Archive for michigan – Page 2

MI Dictator, er, Gov. Snyder declares financial emergency in Detroit, will appoint emergency manager to take over

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glitter crown

Let’s recap what exactly the king dictator governor of Michigan has been up to.

King Ricky’s appalling financial martial law was, and apparently will continue to be, the legislation that allows one person (the emergency manager) to dictate all kinds of things without any input from voters. It renders local officials and voters powerless. For example:

  • He could do away with unions, with police officers, mayorships, you name it. You voted for someone and they won? Doesn’t matter. OUT.
  • You like that school your kid goes to? Nevermind. GONE.
  • You cherish democracy and thought it would always be The American way? TOO BAD.

Then there’s the GOP’s ongoing goal of crushing unions as a way of denying Democrats their political funding which would lead to eventual single party rule.

Governor Rick Snyder said that union busting is “pro-workers! It’s a good thing! This is a positive thing for unions!” Then the union busting “Right-to-work for work for less” measure was signed it into law. It’s important to remember that Michigan’s “Right to Work” law contains verbatim language from ALEC model bill.

But back to Financial Martial Law. It’s ba-a-ack. Bloomberg:

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder plans to name an emergency manager to handle Detroit’s fiscal crisis, stripping power from local officials [...]

His decision may inflame opponents, as the administration of a white Republican seizes control of a place that is predominantly black and Democratic. [...]

Detroit… would be the sixth Michigan city put under state control [...]

Opponents say state takeovers disenfranchise voters by stripping elected officials of their power over municipalities or school districts, and may protect bondholders at the expense of employees, services and taxpayers… Some have said a takeover is racist because, along with Detroit, cities where almost half of Michigan’s black residents live would be under state control. Managers are already in charge in Allen Park, Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint and Pontiac.

Take a look at this segment of The Rachel Maddow Show from January 2012:

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what's the matter with michigan

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GOP is unbalanced. But then, we already knew that

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election rigging scheme, GOP electoral college plan gerrymandering Via Think Progress

Per a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 52% of Americans have a favorable view of President Obama’s policies that he’s proposed for the next four years.

But 55% think that the plans the GOP will be brewing during the president’s second term are not their cup o’ tea. Gee, can’t imagine why; their party is so, you know, inclusive and goes out of its way to embrace all Americans. And by all Americans I mean guns. And white people. And corporations. Hey, guns and people are corporations, too.

One of the things that inclusive, embrace-y Republican-led states has produced is redistricting, as I’ve posted about repeatedly. In fact, you can see all of those posts here.

As if we needed proof, that practice has resulted in those states becoming redder than ever. And by redder I mean cheating their way into future GOP election victories.

Taegan:

The New York Times notes that due to redistricting, seven states had a “severe imbalance” between their popular vote and the party makeup of their House delegations: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

All but Arizona were tilted in favor of the Republicans.

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MI Senate likely won’t go for House plan to change electoral vote system; OH’s Husted, other Republicans also say no

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good news happy hand

As you know by now, several GOP-run states were interested in circumventing our elections by creating their own version of the electoral college that would result in many more red states… despite the popular vote count. Republicans have failed to sell their policies to America, soso rather than rectify the outdated, mean-spirited ideas and messages that are losing them elections, they are resorting to their usual dirty tricks to cheat themselves into future victories.

Previously I posted Finally! WaPo front-pages election-rigging scheme. Plus, glimmers of hope in Virginia, Florida. Now we have more glimmers of hope.

You are about to be exposed to two encouraging news items. Can you stand it? The first is from the Detroit Free Press. Remember, Michigan’s Speaker of the House and Gov. Rick Snyder were considering the election-rigging scheme:

The state House may be considering a new and controversial plan on how Michigan’s electoral college votes are distributed, but the state Senate isn’t interested, said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.

Richardville said that changing the system “is not on our agenda.”

King Ricky will have to use his dictatorial powers then, which nobody would put past him.

UPDATE via TPM: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder ‘Very Skeptical’ Of Electoral Vote Rigging

On to Ohio, via Cleveland.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Count Ohio’s Republican leaders out of a GOP-backed effort to end the Electoral College’s winner-take-all format in the Buckeye State and other presidential battlegrounds.

Spokesmen for Gov. John Kasich, State Senate President Keith Faber and House Speaker William G. Batchelder told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district.

Batchelder went a step further, saying through his communications director that he “is not supportive of such a move.” And Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, the state’s chief elections administrator, emphasized that he does not favor the plan either, despite Democratic suspicions based on reported comments that he said were taken out of context.

We’ll see. This could be a stall, but hopefully, they realize the bad press they’re getting is growing and that moving forward would be politically disastrous.

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VIDEO: “If these had been the rules… we’d have Pres. Romney.” Pundits blow story off; Scott Walker mulls scheme.

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bias liberal media my ass smaller

Yesterday I posted Finally! WaPo front-pages election-rigging scheme. Plus, glimmers of hope in Virginia, Florida, and it got attention for good reason. Republican dirty tricks have been underway in several GOP-run states that want to circumvent our elections by creating their own version of the electoral college that would result in many more red states… despite the popular vote.

But for days the news media didn’t seem to be listening. Most of the corporate media ignored the story until Rachel Maddow literally insisted on her show, “This is going on in the states right now. Hey beltway, wake up!”

Then they woke up.

WaPo finally front paged it:

Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.

In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.

That lovely little dirty trick would have changed the outcome of the election had it been in place.

 Today, per TPM, Scott Walker is now entertaining the idea:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) said on Saturday that his state may join an RNC-backed plan currently being contemplated in four other states that voted for President Obama in 2012 to rig blue state electoral votes in favor of future Republican presidential candidates.

There was some encouraging news, though. A few states appeared to have been embarrassed into rejecting that model, at least for now. But not Michigan:

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Brian Williams:

“Seeing red: A push by Republicans to change the way we elect a president. If these had been the rules across the map in November, we’d have President Romney.”

Rachel Maddow:

“In Michigan they appear to be just warming up. Michigan is my bet for actually doing this thing that most of Republican America is now too embarrassed to go ahead with. Michigan is not like the other states any more. What will not work anywhere else, they think works there.”

Kinda scary, huh? But that didn’t appear to faze two MSNBC pundits that T.J. Holmes interviewed today. I didn’t catch their names, but when Holmes prodded them, neither seemed concerned and literally blew him off with (paraphrased), “Meh. The states you mentioned have already pretty much rejected the idea. No biggie. Next.”

The fact that so many states, that so many Republican governors and legislators considered stomping all over our democracy as seriously as they did– so seriously that it made the front page of the Washington Post and caught the eye of NBC’s Brian Williams– makes it a huge story.

And to make it worse, nobody on the broadcast, not even Holmes, brought up Michigan… which, again, is Rachel Maddow’s “bet for actually doing this thing that most of Republican America is now too embarrassed to go ahead with. Michigan is not like the other states any more. What will not work anywhere else, they think works there.”

Yet, at least today, MSNBC ignored that part of the story.

Liberal media my ass.

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VIDEO– Andrea Mitchell to Haley Barbour on election-rigging schemes: Are Republicans “trying to game the system?”

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gerrymandering states electoral college changes

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Andrea Mitchell:

“What about the electoral college… to make them proportional… If it were done nationally, Mitt Romney would have been taking the oath of office

Barbour:

“States have the right to do that… “

Mitchell:

Doesn’t this make it look as though the Republicans are trying to game the system? Isn’t it a bad tactic for the Republican party to take… ?

Barbour:

“I don’t know how you can ask that question when you in the immediate previous breath told me that the Republicans aren’t even gonna let it out of committee…  Maybe there’s somebody in Virginia who happens to be a Republican, but when some Democrat offers some stupid legislation that the Democrats won’t let out of committee, usually the Democratic party doesn’t have to answer for what can’t get out of committee.”

Mitchell:

“… Other states are proceeding: Republican legislatures in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio are proceeding with it. I’m just asking, is this the right move for the party nationally?”

Barbour:

“Well as I said, I would not be for it. I don’t think there’s any sort of national movement, and you’ve sort of convinced me that in Virginia, there may not even be any state movement, it may be an isolated legislator…. But I think it is wrong to judge it that there is some big Republican conspiracy to try to change this.”

No state or national movement? What about this? And this:  Finally! WaPo front-pages election-rigging scheme. Plus, glimmers of hope in Virginia, Florida.  And this via HuffPo:

One of Michigan’s top Republican lawmakers is interested in a proposal to change the way the state allocates its electoral college votes, in a way that would have handed Michigan to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election despite the fact that he received a minority of the popular vote.

On to common sense gun safety proposals…

Mitchell:

The Supreme Court has already ruled in the Heller case that there can be exceptions, that the DC gun law was unconstitutional but other assault weapon bans might not be unconstitutional, so the Constitution does not preclude other restrictions on guns and background checks and other measures that are being considered and that have widespread support. Do you think that Republicans should take a closer look at some of these other options in the aftermath of Newtown?”

Barbour then started babbling about “mentally ill, deranged people,” or as I call it, Haley Barbour.

FYI, here is a back story on what Mitchell and Barbour were discussing at the top of the video:  Why Bobby Jindal is aiding and abetting the transformation of the GOP into “the stupid party”  

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Security guard leaves gun unattended in restroom at K-8 charter school

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gun boy child smaller

Here’s the bad news: A security officer at a charter school in Michigan that serves kindergarten through eighth graders left his gun in one of the school bathrooms.

Here’s the good news: It wasn’t loaded.

Here’s the bad news: He was seriously careless.

Here’s the good news: Nobody got hurt.

Here’s the bad news: There are too many firearm “mishaps” involving careless, stupid, unskilled, inexperienced, drunk, well-meaning-but-incompetent, hostile, or otherwise reckless gun owners.

Via mlive.com:

Lapeer, MI — A security officer at a Lapeer charter school left a firearm unattended in a school bathroom on Monday, Jan. 14, a school official said.

The security officer “made a breach in security protocol” and left an unloaded weapon in a restroom “for a few moments,” said Chatfield School Director Matt Young. Young said the school has been in contact with local authorities about the matter and wouldn’t discuss any possible repercussion for the officer, calling it “a personnel matter.”

errorunexpected

This man was there to protect students. Instead, he put them in potential danger. If the gun had been loaded and a child had found it in those “few moments,” it could have been disastrous. Thankfully, none of that happened… this time.

More guns are not the answer.

errorfatal

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Video- The Obama Campaign’s Wunderkind

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The kids’ got potential.

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