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Elections, Michigan Politics

This Is A Big Deal

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voteMany Michigan ‘Snowbirds’ seem to have gotten wise to the February election trickery.

After expending taxpayer dollars to maximize win potential with the most obscure voting time, these Northern Michigan schools have found a much wiser electorate. Elk Rapids, was looking to cash in on a “close call” in November, published glossy mailers and went full tilt propaganda. It is only one of the following which has fallen backwards.

Elk Rapids School Bond Proposal – Totals (100.0%)
Candidate Votes % Votes
No 1,425 55.9%
Yes 1,126 44.1%

There are more.

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Elections, Michigan

Don’t Forget, Tuesday Is Voting Day

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voteFebruary 25, 2014 is a voting day.

Remember, Tuesday is that special voting day where your local school districts count on snowbirds to be absent from the rolls so they can get millage requests passed.  In Elk Rapids, its a bond that has failed a couple of times, and last time by only a few votes in the general election. (November) They figure it ought not be hard to get it through while many of the property owners are absent.

Never mind the cost of a special election to taxpayers when nothing else is on the ballot.

Around Michigan there are dozens of examples of this type of electoral abuse, so lets not make it a rewarding venture.  Do a favor, and give your over taxed friends a call and reminder.  Unless there is a really good reason, off cycle elections are generally made to “slip one by” the voters as a rule.

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All the Other Stuff, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Peters To Be Protested (News Conference) Outside His Home

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SATURDAY: Dexter Woman to Confront Congressman Gary Peters for Attempting to Silence Her ObamaCare Story

boonstraApparently Gary Peters wasn’t happy about AFP criticisms over his support and vote for the health care catastrophe known as Obamacare.

An ad that Americans For Prosperity has been running with a story of a woman severely affected by the law, was challenged in court.  AFP and the woman in the video are apparently going to the source of the lawsuit.

Americans for Prosperity-Michigan Activists to Join Julie Boonstra for News Conference Outside Rep. Gary Peters’ Home in Bloomfield Hills

LANSING, Mich.—Julie Boonstra, the Michigan mother and leukemia survivor featured in a new Americans for Prosperity Gary Peters issue ad, will seek to confront Congressman Peters at his residence in Bloomfield Hills today. Representative Peters has taken legal steps to silence Boonstra’s story and force television stations to pull the issue ad in which she is featured, off the airwaves. Click here to read the legal letter from the Peters Campaign: http://americansforprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Peters_letter.pdf

With some of Americans for Prosperity-Michigan’s most dedicated activists supporting her, Boonstra will stop by Gary Peters’ residence in Bloomfield Hills today in an effort to confront him directly about his attempts to intimidate and silence her. The media is invited to attend.

It will be interesting if he so much as goes out to get his mail.

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Conservative News, Michigan

When Less Means More

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Clearly, we dodged a bullet by not establishing a state run exchange. The AG appears to be watching for 'ricochets.'

Attorney_General_Bill_Schuette_410797_7For anyone who wondered WHY we did not establish a state run exchange, the answer is clearly about surrendering authority.

Not unlike the camel’s nose, the exchange was a buy-in to undermine state sovereignty. Fortunately, Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette appears to be trying to make sure the mandate does NOT apply to Michigan residents. From MLive:

Attorney General Bill Schuette is arguing an IRS rule offering tax credits to individuals buying health insurance on the federal exchange from states without their own exchanges violates the U.S. Constitution.

The argument was made in a “friend of the court” brief filed in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where individuals and businesses from states without insurance exchanges are challenging the ability of the IRS to offer tax credits for buying insurance through the federally established exchange.

Schuette and the attorneys general for Kansas and Nebraska argue that allowing the IRS to offer the credits overrules the decisions not to set up exchanges under the Affordable Care Act that 34 states made and is invalid under the Tenth Amendment.

Schuette’s on the right track.

Additionally, it should be noted that this might not be the most popular move, and could be painful to his campaign in the general. As many Michiganians are expecting a federal subsidy, it may not happen or they may lose that subsidy if this action is successful.

This is a courageous and quite correct move.

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Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

A Short Treatise On Extremism

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EOne of the most concerning comments a Constitutional Conservative Republican can hear from a fellow Republican is that they are “extreme” in their views.

The schism within the party should seem a remarkable thing if one was to examine what ‘extremism’ truly is.  Is there a defined line in the sand, or a point in which an accumulation of thoughts and philosophy render one susceptible to branding with a scarlet “E”? And like much of the politics playing out across the US, Michigan has developed what appears to be a Left-Right paradigm within a party presented as being on the right side of the political spectrum as long as can be remembered.

That, OR the window of tolerance for views once held as standards has been closed.

Extremism is subjective.  It is a moving target. And it is a relative condition that exists ONLY from the perspective of those who would label one with such hyperbole. This is unarguable.  If someone were to examine another person’s political views and agree with them, they would not likely make the claim that they too, are ‘extreme.’  Their philosophical centering at-rest is the foundation on which their opinions are formed, decisions are made, and with politics, support and votes are rendered.

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Democrats

Dontcha Just Hate When This Happens?

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talib-numberedFrom the not so incredibly surprised department.

As most anyone who has owned a home and might have considered owning another knows; you don’t get to double dip.  Only ONE free pass per household. The Lansing State Journal reports:

“Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and her husband Fayez claimed a 100 percent personal residence exemption for both the Detroit home they live in and a rental property they own in Dearborn, city assessment records from both municipalities show.”

You don’t say?

(H/T to Joan F and Steve D BTW)

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Too Much Private Property

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If Schmidt has his way, Northern Michigan communities will see new challenges

DNR-trust-2One of the little deals with the DNR and its ability to purchase land, is that it is limited.

Limited to 4,650,000 acres in fact, with some exceptions, and not more than 3,910,000 acres north of a line between Mason and Arenac counties, to be exact.

This means that the amount of land that is available for private use and development will not continue to shrink indefinitely.  It means that the revenues from oil and gas lease rights are not forever used to remove land from local tax rolls. It also means that overzealous misplaced urban planner graduates from the MSU school of property theft have one less tool in their belt of American dream destruction.

in 2012 Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, signed a common sense piece of legislation (huh.. how bout that) that put a check on the runaway property acquisition of the DNR, and the way in which it distorts property values and makes desirable land unavailable for private use.  The ONLY 5 Republicans Voting against the bill at that time were Jon Bumstead, (R) Holly Hughes, (R) Peter Pettalia, (R) Bruce Rendon, (R) and Wayne Schmidt, (R).  They and their Democrat property rights thieving counterparts were sent packing, as the bad ol Republican bullies put that limit on the quite literal GROWTH of government through land purchases.

Surprise, surprise, now they are back. And they brought friends. And they seem to think Michigan has too much private property available to it.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

The Only One

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homer-constThe Michigan congressional delegation Republicans had the right idea with regard to Roll Call 61.

Except for Michigan’s very own captain courageous, Dave Camp.  Camp along with 27 other GOP congressional critters carried the water for Democrats and Barack Obama.

Maybe he was confused by the title of the bill that raised the debt ceiling?  Only in government, can a bill with the title:

To designate the air route traffic control center located in Nashua, New Hampshire, as the “Patricia Clark Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center”

be used to continue out of control spending by an unaccountable administration that needs to have its criminal leadership removed, not rewarded with more resources.

Going forward in Michigan’s 4ths congressional district, there IS another choice.

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All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Michigan

ICYMI – East Lansing Obama Protest

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Fun from Friday.

If you didn’t get a chance to be there in person, the AFP organized rally greeted Obama last Friday with a line up of signs. The event in East Lansing drew about 50 according to this news report. Obama was on hand to hold a service for the church of agricultural welfare.

money tree

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Michigan, Philosophy, Rent Seeking

OK, So Lets See The Other Side

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pure-somethingToo often, your local government will have advocates of money-spending that holds out the promise of jobs, or some tangible benefit that can be presented in dollars gained back for the community.

The authors of such fiction typically seek to justify their own positions of employment within that community, and possibly within the government entity itself. Axiomatically however, all of them have a stake in the outcome of the requested spending.  They will be asked for, and then will present metrics, or a presumed study of return on investment (ROI) and typically the elected leadership falls for it hook, line and sinker.

A perfect example was during a consideration of funding for the MSU extension office in Grand Traverse County when I was an elected commissioner.  County commissioners were given plenty of reading materials by the MSU advocates to show us that for every dollar spent we would see a result of $17 in benefit to the county.  The calculations as it turned out were premised on a ‘guess,’ that was then multiplied by a compounding analysis program that is used by MSU intellectuals, that relies on ‘guesses’ for the input variables.

Go. State.   ..  Yay.

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