The right has to stoop to imposters to try and paint unions as violent

The right is spinning out of control trying to paint your neighbors, friends and relatives as “union thugs” simply because they are standing up for their civil right of collective bargaining.

The massive crowds protesting the right's assault on public sector unions have been peaceful, and it is driving the right crazy that no one is buying their lie that they are violent. The leading rightwing blog in Michigan is going berserk trying to portray firefighters, police officers and teachers as “animals. In fact, a few Michigan teabaggers have been at the protests trying to provoke a confrontation so they can get it on tap to try and make the claim that they are violent. Kind of like what went on from the regime in Egypt.

It has been driving them crazy that they have not been able to elicit a violent response, so now they are trying to plant imposters to incite a riot. Extremist Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said he considered planting some “troublemakers” into the huge crowd of pro-worker protestors that have flooded into Madison. The only thing that stopped him was that he was afraid it might force him to bow to the majority of people who support collective bargaining rights, not that it would endanger people.

But Walker and teabagger Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner Jason Gillman are not the only Republicans who feel that way.

Republican Johnson County, Indiana deputy prosecutor Carlos Lam resigned last week after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism traced an e-mail he sent to Walker urging him to fake an attack to make it look like the pro-union protested had did it to in order for Walker to gain sympathy.

The e-mail was one of the tens of thousands of e-mails released in an open-records settlement the Walker administration reached with a local paper and the Associated Press after Walker lied and said he had thousands of emails supporting his union busting attempt.

“I've been involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for 18 years, and I think that the situation in WI presents a good opportunity for what's called a "false flag" operation,” Lam wrote. “ If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the public unions.”

When confronted with the evidence, Lam initially lied and said he had not sent the e-mail, claiming that he had been the victim of identity theft before he confessed.

This is not the first Indiana Republican thug to lose his job for advocating violence against peaceful, working class citizens. Indiana Deputy Attorney General Jeff Cox lost his job after tweeting that the protesters should be dealt with using “live ammunition,” following that up with “against thugs physically threatening legally-elected state legislators & governor? You’re damn right I advocate deadly force.”

Tell me again who the thugs are?

Some idiot over at the Detroit News even went so far as to compare working people that are our friends, neighbors and family with the murderous, Detroit prohibition-era Purple Gang because they support those who support them. If you want to know why newspapers are barely surviving, you just need to know that this guy is what passes as an editor today.

This idiot named Jeffrey Hadden is comparing a legal boycott with murder and vandalism.

Please.

Dingell gets endorsement of conservative Detroit News

The endorsements continue to pile up for the Dean of the U.S. House, Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, this one from the conservative Detroit News.

The endorsement of Dingell – and one other endorsement - is the only part of the editorial I agree with that is also a cheap attack on Democrats and liberals. I do agree with this one sentence, “we feel he should remain in Congress,” “because he fought for the domestic automobile industry.”

That alone is a great reason for voting for Dingell, but the good news is there are plenty more reasons to vote for him.

All of the other endorsements are for the most out of touch, right-wingers possible, with the exception of Dingell and Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, the candidate for the 13th Congressional District. Even the rightwing editor Nolan Finley couldn’t go as far as endorsing Dingell and Clarke’s opponents, but it must have pained him to do so.

There is no doubt that Dingell is the best choice for voters in the 15th District, but it’s sad they used it to take a backhand slap at President Obama and the Democratic leadership.

The fact that the conservative editorial board endorsed the extremist opponents of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills; U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek; State Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Pickford; and Democrat Pat Miles, a Grand Rapids attorney, speaks volumes for the Dingell endorsement.

He had to overcome a lot for the editorial board not to endorse his extremist opponent.

After another delay vote on DRIC bridge and 10,000 Michigan jobs expected today

LANSING -- Well, here we go again.

The Michigan House, again, failed to take up House Bill 4961 on Tuesday that would authorize Michigan to enter into a public-private partnership with Canada and a private sector developer/financier to build the much needed Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) bridge over the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor and create and save thousands of Michigan jobs, but the word is it will be taken up today.

The vote was also supposed to be taken up last Thursday, and again on Tuesday. Employees and lobbyists of the Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) and Grosse Pointe billionaire and Republican benefactor Matty Moroun have been thick as flies in Lansing, and this morning House Republicans – who are blocking the bridge on behalf of Moroun - are expected to hold a press conference.

Evidence and pressure have been mounting to build the DRIC bridge that will save and create 10,000 Michigan jobs, and the bridge already has all the required permits and approvals.

Even the conservative editorial page of the Detroit News is, reluctantly, supporting building the DRIC bridge with an editorial on Tuesday called “Time to build the Detroit-Canada bridge.”
“Very important to Michigan's awakening economy are the 10,000 construction jobs the project would create during the four years it will take to build the bridge, and the tens of thousands of jobs the international traffic flow will continue to support. These are benefits we should reap now, while trusting there'll be room for an entrepreneur like Moroun to continue to prosper as well.”

Lawmakers gave themselves a self-imposed deadline June 1 to vote DRIC up or down, and that deadline is next week.

Call or email your State Representative and tell him to vote for the bill and 10,000 Michigan jobs.

Another GOP false talking point bites the dust

Republicans have their favorite whipping boys and boogyman, and in Michigan, state employees are a bigger target than even ACORN.

However, their claim that state employees are overpaid and state government continues grow has already been debunked. In August, respected Michigan State University professor of economics Charles Ballard issued a report that said state employees earn less than their private-sector counterparts with comparable educational attainment. The report also confirmed what we already know: state government is smaller now than it was in 1973. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans, like the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center, from continuing to make the claim that state government is bloated and workers are overpaid.

Republicans have fudged a bit in the face of actual facts, and the new lie is that state workers aren’t making the same kinds of sacrifices the private sector is. An article in the Detroit News last week debunks that lie, and it found that state employees have been hit as hard or harder than private sector workers.

The report said, in fact, that state government is only about 80 percent of what it was at the beginning of this decade, and it’s going to get smaller.

“Michigan's eight-year recession has slashed one in six state workers and one in five state government dollars. Since 2000, the state has shed the equivalent of three auto assembly plants worth of workers -- a busload of employees taking their personal belongings and their last paychecks home every two weeks.”

Tourism has been one of the few bright spots in the Michigan economy as people come here to take advantage of the state’s beautiful and unique natural resources, yet the people who look after those valuable assets, the Department of Natural Resources, has 38 percent fewer employees than in 2000. Agriculture is another bright spot in Michigan, yet one in four Department of Agriculture employees is gone just since the beginning of the decade.

The caseload for Department of Human Services’ workers has risen more than 20 percent since 2000, but the department has lost more than 3,600 employees over that same period.

Demand for government services goes up during a recession because more people need help, yet those services are cut; a fact noted by Professor Ballard.

The Mackinac Center, of course, disagrees, and it claims - even in the face of those facts - that state government has grown during the recession. It says total spending from state resources is up 7 percent in the 2008-09 budget year than in 2001.

But the News debunked that, noting that:

“But those figures don't take into account inflation. While the state's total spending over the eight years increased 7 percent (reaching $27.5 billion in '08-'09), inflation during the same period was triple that (21.7 percent).

“When adjusted for inflation, total spending has decreased 14 percent. Spending from the general fund, the Legislature's main source of discretionary money, is down 21 percent. By comparison, Ohio's general fund was down less than 2 percent, and Indiana's increased 5 percent.”

Another GOP false talking point bites the dust.

Industry lobbyists take aim at smoking ban

The workplace smoking ban, including bars and restaurants, is expected to be taken up in the House this week, and the usual suspects are pulling out all the stops to try and kill it.

The lobbyist for the Michigan Restaurant Association is quoted in subscription only MIRS as saying “he was aware there was some talk in the Senate but he had no idea they would go so far as to pass a total ban.” He must not be a very good lobbyist because it was pretty clear a vote was coming a few days before the vote was going to take place. The Michigan Distributors and Vendors Association also denounced the bill, with their lobbyist using the age old argument that the Senate is “imposing big government on the free marketplace.” That statement is ignoring, of course, that the government regulates other public health issues in bars and restaurants.

Anyone who has ever read a restaurant inspection report from their local health department knows that is true, and establishments have been cited for things like improper hair restraints, food containers improperly labeled and improper lighting. There are 44 possible violations that are considered critical, and it seems ridiculous that something as deadly as second hand smoke should not be regulated. There is no amount of safe secondhand smoke.

Last week the Senate approved House Bill 4163 with a bipartisan vote of 25-12 with nine Republicans voting for the bill, including some of the more conservative Senators, including Senators Cameron Brown, Nancy Cassis, John Pappageorge and Bruce Patterson. The Senate substitute was a tougher version because it banned smoking in casinos where the House version did not.

Last December, the Democratic-controlled House approved the bill by a close vote of 56-46. The bill was referred to the Republican-controlled Senate where Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop bottled it up and vowed he would not even allow it a committee hearing. But public pressure and a report by a leading Lansing public policy and lobbying firm that said there is no economic loss when bars goes smoke free and it is a public health hazard changed his mind and he allowed a vote.

The House has to concur with the Senate version, but it remains to be seen if the new evidence in the new report will increase the 10-vote margin, or if the intense lobbying effort of the MRA backed up with tobacco money will cut into the vote margin or even defeat it. They will be joined by the Detroit casinos in that lobbying effort under the mistaken belief that they will lose business to the Native American run casinos where the state does not have jurisdiction. That ignores the report that says a smoking ban does not have an effect on business. It also ignores the fact that just 21 percent of the state’s population smokes.

Why we are so worried about such a small majority I have no idea. It’s been 12 years since I bought a pack of cigarettes, but they were like $5 a pack then. If they are spending that much on smokes what makes people think they have more money to spend on other things than the non-smokers?

The Detroit News is currently running a pole on the ban, and so far 80 percent support the smoking ban. What more proof do lawmakers need to vote for the ban? I suggest you contact your representative and tell them to vote for the ban.

McCain picks up endorsement of Michigan’s largest newspapers

Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., received a major boost in Michigan with the endorsement of Michigan's largest newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, on Sunday.

The Free Press endorsed McCain in 2000 when he won the Michigan Primary, and the paper did it again, saying McCain's steadiness and consistency make him the choice for Michigan Republicans.

“John McCain is, again, the best candidate to carry the GOP banner into the fall. While the Free Press differs with McCain on a number of issues, the Arizona senator is a smarter, more tested and pragmatic leader who has shown since 2000 that he knows how to build bipartisan alliances around issues.”

Last week McCain picked up the endorsement of Michigan's second largest newspaper, the Detroit News. The Free Press has a circulation of more than 353,000 readers on weekdays – according to the Michigan Press Association - and a circulation of more than 712,000 on Sunday. The Detroit News has a weekday circulation of more than 226,000.

The Detroit Free Press is owned by Gannett, and it remains to be seen if the entire chain in Michigan will endorse McCain. Gannett products in Michigan include the Battle Creek Enquirer, the Lansing State Journal, the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus and the Port Huron Times Herald.

FCC ownership ruling will hurt Michigan

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently overturned a 32-year-old ban aimed at doing away with media monopolies and ensuring there is a diversity of voices on the airwaves and in print

The administrative ruling will let owners of a TV or radio station buy a newspaper, or vice versa, in the nation's 20 largest media markets. The ban put in place in 1975 barred a single company from owning a TV station and newspaper in the same market. Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was joined by his two fellow Republican on the commission in favor of the proposal, and the commission's two Democrats voted against it.

Before the ink is even dry on this new rule it will allow waivers for six new newspaper-broadcast combinations and 36 grand fathered stations.

The Detroit News, owned by Denver-based Media News Group – one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States – immediately came out with an editorial favoring the move. The editorial did point out that its parent company did own a TV station, but the editorial skirted the issue of the problems with the consolidation of all of the news outlets into one giant voice. Detroit is the 11th largest media market in the country, and this ruling will apply to Detroit. The gist of the editorial is that because of technology like blogs and other new information sources, “there's no way a company can control the flow of news and entertainment by owning a newspaper and TV station in the same market.”

That may be good news for blogs like the Michigan Messenger, but if it will be good for traditional journalism and the general public remains to be seen.

Critics like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) - a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank - allowing more media consolidation will diminish local newsgathering. Proponents of the new rule say allowing cross-ownership may help to forestall the erosion in local news coverage by enabling companies to share newsgathering costs across media platforms.

But it ignores the danger of consolidating all the media voices into something owned by a few companies. Newspapers are a perfect example, and there are few independent newspapers anymore. Take the Detroit News, for example. Their parent company owns and operates 57 daily newspapers in 12 states with combined daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 2.6 million and 2.9 million, respectively, and they are proud to tell you those facts on their web site. Just recently in 2005 the News was purchased by from giant newspaper chain Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. that publishes 85 daily newspapers, including USA TODAY. After the smoke had cleared, Gannett walked away with ownership of the Detroit Free Press and the bulk of metro Detroit suburban weekly newspapers known as the Observer and Eccentrics.

During the 1920s more than 500 cities and towns had two or more competing newspapers - including about 100 cities that had three or more - today only about a half dozen communities have a least two newspapers, and those tend to operate under joint agreements allowed under the Newspaper Preservation Act, like the News and Free Press in Michigan under the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA).

This consolidation means there are less reporters and less competition. According to the EPI, since 1975 the number of media outlets has indeed increased, but at the same time ownership has become more concentrated. Today there is simply less diversity of opinion and less diversity of news sources.

This corporate takeover of newspapers means solid reporting, independence and integrity are taking a backset to profit and pleasing the shareholders. Media conglomerates are stressing profit maximization over concerns of localism and diversity, according to the EPI.

The situation is not much different in TV and radio where the airwaves are provided free by the government in exchange for diversity of views and opinions and informing the public. Anyone who has listened to radio station WJR-AM, the most powerful radio station in Detroit, knows about that lack of diversify of opinion. In contrast to the News editorial, there many be 24-hour cables news outlets, but news programming offered by affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox still accounts for about half of all television viewing.

SOS plays politics with branch office closings

George Cushingberry, D-Detroit - the chair of the Appropriations Committee and a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Investigations that held a hearing on Wednesday over the planned closure of two popular Secretary of State branch offices - called out the rightwing editorial board of the Detroit News for a particular snotty attack on him for daring to hold the hearing and respond to the outcry from the public over the proposed closings.

The editorial made the outrageous claim that he is paying back Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land for filing charges against him last year for not filing required campaign finance documents. The charges were dismissed by the trial judge and Cushingberry was cleared.

“Cushingberry's motives are suspect, to say the least. Cushingberry formed a special investigative committee to look into why Land decided to close a branch office in Saginaw. His claim of investigative power over this action by the secretary's office is a stretch. Land is a separately elected official. Lawmakers have oversight powers, but investigating the closure of one branch office appears to be micro-managing at best and more likely harassment.”

Cushingberry called the claim baseless and not based in reality, chiding the News’ editorial board for not doing the most basic fact check by not even bothering to take a look at the Michigan Constitution.

“This (charge) is absolutely not true,” Cushingberry said. “They seem to think there is some constitutional provision that says the secretary of state has unlimited control over everything having to do with the sectary of state’s office.”

The only thing in the state constitution that addresses the power of the SOS comes from Article V section 2 that sates, “All executive and administrative offices, agencies and instrumentalities of the executive branch of state government and their respective functions, powers and duties, except for the office of governor and lieutenant governor and the governing bodies of institutions of higher education provided for in this constitution, shall be allocated by law.” How this is “micro-managing or harassment" is unclear.

The investigation and committee hearing came about because Land has only targeted branch offices for closing that are located in districts represented by Democrats; the latest in Milan and Saginaw, both poplar and efficient offices. The offices of Reps. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, and Andy Coulouris, D-Saginaw, were flooded with pleas to keep the offices open. According to subscription only Gongwer on Wednesday, Coulouris said he had “dozens of constituents protesting the closure outside of the Capitol, said it was contradictory for the secretary of state to pull out infrastructure from Michigan cities when other states agencies are investing in downtowns.”

“City officials in Milan claimed the branch serves more than the 5,800 residents of the city and that with the growth of Milan continuing, it is important to have a branch office there so people can have easy access to the state's most basic services. Milan City Councilmember Bret Moyer said the city branch office is attractive to many people because it's right off the expressway and several local dealerships access it regularly.
"This would be a black eye to Milan for the state to say we are closing the doors," he said.

Later in the day on Wednesday, the House passed House Bill 4492 that will thwart Land from continuing to play politics with the further closing of branch offices and inserts some accountability. The bill reorganizes funding for SOS branch offices from a single line item to numerous line items. The bill could potentially restrict the ability of the Secretary of State to reorganize branch office operations. This means if the Milan office is closed, for instance, the SOS cannot use money allocated for Milan to consolidate or improve another branch office. Land would be required to return the money to the State's General Fund.

It was interesting to note that in speaking out against passage of the bill, the House Minority Floor Leader - Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton - said a branch office in his district was also going to be closed. Either I missed something or that’s hot news here where I live in Livingston County. There are only two branch offices in the county: one in Howell and the other one is in Ward’s district in Brighton.

Insurance companies threaten to flee after being forced to finally pay their fair share

The one industry that paid little tax under the old Single Business Tax (SBT) is threatening to leave the state now that the new Michigan Business Tax (MBT) is finally making them pay their fair share.

William F. Woodbury, assistant vice president and associate general counsel of Lansing-based Auto-Owners Insurance Co., had a column in the Lansing State Journal last week complaining that “this tax increase makes it more expensive to do business in Michigan and it will have a direct impact on consumers, who ultimately will pay the price for the decisions made in Lansing.” Meaning: we are going to raise your premiums so we can still rake in record profits.

According to a story in the Detroit News last month, a recent study by Missouri's insurance commissioner from 1993-98 concludes that Michigan’s auto insurance companies have been piling up huge record profits and excessive surplus funds.

AAA of Michigan was used as a focal point in the study, because most of its business is done within the state. AAA's profit more than doubled to $104.2 million last year from $50.9 million in 2002. AAA's surplus -- money set aside to pay for future claims payments -- swelled by 68 percent during that period, increasing to $1.53 billion from $915 million.

Apparently doubling its profits is not enough, and Woodbury plays his trump card: threatening to go where the tax is lower and move out of Michigan.

Make no mistake; other states are lining up to handpick Michigan's most profitable companies. Their aim is clear: They want the jobs and tax revenues that go with growing companies. Many states, like our neighbor Indiana, are looking at lowering taxes on insurance companies to lure them across the border. The MBT makes it easier for them to do that.

I say good luck with that. According to the Lansing Chamber of Commerce, insurance companies have not been paying their fair tax share for years.

Insurance companies in Michigan have long enjoyed preferential tax treatment – Michigan’s tax on insurers is the fourth lowest in the country. This legislation will create a 2 percent premiums tax that will make our tax system similar to other states and bring insurance taxation in line with the national average.

Not only that, but Michigan insurance companies have been allowed to legally discriminate against Detroit drivers and other urban drivers for years in the form of Redlining. Redlining is the practice where an insurance company refuses to insure an auto or home based solely on the geographic area where the person lives or provides an inferior product based on geography or at a higher price. Sen. Martha Scott, D-Highland Park, has been fighting the practice of charging Detroit drivers as much as 365 percent more than people in other Michigan urban areas.

It’s hard to feel sorry for insurance companies. I have been paying auto insurance premiums for some 30 years and have never had a claim. That adds up to a lot of cash in their pocket. Michigan’s no-fault insurance law even gives them an unfair advantage, in my opinion. In what business do you have a law that requires you buy their product, and we have law enforcement ensuring you do buy it? If you don’t buy it you face a heavy fine. I think there should be a law that says you have to subscribe to a newspaper to insure you know what’s going on in the world, or you should buy a gym or swimming pool membership to insure you are healthy.

It’s time other businesses and companies in Michigan stopped subsidizing insurance companies, and they are now required to pay their fair share.

Senator wages daily battle against discriminatory practice of ‘Redlining’

Can you imagine how outraged you would be if you had to pay 365 percent more for something as essential as, say water, than your neighbor just because you lived where you live. If you can imagine it then you can begin to feel some of the same frustration as Sen. Martha Scott, D-Highland Park.

For the past three years Scott has fought against the practice known as insurance “redlining.” Redlining means an insurance company refuses to insure an auto or home based solely on the geographic area where the person lives, provides an inferior product based on geography or at a higher price. Scott said studies have shown drivers in Detroit pay a much as 17 percent more in insurance rates than people in similar-sized cities, and insurance premiums for Detroit drivers have increased four times the rate of inflation. A recent report in the Detroit News reported on a study that showed a typical driver would be charged $1,624 in Kalamazoo, but the same driver would be charged $5,933 for the same insurance if they lived in Detroit, a 365 percent difference.

“But you folks don’t need a study to tell you how outrageous these premiums have become,” Scott said.

There is one thing you can count on occurring every single day in the Michigan Senate, and that is Scott getting up and speaking on the Senate floor about the long-standing problem of redlining. Scott said some three years ago a House bill was introduced to call for reimbursement of the fine for drivers ticketed for not having proper proof-of-insurance if they could provide a copy within a reasonable amount of time. When it got to the Senate Scot introduced an amendment to the bill that would require auto insurance rates be based solely on distance drove, the type of vehicle and driving record. It was soundly defeated in the Republican-controlled Senate.

“That day, I will tell you, was my worst day in the Legislature,” Scott said. “I will tell you I stood on the Senate floor that day and I made a promise that I would speak every session day on fair insurance rates.”

Redlining is a discriminatory practice that has been around for more than 50 years when certain people buying a home were directed to certain geographic areas based on the color of their skin. That’s illegal, but the powerful insurance industry is apparently allowed to do so legally.

It seems a little unfair that under Michigan’s no-fault insurance law that a state law makes everyone buy their product under heavy monetary penalty if they don’t. In my former profession, I wondered why we didn’t have a state law that required every homeowner to subscribe to a daily newspaper of their choice. That seems fair.

Redlining has ensured Detroit drivers and homeowner pay some of the highest premiums in the country, and it’s not just happening in Detroit. It’s also unfair when the rates are so high for people who may be the least able to pay them. The Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that insurance is an essential product, and that the state has a duty to ensure people have equitable and affordable access to insurance coverage. The state has failed in that duty.

There are more than a million uninsured drivers in the state who cannot afford the premiums, and half the drivers in Detroit are uninsured.

It is that failure by the state that has ensured insurance companies are making excessive profits. A study released last month, according to the Detroit News, concludes that Michigan auto insurance companies have been piling up big profits and excessive surplus funds. The report was authored by Jay Angoff, who served as Missouri's insurance commissioner from 1993-98. He said AAA's – the largest provider in Michigan - profit more than doubled to $104.2 million last year from $50.9 million in 2002.

In January Scott introduced Senate Bill 37 that will create an affordable and accessible insurance task force within the Office of Financial and Insurance Services, and she also introduced SB 38 that prohibits insurance rates from being based on where the person lives. Both bill were referred to the Committee on Economic Development and Regulatory Reform where they have yet to be taken up.

There is much more information on redlining available on the web site Scott has set up, and you can also sign an online petition against redlining. Scott has vowed to speak every session day until fair and equably priced insurance premiums are available to everyone.

UPDATE: It occurred to me I should have posted some of the floor speeches Sen. Scott made on the Senate floor, courtesy of Senate Democratic Caucus Communications. The speeches are excellent and entertaining, and she does a wonderful job of making her case for the legislation.

Short and to the point: Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer slaps down GOP columnist

It was nice to see Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer slap down Detroit News columnist Frank Beckmann after Beckmann attacked Brewer for his trip to China in one of his “unbiased” columns.

It’s just sad that Mark only got five paragraphs to respond, and I hope he will get a larger platform in the form of a column. Clearly, Beckmann is a partisan Republican hack. After all, he is on WJR. Here is Mark’s response to Beckmann,

The true irony found in Frank Beckmann's Dec. 15 column attacking me, "State Dem chairman's China trip is fraught with ironies" is that he still presents himself as a nonpartisan columnist.
The election happened well over a month ago, but apparently he still doesn't understand what the results tell us. It was never about Chinese culture or history. It was about which candidate had the record and the plan to put Michigan first. If Dick DeVos had invested $200 million in England and created jobs there, our ads would have shown a picture of Big Ben.
It is true that I find issue with many of the practices of the Chinese government.
Even people in his own party like Republican Congressman Mike Rogers agree that China's trade practices have severely harmed Michigan's citizens and cost our state jobs. Does Beckmann think China's trade practices and currency manipulation are fair?
Does he think China's persecution of Christianity and many other religions should be ignored?

Mark Brewer
Michigan Democratic Party
Lansing
I heard L. Brooks Paterson use the same attack on Brewer earlier on one of the local political talk shows, so Beckmann has the same talking points the Michigan Republication Party is putting out.

No one has ever said we should not be able to sell our products to China, but we want a level playing field to do so. They should not be allowed to copy the products we make with cheap imitations that costs pennies to make. I am no economist, but it seems to me the problem with the Amway guy was he was telling us he could fix the problems with Michigan when he’s part of the problem.

Money invested in China and jobs in China is investment and jobs not in Michigan. I hope Amway sells millions of dollars worth of its products there, but they should be made here. DeVos claims in order to sell products in China they must be made in China, and no products made in China are ever sold here. The problem with that is he lied, and products made there are sold in the U.S. Secondly, if it’s true products sold in China must be made there then we should have the same protection. Products sold in the U.S. should be made here. The same stipulation should be made, but instead the U.S. government encourages U.S. companies to offshore and outsource.

Some foreign companies are making the products they sell here in the U.S., most notability the foreign car makers. But the problem I see is that they are just assembling the cars here.

Here in Livingston County, we have no Big 3 plants here at all, but we have many plants that are Tier I, II and III suppliers to the Big 3. Not many months go by here that a new plant is not asking for a tax break from a local municipality to either build new or expand the plant that supply parts to the automakers.

We could use some of those type of jobs from Toyota or Honda.