Free Republic

The Motor City wants change. At least that was the message sent from the polls on Tuesday night’s general municipal election. While some of the election results had been easily predicted, there were some minor surprises. City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. was expected to come out second if not on top of the city council race. Instead, voters demoted him, placing the former interim mayor fourth behind three fresh faces to the council. But as the polls predicted, Charles Pugh got the most votes, making him the new city council president. Gary Brown, who had been expected to be...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

DETROIT -- Nobody can say for sure how an old dump truck ended up on the fourth floor of the abandoned Packard auto plant on East Grand Boulevard. But there's no doubt about how it got back down. It was pushed through a hole in the wall. The act, caught on video, required the efforts of a number of people, a sledgehammer, a hydraulic floor jack, stacks of cinder blocks and a peculiar sense of propriety. The Packard plant, a 3.5-million-square-foot luxury-car factory, opened in 1907 and shut down in 1956. In more recent decades, other businesses operated on the...

Link-only: Campus gun legislation merely clarifies gun rightsI wrote this regarding House Bill 5474 introduced by Rep. Schmidt. It's been heard in committee twice. Needs calls and letters of support to get heard on the floor!

The news from Dearborn is sunny, except for the auto maker's labor relations. A year ago, Ford Motor Co. steered clear of the auto industry's version of the "public option." You know, a government-funded bankruptcy. Maybe the decision wasn't entirely altruistic. Plan B, as in bankruptcy, would have ended more than a century of Ford family control. Whatever the motives, Ford chose a private solution for regaining its corporate health, and today the patient is walking without a government crutch. Last week Consumer Reports gave the company quality ratings comparable to those of Honda and Toyota. On Monday, Ford reported...

Surrounded by her family, Maj. Stella Carroll looked out over a sea of fluttering American flags Wednesday morning at Parma Elementary School. More than 400 tiny voices greeted the mother of five with the national anthem and other patriotic songs, and the children presented her with letters calling her a hero. Carroll, who has served in the U.S. Army Reserves for more than 20 years, will leave Saturday for a year-long tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We want you to know how much we respect and appreciate you," Parma Elementary School Principal Sue Haney told Carroll during the send-off ceremony at...

A state lawmaker wants to allow same-sex marriage in Michigan. Representative Pam Byrnes of Washtenaw County introduced a plan Wednesday to amend the state constitution to allow same-sex marriages, as well as recognize them from other states. "Same-sex couples should not be denied the joys and responsibilities that come with making a lifetime commitment to each other," Byrnes said. "The Michigan I know is not a place that would deny visitation rights to a dying loved one or access to health care just because of someone's sexual orientation." In 2004, Michigan voters passed an amendment banning gay marriage. The amendment...

No stops are planned in Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other major cities and book-buying communities that are standard for authors on the road, but where the voters tend to be Democrats. Beyond a Nov. 16 television interview with Oprah Winfrey, nothing is scheduled for Chicago. New York will feature media appearances only. Instead, the itinerary for Palin, whose "Going Rogue" comes out Nov. 17, includes Noblesville, Ind.; Washington, Pa.; and Rochester, N.Y. "She wants to be unconventional. She is unconventional," HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Wednesday....

GRAND RAPIDS-- Sarah Palin will be coming to the Woodland Mall Barnes & Noble store in Grand Rapids Nov. 18, her first stop on a tour promoting her book "Going Rogue." The Associated Press reports Palin's tour will begin the day after the book is released and two days after she is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. A local Barnes & Noble spokesperson confirmed Palin will be at the Woodland store at 3670 28th St SE. Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, will make appearances around the country. HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Wednesday that the tour will...

Former state Rep. Mike Nofs began courting Jackson County voters before there was a vacancy in the 19th Senate District. After Mark Schauer was elected to Congress last fall, Nofs started the New Year with more than $100,000 in his campaign war chest. He never lost his fundraising lead over state Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, which, combined with his message of lower taxes and job growth, translated into a convincing win in Tuesday night's special election. The Battle Creek Republican defeated Griffin 19,508 to 11,105, with three precincts yet to report at press time. "I think we worked hard. I...

Students all over the state of Michigan may soon be able to carry concealed weapons on campus. Bill 5474, introduced by Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, to the Michigan House of Representatives, would prohibit colleges from banning weapons on campus. Section two of the bill specifically outlines what local units of government and institutions of higher learning would not be able to do if the bill were passed. “A local unit of government or institution of higher education shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership,...

An upstanding Detroit citizen explains where the "Obama money" for her (fingers crossed) stimulus check is coming from. Her answer? "His stash...I don't know!"

TORONTO (Reuters) – Two men sought by the FBI and linked to a Detroit Muslim leader killed by U.S. authorities were arrested in Windsor, Ontario on Saturday, Canadian police said. Mohammad Al-Sahli, 33, and Yassir Ali Kahn, 30, both from the Windsor, Ontario area, were apprehended without incident on Saturday morning and will appear before an Ontario Superior Court judge on Monday to face extradition to the United States, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The statement said the two Ontario men were wanted by the FBI for conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An RCMP spokesman...

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was the Imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, died in a shoot-out on Wednesday after firing on FBI agents during a raid in Dearborn, Michigan. Another seven Muslims were apprehended and various weapons seized. Arguing with Idiots By Glenn Beck “We're not any fake terrorists, we're the real terrorists,” Abdullah (aka Christopher Thomas) once bragged to an undercover informant, according to an FBI affidavit. Abdullah, 53, was a disciple of none other than H. Rap Brown. If you ever wondered what had become of the‘60s Black Panther leader, well, he converted to Islam while...

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s rank-and-file union members rejected a concessions agreement, leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. Although some locals are still voting through Sunday, the United Auto Workers national leadership has accepted the defeat, said three union sources who asked not to be identified since they don't officially speak for the UAW. The leadership is now reviewing other options, these people said. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday he will not continue bargaining or conduct a re-vote. Ford will now have...

Grown men wept. Veterans of war and soldiers on active duty stood shoulder to shoulder, clutching small American flags, trying to hold onto their emotions. Women in the crowd issued silent prayers, immediately sending them heavenward to protect others stationed in harm’s way. When U.S. Army Spec. Brendan Marrocco wheeled into Hot Rod Harley-Davidson in downtown Muskegon Friday, pushed in his wheelchair because he has no hands and no legs, a casualty of the war in Iraq, men who have seen the horrors of war up close dissolved into tears. “Welcome home, soldier,” called out an emotional David Eling, who...

Doubts are growing about whether the Ford pact with the United Auto Workers will be approved after the rank and file at two more plants overwhelmingly rejected it. Workers at a parts-making plant in Saline, Mich., voted 75 percent against the deal. Research and engineering employees in Dearborn, Mich., were even more negative, with roughly 90 percent voting against the deal. Ford’s biggest assembly plant, at Claycomo, has already voted 92 percent against the concessions, which Ford says it needs to stay competitive. Chrysler and General Motors got the conessions from the UAW, but they were going through bankruptcy, which...

Steven MalangaFeral Detroit Nature is reclaiming the Motor City. Autumn 2009 We usually apply the word “feral,” which means “reverting to a wild state,” to domesticated animals that are abandoned and must survive on their own. But in rapidly shrinking Detroit, where tens of thousands of structures have sat empty for years, people are starting to describe houses and neighborhoods as feral—that is, as places where human activity ceased so long ago that nature has reclaimed them. Two Detroit residents writing for the blog Sweet Juniper describe these feral houses as places that “for a few beautiful months during...

By now, Sekou Jackson is used to the questions: Why does he need to leave a work meeting to pray? Don't black Muslims convert to Islam in jail? Why would you even want to be Muslim? "It's kind of a double whammy to be African-American and Muslim," said Jackson, who studies the Navy at the National Academy of Science in Washington. "You're going to be judged." Jackson's struggle may have gotten harder when the FBI raided a Detroit mosque Wednesday, saying its leader preached hate against the government, trafficked in stolen goods and belonged to a radical group that wants...

Southfield (WWJ) -- The FBI will hold a memorial for the K-9 killed during a shootout in Dearborn and the dog's name will be added to a memorial wall. Freddy was a nearly 3-year-old Belgian Malinois who was killed Wednesday during a gun battle between agents and Luqman Ameen Abdullah, described as the radical leader of a Sunni Islam group.

A Michigan man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated when he was ordered to remove a Nativity scene from the median of a public road — a creche that his family has displayed at the location for 63 years. John Satawa, of Warren, Mich., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Friday in an attempt to be allowed to put back the 8- by 8-foot nativity scene his late father built in 1945. After receiving a complaint by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation last December, the Road Commission of Macomb County told Satawa...

A leader of a radical U.S.-based Islamic group who was killed in a shootout with federal agents near Detroit repeatedly told followers that the government was the enemy and that they must be willing to take on the FBI -- even if it meant death, authorities said. "You cannot have a nonviolent revolution," Luqman Ameen Abdullah said, according to a 2008 conversation secretly recorded by a confidential FBI source. Abdullah, 53, was killed Wednesday at a warehouse in Dearborn, Mich., where agents were attempting to arrest him on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and...

A Michigan man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated when he was ordered to remove a Nativity scene from the median of a public road — a creche that his family has displayed at the location for 63 years. John Satawa, of Warren, Mich., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Friday in an attempt to be allowed to put back the 8- by 8-foot nativity scene his late father built in 1945. After receiving a complaint by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation last December, the Road Commission of Macomb County told Satawa...

DETROIT – Federal authorities say a leader of what they describe as a nationwide radical Sunni Islam group has been fatally shot during an FBI raid in the Detroit area. The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit says Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah refused to surrender during an FBI raid Wednesday and was killed in an exchange of gunfire. ..conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments.

DETROIT — Authorities captured the son of the slain leader of a radical Detroit-area Islamic group in Canada on Thursday, a day after the FBI arrested several members and a raid at a suburban warehouse ended in gunfire. The FBI asked for the public's help in catching two of the 11 suspects in the case still at large, and they emphasized that the group, a faction of the radical U.S. Sunni Islamic group Ummah, held beliefs that were not at all representative of mainstream Islam.... The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Mujahid Carswell, the 30-year-old son slain group leader Luqman...

FBI agents hoping to break up an alleged interstate crime ring dealing in arson, fraud and possibly stolen vehicles, ended up in a gunfight at a Detroit-area warehouse, after which a suspect lay dead. The FBI sought to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a. Christopher Thomas, 53, who a criminal complaint said was the imam of a radical fundamentalist Sunni group called Masjid Al-Haqq that seeks to establish a sovereign Islamic state inside the United States... Abdullah and 10 others were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and theft of interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of...

DETROIT, (AP) -- Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a lawyer who leaked racy text messages to the Detroit Free Press and kicked off a scandal that brought down Kilpatrick's administration and sent him to jail. The lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, cites recent testimony by attorney Mike Stefani before a disciplinary board that he leaked the messages to the newspaper. The suit says Stefani violated a confidentiality agreement requiring him to turn over all copies of the explosive messages in exchange for settling police whistle-blower lawsuits involving three ex-Detroit officers he represented. James...

October 28, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Eleven Members/Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations One Subject Fatally Shot During Arrest United States Attorney Terrence Berg, Eastern District of Michigan, Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI), Detroit, Michigan, and Police Chief Warren Evans, Detroit Police Department (DPD), Detroit, Michigan announced a federal complaint was unsealed today charging Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a.Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of...

Federal authorities say a leader of what they describe as a nationwide radical Sunni Islam group has been fatally shot during an FBI raid in the Detroit area. The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit says Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah refused to surrender during an FBI raid Wednesday and was killed in an exchange of gunfire. Abdullah and 10 others were charged in a complaint with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments. Authorities say an FBI dog also was killed during the raid.

DETROIT -- The Detroit leader of a nationwide fundamentalist Islamic group was fatally shot during a series of FBI raids Wednesday afternoon. The FBI arrested 10 people who have ties to the group called the Ummah, which translates to “the brotherhood.” The group’s primary mission is to establish a separate sovereign Islamic state governed by Sunni law, according to FBI charging documents.

Rep. Bart Stupak said Speaker Pelosi is not pleased with his effort to change abortion-related provisions in the healthcare bill being crafted by the House. During an interview on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" show, Stupak (D-Mich.) said he is undeterred in trying to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not pay for abortions. Stupak, who opposes abortion rights, acknowledged that some in his party are upset with his public campaign to change the bill. "The Speaker is not happy with me," Stupak said. The Energy and Commerce subcommittee chairman said he has been working with Democratic leaders on a compromise, but they...

...Among liberals and progressives, there is a puzzling admiration for Crist, long considered by Democratic and Republican veterans of Florida's political scene to be something of an opportunist if not a lightweight....

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) / President Barack Obama Washington D.C., Oct 27, 2009 / 02:17 pm (CNA).- Pro-life Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) has called on President Obama to back up his stated support for the exclusion of abortion funding from health care legislation. Recounting how congressional leaders are opposing funding restrictions, Stupak warned that action is needed as “crunch time” arrives.Rep. Stupak, who is advocating the inclusion of a Hyde Amendment provision that would bar federal abortion funding from proposed health care reform, spoke about his health care conversation with President Obama in an interview with CNSNews.com.On Sept....

Voters in Michigan have a slightly less gloomy view of the economy but strongly disapprove of the job Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm is doing. Right now at least Republicans have an even chance of regaining the governor’s mansion next year in a state that has been trending blue of late. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Michigan voters finds 37% who would vote for an unspecified Republican candidate for governor versus 36% who favor an unnamed Democrat. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are undecided.

Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct 27, 2009 / 06:32 am (CNA).- A 63-year-old tradition of having a privately maintained nativity scene on a public median in Warren, Michigan has been ended after the local road commission received a threatening letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The move has resulted in a lawsuit charging that the ban on the display is discriminatory.In 1945 St. Anne’s Parish received a donation of Christmas nativity statues which were too large to set up inside the church. Some parishioners thought the statues and a manger could be displayed in the center of the village...

<p>LANSING, MI. - The Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm, and the Michigan Legislature could have avoided deep cuts to education by passage of an increase to the wager tax on the Detroit Casinos. The wager tax (18% State and 6% City of Detroit) had not been increased since 1997 could have been raised to comparable levels of other surrounding States, and filled the revenue shortfall and spared Michigan children deep cuts in education K-12.</p>

Four months after exiting a U.S.-funded bankruptcy reorganization, Chrysler Group LLC is about to unveil a product roadmap that relies heavily on vehicles from Italian partner Fiat SpA while abandoning many of the U.S. car maker's own models. The plan, due to be revealed Nov. 4, involves the return of Fiat's premium, sporty Alfa Romeo brand to the U.S. starting in 2012, according to people briefed on the plans. Chrysler also will introduce to Americans the 500, Fiat's tiny car that is popular in Europe. The company meantime is preparing to phase out many of the company's current models, particularly...

<p>LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's governor wants you to give your mailbox a good shake.</p> <p>Jennifer Granholm has proclaimed Saturday "Shake Your Mailbox Day" in Michigan.</p>

The September unemployment stats for Michigan came out this week and they are high — as expected. Mlive.com highlighted the statistics on a municipal level, showing the five cities with the highest jobless rates are all over 25 percent. The cities of Highland Park and Pontiac, which leaned heavily on auto-related employment, had the highest unemployment with 35.2 percent of residents reportedly jobless. Both cities have declared bankruptcy in the recent past. Highland Park recently emerged from state receivership and Pontiac just slipped under state control last year. While the overall state’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation...

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., center, flanked Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., discuss "the urgent need for health insurance reform". GRAND RAPIDS — Senior citizens will find it harder to find a doctor who accepts Medicare if Congress does not stop a 21.5 percent cut in payment rates, say physicians and hospitals. “We might as well start building bigger emergency rooms, because that’s where people will be if they don’t have access to a regular physician,” said Micki Benz, vice president of development for Saint Mary’s Health Care. “In the end, people’s care will suffer, and...

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion. Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Kent County educators Friday the state's school financing system "clearly is not working" and said lawmakers must agree to both a short-term fix as well as long-term changes by the end of the year. But the gathering of superintendents and school board members also gave Granholm an earful, especially after she said lawmakers are "battle weary." "If elected people are weary, my level of sympathy for them is zilch," Catherine Mueller, Grand Rapids school board president, told Granholm. "They ran for these jobs and put themselves in this situation." Granholm appeared before educators...

Oct 20, 2009 — Every once in awhile it’s fun to look at what biochemists and biophysicists are discovering about the cell. Since you have several trillion of cells in your body, think about some of these cool cell tricks going on inside of you right now...

The GOP contenders are polling well in the race to become the state's next governor, while the current governor, Jennifer Granholm, continues to struggle in the approval ratings. Those are the findings of a new wide-ranging poll from EPIC-MRA , done for WOOD TV8 and our broadcast partners, released Tuesday. President Obama's statewide numbers are also down, with an equal number of respondents (48-48) having a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the president. Granholm is viewed negatively by 66% of the respondents, with 33% having a positive view. However, that's a slight improvement from the previous month (68-32.)

State lawmakers will soon face large budget deficits again, perhaps as much as $100 billion across the U.S. Here's some free budget-balancing advice: Steer clear of the Michigan model. The Wolverine state is once again set to run out of money, and it is once again poised to raise taxes even as jobs and businesses disappear. In 2007 Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the biggest tax increase in Michigan history, with most of the $1.4 billion coming from business. The personal income tax—which hits nonincorporated small businesses—was raised to 4.2% from 3.95%, and the Michigan business tax levied a surcharge of...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Important Pro-Gun Bills to be Considered in Michigan on Tuesday!   Friday, October 16, 2009   On Tuesday, October 20 at 10:30 a.m., the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee will consider House Bill 5302 and House Bill 5303. HB5302, introduced by State Representative Paul Opsommer (R-93), and HB5303, introduced by State Representative Joel Sheltrown (D-103), would prohibit employers from firing employees who safely and lawfully store their firearms in locked vehicles while at work. Please contact the members of the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee TODAY and...

They may not have been stung personally by the global recession, but luxury-vehicle buyers are mindful of those who have suffered. So they are restraining themselves, luxury-marque executives tell Ward's at the Frankfurt auto show. Given that many Maserati-brand aficionados own businesses so stricken by collapse they've been forced to cut their payrolls, moderated spending is “absolutely understandable,” says Maserati SpA CEO Harald J. Wester. “They have my full respect; they are behaving morally and ethically correct,” he tells Ward's shortly after Maserati unveils the 433-hp GranCabrio. No pricing is revealed, but the car, expected to arrive in showrooms by...

Lansing, MI - Michigan has joined with dozens of other States that are seeking affirmation of personhood rights for all humans. Rep. Jim Slezack (Democrat) is the the lead sponsor of the amendment, and is cosponsored by Paul Scott, Tim Moore, Richard LeBlanc, James Bolger, Kevin Green, Rick Jones, Pete Lund, Matt Lori, John Walsh, Kenneth Kurtz, Tom McMillin, Robert Dean, Bob Genetski, Wayne Schmidt, Joe Haveman, Kevin Daley, Marty Knollenberg, Eileen Kowall, Goeff Hansen, Dudley Spade, Joel Sheltrown, and Jeff Mayes. The Michigan Personhood Amendment states: SEC. 28. (1) EVERY HUMAN PERSON HAS A RIGHT TO LIFE, WHICH IS...

Global Generation Republicans: The Next Birth of Freedom Posted By Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI) On October 15, 2009 @ 10:30 am In Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 36 Comments They were “Wide Awakes” – scores of torchbearers marching through sleepy hamlets to herald the emancipation of a people from the bonds of slavery into God-given liberty.  These despised and decried champions of human freedom and defenders of American Union proudly called themselves “Republicans.”        Through the ensuing decades of political triumphs, falters and defeats, we Republicans never forgot our honorable heritage – until today.  Amidst the stormy present, some of...

Beyond the grief and sadness, Dmitri's family is shocked and angry that Tremaine's mom, Tarranisha, was allegedly involved. Police and prosecutors say she drove Tremaine to the scene, allowed him to get the gun from under the hood of the car, and then when the shooting was over, drove him away.