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Chris Savage is the owner of Eclectablog, your one-stop shop for progressive Michigan news and state & national political commentary.
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State elections board approves “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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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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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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Apparently you can’t cut your way to prosperity after all. Flint Emergency Manager wants a tax increase.

By on May 20, 2013 in Emergency Managers, Flint, Taxes

Uh, someone didn’t get the memo that the answer to everything is to cut corporate taxes

Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz is leading a push to increase city income taxes by 0.5% for residents and 0.25% for non-residents. That’s a 50% increase. Why? Turns out Flint is out of money and needs revenue. It’s almost as if Flint’s problems weren’t caused by waste, fraud, and mismanagement after all.

More after the jump.


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Wisconsin marine reunited with dog he served with in Afghanistan

By on May 20, 2013 in Uncategorized

Getchyer tissues ready

Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach of Madison, Wisconsin worked side by side in Afghanistan with Casey, a 4-year old yellow Labrador Retriever, doing explosives detection. To say that the two formed a strong attachment would be an understatement. Gundlach returned to Wisconsin after his tour was complete and Casey went to Iowa to work for the state fire marshal’s office.

Gundlach tracked Casey down and went to Des Moines to plead his case for taking Casey back to Wisconsin with him. However, unbeknownst to him, an Elks group had already raised $8,500 to buy the fire marshal a different dog and, at a ceremony Gundlach thought was a celebration of Armed Services Day at the Capitol Building, he and Casey were reunited for good.…


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Koch Carbon piling up mountains of potentially toxic petroleum coke on banks of the Detroit River

By on May 20, 2013 in Detroit, Global climate change

What could possibly go wrong?

On the banks of the Detroit River, giant three-story tall mountains of black rock have been accumulating, quickly and quietly enough to take a lot of Detroiters and neighboring Canadians by surprise. The piles are petroleum coke or “pet coke”, a by-product of the processing of tar sands oil from Canada. A newly upgraded Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit now allows them to process the tar sands oil, producing copious amounts of the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste product.

A recent New York Times article shows that Michiganders and Canadians alike are concerned by the use of land directly on the Detroit River to store the potentially hazardous pet coke.

Click through for more.


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VIDEO: Sunday morning politics break – Red-Winged Blackbirds drive off Sandhill Cranes by working together

By on May 19, 2013 in Eclectalife, Michigan

The power of tenacity and coordination

Anne and I like to recharge our mental and spiritual batteries by tossing our kayaks into our beater pick-up truck Steve and heading out to Pickerel Lake in the Pinckney State Recreation Area. It’s actually on a chain of three lakes that includes Crooked Lake.

The wildlife on these lakes is abundant and, especially in kayaks, you can get startling close to the animals.

On Friday night, we whipped up a batch of margaritas and headed out for a sunset booze cruise. While we were paddling, we came across something I’ve never seen before: two Red-Winged Blackbirds systematically attacking and driving off two adult Sandhill Cranes who had strayed too close to their nest.

Video and photos after the jump.


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Michigan Senate Republicans reject Medicaid expansion

By on May 17, 2013 in Michigan Republicans

Heartless is as heartless does

If you were a lawmaker and were given the chance to reduce the number of uninsured Michiganders by nearly half and save the state nearly a billion dollars over the next ten years, what would you do? If you were a Michigan Senate Republican, you would reject it. That’s what Michigan Senate Republicans did yesterday when they passed Department of Community Health budget without a provision to expand Medicaid as allowed by the Affordable Care Act.

They even killed a Democratic amendment to put Medicaid expansion back into the bill. It went down on a 13-25 vote.…


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VIDEO: Progress Michigan goes after ‘skunk works’ group working to commoditize/profitize Michigan public schools

By on May 16, 2013 in Corporatism, Education, Privatization, Rick Snyder

Ooo-ooo, that smell…

Last month, after the Detroit News tore back the curtains on the secretive “skunk works” group, staffed by some of Gov. Snyder’s aides and aimed at destroying our public school system while funneling the proceeds to for-profit charter schools, the group was quickly reconfigured to be one that was more, shall we say, public? The Governor’s staffer was replaced with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan who vowed any discussion of vouchers and the like would be “off the table”.

My pals at Progress Michigan endeavored to learn more about the group with a Freedom of Information Act request but were, in part, denied because “the Basecamp server that housed ‘Skunk Works’ discussions and files was shut down following the revelation of the group’s existence, making several files unavailable.”

They did receive some documents however.…


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