Russ Harding, he of the extreme right-wing advocacy group masquerading as a think tank, The Mackinac Center, had a wonderfully timed opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press this weekend. It is time to deflate the green energy bubble in Michigan before it does even more economic harm. Perfectly timed because this morning, one “green…
Why do kids under the age of ten need firearms? To hunt for and kill their own food, which, under the policies of the Gov. Rick Snyder administration, they’ll need to do to survive. If social safety net programs are set on automatic timers, and kids can only be clothed in what’s available on discount…
Democrats in the state House of Representatives launched a tool today that will measure Michigan’s progress on education, clean air, job creation, etc. If it sounds a little bit like Gov. Rick Snyder’s dashboard approach, that’s because it is — intentionally. From the website: The Governor says state government should be outcome-based, and we couldn’t…
There’s not a lot of room to contribute original commentary on Martin Luther King, Jr., what he meant for oppressed people fighting for civil rights and equality, etc. But thinking back to a video my youngest brother watched in second grade, shown by the only African-American teacher in the entire school district, I was struck…
The state Rep. defends his position on cuts to state lawmakers & officials benefits / perks packages. From the comments of the post on the ever-timely Michigan Liberal: Let me also make another simple point. We get worked up over legislative pay, but make no mention that a new head football coach at a State…
Rick Santorum says Social Security is going bankrupt (which is a lie) because we don’t have enough workers contributing to the fund. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion. Oh, I see. I thought…
Ezra Klein, who just seems to have the answers to everything, has the magic bullet again. This time, it’s how to cut the federal deficit in half. Just let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012… He’s got a very simple, explanatory graph up as well, and makes this brilliant point: Even better, because expiration…
Bonnie B. at the Lansing Online News has a must-read piece today about what’s behind the full-bore assault on higher ed, and what we should do about it. Just as NAFTA initiated a race to the bottom for Midwest factory workers, the new austerity promoted by the GOP will gut public education, while deflating the…
Recommended reading from The Nerd‘s Facebook page, skewering Michigan’s universities for hiring more administrators and giving pay raises. Ironic money quote: “There are too many administrators making too much money,” he said. Please note the “he” is not Snyder, but an EMU faculty rep who seems to stand in for the Snyder administration’s position. Interesting,…
From the mixed up files of Mr. Kwame Kilpatrick’s long fall from grace (and non-incarcerated society) comes his admission that, if he had to do it all over again, he’d lie about his affair with then-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty. “I thought it was more important to protect my wife, and so I…