Why it’s harder to end a war than begin one. This week we found out that President Obama’s policies on drone strikes are tighter than libertarian, anti-drone hero Rand Paul. We also heard a president of the United States make a nuanced, adult and — to many — an unsatisfying case for a course correction on the global war on […]

If everything good about Detroit is destroyed, is it still Detroit?

This past Wednesday, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr was in Chicago talking to a group of philanthropists, some of whom are likely holding some of Detroit’s debt, and he told them, “We can’t liquidate or sell off Detroit like many of us do when we go into our representations…This isn’t a traditional reorganization for a profit-making enterprise, this is the saving of a great American city.”

This comment is in stark contrast to the news that came out yesterday that Orr has asked for an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ priceless collection of art.

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More than 550 people signed the petition opposing SB 136. This week, opponents of Senate Bill 136 — the “Religious Liberty & Conscience Protection Act” — met with State Senator Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor). I was at the meeting, where we presented a petition for delivery to the Michigan Senate and learned even more about this troubling legislation from Sen. […]

Decline to sign

It’s not often that less than 3% of a state’s citizens get to create new law without having to let the voters decide or the governor to sign it into law but that is exactly what’s about to happen in Michigan. Yesterday, the State Board of Canvasser approved petition language submitted by Right to Life of Michigan that would force women to purchase a separate rider on their insurance to cover abortion. Not just government-subsidized or government provided health insurance. ALL health insurance. I’m calling it the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” law. If Right to Life can get only 258,088 in 6 months, the measure goes to the legislature which has 40 days to approve it. If they do, and they will, it becomes law. The rest of Michigan voters will have no say in it and it won’t require Governor Snyder’s signature.

It’s clever, for sure. Right to Life Michigan KNOWS they are on the wrong side of this issue from the majority of Michigan residents and from Governor Snyder himself so they have to bypass the normal process and exploit a loophole made possible by a legislature full of conservative extremists put in place by decades of Republican gerrymandering.

More, including video, awaits you after the jump.

It’s a one-word answer: Obamacare. Republicans who oppose Obamacare just don’t want to say “yes” to anything related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid expansion is part of the ACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court left the decision to accept Medicaid expansion up to the states. And Michigan is among those with Republican-controlled legislatures that are fighting against Medicaid […]

This MUST stop

The story of 22-year Cody Bailey being installed as president of a for-profit charter school in Michigan (posts are HERE and HERE) has rekindled my outrage about the demonization of teachers and the systematic kneecapping and dismantling of our public school system here in Michigan. Operating under the guise of “education reform”, corporatists like Cody Bailey, the Mackinac Center, and the DeVos family are engaging in an unsubtle effort to convert our nation’s schools into profit centers for corporate “education” businesses. Their approach has three primary components.

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That had to have left a mark

Last night on the Night Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show, Tony and political consultant Joe Disano from Main Street Strategies discussed my piece on Cody Bailey, the newly-minted 22-year old for-profit charter school president. Joe and Tony have a history with Cody and they rode him suitably hard during the Democratic primary last year.

It’s worth a listen if only to hear them call Bailey “the human herpes virus”, compare him to a case of “shingles” and call him “reptilian”.

Enjoy this and more after the jump.

When educating your kids is all about making a profit, being a shyster is as good a qualification as anything

Last year, I wrote about fake Democrat Cody Bailey who had his ass handed to him by now-State Representative David Knezek. Bailey barely beat a candidate in the Democratic primary who didn’t even run a campaign and got his clock cleaned by Knezek. As I outlined in my expose, Bailey was anything but a Democrat and ran one of the sleaziest, most fact-challenged campaigns in my experience.

Imagine my (non) surprise to discover this week that Bailey, at the tender age of 22, is now the president of the Taylor Preparatory High School in Taylor, Michigan. What qualifies Bailey to be the president of an educational institution with a lofty mission of being “a bridge to a life well lived” for high schoolers? In a word (well, two words): not much.

Much more on this sordid story after the jump.

Uh, someone didn’t get the memo that the answer to everything is to cut corporate taxes

Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz is leading a push to increase city income taxes by 0.5% for residents and 0.25% for non-residents. That’s a 50% increase. Why? Turns out Flint is out of money and needs revenue. It’s almost as if Flint’s problems weren’t caused by waste, fraud, and mismanagement after all.

More after the jump.

Getchyer tissues ready Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach of Madison, Wisconsin worked side by side in Afghanistan with Casey, a 4-year old yellow Labrador Retriever, doing explosives detection. To say that the two formed a strong attachment would be an understatement. Gundlach returned to Wisconsin after his tour was complete and Casey went to Iowa to work for the state fire […]

What could possibly go wrong?

On the banks of the Detroit River, giant three-story tall mountains of black rock have been accumulating, quickly and quietly enough to take a lot of Detroiters and neighboring Canadians by surprise. The piles are petroleum coke or “pet coke”, a by-product of the processing of tar sands oil from Canada. A newly upgraded Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit now allows them to process the tar sands oil, producing copious amounts of the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste product.

A recent New York Times article shows that Michiganders and Canadians alike are concerned by the use of land directly on the Detroit River to store the potentially hazardous pet coke.

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