This level of hypocrisy is truly breathtaking Tim Walberg has sent out emails to his constituents twice in the past month bragging about his votes to “keep government running”. On September 20th there was this one: Then, on October 5th came this one: As I pointed out after first one, these weren’t votes to reopen government in any real sense. […]

Why indeed? Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Steven Rhodes, the federal judge in charge of determining whether Detroit’s bankruptcy filing is legal, asked a fair question of state officials this week regarding the Republicans’ disregard for the will of the people in overturning Public Act 4, Michigan’s Emergency Manager law. The law was overturned in the 2012 […]

The height of GOPocrisy Michigan Republican Mike Rogers chairs the House Intelligence Committee and recently said the Republican shutdown of the federal government “is putting America’s national security at risk”. “Removing government funding is impacting intelligence staff which is making our nation less safe,” Rogers’ spokeswoman Kelsey Knight said Thursday. “He believes shutting down is putting America’s national security at […]

We Will Make Them Famous And You Will Know Their Names Things are not looking good for the Republican Party these days. Poll after poll shows that they are bleeding support in literally historic fashion. Here’s the most recent Gallup poll: [Image credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog] With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives engaged in a tense, government-shuttering […]

Plausible deniability or intentional obfuscation? [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] Depositions were taken in an ongoing lawsuit this week that seeks to determine if the State of Michigan negotiated in good faith with unions before declaring bankruptcy in Detroit. Yesterday, Governor Snyder took his turn and some of the deposition is on tape. One […]

I see what you’re doing here. We all do. I think all of us are, like Amy described in her righteous rant yesterday, sick and tired of being held hostage by extremist right wing ideologues who behave like petulant children when they don’t get absolutely everything they want. What’s most infuriating about it is that these very same ideologues have […]

Let’s stop this talk about Democrats refusing to negotiate and compromise. It’s a lie. [Photo credit: Chris Savage | Eclectablog] I am continuously astonished by how well Republicans are able to shape reality and perceptions. Honestly, with enough focus group work by Pete Luntz and poll-testing of messaging, they can convince Americans of nearly anything. The fact that our media […]

When you don’t have the support of the voters of Michigan, you have to go around them. Or OVER them. Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. Last May, I wrote about how the forced-birth group Right to Life of Michigan, furious that Governor Snyder had vetoed the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” legislation send to him by the […]

Why can’t Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz debate… for America? Being against “government” is generally a pretty easy gig. You just blame it for everything you don’t like. The last week has become a spectacle of Republicans having to admit over and over again that government does good, necessary things that aren’t being funded because the House won’t even vote […]

Such utterly blatant pandering ought to be below ANY politician. Even tea partiers. It was a VERY busy couple of days at the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. First, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann made an utter spectacle of herself, diving in front of cameras to slather herself in patriotic, anti O-BAH-mah rhetoric with elderly WWII vets as a […]

What IS it about Texas Republicans??? I posed this Q&A on Twitter this morning: Q: If a bad guy says, "Come closer and I'll shoot this guy" and someone comes closer, who do you blame for the guy getting shot? A: Obama. — Chris Savage (@Eclectablog) October 3, 2013 This is, at its most basic level, the situation in Congress […]