Score one for the Good Guys

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers, who didn’t even have a meeting scheduled as of late last week, has hastily scheduled one for tomorrow (pdf).

Why?

I’ll show you after the jump.

BRAAA-AAAINS!!!

With the approval of the PA 4 repeal ballot initiative imminent, the predictable (and predicted) fight over what happens next is fully underway.

Using a truly astonishing act of mental gymnastics and pretzel logic, Republicans, aided and abetted by Attorney General Bill Schuette, are convinced that we will simply revert to the original statute, Public Act 72. Though this law gave Emergency Financial Managers much less abusive authority than the Emergency Managers under Public Act 4, those municipalities and school districts currently under the thumb of a local dictator beg to differ with this view of things.

Join me on the Zombie Law Roller Coaster after the jump.

NOW we’re getting somewhere

This morning the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order directing the Board of State Canvassers to certify the nearly quarter million petition signatures to put repeal of the anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law on the November ballot.

More after the jump.

Irony this large needs a zip code

In what may be one of the most ironic stories of the year so far, Joe Harris says he’s being forced out of his position as the Emergency Manager of Benton Harbor.

Gee, Joe, I wonder what it’s like to lose power as a person in charge in that town? I guess you could as the Benton Harbor City Commissioners. They’d certainly know since you were the one who forced them out of power.

More after the jump.

I didn’t see that one coming at all

This wrote about Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s brief to the Michigan Supreme Court in which she says that if the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 are insufficient to meet the rules set out in our state constitution, the so are ALL of the other ballot initiative’s petitions. My comment in that post was that “gives me hope” and I suggested that this was an unintended and undesirable side effect of this court challenge.

I’m having second thoughts on that.

Didn’t think of THAT didjya?

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson filed a brief (pdf) with the state Supreme Court last week that gives me hope. In the case the Court is hearing in front of a packed courtroom today regarding the font size issue with the Public Act 4 repeal petitions, her office suggested that if the PA 4 repeal petitions are disqualified, the petitions for ALL SIX of the other ballot initiatives would also be disqualified.

Details after the jump.

Public Act 4: Anti-democratic, anti-American

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 25th, the Michigan state Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the petitions used to gather signatures to put Public Act 4, Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law. At issue is whether or not a concocted lie about the font size of a single phrase on the petition, “REFERENDUM OF LEGISLATION”, is enough to disenfranchise Michigan voters and throw away the voice of the nearly quarter million people who signed the petitions.

You can join the protest at the Supreme Court tomorrow and free bus rides are available from around the state. Details after the jump.

Welcome! We saved you a seat!

After sitting on the sidelines for over a year in the battle to repeal Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — the Michigan AFL-CIO labor union has now entered the fray. They are participating in a rally at the Michigan Court of Appeals next Wednesday.

Details after the jump.

March for Democracy and Freedom in Michigan

UPDATE: This march has been cancelled. See my update HERE.

For five days later this month, July 23-27, the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network will march from Detroit to Lansing along Grand River Avenue, to protest the egregious actions of Republicans in Michigan. From overreaching voter suppression laws to the Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — activists from around the state are outraged by Republican efforts to disenfranchise Michigan voters.

An organizing meeting will take place this Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (6100 14th Street, Detroit.)

I spoke with Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan Chapter of NAN this afternoon. He told me that this march is modeled after the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965.

A tangled web of Big Business interests wants to disenfranchise YOU! When most of us think of the Chamber of Commerce, it’s likely that what comes to mind is your local Chamber working to promote local businesses in your community. But when it comes to state and federal level Chambers, however, the truth is that they have a dedicated agenda […]

“Fiscal Responsibility” – I don’t think that means what you think it means

The absurdly named group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility is taking their disenfranchising and deceitful case regarding the Public Act 4 repeal petition font size to the state supreme court.

Keep in mind that they already lost at the Court of Appeals level, including a rejection by the entire 28-judge appeals court panel. The Court of Appeals made it very clear the long-established precedent regarding “substantial compliance” of petitions is governs this case. {more…}