Carl Levin

Posted at 8:09am on Jun. 16, 2008 Riding the bike everywhere I could for a month saved me... two lousy gallons?

By RightMichigan.com

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

Happy Monday everybody.  Unless you had to fill up the gas tank this weekend.  I love my car and I still figure I'll be one of the last guys on the open road if the Mad Max dystopia ever turns into a reality but I'm not embarrassed to admit that I've gotten a lot of work on the bicycle over the last month.

Weekly stops to my folks house for dinner or my brothers house for a Monday night free weights session (I'm ripped) only save six miles here, three-quarters of a mile there but between that and my extended ride on Saturday, to and from the Life Walk, Grand Rapids to Hudsonville, I've probably saved a good... no, less than a half-tank.  Wait, is that all?  And here I'd felt like I was making real progress and saving the environment.  Turns out all I've saved is what, thirty bucks?  Over the last month?  Now I've got this sudden, overwhelming compulsion to go cut down a tree or something to get even with Algore for tricking me.  Or to try to dig an oil well in my backyard.

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Posted at 7:36am on Mar. 11, 2008 What have you got to hide? Besides plans to raise taxes, election results and police reports...

By RightMichigan.com

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

There was some discussion late last week in Lansing insider publication MIRS about the continuing possibility of a vote to raise the gas tax this year.  The report quoted a Republican lawmaker who wanted to assure folks that as far as the GOP was concerned the idea of raising the gas tax wasn't just dead, it was buried too.  But it also quoted an official with the road construction lobby who was equally certain that a vote would come... in November.  

The assurance of a tax hike vote echoed the statements of House Speaker Andy Dillon who earlier this year told the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association that a lame duck vote to raise the gas tax was probable.

If you fueled up yesterday or drove by a service station you might have asked the same question that popped to my mind... are they crazy?!

There's never a good time to raise taxes but there are worse times than others.  Take the current gas prices, add another summer season with it's traditional jump at the pump and then go ahead and add three, six, nine more cents to each gallon in the way of a tax hike to help feed Lansing's never ending budget hunger.  Not a pretty picture.  The Detroit News reports:


Monday's average price in Metro Detroit was up a hefty 14 cents in just a week, reflecting a surge in oil prices that started in mid-February. Nationally, Monday's average of $3.22 for a gallon of regular unleaded was a half-cent from the record high of $3.277, according to AAA.

And no letup is in sight, with the price of oil spiraling to $108 a barrel Monday before closing at a record $107.90.

"We're definitely inching closer to that $4-a-gallon mark than ever before," said Jim Rink of AAA Michigan, which on Monday reported a statewide average of $3.28 for regular unleaded and a Metro Detroit average of $3.23.

In other words, perfect timing for Lansing to gorge itself on what little we've got left in our wallets.  We can cancel the cable TV and we certainly don't need to take a family vacation next year or buy silly little things like groceries.  Not when Lansing has a budget monster to feed.  

Interesting, too, that those lobbyists still seem to think that a vote is coming after the November general elections.  And after all of the hand wringing that the Democrats would neeeeever do anything like that.  But hey, it makes sense.  The only thing worse than another tax hike right now would be the sheer political and personal cowardice of a lame duck vote on another tax hike.

And that's saying something because there are a lot of bad ideas floating around these days.  Take the continuing discussions about Michigan and Florida's Democrat Presidential Primary delegates.  Former candidate and current Barckstar groupie Chris Dodd has his own bright idea on how to resolve the conflict.  The Associated Press reports he'd like to just take the delegates and split them down the middle.  Convenient since his guy lost both elections.  

Democrats are still familiar with the concept of elections, right?  You have these polling places, people show up, they mark this little card and slide it into a machine... whoever gets the most votes wins?  Coming back to you yet?  We had one of them on January 15th?  Obama and Clinton both decided they didn't want to ask for our votes?  Remember?


Some in the party have proposed having major Democratic donors pay for the do-over primaries instead of taxpayers. Dodd rejected that approach.

"The idea that a bunch of fat cats are gonna finance it, I don't like that idea at all," Dodd said.

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Posted at 8:07am on Mar. 10, 2008 IDK, My BFF Barack?

By RightMichigan.com

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

I'm sitting at home yesterday afternoon watching the Wings hang on against a pesky Nashville team when my phone blows up.  It's a text message from a friend. The sort of message that contains startling statements and life altering revelations. The sort of text that'll change the way one looks at the universe from that moment on into perpetuity.  

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Posted at 9:36am on Feb. 14, 2008 It's Valentine's Day and love is in the air... well, something is anyways

By RightMichigan.com

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

Today's Valentine's Day.  It's a day for candy hearts and chocolates and elementary school parties and notes passed between kids and cupid and arrows and romance and all that stuff.  And yeah, it's about commercialization and greeting cards and a cheapening of high concepts but only if you're predisposed to hate holidays, are chronically and painfully single or just plain ornery.

Because mostly what Valentine's Day is about is love.  Awwwww.  So in that spirit today there are a few news stories worth noting and I want to approach them from a different angle.  No anger, no conflict, no gasps or sighs and absolutely no sarcasm or cynicism.  (Right.)  Instead, lets talk about love.  

The way I love, for instance, the coverage of Barack Hussein Obama's latest campaign stop in the Detroit News.  Were one to read only the article's header and opening line one might conclude that the man has decided Michigan votes are worth chasing after all and that he'd finally violated his own insipid pledge never to step foot here... "Obama woos autoworkers" proclaims the headline in big bold print.  "Sen. Barack Obama took a significant step Wednesday to reassure manufacturing-minded Michigan Democrats, choosing General Motors Corp.'s oldest production plant to outline an economic agenda that includes aid to the auto industry."

Well finally.  That's awesome!  Except, wait.  GM's oldest production plant apparently isn't in Michigan.  The story's byline tells us that Janesville, WI is where this all went down.  I love bylines.  But they just sort of blend in, you know?  Most folks, if I had to guess, read them and they don't even register.  Readers are anxious to get to the story to find out what's happening.  Not to see if the reporter bothered to note his geographic location after his name.  It isn't until the end of the fourth graph that we realize Obama's wonderful pro-Michigan conversion was nothing but a mirage.  He was in the home of cheese.  Not Wolverines.  If only the guy loved Michigan as much as the rest of us. Or even pretended.

But no, Obama is consistent when it comes to his disdain for Michigan and her voters.  Just a shame the man that sends a warm shiver up the inside of Chris Matthew's legs (dare I say it? Could it be... true love?) isn't consistent with his tone and policy positions.  For a guy the MSM is hailing as the savior of modern politics and a candidate above the typical political fray Obama's flip flopping position on the domestic auto industry smacks, sadly, of the same old politics.  


Flanked by examples of the same kinds of low-mileage SUVs that he's criticized in the past, Obama vowed to help the domestic auto industry to a more fuel-efficient future...

Obama's words were significantly different than those of nine months ago. In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, the Illinois senator aimed at the Big Three in a way that many state Democrats considered unfair and damaging.

"The auto industry is on a path that is unacceptable and unsustainable," Obama said in May. "For too long, we've been either too afraid to ask our automakers to meet higher fuel standards or unwilling to help them do it."

The words stung, and Obama has repeated them often in his drive for the Democratic presidential nomination. In television ads, debates and at campaign rallies, the speech has become a centerpiece of Obama's political identity: that of a new kind of politician, willing to tell uncomfortable truths to unfriendly audiences.

Emphasis mine.

I love it when candidates tell the truth to unfriendly audiences.  I also love it when the light bulb goes off in peoples' heads and they realize they're being sold a bill of goods.  Obama was anxious and eager to talk tough about Michigan's biggest industry, pushing for fuel economy standards that some analysts believe could permanently cripple or kill any or all of the Big 3.  No talk of help then.  Suddenly he's chasing Hillary Clinton's blue-collar voters and he's singing a different tune.

After all the hype he's willing to pander just like every other candidate?  I'm shocked.  Seriously taken aback.  And candidates don't shock me often.  But when they do I love it.  

Almost as much as I love the fact that the ACLU is suing the State of Michigan to do what the Democrats in the legislature are attempting to prevent... the legal granting of drivers licenses to legal immigrants.  And, you guessed it.  I love legal immigration.  The Associated Press reports:


Legal immigrants who are not permanent residents have not been able to get driver's licenses since late last month, what many consider an unintended consequence of a similar crackdown on illegal immigrants. The state Legislature has begun passing bills to clarify state law so that legal immigrants can get driver's licenses, but the House and Senate haven't yet agreed on final legislation.

Businesses and universities are urging quick action, adding that Michigan's reputation is suffering because of the policy. State officials say there are nearly 400,000 foreign businesspeople, students and their families in Michigan on visas.

Some of them already have been turned down in their quest to get Michigan driver's licenses.

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Posted at 9:34am on Feb. 4, 2008 Another day, another load of mixed signals to job makers

By RightMichigan.com

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

Discussion ramps up this week in Washington, D.C. and Lansing, Michigan over various budget and stimulus plans aimed at getting various economies out of various stages of recession.  The national economy hasn't entered a recession just yet but fears are running high and the Republicans and Democrats are all trying to hurdle one another on the road to one plan or another.  Here in Michigan we've been in a single-state recession for the last six years or so and the Governor is racing back to that same old bag of tricks that have failed to correct the ship her first five years in office.

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Posted at 9:10am on Jan. 21, 2008 The pursuit of truth... even when it's inconvenient

By RightMichigan.com

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

Another week and another important Monday and Tuesday.  Last week it was the final run-up to Michigan's Primary followed by a day at the polls that saw the Hillary Clinton train nearly derailed by some guy named "Uncommitted."  This week we won't get the national attention we got seven days ago but we join the nation in observing several important dates.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  I'll save the speech and the homage for men and women far more eloquent than me but if there's a day on the calendar each year worth reflecting on how far we've come and how far we still have to go as a nation, as a State and more importantly, as individuals, this is it.  

I was blessed to be able to listen to another fantastic sermon from my pastor at Berean Baptist Church in Grand Rapids (best church in the world, by the way) on the nature of the man's work... the pursuit, in action, of truth, and it's implications in our lives.  It's easy to claim to pursue truth.  Everyone here does it every single day.  Our challenge, then, is to follow that truth wherever it takes us, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.

Which leads us into January 22nd.  Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the barbaric killing of innocent, defenseless boys and girls based on geography (two inches from free air and entirely without the protection of law).  Medical science, common sense, the human conscience and yes, truth, cry out against this holocaust, perhaps the darkest wave of violent atrocity in recorded human history.  But who is willing to pursue THAT truth?

Thank goodness there are other issues to consume us and distract us from the cancer we've created inside our own society with an organized and militant assault on my generation.  

Not that those other issues aren't often important.  And not that there isn't, at times, an overlap.  

The Lansing State Journal, this morning, encourages it's readers to begin their preparation for the 2008 legislative elections, citing two distinct schools of thought on government spending that will, in November, collide.  They pay lip service to the smaller-government crowd (that'd be us) before charging into the crux of their argument:


For those who believe the state is underachieving, the problem is equally complex. They will argue (as the Michigan Fiscal Responsibility Project did last week) that personal income has grown at nearly twice the rate of state spending. They take the position - with data to back it up - that Michiganians are prosperous enough to support a proper array of government services.

Darn it all.  I knew it was a mistake for any of us to be successful.  (End sarcasm)

Did you catch the insidious argument buried below the surface of that paragraph?  Michiganians are prosperous enough to support a "proper" array of services.  The inherent argument is that we don't currently support a proper array of services and that, more importantly (and more ridiculously) we exist for no other purpose.  The LSJ just told it's readers that they exist to prop up the government.  Scary.  (And the media isn't liberal at all, but I digress.)

And as far as that proper array of services, once the State and local government bodies start behaving more responsibly with the cash they've already been given then and only then should even the most liberal lunatic among us (yes, I'm talking to you, Andy Dillon) talk about taxing us more.

This bulletin from the Associated Press leads me to believe we haven't quite hit that mark just yet.  Looks like the Detroit Public Schools spent $1.5  million on trips and catering, about the same amount as it spent in 2006 despite pledges at the time to seriously curtail such waste.


Superintendent Connie Calloway declined to discuss the spending. Her office referred questions to district spokesman Steve Wasko, who said nearly all these expenditures took place before Calloway came on board in July.

The latest spending is for the fiscal year that ended September 1.

Mix that with a Triangle Project here and an Office of the First Gentleman there and a pandemic of State cash being spent lobbying itself it's a wonder everyone isn't whipping out their checkbook scribbling a bigger bank note to Treasury.

And Michigan, we might be leading the nation in all the wrong categories but no one knows how to misspend like the federal government.  On that front, and beyond the Presidential election Michigan has something to say again too.  The entire Congressional delegation is up for reelection and so is Carl Levin.

Word broke a few weeks ago that State Rep and Right Roots blogger Jack Hoogendyk was in the race and this weekend brought a "new" contestant to the primary field:


(Andrew "Rocky") Raczkowski, a 39-year-old Southfield businessman, said he will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Levin because the state has declined in recent years. He said his military service in the U.S. Army Reserves in the Horn of Africa from 2003-04 made him "realize more than ever that partisan politics isn't what's going to get the job done."

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Posted at 8:28am on Dec. 14, 2007 Talk about BRANDING... the Dems keep doing all the work themselves

By RightMichigan.com

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

A political party or a candidate can spend an entire election cycle trying to brand the opposition on an issue.  One way or another, whatever issue it might be it's difficult work.  There are campaigns that never pull it off and watch their opponents slip by with a Teflon coating.  Others are more successful.  But nothing in this business has ever been as effective as sitting back and letting the opposition brand themselves.

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Posted at 3:26pm on Apr. 9, 2007 Levin, Funding, and the Super Secret Petraeus Meeting

By RS Insider

Yesterday, Senator Carl Levin said…

"We're not going to cut off funding for the troops. We shouldn't cut off funding for the troops…”

…in the process, angering the Lefties who are still smarting over Levin’s acknowledgment of the need to confront the serious threats from Iran and Syria.

The RS Insider has a correction – and a very important revelation – to make about Carl Levin’s denunciation of the Reid/Feingold Iraq funding cut-off.

CORRECTION: the RS Insider previously wrote that “Democrats chose not to attend” the video-briefing General Petraeus offered Congressional leaders on the status of Iraq. It’s true that all House Democrats turned down the opportunity, but I’ve learned that one Senate Democrat did attend the briefing.

ABOUT THAT DEMOCRAT: the one Senate Democrat who attended the briefing with General Petraeus? Senator Levin.

So, the only Democrat who listened to the commander in the field is opposed to the Democrats defunding plan. After spending the last few years demanding Republicans listen to the Commanders in the field, perhaps more Senators should take their cues from Senator Levin - and from General Petraeus.

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