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. […]

316,296 calls to members of Congress in one day. THAT’S the power of Organizing for America. Time to Deliver phone call drive to members of Congress proved the power of OFA and how it will be a major force to contend with in future legislative debates and elections. The goal was 100,000 calls and commits to call in support of […]

Every election year, I lament how much worse, how much nastier the rhetoric is from the last election year. In the back of mind, though, is a little voice that says, “Dude, this NOTHING. Wait until NEXT year!” And, of course, I’m right. The following election year is worse than the last. But 2010? Folks, this one is going to […]

This. Dude. Is. AWESOME!!!! “Madame Speaker, I have words for Democrats and Republicans tonight.” “Let’s start with the Democrats” “We as a party have spent the last six months, the greatest minds in our party, dwelling on the question, the unbelievably consuming question of how to get Olympia Snowe to vote on health care reform. I want to remind us […]

All photos except the first one by Anne Savage. Visit her website, Flickr Page, and blog. October 3, 2009, the Washtenaw County Democratic Party held its annual dinner. Three U.S. Congressmen were in attendance. The first was freshman Representative Mark Schauer, a young, vibrant and optimistic Congressman. The second was Representative John Dingell, the longest-serving member in Congress today and […]