Why is it that all the Republican presidential candidates talk about is who is the True Conservative? Are they running for the president of the Conservative Party - or does the good of the nation enter into this somewhere?
We've had a True Conservative for seven years, and if anybody thinks they are better off, I'd like to know why.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
License for Stupidity
Is there a contest going on in Lansing to see how stupid we can make Michigan look to the rest of the world? Didn't we win last year? - and maybe it's time to let another state compete?
Today's winner is the decision to not allow legal foreign residents to get a driver's license. On one side you have Atty General Mike Cox, who is working hard to further his political career by being the most reactionary, hard-right conservative in the state. He passed a ruling saying no to foreigners getting licenses.
Secretary of State Terry Land stops issuing licenses and then Cox says he really didn't mean it that way. Land says hers legal staff says "no way", and that the legislature should take care of it.
That brilliant decision throws a political hot potato into a legislature that will now have to wade through the choice of making the obviously correct decision (grant the licenses) or pander to the anti-immigrant, there's a terrorist on every corner faction.
Meanwhile, foreign students, professionals, business people have to either drive illegally or starve, because you can't survive in this state without a car.
Give me a break.
Today's winner is the decision to not allow legal foreign residents to get a driver's license. On one side you have Atty General Mike Cox, who is working hard to further his political career by being the most reactionary, hard-right conservative in the state. He passed a ruling saying no to foreigners getting licenses.
Secretary of State Terry Land stops issuing licenses and then Cox says he really didn't mean it that way. Land says hers legal staff says "no way", and that the legislature should take care of it.
That brilliant decision throws a political hot potato into a legislature that will now have to wade through the choice of making the obviously correct decision (grant the licenses) or pander to the anti-immigrant, there's a terrorist on every corner faction.
Meanwhile, foreign students, professionals, business people have to either drive illegally or starve, because you can't survive in this state without a car.
Give me a break.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Let em die in the streets!
It's not the purpose of this blog to comment on President Bush (rats!) but there's a part of his recently proposed budget that's relevant to Michigan and Michigan politics.
When W (or any politician) pledges to balance the budget by cutting Medicaid spending, all he is doing is saying that reimbursements to hospitals and health care providers will be cut. The actual cost of providing care for the poor won't go away, it will just be shifted somewhere else. Either the hospitals go broke or they increase the charges to insured patients, which ends up on the back of employers (or workers) in the form of rising premiums.
Unless the U.S. is willing to let indigent citizens die in the streets, cutting Medicaid to save money is a sham, and whoever proposes it is a fraud.
When W (or any politician) pledges to balance the budget by cutting Medicaid spending, all he is doing is saying that reimbursements to hospitals and health care providers will be cut. The actual cost of providing care for the poor won't go away, it will just be shifted somewhere else. Either the hospitals go broke or they increase the charges to insured patients, which ends up on the back of employers (or workers) in the form of rising premiums.
Unless the U.S. is willing to let indigent citizens die in the streets, cutting Medicaid to save money is a sham, and whoever proposes it is a fraud.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Fascists for Tax Reform
Talking about people who have a basic problem with representative democracy, we have Rep. Fulton Sheen and his Michigan Fair Tax movement.
Sheen can't get the duly elected legislature to enact his impossibly regressive tax scheme so it's time to see if he can fool the dumb voters by turning it into a ballot proposal. The so-called Fair Tax eliminates all business and income taxes and replaces them with a massive sales tax. Fair to plutocrats perhaps.
Whether this is a joke or not, it's not right to try to set tax policy with misleading names and 30 second ads on TV. This is why we have representatives who are supposed to understand this stuff (OK, shakey ground here with our term-limited legislature).
Nevertheless, legislation by referendum has crippled California and is not where we want to go in Michigan.
Sheen can't get the duly elected legislature to enact his impossibly regressive tax scheme so it's time to see if he can fool the dumb voters by turning it into a ballot proposal. The so-called Fair Tax eliminates all business and income taxes and replaces them with a massive sales tax. Fair to plutocrats perhaps.
Whether this is a joke or not, it's not right to try to set tax policy with misleading names and 30 second ads on TV. This is why we have representatives who are supposed to understand this stuff (OK, shakey ground here with our term-limited legislature).
Nevertheless, legislation by referendum has crippled California and is not where we want to go in Michigan.
Total Recall
OK, It's time to say something nice about Governor Granholm. Today she came out in favor of a moratorium on recall petitions, which is a good thing. Unfortunately it's not going to happen because Leon Drolet and his gang of political terrorists don't give a damn about anything but pushing their extremist views.
Michigan house reps are elected every two years, which means they get 18 months to do their jobs before they have to start campaigning again. Drolet is trying to recall eight legislators because they voted for tax increases to balance the budget. This means they have to spend the entire second year of their two year term fighting off the recall.
And what does a successful recall petition drive get you? An election in August instead of November. Three months and a runt election where no one shows up and the radicals can try to pack the crowd. This is not good for the state and it's not good for the districts involved. It is a nasty partisan stunt and an ego trip for people like Drolet who have a fundamental problem with representative democracy.
Michigan house reps are elected every two years, which means they get 18 months to do their jobs before they have to start campaigning again. Drolet is trying to recall eight legislators because they voted for tax increases to balance the budget. This means they have to spend the entire second year of their two year term fighting off the recall.
And what does a successful recall petition drive get you? An election in August instead of November. Three months and a runt election where no one shows up and the radicals can try to pack the crowd. This is not good for the state and it's not good for the districts involved. It is a nasty partisan stunt and an ego trip for people like Drolet who have a fundamental problem with representative democracy.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
bye Jen
The more Jennifer Granhlom says she wants to stay in Lansing, the more obvious it is that she doesn't. She might as well hang a sign up on the governor's mansion saying "take me!"
It hasn't been any fun being governor of a one state recession for five years. Granted she was dealt a miserable hand by departing weasel-in-chief John Engler, but it's not like she was forced to take the job.
Look on the bright side: failed senator Spencer Abrahams went on to become Secretary of Energy (irony x 1) and John the Man is now raking in the big dough as head lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers (irony squared). So Jen's prospects are probably pretty good. She helped hand the Michigan primary to Hillary so the only thing standing between her and D.C. is an impertinent Hawaiian.
It hasn't been any fun being governor of a one state recession for five years. Granted she was dealt a miserable hand by departing weasel-in-chief John Engler, but it's not like she was forced to take the job.
Look on the bright side: failed senator Spencer Abrahams went on to become Secretary of Energy (irony x 1) and John the Man is now raking in the big dough as head lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers (irony squared). So Jen's prospects are probably pretty good. She helped hand the Michigan primary to Hillary so the only thing standing between her and D.C. is an impertinent Hawaiian.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Done with Jennifer
As a committed Democrat it's hard for me to admit in public that I'm fed up with Governor Granholm. The woman just does not have the guts to win against a bunch of retrograde conservatives in the State Senate. She was so traumatized by the 2007 budget fight that she has caved entirely and announced that there will no new taxes or fees in 2008.
Meanwhile you have situations like the DNR, which does not have enough money to keep all the state parks open this year. A creative solution has been proposed where the daily entrance fees would be dropped in favor of a $9 fee charged on all Michigan license plates.
It's not mandatory because people can opt out of the fee, but since it's a new charge it doesn't meet Granholm's pledge. An then there's Rep. Joel Sheltrown, chairman of the committee responsible for the DNR who thinks $9 is just way out of line (ignoring the opt out provision.) He would rather play games with allocating sales taxes on sporting goods, as if this money is not already being used elsewhere in the budget.
So it's only February and already we are looking for ways to patch up the state budget, since Lansing didn't get the job done in 2007. This is pathetic
Meanwhile you have situations like the DNR, which does not have enough money to keep all the state parks open this year. A creative solution has been proposed where the daily entrance fees would be dropped in favor of a $9 fee charged on all Michigan license plates.
It's not mandatory because people can opt out of the fee, but since it's a new charge it doesn't meet Granholm's pledge. An then there's Rep. Joel Sheltrown, chairman of the committee responsible for the DNR who thinks $9 is just way out of line (ignoring the opt out provision.) He would rather play games with allocating sales taxes on sporting goods, as if this money is not already being used elsewhere in the budget.
So it's only February and already we are looking for ways to patch up the state budget, since Lansing didn't get the job done in 2007. This is pathetic
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