RePORK Card for Michigan

"The Myrtle Beach International Trade and Conference Center", "The Institute for Seafood Studies", "The Commercial Kitchen Business Incubator Project", "potato research in Idaho, Oregon and Washington." Would your Congressman vote on earmarks to spend your tax dollars on such projects as these? Apparently so.

Club for Growth has issued their annual RePORK card. The scorecard consists of 68 earmark-killing amendments introduced by U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-AZ, and two of his budget-cutting allies in Congress. These legislators launched a similar assault on earmarks during the 2008 federal budget battle. Support from Michigan politicians for five of the targeted spending projects were examined in the September/October 2009 Michigan Capitol Confidential. Read their full report here.

Of the fifteen Congressman from Michigan, only four received a passing grade. Here are the rankings:
Pete Hoekstra.................................97% (A)
Thad McCotter................................85% (B+)
Vern Ehlers.....................................78% (B-)
Mike Rogers....................................66% (D+)
Fred Upton......................................53% (F)
Mark Schauer.................................43% (F)
Candice Miller................................31% (F)
Dave Camp.....................................24% (F)
Gary Peters.....................................1% (F)
Everyone Else (Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Cheeks-Kilpatrick, Levin, Stupak............0% (F)

Fight The Gas Tax Increase!

Town Hall meetings on the massive Ball and Byrnes gas and diesel fuel tax hikes, HB 5768 & HB 5769 will be coming to a town near you. It is an effort by big-government pols to gin up support for these huge tax increases. (8 cents per gallon on gas and 12 cents per gallon on diesel.) Democrat Speaker Pro-tem and Transportation Appropriations Chair, Pam Byrnes will be chairing these local town hall meetings.

This is your opportunity to let your voice be heard. These are public meetings. Byrnes and company will undoubtedly attempt to pack the meetings with union bosses and big-government supporters who will express their support. They were not very forthcoming with details to the public about these meetings. In fact, we received this sketchy information just today:

• Monday, February 22, 10:00 a.m. Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Texas Twp. Campus (map)
• Monday, March 8, 10:00 a.m. Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City (map)
• Monday, March 22, 10:00 a.m. Eagle Crest Conference Center, Ypsilanti (map)

If you are a blogger in one of these communities, please get the word out. You can learn more about these bills here and here.

Home Improvement by Government Committee. Is Anyone Surprised at the Price?

"I'm from the government, and I can caulk your house for just $57,000. But, don't worry about it, the taxpayers will cover it." Read the NRO story here. Read the Los Angeles Times story here.

There is so much pork, they have to start shooting the pigs in the street!

 

2010 Senate Bill 1136 (Authorize shooting of at-large swine ) Introduced by Sen. Ron Jelinek (R) on February 11, 2010, to allow animal control officers or individuals with any hunting license to kill swine running at large on public property.

• Referred to the Senate Agriculture and Bioeconomy Committee on February 11, 2010. 

Read the text of the bill here.

Center Right Meeting Feb. 18, 9:30 a.m. Lansing

Ingham Building

116 West Ottawa (Next to House Biggby)

9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Confirmed Guests:
* Ron Weiser, Michigan State GOP Chairman
* Patrick Wright, Mackinac: Unwilling Union Members - revisited
* Jay Riemersma, Candidate for Congress
* Randy Bain, Bedford Township: Road Tax
* James Dally, Business Owner: How Local Municipalities "Do Business" with Contract Bids
* Dave Agema (and others): The Governor's Budget for 2011

We are sure to have a great meeting. Ron Weiser, GOP state Party Chairman will be updating on how we are going to "win in '10". Patrick Wright and others, will be updating us on how 40,000+ family-owned day care centers will be paying union dues, unwillingly and how the "union" continues to operate even after their funding was cut off.


Jay Riemersma will tell us why he is running for Congress in the 2nd district, currently held by Pete Hoekstra. Randy Bain, from Bedford Township in Monroe County will tell us about a road tax the township is trying to impose on its citizens. James Dally, from Mavcon Construction will tell us several examples of how local governments are apparently awarding construction contracts arbitrarily, to 5th, 6th and 7th lowest qualified bidders. Dave Agema will update on us on how the governor intends to raise several hundred million in new taxes without causing a taxpayer revolt. It will blow you away!

Kalamazoo County Democrat Party Chair: A Real Classy Guy!

Southwest Michigan Tea Party Activist Scott Arnett, kindly invited the Kalamazoo County Democrats to attend the Ronald Reagan birthday party celebration this Saturday. Seems like a sensible and courteous thing to do, especially since many independent and democrat voters are members of local tea party groups. Here is part of that invitation:


This is a formal invitation to the county Democratic Party to help celebrate the 99^th birthday of the Great Communicator. We are holding a birthday party for President Ronald Reagan on Feb. 6^th at the Fetzer Center Auditorium on the WMU campus. The festivities will be held at 11am to 2:30pm, including cake and ice cream. Please let your fellow leadership, candidates, and caucus know that the timeless principles and economic philosophy of President Reagan are to be remembered and celebrated.

Mr. Pawloski was not content to politely decline. He had to show his class (or lack thereof) with the following response, which I received a copy of:


I passed your invitation onto our leadership and they collectively agreed to tell you to take your invitation fold it five ways and stick it where the moon don’t shine!
PS: Your website violates campaign finance laws. Tell that to the derilict jack hoogydick and his cronies who are funding your rinky dink operation.
David C. Pawloski, Chair
Kalamazoo County Democratic Party
dpawloski@kzoodems.com
269-744-6774


Not only does Mr. Pawloski lack class and common courtesy, he isn't a very good speller, either.

Governor Granholm to Give State of State speech from Capitol Steps?!

Traditionally, the governor gives her state of the state address from inside the chamber of the House of Representatives. We have found out that the governor reserved the steps outside for tomorrow night. Is she giving her speech from outside, or is she just trying to discourage taxpayers and voters from gathering to exercise their right to free speech on the steps of the building that "we the people" own?

The media is reporting there may be 1,000 people in attendance outside the Capitol. Those steps might be kinda crowded. Come tomorrow night and find out!

Rick Snyder to Launch Campaign During Super Bowl

I received an e-mail blast from the Snyder campaign announcing that he will be doing TV ads during the Super Bowl. Considering that they are produced by Strategic Perception Inc., of Hollywood California, which has done ads for John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger, they should be stellar!

Snyder and Schwarzenegger and McCain, oh, my!

Another Lost Opportunity: Too Much Regulation and Taxation

I recently received a letter from a reader. Here are her thoughts, summarized.

My husband was negotiating with a foreign company to open a processing plant for our dehydrated fruits and vegetables and a distribution center in the United States for our products. He had been offered the job of managing the distribution center. The owners came here to review his idea. They found many advantages to locating in Michigan:

• Warehousing cost were favorable
• West Michigan growers and their supply of fruit and vegetables was advantageous
• Outbound shipping was favorable, even a day faster than larger cities in other states
• Available labor pool was favorable

With all these positives, they chose another state to open their Distribution Center and Processing Plant. The reasons:

• Michigan Single Business Tax
• Excessive state and local licensing fees
• Electricity (to operate the drying equipment) was too expensive

My husband and I cannot relocate, he would be too far away to operate our farm and work for the company. Our farm and my business are still here. If we could get what we owe on the farm, we would be out of Michigan. Instead, we have been blown away...just like Governor Granholm said we would.

Tell Gery Peters, "No thanks" Tomorrow, in His Neighborhood

9^th Congressional District Republican Party

Announces

HEALTHCARE FREEDOM ‘TEA PARTY’ TO BE HELD IN

CONGRESSMAN GARY PETERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD

Concerned Citizens will Gather to Rally Against Socialized Medicine and FOR Consumer Choice in Health Care 

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 30, 2010, from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM, a gathering of tea party activists, Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats from the 9^th district and surrounding areas will gather in Bloomfield Township, near U.S. Congressman Gary Peters’ home, to tell Mr. Peters, “No Thanks” to the healthcare takeover scheme that continues to be pushed by Congressional Democrats and President Obama. 

The activists will also be walking the surrounding neighborhoods with literature detailing the huge boondoggle this massive government entitlement would be.  The printed material will have information about how to contact Congressman Peters and encourage frustrated citizens to respectfully express their opinion on his previous ‘yes’ vote, as well as urging him to vote ‘no’ on any further consideration on the package of bills.  Special guest speakers will include Americans for Prosperity State Board Chair, Jack Hoogendyk. 

Activists will gather at the MDOT carpool parking lot at I-75 and exit 74 (Adams Road), Bloomfield Township, near the northwest corner of Adams & Square Lake Roads.