Archive for November, 2011

Robert Laurie

From staunch conservative, to libertarian, to middle-of-the-road RINO – the Republican Party has proven itself to be a big tent. As long as the tent sits center right.

But as we head toward the primaries, it’s becoming clear that a few of the GOP presidential candidates are simply taking up space. For some, Wednesday night’s Oakland University debate was a chance to shine. For others, it was a last gasp before collecting their copy of the home game, a year’s supply of Turtle Wax and a one-way ticket to Gary Johnson-ville.

In no particular order, here are the candidates teetering on the brink of political disaster:

Ron Paul. Deep down inside, we all know it would be a lot of fun to see Dr. Paul elected president. Considering his isolationist foreign policy, it may not be pretty, but it would be entertaining. We’ll never find out. Paul’s perennial candidacies are more of a statement than an honest endeavor. While his insistence on states’ rights and staunch constitutionality are refreshingly idealistic, his “let Iran have the bomb” approach to world affairs means he’ll never get the nod.

Read the rest of this entry »

David Karki

The leftist propaganda machine formerly known as “the media” has reached a new low this week, trying its best to eliminate from the 2012 campaign via a manufactured “scandal” a candidate in Herman Cain that represents not only a threat to the re-election of the president whom they all but single-handedly elected with their slobbering adulation four years ago, but also the risk of a permanent re-alignment should he be victorious.

In this, they have graduated from a mere DNC spin machine to an outright hit squad, wielding microphones and cameras like weapons, as if they were swords and shields. And their determination is so single-minded that they no longer care if they themselves have a single tiny shred of credibility left.

To actually have the chutzpah to hit Cain with something as flimsy as this, after doing everything they could to cover up for a real compulsive sex predator in President Clinton and to outright bury John Edwards’ adulterous paternity, is the ultimate extreme in hypocritical double standards. There isn’t a word in the English language sufficient to describe this galling treatment.

Read the rest of this entry »

James Melton

In January 1920, as the 18^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was about to become effective, the evangelist Billy Sunday, one of America’s great crusaders against the scourge of “John Barleycorn” proclaimed that a grand new era was about to emerge.

“Men will walk upright now, women will smile and the children will laugh,” Sunday told a crowd in Norfolk, Va. “Hell will be forever for rent.”

Of course, things did not turn out that way. The battle against booze was lost and Prohibition was repealed after 13 years. But, attempts to use the force of law against intoxication and addiction persist to this day – even as they continue to be ineffective. Forty years after President Richard Nixon formally declared a “war on drugs,” Americans are signaling at the voting booth and in opinion polls that they are ready to consider certain forms of tactical retreat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Noel

 cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

Large version for newspaper publication.

Greyscale version for newspaper publication.

Eric Baerren

State legislatures, by and large, have a reputation for incompetence and craven thinking. If there is a problem to address, they tend to be most adept at – usually through sheer bumbling incompetence – making things worse.

This is a necessary backdrop when considering last week’s passage in the Senate of legislation aimed at addressing bullying in school, but that ultimately enabled it. The bulk of the bill’s language establishes requirements for local school districts in establishing bullying policies, but toward the end throws in a sop to the Religious Right that no bullying policy can apply to situations where the alleged bully is acting out of personal moral or religious belief. If God whispers to one child that he should launch a campaign of terror against another, then he can claim sanctuary under the First Amendment.

For a brief second, the bill caught the winds of the 24-hour media, and the nation’s attention was focused on Michigan. The Republic got a good laugh, and before it got to the House of Representatives, a body even more filled with religious zealots and ignoramuses, key representatives were already backing off. You have to wonder what would have happened had a downpour of ridicule not fallen on Lansing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Calabrese

At some point, Michigan is going to have an anti-bullying law, but it will almost certainly not be the one that passed the state Senate on a party-line vote of 26-11 last week. The sponsor of that bill, Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), told me on Friday that he expects the House to change language that is being interpreted as allowing bullying if done because of religious or moral conviction.

Moral bullying?

This is why all 11 Democrats in the Senate who voted were opposed to the bill. An oddly worded section was added to the bill at the behest of Sen. Bruce Caswell (R-Hillsdale), a former educator who, according to Jones, was concerned that an innocuous comment reflecting moral convictions might be taken as a violation of the law.

Democrats believe the section serves as a loophole that would permit bullying – at least verbal if not physical – if the bully cites a religious or moral conviction as motivation. Here’s what the controversial section says in the Senate version:

Read the rest of this entry »

Jocelyn Benson

I started my career at the Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating the activities of hate groups throughout the country. During my time covering these incidents, I learned that, contrary to modern stereotypes, perpetrators of such nastiness were – ironically – a diverse group.  From an older gentleman with a PhD in physics to a young lady without a high school degree, individuals who committed hate crimes, or joined or led anti-government, neo-Nazi and other “hate” groups, span all age groups, nationalities, genders, races, education levels and income brackets.

But I found a striking similarity among this group of miscreants on the fringes of society that I studied, tracked and investigated: Every single one of them had been bullied as a child.

And every single one could, at the drop of a hat, recount a story or anecdote about having been the target of harassment growing up.

I thought about that fact this week, when the Michigan Senate voted 26-11 to enact a law that would permit bullying where motivated by “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Herman Cain

I am a serious person, seeking the opportunity to do a serious and very important job. Our nation has very serious problems, particularly of an economic nature, and Barack Obama does not have the skill, knowledge or will to solve them.

I do.

Unfortunately, the media-driven process by which one must seek this opportunity is fundamentally unserious. I have touched on this before – the emphasis on “gaffes,” gotcha questions and time devoted to trivial nonsense – and everyone knows the process only became further detached from relevance this week as the media published anonymous, ancient, vague personal allegations against me.

Once this kind of nonsense starts, the media’s rules say you have to act in a certain way. I am well aware of these rules. And I refuse to play by them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gregory D. Lee

After forgoing my weekly columns for a year while on active duty as an Army reserve officer, I’m back. I retire today after 39 years, four months and three days of active and reserve service. But who’s counting?

The last year has been a whirlwind of experiences. I reported to the Special Operations Command Europe in Stuttgart, Germany as a special law enforcement advisor for the Commanding General (CG) and Director of Joint Intelligence. By February, I was in Kabul, Afghanistan researching the “Rule of Law” counter-insurgency strategy and the Afghan legal system. I also worked on developing a template for special operation forces in conducting what is called “Evidence Based Operations.”

The essence of the strategy is to show the populace that the Afghan central government is strong, relevant and capable of enforcing its laws and bringing criminals to justice. The strategy changes the rules of engagement for special operations forces from killing or capturing the enemy to assisting Afghan police forces in arresting insurgents in most, but not all cases.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jake Davison

Peter Konetchy. Randy Hekman. Scotty Boman. What do they have in common? A Google search suggests they are Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in Michigan. But that is not true. Pete Hoekstra, Clark Durant and Gary Glenn are actual candidates. Konetchy, Hekman and Boman are attention seeking, self-righteous, nobodies who claim to be candidates.

Imagine if I, a 32-year-old who hasn’t played baseball in 18 years, walked up to Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland and said I was trying out to be the first baseman. Leyland would laugh, and if I refused to leave, I would be removed by security. I would not be mentioned at the end of sports news stories. They would not say “also in the hunt for Miguel Cabrera’s job is Jake Davison.”

But if I walked up to senior capital correspondent Tim Skubick and said, “I am running for United States Senate against Debbie Stabenow,” he wouldn’t laugh. I would be mentioned at the end of news stories covering the race. I would get to participate in forums just like Pete Hoekstra and Clark Durant.

So today, inspired by the voices in my head, at the urging of no supporters and to the distress of my family and loved ones, I am officially declaring my candidacy for the United States Senate. I am running for two reasons: First, I have always wanted to prove that anyone who merely says in a public forum they are running for a major office will get considerable media coverage, no matter how lazily they campaign, how bereft of donors they are, or how hare-brained their policy proposals are. Second, related to hare-brained policy proposals, I promise if elected to launch an all-out war on unicorns.

Read the rest of this entry »