Moroun spreads cash and misinformation

It’s old news that Republican billionaire benefactor and Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun is spreading misinformation and lies in order to keep his monopoly on the busiest commercial border crossing in all of North America, but as the public-private partnership for the planned Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) bridge inches toward a reality, he has pulled out all the stops.

Most people have seen his TV commercial full of lies and the Michigan Truth Squad has called them out on their $400,000 worth of lies and scare campaign. The Moroun family now has bought the help of Faux “news” pundit Dick Morris and the Washington, D.C.-based rightwing think tank “Americans for Prosperity.”

Morris will work for anyone who pays him, and the so-called AFP organized and financed the teabaggers. The AFP has sent out glossy, full-color direct-mail pieces and radio ads against three Republican senators who have not taken a position on DRIC. The DRIC bridge has widespread bipartisan support, including the last three Michigan Governors and the current one; Snyder, Blanchard, Engler and Granholm.

The shrinking but vocal teabaggers have taken up the cause, blogging about it and calling lawmakers because Moron has sold it as a public bridge against a government bridge, ignoring the fact that public uses are just that, and if the DRIC bridge it not built, the 10,000 jobs and a new bridge will go to Buffalo.

Moroun claims a second bridge is not needed because traffic across the bridge has fallen, while he ignores the basic truths that we are just coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression and the domestic auto industry going into bankruptcy. The fact is Ambassador Bridge “traffic jumped 11.4 percent between 2009 and 2010,” and Moroun has not explained why then he wants to build a second bridge if traffic is falling.

But the biggest lie is that DRIC will lose money and stick Michigan taxpayers with $100 million every year, and that is the scare tactic they are peddling. Canada has agreed to pay Michigan’s estimated cost of $550 million, and it will not cost Michigan taxpayers a penny. The Canadian government has called the proposed bridge its most important infrastructure priority and it will not give Moroun a permit to land this bridge to, again, empty into downtown Windsor.

MIRS launches new political podcast

There is a new political talk show in town, and for a political junkie like me that’s a great thing.

MIRS (Michigan Information & Research Service), the subscription only newsletter that covers the Capitol, launched an hour long podcast focusing on Michigan politics on Monday, and it will run weekly on Monday. The podcast is hosted by MIRS’ Editor Kyle Melinn. Panelists include MIRS’ Publisher John T. Reurink and Correspondent Susan Demas, who also writes for the Michigan Truth Squad.

It features discussion and interviews, and the best part is that even though MIRS is subscription only, the podcast is free.

I love podcasts, which are kind of like audio blogs. They are excellent for a slow day in the office because you can listen anytime you want and pause them anytime you want. Some podcasts are just recordings of radio shows, like the Stephanie Miller Podcast I subscribe to, but there are some great local ones, too.

One of my favorites that comes from a broadcast radio show comes from the Lansing City Pulse. The hour long show is broadcast on Wednesday evenings on 89 FM, the Michigan Sate University radio station, but its podcasts are archived on the City Pulse web site. The shows go all the way back to October of 2008, and they have filled some slow afternoons at the office. The show was, until last week, also hosted by Melinn and City Pulse Publisher Berl Schwartz. The show has guests that generally cover three areas: politics, the arts and the local Lansing area.

My favorite non-radio podcast is called “Two Guys Named Joe” put out about one a week by political consultants Joe DiSano and Joe Munem. One is a Democrat and one is a Republican, and they offer up lots of great inside information.

One of the newer but really good podcasts on Talk Lansing is “The Back Room: Michigan Politics” hosted by veteran journalist and radio host Walt Sorg. The show features a weekly rotating roundtable of mid-Michigan political activists that has included Ari Adler, former press secretary to the Republican leader of the Michigan Senate; Mark Grebner, Democratic political consultant and longtime Ingham County Commissioner; and Kathie Dunbar, Lansing city councilperson and head of the South Lansing Community Development Association.

Ethically-challenged sacrificial lamb Raczkowski launches a deceptive smokescreen

There is no doubt that all the hype that this is a Republican year is designed to suppress voter turnout, but it is a strange year when the likes of ethically-challenged sacrificial lamb Andrew Raczkowski has a chance against U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township.

Peters has been running some very effective and true ads that highlight some of Raczkowski’s trouble with the truth. Raczkowski is being sued by his former business partners for fraud who claim that, as the head of Star Tickets until earlier this year, Raczkowski owes them more than $6 million after grossly underestimating the number of tickets sold for concerts at the 2008 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

According to the lawsuit, representatives of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally commented that the crowd for the Kenny Chesney concert – one of the performers along with Kiss and John Fogerty, alone “was the largest concert crowd ever at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was in its 68th year). An expert from the School of Engineering at North Carolina State University has viewed various photographs taken of the concerts and has opined that the crowd for the Kenny Chesney alone exceeded 42,000 people,” yet Raczkowski claimed he only sold 25,000 tickets for all three shows combined. The Kiss Army alone can sell 25,000 tickets.

The filing says “the simplest way to determine the number of persons who actually attended the concerts would be to take a count of the number of ticket-stubs collected at the gates of the concerts.” However, the claim is that Raczkowski took the unusual step of immediately seizing the boxes containing the ticket stubs and destroying them to jibe with his claim of 25,000 tickets. The lawsuit claims that in Raczkowski’s haste to cover up his crime he “ended up destroying more ticket-stubs than the number of ticket sales reported.”

Raczkowski’s response to the Peters’s ad has been to sue him to stop the truth from coming out. He figures he already has a team of lawyers on his payroll, so what the heck, what’s a $100 filing fee to the big corporate dollars rolling in to the Raczkowski campaign. So much for tort reform because he has zero change of winning.

But this is nothing but a smokescreen. In fact, he has taken the lead of fellow GOP Congressional candidate Rob Steele and misrepresented himself.

According to MLive, “Raczkowski supporters, calling themselves the Oakland County Truth Squad, protested on Thursday outside the Berkley Public Library as the Peters campaign debuted the ad.”

Like Steele calling his supports “Steelworkers” to make people think he has labor support, Raczkowski is trying to make people think he has the support of the Michigan Truth Squad, a project of the Center for Michigan that debunks political ads and claims in the current election cycle.

GOP gubernatorial candidate using right to work for less as campaign ad

Republicans have long tried to kill labor unions and take away worker’s rights, and that is what the so-called “Right to Work” push is all about. Now, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Bouchard is using it as a campaign strategy to cater to the fringe that controls the GOP. The problem is she is lying about it.

The fact is conservative groups and individuals from both out of state and in Michigan have been pushing right to work for less as a way to end collective bargaining, drive wages down, kill unions and kill what’s left of shrinking middle class. That’s something respect leaders have known for some 40 years.

Proponents of right to work for less claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don't want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTWFL would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union.

Unions in RTWFL states are required by law to defend non-dues-paying members involved in a dispute or charged with a grievance at work, but even those employees do not have to contribute dues. Such a provision does not give workers more rights, but instead it weakens unions and their ability to bargain for improved benefits and working conditions, which is the real intent of RTWFL. The union, by law, must represent all workers equally.

Bouchard has been running a TV ad pushing RTWFL called “Guess,” but the Michigan Truth Squad called him out for outright lying in the ad.

Bouchard claims "Consider this: 22 states have a right-to-work law and their unemployment rate is around 8 percent. Not Michigan's. ("Michigan unemployment 13.6%" appears on the screen.)"

The fact is, According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, June unemployment in the 22 RTWFL states was 8.3 percent. The unemployment rate in the 28 states that require workers at workplaces represented by unions to pay dues was 8.6 percent. That’s a .3 difference. The state with the highest unemployment in the nation, Nevada, with unemployment of 14.2 percent, is also RTWFL state. In New Hampshire, which has union worker laws similar to Michigan, it was 5.9 percent. Not only that, the average per capita income in RTWFL states, according to the 2009 Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis data was $37,324; in the 32 other states, the average per capita income was $38,917.

Then he says, “"Guess where our jobs are going and our kids with them."

The jobs are going overseas, but the kids are not going to RTWFL states.
“Today eight of the 22 RTWFL states -- Nevada, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee -- have unemployment rates of 10 percent or above. A 2008 survey conducted by Michigan Future Inc. and the state's 15 public universities found that Michigan college graduates who leave here mostly are going to non-RTWFL states. The top five states attracting recent Michigan college graduates were, in order; Illinois, California, New York, Ohio and Texas. Only Texas among those states has a RTWFL law.

But here is most outrageous lie, calculated to get right-wingers off their butts and to vote for him.
"To get a job, workers shouldn't be forced to join unions or have money pulled from their paychecks to fund political action campaigns. That's driving business away."

“In Michigan, campaign finance laws require union members must either write a separate check for a PAC contribution, or provide written annual approval for automatic payroll deductions. It's a felony to force union members to make a contribution to union political causes. It's incorrect to say a union member has to make a political contribution to get a job. And with unionization in Michigan at a historic low of 18.8 percent, it would seem that many workers are finding a job without being "forced to join unions."

The Michigan Truth Squad is a project of the Center for Michigan, a "think-and-do tank” formed by Phil Power, the former owner and publisher of Hometown Newspapers, in 2006. The Truth Squad will promote honesty and integrity in the political campaign season.

The Michigan Truth Squad checks the Republican noise machine

With the Republican noise machine, the conservative media and millions of dollars spent on 30-second TV ads this election season, it’s hard to decipher the truth from hype and outright lies; enter the Michigan Truth Squad.

The Michigan Truth Squad is a project of the Center for Michigan, a "think-and-do tank” formed by Phil Power, the former owner and publisher of Hometown Newspapers, in 2006. The Truth Squad will promote honesty and integrity in the political campaign season.

The Truth Squad is enlisting the help of voters, and they can win prizes when you see a questionable claim in the political advertisements you see or hear this year. “If you hear or see a political ad - on TV, radio, in the newspaper, in the mail, on the Internet, via email- direct mail piece, individual campaign website, blog, press release, or other campaign material that raises questions in your mind,” send it to the Truth Squad. “ If a tip exposes an exaggeration, misinformation, an outright lie, or a distortion,” they will “call a “Foul!” on the candidate and campaign.” The tips can remain anonymous.

Tipsters will have a chance to win Truth Squad T-shirts, Flip Ultra camcorders and a grand prize two-night stay at the luxurious Greektown Casino-Hotel.

Doing the refereeing and investigating the tips will be Rick Haglund and Susan Demas. Haglund is a veteran reporter, covering Michigan business, economics and government at newspapers throughout the state. Most recently, at Booth Newspapers, where he wrote a statewide business column. He currently writes freelance for the Grand Rapids Press, Crain's Michigan Business, Detroit Legal News, The Center for Michigan, Dome magazine and others.

Livingston County residents will remember Demas when she briefly worked at the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. She writes a weekly syndicated political column reaching 3 million readers every week, appearing in RealClearPolitics, the Detroit News, Lansing State Journal and eight newspapers for Mlive.com, the largest news site in Michigan. She currently writes for MIRS, Michigan Information and Research Service that covers the Capitol in Lansing.