The dispute is over the letter N. This one is a letter press 10-point Kabel.
In a long-awaited ruling, a Michigan appeals court today said that the font size on a petition to overturn state Republicans' souped-up emergency manager law is too small, but that the referendum should go on the ballot anyway. The court wrote, in an essence, that the statutes require them to consider that the people circulating the petition tried to comply substantially with the requirements, and thus their signatures on it should count.
That's weird part number one. Weird part number two is that the court then stayed its own ruling so it can poll all 28 members of the appeals court on whether to form a special seven-member panel to consider the case. Eclectablog, a Democratic activist and blogger, calls it a stalling move. He writes:
This delays even further any final ruling. By doing this, they reduce the amount of time opponents of PA 4 will have to get out the vote for the cause and, conceivably could delay a ruling for so long that it might be too late to get on the ballot no matter what the ruling. Keep in mind that, no matter what the final decision is, it will likely go to the state supreme court.
And it's true that this matter is dragging on. The hyper-partisan Board of State Canvassers, with its competing conflicts of interest, deadlocked on the petitions back on April 26. The appeals court heard the case on May 17, and folks expected a decision within a week or so. The referendum would go on the November ballot, and at this point every week counts.
On the other hand, you could also see in this decision signs that Michigan is wrestling with the way it governs. That the elections board threw out the petitions despite sworn testimony from the printer that the font size was right, and having concurring internal advice from a Michigan State graphics professor, suggests that there are limits to how far a hyper-partisan strategy for running a state can go. Likewise, Michigan judges are elected and come with party ties. If and when the case reaches the state Supreme Court, it'll find a bench that is whose majority was nominated by Republicans.
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The Democrats are no help. They proved that over Obama's first four years. They are owned by the corporations. They aren't full-on fascist like the GOP, but they are still a big part of the problem. The Democratic party is a party of oath breakers and corporate whores who have abandoned our democratic principles. The Republicans have gone further and become classically fascist. I see no real hope for America now. With the "crowd control" and surveillance technology that the government now has, people-powered politics and is just about a thing of the past. We are truly seeing the last stages of America's move from democratic republic to all-out fascist police state. These are truly evil times.
If there is a silver lining on this, it is that fascists states are not sustainable. Fascist America will collapse under its weight...eventually. Most of won't live long enough to see that happen, though. May the rest of the world learn from our failure.
My apologies for being snide, but ... the rest of the world has been waiting for you to learn from us for decades.
The rest of the industrialized world (with a few exceptions) has progressed in education, health, equality and liberty while we've watched in utter amazement and sadness as the USA drifts ever closer to a theocracy ruled by despots.
Is it too late to stem the tide? For all my American friends, I dearly hope so.
this is what happens when you type too fast ... that last sentence should read "I dearly hope NOT". Oy.
80sGirl,
The US is looking more and more like an American version of the Weimar Republic.
Thorn Plutonius how can you say that the Democrats are owned by the corporations. It's the Republican representatives who secretly conspired with 300 corporations behind closed doors of American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.) to write legislation advantageous to the corporate oligarchy at the expense of the American people. The only "people" in the United States the Republicans represent anymore are the corporations, as decided by an activist, conservative Supreme Court majority in the unprecedented 'Citizens United' decision and union busting via attacks on collective bargaining. One day the corportacracy's strangle hold on the masses will be so complete, their control of Washington will be totally suffocating...not allowing any interference with their agenda, which is of course to turn the remaining population into virtual slaves. They say "If a man in Mexico or China will work for a buck an hour then Americans should do the same. Americans have to learn to compete with them. If I own a business I should be able to pay any amount I choose. We need to break the backs of the unions, push for elimination of minimum wage and benefits, OSHA standards and more, and bring back 60 hour work weeks -- in other words, remove those liberal roadblocks to prosperity."
Corporations have had a whirlwind couple of decades. Corporations earn record breaking profits, and pay ZERO federal taxes, but then complain about the high tax rate, depite the fact it is the lowest in decades, and then get away with all sorts of tax loopholes, while receiving corporate welfare via subsidies. The tax rate is it's lowest in 40 years. It's the Republicans that insisted on extension of Bush's tax cuts. It's the Republicans who conspired with one man, Grover Norquist, by signing his pledge to never raise taxes, at any time, under any circumstances.
Sympatico, however, Citizens United has opened the floodgates for both Democrats and Republicans. If your going to survive in these, all about money, elections you have to embrace it or end up like Barrett in Wisconsin. We need to overturn Citizens, take "control" of our unions by participation not just paying our dues, and get money out of politics. Divided we fall. I would have been a Woobly (IWW).
One of my favorite quotes: "The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..."
Utah Phillips
I say, go ahead and start campaigning as if it were already approved for the ballot.
I thinkFred wilder is right; Michigan has become their main lab for blind-siding the electorate. Rachel, your expose of how the legislature fraudulently enacted emergency legislation by faking the required majority was a chilling eye opener, and alerted the country to what can happen if they lose their vigilence. Beyond merely nullifying the immediate effete of the legislation, the people responsible for falsifying the record should be jailed. They're outright crooks, dammit!
I was born in Michigan and lived in Massachusetts for 47 years, moving back Home in 2008. Seeing Romney's term of four years shortened by the Olympics and the last year useless because he was starting his run for national office, I figured Michigan cannot be more poorly run! Was I ever wrong!
i am here to tell you the trees in Michigan are, most decidedly, not the right height. any challenges to take this provable and decidedly underhanded miscalculation to the screaming partisans at the supreme....i'm ready. tic tok
I, too, will leave the country if the morons that call themselves republicans win the election in November. You can't fight them because they just make it "illegal" and go on with their takeover of simply everything. It is illegal to do what they are doing in Michigan but since they own the legislature they just write another law and pass it in order to further their takeover. And with our paid for Supreme Court (supreme is debatable) we have no recourse there either. Yes, it will be best to leave the country if they win the presidency along with the house and senate. What I don't understand is how any sane person can even vote for them!!
Ladys mom,
I'm sure it is possible to be technically sane and thoroughly evil.
Here, here.
Many states are following Michigan's lead..The USA is getting to be a very bad place to live economically for the seniors on SS...
the Republican party is trying to turn the United States into a corporate ruled society. with the lords and the peasants.
We have sat by for far too long and been controlled for far too long. A Professor of Sociology once said to me. "The United States has the most controlled populace in the world." I recoiled and shot back, "No one controls me." She smiled and said, "You are the most controlled because you do not know you are being controlled." Well, after years of paying attention I offer kudos to my Indian professor who knew more about my country than I did.
That being said, her statement compelled me to try to prove how wrong she was. I began to closely follow contemporary events in my country and abroad and have come to one conclusion. We have allowed our systems to become so corrupted by money and self aggrandizement that those we elect to represent us, simply don't and haven't for a long time. When a politician shouts, "The people have spoken." we forget to ask them to define people, as we now have real people and fake people. We sat by, we did not take to the streets. Even people in dictator run nations take to the streets when they have had enough.
We are, however, a country of laws written to protect us; I have seen how laws have been subverted to the advantage of the few. With numbers we can influence outcomes and by numbers I mean millions, because without the huge numbers they won't even cover us on the local news. The movements are out there, pick one and become one of the millions, we may never get another chance. I believe it was Obama who said, " It can't get done without you." HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH YET?
Michigan is comming to an N. N I think is time to bring the GOP to an N.
Chris Matthews said why doesn't the President go BIG instead of this minuscule bill for jobs. I guess he knows better, but it just shows just how much the GOP is control of their puppet masters and just keep Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" slogan as the way to appease their masters! It makes it perfectly clear what they are NOT doing! Helping the country and don't give a sh!t about the economy to the least even they claim they do. I would hope the people in this once great country would WAKE UP to this more than obvious shell game.
Is the US headed for default? I hope not as well the whole FREE world should. But without any NEW regulations set in place to stop them from doing it all over again because the GOPs obstruction nothing is to STOP them. The Super rich will push the economy over the cliff if Obama loses the election. You can take that to the bank. When you add it all up the Koches and their FAKE Tea Party have fooled enough people into thinking that its the government is standing in the way of growth by over-regulating them. Such as the reason for high oil/gas prices. We know its not the truth! But many still don't understand why the Koches are doing this mass misinformation campaign. They in fact want NO US government or any government that can have a say in what they do. The republican party is already dead and its FAKE replacements are being put in their place. Calling them Libertarians or Tea Party to fight this evil overbearing governments in all free countries not just the USA. So if Obama loses it will be well set for them to place blame,"Its Obama's Fault" will be their cry and once again fool the naive and fools who have taken the bait of these truly evil men who's ultimate goal is world domination in the form of their Corportocracy. But they MUST have a majority and the White House first to complete their dream and our nightmare!
The only way I see it for us to win in November is to EXPOSE this and make plain that this is the truth. The enemy has been identified now we must defeat them and attack it on all fronts!
Oil a DEAD end road. Its an older article but many points still valid. As you read the first part regarding biofuels you must understand why they ARE privatising water on public lands.
http://home.earthlink.net/~oilandyou/
Today, in the United States, transportation consumes 68% of our total petroleum supply and 28% of our total energy requirements. Just two initiatives, biofuels from algae and gasoline from coal could satisfy all of our current transportation needs and make us energy independent. This solution is greenhouse gas neutral since the CO2 generated from coal-to-gasoline facilities could be used to grow the algae feedstock for biodiesel.
So, what happened? Why aren't we doing it!
Well, these synthetic fuel plants are very expensive! They cost billions of dollars to build and operate. The initial product oil price would be in the range of $40 to $50 per barrel, but could be as low as $30 to $40 per barrel as the technology matures. (Click here for current crude oil prices!) In 1980, when we faced a situation similar to today, the government established the Synthetic Fuels Corporation. Then Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, Union, Oxy, Mobil and others responded with huge investments in coal gasification, coal liquefaction, oil shale, tar sands, and other syncrude projects. Exxon even built a town to support its future oil shale workers. The government was ready to provide subsidies to allow these plants to compete with imported oil. Just when it seemed we were on the verge of going ahead, the world oil price was lowered, and the synthetic fuel program wasn't important anymore. So, President Reagan effectively ended the program in 1984. Not only did he cut the funding in half, but his bill required that synthetic fuels be competitive with world oil prices. The oil companies immediately abandoned their projects. Oxy kept going on oil shale for a few more years, but then was forced to quit because the price of oil remained low. If you look at the chart above, you'll see that our consumption and imports of petroleum decreased substantially while the synthetic fuel program was active. Since the end of that program, imports have steadily climbed as our domestic production has steadily declined.
I might hope for a major bridge to fail to make a point. God help us! The evil is all around us. Driven by the power of GREED!
Water privatisation...Look out its just water??!!! Or is it a commodity?
http://www.serconline.org/waterPrivatization/fact.html
Note that if you click on the links in this page you told its a 404 not found note the STATE! I tried the other links too no luck...we are running out of time folks!!!
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/VANOVEDR/
This just in. The referendum of Michigan's emergency financial manager law is headed toward the November ballot after the state appeals court on Thursday declined to convene a special panel to decide a dispute over the type size of petitions.
For the whole article:
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/appeals_court_declines.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+michigan-news+%28Michigan+News%2C+Updates%2C+Photos%2C+Videos+and+Opinions+-+MLive.com%29