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By saul anuzis Posted in Barack Obama | Jon Stryker | Michigan Republican Party | Petition Drive | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Stealth — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

145 Days until Election Day

June 12, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

STEALTH PETITION DRIVE EXPOSED...a new petition is being circulated that completely re-writes the Michigan Constitution. The YouTube video released yesterday cautioned voters about a stealth petition drive to wrest control of the state's courts out of the hands of ordinary citizens and hand it over to ambulance-chasing injury lawyers...and more. We are in the process of getting an analysis done of all the details buried in pages of fine print. Please be careful and read it before you sign it.

STRYKER BACKING PETITION DRIVE...Right Michigan exposed some of the backers of this constitutional re-write as Jon Styker and his friends.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REGENT...Andrea Newman and her son David (wearing a MICHIGAN t-shirt) made the front page of the New York Times talking about her iPhone.

OBAMA'S CLASS WARFARE...so, is he saying $250,000 or less is middle class and they all get a tax cut? Why can't we get a straight answer out of Mr. Obama. Who is going to pay for all of the Democrats NEW programs...demand an answer...those making $250,000 and up...or is that number lower...much lower?

DEMOCRATS HYPOCRISY...Dozens of Democratic House and Senate candidates offered a resounding "No, thanks" when asked by The Hill newspaper if they would pledge not to take donations from lobbyists or political action committees (PACs).

In an even greater act of hypocrisy, Obama has penned a fundraising plea on behalf of the DCCC. It's interesting that he is doing fundraising pitches for the entity that refuses to ban lobbyist contributions, such as he has done. Democrats want to run on ‘change' and bash lobbyists on the campaign trail, but they have split from Obama on this issue now that it is inconvenient.

UAW ENDORSES OBAMA...not a political surprise, but it makes NO sense. Obama bashes the domestic auto manufacturers, supports policies that will put more autoworkers and suppliers out of work and threatens their pensions and health care. This is pure partisan politics where the union is NOT representing its member at all.

RIGHT TO WORK...no wonder so many folks continue to talk about making Michigan a Right to Work state...giving union members a choice of whether or not they want to belong to a union, pay them their dues, when they don't represent their views or interests makes sense. The UAW has become an extension of the Democrat Party.

CLINTON...MAKING A LIST...and checking it twice. So reports the New York Times' Leibovich about the supposed "enemies list" the Clintons and their friends have kept after this primary season. No surprise here!?! We have a few folks like that, here in Michigan.

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THE REST OF THE STORY:

Key excerpts from today's story in The Hill...Obama & Democrats Hypocrisy:

Dozens of Democratic House and Senate candidates offered a resounding "No, thanks" when asked by The Hill if they would pledge not to take donations from lobbyists or political action committees (PACs).

Not one major candidate has yet embraced the call to avoid such money, even though their party's presidential nominee has led the movement and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has signed on.

Obama's pledge has put Democratic candidates in a tough political spot, choosing between their campaign coffers and their nominee's principles.
The candidates have shown no desire to proactively discuss the contradiction, and many did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Following Obama's and the DNC's announcement of the new policy last week, the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees made clear they would not be abiding by it. Neither will the candidates.
Obama has done fine without such contributions and the DNC doesn't raise much money anyway, but congressional committees and candidates rely heavily on these sources.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), facing his first tough battle in years against Republican Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, has taken about 70 percent of his money this cycle from PACs.

Many of the vulnerable incumbents in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) Frontline program, like Kanjorski, have raised well over half their money this cycle from PACs...

Republicans have largely left Democrats to sort the issue out for themselves and haven't planned an offensive...

But they are happy to point out the inconsistency in Democrats' message. Obama has characterized the issue by saying lobbyists "will not fund our party, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I'm president of the United States."
"It would be nothing short of hypocritical if congressional Democrats and their candidates were at odds with Barack Obama and Howard Dean," National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Ken Spain said.

To view the entire article just click here.

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Breaking: Big-money left using fraud in attempt to gut Michigan Courts

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 12:04:57 PM EST

Update [2008-6-11 12:55:47 by Nick]:I spoke this lunch hour with "Eric," the big boss for Progressive Campaigns, Inc. in the West Michigan area. According to the man recruiting the circulators they're paying $1.50 per every signature. And Progressive isn't a charity. They aren't charging their mysterious benefactor (cough) Stryker? (cough) wholesale prices. Figure conservatively the committee pays Progressive $2.00 for each signature.
They need 450,000 signatures minimum to survive challenges. That's $900,000 just to make the ballot... you can go ahead and double or triple that for the general election campaign. Now ask yourself... who has that kind of cash ($4 million?) lying around to burn on an attempt to radically liberalize the judicial landscape?

Petition Circulator: Excuse me, would you be willing to sign a petition to stop the Michigan legislature from giving themselves a pay raise next week?

Running against

Election history plainly shows that, barring exceptional circumstances, candidates win races when people vote for them, not against the other guy. Nevertheless, that's the tactic the Michigan Democratic Party is using to get rid of Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor.

In point of fact, not only are the Dems not focusing on their nominee, they aren't even saying at this point who that person is.

Oakland County attorney Marietta Robinson (who ran and lost in 2000) has been considered the likely choice, and the subscription-only Gongwer News Service quoted an anonymous source saying she was the one who has been picked by party leaders.

McCain campaign spends big ad dollars in Michigan

BY KATHLEEN GRAY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 12, 2008

Sen. John McCain has been popping up all around Michigan every day for the last two weeks. His Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama has made two trips to the state in the past month with a third planned on Monday when he comes to Detroit.

How does McCain do it?

Ah, the magic of television.

The Arizona senator has been airing two commercials statewide since May 28 -- an ad buy that costs an estimated $500,000 a week, said Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a group that tracks campaign spending in the state. They are the first salvos in what likely will be a long battle

Michigan Houses passes university spending proposal

Posted by The Associated Press June 12, 2008 01:42AM

LANSING -- Michigan's 15 public universities would get an average 3 percent increase in state aid under a proposal passed by the Democrat-led state House.

The plan passed Wednesday has differences from proposals supported by the Republican-led Senate and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, although those plans also call for an average 3 percent increase in the budget year that starts in October.

All three sides will have to sign off on a final compromise version for the spending plan to become law.

State's already poorly maintained roads will crumble further as money dries up

Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

A new state report says one-quarter of the pavement on Michigan's main roads is in poor shape, and that percentage will reach nearly half in 10 years if the state doesn't come up with the money to fix the roads faster and maintain them better.

"The most important roads in our state are deteriorating faster than we can keep them updated," said Carmine Palombo, transportation director of the Michigan Council of Governments.

Palombo heads the state's Asset Management Council, a panel of 12 transportation and local officials whose inspectors, working on behalf of the Michigan Department of Transportation, determined that Michigan roadways are "getting significantly worse, with more miles in poor condition than in good condition."

Strikes no longer worth it

Just when we thought strikes in the auto industry were over, along come the Teamsters.

On Monday, 1,250 car haulers went on strike against Performance Transportation Services because they didn't want to accept a federal bankruptcy judge's ruling that the company could impose an immediate 15 percent pay cut. The Allen Park-based company, which is the nation's second-largest car hauler and is in bankruptcy for the second time since 2006, asked the courts to force the drivers back to work and find the union in contempt, but surprisingly hadn't had their requests answered as of Wednesday.

In one request, a judge ordered the company and union into arbitration. So much for the "protection" aspect in bankruptcy.

As the lawyers and judges mull it over, workers wonder if they'll have a job to go back to tomorrow, or ever. Even some union members The News talked to acknowledge those prospects are grim.

Mayor Kilpatrick: Texas trip was work

Under scrutiny for travel, Kilpatrick's office says he is studying banking changes, will discuss them in a few weeks.
David Josar, Christine MacDonald and Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- It's a job only the mayor can do. That's how Kwame Kilpatrick sees it, even though others aren't so sure.

The Mayor's Office confirmed Wednesday that Kilpatrick's latest trip to Texas is related to a re-evaluation of how the city does its banking, and the mayor will announce those changes in a few weeks. While free on bond, Kilpatrick has attracted scrutiny for visiting the Lone Star State at least three times and declining to publicly explain why.

Kilpatrick vowed last year to find a new primary bank for the city after Comerica announced in March 2007 it was moving its headquarters to Dallas. He visited the city Tuesday with three city employees as part of a series of "surprise visits to cities using Bank of America as their bank," Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Detroit News.

Professor to represent Detroit in Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick forfeiture hearings

Posted by The Associated Press June 12, 2008 01:14AM

DETROIT -- A civil rights expert says planned hearings to force Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office have no basis in law.
Wayne State University Law School professor Robert Sedler says he will represent the city in the forfeiture hearings scheduled for July 7.

Sedler will not represent Kilpatrick, who is accused by the City Council of violating the City Charter. The council also has asked Gov. Jennifer Granholm to remove Kilpatrick for misconduct.

RNC On McCain's Economic Policy

Posted by BLAKE DVORAK

On a conference call with bloggers this morning, RNC Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli defended John McCain's economic policies, which the candidate put forth in a speech to the National Federation of Independent Businesses yesterday, while describing Barack Obama's policies as the kind of "change that got us into the Great Depression."

Avoiding the term recession, Donatelli described the economy as "soft" and that it is "an open question on which way it will go." However, Donatelli said, the differences between Obama and McCain on economic policy are as "stark" as they were in 1980 between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

Although McCain didn't mention gas prices or energy policy in his speech yesterday, Donatelli said the candidate would be addressing that issue shortly. As for what McCain might advocate, Donatelli said he would talk about expanding the oil supply and the country's nuclear capacity.

Union Critical of Obama's Top Economics Aide

By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: June 12, 2008

Acting quickly after securing his party's presidential nomination, Barack Obama picked a well-known representative of Bill Clinton's economic policies as his economic policy director and signaled this week that the major players from the Clinton economics team were now in his camp - starting with Robert E. Rubin.

Senator Obama, Democrat of Illinois, hired Jason Furman, a Harvard-trained economist closely associated with Mr. Rubin, a Wall Street insider who served as President Clinton's Treasury secretary. Labor union leaders criticized the move, and said that "Rubinomics" focused too much on corporate America and not enough on workers.

"For years we've expressed strong concerns about corporate influence on the Democratic Party," John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, said Wednesday in a statement implicitly critical of the symbolism of the appointment, no matter Mr. Furman's economic skills.

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