For the Love of Goddess what is the matter with these heartless idiots?

Yesterday the Republican-controlled Michigan House and Senate passed budget bills that rejected the expansion of Medicaid in our state. The impact of this is that hundreds of thousands of working poor Michiganders will continue to go without adequate health care coverage, saving the state exactly nothing. In fact, we will still pay into the program but the only states to benefit will be those that wisely choose to expand Medicaid. In other fact, we actually will be in the hole by $200 million a year which will need to come out of other programs like, you know, food assistance for the poor and stuff.

Details after the jump.

It’s much worse than you think

I was recently contacted by journalist Lee Fang and asked to review his new book The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right. I received the book yesterday and hope to have a full review out in the next couple of weeks.

As a lead-up to the April 24th release of his book, Fang has published a stunning piece at The Nation titled “The Right Leans In”. I call it stunning because it shows just how much power the corporate-funded right has amassed in shaping public policy in America, operating primarily at the state level. If you thought our biggest problem was the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), you are quite wrong. ALEC is simply one piece of an intricate network formed to push the conservative agenda and turn it into laws and public policy across the country. Fang’s piece is essential reading for every progressive in the country.

Click through for much more.

It’s about preventing choice, not abortion A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan struck down a Health and Human Services decision Friday that prevents girls under 17 from accessing the emergency contraceptive “Plan B.” Immediately pro-life groups slammed the ruling, saying that “Girls Will Be Exploited!” “Young girls need medical supervision in taking such a potent and potentially life-ending drug,” […]

Casting the first stone in the name of the Lord since forever Tuesday the Associated Press announced that they would no longer use the term “illegal immigrant.” Besides the fact that people aren’t illegal, actions are, there are several reasons AP made a good decision. Foremost, it’s inaccurate. “Illegal” is a poll-tested Frank Luntz-term designed to gin bigots up and […]

Sometimes you just have to ask “How much money and greed is enough?”

Meijer, Inc. is one of the largest privately-owned companies in the country. When he died, Frederick Meijer, the son of the founder of the company, was worth $5 billion. The stores pioneered the concept of “one-stop shopping”, a shopping center where you could buy everything from car batteries to fresh broccoli.

This past year, Meijer, Inc. has been challenging its tax assessments around the state, saving itself millions and millions of dollars, money that is coming, in large part, directly from the coffers of the municipalities and schools where their stores are located. The Lansing area seems particularly hard hit.

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Roy Roberts may be a convincing liar but he is still a liar

Michigan’s experiment with Emergency Managers has begun to catch national attention, thanks largely to the efforts of Rachel Maddow and her staff. One of the things that has become quite clear from the things I have written about here and the terrific reporting by The Rachel Maddow Show is that, despite the fact that our state is relying on budget-cutting Emergency Managers to solve problems that are complex and multi-faceted, they have yet to show that they actually WORK. Simply stated, outside of one tiny village, there has yet to be a city or school district that has emerged out from under and Emergency Financial Manager or an Emergency Manager and remained financially stable.

The Detroit Public Schools has been under the control of an Emergency Manager or Emergency Financial Manager for many years. The first Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb, actually left the school district in a bigger financial hole than when he arrived. He was replaced by Governor Snyder by an auto industry marketing and sales guy, Roy Roberts.

Roberts is very proud of his work and went on national television to tell the world that the Detroit Public Schools are back and, not only are they back, they are kicking some serious academic ass, surpassing the state average MEAP scores in a majority of categories.

As it turns out, it was a complete lie. Click through for details.

REMINDER: Jesus never once mentioned gays or abortion. But he was sure pissed at the people who didn’t help the poor. America, we’ve reached a milestone and it’s time to reflect. Same-sex marriage has finally been argued in the highest court of the land. And as true sign of how we have matured as a country, the only arguments the […]

Oh, for the love of Goddess…

If you don’t believe the headline of this post, I really don’t blame you. I myself was skeptical until I clicked the link to the Arizona Daily Star article and was forced to confront the unfortunate fact that there are actually people this stupid, this unbelievably moronic roaming the earth.

But there it was, in black and white: “Ex-Tucson mayoral hopeful McClusky plans free shotguns for high-crime areas”.

All the facepalming details after the jump.

A generation of future entrepreneurs denied essential skills

To hear Governor Snyder tell it, Republicans haven’t reduced school funding. Everything is great for Michigan schools, he will tell you. If you want the real story, however, start attending your local school board meetings and listen to the decision-makers grappling with ever-shrinking budgets that have them choosing between offering our educators the wages and benefits they deserve and shutting down schools and eliminating programs. The reality is that our state government is starving our K-12 public schools and those chickens are beginning to come home to roost.

This past week, the Lansing Public School District announced that it is firing all 50 physical education, music and art teachers.

Details including the unintended long-term consequences of this action after the jump.

When you’re giving Michele Bachmann a run for her money, you’re definitely going off of the rails on the Crazy Train This past week, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann attempted to solidify her position as the “Craziest Person in Congress” with not one, not two, but THREE different comments. First, she was chased down a hallway by a CNN reporter trying to […]

I’m shocked

It’s hard for me to put into words how profoundly saddened I was to find out that Michelle Shocked had gone completely off the rails and launched into an anti-gay tirade at a recent show at Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Saying, “God hates fags and you can tweet that I said so” and “When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilisation, and Jesus will come back” and “I live in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry”, Yoshi staff cut her microphone and turned off the lights and most of the patrons promptly left the venue in disgust.

Click through for more.