FOR THE DREAM CRUISE HATERS

and all the people that complain how it disrupts business on Woodward. Does it disrupt some businesses? Of course. But overall it brings a tremendous amount of money to local business. A recent market survey finds local business made out to the tune of 56 million dollars in last year's Dream Cruise. How huge a deal is that? Compare it to the Tigers playoff run a few years back, 37.8 million extra. Or the MLB All-Star game, 42 million. Or even Super Bowl XL...49.3 million dollars. Yes, even bigger local business impact than Detroit's hosting the Super Bowl. Complain all you want about this great event, but it's just as great for business as it is for the people.

DREAM CRUISE

I live very near Woodward. Today (Friday, a day before Dream Cruise) at 1 in the afternoon, I needed to drive on it between 14 and 13 Mile. That one mile took me about ten minutes. I do not mind one bit.

Everyone is entitled to their feelings, and I know so many folks who live near Woodward who hate this time of year. Neighbors who abandon their homes and head up north for four days just to avoid it. I get that it can feel like an inconvenience. I also get that almost anything can feel like a pain in the ass if you let yourself be negative and look at it the wrong way.

People make fun of the guys who'll park their cruisers and just sit next to them all day, waiting for someone to come ask them questions about it it seems. In a not serious way, I've even kidded guys like that. But truth is I'm so glad they're there. Dream Cruise makes a special part of the country even more fantastic. Dream Cruise let's the soul of our area come out to play once a year. You can be an elitist and make fun of "blue collar rednecks staring at cars" all you want, but isn't the working man what made and still makes this entire region? You can complain about the crowds, but isn't there something field-of-dreamesque about how they will come every year? Isn't there a certain energy you can't help but tap into when you take in the sight of a 64 and a half Mustang and a Rolls Royce and a black & white Blues Brothers mobile all within a hundred feet of each other? People who don't get Dream Cruise don't get that it's not just about cars. It's about all walks of life drawing together and tapping into that which we still have in common...that common ground of romantic nostalgia (not just for cars but for each of our own pasts) and camaraderie, all in a free event that is shockingly trouble free year after year. The smell of burning tires and exhaust mixed with food and the occasional beer to me is intoxicating.

Maybe it's because the very first thing I experienced when I moved here years ago was Dream Cruise. I had rented a small home in Beverly Hills, not far at all from Woodward, and the very day I rolled into town was the day of Dream Cruise, the real one, the Saturday itself. It was 1999. I was tired from the drive in from the east coast, and I knew nothing about where to go buy food, gas or anything else for that matter. I was nervous to be starting this brand new show in 48 hours with no time to prepare a damn thing. And I walked up 14 Mile Rd. to Woodward to this amazing sight. I'd never seen anything like it. The vibe I got from all the people I saw and the few I talked to was tremendous. I'm from the east coast, where everyone is uptight and closed down. These people were still tough, but real, and open, and not afraid to have a good time, and I was instantly sure I'd made the right decision in taking the job.

So maybe I just associate Dream Cruise with everything else I love about Michigan all rolled into one. They say first impressions are lasting. '08's been a tough year, riding out this non-compete clause and all. But I'll stand on Woodward tomorrow and see the dads with their kids, smell the burning rubber, the cooking food, watch three generations at a time take in the past, hear the thunder of engines defying the green movement like rockstars that never get old, check out the Michigan girls who are the hottest in the whole world, stare at the coolest damn machines dreamed up by your fathers and grandfathers, and feel so damn lucky to be there looking at the past and looking forward to the future.

KWAME USING HIS KIDS

Look at this excerpt from one of the Free Press articles on Kwame's incarceration. He's trying to convince the judge to go easy on him, and this asshole brings up his children. Didn't he tell those in media not so long ago to leave his family alone? Leave his family out of this? Now here he is trying to seem contrite and using his own children like pawns to remind a judge that he'll be hurting children by putting their daddy away. Trust me, that's what he's doing here. What a coward. What a pussy.


"My life has been revolutionarily transformed and it's transforming in front of the eye of these media people who don't know me at all," he said, referring to what he called intense scrutiny. "Your honor, I ask for your forgiveness... it will never happen again."
He said his sons were watching these proceedings because he asked them to. "I told them that I did something wrong," he said.

KWAME GOES TO JAIL!

STORY FROM DETROIT NEWS...

Thursday, August 7, 2008
Mayor Kilpatrick to spend night in jail
Doug Guthrie and David Josar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A judge on Thursday ordered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail, shocking the city and plunging the leadership of the nation's 11th-largest city into uncertainty.
Despite a plea from Kilpatrick that invoked his sons, his respect for the judicial process and his love of the city, 36th District Judge Ronald Giles was unmoved. He revoked Kilpatrick's bond, ordering him to jail on a bond violation for a July 23 trip to Windsor.
As Kilpatrick's lips quivered, Giles ended a short speech by concluding: "If it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting in the seat, what would I do? That answers something. So I go back to my original, 'Keep it simple.'
"That's what I have to do ... the court is revoking your bond, that all travel be suspended, and two, that you to be remanded to Wayne County Jail."
Wayne County sheriff's deputies were expected to pick up Kilpatrick from 36th District Court at noon and transport him to the main jail on St. Antoine, said John Roach, a spokesman for Sheriff Warren Evans. At 11:30 a.m., he said deputies were still working out lodging arrangements, such as whether Kilpatrick will be in solitary confinement.
Kilpatrick will spend the night in jail. His attorneys immediately appealed to Wayne Circuit Judge Thomas E. Jackson, who said he will hear the appeal at 9 a.m. Friday.
The order from Giles came after Kilpatrick threw himself at the court's mercy, acknowledging he violated the terms of his bond with the trip.
He said he instructed his sons to watch the proceedings because he respects the process so much. Appearing contrite, he said he is under "tremendous strain and scrutiny" but traveled to Windsor to revive a sagging deal to sell the city's share of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and avert 2,000 layoffs looming in September without the $65 million deal.
"I respect this process more than I've respected any process in my life and I'm sorry," said Kilpatrick, who wore a gray suit.
"I did violate the conditions of this bond."
A lawyer, Kilpatrick said his life has been "revolutionarily transformed" by the criminal case and "transformed by a media that doesn't know me at all. I ask for your forgiveness. It will never happen again."
Giles wasn't convinced. Earlier in the proceeding, he asked Kilpatrick's attorney, James C. Thomas, why he had to learn about the case from the media.
"Who was dying? Who was sick?" Giles asked.
"The city of Detroit," Thomas said.
In sending Kilpatrick to jail, Giles said:
"I don't in any way claim to have a good understanding of what your responsibilities are and what you do," he said. "I do understand you have to be under a tremendous amount of pressure and how that can affect you. But I have to look at how the system is run and is perceived by the public.
"I don't care what the media says about me. I really don't. I never have. I try to do what I think is right and fair...
"In this case, in the beginning, you were given every privilege that could be given to you in regards to travel, totally unrestricted initially. (Later) I felt you were abusing the privilege, and I modified the bond."
The mayor's bottom lip stuck out, and he had his fingers to his mouth as Giles spoke.
It's unclear who is running Detroit.
Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. said the latest development should increase pressure on Kilpatrick to step down. Kilpatrick has resisted those calls since he was charged in March.
"It's just another unfortunate chapter," he said. "This is another set of world wide headlines that make us an international punch-line.
"Behind the scenes, momentum for him to go is building," Cockrel said.
But he's not convinced that it will change Kilpatrick's grip on his job.
"I'm not in his head," Cockrel said. "I don't see how the city's best interests are served by prolonging the agony with this.
"It's not good for the region and not good for the state."
Cockrel said he has a 100-day plan if he has to take over as mayor, but declined to get into specifics.
"Should it become necessary, I am prepared to step up and do what I need to do," Cockrel said. "It started thinking about it a couple months ago."
Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran had asked the judge to revoke the bail -- and at the very least restrict his travel -- because Kilpatrick "isn't taking responsibility" for violating his bond with the 45-minute trip to Windsor.
"He didn't notify anyone ... he left country, he left the state ...but we found out about it from the media," Moran said. "That is a flagrant violation of bond."
"This is just not serious to him," Moran said. "We want the travel cut off ... this court should be outraged."
An attorney for Kilpatrick, James Parkman, said Giles' order did not come as a surprise.
"There are some options that are less extreme," Parkman said, referring to tethering and restricted travel
The jailing came after Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, waived their right to a preliminary hearing in multiple felonies and agreed to proceed directly to trial.
The July 23 trip also happened the day before Kilpatrick allegedly had a physical confrontation with a Wayne County sheriff's detective that resulted in Giles increasing the mayor's personal recognizance bond to 10 percent of $75,000, tightening his travel restrictions and ordering random drug tests.
One of Kilpatrick's lawyers said Wednesday that he also expects the mayor will be charged soon by state Attorney General Mike Cox in connection with the July 24 incident in which Kilpatrick is alleged to have shoved Wayne County Detective Brian White, the chief criminal investigator on the case, on the front porch of the home of the mayor's sister, Ayanna.
White and prosecutor's investigator JoAnn Kinney testified at a bond hearing before Giles on July 25 that they were attempting to serve a subpoena on Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor and friend of Kilpatrick's who was expected to testify at the preliminary examination.
Also, Kilpatrick and Beatty are accused of lying under oath to cover an affair and the firing of a deputy police chief; and misleading the City Council into an $8.4 million settlement with a secret side agreement to keep secret hide text messages that allegedly reveal the lies.
Both were charged March 24 with multiple crimes that carry a maximum of up to 15 years in prison. Although a preliminary examination where a judge decides if there is enough evidence to bind defendants over for trial in Wayne County Circuit Court usually happens within 14 days, battles over evidence in this case caused Giles to delay the probable cause hearing until Sept. 22.
The Rev. Horace Sheffield, a leader on a fund to raise money for the mayor, said he hopes the mayor will offer up some sort of deal to put an end to the situation.
"I love the mayor like my own son," Sheffield said. "But even my son at some point would have to learn to abide by the restraints he placed upon himself."
"While the mayor should be working himself out of this, he's giving others further reasons to bury him," Sheffield said. "My prayers are with him. I would hope that at some point that he would recognize how serious this is."
Political consultant Sam Riddle, a onetime adviser to Councilwoman Monica Conyers, said Kilpatrick will go to jail "because of his own arrogance."
"It's a good lesson for him. No one is above the law. He's always behaved as if he was above the law," Riddle said.
"If he really loved the city like he says he does, he would step down now. But he won't do that because he's selfish and self-serving."
You can reach Doug Guthrie at (313) 222-2548 or dguthrie@detnews.com.

DOES MY HOPING HIS SHORT PRISON STINT RESEMBLES THIS MAKE ME A BAD PERSON?
CLICK HERE... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNm-GwnDZ0

ALSO, SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR KWAME... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5S-H4uE0y0