Monthly Archives: December 2014

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Republicans

Hey, who wants to pay a higher gas tax?

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“It’s a first step. It’s a big step – don’t get me wrong. In a bipartisan way, the Michigan Senate was ready to say, `We want to fix roads and we’ll take tough votes to do it,”‘ said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, a Monroe Republican.

“What I would say is the House action doesn’t get us there fast enough or far enough. It also creates major consequences to schools and local partners — that I don’t want to see negative things happen to them,” said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

And these guys are “republicans”?

So, who’s thirsty?

{Not to fear, more below the fold}

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You Betcha! (15)Nuh Uh.(4)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Kowall & VerHeulen Pushing MORE Regulation On Michigan

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Big Box retailers have found foot soldiers willing to do bidding in HUGE rent seek.

Kowall-Verheulen-TaxersHeads up!

Word on the street is that HB 4202 and HB 4203 are on the schedule for second reading today in the Michigan House of Representatives. That means it would be up for FINAL PASSAGE tomorrow. You can read below all the details about the bills. Bottom line, if they are enacted, you will be paying MORE taxes.

Please take a moment and contact your representative today. Let your opinion be known! These phone calls and emails do matter. They do affect how a representative votes.

Find your representative’s contact information here.

We will keep you posted of the progress (or lack therof) of these bills tomorrow.

House Bills 4202 (Kowall-R), and 4203 (VerHeulen-R), will impose new taxes on consumers in Michigan and will further burden online sellers, especially the mom and pop shops that operate out of a small store front office or the business owners home. They will be subjected by government to an abundance of new compliance requirements. It will stifle competition as many smaller competitors to the big guys (like Amazon) will likely be forced to downsize or worse yet, go out of business.

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You Betcha! (21)Nuh Uh.(6)

Conservative News, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy

The Next Time Someone Says Coal Is Bad

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Even the bureaucrats understand an electric system that is fubar.

energyBreak out the blanket and paddles.

Folks speculate all the time whether ‘renewable energy’ is plausible enough to hit 10%, 15% etc. by a certain date.  We have had our governments propose and mandate certain dates are met with minimums of electricity being provided by ambiguous, as-yet-to-be-discovered sources to the point where our eyes bleed.

However, in the mean time, it seems someone is taking notice of the insufficient resources that only ‘magically clean’ will provide.  The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has somehow looked beyond the fools in Michigan’s political theater to address a looming reality. They are starting to actually ask the important questions.

And they are probably just starting to realize, our electric capacity is on borrowed time:

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You Betcha! (16)Nuh Uh.(1)

Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

Policy Or Purchased Privilege

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Michigan Senate passes late night watering hole expansion.

I can keep this short.

Expanding hours for certain bars within cities is becoming a possibility.  OK, fair enough, if legislators feel that this could help serve a need of those business owners.  But perhaps we ask this question: Is it a special privilege when one licensed liquor seller can sell further into the night by purchasing a special license, or is it just plain good for the community?

We should probably recognize that good public policy is hardly the goal of our elected class any longer.

This one’s on the house.

beer-house

You Betcha! (8)Nuh Uh.(1)

Humor in Michigan, Michigan, Opinion

Maybe Michigan’s Business Leaders are Just Stupid

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You know, it’s been rather entertaining this morning sitting here with a warm cup of joe, flipping through news articles rehashing all the fallout from a disastrous scheme by on his way to the private sector, Rep. Frank Foster’s infatuation with special protections for perverts. Make no mistake – it was epic failure.

GenderBendersBut the ACLU of Michigan, Equality Michigan and others wouldn’t even consider legislation that didn’t specifically name transgender individuals, along with gays and lesbians. They convinced Democrats it was an unacceptable bill and blocked their votes.

So rather than be satisfied with a historic expansion of Elliott-Larsen, the groups decided since they weren’t getting exactly what they demanded, they’d rather have nothing at all.

“The far left killed it,” says one of the leading business backers of the legislation. “They are worse than the tea party.”

That must be tough for the MCWC to swallow (no pun intended) butt (pun intended), all 60 of them made the conscience decision to jump into bed with the transtesticle fringe so, what’s up with the hate? They’re your team, and you all go calling them something lower than a bunch of – teabaggers? Wait .. what? Ya, I know, the irony is thick.

TEA movement folk out there… do file that quote into your memory when encountering their businesses – they are named here. Be sure to note within the names of the *business* Coalition that Jim Murray, CEO AT&T of Michigan, is also a sitting Board Member of the $1.6B “endowment” to play with (nah, his vote won’t be with agenda), which is roughly half of what the Snyder/Calley administration stole from us taxpayers as gift to BC/BS who loves their Snyder/Calley Obamcare Medicaid expansion, and insurance exchanges.

Now to bottom lines.

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You Betcha! (35)Nuh Uh.(1)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections

Yeah, but can we trust him?

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Dovetailing on the good news from Trucker Randy yesterday, according to today’s Detroit News, Speaker Bolger has declared that BOTH HB-5959 (Rep. Foster) and HB-5804 (Rep. Singh) to be dead this year.

***Side note to Chad Livengood: Both bills were written to create a protected class in Michigan, NOT prohibit discrimination. I will be more than happy to cite numerous examples in Kentucky, New Mexico, Oregon ,Texas and New York (just for starters) to prove you otherwise. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you are a reporter, not an editorial page writer.***

{Still, I’ve got more after the fold}

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You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(1)