“Alright, let’s cue the Michigan tape…”

The Rachel Maddow Show takes on Michigan’s Emergency Financial Manager situation again: “THE most radical Republican experiment in the 21st Century. Why this is not a bigger national story still blows my mind.”

Video after the jump.

Helping ensure the rest of the country is paying attention

In my seemingly endless coverage of Michigan’s anti-democratic, repealed-and-then-risen-from-the-dead Emergency Manager Law, one post seemed to get more attention than all the others. That was the one a bit over a year ago that showed that, if Detroit and Inkster were put under the control of Emergency Managers, over half of the African Americans in the United States of America with be without locally-elected, democratic government but, rather, would be ruled by a single, state-appointed ruler.

This past week, with Detroit on the precipice of receiving an Emergency Manager due to the failure of its consent agreement with the State of Michigan, I updated the original post to include more recent census data. That post is HERE. On Friday, it was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show.

Video and more after the jump.

Snyder’s Supreme Court appointment will set the tone for the 2013 legislative session

As I anticipated (rather testily) last month, Democrats are losing a voice on the Michigan state Supreme Court. Thanks to the unethical behavior of Diane Hathaway, whose name will now forever be associated with the betrayal of Democrats and Michigan citizens in general, we went from a 4-3 Republican-to-Democrat ratio to what will be a 5-2 balance once Governor Rick Snyder makes his appointment.

This has many people across the state wondering what Snyder will do with this opportunity.

On the one hand, he could continue his recent trend of appeasing the far right conservatives in his party, cementing the partisan divide that has so intensely polarized our state and that has created warring factions who despise each other.

On the other hand, he could choose a more moderate candidate who is more palatable to Democrats in Michigan. By doing this, the Governor could begin to repair some of the damage that was done when he chose to force Right to Work legislation through during the inflamed duck session and the animosity he created by passing laws that hinder women’s access to legal abortion services in our state.

My analysis after the jump.

They didn’t beat Obama or save tax breaks for the rich but they’re still planning mandatory Reagan tattoos Here’s the good news: The Bush tax cuts, which we designed to give 15% of their benefit to the richest 2%, have now been extended for everyone but the richest, creating the most progressive tax code in generations. President Obama used the […]

Aye, aye, aye…

Gun fetishists are in complete freakout mode right now because they realize that the rest of the country is no longer buying their tripe about the evil unconstitutionality of controlling guns and ammunition in this country. They are so mindless about this that they have latched onto one of the weirdest reasons imaginable for not passing any gun laws.

I’m going to try to explain this but, I’ll be frank, their “logic” is anything but logical. If you don’t follow it, that’s completely understandable.

This isn’t about the right to bear arms, it’s about the right to be a freak

Have a look at this Bushmaster ad for their semi-automatic rifles:

In any sort of rational debate about gun control, we would be facing the fact that the most extreme elements of the “stop any restrictions on gun ownership ever at all the end” crowd are, at the end of the day, gun fetishists.

Period.

Much more after the jump.

Why would you hire a greedy parasite to watch and teach your children all day?

Teaching is a tough profession. It has always been, but lately it has become so much tougher thanks to the anti-union attacks teachers and other public employees. It’s becoming harder and harder to understand why anyone would want to be a public school teacher these days.

The anti-union attacks on teachers have been around for decades, starting with idea that teachers get paid a full-time salary but really don’t work full-time; that their cushy workdays end at 3:00 and they have summers off. This is a very shortsighted view and, if you know anyone who teaches, you know how hard they work and how much of that work goes well past 3:00 and the month of May. Often the lines between their personal life and professional life are blurred. To most teachers, teaching is really a calling more than a job.

And yet, we treat these treat these everyday heroes as if they are not worthy of our respect.

Much more 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.

Solidarity!

From our friends at Working Michigan:

Details and a larger version of the graphic after the jump.

This is about making your work worth less Destroying union power is a macro version of the GOP’s War on Voting. Can’t win people with your ideas? Stop them from voting. Relying on a increasingly small group of the richest 1 percent to fund your campaigns? Destroy the groups that bring workers together to fund a permanent progressive movement. But […]

Dorquist-(n) someone who would never cheat on Grover Norquist Here’s the problem: The GOP knows they lost the White House along with seats in the House and Senate. And they don’t really care. Sure, they recognize that if they lose the state of Texas the way they have California, they’re basically on a free-fall path to extinction. But the Republicans […]