It's Valentine's Day and love is in the air... well, something is anyways
By RightMichigan.com Posted in Barack | Breaking News | Carl Levin | Congress | Hillary Clinton | Hussein | love | Michigan | Obama | senate | Valentine's — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
Today's Valentine's Day. It's a day for candy hearts and chocolates and elementary school parties and notes passed between kids and cupid and arrows and romance and all that stuff. And yeah, it's about commercialization and greeting cards and a cheapening of high concepts but only if you're predisposed to hate holidays, are chronically and painfully single or just plain ornery.
Because mostly what Valentine's Day is about is love. Awwwww. So in that spirit today there are a few news stories worth noting and I want to approach them from a different angle. No anger, no conflict, no gasps or sighs and absolutely no sarcasm or cynicism. (Right.) Instead, lets talk about love.
The way I love, for instance, the coverage of Barack Hussein Obama's latest campaign stop in the Detroit News. Were one to read only the article's header and opening line one might conclude that the man has decided Michigan votes are worth chasing after all and that he'd finally violated his own insipid pledge never to step foot here... "Obama woos autoworkers" proclaims the headline in big bold print. "Sen. Barack Obama took a significant step Wednesday to reassure manufacturing-minded Michigan Democrats, choosing General Motors Corp.'s oldest production plant to outline an economic agenda that includes aid to the auto industry."
Well finally. That's awesome! Except, wait. GM's oldest production plant apparently isn't in Michigan. The story's byline tells us that Janesville, WI is where this all went down. I love bylines. But they just sort of blend in, you know? Most folks, if I had to guess, read them and they don't even register. Readers are anxious to get to the story to find out what's happening. Not to see if the reporter bothered to note his geographic location after his name. It isn't until the end of the fourth graph that we realize Obama's wonderful pro-Michigan conversion was nothing but a mirage. He was in the home of cheese. Not Wolverines. If only the guy loved Michigan as much as the rest of us. Or even pretended.
But no, Obama is consistent when it comes to his disdain for Michigan and her voters. Just a shame the man that sends a warm shiver up the inside of Chris Matthew's legs (dare I say it? Could it be... true love?) isn't consistent with his tone and policy positions. For a guy the MSM is hailing as the savior of modern politics and a candidate above the typical political fray Obama's flip flopping position on the domestic auto industry smacks, sadly, of the same old politics.
Obama's words were significantly different than those of nine months ago. In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, the Illinois senator aimed at the Big Three in a way that many state Democrats considered unfair and damaging.
"The auto industry is on a path that is unacceptable and unsustainable," Obama said in May. "For too long, we've been either too afraid to ask our automakers to meet higher fuel standards or unwilling to help them do it."
The words stung, and Obama has repeated them often in his drive for the Democratic presidential nomination. In television ads, debates and at campaign rallies, the speech has become a centerpiece of Obama's political identity: that of a new kind of politician, willing to tell uncomfortable truths to unfriendly audiences.
Flanked by examples of the same kinds of low-mileage SUVs that he's criticized in the past, Obama vowed to help the domestic auto industry to a more fuel-efficient future...
Emphasis mine.
I love it when candidates tell the truth to unfriendly audiences. I also love it when the light bulb goes off in peoples' heads and they realize they're being sold a bill of goods. Obama was anxious and eager to talk tough about Michigan's biggest industry, pushing for fuel economy standards that some analysts believe could permanently cripple or kill any or all of the Big 3. No talk of help then. Suddenly he's chasing Hillary Clinton's blue-collar voters and he's singing a different tune.
After all the hype he's willing to pander just like every other candidate? I'm shocked. Seriously taken aback. And candidates don't shock me often. But when they do I love it.
Almost as much as I love the fact that the ACLU is suing the State of Michigan to do what the Democrats in the legislature are attempting to prevent... the legal granting of drivers licenses to legal immigrants. And, you guessed it. I love legal immigration. The Associated Press reports:
Businesses and universities are urging quick action, adding that Michigan's reputation is suffering because of the policy. State officials say there are nearly 400,000 foreign businesspeople, students and their families in Michigan on visas.
Some of them already have been turned down in their quest to get Michigan driver's licenses.
Legal immigrants who are not permanent residents have not been able to get driver's licenses since late last month, what many consider an unintended consequence of a similar crackdown on illegal immigrants. The state Legislature has begun passing bills to clarify state law so that legal immigrants can get driver's licenses, but the House and Senate haven't yet agreed on final legislation.
"With this policy, the state is sending mixed messages to me and other registered nurses who are moving here from other countries to fill a nursing shortage plaguing Michigan," Catherine Gates, a Canadian citizen living in Muskegon, said in a statement released by the ACLU.
You may recall that when the State Senate took action to fix this problem nine Senate Democrats did their best to block the legislation sending a clear signal that there are things they love more than hard working people making a living for their families the legal way. Maybe because they're not on the government dole? Because they aren't utterly and completely dependent on the bureaucracy... yet? Because they're self sufficient and succeeding in the private sector? Or maybe because there are times when politics gets in the way of sound publicy. Not that that was universally true. There were one or two Senate Dems who voted with the common sense majority.
Oh, wait. Guess what! That officially makes this "bipartisan" legislation. At least according to Democrat standards. Why did Gretchen Whitmer and her merry band all vote against common sense bipartisan legislation? I for one love bipartisan legislation, don't you?
Of course, inter-party disagreements don't just happen in Lansing. They happen in Washington, D.C. too. Look no further than the legislation that moved through committee on the Hill yesterday opening the door for two new Indian casinos in Michigan. One in Romulus and one in Port Huron. Kwame's mom doesn't like the idea. She's a Democrat. Neither does Harry Reid.
Nancy Pelosi? No one knows but Debbie Stabenow is a big fan of Indian gaming. So is John Dingell. They're both all about getting this thing done. Because that's exactly what Michigan needs right now. More Indian casinos. The Ivory Tower reports:
She, like her son -- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick -- is dead set against the proposal, which would place a new casino in Romulus, about 25 miles from downtown Detroit. She said she's not against competition but noted that Detroit's casino operators "invested in our city when no one else would..."
Even if they get out of the House, the bills face an uphill battle in the Senate -- where rival casinos and those who say they are a precedent for off-reservation gaming are expected to fight them. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, opposes the bills.
"I think it was a miscarriage of justice," Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said Wednesday of the vote.
Should the bills get to the Senate things will get more interesting. Carl Levin has publicly supported one of the new casinos but has been silent about the other. I love it when politicians stake out careful positions right smack dab in the middle of an issue where no thinking person could otherwise land on their own. Then again, I could be jumping to conclusions. Maybe Senator Levin has a perfectly good explanation why it's OK to put a new casino in one city but not the other.
I'd imagine residents of BOTH cities would love to hear it.