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BREAKING: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder resigns – “I’ve made a terrible mistake”

By on April 1, 2013 in Rick Snyder

Reports of Governor being given swirlies in Capitol restrooms unconfirmed

In a completely unexpected move, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, the self-titled “Tough Nerd”, abruptly resigned from office today citing bullying by Democrats and Republicans alike for his decision.

“I thought being the top government official in the state would end the relentless bullying and harassment that I’ve endured since middle school,” Governor Snyder said in a statement. “Unfortunately, if anything, the bullying has intensified.”

More on this shocking development after the jump.


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50 Lansing elementary phys.ed, art & music teachers being replaced with 10-20 part-time consultants

By on March 27, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Teachers

Why doesn’t this make me feel any better?

Last week, I wrote about Lansing Public Schools firing all 50 of its elementary phys. ed., music and art teachers to save $6 million in their shrinking budget. The post has gone fairly viral getting over 30,000 views.

Apparently the school system got an earful from folks outraged that an essential part of kids’ education was being forfeited, in part to pay for corporate tax cuts. They have now responded.

Click through for details.


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Starving Michigan schools: Capital City Lansing schools eliminate ALL art, music and phys. ed. teachers

By on March 23, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Teachers

A generation of future entrepreneurs denied essential skills

To hear Governor Snyder tell it, Republicans haven’t reduced school funding. Everything is great for Michigan schools, he will tell you. If you want the real story, however, start attending your local school board meetings and listen to the decision-makers grappling with ever-shrinking budgets that have them choosing between offering our educators the wages and benefits they deserve and shutting down schools and eliminating programs. The reality is that our state government is starving our K-12 public schools and those chickens are beginning to come home to roost.

This past week, the Lansing Public School District announced that it is firing all 50 physical education, music and art teachers.

Details including the unintended long-term consequences of this action after the jump.


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Michigan GOP bows to tea party pressure, Medicaid expansion & state run health insurance exchange all but dead

By on March 20, 2013 in Michigan Republicans, Republican-Fail, Rick Snyder

You have to give them credit for taking government back — to a time when it didn’t care about the poor

Tea party groups in Michigan appear to have succeeded in preventing an expansion of Medicaid that would have given health insurance to nearly a half million working poor Michiganders and preventing the formation of a state-run health insurance exchange. The actions will cost the state millions and millions of dollars, ensure that fewer people have health coverage than would have under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and, ironically, help take the country a step closer to a single-payer health care system in the long run.

On Wednesday, the House Appropriations subcommittee passed their annual budget bill without the inclusion of the expansion of Medicaid that Governor Snyder, doctors, and hospitals across the state supported emphatically. Even tea party governors like Florida’s Rick Scott support this element of “Obamacare” since it would mean coverage of millions of their residents while relieving the burden on their hospital systems. They also kicked poor people in the teeth in a couple of other ways, as well.

Click through for details.


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Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr named to be Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit, Michigan

By on March 14, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers, Rick Snyder

And so it is done


[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog, not for reuse.]

This afternoon, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr to be the Emergency Financial Manager of Detroit.

The Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board has to make the formal appointment of an emergency financial manager and they meet later today.

With that, nearly half of all Michigan African Americans will live without local democratically-elected representation.

Lucky for him he’s a lawyer. I suspect that’s going to come in very handy in the coming months.


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Gov Snyder gives up on a crisis decades in the making after only 10 months, will announce Detroit Emergency Manager tomorrow

By on March 13, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers, Rick Snyder

Impatience is not a virtue

Anyone paying attention to Detroit’s plight knows that their current financial crisis goes back for decades. Housing policies that favored white flight to the suburbs, the decline of the oh-so-important-to-Detroit auto manufacturing industry and the Great Recession have all taken their toll on this aging manufacturing city. Years of neglect and a blind eye toward investment in our state’s largest city have created a perfect storm that has resulted in it a huge chunk of its population. Many of those that remain do so only because they are too desperately poor to escape.

Despite this, Governor Rick Snyder and his administration are giving up on a consent agreement signed with the city last year after only 10 months. The agreement, signed in April of 2012, simply didn’t solve problems that have been in the making since the middle of the last century quickly enough for these Republicans so tomorrow Governor Snyder is expected to appoint Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr to be the new overseer of the city.

Click through for more.


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Another day, another poll showing that pretty much nobody likes Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

By on March 6, 2013 in Polls, Rick Snyder

You know who REALLY likes Rick Snyder? Nobody.

Rick Snyder has given numerous signals that he intends to run for a second term as the Nerd in Chief of Michigan. The problem is that not only do Democrats despise him, he’s wildly unpopular among Republicans, too. He’s especially hated by the far-right tea party element of the GOP.

A Lambert, Edwards & Associates poll out last week conducted by Denno Research tells the tale. Details on that and more after the jump.


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It’s official: half of Michigan African Americans will go without democratically-elected local government

By on March 1, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers, Rick Snyder

How do you build a city up armed only with implements of destruction?

This afternoon, Governor Rick Snyder announced that he will appoint an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit calling it a “sad day” that he wished “had never happened in the history of Detroit”. As I have already detailed in a post that has been cited by MSNBC and Huffington Post among others, this will result in 49% of the African Americans in Michigan being without a democratically-elected government.

Click through for more.


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Michigan GOP fights off takeover of party by tea party with help of Governor Rick Snyder

By on February 25, 2013 in GOPocrisy, Michigan Republicans, Republican-Fail, Rick Snyder, Tea Party

And he accuses US of fighting amongst ourselves? Governor, please.

With all of the attention that was paid these past two weeks between the race for the Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, it was easy to miss the fact that the Michigan Republican Party had a highly-contested race themselves. When the dust had settled at their convention on Saturday, incumbent chair Bobby Schostak had won a narrow 833 to 768 vote over tea party challenger Todd Courser, a favorite of the so-called “Freedom Caucus”. Courser ran on a platform of “liberty and constitutional conservatism”.

The election was so close that Governor Snyder made a surprise appearance at Michigan GOP convention, taking time from the National Governors Association meeting in progress in Washington, D.C. to make an impassioned plea for Schostak’s candidacy. He was even seen pulling people aside to lobby for their votes.

He then accused Democrats of doing the very thing his party was engaged in as he gave his speech. Details after the jump.


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Snyder admin budget director claims biz tax cuts created jobs but can’t prove it & says they haven’t kicked in yet

By on February 16, 2013 in Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Taxes

Um, maybe you guys should get your stories straight before you go on tv…

Michigan State Budget Director John Nixon appeared on Off the Record with Tim Skubick this week. Unfortunately for him, the wheels sort of fell of the car when the conversation turned to the impact of the Republicans nearly $2 billion in business tax cuts on job creation. Nixon first said, unequivocally, that the tax cuts have created jobs. Then he said he can’t prove it. And then he finished by saying, well, they really haven’t kicked in yet so it’s hard to say.

It gets hard to keep up with these guys sometimes.


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