Tag: Michigan

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Politics

Numerous Reports of Poisonous Water in Flint Dismissed by Snyder’s Administration

Politics over people? Why yes please!

Since releasing his emails regarding the Flint water crisis, reports show that the Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, along with members of his administration repeatedly dismissed numerous findings that Flint’s drinking water was highly contaminated with lead.

 A top aide to Michigan’s governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an “anti-everything group.” Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a “political football.” And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as “data,” in quotes.

That view of how the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder initially dealt with the water crisis in the poverty-stricken, black-majority city of Flint emerged from 274 pages of emails, made public by the governor on Wednesday.

The correspondence records mounting complaints by the public and elected officials, as well as growing irritation by state officials over the reluctance to accept their assurances.

It was not until late in 2015, after months of complaints, that state officials finally conceded what critics had been contending: that Flint was in the midst of a major public health emergency, as tap water pouring into families’ homes contained enough lead to show up in the blood of dozens of people in the city. Even small amounts of lead could cause lasting health and developmental problems in children.

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Politics

Gov Snyder Requested Federal Disaster Relief in Flint – Obama Refused

And the president refused with for a good reason.

The Flint water crisis is man-made, created by Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, and his government appointed overseer. The president did agree that the people of Flint needed help and declared the water crisis a federal emergency, sending necessary aid to the people who were literally poisoned by Snyder’s water decision.

But Snyder wanted more from Obama. With a federal disaster declaration, Snyder would get more money from the Federal government at a faster pace. So Snyder asked the president to declare Flint a federal disaster area. Obama did not go along with the Republican governor’s appeal.

A disaster declaration would have made larger amounts of federal funding available more quickly to help Flint residents whose drinking water is contaminated with lead. But under federal law, only natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods are eligible for disaster declarations, federal and state officials said. The lead contamination of Flint’s drinking water is a manmade catastrophe.
The president’s actions authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate responses and cover 75% of the costs for much-needed water, filters, filter cartridges and other items for residents, capped initially at $5 million. The president also offered assistance in finding other available federal assistance, a news release Saturday from the White House said.
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Politics

Republican Governor Rejects Voter ID Laws in Michigan

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan surprised his fellow Republicans on Tuesday, refusing to sign two bills that would have required voters to show photo identification before obtaining an absentee ballot. The vetoes are an election-year rarity for the party, which has pressed for tougher voter identification laws nationwide.

They were passed by lawmakers two weeks ago. “These reforms will make a good election system even better by adding appropriate safeguards and improving transparency,” Mr. Snyder said. He said the vetoed bills “could create voter confusion among absentee voters.”

Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for the governor, said that confusion had to do with a part of the bills that would have made voters check a citizenship box before receiving a ballot. Mr. Snyder suggested that verification of a person’s citizenship should be done only once, when a voter is first registered, she said.

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Arizona Mitt Romney Politics presidential Rick Santorum

Mitt Nicks Rick In Mich Mish-Mosh: Four Head to O-HI-O!

Mitt May Win Right To Lose Michigan in the Fall!

Democrats, Pro-Vomit Vote Not Enough For Santorum!

Arizona Goes Romney! Border Remains Calm!

Mitt Romney did almost enough to dispel any lingering doubts that he will be the Republican Party’s nominee for president by defeating Rick Santorum in the all-important Michigan primary yesterday.  Romney crossed the 40% threshold but failed to defeat his chief rival by more than 10%, which would have ended any debate about Romney’s being the GOP standard-bearer. Still, a win is a win, and now the field moves on to Super Tuesday where there is now even a doubt that Newt can win his home state of Georgia.

How did I do with my predictions? Let’s check.

For Arizona:

Prediction                Actual

Romney          43%                         47.3%

Santorum        30%                         26.6%

Gingrich          18%                         16.2%

Paul                  8%                           8.4%

For Michigan:

Romney          39%                          41.1%

Santorum        37%                          37.9%

Paul                12%                          11.6%

Gingrich          10%                           6.5%

All told, not too bad.

So now it’s on to Tuesday Grande, where the big prize will be Ohio and the attack ads will come fast and furious. It’s difficult to fathom what else Mitt and Rick could say that could be any more outrageous than their embarrassing forays into trees, bodily functions, automobile choices, anti-intellectual diatribes and invocations of Satan/Obama (really, have you ever seen them in the same room together?) Interesting.

For more, please visit  www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

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Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Santorum Oozes Past Romney Again in Latest Michigan Poll

Despite our own professional opinion that Mitt Romney will win in today’s Michigan primary election, a final poll conducted last night is showing something different.

A final Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan conducted over the last two nights shows Rick Santorum just edging Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary, 38% to 37%, with Ron Paul at 14% and Newt Gingrich at 9%.

However, the results for the last night show a decided shift in momentum toward Santorum, leading Romney by five points, 39% to 34%, with Paul at 15% and Gingrich at 10%.

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Arizona Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Polling Report: Special Michigan and Arizona Edition

This week’s report begins with a question:

What would you call a candidate who LOST the following primaries: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, California, Florida and Michigan?

How about, Mr. President.

That’s right. Candidate Barack Obama lost every one of those primaries, and more, in 2008 yet won the nomination. That’s why I’m not getting agitated over the latest results of the Republican race. As I’ve said over and over and over and over, Mitt Romney will be the GOP’s nominee in 2012 even if he loses some big states. Granted, Michigan is different for Mitt; he’s claiming pseudo-residency in the state and has set it up as a make-or-break contest. Obama at least won his home state, Illinois, so the comparison isn’t perfect. But still, the national media’s focus on whether Rick Santorum can win the nomination is a moot point. He can’t, and he won’t. To further muddy the picture, though, I will say that if he does manage to win it, the GOP will have committed hari-kiri.

The past three weeks have seen some extraordinary developments in the Republican Presidential Primaries. Rick Santorum caught fire (and brimstone) as the new, and probably final, conservative darling in the race. Romney made a few gaffes that have certainly hurt him, playing to a near-empty Ford’s Field and citing his wife’s two Cadillacs to name the main ones. What does it all add up to? A contested race that will probably drag on into the spring and even give Newt a chance to win his home state of Georgia.

On to the predictions.

First, in Arizona, the latest polls show that Mitt will win rather handily mainly because Santorum and Gingrich have pretty much conceded him the state. Arizona has a large Mormon population that will easily beat back the large Tea Party contingent at the polls (assuming that the Partiers can rush back from guarding the Mexican border in time to cast votes). Still, I think that Romney will need to win over 40% of the vote to make it convincing. Thusly:

Romney          43%

Santorum        30%

Gingrich          18%

Paul                 8%

In Michigan, things get complicated. In my view, Romney will need to win over 40% of the vote AND win by 10+ points to make a convincing statement. The polls aren’t showing that, but if enough voters decide at the last-minute that Santorum would be a sure loser in November, it could happen. I don’t see it.

What is more likely to happen is that Mitt wins, but by 3 points or fewer and gets below 40%. In that case, Santorum can claim a win-by-losing argument because Romney keeps saying that this is one of his home states (even though most voters don’t see the connection). The conservatives will have made their point and Santorum can then move on to Ohio and perhaps win that primary. He can also assume he’ll win Pennsylvania, which would greatly complicate Mitt’s message about electability.

Prediction:

Romney       39%

Santorum     37%

Paul             12%

Gingrich       10%

The race moves on to Super Tuesday. The national press will continue to talk about a brokered convention, which will not happen.  Romney will eventually be the nominee. Or have I said that already.

For more, please visit  www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest 

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Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Mitt Romney Mopping Up The Santorum In Michigan

New Polling suggests that Rick Santorum’s flavor is beginning to fade. And that is to be expected. You cannot run around the country talking nonsense and trying to take away women’s rights, and expect sensible Americans to keep buying into your stuff. Rick is beginning to see that insanity – the only qualification for today’s Republicans candidates – is a huge turn off for the rest of the public.

CNN) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has erased a 10-point deficit against rival Rick Santorum among registered Republicans in the race for the GOP nomination, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday on the eve of the Michigan and Arizona primaries.

In the new Gallup tracking poll, 31% of respondents said they would support Romney and 26% said they favored Santorum, reversing a 36% to 26% advantage for the former Pennsylvania senator last week.

But another nationwide poll released Monday — addressing likely GOP voters nationwide — suggests the candidates are just about evenly split between presidential Santorum and Romney.

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Featured Republican Party (United States) Tax cut United States Wisconsin

Another Republican Governor, and More of The People’s Rights Disappear

While outraged Americans were transfixed on the happenings in Wisconsin, where a Republican governor was busy inventing reasons to silence the public employees of his state, another governor was floating along, doing the very same thing in his state, with little media attention.

Rick Snyder,  Republican governor in Michigan got his union busting bill approved by his fellow Republican in the state’s senate and the state’s assembly, and any day now, Mr. Snyder is expected to sign the bill into law.

And this  bill will give “over reaching” a whole new meaning. It will have the power to determine whether any district in Michigan is failing, terminate the positions of the elected officials of that particular district, and allows Snyder  to assign anyone he sees fit to run that district. So the voters are left cut out of the process when it comes to who’ll run their district.

These new appointed officials will have the authority from Mr. Snyder to void any contracts the districts or municipalities may have entered into. Included, will be contracts with unions and their collective bargaining and school programs.

The bill also creates additional taxes for the middle class and the poorer sections of Michigan. The revenues gained from this new tax, figures quoted at $1.8 billion, will be given to the rich in the form of a tax cut.

Michigan’s AFL-CIO president, Mark Gaffney tells Politico;

“Michigan politicians have capitalized on our state’s budgetary woes in order to ram through legislation that rather than create jobs, takes away even more rights and resources from Michiganders and instead gives an unprecedented amount of power into those connected to the governor. As hundreds of thousands have chanted in Wisconsin, ‘This is not what democracy looks like.”

 

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Featured rachel maddow Republican Tax United States

Republican Governor To Raise Taxes–On The Poor!

The American people have been bamboozled by the Republican party and nowhere is this more evident than in what’s happening in Michigan.

Republican governor, Rick Snyder has finally figured out that raising taxes is the way to get his state out of a financial hole, and while most rational Americans had figured this out a while ago in regards to the wealthy paying their fair share of the tax burden,  Snyder in his infinite wisdom, has decided that raising  taxes for seniors and poor people is the way to go.

As reported by Rachel Maddow below, Rick Snyder will raise $1.7 billion off the backs of the poor and elderly citizens in Michigan, then – get this – he will give this ‘ found’ funds to corporations in the form of a tax cut.

But that’s only part of the governor’s plans. In the bill Slick Rick is proposing, he will actually take away the voting rights of the people.  Mr. Snyder will be able to personally dictate who runs certain districts in Michigan, regardless of who the people voted for.

Rachel explains below in the video.

Thanks to Jillie @Theresthatbear for this video.

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Domestic Policies Indiana New York United States

Auto Bailout Worked – General Motors Shares its Profits with Employees

Most would consider this good news, but those wishing for America’s destruction simply for political gains will not be happy over this. General Motors, the company that received $50 billion from tax payers in the form of a “bail-out,” has recovered to the point where they are now giving checks in the amount of $4,000 or more, to 45,000 hourly American workers through profit sharing.

The New York Times reports;

The checks will be worth “upwards of $4,000,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Sherrie Childers-Arb, said. That is more than double the company’s previous record of $1,775, paid in 2000.

About 3,000 G.M. workers at four plants in New York, Michigan and Indiana that were formerly part of the Delphi Corporation will receive about $3,000 each.

In all, G.M. will give at least $189 million of its profit back to plant workers.

If Republicans had their way, General Motors would have been a faint memory, causing hundreds of thousand to loose their jobs. Since receiving the bailout, GM has recovered, restructured its product and the company’s goals. Between January and September of 2010 GM saw profits of $4.2 billion.

Read the New York Time’s report here.

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