Teabagger petition drive doesn’t even net half the required signatures

As predicted, the petition drive by Michigan teabaggers to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it by placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law failed, but we only found out on Tuesday how miserably it failed.

The teabaggers held a “press conference” yesterday on the Capitol steps, and organizer and Howell School Board member and founder of the anti-gay hate group “LOVE” Wendy Day said the group got only 145,000-170,000 signatures. That’s well short of the more than 381,000 valid signatures required to place it on the ballot in November. That’s less than half the required signatures. That illustrates how really weak the so-called “teabaggers” are, and it’s all just a fringe group screaming hate at the top of their lungs.

But Day’s quote in the Detroit Free Press article is just priceless.

“We didn’t fail. We just didn’t succeed enough.”

This is Day’s second failed petition drive in less than a year, and last year she failed in an attempt to recall three of her four school board colleagues who voted to fire the former district Superintendent.

Day’s spin was a far cry from last March when she launched her doomed campaign at an illegal rally at the Howell Freshman Campus when she said “Go to one tea party; go to two. We can get plenty of signatures. The tea party express is coming through.”

Those of us who live in Howell hope Day’s embarrassing 15 minutes of fame are up, but I doubt that will happen. Even her fellow teabaggers know what a media hound she is.

As I said in the past, the petition drive was just an exercise to build a Republican mailing list of supporters, and some of Day’s fellow teabaggers recognize that. We actually have no idea how many signatures were actually collected because no petitions were actually turned in to the Secretary of State. Fellow “tea party” organizer Joan Fabiano had this to say about it in an email published on a rightwing blog.

“All data collected is the property of Wendy Day, (State Rep.) Tom McMillian (sic) (R-Rochester Hills) and shared with the Republican Party and who knows who else Fair Taxers? No data is shared because the petitions were not turned in and made public.”

McMillin and Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, both said in subscription only Gongwer that they would introduce legislation that would allow Michigan residents to opt out of the federal health care law, as the constitutional amendment on the petitions would have done.

I’m not sure what effect or weight a law will have. Kuipers, who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra, introduced Senate Joint Resolution K last March to place the same constitutional amendment on the ballot that teabaggers were seeking. It failed to get the necessary two-third vote to pass.

Senate Republicans ignore the pollution of CAFOS

LANSING – The Gulf oil disaster demonstrated less regulation and oversight is not a good thing. Someone better tell that to the Michigan Senate Republicans.

On Wednesday, the Senate approved resolution 158 that urges “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rescind rules that would require dairy farms to have oil spill prevention plans for milk storage tanks.” It passed – unfortunately, with bipartisan support – by a vote of 24-10.

Eric Barren at Michigan Liberal had a good on this a few days before Wednesday’s vote:

“The definition of oil is not "petroleum." Oils are substances that at room temperature are viscous liquids that don't mix with water. Alas, the critical, illuminating piece of science is buried under reverse Ripperisms ("Ice cream, Mandrake, childrens' ice cream?"), accusations of government run amok and the standard objection of seemingly insensitive environmental lobbyists.
Those objections, incidentally, make a good deal more sense if you highlight the -- you know -- fundamental science of the issue rather than descending into the same lousy environmental reporting that has helped slow our collective response to global warming for two decades. Instead, we get some tired old narrative about gummint bureaucrats run amok, and policy direction that pretends that calling something an oil is the same thing as calling it petroleum, which itself places policy at odds with basic science definitions.”

The sponsor of the resolution, Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, said if the EPA does not act to rescind the rules, we should ignore the law.

Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, noted the irony of that position. Kuipers is running for Congress in the seat vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland.

“I find it ironic that the previous speaker says we should disregard federal law, yet he is on a mission to go there and make it,” Whitmer said. “With regard to this resolution in front of us, this is a resolution and I think it is odd timing to ask that the EPA not require prevention plans for oil spills; anyone watching C-SPAN around here?”

Whitmer said milk is a wholesome product in a child’s body but not in Michigan’s waterways. Milk can have very serious environmental consequences once released into our surface waters.

Whitmer said according the University of Wisconsin Extension Service, milk has a high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD measures the amount of oxygen consumed when organic matter, such as milk, is broken down by bacteria. In streams and lakes, bacteria would need the dissolved oxygen from 1,600 gallons of water to break down the organic matter in one pint of milk. Because it depletes oxygen, discharging milk into surface waters can upset biological communities and kill fish. The minimum tank size of 1,320 gallons would be enough to deplete the oxygen in almost 17 million gallons of water.

“Milk also has a high concentration of phosphorus, a nutrient that causes the growth of algae and aquatic plants which can deplete oxygen levels in our lakes and streams, exacerbating an existing problem with excess phosphorus in our waterways,” she said. “In today’s world, it’s especially true that it is not unreasonable to ask that emergency plans be in place in case of milk spills or the failure of bulk milk storage tanks.”

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have been cited for polluting rivers and streams in Michigan with runoff from manure, and these are huge factory farms. A small CAFO would have 1,000 cows that would result in, at the rate of 20 gallons a day per cow, a volume of milk reaching 20,000 gallons a day. But the largest CAFO in this state hosts 3,000. So we are talking about 60,000 gallons of milk a day.

“Now just to put this in perspective, we are not talking about a few cows and a pretty red barn with a dairy maid sitting on a stool with a little bucket milking a cow,” said Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor. “That is not what happens on these farms these days. We have, unfortunately, in this state made it all too easy for CAFOs to operate in this state after they were expelled by the country of the Netherlands.”

Patterson blasts Bishop in press release

LANSING – Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton, blasted his caucus leader, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, with a press release Thursday accusing Bishop of playing “insider political games” that “put Michigan lives at risk.”

A brief meeting of the Senate the Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee on Thursday, chaired by Patterson, touched off the controversy. The committee was to hold a discussion of a bipartisan package of bills, Senate Bills 1310-1313, addressing stopping utility theft, but Patterson learned the bills had been sent to the Judiciary Committee instead.

Patterson said the bills were carefully designed to address the problem of stealing energy, both electricity and natural gas, and instead of being referred to his committee which had been working on the matter for nearly a year “the petty Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Michael Dean Bishop, sent them to the unrelated and ill – prepared Judiciary Committee.” Patterson said for more than a year, he has worked with Rep. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, to craft the bills, and that both he and Mayes have held hearings on the legislation and conducted field investigations.

“Energy theft not only increases rates, it’s an extremely dangerous activity that puts families and our neighborhoods at risk,” Patterson said. “Republicans support this legislation; Democrats support this legislation. The only road block is Senator Bishop. It makes no sense.

Patterson said instead of seeing quick action, the legislation is now languishing in the Judiciary Committee, where members are working to educate themselves on the highly complex, multi-faceted legislation. Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, chair of the Judiciary Committee, is also a member of the Energy Policy Committee, and Patterson said Kuipers confirmed the bills were only referred to the Judiciary Committee “to mess with Patterson for his continued independence and because of the pretext that the bills were about theft as opposed to energy.”

Patterson had been at odds with Bishop in the past for on occasion voting with Democrats, and he even stripped Patterson of a committee assignment two years ago for helping Democrats discharge a bill Patterson wanted action on.

“If Senator Bishop wants to punish me for my independence, fine; we can address that as a separate issue,” Patterson said. “But assigning this legislation to a committee not prepared for it is recklessly putting Michigan citizens in danger.

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.

Senate Republicans try to score cheap political points with ‘meatout’ resolution

LANSING – With the State of Michigan facing a budget deficit and vital services for people who are hurting through no fault of their own being cut, Senate Republicans managed to take time out of a Senate session on Wednesday to pass a meaningless resolution with no teeth to protest a promulgation that has no teeth and carries no weight.

A proclamation issued by Governor Jennifer Granholm calling Saturday a "meatout" day in the state and encouraging people not to eat meat that day as part of a healthy diet drew protests from agriculture and hunting advocates that was way out of proportion. This is no different than those the Governor has issued supporting Michigan wine and egg farmers.

This is a national effort, and according to their website, “ Meatout is an international observance helping individuals evolve to a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains. The purpose is to expose the public to the joys and benefits of a plant-based diet, while promoting the availability and selection alternatives to meat and dairy in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering operations.”

Wednesday was also Agriculture Day in the Capitol where the Michigan Farm Bureau and farmers display home-grown fruits and vegetables in the Capitol and lobby their Representatives. Apparently, Senate Republicans think fruits, vegetables and grains are not grown in Michigan. The fact is it’s hard to know where your meat came from, but that’s not the case for fruits, vegetables and grains.

But Senate Republicans took the opportunity to score some cheap political points in an election year. During the Senate session, every Senator is allowed to make a short speech on any subject they choose, and it’s usually at the end of session. On Wednesday it was moved to the middle of the session, and three straight Republican Senators got up and railed at the Governor’s promulgation. Not much different was said between the three, but it’s their right to make a fool of themselves.

That led Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor to interject some sanity following the three rants.

“So, basically, what that proclamation does is not, I don’t think, try to harm any meat producers, but it encourages farmers who are producers of vegetables, fruits, and grains, of which there are many, many in this state promoting good health and reducing the risks of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases which take the lives of approximately 1.3 million Americans each day,” she said.

Brater also pointed out that the same proclamation has been offered by governors in many other states, including the cattle producing state of Texas and Alaska when Sarah Palin was the Governor. Then Brater actually read the promulgation:

“Whereas, March signifies a national celebration of the importance of agriculture in the United States as it provides almost everything we eat, use, and wear on a daily basis; and to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by Michigan’s farmers and the agriculture sector; and

Whereas, Michigan’s farmers provide consumers with not only food and fiber, but also biofuels and other sources of renewable energy, which are essential to life; and
Whereas, Michigan’s food and agriculture industry, our state’s second-largest economic driver, contributes over $71.3 billion to our state’s economy each year; and
Whereas, Michigan’s agricultural industry provides a variety of wholesome and healthy products including but not limited to beef, dairy, field crops, fruits, horticulture products, pork, poultry, sheep, and vegetables; and
Whereas, Michigan’s agricultural economy expanded at a great rate of more than five times faster than the rate of the general economy; and
Whereas, I urge all Michiganians to join me in recognizing the importance of our agricultural industry, from farm to fork, and to help celebrate this day with meals made with a variety of local Michigan ingredients, including but not limited to meat, vegetables, and dairy products; and
Whereas, The first day of spring has been traditionally designated National Agriculture Day since 1973;
Now, Therefore, be it Resolved, That I, Jennifer M. Granholm, governor of the state of Michigan, do hereby proclaim March 20, 2010, Michigan Agriculture Day, and encourage people throughout the state of Michigan to partake in the abundance of Michigan’s agricultural commodities.”

That led to another ridiculous comment by Sen. Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond.
“Let’s just all go over to the Governor’s mansion and have tofu and seaweed,” he said. “Great Americans eat red meat. Great Michiganders eat meat grown in Michigan.”

And great Michiganders also eat fruits, vegetables and grains that we know are grown in Michigan.

The timing for statements was unusual, until Sen. Wayne Kuipers , R-Holland, introduced Senate Resolution 129. that would “urge the Governor to rescind her proclamation making March 20, 2010, Michigan Meatout Day.”

That resolution passed by a vote of 25-12. Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Hunntington Woods, summed up the debate over the resolution best.

“I wish we would spend this much time on finding funding for education,” she said.

Newspapers jumped all over the harmless promulgation, and some of the reaction was just ridiculous. The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus had a front page story.

In the story, Don Miller, butcher at Great Lakes Butcher Supply in Oceola Township, said one day will hurt his business. “Encouraging Michiganders not to eat meat — even if just for one day — constitutes a boycott,” the paper said.

But Judy Daubenmier, head of the Livingston County Democratic Party and a Catholic, had the best response when she said Catholics do not eat meat on Fridays.

“Aren’t they losing business on Friday? What’s the difference,” Daubenmier said.
“Don’t we grow fruits and vegetables in Michigan as well?”

One butcher even had the audacity to say eating meat was healthy. He said “implications that meat is unhealthy are irresponsible, “To imply that meat is unhealthful is uneducated, kind of reckless.”

Then maybe your doctor is full of crap when he tells you to cut down on red meat, and you should go to your butcher instead of a doctor for a check-up. The fact is taking an occasional break from eating meat is healthy.

Senate Republicans play election politics with health care reform

Even though the state budget is facing a shortfall and Michigan residents are hurting and need help, that didn’t stop Senate Republicans from flagrantly playing election politics on the Senate floor today.

The Senate took up Senate Joint Resolution K today, a proposed constitutional amendment designed to exempt Michigan from the health insurance reform bill moving through Congress.

It would “Prohibit a Federal law or rule from compelling any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system,” and it is clearly aimed at the current health insurance reform bill being reconciled in Washington, D.C. and playing to the Republican base that has taken an extreme right turn.

The amendment required a two-thirds majority to go before the voters, and it only got 24 of the 26 required votes. Every single Republican voted for it, and two Democrats crossed over to vote yes.

Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, called the Republicans out for playing politics with federal law, and she said it was unconscionable when we are facing major problems and the Senate has not yet addressed the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Individual Market Reform package of bills.
“This joint resolution feeds into the fear-mongering that is paralyzing Congress and the Legislature here in Michigan,“ she said. “The irony of all this, as we hear the debate that says the state should be taking care of things themselves, we are not doing that.”

The resolution was introduced by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra, who is running for Governor. At least three other Republicans are considering a run for the seat, and because he has a tough primary, he is playing to the base with this ridiculous resolution.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, recognized that.

“I also further believe that underlying this joint resolution was a lot of cynical politics, and I find it sad that we would use such a critical issue that affects nearly every one of the people we represent here to advance in an election year; cynical politics of fear” he said.

Obviously, the Supreme Court has spoken the state’s rights issue long ago, and this could have some serious negative effects on the state.

“I think one of the further un-discussed ramifications of this may have been what it could cost the state of Michigan if we are making this statement and trying to contravene what is going on in Washington,” Prusi said. “That's the potential withholding of Medicaid payments, SCHIP payments and other health care dollars that flow from Washington to the states.”

Senate committee attempts to circumvent the will of the voters with medical marijuana

Supporters of the popular medical marijuana law that won overwhelming voter support in November of 2008 are concerned that the Legislature is trying to regulate and effectively kill the program.

The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Senate Bills 616-618 before a committee room packed with supporters of medical marijuana on Tuesday. The bills would treat medical marijuana as a schedule 2 narcotic, limit a patient's ability to get the drug and require that it be purchased from a pharmacist with a physician's prescription. Supports say the bills could end the program and circumvent the will of the voters, and that may appear to be the case.

“The voters have been very specific on this,” said Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit. “I’m asking that we don’t rehash the issue.”

That appeared to be the case with some conservative members of the committee. It led to some heated testimony that may have been better aired before the election. Many of the issues brought up were clearly settled in the election.

“So this initiative was really about liberalization of marijuana use,” said Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, the chair of the committee.

Greg Francisco, the director of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, denied that charge, and he said it has helped thousands of terminally ill patients, disabled patients and patients with chronic pain.

“This is a plant and a medicine,” he said. “I think that we should take it off all schedules and treat it like any other herb.”

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC) turned in 474,752 signatures -- 304,101 were required -- for the measure to go on the ballot in February of 2008. Under Michigan election law, once the signatures were verified the initiative was sent to the Legislature, where lawmaker had three options. Within 45 days they could have enacted it with the restrictions they want now, rejected it, or done nothing, which they did, and it went on the ballot.

After the law was passed, the Department of Community Health (DCH) had 120 days to come up with rules. Since April, the DCH has issued registration cards to 10,400 users and growers after getting approval from a doctor. The cards protect people from arrest and prosecution, and caregivers with a card are able to supply up to five patients with medical marijuana. The DCH opposes the bills as written, but they did say there needs to be more clarification.

If the bills pass, it will basically put doctors and pharmacists in violation of federal law, which could kill the program. What doctor or pharmacist would put their license at risk by illegally writing a prescription and filling it. Marijuana possession is still against federal law. State governments cannot directly violate federal law by giving marijuana to patients, but states can and do refuse to arrest patients who grow their own. The Obama administration has said it will not go after states with medical marijuana laws.

Supporters were also concerned about the penalties the bills enact, making it a felony for a card holder to sell marijuana to a non-card holder. The problem is the penalty is stiffer than for someone off the street who sells it.

“It strikes me as legally unnecessary,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing.

The committee did not vote on the bills.

Michigan Legislature pushing a pair of useless teabagger health care resolutions

The Teabaggers have a new cause to rally for, and they have a new ally in their corporate sponsored Astroturf “tea parties:” the Michigan Legislature.

Rightwing Michigan lawmakers have introduced a pair of grandstanding resolutions aimed at much needed health care reform that means little or nothing just to play to the base. The resolutions would amend the Michigan Constitution, and they “state that no federal law shall compel any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any public or private health care system. The resolution also says “the purchase or sale of health insurance or coverage in private health care systems shall not be prohibited by federal law or rule.”

We have seen how the right will push any lie to stop health care reform to protect the huge profits of insurance companies, and it’s sad the Legislature is wasting time on this useless stuff and enabling them. They disrupted townhall meetings held last summer because they don’t want people to hear anything but their misinformation, and this is just an attempt to rev up that misgauged hate we saw at townhall meetings put on by Democratic lawmakers.

Senate Joint Resolution K was introduced by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, on Aug. 27, 2009, and it was referred to the Health Policy Committee where it is awaiting action. Kuipers is running for the 2nd District Congressional seat that will be vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra who is running for Governor. This is just a grandstand play to the extreme righting base that is taking control of the GOP.

House Joint Resolution Z was introduced by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, on Aug. 19, 2007, and it too was referred to the House Health Policy Committee where is awaiting action. I don’t know much about Amash. He is a freshman with no record, so I don’t know what he’s running for. But he is a teabagger and has spoken at some of the Astroturf “tea parties.” It’s sad that he endorsees the blatant racism that goes on at these “tea parties,” but that’s where the GOP is headed.Just to be to be placed on the ballot either resolution must pass both the Michigan Senate and House with two-thirds of the members in each chamber voting yes.

This is nothing but another bone to the extreme teabaggers. It resembles the 10th Amendment resolutions approved by the Michigan Legislature last summer that “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

There is nothing in the federal health care reform bills that compel anyone to give up their private health insurance.

Election politics speeds Gitmo resolutions through the Senate

LANSING – Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, may have set a record for getting a piece of legislation through and approved Wednesday; showing what a strong motivation politics and an approaching election are.

Kuipers introduced a pair of Senate Resolutions on the Senate floor in the morning Senate session on Tuesday to ask the President and Congress to declassify intelligence information regarding the Gutantanamo Bay detainees. That afternoon the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Kuipers, took testimony on the resolutions and passed them to the Senate. The next day on Wednesday, the full Senate took them up and passed them.

He already had a receptive crowd of “tea baggers and “birthers” for the committee meeting because he was taking up a pair of resolutions on the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a favorite cause of extreme right-wingers for years.

Ironically, there was basically only one witness for the Gitmo resolutions; although a few “tea baggers” filled out cards and got a few minutes of mike time. But it was dominated by U.S. Rep. Pete “Twitter Pete” Hoekstra, R-Holland, a harsh critic of the President and for closing Gitmo.

But the really important thing to note is that Hoekstra is giving up his seat in Congress to run for the Republican nomination for Michigan Governor in 2010. Guess who is running for Hoekstra’s open seat and desperately wants his endorsement? If you guessed fellow Holland native Kuipers you get a gold star.

Kuipers announced his decision to run in December, along with fellow Republican State Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland. Clearly, the Gitmo detainees will be a campaign issue, both nationally and in the Gubernatorial race. Gitmo will join the budget and the Michigan State Police Headquarters as campaign issues in Michigan in 2010; for the Gubernatorial race, the entire Senate and the entire House.

You have to wonder if Kuipers’ decision to showcase Twitter Pete had anything to do with who he will endorsement for his old seat? I’m guessing heck yes.

As you know, the state is considering housing Guantanamo Bay prisoners at the soon-to-be-closed Standish Maximum Correctional Facility. Most Standish officials, many Standish residents and many state officials favor the move or at least exploring it to help the local economy.

There is a townhall meeting set to discuss the issue in Standish tonight, and it’s no coincidence that some of the GOP Gubernatorial candidates are falling over themselves to hold press conferences in Standish.

State Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, used the Senate floor to campaign for Michigan governor Wednesday, but he supports at least looking into housing the Gitmo detainees at Standish. I’m not sure that position will serve him well in the GOP primary.

“Some argue that incarcerating enemy combatants here will make Michigan a target, but we are already a target,” George said from the Senate floor Wednesday. “We have a federal center in Battle Creek, Fort Custer, and other National Guard bases. We have Selfridge Air National Guard Base, VA hospitals, federal courthouses and defense contractors. We are already a target.”

Now that the Senate has passed a couple of resolutions that do nothing so quickly in a mere 24 hours, they can now take up some legislation that will help Michigan residents and have an effect on their lives that has been staled for years and months in the Senate, like the budget, the workplace smoking ban the majority of people have been clamoring for, take up laws to make voting easier that has bipartisan support and were passed in the House, auto insurance redlining or take up the unemployment bills that will give Michigan families running out of unemployment access to $140 million in federal funds.

Now that those two resolutions have passed in the Senate, the next question is when will extremist Republican Rep. Paul Opsommer, R-DeWitt, introduce the Gitmo resolutions in the House?

Right wing performance art featured at committee meeting

LANSING – In an out of control Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, the committee approved a pair of Senate Resolutions to ask the President and Congress to declassify intelligence information regarding the Gutantanamo Bay detainees before a decision is reached to house them at the soon-to-be-closed Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in northeastern Michigan.

Originally, only two items were supposed to be on the agenda; a pair of non-binding resolutions that “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” That resolution has been a rallying point for years for the extreme right-wingers, and the audience was made up primarily of “tea baggers” and “birthers.”
But committee chair Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, introduced the two resolutions on the Senate floor earlier in the morning, and they were considered a few hours later. U.S. Rep. Pete “Twitter” Hoekstra, R-Holland, a critic of housing the detainees in Michigan and a candidate for Michigan Governor, testified for most of the meeting.

The ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, he said he had info that no one else had on the prisoners, and they were too dangerous to be in a Michigan community like Standish. I’m not sure how much different Standish would be when you consider how many Navy families live at Gitmo. Hoekstra also said there were legal questions that needed to be addressed.

“We do know that when we move them onto U.S. soil, they receive some of the same civil rights U.S. citizens have,” he said. “We are unclear what civil liberties they have in Gitmo.”

Federal officials toured the prison in Standish this week as a potential place for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and the President has vowed to close the prison there because it stands as a symbol of oppression to the rest of the world and mars the America’s reputation as a beacon of freedom.

Last week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections Reform held a hearing on the question, but they had both opponents and supporters of the plan testified, including Standish residents, the city manager and county commissioners. The Senate hearing had just Hoekstra and a few “tea baggers” there for the 10th Amendment show who testified.

The Republicans used the show to take numerous shots at the President and Democrats.

“The President is going to have to come up with some convincing answers as to why Gitmo should be closed and why they should come to Michigan,” said Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, and one of the most rightwing members of the Senate.

Although this was clearly a show and the Republican’s minds are already made up, Democrats supported the concept of getting more information.

“I’m going to support this, but it is with some angst,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “The money we will receive is not the bottom line, and we need to have a robust debate; but I was just handed this a few hours ago on the floor.”

There are supposed to be no demonstrations at committee meetings, but Kuipers let that go on, as well as attacks on Democratic members. Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, brought up the irony that information on Gitmo has been restricted to just the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee, but the resolution is asking that same info be released to the entire Michigan Senate. That brought an unprovoked and unbelievable attack by Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton, that Clarke was trying to make it partisan. Like the show put on by the Republicans was not partisan.

“I try to keep an open mind, but I don’t appreciate these personal attacks,” Clarke said.

Rochester Hills “tea bagger” Jeff McQueen made the unbelievable and racist point that Michigan should be the last place to consider housing Gitmo detainees because of the large Arab-American population in Dearborn.

“A cell of Middle Eastern men would stick out like a sore thumb in Utah, but not in Dearborn,” he said.

That brought a rebuke from Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, who said as a retired Ford employee he has spent lots of time in Dearborn, and said the most dangerous terrorists before 9/11 was Tim McVeigh.

“I have lived and worked in the Downriver area for more than 30 years, including Dearborn, and I have never met a terrorist,” he said.

Senate Republicans throw fake ‘tea party’ during Judiciary Committee meeting

LANSING - Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, threw a fake Astroturf “tea party” Tuesday, but the only problem was he chose the Senate Judiciary Committee to do it, and six other Senators had to hear the drivel usually spouted at the fake “tea parties.”

With a boatload of meaningful Legislation the Senate Republicans could take up, like the budget, the workplace smoking ban many people have been clamoring for, laws to make voting easier that has bipartisan support and were passed in the House or the unemployment bills that will give Michigan families running out of unemployment access to $140 million in federal funds. Instead, the committee wasted almost two hours on a pair of resolutions that mean absolutely nothing.

The Judiciary Committee approved - there was no reason to vote against them - Senate Resolution 17 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 4. Both resolutions “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

This has been a rallying point for extremist right-wingers since the militia was widespread back in the mid 1990s; it’s no coincidence they are back.

The sponsor- Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton, - said it was a no-brainer. He was right. This was simply playing to the base.

“There is nothing to debate,” he said. “All this does is remind us of what we already agreed to.”

I agree. So, why did we waste two hours listing to extremist Republicans rail against the Democratic administration and crap about “state’s rights?”

Representatives of rightwing extremist groups tramped up to the microphone one after another to read their talking points. We heard from groups like the rightwing Republican Washington, D.C. lobbying group and think tank Americans for Prosperity - the people behind the “tea parties” and disrupting town hall meetings - something called the “campaign for liberty” and even a rightwing blogger who said she helped organize the fake tea party in Lansing.

The hearing raised more questions that were answered. Like where were these people railing about the federal government when George Bush was shredding the Constitution?

Where were these people when Bush conned Americans into a useless war that did nothing but endangered this country?

Where were these people when Bush violated the separation of powers with the signing statements that said he wasn’t going to uphold the law?

Where were these people when Bush was spying on American citizens?

Where were these people when Bush was dictating what we had to teach with no dime left for any child program?

Where were these people when Bush was blowing the cover of undercover CIA agents?

Where were these people when Bush was politicizing the U.S. Justice Department?

Where were these people when Bush was giving no bid contracts to his cronies in Iraq?

Where were these people when Bush was giving out bank bailouts?

We even got a long, rambling speech from former extremist Republican State Representative Jack Hoogendyk, a board member of Michigan AFP and a candidate for just about every office in Michigan.

“The first 10 amendments were therefore added to include the ancient, unalienable rights of Anglo-Saxon freemen so there could be no question as to the strictly limited authority the people were conferring on their central government,” he said.

In an earlier time in this country, the states used the 10th amendment to justify repressive and immoral policies, including slavery, to secede from the union, to deny African-Americans the right to vote and southern states invoked it as a barrier to enforcement of the 14th Amendment and to justify segregation and Jim Crow.

A pair of Senate Republicans display a rare but brief show of independence

LANSING – Senate Republican’s lock-step discipline faltered a little on Tuesday with the passage of House Bill 4438 that sets the budget for higher education, and two members actually showed a brief flash of independence.

The budget basically guts financial aid for students and eliminates the $4.000 Promise Scholarship. The program promises up to $4,000 to high school graduates for successfully completing two years of postsecondary education.

The Senate Republicans have continued their draconian budget cuts as they prepare for their two-week vacation that begins Thursday; knowing the House will bail them out. The devastating cuts to the higher education budget come at a time when Michigan is trying to diversify its economy and counter the jobs because of the state’s largest employer – the Big 3 – losing market share.

“We must keep our promise of granting Michigan citizens access to an affordable college education,” said Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor. “With our traditional manufacturing job base shrinking and our unemployment rate continuing to rise, our kids need a college education now more than ever to qualify for the jobs of the 21st Century. This is an extremely shortsighted decision that sets our students and our state back even further.”

Senate Democrats tried to fight off the deep and damaging cuts, but all the amendments they introduced lost along party lines. But Democrats got some surprising support when fiscally conservative Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced an amendment that cut the $4,000 scholarship to $2,000.

When it looked like it would pass, Majority Floor Leader Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, moved the amendment be passed temporarily, and a closed door caucus was immediately called to take Cassis to the woodshed and get her back in line. When the Senate reconvened, Cassis lost her brief flirtation with independence and she dropped the amendment and introduced one that left the now Broken Promise Grant line-item with a $100 placeholder that was approved.

Sen. Buzz Thomas, D-Detroit, then introduced the same amendment as Cassis had to restore half of the money for the Promise Scholarship, but it failed along party lines.

HB 4438 received just enough votes to pass, and it was approved almost along party lines with a vote of 19-17. Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, joined the Democrats in voting no on the budget.