Breaking! Crazy Pete Hoekstra Wants to Refuse New Jobs for Michiganders
Just saw this on Twitter:
petehoekstra If press reports on moving Gitmo detainees to Mich are accurate my answer is no. I will do everything possible to stop this.
Mind you, John Engler, Carl Levin, and Bart Stupak have all spoken favorably of moving Gitmo detainees to Michigan. Bipartisan support! And why not? We’ve got the empty prisons, the remote areas. And lots and lots of Michiganders who need a job.
But Crazy Pete apparently thinks he needs to fearmonger on terrorism more than Michiganders need jobs (or America needs to restore its reputation internationally).
And he wants to run for Governor of Michigan?
Update: I’ve put a map of where the prison in question is located–basically the pointer finger knuckle, in mitten-speak.
I swear the only reason Crazy Pete’s in the race is to make our scumbag state attorney general and fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox look smart.
Well, someone’s got to spend DeVos’ money. Can’t have an adulterer do that. (Though with Crazy Pete’s ties to C Street, maybe I’m speaking too soon about who is and who is not an adulterer).
It’s crossed my mind that Hoek might be a member of C Street like some guys were members of the Playboy Club in days gone by — but jeebus, who’d want to sleep with Crazy Pete?? The man has no style, no romance and obviously no smarts.
And I figured Betsy’d come up with a way to spend the DeVos bucks, take a page from her mama’s book and make trouble with PAC donations to nasty ballot initiatives. Probably more ROI than wasting the money on Crazy Pete.
Frankly, I don’t know WHAT’s gonna happen in that primary. But lets do hope they spend lots of money.
Proves that petehoekstra is a chicken shit. Too scardey for Gitmo detainees???
Must be embarrassing.
EW and co.,
How are you tapped into Twitters from the right wing…is it through one of these amalgamators, like TweetDeck, or whatever? I wanted to see what idiocy was spilling from Newt, and that lasted all of a half-day, because I couldn’t take it.
Thanks~
One option would be to use the TPM Twitter Room that aggregates Republican Insiders. It’s one of five Twitter Rooms TPM started recently, all linked from the front page.
Hey Rayne–I guess the prison in consideration is in Standish. Spitting distance for you!
Want to run against Dave Camp and make this a campaign issue?
It’s actually in MI-01, Bart Stupak’s district (and at least 45-55 min. north of me). Stupak has a lot of experience with the facilities in his district like the one in Newberry as well as the state facility in Marquette; he’s going to be a strong advocate for this site.
Personally, I think Standish is not a good site, would rather see them use the facility in Newberry (much more isolated, and the area has always been hard up for employment). Standish has recently landed a new casino, might become something of a boom town if it also gets the prison business — but it might also provide commuting-distance employment for folks who’ve been affected by the Wurtsmith AF base closure at Oscoda.
[EDIT: HEY!! This might be a duel between C Street members!! We’ve got Bart and Pete in opposite corners, and they’re both Big C guys!! Which way do the C Streeters pull, for the liberal but much smarter Bart, or for the stupid but conservative Pete? We should put stakes down on this one!]
OT for Marcy:
It seems that Haggis may have originated in England, not Scotland. Good thing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2…..sh-english
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-…..180791.stm
Arlen has earned a new name— Scrapple.
Leave Michigan and click back to Amherst, Ma, as visiting professor of advanced journo-blogging.
Teach students to out-duel, out-distance, and out-perform the NY Times.
Condition students to live-blog, using cutting edge technologies, without the use of three-martini lunches and unnamed sources.
3 Credits.
I guess I’m having trouble seeing how an AQ bomber is any more dangerous than the rapists/murderers etc that are already locked up there. We got room in Ohio if Crazy Pete don’t want the jobs.
Boxturtle (I guess I’ll never make a good wingnut)
Surprized to find myself wondering this, but … would you let bombers and fanatics mix with the rest of the (presumably more mundane) prison population? Inmate form close connections. It could be putting the match among the tinder.
Actually, I’d let the bureau of prisons decide how to handle it. In my book, you treat them like any other SuperMax classified prisoner.
Boxturtle (Never heard of a breakout from a supermax)
Not thinking about breakouts, but — what? — “conversion”? If “regular” prisoners form working relationships in prison (and prison is said to be where a young crook goes for his education), then what kind of arrangements would be made between these two quite different populations? Presuming, that is, that anyone was ever planning on releasing any of them.
Yes, most inmates want nothing more than conversion to a celibate life of no women without marriage, no alcolhol, no pepperoni on the pizza. Once the Pope finds out, those priest slots that have been sitting empty in the RC Church are going to fill fast. What inmate doesn’t want to see himself as Richard Reid reborn? As a matter of fact, I seem to remember that people thought there might be a lot of converts to Dahlmer’s culinary appetites if he got to mingle. I’m thinking it didn’t turn out quite like that …
Seriously – when you have a group who have chips on their shoulders, rightly or wrongly, they are open to messages of them v. us. But there’s a lot of competition from the white supremacists, gang members, etc. on that messaging front.
This is a laughable meme. A foreign terrorist exposed to general population would be in worse shape than a child molester. The only “conversion” likely to happen is terrorist to dead carcass.
I dumped in a comment in an earlier thread
http://emptywheel.firedoglake……ent-178560
about what it is that Obama is floating and based on what it is, I’d just as soon not see it anywhere.
But seperate from the house of horrors Obama is researching and readying, if you are just looking at a jail for terrorist suspects who don’t get the death penalty, then I guess a Mich supermax is as good as anyplace to put them. Unless there are some rooms available at C-Street. I hear the security there is pretty good.
Re: the detainees whom they say are too dangerous to release, but impossible to bring to trial:
Is it a “fruit of a poisonous tree” evidentiary situation, ie, the only evidence that they are a threat comes from their confession after torture?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. For example, Maher Arar’s false confession to being in an al-Qaeda training camp resulted from torture and an underlying information/identification of Arar may have been from a GITMO juvenile detainee who was abused and was ready to do or say anything to get out.
KSM had a lot of evidence against him that was not secured through his torture, although some things that were secured (like his admission to being the man who actually carried out the horrific murder of Daniel Pearl) from his torture interrogation are questionable.
Then you have efforts to “clean team” torture confessions and all kinds of efforts to use corroborative torture info.
So why not try them?
The fact that these guys have been tortured is already out of the bag. The decision to let the torturers walk has already been made.
Obama-Holder don’t actually believe the torture confessions. (Do they?) Their belief that these detainees are dangerous must be based on some other evidence, let’s say hearsay or secret intelligence, which could be made admissible in a military proceeding.
I should add that some particulars of a torture confession might be credible if subsequently and independently verified, eg, a torturee’s statement that during a terrorist op he stayed in hotel X under alias Y, might be corroborated by the hotel’s records. In such a case, the corroborative records could be offered, rather than the confession.
Yeah, let’s just trust the government to get it right because they have such a sterling track record. You have to be fucking kidding me. Then you claim that the use of evidence obtained by torture is just fine if it is corroborated by tips and leads obtained by that very torture. Again, an excellent plan.
What the hell, let’s torture everybody. Heck, the Cambridge police should have just tortured little old Professor Gates. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I am sure it is all just fine – until they come for you.
I didn’t say that I trust the government, or that I think that the use of evidence obtained by torture is just fine.
It’s incumbent on progressives to produce a plan for dealing with these detainees, otherwise we have no basis to criticize Obama.
I respect your opinion, and I am interested in knowing how you would proceed.
Well, I would try the ones that can be, and most all can be if you work hard enough, including all the ones centrally involved in 911. As to others that cannot be tried, I would let them go. If they are still militant, so be it; the law is the law.
I basically agree. Ondelette had a post yesterday which she questioned whether any “terrorist” can get a fair trial in our regularly constituted courts.
Perhaps these proceedings should be transferred to an international tribunal on the basis of misconduct by the original prosecuting authority. Obama is running out of time to blame that misconduct on his predecessor.