I can see it now: Edward Snowden foe Mike Rogers will be the Republican candidate for US Senate from Michigan and Justin Amash will run as the Libertarian Party spoiler to help Democrat Elissa Slotkin win

 Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan native and former FBI agent who rose to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee before leaving Congress more than eight years ago, announced Wednesday he is running for the Republican nomination for the state's open U.S. Senate seat next year.

The story, here, never mentions Rogers' strong opposition to what Edward Snowden did to reveal illegal US government surveillance of US citizens.

Fourth Amendment libertarians are certain at least to take note.

Rogers is ex-FBI.

Detroit Free Press admits 13 gun reform bills offered by Michigan Democrats would not have stopped MSU killings, and that it doesn't matter

 It's pure emotional posturing which ignores the emotional posturing which caused the tragedy in the first place.

The progressive prosecutor could have charged the future killer with weapons violations which would have prevented him from legally buying the new weapons used in this crime.

Existing laws might indeed have prevented the crime, if only liberals had followed them. But misplaced feelings of white guilt overrode doing what the law demanded.

Republicans better man up because Democrats sure won't.

Here:

If these laws would not have stopped this shooting, well. They might stop the next one.

Great, State of Michigan flying the fag flag is the same as flying POW flags and university flags

State lawmaker: Michigan shouldn’t fly gay pride flags. Whitmer: Try me:

[Governor Whitmer] also announced the flag order on Twitter, accompanied by a video and photo of the flags. But that tweet prompted more than 100 responses from people angry with the move, with many saying that a small segment of the population shouldn't be singled out for such an honor.

That was the point [Lynn] Afendoulis tried to make with her bill, but the Twitter response was just as quick. By noon on Friday, more than 6,200 people liked Whitmer's veto threat and several hundred people noted that flags honoring such groups as POWs (prisoners of war) and universities often flew on state buildings and would be banned under Afendoulis' legislation.

Despicable libertarian judge Bernard Friedman appointed by Ronald Reagan dismisses cases against Muslim clit cutters in Detroit

This is the same libertarian, anti-conservative, judge who overturned Michigan's 2004 Marriage Act in 2014. He threw out the cases on the grounds the law passed under the Commerce Clause had nothing to do with commerce because Muslim clit cutting isn't a large market with a measurable impact on commerce. It will have when the country is full of Muslims. What a damn fool.

Why must we still live under the thumb of judges, let alone under those appointed in the 1980s?

 Judge dismisses female genital mutilation charges in historic case:

In a major blow to the federal government, a judge in Detroit has declared America's female genital mutilation law unconstitutional, thereby dismissing the key charges against two Michigan doctors and six others accused of subjecting at least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation's first FGM case.

The historic case involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records show.

The judge's ruling also dismissed charges against three mothers, including two Minnesota women whom prosecutors said tricked their 7 -year-old daughters into thinking they were coming to metro Detroit for a girls' weekend, but instead had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman concluded that "as despicable as this practice may be," Congress did not have the authority to pass the 22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and that FGM is for the states to regulate. FGM is banned worldwide and has been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had never been tested before this case. 

"As laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may be ... federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this statute," Friedman wrote in his 28-page opinion, noting: "Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM ... FGM is a 'local criminal activity' which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress." 

Currently, 27 states have laws that criminalize female genital mutilation, including Michigan, whose FGM law is stiffer than the federal statute, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, compared with five under federal law. Michigan's FGM law was passed last year in the wake of the historic case and applies to both doctors who conduct the procedure, and parents who transport a child to have it done. The defendants in this case can't be retroactively charged under the new law. ...

"There is nothing commercial or economic about FGM," Friedman writes. "As despicable as this practice may be, it is essentially a criminal assault. ... FGM is not part of a larger market and it has no demonstrated effect on interstate commerce. The commerce clause does not permit Congress to regulate a crime of this nature."

Update to Cantrell Funeral Home scandal in Detroit: More than 370 bodies found dating back to 1996

Hoo wee, this story stinks.

What happens to nearly 400 human remains at Cantrell?:

[A]shes of more than 370 bodies, nearly two dozen of which appear to be military veterans, ... were abandoned at Cantrell in the spring. ...

A new owner, who purchased the building about a month ago, said the interior smelled horrible. The owner had removed four dumpsters of garbage as he started renovating the space to turn it into a community center. ...

[Brian] Joseph [the owner of Verheyden Funeral Homes in Grosse Pointe Park], who arrived at Cantrell even before the state investigators, was let in by the owner.

The state contacted Joseph, [Joseph] said, because in the spring, as Cantrell's financial and regulatory problems became evident, he had offered to help the operator, Raymond Cantrell II, who had inherited the business after his father died in 2016.

Cantrell then asked Joseph to honor more than 500 of his pre-arranged funeral contracts.

The money paid on the contracts is held by a third party and Joseph said he does not profit from them. He agreed, he said, because Cantrell's father had been a contemporary of the former owner of his funeral home, and he believes that he has a duty to help others in need.

In April, the state suspended Cantrell's license, citing "deplorable, unsanitary conditions." Among the problems authorities found were six decomposing bodies — three men, two women and a male fetus — in the funeral home. 

Again, to help, Joseph quietly arranged for the bodies to be buried during the summer at Mount Olivet, which donated space and services. Santieu Vaults in Livonia donated the burial vaults which protect bodies while in the ground.

Joseph is now trying to help identify the hundreds of containers holding cremated remains, some of which appear to go back to 1996. Many of the remains have names with the date the person died, Joseph said, but finding relatives and loved ones is a challenge. ...

"It's a horrible situation," said John Desmond of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors, summing up the problems with remains that were hidden and left behind. "This is the most egregious behavior that I have ever heard of in my 50 years of being licensed in the state of Michigan."

Police find many more infant bodies in another Detroit funeral home as scandal expands

This story is the macabre bookend to the grisly Kermit Gosnell infanticide case in Philly.

63 remains of fetuses removed from Perry Funeral Home in Detroit:

[T]wo attorneys said they believe many more infants’ remains may be found in the improper possession of the Perry Funeral Home, perhaps as many as 200, based on their research of log books kept by the Wayne State University School of Mortuary Science. The funeral home routinely deposited infant remains at the WSU school’s morgue, then failed to follow up with parents’ wishes for the remains to be used in research by the WSU School of Medicine, they said.

“I’m really wondering where all the rest of them are,” Cieslak said late Friday. The lawsuit filed by the two charges that Perry may have fraudulently billed Medicaid, as well as the Detroit Medical Center, for burials it never performed. The lawyers said they can’t estimate how much money might be involved, “but it must be significant,” Parks said.

"We already have people calling us, after seeing the news, saying 'this happened to me,'" he said.

Police find infant bodies hidden in Detroit black-owned funeral home, closed in April 2018 after death of founder in 2016

Police: 11 infant bodies found in ceiling of former funeral home

The badly decomposed bodies of 11 infants were found in the ceiling of a former funeral home on Detroit's east side, Detroit police said. The remains were found  late Friday afternoon by state investigators just hours after they received an anonymous letter explaining how to find the bodies carefully hidden inside the false ceiling, Detroit police said. The bodies had been hidden inside the former Cantrell Funeral Home at 10400 Mack Avenue at Garland, about 10 blocks east of the Indian Village neighborhood. The funeral home was closed by state authorities in April after they found numerous violations of state law. ... Overall, state officials had charged the operators of Cantrell Funeral Home with "fraud, deceit, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross negligence in the practice of mortuary science," according to a report issued in April about the decision to close the business.

From the 2016 death notice of Raymond Cantrell, here:

Raymond Cantrell Sr., Founder of Cantrell Funeral Home, one of the largest Black-owned Funeral Homes in Detroit, Michigan.  Born July 19, 1920, Raymond is a native of Georgia (Douglas County) born into a family with 5 other siblings. Raymond attended and graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta GA.  He received a scholarship to Morehouse College (Atlanta) to study medicine and remained there for two years. ...

During the early 1950s Raymond had seen a need for additional choices in funeral homes in the Detroit eastside community. On completion of his Mortuary Science Degree (Department of Mortuary Science Wayne State University - Class of 1952) he soon established himself as a provider of compassionate yet personal funeral services. Armed with a morticians license Raymond freelanced intermittently working for the Diggs and Anderson Funeral Homes while concurrently maintaining his relief-man position at Ford Motor Company (5 days a week) and operating Ray’s Barber shop (6 days a week).

With some capital to his name in the early 50s, Raymond purchased property on Detroit’s Eastside (Montclair and Kercheval).  

Raymond’s unique approach to funeral service provision and caring attention in meeting each grieving family’s unique needs stimulated and increased demand for his services. After a few years together with an enviable professional reputation, demand for ‘Cantrell’s’ funeral service provision was at a growing and sustainable level and Raymond resigned from his position at the Ford Motor Company and closed his barbershop business to focus on his funeral home.

Cantrell Funeral Home relocated to substantially larger premises at 10400 Mack Avenue (its current location) on January 1st, 1964. The move to larger premises enhanced Raymond’s position as a provider of compassionate and dignified funeral services and strengthened his goal to provide families ‘a personalized funeral service while meeting their unique financial needs. ...

Visitation: Saturday, November 5, 2016 From 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm & Sunday, November 6, 2016  From 10:00 am - 3:00 pm; Cantrell Funeral Home, Inc., 10400 Mack Ave., Detroit, MI 48214

Rick Santorum is suddenly doing robocalls for Sandy Pensler for US Senate here in Michigan, which sounds like desperation

Just got the call a few minutes ago.

Turns out the race is now deadlocked after some time with Pensler in the lead.

Pensler has been advertising vigorously in Rush Limbaugh's timeslot on the radio as well.

His opponent John James has been relying on direct mail to reach his voters.

Pensler is spending an awful lot of money to win when he went out of his way in January to alienate voters by stating for the record that the Polish people were complicit in the Holocaust in World War II.

That's hardly how to win friends and influence people in Macomb and Wayne counties if you really want to be elected to the US Senate in 2018! 

'The Polish legislature yesterday, with particularly insensitive timing, hammered home humanities [sic] dangerous proclivity to insulate ourselves against others. It passed legislation outlawing calling Polish based concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzic and others as “Polish concentration camps” rather they must now be called . [sic] “Nazi concentration camps in occupied Poland”. This attempt to whitewash and deny complicity in the horrors of the Holocaust is dangerous.'

Detroit Free Press says Michigan is ground zero for the Muslim clit cutters, girls from MN brought in for secret "operation"

Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan's crazy libertarian Judge Bernard Friedman is presiding over the case. You remember Friedman. He was the judge who overturned Michigan's 2004 Marriage Act in 2014.

From the story here:

[T[he [federal] government estimates that as many as 100 girls may have had their genitals cut at the hands of a local doctor and her cohorts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward disclosed the information while trying to convince a judge to keep a doctor and his wife locked up in the historic case. It involves allegations that two Minnesota girls had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic in February as part of a religious rite of passage and were told to keep what happened a secret. ...

Against Woodward's wishes, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman granted bond to two other defendants in the case: Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, of Farmington Hills, who is accused of letting Nagarwala use his clinic to perform genital cutting procedures on minor girls; and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, who is accused of holding the girls' hands during the procedure to keep them from squirming and to calm them. ...

The government believes the three defendants, all members of a local Indian-Muslim sect, subjected numerous girls to genital cutting procedures over a 12-year period. ...  [Dr. Attar allegedly admitted] to authorities that he let Nagarwala use his clinic up to six times a year to treat children for genital rashes. ...

The defense has argued that the Attars did not engage in any criminal  act and that the procedure at issue is a protected religious rite-of-passage that involves no cutting, but rather a scraping of genital membrane.

Huma's brother's house in Dearborn, MI, raided, boxes carted away

Reported here:

On June 1, 2017 a raid took place on the 7200 Block of Jonathon Street in Dearborn, Michigan which is owned by a “shell company,” turns out it’s actually owned by Huma Abedin’s brother and sister. This shell company is the Journal of Muslim Affairs. ... Convoys of cars descended on the home located at 7246 Jonathon Street, assisted by other law enforcement officers from neighboring locals.

And here:

A neighbor who declined to give her name said she saw law enforcement officers Thursday evening surrounding the house and removing boxes. But she didn't see anyone taken into custody. 

Justin Amash represents DC's Club For Growth, not Michigan's Third District

Justin Amash must be worried about his reelection prospects.

Amash is blanketing Michigan's 3rd Congressional District with a barage of anti-Brian Ellis radio ads and mailings even though Amash claims an overwhelming lead against his humble opponent based on his own polling data. Why waste the money if he is so far ahead? Well, maybe it's not exactly his money.

What the voters probably don't realize is how much of Amash's anti-Ellis attack is financed by the Club For Growth, a libertarian organization founded by a former editor of The Wall Street Journal who is now employed by The Heritage Foundation, one Steve Moore (Heritage, it will be remembered, gave us ObamaCare long before Obama came along, as their answer to HillaryCare). Like Heritage, Club For Growth is based in Washington, DC, not in Michigan's Third. Amash gets the benefit of their negative attack ads while being able to claim he has nothing to do with them.

So far in the campaign, Club For Growth appears to be responsible for almost $400,000 of spending in attack ads against Brian Ellis, who by contrast is in large measure underwriting his own campaign with a remarkably similar amount of his own money. It is notable that Ellis is pledging to overturn ObamaCare, which in Michigan is causing health care workers to lose their jobs, while showcasing his endorsements by Michigan Right To Life, veterans groups and other conservatives upset with Amash's failure to walk the conservative talk.

Amash has an excuse on Facebook for every vote which he has failed to deliver on behalf of social and economic conservatives in his own district, just as Obama can always point to someone or something for why he never gets anything accomplished as president.

Republicans ought to consider the similarity and ask themselves if those two aren't really just cut from the same cloth.

h/t Detroit Free Press

Recent Obama appointee Judge Matthew Leitman saves John Conyers' incompetent rear end

The lead from the story in The Detroit Free Press here:

U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ on-again, off-again roller-coaster ride for the Aug. 5 ballot took a new twist Friday when U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman put the 85-year-old congressman back on the ballot.

Leitman’s decision, released late Friday, contradicts the Secretary of State’s review of Conyers’ petitions, which found earlier in the day that Conyers had less than half the required signatures of valid registered voters on the petitions he turned in to qualify for the Aug. 5 primary ballot.

But Leitman said the requirement that petition circulators be registered voters — the issue that got Conyers booted off the ballot in the first place — put serious limitations on the free speech rights of the circulators, the people who signed the petitions and Conyers.

“The public interest favors the enjoining of the likely unconstitutional Registration Statute,” for circulators, Leitman said.

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

Every matter great and small

passed by the States into law

lately suffers in the thrall

of Fed'ral power's giant maw.

What's the point of passing them

just to feed Leviathan?

-- Brutus

Criminal GM discovers it can kill 13 people and it only costs them $2.9 million a pop

We bailed out these creeps, why?

The guilty should be in jail and the company dissolved. It remains arrogant about the matter to this day.

Story here:

WASHINGTON — Three months after announcing the start of a safety recall that has swelled to include 2.6 million cars, General Motors has agreed to pay the federal government $35 million -- the maximum penalty -- for failing to report the potentially deadly defect earlier. ... GM has asked a bankruptcy court in New York to rule that it is protected from economic loss claims associated with the recalled vehicles. GM went through a government-backed bankrutpcy reorganization in 2009, which voided any liability claims tied to products made before July 2009.

Justin Amash's pal John Conyers finally reaches the level of his incompetence

The 85 year old congressman famous for not reading bills because they're too dang complicated, preferring lighter fare with pictures like Playboy Magazine on crowded flights, has failed to get enough signatures to appear on the ballot after serving in Congress since 1965.

The Detroit Free Press reports:

Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett ruled earlier this week that Conyers’ petitions were insufficient to qualify for the ballot because at least three people gathering signatures were not properly registered to vote, a requirement of state law. Congressional candidates are required to have at least 1,000 valid signatures. Conyers turned in 2,000 and more than 700 were disqualified for a variety of reasons. Another 644 were thrown out because the circulators weren’t registered voters, leaving Conyers with only 592 valid signatures.

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

It makes you wonder whether Conyers ever read the Amash-Conyers anti-NSA amendment in the first place, which was defeated 205-217, or whether Justin Amash's bi-partisan work with this patsy was nothing more than a cynical ploy.

Crony Socialism: Fed Profits On College Student Loans Rank Third Behind Exxon-Mobil And Apple!

Or is that socialist cronyism?

Anyway, those thirsty blood suckers in the federal government made $41.3 billion off the nation's college student loan program in fiscal 2013, according to the Detroit Free Press, here:

It’s a higher profit level than all but two companies in the world: Exxon Mobil cleared $44.9 billion in 2012, and Apple cleared $41.7 billion.

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

That's not quite right, however.

In 2012 the profits thrown off from massive numbers of government bonds and mortgage backed securities "purchased" by the Federal Reserve and returned to the Treasury by the Fed were more than double that, as reported here last January:

The Federal Reserve sent a record $88.9 billion in profits to the Treasury Department in 2012 as it reaped gains from the unconventional programs it launched to spur economic growth.

Last year's remittance to Treasury topped the previous record of $79.3 billion in 2010, Fed records show.

Michigan Gov. Snyder Is 83% Correct On Ballot Proposals

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is 83% correct on the 6 ballot proposals facing voters in Tuesday's elections. He's against all of them except Number 1, the emergency manager law, according to this story in the Detroit Free Press, here:

A gubernatorial bus tour hit Sterling Heights today to reinforce Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's message to vote yes on Proposal 1, no on the rest. ... Proposal 1 asks if the emergency manager law should stay in place. Proposal 2-6 are constitutional amendments that would protect collective bargaining, require utilities to use more renewable energy, put union rights in place for home health care workers, require a two-thirds vote in the legislature for any tax changes and require a vote of the people before an international bridge or tunnel could be built.

Amending the constitution is simply a way for legislators to avoid responsibility for taking a stand on these issues. And Michiganders seem hell bent on helping them do just that when they already have the option of punishing representatives at the polls for voting contrary to their wishes on the matters. They should exercise that option. If government isn't representing the people to their satisfaction, I suggest increasing representation, not sabotaging it by making such representation as we have even less representative by going over its head. Amending the constitution over and over again is nuclear warfare against our form of government.

The first proposal is really the same sort of thing, but if the voters really hate the emergency manager law then they should throw the bums out who passed it. Going over their heads to a ballot proposal really takes the heat off of them when it should really be on them all the more if it's such a bad law.

I happen to think it's a bad law, but I'd rather vote against my representatives who passed it.

Unfortunately, the horse is already out of the barn on this one.

Remaining Hutaree On Trial Cut Deal With Government Over Weapons Charges

The Detroit Free Press has the details here:

The Hutaree terror case officially ended today with the last two defendants cutting deals with the government, two days after their five codefendants were cleared of all charges by a federal judge. ... [T]hey pleaded guilty to possession of a machine gun that is punishable up to 10 years in prison. The judge agreed to release the two on bond. ... Under the terms of the plea agreements, Stone Sr. faces 33 to 48 months in prison. Joshua Stone faces 27-33 months. They will be sentenced in August. ... Both men have been jailed since their arrests in 2010.

My hunch is these two guys get credit for time served and a long parole.

And, of course, as convicted felons they will not be able to possess firearms ever again.

Much more at the link.

Hutaree Defense Maintains FBI Plant Incited Escalation to Bomb-Making

The Detroit Free Press reports here:

The defense argues it was the FBI agent who introduced "violent explosives" to the group in an effort to incite greater criminal activity.

"Your agent moved the ball down the field," [defense attorney] Swor said in court Thursday.

Prosecutorial Misconduct in Hutaree Case May Lead to Mistrial

Prosecutors withheld evidence about the key FBI operative's handling of an informant gone wild and now in the pokey in an unrelated case, as detailed here:

According to defense lawyers, the government’s star witness in the Hutaree case, FBI agent Stephen Haug — who spent months spying on the group while undercover — was the FBI handler for the New Jersey informant. The informant, Hal Turner, was a right-wing radio host and blogger who made threats against critics and public officials while on the FBI payroll. 

Feds Try To Establish Link Between Opposition To ObamaCare And Hutaree Conspiracy

The Hutaree were arrested within days of the passing of ObamaCare and in the wake of protests over it around the country, alleged threats of violence and even isolated acts of vandalism.

To some, such as Monica Crowley and to us, it seemed the arrests were conveniently timed to quell the anger, a shot across the bow of the people that they should expect to be met by federal force if necessary.

And what is ObamaCare if not federal force? You will either buy health insurance, or pay a fine.

The Detroit Free Press has the full story here, with this interesting detail:

According to trial testimony, health care is one of the issues that fired up the Hutaree.

As defendant Joshua Stone said in one recording played in court Monday: "I look forward to us shootin' this fall ... cause if they push that health care, we're goin' in."