Jason

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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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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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)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans

While The Commerce Committee Is Deliberating

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Perhaps we take a moment and reflect on a little history of Michigan and how things happen?

JuleaWardLets talk about Julea Ward.

Who is she?  And why should she be the topic of the day?  Without reading any further, how many of Right Michigan’s regular readers recall her name?   Take your time, but don’t forget to act when you are through here, OK?

In April of 2009, the Blog Prof posted something that was out of the ballpark nuts on the pages of RightMichigan.com.  Not “nuts” because HE was wrong, but rather from being the telltale sign of things to come.  One of our publicly funded Universities threatened to END Miss Ward’s career, unless she submit to a regimen of homophilia.  As the prof’s prop of choice asked then, “What the hell is going on out here!”

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Conservative News, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Lipstick On A Pig

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ToleranceApathyThe lame duck legislature has nine more days (including today) in which it could seriously harm Michigan.

One of the items which has ZERO business being considered, is the elevation of a dangerous behavior to ‘protected class’ status.  Making every landlord, business owner, or boss, the potential target of people with a (previously diagnosable) mental condition.    Incoming Michigan State Rep Todd Courser, in an email newsletter cautions supporters to NOT let their current Reps off the hook. He writes:

A Lipstick Makeover…

The Effort by the GOP to wrap this Expansion of Elliott Larsen in some weak religious exemption is akin to taking a Cheap Pig and Slapping a Cheap Lipstick Makeover on it; it is still a pig and it still has cheap lipstick on it. This is the granting of protected class status to the LGBT community and in doing so, it kills religious liberty and freedom of speech! Don’t be fooled…and don’t let your rep off the hook for standing SILENT as this rolls through the House. Ask them where their press releases on this issue are…encourage them to stand against this rogue action by the Republican Speaker who has been paid a small fortune and is partnering with the LGBT activists to destroy religious liberty and freedom of speech!

If this expansion to Elliott Larsen passes it will institutionalize discrimination against Christians and other faiths and make freedom of religion and freedom of speech subservient to the wishes of the homosexual lobby.

Even with the pretend religious exemptions being promised by a paid-in-advance speaker of the house, it’s still a raw deal.

Fact of the matter, is that the THREAT of a lawsuit based on such characteristics as personal choice and preference, is an affront to freedom of association and speech.  It hardly matters if one can exempt themselves based on their religious practice or beliefs if the must first stand before a judge and make that exclamation.  It still costs time, and money, and hardship.

And taking into account what it will cost the taxpayers, Rick Snyder doesn’t want to see it on his desk anyhow.

You Betcha! (27)Nuh Uh.(2)

Michigan, Opinion

Get Out Of The Mall

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Mall says: "Open on holiday or pay a penalty"

And stay clear of the DDA zones as well.

The holidays are here!  Black Friday has been extended into your family time, and store owners are learning a lesson; When you have your business in someone else’s house, you had best be prepared to live by their rules.  Of course that may include opening when you have no reason to open.  From MLive:

“TRAVERSE CITY, MI — If the Regis salon had its choice, the store in the Grand Traverse Mall would not have opened its doors on Thanksgiving.

But the alternative was to pay the mall a fine of around $500, the salon’s manager told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press.”

Not unlike government, which zones your options away, the Malls have expectations apparently enforced by contract.

mallcops

In the meantime, just go ahead and keep ignoring the encroachment on your private property rights, allow government to dictate the deviants you hire, which days you can operate, and what goes on in your business.

And then double down with a move into the local mall where you can be subjected to the landlord’s rules as well.

You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(2)

All the Other Stuff, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We have been so incredibly blessed as a nation. How could we not offer our thanks to the Lord?

thanksgivingWe give thanks each year as tradition dictates.

As we are today, our forefathers were both good and evil. They were productive and prosperous, or lazy and in despair.  Human nature leads us on many paths, and we often forget where that path started. Sometimes we are purposefully confused so that we do not remember.

With that in mind. Enjoy the following stories of Thanksgiving, each from a different perspective.

Mises – The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

“In his History of Plymouth Plantation, the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years because they refused to work in the field. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with “corruption,” and with “confusion and discontent.” The crops were small because “much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable.”  “

And in a similar vein

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Cronyism, Detroit, Michigan, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Seems About Right

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The Michigan Senate Majority Leader gives 'honest cops' a good name.

And we haven’t even started the ‘Cotton’ picking.

When we start wondering about the passage of hospital related legislation in the state senate, perhaps we simply consider the source of the new legislation to be only as old as government itself. Something as simple as power brokering through backroom deals and a few well placed donations can alter public policy.  We have seen how the $100,000 given to Jase Bolger has brought about the threat of the unthinkable changes to the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act.  Even now we should be looking at the reasons for our gas taxes being raised as well.

Though I disagree with bed counts and certificates of need, pushing legislation for ‘good friends’ specific projects violates the spirit of equal opportunity under the law.  Specific legislation that benefits donors as a result of donations offered, ought to be considered criminal if not already.

So when we see 2014 Senate Bill 1073 (Granting medical facility rationing exception to McLaren Health Systems Introduced by Sen. Randy Richardville (R) on September 11, 2014)  to authorize a special exception to the health care facility rationing imposed by the state’s “Certificate of Need” law?  We should be concerned.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Get Uncle Carl A Towel

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Carl Levin's use of the IRS to punish his political enemies may yet see the light of day.

That man is likely sporting a sweaty brow by now.

We know Michigan’s senior US Senator, Carl Levin has had a hand in the IRS shenanigans of the last few years. Using his power as one in one hundred, he guided one of the recent criminal activities seen during the reign of this ‘administration.’

“Lie No. 9: Lerner says that there was no political pressure to investigate tea-party groups. In fact, Senator Carl Levin (D., Mich.) repeatedly pressed the agency to investigate conservative groups falling under Lerner’s jurisdiction. What we have, then, is this: Under a Democratic administration, the IRS was under pressure from Democratic elected officials to investigate political enemies of the Democratic party. The agency did so. Its commissioner lied to Congress about its doing so. When the inspector general’s report was about to make these abuses public, the agency staged a classic Washington Friday news rollout at a sleepy American Bar Association tax-law conference, hoping to minimize the bad publicity. Lerner lied to the public about the nature, scope, and extent of the IRS intimidation campaign.”

It came as no surprise that he would bail out of his current seat before the fire is turned up too high.

His Letter of 072712,  May only provide cover (though showing a significant aggressive stance towards tax exempts) for the underlying pressure he was putting on IRS officials to directly target conservative organizations which carry the 501(c)4 designation.  There is now the possibility that more of his involvement comes to light, and that records thought to be lost forever, have now turned up.

Bill Still talks about a recent discovery of Lois Lerner emails found conveniently AFTER the elections.

We’ll be waiting for the media dump right here.

H/T Stephanie at FedUpUSA

 

 

 

 

You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(1)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

The Most Amazing Wedgie

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Hide your lunch money. The DC Schoolyard bully Strikes again.

boehner-wedgie435 US House of Representative members including 234 Republicans were simultaneously given a fanny flossing by the POTUS last night.

The president, in one of the boldest moves yet, did an in-your-face to our sitting elected representatives, the likes of which have never been seen in our nation before.  Picture a petulant child walking up to mom with a Mr. Microphone, calmly telling her to go shtump herself then drop the mic on the floor in a classic you-have-been-served moment.  Though our Congress is not exactly saying “oh what a precious child,” they are enabling the president’s current action, and making future actions likely worse by not putting him over the knee and giving him the red bottom spanking he so desperately needs.

But it should somehow not surprise us that nothing will be done. Especially when our own state elected politicians hardly understand the scope of what this president has done to the constitution.  The president has been recycling the parchment as toilet paper multiple times, yet even our AG’s response is weak as he responds:

“America must have a hopeful immigration policy, a policy of inclusion not exclusion.  America’s door of opportunity must be open to new citizens.  The door to America’s unique experiment of freedom and enterprise must be open and welcoming to new Americans.

However, President Obama seems to be more interested in gamesmanship and litigation than working on bipartisan solutions to immigration reform.  By ignoring Congress and stretching Executive Orders beyond Constitutional limits, President Obama is clearly playing politics instead of providing lawful solutions to immigration challenges.  The result is gridlock and lawsuits, just what the American people voted against in 2014″

This ain’t “politics” bubba.

This is an outright gauntlet thrown down.  This is the gloves pulled off, slapped face, pee-in-your-cheerios, challenge to a duel.

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