Just dusting off one of a few old projects that I’ve had one hell of a time trying to finish up over the past few weeks.
Composing a post on a tablet is relatively easy compared to trying to edit something on video. Even moreso when the truck is moving
Watching the local news this afternoon gave me the final push to finish things up before tomorrow.
(5)Nuh Uh.
(0)RightMi.Com editors weigh in on their favorite anti-prop 15-1 articles.
We’ve had plenty to say about proposal 15-1.
In fact, there was so much to be said that we had to create a special category for it, and all things leading up to, and related have been edited by Kevin to reflect their importance to the issue. While the traditional media sources play the equal opportunity game with both proponents and opponents of HR UU (proposal 15-1), it’s been our position to not do so. We have maintained that equal opportunity is already a function of those who would lie about its ‘advantages,’ and it needs no further promotion to make it one of the most dangerous options Michiganians have ever faced at the ballot box.
As we wrap up the arguments with only 2 days left before the polls close, RightMi.com editors thought it important to offer up a few ‘MUST READS!’ As you make a special trip to the polls for an election day that you wouldn’t have if the last legislative session would have done its job we have highlighted the most compelling. The editors have selected 5 or more articles from RightMi.com directly, and one other from anywhere else, traditional or otherwise.
Let the review begin!
(15)Nuh Uh.(2)Because the special interest root cause of Proposal 1 makes this timely.
Wood stoves? Close your school? This is our state government in action, folks. Lansing’s Republican majority dare touch the insurance industry’s $20B slush fund? Nyet.
Think this kind of government endorsed behavior has no effect on you?
Just wait until Lansing starts working on Snyder, Bloomberg, and Obama’s energy policy in Michigan.
Well informed RightMi.com readers cannot say they were not warned here, here, here, and here.
(26)Nuh Uh.(0)SafeRoadsYes! Morphing Into A Very Expensive White Elephant - Big New Money Going Down the Drain!
Another day, another $ 105,000 delivered to SafeRoadsYes! Here are the latest contributions made to SafeRoadsYes! on 28 April and posted by the Michigan Secretary of State today:
The motives of three late contributors are pretty obvious. PVS-Nolwood is a chemical company in Detroit specializing in acids and their disposal. As [a very profitable] part of this business, they unload neutralized acid byproducts on wastewater treatment plants as clarifiers. Those wastewater treatment plants just happen to be owned by various units of government which, in turn, use their water billings to rape the public at large. PVS-Nolwood have a long history of sucking up to Michigan’s power elites to further their very lucrative business interests.
(21)Nuh Uh.(0)Awkwardness in the House: @CindyGamrat is withdrawing each of her amendments, one-by-one. There are 23 on a list I saw. Twenty-three.
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) April 28, 2015
This better have something to do with Plan “B”.
‘Nuff said!
(5)Nuh Uh.(1)Why would we need to tax ourselves more at the pump or otherwise???
Don’t even start with me on government honeypots.
There’s a problem with those big ol cash reserves set up for specific issue. They WILL get raided for something else someday. Recall the tobacco settlement which has been re-purposed at least a couple of times since the award. Remember the BCBS Three and a half $Billion of ratepayer/Taxpayer (by reason of contract with state) money that has disappeared.
Peter Lucido says not necessary. While most lawmakers are cowering in fear lest someone learn how they stand, he is as clear as glass on the issue. In this case, its a $20,000,000,000.00 pile of dough that earns nearly a billion a year? Given the planned obsolescence of such a fund in the wake of ‘insurance reform,’ why on earth would we NOT consider its use for paying down current and immediate needs.
$20 billion? holy guacamole.
Oh and someone stand watch over Rick’s ‘stash’ ok?
(20)Nuh Uh.(0)Has MITA's Spending Now Slammed Into Its Members' Financial Limits?
MITA (Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association) just added $ 205,000 to the SafeRoadsYes! war chest yesterday. Not much when you consider that they have already lavished $ 5.19 million on SRY. The Detroit Regional Chamber‘s ‘Powering the Economy’ PAC political committee, on the other hand, went one better and added $ 250,000 to the SafeRoadsYes! war chest yesterday. Dwarfs their $ 125,000 in contributions during the regular reporting period. The Detroit Regional Chamber contribution far exceeds the $ 17,105 DRC reportedly had on hand only a few days ago. Someone has given Powering the Economy a lot of money this week, but we won’t be privileged to know whom for three months. Both of these contributions were made to SRY on April 27th, three days after the closing date for the SafeRoadsYes! pre-special general report.
SafeRoadsYes! has evidently burned through the $ 8 million plus they received in contributions during the regular reporting period and is now heading towards a $ 9 million cash burn. Hard to tell how much SRY have spent with any exactitude, the latest figures from April 24th show expenditures of $ 7.212 million. But they had a balance of $ 843,482 on that date which is presumably gone or going quickly. Expect more thrilling stunts and stimulating advertising in any event. Their war chest just got reloaded.
The paltry late contribution from MITA, taken together with the outsized contribution from the Detroit Regional Chamber, suggests that MITA is scraping the bottom of their member’s bank accounts. Or that they are employing a new form of campaign contribution concealment, feeding contributions through DRC’s Powering the Economy so contributors’ identities won’t be reported until after the election. Their servants in Michigan’s media reported the outsized involvement of road constructors in pushing Proposal 1 this week and it hasn’t played well with the voting public.
Will the Proposal 1 fight decapitalize Michigan’s road constructors? Will they raise their bids to recoup their political expenditures, further draining Michigan’s road funding? Are MITA and DRC gaming Michigan’s campaign finance laws to avoid any further embarrassing disclosures? Or have we just found out what $ 1.2 billion in additional annual contracts are really worth in profits to Michigan’s road constructors?
(11)Nuh Uh.(0)
Not willing to be out lied by their frenemies in Michigan’s business community, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) created an entirely bogus propaganda by crushing an old school bus with a piece of bridge, complete with guard rail. It will be a featured propaganda for their ‘Getting Schooled in Infrastructure’ tour which commenced in Flint today. You are allowed to speculate on their altruistic motives.
Note the ‘white shirt’ law enforcement officer congratulating these union pranksters. Saginaw County Sheriff William L. Federspiel with a new dye job? The same Sheriff who bailed on this year’s Ann Arbor Hash Bash at the last minute? His ‘honor students’ in Saginaw took a breather so the good Sheriff could visit the only county in Michigan with a higher murder rate? Oh, I forgot, he doesn’t want any of his sensitive deputies exposed to the horrors of Saginaw, the city. Unless they can ride around in an MRAP. How much damage does an MRAP do to our roads, might you ask?
You can bet dollars to donuts he won’t sic a motor carrier officer on this illegal, unsecured load. Under any other circumstances, a trucker hauling this load around Michigan would get an impressive collection of ‘green stamps’ and an overnight stay in the crowbar hotel. An opportunity to try on Federspiel’s natty new black and white jail attire. Who said political convenience doesn’t tip the scales of justice in Michigan?
Favoritism never crosses the mind of our Michigan leaders. Too busy engaging in media opportunism.
(21)Nuh Uh.(0)It's funny what you find when you kick over a rock.
H/T to Saynotohighertaxes.org
(9)Nuh Uh.(0)SafeRoadsYes! Has A Phantom Contributor
Today was the deadline for the last campaign finance filings with the Michigan Secretary of State before the May 5th vote on Proposal 1. SafeRoadsYes! filed five late contribution reports and a pre-special general report. Contributions supporting Proposal 1 now exceed $ 8 million and, as you might expect, the roster of SafeRoadsYes! contributors reads like a Michigan road constructors’ directory. SafeRoadsYes! expenditures now exceed $ 7.2 million, and SafeRoadsYes! still has more than $ 843,000 yet to be spent. Of course there may be massive contributions yet to be made which would not be reported until after the election.
MGM Grand Casino and FireKeepers Casino contributed $ 50,000 each, presumably to curry favor with the Lansing power elites. BlueCross/Blue Shield and the Michigan Township Association each threw in $ 100,000 which was picked from your pockets by ObamaCare and your property taxes, respectively. Dick DeVos, after having his stooge knife Representative Gamrat for not supporting Proposal 1, got in late with a $ 50,000 contribution from his Alticor investment group.
There is one phantom entity in the SafeRoadsYes! late contribution reports which is worth investigating. An organization called ‘Powering the Economy’ gave $ 75,000 on 22 April. The problem here? ‘Powering the Economy’ doesn’t exist in either the Michigan LARA corporate database or the Secretary of State’s searchable PAC database. So who are they?
Best guess, the merry screw ups at the Detroit Regional Chamber have created a new ballot question PAC to replace their recently terminated – and heavily cited – ‘Detroit Regional Chamber PAC II‘ ballot question PAC. DRC PAC II earned eighteen citations from the SoS since 2013 for filing screw ups. DRC PAC II filed a dissolution notice on 02 April and paid the $ 875.00 dissolution fee on 07 April. ‘Powering the Economy’ has the same address as the Detroit Regional Chamber, One Woodward Avenue in Detroit – which used to be known as the MichCon or ANR Building before Dan Gilbert bought it. And DRC has trademarked ‘Powering the Economy’ as one of their signature catch phrases.
Somebody is ignoring Michigan’s campaign finance laws. Not just ignoring them, trampling them. But this has been a routine practice during the Proposal 1 proponents’ campaign. Our Attorney General is supposed to enforce these laws, but he hasn’t been exactly active on this front despite Schuette ostensibly opposing Proposal 1. So all we can do at this late date is tell you about another scam behind Proposal 1 and let you spike this dragon at the ballot box. Sweet revenge is $ 9 million of your opponents’ money down the drain. Vote May 5th.
(20)Nuh Uh.(0)
