Governor Snyder: it’s not working Three new municipalities are now under consideration for an Emergency Manager: Lincoln Park, Royal Oak Township, and Highland Park. If Highland Park goes, it will be its second time around and it will be the third city to come out of financial crisis under an Emergency Manager only to go back under an Emergency Manager […]

I hate to tell you this, but it’s not going to work The Republican party is in desperation mode trying to ingratiate themselves with the African American community. Having spent the last several decades using race-baiting techniques to drum up support with southern whites, they’ve suddenly seen the light and know that, unless they can begin appealing to the black […]

Why do I get the feeling there’s a LOT they aren’t telling us?

The Michigan House Republicans released their “2013-14 House Republican Action Plan” (pdf) today and, while there’s much I still need to digest, there were enough glaring LOLs in it to warrant pointing them out.

The 21-page plan, titled “Brighter Days Ahead”, is almost half “Executive Summary” and is full of photos of happy, smiling white people. Reading the Executive Summary is an odd experience. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was either a Democratic proposal or something a bipartisan group put out. You honestly would never know that this is the party that focused so intensely over the past two years to crush unions, demonize teachers and other public employees and that led the way in the Republican War on Women.

Details after the jump.

Nice try, jerks Last month I wrote about how my favorite judge, William Collette, had found Republican redistricting in Oakland County to be unconstitutional: An Ingham County judge on Wednesday struck down a controversial state law that changed the way Oakland County’s commissioner districts are drawn. Judge William Collette said the law was unconstitutional. Plaintiffs hailed the striking down of […]

Here we go again With the impending expiration of federal unemployment benefits for many Americans, the AFL-CIO is holding rallies in front of the offices of key Republican members of Congress in Michigan tomorrow (Friday, February 10, 2012). See their press release below for details. Workers and Community Members to Rally at Michigan Congressional Offices as Jobless Benefits Approach ExpirationBenefits […]

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 […]

The GOP finally finds a good tax: on the poor As bad as things are right now in Michigan, they are about to get so much worse that I fear there is a genuine risk of the types of riots we haven’t seen since the 60s & 70s in my state. If you think we have too many failing schools […]

Out of touch and out to lunch Republican state Senator Jack Brandenburg has an idea with what to do with the budget surplus created by taxing seniors’ pensions, cutting funding to cities and stripping $1 billion from schools: lower Michigan’s income tax. I’m not kidding. A proposal at the state Capitol would cut the Michigan income tax rate to 3.9 […]

My wife, Anne C. Savage accompanied me and Christine Barry, owner of Blogging for Michigan, to the State of the State address on Wednesday. She was there, as were we, with media passes. However, her effort to actually do any photographing of the event was completely shut down by overly-aggressive security and what seems to be a clear effort by […]

It’s a good thing we don’t have any real problems in the state of Michigan. The fantastic shape we’re in and the abundance of jobs gives Republicans the opportunity to work on things like THIS. A package of Republican bills in the state Legislature would boost penalties for public workers who go on strike. The legislation would also let employers […]

Last week, Senator and serial sexist Rick Jones from Lansing called public relations executive Kelly Rossman-McKinney a “hooker”. Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press describes the situation: [Senator Jones] likened longtime Lansing public relations executive Kelly Rossman-McKinney to “a hooker” in the Michigan Information and Research Services’ widely read Capital Capsule, a daily report on state government news. Rossman-McKinney, […]