Senate Democrats move to protect voter’s choices and the School Aid Fund

LANSING - Senate Democrats announced today at a press conference that they will be introducing a constitutional amendment to guarantee money from the state’s School Aid Fund is dedicated to K-12 education and not diverted to the general fund

The amendment comes in response to Gov. Rich Snyder’s budget proposal which would divert money from the School Aid Fund to pay for other measures of the Governor’s budget, including corporate tax giveaways.

“Governor Snyder recently said ‘It’s not about politics; It’s about doing the right thing,’ and his budget is far from it,” said Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D – East Lansing. “He wants to cut school funding so the state can afford corporate tax handouts that have no guarantee of creating jobs. I ask what corporation would want to locate in a state with the failing school systems his budget would surely create.”

When citizens voted in 1972 to create the Michigan Lottery and again in 1994 to pass Proposal A, they did so with the understanding that the funds generated by these measures would be dedicated to supporting public education. The Governor’s proposal to divert that money to fill a deficit in the state’s General Fund budget is a clear strike against the intent of the voters.

“The citizens of Michigan have made it clear that they expect education to come first,” said Sen. Bert Johnson, D – Detroit. “This is exactly the type of accounting gimmick Governor Snyder said he wanted to avoid, and is yet another example of this administration saying one thing and doing another.”

Senate Democrats said they would be hosting a series of town hall meetings throughout the state to seek input from Michigan’s families on their concerns and priorities for the state budget, and they have invited Snyder to attend because of his love of townhall meetings.

“The people of Michigan have to live with the consequences of the budget passed by the legislature,” said Sen. John Gleason, D – Flushing. “It is only fair that we ask them for their input and ensure that their voices are heard within the Capitol chambers as these significant decisions are being made.”

Here are the townhall meetings, and most locations are TBD at this time.

Oakland County
Thursday April 7

Western Wayne
Thursday, April 14, 6:00pm-7:30pm VFW Hall, 27345 Schoolcraft, Redford.

Saginaw
Monday, April 18

Flint
Thursday, April 21

Detroit
Monday, April 11, 6:00-8:00pm

Grand Rapids
Tuesday, April 19, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Kalamazoo
Monday, April 11

Steele fund raising letter full of lies and discrimination

We already know teabgger Republican Rob Steele – the next victim of the Dean of the U.S. House, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D - is an outrageous liar, but now we know he apparently hates senior citizens.

A friend of mine from Monroe, my hometown, gave me a copy of Steele’s Oct. 4 fundraising letter, and in it, Steele continues to go after Dingell because of his age, saying “the 84-year-old incumbent has been a Washington insider for 55 years…Longer than I’ve been alive,” Steele wrote.

When you combine that with the fact that Steele wants to kill Social Security, it’s clear he hates senior citizens.

Then the dishonest Steele doubles down on the lies when he falsely claims Dingell will not debate him.

“True to form, incumbent Dingell says he’s too busy to debate me (sic) but I’m thinking that someone like you, who is fed up with the Dingell-Pelosi Status Que (sic), might not be too busy to make a difference in this all important race,” Steel wrote.

That’s an outrageous lie. Perhaps Steele forgot about the debate set for 6:30 p.m. October 20 at the La-Z-Boy Center Meyer Theater on the campus of Monroe County Community College. Steele accepted the offer the very day he sent this letter out, so he knew he was lying.

In fact Dingell sent a letter to Steele right after he won the August primary election congratulating him and asking for debates, but all Steele did was lie and cry that Dingell was avoiding him. After a month of blustering from Steele, Dingell finally sent a letter on Sept. 14 asking that Steele commit to as many debates as possible, and Dingell says he looks forward to appearing at voters forums put on by various groups like the AARP and others. Dingell accepted the invitation from Monroe Community College to debate weeks before Steele finally accepted.

Steele continues to falsely claim that Dingell is out of touch and is not accessible. Steele is actually describing himself, and it simply does not apply to Dingell. I don’t think you will find a more accessible Congressman.

The fact is, and anyone living in the15th District knows this, Dingell is home every weekend as well as whenever Congress is out. In fact, it has been Steele and his teabagger supporters that have gone out their way to restrict the voter’s access to Dingell, and they have done it by staging protests, rude badgering and total disruptions at any public event they know he will be at.

I personally got a taste of Steele trying to provoke a confrontation.

Steele and his hard core teabagger supporters have make it impossible for people to have the traditional townhall meetings Dingell is famous for. The most recent examples were in Flat Rock and at Pte. Mouillee. Who can forget the townhall meeting in Romulus back in August of 2009 that teabggers disrupted, yet Dingell held a second one to accommodate all the people waiting outside who could not get in, despite the abuse he was taking.

In a letter filled with so many lies, it’s hard to single them all out, but this one caught my eye, “…a mere 37 percent of Congressman Dingell’s constituents believe he deserves re-election,” he wrote.

Like all of the other Steele lies, he pulled that one out of his ass because the best independent poll gives Dingell a double digit 19 point lead at a 49-30 percent.

Rogers invents new lie about health care reform

Mike Rogers is a liar, but he is even taking the standard lie that the proposed health care reform plan will cancel your private health insurance and put everyone on Medicare even going farther and scaring senior citizens who love Medicare and telling them the lie that they will lose Medicare if the bill passes.

This makes you wonder if there is anything Rogers will not say to defeat President Obama? If Medicare is so bad - the government run health insurance program ran by the federal government - why would seniors be upset about losing it? Why would people then be upset if they went on it?

The Brighton Republican held a "tele-townhall" Wednesday evening because he is too sacred to hold a real townhall like all of Michigan’s Democratic Congressional delegation has, and in a story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, Rogers floated the outrageous lie that according to Section 102 people will lose both private health care and Medicare.

Not true. Factcheck says “The legislation wouldn’t require anyone to switch health insurance – though, in most cases, plans would eventually have to meet minimum benefit standards.” Factcheck also says Rogers scare tactic on Medicare is false, saying “And Congress isn’t proposing to cut benefit levels or to deny treatment to anyone who is "not worth the cost."

But I’m not the only one calling Rogers a liar, but they do it more nicely.
“Saint Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital doesn't share Rogers' views on the future of private health care and Medicare, said Tonya Nottmeier, director of Federal Advocacy for Trinity Health, which includes the Howell hospital.”
"Our health system has studied the House legislation and shared suggestions for improvement with many members of Congress. Congressman Rogers' comments do not reflect our understanding or interpretation of the legislation," Nottmeier said.

It doesn’t fit anyone else’s understanding or interpretation of the legislation besides tea baggers.

Rogers then tried to defend not holding townhall meetings like Democrats have.
“Rogers said he's found the phone forum eliminates the "shenanigans" seen at some in-person town halls, such as the presence of organized groups and people shouting down one another.
He said the phone forums have proven more cost-effective, and, unlike public town halls, allows thousands to listen in and participate.”

Did he say "shenanigans?” Well, there is no liberal lobbying group - or any liberal group - putting out a script on how to disrupt townhall meetings or shout anyone down.

Get to the Peters townhall before the ‘tea baggers’ and ‘birthers’

There can be no doubt that the extremist rightwing Washington, D.C. lobbying groups behind the fake, Astroturf and misnamed “tea parties” are the same people scripting the disrupting of the townhall meetings of Democratic Congressman.

Republicans are promoting a pair of townhall meetings in Oakland County this week; one they plan to disrupt and one they don’t. The first one is actually tonight, Monday Aug. 31. The “health care townhall” is set for 7-9 p.m. at the Mott High School Performing Arts Center, 1151 Scott Lake Rd. in Waterford 48328 hosted by Freshman State Rep. Gail Haines, R-Waterford. Yes, you heard right; a state Representative.

Apparently, the meeting is for residents of Waterford, Lake Angelus and West Bloomfield Township, and photo ID is required. Can you imagine if a Democrat asked for an ID the fake outrage we would hear from the right? The ad also says, “Please no fliers, handouts or political signs on the school’s premises.”

Now, if they said none of those things that we saw at Democratic townhalls were not allowed inside I could understand, but they are not even allowed outside? Come on.

The first question I would like to ask Rep. Haines is what the heck is a state lawmaker doing hosting a townhall meeting about federal legislation? I know the answer, but I would like to hear her answer. The reason is that Republicans see defeating the President on health care reform is a way to get power back on both the state and federal level.

These farces are apparently taking place in Oakland County, and they bring in speakers who are against health care reform. Extreme right-wingers Reps. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, and Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy, recently held one of these farces, and Knollenberg said if there were seats left after all the residents of his district were seated others could attend. He reneged on that promise.

The other townhall meeting is actually being hosted by a U.S. Congressman: U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township. The townhall is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sep. 1 at West Bloomfield High School, 4925 Orchard Lake Rd. in West Bloomfield, 48323.

You need to get there at least a half hour early because the tea baggers have been pushing this hard, and you can bet they will disrupt it so they can get on the local news and on Faux “news.”

Senate Republicans play to the rightwing base and ignore important pending legislation

LANSING – If you need to see where the real priorities of the Michigan Senate Republicans are, you just need to be in Lansing Tuesday and take in the meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by right-winger Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland.

The committee will be considering two items: Senate Resolution 17 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 4. Both resolutions “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” I kid you not. With all the work that needs to be done, the Republicans feel the need to take up two non-binding suggestions that are little more than rallying points and fodder for rightwing Republican, Astroturf tea baggers.

The Republican-controlled Senate has met only once in August, nor have they held any committee meetings; other than campaign-like meetings, like the so-called “House Republican Jobs Taskforce” that only wants to meet with business owners. The Democratically-controlled House was holding regular sessions and committee hearings this month until this week when it gave it up waiting for the Conference Committees to send over the budget bills, and they held committee as late as Wednesday.

You will recall that the House and Senate passed different versions of the budget bills for each state department, and the bills were referred to a conference committee where the differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions will be resolved. The problem is that even though the bills were passed in June, the conference committees do not yet have them.

The Governor, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader are in closed door negotiations over the state budget, and they must agree on targets before the bills go to the conference committee. You will recall that the Senate version included draconian cuts while the House version involved a mix of cuts and revenue from federal stimulus funds. Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, has a history of negotiating in bad faith to make Democrats look bad, and we saw the same thing in 2007 when Democrats had to step up to avoid a brief government shutdown.

This development comes on the heels of a new report by the Citizens Research Council (CRC) of Michigan that says local units of government, colleges and schools are forced to make decisions regarding numbers of personnel, contracts, tuition levels, in "an informational vacuum" when their fiscal years begin in advance of legislative appropriation decisions. That's because in Michigan, many locals governments and school districts have July 1 as the start of their fiscal years while the state’s is Oct. 1. The later the budget gets approved, the more difficult it is for them to plan, but Senate Republicans have bigger fish to fry.

The Senate version of the school aid budget had drastic cuts that included a $110 cut in the per student foundation grant, eliminated School Readiness grants, Early Childhood funding and Child and Adolescent Health Centers. Many parents are enrolling their children in pre-school programs as the start of the school year fast approaches, but the programs will not be there if Senate Republicans have their way.

This comes on the heels of a report in the Detroit Free Press that says only 65 percent of children entering kindergarten classrooms this year were ready to learn the curriculum.

But where are the Senate Republicans priorities? Playing to the party base with meaningless crap like the 10th Amendment.

They could be taking up the workplace smoking ban many people have been clamoring for, or take up laws to make voting easier that has bipartisan support and were passed in the House or take up the unemployment bills that will give Michigan families running out of unemployment access to $140 million in federal funds. But where are the Senate Republicans priorities? Playing to the party base with meaningless crap like the 10th Amendment.

The 10th Amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791, and it basically restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.

Now, I’m not a Constitutional law professor and scholar like President Obama, but isn't the role of the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure laws uphold the Constitution? However, general opinion is that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to do more or less anything that is not explicitly prohibited by the first eight amendments.

It is, apparently, rare, for the Supreme Court to take up 10tn Amendment cases. Again, I’m not a Constitutional law professor and scholar, but the Court has only taken up such cases where the federal government compels the states to enforce federal statutes. In just the first time in 55 years, the Supreme Court invalidated a portion of a federal law for violating the Tenth Amendment in 1992 in a case that challenged a portion of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 that provided incentives for states to comply with statutory obligations to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste.

It seems to me that if people have problems with the federal stimulus plan; appeal it to the conservative Supreme Court.

In earlier time in this country, the states used the 10th amendment to justify repressive and immoral policies, including slavery, the ability to seize abolitionist literature from the mail, secede from the union and to send slave-catchers into non-slave state territory to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, all in the name of state’s rights. There was apparently some war fought in 1861-65 over states’ rights and the ability of states to secede from the federal government.

During the 1960's civil rights fight, the 10th Amendment was used because southern states invoked it as a barrier to enforcement of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment gave citizenship to and protected the civil liberties of recently freed slaves, and states’ rights were used to maintain Jim Crow and Segregation.

The 10th Amendment has been fodder for conservatives for more than a decade. The movement got a boost following the Democratic control of Congress and the White House and more traction when federal dictates about how to spend stimulus money raised hackles in places like Texas and South Carolina. It also got a boost with the fake, Astroturf “tea parties.”

I’m sure the Committee room will be packed Tuesday with the same people who say the President is not a U.S. citizen, go to “tea parties” and disrupt townhall meetings put on by Democrats, but I also guarantee that this meeting will be more respectful.

Bishop condones and encourages angry mobs

If there was any doubt that the disruptive, rude and intimidating behavior at townhall meetings is being caused by the lies and scripts provided by rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop just confirmed it.

Bishop appeared on righting talk show host Frank Beckman’s show last week and condoned the angry mobs who have been disrupting and hijacking the townhall meetings of Democratic members of Congress, spurred on the lies and scripts provided by the health insurance lobby, rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans. Bishop went even farther by suggesting the angry mobs go after Gov. Granholm if the solution to the estiamnted $2.8 billon budget shortfall includes any sin tax increases.

With this Bishop involved, you know why budget negotiations are going so slow. The Governor, the Speaker of the House and Bishop are currently in closed door negotiations over the state budget. Part of the negotiations includes a number of rumored proposals to raise revenue to close some of that gap.

It’s obvious that bullying and intimidation is a favorite Bishop tactic. Just last week he officially justified the assault by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, on 72-year-old Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit.

Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer called Bishop out of those tactics, and pointed out that mob mentality and brawling are common themes with Bishop, recalling the brawl he was involved in on Mackinac Island a few years ago.

“We need to be having civil discussions on health care as we move toward reform,” Brewer said. “Condoning this mob behavior is despicable, but then again it’s coming from Mike Bishop, a practitioner of such tactics.”

You may recall that back in 2003 Bishop suffered a concussion, a chipped tooth, a facial cut requiring stitches and a battered nose after Bishop climbed into a horse-drawn taxi and told Aaron Kirk’s companion that she was too good to be with Kirk. Bishop admitted to telling Kirk’s companion, "You ladies ought to think twice about who you go out with at night. Police said that both combatants had been drinking, and that Bishop refused a breath test and that he declined to press charges.

Kirk got a year's probation after his no-contest plea to assault and a guilty plea to possession of marijuana and ecstasy.

This guy wants to be the chief law enforcement officer of Michigan?

Dingell Townhall on tap today

Congressman John Dingell, D-Dearborn, will be holding a townhall meeting at 12:30 p.m. today - Monday Aug. 10 - at the Downriver Community Conference, 15100 Northline Rd. in Southgate.

Although the townhall is not about health care, the extreme rightwing tea baggers riled up by Washington, D.C. lobbying forms may show up and try to disrupt this one as well. I haven’t heard many details, and I only caught a brief mention of it on the local TV news. So, if you’re free for lunch and anywhere near the Downriver area, stop by and show your support and listen to what he has to say.

Rachel Maddow continues to expose who is really behind the hijacking of townhall meetings

MSNBC host and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow has been blowing the lid off the attempts by rightwing lobbying groups and think tanks to shut down townhall meetings hosted by Democratic members of Congress with some hard-hitting shows the last couple of days.

Right-wingers have been attending townhall meetings to shout down Democratic members of Congress so they cannot answer legitimate questions from constituents, and it has been organized and scripted to look like a grassroots effort, just like the fake Astroturf “tea parties.” In fact, it's the same players. These are professional, highly paid lobbyists stirring up the supporters with false rhetoric, and it includes instructions and scripts on how to hijack the meetings and stop the truth from getting out.

The primary focus of the thugs is health care where the insurance lobby is spending $1.4 million a day to stop real reform as 50 million Americans go without access to quality health care.

On Wednesday night, Maddow reported on a web site called “Recess Rally.com” that is supposed to give you the info on all the townhalls around the country so they can be hijacked by thugs. I have been unable to get on the web site, so hopefully, the publicity sent the snakes back under their rocks.

The false claim is that these "spontaneous” protests are grassroots efforts by regular Americans, and they are non-partisan. It’s true they may be regular Americans, but it is extremely partisan and highly organized by rightwing lobbyists. Maddow listed the supporters of “Recess Rally” on Wednesday, and they include the Republican movers and shakers in Washington and former Bush operatives; even the person behind the anti-troop smear boat veterans.

The right-wingers are pulling out all the stops to combat needed health care reform, and Maddow talks about one in the show. She explains how both Democrats and Republicans supported living wills and end of life decisions for more than 20 without controversy, but now it’s somehow government assisted suicide.

The Right wing PAC “Club for Growth” – you will remember them from when they flooded extremist right-winger Tim Walberg with money in the U.S. Congressional race in 2006 – is running adds pushing that false and ridiculous claim that the health care plan will kill grandma and grandpa.

There are already plans to disrupt and hijack townhall meetings in Michigan, including tonight’s townhall hosted by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, at 6 p.m. at the Romulus Athletic Center, 35765 Northline Road in Romulus.

Get there early.