In a rare act of bipartisanship, both the House and Senate recently passed H.R. 2845, the “Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011. According to the White House, “this bill doubles the maximum civil penalties for violations of Federal pipeline safety laws, authorizes the Transportation Department to issue various regulations related to leak prevention and detection’ and […]

My friend Extreme Liberal posted a piece at Angry Black Lady Chronicles a while back titled “I was sexually assaulted as a child”. With Glenn Greenwald’s obscene comments about my good friend Imani Gandy, the Angry Black Lady, I thought now might be a good time to tell my own story of being sexually molested as a young boy. Unlike […]

At a Detroit rally yesterday to protest the imposition of an Emergency Manager on the city, Brandon Jessup of Michigan Forward announced that Michigan Forward has gathered over 170,000 petition signatures for their effort to put the repeal of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager law, on the November 2012 ballot. Only 161,305 are needed. Michigan Forward started the petition […]

This is a pretty astounding headline: A finish in the top 3 would translate into an Iowa win for Romney That’s the Detroit Free Press headline of a reposting of a Des Moines Register piece originally titled “More than winning, front-runners must meet expectations, experts say”. There was a time when the Freep was “the liberal newspaper” in Michigan and […]

On New Year’s Eve, President Obama signed the H.R. 1540 into law, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012”. Many are unhappy about this bill because it includes language that suggests that terrorist suspects, including Americans, can be held indefinitely without trial. One of those unhappy about this provision is President Obama himself. Toward that end, he signed […]

As we move into the new year, I want to take a moment to thank the many folks who have supported Eclectablog over the past year and to give you a look at what’s on the horizon for this blog and my writing, in general. First, I must first begin with thanking my beautiful life partner and wife, Anne C. […]

A couple of weeks ago, Michigan Radio reported that Benton Harbor mayor-elect James Hightower held an informational meeting for City Commissioners and Benton Harbor City department heads to prepare for the departure of Emergency Manager Joe Harris. A further story today suggests that Hightower and the newly elected commissioners are taking the return of their city to democratic rule very […]

I’m pleased to be able to announce that I am teaming up with Christine Barry, owner of Blogging for Michigan and Tony Trupiano, host of First Shift with Tony Trupiano to do a weekly segment on First Shift. The segment, called “Blog Role”, will focus on the Michigan blogosphere and what bloggers in our state are working on writing about. […]

While the rest of the world laughs at the United States for even entertaining the idea that a person like Newt Gingrich is qualified to be president, he raises the level of his stupidity and pandering insipidity to eleven: Caller: If you’re fortunate enough to be nominated, would you consider having Sarah Palin as your running mate? Gingrich: She is […]

Just so we are all clear on this, if Newt Gingrich were to become president, this woman, Calista Gingrich, would be the First Lady of the United States of America. You know, instead of Michelle Obama. Photo by Anne C. Savage Sorry to be superficial but I think you can tell a lot by looking at a person’s eyes and […]

Gotta love this headline in the Detroit News this morning: Michigan Legislature praised for reform bills Sounds good, right? Here’s the thing: the only people “praising” the Michigan Republicans in the article are Michigan Republicans. But Michigan Republicans, I must say, think Michigan Republicans are totally freaking awesome. The closest you get to praise are these to bits: The Senate […]