Whoever taught Young Republicans to say “straw man” deserves a royalty Get ready. Paul Ryan — the man who has already proposed a budget that would have led to the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich in American history — is about to propose a new budget featuring massive cuts that will make the austerity […]

Spoiler: It’s their shamelessness On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said that the president was willing to consider executive orders to help fight gun violence. Biden was purposely vague to remind Congress that if they didn’t act they would end up with some of the president’s solutions — like comprehensive background checks, some restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines […]

Pure Audacity

If you go to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) website right now, at the very top is the Pure Michigan Logo. On another page called “Right to Work”, this bold graphic dominates the page:

The “Right to Work” page is shown at the top as being part of the “Grow Your Business” section of the website yet the page itself isn’t linked from the “Grow Your Business” page or any other page that I could find on the site.

Note that it directly references our state’s new status as a “Right to Work” state, basically a message to prospective companies that Michigan workers are primed and ready to be exploited by corporations looking for a place to pay rock-bottom wages.

The MEDC is a private-public entity, designed to foster economic growth in Michigan and their tourism campaign, “Pure Michigan”, is known nationally as one of the most recognizable and successful efforts in the country. So, it was shocking to see our governor, Rick Snyder, take out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with essentially the same message as the MEDC website.

Much more after the jump.

And as long as the “carried interest” loophole gives millionaire hedge fund managers a massive tax break, we have a revenue problem, too Tune in to Fox News for a few minutes and they’re bound to tell you what America’s problem is — as if they’re not it. The truth is we don’t have a spending problem, we have a […]

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.

Oh, the humanity (unless it’s not in my district) Yesterday, Representative Peter King from New York took to the House floor to lambast Speaker John Boehner and others who are holding up disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. “I can’t imagine that type of indifference, that type of disregard, that cavalier attitude being shown to any other part of […]

Inflamed duck, indeed I knew that Republicans had passed a lot of bills through the Michigan legislature during the lame inflamed duck session but I had absolutely no idea just completely batshit nuts they had gone until this morning. That’s when I read this headline at Michigan Radio: MICHIGAN GOVERNOR MAKING HIS WAY THROUGH 282 BILLS Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder […]

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.

Or, how billionaires use wingnuts as human shields At first, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s press conference seemed like a tone-deaf failure, a PR disaster, a complete clusterfogetaboutit. But then I began to realize his goal had nothing to do with improving the NRA’s image. His goal was to feed the kind of dissension, fear and anger that sells […]

John Boehner: between a tea bag and a hard place

John Boehner has been negotiating all week with President Obama and his staff to resolve the “fiscal speedbump” issue. President Obama took a step toward Speaker Boehner in the negotiations by allowing the Bush tax cuts to remain in place for incomes over $400,000/year (up from $250,000), making some cuts to entitlements to be named later and agreeing to a different way to calculate Social Security cost of living increases that would lower how much our seniors get in their monthly allocation by a smidgen — the so-called “chained CPI”.

In return, Boehner offered to extend the debt ceiling for two years and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for income over $400,000.

This was, however, a bridge to far for his tea party leadership team, according to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. So, he offered what he’s calling “Plan B” and the response from the White House was a resounding “screw you”.

Check it all out after the jump.