Michigan
updated
7:27 p.m.
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Astonishing I find myself using the word "astonished" or "astonishing" a LOT lately when it comes to Michigan politics. My level of cynicism seems to be rising exponentially as each week passes when I see the outrageous and egregious things that Republicans are doing in our state. But this might take the cake. ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - 7:13 p.m.
Astonishing I find myself using the word "astonished" or "astonishing" a LOT lately when it comes to Michigan politics. My level of cynicism seems to be rising exponentially as each week passes when I see the outrageous and egregious things that Republicans are doing in our state. But this might take the cake....
Eclectablog - 3:27 p.m. - 7 clicks 
Getting to knooo-ooow you, getting to know all abooo-uuut you... Super, uber blogger Mark Maynard of the legendary MarkMaynard.com in Ypsilanti (and beyond) is resurrecting an event he used to hold semi-regularly called "Beer With Bloggers". It's a chance for us, the men and women behind the html code, to hang out with the folks that read our words and look at our photos and other artwork, a...
Eclectablog - 4:28 a.m. - 11 clicks
by P.D. Lesko It’s no surprise Republican Rob Steele couldn’t unseat Representative John Dingell in 2010. However, Steele’s run, which campaign emails intimated would be financed with the doctor’s own “fortune,” rattled Team Dingell. Former President Bill Clinton came to Michigan and stumped for the Dean of the House prior to the November election. It’s [....
A2Politico - Tue 3:44 p.m. - 17 clicks
(UPDATE: See below the fold for a blistering response from MDP Chair Mark Brewer.) State Rep. Roy Schmidt has become a Republican . Schmidt made the announcement in a news release. It appears he will run unopposed as a Republican for the 76th District seat in November. Democrat Matt Mojzak will challenge him for the seat. The Republicans in Lansing confirmed that Schmidt is now a member o...
Michiganliberal - Tue 3:44 p.m. - 17 clicks
With friends like these... The group working to recall Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Michigan Rising missed a campaign finance report deadline by a few days this month. Though this isn't entirely uncommon given the unnecessarily complex and cumbersome reporting methods they use, it was still a black eye to a group trying to prove that it has learned its lesson from the first recall effort and...
Eclectablog - Tue 6:07 a.m. - 20 clicks
Related to the immediate-below post, but also in general on same sex marriage -- the Freep's Poli-Bites launched an attack on Jennifer Granholm over the weekend over her support for same-sex marriage. Their tag? That she opposed it a decade ago. The president "stepped off the squishy, wishy-washy middle ground that so many political figures occupy on divisive, tough issues. It took real cour...
Michiganliberal - Mon 2:04 p.m. - 22 clicks
Would YOU like to help make the Democratic Party more responsive to your concerns? Here's your chance! Many Democratic activists like myself are precinct delegates. What is a precinct delegate ? The role of a precinct delegate is one of the most important yet least understood of any elected office. It is the active precinct delegate who wins elections for the Democratic ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Mon 10:47 a.m. - 16 clicks
So, last week I get a fund raising letter on behalf of the Trever Thomas campaign. He's the openly gay person running for the Democratic nomination in the Congressional race to challenge Lil' Fella in the November general. The fund raising letter was from Jennifer Granholm. Also, Thomas' campaign staff appears to include a few of the old Granholm hands. Meanwhile, on the other side, S...
Michiganliberal - Mon 8:46 a.m. - 23 clicks
Envelope, please... This post took way longer than I had hoped but I traveled for work last week, spent the day at the Michigan Summit on Saturday and planted a monster garden yesterday so I simply have not had the time. First, thanks to everyone who contributed to our 2nd Quarter fundraising drive. We are so appreciative and gratified by both the donations and the many very nice comments. Wit...
Eclectablog - Mon 4:04 a.m. - 16 clicks
Something is happening in the Livingston County Republican Party. With a couple days to go until the filing deadline, both incumbent Republican Michigan House members from Livingston County, the Livingston County Sheriff, the Register of Deeds, the County Treasurer, and three members of the Livingston County Commission have primary opponents, according to f ilings with the clerk's office. We k...
Livingston County Democrats - Sun 2:06 p.m. - 30 clicks
Note: Yes, I've already posted this twice, but figured I'd do it one more time just as a last hurrah. I promise this is the last time I'll post it, really! :) On Tuesday, while all eyes were on North Carolina, Wisconsin and Indiana, something very, very special happened here in the quiet, affluent community of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. If that name rings a bell with you, it's probably beca...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Sat 5:24 p.m. - 22 clicks
Energizing. Engaging. Winning. I’m at the Michigan Summit in East Lansing today, soaking up a healthy dose of progressive energy, to connect with other progressives and to listen to some amazing activists share their wisdom about our path ahead together. The organizational showcase is packed full of progressive organizations: The day opens with a plenary session with introductions ...
Eclectablog - Sat 7:28 a.m. - 23 clicks
The problem with Peter Hoekstra is that he's probably not nearly as crazy as your typical Republican primary voter, which means to convince them that he's their best choice for November that he's got to play around with nonsense like this . WASHINGTON -- After telling an audience this week that he would support drilling in the Great Lakes for oil or gas from onshore, today U.S. Sena...
Michiganliberal - Sat 7:28 a.m. - 24 clicks
Right now, even as we speak, the Michigan Summit has kicked off and is under way. If you're there, you're registered properly and are inside. Perhaps we'll yet see someone at Henry Payne's Museum of Half-Formed Thoughts complain that if you support same-day voter registration and not requiring voters to bring identification to make use of their Constitutionally protected right ...
Michiganliberal - Sat 7:28 a.m. - 22 clicks
In response to all the communist-baiting hype on the right, a little Michigan history and commentary. Betsy DeVos has several former-Commie associates and friends, with whom she chums with in her nationwide crusades to radically change and overpower democratic institutions and politics in America. Robert Laurie , Michigan View contributor wrote wrote a blistering defense of “aging guitar pl...
McGuffey Gazette (Michigan) - Fri 12:50 p.m. - 56 clicks
His hair wasn’t the right height Yesterday, America took a trip to Mitt Romney’s adolescence and I think I’m the only one who doesn’t want to come back. Around eight AM Thursday morning, news broke about a disturbing incident that took place at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan while Mitt was a student there in the mid 1960s. Romney’s high school friend Matthew Friedm...
Eclectablog - Fri 5:29 a.m. - 25 clicks
By now, you might have heard that the U.S. House adopted an amendment to a bill that cuts out funding for a major information-gathering tool used by businesses for marketing purposes. For Michigan's delegation, the vote was a strict party line split . Who voted against giving businesses vital information? Republicans. Okay, let's back up a bit here. In 2010, most of us participated in t...
Michiganliberal - Thu 9:46 a.m. - 24 clicks
Congressional redistricting in Michigan was controlled entirely by Republicans, which allowed them to draw a gerrymander aimed at protecting all of their seats and eliminating Gary Peters. Given how control of the state government was divided from 2002-2010, I wondered what the map would look like had the state courts been forced to draw it. Michigan has a statute which requires cong...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Thu 9:09 a.m. - 20 clicks
Occupy Detroit , teaming up with the Michigan Coalition Project, “The 99% Spring” and local students, temporarily shut down Bank of America downtown Detroit main branch yesterday, May 8, 2012, with a flash mob to point out BoA’s role in the plight of students and student loan costs, homeowners and foreclosures, and BoA unfair treatment of customers on the eve of a National Day of Action by Occu...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 9 - 34 clicks
At about 27,000 votes from local supporters, Muskegon High School came in second to a high school in LOS ANGELES in a contest to win the NBC Smash make a musical contest . And we did, though we were second, win the resources to make a large scale musical in MUSKEGON from NBC. I'd like to point out that LA has a population of 3.8 million people, compared to Muskegon's metropolitan area p...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 8 - 21 clicks
Today Romney tries to 'take credit' for Michigan Auto Recovery. United Auto Workers President says -- 'Not so fast Mitt' ... We were there making concessions , you were in one of your mansions somewhere -- casting aspersions from afar ... UAW President Bob King: Mitt Romney deserves no credit for auto industry recovery by Michael Wayland, MLive.com -- May 08, 2012 DETROIT, ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 8 - 24 clicks
Mitt Romney is now claiming paternity for President Obama's auto industry rescue that saved over a million jobs nationwide. But while he most certainly isn't the father of a reborn Detroit, the successful 2006 health care reform law he signed in Boston has become Mitt Romney's bastard love child. Americans should give credit where credit is due. And on health care, as we'll s...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 8 - 19 clicks
An Oceola Township woman who has represented working people for more than 20 years is running as a Democrat for the Livingston County Commission. Jeanette DiFlorio filed her nominating papers recently with the Livingston County Clerk’s office for County Commission District 2. DiFlorio is a Full Service Staff Representative who works for Michigan AFSCME Council 25. She has experienc...
Livingston County Democrats - May 8 - 18 clicks
The day for the Michigan Summit is fast approaching. In fact, it's only about four three days away! The good folks who are behind it are helping out Michigan Liberal this week with a sponsorship, and would like you to additionally know that if you plan to attend and haven't registered that there's still time to do it . What is the Michigan Summit? It's only the equivalent o...
Michiganliberal - May 8 - 18 clicks
And this is why an electric barrier is no match for a brick wall. I mean, who could have predicted this: This week a power outage shut down the electric barriers that are the one thing keeping the invasive asian carps from crossing over from the Mississippi basin to Lake Michigan. The invasive species are predicted to throw the entire managed Great Lakes ecosystem into chaos and potentiall...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 6 - 12 clicks
I opened up Rick Haglund's column this morning, headlined " Why proposal to eliminate Michigan's personal property tax may be a job killer " expecting to see it connect what are expected to be a savage cut in revenues local governments depend on and job losses in the public sector. After all, during the Obama administration, the private sector has added jobs and what's kept unemploymen...
Michiganliberal - May 6 - 13 clicks
Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and jlms qkw, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news abou...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 5 - 12 clicks
With the spring moving on, it's been time to tend the garden and, of course, re-stock the sand box. Here in Muskegon, the latter means taking a drive down to Pere Marquette park along the shore of Lake Michigan with a shovel and the biggest containers you can find. All along the drive, houses post signs offering...no...BEGGING people to take away sand. "Free sand!" sand "Freer Sand!" and "free r...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 4 - 11 clicks
This afternoon we drove through gravel streets in Muskegon that not too long ago had been paved. With no city funds to fix the roads they deteriorated to axel destroying strips of potholes. Eventually the city of Muskegon Heights just dumped gravel over the streets. Entire city blocks and neighborhoods near the center of town, road after road after road has been transformed from paved to grave...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 4 - 8 clicks
Michigan Republicans continue their attack on labor. The Michigan Restaurant Association has arranged for the pending education bill in the Michigan House of Representatives to include a provision that would deny funding to any school that "collaborates" with the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC). The ROC is a 501 (c) 3 corporation that advocates for workers in the restaurant ind...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 2 - 13 clicks
Manufacturing is up to a 10 month high. This isn't some random figure of interest only to some accountant in a flickering fluorescent lighted cubicle. No. This is a REAL NUMBER that means REAL JOBS in America. Here's a headline I read on Sunday: "Oceana County, Rothbury celebrate foundry reopening; 300 jobs possible by 2013" Rothbury Steel is a “reshoring,” a recent movement of manuf...
DailyKos (Michigan) - May 1 - 8 clicks
Speaking truth My good friend Brit Satchwell, educator and president of the Ann Arbor Education Association, is always on the forefront of fighting for workers and for those in Michigan who are most acutely impacted by the Republicans that currently have control of our state government. Whether it's circulating petitions for the repeal of Public Act 4 -- Michigan's vile Emergency Manager...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 30 - 8 clicks
by Amy Kerr Hardin Like to win a cool quarter million dollars? You may be in luck if you are a socially conservative artist. ArtPrize, a community art contest founded by Rick DeVos, kicked-off its 2012 call for entries this past week. There are just a few caveats to keep in mind though: you must make something very, very big, [...]...
A2Politico - Apr 29 - 14 clicks
If you think elections just don't matter, this should wake you up Thursday of this week, two Republican men denied a quarter million Michiganders their political voice , a voice guaranteed by the constitution of the state and firmly-rooted in the basic tenets of our democracy. Two men. It's astonishing that our system is set up to give two men this much power. ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 28 - 11 clicks
The State of Michigan is a little less safe tonight as one of its superheroes is behind bars. BeeSting, the protector of Sterling Heights and member of the super group "The Michigan Protectors" was arrested on trumped up charges of pulling a gun on someone . Don't believe the mainstream media reports about a gun being fired recklessly or the intimation that he is merely some crank. Maybe in y...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 27 - 12 clicks
Reviewing a challenge to the 203,238 valid signatures to put repeal of Michigan's anti-democratic, union-busting Public Act 4, or Emergency Manager Law, on the November ballot, State Board of Canvassers deadlocked on partisan lines , 2-2. That means that despite the more-than-adequate number of valid signatures, the measure won't go on the ballot, which would also have put the law on hold u...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 26 - 9 clicks
The petitions to repeal the EM law in Michigan were deemed invalid. More at http://eclectablog.com I am truly stunned... ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 26 - 12 clicks
Repeal of Michigan's union-busting, anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law, Public Act 4, has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November: Citizens in the Stand Up for Democracy Coalition are announcing they have received notice from the Secretary of the Board of State Canvassers reporting the group has collected 203,238 valid voter signatures needed to place the repeal of Pu...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 25 - 11 clicks
I'm in Michigan to cover the GE shareholder meeting tomorrow. I grew up in Michigan and have to say that Mitt Romney was exactly right that the trees here really are the right size. The look of the houses, the layout of the roads, the birds, everything feels right. Of course, my wife grew up in England, and she says that the trees in England are the right size. (She also ...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 24 - 11 clicks
“Our goal is to create a stronger economic environment,” [Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell] said. “Sometimes in tax reform you have to take a leap of faith that we’re all going to benefit . We’re trying to create a better environment so that we can compete.” Leap of Faith. Yes. Republican senator Dave Hildebrand just referred to a new Republican economic policy to slash city revenue as a "leap of f...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 23 - 8 clicks
As of April 1st, 2012, the Invasive Species Order (ISO) went into effect in Michigan. With the support of the Michigan Pork Producers Association , the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has not only given free rein to hunters to kill feral swine in the wild on sight, but has also begun the systematic slaughter of privately owned pigs who fall under the terms defined in the DNR'...
DailyKos (Michigan) - Apr 23 - 12 clicks
