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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Hoping for Change: Report exposes institutional racism in Granholm-Cherry administration


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 06:50:40 AM EST
    Tags: Granholm, Cherry, Dillon, Obama, hope, change, innaugural, layoffs, racism, Ahmed, DHS (all tags)

    Don't know if you've heard anything about this but apparently there's something big and fancy happening in Washington, DC today.  Something about an inaugural and history and yes we can hope for change.  It's been on the news.

    And while we little people have to sit at home in an icy, very much global-warming-free climate hoping for the change that Michigan needs in the worst way, the people we elected to deliver it for us here at the state level are out of the state getting ready to attend fancy balls this evening.

    Sure, plenty of political hacks and activists and volunteers made their way to the inaugural, and good for them.  This is their day.  They want to self-identify with an incoming administration that has pledged to make its first official act all about making it easier to kill cute little innocent babies via the Freedom of Choice Act, hey, that's between them and their maker.  I know I wouldn't want to self-identify with that particular administration but I have what at least approaches a healthy fear of the almighty.  And karma.  

    Particularly frustrating on a personal level that our supposedly pro-life Speaker of the House, Andy Dillon, is away from Michigan attending the festivities, jovially celebrating the arrival of a political climate that will be openly hostile to innocent life.  But he still finds a way to sleep at night and manages to justify each of his two faces and that's worthy of a round of applause.

    (Pictured at right are Dillon with lefty political consultant and radio personality Kerry Ebersole.  Apparently this one popped up on Facebook with a headline indicating it was taken yesterday in DC.)

    Of course, he's not the only prominent lefty who's taken the opportunity to abandon the ship here in Michigan to go party it up instead.  The Associated Press highlights the different approaches to potential state stimulus cash headed this direction via massive new deficit spending by congressional Democrats. The most obvious difference is that our local lefties want to use the cash to cover up their own budgeting mistakes by erasing red ink while Republican leaders in the House want instead to apply the cash, if it has to come, the way it seems to be intended, to sponsor work projects and give some of unemployed families a chance at a paycheck.  Oh, and the Republicans are actually here in-state working on fixing our problems.

    Read on...

    Granholm, a Democrat, was in Washington for Tuesday's presidential inauguration.

    Republicans are looking forward to the road construction and other infrastructure improvements that could come with the federal aid. But top GOP lawmakers say they will guard against attempts to use the stimulus cash as a quick fix for the state budget.

    "I think we need to resolve our current budget situation as if the money from Washington is not coming," said Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer of Kewadin, the top Republican in the state House. "That's really the only responsible thing to do. And let's use that money from Washington to make one-time improvements."

    Props to the Minority Leader.  Shame on the Speaker and the Governor.

    Not like there are still problems here at home that need fixing.  I know 500 people who will need a job by the end of the week but didn't when it started here in the Grand Rapids area alone.  The Ivory Tower reports:

    A plan to cut 1,000 jobs at Herman Miller Inc. in western Michigan should be completed by the end of the week...

    Spokeswoman Susan Koole said Monday the last 500 job cuts should be wrapped up this week. The Grand Rapids Press reported most are at factories in Zeeland, Holland and Spring Lake.

    But it isn't until you read this morning's Detroit News that you get a better sense of why the Democrats who've led this state for the last six-plus years might want to spend Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday in the air and on the ground away from the state.

    A report was just released indicating that racism isn't just alive and well in Michigan, it is institutionalized in the Democrats' bureaucracy.  Highly recommend you read the entire article linked in the preceding paragraph, but the cliffs notes version goes something like this:

    The study was conducted in response to a report, ordered by the Legislature as part of its 2005 budget bill, that found although African-American children represent slightly less than 18 percent of all children in the state, more than half of the children in out-of-home care are African-American, or one of every 50 African-American children in the state.

    Decisions often were shaped on the assumption that children would be better off living away from their parents in safer or less impoverished neighborhoods -- a bias "reminiscent of the 19th century child rescue ideology that led to the separation of tribal and immigrant children from their families and communities," the report concluded.

    Parents often were ignored or manipulated in planning meetings where decisions were made about placement. In one case cited in the study, a family planning meeting was held in hopes that the mother would show up with her baby, and then workers could take the baby away...

    DHS Director Ismael Ahmed released a statement to The Detroit News saying the state is committed to eliminating racial disparity in foster care.

    Oh, that's comforting Mr. Ahmed.  Seriously.  Color me freaking comforted.  Probably can't say the same for the African-American moms and dads who've had their children stripped from them because they were black.

    The report details a variety of other appalling findings, not least of which is the way black moms were treated as liars and drug users when they claimed to be drug free while white moms were always taken at their word.

    The findings in this report are 100% unacceptable.  And not unacceptable in the sense that they are ugly and wrong and we need to hope for change.  They're unacceptable in the sense that heads need to roll and publicly.  

    But what are the odds of that?  Democrats never demand accountability from other democrats and even more infrequently weaken or undercut the bureaucracy they work so hard most days to empower.  Besides, racism isn't racism when the fingers point at a lefty.

    So if you look at all of today's news stories and the attitudes and actions of the Granholm-Cherry administration, their cronies and appointees and the Democratic hacks and legislative leaders who've journeyed with them to DC it really isn't all that crazy for conservatives to hope for a little change, either.

    < Amid all of the Obama hype, a glimmer of good news. | Tuesday in the Sphere: January 20 >


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    More than Racial bias in Michigan (none / 0) (#1)
    by Ingham Conservative on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 08:55:46 AM EST
    The bias in Michigan, when it comes to the state interfering in families goes to the core of the current administration.

    in addition to the Racial bias, there is a very clear Gender bias in the state's interference with families.

    As recently as 2003, numbers produced by the various counties Friend of the Court offices showed that for each time Joint Custody was recommended in a divorce, 3.6 Mothers received sole custody recommendations, and Fathers only received that recommendation 0.63 times.  this was in 2003, since 2003, the State has computerized this information, and now says the data is not accurate enough to publish publicly.

    Additionally, we have a state that knowingly, violates equal protection by allowing women to make rape or domestic violence claims with no evidence, and requires tghe State and Federal government to prosecute cases they otherwise would not through a program called VAWA. Remember the atrocities of the Duke LaCrosse case, this goes on across the country every day, and most don't have a million dollars to defend themselves, so they have little choice but to accept a plea bargain to avoid jail time.
    If this takes place within a broken marriage, the result is a loss of parental rights for the father (almost always the claimant is the mother and the defendant is the father) this despite 20 years of studies showing near equal rates of violence by men and women.
    Why does this state ignore the fact that DV is gender blind?  You might ask Governor Granholms Secretary of State, Mary Lanoyye, as she is on the Board of directors of the Capital city's Domestic Violence shelter, as shown by the organization's tax filings.  and interestingly, that organization is almost entirely funded by Grants, yet clearly states in their mission statement and public literature that they do not provide services for men.  In fact the last published literature I saw said there are only two DV shelters in the US that will accept men, and Lansing's isn't one of them.

    Now now, Nick. (none / 0) (#2)
    by KG One on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 09:25:32 AM EST
    Be a good mindless drone and appreciate the second coming, er, I mean the historical corination, er, I mean swearing in of our first African President, er, I mean Africian-American President.

    With the MSM going ga-ga over today's events, and C-Span dropping callers on yesterday's Washington Journal who disagree with the Chosen One in mid-comment, while allowing PEBO-supporters all the time in the world to opine, I'm going to enjoy a nice long road trip with some books on tape (actually MP3) to pass the time.

    Bias Against Black Fathers also in Child Custody (none / 0) (#3)
    by DougDante on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 09:35:37 AM EST

    Bias Against Black Fathers also in Child Custody

    An independent statistical analysis shows that African American fathers are only 3/5ths as likely as White non-Hispanic fathers to receive a recommendation for custody.

    http://tinyurl.com/3fdgnj

    This is based on variations in the county level data, and assumes that black fathers and white fathers are treated fairly within each county.

    If there is direct discrimination, the rate at which black fathers receive favorable custody recommendations may be much much lower than white fathers.

    Unfortunately, such data is not available from the Michigan Friend of the Court.

    Speaking (none / 0) (#4)
    by Crippy on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 10:09:23 AM EST
    of baby killing, isn't our governor supposed to be Catholic?
    Crippy
    • Hahah... by Nick, 01/20/2009 10:18:40 AM EST (none / 0)
    For what its worth (none / 0) (#6)
    by Crippy on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 10:24:23 AM EST
    Nick, GREAT STORY!!
    Crippy
    Inauguration Day Trivia (none / 0) (#7)
    by Brady on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 10:35:10 AM EST
    Most Presidents start office with a high public approval rating but the only President to leave office since the death of FDR with a public approval rating above 60% was Bill Clinton.

    • Why? by Rougman, 01/20/2009 03:59:33 PM EST (none / 0)
    Nailed it (none / 0) (#9)
    by irishduke on Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 04:43:11 PM EST
    Excellent damn post Nick

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