Racism is alive and well and flourishing in the USA

The Detroit News is reporting that an as-yet unidentified person hacked into a traffic sign in Allen Park, Michigan and reprogrammed it to say “TRAYVON A NIGGER”. [Photo after the jump.]

You’ll never believe who Mitt Romney thinks we should thank for preventing a Great Depression. Here’s something that should blow your Splenda-addled mind: Though 56% still blame George W. Bush and the GOP for the financial crisis we’re climbing out of, the former president is still more popular than current GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney. 34% of voters view Mitt Romney […]

See you on the radio I will be on the First Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show this morning at 8:30 a.m. We’ll be talking about the “immediate effect” lawsuit filed by Michigan Democrats against House Republicans who seem to think the constitution doesn’t apply to them. I will be focusing on what people are getting wrong about this issue; […]

Wrong is wrong, illegal is illegal I have been writing about how Michigan House Republicans have been refusing to acknowledge Democrats’ request to have a roll call vote on whether or not to make a bill take “immediate effect” rather than wait until 90 days after the end of the legislative session. Our state constitution says that they can do […]

Why refuting conservative lies will never work. I’ve been haunted by a question recently: How did the GOP win the House in 2010? I can’t even come up with analogy to express my disbelief of this insane fact that we’ve been living with for more than a year now. How can I explain the dismay at watching the GOP win […]

We may be at a tipping point

Spring came early to southern Michigan this year so on Good Friday, my wife Anne and I put our kayaks in the Huron River and set out to document the effects of global climate change on the wildlife of our area. What we found was both stunning and shocking.

We can’t give all Americans a car elevator, but we can help everyone get decent health care. A few weeks ago we learned that Mitt Romney’s palatial estate in La Jolla not only had its own lobbyist, it also had a car elevator. Yes, an elevator just for cars. Maybe Mitt paid for it with the pittance, only a few […]

Showtime!

Here is the video from my appearance on Off the Record with Tim Skubick that airs starting tonight and twice on Sunday (your mileage may vary depending on your public television station.) The other guests were Joe DiSano (the other liberal, sitting on my right), Jake Davison (Joe’s conservative podcast partner at Politibomb.com) and Jack Spencer from the very conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Although this was the “Bloggers Edition” of OTR, Jack and I were the only actual bloggers. Jake and Joe are not.

Enjoy (video after the jump.)

It’s much, much worse in Michigan than we even realized

Last night, Rachel Maddow broke a huge story that has been happening since Republicans took over in Michigan in 2011 and has gone completely under the radar. Since January 2011, 566 bills have been signed into law. Of those, 546 of them, 96.5% were passed under “immediate effect”. Here’s the video from last night’s show that will blow your mind. Pay particular attention to around 12:30 where they show it in action. It’s astonishing.

This is new in Michigan governance. This is not the way that Michigan was set up. This is not the way it was supposed to be…Michigan Republicans are using what is supposed to be an emergency provision for everything, even for the most contentious and partisan and divisive things that they want to do…

This is no War on Women. It’s simply a uteri-policing action. Reince Priebus is a Republican from Wisconsin, where they apparently grow conservatives so bland it almost blurs their extremism. Like Scott Walker and Paul Ryan, Priebus uses a condescending tone and denial to make a case for policies that exclusively benefit a group I like to call “rich, penised […]

Constitution schmonstitution, part eleventy billion When I wrote about Michigan Republicans being put under a restraining order to keep them from violating the state constitution a few days ago, I wrote, “It will be interesting to see if the Republicans are so intent on betraying the state constitution that they appeal to the appeals court.” Turns out they ARE and […]