news
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
August 25-31, 2010
Page A-3
Second Front March for jobs, justice, peace in Detroit On Aug. 28 in Detroit, the Rainbow PUSH
Coalition led by its founder and president, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., and the UAW along with friends and allies, will march to mark the beginning of a new campaign that will call on our leaders to rebuild america by enacting policy that will unleash the skills and talent of the American workforce. The “Rebuild Ameri- ca March for Jobs, Justice & Peace” will take place on the anniversary of that day in 1963 when Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the SCLC, Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, and other civil rights leaders joined with hun d- reds of thousands of Americans for the March on Washington.
Organizers say it’s time to enact real change
for working families and all America. It’s time to reverse the policies that have resulted in jobs and investment flowing out of the coun- try, creating economic hardship for millions of Americans. It’s time to “Rebuild America with Jobs, Justice and Peace,” focusing on the fol- lowing.
Jobs — Economic reconstruction driven
by targeted stimulus, reindustrialization and trade policy that will create jobs, support man- ufacturing in America and put workers first.
JESSE JACKSON will lead the Aug. 28 March in Detroit this weekend to highlight the crisis facing urban America. —Eric Hobson photos
Justice — Enforcement of the law regard-
ing workers rights, civil rights, industrial reg- ulation creation of strong urban policy, and fair and just education, economic and health policy.
Peace — Ending the ongoing wars in Af-
ghanistan and Iraq, saving lives and redirecting the war budget to rebuilding America.
Organizers invite all who share this commit-
Is Bernero running against his mouth?
By Tim Skubick Check out these observations: His
“anger appeals to people who feel left out of the system; he did best among Black voters in Detroit; he’s “running against his own mouth.”
You’re thinking, those are references to
the Democratic nominee for governor Virg Bernero. If that is your guess, it’s a darn good one and it’s also dead wrong.
The comments refer to a former Demo-
cratic candidate for governor going back to 1998. What was his name?
Oh yeah. Geoffrey Fieger. Unless things turn around quickly for
the “Virg,” somebody will draw the “loser” comparison between the former candidate and the current one.
They both were and are angry. Yep. They both did well with Detroit voters.
No question ‘bout that. And the mouth thing? Two peas in a
pod when it comes to hot and over the top rhetoric.
Bernero starts 19 points down in the
polls against Rick Snyder, the GOP nomi- nee. Fierger started behind, never got within striking distance of Gov. John Engler and ended up losing by 24 points.
But there is a major difference now. Back then nobody expected Fierger to
beat Engler. At least no one has reached that conclusion yet about the Lansing mayor. He is the underdog but all of his supporters say in unison, “Don’t underesti- mate Bernero.”
They did underestimate him during the
primary earlier this month as lots of folks felt he could not beat House Speaker Andy Dillon.
Benrero ran away in a gallop. But Snyder is no Dillon. The Ann Arbor
business guy actually has a well-oiled cam- paign machine and it’s unclear if Bernero can find enough monkey wrenches to gum up the works, but he will try and has a better shot at that than Fieger did with Engler.
Having said that, there will be some
signs along the way to suggest that Bernero is headed to Fiegerland. One indicator will be the rest of the Democratic ticket.
The day after the election Dillon insiders
were peddling the story that house Demo- crats, who are running for reelection, were not comfortable with Bernero at the top of the ticket. The unspoken fear is: Bernero could drag us all down, if he makes a poor showing against Snyder.
If the next two or three polls suggest that
Bernero is not making any gains on the front runner, you can expect to see a repeat of 1998.
Upper Peninsula and Democratic Con-
gressman Bart Stupak told the media that he would “probably not” endorse Fieger. Fellow Democrat Jim Barcia also took um- brage to the Fieger rhetoric.
Jennifer Granholm, who was on the ticket
as the attorney general, treated her fellow barrister as if he had the plague. Wherever you saw Fieger, you never saw Granholm.
Put another way, if the captain of the ship
is going down, he will likely be the only one on board when he sinks because all the the other politicians will have abandoned the ship long before that.
But before the Snyder team declares vic-
tory and heads for the beach, keep in mind Bernero has not begun to fight. And he has
Tim Skubick
one major coalition that Fieger never had, namely most of organized labor.
The UAW and friends let Fierger swing in
the breeze because he beat their candidate Larry Owen in the primary.
Bernero won with the strong backing of
the UAW’s Bob King who pulled out all the stops to defeat Dillon.
So look for an onslaught of anti-Snyder
ads as Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer has spent hours pawing over the internal documents of the Gateway computer com- pany that Snyder once ran. The “findings” will suggest that the one time CEO is no friend of the little guy and lined his own wallet at the expense of those little guys.
Snyder dismisses all this as untrue, but
when did that ever stop Brewer from pitch- ing it just the same?
But Bernero also walks a fine line. He
can beat up Snyder, but savvy independent voters want to hear more than just that. They want a reason to vote for Bernero, not necessarily against Snyder. In fact, if it’s anti-Snyder all the time out of Bernero’s mouth, he can pretty much kiss this thing adios.
Which is why the debates will be so criti-
cal. Fieger had none with Engler. Bernero hopes to have three. He knows that his op- ponent is no dummy and the Snyder brain trust will pump the GOP contender’s head full of information to avoid the deer in the headlights glaze.
Former GOP candidate and business
tycoon Dick DeVos was that deer during his first confrontation with Gov. Jennifer Gran- holm and never recovered.
Bernero has something Snyder can’t
learn overnight. He has lived inside the state capitol culture as a state lawmaker with hands-on experience. Snyder can only read about that and if the debate questions get too tricky, folks at home might figure out that Snyder is too wet behind the ears to be governor.
In fact, Mike Bouchard, who ran against
Snyder, made the same point during the campaign.
So Bernero begins his uphill climb with
the pundits poised to write him off as Geoffrey Fierger-lite without the personal wealth.
But Mr. B. has no intentions of joining Mr. F. in the loss column.
Michelle Obama
But Obama has also had her tough mo- ments in the media. She was criticized during the 2008 campaign for saying that for the first time in her adult life she was proud of her country. More re- cently, she was taken to task over her vacation in Spain during a time when many Americans struggle for financial balance.
Along the way she has also garnered
widespread applause for efforts such as those to curb childhood obesity. Overall, Democrats believe her high popularity could bring them much-needed favor.
But Maryland-based political analyst
Ron Walters said that much of the First Lady’s success on the campaign trail will depend on how she’s prepared.
“If they send her into districts where
the President is unpopular, she’s not going to be able to turn things around,” Walters said. “But if they send her to some districts where she’s popular and she’s got a lot of women and families she can talk to, she can make a differ- ence.”
During a recent CNN interview, White
House senior advisor David Axelrod was asked how valuable the First Lady would be for Democrats between now and Election Day.
“I think she feels strongly about the affirmative things that this administra-
From Michigan History Magazine: In the
spring of 1963, Detroiters looked for a way to commemorate the anniversary of racial violence that tore through their city 20 years earlier that left 34 people dead and hundreds injured. The Detroit Council for Human Rights called for a “Walk to Freedom,” because many of “the same basic, underlying causes” of the 1943 distur- bance were “still present.”
On June 23, 1963, an estimated 125,000
JESSE JACKSON, with Rev David Bullock, head of the Detroit chapter of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
ment to march in Detroit on Aug. 28. They be- lieve nothing is more important than strength- ening our coalition of conscience and restoring the promise of democracy and economic jus- tice for working families.
The Aug. 28 march will also commemo-
rate Detroit’s 1963 Walk to Freedom led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time before sharing it with the world later that summer at the March on Washington.
people marched down Woodward Avenue carry- ing placards and singing “We Shall Overcome.” National and state leaders who marched along with Rev. King included United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther, former Michigan governor John B. Swainson, and Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh.
The march ended at Cobo Hall where the
Rev. King was cheered by thousands of march- ers when he emphasized that segregation had to end and spoke of having “a dream” where Whites and Blacks were “walking together, hand in hand” in harmony and equality.
Later that year, King was named the Time
Magazine Man of the Year. The following year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
First Lady to campaign for Democrats
By Dorothy Rowley WASHINGTON (NNPA) — Democrats are deploy-
ing First Lady Michelle Obama to the campaign trail to help them retain control of Congress in the Nov. 2 mid-term elections and boost her husband in the 2012 presidential elec- tion.
The First Lady, who has appeared on
the cover of 12 magazines since ascend- ing to the White House nearly two years ago, currently has a 66 percent approval rating. A staunch advocate for military families, she is popular among women as well as among the legions of new young voters who helped put President Obama in office.
tion has done,” Axelrod said. “She’s been a leader on some of them (including the childhood obesity campaign and) Just last week, the United States Senate passed a bill on child nutrition.”
STATE OF MICHIGAN
BEFORE THE MICHIGAN PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
NOTICE OF HEARING
FOR THE CUSTOMERS OF MICHIGAN CONSOLIDATED GAS COMPANY CASE NO. U-16407
DATE/TIME:
BEFORE: LOCATION:
PARTICIPATION:
michigan.gov/mpscedockets;
mpscedockets@michigan.gov
mpscedockets@michigan.gov
michigan.gov/mpscedockets;
Elected officials and political candidates can send information regarding issues to
bthompson@michronicle.com
****
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32