MDP Convention energizes base

DETROIT – Reverend Wendell Anthony, the President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, fired up the crowd at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on Saturday at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention, giving the party faithful the zeal they will need to take back the country and the state in 2012.

“We are letting Glenn Beck steal the dream of Martin Luther King and turning it into a nightmare,” he said.

Thousands of people turned out fore the winter convention, and they spent the day in constituency and district caucuses, and they heard from Democratic leaders, both state and national. Party faithful had to get over their disappointment in November, and they talked about defending vital programs for the middle class and the poor and look to 2012 to re-elect President Obama and take back the Michigan and U.S. House.

“I say I’m the leader of the Senate Democrats not the minority leader because we are not the minority party in Michigan,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “We don’t go from been an overwhelmingly blue state in 2008 to being the minority.”

Democrats simply did not turn out in 2010, and we have to do a better job energizing our base. The fact remains, when more people vote, Democrats tend to win.

“My opponent (in November) got four more votes; four votes more than the college kid who ran against me two years ago; I got 5,000 votes less this time,” said Rep. Mark Meadows,” D-East Lansing. “Now, that may be my fault, but there were 5,000 Democrats that did not come out to vote.”

Thursday will be, to quote extremist Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, like an atomic bomb was dropped in Lansing when Gov. Rick Snyder unveils his Top Secret budget recommendation. He has never said what will be cut, not during the campaign and not after elected, but pundits expect the cuts to be deep and extreme. His opponent in November, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, thanked people for supporting him, but he also said we must fight the cuts that mortgage Michigan’s future for some short term cuts.

“We are not going to let this crew come in and dismantle Michigan,” he said. “They say they are going to take back Michigan; they mean they are going to take it back to before the New Deal.”

Whitmer said the first goal is to defend against the elimination of the popular and effective Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), what former Republican President Ronald Reagan called “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”

They have established a web site to protect the tax credit Snyder wants to kill that helps reward 800,000 people who go to work everyday and helps families make ends meet by keeping more of their paycheck.

“He says it’s a handout, but it helps people who work 40 hours a week put food on the table,” Whitmer said. “He wants to take that and give it to his rich friends.”

The situation is not much different on the national level where Republicans want deep, damaging cuts after giving tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent that will deepen the budget deficit.

“Our Congress is in the mode of a reverse Robin Hood; they want to take from the poor to give to the rich,” said U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, said the situation is not much different in the Senate, but the good news is it is controlled by the Democrats.

“The party of nope has been happy just to stop progress; now, they want to turn back progress,” he said.

Levin also said Republicans are more interested in grabbing more power than solving the country’s problems.

“The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has said his top priority is to make Barack Obama a one-term president,” he said. “The top priority of Senate Democrats are jobs.”

Senate votes to kill the discriminatory and unconstitutional Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy

After 17 years the discriminatory and unconstitutional “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy is all but history after the Senate voted 65-31 on Saturday to end the Clinton-era policy banning gays from serving openly in the military.

The Senate followed the lead of the House that passed the ban on Wednesday, and eight Republican senators joined almost the entire Senate Democratic caucus to approve the bill.

The Senate voted 63 to 33 earlier in the day to end a Republican filibuster of the bill, helping President Obama fulfill his campaign pledge to end the policy that about 70 percent of active-duty and reserve forces, 70 percent of the general public, the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also support repelling.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the testimony of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was instrumental in getting the bill passed.

“Passage of this bill is a victory for our military, which can now implement this change in a deliberate, responsible way,” Levin said. “It’s a victory for our country, which has taken another step toward living up to our highest ideals. And it is a victory for thousands of brave men and women who now can serve the nation they love without having to conceal part of their identity.”

The blocking of DADT kills another false GOP talking point

The move by Senate Republicans on Tuesday to block even debate on 2011 defense authorization bill that included language to repeal the discriminatory and unconstitutional Clinton-era “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law blows up another rightwing wing talking point.

Just like the attempt to put teabagger candidates on the ballot blew up teabagger’s lie about it being a nonpartisan movement, the move to block DADT blows away the myth that health insurance reform should not have been passed because of the false claim that the country did not support it. Despite three-quarters of Americans, 75 percent, saying that they support openly gay people serving in the U.S. military, Republicans blocked the bill even coming to the Senate floor for a debate.

In a 56-43 vote, every single Senate Republican present and two conservative Democrats voted to block debate on the bill, falling short of the 60 votes they needed to proceed to take up the bill for just debate. Understand, this was just to debate the bill, not vote on it.

Even top military Generals and Admirals support repelling DADT. According to the Hill, “the Pentagon is in the midst of conducting a review on the implementation of repeal and is surveying members of the armed forces on the issue” that year long study is due in December, and the repel could not even occur until after the report. I don’t understand why we need a study. Just take a look at our allies, like Australia, Great Britain and Norway.

When President Harry S. Truman integrated the Armed Forces and issued a then-controversial executive order that called for "equality of treatment for all persons in the armed services, without regard to race, color, religion or national origin” he didn’t need a study.

It’s not often, if ever, debate is blocked on funding the troops. Our Senator, Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it is the Republicans playing politics with a bill that is designed to provide benefits for members of the military and their families, to build weapons systems, and to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he told the AP.

"They should fight against it if they don't like it," Levin said of the Republicans who stopped the legislation. "It would be unthinkable if we didn't have a Defense Authorization bill. It's never happened."

This also comes on the heels earlier this month when a federal judge in California declared the ban on gays serving openly in the military unconstitutional, so that erased any doubt that the ban is discriminatory.

According the AP, “An estimated 13,000 people have been discharged under the law since its inception in 1993. Although most dismissals have resulted from gay service members outing themselves, gay rights' groups say it has been used by vindictive co-workers to drum out troops who never made their sexuality an issue.” That is the real threat to national security.

Anyone who has spent more than a couple of months in the military has known someone who is gay. The American people have been pretty clear on this, and so have real conservatives, like the late Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater when he said "You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight."

DADT should be killed today.

Ridiculous ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ policy repealed

Another historic event occurred under the Obama Administration on Thursday when the U.S. House and the Senate Armed Services Committee both voted to repel the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy prohibiting gays from serving openly in the military.

The Senate Armed Services Committee – chaired by our own Sen. Carl Levin - voted 16-12 to repeal the law. I was disappointed that Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., voted against the measure; the only Democrat to do so. Sen. Susan Collins, R- Maine, was the only Republican to vote for it. Fifteen votes were needed to include the measure in the 2011 defense authorization bill.

“Today’s action by the Senate Armed Services Committee is an important step to end this discriminatory policy,” Levin told the Hill. “I believe that allowing gay and lesbian service members to serve openly will open the ranks to more patriotic men and women who wish to serve their country.”

I could not agree more. As I have said in the past, I spent 20 years in the Navy, and for anyone to say there are not gays in the military is stupid or they have their head in the sand. It is working fine in the armed services of some of biggest allies, like Australia, Great Britain and Norway, and it will work fine here.

According to the Hill, “under the provision, the repeal will not be implemented until the Pentagon finishes its review of how it would impact the military. President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen must first certify it can be achieved consistent with the military’s standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion and recruitment and retention.” However, all three support repealing the ban.

Later on Thursday, the full House approved a compromise amendment sponsored by Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell” by a vote of 234-194.

The compromise allows the repeal of the policy only after “the Pentagon finishes its review of repeal implementation and the President, Gates and Mullen certify that it can be achieved consistent with the military’s standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion and recruitment and retention,” according to the Hill.

Republican hypocrisy trumps Main Street

The Republican hypocrisy is just absolutely stunning. That Republican hypocrisy rules on all levels of government.

On the very day U.S. Senate Republicans were skewering Goldman Sachs executives at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations on Tuesday and saying the financial system needed reform, Senate Republicans – for the second consecutive day – blocked Democratic efforts to overhaul the financial system and crack down on the Wall Street greed that was a major contributor to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Instead, Republicans stood up for one of their major benefactors, Wall Street, and every single Republican voted on Tuesday to block debate on the bill.

The committee hearing was chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and they are the culmination of nearly a year and a half of investigation. The freezing of financial markets and collapse of financial institutions sparked the investigation, and those factors led to millions of Americans losing their jobs, their homes and their businesses in the recession that the crisis sparked, the worst economic decline since the Great Depression.

Tuesday’s hearing explored the role of investment banks in the development of the crisis, and it focused on the activities during 2007 of Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest and most successful firms on Wall Street. Goldman documents make clear that in 2007 it was betting heavily against the housing market while it was selling investments in that market to its clients. It sold those clients high-risk mortgage-backed securities and CDOs (Collateralized debt obligations) that it wanted to get off its books in transactions that created a conflict of interest between Goldman's bottom line and its clients' interests.

Goldman Sachs executives avoided specific answers about the financial crisis and the bank’s relationship with its investors, and the frustration over their stalling and evasiveness frustrated both Republicans and Democrats on the panel. The firm reaped huge profits from the collapse of the US housing market, and Levin accused Goldman of "trying to sell a shitty deal" to investors," which is, of course, true.

The rightwing blogs and Republican noise machine were not concerned with the obscenity of those huge profits and the raping of Main Street. No, they were upset that Levin said “shitty.” Wow. Talk about hypocrisy.

While the hearing was going on, Wall Street lobbyists were roaming the halls of the Capitol spending that $1.4 million a day to make sure we never get real financial reform, and Republicans again blocked debate. They blocked debate, not the bill.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to again put the matter to a vote today to see if Republicans will stand up for Wall Street or Main Street.

Hoyer is optimistic about Democratic chances in November

DETROIT -- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland had a simple message for Michigan Democrats at the annual 2010 Jefferson Jackson Dinner Saturday night: if voters get the fact that the economy the Republicans ran into a ditch is slowly recovering and finally headed in the right direction, Democrats will do well in November.

"We need to ask them, do you want to elect a party that is turning the economy around, or do you want to vote in a party that created the worst recession since the Great Depression," Hoyer said. "Don’t let them forget that."

Hoyer said in the last month of the Bush Administration in January 2009, 779,000 jobs were lost, but the economy grew by 162,000 jobs last month. He also said don’t let voters forget Bush took a $5.6 trillion budget surplus and turned it into record deficit.

"The worst recession since the Great Depression; that’s what was on the plate for Barrack Obama and the Congress," he said. "The Republicans presided over the largest redistribution of wealth in history."

Michigan always feels any downturn in the economy first, feels it the hardest and comes out of it the slowest. Hoyer praised Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm for her work under such trying circumstances.

"Globalization hits us harder than any other state because we have so many manufacturing jobs," Granholm said. "The next person elected to this office, who ever they many be, does not have a magic wand either."

U.S. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, spoke about the pending financial reform legislation currently in the Senate that would try to prevent future economic crises by tightening government oversight of financial firms, regulate the complex derivatives market for the first time, create a new agency to protect consumers in the financial marketplace and grant the government broad new powers to seize and dismantle huge financial firms on the brink of failure if their collapse would threaten the economy.

Like the Republicans siding with insurance companies and trying to block health insurance reform, they are now protecting Wall Street, and in fact, we are hearing the same old crap from them, like "scrap the bill and start over.

"We’re going to put a cop back on the beat in Wall Street,” Levin said. “That disgusting greed put so many people out of their jobs and their homes and almost wrecked the economy, but we’re going to hold people accountable.”

Everybody on the panel had praise for U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, who has received obscene and threatening phone calls and faxes for his vote on the historic health insurance reform bill, and he has chosen not to run for reelection.

“He stood up for his principals, but he also did the right thing at a very angry time in this country,” Hoyer said. “I called him many times to ask him to run again. We need him and the country needs him, but I respect his decision.”

The hypocrisy of the teabaggers takes aim at term limits for Democrats only

The hypocrisy of the teabaggers who control the Republican Party never cease to amaze me, and it makes you wonder what planet they were on the last eight years.

They are apparently on a constitutional kick, misinterpreting it and twisting it to bash the Obama administration. In my daily perusal of rightwing blogs for laughs, I ran across one claming that Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, is a “miscreant who ignores the will of the people for his political interests” because he does not observe voluntary term limits laid out in the Michigan Constitution for federal representative in Congress.

This is as ridiculous as one Michigan’s blogger's misguided tirades over Nullification earlier this week. You will recall that Nullification is a constitutional theory that gives an individual state the right to declare null and void any law passed by the United States Congress which the state deems unacceptable and unconstitutional that was rejected back in 1832 but still led to the Civil War. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, like it did for state’s trying to impose federal term limits, that the authority of the federal government comes from the people rather than the state governments.

The real funny thing is that when you prove them wrong they just delete it, and tell you, without any shame, “as the owner of this blog I am the arbitrator of what comments I deem are worth posting for whatever reason I choose.

Term limits in Michigan have been a disaster, so why would we want them on the federal level? They probably don't want term limits, but they hate any Democrat so much that they ignore the effect it will have on them or what they said yesterday.

The claim is that in Article II, Section 10 of the Michigan Constitution it says,

“No person shall be elected to office as representative in the United States House of Representatives more than three times during any twelve year period. No person shall be elected to office as senator in the United States Senate more than two times during any twenty-four year period.” “…The people of Michigan hereby state their support for the aforementioned term limits for members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate and instruct their public officials to use their best efforts to attain such a limit nationwide.”

The problem is it’s unconstitutional.
In May 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, that states cannot impose term limits upon their federal Representatives or Senators.” The majority opinion stated, “… state-imposed restrictions, unlike the congressionally imposed restrictions at issue in Powell, violate a third idea central to this basic principle: that the right to choose representatives belongs not to the States, but to the people.”

But the real question is why have they singled out just Carl Levin? What about Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, nine terms; Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, eight terms; Rep. “Twitter Pete” Hoekstra, R-Holland, 8 terms; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, five terms; and finally the longest serving Republican, Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, 12 terms?

The hypocrisy from Republicans is overwhelming.

Michigan Democrats celebrate John Dingell and huge election victory

DETRIOT -- Michigan Democrats celebrated their decisive victory last November on Saturday in Cobo Hall at the state convention, and they also took the time to honor the longest serving U.S. Congressman in U.S. history.

On Feb. 11, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, Jr., D-Dearborn, became the longest serving Congressman in history. He was first elected on Dec. 13, 1955; succeeding his father, a New Deal Democrat elected to Congress in 1932.

The entire Michigan Congressional delegation was on the stage to at Cobo Hall to honor Dingell.

“With John Dingell, it’s not just the length of his service, it’s the quality of service year after year,” said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. “We Michigan Dems are very proud to call John Dingell one of our own.”

Dingell has served with 11 Presidents, and that comes out to a quarter of all Presidents in U.S. history.

“No one will ever break that record, because as each day goes by he breaks the record everyday he serves; he is the record,” said U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint. “America is a better place because of John Dingell.”

Dingell is one of the most productive and influential members to ever serve in the U.S. House, and he is extremely passionate about health care. He helped pass the Medicaid Act in 1965, and he is a strong advocate for universal health care.

“We have continually re-elected the dean of the House, and every working day he has led the fight for health care and justice,” Levin said. “Every session he has introduced a bill for universal health care, just like his father before him.

“He hasn’t given up the fight, and we will not give up the fight until every American has health care,” he said.

Carl Levin’s brother, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Southfield, said the Dingell and Levin family have always been close, and the first candidate he ever campaigned for was John Dingell, Sr.

“John Dingell has never represented special interests, only interests that are special,” he said.

Not only is John Dingell the longest serving Congressman in history, the unanimous election of Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer to his seventh term keeps his record intact as the longest serving Michigan Democratic Chair since the 1950's and the senior Democratic state party chair in the country.

“We are not here just to elect a party chair, we are here to tell the rest of Michigan that help is on the way with the stimulus; we are here to tell the rest of Michigan that Gov. Jennifer Granholm is diversifying the economy,” said Sen. Buzz Thomas, D-Detroit, the chair of the convention. “We are also here to tell those knuckle head southern Senators that the auto industry will survive; we helped build America, and we will continue to build America.”

Brewer told the party faithful that Democrats won so big in November for a reason, and we need to remind them of that in 2010.

“The Republican Party is the party of the past,” Brewer said. “You just need to look at who they elected as their chair; a Bush supporter; so big he made him an ambassador.”

Party faithful gear up for historic election at MDP convention

LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm hit the nail on the hard when she questioned the RNC’s convention theme of “A change is going to come” when GOP Presidential nominee John McCain voted with current President George Bush more than 90 percent of the time and has been in Washington for almost three decades.

“We have John McCain out of his own mouth saying he voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time,” she said. “But there he was in Sterling Heights Friday running away from the Republicans.”

Granholm gave a signature fiery speech at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention Saturday at the Lansing Center before an excited crowd.

Granholm said the absence of George Bush, the leader of the Republican Party, and Vice-President Dick Cheney spoke volumes. McCain said he would put the country back on the road to prosperity, but at the same time wholeheartedly supporting Bush’s failed economic policies. He stole Barack Obama’s change theme because he is trying hard not be Velcroed to the failure of Bush.

“People will remember when the country was prosperous a Democrat was in the White House,” she said. “The Republicans are putting on a mask because they are trying to fool the American people.”

Granholm talked about the latest Jobs Report that showed the U.S. jobless rate jumped to a 5-year high at 6.1 percent, and the leading job losses were in the manufacturing sector, automotive and auto suppliers.

“Who gets hit by that, Michigan does,” she said.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero welcomed the Democrats to his city, and he outlined how the failed Bush policies have hurt the Capitol City.

“Cities are under siege,” he said. “Cities are canaries of our economy, and they are hurting.”

Bernero said he didn’t watch much of the RNC convention on TV, but it only took him a few minutes to know it was the same old Republicans rhetoric.

“I watched and listened, and I hear the same old thing; get government out of the way,” he said. “They got government out of the way by deregulating the financial industry that led to the foreclosure crisis. They got government out of the way for criminals by getting rid of police and killing the COPS program.”

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow talked about McCain’s chief economic advisor, the same guy responsible for deregulating the financial industry, who said the recession was a “mental recession” and we are a nation of whiners: former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

“Now I ask you: when you lose your job or your wages go down, are you just hallucinating.” Stabenow said. “America is not a nation of whiners, it’s a nation of workers.”

Sen. Carl Levin said the excitement, hope and inspiration generated by Barack Obama’s campaign reminds him of the first political campaign he participated in: President John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. He said reception Obama recently received by one of our best allies, Germany, demonstrated that Obama can repair our tarnished reputation around the world.

“Barack Obama is greeted by 250,000 cheering people: George Bush is greeted by violent protests,” he said. “That told a lot pf people in this country that our reputation can be won back.”

Longtime U.S. Congressman Dale Kildee introduced the Democratic Congressional candidates, including State Sen. Mark Schauer, who is opposing the most extreme member of Congress; Tim Walberg in the 7th District.

“The Club for Growth certainly got what they paid for, but the people of the 7th District did not, “ he said.

Schauer said he has unseated a Republican incumbent before. He highlighted some of Walberg’s more extreme positions, such as saying everyone has healthcare, they just have to walk into an ER; he wants to drill in the Great Lakes; he voted against Head Start and he believes Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

“It takes a grassroots effort to win an election,” Schauer said. “That’s how I beat an incumbent Republican who was also out of touch.”

Long shot U.S. Senate challenger begs for free publicity

State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, says he wants four debates in his long-shot attempt to unseat popular and respected Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, according to subscription only MIRS.

Apparently, the only official invitation has come from Grand Rapids public television station WGVU, which has invited both Levin and Hoogendyk to take part in a 60-minute televised town hall debate that would be broadcast on PBS stations across the state. Now, as much as I would love to see Levin wipe the floor with the conservative Republican, the question is why would Levin give an unknown like Hoogendyk the free publicity?

In the latest poll, Levin, the chair of the powerful Armed Service Committee, has a 26 point lead over Hoogendyk. You have to wonder what state GOP chair Saul Anuzis promised Hoogendyk in exchange for being the sacrificial lamb.

Hoogendyk was briefly a Republican candidate for governor in 2006 before perennial GOP nominee Dick DeVos and his money ran the rest of the Republicans out of the race.

Levin is highly respected, and he has even been mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate. Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic, and an Ann Arbor resident, makes a pretty good case for Barack Obama choosing Levin for the ticket. But the only problem with that is who would run for the Senate seat? Democrats are trying to get enough Democrats in the Senate so they can actually accomplish something over GOP obstructionists.

Millions of U.S. corporations do not pay federal taxes

I know this is a local blog on Michigan and the media, but this national story really caught my attention.

According to a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, and 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

I want to hear the take on this from right-wingers who regularly take shots at me here.

Our own Sen. Carl Levin, along with Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., asked for the GAO study that found corporations did not pay taxes on trillions of dollars in sales. More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax. It’s sad that corporations are making huge profits and pay nothing to support this country.

Policy summit brings together diverse progressive groups

LANSING -- Only the Second Annual Michigan Policy Conference, sponsored by the Michigan Prospect, could bring so many diverse progressive groups together under one roof.

More than 600 people gathered at the Lansing Center for an all-day summit to work toward some common goals. The day featured breakout sessions, skills workshops and speakers, like author and journalist Amy Goodman and author and humorist Jim Hightower. The summit centered on three policy areas: health care, the environment and education. The summit brought together diverse groups representing labor unions, the environment, civil rights, LBGT, health care and peace groups.

“The good news is we are here,” said Lynn Jondahl, Executive Director of the Michigan Prospect. “The bad news is we are facing a battle of every front.”
The mission of the Michigan Prospect is to connect citizens and government in order to advance a just and humane democratic society.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin was also on hand, and he fired up the attendees. He said one of the goals in turning the nation's and state’s economy around is to address the $100 billon the U.S. is losing to companies who move offshore just to avid paying taxes.
“The Republicans are going to say you are raising taxes,” he said. “We are not raising taxes; we are enforcing the tax laws for people who are avoiding their fair share of taxes.”

The Iraq occupation is sucking billons of dollars that is increasing the budget deficit and could be used to address problems the country is facing.
“$600 billon is has gone to a war we never should have been in,” Levin said. “The only way to end that war is to elect a Democrat in November.”
Goodman is an author and the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, an independent national, daily, award-winning news program that airs on more than 700 radio and television stations in North America.

Goodman took the mainstream media to task for their failure to do its job in the lead up to the Iraq war and to look closer at the manufactured evidence the Bush Administration used to plunge the country into war. She said the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) did a study of the three network news programs in the three months leading up to the invasion, and it found 393 interviews were held about the war, but only three were with people who questioned or were against the war.

“That is no longer the mainstream media,” she said. “This is the corporate media that was beating the drum for war. We need the full diversity of opinion.”
Goodman said outlets like Democracy Now and blogs are the independent media voices. She said the so-called mainstream media is still not doing its job after it was reveled the media did not do its job looking at the manufactured evidence in the lead up to the invasion. She said one-third of the Iraq and Afghanistan vets who are not killed or wounded are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The media has also not reported on the 120 suicides a week.

She cited the mainstream media’s lack of coverage of Winter Solider, recently held in Maryland over four-days sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War. It was modeled after the historic Winter Solider held in Detroit in 1971. It featured testimony from Iraq and Afghan vets, but the only media attention it got was a small mention in the Washington Post.

“We rushed down there to get our cameras in place because we knew this was not the know-nothing political pundits, this was the men and women who fought the war,” Goodman said. “We needn’t have worried; there was no other media there.”
Goodman also said the media has not done its job reporting on the Bush Administration’s torture policy. Goodman congratulated U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on its vote to subpoena Vice President Cheney's chief of staff David Addington to testify about his role in the torture scandal.

“We are supposed to be a model of behavior to the world,” she said. “America is better than that.”

Britt and Anna overshadow Iraq and MDP convention

Michigan’s Democrats heard from its national leaders at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention Saturday at the Cobo Center, but the news from Washington, D.C. was not nearly as earth shattering as what’s going in a Florida Probate courtroom.

“I usually talk about the important news in the headlines, but the two most important issues are who is the father of Anna Nicole’s baby and why did Brittany Spears shave her head,” said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. “So, we will have to talk about less important issues.”

The convention was the first time Democratic leaders, party faithful and activists got together since last summer’s convention in August, and it was the first time we had to celebrate the stunning November success that saw Democrats take control of the U.S. House and Senate and state House.

“We need to pat ourselves on the back, but as we go out the door we need to start recruiting candidates and begin working hard again,” said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Levin, who is up for reelection to his sixth term in 2008, echoed the sentiments of his Senate colleague, and he acknowledged the hard work of the party volunteers and the forward thinking of the American people.

“If you want to go backward you put the car in R for reverse,” he said. “If you want to go forward you put the car in D for drive; last November the America people put the car in drive.”

Stabenow talked about the successful first 100 hours of Democratic leadership of Congress that included implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations, increasing the minimum wage, approving funding of stem cell research and the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation. She also talked about her two most memorable moments of her six years in the Senate; seeing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales actually being sworn in when he gave Congressional testimony and seeing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi take the gavel.

“Nobody has been sworn in for the past six years,” she said.

Stabenow said the non-binding resolution denouncing the plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq would continue to go forward until they get the necessary 60 votes to bring it to a vote. The House has already passed it, but the Senate fell four votes short to bring it to the Senate floor for an actual vote. But Stabenow said the tide is turning as more people see the folly of the Iraq civil war occupation. The first vote only had two Republicans cross over and vote for the resolution, but the latest vote saw seven Republics come to their senses.

“The 23 of us who voted no on the Iraq Resolution authorizing the war are going to go back and stop the escalation,” she said. “It’s not about resolve; it's about votes.”

Democrats bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington, D.C.

HAMBURG TOWNSHIP – The times they are a’ changing in Washington, D.C., thanks to the take over of the U.S. House and Senate by the Democrats.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin spoke to more than 150 people at a fundraiser Saturday at Whispering Pines Golf Course to benefit the Livingston County Democratic Party. He highlighted the work of the Democratic-controlled Congress in keeping their promises to the American people in its first 100 hours under Democratic control.
In just the first 100 hours, the Democrats managed to accomplish real legislation and reform to help the American people that the Republicans could not and would not address in more than 12 years in control.
That included finally implementing the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, increasing the minimum wage, approving federal funding for stem cell research, allowing negotiating and buying prescription drugs in bulk to get lower costs, cut the interest rate on federal student loans, end taxpayer-funded subsidies for Big Oil and create a Strategic Energy and Renewables Reserve and passed tougher new ethics rules.
“Folks, the Democrats, the Democratic Party is now the fiscally responsible party in Washington, D.C.,” Levin said.
Jobs are a major concern for Michigan residents with the problems facing the Big 3 automakers, and Levin said President Bush has completely ignored the manufacturing sector to the point that the alleged new jobs being created are not making up for the lost manufacturing jobs in both quantity and quality.
“This administration has ignored the manufacturing industry so much that we have lost 3 million jobs under this president’s watch,” he said.
Levin said he supports the diversification of the economy, but manufacturing, and especially car manufacturing, is Michigan’s largest employer.
“We know that manufacturing jobs are not the end all to end all, but, especially in this state, it has a spin-off effect,” he said.
Levin said the current tax policies, unfair trade polices and lack of enforcement of trade polices by the current administration is making it impossible for U.S. automakers to compete globally, and foreign governments are helping foreign auto companies compete by providing health care for employees, help with health care and even manipulating currency to make their cars cheaper and U.S. cars more expensive.
“U.S. car companies are not just competing against foreign car companies they are competing against foreign governments,” he said.
Levin pointed to Republican Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos as a perfect example of the problems U.S. manufacturing companies are facing. As head of Amway, DeVos invested more than $200 million in Communist China for building plants to manufacture the company's products.
DeVos – correctly – said Chinese law says if you sell to the Chinese it must be built or manufactured in China. The U.S. government allows that, yet China has unfettered and unrestricted access to U.S. markets. That’s despite the fact they compete with slave labor wages and production, wages and benefits manipulated and controlled by a Communist Chinese regime.
The obvious question is why do we allow them unrestricted access to sell products made in China when they do not reciprocate?
“We’re crazy for allowing that,” Levin said. “We need an Administration that will fight to protect our jobs like other countries do.”

Levin says the key to a solution to the Iraq fiasco rests with the Iraqi politicians

HAMBURG TOWNSHIP – Sen. Carl Levin said next week will an historic week in the Senate when the senior body takes up the bipartisan Iraq resolution to try and stop the further escalation of the Iraq fiasco that has seen more then 3,000 U.S. Service members killed in action and cost the taxpayers more than $350 billon.
Levin, the Chair of the powerful Armed Services Committee, spoke at a fundraiser Saturday at Whispering Pines Golf Course to benefit the Livingston County Democratic Party, and more than 150 people were in attendance, as well as media from TV, radio, print and bloggers.
The Senate is expected to take up the bipartisan resolution next week that was introduced by Levin, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) that opposes President Bush’s recent decision to escalate the conflict by sending in more troops. The resolution is non-binding, and the resolution says it is not in the national interest of the U.S. to escalate further military involvement in Iraq. The Republicans, realizing the importance of the resolution, plan to try and filibuster the resolution.
“It’s a very significant resolution,” Levin said. “The president is as wrong now as he is when he went in (to Iraq).”
Levin said the only solution to the Iraq conflict is a political one, and it must be made by the Iraqi politicians themselves. He also said the Iraqis have had more than enough time to reach a political settlement, and the resolution would send a message to both the President and the Iraq government that they need to find a solution.
“We have been in Iraq longer than World War II and longer than we fought in Korea,” Levin said. “Only Iraq can do for Iraq.”
Levin said the American people can expect to see more resolutions urging an end to the Iraq situation as more and more people realize the futility of trying to achieve a military solution instead of a political resolution, and we can expect further Iraq resolutions to come from presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn). These resolutions will seek to place maximum pressure on the Iraq government to find a solution by setting a timetable to leave of 4-6 months, and placing a cap on the number of troops allowed in Iraq at 130,000.
“The secret, to me, is to not only send a message to the President that he does not have bipartisan support in the Senate, but, more importantly, it sends a message to the Iraqis that we are on the way out,” Levin said.
One anti-war supporter said the non-binding resolution means nothing to the President because he has escalated the situation in Iraq despite a clear referendum against the war in the last election in November that swept Republicans out of power in both the House and Senate. She urged cutting off funding for the war.
But Levin said he was dead set against that move for a couple of reasons. He said it will both send the wrong message to the troops in the field, and it could have the potential to harm them.
“We are against the policy, and we will fight the policy; but we will still support the troops,” he said. “And they know that.”
Levin said even though the majority of the American people realize the mistake of the Iraq fiasco, the Senate only holds a Democratic majority of one seat, and if any of these proposed resolutions fail, Bush will spin it as support for his failed policies in Iraq.
Levin said there are plans to investigate the deception and distortions that got us into Iraq, as well as the corruption and no-bid contracts and abuses of the detainees that got us into so much trouble and hurt our prestige around the world, but the priority is finding a solution to the mess in Iraq.
“These things will not be forgotten, but the primary focus is changing the direction in Iraq,” he said.

County convention and Levin fundraiser on tap

The Livingston County Democratic Party is holding its Spring convention Feb. 10 at the party’s headquarters at 10321 E. Grand River Suite 600, in Brighton.

Party members will elect delegates and alternates to the Michigan Democratic Party Spring State convention set for Feb. 24 at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. The party will also elect members and alternates to the state convention committee and consider resolutions to be sent to the state convention Resolutions Committee.
Registration starts at 9:45 a.m. and the convention begins at 10 a.m.

Don’t forget the 2006 Democratic Election Victory Party featuring U.S. Sen. Carl Levin at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Whispering Pines Golf Course, 2500 Whispering Pines Dr., Pinckney.
Levin will speak on the Iraq war and the Democratic Party’s successful First 100 Hours Agenda Tickets are $55 and can be purchased at the Livingston County Democratic Office, 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600, Brighton, Mi. 48116, or at the door. The event includes hors oeuvres and a cash bar. Proceeds benefit the Livingston County Democratic Party. Call (81) 229-4212 for information.

Levin to speak at Livingston County fundraiser

BRIGHTON – U.S. Sen. Carl Levin will speak on the Iraq war and the Democratic Party’s First 100 Hours Agenda at a fund-raiser set for 12:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Whispering Pines Golf Course, 2500 Whispering Pines Dr., Pinckney.

The fundraiser is to help celebrate the huge historic Democratic victory across the country that gave the Democrats control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and the state House, and to help the Livingston Democrats prepare for the next election cycle.

After the Democrats took control of the Senate for the first time since 2002, Levin became chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. In that role, Levin is in a pivotal position to influence the war in Iraq.

This will be one of the first opportunities that many Michigan residents will have to hear Sen. Levin in person commenting on President Bush’s recent plan to send more troops to Iraq. It is an important moment in the national debate over American participation in the war, and Livingston County Democrats will not want to miss it, said Matt Evans, chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party.

Furthermore, Evans said, the national party’s 100-hour agenda that is already is moving through the U.S. House addresses important concerns that voters raised in the November election, including raising the minimum wage, congressional ethics reform and restraining earmarks that encouraged irresponsible spending. Levin will be able to shed light on how that agenda will fare in the U.S. Senate.

Levin will begin speaking at 12:30 p.m., and there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased at the Livingston County Democratic Office, 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600, Brighton, Mi. 48116. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. The event includes hors oeuvres and a cash bar. Proceeds benefit the Livingston County Democratic Party. Call (81) 229-4212 for information.

Governor’s Inaugural speech inspires

Only Gov. Jennifer Granholm can make the oath of office sound lively and exciting, and she did just that today when she was sworn in for her final term by her mentor, Judge Damon Keith, on the Capitol steps in Lansing in front of some 1,000 brave but cold souls.

I was one of those brave souls, and I had a front row SRO perch, thanks to the place-saving ability of Liberal Lucy of Liberal, Loud and Proud. Following the swearing in of the Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, the trustees of the state’s public universities and judges we made our way across the Grand River to the warmth of the Lansing Center to hear the inaugural speeches.

The theme of the scaled down inauguration was “Celebrating the Next Michigan,” and the governor laid out the problems facing Michigan and her slow but study success at diversify our economy by attracting high-tech companies to the state and maintaining our still much needed auto manufacturing base in the face of the disastrous unfair national trade practices.

“We have seen, and we have fought alongside entire communities that have been hollowed out by the ravaging pull of cheap labor from distant lands,” she said. “We all know that our challenges have been decades in the making. And we know that full transformation doesn't happen overnight.”

Her speech was interrupted by applause about a dozen times, especially when she urged legislative and political leaders to put politics aside and act now to begin undoing the problems that the ebbing market share of our state's largest employer has caused over the years and act now.

“Because it will take time, we cannot waste time,” she said. “Feel the urgency. You feel it too. We must act and act now.”

I had the privilege of hearing Anita Baker sing her rousing rendition of the National Anthem, and Whitney Houston has nothing on her. I was a little disappointed at the Invocation of Pastor Dan Miller of St. Joseph. He took an inappropriate shot at newspaper Op-Ed pages in a prayer.

Sen. Carl Levin was the MC, and he acknowledged the great job the governor has done with the mess that was dropped in her lap four years ago.

“She has trimmed more money from the budget than any governor in history, but she still managed to extend health care to 300,000 people, diversified our economy and attracted new businesses to the state,” he said.

Lt. Governor John Cherry highlighted the administration’s fight to bring health care to all Michigan citizens and give every child the means to go to college if they desire. He compared the administration to a ship sailing on the Great Lakes with the governor as the commanding officer, and she has sailed us through some story waters over the past four years.

“She made the tough, gut-check decisions that had to be made to erase the budget deficits we were facing,” he said.

Mayors George Heartwell of Grand Rapids and Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit led off the remarks. I have heard Kilpatrick speak in the past, but he seemed to me much more mature and more of a leader, and his remarks reflected the theme of Celebrating the Next Michigan when he pointed out the citizens of Michigan have more similarities than differences.

The speech by Attorney General Mike Cox was uninspired at best, and there was good reason why the more than 3,000 people in the Lansing Center sat on their hands during his remarks.

Secretary of State Terri Land’s speech was also unremarkable, but I was intrigued by some of her proposals. I liked her proposal to pre-register 16-year-olds to vote when they get their DL, so that when they are 18 they are already registered. The no response early voting sounded interesting. Perhaps it’s just the verbiage that’s different, but I would prefer no reason absentee voting instead of early voting. Anything that encourages young people to vote and increases voter turnout I support. She also proposed having the Michigan DL serve as the passport, and that will ease problems going to and from our neighbor to the north.