On Mackinac Island at the GOP Leadership Conference this week, Governor Rick Snyder got a frigid reception from tea party types on his position on a new bridge to Canada, Right to Work for Less bills, and a new proposal for doctors to report children’s body mass indices in an effort to curb childhood obesity. The question, at this point, […]

Michigan state Representative and advocate for making Michigan a Right to Work for Less state, Mike Shirkey, has been busted for showing higher than normal level of Republican hypocrisy (“GOPocrisy”) today. Todd Heywood of Michigan Messenger reports that Shirkey benefited from a tax abatement involved with creating a “Tool and Die Recovery Zone”. The tax break gives his nonunion company […]

Can something be “more illegal” than it already is? I guess it can if you are a Michigan Republican. Yesterday, the Michigan state House and Senate both passed bills that outlaw so-called “partial birth abortions”. Problem is, these types of abortions are already illegal under a federal law passed eight years ago. Thankfully they aren’t wasting their time worrying about […]

It’s because they ARE millionaires. Here’s a tribute to the Michigan millionaires against the millionaires tax, put out by The Agenda Project’s Patriotic Millionaires: Here is their powerful national ad: 48 percent of Congress members are millionaires while only 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires 55 members of Congress have an average wealth of $10 million and 8 members […]

Today, former governor Jennifer Granholm and former First Gentleman Dan Mulhern released their new book A Governor’s Story – The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. The book is an important contribution to the conversation and debate that is occurring right now over our economic path forward as a country. The question is, will the rest of the country […]

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 […]

We all knew this was coming after the Michigan Republicans had their way with the redistricting of Michigan’s Congressional districts. Today we found out what the outcome would be. The 13th and 14th districts which comprise the area in and around Detroit have been rejiggered to force showdowns between several popular incumbent and freshmen Democrats. Here’s what’s going to happen: […]

This 7-minute documentary, Dictators Over Communities of Color: Coming to a Town Near You , was put together by the New Media Adovocacy Project in cooperation with Michigan Forward and the Advancement Project. It’s well worth a watch and I would love for you to share it widely. This isn’t just something Michiganders should be paying attention to. Big shout […]

This happened while I was on vacation so I never had a chance to post a clip from the Rachel Maddow Show where Eclectablog was once again featured. The segment starts at 17:00 and my blog shows up around 21:00. She shows the blog and plays the audio of the robocalls. Enjoy.

Joseph Harris, the Emergency Manager for Benton Harbor, Michigan, is proposing a couple of major changes to the make-up of the City Commission. Emergency Manager Joseph Harris announced Wednesday he’s filed ballot language that would shrink the Benton Harbor City Commission, but widen the commissioners’ voter base. Harris said during a town hall meeting that he filed two proposed changes […]