Friday Coffee Talk/Open Thread

by: BZP

Fri Aug 10, 2007 at 07:50:14 AM EDT

Happy Friday, everyone! Have a great weekend.

Current & Pending Legislation

• Sen. Hunter to Senate Republicans: Support Must Come Soon. Part Three in the Senate Dems' Top Ten series. Hop on over to BFM to check out Sen. Hunter's post about various consumer protection efforts.
• LSJ: Anti-bullying bill stalls in Senate. Anyone else notice a pattern developing here?
• LSJ Editorial: Tax credit: Republicans shouldn't blame poor for budget mess. "Cassis should drop this punitive bill and use her time for more productive pursuits for all the people of Michigan."
• Sen. John Gleason: Don't let fleeing criminals outrun stricter sentencing. Following the death of a Flint police officer during pursuit of a fleeing suspect, Sen. Gleason (D-Flushing) introduced legislation that, "will make all offenses of fleeing and eluding a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for two years."
• Conservative Media: SOS plays politics with branch office closings. House Dems fight back: "Later in the day on Wednesday, the House passed House Bill 4492 that will thwart Land from continuing to play politics with the further closing of branch offices and inserts some accountability. The bill reorganizes funding for SOS branch offices from a single line item to numerous line items. The bill could potentially restrict the ability of the Secretary of State to reorganize branch office operations."

Elections

• Capitol Journal: Congressional election ratings. Derek weighs in with his assessment of where all of the Michigan Congressional races currently stand.
• Peters for Congress: Republican Bloggers Target Peters. Jordan is really going to bat for Gary Peters, and is asking folks to chip in $9 for the 9th district.
• Walberg Watch: For and Against a Schauer Candidacy. Fitzy weighs the pros and cons.

Odds & Ends

• State News: Blocking blog site shows political bias. Nice to see my alma mater's student paper sticking up for the blogs. More editorials like this, please.
• DFP: Arrest the hysteria on sentencing. "Patterson's ridiculous rant in the Detroit News reflected the kind of divisive rhetoric he built a career on as county prosecutor. For pure hyperbole, he managed to outgun Attorney General Mike Cox, who earlier tied some of the proposed changes to terrorism, and a Michigan Sheriff's Association official who predicted murder and mayhem. Let's take a chill pill and look at the facts." Zzzzing!
• Auto Blog: Buick ties Lexus in quality. This is pretty cool. The Buick Enclave is built locally in Delta Township (near Lansing).
• AP: State, union begins talks on next contract. Eggert reminds us that Mike Bishop wants to balance the budget on the backs of state workers: "Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, has said workers should not get scheduled pay increases in the last fiscal year of their current contracts to help save money."

Did I forget anything? Drop your links in the comments section...