I didn’t see that one coming at all

This wrote about Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s brief to the Michigan Supreme Court in which she says that if the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 are insufficient to meet the rules set out in our state constitution, the so are ALL of the other ballot initiative’s petitions. My comment in that post was that “gives me hope” and I suggested that this was an unintended and undesirable side effect of this court challenge.

I’m having second thoughts on that.

Didn’t think of THAT didjya?

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson filed a brief (pdf) with the state Supreme Court last week that gives me hope. In the case the Court is hearing in front of a packed courtroom today regarding the font size issue with the Public Act 4 repeal petitions, her office suggested that if the PA 4 repeal petitions are disqualified, the petitions for ALL SIX of the other ballot initiatives would also be disqualified.

Details after the jump.

Mitt Romney: sinking to new lows every day

Playing off the anger generated by anti-Obama types on the right who took the President’s words out of context to make it sound like he was maligning small businesses, Mitt Romney has now gone full Breitbart in his latest attack ad. Pretty much any journalist with a pulse has written put this one in the “lying his damn ass off category”.

More, including the Obama campaign’s response ad and video after the jump.

Forward!

In 2008, Anne and I worked tirelessly to get Senator Barack Obama elected. After the election, Anne wanted to do more. Realizing that she had literally thousands of photos of people who had attended Obama rallies in Michigan, she put together a photomosaic of then President-elect Barack Obama. Titled “Out of Many, We Are One”, it is composed of thousands of faces of people she photographed that summer and fall. She posted it on Flickr and, much to her surprise, it was picked up by Time magazine. In January of 2009, it ran as a full two-page spread in their Person of the Year issue.

A special offer for our Eclectablog readers after the jump!

THIS is how we treat our heroes?

Astronaut and Stanford physicist Sally Ride passed away this week from pancreatic cancer. She was the first woman American* and the youngest American of either gender to travel into space. My family has a small but important (to us) connection with Dr. Ride. When my daughter was in grade school, she had a project where they dressed as their heroes and, during an open house, played the role of their hero, answering questions and chatting with the parents that visited. My daughter was there, dressed in a blue jumpsuit and sporting my motorcycle helmet, a third grade astronaut. Her picture even ended up in the local newspaper.

When Dr. Ride, a lesbian, passed away this week, she left behind her partner of 27 years, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy. Because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), O’Shaughnessy will receive no federal benefits, benefits she would receive if she were a man. Despite their life-long partnership, she is treated as if she were just an acquaintance.

The two met when they were 12 years old.

Fool us three times? Shame, shame, shame. If you can stand it, try a little experiment: Ask a Republican how Mitt Romney would be different than George W. Bush. I’ll tell you the answer you’ll get later and why it’s a lie. But first, let’s review how Mitt compares to George. THE SAME Advisers According to the Washington Times: Mr. […]

Teach a Republican to fish…

Anne and LOLGOP are teaming up to pair his Greatest Hits tweets with some of Anne’s photos. Their first one, shown below, has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook already and it was just posted last evening.

We’re calling the new series “Graphically LOLGOP”. Enjoy.

A successful myth, of course, but a myth nonetheless

A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released last week shows that the claim by Republicans that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest among would harm small businesses is a myth. In fact, only 2.5% of small business owners are in the top two tax rates and only 0.5% of them are millionaires.

Ammunition to fight back against these lies after the jump.

I’m sorry we paused in our union-crushing, women’s rights ending crusade…

Late in the afternoon on Friday when most people were thinking more about their summer weekend ahead and not about state politics, Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger gave the apology version of the Friday afternoon “news dump”. In a piece published in the Detroit Free Press and put online at 2:56 p.m., he “apologized”.

More after the jump.

The eagle has landed. I repeat, the eagle has landed

If you’re reading this, then all is well and the transfer to the new server has gone smoothly.

A big shoutout to my pal Charles Gaba at Brainwrap for his work on this. We’re happy to have found a new home that can accommodate our explosive growth.

Obviously, along with these growing pains come new expenses. While I don’t expect to make a living blogging any time soon (though, of course, that would be the Holy Grail), I’d at least like to break even.

You can help with that by making a contribution to Eclectablog. How? Two ways. Details after the jump.

More welfare for Wall Street The fact that Mitt Romney’s so-called plan to balance the budget includes offering millionaires an average $390,000 tax break should be enough to end any policy debate. But add in the fact that he would pay for wasteful giveaways to the richest Americans is by gutting Medicare and you have to wonder how anyone who […]