“All they know is that it’s a black guy.”

Yesterday’s travesty in media and journalistic fail surrounding the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings was epic and public and brings into sharp relief how people view acts of terror and terrorists in America. I was at work when the first emails and texts started coming up on my phone telling me a suspect was in custody. Tweets revealed that CNN’s John King was reporting that the suspect was a “dark-skinned male”.

At my workplace, one of my coworkers suddenly became an expert, telling anyone who would listen, “All they know is that it’s a black guy.” Another guy, when I told him it looked like they had someone in custody, said, “I just wonder if it’s that Arab guy they were questioning at the hospital…” That guy, by the way, ended up being a witness who was injured by one of the explosions and was not a suspect.

The whole thing got me thinking about who I was hoping the culprit would turn out to be. Details after the jump.

“Chalk one up for the good guys”

Last week, I posted a piece titled “Lee Fang exposes the State Policy Network & corporate domination of public policy”. In that piece, I wrote about The Nation journalist and investigative reporter Lee Fang’s work to show how the State Policy Network (SPN) was waging a multi-pronged war to influence legislation, policy and public opinion at the state level across the country. One of the things that Fang reveals is that SPN affiliates have started their own wire services to bring their skewed version of the news to readers all over America. Here in Michigan, SPN affiliate Mackinac Center for Public Policy has done just that.

Thanks to my pals at Progress Michigan, however, today SPN and Mackinac Center lost a round in the battle to sway public opinion and government policy.

It’s hard to keep up…

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a summary of the latest news about Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law and the new surrounding our illustrious saviors dictators Emergency Managers so I thought it would be a good time to so. On a personal note, I was interviewed by freelance journalist Chris Lewis this past week for a piece he’s doing for The Atlantic so it’s clear to me that this story continues to receive national attention.

It’s all there after the jump. And there is a LOT there after the jump.

It is difficult to get Paul Ryan to understand something, when his career depends upon his not understanding it After the worst stock market crash in history, Herbert Hoover decided that more than anything the budget needed to be balanced with cuts and tax increases. Now, this was a very popular belief at the time. His opponent Franklin Delano Roosevelt […]

Meanwhile Rosa Parks is turning in her grave

You might remember last year about this time Ted Nugent was on the stump, campaigning for billionaire Mitt Romney. At the time, he said “[I]f you want more of those kinds of evil, anti-American people in the Supreme Court then don’t get involved and let Obama take office again. Because I’ll tell you this right now, if Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”

Well, it’s a year later and this misogynistic clown is still free to roam the streets and pollute our airways. This year, he’s back on the road with his band in his “Ted Nugent Black Power 2013” tour.

Click through for the audio of Nugent comparing himself to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

At least they’re not hiding it…

As the debate rages on where to get the millions of dollars in funding needed to repair Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges, Americans for Prosperity have an answer: use cuts to education and state employee wages to pay for them.

Click through for details on the efforts of this corporate whore to get the poor and middle class to pay for public improvements that benefit corporations more than anyone else.

Progress Michigan staff are our state’s leading progressive warriors against Republican overreach

I haven’t written about Michigan Republican National Committee Chair Dave Agema’s offensive, lie-filled Facebook post a few weeks ago primarily because (a) I didn’t want to give him any more attention than he already has gotten and (b) others have done it well already. You’re probably aware of Agema’s latest foray into the land of anti-LGBT bigotry but, if not, he put up a post that he claims is by a “doctor” who says that, among other odious things, gays are for half the murders in large cities, 39-59% of homosexuals are infected with intestinal parasites like worms, flukes and amoebae and that part of the homosexual agenda is to turn people from Christianity. It was truly hideous. Agema has since doubled and tripled down on his outrageous post.

One group that has been on the forefront pushing back against this hateful rhetoric is Progress Michigan. Click through for details on how you can help them fight this very good fight now and into the future.

Protecting our water resources since 1972 My good friends at Clean Water Action are having their annual award ceremony tomorrow night and I wanted to make sure you knew about it. As Clean Water Action’s Michigan State director Nic Clark puts it: “Water literally defines our state and is integral to protecting our Great Lakes way of life. This week […]

Dude, are you SERIOUS???!

There’s a piece in today’s Livingston County Press & Argus that starts with this statement: “Both those for and against the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” agree on one thing: Emergency room visits by those with little or no insurance are driving health-care cost increases.” The article then goes on to prove that’s not entirely correct. Apparently Republican state Senator Joe Hune DISAGREES with this.

All the facepalming details after the jump.

Faux poutrage is SO unbecoming…

Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley is outraged that President Obama has the audacity to invite musicians to the White House. Though he was silent when previous presidents did this, it was enough to prompt a stupiditorial column in the paper this week.

More on this utter stupidity after the jump.

They are counting on us to be too stupid or distracted to care

If there is one thing that you could count on hearing in the stump speeches of Michigan Republicans during the 2010 midterm campaign it was that they were going to lower your taxes, by God. Smaller government funded by fewer taxes was their recipe for success.

Of course, they immediately got to work NOT lowering taxes and passed the Emergency Manager Law, started a campaign to destroy all unions that is well into its third year and have continued to attack women’s reproductive rights and freedoms with an anti-woman zeal not seen since the days of New England witch trials.

But today, April 15th — Tax Day — it’s worth taking a moment to pause and realize that not only did they not lower our taxes, for more than half of the people living, working and trying to get by in Michigan, they actually RAISED taxes.

Click through for much more.