blog advertising is good for you

Recent Posts

The Koch Brothers Come to LansingThe Koch Brothers Come to Lansing

On June 2nd, a new player in right wing attack politics, the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, will host an event at the Lansing Center. The Franklin Center is a front for the Koch brothers-financed Americans for Prosperity, which, in turn, is known for financing the Tea… »

Tuesday briefing and open threadTuesday briefing and open thread

Let's start with more on the escapades of The Incredible Lying Schmidt Here's Mark Brewer talking to Tony about this yesterday: I followed Mark with some thoughts of my own. In short, I think Bolger made some promises of support for Schmidt in other races. State Senate is… »

Getting started in political bloggingGetting started in political blogging

I'm going to be on with Tony later this morning to discuss political blogging. I thought I'd start at the very beginning. What is political blogging, and is it for you? To keep things simple, let's define political blogging as the act of writing articles about civic affairs. These articles… »

Monday briefing and open threadMonday briefing and open thread

I'm just going to call this "The 'Incredible Lying Schmidt' Edition" First up, the latest MDP release on The Incredible Lying Schmidt: We know from various reports, including a Roy Schmidt television interview with WZZM on May 16th, that Bolger and Schmidt spoke for weeks, if not months,… »

Why Are Public Schools Under Attack?Why Are Public Schools Under Attack?

  Public employees and the middle class are under attack, but many are unaware that the source of this campaign is carefully coordinated, well financed and has been underway for many years. Who's behind this?  In 1968, because “conservatives were being killed politically” Joe… »

Friday briefing and open threadFriday briefing and open thread

I am full of gratitude and anticipation for the weekend. How about you kids? Let's start with Senator Randy Richardville, an elected "representative of the people," sucking off ... I mean, sucking up to Mackinac Center: Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, told reporters… »

Thursday briefing and open threadThursday briefing and open thread

Well I spent the first couple of hours this morning thinking that it was Wednesday. What an incredibly rude awakening when I saw the neighbor's garbage sitting at the curb. Anyway let's just say this is going to be a brief briefing, and I swear I'll make it up to you someday. The MDP is a… »

Wednesday briefing and open threadWednesday briefing and open thread

Happy Wednesday! Hail to the Victors. Ann Arbor makes the "most well-read cities" list: Ann Arbor has a lot of bookworms, according to a new list by Amazon.com. The online company on Tuesday released its annual list of 20 of the "Most Well-Read Cities in America," and Ann Arbor has… »

Welcome

Michigan Republicans Raise Taxes on Low Wage Earners By $1000 per Year

posted this on October 4th, 2011.

I suppose I should be talking about this since it’s on my beat, though Wizardkitten has an excellent diary about the Republican tax raises in Muskegon.

As it turns out, our Conservative representatives gleefully stripped downtown Muskegonites of the tax free Renaissance zone. The tax free Renaissance zone was set up to help a LITERALLY demolished city center lure people and businesses downtown to have a city center again. For some reason a tax free Renaissance zone was far too libertarian for our Tea Party congress so they…

…oh who am I kidding?

They stripped the tax free zone because there were mostly just poor poeple living there, and who gives a crap about them, right? Am I right?

Of course I’m right.

The Ren zone was mostly populated by low wage earners. If you’re making 25,000 in downtown Muskegon, guess what? The Michigan Republicans raised your taxes by $1000 per year!

For those with Muskegon’s average wage of $25,000 a year, that means paying nearly $1,000 in annual income tax to the state much earlier than was promised.

Classy.

You’d think our State Senator Goeff Hansen would have given a crap…but he still gleefully rubber stamped the bill.

GLEEFULLY.

As did our State representative Holly Hughs.

Gleefully.

They GLEEFULLY voted for that bill. With gusto.

The very same bill that stripped young families of the state Child Tax Credit.

Folks are asking me all the time now, like they’ve JUST heard about it, “Is it true that we’re losing the child tax credit this year?

I’m happy to tell them who punched their young family in the gut. Happy to tell them that Goeff Hansen and Holly Hughs JOYFULLY rubber stamped the bill that is raising their taxes by HUNDREDS and in some cases a THOUSAND dollars.

Middle class taxes: raised Child tax credits for young families: scrapped Food assistance: slashed Help for the poorest citizens: retroactively slashed Pensions: Taxed Schools, police, fire departments: slashed

All to splash MORE and MORE and MORE money on the folks who don’t seem to be hiring anybody right now. But I’m sure they’re paying out some mad [...]

October 4th, 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Articles, Featured Articles | 2 comments

Now With Video & POLICE: “Low Class” Muskegon Swarms Congressman Huizenga’s Office

posted this on August 17th, 2011.

Vid courtesy of Sean Mullally

My wee boy and I went downtown to join the protest of Bill Huizenga who is known for referring to Muskegon, Michigan as a “Low Class” city. Perhaps we’re Low Class because we’re the major Democratic stronghold in West Michigan. Or perhaps we’re Low Class because Muskegonites WORK with HANDS. The horror.

My camera is broken, I’m afraid, so I couldn’t take pics.

The boy and I got there early, so to kill some time the wee little boy and I parked at the new splash fountain by the old post office down town. The Alcoa splash fountain between the newly streetscaped Western Avenue downtown and the vast sandlot.

Little history: Back in the 1970′s amidst a troubled economy and declining manufacturing base — Sound familiar? — Muskegon, Michigan, attempted to reinvent itself — Sound familiar? — by turning what was once an open air, standard streetscape with old buildings and shops into a modern, enclosed year-round heated shopping center. A mall! The city literally built a glass roof over the old downtown Muskegon and enclosed it with walls. That worked out fine for a decade or two…but it never made Muskegon the major shopping mecca the planners had expected and by the late 1990s the mall….better known as “downtown Muskegon” was dead. Completely dead.

As it turns out, if you put doors and a lock on your downtown and give it a closing time of 9:00 PM, it has no nightlife. Who could have predicted?

This is running a bit longer than I had hoped…the point is that the mall/downtown completely died and in 2002 and 2003 the city actually bulldozed blocks and blocks of the downtown area…most of it, but for a few of the still functional buildings like the post office, or historic buildings like the old Century Club building.

For years, most of the downtown area has been a sand pit, with developers here and there building new buildings, like the new cullinary arts college.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. To kill time, I brought my youngest boy down to [...]

August 17th, 2011 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Articles, Featured Articles | Leave a comment