Redstate

Posted at 7:57am on Jun. 26, 2008 MI Morning Update: MPR Hosts Binsfeld Dinner Tonight - Prez Fires Up MI GOP - Dem "Change" = Disaster

By saul anuzis

131 Days until Election Day

June 26, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

CONNIE BINSFELD DINNER TONIGHT...with Governor John Engler as our special guest up in Traverse City.  Local Republicans are raising money for a plaque to honor Connie at our headquarters.

Posted in Connie Binsfeld | Michigan Republican Party | President Bush | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:13am on Jun. 25, 2008 MI Morning Update: President in MI - DC Trip a Success - Obama's Policies Risky

By saul anuzis

132 Days until Election Day

June 25, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

PRESIDENT BUSH IN TOWN TODAY...for the 2008 Max M. Fisher National Republican Leadership Award Dinner.  We will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for our fall Victory effort to support Republicans across the board.

Posted in Barack Obama | Michigan Republican Party | President Bush | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:00pm on Jun. 10, 2008 Federal Jobs Illegal Immigrants Can’t Do

The President Gets It. Better Late Than Never

By Mark I

President Bush modified an Executive Order from the Clinton Administration yesterday to effectively bar illegal immigrants from working jobs on the Federal dole. All Federal contractors will now have to register for the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program and check the status of all their workers and subcontractors’ workers before starting work on Federal contracts.

The E-Verify program is the bane of civil liberties and open borders groups because it uses the Social Security Administration’s database to actually cross check the often times fraudulent or stolen numbers provided by illegal immigrants on their employment applications. A Federal Court in San Francisco, natch, blocked part of Homeland Security’s program in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the San Francisco Labor Council, and the strange political bedfellows of the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That ruling, issued by Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer’s brother Judge Charles Breyer, has prevented the Social Security Administration from sending out over 140,000 “no match” letters to employers. The letters would have required employers to take steps to verify their employees’ identities within 90 days or else fire the workers.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at the time that the ruling did not amount to a “holiday from law enforcement,” and that the Administration would do, “as much administratively as we can, within the boundaries of existing law,” to continue to crackdown on illegal immigration. The president rightfully took a lot of criticism from the right for his backing of the Senate’s disastrous “comprehensive” immigration bill, and many have been skeptical of the Administration’s stepped up enforcement of illegal immigration laws in the wake of that compromise’s failure in Congress. Sen. McCain, too, a champion of the Senate bill, professes to have seen the light on illegal immigration and now calls for securing the border before taking up any immigration bill. Yesterday’s move to secure federally contracted jobs for American workers is evidence that the Administration does get it, and is another huge victory for opponents of the comprehensive approach to immigration reform. Sen. McCain can show that he gets it too by pledging not to alter or rescind the order if elected.

Posted in illegal immigration | Immigration | John McCain | President Bush | The Bush Administration — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:49am on May 29, 2008 Quotes that Kill..or..The Definitive 'Bush Lied People Died' Smackdown

By speciallist

Promoted by absentee

Among the many misrepresentations and distortions that have been repeated about the debate over Iraq, one stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively smacked down.

This charge has had amazing success in getting established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by irrefutable facts and evidence. I want to expose it for the lie that it really is. I hope to refresh memories that have grown dim.

Another "lie" that George W. Bush is accused of telling us is that Saddam Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

We were informed of the possibility that Saddam himself would use these weapons against us or our allies...and there was the still more dangerous possibility that he would supply them to terrorists like those who had already attacked us on 9/11 and to whom he was linked.

Lets say, for the sake of argument, that no weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq in the period leading up to the invasion. It defies all reason to think that Bush was lying when he asserted that they did. To lie means to say something one knows to be false.

Mr. Bush believed in the truth of what he was saying about WMD in Iraq.

George Tenet, his own CIA director and hold over from the Clinton administration, assured him that the case was "a slam dunk." Mr. Tenet had the backing of all 15 agencies involved in gathering intelligence for the United States.

The National Intelligence Estimate of 2002 offered with "high confidence" that "Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding its chemical, biological, nuclear, and missile programs contrary to UN resolutions."

The consensus of the intelligence community was overwhelming in the period leading up to the invasion of Iraq that Saddam definitely had an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, and that he was also well on the way to rebuilding the nuclear capability that the Israelis had damaged by bombing the Osirak reactor in 1981.

Additional confirmation of this latter point comes from Kenneth Pollack, who served in the National Security Council under Clinton. "In the late spring of 2002," Pollack has written...

Posted in Archived | Iraq debate | President Bush — Comments (81) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:12pm on May 22, 2008 President Bush speaks at Ft. Bragg, presents awards to Army heroes

By Jeff Emanuel

President Bush speaks to soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division today at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina

President Bush spoke today at Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- home of the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as several other units. His message was simple: that, according to him, "we are on our way to victory" in Iraq.

Among other activities, the President presided over the presentation of the Distinguished Service Cross to Specialists Eric Moser and Chris Corriveau -- the two heroes of a nameless battle in Samarra last August 26 that saw a massive al Qaeda kidnap-and-execution operation foiled by a team of four paratroopers. Specialist Tracy Willis and Sergeant Josh Morley tragically lost their lives in the incident.

UPDATE: Lake Charles, LA's local CBS affiliate has a brief story on SPC Moser today.

Posted in 82nd Airborne | embedded reporting | Iraq | President Bush | War — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:49am on Apr. 8, 2008 The President of the United States Should Not Go To the Olympics

To Do So Would Be A Propaganda Victory For the Chicoms

By Erick

We find ourselves in the nearly unique position of agreeing with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Like stopped clocks, we think they can be right twice in a day and their minute has come. President Bush should not go to Peking for the Olympics.

Unfortunately, there will be a visceral reaction by some on the right because Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are calling for the same thing. There should not be. In fact, the right, which has spent the better part of the last hundred years fighting for freedom around the world, should own this issue. The Chinese autocrats are ruthless dictators seeking international legitimacy despite the terror they pour into Tibet and the human rights abuses they encourage in their own country.

Read on . . .

Posted in China | Foreign Affairs | Olympics | President Bush — Comments (49)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:33pm on Feb. 15, 2008 Pope Benedict to meet with President Bush at White House

By Alexham

Here are the details.

Posted at 2:30am on Feb. 7, 2008 A quick note on health care and the Bush budget

By Jeff Emanuel

In his budget for Fiscal Year 2009, though at $3.1 trillion still far too large, President Bush made several steps in the right (government-limiting) direction. Overall, is this effort “too little, too late” for the nearly-lame-duck President?

Perhaps. There is still reason to be encouraged, though.

Read on.

Posted in FY2009 | Government-run health care | Health care | Policy | President Bush | SCHIP — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:58pm on Jan. 31, 2008 Bush The Spending Hawk

Starting The Bidding Low

By Dan McLaughlin

This AP report suggests that President Bush may be submitting his most frugal budget yet, in his final year in office:

President George W. Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday.

Given that this is an election-year budget submitted by a lame duck president to a hostile Congress, don't hold your breath waiting for this to get enacted. But for once, the Bush White House may be taking steps to draw an election-year contrast on spending, and just as a candidate who has sought to brand himself as a spending hawk seems poised to take the party's nomination. Maybe some parts of the GOP's domestic-policy brand can be salvaged yet. How does Bush propose to save that money?

Read On...

Posted in Better Late Than Never | Budget | President Bush | The White House — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:33am on Jan. 29, 2008 MI Morning Update: President Bush's Final State of the Union - Raining in Holland

By saul anuzis

282 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

President Bush delivered his last State of the Union address. President Bush presented his strong resolve to keep America’s economy healthy, his initiatives that keep America competitive, cut wasteful spending, and expand education options.

Listen to what the Democrats had to say…how they responded…EVERYTHING they proposed cost taxpayer’s money…EVERYTHING was another “gimme” at your expense…and EVERYTHING was obviously wrong, just because President Bush said it.

Posted in Michigan Republican Party | President Bush | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | State of the Union — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:51pm on Jan. 22, 2008 President Bush at his best

By Alexham

President Bush spoke to several March for Life rally participants today in the East Room of the White House. Here are his eloquent remarks to those in attendance:

I see people with a deep conviction that even the most vulnerable member of the human family is a child of God. You're here because you know that all life deserves to be protected. And as you begin your march, I'm proud to be standing with you.

Thirty-five years ago today the United States Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person. But we know many things about the unborn. Biology confirms that from the start each unborn child is a separate individual with his or her own genetic code. Babies can now survive outside the mother's womb at younger and younger ages. And the fingers and toes and beating hearts that we can see on an unborn child's ultrasound come with something that we cannot see: a soul.

Today we're heartened -- we're heartened by the news that the number of abortions is declining. But the most recent data reports that more than one in five pregnancies end in an abortion. America is better than this, so we will continue to work for a culture of life where a woman with an unplanned pregnancy knows there are caring people who will support her; where a pregnant teen can carry her child and complete her education; where the dignity of both the mother and child is honored and cherished.

We aspire to build a society where each one of us is welcomed in life and protected in law. We haven't arrived, but we are making progress. Here in Washington we passed good laws that promote adoption and extend legal protection to children who are born despite abortion attempts. We came together to ban the cruel practice of partial birth abortion. And in the past year we have prevented that landmark law from being rolled back.

We've seen the dramatic breakthroughs in stem cell research that it is possible to advance medical science while respecting the sanctity of life. Building a culture of life requires more than law; it requires changing hearts. And as we reach out to others and find common ground, we can see the glimmerings of a new America on a far shore. This America is rooted in our belief that in a civilized society, the strong protect the weak. This America is nurtured by people like you, who speak up for the weak and the innocent. This America is the destiny of a people whose founding document speaks of the right to life that is a gift of our Creator, not a grant of the state.

My friends, the time is short and your march is soon. As you give voice to the voiceless I ask you to take comfort from this: The hearts of the American people are good. Their minds are open to persuasion. And our history shows that a cause rooted in human dignity and appealing to the best instincts of the American people cannot fail. So take heart.

Take heart, be strong, and go forth. May God bless you.

On days like this, we are reminded why it matters so much to have a man who genuinely believes in the inherent dignity of the unborn occupying the White House.

God Bless you, President Bush.

Posted in Abortion | culture of life | Life Issues | President Bush — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:31pm on Jan. 10, 2008 Fred Thompson Says Bush Should Ignore Earmarks

GOP Candidate Says He Would Sign Executive Order

By Bluey

Just days after releasing a plan to reduce government spending, Fred Thompson continued his assault on earmarks, promising today that if elected president he would sign an executive order canceling lawmakers' pork-barrel projects. President Bush is considering the idea, which is strongly opposed by congressional appropriators but supported by fiscal conservatives.

Thompson fielded questions from bloggers during a conference call this afternoon. He was asked if he would issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to ignore the nearly 10,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill that was enacted in December.

Yes, yes. In fact, I've been talking about that. These earmarks are not part of the legislation. They have not been debated or had a chance for open and honest debate. They're not part of the law. And it comes out of the president's discretion to tell OMB to instruct the agencies to disregard whatever comes out of these committees in terms of those kinds of earmarks.

Thompson has been talking about earmarks all week following the release of his latest policy paper on government spending. He outlines three steps to halt the corrupting influence of earmarks, including a line-item veto, ignoring "soft" earmarks and promoting greater transparency.

Continued on the jump ...

Posted in 2008 | Earmarks | Fred Thompson | President Bush — Comments (32)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:27am on Jan. 5, 2008 John Fund on Bush's Legacy

By Bluey

It's not too late for President Bush to leave office with a strong legacy on fiscal responsibility, but his decision next week on an anti-earmark executive order will go a long way in determining how he's remembered, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund told conservatives tonight at Awakening in Sea Island, Ga.

Fund had harsh words for earmark-addicted Republicans in Congress, notably Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. Fund predicted Stevens wouldn't be re-elected this year, likely because he'll be indicted for corruption. Here's how he summed up the GOP's earmark problem:

Conservatives went to Washington to clean up the swamp and a few of them found that it makes a nice hot tub.

Fund also confirmed, as I reported earlier, that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Bush's idea to cancel lawmakers' earmarks.

Posted at 7:23pm on Jan. 4, 2008 Will Mitch McConnell Stab Us in the Back?

Kentucky senator lobbies against anti-earmark executive order

By Bluey

At a time when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should be rallying his Republican colleagues around the issue of fiscal responsibility, the Kentucky appropriator is showing his true colors as a big spender intent on saving his pork-barrel projects.

President Bush appeared intent on issuing an executive order canceling lawmakers' earmarks in the wake of the $555 billion omnibus spending bill last month. But sources tell me that it's unlikely to happen as a result of an intense lobbying effort organized by McConnell and carried out by other Republican appropriators.

McConnell's behavior is somewhat surprising given his tough re-election bid this year and his promise to rebrand the GOP as good stewards of taxpayers' money. He has certainly done himself no favors with the conservative base and now threatens to further alienate members of his own caucus by standing in the way of Bush's order.

Although the situation does not look good for an anti-earmark executive order, conservatives are clinging to the slightest hope that McConnell will back down before Bush makes his decision public on Tuesday. Taxpayers' groups in Washington are planning to refocus their efforts on McConnell, viewing him as the linchpin.

For additional coverage, please read Phil Kerpen at National Review, Mike Franc at Human Events and Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner.

Posted in Congress | Congress | Earmarks | Mitch McConnell | President Bush — Comments (41)/ Email this page » / Read More »