For those who are unaware there's somewhat of a nasty fight going on in Michigan associated with McCotter's seat.
A bit of background is required.
McCotter was off having a fun junket in Asia and didn't bother submitting actual unique and valid petitions to achieve the ballot in Michigan. Kerry Bentivolio, however, did.
McCotter apparently did try to submit petitions, incidentally -- some 1800 of them. There was a wee problem -- it appears that a material number of them were photocopies -- that is, duplicates, as only 244 signatures were valid. This is of course illegal and when the petitions were looked at for validation they were tossed and as a result he will not be on the ballot. He did draw a probe for this and may face prosecution (yeah!)
The Republican "establishment" is rather*****ed. They ought to be*****ed at good old McCotter, who apparently thought that playing junket instead of bothering to qualify for the ballot was a great idea. The good news is that Kerry Bentivolio, a man who I happen to support, is on the ballot (look to the right sidebar.) He is "reputed" to be a Tea Partier; the truth appears to be that he understands what a balanced budget is and has as his headline:
Why I am Running: the System is Broken, the Economy is Broken, and Corruption is the Cause
Oh my. And guess what -- the root stance of his candidacy is the rule of law being applied equally to everyone, The Declaration (that is, you have the right to life, liberty and pursuit (but not a guarantee) of happiness without interference by government) and he understands that what we have now is fascism -- indeed, this is what he says right up on his home page:
"Most people do not begrudge others their fortunes and success when it has been earned in a legal manner. Yet, most folks are rightly outraged when certain persons steal from the general populace by either engaging in illegal activity or purchasing special exceptions to the laws that apply to the rest of us. When certain persons buy favoritism from elected officials and profit off of our hard work, we all ought to be outraged. This is not capitalism, it is fascism." )
Banksters beware!
He also understands the 10th Amendment and supports it -- one of the few politicians who does.
So what is the jackboot party, uh, the Republican party, intending to do? They're going to embrace Kerry and work to get him elected, right?
Nope. See, they're in the pocket of those very same banksters and love corruption -- along with being addicted to stealing all your money and running serial ponzi schemes.
Nancy Cassis, a former State Senator, is threatening a "write-in" run to try to beat Kerry in the primary!
Now this would be laughable but she's actually serious. What's disgusting beyond words and ought to be felonious is how hard she tried to financially rape every Michigander when she was a State Senator.
I'm talking about this bill from 2006, SB 1360:
Introduced by Sen. Nancy Cassis (R) on July 26, 2006, to allow a local government to borrow money to establish a fund to pay the unfunded liabilities created by employee contracts that promise government workers lifetime health care benefits after they stop working.
Oh, but it gets better -- you see, issuing debt to fund an exponentially-expanding expense wasn't enough. Nancy appears to have been well-aware that this was doomed to fail and that the bonds would eventually default -- after all, health care costs have risen by about 9% annually since 1980. But don't worry, she had a solution for that -- the bill had a "poison" clause in it:
Sec. 519. Municipal securities issued under section 517 or 518 shall also be secured by the general fund of the county, city, village, or township and shall include the phrase "general obligation limited tax" in the resolution authorizing the issuance. The county, city, village, or township issuing the municipal securities is not authorized to levy any tax not authorized by law at the time the municipal securities are issued to pay for the municipal securities.
Read that carefully. If you're confused it's probably because you were supposed to be confused.
What it says is that the municipality cannot impose a tax they could not otherwise impose (e.g. a new tax) but that if the borrowing was to fail -- say, for instance, the return on the invested capital was insufficient to cover the bond principal and interest and/or the exponential growth of these medical expenses simply overwhelmed the money available, then you would be assessed on your other taxes, such as property taxes, without the right to vote it down, to cover the deficiency.
And what was the original purpose of this bill?
To cover the outrageously generous lifetime medical benefits of state and local municipal employees -- you know, all those wonderful unionized folks who have gold-plated pensions and can retire at 50 while the rest of you -- the working man and woman -- starve! This, for an expense profile that at the time was known to be growing at roughly 9% compounded a year, and still is -- that is, an expense profile that doubles every eight years.
This is the woman who wants McCotter's seat. She is the worst sort of politician, the type who tries to sneak through in the dead of night bills that will impose outrageous taxes on you to pay off the favored few to cover benefits that are impossible to pay, were known to be impossible to cover when they were promised, and are guaranteed to impoverish you.
THAT is the "mainstream" Republican Party and the reason they don't like Kerry is that he refuses to play the "screw you, the common man, for the benefit of the 1%" game.
Nancy Cassis, along with the entire Rethuglican establishment that supports her, need to be pelted with rotten tomatoes and eggs until they cede the stage and are driven from public life.
Elect Kerry Bentivolio and put a stop to this crap in the 11th District of Michigan.
