit group that issued it. And it found that Obama – the day after sitting for the interview – filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes adding to one answer.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/four_stumps_in_the_water_for_o.html
Four Stumps in the Water for Obama
By Charles Lipson
March 30, 2008
As the high-water mark for Barack Obama recedes, his campaign must now confront several dangerous stumps that were once hidden below the surface. The problems began with Obama's long attachment to Rev. Wright, Trinity United Church, and Black Liberation Theology, but they won't end there. So, what issues are now lurking for Obama? The first is the volatile mix of race and religion, begun with the Rev. Wright controversy. Videos have now surfaced of virulent race-baiting by yet another Chicago preacher with ties to Obama, the Rev. James Meeks. Obama was not a member of Meeks's church and their connection may be only a tactical alliance between prominent local figures. That's the question: how close are those ties? Meeks is no ordinary pastor. He is an important political and religious figure in African-American Chicago. He not only leads a mammoth congregation, he is an Illinois state senator and a key player in Jesse Jackson's powerful local political organization, which is squarely behind Obama's run for the Presidency.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_559720.html
Obama's indoctrination
By Ralph R. Reiland
Monday, March 31, 2008
The Department of Justice reports that approximately 8,000 blacks were murdered in the United States in 2005. In one year, that's exactly double the total number of American military deaths during the entire five years of the war in Iraq; in one year, that's 10 times the average number of American military deaths per year since the start of the war. A recent study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the Department of Justice shows that blacks committed murders in 2005 at a rate seven times higher than whites.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120701366088479171.html?mod=todays_columnists
Does Obama Understand Defeat?
By BRET STEPHENS
April 1, 2008
On Oct. 14, 1993, John McCain took to the floor of the United States Senate to offer what, in light of his past history and his later positions, was an unusual amendment. Earlier that month, 19 American soldiers had been ambushed and killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, by militiamen connected to warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid. The corpse of one U.S. serviceman had been humiliatingly dragged through the streets. The Arizona Republican wanted U.S. forces out of Somalia -- and was prepared to cut off funds for the mission if the administration refused to expedite a withdrawal. President Clinton attacked the amendment as a "headlong rush into isolationism."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a2TfVUo_hUBo&refer=politics
Obama Meets Match in Mayor Running on `Hope'
Commentary by Albert R. Hunt
March 31 (Bloomberg)
The parallels between Barack Obama and Michael Nutter are striking: bright, Ivy League educated, politically successful, relatively young African-Americans with a pragmatically progressive policy bent. Both lost races -- Obama for Congress, Nutter for city council -- and later came from the back of the pack to overcome better-known candidates and win bigger prizes: Obama to the U.S. Senate and Nutter elected as mayor of Philadelphia last year. With Pennsylvania's important presidential primary three weeks away, Nutter's choice isn't what you might expect: ``I talked to both the candidates about education, public safety, jobs, economic opportunity,'' the mayor of America's sixth- largest city recalls. ``I think Senator Clinton is the best to lead the country.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/us/politics/01obama.html?ref=politics
Obama Is Moving to Down-to-Earth Oratory for Working People
By MICHAEL POWELL
April 1, 2008
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Speech is his finely polished sword, a transcendent weapon. Seen and heard on a thousand YouTube postings, Senator Barack Obama’s speeches have made a happening of that hoariest of campaign forms, the stump speech. But Mr. Obama sheaths that sword more often now. He is grounding his lofty rhetoric in the more prosaic language of white-working-class discontent, adjusting it to the less welcoming terrain of Pennsylvania. His preferred communication now is the town-hall-style meeting. So in Johnstown, a small, economically depressed city tucked in a valley hard by the Little Conemaugh River, Mr. Obama on Saturday spoke to the gritty reality of a city that ranks dead last on the Census Bureau’s list of places likely to attract American workers. His traveling companion, Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, introduced the candidate as an “underdog fighter for an underdog state.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9274.html
Clinton didn't pay health insurance bills
By KENNETH P. VOGEL
3/31/08
Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out. Clinton, who is being pressured to end her campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, has made her plan for universal health care a centerpiece of her agenda. The campaign provides health insurance to all its employees, their spouses, partners and children — and that wasn’t interrupted by any lag in payments to insurance providers, said Jay Carson, a Clinton campaign spokesman. He said the campaign this month paid off all outstanding bills to Aetna Healthcare and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Those payments will be reflected on a report the campaign will file this month with the Federal Election Commission, which Carson said will show “zero debt owed to both vendors.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/clinton_antics_will_make_bill.html
Clinton Antics Will Make Bill and Hil the Next American Idles
By Stanley Crouch
March 31, 2008
The amateurish ploys of the Clinton campaign are, at this point, so self-destructive that they seem tragic.We should all know that Bill Clinton is one of our most charismatic Americans. I found this out the first time I met him at a White House party for Lionel Hampton. Someone came into the room unannounced, his back was to me and I didn't know who he was until he turned around, but I couldn't stop staring at him. I knew then that I had encountered a rare brand of charisma. I had a similar experience when I first heard Hillary Clinton speak as a surprise guest at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan. Everyone who spoke that night seemed obviously amplified by the microphone except the woman in the dark pantsuit.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/damage_to_the_clinton_brand.html
Damage to the Clinton Brand
By E. J. Dionne
April 01, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Chill out. More specifically: "We're going to win this election if we just chill out and let everybody have their say." Thus, Bill Clinton's advice to Democrats who are gnashing their collective teeth over whether the extended struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will cause their party to lose an election it once seemed certain to win. One person who took Clinton's advice was Obama, who went out of his way last weekend to defend his opponent's right to stay in the contest. That was a shrewd move since the Clinton campaign is gifted at turning any effort to push her out into (1) a form of sexism, (2) a fiendish plot against her by Washington "insiders," and (3) a way of raising lots of money online.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-nugumbel31mar31,0,343914.story
Bare-knuckle politics
Why is Clinton fighting so hard? Because history shows it works.
By Andrew Gumbel
March 31, 2008
At any time other than in the midst of a heated electoral battle, it's hard to imagine that Nancy Pelosi would attract much controversy by opining that the Democratic Party's nominee for president should be the candidate who wins the most votes. The House speaker has done just that, last week drawing an angry backlash from wealthy supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Most Americans -- presumably including the 26 million who have participated with unprecedented enthusiasm in the Democratic primaries and caucuses -- still view this country as a representative democracy. Take a look at history, though, and the power of the popular vote in determining the next occupant of the White House starts to look a lot less absolute.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/OPINION03/804010305/1007/OPINION
How candidates can win Ohio or make up for its loss
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
George Will
Were it not for the 12th Amendment, ratified on June 15, 1804, presidential nominees could, and probably would prefer to, run alone, without being saddled with pesky vice presidential running mates, who can be embarrassments. Unfortunately, the presidential election of 1800 happened. It was "a magnificent catastrophe" (that is the title of a splendid new book on it, by Edward J. Larson of Pepperdine University). As the two-party system, unanticipated by the Constitution's otherwise farsighted Framers, was crystallizing, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each received the same number of electoral votes. This made a hash of the Framers' plan for electing presidents without having vice presidential candidates. Under their plan, which worked fine for three elections, the presidential candidate with the second highest number of electoral votes -- John Adams twice, then Jefferson -- became vice president.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102856_pf.html
Campaign.USA
With the Internet Comes a New Political 'Clickocracy'
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; C01
We saw it coming. Just as MySpace and Facebook change the way we communicate, just as YouTube alters the way we entertain ourselves, just as eBay and iTunes modify the way we shop, the Internet is transforming the way we engage with this never-ending presidential campaign. Like it or not, we now belong to a clickocracy -- one nation under Google, with video and e-mail for all. Want to find a candidate's position on home foreclosures? In the past we scoured the newspaper or found the phone number for campaign headquarters and placed a call. Now we Google "John McCain," "Barack Obama" or "Hillary Clinton" and drown in the information flood. Want to give money to a candidate? These days all it takes is a credit card and three clicks -- once on the home page, then on the "donate" button, then on "submit."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/opinion/01brooks.html?ref=opinion
Pitching With Purpose
By DAVID BROOKS
April 1, 2008
A few years ago, a former professional baseball player mentioned a book that had made a great impression on him. It was called “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching,” by a sports psychologist named H.A. Dorfman. I read the book one spare evening, though, as you may have noticed, I’m not a pitcher — and no major league organization has expressed interest in making me one. The book left an impression on me too, mostly for its moral tone. Dorfman offers to liberate people from what you might call the tyranny of the scattered mind. He offers to take pitchers, who may be thinking about a thousand and one things up on the mound, and give them mental discipline. Others are eloquent about courage and creativity, but Dorfman is fervent about discipline. In the book’s only lyrical passage, he writes: “Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear — and doubt.”
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0331dg-ph.html
Mandates Are Not the Answer
Barack Obama has it (mostly) right.
David Gratzer, Paul Howard
31 March 2008
Insurers call them “young invincibles”: twentysomething hipsters who will spend $4 on a café latte or $80 on a monthly gym membership but won’t buy health insurance. “Health insurance wasn’t even an option,” 24-year-old aspiring designer Andrew Ondrejcak told the magazine New York in March 2007. “I was flying through my savings, trying to get a career started. . . . The last thing I’m going to do is spend $300 or whatever on insurance, you know?” Ondrejcak’s personal health plan: running, yoga, and vitamins. The cost: acute appendicitis and a $37,000 hospital bill. Ondrejcak and others like him are poster children for an individual insurance mandate, which would require all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. But mandates wouldn’t fix the nation’s health-care woes.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjhhMTFmOGZjZGU1ZGQ5Mzc4ODhhZGVmZTEwNjgwY2Y=
To My Democratic Friends: Be Judicious
Senate Democrats are failing to meet both historical and their own standards.
By Orrin G. Hatch
March 31, 2008 1:00 AM
The Constitution gives to the president authority to nominate and appoint federal judges. The Senate provides advice about whether the president should appoint his judicial nominees by giving or withholding consent through up or down votes. That is what the Constitution assigns us to do. That is what Americans expect the Senate to do. That is what the Senate is failing to do. For the record, I have voted against only five of the more than 1,500 nominees to life-tenured judicial positions that the full Senate has considered since I was first elected. Some Democratic senators, including those with far less seniority, have voted against more than three times as many nominees of the current president alone. I have strongly opposed all filibusters against judicial nominees, both Democratic and Republican. I have not taken a partisan approach to judicial confirmations.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-wilson30mar30,0,7917289.story
Do the time, lower the crime
Too many people behind bars? The statistics suggest otherwise.
By James Q. Wilson
March 30, 2008
Do we have too many people in prison? If you read a recent report by the Pew Center on the States, you would think so. As its title proclaimed, more than one in 100 American adults is in jail or prison. For young black males, the number is one in nine. The report's authors contend that the incarceration rate represents a problem because the number of felons serving time does not have a "clear impact" on crime rates -- and that all those inmates are costing taxpayers too much money to house. But nowhere in the report is there any discussion of the effect of prison on crime, and the argument about costs seems based on the false assumption that we are locking people up at high rates for the wrong reasons.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/OPINION01/804010317/1007/OPINION
Why penalize Peter to deport Pablo?
Shikha Dalmia
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Reasonable people can disagree about the best solution to illegal immigration. But everyone can agree that, whatever the solution, it should not compromise the right of ordinary Americans to work. Yet that's precisely what a bill sponsored by U.S. Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., would do. The bill, called the SAVE Act (Secure America through Employment Verification), is opposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- a California Democrat. To overcome her opposition, the bill's sponsors have gotten 181 fellow legislators, including five Michigan Republicans, to sign a discharge petition. Should they obtain another 44 signatures when they return from recess this week, they will be able to over-rule Pelosi and bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. If the House approves the bill, a virtual certainty if it comes for a full vote, it will give a tremendous boost to an identical bill in the Senate -- and become virtually unstoppable, since neither party wants to appear soft on immigration in an election year.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/03/great-depressio.html
Great Depression lesson
USA Today
March 31, 2008
With the Bush administration set to unveil an overhaul of the nation's fragmented financial regulatory system today, and Congress likely to offer a counterproposal in the coming months, it might be tempting to tune the whole debate out. After all, this is a topic unusually rich in detail and complexity. But the question at its core is really quite simple. Should financial institutions capable of doing great harm to markets or necessitating taxpayer bailouts be left alone to decide what level of risks they wish to undertake? The answer is just as simple: no. The government learned that lesson in the Great Depression, which was triggered in part by runs at undercapitalized banks. It set up a system requiring banks to maintain sufficient reserves. It also created federal deposit insurance to give people confidence that their money would be safe.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1311111~Regulation_is_the_problem__not_the_answer.html
Regulation is the problem, not the answer
The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper
2008-03-31 08:00:00.0
WASHINGTON - In an op-ed Friday in The Wall Street Journal, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., blamed “the Bush administration’s hostility to regulation” for the subprime mortgage meltdown and other economic woes facing the nation. But Schumer’s implication that federal red tape has greatly diminished during the Bush years is patently false. A study released last week by the Heritage Foundation tells the real story. The Bush administration imposed $11 billion in new regulatory costs last year alone, and another surge is in the pipeline for 2008. The study’s author, James Gattuso, told The Examiner that the notion that U.S. firms have been less regulated during the past eight years just doesn’t hold water. The last time a sustained deregulation occurred was back in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president. Regulation’s “hidden tax” actually increased $30 billion since George W. Bush moved into the White House.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120692614173175795.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Criticism and Islam
By AFSHIN ELLIAN
March 31, 2008; Page A18
'Fitna" has arrived. Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders put the 15-minute movie about the Quran on the Internet Thursday night. But for weeks before anyone saw it, the Dutch flag was burned around the Islamic world. Iran's undemocratically-elected parliament endorsed a boycott of the Netherlands, and Web sites linked to al Qaeda called for terrorist attacks. Americans may be accustomed to images of angry bearded men setting their flag alight. The Dutch aren't. In response, the government raised the national terrorist threat level to "substantial" while Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende distanced himself from the movie. Until the last moment, he urged Mr. Wilders not to show the film.