Elections

I can’t wait until the rest comes due!

Gov. Snyder, Sen. Meekhof and Sperker Cotter demonstrating their best use for Michigan Taxpayer dollars.

With that conveniently (and consistently) “overlooked” $3.5-billion in debt, the Mi(a)GOP just handed the Michigan House to the democrats in the fall.

Screwed Image 1

Here’s a not-so-subtle hint.

 

More to follow…

 

You Betcha! (5)Nuh Uh.(2)

Absentee Voter Ballot Applications Available Now

You Can File One Form For Both The State House Primary and the Presidential/General Elections

Michigan Capitol ImageThe standard form required to request an absentee ballot in the upcoming August 2nd Michigan primary and November 8th general elections is now available online as a .pdf file here. The large print version of the application for the visually impaired as a .pdf is here. Completing and filing this application also gets you the ballot(s) for any local candidates and/or issues also voted on in August and November.

Absent Voter Ballot Application Header
Just download this application form, fill it out, and mail it to your clerk.

You Betcha! (4)Nuh Uh.(0)

The Winner of “Survivor: Cuyahoga” is . . .

Donald Trump isn’t the republican nominee, and Ted Cruz hasn’t been mathematically eliminated . . . yet.

At roughly noon on May 4th, after running fourth in a three-man race for seven consecutive weeks, John Kasich finally suspended his presidential nomination campaign (raising the obvious question of, “What the hell took so long?”), leaving Donald Trump as the “sole survivor” of what was originally an eighteen-candidate republican field. And, go figure, before Cinco de Mayo was in the books, various talking heads and keyboard pundits were acknowledging, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that The Donald was now the presumptive republican nominee. However, to channel L. P. Berra, this campaign ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and despite a certain well-circulated AP report, a certain critical milestone hasn’t yet been tallied into Trump’s column, and so June 7th is still going to matter . . . very much.

You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(5)

Democratic Socialism Comes to Southeast Michigan

RTA Funding Could Buy All Their New Riders New Cars, And Pay For Their Fuel and Insurance To Boot!

RTA Transit Map aThe new Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan is out today with their transportation master plan to soak taxpayers in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties for another $ 3.3 billion in property taxes over a 20 year period.Michael Ford Smiling RTA CEO Michael Ford released the regional mass transit plan RTA will submit to voters on November 8th under PA 387 of 2012. A 1.2 mill property tax increase and $ 1.7 billion in new Federal & State subsidies will provide four new bus rapid transit lines, 11 cross county connector lines, one regional rail line, and some extended/intensified local service.

Let’s have some fun by subjecting the new RTA regional mass transit plan to some real, pre Common Core, mathematics.

You Betcha! (16)Nuh Uh.(0)

Carpetbagging Confidence

Once again, Democrat aristocracy tries to buy a Northern Michigan political seat.

It is clear that the first lady gent of Obama-for-America fundraiser Julianna Smoot is sure of his impending primary success.

The race between Lon Johnson-Smoot, and (a guy who actually lives in the district) Jerry Cannon might have been a bit more balanced, but for a December car accident that temporarily put into question the retired General’s ability to campaign.  Any recent uptick in Cannon’s perceived chances are apparently not preventing Lon Johnson-Obama-Smoot from tying up the airwaves just before the general election in late October.

The guy who has a cabin-in-the-woods-for-residency has purchased several thousand in TV ads in Marquette already as reported to the FCC.  Cash money already spent

The list below shows recent purchases made

You Betcha! (13)Nuh Uh.(0)

Save The Children!

Are Bailouts The Right Answer for DPS?

school-926213(Reposted from JasonGillman.Com)

The Michigan House just voted to give the Detroit Public Schools a $500 million bailout and the State Senate wants to give $800 million.

104th State Representative and incumbent Larry Inman explains it away as a necessary evil. He suggested on the Ron Jolly radio program Wednesday morning, that lawyers warned house leadership that if they didn’t do something, the courts would take over, and it could be far worse. He referenced the Michigan constitution, and its requirement on the legislature to provide funding for the schools.

My guess is that he did not ask the question of the attorneys advising the house “what might happen if every school district subjected the taxpayers to the same challenge?”

YES, the state is supposed to provide an education. The legislature is supposed to “maintain and support a system of elementary and secondary schools.. ” In fact, From the state constitution:

You Betcha! (15)Nuh Uh.(0)

Because giving them even more money has always solved Detroit’s problems.

Hold onto your wallets because the fun is set to begin again tomorrow.

Last week the Michigan House, in response to the temper tantrum thrown by the Detroit Federation of Teachers (which to be fair, was in response to the gross ineptitude of one Judge Steven Rhodes), passed yet another in a long line of “life preservers” to the failed Detroit Public School district.

Despite having been “locked out” by administration (seriously, that is what the DFT was using as a speaking point on every local talking head show last weekend), things went back to normal by Wednesday.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of how calling in sick en masse is somehow the equivalent of being “locked out” from your place of employment…but I digress.

Unlike the bailout proposed by the Michigan Senate, the House package is about $200-million lighter than the Senate’s, and is choked so full of poison-pill provisions that it is guaranteed to cause even more problems.

 

Bus roll over

“Not to worry! With a little elbow grease and some friendly verbal persuasion, we’ll have you upright and humming along the road in no time,” our relentlessly positive Gov Snyder allegedly remarked about the latest DPS bailout.

{More below the fold}

You Betcha! (10)Nuh Uh.(0)

So Its Trump

Donald Trump has passed through the gauntlet and is the Republican nominee

trump article openerIts been a personal quest to stay out of the presidential contest debate to whatever extent possible.

Now the nominee is clear. Though not surprising today, it was not the person most folks would have predicted in July of 2015.  In fact it was likely that even Donald Trump thought he could roll for a while, be outrageous, and then get back to business as usual.

The more he stretched credibility however, the more he appealed to those looking for the ‘not normal’ in politics.  Many, whom we might describe as angry and disaffected with politics-as-usual, found his antics refreshing and (in some strange way) appealing. They see in him a willingness to confound convention and ‘normalcy’ in the body politic; “normalcy,” being a condition which has proven inadequate for our nation, and has created a slow road to some bizarre and unrecognizable dystopian squalor.

At the same time, those who created this environment through passive aggressive politics and (even worse) outright compromise of principle, have been freaking out.  The #NeverTrump brigade was born and now faces a conundrum with an impending Hillary presidency.  ‘Moderates’ who give in to the liberal agenda frequently, screamed “He’s not a conservative!”

As-if conservatism was ever really important to them.

You Betcha! (20)Nuh Uh.(1)

Irony

i·ro·ny (ī′rə-nē, ī′ər-) Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.

Lansing City Hall & Court ComplexMichigan House Speaker Cotter just lost a round in the Courser/Gamrat felony criminal case preliminaries. Ingham County District Court 54-A Judge Hugh B. Clarke Jr. ruled Friday it would be “patently unfair” for Gamrat’s and Courser’s attorneys to not have an opportunity to question Cotter in their defense:Judge Hugh Clarke, Jr.

“Without answers to these questions, the Court cannot adequately balance the rights of the Defendants against the right of the Speaker to be free from being compelled to testify,” the order states.

“To make this decision, the Court believes an in camera hearing with counsel for the Defendants, Speaker Cotter and his attorney is warranted. This procedure would allow the court to properly balance the interests of the Defendants against the privilege sought to be accorded Speaker Cotter.”

Speaker Cotter has been claiming immunity under Public Act 27 of 1984 in Judge Clarke’s courtroom:

“AN ACT to provide immunity from civil action to members of the legislature of this state for acts done pursuant to duty as legislators; to prohibit members of the legislature of this state from being made parties to contested cases or other administrative proceedings for acts done pursuant to duty as legislators; and to provide for certain exemptions from subpoenas.”

Specifically Speaker Cotter is claiming immunity from a subpoena ad testificandum under the third section of PA 27 of 1984

MCL 4.553
Subpoena as to statements made by legislator
Sec. 3.
A member of the legislature shall not be subject to a subpoena for any matter involving statements made by the legislator pursuant to his or her duty as a legislator.

The issue here will be that the legal action against Courser and Gamrat in Ingham County District Court 54-A is a criminal action, specifically a felony action, not a civil action. Speaker Cotter is claiming immunity under a statute which pertains to civil actions, not criminal actions.  Michigan’s legislators have no constitutional or statutory relief from subpoenae in felony matters.

You Betcha! (10)Nuh Uh.(0)