The kickoff of a petition drive Monday night to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law signed into law by President Obama last week was little more than a “tea party.”
Howell School Board member and head teabagger Wendy Day led the event at the Howell Freshman Campus cafeteria, and it was little more than the typical rhetoric bashing Democrats and the president we have seen at the racist, Astroturf “tea parties.“ the only thing missing was the racist signs.
“Some people say Obama broke his oath of office to protect the Constitution,” Day said. “This is a peaceful way for people to express their frustration.”
Day is the treasurer of the ballot committee called "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom.”
Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot. They have to turn those signatures into the Secretary of State no later than July 5.
“This petition has been legally vetted by the Goldwater Institute,” Day said. “It has been preliminary approved by the (Michigan State) Board of Canvassers.”
I doubt that statement is true, and the board has not approved the language. Every signature should be challenged on that basis alone.
I missed the first hour of the partisan campaign event because I had to work, and I was only able to catch the last 45 minutes. Day took questions from the approximately 150 people, but most of it was just the usual rhetoric and lies we have heard in the past. Day said the best place to get signatures was at Republican events, like a “tea party.”
“Go to one tea party; go to two,” she said.” We can get plenty of signatures. The tea party express is coming through.”
If you needed any more proof that this was a partisan Republican event, you just needed to see the Republican politicians in attendance. Most of them are running for office, and I lost respect for some I once had respect for, despite our political differences.
Those I personally saw were Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, - who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra and who introduced the amendment under discussion that was rejected in the Republican controlled Senate - Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton; Rep. Cindy Denby, R-Fowlerville; former Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-Leroy; and Senate candidate Joe Hune; and of course some guy from the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center.
Like I said in past posts, this clearly violates the school district’s policy on allowing district facilities to be used for partisan political events. I talked to HPS Assistant Superintendent Rick Terries - who authorized the event - is really skirting the policy. He said if the petition drive was successful, it would be a political meeting, but somehow getting there is not. In other words, launching the petition drive is not political, but it’s only political if the petition drive is successful.
It makes no sense.
This masquerade has little chance of succeeding, but that does not mean we should not fight it. We have spent a year fighting to reform the broken system, so what’s three more months.
