The Cranes of Pickerel Lake

By on May 5, 2010 in Michigan

Last Friday, my wife Anne C. Savage and I took a mental health break by putting our kayaks into Pickerel Lake northwest of Dexter, Michigan to drink some beer and check out the wildlife. You have probably already seen her remarkable photo of the newborn baby Canada Goose peering out from under the wing of her mother. This photo is of one of several Sandhill Cranes we saw.


Click for a larger version

There were actually two of them, apparently scouting for a nesting site. Anne proceeded to snap photos.

Anne photographing two cranes (seen in the reeds)

As we floated quietly, Anne photographing the 5-foot tall birds and me sipping my beer, I took this photo of Anne with my iPhone then fired up my iPhone iTalk app.…


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OFA Wall Street Reform Day of Action – TOMORROW!

By on May 5, 2010 in Organizing For America

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 6th, Organizing for America (OFA) is holding a nationwide Wall Street Reform Day of Action. Across the country, thousands of OFA volunteers will attend phone banks to call constituents in districts with wavering Senators. Like we did with health insurance reform, we’ll be urging our supporters to call their Senator to urge them to support comprehensive Wall Street Reform legislation.

Will you join us?


From the OFA page:

Wall Street reform is gaining steam in the Senate, and a vote could come very soon.

But the big banks are ramping up their effort to carve out loopholes and exemptions — or block the bill altogether.

…


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Kalamazoo High School wins Race to the Top Competition

By on May 4, 2010 in Barack Obama, Michigan, President Obama

More good news for Michigan! Looks like President Obama will be back to make yet another Commencement address in June.

Congratulations to Kalamazoo Central High School for winning the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. This means President Obama will speak at their Commencement ceremony on June 10th at 7:00 p.m.

Well done!


Here’s the official White House press release:

Kalamazoo Central High School Wins Commencement Challenge
National winner selected by President Obama for commencement speech

WASHINGTON – The White House and the Department of Education today announced Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as the winner of the first annual Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge.

…


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OMFG – CuteCuteCuteCuteCuteCute…

By on May 3, 2010 in Uncategorized

Click the pic for a larger version

Rare to see, even more rare to photograph. My wife and I saw this wonderful sight of a brandy-new just-born baby goose peaking out from his mother’s wing while kayaking last Friday. And Anne was there to get the shot.

Q: Does it get any cuter than this?

A: No.

I’m just sayin’…

…

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Michigan

“Doctor” Obama speaks to grads and the country

By on May 2, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Barack Obama, Michigan, President Obama

Please Digg this blog entry HERE. Thanks!

For those attending the 2010 Spring Commencement ceremony at the University of Michigan, the day started around 4 a.m. We arrived at the U of M football stadium, “The Big House” (capacity: 108,000), at 6 a.m. to pick up our press credentials. The rain started shortly thereafter and we spent the next three hours standing in the pouring rain with lightning flashing over our heads, tweeting and Facebooking and photographing.

The threatening weather was an apt metaphor for the economic and political climate facing our state and facing these graduating young people as they move to the next phase in their lives.…


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What will Obama tell UMich graduates tomorrow?

By on April 30, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Barack Obama, President Obama

Sometimes blogging has its privileges. My wife, a fabulous photographer, and I have media passes to see President Obama’s commencement address to the graduating class of the University of Michigan tomorrow.

With Michigan at the absolute bottom of the pile in terms of unemployment, home foreclosures devastating our neighborhoods and businesses hurting in every part of the state, big and small alike, what will President Obama say to these young people as they graduate and head off into the world?

I believe that his message will be directed at them but that it will also be aimed at the country as a whole.…


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The “10 years of taxes for 6 years of spending” lie

By on April 29, 2010 in Conservatives, GOP, GOPocrisy, Republican-Fail

I posted blog entry yesterday where I highlighted the out-of-touch nature of a GOP candidate in my Congressional district (MI-07) with regard to the new health insurance reform law. On my Facebook page, I got an earful from a guy who said this about it:

It uses 10 years of tax receipts to pay for 6 years of benefits – does that sound sustainable?

This GOP talking point is being propagated around the internets. I see it at rallies and in sound bites by GOPocrites around the country. It’s posted on forums and endlessly on SpaceMyBookFace sites here and there and everywhere.…


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Tim Walberg: Out of touch on health insurance reform

By on April 28, 2010 in MI-07, Organizing For America

On Monday night, former MI-07 Congressman Tim Walberg (shown here with his friend Michele Bachman who, thankfully, did not attend), held a “townhall” meeting in Chelsea, MI to discuss “repealing and replacing the recently passed health care bill.” Given that Barack Obama will be president after the November elections, the premise of the townhall was pretty bizarre to begin with.

But the event itself was really bizarre.


Michigan Organizing for America volunteers arrived at the Chelsea clock tower an hour before Mr. Walberg’s event to show their support for the freshly-minted reform law.

We started out in front of the clock tower itself where we were most visible and then moved to the other end of the complex where the meeting was being held to greet attendees as they entered the parking lot.…


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