Well, they're AT our backs anyway..."Why Governor, what's that big, shiny, sharp thing in your hand???"

Sure they have our backs, as a target for their knives !!!

Uh...There's another reason why Republicans are pushing to squelch collective bargaining rights....all the money paid by union members into their pensions is already spent. Used for everything but it's original purpose. Now, Republicans want union members to forget they were ever paying part of their pensions. Stinky, right?

Wake up people. This is exactly what the Republicans allowed when the Bush Rodeo was in DC. Spend and dump the bills onto taxpayers. This is what they do when Wall Street needs a constant injection of cash and can't get it honestly. Republicans would love nothing more than for all of us to have our SS deductions, Medicare and Medicaid deductions fund Wall Street high risk investments and when Wall Street has another meltdown, it won't be the CEOs who'll suffer. Like they actually felt any pain in 2008.

Push back hard at Republicans who are out to take your last dime and hand it to their rich cronies to play investment games with. Push back hard because it's your money they are trying to claim employers have a right to even though you put in your work time earning it.

This is what Republicans do when they can't gain power any other way....starve programs for our most vulnerable Americans, educations for our kids and healthcare for the rest of us. Are Republicans feeling the same pain you do? How can they? Every five years for over a decade now we handed them tax credits.

As for me, the next millionaire who whine how he/she isn't rich, will get what they don't want to hear from me. I don't plan on working to live and living just to work so the Republicans can offer their wealth insurance policies to their favorite cronies.

Demand an accounting of how much money we've lost in tax credits paid to people who don't need any more and already use too much of what they have to control the rest of us. Just what we need....Republicans in charge of education curriculum. The rich kids will afford college while the rest of the country's kids end up dumber than a donut.

You Michiganders know the city of Pontiac was taken over by the state right??? It doesn't fit though because Granholm was in office and if I remember correctly it had to do with corruption and malfeasance. I don't know if there is a new mayor and CC or not.

Recently, the Pontiac Police dept. was disbanded and supposedly the county sheriff's office is supposed to provide law enforcement. Might be worth keeping an eye on.

I'm in Michigan and very, very angry about what is happening, but I don't see anyone else upset about anything that is happening, outside of a few teachers. The media here said NOTHING about the emergency manager legislation that passed yesterday. Wonder if that is because the media are all owned by big corporations now, eh? The fourth estate is pretty dead, except for the few remaining like Rachel. What has happened to Keith, by the way?? Thought maybe he'd pop up somewhere by now. Anyway, unions are the enemy in Michigan now, believe it or not - in MICHIGAN. Who's going to pay for the fireworks, CVCarlson??? I'm just asking.

Privatize schools...Now there's a Republican plum dangling in front of their eyes. Just what we need. A bunch fundamentalist right wingers shoving their brand of ideology down our kids throats.

I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to make sure the kids in my state are aware of how Republicans plan the takeover of education so it does what they want it to do. Teach children Republican so-called values. Chase as many skirts while Wife Most Indulged isn't looking and then thump your Bible Sunday morning.

Me too. Good luck and dI won'thold my breath for that

The teachers union in Ohio warned the teachers in Ohio that Kasich was going to gut the teachers union. People voted for Kasich. The Republicans ran a NATIONAL racist campaign against President Barack Obama and Black/Brown people. It worked. Why is that racist Huckabee telling lies about PBO being born in Kenya etc etc? This bs works.

Until people start telling the truth about race nothing is going to change.

Once my Governor Bully Boy in NJ got that squash collective bargaining operative going, it was only a matter of time before all of the Republican governors jumped on the same band wagon.

It all comes down to whether or not we will allow Republicans to tell us how to live our lives or not. They were always part of the voting block on legislation. Which means they have always had control of whether or not legislation passed.

Yet, they act as though they've lost power. Hogwash. With every Democratic president we elected, they refused to allow them to govern. What does that tell you? It tells me we are no longer allowed the power and might of our popular vote so long as Republican back room agendas can usurp that power.

If I wanted a Republican president, I'd have voted for one.

Yeah you are right. White people will be evading that fact by saying you can't call me racist, or you are seeing racism when I don't. There is a problem here and ignoring it doesn't make it not exist.

I feel the resistance to talking racism is people want to believe something and it just feels better (to them) to deny it.

Yes, mentioning race or hinting about it does seem to work in too many cases.

I feel we need to tackle it, when it's seen, even when you KNOW the backlash is coming.

Now I see the Republicans are using God as a weapon, too... cause it works. When you have to call them out for saying things that are inconsistent with Constitution, then the devout people feel they need to defend God or their beliefs.

It is definitely an intentional tactic, cuz it works. Even if people don't believe the press is not raised in Kenya, (Shuck - a - bee) they know the reaction will be in their favor.

Why do working people vote against their own interests? Deception. I get 10 mailings from Right-wing organizations for every single mailing from Democratic-leaning organizations. Those mailings are full of the most vile, vicious slander and outright lies that you can imagine. But this is the principal way Republicans get votes. Only 3.5 million watch O'reilly and a lot less watch Beck. It is these mailing and the ubiquitous dominance of right-wing websites masquerading as real news (like NEWSMAX.com - which has links everywhere - including the front page of MSNBC.com!!) that pushes right-wing ideology over the top. You want to defeat the 24/7/365 misinformation campaign? You better get out there with a 24/7/365 INFORMATION CAMPAIGN.

Unfortunately, the President has decided not to do this. Not to take on the lies directly or point out those on the right who are deliberately misinforming the public. Also, not enough people watch MSNBC shows like TRMS and the Ed Show to turn the tide.

We are losing in a big way, people. We are fortunate that the Wisconsin 14 gave us time to see all the power-grabbing that is included in this Wisconsin "Budget" bill. But even if they take out the union busting stuff, it is coming down the pike for all of us in the near future.

One problem (there are many) is that too many avowed liberals, etc., persistently over-estimate the electorate. I once saw a writer in the magazine Mother Jones categorically declare "We must have faith in the American people!" My first reaction was "What do you mean 'we'?" followed by "And precisely who are "the American people" that anyone must have faith in them?"

We had him as Gov., too.

I'm sure he was a real likable guy and all that, but he did start piling on the debt and charging the national credit card up .

This is getting ridiculous and the people need to keep showing their disapproval for all this craziness that is not "free" any more, but the "leaders" telling us to ignore all those agreements and we have to cut everything in sight.

I just heard something I mentioned awhile back "company town". The company controls the whole town!

The irony with Ronnie is that he was a Union head. He was the head of SAG once upon a time.

Really? Then you would agree those on wall street and the monied interests who fund republican campaigns, should all start paying taxes, instead of hiding money offshore, or getting their bought and paid for politicians to take care of their tax obligations in the form of tax cuts?

Being as it should be the same for all.

I mean what's fair is fair right?

only somebody like Headlee or DeVos would say anything that mean about people who have ALREADY WORKED AND PAID INTO THEIR PENSIONS, THOSE WHO NEED THAT TO LIVE ON, COUNTED ON THAT MONEY BEING THERE SO THEY WOULDN'T END UP ON THE STREET BEGGING.

I wish you were in the same position as some of our seniors!

I know of many who worked 20-30 years for the same company, retired only to see the swindling and doublecrossing the banks did steal their pension money! The companies invested the pension money in MBS only to watch it evaporate like hot water on the sidewalk in July. What do you want to tax? Money that isn't there any more? What little they are forced to live on, or maybe all the Medicare benefits?

I pulled my money out of CD's when the rate was still 7%, I don't know what I would have done if I had waited until the rate was 1.5%

Thanks to cold hearted people here like you, Ford salaries went all the way down to minimum wage. You already took everything the workers had, now you want to take their blood too?

So are you saying pensions under $45,000 should not be taxed in Michigan, Kathy? Just wondering. And you know, progressives WANT it to "be the same for all"!! The same job security, the same access to medical care......no matter where or for whom you work. You probably have a bleak future ahead of you due to all that has happened, so you're willing to drag everyone down with you, even senior citizens. This is just what the right hoped for. Get the rats in the cage to fight with each other while we keep all the cheese.

I lived in California under Gov. Reagan, it was horrible. His budget cuts meant we had to roll old people out to the curb because he cut their medical benefits and couldn't pay for being in a nursing home anymore! He cut the medications from real medicine to mostly aspirin and Rolaids.

He cut the funds for kids going to college, at the time anyone over 18 could go to college for free. How were they supposed to get an education to get a good job and not be on welfare? 2 years worth of college or paying a lifetime of being on welfare, which is better?

California has never been the same, he paved the way for prop 13 and a bunch of other mean spirited laws that finally broke the state.

But I will never forget how our staff at this nursing home, having to literally put old people out on the street, scared and desperate, hoping some family member would come and get them. I quit rather than do that. Still just being there was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, it didn't have to be that way, they didn't even get a chance to make arrangements, get a social worker or anything. Reagan lost his soul that year and never got it back.

That is what these people call "god" Reagan... homeless people, mentally unstable people... Yes, this from a former Union President, as was previously noted by a well informed person.

Reagan was a complete phoney and a vile excuse for a human being. His undeserved high status in American politics says a lot about the corruption of American society.

EFM's? are you serious...did you see the whole bill...firing elected officials, dissolving school boards and elected officials once fired cannot run for 6 years is going against our rights to vote...period! THIS IS NOT A DICTATORSHIP! Why are you so eager to give our rights away?

Tommy Libertarian...Surely you jest. Call your local school district. Ask to see the invoices from the vendors the district buys from. Then dig around and see how many of those vendors are cronies tied to Wall Street. Even the school books are bought from the oldest and largest corporation on Wall Street.

Republicans have two wells to deal with. One is overflowing with cash and they ignore it. When they need money they draw from the well that's nearly empty and dry. Guess who owns the well that's overflowing? Corporate America.

Wall Street manages the pension funds and charge hefty fees (and dole out bonuses) to steal from the fund in the form of speculations on supply, risky real estate transactions, etc....

Fiberglass laminate; vintage stuff. I have one that used to be my grandad's.

Tommy, are you on drugs or what? Have you ever worn a hard hat? Or done a job that requires one? You know, the kind where you get your hands dirty and calloused? Where you go home too tired to notice crap like how cool the guy's hat is?

There was talk about the state of Michigan pulling out of the union, going it alone as a sovereign nation, which is what all states really are. We could have our own money system, laws, rights, education system and everything, and be better off for it.

The best part is that WE will no longer be subject to paying back the national debt, we didn't make, why should we pay it. That way all our money stays here, we won't be broke, won't have to balance a budget to pay for national defense that only makes the dept of defense filthy rich. We don't need the Feds to tell us what we can and can't do.

Free at last, debt free at last!

kevtrsk...It's beginning to look like the working poor and Middle Class got the Corporate Shakedown. They whined and cried they had to have our help in 2008 when they nearly blew the entire global banking system out to sea. Are these same Biggie Piggies hurting? You can bet not.

Look at how Republicans got those tax credits for the rich to continue...holding the 8 million they unemployed hostage while the Bush Rodeo was having its fun in DC bilking everyone but their rich cronies.

Giving anything to people who already have more than they need is overindulgence and has to stop. Push back. All we can do is recall those who seek to destroy our quality of life and hand it to the greedy who never know when enough is enough.

We do have to push back. Small businesses are losing as well. Join us small business people, help push back. They want to gobble up your business, too.

They told us Middle income to put our savings in the stock market, all we could afford, then took it. Same with pension funds, which were stolen by Wall St. The shake down is very accurate.

It helps them put money in their own pockets using the "A A A AWW WFUL HHHHooRRrible Government to direct things to go their way. It's all about the money. They can cash in, just look at Golman Sachs and Ole Cheney made sure his aerospace company stock and defense contractor stock and oil stock was on "buy". The moral values and small government, fear of Muslim terror ideology is how they sell it.

I know and I agree--it's all about money. But I still don't understand what they think will happen to this country after they have all the money. They have to know they will destroy the middle class. What happens after that?

from La. I've been asking myself the exact same question. I'm just not smart enough to figure it out.

I guess it's like conquering the world or universe, etc. I don't really get the greed either....

Today I thought well, maybe they want to bust the unions so wages can drop drastically & have everybody be uneducated (except for those who can afford private schools) so people will be ignorant and not know any better. Then we can be like a 3rd world country and that way jobs will come back to America!