Driver's Licenses To Change

Secure ID won't aid at border

In about two years, Michigan will be required to issue new driver's licenses that will be just as secure as a U.S. passport. But don't expect to be able to use that new license to get back into the country from Canada. [...]

Starting in January 2008, U.S. citizens will have to show a passport or some other alternative secure document that shows their identity and citizenship when they re-enter the country from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Panama. Currently, Americans need show only their driver's licenses or a birth certificate when they re-enter from those countries. The new requirement is supposed to make it harder for terrorists to enter the United States.

Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land came up with the idea of a dual-purpose driver's license when she realized that the federal government would require air travelers to have either a passport or one of the new driver's licenses when they fly within the United States.

But there's just not enough time to merge the new drivers license and passport requirements, said Homeland Security spokesman Jared Agen, whose agency is also working on regulations for the new licenses. [...]

Detroit Free Press March 31, 2006

Five things about notable Michigan women

It's Women's History Month, and these are just a few of the many outstanding women from Michigan. Seeing as I am the only contributor who isn't an outstanding woman from Michigan, this one is for you Karen and Barbi!

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/NEWS05/603290495/1007/NEWS05

Michigan raises minimum wage!

Way to go, Michigan! WalMart couldn't beat out the state GOP's self-interest in re-election, and as a result, the minimum wage is being raised to $7.25 an hour!

I have a friend who is spying on the GOP campaign and it's VICIOUS this year in Michigan. They are out-pacing us on funds, volunteers, and organizers. hint, hint, hint.

Thanks for setting this up, Mr. DeLLBerto, and thanks for the invite, Barb!!

What A Bunch of Idiots

"If we are truly serious about improving both the cost and quality of health care in this state, we must tap the full power of modern science to combat life-threatening illnesses. Imagine having to watch your child suffer with juvenile diabetes. Imagine watching your wife lose her ability to speak, and walk, and even eat, as her Parkinson's worsens. Stem cell research holds the promise for finding cures and for improving the lives of thousands of people.Talented researchers and businesses around the world are working right now on those cures…but we can't recruit them to Michigan to do their work because of the limits Michigan law puts on them. When human lives are at stake, we should lead the nation in this work, not put obstacles in our own path.Tonight, I am asking you, our Legislature, to join with me in supporting this search for cures. Pass Representative Meisner's bill to remove the limits on stem cell research in Michigan, and do it now." Gov. Jennifer Granholm, State of State speech

So I stumble upon http://jivinjehoshaphat.blogspot.com/2006/01/governor-granholm-wants-human-cloning.html. This guy doesn't seem to have a clue. Cloning humans? From that snippet of speech? It seems to me that the Republican Party and fundojeezicals are grasping at straws even in Michigan these days.

Ishpeming Supports the Troops

If you look at the color of Marquette County, the County I live in, you will see it's blue, very, very blue. Supposedly, according to right wing talking heads and bloated idiot commentators the Democrats don't care, nor support the troops and the US military. That's POPPYCOCK. The story is about the community getting together and showing support for one of our local boys, a Marine, CPL. Neil Frustaglio who lost both legs due to Iraq War injuries.

http://www.wluctv6.com/Global/story.asp?S=4684067

March in April

March For Peace, Justice And Democracy
Saturday April 29, 2006
New York City

From your downstate buddy!

DeLLBerto, first of all, thank you so very much for inviting me to be a contributor to this blog!

Going along with your post below, I’d like to offer some information on what is happening in my area downstate. Taking care of OUR Great Lakes is a most important issue, and down this way it’s personal because this is has been my playground.


Questions, few answers -- Sportsmen chime in on Grassy Island clean-up

March 19, 2006

Remember the gentle protest song, "They Paved Paradise and Put up a Parking Lot?"

Well forget the parking lot part and you have the saga of Grassy Island.

Grassy Island was once a beautiful, lush, 77-acre sand bar in the middle of the Detroit River between Wyandotte and Ontario, Canada.

Then they buried paradise under 20 feet of pollution beginning in 1959 when the Army Corp of Engineers began disposing of 3 million cubic yards of dredged sediments from the Rouge River.

The dumping continued through 1987 with sediment containing some of the most biologically dangerous mixtures known to man.

The noxious spoils included mercury, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. [...]

But things are looking up for the little island that couldn't protect itself, as various government agencies and volunteer citizen organizations begin to get involved.

The same groups that brought you protection for Humbug Marsh and the new Detroit International Wildlife Refuge are rounding up their watercraft, donning their ecological protective suits, sliding into knee-high rubber boots and hitting the beaches of Grassy Island with a $950,000 federal grant in hand and the blessings of U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-15th District). [...]

"We don't know if it is leaking and if there is a human and environmental health risk. That is why we are doing the remedial investigations and have gotten commitments from six governmental agencies to be our partners. [...]

***

TOP STORY 2004: Environmentalists claim two huge waterfront wins

January 2, 2005

The relentless perseverance of Downriver residents made two longtime dreams in and along the Detroit River become reality in 2004.

After fighting a developer tooth and nail to save the last stretch of virgin land along the riverfront, locals emerged victorious in September.

That's when the Trust for Public Land handed 410 acres of coastal wetlands known as Humbug Marsh to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It is the latest addition to the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and "a place of wild things and open spaces," says Robyn Thorson, regional director for the wildlife agency.

At about the same time as the Humbug acquisition, another major announcement was made.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared that the first project to ever be paid for by ... Great Lakes Legacy Act would be Trenton's Black Lagoon — a black eye for the area and the environment.

Years ago, a small island nestled in the lagoon, which is just south of the former McLouth Steel complex.

So much polluted sediment was dumped around the island, however, that it eventually connected to the mainland. Over time, a thriving habitat for waterfowl, wildlife and fish was destroyed.

The island turned into a cove, and the releases of oil and other contaminants — PCBs, mercury, cadmium, zinc, lead and grease — from industry along the river pooled into the bay.

The area was so contaminated that nothing could survive in it. [...]

Stupak Introduces Great Lakes Protection Bill

AP) UPPER PENINSULA, Mich. MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak has introduced a bill designed to protect the Great Lakes from acid mine drainage.

It would prohibit issuing federal permits for a sulfide mine within 5 miles of any of the Great Lakes unless the applicant could demonstrate the operation wouldn't cause leakage of sulfuric acid."If you're going to have this new type mining in Michigan, let's make sure we do it right," Stupak told The Mining Journal for a story Tuesday. "I'm not opposed to it, I just want to make sure we do it right."

Kennecott Minerals Co. has proposed building an underground mine in northern Marquette County. The company's design calls for a diagonal underground shaft about 1,000 feet below the surface to reach an ore body of nickel and copper sulfides.Acid mine drainage occurs when sulfur combines with water and air, forming sulfuric acid, which can drain from the mine into bodies of water. Kennecott officials say they would operate the mine without acid leaks.Stupak said his bill wasn't specifically aimed at the Kennecott project, noting that another sulfide mine is being considered in Menominee County.

The Michigan Legislature enacted a law in 2004 to oversee metallic mining, and the Department of Environmental Quality recently wrote regulations to implement it.

Proposed Bill would make English Michigan’s “Official Language”

February 7, 2006
A bill proposed last week in the Michigan House of Representatives would make the English language the state’s official language. The bill (number 5633 of 2006), introduced by Representative Jacob Hoogendyk, a Republican from Portage, is in its early stages and has been referred to the House Committee on Government Operations after being read for the first time on the House floor. Hoogendyk has been quoted in the media saying that his proposal should be seen as a “unifying factor” and that he supports “diversity” while in the same reports he acknowledges that the bill would be a step towards stopping the printing of state documents in languages other than English. In the same AP article, unnamed “advocates” of the bill are also cited who argue that the measure might inspire more people to become fluent in English which would then help them in the job market and school. Twenty-seven states across the country have English as official language legislation. Similar legislation and campaigns for it have been used to target bilingual education programs and immigrant communities, while ignoring the realities of immigration and contributing to and reinforcing xenophobic and racist views of immigration and immigrants. The “English-only” bill comes during a year in which voters in Michigan will vote on a measure to eliminate affirmative action, another initiative designed to further marginalize people of color and when federal legislation is being proposed to criminalize immigration.
Representative Hoogendyk, who introduced the bill, has a history of supporting far-right conservative causes and has supported efforts to ban gay marriage in Michigan, ban the import of stem cells for medical research, permit the display of the ten commandments on state property, require those seeking abortions to view ultrasounds before the abortion, and has supported numerous tax breaks for corporations. Hoogendyk has received an extensive number of contributions from political action committees (PACs) and corporations, including top Michigan special interests such as DTE Energy and the Michigan Auto Dealers PAC and corporations including the Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris). Contributions to Hoogendyk have also come from various groups and PACs based in Grand Rapids including the Great Lakes Education Project a PAC working to expand charter schools and “protect taxpayers” from “skyrocketing” property taxes levied to pay for public education, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, the Kooiman Leadership Fund, the 23 is Enough PAC to stop native peoples from using their sovereignty to build casinos, and the Meijer PAC.

http://www.mediamouse.org/briefs/020706propo.php

Column

Call it 'Dumb and Dumberer'
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
AUSTIN - President Bush has once more undertaken to explain to us "Why We Fight," which is also the title of an excellent new documentary on Iraq. According to the president, "Our goal in Iraq is victory." I personally did not find that a helpful clarification.
According to the president, we are doomed to stay in Iraq until we "leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself." That's not exactly getting closer every day. But, the prez sez, "A free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the American people more secure for generations to come."
So far, no good. After three years, tens of thousands of lives and $200 billion, we have achieved chaos. As U.S. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania put it, "The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and al Qaeda." Since the revisionist myth that we went to war to promote democracy keeps seeping into rational discussion, it is worth reminding ourselves that there never were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
We are inarguably facing more terrorists now than there were when we started, so the Pentagon has decided to fight what it is now calling "the long war." Has anyone asked you about this? Me, neither. Nor has anyone asked Congress. The administration -- mostly Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- just decided we would have a long war and declared it, and is now committing us to fight against a fuzzy ideology no one seems to be able to define.
Our problem now is that we're not fighting the people who attacked us -- they're still running around on the Afghan-Pakistan border while we battle Iraqis who don't like us occupying their country.
As of Sept. 11, 2001, there were a few hundred people identified with al Qaeda's ideology. Even then, it was unclear that the U.S. military was the right tool for the job. Now, Rumsfeld is apparently prepared to put the full might of our forces into this fight indefinitely, backed by the full panoply of ever-more expensive weapons and the whole hoorah. I don't think the people who got us into Iraq should be allowed to do this because, based on the evidence of Iraq, I don't think they have the sense God gave a duck.
On top of everything else, Rumsfeld is now circulating a grand strategy for the long war written by Newt Gingrich. Am I the only person covering politics who ever noticed that Gingrich is actually a nincompoop? When Newt bestrode the political world like a colossus (Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1995), many people took him seriously -- but he was a fool then, too. The Republicans were so thrilled to have someone on their side who had ideas, they never seemed to notice Newt's were drivel.
From orphanages to space colonies, it was all shallow but endearingly enthusiastic futurism. Gingrich was the kind of person who read a book or two on something and would then be quite afire as to how this was going to fit into some shining future. Republicans are so amnesiac, they didn't even snicker when Newt turned up recently posing as a respected party elder to give them advice on ethics. Ethics. Next, family values.
I have no idea whom this administration plans to talk into its long war, but I'm sure it won't roll out the new campaign in August. In order to sell this, our "leaders" will have to scare us, assuming some obliging terrorists don't do it for them.

I Hope This Works!!

The newspaper in my local area is yet another mouthpiece for the conservative right. The columnists included in the Editorials are Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak and Thomas Sowell; with hardly a voice from the left. My plan with this new blog is to provide alternative editorials and columnists, local news and politics, state news and politics, some national and world news along with some of my views on the issues. If you stumble across this blog on purpose or by mistake and feel you can contribute, add a comment or email me. I am sure I will need all the help I can get.