This week, across the country, Organizing for America (OFA) held phonebanks for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and passage of the DREAM Act. Last night, as Community Organizer for OFA, I participated in one in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. It was a huge success so I thought I would share some thoughts with you on where […]

This blog entry was first posted on Daily Kos yesterday morning and it has, surprisingly, been one of my most popular diaries there in a very long time. I posted it as a snarky, sarcastic jab at what I think of as Obama is Ruining EverythingTM conservatives and also to highlight that there definitely ARE some things to be quite […]

Last week in Ann Arbor, Van Jones spoke at the Ecology Center‘s 40th anniversary. Held on the campus of the University of Michigan, the event was a fundraiser but also an opportunity for Van Jones to share his thoughts on Michigan’s role in the environmental movement, the success of places like the Ecology Center and why now is not the […]

The Republicans are pissed. Pissed, I tell ya. They are PISSED about how earmarks are positively wrecking our national budget. They are so pissed that last year they decided that they would have themselves a unilateral earmark ban. Some of them even adhered to it, too! Now Republicans want to pass legislation to ban ALL earmarks. Here’s what they are […]

This is, in part, how the GOPosaurs won the day in Michigan: by drumming up fear and promising solutions to problems that don’t actually exist. Halting social benefits to undocumented immigrants should be the first step toward eliminating Michigan’s $1.6 billion structural deficit, state Sen.-elect Joe Hune said. Hune, a Republican from the Fowlerville area, raised the issue on the […]

It’s been a busy day over at the New York Stock Exchange. GM’s initial public offering (IPO) had its stock priced $33 but it opened well over that at $35.40. As I type this, the latest trade was $35.18. Detroit Free Press editorial cartoonist Mike Thompson perhaps put it best: Something tells me that that a whole lot of anti-auto […]

Michele Bachmann has shown true leadership in her call recently for a “redefinition” of earmarks. She wants to take the tiny sliver representing earmarks in the chart below and make it smaller: “Advocating for transportation projects for ones district in my mind does not equate to an earmark.” “I don’t believe that building roads and bridges and interchanges should be […]

Remember that dreaded device that Republicans hated so much: Reconciliation? That was the one they said perverted the Constitution when Democrats were looking to use it during health insurance reform. Well, back in the day when George W. Bush was president, Republicans didn’t think it was so danged bad. In fact, they loved them some reck and silly ayshun just […]

As I’ve written about before at Daily Kos and elsewhere (HERE and HERE, e.g.), GM has had remarkable success in 2010 and their impending initial public offering (IPO) Thursday is cause for some rejoicing. This morning we learn that GM’s share price, originally forecasted to be $26-29, will be $32-33, an increase of of about 14%. This will increase the […]

You have got to be kidding me. This cannot be real. Sadly, it is: Maryland physician Andy Harris (R) just soundly defeated Frank Kratovil, one of the most endangered Democrats on Capitol Hill going into the November election. And he did it in large part by railing against ‘Obamacare’ and pledging to repeal Health Care Reform. But when he showed […]

I have to tread carefully here because I cannot allow my blogging life to overlap into my work life. I won’t be saying who my company is or what city it’s in. Please respect that, m’kay? So. While I live in Ann Arbor, one of the most liberal communities in Michigan, I work in one of the most conservative parts […]