The Reverend Jesse Jackson is reportedly heading to Benton Harbor, Michigan, today, the first city to have its elected officials sat down under the state's new emergency financial manager law. Local people tell us they're expecting Reverend Jackson to speak at noon, at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, about what's happening in Benton Harbor.

Last night on the show, we heard from Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who ran against Governor Rick Snyder last year and lost. We opened the mic, and he just started talking:

Our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves at what's happening in Michigan. It is dire, and it is sad -- a sad day for democracy. It's really everything you said. It is taxation without representation. You know, it is the corporatization. We're seeing the corporatization of our Democratic process.

Today, in Michigan, they trained something -- the government is training 200 EFMs, emergency financial managers. This is an industry now that the administration is going to be in. They have lowered the bar for taking over cities.

It used to be -- EFMs were very rarely used. Their powers were circumscribed. They were to go in and deal with the finances and work with the powers that be.

Now, they are in charge. Now they can fire elected officials. It is unprecedented in Michigan and I think in America and it's dangerous.

More on the emergency manager training here.

We asked for signs of politicians actively running pro-choice campaigns, and you delivered.

Michigan Democrat Virg Bernero, candidate for governor, backs abortion rights. He stashes his statement about being a "strong supporter of women's reproductive rights" under Equality/Women's Rights, while the Michigan Democratic Party pushes the issue right out front in the campaign ad above.

"For Bernero, this issue is personal -- too personal for government to have a say," the ad tells us. The local press says it's an attempt to woo women voters, but it could also appeal to the small-government crowd. Not that they're listening, or in favor of small government.

(H/T @dvdgirl)

After the jump, "Taliban Dan Webster" from Rep. Alan Grayson.

You can give yourself a ping-pong headache factchecking this ad from Grayson, a Florida Democrat. The sourcing on the abortion part is solid, back to Nov. 17, 1996, in the St. Petersburg Times -- which wrote, "Webster, who says he opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, acknowledges his religion guides his politics" -- and confirmed again by Factcheck.org (which deplores the ad, FWTW).