Michigan

Conservative News, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

Mackinac Center’s ‘VoteSpotter’ Application for Smartphones

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A Useful Political Intelligence Tool for Political Junkies

VoteSpotter JPG Image
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has created a free, interactive smartphone app which tracks state and federal bills pending floor action and your legislators’ votes.on those bills. This useful app is called VoteSpotter and has has been debugged to the point where it works well. There are only about 1,000 Android users of this app presently, but it is growing in popularity. It is available from both the Google PlayStore and the Apple IOS App Store.

You enter your voting address and the program determines your state and federal representatives from its database. Then you receive regular notifications of impending legislation soon to be voted upon by those legislators, described in plain English. You can then contact your legislator on any legislation for which you receive a notification, indicate your preference before the vote, and then concur or disagree with your legislator after the vote. Legislators have access to the ‘polls’, but not your individual information unless you elect to send them an email through the program.

Mackinac Center is now in the process of extending this application beyond the State of Michigan.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Michigan, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Day by Day the Irony Grows Thicker

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Prop 1 Unpopularity to Voters was Unprecedented
‘We can elect Democrats and get that result’

Go read for yourself.

kermit

All I’m going to say about Snyder’s SRY Team is, does it take a $100k contribution to sit at the table?

Now, we return you to regularly scheduled blame the other Party programming…

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

Reconciliation To End Obamacare

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Dear Congressmen, you have not done everything in your power yet. The End.

Lying liars.

Frankly that is the first description I have for the Republican Congress critters who have assumed their positions of power in the last few years.  Especially given that there have been several ways to stop Obamacare in its tracks; up to, and including impeachment for executive authority run amuck.

Heritage makes a point that there is STILL a way to effectively repeal the ACA, aka: Obamacare.  It is called reconciliation, and it merely requires a majority vote in the Senate.

Dan Benishek – Put Up Or STFU.  I name you specifically, because you are my congress critter. You are also arguably the most ignorant in Michigan of the power that congress wields.  Get this message across to the senate Republicans or get lost.  If you leave office and have not even tried to own up to the multiple promises you have made with regard to appeal of the ACA, then you are as much of a worthless liar and cheat as the president.

H/T Abigail

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Plan B – A Philosophy

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Spending Money Is Not Leadership

Kwame's and Bobbie's 'Bridge of Bucks' over Telegraph Road

Kwame’s and Bobbie’s ‘Bridge of Bucks’ over Telegraph Road

Now that Michigan voters have mercilessly dispatched Proposal 1 to the garbage can of history, lets talk a bit about the philosophy of a truly effective plan to get Michigan’s roads and bridges up to par. This will provide a proper foundation for developing a ‘Plan B’ which will actually improve Michigan’s roads and bridges, and be acceptable to the population as well.

The underlying premise of Proposal 1 was that the only action required to fix up Michigan’s roads and bridges was injecting big money into the Michigan Transportation Fund. The depraved philosophy of modern American government. Not true and the voters knew it. But Michigan’s power elite believed that opposition could be neutralized by icing a pile of feces with chocolate frosting. Didn’t work despite a lavish $ 10 million effort.

The condition of Michigan’s roads and bridges has only a casual relationship with the funds available in the MTF. In 2014, 11% of MTF funds were siphoned off by various State of Michigan Departments in the form of charge backs for ‘services’ rendered to the MTF, as well as priority grants that have little to do with roads and bridges. Debt service is also a component of this 11%, but that is effectively a payment for previous time preferences of bureaucrats and politicians. Then 9.5% of the remainder was diverted to the Comprehensive Transportation Fund for mass transit. Finally, the MTF was partitioned amongst the State Trunkline Fund (36%), county road agencies (34.6%), and cities (19.8%). In each partition, further funds are siphoned off by charge backs, pension payments, and OPEBs. What’s left for the roads is more a function of politicians and bureaucrats preferences at every level than the amount of money front loaded into the MTF.

So how do we proceed? First develop a philosophy to frame and inform the ‘Plan B’ debate.  After the fold.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics

Who let the Dogs out???

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Woof!…woof…woof, woof!!!

 

Today on Patriot Voice Radio, “Your Defending Fathers” got a bit carried away with the ‘thrill’ of victory…Trucker Randy evidently told the folks in northern Michigan about plans being laid to recall State Senator Wayne Schmidt…This is not new, as of the August primary campaign many of us paying attention to it were absolutely disgusted with then Representative (104) Schmidt’s campaign practices, and his insistence in his ads that he was a true conservative with conservative values…We know this is a blatant, arrogant lie…The only fly in our ointment is the timing, as we were on schedule to launch the recall organizational effort in August, to be totally prepared for an all out effort to get the recall on a statewide ballot by May of 2016…

 

After today’s radio program, my phone never stopped ringing, three calls from around the State from people who heard the broadcast, three conversations with Mr. Bishop, and then a blind call from a reporter at MIRS to confirm the effort…busy day…As this is now in the public forum, and supposedly in the news statewide, I feel obligated to confirm the facts of the matter and dispel any rumors to the contrary…We will be mounting an effort to remove State Senator Wayne Schmidt from office…The abysmal failure of Prop 1 yesterday shows support for conservative, common sense government in Michigan on a scale we could only imagine…The architect of this fiasco…one Senator Schmidt…

 

His record as Chair of the House Transportation Committee will be documented in following articles, where they may be checked for accuracy and authenticity…His sponsorship and support of Prop 1 will be duly noted as well, and his penchant for expanding government at ever increasing taxpayer expense will be exposed for anyone who cares to follow the course of this effort…Every phase of the recall procedure will be published, and released to the media…We may fail in the effort, but the mere attempt should put Wayne (as I like to call him) and all other legislators on notice…We will no longer stand by and watch as our government destroys the people they are Oath bound to serve…We’re NOT going away…

The Wayne Schmidt recall effort has now formally begun, May 6th, 2015…

Tom Backers

Committee to recall Wayne Schmidt (Not yet organized)

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Michigan, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Taxes

Pssst! Hey Lansing?

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Yes, I said Lansing, because, well, it took complete Republican control 4 years, 5 months, 5 days and $10 Million of our dollars to do absolutely nothing about our roads.

I’ll also remind readers that both the current Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House, voted for and promoted Proposal 1 – Not One County Approved – by a devastating margin. That means for those elected ‘public servants’ in Lansing… with a rusty chainsaw.

Now, you boys and girls playing politician want to keep screwing around gouging us while shirking basic duties?

What’s most offensive is that voters were put in this position at all.

Road repair is a basic part of any state budget, one that the other states — 46 of them with part-time legislatures — are able to manage. There’s no excuse for underfunding our roads.

Our state budget increased $4.7 billion, nearly 10%, from fiscal years 2012 to 2015. New money was there: It just wasn’t spent on roads.

We’ll all be in Lansing if you keep it up. Sorry, former Rep. McMillin, but simply throwing more money at MDOT is not the complete solution and inspires others to consider that the path of least resistance answer.

No more tax hikes – No more excuses.

Snyder_54B_ballonKirk Steudle? Fire or prosecute… preferably both. Really, a missing bridge?

Rep. Pettalia, and Sen. Casperson, you’re both a disgrace. So is Schuette’s Public Integrity Unit.

The Nerd’s Ann Arbor SPARK clique days of maxing-out contracts are breathing its WALLY scheme death rattle. Complete Streets? Repeal that wasteful garbage. Neuter the MDOT bureaucracy. Streetscaping? NO. Michigan is underwater $7,500+ per head, and has yet another money vacuum waiting, which was aided by ineffectual state control.

Fix the goddam roads. Full stop.

Ps. we’ll see you Nerd bootlickers soon on your bullshit costly energy package…

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