Why can't the Freep do math?

The Detroit Free Press is once again advocating a massive release of criminals from our state's prisons. This isn't a surprise; what is a surprise, though, is their justification:

"Michigan's incarceration rate - 502 inmates per 100,000 people - is out of wack. It is by far the highest in the Great Lakes region - Illinois, for example, is 354, Ohio is 414 - and eight-highest among the 50 states, according to the latest report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. The state's staggering prison costs might be worth it if Michigan also was among the lowest-crime states, but it's not."

Perhaps this is beyond the Freep's basic ability to understand: when crime rates are higher, it leads to more people being incarcerated. Of course we're going to have a higher incarceration rate; we have a higher crime rate. The way to deal with this is to reduce crime overall. The massive release of criminals from the system, particularly when Michigan has a 50% recidivism rate, isn't going to do that. It's going to drive up crime. As the Free Press points out, Michigan's crime rate is already high. Why are we trying to put more criminals out on the street?

Don't throw away the key
Prisons can safely save state millions by revising sentencing, parole rules
Detroit Free Press

Facing its worst budget problems in modern times, the State of Michigan still incarcerates 50,000 people at a cost of nearly $35,000 per inmate per year. That adds up to nearly $2 billion -- more than 20% of the general fund budget -- for the Department of Corrections. While most of the people behind bars in Michigan are right where they belong, the state can and should take more steps to safely reduce the inmate population.

Michigan's incarceration rate -- 502 inmates per 10,000 people -- is out of wack. It is by far the highest in the Great Lakes region -- Illinois, for example, is 354, Ohio 414 -- and eighth-highest among the 50 states, according to the latest report from the federal Bureau of Statistics. The state's staggering prison costs might be worth if it Michigan also was among the lowest-crime states, but it's not.

Nor are Michigan prisons much more than warehouses, lacking education and rehabilitation programs that might make a difference in the return rate for offenders, now at nearly 50%.

The state Department of Corrections has begun some efforts to cut costs. It has slightly increased parole rates in conjunction with its prisoner re-entry program; released some old, infirm or deathly ill inmates; and closed two prisons. But there is much more to be done, including revisiting the guidelines under which Michigan judges sentence people to prison and complying with a recent court ruling that could affect about 1,000 "lifers" who committed crimes before 1992.

Maybe I'm not crazy after all...

My biggest issue with the Democratic Party is that the party as a whole is led by elitists who believe wholeheartedly that the individuals who inhabit this country are not capable of running their own lives. Thus, they believe we need the Liberal Elites to dictate the course of our lives for us. They make decisions on our behalf and utilize extra-democratic means to enforce them. They put forth policies which interfere with our own abilities to choose where we send our children to school, what words we can say, what religious practices are acceptable, how to defend ourselves, how to spend our own money, how to plan for our own retirement, how to manage our finances and where to work. Most recently, they have even been working in Michigan and Florida to ensure that the people don't get in the way of the Liberal Elite's decision on who gets to run for the Presidency on the Democratic ticket.

All of this comes from the Liberal Elite's innate feeling of superiority over the common American. They know how to run your life better than you do. This all comes from their condescending view of the common American. This has long been one of my most tightly held beliefs - that much of the Democratic policy is made by Liberal Elitists who believe the common American is incapable of running his or her own life.

It looks like Senator Joe Biden agrees about this condescension. In an interview at the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday, he pointed out that the Democrats don't trust the American people. While I stridently disagree with Sen. Biden on quite a few issues, it's good to see a Democrat recognize that so many of his fellow Democrats are elitists and making noise, at least, about moving away from that condescension.

Biden: Democrats have lost faith in the American People
New Hampshire Union Leader

Sen. Joe Biden said in an interview at the New Hampshire Union Leader this afternoon that too many Democrats, including the frontrunners for the presidential nomination, do not have faith in the American people.

"We've got to trust the American people more," Biden said.

"I think they've really lost faith in the American people in terms of leveling with them," he said of his leading rivals.

When he asks groups of Democrats if they think the American people are stupid because they elected George W. Bush twice, most respond that yes, they do, he said. HE said he thinks that attitude is a real problem for the Democrats, who fail to understand how smart and pragmatic the American people are.

Biden was generally critical of the far left wing of his party and of the strategies the frontrunners are using to win the nomination.

Asked if he thinks, as he suggested recently in another interview, that the other candidates tend to think the American people are stupid or easily fooled, he said, "Well, I do."

Have to take issue...

Normally, I'm very much a fan of FactCheck.org, a private, non-partisan group which analyzes statements by politicians and determines their veracity. In a recent article on their site, they look at a Mitt Romney ad that talks about immigration. They take issue with two items. The first, their assertion that Gov. Romney's claims of ordering the State Police to enforce immigration laws is misleading, is fine. When Gov. Romney did order the State Police to work with the Federal government to enforce immigration laws, the order came very late in his tenure as Governor and was immediately rescinded by his successor. Their second claim, however, I take issue with.

Governor Romney claims that when he becomes President, he will deny funding to sanctuary cities. FactCheck.org takes issue with this because he did not do that as Governor and claims that this is somehow misleading. Frankly, this is an unfair statement on their part. Gov. Romney never made this statement in order to talk about what he's done in the past; only about what he intends to do in the future. He never gives the impression that he had done the same as governor of Massachusetts, nor that he feels that it is a Governor's responsibility to deny state funding to sanctuary cities; only that he feels it is the President's responsibility to deny federal funding to the same. These are definitely different issues and it is perfectly valid for someone to feel differently about the two different topics.

I'm not saying Gov. Romney isn't flipping on this issue. He very may well be doing so. However, to label it as misleading is unfair.

The real concern I have with Gov. Romney is that his views on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and immigration seem to have dramatically changed in the past two years. It makes it difficult for me to understand where he stands on these issues and where he'd stand if elected. Are the new views on abortion and gay rights just an act to get the nomination? Were his old views on immigration just an act to garner support in Massachusetts? I'm hoping that these were acts, but it's tough for me to think that he's just acting on abortion and gay rights to get a nomination now but has had a revelation about immigration and what he's saying is now what he believes.

Tough Guy on Immigration?
Romney puffs up his record.
FactCheck.org

Mitt Romney casts himself as tough on illegal immigration in a new add in which he says that, as Massachusetts governor, "I authorized the State Police to enforce immigration laws." He doesn't mention that his order never took effect. It came in the closing days of his administration and was rescinded by his successor, as we wrote back in August.

He also promises, "As president, I'll ... cut funding for sanctuary cities." Maybe so, but as governor he took no action against several such towns in his state.

We find Romney misleading on both counts.

Why do we call Democrats "Liberals"?

The State Legislature, led by the Republicans, is trying to reinstate the January 15th primary election after an Ingham County judge has struck it down. The Republicans in both the House and Senate are trying desperately to create a law which will hold up to judicial scrutiny. There are three problems facing the issue:

1. House Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat from Redford, wants to just scrap the whole thing and go back to the caucus/convention style of selecting a Presidential candidate.
2. Senate Democrats have the votes to enact the primary law but are waffling about enacting it in time for this election. They want to enact the law, but not have it in place for this election.
3. The current law has a provision stating that the entire law would be invalid if any part is removed; therefore, a judicial decision striking down a small portion of the law would not be a solution which would work in this case.

In all, you have Democrats who are once again working as hard as possible to deny the right to vote to the citizens of Michigan. Like the Democrats on a national level, local Democrats like Andy Dillon are working to ensure that backroom influence peddling will choose a nominee, not a vote by the people. Why the Democrats are so gung-ho about disenfranchising Michiganders and why Democratic voters are so willing to excuse this is beyond me. Frankly, as a Michigander, the only Democrat I'd even consider voting for would be Hillary Clinton because she has co-operated the least in Democrat's disenfranchisement of Michigan.

It is becoming clearer that the Liberal Elites who run the Democratic Party view the world in an elitist prism: a ruling class made up of them and the ignorant, incapable, uneducated masses who they have to direct. It's not enough that the so-called Liberal's envisioned ruling class chooses what schools people go to, how much they make on their jobs, where they live, what they do in their own homes - they now want to make sure that the masses don't butt their way into their choice of which members of the ruling class get to run for President.

State Legislature works to save Jan. 15 primary
Detroit Free Press

LANSING -- Michigan's Jan. 15 presidential primary remained on life support Thursday as the state Legislature tried and failed to push through changes in the primary election law that would help it survive a legal challenge.

The State Senate worked into the evening on legislation to address objections from an Ingham County Circuit Court judge, who a day earlier ordered the primary suspended because of a provision to give exclusive access to voter lists to the Democratic and Republican parties.

But the Senate fell short of garnering enough votes to put the changes into effect immediately, which was crucial.

Some supporters of the legislation said it could be revived in the next week, in time to meet deadlines for the election, and that negotiations would continue.

Mike Huckabee: Extremist

Salon has an interview with Mike Huckabee which goes into detail about exactly how much of a radical extremist he is when regarding social issues. It's a very interesting read and anyone who will be voting in the Republican primary (assuming, of course, that the Democrats let us have one) should read it.

Mick Huckabee, on a wing and a prayer
In a Salon interview, the long-shot GOP candidate reveals his convictions about gay marriage, wonders about Mitt Romney's faith, and fires back at Fred Thompson
Salon

VINTON, Iowa -- Unlike junior high, it's often a good sign in presidential politics when people say nasty things about you. It means you are threatening. It means others fear you. IT means you might just win something.

So, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the dark horse in the Republican race, has not been sweating the recent barrage of attacks against him. In recent weeks, Mitt Romney has accused Huckabee of supporting tuition assistance for the children of illegal immigrants. (Gasp!) Fred Thompson called him "one of the highest taxing governors" in the nation. (Zing!) A Wall Street Journal editorialist called Huckabee a waffling conservative. (Ka-pow!) Conservative doyenne Phyllis Schlafly blamed him for wrecking the Republican Party in Arkansas. (Wham-o!) One Thompson supporter really went for the jugular, evoking the specter of Bubba: "I certainly cannot support another individual from Hope, Arkansas," announced retired Brig. Gen. James Livingston before a Thompson event on Tuesday in Columbia, S.C.

Why all of the sudden attention? With a scant staff and no television advertisements, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, has moved into second place in the Iowa caucus polls, and he is inching up on a big spender Romney in the still highly speculative national polls. He has earned consistent praise for his performance in debates, and regularly overperforms in straw poll contests. "He is coming on like gangbusters," says David Woodard, a South Carolina political scientist and a Republican political consultant.

So when Huckabee arrived in Iowa Wednesday for a four-stop tour of the eastern cornfields, he was greeted by the full weight of the national press: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the McClatchy News Service and a half dozen others. In January, when Huckabee launched his campaign, only a couple of local reporters were around to ask questions. Now his daughter, Sarah, who serves as a top aide on the road, has to call "last question" in press scrums so her dad can stay on schedule.

The Al Gore Sore Loser Award goes to...

This past Tuesday was Michigan's local elections. For some incomprehensible reason, Michigan chooses to waste money and reduce participation in local elections by holding elections every year - national and state elections in even years with local elections in odd years. This past Tuesday, nearly the entire city government of Ecorse was replaced. The mayor and five of the seven city council members were voted out of office. A sixth council member chose not to seek reelection. In retaliation, they have voted 5-2 (one outgoing council member, Angela Smith, and the member who chose not to seek reelection were the two against) in order to dramatically cut the pay of the winners.

The incoming council members will have their pay cut from $15,000 a year to $5,000 a year, while the new mayor will have his pay cut from $69,000 a year to $12,000 a year. Talk about vindictive...

Election's losers cut pay for the winners
Part-time intentions cited
Detroit Free Press

Only hours after Ecorse's mayor and five of the City Council members were voted out of office for the next term, they slashed their successors' salaries by much more than half.

The mayor-elect is considering going to court over the decision.

The 5-2 vote Wednesday night adopted the Local Officers Compensation Board's decision to cut council members' annual pay from $15,000 to $5,000 and the mayor's compensation from $69,000 to $12,000.

Losing re-election bids Tuesday were Mayor Larry Salisbury and council members Brenda Banks, Nathaniel Elem, Robert Hellar, Arnold Lackey and Angela Smith. Councilwoman Theresa Peguese didn't seek re-election; she and Smith were the two nay votes Wednesday. Salisbury defended his vote in favor of the pay cuts. He said Thursday that he treated the job like a full-time position, but "The incoming officers failed to commit to anything but a part service."

Good news? CNN still can't help but take a dig on the Administration.

CNN has a positive report about dramatically declining rates of chronic homelessness in America. Note that before President Bush was elected, there were Democratic partisans who were attacking President Bush and Republican economics, saying that they would result in "armies" of the homeless. It turns out that the Administration's focus on moving people from temporary housing to permanent housing had reduced chronic homelessness by about 12%.

The most amusing part of the article (I love the first line): "The Federal Government is taking credit for..." They can't help but put a dig on the Administration. What's particularly amusing is that the advocates for the homeless that they've spoken with have largely agreed that it's the new Administration initiatives which have reduced the chronically homeless.

Report: 20,000 fewer chronically homeless on streets
CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government is taking credit for what it says is a nearly 12 percent drop in the number of people who are chronically homeless, according to government estimates being released Wednesday.

About 20,000 fewer chronically homeless were on the streets from 2005 to 2006, says the Department of Housing and Urban Development citing its programs designed to move homeless people into permanent housing.

HUD says people are chronically homeless if they have been continuously living on the streets for a year or more, or if they have been homeless at least four times in the past three years. They also have to have a disability, often mental illness or substance abuse.

The number of chronically homeless people dropped from 175,900 in 2005 to 6,502 in 2006, HUD reported. In Miami-Dade County, Florida, the number dropped from 831 in 2005 to 577 the following year. In Washington, D.C., the number increased from 1,773 to 1,891, though city officials told HUD they believed the change was caused in part by better counting methods.

Judge blocks Michigan's primary

A circuit judge in Ingham County, one of the three counties that surround Lansing, has ruled that the January 15th Presidential primary cannot be held. His ruling was based on a technicality that held that a Presidential primary election is somehow a "private" event. Likely, the basis of that ruling revolved around ownership of the lists of people who voted in the election, lists which would go solely to the parties to distribute as they saw fit.

The clear and obvious solution to this would be to release the voting roles to all interested parties; instead, Judge William Collette has sided with the national party powerbrokers and against the citizens of Michigan.

The primary system is broken. If a technicality as to who owns the voting lists is what is going to keep the broken system in place then the leaders of both state parties need to stand up and agree to release the voting roles to the public in order to make it clear that we're talking about a public interest, not a private one.

Judge blocks Michigan's Jan. 15 primary
The Detroit News

LANSING -- An Ingham County Circuit Court judge today ruled that Michigan's Jan. 15th presidential primary cannot be held.

Judge William Collette said the contest is unconstitutional because it allocated public money to be used for a private purpose, which would require a two-thirds cote of the legislature. The law passed this summer establishing the contest didn't pass by a two-thirds vote.

"Clearly there's an injury to the public interest," said Collette.

At issue are the lists with the names of voters who take part in the Jan. 15 balloting. Under the law, voters would have to request one ballot or the other, and the Republican and Democratic parties would take sole ownership of the lists of who voted in each contest.

Nothing to see here...

Yet another report, this time from MSNBC, that the war is going well. More than 46,000 people have come back home to Iraq in October, a rate described by the left-leaning MSNBC as "streaming home." Of course, expect liberals like John Dingell, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton to ignore this success and call for a 'change' from our current, successful strategy back, essentially, to the failed pre-2007 strategies.

Iraqis reportedly streaming home from abroad
Spokesman says more than 46,000 return; 17 bodies found in mass grave
MSNBC

BAGHDAD - The number of Iraqis returning to their country after fleeing abroad is growing, with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Army said 17 bodies were discovered in a mass grave northeast of Baghdad in an area troops have only recently been able to enter because of a downturn in violence.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi spokesman for a U.S.-Iraqi military push to pacify Baghdad, said border crossings recorded 46,030 people returning to Iraq in October alone. He attributed the large number to the "improving security situation."

"The level of terrorist operations has dropped in most of the capital's neighborhoods, due to the good performance of the armed forces," al-Moussawi told reporters in the heavily-guarded Green Zone. Al-Moussawi did not give numbers of Iraqis returning home before October.

A shameful statistic

A quarter of the homeless in America are war veterans. This is absolutely unacceptable. Everything the government could possibly do to help these vets must be done. I hate taxes and I hate government spending, but we owe these man and women an incredible amount of appreciation and gratitude for their sacrifice, and we absolutely must do whatever is necessary to help them.

Study: 1 Out of 4 Homeless are Veterans
Out of Uniform and on the Street: Study Finds That Veterans Are a Quarter of the Homeless
ABC News

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a study to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its reports on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,252 out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

ABC a part of the New Hampshire lovefest

ABC has a completely meaningless article with a ridiculous title: NH Could Turn GOP Race Upside Down. The article then goes on to point out that even though New Hampshire residents frequently vote for GOP contenders other than the front-runners, they never get the nominations. Examples include John McCain in 2000 winning New Hampshire and losing the nomination and Pat Buchanan winning the state in both 1992 and in 1996 before losing out to George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole, respectively. So, basically, the last three time the GOP nomination was contested, New Hampshire had exactly zero impact on the race -- in all three times, the favorite going into New Hampshire failed to win New Hampshire and still got the nomination. Nice!

NH Could Turn GOP Race Upside Down
NH Up in the Air, Could Turn Republican Presidential Race Upside Down
ABC News

New Hampshire is known for turning Republican presidential primaries upside down.

It could happen again this year.

"We're a tiny little state, but we get to go out and rub shoulders with all of the candidates, and be a big of the big decision," says Cindy Horvath, 46, an undecided Republican voter from Somersworth.

And, she added, have a big impact.

Polls show a tight race for the GOP nomination in the state. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are in strong contention. Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul could complicate an already muddled contest.

How dumb are thieves these days?

Five Washington, D.C. employees were arrested for stealing and laundering $16 million from the city. What blows my mind is that they stole an average of $3 million each and were still working for the city. I'm an honest man; however, if I were going to become a thief and managed to steal a few million dollars from the city, you can bet I wouldn't be spending it an Neiman Marcus - where defendant Harriette Walters is accused of spending more than $1.4 million. If I had just stolen $1.4 million, I'd be in a nice little villa in Bermuda with the money invested in some nice Bermuda insurance company making myself a ridiculous sum of money.

D.C. Hit by Costliest Corruption Scandal in History
City Employees Charged With Taking $16 Million; Using Money to Buy Luxury Goods
ABC News

Federal law enforcement and Washington D.C., city officials announced arrests and charges Wednesday in the costliest public corruption scandal to ever hit the district's government.

Five individuals are in custody for a scheme that allegedly defrauded the D.C. government out of more than $16 million. Charges against them include mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Officials say Harriette Walters, a manager of the D.C. Real Property Tax Administration Adjustments unit and Diane Gustus at the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue, were at the center of the operation. The pair allegedly approved and issued fraudulent property tax refund checks, that averaged $388,000 per check.

Investigators say the funds were used to buy luxury goods, including jewelry, homes and clothing. According to affidavits filed in the case, Walter's annual salary as a District of Columbia employee was $81,000. From September 2000 to the present, Harriette Walters spent more than $1.4 million at Neiman Marcus.

"They abused the trust the district placed in them," U.S. attorney Jeff Taylor of the District of Columbia said at a news conference announcing the charge.

Hillary could be innocent in this mess...

I really hate to say this, but I've done some digging on the accused terrorists from whom Hillary has taken money. In all fairness to her, I've run each of them and their organizations through publicly available software for checking against the Office of Foreign asset Control database. This database is the one in which financial companies such as banks, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies much check to ensure they aren't facilitating terrorism funding.

Not a single one of the individuals listed was found in the OFAC database, searched using the OFAC Watchdog software by Attus Technologies.

That being said, I think we really need to give Hillary and her organization a pass on this one. Assuming that she has implemented an OFAC check, these individuals would not raise flags for her organization. The bigger question is how closely she knew them, which is unclear at this point.

Hilary takes cash from terror suspects
Muslim donors targets of federal investigation
World Net Daily

Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has taken thousands of dollars in cash donations from Islamists under federal investigation for terror-financing, money laundering and tax fraud, WND has learned.

The Democrat senator over the past seven months has received $1,000 from M. Yagub Mirza and another $500 from M. Omar Ashraf, federal campaign records show. Federal agents raided the Virginia homes and offices of the Muslim donors after 9/11 for ties to terrorism.

Others tied to the still-active probe also have contributed money to Clinton, including one Muslim man who after 9/11 complained to the U.S. government should focus on changing its Mideast policies instead of killing Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists.

Mirza, who also has given to other candidates, including Republicans, is said to act on behalf of Saudi millionaire Yassin al-Qadi, who the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2001 blacklisted as al-Qaida financier.

Hard choices are sometimes required

Buried down in the bottom of a long, protracted, and intellectually void article written for Slate by Gary Kimaya, he claims incredulously that a 1% chance of our enemies obtaining and us using a nuclear weapon on our civilian population is insufficient grounds for attack.

Perhaps he lives in a different reality, but the one in which I live in looks at a 1% chance of millions of civilians killed as a pretty significant problem. From a very basic analysis, a 1% chance that a million civilians are killed in a nuclear attack by, say Iran, is about equivalent to a 100% chance that 10,000 Americans are killed in a war with Iran. It might seem a harsh calculus for a political party whose entire platform is built on the naive and childish notion that we can save everyone, everywhere but real leaders have to sit down and make that balance. If a war would cost 5,000 lives but has a 1% chance of saving a million, isn't that worthwhile? If the chances that Iran is, indeed, working towards a nuclear weapon that they would use against us are much greater than that - 10% or 15% - then what possible individual can rationally believe that it's not worth the sacrifice?

Is this an easy sacrifice? Of course not. However, when it comes to defending the lives and freedom of our country, we must sometimes have to make very difficult decisions and a real leader needs to sit down some times and realize that it might be worth sacrificing a few thousand to save a million.

Iraq taught us nothing
The U.S. establishment's acceptance of a possible war with Iran shows that the folly that led to Iraq still rules Washington
Current Opinion for Salon

The U.S. could attack Iran in the next few months.

Let's repeat that. The U.S> could attack Iran in the next few months.

The fact that this sentence can be written with a straight face proves that the Iraq debacle has taught us absolutely nothing. Talk of attacking Iran should be confined to the lunatic fringe. Yet America's political and media elite have responded to the idea of attacking Iran in almost the same way they did to the idea of attacking Iraq. Four and a half years after Bush embarked on one of the most catastrophic foreign-policy adventures in our history, the same wrongheaded, ignorant, and self-destructive approach to the Arab-Muslim world and to fighting terrorism still rules establishment thinking.

The disturbing thing is that we have no excuse this time. Five years ago, a wounded, fearful and enraged America was ready to attack anybody, and Bush waved his red cape and steered the mad bull toward Iraq. We now know that was folly. The completely unnecessary invasion has so far resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and almost 4,000 Americans, severely destabilized the region, cost billions of dollars, and increased the threat of terrorism. Yet today we are blithely considering attacking a much larger Middle Eastern country for equally dubious reasons, and mainstream politicians and the media are once again going along. The American people have signed off on the conventional "wisdom". In a recent poll, 52 percent of Americans say they would support attacking Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

This is surreal. It's as if we're back on Sept. 12 and Iraq never happened.

Back to their old tricks

Having found that they really have no interest in actually doing anything to address any topic of substance, the Democrats are back to what they do best: grandstanding and making a political show for the cameras. This time they (once again) are trying to charge Joshua Bolton and Harriet Miers with Contempt of Congress.

Representative John Conyers of Michigan, who heads the Congressional Judiciary Committee, is trying to avoid taking this to court. "I very much hope that we can similarly avoid a constitutional confrontation in this case," Conyers said. The reason, of course, is that a Constitutional challenge will clearly be lost by Congress.

Congress has no power to charge crimes or compel testimony. The only power they have regarding criminal behavior is impeachment.

What's particularly galling about this situation is that no one is even suggesting that anything illegal has taken place. There are only suspicions that something untoward - but perfectly legal - took place. The hope here is for John Conyers to put people close to the President under oath and desperately hope that they perjure themselves. Making the Administration look bad, of course, is more important than trying to renew S-CHIP or make sure our troops in Iraq are funded or fixing Social Security or coming up with a market-based solution to the health care problem that could draw bipartisan support.

House Democrats Push Bush on Subpoenas
House Judiciary Panel Head Tells White House to Answer Subpoenas to Presidential Aides
ABC News

House Democrats threatened Monday to hold President Bush's key confidants in contempt of Congress unless they comply with subpoenas for information on the Justice Department's purge of federal prosecutors last winter.

The White House shrugged off the ultimatum, saying the information is off-limits under executive privilege and that the aides in question White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton and former presidential counselor Harriet Miers are immune from prosecution.

"It won't go anywhere," predicted White House press secretary Dana Perino.

Congressional Democrats nonetheless submitted their 102-page report, and a Republican rebuttal, to the House clerk on Monday afternoon. The report accused Miers of contempt for failing to appear and testify as subpoenaed. She and Bolton were charged with failing to produce documents on whether the prosecutors were fired at the White House's behest.

Another reason to support Rudy

Anyone that the Angry Left hates this much must be worth voting for...

Hating Rudy
The Angry Left finds a new target
Opinion Journal

"Rudy Giuliani [is] probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency," Sen. Joe Biden declared during Tuesday's Democratic debate in Philadelphia. "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11."

The crowd roared with laughter, and liberal blogger John Marshall wrote, "Okay, I may have to endorse Biden after this tear against Rudy."

With the end of the dreaded Bush era approaching, Rudy Giuliani has slowly begun to supplant the president as the leading hate figure among liberals, a reality that will only help Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to overcome his differences with conservatives and win the Republican nomination.

Within the past month, The New Republic, The Nation, and The Washington Monthly have all run anti-Giuliani cover stories, with the last one declaring that, "as president, Giuliani would grab even more executive power than Bush and Cheney."

Would term limits fix bad judgement?

Inexperienced governor? She's on her second term! She's been in office 6 years!!!

Would voters loosen term limits?
Legislature may ask, but hurdles loom
Detroit Free Press

Michigan voters were in a surly mood in 1992 when they voted overwhelmingly to limit the terms of the state's elected officials.

The thinking went something like: If we can't get them to behave, let's make them leave.

Fifteen years later voters appear surly again, in part because many people blamed the recent budget crisis on the chaotic performance of an inexperienced governor and legislators.

Consider that the top three leaders in the House today have less than 13 years of legislative experience among them, compared to 40 years for the same three positions in 1992.

Still, would voters change the law?

Joe Biden's version of history...

Glad to see we have Presidential candidates who either have no idea how the Iraq war started or are willing to lie to a bunch of fourth-graders. Nice!

Biden's History Lesson to Fourth-Graders
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. - The words were a bit simpler but the answers none the shorter when Joe Biden, who has a reputation for being verbose, faced an audience of fourth-graders Thursday.

The Democratic presidential candidate encountered the group in the lobby of the New Hampshire statehouse on his way to filing his candidacy with he secretary of state's office.

Asked how long he had been in the Senate, the Delaware senator, who was elected in 1972, started talking about the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He then detoured into an aside about how his sister was pushed to be a nurse or teacher was he was encouraged to pursue any career he wanted despite grades worse than hers.

He also gave a detailed answer to a question adults don't often ask candidates: How did the war in Iraq start? Biden compared the war in Iraq with the invasion of Afghanistan.

Man tries to cure cancer in garage...and it works?

This just seems so strange...the idea that someone could build something like that in his garage and have it work is flabergasting.

Cancer Victim Invents Possible Chemo Alternatives
Suffering Under Chemotherapy, Retired Man Develops Radio-Wave Treatment
ABC News

This is the story of a man whose reaction to a cancer diagnosis was to go to his garage and invent something -- a machine that serious scientists are now taking seriously.

John Kanzius made his fortune owning radio stations in Pennsylvanis, then retired with his wife in Florida. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

While he was undergoing chemotherapy he decided there has to be a better way to fight this illness. And even though he wasn't a doctor, he figured he could figure it out himself.

Sudanese justice?

Memo to self: Do not go to any country ruled under sharia.

Facing 40 Lashes for 'Slur on Islam'
The Sun

The British teacher facing 40 lashes in Sudan for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammed had told friends how she was loving her life in the country.

Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old described as "timid and polite," has been arrested and accused of blasphemy against Islam's prophet.

The teacher, from Liverpool, let her class of seven-year-olds choose the teddy's name as part of a project at Unity High School in Sudan's capital Kharourm.

She was said to be "deeply distressed" in a police cell last night after learning that she faces the barbaric lashing under the Muslim state's strict sharia law.

A question about driving...

If 70% of the nation's private car driving is due to commuting to work, what do you think the effect would be if we went from a 5 day, 8 hour per day work week to a 4 day, 10 hour per day work week? If we're cutting commuting by 20% and commuting makes up 70% of miles driven, even if we have a marginal increase of recreational driving on those days off, wouldn't we still be drastically cutting back on the total amount of driving being done?

Thank goodness Obama's got no chance...

Sen. Barack Obama has come out and said that if he's elected, he'd engage with Iran and make it clear that we will never, ever try to change their government and would never, ever attack. What a nice way to preemptively surrender!

I can't even go into this. I am just thankful that he's not going to be President. He's almost making Hillary Clinton look like a reasonable alternative.

Obama would engage Iran if elected, he says
International Herald Tribune

If elected president, Senator Barack Obama would meet with Iran's leaders and offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek "regime change" if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.

In an hour-long interview on Wednesday, Obama made clear that forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of a broad effort to stabilize Iraq. And he vowed to engage in "aggressive personal diplomacy" with Iran and other regional powers as he withdrew American combat forces in Iraq.

Obama said that Iran had been "acting irresponsibly" by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also stressed that Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for "terrorist activities" were serious concerns and that "we expect them to desist from those actions."

But Obama said that "changes in behavior" by Iran should be met with gestures by the United States, beginning with possible membership in the World Trade Organization.

Mule museum funding is part of $29 billion in Federal pork

We must have solved the Social Security problem because Representative Buck McKeon wants to take federal money to build a museum honoring mules. Nice!

Hey, we might have a war going on, tens of millions of uninsured Americans, millions of Americans in poverty, entitlement programs on the verge of financial disaster and a huge budget deficit but let's make sure we get the $29 billion in earmark spending approved.

Bucks for mule museum cause brays
CNN

In tiny Bishop, California, five hours north of Los Angeles, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-California, wants to build museum honoring the mule.

McKeon has requested a $50,000 earmark to explore the possibility of building a museum in the town that every Memorial Day weekend holds the biggest mule celebration in the United States.

It might sound preposterous but McKeon is doing what many of his House colleagues are doing -- appropriating federal funds for pet projects back home.

McKeon has requested funds for studying the feasibility of building the museum and providing support for operations.

According to the Congressional spending watchdog group, Americans for Prosperity, House members this year alone seek to spend $13.7 million in tax dollars on 63 museum-related expenses.

We're spending what?

The Detroit News has a nice breakdown on the new Michigan budget.

One item - we've expanded health spending alone by an amount ($650 million) almost equal to the job-killing sales tax increase ($725 million).

Here's an idea: instead of killing jobs and moving people onto state assistance, why not create a few jobs so we can move people off of it?

Budget breakdown: Here's how 2007-08 spending plan is shaping up
The Detroit News

While the $43 billion 2007-08 state budget does not become law until Gov. Jennifer Granholm signs each of the 17 budget bills, she and state lawmakers have agreed to major pieces of the spending plan.

But it wasn't an easy task: Debate was long and acrimonious and spanned two seasons; annual taxes were raised by $1.5 billion; and parts of the state government shut down for a few hours Oct. 1.

Taxes

New this year

$770 million in higher income taxes; $725 million a year in taxes on services

Highlights

On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, the Legislature narrowly approved an increase in the income tax and expanded the sales tax to a mixed bag of services.

The income tax already has increased from 3.9 percent to 4.35, projected to net about $770 million a year. That's an 11.5 percent increase. The average family of four will pay an additional $157 a year after typical deductions.

No more exclusive contracts for Comcast...

A victory for free and open trade comes from Washington. The FCC has banned exclusive agreements between cable television providers and apartment buildings, allowing open competition for the service of the residents. It's a great success for consumers. Now, what about that exclusive agreement between the NFL and DirectTV over NFL's Sunday Ticekt? If it's not okay to restrict choice via exclusive agreements between cable providers and apartment complexes, why is it okay to restrict choice via exclusive agreements between satellite providers and the NFL?

FCC OKs Cable Competition for Apartments
Federal Regulators Approve Ban on Exclusive Cable TV Contracts With Apartment Buildings
ABC News

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved a rule that would ban exclusive agreements that cable television operators have with apartment buildings, opening up competition for other video providers that could eventually lead to lower prices.

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the change, which Chairman Kevin martin said would help lower cable rates for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and other multi-unit dwellings, or about 25 million households. He said the move would particularly help minorities who disproportionately live in multi-unit dwellings.

The rule would prohibit cable companies, such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc., from enforcing existing exclusive cable TV contracts with apartment managers and allow telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., to offer video services along with high-speed Internet access and phone service.

The cable industry, which had previously said it is unlawful for the government to invalidate existing contracts, said the deals provide apartment residents with better pricing and service.