Author: Redactor

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

Not-​So-​Total Recall

Michigan has a recall law. Citizens can toss out an unrepresentative representative before you can say Ypsilanti — even if that politician hasn’t committed a crime or tweeted lewd photos of himself.

Well, maybe not Ypsilanti-​simple: one must gather enough signatures to reach 25 percent of the contested office’s vote in the previous election.

Since 1954, when the recall provision was added to the Michigan Constitution, only three legislators have been successfully recalled. The first two were Democrats, back in 1983. The third happened just last month. Republican State Senator Paul Scott’s recall was placed on the ballot, largely through the efforts of the state teachers union, and he was voted out.

I wouldn’t have supported Scott’s ouster, but I support the right of citizens everywhere to oust away.

Michigan State Senator John J. Gleason disagrees. To Gleason, three recalls in 57 years are three too many. The Democrat introduced Senate Bill 629, which would gut the right to recall by disallowing it unless the legislator has gone on a crime spree or piled up serious ethical violations.

Just voting our liberties away wouldn’t qualify any longer.

“Nothing unites lawmakers more than making it easier to stay in office,” wrote Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Joe Lehman in the Detroit Free Press. “The voters’ right to recall lawmakers, for expressly political reasons, is a potent check against government overreach that the people should jealously guard irrespective of party.”

Joe’s talking Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Thought

George Washington

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” 

Categories
Today

First Wright brothers flight attempt

On Dec. 14, 1903, the Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
On Dec. 14, 1825, Russian liberals rise up against Tsar Nicholas I in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg and are put down.
On Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington, the first president of the United States and the father of his country, passed away at his home at Mount Vernon.

Categories
insider corruption national politics & policies

A Newt Public-​Private Partnership

For nine years, from 1999 until 2008, Newt Gingrich worked helping Freddie Mac, the government – created, bubble-​creating housing corporation. Newt’s outfit, The Gingrich Group, knocked down more than $1.6 million dollars in consulting fees during that time.

Newt says he warned the government-​sponsored giant that the bubble it was busy blowing up would burst badly.

For all those years? He was either mind-​numbingly repetitive or must have really drawn out his words. He is from Georgia, but still.

Folks at Freddie tell a different story. They say former Speaker Gingrich helped “build bridges” to Republicans on Capitol Hill, hoping to prevent congressional efforts to rein in the mortgage giant. Those efforts proved successful — there was no powering down of the Frankenstein mortgage monster. The Gingrich Group’s contract wasn’t canceled until the 2008 crash, when the U.S. Treasury took control of Freddie Mac and his sister housing financier, Fannie Mae.

In last weekend’s GOP presidential debate, Congressman Ron Paul argued that Newt Gingrich’s position with Freddie Mac is “something people ought to know about.”

“While he was earning a lot of money from Freddie Mac,” explained Rep. Paul, “I was fighting, over a decade, to try to explain to people where the housing bubble was coming from.”

Newt responded that, like Dr. Paul, he wanted to audit the Fed. As for his Freddie role, “I offered strategic advice,” claimed Newt, adding, “I was in the private sector.”

Laughter erupted throughout the hall. Even Mr. Gingrich couldn’t keep a straight face.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Today

Rape of Nanking

On Dec. 13, 1937, Japanese armed forces entered Nanking, the capital of China, and General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians in what became known as the “Rape of Nanking.” The Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. After the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.

Categories
Thought

George Orwell

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”