Several weeks ago, Howell teacher and teachers’ union president Jay McDowell got into a verbal altercation with two of his economics class students. It happened on the nationwide Spirit Day (October 20th), a day in which awareness of anti-gay bullying issues is raised by supporters wearing purple t-shirts. McDowell wore a purple shirt himself. In the classroom, one of McDowell’s […]

This week, across the country, Organizing for America (OFA) held phonebanks for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and passage of the DREAM Act. Last night, as Community Organizer for OFA, I participated in one in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. It was a huge success so I thought I would share some thoughts with you on where […]

Rep. John Shaddeg of (surprise, surprise) Arizona thinks that extending unemployment benefits will basically take money OUT of the economy because unemployed people will SAVE money rather than spending it and that it’s not the spending of money that moves the economy. No shit. Here he is on MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday being asked a question by Mike Barnicle: BARNICLE: […]

Cross-posted at Daily Kos. It’s true. I heard it on the Rec List at Daily Kos. Wikileaks is now releasing scads of documents proving that Netflix is being sexually groped by Comcast-funded TSA agents after being sterilized by PornoScanTM radiation. The worst part: President Obama hasn’t said a word about it. Not only is he failing to message this insanity […]

This blog entry was first posted on Daily Kos yesterday morning and it has, surprisingly, been one of my most popular diaries there in a very long time. I posted it as a snarky, sarcastic jab at what I think of as Obama is Ruining EverythingTM conservatives and also to highlight that there definitely ARE some things to be quite […]

Last week in Ann Arbor, Van Jones spoke at the Ecology Center‘s 40th anniversary. Held on the campus of the University of Michigan, the event was a fundraiser but also an opportunity for Van Jones to share his thoughts on Michigan’s role in the environmental movement, the success of places like the Ecology Center and why now is not the […]

The Republicans are pissed. Pissed, I tell ya. They are PISSED about how earmarks are positively wrecking our national budget. They are so pissed that last year they decided that they would have themselves a unilateral earmark ban. Some of them even adhered to it, too! Now Republicans want to pass legislation to ban ALL earmarks. Here’s what they are […]

This is, in part, how the GOPosaurs won the day in Michigan: by drumming up fear and promising solutions to problems that don’t actually exist. Halting social benefits to undocumented immigrants should be the first step toward eliminating Michigan’s $1.6 billion structural deficit, state Sen.-elect Joe Hune said. Hune, a Republican from the Fowlerville area, raised the issue on the […]

This is why I and so many others worked sofa king hard for Congressman Mark Schauer’s campaign. He’s been named one of the People for the American Way‘s “Ten Scariest Republicans heading to Congress”. Tim Walberg, who is returning to the House next year after representing Michigan’s 7th district for one term from 2007-2009, brags that he “was a tea […]

It’s been a busy day over at the New York Stock Exchange. GM’s initial public offering (IPO) had its stock priced $33 but it opened well over that at $35.40. As I type this, the latest trade was $35.18. Detroit Free Press editorial cartoonist Mike Thompson perhaps put it best: Something tells me that that a whole lot of anti-auto […]

Michele Bachmann has shown true leadership in her call recently for a “redefinition” of earmarks. She wants to take the tiny sliver representing earmarks in the chart below and make it smaller: “Advocating for transportation projects for ones district in my mind does not equate to an earmark.” “I don’t believe that building roads and bridges and interchanges should be […]