"In
the definitive August primary, Brian Miles is running for re-election
and three new candidates have come forward in an attempt to displace
some of the other incumbents.
They are:
Running for election as Trustee – Suzanne Anderson
and Steven Hasbrouk
Running for Clerk – Keith Kremer (to replace Horace Morton).
Some
of Tyrone's citizens seem to have decided that the time has come for
citizens of the township to stand up and take back control of their
community. They are attempting to install people to represent them in
their local government who are willing to
listen to their concerns and dispose of their business in ways they
consider responsible.
Shortly we will see how successful they have been."
Well, thanks to a well planned campaign with a clear message, targeted mailings and hours of dedicated door-to-door footwork the 3 new candidates were successful in displacing their three incumbent targets and Brian Miles achieved re-election by a wide margin.
Democracy works when the community puts forward good candidates and supports them.
However it is woeful that, although these candidates' margins of approval were clear, the voter turnout was a woeful 13%. Much of the turnout came from the successful candidates' home precincts where the 16 and 19% who voted supported their candidates overwhelmingly.
Apparently local politics are, lamentably, not high on citizens' priorities!
Significant events in other Livingston County polls include Brighton voter endorsement of "Americans for Prosperity" affiliates Tom Murphy (as Supervisor) and Lana Theis (as Treasurer). Both candidates included a strong "transparency plank in their platforms, see:
Elsewhere, in Hamburg, in an election full of controversy, voters tossed out all township officials and most trustees. Regrettably, among those ousted was the highly competent and ethical Supervisor, Cindy Pine. Sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bathwater.
Isn't it amazing how America, a capitalist country, is endlessly berated by the leftist environmentalists for being so destructive to our environment when, in fact, we do a great job of cleaning up our messes...
...when...
...all we have heard about regarding the upcoming Olympic games in China is how that communist state has a pollution problem so bad that our American cyclist team has to wear protective gear over their mouths and noses because the smog is so bad!?!?!
Leftists do not care about the environment. They only say they do because they know most decent Americans do and that they can thus use concern for the environment to dupe the American people into supporting their "pro-environment" policies which are actually nothing more than attempts at taking over all kinds of our personal freedoms and areas of our economy.
Fooling the Michigan Public - Misrepresentation in Petitions
Do you want to cure spinal paralysis? Do you want to have fewer government officials and limit their pay raises? Are you for Motherhood and against Man-eating Tigers? These are the type of questions put hurriedly to busy citizens to induce them to sign petitions. When the answer is obviously "yes" the result is often a quick signature and a fee of $1 to $2 paid to the person gathering the signatures by the special interests financing the petition effort. Forgotten are the warnings we all hear as we enter adulthood "be sure you know what you're signing". In the case of the two recent petitions that will result in ballot initiatives in November it was hard for citizens to know. If they see past the facile and often false explanation of the petition gatherer and ask to read the petition language their eyes will cross and their busy schedule will be seriously compromised. In the case of the constitutional reform petition it takes about 15 minutes to read and a law degree to comprehend that the opening claims bear no relation to the real content of the petition. See: http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2008/7/31/91152/6175
In the case of the stem cell research petition the typical assertion is "We want to repeal the Michigan law that bans stem cell research". This allegation infers a number of falsities:
The law does NOT ban stem cell research
The law does NOT even ban embryonic stem cell research
The law DOES permit stem cell research on exiting lines of embryonic stem cells (about 150)
The law does ban the creation of new lines of embryonic stem cells
The absence of new lines for embryonic stem cells is insignificant in terms of developing medical cures. To date, NO useful medical treatments have come from embryonic stem cell research.
There are NINE other ways of conducting stem cell research that do not require the destruction of the embryo and they have yielded 70 useful medical treatments to date.
The destruction of embryos from other causes does not raise the moral issues
that their deliberate manipulation does. It is a question of will and
intent.
The petition is driven, not by frustrated hopes for miracle cures but as an attack on the position of the Right to Life movement which has ethical objections to the deliberate destruction of embryos for research purposes. This RTL position is attacked essentially on economic and pragmatic grounds as can almost any position on anything based on ethics. That such arguments against ethical positions are so readily supported is a commentary on the deterioration of the ethical values upon which the strength of this nation is historically based.
For an in depth understanding of the bio-ethical considerations see: www.ncbcenter.org/10Myths.pdf.
Michigan citizens can and have been fooled once, to sign these petitions, shame on the petition backers. If Michigan voters are fooled twice, into passing these initiatives in November, shame on them.
A Saga of Local Politics - Tyrone Township, Michigan
In 2004 four of the seven member Tyrone Township Board of Trustees, led by Supervisor Dick Schumacher, were unseated by a slate of inexperienced candidates over the issue of Tyrone combining with neighboring Hartland and Deerfield in a Fire Authority. Although inexperienced in government, the slate was led by an experienced incumbent Clerk, David Kuzner. They conducted an enthusiastic campaign and were successful in seating a new Supervisor, Treasurer and two trustees. subsequently one of the original Trustees resigned and the slate appointed another of their team, Horace Morton in his place.
The new Supervisor shortly thereafter resigned and a well-respected and highly competent replacement, Andrew Schmidt, was appointed.
The new Board lost little time in withdrawing from the Hartland-Deerfield Fire Authority at a cost to the Township of close to $500,000. As a result, residents in the south of the township, within sight of the Hartland fire stations were serviced from Fenton, 11 miles and 30 minutes response time away. Tragically a home in this area burnt down and two people died before help arrived.
In 2006 another group of citizens became active. This group was dissatisfied with the new
Board’s withdrawal from the Fire Authority and with their handling of a trailer park issue. It ran a campaign to put
one of their own, Brian Miles, on the board. Even though he was a write-in
candidate running against the incumbent (appointed) trustee, Horace Morton, Brian
won with 60% of the vote in the August primary.
Brian Miles' group later petitioned to have a referendum on a previous Board decision related to a trailer park placed on the November ballot. In the November election the Tyrone voters overwhelmingly
overturned the board’s decision.
Clerk Kuzner then resigned but the remnants of his team achieved a 3 to 2 Board decision to appoint the unseated Trustee,
Horace Morton, as the new Clerk. Many voters were astounded as this vote seemed to fly in the face of their opinion voiced in the immediately preceding election. These began to conceive plans to provide more support to Miles on the Board by voting in new trustees.
The entire Board is required to stand for election in the primary on Tuesday August 5th. Since all candidates are running as Republicans the primary is the decisive election except for one small exception, as follows.
In an unrelated development, James Solden and Susan Spellicy have filed as Independent candidates
for Tyrone Township Supervisor, running against Andrew Schmidt on the November ballot. It is reported that Susan
Spellicy at first intended to run for Clerk but, at the last minute, filed for
Supervisor. Her interest appears to be the sewer project in whose
catchment area she resides. James solden, also filed at the deadline. He is
said to be someone who in the past attempted to introduce an "adult activity"
business into the township but it was successfully opposed by the
Planning Commission and the Board of Trustees as inappropriate for the
community.
The only hope of success either one seems to have is that Mr. Schmidt should, lamentedly, be hit by a sixteen-wheeler before August 4th!
In the definitive August primary, Brian Miles is running for re-election and three new candidates have come forward in an attempt to displace some of the other incumbents.
They are:
Running for election as Trustee – Suzanne Anderson
and Steven Hasbrouk
Running for Clerk – Keith Kremer (to replace Horace Morton).
Some of Tyrone's citizens seem to have decided that the time has come for citizens of the township to stand up and take back control of their community. They are attempting to install people to represent them in their local government who are willing to
listen to their concerns and dispose of their business in ways they consider responsible.
Shortly we will see how successful they have been.
Dr. Herbert Muller, our correspondent in Germany, sends us this cartoon from the Munich daily, the Süddeutsche
Zeitung (July 25th). While commenting on the naively blind enthusiasm of the crowds exhibited during Obama's visit to Berlin the cartoonist shows typical Bavarian disdain for the percieved flightiness of their Prussian rivals the Berliners. Glimpsed in Obama's pocket is the script for a speech he would not have had the forthrightness to employ. It is headed "more Germans to the front". This is an allusion to the role of German troops in Afghanistan where they are restricted by their government to police duties in the capital, Kabul, and forbidden to enter combat zones such as Helmland. Blind enthusiasm is less reprehensible among Berliners than it is here. In Europe all that the people know about Obama is what the AP press agency tells them through their European affiliates. They are about as well informed as folks here who rely exclusively on such sources as the New York Times and Time Magazine for their news and opinions. When it comes to blind enthusiasm for Obama, no-one takes a back seat to the American mass media.
Obama Triumph - Al Quaida Reconciliation; a Suburban Voice Scoop
In an exclusive, Suburban Voice has learned that Obama, in his current foreign excursion, held secret talks with high ranking al Quaida representatives. As Obama predicted, face to face unconditional negotiation is already paying off. Bin Laden has been moved to contrition and has already conceded this public apology for 9-11:
Even after the first World Trade Center attack Clinton could almost be forgiven for his naiveté in wishing to combat terrorism as a mere problem of law enforcement.
Obama’s persistence in this view after all that has subsequently transpired goes beyond stubborn world-class naiveté, it verges on the criminally inept.
President Bush’s policy of proactive defense has kept this nation free of attack for seven years – longer than anyone would have dared to expect in 2001. Far from projecting national solidarity with this success the Obama campaign has attacked him, and by extension Sen. McCain, for
Intelligence gathering
Categorization of terrorists as unlawful enemy combatants
Indefinite detention
Holding terrorists at Guantanamo
Extraordinary rendition
Forcible interrogation
Obama professes shock, as if these measures were a novel and unusual departure from past practice. This is either a most hypocritical and cynical tactic or a product of profound ignorance on his part.
Benjamin Wittes, Research Director at the Brookings Institute has just published a book “Law and the Long War” which exposes the fallacy of these irresponsible assaults.
Wittes points out that the Clinton “law enforcement” tactics succeeded in bringing only relatively low-level operatives to justice and was totally ineffective in preventing subsequent attacks.
He notes that the practice of categorizing terrorists as unlawful combatants, not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, is reflected in the Geneva Convention and has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
President Reagan declined to ratify Geneva Protocol 1 because it would “grant [lawful] combatant status” to “terrorists and other irregulars” who endanger civilians by flouting norms of civilized warfare.
Clinton employed indefinite detention, not for terrorists but for Haitian refugees seeking illegal entry into the US. He kept them in Guantanamo where they would be out of the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. Moreover, it was the Clinton administration that initiated the practice of extraordinary rendition (to Egypt for example).
The Defense Department and the CIA have a long history of employing forcible tactics short of overt torture against even lawful combatants (by contrast, controversial Bush-administration tactics have been used only against unlawful combatants).
Wittes reminds us that these policies were sanctioned by Congress in a compromise pressured by the Supreme Court via 2005 Detainee Treatment Act and the 2006 Military Commissions Act. In an inexplicable about face the Supreme Court has just invalidated that compromise.
For a European view of Obama's platform just prior to his visit there see:
Hopefully, during the course of the campaign Obama will become better informed on these matters – for example during his upcoming foray into Europe and to Iraq to meet our military leaders and the Iraq government. However, recent position reversals and re-reversals on troop withdrawals show to what extent he is governed and overwhelmed by the hard left of the Democrat party.
Russell Spencer
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At the start of his primary campaign when Obama needed the support of Move On, Code Pink, Soros and the rest of the furry left he clung to his left wing (Acorn) roots and his ultra-left wing voting record in the State and US Senates. Having defeated Hillary he felt free to adopt her platform and move to jostle McCain for the center by "redefining" and "refining" his various positions:
Then: Out of Iraq within 16 months. Now: Out when the military/political conditions warrant (same as McCain and Bush)
Then: My good family friend and pastor for 20 years - I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother. Now: Rev. who?
Then: I don't swear allegiance or wear a flag pin. They are substitutes for, I think, true patriotism. See: http://suburbanvoice.com/2007/11/20/quiz--to-whom-do-the-candidates-owe-allegiance.aspx Now: (Before a veterans group) Every day is July 4th for me, I am proud of this flag on my lapel.
Then: In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "I will support an undivided Jerusalem." The Next Day: (before an pro-Arab group) I have been misunderstood.
Then: I am willing to meet rogue leaders without preconditions. Now: Certain preconditions are necessary before engaging in talks.
Then: I have agreed with Sen. McCain to limit our campaign expenses to what is available through public financing. Now: I won't use public financing - I can spend more with private funds.
Then: They cling to their guns and bibles because they're bitter. Now: They represent core American traditional values.
Then: I vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause for telecommunications companies. Now:I just voted to shield the telecommunication companies for their help in protecting Americans.
Then: I will opt out of The North American Free Trade Agreement if it is not re-negotiated. Now: My rhetoric was overheated.
Then: The D.C. gun ban is constitutional Now: I praise the Supreme Court ruling that the gun ban is unconstitutional.
The list goes on and on, its hard to keep track of all these audacities. How can he himself keep track of them since they cannot all be consistent with his core and are not informed by a knowledge of nor experience of any of these issues. After all he has spent about 140 days actually present on the floor of the US Senate and the rest of his career is essentially a mystery.
At least with McCain one can examine his record of public service over decades in the military and in the legislature. Are we really willing to bet the future of this nation on a roll of the dice which is what electing Obama would be? Is this great nation in danger of being commanded by such an amateur political hack? Are we really willing to let him learn on the job from teachers like Soros, Pelosi, Dean and Reed? Do we truly want to combine the positions of President and intern? Are there so many HUA voters that we need fear the outcome in November?
