Not surprisingly, there is a huge push to “Buy Michigan” to help our local economy these days. For example, there is Buy Michigan Now, BuyMichiganProducts.com, Buy Michigan First, and Think Michigan Made. With all of this, I was shocked to see this on my parking ticket last weekend: Click for a larger version Really, Ann Arbor? You’re outsourcing the processing […]

I’ve been on vacation with twelve of my wife’s family members in town so the blogging has been light. Normal blogging resumes this week. Here’s an update of what’s been happening in my fair state. Remember when Republicans took over Congress in Washington, D.C. and they reversed Nancy Pelosi’s “Green the Capitol” effort just to be dicks? Michigan Republicans are […]

The Committee to Recall Rick Snyder announced this morning that they have failed to gather enough signatures in the amount of time allotted by the Michigan Constitution to place the recall of Rick Snyder on the ballot. It is with a measure of sadness that we announce that the bid to recall Gov. Rick Snyder will come up short in […]

You know what I hate? I positively detest the phrase “union thugs” or “union goons”. It implies this organized group of people willing to harm others to make sure they get their way. When you look at what Republicans are doing to unionized teachers in Michigan, you realize that when Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof says making our state […]

On Mackinac Island at the GOP Leadership Conference this week, Governor Rick Snyder got a frigid reception from tea party types on his position on a new bridge to Canada, Right to Work for Less bills, and a new proposal for doctors to report children’s body mass indices in an effort to curb childhood obesity. The question, at this point, […]

Michigan state Representative and advocate for making Michigan a Right to Work for Less state, Mike Shirkey, has been busted for showing higher than normal level of Republican hypocrisy (“GOPocrisy”) today. Todd Heywood of Michigan Messenger reports that Shirkey benefited from a tax abatement involved with creating a “Tool and Die Recovery Zone”. The tax break gives his nonunion company […]

Can something be “more illegal” than it already is? I guess it can if you are a Michigan Republican. Yesterday, the Michigan state House and Senate both passed bills that outlaw so-called “partial birth abortions”. Problem is, these types of abortions are already illegal under a federal law passed eight years ago. Thankfully they aren’t wasting their time worrying about […]

It’s because they ARE millionaires. Here’s a tribute to the Michigan millionaires against the millionaires tax, put out by The Agenda Project’s Patriotic Millionaires: Here is their powerful national ad: 48 percent of Congress members are millionaires while only 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires 55 members of Congress have an average wealth of $10 million and 8 members […]

Today, former governor Jennifer Granholm and former First Gentleman Dan Mulhern released their new book A Governor’s Story – The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. The book is an important contribution to the conversation and debate that is occurring right now over our economic path forward as a country. The question is, will the rest of the country […]

After the resignation last week of Michael Stampfler as Pontiac’s Emergency Manager, Louis Schmimmel was chosen as his replacement. The former emergency financial manager of Hamtramck and Ecorse is known as an expert at privatizing public services and comes highly recommended by the far-right conservative Mackinac Center think tank. Schmimmel, in fact, was the director of the Morey Fiscal Policy […]

In a somewhat surprising move given the majority Republican make-up of the Michigan Supreme Court, they have decided not to hear an appeal of a lower court decision brought to them by Republican Paul Scott. Scott is the Republican most responsible for most of the anti-teacher legislation to come before the state legislature. He was challenging the clarity of the […]