Hi. I’m back again to talk about Netroots for the Troops, a project aimed at providing 600 CARE packages to men and women in the military who are stationed overseas. As I mentioned in my last blog about this, I have set up a team called “Team Eclectablog” (original, eh?) and have given myself a goal of raising $2,500 for […]

Based on some tips from folks who have contacted me about my blogging the Big Government TakeoverTM of Benton Harbor by Rick Snyder’s Emergency Financial Manager, Joseph Harris, I’ve been doing some digging into the development known as Harbor Shores. I have found an amazingly tangled web that involves a number of very powerful, very wealthy men. In the process […]

Color me shocked! The Republicans are unhappy with the effort of Michigan Citizens United (webpage firericksnyder.org) to recall Republican Governor Rick Snyder. They are trying to characterize it as being entirely the effort of the Michigan Education Association, the teachers’ union in our state, based on the fact that an MEA fax number is erroneously listed in some of their […]

Last night on her show, Rachel Maddow connected some very important dots in the situation that led up to the Big Government TakeoverTM of Benton Harbor, Michigan by Joseph Harris, aka “The Czar of Benton Harbor”. But she didn’t connect ALL of them. In her piece we learn these facts about Benton Harbor and its twin city next door, St. […]

New Benton Harbor Emergency Financial Manager (EFM), effectively the “Czar of Benton Harbor”, Joseph Harris got right to work this weekend in his new capacity by reconfiguring the city’s Planning Commission and Brownfield Commission. In two directives released Friday, Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joseph Harris removed members of the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and Planning Commission, appointed others, and reduced brownfield […]

I’m pretty stunned by this. Last fall, the voters approved “Proposition B”, a bill that puts stronger regulations on so-called “puppy mills”, breeding facilities that prioritize cranking out large numbers of puppies over the welfare of the animals themselves. Last week, Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives overturned the will of the voters by passing a bill to reverse […]

NOTE: I have an important update to this entry up titled “How Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is quietly & intentionally creating more Benton Harbors” that you may find of interest. NOTE 2: A second update is here: Benton Harbor Emergency Financial Mgr. gets right to work and shows how Harris is already at work, rejiggering two city development commissions. As […]

To say things are bad for teachers in Michigan is tragic understatement. Layoff notices are being issued around the state (per union contracts) for the coming school year. The most significant was announced this week: Detroit Public School teachers union members get pink slips Detroit Public Schools administrators have mailed layoff notices to the 5,466 members of the teachers union […]

Seriously, who are these people and what have you done with my Democrats? These people appear to have a clue about how to effectively deliver their message with a *punch* and succinctly frame the debates of the day. Here’s Congressman Joe Crowley of New York. You won’t want to miss this. Here’s the message in total: LAST FALL THE AMERICAN […]

It’s beginning to become a bit of trend here in Michigan: tea partiers have a rally that is dwarfed by a liberal/Democratic/labor rally. This week was no exception. Yesterday, the biggest protest rally yet by union members on the steps of the State Capitol building drew an estimated 4,500 attendees. Thousands rally at Capitol against Michigan budget, cuts to education, […]

Today I’m announcing a new hashtag: #33seniors. It comes from President Obama’s budget/deficit speech yesterday: [The Republicans have] a vision that says even though America can’t afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the […]