Respected Journalist continues to shine light on shady bridge deal

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry has done a great job documenting Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop’s, R-Rochester, attempts to block a vote on the planned and needed Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) on behalf of Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun, but Lessenberry’s column on Wednesday called “Leadership for Sale” spells out his obstruction in very clear language.

Lessenberry said Bishop’s decision to end legislative session three weeks before the end of the year and give lawmakers another long vacation with so much work that can be done is disgraceful.

“Anyone who tried to do that could be assured that Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop would block anything decent from happening,” he wrote. “…Want a perfect example of the failure of our democracy? Look at what happened last week with the proposed new Detroit River International Crossing Bridge. Virtually every business, labor and corporate interest wants a new bridge. Canada offered to front Michigan's costs, meaning we wouldn't have to pay a dime.”

The project will create 10,000 jobs, and it has the potential to create up to 35,000 jobs.

“Anyone who knows how desperate people are, with unemployment running out for hundreds of thousands, knows how badly needed those jobs are,” Lessenberry said. “But two men were determined to prevent them from happening. Bishop, of course, but he was a mere lackey of the real bloated spider of corruption: That would be Manuel J. "Matty" Moroun, the owner of the Ambassador Bridge, who doesn't want his monopoly threatened.
Moroun, an 83-year-old billionaire and probably Detroit's worst slumlord (just think the hulking ruin of the old Michigan Central train station) sent forth his wage slaves and minions to block the new bridge. They lied, misrepresented, improperly seized city land, and most of all, got themselves the best government that their money can buy. Most of all, they showered politicians with cash contributions.”

The Moroun family spent more than $1 million in campaign cash in the last election cycle to keep their monopoly, but now that the election is over they, and their lobbying firm - Karoub Associates, have been courting the incoming freshman legislators.

Moroun has suffered a series of setbacks in court where campaign cash has less effect, so he is trying to go around the courts. One place where has lost has been in his attempt to use the Gateway project to begin building a second bridge and a new duty free shop, despite the fact that he has not received a single permit.

Last February Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentice Edwards ordered him to tear down the illegally constructed gas pumps and duty-free store built on property owned by the city of Detroit.

The $170 million Gateway Project will address long term congestion mitigation issues and provide direct access improvements between the Ambassador Bridge, I-75 and I-96.

Last month Governor-elect Rick “Chief Executive Outsourcer” Snyder met with the so-called bipartisan Freshman Caucus. The event was held at the lobbying firm Karoub Associates and sponsored by the Detroit International Bridge Company, which owns the Ambassador Bridge and Nora Moroun, wife of bridge owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun.

Subscription only MIRS is also reporting that Karoub has been sponsoring trips for incoming freshman to tour the site of the Gateway project.

Karoub Associates lobbyist Jim Crawford “confirmed about eight in-coming representatives and senators took the trip several weeks ago and another delegation of three or four new members will make the journey next Tuesday at 8 a.m.”

A guest essay on perhaps one of the most controversial issues in the world

There is nothing more complex and volatile than the situation in the Middle East, especially the situation with Israel and the Gaza strip. However, in the world of right-wingers, any one who questions the actions of the United State's great friend, Israel, is anti-Semitic and hates Israel. Simply not true. It’s amazing that in such a complex situation, they have a black and white answer with no gray areas.

I have been to Israel a few times on deployment, and it is simply one of the best places in visit on a Mediterranean cruise. I have a ton of respect for the Israeli people, and I am frankly in awe of them. However, their government is not perfect, nor is every thing it does above reproach.

A couple of events have put the situation in the news. On May 31 Israeli commandos boarded six ships from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was attempting to break the blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid and building supplies to the Gaza strip. Nine people onboard were killed. At the very least, there should be a United Nations investigation.

In addition to that, respected veteran journalist and Wayne State University graduate Helen Thomas stirred enough controversy with her remarks that Israel should “Get the hell out of Palestine,” that it led to her retirement. Another respected veteran journalist, Jack Lessenberry, has an excellent essay on Thomas. In no way were her remarks anti-Semitic, nor do they question Israel’s right to exist. Another former journalist turned blogger like me, Eric Baerren at Michigan Liberal, has the right’s reaction; or at least reaction from an alleged journalist.

One thing I learned as a journalist is that there are two sides to every story. I’m going to present the other side with an essay from a friend of mine, Mares Hirchert of Hartland. These are her opinions, and I do not necessarily share them.

Whenever Israel commits yet another atrocity, its defenders are quick to redirect public attention away from the grisly crime scene.

Currently, there are headlines about allegedly anti-Semitic comments made by senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Pundits across the land evince outrage at her off-the-cuff 25-second statement made to a man who appears to be holding a camera right in her face.

Thomas issued a public apology for her words, but this was insufficient to assuage the wounded feelings of powerful antagonists, and she has now retired from a long and distinguished career.

Before we examine her comments and evaluate their possible validity, let's look at other recent events having to do with Israel.

On May 31st Israeli commandos killed at least nine unarmed volunteers attempting to take humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

According to eyewitness reports and forensic evidence, many of these aid volunteers were shot at close range, including a 19-year-old American citizen killed by four bullets to the head and one to the chest fired from 18 inches away.

Israel immediately imprisoned eyewitnesses and hundreds of other aid participants, confiscated their cameras, laptops, and other possessions, and prevented them from speaking to the press for days. Among the incarcerated were decorated U.S. veterans and an 80-year-old former ambassador who had been deputy director of Reagan's Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism.

When they finally emerged and were able to tell their stories, many described horrific scenes of Israeli commandos shooting people in the head, of those tending the injured being shot in the stomach, of people bleeding to death while flotilla participants waved white flags and pled for help.

They also described being beaten brutally by Israeli forces, again and again - including those on ships that, in the U.S. media's judgment, experienced "no violence." A 64-year-old piano tuner from California, Paul Larudee, described hundreds of Israeli commandos boarding his ship. When he refused to cooperate with them, soldiers then beat him numerous times both on board the ship and after he was imprisoned on land.

Eventually he was taken by ambulance to an Israeli hospital. He wasn't treated, however, and Larudee believes he was taken there because Israel didn't want media to see his black eye, pronated joints, bruised jaw and body contusions.

Marine veteran Ken O'Keefe described similar beatings while in Israeli custody. In his case, the public was able to see his bloodied, battered face in video clips and still images - but only on the Internet, since American mainstream media failed to report on his press conference or to publish the many still photos of his injuries.

Other gruesome photos available to the American public only on the Internet are of Emily Henochowicz, a 21-year-old American student whose eye and eye socket were recently shattered by Israeli forces. She has since had her eyeball removed, three metal plates inserted in her face, and her jaw wired shut.

Henochowicz was not on the flotilla; she was taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the Israeli assault when an Israeli soldier shot a high-velocity teargas canister into her face.

A Swedish citizen standing with Henochowicz said, "They clearly saw us. They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, and then the third one hit her in the face."

Henochowicz is not the first to have been shot by such a canister.

Thirty-year-old Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh died when an Israeli soldier shot one at him at close range while Abu Rahmeh participated in a demonstration against Israeli confiscation of Palestinian farmland. A video of this is also available on You Tube; U.S. networks have also chosen not to broadcast this.

Californian Tristan Anderson was shot in the head by a similar canister while he was taking photographs following another demonstration. Part of Anderson’s brain was removed and he was in a "minimally responsive state" for 6-7 months.

He is now in a wheelchair, has almost no movement in his left arm and leg, is blind in one eye, and his mental functioning is significantly reduced. Photos of the shooting are also available on the Internet.

Since at least 2006 Israeli forces have closed off Gaza to the outside world, essentially imprisoning 1.5 million men, women, and children, and denying them foodstuffs, medicines, and building materials, as documented by such agencies as Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Christian Aid, which said that Israel was using food and medicine as weapons.

One of the multitudinous victims of this illegal siege is five-year-old Taysir Al Burai, who suffers from an acute neurological disorder and requires round-the-clock care. According to the UK Guardian, he could be cured if Israel would allow him to leave Gaza, but to date his parents' repeated requests have been denied.

Another victim is 7-month-old Mohammad Khader, whose swelling in the brain required specialized treatment unavailable in Gazan hospitals depleted by the Israeli siege. His distraught parents' applications asking Israel to allow them to travel abroad were similarly denied. Their tiny son died a few days ago.

Such stories go on and on.

Yet, the rage we see in the U.S. media is directed against none of this. People shot in the head, eyes and brain parts destroyed, the elderly beaten, small children and infants caused to suffer and die, parents to grieve - none of this has caused a hint of anger. In fact, most of it has been considered of too little importance even to report.

Instead, media reports are filled with outrage at "anti-Israel" words spoken by 89-year-old Helen Thomas.

In Thomas's lifetime Israel has ethnically cleansed over a million people, replaced them with colonists from around the world, committed dozens of massacres, tortured thousands of people, killed and maimed untold numbers of children, mangled limbs, and committed outrages on women, old people, the weak and the infirm.

It has assassinated people throughout the world, invaded numerous countries, spied on the U.S. , killed and injured 200 American servicemen (the anniversary is this week), and tortured and imprisoned Americans. All while receiving more American money than any other country on earth.

For years, long before her recent words, Thomas has been the target of Israel's vicious American volunteers, the Zionist blogosphere abounding with nasty slurs on her looks and her Lebanese ancestry, this latter also consistently emphasized by the media, despite her Kentucky birth and upbringing.

One of the reasons for the ferocious animosity toward her is the fact that Thomas is one of the very few mainstream reporters to challenge the neocon engendered lies that led the U.S. into wars that have caused massive death, destruction and tragedy and to continue to expose ongoing policies of violence and cruelty.

As the same groups and individuals who pushed the US into attacking Iraq have in recent years been escalating their efforts to push the U.S. to now similarly decimate Iranians under the pretext that Iran might be developing nuclear weapons, Thomas's questioning attempted to elicit from Obama the fact that Israel already posses nuclear weapons. While the rest of the press corps has conspired in the cover-up of this fact and others, Thomas worked to expose them.

Not surprisingly, the many people complicit in these manipulations, such as former Bush spokesperson Ari Fleischer, have led the charge against her.

It is useful to examine the video and context of Thomas's allegedly "anti-Semitic" comment.

A man, apparently holding a camera right in her face, asks for her comments about Israel. She says, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine . Remember, these people are occupied. And it's their land..." He interrupts her and asks where they should go. She responds, "They should go home. To Germany, Poland , America , and everywhere else."

While Thomas has since apologized for her hasty words and many Israelis have the right to continue living where they are, the reality is that Israeli settlers did, indeed, come from elsewhere; they are, in fact, illegally occupying Palestinian land (a fact acknowledged even by the U.S. State Department); and international law does require that they leave.

Many commentators evince particular anger at Thomas's inclusion of Germany and Poland as places to which Israeli colonists should return, suggesting that Hitler is still in control and waiting to pounce.

The happy fact is, however, that World War II and the Nazi holocaust ended well over half a century ago. In Poland today there is a vibrant Jewish revival with a 10-foot tall Menorah being lit in the center of Warsaw during Hanukah, and Germany has become, according to the New York Times, "a country where Jews want to live." In fact, in recent years more Jews have chosen to immigrate to Germany than to Israel.

Thomas's call for colonists to return to America (this destination was left out of many articles) is far from outrageous given that a great many West Bank settlers are from the U.S.

Overall, reporting on the incident has largely departed from the standard journalistic practice of quoting people from both sides of an issue. Quotes from Thomas supporters are missing, even though the You Tube page featuring the infamous video contains a large number of comments supporting her. In contrast, quotes from Thomas's detractors, almost all of them Zionists, are ubiquitous, but generally fail to divulge the speakers' frequent conflicts of interest.

For example, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz quotes Jeffrey Goldberg without mentioning that Goldberg is an Israeli citizen who served as a prison guard at an Israeli prison that held hundreds of Palestinians without charge, some killed in cold blood by the prison commander.

Mainstream media organizations do not seem to have investigated reports that the man who videotaped Thomas, Rabbi David Nesenoff, also made an offensive video featuring himself and another man impersonating a buffoonish Catholic priest and Mexican immigrant.

Similarly, news reports that a high school had disinvited Thomas as a graduation speaker almost never inform readers that many of the school's parents and students wished Thomas to remain, even though this unreferenced group may represent a majority of the school. Members of this group have created a Facebook page, "Helen Thomas should have been our graduation speaker," that states:

"The purpose of this group is to quietly but firmly protest the ability of a small minority to impose its will on the larger group through engaging or threatening to engage in disruptive discourse. This group affirms a belief in reasonable discussion and feel that in this scenario, a clear minority was able to override a larger majority by distorting the issues and discussion."

Replacing Thomas at the upcoming graduation ceremony will be CBS's Bob Schiefer, who has close family ties to George W. Bush and has rarely, if ever, challenged administration falsehoods that sent the nation to war and that keep it there still.

Regarding his reporting on Israel-Palestine, media watchdog Fairness and Accurate In Reporting (FAIR) issued an alert in 2006 objecting to Schiefer's "shallow, dismissive coverage of complicated and tragic events."

It is not known who will take over Thomas's front-row seat at White House briefings. Given the record of the current press corps, it is likely that Israel partisans are breathing a sign of relief.

One more obstacle to the Zionist juggernaut has just been removed.

The Milli Vannelli of protests brings out the whiners and obnoxiously selfish

Like millions of patriotic Americans, I spent yesterday working and getting my taxes in the mail.

Despite withholdings from my paychecks and the deductions for my mortgage interests and other deductions, I ended up writing a check for $341 to Uncle Sam because I had a chunk of income with no withholding taken out earned from freelancing. Once I left work yesterday, I rode home on the MichiVan Commuter Vanpool that receives a small federal subsidy, using the interstate highway paid for and maintained by state and federal tax dollars. Once I got home, I had just enough time to grab some clothes and go to my second job teaching swim lessons at the high school pool, paid for by state and my property taxes.

The point of the recap of my day? Simple. I agree, in part, with Republican-nominated U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes when he said:
“I like to pay taxes,“ he said. “They are the price we pay for civilized society.“

I agree with having to pay the price to live in a civilized society and the greatest country in the worlds, in my opinion, but I really don’t like to pay taxes all that much. I don’t like to pay taxes, but I know all of the good it does and that it’s my patriotic duty. I guess if I made enough money that I didn’t have to worry about a paying all my bills every month and keeping the mortgage up I would agree 100 percent with Justice Holmes.

I didn't get the opportunity to get out of my office yesterday to hear Sam the digital converter box promoter speak at the fake Astroturf “tea party” in Lansing because a co-worker was on vacation, and I had to man the office and could not leave for lunch hour. I tried to watch it on the Press & Argus web site. But it was lurching and unwatchable, but it turns out I didn’t miss anything; the same old rhetoric and lies that did not work in November. But the Washington, D.C. lobbying group that organized the farce did not get their money’s worth out of old Sam. He could not have spoken for more than 10 minutes.

I had to watch the recaps on the cable News channels when I finally got home, which was strange since I have been haring the lie since the February “tea parties” that the media was ignoring them. The one thing that struck me was that these people were protesting in parks and on the Capitol lawn; all things paid for with tax dollars. I also heard a much better description of the GOP rally from a Democrat. He called it the “Milli Vannelli” of protests.

Girl, you know it’s true.

I also agree somewhat with veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry - where I lifted the Holmes’s quote – when he says, “I like paying taxes.” “This is a pretty wonderful country, and I like to contribute my bit to it. That doesn’t mean I approve of everything the government does. I think every cent spent on the Iraq war is wasted, and I wish the feds would spend it on rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure instead.”

I agree with the later; the former; not so much. However, I understand the good it does and it’s the dues for being in the great club I am a member of. If I don’t agree with how it’s being spent, I let my elected representatives know, and I have not missed a single vote in the last 15 years; including city council, school board and primary elections.

To quote Mr. Lessenberry one more time with a sentiment I saw plenty of yesterday, “I don’t mind paying taxes, and regard those who whine about them as obnoxiously selfish.”

I wish I had said that.

Well-known journalist gives his take on fall elections

HOWELL -- Respected journalist Jack Lessenberry will offer up his opinions and biting wit on the upcoming election in Michigan at 7 p.m. May 8 at the Howell Opera House in downtown Howell, sponsored by the nonpartisan Voter’s Voice of Livingston County and Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton.
Lessenberry’s lecture is called "Michigan and the Election: Are Any Surprises in Store?"

Lessenberry has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News, reporting from more than 40 countries. His writing has appeared in such national publications as Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He is also a professor of journalism at Wayne State University, and his freelance columns appear in The Metro Times, The Traverse-City Record Eagle and The Toledo (Ohio) Blade. He is also a senior political analyst for Michigan Public Radio. The Oakland County resident has ties to Livingston County. When Hometown Newspapers was a Michigan company, Lessenberry was the executive editor of the newspaper chain before it was purchased by mega-chain Gannett.

The Voter's Voice is a group for independents, moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans formed in 2002 for people concerned about politics and public policy. In the past it has sponsored forums on health care and campaign finance.
The event is free and open to the public.

The race for the 9th Congressional District features confrontations, videotape and Dr. Death

The U.S. Congressional race for Michigan’s 9th District may be a microcosm of the presidential election in Michigan, and it will also be an interesting race to watch that has already seen confrontations, videotape and now a guy with the nickname of Doctor Death as a candidate.

U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R- Bloomfield Hills, is seeking his ninth term in the U.S. House, and he will be challenged by Democrat Gary Peters, a professor at Central Michigan University and a former state Senator, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the well-known assisted suicide doctor, who plans to run as an independent.

The district’s boundaries are contained entirely in Oakland County, the second largest county in the state with 1.2 million residents. The county has long been known primarily as a Republican county, but that is fast changing as it trends Democratic. The Republicans maintain a 13-12 edge on the county Board of Commissioners, and the county executive, L. Brooks Patterson, is very active and well known in state and national Republics politics.

“Oakland County has been considered Republican, and most of the county commissioners are Republicans,” said Glenn Clark, the Republican Chair of the 9th Congressional District and a Troy resident. “However, it has gone blue at the top of the ticket since 1992.”

Michigan itself has been blue since 1992, and the last time it went for a Republican presidential candidate was for President George H.W. Bush in 1988. However, the decision by Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama not to campaign here for the primary, coupled with the decision by the Democratic National Committee not to seat Michigan’s presidential delegation in retaliation for moving up the presidential primary in violation of party rules, makes Michigan vulnerable to going red.

“It is definitely a swing district,” said Rochester Hills resident and Democratic activitist Bruce Fealk. “The district went for (Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John) Kerry in the last election”

Fealk, who operates the blog “Vote no on Joe,” is a story himself. He has been a vocal anti-war critic, and he began following Knollenberg around at events, as well as appearing at parades, wearing a huge papier-mâché likeness of Knollenberg. Fealk tried repeatedly to get Knollenberg to meet with him and other anti-war protestors to talk about the war, as well as the veto of the bipartisan SCHIP legislation. When that failed, Fealk began following Knollenberg around with a video camera.

That led to a confrontation last October between Fealk and Knollenberg’s then chief-of-staff, Trent Wisecup, in a convenience store. The incident made state and national news, and Wisecup called Fealk “un-American,” “not a citizen” and “blinded by” his “hatred of this country.” Fealk made more news when he was arrested in February in Troy while attempting to videotape a panel discussion on Black History Month, hosted by the Oakland County Republican Club.

But Peters also has a person trailing him with a video camera. CMU student Dennis Lennox has been following Peters around for months claiming Peters should not be teaching at a public university while running for Congress. That also led to a confrontation that made state news, although it was with a CMU dean and not Peters. Lennox has used that publicity to launch a bid for the Republican nomination for the 110 District seat in the state House.

The 9th District consists of the townships of Bloomfield, Oakland, Southfield, West Bloomfield, and pats of Orion and Waterford Townships, as well as the cities of Auburn Hills, Berkley, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Clawson, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Keego Harbor, Lake Angelus, Orchard Lake, Pontiac, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Sylvan Lake, Troy and Royal Oak. It is the home of many whiter collar engineers, the headquarters of Chrysler and the home of a major Division I university, Oakland University. It has elements of both suburban life and urban life.

“This is a working class area with lots of white collar workers; kind of middle of the road,” Clark said. “It’s a great district to live in, and Troy was ranked as one of the safest places to live in the nation.”

Knollenberg – a U.S. Army veteran - owned insurance offices before going into politics, and used his connections as the former chair of the Oakland County Republican Party to run a successful congressional campaign in 1992. He has the makings of a political dynasty, and his son, Marty, is a member of the Michigan House. Knollenberg is the ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.

Peters was born and raised in Oakland County, and he was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve in a Construction Battalion unit (Seabees). In the private sector, Peters had taught at Oakland University and Wayne State University. He was the vice president of investments at UBS/PaineWebber. Peters also served as a vice president at Merrill Lynch.

His first foray into politics was serving on the Rochester Hills City Council. He was elected to the Michigan Senate in 1994 and served two terms before he was term limited. In 2002 he ran for the Michigan Attorney General and lost a close race to current AG Mike Cox by just 5,200 votes among more than 3 million votes cast. In 2003 Peters was appointed by the Governor to run the Michigan State Lottery. Last year Peters was named the Griffin Chair in American Government at Central Michigan University.

Kevorkian earned his reputation and nickname of Dr. Death by assisting in the deaths of nearly 100 terminally ill people. He ran afoul of the law in Michigan many times because it does not have an assisted suicide law, but he also managed to stay out of jail with the help of his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger. The cases earned so much media attention that Fieger parlayed that name recognition to win the Democratic nomination for Michigan governor in 1998, but he lost to the incumbent in the general election.

Without Fieger’s guidance, Kevorkian made a mistake that proved to be his downfall. On September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection to 52-year-old Thomas Youk, who was suffering from terminal Lou Gerhig’s Disease. In past assisted suicides, the person committing suicide had injected themselves or used the machine Kevorkian designed. Kevorkian compounded his mistake by allowing the videotaped suicide to be broadcast on “60 Minutes” and then daring authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out assisted suicides.

Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder by a Michigan jury in 1999 and sentenced to serve a 10-25 year prison sentence. Kevorkian, 79, is terminally ill with Hepatitis C, which he contracted while doing research on blood transfusions in Vietnam, and he was paroled on June 1, 2007 due to good behavior. He has indicated he plans to run as an independent. Many people have dismissed his run as insignificant, including many Democrats. Veteran Michigan journalist Jack Lessenberry, who was one of the first reporters to cover Kevorkian, dismissed it as just one more attempt at the publicity he craves.

But Republicans are hoping the lifelong Oakland County resident can drain off liberal vote for Peters.

“He’s a household name here,” Clark said. “It will be very hard to ignore him.”

As the incumbent, Knollenberg has had little trouble winning reelection over the years. He has had little trouble against a list of relatively unknown Democratic candidates, winning easily: winning 55 percent to 40 percent in 2000, 58-39 in 2002 and 58-39 in 2004. But 2006 was different. He had a close race with relatively unknown liberal radio talk show host and political activist Nancy Skinner. Knollenberg won by his smallest margin ever, 51-46 percent. Skinner indicated she was going to run for the seat again, but she got of the race early, deferring to Peters.

Ironically, she has ties to a candidate who many say may be a factor in this race. In 2004 she was living in Chicago and was a Democratic candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, losing in the Democratic primary election to one Barack Obama.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took notice of that race after 2006, the current candidate and the trend of the district to designate it one of two targeted seats in Michigan.

“He is definitely on the edge,” Fealk said. “If we are ever going to unseat him this will be the year. Gary Peters is an excellent candidate and has done an excellent job of fundraising, and he has the DCCC and the unions behind him.”

Knollenberg votes with President Bush on most issues, and many people think he is vulnerable there because of the president’s low approval ratings, as well as Knollenberg’s position on the war in Iraq.

“He is very vulnerable on the war,” Fealk said. “If you look at his campaign web site, the war is not even listed as an issue. He is also very vulnerable on health care and the economy. People really need to look hard at his votes.”

Clark disagrees, and he said most people in Oakland County do not want the U.S. to leave Iraq before the mission is complete.

“That will be just one of many issues,” he said. “The fact is most people don't want to be there forever, but hey want to win. Most people I talked to who are against the war are not in favor of an immediate withdraw.”

There is also speculation on the effect the top ticket candidate will have on this race. Fealk says the historic nature of the potential Democratic nominees is sure to increase voter turnout for the Democrats, but he thinks Obama’s nomination will have a larger effect on turnout in the more urban Pontiac area and benefit Peters.

“I don’t want to make it a race issue, but I expect to see more turnout if he is the nominee,” he said. “I definitely think Obama will have a positive effect on turnout.”

Clark thinks Republican nominee Sen. John McCain will rally the district's many independent voters.

“John McCain is a candidate that will send a strong message to independents, and I think John McCain is the type of candidate we need to carry Michigan and Oakland County,” he said. “Michigan will be very important, specifically Oakland County, and I think we can win.”

Senate holding confirmation hearing for new DHS director

LANSING – With the budget crisis out of the way – for 30 days at least – the Michigan Senate is getting back to its normal schedule of 10 a.m. sessions Tuesday through Thursday.

In a routine week filled with committee hearings, the Senate Families and Human Services Committee’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday of Ismael Ahmed as the director of the troubled Department of Human Services may be the most interesting. Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Ahmed on August 9 as the director of one of the largest executive departments in state government following the resignation of Marianne Udow-Phillips. Ahmed has been serving as the acting director of DHS since his appointment until the Senate advisee and consent hearing.

The far-flung DHS has more than 10,000 employees and directs the operations of public assistance and service programs that includes temporary cash assistance, food assistance, childcare, child support enforcement, medical assistance, adoption and foster care services, domestic violence services, juvenile justice services and adult and children’s protective services. The DHS and former director Udow-Phillips came under fire recently for its handling of the Ricky Holland case, the 7-year-old Williamston boy who was murders by his adoptive parents in July 2005 after the parental rights of his biological parents were terminated by DHS.

Ahmed has a unique resume, and he has earned the respect of many people in Michigan with his work as the executive director and founder of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS). It’s a private nonprofit agency that grew from a storefront operation that helped just about 125 people in 1971 to an agency with a $15-million budget that helps some 90,000 people a year. However, because ACCESS was created primarily to assist the Arab immigrant population adapt to life in America it and Ahmed have come under attack by some conservative groups and bloggers, especially following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. by Muslim extremists.

In 2002 when he ran as the Democratic nominee to the Board of Regents for the University of Michigan he was attacked by Debbie Schlussel - a conservative political commentator, radio talk show host, columnist and attorney – as being friendly to Arab terrorist groups. Those attacks continue, but Ahmed has his defenders as well, such as veteran journalist and Wayne State University Journalism Professor Jack Lessenberry , who called Schlussel an "Ann Coulter wannabe."

The committee hearing - chaired by Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Grand Rapids – will begin at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Senate hearing room on the ground floor of Boji Tower, 124 W. Allegan St. in downtown Lansing. The hearing, like all committee hearings, is open to the public.

Veteran journalist says no vote for income tax increase jeopardizes Michigan

NOVI - Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry told a group of West Oakland County Democrats that the budget and economic situation in Michigan is the worst he has ever seen it.

“However bad you thing the situation is in Michigan, it’s worse,” he said. “There is no way to exaggerate the situation.”

Lessenberry has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News, reporting from more than 40 countries. His writing has appeared in such national publications as Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He is also a professor of journalism at Wayne State University, and his freelance columns appear in The Metro Times, The Traverse-City Record Eagle and The Toledo (Ohio) Blade. He is also a senior political analyst for Michigan Public Radio.

Lessenberry was extremely critical of the state Legislature’s inability to pass a budget, or approve a much needed income tax increase. He said no company would want to move to Michigan with the government in disarray, the roads and infrastructure crumbling and the state’s biggest assets, the schools, being starved. He says as a professor at Wayne he sees far too many promising students drop out of college simply because they cannot afford the tuition, especially in light of an 18 percent increase in tuition this summer.

“It’s not even a raise in taxes, it’s a restoration,” Lessenberry said. “I’m not a farmer, but farmers settled this state.
“They know that to prosper they cannot eat next year’s seed corn,” he said.

He lashed out at the Republicans refusal to vote for the income tax increase because of the fear of a recall from a man who has never had a job where he was not paid with tax dollars.

“Republicans believe in taxes they just believe in taxing the poor,” he said. “They are turning Michigan into Mississippi with ice storms. It’s very scary for those of us left in Michigan.”

Despite speaking in front of a room full of Democrats, he pulled no punches and also had hard words for Democrats too. He took Gov. Jennifer Granholm to task for a lack of leadership on the budget. He said she should have bought a half hour of TV time to tell people the budget situation in a quasi fireside chat and use the political capital she gained in the election with an overwhelming victory and being term-limited.

“We will be the laughing stock of the nation if we have a shutdown,” Lessenberry said. “The governor took far too long to take a principled stand. She let Mike Bishop take a major role.”
“I just do not understand why the governor did not take the lead on this,” he said. “She has no political capital to lose.”

Lessenberry was also critical of the 10 freshman Democratic House members in vulnerable seats who did not cast an up or down vote for the income tax increase during last weekend’s marathon House session.

“They are gutless wonders,” he said. “They refused to vote because they want to hang on to a job they are going to lose in six years; the state of Michigan is at stake here.”

Lessenberry had some bold predictions for the presidential primary, saying Hilary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. He also said he did not expect Barack Obama to be her running mate no matter how well he did in the primaries because Lessenberry thinks asking voters to vote for two firsts in the same election – a woman and African-American for president and vice-president - was asking too much. He expects her running mate to be a male Senator from a Middle Western state. However, he had no idea who the front-runner was in what he called a particularity weak Republican field

“Hilary Clinton is already the Democratic nominee; she has already been anointed,” he said. “Usually, it’s the Republicans who settle this first.”

He said the U.S. Congressional districts have been so effectively gerrymandered he expects little change there, but there could be a race in the 7th District where GOP U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg faces a challenge from the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer and in the 9th District where long-time Republican Joe Knollenberg faces a challenge from Democrat Gary Peters.

“He (Walberg) is somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan. The last time I said that I got an angry note; Genghis Khan was angry at being compared to Tim Walberg.”

Lessenberry said he was less than excited about Peters' chances of winning because he called him a “lousy campaigner.” He said Peters was qualified, smart and capable, but he is not a good campaigner. He said he singe-handily allowed the first Republican to be elected to the position of attorney general in Michigan in almost 40 years.

“You need to get Nancy Skinner out of there first," he said. “The last thing the Democrats need is a bruising primary.”

The state House will be an interesting place next year with 44 members term-limited, but Lessenberry said it will be a good year for Democrats.

“Democrats will pick up a few more seats,” he said. “I do not see Republicans taking control of the House.”

Bishop’s treachery reads like a bad Tom Clancy novel

It has been tough getting my head around the fast-changing budget situation in the Michigan Legislature, especially because it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. The twists and turns and double crosses come fact and furious. Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry summed up the political games being played pretty well yesterday in his online column.

”But this also tells us that the top priority of our legislators, especially the Republicans, is not our best interests. It is not our children’s future. It is their narrow, selfish political agenda. Which in the case of Mike Bishop, apparently means running for governor.”

This is a story that has a top-secret plan, blackmail, leaking private correspondence and now we have a hostage crisis with a list of demands. The sad part is that the book is still being written, and if Bishop has his way it will have an unhappy ending for Michigan residents and will cause some grave damage to the state.

We have already seen the sharp contrast in the work ethic between the GOP-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House, and we saw a perfect example of it earlier in the year when the Senate took a two-week vacation and the House stayed on to address the crisis facing our state. There was some good news today, despite the attempt at sabotage by Bishop, and a deal was finally reached on replacing the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) today. The House was in session tonight until 9:10 p.m. to get it done when it should have been done weeks ago only because Bishop was again reneging on deals and dragging his feet. Apparently the Senate was already on the two-week vacation it had to have.

Just two days ago Gov. Granholm sent a confidential letter to Bishop and other Legislative leaders on Tuesday reminding them about their agreement to
pass a comprehensive budget solution. It also asked them to cancel their two-week summer vacation plans to pass this so school boards and local governments who run their fiscal years on a July 1 to June 30 cycle can properly plan. Bishop, the Newt Gingrich of state government, said he was going on vacation anyway, holding the state government hastate.

Bishop has advocated a part-time legislature and apparently he’s doing it on his own authority. He apparently forgot about the part-time salary part.

After Bishop leaked the confidential letter, in retaliation for asking them to give up their junkets, the Senate proposed a bunch of meaningless” reforms” that do nothing to save any money, but it does go after the Republican’s biggest enemies: public school teachers, unions and the working poor. It even pushed a bill trying to further kill the middle class by trying to make Michigan a so-called “right-to-work state.”

This morning Bishop released a list of outrageous demands that the governor must meet before he will release the hostage, the state government, and this was after meeting previous Bishop demands to cut spending and reform government. After reneging on an agreement in private to raise the state income tax and expand the state sales tax, Bishop released this list of demands with absurd statements like, “State government does not have a taxing problem, it has a spending problem. Higher taxation without significant reform will only result in more bloated state government and a weakened economy.”

He can't possibly mean the state government that has fewer employees now than it did in 1973 despite having more than a million more residents. Back in February the 12-person, bipartisan Emergency Financial Advisory Panel - made up of two former governors and state budget directors, legislative leaders and longtime Lansing policy experts from both political parties - issued a common sense report that said a combination of cuts in spending and creating a modern tax structure is the only way to address the budget problems. Apparently Bishop knows better than both a Democratic and Republican former governor.

The really sad part of the demand is this statement; “Senate Republicans have no intention of obliging the governor with a vote on her tax increase proposals.” We’re not even talking about approving them he’s even obstructing a vote. An early tax proposal would have cost the average taxpayer about $1.33 a week, or a cup of coffee, but Republicans were too cheap to invest that much in our state. We are not going to cut our way out of this situation, and why would we want to?

The opening chapter of “Bishop checkmates the Michigan government” began way back in January when the governor introduced an Executive Order outlining some painful cuts in spending to balance the shortfall in the current year’s budget. The governor was the target of criticism from everybody from PTA moms to senior citizens for the necessary cuts she had proposed that met Senate Republican demands. In Funerary, the Senate Republicans rejected the budget plan without one of their own, just like they did with the Singe Business Tax.

When the GOP finally came up with a plan it was so secret that only GOP members of the Appropriations Committee were allowed to see the full proposal and were told not to write any of it down to keep it as confidential as possible to avoid any criticism over the gutless and mean-sprinted cuts they had planned. After a month of the tightest security since the Manhattan Project, the Senate Republicans launched a sneak attack by exploding the secret plan on a Thursday evening when most people had already left Lansing. The 38-page document was rushed through committee and then right to the Senate floor to be passed an hour later with no one even having the time to read it let alone understand the ramifications of the irresponsible cuts.

As Bishop’s doublespeak and double-crosses continued into the summer, we even had Republicans accusing Democrats of blackmail for simply pointing out the damage their cuts will have.

That brings us up to the latest ploy that included bad faith negotiations and releasing a confidential letter when just a few months ago when no one could get near his top-secret budget plan that was apparently a mater of national security. It’s just one more political game aimed at destroying the governor and winning the office for himself. The only problem is the damage he will cause to the state in the process.

Ward’s alleged campaign finance reform bills die predictable death in lame duck session

It just boggles the mind that all Chris Ward has to do to get on the front page of the Daily Press & Argus is to write a letter. If I were at all cynical I would say this is just one more attempt to help clean up his record for his next run at political office. Has anyone from that newspaper ever asked him a tough question, and if they did ask a tough question did he answer it and did the response ever make it by the editors?

A package of bills pushed by Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton Township, was approved by the House but is awaiting action in the Senate, where Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, has been reluctant to schedule it for consideration.
A spokesman for Sikkema repeated the senator's stance Friday that he won't bring the bills up.
But Ward argued that, with the lame-duck session under way, now is the perfect time to move forward.
In a letter to Sikkema and Senate Majority Floor Leader Bev Hammerstrom of Temperance, Ward urged action: "I commend you for your efforts to make this lame-duck session as meaningful as possible. This issue rises to that level of importance in my mind, and there is no better time than now when a significant number of members no longer have a vested interest in retaining the status quo."

This so-called "election campaign finance reform" package of bills that came through the committee Ward chairs does more to benefit his party than anyone else, especially HB 6128. It was the only bill in the five-bill package passed in the House last June that Ward actually sponsored, and it was also the only bill that received any opposition. In fact, it barley passed by five vote because it really benefits his party.

Rich Robinson, Director of the non-partisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said in published reports in June that the bill favors Republicans because they rely on wealthy individuals for contributions. He also said an individual who violates the law faces up to three years in prison and fines of up to $5,000 or both, but if a large corporation or company violates the law all they face is a fine of up to $10,000. Huge corporations like Enron, other energy companies and pharmaceutical companies that funnel huge amounts of cash to Republicans would have no deterrent to continuing that practice.

With just three session days remaining in the Lame Duck session, there is little chance the bills will even get to the Senate floor. Perhaps Ward should have looked at real campaign finance reform instead of putting on a show.

With Ward’s record of junkets, free meals from lobbyists, gifts to rich developers and doing the bidding of rich contributors anyone would have been suspicious when he pushed for alleged campaign finance reform.

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry was just one who was suspicious of his alleged campaign finance reform, writing, "Be still, my sloshing heart. Actually, my personal blood pump never even skipped a beat once I noticed that the sponsor of these bills was Chris Ward. That is the moral equivalent of Monica Lewinsky opening a charter school of chastity.”

After January we can expect to see a stab taken at passing some real campaign finance reform that benefits the people and not the Republican Party.

Veteran journalist hits the nail on the head on harmful effects of Gerrymandering and Republican spin

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry has a unique way of cutting right through the BS and getting straight to the point. For a good example, last summer he called out Chris Ward on his so-called election reform bill, saying it was “the moral equivalent of Monica Lewinsky opening a charter school of chastity. If Chris were in another occupation, he might have a mattress strapped to his back.”
Lessenberry has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News, reporting from more than 40 countries. His writing has appeared in such national publications as Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He is also a professor of journalism at Wayne State University, and his freelance columns appear in The Metro Times, The Traverse-City Record Eagle and The Toledo (Ohio) Blade.
He hit another one out of the park today on his blog and radio show on NPR when he addressed gerrymandering and redistricting.

Here’s what the Republican spin on this is. They are saying that this was really a national election. They claim the vote in Michigan was really a vote against the way the war has been going, and also a reaction to corruption in the Republican Congress.
So were the Democratic victories in Michigan an accident?
Not at all. Instead, the media has been hornswoggled into believing Republican propaganda. This was in fact a moderate to liberal landslide. The truth is that the only reason Republicans control anything at all is due to the “accident” of outrageous gerrymandering.
Let’s look at the record. Democrats got a huge majority -- 54.4 percent -- of all the votes cast for state senate. But Republicans won 21 seats; Democrats only 17. How could this happen?
Simple. Five years ago, a Republican legislature and governor approved a plan to crowd all the Democrats into as few districts as possible, and stretch Republicans over as many as possible. This was subject to approval by a GOP-dominated Supreme Court.
They did the same thing in Congressional districts. Democratic congressional candidates got 300,000 more votes than Republican ones. But that translated into nine Republican winners, and only six Democrats. All the Democrats won by more than two to one.

For a local example, just take a look at Livingston County’s two state House districts. Instead of dividing them into a more logical east and west or even north and south configuration it resembles some sort of a big C. The 66th district takes in Milford where nobody there identifies at all with Livingston County, instead of South Lyon, for instance, where some residents are in the Brighton school district and where some Livingston County residents are in the South Lyon school district.