This should be a non-partisan issue

As I wrote about last week, the Justice Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party held a discussion panel at the statewide convention on Saturday titled “Citizens United v. FEC – The Invisible ‘Person’ in Michigan Elections”. Organized by former Washtenaw County Democratic Party Chair and well-known Michigan attorney and activist Stu Dowty, the panel discussion was wide-ranging and covered everything from undisclosed donors in our judicial elections to the repeal of the odious Citizens United Supreme Court ruling.

My write-up after the jump.

Won’t somebody please think of the corporations???

In one of my favorite books of all time, Infinite Jest by the late David Foster Wallace, in an effort to raise money, the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.) has sold the naming rights to each year to corporations. It’s called “Subsidized Time” and, over the time frame of the book, these are the years:

CHRONOLOGY OF ORGANIZATION OF NORTH AMERICAN NATIONS’ REVENUE ENHANCING SUBSIDIZED TIME™, BY YEAR

1. Year of the Whopper
2. Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
3. Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar
4. Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken
5. Year of the Whisper-Quiet Maytag Dishmaster
6. Year of the Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade For Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems For Home, Office Or Mobile (sic)
7. Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
8. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
9. Year of Glad

It’s an hilarious bit extrapolation of today’s trend of corporate naming of stadiums and sports venues. However, one Michigan Republican seems hellbent on taking us down that slippery slope far faster than you might imagine.

Click through for details.

Because with only 1,565,390 students in class, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

It’s hard to say which the most freakish element of this story is. Is it that some Michigan Republicans want to allow concealed weapons to be carried in our children’s classrooms? Or is it that a tea party PAC is offering free gun classes to get teachers trained so that they can?

Follow me after the jump for all of the right wing insanity.

Another day, another battle in the Republican War on Women Last December, in a rare veto of Republican legislation by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, bills changing the operating structure of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan were shot down. The reason Governor Snyder gave was that he objected to language in the bill that would require women to purchase a […]

Um, maybe you guys should get your stories straight before you go on tv…

Michigan State Budget Director John Nixon appeared on Off the Record with Tim Skubick this week. Unfortunately for him, the wheels sort of fell of the car when the conversation turned to the impact of the Republicans nearly $2 billion in business tax cuts on job creation. Nixon first said, unequivocally, that the tax cuts have created jobs. Then he said he can’t prove it. And then he finished by saying, well, they really haven’t kicked in yet so it’s hard to say.

It gets hard to keep up with these guys sometimes.

Let’s see if we can keep this trend going, shall we?

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is beginning to pay the true price for his attacks on Michigan families and workers. In an EPIC-MRA poll released this week, the percentage of Michiganders giving him a positive job approval rating has dropped from 51% to a mere 36% and, more importantly, the number giving him a negative job approval rating has jumped 16 points from 32% to 48%.

Details after the jump.

This isn’t over, not by a long shot

On the heels of a lawsuit filed recently in the Ingham County District Court challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s new Right to Work law, a coalition of unions has filed a similar lawsuit in federal court. The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit and assigned to Judge Stephen Murphy, claims that the law violates the rights of private sector union members who are covered under federal law rather than the laws of the state of Michigan.

Details after the jump.

Good for the goose but not for the gander

Last year, Michigan Republican Senator Joe Hune sponsored a bill, which was signed into law during the inflamed duck session, that prevents any school board member from voting on school district contracts if they or any family member are an employee covered by that contract. While this may seem reasonable to avoid conflicts of interest, it’s causing controversy in some school districts where school board members may have relatives who are teachers or district employees.

However, the bill represents an enormous level of hypocrisy from Hune. He sits on a Senate Health Policy Committee and is the chair of the Insurance Committee, making crucial decisions on legislation that affects these industries, industries that make financial contributions to Hune’s campaign.

Details after the jump.

Hmmm…where have I heard THAT before…?

For the two years leading up to the cataclysmic events in December of last year that lead to Michigan becoming the country’s 24th Right to Work for Less state, Governor Rick Snyder told anyone who asked that Right to Work wasn’t “on his agenda” and that it was “too divisive”. That lasted right up until Dick DeVos and other rich Michigan businessmen reportedly delivered the ultimatum that Republicans do as they were told or face primary challenges funded by corporate interests.

Well, the “too divisive” label has now been used by Governor Snyder on another labor related issue: prevailing wage. Snyder says this, too, is “too divisive”.

Details after the jump.

Well, that didn’t take long

Just two days after some of the more anti-woman elements in the Michigan State House of Representatives introduced legislation that would essentially mandate invasive transvaginal ultrasounds for women getting an abortion, Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger says he’s not interested.

Maybe he saw what happened down in Virginia when they tried the same thing there. Details on this and more after the jump.

It’s like they don’t realize how ironic they are being

Currently in Michigan, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in in charge of protecting and preserving land and other property under its control from damage or improper use. The Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act says that “it is the goal of this state to encourage the lasting conservation of biological diversity.” Republican state Senator Tom Casperson from Escanaba, however, wants the legislature to take over that overseeing of the protection of our natural areas in Michigan and to forbid the DNR from passing any laws or taking any action that will set aside land for the purpose of maintaining biological diversity.

This is from the party that repeatedly tells us that regulations are strangling our state and frequently advocates for a part-time legislature. The irony is rich and deep.

Details after the jump.