Tag: Whitmer (page 2)

Primary races are already beginning to shape up and take form across the state.

Few will be as closely watched as the race for Attorney General and we'll be doing our best to bring the candidates directly to you!

Former Congressman and Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette has been traveling the state and making public appearances and will officially announce his bid for the office shortly.

This weekend I had a chance to catch up with Judge Schuette and discuss the Attorney General's race and his candidacy.

(Note: Firefox users may need to install a plug-in to view the MotionBox embed. Of course, if you'd rather, there's always the direct approach... click HERE.)

Especially the way the weekend ended... and with headlines like these greeting me.  There's good news and there's bad news.  The latter in abundance, sadly, but for the sake of general sanity we'll try to limit ourselves to only the most relevant stories.  (And by "most relevant" I mean, of course, the stories that I want to talk about.  Har.)

That means this particular post won't be discussing Peter Luke's dissection of Michigan Democrats local stimulus obstruction (via an MBT kill and other tax relief), how the UAW is dragging its feet on concessions with General Motors and Chrysler, what with the companies already showing a willingness to take "free" tax cash before making tough decisions or even about how the Granholm / Cherry team's pet economic development "success story", United Solar Ovonics has decided they aren't going to be doing all that growing they'd promised in press conferences after all.

Yeah, there's bad news out there.  This is Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry's Michigan, after all, but it isn't all thunderclouds and little black rainstorms. There's some good news out there, too, and, custom dictates I give you that first.

So... how `bout those Spartans?!  Feels good to keep dancing.

And while we're saying nice things about nice people, the Ivory Tower has a swell article this morning about Barsamian Prep Academy's work with expelled students in the D.  But I actually suggest you bookmark that one and come back to it later to help wash the rotten taste of the rest of the news out of your mouth.

Specifically the Associated Press report that DTE and Consumers Energy are going to be raising rates on residential customers by a full (and astronomical) 11%.

Residents and advocacy groups for the poor and elderly oppose the increases.

"I think it is crummy in this time of hardship," says Bonnie Banks, 61, a retired court recorder who splits her time between Ann Arbor and Oscoda and is a power customer of both Consumers Energy and Edison. "Because of the economy and all the layoffs and our high unemployment rate, it seems like there would be an even larger hardship for people."

It will be, Ms. Banks.  

Long-time readers of this blog will quickly attest that I'm NEEEEEVER one to say "I told you so," but... I told you so.

The Democrats in Lansing last year granted DTE and Consumers a monopoly on the energy market in Michigan.  It was a massive pay-off to their special interest pals and came despite warnings of double-digit rate hikes and customers getting pinched six ways from Sunday.  

Competition?  Bah.  Its over-rated, they assured us.

All told, the Dem's pet utilities are expected to raise rates by $593 million a year.  Make no mistake... that is a $593 million a year tax increase courtesy of Gretchen Whitmer, Andy Dillon, Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry.

Thanks, guys.  Really appreciate it.  Because working moms and dads in this state are just rolling extra cash these days.

Fair warning, before you read the rest of this post you're going to want to sit down.  If you're driving and doing the mobile thing its safer for the rest of us if you pull over to the side of the road.  Shock and highway speeds generally don't mix well.

Safe and secure?

Great.  Check this out.

It looks like most elected Democrats in Lansing, while begging the State Officers Compensation Commission to cut their pay starting in 2011 have and continue to refuse to return any of their pay voluntarily here and now. SURPRISE!

Read on...

Both the Michigan Republican Party and the Michigan Democrats are holding their winter conventions this weekend and on the GOP side, the campaigns for Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General unofficially begin.

Not that there isn't one major difference.  Over on the RIGHT side of things, convention delegates... thousands of them... will select the Party's candidates for AG and SoS (the gubernatorial nominee s selected by both parties via primary).  Over on the LEFT its up to the UAW.  No.  Hyperbole aside.  Seriously.  

It appears the Dems have already selected their AG nominee.  Despite her connection to a massive Bureau of Elections investigation into serious campaign finance irregularities stemming from the 2006 election, state Senator Gretchen Whitmer all but has that spot sewed up.

John Cherry is the man with all of the Big Labor backing in the race to follow Jennifer Granholm at the state Capitol.  Barring a huge electoral shocker, that just leaves holes in two places.  MDP still needs a nominee for Secretary of State and he or she simply must be black.  Not Hispanic.  Not Asian.  Not Jewish or Indian or Arab.  Black.  Because quotas are cool, apparently.

No matter how you cut that cake, though, there isn't much excitement left in the selection process for Democratic activists.  Quite simply, they have no input.  

QUITE the contrary over at the Michigan Republican Party.  This weekend, aside from the technical work of officially selecting Ambassador Ron Weiser to be the next Party Chairman, picking various vice chairs and other Party positions, the activists and volunteers and normal, average working moms and dads from across the state will have a chance to get a good long look at more than a couple of handfuls worth of candidates.

Read on...

I'd probably get a kick out of some of this nonsense, if it wasn't so thoroughly dangerous.

OK, so its not all dangerous.  One of the House Dem's freshmen members, for instance, isn't going to do any real overt damage but that doesn't make his latest campaign fundraising gimmick any less ridiculous.  Apparently the man doesn't own a TV or a radio and he's missed all of the Governor's "Pure Michigan" tourism ads.  

Instead of hosting his next fundraiser on the lakeshore or at a great local restaurant or ski resort, Representative Jim Slezak is packing up his donors and asking them to shell out hundreds of dollars to go on a cruise with him.  Not in a classic car down Woodward Avenue in Detroit, mind you... on a cruise line.  To a private island.  In the Bahamas.  

All aboard!

I couldn't make this up.  Read on...

With limited space devoted to hard news reporting, additional space being gobbled up constantly by sports, entertainment and opinion pieces (now finding their way all too frequently onto the front page) editors choose to be particularly picky about what they publish.

There are some big stories they just can't ignore.  Michigan's skyrocketing unemployment rate, for instance, generally warrants a bit of coverage.  The Ivory Tower tells us this morning that the final numbers are in across the rest of the United States and our staggering 10.6% remains the highest.  In fact, Rhode Island is the only other state even in double figures.  On the flip side, three states are under four, with Wyoming coming in at 3.4 percent.

Simple to report.  Doesn't take a lot of space.  No explicit need to mention the party affiliation of the current administration or legislature.  Run it.

Then you get a selection of stories describing local men, women and businesses and their various challenges, especially if there's a hot-button angle that gets the liberal special interests ginned up and excited.  The Associated Press reports, for instance, on a case currently before the Michigan Supreme Court asking whether the decision of twenty-one counties and three cities to ban workplace smoking is consistent with the Michigan constitution.

A handful of job makers filed suit to attempt to exert their rights as property owners and employers.  Big story pitting two big interests up against each other in the newly remodeled Dem controlled SCOMI.  Job makers v environmentalists in a no-holds-barred, knock-down drag-out.  Where can I buy tickets?

But then there are the important stories that don't get told.  Little things like the fact that yesterday in the state Senate, Republicans successfully moved through committee Senate Bill 0001.  Sponsored by Senator Mark Jansen and approved by Republican Senators Jansen, Nancy Cassis, John Pappageorge and Jud Gilbert on a 4-3 party line vote, the bill kills the hated Michigan Business Tax surcharge.

Dollars and cents, the move would save job makers and working moms and dads $166.1 million in FY 2009, $475.5 million in 2010 and $593.4 million in 2011.  That's a grand total of  $1,235,000,000 reinvested in the Michigan economy without one dollar of expanded government spending or newer, bigger government programs.

Talk about a major shot in the arm for Michigan's economy.  Alas, not everyone was a fan.  The three Democrats on the panel each voted no.  Democratic Senators Deb Cherry, Gilda Jacobs and likely 2010 Dem Attorney General candidate Gretchen Whitmer took the opportunity to once again spit in the faces of Michigan's working class.

They can't return $1.235 billion in tax cash to help stimulate the economy... how would they be able to afford their favorite pet programs?  

Not surprisingly, the Senate Democrats' website was entirely devoid of any mention of yesterday's vote for a billion dollars in higher taxes.  But, then again, so were all of the state's newspapers.

Guess it's a good thing we've got blogs and the internet.