Joe, Will You Support Closing Guantanamo Bay?

Yesterday I attended the Global Security Summit at Oakland University. Doris Tennant, an attorney from Massachussetts discussed her representation of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, Abdul Nagi, who was picked up in Pakistan and has been held without charges for 6 years in solitary confinement at Guantanamo Bay. Read this story, Joe, and tell me we shouldn't close Guantanamo Bay permanently.


215 Days
Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.

Joe Knollenberg's Choice for President is a Mad Man

Joe Knollenberg has endorsed John McCain for President. I guess he kind of has to, since he's a Republican. I wonder how he's feeling about that endorsement and how he'll feel after watching this video.

Of course, Joe Knollenberg enthusiastically supported President Bush's re-election, so it's really not a surprise he's endorsed John McCain and his policies of war and destruction.

A New Feature, The Knollenberg Watch

In the approximately two years since I've been involved helping elect a Democrat to replace Joe Knollenberg, one of the things I've noticed is that Joe Knollenberg will not come out in public and conduct a public forum of any kind where all constituents are invited to ask the Congressman questions on the issues. I know that on August 9 of 2007 we invited Joe to a public forum on the war in Iraq. So, that is the day we will start counting from. So far is has been

214 Days
Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.

Congressman Knollenberg, will you hold the President Accountable?

Congressman Knollenberg, this is a very disturbing article that implicates the President and Vice President and many top White House officials directly in torture. I’m hoping that you will read the entire article and provide me with you thoughts regarding whether the President, Vice President and other government officials should be held responsible for their actions regarding torture. After reading this article, please respond as to whether, if the information in this article is true, you would support impeachment and criminal proceedings against the President, Vice President and any other administration officials involved in violating the law.

Thank you for your reply in advance.

Bruce Fealk

The Green Light

As the first anniversary of 9/11 approached, and a prized Guantánamo detainee wouldn’t talk, the Bush administration’s highest-ranking lawyers argued for extreme interrogation techniques, circumventing international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the army’s own Field Manual. The attorneys would even fly to Guantánamo to ratchet up the pressure—then blame abuses on the military. Philippe Sands follows the torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges.

CLICK HERE to read the entire article.

Lessenberry thinks Kevorkian won't even get on the ballot

Jack Kevorkian sure got lots of press when he picked up forms to be on the ballot as a candidate for Congress from the 9th District of Michigan. Since then, though, cooler heads have prevailed. Now some think he may not even get the 3,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot, let alone be a real challenge for the seat.

Jack Lessenberry write in Metro Times about Dr. K's bad idea.

Fourteen years or so ago, Jack Kevorkian called me to ask a question. Someone had told him you could collect signatures and get an amendment put on the ballot to change the Michigan Constitution.

Yes, I told him. That was absolutely true. "Well, how many do you need?" he asked. I looked it up; back then it was only about 260,000.

"Is that all? Why, we can get that many in no time," he said excitedly. "I could get that many by myself." Later, he checked in again. He had never voted. Was that a problem? Well, you need to register, I said. How do you do that, he asked?

Eventually, he got himself registered, and Kevorkian and his supporters — he then had quite a few of them —went to work.

But they never got anything close to the number of signatures they needed; insiders told me that when their time expired, they had less than half that. All this came back to me last week, when naive media types reported that the mostly forgotten apostle of self-snuffitude was running for Congress. Even the hint of having Dr. Death in the House was enough to fire up the stand-ups:

Yes, indeed. He'll sure know how to kill a bill. We can't wait till we see the details on his health plan. I can't wait to see how he cuts off debate, etc., etc.

But in reality, you could almost bet the farm that he will not only fail to get elected, he won't even get on the ballot. Kevorkian, who lives in Royal Oak, just barely inside U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg's district, plans to try to get listed as an independent. That has some Democrats worried.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the story

Joe Knollenberg has a hypocrisy problem

I found an article today in the New York Sun where Joe Knollenberg is talking about giving wasteful subsidies to farmers who live in New York City, but have farms outside the city. Joe thinks it's wasteful use of taxpayer dollars.

It made me think, why is Joe against these farm subsidies, but yet he's in favor of subsidies for oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of Americans struggling to put fuel in their cars to get to their jobs. To my way of thinking if you're against "wasteful" spending, it would seem that the oil companies certainly don't need the subsidies and tax breaks that Congress passed when the Republicans were in control.

What do you say, Joe? Shall we end the tax credits for oil companies? I think it's time to invest that money in alternative energy. $6 billion can go a long way.

In an open letter to their colleagues, two congressmen wrote that the subsidies to Manhattan farmers are a true example of government waste. "The American taxpayer deserves better than having their taxpayer dollars used to pay urban 'farmers' in Manhattan," Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Rep. Joseph Knollenberg of Michigan said.

The award is intended to point out that federal funding is funneled to wealthy New Yorkers who live on the densely packed island of Manhattan, nowhere near a farm. Most New Yorkers on the list are not farming in the city but own farms outside New York.

Deliberations over a new farm bill are under way, and Congress is supposed to reach an agreement by April 18. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed that the bill give subsidies only to farmers whose adjusted gross income is less than $200,000 a year.

Mr. Knollenberg, who supports an income cap for farm subsidies, said that under the current plan federal funding is given away to millionaires, CEOs, and entrepreneurs.

"The farmers in Manhattan aren't dumb. They know what they are doing. They are making money on the property and they are making money on the subsidy that is passed along with it, and I guess they are doing it because they can," he said

CLICK HERE for the rest of the article.

This is why Joe Knollenberg and George W. Bush are so dangerous

Please watch this video of Naomi Wolf. She goes through the 10 steps to fascism. It is an eye opening interview. Naomi will be at Oakland University on 4/2 at 7 p.m.



CLICK HERE to do something, the American Freedom Campaign is our best chance to turn things around.

9th District Targeted by Democrats

Gary Peters' race against 8-term incumbent Joe Knollenberg is getting lots of attention at the national level from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Peters has been added to the Red to Blue program for Democrats who have the best chance to unseat incumbents. Peters and Mark Schauer will be targeted with financial resources to help take out Republican incumbents. Michigan is one of the only states with two candidates in the Red to Blue program. Peters task is made a little harder, in that Knollenberg has a bigger war chest, but Peters has enthusiastic supporters in Michigan and across the country. If you want to help out with a little financial support of your own, CLICK HERE. Today is the reporting deadline for the campaign and Peters would appreciate your donation.