Since his election last year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has played the good cop/bad cop game to perfection. While he stays above the fray and issues calming and non-threatening platitudes, his Republican colleagues in the legislature enact a conservative agenda with a rapidity that Democrats can only marvel at. Time and time again, Snyder has talked about how a particular […]

Howzabout a little Monday Morning Meta? So, you may have noticed a couple of new ads on Eclectablog this past week. The first one over there on the left is for an Ann Arbor-area electrician, Dan Del Zoppo. Up there at the top is one for We Are The People Michigan. These two ads have something in common: they were […]

I’ve been to two Netroots Nation conferences so far and, wow, what a rush. But, there is one thing about it that bothers me and I am not the only one: it’s pretty much all white people. Seriously. We are a lily white group of progressive conference attendees. There is an effort afoot to help fix that and without spending […]

In late November of this year, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a tersely worded order (pdf) that said simply this: On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the July 19, 2011 judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by […]

I realize you have probably seen this all over the innernetz and I apologize. However, I am contractually obligated as a progressive liberal blogger to have it on my blog. I give you: Rick Perry, Brokeback Texan. Yes, the jacket Rick Perry wore in his anti-gay, homophobic, anti-Obama campaign ad was the exact same one as Heath Ledger wore in […]

With the news that Michigan Republicans are already writing legislation to replace the Emergency Manager law if it is stopped by the referendum petition drive being conducted by Michigan Forward, many of us are concerned that they will put an appropriation into the bill. If this is done, it will make the law “referendum-proof” because Michigan law prohibits referendums on […]

Okay THIS is kind of creepy. Michigan residents have enjoyed or endured a roller-coaster year in terms of weather, and they’re not alone. Roughly 3,000 monthly weather records — covering rainfall, snowfall, extreme temperatures, fires or drought — have been broken in areas across the country this year, according to data released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. That […]

I sat down for an interview with Lansing Community College Professor Bonnie Bucqueroux a couple of weeks ago to talk about citizen journalism and blogging in Michigan (and in general). Professor Bucqueroux has posted the interview in two parts at her blog Occupy Journalism as well as at her site Michigan Online News. I’m very pleased with the videos she […]

Last night, on his MSNBC show, Ed Schulz finished the evening with a piece about the Emergency Manager issue in Michigan. One particularly interesting point made by Rev. Alexander Bullock from the Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church of Highland Park, MI and also of Rainbow Push Detroit was that Emergency Managers can take control of the Clerk’s office when they […]

[Bumped due to update.] MIRS News has this tantalizing snippet on their front page this morning: The Gov. Rick Snyder administration is working with legislative leaders on a bill that would create an interim Emergency Manager (EM) law in case the state’s new EM statute, P.A. 4, is suspended through a potentially successful referendum process.” UPDATE: The Detroit Free Press […]

Back August I wrote about how the Snyder Administration had hired John Covington to run a new group called the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). The EAA was set up to help out failing schools in Michigan. This past week, John Covington was hired by the state of Michigan to oversee a collection of underperforming schools in the state. The new […]