Slotkin's Motives

Some folks .. even on the right had a concern with Mike Roger’s former National Security influence and connections. To…

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Now Where Did I See THAT Before?

snyder-roadOn the way to work yesterday morning, it dawned on me that I had seen a certain triangle shaped piece of road that was missing from the pavement somewhere else.

Then I recalled the Snyder/SafeRoads ‘rock giving tour.’  The travel business of the Governor handing out pieces of taxpayer owned property to media types around the state has been a boom.  {word has it he is negotiating a deal with rock tossers from around the world for our surplus road bits}

Given the recent photo ops given by the ‘progressive’ governor, Maybe we can get Rick to travel back up here to ‘patch’ our roads too?

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Today’s Mystery

Mystery Money

Today was the deadline for the last campaign finance filings with the Michigan Secretary of State before the May 5th vote on Proposal 1. SafeRoadsYes! filed five late contribution reports and a pre-special general report. Contributions supporting Proposal 1 now exceed $ 8 million and, as you might expect, the roster of SafeRoadsYes! contributors reads like a Michigan road constructors’ directory. SafeRoadsYes! expenditures now exceed $ 7.2 million, and SafeRoadsYes! still has more than $ 843,000 yet to be spent.  Of course there may be massive contributions yet to be made which would not be reported until after the election.

MGM Grand Casino and FireKeepers Casino contributed $ 50,000 each, presumably to curry favor with the Lansing power elites. BlueCross/Blue Shield and the Michigan Township Association each threw in $ 100,000 which was picked from your pockets by ObamaCare and your property taxes, respectively. Dick DeVos, after having his stooge knife Representative Gamrat for not supporting Proposal 1, got in late with a $ 50,000 contribution from his Alticor investment group.

Powering the Economy SRY Late Contribution Report 4-24-15There is one phantom entity in the SafeRoadsYes! late contribution reports which is worth investigating. An organization called ‘Powering the Economy’ gave $ 75,000 on 22 April. The problem here? ‘Powering the Economy’ doesn’t exist in either the Michigan LARA corporate database or the Secretary of State’s searchable PAC database. So who are they?

Best guess, the merry screw ups at the Detroit Regional Chamber have created a new ballot question PAC to replace their recently terminated – and heavily cited – ‘Detroit Regional Chamber PAC II‘ ballot question PAC. DRC PAC II earned eighteen citations from the SoS since 2013 for filing screw ups. DRC PAC II filed a dissolution notice on 02 April and paid the $ 875.00 dissolution fee on 07 April. ‘Powering the Economy’ has the same address as the Detroit Regional Chamber, One Woodward Avenue in Detroit – which used to be known as the MichCon or ANR Building before Dan Gilbert bought it. And DRC has trademarked ‘Powering the Economy’ as one of their signature catch phrases.

Somebody is ignoring Michigan’s campaign finance laws. Not just ignoring them, trampling them. But this has been a routine practice during the Proposal 1 proponents’ campaign. Our Attorney General is supposed to enforce these laws, but he hasn’t been exactly active on this front despite Schuette ostensibly opposing Proposal 1. So all we can do at this late date is tell you about another scam behind Proposal 1 and let you spike this dragon at the ballot box. Sweet revenge is $ 9 million of your opponents’ money down the drain. Vote May 5th.

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Whoo Whoooooot!

Found on the side of some possible MDoT leased passenger cars in Cadillac today.

Vote-no-Train

I guess they need this proposal to pass so that Rick Snyder can get his train set built from Ann Arbor to Traverse City after all!  All he needs are a few transportation ‘Ho’-Scale helpers to really push this thing over the rails and onto voters.

Waiting to be ‘tagged.’

I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..  I think I can..

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

Are you suffering from lawn envy?

Admit it. Your front lawn is bland.

It needs something to “jazz it up”  a little.

Lawn Gnomes won’t do the trick.

Neither will gazing spheres, solar powered lawn lights or tiny banners displaying the upcoming holiday.

Why not try this?

{Find out about the wonder item that everyone will be clamoring for below the fold}

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Confirmed: Eric Holder in a Skirt by the Usual RINO Suspects

Ayotte (R-NH), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Flake (R-AZ), Graham (R-SC), Hatch (R-UT), Kirk (R-IL), McConnell (R-KY) Thanks, Rand. Actually, that doesn’t tell the whole story, because if you add the additional losers to who opened Pandora’s box: Alexander (R-TN), Burr (R-NC), Capito (R-WV), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Gardner (R-CO), Johnson (R-WI), Portman (R-OH), Roberts (R-KS), Thune (R-SD), Tillis (R-NC), then you get an accurate picture of what treacherous lying bastards Republicans are in the U.S. Senate when they come back to tell their constituents ‘they voted against {insert nominee’s name here}’.

Remember Sen. Ayotte, right? Yes, me too. Isn’t the empty suit of identity politics wonderful? Remember Sen. Portman, too? Yep, me too. More empty suits.

Ted Cruz 2016

FTW

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MDOT: What’s Another $4,400,000.00? It’s not Like it’s Your Money

This is what arrogance and graft within bureaucracy looks like, folks.

The Michigan Department of Transportation is negotiating a lower lease rate for 23 passenger railcars now costing taxpayers $3,000 a day to sit idle. But the length of time the state could have to lease the cars before it can use them has doubled from two years to four years, according to a report sent to state lawmakers.

At the current lease rates, that means MDOT [taxpayers] would have to sink about another $4.4 million into lease charges before it is able to put the cars into service.

The Free Press on Feb. 1 broke the news of the idle railcars, which are intended for two proposed commuter services in southeast Michigan and so far have cost the state [taxpayers] about $12 million in refurbishment, consulting [more graft] and leasing costs since 2010.

MORE

A half decade. 5 years and the plan is – there is no plan? Despicable. To say that This Guy is an incompetent boob and complete charlatan is an insult to incompetent boobs and charlatans who are forced to somehow figure out ways to survive in the private sector.

Single Cent Snyder is a total disgrace as well is every single legislator still in office who voted for this offensive garbage, which would be forever entrenched into our state’s constitution. And, don’t forget about the embedded fraud to the tune of at least $70M more per year. Do also note that Joan “gets it” about EITC.

Remember when Two Penny Jenny was a bad idea? Ya, well, with Single Cent SnyderIt Only Gets Worse. A lot worse if figuring in this unresolved can of worms.

Second highest Sales Tax in the nation, and the ballot proposal DOES NOT guarantee monies go to roads or schools.

That is fact.
STOP-167

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MDoT Train Wreck Still Emptying Michigan Wallets

Train Wreck ImageThe failure that is Kirk Steudle and the Michigan Department of Transportation continues to demonstrate that it cannot plan nor manage taxpayer funds efficiently.

RightMi.com readers might recall that the MDoT has been spending taxpayer dollars to babysit equipment that other people own. In the last few years, it has amounted to a drop in the bucket when compared to what is a bloated state budget of 52+ billion smackers, right?  But buckets eventually fill from all the droplets as we all know, and the spigot in this case is opening more.  From the Lansing State Journal:

At the current lease rates, that means MDOT would have to sink about another $4.4 million into lease charges before it is able to put the cars into service.

That line is sufficient to point out that Steudle’s comment earlier in the year was nothing more than lip service.

“These cars are costing us money right now and we’ve got to figure out how are we going to … stop the bleeding,”

As the old joke goes .. “Whats this ‘we’ s##t Kemosabe?”

 

 

 

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