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Christine posted this on January 27th, 2012. A little short for a post, but too long to be a tweet.
So you guys remember my 3 favorite parts of the #misots? Outhouses are not toilets, the James Group isn’t his personal success story, and the MBT was actually created by Republicans before being killed by Republicans? Now we’ve got another potential favorite …
The 2011 data from Allied’s Annual Magnet States report shows 900 more households leaving the state (1,529 in and 2,429 out) than coming in. This placed us third-highest among states losing families, behind only Illinois and Pennsylvania.
…
Those are positive trends. But they don’t exactly conform with what the governor was saying on Jan. 18 at the State Capitol.
So it looks like @onetoughnerd wasn’t telling the whole truth when he said that Michigan has more people moving in than leaving.
Jeeze, if he doesn’t tell the truth about things like outhouses and moving vans, when does he tell the truth?
Christine posted this on January 27th, 2012. This is the last in a week long series on Dan Kildee. To view the series in its entirety, click here.
“This is not a career change for me. I have spent my life working with people who are disconnected from the economy. This is supposed to be a nation of opportunity.” ~Dan Kildee, on why he decided to run for Congress
Comparing what I’ve written in this series to my interview notes, I can see that I’ve skipped over some significant conversation. Dan’s position on sustainable energy, for example, took up a good portion of our interview and I’ve hardly mentioned it here. When I started this interview I wanted to make sure that I did more than just repeat the Q&A; I wanted to talk about the experience of the conversation. I could spend a few more days reporting on specifically what was said, but I’d prefer to see Dan publish some videos so that you hear it directly from him.
Dan announced his candidacy on November 1 of last year, and you can already see enthusiasm for his campaign. He has several significant endorsements, including the UAW and AFSCME, and most recently, Patrick Kennedy. His message is resonating with his future constituency too: the average online donation to his campaign is $31, which is exactly the kind of donation he wants.
“The other guys get the big donations. I want the small donations, the $25 and $50 donations. They’re the people who need representation. You can’t get the money out of politics unless you are representing thousands of people, rather than just wealthy donors.”
“I had a three dollar donation once. That donation meant more to me than any other, because that person probably had nothing to give, so they gave three dollars. That’s a person I hope will come and volunteer.”
Volunteers are how Dan plans to overcome the money gap between the Democrats and Republicans. “They’ve got all the money, but we have all the people.” He’s hoping to get “feet on the street” to knock on doors and get the word out to voters. “Nothing is more important than people.”
One of the things that I specifically asked Dan was how he hoped to get the money out of politics.
“You have to elect the right people, district by district. That’s the only way we’re going to return this government to the people.
“We are really in a battle for the heart and soul of our country. This is a fundamental battle over the differences between the parties and candidates. The stakes are high.”
Obviously I’m writing this from the perspective of someone who is fired up about this candidate, but there are Democrats whose values might not line up perfectly with Dan’s positions. A more liberal Democrat might be looking for someone who supports public financing of elections. A more conservative Democrat might not appreciate national standards for sustainable energy. I’m comfortable with Dan’s position as I understand them, and I think he has the right mix of progressive values, policy experience, and negotiation skills to be an effective Congressman.
If you’d like to help Dan, visit www.dankildee.com to donate or register as a volunteer. You can also make a donation using the act blue widget on the right side of this site.
Christine posted this on January 26th, 2012. Note: This is part of an ongoing series on my interview with Dan Kildee. To view the series in its entirety, click here.
Sorry about the delay on this one, my blogging time was sucked up by some technical problems last night thru this afternoon. 
So far I’ve covered Dan’s background and his philosophies on the roles of federal and state governments. I’ve been writing this series in the same order of things as in the interview. Toward the end of the interview we started to talk manufacturing. Specifically, I asked Dan what his manufacturing policy would be.
“Clearly we have entered an age of a new economy, based on information and green energy, to name a few. But unless we create and export products from this country, our economy will not be sustainable. President Obama understands this, he saved our auto industry.
“A manufacturing policy has to involve more than just trade policy. It has to provide for investing in research. It has to provide capitol.
“In fact, I would say that this disinvestment in education is bad manufacturing and industrial policy. It’s just bad policy to not educate that kid who might have the next billion dollar idea. We have to create productive producers in this country.
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“The next big idea is bouncing around in the head of some student right now. President Obama is on the right track, to support and invest in innovation. It would be wrong for the next idea to fail because we failed to invest in education.”
 There’s a lot of quoting here, but he put it so well that I didn’t want to change it. This is another conversation that I wish we had on video, because Dan did a great job connecting education with production.
On a personal note, I am very passionate about providing education to our citizens. Education is probably the greatest “social equalizer” in our country. It is what makes America the land of opportunity. One could also argue that it is a matter of national security to make sure out public is educated well enough to make the US economically sustainable. So Dan’s position on this issue really resonated with me. It is a message we need to share, repeat, share, repeat, lather, rinse, repeat.
Tomorrow is the wrap-up.
If you’d like to help Dan with his campaign, go to www.dankildee.com to donate or sign up to volunteer. You can also donate through the act blue widget on the right side of the site.
Communications Guru posted this on January 26th, 2012. If it wasn’t bad enough being poor, State Senator Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township, wants to almost make it a crime to be poor.
 He recently introduced bills that will allow a Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) caseworker to require someone on assistance to take a drug test if the caseworker has “reasonable suspicion” – whatever that is – of substance abuse. If a test is positive, they will lose benefits for a year or six months if the person is going through drug treatment. This is similar to a bill in the House introduced by Rep. Jeff Farrington, R-Sterling Heights, that requires a drug test just to receive benefits, but that’s a clear violation of the 4th Amendment’s unreasonable search and seizure.
Hune basically admitted the illegality of blanket drug tests, and he said in subscription only MIRS that his bill, Senate Bill 904, was a way to get around that pesky 4th Amendment, saying “We’re just trying to craft a drug testing policy that would hopefully pass legal muster.”
Apparently, SB 904 applies to those receiving welfare, food stamps, state disability or state-paid childcare. This will place serious power in the hands of DHS caseworkers.
He also introduced SB 905 that require recipients of welfare to perform an undefined amount of community service to receive benefits. The bill appears to apply to only those in the Family Independence Program (FIP); which is temporary cash assistance for low-income families with minor children and pregnant women. It would not apply to those in the required Jobs, Education and Training (JET) for assistance in finding a job or to develop needed job skills.
The only people ever required to do non-voluntary community served are convicted criminals as part of a judge’s sentence. It appears those on welfare are now criminals. How many people this will effect is unclear because most people on cash assistance must be in the JET program.
It seems ironic that Republican polices have plunged people into poverty and created a huge wealth inequality, and now they want to make them seem like criminals for being poor and low wage. For more irony, in the very week these bills were introduced, the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) released its annual Kids Count in Michigan report that looks at data on children in Michigan over the last decade, and it found that that poverty is having a negative impact on kids’ health.
The number of children living in poverty jumped from 14 to 23 percent between 2000 and 2009. Almost half of Michigan’s K-12 public schoolchildren were on free or reduced lunch in 2010, up from 36.2 percent in 2006.
The report and other children’s advocates point to recent policy changes by the Republican Michigan Legislature and the Snyder Administration that will have even more negative impact on Michigan kids, and those include cutting the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 20 percent of the federal credit to just 6 percent. The Snyder Administration wanted to kill it completely, but only an outcry from the public saved a small portion of what has been hailed by many, including GOP saint Ronald Reagan, as one of the strongest measures that lifts working families and children out of poverty.
Last year also saw the placing of stricter time limits on cash assistance for 12,000 families living in poverty, including nearly 30,000 children, an asset limits on food assistance and reducing the state period of unemployment benefits from 26 to 20 weeks.
Hune’s bills will also contribute to child poverty. The bills are in the Senate on Families, Seniors and Human Services awaiting a hearing.
Hector Solon posted this on January 26th, 2012. In one of the boldest, brashest moves seen in Michigan in quite some time, Ken Braun the recently ‘former’ Managing Director of CapCon at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, has threaten Republican Governor Rick Snyder to either join the “Right to Work” (for a lot less) forces, or be circumvented by ‘citizen’ introduced legislation that will completely bypass the Nerd using the Tea Party Republican majorities in the Michigan State House and Senate and a loop-hole in the Michigan Constitution.
Just out from Ken Braun of the Mackinac Center:
Michigan’s tea party activists are suffering right to work envy while watching the Indiana governor march his Legislature relentlessly to the finish line on that issue. Our Republican governor recently said right to work is too divisive and he doesn’t want the Legislature to send a bill to his desk.
(Break)
Article 2, section 9 (of the Michigan Constitution), provides citizens (like the Tea Party) with the power to initiate laws and send them to the Legislature for approval. If both chambers vote by simple majority to approve the bill within 40 days, then it becomes law.
The governor has no role in the process and can neither sign nor veto the measure.
What? Read Braun’s FULL POSTING HERE.
Within the posting(s) are links to articles on Rick Snyder’s statements on his reluctance address any “Right to Work” (for Less) legislation, saying he doesn’t want it ‘on his desk’ and that the issue is ‘too divisive‘.
Also mentioned in the piece are references to the efforts of the Michigan “Tea Party” to recall Michigan Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville for his statements on the controversial legislation also being pushed through in Indiana by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels.
Richardville is characterized by Braun as being too ‘skeptical’ and ‘outright hostile’ on the issue, which if brought up this year would certainly put just about everything on anyone’s agenda but the already troublesome, dictatorial “Emergency Manager” Law out of sight and mind completely.
The ties between the Mackinac Center, American for Prosperity (AFP), both with shared funders, supporters and participants, and their ties to [...]
Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on January 26th, 2012. Today is Michigan’s 175th birthday. As a proud, lifelong Michigander, I am so happy to wish my beautiful state a glorious happy birthday. It’s because this state is so beautiful, has so much spirit and is full of so many amazing people that we here at Blogging for Michigan and so many others will never give up the fight against the powers that would harm our precious home.
My wife has a most-excellent photoblog up with some of her amazing photos of our state.
Click photo for more amazing images of Michigan
From her blog post:
My husband, Chris, and I met in an unconventional way and at the time we lived 500 miles apart. I was in St. Louis, Missouri and he was in Michigan. While we were dating we would travel back and forth to each other’s state. We were pretty lucky then; a roundtrip ticket from St. Louis to Michigan was only $80! When I came to Michigan for my visits, Chris would take me to places that really highlighted how beautiful Michigan is. I’ve always said that he wooed me with Michigan. Eventually he proposed to me on the shores of Lake Michigan and were married on those same shores a year later.
We live in a small village outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is said that you have to live in this town for more than 30 years to even be considered a true resident. I really hope that’s not the same for the state of Michigan. I’ve lived here for only 9 years but I consider it my home and always will.
I have a zillion photos of Michigan, so in honor of it’s 175th anniversary of statehood I wanted to share a few with you. I had to narrow it down so I chose a few landscape images taken mostly in the last year and a half. Enjoy.
Click through. You won’t be disappointed.
Cross-posted from Eclectablog.
Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on January 26th, 2012. 
Republican state Senator Jack Brandenburg has an idea with what to do with the budget surplus created by taxing seniors’ pensions, cutting funding to cities and stripping $1 billion from schools: lower Michigan’s income tax.
I’m not kidding.
A proposal at the state Capitol would cut the Michigan income tax rate to 3.9 percent over the next five years. Right now the rate is 4.35 percent.
Republican state Senator Jack Brandenburg sponsored the measure. He said people in Michigan were promised the reduction during messy budget and tax deals made in 2007. Brandenburg said he told his Republican colleagues about his plan earlier this month.
He said an estimated $450 million budget surplus convinced him it’s a good time to propose the rollback.
He has potential support from the Senate Majority Leader:
Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville cautiously supports the proposal, but he said he’s hesitant to spend money that could be added to the state’s rainy day savings fund.
So let’s review: Michigan’s schools are failing all over the state. In the Upper Peninsula. In the Lower Peninsula. In urban cities. In rural villages. In white communities. In black communities. Everywhere.
The impacts of the $1 billion that Republicans took from schools in their budget last year and gave to corporations haven’t even hit yet. In 2012, the epidemic of failing schools will hit and it will hit HARD.
On top of that many of our older, manufacturing-based cities are going bankrupt. Their tax bases have been destroyed and they are dying. The impacts of the loss of revenue sharing that the Republicans included in their budget last year haven’t even hit yet. In 2012, the epidemic of failing cities will hit and it will hit HARD.
If you are a retiree under the age of 60 with a pension, you will face the double whammy of a new tax on your pension plus the loss of part of the Homestead Property Tax Credit thanks to the Republican budget passed last year. The impacts of these tax hits have not even hit yet and, when they hit, they will hit HARD.
All around [...]
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Does Governor Snyder ever tell the truth?
GOP bills want to treat the poor like criminals
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