Tag: Reeves

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.

Alas, the good news seems to stop there.  Raise your hands if you DIDN'T see this one coming... General Motors new restructuring plan, the one being proposed this week by the CEO and the Board of Directors President Obama personally appointed, is going to propose nationalizing the company and ceding complete operational authority to the federal government.  Because that management structure worked so well in the old Soviet Union.

The Detroit News reports:

The U.S. Treasury Department would own a majority of General Motors Corp. and have the right to appoint all of its directors, under the company's turnaround plan unveiled Monday -- the latest sign of the government's growing role in the automaker's restructuring.

The administration also told the Detroit automaker it wouldn't support giving bondholders any more than 10 percent equity in the company.

The bondholders, obviously, aren't happy.  And neither should be the Michiganders working at GM plants or relying on those retirement checks.  Many expect this move is a precursor to a bankruptcy filing and a messy round of fire sales and layoffs.

15 percent unemployment, here we come.  Tomorrowish.  And thanks specifically to the Obama administration.  

By this point we should be used to Democrats behaving badly, though.  The locals here in the Great Lakes State aren't exactly going to win citizenship awards any time soon, either.  Over in Flint we've got the former mayor and potential 2010 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Don Williamson making a liar out of himself and demanding $600,000 in back pay from the city.

Read on...