Free Republic

DETROIT - On a day when General Motors trumpeted record profits, Rick Santorum said that the auto industry would have done as well or better if the federal government, under the last two administrations, had not intervened to save the industry. Declaring himself an enemy of all federal bailouts, the former senator noted that Mitt Romney, his leading opponent in this state's crucial primary, had supported the Bush administration's TARP lifeline to Wall Street but had opposed the federal investment in GM and Chrysler. Mr. Santorum offered that critique from the podium of the Detroit Economics Club, a traditional high...

Do you want to know what the future of America is going to look like? Just check out what is happening to Detroit. The city of Detroit was once one of the greatest industrial cities in the history of the world, but today it is a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole. Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt. As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded. Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations...

Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or "progressive" platform have been enacted: *A "living wage" ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors. *A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average. *A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members. *Other government employee unions that do the same for their members. *A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies. Would...

The Detroit Tigers were a few wins short of going to the World Series last year. Team ownership signed All Star first baseman Prince Fielder to a 9-year, $214 million deal in the hopes that he will help push the team over the top as well as continue strong attendance at Comerica Park. Since the club has all that extra revenue available and expect more from higher attendance, will they consider repaying Michigan taxpayers for the hundreds of millions of dollars that were used to subsidize the team's stadium? Comerica Park opened in 2000 after three years of construction and...

Unlike the man who claimed a pricey Dallas home for $16, squatters in Detroit houses that failed to sell at a tax auction may be able to keep their new digs -- for a mere 500 bucks. The Detroit News reports: In a stark sign that paying property taxes is optional for some in Detroit, Wayne County Treasury officials decided last week its workers will go door-to-door to some of the 6,500 city properties unsold at last fall's tax auctions and offer to make a deal with whoever is living inside. That could include renters, squatters or the owners who...

A Previous Subtle Effort By The Same Obama Propagandists How symbolic, the red and blue spheres merge and the resultant color is a deeper shade of blue. Propaganda is considered effective if it is subtle and delivers a covert or subliminal message without the subject being aware of the intent. In this image, the profile of Obama was superimposed over the merging of Conservatism and Socialism with the profile of Obama and the result is a deeper shade of blue; picturesque and convenient, Obama brings the country together and we are united under a deeper shade of Marxism. It was...

The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners. Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies. “We got to have a little Old West up here in Detroit. That’s what it’s gonna take,” Detroit resident Julia...

Ex-President George W. Bush tells auto dealers he'd bail out automakers again

Clint Eastwood and Chrysler ticked off plenty of conservatives who usually back the actor and director. The ad’s message is that everything is peachy keen now that taxpayers bailed out Chrysler for a second time. It is halftime in America, the ad said. That ticked off conservatives. Saying it is halftime in America is echoic of Ronald Reagan’s morning in America and is seen as a political ad for President Obama’s re-election. From Mark Steyn: “Do you know who owns almost 60% of Chrysler, this great American institution? Fiat! Yes, nothing could be more American than an Italian company that’s...

If you are keeping score at home it’s Chrysler $12.5 billion, NBC $12 million, with a taxpayer loss of $133 billion. Oh, and the city of Detroit is just minutes away, literally, from being more broke than Greece. Look, I’m a sucker for marketing as much as the next guy, but I have a lot of friends who were rightly outraged by Chrysler’s political ad for the auto bailout that starred Clint Eastwood and aired at halftime on NBC during the Super Bowl. It was more than just the subverted boosterism for Obama that was outrageous. There were many levels...

But contrary to what the might ad suggest, the spot was actually filmed in New Orleans and Los Angles. “Yes, part of it was filmed in New Orleans . . . and some was filmed in various parts—such as Los Angeles,” Dianna Gutierrez said. She specifically points to the tunnel scenes as being taken at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, while the stadium shots were in New Orleans. Asked whether any part of the ad was filmed in Detroit, Gutierrez said that previously taken footage from various parts of the Motor City was used. No image of Detroit was shot...

GM, Ford feud over Super Bowl ad (Reuters) - A simmering feud between General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co heated up on Sunday as Ford objected to GM's Super Bowl advertisement for its Chevy Silverado pickup truck. The ad, which will run on NBC's television broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday, depicts an apocalyptic scene in which Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks and their owners escape death and make it to a pre-arranged meeting point. But, one of their friends, identified as "Dave," who drives a Ford, doesn't make it to the meeting site, in the video that plays...

(Detroit) A 12-year-old girl is shot and killed during a squabble over a cell phone. Now, police say her killers are in custody. A 19-year-old man and his mother face charges. Police say earlier this week Joshua Brown, 19, argued with 12-year-old Kade'jah Davis's mother at her house on Ferguson, near 7 Mile and Southfield. After the argument, investigators say Brown went back to the car and fired several shots through the front door. One of those bullets killed the 12-year-old. Joshua Brown is charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, and felony firearm. His mother, Heather Brown,...

Arab-Muslim thugs target Catholic boy P. J. Guse, and brutally attack him. Infamous Arab-Islamic (terrorists linked) CAIR lobby rushes to cry "racism" at the legal system. Typical! Racists cry racism, over and over again. Dearborn Heights football players challenge charges - ClickOnDetroit.com, January 24, 2012 DEARBORNISTAN: After four Muslim teenage football players were charged with misdemeanor Assault & Battery, their attorney from terror-linked CAIR and Arab-American community leaders claim the players were targeted for prosecution because they are Arab (Muslims). WindsorcoACT For America - Jan. 25, 2012 VIDEO: Muslim Football Players Violently Attack Christian, Give Him Concussion Cry Racism... [D.S....

For 3 years, American gun owners have been told that the best thing to happen for the profitability of firearm manufacturers was the election of Barack Hussein Obama. And in spite of the sentiments of liberals like Detroit News columnist Bill Johnson, the best thing to happen in the City of Detroit might be the awakening of its law abiding residents to the fact that they are for all intents and purposes on their own in the battle against crime in the murder capital of the United States. For nearly 40 years, Detroit has led the nation in murder rate....

Detroit’s unique position as a large American city is not just related to the fact that the state may appoint an emergency manager and take the power of governing away from the mayor and city council. The city also has an employment base dominated by government and health care workers — not private enterprise. Detroit’s 14 largest employers, which have among them roughly 75,000 workers, are dominated by public organizations. That situation is not matched by any other large American city. More than half of the employees at these operations work for government entities, led by the city and school...

DETROIT (CNNMoney) -- Detroit automakers are back on their feet, showing their best profits in years. But the city of Detroit's finances are worse than ever. The city won't have enough money to pay its bills by April, unless Mayor Dave Bing can get the council and municipal unions to agree to steep spending cuts he's announced. By the end of its fiscal year in June, that shortfall will hit $45 million. There is also the possibility that the state may take over the city, which would open the door for Detroit to file for bankruptcy. That would make it...

DEARBORN, Mich. (WJBK) - A woman is in the hospital after witnesses say she was assaulted at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in Dearborn over the weekend. Family members tell FOX 2 the woman was celebrating her grandson's seventh birthday Sunday afternoon when she asked patrons at a nearby table to clean up their language. "She said, 'please don't use that language with children,'" said the victim's daughter told. "They told her to 'shut the f--- up and turn around.'"

1975: last year of Dodge Dart production prior to  replacement by the ill-fated Dodge Aspen _______________________________________________ As the new Chrylser starts to hit it's stride, the resurgent company has now unveiled an all-new 2013 Dodge Dart at the Detroit International Auto Show with a fresh, clean look that still looks like a Mopar, sharing a number of muscular styling cues with its big-brother, the Dodge Charger... Pics/more at Reaganite Republican _______________________________________________ Valiant.org

The US auto industry remains unsold over the future of "green cars" such as electrics and hybrids, as carmakers struggle with the first steps in a market most agree shows promise over the long term. Automakers wheeled out a variety of new hybrids and plug-in electrics at the annual Detroit auto show this week, touting their great energy savings along with new, freshened designs. But despite that apparent commitment, behind the scenes, the manufacturers remain split between doubts and optimism over their potential. Ten years after the Toyota Prius hybrid swept into the market, only about three percent of all...

The struggling U.S. city of Detroit is on track to run out of money in May instead of April after spending changes made by city officials, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon said on Tuesday. Dillon addressed media following a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with a team that is looking at Detroit's financial picture and trying to assess whether the city needs an emergency manager to take over operations. It was the first time the 10-member team met since it was appointed last month. He said Detroit's most urgent issue is figuring out how to arrest escalating retiree health care costs, and clean up...

In an appearance on Fox News Channel aired on Thursday night’s “On the Record with Greta Van Sustren,” conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh explained, in no uncertain terms, how to fix Detroit, where unemployment and poverty are rampant. His solution: End liberalism. “Get rid of every liberal in government,” he said. “What is the one constant in Detroit, all of these years? Been run by liberals. Liberal ideology. Liberal economics. Liberal belief system. Detroit, other places: A microcosm of where Europe is, and where we are headed — unchecked, unstopped liberalism. For those of you who like the Democrat...

THOUSAND OAKS (CBS) — A toxicology report found that the 18-year-old son of a former NFL quarterback died from a heroin overdose, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said. Thousand Oaks High School backup quarterback Griffen Kramer was found dead in his Agoura Hills home on Oct. 30. Friends told investigators that Kramer began foaming at the mouth while doing heroin with them. Authorities say one of his friends took him home and hoped he would sleep it off. Police have arrested five people in connection with Kramer’s death. Griffen Kramer’s father, Erik, played in the NFL for 12 years.

Water flows uphill. A city turns down $8.5 million in federal grant money. In what could be a new high water mark of anti-Washington sentiment, the city of Troy, Mich., is rejecting a long-planned transportation center whose construction would have been fully financed with federal stimulus money. The terminal, which would help Troy become a transportation node on an upgraded Detroit-to-Chicago Amtrak line, was hailed by supporters as a way to create jobs and to spur economic development. But federal money is federal money, so with the urging of the new mayor, who helped found the local Tea Party chapter,...

DETROIT - Police are looking at security camera video from a wild double shooting on Detroit's west side Wednesday. It happened at family owned Legends Coney Island at West Davison and Linwood Wednesday morning. A man on his way to work was waiting for his order at 2:30am, when a young man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt over his head ran in to rob the customer. That robber failed to see the back of the man’s jacket marked "SECURITY." He chose to rob a victim who is an armed security guard. Still, the robber shot the man in his legs....

Harry Morgan, the prolific character actor best known for playing the acerbic but kindly Colonel Potter in the long-running television series “M*A*S*H,” died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96. His son Charles confirmed his death. In more than 100 movies, Mr. Morgan played Western bad guys, characters with names like Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs. On television, he played Officer Bill Gannon with a phlegmatic but light touch to Jack Webb’s always-by-the-book Sgt. Joe Friday in the updated “Dragnet,” from 1967 to 1970. He starred as Pete Porter,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Harry Morgan never planned to be an actor, yet he spent 10 years on one of the top TV series of all time, made 50 films and appeared on Broadway. He became one of the best-known character actors in Hollywood. But it was Morgan's portrayal of the fatherly Col. Sherman Potter on "M-A-S-H" for which Morgan became most famous, and he knew it.

A mother living in Detroit has traded in her four-bedroom home for a 2006 minivan. LaWanda Flake, a 36-year-old, disabled mother of six traded in her four-bedroom, three-bath house, located in one of the city's better neighborhoods and valued at $96,000 for a 2006 Chevrolet Uplander with 85,000 miles, valued at between $5000 and $8,500. "I had a lot of good offers, some from out of state. It turned out I took one of the first offers I got because I felt like it helped us both," Flake told the Detroit News. "They needed the house more than anyone I...

<p>Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is upset about a possible takeover by the state. Bing says "We know what needs to be done, and we stand ready to do it."</p> <p>I have a simple suggestion for Bing don't "stand ready to do it, just do it". Indeed he has had years to "just do it" yet hasn't done it.</p>

Detroit City Council Members Liken Financial Takeover to New 'Plantation'By Jennifer Hlad Published December 02, 2011 | FoxNews.com Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to ask for a preliminary review of Detroit's finances as early as Friday -- a move city council members are suggesting is tantamount to a setback for racial equality. Detroit does not want "someone who feels they have to control the plantation," Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said at a city council meeting on Thursday about the prospects of a state-run financial review that could lead to an emergency manager being appointed by the governor to take over...

The idea is extreme, even in a city accustomed to fighting for survival: Should the state of Michigan step in to run Detroit? The governor has taken steps in that direction, proposing an unprecedented move that could give an appointed manager virtually unchecked power to gut union contracts, cut employee health insurance and slash services. But city leaders bristle at the notion. Said the mayor: "This is our city. Detroit needs to be run by Detroiters." If it happens, Detroit would be the largest American city ever taken over by a state. Michigan has seized control of smaller struggling cities,...

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit Detroit, Mich., Dec 2, 2011 / 03:08 am (CNA).- Responding to decades of depopulation in Detroit and other declines in Catholic numbers, an advisory council for the Archdiocese of Detroit has proposed closing nine parishes and merging 60 parishes into 21.The recommendations were formed through the parishes themselves and reviewed and amended by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, a group of mostly lay advisors.“The recommendations are not in themselves the final plans for the future of the Archdiocese of Detroit, although they are serious and well-researched proposals,” the archdiocese said Nov. 30.Archbishop Allen Vigneron of...

DETROIT (WJBK) - A teenage girl is battered and beaten inside a Detroit school restroom while other girls watch and record the whole thing. However, this isn't the first time this girl has been assaulted at school. Her family says administrators know about the fighting and chose to look the other way. School is supposed to be about reading, writing and arithmetic, but inside the walls of Detroit's Ludington Middle School a bathroom has been used as a backdrop for brutal teenage brawls. It's a game called "30 Seconds," but no one is playing. One eighth grader pummels another while...

If you want record-setting sunshine, St. Petersburg is your city—it once soaked up a Guinness-certified 768 straight days of rays. But there's an asterisk: The people of St. Pete also have the darkest clouds hanging over their heads. We put America on the therapist's couch and discovered that not only is St. Petersburg our Saddest City, but Florida in general seems to be a depressing place to live. Of course, we aren't shrinks, so our diagnosis is more statistical than psychological. We calculated suicide rates (CDC) and unemployment rates (Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of June 2011). Then we tapped...

But wait until you see some of the people that are building parts right here at home for their armored vehicles. There's a plant in Detroit called Tower Defense and Aerospace. The name itself gives you an idea what they do inside, but it's what we caught them doing outside during their lunch break that will shock you.

A male registered nurse and Vietnam war Army medic has sued the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, saying he was fired for disobeying a Muslim supervisor's order not to treat women wearing conservative Islamic dress. John Benitez Jr. ... was fired... 'not because of any performance problem, but was instead carried out because the clinic's conservative male Muslim clientele did not want a male treating female patients.'

There is an old saw that goes “politicians will do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted every other option.” For years the Mackinac Center analysts and scholars have tried to persuade pols to do the right thing at the state and local level. We’ve had many successes, but cities like Detroit often acted allergic to sound, free-market policy ideas. That may be changing because Detroit is running out of money and thus, running out of options. A Nov. 17 report in the Detroit Free Press indicates that Mayor Bing is interested in privatizing management of the city’s...

Earlier this month the news came that Detroit is headed toward almost certain bankruptcy and has failed to pay some of its debts for up to 18 months. With no new sources of revenue on the horizon the Motor City will soon be recognized as the failed experiment in total liberal governance it has been for quite some time. By next spring Detroit will have to fire cops and fire fighters (not layoff which implies they might be eventually rehired). Nevertheless, none of this seems to matter to the liberal anti American crowd that runs the city. They are addicted...

For at least a decade, the sea of vacant lots, nights that crackle with gunfire, and abandoned buildings burning without attention have all been the constant companions of those few people still left in Detroit. Nevertheless, in a masterful display of propaganda damage control Detroit’s true condition has remained a secret outside of the Motor City and its surrounding area. That secret is now out. A $ 1.7 million extensive forensic audit of Detroit’s finances done by Ernst & Young has found its way to sunlight. It describes a city that is NOT rebounding and NOT “getting on its feet”...

A group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation began a 24-hour prayer rally Friday evening in an area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States. The gathering at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lions play, is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as The Call has said Detroit is a "microcosm of our national crisis" in all areas, including "the rising tide of the Islamic movement."

<p>DETROIT — A group that considers Islam one of the problems facing the U.S. is planning a 24-hour Christian rally in Detroit.</p> <p>The prayer event, known as TheCall, starts Friday night at city's NFL stadium.</p>

Wednesday evening’s Republican debate in suburban Detroit will feature eight presidential candidates and one titanic elephant in the arena. The focus ostensibly will be on the economy but the likely-to-go-unmentioned subject on everyone’s mind will be the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Herman Cain, and whether his campaign can stay afloat. But absent questions about those allegations, the debate likely will revolve around the plans the various contenders have for jump-starting the economy. The locale couldn’t be more fitting. The unemployment rate in Michigan is 11.1 %. In the Detroit metropolitan area it sits at 11.7 %. People will be looking...

People who catch the bus in Detroit may be waiting awhile Friday. About 100 Detroit Department of Transportation bus drivers are at work, but are refusing to drive their buses. WWJ Newsradio 950′s Scott Ryan spoke with Henry Gaffney, spokesman for the D-DOT bus drivers union AFL-CIO Local 26, who said this was not an organized maneuver by the union. Gaffney said it’s a matter of bus drivers fearing for their safety, citing an incident that happened Thursday afternoon. “Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind...

WWJ’s Scott Ryan spoke with Henry Gaffney, spokesman for the D-DOT bus drivers union AFL-CIO Local 26, who said this was not an organized maneuver by the union. Gaffney said it’s a matter of bus drivers fearing for their safety, citing an incident that happened Thursday afternoon. “Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to...

Tim Tebow was Tebowed in one of the more memorable moments in taunting history. In a act that surely will be talked about across the country for a while, Detroit’s Stephen Tulloch sacked Tim Tebow and then got down on one knee in front of the Denver quarterback.

In the 15 cheapest zip codes in the U.S., the median price of homes currently on the market is less than $15,000. And in the cheapest — a block of south-central Detroit that falls into zip code 48208 — the median home price is just $6,388. 48208 is just one neighborhood in Detroit that has been largely abandoned, thanks largely to the struggles of the auto industry, on which the city is so dependent. The city has tried to lure new residents with incentives like renovation money and forgivable loans. What's life like within the confines of 48208?

The Detroit News reports that Detroit Public Schools has had a problem with student overcrowding, including Nolan Elementary School that had 56 students in one kindergarten class and Cass Tech High Schoool that had 84 class periods in which the number of students exceeded the maximum set by contract. The teacher’s contract varies, but allows up to 35 students per classroom in some situations. But the most recent state data on the number of teachers and students in the district raises questions as to whether the overcrowding is a result of a lack of teachers, as the teachers’ union asserted...

About 20% of Detroit is without working street lights, and in some areas up to 50%, the Detroit News reports. A combination of problems, including an aging infrastructure, a shrinking city budget and criminal activity - both real and perceived - have made public lighting a problem, officials say. “I know you heard that 50% of the city is in the dark. I wouldn’t say that high, but it is a great number,” City Councilman James Tate told CNN Wednesday. “And I don’t care what side (of town) you’re talking about - east, west, more affluent - you see lights...

Five people were cited for trespassing after they refused to leave a local political party office during a protest believed to be tied to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Police were called Monday afternoon when 50 to 75 protesters filled the lobby of the Oakland County Republican Party offices on Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Township. Five protesters who refused to leave after police arrived — Detroit residents Tyrann Chauncey, 39, Tinia Fleming, 22, Earraina Jones, 48, Jaylen Jordan, 18, and Darryl Alston, 54 — were arrested. Bloomfield Township Police Capt. Scott McCanham said all five were issued citations for trespassing,...