The fight to reclaim our state in 2014 starts TODAY

Today Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, becomes the 24th Right to Work state in the USA. It’s also the day that PA 436, the Emergency Manager law Republicans passed to thwart the wishes of Michigan voters, goes into effect. PA 436 transforms all Emergency Financial Managers to Emergency Managers (EMs), giving them powers above and beyond financial matters as they are the sole rulers of the schools and municipalities over which they have complete power.

Much more after the jump.

“God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Edith”

One of the arguments being used by anti-marriage equality bigots is the idea that marriage has one primary purpose: to legally tie people together so that they can have children. This forces us to ask, “What about heterosexual marriages where there are no children?” For example, I am married to Anne but we will not be having children. Is our marriage an abomination in the eyes of anti-same sex marriage bigots?

And, pray tell, what about gray marriage? This video shows us how evil that idea is (after the jump.)

Knee-deep in irony

A new health care facility being built in Battle Creek is being fiercely criticized for hiring mostly out-of-town, non-union workers. Borgess Health Park, a 65,000 square foot facility which broke ground late last year, has hired 21 contractors for the nearly $27 million construction project. However, of those, only two of the 21 contractors are local and only one of the two is unionized.

In a true bit of bitter irony, very few of the construction workers who will build the facility have health insurance coverage themselves meaning that they probably would never be able to afford the services Borgess will provide when construction is completed in 2014.

Click through for details.

REMINDER: Jesus never once mentioned gays or abortion. But he was sure pissed at the people who didn’t help the poor. America, we’ve reached a milestone and it’s time to reflect. Same-sex marriage has finally been argued in the highest court of the land. And as true sign of how we have matured as a country, the only arguments the […]

Oh, for the love of Goddess…

If you don’t believe the headline of this post, I really don’t blame you. I myself was skeptical until I clicked the link to the Arizona Daily Star article and was forced to confront the unfortunate fact that there are actually people this stupid, this unbelievably moronic roaming the earth.

But there it was, in black and white: “Ex-Tucson mayoral hopeful McClusky plans free shotguns for high-crime areas”.

All the facepalming details after the jump.

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.

The country is waking up to what’s happening in Michigan

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a civil rights complaint over the use of Emergency Managers in the Detroit Public Schools. The complaint alleges that black and brown students are being singled out for takeover of their school systems while kids in majority white districts facing similar financial problems aren’t similarly impacted. It also claims that black and brown students face discipline that their white counterparts do not.

More after the jump.

Republicans punishing schools for 100% legal union contracts

This week, Detroit Public School teachers ratified a new union contract that staves off the impact of a new Right to Work law that goes into effect tomorrow. While the contract doesn’t give much to the teachers, it at least provides them with continued collective bargaining rights into the future.

With this action, the DPS now joins at least 40 other schools and five universities that face punitive action from Michigan Republicans who seek to deny them and some cities critical funding in a childish act of retribution.

Details and commentary after the jump.

Conservatives shouldn’t let real life intrude on their “no compromise” worldview

Radio hate-monger Mike Huckabee told Newsmax TV that if Republicans compromise on marriage equality, “evangelicals will walk”. He then went on to describe how their homophobic political agenda doesn’t mean they’re homophobic and says that lawmakers shouldn’t allow their life experiences to guide their opinions on things like marriage equality and civil rights for the LGBT community. He finished up by comparing shifts in attitudes about same-sex marriage to bad basketball players.

I’m not kidding. Video proof after the jump.

Now THAT’S chutzpah

The Republicans in Michigan are busy bees, getting ready to expand the Education Achievement Authority that has had such dubious results in the Detroit school system. Although the Senate has yet to pass the legislation (House Bill 4369) and send it to Governor Snyder for his signature, the Snyder administration already has a webpage up about it that talks about the statewide EAA as if it already exists.

Click through for much more.

Sugarcoating an odious vote doesn’t make it palatable

Earlier this month, I wrote about Congressman Tim Walberg’s lying about his vote against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). He claimed in an interview that he had, in fact voted FOR the VAWA. As it turns out, he voted for a watered-down House version but voted against the version that eventually passed.

I wrote to my Congressman about this and, this weekend, received a reply. You can read his offensive response after the jump.