Spoiler: It’s their shamelessness On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said that the president was willing to consider executive orders to help fight gun violence. Biden was purposely vague to remind Congress that if they didn’t act they would end up with some of the president’s solutions — like comprehensive background checks, some restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines […]

This will be interesting

As he himself predicted last summer, Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris has been booted. In his place will be Tony Saunders II, a marketing guy from WYLD Marketing Group.

Details after the jump.

Wait, I thought Gov. Snyder was a businessman…

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.

Seriously, you didn’t think we’d notice?

As I noted in my piece earlier, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the public-private group that runs the Pure Michigan campaign, has a page on their website called “Right to Work” that isn’t linked by any other pages on the site. (There’s a screenshot of it HERE in case it “goes away”.)

It got me wondering why, wasn’t it linked from anywhere else? Was it linked at one point but the links quietly disappeared in the hue and cry about their bragging about crushing unions in Michigan in their full-page Wall Street Journal ad???

Turns out, that’s exactly what happened. Details after the jump.

Pure Audacity

If you go to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) website right now, at the very top is the Pure Michigan Logo. On another page called “Right to Work”, this bold graphic dominates the page:

The “Right to Work” page is shown at the top as being part of the “Grow Your Business” section of the website yet the page itself isn’t linked from the “Grow Your Business” page or any other page that I could find on the site.

Note that it directly references our state’s new status as a “Right to Work” state, basically a message to prospective companies that Michigan workers are primed and ready to be exploited by corporations looking for a place to pay rock-bottom wages.

The MEDC is a private-public entity, designed to foster economic growth in Michigan and their tourism campaign, “Pure Michigan”, is known nationally as one of the most recognizable and successful efforts in the country. So, it was shocking to see our governor, Rick Snyder, take out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with essentially the same message as the MEDC website.

Much more after the jump.

If it’s a union-negotiated contract, it’s GOT to go

The Michigan Court of Appeals smacked down a lawsuit by Michigan Tea Party Attorney General Bill Schuette that attacked a union-negotiated contract that allowed for healthcare benefits for the domestic partners unionized state employees.

The contract does not specifically reference same-sex couples but they ARE covered by it so, of course, our AG felt the need to attack it. After all, anything that benefits both teh gayz and union members is not to be tolerated.

More after the jump.

Are you woman? Are you man? We’re your biggest Twittered-up fans

Last night, LOLGOP was on SiriusXM’s Politics Powered By Twitter show. You can listen to it after the jump. If the link doesn’t work for you, hop over to the HyperVocal website where they have transcribed some of the highlights and included their own commentary and impressions after talking to our very own Eclectablogger.

It’s a spectacularly fun interview. Enjoy (after the jump.)

Oh, gee. What a surprise.

A new report out this week from Bridge Magazine reveals that Governor Rick Snyder’s claims about the benefits of Right to Work for Less (RTWFL) are a sham. It points to evidence coming out of Indiana which became a RTWFL state in 2012 that shows companies that have moved there did so for reasons that had nothing to do with crushing unions and driving down worker pay.

For example, Android Industries is portrayed as having moved to Indiana because of the new RTWFL status. However, the Bridge piece reveals that’s a load of manure.

Details and more after the jump.

And as long as the “carried interest” loophole gives millionaire hedge fund managers a massive tax break, we have a revenue problem, too Tune in to Fox News for a few minutes and they’re bound to tell you what America’s problem is — as if they’re not it. The truth is we don’t have a spending problem, we have a […]

Legendary chutzpah, monolithic greed

One of the top shareholders in AIG, the insurance giant bailed out by the American taxpayers during the Wall Street meltdown, is Maurice Greenberg who once ran the company. He is suing the United States government because he says that, in the process of bailing out the company that feathers his nest so softly, they lost him money. However, that level of greed was not enough for Greenberg and he is trying to get AIG itself to join him in his lawsuit. This comes the same week AIG released a video thanking American taxpayers for saving their ass and talking about how proud they are that they paid back their debt and gave the taxpayers a tidy profit in the process.

Video and more after the jump.

We haven’t forgotten

Michigan Republicans surely hoped we would all “just settle down” and forget about the travesty that was their inflamed duck session. On the contrary, we not only did not forget, we are more fired up than ever to put a stop to their destruction of our state.

The first step happens tomorrow when the legislators return to the Capitol for the swearing in ceremony of the new legislature.

The AFL-CIO will be there with working families from across the state to remind them of the shameful things they have done and let them know we aren’t backing down.

Details after the jump.