Via Laura Conaway at The Maddow Blog: Ezra Klein today runs a year-in-charts post that’s purely the excellent. It includes the Toil Index, by the excellent economist Robert Frank. Basically, it shows why it’s so hard for working people to live decently these days. Working families are running faster and faster just to afford the same things their parents enjoyed, […]

You know how piranhas and sharks, when they are in the middle of a feeding frenzy, will start to eat each other??? That’s pretty much what’s happening in Washington, D.C. right now. From Dana Bash at CNNPolitics: “The House Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. They are on their own,” a Senate GOP leadership aide told CNN. “This is […]

Yesterday during Roll Call Vote 946, my Representative, Congressman Tim Walberg, voted against extending the middle class tax cuts and unemployment insurance for unemployed Americans. The bill is H.R.3630. I just sent him this note and I urge you to do the same: I am appalled that my Representative to Congress voted AGAINST the bill to extend the payroll tax […]

The Board of Trustees in Hamburg Township, home of Hell, Michigan, voted this week by a 5-2 vote, to ban water fluoridation in their community. Hartland Township will no longer fluoridate its water supply. The Board of Trustees voted 5-2 Tuesday to immediately cease adding the element to its water supply after a lengthy discussion that echoed what became a […]

One step closer to half the African Americans in Michigan being without local democracy and being disenfranchised. If Inkster, which is one step ahead of Detroit, falls as well, OVER half will be. A preliminary review of Detroit’s finances has moved the city a step closer to appointment of an emergency manager. Treasurer Andy Dillon issued a statement today that […]

I guess we’re supposed to be thankful for this? Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said this week that he’s done robbing from our children to balance the state’s books after he took $1 billion from the school fund to help pay for an 86% tax cut for businesses. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday that his next budget proposal likely won’t […]

Let’s put it this way: if you were going to have an orgasm and dedicate to whirled peas world peace, today is the day to do it. It’s Global Orgasm for Peace Day. When?Practice as often as you would like! Especially on full moons, new moons, solstices and equinoxes, or when you remember! What?Dedicate an orgasm to Peace. Who?All men […]

As I wrote about last week, Jonathan Mahler published an excellent piece on Benton Harbor in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine titled “Now That the Factories Are Closed, It’s Tee Time in Benton Harbor, Mich.” My review is HERE. After it was published, I sent Mahler an email, putting the Emergency Manager law, Public Act 4 into some perspective as […]

It’s probably a crass way of looking at it, but I can’t see THIS as anything more than the Mayor of Flint and the City Council being rewarded for their obedience. Flint’s emergency manager is giving back some responsibilities to the city’s mayor and city council. One of the first things Michael Brown did after the governor appointed him was […]

Lots of talk these days from conservatives and tea partiers in particular about too much government spending. Rather than seeing government spending as the investment that it often is, they see nearly all government spending as waste to be eliminated. As I wrote yesterday, tea party mayor of Troy, Michigan, Janice Daniels, led a coalition of like-minded tea partiers to […]

The Iraq War is over but the US is still watching things closely. Today Vice President Biden checked in with the Iraqi Prime Minister and Iraqi Council of Representatives. Via the White House: The Vice President today spoke on the phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and separately with Iraqi Council of Representatives Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi to discuss the […]