How bad do we want this, folks? Despite support for creating a public health insurance exchange in Michigan under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) from Democrats, some Republicans and even Governor Rick Snyder, it’s looking more and more like it won’t happen in Michigan. Why? Because tea party groups across the state are out-hustling and out-organizing progressive groups that could […]

Impatience is not a virtue

Anyone paying attention to Detroit’s plight knows that their current financial crisis goes back for decades. Housing policies that favored white flight to the suburbs, the decline of the oh-so-important-to-Detroit auto manufacturing industry and the Great Recession have all taken their toll on this aging manufacturing city. Years of neglect and a blind eye toward investment in our state’s largest city have created a perfect storm that has resulted in it a huge chunk of its population. Many of those that remain do so only because they are too desperately poor to escape.

Despite this, Governor Rick Snyder and his administration are giving up on a consent agreement signed with the city last year after only 10 months. The agreement, signed in April of 2012, simply didn’t solve problems that have been in the making since the middle of the last century quickly enough for these Republicans so tomorrow Governor Snyder is expected to appoint Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr to be the new overseer of the city.

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It’s hard to swallow you shoving your religion down my throat

The Michigan Republicans are trotting out a “new” bill to further their War on Women and those who don’t share their narrow worldview. I say it’s “new” because it was a bill that died in the last legislative session. They call their bill the “Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act” but it’s nothing more than a backdoor way to limit Michigan women’s access to safe and legal abortion services across the state. What makes this legislation so insidious is that it may also restrict all Michigander’s access to things like birth control, vaccines, counseling and even HIV/AIDS treatment.

Details and actions you can take after the jump.

Daughter of the Curse of the Living Romneys

It seems like just a couple of days ago I was writing about how the Romney family just can’t seem to leave Michigan alone. Okay, it WAS just a couple of days ago. At that time, I wrote about how Mitt’s older brother Scott, an attorney few have ever heard of and a man with no almost no experience as an elected official [I have been informed that Mr. Romney once sat on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees from 2000-2008], was pondering running for Senator Carl Levin’s seat when he retires next year. Well, two short days later, he has decided NOT to run after all.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t have a Romney family member to ridicule for running for a national seat with no previous experience whatsoever. Turns out that after Mr. Romney’s decision not to run, he reached into the famous Romney Binder Full of Women™ and now his daughter Ronna Romney McDaniel is “looking at it”.

Details after the jump.

Ideology trumps intelligence in Florida

This week, a Florida Senate committee rejected the expansion of Medicaid to its poorest residents, a vote that followed a similar vote in the House and a surprise endorsement by its tea partying governor. Not only that, the bill’s Republican sponsor declared that he wants Florida out of the Medicaid business altogether.

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Prepare for a messy 2013 I have to admit that I was wrong in two very serious ways. I thought Paul Ryan’s disgrace as a VP candidate — booed by seniors and hidden for the last weeks for the campaign — would  temper the House Republicans a bit. That almost seemed to happen at the beginning for 2013 with the […]

The world is watching Here is the video from my appearance yesterday on the Inside Story Americas discussion program on Aljazeera English TV. I must say I was VERY impressed with the quality of the show. The production values and the staff, including the most-excellent host and moderator Shihab Rattansi, were all top-notch and give other cable news shows a […]

The misinformation is rampant. Get informed.

The two biggest lies perpetuated by the fossil oil industry (“Big Oil”) and their corporatist minions in decision-making roles in our government are that TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline will bring thousands and thousands of jobs to the U.S. and, perhaps more importantly, will increase our national security by making us less reliant on oil imported from the Middle East and other foreign countries that aren’t allies like Canada.

Both are complete and utter lies and there is solid proof to dispel both.

Much, much more after the jump.

Pay no attention to the Koch behind the curtain

Greedy Lying Bastards is a new documentary released to theaters this past week that reveals the intentional, corporate-funded deception campaign that has shaped our conversation about climate change in profound and dangerous ways. While it’s long been known that the fossil fuel industry — “Big Oil” — has been throwing up a smokescreen (pardon the pun) to confuse the debate over the existence of human-caused climate change, Greedy Lying Bastards picks up where Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth left off to show us just how deliberate and well-funded this effort has been.

The film has already won numerous awards including the 2012 Burbank Film Festival, the Eco-Award at the 2012 Boston Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2012 United Nations Film Festival, 2012 Bahamas International Film Festival and 2012 Costa Rica International Film Festival.

Click through for more including clips from the film.

See you on the radio I’ll be on The Marc Unger Show on WBAL 1090 AM out of Baltimore tonight at 10:30 with Marc Unger to talk about the Rand Paul filibuster, the Jeb “No Bush Baggage” Bush run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and maybe even a bit of Paul Ryan delusional thinking thrown in, as well. You […]

Legally fired for who she loves

Last week, Lauren Jasenak from Brighton, Michigan was fired by the Boy Scouts of America from her job at a Michigan BSA ranch for being a lesbian. Because of Michigan’s bigoted laws, the firing was legal and Jasenak has little to no recourse in what should, by all accounts, be a violation of her civil rights.

Details after the jump.