Selling off of Detroit Institute of Art’s priceless collection “on the table” to address Detroit’s crushing debt

By on May 24, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Managers

If everything good about Detroit is destroyed, is it still Detroit?

This past Wednesday, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr was in Chicago talking to a group of philanthropists, some of whom are likely holding some of Detroit’s debt, and he told them, “We can’t liquidate or sell off Detroit like many of us do when we go into our representations…This isn’t a traditional reorganization for a profit-making enterprise, this is the saving of a great American city.”

This comment is in stark contrast to the news that came out yesterday that Orr has asked for an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ priceless collection of art.

Click through for more.


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Making the voice of the people heard on the ‘Religious Liberty & Conscience Protection Act’

By on May 23, 2013 in Michigan Democrats, Michigan Republicans

More than 550 people signed the petition opposing SB 136.

This week, opponents of Senate Bill 136 — the “Religious Liberty & Conscience Protection Act” — met with State Senator Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor). I was at the meeting, where we presented a petition for delivery to the Michigan Senate and learned even more about this troubling legislation from Sen. Warren.

As I’ve written here before, SB 136 would let healthcare providers, facilities and insurers refuse to provide or cover “objectionable” healthcare services on religious or moral grounds. But it offers no protection for patients when it comes to making their own care decisions.…


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UPDATED: Michigan elections board OKs “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” petition, <3% of residents could make it law

By on May 23, 2013 in Lies, Planned Parenthood, War on Women

Decline to sign

It’s not often that less than 3% of a state’s citizens get to create new law without having to let the voters decide or the governor to sign it into law but that is exactly what’s about to happen in Michigan. Yesterday, the State Board of Canvasser approved petition language submitted by Right to Life of Michigan that would force women to purchase a separate rider on their insurance to cover abortion. Not just government-subsidized or government provided health insurance. ALL health insurance. I’m calling it the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” law. If Right to Life can get only 258,088 in 6 months, the measure goes to the legislature which has 40 days to approve it. If they do, and they will, it becomes law. The rest of Michigan voters will have no say in it and it won’t require Governor Snyder’s signature.

It’s clever, for sure. Right to Life Michigan KNOWS they are on the wrong side of this issue from the majority of Michigan residents and from Governor Snyder himself so they have to bypass the normal process and exploit a loophole made possible by a legislature full of conservative extremists put in place by decades of Republican gerrymandering.

More, including video, awaits you after the jump.


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What does the Michigan GOP have against Medicaid expansion?

By on May 22, 2013 in Michigan Republicans

It’s a one-word answer: Obamacare.

Republicans who oppose Obamacare just don’t want to say “yes” to anything related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid expansion is part of the ACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court left the decision to accept Medicaid expansion up to the states. And Michigan is among those with Republican-controlled legislatures that are fighting against Medicaid expansion out of what seems to be pure ideology. There’s simply no other good reason to keep saying no to something that would do so much good for the state and its citizens.

Michigan Republicans dealt another blow to hopes for Medicaid expansion on Tuesday.…


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The demonization of teachers & the destruction of our public school system is a public scandal & embarrassment

By on May 22, 2013 in Corporatism, Education, Teachers

This MUST stop

The story of 22-year Cody Bailey being installed as president of a for-profit charter school in Michigan (posts are HERE and HERE) has rekindled my outrage about the demonization of teachers and the systematic kneecapping and dismantling of our public school system here in Michigan. Operating under the guise of “education reform”, corporatists like Cody Bailey, the Mackinac Center, and the DeVos family are engaging in an unsubtle effort to convert our nation’s schools into profit centers for corporate “education” businesses. Their approach has three primary components.

Click through for much, much more.


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Tony Trupiano and Joe Disano take on Cody Bailey

By on May 22, 2013 in Corporatism, Education

That had to have left a mark

Last night on the Night Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show, Tony and political consultant Joe Disano from Main Street Strategies discussed my piece on Cody Bailey, the newly-minted 22-year old for-profit charter school president. Joe and Tony have a history with Cody and they rode him suitably hard during the Democratic primary last year.

It’s worth a listen if only to hear them call Bailey “the human herpes virus”, compare him to a case of “shingles” and call him “reptilian”.

Enjoy this and more after the jump.


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A 2-step plan to end the failed War on Drugs: Expand Medicaid and end marijuana prohibition

By on May 22, 2013 in Corporatism

The war is over, if you want it

Republicans don’t mention this as they’re busy pretending to repeal ObamaCare 37 times, but they’re voting to take health insurance away from millions of working Americans. Medicaid expansion will insure those who earn up to 133% of the poverty level and previously earned too much to qualify for Medicaid — at least in the states that are smart enough to accept it.

Covering the working poor won’t just keep them out of emergency rooms –  it will keep them out of jail.

“People who are drug dependent pay for their habits with petty crimes,” Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge David Matia told The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which has the best name of any newspaper in America.…


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22-year old failed fake Michigan Democrat Cody Bailey now running a for-profit charter school

By on May 21, 2013 in Corporatism, Education

When educating your kids is all about making a profit, being a shyster is as good a qualification as anything

Last year, I wrote about fake Democrat Cody Bailey who had his ass handed to him by now-State Representative David Knezek. Bailey barely beat a candidate in the Democratic primary who didn’t even run a campaign and got his clock cleaned by Knezek. As I outlined in my expose, Bailey was anything but a Democrat and ran one of the sleaziest, most fact-challenged campaigns in my experience.

Imagine my (non) surprise to discover this week that Bailey, at the tender age of 22, is now the president of the Taylor Preparatory High School in Taylor, Michigan. What qualifies Bailey to be the president of an educational institution with a lofty mission of being “a bridge to a life well lived” for high schoolers? In a word (well, two words): not much.

Much more on this sordid story after the jump.


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