Why would you hire a greedy parasite to watch and teach your children all day?

Teaching is a tough profession. It has always been, but lately it has become so much tougher thanks to the anti-union attacks teachers and other public employees. It’s becoming harder and harder to understand why anyone would want to be a public school teacher these days.

The anti-union attacks on teachers have been around for decades, starting with idea that teachers get paid a full-time salary but really don’t work full-time; that their cushy workdays end at 3:00 and they have summers off. This is a very shortsighted view and, if you know anyone who teaches, you know how hard they work and how much of that work goes well past 3:00 and the month of May. Often the lines between their personal life and professional life are blurred. To most teachers, teaching is really a calling more than a job.

And yet, we treat these treat these everyday heroes as if they are not worthy of our respect.

Much more after the jump.

Depends on your definition of “represent”, I suppose…

This post is a cross-post of a terrific piece by Emily Magner from her blog Musings of a Lady. The original post can be found HERE.

In her piece, Magner talks about her treatment by two Republican legislators who “represent” her. She and a group of students did their civic duty by traveling to Lansing to meet with their State Senator and Representative to discuss House Bill 5711, a sweeping anti-abortion bill that will severely limit access to women’s reproductive health services, including abortions, across Michigan. The bill has a particularly acute impact on rural women — like the women in Magner’s area.

The treatment they encountered, while not surprising given the recent behavior of Michigan Republican lawmakers, is a story that needs to be heard.

Her essay after the jump.

The time for this conversation is NOW

Early yesterday morning, just hours before the horrific mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the Republican-led Michigan legislature passed S.B. 59, a bill that would allow concealed weapons in public schools, churches, and day care centers. Aware of the backlash that was likely to occur after the Connecticut shooting less than 10 hours later, Michigan Republicans released an astonishing statement on their Facebook page.

That statement and a discussion of the issue of gun control laws after the jump.

We’re all in this together Wow. What a crazy week. I feel a profound responsibility to keep people informed about what’s happening in Michigan. This week we appear to have succeeded, even if only a little. Our coverage of the Right to Work for Less rally in Lansing, Michigan has been picked up nationally by the New York Times news […]

Will this session NEVER end???

The Michigan legislature concluded its inflamed duck session yesterday by passing another flurry of highly partisan legislation before they lose some of their votes.

The highlowlights of what they did yesterday after the jump.

Curiouser and curiouser… The destruction of the two Americans for Prosperity tents on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol building during Tuesday’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally has stirred interest nationally. Those on the right portray it as a violent upheaval of “union thugs” and “union goons” who acted as predicted: with violence and mayhem and racism and […]

Aye, aye, aye…

Americans for Prosperity, which lost a couple of tents during the anti-Right to Work for Less rally in Michigan, is seeking “justice” for those tents, gosh darn it.

Details after the jump.

I suspect we all know the answer to THAT question…

H.B. 5711 is a bill that is was passed by the Michigan Senate last night that puts onerous requirements on facilities providing abortions — so onerous that most people paying attention believe it will shut down large numbers of clinics that offer these services.

Tucked away into this bill is a ban on the use of “telemedicine” — the use of computers, the internet and telephones to connect patients and physicians — by physicians to authorize medical abortions by, instead, prescribing medication.

Why is this important? Because just this past summer, Gov. Snyder was all about the utter awesomeness of “telemedicine”

Details after the jump.

What, you think we wouldn’t notice?

Yesterday, I wrote about how Fox “News” contributor Steven Crowder used Andrew Breitbart-style editing of video from Michigan’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally on Tuesday to paint union members the worst way possible.

The story has been picked up nationally and, last night, was quoted heavily in a post at the New York Times news blog The Lede.

Details after the jump.

It IS impressive…

If you thought the speed with which Michigan Republicans went to chit chatting about making Michigan a Right to Work for Less state and actually accomplishing that was impressive, you should keep watching because they aren’t done yet, not by a long shot. The frantic pace continued yesterday, just one day after they kicked unions to the curb and brought a record number of people to the Capitol to protest.

Read about the four major pieces of legislation that passed in the House after the jump.

Wrong place, wrong time

The right wingnut blogosphere is apoplectic that Lansing, Michigan’s iconic “Hot Dog Guy”, Clinton Tarver was a victim of union thug violence at yesterday’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally. The reality is that Tarver is simply a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also happens to be married to the Michigan Republican Party’s Ethnic Caucus Vice-Chair — perhaps one of the loneliest leadership positions in the entire state.

The full story (that you’re NOT hearing from the conservatives on your Facebook page) after the jump.