Rightwing Republican think tank continues to use FOIA for intimidation

You have to wonder if it's a case of the chicken or the egg with the use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the rightwing Republican think tank “Mackinac Center for Public Policy to intimidate and to dig up dirt on opponents.

The partisan Republican think tank, financed by right-wingers like the rightwing billionaire Koch Brothers, submitted a FOIA request last week to the labor studies departments at Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan aimed to intimidate pro-labor dissenters and stifle academic freedom.

The FOIA request is seeking emails in which the terms "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison" or "Maddow" are being used. This is very similar to the Howell Public Schools infamous E-mail case that began four years ago, and, in fact, it has some of the same players.

In May of 2007 anti-union activist Chet Zarko, who passed away last summer, filed a massive FOIA request with the help of teabagger and former Howell School Board member Wendy Day seeking union emails in a fishing expedition to embarrass the Howell Education Association that were in tough contract negotiations with the school district. It was never determined who was paying Zarko, and he denied anyone was. But it was the Mackinac Center that ended up bankrolling his long court fight.

The district released some emails, but an injunction was issued stopping Zarko from receive any more of the 5,500 emails. However, he published the ones that put the union president in a bad light.

In January of 2010 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between union members were not public record, and they concluded that under the FOIA statute the individual teacher’s personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system’s digital memory. The three-Judge panel said it was a question that must be resolved by the Legislature.

After the death of Zarko, the Mackinac Center continued with the case, but the Michigan Supreme Court has refused to take up the case.

It begs the question if Zarko was being paid by the Mackinac Center, or if the Mackinac Center copied Zarko to use the FOIA as an intimidation tactic against teachers with their bottomless money pit. There is no reason they should get any of the emails based on this case.

It’s ironic that MSNBC host and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow is a target of the rightwing think tank. The Koch Brothers bankrolled the union busting attempt in Wisconsin, and Maddow exposed the fact that they are also bankrolling the stealth union busting attempts in Michigan.

The Koch brothers are financing the Mackinac Center, and it was the Mackinac Center that basically wrote the anti-democratic and anti-union emergency financial managers (EFM) package of bills pushed and signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Rick Snyder, also a former wealthy CEO.

It’s well past the time Mackinac Center loses its non-partisan and nonprofit status so we can see who is funding them. They are not nonpartisan.

Rightwing Koch brothers also bankrolling union busting crusade in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to bust public sector unions and replace local control with centralized power in Lansing with this army of unelected and all-powerful emergency financial managers (EFM) has ties to the same union busting effort in Wisconsin.

Mother Jones magazine did a piece on the EFM bills Snyder signed into law earlier this month that gives an EFM, after just two days of training, the power to void union contracts, run a school district, fire the elected boards and councils, call for millage elections, disincorporate or dissolve the municipal government and kill collective bargaining.

Last month Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was pranked when he thought he was talking to conservative billionaire David Koch, one of the Koch brothers who has bankrolled teabaggers and is financing the current union-busting movement, on the phone when he was really talking to a liberal blogger that showed Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” was just a ploy to bust unions. The Mother Jones article shows that the Koch brothers are also behind the effort in Michigan. Like Walker, Snyder is creating budget deficits by taking away money from school districts and local governments with a $1.8 billion gift to businesses, allowing more EFMs to be needed.

The article says that since 2005, the rightwing Michigan think tank “Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers.” “…In January, the free-market-loving center published four recommendations, including granting emergency managers the power to override elected officials (such as a mayor or school board member) and toss out union contracts. All four ended up in Snyder's legislation.”

The think tank has a history of union-busting and support for privatization, especially going after teacher unions. The article goes on to say that “the Mackinac Center does not disclose its donors. But a review of tax records shows that the group's funders include the charitable foundations of the nation's largest corporations and a host of wealthy conservative and libertarian benefactors. Between 2002 and 2009, the Mackinac Center's donors included the Charles G. Koch Foundation ($69,151), founded by the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, who, with his brother, David, is a major backer of conservative causes,” including the union busting efforts in Wisconsin and funding teabaggers.

Editorial board wants activist judges in FOIA witch-hunt case

The Republican controlled editorial board of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is falling over themselves to blame the non-conservative majority on the Michigan Supreme Court for something they had nothing to do with.

Late last month the Michigan Supreme Court denied an appeal to overturn an appeals court ruling that would have released thousands emails under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Anti-union activist Chet Zarko, who passed away last summer, filed the FOIA in 2007 with the help of teabagger and former Howell School Board member Wendy Day in a fishing expedition to embarrass the teacher’s union. He claimed the emails were sent on district computers during staff time, and they were used to lobby the public during contract negotiations. The district released some emails, but an injunction was issued stopping Zarko from receive any more of the 5,500 emails.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in January of 2010 that the emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between union members were not public record, and they concluded that under the FOIA statute the individual teacher’s personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system’s digital memory. They also said this was unexamined ground in the law, and that this is an issue for the Legislature to address.

Apparently, the newspaper does not see the fact that teachers are not a public body or public officials, and that the Supreme Court has to have a reason to overturn a solid decision; let alone take it up.

The editorial board did not see it that way, and they want the Justices to be the activist judges they claim they don’t want.

“In one of the last acts of its short-lived Democratic majority, the Michigan Supreme Court did some potential damage to the public's right to know in a ruling about the privacy of what public employees do on public time with publicly provided communications systems The court ought to reconsider this decision before somebody tries to hide behind it to thwart the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.”

Here is another false claim by the paper, “In the Howell case, the e-mails were requested in a FOIA filed by a resident ... who was concerned about ongoing contract negotiations with the teachers union. The resident has since died, but others are keeping the case alive and will request reconsideration by the Supreme Court, which now has a new justice and a 4-3 Republican majority.”

No, Zarko was an Oakland County resident, and his concern was just to find dirt to embarrass the union. There is a reason the anti-union rightwing think tank Mackinac Center is bankrolling the attorney fees.
What the paper and the Michigan Press Association should be doing is asking lawmakers to address the situation, not ask judges to make new laws.

Supreme Court puts an end to FOIA witch-hunt

The Michigan Supreme Court denied an appeal today to overturn an appeals court ruling that declined to release thousands emails under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), putting an end to the three-year witch-hunt to embarrass the teacher‘s union.

Anti-union activist Chet Zarko, who passed away last summer, filed the FOIA in 2007 with the help of teabagger and former Howell School Board member Wendy Day in a fishing expedition to embarrass the teacher’s union. He claimed the emails were sent on district computers during staff time, and they were used to lobby the public during contract negotiations. The district released some emails, but an injunction was issued stopping Zarko from receive any more of the 5,500 emails.

In January the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between union members were not public record, and they concluded that under the FOIA statute the individual teacher’s personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system’s digital memory.

The rightwing, anti-union think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy, that bankrolled Zarko’s attorney, was not happy with the ruling.

“We can only hope the Michigan Supreme Court will reconsider this case when the justices reconvene in January,” said Patrick Wright of the center said in a press release. “Given the media interest in this case and how regularly citizens make use of the law, a state Supreme Court hearing is appropriate.”

I’m unaware of this alleged media interest, other than me and the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. The Court of Appeals made in clear in January that the Legislature needs to address the situation.

Rightwing think tank thinks a tax on cigarettes is worse than smuggling

The rightwing think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy thinks that because criminals break the law we should do away with the reason they break the law instead of increasing enforcement.

Last week the Mackinac Center released its annual report on cigarette smuggling and found, again, that Michigan has one of the highest smuggling rates in the country. According the the Mackinac Center, “Michigan’s inbound cigarette smuggling rate was 10th highest in the nation in 2009. Michigan’s smuggling rate, which was measured as a percentage of in-state cigarette consumption, represents a slight improvement over its 9th place ranking in the previous analysis, which used data from 2006. Michigan is also in the top five states in its rate of casual cross-border smuggling by its residents.”

“Lansing’s incoming legislators should be careful about looking to cigarette taxes to solve any state budget deficits,” said Michael D. LaFaive, Mackinac Center director of fiscal policy and the study’s co-author in the press release. “Few people realize the vast array of unintended consequences, such as theft and violence, inflicted on job providers, consumers, police and other innocent victims.”

So in LaFaive’s opinion, we should lower the tax instead of fighting the crime of smuggling?

It makes you wonder how much money the Mackinac Center gets from the tobacco industry. Instead of spending more money for enforcement, it wants to lower the tax. Smoking costs the state billions of dollars in health care costs, and the cigarette tax does not come near covering it.

The Mackinac Center has been a major proponent of privatization, right to work for less laws and doing away with the prevailing wage in Michigan, and all of their reports seem to reach those same conclusions time after time. It now appears to be adding lowering cigarette taxes to its causes.

The largest conservative think tank in Michigan, and one of the largest in the nation, is financed by such rightwing sources as the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation, the Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation and the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation.

The fact is Michigan loses $127 to $140 million in tax revenue every single year through illegal cigarette smuggling that is destined for the School Aid Fund and Medicaid, yet we have only about four officers of the Michigan State Police Tobacco Smuggling Unit to cover the entire state.

Almost two years ago a Michigan company introduced a way to recoup the much needed lost tax revenue and stop the illegal activity.
Wyoming-based R.E.D. Stamp Inc. has patented and is marketing a Cigarette Tax Stamping Machine that will put a dent in smuggling and help Michigan recover 25 percent of the lost revenues and put $32 million back into Michigan’s coffers.

Getting away with cigarette smuggling is far too easy. Forging the tax stamp on the bottom of a package cigarette is fairly easy, as well of the theft of the stamp.

The fairly unsophisticated stamps are sold to Michigan’s 60-70 cigarette wholesalers in a roll of 30,000 stamps costing $60,000 that resembles a roll of paper towels. Organized crime has gotten involved by either buying them on the black market, stealing them off the UPS truck or even strong arm robbery from the truck. They are applied using heat transfer, similar to a cool iron on transfer for your t-shirt.

R.E.D. Stamp has teamed up with Authentix, a leading product authentication, to produce a system that is foolproof. The stamps can be downloaded digitally, eliminating the need and risks of shipping them to the wholesaler. The machine can transfer the stamps to the cigarette packs at a speed of 90 cartons of cigarettes a minute.

Plus, the stamps are almost impossible to forge, and it makes it easier for law enforcement to spot smuggling. The officer can use a small, handheld device that resembles the device that sets your car alarm that the officer can scan the pack with it.

It will give a simple yes or no. A larger handheld unit that reads the bar code and can tell where and when the pack was purchased and other information is also available.

Why isn’t the Mackinac Center advocating for this system instead of a lowering of a tax on a product that cues so much harm? According to their logic, we should do away with laws against robbery because thieves may be tempted to steal.

Senate Republicans continue to attack unions at expense of kids

LANSING -- A hearing of the Senate Appropriations Human Services Subcommittee on Tuesday that sets the budget for the Department of Human Services proved Senate Republicans will do anything to kill unions.

Last year child care workers organized the Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) certified CCPTM as the sole bargaining unit for all home-based child care providers receiving reimbursement payments from the Michigan Child Development and Care Program, and the contract calls for all in-home providers who care for Department of Human Services subsidy eligible children to pay union dues. Because of that, Sen. Bill Hardiman, R-Kentwood, chair of the appropriations committee, made it clear that at least the Senate version of the budget will be more clear for the coming year: no state funds for the Home-Based Child Care Coordinating Council.

The Michigan Quality Community Care Council, a standalone public body created by inter-local agreement under the Urban Cooperation Act of 1967, is charged with the mission of improving professional development opportunities for home based child care providers.

“I just think it’s wrong, and it’s my intention to present a budget that does not fund the Quality Community Care Council,” he said.

Rev. Larry Simmons, chair of the council, said it has provided value to child care providers and parents, and the council is a group of volunteers from around the state coming together to help a group of people who have been completely ignored for 15 years. He said child care providers have been excited about the training opportunities that have been provided through the council.

“I believe this is the most exploited workers or business owners in the state,” Simmons said. “These folks went 10 years without an increase in rates.”

I have no idea why Republicans hate the Democratic process and the working class so much. It’s hard enough to get people to sign a card to establish a union, and once they do that a further roadblock is thrown up and an election is held. A majority of home-based child care providers voted for a union, so Republicans are looking for another way to stop the union.

The rightwing, anti-union think tank the Mackinac Center and its newly formed Legal Foundation has been attacking the Child Care Providers since it was formed. They filed a lawsuit claming that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected that ridiculous claim, so while the case is under appeal, they turned to the Legislature where the anti-union Republicans were very receptive by introducing some bills.

The Republicans have been pushing to make Michigan a so-called “right to work” state to kill the union and have failed. Hardiman’s action to kill this union is similar to that action.

HC petition drive kickoff turns out to be another Republican tea party

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.

Republicans and their allies continue to attack unions and the Democratic process

Why do Republicans hate the Democratic process and the working class so much?

Republicans can’t stop workers from legally joining a union by a majority vote, they can’t overturn it in court, so they are now trying the legislative route.

The rightwing, anti-union think tank the Mackinac Center and its newly formed Legal Foundation has been attacking the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Mackinac Center, and their allies in the conservative media and in the Senate GOP caucus, think it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union.

The Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit claming that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. That’s like saying elections are invalid simply because there is not a 100 percent turnout. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected ridiculous claim, so while the case is under appeal, they turned to the Legislature where the anti-union Republicans were very receptive.

Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Grand Rapids, introduced Senate Bills 1178 and 1179 on Feb. 25, and they were referred to the Senate Families and Human Services Committee he chairs. SB 1178 would prohibit taking compulsory union dues from caregiver subsidies, and SB 1179 would prohibit the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) from recognizing a bargaining unit consisting of individuals who are not public employees. Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, introduced SB 1173 at the same time that almost mirrors SB 1179. That bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell.

Howell radio station WHMI carried a story on SB 1173 today with the headline, “Garcia Backs Legislation To Change Forced Unionization.” That’s like me saying I was forced to recognize George Bush as president even though I didn’t vote for him. A proper election was held to unionize, and the majority vote to unionize.

His co-sponsorship of SB 1173 is a little surprising when you consider he also co-sponsored SB 731 that would create the Michigan Quality Community Care Council. The Mackinac Center falsely claims it will strengthen the union. Among the things the bi-partisan bill would do is to form the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, and the council would be responsible for working to preserve consumer selection and self-direction of providers.

The fact is the unionization of home-based childcare workers reflects the new realities of the workplace. It stems from policy decisions made in the 1990s requiring persons receiving welfare to work or get work training. That meant their children needed care which helped lead to the growth of home-based care. But until the union was established, those workers had no voice is being able to express their concerns about the system and operations.

Republicans are against any thing that gives workers a voice.

Newspaper carrying water for rightwing think tank

The rightwing think tank the “Mackinac Center for Public Policy” began a bi-monthly newspaper called “Capitol Confidential” back in 2008, and it now appears it has a new daily newspaper called the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

In its mad dash to the right, the Press & Argus has been carrying water for the rightwing think tank, and today the paper helped the Mackinac Center out on its mission to kill the successful and award-winning Pure Michigan ad campaign to increase tourism in the state.

In a bleak economy, tourism has been one of the bright spots, and that has been borne out by the success of the Pure Michigan ads. In fact, in September the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association released a survey of its members showing 72.9 percent had seen an increase in out-of-state visitors coming to their facilities over the summer compared to the summer of 2008.

A study conducted by the respected Toronto-based Longwoods International has demonstrated that the Pure Michigan campaign has helped significantly boost tourism spending in the state.

“According toe the newspaper, “preliminary results of the study were made available just after the governor's address, the full study will not be available for a month,” and the Mackinac Center is basically calling them a liar by saying they cannot verify the data.

Not only have the ads won awards, they have the support on both sides of the aisle. According to subscription only Gongwers, Republican “Attorney General Mike Cox, one of the favorites to become the next governor, has said the ad campaign has worked. Even Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi,” supports it.

The Advertising campaign for the winter has already been canceled, and the fall ads are also in danger. House Bill 5017 would assess a $2.50 fee on cars rented near airports to fund the ad campaign. That’s what the Mackinac Center and its ally the Press & Argus are fighting.

Newspaper enables partisan attack on bipartisan bill

Although I didn’t think it was possible, the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus has veered even farther to the right and gotten even more anti-union.

Over the last month or so, they have championed the cause of the rightwing think tank the Mackinac Center and its newly formed Legal Foundation; running stories and an editorial bashing the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The paper and the Mackinac Center think it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union.

As I have said on numerous occasions, there is nothing more Democratic in the workplace than a union, and the vote to form the union was 5,900 to 475. They are both, apparently, angry that the Michigan Court of Appeals has rejected their claim that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. Under their logic, only elections that have a 100 percent turnout should be certified.

Knowing how aggressively the newspaper’s management pursued any attempts at unionizing this paper like their fellow journalists were successfully able to do at the Observer and Eccentric part of the chain, this position is not at all surprising.

What’s really surprising is that the paper almost ignores what’s going on in Lansing, but it is all over any union-bashing story.

Now, the newspaper is again doing the bidding of the Mackinac Center and going after home health care workers who chose to unionize. The government saves millions of dollars keeping seniors out of expensive nursing homes and allowing them to spend their final days in their own homes, but they want to deny the people caring for them a decent wage and health benefits and training.

A story in Thursday’s edition featured Senate Bill 731 that would create the Michigan Quality Community Care Council. The Mackinac Center claims it will strengthen the union. That’s simply not true. The workers have already voted for a union, and the bill sets standards.

Among the things the bill would do is to form the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, and the council would be responsible for working to preserve consumer selection and self-direction of providers. According to the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency, the council would also:

-- Provide support to providers through a variety of methods aimed at encouraging competence, achieving quality services for consumers, and improving provider retention through improved job satisfaction.
-- Protect the confidential status of information relating to consumers.
-- Assist consumers in deciding whom to employ to provide personal assistance services, how those services would be provided, and how long the employed provider would render them.
-- Develop recruitment and retention programs to expand the pool of available, qualified providers.
-- Provide or facilitate provider training and otherwise assist providers through the dissemination of information that assisted them to be successful in rendering personal assistance services to consumers.
-- Facilitate and coordinate advanced training for providers.

That sounds like pretty evil stuff.

The Senate votes on some 3,000 things a year, yet the paper is all over the anti-union stuff and ignores most of the rest. Why?

I have seen editorials in this newspaper on how the Legislature needs to stop partisan bickering and get things done and address the state's problems. SB 731 is one of those examples of bipartisanship. It is co-sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, it’s con-sponsored by some of the most conservative and liberal members of the Senate.

It is sponsored by conservative Republican Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, the chair of the Committee on Senior Citizens and Veterans Affairs. It is co-sponsored by conservatives like Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, and Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton; as well as by some of the most liberal members of the Senate; like Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, and Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods.

Perhaps the funniest part of the article is where it claims “While these professionals are crucial, a deal through the state that unionized them — and a bill that would strengthen it — is creating ire among some taxpayers.”

Well, it turns out those taxpayers are the Mackinac Center and a teabagger group headed up by Wendy Day, a founder of the defunct anti-gay hate group known as LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) and a book-burner.

The teabagger group has a new name, calling itself “Common Sense in Government.” It follows the Bush Administration’s practice of calling something the exact opposite of what it real is, like the Clean Skies initiative or the Healthy Forests initiative.

The paper says the teabaggers are pushing robo-calls in the sponsors and co-sponsor's districts “urging constituents to protest the bill.” It’s unclear who is paying for those calls, but I’m sure it’s no grassroots effort.

Anti-union activist says he will appeal union-busting case to the Michigan Supreme Court

Anti-union activist Chet Zarko is appealing the Howell Public School E-mail case to the Michigan Supreme Court, according to radio station WHMI and his response to me.

We're all entitled to due process and the process on this issue hasn't ended, so nothing remains to be seen,” he wrote on this blog on Jan. 28. “I'm (sic) you know the answer to whether I'll appeal.”

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Jan. 27 on the case involving a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for some 5,500 emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between the leaders of the Howell Education Association (HEA) and their union members were not public record and therefore subject to public disclosure.

WHMI is reporting he is being represented by the National Right to Work Foundation, a union-busting “non-profit” with the mission of “providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory unionism.” The mission of the group in this case, like Zarko’s original mission, is to bust or at least embarrass the union.

Back in the spring of 2007, Zarko in cahoots with anti-union Howell school board member Wendy Day, filed a FOIA in a fishing expedition request for the emails of union leaders on their HPS account. Zarko alleges HEA leaders have "conducted a large amount of union business on public time, including trying to retain MEA (Michigan Education Association) affiliated MESSA health-insurance, and using parent-teacher conferences to recruit parents (to) their side of a collective-bargaining debate.” Even though that was proven not to be the case, Zarko persisted in an effort just to find something embarrassing.

In October of 2008 Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille determined that the e-mails written by union leaders on school computers are public record, and subject to disclosure. The HEA appealed to stop the disclosure because both the district and the union agreed that they had a “recognized right” to use the email system.

That case was appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and oral briefs were taken by a three-judge panel at a hearing on Jan. 5. The court issues its ruling in favor of the union on Jan. 27, saying just because the 5,500 emails were captured by the school’s servers does not mean they are public record. The ruling concluded “We believe this question is one that must be resolved by the Legislature, and we call upon the Legislature to address it, we conclude that under the FOIA statute the individual plaintiffs’ personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system’s digital memory,”

This is part of Republican’s efforts to bust unions and make Michigan a “Right to Work for Less” state. Shortly after the ruling, the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center’s Legal Foundation sent out a press release saying this ruling “undermines” FOIA, but their only interest, like Zarko’s, is union busting. The rightwing think tank even filed a amicus curiae brief in the case.


During the Court of Appeals hearing on Jan. 5, HPS lawyers argued the case and Zarko sat in the back of the court room. Plus, the case is HEA Vs. “Howell Board of Education” and HPS. Zarko is listed as just a “Intervenor/Counter Plaintiff.” It’s unclear what role HPS will have in the case if it goes to the Michigan Supreme Court. I sure hope no tax dollars go to fund Zarko’s union-busting witch hunt.

Bank of America-subsidiary Detroit News says bank tax will hurt ecnomy

The news of an ownership change of a major newspaper drives another nail in the 30-plus year successful Republican political strategy of the liberal media.

Ownership of newspapers by a few mega-chains is not only hurting quality as the bottom line mentality rules the newspapers, but corporate ownership is also having effect on editorial policy.

The Associated Press is reporting that Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for newspaper publisher MediaNews, filed for bankruptcy on Friday. Among MediaNews' properties is The Detroit News, which it acquired from Gannett in 2005. Bank of America will hold 80 percent of Affiliated Media Inc., meaning that the bailed out bank owns a controlling interest in one of Michigan’s largest newspapers.

There is no doubt that the mainstream media is conservative.

I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that just a few days after Bank of America acquired a controlling interest in the newspaper, it published an editorial today saying that President Obama’s proposed bank tax will hurt the economy?

Banks received millions of dollars under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to stop them from going under because in their quest to reap more in profits they made bad loans contributing to the mortgage crisis that led to the economy’s meltdown. But now those banks are refusing to loan money to drive the recovery and giving huge bonuses to employees instead.

The president’s proposal would enact a 0.15 percent levy on bank, thrift and insurance companies with more than $50 billion in assets and would start after June 30. It would not apply to certain holdings, like customers’ insured savings, but to assets in risk-taking operations. It will be levied for 10 years, but it would remain in force longer if all losses to the bailout fund, the TARP, were not recovered after a decade. The Treasury now projects that the losses from the $700 billion loan program, which was created in October 2008, could reach $117 billion, about a third of the loss that it projected last summer According to the New York Times.

It seems pretty logical; pay back what you owe us before you give bonus to your employees and CEOs. Banks will have no problem harassing you if you owed them money.

But the Bank of America-subsidiary Detroit News thinks otherwise. What’s really funny is who they use as a source: Rightwing think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Give me a break.

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.

Right-wing think tank continues to attack state workers

I guess sometimes they can’t help themselves.

As you may have heard, respected Michigan State University professor of economics Charles Ballard recently issued a report that said state employees earn less than their private-sector counterparts with comparable educational attainment, on average. Hard working state employees have been blamed for the state’s budget problems the last few years, and it has become very fashionable to attack and bash them. But, the fact is they have been doing more with less for years.

State employees cost taxpayers $3.7 billion less than eight years ago because of wage and benefits cuts, and 11,000 fewer workers. Under big government advocate John Engler – that’s’ sarcasm for some of my critics – we had 61,493 state employees. In 2006 there were only 52,255 employees. That number continues to go down with layoffs, and the Department of Agriculture, for example, recently ended all inspections of pet shops and riding stables, as an example.

But the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus went looking for a reason to bash the report, and it didn’t have to look hard. In a story that appears at the top of the front page above the fold on Thursday, Ballard made the true statement that state employees have made "considerable sacrifices" in recent years to help the state address its ongoing budget challenges.

That did not sit well with Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy for the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center, who said employees in the private sector had made sacrifices too. My question to Mr. LaFaive on a day when all state employees are on an unpaid furlough day: is who said they didn’t make sacrifices?

Here’s the big difference, Mr. LaFaive, no one is bashing private sector employees like they are state workers.

“LaFaive said Ballard's report only takes wages and salary into account, and doesn't include the dollar value of health and other benefits. He said a state worker on average receives $30,000 in non-cash benefits as part of their overall compensation package.”

I can’t imagine what $30,000 in cash benefits he could be talking about. He can’t possibly mean health benefits alone.

If he does, I would compare the cost of health care to that of any private company that has 50,000 employees. It’s a simple fact that the larger the pool the cheaper the cost.

Like every other American, the benefit cost per month for out of pocket, deductibles, co-pays and prescriptions have steadily increased for state employees. In fact, Ballard's study notes that the cost per month for state workers for a family health insurance plan more than doubled what they paid in 2007. In fact, since 2000, premiums for family coverage have increased by 73 percent.

Isn’t time for real health care reform?

Republicans put the con in Convention

Apparently, the misnamed and misguided “tea parties” organized by rightwing Republicans and extremist hate groups allegedly to protest government spending and taxation has spawned a convention and a political party.

The gatherings were organized primarily by a pair of conservative Washington, D.C.-based lobbying groups and Republicans last month as so-called “grassroots efforts" turned out to be nothing more than an anti-President Obama rallies and a fundraiser. It has been claimed they are nonpartisan efforts, despite Republican elected officials who spoke at and helped organize the rallies.

Something called the “Michigan Tea Party State Convention” is set for June 13, and organizers claim the farce “isn't about party politics- it is about We the People.” That is simply not the case; this is just another Republican rally. My friend, ka_Dargo, discovered it was Wendy Day who registered the Tea Party Convention domain name.

Day is a member of the Howell School Board, a founding member of the anti-gay hate group LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) and a member of the Livingston County Republican Party executive committee.

The so-called convention will be held at the Capitol City Baptist Church in Holt, south of Lansing, and it will feature “general sessions,” “break-out sessions” and “winning ballot initiatives.” The fact is that 5013C non-profit groups, such as churches, are not permitted to do anything to help or hinder the election of any candidate to public office, and this clearly violates that rule.

A look at the panels for the breakout sessions further dispels the myth that this is a nonpartisan event, and it clearly proves it’s a GOP rally.

One of the breakout sessions is called “Welcome to the Underground! New media panel on blogging and social networking.” That is an area the Republicans have had trouble with, and the decision to include this in the convention is so surprise. One of the panelists is Nick De Leeuw, a former DeVos for Governor staffer who now runs the official unofficial GOP blog “Right Michigan.”

Another session called “Headlines and Interviews- Working with Media” features Detroit News reporter Dawson Bell, named one of the most biased reporters in the conservative media, and it will be moderated by former Republican state Representative and Macomb County Commissioner Leon Drolet, who is also a candidate for Michigan Senate in the 11th District.

The session on ballot proposals will be moderated by Scott Hagerstrom, the director of the extremist rightwing group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) of Michigan, one of the two lobbyist groups that organized the “tea party.” He was also a staffer for former right wing Republican Rep. Jack Hoogendyk.

The session on the state of the economy features panelists Jack McHugh, a senior legislative analyst for the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy; Paul Kersey, the director of labor policy at the same rightwing think tank; and moderated by Ken Braun, a policy analyst for, you guessed it; the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Ward calls in sick for 94tth Legislative session

After the 2006 campaign where he was as scare as snow in July in Livingston County, it came as no surprise that state Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton, missed more votes and more days of work than any lawmaker during the 94th Legislative session that just ended on Dec. 30.

Ward missed 385 votes out of a total of 1,500 roll call votes for the two-year session that ran from January 2007 until Dec. 30, 2008, according to an annul report by Michigan Votes, maintained by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The outcome for the term-limited Republican was never in doubt because he led the Legislature with the most missed votes in 2007, trailed closely by fellow Livingston County Republican Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell.

But Ward was given a run for his money in the session by Detroit Democrat Rep. Marsha Cheeks, the aunt of imprisoned Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Cheeks missed 358 votes in the session, but she edged out Ward for the annual lead in 2008, missing 288 votes to Ward's 252 votes in 2008.

With the Legislature only meeting three days a week it seems a little odd that Ward would miss so much. Many state employees live in Livingston County and work in Lansing, and they make the commute up and down I-96 everyday, myself included. The only difference is we are not paid mileage to commute like Ward is.

New way to get Lansing news that mainstream media may miss

With shrinking newsrooms and newsroom consolidation, only the state’s two largest newspapers and the largest newspaper chain maintain a Lansing bureau, meaning there is less reporting on what is going in the capital. But for those wanting to keep a closer eye on what’s going on in Lansing, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently launched a new bi-monthly publication called “Capitol Confidential.”

The publication is free. It's available just by signing up at the center’s Web site, and it's also available online.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy “is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to improving the quality of life for all Michigan citizens by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions,” according to its mission statement. Many people call it a conservative think tank, but the center describes itself as “dedicated to providing a free-market perspective on public policy issues that are economic in nature.”

Capitol Confidential, one of eight periodicals published by the Mackinac Center, focuses on the votes and proposals in the state Legislature that traditional, mainstream media may not cover.

Capitol Confidential complements and is similar to the Michigan Votes Web site operated by the Mackinac Center. The Web site allows people to search for bills and resolutions by number, keyword or lawmaker, and it gives the voting record for each bill, as well as the voting record for the individual lawmaker. You can also go to the site to set it up to receive individually tailored e-mails of bills when they are introduced by subject or lawmaker.

Capitol Confidential contains some of the same raw data, but it also provides more analysis of bills, resolutions and proposals.