Michigan's Executive Branch is in a flat spin. In politics perception is everything. What has gone on in 3 months of Snyderism has been a total civic disaster: No Jobs, No Jobs, No Jobs.
It's become so bad, so quickly, PR/Spinmeister John Yob has been hired back to patch up the gapping rip in the fabric of the governorship by attempting to interpret Snyder's faux pas (which are highly embarrassing to the office of governor and his party) trying to put things back in a favorable way; The Executive Branch of Michigan is in a flat spin. A stiffly stubborn and defiant Tricky Rick is sure to take it down even further down to failure uncorrected.
Read Daniel Howes column: "Why' overlooked in Snyder budget plan" 3/31/11, and see where Howes points to the failure of Snyder's one word mission: FAIRNESS.
"KALKASKA AGAIN" SHOULD STRIKE REAL FEAR If you will note from the reference (in Repubteach's recent entry Water Cooler entry, the Kalkaska incident was raised by a third party, not Repubteach) Kalkaska is a signal "event." One of those milestones that shook and shaped the direction of the entire Engler Revolution and resulted in major changes in how Michigan schools are financed.
Eventual passage of Proposition A, which rectified many of the problems of school funding, was a direct outcome of the "Kalkaska Moment." Prop A did, for a period, meet the needs of many school districts, especially like those of rural Kalkaska. However, it was flawed. At the same time Prop A failed certian districts such as Rockford. But rather than build on its strengths, certain aggressive partisans during the Granholm years let it languish and fail. This crisis is fed and fueled by the "disaster capitalism" endemic to the demands of a radicalized GOP/Koch Brothers A.L.E.C. playbook.
In 1993 Powerful Corporate Lobbyists Circled Their Wagons The tremendous lobbying pressure from Consumers Power, the Mackinac Center, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, et al, produced classic media scenes like Speaker Paul Hillegonds (drawn away from his children brought to visit daddy in the House Chamber during one of those late-night sessions leading up to the rush to get school funding finished by Christmas Eve 1993. Under great pressure from Business, Hillegonds, called to the House foyer. There he was to be literally surrounded by these business-is-first lobbyists seeking a "good deal cut" into the pending school funding legislation. They surrounded Speaker Hillegonds in the manner wolves surround their quay, intense and demanding.
The outcome of such events,etched a vivid image; and convey something noteworthy of informing novice Rick Snyder as to the historic facts surrounding that crisis: Engler, with all his more than two dozen tax cuts and slick parliamentary/political shenanigans, acted in a very different manner than that of Snyder. JOHN ENGLER POURED MORE MONEY INTO PUBLIC EDUCATION, NOT LESS.
Engler's support for public education was to become much more over time. His generously in the second half of his tenure as governor would be considered, in this new coercive and negativist Teapartisan environment, totally rejected and fervently protested by the tax-haters who have inhabited the party and now the Legislature. Most notably the Know Nothing Leon Dorlet, daddy of the big pink pig metered at the capitol curb for weeks.
DID YOU GET THAT? JOHN ENGLER, THAT ICON OF GOVERNMENT AND TAX CUTS AND TOUGH TALK, ADDED MORE TO THE REVENUES GOING TO EDUCATION.
Yes, the teachers' professional association did pay a price in terms of loss of certain areas of their interests, but good things for Michigan's school children came out of it. Kalkaska's kids got their school up-and-going and from the looks of the present school plant, and newer community facilities built for youths, they have done reasonably well, until Snyder.
Among the lobbyists who haunted the halls of Lansing during this time ('93) was Dick DeVos. This scion to billions was developing his bitter antagonism to public schools even then; he, and wife Betsy, have gone wild subsequently. This divisive coulple has aggressively chosen to become a national scourge; spending millions of their children's hand-me-down inheritance to foster Republican against Republican, division and dissention, bitter rancor in many states; as far west as Utah and in the South in places like Missouri and Virginia.
If you recall, as surely you must, the Dick & Betsy push to pass the 2 to 1 rejected voucher proposal which was DeVos backed had large negative political effects. Their effort helped to undermine the national election for GOP president G.W. Bush by throwing Michigan to Al Gore and leading to Florida and the highly controversial Supreme Court's tragic decision that put GWB in the White House. The voucher campaign also caused Engler and Betsy to fall out with each other. Betsy, most recently, pictures herself arm by arm with Chris Christie of New Jersey, the nation's ponderous bully-boy provocateur and tormenter of public servants and teachers> This is Betsy's latest foray into destructive ideological warfare. Interestingly, The prototype for Christie was John Engler.
Kalkaska! How can any political party call for and support the undermining of public education?
Education in a neighborhood school supported and beloved by the community and guided by the traditional civic-minded school board members, who were often business people and professionals, were once respected and honored.
Not now, and not anymore. These Det/News blogs over the years have contained an unrelenting venom and countless vituperative rants for which the News' editor and his staff are guilty for exciting. These published sentiments reflect a systemic anti-intellectual strand that has destroyed the comrade of the commons and poisoned the politics of our entire state. The hatred and ill-will ginned up here is palpable. Now, at this very low moment, we cannibalize ourselves in our own toxic opines and dark-think.
Dwalt, I have seen what we have done to with "poison politics" to destroy our better selves. We are rank failures in art of good government. In politics, perception is everything. Now 100 and more Kalkasks await a clueless Rick Snyder. (Actually the latest count is over 140) All this as the nation looks on in disbelief and repulsion.
The nation's negative perception of our state's culture will hurt us mightily. Dwalt, you and I will live to deeply regret this outpouring of ideological distemper.
The high hopes and the sincere prayers of Michigan citizens is for a better Michigan, a place of peace and prosperity. But our darkside indulgences are pulling us back. We seem helpless to break ranks and resume the climb upward and onward.
Many of us had hoped what appeared to be a political outsider, clean from our mucky politics of the last decades, would point the way out. A majority of voters hoped Rick Snyder would truly unite us in an honorable and pro-active fashion. But, no, the appetite for "red meat" politics and reprisals has pulled us back and Rick Snyder with us; back toward the pit of our own destruction.
How sad. How disappointing and how hopeless a future for our children we are creating by degrading their public school heritage and children's futures with our mean-spiritedness and corporate greed..
We must repent and re-learn honest compromise and the goodwill evolving from a willing cooperation in our politics and legislation or we lose everything we value.
Original Post.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Rick the Trick Behind the Stick
There is a snide mistruth that underlies the concept of Snyder reversing the state's exemption of pensions from state income taxation.
The concept is the oft used mantra of the Tea Party as applied here: Whose money is it? . To wit: "It's our money." Now Snyder and Engler-holdovers and that political corporatist chameleon, Andy Dillon have put forth the new BIG GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST redefinition into the mix; "The retirement pensions are OUR MONEY and WE MAY TAKE OUT OF IT WHAT WE WANT because we are the judges of "fairness."
What about Snyder's oft repeated assertion that he's the arbiter of total "FAIRNESS" for all.
Snyder's over 300% tax increase on seniors s not about fairness.
It's about securing the state's largest shift of seniors' personal money to corporations in the history of Michigan. If the people of Michigan allow this MONEY GRAB will it will indeed be "unfair" to the corporate contributors to Snyder and his cronies? Though you may agree with Tricky Rick that it would be simple and efficent.
SNYDER CLAIMS TO HAVE A BIG SOFT SPOT IN HIS HEART FOR POOR SENIOR CITIZENS, YET BEWARE !
If some folks, for elective reasons or out of tough economic circumstances, or other necessity (supporting grown children in financial difficulty) are still at work in places like Wal-mart or McDonald's past normal retirement age, we the BUREAUCRATS OF LANSING now proclaim that unfortunate condition, if out of necessity, is so tragic that we must FORCEFULLY LEVEL THE PAYING FIELD by instituting a whopping new 300% tax increase on those seniors with earned the right to it, and/or were promised delayed compensation/pensions as part of the condition of their willingness to render services.
So ill-prepared and under-calculated is Snyder's scheme that Rick's beancounters ignored and/or overlooked the fact that SOME SENIORS HAVE NO SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEPEND STRICTLY ON LIMITED PENSION FUNDS FOR THEIR LIVING, DRUGS AND MEDICAL CARE, AS WELL AS OTHER LIVING EXPENSES.
Gov. Snyder admited this omission; and promised earlier this week, during a statewide telephone-townmeeting, (held seeking public input and pressure on the legislature to pass his budget package) that he would look into that omitted class of pensioners' dilemma.
The corporate-serving Snyder Team would have us believe that removing $900 million in pension funds piped directly into the business community's cash flow is good for Michigan. NOT SO, NOT SO AT ALL!
Those lost pension dollars pulled from the economy equal a huge loss in broadly spread business opportunity and employment in Michigan. Keeping this money in circulation is now more important than ever, it's ceertainly a big part of the state's service sector.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION: Every pension dollar in Michigan's pensioner hands spent on goods and services produces $6.49 in economic activity in commerce and business.
How important are pensions to the Michigan Economy. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security: Michigan's "state and local pensions also supported more than 45,000 jobs that paid nearly $3 billion in wages and salaries, nearly $7 billion in total economic output, and nearly $970 million in federal and local tax revenues."
THAT FOLKS IS A REAL CHUNK OF CHANGE !
Cutting into Michigan's retiree pension revenue by $900 million (to fund a corporate tax break) as Rick Snyder has demanded) could result in a stunning loss of economic activity in Michigan in the range of tens of billions of dollars!
Who best knows how to spend their own money: Retirees on limited/capped incomes or BIG GOVERNMENT out of Lansing; Rick Snyder's intent on funneling this LEGISLATED BILLION PLUS WINDFALL to favored business interests?
GOP State Senator Brandenburg (the Harrison Township Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee) said of Snyder: "I want to work with him, I do, but I can't because he (Gov. Snyder) has a $900 million money grab in there, and there's no guarantee that the tax cuts for businesses will generate a lot more jobs."
News reports reveal: "The governor acknowledged that levying the standard income tax on retirement income has very little support among fellow Republicans in the House and Senate."
Perhaps being a beancounter and "one Tough Nerd" leaves one out of the realities of the real world. The Michigan Views Daniel Howes column touched on the heart of Snyder's problem in this regard: Snyder may be a University of Michigan Wunderkind-turned-CEO-turned venture capitalist and he may be a trained accountant, but it's increasingly clear he skipped the communications classes that turn business executives and politicians into their own kind of rock star."
However, again, to frame Howes' phrasing, there are thousands of Michiganders who are out-of-step with this Tough Nerd: "...And they each have their own version of what fresh kind of hell Snyder's Michigan would visit on everything from schools and city halls to economic development and the environment."
It will take more than some "factual concoction of dashboard indicators," using campaign-speak to get the citizens of this state back on the track. "Fairness (as any seasoned union or management bargainer could tell you) is in the eye of the beholder," opines Howes.
"FAIR" for Rick is largely slanted toward his predisposition to favor business and money over people and children's well-being. Nothing fair there! Just the fact that Snyder would turn over 800,000 poor into the vacant space of neglect is stone-cold.
Now, regrettably Snyder is now so far mired the muck of political misrepresentation and mendacity concerning the underlying reasons for his programs and his involvement with the urber-corporate/Koch Brothers/Mackinac Center's "legislative force-feeding of Lansing Tea-Publicans via A.L.E.C. that it may not be possible for him to successfully lead the state.
Rick is way behind the stick.
Original Post.
The concept is the oft used mantra of the Tea Party as applied here: Whose money is it? . To wit: "It's our money." Now Snyder and Engler-holdovers and that political corporatist chameleon, Andy Dillon have put forth the new BIG GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST redefinition into the mix; "The retirement pensions are OUR MONEY and WE MAY TAKE OUT OF IT WHAT WE WANT because we are the judges of "fairness."
What about Snyder's oft repeated assertion that he's the arbiter of total "FAIRNESS" for all.
Snyder's over 300% tax increase on seniors s not about fairness.
It's about securing the state's largest shift of seniors' personal money to corporations in the history of Michigan. If the people of Michigan allow this MONEY GRAB will it will indeed be "unfair" to the corporate contributors to Snyder and his cronies? Though you may agree with Tricky Rick that it would be simple and efficent.
SNYDER CLAIMS TO HAVE A BIG SOFT SPOT IN HIS HEART FOR POOR SENIOR CITIZENS, YET BEWARE !
If some folks, for elective reasons or out of tough economic circumstances, or other necessity (supporting grown children in financial difficulty) are still at work in places like Wal-mart or McDonald's past normal retirement age, we the BUREAUCRATS OF LANSING now proclaim that unfortunate condition, if out of necessity, is so tragic that we must FORCEFULLY LEVEL THE PAYING FIELD by instituting a whopping new 300% tax increase on those seniors with earned the right to it, and/or were promised delayed compensation/pensions as part of the condition of their willingness to render services.
So ill-prepared and under-calculated is Snyder's scheme that Rick's beancounters ignored and/or overlooked the fact that SOME SENIORS HAVE NO SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEPEND STRICTLY ON LIMITED PENSION FUNDS FOR THEIR LIVING, DRUGS AND MEDICAL CARE, AS WELL AS OTHER LIVING EXPENSES.
Gov. Snyder admited this omission; and promised earlier this week, during a statewide telephone-townmeeting, (held seeking public input and pressure on the legislature to pass his budget package) that he would look into that omitted class of pensioners' dilemma.
The corporate-serving Snyder Team would have us believe that removing $900 million in pension funds piped directly into the business community's cash flow is good for Michigan. NOT SO, NOT SO AT ALL!
Those lost pension dollars pulled from the economy equal a huge loss in broadly spread business opportunity and employment in Michigan. Keeping this money in circulation is now more important than ever, it's ceertainly a big part of the state's service sector.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION: Every pension dollar in Michigan's pensioner hands spent on goods and services produces $6.49 in economic activity in commerce and business.
How important are pensions to the Michigan Economy. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security: Michigan's "state and local pensions also supported more than 45,000 jobs that paid nearly $3 billion in wages and salaries, nearly $7 billion in total economic output, and nearly $970 million in federal and local tax revenues."
THAT FOLKS IS A REAL CHUNK OF CHANGE !
Cutting into Michigan's retiree pension revenue by $900 million (to fund a corporate tax break) as Rick Snyder has demanded) could result in a stunning loss of economic activity in Michigan in the range of tens of billions of dollars!
Who best knows how to spend their own money: Retirees on limited/capped incomes or BIG GOVERNMENT out of Lansing; Rick Snyder's intent on funneling this LEGISLATED BILLION PLUS WINDFALL to favored business interests?
GOP State Senator Brandenburg (the Harrison Township Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee) said of Snyder: "I want to work with him, I do, but I can't because he (Gov. Snyder) has a $900 million money grab in there, and there's no guarantee that the tax cuts for businesses will generate a lot more jobs."
News reports reveal: "The governor acknowledged that levying the standard income tax on retirement income has very little support among fellow Republicans in the House and Senate."
Perhaps being a beancounter and "one Tough Nerd" leaves one out of the realities of the real world. The Michigan Views Daniel Howes column touched on the heart of Snyder's problem in this regard: Snyder may be a University of Michigan Wunderkind-turned-CEO-turned venture capitalist and he may be a trained accountant, but it's increasingly clear he skipped the communications classes that turn business executives and politicians into their own kind of rock star."
However, again, to frame Howes' phrasing, there are thousands of Michiganders who are out-of-step with this Tough Nerd: "...And they each have their own version of what fresh kind of hell Snyder's Michigan would visit on everything from schools and city halls to economic development and the environment."
It will take more than some "factual concoction of dashboard indicators," using campaign-speak to get the citizens of this state back on the track. "Fairness (as any seasoned union or management bargainer could tell you) is in the eye of the beholder," opines Howes.
"FAIR" for Rick is largely slanted toward his predisposition to favor business and money over people and children's well-being. Nothing fair there! Just the fact that Snyder would turn over 800,000 poor into the vacant space of neglect is stone-cold.
Now, regrettably Snyder is now so far mired the muck of political misrepresentation and mendacity concerning the underlying reasons for his programs and his involvement with the urber-corporate/Koch Brothers/Mackinac Center's "legislative force-feeding of Lansing Tea-Publicans via A.L.E.C. that it may not be possible for him to successfully lead the state.
Rick is way behind the stick.
Original Post.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Quotes: Let a real Fascist define what is Fascism
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power."
-- Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Italian dictator during WW2
Has anyone seen undue mingling of corporate power and the power of state here in Michigan lately? Who are the corporatists in this state? Mackinac Center? Business Leaders for Michigan? Michigan Chamber? Michigan right-wing consultants? Is Rick Snyder one of them? Who is really in charge here?
Michigan Koch-olded: TeaPublicans Flounder in Sea of Corporate Entanglement - Sinking State One ALEC Law at a Time
National attention is being paid to Gov. Snyder's A.L.E.C./Koch Bros harsh de-constructing of Michigan & its safety nets. The lightening speed of Tricky Rick's re-inventive legislation is under intense national media scrutiny. And well it is that the public learn the details of this secretive corporate attack on Michigan's middle class, elder/retirees, and public school children.
Folks, there's trouble right here in our Great Lake State. It's spelled A.L.E.C. and that stands for Disaster Politics-funded and implemented with millions from the Brothers Koch, et al.
Michigan Koch-olded: Ignorant Tea-Publican Legislators flounder in a Sargasso sea of Corporate Entanglement or How to Expeditiously Scuttle a Sinking Ship-One A.L.E.C. Law at a Time
POLITICO: "The Kochs Exposed."
A.L.E.C. (American Legislative Exchange Council) the Legislative Mill for Michigan's Belligerent and Angry Tea-Publican Legislative Majority
Enter the nefarious actions and attitudes of the Koch service group in Michigan, the Mackinac Center. Koch has created the CATO institute and it was one of CATO'S operatives who headed up the early organization of the Mackinac Center, the Michigan godchild of ubiquitous and notorious thug-guv, John Mathais Enlger, esq. Mix in a group of taxpayer leecher groups opposed to unions, yet eternally seeking government subsidies, hand-outs, and tax-breaks: Amway, Wal-Mart, Prince Foundation/Blackwater, and a host of others many connected directly to the funding and support of the Mackinac Center.
The current Mackinac Center/Detroit News dust-up is:
Legislative Koch-a-Mania
KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED: THIS SITE LIGHTS UP MICHIGAN'S DARK MEDIA NIGHT REVEALING WHAT'S BEHIND TRICKY RICK SNYDER'S FLOUNDERING FIASCO.
LEARN HOW WE KNOW WHY WE ARE BEING SENT DEEPER, ENTANGLED INTO OUR "ONE STATE DEPRESSION."
Original Post.
Folks, there's trouble right here in our Great Lake State. It's spelled A.L.E.C. and that stands for Disaster Politics-funded and implemented with millions from the Brothers Koch, et al.
Michigan Koch-olded: Ignorant Tea-Publican Legislators flounder in a Sargasso sea of Corporate Entanglement or How to Expeditiously Scuttle a Sinking Ship-One A.L.E.C. Law at a Time
POLITICO: "The Kochs Exposed."
"The Koch brothers are a poster child for connecting the dots of all the different issues and organizations that they are involved in and that they fund," he said. "In the world of narratives, you need heroes, you need villains, and you need storylines that people remember " in politics, more than any place else."
"Virtually unknown as recently as 2009, the Kochs have become political household names, following in the footsteps of other wealthy bankers and industrialists such as the 19th century Robber Barons " the Fricks, Harrimans and Rockefellers " who have been targets of progressives and reformers. But the new prominence of the Kochs is a case study in the kinds of 21st century big-money branding battles that underlie many Washington political and policy fights. It features one side using all the means of modern political communications to put a face on its opponents " and the other side furiously fighting back using its own techniques."
A.L.E.C. (American Legislative Exchange Council) the Legislative Mill for Michigan's Belligerent and Angry Tea-Publican Legislative Majority
Enter the nefarious actions and attitudes of the Koch service group in Michigan, the Mackinac Center. Koch has created the CATO institute and it was one of CATO'S operatives who headed up the early organization of the Mackinac Center, the Michigan godchild of ubiquitous and notorious thug-guv, John Mathais Enlger, esq. Mix in a group of taxpayer leecher groups opposed to unions, yet eternally seeking government subsidies, hand-outs, and tax-breaks: Amway, Wal-Mart, Prince Foundation/Blackwater, and a host of others many connected directly to the funding and support of the Mackinac Center.
The current Mackinac Center/Detroit News dust-up is:
"Mackinac Center FOIA targeting academics could stifle dialogue on Michigan's future"
- MIRS News Service
Legislative Koch-a-Mania
KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED: THIS SITE LIGHTS UP MICHIGAN'S DARK MEDIA NIGHT REVEALING WHAT'S BEHIND TRICKY RICK SNYDER'S FLOUNDERING FIASCO.
LEARN HOW WE KNOW WHY WE ARE BEING SENT DEEPER, ENTANGLED INTO OUR "ONE STATE DEPRESSION."
Original Post.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Rick Snyder’s Political Hell: Tricky Rick has “100 Kalkaska’s” Staring Him Straight In The Face
Remember Kalkaska! Snyder's underdeveloped sense of politics will confront him during the coming statewide crisis. Tricky Rick was busy the day the "Kalkaska thing" blew open in the national media. Snyder's way, way beyond his personal capacity to get out unscathed and he's about to take down the entire giddy, triumphant GOP majority as he loses effective ability to lead the state....
Snyder's Very Stubborn and Fiercely Proud.
We learn this from those trying to reason with him. This fact is coming from those inside the paneled walls, from his select team. Outside, fellow Republicans are getting a near-death chill. What looked an easy and slick political coup, setting back opponents 50 years, has become a deadly and inflamed civic travesty.
Peek Inside Snyder's Political Hell
When Michigan seniors learn of their heavy hit, a 300% increase in their tax burden and the media's human interest stories begin to crank out about how Miss Peach is being evicted from her home due to her inability to pay her new "Snyder Tax" every bright and even the "no clue" politicians in the Republican Caucus will be heading for the tall grass. Tea Party advocates will be pulling a "who me?" as they fall away, disassociating themselves from traditional Republicans over "new taxes."
When the harsh and heavy cuts in the Lansing BIG GOVERNMENT controlled school foundation grant is cut by $470 or more, parents will panic and schools will go into chaos and shutdown.
When small cities like Saginaw see a tailored Brooks Brothers suited, Bloomfield Hills attorney arrive at their city hall in his performance BMW; given full authority to run the town, like a dictator. Reality will dawn on the local officals and the angered public as they learn just what it means to be shutdown and liquidated, slick attorney style; and not on the cheap either. An Emergency Finance officer is permitted under the new GOP legislation to earn far more than even the Governor's salary per year, plus expenses, and like the days under the Colonial British, where households were forced to billet Red Coats, these cities will be forced to pony-up the lawyer's expenses, with no recourse.
As the state sees the Michigan State Police so reduced in numbers as to become an ineffective force for major crime investigations and pulled off the freeways to be replaced by far less professional, politically controlled sheriff's county mounties, a sense of dread and fear for public safety will be palatable.
As the reality of the plight of over 800,000 poor families and families with children are forced off assistance and have to go literally begging to local churches and neighbors for food and shelter, Rick Snyder will become a despised Dickensian pinchpenny troll.. Michigan is better than that. Becoming a Mecca of Misery has no appeal to companies considering "culture" and "quality of life" as they look for possible new start-ups in Michigan.
Conservative activists and diehards are panicked. Reports one conservative blogger:
This right-leaning blogger went on to quote a Flint Firefighter about the measure Andy Dillon has made to "soften" opposition to the EFM's by proposing that a mayor may be given the powers of an EFM. To which the firefighter, experienced in his department's calls to up to 10 emergencies at day, expresses a new fear:
The opportunities for cronyism, corruption, and abuse are rife in the design of this terrible Snyder-led legislation, designed to create heavy pressure on local units to force local workers to surrender pensions and working conditions, as well as cutting salaries.
The Snyder plan to decertify unions and raise havoc with workers is a brutally cruel move, far more injurious to our local institutions than the acts of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, all Snyder claims to the contrary. The present GOP majorities in the legislature have forgotten, if they have even yet learned, the tables will turn, and the public's ire will be focused on them and not the present crisis Snyder wants to take advantage of. What they need to realize is that that's to be expected. Only pro-active, collaborative legislation and a healthy sense of the zoom-out view will benefit the party and Michigan in the long-run.
The Republican blogger ends with this lament:
There'll be hell to pay.
Original Post.
Snyder's Very Stubborn and Fiercely Proud.
We learn this from those trying to reason with him. This fact is coming from those inside the paneled walls, from his select team. Outside, fellow Republicans are getting a near-death chill. What looked an easy and slick political coup, setting back opponents 50 years, has become a deadly and inflamed civic travesty.
Peek Inside Snyder's Political Hell
When Michigan seniors learn of their heavy hit, a 300% increase in their tax burden and the media's human interest stories begin to crank out about how Miss Peach is being evicted from her home due to her inability to pay her new "Snyder Tax" every bright and even the "no clue" politicians in the Republican Caucus will be heading for the tall grass. Tea Party advocates will be pulling a "who me?" as they fall away, disassociating themselves from traditional Republicans over "new taxes."
When the harsh and heavy cuts in the Lansing BIG GOVERNMENT controlled school foundation grant is cut by $470 or more, parents will panic and schools will go into chaos and shutdown.
When small cities like Saginaw see a tailored Brooks Brothers suited, Bloomfield Hills attorney arrive at their city hall in his performance BMW; given full authority to run the town, like a dictator. Reality will dawn on the local officals and the angered public as they learn just what it means to be shutdown and liquidated, slick attorney style; and not on the cheap either. An Emergency Finance officer is permitted under the new GOP legislation to earn far more than even the Governor's salary per year, plus expenses, and like the days under the Colonial British, where households were forced to billet Red Coats, these cities will be forced to pony-up the lawyer's expenses, with no recourse.
As the state sees the Michigan State Police so reduced in numbers as to become an ineffective force for major crime investigations and pulled off the freeways to be replaced by far less professional, politically controlled sheriff's county mounties, a sense of dread and fear for public safety will be palatable.
As the reality of the plight of over 800,000 poor families and families with children are forced off assistance and have to go literally begging to local churches and neighbors for food and shelter, Rick Snyder will become a despised Dickensian pinchpenny troll.. Michigan is better than that. Becoming a Mecca of Misery has no appeal to companies considering "culture" and "quality of life" as they look for possible new start-ups in Michigan.
Conservative activists and diehards are panicked. Reports one conservative blogger:
"No Michigan city has ever gone into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, (Charles Moore, senior managing director at Conway MacKenzie Inc., a turnaround and restructuring firm based in Birmingham ) said, nor has any school district, although Kalkaska ended one school year early in the 1990s after it ran out of money.
"But all government entities are feeling more pain as Michigan's economy continues its sluggish recovery from a decade-long downturn that substantially worsened in the 2008-09 recession.
"And now Snyder's proposal to cut revenue sharing for local governments by $100 million and school districts by nearly $800 million in the budget year starting Oct. 1 could push more governments toward financial distress."
This right-leaning blogger went on to quote a Flint Firefighter about the measure Andy Dillon has made to "soften" opposition to the EFM's by proposing that a mayor may be given the powers of an EFM. To which the firefighter, experienced in his department's calls to up to 10 emergencies at day, expresses a new fear:
"The biggest fear I have is that they give a mayor or a city manager the same powers as a financial manager. That person could abuse that authority."
The opportunities for cronyism, corruption, and abuse are rife in the design of this terrible Snyder-led legislation, designed to create heavy pressure on local units to force local workers to surrender pensions and working conditions, as well as cutting salaries.
The Snyder plan to decertify unions and raise havoc with workers is a brutally cruel move, far more injurious to our local institutions than the acts of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, all Snyder claims to the contrary. The present GOP majorities in the legislature have forgotten, if they have even yet learned, the tables will turn, and the public's ire will be focused on them and not the present crisis Snyder wants to take advantage of. What they need to realize is that that's to be expected. Only pro-active, collaborative legislation and a healthy sense of the zoom-out view will benefit the party and Michigan in the long-run.
The Republican blogger ends with this lament:
"The Bill Milliken saying is that GOOD POLICY IS GOOD POLITICS. I rarely agree with anything Milliken did, to the point where I'd vote for most democrats over him. That saying is true, and the inverse is even more true. Bad policy is bad politics. SNYDER IS PUSHING BAD POLICY RIGHT NOW. IT'S HORRIBLE POLITICS."
There'll be hell to pay.
Original Post.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Snyder’s Going for the Ignoramus Title: Worse Than, More Disliked Than Engler
Michigan GOP'ers have seen the scope of the Koch Bros. attempted legislative coup that has swept the country and are beginning to distance themselves from both the Koch Brothers and the self-determined Nerd, Rick Snyder and his authoritarian CEO anti-public interest mindset; they do this purely out of political self-interest and a delayed, but growing sense of deep concern for the common people of their state.
Snyder is being taken down; note the following:
1) Approval rating dropping like a boulder: Snyder's approval may sink lower than that old pro-pol John Mathais Engler, who sunk to below 20% in public support, but Engler was a pro, he had the savvy and the backing to regain the upper hand due largely his superior cunning, strong arm political practices of the kind Snyder totally lacks.
2) Pushing ALEC "handout" legislation to appease the Koch Bros. et. al. has put Snyder in a very ugly national light and perspective. The precious Michigan Environment and natural assets are beset with undercutting legislative rollbacks which serve best the short-term interests of polluters, plunderers, and corporate developers.
3) Unable to speak in public places without protests or citizens with strong complaints, Snyder has cut himself off from the state's "work-a-day" citizens.
4) Snyder lost his ability to politically defend his huge business bailout; using school and retiree resources directly funneled to corporate buddies. There's no salable rationale for his BILLION PLUS GIFT TO BUSINESSES. Repeatedly asked to provide estimates of jobs that will yield from his radical tax shaft & shift, neither Snyder or Calley can give credible answers.
5) Snyder gained an enduring reputation as a CHAINSAW BANANA REPUBLIC STRONGMAN with his near dictatorial powers labeled "Emergency Financial Managers" over and against local affairs of government, even ejecting the voters and officeholders from their constitutional rights to elect and hold office.
6) Outsourcing the heavy burden of axing jobs, benefits, and programs on struggling local units. CEO Snyder is forcing the pain and disruption, and the failure down on the local communities, using the power of BIG LANSING GOVERNMENT.
7) Purposefully cutting schools and universities (20%), ENDANGERS THOSE REMAINING COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO STUDY FOR A PRODUCTIVE CAREER IN MICHIGAN. These cuts most likely become part of a huge student loan payback schedule that saddle new professionals for near a lifetime.
8) Taxing elders, ESPECIALLY WIDOWS, out of their homes, BY CUTTING ELDER HOMESTEAD PROPERTY TAX RELIEF; MANY SENIORS WILL BE PUT ON THE EDGE OF FORECLOSURE.
9) Making the retirees and seniors consider moving to a "pension friendly" state; RETIREES ARE AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF CONSUMER REVENUE AND SERVICES.
10) Under the thumb of hardened Englerites and tyrannical Koch organized Tea Party operatives; Snyder is displaying "stubborn" resistance to compromise or collaboration, and certainly excludes Democrat participation on any bi-partisan basis; with the exception of Michael Flanagan and Andy Dillon; two very curious bureaucratic holdovers.
11) RAISING TAXES IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO A LARGE GROUP OF TEA PARTY ADVOCATES who oppose new and higher taxes will undermine Snyder's appeal to rogue elements in Michigan and engender the hateful vengeance of no-new-taxes Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich.
12) FORCING 800,000 POOR MICHIGANDERS TO SUFFER AND GO WITHOUT from cut-off assistance in these hard times is unconscionable.
13) Gambling that no one cares if businesses get a "big gift" of 1.8 billion in tax breaks and relief: a gigantic business bailout. More and More citizens see the rank unfairness of this plot.
14) THE MACKINAC CENTER HAS BEEN GIVEN HUGE NATIONAL NEGATIVE MEDIA ATTENTION, for the first time. Now people everywhere know who the elites are who back this negativist anti-union, pro-privatizing/tax piracy propaganda mill. They are: Charles Koch, Amway, Wal-mart/Waltons, Elsa Prince Foundation, Heritage Foundation, and others. A COMPLETE LIST IS NOT AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, It's a Mackinac Center SECRET. Transparency and full disclosure, no way!
15) FRITTERED AWAY IS THE ALL-IMPORTANT VOTER SUPPORT of cross-over Democrats, Independents, and Moderate Republicans; Snyder has no middle ground support left. Where's Snyder's base? Snyder is going to re-invent Michigan ex nihilo?
16) The newer members of the Legislature who came to Lansing to become personally involved and included in the decisions, as they thought their election entitled them to have a part, are being sidelined. THE CLEVER USE OF THE OMNIBUS STRUCTURE FOR BILL INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE LARGELY SHUTS THEM OUT of the process. The new members are disturbed by the manner in which the Snyder Team is gunning legislation through; without time for the newer members to have meaningful input and voice.
17) The radical cut back of UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE; WHEN OVER 300,000 WILLING WORKERS ARE WITHOUT JOBS AND MANY ARE TOTALLY RUNNING OUT OF RESOURCES TO LIVE AND MAKE BILL PAYMENTS is dastardly cruel. The Snyder lead GOP majorities in the Legislature are about to enact the most stingy and least supportive unemployment package in the nation.
Inside sources report: Michigan's hardheaded Nerd, Snyder, gives no any hint of mitigation or personal compromise from his original budget and legislative agenda; instead offers a "cold shoulder and is still pursuing full-bore his pension tax, despite limited support in the Senate GOP caucus." Snyder's Engler holdovers have collapsed in their attempts to talk political sense to the Nerd.
Legislative Republicans are growingly aware they have a giant problem with their back home voters. They have seen the massive blowbacks in Wisconsin and other places. There is a growing sense of creeping panic!
Michigan's Teapublicans are aware that Ohio Republicans are walking-back some of the harshest of the A.L.E.C.- fill in the blank, corporate pandering legislation that Ohio GOP'ers are caught up in.
Michigan GOP'ers have seen the scope of the Koch Bros. backed and heavily funded, attempt at legislative coup that has swept the country. GOP Legislators are beginning to distance themselves from both the Koch Brothers' American Legislative Exchange Council "carry out" bill making and the self-determined Nerd, Rick Snyder. Tough "Nerd" Rick with his authoritarian, anti-public interest, pro-business first, CEO mindset; has copped an attitude which is poisoning Michigan's entire political system.
Rick Snyder is well on the way to the ignominious title: WORSE THAN ENGLER.
Original Post.
Snyder is being taken down; note the following:
1) Approval rating dropping like a boulder: Snyder's approval may sink lower than that old pro-pol John Mathais Engler, who sunk to below 20% in public support, but Engler was a pro, he had the savvy and the backing to regain the upper hand due largely his superior cunning, strong arm political practices of the kind Snyder totally lacks.
2) Pushing ALEC "handout" legislation to appease the Koch Bros. et. al. has put Snyder in a very ugly national light and perspective. The precious Michigan Environment and natural assets are beset with undercutting legislative rollbacks which serve best the short-term interests of polluters, plunderers, and corporate developers.
3) Unable to speak in public places without protests or citizens with strong complaints, Snyder has cut himself off from the state's "work-a-day" citizens.
4) Snyder lost his ability to politically defend his huge business bailout; using school and retiree resources directly funneled to corporate buddies. There's no salable rationale for his BILLION PLUS GIFT TO BUSINESSES. Repeatedly asked to provide estimates of jobs that will yield from his radical tax shaft & shift, neither Snyder or Calley can give credible answers.
5) Snyder gained an enduring reputation as a CHAINSAW BANANA REPUBLIC STRONGMAN with his near dictatorial powers labeled "Emergency Financial Managers" over and against local affairs of government, even ejecting the voters and officeholders from their constitutional rights to elect and hold office.
6) Outsourcing the heavy burden of axing jobs, benefits, and programs on struggling local units. CEO Snyder is forcing the pain and disruption, and the failure down on the local communities, using the power of BIG LANSING GOVERNMENT.
7) Purposefully cutting schools and universities (20%), ENDANGERS THOSE REMAINING COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO STUDY FOR A PRODUCTIVE CAREER IN MICHIGAN. These cuts most likely become part of a huge student loan payback schedule that saddle new professionals for near a lifetime.
8) Taxing elders, ESPECIALLY WIDOWS, out of their homes, BY CUTTING ELDER HOMESTEAD PROPERTY TAX RELIEF; MANY SENIORS WILL BE PUT ON THE EDGE OF FORECLOSURE.
9) Making the retirees and seniors consider moving to a "pension friendly" state; RETIREES ARE AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF CONSUMER REVENUE AND SERVICES.
10) Under the thumb of hardened Englerites and tyrannical Koch organized Tea Party operatives; Snyder is displaying "stubborn" resistance to compromise or collaboration, and certainly excludes Democrat participation on any bi-partisan basis; with the exception of Michael Flanagan and Andy Dillon; two very curious bureaucratic holdovers.
11) RAISING TAXES IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO A LARGE GROUP OF TEA PARTY ADVOCATES who oppose new and higher taxes will undermine Snyder's appeal to rogue elements in Michigan and engender the hateful vengeance of no-new-taxes Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich.
12) FORCING 800,000 POOR MICHIGANDERS TO SUFFER AND GO WITHOUT from cut-off assistance in these hard times is unconscionable.
13) Gambling that no one cares if businesses get a "big gift" of 1.8 billion in tax breaks and relief: a gigantic business bailout. More and More citizens see the rank unfairness of this plot.
14) THE MACKINAC CENTER HAS BEEN GIVEN HUGE NATIONAL NEGATIVE MEDIA ATTENTION, for the first time. Now people everywhere know who the elites are who back this negativist anti-union, pro-privatizing/tax piracy propaganda mill. They are: Charles Koch, Amway, Wal-mart/Waltons, Elsa Prince Foundation, Heritage Foundation, and others. A COMPLETE LIST IS NOT AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, It's a Mackinac Center SECRET. Transparency and full disclosure, no way!
15) FRITTERED AWAY IS THE ALL-IMPORTANT VOTER SUPPORT of cross-over Democrats, Independents, and Moderate Republicans; Snyder has no middle ground support left. Where's Snyder's base? Snyder is going to re-invent Michigan ex nihilo?
16) The newer members of the Legislature who came to Lansing to become personally involved and included in the decisions, as they thought their election entitled them to have a part, are being sidelined. THE CLEVER USE OF THE OMNIBUS STRUCTURE FOR BILL INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE LARGELY SHUTS THEM OUT of the process. The new members are disturbed by the manner in which the Snyder Team is gunning legislation through; without time for the newer members to have meaningful input and voice.
17) The radical cut back of UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE; WHEN OVER 300,000 WILLING WORKERS ARE WITHOUT JOBS AND MANY ARE TOTALLY RUNNING OUT OF RESOURCES TO LIVE AND MAKE BILL PAYMENTS is dastardly cruel. The Snyder lead GOP majorities in the Legislature are about to enact the most stingy and least supportive unemployment package in the nation.
Inside sources report: Michigan's hardheaded Nerd, Snyder, gives no any hint of mitigation or personal compromise from his original budget and legislative agenda; instead offers a "cold shoulder and is still pursuing full-bore his pension tax, despite limited support in the Senate GOP caucus." Snyder's Engler holdovers have collapsed in their attempts to talk political sense to the Nerd.
Legislative Republicans are growingly aware they have a giant problem with their back home voters. They have seen the massive blowbacks in Wisconsin and other places. There is a growing sense of creeping panic!
Michigan's Teapublicans are aware that Ohio Republicans are walking-back some of the harshest of the A.L.E.C.- fill in the blank, corporate pandering legislation that Ohio GOP'ers are caught up in.
Michigan GOP'ers have seen the scope of the Koch Bros. backed and heavily funded, attempt at legislative coup that has swept the country. GOP Legislators are beginning to distance themselves from both the Koch Brothers' American Legislative Exchange Council "carry out" bill making and the self-determined Nerd, Rick Snyder. Tough "Nerd" Rick with his authoritarian, anti-public interest, pro-business first, CEO mindset; has copped an attitude which is poisoning Michigan's entire political system.
Rick Snyder is well on the way to the ignominious title: WORSE THAN ENGLER.
Original Post.
Snyder's New Title: Worse Than, More Disliked Than Engler
Michigan GOP'ers have seen the scope of the Koch Bros. attempted legislative coup that has swept the country and are beginning to distance themselves from both the Koch Brothers and the self-determined Nerd, Rick Snyder and his authoritarian CEO anti-public interest mindset; they do this purely out of political self-interest and a delayed, but growing sense of deep concern for the common people of their state.
Rick Snyder's New Title: Worse Than, More Disliked Than Engler
Original Post.
Rick Snyder's New Title: Worse Than, More Disliked Than Engler
Original Post.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Prominent Democrats Profit from Snyder Led Teapublican “Disaster Capitalism”
Why are Snyder led Teapublicans so intent on generously enriching and empowering 3 major Granholm Democrats with local/public tax money? Andy Dillon, Michael P. Flanagan, and Henry B. Cooney, Plunkett/Cooney?
Insults go way beyond bifurcated politics. EFM's can be made emergency ready (with a full quiver of dictatorial powers of life and death over a governmental unit and total discretion over labor and employee rights) in two days, read 20 hrs training, and some spotty follow-up.
Based on the need to know and understand the local problems, accounting, special situations, and find workable solutions this, by itself, ridiculously inadequate training is especially specious and absurd. And over 200 apply? Dozens are already in the training mill, enrolling at a bargain price of $175 each.
The qualifications for public administrators, city managers, department head, and school administrators are highly trained and the standards for their positions; these requirements have been steadily increasing and tightening for decades. And soon a crop of neophyte walk-ons is going to take over in the heat of the coming "Snyder induced financial crisis meltdowns"? This is unbelievable and well beyond nuts!
Now a hoard of would-be, wannabe so called "Emergency Finance Managers"( is being run through a boot camp training mill run by Andy Dillon) makes a complete mockery of prior standards. The direct and drastic outcomes for the failing and failed units, forced to further fail by Dillon and Snyder, will drastically impact the necessary services of the individual taxpayers in ways that will be highly destructive and ruinously failed.
Have we gone this far into "planned failure." Why?
Why would Teapublicans be at all interested in a program (EFM) directly benefiting , granting huge new and undemocratic powers (DetNews: The law authorizes emergency managers to cancel contracts, dismiss officials, and dissolve elected councils and boards in communities and school districts that are operating at a deficit.), and financially enriching Granholm Era Democrats: Andy Dillon, Michael Flannigan, and Henry Cooney CEO of super legal beagles at Pluckett & Cooney-all major players previously in Democrat politics?
Original Post.
Insults go way beyond bifurcated politics. EFM's can be made emergency ready (with a full quiver of dictatorial powers of life and death over a governmental unit and total discretion over labor and employee rights) in two days, read 20 hrs training, and some spotty follow-up.
Based on the need to know and understand the local problems, accounting, special situations, and find workable solutions this, by itself, ridiculously inadequate training is especially specious and absurd. And over 200 apply? Dozens are already in the training mill, enrolling at a bargain price of $175 each.
The qualifications for public administrators, city managers, department head, and school administrators are highly trained and the standards for their positions; these requirements have been steadily increasing and tightening for decades. And soon a crop of neophyte walk-ons is going to take over in the heat of the coming "Snyder induced financial crisis meltdowns"? This is unbelievable and well beyond nuts!
Now a hoard of would-be, wannabe so called "Emergency Finance Managers"( is being run through a boot camp training mill run by Andy Dillon) makes a complete mockery of prior standards. The direct and drastic outcomes for the failing and failed units, forced to further fail by Dillon and Snyder, will drastically impact the necessary services of the individual taxpayers in ways that will be highly destructive and ruinously failed.
Have we gone this far into "planned failure." Why?
Why would Teapublicans be at all interested in a program (EFM) directly benefiting , granting huge new and undemocratic powers (DetNews: The law authorizes emergency managers to cancel contracts, dismiss officials, and dissolve elected councils and boards in communities and school districts that are operating at a deficit.), and financially enriching Granholm Era Democrats: Andy Dillon, Michael Flannigan, and Henry Cooney CEO of super legal beagles at Pluckett & Cooney-all major players previously in Democrat politics?
Original Post.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
John Engler presided over the beginnings of the Mississippiafication of Michigan
Recently, John Mathias Engler has become a subject of renewed interest in Michigan media. Ousted one term U.S. Senator, Spencer Abraham made reference to his buddy Engler ("The Michigan Experience: Why Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans shouldn’t sweat their dip in the polls" in Weekly Standard Op-Ed on March 17, 2011- a better title might be "Former Gov. John Engler proved that Republican governors shouldn't sweat early, negative polls") recently as a way to encourage Snyder and company to hang tough in their hostile attacks on the public servants and ordinary citizens, both young and old, of a struggling Michigan.
Engler has been taken to task by state industrialists and regional editors as being vindictive, obstructionist and anti-Michigan manufacturing:
Crain's Detroit Business reported that tooling companies in Michigan have had it with Engler's perceived coziness with the Chinese government on outsourcing and currency valuation.
The companies' trade group is distancing itself from Engler's National Association of Manufacturers, contending Engler and the NAM have "betrayed" domestic manufacturers in U.S. dealings with the Chinese.
"'Our own former governor has been completely blinded by the larger business interests that are running the NAM,'" Herb Trute, a downstate tool and die executive told Crain's.
"'And it's patently obvious to me that they (Engler and NAM) have done very little to help the plight of the small manufacturer'"
This editorial was chased by a follow-up letter from Joyce Braithwaite Brickley, who served as a long-time top aide to former governor William Milliken. She made this observation about the record and character of John Engler:
"No two people on the face of the earth are more familiar with the machinations and childishness of former Gov. John Engler. We put up with his small tricks, dishonesty and continuous negativity over our 15 years in the governor's office when Engler was in the state Legislature."
In 1994 Time Magazine referred to Engler as "something of a Republican hatchet man in the state legislature."
Sadly, it is former governor John Engler who presided over the beginnings of the future Mississippiafication of Michigan. It was a time when government was used against government to push agendas which harmed our state. With the help of radical tax haters like Patrick Anderson, Richard Headlee, et al, and the Senators Welborn and DiNello. These individuals with their wild libertarian rantings supported and abetted Engler in his cold-hearted revolt.
Using a surprise defeat of James Blanchard, who was seeking a third term as Michigan's governor, John immediately began his first term as governor with extremely harsh measures.
Voters, Engler declared, "are tired of the same old crap going on in Lansing." His mantra, Cut taxes! Throw the deadbeats off welfare! Take control of the schools! All this and more ... He became known as the Beal City Butcher. His campaign theme had been "cut and cap" state spending, but he went far, far beyond that even though he had not even won a majority of the votes cast in 1990 and had no clear mandate.
Engler chained the Lafayette clinic and closed mental health facilities around the state. Adolescents with mental problems literally had to be transshipped out of state for mental health care. Common Cause's Peter Overby described Engler's Revolution in the following manner:
Again Common Cause:
Engler had in mind radical re-directions and other ham-fisted measures. Engler applied to his brand of ideology, backed and supported by his self-invented Tonto, the Mackinac Center, Midland. John doctored the Michigan economy during a time which came to include an era of unparalleled national prosperity during the Clinton years.
Even today, Engler continues to be a background player. As the President of NAM, The National Association of Manufactures, Engler aggressively promotes outsourcing and defends the role of China in the market including China's unfair currency policies. While Lou Dobbs of CNN reports on the root causes and impacts of our manufacturing crisis, off-shoring, and outsourcing, Engler run a hate Dobbs website with scathing denunciations of Dobbs' findings.
Brought before a congressional committee recently, lobbyist Engler defended the kinds of K Street "Corporations first" lobbying that is at the core of the federal trade and foreign currency troubles with which Michigan manufacturers have been assailed and with which they cannot fairly compete.
It is directly from this mindset comes the brutal Lansing takeover of cities, schools, and local units. The seeds of an economic shakedown and the collapse of Michigan's economic future were sown by this insensitive and power hungry de-constructionist who thought of himself as the author of a personal revolution.
Revolutionaries always carry out their agendas by tacking things from their enemies and giving them to their followers. So under Snyder, his top aides being old Englerites, we see the continuation of a Engler-inspired steep decline in the state's quality of life and increased uncertainty for the future of Michigan.
John Engler presided over the beginnings of the Mississippiafication of Michigan and his destructive efforts live on today in growing infamy. Rick Snyder appears to be a maven of Englerism, Snyder and his Teapublican legislative rabble are on a wildly destructive tare. Engler, by comparison, may end up looking like a flaming saint.
Original Post.
Engler has been taken to task by state industrialists and regional editors as being vindictive, obstructionist and anti-Michigan manufacturing:
"Like a recurring case of Montezuma's Revenge, Michigan can't rid itself of John Engler. Gone "but unfortunately not forgotten" from state government for four years, Engler is now a lobbyist for the nation's major manufacturers and pops up frequently clinging to the coattails of Republican power brokers in Washington.
"After wreaking havoc on the state's budget, environment, human services and open government as governor for 12 years, Engler finally left Lansing, thankfully concluding his career on the public payroll, his only previous source of employment throughout his adult life.
"Known best for his vindictive meanspiritedness and bullying fear tactics, Engler did more to politicize public affairs at all levels in Michigan than any other politician in recent memory. Even members of his own Republican Party bitterly complained "privately, of course" about Big John. Many were not unhappy in the slightest when he packed his bags for private sector paychecks and corporate boardrooms.
"His scowling specter, though, returned on two fronts in recent days, sadly reminding us of the bad old days when Engler ran roughshod over anyone and everyone who had the temerity to oppose him."
Crain's Detroit Business reported that tooling companies in Michigan have had it with Engler's perceived coziness with the Chinese government on outsourcing and currency valuation.
The companies' trade group is distancing itself from Engler's National Association of Manufacturers, contending Engler and the NAM have "betrayed" domestic manufacturers in U.S. dealings with the Chinese.
"'Our own former governor has been completely blinded by the larger business interests that are running the NAM,'" Herb Trute, a downstate tool and die executive told Crain's.
"'And it's patently obvious to me that they (Engler and NAM) have done very little to help the plight of the small manufacturer'"
This editorial was chased by a follow-up letter from Joyce Braithwaite Brickley, who served as a long-time top aide to former governor William Milliken. She made this observation about the record and character of John Engler:
"No two people on the face of the earth are more familiar with the machinations and childishness of former Gov. John Engler. We put up with his small tricks, dishonesty and continuous negativity over our 15 years in the governor's office when Engler was in the state Legislature."
In 1994 Time Magazine referred to Engler as "something of a Republican hatchet man in the state legislature."
Sadly, it is former governor John Engler who presided over the beginnings of the future Mississippiafication of Michigan. It was a time when government was used against government to push agendas which harmed our state. With the help of radical tax haters like Patrick Anderson, Richard Headlee, et al, and the Senators Welborn and DiNello. These individuals with their wild libertarian rantings supported and abetted Engler in his cold-hearted revolt.
Using a surprise defeat of James Blanchard, who was seeking a third term as Michigan's governor, John immediately began his first term as governor with extremely harsh measures.
Voters, Engler declared, "are tired of the same old crap going on in Lansing." His mantra, Cut taxes! Throw the deadbeats off welfare! Take control of the schools! All this and more ... He became known as the Beal City Butcher. His campaign theme had been "cut and cap" state spending, but he went far, far beyond that even though he had not even won a majority of the votes cast in 1990 and had no clear mandate.
Engler chained the Lafayette clinic and closed mental health facilities around the state. Adolescents with mental problems literally had to be transshipped out of state for mental health care. Common Cause's Peter Overby described Engler's Revolution in the following manner:
"While Washington is busy reinventing government, Engler is intent on de-inventing it. His administration (was) like a radical expression of the free market he so admires:
Specifically, an outside takeover, like a leveraged-buyout buccaneer, he parlayed his thin victory into an unprecedented shake-out of state government, its budget and mission. He whacked away at two departments; shuttered a third; froze civil service pay; closed what he considered a costly, unproductive line (General Assistance); and announced plans to contract out or simply sell some other government operations."
Engler put nearly 90,000 welfare singles on "General Assistance, a state program that sent checks ($160 a month at the end) to childless, 'able-bodied' adults who were unemployed or working in low-wage jobs " out on the streets.
Engler never bothered to investigate, one quarter of those on GA were mentally ill and another quarter unemployable. Many of these went on the street scrounging for returnable bottles, many were made homeless. Engler wasn't afraid to play off stereotypes of welfare recipients as lazy inner-city residents--GA "subsidized (were) people who had simply chosen not to work.."
Again Common Cause:
"(E)xtensive studies by universities, state and private agencies demolished the stereotype: The average age of GA recipients was 39. More than 40 percent were women. White men ages 26-40 outnumbered young black men 2 to 1. More than half had 'chronic or severe' health problems. Most had work histories. About 45 percent lived in Detroit, which lost some 44,300 manufacturing jobs in the previous decade.The impact of Engler's draconian actions even put a pale on the free market glee often heard from Engler's own Mackinac Center for Public Policy Director, Larry Reed:
"'There really just aren't options for these people,' says Sandra Danziger, a social work professor at the University of Michigan who co-authored one study. 'All the job growth is in high-skill or entry-level services.'
"Engler (had) no regrets about his incivility and inhumanity in regard to those on GA. 'I think we did the right thing,' he said, 'and the evidence is quite compelling that we did.'" But what actually was the impact of the cold-hearted GA cuts?"
"In its economic impact, the END OF GA HAS BEEN COMPARED TO THE LOSS OF TWO LARGE MANUFACTURING PLANTS. 'In spite of the facts that were coming forth, people didn't seem to care,' said social work professor Danny Thompson of Western Michigan University. 'Not just the politicians, but the public. It's a funny, spooky feeling.' Danziger wondered aloud why people sympathize with workers laid off by GM, but not with GA recipients who would have died for an assembly line job."
"The state budget was indeed balanced. But incalculable costs were shifted to local hospitals, jails and other facilities where homeless people might land.
"Other costs were quietly passed to federal taxpayers. One federal agency sent Michigan 194 percent more money for homeless shelters in 1992 while cutting funds nationally by 8 percent. Another shift occurred as former GA recipients applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the federal-state payments to the disabled, aged and blind. SSI budgets rose everywhere in 1992 (mainly due to a Supreme Court decision that made more children eligible), but in Michigan the burden shifted dramatically. Federal SSI payments went up 24 percent nationwide, 29 percent in Michigan. The states' share increased 6 percent, but Michigan's actually dropped 11 percent,"
"...once described the (GA) cutoff as 'conservative compassion,' (saying later) : 'I have been bothered from the start by a lingering need to stimulate more private initiatives to meet these needs. I hope that in hindsight we'll look back and say that one of the benefits of the elimination of General Assistance was to heighten the concern of people in the private sector, to get them off their butts and out there creating new initiatives to meet the need.'
"As he was attacking GA, Engler also started to dismantle another welfare system: an extensive network of business subsidies and aids built up by his predecessor, Jim Blanchard. But corporate interests had more political clout than welfare recipients and stopped him."Engler simplistically continued to repeat his chosen line as he bulldozed ahead:
"... Lansing should just lower taxes, stand back and let the entrepreneurs go full-throttle. Despite the state's big-labor, big-government reputation"Engler was now in charge. His mindset became the adopted mindset of most Republican officeholders and appointed state functionaries. Clearly for them it was go along or be shut out.
Engler had in mind radical re-directions and other ham-fisted measures. Engler applied to his brand of ideology, backed and supported by his self-invented Tonto, the Mackinac Center, Midland. John doctored the Michigan economy during a time which came to include an era of unparalleled national prosperity during the Clinton years.
Even today, Engler continues to be a background player. As the President of NAM, The National Association of Manufactures, Engler aggressively promotes outsourcing and defends the role of China in the market including China's unfair currency policies. While Lou Dobbs of CNN reports on the root causes and impacts of our manufacturing crisis, off-shoring, and outsourcing, Engler run a hate Dobbs website with scathing denunciations of Dobbs' findings.
Brought before a congressional committee recently, lobbyist Engler defended the kinds of K Street "Corporations first" lobbying that is at the core of the federal trade and foreign currency troubles with which Michigan manufacturers have been assailed and with which they cannot fairly compete.
It is directly from this mindset comes the brutal Lansing takeover of cities, schools, and local units. The seeds of an economic shakedown and the collapse of Michigan's economic future were sown by this insensitive and power hungry de-constructionist who thought of himself as the author of a personal revolution.
Revolutionaries always carry out their agendas by tacking things from their enemies and giving them to their followers. So under Snyder, his top aides being old Englerites, we see the continuation of a Engler-inspired steep decline in the state's quality of life and increased uncertainty for the future of Michigan.
John Engler presided over the beginnings of the Mississippiafication of Michigan and his destructive efforts live on today in growing infamy. Rick Snyder appears to be a maven of Englerism, Snyder and his Teapublican legislative rabble are on a wildly destructive tare. Engler, by comparison, may end up looking like a flaming saint.
Original Post.
Lies, Lies, and More Lies" Detriot News Op-Ed: "Rick Snyder not Anti-Union / Collective Bargaining" - Oh Yeah?
Response to Detroit News Op-Ed "Snyder hasn't earned anti-union label: Nothing he's done so far infringes on collective bargaining rights" on March 18, 2011.
Just a few points on this News Op-Ed:
1. "(N)obody is losing their collective bargaining rights under the emergency financial manager legislation signed into law this week by Gov. Rick Snyder." The honest track was that of Scott Walker in Wisconsin, do what you do to destroy collective bargaining head "on and then call it "progressive." Snyder's team's temerity is to make the "union busting" process loing and drawn out, bone ugly, and extremely divisive. Snyder, in a word, wants to further destroy this state turning one governmental unit against another. This Snyder does with threats and coercion. But he's attempting to sugar coat it with denials of his end purposes.
2. "(T)he charge just doesn't stick to Snyder." -- - "he's said repeatedly he will not follow the lead of governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere, and seek to weaken collective bargaining for public employees." Again, the method chosen by the Snyder team is duplicitous and corrupting. Afraid to take on the issue of collective bargaining in a straight forward manner; Snyder chose to do it with a cruel method. Impose shortfalls and revenue shortages at his discretion: Large cuts to school aid, and cutting off Block Grants to local units via State Government Control; out of Lansing. To this, Snyder adds the threatening provisions of a new and severely harsh EFM/Emergency Finance Manager. These SUPER BUREAUCRATS are being trained and put in place with wide and powerful dictatorial digression to destroy local units in an entire variety of ways. Breaking the contracts is not holding the collective bargaining process inviolate.
3. "And nothing in the emergency financial manager law infringes on collective bargaining" The highly paid agents of the Dillion/Flannagan's newly created Plunkett/Cooney friendly "firm run" Realignment Bureau have an unlimited ceiling to their compensation and powers; such as any boss would envy. Local property rights are about to be trashed. To be added to the trauma of an imposed "emergency" is the potential for huge costs to be levied against the local unit to fund the EFM's, further liquidating whatever taxpayer assets might remain. This is a self-feeding fee frenzy.!
4. "The only thing that changes is that if the governmental unit reaches the point of insolvency, the manager can (do what he deems necessary) to balance the books and avoid default, including breaking or rewriting contracts with unions and vendors." The way this entire anti-union, anti-collective bargaining scheme is structured rests on the fact that Snyder et al can and will use directed political decisions to make discretionary cuts in revenue to be tailored to the specific unit(s) they want to push into "insolvency." If and when the public comes to see the carnage Snyder has imposed on their fire department, their policing, their schools, etc. the reactions will be bitter and long lasting. This Snyder, the stubborn, cannot conceive as possible: he holds to a bumper sticker thought: Simple, Fair and Efficient. Rick feels a little "Chris Christie" bullyboy shove and kick will suffice; a loud outcry and then the struggle will all be over. Not so. If one does not fight for what has been their community, their family civic heritage, then what is there left to fight for. SNYDER'S BIG GOVERNMENT SLAP DOWN ON THE WORKING FOLK IS UNACCEPTABLE.
5. "But even that's not so much of a change" In the past we held our noses because the effected units were 'throwaways' areas the rest of the state had turned its back on. Now it won't be just war-torn Benton Harbor or some inner city satellite governmental unit, it will be "your hometown" your first responders units that are callously trashed for the sake of politics and goals set in motion by the ugly remnants of Englerism and the teapartisans with pitchforks.
6. The EFM law "law does not dissolve the unions." Snyder has said he hopes toughening the law, a version of which has been on the books since the early 1990s, will act as an incentive for local governments and their unions to work out deals at the bargaining table to avoid financial emergencies. There are early signs that the strategy is working." Snyder's "incentives" are direct dictatorial actions that will clearly indicate whose in charge and clearly show that the local sovereignty over local affairs is history. Local government is THEIR GOVERNMENT, TOP-DOWN BIG GOVERNMENT FROM LANSING TO CRUSH LOCAL CONTROL. Folks this isn't the way it was supposed to turn out. Tea Party advocates take clear notice, YOU'VE BEEN HAD.
7. "Democratic legislative leaders are fanning the flames by promising a ballot initiative to enshrine collective bargaining as a right in the state Constitution." That would be mistake. That's not the sort of thing that ought to be protected by the Constitution." Here we see a hint of panic in the minds of the oppressors. If the people rise up and become alert to the dangers in Snyder's massive "shift and shaft" from Republicans gone rogue, and if they can mount a political counter-punch, then the top-down game-plan will change. There are measures that can and will be taken to forestall and suppress the mega-harm this novice governor has rolled over into. Snyder is no longer welcome many places and as his EFM's fan out and begin their "corporate cannibalization " of locally controlled governmental units; Tricky Rick may find himself walled up in his castle-like digs in Ann Arbor, unable to go and come without being confronted with hisses and jeers.
8. "There's no reason for unions or local communities to feel threatened by the emergency financial manager law." We expect that communities will have to comply. "make the hard choices necessary to avoid insolvency" "they'll avoid the financial manager as well. "
This News/Mackinac Center editorial is a great and near classic piece of disinformation and propaganda.
"Just stay calm." We, who are now well in the advantage, need for you to go about your business of everyday life and let us do what we want. WE IN BIG GOVERNMENT HERE AT LANSING HAVE CHOSEN OUR WINNERS. YOU, THE LOSERS MUST BE GOOD SPORTS AND TAKE DEFEAT(S) WITH HUMBLE RECOGNITION: TO THE WINNERS GO THE SPOILS.
There is one caveat, one moment of truth: Laura Berman points it out 3.22.11, "The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C., ranks Michigan's business climate 17th in the nation, better than Ohio (46th), Illinois (23rd), Arizona (34th), Wisconsin (40th) or indeed any of its neighbors, but Indiana (10th)."
One has to seriously question: "Just giving $1.8 billion to business brings on insurance that things will improve for the state's budget woes."
"The governor is betting that a proposed $1.7 billion in business tax breaks ("faith-based economics" is what some call it) will right Michigan's sinking fortunes by taxing pensions, cutting state aid to municipalities and putting pressure on public worker benefits."
This novice governor may be dead wrong. What then? Winners may become the biggest losers. Taking $1.8 billion out of the current economic "return-on-the-dollar spent in the local economy pass-around cycle" is a gigantic gamble. Adding $1.7 of it to business, as a reward, does not mean a better economy. It does mean a "fat gift" of short-lived profit for business.
Business may actually be the new "losers"!
Original Post.
Just a few points on this News Op-Ed:
1. "(N)obody is losing their collective bargaining rights under the emergency financial manager legislation signed into law this week by Gov. Rick Snyder." The honest track was that of Scott Walker in Wisconsin, do what you do to destroy collective bargaining head "on and then call it "progressive." Snyder's team's temerity is to make the "union busting" process loing and drawn out, bone ugly, and extremely divisive. Snyder, in a word, wants to further destroy this state turning one governmental unit against another. This Snyder does with threats and coercion. But he's attempting to sugar coat it with denials of his end purposes.
2. "(T)he charge just doesn't stick to Snyder." -- - "he's said repeatedly he will not follow the lead of governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere, and seek to weaken collective bargaining for public employees." Again, the method chosen by the Snyder team is duplicitous and corrupting. Afraid to take on the issue of collective bargaining in a straight forward manner; Snyder chose to do it with a cruel method. Impose shortfalls and revenue shortages at his discretion: Large cuts to school aid, and cutting off Block Grants to local units via State Government Control; out of Lansing. To this, Snyder adds the threatening provisions of a new and severely harsh EFM/Emergency Finance Manager. These SUPER BUREAUCRATS are being trained and put in place with wide and powerful dictatorial digression to destroy local units in an entire variety of ways. Breaking the contracts is not holding the collective bargaining process inviolate.
3. "And nothing in the emergency financial manager law infringes on collective bargaining" The highly paid agents of the Dillion/Flannagan's newly created Plunkett/Cooney friendly "firm run" Realignment Bureau have an unlimited ceiling to their compensation and powers; such as any boss would envy. Local property rights are about to be trashed. To be added to the trauma of an imposed "emergency" is the potential for huge costs to be levied against the local unit to fund the EFM's, further liquidating whatever taxpayer assets might remain. This is a self-feeding fee frenzy.!
4. "The only thing that changes is that if the governmental unit reaches the point of insolvency, the manager can (do what he deems necessary) to balance the books and avoid default, including breaking or rewriting contracts with unions and vendors." The way this entire anti-union, anti-collective bargaining scheme is structured rests on the fact that Snyder et al can and will use directed political decisions to make discretionary cuts in revenue to be tailored to the specific unit(s) they want to push into "insolvency." If and when the public comes to see the carnage Snyder has imposed on their fire department, their policing, their schools, etc. the reactions will be bitter and long lasting. This Snyder, the stubborn, cannot conceive as possible: he holds to a bumper sticker thought: Simple, Fair and Efficient. Rick feels a little "Chris Christie" bullyboy shove and kick will suffice; a loud outcry and then the struggle will all be over. Not so. If one does not fight for what has been their community, their family civic heritage, then what is there left to fight for. SNYDER'S BIG GOVERNMENT SLAP DOWN ON THE WORKING FOLK IS UNACCEPTABLE.
5. "But even that's not so much of a change" In the past we held our noses because the effected units were 'throwaways' areas the rest of the state had turned its back on. Now it won't be just war-torn Benton Harbor or some inner city satellite governmental unit, it will be "your hometown" your first responders units that are callously trashed for the sake of politics and goals set in motion by the ugly remnants of Englerism and the teapartisans with pitchforks.
6. The EFM law "law does not dissolve the unions." Snyder has said he hopes toughening the law, a version of which has been on the books since the early 1990s, will act as an incentive for local governments and their unions to work out deals at the bargaining table to avoid financial emergencies. There are early signs that the strategy is working." Snyder's "incentives" are direct dictatorial actions that will clearly indicate whose in charge and clearly show that the local sovereignty over local affairs is history. Local government is THEIR GOVERNMENT, TOP-DOWN BIG GOVERNMENT FROM LANSING TO CRUSH LOCAL CONTROL. Folks this isn't the way it was supposed to turn out. Tea Party advocates take clear notice, YOU'VE BEEN HAD.
7. "Democratic legislative leaders are fanning the flames by promising a ballot initiative to enshrine collective bargaining as a right in the state Constitution." That would be mistake. That's not the sort of thing that ought to be protected by the Constitution." Here we see a hint of panic in the minds of the oppressors. If the people rise up and become alert to the dangers in Snyder's massive "shift and shaft" from Republicans gone rogue, and if they can mount a political counter-punch, then the top-down game-plan will change. There are measures that can and will be taken to forestall and suppress the mega-harm this novice governor has rolled over into. Snyder is no longer welcome many places and as his EFM's fan out and begin their "corporate cannibalization " of locally controlled governmental units; Tricky Rick may find himself walled up in his castle-like digs in Ann Arbor, unable to go and come without being confronted with hisses and jeers.
8. "There's no reason for unions or local communities to feel threatened by the emergency financial manager law." We expect that communities will have to comply. "make the hard choices necessary to avoid insolvency" "they'll avoid the financial manager as well. "
This News/Mackinac Center editorial is a great and near classic piece of disinformation and propaganda.
"Just stay calm." We, who are now well in the advantage, need for you to go about your business of everyday life and let us do what we want. WE IN BIG GOVERNMENT HERE AT LANSING HAVE CHOSEN OUR WINNERS. YOU, THE LOSERS MUST BE GOOD SPORTS AND TAKE DEFEAT(S) WITH HUMBLE RECOGNITION: TO THE WINNERS GO THE SPOILS.
There is one caveat, one moment of truth: Laura Berman points it out 3.22.11, "The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C., ranks Michigan's business climate 17th in the nation, better than Ohio (46th), Illinois (23rd), Arizona (34th), Wisconsin (40th) or indeed any of its neighbors, but Indiana (10th)."
One has to seriously question: "Just giving $1.8 billion to business brings on insurance that things will improve for the state's budget woes."
"The governor is betting that a proposed $1.7 billion in business tax breaks ("faith-based economics" is what some call it) will right Michigan's sinking fortunes by taxing pensions, cutting state aid to municipalities and putting pressure on public worker benefits."
This novice governor may be dead wrong. What then? Winners may become the biggest losers. Taking $1.8 billion out of the current economic "return-on-the-dollar spent in the local economy pass-around cycle" is a gigantic gamble. Adding $1.7 of it to business, as a reward, does not mean a better economy. It does mean a "fat gift" of short-lived profit for business.
Business may actually be the new "losers"!
Original Post.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tricky Rick Snyder hopes he has strong support, but he doesn't
The people of this state aren't the problem. The richest people of this state are the problem.
The infamous Bullyboy Koch Brothers have been secretly stuffing the in boxes of the Michigan Legislators for far too long. Check out the growing number of good blogs which expose the A.L.E.C. attack (A.L.E.C., that deliberately mis-labeled entity that cranks out predigested/introduction ready legislation for lazy legislators), they're the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is a wholly controlled subsidiary of such radicals as The Heritage Foundation; and has been in the business of far right "seeding" of legislators thinking for decades.
The agenda A.L.E.C. promotes is that of the Wealthy Elites e.g. The Wal-mart Waltons, the Amway Clan, and Big Oil and various other corporate bullies. And so it is, The Brothers Koch, and this nasty herd of like-minded anti-worker greed grinch's from out-of-state write bills/formatted-style which Michigan' Teapublicans simply cut and paste into thoughtless, debate-less pro-corporate law.
What is happening here in Michigan is part of a well-designed and carefully orchestrated Anti-Middle Class Coup.
If, as Tricky Rick says, Snyder has the support of a sizable majority of silent citizens of Michigan, outside those select businessmen he's about to shower with $1.8 billion of our money wrestled away from school children, the retired, and the public employees, and add on a load of other perks.
Incidently, how can Snyder know they're supportive, as he says they're "silent?" Secondly, given the number of adults in Michigan and the number of votes(versus the total adult population) he received in last November's election, for Snyder to claim to have the Michigan majority opinion on his side is "whiskey talk"-the delusion of a novice pol.
Sit tight, stubborn Snyder. Stay at home in Ann Arbor, and don't come to your offical offices in the Capitol.
Plug your ears. Don't look out your windows, don't mix or mingle. Don't become political, as you say you won't. Then watch as your grand scheme to pawn off on Michigan harsh, imported A.L.E.C. legislation, cooked up and delivered on a silver platter to the desks of right-leaning, greenpea legislators takes both you and them down!
You may have thought you had the C.E.O. platinum card way to achieve the highest good for favored corporations, the tycoons, and the ideological elites-how wrong you and they are!
Gov. Snyder you have sold the citizens of this state out. Your tenure as governor has set an all-time low for newly-elected, unknowns figures in Michigan's Governor's office.
You have a very short period to change course and regain your "moderate" reasonableness or your effectiveness and the deteriorating social and economic conditions in Michigan will grow much more dire.
If you're in this for yourself, or for all those "business firsters" you represent, and if you deliberately refuse to be a servant to Mr. & Mrs. Workaday & kids, Granddad & Grandma, and willfully neglect those 800,000 poor and needy, the unemployed, then you're soon history.
By comparison, as for first impressions, you, Rick nearly make John Mathais Engler esq. look like a saint.
Original Post.
The infamous Bullyboy Koch Brothers have been secretly stuffing the in boxes of the Michigan Legislators for far too long. Check out the growing number of good blogs which expose the A.L.E.C. attack (A.L.E.C., that deliberately mis-labeled entity that cranks out predigested/introduction ready legislation for lazy legislators), they're the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is a wholly controlled subsidiary of such radicals as The Heritage Foundation; and has been in the business of far right "seeding" of legislators thinking for decades.
The agenda A.L.E.C. promotes is that of the Wealthy Elites e.g. The Wal-mart Waltons, the Amway Clan, and Big Oil and various other corporate bullies. And so it is, The Brothers Koch, and this nasty herd of like-minded anti-worker greed grinch's from out-of-state write bills/formatted-style which Michigan' Teapublicans simply cut and paste into thoughtless, debate-less pro-corporate law.
What is happening here in Michigan is part of a well-designed and carefully orchestrated Anti-Middle Class Coup.
If, as Tricky Rick says, Snyder has the support of a sizable majority of silent citizens of Michigan, outside those select businessmen he's about to shower with $1.8 billion of our money wrestled away from school children, the retired, and the public employees, and add on a load of other perks.
Incidently, how can Snyder know they're supportive, as he says they're "silent?" Secondly, given the number of adults in Michigan and the number of votes(versus the total adult population) he received in last November's election, for Snyder to claim to have the Michigan majority opinion on his side is "whiskey talk"-the delusion of a novice pol.
Sit tight, stubborn Snyder. Stay at home in Ann Arbor, and don't come to your offical offices in the Capitol.
Plug your ears. Don't look out your windows, don't mix or mingle. Don't become political, as you say you won't. Then watch as your grand scheme to pawn off on Michigan harsh, imported A.L.E.C. legislation, cooked up and delivered on a silver platter to the desks of right-leaning, greenpea legislators takes both you and them down!
You may have thought you had the C.E.O. platinum card way to achieve the highest good for favored corporations, the tycoons, and the ideological elites-how wrong you and they are!
Gov. Snyder you have sold the citizens of this state out. Your tenure as governor has set an all-time low for newly-elected, unknowns figures in Michigan's Governor's office.
You have a very short period to change course and regain your "moderate" reasonableness or your effectiveness and the deteriorating social and economic conditions in Michigan will grow much more dire.
If you're in this for yourself, or for all those "business firsters" you represent, and if you deliberately refuse to be a servant to Mr. & Mrs. Workaday & kids, Granddad & Grandma, and willfully neglect those 800,000 poor and needy, the unemployed, then you're soon history.
By comparison, as for first impressions, you, Rick nearly make John Mathais Engler esq. look like a saint.
Original Post.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
An Advocate for Christian Business Addresses Calabrese’s Admitted Lapse of Integrity
In response to the admission of Dan Calabrese that he is willing to break a binding business contract in order to save money (and your business) in times of economic duress, brought on by acording to his own admission; that he over-estimated his profits and under calculated his actual expenses in a down market. (Union entitlement is unsustainable, 3.11.11, Calabrese)
Calabrese admits in his recent column it caused him to admit, "you do things - things you sometimes regret." Dan admits, there were "long-term leases I had foolishly signed." His solution? Dan welched on his contract with a provider, and stated, I "told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble."
To understand Dan's self-described method of cutting costs, I turned to John E. Mitchell Jr., Texas business man and a Christian writer. Mitchell offers a thoughtful insight as to how a self-confessed Christian and businessman, such as Calabrese, is held to a higher standard than the non-professing business entrepreneurial:
"If, as Emerson says, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," then obviously the top executives of American business enterprises are very important. They have it in their power to help or to hurt a great many people.
"What are the traits of character do you think should be required, or at least hoped for, in an employer, a manager, the top executives?"
That an Employer Should Be "The head of a business concern should posses certain qualities which set him apart as a leader and clearly indicate his right to the postion he holds. These are qualifications which should be recognized and cultivated.
"A leader should possess real character, the result of a personal relationship to Christ. He leads best who best follows the Saviour. His qualities of leadership will be strengthen and fortified because of personal attention to spiritual realities. A man who sets an unwavering stand as a servant and follower of Christ will able operate from an unshakable foundation in every other area of life.
"It logically follows that, as a man of Christian character, a good leader will also be a man of integrity. He would keep his word. He will be honest in his dealings. He will not shade, hedge, or deviate in word or conduct. He will maintain this personal integrity even though it may involve great cost to himself."
In Michigan's troubling economic times we need moral high ground and integrity. We hope Dan will repent and join the effort to rebuild our state on honesty and integrity as he shares with us the thoughts of his mind.
Original Post.
Note: Dan Calabrese's posting "Union entitlement is unsustainable" posted to the Michigan View (Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) on March 11, 2011 was removed from the Detroit News website.
Calabrese admits in his recent column it caused him to admit, "you do things - things you sometimes regret." Dan admits, there were "long-term leases I had foolishly signed." His solution? Dan welched on his contract with a provider, and stated, I "told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble."
To understand Dan's self-described method of cutting costs, I turned to John E. Mitchell Jr., Texas business man and a Christian writer. Mitchell offers a thoughtful insight as to how a self-confessed Christian and businessman, such as Calabrese, is held to a higher standard than the non-professing business entrepreneurial:
"If, as Emerson says, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," then obviously the top executives of American business enterprises are very important. They have it in their power to help or to hurt a great many people.
"What are the traits of character do you think should be required, or at least hoped for, in an employer, a manager, the top executives?"
That an Employer Should Be "The head of a business concern should posses certain qualities which set him apart as a leader and clearly indicate his right to the postion he holds. These are qualifications which should be recognized and cultivated.
"A leader should possess real character, the result of a personal relationship to Christ. He leads best who best follows the Saviour. His qualities of leadership will be strengthen and fortified because of personal attention to spiritual realities. A man who sets an unwavering stand as a servant and follower of Christ will able operate from an unshakable foundation in every other area of life.
"It logically follows that, as a man of Christian character, a good leader will also be a man of integrity. He would keep his word. He will be honest in his dealings. He will not shade, hedge, or deviate in word or conduct. He will maintain this personal integrity even though it may involve great cost to himself."
In Michigan's troubling economic times we need moral high ground and integrity. We hope Dan will repent and join the effort to rebuild our state on honesty and integrity as he shares with us the thoughts of his mind.
Original Post.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Detroit News' Manny Lopez has not done his homework again!
Response to a comment posted by Manny Lopez in his link to Daniel Howes piece published on March 13, 2011.
Tricky Rick Snyder said during his mum-on-the-issues, near wordless/explanation-less campaign, "THE STATE HAS A BROKEN SYSTEM OF TRYING TO PICK WINNERS AND LOSERS too often, saying 'This industry is good, this industry is bad.' I've been doing venture capital for a lot of years. I've been picking winners and losers for a living. It's hard work. The government isn't competent to do that work."
Manny Lopez and his editorial klatsch (Eliminate the easy way out, 3/15/11) have the temerity go where "government isn't competent" to go, to pick those whom they fervently desire to make "losers."
Manny's selection of "losers" (those wonderful people who serve and protect us up and down this great state), who are now targeted, under the gun, by Snyder's neo-Englerites and greenpea Legislature) is extremely arrogant and ungrateful.
New legislators are being duped into pushing and complying with the nationwide agenda of the far right corporatist American Legislative Exchange Council, which is funded in large part by the THE BROTHERS KOCH and also is backed by Michigan's billionaire elite: the Dick & Betsy ideologues.
Manny's A OK with this. The loss of state sovereignty and right of self-determination, independent of BIG MONEY CRAFTED LEGISLATION piped into Lansing; being bought and paid for right under his nose, isn't a troubling concern for Manny or the Detroit/Mac Center News.
Making the service people of Michigan "losers" is ignoble and ungrateful. Since when are those who foster outright political reprisal and nasty/aggressive legislative dictatorial tactics; such as are being currently bum-rushed through Michigan's Legislature; thought to the "winners?"
Manny's buddies, citizen-appeal-deaf pro-corporatist cyborgs, may think of themselves as "winners," promoting their anti-public tactics, but their "win" is going to be a tragic loss for Michigan, our children and families alike.
Original Post.
Tricky Rick Snyder said during his mum-on-the-issues, near wordless/explanation-less campaign, "THE STATE HAS A BROKEN SYSTEM OF TRYING TO PICK WINNERS AND LOSERS too often, saying 'This industry is good, this industry is bad.' I've been doing venture capital for a lot of years. I've been picking winners and losers for a living. It's hard work. The government isn't competent to do that work."
Manny Lopez and his editorial klatsch (Eliminate the easy way out, 3/15/11) have the temerity go where "government isn't competent" to go, to pick those whom they fervently desire to make "losers."
Manny's selection of "losers" (those wonderful people who serve and protect us up and down this great state), who are now targeted, under the gun, by Snyder's neo-Englerites and greenpea Legislature) is extremely arrogant and ungrateful.
New legislators are being duped into pushing and complying with the nationwide agenda of the far right corporatist American Legislative Exchange Council, which is funded in large part by the THE BROTHERS KOCH and also is backed by Michigan's billionaire elite: the Dick & Betsy ideologues.
Manny's A OK with this. The loss of state sovereignty and right of self-determination, independent of BIG MONEY CRAFTED LEGISLATION piped into Lansing; being bought and paid for right under his nose, isn't a troubling concern for Manny or the Detroit/Mac Center News.
Making the service people of Michigan "losers" is ignoble and ungrateful. Since when are those who foster outright political reprisal and nasty/aggressive legislative dictatorial tactics; such as are being currently bum-rushed through Michigan's Legislature; thought to the "winners?"
Manny's buddies, citizen-appeal-deaf pro-corporatist cyborgs, may think of themselves as "winners," promoting their anti-public tactics, but their "win" is going to be a tragic loss for Michigan, our children and families alike.
Original Post.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Promise Maker Michigan Encouraged to Become a Promise Breaker - Deadbeat Provider
We are wearied by; tired of our obligations to those who have long served us in public ways. We would be so much better off if we could strip state retirees of their benefits and health care to improve our own bottomlines.(Union entitlement is unsustainable, 3/11/11)
This candid admission shows a lack of support for honest commitment and basic integrity. Moral gives way to business practical. When we encourage these units to use a crisis to accomplish what we know is their contractual and socially committed obligations, (due to disaster capitalism and Snyders flawed budget proposals) we rationalize our firm determination to walk away.
Rick Snyder's self-created finance crisis is built atop a monster Bush created economic collapse due to systemic corruption, fraud, and cleverly designed de-regulation stepped down from Washington, D.C. by no-less than former/ousted one term U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham.
Sen. Abraham presided over the very Senate session that lowered the bar on unique and publically indecipherable investment devices and market gambling that had been previously outlawed. These retreats from market regulation, laws that had made illegal by that same body over 100 years previously.
Libertarians are almost certainly to be practitioners of an amoral code. They are highly individual. The well-being of others is shut out as they pursue the neo-Objectivist code of a dangerous Russian-born radical, Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum), whose virulent atheist, anti-Jesus gospel/tome was published titled "The Virtue of Selfishness."
Many neo-Libertarians infesting the body politic are the Evil Samaritans; who steer completely clear of those of their fellow humans in distress or need. They're not community-minded.
If being a liberal is by definition being: generous and gregarious, with a mind to community and advocates of the New England Town Meeting, collective good; they are not some say even "evil." They know nothing of the true nature of an organization that calls its members, brothers and sisters-the labor associations that have made the middle class prosper and their children attain to a higher level of education and service do to the brotherhood of association. Never forget the corporate evils of the past which were overcome by solidarity!
Dan thinks he's right. And we know he's "right" alright. Dan often here at the MIView, prides himself being "right of right" As he moves toward greed, he will be less and less troubled by "kicking against the pricks" by God and more anesthetized by his own narrow needs to the more complete exclusion of others outside his "tribe" read; mega-church and weekly Christian Businessman's meetings, Tea Party klatch.
This is why we react with skepticism when we learn that Dan's problems with unions and public employees. His reaction is rooted in the fact they represent employees with a right to organize and enjoy due process. So when things went sour for Dan's PR business, as he has revealed on this blog, Dan clearly resents and resists not having the privilege of his simple "pleasure" -freedom to tap a worker on the shoulder at a perfect moment in the work day: giving the employee a cardboard box and showing him/her the door ala his sacred right; the ability to "hire and fire at will."
We also note, Dan goes farther in his pursuit of "autonomous self-interest." Calabrese tells us; "...when you're deluded into thinking you've entered Permanent Fat and Happy Land, you do things - things you sometimes regret. You sign long-term leases on offices and equipment. You agree to generous union contracts. Hey, the numbers look good!" Dan did this, he tells us, then he decided he was being boxed in by his decision to "go under contract" with his provider at the very time his business was floundering. Calabrese's "out"? Who would believe: Violate/break the binding contract.
Dan: "The problem was that more than half my monthly expenses were from long-term leases I HAD FOOLISHLY SIGNED. I couldn't just sit there and say, 'Cut this, cut this, cut that . . .' I had to contact each of the parties involved and see if I could renegotiate. Some were willing. Others were not."
"The bottom line is this: The business survived, and is still operating today, but only because I recognized it had to be radically restructured, with REGRETTABLE AGREEMENTS renegotiated and certain elements eliminated entirely."
How did Dan accomplish survival of his business?
Dan: "In the case of (the lease company) I sent back the copier early, and told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble. They didn't.
Wrote Calabrese:
From this self-narrated story Calabrese draws this wider public conclusion: The State should likewise needs to break it's social contract and long-standing commitment to its career retirees and teachers. Dan's wisdom based on his "business experience" is just walk away. Collect if you can.
Calabrese pontificates:
In other words take what is given you (public employees) forget that the State as a retirement obligation to you or the state will "find a way not to have to deal with you."
So the promise keeper State is supported to become the promise breaker, the deadbeat manager of obligations clearly integral to the retiree's retirement fund. And all this based on a faulty logic and a contrived and purposefully exaggerated "economic crisis"; presented by Snyder et. al. as a device to target "political enemies."
How moral is that, Dan?
Original Post.
Note: Dan Calabrese's posting "Union entitlement is unsustainable" posted to the Michigan View (Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) on March 11, 2011 was removed from the Detroit News website.So we find our Michigan View moralist and anti-public cynic, Dan Calabrese saying:
"When the economic environment changed, they (Many units of government in Michigan) wished they could get out from under these commitments, or better yet, that they had never made them in the first place."
This candid admission shows a lack of support for honest commitment and basic integrity. Moral gives way to business practical. When we encourage these units to use a crisis to accomplish what we know is their contractual and socially committed obligations, (due to disaster capitalism and Snyders flawed budget proposals) we rationalize our firm determination to walk away.
Rick Snyder's self-created finance crisis is built atop a monster Bush created economic collapse due to systemic corruption, fraud, and cleverly designed de-regulation stepped down from Washington, D.C. by no-less than former/ousted one term U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham.
Sen. Abraham presided over the very Senate session that lowered the bar on unique and publically indecipherable investment devices and market gambling that had been previously outlawed. These retreats from market regulation, laws that had made illegal by that same body over 100 years previously.
Libertarians are almost certainly to be practitioners of an amoral code. They are highly individual. The well-being of others is shut out as they pursue the neo-Objectivist code of a dangerous Russian-born radical, Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum), whose virulent atheist, anti-Jesus gospel/tome was published titled "The Virtue of Selfishness."
Many neo-Libertarians infesting the body politic are the Evil Samaritans; who steer completely clear of those of their fellow humans in distress or need. They're not community-minded.
If being a liberal is by definition being: generous and gregarious, with a mind to community and advocates of the New England Town Meeting, collective good; they are not some say even "evil." They know nothing of the true nature of an organization that calls its members, brothers and sisters-the labor associations that have made the middle class prosper and their children attain to a higher level of education and service do to the brotherhood of association. Never forget the corporate evils of the past which were overcome by solidarity!
Dan thinks he's right. And we know he's "right" alright. Dan often here at the MIView, prides himself being "right of right" As he moves toward greed, he will be less and less troubled by "kicking against the pricks" by God and more anesthetized by his own narrow needs to the more complete exclusion of others outside his "tribe" read; mega-church and weekly Christian Businessman's meetings, Tea Party klatch.
This is why we react with skepticism when we learn that Dan's problems with unions and public employees. His reaction is rooted in the fact they represent employees with a right to organize and enjoy due process. So when things went sour for Dan's PR business, as he has revealed on this blog, Dan clearly resents and resists not having the privilege of his simple "pleasure" -freedom to tap a worker on the shoulder at a perfect moment in the work day: giving the employee a cardboard box and showing him/her the door ala his sacred right; the ability to "hire and fire at will."
We also note, Dan goes farther in his pursuit of "autonomous self-interest." Calabrese tells us; "...when you're deluded into thinking you've entered Permanent Fat and Happy Land, you do things - things you sometimes regret. You sign long-term leases on offices and equipment. You agree to generous union contracts. Hey, the numbers look good!" Dan did this, he tells us, then he decided he was being boxed in by his decision to "go under contract" with his provider at the very time his business was floundering. Calabrese's "out"? Who would believe: Violate/break the binding contract.
Dan: "The problem was that more than half my monthly expenses were from long-term leases I HAD FOOLISHLY SIGNED. I couldn't just sit there and say, 'Cut this, cut this, cut that . . .' I had to contact each of the parties involved and see if I could renegotiate. Some were willing. Others were not."
"The bottom line is this: The business survived, and is still operating today, but only because I recognized it had to be radically restructured, with REGRETTABLE AGREEMENTS renegotiated and certain elements eliminated entirely."
How did Dan accomplish survival of his business?
Dan: "In the case of (the lease company) I sent back the copier early, and told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble. They didn't.
Wrote Calabrese:
"You may conclude from all this that I am a horrible businessman. YOU MIGHT NOT BE WRONG. But the point is that I faced problems that many businesses face every day, and I had no choice but to make adjustments and reform my organization in order to survive."
From this self-narrated story Calabrese draws this wider public conclusion: The State should likewise needs to break it's social contract and long-standing commitment to its career retirees and teachers. Dan's wisdom based on his "business experience" is just walk away. Collect if you can.
Calabrese pontificates:
"No one is ever entitled to anything forever. You (the state and business) do the best you can, given the economic realities in which you operate. You can be flexible when circumstances demand it, or you can refuse, in which case people will find a way not to have to deal with you."
In other words take what is given you (public employees) forget that the State as a retirement obligation to you or the state will "find a way not to have to deal with you."
So the promise keeper State is supported to become the promise breaker, the deadbeat manager of obligations clearly integral to the retiree's retirement fund. And all this based on a faulty logic and a contrived and purposefully exaggerated "economic crisis"; presented by Snyder et. al. as a device to target "political enemies."
How moral is that, Dan?
Original Post.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Michigan Governor Exposed on National TV: Michigan in Free Fall, Headed to Civic, Colossal Disaster
Dictatorship is "verboten." Snyder's push to ramrod anti-union bills (H.B. 4215 et al and corresponding Senate bills) finally got big time negative attention, and how!
MSNBC has outed Rick Snyder's ALEC and more intense investigation and exposes are bound to be coming forth e.g. a long internet based report entitled "Gov Snyder Sellout?"
Michigan GOP'ers embarrassed themselves with a fool's blunder creating in a stroke of acidic political dyspepsia, imposing voter disenfranchisement and civic disaster. They do this giving huge new powers to EMF's that are literally dictatorial and counter-productive to the health and well-being of local sovereignty/home rule, and the right of self-determination.
These local units under duress are administered by our closest neighbors and are officials, who often work in our behalf without adequate funding and personally serve unselfishly in elective positions that drain their personal incomes rather than add to their remuneration for these often difficult and important local decisions, service and governance they provide. They did not lobby or ask for this kind of cruel assignment, it is being imposed on them.
This situation is unacceptable and morally repugnant.
The Snyder/Teapubican plan would actually eject officials from office and bar them from returning to elective office for a period of years.
Folks this is nuts!
The purpose of these bills is intended to deliberately squeeze the local units and force them to do drastic and hurtful harm to fireman, policemen, first responders, municipal workers, teachers, etc. in order to coerce/force wage and benefit stripping which Snyder and Teapublicans demand.
Snyder/Dillon are intent on making this happen. In fact, it is they who make deficits happen; they are about to cut off any block grant revenue sharing and are cutting the school aid funding per pupil by a whopping $470 per student forcing these units to drown in debt.
What is clear is that Snyder and the Teapubicans in the State Legislature are forcing the local units to do extreme heavy lifting, perform despicable actions which leave the Governor and Dillon ostensibly clear of all direct blame or direct responsibility, which is totally untrue.
Snyder's call to local units is as per: We don't care how you do it, just grab back all you can, strip off enough to keep afloat or if you don't, you can count on me and Andy Dillon to take over and clean up after you in a very methodical and dictatorial way.
This concept is backed up by Dillon's recent media quotes: Dillon hinted that one of the communities on the brink is not what most would expect -- an urban and low-income city. He said the state needs more teeth in laws to force communities to straighten out their finances, and for those that don't, "BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN." He called on the Legislature to quickly enact a change in the law to give financial emergency managers...more power to act sooner to head off financial problems. "IT'S GOING TO PROPERLY ALIGN PEOPLE'S MOTIVATIONS TO DO IT THEMSELVES," Dillon said, after speaking to the Business Leaders for Michigan summit on the state's financial condition.
There you have Dillon acquired "brute force"; the wielding of the big axe pushed into the hands of local officials is there to "properly align people's motivations to do it themselves." This in Dillon's own words.
What fools the Michigan Senate are called to be. Rick Snyder is dead wrong.
The entire nation got a nasty anti-democratic eyeful of Nerdonomics and it's ties to corporatist A.L.E.C. and it reeks. Sensible leaders went on alert about the disaster-in-the-making (EFM's) which Tricky Ricky insists on foisting off on Michigan's bamboozled teapartisan State Senators and Representatives.
What is obvious (to the now very alert nation) that there is a national well-oiled coup,a fully mogul-financed game plan assembled by radical far rightists delivered, in large part, by A.L.E.C. - a far right semi-secret conduit for corporations (Bros. Koch included) directly to the desks of state legislators across the nation - has been flung into the bright light of justifiable criticism.
Michigan Legislators were given one last chance and called into account by hundreds of concerned citizens who attempted to warn them off. Many called on them to do the right thing. They willfully failed.
They blew this important chance and now the Snyder Administration will be tied up in court for a very long, bitter time. Acrimony will cloud these local units. Michigan's chances for jobs and recovery take a direct and malicious blow regarding the future.
How sad! We have been shoved into a corner by a well-planned take over scheme funded by the Bros. Koch and others. These outside forces have focused on many states. Michigan Republicans are utterly subservient to such powerful self-seeking elites such as the Bros. Koch and the powerful Amway clan.
Michiganders are really coming to speed, this comment from one observer: (Rick Snyder, the governor,) plans to privatize cities and towns by having corporations, such as Wackenhut, under emergency directive, come in and dissolve and even (effect) disincorporation (on) cities and towns. Remember the old company town, where you had to buy your food and clothing from the company you worked for, and never could get current? You effectively became their slave. Well, if you like that, good because it's coming again."
Original Post.
MSNBC has outed Rick Snyder's ALEC and more intense investigation and exposes are bound to be coming forth e.g. a long internet based report entitled "Gov Snyder Sellout?"
Michigan GOP'ers embarrassed themselves with a fool's blunder creating in a stroke of acidic political dyspepsia, imposing voter disenfranchisement and civic disaster. They do this giving huge new powers to EMF's that are literally dictatorial and counter-productive to the health and well-being of local sovereignty/home rule, and the right of self-determination.
These local units under duress are administered by our closest neighbors and are officials, who often work in our behalf without adequate funding and personally serve unselfishly in elective positions that drain their personal incomes rather than add to their remuneration for these often difficult and important local decisions, service and governance they provide. They did not lobby or ask for this kind of cruel assignment, it is being imposed on them.
This situation is unacceptable and morally repugnant.
The Snyder/Teapubican plan would actually eject officials from office and bar them from returning to elective office for a period of years.
Folks this is nuts!
The purpose of these bills is intended to deliberately squeeze the local units and force them to do drastic and hurtful harm to fireman, policemen, first responders, municipal workers, teachers, etc. in order to coerce/force wage and benefit stripping which Snyder and Teapublicans demand.
Snyder/Dillon are intent on making this happen. In fact, it is they who make deficits happen; they are about to cut off any block grant revenue sharing and are cutting the school aid funding per pupil by a whopping $470 per student forcing these units to drown in debt.
What is clear is that Snyder and the Teapubicans in the State Legislature are forcing the local units to do extreme heavy lifting, perform despicable actions which leave the Governor and Dillon ostensibly clear of all direct blame or direct responsibility, which is totally untrue.
Snyder's call to local units is as per: We don't care how you do it, just grab back all you can, strip off enough to keep afloat or if you don't, you can count on me and Andy Dillon to take over and clean up after you in a very methodical and dictatorial way.
This concept is backed up by Dillon's recent media quotes: Dillon hinted that one of the communities on the brink is not what most would expect -- an urban and low-income city. He said the state needs more teeth in laws to force communities to straighten out their finances, and for those that don't, "BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN." He called on the Legislature to quickly enact a change in the law to give financial emergency managers...more power to act sooner to head off financial problems. "IT'S GOING TO PROPERLY ALIGN PEOPLE'S MOTIVATIONS TO DO IT THEMSELVES," Dillon said, after speaking to the Business Leaders for Michigan summit on the state's financial condition.
There you have Dillon acquired "brute force"; the wielding of the big axe pushed into the hands of local officials is there to "properly align people's motivations to do it themselves." This in Dillon's own words.
What fools the Michigan Senate are called to be. Rick Snyder is dead wrong.
The entire nation got a nasty anti-democratic eyeful of Nerdonomics and it's ties to corporatist A.L.E.C. and it reeks. Sensible leaders went on alert about the disaster-in-the-making (EFM's) which Tricky Ricky insists on foisting off on Michigan's bamboozled teapartisan State Senators and Representatives.
What is obvious (to the now very alert nation) that there is a national well-oiled coup,a fully mogul-financed game plan assembled by radical far rightists delivered, in large part, by A.L.E.C. - a far right semi-secret conduit for corporations (Bros. Koch included) directly to the desks of state legislators across the nation - has been flung into the bright light of justifiable criticism.
Michigan Legislators were given one last chance and called into account by hundreds of concerned citizens who attempted to warn them off. Many called on them to do the right thing. They willfully failed.
They blew this important chance and now the Snyder Administration will be tied up in court for a very long, bitter time. Acrimony will cloud these local units. Michigan's chances for jobs and recovery take a direct and malicious blow regarding the future.
How sad! We have been shoved into a corner by a well-planned take over scheme funded by the Bros. Koch and others. These outside forces have focused on many states. Michigan Republicans are utterly subservient to such powerful self-seeking elites such as the Bros. Koch and the powerful Amway clan.
Michiganders are really coming to speed, this comment from one observer: (Rick Snyder, the governor,) plans to privatize cities and towns by having corporations, such as Wackenhut, under emergency directive, come in and dissolve and even (effect) disincorporation (on) cities and towns. Remember the old company town, where you had to buy your food and clothing from the company you worked for, and never could get current? You effectively became their slave. Well, if you like that, good because it's coming again."
Original Post.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Michigan Gov Rick Snyder's Nerdonomics Gone Wild
It's easy to go loony in Michigan; it's so natural to turn on each other when the Bush induced Depression pulls us all down.
A willful and stubborn Nerdhead governor amplifies our desperation and the hurt.
Apparently this economic trauma is being felt everywhere, but not in the heart of our Novice Nerd Governor. The word is out: Snyder is stubborn, very set in his own ways; beyond reason and not inclined to compromise or collaborate. In a word, Tricky Ricky is not political. So many Michigan voters thought they saw a glimmer of hope that he was our Superman-mild mannered Clark Kent turned powerful helper.
Snyder appeared to be a businessman, a special man who is willing to give of himself, step down from his safe high place as a millionaire; become governor/statesman, let-the-chips-fall-as they-may and lead Michigan out of our troubles. Rick was to do this with a credible/honest set of best practices. It turns out Rick's got a character flaw. He doesn't play by the rules of the public governance game.
Snyder May Not Want to Be Political, But He Must He may hate the world of politics. He may know little or nothing about how to bring about consensus among and between folk over whom he no longer holds the power; that which he once had as an owner/CEO to "hire and fire at will."
Snyder insists he's the CEO of Michigan, "hired" to run Michigan as a business. Rick's vision of himself in this mythical role makes him insist that things run in his mind as a business. Michigan is not a business. The Governor is not a CEO. MICHIGAN HAS NO CEO!
Snyder is given the elected responsibility to oversee the other branches of governance and the departments of Michigan. He has a bully pulpit and very limited power as compared to an actual "CEO" of a corporation, his prior domain.
Snyder's Experience Advisers Can't Get Through to the Stubborn Nerd The word is out that his advisers, many very experienced Engler Men, can't get across to Snyder that he must give a much wider berth to the politics-the gentle art of persuasion. We are in a tough time. This time is made much worse by the battering of ideological, social, and raw "business-first-last-and-always" mindset of so many around Lansing.
The Engler Revolution's negative vibes still reverberate in the rotunda of the Capitol, Engler devotees still hunger for the power of political persuasion they once had when the Engler Revolution legislatively took from one group in order to "gift" those "takings" to cronies and others John Engler chose.
Engler was Devilishly Clever As his sidekick and facilitator, Richard D. McLellen has said his buddy, John M. Engler, was a master at pre-planning, mapping and strategizing his every move; first in political terms, then carried right out to the end of the political and legal process to his end goal. That's why we have a Englercentric State Supreme Court and so many programs stamped with the Engler Revolution empress.
Snyder, by comparison, is a Political Novice, in the Worst of Times, Attempting a Steep Learning Curve The Nerd is in the middle of a huge crisis. His inability, or should we say, willful insistence on his own way or the highway, is an extreme liability at this very time.
Some common sense, some sense of working together with the public needs to temper Snyder's stubbornness and angst.
Keep him in your prayers. Thoughtful people are alarmed. Here's Snyder; unknown in philosophy and intentions; having successfully dodged debate and interviews on his inner workings and real outlook prior to the election; now in command of the governorship a political office. He has been elected to the most difficult period of Michigan history in our memory and we don't know the man!
Snyder's Ability to Lead Successfully Depends Greatly on Consent of the Governed The Nerd insists on doing what "He sees fit;" damn the advice of political advisers and seasoned pundits. We're headed for worse trouble. Snyder is losing the confidence and support of the people of Michigan. His high-handed approach to the budget is but one example.
Tricky Rick has turned one faction against another. The poor are immaterial to his beancounting, just as those 85,000 able bodied but mentally ill and unemployables were "throwaways" whom Engler put on the mean streets in 1991.
Now we learn on radical moves such as the newly legislated "Emergency Finance Manager" (EFM) who is given unparalleled powers, dictatorial unlimited discretion to disband cities, school districts, etc. accountable directly back to Snyder himself.
The theory behind the new EFM fails to ostensibly improve the governmental unit's failed operations and financial conduct as we find corruption and malfeasance under the Detroit EFM headed by Robert Bobb.
More pointedly the EFM proposes to COERCE AND FORCE those units (put concurrently under new specifically Snyder induced revenue shortfalls ($470/student cuts in Foundation Grants, the summary end to Block Grants to local units from Lansing, etc. which exacerbate and compound the existing revenue shortages) into a loosely defined, but deadly "emergency status" leading to a sudden takeover and liquidation of assets and buildings, etc. Government take overs of local functions will be hotly resisted. Mark that down. And those employees targeted for loss of bargaining rights,etc. and those elected officials kicked out of office, and barred for years from future office, won't be taking this dictatorial coup sitting down! The public knows what is the hidden purpose of the EFM's and they aren't buying in.
Folks We Are in Deep Tabasco!
It's now becoming clear that Snyder is so deep into his independence and (assumed) power, vested in a belief he truly has his former corporate prerogatives, that he has taken from, and undercut, a very subservient Teapartisan Legislature. Snyder makes the Legislature a victim via his big oversight grab: As the A.P. reports: "...Rick Snyder's move to make the state budget 'simple, fair and efficient' may instead be leaving the public in the dark about how its money will be spent." Furthermore, Snyder's "line items for programs and spending wouldn't be binding. That basically could allow UNELECTED DEPARTMENT HEADS RATHER THAN LEGISLATORS TO DECIDE HOW THE MONEY SHOULD BE SPENT, said Craig Thiel, state affairs director for the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council in Lansing.
"The lack of specifics concerns citizen watchdog groups such as Common Cause Michigan. PEOPLE REALLY HAD A SENSE OF WHAT WAS BEING FUNDED when they could see department budgets laid out program by program, said executive director Christina Kuo. DOING IT SNYDER'S WAY 'REALLY GOES AGAINST HIS COMMITMENT TO OPEN GOVERNMENT AND TRANSPARENCY.'"
Original Post.
A willful and stubborn Nerdhead governor amplifies our desperation and the hurt.
Apparently this economic trauma is being felt everywhere, but not in the heart of our Novice Nerd Governor. The word is out: Snyder is stubborn, very set in his own ways; beyond reason and not inclined to compromise or collaborate. In a word, Tricky Ricky is not political. So many Michigan voters thought they saw a glimmer of hope that he was our Superman-mild mannered Clark Kent turned powerful helper.
Snyder appeared to be a businessman, a special man who is willing to give of himself, step down from his safe high place as a millionaire; become governor/statesman, let-the-chips-fall-as they-may and lead Michigan out of our troubles. Rick was to do this with a credible/honest set of best practices. It turns out Rick's got a character flaw. He doesn't play by the rules of the public governance game.
Snyder May Not Want to Be Political, But He Must He may hate the world of politics. He may know little or nothing about how to bring about consensus among and between folk over whom he no longer holds the power; that which he once had as an owner/CEO to "hire and fire at will."
Snyder insists he's the CEO of Michigan, "hired" to run Michigan as a business. Rick's vision of himself in this mythical role makes him insist that things run in his mind as a business. Michigan is not a business. The Governor is not a CEO. MICHIGAN HAS NO CEO!
Snyder is given the elected responsibility to oversee the other branches of governance and the departments of Michigan. He has a bully pulpit and very limited power as compared to an actual "CEO" of a corporation, his prior domain.
Snyder's Experience Advisers Can't Get Through to the Stubborn Nerd The word is out that his advisers, many very experienced Engler Men, can't get across to Snyder that he must give a much wider berth to the politics-the gentle art of persuasion. We are in a tough time. This time is made much worse by the battering of ideological, social, and raw "business-first-last-and-always" mindset of so many around Lansing.
The Engler Revolution's negative vibes still reverberate in the rotunda of the Capitol, Engler devotees still hunger for the power of political persuasion they once had when the Engler Revolution legislatively took from one group in order to "gift" those "takings" to cronies and others John Engler chose.
Engler was Devilishly Clever As his sidekick and facilitator, Richard D. McLellen has said his buddy, John M. Engler, was a master at pre-planning, mapping and strategizing his every move; first in political terms, then carried right out to the end of the political and legal process to his end goal. That's why we have a Englercentric State Supreme Court and so many programs stamped with the Engler Revolution empress.
Snyder, by comparison, is a Political Novice, in the Worst of Times, Attempting a Steep Learning Curve The Nerd is in the middle of a huge crisis. His inability, or should we say, willful insistence on his own way or the highway, is an extreme liability at this very time.
Some common sense, some sense of working together with the public needs to temper Snyder's stubbornness and angst.
Keep him in your prayers. Thoughtful people are alarmed. Here's Snyder; unknown in philosophy and intentions; having successfully dodged debate and interviews on his inner workings and real outlook prior to the election; now in command of the governorship a political office. He has been elected to the most difficult period of Michigan history in our memory and we don't know the man!
Snyder's Ability to Lead Successfully Depends Greatly on Consent of the Governed The Nerd insists on doing what "He sees fit;" damn the advice of political advisers and seasoned pundits. We're headed for worse trouble. Snyder is losing the confidence and support of the people of Michigan. His high-handed approach to the budget is but one example.
Tricky Rick has turned one faction against another. The poor are immaterial to his beancounting, just as those 85,000 able bodied but mentally ill and unemployables were "throwaways" whom Engler put on the mean streets in 1991.
Now we learn on radical moves such as the newly legislated "Emergency Finance Manager" (EFM) who is given unparalleled powers, dictatorial unlimited discretion to disband cities, school districts, etc. accountable directly back to Snyder himself.
The theory behind the new EFM fails to ostensibly improve the governmental unit's failed operations and financial conduct as we find corruption and malfeasance under the Detroit EFM headed by Robert Bobb.
More pointedly the EFM proposes to COERCE AND FORCE those units (put concurrently under new specifically Snyder induced revenue shortfalls ($470/student cuts in Foundation Grants, the summary end to Block Grants to local units from Lansing, etc. which exacerbate and compound the existing revenue shortages) into a loosely defined, but deadly "emergency status" leading to a sudden takeover and liquidation of assets and buildings, etc. Government take overs of local functions will be hotly resisted. Mark that down. And those employees targeted for loss of bargaining rights,etc. and those elected officials kicked out of office, and barred for years from future office, won't be taking this dictatorial coup sitting down! The public knows what is the hidden purpose of the EFM's and they aren't buying in.
Folks We Are in Deep Tabasco!
It's now becoming clear that Snyder is so deep into his independence and (assumed) power, vested in a belief he truly has his former corporate prerogatives, that he has taken from, and undercut, a very subservient Teapartisan Legislature. Snyder makes the Legislature a victim via his big oversight grab: As the A.P. reports: "...Rick Snyder's move to make the state budget 'simple, fair and efficient' may instead be leaving the public in the dark about how its money will be spent." Furthermore, Snyder's "line items for programs and spending wouldn't be binding. That basically could allow UNELECTED DEPARTMENT HEADS RATHER THAN LEGISLATORS TO DECIDE HOW THE MONEY SHOULD BE SPENT, said Craig Thiel, state affairs director for the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council in Lansing.
"The lack of specifics concerns citizen watchdog groups such as Common Cause Michigan. PEOPLE REALLY HAD A SENSE OF WHAT WAS BEING FUNDED when they could see department budgets laid out program by program, said executive director Christina Kuo. DOING IT SNYDER'S WAY 'REALLY GOES AGAINST HIS COMMITMENT TO OPEN GOVERNMENT AND TRANSPARENCY.'"
Original Post.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Hell hath no fury as in a state built by industrious working men and women, good people now scorned and disenfranchised by Michigan Teapartisans
The passage H.B. 4215 et al, dictatorial EFM take over, voter disenfranchisement, 'corporate' direct control of local units of government breaks all previous records for reckless and thoughtless partisanship.
This all sadly grows out of the nasty Engler Revolution and the bad blood Engler engendered.
The giddy 'gotcha trolls' in the News blogs are high with grit in their teeth!
Many villages, towns, fire and police departments, schools and all their sweet children have been summarily turned over to Plunkett/Cooney high powered/high fee attorneys.
Emergencies, not yet declared, will mount up into the hundreds as the Nerdomomics of Tricky Rick unfold. This will include scores of public schools, sent to the dustbin by Rick Snyder's Nerdonomics.
Do the math yourselves.
There are already units in a financial fix. SNYDER'S INTENTIONAL TAX/REVENUE STARVATION of other units who are surviving, but struggling, will led immediately to many more undefined, but certain, declarations of 'finance emergencies.'
The We-are-much-smarter-than-thou GOP State Senators will rue the day they stepped off into this muck. We already know that $470 or more is cut from the neighborhood schools. We are fully aware that revenue sharing back to our communities of our own tax dollars via Block Grants is axed. This situation alone means there will be real trouble locally, real soon.
This is Snyder creative crisis built on a national economic downturn, not the first, but one of many very similar, over the years in Michigan.
Former Gov. William Milliken knows personally the hurt and the struggle of these cyclical events in Michigan. He led the state in pro-active and collaborate ways to overcoming and recovery.
SNYDER AND HIS TEAM OF HARD-HEADED,HARDCORE ENGLERITES HAVEN'T A CLUE They, like Engler, love the political battle and its spoils more than the peace, preferring strife over 'genuine, sincere, honest sacrifice' by all including corporations, the mega wealthy, and businesses-each according to ability.
The kind of EFM turmoil, headed up by corporations and 'firms' handed the undemocratic assignment(granted wages not to exceed $177,000 per year) is the kind of quality of life, culture buster, that drives away outstate investors.
Fancy this, what incoming corporate CEO wants to live in the wasteland this debacle has fueled. Culture to a German Company is equal to capital profits.
Germans get it. GOP'ers don't. The more cunning of the Teapartisan fearing ninnies, that timorous covey of poultry, should not be surprised by the ugly outcomes. The other sheepish, including the clueless newbees, will be stunned and very adversely effected by the collapse of units in their districts. The acrimony and the gnashing of teeth; viewed as the parsimonious landscape of "hell" will be their abode.
The 'real people' are coming for your leather swivel chairs and your platinum promise of State-Funded Health Insurance for Life, and all those other bits and pieces that lured you, the current GOP'ers into public office.
Now you've been elected, you turn on your people; to become judas goats, bitter enemies, to your own district's working families; turning against your own first responders, teachers, and the school children who populate our hopeful futures.
Remember...Dictatorship is Ugly! Hell's fury via angry, offended voters is real.
Original Post.
This all sadly grows out of the nasty Engler Revolution and the bad blood Engler engendered.
The giddy 'gotcha trolls' in the News blogs are high with grit in their teeth!
Many villages, towns, fire and police departments, schools and all their sweet children have been summarily turned over to Plunkett/Cooney high powered/high fee attorneys.
Emergencies, not yet declared, will mount up into the hundreds as the Nerdomomics of Tricky Rick unfold. This will include scores of public schools, sent to the dustbin by Rick Snyder's Nerdonomics.
Do the math yourselves.
There are already units in a financial fix. SNYDER'S INTENTIONAL TAX/REVENUE STARVATION of other units who are surviving, but struggling, will led immediately to many more undefined, but certain, declarations of 'finance emergencies.'
The We-are-much-smarter-than-thou GOP State Senators will rue the day they stepped off into this muck. We already know that $470 or more is cut from the neighborhood schools. We are fully aware that revenue sharing back to our communities of our own tax dollars via Block Grants is axed. This situation alone means there will be real trouble locally, real soon.
This is Snyder creative crisis built on a national economic downturn, not the first, but one of many very similar, over the years in Michigan.
Former Gov. William Milliken knows personally the hurt and the struggle of these cyclical events in Michigan. He led the state in pro-active and collaborate ways to overcoming and recovery.
SNYDER AND HIS TEAM OF HARD-HEADED,HARDCORE ENGLERITES HAVEN'T A CLUE They, like Engler, love the political battle and its spoils more than the peace, preferring strife over 'genuine, sincere, honest sacrifice' by all including corporations, the mega wealthy, and businesses-each according to ability.
The kind of EFM turmoil, headed up by corporations and 'firms' handed the undemocratic assignment(granted wages not to exceed $177,000 per year) is the kind of quality of life, culture buster, that drives away outstate investors.
Fancy this, what incoming corporate CEO wants to live in the wasteland this debacle has fueled. Culture to a German Company is equal to capital profits.
Germans get it. GOP'ers don't. The more cunning of the Teapartisan fearing ninnies, that timorous covey of poultry, should not be surprised by the ugly outcomes. The other sheepish, including the clueless newbees, will be stunned and very adversely effected by the collapse of units in their districts. The acrimony and the gnashing of teeth; viewed as the parsimonious landscape of "hell" will be their abode.
The 'real people' are coming for your leather swivel chairs and your platinum promise of State-Funded Health Insurance for Life, and all those other bits and pieces that lured you, the current GOP'ers into public office.
Now you've been elected, you turn on your people; to become judas goats, bitter enemies, to your own district's working families; turning against your own first responders, teachers, and the school children who populate our hopeful futures.
Remember...Dictatorship is Ugly! Hell's fury via angry, offended voters is real.
Original Post.
The Nation looks on as Michigan’s Ship of State steams for the Rocks with H.B. 4215 & Orders from the Bros. Koch
Dictatorship is "verboten": Snyder's disastrous H.B. 4215 hit National Media attention yesterday; Giving Michigan State Senators one huge last minute pause to reconsider passage.
The nation fully understands the utter folly of Nerdonomics in light of H.B. 4215. If the urgent pleas of firefighters, police and teachers were not enough; now ballooning national attention connecting State Republicans to impending civic disaster unfolds. Michigan became a Ship of Fools.
The national criticism should awaken the floundering GOP, led into this mess by Tricky Rick and his Engleresque advisers. OUTSIDE CORPORATE POWER, YES, THOSE BULLY BOYS, THE KOCH BROTHERS GET THEIR WISHES ON A SLIVER PLATTER IF THE MICHIGAN SENATE VOTES TO ADOPT H.B. 4215. The State of Michigan will be ushered into a long and highly bitter and contentious series of court battles over the dictatorial powers this bill seeks to impose, in a ham-fisted way, upon local units of governance.
Senators you have a chance to stop disaster.
You are there as a means of checks and balances, avatars of common sense. Common sense tells you the thrust of this action is WRONG FOR MICHIGAN. You know that the financial crisis is worsened by the $470 cut to K-12, and the abolishing of block grants to cities, towns, townships, and local units. Who is pushing these harsh cuts that absolutely guarantee that the unprecedented sweep of power vested in the "Emergency Financial Manager" will be widespread and disastrous? Rick Snyder. He's in big trouble. Change course, save him, save yourselves.
It's up to you our Senators. Be warned, correct your course or sail on o' Ship of Fools! Sail on!
Original Post.
The nation fully understands the utter folly of Nerdonomics in light of H.B. 4215. If the urgent pleas of firefighters, police and teachers were not enough; now ballooning national attention connecting State Republicans to impending civic disaster unfolds. Michigan became a Ship of Fools.
The national criticism should awaken the floundering GOP, led into this mess by Tricky Rick and his Engleresque advisers. OUTSIDE CORPORATE POWER, YES, THOSE BULLY BOYS, THE KOCH BROTHERS GET THEIR WISHES ON A SLIVER PLATTER IF THE MICHIGAN SENATE VOTES TO ADOPT H.B. 4215. The State of Michigan will be ushered into a long and highly bitter and contentious series of court battles over the dictatorial powers this bill seeks to impose, in a ham-fisted way, upon local units of governance.
Senators you have a chance to stop disaster.
You are there as a means of checks and balances, avatars of common sense. Common sense tells you the thrust of this action is WRONG FOR MICHIGAN. You know that the financial crisis is worsened by the $470 cut to K-12, and the abolishing of block grants to cities, towns, townships, and local units. Who is pushing these harsh cuts that absolutely guarantee that the unprecedented sweep of power vested in the "Emergency Financial Manager" will be widespread and disastrous? Rick Snyder. He's in big trouble. Change course, save him, save yourselves.
It's up to you our Senators. Be warned, correct your course or sail on o' Ship of Fools! Sail on!
Original Post.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Michigan's "Emergency Financial Manager Reform" is Bogus.
What passes as “emergency financial manager reform” is bogus. Don’t Buy Into It.
The Englerite Snyder strategists have overstepped, they are seeking to destroy collective bargaining by means of the backdoor device: H.B. 4215 is a cleverly designed device to force the cunning perversion of collective bargaining's framework as a cost cutting wedge. At the same time the proposed bill carries in it a threat to smash units that are being intentionally targeted by Snyder-driven cash shortages ($470/student in education, Huge cuts in Block Grants to Firefighters, etc.).
The bill empowers Snyder to strangle those units, vesting anti-democratic powers in the hands of "Emergency Finance Managers) slick attorneys already being trained by State Treasurer Andy Dillon and Pluckett/Cooney (Super High Fee Legal Beagles) to effect radical dictatorial rule and powers; as proposed in H.B. 4215; to effectively use collective bargaining as a weapon against labor and teachers, creating harmful and capricious damage to local government services.
Tricky Rick: Kill Collective Bargaining by the Inch by Inch Tricky Rick wants to see collective bargaining used to blow away opposition to his radical re-organization of Michigan's wealth out of the hands of those whose skills and career training have earned it into the hands of the constant whiners at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the bomb throwers at the Mackinac Centers' bawdy corporatist propaganda mill.
The News Editorial 3/6/11, ("Union attack on emergency financial manager reform is about protecting the status quo") acknowledges one clear fact; H.B. 4215 gives the Emergency Financial Manager "the power to break collective bargaining agreements that are deemed to be contributing to a community's or school district's financial failure."
Snyder Thinks He's Pulled Off A Coup As in the old story: One guy, too cheap to have my dog's tail bobbed as in the tradition vet method, so he fancied saving expense by cutting its tail off half-an-inch-at-a-time; because it's cheaper and so it won't hurt the dog so much, he rationalized. Thus with Snyder: The hurt, the acrimony and dissension inherent under the purview of H.B. 4215 is fiendishly divisive and long lasting its purposeful disunity. It will turn neighbor against neighbor; under government top-down outside pressure from Lansing many bad things will occur.
Remember when we lost local control over school operating costs under Engler's Prop A ? And now we pay the piper.
Tea Partiers Duped: Local Control Smashed - Big Government Smashes the Little Guy
This not what Tea Party people wanted when they called for local input and protection from excessive and coercive government intervention into how our money at the local level would and could be spent. This not why TPers voted in Legislators to do. They wanted Legislators who would carry out their wishes - protecting local revenues and rights-or so they said.
Wake up Teapartisans! You've been diddled.
Original Post.
The Englerite Snyder strategists have overstepped, they are seeking to destroy collective bargaining by means of the backdoor device: H.B. 4215 is a cleverly designed device to force the cunning perversion of collective bargaining's framework as a cost cutting wedge. At the same time the proposed bill carries in it a threat to smash units that are being intentionally targeted by Snyder-driven cash shortages ($470/student in education, Huge cuts in Block Grants to Firefighters, etc.).
The bill empowers Snyder to strangle those units, vesting anti-democratic powers in the hands of "Emergency Finance Managers) slick attorneys already being trained by State Treasurer Andy Dillon and Pluckett/Cooney (Super High Fee Legal Beagles) to effect radical dictatorial rule and powers; as proposed in H.B. 4215; to effectively use collective bargaining as a weapon against labor and teachers, creating harmful and capricious damage to local government services.
Tricky Rick: Kill Collective Bargaining by the Inch by Inch Tricky Rick wants to see collective bargaining used to blow away opposition to his radical re-organization of Michigan's wealth out of the hands of those whose skills and career training have earned it into the hands of the constant whiners at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the bomb throwers at the Mackinac Centers' bawdy corporatist propaganda mill.
The News Editorial 3/6/11, ("Union attack on emergency financial manager reform is about protecting the status quo") acknowledges one clear fact; H.B. 4215 gives the Emergency Financial Manager "the power to break collective bargaining agreements that are deemed to be contributing to a community's or school district's financial failure."
Snyder Thinks He's Pulled Off A Coup As in the old story: One guy, too cheap to have my dog's tail bobbed as in the tradition vet method, so he fancied saving expense by cutting its tail off half-an-inch-at-a-time; because it's cheaper and so it won't hurt the dog so much, he rationalized. Thus with Snyder: The hurt, the acrimony and dissension inherent under the purview of H.B. 4215 is fiendishly divisive and long lasting its purposeful disunity. It will turn neighbor against neighbor; under government top-down outside pressure from Lansing many bad things will occur.
Remember when we lost local control over school operating costs under Engler's Prop A ? And now we pay the piper.
Tea Partiers Duped: Local Control Smashed - Big Government Smashes the Little Guy
This not what Tea Party people wanted when they called for local input and protection from excessive and coercive government intervention into how our money at the local level would and could be spent. This not why TPers voted in Legislators to do. They wanted Legislators who would carry out their wishes - protecting local revenues and rights-or so they said.
Wake up Teapartisans! You've been diddled.
Original Post.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Honest Abel “AWOL” in Michigan just as in Wisconsin
Response to "AWOL [Wisconsin] Dems defy ballot box" by Nolan Finley in the Detroit News February 27, 2011.
Nolan Finley may have attended an underfunded school, or have been AWOL when his history teacher covered the wonderful career of that saint of saints in American esteem and honor: Abe Lincoln.
If Nolan knew more about Abe and Lincoln's legislative career; Finley would not make such a dreadful, embarrassing mis-under-estimation of the power of "taking a walk" on hamfisted, dirty politics for high moral purpose.
Nolan chides and digs Wisconsin Democratic Senators:
The thrust of Finely's opine:
However, Nolan's history is a bit shallow: The Wisconsin State Senators act; "Their choice of refuge is eminently appropriate, for Abraham Lincoln himself famously tried to deny his political opponents quorum through a very unorthodox method of departure in 1840." As so well put by History News Network staffers.
Whoa! Let's go back to class, Nolan:
Now, you know.
Can you emulate "Honest" Abe and retract your condemnation?
Original Post.
Nolan Finley may have attended an underfunded school, or have been AWOL when his history teacher covered the wonderful career of that saint of saints in American esteem and honor: Abe Lincoln.
If Nolan knew more about Abe and Lincoln's legislative career; Finley would not make such a dreadful, embarrassing mis-under-estimation of the power of "taking a walk" on hamfisted, dirty politics for high moral purpose.
Nolan chides and digs Wisconsin Democratic Senators:
"American-style democracy holds together because no matter how nasty the political game gets, the players honor a few inviolable rules. We obey the laws, even the ones we disagree with. We respect the ballot box. And after even the most bitterly contested election, the loser accepts the results, works within the system and awaits another chance to prevail with voters." ("AWOL Dems defy ballot box", Nolan Finley, Detroit News, 2.27.11)
The thrust of Finely's opine:
"Democratic lawmakers in both states fled to neighboring Illinois, where they hope to win with their absence what they couldn't at the ballot box - namely, the right to control policymaking."
However, Nolan's history is a bit shallow: The Wisconsin State Senators act; "Their choice of refuge is eminently appropriate, for Abraham Lincoln himself famously tried to deny his political opponents quorum through a very unorthodox method of departure in 1840." As so well put by History News Network staffers.
Whoa! Let's go back to class, Nolan:
"Ward Hill Lamon was Lincoln's friend in Illinois, and served as Marshal of the District of Columbia during the administration of President Lincoln. When the state bank was threatened in the Illinois legislature, the Whigs came to its defence (sic) by absenting themselves to prevent a quorum, leaving just Lincoln and one other behind to call ayes and noes. When the Sergeant-at-Arms rounded up some Whigs, the dedicated Lincoln jumped out a window in a failed attempt to thwart a quorum."
-- Ward Hill Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1872, pp. 216-8
Now, you know.
Can you emulate "Honest" Abe and retract your condemnation?
Original Post.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Koch Brothers Sock-puppet: Michigan’s Teaparitasan Scott Hagerstrom Speaks Bluntly
"TAKE THE UNIONS OUT AT THE KNEES SO THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RESOURCES TO FIGHT THESE BATTLES." - Scott Hagerstrom, Michigan Director of Americans for Prosperity
That's the game plan for Michigan from the Koch Brother bullies.
Today the Teapublican Majority in the Michigan Senate is expected to vote on H.B. 4215; a vicious Union-Busting Bill, very thinly disguised and presented in an opaque way.
Closely quizzed by voters from their districts, neophyte Teapublican members of the House are at a loss to explain what is actually in this bill and they, because they did not vet it properly: Failed to appraise, verify, or check for accuracy, authenticity, validity, the content and intent of this bill. Some have lamented, we had no intention of becoming embroiled in such low live politics when we came to Lansing to make a change for the better.
They're not yet even able to comprehend the ramifications and impacts it makes on the local communities that will be ravished by its contents, they need more time.
Still Snyder and his Englerite cronies are pushing hard for this bill now; while lying about its true negative effects and what its true purpose is.
Were there more public hearings and town halls where the public (which has had far too little information given them by media and no adequate time to contact their representatives) given a chance to gauge the impact, the Senate would not be acting today.
Denying the citizens a full and fair chance to appraise the bill and its negative and dictatorial impact is a very bad way to end Snyder's aborted honeymoon with the state. Rick's positive numbers are dropping like a giant Petoskey stone into quicksand.
The crazy of crazies about this rush to put-into-law is exactly a prime example of what the Tea Party faction HAS ATTEMPTED TO SAFEGUARD BY TAKING TO THE STREETS: With loud calls for local control and sovereignty, the right to appraise, verify, or check for accuracy, authenticity, validity, accounted for in the most direct way, these are VERY things that concern the Tea Party about their taxes. H. B. 4215 is one of the exact things Tea Party folk have taken up strong protest to stop cold.
NOW, TODAY, THE TEA PARTY IS BEING BETRAYED, right at home level H.B. 4215 cuts them down at the knees.
Do they know that they are being Shanghaied by these Tricky Rick shenanigans?
Scott Hagerstrom, associated with the extremist wacko Kalamazoo Jack Hoogendyk, claims to work with over 50 Teapublican Groups, as a Koch paid anti-union agitator, hired by Koch's Americans for Prosperity. The Koch Brothers want what they want. The Tens of Billions Brothers Koch have churned up Wisconsin and now they move on to Michigan having paid the eager Hagerstrom do Kochs' dirty work.
Moreover, today Scott Hagerstrom should listen to his mentor former Senator Hoogendyk, "this fight in Wisconsin will eventually lead to similar battles across the country, including Michigan as legislatures and governors deal with severe budget shortfalls." And even at that Jack is intelligent enough to know that Rick Snyder is on very thin ice.
This is true not only in regard to the extreme trauma H.B.4215 brings to local government elected officials (about to be put under the gun by the high powered lawyers at Pluckett/Cooney) but even more so with Snyder's attempts to tax retirement and pensions. Hoogendyk cites the Mackinac Center's harsh criticism of Tricky Rick's effort to clinch his argument his radical overhaul of Michigan's tax structure: Snyder's "move charges a retiree with a $40,000 annual pension $1,700 a year for choosing to remain in Michigan rather than move to sunny, income tax-free Florida."
Original Post.
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