Pay no attention to the hypocrite behind the curtain [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] Last Friday the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union issued subpoenas for Governor Rick Snyder, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, Michigan treasurer Andy Dillon, and “transformation manager” Richard Baird, compelling their testimony regarding the Snyder administration’s […]

GOPocrisy in full display SEE UPDATES BELOW In 2013, Michigan Republicans have already sent 107 bills to Governor Rick Snyder, all but one of which he signed into law. Of those 106 new laws (pdf), all but 6 — 5.7% — were passed with Immediate Effect meaning that they went into effect immediately rather than the statutorily-mandated 90 days after […]

Getting to knoo-oow you, getting to know all aboo-out you! Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Beginning next Saturday, September 7th, Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District Pam Byrnes will begin a 7-County Swing Tour of this highly gerrymandered district to begin the important process of introducing herself to 7th District voters. In case you missed it, […]

Harumph So, I have just received word from a friend who subscribes to email alerts from Eclectablog that Comcast has been marking email notifications for new posts as “spam” and automatically filtering them so that users never see the alerts. Here’s what he found out when he contacted Comcast: Comcast indicated that there was a spam marker (which was now […]

The place to be on Labor Day On Labor Day (Monday, September 2nd, 2013), the Ann Arbor Dems, in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Democratic Party, are having their annual “Laborpalooza” Labor Day picnic. This year there will be an all-star cast of Michigan Democrats in attendance including Dean of the House Congressman John Dingell and his wife Debbie along […]

There should be an IQ test for getting a gun permit Ted Nugent’s wife Shemane Nugent was arrested yesterday when security agents found a gun in her luggage at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Why did she have a gun in her carry-on luggage? Because she forgot she was carrying it. Just putting this question out there: If you’re too goddam […]

A face for radio… I was on Night Shift with Tony Trupiano last night talking about my piece yesterday regarding ALEC’s presence in the recently-passed Medicaid expansion bill as well as the candidacy of Pam Byrnes for the 7th Congressional district. If you listen closely, you can hear me refer to Congressman John Dingell as “John Engler”. D’oh! [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/107920765″ […]

Metrics, schmetrics. Did they think we wouldn’t notice??? Governor Snyder is takes great pride in his reliance on transparency and metrics as indicators of his “success” as the leader CEO of our state. His “dashboard” is supposedly a way for the citizens of our fine state to keep an eye on his “progress”. However, looking at his dashboard today, it’s […]

Of course ALEC has a place in Michigan’s expansion of Medicaid. They probably helped write the bill. After Senate Republicans passed H.B. 4714 on Tuesday to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 470,000 people, I thought it would be smart to have a look at just what’s in this legislation. I discovered that about 24 pages of the 40-page bill […]

A progressive breath of fresh air for MI-07 On July 18th, Pam Byrnes, the former Michigan House Speaker Pro Tem, announced her candidacy for Michigan’s 7th District. MI-07 is currently represented by former pastor Tim Walberg, a man who calls himself “the original tea partier”. The district is a rather convoluted mess of gerrymandering running from the west side of […]

This is what happens when you vote Republican Since the beginning of this year, Eclectabloggers have written no fewer than 55 posts relating to Medicaid expansion, mostly centering on Michigan. When she came on as a contributor in April, Amy Lynn Smith instantly became a powerful voice for expansion of Medicaid in Michigan. There is no question in my mind […]