Opinion

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)

Michigan, Opinion, Proposal 15-1, Taxes

Welcome to the Party

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This is why I appreciate money, and those who appreciate using it wisely as much as I do.

The ballot proposal would increase Michigan’s 6 percent sales tax [16.7%] to 7 percent as part of a complex plan to raise [registration fees 30% and double taxes on gas and diesel] $1.2 [$1.9] billion more annually for roads [and $410 million going to the IRS]. But the plan, hatched by Snyder and lawmakers last month, also earmarks $300 million for schools, $260 million for tax credits for the working poor [illegal aliens with up to four wives] and $95 million for municipal revenue sharing.

Mitchell said it’s the “grab bag” spending on items unrelated to road repairs that Snyder and Republican legislative leaders tacked on to get Democratic votes that motivates him to spend some of his own money trying to defeat the initiative.

“In order to repair our roads, we have to pay a $700 million toll to special interests — and that just astonishes me,” Mitchell said in an exclusive interview with The Detroit News. “I think it speaks for politics as usual. Special-interest lobbyists held our roads hostage and they got a $700 million toll.”

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Sorry, but, it’s unfortunate that Mr. Livengood still sees it necessary to disinform his readers, hence, the inclusion as was pointed out here on RightMi.com

OABTW, has anyone heard U.S. Rep. Moolenaar, opine on the Republican governor’s CPA shell game? No? Go figure.

You Betcha! (19)Nuh Uh.(1)

Cronyism, Michigan, Opinion

Would you be Arrested on the Spot?

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This should be interesting to follow.

Police on Wednesday and early Thursday were looking for a man pictured on a gas station surveillance camera after a 24-year-old woman was injured about 5 p.m. Wednesday. The suspect was later identified as John Calley, a 25-year-old who spoke with Ionia County sheriff’s investigators Thursday, Jan. 29.

The woman reportedly was dragged and run over by an SUV after it pulled away from a gas station on State Road at I-96. She apparently was trying to get back into the vehicle while it was pulling away.

Police believe the woman was a passenger in the SUV when it stopped at the Pilot gas station and she got out.

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And, Ionia County with a Republican prosecutor who happens to be a past president of the legalese jihadi cabal. What else could possibly be an influence on their Sheriff’s decision to kick the can?

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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)

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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You Betcha! (25)Nuh Uh.(3)

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)

2015 MIGOP State Convention, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

The Window Dressing of Reverse Racism

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Do we really want a third term for a Vice Chair who appears to be more interested in pandering than in outreach?

Since early 2014, there have been ever-escalating smear attacks against our national committeeman, Dave Agema, that have been as predictable as the calendar, in that they’ve occurred, if my memory serves me correctly, during the runup to every national or state committee meeting last year, as well as during the weeks immediately preceding the “fall” state convention (and are now occurring concurrent to the weeks preceding the “spring” state convention four weeks from now). The pattern is also predictable, in that either Ken Braun or Dennis Lennox (occasionally Kathy Hoekstra just for the sake of variety) will get wind (via one of their trolls) of a social media post on Agema’s Facebook page, will then cherry-pick some alleged “money quote” from the source article (or an article buried up to three links deep from that source) and then report that “money quote” as though Agema originally said it . . . and never-you-mind that they can’t be bothered to accurately report what he actually said with regard to why he found something post-worthy. The next step, again ridiculously predictable, is that the three amigos will then use their press credentials to publish opinion pieces, which allegedly-more-credible reporters will then use as source material for front-page “news” stories, which the usual suspects will then use to fuel a smear campaign of manufactured outrage, which the party’s useful idiots and low-information voter bloc will dutifully echo as an ever-increasing crescendo of calls for Agema to step down “for the good of the party.”

Fully detailing this pattern and the miscreants perpetuating it – which I intend to do – is a topic for another day soon. My purpose in mentioning it here is to merely highlight the hypocrisy of selective outrage within the party leadership, specifically in regard to a certain vice chair whose own conduct has been perhaps more offensive than that of the national committeeman for whose resignation she has recently called.

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You Betcha! (28)Nuh Uh.(4)