Free Republic

...Recently, Roll Call highlighted the lobbying organization connected to Congressman Jack Murtha, D-Pa.—the PMA Group—and its efforts to sue its former clients for unpaid debts. They noted that a company called Badenoch LLC was countersuing PMA, claiming that the PMA had cheated it out of a $3 million earmark. Badenoch LLC is a small defense contractor, which is developing an alternative to the military humvee, which it believes will be safer and more roadworthy. A little digging into public records reveals an interesting financial relationship between the president of Badenoch LLC and the Congressman who sponsored his company’s previous earmark...

During the third and final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama said, “Earmarks account for 0.5 percent of the total federal budget.” Earmark reform alone would not result in a significant decrease in federal spending, he noted. The President may be right, but using this statistic to refrain from seriously addressing the issue of pork barrel spending is simply dishonest. Pork barrel spending is nothing more than institutionalized corruption and the fact that the practice still exists is a serious blight on our democratic system. Earmarks funnel money into Members’ districts, helping them win reelection bids by ostensibly...

Cavuto asked Knollenberg: "When the housing industry CEOs come to you and say, 'You know, [if] we go under and all the ancillary businesses – the dishwasher manufacturers, the washer-and-dryer manufacturers, the Lowe's and the Home Depots that vastly depend on our being alive and vibrant – if we go under, there's hell to pay. And then the textile manufacturer comes to you and says, 'If we go down, there's hell to pay.' And on and on and on we go. Where do you draw the line with our money?" "It is not your money," said Knollenberg.Cavuto screamed back, "It...

BIRMINGHAM -- Freedom. That's the main thrust of the campaign Jack Kevorkian says he is pushing in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills. Kevorkian held a community roundtable Friday night at the Birmingham Community House on Bates Street. Kevorkian, who is running as an independent, faces Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters in the November election. Famous for his legal battles involving assisted suicide, Kevorkian spoke to a small group of people, quoting Thomas Jefferson, Bernard Shaw and Benjamin Franklin. "I'm not doing this for personal gain, I'm here to educate and inform the public," he...

Knollenberg Introduces Legislation to Prohibit Federal Funding of the Carter CenterBill in response President Carter’s meetings with terrorist leaders Washington, Apr 16 - Congressman Joe Knollenberg (MI-09) today introduced legislation that would prevent the federal government from giving taxpayer money to the Carter Center, headed by former President Jimmy Carter. “America must speak with one voice against our terrorist enemies,” Knollenberg said. “It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups.” Former President...

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A politically conservative student armed with a video camera and a Web site is trying to force a Democratic congressional candidate out of his teaching job at Central Michigan University. Dennis Lennox, a 23-year-old junior, has posted videos on YouTube of himself questioning assistant professor Gary Peters about campaigning for office while holding a prestigious position at the university. Some say Lennox is persistent. Others accuse him of pandering for attention. "What I'm doing isn't about getting media attention," said Lennox, a political science major. "I'm speaking for the hundreds of students, alumni, taxpayers and even...

The Politico writes up a videotaped confrontation by a MoveOn moobat named Bruce Fealk, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Knollenberg's chief of staff Trent Wisecup.Fealk ambushed Knollenberg in a drugstore and harangued him about the war in Iraq and S-CHIP. Knollenberg answers his questions, but does not say what Fealk wants to hear so he keeps badgering him, even as the Congressman is at the checkout counter.Wisecup decides enough's enough and gets in front of Fealk's camera. He launches in to a steady verbal counter-attack on Faulk, reminding him that he protests at Knollenberg's home and harasses his wife. Fealk...

A Michigan congressman is defending the U.S. auto industry against calls for increased fuel efficiency by criticizing a famous foe of global warming: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg's re-election campaign placed a billboard along a busy interstate in Detroit that reads, "Arnold to Michigan: Drop Dead!" It shows a grim-looking picture of the actor-turned-politician and draws attention to Knollenberg's Web site. "Michigan and the Big Three are being unfairly bullied by politicians who have no understanding of auto manufacturing," Knollenberg said Thursday in a statement. Knollenberg said he "picked on Schwarzenegger because he's a perfect symbol of...

In case you haven't heard, the Marriage amendment got shot down in the house: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134134,00.htmlHere's the Republicans voting Nay: Bass Biggert Bono Castle Cox Dreier Foley Frelinghuysen Gerlach Gibbons Gilchrest Greenwood Hobson Hostettler Houghton Johnson (CT) Kirk Knollenberg Kolbe Leach McInnis Ose Paul Pryce (OH) Sanders Shays Simmons Here's the republicans not voting: Boehlert Cannon Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dunn Hunter Nethercutt Ros-Lehtinen Tauzin Be sure to contact these people & show your appreciation. Here's the list of Dems voting FOR: Berry Bishop (GA) Boucher Boyd Carson (OK) Chandler Cooper Costello Cramer Davis (AL) Davis (TN) Edwards Etheridge Ford Gordon...

Detroit News July 14, 2004 War And Reconstruction In Iraq Pay Off For America Despite an unrelenting drumbeat of negative news, Iraqis and coalition forces make substantial progress in freedom, safety, health and development By U.S. Rep. Joseph Knollenberg Three months of relentlessly negative media coverage of the situation in Iraq may have left many here wondering whether our efforts in Iraq were really worth it. While there were and are legitimate issues in Iraq to be covered by the media that may not put our country in the best light, that unrelenting drumbeat of negativity has obscured and ignored...

<p>Republican congressional candidates in Wayne and Oakland counties have comfortable leads over Democratic challengers, a new poll shows.</p> <p>U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, a Bloomfield Township Republican, holds a 52 percent-25 percent lead over Democrat David Fink, a West Bloomfield attorney, in the 9th Congressional District, which cuts across Oakland County from Farmington up to Oakland Township.</p>

Report Relying On Discredited Science Previously Disavowed As Official PolicyWashington, D.C., The Environmental Protection Agency’s latest report on global warming to the United Nations, Climate Action Report 2002, violates an agreement between the White House and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, three members of Congress, and other non-profit advocacy groups, struck in settlement of a lawsuit. The report relies in part on the discredited National Assessment on Climate Change. As a result of the lawsuit filed in October 2000, the Bush Administration ultimately agreed in September 2001 to withdraw the National Assessment and stated that its unlawfully produced conclusions are “not...