When Robert Bobb was appointed to be the Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools in 2009, the district was $219 million in debt. When he left two years later, the debt had ballooned by 50% to $327 million. This is one of the legacies of Emergency Management in Michigan. Another of the legacies is that people who failed colossally […]

NOTE: This post has been updated HERE based on the featured comment below by Washtenaw County Clerk and Register of Deeds Lawrence Kestenbaum. Based on what I learned from Clerk Kestenbaum, Kalamazoo Clerk Tim Snow is NOT the responsible party for the lateness of absentee ballots being mailed. This is a direct result of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s useless effort to stop straight ticket voting in our state. I apologize to Clerk Snow and regret the error.

Although Eclectablog is largely out of the business of running ads on the site (in favor of being completely reader and partner supported), you may have noticed the burgundy banner up there to the right of our logo for “MIVoterGuide.com“. That’s because this election is too important and too complicated to be either sitting on the sidelines or making the […]

When her youngest child came out as transgender, this woman recognized her own truth. This is part of a story series about the lives of transgender people. Read the introduction here. From the time she was young, Jacqui Leaonna Turner didn’t understand why the males were prettier than the females in every species in the animal kingdom except for humans. […]

How Courage Campaign helped put the right and ‘corporate Democrats’ on their heels As I was lining my stomach in preparation for the vice presidential debate, I saw this tweet flutter down my Tweetdeck: .@JerryBrownGov signed EVERY SINGLE BILL we prioritized this year! THX 2 our members 4 making 2016 the most #progressive yr in #CA history! pic.twitter.com/zdlnDa2dm6 — CourageCampaign […]

After decades of painful confusion, this transgender woman’s journey has a happy ending. This is part of a story series about the lives of transgender people. Read the introduction here. Like many transgender people, Kara Marie Ramsey struggled from an early age to reconcile the gender she was assigned at birth with the way she felt inside. By the time […]

The revelations about Donald Trump’s disgusting misogynistic comments about women on an “Access Hollywood” bus in 2005 came as a complete shock to everyone. Everyone, that is, who hasn’t been watching this odious and stunted example of manhood in action for the past 12 months. Actually, you can go much farther back than that. Trump has been talking this way […]

Yesterday afternoon, at Adams Field at Michigan State University, in what was a dreary, rainy, pretty humid day, hundreds of mostly college students congregated to see and listen to a real political rock star: Sen. Bernie Sanders. With just 33 days until the election, it is clear that the push to register voters, Democratic voters, and to excite the base […]

“What’s the matter? Can’t keep up?” Duane Gish is a famous scientist known as a staunch Creationist. His debate style was so remarkable that it eventually got its own name: “The Gish Gallop”. Here’s how Wikipedia explains it: His debating opponents said that Gish used a rapid-fire approach during a debate, presenting arguments and changing topics quickly. Eugenie Scott, executive […]

Watching Republican Jack Bergman running for Congress in Michigan’s mammoth 1st Congressional District is fascinating. He’s a charming, affable guy but when you scratch the surface of his façade, he’s not informed about many issues and he’s nothing more than a typical tea party Republican on all of the others. The campaign of the Democrat running for the seat, Lon […]

Yesterday, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill into law that on the surface seems less than toxic, but it is toxic – VERY toxic! Details of the bill can be found HERE. As I have been watching this bill evolve – or devolve, more appropriately – I have been stunned by the actions of the GOP-led legislature to make […]