Draped in a flag, carrying a cross

With all of the struggles Michigan faces right now, it’s good to know that things aren’t so bad that religious zealots and “patriots” like Senator Patrick Colbeck have time to worry about censorship in the teaching of American History in our classrooms. This week, Colbeck introduced a bill to remedy this egregious (and essentially nonexistent) problem. The bill is modeled after legislation promoted and passed in 2001 by far-right conservative and tea party goddess Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Bachmann’s bill copies a law passed in North Carolina in 1997.

Details after the jump.

Your tax dollars at work

Domino’s founder and billionaire Tom Monaghan filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration late last year, fighting the mandatory coverage of contraception provision in the Affordable Care Act. Monaghan calls contraception use “gravely immoral” and doesn’t want to have to pay for his employees’ health insurance if the insurance covers birth control.

This 19th Century puritan is using his vast wealth to promote his religious “morality” and force others to abide by his rules. It’s not enough for him to make the personal choice not to use contraceptives. Instead, he feels the need to impose it on others as well.

Our far right conservative Attorney General here in Michigan, Bill Schuette, has now entered the suit, filing a brief in support of Monaghan’s moral crusade.

Details after the jump.

Bra·zen [brey–zuhn], adjective: shameless or impudent

On January 15th, Americans for Prosperity held a “Citizens Watchdog Training” in Warren, Michigan. As usual, the entrance fee was a nominal $10 because he entire event was heavily subsidized and underwritten by the Koch Brothers-funded corporate front group.

At the event, tea party Senator Patrick Colbeck was very forthright in explaining how multimillionaire Dick DeVos and Michigan Republican Chair Ron Weiser bankrolled the effort to make Michigan the country’s 24th Right to Work state. Audio and transcript after the jump.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s 2013…

The button shown above is the actual one that was worn by my mother when she marched, with me at her side, with 85,000 others in Chicago, during a rally for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1980. 59¢ was how much women in 1980 earned for every dollar a man made for the same job.

Today that number is 77¢. In 33 years, women have only gained 18¢ in their struggle for paycheck fairness. At that rate, to paraphrase Laurie Anderson, it will be the year 2055 before they make a buck. That is, unless Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski and Connecticut Congresswoman Rose DeLauro have anything to say about it.

Much, much more after the jump.

No, we are NOT letting this go

Tomorrow night is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s State of the State address. Given his track record over the past year, particularly in the past two months, there’s no reason why any of us should believe a word he says. He spent $144,000 to run a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, bragging about crushing our labor unions by making Michigan the 24th Right to Work for Less state, something he claimed he was not interested in doing. He’s made it harder for Michigan women to obtain legal abortions. He’s raised taxes on over half of Michigan residents, hitting those hurting worst the hardest. He’s basically done everything possible to make Michigan hostile to workers and a low-wage Mecca for businesses with a little far-right conservative ideology thrown in for good measure.

Meanwhile, Republicans voted a known perpetrator of election fraud, Jase Bolger, as the Speaker of the House again.

If you are in the Lansing area tomorrow afternoon/evening, consider joining the AFL-CIO and others from around the state to protest what Governor Snyder and his drunk-with-power ideologically-driven Republican colleagues have done and continue to do to our state.

Details are after the jump.

Go outside and play, children. Grown-ups are trying to govern.

There was a time when a handful of legislators could cast a political protest vote against raising the debt ceiling in this country and it didn’t make a bit of difference because, at the end of the day, everybody knew that the majority of lawmakers, including Republicans, would vote to raise it. They have to. They are paying for things they have already spent money on. Barack Obama did this as a Senator in 2006 and admits now that it “was just an example of a new senator making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country”.

But what’s happening now is completely different. Republicans and conservatives are actually contemplating defaulting on the bills we owe. And that changes everything.

Much more analysis after the jump.

Aw, geez…

Thanks largely to the absurdity of conservatives and Republicans in Michigan, our fair state continues to be the butt of jokes nationally. From the Daily Show to The Colbert Report and beyond, we have become the laughing stock of the country.

Details including the most recent foray into Absurdistan after the jump.

Yeeouch

After Secretary of State and Superwoman Hillary Clinton collapsed due to flu-related dehydration and exhaustion and bonked her head last month, conservative conspiracy theorists descended on Fox News and various right-wing failblogs to explain that she was making up her concussion to avoid having to testify on the attack at the Benghazi embassy on September 11th that resulted in the deaths of four Americans.

At a December 17th State Department daily press briefing, Fox News “reporter” Justin Fishel asked a question that seemed to imply that he was making this absolutely absurd accusation.

The response from the State Department after the fact is nothing short of epic. Check it out after the jump.

Thirty-fourth time’s a charm?

Republicans have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act since it was passed. The last time was in July 2012. That was the 33rd attempt.

Today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann introduced legislation to try it again for the 34th time.

More idiocracy after the fold.

Small government, my butt

As I wrote last week, the hypocritical “small government” Republicans passed 282 bills during the short inflamed duck session. So many, in fact, that when Governor Snyder took a holiday break outside of the state, Lt. Governor Brian Calley was enlisted to sign 50 of them.

More after the Eclectablog cliff.

Michigan Republicans owe me $57.50

My kids are in town today and we decided to drive to The Henry Ford to see The Hobbit in 3D and Imax (squee!) It had been snowing and blowing for a couple hours and there were three inches or so of snow on the ground. The road in front of our house was pretty slick but I knew that, once I got on I-94, the main highway into Detroit, I’d be fine. It’s a main artery, after all, with heavy truck and commuter traffic.

We got 5 miles down the highway and decided that it was simply too dangerous to continue. We saw three accidents with cars and trucks in the ditch, one all the way into the woods on the side of the road.

For three inches of snow.

My rant after the jump.