Election News

News about upcoming elections.

Debate rages around Tuesday's school-tax vote

Thousands spent on school-tax campaigns

6 compete for 2 KPS board seats

Candidates focus on finances, academics

Cooney getting signatures to run for Upton's seat

More Money...for Western

From the Gazette:

Also at the WMU Board of Trustees meeting Friday, trustees:

v Voted to raise room-and-board costs at the WMU's 20 residence halls and rent at university apartments by 4.75 percent.

v Approved naming the baseball stadium at Hyames Field the Robert J. Bobb Stadium. Bobb, a WMU alumnus from the class of 1969, donated $1 million to help renovate the stadium.

v Approved raising the Student Assessment Fee that supports programs and projects of WMU student organizations to $21 from $12 for each the fall and winter semesters. The assessment will increase to $10.50 from $6 each summer session.

POLITICAL UPDATE--News from Abroad

This update focuses on news from abroad. The war in Iraq continues. There is trouble in Palestine, North Korea, and Venezuela. Conservatives won elections in Italy and Britain.

Don Devine: New Iraqi Moment?
Chris Holton: The Truth About Saddam and Terrorism
William Jasper: A Bad Investment
Joseph Farah: No Good Guys in 'Palestine'
William Jasper: Global Blowback
Robert Spencer: A Muslim Battle Plan Against Free Speech
James Zumwalt: Enabling North Korean Misconduct
Bob Unruh: Hidden-camera series reveals nationwide cult
Matthew Vadum: Terrorist-Supporting Venezuelan Strongman Has Famous Allies
Gustavo Coronel: War in the Andes?

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Awful Ethanol

The terrible consequences of government subsidies for ethanol are becoming apparent. Politicians looking for votes from farmers have lavishly subsidized ethanol by 51 cents per gallon, and imposed a tariff on foreign ethanol.

This has led farmers to devote more land to ethanol and less to food. This in turn decreased the supply of food and raised food prices. This is bad enough in America, but riots have broken out across the Third World, where people face the danger of starvation.

And ethanol isn't a valid alternative to oil because it takes as much or more gasoline to run farm equipment, make fertilizer, and ship it by truck, since it can't be shipped by pipeline to the danger of impurities. Ethanol also yields fewer miles per gallon.

The politicians in Congress who promoted ethanol, and who believed that they could best decide what energy people should use should be ashamed of themselves. But will they?

Previous:
That Awful Energy Bill
Alternative Energy Inanity
Ethanol is not the Answer

Further Reading:
Ross Kamisky: Do-gooders and Politicians Support Faulty Ethanol Policy
Deroy Murdock: Global Food Riots: Made in Washington, D.C.
Arthur Robinson: Nobel Prize for Death
Walter Williams: Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax

Non-local Elections

Conservatives in Britain won big victories in local elections. Conservative Boris Johnson appears to have defeated communist "Red Ken" Livingston as Mayor of London.

Rightist National Front member Giovanni Alemanno was elected Mayor of Rome.

The organizers of the recall against Andy Dillon turned in more than enough signatures to get on the ballot. There will be litigation, but the recall should make the ballot. Residents of Dillon's district are in for a long summer.

Comparable Evil

Folks in Lansing are keeping busy.

Marxist "Comparable Worth" bill passes Michigan House

The state house passed comparable worth legislation on a party line vote. This would mandate that men and women who work in comparable professions be paid equally. What professions are comparable? Well, feminists will decide. Why should lumberjacks be paid more than nurses anyways?

Back in the real world, prices are determined by what people are willing to pay. Traditionally male jobs are often paid more than traditionally female jobs because they require more manual labor, are more dangerous, and require long or inflexible hours.

The legislation would establish a commission dominated by liberals to fix labor prices. One standard they would use is the level of education required to perform a job. But what does this mean? Are a degree in math and a degree in women's studies equally easy to obtain? Is coal mining not worth much because you don't need a PhD to do it?

Passing this legislation would further hurt business and damage Michigan's economy. This would hurt both men and women, but feminists are intent on imposing their vision on society no matter how many people it hurts.

The fact that every state house democrat voted for this awful legislation says a lot about who runs the democrat party.

Margaret O'Brien for State Representative

Portage Councilwoman Margaret O'Brien has announced her candidacy for State Representative in the 61st district.

The 61st district includes the cities of Portage and Parchment, and Oshtemo, Texas, Alamo, and Praire Ronde, and western Kalamazoo Townships. Portage Councilman Larry DeShazor is also running as a Republican and Julie Rogers is running as a democrat.

O'Brien is a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo County who works as a realtor. She was first elected to the Portage city Council in 2003 and reelected in 2007.

Margaret is a staunch conservative. She is pro-life, and she hasn't just said so, she has volunteered for pro-life causes. She supports the right to keep and bear arms. She supports limited government and opposes tax increases and spending increases. She supports greater education freedom. She supports protecting jobs from illegal immigrants.

O'Brien has fought for fiscal responsibility in Portage. One major issue that she has been involved with is special assessments. These charge homeowners for work on the roads that they live on. This might make sense on purely residential streets, but it made no sense on Oakland Drive, a major thoroughfare. This was a major controversy, with homeowners between Milham and Romence posting homemade signs in their yards saying how much the special assessment would cost. Eventually, the Council put a measure on the ballot to end special assessments, and it was passed by voters.

Margaret has been endorsed by current State Representative Jack Hoogendyk. She deserves the support of Republicans in the August 5 primary election.

See Margaret's website: http://www.margaretobrien.com/
Watch her declaration of candidacy.

Cooney for Congress?

The news is reporting that Kalamazoo City Commissioner Don Cooney will run for Congress against Fred Upton. Cooney has a reputation as very liberal. He has close ties to the Green Party. He has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.

I wonder what his position on light bulb choice is?

There don't seem to be any news articles online at this time.

End the Silence

I know what you're thinking. But this post has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of gay rights movement. It's more about a very dangerous silence than any out there: the silence that is the global warming debate. It's really a one sided deal with schools showing films such as Al Gore's "An Inconvient Truth" and the media acting like it's a settled issue. However, today I'm going to do my part to break that silence and submit some evidence that needs to be considered by all. Here's a couple speeches from Michael Crichton.

The first one is called "Aliens cause Global Warming." It points out that the science behind the global warming movement is not science.

The second I consider to be one of the best cases against this assumption that global warming is an issue. It's called "The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming." It points out many of the flaws in the arguement for global warming.

Now why do I call this silence dangerous? It's quite simple. Because of this global warming concern, people are denied sources of fuel that would help lower fuel costs. These high fuel costs make it harder and harder for struggling families to bring home much of a paycheck. Regulations on third world countries force people there to deal with weak or unhealthy forms of energy for cooking heat or simple development within their country. This isn't a debate where we can side on caution. Because if we enforce stupid regulations that hurt people and it ends up being for no reason at all, then we will have caused needless death and suffering. This is the sort of thing where we need to be sure we're right.

POLITICAL UPDATE--Environmentalism

This update focuses on environmentalism. Ethanol subsides lead to rising food prices and third world riots. More evidence comes in against global warming hysteria. The Earth has not warmed since 1998. Earth Day was founded to celebrate Lenin's birthday.

Ross Kamisky: Do-gooders and Politicians Support Faulty Ethanol Policy
Steven Hayward: Happy Earth Day
Deroy Murdock: Global Food Riots: Made in Washington, D.C.
Arthur Robinson: Nobel Prize for Death
Deroy Murdock: Oil Drilling America
Walter Williams: Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax

Chris Horner: W Goes Green?
William Jasper: 2008 Climate Debate
William Jasper: Weather Channel Founder’s Forecast
Thomas Sowell: Cold Water on "Global Warming"
John Lott: No Global Warming Crisis

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Third Party News

The Constitution Party held its national convention this weekend. Pastor, author, and 2004 Vice-Presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin was nominated over former Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes. Baldwin's website can be seen here.

The Libertarian Party will hold its national convention next month. Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, who led the fight to impeach President Clinton, is the frontrunner for the nomination. Former Democrat senator and recent presidential candidate Mike Gravel is also running, along with a slew of others.

Ralph Nader is running as an independent, or possibly Green Party candidate. Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is running for the Green Party nomination.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a new documentary from actor Ben Stein on the subject of Darwinism and intelligent design. It is well-produced and entertaining. It takes a position sympathetic of intelligent design, but allows Darwinists a chance to give their views as well.

Expelled features a number of interviews. Stein talks with many of the leading proponents of intelligent design. They make an interesting case, at least for further study of the issue.

Stein also interviews the most virulent critics of intelligent design. They are given a chance to make their case, but Stein also shows that some of their statements are false. The Darwinists also make some revealing admissions. Atheist Richard Dawkins attacks God and Christianity in the most caustic terms. Michael Ruse claims that life may have formed on the back of crystals. Dawkins admits that scientists have no idea how life began, but says that aliens may have designed it, just not God.

Expelled details the efforts of Darwinists to suppress debate of the issue. A string of scientists were fired or denied tenure after advocating or even mentioning intelligent design. The media either ignores or misrepresents the issue. Darwinists rhetorically attack or even sue schools that broach the issue.

Expelled doesn't delve too deeply into the scientific details, which would be tough for this sort of documentary. But it does have some fascinating animation of the complexity of the cell.

Expelled also explores the moral and political implications of Darwinism. It shows that Darwinism was closely tied to the eugenics movement, which sought to prevent the reproduction of those people seen as less fit. It also formed a part of the ideological basis of Nazism, though of course most Darwinists weren't Nazis.

Expelled ends with a call for freedom of inquiry on this important issue. It is a movie that conservatives should see.

Expelled is playing at the Kalamazoo 10 theater.

Connecting Hitler and Darwin
'Expelled' goes easy on Darwin-Nazi link

Pain at the Pump

With gas prices at or near record highs (even adjusting for inflation) these two articles that appeared previously on this blog are more timely than ever.

Gouging by Government
Alternative Energy Inanity

Read them if you want to know the real story behind high gas prices.

Sowell on College

Thomas Sowell explains why college costs so much in this series of articles.

The Economics of College: Part I Part II Part III.

College costs so much because government funnels so much money to colleges that charge high prices. Once again, big government liberalism makes problems worse.

Previous: Why Does College Cost So Much?

Michigan Politics

Political News from Kalamazoo and Michigan.

Elections:

Gazette: Rogers running again for House
Gazette: Two more seek Kalamazoo Co. sheriff's job
Gazette: Haenicke's son-in-law seeks county board seat
Gazette: Former MSU Extension chief seeks county seat
Gazette: Comstock resident plans to run for township supervisor
Herald: WMU junior runs for county commission
Saul: University Board Candidates

Other Politics:

NRA: Michigan: Registration Reform Assigned to Senate Committee!
Saul: Homeschooling parents say bill would strip their rights
Herald: Political groups aim to focus on elections next year
Herald: College GOP selects 2008-09 e-board
Gazette: Interim official chosen as drain commissioner

Take Back the Nonsense

Feminists on campus held their annual Take Back the Night event on Thursday, April 10.

Group fights sexual assault in Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night offers an opportunity for sexual assault awareness, education at WMU
Take Back the Night has come a long way since Bailey administration, is an important event
Take Back the Night, because sexual assault affects everyone
Letter to the editor: Sam Kallen

The event received lavish publicity in th Herald and a write-up afterwards. The event is supposedly to combat rape on campus. The event sponsors' primary means of doing this is to "raise awareness" by recounting stories of sexual assault.

The promotion of the event has raised questions whether there might be another agenda. Last year, its promotion featured the claim that "one in four" women have been raped. This year, an editorial promoting the event mentioned the claim.

"I was raped. I am your sister. Cousin. Mother. Girlfriend. Wife. Classmate. Friend. Nobody wants to talk about this. But I deal with it every day." So reads one of the flyers for Take Back the Night, an annual event held by FIRE!, the sexual assault peer educators on campus, that serves to raise awareness and empower survivors of sexual assault. Considering the statistic that one in four women will experience sexual assault, as the flyer's message states, you know someone who has been raped.

The problem that often arises with the "one in four" statistic is definition: what is rape? Definitions vary to the extremes and encompass a great deal of gray area. The only way to change the confusion and gray area is to create opportunities for awareness and education. Take Back the Night is WMU's biggest annual event about sexual assault, and it is a powerful one.

The problem with the "one in four" statistic is that it is not true. The only definition of rape that makes it true is one that includes non-rape. Letter-writer Sam Kallen takes a skeptical look at the statistics.

One in four raped? According to a 1988 study by Ms. 20 to 25 percent of women will be the victims of a rape or an attempted rape in their lifetimes. At WMU, there are 12,918 females enrolled in the undergraduate program in the fall of 2007 (last semester). If it is true that one in four were raped during college, then that would be 12,900 (students) / 4 (one in four raped) / 5 (years at school) = 645.9 rapes per year or 322 per semester. Were there 300 rapes last semester? 80 rapes a month? 2.6 rapes a day? If so, we must have the most lax security force possible. It's a veritable rape-a-thon going on here at WMU.

Here are the statistics from the WMU DPS Crime Report: Forcible Sex Offenses: Total Crimes Reported: 2004 - 8, 2005 -10, 2006 - 4.

In 2006 there were 13,076 enrolled female students according to the university statistics. If it were true that there were only four reported cases of rape, then instead of a one in four statistic, we at WMU have a one in 3,269 rape rate, which is roughly 00.0305 percent. This is 161 times less than those claimed by the anti-rape promoters.

Of course, it is doubtless true that some rapes go unreported. But 99% of them?

The recent and extremely valuable article The Campus Rape Myth by Heather MacDonald explains the origin of the phony "one in four" statistic.

The campus rape industry’s central tenet is that one-quarter of all college girls will be raped or be the targets of attempted rape by the end of their college years (completed rapes outnumbering attempted rapes by a ratio of about three to two). The girls’ assailants are not terrifying strangers grabbing them in dark alleys but the guys sitting next to them in class or at the cafeteria.

This claim, first published in Ms. magazine in 1987, took the universities by storm. By the early 1990s, campus rape centers and 24-hour hotlines were opening across the country, aided by tens of millions of dollars of federal funding. Victimhood rituals sprang up: first the Take Back the Night rallies, in which alleged rape victims reveal their stories to gathered crowds of candle-holding supporters; then the Clothesline Project, in which T-shirts made by self-proclaimed rape survivors are strung on campus, while recorded sounds of gongs and drums mark minute-by-minute casualties of the “rape culture.” A special rhetoric emerged: victims’ family and friends were “co-survivors”; “survivors” existed in a larger “community of survivors.”

...

If the one-in-four statistic is correct—it is sometimes modified to “one-in-five to one-in-four”—campus rape represents a crime wave of unprecedented proportions. No crime, much less one as serious as rape, has a victimization rate remotely approaching 20 or 25 percent, even over many years. The 2006 violent crime rate in Detroit, one of the most violent cities in America, was 2,400 murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults per 100,000 inhabitants—a rate of 2.4 percent. The one-in-four statistic would mean that every year, millions of young women graduate who have suffered the most terrifying assault, short of murder, that a woman can experience. Such a crime wave would require nothing less than a state of emergency—Take Back the Night rallies and 24-hour hotlines would hardly be adequate to counter this tsunami of sexual violence. Admissions policies letting in tens of thousands of vicious criminals would require a complete revision, perhaps banning boys entirely. The nation’s nearly 10 million female undergrads would need to take the most stringent safety precautions. Certainly, they would have to alter their sexual behavior radically to avoid falling prey to the rape epidemic.

None of this crisis response occurs, of course—because the crisis doesn’t exist. During the 1980s, feminist researchers committed to the rape-culture theory had discovered that asking women directly if they had been raped yielded disappointing results—very few women said that they had been. So Ms. commissioned University of Arizona public health professor Mary Koss to develop a different way of measuring the prevalence of rape. Rather than asking female students about rape per se, Koss asked them if they had experienced actions that she then classified as rape. Koss’s method produced the 25 percent rate, which Ms. then published.

Koss’s study had serious flaws. Her survey instrument was highly ambiguous, as University of California at Berkeley social-welfare professor Neil Gilbert has pointed out. But the most powerful refutation of Koss’s research came from her own subjects: 73 percent of the women whom she characterized as rape victims said that they hadn’t been raped. Further—though it is inconceivable that a raped woman would voluntarily have sex again with the fiend who attacked her—42 percent of Koss’s supposed victims had intercourse again with their alleged assailants.

That's right. The statistic comes from classifying non-rape as rape.

Angry feminists commenting on Sam Kallen's letter cited even more ridiculous statistics. "Angela Simon, WMU Doctoral Associate" claimed

It is only through facing the reality-- that far more than 1 in 4 college women , 1 in 6 women in general, and 1 in 33 men are sexually assaulted each year and that there is a culture which produces an environment in which 60% of victims don't feel comfortable reporting their experience--and in creating change that we will see progress and that we can re-create the new culture and safe environment that is needed so desperately.

That's about 3000 rapes per year at Western for those of you keeping track.

So what is the point of all this? Certainly rape is a serious issue. Why trivialize it with such bogus statistics?

What do they advocate? Rape is illegal and severely punished. There is no pro-rape lobby. Do rapists care if women hold rallies? Encouraging the reporting of genuine rapes is fine, but there is no need for bogus statistics for this.

Sam Kallen argues

Why is this a problem? Because it perpetuates anti-male propaganda. There is already enough going against us [men] without the need for women to be afraid whenever they see a man walking down the street. I am all for protection, and I am all for safety, and I am totally against rape, but I think it's important to realize the damage that a campaign chanting "One In Four" might do to men. "All men are rapists" sounds a lot to me like "all blacks are criminals." It simply isn't true.

The feminists' actions strongly suggest that they have an anti-male agenda. If "one in four" women are raped, and most rapists are friends or relatives, then something approaching one in four men are rapists. This is an outrageous slander. It suggests an anti-male, anti-American worldview, for any society that tolerated this would have to be considered evil.

Feminism is a twisted view of the world that implies hatred of men and any women who resist the feminist agenda.

Another questionable claim coming from the Take Back the Night crowd appears in this letter from Dr. Robert Wait.

Speakers and organizers of TBTN were stalked and harassed by members of anti-feminist political groups, and rumors were spread that the event would be disrupted. Participants in the event had to provide for their own protection. They were stalked even as they walked peacefully to Kanley track to commemorate sexual violence experienced by female (and male) participants.

It is hard to believe that hardcore anti-feminists would try to prevent or disrupt this event, but that's exactly what happened three years ago. The opposition to TBTN was organized and planned, and occurred with the knowledge of members of Judith Bailey's administration. Hopefully, we we'll never again see a repetition of these sorry events on this campus.

Wait doesn't bother to name these anti-feminist groups, but rumors at the time implicated the College Republicans after we pointed out that the speaker for the first Take Back the Night event was Dr. Edith Fisher. The stalking and harassing is almost certainly wholly fictitious.

Previous:
Fight Back with Poetry
Don't Bring an Umbrella to a Gunfight
Planned Parenthood Covers Up Rape
Take Back the Night
End the Campus Gun Ban

POLITICAL UPDATE--National Defense

This update focuses on national defense. Terrorists threaten our security and liberals threaten our military. Democracy is not the answer to security.

Pat Buchanan: Onward the Revolution!
Pat Buchanan: Should We Fight for South Ossetia?
Phyllis Schlafly: New Proof of Reagan's Wisdom
Phyllis Schlafly: Supremacist Judges Attack Our Military
Don Devine: Conservatives Agree on Democracy?
Joseph Farah: The Gravest Threat of All
Ron Paul: Constitutional Responses to Terrorism

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Ending Registration

The Michigan State House of Representatives passed a bill to eliminate handgun registration. The bill passed overwhelmingly, which means that it is likely to pass the Senate and be signed by the Governor. All pro-gun bills, including "stand your ground" and various improvements to concealed carry, have passed by significant margins since concealed carry passed in 2000.

---------------

From MCRGO:

Michigan House Bills 4490 and 4491 pass House
2008/04/16
Legislative Update

Michigan House Bills 4490 and 4491 passed out of the Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee by a vote of 8 - 1. The Bills were sent to the full House April 16th.

These bills would (1) eliminate the current requirement in the Michigan handgun licensure law that pistol owners obtain safety inspection certificates; (2) require that all existing records of inspection certificates maintained by local and state law enforcement officials be destroyed; and (3) eliminate the misdemeanor crime of failing to have one's pistol inspected.

House Bill 4490 would repeal Section 9 of the handgun licensure act (MCL 28.429), which requires people who purchase or otherwise come into possession of a pistol in Michigan to obtain a safety inspection certificate from their local police department (or local sheriff, if they reside in a part of the state without an organized police department). That section also requires local law enforcement officials and the State Police to maintain records of safety inspection certificates. The bill would require state and local law enforcement officials to destroy all of their existing records of pistol safety inspections within one year.

House Bill 4491 would repeal Section 228 of the Michigan Penal Code (MCL 750.228) under which a person who fails to have his or her pistol inspected as required is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to 90 days, or a fine of up to $100, or both. The bill would also eliminate other references to Section 9 and safety inspections contained in the Penal Code. House Bill 4491 is tie-barred to House Bill 4490, meaning it could not take effect unless both bills were enacted.

Roll call vote results:
HB 4490, Yeas 93 Nays 15.
HB 4491, Yeas 92 Nays 16

Bills now move to the Senate.

Taxes, Big Brother, and Unintended Consequences

The Herald hits the nail on the head with this Quotes and Comments article. McCain is the only candidate who has the American taxpayer's best interests in mind.

The Thought Police are at it again in France. Freedom is Slavery!

The unintended consequences of ethanol continue to rear their ugly heads. Luckily, Senator McCain is leading the charge to stop these damaging programs. Democrats lack both the courage and foresight to solve this problem.

Berlusconi Wins!

Silvio Berlusconi has been elected again as Premier of Italy. This follows two years of leftist Romano Prodi. Berlusconi is a conservative. His election was by a large margin.

Berlusconi Wins Italian Election, Set for Third Term as Premier
Italy: It's a landslide