My wife Anne and I spent the past week at The Most Beautiful Place in America (the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore) and were once again reminded why we love this state so much.
Our Congressman, Tim Walberg (Tea, MI-07), however, seems to be doing what he can to avoid Michigan, or at least his constituents, on his Congressional break. He had only two appearances scheduled which were buried on his website. And they appear to have been, shall we say, “sparsely attended”.
Look! It’s a 13-person “crowd”!
Funny thing, if you don’t announce your public meetings, very few people, except your closest supporters, tend to show up.
At any rate, here are a few other Michigan-related items in case you missed them. Meanwhile, I’ve got to figure out how to make the transition from tent to cubicle. Ugh…
- Governor Rick Snyder’s job disapproval ratings continue to skyrocket, going from 57% in July to a rather stunning 62% this month. Attaboy, Rick!
- Snyder will be endorsing Pete Hoekstra as the GOP candidate to run against Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow sometime today.
- Meanwhile, the effort to recall Snyder just passed the half-way mark. In less than two months, over 5,000 volunteers have gathered over 400,000 signatures. Recall Rick! Recall Rick! Recall Rick!
- Michigan not only has The Most Beautiful Place in America, Michigan also ranks fifth in the country among states with craft beer breweries. Can I get hellz yeah!?
- Anti-union forces appear to be doing a bang up job convincing people that unions are responsible for all that is wrong in our state. A recent poll showed that 56% of “local leaders” think unions are hurting their communities’ fiscal health. Strangely, 60% of them say their relationships with their unions are “good or excellent”. But, hey, it’s much easier to just blame unions than to take responsibility for your own actions/inactions or to put the blame where it belongs which is on a massively depressed economy caused by Republicans and their incessant need to give tax breaks to wealthy individuals and historically profitable corporations, right?
- Speaking of corporate tax breaks, turns out corporate tax breaks going back to 1990 have bankrupted Michigan’s unemployment insurance fund. Shocking, I know. I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to blame it on the unions.
- And, speaking of good relationships with unions, it’s looking increasingly likely that the UAW and and General Motors may strike an early deal in their current contract negotiations. UAW President Bob King thinks a deal will be reached before the current contract ends on September 14th, a rare event.
- Speaking of labor, President Obama will be in Detroit for a Labor Day rally next Monday and both Anne and I will be getting press passes to cover it. The last time he came for a Labor Day event in 2008 during the campaign, it was abbreviated due to Hurricane Gustav which had caused extensive damage and casualties. Then-candidate Obama didn’t feel a celebratory rally was appropriate under the circumstances.
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