Philosophy

2015 MIGOP State Convention, Elections, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Taxes

Loopholes

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It’s pretty damn bad when other legalese jihadi openly go after one of their own in their *profession*.

Where does every politician exploit their sworn Oath? “according to the best of his ability.”

Expediency and a decent line of Bee-esS will carry some places, however, AG Schuette can forget about a run for anything beyond local dog catcher in 2018.

Ps. sorry kid, but you’re still out in a wonk’s Left field. Obviously, age hasn’t helped the lad much.

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2015 MIGOP State Convention, Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Taxes

The Lawyer for the People

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Two things here. When it comes to political expediency, AG “has referred all questions” Schuette, it becomes apparent that he’s in a Party money bundler‘s and the Nerd’s pocket. That’s right, “sit .. Stay .. now roll over .. good boy.”

The other is if it’s one who is in the big spending Democratic Party calling for tax hikes and bogus *transportation* funding, AG Schuette will fake having a pair in the name of rah-rah go Team R nonsense. However, if it’s AG Schuette’s teammates who call for a $2,000,000,000 constitutional amendment tax hike and bogus *transportation* funding? Nope. Not so much as a peep. I know, old story. Constitution schmonstitution. It’s all just doubleplusgood speak.

“I will not tolerate companies that seek to take advantage of Michigan citizens and get rich on the backs of hard-working entrepreneurs through trickery and deception,” Schuette said in a statement.

How about Snyder’s government ran like a business? Trickery and deception? Does the busiest travel time of the year mean anything? Seriously, our AG needs to stop boring us with his ignoring taxpayer funded appointed bureaucrat propaganda crap and do his damn job. Oh, that’s right, Snyder appointed Etue to sit with the MDOT toad where they all rub elbows together with our AG.

Never mind.

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

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

R Gang: 16.7% Sales Tax Hike for *roads* is a “Grand” Bargain

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How will that Sales Tax Hike work? Here’s more Snyder/Calley & Jones Day “Grand” bargain at work.

Snyder_OrrCosts for water service would rise an average of 9.3 percent this year in Metro Detroit under rates proposed Wednesday by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

The department’s board discussed preliminary water rates for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which would rise 3.4 percent for Detroit customers and 11.3 percent for suburban users, on average.

Suburban customers’ water bills could be even higher, [snip]

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Remember what WXYZ warned? Pay up, suckers.

Not to say I told ya so, but… I told ya so.

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

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, 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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Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

Rotten Fish in Michigan

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DNR Fee Increase Backfires

Politicians of all stripes are rooting around for fresh money to fulfill past, present, and future promises lately, figuring that the economy is so hot that their depredations will go unnoticed and have no consequences. Let’s take a look at a Michigan example: the increase in license fees for hunting and fishing which the Legislature authorized in 2013 and which took effect in 2014.

The most popular hunting and fishing license prices doubled under the new fee schedule, although a direct comparison is not possible because the licenses were restructured to ‘simplify’ the license schedule. Governor Snyder’s goal for these increases was to raise an additional $ 18.1 million dollars annually for the DNR. The Senate Fiscal Agency benchmarked the anticipated annual increase at $ 19.7 million.

These are fees, paid voluntarily, so why should we care? Only taxes matter? The State of Michigan has been reducing the amount of money appropriated to the DNR from tax revenues since 2000, a reduction that now amounts to about 70%. So fees are now required to replace taxes. A common story across the United States. Fees play better with voters than taxes.

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