A class act by a classy Democrat

Debbie Dingell, whose name has been mentioned in nearly every conversation about who will replace Carl Levin when he leaves his Senate seat in 2014, has announced that she is NOT running. When I spoke with her last week, she made it clear to me then that she had not made a decision at that point. She and her husband Congressman John Dingell are VERY close as those of us in Washtenaw County have the privilege of observing on a regular basis, and a Senate run would have separated them, a prospect that clearly gave Dingell pause.

Today, she has announced that a decision has been made. Her statement is after the jump.

Okay, this stinks

Here’s the thing about the idea of giving Michigan parents vouchers to use at any school, public or private, to educate their kids: it’s unconstitutional. Twice in the past 35 years Michigan voters have shot down ballot proposals to allow the funneling of tax dollars into private, non-public schools. This, of course, doesn’t stop corporatist groups and individuals like the Mackinac Center or the DeVos family for pushing endlessly for a school voucher system and the shifting of tax money earmarked for education into for-profit corporations.

This past week the Detroit News did some fantastic investigative journalism and reported that a group of school reformers, a self-dubbed “skunk works”, has been meeting in secret with the Governor’s blessing to form a new sort of private school where kids will be educated on the cheap using a for-profit model and it will be paid for with vouchers. The best part? No educators are part of the group.

Details after the jump.

Netroots Nation and Democracy for America: A match made in progressive heaven

This is a guest post from my good friend Alex Showerman who serves as the New Media Manager for Democracy for America (DFA). Every year, DFA sponsors scholarships for a selection of activists who would not be able to attend the Netroots Nation convention otherwise.

Click through for details on how to apply for, nominate someone else for, or vote for a scholarship to this year’s Netroots Nation convention in San Jose, June 20-23.

Let’s be careful out there I appreciate those who have sent me links to the secret group trying to destroy our public education system in Michigan. I WILL write about this tomorrow but today is not the day for that. Most of us, I think, are riveted by the news coming out of Boston and Watertown, MA and that’s as […]

Shaping the news to fit their own twisted worldview

Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and virtually the entire conservative news/noise machine were lit up today with the news that the Arab national they erroneously described as an FBI “person of interest” was quietly being deported back to Saudi Arabia under questionable circumstances. It started last night when Fox News “expert” Steve Emerson said on Sean Hannity’s show that the young man was being deported. That turned out to be completely false.

Click through for Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano’s complete and utter shredding of a GOP Congressman who bought Beck and Hannity’s lies (and much more.)

Another failure of Emergency Management

The southeastern city of Hamtramck (spelled correctly, pronounced “Ham-tram-ick”) is facing the prospect of its city being taken over by an Emergency Manager as the state has ordered a financial review team to assess its financial situation.

Hamtramck is a small city of just over 22,000. Its population is just over half (53.6%) white and has an unusually high population of Asians (21.5%.)

This would be Round Two for Hamtramck. In 2000, Governor John Engler installed an Emergency Financial Manager, a familiar player Louis Schimmel. Six years later, books balanced and financial crisis “solved”, Schimmel left and, in 2007, the city was once again back in charge of its government.

However, that didn’t last long. In 2010, facing continuing budget issues, Hamtramck asked the state to be allowed to declare bankruptcy. They were denied.

Click through for more.

“All they know is that it’s a black guy.”

Yesterday’s travesty in media and journalistic fail surrounding the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings was epic and public and brings into sharp relief how people view acts of terror and terrorists in America. I was at work when the first emails and texts started coming up on my phone telling me a suspect was in custody. Tweets revealed that CNN’s John King was reporting that the suspect was a “dark-skinned male”.

At my workplace, one of my coworkers suddenly became an expert, telling anyone who would listen, “All they know is that it’s a black guy.” Another guy, when I told him it looked like they had someone in custody, said, “I just wonder if it’s that Arab guy they were questioning at the hospital…” That guy, by the way, ended up being a witness who was injured by one of the explosions and was not a suspect.

The whole thing got me thinking about who I was hoping the culprit would turn out to be. Details after the jump.

“Chalk one up for the good guys”

Last week, I posted a piece titled “Lee Fang exposes the State Policy Network & corporate domination of public policy”. In that piece, I wrote about The Nation journalist and investigative reporter Lee Fang’s work to show how the State Policy Network (SPN) was waging a multi-pronged war to influence legislation, policy and public opinion at the state level across the country. One of the things that Fang reveals is that SPN affiliates have started their own wire services to bring their skewed version of the news to readers all over America. Here in Michigan, SPN affiliate Mackinac Center for Public Policy has done just that.

Thanks to my pals at Progress Michigan, however, today SPN and Mackinac Center lost a round in the battle to sway public opinion and government policy.

It’s hard to keep up…

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a summary of the latest news about Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law and the new surrounding our illustrious saviors dictators Emergency Managers so I thought it would be a good time to so. On a personal note, I was interviewed by freelance journalist Chris Lewis this past week for a piece he’s doing for The Atlantic so it’s clear to me that this story continues to receive national attention.

It’s all there after the jump. And there is a LOT there after the jump.

At least they’re not hiding it…

As the debate rages on where to get the millions of dollars in funding needed to repair Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges, Americans for Prosperity have an answer: use cuts to education and state employee wages to pay for them.

Click through for details on the efforts of this corporate whore to get the poor and middle class to pay for public improvements that benefit corporations more than anyone else.

Progress Michigan staff are our state’s leading progressive warriors against Republican overreach

I haven’t written about Michigan Republican National Committee Chair Dave Agema’s offensive, lie-filled Facebook post a few weeks ago primarily because (a) I didn’t want to give him any more attention than he already has gotten and (b) others have done it well already. You’re probably aware of Agema’s latest foray into the land of anti-LGBT bigotry but, if not, he put up a post that he claims is by a “doctor” who says that, among other odious things, gays are for half the murders in large cities, 39-59% of homosexuals are infected with intestinal parasites like worms, flukes and amoebae and that part of the homosexual agenda is to turn people from Christianity. It was truly hideous. Agema has since doubled and tripled down on his outrageous post.

One group that has been on the forefront pushing back against this hateful rhetoric is Progress Michigan. Click through for details on how you can help them fight this very good fight now and into the future.