Archive for November, 2011

David Karki

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich got in a lot of hot water for saying during the last debate, just before Thanksgiving, that illegal immigrants will have to be normalized somehow. Scarcely did the words finish exiting his mouth before the knee-jerk, hysterical shrieks of “Amnesty! Amnesty!” came from the conservative base, right on cue.  The only thing missing was channeling Hester Prynne and sticking a big red A on Gingrich’s front.

This is not an intelligent argument in the least – heck, it’s not even an argument – and plays to the stereotypes the left has of conservatives. And it will not help us get the best Republican candidate to go against President Obama in the most important election in America’s history.

I dislike illegal immigration as much as anyone; in one of the very first columns I wrote for NorthStar National, published on February 9, 2006, I called for building a wall on the Mexican border that would put China’s Great one to shame. (And, right on cue, predictably got called racist for it in the comments that followed it on the page.) We should do that now, with dispatch. As far as I’m concerned, we can even include the crocodile-filled moat with which Obama arrogantly and sarcastically taunted us.

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James Melton

It’s a vicious cycle. The municipalities that have the most need for good police protection are often the least able to pay for it. So what happens? Crime fighting is inadequate, a lot of people and businesses move away and the situation gets worse. Then crime spreads to neighboring areas, people move away again, and . . . lather, rinse, repeat.

That’s about to happen again in Southeast Michigan unless regional and/or state-level action is taken to stop it. As I write this, Detroit is contemplating the layoff of hundreds of police officers – a move that could reverse impressive progress the city has made in reducing overall violent crime. Meanwhile, the much-smaller Inkster Police Department just announced it will lay off 12 officers, leading to fear that criminals there will see an opportunity and take it.

Those are just the latest examples of a trend toward reducing police protection where it least makes sense to do so – simply because local city budgets are tight and money to pay for more officers is not there. You can score one for the crooks; that is, unless we develop a regional approach to police funding that is less vulnerable to budgetary problems of any particular community.

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Brett Noel

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Eric Baerren

I have a confession, and it’s difficult to say. Given recent events, however, I feel the need to come clean. Here goes:

Back when I was in college, working for the student newspaper, I met my current Congressman, Dave Camp. I worked on several stories that put me in contact with his office, and I interviewed him a couple of times, including once when he came to campus. Later that day, in fact, he tried to maximize his media exposure in a store selling CMU clothing. It was that afternoon that we had sex.

I won’t go into details, but will add that coming clean leaves me feeling finally relieved.

I was encouraged to come forward by recent events. The public learned the lurid details of what happened at Penn State, and then last week allegations were made public that another Michigan Congressman, Flint Democrat Dale Kildee, molested a distant family member several decades ago. If you can think of a more appropriate time, I’m happy to hear it.

There is one small difference. I made it up. OK, I didn’t make up the part about interviewing Dave Camp, or the bit about him and the CMU clothing. It was a big football game, and Camp really tried to double his media exposure by posing with CMU shirts.

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Dan Calabrese

I don’t know exactly how much money Fred Meijer left behind when he departed this world last week, but I’d proffer a reasonable guess that it was enough to make him part of the dastardly “1 percent.”

You know: Them. Ask any Occupy Wall Streeter about them. They make too much, horde too much and keep other poor saps toiling in subjection to The Man. They’re jerks.

Of course, when they die, it’s customary to regale them with compliments, and the usual media approach to this – certainly in full force in the case of Fred Meijer – is to praise him for that portion of his wealth he gave away in the form of philanthropy, sponsorships and what-have-you. This, we are told, represents his impact on the world around him.

But that’s a load of crap.

Fred Meijer’s impact on the world around him is not represented by his establishment of the Meijer Botanical Gardens, nor by any of his philanthropic giving. These are all well and good, but let’s be real here. Meijer impacted the communities in which he operated, and brought the greatest benefit to these communities, through the profitable operation of the stores that bear his name.

The OWS crowd considers it an article of faith that 1 percenters like Fred Meijer hurt others by amassing more than their share of wealth.

But the manner in which Fred Meijer amassed his wealth brought massive benefits to the communities where his stores operated – not because he was a nice or generous guy necessarily (although he may well have been), but because he understood what you have to do to earn money.

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Jocelyn Benson

Michigan’s strangely contorted new congressional districts should be subject to serious scrutiny in the courts. But the uncertainty of success for litigants in such a case contributes to the growing unlikelihood of any legal challenge to the new map.

Earlier this year, the Michigan Legislature enacted a plan for new congressional districts that could arguably be the most oddly shaped plan in Michigan’s history.  It turns out we were not alone.

A few weeks ago, Roll Call asked whether the most recent national redistricting cycle was the “ugliest” in history.  And as an example of their assertion that this cycle was “particularly ugly and hypocritical,” the national publication pointed to Michigan’s very own, increasingly infamous, 14^th Congressional District.  The new district, dubbed the “8 Mile Mess,” groups voters in Southwest Detroit and Grosse Pointe with residents of West Bloomfield and Pontiac.  Roll Call considers it on a level of irregularity with Maryland’s contorted 3^rd District – the “Pinwheel of Death” – and Ohio’s 9^th – the “Mistake by the Lake.”

Yet despite this national notoriety, there has yet to be a single lawsuit filed to challenge the legality of Michigan’s Congressional District map.  Why?

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Herman Cain

No one knows what the outcome will be, but it was certainly welcome news when we learned recently that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule next summer on the constitutionality of ObamaCare.

And while it is not the Court’s job to rule on the merits of the legislation itself – only on the considerable constitutional issues the misguided law presents – the Court will nevertheless do the nation an enormous favor, in terms of policy as well as liberty, by tossing out this abysmal piece of legislation.

The consequences of ObamaCare are already afflicting the nation. Since it passed – to the surprise of no one who understands how markets work – the cost of health premiums has risen by 9 percent. Hundreds of companies have sought and received waivers, which are being doled out with all the wisdom you would expect when political considerations take front and center.

Many other employers will simply wait until the right time to end health benefits entirely and push them off on the federal government. The so-called health exchanges mandated by the law will add an enormous new budgetary burden to states, which explains why 26 state attorneys general have already joined in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the law.

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Jake Davison

Michigan legislators do too much campaigning and not enough real policy work, much of which is the fault of our election cycle. If we’re serious about getting more value out of our elected representatives, we could make some changes that would improve that balance.

The election cycle has 24 months. Michigan is currently in month number 13 of the 2011-12 election cycle, which actually began in November 2010, the day after Gov. Snyder and huge GOP majorities in both houses of the state legislature were elected.

The first two months of the cycle are lame-duck, meaning the Legislature (full of recently defeated and/or term-limited legislators) could vote to send legislation to a lame-duck Gov. Granholm. Another three months are after the primary and before the general election, and the active primary season effectively begins in January of the even-numbered year. So what you have is 12 months of hard-core campaign season versus 12 months of actual work (sometime less).

Legislators officially take office on New Year’s Day, are formally sworn in and have a ceremonial Legislative session in mid-January, then get down to the business of announcing committee assignments, holding hearings and voting on bills in by early February. A mere 18 months later, primaries are held, for which many candidates begin knocking on doors as soon as late February.

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Gregory D. Lee

Just about the time Republicans think they’ve found a true conservative candidate, Newt Gingrich reveals that backdoor citizenship for illegal aliens is just fine with him.

“I don’t see how the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families which have been here a quarter-century,” Gingrich said in the latest Republican debate on CNN. “I’m prepared to take the heat for saying let’s be humane in enforcing the law.”

Immigration will be Newt’s Achilles heel.

Conservatives are asking themselves the difference between Gingrich and President Obama’s policy on immigration laws. Both maintain that the children of illegal immigrants who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country by their parents should be allowed to stay. Both assume the parents of these children want to become U.S. citizens. What evidence is there of that? If they wanted to become citizens, they would have applied years ago.

When an illegal alien brings his or her family members with them, they know the risk of being caught. They take the risk in order to receive unjustified compensation in the form of public safety, schools, medical care and a host of other benefits designed for U.S. citizens. Just because they’ve been here for an extended period of time shouldn’t give them a pass for being here illegally, nor should it give them an edge over others who seek legal migration.

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Dan Calabrese

One of Detroit’s biggest problems right now is the fact that things in the city were once so good. When times are good, politicians tend to create institutions – cheered on by the people – that are easy to support as long as the prosperity continues, but become anvils around the neck when things change.

And things always change, sometimes with alarming speed. That’s when trouble starts, because politicians are almost never willing to make adjustments with the same speed, and sometimes they’re not willing to recognize reality at all.

The sad fiscal implosion of Detroit makes it hard to believe there was ever a time when the city could balance a budget, operate efficiently and provide quality public services to the people who lived and worked within its boundaries.

But there was. A history lesson doesn’t do any good if it’s just a recounting of events, but if Detroit is going to fix its problems, people need to understand how and when it should have made adjustments. In a city where things were once peachy, it’s easier to pretend things are just as peachy as ever than to deal with things as they are.

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