Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."
-- Benito Mussolini

Prof Gary Wolfram holds sacred Friedrich von Hayek and his theorems and postulations about economics. ("The most rapid progress toward a coherent and useful aggregate economic theory will result from the acceptance of the problem statement (in economics) as advanced by Hayek" - Robert Lucas).

****

How did we get ourselves into this tangled economic nightmare? The Cult of Reagan.

The real work of the Cult of Reagan has carried its effects into the present economy and the politics behind the "business is superior" legislation involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) national putsch/winner-take-all coup using the various state legislatures to put forward a cornucopia of revisions, repeals, and replacement of items that directly benefit the Corporatocracy now so much in control of American life and economy.

WHERE A.L.EC. AND ITS CORPORATE RUN DEMOCRACY ARE HEADED IS BOTH DANGEROUS AND TRAGIC.

Friends of Wolfram's hero, Hayek, speak:

"Most plans for economic reform in the socialist countries seem to be coming closer to the realization that increasing decentralization of decision-making is needed to solve the problems of rational economic planning."

From Fritz Machlup, "Hayek's Contribution to Economics", Swedish Journal of Economics, Vol. 76, Dec. 1974.

Yet what A.L.E.C. (The American Legislative Exchange Council) is attempting in its nationwide, state by state coup d'état is a precise, centralized system of decision making and legislation, not at that much maligned federal level control and regulation, but at the individual state's level. Centralized and tightly controlled by a cabal of corporations who run and control A.L.E.C, manhandling state legislators caught up its secretive web of power grabbing, regulatory rollbacks, gimmicks and boutique business legislation/advantages.

A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation Dominance in State Legislatures

Given the homogeny and singularity of A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation, what is being attempted is a uniform set of laws and system of decision making that is at the various state levels, diversified and separate from the national or federal government, but collectivized and centralized under the aegis of the A.L.E.C. dominance and control of state legislation and lawmaking. This is coup is becoming America's Corporate-controlled-democracy; a new and aggressive "friendly fascism" not like that of the Nazis but more akin to that of Mussolini's régime in pre-WW II Italy. An American Corporatocracy that has many of the characteristics of 1930's Italian fascism.

The real mischief maker/promotionist in the historic directed march to business-run government, by corporations and for corporations, was Lewis F. Powell.

Prof Gary has spent very little time pondering the impact of this very powerful force in the economic policies of first the Reagan reign and subsequently the follow-on which Powell created.

Powell was "corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations" prior to being elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Powell's work in regards to the economy and the practices of corporatist politics was first revealed AFTER he was ensconced as a justice. Powell wrote "a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell's nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The POWELL MEMO, as it is now known, was not revealed prior to his senate conformation for good reason. "It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell's legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell 'might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice...in behalf of business interests.'"

Reagan's Hands Off Policy in Service of Corporations Gets a Jump Start

"Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of:

1. the Heritage Foundation
2.  the Manhattan Institute
3.  the Cato Institute
4. Citizens for a Sound Economy
5. Accuracy in Academia
6. and other powerful organizations.

"Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration's 'hands-off business' philosophy."

****

What impact has this new (focused by business chambers of commerce) sponsored economic/political/social thinking had on the nation?

Plenty.

"Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building..."

These areas of "hot button gripes" have fuel an entire generation of class warfare, or as Pat Buchan put it so indelicately at the Houston GOP National Convention, a Cultural War. Not satisfied with the impact of "cultural war" many rad-rightists have characterized their campaign to achieve ideological homogeny over all other groups and partisan political parties in a stronger, move evocative color: It's Civil War.

The rad-right with many new comers to immense wealth, the Waltons of WalMart, the DeVos/VanAndels of Amway, et al have carefully and abundantly funded the above group of "think tanks" with their coveted 501 (c) (3) take advantage of government tax free advantage in their "educational" activities. Most notable about these rad-right institutions was, and is, "their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building." Progressives and other poltical groups do not have the "sugar daddy" funders that are the underwriters of the rad-right and their implementation of the Powell Memo.

Give the rad-right credit: They are patient, they are focused, they are on script and they know how to take extreme advantage of economic unrest and disaster. Pro-family, community supporting groups lack this kind of control. In opposition to the growing take-over by the Corporatocracy, citizen groups are relegated to: "band-aids and short-term results which provide little hope of the systemic change we so desperately need to reverse the trend of growing corporate dominance."

"So did Powell's political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment "right" for corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers."

A Quick Overview of the Powell Memo drawn as excerpts from Lewis F. Powell's "Manifesto":

THEME: "No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack..." "(T)he assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.."

SOURCES OF THE ATTACK:

• "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking."

TONE OF THE ATTACK:

• Stewart Alsop: "Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of 'the politics of despair.' These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans."
• (F)amed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: "It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack -- not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote."
• All around one can hear criticism of business as usual. To illustrate "here are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as "tax breaks," "loop holes" or "tax benefits" for the benefit of business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit "only the rich, the owners of big companies."

"This setting of the 'rich' against the 'poor,' of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics."

The Apathy and Default of Business

• "The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors' and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded -- if at all -- by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem."
• "In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed."
• "But they (business leaders) have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate."

RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation's public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on "public relations" or "governmental affairs" -- two areas in which corporations long have invested substantial sums."

****

The catastrophic economic collapse brought on by George W. Bush's wars and economic policies has opened the door to "disaster capitalism" as outlined in good part by Naomi Klein and put to good and immediate use at this time as Michigan is in a 'One State Depression' and other states are close behind.

To wit: Disaster Capitalism/Shock Doctrine Explained by Professor of Economics and Public Policy Hillsdale College, Dr. Wolfram:

"As a certain Presidential chief of staff once said, you shouldn't let a crisis go to waste. We have a chance to introduce structural reforms on our educational system, our business tax, our corrections system, and our Medicaid system because the budget problems have forced an examination that would not otherwise have taken place. The budget cuts can best be accomplished by addressing how services are delivered and which services are properly the role of state government. It will be interesting to see how this ends up."
(emphasis added)

Original.

No Brainer Legislation & No Brain Legislators who slavishly deliver for the Corporatocracy (via ALEC) inside Michigan’s Legislature

Meet the BIG BOYS (National & International Corporatists) who write legisative bills and offer them no-brainer - Plug & Play - (introduced by ALEC members) directly into our state's lawsmaking process. (SEE an eclectic list of ALEC corporate members, drawn from over 300 Corporations in its membership):

American Express Company, American Stores-Jewel/OSCO, Amoco Corp, Amway Corp., AT&T, Bank of America, Bayer Corp., Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Boeing Corporation, Cargill, Inc., Caterpillar, Inc., BP America, Inc., Chevron Corporation, Chrysler Corporation, Corrections Corporation of America, Coca-Cola Company, Coors Brewing Company, DuPont, ExxonMobil Corporation, FedEx, General Motors Corporation, GTE Corporation (Verizon), Johnson and Johnson, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc., Koch Industries, Kraft Food, Inc., McDonalds Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, Motorola, Inc, Parke-Davis, Peabody Energy (coal), Phillips Petroleum Company, Pfizer Inc, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Sara Lee Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Sprint, State Farm Insurance Co., Texaco Inc., Union Pacific Corporation, United Airlines , United Parcel Service, UST Public Affairs Inc. (now United States Smokeless Tobacco Company), Wackenhut Corrections (now G4S), Wal-Mart Stores, Washington Times, Wausau Insurance Companies, Wendy's International Inc. ( the Wendy's/Arby's Group).

These are the folks who cook your fast-food hamburgers, insure your assets, invest your savings, deliver your packages, explore and refine your gas and oil, ship your goods by rail, ask you to recruit your neighbors in a MLM scheme, privately house your criminals, handle your calls and deliver your cable media, produce your drugs, and operate your community crushing discount giants. The American Legislative Exchange Council - A.L.E.C.'s big money, big influence is all over your life like super glue.

Don't you love the fact that these mega corporations have a special, direct and effective inside track to pre-packaged legislation directly into law, bills that favor them and exclude you and community?

What happened to a citizen legislature? What happened to your right to voice your opinion and effect change in law and regulations? It's all a far, far second to the power of Amway, Walmart, BP, Coca Cola, or Koch Brothers Industry who have a club with your state legislator as a "wine and dine" fellow member.

What you didn't know about A.L.E.C.'s simple disclaimer-for forty years its just been business as usual-corporate business as usual has accumulatively hurt you.

Now, A.L.E.C.'s post-election 2010 national blitz includes anti-public schools and anti-union, anti-poor legislation. A rugged agenda has come to a critical and direct confrontation with all you hold dear. You are no longer your own, you've been bought and sold for a price. How does it feel to be Kocholded?

MICHIGAN State Legislators--"Known ALEC Members Past & Present":

1. Justin Amash (ALEC Civil Justice Task Force) Now US Representative-Michigan
2. Patty Birkholz Appointed by Gov Snyder "Director of Great Lakes"
3. Bill Bullard, Jr.
4. Fulton Sheen
5. Mat. J. Dunaskiss (1996 ALEC Legislator of the Year Award)
6. Joanne Emmons
7. Beverly S. Hammerstrom
8. Dave Hildenbrand
9. Phillip E. Hoffman (ALEC Board of Directors; 1999-2000 ALEC Secretary; Treasurer 2000-2001; "1992 ALEC Outstanding Legislative Member Award")
10. Rick V.Johnson
11. Wayne Kuipers (has used ALEC models to benefit target corporations)
12. Mike Kowall
13. Tom McMillin (Active Introducing ALEC Legislation)
14. Mary Ann Middaugh (ALEC State Chairmen for Michigan 2004)
15. Margaret O'Connor (Wrote a number of reports for ALEC)
16. David Palsrock (ALEC State Chairmen for Michigan)
17. Bruce Patterson
18. Tom Pearce (ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force)
19. Randy Richardville (Current GOP Senate Majority Leader)
20. Tonya Schuitmaker (ALEC State Chairmen for Mich 2009-10)
21. John Schwartz
22. Susan L. Tabor
23. Jason E. Allen
24. David Camp
25. Craig M DeRoche
26. Beverly S. Hammerstrom
27. Rick V.Johnson
28. Jerry O. Kooiman
29. Mike Kowall
30. Aric Nesbitt
31. Tom Pearce
32. Ken Sikkema
33. Christopher C. Ward

MICHIGAN US Congress/Judges--"Known ALEC Members Past & Present":

1. Justin Amash
2. Judge Richard A. Bandstra (Named ALEC Legislator of Year for work on Civil Justice Task Force)
3. Dave Camp (ALEC Agriculture Task Force)
4. Mike Rogers
5. Nick H. Smith (ALEC Agriculture Task Force)
6. Tim Walberg

MICHIGAN FORMER LAW MAKERS/VIP's/MEGA DONORS-- "Known ALEC Members Past/Present":

1. John Engler (Governor) Member of ALEC since 1973 when it was founded. 1993 Received the ALEC "Thomas Jefferson Award"
2. Dick Postumus (Rick Snyder's Lt. Governor) ALEC Member since 1991. Now Appointed "Special Legislative Advisor" to Governor Rick Snyder.
3. Andrew Card ALEC Member; White House Chief of Staff to President GW Bush, US Secretary of Transportation for President G.H. Bush, Reagan Administration: Special Asst to President for Internal Affairs and Deputy Assistant to President & Director of INTERGOVERNMENTAL Affairs. Member of Massachusetts House of Representative (District 7 & 8) 1975-1983; From 1993-1998 Card was President and CEO of American Automobile Maufacturers Association. In 1999 he was General Motors Vice President of Government Relations.
4. Richard M. DeVos Sr.: ALEC Member; 1993 Received ALEC "Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award"; Co-Founder of Amway; Owner of Orlando Magic; 2011 Forbes Magazine listed DeVos as 79th Wealthiest American and 257th Wealthiest in the World; Member/Past President of "Council for National Policy", Board of Trustee Member for Northwood University and the National Constitution Center, Member Heritage Foundation. DeVos is considered a "mega-donor" to Republican Party Candidates
5. Jay Van Andel (deceased) ALEC Member; 1993 Received ALEC "Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award"; Co-Founder of Amway. Member of Heritage Foundation, Board of Trustee for Hillsdale College, Director of Gerald R. Ford Foundation; Van Andel was a mega-donor to the Republican Party. 2004 he donated $475,000 to Michigan Republican Party and $2Million for the re-election of President G.W. Bush.....

 There are many more....

List Sources: Democracy Watchdog Action Network and PFAW Reports


Watch Video on ALEC HERE or for more reading on ALEC HERE and HERE and HERE and in Michigan HERE.

Original Post.

Americans for Prosperity’s Cotton Head Grump Out, High on Motrin 800, Fizzles.

Yesterday's GRAND GRUMP OUT, with a tiny, few dozen "Mad Mobsters" (as one sign in the tiny gathering proudly proclaimed) was a HUGH HUMILIATING FAILURE.

And to believe Snyder & the green pea legislature are DEADLY AFRAID of this motley crew of naysayer fans of the notorious "paid lady-toe sucker"- FOX's weasel-Dick Morris, and the Brothers Koch-- little-known behind-the-scenes manipulators of public policies and avid promoters of useful pro-corporate agitators.

What can we learn from this Mackinac Center/Americans for Prosperity/Tea-publican PR disaster? 

This "NO NEW TAXES/AXE GOVERNMENT GROUP which has been touted (as so much to be feared by newly elected officials-now sold out to BIG MONEY and the McMasters led TAXHATERS) is really NOT that POWERFUL.

So why all the homage? What the voters of Michigan really wanted was a change from the Granholm/Bishop/Dillon deadlock debacle. Desperate for a return to good government, they voted for CHANGE. In exchange these voters GOT SOLD OUT to two unknown Lucky Sperm Club Billionaires, backers & funders of Americans for Prosperity- the Koch Brothers. These are two Libertarian/CATO troublemaking Corporatists with giant greed-driven desire to rule the country, fascist style.

Voting for what they called "CHANGE," the Teapartians have brought Michigan CHAOS AND CORRUPTION. 

What is their strength? Michigan's Tea Parties Delivered A PITIFULLY INSIGNIFICANT GATHERING OF CIVIC VULTURES

What a sight! A thin cotton-head smathering of grumpy old men, assisted by personal lawn chairs, drew a small circle around AG Bill Schuette and SOS Ruth Johnson looking out over a crowd of arthritic dozens. The organizers included careered second-tier political hacks, whio did what they could to make awaken the dozers and them gin up.

Background literature claims there are 50,000 members(?) of AFP in Michigan-a movement backed by such folks as Amway, Kochs, the Wal-mart Waltons' billions, and so dearly loved by the Detroit News/Mackinac Center consortium.

All headliner Dick Morris and crew could muster, in response to the previous day's tens of thousands of energetic and mobile workers, was a feeble klatch of aged aginners? How humiliating, yet revealing! 

Bill and Ruth attempted to center focus of the disproportionate number of TV news video crews on themselves (TV crews were left to make something-out-of-nothing for themselves for the 5 0'clock news cycle, having driven many long miles to cover this event) in a desperate attempt to justify their appearance at this giant fizzle--a billionaire's Teapartisan event with scant attendance or energy, gone flat.

Michigan's new Attorney General and Secretary of State were OBLIGED TO BE THERE YESTERDAY. For them it was A PAYBACK to the Koch Brothers division of the Tea Party- funded, controlled, and fronted by the Koch's Americans for Prosperity. 

It was from these followers of the Koch's that Schuette and Johnson clamored for backing, sought support, at the cantankerous 201O Michigan GOP nominating Convention last fall. In a divisive and hard fought battle with rivals, Schuette and Johnson had to win over, by selling out, to Tea-publicans in order to be allowed slots on the GOP's slate for the statewide offices they sought, which in turn allowed them to appear on the Republican ticket in November where they were elected.

Over in Wisconsin a parallel civic war between the Koch-backed Tea-Publicans and the working Middle Class has struggled in a highly visible nationally televised imbroglio involving battle after battle and rally after rally. It's all part of a national coup mounted by factions including the billionaire Koch's, Heritage Foundation, Michigan's Mackinac Center, rogue Libertarians, Kochs' CATO, and a ragtag assemblage of Know Nothings-all constantly egged on by the slick Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.


Original Post.

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.

Déjà vu: It's Educational Apartheid All Over Again!

Commentary on the Michigan View on January 16, 2011.

SHUT DOWN ALL DETROIT NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS - Quick Find a Charter School:

1. Charter School Administrative Services
2. Leona Group, LLC
3. Evans Solution Management Company
4. Professional Contract Management Inc
5. White Hat Management
6. Bardwell Group
7. National Heritage Academies
8. Schoolhouse Services and Staffing Inc
9. Solid Rock Management Company
10. Midwest Management Group Inc.
11. Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse
12. Black Star Educational Management
13. Education Management and Networks
14. Innovative Teaching Solutions
15. 777 Educational Management Company
16. Hamadeh Educational Services Inc
17. New Urban Learning

Here, for the public's first look, is a nearly complete list of proprietary owners of private educational for-profits, siphoning off public tax dollars for loosely regulated, privately administered, middle man, manpower-style academies.

The Detroit taxpayer cannot participate in the operations of these privatized education mills, the funding is public, the operations are strictly private.

The owner of National Heritage Academies appeared on national television bragging his faux public academies had returned him a 12% profit.

Chartering sponsors under Michigan law include a small, two feather upper peninsula Indian Tribe, perhaps better suited to running gambling casinos than educating our children with our tax monies: supervising charters schools for a 3% cut. The entire thing a phony Engeresque arrangement.

And this Mr. Finley is what you have been hankering to see come to pass!

Detroit, Michigan-to become the nation's first urban school district to shutter ALL its doors and TOTALLY SURRENDER ITS LIMITED TAX DOLLARS TO PRIVATE PROFITEERS AND IDEOLOGUES WITH UNKNOWN AGENDAS FOR CHILDREN; The Detroit/Mackinac News' ANTI-PUBLIC DREAM AGENDA/OBJECTIVE about to come true.

Déjà vu: It's Educational Apartheid All Over Again


Original Post.

Cato’s Not So Clever Charter School Contortions (ala Andrew J. Coulson)

Response to "Charters hold key to saving state big education dollars" by  Andrew J. Coulson in the Detroit News on December 17. 2009.

Cato says: "Charters hold key to saving state big education dollars"
This presentation by the Libertarian Cato Institute is very revealing, both for its content, its timing, and its distortions.

The assumption that Charter schools are the answer to the problems of achievement in academics is both wish-full thinking and deceptive. But the fact that the thrust of this appeal to the public and to the legislature appears in the News at the 11th hour the 59th minute, in the middle of this present "crisis," is very eye-opening and gives great insight as to the thinking of the local brand of radicalism that sees taxes in such a dim light. This piece lights up the dark corner of a class of ideologues who would eliminate the "burden of taxation" for the education of any child in a "public school."

The essential attitude of Cato is akin to the thought that is behind the choice over the use of a public toilet faculty. If an individual had a choice between a "public faculty" and a "private" one, the choice would always be for the private loo.

Let's look at what Cato's Andrew J. Coulson has revealed unto us.

1.) Cato: (I)f Michigan converted all its conventional public schools into charters (also known as public school academies), that tsunami would explode into a refreshing mist -- complete with fiscal surplus rainbow.

RESPONSE: Charters are operating in many areas where fine public schools exist. In fact many private schools simply converted to fit the "charter" designation in the early days of Michigan's charter school experiment. Many of those operations, even given public tax dollars have not survived. Charters exploit the atmosphere of created by the "manufactured crisis" over public schools encouraged and promoted by the Heartland Institute, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, WalMart heirs, and the radicalized national Republican Party. The GOP, over the years since Reagan and still today, has promoted and festered anti-public school sentiment as a special "wedge issue" headed up by such rogues as Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist. Religiously the GOP argument against public schooling has come from James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, both ardent foes and strong supporters of parents "pulling their children from public schools." The alternative for education monies, of course, is parochiaid a long sought and strongly defeated effort. Ask the Amway DeVos' about how easy it is to get a state like Utah to vote the voucher. Their well-funded effort there went down like it did in 2000 in Michigan by a whopping 2 to 1 margin. Does that tell you how the voter thinks?

2.) Cato: Based on the latest (2006-07) figures, the average charter school in Michigan spends $2,000 less in state and local tax dollars per pupil than the average district school. So the savings from a district-to-charter student exodus would add up to $3.5 billion annually.

RESPONSE: This overly simplistic assertion is only the tip of a dirty, acidic iceberg. Those savings are based in many ways on the fact that "truly public" neighborhood schools exist and continue to serve the charters as a safety net. The charters love to have a "full house" of coupon bearing children enrolled on head count day, after that they can eject the "bad apples" back into the public system.

Like cowbirds they don't see any problem in letting the other birds utilize their funding and facilities to educate their "rejects." The lower costs are built on the backs of many young teachers looking for any place to obtain a teaching job even if it doesn't pay well or provide adequate benefits, and even if it shorts their possibilities of a "public school retirement" down the years ahead.

The recent news from the News has actually pointed out that charters can be tiny "kingdoms," "fiefdoms" where operators and the proprietary interests hire and fire at-will, practice simony and placement of family members and fellow travelers in positions paid by tax dollars which have been siphoned off from the local, neighborhood school. Charter schools don't have to pack into the "foundation grant" the various mandates of Michigan law such as busing, including busing for private schools within their districts.

Charters also avoid wherever possible the high costs of physically and otherwise handicapped children (including blind children) and other students with special needs. Cherry picking for charters is a year around educating-for-profit activity.

3.) Cato: "...Michigan's charter schools not only spend 20 percent less than district schools, they also have 20 percent fewer pupils per teacher.

RESPONSE: One of the "boutique" draws of charters is the system's ability to cut personnel costs, other costs associated with a public school employee's benefits and retirement, the costs of a building built to a higher standard by far for a "public school" than the special zoning and building codes sought and obtained by the chartering industry, which has allowed them to build OSB, balloon trussed, and vinyl clad polebarns (akin to pig farm buildings) for their operations. God forbid one ever becomes engulfed in fire!

Get the facts: The faux public charter school owners have bragged in national media about making up to 12 percent profit from educating children in their privately operated and privately governed proprietary facilities. This means that chartering involves a middleman level of costs and control that must come from cutting something else in the operation and faculties of these completive experiments. So smaller classes, not always the standard, becomes a draw for parents.

It also helps that the parents are "coerced" into "contributing" hours of their labor and efforts into supplementing and off-loading the expenses of the charter's operations.  No compliance with mandatory service, no "free" taxpayer-funded charter schooling for your child.

4.) Cato: Thus far, the governor and state Legislature seem unaware of the vast savings to be had from universal charter schooling. But they have shown their willingness to promote charters in response to a far smaller financial inducement.

RESPONSE: The use of the charter movement based on the segregation academies of the south has been a pet project of a cornucopia of private and parochial interests. The heavy push from the Catholic hierarchy to achieve the voucher has been a major ingredient in this movement, privatizing for profit as Jonathan Kozol pointed out in Harpers Magazine is the "giant enchilada" for venture capitalists-so eager to break into the public schools lockbox.

The mantra, education is the sole responsibility of parents, has in it the thought that if you have a child the expense of educating that child is totally on you. That concept is specious, but it motivates a strong undercurrent in the anti-public school ranks. Right thinking citizens see a much larger and more important reason for excellence in public schools, for all children: the survival of our democracy.

One of the significant sources of the perennial "stink tank attacks" on public schools stems from the fact that all our children, from all our ethnic and racial groups, didn't sit in the same classrooms until into the 1970's. The residual fear and resentment over that occurrence has spawned a plethora of academies and private elitist religious school.

Just go the local library and look under the Yellow Pages for the listings of such schools in a city like Charlotte, North Carolina, there peruse the scores of such educational operations listings, the list will astound you.

5.) Cato: If legislators are willing to promote charter schools modestly in response to that modest and transitory incentive, they should be willing to promote charter schools much more intensively for a recurring annual savings that is eight times larger.

RESPONSE: The cost savings in a charter operation would be different if the playing field were level and identical with the local, neighborhood school. We have seen over 40 charters bite the dust this year alone. More will follow. Who gets the buildings, the computers, the equipment? The taxpaying public? Call your representative and ask. The answers will be weak and unrewarding. And then you have to ask yourself why is the Bay Mills Tribe in the tax-funded charter school business? Wouldn't it be more profitable and sensible for them to operate more casinos?

6.) Cato: (S)ignificant though it would be, charterizing the state's education system is not the best that Michiganians could do for their children. Opening the state's educational marketplace completely would be a better option. Some parents, for instance, prefer a religious education for their children, and religious (particularly Catholic) schools have repeatedly been found to be among the most effective and least expensive to operate.

RESPONSE: If a religious institution, say the branch run by Louis Farakahan, wants to run a "private" religious institution; what's the harm in throwing some of the "surplus" Michigan tax monies to them for that purpose?   If private sources like the Amway clan, WalMart, the Knights of Columbus, or the Michigan Militia want a "government free" academy let them fund it and operate it as they see fit. To ask the taxpayer to fund indoctrination and sectarian religious training is one bridge too far. Already we have seen a charter run as a Muslim school teaching Arabic and having over a 90 percent Muslim student population.

Let's see now, what other kinds of secular or religious groups should we endow with public tax dollars to educate to their own beliefs and standards?

Incidentally, Catholic schools are not schools-on average-that have just Catholic students or individuals with religious orders as instructors anymore. They are very diverse and eclectic.

During the 1960's Catholic schools slipped in their achievement and desirability, being a Catholic school has not always automatically proven to be a school of excellence, and how they are run; not democratic either. Problems with sexual abuse and physical abuse of students in Catholic schools is a topic worth exploring, but in another venue.

7.) Cato:(P)roviding free charter schools without providing easier access to private school options reduces families' access to both religious and secular private alternatives. The closure of many Michigan private schools during the past decade resoundingly attests to the fact that it's hard to compete with free or heavily subsidized public schools.

RESPONSE: Not every elitist or religious desire for one's children should be the responsibility of the public and the tax dollar. No group should be more certain of this than the Libertarians and their Cato Institute. Did Andrew J. Coulson simply skip-rock this essay across the water or did he get approval from the Cato high council?

8.) Cato: Michigan's Constitution bans giving all families an easy choice between district, charter and private schools. As a result, it is impossible for Michigan parents to give their children the best possible educational options and permanently rein in out-of-control school district spending.

RESPONSE: It all comes down to Cato and fellow travelers finding a way to breach the levees of separation of church and state. On one hand they want freedom, and lots of it. Libertarians want freedom for drug use.

They want to get out of taxes they don't like. Then they want a "government" endowment for religious and private education. How can these ardent proponents of "freedom" be so bifurcated and blind? Perhaps they need to check with Michigan Republicans in the legislature to see how they carry on in their dark night of anti-public school radicalism.

Original Post.

NEWS BULLETIN: Detroit News Endorses Obama's Federal "Socialist Take-over" or Michigan's Public Schools

Response to Detroit News Editorial ""Michigan must pass education bills or fall behind other states" on December 15, 2009.

Can we assume that this News sponsored crap shoot-a chance at federal dollars that "might" become available "if" Michigan can qualify for the federal dole from the Obama Administration-is worth the cost of towing under to "government coercion?"

If the changes insisted upon by the News are passed into law what do we get in return? We just get a chance to be "eligible to compete for the (Feds) money." Nothing more.

The Detroit News is asking the good citizens to lower the standards the vast majority of Michigan public schools hold high and achieve, just to qualify to take a chance/a long shot on a "federal grant/bribe" ? And if we get a portion of the dangled money, we get a boatload of new and much maligned "government red tape,” mandates, and paperwork, more bureaucracy.

"Without schools that work, the state is doomed to endless decline," wrote the editorial board of the News at the end of its impassioned pitch for the Obama plan.

Are we to assume the News is so deranged as to be dissatisfied with the achievement of the vast majority of Michigan's local neighborhood schools? Disaggregated from the majority of districts are those schools which have just been singled out by the News for the heaviest of condemnation and criticism.

Let's directly address that issue.

We know where the failing schools are and we know a good deal about why they fail.
We also know that we are at a loss to find a way to punish failing schools into excellence, Leave No Child Behind didn't do it. The last few decades are full of such punitive measures and executive take-overs.

There Must Be a Better Way
The dictates of Chicagoan Erne Duncan's new "magic" scheme are not the answer. The ingredients of The Race to the Top contain very negative and counter intuitive edicts that are designed to "reform" the most desperate of underachieving schools in the most recalcitrant and difficult socio-economic environments, but do nothing for the schools that do the job well. R2T will actually reverse and undermine the proven progress and standards of all those other healthy and highly achieving local public schools across this state, achieving districts will be undercut by many the many negatives in R2T.

The News Takes An Unbelievable Reversal of It's Own "Conservative" Ideology
The very fact that the Detroit News-always closely aligned with the News' cathouse "think tank" cohorts such as Cato, the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, the Mackinac Center and a whole host of national tax-hating cranks and would beg both Republicans and Democrats in the statehouse-to fall in line with the "socialist" Obama U.S. Department of Education on the their latest-and-greatest federal program-Race to the Top and push hard to pass it-defies almost every published tome and "conservative" principle the News has stood for in the last 30 years.

This national economic crisis and the failure of manufacturing in Michigan has created some strange bedfellows and this "marriage of convenience" to achieve, by way of the back door, certain long sought anti-MEA goals of the News has produced a lollapalooza of a nuptial arrangement.

Let's Get Down to Brass Tacks
All those teacher preparation courses and student teaching requirements practiced by Michigan's colleges and universities are a total failure and need to be wiped out.

Back in 2001 an article appeared entitled "The Teachers We Need and How to Get More of Them"  postulated the following:

"We conclude that the regulatory strategy being pursued today to boost teacher quality is seriously flawed. "

Every additional requirement for prospective teachers -- every additional pedagogical course, every new hoop or hurdle -- will have a predictable and inexorable effect: it will limit the potential supply of teachers by narrowing the pipeline while having no bearing whatever on the quality or effectiveness of those in the pipeline. The regulatory approach is also bound, over time, to undermine the standards-and-accountability strategy for improving schools and raising student achievement. The News:

"A better solution to the teacher quality problem is to simplify the entry and hiring process. Get rid of most hoops and hurdles. Instead of requiring a long list of courses and degrees, test future teachers for their knowledge and skills. Allow principals to hire the teachers they need. Focus relentlessly on results, on whether students are learning. This strategy, we are confident, will produce a larger supply of able teachers and will tie judgments about their fitness and performance to success in the classroom, not to process or impression."

Let's go for outcomes, not state credentials or legislated high standards.

In simple English, teacher certification requirements and the huge cost of candidates qualifying for accreditation and a credential is a total waste of money, if we follow the logic of R2T's non-certified instructor plan.

In fact, let's just let any person a specific principal likes, with a degree, come in and attempt to prove that she/he has the ability to effectively apply their knowledge in the public school class room, without certification or special training and an extended supervised internship (a total of 5 years of preparation).

Let's let un-certified individuals turn the pupils into "experimental education guinea pigs" as a novel way to solve, go for the quick-fix, or satisfy our objections about and critic's problems with organized teachers and all those "heads-in-the-clouds" academics in the state's premiere teacher training programs. It's cheaper and it'll be a super smack down for teacher unions.

The Road to Real Outcomes: Systemic Reform of School Administration and Governance
Systemic reform has not occurred in the state of Michigan and won't until the legislature begins a sweeping investigation and overhaul of how Michigan's public schools are administered.

The Republicans' dirty little secret concerning school reform is they refuse to confront the real core problem in public school performance and operations: School Administration and Administrative Practices. The reason is simple and outdated, Republicans invariably take a management position on such issues.

The Michigan GOP would have the public believe that the problems which are connected with the community schools are created by the teachers. It's the teachers who resist change, who fail to give a full effort and who are lax on discipline, Republicans are fond of complaining.

A reality check would reveal that teachers don't hire, evaluate, or fire other teachers. They don't set policy, they don't allocate and spend funds, they don't approve the curriculum. These are the dominion of school administration.

Oddly enough, because the GOP has a steadfast, fixed management viewpoint and bias, after many years of trumpeting school reform, demonstrative "systemic reform" has not occurred in the state of Michigan and won't until the Republicans begin a sweeping investigation and overhaul of how the public schools are administered.

Blamespeaking and bad mouthing the teachers by scapegoating is a cruel blow to our children's mentors.

Blame distances the teacher from the parent and child, demeans the profession in the eyes of the public and worsens the situations and conditions, created, compounded, and enforced by administration and their top-down industrial management strategies (largely unchanged since the 19th century).

But because the teacher cares enough to get involved in the public policy realm and financially supports politicians who most closely pursue the policies and practices which help children and families get an excellent education, they are feared and maligned by the bottomline: spreadsheet thinking of the mindless radicals now in control of the Michigan Republican party and a host of think tanks (state and national) chipping for some direct economic or political advantage from this present crisis.

If we want to see meaningful change in the outcomes for our children we are going to have to demand a meaningful change in public school administrative accountability and practices in Michigan.

Original Post.

Raw Revenge Raises Its Ugly Head

Response to series of articles and Op-Eds (mostly in the Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) railing against teachers and public schools, and Nolan Finley piece on December 4, 2009.

Growing up deep in the rugged hollows of Cumberland Co. Kentucky, Nolan Finley is very familiar with the real menace of a chicken-killing cur.

This present unvarnished, red-meat edict/opinion of the Detroit News is likewise on a total blood letting tear. What can be done with a chicken killing dog?

The not-so-thick gloves are off. The News and the Mackinac Center are now emblazoned  to go in for the "kill." It's bone ugly. It's totally counter intuitive. It's pure naked reprisal with a "to-hell-with-MEA" angst that has been building violently for a very long time on the pages of this newspaper.

Engler's Part in Monumental Shortfalls
There is a national financial crisis, there is a major crisis in Michigan. The shortfall was created in part by John Engler whose $4 billion plus cuts in state revenues took effect just as he was leaving office, and on top of that Engler left Gov. Granholm and the state over a billion in debt.

Political Slap-downs
However, the current legislature has instituted moves against the MEA which have far less to do with economic specifics than they do with aggressive opportunistic take-backs from teachers, turning the clock back to the late 1950's.

Hardened foes are exacting a long-sought slap-down of the ability of the Association to protect and defend the entire education community:  students, teachers, associated staff, and, yes, even the interests of principals, superintendents, school board members, associated businesses, and not least of all parents. No entity works for the public schools better legislatively or more effectively than MEA.

The Detroit News No Longer Attempts or Pretends to Be Civil or Polite
The News has become hectoring, overbearing and demanding. There's bitter tinge on the New's hamfisted edict, made loudly and without apology, the legislature must repeal a Republican governor's (George Romney) signature on the educators' right-to-bargain legislation-passed in back in 1965. If revision can be accomplished, it would literally move Michigan to the end of the line educationally-in a country with many low-achieving states far less accomplished and educationally advanced than Michigan, prior to now.

Fascistic Moves
The News' demand reflects a menacing, emerging Fascistic philosophy, partially hidden, yet so pervasive in the catacombs of the News, albeit seldom seen, but now revealed in all its bare tarbelly ugly for all to see in this moment.

Power-seeking, Greed and Control,  Have Bust Out Into the Light of Day
It's very simple:  When the demands of business and commerce must always trump, rule over, all other aspects of governance there is a fundamental democratic problem.

Look what happened in the State House yesterday. Tourism lobbyists vigorously blocked the very "reform" legislation that the News supports (even aligning themselves with the dread MEA momentarily)  for one specific self-interest purpose. It was not the good of education the tourism industry were angling for.  They fought to protect one more weekend for their business opportunities-delaying school openings until after the Labor Day Weekend.  Forget the educational impact such a “business move” would have.   Mind you, these are the “very same” individuals and groups that are fomenting  their specific “education reforms” they say will “improve”  Michigan education.  Most of their reforms involve taxes or labor law thus providing  a direct economic benefit for the “reformers” without tangible pro-active quality improvements for students or public education.

Government and business interests when they become as "one," totally united in goals and operations, encompassing even aggressive privatization of all public services, point to a condition where we have the basis for Fascism, or what we may call "friendly Fascism."

When it comes down to powerful business and corporate interests, which demand and receive full control over the institutions and governance of the state and communities (in full partnership with the legislature and the government), we find ourselves marched meekly into the dark night of a treacherous new era. Blind to history, we parade naively, ensnaring ourselves in divisive cultural war and calamity.

Outrageous Demands
There can be no good outcome in succumbing to the ill-driven powers behind the demands of the Detroit News and its radical right cabal demanding: Strip the teachers of their status, their salaries, their benefits, legislated security, and their voice in school affairs. After all we learn, everything educational belongs only to the all-powerful business/state government Lansing combine. Force the teachers take whatever "we" (the business/government cabal) decide to ladle out, without recourse.

Snarls the cur: Just shut up and teach.


Original Post.

Finley's Right Wing anti-teacher Crusade: A man with a forked tongue and a flaying pen

Response to Nolan Finley in "Teacher perks bleed budget dry" in the Detroit News on October 4, 2009.

Nolan Finley, like his most recent predecessors at the News, is a shrewd man with a forked tongue and a flaying pen.

When Finley openly admits, yet again, that his source for facts and projections, concerning anything to do with public education, comes from that corporatist ideological cathouse, the Mackinac Center, so well-known as the far right's animal house for political antics and wild abandon and factual hyperbole, he reveals his bias and lack of credulity.

Can the Michigan teachers match the easy access that the Mackinac Center has to the major papers, the electronic media, the inner sanctum of the Michigan Republican Party, and the GOP legislative crew? NO.

Millions of dollars from tightly sphinctered, vested corporations, ideologues, and miserly trusticants, have fed this group of fact-twisting-ferrets a rich diet of hulls and shells, washed down with a slithering dash of anti-public service/privatization Kool-Aid.

Time and again, it is the threatening pronouncements and entrapping art of Mackinac Center that has carried out the vengeful goals of John Engler and his shrewd legislative tactics henchmen: Richard D. McLellan and Larry Reed, emeritus head of Mackinac.

It was Reed who exposed his tar-pitched bias during the 1993 Republican Senate Hearings on the shutdown of all school operating funding, when he characterized the MEA as "a Leninist organization", his chosen, passionate statement of belief. Larry would later deny, by lying, he ever said such a thing at Hope College in Holland, when he was on a road trip pushing privatization and the decertification of MEA in front of aspiring teachers.

The influence of predigested talking points and prefab legislation in opposition to MEA has been circulating for decades. During that major funding crisis, the summer of 1993, the News had a rollicking field day. They were so close to their so-called Right-to-work nocturnal dream that they were elated and delirious with verbiage and puffery. Nolan is still chained to the bench from which such venom and spite was set to type.

House Speaker Paul Hillegonds was asked during the '93 crisis where the facts and figures source for the kinds of harsh measures he and the radicalized Republicans of that time were espousing, his source: The Heritage Foundation. What a tight little circle! The big player in both the Mackinac Center and in the Heritage Foundation (brought on line in the time of Reagan, well-known for PATCO and much anti-union angst and activity) is the Amway clan.

Young Dick DeVos was put on the board of Mackinac and the Amway crowd has been a generous supporter and funder of its nefarious missions against MEA.

It was the DeVos family, in particular, that pushed ahead with anti-public service campaigns nationwide and harsh political attack activity, spectacular failed efforts, in which they have wasted millions of their billions in profits.

Say again will you, Nolan, who are the real "bullies" and the perennial rock throwers in this classic battle?

We didn't see Mackinac Center backed Dick DeVos chain himself to the exit gates of to any failing manufacturing operation in Michigan, such as Greenville, as Dick frittered away his personal tens of millions on a disastrous gubernatorial campaign, did we? NO.

Have we seen a well-tuned, pro-active program to keep manufacturing alive in Michigan or make the kind of systemic and tax supported efforts to intelligently and wholeheartedly pave the way for new industry in Michigan--in the manner of say, Chattanooga and the state of Tennessee?

Cry over the fact that John Engler killed the concept--proposed by Gov. James Blanchard--to put in place and develop a university anchored high tech corridor in Michigan 19 years ago. Just imagine what an advantage that would have given us and how it could have saved us from our lack of diversification in industry.

So we are left with milquetoast sophistry about how teachers--with 5 years of undergraduate training and apprenticeship and the continuing responsibilities for even more costly post graduate training--should be relegated to what Nolan describes as the wage of "an ordinary worker" because as he states, "teacher perks have bled the budget dry." This is the same device used by Sen. Wayne Kuipers when he led the move to shut down state government exactly two years ago.

Does Finley really see teachers as ordinary workers? Is that how Nolan appreciates--"as a father and father-in-law of public school teachers", (Teacher perks bleed budget dry, Finley Editorial, DN, 10/4/09) the role and work of professional educators, even those in his immediate family circle? If so, how sad.

And as for the benefits Nolan and the Mackinac/Heritage howlers rage on about:  Where are those health dollars spent? In Wisconsin?

What value do MESSA dollars add to the entire medical economy? To what degree do school employees continue to underwrite the under-insured and the uninsured, who seek emergency care in places like the Amway invested medical operation in Grand Rapids--a billion dollar health complex?

How many teachers do you think, holding a MESSA administrated Michigan Blue Cross health package, are turned away from admission by Amway's endorsed and sponsored Spectrum Health? None of course, they are VERY WELCOME. MESSA clients help pay the bills for those unable to pay their way.

The local economies of so many of our communities and towns are greatly enriched and sustained by the local dollars spent and invested by school employees and their ancillary efforts to build other community organizations, volunteer undertakings, and churches.

Nolan, it's time you think for yourself and step up to the plate for Michigan's future in a positive and helpful way.





Original Post.