Sorry, face. This nose has GOT to go…

Tea party types in Michigan, facing the stinging blow of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitution, are now working on a self-defeating effort to make sure that Michigan doesn’t create a health insurance exchange for Michiganders to shop for affordable health insurance. This comical effort apparently disregards the fact that, if they are successful, the federal government will create one FOR us, limiting our state legislators’ ability to have any say or control in the matter.

This is from an email I received yesterday from the Tea Party of West Michigan (all typos and grammatical errors are theirs, not mine – like the grammatically incorrect tagline at the top of every page on their website: “Influence policy, effect elections, protect the Constitution”)…

[Email and more after the jump.]

Or both The other day, I made a list of the things that scare me about Mitt Romney’s stated policies: • He wants tax breaks for the rich larger than George W. Bush’s breaks • He feels the president can attack Iran any time for any reason • He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood taking […]

Oh, yeah, that’s gonna work, Pete

Last February, I asked the question “Is media group that produced Pete Hoekstra’s racist ad full of Democrats?”

I’m asking this question again because Hoekstra’s latest ad basically highlights his failure to stop the Affordable Care Act that he claims “takes your freedoms away”. With last week’s Supreme Court ruling, all this ad does is show how bloody ineffective he is.

Video after the jump.

Mission Partially Accomplished

Yesterday, I wrote about the March for Democracy and Freedom being organized by Rev. Charles Williams II and his group, National Action Network – Michigan Chapter. The march was modeled on the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches of the mid-60s and was in protest of voter suppression legislation passed by Michigan Republicans as well as the anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law, Public Act 4.

Yesterday, Governor Snyder stunned the state by vetoing the three most egregious bills in the election reform package sent to him by the Republican legislators. Based on this, the march has been postponed.

Rev. Williams’ statement after the jump.

Oh, THAT’S rich

Today, the Obama campaign did a full-court press on Romney’s offshore tax havens where he hides money to reduce his taxes significantly. We’ll have more to say about that in upcoming posts but, in an act of utter GOPocrisy, Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul went on a whining spree about the Obama campaign going negative.

This, from a campaign that has done NOTHING but negative attacks on the president.

Hallelujah

In a surprising blow to conservative Michigan Republicans working to make it harder to vote in our state, Governor Rick Snyder vetoed three key components of a package of voter suppression bills. The move apparently caused House Speaker Jase Bolger to temporarily lose his mind.

March for Democracy and Freedom in Michigan

UPDATE: This march has been cancelled. See my update HERE.

For five days later this month, July 23-27, the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network will march from Detroit to Lansing along Grand River Avenue, to protest the egregious actions of Republicans in Michigan. From overreaching voter suppression laws to the Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — activists from around the state are outraged by Republican efforts to disenfranchise Michigan voters.

An organizing meeting will take place this Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (6100 14th Street, Detroit.)

I spoke with Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan Chapter of NAN this afternoon. He told me that this march is modeled after the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965.

A tangled web of Big Business interests wants to disenfranchise YOU! When most of us think of the Chamber of Commerce, it’s likely that what comes to mind is your local Chamber working to promote local businesses in your community. But when it comes to state and federal level Chambers, however, the truth is that they have a dedicated agenda […]

Why stop flip-flopping now?

Obama vs. Romney now resembling Bush vs. Kerry — if John Kerry had been the main architect of the Iraq War.

— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) July 2, 2012

Mitt Romney has two big problems.

First, he’s facing a team of ninja strategists who have already taken his two greatest accomplishments in life—getting filthy rich as a businessman and passing a universal health care plan as governor—and turned them into his greatest weaknesses.

Second, he is a right-wing extremist running for president after eight years when right-wing extremist tortured American values and cost us millions of jobs.

Between a tea bag and a hard place

Poor Pete Hoekstra. He tries so hard but fails so big. His “Yellow Girl” Superbowl ad all but tanked his candidacy. His fundraising in completely in the toilet and his Democratic opponent, should he win the primary (probably but not certain), is eating his lunch in terms of donations.

But his life is getting worse. Yesterday, the right-leaning Livingston County Press & Argus had a blistering op-ed accusing Hoekstra of doing what he very blatantly IS doing: trying to position himself as a bipartisan, work-across-the-aisle-with-the-other-guys, tea party.

No, I’m not kidding.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

On June 18th, Sterling Corporation employee and Jeff Timmer resigned from the Board of State Canvassers, leaving only one Republican on the elections board and a Democratic majority. While some feared that the remaining Republican, Norm Shinkle, would resign as well, leaving the group without a quorum and unable to approve a number of ballot initiatives pending for the November election, Governor Rick Snyder acted quickly and last week appointed Colleen Pero to the Board.

Described in glowing terms on the official announcement, Pero sounds like an innocuous and innocent choice. The truth is, however, quite the opposite. Colleen Pero has deep connections to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society and a host of other far-right, pro-business lobby groups.