It's cold out, and here are some links

by: Eric B.

Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 11:00:23 AM EST

This is going to be a really, really long post of links. Stuff's been building up the last couple of days, which includes a good deal of mucous in my chest. Now all of it, the mucous included, is sorta coming out. If I really wanted to synchronize, I'd make the background of MichLib a lovely shade of bright greenish yellow. Anyway, if my laptop weather widget is accurate, the temperature is in the single digits, which means you all have motivation to stay inside and read, read, READ!

Onward!

*--More from the State of the State, which appears to have been universally panned as vague and empty (and largely bereft of mentions of the environment, which isn't surprising). This time from Stephen Henderson, who benevolent overlord Rick Michigan tells to go suck it by way of dismissing all of his critics with a wave of the hand. This, by the way, is endlessly annoying ... why would MiOSHA tell someone they had to put the toilet seat down? One imagines it might have something to do with infection control, but when you're entire ideology is given over to taking such stuff on faith, thinking things through is never a priority. Like the ACLU, KKKlinton, William Ayers, ACORN, and a few other things ... the mere mention of regulation says one thing to the general public and an entirely different thing to conservaives.

*--Gary McDowell gets some love from the DNCC in his bid to unseat the teabaggin' surgeon, Dan Benishek. The DNCC the other day also said it thought it could retake the House, which probably isn't as tall an order as you might think with the general approval rating for a Republican-dominated Congress less than 10 percent (yes, I know, the Senate ... anyone heard from Harry Reid lately?¹).

*--Janice Daniels remains more spooked by the idea of urban youth visiting Troy than building a bridge into the future.

*--Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan's tenor towards state workers, which is somewhat different than those of a certain neighbor to the west, has calmed jangled nerves. In other words, he's likely to get better production out of state workers by not treating them like an enemy that has to be crushed at all costs.

*--Mike Kowall makes an early run at the Most Odious rankings by suggesting that when Matty Maroun was thrown in jail for failing to make good on a contract, that the head of MDOT as well as someone from Detroit. Jack Lessenberry's suggestion is that the voters of the district remember this when election day comes, and if I had a dime each time people ignored this sort of plea I could buy myself a seat in Congress.

*--The Bridge looks at township fund balances, in two articles. My chief quibble with the package is that they allow to let hang out there the suggestion that townships build up huge fund balances, but don't do a lot of asking what some of these township are saving to build. I mean, before local Democrats took over our neighboring charter township, they built up savings mostly by refusing to increase the number of services it provided and instead got them subsidized by everyone else.

*--Dear Plymouth-Canton Schools: Banning books for whatever reason is always a terrible idea. Always. Or, as the poet says, "They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em."

*--An Op-Ed piece on Right to Work. Again, I hope they start publicly pushing this, because it's a good way to guarantee that the Republicans will lose the House, the state Supreme Court, and probably at least one Michigan seat in Congress.

*--Tim Walberg: Partisan hack.

*--The future of Michigan's film tax credits is cloudy.

*--Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan to enrage his own party early this year, first by pushing for an Obamacare-inspired, consumer-friendly health care exchange, the likes of which Wisconsin's Scott Walker has rejected millions in federal dollars for; and also for pushing to embrace pro-immigrant immigration reform. I now look forward to the coming news that Goat Killer and Tom McMillin are holding prayer meetings under the Rotunda so that God will reveal to them whether benevolent overlord Rick Michigan is really just a secret agent for promoting Sharia.

It's now 11 degrees outside, which is perfect timing for me to go out and purchase bananas.

¹-Yes, I know. Harry Reid shit-canned a vote on SOPA/PIPA Friday morning, which is the first reminder anyone's had this calendar year that he still served in the Senate.