A new academic blogger on the civil rights issue wrote these kind words about an article I wrote in May 2003 for the Michigan Bar Journal using University of Michigan archival records to buttress the case for socio-economic alternatives (to be clear, [...]
ProgressMichigan, the heavily financed extreme left idea and organizing shop of Progress for Michigan, regularly issues an e-mail update to its followers. Below, I've pasted its latest attack on Bart Stupak, the Democratic Congressman from the UP who proposed the abortion funding restriction amendment to the federal health care package. [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that the Senate Health Reform Bill will have a Public Option that States can opt out of. President Obama believes that the public option is necessary in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition. But my question is how much more [...]
The Michigan House has voted for House Bill 5386 which:
"to impose a 3 percent gross revenue tax on doctors. This would be a “Medicaid Quality Assurance Assessment” (MMQAA) tax that is used by the state to collect more federal Medicaid matching funds"
This is a tax on GROSS REVENUE, not [...]
Brian Koss, a regular reader in Oakland County, found this priceless jewel in Frasier, Michigan's City Council race. Frasier is Macomb County near Warren. Michigan government is shutdown officially in Lansing, as legislators remain in deadlock.
As many of you know, I work for one of the representatives, and while it was avoidable and many tried to avoid it the outcome was predictable like most forces of nature. I won't get into the post-mortems or [...]
Michigan government is shutdown officially in Lansing, as legislators remain in deadlock.
As many of you know, I work for one of the representatives, and while it was avoidable and many tried to avoid it the outcome was predictable like most forces of nature. I won't get into the post-mortems or [...]
The Los Angelas Times warns us as if "the foundations of our democracy" would crumble in an op-ed today that we need to "watch out" ... "if" the Supreme Court allows corporate contributions and overturns past precedent.
Watch out? For what? The horse left the barn years ago. The train [...]
I knew it was going to be a big number in Troy when someone text messaged that 4000 annoying (Brighton is the city that tried to ban annoying behavior) tea partiers showed up in Brighton. Fox reports 10K plus for the "whole day" - with verifying numbers to that [...]
I thought Andy Dillon joined the Republican Party yesterday when I heard the news. But as I thought it about, his remarkable proposal to group all Michigan state employees, including local municipal and teachers, into one insurance pool with the same insurance choices, could rationally fit into several political paradigms [...]
The Snyder camp released the following letter and links attacking Granholm for her recent - but six years late - consolidation of History, Arts, and Libraries. He takes issue with the vast similarities between the proposed new name of the sub-division taking over those functions and his campaign message. I [...]
Anyone listening President Obama's US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor confirmation testimony will understand one thing quickly. She's running from her statements that "life experiences" and "skin tone diversity" have appropriate roles in the proper role of judging.
What does Sotomayor's flat-out statements that skin color and gender, and conversely, the [...]
The Michigan Senate Democrats are still wasting money - even here but everywhere apparently - on google advertising. Just noticed one to the left, again.
This is the group that complained about the differential between the minority Senate alotment and the majority's slightly larger alotment, something that is reversed in [...]
I actually called the reporter, Jim Totten, of the Livingston Argus, last night, to verify that Police Chief Wightman of the City of Brighton actually said it. According to Totten's story yesterday, which I hadn't had time to dig up in my post then, the Chief took [...]
I've heard of spin and putting a positive light on things. The spin however digs you deeper usually, if you look at it closely.
The media has revisited the Brighton annoyance ordinance, and mentions our FOIA work and "citizen journalism" in a note of respect. Here at the blog of [...]
The timing of this one is interesting in that it overturns a ruling by a nomiinee for the high court itself. Here's a short clip about the ruling from Fox News politics online, and how Sonia Sotomayor's Court of [...]
Below are the press releases from Arizona announcing what was difficult to accomplish last year via signature drive has been accomplished by legislative vote. The signature-drive last appeared to have enough signatures but was disqualified by Arizona municipal clerks on technicalities because their signature margin was too close and AzCRI [...]
Many of you may have noticed the new blog and facebook group "Race for Michigan" that purports to be a new source of information for Michigan political races, particularly at the top of the ticket.
OutsideLansing.com research [...]
Some stories are astounding. This one you have to believe is just an overly straight-faced attempt at sarcasm.
But PETA mildly chastised (they still like his voting record) President O'Bama for swatting a fly.
I respect a President willing swat flies, and then say "I got the sucker." If O'Bama carries the [...]
Much has been said about the size of the April 15 Lansing Tea Party. Here's the only high-angle overhead shot I know [...]
Even most Democrats should agree - spending government money to advertise the "Senate Democratic Caucus" official website on google ads that appear here (or anywhere in my mind), is wasteful government spending.
The Democrats have decried the differential amount that the Senate majority [...]
Tonight at 7:17pm I received another automated telephone poll (from 989-773-1144, an unpublished Mount Pleasant landline) attempting to guage the gubernatorial or Secretary of State primary races - its hard to tell which the focus was on. These polls are incredibly cheap - albeit not reliable for anything other than [...]
Perhaps feeling a need to respond to the Tea Party movement, and perhaps just seeking to reinforce their pressures to retain what they consider to be their peice of the public money pie, the Jon Stryker-funded Progress Michigan (nothing necessarily wrong with funding your favorite political causes, but everyone seems [...]
The 20th district Senate seat, covering all of Kalamazoo County and a biteof Van Buren, had two not-surprising contestants jump into the race - at least in terms of campaign finance committee filings - this past week.
Term limited Rep. Tanya Schuitmaker, who lives in Lawton near Paw Paw in the [...]
It seems that President Barack O'Bama's speech at Notre Dame university has generated a fair amount of controversy. Without addressing the consistency or, well, fairness of the statement itself, O'Bama attempted to deflect abortion protesters with the theme that we can and should agree to disagree on certain issues, work [...]
I had to laugh seriously hard when I saw this hit piece on charter schools in the Detroit Free Press. This is a perfect example of the so-called "impossible standard".
"Overall, charter schools have not delivered on the promise that they ... are going to cure all that is" [...]
This is so offensive I can't let it go, and until now I had refrained from comment on the Arlen Specter party-switch story because, frankly, I thought it was a complex issue and I'd give him the benefit of doubt.
I've changed my mind. Specter is a buffoon and political opportunist, [...]
When I was a very young person - at age 10 - I remember Jack Kemp contemplating the idea of running for president and in the early primary season he was my favorite. I've always been a political geek I suppose. That was 1980 when Kemp was considered the father [...]
Back in 2008, both before and during the Reform Michigan Government Now! movement (RMGN), we reported on Citizens for Michigan, another independent group seeking a Constitutional Convention in Michigan. Every 16 years - next in 2010 - the people have a chance to vote yes or no for a Convention [...]
Several readers have demanded it, so here are some shots of the Lansing Taxpayer Tea Party on April 15, 2009. The complete series is at my personal Facebook album, and both OutsideLansing.com [...]
I'm having tea this morning, instead ... er, in addition to ... my coffee.
Just thought I'd give a hats off to all those civicly-minded folks that will participate in a Taxpayer Tea Party or some other similar observerance of today. There are too many to mention here but hopefully I'll [...]
Every now and then an irony catches my attention.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, an excellent mostly non-biased national higher education news service (it's only flaw is that it softsteps many issues, given that's its reader-base is mostly academic administration), has this story about colleges [...]
Here's an interesting lawsuit in the FOIA arena, from Art Bukowski at the Traverse City Record Eagle. A citizen is litigating the question of whether a public official can use a self-funded "private" e-mail account to conduct public business.
George Galic served on the Traverse Area [...]
Michigan Representative Brian Calley (R-Portland) announced today on Get Your Justice Live that he is to introduce a new bill to protect parent-child relationships. The bill, if passed after its upcoming introduction, will establish a presumption that a child would be able to maintain a substantially equal relationship with [...]
Here's an update for those readers who regularly follow my ongoing litigation with the Michigan Education Association (MEA), filed in May 2007 by the MEA against the Howell Public School district and myself seeking an injunction to prevent the application of Michigan FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) to e-mails sent [...]
One day we're "Zark-Vader" according to liberal columnists like Jack Lessenberry, and the next we're doing the dirty with pigs. Literally.
According to this MichiganLiberal.com MichiganObscenity.com I have a thing for pigs - and not just an idle curiousity but one that involves the [...]
One day we're "Zark-Vader" according to liberal columnists like Jack Lessenberry, and the next we're doing the dirty with pigs. Literally.
According to this MichiganLiberal.com MichiganObscenity.com I have a thing for pigs - and not just an idle curiousity but one that involves the [...]
Folks may remember the City of Brighton passed an ordinance banning annoying behavior last December. Below we analyze the results of a FOIA surrounding those events.
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I'll be honest. The mainstream media can annoy me - but for the most part I think that writers and editors are just professionals [...]
Folks may remember the City of Brighton passed an ordinance banning annoying behavior last December. Below we analyze the results of a FOIA surrounding those events.
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I'll be honest. The mainstream media can annoy me - but for the most part I think that writers and editors are just professionals [...]
Folks may remember the City of Brighton passed an ordinance banning annoying behavior last December. Below we analyze the results of a FOIA surrounding those events.
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I'll be honest. The mainstream media can annoy me - but for the most part I think that writers and editors are just professionals [...]
Folks, we just received initial results from our Brighton FOIA request, relating to the City of Brighton's City Council's passing of an obnoxious local ordinance banning "annoying" behavior, which they now say is "just' an anti-harassment statute. Our FOIA changed the city public relations strategy radically, although its hard to" [...]
Folks, we just received initial results from our Brighton FOIA request, relating to the City of Brighton's City Council's passing of an obnoxious local ordinance banning "annoying" behavior, which they now say is "just' an anti-harassment statute. Our FOIA changed the city public relations strategy radically, although its hard to" [...]
Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) discusses his upcoming reintroduction of the former Parental Rights Amendment [...]
Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) discusses his upcoming reintroduction of the former Parental Rights Amendment [...]
I've been called Zark-Vader by some on the left, but I think I've found someone who has really gone over to the Darkside.
Eric Baerren, owner of MichiganLiberal.com, has proven just exactly why Transparency should be an issue siezed upon by conservatives until the chickens come home to roost. He [...]
I've been called Zark-Vader by some on the left, but I think I've found someone who has really gone over to the Darkside.
Eric Baerren, owner of MichiganLiberal.com, has proven just exactly why Transparency should be an issue siezed upon by conservatives until the chickens come home to roost. He [...]
The little Ionia Sentinel-Standard bears witness to a remarkable public statement by a public official.
“I really think the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act are what make us different,” Cox said
He also said these acts were a strong way for people in the general public to [...]
The little Ionia Sentinel-Standard bears witness to a remarkable public statement by a public official.
“I really think the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act are what make us different,” Cox said
He also said these acts were a strong way for people in the general public to [...]
See OaklandPolitics.com for a copy of Gary Peters e-mail explaining how outraged he is ... at himself for not reading the bill he voted for to give AIG corporaticians bonuses of $160,000,000.
Truly embarrassing, [...]
See OaklandPolitics.com for a copy of Gary Peters e-mail explaining how outraged he is ... at himself for not reading the bill he voted for to give AIG corporaticians bonuses of $160,000,000.
Truly embarrassing, [...]
Governments just don't get it. Governments are about control - markets about invention and free flow of ideas and information. That often doesn't mix, as is the case in the City of Ann Arbor, according to this remarkable Ann Arbor News story.
Here's the [...]
Governments just don't get it. Governments are about control - markets about invention and free flow of ideas and information. That often doesn't mix, as is the case in the City of Ann Arbor, according to this remarkable Ann Arbor News story.
Here's the [...]
Timothy McVeigh received the death penalty. And rightly so.
The Unabomber - Ted Kaczynski - a nutcase who shares a common alma mater with Bill Ayers (sadly, I admit, the University of Michigan) - sits in jail for life after his terror spree.
But bomber and [...]
Timothy McVeigh received the death penalty. And rightly so.
The Unabomber - Ted Kaczynski - a nutcase who shares a common alma mater with Bill Ayers (sadly, I admit, the University of Michigan) - sits in jail for life after his terror spree.
But bomber and [...]
Regular readers will notice tje new banner above. Compare that to the old. If you have any feedback, please let me know.
Regular readers will notice tje new banner above. Compare that to the old. If you have any feedback, please let me know.
Yesterday, a major US Supreme Court decision - to not grant review (to not act is to act) - upheld an Arizona ruling that petition circulator residency requirements, along with disparate treatment of third parties in filing deadlines, were unconstitutional.
The Detroit City Council's rejection of the Cobo Hall deal - a deal most bi-partisan observers thought was good for Detroit but allowed suburbs enough of the reasonable oversight folks like L. Brooks Patterson has demanded for years - is now old hat (a day old). But still worth a [...]
What level of pork is acceptable. In a story by the Dallas News where O'Bama criticizes his critics for being too critical of his "stimulus" package, O'Bama defends the bad by pointing to the good.
"If we agree on 90 percent of this stuff, and we're spending all our time" [...]
Kyle Olson, the one man bandit according to the Michigan Education Association (EAG), has pulled off another informational hiest. This time audio tape of a strategy session dealing with the bargaining episodes in Grand Rapids, a hotly contested district.
Olson's Education Action Group released this statement with links to audio. [...]
Thanks to the "Blogprof," an Oakland County Reader, for catching the irony of this Rochelle Riley article about a controversy the New York Post has sparked by "allowing" its cartoonist creative flexiblilty to express views agains the president's stimulus and the right to, heaven forbid, make socially stupid [...]
First, an apology to readers for the delay in news here. As I note on OaklandPolitics.com, I've taken a "day job" as a legislative staffer ("transparency" to follow shortly - stay tuned). Rest assured, while I'm "inside Lansing" in [...]
Remember when Leon Drolet and the Michigan Taxpayers Association was ever-so evil for having the gall to start a pro-taxpayer inspired recall back in late 2007? It was the never-ending source of media coverage and opinion that such dangerous changes in government might lead to nuclear wastedom for Michigan (oh, [...]
It's almost not news given that in Detroit its a relatively common occurrence, but it appears that the feds have confessions from the owner of a sludge hauling company that landed a millions of dollars in sewage hauling contracts with the City of Detroit by "lavishing" city officials with bribes [...]
Congratulations to Ron Weiser, who will be the next Michigan Republican Party chairperson. About an hour ago, Jack Hoogendyk stepped out of the race with this message:
I am writing today to announce my decision to withdraw from the race for Party Chairman. This comes after a great deal of careful [...]
Well, perhaps the final battle, since in the world of petition drives and initiatives, frivolous suits can go on ad nauseum. But this looks like the final clarion for NbCRI, modeled after our own Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) and others in California and Washington.
It passed [...]
Paul Jacob, whose column and radio clips nationally syndicate under the pseudo-trademark of "Common Sense", thinks our position against the anti-annoyance law in the City of Brighton is ... well ... common-sense. Jacob finds the ordinance to be as annoying as we do here, and mentions our complaint and [...]
OutsideLansing.com has recently come across a number of interesting claims by Grace Caporuscio, a resident in Macomb County's Chippewa Valley School District (represented by Kim Meltzer and Fred Miller in the state House). First, we'll direct you to this citizen-FOIA-activist's immensely interesting "watchdog" website - you can read the [...]
Today's MLK day, and its worth noting his heroic contribution to American history. For those political parties that would try to "lay claim" to his mantle though, I'd propose we remember a few key parts of history.
The first "Civil Rights Act" could have been signed in 1957, supported by [...]So I'm watching Charlie Rose on PBS a couple nights ago and his guest is Rahm Emanuel, President-elect O'Bama's incoming Chief of Staff. Rose is a great interviewer in that he usually elicits in-depth discussion. The topic of "group-think" and administrative independence within the cabinet level appointees came up, and [...]
Politics, particularly in federal Senate-level, nonimations, has become increasingly adept at complete obscurity. It's understandable - with the nastiness beginning with Bork (whose name has become a verb) and Clarence Thomas and both parties partaking in a vengeful cycle. But the citizens are entitled to some understanding of what their [...]
This op-ed by the Livingston Daily Press & Argus captures most of the issues in the "annoyance" ordinance case brought on by Brighton City Council stubborness. The op-ed again mentions our Constitutional analysis and notes the practical reality of unconstitutional rules - they get overturned and cost millions in [...]
A relevant section below. It's interesting how they admit the Police Chief wrote a memo AFTER the controversy ignited. Normally, you should do those [...]
Ah. The Michigan Education Association (MEA) attorneys seem to have started a whole new practice area in "reverse FOIA," an until recently rare type of case where a third party tries to prevent public information from being released.
Just yesterday a hearing was held before a local judge in Stanton [...]
Mr. Leonard Page, a senate-confirmation level appointee of the Clinton administration (appointed in 1999 as General Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board - NLRB), has hinted that a "defamation" lawsuit might be filed regarding my pension fund story here.
as far as my volunteering my identity-- which i [...]
City officials at the Brighton City Council meeting last night issues several responses last night to a speech I gave and the generally large media reaction over the past three weeks. All of the public Council responses essentially blamed the media for mentioning the "annoyance" part when the City argued [...]
Jim Totten at the Livingston Daily Press & Argus writes this story about tomorrow night's Brigthon City Council meeting, and about how the "model" city for the annoyance statute, Royal Oak, rarely uses the ordinance. In fact, so rare its only been once - and ironically against a citizen [...]
Several weeks ago, Michelle Malkin was one of the first to bring to the limelight the UAW extravagence at their Cheboygan County golf course and resort. The citizen journalism sphere has since been peeling back the many layers (including laborpains.org, my original source in this case) of swirling [...]
In the wake of the nearly $15 billion auto industry bailout, there has been much scrutiny of both the companies and unions receiving taxpayer money. First, it was corporate executives from GM and Chrysler privately jetting to DC during the very act of asking for our money. Then, last week, [...]
Markets go up and down for reasons and the up and down movement itself has benefits - according to famous economist Joseph Schumpeter one effect of down markets is so-called "creative destruction". Weak companies collapse and make way for the new, or [...]
One of the buzzes of late is President-elect Barack O'Bama's decision to use the Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln when inaugrated in 1861 during the Civil War. Some speculation is that O'Bama is rubbing it into Republican faces (after all, Lincoln was the first Republican) and simultaneously [...]
A post-Christmas review of Tim Skubic's Off-the-Record "Bloggers edition" warrants a quick factual correction of the statements of one of the bloggers from the left, Julielyn Gibbons of MichiganLiberal.com. She appeared with Eric Baerren (also of MichiganLiberal.com -- it might nice to see Skubic [...]
Brighton continues in the national media its mad Orwellian-spin on the not-an-anti-annoyance-annoyance-ban statute. This time ABC News GO out of New York (that's the national ABC Online affiliate) covers the story with a "beautiful" quote from Zarko Research (below the teaser for more).
Police Chief Wightman and the town's [...]
Get this. We agree with the MEA (Michigan Education Association) on something.
Laura Paige, field representative for the Michigan Education Association, said many districts have consolidated or cut their administration, but others have not. She said administrators have tough jobs -- but she hopes that when cuts are made, that they're [...]
The blog documenting the Michigan Republican Party Chair race - MRPWatch (formerly michiganrepublicanpartywatch.blogspot.com) has been taken off the public blogging host "Blogger". We not sure whether this was at the behest of the owners a complaint perhaps to Google - the owner of the service.
This led me to ponder what [...]
