Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Hoogendyk to challenge Sen. Levin
Mayor Kilpatrick's mother faces two Democratic challengers to her seat in Congress.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Republican State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk turned in more than 30,000 nominating petition signatures Monday, making official his candidacy to be a giant slayer -- or sacrificial lamb -- against 30-year veteran U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.
Hoogendyk was among major party candidates who must file by 4 p.m. today for a long list of offices, including one U.S. Senate and all 15 U.S. House seats, the 110-member state House, county offices and judgeships.
Like Hoogendyk, state Sen. Martha Scott of Detroit has decided to challenge an entrenched incumbent. Scott filed nominating petitions Monday at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit against U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the mother of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. 
Former state Rep. Mary Waters of Detroit, who works in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, also is running against Cheeks Kilpatrick, who is in her 12th year as a congresswoman. All three are Democrats, and winning the Aug. 5 primary is tantamount to winning the election in the heavily Democratic district.
Among the state House seats up for election this year are 44 in which the incumbents are term-limited, and therefore cannot run again. More than half of the 44 are in Metro Detroit; 28 are held by Republicans and 16 by Democrats.
Hoogendyk, 52, from Portage, held a brief press conference outside the state election office Monday. He said he's raised $100,000, had the help of 400 volunteers and gathered double the number of signatures needed -- and from every county -- in the last three months. more
Ron Paul's forces quietly plot GOP convention revolt against McCain
Ron Paul's forces quietly plot GOP convention revolt against McCain
Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.
But in the m
eantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in Minnesota at the beginning of September.
Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.
But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated in late March in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.
Never mind Ralph Nader, Republican and Democratic parties both face ...
... potentially damaging internal splits that could cripple their chances for victory in a narrow vote on Nov. 4.
Just take a look at recent Republican primary results, largely overlooked because McCain locked up the necessary 1,191 delegates long ago. In Indiana, McCain got 77% of the recent Republican primary vote, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who've each long ago quit and endorsed McCain, still got 10% and 5% respectively, while Paul took 8%.
On the same May 6 in North Carolina, McCain received less than three-quarters of Republican votes (74%), while Huckabee got 12%, Paul 7% and Alan Keyes and No Preference took a total of 7%.
Pennsylvania was even slightly worse for the GOP's presumptive nominee, who got only 73% to a combined 27% for Paul (16%) and Huckabee (11%).
As Politico.com's Jonathan Martin noted recently, at least some of these results are temporary protest votes in meaningless primaries built on lingering affection for Huckabee and suspicion of McCain.
Given the long-since settled GOP race, thousands of other Republicans in these states, who might have put up with a McCain vote, crossed over to vote in the more exciting Democratic primaries, on their own for Sen. Barack Obama or at the urging of talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who sought to support Hillary Clinton and prolong Democratic bloodletting.
According to a recent Boston Globe tally, Paul has a grand total of 19 Republican delegates to Romney's 260, Huckabee's 286 and McCain's 1,413.
In the last three months, Paul's forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upward of a million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates.
Paul, for instance, favors a drastically reduced federal go
vernment, abolishing the Federal Reserve, ending the Iraq war immediately and withdrawing U.S. troops from abroad.
They hope to demonstrate their disagreements with McCain vocally at the convention through platform fights and an attempt to get Paul a prominent speaking slot. Paul, who's running unopposed in his home Texas district for an 11th House term, still has some $5 million in war funds and has instructed his followers that their struggle is not about a single election, but a long-term revolution for control of the Republican Party.
So eager are they to follow their leader's words, that Paul's supporters have driven his new book, "The Revolution: A Manifesto," to the top of several bestseller lists.
While Paul has consistently refused a third-party bid, he has vowed not to endorse McCain, a refusal mirrored by hundreds of his supporters who have left comments on The Ticket in recent weeks. And, no doubt, they'll flock back here today to spread the gospel below.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photos: Associated Press and RonPaul.com
Dennis Lennox defeated Gary Peters; now lets see if Joe Knollenberg is up for the challenge
An email from Students Against Gary Peters:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (May 13, 2008) -- After abusing the trust of taxpayers and sacrificing the education of students for nearly a year, Democratic congressional candidate Gary Peters is being forced out of his professorship at Central Michigan University.
Peters, who is challenging Congressman Joe Knollenberg (R-Oakland County), will be subjected to a new CMU policy requiring professors running for office to resign or take a leave of absence 60 days before an election. In Peters' case, the primary election is August 5.
"CMU is finally doing the right thing and holding Gary Peters accountable," said Dennis Lennox, who led the Students Against Gary Peters campaign. "This is a victory for the hundreds of students, alumni and legislators who wanted Gary Peters to pick between Congress and campus."
A full-time temporary assistant professor of political science, Peters has been a controversial hire for CMU because he is running despite a contractual obligation to give his "full-time … primary commitment" through the 2009/10 school year.
CMU sources indicate the policy is a result of the Petersgate controversy.
Peters receives a salary of $65,000 to teach once a week for three hours.
##
Protest B. Hussein Obama Tomorrow
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Time: 3:30pm - 5:30pm
Location: Van Andel Arena
City/Town: Grand Rapids, MI
Barack Obama will be speaking at the Van Andel arena Wednesday, May 14, 2008.
Obama is a liberal Democrat that has oppsed having Michigan's delegates seated at the DNC convention this summer.
Now, he's here to court Michigan voters? He needs to understand that if you want Michiganders to vote for you in the fall, you need to let them participate in the primary (even if it doesn't help your campaign!).
We will begin the protest at 3:30 and it will last until about 5:30pm out by the Van Andel arena. Bring signs and loud voices (we will also have some extra signs available)!
For more information, contact Amanda Zaluckyj at zaluckya@student.gvsu.edu.
Anti-Obama T-Shirts Sold to Raise Money for Charity
Read the story here.
Mike Norman says the T-shirts he's peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with "Obama in '08" scrolled underneath, are "cute."
Just down the street from Marietta's famous Big Chicken, Mulligan's (Norman's tavern) has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner's ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it's impossible not to know what's on Norman's mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan's.
Among his recent musings: "I wish Hillary had married OJ," "No habla espanol — and never will" and the standard "I.N.S. Agents eat free."
...
Norman said proceeds raised from sales of the T-shirts will be donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Read it on VDare.com Monday, May 12, 2008
Would you rather have Hillary or Obama?
I have been doing a lot of thinking on who I am going to support in this years Presidential elections and I believe I have come to a conclusion.
Almost overwhelmingly the Republican Party is pushing for strong immigration reform, but McCain does not listen. Not only does he not listen, but in the heat of the Republican Presidential Primary he Co-Sponsors a bill which is nearly the equivalent of amnesty.
Neo-Nazis looking for you
Diversity, economy can aid in recruiting
On a dead-end street along Detroit's fringe, the leader of America's largest neo-Nazi group is scheming to exploit the region's economic unease. 
Jeff Schoep, commander of the National Socialist Movement, said he's undeterred by the area's large African-American and Jewish populations since moving his group to the area in December. In fact, he said, the diversity and distress of metro Detroit makes it ripe for recruitment.
"Detroit's a big city, and the economy is not real good," he said. "Anywhere the economy is bad, people are looking for answers. And I think we provide some."
Jack Kay, a University of Michigan-Flint professor who has studied racist groups, said, "These people can be incredibly savvy" in spreading their message.
But first, Schoep -- whose group uses a Detroit post office box -- must secure his position as the area's preeminent führer. In another part of metro Detroit, a rival is trashing his group.
"We at the ANP never had anything to do with them, and we never will," Paul Kozak, chief security officer of Westland-based American Nazi Party, wrote in an e-mail.
Kozak's group, which arrived in the late 1990s, dismisses the National Socialist Movement as outside the mainstream of neo-Nazis. Kozak said his group, by contrast, wants "to be like the Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, and so on." more
Do You Pay Taxes to Subsidize Millionaire Farmers and Higher Food Prices?
Dear Joe,
Grocery bills are climbing, yet Congress is poised to pass a five-year, $300 billion agricultural policy plan that will actually make things worse. Known simply as the Farm Bill, it includes provisions that deliberately aim to keep certain food prices (like sugar and dairy products) high!
This Farm Bill allows millionaires to continue receiving subsidy handouts from the government, and it will also spend more money on fraud-ridden food welfare programs.
President Bush intends to veto this wasteful and unreformed Farm Bill, but taxpayers need to build enough support in Congress to uphold his decision. Please, take a moment to reach out to your Senators and Representative. Ask them to "Remember the Taxpayer!" when they cast votes on the Farm Bill.
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Your Congressperson
Your Senators
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Uphold Bush's Veto of the Farm Bill
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
As a taxpayer and a consumer, I urge you to uphold President Bush's veto of the wasteful Farm Bill legislation (H.R. 2419). With the national debt growing, Congress should be cutting spending. Yet this Farm Bill will cost Americans nearly $300 billion! My tax dollars have to pay for this, and I don't like it one bit.
Grocery bills for American families have been going up as food costs increase, yet this legislation would intentionally keep some food prices high through trade barriers and reckless price support schemes. This is simply ridiculous!
What's more, I don't think millionaires -- farmers or not -- should be receiving government handouts in any form. Yet this Farm Bill fails to take millionaires off the dole.
I'm asking you to support a Presidential veto of this bloated Farm Bill. Please, remember taxpayers like me when you go to vote on this harmful legislation.
Sincerely,
Joe Sylvester
MSU-YAF Advisor and Wife to Publish Anti-Affirmative Action Book
Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story (by Carol M. Allen, with contributions by William B. Allen and Barbara J. Grutter) will be released in June 2008 by Lexington Books.
Description of book:
In 2006, Michigan voters banned affirmative action preferences in public contracting, education, and employment. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) vote was preceded by years of campaigning, legal maneuvers, media coverage, and public debate. Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story relates what happened from the vantage point of Toward A Fair Michigan (TAFM), a nonprofit organization that provided a civic forum for the discussion of preferences. The book offers a timely "inside look" into how TAFM fostered dialogue by emphasizing education over indoctrination, reason over rhetoric, and civil debate over protest.
Ending Racial Preferences opens with a review of the campaigns for and against similar initiatives in California, Florida, Washington, and the city of Houston. The book then delivers an in-depth historical account of the MCRI from its inception in 2003 through the first year following its passage in 2006. Readers are invited to decide for themselves whether affirmative action preferences are good for America. Carol M. Allen reproduces the remarks delivered at a TAFM debate, along with a compilation of pro and con responses by 14 experts to 50 questions about preferences. This book will be of interest to those working in the fields of public policy and state politics.
The listing on Lexington Books can be seen here.
"Two virtues give this book extraordinary value. It provides a wealth of accurate and little-known detail about the origin and passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative—an authoritative account that will never be matched. It also provides an inspiring model for the working of democracy. Ordinary citizens may collectively, as Aristotle wrote and Carol Allen shows, achieve surpassing wisdom when they meet together. " — Carl Cohen, professor of philosophy, University of Michigan
Friday, May 09, 2008
Tim Walberg most fiscally conservative Congressman in Michigan
Club for Growth Scorecard 2008
Tim Walberg 92%
Dave Camp 84%
Mike Rogers 83%
Pete Hoekstra 80%
Joe Knollenberg 67%
Thaddeus McCotter 65%
Vern Ehlers 45%
Candice Miller 43%
Fred Upton 41%
All Michigan Democrats scored 12% or below
Senate Republicans strike out at smokers
This is a terrible shame. When our country and state need conservative leadership most, our own Republican legislators stray. First you've got 4 House Republicans defending the largest tax hike in Michigan history, now a majority of Republican Senators are fighting to ban smoking. To top it off you've got the top of the ticket who isn't committed to conservative principle.
I want to thank my State Senator, Jim Barcia (D-Bay City) for standing up against the fascist tendencies of the legislature. Barcia was the only Democrat to vote against the ban.
It's going to get worse before it gets better...but at what permanent cost I cannot tell.
Friday, May 9, 2008
I want to thank my State Senator, Jim Barcia (D-Bay City) for standing up against the fascist tendencies of the legislature. Barcia was the only Democrat to vote against the ban.
It's going to get worse before it gets better...but at what permanent cost I cannot tell.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Senate passes ban on smoking
Bill heading to the House would bar lighting up in clubs, restaurants, even bingo halls, casinos.
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- All Michigan workplaces, including bars, restaurants and clubs, are a big step closer to becoming smoke-free.
"I can now say Michigan will be a smoke-free state," said a jubilant Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, following the state Senate's surprise vote Thursday to enact a widespread smoking ban.
"This is a huge victory for the people of Michigan who don't want to be subjected to second-hand smoke, which the U.S. surgeon general has said is unsafe in any amount," added Basham, who has been waging an often lonely 10-year crusade against public smoking. 
The bill's sponsor expects its opponents -- especially the well-heeled casinos -- to attempt to block or modify the legislation when it returns to the House.
The prospect of a smoke-free environment appeals to Stephanie Gant, 43, of Southfield.
"I don't smoke and I can't stand the smell of smoke," said Gant, who was bowling with her twin 4-year-old boys at Cloverlanes Bowl in Livonia on Thursday. "We should be able to go out and enjoy our time without having to deal with smoke."
Until Thursday's vote, the Republican-controlled Senate had resisted a smoking ban, largely on grounds that it was a decision best left to business owners and their customers.
"I love my country, but, God, some days I fear my government," said Sen. Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond, who voted against the legislation. "This is another case of it sticking its nose where it doesn't belong."
The proposal, approved on a 25-12 vote, returns to the House for consideration of changes made by the Senate. The Senate version, unlike one approved by the House in December, makes no exceptions for Detroit's casinos, bingo halls and cigar bars. Both versions would ban smoking at clubs and fraternal organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Unless two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers give the measure a specific effective date, it would not become law until around April 1.
Governor would sign bill
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is eager to sign any smoke-free legislation that reaches her desk.
"I congratulate the Senate for approving legislation that bans smoking in public places," Granholm said in a statement issued by her office. "Their action sends a strong message across Michigan -- and the nation -- that we place a high priority on the health of our citizens.
"It will go a long way toward influencing the action of our young people, too. I urge the House to act as quickly as possible."
If enacted here, Michigan would join more than 30 states that have adopted public workplace smoking bans.
Shana Dyas, a 28-year-old Detroit resident who works at the Majestic Theater Center near downtown Detroit, said she's smoked for seven years and doesn't decide where to eat or drink based on an establishment's smoking policy.
"To me, it's more something that should be up to the owner," she said. "If the owner doesn't want smoking, they don't have to allow it. For a food or family place I totally understand the ban. But nightclubs ... it will annoy some people. People will have to adapt."
Louie Qassis, who manages the Claddagh Irish Pub in Livonia, said a ban would impact his cash register.
"We've got a lot of smokers," Qassis said. "Any time you take a privilege from the person, they rebel. ...We would lose business. But if it's a law, there's no option to it."
The Michigan Restaurant Association and the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association have led a passionate fight against the ban.
"We were pretty shocked and disappointed that the Senate decided to go along under pressure and not allow the hospitality industry to make its own decision," said Lance Binoniemi, director of government affairs for the licensed beverage group, which represents more than 2,000 members.
He said the measure, if enacted, will be unfair to many of his members who would have to compete with the 18 American Indian casinos sprinkled across the state. They aren't subject to state law and would be immune from any smoking ban.
"In these economic times, it is hard enough for businesses in the hospitality industry to stay afloat," he said.
"We're surprised by what happened in the Senate," said Andy Deloney, vice president for public affairs with the 4,500-member restaurant group.
Third of bars already ban it
Deloney said about 5,100 Michigan bars and taverns -- nearly a third of the state total -- have voluntarily gone smoke-free without government prodding. He noted that the number of establishments here that have banned tobacco use has grown by 131 percent since 1998 to accommodate the estimated three-fourths of Michigan adults who do not smoke.
Deloney said the battle "is far from over" and wasn't willing to concede that the House will concur in the Senate approach.
Rep. Brenda Clack, D-Flint, the chief sponsor of the House bill, said she expects the House will adopt the Senate approach, perhaps as early as next week. But she expects efforts by the three Detroit casinos to win an exclusion from the smoking ban.
"The Senate did the right thing to make Michigan a cleaner and healthier state," Clack said.
The Campaign for Smokefree Air, which has mounted an intense lobbying effort to get the ban, called Thursday's vote "monumental."
"The Senate has been a major hurdle on this issue for many months and we are very excited to clear that hurdle and continue moving forward," said Judy Stewart, spokeswoman for the group and government relations manager for the American Cancer Society Great Lakes Division.
She also praised Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, for allowing the vote to occur, despite his philosophical opposition to the bill.
Bishop permitted a vote on Basham's motion to force the bill from a committee Bishop heads. It had been thought the bill was sent to Bishop's committee to die.
Bishop spoke against the measure before its passage.
"This legislation is simply incompatible with free market principles I and many members of this chamber hold dear," Bishop told colleagues.
"When will it stop? How much control do you want? And when will people have to stop thinking for themselves entirely?"
All Senate Democrats voted for the smoking ban except James Barcia of Bay City. Nine of the Senate's 21 Republicans also voted yes.
Staff Writers Tanveer Ali, Velvet McNeil and Gary Heinlein contributed to this report. You can reach Charlie Cain at (517) 371-3660 or ccain@detnews.com.
How they voted
The Michigan Senate on Thursday approved a measure 25-12 to ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants.
Democrats voting yes: Glenn Anderson of Westland; Ray Basham of Taylor; Liz Brater of Ann Arbor; Deborah Cherry of Burton; Irma Clark-Coleman of Detroit; Hansen Clarke of Detroit; John Gleason of Flushing; Tupac Hunter of Detroit; Gilda Jacobs of Huntington Woods; Dennis Olshove of Warren; Michael Prusi of Ishpeming; Mark Schauer of Battle Creek; Martha Scott of Highland Park; Michael Switalski of Roseville, Buzz Thomas of Detroit; and Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing
Democrats voting no: Jim Barcia of Bay City
Republicans voting yes: Patricia Birkholz of Saugatuck; Cameron Brown of Sturgis; Nancy Cassis of Novi; Tom George of Portage; Ron Jelinek of Three Oaks; Roger Kahn of Saginaw; Michelle McManus of Lake Leelanau; John Pappageorge of Troy; and Bruce Patterson of Canton
Republicans voting no: Jason Allen of Traverse City; Mike Bishop of Rochester; Alan Cropsey of DeWitt; Valde Garcia of Howell; Jud Gilbert of Algonac; Mark Jansen of Gaines Township; Wayne Kuipers of Holland; Randy Richardville of Monroe; Alan Sanborn of Richmond; Tony Stamas of Midland; and Gerald Van Woerkom of Norton Shores
Not voting/excused : Bill Hardiman, R-Kentwood
Susan J. Demas: McCain's not-so-secret plan to lose Michigan
Column available online only
• MAY 9, 2008 • FROM LANSING STATE JOURNAL
Say you're running for president and dropping by the most economically ravaged state in the nation.
Your Democratic rivals are too busy butchering one another to campaign here, much less notice 7.2 percent unemployment, record foreclosures and skyrocketing demand at local food banks.
So naturally, you'd give a speech on child pornography and human trafficking around the world, right?
It's not that John McCain's 20-minute indictment of these heinous crimes at Oakland University in Rochester Hills on Wednesday wasn't admirable.
But it was a speech you deliver outside the United Nations, not a few miles from Delphi world headquarters, which just emerged from bankruptcy after shuttering factories and slashing wages in half for many autoworkers.
In Michigan, it's the economy, stupid.
Republican after Republican I talked to, including McCain's most diehard supporters, were floored by the misstep. He has a great shot at winning the Mitten State thanks to a botched Democratic primary, but his advisers seem intent on blowing it.
Most of the 700 attendees stared at McCain with slack-jawed politeness before the town hall portion, in which they hungrily fired off questions about jobs, the Iraq war, fuel-economy standards and even his temper (to which he drolly shot back, "How dare you ask me that question.")
My man McCain, whom I proudly voted for in the Jan. 15 primary, is not a born orator. He gives a tired, rambling speech with the same awkward punchlines ("The French now have a pro-American president, which shows that if you live long enough, anything can happen") he unfurled back in the start of primary season.
He also took a long layover in Panderville to appease a crowd more conservative than he, filled with party activists who voted for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee and cried for days when Mighty Mac crushed them. McCain's lines about trial lawyers, conservative judges, victory in Iraq and nuclear power won cheers; his straight talk on global warming was met with crickets.
Even the barebones traveling press corps seemed exhausted and cranky, perhaps knowing the A-Team was having a blast covering the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama smackdown. During the heat of the Michigan primary, I wanted to break out the popcorn as Time magazine columnists Joe Klein and Ana Marie Cox sniped over who got to cover McCain in Howell.
In Rochester Hills, the only person who looked like he wanted to be there was Michigan Co-Chair Chuck Yob, who held court at the jumbled affair for more than an hour before McCain arrived.
McCain has a window to define himself in Michigan. Democratic hopefuls have barely stepped foot here since National Committeewoman Debbie Dingell hatched her harebrained primary scheme that cost the state every delegate, a mess they're still trying to mop up.
He failed this week. He failed when he turned down the keynote address at the influential Mackinac Policy Conference this month to do a fundraiser in Grand Rapids. McCain's not going to get that many more chances before the Dems (finally) get their act together.
If you want to know why the virtually nonexistent McCain Michigan campaign is wheezing, look no further than Yob, a knee-jerk reactionary who miraculously hung onto his job after spouting off that women make fine secretaries of state "because they like that sort of work."
Yob and his boy, John Patrick, launched a boneheaded West Michigan strategy (their only strategy) that handed McCain a 9-point primary loss. Keep in mind that McCain won a stunning upset here against George W. Bush in 2000, back when his campaign was headed by the brilliant former U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz.
The Yobs are completely tone-deaf when it comes to Oakland County, which will be the key to a McCain victory in November. Where was iconic County Executive L. Brooks Patterson on Wednesday? Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop couldn't even make it back to his district because the event was scheduled at the exact same time as session.
That's who you want on stage, not state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, the sacrificial right-wing lamb praying to break 40 percent against U.S. Sen. Carl Levin this fall.
What's best for McCain would be turning the Yobs loose to pursue their true passion, polarizing the party and making state Chair Saul Anuzis' life miserable (sorry, Saul, I'm rootin' for you).
When Chuckie was making noises about running for party chair in 2004, Attorney General Mike Cox adeptly surmised it would be disastrous because "he's more concerned with party elections than with beating Democrats." Cox went on to be McCain's state chair, only to quit last summer after chafing with the Yob West Michigan mafia.
What McCain should do now is aggressively court powerbrokers like Patterson, Bishop and U.S. Rep. Candice Miller to be his ambassadors in Southeast Michigan. And he should give his old friend Joe Schwarz a call and beg him to run the show again, since he's about the only credible moderate voice left here who could woo votes away from Obama.
That's just good politics if you're serious about winning Michigan. Your move, McCain.
Susan J. Demas is a political analyst for Michigan Information & Research Service. She can be reached at sjdemas@gmail.com or http://susanjdemas.blogspot.com.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Race and Western Civilization
It is rare for a professor at my university to assign a truly enlightening book for us to read, so I have made a habit of not only reading the books my professors assign, but also, I read as many non-assigned books as I possibly can. The most recent book I finished was Race and the American Prospect: Essays on the Racial Realities of Our Nation and Our Time, which was edited by the late Sam Francis. I enjoyed the book so much that I felt obliged to write a book review of it to encourage more people to read it.
The points made in the book most certainly go against the multiracial and multicultural orthodoxy that permeates contemporary American society. These points include: The races (Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid) and the various sub-races are biologically different than one another; the revision of history has been done by diversity-mongers to socially engineer a new society; and that if a new course is not set for Western civilization, our civilization will be wiped out through amalgamation, mass and illegal immigration, and the betrayal by the ruling class of not only societal security, but also of what the Founding Fathers believed and what American patriots fought for on the fields of Lexington, at the shores of Yorktown, and on the heights of Bunker Hill.
Editor Samuel Francis eloquently stated what will happen to Western civilization if the Caucasoid race is wiped out:Instead of invoking a suicidal liberalism and regurgitating the very universalism that has subverted our identity and our sense of solidarity, what we as whites must do is reassert our identity and our solidarity, and we must do so in explicitly racial terms through the articulation of a racial consciousness as whites. ...The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people, nor is there any reason to believe that the civilization can be successfully transmitted to a different people. If the people or race that created and sustained the civilization of the West should die, then that civilization also will die.No one disputes that Japanese civilization will end if there are no more Japanese people on earth, and African civilization will end if there are no more African people on earth, so why is it wrong to suggest that Western civilization will die if there are no more people of European descent on earth? Political correctness is reprehensible when it prevents the truth from being spoken or written. Fortunately, the authors of the 13 essays in this book disregarded political correctness to shed light on an issue that must be discussed in the marketplace of ideas if our civilization is to survive.
One of my professors at my university tried to ram down her students’ throats the asinine belief that race is merely a “social construct.” This Marxist principle is accepted by people who have not yet been exposed to the truth and who desire to believe in a utopia in which all men are born equal. I was relieved when I read in the introduction of the book by Sam Francis which put that fallacious worldview to rest for good. In the introduction, Francis quotes from Arthur Jensen’s 1981 book entitled Straight Talk about Mental Tests:
Different races have evolved in somewhat different ways, making for many differences among them. A few of the many physical characteristics found to display genetic variation between different races are body size and proportions, hair form and distribution, head shape and facial features, cranial capacity and brain formation, blood types, number of vertebrae, size of genitalia, bone density, fingerprints, basic metabolic rate, body temperature, blood pressure, heat and cold tolerance, number and distribution of sweat glands, odor, consistency of ear wax, number of teeth, age at eruption of permanent teeth, fissural patterns on the surfaces of the teeth, length of gestation period, frequency of twin births, male-female birth ratio, physical maturity at birth, rate of infant development of alpha brain waves, colorblindness, visual and auditory acuity, intolerance of milk, galvanic skin resistance, chronic diseases (e.g., Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia), and pigmentation of the skin, hair, and eyes.The book develops the theory well that race is more than just a mere “social construct” that exists in the minds of alleged “racists.” But the book contains a great deal more than just treatises on the scientific realities of race, for ramifications for society that multiracialism poses are also discussed in detail.
A noteworthy contrast that attorney Sam Dickson made in his essay entitled “Race and the South” about yesteryear’s slave-owning plantation owner and the modern-day corporation was quite eloquent and eye-opening:
Like most Southerners, I have ancestors who owned slaves and others who did not. During my childhood, my relatives took great pride in those branches of the family tree that were the wealthy, slaveholding ones. Now, from the perspective of late middle age, I have come to entertain reservations about these slaveholding ancestors. I see them in many respects as precursors of the corporate interests in our society that are colonizing our nation with Third World aliens: quite willing to burden America and its white posterity with rival, sullen, and hostile racial aliens so that these interests can obtain cheap labor at the expense of white Americans. ...The non-slaveholders were required to spend their weekends drilling in militia groups and slave patrols to protect their communities from slave uprisings. ...Non-slaveholders were forced to compete against slave labor, cheapening the quality of production in the South and degrading the white working classes, just as today native-born white workers are expected to allow themselves to be degraded financially and otherwise in competition with cheap Latin American or Asian labor.The book is a collection of scholarly essays that have been written by people with advanced degrees, university professors, researchers, and published authors. Professor Paul Gottfried of Elizabethtown College called the book “an act of intellectual courage” that “correctly points out the rareness of successful multiracial or even biracial societies and shows how the pursuit of this ideal in the U.S. has brought the increasing self-degradation of the majority white population.” Andrew Fraser, a former associate professor of law at Macquarie University, said that the book is “a powerful and persuasive introduction to the problems posed by race and racial differences everywhere in the modern West.”
While the diversity-mongers indoctrinate the next generation of Americans with the utopian notion that all races are biologically equivalent, and that diversity, multiculturalism, and multiracialism are moral goals to strive for through social engineering (which can only fail in the end), it would be best if more Americans understand the purpose of America like how John Jay did. In the Federalist Papers (No. 2), he wrote:
Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.The book is 462 pages long and currently costs $35 if purchased from Amazon.com here.
In Defense of RINO Hunting
OPINION
In Defense of RINO Hunting
By PAT TOOMEY
May 8, 2008; Page A13
The Club for Growth Political Action Committee has long been attacked for intervening in Republican primaries and targeting the party's most economically liberal incumbents.
In 2000, Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Greenwood called the Club "cannibals." When the Club ran ads against Ohio Sen. George Voinovich and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe for resisting President Bush's 2003 tax cut, Karl Rove deemed the ads "counterproductive."
And Newt Gingrich, the man who ushered in a conservative Republican majority in 1994, once denounced the Club. "Their strategy is explicitly wrong," he said. "The key is to elect more Republicans and have a bigger majority and be more inclusive."
In 2000, Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Greenwood called the Club "cannibals." When the Club ran ads against Ohio Sen. George Voinovich and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe for resisting President Bush's 2003 tax cut, Karl Rove deemed the ads "counterproductive."
And Newt Gingrich, the man who ushered in a conservative Republican majority in 1994, once denounced the Club. "Their strategy is explicitly wrong," he said. "The key is to elect more Republicans and have a bigger majority and be more inclusive."
Now comes Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, the man charged with rebuilding the GOP majority in the House. In a New York Times Magazine article, he denounced the Club for Growth's involvement in a special election in Ohio's fifth congressional district.
"The problem I have with the Club is I think they're stupid," Mr. Cole said. "They spend more money beating Republicans than Democrats."
Republicans would be better off, the argument goes, if the Club PAC spent its money targeting Democrats instead of liberal Republicans. This is the argument of politicians who care more about maintaining power than using that power to implement conservative policies.
Thus comes the demand for an uncompromising obeisance to the bottom line: Elect as many Republicans as possible, regardless of how they will vote once in office.
It is for this reason that challenges to incumbents are deemed sacrilegious, no matter how far the incumbent has strayed from conservative principles. And it is for this reason that party leaders defend some of the most liberal incumbents, also known as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), and assail the Club PAC for helping to elect true conservatives.
In 2000, Rep. Tom Davis, then the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, denounced the Club for supporting Scott Garrett's challenge to New Jersey Rep. Marge Roukema. Mr. Cole and the entire Oklahoma establishment backed Tom Coburn's primary opponent in the 2004 Senate race, Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys, viewing Mr. Coburn as too conservative to be electable. Led by President Bush, the GOP cavalry rallied behind liberal Arlen Specter in 2004, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Joe Schwarz of Michigan in 2006.
Mr. Chafee, you may recall, is the same senator who refused to vote for the president in 2004, and voted against the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and Justice Sam Alito's nomination.
This year, Mr. Gingrich and conservative favorite former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele stumped for liberal incumbent Rep. Wayne Gilchrest against conservative state Sen. Andy Harris in a primary. Mr. Gilchrest was also defended by the Service Employees International Union. He lost by 10 points.
Let us take a moment to consider how these liberal Republicans are serving the GOP today. Mr. Specter, just in the past year, joined Democrats in voting for "card check" (which allows unions to organize without holding a secret ballot election), for increasing the minimum wage, for expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and for the bloated farm bill.
Mr. Chafee, who was defeated, switched his party affiliation to Independent and has endorsed Barack Obama for president. Following his loss to conservative Tim Walberg in the 2006 primary, Rep. Schwarz of Michigan backed a state-level tax hike, and threatened to run against Mr. Walberg as a Democrat. Mr. Gilchrest has hinted recently that he will endorse the Democratic nominee for his seat. All four of these pols were heralded by the Republican establishment as genuine conservatives who would go to bat for the party when it mattered.
Conversely, many of the Republican candidates the Club for Growth's members have supported over the years are now leaders in the conservative movement and favorites among the party's grass roots. Sens. Coburn and Jim DeMint and Reps. Scott Garrett, Jeff Flake, John Campbell, Jeb Hensarling, Tim Walberg and Mike Pence are just some of the brave leaders who have led the fight for limited government and greater economic freedom.
Winning for the sake of winning is an excellent short-term tactic, but a lousy long-term strategy. Just look at the consequences of the 2006 congressional elections, when the GOP lost control of both houses of Congress.
A Republican majority is only as useful as the policies that majority produces. When those policies look a lot like Democratic ones, the base rightly questions why it should keep Republicans in power. As the party gears up for elections in the fall, it ought to look closely at the losses suffered under a political strategy devoid of principle. Otherwise, it can look forward to a bad case of déjà vu.
Mr. Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, is president of the Club for Growth.
See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.
And add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Leftist Student Defaces Pro-Life Memorial
A leftist student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is caught on camera ripping crosses out of the ground that were plotted by campus, pro-life activists. This moron defends his alleged "right" to destroy a university-sanctioned display by claiming that it is part of his First Amendment right to do so.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
OUTRAGE: McCain to speak at La Raza convention
I could probably be best described as a conservative who was hoping McCain would do some pandering so that I could support him in good conscience. I can see that that is going to be impossible.
McCain to attend convention of 'reconquista' group
Republican presidential candidate launches Spanish campaign website
Posted: May 05, 2008
10:38 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
McCain to attend convention of 'reconquista' group
Republican presidential candidate launches Spanish campaign website
Posted: May 05, 2008
10:38 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
 Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. |
WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, announced today he will attend the national convention of La Raza, a radical Hispanic lobby tied to the movement to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. that was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848.
The convention will be held in San Diego July 14.
Though La Raza bills itself as a civil rights organization, the group's name literally means "The Race."
La Raza was condemned in 2006 by Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., as a radical "pro-illegal immigration lobbying organization that supports racist groups calling for the secession of the western United States as a Hispanic-only homeland."
Norwood has called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees "The Race" as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.
McCain, who steadfastly opposed efforts to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and supported legislation to permit illegal aliens to remain in the U.S., also announced the launch of his campaign's Spanish language website.
The announcements came on Cinco de Mayo, the day commemorating an 1862 battle fought by Mexican troops.
"Today, we join together to remember the sacrifice that these Mexican patriots endured, as well as the struggles of all those around the world striving for freedom," said McCain in the statement. "We recognize as well the important friendship that exists between our country and Mexico, and celebrate the many contributions Mexican-Americans have made to our society, culture, security and economy."
Monday, May 05, 2008
One Michigan Republican Congressman on board with SAVE Act
218 Signatures are needed in the House to break Nancy Pelosi's obstruction of a vote on the anti illegal immigration SAVE Act. Currently there are 161 signers and only ONE Michigan Republican Congressman has signed on; Tim Walberg.
On the Democrat side, Bart Stupak has even signed on.
Please contact your Congressman and ask them to sign on ESPECIALLY if you live in a Republican district.
Uncommitted Michigan Republican Congressmen:
Congressman Pete Hoekstra
Congressman Vern Ehlers
Congressman Dave Camp
Congressman Fred Upton
Congressman Mike Rogers
Congressman Joe Knollenberg
Congresswoman Candice Miller
Congressman Thad McCotter
EMAIL FROM NUMBERUSA:
DEAR FRIENDS,
Send your congratulations to all of our NumbersUSA faxer/phoners in Idaho:
After all the phone calls and faxes in last week's surge effort, the hold-out Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) has signed the Discharge Petition to force a House floor vote on the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088).
(Look at the petition list as well as details about the Save Act.)
The freshman was one of only a few Republicans who still had not signed. The states of Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Delaware (with small delegations) now have no Representative who has NOT signed the Discharge Petition. Congrats to all of you from those states.
It will take 218 signatures to go around Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-Calif.) who thus far has refused to allow a vote unless an amnesty is attached to the bill.
The fact that we are up to 187 signatures is really quite phenomenal. Now, it is mop up time in which we have to fight for every new petition signer.
CONGRESSMEN SAY THEY AREN'T GETTING ENOUGH PRESSURE FROM VOTERS
There are well more than 31 U.S. Representatives who tell our NumbersUSA lobbyists that they would vote for SAVE if it comes to the floor -- but they won't sign the Discharge Petition that would force the vote.
The main reasons these Members of the House aren't signing the petition?
We will be sending most of you very specific instructions on what we desperately need you to do in your part of the country to keep the pressure on passing SAVE (led by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif.).
But for Monday, please do this:
1. Take any actions shown on your Action Buffet corkboard.
2. Look on the list of Discharge Petition signatures to see if your own U.S. Representative is shown there. If not, phone his/her office and make a quick case for signing the petition.
If your Representative has signed but another Representative in your part of the state has not, consider phoning his/her office.
CONGRESSIONAL SWITCHBOARD: 202-224-3121
We cannot let up now. As you can see in the New York Times article below, I commented on last week's pro-amnesty marchers as pushing for amnesty to reward illegal aliens so they can STAY, while most Americans want more enforcement that causes illegal aliens to LEAVE.
That is what the SAVE Act would do. That is the reason why Speaker Pelosi and her fellow House leaders do not want to risk a vote on it.
But large numbers of her Democratic Members would like to vote if they just get enough pressure from voters back home. Let's give it to them.
Political rights, and wrongs
By Paul Jacob
Sunday, May 4, 2008
|
Abortion IS murder!
PUBLISHED: Sunday, May 4, 2008