A couple of things stood out for me watching Virg Bernero’s gutsy move to invade Rick Snyder’s 59th Town Hall meeting yesterday. First, it was a brilliant decision by Bernero to use Snyder’s ducking debates to grab lots of attention from a media that is bored silly with the frontrunner’s outsized lead in the polls…
Image via Wikipedia Seeing convention Chair Brooks Patterson called an “asshole” Saturday by angry, shouting tea party delegates at the Republican State Convention reminded me that comparisons to the last big takeover of the GOP–in the 1980s–only go so far. The evangelical Christians who 30 years ago organized themselves into virtual control of the…
Image by Urban~Spaceman via Flickr The inmates are taking over the asylum. In a big and incredibly under-reported story that some of us who count tea bags have been predicting for weeks now, the far right tea party caucus of the Michigan Republican Party is taking over. Thousands of cranky “tea party” types showed up…
Catholics are praying, the feds are mobilized, and BP is hiring local Louisiana fishers to help fight the massive and catastrophic BP oil spill. Me, I’m frustrated, angry and agree with the suggestion that anyone who shouted “Drill, baby, drillâ€â€”especially Sarah Palin—be required to go down to Louisiana and start scooping up the oily mousse…
Michigan’s budget crisis shows no signs of being resolved anytime soon. In the meantime, Michigan’s students face devastation because of sharp cuts in school funding. Our students are not getting the education they need to compete for good paying jobs because Michigan’s budget cuts have taken away vital resources. Worse, it has led to teachers…
Michiganders Hold Vigils to Protest Extreme Arizona Immigration Law Legislation opposed by law enforcement, mandates racial profiling Detroit Saturday, April 24, 1:00 PM Western High School, 1500 Scotten State Representatives Tlaib and Young UNITE-HERE Local 24 Political Director Dia Pearce Ann Arbor Saturday, April 24, 1:00 PM Federal Building, 200 E. Liberty In response to…
If you want to know the meaning of hypocrisy, take a minute to observe those much-touted millionaire CEOs from Michigan aka Business Leaders for Michigan in action. With their usual flair for faulty, bended statistics and green eyeshade vision, Business Leaders for Michigan wrote state lawmakers urging them to take back a 3% raise slated…
From Virginia to Jackson, Michigan Democratic candidates were slapped silly by Republicans because Democratic voters stayed home. If there is one lesson learned from Tuesday’s election I hope it’s that Democrats absorb the reality that they cannot win without base support from progressives, African-Americans, young people and union members. And that base voters will abandon…
The Michigan Senate yesterday went soft on crime and voted to repeal the 1800s era law that made dueling a crime in our state. So what, you say, there are assault crimes and other laws on the books that would seem to make dueling an arcane holdover from another era. But wait… We have watched…
The trio of Democratic leaders–the governor, Speaker Dillon and Senate Dem Leader Prusi–are now behind a proposal to raise just under $400 million in new revenues for 2010 and it is expected to go public tomorrow with a series of votes in the state House. Revenue sharing to local governments, Promise grants, Medicaid, libraries and…