Obama to gays: Don't ask me
Gays always seem to get thrown under the bus by the politicians who are supposed to love them.
President Bill Clinton disappointed his gay supporters with "Don't ask, don't tell," a policy that opened the door to the military for gays, but only if they stayed in the closet.
Now, President Barack Obama is reneging on campaign promises to make things right. He is leaving "Don't ask, don't tell" just as it is.
Letting them serve their country shouldn't be so much for gays to ask of presidents who received such overwhelming support from them.
Now that the military is fully integrated by gender, there doesn't seem to be much of an argument for keeping gays out. Sexual relations between male and female soldiers run the full spectrum, including marriages, pregnancies and, unfortunately, assaults. And the armed forces are handling it.
Obama should keep his promise. This is an outdated and discriminatory policy that deprives the military of good soldiers. If gays want to fight and die for their country, they shouldn't have to beg.
Particularly not of a president who vowed to embrace them.
Don't let Iran become next Tiananmen
President Barack Obama is taking a cautious stance with the mass protests of Iran's stolen election, although he raised his condemnation level Wednesday of the government's crackdown and killing of protestors.
The president says he wants justice for Iranian voters, but in prior statements had stopped well short of any overt criticism of Iran's corrupt leaders.
Obama did not want to provoke, and on one level that's understandable. But the protests in Iran are at a critical point. If their mass and momentum builds, it could lead to true revolution.
If the protesters are crushed, it will likely be a long time before the people gather the courage to again challenge the despots.
After the Chinese swept clean Tiananmen Square, then-President George H.W. Bush, who couldn't find his voice during the uprising, opined that once out of the bottle, the genie of freedom couldn't be contained. We've seen how that's worked out.
Obama shouldn't repeat the mistake. He should continue to speak more forcibly in support of the protesters and encourage other world leaders to do the same.
UAW seeks another bailout
The auto executives have had to give up most of their perks in exchange for the federal bailout money. No private jets. No lavish sales outings.
But the United Auto Workers seems to have slipped under the radar.
The UAW still owns and operates a $33 million posh golf resort on Black Lake near Cheboygan that ostensibly serves as an education center but provides an elegant getaway for union leadership.
And now the union is appealing to the state Tax Tribunal for $3 million in property tax relief from Waverly Township, disputing the assessment of the property. If the UAW wins, schools will be hurt."Once again, the next generation is getting cheated out of a quality education -- a chance at a brighter future -- because the UAW doesn't want to pay its fair share of taxes," Drain Commissioner Dennis Lennox said.
The waste watchdogs at the White House's auto task force should note that the resort has lost $23 million over the past five years and has been kept alive by loans from the union's strike fund.
Gov. Granholm is known for a great show
Gov. Jennifer Granholm gave what has become her stump speech at the National Summit, looking deep into the future at a Michigan humming with windmills and green-tech jobs.
Her pacing was perfect as she strode the stage in her meticulously choreographed performance.
She thoroughly charmed the audience. But for some, it was a painful reminder that Granholm is all tops, no taters.
With no shame, she restated her goal of doubling the number of college graduates in Michigan within a decade.
Five years have passed since she first set that mark, and the needle has barely moved.
Meanwhile, 75 miles away in Lansing, the state Senate was moving to eliminate most financial aid for college students.
Competitiveness critique should hit home
American Axle Chief Executive Dick Dauch took his crusade against Detroit's entitlement culture to the National Summit on Tuesday.
"Detroit is not competitive," he said in a brutally frank speech.
Dauch, under fire from the United Auto Workers for laying off workers at his Hamtramck plant, cited high labor costs, low productivity and tax and regulatory policies that work against competitiveness. He's right on all counts.
Dauch said the same things four years ago at the Detroit Economic Club. Few listened then.
Now that he has proven to be a prophet, will more listen?
Stabenow gets educated on free markets
In the most polite way possible, Thomas d'Aquino, the chief executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, schooled U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan on how free markets work.
In their panel at the National Summit on economics in Detroit, d'Aquino warned against allowing "Buy American" sentiments to morph into protectionist policies.
Stabenow followed by saying she supports free trade as long as the playing field is level -- the anti-traders' favorite defense. Then she ticked off the list of protectionist ideas she advocates, along with a call for massive government spending on research and development.
D'Aquino offered another caution, noting that in nations where governments have dominated research spending, investments by the private sector have declined markedly.
"We are entering an environment where there is a perception in the world that the United States has been weakened by the financial calamity ... and is in the position of being defensive," d'Aquino said.
Does Mich. have the clout to win plant?
Who does Fritz Henderson think he's kidding? The General Motors president and CEO says the decision on where to locate the new small car plant the United Auto Workers and the White House is forcing GM to operate in the United States will be based solely on business principles.
But nothing at the automaker is solely about business, not since the Obama administration took over its management.
Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin are competing for the plant. Michigan would seem the logical choice, since it suffered the most from the latest round of GM plant closings and layoffs. But it doesn't have much political clout these days, and politics will ultimately be the deciding factor.
Don't be surprised if the plant ends up in Tennessee, where Republican Sen. Bob Corker has been the most vocal critic of the administration's automotive strategy. Shutting up Corker with a bunch of new auto jobs might be more important to the White House than easing Michigan’s pain.
Obama should mind his own store
President Barack Obama fancies himself the savior of American industry. He's devoting a good deal of his administration’s energy to righting the things he sees wrong with business, pushing measures to make the private sector more accountable, efficient and responsive to customers.
But for the institution he is actually constitutionally responsible for -- the federal government -- he lacks the same zeal.
Remember Obama's promise to fund his expansive government dreams with money saved by cutting waste out of the federal budget?
So far, that effort has netted $17 billion, or less than 0.5 percent of total federal spending. And he’s already spent that money, so it isn't available to pay for his massive proposed health care entitlement.
It seems odd that a guy who can identify everything General Motors is doing wrong, from its distribution network to its product line-up, and in six months force a radical downsizing of the automaker, can’t seem to find the gargantuan waste in his own operation.
Watch out for a state tax hike campaign
Here's something to keep your eye on: As Gov. Jennifer Granholm makes the cuts necessary to balance the budget, is she choosing services likely to draw the most public backlash in hopes of building support for a tax hike?
The first round of cuts included 100 State Police troopers, raising concerns about the safety of state highways. The governor is also shutting down Secretary of State offices for furlough days, even though they are revenue generators, and slashing funding to keep open horse racing tracks that create tax revenue and jobs.
There's no doubt that cutting more than $1 billion from the state budget is going to be painful and touch every aspect of government.
But it's an old school board trick to cut the things voters value the most â€" sports, buses, music â€" and then hit them with a tax hike proposal that would restore those services.
The wholesale slashing of services is no substitute for the strategic restructuring of government Lansing continues to resist.
Pension fund shows what investors look like
When the Obama administration was bullying the secured creditors of Chrysler and General Motors to forfeit the bulk of their investment, it portrayed the bondholders as greedy Wall Streeters exploiting the automakers' misery.
The media bought the depiction and painted the investors as speculative hedge funds and big-time market players. Guys like auto czar Steven Rattner, who amassed a $188 million fortune on Wall Street before taking over the American automobile industry.
But the unsuccessful challenge to the Chrysler bankruptcy resolution didn't come from a Gordon Gekko type. It came from the Indiana state pension fund, which holds the retirement savings of thousands of Indiana public workers -- folks of moderate means who count on the pension fund to secure their future. Lots of similar funds, including bond mutual funds in the 401(k) accounts of millions of workers, saw their investments wiped out as well.
The word "investor" applies to a wide range of people, most of whom don’t look like Rattner.
