Ah. So THAT’S how it works.

As majority African American communities in Michigan are forced to live under the rule of unelected dictators, formerly called Emergency Managers and, now, once again called Emergency Financial Managers, efforts by two Republicans in the heart of Republican Livingston County are hoping to avoid the same fate for their own, mostly white, communities. Fiscal troubles that can be laid largely at the door of state legislators Cindy Denby and Bill Rogers would be conveniently remedied by a new law that Rogers and Denby co-sponsored. Even though these communities are in trouble due to fiscal mismanagement on the part of their government leaders, they, unlike Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and other Michigan communities, would receive a state bailout, not a takeover of their town by a state-appointed dictator.

Details after the jump.

Collective bargaining helps ALL workers and anti-labor forces know & fear that

The anti-labor, pro-business group Protecting Michigan Taxpayers has a television ad out now that may be the most egregious, lie-filled, dishonest political ad on Michigan televisions at the moment.

The ad is designed to make Proposal 2, a ballot initiative to protect collective bargaining rights in our state, look like it will endanger children rather than giving our teachers the right to bargain for smaller class sizes, living wages, health care, and retirement benefits.

Almost every day, you see someone on the right accusing groups on the left of using scare tactics. And yet, this ad is the most shameless effort to frighten voters that you’re likely to see this election cycle. They even use the words “dangerous”, “terrifying”, and “risk”.

The ad and much more after the jump.

If you want to prevent abortions, you make sure everyone has health care, a high school education and birth control. Not the exact opposite. When I’m at my most cynical, I almost believe that the Republican Party isn’t just a conspiracy to explode the national debt. It’s also a plot to force women into abortions. In countries where the GOP […]

Rekindling Democracy

This past Sunday, the group Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES) held a rally titled “Fire of Faith: Rekindling Democracy” at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. MOSES is a group of faith communities from around the state that is working on social justice issues. They are an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation where President Barack Obama was a trainer and consultant for a time in Chicago and their approach to community organizing is very evident in the Obama For America (OFA) approach. (For more information about the Gamaliel approach, check out this post from just after the 2008 election: “I Want POWER and I Will Be Ruthless”.)

Sunday’s event involved nearly a dozen faith communities from around Michigan. Christian churches. Muslim mosques. Jewish synagogues. All were represented and all had a common goal of engaging their congregations in the democratic process. Young people from Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges (CB3), a youth outreach effort by MOSES were well represented, as well.

Much more after the jump.

It’s like voting more than once

One person, one vote. That’s what you learn about our democracy — each person gets one vote. But there is a way to, in essence, vote more than once; to amplify your vote: register others to vote and make sure they DO vote.

That’s the Obama campaign’s single-minded goal for the next 42 days.

Today is National Voter Registration Day and it’s a fine day to dust off your GOTV shoes and go out to register some voters. The voter registration deadlines are looming so time is running out. A list of voter registration deadlines by state can be found HERE. Need more information on voting in your area? The Obama campaign has put together a terrific website called WWW.GottaVote.Com that has all of the resources you could hope to find.

More details and resources await you after the jump.

Has there ever, EVER been a worse-run campaign???

Anne and I were sitting around with cocktails and dogs watching Rachel Maddow talk about Mitt Romney’s absurd statement about not understanding why you can’t roll down the windows in a jet airliner that’s flying through the air at hundreds of miles per hour so high there isn’t enough oxygen to breath.

Then I got an email titled: “On Board with Mitt” with the picture of him on a jet. Details and graphics after the jump.

Guys, you’re embarrassing yourselves

If attack points were the food upon which campaigns feed, Mitt Romney has begun to mine the stinking, dead carcasses of roadkill possums.

I’m not kidding. Mitt Romney is actually going BACK to attacking President Obama using the assassination of Libyan ambassador Christopher Stevens. It’s a topic that Romney so completely and tragically botched that it ended any hope of him ever becoming president. And yet he’s going “there”.

Click through for details.

Dude, don’t you get dizzy?

Mitt Romney is out in the open telling two completely different stories about how he both WILL and WON’T lower taxes on America’s wealthiest citizens. He WILL, he says, because it will spur the economy. He WON’T, he says, because he’ll be closing some as-yet undisclosed loopholes.

Both sides of his face revealed after the jump.

Mitt’s still trying to become a real Bush. Last night, Mitt Romney explained the newest version of RomneyCare. “Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance,” he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We […]

Joe has a BFP?!

Yesterday, at a campaign stop in New Hampshire with her husband Vice President Joe Biden, the crowd reacted to one of Jill Biden’s comments as if she was referencing her husband’s junk. The unintentional double entendre cracked up Joe, the crowd, and Jill Biden herself.

“I’ve seen Joe up close,” Dr. Biden said, holding her hands a couple feet apart.

The crowd started cheering and whistling and catcalling and Jill turned around repeatedly to look at her husband who was also cracking up.

Video and more childish humor after the jump.

Whoa.

On Thursday morning, I posted a 4-minute long online ad paid for by the campaign to elect Bridget Mary McCormack to the state Supreme Court. In fact, Eclectablog was one of the first to get it and have it available. Since then, the West Wing reunion spot has gone crazy viral.

Click through for the numbers and details.