This morning, the Michigan House Appropriations Committee voted to accept a grant from the federal government for $30,670,000 to set up a health insurance exchange in this state as part of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”.)
Details after the jump.
Last month, the Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC) used the “Pure Michigan” brand to brag about screwing unions by making Michigan a Right to Work state. They spent $144,000 to run a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to do so.
This week, MEDC vice president of government affairs, Jim McBryde, told the House Tourism Committee that they are putting further misuse of the successful “Pure Michigan” tourism brand to promote Right to Work on hold.
Click through for details.
After receiving complaints from various folks in the Royal Oak area, Dawud Walid,
executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan (CAIR) paid a visit to Target Sports and found them selling a target depicting a skeleton wearing a turban and traditional Muslim clothing. He purchased a couple of the targets and then had a conversation with the store owner, Ray Jihad. By the time their conversation ended, Jihad had agreed to stop selling the shooting targets.
Details after the jump.
When Michigan’s Republican Party isn’t busy cutting education, driving down workers’ wages or stealing presidential elections, they always have time to wage a little war on women.
Because it calls for the use of “most technologically advanced ultrasound equipment available at that location”, HB 4187 of 2013 would “effectively require a transvaginal probe” for any woman who wants to end a pregnancy, according to OBGYN Dr. Charlene Abernethy.
Why would a woman be forced to have her body penetrated against her will?
To “protect” her, of course.…
As I have been telling folks for the past year, Republicans have raised the effective tax rates on more than half of all Michiganders in the past year. You’ll notice when you do your state taxes this year; many folks are already facing the reality that, instead of getting a refund like they always have in the past, they now OWE several hundred dollars to the State of Michigan. Get your checkbooks out, folks. SOMEBODY has to pay for nearly $2 billion in tax cuts for corporations and that somebody is YOU.
Meanwhile, as the tax coffers start to overflow a bit, Republicans are eager to sock some of it away into the Budget Stabilization Fund, otherwise known as the “Rainy Day Fund”. During the financial meltdown during the latter half of the Bush administration, Governor Granholm was forced to use that money to keep the state afloat. The fund now has a half billion dollars in it. The question many are asking is if we should put MORE money in it.
What do YOU think? Take our poll after the jump.
The National Gun Fetishist Association (NRA) wants to put armed security guards in every school in the United States because, as everyone knows, the only effective solution to gun violence is many, many more guns in our schools.
Besides, c’mon. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, in a word, THIS.
Find out what “this” is after the jump.
[I apologize for the light blogging these past couple of days. We've had a death in my family and that, as you can probably imagine, has taken up much of my attention.]
Last night in his State of the State address, Governor Rick Snyder implored Republicans and Democrats alike to set aside their differences and work together. “I appreciate that people had different perspectives on issues,” he said. “And what I’m saying is, I’m hoping we can find common ground where we can work together and I hope all of you join me in doing the same thing.”
Multi-millionaire Dick DeVos said much the same thing in an op-ed after Republicans made Michigan a Right to Work state. “We can’t finish rebuilding this state unless we pull together,” said DeVos.
These are easy things to say when you have the ability to win all of your political battles. When the deck is stacked completely in your favor, you can say nice things about “working together” and “pulling together”. Because, at the end of the day, if your political opponents disagree with you, you can simply run them over just like Governor Snyder, the Michigan Republicans, and their financial backer Dick DeVos have done for the past two years.
Thanks largely to the absurdity of conservatives and Republicans in Michigan, our fair state continues to be the butt of jokes nationally. From the Daily Show to The Colbert Report and beyond, we have become the laughing stock of the country.
Details including the most recent foray into Absurdistan after the jump.
As I anticipated (rather testily) last month, Democrats are losing a voice on the Michigan state Supreme Court. Thanks to the unethical behavior of Diane Hathaway, whose name will now forever be associated with the betrayal of Democrats and Michigan citizens in general, we went from a 4-3 Republican-to-Democrat ratio to what will be a 5-2 balance once Governor Rick Snyder makes his appointment.
This has many people across the state wondering what Snyder will do with this opportunity.
On the one hand, he could continue his recent trend of appeasing the far right conservatives in his party, cementing the partisan divide that has so intensely polarized our state and that has created warring factions who despise each other.
On the other hand, he could choose a more moderate candidate who is more palatable to Democrats in Michigan. By doing this, the Governor could begin to repair some of the damage that was done when he chose to force Right to Work legislation through during the inflamed duck session and the animosity he created by passing laws that hinder women’s access to legal abortion services in our state.
My analysis after the jump.
A recent study by the Michigan Economic Center asked over 3000 representatives from businesses, nonprofits, and governmental organizations what things Michigan needs to do to attract more business investment in our state. If you listen to Michigan Republicans, including our governor, their answer is “lower taxes and bust unions”.
They might wish to ask the people who actually DO business in this state what they think. “Lower taxes” isn’t even close to the top.
Follow me over the jump for details.
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