New website highlights Schuette’s oily record

The Michigan Democratic Party today unveiled a new website called SchuetteOnDuty.com to inform voters of the truth about preferred Michigan Republican Attorney General Nominee Bill Schuette’s oily record.

Has a record of supporting big oil and Wall Street. As a State Senator he sponsored a bill that would allow slant oil drilling under the Great Lakes.

“Bill Schuette has been in the pockets of Big Oil, Wall Street, and other special interests throughout his entire career,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Voters deserve to know the truth about Bill Schuette and his terrible record. SchuetteOnDuty.com will provide those answers and let the voters know that Bill Schuette has been ‘On Duty’ for those special interests and not for them.”

SchuetteOnDuty.com contains videos, press releases, and documents about Schuette’s record, including “Schuette on Duty for Big Oil”, which shows how Schuette has kowtowed to Big Oil through campaign contributions and supporting drilling for oil in the Great Lakes while he was a State Senator.

The site will also include, “Schuette on Duty for Wall Street,” and “Schuette on Duty for Himself” – the most recent video which tells voters how Schuette failed to vote for the Americans with Disabilities Act on final passage while he was a Congressman.

“These videos and press releases only scratch the service of Schuette’s record,” Brewer said. “There will be plenty more to come.”

GOP false talking points and lies on BP oil spill continue

The thousand of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP oil well didn’t take a break for the 4th of July holiday, and neither did Republican lies in an attempt to blame President Obama for the response to it.

A perfect example of that appears in a letter to the editor in Sunday’s edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by someone named Randy Knibes called “Leadership lacking on Gulf oil spill.” It contains every single false Republican talking point the party of BP has put out. I’m not sure if the letter is part of the Livingston County Republic Party’s letter writing campaign or it’s a case of the Republican strategy of if you tell a lie often enough people start to believe it, and this guy has bought into it.

First, there is no such person as Randy Knibes. However, there is a Randy Kniebes, a Brighton Township Republican.

From the opening sentence we see that Kniebes is full of crap and we see we are going to get a bunch of GOP talking points when he writes, “President Barack Obama's lack of leadership, gross incompetence and self-serving decisions on this oil-spill situation in the Gulf of Mexico have been appalling.”

There has been no lack of leadership, no incompetence on the President’s part and I have not seen a single “self-serving decision.”

Right after that we get the first false and debunked talking point:

“Shortly after the original oil spill began, 17 foreign nations and four international groups with expertise in controlling oil spills offered their help to Obama to contain this large spill. This included the Dutch, who offered Obama the services of an entire fleet of the world's most advanced oil skimmers. He told them all "no."“

Simply not true. According to Factcheck.com, “

To date, 25 countries and four international organizations have offered support in the form of skimming vessels, containment and fire boom, technical assistance and response solutions, among others. A chart provided by the State Department shows that as of June 23 offers from six foreign countries or entities had been accepted. Fifty more offers were under consideration — including multiple offers from a single country or entity. One offer had been declined: France offered a chemical dispersant that is not approved for use in the United States.”

But here is the big lie that is on the lips of every single Republican:

“Why? Because Obama was unwilling to waive the Jones Act, which regulates foreign-vessel operations in U.S. waters, ever mindful that he did not want to upset his union cronies. Former President George W. Bush waived the Jones Act after Hurricane Katrina to speed recovery efforts, but President Obama apparently decided his personal political relationships were more important than protecting America's shoreline.”

This follows the GOP strategy, if you’re going to tell a lie, you might as well tell a big one,

“Some critics have charged — falsely — that Obama’s refusal to waive the Jones Act has kept foreign vessels from assisting in cleanup efforts.”
“In reality, the Jones Act has yet to be an issue in the response efforts. The Deepwater Horizon response team reported in a June 15 press release that there are 15 foreign flagged ships currently participating in the oil spill cleanup. None of them needed a waiver because the Jones Act does not apply. The Jones Act is a trade and commerce law that was enacted in 1920 as part of a larger Marine Merchant Act. It requires all trade delivered between U.S. ports to be carried in U.S. flagged vessels constructed in the United States and owned by American citizens. The law states its purpose is to develop a merchant marine for national defense and commerce.”

Then Mr. Kniebes takes a few shots at the president for not talking to the BP CEO, claming:

“For 56 days after the spill, President Obama could not find the time to even talk with the CEO of BP — although he did find the time for multiple fundraisers, Earth Day celebrations, golf games, vacations, hosting various sports teams, shooting hoops and attending concerts by big-name entertainers.”

Apparently, Mr. Kniebes has not heard about President’s Obama’s securing of a $20 billion escrow account from BP to pay for the clean up and compensate Gulf Coast residents who have lost their livelihoods and way of life. He talked to him when it counted.

Mr. Kniebes then has a problem with the moratorium on offshore drilling. Apparently, he’s unaware that there is no plan or technology to stop another leak. But his facts are all screwed up on production. He claims “ Oil production from the Gulf represents nearly a third of U.S. domestic production.” Now, that may be true, but oil production in the U.S. only accounts for about 12 percent, and it all goes to the world market.

Then Mr. Kniebes the President of “trying to use this environmental tragedy to advance his previously doomed "cap and tax" legislation.” The “cap and tax” is a talking point from GOP linguists. After the latest oil spill, it makes you wonder what it’s going to take to start the process of getting us off a dirty, dangerous and fast disappearing energy source. Here is one of the most ridiculous claims among many, “Since the scientific evidence for global warming has been widely discredited.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The simple fact is global warming is without a doubt man-made and a threat.

Senate Republicans would rather bash the President than stop the Asian Carp

LANSING – The massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reaffirmed a few things about Republicans: that it will criticize President Obama just for waking up in the morning, and they hate government and say the private sector can do everything better until the private sector causes a disaster and they call for government help.

A pair of resolutions introduced and approved in the Senate on Thursday reinforced those two principals. They attacked the President and tried to blame him for the BP oil spill.

On Wednesday researchers confirmed that at least one Asian carp had been discovered in Lake Calumet, above the locks at the Chicago River, and that led Republicans to introduce and approve Senate Resolution 166 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 47 on Thursday.

Senate Democrats objected to the partisan language in the resolution that said,

“A resolution to call the Obama Administration to task for its failed leadership on preventing Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and call again for immediate actions to prevent further carp movement into the Great Lakes.”

Last February, the Senate unanimously passed two similar resolutions that urged the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take immediate actions to prevent the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes and to develop long-term strategies to address this problem. But this time the Republicans thought it more important to take shots at the President than address the problem.

Last winter the federal government launched a new $78.5 million plan to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. However, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm deemed the proposed measures insufficient, and she directed Republican Attorney General "Manoogian" Mike Cox to seek a legal solution. He filed a motion to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency order to close the locks connecting the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to Lake Michigan. However, the conservative court rejected the motion. I guess we need a better AG if he can’t even win in a friendly court.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, introduced an amendment to strike out the partisan language, but the Republicans would have not of that, and it failed along party lines. Prusi said the President was taking the recommendation of the Army Corps of Engineers, and the resolutions should single out them and not the president. At the very least there is no reason to make it a partisan attack.

“They have been the ones who have been delaying and studying and perhaps giving the President some bad advice on how to resolve this issue,” he said. “But I don’t think that it will serve us well if we just point the finger at the President, making this into a partisan issue.”

It makes no sense to ask some to do something, and then attack them at the same time. The resolution also attacks the President for the BP oil spill, despite the fact that the oil-friendly Bush Administration stripped out regulations and allowed BP the permit to drill when they did not have adequate safety measures in place or a real plan to address an oil leak.

“Whereas, The Obama Administration already has one ecological disaster on its watch. The administration should not allow another disaster with longer-term consequences and within its power to prevent from coming to fruition.”

Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor, noted the irony of the Republicans scramming for government help now.

“I would like to welcome my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to the belief that the government needs to be strong and vigorous in its mission to protect the people from harm and to help us address harms in the environment that we cannot address on an individual basis,” she said. “I think it is wonderful that we have bipartisan agreement on that issue today. I hope that we remember it when we have other environmental issues come up in the near future.”

Brater also said she hopes the Republicans sudden concern for the environment continues. She said Republicans can’t continue to call for smaller government, refuse to pay the true costs of environmental protection to keep invasive species out of our ecosystem and prevent other harms to the environment, refuse to regulate industries that cause environmental harm and then blame the person who happens to be in the White House when a disaster that has been brewing for decades finally comes to a head.

She called on the Republicans to start moving bills in the Legislature to protect Michigan from ecological disaster that they have been blocking.

“Sitting in the natural resources committee right now are bills to prevent mercury from circulating in our bloodstream; bills to prevent bottles which contain petroleum plastics from being wasted and instead have a deposit and to be recycled; and bills to protect our water and air,” Brater said. “Most interestingly, a bill that would prevent the spread of invasive species in our ecosystem, introduced by the good Senator from the 32nd District (Prusi), is languishing in that committee.”

In the end, the majority of Democrats, unlike Republicans, put partnership aside, and the resolutions passed by a vote of 31-3.

“We should work with the federal government to provide the resources to prevent more of these invasive species from entering our ecosystem at our ports and through our ships that are circulating, and many other ways that we should be working together to prevent Asian carp and other invasive species from destroying our ecosystem,” Brater said.

We have Barton’s apology but still waiting for the apology from the rest of the House Republicans

Some times the Republicans' actions are so out there that even the conservative corporate media can’t ignore it, and the editorial in Tuesday’s edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on the right’s apology for the massive oil spill and wrecking the Gulf coast ecosystem is one of those times.

You will recall last week that of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House and Commerce Committee, apologized to BP for its treatment by the President and having to pay for the damage they caused. He called the President’s Obama’s securing of a $20 billion escrow account from BP to pay for the clean up and compensate Gulf Coast residents who have lost their livelihoods and way of life a “shakedown.”. Barton was quickly forced to apologize for the apology, but make no mistake about it, that is the official position of a number of House Republicans.

That is also the official policy of the Republican Study Committee, the caucus of House Conservatives with some 117 members, including Barton. Its membership also includes Michigan Congressman Dave Camp, R-Midland; “Mad” Thad McCotter, R-Livonia; and “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland.

The editorial got it right:
“Remember when conservatives were nearly fainting in horror when Obama made civil gestures to foreign nations early in his administration? Why, he was apologizing to foreigners. That was silly, but that was the claim.”
“So one would think that there would be praise for a president who negotiated a minimum $20 billion escrow account from BP. Instead, Barton went overboard, publicly criticizing our nation’s president while abjectly apologizing before a foreign business leader.”

Good job conservative editorial board. We also need to remember this in November.

Republicans roll out false talking points over BP escrow account

The latest Republican talking point on the BP oil spill and worst ecological disaster in U.S. history is that President’s Obama’s securing of a $20 billion escrow account from BP to pay for the clean up and compensate Gulf Coast residents who have lost their livelihoods and way of life is that it’s unconstitutional.

Like everything else President Obama does, the Republicans will criticize him no matter what he does for any reason, and they are throwing around words like “tyranny” and “strong-arm” to describe the President’s move to ensure Gulf residents are properly compensated, unlike the victims of the Exxon Valdez disaster where victims waited years to be properly compensated.

I saw rightwing tool and TV pitchman Ben Stein was on the Larry King show pushing the lie that the escrow account was unconstitutional. Considering BP voluntary created the fund, I have no idea what constitutional principal was violated.

Drug addled gas bag Rush Limbaugh has already criticized the President for not doing enough and then doing too much recently made the ridiculous charge that the fund was “Organized Crime in White House.”

But the worst remarks were those of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House and Commerce Committee, apologized to BP for its treatment by the President and having to pay for the damage they caused. Fellow Republicans ran away from him as fast as possible, and Barton apologized for the apology within minutes, but that’s how Republicans really feel.

Here is the scary thing and what voters need to remember in November: if Republicans controlled the House, Barton would be the one regulating oil companies like BP, and people in the Gulf who have lost the way of life they have enjoyed for generations would get nothing.

BP oil gusher being felt in Michigan

People in the Gulf Coast are experiencing the legacy of the having two oilmen in the White House the last eight years as the massive BP oil gusher off the coast of Louisiana approaches the beaches in the area as people make decisions on where they plan to spend their summer vacations.

BP gave Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida money to help pay for clean up and off set the negative effects of the Gulf oil spill., and Mississippi is using $4 million of its money on TV commercials to attracts tourists to their beaches.

Michigan would be a great place for those tourists to come and visit and spend their money. Tourism in Michigan has been a bright spot in the current recovering economy. In fact, last September the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association released a survey of its members showing 72.9 percent had seen an increase in out-of-state visitors coming to their facilities over the summer compared to the summer of 2008.

Those award-winning Pure Michigan ads featuring Tim Allen and Jeff Daniels would be money well spent right now. There is just one problem with that scenario; Senate Republicans voted to end that successful ad campaign. The governor proposed funding the ads with a $2.50 tax on rental cars near airports, a tax paid mostly by out-of-state travelers. But Senate Republicans refused to take up House Bill 5017.

The good news is that a similar oil spill it will never happen in Michigan, but the debate over drilling in the Great Lakes may have an effect in the race for Michigan Attorney General.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer is calling out Republican AG candidate Bill Schuette on his flip-flop on oil drilling in the Great Lakes.
Apparently, Schuette was in favor of it before he was against it.

“Not only did Bill Schuette sponsor and vote for legislation that allowed oil drilling, but then he says he flip-flopped on the issue for political gain,” Brewer said. “The voters in Michigan deserve better. Voters can’t trust a candidate who flip-flops on oil drilling.”

As a State Senator, Schuette sponsored Senate Bill 214 on Feb. 14, 2001 that would allow slant oil drilling under the Great Lakes. However, he voted for House Bill 5081 almost a year later on Feb. 13 that would ban slant oil drilling. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 28-5 and the House by a vote of 98-8. It became law in April of that year after then Gov. John Engler declined to sign it or veto it.

“We need an attorney general who will work to solve problems on behalf of Michigan residents, not work for special interests like Big Oil,” Brewer said. “Bill Schuette has been a politician for 25 years in both Lansing and Washington and his record speaks for itself – he supported oil drilling in the Great Lakes.”

Killing the Pure Michigan ads kills a great opportunity for Michigan tourism

The explosion on the BP oil rig and the massive oil gusher off the coast of Louisiana is hurting tourism in the area.

According to the New York Times, bookings for tourist excursions of the Gulf Coast of Florida and other Gulf of Mexico states is down because of concerns over the massive oil slick reaching beaches there and fishing areas. This is despite, to date, the beaches are clean and unaffected.

If those tourists are looking to go to clean beaches and great fishing spots that are in no danger at all of a massive oil slick they should consider Michigan. Michigan has more freshwater shoreline than any other state in the Union.

The fact is that, in our current bleak but improving economy, tourism has been one of the bright spots, and that has been borne out by the success of the Pure Michigan ads. In fact, in September the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association released a survey of its members showing 72.9 percent had seen an increase in out-of-state visitors coming to their facilities over the summer compared to the summer of 2008.

Wouldn’t it be great if those great ads featuring Tim Allen and Jeff Daniels ran in other states, so that people can see our beautiful beaches and spend the money there were going to spend in Florida in one of the Great Lakes shoreline towns? There is just one problem with that; Senate Republicans voted to end that successful ad campaign. Not only that, to add insult to injury, they cut 51 percent in the money to maintain the state’s welcome centers.

The governor proposed funding the ads with a $2.50 tax on rental cars near airports, a tax paid mostly by out-of-state travelers. But Senate Republicans refused to take up House Bill 5017 because any taxes are bad.

Another opportunity lost to blind ambition and ideology.