It’s a shocking and depressing fact that there are uneducated people out there who are afraid of vaccinations because they read somewhere or heard from someone that one time that vaccinations cause autism. They don’t. But that didn’t stop Republican Todd Courser from expressing his support for the anti-Vaxer community and to reinforce people’s unfounded and unscientific fears about the […]

This week the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4041, what they call the Parental Responsibility Act. Gov. Snyder is probably eager to sign it because it has the word “responsibility” in it and impacts only the politically powerless. The Michigan Department of Human Services will be required to eliminate cash assistance to poor families if any child in the household […]

I’ve long believed, as do so many others, that the forced birther movement, which claims to be about “saving lives”, is little more than a subterfuge for their real aim: controlling women. Why else would they go after contraception time and time again? Why else would they want to defund Planned Parenthood that prevents more unwanted pregnancies and abortions than […]

A new report from the Urban Institute details what every honest adult already knows: Obamacare is the most successful new government program since Medicare and Medicaid. In states that have fully implemented the law, the uninsured population has been cut in half. Tens of millions of Americans have been covered and about 14 million of them were uninsured before. Health […]

Indiana Republicans, facing derision nationally and an economic boycott with wide-ranging impacts are now backpedalling like crazy. They claim they never intended for their new Religious Freedom Restoration Act to allow discrimination against the LGBT community and are now moving swiftly to “fix” their atrocious new law. You can read the text of their “fix”, which prohibits discrimination based on […]

For-profit prison food vendor Aramark is back in the news again with revelations that its employees served food that had been in the trash and were rinsed off, reheated, and served to inmates. Aramark has a long history of patently absurd violations of state rules and, frankly, the norms of society, all of which have been documented here at Eclectablog. […]

“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.” – Joe Biden Michigan Republicans put forth their proposed education budget yesterday and, as you would expect, it shows just how little the value education in our state. After slashing education funding for years, they are back this year with a paltry […]

Back when Pete Hoekstra was running against Rick Snyder for governor, Ben Padnos registered PeteHoekstra.com and proceeded to use it to support Hoekstra’s opponents in his gubernatorial and Senate campaigns. Padnos explained why he was doing it in January of 2010: Here’s the ranking Republican Member of the House Intelligence Committee failing to do something as simple as registering his […]

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder continued his assault on education this week with two remarkable moves that betray his claims to have education at the top of his priority list. First, he signed legislation that fills a huge budget hole, created in part by ongoing multi-billion dollar tax cuts for businesses by diverting $167 million from the School Aid Fund. This […]

With all of the insanity in Michigan’s legislature these days with people like Cindy Gamarat and Todd Courser, I thought it would be a nice break to show that we’re not the only state with Republicans that are … um … “different”. Today I present you with Michele Fiore, a Republican member of the Nevada state assembly. Fiore has a […]

As Michigan voters decide whether to approve Proposal 1 in May which will raise the sales tax to fund road repairs, a new study out by the University of Michigan Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) details just how bad things have gotten. The study, done last fall, shows that only 19% of local leaders say their roads […]