Time for changes in Michigan by my friend Brian Pannebecker

While another Labor Day holiday was observed, most Michigan residents are watching passively as businesses and their accompanying jobs leave the state in droves. Unfortunately, we have stood by and watched as more than three-quarters of a million jobs disappeared from Michigan over the last decade alone.

It's time to start doing something different.

I suggest two things; Our elected legislators in Lansing need to seriously look at passing right-to-work legislation that would allow the workers of this state to compete with workers of other states by having the choice of whether or not to join a union when they are hired by a union-represented business.

Secondly, we need to dramatically reform the business tax structure in our state. The failed "Michigan Business Tax", which replaced the reviled "Single Business Tax", needs to be scrapped and replaced with a simpler, fairer business tax that will attract businesses to Michigan, not drive them away.

Only by taking these types of bold steps will Michigan again be able to compete with more business friendly states, let alone the rest of the global economy.

Brian Pannebecker

UAW member Local 228

Shelby Township

Tea Party Express Is Coming To Michigan

Tea Party Express to Hold 5 Tea Party

Rallies Targeting Bart Stupak as

Part of National Bus Tour

The Tea Party Express (website: www.TeaPartyExpress.org) has announced that it is expanding its plans to ensure the Defeat of Congressman Bart Stupak in Michigan Congressional District 1.

As the Tea Party Express traverses through the Upper & Lower Peninsula of Michigan, it will stop for 5 Tea Party Express rallies.  This is far and above more rallies than have been held in any other congressional district in America since the inception of the tea party movement.

Rallies will be held in the following cities in Stupak's district:

*Ironwood, MI

*Escanaba, MI

*Sault Sainte Marie, MI

*Cheboygan, MI

*Petoskey, MI

The rallies are just the tip of the iceberg.  A "Defeat Bart Stupak" TV and radio ad campaign will be launched during the swing through Stupak's congressional district.

More and more details will be posted online at: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org

This will be a historic chapter in the tea party movement and it will take place in Michigan - a state where failed leadership by tax-and-spend politicians has played a major role in crippling the state's economy.

Starting with a survey conducted by the Winston Group, we learn that a quarter of the Tea Party members are in fact Democrats and Independents. 

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal. 

Next, we have Gallup with a new poll out today that shows Tea Party demographics match up with the demographics of America as a whole, including race! Take that, Keith Olbermann!

Finally, Rasmussen’s poll finds that on the issues most Americans views line up the Tea Party’s views  rather than Obama’s. 

On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.

Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly feel closer to the Tea Party and most Democrats say that their views are more like Obama’s. Among voters not affiliated with either major political party, 50% say they’re closer to the Tea Party while 38% side with the President.