Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

The numbers are in and boy does Jon Stryker like tossing around money.  After doling out a record shattering $4.8 million in 2006 on some of the most vicious, negative personal attack ads Michigan has ever seen, the radical gay-special-rights advocate is doing his best to top himself, spending, as of Monday, a staggering $4.24 million trying to win a few more seats in the state House this cycle.

Do the math and here on the home front we have one man, maybe the most liberal man in the entire state of Michigan, spending over $9 million on local legislative races in just the last four years.  

In 2006 he met with great success.  Amidst a national Democratic tsunami, Stryker’s railroad baron type spending flipped he state House from solidly GOP to solidly liberal Dem.  This year the lefties are steepling their fingers and laughing maniacally at the prospect of adding another eight to ten seats to what is already an unshakeable Democratic majority.  And they all have one man to thank.

Stryker’s spending spree is uniquely and unquestionably responsible for the overwhelming Dem control of the state’s lower chamber.  One man.  One agenda.  Gay special rights.  OK, two agendas… he also likes monkeys.  Since the great ape is not indigenous to the state of Michigan let’s focus on his other legislative priorities.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

2006 we were hit with a Democratic tsunami.  Heck, we all lived through it and it was pretty darn nasty.  Nationwide not a single Democrat incumbent running for a Governor’s seat, a seat in the United States Senate or to Congress lost.  Not one.  A lot of folks are looking at 2008 and saying “here we go again,” and if you went off nothing but poll numbers being issued by Democratic pollsters in Democratic towns like Washington, DC you’d think they were right.

Here in Michigan, though, thanks to a catastrophic, economy crippling Democrat sponsored tax hike there’s one race that’s bringing a little sunshine into the lives of conservative observers across the state.  House Speaker Andy Dillon, the man running for reelection most responsible for that new $1.5 billion that cash strapped Michigan moms and dads are paying the tax collector this year finds himself with not only one race on his hands… but two.

The Ivory Tower checks in on the two-fisted conundrum facing the tax-hiker from the 17th and Dillon assures them that he’s fine:

Yeah right, countered Leon Drolet, a former Republican lawmaker from Macomb County who heads an antitax group that was the driving force behind the recall campaign.

If Dillon is so comfortable, Drolet asked, why are he and state Democrats mailing out piles of expensive campaign literature in a safe district and a great year for Democrats?

Voters are still angry about how state leaders responded to last year’s budget crisis, Drolet said, and Dillon is acting like he knows it.

Piles doesn’t begin to describe it.  There is a concerted, expensive effort underway to maintain control of what is universally considered a “safe” Dem district.  Of course, these are Democrats and they usually don’t play nice.  Their latest ad campaign is targeted squarely at Dillon’s challenger, a woman who only six months ago was a virtual political unknown, is running on a shoestring budget and taking on the most powerful legislator in the entire state.

Sandra Eggers has been targeted with negative attack after negative attack.  Only problem is, none of them have stuck and Dillon’s campaign is being forced to pivot and fire again.  And again.  And again.

If you’re a Redford Township resident you’re probably just about sick of negative campaign mail.  Pro-Dillon forces dropped three negative attack pieces against Eggers between Monday and Friday of last week alone.  Three unique attack ads in the course of one week.  

That’s what the folks in the biz like to call “saturation.”  And it isn’t the only indication that Dillon is worried sick.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Following up on a couple of items from earlier in the week… remember how the Ocean State out east surpassed Michigan on the economic blight meter?  And remember how the Grand Rapids Teachers Union was continuing to illustrate sheer, unadulterated lunacy by moving forward with plans for an illegal teachers strike?  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Big 3 are in trouble and they’re going to be cutting a lot more jobs.  Yep, sure, they’ve already cut tens of thousands this year and projected cutting thousands more before the year is out but they realize now that those thousands aren’t enough and they’ll have to send even more folks to the unemployment line.  Sort of a broken record, isn’t it?  At some point it becomes fair to wonder, do they even have any jobs left to cut?  Where are these cuts coming from?  How many peoples’ lives really CAN be ruined by sloppy management, forced union membership and the worst state economy in the nation?

The answer, this morning anyways, seems to be `a few thousand more.’  

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, that tiny little land mass out on the east coast officially sucks.  They have the highest unemployment rate in the entire nation, at a staggering 8.8%!  Losers.  What kind of a state government do they have pulling strings out there in liberal la-la-land?  

50th out of 50.  Pathetic. You can’t see me right now but if you could you’d see, Rhode Island, that I’m pointing at you with one hand and covering my mouth with the other, trying to hide the fact that I’m snickering uncontrollably at your bad fortune.  OK, so technically I was typing but I’m about to point and snicker.  Wait for it…

There.  (Now back to typing.)

See, I think I’m entitled to poke a little fun.  To kick you while you’re down.  Because Michigan isn’t ranked 50th in unemployment.  YOU are.  See, here in Michigan we only have an 8.7% unemployment rate.  We’ve got things all figured out.  Yup, you read that right.  8.7%!  Wish you were us, don’t you, Rhode Island.

But you’re not.  We’re the Wolverine State and you’re, what, the Ocean State or something goofy like that?  Last I checked, wolverines kick the ocean’s butt.  So naner naner and all of that.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Gosh darn it.  Why can’t I talk about the important issues?  We’re now under two weeks to go before folks head to the polls here in Michigan to elect 110 members of the state House, fifteen members of Congress, a US Senator, a Supreme Court Justice, decide on a couple of ballot proposals and pretty much select the leaders who will have to guide us through one of the toughest economic spots we’ve been in for some time.

Oh yeah, and there’s a Presidential election too.  But no, I can’t talk about that, can I?

I can’t talk about the ridiculousness of the idea that we, fair readers, may be asked to pay for the GM / Chrysler merger.  You read that right, the Associated Press is reporting a conversation with an “insider” that indicates the companies may grovel at Big Government’s feet.  Hey, they just dumped $700 billion on Wall Street… why not a few extra bucks on Detroit?

Talks toward General Motors Corp.’s possible acquisition of Chrysler LLC may involve going to Congress for cash, according to a person involved in the financing discussions. The person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private, said he was unsure if the government has been approached yet.

Nevermind that the original bailout monstrosity was designed to save and create jobs.  We can argue all day over whether or not it will succeed but at least this particular hell bound road we travel is paved with good intentions.  Now the big autos want to send us on a dirt-road shortcut?  Let’s remember, folks, that this merger is expected to KILL as many as 192,000 jobs, most of them right here in Michigan!

But it doesn’t matter.  I can’t talk about that this morning.  As much as I’d like to, I can’t discuss the new Mayor of Detroit’s legal problems either.  Yep, the man who recently appeared at that big Barack Obama rally in Detroit, Mr. Ken Cockrel.  Who’d have figured, he’s in trouble with 5-0 too.  The Detroit News reports that the man is facing $42,000 in campaign finance fees for failing to disclose his financial backers in a timely manner.  God bless campaign finance reform, right Ken?

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

There are so many important topics in the news today it’s tough to know where to start.  

I mean, seriously.  We could cover Jack Hoogendyk’s second debate yesterday with Senator (for Life) Carl Levin, this one down in the motor city at the Detroit Economic Club.  After all, Hoogendyk again assailed Levin’s position on the bailout, pledging that were he in office he would have voted no and insisting that another bailout of the auto industry is not the right course of action.

Anytime anyone pursuing public office gets a chance to promote things like tax relief, fiscal sanity and Right-to-Work it’s worth serious props and an even more serious discussion.  Besides, how do you write a blog entry and not include what almost certainly has to be the quote of the cycle here in Michigan:

During the debate, Hoogendyk said automakers have been hurt by government policies, such as higher fuel efficiency standards and taxes.

“What government has done to the automotive industry in this state is broken both of their legs and perhaps one of their arms, and now that they’re lying in the ditch, offered them a cold glass of water” with the loan guarantee, he said.

I know it’s not Sunday but amen and preach!

Then again, we talked about Jack and Carl yesterday and there is the broader topic of Michigan’s Big 3 looming large on the horizon.  Certainly that’s worthy of most of our attention today.  General Motors and Chrysler continue to talk merger, ironing out the details and trying to make things work.

At last report GM would keep all of Chrysler’s brands but shutdown all of Chrysler’s auto plants.  Add to that the white collar management job losses and the possible contraction of dealerships and suppliers and you start getting into some really nasty job loss multipliers.  But before we start doing algebra let’s figure out what our baseline number is.  

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

What exactly HAS the senior senator from Michigan done for us in the last three decades?  That was Jack Hoogendyk’s question of Carl Levin during last night’s US Senate debate televised statewide on public television.  And if you missed it you missed out.  (And the AP has a recap for you.)

Jack is in an interesting position.  No one is giving him a snowball’s chance in Carey Torrice’s workout room of pulling off this upset and polls have him down more than a point or two, but that may have been exactly what freed him up to go in front of the cameras with both guns blazing last night.

Levin’s been there for thirty years.  What has he done, Jack asked.  Levin was on the defensive.  

Levin offered a broad defense of his longevity in the Senate, saying his seniority had allowed him to bring billions back to Michigan in special projects through the earmarking process that Hoogendyk derided as an abuse of the budget process. Hoogendyk said Levin had been ineffective, to boot.

“We still send a buck to Washington and only get 92 cents back,” he said.
Levin said “I’ve been able to bring back a significant number of projects to this state that will help get this economy back on track.”

Of course that begs the question… exactly when is it going to get back on track, Senator?  For six years we were the only state OFF the tracks and now that the rest of the nation is joining us the economic forecast doesn’t exactly look like peaches and cream.  And Jack wasn’t done hammering.  Even when Carl Levin attempted to launch a salvo, Hoogendyk, thanks maybe to the way “underdog” status can free a candidate’s lips in public, fired back with pinpoint accuracy and devastating efficiency.

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Cross-posted from Right Michigan on www.RightMichigan.com.

The lunatic fringe is off their collective rocker and that makes this a good morning.  We’ve got a man making George Soros funded appearances across the state attacking Cliff Taylor, again, while making excuses for what is shaping up (assuming we do our jobs) to be a serious rout of his opponent while over in what should be a hyper-competitive 9th Congressional district liberals have three choices on the ballot… and might find establishment Democrat Gary Peters the least attractive of the lot!

The Associated pressreports on yesterday’s MI:9 Congressional debate:

The candidates answers differed on taxes, with Knollenberg opposing increases.”The worst thing in the world we can do is raise taxes,” he said. “Taxes are, in fact, going to drive Michigan people nuts. You cannot tax yourself into prosperity. You have to control the revenue. The government must spend less if we are going to get out of this thing.”

The country’s middle class should be the recipients of tax cuts, said Peters who hesitated when asked about supporting higher taxes for the well off.

“This is about fair taxes,” he said later. “Right now, it isn’t fair for the middle class.”

Also on the stage were a Green Party candidate AND Dr. Death himself, Jack Kevorkian.  In an interesting twist, the convicted murderer joined the Nader clone in calling for an immediate withdrawl of our troops, without even looking “for a reason.”

Peters played the now familiar Obama line of demanding that the troops come home in an attempt to pacify the “progressive” friends and allies he needs to help him turn out the vote on November 4th but then backing off and suggesting we not do anything too hastily.

That’s often a solid play.  Take a look at Barack’s metamorphosis.  During the primaries, there was a race to the left, quickly and far away from any semblance of sanity.  That’s how you win the votes of 21st century Democrats.  After dispatching Hillary Clinton by promising a near immediate withdrawal of forces he changed positions on a dime and isn’t quite as eager to bring our soldiers home.  That’s how you win the votes of sliiiiightly more balanced “moderates.”

Problem for Peters, he hasn’t dispatched the other loony liberals.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Two items action points today… let’s A) get firmly and finally past the notion that the Republican party is the party of the rich while the Democrats are poor and struggling and B) let’s respond to the needs of our candidates.

First things first, the latest campaign fundraising reports are out and making their way across newsrooms statewide and what do you figure they show?  The Democrats are out-raising and outspending Republicans in Michigan, and I’m not just talking about the incessant presidential ads being placed from the top of their ticket.  In battleground districts across the state Democrats are seeing a record influx of campaign cash and instead of spending it to promote themselves and their agenda for their districts are putting it to use making personal attacks against Republicans.  

The Associated Press reports on the one race that probably won’t surprise many of us.  Senator-for-life Carl Levin is out raising Jack Hoogendyk by more than a little.  He’s got $2.6 million in the bank.  Jack has $81,000.  Talk about David and Goliath.  The rich and powerful are looking to put the boots to the upstart local hero and they’re crushing him with serious cash.  

Even in the state’s two big Congressional battleground districts the Democrats are spending record amounts of campaign cash.  Both Gary Peters and Mark Schauer have benefited from about a million dollars in television advertising being run by special interest groups from outside Michigan.  Republicans Joe Knollenberg and Tim Walberg have seen some support from independent organizations but far less in terms of dollars and TV time.  Thankfully they’ve managed to either stay close or stay ahead when it comes to campaign reserves going into the home stretch.  

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Took a little while but the ACORN crap storm is finally in full effect right here in Michigan.  Barack Obama’s employees (and let’s make no mistake, when you fund an organization to the tune of nearly a million dollars and ask them to perform a task for you, those they hire to perform that task are YOUR employees) have been making national news for the last week or so as local clerks across the country go public with blatantly fraudulent voter registration applications submitted in an attempt to steal the vote early next month.  Here in the Great Lakes State someone finally said `enough is enough.’  

Attorney General Mike Cox yesterday announced a fresh arrest of a career criminal who, under the employ and guidance of Obama’s “community organizers” fraudulently filled out and submitted six bogus voter registrations.  According to the Associated Press, Antonio Johnson is being held in Jackson County on a parole violation. The 23-year-old is accused of falsifying the registration forms between May 20 and June 6 in Jackson.

Each of the half-dozen charges carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years in prison, and here’s hoping if the cat’s convicted he faces a nice long eighty-four year jail sentence.  Heaven knows someone needs to put the fear of God (or at least the state) into these “organizers.”  Because if the top dog here locally is any indication, they’ve got a lot less concern with the rule of law and free and fair elections than they have with flooding the polls with duplicate and fraudulent voters.

The Ivory Tower reports this morning the following shocking admission:

David Lagstein, head Michigan organizer for ACORN, the Association for Community Reforms Now, defended the effort.

“It’s our policy to hand in every single card,” he said. “Sometimes we do get the occasional application with names like Mickey Mouse or some silly thing like that. However, we don’t want to be the arbiter. Our job is to hand in the applications.”

No word on how Dave feels about Daffy Duck.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

2008 is a down year for conservatives, just don’t tell that to Danialle Karmanos. The south-east Michigan Republican has a fighting chance to do something no one in her position has been able to accomplish in more than a few years… nab a seat on the Wayne State Board of Governors with an “R” after her name.

Karmanos is running on a pretty radical platform.  She’s traveling the state telling folks that she will demand spending and ethical accountability from both educators and administrators and is promising that she’ll “hold the line” on spending so that every dollar the school receives is spent well and to benefit the students, not any of the other interests that so often find their way into governing body actions.

Yes, she’s going to work to get from Lansing every dollar she possibly can for the school, as any responsible member of the BoG would, but she’s also signaling an end to the days of free rides and zero accountability for one of the state’s biggest universities.

Not you’re typical Board of Governors campaign fare.  Normally in these sorts of contests you hear “School X is the best, isn’t it,” “rah, rah, rah,” “I graduated from school X so vote for me.”  This campaign is different and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s because this candidate is different…

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

So you say you want hope?  You say we need change?  Real change from the way things have been done the last few years?  Are you hoping for a dramatic change (as opposed to a wooden and laconic change)?  Hey, join the club.  Things are a mess here in Michigan and they just keep getting worse.  So let’s talk about change.  Let’s talk about what we can do here locally.  Let’s talk about a change we can make to kick out one of the bums who has occupied a cozy seat in Washington, D.C. not for the last four years, not for the last eight but for the last umpteen-and-twelve.  

Just hold your horses for a moment though.  Unlike the lefties who teach jr. high kids to march in front of a camera chanting “Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega” about their pseudo-false-messianic leader, we do things a little bit differently here on the right.  Let’s lay out the case for change.  Exhibit A, if you’ll allow, the presence last week of North Dakota poachers hunting employees to help fill their massive job vacancies out west (in the midst of a global economic crisis, mind you).  The Ivory Tower poaches the Grand Rapids Press:

Tracy Finneman of the North Dakota Department of Commerce was surprised by Saturday’s turnout at the Mega Employment Expo (in Grand Rapids). She says job fairs in North Dakota don’t draw nearly as many people, since most of them already have work.

North Dakota’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in August was 3.3 percent, and officials there project a shortage of 16,000 workers in the next two years. Michigan’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate that month was 8.9 percent, worst in the nation.

Just wait until this month’s numbers come out.  Ready for a change yet?  I know, I know, but wait, there’s more!  Once a week or so during the 06 campaign we’d read a report that an economic recovery was right around the corner.  

Michigan would add jobs by early 2007 they promised.  Then it was mid-2007.  Then it was last-quarter, 2007.  Summer 2008, promise.  No, wait, fall.  OK, spring-summer 2009.  Nevermind… hold on, let’s revise it again.  

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

“It’ll bring jobs.  It’ll bring jobs as dollars become available to do the research.  And if intellectual properties are developed from this research, which I’m certain they will be, that will bring more jobs.”

That’s the prognosis from Dr. Joe Schwarz, the one-time Congressman from Michigan’s 7th District and the current front-man for Cure Michigan, the Proposal 2 ballot organization asking voters to legalize taxpayer funded destruction of human embryos via a rewrite of Michigan’s current embryonic stem cell laws.  

Schwarz made his proclamation during a September 9th discussion of the ballot proposal on Detroit radio WWJ’s political roundtable program, Eye on Michigan Politics.  He echoed the oft-repeated claims of Prop 2 supporters who have taken a cue from Michigan’s 8.9 percent unemployment rate and public opinion polls that consistently rank the economy the top issue in the state, choosing to market their initiative in terms of job creation.  Only a week ago he wrote a guest column in the Observer and Eccentric that put a number to his broader statements, stating Prop 2 will create “8,000″ Michigan jobs.

But while the campaign sells its issue as an answer to chronic joblessness, their walk doesn’t match the talk.  A review of the ballot committee’s “qualification” campaign finance filings with the Michigan Secretary of State indicates that while embryonic-stem-cell backers continue to spend major dollars advocating a Michigan job creation message, they’ve created plenty of new jobs already… in places like Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri and California.

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Nice to wake up on a Friday morning and to discover that the world is still every bit as backwards and maddening as it was when you went to bed Thursday night. Frankly, I’m not sure what I’d do if I ever woke up and found a sudden outbreak of sanity running roughshod over the state and across the newspaper headlines. Thank goodness it doesn’t look like I’ll have to find out anytime soon.

And if I’m ever stricken with an illogical fear that it might I can just grab a copy of the New York Times to shock my system back into reality.  ”All the news that’s fit to print… and a lot of other stuff we make up along the way.”  That’s the newer, more accurate tagline of the nation’s most prestigious fish-wrap.  This week they reported that a handful of states, including Michigan, have somehow violated the law by purging tens of thousands of eligible voters from the registration lists.  Michigan, they claim, purged 33,000 folks in August alone.

The clear implication is that the actions of the Republican Secretary of State and her bureau of elections are actively attempting to disenfranchise Democrats and to somehow swing election day in John McCain’s favor.  One tiny little problem… Michigan did NOT purge 33,000 voters from the rolls in August.  In fact, the reporter who filed the story never even spoke with anyone at the Bureau of Elections or anywhere else at the Secretary of State’s office.  They returned her call promptly but she’d already filed her story.

Apparently the Times is sending their reporters to the same school of journalism as the Michigan Messenger.  

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

First scientists developed super-ultra-multi-purpose stem cells from umbilical cord and menstrual blood.  Stem cells that have already created hundreds of peer reviewed cures and treatments that everyday improve the lives of countless Americans.  

Then researchers in Japan found a way to harvest cells from adult wisdom teeth that are all but mirror images of embryonic stem cells and every bit as malleable.  In other words, they do the exact same thing and without the destruction of human life.  

Don’t want to talk mirror images?  Fine.  Embryonic stem cell researchers are specifically attempting to harvest something called “pluripotent stem cells.”  These are the cells that they can change and alter and manipulate to become whatever their pointy little heads desire.  Earlier this year researchers discovered a way to harvest these EXACT SAME cells from adult skin cells.  Without destroying a single embryo.

Now, according to this morning’s Detroit News, scientists in Germany have discovered a way to reach one step beyond embryonic stem cells in the procreation process and have successfully converted cells from human testes into stem cells that grew into muscle, nerve cells and other kinds of tissue.

Almost everywhere you care to look you find scientists conducting life-saving and life improving research and creating stem cells left and right, all without destroying a single human life, however tiny or early in the developmental process.  I say almost everywhere because there’s one state in particular that has become caught up and consumed in the lies and hyperbole of a handful of men and women who would rather ignore medical science and saving lives than make some sort of twisted point.  

There are folks out there who support the destruction of human embyos for the pursuit of, well, no one really knows what.  This year they’ve even got a ballot proposal, Prop 2, and a big fancy committee (Cure Michigan) funded with millions of dollars and running ads on TV.  The “benefits” they hope to gain have already been achieved in other places and could easily be transferred to Michigan.  The destruction of human embryos is, LITERALLY, unnecessary and, in fact, obsolete, yet they persist.  They might as well be pushing to make Michigan the hotbed of research into new ways of creating VHS tapes and a better VCR.

Cure Michigan and Proposal 2 aren’t just bad policy.  It isn’t just that they destroy human embryos.  It isn’t just that they open the door to taxpayer funding of human embryo destruction.  It isn’t just that they open the door to cloning advocates.  It isn’t just that they strip Michiganders of any and all oversight.  It is that they do it all when they needn’t do any of it.  When doing any or all of it won’t boost Michigan or research or stem cell development or the creation of cures or treatments one single microbe.

Their stated purpose has already been accomplished elsewhere.  If there are really millions and millions in research dollars out there to create Michigan jobs to study stem cells, why not do everything in Lansing’s power to make Michigan a hotbed for the cutting edge research they’re doing in Germany and Japan?  

Why not?

Hey, look, I don’t mean to go all Jack Van Impe on you guys but if you can come up with something better than Isaiah 5:20, fill me in, because otherwise I’m lost.

Prop 2 only accomplishes ONE thing that the ethically sound research being done everywhere else across the globe doesn’t… it destroys human lives.  That’s it.  That’s all.  That’s the only difference.  

Not in my State and not in my name.  2 doesn’t just go “2″ far… for the love of all that’s good and holy, 2 is obsolete and unnecessary.  Tell your friends.

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

And to bring five or six friends with you when you go to the polls.  MLive is reporting this morning that Governor Granholm may well be on Barack Obama’s short list for a nomination to the Supreme Court.  Of the United States of America.  For life.  

Say the Barackstar wins.  Say John Paul Stevens decides next year, at 89, that he’ll seize the opportunity to step down.  Now imagine that Jennifer Granholm is nominated and that what is likely to be a nearly overwhelming Democratic majority in the Senate passes her easily through confirmation hearings.  

Say she puts on the black robe at age 50 and serves as long as Justice Stevens.

Imagine that for a moment.  Let it sink in.  Let it disturb you.  Let it frighten you.  You think we’ve had it bad in Michigan for the last six years?  Think you’re going to have a hard time surviving the next two?  I know some of you out there may even comfort yourself with the knowledge that if things get much worse, heaven forbid, at least you could get away from the woman and her failed policies by heading for the state’s southern border.

Where are you going to go to survive the next thirty-nine years?  Imagine never being able to wake up from this particular nightmare… that she becomes a fixture in the Supreme Court of the United States.  

I don’t know about you, but that vision does more to motivate me to turn out the vote for John McCain than any staff or paid presence he might have in the state, more than any television commercial he might run, more than any issue he might seize, more than any debate he might dominate (as he did last night)… more maybe even than the selection of a woman like Sarah Palin as his running mate.  

Four years of Jennifer Granholm was enough.  Six has been unbearable.  Eight will almost certainly make me prematurely grey.  Thirty-nine more?!  I’ll be calling through my personal contacts again tonight to make sure they’re ready to turn out to vote McCain on November 4th.

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Jennifer Granholm made a rare appearance yesterday, acting in her capacity as the Governor of the state of Michigan and not a shill for one political candidate or another.  Two of them actually.  

Last month we talked pretty extensively about legislation that moved its way through the Capitol city, granting DTE and Consumers Energy uncontested monopolies in Michigan’s energy market, complete with the ability to impose massive, uncontestable rate hikes… oh, and legislators imposed a new surcharge on each of us while they were at it.  ”Surcharge,” of course, is code for “tax increase.”

Apparently tax and hike are the magic words one must speak to conjure up the Governor for a little professional business.  The Associated Press reports the incantation was uttered twice.

Granholm held two energy bill-signing ceremonies, one in Detroit and one in Eaton Rapids southwest of Lansing. She said the new measures will create new renewable energy jobs.

Oh, job creation.  Right.  I forgot, silly me.  The lefty thinking process behind this legislation, going back all the way to March, was that by killing competition these Big Energy companies would somehow create 400,000 jobs.  No exaggeration.  The Governor actually stated, more than once, that her legislation would replace every single one of the 400,000 manufacturing jobs the state’s lost under her watch.  

Last week Jack Spencer had a fantastic piece in Lansing insider publication MIRS.  He took the Chief Executive’s repeated claims and tried to back them up.  The Governor frequently defends her numbers by pointing to Sweden, but according to Iowa State economist Dave Swenson she’s going miles and miles further when she makes her outlandish claims.

“When they make these predictions about producing a great deal of jobs they’re just taking a trip to Mars,” said Swenson.  

If you were to take a trip across the Atlantic to visit the Gov’s favorite European cold spot you’d find they’re actually creating somewhere in the neighborhood of 26,000 total alternative energy jobs.  And they are, unquestionably, the global leaders in alternative energy production.  They are also roughly the same size as Michigan.

So… 400,000?  

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Cross-posted on Right Michgian at www.RightMichigan.com.

By now you’ve all seen this a thousand times but a thousand and one won’t hurt…

Right Michigan readers are smart cookies and I don’t have to tell any of you that a statement like that is unprecedented.  Vice Presidential nominees do not question the man at the top of the ticket and they certainly don’t do it in front of a television camera.  But there isn’t much that’s typical about Sarah Palin.  Is it any wonder this woman has given such an incredible shot in the arm to so many conservatives across the nation?

Now never mind the strategy and the war room politics that goes into a decision to yank your campaign operations out of a battleground state.  When John McCain’s campaign team made that decision last week, they were making, in their minds, a careful decision on resource allocation and they were playing the odds but they didn’t calculate the human toll here in the Great Lakes State.

Michigan is hurting.  Breaking news, right?  I won’t run through all of the same old sad statistics.  Eventually they can wear a brother down and make you want to bury your head under a pillow while you cry out for the pain to stop.  But no matter how loud you cry or how badly you wish things would change they just keep getting worse.  Today it’s rotten news out of Detroit area school districts.

We learned over the weekend that the Detroit Public Schools may or may not have made 300 layoffs in an effort to solve their $400+ million budget deficit.  Folks like bus attendants and part-time custodians.  

Things may actually be worse (!!!) over in the Wayne-Westland district where students this morning are waking up not knowing whether or not they’ll even have class.  The MEA says teachers aren’t showing up for school.  They’ll be breaking the law instead, leaving well over ten-thousand kids, literally, in the streets.  

Read on…

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

After yesterday’s McCain backed sucker-punch to the collective Michigan gut I think we can all probably use a little bit of good news this morning.  A little cheering up. Stiffen that upper lip, bucky, the world hasn’t completely gone to crap.

Just take a look at Lansing!  I know… shock.  Awe.  Something positive in the Capitol City.  The Associated Press reports on yesterday’s Senate action that saw the Republican majority back up their tough talk by actually passing legislation to roll back the Democrats’ massive 22% surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax.

The move delighted the business community and garnered some Democratic votes, too. The unresolved question: How to offset the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for state government?

The legislation passed 26-12 and was sent across the Capitol to the Democratic-led House. A spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she would be open to Michigan Business Tax adjustments if they were “pared with reforms that can save the state money…”

Senate Democrats accused the Republican majority of “shooting from the hip…”

Shooting from the hip?  Let’s put it in those terms, then… Michigan is in a fight to save jobs.  To keep jobs.  To create jobs.  It’s a 50 state royal rumble.  Everyone’s competing for the same slice of the pie and things are turning ugly.  Bullets are whizzing by on the left and on the right, to the north and the south and local jobs keep getting killed.  

The onrushing hordes are closing in around us and picking off our job makers one by one.  We have job creation weapons at our disposal but the Democrats have holstered them and snapped them in tight.  A couple of times they’ve pushed them so hard into the holster they’ve actually gone off and fired a round or two into our own feet.  

And now that the GOP (and several of their own lefty members) vote to return fire the Democrats are upset about the way they’re doing it?  Hey, shoot from the hip, the toes or the top of your pointy little liberal heads.  For the love of Pete, just return fire!  Defend Michigan jobs!

Read on…

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Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

This morning’s Detroit News features an article detailing the return of the “Reagan Democrats” and the importance Michigan’s independent and cross-over voters have as we help elect the next leader of the free world.  There’s a picture of a burly looking Macomb County man, scraggly hair and blue jeans, sitting in front of his big black motorcycle, because apparently he is the face of the swing voter.  But don’t bother reading the article… you won’t learn anything you didn’t already know.  In fact, the entire piece does nothing but discuss Democrats who are going to vote Democrat.  Because apparently that’s news.  

Louis Aguilar managed to write an entire column about the importance of South East Michigan’s swing voters without finding a single one.  In fact, I’m not entirely unconvinced he didn’t just drive up to the Macomb County Democratic Party headquarters to speak with their volunteers.

Read on…

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