Rep. Michele Bachmann was in Michigan on Tuesday to stump for Robert ‘Bobby’ Schostak in his bid to become the chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Bachmann is the chair of the Tea Party Caucus in the House and was recently appointed to the House Intelligence Committee, which will be chaired by Michigan Republican Mike Rogers (R-Brighton).

Michigan Public Radio reports Bachmann had this to say about President Barack Obama at yesterday’s event in Grand Rapids:

“She told the group at the Grand Rapids Hilton there are two reasons Republicans must not allow President Obama to have a second term in office. One, she says, is because the country is less safe since he took office. “I know it may seem like a brazen statement,” Bachmann said before referencing the 2009 shootings at a military base in Fort Hood Texas, a fatal shooting outside a recruiting center in Arkansas, and the underwear bomber’, who attempted to blow up a jet over metro Detroit. The second reason, Bachmann said, is because of the increasing size of government.”

The Grand Rapids Press reports these comments from Bachmann:

Bachmann took aim at familiar targets including:
• The Federal Reserve: “It’s time to pull the curtain back and shine a light on it.”
• Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “We will pry the gavel out of Nancy Pelosi’s hands Jan. 5.”
• Federal workers: “Federal employees make double their counterparts in the private sector when you count wages and benefits.”

But perhaps the most interesting tidbit to arise from the Tea Party queen’s visit is a piece from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which reports Andy Parrish, Bachmann’s chief of staff, says the trip to Michigan was tied to presidential politics.

“She knows how important the 2012 presidential election is, and what a vital role Michigan will play in it,” Parrish said in an e-mail. “It’s never too early to rally the grassroots, and that is what she is doing today.”

Todd A. Heywood is a reporter for the Michigan Messenger, a sister site to the Minnesota Independent and part of the American Independent News Network.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) will be in Michigan Tuesday stumping for Robert “Bobby” Schostak in his bid to become the Michigan Republican Party’s new chair. Schostak has the backing of Gov.-elect Rick Snyder and has served in the past as the finance chair of the party.

Under Schostak’s financial leadership, the state party raised $28 million, which helped fund the November landslide wins of the GOP.

Schostak is said to be courting the Tea Party movement because he is considered a political insider.

But don’t expect the media to have much coverage of Bachmann’s visit. The Schostak campaign says the press is not welcome at either event — in Troy or Grand Rapids — Tuesday.

In an email to our sister site, The Michigan Messenger, Schostak wrote:

Appreciate the interest. However, this event is closed to press and closed to Republican activists due to limited space. I appreciate the Michigan Messenger’s interest, but must decline. Happy holidays.

Thus Michigan media will not be on hand to catch any Bachmannisms, like in July of 2009 when she compared the U.S. census to the development of internment camps. Nor will media be able to ask her about why she rails against government subsidies while benefiting from them.

The Michigan Messenger, a sister site of the Minnesota Independent, is part of the American Independent News Network.

But according to Nina Countryman, communications director for the Minnesota GOP, there are no plans to engage in similar tactics here. “We’re not doing that here,” Countryman says. “It’s just not true.”

Local party officials echo that sentiment. “I would be shocked if it happened,” says Rory Koch, GOP chairman in the Fourth Congressional District. Koch further argues that such tactics wouldn’t succeed in Minnesota because the state has same-day voter registration. “It’s ludicrous first of all, but in Minnesota it wouldn’t work anyway,” he says.

GOP officials in Michigan have questioned the veracity of the Michigan Messenger article and Carabelli has threatened so sue for libel, but the web site has stood by its reporting. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to prohibit GOP officials from challenging voters based on foreclosure lists.

Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, and Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced the lawsuit in a conference call with reporters this afternoon.  It was filed on behalf of the campaign, the party and three Michigan residents who have had their houses foreclosed upon in recent months.

Last week, James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County GOP, told the Messenger’s Eartha Melzer in a phone interview: “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” The Michigan Republican Party has denied that Carabelli made the statements that the Messenger reported.

But Bauer told reporters that the complaint includes quotes from Republican operatives in Ohio and other states making similar comments and defending the legitimacy of using foreclosure lists to strike voters from the rolls. He labeled the tactic “false and illegal,” noting that receiving a foreclosure notice is not evidence that the person’s address has changed.

Brewer noted that in July alone 11,000 Michigan residents received foreclosure notices. The McCain campaign, he argued, “wants to add insult to injury” by denying those residents their right to vote. “The right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans,” said Brewer. “To try to strip our fellow citizens of their right to vote is un-American and unconscionable.”

The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology is investigating allegations that the nation’s top public-health agency has blocked publication of a study that links industrial contaminants to cancer and increased infant mortality in the Great Lakes states.

In 2001, the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian organization that manages shared waterways and monitors pollution, requested a report that would look at the potential human health impact of environmental contamination in 26 “Areas of Concern” across the Great Lakes.

The Centers for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry began work on the study in 2002. The report concentrated on 11 pollutants known to damage human health and was intended to serve as a guide for further epidemiological study.

The committee charges that the report, “Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern,” had been peer-reviewed and was ready for release in July 2007 when the CDC abruptly canceled its publication.

In a letter to CDC chief Dr. Julia Gerberding, who also administers the registry, the committee noted that the report found that “Areas of Concern” — which contain 40 million residents in eight states — had higher infant-mortality rates and higher cancer rates than neighboring counties or the national average.

Committee chairmen urged the agency to explain why it has failed to release the report and insisted that it cease retaliatory measures reportedly taken against an agency scientist who drew attention to the suppression of the report.

Excerpts from the report are available at the Center for Public Integrity
]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/3127/congressional-committee-probes-killing-of-great-lakes-cancer-report/feed 0 http://minnesotaindependent.com/2987/contractor-made-millions-claiming-army-stripes http://minnesotaindependent.com/2987/contractor-made-millions-claiming-army-stripes#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:24:17 +0000 Paul Schmelzer http://www.minnesotaindependent.com.php5-9.websitetestlink.com/?p=2987 A private security firm that has been raking in government contracts in Iraq and got $10 million in tax abatements to set up shop in Michigan is headed by a CEO who appears to…]]> A private security firm that has been raking in government contracts in Iraq and got $10 million in tax abatements to set up shop in Michigan is headed by a CEO who appears to be lying about his service record, our sister site Michigan Messenger reports.

Sovereign Deed founder Barrett Moore “served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, specializing in issues related to the non-proliferation of biological weapons and related weapons of mass destruction (WMD),” according to the company’s website. But reporter Eartha Jane Melzer found that Moore never completed his college ROTC training and was discharged from an inactive unit of the Reserves having never finished basic training. She writes, “Moore never served as an Army intelligence officer, or in any other branch of the country’s armed forces.”

Also little known is Moore’s track record of lawsuits and a conviction on three counts of criminal fraud in Australia, which resulted in jail time but was later overturned. In a related  trial, Moore admitted he was involved in an ‘illegal enterprise’ to smuggle cars from Chicago to Melbourne and that he fabricated documents.

Writes Melzer: “Why did Moore’s legal problems in Australia, his bankruptcy and his apparent misrepresentation of his military background not surface when it came to gaining millions of dollars in security contracts with the U.S. government?“

Photo: U.S. Army photo by CW4 Daniel McClinton, 1-227th, 1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs via the Soldiers  Media Center on Flickr.

From Michigan Messenger we see the battle with Iowa is getting heated, as many of the Democratic candidates begin pulling out of the Michigan primary.

The story grows at Iowa Independent, as the exodus continues.  The only leading candidate to stay on?  Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Then there’s Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, who appears to have missed the deadline and will be on the ballot despite his best intentions.  Could the Hillary/Kucinich rumble bring in the attention Michigan is seeking?

Meanwhile, Michigan Messenger reports from the GOP presidential forum on Mackinaw Island.  Coverage of the event can be found here, here, and here.

And Colorado Confidential reports on huge instances of teen pregnancy in the state.

Read more at…

Iowa Independent

Michigan Messenger

Colorado Confidential