MI Morning Update: Stealth Petition Files Signatures - Why McCain is America's Best Choice - Nuclear Weapons in Iraq
By saul anuzis Posted in Barack Obama | Iraq | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Stealth Petition — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
119 Days until Election Day
July 8, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
STEALTH PETITIONERS FILE SIGNATURES...but it's still a secret as to who funded it, who wrote it, and what special interests are behind it. The rumor on the street is that Mark Brewer helped put this secret constitutional re-write together with the Trial Lawyers and UAW. Does Obama support this kind of special interest gamesmanship? I think at best this is a "deform" set of amendments. Beware!
Deform Michigan Government Now!" would require Detroit, which has an 82 percent African-American population according to the U.S. Census Bureau, to expunge at least one state senator and three state representatives under a Byzantine legislative redistricting formula. Similar losses would take place in urban areas like Flint, Kalamazoo, and quite possibly Grand Rapids. In all, the State Senate would lose 10 seats and the State House would lose 28 seats.
WHY McCAIN...because the country's at war, the economy is struggling, oil prices are surging... AND OBAMA...is just an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.
MESSAGE TO OBAMA...when you have real experience, you don't have to exaggerate. Dick Morris points out that Obama's pandering to the center has exposed him on several fronts: credibility, centrism and experience.
NBC'S FIRST READ REPORTS...that the NY Times had a piece that laid out Obama's "politics as usual" and how it's playing on the left. See the clip below.
BARACK OBAMA...Just Not Ready!
McCAIN IN MICHIGAN...the press reports that Senator McCain will be doing an "economic tour" that will have him visiting Michigan on Thursday!
WHAT NUCLEAR WEAPONS GRADE MATERIAL IN IRAQ...here is a story that received very little coverage over this weekend. 550 metric tons of "yellow-cake" uranium, which can be used for nuclear weapons. Ummm...most of the press missed it.
NOTICE...all the Victory staff received NEW email addresses.
DRILL AND SAVE...Democrats in Congress have been kowtowing to environmental extremists long enough. The radical Left and the special interest groups that control the Democratic Party are keeping American from developing America's oil reserves. The Left and the environmental extremists who control the Democrat Party are standing in the way of safe, reasonable exploration of oil in the United States.
We have all the technology and tools to develop domestic energy safely without hurting our environment if only Congress would stop listening to the special interest groups. We need to Drill and Save.
It's time to end our dependence on foreign oil. Sign our e-petition today and tell Democrats that control Congress that enough is enough.
LITHUANIAN FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL...this weekend all 4 of my boys danced in the Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival with over 1,000 other students from across the country. Yes, I actually danced in a few myself over the years!
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THE REST OF THE STORY:
NBC'S FIRST READ REPORTS... Does Prevent Defense Ever Work? The New York Times' Frank Rich has been a pretty big Obama fan throughout this cycle, but on Sunday he delivered what might be the most succinct way of hitting Obama from the left that we've seen: "For all the hyperventilation on the left about Mr. Obama's rush to the center - some warranted, some not - what's more alarming is how small-bore and defensive his campaign has become... [H]e is drifting away from the leadership he promised and into the focus-group-tested calculation patented by Mark Penn in his disastrous campaign for Hillary Clinton." Is Obama playing prevent defense? Sometimes, that seems to be the case. And on all days, another Obama backer -- the New York Times editorial page -- devoted an editorial on July 4th to just hammer Obama. "We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama's shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games. There are still vital differences between Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain on issues like the war in Iraq, taxes, health care and Supreme Court nominations. We don't want any ‘redefining' on these big questions. This country needs change it can believe in." It's one thing to move to the center, but it's the clinical way in which Obama has done it that's making the cynical press start to get over its Obama love affair. Clinical leads to cynical... Just ask the Clintons.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
The unconstitutional amendment
By Saul Anuzis • July 7, 2008
What happens when a constitutional amendment is so complicated that the
amendment itself becomes unconstitutional?
We might be about to find out. Here's why.
A group calling itself Reform Michigan Government Now! - but won¹t tell us
anything about its members or where it gets its funding - has filed
signatures for a constitutional amendment that involves wholesale changes to
4 different articles and 28 different sections, with a complicated
implementation schedule and more fine print than a subprime mortgage.
McCain to visit Mich. Thursday to talk about jobs
7/7/2008, 8:58 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
BELLEVILLE, Mich. (AP) - John McCain's campaign says he'll visit Michigan this week as part of a swing through five battleground states to focus on the economy.
A spokeswoman for the Republican presidential hopeful says he'll hold a town hall-style event Thursday in Belleville, about 25 miles west-southwest of Detroit. McCain will focus on small businesses.
Spokeswoman Leah Yoon says McCain will travel from Colorado to Washington, D.C., to discuss Hispanic issues Tuesday, then travel to Pittsburgh and Portsmouth, Ohio, on Wednesday.
Group turns in signatures for Michigan ballot
7/7/2008, 6:13 p.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Voters may get a chance to lay off state lawmakers and slice their pay after organizers turned in 487,000 signatures Monday to put a sweeping constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
The measure, destined for legal and procedural challenges, also would reduce the number of judges on the Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals and cut the salaries of judges, the governor and other elected officials.
"This proposal is not about any one individual in elective office today. This is about creating a state government that works for people," said Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for Reform Michigan Government Now, which organized the proposal.
Voters to decide fate of stem cell research
Campaigns to alter or keep state law begin
BY DAWSON BELL and SARAH TOMPKINS • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 8, 2008
Laura Jackson was trying out for the Livonia Stevenson High School cheerleading team in 2003 when she attempted a backward somersault. She landed awkwardly on her neck, injured her spinal cord and woke up in a hospital a quadriplegic.
Jackson, now 19, along with other patients, Michigan doctors and advocates, launched a campaign Monday to end the state's ban on stem cell research that results in the destruction of a human embryo and make such research legal.
Supporters with the group CureMichigan say the research could heal those with spinal injuries and illnesses such as cancer, juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
'Dr. Death,' former lottery official Gary Peters oppose GOP Rep. Knollenberg.
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Jack Kevorkian -- nicknamed "Dr. Death" for the high-profile assisted suicides he performed -- gathered enough valid signatures to be on the November ballot and try to unseat veteran Rep. Joe Knollenberg, the chief of elections for Oakland County said Monday.
"He has enough qualifying petition signatures," said Joe Rozell, director of elections for Oakland County. "They are valid."
The entrance of the national figure in the right-to-die movement promises to add more drama to the fierce battle for Oakland County's Ninth Congressional District seat, which Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills, was first elected to in 1992.
Prosecutor to expand perjury complaint with alleged extramarital affairs
Doug Guthrie and Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy plans to amend a criminal complaint against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to add alleged incidents of infidelity by the mayor beyond his affair with former chief of staff Christine Beatty.
"It will happen in the near future," said Worthy spokeswoman Maria Miller. "It will include others. Other sexual/romantic relationships."
Former police members of the mayor's executive protection unit have alleged the mayor sometimes used them to facilitate extramarital trysts. A key allegation in a police whistle-blower lawsuit brought by former officers Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope is that they were retaliated against for looking into allegations related to the misuse of Kilpatrick's bodyguards for such purposes.
Synagro lobbied hard for sludge deal
Firm offered cash to community groups, sought pastors' support for $47M sludge pact.
David Josar and Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- An outspoken community activist said he was approached by an agent for Synagro Technologies and offered "financial assistance" in exchange for writing letters and testifying before City Council in support of a $47 million sludge hauling and disposal contract.
"It was more a carrot than a stick," said Ernest Johnson, executive director of the Detroit Community Coalition, which turned down the deal. "That wasn't the sort of thing we would do ... it wasn't in anyone's best interest."
That proposal to Johnson was just one of several lobbying maneuvers, which included cash to community groups as well as lining up influential pastors, the Houston-based sludge-hauling giant used to help rally support for the contract now being probed by the FBI."They were lining up people who had no interest in that part of the city," said Johnson, who added the amount of compensation was only a few thousand dollars at most. "It didn't make sense."
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
As Barack Obama continues to campaign for the general election, his flip-flops increase along the way. Thus, he is jeopardizing the image he has cultivated as an authentic and principled candidate. His reversals are so egregious that, at this rate, he risks snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Mr. Obama's credibility was first breached during the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy. When video surfaced of Rev. Wright making inflammatory statements at Trinity United Church, Mr. Obama took a principled stand: "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother." Yet, the Illinois senator subsequently denounced his pastor and then left Trinity United Church. Mr. Obama's statements throughout the controversy revealed that he was deceptive: Either he knew that Rev. Wright was a radical preacher and therefore initially feigned ignorance of his ideology, or, Mr. Obama did not know Rev. Wright had so many extreme viewpoints, which means he overstated his commitment and zeal for Trinity United Church. Mr. Obama's mishandling of the Rev. Wright controversy was the first major, visible crack in his public image as a man of principle.
July 8, 2008
Richard Nixon came to office with a rumored secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. Maybe Barack Obama's plan to end the war in Iraq is going to wind up being a secret, too.
The presumptive Democratic nominee set off media firecrackers last week by hinting at further refinements to his strategy for withdrawal. Previous strategies include his January 2007 call for a complete withdrawal by March 2008, followed by his March 2008 call for a complete withdrawal by July 2010, or 16 months after he takes office.
Helms remembered as 'last statesmen'
Services for ex-senator set for Tuesday
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
RALEIGH, N.C. | Mourners who attended a viewing of former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms on Monday remembered the conservative champion as the last politician of his kind.
Mr. Helms, who died Friday after years of failing health, lay in a closed casket covered with a U.S. flag and flanked by state troopers at Hayes-Barton Baptist Church.
The Republican, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2003, worshipped there for decades and served as a deacon.