This doesn’t smell right Yesterday I reported that the state government employees were not going to be forced to take unpaid furlough days due to the state budget surplus. Later that afternoon, I received this press release from the House Democratic Caucus: House Dems Champion Restoration of School FundingExpect funds to be added in supplemental, next year’s budgetLANSING – The […]

What? ME?! Oh, you shouldn’t have… Last year, Republican Congressman Dan Benishek headlined a One Nations PAC “Scotch and Cigars” fundraiser. This year, he was again listed on the invitation as being an honoree. This prompted a press release by the Michigan Nurses Association and an online petition by Progress Michigan. Here is a bit of the press release: Michigan […]

Seriously? TWO HOURS??? Professor Lisa Disch, the woman who organized the Emergency Manager forum in Ann Arbor on February 6, 2012 left me a very kind comment on the cross-posting of my report over at Blogging for Michigan. In her comment, Professor Disch informs us that Representative Mark Ouimet cancelled his appearance only two hours before the event was scheduled […]

PeteisARACIST.com Heh, heh… Controversial Racist Pete Hoekstra Ad – watch more funny videos

Small favors… The Lansing State Journal is reporting that, due to the state government budget surplus, unionized government workers will not have to take four unpaid furlough this year as was previously believed. Nearly 37,000 unionized state employees will not have to take four furlough days before Oct. 1, 2012, as originally projected, state officials said this afternoon. Kurt Weiss, […]

Penalizing struggling schools solves what exactly? The Detroit Free Press has an article in today’s edition titled “Rick Snyder’s push to tie school funding to performance still needs a scale”. They quote Governor Rick Snyder from last April: “In my 2013 budget message, I will be proposing that school districts receive a bonus beyond the per-pupil state foundation allowance for […]

Game on Congressman Gary Peters faces two solid primary opponents in the newly-drawn 14th Congressional District in Michigan, Congressman Hansen Clark and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, a situation intentionally created by Republicans during the redistricting process last year. This morning, Peters announced that he has picked up the much-coveted endorsement of the SEIU: I’ve got some great news to share […]

What’ll ya give me for it? Back in January, I wrote about Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris closing down the radio station that was run from the City Hall basement. He figured it would save the city $10,000-20,000 a year. This week, Harris put the equipment up for sale on eBay: Click image for larger version Item specificsLow Power […]

Michigan’s back, Jack This is a guest post from my Daily Kos friend dkmich. It talks about a couple of new economic development initiatives working to bring jobs to Michigan. Take a look: “Osama bin Laden’s dead & GM is alive”The Great Recession gave a knock out punch to an already struggling auto industry and thousands of Michigan engineers and […]

The fallout continues Good to see the civil rights leaders and clergy of Michigan getting involved with decrying the racist ad put out on Sunday by Pete Hoekstra. The Rev. Charles Williams II and a coalition of clergy members are asking Hoekstra campaign contributor Quicken Loans to denounce the commercial and ask Hoekstra to pull it. Here’s their press release: […]

Sometimes the truth hurts Republicans around the country are freaking over Chrysler’s Super Bowl half-time ad that was narrated by Clint Eastwood. Here is the ad, in case you missed it: Karl Rove had this to say about it: The President of the United States’ political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising and the […]