david-rutledge

David Rutledge: You can’t change policy without changing policy makers

July 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today we have State Rep & Democratic Floor Leader David Rutledge with us! Great conversation, if I do say so myself! Join us as we discuss: Taking over the Floor Leader position for the House Dems David’s background prior to being elected to the State House The school dissolution legislation & how it morphed from […]

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Audio: Mackinac Center disingenuous on Michigan job growth

June 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today we have an audioblog instead of the usual briefing, where I review the facts behind this Mackinac Center post. In particular I take issue with this: A look at the employment shows that the recovery has been substantial, better than average, and only partly caused by the resurgence of the auto industry. … It […]

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Yvonne Siferd: You are not alone

August 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today we talk to Yvonne Siferd, Director of Victim Services at Equality Michigan. Today we talk about: Cultural competency The importance of training as part of victim services What it means to help victims The importance of human rights ordinances The different types of reporting by the victim services department Under-reporting of incidents The distrust […]

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Republicans are dying for jobs

July 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The response was predictable. As soon as word got out that President Obama would be making a speech about reducing carbon pollution Republicans flipped back through their folder of poll-tested, pre-election talking points to “W” for “War on Coal.” Update a few numbers and there you have it – President Obama is slowing ruining America […]

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Rudy Hobbs: The House Republicans did the best they could

June 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today we talk to Rudy Hobbs. He has only a few minutes here but we get in a handful of topics. Short notes for today. We talk about .. The Medicaid expansion legislation isn’t ‘perfect’ The House Dems’ resolution calling for an investigation into gas gouging His campaign for the US Congress Why the House […]

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Bill Moyers & Company: The United States of ALEC

June 25, 2013 By 1 Comment

Bill Moyers & Company has published an updated version of The United States of ALEC. You can watch it here: Or listen here: Bill Moyers has a great section on ALEC. His information is “mission critical” for anyone who cares about state level democracy. There are too many resources on his site for me to […]

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Amy Kerr Hardin: Complexity is not the same as chaos

August 1, 2013 By 1 Comment

Today we have Amy Hardin back with us again, this time to talk about mergers & consolidations. Amy’s notes: The 3 myths about local units of government in Michigan: 1. We have too many units 2. They are too costly 3. Mergers are the cure-all (primary myth to expand upon) Here’s some introductory text I […]


Latest Blog Posts

Terri Lynn Land campaign is a “silly sideshow”

April 17, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this month my colleague Josh Pugh wrote a piece which talked about a questionable political ad aimed at Democratic Senate hopeful Gary Peters. Josh believes that Gary Peters’ opponent Terri Lynn Land should denounce the ad, given that it included an attack on Peters’ daughters. Anytime the media is going to give a politician […]

Abortion: Murder, or Medical Procedure?

March 18, 2014 By 2 Comments

Even among those who are not political junkies, discussing a woman’s right to have an abortion elicits a strong response. I recently penned an article discussing the Republican hypocrisy regarding keeping government out of people’s private lives. In the article I talked about the threats from the Tennessee’s Republican-led legislature toward Volkswagen employees considering unionizing, […]

Republicans are thugs

March 11, 2014 By Leave a Comment

For decades, one of the core principles of the Republican Party was that the government should be less involved in making decisions for the populace. Unfortunately, the actions of Republican legislators suggest that this principle only applies when Democrats are the ones making the rules. If you are a woman and you would like to […]

Political fiction is what really kills jobs

March 4, 2014 By Leave a Comment

In politics, the line between reality and fantasy is often hard to decipher. The recent ruling by a Nebraska court regarding the Keystone XL pipeline offers another example of this situation. The ruling voided a law the Nebraska Legislature had enacted that approved the pipeline. This means more legal action will soon follow and the […]

Can Michigan really trust Gov. Rick Snyder?

February 25, 2014 By Leave a Comment

For two years, Gov. Rick Snyder claimed right to work legislation was too divisive and not on his agenda. Shortly after the 2012 elections Rick Snyder changed his mind. Given how divisive right to work would be, it should come as no surprise that the governor would want to insulate Republican members of the state […]

Gov. Rick Snyder is working to destroy public schools

February 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment

In his most recent budget offering, Gov. Rick Snyder has requested an increase in education spending for Michigan schools. For years, Republicans have argued that spending more money on education is a bad idea, but this is an election year and polls show that the public supports more spending on education. As a result of […]

Republican rebranding a massive failure

February 11, 2014 By 1 Comment

After the worse than expected results of the 2012 elections, the Republican National Committee did an autopsy to find out where it was failing. While the answers to these questions were anything but surprising, the RNC has been working to rebrand the Republican Party as a kinder, more inclusive organization. The report suggested that the […]

Military pension cuts prove hypocrisy of Republicans

January 27, 2014 By 1 Comment

Over the past few decades the attitude towards military personnel has shifted to the point where now individuals of all political ideologies consider our military personnel as inviolable. Polls show that the military favorability rating has nearly doubled compared to the last 30 years of the 20th century. With this in mind, it should come […]

The NSA is scary good

January 20, 2014 By 1 Comment

Since June 2013, when Edward Snowden released government documents confirming the existence of various data gathering methods used by the National Security Agency, there has been a lot of discussions surrounding the value of these programs. Many of these same conversations also occurred in 2006 when it was reveled that the NSA was collecting data […]

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