by Rob Smith In an August 28, 2012 video interview, Michigan’s Republican governor told WaPo interviewer Nia-Malika Henderson that he and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney “have a lot of similarities.” Snyder urged Romney to “get a positive message out there.” Several times during the interview, Snyder talked about “job creation” and “a future for our [...]
by Rob Smith Michigan Rising (formerly the Committee to Recall Rick Snyder) tried twice to collect enough signatures to put the question of whether to recall Governor Rick Snyder on the ballot. Twice the group failed. Such signature drives are monster efforts, as we saw in Wisconsin, and rarely successful—again, as we saw in Wisconsin [...]
by P.D. Lesko It’s hot, and Representative John D. Dingell, Jr. is cranky. In a July 2012 interview in the Dearborn Patch, Dingell, who’s running for re-election to the seat in Michigan’s newly drawn 12th Congressional District, set off a firestorm when he was quoted as saying: “I never thought ignorance or inexperience was a [...]
by Rob Smith “I don’t get no respect,” was the signature line of comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The 2012 Michigan Sierra Club political endorsements are out, and in Michigan the Dean of the House, Representative John Dingell, just don’t get no respect from the Sierra Club. Don’t get me wrong. Mr. Dingell doesn’t deserve an endorsement [...]
by P.D. Lesko Who doesn’t want to get a mention in Rolling Stone magazine? You, Adam Levine, Lady Gaga and Nicki effing Minaj rubbing elbows in print. What could be cooler than that? Michigan made the pages of Rolling Stone in a June 27, 2012 piece that reports on the state’s recently passed “voter fraud” [...]
by P.D. Lesko It’s no surprise Republican Rob Steele couldn’t unseat Representative John Dingell in 2010. However, Steele’s run, which campaign emails intimated would be financed with the doctor’s own “fortune,” rattled Team Dingell. Former President Bill Clinton came to Michigan and stumped for the Dean of the House prior to the November election. It’s [...]
by Amy Kerr Hardin When you next tune into your favorite National Public Radio broadcast, say… maybe it’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, you might expect to hear a story like the one aired in 2010 about the billionaire Koch brothers and their ongoing egregious attempts to wholesale purchase our political system. NPR ran this segment [...]
by Amy Kerr Hardin A big show is going on in the Michigan Legislature — with all the pomp and circumstance of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show — our elected leaders are being trotted about on the leash in a celebration of their utter stupidity. Mind you, just like their canine counterparts, there are various breeds of stupid politicians, each with unique characteristics and [...]
by Rob Smith Federal funding for rail. Federal funding for roads. Federal funding for green energy. Between 2009 and 2011, the state of Michigan has been the recipient of over $17 billion dollars in federal stimulus money also known as “recovery” money. In Wayne County, local K-12 school and governments received over $2.4 billion dollars [...]
by P.D. Lesko Brenda Lawrence (left) grew up on the northeast side of Detroit and was raised by her grandparents; her mother died when she was three-years-old. She graduated from Detroit’s Pershing High School, and earned her bachelor’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University. In 1997, she was elected to the Southfield City Council and in 1999 she [...]
