Lies Wrapped in a Pink Ribbon

by: Progress Michigan

Wed Feb 01, 2012 at 14:51:29 PM EST

Links while hitting the half-century mark

by: Eric B.

Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 16:39:49 PM EST

I think I'm probably wrong in saying that today marks the first time this year we've hit 50 degrees ... something tells me we might have done this even earlier this year ... but it is somewhat heartening that it happened during what is supposed to be the coldest part of the year. As in, I really hate cold weather and can't wait until I can turn off the heater and grill. Them's is gonna be good times. Meanwhile...

Onward!

*--Thanks to Angela Wittrock for the love over yesterday's post. As for America's Shoutiest Mayor, he says that referring to a member of one of Michigan's Native American tribes as "Chief Chicken Little" isn't a racially-charged remark. Neither apparently were comments referring to "bows and arrows" and a target on Bernero's back.

*--One last item on the Lansing casino, this time also from MLive's Angela Wittrock ... the Sault Ste. Marie executive is okay with the disparaging remarks by America's Shoutiest Mayor. Reading this reminds me of that scene in Goodfellas where Joe Pesci gets killed and Ray Liotta through narration says that it was between the Italians, "real greaseball shit," and that they had to stay out of it. I mean, ultimately, this boils down to marketplace competition, just as marketplace competition is what motivated the Saginaw Chippewas to bankroll Prop. 1 back in 2004 to limit gaming in the state (they were chiefly going after the racinos, including one that would be built at the Mt. Pleasant horse racing track). The question for most people ought to be whether casinos in general are positive economic development tools, or whether they just take money from one pocket to deposit it in another. I think most everyone who's read this blog for very long is familiar with my feelings.

*--Tomorrow, Southfield mayor Brenda Lawrence will officially enter the race for the 14th District. Also, via press release, Gary McDowell is reporting $340,000 in fund raising for his campaign against the Teabaggin' Surgeon.

*--Flint's Emergency Manager may sell off municipal assets to pay the bills. This makes nearly as much sense as the state of Michigan selling off the Mackinac Bridge to balance the general fund.

*--The Muskegon Chamber of Commerce is told that Right to Work would be a pointless, counterproductive, divisive exercise. Last week, we heard the same from the state's business community. Will Republicans in the Legislature actually listen to the business community, or will they continue to lecture the business community on what it needs?

*--People think benevolent overlord Rick Michigan's education reforms stink.

*--Why would anyone take anything from the Heritage Foundation seriously?

*--Remember the Hutaree? A judge tells them that if they can't afford lodging where their trial is taking place, they can stay in jail. And, since they were arrested, we can presume them guilty, so when the sentence is handed down for it, at least they can apply the nights alread slept in the slammer as time served. And, so it goes in the Republic where you are presumed innocent until convicted based on a preponderence of evidence.

*--Teh Demas on the recurring disparaging of women down in Lansing. What has been most regrettable for me is to see the silence on the part of the Lansing press corps, and of the state's political press corps in general. There's been quite a lot of speculation in the last month that Rick Jones' "hooker" comment was made possible in an atmosphere of term limits. That might be, but they are enabled only where people don't believe they'll be held accountable for the things they say, that ultimately they'll be given cover by the press to say horrible things about other people.

P.S. Andy Schor officially files paperwork for the 68th House District seat today. 

15 weeks until filing deadline: Congressional campaigns heat up; DFA voting underway

by: ScottyUrb

Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 15:28:29 PM EST

Senate: Senator Stabenow's campaign is beginning to collect nominating petitions for her re-election. It's generally a routine part of a campaign - getting 15,000-30,000 signatures to appear on the ballot. But In 2006, Republican Jerry Zandstra failed to qualifty for the Republican primary balloty by just a few dozen signatures. In 2010, Alma Wheeler Smith dropped out of the race for governor the day nominating petitions were due - leading many to believe that she couldn't get all the signatures she needed. For Stabenow and Hoekstra, getting on the ballot should just be formality. For tea partiers like Hekman, Durant, etc., one wonders if any of them will be tripped up by the requirement. (And no, don't expect all tea partiers to rally around one candidate at their confab this coming month.)

House 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11: Be sure to vote for your picks for DFA's  Grassroots All-Star program! Gary McDowell, Derek Bailey, Dan Kildee, John Waltz, Lance Enderle, Henry Yanez and Syed Taj are representing the Great Lakes State in this vote.

House 7, 8, 11: Tim Walberg, Mike Rogers, and Thaddeus McCotter are all facing primary challenges, per Politics1. Yes, even they are too liberal for some.

House 13: As Eric mentioned, Conyers is a sponsor of SOPA. Not good. Three things, though: 1) Even if it does pass, Obama has said he will veto it. 2) It's not always a good idea to be a 'single-issue' voter. 3. Nobody has explained to me why a 24-term legend like Conyers is facing three state lawmakers. Why are they all running against Conyers? And moe importantly, why should Conyers go? I have yet to see any solid answers.

I have heard that with three African-Americans in the race, Anderson might be able to win because the district is 43% white.  Anderson would need to get most whites and probably some non-whites to vote for him. That said, he's got quite a bit of grassroots support, so it could happen. Plus, the non-Detroit parts of the district usually see higher turnout than Detroit. I wonder, however, if Conyers might benefit from a split anti-Conyers vote. It could go either way (or neither way).

House 14: Brenda Lawrence is set to announce tomorrow that she's running for Congress, challenging Gary Peters and Hansen Clarke. The mayor of Southfueld ran for Oakland County Eecutive against L. Brooks Patterson in 2008 and, as we all know, was our nominee for Lieutenant Governor. If Lawrence somehow manages to win the primary, she would be one of the few people to defeat two incumbent congressmen in a primary.

If I lived in the 14th, I would have a hard time picking who I would support. They're all outstanding. I can see the winner of this race going on to run for Senate in 2014 (assuming the then-80-year-old Levin retires - as he had originally planned to in 2008).

House 13, 14: One thing that Clarke, Peters, Lawrence, Conyers, Anderson, Jackson, and Johnson all have in common is that they are all great Democrats and would do a great job in Congress. Too bad only two of them can win. My concern, though, is that if Peters and Anderson win, Michigan will likely be the most populous state in the unio with an all-white Congressional delegation. Think about that.

Ugh, Chief Puts-Foot-in-Mouth in heap-plenty trouble (sweeps hand)*

by: Eric B.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 12:15:25 PM EST

You'd think a guy who spends so much talking would know better than to say such incredibly stupid things.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is under fire this morning from two Michigan Indian tribes and a tribal lobbyist who said the mayor made several racially insensitive remarks about Native Americans at a fund-raiser last week.

The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribes, who have come out in strong opposition to a proposed Indian casino in Lansing, said Bernero “repeatedly used profanity and racial slurs in describing the (casino) controversy.”

The tribes said Bernero referred to a bull’s eye on his back and that he was the target of “bows and arrows” for championing the casino proposal. James Nye, a Lansing lobbyist and member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, said he was told by several attendees that Bernero singled him out as “Chief Chicken Little.”

The man who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2010.

It goes without saying that using racial slurs against Native American tribes isn't the way to oppose their opposition to your casino, and that in fact it's very stupid. A little added context to this is that when the Saginaw Chippewas got fleeced by Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, both men traded e-mails that used similar language to describe them. In other words, when it comes to being racially sensitive in dealing with one of Michigan's wealthiest Native American tribes, the 2010 Democratic nominee for governor is no better than Jack Abramoff. For those of you who perpetually complain that Bernero winds up on the list of most odious political figures in the state, let that percolate a quick second.

By the way, just so we're clear on this. I hate the Soaring Eagle casino. I think it was an overall lousy addition to the community, and that it's economic impact is offset by the problems it's created. I also have no ties to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and my time working full-time at the local newspaper involved a number of very public fights between the tribe and my employer, including one in which they ordered the newspaper boxes off reservation land. The only thing we share is real estate.

*--Disclaimer: Yes, I know. The only way the headline could be more  purposefully offensive is if I'd included a reference to wampum. Some references, however, are better left unmade.

Gettin' your lolz on ... the lighter side of public health emergencies

by: Eric B.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 09:16:23 AM EST

Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan got some yucks at the State of the State about toilet seat regulations. Naturally, this happened:

Department of Environmental Quality rules require that outhouse openings be covered when not in use. But no regulation requires outhouses to have hinged seats or dictates whether seats be left up or down.

Snyder joked that he doesn't need the state telling him to put the seat down.

This is such a small thing, but yet it is also such a big thing. The article goes on to identify why the state requires outhouse seats to be covered when not in use, and it has to do with the spread of disease and vermin. In other words, benevolent overlord Rick Michigan's joke really ought to be funny only to people who don't flush their toilets after use. The real punchline here is that an entire political ideology thought it a right hoot.

Michigan's Most Odious political figure: January power rankings

by: Eric B.

Sun Jan 29, 2012 at 11:28:19 AM EST

The year 2012 is nearly one year finished, which means we're less than 11 months until the world ends, at least according to the History Channel. More importantly, it's been one month since we last checked in with Michigan's most odious political figures and no doubt many of you are wondering just how they stack up this year so far. Let's check it out:

10. Virg Bernero, Lansing's shoutiest mayor (Previous ranking: 10; +/- 0)

Last year, the 2010 Democratic nominee for mayor sat on the sidelines while the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce savaged one of his closest allies on the city's council while also continuing his long and storied career of saying great things about organized labor while closer to home doing things to screw over organized labor. Bernero holds on to #10 with a grip so hard it's turned his knuckles over by inviting organized labor to be beggars to their own demise, by undermining an economy that makes things in favor of an economy built on the cheap hustle of casino gambling. This transgression might be forgiven as a crime against abstract concepts, except that the mayor's response to critics who question whether the jobs creation and economic development promised will ever come to fruition was to tell them to "screw off."

9.  Nolan Finley, Curtis LeMay's secret love child (Previous ranking: Not ranked; +2)

Perhaps no Michigan political figure has over the years proven himself so willing to expend the blood of others in conflicts in which he cannot possibly be expected to take part that Nolan Finley, whose editorial page once called for the flooding of Iraq by a number of ground troops roughly equal to half the entire combined might of America's armed services. Last year, he suggested that we could solve difficult foreign policy problems by bombing people who had nothing to do with Sept. 11, and it shouldn't be a surprise that this year he'd follow it up by ignoring Abu Ghraib and the massacre at Haditha (not to mention simply invading, conquering, and occupying another country against its will) and write that it's okay for American troops to urinate on the bodies of Afghani rebels belonging to the Taliban because more than half a decade earlier insurgents unrelated to the Taliban killed four mercenaries who were part of our occupying force in Iraq. And, donning his very finest in Napoleonic hats, he declared that negotiations with Afghani insurgents -- something that has been a part of ending every insurgency known to man ever -- was a waste of time, a point of view that if applied to the real world would ensure even greater spilling of blood. Of course, it won't be his.

8. Mike Shirkey, Divider of the House (Previous ranking: Not ranked; +3)

Mike Shirkey says he doesn't hate labor unions. Mike Shirkey just thinks that individuals ought to be allowed to opt out of things even when a majority vote goes against them. There is a certain consistency to this, since Republicans have been trying to opt out of the Obama presidency way back before the guy was even inaugurated. On the other hand, the next time you get pulled over, try it on the officer.

7. Bill Schuette, Worst. Attorney. General. Ever. (Previous ranking: 3 (tie); -4)

Bill Schuette is building off his impressive campaign last year to run the most politicized office of the attorney general ever, writing his own laws to subvert the 2008 initiative on medical marijuana on the peculiar reasoning that markets require the blessing of government. This year, he continued to work to stifle the self-determination of research graduate assistants at the University of Michigan for reasons that aren't quite clear. This last week, he also called for the expenditure of money the state doesn't really have to lock up people, thereby guaranteeing further expense for a state that can't guarantee it.

6. Mike Kowall, The Big Shill (Previous ranking: Not ranked; +5)

The state Senate has done yeoman work for its chief benefactor these last three years. By state Senate, what I mean is the Republican caucus of the state Senate; and by chief benefactor, I don't mean the people of Michigan but evil billionaire Matty Maroun. From the time Alan Cropsey told the Canadians to shut up and stop worrying about border security to last week's stirring speech from Roger Kahn, they have guaranteed that all men are created equal, especially those men who can drown you in campaign contributions. We'll channel all of this into just one man, however, and that man is Mike Kowall, who after Maroun was found in contempt of court for not making good on a contract and jailed, felt that the judge should have jailed MDOT and Detroit officials for reasons he never made clear. At the same time, he managed to not only stand up for a very wealthy man who flagrantly broke the law, but managed to denigrate public servants at the same time.

5. Matty Maroun, A Burns for all Seasons (Previous ranking: Not ranked; +6)

Know what takes a set of stones? Being associated with a bridge monopoly for more than 50 years, and when called to answer for the conduct of said monoply trying to claim that you have nothing to do with it. It's a perfect example of the contempt to the rule of law promoted by Michigan's evilest billionaire, a man who personifies C. Montgomery Burns. Trouble is that Monty Burns is a cartoon character purposefully drawn to be larger-than-life awful. The punchline is that the best interests of the state as a whole are being held up by one very wealthy, corrupt individual.

4. Janice Daniels, Small mind in the big city (Previous ranking: 9; +5)

It's been pointed out here before that Troy's city government is not constructed for a controversial mayor figure. The city's day-to-day operations are overseen by a city manager, with whom Mayor Daniels has started a strange and pointless conflict, and elected members of city government are really just intended to serve as an oversight body. It says much of the mayor's general ignorance of how her city government is supposed to run that she'd use a largely ceremonial position to continuously make headlines and casting the city in a negative light along the way. What really vaulted Daniels up the food chain, however, was essentially doubling down on her previous attacks on homosexuals, by suggesting that a panel of psychiatrists would educate Troy's high school students that there is a higher incidence of bad behavior within homosexual communities, and then naturally playing victim when someone complained that she was linking homosexuality to mental illness. In evoking the profession of psychiatry, that's precisely what she did.

3. Rick Jones,  (Previous ranking: 3; +/- 0)

We've manage to get this far without mentioning the biggest and most pointless controversy to date, which was the continuing war by Senate Republicans on professional women. Last year, Rick Jones suggested that the only reason anyone was upset by his language providing a path to bullying was that Gretchen Whitmer is given to hysterics. Last month, he asked via Facebook message whether a Tea Party activist was using "head meds," and it was this last month that he called Kelly Rossman a "hooker." Now, it's difficult to quibble with the idea of calling a public relations person a whore of some kind. Such a joke is regular fare in newsrooms across the country. He didn't do that, however. He called a specific middle aged professional woman whose kids are old enough to read the newspapers something a tad more filthy. Naturally, when called out on this, he said that he was the real victim.

2. Dave Agema, the Goat Killer (Previous ranking: 2, -1)

For the Goat Killer, January was a quiet month. His only major people-related transgression was appearing at an event attacking Islam with a noted professional fraud. This was building on his impressive body of work from last year and the years before that. He did log a bill that we'll keep track of, a compulsory rendering of the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as mandating instruction on the U.S. Constitution and other important documents. This, of course, is the same man who is entirely unaware that the U.S. Constitution needs no affirming in state law that it exists as the supreme law of the land since he sponsored legislation last year doing so. That means, he wants to insist that schools educate children about something that he himself is mostly ignorant. Couched properly, this would actually be a good thing, but one gets the impression that what he really thinks is that he and like-minded people are the only people who really understand the minds of the Framers.

1. Tom McMillin, The Entirely Unlikeable Tom McMillin (Previous ranking: 5, +4)

Tom McMillin believes that it is discriminatory to tell people that they are not allowed to disciminate, and while he was okay last year with creating a patchwork of regulation the lightbulb manufacturing industry sought to avoid in pursuing federal regulations believes that local control over non-discrimination ordinances creates a "patchwork" of those laws. Why that's bad he never says, but it doesn't take an oracle to understand that he's not really after consistency but just out to punish homosexuals.

Architect of patchwork of regulation wages war on patchwork of tolerance

by: Eric B.

Sat Jan 28, 2012 at 14:41:13 PM EST

WDIV has a story on Tom McMillin's war on local non-discrimination ordinances, Naturally, what's at the heart of it is "discrimination" against Christians and Boy Scouts, which is to say that what Tom McMillin considers to be discrimination are local laws prohibiting organizations within the municipal boundaries from practicing discrimination. Also, he opposes a "patchwork" of anti-discrimination ordinances, although if he really wants to wage a war to promote a consistency that would be helpful to people, he ought to be looking at the state's huge, vast, unregulated patchwork of zoning ordinances and master plans. But, I think most of us are probably pretty certain that it's not so much the idea of a patchwork that has McMillin's panties in a twist, but what that patchwork says (i.e. it gives a competitive disadvantage to communities not stuck in the Dark Ages).

This is a time-honored tactic, last seen used last year when McMillin and Goat Killer in two entirely different media outlets argued that the only bigots involved in their anti-Sharia bill were those people who saw no need to use state law to establish the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land. The frequency of its use doesn't excuse the fact that it is an inherently silly argument forwarded by people who really can't muster a more sound argument for the bill than, "I know you are, but what am I?" Also, people who want to defend idiocy like this.

Troy Mayor Janice Daniels did not draw a connection between homosexuality and mental illness during a meeting in January, but she did indicate that she believes the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous.

...snip...

But a recording of the meeting, released to the Free Press on Friday based on a Freedom of Information Act request to the city, provides the actual exchange about plans for an event in the city pitched at various times as an anti-bullying or anti-suicide seminar.

Daniels said she would "bring in psychiatrists who will tell you that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous."

Well, actually, that is drawing a connection between homosexuality and mental illness, since you probably aren't going to call in a psychiatrist to say that homosexuals have a greater incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases than non-homosexuals. If you wanted to draw that connection, you'd call in a pathologist.

But, still, we get the point. If you get down to the last paragraph, once again it's Janice Daniels who is the victim here, not the people who she disparaged. Luckily, Tom McMillin (and probably the Goat Killer) has her back in the state House.

Links to things you may wish to consider reading

by: Eric B.

Sat Jan 28, 2012 at 10:18:21 AM EST

One time, I likened winter to the wiping clean of Nature's canvas. Snow falls, covers up the ugly, dead plants left by the cold of autumn, and life goes into a statis waiting for the sun and green of spring. Then, I realized that I was in the middle of running through a snow-covered field and started to think how badly is sucks to run through tall grasses covered in snow. You can count that moment as one when some of the last child-like joy at the world around me was stomped out of existence.

Onward!

*--This two-fer from The Bridge is very insightful. Attorney General Bill Schuette is happy to spend money -- lots and lots and lots of money -- fighting the GOP's Get Tough on Crime war from the 1990s, a sign that Bill Schuette is badly out-of-tune with the second decade of the new millenium. There is, of course, no evidence that spending lots and lots and lots of money locking people up reduces crime, but there is evidence that doing so means that there is less money available for things like educating people. After all, Corrections eats up a larger chunk of the state's General Fund budget than higher education. Meanwhile, the ongoing campaign by the Mackinac Center and the Republican politicians it hired for the state Legislature has measureable costs in service. Again, according to every study available, the more education you have, the greater the disparity between what you get as a public employee and what you can get in the private sector, and work in the public sector tends to demand more in terms of education. In other words, in terms of priorities, those of the Republican Party are to place a premium on imprisoning people where they serve no use to society as a whole, while punishing people until they leave government service. Also, this.

*--America's shoutiest mayor tells people who think a Lansing casino is a bad idea to screw off. Literally.

*--Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan is sad that people don't open themselves up to new ideas. Two thoughts: 1) I know what he means. Has anyone seen polling of Republican voters when it comes to the existence of climate change versus that of the scientific community?; 2) It would be a lot easier to be open to new ideas if they were presented with evidence that suggested that the new ideas might work ... such as cutting taxes to create jobs.

*--Mike Cox smoked weed once, thinks we ought to keep shoveling money towards Prohibition because people might smoke weed and drive. Here's a novel idea? Stop wasting money imprisoning hippies, and figure out a way to arrest people who drive under the influence. This might involve developing mass transit so people have alternatives to driving.

*--Here is an Op-Ed on how clean energy can improve the state's economy. It's also not written by some hippie, but by someone who the Republicans might otherwise refer to as a "job creator." See above item, however, on being open to new ideas and ponder whether this includes new fangled ideas about energy and the party currently in the majority.

*--Last year, I told someone on Facebook that DTE had twice erroneously shut off my gas, and both times their initial response was to call me a deadbeat even after their error was pointed out to them (this includes the time I told them I had an asthmatic baby at home and needed the heat back on). His response was to make public a bunch of stuff from my account and tell me it was the landlord's fault. So, fuck DTE.

*--Remember that whole "People should be open to new ideas" thing from, like, four items ago? Patrick Colbeck says that changes to teacher tenure, for which there exists no supporting evidence for the notion that it will improve education, was a great reform. Tom Watkins pre-emptively responds by saying that if benevolent overlord wants to improve education, he ought to consult with the people expected to do the work. It's a nice idea, and would have been great advice LAST YEAR before the idea of education reform was seized upon by people mostly just interested in busting unions and undermining public education.

President Obama at University of Michigan (updated with video of speech) plus good polling news

by: Neon Vincent

Fri Jan 27, 2012 at 07:58:32 AM EST

The speech covered both energy and education, so here are links to the relevant fact sheets from the White House's web site.

FACT SHEET: President Obama's Blueprint to Make The Most of America's Energy Resources

FACT SHEET: President Obama's Blueprint for Keeping College Affordable and Within Reach for All Americans

Video updates below the fold.

Poll: Troy wants Janice Daniels bounced from office

by: Eric B.

Fri Jan 27, 2012 at 09:54:44 AM EST

If you caught First Shift with Tony Trupiano this morning, you heard Joe D. from our good friends at Main Street Strategies (this month's sponsor, matter o' fact) talk about the results of a poll commissioned by this site and concerning our good friend Janice Daniels, the part-time mayor of Troy.

The results? Seventy-two percent of voters in that fair city want to see her recalled. Joe D. calls it a significant case of buyer's remorse. I can't see any reason to disagree with it. My own personal interpretation of it is that most people don't expect strong, controversial positions from their city officials. Most people expect their elected city officials to serve boring, unexciting terms, and that goes especially for the mayor. What they don't want is a mayor who is going to regularly land in the media for saying strange things and pick fights with the professionals who are tasked to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city. That is the opposite of what Janice Daniels has done, and my guess is that the people of Troy would just as soon see her out of office to avoid further embarrassment.

Guilty of being poor

by: Eric B.

Thu Jan 26, 2012 at 13:27:30 PM EST

Joe Hune would like to sentence poor people to community service.

LANSING — People taking government assistance could be required to perform community service if they are not participating in a job training program, said state Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township.

He also wants to drug test people on public assistance.

“These funds are designed to help get people back on their feet and working,” Hune said. “Most job providers make potential employees take a drug test as part of the hiring process, and many more require employees to submit to random drug testing. Taxpayers should not be funding drug habits, plain and simple.”

Well, first off, "most" job providers don't require drug tests to get work, especially those who'd pay someone minimum wage to do a shitty job. Why? Because if you're paying minimum wage, you've already scraped the bottom of the labor market. Also, if most require pre-employment screening, how can you argue that "many more" have random drug testing program? The answer: He's pulled this entirely out of his posterior.

Why kind of community service would they do? Clean up roadsides, which is the same sort of shit that jail trustys get to do. In other words, Joe Hune wants to further stigmatize the poor.

DCCC: Michigan Who?

by: kelster

Mon Jan 23, 2012 at 10:43:20 AM EST

Other excellent targets on the list include Charlie Upton (MI-6), Mike Rogers (MI-8) and Frank Guinta (NH-1), being challenged by, respectively, progressives John Waltz, Lance Enderle and Carol Shea-Porter, independent-minded grassroots Democrats whom Steve Israel fears.

More discussion over at Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

The party of business priorities not interested in business priorities

by: Eric B.

Thu Jan 26, 2012 at 09:22:32 AM EST

Daniel Howes is frequently so full of shit that the sclera of his eyes turn brown, leading his co-workers and family members to believe that he has been momentarily possessed by a demon of some kind. But, he's done something remarkable, which is to say that he asked some of the self-appointed leaders of the state's business community whether Right to Work would be a good idea. The results?

Corporate Michigan's burgeoning love affair with Gov. Rick Snyder and his Republican-controlled Legislature has limits and they can be summed up in three words — right to work.

"It really sucks all the air out of the room and you're going to have a mud fight," says PVS Chemicals Inc. CEO Jim Nicholson, chairman of Business Leaders for Michigan. "We think it's distracting, and we're not encouraging either side."

That probably doesn't mean much to the partisans convinced that making Michigan the nation's 23rd right-to-work state — if Indiana doesn't get there first — is precisely the right prescription to rid the state of its understandably negative rep as a Big Labor stronghold. But it should.

In other words, Right to Work is bad for business. The entire thing is worth a read, and it's a good reminder that when you hear Republicans talking about the priorities of the business community what they really mean are their own political priorities cloaked as those of the business community. This isn't the first reminder of that, or even a very recent reminder. We got that late last year when they pushed their domestic partner benefits ban that had business leaders questioning whether it was the best way to make the state attractive to talented workers in a global competition for good people.

Hump Day links

by: Eric B.

Wed Jan 25, 2012 at 16:49:45 PM EST

I get one night a week to cook for myself, and that night is Wednesday. Oh, there is the occasional meeting that screws that up and which also requires a good stiff drink or two to make it through (I don't normally drink alcohol to cope, but these are especially painful meetings). On the menu for tonight? Pork vindaloo, or something like it. This is the year that I make an effort to learn how to cook Indian.

Onward!

*--Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan's opposition to Right to Work has been "out there" for a few days, and was well documented even last year. I realize some people parsed his opposition, demanding that he vow to veto Right to Work legislation if it hit his desk, and in the absence of that calling him a supporter of it. Last year, he shut it down in the Legislature before it could take form, as I hear tell. Meanwhile, he might have to work harder to kill it before it takes form this year, or we'll see if he'll give it a veto.

*--The Kenyan Pretender plans to tell America that a college education is no longer a choice but an economic necessity. Know what this means? We not only can't view a college education as a luxury, but we can't afford the mentality that college students are mere consumers. They are people who need to be educated, and making sure that the lazy and detached are coddled so they don't complain too loudly ought not be a terribly important priority. In other words, an education isn't a product; and as such, choice in provider isn't a good way to guarantee successful outcomes (filed under, "How not to regard a primary education").

*--Teh Demas points out the obvious ... government jobs, at the end of the day, are still jobs. Only in rightwing Bizzarro World is laying off public sector employees not a source for unemployment.

*--This shit is probably worthy of its own post, but I'm swamped with other stuff to do tonight and won't be able to get to it for a couple of days. Item 1: Nearly half of Michigan's children qualify for free or reduced lunches. Item 2: Michigan has seen a rise in cases of child absue and neglect. This is your prolonged economic downturn at work, coupled with a lost sense of opportunity for lack of proper funding for education and worker training programs; and dovetailing nicely with state government's War on the Poor.

*--Goat Killer will appear with a professional fraud to pimp his own war on Islam.

*--Brenda Lawrence is running for Congress against Gary Peters and Hansen Clarke. Someone mentioned this the other day in comments, but I'm only now getting around to putting it into a post for everyone to read and marvel.

*--Virg Bernero, who has railed long and hard against Wall Street's predation of Main Street, announces a plan to use the labor of Main Street to build a temple to the gambling mentality cherished on Wall Street. Naturally, the Saginaw Chippewas, who once spent $50,000 for a voter list valued at less than $10,000 to protect their near monoply of gambling, want to put the skids on it.

*--And these people bitch endlessly about the use of publicly funded resources by unions. If Right to Life wants to run a fund raiser, let Right to Life find someone else besides your local Secretary of State's office to do it.

*--Jack Lessenberry has a point.

*--So much for non-intrusive state government. Tom McMillin is targeted by protesters for sponsoring a bill that would prohibit local government from adopting non-discrimination ordinances. You can really blame benevolent overlord Rick Michigan for this. Last year, he had the opportunity to put the kibosh on this kind of nonsense by vetoing a bill liked only by social conservatives (the business community didn't like it, local governments didn't like it, the universities really didn't like it). Instead, he sent a message to the Taliban wing of the Republican Party that if they push the stupidest, most backward bills on Earth at him, he might actually sign them.

Free editing advice

by: Eric B.

Wed Jan 25, 2012 at 10:50:53 AM EST

We try to be generous around here with grammar errors and spelling screw ups found on the Internets. This machine doesn't come with a built-in spelling and grammar checker, after all, and it also lacks an error. We're not so generous with press releases or campaign donation blegs, however, since those come with the built-in luxury of time. Someone can actually go through those with a pair of fresh eyes before sending them out. That goes doubly for a party that has draped itself in the mantle of education reform. If you can't be trusted to write a grammatically accurate press release, why should anyone trust you to monkey with education?

The first sentence to last night's rebuttal to the president's State of the Union:

"Talk is no longer cheap in under Barak Obama."

This train wreck of a sentence is the first in the response by GOP party chairman Bobby Shostak, and it starts with the apparent confusion about which preposition to use. You can understand that confusion, since it's difficult to understand how talk takes place "under" any person. Note to student: Please rewrite for clarity.

Then, this morning: 

Republicans have brought positive bold ideas to the table to help reign in government spending only to be blocked by Democrat members of Congress.

We'll ignore for a second the wrong proper noun. Democrat, as most of us know, isn't the official name of the party and its use is only possible if you're referring to someone as an individual member of the Democratic Party. But, we know this is purposefully bad English intended to steer clear of suggesting that members of the Democratic Party are somehow more clearly linked to democratic ideas. The offending English here is the lack of comma between the two coordinate adjectives. What sort of ideas have Republicans brought? Positive and bold ideas. Or, "Republicans have brought positive, bold ideas ..." Note to student: Please correct and resubmit campaign contribution request.

Note to state Republican Party: Please hire someone to edit this stuff. Or, if you're really into the idea of independent contractors, I'm happy to do it for $20 an hour, with a minimum of one hour charged per press release.