Livingston Dem Casts Vote in Electoral College

A Green Oak Township woman helped make President Obama's re-election official.

On Monday (Dec. 17, 2012), JoAnnMurphy, a long-time Democratic activist and United Auto Workers member, cast one of Michigan's 16 votes in the Electoral College for Obama during a ceremony in the Michigan State Senate chambers.

Of course, first the spelling of President Obama's first name had to be corrected from "Barak" to "Barack." Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer pointed out the spelling error made by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's office. That doesn't inspire much confidence in Johnson's ability to oversee our elections with precision.

Snyder Needs to Disavow His Fund-Raiser's Remarks

When will political candidates learn that what you say in private doesn't stay private anymore?

Ron Weiser, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, is the latest politician to be caught saying something outrageous. In remarks to a tea party gathering in Milford recorded on videotape, Weiser characterized Detroit voters as people who are dragged out of pool halls and barber shops to vote multiple times. Showing shockingly little political knowledge, ghe also disparaged President Obama's get-out-the-vote operation and predicted it would be unable to get Detroiters to vote.

Weiser has close ties to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Weiser raised millions of dollars to help Snyder and Republicans take control of the statehouse in 2010. And at the time he made those remarks, Weiser was running for a seat on the University of Michigan board of regents on the Republican ticket.

We already know Weiser holds racist views. His words prove it. Does Snyder agree with his colleague's statements? Michigan voters deserve to know. You can call Snyder's office, Monay through Friday at 517-373-3400 or 517-375-7858, or you can use this form to submit your views online.

Ask him to disavow Weiser.and Weiser's views.

After Newtown, Does Teaching Qualify as a 'Dangerous' Job?

Rick Snyder and the rest of the Lansing Republicans offered up a lot of phony resons for rushing through their anti-working family legislation but one of the phoniest had to be that police and firefighters should be exempted from the legislation because of the "dangerousness of their jobs."

Teachers don't have dangerous jobs, in Snyder's view.

It didn't take long for those words to come back to bite Snyder, did it?

The shooting of 27 people at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school on Friday should remind us all that teaching, at least since Columbine, is a dangerous profession. Some schools have metal detectors.Some have police in their buildings. Classrooms at the University of Michigan have instructions on the wall regarding what to do if there is an "active shooter" in the area. But teaching is not a dangerous job, according to Snyder.

Teaching shouldn't be a dangerous job. But with a nation awash in semi-automatic weapons and a culture that glorifies violence, every job is a dangerous job. Snyder made it evenmore dangerous by signing legislation allowing guns in schools. Just what we need in the wake of Newtown.

Snyder needs to be held accountable.

Courthosue Crowd Trying to Insulate Itself from Democracy

Is the all-Republican clique that runs the Livingston County Courthouse trying to insulate itself from democracy?

A vacancy created by the resignation of Jay Drick, who was just re-elected in November, means the county commission can appoint his replacement within 30 days. But then voters get to weigh in on the pick. Under current law, a primary would be held, tentatively set for May 7, and then the general election itself, on Aug. 6.

But as WHMI radio points out, a bill passed by the Senate, SB0204, would eliminate the requirement for a special election if the vacancy occurred in an odd-numbered year. That would set up a situation where Livingston County Republicans could perpetuately appoint their own successors -- run for re-election as an incumbent, resign right after the election, and then the rest of the board gets to appoint the replacement, who then gets to run in two years as an incumbent.

This is an insult to democracy. Special elections cost money, that's true. But democracy is priceless.

Snyder Can't Hide Anymore

During his 2010 campaign for governor, Rick Snyder kept his views well-hidden. People could believe he was a moderate Republican if they wanted to, with little solid evidence to contradict them.

During his two years as governor, he has kept up the facade, saying this or that was "not on my agenda" when asked about hot-button issues that he didn't want to take a position on at the moment.

But Snyder's true colors are obvious.

When he says something is not on his agenda, Snyder really is inviting whatever far-right group is pushing it to come in and talk to him about putting it on his agenda. It doesn't mean no. It means he's open to being persuaded otherwise.

It's the position of a person who has no core principles whatsoever, who can be pushed around by elements of his party rather than trying to work for what's best for all Michigan residents.

At last, people can put a label on Snyder and it's not "moderate." It's "tool of extremists."

Shame on Lansing Republicans!

Lansing Republicans should be embarrassed.

Locking people out of the Michigan State Capitol on Thursday in order to keep the public from watching the GOP assault on working people was disgraceful.

If Republicans are so proud of what they are doing, why did they keep the people out? What do they have to hide?

Bob King, president of the United Auto Workers, hit the nail on the head with this interview. Passage of so-called "right to work" legislation is really about punishing unions for supporting Democrats who fight for legislation that benefits all workers. It's not about bringing jobs to Michigan or whether or not someone wants to join a union. People exercise that right when they vote on whether or not to join a union in the first place. Majority rules.

Here's King's interview:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMsyJFGtw-I&feature=plcp

Election Results Show Need for Redistricting Reform

Now that the dust is beginning to settle from the November election, those poking into the numbers are finding some interesting things.

Of course it's obvious that President Obama and Senator Debbie Stabenow had big victories statewide in Michigan. They ran terrific campaigns with messages that resonated with the views of most voters.

And so did Democratic congressional candidates and Democratic candidates for the state House. Democratic candidates for Congress won 50 percent of the vote statewide. Yet at the end of the day, that translated into only 36 percent of the state's congressional seats, or 5 of the 14 seats.

In the state House races, Democratic candidates won 53 percent of the total vote cast statewide in those races. That earned them only 46 percent of the seats, or 51, of the 110 seats in the Michigan House.

How is it that the party that receives a minority of the votes for Congress and the Michigan House is able to walk away with most of the seats? It's called gerrymandering. The lines drawn for the congressional and state House seats by the Republicans in Lansing lumped Democratic voters into as few districts as possible.The result is districts that are nearly completely safe for the Republican Party. This robs voters of true choices at the ballot box.

A priority for the 2014 election cycle should be redistricting reform, creating a non-partisan way of re-drawing district lines that is less influenced by partisan politics and more focused on the voters' best interests.