Last week, Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed into law a bill that ends welfare benefits for 41,000 Michiganders. Until then, there was no limit to how long poor people in Michigan could receive benefits. The law ends payments after four years. Nearly 30,000 children are affected by this axe which will save the state $77.4 million annually, according to the […]

As I reported last week, GOP Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville is out to make Michigan a right to work state, but only for teachers. He said so on Tim Skubick’s “Off the Record”. In an interview with MIRS news service, he went even further, ridiculously saying he doesn’t think teachers realize that Michigan is having economic problems. Senate Majority […]

Here’s your damn PROOF: “Obama is on the ropes; why do we appear ready to hand him a win?” said one senior House Republican aide who requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely. “I just don’t want to co-own the economy by having to tout that we passed a jobs bill that won’t work or at least won’t do enough. […]

After the resignation last week of Michael Stampfler as Pontiac’s Emergency Manager, Louis Schmimmel was chosen as his replacement. The former emergency financial manager of Hamtramck and Ecorse is known as an expert at privatizing public services and comes highly recommended by the far-right conservative Mackinac Center think tank. Schmimmel, in fact, was the director of the Morey Fiscal Policy […]

In a somewhat surprising move given the majority Republican make-up of the Michigan Supreme Court, they have decided not to hear an appeal of a lower court decision brought to them by Republican Paul Scott. Scott is the Republican most responsible for most of the anti-teacher legislation to come before the state legislature. He was challenging the clarity of the […]

I saw this photo of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, playing “doubles” vs. Serena Williams at the U.S. Open and couldn’t resist posting it. Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters, click for a larger version. More photos HERE. (Yes, I have a crush on her. Yes, my wife knows.)

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said yesterday on the news talk program “Off the Record” that he won’t pursue so-called “Right to Work” laws for Michigan EXCEPT FOR TEACHERS. These laws, often called “Right-to-Work-for-LESS”, remove the requirement for employees at a union shop to join the union. RTWFL laws are used to reduce the power held by unions and allow […]

When this year’s crop of Republicans got elected, I went to their fledgling websites and looked for a section about “Jobs”. I didn’t find any which was pretty shocking. But, at that point, most of them were using the same basic boilerplate site, probably provided to them by the party or the government or something. So, I thought I should […]

From my friends at Working America: September 8, 2011 Working America Statement on President Obama’s Jobs Plan The President laid out some proposals tonight that represent a starting point for reversing the devastating jobs crisis that our nation continues to endure. But if we are to truly dig ourselves out of this hole, we have much more work ahead of […]

Chris Bowers has a fantastic idea at Daily Kos. While a campaign on behalf of stimulative measures to create jobs is unquestionably worth a try, it will be extremely difficult to convince this Congress to go along with any new legislation other than cutting taxes for the rich, taking away entitlements from everyone, continuing to slash non-military discretionary spending, and […]

Want to know how bad things have gotten in Michigan? HERE is how bad. According to the shithead “Pastor” Terry Jones, one of our state representatives, Dave Agema, actually asked if he could speak at Jones’ rally held at the Michigan State Capitol yesterday. According to Jones, Agema “chickened out”. The “he said, he said” afterwards is a Popcorn Moment, […]