I took a computer science class in college, a FORTRAN programming class. Each program I wrote was worth 8 points. However, there were at least 40 different things I could do to lose points. Mess up 8 of those those 40 things and get a zero. That’s unfair. And it’s exactly what liberals are doing to our president and his […]

I don’t know how the MA-Sen election will end up but I do know this: it has galvanized Organizing for America volunteers in our area (Ann Arbor, Michigan.) There have been phone banks in my area every day for the past week at multiple locations. Last night we called from the campaign office of gubernatorial candidate Alma Wheeler-Smith. We had […]

I’ve been banging the drum for Organizing for America (OFA) since the election and have gotten a great deal of push back from those who think either that OFA is just another failed DNC exercise or that it’s just a haven for Obamabots who mindlessly agree with everything that the president and his administration feed them. Neither is true and […]

In his Op-Ed in the Detroit News today, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Coathanger) turns on the charm offensive. And it’s nauseating. Oh, he starts out reasonable enough: I adamantly oppose the sweetheart deals provided to certain states in this bill. This reform should be about providing access to affordable health care for all Americans. Where you live should have nothing to […]

Cross-posted at Blogging For Michigan. As I sit here in frigid Michigan this morning, I’m contemplating the state of our state. And pondering if we are, perhaps, a bellwether for the rest of the country, particularly in terms of Democrats and our political future. It’s a mixed bag in Michigan, to be sure. As I blogged about last week, there’s […]

No. Seriously. The author of the Coathanger Amendment to the House version of the health insurance reform bill himself is considering a run for Michigan governor in 2010. Dude, you can not be serious. Michigan’s gubernatorial race, particularly on the Democratic side, is shaping up to be an utter clown show as it is: Lt. Governor John Cherry has dropped […]

I’m frankly puzzled by the meme that the debacle that is the Congressional debate on health insurance reform is President Obama’s fault. Let’s review: Not one single Republican has supported it with votes (outside of Snowe allowing a vote to go forward which she subsequently voted “NO!” on.) The major evisceratory surgeries on the legislation have been primarily to appease […]

The House just passed an omnibus spending bill that gives some increases in funding to a variety of agencies that were nearly strangled and starved after eight years of the Bush administration. The bill costs $1.1 trillion: The House Thursday passed a huge spending measure combining major spending boosts for domestic agencies and foreign aid with more than 5,000 back-home […]

Freshman Representative from MI-07 Mark Schauer had a grueling schedule Friday and Saturday last week. He held four town hall meetings in two days to discuss the House’s health care reform bill and to answer questions from his constituents. Schauer, who narrowly defeated the odious fundamentalist über-conservative Tim Walberg in 2008, is in a tough district. While it contains a […]

Cross-posted at DK Greenroots. After Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of families from Louisiana and Mississippi, displaced by the storm that destroyed their homes, were placed in trailers provided by the federal government. Almost immediately calls began to come in to FEMA complaining about breathing problems and other maladies as a result of staying in the trailers. It turns out […]

Fifty votes to pass a bill out of the Senate. That’s what we need. We don’t need fifty-one. We don’t need sixty. We need fifty. Vice president Biden would cast the tie-breaking vote and the bill moves on. We have sixty Senators that are in the Democratic caucus but we can lose ten of them and still pass a bill. […]