One May Hope

Given that the Michigan Republican Party more often resembles a circular firing squad than not, one may hope that Jim Runestad can get the party back on track as he claims he will do.

The Detroit News: Buss: State GOP chair says party is clicking

As he continues to clean up the Michigan Republican Party, newly elected Chairman Jim Runestad is also running an aggressive messaging campaign to put Republicans in a competitive spot for 2026. 

He's urging the GOP to focus on delivering the promises they made in the last election cycle.

The party definitely needs to clean up and improve its message if its going to be competitive in 2026.

David Hogg Just Became What?

So the Democrats have now appointed David Hogg, known only for his gun banner efforts, and no other accomplishments, as their Vice Chair.

New York post:  Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg becomes DNC vice chair

Apparently, this is an effort to get back the youth and the masculine vote.

 
Verily, this choice, along with the statements and writings of various people who should know better claiming the Blackhawk/Jet collision is Trump's fault, is one of many indicators that provide proof of Megan McArdle's aphorism that:

 "The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."

Democrats and their fellow travelers and orange-man-bad devotees are not handling the transition well at all. 

Let's hope that Republicans can keep the smugness and arrogance to a minimum, even in the face of the Democrats going full-on bug-house nuts.

Slow Primary Today

In my precinct, when I arrived at 5:30 all of 115 people had voted all day in the presidential primary. It was no wait at all to get in and vote and with all of one choice to make on the ballot it didn't take long at all.

Partially this is due to the Michigan Democrats moving up the Michigan presidential primary for the first time to today, leaving all the other primaries on August 6.  

It's also due to a rather dearth of choices on either side. So, the primary is almost a non-event except for the pro-Hamas Islamist faction of the Democrat party that's trying to flex and push an uncommitted vote in the Democrat primary try try to sway Biden towards a more pro-Islamist foreign policy.

Michigan Republican's State Party Clown Show

Ever since losing the last state-level election, which very much was the Republicans to lose - and lose they did, the Michigan Republican Party has been busy running a three-ring circus.

First, they elected Kristina Karamo as the Republican State Party Chair.  The same Karamo that lost her race for Secretary of State, badly.

The same Karamo that made allegations without evidence just before that election regarding Detroit's mail-in ballots and filed a lawsuit against Detroit right before the election which was guaranteed to piss off and fire-up Detroit Democrat voter turn-out - and it did - to her and everyone else's detriment.

She then went on to unsuccessfully sue Comerica Bank and a Trust that owns the Michigan Republican Party Building.

Finally, it looks like the adults will be back in charge with Pete Hoekstra being elected as the new leader in a party meeting - but Karamo is claiming that vote was not legitimate and she's still the party leader. In short: Clown Show.

The Detroit Free Press: Trump weighs in on Michigan GOP chair fracas, backs Hoekstra

Verily Jane’s Law strikes yet again especially if you change it to include party chairs and functionaries: “The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.”

The state Republican party needs to get its act together, and start acting like the adults in the room, pronto.

Just A Little Jan 6 Committee Irony

A bit of weirdness out of the January 6 Committee report regarding Ryan Kelly, a Michigan Republican politician that was running for Governor in the 2022 election, was present Jan 6 and running for office and thus arrested by the FBi on misdemeanor charges to hamper his gubernatorial run - nothing at all political about that, of course.

Here's where it gets a tad interesting: The Detroit News: Under oath, Ryan Kelley refused to identify himself in Jan. 6 videos

The Detroit News story, and the committee report, is all agog and aghast that Ryan Kelly refused to identify before the committee if a video did in fact show him at the Capitol doing stupid stuff.

Now, Kelly did sorta, kinda, take the Fifth before the Committee on that quesiton, but not exactly correctly, as you can read in the article. But, regardless, he refused to answer the question to identify if the person on the video was him all the same. 

So, there's all this umbrage about the failure of Kelly to identify himself by a committee official.

So, now that you have the background, the story gives a nice bit of irony:

"Mr. Kelley, how would answering that question impede your ability to peaceably assemble? It's a video of a thing that happened more than a year ago," an official with the U.S. House committee asked him at one point during the exchange.

Later, an official with the U.S. House committee said Kelley was stating his "opinion of what the Fifth Amendment is."

"But I will again note for the record that the witness has refused to answer the question, and he's refused to raise a recognized privilege as a reason for refusing to answer the question," the official said.

The official's name was redacted in the transcript.

Yep,  all this outrage over Kelly's failure to identify himself, and the "official" asking that line of questions has been redacted and unidentified in the report and their identity is a complete mystery.

You can't make that kind of irony up.

Why The Dems Ran The Table In Michigan

There's hopefully going to be a lot of analysis, spending time in the woodshed,  and then a lot of work put in by Republicans to turn this around - if it can even be done given the structural disadvantages that just got baked into our State's Constitution.

1. While the MI GOP were playing checkers, the Democrats have been playing chess, if not using a different board entirely.

Some major structural issues mailed the Republicans this election:

A. With the Dem-led "Voters not Politicians" redrawing the electoral map to make it "competitive"  it gave a significant advantage to the Dems.  Failure to effectively stop this referendum campaign, or battle the new gerrymandered map that resulted has given the Dems a massive advantage.

B.  Absentee for no reason, Mail in / dropbox voting which kills off the chain of custody of the ballots and opens the way to lots and lots of opportunities for fraud.

2.  The MI GOP then left these issues unfixed and then compounded these structural errors and decided to fight the battle on the terms set by the Democrats - on Abortion and Trump. 

Great decision making there, well done.

They fell right into that trap rather than on solid issues they would win on - Whitmer's actions during the lockdowns, the economy, and how the Democrats on the national level have been making a mess of the country this state.

Does the GOP and its candidates not have any polling done before deciding on their strategy? At all?

Had Tudor Dixon not chosen to make Abortion her number one issue by making a hardline statement that was even beyond what the 1931 law held - that she was for no exceptions for abortion including even for the life of the mother, she could have separated voting for her from voting for Proposal 3.  

Instead she lost and Proposal Three passed.

Yes, Proposal Three just made Michigan a more than Roe state and just enshrined it in the constitution and given the language of the amendment just got rid of most, if not all prior legal restrictions on abortion.  And it got the Dems out in droves.

She didn't separate herself and instead nicely tied herself to it in a way to make independents say no to voting for her.  Talking to independents and Dems that I know, the only thing they heard was Tudor's extreme anti-abortion stance and that was enough for them to vote no on her no matter how much they had issues with Whitmer. Had she toned it down her message might of been heard but her broadcast hardliner statements that were even more extreme than not just Roe but the 1931 law doomed that.  It also didn't help that Whitmer was outfunding and outspending Dixon by 10 to 1 or m ore, but at least have a viable message that can get more than just a portion of your base to vote for you.

That the GOP didn't think ahead, plan, and refine her message so they were not fighting on the exact ground chosen by Democrats is inexplicable.

3. The MI GOP ran some truly horrendous candidates, again choosing the ground picked by Democrats.  How many Democrats crossed over in the primary to help pick the worst possible candidates is uncertain, but that likely helped as well.

DePerno had to come off as a raving lunatic of a candidate. 

Look, while Whitmer should be investigated and prosecuted for lots of good reasons, you do not announce you're going to do it until after you're elected, not before to energize your opponents.    See our Current AG Nessel and her prosecution of former Governor Snyder for how to play this political game. You also do not put up someone running for AG who is being currently  investigated for potentially violating Michigan law for messing with voting machines.  But the GOP did and Nasty Nessel got easily reelected as a result in what should have been an easy win.  2020 election denial without court-admissible proof, not theories, goes nowhere folks.  

People, election fraud is hard to prove. But either prove it, or instead work to stop it happening in the future.  Going off with unprovable theories does not cut it at all.

If DePerno was instead running to ensure Nessel was re-elected Attorney General it is hard to see what he would do differently.

Karamo the Republican Secretary of State candidate decided to put Trump front and center in her campaign and  even filed a lawsuit seeking an extraordinary remedy of injunctive relief for absentee voting in Detroit on the very eve of the election without any admissible evidence to win.  Good job rilling up Detroit and every possible Democrat with that right before the election, and completely tainting claims of actual fraud by this absolute incompetence in filing a  frivolous lawsuit.  Really nicely done.  Again, Benson was beatable on the issues, but Karamo chose Trump and unprovable theories that made her unelectable.

If Karamo was running to ensure a Benson was elected Secretary of State it is hard to see what she would do differently.

Chief Craig, who would have been very hard to beat in the run for governor, got "ratfucked" as they say, by a corrupt Democrat and felon-led signature collecting fraud drive.  Unsurprisingly, our Democrat AG is not investigating. That the opportunity for this even happened at all is inexplicable. It belies a complete lack of competence by his campaign and the other 5 candidates to whom this occurred, and a clear lack of infrastructure for signature collecting and for guidance by the state party.

In short, the Democrats outmaneuvered the Republicans at every damn turn and the Republican candidates happily obliged and decided to fight according to the  exact terms set by the Democrats and lost handily.

As a result we got Proposal 3 passed, if you didn't like abortion in Michigan before, you're really gonna hate how unrestricted it is now.

Even worse we got Proposal 2 passed which makes it:

 - Even easier for elections to be "fortified", and it certainly is written on a manner that can be interpreted that even felons in prison (a nice Democrat voting block) have a right to vote in elections.

-  ensures the straight-party ticket beloved by the Democrats is now a constitutional lock.

- allows out-of-state and corporate money to "help" fund elections (remember when Democrats used to want corporate money out of politics? - good times, those), 

- removes any chance at independent audits of an election allowing only the Secretary of State to do an audit and it is written in a manner to keep political parties from inspecting or having any role in the conducting of the audit.

-Makes certification of the vote a ministerial duty and doesn't allow the Certification Board to meaningfully investigate nor contest election results.

Basically this is a Democrat wish-list for handling elections and to prevent fraud investigations or election accountability so long as they control the Secretary of State slot,  that just got enshrined into our State Constitution - and they sold it under the false claim of requiring people to have to have ID to vote.

Proposal 2 is a disaster for this state.

That there were no Republican led proposals on the ballot to strengthen elections, and for many other areas that things could be improved structurally  is unfathomable and a missed opportunity.

The MIGOP needs to sit down and reassess their message and tactics, and it looks like they're starting to do so, but not soon enough. Republicans in this state are now way, way behind the 8-ball in this state and the Democrat machinations to date unless effectively challenged are going to keep Democrats in power and Republicans out for a long time to come.

Liz Cheney Leaps Across The Aisle

If you had any doubt that Liz Cheney is on her way to leaving the Republican party after getting primary-ed, there's really not much doubt any longer:

The Detroit News: GOP’s Liz Cheney endorsing Michigan Democrat Slotkin in a first

You generally don't see Republicans endorsing Democrats over fellow Republicans.

Choosing Slotkin over Tom Barret is a rather curious choice to come out swinging for the Democrats on the part of this Wyoming RINO.

Why choose Michigan to come out for the Dems?   Couldn't she find a race a bit closer to home to dip into?

Barrett is hardly an out-there candidate, and while on the actual conservative side as one might hope a Republican would be, he's hardly an extremist however one might label that, and instead is erudite, coherent, has a good record in the State Senate, and has a good shot at winning the race.

It could be because Slotkin is rather connected to the Obama administration  and the CIA, and is an excellent example of the definition of a Democrat DC-insider, who likely gets along great with Democrat-lite RINO-establishment Cheney.

Still a curious choice to commit to this election season, and it certainly should end any affiliation Liz Cheney has with the Republican party. 

Michigan Republicans Put Gov Half-Whit Into A Gas Tax Dilemma

So Gov. Whitmer asked the Feds to abate the Federal Gas Tax of 18.3 cents a gallon in a transparent effort to appear that she's doing something for Michigan drivers, and indeed everyone in mcihgian as everything is transported somewhere.

Michigan House Republicans just did her one better by introducing and passing legislation to suspend the Michigan Gas Tax of 27+ cents a gallon:

The Detroit News: House approves 6-month pause of Michigan's 27-cent per gallon gas tax

No worries though, Michigan will still be getting over 24 cents a gallon in sales tax.  Too bad that wasn't abated as well.

This puts Whitmer in quite a dilemma:  Rather hard for her to veto the legislation considering she just pushed for the Feds to do what Republicans are asking the State to do - and this would bring more relief than a federal abatement.

But, Whitmer does love her taxes, and wants to spend the State fisc on Democrat priorities, not tax relief for all citizens equally.

But, if she vetoes this, it's a re-election year.

The Whitmer flop-sweat on this should be epic.

One Country Becoming Two Disparate Realities

I'm getting more and more concerned that this country is dividing itself not just on arguments over opinion but on arguments and failing to agree with even basic facts.

For example the Democrats railed against releasing the memo claiming it would "reveal sources and methods" and would damage our intelligence community.

The memo actually does no such revealing, except to point out a rather shady transaction where the FBI relief upon a knowingly false dossier from a known biased source paid for by the DNC to get FISA warants to spy on the Trump campaign.

In short, go read it in full and decide for yourself.

Had Republicans done this to Democrats it would be declared worse than Watergate, and in reading the whole memo it sure makes Nixon look like a complete piker by comparison.

However, the Democrats after the release changed tack and instead of the memo being the greatest danger to the intelligence community evar, instead declared it a nothing-burger.

Who ya gonna believe, the Democrats or the Memo after you read it with your own lyin' eyes?

A further recent example:

I have an extremely progressive democrat acquaintance on Facebook who is constantly posting the Snowflake and other memes, consistently anit-Trump, anti-Republican, Bernie Sanders is the greatest, you know the type.

She went ahead and posted this one today:

Isn't the level of smug in that just weapons-grade? Wouldn't it hit you right in the feels for such callous treatment of an Army veteran?

Well, as you guessed, there's a bit more to the story.

The chosen poster boy for this example of Republican cold-hardheartedness and contempt for military veterans, Perez Jr, had a green card but stupidly failed to apply for citizenship.

But he isn't being deported for being an illegal, he's being deported for a felony conviction for trafficking in cocaine, and even before that had been discharged from the military after a drug offense.

Yep, Republicans don't care much about cocaine dealers, and a green card holder can be deported for crimes committed while holding a green card, big surprise there.

Forget about opinions, we can't even agree on a common set of facts to even begin to have a discussion. This does not bode well.

Political Violence In This Country Tends To Come From The Leftward Side

People were speculating when the Lefty types would switch from bats and bike locks to firearms and it looks like one Bernie Bro has decided to do so by attacking a bunch of Republicans playing baseball, including Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

The Left in America has quite a history of using violence as a political tool If you haven't already read the rather uber-post at Status 451 at the link, I'd strongly suggest you do so as its well worth your time and lets you place the Antifa and Bernie Bro Burners in context.

While many on the right say "What lefty revolution?, We have all the guns.", they forget the Left has far less compunction or hesitation about actually using weapons to implement their goals.

Hopefully, this is a one-off incident and not a sign of a trend on the part of the Leftist fringe.

An Un-Beer-Able Tax Increase

Politicians like taxes.

Politicians like to tax things they don't like even more than they like to tax things in general.

So one particular politician, a Republican no less, is pushing for increasing Michigan's beer tax by around 244%! This would make it around the 8th highest in the country and way higher than any other Midwestern state.

The Detroit News: Michigan beer tax hike bill lands with sobering thud

Of course, not only is this because State Rep. Tom Hooker, R-Byron Center, had a bad experience with others under the influence of alcohol, but because he claims it is a user tax to deal with the often unwanted side effects of those who abuse it and to fund alcohol treatment programs.

The nanny state impulse is not restricted just to Democrats.

Of course the tax doesn't punish those who actually in his words "If you’re going to use it, the problems that you cause are going to be paid for..." Of course, the majority of beer drinkers don't cause problems, but appropriately fining and punishing the ones that do isn't nearly as fun as taxing everyone. Yep, punish the vast majority of perfectly peaceful beer drinkers who don't cause any negative effects from consuming beer.

Thankfully, the Republican leadership have stated this tax bill, which is solely due to one member's preferences, dislike of alcohol and desire to punish beer drinkers and producers, is essentially dead on arrival.

The First Rule of Michigan Politics: Always Reinforce Failure

The Detroit News: Mich. Senate OKs emergency aid for DPS

After decades of Democrat domination dooming Detroit's educational domain, it's again up to the grown ups, namely the Republicans at the state level to again bail out the system using state-wide taxpayer's money for their malfeasance.

This $47 million is just the tip of the iceberg for the Detroit education system bailout - think hundreds of millions being stripped from functioning non-Detroit school systems around the state to bail out the over $715 million in debt dysfunctional Detroit system.

Ben Carson Bows Out

Dr. Ben Carson did both the smart and honorable thing by bowing out of the race (or is it a clown show? Frankly this year I'm not sure which) for President.

While Ben Carson is a very smart, if not in fact brilliant man, he lacked any political experience, and a lack of national name recognition whatsoever before throwing his hat in the ring and running for President. Some political experience and seasoning is badly needed and there is a chance that he can get some.

There's an effort to draft him to run for Senator in Michigan. From Right MI.

Considering the Michigan Republicans have been running completely lackluster candidates and campaigns for the Michigan US Senate seats since Spencer Abraham was senator in 2001 and haven't had a Republican senator since, we certainty wouldn't do any worse if Dr. Carson ran. He has a chance to peel off some of the solid blue Detroit electorate with his rather compelling story and oratory, not to mention his roots in Detroit.

I would happily endorse an effort for Dr. Carson to run for this year's contested US Senate seat for Michigan.

We certainly could put up worse candidates for the seat, and probably will.

Media Set On Cruz Control

As Instapundit says, the media is just Democratic party operates with bylines, and it becomes more blatant and apparent in the run-up to 2016.

Adding to the fun, the media is prying and commenting on places with Cruz that they didn't dare go concerning Obama.

Take NPR for example. As can be seen form the transcript, NPR is interviewing Jeff Toobin of The New Yorker to discuss Cruz.

Of course they paint Cruz as an extremist, and a scary one at that. Interestingly, they go into his father's experiences and nature in the interview and how that affects Cruz. They also cover Cruz's schooling and early career as a darn smart attorney and advocate.

Note how the media conspicuously did not report on Obama's parent's political leanings.

Heck, we now now more about Cruz's parentage and schooling than we do About Obama, all these years on since he became president, and this is just two days after Cruz declared he was running.

Oh, That Liberal Media

While it's nice to see the media waking up to it's watch-dog role from it's lap-dog status as of late in regards to federal politics, it's unsurprising that this seems limited to attacking Republican candidates while oversight of Obama and the email-lady continues to get the blind eye or the quick report and move-along treatment.

Currently, it appears the Media has gotten the memo to attack the latest Republican to make a splash - Ted Cruz.

For example, we get this missive from The Detroit Free Press' Brian Dickerson - In opening round, Cruz courts pants-on-fire vote

Ted Cruz began his formal quest for the presidency this week the same way he became one of the most recognizable Republicans on Capitol Hill: by lying his head off.

Speaking to a captive audience in the bosom of Christian fundamentalism, Cruz doubled down on a series of assertions non-partisan fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked:

That the Obama administration seeks to "ban our ammunition."

That the Affordable Care Act has cost "millions" of Americans their health care coverage.

And that the ACA's employer mandates have forced millions more into part-time work.

None of these talking points withstands much scrutiny, as the non-partisan factcheck.org website explained in a post wearily dismissing Cruz's declaration as a medley of "dubious claims we have heard before, and a few we haven't."

Interestingly, going to the "non-partisan" websites from which Dickerson draws his conclusions reveals some very partisan slight of hand.

Let's take "ban our ammunition" for instance. factcheck rates it not-truthy because they state the administration only recently tried to ban one type of ammunition (M855). This conveniently ignores the already in place Obama ban on March 5, 2014 of 5.45.x39 7N6. Factcheck then rates the Cruz statement as untrue because it wasn't all ammunition being banned at once, get it?

Factcheck then decides as the arbiter of truth that the fact that millions did indeed lose their healthcare isn't the whole story with a mendacious explanation that:

Cruz isn’t the first to make this claim, which stems from President Obama’s ill-fated promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” That was clearly proven false when, in the fall of 2013, several million people received cancellation notices for individual market plans that no longer met the law’s benefit requirements.

But to claim simply that millions lost their health insurance is misleading. Those individual market plans were discontinued, but policyholders weren’t denied coverage. Many upgraded to compliant plans (albeit at a higher cost, for some).

Factcheck then punts on the part time work issue claiming there's a lack of data or that only a few hundred thousand have been affected or Factcheck hopefully claims it might be caused by the economy, cause Obamacare has had no impact on the economy.

Hardly a resounding smack-down of Cruz's statements as Dickerson pretends it to be, now isn't it?

In other words, contra Factcheck, Cruz was truthful and Dickerson and Factcheck are furiously spinning facts in their adjunct role as Democrat party supporters and distorter.

The Underpants Gnome Theory Of Some Michigan "Pro-Gun" Activists

One wonders if they really are pro-gun as their plan seems to guarantee an opposite result:

Step 1. Vote and work to elect known anti-gun Democrat Mark Schauer for Governor on the theory that a Republican House and Senate will be somehow motivated to send pro-gun legislation to him that he will veto, and then the Republicans and a few renegade Democrats will team up to override the veto. And the example of this ever happening in real life is when? Oh yeah, never.

Step 2. .......

Step 3. Pro-gun nirvana?!?

Oh, that plan will work out real well.

Seriously, these guys need to stay off my side. Many of them seem to be of the "I couldn't get everything I want so I'll take my ball and go home and complain" school of politics.

Heck, they're not even happy that Snyder passed SB610 and legalized SBS and SBRs, which is pretty darn pro-gun when you think about it, and a darn good start after quite a few disappointments with the governor to date.

They also have apparently short memories, not remembering that it was Republican Governor Engler that signed shall-issue into law (admittedly reticently, and under a lot of pressure I might add from pro-gun activists that didn't take the ball and go home after earlier disappointments from Engler, but with the pressure on, Engler did do it). They also forget that we haven't seen a lot of pro-gun moves from Democrat governors in this state, not to mention Schauer has a rock-solid rabid anti-gun pedigree. They also don't understand how politics works.

Even better, one rather rude proponent of the scheme in the comments flatly declared that he was already carrying a short-barreled shotgun for self defense -- legal or not -- and that Michigan's ban was a "bogus law". Ooooh, how tough. Turns out it was a Bond Arms Derringer which is not an short-barreled shotgun (I guarantee he still doesn't know why it isn't). But he thought it was such and bragged on the Internet of all places of how he thought he was breaking a law. That's smart right there, as is relying on a Bond Arms Derringer for personal protection.

I'm halfway figuring he's a Democrat troll 'cause no one can be quite that patently over the top, but he may just be for real. In which case again, he, like the rest of the Keyboard Kommando Krybaby Korps needs to stay off our side.

Considering they're loudly planning to elect anti-gun Democrats, I daresay they already are on the other side.

The Winter Of Our Discount Tent - Detroit To Get A $350 Million Bailout From The State

The Discount Tent of course refers to the recent brouhaha where Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive, 30 some years ago stated regarding Detroit "“I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn.’”".

While colorful and inflammatory, the statement is, in its essence "truthy" as the left would put it. After all we're not sending in blankets and corn, instead the State of Michigan will be sending in millions of dollars to deadbeats, corrupt government officials and the electorate that succored them for so long as they led the city to ruin and bankruptcy.

The Detroit News: Let's call a bailout a bailout

Let's also note the sad reality, Govenror Snyder, a nominal Republican, is pushing $350 Million dollars on a solid Democrat city to relieve them of the consequences of their malfeasance. That malfeasance of course first being promising pensions that couldn't be paid while squandering the pension money that was there on corruption and incompetence. The second such act of malfeasance being that of the vulnerability of the Detroit Institute of Arts because the City Council for years refused to get it out from under City control and thus let its assets be open to satisfy the city's liabilities rather than safe as an independently and competently run institution.

In short it's a Republican Governerd racing to save a too-big-too-fail Democrat machine.

Why is he doing it when the moral hazard of bailing out those who will invariably continue the same antics and policies that led it to ruin remain in place? Perhaps because in his mind it's the right thing to do or for his own legacy as suggested in the Detroit News:

The governor is spending the largest portion of his time on Detroit and its problems. No other recent governor has devoted so much attention to the city, not even Democratic ones for whom Detroiters voted for by rote.

And again, Snyder is doing it without hope for a ballot box return. Neither the unions whose retirees will benefit, nor Detroiters whose city will be saved, are likely to reward him with votes.

And yet he’s investing his political capital in mustering a Republican-controlled Legislature to do something it has rarely done — recognize the special place Detroit occupies in the state, and thus its special claim on the treasury.

As I’ve suggested before, if he can get that done — and I think he will — Detroit should erect a statue of The Nerd in the center of Campus Martius.

I'd humbly suggest there's no way Detroiters will be putting up a statue of a Republican governor anytime soon, no matter how many millions he hands over to them. Indeed, I expect the first thing we'll hear are complaints that he hasn't given even more of the State's money to the City and its Democrat machine.

If Snyder as part of this deal doesn't explicitly condition this bailout on the severing of the link between the DIA and the city and turning it over to tri-county control, and also require that all future Detroit retirement plans to be 401K types outside the control and sticky-fingers of the Democrat machine, we'll be looking at this same problem yet again, with the same bailout to be the answer.

If that happens, the Governerd will be forever remembered as the Goverfool.

Immigration And Health Care Reform Euphemisms

Obama and the gang of Eight's Amnesty plan under the guise of Immigration reform is about to run right into upping the costs of Obamacare.

After all, what could go wrong with normalizing 11 million illegals and then trying to put them into Obamacare?

The Detroit News: Some immigrants excluded from health care overhaul

The headline should add (For Now) to the end of the title, for as with anything in this immigration legalization debauchery, its likely to not last as Mickey Kaus illustrates how the American people are being sold a bill of goods on this "reform" bill - legalization and millions of new Democrat voters and welfare and tax credit recipients today and border security maybe, someday, sometime.....

What the GOP members on the Gang of Eight are thinking is quite the mystery - perhaps its they illogically think that while they'll have a net loss of GOP voters with legalization, they'll make it up on volume?

Also, notice how the headline and article dances around the fact the issue is illegal immigrants and access to Obamacare, not immigrants per se:

But many immigrants will have to wait more than a decade to qualify for health care benefits under the proposed immigration overhaul being debated by Congress, ensuring a huge swath of people will remain uninsured as the centerpiece of Obama’s health care law launches next year.

Don't expect that restriction to last for long. Like many other promises in this bill, it seems quite illusory and will be subject to further "reform".

The politics behind the bill offer little solace to immigrant families struggling with growing medical bills.

Isabel Castillo came to the U.S. illegally with her parents when she was a child. She’s now 28 and has not gone for an annual physical exam since 2007. Every pain triggers debate over whether it’s worth a medical visit or not.

“You are like, ‘God, should I go, should I wait? The bill is going to be so high,’” Castillo said. “You just wait until you can’t tolerate the pain anymore and then you go to the emergency room.”

There is a solution for this illegal and many others with similar sob stories recounted in the article - after all the Left touts the greatness of Mexico's universal health care coverage - she can go back to Mexico for treatment and its a win-win for everyone!

Between Obamacare, Obama-Gang-of-8-Amnesty and a very shaky economy, it's going to get ugly with a high likelihood of irreparable harm.

Don't Greenlight Red Light Cameras In Michigan

Red Light Cameras are more about revenue than their claimed benefit of traffic safety.

Of course, in these revenue hungry times, even a Michigan Republican is pushing to allow communities to install them:

The Detroit News: Bill would let Michigan install red-light cameras

A measure recently introduced by Republican Rep. Wayne Schmidt of Traverse City would give local communities the power to put cameras in place.

I'm sad to see a Republican pushing for what is solely a revenue enhancing measure (that will likely decrease traffic safety at the expense of Michigan drivers. Shame on Wayne Schmidt for proposing such a stupid idea.

How do we know its simply a revenue grab? Well, under the details of the bill as reported:

Drivers wouldn't be penalized for citations that result from the camera on their driving record or toward their insurance.

Not about safety, just about increased revenue from fines. If passed, except communities that adopt them to start manipulating traffic light timing to catch more drivers going through red lights.

Michigan shouldn't succumb to such foolishness under the allure of some revenue from red-light fines.

Please Quit Trying To Do Gun Owners A "Favor" Senator Coburn!

So The Democrat Excerable Background Check plus law went down to a stinging defeat. As it was not just about background checks but was loaded down with tons of anti-gun crap and criminal jeopardy for law-abiding gun owners it couldn't even pass the Democrat controlled Senate.

As gun owners breathe a sigh of relief and hope that this ends the gun control push for now and maybe supply might catch up with demand as a result in the ammo, magazine and gun part markets along comes a Republican to put another log on the fire.

The Detroit Free Press: Sen. Coburn floats do-it-yourself gun background check

Getting a background check to buy a gun would be as easy as printing out an airplane boarding pass -- if Sen. Tom Coburn has his way.

Coburn's do-it-yourself background check plan -- which would expand the number of gun sales covered by background checks but also attempt to make them more user-friendly -- is one possible path forward for the gun safety legislation now stalled in the Senate. Last week, 41 Republicans and five Democrats voted to block a compromise background check proposal endorsed by many gun control groups but opposed by the National Rifle Association.

Gun control advocates are more skeptical of Coburn's plan, and Coburn himself admitted he doesn't know whether it has the votes to pass. But it appears his plan will get a vote: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., promised as much last week as he pulled the gun bill from the floor, saying he would bring it up again later. Coburn has one co-sponsor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but the NRA has been silent on the proposal.

Of course such a proposal is open to lots of questions and its unlikely the gun control types would be satisfied with such a system - indeed they've already said they're not:

"It's unworkable," said Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, "and there would be no incentive for any private seller to do a background check under the legislation."

Another problem for gun control advocates: There would be no lasting record of the sale.

"When there's a crime committed, a police agency can go to a manufacturer and ask, 'Hey, where did this gun go?'" said Mark Kelly, who founded Americans for Responsible Solutions with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords. The manufacturer can point to a federally licensed dealer, who would have a paper record of the sale, "and then they can help them solve some crimes," Kelly said.

So sayeth the man that committed a felony straw purchase all on his own by buying an AR15 and then stating his intent was he had bought them for another user.

You won't make the anti-gunners happy with this proposal and it opens the floor for Republicans to cave yet again, so why the heck are you bringing this up now?

Senator Coburn, McCain et al, could you please quit snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?