Four more years!

Yesterday, Anne and I attended the 57th Presidential Inauguration Ceremony in Washington, D.C. along with about a million other people. Attendance was down from nearly 2 million in 2009 but still dwarfs the 400,000-person crowd at George W. Bush’s second inauguration. While the crowd may have been smaller, the enthusiasm and the pure joy in the voices and faces of the people who were there was not diminished.

Anne’s photos along with President Obama’s speech, the Inaugural poem, and some reflections of the day after the jump.

DC bound… I’m typing this as we drive down the highway, en route to the 57th Inauguration of the President of the United States. Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in just a short time ago by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The President will be sworn in a bit later. Why today? Because today is the official Inauguration Day. […]

PLEASE NOTE: All that stands between 17 million Americans getting free public health care and lower rates for all is the GOP. Republican governors in states that re-elected President Obama are considering turning down the best thing to happen to the middle class since Medicare. Because of this people are going to die unnecessarily and we’re all going to pay […]

Pure Progressive blogging First, a big “THANK YOU” to everyone who has contributed during our first quarter fundraiser. It’s your contributions that keep us going and help us to pay the bills. The face of blogging is changing dramatically. Daily Kos, which once was able to sustain itself on ad revenue, has changed to a membership approach because blogad revenues […]

Oops

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.

Add instant meaning to your life NOW! When I read my @ replies on Twitter, it’s generally a nice mix of people instructing me in various ways to have intercourse with myself and the same question over and over: HOW DO WE FIX THIS? There’s only one answer I’ve come up with: CLONE CHRIS AND ANNE SAVAGE. Both are exactly […]

The BFDness of Obamacare continues to roll out

Earlier this week, LOLGOP explained how a component of the Affordable Care Act, lovingly called “Obamacare” by those who understand that our President cares about Americans without health insurance, includes a huge expansion of Medicaid. He also explained how this is free to states for the first two years and they are on the hook for only 10% of the additional costs after that. He also explained how upwards of 670,000 more Michiganders will be covered by health insurance under this expansion of one of the most beloved and official government programs that we have.

Follow me after the jump for a couple of other things about it that make it even more attractive. And don’t forget to sign our petition!

Thank you kindly

Hi, folks. As you know, Eclectablog is a fully self-funded effort. We make a small amount of money from the ads but, frankly, it’s barely worth the effort. Most of the funds that we have to pay writers and expand our coverage with better equipment and to pay for travel comes from our quarterly fundraisers. I hope you’ll consider showing how much you value Eclectablog by making a donation today.

Details are after the jump.

Why should we believe this guy?

[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.

Medicaid expansion protects us all from rate hikes and could prevent the death or bankruptcy of up to 670,000 Michiganders Tell Governor Snyder to expand Medicaid now In the fight to put a public option of the Affordable Care Act, many missed that the law contained a historic boost to Medicaid, our single-payer health insurance program that covers the poorest […]

No, we are NOT letting this go

Tomorrow night is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s State of the State address. Given his track record over the past year, particularly in the past two months, there’s no reason why any of us should believe a word he says. He spent $144,000 to run a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, bragging about crushing our labor unions by making Michigan the 24th Right to Work for Less state, something he claimed he was not interested in doing. He’s made it harder for Michigan women to obtain legal abortions. He’s raised taxes on over half of Michigan residents, hitting those hurting worst the hardest. He’s basically done everything possible to make Michigan hostile to workers and a low-wage Mecca for businesses with a little far-right conservative ideology thrown in for good measure.

Meanwhile, Republicans voted a known perpetrator of election fraud, Jase Bolger, as the Speaker of the House again.

If you are in the Lansing area tomorrow afternoon/evening, consider joining the AFL-CIO and others from around the state to protest what Governor Snyder and his drunk-with-power ideologically-driven Republican colleagues have done and continue to do to our state.

Details are after the jump.