Elections

2015 MIGOP State Convention, Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Opinion, Proposal 15-1, Taxes

MDOT: Does Governor Snyder Have a Cousin in Railroads too!?!?

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MDOT is a gift that keeps on giving fodder against a 16.7% sales tax hike scheme.

The State of Michigan is paying $1.1 million a year to lease 23 passenger rail cars it can’t use — and likely won’t use for at least another two years — as the taxpayer tab for the troubled project approaches $12 million and counting.

The 1950s and ’60s-era double-decker cars are sitting in a rail yard in Owosso, where they are expected to remain for the indefinite future.

The Michigan Department of Transportation started leasing the cars in 2010 for two commuter rail passenger services proposed between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and Howell and Ann Arbor.
….

Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, said he doesn’t want to say much until he has more information on the contract. The deal was signed during the administration of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, but amended four times during the administration of Snyder, a Republican — each time to increase the contract’s maximum cost.

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Interesting, yes? Speaks volumes how the players on Team R continue to dare not speak out of turn about their beloved Party leader, yes?

What’s even more interesting is the owner, Louis P. Ferris, Jr., who has been networking with the Peoples Republic of Ann Arbor’s Socialist former mayor for the past decade.

P3 projects. Public funds. Private profit. Partnership to extort our money by force of government bureaucrats.

No? But of course, Mr. Transparent.

You Betcha! (21)Nuh Uh.(0)

2015 MIGOP State Convention, Elections, Michigan, Opinion

I’m a Patriot, He’s a Patriot, She’s a Patriot, We’re a Patriot, Wouldn’t you like to be a Patriot, too?

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There you have it, folks. This is exactly how out of touch the GOP *mainstream* is when you witness a third generation family of government leeches (don’t forget Prescott) is using Mandate Mitt‘s name in the same sentence with the word “patriot”. Common Core, and Amnesty.

“Swallow hard“, says trithorn hat uncle Mitt.

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

Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Proposal 15-1

Presumptive Bureaucracy And Wagon Pi.

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Why would our public servants feel compelled to offer opinion on a matter that is not yet before them?

There are 9.9 million people living in Michigan.

Of that number 77% are of voting age, and most are legally able to cast a ballot. And of those who can and do cast their preferences, most have no clue of their responsibilities beyond placing their mark, and walking out from the curtain a couple of days a year.

Indeed, the roughly 7 million registered voters of Michigan will in their lifetime: Miss votes, Make uninformed Votes, Will unknowingly vote in opposition to their interest, and never truly hold their elected officials accountable to promises and integrity of office. They will not complain when lied to, or even call out their own party’s elected when the situation demands it.

But this one will.

Why on earth would we have platforms, rules, and constantly repeated promises of action when at most we might get lip service and disappointment? Why would we have laws to protect the public from abuses of government, when the slight of legalese is used to exempt the perpetrators from culpability?

And why will so few actually speak up against it? Perhaps it should come as no surprise that those few might not want to be told they are wrong, and won’t try in the first place.

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2015 MIGOP State Convention, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

A Time For Choosing

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There is only ONE Logical choice for Chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

There is no question that it is time for a change in the Republican Party.

We won’t sugar coat it.  Bobby Schostak and the ‘elite’ within the party have produced only a fractured base over the last several years.  Each time the grassroots begins to feel a part of the process, it is told to wait its turn, be pragmatic, and swallow hard with the neo-progressive efforts at reaching out to the socially and fiscally broken ideologues which normally associate with left of center political organizations.  This is unacceptable.

The cronyism and political patronage that has shown itself repeatedly hardly allows any self respecting conservative Republican to make the claim that there is integrity within the party.  The failure of party leadership to step up and offer guidance to an administration and legislature that has done more to advance liberal planks than the last (Democrat) administration is outrageous.

But it is not the party platform that is wrong, the party leadership has been.  And now we are expected to look at the coronation of handpicked succession, and expect anything different?

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2015 MIGOP State Convention, Elections, Michigan, Opinion

Wait for the Shake

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Frankly, nothing should be surprising anymore when it pertains to the professional merchants of archaic legalese footnotes as, TJ warned us long ago, “boni judicis est ampliare juris-dictionem.” Nevertheless, sunlight is the best disinfectant…

There you have it, folks. Our elected (legislature) in Lansing, created statute for our Top Cop to explicitly say, “Wait for the shake”.

You Betcha! (14)Nuh Uh.(1)

Conservative News, Cronyism, Elections, Rent Seeking, Republicans

MEDEFCO Meeting Reminder: former US Rep Kerry Bentivolio – A View from the Inside

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Tonight MEDEFCO will be hosting former US Rep. Kerry Bentivolio at their monthly meeting in the Bruce Post VFW Hall located on 28404 Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores.

You may remember him as the deciding vote for Pres. B.O.’s CROmnibus bill, that Speaker Boehner jammed through before the Winter Break.

The meeting starts at 7:00.

 

 

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Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Taxes

AgitProp in the 21st Century

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Mercenary Research in the Service of Greed

News stories on the Michigan road tax proposal are replete with compelling, eye popping factoids about the costs poor roads impose on Michigan drivers. These factoids are so compelling that our colorless Governor cites them to sway voters in the upcoming sales tax proposal debate. Some examples:

  • An inadequate transportation system costs Michigan residents a total of $7.7 billion every year
  • Driving on rough roads costs Michigan motorists a total of $2.3 billion annually in extra vehicle operating costs
  • Driving on rough roads costs the average Detroit urban area motorist $536 annually in extra vehicle operating costs
  • Driving on rough roads costs the average Michigan motorist $357 annually in extra vehicle operating costs

You are expected to conclude that a 16.67% sales tax increase is a just trifle to escape these ghastly financial burdens. These factoids are always attributed to “TRIP, a national nonprofit transportation research organization”. Sounds like an independent, credible source – right? The adjectives ‘nonprofit’ and ‘research’ give you a high level of confidence in their pronouncements? Perhaps you should dig a little deeper than our conniving politicians and their lazy media scribes.  The TRIP report they are mining for these factoids is: MI_Transportation_By_The_Numbers_TRIP_Report_Jan_2014

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