Tag: Epic FAIL

Yessirree.  Article V, Section 18 is merely PLPD coverage on the family car.  Out of pocket repair bills is exactly the exposure that every Michigan family faces with handing the keys to their little darlings behind the Lansing wheel.  What's that?  A smart family should know to also carry collision, or, Full Coverage if entrusting others with risks to the family vehicle?  Well, with just checking the old inbox, that is the message that the good folks over at the Michigan Capitol Confidential are driving home on Prop 5.

The idea behind a Tax Limitation Amendment is to make it more difficult for the political class to pilfer the pockets of taxpayers. Research -- most notably by scholar Mancur Olson -- has shown time and again that in democratic nations the wishes of an electorate are often ignored by narrow special interests that seek costly "favors" from the government. Politicians all too frequently accommodate those favors (be they subsidies or tariffs or spending hikes or other items) in part because their contributors and powerful constituents support them. Increasing taxes also is often a path of least resistance.

Constitutional restrictions are an effective way to handcuff politicians and stymie the special interests who lobby them for more money. Academic research on balance seems to show that such restrictions do check the growth of government and tax burdens, too.

Amen!  So, the natural question must be asked, why is it that the biggest opponent of Prop 5, Rick Snyder, a CEO, and CPA mind you, is behaving like a teenager who incessantly tells dumb 'ol mom and dad who are liable for his actions that he can text and drive?

via The Detroit News

The Michigan Republican Party on Tuesday pulled a cable TV ad that bashes Detroit while touting Oakland County's GOP.

County Executive L. Brooks Patterson saw the 34-second ad and asked state GOP Chairman Bobby Schostak on Tuesday to pull it, saying it was unnecessarily negative.

Patterson, who is undergoing rehabilitation for injuries suffered in a car crash, received a resounding no, spokesman Bill Mullan said.

"I've always run political campaigns built on positive messages. My campaign has asked the independent entity that produced this ad to take it down, but they've refused," Patterson said in a statement on Tuesday. "Detroit has its challenges. But my administration has always tried to be part of the solution."

More with video of pulled commercial

And, folks still try to tell me that there is a Two Party system.  Again .. Shut up, Brooks.  Your 73-year-old duplicitous tongue needs to head out to pasture, and tell tales of how you remember your legend to your grandchildren.  Everything has a built in obsolescence, Brooks - you, like this dangerous fossil, have finally met yours.

Huawei, a global Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer already doing limited business in the U.S., poses a threat to national and corporate security say members of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Those congressmen speak to Steve Kroft for a 60 Minutes investigation to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. PT.

The world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment has been under investigation for the past year by the committee, which will issue its report on the Chinese company on Monday. The committee's chair, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), tells Kroft, "If I were an American company today...and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers' privacy, and you care about the national security of the United States of America."

More

No kidding, Mike.  Good thing the Canadians had Snyder file a Buy American waiver on their DRIC, too.

Conservative principles crumbling under pressure?  Potentially, just a heartbeat away.

"Take that Relentless Positive Action, and uh, bring it to Washington, DC"

Oy!  Pete and John, wise up .. ditch the I ♥ Nerd schtick.  A lone 2010 primary 36% win infiltrated by Schwarz Democrats does not necessarily make one a Senator in 2012.

But like the state and the city, the two realized over time "both of us needed each other," Milliken said. "We developed a warm personal relationship."

Again, let's examine what the State of Michigan and the City of Detroit have become through moderate right and progressive left leadership.

When Richard Nixon ran for President in 1968 after six years out of public life and living in California, a popular slogan described him as "The New Nixon: Tanned, Rested, and Ready."

State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) announced recently that she was running for Michigan attorney general. I can't comment on her tan or her readiness, but after eight years of doing nothing in the legislature, she should certainly be well-rested.

Using the state's legislature website, I searched records going back to 2001, Whitmer's first year in the House. I examined every bill for which she was the primary sponsor. In the House and Senate to date, Whitmer has sponsored 128 bills. Of these, a grand total of 3 made it to a vote, and 2 were passed. The third was defeated 81-22 in the House. She has not had a single bill make it to a vote since June 29, 2005.

If you're keeping score at home, that's 2 passed bills out of 128 attempts, which is a .015 batting average, enough to make Hank Aguirre blush.

It was in 2004 that the Guv first tabbed her second-in-command (and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate) John Cherry to head up a fancy commission to identify and establish plans to double the college graduation rate here in Michigan.  Because if you form a special task force it shows you're serious, whether or not it delivers the bacon, apparently.  

And if that kind of a move sounds familiar, it should.  Earlier this calendar year the Guv tabbed her second-in-command (and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate) John Cherry to head up a fancy commission to identify and establish plans to ostensibly reduce the size of state government. Because the two of them have shown such a strong commitment to that concept these past six-plus years.  (But that's a rant for a different post.)

No one's quite sure when or where Cherry's fancy NEW task force is going to be holding it's supposedly (but not really) public hearings... and if YOU'VE gotten wind of the specific when and where, please, leave a comment... but we've already got the results, recommendations and battle plans that emerged from the 2004 group of talkers.  A lot of talk and bluster and posturing and promises.  Results? The Detroit News:

It was a lofty goal: Double the number of Michigan residents with a higher education within a decade.

But nearly five years after Gov. Jennifer Granholm's call to educate the work force to a more prosperous economy, Michigan's rate has merely inched forward.

The number of degrees and certificates awarded in Michigan increased just 4.4 percent over four years, according to data compiled by The Detroit News.

OH!  4.4 is 93.6 LESS than 100.  What is it the kids are saying these days? "EPIC FAIL?!"  

Are these the kind of results we can expect from John Cherry's super-secret, wasteful, duplicative "government efficiency" task force?  Here's hoping. Frankly, a 4.4 percent success rate is better than I'd normally expect from Lansing Democrats.