At least we know who they work for now — they’ve made that clear

House Republicans have released a counter-proposal to President Obama’s budget plan to avoid plunging us off the fiscal cliff speed bump. Unsurprisingly, it raises tax revenue but doesn’t allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. In fact, according to analysis by the Washington Post, it appears to lower taxes for the top tax bracket.

Details and more GOPocrisy and insanity after the jump.

Oh, for the love of Goddess… With the election of Bridget McCormack on November 6th, Democrats in Michigan picked up a precious seat on the state’s highest court. These seats are hard-won and, in McCormack’s case, it took the effort of a crack campaign staff coupled with volunteers across the state working their tails off to make it happen. Now […]

Success doesn’t happen by accident As I mentioned last week, this past weekend was the 7th Annual RootsCamp un-conference, an event put on by the New Organizing Institute. This year’s event was bigger than ever with over 2,000 attendees and 250 sessions. I came away from this unique and energizing event impressed at the quality of progressive organizing in the […]

How the GOP’s rebranding became even less popular than the GOP If you’re ever feeling masochistic, take a look into the comments of a post on Breitbart.com. You’ll see gems like this one from “Patriot”: We have quit. Mitt won hands down & we did nothing. Whats left to do? Become a terrorest against our own country? ( “terrorest” must […]

What could go wrong???

Michigan Republicans are moving forward with a couple of bills that will make it easier to get handguns in our state and to ease restrictions on where concealed weapons may be carried.

Apparently, one of Michigan’s biggest problems is that it’s just too damned inconvenient to get a gun and who wouldn’t want concealed weapons in churches, schools, bars, and stadiums?

Details and more after the jump.

This is a Big Government takeover, Republican style. Period.

Although many of us here in Michigan have been fearful regarding what the Republicans in our state legislature would do during the lame duck session which lasts for the next three weeks, few of us envisioned the draconian steps they would take to hand over the education of our kids to private, for-profit corporations and destroy our public school system once and for all. That is, however, exactly what they plan to do.

A new package of bills is making its way through the legislature (there’s an Education Committee meeting on them today, in fact) that will all but end public education as we know it in Michigan. The bills, House Bill 6004 and Senate Bill 1358, House Bill 5923, and Senate Bill 620 are revolutionary and are so far-reaching/over-reaching that school superintendents and other administrators across the state are sounding alarm bells far and wide.

All the gruesome details after the jump.

Pay no attention to the lobbyist behind the curtain

As LOLGOP pointed out this morning, there are Republicans who handily won re-election in their gerrymandered districts who do not fear the fiscal cliff. They can serve their two-percenter masters without fear that plunging our country into another recession will hurt their political careers in any way. But President Obama has a couple of things going for him. The first is that most Americans WILL blame the Republicans for “going there” if we do, indeed, go off the mythical cliff. Then there’s the fact that he won the election largely because he promised the super-wealthy would no longer be allowed to avoid paying their fair share in taxes.

Democrats are beginning to show some real spine in this debate. Politico reports today that many of them are ready to use their success on November 6th to restore some sanity to our budget.

Details after the jump.

The time for ACTION is NOW!

Last week, I wrote about the new website TheAction.org, a new organizing tool to help pass President Obama’s second term agenda. This weekend marks the first Day of Action using this organizing tool. The activities are designed to ensure that Congress passes a repeal of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preserving the middle class tax cuts that actually help stimulate our economy by keeping money in the hands of those who will immediately put it back into the economy.

Details on how you can get involved after the jump.

Now is not the time to rest The Michigan legislature holds its lame duck session starting today and continuing through December 20th. The Republicans who control both houses of our legislature are signaling that they intend to get a LOT done in over the next four weeks. Further efforts to destroy our labor unions, an egregious, overreaching “reform” (aka privatization) […]

We’re just getting started This weekend the New Organizing Institute is hosting its 7th annual RootsCamp, a conference — or rather “un-conference” as they call it — that brings together progressive organizers from around the country to network and share best practices as we move forward in achieving our collective goals. The event takes place Friday, November 30th through Saturday, […]

Seriously. Just. One. Day. Anne and I are spending the Thanksgiving holiday in St. Louis and, last night, we were returning from our dinner and celebrating at around 11:45. We drove by the West County Center, a huge shopping mall anchored by one of the biggest Macy’s I’ve ever seen. Traffic was backed up to get into the mall and […]