Tag: Rick Snyder

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Barack Obama Politics

8 Year Old Flint Resident Writes Obama, Obama Responds

Mari Copeny, an eight year old resident in Flint Michigan who was affected by Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s decision to use led contaminated pipes for Flint’s water system,  wrote a letter to President Obama and got a response from the leader of the free world.

Hello my name is Mari Copeny and I’m 8 years old, I live in Flint, Michigan and I’m more commonly known around town as “Little Miss Flint”. I am one of the children that is effected by this water, and I’ve been doing my best to march in protest and to speak out for all the kids that live here in Flint. This Thursday I will be riding a bus to Washington, D.C. to watch the congressional hearings of our Governor Rick Snyder. I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife. My mom said chances are you will be too busy with more important things, but there is a lot of people coming on these buses and even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift people’s spirits. Thank you for all that do for our country. I look forward to being able to come to Washington and to be able to see Gov. Snyder in person and to be able to be in the city where you live.

Thank You
Mari Copeny

The President’s Answer

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Politics

Petition to Recall Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder is Approved

Rick Snyder, the governor who approved and spearheaded the poisoning of Flint’s children by giving them water from the Flint river to drink, could be recalled from office in an upcoming recall election.

The Board of State Canvassers, part of the secretary of state’s office, rejected nine other recall petitions, six of them based on Snyder’s widely criticized handling of lead from corroded pipes that began leaching into Flint homes following a cost-saving move to pump water from the Flint River.

The water crisis is under criminal investigation by state and federal authorities.

But the petition approved Monday seeks to remove Snyder, a Republican, from office over his decision last year to take control of the state office to reform schools, which organizers say disregards local prerogatives, according to The Detroit News and The Associated Press.

It takes three members of the four-person member board, which is split between Republicans and Democrats, to approve a recall petition.

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Politics

Flint Residents Say Hillary Clinton’s Visit was All About Politics

Some of Flint’s residents have a message for the former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton – don’t use us for your own political gain.

Hillary Clinton visited Flint Michigan on Sunday to bring more attention to the catastrophic water problems caused by Michigan Republican governor, Rick Snyder. Mrs. Clinton would be the first one to say that her visit was not political, but according to some residents, the visit was just another ploy by the Clinton campaign to get votes when Michigan goes to the polls on March 8th.

“I feel blessed to be here but I wish it were for a different reason,” Clinton said, as she took to the stage at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church. “But I am here because for nearly two years mothers and fathers were voicing concerns about the water’s color and its smell, about the rashes that it gave to those that were bathing in it. And for nearly two years Flint was told the water was safe.”

Some however, felt the photo-op moment was just to get votes.

“Don’t jump on a cause just to get votes,” said Flint Lives Matter organiser Calandra Patrick, as Clinton’s jet arrived in town. “It doesn’t matter to me if she makes an appearance or not – it doesn’t matter to me one bit.”

Arnette Rison III, a 47-year-old independent contractor, put Clinton’s visit in starker terms: “If she’s bringing 35,000 hydroelectric filters, I’ll love her for it. But that’s not what she’s about to do.”

At the church, though the topic was serious, the mood was jovial and warm. Clinton stood before a packed audience and spoke emphatically about the moral imperatives of the situation, saying: “The children in Flint are just as precious as the children in any other part of America”.

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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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Barack Obama Politics water crisis

President Obama’s Message in Flint Michigan – Video

“I am very proud of what I’ve done as president,” President Obama said Wednesday in Flint Michigan. “But the only job that’s more important to me is the job of father. And I know if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself if my kids’ health could be at risk.”

The president went on to explain that he “declared a federal emergency in Flint” which would ensure that more resources are sent to help fight the Republican-made water crisis.

“It is a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people,” Mr. Obama said, a direct reference to the governor’s decision to get contaminated water from Flint’s river for the people’s use. “And that we together provide as a government to make sure that public health and safety is preserved,” Obama said.

Video

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Politics water crisis

Rick Snyder Admits he Knew About Flint’s Water Catastrophe Since Last Sunmer

In a wide wide-ranging interview with the National Journal, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan admitted that he knew about the water contamination in Flint since last year. But the Republican governor also said that although he knew about the dangerous leadi levels in Flint’s water supply, he was not stepping down from office because he wants to “solve this problem.”

A problem he wilfully created, mind you.

The Journal reports;

“It’s a dis­aster,” he said when asked about the com­par­is­on some crit­ics have made to the 2005 nat­ur­al dis­aster in New Or­leans that be­came a sym­bol of gov­ern­ment mis­man­age­ment—city, state, and fed­er­al. “It’s clearly a neg­at­ive on what we’ve ac­com­plished since I’ve been gov­ernor.”

In a wide-ran­ging in­ter­view on the eve of his state of the state ad­dress, Snyder said he knew last sum­mer about his top aide’s con­cerns that Flint res­id­ents were “get­ting blown off” by the Michigan’s De­part­ment of En­vir­on­ment­al Qual­ity. The MD­EQ waved off his of­fice’s con­cerns, Snyder said. He ac­cep­ted re­spons­ib­il­ity for the lack of ad­equate fol­low up, but the twice-elec­ted GOP gov­ernor said he would not heed calls for his resig­na­tion.

“I want to solve this prob­lem,” Snyder said. “I don’t want to walk away from it.” Both MD­EQ’s dir­ect­or and chief spokes­man were forced to resign, and Snyder has taken sev­er­al steps—al­beit be­latedly—to help Flint identi­fy the ex­tent of the con­tam­in­a­tion and to re­spond to it. He said more ac­tion will be re­vealed in Tues­day night’s ad­dress

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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

Republicans – Helping The Middle Class by Taxing The Poor and Elderly – Video

How do you help the middle class? Well, how about doing what Rick Snyder, the governor of Michigan did – cut a billion dollars from education and tax the poor and elderly while providing tax cuts to companies shipping jobs overseas.

That’s the Republican’s road to prosperity.

Ad

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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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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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