Posse Incitatus

The ruin of Michigan

Last week I found myself in the City of Flint. For those not from Michigan, Flint is like Detroit without the charm. Flint was basically a factory town from its beginning – it lacks the fine old Victorian architecture that redeems many of the other crumbling rust belt towns. Flint is essentially a vast expanse of weedy tract housing and decaying factories.

To be sure, there are nice neighborhoods on the outskirts, but as one nears the urban core, there is a steady progression of insecurity. The houses tell the tale.

First they start boasting chain link fences and “Beware of Dog” signs. The storm doors on the front of the house are reinforced with a heavy lock.

Then bars start appearing on the windows. Finally, there are no windows – the houses are derelict.

You know you are in a tough neighborhood when the churches have bars on the windows and their parking lots are surrounded with razor-wire fences. That’s Flint.

I was reminded of that when I saw this article in the Detroit Free Press. The old Packard plant, abandoned for decades, periodically gets set on fire. It is now so  structurally unsound that firefighters can only venture inside during daylight hours.

It says something about the priorities of government when they allow ruins like this to decay for decades and do nothing about them. This goes beyond “broken windows” policing - it’s ‘broken cities’ territory.

And it is why we have languished.

We in the Great Lakes State got fat, fat off of decades of affluence. We seriously believed that we could give our children high-school educations and then send them to the factory, where they would make $50,000 a year plus overtime for 30 years, after which they’d get lifetime health benefits.

It really was a paradise, and even those who didn’t work directly for the industry benefitted. The state’s coffers were flush with business taxes. We thought of ingenious ways to tax the heavy industries here: we taxed their payrolls, the health benefits they paid out, the property they owned, the machinery they operated and (of course) the products that they sold.

From this largesse we built a mighty edifice of government: village, township, city and county – they all grew plump on our prosperity. Some of our cities even created their own income taxes – so they could afford fleets of cars, cushy benefits, comfy retirements.

In the end, it was all a dream. As the academics like to say: trends that can’t be sustained won’t.

We let our ruins pile up for years and ignored them. During the 1990s boom, the decay in the urban core deepened, but everyone moved to the ‘burbs and ignored it. Now it’s spreading and we don’t have the money to deal with it.

Something’s got to give – we cannot go on as we have. I expect nothing from Governor Granholm. She’s had six years to do something and all she has accomplished is sound bites and tax hikes. She got elected expecting to do what she did as the Attorney General: hold news conferences and announce sweeping projects that everyone felt good about but never followed up on.

No, it will be up to the next governor to pick through the wreckage and find a new direction. There is a lot of ruin in a state, and Michigan has more than most.

Just drive to Detroit and see.

So much for GM

Count me among the masses that have zero confidence in Government Motors.  I actually come from a GM family - three generations worth.

Not any more.  I don't know if my cousin's husband was one of the lucky ones to be "restructured" out of a job, but the company is dead to me.  Soon it will be dead, period, though not before it sucks down a huge amount of taxpayer money.

Needless to say, it didn't need to be this way.  If GM had gone the conventional route, it would have kept its board, its leadership and its bondholders would have gotten a lot more money.  Moreover, it would have been independent.  Now it is a government patronage gig, divorced from the market or conventional accountability.  Who elects the management?  Does the CEO have to be confirmed by the Senate?  Nope, it's just like the old Imperial Provinces - subject to Caesar and Caesar alone.

Just when Michigan thought it might finally come out of the crapper, we got flushed down again.

A gun control learning curve?

We've been somewhat pessimistic about whether the Obama administration is foolish enough to push gun control, but this column by the Wall Street Journal gives us renewed hope:

No fewer than 27 Democrats voted for Mr. Coburn's amendment [to allow loaded firearms in federal parks], and the ayes included Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is up for re-election in Nevada next year.

It's not much, but we'll take it.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Michigan's gun laws got a little more sensible.  Public Acts 194, 195, and 196 of 2007 remove the requirement that pistols purchased in Michigan be physically inspected by local law enforcement.  It is now sufficient to mail the forms in.  This is an improvement, though given our current budget crisis, it seems a good time to simply eliminate the worthless pistol registry outright.

Still, if a heavily Democrat House and Democrat Governor (who, lest anyone forget, originally vowed to overturn Michigan's shall-issue concealed carry law by ballot initiative) will sign on to this, it is indicative that gun control isn't viewed as a winning issue even in a rapidly bluing state like Michigan.

This is not to suggest that we should become complacent.  As the WSJ article indicate, gun control is still a deeply held value for the liberal Democrat leadership in Washington.  No, our goal should ultimately be to achieve such a consensus in favor of gun rights that the issue disappears altogether -after the gun control laws have been repealed, of course.

Wherein the Posse eats a steaming plate of crow

I have a heaping plate of crow before me. I shall do the honorable thing, and dig in.

The speed with which this administration has struggled to repeat every Democrat mistake has caught me completely by surprise.

Here we are in April and we’ve already combined the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter, the spending of LBJ and now the paranoia of Bill Clinton.

One of the curious inconsistencies of liberalism is the way it treats hostile regimes with such patience and deference whilst giving loyal Americans nothing but contempt.

It is quite simply impossible to imagine such a strongly-worded report being issued against the actual enemies of the United States – Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Al Qaeda and militant Islam.

I cannot even conceive of an Obama administration document calling on increased scrutiny towards Saudi-funded mosques or illegal border crossings from Mexico.

Yet courageous combat veterans? Why they are nut jobs just waiting to explode. Gotta watch ‘em carefully.

I wonder if the liberals who now run Homeland Security are aware that this kind of nonsense creates a self-fulfilling prophesy: By treating innocent citizens as terrorists, you encourage them to become criminals.

For the past seven years I’ve heard nothing but hysteria about how BusHitlerEnronCorp was creating a national security dictatorship. I guess blithering idiots like Andrew Sullivan are now doing a big “I told you so,” about this DHS memo, which is not only untrue, but utterly ludicrous.

After all, Wasn’t Barack Obama – the Law Professor, the Civil Libertarian, the Good Democrat – wasn’t he the one who was going to dismantle this police state? Sorry, you don’t get to the Nelson ‘ha-ha’ simply because your guy turns into a hypocrite.

All of this brings me to the inevitable feast of crow. I was wrong.

I honestly thought that a consensus of common sense had emerged about gun control even amongst the Democrats. I thought “Hey, if true liberals like Gov. Jennifer Granholm aren’t pushing this, it’s got to be a dead issue.”

Granholm, you will recall, was the state attorney general (and obvious governor-in-waiting) when Michigan passed its shall-issue law. She organized the opposition and even pledged to mount a ballot initiative to overturn it, but wavered in the face of public support.

When July 1, 2002 rolled around and gun violence actually dropped, the public literally reversed itself on the issue. That is, support for shall-issue went from 35 percent in favor and 55 percent opposed to 55 percent in favor and 35 percent opposed.

As governor, she signed a mourning dove hunting bill and then strengthened the Castle Doctrine. Again, if she thought there was anything to be gained from gun control, she would have pushed it here. She didn’t – and she’s not exactly a political genius.

But Obama seems to have completely missed the bright flashing billboard erected by Bill Clinton and Al Gore which reads “PUSH GUN CONTROL AND YOU WILL LOSE CONGRESS.”

I was complacent. I admit it. I had things to do, kids to spend time with, a wife I adore and basically Better Things To Do. With the kids being so small, getting time to go to the range was difficult. Firearms purchases fell below things like getting the plumbing fixed or buying a bike for the Junior Posse Members.

Now I see my folly. Friday, I went to the Novi Gun show and was amazed.

Prices are high. Michigan is in a deep trough, the worse economic funk since I was a wee lad and we don’t have Reagan to help pull us out of it. Yet gun prices are high, really high. There were a ton of people there for a Good Friday, and the NRA was doing brisk business.

The Posse therefore rededicates itself to more gun blogging – more advocacy, more common sense to refute the lies of the gun control crowd and more gun reviews.

Crime, punishment and the Era of Obama

Over at Ann Althouse's blog, there's a post about how British officials are just beginning to figure out that home burglary is a serious crime.

In the comments,a self-identified Democrat tries to make the argument that the burglary rate in the US is actually higher than that in the UK, and therefore Americans are hardly ones to criticize.

Unfortunately for him, the numbers don't back up what he says.  The FBI page he links to has the following chart which gives US residential burglaries as 42,324 - quite a bit short of the 280,000 which occurred in a nation with 1/5 of our population.  When this is pointed out, he quits the field.

Elsewhere in the comments, there are some shots taken (metaphorically of course) against the Obama administration and the looming prospect of gun control in the US.  This is supposed to happen because the Dems control Congress and, on Tuesday, the presidency.

While I am not one to take threats to liberty lightly, in this case I think the fears of 2nd Amendment supporters are (mostly) unfounded.  I believe this for several reasons.

1.  The Dems aren't suicidal.  Their leadership is hard left, but the rank and file of the party now understands that guns cost them control of Congress 14 years ago.  The Democrats gained control by winning marginal and conservative-leaning districts.  Gun control - which is about as unpopular as it has been in 30 years - will cost them many of these new seats.

2.  The debate has shifted.  Michigan is circling the drain right now, and is piling tax upon regulation in an effort to drive all jobs from the state.  Even so, gun control is dead here.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm hasn't lifted a finger against guns, and since her administration began, the "Castle Doctrine" has been enshrined as the law of the state.  The duty to retreat when attacked has also been eliminated.

If a state like Michigan - which is increasingly under the heel of the Democrat boot - isn't pushing gun control, you know it must be a dead issue.

3.  Obama isn't suicidal.  He wants to have two terms.  He wants to be popular.  Pushing gun control could cost him North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, as well as Congress. 

4.  Obama has nothing invested in it.  As a newcomer to the political scene, he doesn't have that much invested in gun control (or much of anything, honestly).  Personally, the man is an enigma wrapped in a mystery shrouding opportunism. 

5.  The Supreme Court made it almost impossible.  Yes, the feds can play regulatory games, but the courts are no longer the slam dunk that they were pre-Keller.

I also think that the Obama is going to feel personally pressured not to appear soft on crime, that as the First Black President, he's keenly aware of the stereotypes of black politicians being soft or tolerant of crime.  He does not want to be the "hip-hop" president, or a federal version of Kwame Kilpatrick.  While he addended a Black Nationalist church, he is every inch a liberal bourgeois bohemian.  The current print edition of Wine Enthusiast (which which sithkitten subscribes) has him on the cover and highlights his "1,000 bottle home wine cellar."  He's not exactly living the Thug Life.

Indeed, he's more comfortable in a country club than most Republicans.

Thus, as a propertied man with propertied friends, crime is not something he's going to take lightly.

I am still anxious about what he will do, but on the question of gun rights, I don't think he will be much of a threat.

Let them sink

The Posse is probably one of the few voices in Michigan that thinks the bailout of the Big Three is a stupid idea.

For eight years, this state has sat spinning its wheels, hoping that somehow the clock would turn back.  It won't.

Michigan was once an industrial powerhouse, a state that dominated world production of iron ore, copper and automobiles.  We did that based on the inherent advantages of our state: natural resources, water and rail communications, and of course the organizing genius of our industrial leaders.

We've been coasting on Henry Ford's handy work for 40 years.  Enough already.

What is needed is some creative destruction, a reinvention of the industries we have and an embrace of new ones.

Yet Michigan's leadership has basically decided to emulate Herbert Hoover: erect trade barriers, raise taxes and hope for better days.

This bailout is just more of the same - a desperate effort to preserve an unsustainable status quo.  It won't work.

The Big Three are in fact too big to fail - they have too much value to be dismantled and destroyed.  What they need is a wide-ranging reorganization, something that can only happen if they go bankrupt.

Let them go.

Farewell, Kwame

Amidst the swoon over Sarah Palin's speech (I'm watching it on YouTube, seems pretty good), folks may have overlooked that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has finally copped a plea and will resign.

Kilpatrick's story is a true tragedy.  He had every advantage, and had he shown any sort of restraint, he might have gone far.  Alas, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, his hubris was his downfall.

What makes this even more of a tragedy is that it could have ended in March.  Had Governor Granholm actually been willing to make a decision, this whole sordid affair would have been over months ago.  A new administration would be in place, and Detroit could finally limp forward.

Alas, if there is one characteristic of the Granholm administration, it is that it avoids making decisions as long as possible.  To be sure, politics was a large part of her reluctance, which only makes it more pathetic.  For six long months we've had the mayor of our largest city serve as a worldwide laughing stock.  The state unemployment rate is moving into double digits, and yet we're told that the movie industry, or or maybe "cool cities," or some other gimmick will turn things around.

[Remember, this is a woman who said that Michigan needed to produce the "next Google," apparently unaware that both of Google's founders attended that one school in Ann Arbor.  They knew Michigan's business climate all too well.]

Michigan is a purple state, arguably bluer than it was four years ago since so many of the people interested in working have left.  Yet in this strangest of campaign years, it may go red simply because there aren't a lot of other options.  Kwame's gone, and with that bit of drama winding down, people may finally notice that raising taxes hasn't jump-started the state economy, nor has it even balanced the budget. 

Hopefully McCain will make that point when he visits.

In the meantime, Kwame will be cooling his heels in the county jail.  The "Hip-Hop Mayor" will have become just another thug.

Random shots

Here’s a fun thought:  Michigan’s newest voters will have to hearken back to their elementary school days to recall a time when the state’s economy was actually going somewhere.  It’s been that long.  I guess we’re getting used to the pain.

Driving ‘round town and tuning into the radio, I can’t help but wonder how much those ads with Tim Allen urging us to stay where we are and go places we’ve already been are costing.  Is anyone encouraged by this tripe?

First off, they are terribly written. The phrases are awkward and full of faux grandeur.  It’s like a parody of Victorian prose.

More importantly, Tim Allen is a lousy narrator.  Good comedian, but bad at reading stuff.  Hey, he’s a Michigan guy, I get it, but so is James Earl Jones.  We couldn’t we get The Voice do this stuff?  Jones can make reading a soup can label dramatic and compelling.

Anyhow, I can’t help but wonder how much Obama’s anti-NAFTA remarks will hurt him here come November. If I were McCain, I’d play those in continuous loops in Automation Alley and Grand Rapids – and in Port Huron and the Soo.

I hope to begin overhauling this site, including revising the links over the next few weeks.

Also, where did the Carnival of Cordite go?  Anyone still interested, email me.  I’ll host it with a target of maybe next weekend.

Owned by an 8th Grader

It's tough to live in Michigan.  The economy stinks, the governor is clueless, and of course we have Detroit.

This delightful clip gives an idea of just how wacky the politics of the Motor City have become.  Behold!  An 8th Grader explains good behavior to the City Council President Pro Tem and wife of Congressman-for-life John Conyers.

I particularly like the way she explains how adults have control over their actions.