Some members of Midland County Young Republicans have been going door to door, collecting food for needy people.

Approximately 10 volunteers have been leaving and retrieving food collection bags at homes in targeted neighborhoods, said Alex Clark, the Republican group’s founder and chairman.

The food drive contrasts with what Clark said is some people’s belief that Republicans are “rich people who don’t care about anyone but themselves.”

Republicans are rich, poor and middle class, Clark said. And when he learned how many Midland County children are in low-income families, “I knew I had to help somehow.”

In the drive’s first two months, the Young Republicans reached 140 homes and got 350 items for the North and West Midland Family Centers.

The Young Republicans’ goal is 800 items by the end of August.

There’s also has a 50-member goal by the end of September, which would approximately double the Young Republicans’ membership.

The group for people ages 18-40 was launched in April, with help from the Midland County Republican Party. A jointly sponsored picnic is being planned for August.

The Young Republican group’s primary focus is local, but members distributed political literature in Flint and could help elsewhere, too, Clark said.

Clark, 22, of Midland said most of the new group’s members are approximately 19-24 years old. He thinks the oldest is 28, and he hopes people in their 30s also will join.

“We want to stay active” year-round, not merely be campaign volunteers starting approximately two months before an election, Clark said.

Locally, there are many good role models for young people who want to get into politics, Clark said.

And one of the group’s newsletters suggests that membership offers a chance to network with local and Michigan Young Republicans.

The group’s executive committee meetings are at 6 p.m. the second Monday of each month at Pizza Sam’s in downtown Midland. The next general membership meeting will be Sept. 14.

Basic membership costs $10 a year — or less if the person can’t afford that, Clark said. Paying $50 brings “Lincoln membership” status, including a T-shirt. Paying $100 brings “Reagan membership” and both a T-shirt and a mug.

There’s no Midland County Young Democrats organization. But there are campus Democratic and Republican groups at area colleges and universities.

Clark is a Northwood University graduate and former student business group officer who hopes to someday win a public elected office — perhaps Midland County commissioner.

He has been manning the Midland County Republican Party’s downtown Midland office. But he launched the Young Republicans group before taking that staff job.

“I wanted to start something to get young persons out and active,” he said.

Son of a police officer and a nurse, Clark saw his parents “do a lot in the community, helping people.”

A Flint native long interested in politics and how government works, he helped get passage of a Flint Township measure to hire three additional law enforcement officers.

And last year he campaigned for state Rep. Jim Stamas of Midland and Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and John McCain, and helped run the Republican Victory Center — a campaign office in Midland.

Now he’s a “jack of all trades” campaign worker for Midlander Bill Schuette.

Schuette is a former Michigan Court of Appeals judge who wants the 2010 Republican nomination for Michigan secretary of state.

Other MCYR executive committee members are Vice Chairman Ryan King, Treasurer John Malone, Secretary Kelley Pernicone and directors Toni Madden (community outreach) and Philip Juhasz (membership recruitment)

Clark’s e-mail address is Alex.clark1987@yahoo.com.

Persons wishing to help with food drives or to donate items may contact Madden at maddent@northwood.edu.

The group’s website is at http://mcyr.net

Click here for the Midland County Young Republican Newsletter.

The Midland County YR’s have published another great newsletter! Congrats to Alex and his team on starting up another Young Republican group in Michigan.

Welcome to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives. The “people’s House” is now a place where bills are voted on not only before legislators or the public have read them, but also before parts of the bills even have been written. Such was the case with a 300-page amendment to the cap-and-trade bill the House passed on June 26. The House leadership could not even produce this amendment on paper, in final form, before it was voted on.

In response to that and other recent outrageous infringements of real representative democracy, a group called Let Freedom Ring is pushing all 435 members of Congress and 100 senators to sign a pledge against such shenanigans on any health care reform bill Congress considers.

All 535 of them ought to do so.

The pledge, which can be found at www.pledgetoread.com, reads in part as follows: “I pledge to my constituents and the American people that I will not vote to enact any healthcare reform package that: 1) I have not read, personally, in its entirety; and 2) Has not been available, in its entirety, to the American people on the Internet for at least 72 hours, so that they can read it too.”

No simpler requirement for good government could be imagined. When what is at stake is a revolutionary change in the entire organization of 17 percent of the economy – not to mention the delivery of services that could mean the difference between life and death for millions of Americans each year – it is basic common sense to insist that our lawmakers know and understand what they are voting on – and that includes the fine print.

As it was put by Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, “there is no rational reason for not signing the pledge.”

Unfortunately, Mrs. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say they can’t be bothered with such essentials. On June 25, both declined to promise to give the public a week to review any major health care reform. Mrs. Pelosi did not even respond to a question posed at a press briefing by Cybercast News Service about whether the Congressional Budget Office would have time to “score” the bill’s final price tag.

Such an attitude represents the height — or, rather, the depth — of irresponsibility.

It is an axiom in criminal court that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” There certainly is no excuse for lawmakers to be ignorant of the laws they would force on the rest of us. That sounds almost criminal to us.

www.collegerepublicans.org

Mary Bono Mack (CA-45)
Mike Castle (DE)
Mark Kirk (IL-10)
Leonard Lance (NJ-7)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2)
John McHugh (NY)
Dave Reichert (WA)
Chris Smith (NJ-4))

The first thing you may notice that they have in common is that they are all Republicans from Democratic states (California, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Washington). What you may not have taken notice of is that each (perhaps with the exception of Washington) represent districts based around major financial hubs; New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Southern California. The “cap and trade” legislation not only attempts to limit (cap) carbon emissions, but also to create a market for trading carbon credits. Those in the financial industry are likely to profit off of the trading of carbon credits (some have called this the coming “Green Bubble”), meanwhile leaving average consumers with significantly higher energy costs and put companies in industries such as coal mining and refining out of business.

These eight Republicans who voted for Waxman-Markey are likely members who have a long standing record on standing with “environmentalists” on similar issues and have bought into the concept of man-made global warming. But, it should also be considered that their financial backers are likely thinking of a “green” future in the trading of carbon credits.

- Brian Koss
http://kosscountry.blogspot.com/

Brian Koss is conservative political strategist. He is a recent graduate of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. He tolds a B.A. in Political Science from Oakland University.