Rocker makes strange bedfellow for GOP sheriff

The Republican Party bills itself as the party of family values, but not only does it fail to support middle class families, they associate themselves with some strange people: like rightwing extremist ex-rocker Ted Nugent.

In a brief in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, “Republican gubernatorial candidate and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard this week "joined" rock music legend Ted Nugent to call for an amendment to Michigan's Constitution to create a "legal right to hunt and fish."”

I’m not sure why we need such an amendment, and that’s just a political ploy. But why would any supposedly family values political candidate want to be associated with someone like Nugent? The answer is the money and the press. Not only that, it’s hard for Republicans to find a pop or rock artist that supports Republicans.

You will recall that in the 2008 Presidential election, the rock group Boston told former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee that he could no longer use the song “More than a feeling” as his theme song, and liberal rocker John Mellencamp told Arizona Republican Senator John McCain not to use any of his songs at events.

I guess Bouchard can use a Nugent song for his theme song. “Cat Scratch Fever,” or “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” would do nicely. After all, Nugent is quoted as saying:

"My man, Mike Bouchard, is the kind of leader and hunting buddy Michigan needs. We need a leader in truth who will continue to stand up for our guns, God and beliefs," Nugent said.

And what a guy to have as your man. Upstanding citizen Nugent could have faced statuary rape charges for sleeping with his 17-year-old Hawaiian girlfriend Pele Massa, so he talked her parents into allowing him to adopt her.

Like many Republicans, Nugent is pro-war, except when it comes for him to actually serve in combat. The famous story he has told numerous times has him stopping all forms of personal hygiene for a month and showing up for his draft board physical in pants caked with his own urine and feces, winning a deferment from serving in Vietnam. However, since Nugent has become a darling of the Republicans and appears on Faux “news” regularly, he has changed the story and now says he enrolled at Oakland Community College and got a deferment. Events say that is highly unlikely, but at a minimum it makes him a liar.

Why he has anything to do the Governor’s race or Michigan is beyond me. He voluntary left Michigan in 2004 when he moved his family to Crawford, Texas, where George Bush once owned a sprawling ranch and spent the majority of his time instead of at the White House.

I was a Nugent fan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I still like some of his early stuff. The irrelevant stuff he said on local Detroit radio stations was funny and rebellious, but it didn’t have the hateful, misinformed tone it does now. But I have also matured since then.

Palin heaps on disgusting personal attacks that lack substance or truth

As the dust settles after the Grand Oil Party's long disgusting rant last night at the Republican National Convention, the facts are beginning to revel their stretching of the truth and outright lies.

Sarah Palin should be renamed Spiro Agnew for her attacks on the corporate media. When you do not have the issues on your side, you attack the media; and doing it for doing their job. Like Grampy McSame's campaign manager says, this election is not about the issues. Again, when you don't have the issues on your side, you attack.

I was shocked, although I should not have been, at the personal attacks and belittling of the Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I was also shocked at the way Palin demeaned Community Organizers. They work to help the poor, improve substandard housing and even advocate for the education of special needs children.

Calling her mean spirited seems charitable. I cannot wait for the debate between Palin and Biden. She's very good at reading a speech someone else wrote; after all, that was her brief career in TV "news." I was initially worried that after Biden kicked her butt in the debate, he would be accused of being a bully, but after her disgusting personal attacks last night, that goes out the window and the gloves should be off.

Rudy Giuliani's stand up routine was even more disgusting to watch. The ethically challenged mayor did not spare the lies. His maniacal laugh was also rather disturbing. Man, this guy's ego must be huge. The good news was we only heard the words 9/11 once from him.

The Associated Press has done a little fact checking, and maybe the conservative, corporate media is trying to make up for the poor job they did leading up to the unnecessary Iraq invasion.

Palins's claim that she did away with wasteful spending and championed to end the abuses of earmarks flies in the face of the fact she hired a lobbyist to go after earmarks when she was the mayor of a small Alaska town.

She also falsely claimed Sen. Barack Obama authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform in the Senate, ignoring, of course, his record. She also completely misrepresented his tax policy.

One the most insulting and obvious lies was from former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, claming Palin got "more votes running for mayor of the small town she served than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries. I guess he describes to the GOP strategy if you're going to tell a lie, you might as well tell a big one.

The base may have enjoyed the disgusting performance, but I don't think the rest of Americans will appreciate it.

Boston founder tells Huckabee to sing a different tune

Another Republican presidential candidate has been called out for the unauthorized use of a rock song as part of their campaign. This time it’s former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Boston founder Tom Scholz objecting to the use of the ’70s hit “More than a feeling.”

Huckabee has even performed the song with one-time Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau - who played briefly with the band in 1980 – at campaign events with Huckabee on bass. Scholz formed the band in 1975. The former MIT graduate and mechanical engineer had recorded most of debut album in his basement studio, and he wrote “More than a feeling” and played all of the guitar parts in the song that reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts in 1976.

Scholz is a Barack Obama supporter. He wrote a letter to Huckabee asking him to stop using the song, and he also said playing with Goudreau does not imply permission.

“Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for,” Scholz wrote.

Earlier this month liberal rocker John Mellencamp objected to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain using his songs at presidential rallies, causing McCain to sing a different tune.

Petition drive to eliminate state income tax in favor of an increased sales tax kicks off

LANSING -- Saying Michigan was broken, state Rep. Fulton Sheen, R-Plainwell, held press conferences across the state to kickoff the petition drive to place an amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot that will allow implementation of the Michigan Fair Tax Proposal.

The Fair Tax Proposal would completely eliminate the recently enacted Michigan Business Tax (MBT), personal property tax, the 6-mill business education tax and the Michigan Income Tax in favor of a 9.75 percent sales tax on goods, food and services purchased in Michigan. That's a 3.75 percent increase from the current 6 percent sales tax. Business-to-business transactions would be exempt.

"Michigan is broken," Sheen said. "At this point in time we have a 7.6 percent unemployment rate while the nation is at just 4.6 percent. The entire national economy is headed for trouble, and that will have even more of a negative effect on Michigan."

The Houston-based Americans For Fair Taxation (AFFT), formed in 1995, is helping finance the ballot initiative with an eye on making the system national. But Sheen is pushing the Michigan Fair Tax Proposal Committee. AFFT has close ties with Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor is a big promoter of the tax plan, and the group has a large presence at his events, handing out literature and other activities. AFFT's former Chief Operating Officer recently left AFFT to work on the Huckabee campaign.

The committee held press conferences in Lansing, Pontiac, Flint and Grand Rapids Tuesday, and the committee has to collect the signatures of 381,000 registered voters before the 90-day window expires on July 7. The committee hopes to collect up to 500,000 signatures to be safe and to withstand any possible challenges.

"Today is an important day, an historic day," said Rep. Rick Shaffer, R-Three Rivers. "It's going to have a snowball effect, pardon the pun. When people see the benefits of the fair tax, people will support it."

Sheen introduced House Joint Resolution L on May 8, 2007 with 36 Republican co-sponsors, and the resolution was referred to the House Committee on Tax Policy where it is awaiting a hearing. Sheen said he introduced the resolution three years ago because the Legislature said one of its goals was to reform the tax system to make it more streamlined and simple.

The resolution has little chance of getting any traction in the Democratic-controlled House, but no proposal has been introduced in the Republican-controlled Senate.

"What we have when the governor will not listen and the Legislature will not act, then way to go is the ballot proposal," Sheen said. "Why is it in Michigan the very same thing it wants to attract it taxes, jobs."

Sheen said Michigan residents make all of their purchases with after tax dollars, but with the fair tax proposal all purchases will be made with pre-tax dollars. He said although the sales tax increase is 3.75 cents for every dollar, taxpayers will instead keep 4.35 cents from every dollar. All Michigan residents would receive a monthly rebate to offset the additional items that will be taxed, such as food and services that are not now subject to the sales tax.

Sheen said the sales tax would also cash in on Michigan's vibrant tourism industry because a large amount of our tax burden would be picked up by non-residents who spend money here on goods and services while on vacations.

"Every person who comes here to fish, hunt or boat will pay the tax," he said. "We will export out tax."

McCain campaigning hard for Michigan Presidential Primary

Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will maintain a solid presence in Michigan leading up to the Jan. 15 Michigan Presidential Primary.

Cindy Pine, the Hamburg Township Supervisor and the former chair of the Livingston County Republican Party, said McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” will land at 2 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Crystal Gardens Banquet Center, 5768 E. Grand River Ave., in Livingston County’s Genoa Township for a town hall meeting that’s free and open to the public.

McCain is coming off of a respectable fourth place finish in the Iowa caucuses with 13 percent of the vote, and many pundits are calling it a victory for McCain. McCain spent very little time or money in Iowa, instead focusing on the New Hampshire primary set for Tuesday. The surprise win by Mike Huckabee over Mitt Romney- the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney - in the Iowa caucuses may be a good thing for McCain, who decided several months ago to stake his entire campaign on New Hampshire, where he is ahead of Romney in the polls.

It was not too long ago that McCain was falling like a rock in the polls, and supporters were jumping off the Straight Talk Express like rats from a sinking ship. We have seen that scenarios play out right here in Michigan, which may make McCain’s Michigan visits interesting.

Here in Livingston County, Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton, was named as one of four state representatives from Michigan to serve as legislative co-chairs of the McCain campaign way back in September of 2006, and Ward was also named co-chair of the Straight Talk America Michigan Legislative Advisory Team. But Ward announced in June of last year he was backing off of his previous endorsement of McCain for the Republican Presidential nomination and switching his allegiance to former actor and lobbyist Fred Thompson; before Thompson was even running.

In September Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced he was resigning his post as Michigan chairman of McCain's presidential campaign.

McCain has had past success in Michigan, winning the 2000 Michigan Presidential Primary over then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, despite an almost guarantee of a Bush victory and endorsement by former Michigan Gov. John Engler. McCain just recently picked up a Michigan victory of sorts, receiving the endorsement of one of Michigan’s largest daily newspapers, the Detroit News.

But there is also some opposition to McCain in Michigan. The Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom is planning to demonstrate against McCain's immigration policies when he appears for a town hall meeting at 4 p.m. Jan. 13 at the MSU Kellogg Center, 55 South Harrison Rd. in East Lansing. The MSU YAF has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Other Michigan appearances by McCain include: a Grand Rapids rally and town hall meeting at 10:15 Jan. 9 a.m. at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Northern Jet Management, 5500 44th Street SE.

A Macomb town hall meeting 10:45 a.m. Jan. 12 at the Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 Fourteen Mile Rd. in Wayne.

An Oakland town hall meeting 3:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Clawson High School Trojan Hall, 101 John M Ave.

A Battle Creek town hall meeting 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Burnham-Brook Center, 200 West Michigan Ave.

A Kalamazoo town hall meeting, 9:45 a.m. Jan. 14 at Kalamazoo Christian High School, 2121 Stadium Dr.

A Holland town hall meeting 12:15 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Hope College DeWitt Theater, 141 Columbia Ave.

A Spring Lake get out the vote rally and town hall meeting, 4 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Nichols Company, 1391 Judson Rd. in Spring Lake.

A Kent County get out the vote rally, 5:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Kent County Republican headquarters, 264 Leonard St. NW in Grand Rapids.

A Traverse City get out the vote rally 8n a.m. Jan. 15 at Northwestern Michigan College Hagerty Place, 715 East Front St.