Eff this effing stuff, indeed

Larue Ford is an Arizona woman who was trying to move back to the Midwest, Indiana specifically, to be near family. However, she was unable to get a job as a driver because of an upaid ticket in Berrien County, Michigan. She paid the $444 ticket but, because of a bureaucratic foul up, she still couldn’t get it erased from her record. While in the Berrien County Clerks office, she finally learned they had screwed up and forgot to collect a $50 “reinstatement fee”. Ford, who has a masters degree in social work was told to appear before the judge when she returned to pay the $50 fee and, on the way out of the Clerk’s office, muttered “fuck this fucking shit”, a pretty understandable grouse considering all they had put her through.

They arrested her and she spent the Christmas holiday in jail for “contempt of court” despite the fact that she had never actually been in court.

More of this story embarrassment to Michigan after the jump.

The impact of new Republican taxes in Michigan is about to get very real

Back in February, I wrote piece titled “The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought”. The piece got a lot of attention, primarily because it was a big news flash that in order to pay for the billions in giveaways to Michigan corporations, Michigan Republicans raised taxes on over half of the people in Michigan. And, make no mistake, true to Republican) form, the impact was far greater on lower income Michiganders than on our wealthiest citizens.

Postcards notifying many of these people about the tax hit they are about take arrived in mailboxes in Michigan this week.

Take a look after the jump.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

The state of Michigan’s tax revenues were up in November, beating estimates, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency (pdf). The increase in revenues was driven, in part, by higher taxes on Michiganders. As I wrote in my piece last spring, “The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought”, the tax increase passed by the so-called “anti-tax” Republicans disproportionately impacts lower income residents.

Although the state coffers are looking pretty, the same cannot be said about our cities. Many of them are laying off police officers or getting rid of their police departments entirely.

More after the jump.

Maintaining a permanent Republican majority the easy way

Yesterday, delegates to the Michigan Electoral College cast Michigan’s 16 votes for Barack Obama. The President won Michigan handily, beating Mitt Romney by nearly 10 points. However, Republicans still maintain control over our state legislature and hour Congressional caucus. How is this possible?

Gerrymandering.

Find out how Republicans are trying to exploit this by changing how we choose our president after the jump.

Curiouser and curiouser… The destruction of the two Americans for Prosperity tents on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol building during Tuesday’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally has stirred interest nationally. Those on the right portray it as a violent upheaval of “union thugs” and “union goons” who acted as predicted: with violence and mayhem and racism and […]

What, you think we wouldn’t notice?

Yesterday, I wrote about how Fox “News” contributor Steven Crowder used Andrew Breitbart-style editing of video from Michigan’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally on Tuesday to paint union members the worst way possible.

The story has been picked up nationally and, last night, was quoted heavily in a post at the New York Times news blog The Lede.

Details after the jump.

It IS impressive…

If you thought the speed with which Michigan Republicans went to chit chatting about making Michigan a Right to Work for Less state and actually accomplishing that was impressive, you should keep watching because they aren’t done yet, not by a long shot. The frantic pace continued yesterday, just one day after they kicked unions to the curb and brought a record number of people to the Capitol to protest.

Read about the four major pieces of legislation that passed in the House after the jump.

Wrong place, wrong time

The right wingnut blogosphere is apoplectic that Lansing, Michigan’s iconic “Hot Dog Guy”, Clinton Tarver was a victim of union thug violence at yesterday’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally. The reality is that Tarver is simply a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also happens to be married to the Michigan Republican Party’s Ethnic Caucus Vice-Chair — perhaps one of the loneliest leadership positions in the entire state.

The full story (that you’re NOT hearing from the conservatives on your Facebook page) after the jump.

Here we go again…

NOTE: More on this story which has been picked up by the New York Times HERE.

And even more HERE.

Yesterday, I wrote about how Americans for Prosperity representatives helped knock down their own tent on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol building during an anti-Right to Work for Less rally there. Subsequent to posting that piece, I was alerted to comments on Reddit by user “mtalna”. You can read those comments HERE. What is evident from the comments is that there is a lot of editing that has gone on with the videos Fox News is now running in nearly constant rotation making it look like all of the violence and hostility at the rally yesterday came from union members. As it turns out, significant portions of it were faked and creative Breitbart-style editing helped it along much more.

Details after the jump.

Image is everything, unless it’s a lie

There’s a video on heavy rotation at Fox News, being massively retweeted by conservatives and Americans for Prosperity, where they talk about the “brutality” and “violence” of union members at today’s rally in Lansing, Michigan to protest Right to Work legislation. The video shows an Americans for Prosperity tent coming down on the front lawn of the Capitol Building.

As it turns out, American for Prosperity (AFP) themselves were responsible for at least one of the tents coming down. Tom Duckworth watched one of the folks that had been in the AFP tent go around and loosen the straps on the tent. According to Duckworth, “the stakes came down from the INSIDE.”

Video of an interview with Duckworth after the jump.

Damn, son.

Think tomorrow’s rally at the Michigan Capitol Building in Lansing is going to be HUGE. Don’t believe me? The Michigan State Police do. Check out this photo posted up at the Maddow Blog:

Much more after the jump.