It's all about the Benjamin Franklin

We are sure, here in Michigan, to be treated to many more elitist pieces on the Emergency Financial Manager law (which basically turns Michigan cities, school districts, and whatever other entity is at the republicans' whim into dictatorships, destroying any semblance of democracy in our once great state to advance their union-busting agenda) like this one by Stephen Henderson in which he calls the EMF law unpleasant but sees a lack of an alternative (we've survived as a state for well over 200 years and no one can think of anything better than slapping the face of voters statewide? fucking really?).  Or this piece by the head of a communications firm (see also, paid bullshit artist), Karen Dumas, who tries to explain to us little peons just why this law became so necessary to save us from ourselves (and has the unmitigated gall to claim that somehow a law which infringes on our voting rights should be upheld because, well, people died defending our voting rights).

There is only one answer to any editorial or guest commentary asking us to uphold the EMF law on November 6th, and that is the words of Mr. Benjamin Franklin, who so presciently professed that those who give up their liberty for a little security deserve neither.

Woe unto any Michigander who gives up their voting voice for supposed financial security--mark my words, if we allow it to continue, the EMF law will be the beginning of the end of common men and women having any say in the affairs of this state.

Peace,
emaycee

Idiots in the Free Press

We're being subjected to our yearly torture with the Public Policy Conference on Mackinac--the Free Press breathlessly reports on the conjectures of those steeped in opulence.  For those not familiar, think of business leaders and mostly right leaning politicians with all the gravitas of Daddy Warbucks and the emotional maturity of Richie Rich.  This--and I mean every fucking year--seems to be lost on the dolts that run the Free Press.

But the Free Press has really outdone itself this year.  At a conference full of men and women who put the con in conservative, the Free Press reports on a straw poll put together by someone with an IQ of fucking 12 that the attendees support the Emergency Manager Law (read union-busting) by a 78%-22% margin.  In another surprising result, the attendees are against a constitutional amendment for collective bargaining rights by 77%-23%.

If the purpose of the Free Press publishing the results of these polls was to show how completely and totally out of touch they are, they have succeeded quite magnificently.  Well done!

Peace,
emaycee

Democracy is for suckers

...at least it is to Michigan republicans.

Seems we've gotten plenty enough signatures to put a repeal of the draconian Emergency Manager law on the ballot for Michigan voters this November, but the republicans have beaten it back because they claim it has the wrong fucking font size. 

The law is extremely unpopular and would probably be repealed by Michigan voters--but to keep their unionbusting schtick going, Michigan republicans would have us subvert democracy.   In the process, they've not only made Michigan look as dumb as, well, Alabama and Mississippi, but made any effort to either retain or acquire much needed talent for the jobs the businesses of this state still provide that much harder.

Because if Michigan republicans think our children are going to stay here, and people from out of state are going to want to work here and freeze their asses off six months out of the year in a state where there really isn't that much to do for fourteen dollar an hour jobs they are absolutely out of their fucking minds.

Like fucking Pluto out there.

Peace,
emaycee

North Dakota it is!

Earlier this year I made the point (more or less) that the choice facing Michigan as a member of the freezing fucking cold belt (those states roughly in Michigan's latitude, all of which are known for their arctic like weather) was whether we wanted to be a middle of the pack state (Wisconsin or Minnesota) or a state that basically no one except those who live there give a fuck about (North Dakota or South Dakota). Looks like Gov. Snyder is making that choice for us...and the winner is...North Fucking Dakota!

Woo-fucking-hoo!

Being a former CEO, Gov. Snyder likes the unilateral power that comes with such a job, and he's doing his best to make the job of governor as dictatorial as possible with his emergency financial managers and public sector union busting. Give Brian Dickerson his props--kind of amazing how much republicans hate government having power over us until it involves busting public unions. I smell...bullshit in the air!

In addition to being able to cut your pay, dissolve your union, and oust your democratically elected leaders at the whim of an emergency financial "manager," Michigan citizens will now also be able to collect, at twenty weeks, the least lengthy unemployment benefits in the nation. Thanks once again, Governor! According to Jase "I Hate The Middle Class and The Poor" Bolger, Michigan's Speaker of the House, this was needed to strike "a balance between helping the unemployed in the short term and helping the job providers in the long term." What the mother fucking fuck? Corporations in Michigan need another tax break on top of their $1.8 billion giveaway? Jesus fucking Christ, most of our unemployment crisis has been caused by the ineptitude of the auto industry executives and we want to reward them even more for being incompetent?

Sometimes it seems as if I've entered an alternate universe where down is up, hot is cold, and logic is nonexistent.

Peace,
emaycee

Really?

You have got to love the utter hypocrisy in this bullshit--for a group of people who resent the government at every turn, they sure do seem to love giving unlimited power to it when it suits their purposes. For those not familiar, here in Michigan Gov. Snyder has decided to take the Scott Walker option on unions by doing an end around. Rather than outright strip their collective bargaining rights, Snyder wants (and will probably get from the middle class hating republican majority in our Michigan legislature) a revamped emergency financial manager law, i.e., giving the person appointed to oversee a failing municipality the right to break collective bargaining agreements if the appointee feels they are a detriment to the solvency of said muncipality. The News wants us to believe the unions protesting the law are protesting too much and that this would almost never happen. What the mother fucking fuck? How stupid do these people think we are? But, really, I'd be in favor of this as long as it also gave the appointee the power to decide that businesses not being taxed enough could have their taxes increased in distressed municipalities if it would add to their future solvency, and if such appointees could also end corporate welfare if they felt it was a detriment to the state's future solvency. My guess is The Detroit News would have zero respect for this completely fair addition to the law, and as a result, are little more than another in a long line of conservative hypocrites when it comes to their complaints about government overreach. They can also go fuck themselves. Peace, emaycee