Glad I don't live in Michigan

[trekgeezer]

I heard about this a couple of weeks ago,  sounds akin to a King appointing Regents.   This law blatantly takes away voters rights.

http://www.politicalruminations.com/2011/03/michigan-governor-rick-snyder-now-has-the-power-to-suspend-the-rights-of-the-people.html


The good news is a recall is already underway.

http://reality-based-world.org/2011/03/18/preparations-are-being-made-to-recall-michigan-governor-rick-snyder/

[indianasmith]

I would take that with a King sized grain of salt.  Leftist bloggers are not the most reliable source of information  . . . of course, right wing bloggers often aren't either.  I'd read the actual text of the law before doing anything like a recall.

Democrats ran Michigan for decades, and the result is a state that is an economic and social wasteland. Democratic politicians voted huge handouts to labor unions, who in turn made huge donations to Democrats, who voted new taxes to pay for more handouts to labor unions, until the state's economy melted down.  Now they are talking about bulldozing entire neighborhoods in Detroit, because no one lives in them but drug dealers and prostitutes.

  How bout we give the GOP a year or two to try and fix things before dumping them and turning things back over to the ones who made the mess to begin with?

[trekgeezer]

This is the truth and I don't care who is in charge, you don't take peoples rights, like firing the people they voted for to run their town.

I didn't mention the part about hims raising taxes on the elderly and education so he could  cut corporate tax rates by 86%


I really enjoy listening to people on the far side of both parties rant about the same thing with the same platitudes over and over again while never doing anything that changes anything.

I don't care about anything but people's rights being protected.

This is  the truth and if you think one individual should have that much power, you don't need to be living in democracy.    There was one version of the bill  that would let private companies to take over the towns and cities.   

I'm sure that would be more to your taste. 

[RCMerchant]

I DO live in Michigan-and Cock Sucker Snyder-who is infamous for outsourcing jobs to China-has a bill up to TAX the pensions of senior citizens! Gov. Engler was another Nazi f**k.

[indianasmith]

If the law's unconstitutional the courts will shoot it down.  I tend to listen to both extremes with a very jaded ear.

As far as corporate tax cuts . . . how else you gonna get companies to move to your state and create jobs?  Especially in a state where unions have drastically inflated wages?

If you look at the high-tax, high-regulation, union-friendly states, what you see is unmitigated economic meltdown and businesses and citizens fleeing left and right. Michigan and California are the two best examples.  Look at places like Texas, where the government is more business friendly, taxes are low, and regulations less restrictive, and as a rule, you will see states that have weathered the recession pretty well.  Those policies bring their own set of problems, true enough - but the state has better resources to deal with the problems.

  As I'm fond of saying, neither party is right or wrong ALL the time. But I do believe in giving people a real chance to see if their agenda works (within reason) before showing them the exit.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

This is the truth and I don't care who is in charge, you don't take peoples rights, like firing the people they voted for to run their town.

I didn't mention the part about hims raising taxes on the elderly and education so he could  cut corporate tax rates by 86%


I really enjoy listening to people on the far side of both parties rant about the same thing with the same platitudes over and over again while never doing anything that changes anything.

I don't care about anything but people's rights being protected.

This is  the truth and if you think one individual should have that much power, you don't need to be living in democracy.    There was one version of the bill  that would let private companies to take over the towns and cities.   

I'm sure that would be more to your taste. 

Agreed that noone on either side of the aisle should have that much power, or the power to declare emergency and appoint whoever to do whatever that person (or his superiors) would like.   

The only other recent example of this sort of blatant power was when FEMA was allowed to unlawfully confiscate legally owned firearms from Katrina victims during state of emergency.  Funny though,  some of the cops looted along with the rioters, and the gangs were shooting up the place, and noone said a thing about that...

Before his ouster in 2010, NJ Governor Jon Corzine was inching dangerously close to the same type of power. Hell, he shut the state down for almost 2 weeks until he got his paltry 1% tax hike, I can only imagine what he would have done with a bigger issue..

[RCMerchant]

The poor in Michigan are FED UP! We were fed up with Granholm too. Snyder is just making a bad situation worse. "The Tough Nerd"-he shames the name 'nerd'. He's a corporate big wig out to milk us like he did Gateway.

State Minorty Leader Gretchn Whitman-"Gov.Snyder's idea of shared sacrifice seems to mean that working families will do most of the sacrificing while companies continue to reap the rewards.He is balancing this budget on the backs of our children,working families,and our senior citizens. Contary to his rhetoric about "moving all of Michigan forward" this budget picks out who he's willing to leave behind."

Damn straight. I hope he does get yanked-I'm SICK of fat cat politictians renegging on campaign promises-just to act like little dictators once the get in the mansion-this is a democracy-we put him in-we can take him out.

[indianasmith]

Well, RC, you are there and I am not, so I will defer to your wisdom!

[Jim H]

A huge part of the problems in Michigan stem from how poorly run the American auto industry has been for a long time.  Anyone who truely lays the blame of that on unions (which Indiana isn't entirely doing but many do), is simply ignorant of just how awful the big three have been for decades - in a legal, moral and business sense.  With a partial exception (very partial) of Ford.