MI Morning Update: MI Budget in Deficit...AGAIN! - Obama Policies Risky - Max M. Fisher Dinner Wednesday
By saul anuzis Posted in Barack Obama | Budget | Deficit | Max Fisher | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
133 Days until Election Day
June 24, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
GRANHOLM-DEMOCRATS DEFICIT...AGAIN...State leaders have agreed that the size of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget is $397 million -- $215 million General Fund and $182 million School Aid Fund. We need REFORMS now!!!
OBAMA'S RISKY POLICIES...and lack of experience continues to unite Republicans and attract Reagan Democrats and independents to John McCain. Barack Obama is just not ready and too much of a risk electing as our next Commander and Chief.
FUNDRAISER...2008 Max M. Fisher National Republican Leadership Award Dinner...Please join President George W. Bush and the Michigan Republicans as we honor the life of Max M. Fisher at the Max M. Fisher National Republican Leadership Dinner this Wednesday, June 25, 2008, at Laurel Manor in Livonia. Click here to reserve your tickets now!
GINGRICH...3 WAYS TO LOWER GAS PRICES...a practical, realistic approach to lowering the price of gas...NOW!
ALREADY A MILLION STRONG...DRILL HERE...DRILL NOW...PAY LESS...sign the petition to force Congress to act. We have huge reserves all over America and can do this responsibly. Please sign the petition and forward it to 5 friends.
WHY RIGHT TO WORK CONTINUES TO BE A REAL OPTION...UNIONS...KNOW THE FACTS....check the web site called UnionFacts.com...learn about what's happening around the country.
CARD CHECK vs SECRET BALLOT....here is a great video on the issue and why I think it's so important that you share this information with others.
SLATECARD...AN EASY WAY TO CONTRIBUTE TO OUR FRIENDS...Slatecard was designed to allow easy, online way to contribute and support our candidates for federal office. Please take a minute to check it out...and hopefully help.
ATTENTION REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES, CAMPAIGN MANGERS, AND ACTIVISTS...The Michigan Republican Party, in partnership with the Republican National Committee, is excited to announce...GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) TRAINING SEMINARS (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:
FUNDRAISER...MAX FISHER DINNER...The dinner is one of two major events MRP will host this election year to fund our Victory programs. We will pay special tribute to the life of Max M. Fisher and honor his legacy. Mr. Fisher's commitment to the Republican Party - and to Michigan - is an inspiration to everyone he touched. His lifetime of hard work, and dedicated service, has earned him the great respect of people throughout our state, country, and world. Tickets are $1,000 per person for dinner and $5,000 per person for the VIP photoreception. If you have any questions regarding the event please contact Michelle Rudoni, Event Coordinator, at 517-487-5413 or michelle@migop.org. Click here to reserve your tickets now.
GOTV TRAINING SEMINARS...led by the RNC's Political Education Team, are a great resource for first time candidates and campaign managers, as well as veterans alike.
Also very valuable for grassroots activists who simply want to get involved to help elect our Republican candidates at all levels!!
WHO: Any Republican candidate for office (any level) or grassroots activists
WHAT: GOTV Training (putting together a campaign, essentials of voter contact, Voter Vault training, and more)
WHEN: Two identical seminars to chose from:
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
Saturday, June 28th
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Ram's Horn Restaurant Banquet Center
56129 Van Dyke, Shelby Twp 48316
MID MICHIGAN
Sunday, June 29th
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Radisson Lansing Hotel
111 N. Grand River Avenue, Lansing 48933
COST: FREE....lunch included!! SPACE IS LIMITED!
PLEASE RSVP by Wednesday, June 25th to JASON GEER (jgeer@migop.org or phone: 517-487-5413)
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
Speakers: New tax is crippling businesses
By CHARLES CRUMM
Of The Oakland Press
WATERFORD TWP. - Bill Grubb, president and CEO of Star EMS, says the Pontiac-based ambulance company's tax liability jumped $16,000 after lawmakers scrapped the Single Business Tax and created the Michigan Business Tax.
"It hurts us," Grubb said Monday at a hearing before the state House Task Force on Government Reform and Taxpayer Savings at the Oakland Schools, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road.
"That's real money we won't be able to pay to employ people," he said. "That's real money we won't be able to pay for cardiac monitors."
Mayor asks gov to delay ouster process
Kilpatrick's lawyer says in letter that mayor is a victim of a 'politically motivated attack.'
David Josar and Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's lawyer urged Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday to delay any proceedings to oust him until his criminal case concludes, comparing efforts to remove the mayor to wrongful executions.
Sharon McPhail, the mayor's general counsel, cited executed Cold War spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and wrongfully charged death-row prisoners in Illinois to make her argument that Kilpatrick is a victim of a "politically motivated attack" that is "nothing more than a political process designed to allow some members to run for Mayor without having to give up their Council seats to do so."
"It is clear that officials sworn to uphold the law will use their power to persecute, and prosecute without regard to the law," McPhail wrote in a four-page letter to the governor's top lawyer. "This is such a case."
Deals for mayor's pal get initial OK
Council member still has some reservations
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 24, 2008
Two Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water-main contracts for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's friend Bobby Ferguson were approved Monday by a City Council committee.
But the contracts, which total about $4.4 million, aren't necessarily on their way to final approval. The 2-0 vote by the Public Health and Safety Committee simply sends them to the full nine-member council, which is set to consider the contracts July 1.
Councilwomen Sheila Cockrel and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi voted to send the contracts out of committee. Cockrel previously had requested a hold on approving them, citing increasing questions about how Ferguson's relationship with Kilpatrick may have affected his ability to get city contracts. A third member, JoAnn Watson, was not present when the vote took place, according to the City Clerk's Office.
State legislators consider expanding deposit law
LANSING (AP) - Michigan's 10-cent deposit on pop cans and beer bottles works so well that its creators want to add water and juice containers to the recycling program passed by voters in 1976.
But the newly revived effort faces potentially insurmountable odds in the Legislature, especially in the face of intense lobbying from grocers.
Because it took a ballot initiative to enact the bottle law, the measure can only be amended if three-fourths of lawmakers agree.
House and Senate reach compromise on legislation to oversee use of water in basin.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- House and Senate leaders announced Monday they've reached a compromise that could lead to passage, by week's end, of historic legislation protecting Michigan's water and the Great Lakes.
The 12-bill package would put Michigan in a compact with seven other Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces to oversee the use of water in the Great Lakes Basin. The five lakes contain 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water, more than 90 percent of that for the United States.
Key measures in the package also would set standards for water use within the state and make Michigan one of the first compact signers to have its own in-state regulations. All Great Lakes states are required, under the compact, to adopt such water use and conservation rules.
More Ford workers to lose their jobs soon
White-collar ones going now; others to leave by Aug. 1
BY SARAH A. WEBSTER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • June 24, 2008
Ford Motor Co. has begun dismissing salaried workers as part of an effort to shed 15% of its salaried-related costs by Aug. 1 in the face of a toughening U.S. economy.
The struggling market has resulted in an 11.2% sales decline for the automaker, with a disproportionate amount of the decline, 14%, hitting the profitable truck lineup.
As the Free Press previously reported, the company started the dismissals earlier this month, when it let go of more than 200 contract employees. Another round of contract-employee cuts is expected Thursday.
10 Concerns about Barack Obama
It's policy.
By William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn
1. Barack Obama's foreign policy is dangerous, naïve, and betrays a profound misreading of history. For at least the past five years, Democrats and liberals have said our standing in the international community has suffered from a "cowboy" or "go-it-alone" foreign policy. While politicians with favorable views of our president have been elected in Germany, Italy, France, and elsewhere, Barack Obama is giving cause to make our allies even more nervous. This past Sunday's Washington Post reported, "European officials are increasingly concerned that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign pledge to begin direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program without preconditions could potentially rupture U.S. relations with key European allies early in a potential Obama administration."
Posted by KYLE TRYGSTAD
Former candidate John Edwards, who endorsed Obama May 14 in Michigan, was back in the state today stumping for the Illinois senator. Edwards was speaking in Detroit at the national convention for ACORN, a national community organizing group.
From the Detroit News reporting:
With his trademark Southern accent, Edwards said Republican candidate John McCain will build a wall around progress to low-income people, but promised Obama "will tear it down" as president.
Retiring GOP reps frustrate leadership
By RYAN GRIM | 6/24/08 4:46 AM EST
House Republican leaders might be forgiven for thinking that retiring rank-and-file Republicans would soften the blow caused by their departures by casting some cost-free votes down the party line.
But they would be mistaken.
Republican Reps. Vito J. Fossella of New York, Ray LaHood of Illinois, Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, Ralph Regula of Ohio and Jim Walsh of New York all crossed party lines recently to join with Democrats on a tight vote to extend unemployment insurance - even though they won't be around to suffer the potential political consequences of voting no. After two contentious votes in which key retiring Republicans defected, the plan ultimately passed the following week in a lesser form as a bipartisan compromise attached to the war funding bill.
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: June 24, 2008
Let's go back and consider how the world looked in the winter of 2006-2007. Iraq was in free fall, with horrific massacres and ethnic cleansing that sent a steady stream of bad news across the world media. The American public delivered a stunning electoral judgment against the Iraq war, the Republican Party and President Bush.
Expert and elite opinion swung behind the Baker-Hamilton report, which called for handing more of the problems off to the Iraqi military and wooing Iran and Syria. Republicans on Capitol Hill were quietly contemptuous of the president while Democrats were loudly so.
Democratic leaders like Senator Harry Reid considered the war lost. Barack Obama called for a U.S. withdrawal starting in the spring of 2007, while Senator Reid offered legislation calling for a complete U.S. pullback by March 2008.