Friday Coffee Talk/Open Thread

by: rich

Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 07:47:42 AM EST

Good morning. It's Friday and getting colder. Our unseasonably warm weather is going away (as it had to). So, grab a warm mug of something and take a look at this morning's cup-o-links.

The Obama Administration

• Freep: Granholm, Bonior join Obama's economic transition team. “Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former U.S. Rep. David Bonior will serve on a panel of financial luminaries and corporate experts advising President-elect Barack Obama on the nation’s hard-bitten economy, ensuring Michigan, its troubled auto industry and labor has a seat at the table.”
• Sun-Times: Lynn Sweet: Obama picks his enforcer. This is an informed polite profile of Rahmbo. For a less-sugar-coated profile, you can read Jewcy's "Change You Can Motherf***ing Believe In," complete with videos of Ari from HBO's Entourage.

State Legislature

• AP: Detroit sends Palestinian Muslim to Legislature. “Lawyer and community activist Rashida Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants who never attended high school, becomes the first Muslim woman ever to serve in the Michigan Legislature.”
• Senate Dems: Senator Basham Proposes Legislation to Crack Down on Illegal Activity at Adult Entertainment. "Senator Ray Basham (D-Taylor) introduced legislation today to address the community’s concerns with the hiring process of adult entertainment establishments. A local family from Wyandotte alerted Basham to this problem as they prepared to file a lawsuit against an establishment for hiring their underage granddaughter, high school student Stephanie Brown."
• Grand Rapids Press: State Rep. Kevin Green says he was not hiding impaired driving arrest days before election. “State Rep. Kevin Green, arrested for impaired driving less than a week before he was re-elected in a landslide, said he wasn't trying to hide it from the public. The news of his Oct. 29 arrest in Saginaw County leaked out on Wednesday, the day after the election.”

There Will Be Blood

• Politico: GOP in dire straits. “Most ominous for Republicans, the GOP is increasingly becoming less grand than old — and outdated. As reflected in Tuesday’s results and exit polls, it’s a party that is overwhelmingly white, rural and aged in a country that is rapidly becoming racially mixed, suburban and dominated by a post-Baby Boomer generation with no memory of Vietnam or the familiar culture wars of the past.”

Money

• Detroit News: Granholm to slash budget as economy worsens. “Michigan's deepening economic crisis will force Gov. Jennifer Granholm to order budget cuts by year's end that could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and impact spending across state government, possibly including aid to public schools.”
• Michigan Messenger: Will it be a Black Friday in automotive country? “Friday’s going to be a big and bleak day here in Michigan. General Motors (NYSE:GM) completed its third quarter earnings report earlier this week; it also said it would make an announcement on Friday regarding its operations.”
• Flint Journal: Flint schools to outline cuts this year in wake of $10-million deficit. “More layoffs. More schools closing. More budget cuts. And, grim resignation from Flint residents.”

Health

• NBC25: Syphilis cases in Genesee County surpass 100. Last year there were only 5 reported cases.

Intolerance

• Livingston Press & Argus: Battling A Legacy. “Livingston County's reputation as a community that tolerated racism gained more notoriety in October 1988 with an act that has symbolized hatred and terrorism for many years in this country. A cross was burned on the front lawn of Henry and Shirley Griffin, an older black couple who lived in Genoa Township. Out of those hateful flames, though, something good arose.”

As always, if I missed anything, please feel free to add it to the comments. Also, there's a special message below the fold.

I'm done.

This is my last post as the Assistant Editor. With two kids, this stay-at-home-dad is feeling a tad pressured for time and energy. So, I'm stepping away from Michigan Liberal to "spend more time with my family," as the cliche goes. I might pop back in from time to time but my kids need me more than the blogosphere does. I've had a blast writing for these pages, reading diaries and comments, clubbing trolls, and trading barbs. I've learned a lot from this community and have been kept honest by this community. Thank you, everyone.

With Obama's election, I feel as if our country finally, collectively, got sense enough to come in out of the rain.

Take care.

And one final word from one of my favorite writers.

"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative." - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey" - In These Times