Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

Firearms, Michigan Politics

Transparency? Nahh, we don’t need that.

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Yes, it’s long, but I highly recommend watching the whole thing (well, you can probably skip the part that the 10A guy starts talking, he was missing the mark all over the place).

Yesterday (1 October 14), the House Criminal Justice Committee finally heard testimony on Rep. Tom McMillin’s HB4914 (introduced back in July 2013). This legislation would require that law enforcement agencies report every six months on the usage of their SWAT teams.

From the language of the bill:

Sec. 3. Beginning October 1, 2013, and every 6 months after

that date, any law enforcement agency that maintains a SWAT team

shall report all of the following information to the office of the

attorney general using the format developed under section 4:

(a) The number of times the SWAT team was activated and

deployed by the law enforcement agency in the previous 6 months.

(b) Without identifying an exact address, the approximate

location within or outside of the jurisdiction of the law

enforcement agency to which the SWAT team was deployed, including

the name of the county and the city, village, or township, and the

zip code.

(c) The reason for each activation and deployment of the SWAT

team.

(d) The legal authority, including type of warrant, if any,

for each activation and deployment of the SWAT team.

(e) The result of each activation and deployment of the SWAT

team, including all of the following:

(i) The number of arrests made, if any.

(ii) The type of evidence seized, and whether property was

seized.

(iii) Whether a forcible entry was made.

(iv) Whether a weapon was discharged by a SWAT team member.

(v) Whether a person or domestic animal was injured or killed

by a SWAT team member.

But we don’t need reporting for these sorts of things though, right? I mean, bad raids never happen in Michigan!

Well, apparently the Republicans on the committee think otherwise. For example, Rep. Joseph Graves finds it worrisome that the officers would have to go back and justify their actions (7:20 in the clip). Heaven forbid a SWAT deployment be justified, or even just tracked! Further he goes on to say that filing a report of the incident doesn’t take it away (8:58). Really? I didn’t think about that.

However, that’s just one of the many gems coming out of Team-R in this hearing. The amount of stupid coming from them just boggles the mind.

Yup, just shows Team-R is all for transparency!

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Michigan Politics

Heretic-The conservative case for voting “democrat”.

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Will conservative Republicans continue to fall for the football pulled out routine of the past?

thCross posted from Muskegon Pundit

(Note-This discussion does not include the Presidency or national candidates. Because of unique Presidential powers, “best of the worst” is our only option)

In August of this year, the MSM reported the death of longtime democrat Senator Jim Jeffords. Coincidentally, his death was one week before the Florida primary election which elected Charlie Crist as the democrat nominee for governor.

It occurred to me that, not long ago, both men were respected republicans. A review of their political activities shows they were not just turncoats. They were hardly even moderates. They were liberals hiding under the cloak of the republican party.

And it worked…for them.

How’d that work out for us republicans?

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Michigan Politics

Weekend Reader

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logo-sphereBill Johnson – Chasing Redevelopment Rainbows Without a change in the way Detroit leadership thinks, ‘promise zone’ funding is throwing resources away.

AFP Michigan – ‘Frugal Ads’ Factually questionable.

RTLMI Blog – Filthy Abortionist Actually I thought My title was better.

Spellchek – Islamist Terrorism Strikes The Heartland of America  Two things: Radical Islam = BAD, Armed folks = GOOD.

FedUp USA – Classical Capitalism turned Crony Capitalism Given our state has more than its share of cronyists., well..

Watchdog Wire – Talk Like a Pirate Day? – Part Time legislature anyone?

The Shekel – Post Office Does It Again – And we wonder why they are perpetually in the red? (no really we don’t)

You Betcha! (5)Nuh Uh.(1)

Michigan Politics

Sacking Tea

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Is the handwriting on the wall for the tea party movement in Michigan?

The saying “the handwriting is on the wall” has as its source an incident in 539 BC, recorded for posterity in Daniel 5, in which King Belshazzar of Babylon is plainly told that he has been weighed in the divine balance and found wanting, that the days of both his kingdom and his life have been numbered and brought to an end, and that his empire will be divided between the Medes and Persians then advancing on the city. The concept survives in modern English idiomology to imply that circumstances are such for a person or organization that it is now clear that their ultimate failure is to be expected, or at best will be effectively impossible to avert.

Given the thorough pasting that the constitutionalist insurgency endured in Michigan last month, as a statewide aggregate, it wasn’t exactly a leap for reporters and pundits (likely working from a coordinated set of talking points courtesy of the Michigan Republican Party old guard) to insert dramatic prophecies of impending doom for the tea party movement into their headlines and opinion pieces. David’s missive and Jason’s observation notwithstanding, I don’t think it unreasonable to ask the question: Given the significant events of last August, let alone the past 5-1/2 years, is the tea party movement on the verge of becoming just another footnote in Michigan political history?

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All the Other Stuff, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Yer ‘Back Door’ Is Open

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Michigan's Speaker attempts to hang on to his working capital by working around the fringe.

james-bolger-322370dbb048d092Presumably making it acceptable for Jase Bolger to accept the $100,000.00 from Pro-Homosexual millionaires, he offers butter for the burn.

Pretending that he opposes the changes in the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act proposed by Dems, he offers a fig leaf. From M-Live:

“Bolger is exploring the possibility of pairing an Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act amendment with a Michigan version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which aims to limit laws that would substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.

“I believe our society’s got to get this right, and we’ve got to get this right more than we’ve got to get it now,” Bolger, R-Marshall, told MLive. “That right, for me, is one that respects and protects individual freedom and religious liberty. It’s just so much easier to say than to do.”

Right. Individual freedom.

Though there has never been a case that any of us can recall where a person was told; “No you cannot go schtoop your friend because you are the same gender,”  its critical that we protect that freedom.  Even though most of us are perfectly willing close our eyes, and let the deviancy play itself out with the shortened life spans, and emotional destruction that envelops such behavior.

If a ‘Religious exemption’ is all it takes, then everyone who has conscience could claim it as a reason if sued by a queer who are butt-hurt over losing the apartment, job, service, smile, etc., that they want.  Right?  Certainly that clears things up to take the pressure off.

Until we realize they still have a platform from which to launch a lawsuit.  Bolger is playing the same dangerous game that the Vichy GOP has been playing for years, resulting in a corrupted party, with heavy internal fighting.

Dumb move.

 

You Betcha! (9)Nuh Uh.(1)

Michigan Politics

Gosh! They Ask

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OK Teach. This is what your dues pay for.

Why is the MEA losing members hand over fist?

Could it be because even sans a single debate between Gary Peters and Terri Lynn Land, they pick Peters; the Democrat?  And without a hug fest tournament with Rick Snyder and Mark Schauer, they choose to embrace The Democrat over the fake Republican.  And lacking a single face to face political death match between Democrat Phil Belfy and ..um liberal, Wayne Schmidt, the choice is Democrat.  Even Jerry Cannon, a Democrat, gets the love while Republican Dan Benishek is strangely absent from the MEA ‘preferred’ collection below.

MEA-Dems

The Traverse City MEA office adorned with signs of a singular political plank

Naw..  The appearance of the MEA office as a branch office of the local Democrat party is purely coincidental.

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

Cronyism, Elections, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

They Just Don’t Learn

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Why does the Michigan Republican Party leadership insist on doubling down on stupid?

Unless you sit on the MIGOP Policy Committee, the only clue most of us had that this was happening was a four-sentence news brief at WKZO (590 AM, Kalamazoo) – reported nowhere else according to Frontloading HQ – published a week ago on Monday night:

March 15th, 2016 appears to be the likely date of the Michigan Republican presidential primary in the next election. The Michigan Republican Party’s Policy Committee approved the date, which is the earliest a primary can be held without losing delegates to the Republican National Convention.

If a candidate wins over 50-percent of the statewide vote, he or she will be awarded all of Michigan’s delegates. If the winner has less than that threshold, the delegates will be split up based on the vote.

Which, initially, left me a bit at a loss for words. Apparently, someone was praying that this wasn’t going to get noticed. Of course, that raised the question of “why” . . . and a cursory review of the details provides us with a quite predictable answer.

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Michigan Politics

Michigan Open Carry to initiate lawsuit against K-12 school district

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Michigan Open Carry is going on the offense!

In a closed session, the Board of Directors for Michigan Open Carry has voted to partner with a plaintiff who was threatened with trespass for open carry of a holstered pistol at a public school. Details are going to be sparse for now given that the suit will be filed in two months (a strategic decision by the BoD).

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