Fake Twitter accounts used to back Obama gun controls

A Republican congressman claims that President Obama’s supporters are using fake Twitter accounts to give the appearance of grassroots support for gun control  measures.

Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman, an outspoken Obama critic, and conservative bloggers who reviewed the messages told Fox News that the majority of the accounts supporting Obama’s gun control campaign were created less than 48 hours before a member of Congress was contacted.

Fox News reported that bloggers first spotted the trend and said they suspected some social media funny business because the senders had sent no other tweets, had virtually no followers and followed no one. 

Each tweet included the #WeDemandAVote hashtag, which the president had encouraged supporters of his gun control plan to include when contacting members of Congress.

Stockman staffers said 10 of the tweets the congressman received were computer-generated and six came from real people, though only one lives in Stockman’s southeast Texas district. Two had only one follower, former Obama digital strategist Brad Schenck.

The new Mich. powerbroker -- Sandy Levin

Zach Gorchow of Lansing-based Gongwer News Service posted a fulsome piece this afternoon that describes the emergence of Congressman Sandy Levin as one of the premier political powerbrokers in Michigan Democratic politics.

In retrospect, Lon Johnson’s victory in the party chairmanship race never would have happened without Levin’s persistent support. The UAW played a key role but Levin’s district office essentially served as Johnson campaign headquarters. His tenacious chief of staff, Hilarie Chambers, and his top district aide, Walt Herzig, handled much of the nuts-and-bolts work to get Johnson elected.

I’ve heard stories that the soft-spoken, genial congressman was unusually forceful – and uncharacteristically loud – as he rounded up votes.

 Here’s a portion of  Gorchow’s column:

“…It was actually Mr. Levin who spearheaded the idea that Mr. Brewer must be replaced. The UAW provided the delegates and the money, but it was Mr. Levin that supplied the passion.

“Democrats around the state, even those from Oakland County who know Mr. Levin especially well, were in awe of his commitment. He pushed hard to convince the other congressional Democrats to back Mr. Johnson. Former governor James Blanchard said Saturday that Mr. Levin asked him to do a robo-call on Mr. Johnson’s behalf.

 “… Mr. Levin seemed to be everywhere – at the debate in Royal Oak last week between Mr. Brewer and Mr. Johnson, at the Friday night Rules and Credentials Committee meeting to settle a dispute over memberships, and even at the Southfield Democratic Club to sway some delegates.

“And at the 9th Congressional District Democratic Party caucus Saturday, when Brewer ally Ed Bruley, the Macomb Democratic Party chair -- as tough a political operator as there is in state Democratic politics -- tried to reignite (a) memberships issue, Mr. Levin fought back and didn’t hesitate to get into a shouting match with Mr. Bruley.”

Lon who? One postscript from the Dem convention

As the afternoon break was coming to an end at Saturday’s Democratic Party gathering, delegates jammed into a narrow corridor at Cobo Center and proceeded toward the convention hall for the main event – the election of officers.

All around there was glad-handing and back-slapping and shouts of “Hello” as delegates from far-flung sections of the state greeted each other. Walking down the hall in front of me was Johnson, the man who was about 60 minutes away from being elected as the new party chair.

All around the candidate were people wearing “Lon Johnson for Chairman” T-shirts or lapel stickers. Yet, Johnson, who was distinctive in a crisp blue suit and tie, walked the full length of that corridor without anyone greeting him or shaking his hand. It appeared that most of the delegates did not recognize him.

They didn’t know who Lon Johnson is, but they were convinced to vote for him by their union or their congressmen.

As I stepped onto an escalator to head down to the convention hall, a man who favored re-election for Mark Brewer stood at the bottom of the stairs wearing a T-shirt that said, “Lon Who?”

Make no mistake: This chairmanship battle was not a personality conflict, this was a political power play.

Charlie LeDuff takes a look at Detroit's autopsy

Charlie LeDuff of TV news fame gets a glowing (and well-written) review of his new book, "Detroit, an American Autopsy," in today's New York Times.

Here's a little taste:

Many city supporters will object to the “autopsy” in the subtitle, though it’s not the suggestion of civic death that rankles. Rather, it’s the suggestion of the surgically precise. LeDuff notes that whatever its racial makeup, the Detroit Fire Department’s spirit is Irish, and much the same can be said of this book and its author. “Detroit” is not an autopsy; it’s a wake — drunk, teary, self-dramatizing, sincerely sorry, bighearted and just a bit full of it. What’s the point of being from Detroit if you don’t know the world’s going to break your heart?

You read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/books/review/detroit-an-american-autopsy-by-charlie-leduff.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Detroit: Two tales of one city

It’s the best of times for downtown Detroit and Midtown — at least the best in a few decades. It’s the worst of times for much of the rest of the city, which offers an apocalyptic vision of abandoned buildings, weeds, trash, crumbling streets, failing schools, broken streetlights and an unresponsive police and EMS.
Yet, the view within City Hall is more horrific than any of the unsettling photographs shared worldwide via the Internet of Detroit’s burned-out homes, decaying factories and a former train station that has become a chilling symbol of urban collapse.

The events of the past week shed light on a city government that is so incompetent, so dysfunctional, that suburbanites are left slack-jawed. The state’s financial review team — and the Detroit media — have found numerous instances in which the city has engaged in fiscal negligence and has failed to collect taxes and court fees to such an extent that a level of public anarchy was exposed.
At the same time, the portrayal of Detroit by the national media has evolved from so-called “ruin porn” — countless grim photos of places like the old Packard Plant and the former Train Depot — to a portrayal of the nation’s Comeback City. With their focus entirely on downtown and Midtown, journalists and researchers and professors and some in business and entertainment circles are pulling for a Detroit renaissance.
Eminem and Kid Rock have certainly played a prominent role. The same city that has 72,000 vacant buildings is the inspiration for a glitzy casino, The D, on the Las Vegas strip.
Forbes, highlighting the new high-tech jobs and the influx of young, college-educated workers, has referred to Michigan and Detroit in particular as the “Silicon Mitten.”
Other national publications and a research group have legitimately hailed the revival of downtown and Midtown as an inspirational story of urban renewal initiated by artists and entrepreneurs and sympathetic businessmen, not by way of the wrecking ball.

Meanwhile, the Motor City will suffer another black eye within days if and when a jury finds former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father and his BFF guilty of running a Mafia-style City Hall.

Of course, corruption is only part of the story.

At the city’s District Court, only 7 percent of the fines and fees imposed by the judges are collected. In the neighborhoods, only half of residents pay their property taxes in full — leading to a loss of nearly $250 million a year.
On some city blocks, only one homeowner pays up. In many cases, the scofflaw property owner — often a real estate speculator — defiantly refuses to pay the taxman. They know that the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office failed to foreclose on 40,000 Detroit homes last year that were delinquent on their taxes.
In many cases, they also know that their tax assessments are incredibly off base, sometimes resulting in the city Assessing Department — a rat’s nest of cronyism and mismanagement — placing values on residences that are 10 times, or even 18 times higher than the true value.
To understand how these incredible transgressions could take place, simply look at the state’s financial report — some city departments do not even know how many employees they have.

Obviously, none of this nonsense would be tolerated in Macomb County.
Still, the snickering, cynical suburbanites who believe the city reached the point of no return decades ago should be reminded that the businesses and top-notch professionals across the globe that we want to woo know only of Detroit, not Warren or Troy or Sterling Heights. We’re all wrapped up in the name Metro Detroit.
It may be an island of vibrancy, but it should also be noted that downtown and Midtown offer luxurious, refurbished apartment towers with no vacancies, two stadiums and an arena, Cobo Center, top-rated restaurants, Greektown, the DIA, the Fox and other top-flight concert venues. Mark Hackel and L. Brooks Patterson know they cannot compete with that lineup, which attracts 10.5 million visitors a year.

As for the rest of the city, it’s time to start from scratch. Literally, from the ground up. We’ve seen in recent weeks how quickly and cleanly a section of the city can be razed when the private sector gets involved. And we’ve seen, with the Belle Isle fiasco, that the City Council is no more than an unsettling mix of those clinging to power and those with affable inabilities.
In turn, Mayor Dave Bing, an honorable man who has had little success following through on his plans for the city, would be wise to avoid municipal bankruptcy at all costs. It would take a decade for Motown to overcome that stigma.
Civic leaders hope that Gov. Snyder will quickly bring in an emergency manager — if he can eventually find someone who will take the job. There’s a whole lot of cleanup needed.

Yet, the city’s ultimate salvation may lie in the intriguing plan for the greening of Detroit.
Consolidating the shrinking population into successfully functioning clusters of neighborhoods and turning much of the city’s ruins into ponds, pathways, parks, gardens, orchards and urban farms may sound like a utopian dream to some. But it could represent the most dramatic urban transformation in world history.

Perhaps the project could gain the support of universities and foundations and conservation groups and urban planners from across the globe. Perhaps the saviors of Detroit — Dan Gilbert, Mike Ilitch and Pete Karmanos — could inspire someone like billionaire Warren Buffett to contribute.
One criticism of this blueprint is that it presents too much of a patchwork across the city, which is larger geographically than most American urban areas. Why not create Detroit’s own version of Central Park along the area north of Jefferson from Alter Road to East Grand Boulevard?
Provide incentives for the construction of high rises along that section of Jefferson. Imagine the majestic views from those buildings of a magnificent park and a rejuvenated Belle Isle and the Detroit River.

The result could be a city unique to the world, known for its gardens and greenery. Which would be a huge step up from being an urban wasteland known for its rusted ruins.

Macomb sets another record for gun permits

It didn’t take long for Macomb County to break the single-day record for gun permit applications in Macomb, 104, that was set Jan. 16.

On Tuesday, the county Clerk’s Office processed a record 124 applications for a Carrying a Concealed Weapons permit – a CCW.

The next day, Wednesday, the Clerk’s Office broke that mark with 127 applications for CCWs, also known as Concealed Pistol License, or CPL.

The office has experienced long lines of applicants since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut sparked talk in Washington of new gun control laws. 

The Tuesday record was set when the Clerk's Office reopened after a 4-day weekend due to President’s Day and employee furloughs.

The Wednesday mark was hit on a day when Clerk Carmella Sabaugh’s staff works extended hours, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Nonetheless, Lynn Brown, who oversees the gun permitting process, pointed out that the 127 applications represented a 17 percent increase over the old mark.