109 Days
Until Election Day
July 18, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
McCAIN FUNDRAISER A
BIG SUCCESS…at Ambassador Peter Secchia’s home on Lake
Michigan. The final numbers aren’t in, but this maybe
the largest fundraiser ever held in West Michigan for a Republican
candidate. As always, Peter and Joan Secchia were gracious
hosts.
MACKINAC CENTER
EXPOSES…who’s behind the Reform Michigan Government
Now proposal and why it’s really just a ploy to take over the
courts and legislature by the UAW and other special
interests…when you can’t win at the ballot box, you
cheat, lie and steal by trying to fool the voters of
Michigan. Check it out. http://www.mackinac.org/articlewef.aspx?ID=9668
MICHIGAN MATTERS:
With the presidential contest in full swing, the question becomes,
how big a factor will Detroit and the state be in the race? I offer
my opinions on that along and other things along with Denise Ilitch
and Derrick Miller as host Carol Cain grills us on that and more.
Watch "Michigan Matters" on WWJTV (CBS Detroit TV 62) at 8:30 a.m.
Sunday and repeated at 11:30 a.m. Sundays on CW50 (WKBD). The show
is also posted online Sunday afternoon at www.wwjtv.com.
NEW SERVICES FROM
THE MI GOP…check the information below. We have new
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new ways of taking advantage of the latest technology. Use
it, we paid for the development and implementation to help our
folks down the line!
GOP LEGACY
BRICK…make a permanent contribution to the Michigan
Republican party’s building fund, to insure we have a home
for a long time to come. See more information
below.
NUCLEAR
POWER…America wants peace and prosperity. We need to become
less dependent on foreign oil and have more domestic sources of
power. Cheap, reliable and affordable energy will change the world.
More below.
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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:
Check...out...our...online Articles of Interest.........News...you...can...use.........
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THE REST OF
THE STORY:
FREE…HELP THE GOP…I am excited to announce a
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The Michigan GOP Toolbar
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TODAY'S TOP
STORIES
The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
McCain to talk at GM tech center
The Associated Press
WARREN, Mich. (AP)
— Republican presidential candidate John McCain is eager to
visit the place where General Motors Corp. is designing its first
plug-in electric car.
He plans to hold an
invitation-only town hall meeting Friday morning at the GM
Technical Center in Warren. The Macomb County center just north of
Detroit employs nearly 17,000 people.
McCain flew into Muskegon on Thursday to attend a fundraiser at the Ferrysburg home of former ambassador Peter Secchia. He overnighted in the Detroit area.
NAACP gives McCain a respectful
reception
By Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times
CINCINNATI -- John
McCain ventured into solid Barack Obama territory Wednesday when he
addressed the 99th annual convention of the country's venerable
civil rights organization, the NAACP.
He did not draw the crowd that greeted his Democratic opponent here
Monday, where, as one organization official put it, "even the
overflow room had an overflow room," but McCain received a
respectful reception for his speech on education reform.
"After decades of hearing the same big promises from the public
education establishment, and seeing the same poor results, it is
surely time to shake off old ways and to demand new reforms,"
McCain said. "That isn't just my opinion; it is the conviction of
parents in poor neighborhoods across this nation who want better
lives for their children."
Former Obama aide sought to benefit from "change"
By Jonathan Martin
“Should
‘CHANGE’ occur in November as polls indicate, we should
see a lot of people from Illinois moving to Washington D.C. and
taking key spots in an Obama administration. Now is the time to
anticipate these changes.”
Obama's campaign
called the e-mail "inappropriate," and the former aide said he'll
be more careful in the future.
The pitch by Dan Shomon, who was political director of Obama’s successful 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate, reflects the effort by some supporters and associates of the senator to leverage his political success – and the possibility that he will be president of the United States a scant six months from now.
By DAN
SENOR
Barack
Obama is headed to Baghdad, probably within days. It's a shame he
chose to pre-empt the visit with a big speech and an op-ed on the
subject. He just might learn a thing or two while he's
there.
I
helped plan these congressional delegations (or CODELS) to Iraq for
over 250 congressmen and senators when I worked for the Coalition
Provisional Authority. I know that congressmen find them
illuminating despite the obvious limitations imposed by time and
security concerns. Here are some individuals and groups Mr. Obama
should make it a priority to see:
- Sheikh Abu Risha. He's a founder of what's become known as Sahawa al Iraq, or the Anbar Awakening Movement. This is the grass-roots Sunni tribal movement that has driven al Qaeda from Ramadi. Abu Risha inherited the leadership of the movement in September 2007, after his brother was assassinated.
Editorial: Obama's Iraq Timetable
Barack Obama's new position on Iraq, which turns out to be the same as his old position, is disappointing. It's too confining, leaving too little room to adjust to changing conditions.
- Early
last year, when the war was at its worst, Obama said he would
withdraw U.S. troops within 16 months of becoming president. The
Democrat set this timetable partly because, he said, the American
military could not referee a civil war between Sunni and Shiite
Muslims.
- Since then, President Bush ordered more troops to Iraq. This
"surge," coupled with a strategy of turning Sunnis against foreign
al-Qaeda fighters, has succeeded in reducing violence.
- It's too soon to tell if this relative stability is temporary or
the permanent foundation for a healthy society. Civilian leaders
have not yet seized this opportunity to strengthen their young
central government, nor is the Iraqi military fully capable of
standing on its own. But the surge of U.S. troops at least has
created conditions that make these goals more possible.
Another inconvenient truth down the Obama Memory
Hole
Thomas
Lifson
The
staggering implications of another embarrassing Obama statement
would remain unexplored, with the public record obscured, were it
not for a video clip of one of his speeches posted to the web and
alert internet journalists. As first developed by
World Net Daily's Joseph Farah, the story is about what the
candidate said in Colorado Springs on July 2nd:
We
cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the
national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a
civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as
strong, just as well-funded.
Published transcripts of the speech in the Wall Street Journal and Denver Post did not include the remarks, which apparently were added to the prepared transcript. Another instance of the dangers of letting the candidate deviate from the teleprompter?
Iraq's security 'remarkably better'
By Rowan Scarborough
The nation's top military officer Wednesday declared the security situation in Iraq "remarkably better," so good in fact that he expects to recommend more U.S. troop reductions this fall if conditions hold.
Just back from a tour of two war fronts - Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - Adm. Michael G. Mullen said he expected to witness improvements in Baghdad and across Iraq, but was surprised by how well a 17-month-old U.S. troop surge has worked.
"I won't go so far as to say that progress in Iraq, from a military perspective, has reached a tipping point or it is irreversible," Adm. Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said at a press conference with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. "But security is unquestionably and remarkably better."
Democrats' strategy for state control revealed
BY DAWSON BELL
LANSING -- Documents revealed Thursday make the case for how a $4.9-million campaign, funded partly with in-kind contributions from the Michigan Democratic Party, could accomplish in one bold gesture what for decades has eluded state Democrats: total control of the three branches of state government.
Backers of the Reform Michigan Government Now! petition drive, which last week turned in more than 470,000 signatures to put the issue before voters in November, had said their idea to radically change Michigan's Constitution was a nonpartisan effort to reform government by making the bureaucracy more efficient with a smaller Legislature and judiciary and lowering pay for elected officials.
But the documents that surfaced Thursday suggest there was truth to the charge of a Democratic conspiracy for the campaign that -- to date -- no one has claimed credit for organizing or underwriting
One
wild day in Detroit says it all
Daniel
Howes
Former Pistons great
Dave Bing may or may not run for mayor. Whatever he does, the
basketball star turned business mogul is right about one thing:
Detroit desperately needs to regain the credibility its elected
leaders are destroying with each passing day.
Like
Thursday.
In the space of one
business day, two City Council members with the last name Cockrel
clash with Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's deputy, Anthony Adams, who is
summarily barred from council chambers just before a vote to
rescind the Detroit-Windsor tunnel deal. Charges of "respect" and
"disrespect" are lobbed, and the city's finances are wobbly again
because proceeds from the lease deal were supposed to balance the
budget.
And Councilwoman
Sheila Cockrel confirms that the feds have subpoenaed her records
in connection with two council-approved deals under investigation
by the FBI.
And The News reports that phones used by the mayor's father, Bernard Kilpatrick, were wiretapped as part of a federal probe into the city's council-approved sludge contracts with Synagro Technologies Inc.
BY DAWSON BELL
• FREE PRESS STAFF
LANSING -- High gas
prices may be hammering Michigan consumers and the overall economy.
But in one sector -- the state's relatively inconspicuous, but
well-established oil and gas industry -- they're contributing to a
modest business boom.
Advertisement
State regulators and
oil insiders interviewed in the last 10 days said interest in oil
and gas leasing, drilling and production appears to be on the
upswing in recent months, as crude oil topped $140 a barrel before
falling below $130 a barrel Thursday.
A late-May auction of state-owned oil and gas mineral rights was one of the largest in years (149,000 acres) and completely sold out for the first time since 1981, said Julie Manson, a supervisor in the Department of Natural Resources' lease management unit.
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