My friend Extreme Liberal posted a piece at Angry Black Lady Chronicles a while back titled “I was sexually assaulted as a child”. With Glenn Greenwald’s obscene comments about my good friend Imani Gandy, the Angry Black Lady, I thought now might be a good time to tell my own story of being sexually molested as a young boy. Unlike […]

At a Detroit rally yesterday to protest the imposition of an Emergency Manager on the city, Brandon Jessup of Michigan Forward announced that Michigan Forward has gathered over 170,000 petition signatures for their effort to put the repeal of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager law, on the November 2012 ballot. Only 161,305 are needed. Michigan Forward started the petition […]

On New Year’s Eve, President Obama signed the H.R. 1540 into law, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012”. Many are unhappy about this bill because it includes language that suggests that terrorist suspects, including Americans, can be held indefinitely without trial. One of those unhappy about this provision is President Obama himself. Toward that end, he signed […]

As we move into the new year, I want to take a moment to thank the many folks who have supported Eclectablog over the past year and to give you a look at what’s on the horizon for this blog and my writing, in general. First, I must first begin with thanking my beautiful life partner and wife, Anne C. […]

A couple of weeks ago, Michigan Radio reported that Benton Harbor mayor-elect James Hightower held an informational meeting for City Commissioners and Benton Harbor City department heads to prepare for the departure of Emergency Manager Joe Harris. A further story today suggests that Hightower and the newly elected commissioners are taking the return of their city to democratic rule very […]

I’m pleased to be able to announce that I am teaming up with Christine Barry, owner of Blogging for Michigan and Tony Trupiano, host of First Shift with Tony Trupiano to do a weekly segment on First Shift. The segment, called “Blog Role”, will focus on the Michigan blogosphere and what bloggers in our state are working on writing about. […]

While the rest of the world laughs at the United States for even entertaining the idea that a person like Newt Gingrich is qualified to be president, he raises the level of his stupidity and pandering insipidity to eleven: Caller: If you’re fortunate enough to be nominated, would you consider having Sarah Palin as your running mate? Gingrich: She is […]

Gotta love this headline in the Detroit News this morning: Michigan Legislature praised for reform bills Sounds good, right? Here’s the thing: the only people “praising” the Michigan Republicans in the article are Michigan Republicans. But Michigan Republicans, I must say, think Michigan Republicans are totally freaking awesome. The closest you get to praise are these to bits: The Senate […]

If you followed my writing about Ace the pit bull from Detroit, you know that there are as many as 50,000 stray dogs in Detroit, most of them pit bulls. Detroit Dog Rescue (DDR) puts the number at 50,000-100,000. The Detroit Animal Control Center simply cannot handle even a portion of this number of animals. Dogs that are brought there […]

I traveled to Europe in the waning days of the 2008 election and, in fact, wrote a piece for Huffington Post about my experience including watching the last presidential debate between at 3:00 a.m in a little hotel in Gemona, Italy. My [business] trip started in Brussels, Belgium. My first clue that American politics reach firmly across the Atlantic ocean […]

One of the main points I have raised repeatedly since the passage of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, Public Act 4, is that the imposition of an Emergency Manager (EM) does little, if anything, to solve the underlying problems that bring municipalities and school districts to the crisis point where an EM is deemed necessary. With Joe Harris set to depart […]