I'm Done...

Nerd Rick Snyder continued his War on Michigan citizens with the passage of several bills that he wanted. One takes away the right of districts and unions to make their own agreements and caps how much districts are allowed to pay for employee health insurance. Several other bills make it easier to fire a tenured teacher and weaken the already shitty position of the teachers union to negotiate contracts.

In the interest of full disclosure, my wife is a public school teacher, so I have a financial interest in this legislation. I also have many friends that are public school teachers. Even if this weren't the case, I would still be pissed. Snyder (who I considered voting for, but thankfully didn't) campaigned as somewhat of a moderate who would do things differently and make our state great (or some similar populist bull shit). Thanks to a GOP majority in both houses, he has been able to ignore any semblance of moderation, restraint, common sense, and reason, and has forced through a whole bunch of significant changes to the tax system and state services.

Some fans of Dick Snyder are pleased that he is making the tough choices that he was elected to make. Thankfully, most do not agree. Over at Michigan Liberal, they bring up some polling data:

Michigan's Republican-controlled Legislature may have passed a state budget in record time, but what they passed isn't popular with voters.

A poll shows 61 percent of voters say they're less likely to vote for Republicans in 2012 because of the budget that cuts funding to public schools but gives tax breaks to corporations.

I am sure the GOP is aware of this data. either they think that things will turn around and they can reap the success, or they just don't care and want to do as much damage as possible before the voters boot their asses in the next election.

Well, I am done. If the election were held today, I would vote straight party Democratic. The Democrats are by no means perfect, but even the worst of them in this state is a paragon of reason and good governance compared to Snyder et al. I don't think my beliefs have changed all that much in the past few years, but I suppose if the readers of this blog were relying on me to be the voice of the right, we will have to add another blogger. I doubt I will be able to vote for any of the current crop of Republicans in Michigan. That being said, with apologies to Ronald Reagan for borrowing and altering his quote, I didn't leave the GOP, it left me.

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Governor of Michigan?

Now that it looks like Michigan’s Lt. Governor will be dropping out of the Governor’s race, I have one thing to say…

Smitty for Governor!

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Michigan Budget Crisis

I just saw Granholm on the news this morning talking about the state budget and how K-12 school may be hit with more than $300 in cuts, as opposed to what was originally thought, which was around half that much. Senate leader Mike Bishop has said that the Republicans are going to hold firm to their promise:

Bishop held firm that Senate Republicans won't agree to new taxes or fees to restore the scholarships, or any other items in the budget.

"If she chooses to veto anything we've sent her that was part of our bipartisan agreement, it will create a hole in the budget," Bishop said. "And we don't have an expectation of refunding those holes."

I am furious. I understand that taxes are high. I understand that there are some programs that the state spends money on that are a waste, but come on! We have made all sorts of cuts to education, corrections, transportation, and law enforcement. There is nothing else that can be cut. We need to raise revenue. Schools have already seen some serious cuts to crucial programs. Coounseling services have been cut way back or outright eliminated. Special ed. programs have lost key employees. Class sizes have gone way up. Are the Republicans that out of touch or are they as morally bankrupt as their opponents say?

I am done with Michigan Republicans. Anyone that continues to insist that education needs to be cut and is unwilling to raise any revenue isn't going to get my vote. I don't care if they are running against Karl Marx reincarnated, they aren't getting my support.

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Government in Action

Consider this kind of a part two of the Wanted: Good News entry. My daughter and I had a really great day. She is in Brownies and, as many of you probably know, it is the time of year for Girl Scout Cookie sales. One of her sales was to our State Representative, Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga). We offered to deliver them to her at work and since today was a half day of school, we called her office as we drove up to the Capitol. To our huge surprise, she had made arrangements for Katie to go out on the Floor while the House was in session.



Katie is standing on the desk, being introduced to the House. Barb is right next to her and you really can't see her all that well. I couldn't be on the Floor, so these pictures were obviously taken from the observation gallery. Following the introduction, Barb took her around and introduced her to several others, including the Speaker of the House and the delegation from the UP. She has a basic understanding of government, as much as can be expected for a 6 year old. It was probably more fun for me and I hope she remembers this.

All in all, I was very thankful for Barb doing this. She certainly didn't have to do this and I appreciate her taking the time to do such a nice thing. In case you are wondering, I did vote for her and, even before today, would vote for her again.

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The return of the Fairness Doctrine

My six year old's three favorite words seem to be, "that's not fair." This follows some injustice, real or perceived. As tempting as it is to respond with, "life's not fair," I really try to explain why it is fair or why the unfairness is occuring. In some cases, the unfairness sucks and there really isn't a good solution.

The Fairness Doctrine was introduced in 1949 and existed in various forms up until 1987. Basically, it requires radio and television stations to present both sides of "controversial" issues, but does not specify how this should be done. Prior to the last election, there was some interest in bringing this back in response to conservative dominance of talk-radio. There didn't seem to be a lot of support, but conservatives were up in arms about it and were convinced that Obama would push for it's return.



I thought this was a dead issue, but apparently Debbie Stabenow is working to have it brought back in some form. I have never been a huge fan of Debbie. She has never impressed me as someone that is really interested in working hard for Michigan. If this is the kind of legislation we can expect from her, I prefer she goes back to doing nothing. I should also note that Stabenow's husband (next to her in the picture) is a co-founder of TalkUSA, a left-leaning radio network. The Fairness Doctrine could certainly benefit him financially, so this may be a conflict of interest. I should also note that Obama has stated that he opposes the Fairess Doctrine.

The problems I have with the Fairness Doctrine are many, but I will just throw out a few.

--Who decides what issues are controversial and deserving of an opposing viewpoint?

--Who gets to provide the opposing viewpoint?

--How do they present their view?

--What mechanism will be in place to make decisions and how can someone or some group appeal that decision?

The other big problem is that, under current case law, content based restrictions on speech are generally not going to be allowed. I don't see how this will survive under the Constitution.

This issue begs the question...is this really a problem that Congress (or the FCC) needs to look at? Yes, the media is biased. I think you would be hard pressed to find many places that seriously look at both sides of an issue. Personally, I think people should look at both sides, but most people tend to gravitate towards news and information that they agree with. While conservatives certainly have a strong hold on talk-radio, the same can't be said of all sources of information. Television and the Internet are very well represented of all points of views. This is most true with the Internet, where you can find an outlet for any belief and viewpoint.

Do we really want the gov't regulating what is presented to us by the media?

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