Whoa. A mainstream media figure gets it. John Avlon, senior columnist at Newsweek and Daily Beast contributor asks, in a piece for CNN, “Are Republicans at war with reality?”. So here’s what I learned watching Thursday night’s Republican debate: States’ rights should rule the day, unless you’re gay. Small government is the rule unless a rapist impregnates his victim. Loyalty […]

Nice job, GOP. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped more than 500 points today, one day after the index staged an impressive late day rally erasing a more that 200-point drop to end the day in the black . The 512-point plunge makes Thursday Aug. 4, 2011 one of the top 10 worst days in Dow history in terms of […]

With Mitch McConnell’s declaration earlier this year that his main political goal is ensuring that Barack Obama is a one-term president, everything else that has happened since makes sense. But there’s something that happened in the negotiations between the White House, Congressional Democrats and Congressional Republicans that tells you, beyond a doubt and without any room for argument, that the […]

I’m pretty stunned by this. Last fall, the voters approved “Proposition B”, a bill that puts stronger regulations on so-called “puppy mills”, breeding facilities that prioritize cranking out large numbers of puppies over the welfare of the animals themselves. Last week, Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives overturned the will of the voters by passing a bill to reverse […]

Seriously, who are these people and what have you done with my Democrats? These people appear to have a clue about how to effectively deliver their message with a *punch* and succinctly frame the debates of the day. Here’s Congressman Joe Crowley of New York. You won’t want to miss this. Here’s the message in total: LAST FALL THE AMERICAN […]

Last December the Republicans in Congress held unemployed Americans hostage in order to secure tax breaks for the nation’s über-wealthy. It was a strategy that worked because Democrats, including President Obama, were unwilling to sacrifice the welfare of our most-vulnerable citizens simply to win a political battle. Once again the country finds the GOP in a hostage-taking situation. In order […]

A legislative aide to Michigan State Representative Jeff Farrington, Bryan Brandenburg, sent an email this week announcing a female colleague’s recent break-up, saying, “She’s a dem, but she’s hot.” Instead of sending the email to a small group of Congressional associates, he ended up sending it to every member of the Republican legislative staff. Subject: 25/F/Capitol Building. “Hey guys, “I […]

UPDATE: Barb over at the Eclectablog Facebook Page suggested that we keep updating the list below so if you have something to add, email me at eclectablog at gmail yada yada and I’ll include it! Borrowing a phrase from the inimitable Bob Cesca, but, honestly, have the Republicans really gone over the edge? Have they really lost their schpadoinkle??? Just […]

In Michigan, counties are reapportioned into districts by Reapportionment Commissions after each census. The Reapportionment Commissions are, by law, required to be made up of the county prosecutor, county treasurer, county clerk, and the two heads of the two county parties that received the most votes in the last election for secretary of state. In Oakland County, Michigan, this means […]

Last night on the Rachel Maddow Show where Rachel did a fine job outlining what’s going on in Michigan right now. Check it out: Basically, GOP members of Congress in Michigan are pushing through legislation that would allow the governor to declare a financial emergency in any given town, village, city or township and immediately put that municipality under the […]

Michigan’s workforce development agency, Michigan Works!, will close its doors if a Republican budget plan passed by the US House of Representatives this week is made into law. Michigan Works would have to shut down under a budget passed by the U.S. House, though the Senate has not backed the spending cuts. The statewide work force development agency, which serves […]