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Bishop 
Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 07:09:33 AM EDT
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Another busy week in the Michigan blogosphere. Have a great weekend, everyone!
- AP: State lawmakers finalize business tax. Finally! The Governor even swung through the Senate to congratulate members on finalizing the deal. You can read her press release about the MBT passage here, and Wizardkitten's take here.
- Blogging for Michigan: Bishop runs to Engler for Advice. "On the eve of the vote on the MBT, Mike Bishop was seen allegedly 'leading' his Senate Republicans into a caucus with Engler. Could it be that Mike Bishop isn’t the tough guy he tries to be?" Hmm. Maybe not if this is true: "Mike Bishop sure does have a problem with the Governor. That must be why he ran off the Senate floor and into the bathroom today, when she tried to shake his hand."
- Conservative Media: Bishop’s treachery reads like a bad Tom Clancy novel. "This is a story that has a top-secret plan, blackmail, leaking private correspondence and now we have a hostage crisis with a list of demands. The sad part is that the book is still being written, and if Bishop has his way it will have an unhappy ending for Michigan residents and will cause some grave damage to the state."
- AP: GOP: No tax vote until Granholm halts pay raise for state workers. Senate republicans want to balance the budget on the backs of state employees... again. Here's a follow-up story from the LSJ.
- Wizardkitten: Senate Republicans release list of demands. Lovely.
- City Pulse: Principle or plain stupid? Either way, LSJ angers state workers. State workers fighting back? "Unions told state employees the unions were coordinating efforts to address the problem, pledging to pursue legal action and urging members to reconsider their Journal subscriptions. In a letter to her members, SEIU’s program coordinator, Cindy Mason, wrote, 'We’ll see where we can go dealing with companies that advertise with the Journal as well.'"
- Saginaw News: State gives more money for Semiconductor. More news like this, please: "Semiconductor's expansion will generate up to 1,300 mid-Michigan jobs -- 500 in manufacturing and 800 in construction -- and double the company's product output by 2010."
- Stone Soup Musings: Democrats' health care plan would help red states most. Kathy has an interesting new take on the healthcare debate.
- Blogging for Michigan: DeVos backing Bishop for Gov? A truly frightening thought.
- [con]serving Michigan: Michigan suffers as legislature delays. How bad are things? This bad: "Michigan is DEAD LAST in the nation in terms of spending on natural resources. Michigan is also spending 1/3 the amount of General Funds on the Dept. of Environmental Quality today than it did during the last year of John Engler's administration."
- MDP: Drolet Breaking Campaign Finance Laws. Trouble for the pig man? Play in the mud, you're bound to get dirty.
- ICDP: Net Neutrality Update-FCC issues its report: AT&T wins again. "Read it and do a bit of teeth-gnashing about how far AT&T has gone with its plan to privatize the Internet. And to think, it began in Michigan when AT&T waved a few jobs in front of Granholm’s eyes, bought the Republican legislature, and heralded a new era of media competition in Michigan (translation: do away with competitors)."
- Tim Walberg: We Cannot Allow "Fairness Doctrine" To Be Reinstated In Broadcasting. Rep. Walberg defends right-wing talk radio. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the Comm Guru's post about this from earlier in the week.
- AA Business Review: U-M collaboration could bring energy-saving homes to market. Environmentally friendly and good for business? Can it be?
- Capitol Journal: Lansing and East Lansing to merge? Virg Bernero... crazy like a fox? The two Lansings could merge... in ten or fifteen years.
Did I forget anything? Drop your links in the comments section...
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Thu May 24, 2007 at 16:29:47 PM EDT
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(Amen! Now it's really time to start A-C-T-I-N-G. Get on the phone, the Tubes, writing those letters to the editors, time to get serious! - promoted by LiberalLucy)
There is a point where the progressive community needs to stand up for itself. In today's MIRS right-wing extremist Leon Drolet spent money on robocalls into Republican and Democratic districts to let voters know that their representative is going to raise taxes.
No one wants to pay more in taxes but there is a point where the bleeding has to stop. From the day former Governor John Engler left office to today, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has had to spend most of her time cutting the budget instead of doing the things she was put into office to do.
We have bled this state dry, State government is lean and understaffed; services across the state have been eliminated, and now they want to cut education to where schools will have to shut down, cut Medicare so people won't get the healthcare they need and cut revenue sharing so cities will be able to provide less to their citizens.
At what point do we say enough is enough. When will a slight tax increase become worth smooth roads, a well-staffed police force and most importantly an educated public?
The progressive community must stand together and fight back these recall threats by Drolet and friends and fire back with some of our own. These bleed the state dry Republicans are not living up to their constitutionally mandated authority and are cow-towing to the wishes of a small minority of vocal anti-tax conservatives who will spend more on fighting the tax increase than they'll actually ever have to pay in taxes.
We need to unite to let people like Senators Mike Bishop, Bruce Patterson, John Pappageorge and Valde Garcia know that we have had enough. Recall petitions can be distributed for all these people on June 10th. You have 180 days to find 40,000 signatures in each district. This is something an organized progressive front can accomplish.
This is not a time for campfire songs and happy thoughts; we have to be as aggressive as the Republicans are if we want to save this state.
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Sun May 13, 2007 at 09:32:04 AM EDT
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Today the Lansing State Journal compares the Democratic and Senate Republican plans to replace the Single Business Tax, immediately raising one question:
What in the heck are Senate Republicans thinking?
More LSJ:
This massive tax cut is one of two competing plans now before the Legislature. The Democratically controlled Michigan House adopted its own tax rewrite, a plan that's expected to be revenue neutral.
But Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said last week it's not as important for a new tax to be revenue neutral as it is to be pro-growth.
State Senator Mike Bishop (R-Tanning Salon) and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus--inexperience, no prior plannning, and no answers for the CAT-5 fiscal crisis facing the State of Michigan. Again, back to the LSJ:
Such statements again remind that Bishop, thanks to legislative term limits, is still in his first year as leader of the Michigan Senate. Inexperience has to be playing a role in how this debate is going so far off course.
Do Bishop and the other Senate Republicans not remember the bitter stalemate over the existing 2007 budget? The Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm have cut hundreds of millions of dollars in spending; and Michigan schools and health providers are on the brink of even further cuts. And all these problems are occurring with a fully operational SBT in place.
Do Bishop and the Republicans want to go into the 2008 budget debate with a $600 million hole in an SBT replacement? Who's behind this thinking?
Q: Who's behind this thinking?
A:
Q: What in the heck are Senate Republicans thinking?
A: You're doing a heckuva job, Mikey!
That completes this installment of simple answers to simple questions.
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Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:26:04 AM EDT
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Senate Republican Leader Mike Bishop and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus fought for the election of George W. Bush in 2000.
Mike Bishop and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus fought for the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004.
Mike Bishop and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus support the polices of George W. Bush and never criticize the policies of their Dear Leader, George W. Bush.
Visit the Senate Republican offices and you'll see the photos of their Dear Leader, George W. Bush, lovingly and prominently displayed.
That's why the Bishop Plan is the Bush Plan:
1. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, but don't pay for the tax cuts.
2. Change the law to aid the wealthy and corporate special interests.
3. Operate government incompetently.
That approach is bad for Michigan, but great for Michigan Democrats. Look where George W. Bush has lead the Republicans: to the lowest approval ratings in a generation. Lower even than Jimmy Carter. Newsweek reports:
It's hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every '08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public's approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.'s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP's chances for victory in '08.
If you like George W. Bush, you'll love Mike Bishop and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus.
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Fri May 04, 2007 at 22:15:40 PM EDT
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(LOL, from the diaries - promoted by Hazen Pingree)
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Tanning Salon) appears to have confused a "man-date" that occured last year with a "mandate".
Today's Muskegon Chronicle calls him out on this:
Right-wing senators holding a narrow Republican majority thus continue to operate under the delusion that there was no referendum during last fall's election on the core issue of de-funding Michigan -- an election that saw an arch-conservative guru of tax cuts soundly defeated by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the former House Republican majority tossed out on its collective ear, and the GOP's edge in the Senate reduced to a scant few seats.
This past election was no mandate from the body politic to scrap the Single Business Tax without a full replacement. This was not an affirmation of cutting the sinews of state government. This was not an endorsement of "no new taxes now or anytime for anything."
Sometimes the truth hurts. And as items like this begin to reveal what Mike Bishop and his Senate Obstructionist Caucus are all about, they are in for some pain.
Just go read the whole thing!
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Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 13:20:55 PM EDT
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Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-AWOL) has decided that the best response to the state's fiscal crisis is to take a vacation.
But in his rush to hit the beach, Bishop forgot to get check the Michigan Constitution and get a excused absence from Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon, as the law requires.
Article IV, Section 29 of the Michigan Constitution says:
Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two intervening calendar days, nor to any place other than where the legislature may then be in session.
But Mike Bishop went and did just that. Check the record. According to the Journal of the Michigan Senate for April 4, 2007, Mike Bishop adjourned the Senate for a week:
In pursuance of the order previously made, the Secretary of the Senate declared the Senate adjourned until Wednesday, April 11, 2007, at 10:00 a.m.
April 4th to April 7th. That's 7 days. Certainly more than 2 intervening calendar days. And there is no indication that Speaker Dillon and the House consented to Bishop and company skipping town.
We need Speaker Dillon to speak-up and demand the Senate get back to Lansing and fix the mess they have made.
It's time Dillon stood up to Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans instead of parroting Republican talking points and letting the Republicans push him around.
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Tue Mar 20, 2007 at 01:54:31 AM EDT
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On 3/19/07, the Kent County Michigan Democratic Party members invaded the meeting of the Kent GOP to encourage the Republican members to contact their Republican Senators, asking them to meet with Michigan Governor Granholm about the pending budget crisis. The message was simple; Democrat Kathy Roaleen addressed the GOP members with a clear, concise message that both sides need to come together to solve this budget crisis. The Governor has presented her plan, and Michigan awaits Mike Bishop and the Senate's plan. Ten Democrats attended the Republican meeting to show support for Roaleen. Included in the video are the responses by members of the Kent County GOP. Michigan Rep. Tom Pearce is a long-winded idiot who likes to hear the sound of his own voice... he spoke for so long that I had to cut his speech in the video to make to 10 min. YouTube limit. (You're welcome)
Kathy Roaleen graduated from the Center for Progressive Leadership - Michigan Political Leaders Fellowship program this past weekend.
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Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 06:00:00 AM EST
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Every once in a while, Mike Bishop says a thing or two that gives me hope that he might actually understand what it's like to be one of the constituents he represents while he leads the Senate Republicans...
Given our economic crisis, a leader is defined by his or her ability to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable. ...of course then I realize that his diatribe in Sunday's Lansing State Journal was just that, all talk and still no plan. It must be hard to sit a top a plushy throne in the Senate and not really know what it's like to be one of us.
The irony in Sunday's piece is rich. I'm not sure how well Bishop or his Communications team really read over their piece before sending it off to the editorial board at the LSJ but let me highlight a couple of my favorites.
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Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 13:27:26 PM EST
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(From the diaries - promoted by Hazen Pingree)
For Immediate Release
Contact: Geraldo Rivera
Lansing - In light of the fact that Republican Leader Mike Bishop has not released his "secret plan" to balance the budget without making cuts or raising revenue, Geraldo Rivera has agreed to come to Michigan and search Senator Bishop's vault for the plan.
"It has now been three weeks since Governor Granholm released her plan, and almost two weeks since Mike Bishop rejected it. I am concerned that all this secrecy is really just covering for the fact that Mike misplaced his plan in his vault," said Mr. Rivera.
Mr. Rivera is most famous for his disappointing trip into Al Capone's vault.
"I firmly believe that Senator Bishop has a plan and that all his bloviating has been more than political posturing. This time I will find something in the vault!"
You can catch Geraldo's "investigative" reporting on this week's "off the record."
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