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Thursday Coffee Talk/Open Thread

by: rich

Thu Feb 28, 2008 at 07:35:55 AM EST


Good morning. Today is the Day Before Leap Day. But it's still February, which means it's still winter here in Michigan. So grab yourself a hot mug of something to drink and take a look at today's cup-o-links. 

Kwame and the Text Messages Ad Nauseum

  • Freep: Video: Mayor Kilpatrick schemed to conceal texts. “A Wayne County judge today released the last remaining sealed documents, showing how Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his city-paid lawyers schemed to conceal incriminating text messages that could result in perjury charges against him and Christine Beatty.”
  • Detroit News: Laura Berman: 'Solution' included payoff, secrecy. “The defense lawyer described the settlement as a ‘global solution.’ In computerese, global solutions are technical programming changes that work across computer systems. In Detroit's unfolding mini-Watergate, the global solution was a quasi-legal fix that was corrupt at its core, a deal with a big payday to one side and a promise of secrecy to the other.”

Judicial Reform

  • Freep: Cate McClure: Minimize the politics in selecting justice. McClure makes the case for implementing a method for selecting our state’s judges that would take away the partisanship that drenches the current method.
  • LSJ: Dan Pero: 'Reform' groups want voters out of the loop. “An assortment of lobbyists declared last week ‘judicial reform’ week in Lansing. Their goal was to gain support for public financing of state Supreme Court elections.”
    In case you forgot, Dan Pero “is a former member of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission and is president of the Lansing-based American Justice Partnership, a group launched by the National Association of Manufacturers to advocate for legal reform at the state level.” Yes, the same NAM whose President is...former Governor John Engler. And no less than John Engler himself declared “Lobbying Gives Voice to Manufacturers in Washington.” So I guess lobbyists are okay as long as they’re Pero’s lobbyists.

The Merger of Northwest and Delta

  • Livingston Daily Press & Argus: Phil Power: Airline merger could boost region. Phil makes the case for the merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
  • Detroit News: Pilots stuck on choice to arbitrate. “The ongoing effort by pilots for Delta and Northwest airlines to merge their seniority lists is hung up, at least in part, on whether an arbitrator should eventually be brought in to resolve the issue, sources with knowledge of the pilot talks said Wednesday.”

Education

  • Michigan Messenger: 'Laramie Project' playwright: Kalamazoo student performers 'courageous.' “’Bravo!’ said playwright Moisés Kaufman about the controversial production at Kalamazoo Central High School of his play The Laramie Project. ‘How beautiful that they are having the most courageous conversation. They have inherited the words of a community in mourning. A community struggling with the question how did we raise these children here? That is a courageous question.’ On a tight schedule, Kaufman spent several hours in Kalamazoo Saturday afternoon.”
  • LSJ: U.S. veteran, Iraqi share their stories with students. “Patricia McCann served in and around Baghdad as a specialist in the Illinois Air National Guard from 2003 to 2004. She said her experience clearly convinced her the war was a mistake. Raed Jarrar is a 30-year-old Iraqi political analyst, born and raised in Baghdad, who now, with McCann, tours the United States, encouraging people to oppose the war.”
  • ars technica: Misperceptions meet state of the art in evolution research. “As an employee of the National Center for Science Education, Nick Matzke was involved with everything from situations that never made the press to coaching the lawyers in the Dover trial, which gained international attention. One thing that apparently became clear is that, due to the highly technical material and a flood of misinformation on the topic, the public (and even many scientists) simply don't know what the current state of knowledge is when it comes from evolution.”
Odds & Ends
  • AP: Gov. Granholm: Bad roads, bridges could be good for new jobs. Moving up $150 million in projects to replace or repair more roads and bridges this summer should add 2,100 construction and engineering jobs in Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday. The 34 projects sprinkled around the state originally were set for 2009 or later, but were moved up as part of the governor's economic stimulus project.
  • YAF Watch: YAF's New Co-Chairs, in their own words. Just when you thought things might improve with Kyle Bristowsteping down as President of MSU's YAF chapter, think again.
  • The Grand Rapids Press: Danger on Lake Michigan ice, piers. “Glistening on a sunny winter day, the 300-foot ice pack off Holland State Park is almost enchanting to adventurers.” It can be dangerous taking a walk out on the ice. Be sure to check out the accompanying picture and slide show.
  • The Muskegon Chronicle: Forestalling foreclosure. “The NIC, which ordinarily helps people find and purchase homes, offers a free foreclosure prevention service that often keeps families from losing their homes.” It’s that latter service that is in heavy demand these days.
  • Livingston Daily Press & Argus: Immigrant gets second chance. “Fnu "Joe" Yonathan is getting another chance. The 29-year-old Brighton man, a native of Indonesia, learned this week he has until April 24, 2009, to reapply for asylum.”

As always, if I missed anything, please feel free to add it to the comments.  

rich :: Thursday Coffee Talk/Open Thread
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Laramie Project in Kalamazoo (4.00 / 4)
As a UW grad--crikey, this is two mentions of Wyoming I've made on a Michigan blog in half an hour, sorry people--I cannot recommend the Laramie Project enough. Sure, it provides only a few sides of this extremely complex situation and takes advantage of the perception of the town as a bit of a backwater, but it is honest. If you can't make it to the Kalamazoo production, I suggest renting the HBO production. Because this girl from up north can tell you, what happened to Matthew almost ten years ago can very well happen up there. Or anywhere, for that matter.

a second from me (4.00 / 3)
Laramie Project is a great play! See it if you can.  

What would Eleanor Roosevelt do?

[ Parent ]
YAF Watch (4.00 / 1)
Thanks for a glimpse at how it just goes on and on. This is from the YAF Watch article about the new leaders:
We have all intentions of continuing to dominate the conservative voice on campus and protecting Western Civilization. We have been passed the torch that conservative leaders, including Jason Van Dyke, Craig Burgers, Alex Hart, Luke Pelican, and Kyle Bristow have held at Michigan State University. We are grateful for this opportunity and plan to take full advantage of our unique position while here at MSU.
and
To Jason Van Dyke, who chose to return to the conservative movement at MSU when he could have as easily walked away, we thank you. You have so graciously dedicated your own time to MSU YAF and we would be honored if you would continue to aid YAF and allow us access to your wisdom and generosity

lapojoynt's diary on the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and its activities with college students makes me wonder whether these 2 and Bristow are graduates?  

What would Eleanor Roosevelt do?


Don;t Think YAF is tied to the FDD (0.00 / 0)
Bristow and several other YAFers have interned at the Leadership Institute. Most YAF chapter seem to be a subsidiaries of the Leadership Institute.

[ Parent ]
Sorry (4.00 / 2)
no such thing as non-partisanship in selecting judges.

Every type of method contains political aspects.

The sooner that people understand that humans are "political animals," the sooner we can put some of these non-partisan arguments to bed.


Although I agree... (4.00 / 1)
...what we have now is ridiculously partisan.  I mean, even our thoroughly non-partisan city commissions are tinged with partisanship (our mayor two terms ago was widely believed to be positioning himself for a run at the state House using his work on the city commission), and our school board elections often gives one or two candidates a tacit nod, but there's no reason to turn judicial races into just repackaged races for the governorship, attorney general, secretary of state, and U.S. Senate.

Among the Trees

[ Parent ]
Partisanship (4.00 / 2)
You're right. It's impossible to get the partisanship out of any form of politics. Aristotle was right when he said that man was by nature a political animal. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to at least limit how money influences judicial elections.

[ Parent ]
Now money is a different (0.00 / 0)
kettle of fish. I agree on that count.

Simply cap the amount allowed to be given by a single individual for a total election year.

So if little Dickie DeVos wants to spend money, he can only spend $100,000 max in a given year total.

We would crush them by our sheer numbers and it would have a beneficial affect on the GOP as well...


[ Parent ]
NRCC scandal (0.00 / 0)
http://www.garyrsnyder.com/Pag...

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), a certified public accountant, had pushed for months for an internal audit of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The committee's treasurer at the time was reluctant. At a recent meeting, the now former NRCC treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, relented, giving Conaway what was supposed to be an official internal audit from 2006. That document was a fake. Even the letterhead on which it was sent was a forgery.

Revelations about the falsified document touched off an unfolding scandal that has rocked the NRCC and spurred a criminal investigation by the FBI into the committee's accounting procedures. Fearing the fallout from the discovery, the NRCC informed its principle lender, Wachovia, of potential accounting problems. Wachovia had lent the committee $9 million in 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records. Knowing the bank was required by law to notify federal investigators of any "suspicious activity," the NRCC also alerted the FBI, Republican insiders confirmed. At the same time, NRCC officials notified the FEC that the committee might have filed inaccurate disclosure statements.




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