“I truly believe that this is my destiny.” Photo by Anne C. Savage I first met Tony Trupiano shortly after he returned to the radio airwaves after an unsuccessful run to unseat Thad McCotter in Congress. Tony’s morning radio show, First Shift with Tony Trupiano was a progressive breath of fresh air amidst the plethora of right wing radio hosts. […]

Tony Trupiano’s “Night Shift with Tony Trupiano” radio show has been off the air for the past couple weeks as he recovers from some major surgery. He’s not fully back on his feet yet but is recording podcasts as he finishes healing up. It’s a delightful alternative to the constraints of a 30-minute segment which compresses our conversations into two […]

This is not good government

I’ve been writing a lot about how both Republicans and Democrats submit identical legislation, sometimes in the same legislative session, in order to get credit for passing bills and joint resolutions that enjoy widespread bipartisan support (HERE, HERE, and HERE.)

After writing about this, I heard from folks across the country that told me that (a) this isn’t something that’s by any means unique to Michigan, (b) both Democrats and Republicans do it, and (c) “it happens all the time”. From the outside looking in, this looks like nothing more than plagiarism and credit stealing. In some cases, it certainly is, particularly in terms of getting credit for passing good legislation. However, there’s a bit more to the story that’s worth getting out there so that we can discuss the issue with as many of the facts in hand as possible.

It’s all there waiting for you after the jump.

A pox on ALL their houses…

Last Thursday, I wrote about the how legislators appear to be stealing each others legislation in order to get credit for something that seems to have widespread support in a piece titled “Michigan Republicans stealing bills introduced by Democrats to deny them legislative victories”. After writing it, I updated later when I learned the Democrats steal legislation, too, and posted about my frustration that good, bipartisan legislation is getting polluted by the politics of who gets credit.

It appears that the situation is even more complicated than I first realized. As it turns out, the legislation that Democrat David Knezek apparently had stolen from him by Republican Jim Stamas is identical to legislation that Stamas himself introduced or supported in the two previous legislative sessions and that Knezek himself lifted the language verbatim from them.

More after the jump.

After spending time reading and writing and thinking about the post I put up earlier, “Michigan Republicans stealing bills introduced by Democrats to deny them legislative victories”, I ended up in a funk. I realized that there are actually some areas of common ground between our legislative Democrats and Republicans. They actually DO agree on some things and on some good legislation.

But the politics in this state (and elsewhere, too, I’m sure) have become so toxic that our politicians are fighting to get credit for anything that could be described as “good”. They are so intent on pandering to their constituents and making sure “the other guys” don’t get credit for anything positive that they will steal each others legislation.

More after the jump.

With friends like these…

The group working to recall Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Michigan Rising missed a campaign finance report deadline by a few days this month. Though this isn’t entirely uncommon given the unnecessarily complex and cumbersome reporting methods they use, it was still a black eye to a group trying to prove that it has learned its lesson from the first recall effort and pull off a feat that nearly everyone agrees will be a nearly impossible task.

The group faces stiff opposition in their fight to recall our Republican governor. However, the fight they are getting is not from Republicans, tea partiers, the business community or conservatives.

It’s from a group that describes itself “independent left”.

I’m not kidding.

Showtime!

Here is the video from my appearance on Off the Record with Tim Skubick that airs starting tonight and twice on Sunday (your mileage may vary depending on your public television station.) The other guests were Joe DiSano (the other liberal, sitting on my right), Jake Davison (Joe’s conservative podcast partner at Politibomb.com) and Jack Spencer from the very conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Although this was the “Bloggers Edition” of OTR, Jack and I were the only actual bloggers. Jake and Joe are not.

Enjoy (video after the jump.)

A lot: The last year or so in American politics has been a tragedy. With unemployment over nine percent and underemployment closer to 16 percent, Washington has stopped talking about how to create jobs and turned its attention to cutting deficits. But it couldn’t get that done, either. Having agreed to focus on the wrong question, the two parties proceeded […]

Historian and syndicated columnist P.M. Carpenter has a new op-ed piece out on CNN’s website called Why right and left won’t cheer Obama“. In it, he attempts to explain the chasm between how President Obama is perceived by those on the left, the right & middle and reality. Here’s how describes how President Obama is seen by those he describes […]

How weird have things gotten when, in the same day, I get emails from Firedoglake, the Tea Party Nation and MoveOn.org all asking me to to the same thing: call my member of Congress and demand they vote against the tax deal negotiated between the Republicans and President Obama? I’m going to go with “very” weird. I’m just sayin’… If […]

Remember when Ronald Reagan pulled down the solar panels installed on the White House by Jimmy Carter under the guise of routine maintenance and cleaning and then never put them back up? Well a similar effort may be underway. When she took over as Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi initiated the “Green the Capitol” initiative. Incoming Republicans are eyeing […]