Democracy for America, the progressive political action committee founded by Vermont Governor Howard Dean and now chaired by his brother Jim, is having a busy week. Yesterday, in conjunction with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), delivered petitions containing the signatures of 115,000 Michiganders outraged at the actions of Jase Bolger. Recall that Bolger temporarily banned Democrats Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum from speaking on the House floor as punishment for making Bolger angry.

Tomorrow, they will deliver upwards of a quarter million signatures to Republican Mitt Romney’s Boston headquarters, asking him to release his tax returns for the voters in America to see, an act of disclosure he seems determined not to make.

I spoke with Jim Dean by phone this morning at the bright and early time of 6:30 a.m. (we’re both early risers) about these events and lots more.

Enjoy (after the jump.)

Who woulda thunk it?

Earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh suggested that the bad guy in the new Batman movie was somehow intentionally named “Bane” to hurt Mitt Romney. Then, yesterday, he said Romney is more like Batman.

I agree. See why after the jump.

So simple, so easy, so effective

Chad Phillips over at Michigan Populist Blog has a good idea.

See what it is after the jump.

Drunk with power, House Republicans continue to silence their opposition

Yesterday the Michigan Legislature met for one day before reconvening again on August 15th. This occasion brought several protests to the Capitol, mainly from groups supporting women’s rights and disgusted with the way female legislators are being treated by their Republican colleagues.

After the jump, details about the protests and interviews with Matt Wall from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Democratic Representative Barb Byrum talking about the delivery of 115,000 petition signatures to House Speaker Jase Bolger demanding an apology for his treatment of Rep. Byrum and her colleague Rep. Lisa Brown as well as Rep. Byrum’s account of being prevented from speaking on the floor of the House again yesterday.

You are NOT alone!

Working America, the 3-million strong group supporting American workers (not just unionized workers — ALL workers), has introduced a new website called “Dear David”. In today’s work environment, it’s often tough to know what your rights are as a worker and it’s even tougher to know where to turn to get answers to those questions.

“Dear David” is intended to change that. Details after the jump.

Imagine…

Hello, folks. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. As I mentioned on Tuesday, we’re having to upgrade to a more robust web host/server and that takes money so your contributions are very much appreciated.

My guess is that, if you’re looking news and commentary on what’s going on in Michigan, Eclectablog is one of your first stops.

Imagine if Eclectablog were to go away. Think of the events that you wouldn’t find out about because, frankly, our mainstream media in this state is a bit of shambles. Think about missing the voice of LOLGOP and his perfect framing of the political messages of our day. Think about missing Anne’s fabulous photographs of people, places and things.

Then ask yourself what value that has for you and make a contribution after the jump to keep the lights on and the politics flowing at Eclectablog.

The (dis)pleasure of being at Ground Zero (aka: Michigan) Tomorrow I’ll be doing interviews with Jim Dean, founder of Democracy for America (DFA), State Rep. Barb Byrum, and folks from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). We’ll be talking about the petitions gathered by DFA & PCCC that were delivered to GOP House Speaker Jase Bolger this morning demanding an […]

It’s Retroactively Retired Man!

A Romney campaign spokesperson recently said that Mitt Romney had “retroactively retired”. But what, exactly does “retroactively retired” really mean?

The Obama campaign asked some folks what they thought it meant. The results are … um … humorous.

Video after the jump.

Still think the War on Women isn’t real???

Michigan House Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) was prevented from speaking on the House floor today by Republican leadership. She and other Democrats asked to speak on a package of pay equity bills that would address income inequality in Michigan.

They were rebuffed.

More after the jump.

This is a war worth fighting

Democracy for America (DFA) is conducting a multi-part series titled “The War For Women” (notice the “for” rather than “on”) and tonight, Wednesday, July 18th, is the second installment.

You can sign up for tonight’s event HERE.

The first event took place last week and you can see a recap via Storify (with livetweets and photos) HERE.

More information about upcoming webinar sessions after the jump.

Corruption in the House of Bolger

A press release from Kent County Prosecuting Attorney William Forsyth has revealed a jaw-dropping level of corruption and fraud on the part of Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger and Democrat-turned-Republican Representative Roy Schmidt. You can read the back story on Schmidt’s last minute dick move switch from Democrat to Republican that effectively ruined any chance of Democrats having a viable candidate HERE and HERE.

Forsyth’s investigation reveals that Schmidt and Bolger conspired to hire the weightlifting buddy of Schmidt’s nephew, Matthew Mojak, to run as a Democrat but not actually campaign. This would have forced Democrats to run a REAL Democrat in the primary as a write-in candidate, virtually assuring they would lose and that Schmidt would essentially have no opponent in the November general election.

The level of corruption and fraud perpetrated by Representative Schmidt and House Speaker Bolger is beyond anything witnessed in this state in recent memory.