GOP Governor Rick Snyder with racist bigot Dave Agema This post has been updated below and the title changed to reflect the update. It wouldn’t be January in Michigan without a new outrage from our state’s most nauseating bigot Dave Agema. On New Years Eve, Agema took to his Facebook page to share a particularly odious article from a white […]

A new law awaiting Governor Rick Snyder’s signature would force county clerks in Michigan to issue concealed weapons permits (formally “concealed pistol licenses” or CPLs) to people covered by Personal Protection Orders (PPOs) unless the PPO explicitly forbids them from carrying a firearm. The issuance of concealed weapons permits will be transferred from county concealed weapon licensing boards under Senate […]

For the past four years, Michigan Republicans, taking their cues from the anti-teacher group Mackinac Center, have defunded education, gone after teacher pay and benefits, and done just about everything they could to put public education and public educators out of business. Their model is to make teaching so unattractive that the professionals abandon it as a career, leaving the […]

At the risk of Eclectablog becoming a “Todd Course Watch” site which reports on the every move of the extremist proponent of a theocracy in Michigan, I feel it’s important that everyone is aware of his plans when he takes office for the first time in January. Already known for his injection of religion in to government and his worldview […]

Michigan’s legislature is essentially a microcosm of what is happening in Washington, D.C. A small coalition of hard-right tea party types are holding the Republican party hostage, forcing them to cut deals with the Democrats in order to actually, you know, govern. Cast in the role of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger. This gridlock […]

NOTE: I have updated this post and the title to correct the misuse of the term “assault rifle”. Though semi-automatic AR-15 rifles are commonly called assault rifles, the strict definition of an assault rifle says that it must be “selective fire” meaning that it has “at least one semi-automatic and one automatic mode”. The rifles in the photos below are […]

One of the newly-elected legislators who will take his seat on the floor of the state House next month is Todd Courser from the Lapeer area. Though he has yet to take office, I have written about him several times already and, judging by his bizarre rhetoric and behavior, there will be an abundance of Eclectawords written about him over […]

Today is December 15, 2014 and that, in itself might mean many things to you. However, for political observers, pundits, analyzers, etc., today marks the final days of the Michigan Legislative agenda for 2014 and will also usher in, in a few very short weeks, a new House and Senate. This is the last week of what is known as […]

Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger wants you to believe that he’s found a magical way to fund road repairs without raising your taxes! While it’s true that your gas taxes and sales taxes won’t increase, the entire scheme is based on taking nearly a billion dollars more from schools each year. Local municipalities will take a huge hit, too. How […]

In a 2011 paper published in the journal Nature, Elsa Cleland studied the impact of biodiversity on ecosystems. Her study concluded with this summary: Evidence from multiple ecosystems at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, suggests that biological diversity acts to stabilize ecosystem functioning in the face of environmental fluctuation. Variation among species in their response to such fluctuation […]

When the final numbers were tallied, the race in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District wasn’t even close. David Trott beat Bobby McKenzie by nearly 16 points, an astonishing feat even in the conservative 11th District. Being the wealthy guy that he is, Trott was essentially able to buy the seat. With the final campaign filings in, we now know just how […]