Trolls quickly drown ReaganBook social media site in sea of profanity, pornography

By Travis Gettys/Raw Story

A half-cooked attempt to set up a conservative social network quickly collapsed into a heap of phony accounts, crude swearing, and pornographic GIFs.

Ohio Republican Janet Porter pre-launched ReaganBook – “Facebook for Patriots” – in April, after employees from the more well-known social media site took part in a LGBT rights demonstration in San Francisco.

After several left-leaning sites, including Raw Story, publicized the launch the fledgling social network, its several dozen presumably conservative users were quickly drowned out by a flood of phony accounts (Vladimir Putin, Sarah Palin, and Manuel Noriega) and less-obviously phony accounts.

“I think they’d attract more people and less trolls if they didn’t put that brand on it of Reagan — if they called it something else,” conservative blogger Amy Jo Clark told The Daily Beast.

Many users posted profane criticisms of former President Ronald Reagan, while others posted pornographic images and GIFs.

The only discernibly sincere comments found on the site were the persistent complaints about slow load times and overall poor user experience.

Porter, who is president of the anti-abortion group Faith2Action, announced Wednesday morning that administrators had been tasked with removing offensive posts and culling troll accounts from the site.

“Glad I did the pre-launch because that gives us an opportunity to tighten our security for the real launch,” Porter posted just hours earlier on her ReaganBook page. “Also, the fact that so many leftists have invested so much time in the site, It provides confirmation that we’re on the right track.”

But weeding out the trolls must have proven too difficult, because the site was taken offline by Wednesday afternoon, about 24 hours after the site launched.

“Please be patient while we make the necessary changes to keep the site free from obscenity, pornography, and those intent on the destruction of life, liberty, and the family,” site management said in a statement. “We will be opening the doors again soon with additional protections in place. As Reagan taught us, trust, but verify.”

No timetable was given for when ReaganBook might go back online.

Zucker's CNN hits ratings low

By DYLAN BYERS/Politico

CNN drew its lowest ratings in over a year last week, averaging just 385,000 total viewers and only 95,000 viewers in the coveted 25-to-54 demo -- a miniscule viewership, even by cable news standards.

At the N.Y. Times, Bill Carter attributes the fall to the heavy healthcare coverage and notes that ratings were buoyed on Friday by the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport. That will hardly reassure network president Jeff Zucker, who is coming up on one year at the helm.

CNN's ratings diagnosis has always been: strong in times of crisis, weak in times of calm. As one CNN employee told the Times last year, "Maybe CNN is like an emergency room" --  you go there when there's an emergency, but you don't stay any longer than you have to.

Zucker's mission was to fix that by creating strong, personality driven programming that's compelling even when there isn't a shooting, or an explosion, or a hurricane. Fine, healthcare isn't great for ratings. That didn't hurt MSNBC as hard as it hurt CNN, and there's a reason for that.

For Zucker, last week's ratings -- the lowest in his tenure -- are certainly a blow. Obviously, righting a tanker takes time, and Zucker has moved systematically through CNN's programming: a new morning show, Jake Tapper's late-afternoon program, the relaunched "Crossfire" at 6:30 p.m. But the biggest ratings come in primetime, and with the exception of "AC360 Later," Zucker hasn't made any dramatic moves there.

The recent hire of Bill Weir from ABC suggests Zucker is set to put some primetime changes in place. If he wants to boost ratings, that change -- whatever it is -- couldn't come soon enough.

Snyder’s Big Corporate Tax Break Backfires

Amy Kerr Hardin/Democracy Tree

Remember when Gov. Snyder just willy-nilly gave away $1.7 billion in tax breaks to Michigan corporations, all completely untethered to any job-creating requirements, and then assured the state that his business buddies would come through with a flood of employment opportunities? Well, so do the 8.7 percent of officially unemployed Michiganders found in last week’s state jobs report (with a whopping 18 percent in Detroit, and only a .6 percent improvement since he was elected). Compared to the national average of 7.6 percent from the June numbers out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan continues to seriously lag.

On Sunday, the tired-looking governor appeared on Meet the Press to discuss the situation in Detroit. He anemically spoke about his committment to “focus on the citizens” of the city by providing them with more accountability in government. He additionally expressed that he was “empathetic” with those public sector workers that will likely feel a profound impact on their pensions and healthcare plans. He also talked about the importance of“blight removal” for the city.

Hello, jobs?

Immediately after Snyder, former Governor Jennifer Granholm came on. She launched into an energetic explanation of how the Motor City can move forward. She strongly advocated for a robust and coordinated federal manufacturing policy — an argument that makes good sense considering the ultimate futility of the ongoing state-against-state fight for businesses to relocate. Democracy Tree reported last month that Michigan has already given away the most corporate tax “mega-deals” in the country — 29 in total, costing an estimated $7.1 billion in tax incentives over the past thirty years, all to mostly Fortune 500 companies.

Barely two months ago, the Bloomfield Hills building firm, PulteGroup (listed as number 501 on the Fortune 1000), announced they were moving to Atlanta, Georgia after having been heavily wooed by their governor and city leaders in a full-court press that bagged the homebuilding giant some sweet cash. While Michigan will lose a little over 300 jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported on the Georgia bargain:

The city [Atlanta]and state are collaborating on an incentive package for Pulte that includes a $1.5 million state grant, as well as a city grant whose size has not yet been determined, according to Brian McGowan, chief executive of Invest Atlanta, the economic development arm of the city.

Georgia’s aptly named Republican Gov. Nathan Deal boasted of his corporate coup thusly:

“Georgia is a natural headquarters for homebuilders such as PulteGroup. Pulte will not only be able to quickly build its growth markets from a strategic central location, it will also thrive in a dynamic business environment powered by the fourth-largest population growth in the country.”

And just today we learn that Georgia’s Department of Economic Developement has lured away Troy-based Field Services Engineering. The firm plans to invest $5 million in expansion and add 50 jobs to the Peach State’s economy.

Gov. Deal isn’t alone. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been peppering other states with radio and television spots promising a better business environment. In New York state alone, he recently spent one million on TV ads, and $600,000 on radio.  The ads say:

“The new New York sounds a lot like the old New York. Higher taxes. Stifling regulations. Bureaucrats telling you whether you can even drink a Big Gulp. Texas is calling. Your opportunity awaits.”

Republican governors, with their tax deals and deregulation promises, are cutting each other’s throats, while greedy business moguls continue to vacuum up the dollars thrown at them, possessing no sense of corporate citizenship or loyalty to the workers, let alone to these foolish elected leaders showering them with cash.

Will the governors discuss this at their upcoming 30th Biennial Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference scheduled for September 20th through 22nd at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island? (Oh, how Democracy Tree would just love to arrange the seating charts at that gala affair.)

Conservative Minority Outreach Panelist Explains Voter Gap: ‘People Of Color Are Being Paid By The Government’

By Zack Beauchamp and Rebecca Leber/Think Progress

Minority voters are too dependent on the government to understand what’s good for them, and that’s why they don’t vote for Republicans, according to a panelist at the influential Faith And Freedom Coalition Conference’s minority outreach discussion.

On Friday, Rich Thompson, the founder of a Georgia-based 100 Dads — an organization that advocates for “school choice” — spoke on a panel entitled “The True Rainbow Coalition: Building an Organization in Minority Faith Communities.” There, Thompson suggested that the reason Republicans couldn’t make inroads with voters of color “are being paid by the government” with benefits. He argued that the best thing for Republican minority outreach would be understanding this dynamic, and thus figuring out how to cut federal benefit programs and make minority voters more pliable to free-market views:

I learned from a pastor probably over a decade ago, we had a candid conversation, and he said these three things. He said there’s only three things on this Earth that defy logic [...] One is who’s friends with who. Number two is who’s related to who. And number three is who’s paying who. So before we leave today I would like each of use to contemplate when it comes to reaching out to diverse minority communities, let’s think about asking those three questions before we do anything further.

If we speak to the latter, who’s paying who, right now an extremely disproportionate number of people of color are being paid by the government. Therein lies a serious problem. We can’t just cut everybody off instantaneously. But we have to have a serious conversation about how we get people to being producers and not receivers. So I thank you for coming this evening to find out how we can better message to people of the black community, the Latino community, and the Asian community.

Watch it:

Of course, not all public programs go exclusively, or even largely, to minority populations. What’s more, receiving public benefits doesn’t determine one’s voting patterns. Seventy percent of food stamp recipients, for instance, are white, and the vast majority of counties with the fastest-growing food stamp rolls voted Republican in 2008.

The results of the 2012 election — when minority voters rejected the Republican presidential ticket in record numbers — do not bode well for Thompson’s approach as a political message. Polls of black, Latino, and Asian voters suggest that stepped-up opposition to social welfare will only further alienate these growing sectors of the American electorate. Mitt Romney, for one, didn’t learn this lesson — in comments after the election that strongly resembled his 47 percent remarks, the former Governor suggested that the GOP lost the minority vote because President Obama gave them “gifts.”

Other Faith and Freedom conference attendees included Republican presidential hopefuls like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio.

‘Daily Caller’ story on IRS director’s many White House visits a bust

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

The Daily Caller story that kicked off the latest round of finger-pointing and blame in the IRS “scandal” currently gripping the right blogosphere and Fox News was actually based on erroneous information. According to the Atlantic, the editorial staff at the Caller overestimated the number of visits by now-former IRS director Douglas Shulman by 146, claiming that Shulman visited the Obama White House 157 times rather than the 11 visits he is confirmed to have actually made.

The Daily Caller eagerly reported on Wednesday that Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee, visited President Barack Obama’s White House “at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president’s Cabinet.”

The Tucker Carlson-run conservative website failed to make the distinction between the actual White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is covered by the Secret Service’s visitors’ log. Shulman was required to meet with administration officials about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” in the Eisenhower Building. The Secret Service log also covers the New Executive Building, which is located up 17th Street and off the White House grounds.

According to the Atlantic:

Shulman was cleared primarily to meet with administration staffers involved in implementation of the health-care reform bill. He was cleared 40 times to meet with Obama’s director of the Office of Health Reform, and a further 80 times for the biweekly health reform deputies meetings and others set up by aides involved with the health-care law implementation efforts. That’s 76 percent of his planned White House visits just there, before you even add in all the meetings with Office of Management and Budget personnel also involved in health reform.

Furthermore, there’s no proof that Shulman did or did not attend the meetings, since there are no arrival or departure times listed. He may have been scheduled to pass through the Secret Service checkpoints, but this has little bearing on whether he did. Shulman’s time of arrival is only confirmed for 11 specific events between 2009 and 2012.

“That does not mean that he did not go to other meetings,” wrote the Atlantic‘s Garance Franke-Ruta, “only that the White House records do not show he went to the 157 meetings he was granted Secret Service clearance to attend.”

At least one Shulman visit to the White House grounds had nothing to do with IRS business or the ACA. Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly asked Shulman in a Congressional hearing last week what would occasion a visit to the White House for him.

“Um, the Easter Egg Roll with my kids,” Shulman replied.

Franke-Ruta wrote that Secret Service logs are a wildly imprecise means of determining the comings and goings of visitors to the White House. The procedure is not the only means of getting clearance to enter the White House security perimeter. In large social gatherings like the aforementioned Easter Egg Roll, people enter the White House gates in pre-cleared carloads.

The Center for Public Integrity reported in April, 2011 that “(t)he logs include names of people cleared by the Secret Service for White House entry who never showed up. The Center analysis found more than 200,000 visits with no time of arrival, an indication the person didn’t enter the White House though there is no way to know for certain.”

Even the Caller admitted at the end of its article that “it is probable that the vast majority of visits by major Cabinet members do not end up in the public record.”

Darrell Issa Acknowledges He Learned Nothing New From His Benghazi Hearing

By Ben Armbruster/Think Progress
House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) tacitly admitted on Wednesday that his hearing on the Benghazi terror attacks the same day didn’t turn up any new information.

“I’m curious, did you learn anything new today?” Fox News host Greta Van Susteren asked Issa in an interview after the hearing. After meandering around for a bit, Issa finally got to the hearing’s grand revelation — Benghazi was a terror attack:

ISSA: I think the American people learned today from these brave witnesses, these whistleblowers, that the facts as we were told before during and after the attack at Benghazi just simply aren’t what they really were. The acting ambassador after Ambassador Stevens was murdered, told us in great detail about what happened that day and what happened in the days to follow and why we should know that he knew and everyone else in the mission knew from the moment it happened, from the get-go, as he said, that this was a terrorist attack.

Watch the clip:

While indeed, former deputy chief of mission Greg Hicks’ testimony detailing his experiences as the attacks on the Benghazi diplomatic mission unfolded was new and riveting. But it didn’t have much to do with what Issa himself said the mission of the hearing would be: expose more Obama administration failures and perhaps even some kind of cover-up (of what, is unclear exactly). “Our hearing will examine new facts about what happened and significant problems with the administration’s own review of Benghazi failures,” Issa said previewing the hearinglast month. “This committee will expose what they did and hold them accountable to the public.”

There’s “no question,” Issa said two days before the hearing, that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff or even Clinton herself, was involved in a Benghazi “cover-up” (there was no cover-up of any kind, by anyone).

However, Issa’s hearing didn’t expose anything, except perhaps how fact-free a number of right-wing Benghazi conspiracy theories are, including the idea that Clinton personally signed off on cables denying additional security for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

But as far as labeling Benghazi a terror attack, that issue has been settled long ago. President Obama referred to it as an “act of terror” the day after the attack and directly referred to the incident as “a terrorist attack” two weeks later. Issa probably didn’t need a hours-long hearing to get confirmation on that.

GOP Star Witnesses Debunk Right-Wing Benghazi Conspiracy Theories

By Hayes Brown/Think Progress

The “whistleblowers” at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on what really happened in Benghazi, Libya last September were supposed to break the dam that would lead to President Obama’s eventual downfall, in the eyes of conservatives. Instead, these witness actually served to debunk several theories that the right-wing has pushed on Benghazi, leaving the hearing a fizzle for the GOP:

1. F-16s could have been sent to Benghazi

Part of the prevailing theory surrounding the events the night of the Benghazi attacks is that the Obama administration did not do enough militarily to respond to the crisis. Gregory Hicks — a Foreign Service Officer and the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya — claimed during his pre-hearing testimony that fighter jets could have been flown over Benghazi, preventing the second wave of the attack from occurring.

Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) questioned that statement, asking Hicks whether he disagreed with Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey’s assessment that no air assets were in range the night of the attack. Hicks didn’t disagree, saying he was “speaking from [his] perspective” and what “veteran Libyan revolutionaries” told him, rather than Pentagon assessments.

2. Hillary Clinton signed cables denying additional security to Benghazi

House Republicans came to the conclusion in their interim report on Benghazi that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied to them about what she knew and when during her testimony this January. This includes her statement that at no time was she aware of requests for additional security at the diplomatic facility in Benghazi prior to the attack.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) used her time to take issue with this claim, asking all three witnesses about standard protocol for cables leaving the State Department. All three agreed with Maloney, that the Secretary of State’s name is placed at the bottom of all outgoing cables and telegrams from Foggy Bottom, whether the Secretary has viewed them or not, shooting down the GOP claim.

3. A Special Forces Team that could have saved lives was told to stand down

One of the most shocking reveals in the lead-up to today’s hearing was that a team of Special Forces in Tripoli were told not to deploy to Benghazi during the attack. That decision has led to an uproar on the right, including claims of dereliction of duty towards Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey for not taking actions that could have saved lives.

During questioning, Hicks confirmed that the team was ready to be deployed — not to join the fighting at the CIA annex — but “to secure the airport for the withdrawal of our personnel from Benghazi after the mortar attack.” Hicks also confirmed that it was the second such team to be readied for deployment, with the first having proceeded to Benghazi earlier. Despite the second team not deploying, the staff was all evacuated first to Tripoli, then to Germany, within 18 hours of the attack taking place.

4. The State Department’s Accountability Review Board isn’t legitimate

Republicans have been attacking the State Department’s official in-house review of the shortcomings seen before, during, and after the assault in Benghazi. That criticism prompted House Republicans to write their own report. When asked point blank about the recommendations of the Board, however, the witnesses didn’t cooperate with the GOP narrative. “Absolutely,” Eric Nordstrom, the Regional Security Officer for Libya prior to the assault in Benghazi, answered when asked if he believes implementing the recommendations would improve security. “I had an opportunity to review that along with other two committee reports. I think taken altogether, they’re fairly comprehensive and reasonable.” Hicks, when questioned, said that while he had some issues with the process by which the Board gathered its information, he demurred on criticizing the report itself.

Detroit News: 4 Tax Liens On Kevyn Orr's Home Include 2 Still Outstanding

From Deadline Detroit:

Ooops, this is what PR types call "stepping on the message" and politicos dub "bad optics."

Keyvn Orr, the attorney appointed to get Detroit financially straight, was hit with with four tax liens on his Maryland home in four years for income and unemployment taxes, Joel Kurth and Chad Livengood of The Detroit News found via online sleuthing.

They note that the situation is ironic "since Orr is tasked with improving tax collections."

State records show Orr, who was appointed emergency manager on Thursday, has two outstanding liens on his $1-million home in Chevy Chase, Md., for $16,000 in unemployment taxes in 2010 and 2011. Two other liens of more than $16,000 in unemployment and income taxes were satisfied in 2010 and 2011, records show.

Orr said he didn't know anything about the liens when shown records of them Friday morning by The Detroit News.

"I don't know what they are," Orr said, as his new boss, Gov. Rick Snyder, sat next to him in The News' offices. "That's surprising to me, to be honest."

Quick damage control followed.

By late that afternoon, Snyder's spokeswoman said Orr would pay "in full ASAP." He blames the embarrassment on his tax accountant.

State backround checkers hadn't spotted the liens, Snyder's press secretary told The News.

READ MORE:  THE DETROIT NEWS

Emergency managers run the show, but no one elect them

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U.S. Wasted Billions Rebuilding Iraq

By Hayes Brown/Think Progress

As the 10th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq approaches, the body charged with overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has issued its final report, capping a tale of spending far too much money for very little results.

Appointed in Oct. 2004, over a year into War in Iraq, the Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) was charged withbeing a watchdog over the use of funds provided for rebuilding the Iraqi state after the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Those reconstruction and stabilization efforts wound up costing nearly $60 billion — or about $15 million per day — with up to $10 billion of that amount wasted, according to SIGIR Stuart Bowen.

The examples provided of fraud and abuse of the system are staggering both in number and nature. Among the most telling boondoggles is an $108 million waste-water treatment facilityin Fallujah, Iraq that will be completed eight years over schedule. Once finished in 2014, it will only service 9,000 homes and require an additional $87 million from Iraq to provide service to the rest of the buildings in the city.

In terms of outright abuse, Iraqis and Americans alike were culprits, with one former Iraqi Defense Minister’s squandering $1.3 billion. Earmarked to provide for an Iraqi “quick reaction force,” the money was instead spent on various bribes, kickbacks, and purchasing useless equipment. Likewise, former U.S. Army Major John Cockerham was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for siphoning off millions of dollars from reconstruction projects by accepting bribes from various contractors.

The majority of Bowen’s lessons learned provided to Congress deal extensively with the completely unprepared way in which the United States chose to rebuild Iraq. Bowen gives seven ways to better perform rebuilding operations in the future:

1. Create an integrated civilian-military office to plan, execute, and be accountable for contingency rebuilding activities during stabilization and reconstruction operations.

2. Begin rebuilding only after establishing sufficient security, and focus first on small programs and projects.

3. Ensure full host-country engagement in program and project selection, securing commitments to share costs (possibly through loans) and agreements to sustain completed projects after their transfer.

4. Establish uniform contracting, personnel, and information management systems that all SRO participants use.

5. Require robust oversight of SRO activities from the operation’s inception.

6. Preserve and refine programs developed in Iraq, like the Commander’s Emergency Response Program and the Provincial Reconstruction Team program, that produced successes when used judiciously.

7. Plan in advance, plan comprehensively and in an integrated fashion, and have backup plans ready to go.

Many of those suggestions belie the cavalier attitude struck by Republicans at the beginning of the war in 2003, despite a near complete lack of planning by the Bush administration to provide for rebuilding Iraq. “Each day it gets better,” then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in May 2003 of the reconstruction efforts. Rumsfeld also insisted that “the bulk of the funds for Iraq’s reconstruction will come from Iraqis” in October of that year. $60 billion later, Iraq has proved to be nowhere near the “cakewalk” predicted by George W. Bush adviser Kenneth Adelman predicted in 2002.

Romney’s back – but is the GOP ready to move on?

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Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Metrics and Measurements” Demonstrate Lack of Progress

From The Michigan Democratic Party

MDP Releases New Video Highlighting Snyder’s Failure to Make Michigan a “Top 10” State

LANSING – The Michigan Democratic Party today released a new video, “Metrics and Measurements,” that highlights Michigan’s lack of progress under Gov. Rick Snyder, who told the Heritage Foundation last week that the “role of government is customer service.”

“If Rick Snyder likes to think of Michiganders as his customers, then we haven’t been getting very good customer service,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Snyder has said his goal is to make Michigan a top 10 state, but he is failing on nearly every metric. Michigan’s recovery has stalled compared to the rest of the nation.”

Snyder has been touting Michigan as the “comeback state,” but Michigan remains at the bottom in key measures on the economy, education, quality of life, public safety and government accountability. A year ago Michigan’s unemployment rate ranked 41st among the states, but as of December 2012, Michigan had fallen to 45th in the nation, behind competitor states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Other statistics highlighted in the video include:

• Michigan’s per capita income — 36th
• Violent crime — 38th
• Credit rating — 45th
• Adults with a bachelor’s degree — 35th
• Pupil/teacher ratio — 43rd

To view the video, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV-GzsHHha8

NRA Endorsement Actually A Curse For Candidates, Poll Finds

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

Endorsements from the National Rifle Association might be doing political candidates more harm than good, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling.

In a national survey, 39 percent of voters said that they are less likely to vote for a politician whose candidacy has garnered NRA backing. Only 26 percent believe they’re more likely to support such a candidate.

But more importantly, the number of independent voters — those who are really up for grabs in any election — are far less likely to see the NRA nod as a good thing: 41 percent say they’re inclined not to support a candidate who’s backed by the NRA.

This information serves to bust the myth that the NRA is an all-powerful lobbying group that dictates political outcomes. While the organization may enjoy wide support among those politicians whose campaigns it bankrolls, soon there may be few of such politicians left; in 2012, only .81 percent of the group’s spending went to politicians who won. And if the NRA is having a negative influence on swing voters as well, then it really has no sway on political elections overall.

Rick Snyder's broken promises

BY DALE HANSEN/Detroit News Blog

Nolan have this man fired.

If you follow Rick Snyder you know that he is very proud of his “accomplishments” as governor. Even going as far as to use taxpayer funds to promote legislation he previously termed “too divisive,” because nothing attracts new business to a state like leadership that is not only willing to openly retaliate against its opposition but also to completely contradict itself.

Governor Snyder’s most recent self promotion involves a collection of corporate investments in Michigan that the governor claims will create 4,590 jobs. The numbers for this promotion come from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), which is a taxpayer funded organization that acts as the state’s marketing and business development arm.

Unfortunately for the governor, past MEDC job creation projections have severely exaggerated the number of jobs created. According to Michigan Capitol Confidential, the actual number of jobs created is around 28% of the MEDC estimate. This means that the 4,590 jobs the governor is promoting will end up being more like 1,285 jobs.

While the governor is more than happy to discuss the $1.1 billion invested by the 14 companies in the report, he seems less interested in talking about the $44 million dollars in tax breaks these companies will receive to create these jobs. Additionally there doesn’t seem to be any requirement that these companies use Michigan labor or products made in Michigan as part of their investments. For all we know the materials and labor for these projects could originate from out of state or overseas instead of from struggling Michigan construction and supply companies.

Of course the bigger concern here is the long list of broken promises that these investments exemplify.

The governor ran on the premise that his business background would help create jobs in Michigan and he laid out a specific vision for this job creation that he appears to have completely forgotten.

On the campaign trail when asked about government incentives for business,  the governor stated, “As a practical matter, my view is government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers because those incentives aren’t free. Basically, they come on the backs of other people having to make up those tax differentials.”

Yet here he is picking 14 different companies as the winners and using taxpayer funded incentives to do it.

In the gubernatorial debate the governor stated that “government doesn’t create jobs,” yet his press release regarding the 4,590 jobs coming to Michigan certainly appears to give his administration credit for these jobs.

Also in the debates he was asked about taxing pensions and his response was, “That’s not how you address tax reform,” yet that is percicsly what he did to pay for his 83% tax cut for Michigan businesses. It was a move that the governor said was made to increase jobs in Michigan, yet the number of people employed in Michigan has gone down since this bill was signed into law, while the number of unemployed in Michigan has steadily increased since last January.

In a later portion of the debate the governor spoke about his opinion on increasing the tax on gas. His answer to the question was, “I don’t support an increase in the gas tax” – yet just this past week that is exactly what he proposed to improve Michigan roads.

Of course the governor will also point out that he is for “giving the voters a choice” on how to pay for these road improvements, yet when the voters chose to repeal the emergency manager law Rick Snyder was quick to dismiss the voters’ choice and signed new legislation that included funding for new government jobs which eliminates the voters’ choice to repeal the law in the future.

Whether you support the governor or not, this list of broken promises is embarrassing and concerning. Rick Snyder came to this job touting his business roots and his ability to turn things around with a laser-like focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs.” His willingness to constantly abandon the ideas that got him elected in favor of big government self-preservation doesn’t instill confidence in the leadership capabilities of a man who can now be more aptly described as “One Unprincipled Nerd.”

Snyder Admits He Has No Economic Data to Support “Right to Work” Policies

I don't care about detail as long Timmy likes the speech.

From Michigan Democratic Party:

BRIGHTON — When questioned by the press today after a speech to the Greater Brighton Area Chamber of Commerce in Livingston County, Gov. Rick Snyder admitted that he has no data to support the Michigan job creation claims touted by “right to work” advocates.

“Finally we have an admission from Snyder of what we’ve long known — that the push for so-called ‘right to work’ legislation was purely political and he has no economic data to prove claims that it will create more jobs here in Michigan,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Right to work was adopted to please the Tea Party and Dick DeVos, pure and simple.”

Forbes Ranks Michigan Only 47th Best State for Business

But Nolan Finley and Steve Mitchell says I'm the greatest
governor ever so there.

From Michigan Democratic Party

Snyder’s $1.8 Billion Tax Giveaway Results in Michigan Not Improving

LANSING – Forbes Magazine has released its rankings of the Best States for Business, and Michigan has not improved its slot at number 47, despite Gov. Rick Snyder slashing taxes for big corporations and making up the difference by taxing seniors’ pensions, cutting funding for public education and municipal governments.

“Governor Snyder sold voters a bill of goods when he said his $1.8 billion in tax cuts for corporate special interests would make Michigan more attractive to business development,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Snyder has yet to demonstrate how many jobs were created because of his massive tax giveaway to corporations. Slashing funding for our kids’ schools, our public universities and municipal services like fire, police and libraries has actually made our state less attractive to businesses.”

The Forbes list of Best States for Business is available here:

http://www.forbes.com/best-states-for-business/list/

Oops: Michigan Republicans Have Passed a Right to Work Law that may be Impossible to Implement

By: Sarah Jones/politicususa

Did Michigan Republicans even read the ALEC-Koch “Right-to-Work” legislation they just passed?

It doesn’t appear likely. Why? Because the law may not be able to be implemented as intended.

Just as the Wisconsin law violated their state constitution, so it appears the Michigan law does the same, albeit for different reasons. In addition to the violation of the state constitution, just as in Wisconsin, we also have a lawsuit filed over the violation of the Michigan Open Meetings law. But to the constitutional issue…

Michigan Senate Democrats report, “The Michigan Constitution gives clear authority to the Civil Service Commission over conditions of employment for the state’s workforce. Experts have suggested today only a vote of the Civil Service Commission could enact Right to Work policies for state workers.”

Oopsie.

This is the sort of thing that happens when a national organization is writing your legislation for you. But one assumes that the big boys at ALEC did not count on the uber laziness of the Republicans. Surely they were meant to fine tune the bill to suit their state. But then, when you shove a bill through in a lameduck session and don’t hold it open for debate, these things tend to happen.

Senator Bert Johnson (D – Detroit) pointed out that not only the public, but also the lawmakers were not given a chance to read the bills, “The public was not given an opportunity to read these bills, legislators were not given an opportunity to read these bills, and we now know that the Governor himself either didn’t read or didn’t understand these bills himself. This process has been a complete affront to Democracy from the start and was nothing more than a political gift to the Koch Brothers and ALEC who bought and paid for this legislation.”

Over and over again, we see Republicans violating the law to pass ALEC legislation, and we also see them refusing to even read the bills they present let alone the bills of the opposition. What, exactly, are they being paid by the people to do, if not read and write legislation that actually fits the laws?

The same law that Governor Walker passed in violation of Open Meetings laws and in violation of the state constitution was struck down by the courts in September. The millions wasted on passing legislation illegally and fighting it in courts speaks to the seriousness of Republicans when they talk about deficits. There’s always money to enact a political agenda aimed at the opposition party, but there’s no money for starving kids.

Further irony is provided by Michigan State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R-Alto), who called the passage of the “right-to-work” law “freeing” the workers. Apparently Ms. Lyons didn’t want her husband freed. He is a corrections officer and Ms. Lyons fought to have corrections officers exempted from the law. She explained, “When we talk about the brave women in police and fire we need to remember people in corrections. These guys work in conditions that we can’t even begin to imagine. It’s not financial. It’s philosophy. I am saying we need to treat our corrections officers that way we treat our police men and women and firefighter men and women.”

So, Ms. Lyons believes that we should treat our corrections officers (like her husband) the way we treat our police and firefighters, which she implies is better than we treat the other workers, because they work in tough conditions and therefor deserve or have earned the right to be treated better. And yet, she calls denying the right to collectively bargain freedom. What we have here is an admission by a Republican that when it comes to their own personal lives, they’ll take the union, please. No doubt Ms. Lyons is familiar with all that the union does to protect her husband. If she’s lucky, the law she supported will be struck down.

Ms. Lyon’s amendment was not taken up by the Michigan legislature, but then, seeing as they appear not to have read the actual bill they passed, she should take heart that it wasn’t personal. ALEC doesn’t recognize corrections officers as worthy; aka, voting Republican.