Why don’t we like thee, Governor? Let me count the ways…

Mark Schauer speaks to the Youth Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party on April 27th, 2013. Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog.

Recent polling conducted for the Democratic Governors Association and shared with Politico.com shows Mark Schauer with a lead over Rick Snyder:

In a document prepared for the DGA – and shared with POLITICO by a Democratic source – pollster Geoff Garin reveals that a recent DGA poll showed Snyder to be vulnerable to a challenge by Schauer. {…}

The poll shows Snyder tied with a generic Democrat, taking 40 percent to an unnamed Democratic opponent’s 38 percent. But Garin argues that the situation for Snyder is even more dire – especially if Schauer runs.

“The bad news for Snyder is that undecided voters are much more likely to split for the Democratic candidate: they voted for Obama over Romney by 24 points and they are 18 points more likely to identify with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party,” Garin writes. “After hearing a brief positive description of Mark Schauer’s background, voters prefer Schauer over Rick Snyder by 54 percent to 38 percent. When given this alternative to the incumbent, independent voters favor Schauer by 16 points.”

Schauer’s lead holds up even after voters also hear “a series of criticisms of Schauer, a case statement in support of Rick Snyder’s reelection, and a series of criticisms about Rick Snyder.”

“In a fully informed trial heat, asked at the end of the survey after respondents heard both sides of the argument for both candidates, Schauer continues to lead Rick Snyder by 48 percent to 42 percent — an extremely encouraging result that bodes well for the strength of a potential Schauer candidacy,” Garin concludes. “Schauer benefits from an exceptionally strong showing among women voters, with whom he maintains a 20-point lead.”

Yeeouch. It’s no surprise, really. As Michiganders have gotten to know him, they’ve come to realize that Rick Snyder is not just a “businessman”, he’s a “business’s man”. In other words, a corporatist who sees every problem as an opportunity to fatten the bottom lines of corporations in our state. Despite his arguments to the contrary, he is, in fact, the consummate corporatist with a laundry list of accomplishments:

• Signed multiple bills into law to harm unions including making the birthplace of organized labor a Right to Work for Less state.
• Stripped massive amounts of funding from public schools to weaken them, prime to be taken over by charter schools.
• Signed legislation into law to expand charter schools including computer-based “cyber schools”.
• Gave away nearly $2 billion in the form of tax credits to corporations.
• Raised taxes on over half of the taxpayers in Michigan.

And that’s just the obvious stuff. In Detroit News op-ed yesterday, Royal Oak Education Association president Sidney Kardon hit the nail on the head:

Michigan is no longer functioning as a democracy. It is a corporate oligarchy in which aides and friends of the governor create policy in secretive groups.

The Republican Legislature is always happy to advance the corporate agenda, to the detriment of our students, public schools, and communities.

How long will Michiganians tolerate the assault on community schools to turn a profit? Snyder and his cabal of aides do not care about our kids, our communities, or our democracy. They only care about their profits. Phrases like “education reform” and the assault on unions were only stepping stones to the real right wing objective: Ensuring that you and your kids are profitable to companies.

She’s totally right (except calling us “Michiganians” rather than “Michiganders”, of course), and Governor Snyder has worked hand-in-hand to give our ideologically extreme legislature nearly everything it has asked for.

Mark Schauer, on the other hand, has a long history of working to protect the poor, the middle class, and of standing up against the corporatist Republicans both in the state legislature and during his term as a U.S. Congressman. He was instrumental in helping our domestic automakers secure the federal assistance they needed to get back on their feet and he was a fierce advocate of the Affordable Care Act.

Schauer is a brilliant campaigner and a strong fundraiser, as well. With these poll results, which echo a similar poll several weeks ago, it’s clear that, even without widespread name recognition, he will be a powerful candidate. With him and Gary Peters at the top of the ticket, I predict a huge turnout by Democrats for the November midterm election.

Everywhere I go, Democrats are totally geeked about a Schauer candidacy. Though it seemed unlikely several months ago, he’s being lobbied hard from within the party and it’s looking increasingly likely. I expect him to make an announcement very soon.

In the meantime, check out the “Draft Mark Schauer for Michigan Governor” page on Facebook. With over 500 followers in just a few weeks, it’s rapidly becoming a page to watch.

You heard it there first

Gary Peters with Lizz Winstead at kick-off of Winstead’s WTF Tour to support Planned Parenthood, photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog.

The National Journal is reporting that Congressman Gary Peters will announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Levin sometime this week.

That and a Mark Schauer gubernatorial bid is a winning ticket for Michigan Democrats. As I understand it, there are a lot of people pressuring Schauer to run and an early announcement like this one from Peters would be a smart move.

The State of Michigan is in a weird state

Let’s start out with something besides Detroit, shall we?

Flint Emergency Manager imposes governing classes on City Council, restores part pay, and makes them take his flak

Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz restored 30% of the Flint City Council’s pay ($7,000/year) and 60% of Mayor Dayne Walling’s pay. As a condition, the Council members must complete classes on how to govern:

It’s back to school for Flint City Council members if they want to collect their partial pay that emergency manager Ed Kurtz reinstated last week.

Kurtz is requiring council members to complete the Michigan Municipal League’s level one core courses and receive the MML Education Award within one year.

“It should certainly help them get back to where they can run the city,” Kurtz said.

The restored pay of $7,000, which is 30 percent of a council member’s salary, doesn’t come with benefits.

The courses from the Michigan Municipal League are usually on Fridays and Saturdays at sites throughout the state. The eight hours of instruction are on topics such as board governance, human resources, leadership skills, municipal finance, strategic planning and others.

While the city will pay for the courses, city council members will be responsible for travel, lodging and meal expenses.

This seems like a smart move and one that I’ve been advocating in some form or another since the spring of 2011. Why not help government leaders be better leaders?

Kurtz also issued an order (pdf) that is a bit more troubling. The order says:

1. Meet once per month (4th Monday) in order to hear concerns from constituents. Council members must be in attendance throughout the meeting.
2. Accept and respond to constituent calls and requests for information. Council members shall submit actionable items to the Emergency Manager in writing.
3. Schedule meetings as requested by the Emergency Manager to address issues that have significant impact on the City such as the Comprehensive Master Plan, KWA, Charter Revisions and other issues that may arise.
4. Complete Level One of the Michigan Municipal League (MML) core courses for municipal government and receive the MML Education Award within one year. The City will pay for the costs of the actual training, exclusive of travel, lodging and meals.
5. All communications with staff must be in writing and directed through the Emergency Manager’s office.
6. Comply with any other request authorized by Public Act 436 from the Emergency Manager on timely basis. To be eligible for compensation, each Council member shall execute an acknowledgment of receipt of this order and agreement to abide by its terms.

So, like I said, I think the class thing is a terrific idea. What I find troubling is the Kurtz is forcing the City Council to hear all of the complaints of the citizens of Flint on his behalf and then sort of filter them out so he doesn’t have to deal with the riff raff. They have to hold meetings and take calls where they are sure to get an earful from disgruntled Flint residents and then let him know when he needs to get involved. Very tidy.

I also find the “don’t talk to City staff without my knowledge” provision supremely offensive. These are, after all, democratically elected officials. They shouldn’t have to pass their communications with City staff members through an unelected dictator. Period.

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr considering hiring someone to do the job HE was hired to do

This blows my mind:

Detroit emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr is considering creating an auditor general position for the city.

According to the Emergency Manager, the move would improve oversight of the 300-million dollars in federal grant funding the city receives each year. Orr says the city needs to keep a closer eye on how it spends federal dollars.

I’m sorry, but isn’t that exactly the sort of thing that we hired Orr himself to do? I mean, the taxpayers of Michigan are paying this dude something like a quarter million dollars a year to sort out Detroit’s finances. Isn’t one of the tasks covered by that enviable salary overseeing federal grants? Surely there are comparable positions already in the Detroit city government. If those already in charge of keeping tabs on grants and such need further training, fine, do that. But hiring someone to do the job we hired HIM to do? That’s ludicrous.

UPDATE: As Bill Cole points out in the comments, Detroit already has an auditor general. His name is Mark W. Lockridge. So why is Orr planning to create a position that already exists???

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr ready to do away with collective bargaining with city employees

In a move that was predicted from Day One when Public Act 4 was passed, Detroit EM Orr sent a letter to “state employment relations officials” letting them know that PA 436 gives him the right not “to bargain or participate in compulsory arbitration with Detroit’s public safety unions”.

Kevyn Orr, a former bankruptcy lawyer, alerted state labor officials on Thursday that he has no legal requirement to bargain or participate in compulsory arbitration with Detroit’s public safety unions.

The statement by Orr, sent in letters to state employment relations officials, is his first public indication that he actively is considering exercising some of the most sweeping powers granted to him under the 2012 state law that created the position of emergency manager.

Detroit has agreements with some 48 unions, and outside analysts say the city needs concessions from organized labor if it is to restore public finances devastated by a shrinking population and high unemployment.

Staking out his position in the letters, Orr stated that Detroit is in receivership, and he has no duty to bargain under procedures set forward in the state Public Employment Relations Act. The city and its lawyers “are authorized to advance this position and seek…any and all relief available by law,” he said.

Orr’s move incensed unions for firefighters, police officers and paramedics, whose current pacts with the city end on June 30.

I’ll give him credit for not excluding cops and firefighters as Republicans have done in much of their union-crushing legislation. Orr, at least, is “fair”. You know, if you consider ignoring the fact that unions exist and have rights “fair”.

The “Belle Isle as Galt’s Gulch” idea just won’t die

In Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged”, a near bible for the tea party and for libertarians, the smartest, wealthiest people in the country all walk away to form their own little haven called “Galt’s Gulch”. A Detroit businessman, Rod Lockwood, wants to turn Belle Isle into an independent commonwealth that looks remarkably like “Galt’s Gulch”. When he first trotted out the idea, it was all but laughed out of the state. But Lockwood is back, apparently, this time proposing a new community named “Jefferson” on the other side of the Belle Isle bridge that will be home to all of the Detroiters who will act as servants to the wealthy living in the new haven for the rich:

It’s hard to tell whether Rod Lockwood is in on his own joke.

The businessman, who amassed a fortune in real estate, made a radical, controversial proposal earlier this year to buy Belle Isle from the city for $1 billion and transform it into a Hong-Kong-style quasi-independent commonwealth.

Citizenship would require a $300,000 stake, but starving artists or musicians could earn residency in the commonwealth through a kind of hardship sponsorship. Because, you know, diversity.

Lockwood seems incredibly sincere, even though he hasn’t received support from any of the entities whose approval would be required to make this plan happen. But hope springs eternal, I suppose, and on Friday, Lockwood unveiled the second component of his plan: The creation of a district named “Jefferson” just off the coast of Belle Isle.

A logistical hub and residential center that would support the island and create thousands of jobs (mostly servicing the island’s wealthy residents), Jefferson is intended to sweeten the Belle Isle Commonwealth pot. Lockwood says the plan should convince skeptical city officials that his proposal for Belle Isle would provide the kind of economic lift that could truly move the needle in Detroit.

Here’s what Lockwood says about “Jefferson” on his webpage in answer to the FAQ “Why will Detroit do this?”:

Detroit will see many benefits. The $1 billion dollars Detroit receives from the sale will be used to help with blight removal and train people with the skills needed to fill the thousands of construction jobs created on Belle Isle. About $4 billion of public infrastructure will be required on the island plus another $20 billion of private construction. Also, the huge influx of capital into Belle Isle will cause spin-off factories, businesses and retail services which will have to be located in Detroit near Belle Isle. In the book, a new community called Jefferson is one of the beneficiaries of the Belle Isle Midwest Tiger, as it is located on the other side of the Belle Isle bridge. Jefferson itself will bring thousands of construction jobs as housing, restaurants, hotels, retail and golf courses will be built to support the Midwest Tiger, creating an additional $20 billion in construction activity. It is likely a second monorail connecting Jefferson to downtown Detroit will be built, again creating more jobs and an explosion of new construction activity in Detroit.

Let’s be clear: this utopian dream of his is nothing more than an island with its own colony of servants conveniently living on the mainland where they won’t sully the Island of Wealth and Excess with their presence. It’s offensive beyond anything I’ve seen in a very long time and the fact that anyone at all is paying attention to him is astonishing.

Fortunately, it’s never going to happen.

[CC Photo credit: Michigan Municipal League (MML) | Flickr]

Elections have consequences and sometimes they’re permanent consequences

Photo by Anne C. Savage

Lost in the shuffle of last year’s orgy of Republican overreach in the Michigan legislature was the passage of the legislation that became Public Act 297. Signed into law August, the law is described, in part, as “an act to protect the environment and natural resources of the state”. In his announcement about the signing of the bill into law with the Orwellian title “Snyder signs bill protecting sand dunes, rights of homeowners”, Governor Snyder had the audacity to say that he “worked with the bill sponsor to ensure Michigan’s dunes are protected for the benefit of present and future generations.”

What the law does, in fact, is quite the opposite:

Michigan’s freshwater sand dunes are Pure Michigan at its best—they’re the reason Good Morning America named Sleeping Bear Dunes the most beautiful place in America in 2011.

Recognizing this decades ago, Governor William Milliken and later Governor James Blanchard helped the state establish our Critical Dunes Act. It recognizes the freshwater dunes—mostly found along Lake Michigan on the western Lower Peninsula and the southern shore of the UP—as globally rare and in particular need of additional protection from harmful development.

Michigan set up a permitting process to ensure that development and activity in the dunes are carefully reviewed in order to ensure the natural migration and shifting of sand and protection for rare flora and fauna.

Now, the Michigan Association of Realtors and the Homebuilders Association have found some allies at the Capitol to help them gut this act. Proposed legislation removes references to the “public interest” in protecting these areas or minimizing harmful impacts. It adds convoluted new language making it much easier for developers to permanently alter the shifting dunes with roads, driveways and houses. The plan makes it more difficult for local residents or resource experts to have a say in their fate.

The law is now getting its first customers. In the incredible Saugatuck Dunes, already being threatened by skabillionaire natural gas magnate and developer Aubrey McClendon, a church camp owned by the Presbytery of Chicago is being sold to a developer who will build 12 homes on land he’ll sell for $1 million an acre:

The dunes where inner-city Chicago kids got to see the majesty of Lake Michigan while at summer camp may soon be selling for $1 million an acre.

Grand Rapids based developer David Barker has a $10 million deal with the Presbytery of Chicago to purchase the 130-acre Presbyterian Camp for a high-end home development.

Saugatuck City planners Thursday got their first look at Barker’s and division proposal to create 12 single-family home lots on critical dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.

“I want to create 12 parcels of two-plus acres overlooking Lake Michigan under the Land Division Act. I’ll be selling the lots and the people who buy will be designing and building their own homes,” Barker told commissioners.

This is the very sad end to a story that could have turned out differently. In 2009, a group called Lakeshore Christian Camping was formed to purchase the land to “preserve the Presbyterian Camps in Saugatuck, MI and their Ministry for future generations.” They had a deal with the Presbytery of Chicago to purchase the property in 2010. However, the deal fell through when they could not raise the required funds – $12 million — and now a developer is going to change the dunes irreparably forever if the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approves his proposal. The land will now be sold to a developer for $10 million.

In another test of the new law, a developer plans a quarter mile long “driveway” through the White River Township Dunes, just north of Muskegon. The labeling of the road as a “driveway” is critical because the new law allows driveways to be built without consideration of their environmental impacts. In this case, however, the “driveway” is on public land owned by the township:

That key provision of the 2012 dune law change – the one most strongly supported by the pro-development lobby—essentially eliminated consideration of the potential negative environmental impacts of driveways in the dunes. It is at the heart of this controversial proposal.

The Bro G Land Company proposal includes an extensive access road—nearly a quarter of a mile long—through a township-owned dunes preserve along a supposed “easement.” A critical consideration of this permit and potentially other permits under consideration is the definition of “driveway” versus an easement. A review of the Bro G permit application and the revised law raises serious questions regarding the adequacy of the application and scope of the new law.

Below are MEC’s preliminary observations regarding the permit:

1) The application improperly treats a driveway and an easement access road as the same thing. This is not the case. The statute clearly states that a driveway runs only “from a road or easement” to the principal building. It also states that the driveway must be “privately owned.” MCLA 324.35311a(3) states:

(3) As used in this section, “driveway” means a privately owned, constructed, and maintained vehicular access from a road or easement serving the property to the principal building or accessory buildings, that is paved, graveled, or otherwise improved for vehicular access, 16 feet wide or narrower in the sole discretion of the applicant or owner, and may include, in the sole discretion of the applicant or owner, a shared driveway.

This reading of the statute is further reinforced by section (1)(a) which states the applicant should review other alternatives for a driveway which minimize impacts within “the lot of record.”

Why does it matter? Because the builders’ lobby made driveways essentially immune from DEQ oversight under the new law, permitting them “by right” if an engineer signs off on the proposal.

Those of you who are still focused on the Republican Party as a simply a conservative political group need to shed that perception. The Republican Party is actually nothing more than a group of corporatists working day and night to further the goals of the corporations they represent. This is not about conservative vs. liberal politics any longer. This is about changing our laws to benefit corporations and their profit margins. They throw some red meat to their conservative religious base occasionally, of course, by stomping on women and gays but, at the end of the day, the Republican Party, particularly here in Michigan, is in the nearly exclusive business of serving their corporate benefactors. When you look at their efforts and actions in this light, it gives you a fresh perspective and a greater understanding of their motivations, both keys to defeating them in 2014.

When we’re fighting battles to save our precious natural resources and protect the environment, our corporate opponents will keep coming back, battle after battle. If they lose a battle, they simply regroup and try again. We, on the other hand, don’t have that luxury. If we lose, even once, we’re done. The damage to the environment will be fait accompli.

Hey, Republicans, are you listening?

The percentage of Michigan residents covered by health insurance through their job has dropped from 78.1 percent in 2000 to 62.9 percent in 2011 according to a new report out by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That’s the second highest decline in the entire country, second only to South Carolina.

The study was done to get baseline information prior to the implementation of many of the core components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) so that we’ll have something to compare to as the ACA is rolled out.

Some of the key findings:

• The decline is due mainly to escalating costs of insurance
• Michiganders saw the biggest increase in the nation in the share of their costs for coverage
• The greatest losses in worker health-care coverage were among Michigan’s low-income residents
• About 14.7 percent of Michiganders near the poverty level lost workplace coverage between 2000 and 2011, while just 3.9 percent of people with the highest incomes lost workplace coverage

The article points out that the ACA may provide some relief as would Medicaid expansion should Republicans actually allow that to happen. However, that seems highly unlikely given the extremists in our state legislature who care less about poor people having health care coverage than they do about appeasing their tea party base:

Help might come next year, when the most sweeping provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act click into place. By then, every employer with more than 50 workers will have to offer insurance or pay a penalty. As for those who still don’t have insurance, state health exchanges will provide affordable options. Under the law, people who have pre-existing conditions would not be turned down for coverage, and there will be no lifetime limits on benefits.

Medicaid also could expand to cover more of the state’s poor residents.

The article quotes a director of a Detroit health care provider who says the demographics of people without health care insurance have changed from people who were born poor to those who have become poor:

Sister Mary Ellen Howard has been director of the Cabrini Clinic in Detroit for 18 years.

“When I first came, the patients we were providing care for were born into poverty. … But the patients we see now did not grow up in poverty. They grew up middle-class. They’ve lost their jobs, maybe their homes,” she said.

In a sane, rational environment, lawmakers would look at these numbers are realize they need to do more to help the working poor in this state by expanding Medicaid coverage. Unfortunately, it appears that Michigan Republicans are neither and I suspect we’ll see them double down on denying hundreds of thousands of struggling Michiganders coverage under an expanded Medicaid system. There’s nothing in their recent past that suggests they will do otherwise.

This whole democracy thing is just getting out of hand, isn’t it?

Last year, the Michigan legislature took wolves off the endangered species list and earlier this year, the Department of Natural Resources proposed hunting them again, despite the fact that there are less than 700 of these native animals in the state.

A statewide coalition of people began gathering signatures to put the wolf hunt up for a statewide vote. This was, apparently, a bridge too far for Republicans who are just sick and tired of Michigan voters weighing in on things so, yesterday, they advanced Senate Bill 288 which puts wolves into the category of “game” animals, allowing them to be hunted. The bill also includes a $1 million appropriation so you won’t be need to worry about being bothered by this appearing on your ballot. The appropriation makes the law, if passed, referendum-proof. Just so there’s no delay, the Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes recommended that it be passed with “immediate effect”.

It’s just one more way that Republicans are proving that, despite their ongoing rhetoric about a “nanny state”, they have no interest in Michigan citizens weighing in on what happens in this state. Democracy, for them, is just too damned inconvenient and “you people” need to let your mommies and daddies and nannies in the state government make your decisions for you.

Now, please, go shopping or something.

[CC wolf photo by ElfenLied333 | DeviantArt]

At what point does climate change denial become a mental illness?

Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog

The Great Lakes are now at historically low levels. So low, in fact, that Governor Snyder was forced to prevail upon the legislature to pass emergency funding to dredge 58 harbors and bays so that ships and recreational vessels can continue to use them.

Yet, somehow, the corporate-funded climate change deniers still have a voice in what is no longer a debate about the reality of global climate change.

On what felt like one of the first real days of spring so far this year, Michigan’s boating season got a boost when Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill Wednesday pouring $20.9 million into an emergency dredging program.

The money will allow 58 public bays and harbors, used mostly for recreational boating, to be cleared of the sands and sediment that are clogging them and leaving many boats stranded.

“This dredging is critically important in this state. We have the third highest number of registered boats in the nation,” Snyder said.

The dredging is needed to deal with the consequences of record low lake levels in the Great Lakes, especially Lakes Michigan and Huron. The original list cited 49 bays and harbors, but state officials said they are confident that they will have enough money to do all 58 sites.

The dredging will be paid for with $11.5 million in general fund dollars, with the rest coming from the Waterways Commission Trust Fund.

The situation isn’t just bad, it’s historically frightening. Check it out:

[Source: NOAA]

Here’s more:

A 2011 economic impact study paints a grim snapshot: Water levels are currently 2 feet below average — at that level, the study predicts a loss of nearly $850,000 in slip fees at just a handful of ports. The cost to the entire Lake Huron coast could be millions more.

Ships carry less; one harbormaster calculated that for each inch of water lost in the Lake Michigan-Huron system, the amount of cargo a ship could leave behind is equivalent to what fits in 200 trac- tor-trailers.

A commercial fishing operation predicted about $25,000 in lost revenue each week, because boats cannot be loaded to capacity without risking getting stuck in sand.

Why is this happening? Simply put, warmer winter temperatures have reduced ice on the Great Lakes:

Why? Great Lakes ice is shrinking.

Ice cover has decreased nearly 70% on the five Great Lakes since the early 1970s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The five Great Lakes hold 20% of the world’s fresh water and have more than 11,000 miles of shoreline.

Every one of the lakes has endured the winter meltdown:

• Lake Ontario saw the most dramatic decrease with an 88% drop in ice coverage.
• Lake Superior lost 76% of its ice.
• Lake Michigan saw a decrease of 77%.
• Lake Huron’s ice has decreased 62%.
• Lake Erie, the shallowest of the lakes and therefore the first to freeze every year, lost half of its ice cover.

Scientists blame global warming. Hotter days mean warmer water.

But in the case of Lake Superior, which has seen a water-temperature increase of 4 degrees in the past 25 years, the water is warming faster than the air, according to research by the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

“When you step back and look at what’s happening in the Arctic and with the Greenland ice sheet, you realize it’s not just the Great Lakes,” said George Leshkevich of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. “It’s happening globally.”

The debate about climate change is over. The evidence is all around us and now it’s starting to have a severe economic impact. Perhaps that will be enough to convince the remaining skeptics that it’s long past time to act.

I only hope it’s not too late.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say I TOLD YOU SO!

During a Right to Work rally in Lansing, Michigan last December, Fox News “reporter” Steven Crowder claimed he was attacked and had video to prove it. As I reported then, the video was heavily edited and the guy who “attacked” him was actually acting in self-defense. Here’s what I said at the time:

Selective editing at about 0:39 mark shows what appears to be union guy attacking Crowder for no apparent reason. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that the guy is getting up off the ground — that he was NOT the one that became aggressive first.

It turns out that I was 100% correct. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III is not filing charges in the incident because Crowder provided him with highly-edited video and the full, unedited version shows that his “attacker” was simply defending himself:

Steven Crowder filed a police report following the Dec. 11 incident at the Capitol, which Michigan State Police had referred to Dunnings’ office for review. {…}

Dunnings said today the first video his office reviewed had been edited. After reviewing an unedited clip, he decided to not pursue the case.

“It’s pretty clear the person that they wanted to charge was acting in self-defense,” Dunnings said of the union member who apparently slugged Crowder. {…}

Dunning’s office said the source of this unedited video was a YouTube posting from The Young Turks, an online news commentary show.

The video criticizes Crowder and Fox News for using the edited video to enflame and slant the situation. According to The Young Turks, Fox News aired Crowder’s unedited footage before opting to repeatedly air the edited clip that went viral.

Dunnings questioned why Crowder didn’t initially provide that original footage to Dunnings’ office.

“I’m not holding that against him, but why would they provide the edited video? The longer video clearly shows the guy got pushed down and came up swinging,” Dunnings said.

Nice try Crowder. You’re a fraud and now everybody knows it.

[H/T wavingcrosser]