Seven Republicans puttheir fate in the hands ofabout 122,000 IowansTuesday, Jan. 2 to gaugewhere they stood in thismarathon of political fer-vor we call an electioncycle. That semi-non-binding vote total was themeasuring stick thatweeded the already bick-ering field down to four.

Here is both the purityand the complete igno-rance of the process thatthese professional politi-cians voluntarily insertedthemselves into.

They are all basing thefuture of their campaignson a microfiche-thin por-tion of the electorate thatis notorious for not get-ting within the area codeof picking the nextPresident.

All of them spent mil-lions - except for RickSantorum, who did nothave to due to the factthat he was bringing upthe rear for the first 98 out

of 100 polls taken in theHawkeye State - trying towoo a miniscule segmentof voters they may have a5 percent interest in see-ing again beforeNovember.

There were straw polls,one of which MichelleBachmann somehow won- trips to fairs and dinersand overblown bus toursthrough some of the 99Iowa counties.

There was also the firsttest of the 2010 CitizensUnited ruling by theSupreme Court, whichremoved restrictions oncorporate and unionspending in elections. Sonow instead of candidatesspending their ownmoney to pummel theiropponent into the groundwith mostly baseless andusually smearing attackads, they can have somevaguely-named group doit for them under theguise of free speech.

Now candidates cankeep their money in theircoffers for more signs andhats while The Citizens forthe Continued MassProduction ofMarshmallows gets tospend endless sums ofmoney to bash whomeverthey choose in any man-ner they choose while thecandidate they supportstays clean. It is a conceptthat Mitt Romney has

already warmed to withthe help of super PACRestore Our Future.

No one knows anymore about Romney, RonPaul, Newt Gingrich orSantorum than they didwhen they were doingphoto ops next to buttersculptures last August.The only delineation thatvoters came away withwas the candidatesentrenching themselvesbehind the label “conser-vative” or “moderate” -both vague terms in theirown right that can beswayed or defined in 143different ways over thenext year.

All this caucus basicallydecided was nothingexcept the fact that itdecided nothing.

Yet this cherished bas-tion of electoral frozentundra remains some sortof shining diamond in thenomination process.

When the dust settled amere 5 percent of eligiblevoters turned out to votein both the Republicanand Democratic caucuses.Over 24,000 came out tovote for a president run-ning unopposed whileRomney “won” with justover 30,000 votes.

A state so ferociousabout keeping their spotat the head of the line canonly draw that percentageof eligible voters to gyms,

churches and town hallsto have their voices heard?

It is a state that isabout as diverse as theGobi desert, yet is sup-posed to be a representa-tion of the pulse of aparty? There are hundredsof counties in this countrythat are more diverse than

the state of Iowa, but theyare fawned over by candi-dates for almost a year todraw single-digit numbersto cast their caucus ballot.It is ludicrous on morelevels than I can count.

I will never understandit, but it is the system thatis in place and what these

professional lifelongpoliticians signed on forand what I get to gleefullycomment on for morethan a few months.

Contact Matthew Fahrat (586) 716-8100, ext. 300or at matt.fahr@voice-news.com.

Kids able toshop withheroes becauseof communitysupport

On Thursday, Dec. 15,the Lenox TownshipFirefighters Associationheld the annual ShopWith A Hero Program atthe Meijer store in LenoxTownship. This year theHeroes were able to take115 under privileged chil-dren on a shopping spreethat was capped off with avisit with Santa Claus and

a free pizza and pop partyprovided by Meijer. Thisevent could not be possi-ble without the help ofnumerous organizations,departments and individ-uals. A special thank yougoes out to: RichmondRotary, Living WordFellowship Church, WasteManagement, the boxingdepartment from AchatzPie Co., New HavenFirefighters Association,Richmond-Lenox EMS,Detroit Sector MWR ofHomeland Security, MaryLou Kraft and all of theemployees from theMacomb CorrectionalFacility EmployeesAssociation, Mark andKathy Dickey, Dave Marry,Chris and Jamie Boyd,Hillary Yamen, RonTrombly, Cheryl Albacelli,Nancy Hansen, BettyHartyway, Jodi Kethe,Robin Murphy, JeanetteVentimiglia, CarolSwantek, Karon

Ottenbacher, KathyHonold, Vickie Fouchia,Angie Lenont, BarbTrombly, Kathleen Klein,Ross Champagn, our newMeijer Store DirectorKimberly, all of the Meijeremployees and volun-teers, and a special thankyou to Dawn Baumgart.We thank each and everyone of you and wish youall a very safe and pros-perous New Year!CHIEF DENNY FOUCHIAandThe Lenox Twp.Firefighters Association

Donation, timefor Girls Scoutsappreciated

The Hope for theHungry food pantry ofLiving Hope of the Baychurch would like tothank the Girl Scouts ofTroop No. 30099 fromGreat Oaks Elementary forthe food they collected

and donated to our foodpantry recently. We appre-ciate both the donation aswell as your time to helpsupport our pantry.Without donations suchas yours, we would not beable to provide much-needed food for the lessfortunate in our commu-nity. The Girl Scout organ-ization has a long historyof helping those in need,and you should all beproud to be part of suchan organization. Thankyou again, and God blessyou all.KAREN WIEGANDCoordinator, Hope forthe Hungry food pantry

Cheer teamgrateful fordonations

The Algonac HighSchool VarsityCompetitive Cheer Teamwould like to thank thefollowing businesses for

their donations, makingour first cheer teamposter possible: TomWatkins - EloquentExpressions (photogra-pher), Print MastersPrinting Co., BaxterInsurance Agency,LifeCare ChiropracticClinic, LifeCare MartialArts Center, St. John’sMarsh Dental, OliverCarbide Products Inc., OnPoint Embroidery, BlueStar Demolition, Dana’sKitchen, and PriorPlumbing & Heating Inc.Our poster is on display inmany businesses in theAlgonac area, with ourschedule attached. Pleasecome and share in theexcitement as we host ourfirst BWAC League meeton Wednesday, Feb. 1 atAHS! Thank you!MICHELLE WYKOWSKI,coach andJULIE MYTINGER, cheerparentAlgonac

Stop the pricegouging

Let the voice of thepeople be heard. Verizonalready pulled their $2 feeto pay your phone bill.Now if we can only getSEMCO Gas Company todo the same? I used to paymy gas bill online for theconvenience of not havingto write a check and sendit in. But come onSEMCO, $5 to pay yourelectric bill online? Getyour act together. Thesecompanies cannot contin-ue to pull the wool over usconsumers any longer.There is no way in theworld that it costs anykind of money for an elec-tronic transaction. Thereare no people involved. SoI guess I go back to send-ing in my payment the oldfashioned way and it doesnot cost me anything.

Well I guess one way tolook at it is at least thepostage will help keep thepost office in business.Also at least someone at

SEMCO will have a job.Someone has to open myenvelope and process thecheck. I bet the personenters the check into thesame computer that auto-matically processes thecheck when you do itonline for $5. Price goug-ing the consumer muststop.ED GROPPIChesterfield

Attorney general subverting voter rights

Attorney General EricHolder is in the process oftrying to stop the state ofSouth Carolina frominstalling a photo identifi-cation voter law. I believe16 states already havesuch a law but he evident-ly doesn’t want any morestates to have it. I wouldsurmise it would be mucheasier in a close electionto install the Democraticcandidate into office byusing good old Chicago-style election rigging.Photo I.D. laws wouldmake the system muchless vulnerable to breechthe system.

But not to worry;President Obama standsby his attorney generalwho has also been

responsible for the fastand furious gun runningscandal with Mexico.Holder also filed federallawsuits against the stateof Arizona and a coupleother states for institutinglaws to help stop theinflux of illegal aliens intotheir states.O. HOHMANNColumbus

Deal with insurance truants

The MichiganCatastrophic ClaimsAssociation (MCCA)announced its assessmentto insurance companieswill be $143.09 perinsured vehicle effectiveJuly 1, 2010 to June 30,2011. This increase ofalmost 15 percent ($18.20)was attributed to longerperiods of treatment forinjured persons and lowerlong-term investmentassumptions.

The $143.09 assess-ment represents $116.84to cover claims, $26 toaddress the $2 billion esti-mated deficit, and $.25 foradministrative expenses.The current deficit is esti-mated at $290.71 perinsured vehicle. TheMCCA paid out $811(more than $115 per

insured vehicle) in 2009for claim costs.

This state of Michiganis the only state that has asetup like this. Seventy-four percent of the driversin Detroit alone do notcarry auto insurance. Notto mention the thousandsof drivers that only pur-chase their insuranceeither through a local oronline insurance compa-ny to pay just enough toregister their plates andnever pay the balance tokeep their insurance cur-rent.

A law should be passedthat any and all driversthat do not carry the min-imum amount of insur-ance required should havetheir vehicle impoundedor be required to pay thetotal amount of the autopolicy to keep their driv-ing privileges. We shouldalso be allowed to pur-chase out-of-state insur-ance because those whoobey the law should notbe stuck paying the asso-ciated costs for uninsureddrivers in this state.

In my family alonethere have been threeinstances where unin-sured drivers have causedus more than just higherinsurance premiums.From out-of-pocketexpense to replacing vehi-cles or other associated

costs, there has to besomething done to elimi-nate this problem. Justbecause someone thinksthey have nothing to lose,should not give them theright to walk away withoutpaying a single dime fortheir lack of responsibility.STEWART SALTERSLenox

Fracking worthour attention

I find it supremelyironic that Mr. Zmuda(“Fracking fears areoverblown,” Jan. 4, 2012)chose to submit his letterextolling the virtues andbenign safety of frackingright at the time when thepeople of Youngstown,Ohio suffered two earth-quakes in as many daysthat have been linked tofracking operations byseismologists fromColumbia University.Indeed the state of Ohiohas acted to stop all frack-ing operations while aninvestigation can be madeto determine the extent ofthe risk. Meanwhile thestate of Oklahoma hasendured over 50 earth-quakes in 2011 that canbe traced to frackingoperations there.

Finally, I must takeissue with Mr. Zmuda’sunderstanding of history

and the free market. If his-tory shows us anything itshows us that the “freemarket” is a myth. In factthe market place is sub-jected to manipulation forprofit that has become thenew business model forthe 21st Century. The oilindustry is a perfectexample. We are told to“Drill Baby, Drill,” yetthere are no guaranteesthat oil we drill here willbe sold here to reduce ourdependence on foreignsources. More likely it willend up in China. Theprice of gasoline is farmore dependent on themachinations of specula-tors than supply anddemand. Wall Street con-tinues to amass huge for-tunes by playing the sys-tem rather than investingin companies that actuallymake things and in sodoing, create jobs. It is theright and proper role ofgovernment to force cor-porations to do the rightthing even if it meansdecreased profits.DAVID SWAINRichmond

January 11, 2012

COMMENT OF THE WEEK“We all need reminders like this, adults andchildren alike. Be grateful for all that we have,whil remembering to help thos less fortunate.”

- “Peg K.” commenting on SusanBarrett Tater’s column about herfamily’s Kenyan vacation in her

Jan. 4 column.

PUT IT IN WRITINGThe Voice welcomes letters to the editor. Letters to the editor may be sent by e-mail,

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Matthew FahrColumnist

A ridiculous start toan exhaustive process

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