Same for everybody

Bill Would Require CEOs Get Drug Tested If Company Gets Loans, Grants Or Tax Credits From State
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16715
Great idea... wish I had thought of it.

Michigan Senate Stops Home Health Care 'Dues Skim'

By Jack Spencer | March 22, 2012

Legislation drafted to put a stop to the “home health care dues skim” was passed Thursday by the Senate on a 25-13 vote. All the Republicans voted yes except Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw.

Senate Bill 1018 was the version of the legislation that was passed. It was approved by the Senate Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing Committee in the morning on a 5-2 party-line vote and sent to the Senate floor where the vote was taken.

The measure now heads to the House where passage seems virtually guaranteed. It will be headed to Gov. Rick Snyder by the end of next week.

“This is the final policy piece that clarifies that these people are not public employees,” said the bill sponsor, Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell, during the floor debate over the legislation. “This is to finally end the Service Employees International Union dues being taken from those who are not public employees but just people taking care of relatives.”

Hildenbrand pointed out that the legislature had tried to end the “skim” last year by de-funding the Michigan Quality Community Care Council (MQC3) — which was the so-called "employer" used in the unionization. However, through bureaucratic juggling, the “skim” continued even after the de-funding.

Robert Haynes and his wife Patricia have become the subjects of many news articles, TV and radio accounts of the “skim.” The Hayneses take care of their cerebral palsy-stricken son and daughter in their Macomb Township home. They've had union dues extracted from their checks, although they get no benefits from the union.
Sen. Roger Kahn, the lone vote against stopping this ripoff, was given a $5,000 campaign contribution from the SEIU the day this legislation hit the senate. That is pure bribery.

Conservative Teachers

MEA Concedes Large Percentage of ‘Conservative’ Teachers, Endorses 97% Democrats

By Tom Gantert | Feb. 23, 2011

The Michigan Education Association’s October magazine notes a large percentage of teachers nationwide that consider themselves “conservative.”

It stated that a 2005-06 National Education Association survey found 45 percent of teachers under 30 classified themselves as conservative and 63 percent of teachers age 40 to 49 classified themselves as conservative. The MEA represents more than 157,000 teachers, faculty and education support staff.
Yet, in the same magazine, the MEA released its recommendations for political candidates and recommended 111 Democrats in 114 races.
Tells an story about how much unions care about what their members think.
Communist's operated the same way.

Food stamp fraud increasingly sophisticated despite reports of drop in cases
By Doug McKelway
FoxNews.com
Despite several recent, well-documented cases of food stamp fraud -- including a couple in Washington State living in a $1.2 million home, 30,000 college students on the food stamp rolls in Michigan and Wisconsin beneficiaries selling their cards on Facebook -- an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday that food stamp fraud is decreasing.
When pressed about the trend by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that fraud cases have dropped to an all time low record of less than 1 percent.
"It's one of the best records among federal programs," he said
What else he he going to say?  He gets two monster federal paychecks and his boss is up for re-election.
Even so, food stamp fraud has gotten more sophisticated, moving away from the simple petty crimes of coupon days, when recipients would trade coupons for cash in grocery store parking lots, to more elaborate schemes designed to swap easily traceable swipe cards for unauthorized goods.
Witnesses told the committee that food stamp fraud tends to proliferate, not in chain grocery stores, but in mom-and-pop stores. Statistics show, they said, that the more liquor and cigarettes sold, the greater the likelihood of food stamp fraud. Even when the fraud is investigated and stores are shut down - they're often re-opened by family, friends or the same person using a fraudulent application.
Even so, tougher enforcement in some impoverished areas presents its own problem.
"Do you really want to shut down the only source of groceries in a neighborhood? I think you ought to be very careful about that," says Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute, who's written extensively about food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
I love that bizarro world reasoning every time I see it. 'Yes, it's true that he is robbing banks and terrorizing people but he uses the money to help feed all his illegitimate children, so it's ok! 
'Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program'. Love the name, and garbagemen are 'Sanitation Engineers'.

Where's the liberal outrage?

In interview, Obama says he's not bluffing on Iran
By MARK S. SMITHWASHINGTON (AP) -
President Barack Obama says he means it when he insists it's unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. "I don't bluff," Obama said in an interview published Friday.
In his most expansive remarks on the issue, Obama told The Atlantic magazine that Iran and Israel both understand that "a military component" is one of a mix of many options for dealing with Iran, along with sanctions and diplomacy.
Obama plans to meet Monday at the White House with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and will try to convince Netanyahu to postpone any plans his government may have to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in coming months.
The president said he won't advertise any U.S. plans for Iran. At the same time, Obama has consistently refused to renounce a military option for U.S. strategists.
Didn't he get elected by promising to end wars? Where are all those liberal protesters?
Osama's people are aware that no US President has lost an election while conducting a war. They need one. That little conflict in Afghanistan doesn't have enough star power. 

Yes!

There are already a number of programs, both state and federal, taking money out of our pockets to assist the homeless and others. Most of that money does not go where it was intended, why would you want to give politicians more money to abuse?

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/02/kalamazoo_county_board_of_comm_5.html

Rare

Should Threats Against Legislators Have Stricter Penalties?

Some wonder why Legislators lives deemed more worthy than the lives of everyone else

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16483

This is one of the rare times I disagree with the Mackinac Center.
I agree with treating elected and appointed officials differently when it comes to threats and such. They obviously have more attention focused on a relatively small group which makes them more visible and attractive to nut-cases than the average guy on the street.