We discuss:

• The glengariff poll and its usefulness in policy discussions
• The comfort number for the ballot initiative
• The twitter hate speech heat map and what it means for michigan
• Why the poll is groundbreaking poll
• Why we can’t accelerate the timetable for 2016

Headlines & Links:

• Snyder: Paying debt is priority
• Tim Skubick: Gov. Engler’s ‘nickel’ argument may help kill auto insurance reform
• Saugatuck Rep. Bob Genetski leads demand to withdraw American Indian mascot civil rights complaint
• American Indian mascots: Michigan bills would force civil rights department to fund school changes
• Supporting argument for the MDCR complaint (pdf)
• Former Battle Creek congressman Mark Schauer ‘strongly leaning toward putting a campaign together’ for governor
• Michigan 3 yrs ahead of Nate Silver’s projections!

Guest:

• Emily Dievendorf

5 Minute Activism:

Check out the Michigan Legislative Website at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/. Here are the training videos:

• Searching for Bills from the Home Page
• Overview of the Bills Page
• Overview of the Committee Bill Records Search Page
• Tracking Michigan Bills with Snarfer Part 1
• Tracking Michigan Bills with Snarfer Part 2
• Tracking Committee Meetings with FeedDemon
• Overview of the Notification Service

Here are some screenshots of the RSS feeds in Feedly. Nothing groundbreaking here, but you can see how the RSS renders in your feedreader:

Even though Dick DeVos’ school voucher initiative was turned down by voters in the fall of 2000, he has used his money and political prowess to inch Michigan towards a de facto voucher system.  WMAA is a perfect example of the progress he has made.  The school, which was founded by DeVos himself, will utilize public money, plus money from wealthy donors, to give students at WMAA more resources than kids at traditional public schools.  Charters also have more freedom to operate because Republican legislators are not willing to hold charters to the same standards as public schools.  The only line in the sand left to erase between public charters and a full fledge voucher system is the public school charter acceptance policy.  Michigan charter school law requires an open enrollment policy and a lottery if there are more applicants than available slots.  However, the law already gives too much leeway in enrollment because it gives ”enrollment priority to siblings of existing students and to children of employees and board members.”  These types of enrollment policies are easily manipulated and have been shown to be more favorable to well connected applicants.  George Bush himself, likely used a similar system to get accepted into Yale.

We are on a slippery path with our public charter school system.  It is a path being cleared by the financial and political elite.  If the trend continues, we can expect to see the kind of disturbing income inequality in public schools that we see throughout the rest of society.  Some students will be sitting in dilapidated school buildings behind old rusty desks.  Others will be sitting in new schools behind expensive flight simulators. I guess we are pretty much already there.

We discuss:

• The resurgence in solidarity
• Fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay
• Labor movement as a social justice movement
• The role of labor in the community
• Paid GOP operatives trying to stir up trouble with the union
• The Overtime Compensation act in the House

Guest:

• Mike Karl

Headlines & Links:

• Megavote – How Congress is voting
• The Hill
• The closest calls in the 2012 House elections

5 Minute Activism:

Check out the Michigan Legislative Website at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/. Register for the site here and take a look at the resources available, such as the file cabinet and print basket.

“We have all heard from women and their families across Michigan that they need better access to women’s health care services,” said Greimel. “This legislative package puts women’s health care issues front and center where they should be. It says that our mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and all the women in our lives deserve the best health care possible and that House Democrats will fight to see that they get it.”

“These bills aim to fix the problems that too many women experience in the health care system.” said Cochran.

Among the three resolutions is HR 139, which recommends that the state intensify efforts to reduce the rate of teen pregnancies. This resolution concludes as follows:

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the members of this body believe that the state of Michigan should continue its efforts to reduce the high rates of teen pregnancies and births and by raising awareness about the importance of this critical issue, promoting parent-child communication, and investing in programs that have been proven to reduce teen pregnancy.

I looked that up on the Michigan Legislative Website (cough 5 Minute Activism cough)

I don’t know what the programs are, but you can be sure that the Republicans will find something to get pissed off about. They don’t invest in programs that have been proven to work.

I am pretty sure a couple of these will be shut down right away:

House Bill 4067, requiring all health facilities and agencies to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors (Rep. Charles Smiley)

HB 4722, which directs the Department of Community Health (DCH) to develop and disseminate information about emergency contraception, including a description, explanation of use, safety efficacy and availability of emergency contraception (Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright)

HB 4721, requiring age-appropriate, medically accurate and objective sexuality education to be taught in public schools (Rep. Jeff Irwin)

But that’s ok, we do what we can to fight the good fight. At least the issue is going to be in the conversation. And from a political perspective, it will demonstrate how out of the touch the Republicans are when it comes to women.

Here’s the video:

Today we discuss:

• Kevyn Orr: Detroit is worse off than we thought (this is what we started with)
• Snyder is the EM of Detroit
• EAA federal funds fraud
• Does Michigan have a legitimate state government
• Is the Snyder Administration engaging in criminal behavior?
• Federal investigation into the EAA
• The obligation to the retirees and employees of the City of Detroit
• Detroit in bankruptcy?

Guest:

• Senator Bert Johnson

Headlines & links:

• Democratic Sen. Levin pressured IRS to investigate conservative nonprofits
• How to prevent another Gosnell: Column
• Calley finding investment opportunities for Michigan in Brazil
• Is Justin Amash closer to making a U.S. Senate decision?
• Hate in 140 Characters, Mapped
• Republican who’d like to arm fetuses claims ‘Democrats worship abortion’
• Michigan breaks through equality tipping point, but don’t expect us to be #13.
• Two Charter Public Schools Being Closed
• Bills from the Boonies: 5 most recent proposals from Michigan’s fever swamps
• Buena Vista Graduation In Question As Michigan School District Remains Shuttered
• Pablo Pantoja Turns Democrat: RNC Florida Hispanic Director Cites GOP ‘Intolerance’ In Making Party Switch
• Educator and activist John Telford joins Detroit mayoral race

5 Minute Activism:

Check out the Michigan Legislative Website at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/. Look through the navigation pane on the left, to see all of the cool things you can do there. RSS links are at the bottom, so you can subscribe to updates via RSS reader, or through Twitter.

We discuss:

• The simplest solution is the right solution
• Skills camp is not acceptable
• The State has a legal constitutional requirement to provide this education to the student; anything less is a moral and legal abdication of responsibility
• The effort to make sure the kids get the nutrition programs they depend upon
• The failure of the local school district has now become a failure of the state
• Why Roger Kahn is wrong

Guest:

• Dan Kildee

Links:

• Congressman Dan Kildee asks Governor Rick Snyder to help re-open Buena Vista Schools (BFM Shotcast)
• Congressman Dan Kildee says state’s plan for Buena Vista Schools falls short
• Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes: Rainy day fund was made for situations like Buena Vista Schools’

I’ve long said that Rick Snyder was not the “leader” that his lackeys praise him to be. He’s simply a guy who fell into a job surrounded by people who want ‘mostly’ the same things he wants. He has no political leadership skills, no political capital, and no articulated ideological vision. In the absence of these, the only way he gets what he wants is if what he wants matches what his fellow Republicans want.

Amiright?

Snyder has made the most of this situation, for sure. He’s created a narrative that by avoiding politics, focusing on data, and pushing “positive relentless action,” he’s been able to get things done. While former Governor Granholm got mired down in pesky things like “quality of life for Michiganders,” Snyder focuses strictly on important things like credit ratings. He’s a leader, that one.

Well … not really. Finally our friends in the corporate media have started to catch on. Kinda.

Who does Gov. Rick Snyder have to do his clean and dirty work?

…

But the undone stuff they are still struggling to adopt is piling up like the garbage in your neighbor’s backyard and it’s beginning to stink.

Insuring 400,000 in the Medicaid system, creating a market place for competitive health-care insurance, a re-do of no-fault car insurance and the transportation package languish as the administration struggles mightily to reduce the stench.

Increasingly the players in this town are wondering, where’s the beef?

And why is it piling up? Two big things come to mind:

• Republicans can’t give in on health care (‘obamacare’) or transportation (tax increase) because those issues are contrary to the party platform
• No-fault insurance “reform” as proposed is so horrible that the GOP caucus won’t allow the endangered Republicans to support it. Of course the Democrats oppose it.

Snyder has an important job, but he simply doesn’t have the power to back it up.

The best evidence of Snyder’s lack of power is that he called for civility after a Republican criticized Jase Bolger. After all of the nasty incidents, the election rigging, the pepper-spraying, the State Police on the House Floor, it takes a goofy off-the-wall comment for him to issue a public statement. That’s what you respond to, Governor? Have you no pride?

There’s another interesting piece from Skubick’s article:

“They are overjoyed to have a governor leading the charge but his “leadership” has not produced any votes. “

That’s because he doesn’t have what it takes to lead. He was a manager, not a leader. And Snyder, who brags often about not being a career politician, never realized that he based his precious “agenda” on the power of other people. It seems he should have learned it by now. The well-moneyed wizards behind the curtain demanded that he pass right to work or face the threat of a primary. The teabaggers who swept him to power in 2010 absolutely hate him for being a “stealth democrat” because of issues like health care and transportation. The decent voters who fell in love with the idea of a data driven nerd (less fighting and negativity) have now realized that they want a governor who values other people at least as much as he values delivering profits to his shareholders, especially while treating all of us as customers for his skunk works products. Snyder is failing because he runs on power borrowed from many very different constituencies. As he tries to please one constituency, he fails another, until ultimately he fails them all. Fed up, the owners of Snyder’s power are taking it back.

One of the good things about being a career politician: you can recognize when the power you use is your own.

“If something goes wrong, which it might – we hope it doesn’t, but it could – that physician could follow the patient to a local hospital,” said bill sponsor and state representative Sam Mims as justification for the mandate.

So Representative Mims isn’t trying to restrict abortions – he just wants to make sure that women, who he considers to murderers, get proper care.

According to the most recent data, only 12 women have died from complications resulting from an abortion. It should also be noted that other bills the same representative has sponsored suggests his concern for Mississippi’s abortion patients is incongruous with his concern for the rest of Mississippi’s citizens.

For example, Mims sponsored legislation repealing a requirement that weapons dealers keep records of weapons sold – even though U.S. citizens are 1,000 times more likely to die from an illegal gun as they are from an abortion.

Mims also seems comfortable giving government money to support the education of dentists in the state of Mississippi. Yet in 2011 eight children died from complications from a dentist visit. If protecting Mississippi citizens was truly important to Mims, why not require dentists to have admitting privileges since Mississippians are nearly as likely to die at their local dentist office as they are in an abortion clinic?

As a gun rights supporter Representative Mims is also presumably against further gun restrictions since, regardless of government regulations, bad guys will get guns. Yet the exact same logic applies to abortions. Prohibition will not eliminate abortions. It will just push them underground and, contrary to Mims stated wishes, will actually make abortion patients less safe.

Continue reading at the Detroit News….

Today we discuss:

• Why it’s important to enroll in the exchange
• What Governor Snyder wanted the exchange to “look like”
• Health care ‘Navigators’
• Enrollment centers and how they might be located throughout the state
• What we can do to help encourage enrollment

Guest:

• Lonnie Scott

Headlines:

• Mich. road funding talks still at standstill
• South Carolina ‘creationist’ science quiz is real
• Traffic Fatalities Rise In 2012
  
• Ilitch. Karmanos. Gilbert. Farrakhan? Nation of Islam Leader Eyeing Detroit.
• EM Kevyn Orr: Detroit Is Worse Off ‘Than We Originally Thought’
• Detroit arson ringleader gets 137 years in prison

Today we discuss:

• Empowering the rank & file to understand that they are the union
• Communication & education to help members understand how to get things done through the union
• Helping workers talk to each other
• Workers are increasingly interested in finding representation who will fight for them
• Federal law protects worker communication
• The feeling that leadership lost touch with the floor
• Union reps from top to bottom used to work the floor; they don’t do that anymore
• The union is a product in right-to-work for less states
• An example on how the union can do better (FMLA)
• Union history is important so that workers know where they are headed
• Equal work for equal pay in the union constitution
• The union machine needs to update
• The union’s role in solidarity
• Disconnect between union labor, union leadership, management, and the public

Guest:

• Mike Karl

Headlines, links, activism over the jump …..

Headlines / links:

• Michigan Gov. Snyder says Arkansas request to return fugitive killer not ‘highest priority’
• Bart Stupak backs Mark Schauer for governor as Democratic field continues to clear path
  
• Tim Skubick: Proposal to cut gas sales tax has education lobby very worried
• Tim Skubick: Auto insurance reform may be losing battle for Gov. Snyder
• Old tombstones found buried in Roseville backyard
• John Kerry Becomes First Secretary of State to Hold Google Hangout
• Ways to help the family of fallen Westland firefighter Brian Woehlke
• Report: Pontiac schools could miss payroll soon
• Ilitch. Karmanos. Gilbert. Farrakhan? Nation of Islam Leader Eyeing Detroit.
• The IRS’s big admission: What it means
• House OKs bill to adjust OT law
• IRS admits targeting conservatives for tax scrutiny in 2012 election
• 5 Minute Activism – Night Shift with Tony Trupiano

5 Minute Activism:

This week we are looking at putting together an information system. The goal is to help you keep up on the news that is of interest to you. This means finding the information, having it delivered to you in a convenient way, processing it efficiently, then acting on it as desired.

Today we are looking at Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later). I explain my use of Pocket in 5 Minute Activism.