GOP War on the Poor: Travel metaphor edition

by: Eric B.

Fri Nov 25, 2011 at 10:24:44 AM EST

Or in the case of the food stamps assets test, in literal terms.

Ever wonder how the Michigan Department of Human Services came up with its now-altered policy of banning people with decent cars from receiving food stamps?

Turns out it was because Department Director Maura Corrigan saw a Hummer parked in DHS office parking lot. The former Michigan Supreme Court chief justice asked if it belonged to a client and was told yes. She also was told it was "irrelevant" in determining a person's eligibility for food stamps.

This is the story that's been making the rounds for the last couple of months, at least. Maura Corrigan thought she was having a Welfar Cadillac Queen moment and act without thinking things through. By the way, this doesn't save the state anything, since food stamps are a federal program. It's just part of an agenda that seeks to throw people off public assistance and frame it as helping the poor become more self sufficient.

Meanwhile, just in time for the holidays.

About a thousand Michigan families will find out on Monday or Tuesday whether they will be cut off of cash assistance welfare benefits for hitting a four-year cap.

The state Department of Human Services is holding two days of “rocket docket” hearings.

The idea is to prevent a drawn-out appeals process; which is most useful if you've got a pretty good idea of how you're going to rule in the first place.

Jack Lessenberry: Media lynching

by: Eric B.

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 16:36:10 PM EST

Jack Lessenberry:

“The real story here is how incompetent journalists and partisan political opponents smeared a very good and decent man,” Clawson said.  Incidentally, Clawson is not a political supporter of the liberal Democratic congressman. He ran for office as a libertarian last year. He’s just in favor of fairness. And the more I looked into the story, the more uneasy I became. It first appeared in the right-wing Washington Times after it was reported by a blogger, Susan Bradford, who later urged caution, saying she is now uncomfortable with the story, said it might be part of a blackmail attempt, and added “I don‘t know if the allegations were true or not … I am urging the members of the press and public to withhold judgment till all the facts are in.” Well, that’s a little late.

Here's a link to the coverage from WNEM, which aired teasers for the spot at least on Sunday during the NFL. It is every bit as awful as Lessenberry makes it out to be. The accuser gets a protracted interview to detail his accusations that he'd been sexually assaulted by Dale Kildee. His mental illness problems are mentioned, although only in the context that Kildee is responsible for them. At the end, the person -- the station's news anchor -- gives Kildee a chance to emphatically state that he's not guilty, and then says that numerous attempts to actually interview him for the piece were rebuffed ... this is code in journalism for, "We're not saying the guy is guilty, but given the chance to defend himself he blew us off." It's a way to pressure people into talking.

As noted here yesterday and again today, if the allegations have been burbling around for a year and if people thought they were serious enough to warrant peddling to the media, what did the police have to say on the matter. Rather than diving into a very serious story like this with a paper record based on an investigation by neutral police investigators, what we have is a he-said/she-said smear campaign against a retiring Congressman.

Flimsy excuses to cover Kildee accuser

by: Eric B.

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 11:36:53 AM EST

Remember yesterday when we asked if anyone had bothered to ask Genesee County's GOP chairwoman if she'd contacted law enforcement before peddling the half-assed allegations against Dale Kildee? Right, well she claims she did, except that she didn't actually contact the right people.

Adam said she also took the allegations to the Michigan Attorney General's Office last year after obtaining a letter from the alleged victim's family.

"The concern was brought to Attorney General (Mike) Cox in later 2010 and his criminal division determined that the statute of limitations had run out," said John Selleck, a spokesman for current Attorney General Bill Schuette. "Our office gave it a fresh look again in 2011 and the criminal division came to the same conclusion."

When you have an idea that a crime has been committed, you don't contact the attorney general. You contact the police, who investigate and then forward the evidence they collected to the county prosecutor's office. Then, and only then after the evidence is sifted through, does anyone make a determination on whether someone can be prosecuted. I mean, who knows, maybe in the course of the investigation they come into evidence that the accused tried to intimidate or bribe the accuser from going public. The story being peddled here is that the complaint was dismissed before an investigation was conducted. So, this is either a case of people lying or incompetence.

Rightwing inertia lurches forward

by: Eric B.

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 11:23:22 AM EST

Preventing state government from establishing regulations more restrictive than the feds is a dumb idea that should die a very miserable, painful death so that no one ever thinks to bring it back up, but it just won't.

Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake Township, sponsored a similar measure that included language prohibiting state rules more stringent than federal. But his Senate Bill 272 has since been stripped of such language and currently contains other elements. It and HB 4326 are part of an overall legislative package that amends rule-making and regulatory processes.

Kowall said he still believes the state should not be able to go beyond federal standards, but "maybe what we'll need to do is work with the governor's staff in defining which agencies are affected by this; maybe we could exclude a few. Setting some criteria in there is another option."

If it's a bad idea for one state agency, it's a bad idea for every state agency; because whatever rationale you have to exclude the one would ultimately apply to all the rest of them. And, no, those restrictions aren't going to create jobs or induce investment. If people want to invest and expand in Michigan (so much for economic gardening), they'll do it and navigate through the rules. Plus, the permitting process was actually faster under Jennifer Granholm than her regulation-cutting predecessor.

And, no, this doesn't create predictability, because the standards apply across the state. Someone who wants to develop property can go to the DEQ, find out what regulations apply to it, and build accordingly. If the state Legislature wants to smooth the regulatory process for development, it really ought to shift planning and zoning from the micro-local level (i.e. townships) to the county, and require every planning and zoning unit to use a single, unified language in their plans and ordinances. But, this isn't really about predictability and smoothing processes, is it?

Gongwer: GOP giving up on recalls

by: Eric B.

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 14:30:40 PM EST

Gongwer is reporting, via Facebook, that Michigan Republicans are dropping recall campaigns against six Democratic lawmakers, presumably for the sole crime of being elected Democrats. I'm sure they have their reasons, and I'm sure the ones they tell the public aren't actually the real ones, unless they come clean and admit that the public doesn't think too highly of recall campaigns launched for no better reason than partisan retribution.

Anyway, if the report is true, then there won't be any recalls on the ballot Feb. 28.

Genesee GOP chairwoman is your new Penn State graduate assistant

by: Eric B.

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 11:34:07 AM EST

What was the biggest no-shit takeaway from Joe Paterno's fall at Penn State? When given information about allegations of sexual abuse, you do more than tell your boss. You call the cops ... a lesson that apparently failed to dent the thinking of Genesee County's GOP chairwoman.

FLINT, Michigan — Genesee County chairwoman Prudy Adam says based on a letter she received from the sister of the an alleged molestation victim of U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee she believes the report in today's Washington Times.

"I received the letter over a year ago from the sister of the victim," said Adam. "I contacted several different people trying to get someone to listen and take us seriously."

Adam said she met with alleged victim Patrick's mother, sister and stepfather during an interview with Jon Yinger, Christian Broadcasting System President and CEO, owner of WSNL-AM in Flint. 

Oh ... and was law enforcement included in that group of people she contacted, or was she mostly just interested in catching the eye of the media? I'm pretty sure that an allegation of molestation by a sitting member of Congress is something they'd be interested in hearing about. There is no statute of limitation in the state of Michigan for first degree criminal sexual conduct, after all.

This is probably a question the media will want to ask her, and also ask her what law enforcement departments she contacted, and follow up with those police departments to see if a formal complaint was indeed filed by Prudy Adam. 'Cause, I'm pretty sure that not promptly notifying the proper authorities that sexual misconduct involving a minor so that an investigation can be carried out as quickly as possible would be a pretty vile, reprehensible thing to do. That goes double if the information was released well after it was obtained for the sake of political gain.

As for the facts of the thing, we have none. So, it's nice to see Kildee get thrown under the bus by one of his own.

State Sen. John Gleason, a potential candidate to replace U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee in Congress, says allegations of sexual assault against  Kildee are "stunning" and "troubling" and says the congressman is "out of line" to suggest politics are driving the allegations.

"I think you have to take all measures to make sure it's accurate," Gleason said of allegation by Kildee's second cousin. "I believe these acts are more (common) than people think they are."

What he's saying is, "Well, it's wrong to jump to any conclusions before we have all the facts; buuuuuut, I for one am willing to believe that these allegations are accurate."

Update! ... Slate for context.

Detroit News editorializes against compulsory loyalty oaths

by: Eric B.

Sun Nov 20, 2011 at 13:17:54 PM EST

The broken clock strikes 12 at midnight.

In a year of important education reforms, the Senate passed a bill last week that doesn't seem necessary. The bill would mandate that all K-12 public school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, the bill's sponsor, is concerned about the lack of continuity over how districts handle the pledge. Kahn's office did an informal survey and found very different practices by district and even within individual school buildings. Plus, his office reports that Michigan is one of seven states without such a law. Kahn is especially troubled that pledge recitation stops in elementary grades in some schools. Establishing love of country is a worthy aim, but students will be most apt to appreciate their country when they understand the foundation of our freedoms and democracy. Concerned lawmakers would be better off strengthening what students study in their social studies and civics courses.

Well, first off, if 43 other states passed laws ordering their citizens to jump off a cliff, would Roger Kahn sponsor Michigan's follow-on legislation. Second, the first bill he authored was clearly illegal, and Roger Kahn has a long history of simply making stuff up (i.e. drug immunity) when he wants to cite what's going on in other states, so there is that.

More to the point, mandating that individual schools lead the Pledge of Allegience first thing in the morning is the polar opposite of what genuinely free people do. Free people don't need to be coerced into giving their loyalty to flag and country. They do it willingly. So, this isn't a bill about patriotism, it's an act of authoritarianism. And, it does so by turning our schools, where children should be taught to think for themselves, into little conformity factories. Every morning, at the same time, everyone stands and recites the same handful of lines. You don't actually have to participate, but if you don't you're going to look awfully weird.

Babbitizing higher education

by: Eric B.

Sun Nov 20, 2011 at 10:00:34 AM EST

When you have people who assign value only in terms of dollars, this is what you get.

Michigan is one of 17 states implementing or studying performance funding. The goal is to push universities to focus more on producing graduates, which in turn drives state economies with more highly skilled employees. Lawmakers also see it as a move toward greater accountability in education.

Well, no, actually what it encourages is for universities to lower academic standards. If you measure success by the percentage of students who graduate, you're providing incentive to universities to pressure academic departments to make it harder to fail students ... some of whom richly deserve to fail. Already, it's often very difficult to fail students because there's lots of paperwork, questions are asked, and even instructor performance reviews are based to large extent on end-of-semester student assessments. That, in turn, doesn't actually produce more highly skilled employees. That produces employees who have the proper documentation to qualify for jobs, but who might be as uneducated as the day they left high school. Or, as someone mentioned a week or so ago, the problem with American higher education is that it's become mostly a worker training system, with focus on producing workers instead of citizens who are, you know, educated.

Hopefully, the state's universities will challenge this in court, because it's pretty clearly written in the Constitution that at least three of the state's universities -- MSU, U of M, and Wayne State -- are supposed to operate entirely independently of state government, not to be softly molded by people who appear hostile to the idea of getting an education for the sake of being educated. 

Booth slashes workforce in half

by: Eric B.

Sat Nov 19, 2011 at 13:33:38 PM EST

Well, we finally know what the reorganization of Booth will look like.

As part of the launch of a new media company, the Michigan-based Booth Newspapers and MLive.com have issued about 550 layoff notices to employees statewide, according to newly released state employment information.

That's about half the chain's Michigan workforce.

First, it's time for the state to revisit its Paper of Record law, which requires local governments to pick a local news outlet and pay it to advertise legal notices. It's no longer necessary, what with the whole Web thingy. Also, it's insulting to communities that have watched corporate media companies disinvest resources in them. Some of these papers aren't even produced in the city that is forced by law to purchase legal ads. Why should the city of Grand Rapids be forced to purchase ad space from a company that just laid off 93 of its citizens?

Second, these people just kill their own credibility all the time. Rather than being upfront about this, they told everyone that the company was going to be better off for its restructuring. Typically, media company managers take that a step further and insist that the product will be even better for it. In other words, it's supposed to be good news.

Laying off half your workforce is never good news. The company was less than honest with the public concerning itself. If the company isn't honest about itself with the public, why should the public believe the company about anything? And, if the public can't believe anything the company says, why should the public be expected to read its content?

Shocker: State full of poor people has lots of people enrolled in food stamps

by: Eric B.

Sat Nov 19, 2011 at 11:45:47 AM EST

From the Census:

Michigan ranks third highest in the nation for the percent of households that receive food stamps. That’s according to U.S. Census data. Oregon and Tennessee top the list.

The data show nearly 17 percent of Michigan households have at least one person who receives food assistance from the federal government.

Fortunately, we're taking care of this. Once you boot people off food assistance, that percent will go down organically. It's almost like magic! Of course, considering how poor the state has gotten and considering that federal food stamps don't really cost the state anything, you could interpret that percentage to mean that Michigan was at some point doing a very good job of making sure that all its citizens had access to food. But, that would again call into question the kind of thinking that'd lead a state representative to tell poor people to "man up" after the Legislature capped welfare.

Poll: Benishek in trouble against "generic Democrat"

by: Eric B.

Fri Nov 18, 2011 at 15:55:29 PM EST

From Ye Olde Inbox:

Republican Rep. Dan Benishek finds himself in trouble with voters in Michigan’s 1^st District. The freshman Congressman is well under 50% and is statistically tied to a generic Democrat 44-42, which is driven by an anemic job approval and a net negative favorability rating according to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey commissioned by the League of Conservation Voters.

When voters were asked about their feelings toward Dan Benishek, 44% responded that they held negative or very negative feelings compared to 31% who indicated they have a positive view.

When asked to rate Rep. Benishek’s job performance, 32% of respondents said that Benishek has done a poor job as their representative and only 33% of voters said they would definitely vote to re-elect him.

Some of this, keep in mind, stems from the fact that Benishek has fallen out of favor with the teabaggers who got him elected in the first place. At one point, they were even talking about primarying against him because they felt that he got himself elected and went to Washington and promptly became part of the Establishment.

Manny Lopez called stupid by some hippie

by: Eric B.

Fri Nov 18, 2011 at 14:26:04 PM EST

Occasionally, the Detroit News will haul up one of its old editorial writer to make a fool of himself, probably so that Nolan Finley looks reasonable and sane by comparison. It happened today, a Friday when we're normally snickering at Magic Frank, and it involved his failed attempts to convince a hippie at Occupy Detroit that "expansive government" and not corruption on Wall Street is behind the accumulation of the nation's wealth into a smaller number of hands.

The banks, I explained to him, have rules and regulations they have to follow that are set by the government officials he and his comrades are intent on pushing as the great overseer of our lives. It is not the banks that are at the sole cause of the problem, but expansive government, I said.

"You're too stupid to understand," he mumbled and walked away, clearly disgusted with the elementary civics lesson I was trying to impart.

The exchange smacks of one of those taxicab confessions that was all the rage a decade ago in which a conservative pundit/blogger hitches a ride from one place to the next and along the way hears his entire worldview articulated right back to him by some salt-of-the-earth cabbie. Except, in this case, it's the opposite, where the cab driver insults said pundit (in this case, even being correct) and the pundit feels the need to share the incident with his readers anyway.

Dow CEO: I should pay more in taxes

by: Eric B.

Fri Nov 18, 2011 at 14:02:29 PM EST

The Patriotic Millionaires thing, if you haven't heard of it, is this week's "in" thing. They're a bunch of the 1 percent who believe they can and ought to be paying more in taxes. Yesterday, in fact, one of them rebutted Grover Norquist's tiring line that they can voluntarily send in more money if they want by suggesting that if he wants to live where there is no taxation or government that he renounce his citizenship and move to Somalia. It's good to see, frankly, for more reason than one. First, they ought to be paying more in taxes. America was never more prosperous than when its wealthiest were taxed at its highest rates and that money circulating back to lifting up all boats. Second, it takes wind out of the very tiresome, dull argument that the only reason anyone would want to see a rich man pay more is out of envy.

And, as noted in the headline, there is now also this.

In a speech before the U.S. Council for International Business yesterday, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris joined the tax-me-more crowd, saying, “I can tell you the highest taxpayers, including me, should be paying more“:

“Come on, everyone over a certain threshold of money — and you can define what it is — but I can tell you the highest tax payers, including me, should be paying more,” Liveris said during a speech on Wednesday night…”Come on, we are underpaying for our future.”

But, you know, he's an Aussie by birth so I guess his opinion doesn't count.

Russ Harding: Environmentalists hate the Great Lakes

by: Eric B.

Fri Nov 18, 2011 at 13:15:58 PM EST

From the people who think that it's okay for coal-fired power plants to dump atmospheric mercury in the Great Lakes.

As reported in MIRS Capitol Capsule, several environmental groups have launched a petition drive to encourage Gov. Rick Snyder to develop a regulatory process that would be the first step toward placing wind turbines in the Great Lakes. The Sierra Club, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, Ecology Center and the West Michigan Environmental Action Council are promoting the petition. These groups have abdicated their role of protecting the Great Lakes from pollution by their support of placing wind turbines in those very waters.

These people are willing to say really anything without fear that anyone is going to point out how either unfair, inaccurate, or downright stupid it is. In this case, it's all three.

His point is that environmentalists are so driven by a desire for a no-carbon economy that they're willing to pollute the Great Lakes. Therefore, support for wind turbines in the Great Lakes equals hatred for the Great Lakes. And, since in Michigan the Great Lakes are the most prominent natural feature, that translates into: "Environmentalists hate the environment." It's nearly as dumb as accusing environmentalists who support wind turbines of hating migratory birds because those occasionally get killed in turbine blades.

Ironically, the route you travel down to arrive at this conclusion is evidence of the sort of rigid, inflexible thinking environmentalists get accused of using all the time, and no matter what side of the issue they came down on it's an accusation that would get leveled against them. If the Sierra Club opposed an offshore wind turbine project because it was going to damage its value as a commons, say they wanted to site it so that it was visible from Sleeping Bear, the Sierra Club would be accused of hating humanity and not really caring about the climate since preventing the construction of a wind farm off shore from Sleeping Bear would require the state to rely that much more on carbon energy.

The problem here is that environmentalism is actually not some rigid ideology that must adhere to a dogma. In fact, it is an assortment of movements and philosophies that often times -- like all diversely built patterns of thought -- come into conflict. You've got wilderness preservation, environmental justice, protection of the commons, land use, energy and climate, quality of life, ethics, public health, and those are just the ones that come immediately to mind. As in all cases where things are shades of gray, it produced a choice of some of those values over others. Normal, sane adults understand that this is how things work.

Climate Change Denial Crock of the Week: Lone Star State of Drought

by: Eric B.

Thu Nov 17, 2011 at 15:37:46 PM EST

Speaks for itself.