An Open Letter to Michigan Republicans

Dear Michigan Republicans:

Stop it.  All of it.  Just stop.

It is truly amazing how we pay lip service to unity, then immediately turn around and try to tear each other apart.  This gives aid and comfort to the enemy, and it stokes the mistrust that so characterizes our current political process.

The negative campaigning, the dirty tricks, the middle-of-the-night meetings that rewrite the rule book – does it matter?  In the long run (meaning about six months from now), will any of this matter?

To some extent, of course it matters.  We have to be able to work together to accomplish our common goals, and our recent primary certainly did not bring us any closer together, but we have lost our focus on those common goals that unite us.  No two people have complete agreement on every issue -- how boring would that be? -- but I have witnessed people getting absolutely roasted over any minor deviation from an author's credo. 

Have you looked at Facebook lately?  I don't blame the Santorum folks for putting a positive spin on things, but the vitriol directed at the Romney campaign is out of place.  And Romney people, until now I didn't know you could be a sore winner.

And how can there be a split on the Credentials Committee vote awarding the at-large delegates?  It's arithmetic!  There is a right answer!

One thing in particular that needs to change -- elected or paid GOP leadership, including our national committee people and all members of the state committee, should not be endorsing candidates in a contested primary.  If you don't know why, look at the current controversy surrounding the Credentials Committee and the announced endorsements of the 4-2 majority.  Call it what you want, but it taints the process.  The Party should be the Party of all the candidates, ready to leap into action to support the winner of the primary, not divided by pre-primary endorsements that suggest the deck is stacked or that give the appearance of impropriety.

We are fond -- very fond -- of referring to Ronald Reagan, and the tug-of-war over his mantle is sometimes amusing to watch.  But one thing Reagan did was to articulate his vision of America.  Not a set of legislative priorities, but a vision of what this country means and could be.  Then the voters came to that vision.  As Reagan said in his famous 1974 "The Shining City Upon a Hill" speech:

Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, “We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.” *  *  *

We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia. In the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the dark ages, Pope Pius XII said, “The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.”

We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.

Which of our candidates is describing this kind of vision of America?  Which one of us is doing so?  Has the polarization that grips the national political scene taken hold of the GOP here in the Enchanted Mitten?

The good news is that this can all be fixed.  Easily, in fact.  It will take, however, an en masse commitment to truth, transparency, and togetherness.  For one, the Credentials Committee should reconsider its recent vote, and the Santorum campaign should drop all challenges.  There should be a voluntary 30-day moratorium on saying anything bad against any fellow Republican.  Let's focus on the target-rich environment the Democrats have provided, okay?

And in the future, let's remember that things don't need to be rigged.  Debate doesn't need to be shut down.  We don't need to "get around" anyone.  Our party is about fair, open, honest debate and an unswerving commitment to freedom. 

Time to get back to basics, before it's too late.

The Wiz.

Getting it Right

From time to time, the courts get it right. Actually, they do so more often than not, but we usually point out only the missteps.

In the case of Citizens for Environmental Inquiry v Department of Environmental Quality, several Michigan citizens and the CEI sued Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality, claiming that the DEQ was required to issue rules regulating carbon dioxide emissions. The plaintiffs alleged that unregulated CO2 emissions cause "global warming and/or climate change" and impose upon "all the people of Michigan a severity of injury that is indivisible and at once a substantial concrete injury personal to every citizen."

The trial court tossed the case out, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal on February 9, finding that the DEQ had not done anything wrong, and the plaintiffs had no standing to pursue their claims. Appellate judges Cavanagh, Fitzgerald, and Shapiro got this one right, as did Judge William Collette of the Ingham County Circuit Court.

Ironically, this dismissal happens just as any semblance of a case for anthropogenic global warming seems to be completely unraveling. See here, here, and here.

According to its website, CEI is an organization committed to killing coal-fired and nuclear power plants in Michigan. (Okay, "killing" is my word, not CEI's.) Governor Tinkerbell has done this -- congratulations! After all, why would we want to explore all potential sources of energy? That new "green" economy is working out so well for us here in the Enchanted Mitten -- over 15% unemployment, a real unemployment rate closer to 25%, no prospects for recovery, and a governor who thinks the way to make things better is to -- wait for it -- raise taxes!

Sorry about that last paragraph. This started as a nice positive post about a court making the right decision, so let's end it that way. Good job, Judge Collette! Good job, Judges Cavanagh, Fitzgerald, and Shapiro! Keep up the good work!

We're Number 7! We're Number 7!

Oh boy, the figures are rolling in on The One's stimulus package and that unbelievable recovery we're in! And the Enchanted Mitten is number 7 in the latest rankings!

All 50 states have been studied, comparing The One's projection of jobs created through December 2010 with the actual change in jobs through September 2009, using state payroll figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Do you remember the euphoria when The One said we would create 3.5 million jobs? The actual number, when you add up the state-by-state projections, was 3,460,000. Well, the figures are in so far, and it turns out the nation has actually seen jobs decline -- there are now 2,708,600 fewer people working, or a net loss of 6,168,600 jobs, compared to the projection.

Okay, I know the projection is for December 2010 and we still have a year to go, so it could still happen, couldn't it? After all, we're off to a flying start!

Here in the Enchanted Mitten, we were projected to gain 109,000 jobs. We've actually lost 137,300, for a net loss over the projection of 246,300 jobs. Still, this fine performance (guess we're just not making enough movies, or green products, or green movies, or whatever) only puts us at 7th worst among job losers. Here are the six ahead of us:

1. California, -732,400
2. Texas, -494,300
3. Florida, -371,100
4. New York, -326,800
5. Georgia, -291,900
6. Illinois, -256,900

Yes, we're only 10,600 lost jobs behind Illinois, a gap I think Gov. Tinkerbell and the rest of the Lansing think tank can easily close, but we'd better watch out -- Pennsylvania is only 100 lost jobs behind us, and Ohio is lurking in 9th with a net of 230,500 lost jobs.

I know what you're thinking, and you're probably right. It's not fair to compare Michigan's dismal performance against the failed stimulus, because the Mitten got out in front and started shedding jobs almost as soon as Tink could say, "You're gonna be blown away." But hey, rules are rules, and we have to take the rankings as we find them.

And so it goes. We're number 7! We're number 7!