What you need to know about the complete “re-write” or “re-do” of Billions in Public School Funding in Michigan

From a leading national expert on Rick Snyder's Plan for Michigan Public Education:

"Governor Snyder’s plan for education in Michigan sounds just like Romney’s and Bobby Jindal’s. The money should follow the student anywhere and everywhere, to any vendor of education services, regardless of who owns it or manages it.

So, students may take their money to private schools, to hawkers of services, to online courses, whatever. Welcome to anyone who wants to start a school and collect public money.

That is a plan to undermine public education, and the right-wing knows it. That’s their goal."

Nationally and State-by-State, From Mitt Romney to Rick Snyder: "Follow the Student" funding is an attempt to end the long tradition of Public Education and Community Schools across America - Why? For Profit.

What is happening - what are the Facts?

LANSING – Michigan’s school finance system would be reshaped to allow money to more closely follow children and allow for a variety of choices for families under a plan being shaped by a panel assembled by Gov. Rick Snyder. (break) The group, headed by Richard McLellan, a former adviser to Gov. John Engler, promises a transparent process involving educators, lawmakers and union leaders with an eye toward a bill headed to Snyder in early 2013. (break) Speaking to reporters in a Monday conference call, McLellan said the goal is to create a plan replacing the 1979 School Aid Act….”

Source: “Gov. Rick Snyder assembles panel to plan for sweeping changes to school funding” MLive, July 16, 2012.

Back to Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who is an historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, on Snyder's Education Plan:

"Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has his own plan to hack away at the foundations of universal, free public education.

He is vying to be one of the national leaders of the education reform movement. Like (Loisianna Governor) Bobby Jindal, his Southern counterpart in the far-right of the Republican Party, Snyder would love to offer vouchers but the Michigan state constitution doesn’t permit it (neither does the Louisiana state constitution, but who cares when you are a reformer?).

Leaving constitutional niceties aside, Snyder wants to promote, encourage, expand, and fund with taxpayer dollars anything that is not a public school.

Governor Snyder wants to reshape the state’s school finance system so that public money “follows the child,” instead of just automatically going to public schools. This is part of the right-wing agenda to defund public education, cloaked in alluring terminology.

The governor has created a panel to figure out how to make this happen."

(Emphasis Added)

Note: The terms "Follow the Child" or "Follow the Student" refer to what is also called "Student-weighted Funding" or other public funding and public education assets diversion schemes to replace voucher and "scholarship" strategies to support private and for-profit schools with both taxpayer financial support and facilities, was referenced to by Mitt Romney in the first Presidential Election Debate of 2012 on October 3, 2012.

What is the (Michigan) State School Aid Act of 1979?
Public Act 94 or the “School Aid Act” is the Michigan Law that controls the allocation and appropriation of all funding (payments, bonds, etc) for “public schools, the intermediate school districts, community colleges, and public universities.”  Under the State Constitution there are certain restrictions and requirements on how and where public funds (i.e. taxpayer dollars) are spent on “public education”, and Act 94 is most recent legislation that determines how those public funds and assets are paid for and maintained.  The School Aid Act also prescribes “the powers and duties of certain state departments, the state board of education, and certain other boards and officials” that control the funding/management of Michigan Public Education.

Education Funding in the Michigan (Snyder/Nixon) State Budget included over $900+ Million in cuts in 2011, and the State School Aid Act, the largest “strategic fund” in the state budget, allocated in HB 5376 ( 2012), is $14.1 Billion.

What is the Oxford Foundation Memo?
In a memorandum sent to “interested parities” entitled “Drafting a ‘Michigan Education Finance Act of 2013’ to Replace the School Aid Act of 1979” the Oxford Study Group provides a rationale to justify radical /revolutionary change is presented outlining a “Work Plan” with numerous goals and objectives to redefine and disenfranchise community public schools via the rewriting of the both the Strategic School Fund parameters and Michigan School Code.

Diane Ravitch has Flipped: a former Reagan education official, turned vocal anti-Privatization and informed defender of American Public Education

Ravitch's informed conclusion on Oxford Project - “it reforms public education by funding everything other than public education.”

What is the Oxford Foundation?
The Oxford Foundation was formed in 1991 by the then new Gov. John Engler to “to lessen the financial burdens of the Government of the State of Michigan”.  More than two dozen individuals have been identified as past and present officers of Oxford, which includes Richard McLellan, also a founder of the anti-union and anti-public education Mackinac Center for Public Policy.  When asked at townhall meeting on his “Public Education Finance Project” on July 18, 2012 about “who is Oxford” and what their funding and membership was, McLellan, a Lansing lawyer/lobbyist, refused to answer. The Oxford Foundation is an IRS 501(c) 3 “charity” and does not disclosure it’s membership or funding sources, donors or recipients. However, internal Oxford documents show that the foundation’s funding has exceeded $1 Million from year to year.

Who is the American Legislative Exchange Council?
ALEC is a corporate funded Heritage Foundation/Mackinac Center associated national organization that has been recently “exposed” as being the organization behind the drafting, lobbying and sponsoring or hundreds of bills or “model legislation” passed in multiple US States including Michigan.  ALEC has been identified as a key political organization behind: anti-union and collective bargaining campaigns and politicians, the support of for-profit education organizations and companies, and facilitator of legislation diverting billions in public education funding to its corporate members and for-profit education management organizations, including those operating in Michigan.

Sources: See the websites ALECexposed.org and VLTP.net for more on ALEC, or read the McGuffey piece "Rick Snyder & the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Corporatist “Disaster Capitalism” on the Prowl in Michigan"

Monied interests represented by funders of the Mackinac Center, Heritage and Oxford Foundations, and like-minded organizations (American Federation for Children (Betsy DeVos), Students First, Mosiaca, Education Connections, Heritage Academies, etc) seek to “reform” public education for profit state-by-state in FL, TX, NJ, LA, TN, IN, OH, WI and now they want Michigan too.

Michigan politico Tim Skubick on McLellan in FoxDetroit on July 30, 2012:

“Mr. (Dick) McLellan is now one of the governor's (Rick Snyder’s) go-to guys on a variety of issues from the bridge to a re-do of the state's school aid act for education”.

Bottomline:
The current Snyder/McLellan’s “Oxford Project” is part of a well-funded and nationally organized campaign working state-by-state to divert public funding for community schools to for-profit education management businesses and organizations (EMOs) led by ALEC and Koch Brothers supported organizations (i.e. the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and related foundations) to “reform” public education and replace public sector union (Teacher & Employee Unions) and influence on the national debate on public education funding and “reform” from public control to privatized profit.

On the Reader:
READ the Oxford Memo (Alternate LINK) and the ANALYSIS by Diane Ravitch in "Michigan Plan to Defund Public Education" July 18, 2012.

Related Slates:
More on Richard McLellan on the Gazette.

The Crushing Blow to Mitt’s Quix-Toxic Quest: ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘Corporate Bandit’

All secure behind closed doors we have seen and heard you Mitt, chumming with your choice of friendlies - ultra-rich supporters. You told us in Tampa you were a man of goodwill and great benevolence. We know the story of the Good Samaritan… However, now we know you, Mitt… You are not that kind of benefactor. You are the worst kind of Taker not a Giver. Some stories/parables from a Christian’s childhood Bible Stories are indelible and belief driving. The parable of the Good Samaritan is just exactly one of those powerful life teachings.

Good Acts and Civic Good – But Does It Pay? The Parable of the Good Samaritan shows even the ‘unbelievers’ have the capacity for economic-free empathy (Georg Pencz Engraving 1543)

Christ told this illusive story to draw out the real meaning of his ministry and God’s wishes for believers. The truth Christ said is that even a man who practices a “cult” religion (Samaritans were a labeled a “sect” for “unorthodox religious practices” during the time of Jesus and where therefore social outcasts)--is more compassion and understanding about human needs and poverty than the Pharisees and the Sadducees of Christ’s own orthodox Jewish practitioners and leaders at the time. The Good Samaritan parable arose out of a challenge given Jesus by a lawyer who confronted him about his ministry and unorthodox practices (such as eating with prostitutes and tax collectors).

Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind “[Deuteronomy 6:5]; and “your neighbor as yourself” [Leviticus 19:18]." He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" — Luke 10:25–29, World English Bible

Given this challenge Jesus replied with this parable/teaching story:

Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.' Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbour to him who fell among the robbers?" He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Note who did not intervene or help out: A religious priest, and then a lawyer. However, a Samaritan (a heretic member of a religious sect and outcast in the eyes of Jews to whom Jesus was speaking) was “moved with compassion” and “took care of him.” A “Good Samaritan” cares deeply about “victims.”

Sermonizing some pastor Sunday may obtain or gain insight expanding upon this parable for our times. She or he might skip over to refer also to that other story that expounds upon the relationship of the rich to the poor, The Rich Man & Lazarus. (See McGuffey: "The Blind-eyed Marriage of the Conservative Churches to the Excessive & Corrupt Business Practices") Yet using the Good Samaritan as an anchor, the good pastor can illuminate the power of the parable - educated and able men pass by those who have fallen among thieves and pass along indifferent and unmoved by such, a victim.

Those thieves the pastor may chance to connect with the Koch Brothers. who have stolen the clean air and pure water from those who work in their life threatening and notorious, heavily EPA-fined dirty manufacturing and cancer-causing petro operations/leaking pipeline facilities slung across America, many inflicting death and suffering on both Koch workers and communities surrounding them.

Or the pastor could refer to those clever manipulators of corporatocracy (Corporatist Job Thieves) whose lobbying and bribery (ALEC) for loophole and financial friendly legislation seeks laws and regulations which allow them to “steal” the jobs, livelihoods, and local places of employment from working families in order for their own “harvesting” of such community wealth as Mitt has so successfully done in the name of “free enterprise.” (See the video from the 1980’s were Mitt actually uses the term “harvest” when exalting in his shrewd methodology to his backers). These men are the same cut as the “robbers” in Christ’s parable.

One indication of Romney’s involvement in untoward activity and collaboration in the building Bain Capital includes the following:

“After initially struggling to find investors, Romney traveled to Miami in 1983 to win pledges of $9 million, 40 percent of Bain’s start-up money. Some investors had extensive ties to the death squads responsible for the vast majority of the tens of thousands of deaths in El Salvador during the '80s. The investors include the Salaverria family, [whom] former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, has previously accused of directly funding the Salvadoran paramilitaries. In his memoir, former Bain executive Harry Strachan writes Romney pushed aside his own misgivings about the investors to accept their backing. Strachan writes, quote, ‘These Latin American friends have loyally rolled over investments in succeeding funds, actively participated in Bain Capital's May investor meetings, and are still today one of the largest investor groups in Bain Capital.’"

Source: On Democracy Now the piece “Romney’s Death Squad Ties: Bain Launched with Millions from Oligarchs Behind Salvadoran Atrocities”, August 10, 2012.

Let us not forget that super rich cabal that in 1913 persuaded Woodrow Wilson to allow the federal banking system to be privatized and put into the Federal Reserve System. Those same wealthy manipulators did in fact pull or harvest their “takings” from the 1929 stock market crash just prior to The ‘29 Crash, thus using insider information and skills, protecting their wealth and holdings. But at what horrendous human cost and the sowing of the seeds of WW II, a time of high crime against the entire world.

Let’s return to the meaning found in the narrative of the “Good Samaritan”.

Seeing a badly injured man, the victim of a crime, along the roadside is one thing. But notice what Christ said. Look. See. Who was it that decided to observe and assess the man’s conditions of need and simply pass on indifferently?

The entire point of the GOP National Convention in Tampa would appear to be an attempt to “sell” Mitt Romney as a very generous man. Mitt: the benevolent Mormon Bishop. Mitt: the caring family man, etc. Then came Romney’s 47% damning Revelation:

“All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what… These are people who pay no income tax. … [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” “There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what."

These, Romney’s closed door revelations, were so shocking that Dr. Gregory Prince, a Mormon Historian and powerful defender of his religion, was compelled to proclaim, “Mitt Romney is not the face of Mormonism.” Dr. Prince:

“The issue of Romney's Mormon faith has never gone away, although its presence has waxed and waned as other issues have come and gone. How -- or if -- he chooses to use his religion as part of his public biography is up to him, but the fact that he is the only Mormon ever to be the nominee for the Presidency of a major political party makes it inevitable that even if people do not judge him because of his religion, they will judge his religion because of him. Given the unfolding news of this week, I regret to say that Mitt Romney is not the face of Mormonism.” (Emphasis Added)

So in his Quixotic Campaign Mitt has now devastatingly failed to redeem his father and has, in-fact, brought irreparable damage to his own precious Mormonism tradition. He’s a disgrace; having lost face in his own America, a nation that has never fully understood his cult religion and its place in society.

 Is it any wonder Wife, Ann Romney, would reveal on CBS that she has become very anxious over Mitt’s mental and emotional abilities to carry out the burdens of office, if elected? A lot has been made over the fact that Mitt is clearly more “centered” and “himself” when he’s campaigning accompanied by Paul Ryan and/or Ann, his wife.

 It is more than abundantly clear Mitt is in a unrelenting bind. He cannot control the radical GOP Apparatchiks (Operatives) “not of grand plans, but of a hundred carefully executed details”] who are determined to elect him to act as a figurehead ready to cooperate with an extremist anti-government agenda. That is, they are determined to elect a Republican if only as a compliant “document signer” for their planned radical legislation ala the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC’s nationwide agenda and the checklist of the Tea Party’s anti-government blitzkrieg coup d'etat. Now the “Mormon Candidate”, Mitt Romney, once portrayed as a kind and compassionate “Good Samaritan, ” falls prey to his own greed and duplicity--the dangerous vicissitudes of vicious politics. This is a crushing blow to Romney, a man on a crusade to save and rebuild his beloved father’s broken legacy, elevate, and authenticate in the eyes of the nation and the world his own Mormon Faith and bolster his father’s honor as a political leader well-suited to have been elected U.S. President back in 1968. How personally tragic and very, very sad for Mitt! Ann Romney has every reason to worry over the mental well-being of her Mitt; this man has been on the road to the presidency for six long slogging years, far too long to survive without fissures and stress due to the contortions and reversals of personal beliefs/religious training, and ambitions that such a grueling task exacts from a man whose main purpose in life may well-be to find his own place out from under his father's political shadow and avenge his father’s tragic and ignominious rejection from the 1968 GOP Presidential Nomination.

George Romney Campaign Slogan in 1968 – “Great for 68”

Michigan’s Gov. George Romney was rudely ejected from the process ostensibly because of Gov. G.W.R’s statement that he had been “brainwashed” by military brass that were determined to take the nation further into that horrible Vietnam War. It was a war Gov. George Romney abjured as a high quality Mormon on basic Mormon principles and would have no doubt changed the military execution thereof and possibly withdrawn the U.S. from Vietnam as its Commander-in-Chief:

“Initially, (George) Romney supported the Vietnam War, but after a 1965 trip there, he began to question the mission, feeling he had been ‘brainwashed’ by military officials. In August 1967, he articulated his opposition to the war.”

Source: Wikipedia, George W. Romney Campaign 1968 Mormonism, as a religion, has a conflict with serving in the military writes one Mormon; war and killing:

“…(T)here has always been an uneasy alliance between Mormon attitudes about serving in the military and religious devotion. President Spencer W. Kimball famously taught: "We (Americans) are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become anti-enemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” - (Matthew 5:44–45)" “For many there is a person who kills for country or a traitorous coward. There are no positive terms for a non-combat hometown warrior, peace soldier, or citizen diplomat.” (Emphasis Added)

The exposure of Mitt’s most intimate thoughts concerning and defining the 47% of Americans whose support he forfeits, which Romney identified in Boca Raton as never voting for his candidacy and, coupled with the insider knowledge that his “cult” status as a Mormon was, and is, blocking his hoped-for plurality in the Deep South. This presents an intransient obstacle to his election. From a Brooking Institution Study titled “Does Mitt Romney have a ‘Religious Problem” in May 2012:

“Decades of polling has shown that Mormon candidates face steep obstacles in the American electorate. Roughly one in five Americans say they would not vote for a generally well-qualified nominee for their party who happened to be a Mormon according to Gallop surveys going back to 1967.”] , where “white” Evangelicals [by wide margins according to the Brookings Study make sure “Things are worse in the South, a region with especially high shares of Evangelical Christians. Romney lost Evangelicals (in the 2012 primaries) by 35 points in Louisiana, 33 points in Georgia, 24 points in South Carolina, and 16 points in Tennessee, carrying none of these states).”

Apparently there is a big problem here for Mitt. Southern far-right-religious will not back Mitt and in protest against his “cultist” status –they may “sit this one out”, may refuse to vote for president all together, despite the efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention via Dr. Richard Land’s attempts to assuage his some sixteen million SBC members to see Mormonism as a noble Fourth Abrahamic Religion-not a unique and suspect American Nativist non-Christian Cult, and vote, not for Romney but, directly against a “Black” Barack Obama (believing they are “saving American Exceptionalism” from a Socialist). Actual context of Dr. Land’s Statement:

“As controversy over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith continues to stir among conservatives and other candidates ahead of tomorrow night’s debate, some have questioned whether Mormons can be considered true Christians. “According to Richard Land, President of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the answer is no. “Most Evangelical Protestants and most conservative Catholics would say no, it is not,’ Land told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, refuting the notion that Mormonism is a Christian faith. ‘It is another religion. It does not have an orthodox view of the Trinity and the full and complete deity of Jesus Christ.’” He continued: “Perhaps the best way to look at Mormonism is it is the fourth Abrahamic religion. Joseph Smith playing the role of Muhammad, and the Book of Mormon playing the role of the Quran.”

That rancorous old political street fighter and cultural warrior, Pat Buchanan, has weighed in the following manner, in direct reference to the role race plays in the Southern Baptist Convention and the nostalgic Deep South. Joan Walsh, on July 25, 2012 in Salon:

“Remember that Pat Buchanan has compared the Tea Partiers to “George Wallace voters,” and bragged that he won them over to Nixon. Buchanan and [FOX’s Roger] Ailes are trying to do it again, and having a black Democrat in the White House makes them think it will be even easier this time. “Honestly, it won’t be easier. There are too many people of every race who are genuinely not racist, or open to naked racial appeals. I truly believe the vast majority of American voters will judge Obama on his accomplishments or lack thereof in 2012, not the color of his skin. But older white voters scared by social change are a small but reliable base for [FOX’s] Ailes and Buchanan to rely on.”

In another Salon Piece on February 2, 2010, Joan Walsh reported this bit of background:

“I reminded Buchanan that I covered a local tea party last year and worked hard to acknowledge the economic populism and anti-corporate-bailout sentiment animating some of the demonstrators. Whatever. But my favorite part of the debate was when Buchanan bragged about capturing the George Wallace vote for his boss, Richard Nixon, and I called that the “racist” vote. (For the kids, George Wallace was the Alabama governor who preached “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” and stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to prevent black students from entering in 1963. He ran for president as an independent in 1968 and won five Southern states; Nixon and Buchanan clawed many of his supporters back in 1972, after an assassination attempt put Wallace in a wheelchair.) “Calling the Wallace vote ‘racist’ enraged Buchanan too, and he countered that those racists had voted for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. I acknowledged many of them did: Johnson lost them when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and he probably knew it at the time, famously remarking (although I can’t find a reliable source for the famous remark) that he’d delivered the South to the Republicans for a long time. Right about then Matthews called time on our segment. “You can dismiss this as dumb cable TV chatter, or ancient history, and that’s your right. But I would urge you not to do either. By bragging about his success in winning the racist Wallace vote for Nixon way back when, Buchanan is (perhaps unconsciously) admitting the through-line from that racist GOP segment through the birthers and extreme anti-Obama tea partiers of today. It’s a remarkable admission. We should pay attention to it.”

How exasperating and angering it must be for so many of those nativist Americans-who still hold racial prejudice and intolerance for Mormonism--a religion outside “born again” Christianity—who have only two major choices in their interpretation of the choices for president in November 2012: Vote for a Cultist or vote against a Black! Historic race between a “Sect-ist” Romney and a “Black” Barack Obama raises a very bifurcated dilemma for the Southern Evangelical American voter . Southern Baptists in particular can vote either against their settled doctrine condemning “sects” or express their “racism” by voting against America’s first black president. Again Brookings:

“Those supposedly anti-Romney voters are among the least supportive of the president. Only one in four, Evangelical Christians has favorable opinions of Obama. (FOX News-Roger Ailes-Racist) Indeed, among Republicans who do not think of Mormons as Christians—that is, the subgroup believed most predisposed against Romney—fully 92% have unfavorable opinions of Barack Obama.” *

*Note: This information is as of May 2012, some of that opposition to Pres. Obama may be changing due to the Romney/Ryan full-frontal attacks on Social Security.  

Guest commentary cross-posted with permission to Kos.

On the Reader:
See the VIDEO of Mitt Romney while at Bain Capital talking  about 'harvesting' profits or read the analysis from the Brookings Institution on Mitt Romney's religion and politics
“Does Mitt Romney have a ‘Religious Problem'”.

Related Slates:
Middling Mitt Romney Not of His Fathers' Sterling Civic Michigan Mettle (Gaskell & George Romney) (June 2012) - Mitt Romney: America’s Nascent Holy “god” & Possible President? (February 2012) - Welcome to Planet Willard: Michigan's Wayward Son Mitt Romney to Rule His Own World (January 2012) and more on Mitt Romney and his father George Romney on the Gazette.

Michigan’s Carnival of Economic Carnality: Who Runs Rick Snyder?

The interlocking overlords of Michigan run the agenda presented by the Detroit News - their main newsprint outlet. The behind the scenes sponsors and originators, controllers of the flow of managed and contrived information and agenda opinion are those who are principals in both the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM) add in the untoward influence and direct access to Michigan law making via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Michigan is a generator of ALEC models and has over 100 past or present legislators who are members (including the MI GOP's new national committee man Dave Agema) and you have the lockbox from which the TeaPublican/Snyder/Elites pull the plan that determines the future economy and the range of freedom for most Michiganians.

Take US Rep. Dave Agema, a robotic ALEC lackey:

"MI HB-4305 Sec. 4.1 (PDF) contains language that is pretty much, word for word, cribbed from ALEC model legislation 7K5, Sec. 2 (A) (PDF).  The Michigan legislation was "plug and played" directly into a bill-unedited or lightly amended) was sponsored by Rep. Dave Agema, an ALEC Member."

Brilliant hod-carrying for the corporatocracy statesman Dave!

Foreign Written Sharia Law is Bad, but Multinational Corporations (with foreign ownership) Writing 'Cut & Paste' Laws Good: Michigan US Rep Dave Agema presents his proposed HM 4769 American Laws for American Courts or ALAC bill in Lansing, MI on May 10, 2012 after being introduced by Alan Cropsey from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's office.

Most of the activity of the overlords is done in secret and sub-rosa. Little is known about who actually contributes to the Mackinac Center. This aggressive and anti-worker propaganda mill was set up by Richard McLellan esq. and John Mathias Engler along with others whose model was drawn from that of the Heritage Foundation which in turn was funded and boosted, early on, by both Richard (Rich) M. DeVos Sr. and Jay Van Andel of Amway.

The programs and opinions of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy have had carte blanche to hundreds of pages of local and regional news outlets, their videos, speakers bureau, publications (Capital Confidential, and anti-union Educational Journal sent to all of Michigan's public school teachers) has a wide sphere of influence. Slick brochures and brightly colored booklets promote a wide range of rational intended to promote and achieve their objectives. They have been successful beyond their wildest dreams; they have a complete control/homogeny over the political processes of Michigan.

MichiganVotes.org is Mackinac Center's tracking site on legislation. These business elites hold control over a supine Michigan State Supreme Court as the final rubber stamp/safeguard on their achievements.

Look at these examples of the interlocking roles of Michigan Corporations with the private political power machine that runs Michigan:

• Mackinac Donor: Chase Foundation = BLM Member: Sarah McClelland, President, Michigan Region/Chase Bank
• Mackinac Donor: Hanover Insurance Group Foundation =BLM Member: Frederick Eppinger, President and CEO, Hanover Insurance Group
• Mackinac Donor: Herbert and Grace Dow Foundation = BLM Member: Andrew Liveris, CEO, Dow Chemical
• Mackinac Donor: General Motors Foundation = BLM Member: Daniel Akerson, CEO/Chairman of the Board, General Motors
• Mackinac Donor: Jay and Betty Van Andel Institute = BLM Member: Steve Van Andel, Amway
• Mackinac Donors: Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation = BLM Member: Doug DeVos, Amway

The "Turnaround Plan for Michigan" produced by these principals and others included:

1. Reducing the compensation of state employees
2. Requiring state employees pay more for their health insurance...
3. Encouraging sharing of services between local governments
4. Eliminating binding arbitration for police officers and firefighter
5. Deregulating workplace safety standards
6. Reducing the Michigan Business Tax

This is only the tip of the iceberg of goals or targets included in the radical "reinvention" Snyder hid from the voters in his stealth campaign for governor in 2008.

What did the Holland Sentinel reveal of the nature of the BLM? Read the Holland Sentinel op-ed:

"One of the most influential civic groups that emerged in reaction to our state's tailspin last decade was Business Leaders for Michigan. Comprised of top executives at some of the state's largest companies (among them the locally based Haworth, Herman Miller and Perrigo), BLM took a broader outlook than most other business groups, issuing a wide-ranging Michigan Turnaround Plan in 2010, many elements of which were incorporated into Gov. Rick Snyder's agenda in 2011."

There are many, many other interlocking cronyisms in the engine powering the BLM/ALEC/Mackinac Center cabal:

"Because there's more apparent government tie-in to the BLM-and the Mackinac Policy Center-than just Rick Snyder's obvious channeling of their policies. John Nixon, the State Budget Director, has been a speaker at the BLM's Leadership Conference. So has William (Bill) Schuette... (Michigan's Attorney General) who also happens to be the Trustee of the Rollin M. Gerstaker Foundation-a major Mackinac Center contributor.

"Mark Murray, a BLM member and current president of Meijer, Inc., was formerly the Michigan State Treasurer, the Michigan State Budget Director, and the Director of the Department of Management and Budget."

"Andy Dillon, failed gubernatorial candidate, is "the former vice president of GE Capital and then president of Detroit Steel Company. As Speaker of the Michigan House, he endorsed the BLM turnaround plan. Now, he's Rick Snyder's State Treasurer."

"Doug Rothwell, (well identified cohort with John M. Engler’s long tenure) the current president and CEO of the Business Leaders for Michigan, was appointed in January by Rick Snyder to be Chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As Progress Michigan noted, "This gives BLM-a private organization-virtual control over an agency that makes decisions regarding tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and sets economic policy for the state."

(Emphasis Added)

These Princes of Corporate Prosperity Are Well-Rewarded for Their Activities
 
The combined income of the "81 members of BLM make $107.5 million a year in salary” (as of 2010), they are the elites that determine, as never before, the life and living conditions of Michigan's children, mentally ill, poor, labor, public employees and all others. Nothing escapes their ability to trump the vital interests of the Middle Class, they rule!

Residents of West Michigan will recognize a lot of these familiar names:

1.    Jim Hackett from Steelcase in office furniture,
2.    Richard Haworth from Haworth another furniture producer,
3.    Mark Bissell, the vacuum-cleaner king,
4.    Dan Gordon of Gordon Food Service, and
5.    Blake Krueger from Wolverine World Wide.

Rick Snyder's campaign outline (Snyder's 10 Point Plan) came directly from the previously published BLM objectives, who runs/controls whom?

If you are upset with the tremendous hit that Michigan families have taken in the last 10 years look to them, these powerful elites have the levers of power and decision-making. They rule, you can suffer.

Source: Quotes drawn from: The Kings of Michigan, from GRIID March 31, 2011.


On the Reader:
Watch US Rep. Dave Agema scaring the radical right and Teapublicans in Lansing concerning the "threat" of foreign Sharia Law, or read an article "Why Rep. Dave Agema wants to stop Sharia by banning 'foreign laws' in Michigan courts" or a little about mini-scandal surrounding a similar meeting in the City of Allegan.

Related Slates:
Nationally popular featured article "Rick Snyder & the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Corporatist “Disaster Capitalism” on the Prowl in Michigan" or more on ALEC and the BLM on the Gazette.

The Original Post was CENSORED and DELETED by the editorial staff at the Detroit News and Michigan View.

Middling Mitt Romney Not of His Fathers' Sterling Civic Michigan Mettle (Gaskell & George Romney)

Reflection and observations on some of the Romney family history.

Mitt, a Son So Un-alike His Father! It's Fathers Day and this famous son has lost his core and doesn't know where to find it.

Willard "Mitt" Romney (age 10) with his father George W. Romney in 1957. George Romney then CEO of AMC was also on a "Citizens Advisory Committee" attempting to fix Detroit Public Schools.  (LA Times 2006)

Gov. George Romney (former governor of Michigan 1963-1968) was man of genuine Pro-Active Politics and Great Civic Betterment

Mitt "Willard" Romney is his father's doppelganger, a son devoid of firmly held principle, poor of spirit, and inept at truth-telling/credibility. A doppelganger is a double of a person, typically representing an aspect of evil or misfortune, some twist not to the benefit of others.

The History
How Others Saw George Romney, Former Governor of Michigan, the man:

• George Romney took over American Motors Company (AMC) on the verge of bankruptcy and made it a strong competitor again.
• At the same time, he worked to pull the Detroit school system out of a financial mess. Believing in local control of education, Romney helped put across a $60 million bond issue, and a $30 million tax package, which enabled Detroit schools to keep pace with community needs.
• During World War II he headed the Automotive Council for War Production: the greatest industrial, cooperative wartime effort in history.
• In 1959 George Romney took the lead in organizing citizen support for a badly needed new state constitution.
• As Governor, George Romney applied sound management to state spending. He not only increased state services, he cleaned up the financial mess that had made Michigan the laughing stock of the nation.
• Governor Romney fought for laws to halt air and water pollution before they ever became national issues; he also helped pass legislation giving industries tax credits for investing in pollution control equipment. Michigan is now ahead in the fight to end the pollution blight.
• George Romney bought state aid to cities to the highest level in Michigan history. 
• He also helped create the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. "I am against discrimination of any kind" Romney has repeatedly said, "and my record proves it."
•  The National Governors' Conference has recognized Romney's leadership abilities by appointing him to study its most pressing problem: how to get Michigan's fair share of federal tax dollars. 
• George Romney also represents Republican Governors on the National Republican Coordinating Committee. George Romney and his wife Lenore... worked hard for their state for 28 years.
• Their (Father George and Mother Lenore's) commitment to putting an end to "ineffectual and selfish politics" was heartily applauded back then by voters.
• One practical effect of their dedication has been a resurgence of the Republican Party in Michigan.

Source: George Romney's Presidential Candidacy materials (1968)

  Family Tradition in Politics: Is Mitt Worthy? Gaskill Romney Election Flyer (1930's)
George Romney's Father (Mitt Romney's Grandfather)

Mitt's Grandfather: Gaskell Romney
Another huge irony in the paternal line of Mitt Romney goes back to his grandfather Gaskell Romney and his work in the Mexican "Mormon Colony" in the Chihuahua region of Mexico in just after the turn of the century. Has Mitt forgotten his families ties and work with the poor of those days, many whose relatives have immigrated or now seek legal immigration to the US?

Part of the Gaskell Romney story:

"Gaskell Romney moved to Mexico when his father (Miles Park Romney) helped to found the Mormon colony in Colonia Dublán, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico in 1885. The Romney families lost their holdings in Chihuahua during the Mexican Revolution and in 1912 Romney moved back to the United States.[7] Eventually he was reimbursed by the Mexican government for some of his losses.[8] He married in 1895 to Anna Amelia Pratt. Romney was the father of five sons: Maurice, Douglas, Miles Pratt Romney, George W. Romney, Lawrence and Charles. Gaskell himself would be a candidate for County Commissioner 1931 as a Republican."

This from a hit piece (using AP content) on Mitt Romney by FOX News back in 2007:

"Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of (Mitt Romney) the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president.

Romney's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, married his fifth wife in 1897. That was more than six years after Mormon leaders banned polygamy and more than three decades after a federal law barred the practice."

(Break)

"Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Mormons fled in the 1800s to escape religious persecution and U.S. laws forbidding polygamy. He and his family did not return to the United States until 1912, more than two decades after the church issued 'The Manifesto' banning polygamy."

The origin of the radical right-wing use of questioning the birth of Barack Obama or the so-called "Birther Movement" still being used by many Republican candidates in the 2012 election cycle and that was brought up against John McCain as a presidential candidate in 2004, who was born at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936.  These tactics were used to fight the candidacy of George Romney, Mitt's father back in his 1968 run for POTUS.

This from the book by the opposition to George Romney's run for US President written by Gerald O. Plas entitled "The Romney Riddle" in 1967:

"The religious zeal with which Romney supports his opinions comes to him naturally. He is a devout Mormon as was his father and his father's father before him. His grandfather, Miles Park Romney, was a Mormon of the old school, and he took four wives to prove it. When Federal authorities sought to enforce the statutes against polygamy. Miles Romney fled to Mexico with his wives and family.

George Romney was born in Mexico some sixty years ago, son of Miles' son Gaskel and Anna Pratt Romney. Romney's foreign birth has raised a serious constitutional question with regard to the Governor's presidential aspirations.

The United States Constitution specifically bars the presidency to any but "natural born citizens." Debate centers on interpretation of the phrase "natural born citizens."

Many constitutional authorities maintain that our founding fathers meant that a man must be born in America (rather than be merely naturalized by birth) to be eligible for the presidency. Romney protagonists maintain that it doesn't matter where a man is born, if his parents are American citizens."

Interesting isn't it? The time tested use of the old GOP tactics they used against their own, applied to a sitting US President? It's win at all costs then as now, inside and out.

Pointing the Way to a Son Forever in His Shadow: George and Mitt Romney (age 17)
at the World's Fair in Queens, New York City in 1964 (Romney Campaign 2006)

Back to Father's Day
So, we ask on this important day, who is this the dim visage of a great father--the lost son of an esteemed George Romney, who is struggling to become the president of the United States-in the midst of its most challenging economic crisis of the 21st Century?

It was reported long ago, when Mitt first powered up his bid 2007 to run for president that "old friends of George Romney aren't thrilled with the politics of his son."

The New York Times reported:

'I think George Romney would despair of what Mitt has done in order to become the candidate of the conservative extreme right of the GOP party,' said Walter DeVries.

"DeVries, the elder (George) Romney's chief political strategist, called (Mitt) Romney Jr.'s campaign 'desperate' and 'ill conceived,' recalling that the " 'moderate-to-progressive' governor also did not share his son's tendency to change his position on issues in order to curry voters' favor." 

Also in this piece from the NY Times is the zinger haunting Mitt Romeny now. DeVries was quoted as stating:

"George Romney was among the last champions of the moderate-to-progressive wing of the Republican Party"...a straight talker who never hedged a position for political gain. In contrast, Mr. DeVries argued in an interview, "The only thinking Mitt (Romney) hasn't backed off is his Mormon faith," Mr. DeVries said. "He has changed his positions on just about everything. It was like he couldn't wait to race to the other side of the political spectrum."

One could wish Mitt were the "true quality" son of his father George and not the metaphorical pampered son of a Pandora-then the prospects for a better America beyond the November election would be many times more hopeful and promising for everyone should he win.

On the Reader:
Read the attack book on George Romney entitled "The Romney Riddle" on-line on this website or the eBook version .
More on the interesting history of Mitt's grandfather Gaskell Romney in the NPR story "Mexican Cousins Keep Romney's Family Tree Rooted" by John Burnett (January 2011)

Related Slates:
Mitt Romney: America’s Nascent Holy “god” & Possible President? (February 2012)
Welcome to Planet Willard: Michigan's Wayward Son Mitt Romney to Rule His Own World (January 2012)

More on Mitt Romney and George Romney, and the 2012 Election Cycle on the Gazette.


Original.

Tea Party Pot Bellies: Michigan's Tea Partiers - What's in their Kettle?

Whistling from their ears, full of steam piped in from the boilers of Koch Petroleum, these angry men and women are pawns of the first order.

Dunces with dulled intellects and greedy with selfish desire to hold on to what little their corporate masters, have deigned to allow them to retain of all their years of work, labor, and endless toil, "Steamed" Tea Party Pot Bellies are in a manipulator's manufactured rage. It's actually one of the saddest stories to be told; it spells out how the public can be conned, hornswoggled, beguiled, into working exactly against what has always been in their best interests, futures, and well-being.

Centers of Civil Discourse Drown Out: American conversation on local concerns in the
corner of the hardware or general store replaced by Big Media and AFP Money
(General Store in Haysi, VA National Archives 1938)

The Michigan TeaPublican (Tea Party Republican) Super Majority back inside the Capitol, all comfy in their leather swivel chairs, faces lit by taxpayer provided laptops, saw an opening to their advantage. True to form,
GOPer's took the easy path: stick to the Corporatist scripts and rad right discipline: Put the burden of revenue off on children, the elderly, the pensioner, the poor, the public servant. By all means protect the business and corporate community!

If only these Republicans strove to serve the real needs of the public as much as they pride themselves in being errand boys/"buds" to business!

What a nunce Snyder is! Says he was "hired" by Michigan to be their "CEO"! Find that in your state constitutions, you uber-strict constitutionalists. It's not there.

Michigan Americans for Prosperity Propaganda Troupes for Senior Citizen as Shock Troops:
Michigan TP'ers at AFP / Mackinac Sponsored Rally in Lansing, MI April 14, 2011 (DailyKos)

Taking a reach-back look at the Lansing Capitol Rally of the Michigan Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (led by Scott Hagerstrom) last spring, one sees photos of row after row of ball capped, balding older white males, supported by carefully placed courtesy folding chairs. They are angry and frustrated waving provocative signs to prove it's just right to be ginned up for projecting anger and blame on someone else and advantage the Rovian Backroom Boys. Steampotters are ripe for backing the blacklash, then when their handlers have taken all the advantage they can, Tea Party Pot Bellies will be toast!

Staring at the ongoing effects of the worst economic catastrophe of our time, the ruinous, failed Bush regime and its unbearable and destructive rampage of eight years (misdirected wars, unprecedented debt, and unequal taxation) was bad enough; not seeing a clear way out, still forced to confront the seemingly intractable flaws and effects of G.W. Bush cataclysm, has left the worried public to sip the bitter dregs resulting from his bad judgment.

Steampotters are forced to stare at a resultant, potential economic and political collapse worldwide. That's too much for a potbellied TeaPartisan under duress and stress. They're ready for a brawl. But with whom? Their neighbors, their grandchildren, the first responders? The cause of their troubles which has them in a kink? They are supporting the very Corporatist interests that have been eroding their nest eggs and killing their democracy. How odd!

Steampotters are damn mad at the demise of their retirement assets stolen by Wall Street and speculators, the trouble their children are enduring, and the loss of their home equity value-stripped as it was in the Bush Bust of 2008. THEY NEED SOMEONE TO BLAME. They are ready to led by the Kochs MEGA-cash-campaigning. As chance would have it, Koch Brothers had shipped in that unsavory character, Dick Morris - and didn't fetish Dick strut his stuff?

Steaming potbellies are addicted to Right's Noise Machine and Rupert Murdock's pap-and-slap
Actually more than 70% of Republicans with cable access watch FOX News exclusively. Nothing satisfies an angry depressed curmudgeon more than more anger and depression. Bad news fuels fear, resentment and aggression.

As dailies, such as the Detroit News and the Grand Rapids Press, slide down the waste pipes, FOX News enriches itself and its Machiavellian owner. An alien with "bought" power and influence. It's a place of influence and profit FOX and Rupert do not deserve.

This is possible because of these same gullible discontents-the more they are depressed the more they want someone else to ante up and bear their far share of load. Many citizens from out the past paid for the infrastructure that was the life-long support of these Tea Party Pot Bellies-now whiners and malcontents.

The whole attitude is: I've got my "little bit" and I'm scared witless it will be lost to someone else. Their mantra: Me, my son John, his wife and my wife, us four and NO MORE. This kind of self-centered selfishness leaves behind both Christianity and neighborhood democracy.

Given permission to lash out and accost others, goaded on by Svengalis re-pleat with talking point books designed to manipulate and exploit exaggerated blame; as long as it distracts the November voters from the Bush Depression (still in bubble wrap) the danger plays right into the hands of the negativists who inhabit both the Detroit News and the dank dens of the deceitful enemies of public life and service.

Warming the Factories of Manufacturing and the Middleclass: Garland Stove Company's
World's Largest Stove, Postcard Detroit MI 1893 (Michigan Historical Archives)

Amway's Richard M. DeVos Sr. and the Brothers Koch are thought to be Depression proof. However, if they can manipulate the TeaPartisans to do the heavy lifting to lobby to remove regulations, and overturn customer protections, and collective bargaining rights, etc. to greatly benefit them and the other greedy Corporatists - this would be perfect timing.

And to assuage the pent-up anger and the angst tearing at the gut of Tea Potbelliers, what do the current Rad Republicans offer?

Actually Harry Truman laid out the genuine GOP "offers" best:

• Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke.
• They stand four-square for the American home - but not for housing.
• They are strong for labor - but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights.
• They favor minimum wage - the smaller the minimum wage the better.
• They endorse educational opportunity for all - but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools.
• They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine - for people who can afford them.
• They consider electrical power a great blessing - but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
• They think American standard of living is a fine thing - so long as it doesn't spread to all the people.
• And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.

Harry T. enjoyed the blunt truth of strongly brewed black coffee in a big cup, not a steamy tea made with the deadly Kool-Aid of the Koch Bros. subversions, et. al. served up in a Koch Industries-made throwaway paper cup.

On the Reader:
History on the Garland Company Giant Stove and what happened to this Michigan landmark.
Gazette posts on the Americans For Prosperity run Tea Party Rally April 14, 2011 pictured above in "Greedy Bros Koch-Bought & Paid for Visi-Galts: The Randian Libertarian Spawn - Gleefully Storm the Gates of the People’s House in Lansing, MI" and "Americans for Prosperity’s Cotton Head Grump Out, High on Motrin 800, Fizzles.

Related Posts:
In Detroit: Resentment, Malice & Roaring Opportunism Ride a Wave of Harsh Tea Party Ideology (April 2012) - Revisit Occupy Detroit: the Tea Party is Different – Hank Payne’s Myopic View (November 2011) - The Occupy Wall Street Activists & Grassroots Tea Party Activists Have a Lot in Common (October 2011) - It Was No Frenzy Island: Neanderthals & the Nerd (Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island) (September 2011) - Teaparty leader: The More We Pay Attention - The More Hopeless it Can Seem, Political Parties Only Exist to Get and Keep Power (February 2011) - Saint Ayn - Extolling Great Evil - Used As Source of Tea Party Political Punch Lines

Original.

De onversneden Filistijnen: Pernicious and Pugnacious Michigan Tea Party Philistines Assert a Self-Righteous Tsunami of Testosterone

There's a Southwest Michigan Dutch Hollander expression for the "enemy" unworthy of praise "De onversneden Filistijnen" meaning loosely in Dutch - the uncut Philistines - translation: "the uncircumcised" or out-group in moral and cultural terms-from whom the Hollanders actively separate and religiously abjure. The arch-conservative or "zwarte kousen"- the "black stocking" people of Southwest Michigan and environs use this foreign phrase to define their enemies. Zwarte Kousen, the radical religious extremists of Southwest Michigan, are not-at-all typical of the greater population of the Netherlands.

The Dutch Revolt - Decades of Battling for Religious Freedom (1568-1648): Dutch Protestants resisted the domination and perceived tyranny of the Spanish occupying Catholic Church (Engraving by Frederik Muller 1569)

The Dutch of Europe are:

"Long known as the bastion of liberalism and tolerance, the Netherlands has now been declared home to the least prejudiced people in Europe."

Unsavory Rogues: Well-Dressed Male Legislative Bullies & Bellicose Blockheads
A huge portion of the impulse and projection of overly zealous power of Michigan's TeaPublicans (Tea Party Republicans) arises from this unsavory group of male bullies and blockheads, men who find themselves in a super majority and cannot and/or will not limit themselves from over-boarding their perception of God's gift of power and influence is bestowed upon themselves: power and moral fitness make them "righteous." This group of men has dominated West Michigan politics and business for a long period.

These radical Republicans are sponsored in large part, and paid into politics: sustained, bought, and buoyed, by the nouveau riche Amway Clan -- the Richard M. (Rich) DeVos Sr. and Jay Van Andel families-at-large. These Amway scions, have been enriched by billions plucked from the "dead-end dreams" of suckers - (recruits churned into seeking a fortune from soap selling in a MLM/product-based pyramid scheme-where over 98% fail miserably and pay a heavy personal cost).

The Amwayites (founders of Amway/Alticor) believe themselves on a mission from God. They are the self-appointed members of the "hounds of Heaven" out to purge the state and its laws of all things offensive to their narrow and short-sighted tastes. (while enhancing in every way their grip on mega-wealth and the final say in all things business related.) As spokesperson Betsy DeVos put it, "We expect a return on our investment." Over the years the "returns" from shrewdly placed political investments has paid off for Amway, big time, they milk the game fully!

Now, amid this orgy of "rightness," the Tea Party faction in the Michigan GOP has placed US Representative Dave Agema in the top political post of the party, GOP National Committeeman. Agema will go on to "infect" the larger body politic with his special brand of self-importance and superiority. Nasty political snobbery will be his trademark and calling card.

Agema, a Frisian, is a member of a specific sub-culture originating in a ill-famous lowland province of the Netherlands. It's a Dutch sub-culture of which former Congressman Pete Hoekstra is also a prominent member-and more importantly-a direct child immigrant from that special area of Holland.

Frisians are known to members of the Michigan Dutch Community for their special characteristics which distinguish them as a sub-group (tribe): super-stubborn and opinionated, extremely hardheaded, specifically limited socially, hardly tolerant, and certainly not liberal in a religious or cultural sense.

The recent flareup against two members of the legislature who are ladies reflects a deeper and more pernicious affliction amongst this group of men, highly influenced by West Michigan's "black stocking" faction -- angst and mistrust. Theirs is an outright fear of women and female power to move agendas and influence decisions many of these "old world" / paternalistic-minded males (governing people in a fatherly manner, especially by providing for their needs without giving them rights or responsibilities.) They believe God gives them preemption over women, government is a realm left only to men.

The George Lakoff image of "strict father" - master disciplinary of his house - lay out the most appropriate and descriptive model for the TeaPublican talking-points approach to politics. "Harsh discipline" and "complete male-control morals" fits the present atmospherics in the Lansing Capitol to a "T," what with the on-going "V" revolt!

Michigan’s self-righteous tsunami of testosterone projects just the right set of overweening evil drives and vengeance on to destroy the quality of life in our state

Much of the ongoing theatrics and rudeness of behaviors in the torrent of conservative savage attacks on women and their status, their jobs, their retirement, and their health care (in larger terms) in the Michigan state legislature comes from the pre-New Testament concepts rooted in the Genesis account given in the Old Testament. This permission to override female judgment and opinion, the choices and goals of women, comes directly from the continuing belief (however quaint and mythical) that the "fall of man" comes directly from the fault of a woman (think St. Augustine).

Elaine Pagel in her book "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" (New York: Random House, 1988) explained it for John R. Mabry, who writes:

"A recent study I did on St. Augustine of Hippo convinced me that the starting point for guilt as a staple of Christian life began with him. As Elaine Pagels points out in her marvelous book Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, what the Jews and early Christians had read for centuries as 'a story of human freedom became, in [Augustine's] hands, a story of human bondage.' Instead of being a story about the gift of moral freedom, as St. John Chrysostom proclaimed, Augustine taught that 'Adam's sin not only caused our mortality but cost us our moral freedom, irreversibly corrupted our experience of sexuality... and made us incapable of genuine political freedom.'"

(Emphasis Added)

Does this sound silly or unbelievable to you? And what place does this theological contrivance have in modern, legitimate civic affairs?

Mayhap you are not attuned with the deeper theolotics behind and invasive in the present fanaticism and outrage going on in many churches (Christian Dominionists, Michigan's Citizens for Traditional Values - a well-known member: State Representative Tom McMillin (R - Rochester, MI) and in the hidden corners of the Opus Dei Vatican and Michigan's Tom Monahan (Read “Tom Monaghan becomes national power broker for GOP Catholic candidates” that appeared in the Naples News in September 2008.

Testosterone Fear Runs Wild in Evangelical Circles
Things have grown so out of hand , so irreverent and absurd, that Christianity Today has a cover story entitled “Forever Young: The Juvenilization of the American Church, the inside story: When Are We Going to Grow Up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity” by Thomas Bergler.
Amazon Book Notes expands:

“(Thomas) Bergler shows too how this "juvenilization" of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy.”

Meanwhile in the real world of pain and gain: Pernicious and Pugnacious Philistines are in complete control of the political direction of Michigan-Michissippi is on a tsunamic crest. 

Those the conservative Southwest Michigan Dutch Hollanders diss as the "De onversneden Filistijnen" they themselves have become "concubines," as it were, to another set of rogue Dutchmen: the Koch Brothers and their powerful lobby the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - the Koch's effective and secret way to legislative directly into corporate advantage.

Those the conservative Southwest Michigan Dutch Hollanders may diss the "De onversneden Filistijnen" yet it is they themselves who have become the neo-Philistines playing Animal House - a consequence of their own overblown evil ambitions and greed.

On the Reader:
Read the book "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity" by Elaine Pagels (Vintage 1989) or an interview with George Lakoff on language and 'reframing' in "Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics" (Berkley News 2003).


Related Slates:
The Blind-eyed Marriage of the Conservative Churches to the Excessive & Corrupt Business Practices (April 2012) - Mitt Romney: America’s Nascent Holy “god” & Possible President?

More on theolitics or the role of religion in politics under "Christian Values" on the Gazette.

The Original Post was CENSORED and DELETED by the editorial staff at the Detroit News and Michigan View.

What the Frack Fellas? Morality and Michigan's Environment - Back When & Now Then

In response to recent hydro-fracking enabling legislation, ad campaigns and spin led by ALEC and Big Oil surrogates in the Midwest (Michigan & Ohio).

"To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."
- Theodore Roosevelt, in a Speech to Congress on December 3, 1907

"[Conservation] is the chief material question that confronts us, second only and second always to the great fundamental questions of morality."
- Theodore Roosevelt, Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in the White House, May 13-15, 1908

You Gotta Love Teddy: The Bull Moose Who Went to Bat
for America's Natural Treasures (Theodore Roosevelt National Achieves c.1910)

Memorial Day and its participants, those steadily declining visages of past conflicts like the Spanish-American War of Teddy's day to today's World War II veterans who have been hailed as the Greatest Generation, remind us all that a precious and hard won victory over oppression and an evil corporate-run government in the hands of foreign tyrants was secured by a stupendous act of redemption-not only for America, but the entire world.

One writer has lamented the deterioration of that honor, the tarnishing of heroic valor, the death of that victory, due to the excesses of the corporatist control of all levels of state and federal governance, the sorry state of affairs we now face:

"Back when people were actually almost "free" (immediately after WWII), when public education was not just another empty promise - and the trend in life was toward a better tomorrow for everyone - at that time 'control' was in retreat, and progress was the theme of every hour. Now what we have is control of every idiotic facet of everyday existence - rules for every waking act, every thought that is not controlled is seen as the enemy of the state (the corporatocracy).

"Our entire way of life has been stolen and shall never return to the lazy and hopeful days of living and loving, of joy and promise, with the possibility for doing real and meaningful things with one's own life - not to mention being able to envision a better world for more and more people - whose lives were so far below the levels we enjoyed.

" Instead of that promise, instead of that possibility - what we have now is the outright worship of Mistrust, of Fear, and of Paranoia - along with obscene profits for those who have purchased all the politicians, and who control every facet of this once nearly free society.

"If American life were a sporting event - today's game would be one in which all the officials and the referees had all been pre-purchased by what would obviously be the winning team. Now companies 'police' their own activities, deciding for themselves when they've gone too far - or stolen too much. The original point behind government providing a watchdog over industry - was to keep the playing fields equal - between players and owners."
(emphasis added)

The writer is on the right scent.

Take the following example from a Nation of Change article entitled "ALEC Slips Exxon Loophole into New Ohio Law":

"Wake up and smell the frack fluid. But don't ask what's in it, at least not in Ohio, cause it's still not your right to know. Ohio is in the final stages of making an Exxon trojan horse on hydrofracking into state law, and it appears that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) connected Exxon's lawyers with co-sponsors of Ohio Senate Bill 315: at least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC's 'Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act.'...disclosure of fracking fluids? On behalf of ExxonMobil?

Frack fluids include unknown chemicals that gas drillers mix with sand and large amounts of water. The mixture is pumped underground at high pressure in order to retrieve gas and oil by fracturing shale formations. These are the chemicals that have caused widespread concern among residents near gas fracking operations; concerns echoed by doctors who don't know how to treat patients harmed by exposure to chemicals that oil companies keep secret. Oil companies like XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the first company lined up to drill in Ohio's Utica shale."

(emphasis added)

Milking Mother Michigan: Fracking (Shale Sands) Map
of the Lower 48 US States (US Energy Information Agency May 2011)

The blatant use of power and immense amounts of cold, secret cash to push aside the welfare and rightful concerns of the population in order to accomplish whatever is in the Corporatists' self-interest is best shown in the ongoing activity of the Koch Brothers cabal comprised chiefly of the Americans for Prosperity and The American Legislative Exchange Council.

It has become exposed and shown to the public that things so dastardly are being rammed through blindsided/defenseless state legislatures by A.L.E.C. members in those bodies, and ALEC's fellow travelers, that many premiere brands, former sponsors and supporters of ALEC, have bailed out of this corporate-owned and operated 'plug and play' Rad Right legislative mill.

What a blow to ALEC to have Walmart, Coke, Blue Cross and so many other familiar brands and corporations pull out of the Koch Bros. American Legislative Exchange Council. Yet here in Michigan A.L.E.C. powers on. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy joyfully and recently submitted in its own suggested boilerplate legislation, developed here in Michigan, to be promoted by ALEC nationwide.

US Rep. Dave Agema, a Michigan ALEC member and a Rad Right Screaming Eagle, succeeds, with the backing of the Koch's crowd, becoming Michigan's upstart male National Republican Committee member. Little wonder, when over 100 past or present members of the Michigan Legislature are /or have been complainant ALEC members.

Business Trumps Nature Leaving Just Stumps: When Michigan Big Business gets it all - Statewide Clear Cutting of Millions of Acres in the 1880-90's (Upper Peninsula Lumbering Operations Anon c.1880)

How do you suppose Michigan Koch-Heads will handle our fracking questions when the time comes to regulate (OR NOT) the fracking permits and permissions so intensely sought by Koch oil and other such interests? Last century rich investors left the face of Michigan a stubble of stumps, but the fact is nobody knows what toxic fluids flow through far flung fracking pumps.

Michigan families and their many out state guests have enjoyed its wealth of nature, pure beauty, fertile soils, and its bounty and plenty.

Who cares? We care!

Our state, with its tremendous water resources, must care; it's our wonderland heritage won and protected by heroes and workers, farmers and tradesmen, now so blatantly threatened by the overweening Corporatocracy and the greed of the rich and powerful 1%.

What the Frack? Will the Koch Brothers blast TDR off Mt Rushmore too?

On the Reader:

• Michigan grassroots movement website "Ban Michigan Fracking" and Michigan Petition Drive website "Let's Ban Fracking" 
• Key articles on Fracking in The World in "Burning water, contamination and natural gas 'fracking'" (16 May, 2011) and details about the relationship between ALEC and Heartland Institute in "Heartland Institute and ALEC Partner to Pollute Classroom Science" (March 30, 2012) and more MAPS on Oil Spills and Fracking Accidents across the country and in Michigan.
• Teddy Roosevelt and history of "Conservation as Morality" by Jessica Sheffield (January 2011)

Related Slates:
More of Teddy Roosevelt and ALEC in the Gazette.

Original.