Tag: Happy Friday

Akindele Unleashed: Detroit City Charter Profiles- Time for a New Beginning (What could possibly produce MORE happiness than a new beginning in Detroit?)

Blog of Bodnar: Health Care- It Sounded So Good (Sometimes poll numbers make me smile.)

LifeBeat: Rabbi's Ride for Life (Babies are cute.)

Michigan Blogger: Christianity Gets Fordson Coach Fired (John 15: 18-20.  Look it up and this post will make YOU happy, too.)

Five Ws: Stupid is as Stupid Does (And I really like boxes of chocolate.)

LifeBeat: Pro-Life Michigan Democrat Leading Efforts to Keep Abortion Out of Healthcare Reform (Because the man is not entirely devoid of redeeming qualities.)

Motor City Times: Darth Vader dancing to MC Hammer (Because being at Comi-Con would make me very, very happy.)

Michigan Taxes Too Much: Mark Brewer Took the Blue Pill (Stick people make me laugh.)

How are each of you on this magnificent morning?  I woke up with a spring in my step and a song in my heart. (It was the theme song for Perfect Strangers, if you were wondering.)  Toss in the fact that the Tigers play two today against the hated Chicago White Sox complete with a chance to expand the percentage-points division lead and how could anyone complain on a day like today?

Well, I mean, I know HOW folks could complain.  But if that's all you want to do then you're going to have to take that noise somewhere else.  Nobody's brining the rest of us down on a Happy Friday.  Now... to the news!

Let's start in the Ivory Tower, which scored an encouraging exclusive interview with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.  During their private sit-down Bing announced that he'd seen the light and better, he's ready to act on the Motor City's financial troubles:

After spending most of his first two months in office poring over Detroit's financial books and organizational structure, Bing said the city is so deeply in the red that the following measures must be taken to avoid bankruptcy:

• The consolidation and elimination of some city departments.

• A reduction in nonessential city services.

• Concessions by city employees, including job losses in some cases.

• The hiring of an outside emergency collection agency to help recoup some of the debt owed to the city.

Bonus for Detroiters... not a new tax hike on the list.  Remember, Bing is a Democrat in a 100% Democratic City but he's also a successful businessman who knows exactly what tax increases do to current and potential job makers. The fact that he's looking to plug a $25 million deficit by right-sizing government should be enough to get every Detroiter jumping up and down. Except, maybe, for some of the over-priced bureaucrats whose jobs are suddenly in danger.  (And yes... that counts as happy news, too.)

Bing's apparent leadership on the whole deficit issue looks even sunnier when compared to his Party's leaders in Lansing.  

The Granholm-Cherry administration took precisely the opposite approach yesterday during their own discussions about pools of red ink but even that provided some of the better news conservatives have had in a long, long time!

(There's a bright, shiny silver lining if you read on...)

This is cross-posted from the TEA Party of West Michigan site, and is posted here (modified just a tad) as a way for each of us to start our day with a smile!  Happy Friday, y'all!

The Blog Prof: Southfield Councilman Gets Caught Up in Conyers Scandal- News Plays "Name That Party!" (Who doesn't get a kick out of a good game of "Name That Party?")

Hall of Record: What Happens if the Earth Warms? (Summer in Michigan woooould make me happy.)

Life Beat: Study Finds the Unborn Have Memories (Because babies are cute.)

Outside Lansing: Andy Dillon Might Be Getting Something Right (`Nuff said.)

Besides, if you didn't wake up with a giant smile on your face and a song in your heart about Michigan's economy then I know just the ticket(s).  They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and have I got news that'll put joy in your heart and a song in your head.

The magnificently written, gorgeously published and almost always typo-free Detroit Free Press reports this morning that General Motors might in August announce the possible creation of 100 new battery production jobs right here in Michigan!  

They like 100 of us!  They really like 100 of us!

In even happier news for a lot of the good folks in the big, giant heart of Detroit, the new Police Chief is on the job and has a really awesome, creative way to stop murder... he's going to tow away men's cars before they have a chance to use them to drive somewhere an kill someone.  The Detroit News reports on this cutting-edge, outside-the-box anti-crime tactic:

The chief announced the measure during Thursday's Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting and said the policy would go into effect Monday.

Evans told the board that many shootings in the city are committed at night by young men in their late teens and early 20s without valid driver's licenses.

He figures by seizing their vehicles for traffic offenses, he can cut down on the number of drive-by shootings.

I sat here at the computer for two or three minutes, put on my thinking cap and tried really hard to come up with something happier than not getting shot and I couldn't do it.  I think not getting shot might actually be the happiest thing in the entire world.  If there is a parallel universe that runs on happy, I'm 99 percent sure the happy it needs is generated by people not getting shot.  

(If you read on it'll make me happy...)

Bible, Math and Politics: Pontiac School District Adopts Dress Code (Because a dress code in Jr. High would have made me happy... and probably saved me a beating or three.)

Motor City Times: Rocky v. Peters for the Heavyweight Championship of the 9th District (Because everyone loves a good championship fight!)

Reform Watch: Give the MEA Credit- They Know How to Drop the Hammer (Proving it's possible to say nice things about your political opponents.)

Trying Liberty: The Protected Class: Part 2 (Because being "protected" usually makes folks happy.)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Happy Friday here on RightMichigan.com, where we're going to dig into the headlines and specifically and explicitly find a way to accentuate the positive!  

With Michigan moms and dads hurting the way they are it can be difficult accentuating the positive.  Mostly because there's very little positive to accentuate, amidst a landscape of hurt and tough times.  Today, though, seems to represent a perfect storm of happiness.

And what could possibly make anyone happier than hearing Detroit City Councilwoman Martha Reeves performing a one-song-tribute to Michael Jackson at a local Motor City eatery complete with electronic keyboard accompaniment?  The answer, if you're searching for it, is nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Take a listen here, courtesy of the Detroit News.  

The video also features longtime Detroit Democratic political consultant Adolph Mongo claiming Governor Granholm "played the fiddle while the state's been sinking," then calls her "the worst governor in the history of me being alive."

And Reeves defending her decision to keep cash from the Synagro deal that's sending Monica Conyers to jail.

"The only way you can get into the political ring is by donations," Reeves said, explaining that her change in position from yes to no on the contract was a matter of conscience and good sense. "Am I going to give it back? No!"

Watch the video.  You'll want to cry. Some days I worry there's very little hope for the human race.

But her song is amazing as coffee-shop solos go.  *weep*

Seriously, though, happy news. Like this...

Booth Newspapers reports that GM is headed OUT of bankruptcy protection this morning with "no place to go but up."

GM is expected to close on a deal Friday in which most of its assets would be sold to a new company 60.8 percent controlled by the federal government...

GM, which was the world's largest automaker for more than 70 years and a symbol of American industrial might for much of the 20th century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy June 1.

If the federal government controlling 61 percent of GM isn't good news then the fact that the UAW will control nearly 20 percent is even better.  So turn that frown upside down.

Because no matter what is happening at GM, in Congress, in City Hall or in the parking lot at Mr. Fish, big things are popping at Comerica Park where the Detroit Tigers learned yesterday that they'll be sending a FOURTH member of the team to the Summer Classic.

Brandon Inge won the fan voting and is now an All Star.  Congrats to the 2009 Gold Glove winning third baseman (knock on wood).

And sure, Comerica Bank which still has it's name affixed to the Tigers' home ballpark recently high-tailed it out of Michigan, relocating to Texas because that state offered a significantly better environment for job creation, but we're not dwelling on the past.

It's Friday.  Happy, happy Friday.