Michissippi’s TeaPuritan (Michigan's Republican) Legislative Purification Campaign Powering Up for 2012

Response to Dan Calabrese in "Will Michigan GOP blow it?" on the Michigan View January 03, 2012


The Salem Witch Trial Principals Were Not America's Founding Fathers. 2012's MI legislative year promises to reveal the full TeaPuritan agenda: They are rallying now to hold the modern equivalent of infamous witch trials and pass fanatical religiously tainted laws and acts designed to allow harsh church-think to dominate state affairs and citizens rights.

Dan Calabrese gets it. Our Calabrese Pray Group has given it up for Dan! Hallelujah...light has shone in.

Calabrese:

"If Michigan Republicans fumble away their leadership opportunity before it's even really begun, they won't be the first. Just the latest - and one of the stupidest.

"It's not often one political party is handed so much power and has free reign to do anything it thinks it should for the benefit of those it has been entrusted to govern. And on the rare occasions when it happens, the empowered party inevitably spends much of its political capital pandering to various constituencies by enacting nonsense that has long been demanded of them - thus ensuring a short reign with limited achievement."

We, here in the Calabrese Prayer Group aren't near as excited about what the "one political party handed so much power" and "free reign to anything it thinks it should" has done for the state, that's a tragic mistake and an enduring embarrassment. Beating down the poor, the elderly, and the school children is anti-caring. But Dan's warning is so apropos! So insightful!

Sez Dan:

"The empowered party inevitably spends much of it political capital pander to various constituencies by enacting nonsense that has long been demanded of them." 

Dan is spot on!

Calabrese's accurate assessment of the Michigan Mess:

"Michigan Republican can't seem to stop there (having achieved a number of their radical legislative goals), largely because they have a determined constituency of social conservatives and angry knee-jerkers who want what they want, regardless of whether it accomplishes anything. So along with the economic changes the state badly needs, we get proposals to mandating the Pledge of Allegiance, drug-testing welfare recipients, and banning domestic partner benefits for some public employees."

"They even passed a law "banning" partial-birth abortion, which is already illegal at the federal level, just to make anti-abortion activists happy."

"(W)hen it comes to manipulating the democratic process for their own self-serving purposes, Michigan Republicans have been second to no one. They drew congressional and legislative district maps so contorted and absurd, the only defense anyone can come up with is to suggest that Democrats would have done the same thing if given the chance. The GOP has been so blatant about grabbing power through redistricting, it even passed a law that allowed it to throw out Democratic-drawn Oakland County Commission districts - after the fact - because it didn't like the outcome. REPUBLICAN SECRETARY OF STATE RUTH JOHNSON IS MISUSING HER OFFICE TO PUT RIDICULOUS REQUIREMENTS ON VOTER REGISTRATION GROUPS, WHO TEND TO LEAN DEMOCRATIC."
(emphasis added)

Calabrese's balanced conclusion:

"This is all stupid. REPUBLICANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO TELL SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES THAT IT'S NOT GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO MAKE THEIR DREAMS COME TRUE. They don't know how to tell haters that welfare recipients are entitled to the same equal protection under the law as everyone else."
(emphasis added)

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Dan Calabrese Shows Genuine Care & Understanding for Detroit Public Schools

Response to Dan Calabrese in "One reason the DPS can't balance its budget" on the Michigan View in the Detroit / Mackinac News on May 31, 2011.
Our Calabrese prayer group is rejoicing in the progress Dan is making in his Christian and political life. We are especially proud of the fact that he is willing to cut cross grain with the anti-public schools sentiment and support the work of the fine folk who are courageously supporting and mentoring young women at the Catherine Ferguson Academy, exclusively educates teen mothers.

While Dan acknowledges there is a cost for this service, (expenses connected to " daycare and other amenities" and that providing for each young mother "costs the school $12,619 per pupil to educate"; Dan sees the value and the moral foundation behind this wonderful effort. (One reason the DPS can't balance its budget, Calabrese, DetNews, 5.31.11)

Dan also bravely and honestly breaks ranks with the cynical tax-haters. He sees the tasks that are set out in a maturing light of understanding: Dan has come "to recognize that the DPS faces challenges brought on by social pathologies that have overrun the city, and that's why you can't blame the entire deficit on incompetent management."

We are so encouraged Dan! Please keep up your pro-active progress. We are with you on this your positive path.

You have our prayer support.

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Dan Calabrese’s Scripture of the Day

Dan, we've been praying for you, we thought you would surely want to join this Christian business network:

The U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce. Here's today's helpful scripture from their web site:

"(F)or it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life - in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."
-- Phil 2:13 - 16

Dan, you will be greatly helped in your troubling journey dealing with worldly shortcuts which can tempt a businessman. By association with others in the USCCC, you will find those who can help you find your way back to basic values and a Christlike model for your business(es).

The USCCC's motto/Mission statement will be a helpful guide:

"To preserve and advance the Judeo-Christian principle-based system of free enterprise in America by elevating Christian-led organizations to a new standard of operating excellence so that we would truly become God-honoring and culturally-impacting."

To jump start your new journey to peace with God in your business dealings, we recommend the following article:

THE DECLINE OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN AMERICAN BUSINESS
By Greg Northrup, contributing writer to USCCC.

"There are signs of problems everywhere. A meltdown in financial markets resulting from a government wanting to make home ownership easier for people, and blackmailing lenders to reduce credit standards. Lenders, seeing a way to make a quick buck, by writing mortgages that misled borrowers, and then reselling the mortgages to investors for a quick profit. Investors, creating incomprehensible mortgage backed securities that avoided regulation, and that were so complicated they could make enormous commissions on them. Borrowers, sometimes lying on loan applications, sometimes taking on way more debt than they could afford to pay, to try to make a buck in the housing market. Politicians turning the backs on their oversight responsibilities and taking campaign contributions from the perpetrators. There were breakdowns in moral and ethical behavior throughout the system.

"This financial meltdown shows us the breadth and depth of this moral crisis, but we see signs of ethical collapse all around us. Credit Card companies misleading borrowers and charging outrageous fees and interest rates. Boards of Directors approving ridiculous compensation levels for senior managers that are unrelated to what other people in the organizations are making, and not based on performance, while receiving high amounts of Directors compensation themselves. Businesses making it so difficult for customers to receive support that they give up trying. Health insurance companies taking advantage of people by dropping them or charging outrageous premiums at times when they are most vulnerable. Businesses laying off some workers while forcing others to work long hours, and having to deal with almost incapacitating levels of stress. Businesses and business organizations spending fortunes lobbying government, and giving campaign contributions to politicians, paying more attention to them than they do their customers or employees. Businesses preparing fraudulent financial statements, and once independent CPAs, looking the other way, and signing off on them, so they can get lucrative consulting contracts from their audit clients.

"This isn't the way things used to be. We used to be able to rely on a certain level of honesty, fairness, and commitment to customers and employees. Why was that? What is different now?

"Chuck Colson, in one his books, wrote about being asked to speak about ethics at an Ivy League business school. After meeting with them, he concluded that it was pointless to talk with most of the instructors and students because they had no basis or foundation for ethics. You see, they do not believe in any source of absolute truth. For them, all truth is relative. Your truth may be different than mine. Truth, or what is right or wrong, depends on the circumstances. Utility, or getting the outcomes you want, becomes the driving factor. GUESS WHERE A LOT OF THESE IVY LEAGUE GRADUATES ENDED UP? WALL STREET AND GOVERNMENT, AND MANY MORE MOVE INTO MANAGEMENT POSITIONS IN BUSINESS.

"IN THE PAST, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG, WERE THE DEFAULT POSITION IN OUR SOCIETY. EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE WAS NOT CHRISTIAN OR JEWISH, THERE WAS SORT-OF AN UNOFFICIAL UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE UNDERLYING BASIS FOR ETHICS AND MORALITY WAS.
[emphasis added]

Today that is gone, and the reality is that there is no underlying basis for ethics and morality, so anything goes. That means that I can do whatever I want, given my own take on morality. We are beginning to see what the consequences of this kind of thinking are. We are still early in this game. Things are going to get much worse.

That is where we come in as Christian business men and women.

"The reality is that we are the last bulwark against a total collapse of business ethics and morality. That is a lot of pressure, but we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking otherwise. It is important for us to get clear about the role that God wants us to play in this time and place. On the one hand, it is discouraging and scary. On the other, what an opportunity for Christians to make a critical difference in our country and the world."

Let us know if you find the support given by U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce helpful.


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An Advocate for Christian Business Addresses Calabrese’s Admitted Lapse of Integrity

In response to the admission of Dan Calabrese that he is willing to break a binding business contract in order to save money (and your business) in times of economic duress, brought on by acording to his own admission; that he over-estimated his profits and under calculated his actual expenses in a down market. (Union entitlement is unsustainable, 3.11.11, Calabrese)

Note: Dan Calabrese's posting "Union entitlement is unsustainable" posted to the Michigan View (Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) on March 11, 2011 was removed from the Detroit News website.

Calabrese admits in his recent column it caused him to admit, "you do things - things you sometimes regret." Dan admits, there were "long-term leases I had foolishly signed." His solution? Dan welched on his contract with a provider, and stated, I "told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble."

To understand Dan's self-described method of cutting costs, I turned to John E. Mitchell Jr., Texas business man and a Christian writer. Mitchell offers a thoughtful insight as to how a self-confessed Christian and businessman, such as Calabrese, is held to a higher standard than the non-professing business entrepreneurial:
"If, as Emerson says, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," then obviously the top executives of American business enterprises are very important. They have it in their power to help or to hurt a great many people.

"What are the traits of character do you think should be required, or at least hoped for, in an employer, a manager, the top executives?"

That an Employer Should Be "The head of a business concern should posses certain qualities which set him apart as a leader and clearly indicate his right to the postion he holds. These are qualifications which should be recognized and cultivated.
"A leader should possess real character, the result of a personal relationship to Christ. He leads best who best follows the Saviour. His qualities of leadership will be strengthen and fortified because of personal attention to spiritual realities. A man who sets an unwavering stand as a servant and follower of Christ will able operate from an unshakable foundation in every other area of life.

"It logically follows that, as a man of Christian character, a good leader will also be a man of integrity. He would keep his word. He will be honest in his dealings. He will not shade, hedge, or deviate in word or conduct. He will maintain this personal integrity even though it may involve great cost to himself."

In Michigan's troubling economic times we need moral high ground and integrity. We hope Dan will repent and join the effort to rebuild our state on honesty and integrity as he shares with us the thoughts of his mind.

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Promise Maker Michigan Encouraged to Become a Promise Breaker - Deadbeat Provider

We are wearied by; tired of our obligations to those who have long served us in public ways. We would be so much better off if we could strip state retirees of their benefits and health care to improve our own bottomlines.(Union entitlement is unsustainable, 3/11/11)

Note: Dan Calabrese's posting "Union entitlement is unsustainable" posted to the Michigan View (Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) on March 11, 2011 was removed from the Detroit News website.

So we find our Michigan View moralist and anti-public cynic, Dan Calabrese saying:

"When the economic environment changed, they (Many units of government in Michigan) wished they could get out from under these commitments, or better yet, that they had never made them in the first place."

This candid admission shows a lack of support for honest commitment and basic integrity. Moral gives way to business practical. When we encourage these units to use a crisis to accomplish what we know is their contractual and socially committed obligations, (due to disaster capitalism and Snyders flawed budget proposals) we rationalize our firm determination to walk away.

Rick Snyder's self-created finance crisis is built atop a monster Bush created economic collapse due to systemic corruption, fraud, and cleverly designed de-regulation stepped down from Washington, D.C. by no-less than former/ousted one term U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham.

Sen. Abraham presided over the very Senate session that lowered the bar on unique and publically indecipherable investment devices and market gambling that had been previously outlawed. These retreats from market regulation, laws that had made illegal by that same body over 100 years previously.

Libertarians are almost certainly to be practitioners of an amoral code. They are highly individual. The well-being of others is shut out as they pursue the neo-Objectivist code of a dangerous Russian-born radical, Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum), whose virulent atheist, anti-Jesus gospel/tome was published titled "The Virtue of Selfishness."

Many neo-Libertarians infesting the body politic are the Evil Samaritans; who steer completely clear of those of their fellow humans in distress or need. They're not community-minded.

If being a liberal is by definition being: generous and gregarious, with a mind to community and advocates of the New England Town Meeting, collective good; they are not some say even "evil." They know nothing of the true nature of an organization that calls its members, brothers and sisters-the labor associations that have made the middle class prosper and their children attain to a higher level of education and service do to the brotherhood of association. Never forget the corporate evils of the past which were overcome by solidarity!

Dan thinks he's right. And we know he's "right" alright. Dan often here at the MIView, prides himself being "right of right" As he moves toward greed, he will be less and less troubled by "kicking against the pricks" by God and more anesthetized by his own narrow needs to the more complete exclusion of others outside his "tribe" read; mega-church and weekly Christian Businessman's meetings, Tea Party klatch.

This is why we react with skepticism when we learn that Dan's problems with unions and public employees. His reaction is rooted in the fact they represent employees with a right to organize and enjoy due process. So when things went sour for Dan's PR business, as he has revealed on this blog, Dan clearly resents and resists not having the privilege of his simple "pleasure" -freedom to tap a worker on the shoulder at a perfect moment in the work day: giving the employee a cardboard box and showing him/her the door ala his sacred right; the ability to "hire and fire at will."

We also note, Dan goes farther in his pursuit of "autonomous self-interest." Calabrese tells us; "...when you're deluded into thinking you've entered Permanent Fat and Happy Land, you do things - things you sometimes regret. You sign long-term leases on offices and equipment. You agree to generous union contracts. Hey, the numbers look good!" Dan did this, he tells us, then he decided he was being boxed in by his decision to "go under contract" with his provider at the very time his business was floundering. Calabrese's "out"? Who would believe: Violate/break the binding contract.

Dan: "The problem was that more than half my monthly expenses were from long-term leases I HAD FOOLISHLY SIGNED. I couldn't just sit there and say, 'Cut this, cut this, cut that . . .' I had to contact each of the parties involved and see if I could renegotiate. Some were willing. Others were not."

"The bottom line is this: The business survived, and is still operating today, but only because I recognized it had to be radically restructured, with REGRETTABLE AGREEMENTS renegotiated and certain elements eliminated entirely."

How did Dan accomplish survival of his business?
Dan: "In the case of (the lease company) I sent back the copier early, and told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble. They didn't.

Wrote Calabrese:

"You may conclude from all this that I am a horrible businessman. YOU MIGHT NOT BE WRONG. But the point is that I faced problems that many businesses face every day, and I had no choice but to make adjustments and reform my organization in order to survive."

From this self-narrated story Calabrese draws this wider public conclusion: The State should likewise needs to break it's social contract and long-standing commitment to its career retirees and teachers. Dan's wisdom based on his "business experience" is just walk away. Collect if you can.

Calabrese pontificates:

"No one is ever entitled to anything forever. You (the state and business) do the best you can, given the economic realities in which you operate. You can be flexible when circumstances demand it, or you can refuse, in which case people will find a way not to have to deal with you."

In other words take what is given you (public employees) forget that the State as a retirement obligation to you or the state will "find a way not to have to deal with you."

So the promise keeper State is supported to become the promise breaker, the deadbeat manager of obligations clearly integral to the retiree's retirement fund. And all this based on a faulty logic and a contrived and purposefully exaggerated "economic crisis"; presented by Snyder et. al. as a device to target "political enemies."

How moral is that, Dan?



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Will Calabrese Clarify His Boast: Snyder Told the “Cold, Hard Truth” About Raising $900 Million in New Taxes From Michigan Pensioners

Response to Dan Calabrese Op-Ed “Rick Snyder: Leadership is found in thestatehouse, if not in the White House” in the Northern Star National on February 18th, 2011

Calabrese doesn't believe that he's misrepresenting Rick Snyder when he says in his recent column: Snyder is "Leading!" by the means of his honesty. "We have not had governors willing to do what Snyder did yesterday, which was to deal with cold, hard facts and tell the people of the state the cold, hard truth about where we are and where we need to go."

Dan genuinely values "the cold, hard truth."

So we ask:
Our Response (in the following parody dialog with Dan): Dan, let's see if you understand the basic facts of Snyder's budget proposal. Did Rick Snyder propose a new tax on anyone in Michigan? A simple "yes" or "no" is sufficient.

Dan: ...(Snyder) told the truth.

Our Response: Is that a "yes"

Dan: ...that's a "yes."

Our Response: Let me refresh your memory.

Here's the exact verbatim answer Snyder gave veteran reporter Tim Skubick, on FOX 2, Detroit, right after Snyder left the Senate Committee Room; having just presented his proposed budget to the state:

Skubick's Question: Some people are going to pay more to the state...Aren't they?
Snyder dodges the question: We are decreasing revenues this is not a net tax increase. When you look at all the numbers.
[Skubick stays on his question: Some people will pay more!]
(Again evasive and un-answering to Skubick's direct question concerning his proposed huge new tax increase.)
Snyder: But it's really based on the premise of a net tax decrease...
Skubick: Your pension tax is very controversial (it) raises $900m. Is that number correct?
Snyder: It's not a pension tax. It is actually removing a tax expenditure. We are actually reducing your tax rate. Our individual rate tax rate... [Skubick breaks in, still dead-on for an honest Snyder answer]
Skubick: It raises $900m? Correct?
Snyder: It generates $900m in revenue.

Our Response: Dan, there you have an honest answer given after an honest inquiry about the facts and following a lot of evasiveness and double talk from Snyder.

Snyder is raising taxes on pensioners by 9 tenths of a billion dollars and concurrently removing that amount, and more, from select businesses supporters in the state.

The "Leader" in Snyder said on the campaign trail repeatedly and very clearly to his audiences all across the state including pensioners: "My objective is not to raise revenue in the budget."

Our Response: "What part of "no new taxes" does Snyder's post-election budget proposal keep? Did he keep his pre-election promise not to "raise new revenue"? Did Snyder tell the truth about his new taxes?

Dan: If that's what Snyder's doing...could I have a moment to think over my answer?

Our Response: Take all the time you need, Dan. We all know how much you value moral absolutes like the "truth."
 
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Sacred Scripture Slams Dan Calabrese Thought

Responseto Dan Calabrese on the Michigan View in “Democrat observes 'money has replacedmorals' “ on February 14, 2011

Calabrese wrote:

"People the state has programmed to depend on checks from Lansing AREN'T GOING TO GET THEM ANYMORE. They're going to have to find a way to become more self-sufficient and EARN, ON THEIR OWN, EVERY DOLLAR THEY NEED."

(Here we could make a likely list of whom Dan has in mind, starting with our tens of thousands of unemployed and off unemployment and moving on to enumerate the usual pinchpenny "undeserving." Re: Calbrese 'Democrat observes money has replaced morals')

Dan goes on to justify the present rush to spun all those on his list of "undeserving": "That,(intervention to help and assist) my friends, is immoral. It's making the empty promise of money a substitute for real morality, which is the compassionate act of spurring someone to become self-sufficient."

Dan's thought is so anti-GOD !

'In case some one of your brothers becomes poor among you in one of your cities, in your land that Jehovah your God is giving you, YOU MUST NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART OR BE CLOSEFISTED TOWARD YOUR POOR BROTHER. For you should generously open your hand to him and by all means lend him on pledge as much as he needs, which he is in want of... You should by all means give to him, and your heart should not be stingy in your giving to him, because on this account Jehovah your God will bless you in every deed of yours and in every undertaking of yours. For someone poor will never cease to be in the midst of the land. That is why I AM COMMANDING you, saying, 'You should generously open up your hand to your afflicted and poor brother in your land." (Deut 15:7-11).

We have operated the state of Michigan over the years, through many cycles of downturns and recessions, but never, never did we endorse such a stoneheated attitude toward "God's poor" as yours, Calabrese.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave everlasting comfort and good hope by means of UNDESERVED KINDNESS, comfort your hearts and make you firm in every good deed and word." (2 Thess 2:16,17).

As Abraham Lincoln said,

"God must love the poor he made so many of them."THE LORD "HAS NO FAVORITES AT THE POOR MAN'S EXPENSE, but listens to his prayer when he is wronged." (Eccus 35:13).

If there is a zoo in heaven, in the section devoted to earthly predator's section, there's a purgatory cage for AYN RAND, AUTHOR OF THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS, SO BELOVED AND EMULATED BY HER UBER CONSERVATIVES, FELLOW TRAVELERS HERE ON EARTH.

God's Word says:

"My brothers, what use is it for a man to say he has faith when he does nothing to show it? Can that faith save him? Suppose a brother or a sister is in rags with not enough food for the day, and one of you says, 'GOOD LUCK TO YOU, KEEP YOURSELVES WARM, AND HAVE PLENTY TO EAT', BUT DOES NOTHING TO SUPPLY THEIR BODILY NEEDS, what is the good of that? So with faith; if it does not lead to action, it is in itself a lifeless thing." (James 2:14-17)

Other parting words from sacred scripture for Calabrese to ponder during his prayer time:

"...But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang."

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