New Education Fellowship in Michigan

I read with interest an article on Mlive/Bay City Times concerning this.

Public education received a boost today when Governor Granholm announced a new Michigan teaching fellowship thanks in part to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

The new teaching fellowship, valued at $16.7 million, will benefit 20,000 public school students in the state. The program will retrain 240 new math and science teachers to teach in middle and high schools across the state that need teachers in those subjects.

“Over a period of five years, almost 20,000 Michigan public school students will receive high-quality education in science, technology, engineering and math from these new teachers,” said Granholm in a release.

Unless these teachers will somehow be tethered to the state of Michigan I don't know how she can say that 20,000 in state students will benefit from these new teachers. However much I like to see foundations support education, I'm afraid this endeavor will do little good to increase the quality of education in this state, even though it might make receiving a college education more affordable to a significant number of fellowship recipients.

Unfortunately, I don't see this money making a dime's worth of difference in a system that demands that decisions be made in Lansing and DC.

We have a broken system folks, and the fact that 80% of all teachers are excellent and the fact that the goal of every school district in the state is to do a good job of educating our youth, will make absolutely no difference until those teachers and those school districts regain control. Teachers become tired of bucking a system that makes it hard for them to teach. Administrators become tired of dealing with the same problems every day because permanent solutions to most problems are not allowed. Too many good students are kept from learning because numbskull deviants and disruptors are almost impossible to remove from the classroom. It really is remarkable that half the kids do get a decent education.

Give districts the power to toss out the 20% of teachers that stink, allow effective teachers to receive merit raises, let districts boot out 20% of the students that have no desire to be in the classroom other than to disrupt (without financially punishing the districts,) and give local parents the ability to shape vocational curriculums and set policy. I could go on and on and on, and so could everyone else.

In my humble opinion, the $16 million would be better spent in legal efforts to change the way things now operate than to inject more teachers into a failed system.

A Bit More on Fort Hood Shooting

It is being reported by the AP (via Michelle Malkin) that Nidal Malik Hasan, a devout Muslim, shouted "Allahu Akbar" before he began shooting down infidel victims.

It also said that

Military officials were trying to piece together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades. Cone said the 39-year-old Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk.

Figuring out exactly what might be the seed behind a devout Muslim screaming out 'Allah is great' before gunning down as many unarmed soldiers as possible, is going to be difficult to put a finger on.

The Associated Press can be roughly translated to mean a collection of obtuse asses.

Candidate Gets Valuable Endorsements

All this from yesterday's Detroit News:

"I'm impressed with him because he has the background and experience that sometimes is lacking today."

"Institutional experience and memory are missed in this process. [He] brings that."

Thus spake two former Michigan Democrat speakers of the house in their endorsement of...wait for it...John Cherry for governor!

Two additional former Democrat speakers also piped up and added their considerable clout to the Cherry campaign. As was emphasized by former speakers Bobby Crim and Lewis Dodak respectively above, Cherry manned the co-pilot's seat and gained invaluable experience in helping to navigate his favorite state into perhaps the most disastrous economic implosion in Michigan history. Cherry has been instrumental in helping to close doors for workers, shut down business growth opportunities, and ultimately in driving businesses and the unemployed out of state.

Cherry does have valuable experience, unfortunately it is in knowing how to shrink an economy. This will come in very handy during his first few weeks and months as governor as he intends to expand on the current administration's efforts to shrink Michigan's carbon footprint and grow green industry. Cherry knows how to effectively push for taxes when the business sector grows too big, how to enact crushing regulations when they become too wealthy, and how to use his myriad political skills in the propping up of favored niche industries such as the rental moving van and 'house for sale' sign printing sectors.

What's not to love about John Cherry's record? Of course he gets the endorsement of former Democrat speakers, for they have not yet seen a single indication that the Granholm/Cherry administration has been anything other than a monumental success.

Can We Call it Terrorism Yet?

Well, that is hard to say just yet.

Certainly the AP and the BBC were more than willing to raise the possibility that the horrific Fort Hood massacre could be the result of a man suffering from depression or post traumatic stress disorder.

Too many deployments. Too many battle scars. Too many traumatized American fighting men and women needing services from a military stretched too thin both on the battlefield and in its support services.

Suicides have been on the rise, and there have been several other acts of soldier on soldier crime at Fort Hood in recent years past. Earlier today I had already seen a couple of lists that documented the incidents of soldier on soldier crime that have taken place in the past few years down at Fort Hood.

Now, a few hours later, we are discovering that the perpetrator of this horrific crime is a life long American Muslim who felt that America's war in Iraq and Afghanistan were illegitimate. He ranted to colleagues and on his website that Muslims should rise up against the aggressors, and that he saw no difference between falling on a hand grenade and strapping on a suicide belt. He had never been to Iraq or Afghanistan, and if he was suffering from any sort of PTSD, it was through his exposure as a psychiatrist that he received while administering care to returning military personnel.

While the media were quick to post lists and words that might help bolster the argument that the war had helped derange another American hero, I expect there will be little documenting done by the media on the number of Islam driven violent crimes that have taken place in this country since 2001.

Oh, I know we are not supposed to say such things because it might be offensive to some, and others might feel harassed at the mere suggestion.

If this doesn't smell of terrorism, I don't know what does.

Charity With A Twist

cross posted at Right Michigan

Several months ago both Michigan State University and Kalamazoo College received a letter that notified them of a generous gift. The schools were among an exclusive group of ten institutions across the country that had individually received a significant donation. Michigan State received $10 million while Kalamazoo College received $2 million.

Each college in the group was given some instruction as to how it could spend the money. A designated amount was earmarked to be used toward student financial aid while the smaller remainder could be used in any way that the college or university saw fit. Perhaps the most astonishing revelation concerning this philanthropy, aside from its sheer aggregate size, was that it was donated anonymously and there was no effort on the part of the donor to receive any conspicuous attention.

For some, attention is unnecessary. Others find attention to be a bit more, shall we say, advantageous.

In the Elizabethan Age, aristocrats traipsed into the Globe Theatre and took the most prominent and visible positions. Those that paid enough pennies to reach the upper gallery were farther away and higher off the stage than most of those who may have paid a penny or two less. Many of these high priced seats were at such an angle that the actors on stage rarely faced their most affluent and conspicuous guests. The only advantage these expensive seats had was that a person sitting above and to the immediate sides of the stage was visible to the rest of the crowd. Being seen at the Globe was important in certain circles and well worth both the price of admission and the crappy seat that went with it.

Chiefs of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes of the Pacific Northwest often hosted elaborate potlatch ceremonies in which great efforts were made to gain prestige among other chiefs and tribes. This status was earned by the host if he could prove to his invited guests that he could afford to destroy or give away more wealth than his counterparts could. Intricate coppers, headdresses, jewelry, carvings, as well as other valuables were lavishly given away or intentionally broken, burned or thrown into the sea for this intended purpose. Wealth and status to the Kwakwaka'wakw was measured not by how much could be amassed, but rather by how much could be dispensed with.

In more contemporary times, when Sean Penn traveled to post Katrina New Orleans, he did so with spotless intentions, a boat, a few adoring fans, and his own camera crew. It was hard to discount Mr. Penn's heartfelt desire to rescue the stranded victims, though it was decidedly easier to discount his narcissistic desire to be filmed doing so.

While philanthropy can provide benefits to those receiving it, in my own little neck of the woods, philanthropy earns the giver a level of respect dependent on the giver's motivation.

Which brings us to Michigan State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer.

The press release demands our attention and our admiration:

Whitmer Donates Legislative Expense Account Money to East Lansing Schools

LANSING– State Senator Gretchen Whitmer announced today that she will donate her full legislative expense stipend for this month to the East Lansing Education Foundation. Additionally, Whitmer formally introduced bills yesterday that call for the Legislature to share in the sacrifices of Michigan’s citizens and reform the way government works.

Gretchen Whitmer might be the bighearted philanthropist she wants us to believe that she is, but she is also every bit the opportunist and grandstander that Sean Penn is, clanking her offering into the bottom of the collection plate loudly enough to make certain that those in the pews both in front and behind cannot flee from her display of generosity.

While Whitmer's in-district expenses might not be reimbursed for the next few months because evil Republicans refuse to cave in to the punitive taxation policies preferred by Democrats like Whitmer, her expense stipend will be invested in more important commodities than gasoline or luxurious French manicures--perhaps a few school books along with all the potential votes that a little well aimed and very public donation might buy.

As it turns out, the East Lansing School District received its own letter notifying it of some soon to arrive philanthropy. It was such a gosh darn nice letter too that it was posted on the Michigan Senate Democrats' website, I assume at the insistence of the school district as an example of concise grammar rather than any attention it might accidentally garner the selfless Gretchen Whitmer. In fact, I'm certain Gretchen would have given serious thought to anonymously donating the taxpayer's money to her school of choice if not for that overbearing good conscience of hers.

I cannot, in good conscience, accept this allotment while my colleagues balance our state's budget on the backs of our children. [What, don't they have desks and conference tables down there in Lansing? ed.] While this contribution is certainly not enough to make schools whole, it is something to reflect the importance of your efforts to provide children a quality education necessary for the world of tomorrow.

It often does boil down to conscience now, doesn't it? Here we have a state senator who happens to be blessed with just enough conscience to deny the acceptance of what she believes is ill-earned money given to her for deficient achievement, but who also happens to lack just enough conscience to avoid giving it away again without forcing a loud attention gathering cough immediately before its donation hits the collection plate.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it really fall? Or more aptly, if a donation is made to a deserving entity while not being shamelessly promoted to score cheap political points with an otherwise unaware public, can the organization still enjoy spending the money?

By my thinking I suppose it can, though I'm certain it doesn't make nearly as much grating noise.

Hypocritical Sheep and the Welfare State

Hypocrisy: specifically seeking out assistance from the single most inefficient deliverer of charity ever envisioned by man, and then getting all bent out of shape when the delivery system fails to satisfy.

People who lobby the government for much of anything should shut up and stand in line quietly like the good little sheep that they pretend to be whenever an election rolls around.

Obligatory Election Post

I cannot go without at least mentioning the elections that took place yesterday. There were three races that carried with them some national implications, at least as much as such elections can ever help to keep a finger on the pulse of American voter trends.

The governorships in both Virginia and New Jersey swung to the Republicans after several years in Democratic hands. While the Virginia governor's chair is prone to flipping back and forth with some modest frequency, it was the New Jersey office that had people paying the most attention. New Jersey is a state recognized as being a political cesspool of corruption and is also recognized as being a state with some of the most punishing taxation policies in the history of life on this planet. It appears as if New Jersey voters are tired of being the laughingstock of America everywhere outside of Detroit.

In the NY 23 special election for the House of Representatives, a well connected mainstream Democrat closely defeated a self-made grass roots politician that only a couple of months ago was politically anonymous. That the election was so close between the two candidates clearly indicates that there is a groundswell of politically active conservatism in the country.

The seat has been traditionally Republican in years past, and the loss of the seat has to be considered a blow to establishment Republicans. However, as a conservative myself, I see no downside to having this single district fall to the Democrats for another year. Republicans have, over the course of the past ten years or so, turned their backs on conservative principles, instead putting the reward of sitting in public office ahead of the rewards of serving in public office. The meteoric rise of a political unknown to the status of true contender for high public office is more than a little eye opening.

Establishment Republicans have proven themselves to be not the most perceptive of people. Perhaps this shot across the bow got their attention.

111 New Ways to Save Health Care Dollars

With a hat tip to Power Line, here is the list of the 111 different panels/boards/programs/etc. that will be created by the gargantuan intrusion into all Americans' private lives that is Nancy Pelosi's health care reform plan.

1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)
3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)
4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)
5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)
6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)
7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)
8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)
9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)
10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)
11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)
12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)
13. Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)
14. "Public Health Insurance Option" (Section 321, p. 211)
15. Ombudsman for "Public Health Insurance Option" (Section 321(d), p. 213)
16. Account for receipts and disbursements for "Public Health Insurance Option" (Section 322(b), p. 215)
17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)
18. Demonstration program providing reimbursement for "culturally and linguistically appropriate services" (Section 1222, p. 617)
19. Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision aids (Section 1236, p. 648)
20. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section 1301, p. 653)
21. Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)
22. Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302(d), p. 681)
23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)
24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)
25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)
26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)
27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)
28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)
29. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1413(a)(3), p. 796)
30. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)
31. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)
32. Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers with respect to Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)
33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)
34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)
35. Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)
36. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1730A, p. 1073)
37. Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)
38. Demonstration program for Medicaid coverage to stabilize emergency medical conditions in institutions for mental diseases (Section 1787, p. 1149)
39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)
40. "Identifiable office or program" within CMS to "provide for improved coordination between Medicare and Medicaid in the case of dual eligibles" (Section 1905, p. 1191)
41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)
42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)
43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)
44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)
45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)
46. Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)
47. Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)
48. Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)
49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)
50. Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment (Section 2261, p. 1275)
51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)
52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)
53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)
54. Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)
55. Grant program for research and demonstration projects related to wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)
56. Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)
57. Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)
58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)
59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)
60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)
61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)
62. Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)
63. Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)
64. "No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza" demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)
65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)
66. Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for individuals with autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)
67. University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)
68. Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)
69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)
70. Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)
71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)
72. Grant program to prepare secondary school students for careers in health professions (Section 2533, p. 1437)
73. Grant program for community-based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)
74. Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)
75. Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in primary and secondary schools (Section 2536, p. 1462)
76. Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section 2537, p. 1464)
77. Center for Emergency Care under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (Section 2552, p. 1478)
78. Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)
79. Grant program to support demonstration programs that design and implement regionalized emergency care systems (Section 2553, p. 1480)
80. Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become emergency medical technicians upon discharge (Section 2554, p. 1487)
81. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)
82. National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)
83. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)
84. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)
85. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)
86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women's Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)
87. National Women's Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)
88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women's Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)
89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women's Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)
90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women's Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)
91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)
92. Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)
93. Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section 2591, p. 1629)
94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)
95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)
96. Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)
97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)
98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)
99. Office of Indian Men's Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)
100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)
101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)
102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)
103. Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)
104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)
105. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)
106. Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)
107. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)
108. Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (Section 3101, p. 1925)
109. Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)
110. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)
111. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)

Somehow this monstrosity (with a price tag of over $1 TRILLION) is going to help beckon in a new age of efficiency and medical thrift. It will probably do so in the same way that the Department of Education has ended the existence of teenage listlessness, and in the same way that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has virtually wiped out urban blight.

A Quick Thank You to the UAW

If you operated a business that has struggled to make a profit for a number of years and had in the interim been hemorrhaging billions, what would you do given the circumstances that have transpired in the past week?

First, you managed to turn a $1 billion profit for the third quarter buoyed in large measure by the Cash for Clunkers program. (This sounds like a ton of money until it is compared to the $30 billion of losses over the past few years.) Secondly, the UAW rank and file members are in the process of defeating a tentative agreement with your company that would allow you to move forward with a labor agreement in the US that is more in line with that of its competitors. Finally, the Canadian Auto Workers ratified a labor agreement that would allow you to compete with the rest of the industry in that country.

Now, if your sales numbers increase and you need to add production, where would you be most likely to increase that production? Would it be in a country where you are less efficient and less likely to be able to turn a profit, or would it be in a more labor friendly market where your per unit costs are more in line with the rest of the industry?

It is easy to blame the demise of the domestic automobile industry on a number of factors, including the management of the Big 3 themselves. However, as long and drawn out as that learning curve has been for management at Ford, it appears as if it has finally started to catch on. American labor unions (primarily the UAW) and overly aggressive government regulators have still experienced no epiphany.

This long term trend, if relationships between the UAW and Ford continue to be icy, will be for more jobs to flee Michigan in favor of venues that are friendlier. This does not bode well for a state already crippled by fleeing jobs and businesses.

The rest of Michigan owes the UAW nothing regardless of how loud Ron Gettelfinger's legions like to champion their advances for all workers. All that the UAW deserves by way of gratitude from me is a hearty 'thank you' for helping to destroy what is left of the state that I grew up in.

I hope that future transfer to Canada works out okay.

Michigan UAW Not Keeping Up on Current Events

The UAW's never ending war upon its employers is erupting again in another battle near Detroit where UAW local members recently voted on a tentative agreement. The agreement included compensation concessions and the promise of an infusion of new work at the Sterling Heights axle plant that would add up to 100 jobs. The UAW local voted overwhelmingly against the agreement.

Ford Motor is the only member of the domestic Big 3 that did not accept taxpayer money in the federal bailout. Since that time Ford has been forced to continue to operate with labor agreements that put it at a disadvantage with the other two companies who emerged from bankruptcy with deals more competitive with foreign owned manufacturers.

Ford, who feels it must cut costs to compete, is now considering moving the promised new work under the agreement to a southern non-union shop in North Carolina. Along with that move, Ford is considering moving additional work to other plants as well.

Here is a current events newsflash for belligerent UAW members.

Those yellow vans hitting the state line every day are filled with furniture, clothes, and children's bikes, and they represent the lifeblood and future of this state. If you are too stupid to notice that having a job for less money is better than having no job at all, perhaps you are too obtuse to hold down a job to begin with. Maybe Jennifer Granholm can spend a few grand to retrain you in either the hospitality or custodial industries, and then we will see just how you like making concessions.

You may bitch and moan about how horribly you have been treated by your employers, but the fact is that you make a lot more money than the average person in this state, have a far superior benefits package, and retire with a pension far better than most of the rest of us could ever hope to attain. From my vantage point that does not look like horrible treatment.

So, go ahead and vote your conscience and see what happens. I for one hope you change your mind and accept the contract in a proposed re-vote do over. But, if you don't, I would like to see Ford move as much work as possible away from your plant. Michigan is better off with a healthy domestic automobile industry, even if a majority of that industry is located out of state, than it is to be dependent on a critical patient that barely survives on taxpayer funded life support.

We'll see just how tough, proud, and smart you look standing in line outside the Michigan Works! office.

MDOT's Poet Laureate

A couple of years ago, MDOT worked out a sweet arrangement with the feds over the installation of a couple of changeable message signs it ultimately placed along the I-75 corridor just south of Grayling, one facing each direction.

If the state kicked in $220,000 of Michigan taxpayer money, Uncle Sam was willing to ante up the other half of taxpayer money to get those signs sending the important messages that motorists need to see.

The message signs are a part of a national network of "Amber Alert" signs to be used to flash quick messages to motorists as they traveled. Why the signs were placed on a section of freeway that gets only a fraction of the travel that other sites do is not clear to me because I'm too lazy to look it up.

I have looked at these signs every time I have traveled that road since they were installed. Today's southbound message was

FALL IS HERE
PLEASE DO NOT VEER
TO MISS A DEER.

The north bound sign on my return trip cautioned me that there was going to be lane closures ahead, a fact I might have noticed on my own given the hundreds of orange traffic barrels spread out as far as the eye could see and the now antiquated orange construction signs along the side the freeway that said something forgettable like "Left lane closed ahead."

There are always great ideas on which bureaucrats can burn other people's money; money that was removed from an efficient and productive private sector to be spent by poet dreamers who have been chained to a government desk most of their life. There will never be an end to these dreams despite the nation's stiffening possession laws.

I try to make a point of looking at the signs whenever I travel down that stretch of highway. Buckle up. Watch for deer. Do not exceed posted limits. Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

The feds and state have spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on road projects and on support for the arts. Maybe one of these times the two behemoth bureaucracies can can get their heads together and ponder a message sign campaign that would actually encourage motorists to look at the signs instead of blowing by them habitually because they have rarely, if ever, carried a memorable message.

I'm holding out for haiku.

Lansing Today

My monthly trip to Lansing takes place today. If you see a green Buick with a blown engine down along US127, I assure you I thought it was the correct oil filter.

A Serious Answer to a Rhetorical Question

cross posted at Right Michigan

It is pretty easy to figure out the purpose behind the cosmetic lather that Sen. Gretchen Whitmer is raising as she pits the big salaries of legislators against the educational survival of defenseless little school children. All interesting fights need a villain, and in this fight Whitmer has determined that the legislators are the villains, especially the villainous Republican kind. If mean Republicans do not pass taxes to fill the school aid gap, the children will suffer!

In recent years, as we all know, education funding levels have been uncertain as they overwhelmingly rely on now steadily declining tax receipts. With Michigan’s economy contracting faster than an eight chinned Jerrold Nadler, the shell game of the state lottery does not even come close to filling in the gap, and pennies from Washington rarely match the mandates heaped on districts.

So, what is the relative earning status of the people whom Whitmer is ultimately (though inadvertently) pitting against one another?

According to the American Legislative Change Council, in school year 2006-07, Michigan ranked 4th among the states in teacher salaries (h/t to the Mackinac Center) and according to the Empire Center of New York, Michigan’s legislators in 2007 received the second highest salary in all the land behind only those of the rapidly collapsing California. The 2nd highest paid in the nation versus the 4th highest paid in the nation, both pretty high rankings when you consider there are 57 states in Obama's America.

I am making light because I know that few teachers ever get rich solely on their salaries, and rich legislators become so either before taking office or after selling their souls as lobbyists after leaving office. Yet, it is hard to feel very sorry for either of these two sides when both have managed to live much better than their national peers for no better reason than Michigan’s taxpayers have been an easy target for a very long time.

Perhaps we can all remember a time in the not too distant past when Michigan could take enough money, however misguidedly, from its citizens and could then afford to provide premium salaries and benefits to both its teachers and legislators.

Not any more.

When Michigan’s economy continued to chug along and the house of cards stood firm, there was at least enough money in the kitty to keep the system afloat. It was, however, in a fragile state. Enter the financial collapse, the auto collapse, runaway energy prices, and the whole system was destined to fall apart quicker than a Larry King marriage commitment.

The truth of the matter is, Michigan taxpayers can no longer afford to pay premium salaries and provide lavish benefit packages to any of their employees, regardless of which budget line their salaries might fall under. This means that the comely Gretchen Whitmer gets her fight card filled in only half right and, in Gretchen’s defense, that ain’t half bad for her.

Gretchen’s fawn eyed pleadings assume several items not in evidence. First of all, it assumes that educators cannot provide a quality education to children at less money per student than it is currently spending. If state after state after state spend less money on teachers and still succeed, why must Michigan pay top dollar when it is both flat broke and when student scores do not bear out any real bang for that extra buck? She assumes also that cuts can only weaken education and not be used to ferret out continued waste at all levels by forcing a new look at priorities.

This might sound like an attack job on teachers and I want to assure you that it is not. I love teachers and I wish that effective teachers could be paid even more money for they provide a great benefit to society. (I also wish we could run lousy teachers out on a rail along with disruptive students, but those sentiments will never wash in Lansing even if they would save lots of money.) Right now more money for teachers is simply not in the cards.

Further, Whitmer wants to tie legislators’ salaries to funding for schools but does not consider making the same attachment to funding for firefighters, police, the DNR, DEQ, MDOT, or any other of the alphabet soup bureaucracies down in Lansing. How else can one interpret this line of reasoning other than it being an encouragement for legislators to collect a full paycheck by simply gutting other areas of the budget and lavishing education with a full arsenal of cash? Political ploys, even ones arrived at hastily, should have a little more brain matter invested in them. Perhaps Gretchen just needs a bit more sleep.

While I am not so certain that Gretchen Whitmer worked long and hard concocting the legislators vs. children strategy, how much time would it really take over the course of a full budget year for lawmakers like Whitmer to at least address some of the issues that really could have a positive impact on school financing, something that her theatrics does not do?

How hard would it be to address some of the recent mandates that have been made on districts that have had a negative impact on school finances but have had little measurable return? How much trouble would it be to consider returning some control to the local school districts? How tough would it be to address some of the burdens placed on districts by lawmakers for no other reason than to please the MEA?

Let us sit back for a moment and think. Does it do more substantive good to pit the salaries of legislators against the needs of sad eyed children who cannot spell, or would it do substantially more good to get serious about cutting back the layers of waste and duplication that take place in Lansing today so that there might be a little extra money to support the schools with?

We know Gretchen Whitmer's answer to that question, though it was intended to be rhetorical.

A Tin Cup in Detroit

How does the old saying go?

"You can count on Detroit to be there whenever it needs us." Or something like that.

The latest Detroiter to stick out her panhandling cup is city council member Joann Watson who said in a candidate's forum that the federal government should offer the city of Detroit a one time $1 billion bailout. She reiterated her request later in an interview with Darrell Dawsey of Time who asked her, essentially, if she was serious.

She was.

"If the federal government can get a loan from China, if the state of Michigan can get $2 billion in federal stimulus money, why isn't it obvious for the city of Detroit? Why not establish us as an important precedent? They've bailed out Wall Street. They've bailed out General Motors. When are they going to bail out the workers? And Detroit's problems are a direct result of the economic meltdown and the crisis in the auto industry. Michigan's problems are.

"And don't tell me we don't deserve it. Of course we do. The city of Detroit has been a leader in industry, in labor. We built the vehicles in World War II. Our unions have helped lead the nation to more humane work conditions, whether it be in terms of sick pay or the five-day work week. We have led the nation, and we've been dependent on an industry that's been hit hard. So if the federal government sees fit to bail out GM -- and I'm not mad about that because I went to Washington to help ask for bailouts for the car companies -- then the government needs to bailout the city that depends so much on GM. You cannot allow this to continue to happen to one of your largest cities."

That is some mouth full.

The city of Detroit lived high on the hog for many years. Its industry did help to shape Michigan and America, but it did not do this for free as Watson seems to forget. Detroit was lavished with great wealth, a wealth that served to attract workers from all over the country as they sought out jobs that paid much more than they could get elsewhere.

The city of Detroit grew wealthy on the car companies and consequently, its white and blue collar workers. It taxes and taxed and taxed and, with the help of regulators and taxers in Lansing, it helped to slow and stunt the growth on an industry that was its primary benefactor. After helping put the golden goose on life support, Watson is hoping to be blessed with the eggs of a different goose.

Watson goes on to point out that Detroit is the bees knees.

"This is a Midwest megalopolis. We've got waterways. We've got land. We sit on an international border. We have everything it takes for this city to be great.

Ever wonder why Detroit, with all these logistical advantages, still has to scrape by like a poverty stricken crone? It is because the problems of Detroit are with the management of Detroit; a management that Watson takes pride in being a part of.

Detroit should not get one more dime of money from the feds on top of the millions upon millions that were essentially slathered upon the city's industries already. Continued mismanagement of the city would only be encouraged by throwing more money at Motown.

Lets see what efforts Detroit will undertake to clean up its own hygiene before someone else steps in and buys it a series of expensive spa treatments.

h/t Mlive

Debt Across the Lake

Hey, maybe we all need to relax just a bit here in Michigan. We are sweating the details of running a paltry $2 billion in debt. We are cutting back on police, prisons, and the education of future generations of carbon emitters. We have closed parks, libraries, and campsites, have reduced hours at many government offices, given people unpaid days off, and even suggested that maybe blowing a wad of cash on Hollywood so that the Governor can rub elbows with Roman Polanski apologists.

Bah!

We are only dipping our toe in the water of debt, just look at Ontario, where Granholm-like green interventionists have a job to do!

h/t Small Dead Animals

An Example Overdue

Monica Conyers will face a judge on December 1st for her sentencing in the Synagro sludge bribery scandal.

Few Michigan politicians have provided the entertainment value of Ms. Conyers over the past few years. Her hair trigger temper and combative personality have led to altercations from the Motor to the Mile High City, and her willingness to say whatever is on her mind, however disadvantaged that mind might be, has made her a barrel of laughs.

The shtick loses its guffaw value once it crosses over the line into outright criminal activity, and as an admitted seeker of bribes for political favor, Ms. Conyers represents the worst sort of threat to a voting republic.

The maximum sentence is five years and it is a sentence deserved. We will always have corruption, and we will always have people willing to play the game, but the citizens of a city mired in decades of untold abuses should be shown that they cannot be gamed without the abuser paying a price. Civic pride must start somewhere and perhaps it can commence with the statement that "we will be taken advantage of no more."

Detroit deserves better and because of that, Monica deserves the max.

They're Coming for Your Lamb Chops

Lord Stern has a plan.

First, force people to pay an exorbitant amount for high carbon foods.

Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

Second, reeducate the masses.

He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”

Finally, spread the wealth that was confiscated.

Lord Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank and now I. G. Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, warned that British taxpayers would need to contribute about £3 billion a year by 2015 to help poor countries to cope with the inevitable impact of climate change.

A tip of the hat to Cold Fury who led me to a disgusted Captain Ed:

Seven hundred years ago, man farmed and raised cows and pigs on the entire island of Greenland. When they do that again, perhaps I’ll worry about bovine flatulence as a global threat. Until then, I consider creeping elitism from horse’s asses a much more elitist threat than methane from cow’s butts.

An Auction in Detroit

Of the 9,000 Detroit properties put up for auction by Wayne County officials, more than eight in ten went without a single bid, this despite a required low minimum bid of $500. The properties had been seized by tax collectors for nonpayment.

From Reuters:

In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.

After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.

"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."

Most of the properties that did sell were scooped up by investors leaving local Detroiters seeking low cost entry level housing out in the cold.

The good news is that some investors have decided that Detroit might be a good place to take a chance again even if that investment is quite small. The bad news is that these investors will most likely have to wait a long time for a positive return on their investments, and the city may have to wait years before these investment worthy properties ever see habitation.

These are the fruits of Michigan and Detroit; a state and city choked by too much regulation and taxation, a state and city where profits are considered almost evil by bureaucrats and labor leaders, and a state and city where generations of individuals have been encouraged to lean on the benevolent hand of government to provide.

Residents who might want to move in will be moving into a city that is not secure and has on many occasions earned the title "Murder Capitol of America." Its schools are among the worst, if not the worst, in the nation. For primarily security reasons, there is not one chain grocery store in the city making the cost of daily staples more expensive than places superstores are common. There are widespread problems with city services while many neighborhoods are littered with debris between abandoned houses.

No, it is not a surprise that a vast majority of these homes and properties went without a bid. What is surprising is that people were complicit for the decades of outright abuse and neglect that it took to turn Detroit into the city that it has become.

Decades of progressive thought have left their mark on Detroit. Will its remaining residents ever choose a better future?

h/t Mlive

The State Becomes a Parent

From the Daily Mail:

An obese couple’s seven children are all to be taken into care after their newborn daughter was removed over fears she would become dangerously overweight.

Three children had already been removed by social services before the infant was taken from her mother within hours of her birth.

Now her ‘heartbroken’ parents have learned that their three other children will be taken away from them too.

They say the children of the so-called 'fat family' are being removed over fears they would also become clinically obese.

One wonders why the benevolent surgeon of the state doesn't just do some snipping here and there to prevent the obese from ever giving birth to begin with. Or why any adult should ever be allowed to have children if the conditions for raising the cherubs is non-utopian.

Perhaps the parenting rights of all obese should be stymied, as well as those of all smokers, those who speed, litter, or believe the Bible speaks out against homosexuality. Should adults who are skeptical of man made global warming be allowed to propagate when their progeny are likely to emulate their AGW denying parents?

Creating utopia might not be so difficult if those in power are given the authority to indiscriminately shape society through the confiscation of its children.

h/t Overlawyered

Funniest Story of the Week

Go to Above the Law to read the story about one Albert Freed, a plus sized gentleman who sued the manufacturer of his underwear for the discomfort he suffered from injuries sustained while walking the beaches of Hawaii.

A question for the guys out there: How long would it take you to correct a problem involving sandpaper and your penis? Don’t you think penis chaffing is something that requires immediate attention and decisive action?

And while we’re here, how long does it take for you to notice your stuff hanging out where it is not supposed to be?

Funny stuff for everyone I suppose, except for Mr. Freed.

Tea Party Lesson

The news media is slowly discovering that the tea party movement is about more than just knuckledragging racists intolerant toward living in a country led by a black man.

Newt Gingrich is learning the same lesson the hard way.

Waiting on the Jobs of Tomorrow

cross posted at Right Michigan

When did it become an accepted theory that government has the ability to create jobs in much the same manner that my kid sister used to pop out cool multicolored extrusions with her Playdoh Fun Factory?

Nowadays, progressively bent government operatives assume that if they throw enough proper ingredients into a bowl and add a little flowery sentiment, they can force the concoction through a die and out the other side will come a never ending stream of gainfully employed citizens. Push this button and that button, keep a foot on this pedal, push two levers, flip three switches, turn a dial, make a hand in the armpit farting noise, and voilà!, you have a job of tomorrow!

You can rarely go a day without some public servant promoting a great idea that he cooked up where this initiative and that regulation can, in tandem, create the necessary habitat for a job to squirt out. Of course, this initiative and that regulation can rarely work perfectly the first time they are tried, and a little tweaking will be necessary.

This is how our corn ethanol craze was born, and how it became a highly successful industry that literally leaped from the dark soils of America's heartland. An artificial demand was created by law that forced gasoline to contain a certain percentage of ethanol, and tariffs were imposed on more efficiently produced imported ethanol so that the American farmer would get a piece of the action. A few additional subsidies were tossed around for good measure to grease the wheels of infrastructure, and away it went. It was easy.

Many years later, however, there has arrived a more modest critique of its success. Several of the largest ethanol producers are bankrupt, gas prices are artificially high, more subsidies are needed to keep ethanol businesses operating, prices are rising for most other crops because less land is being allocated to their production, corn fed livestock prices are booming, and Iowa has been turned from a state that has historically fed the world's starving into a net corn importer. All this because a gaggle of bureaucrat jackasses decided without thinking that America needed to produce an inferior fuel with an ultimately negative energy impact (estimated at up to 20,000 BTUs per gallon) that uses up to 1,700 gallons of water for the production of one gallon of the environment-friendly elixir.

Pure genius.

This is not an article about ethanol, but rather about the thought process that allowed the production of corn ethanol to become a blessed industry in this country, for Michigan possesses one of the finest stables of government jackasses ever assembled, and each one of them is dying for the opportunity to promote the next government blessed Fun Factory capable of popping out jobs like a 4H bunny shoots pellets. Someone has to keep an eye on them.

The "jobs of tomorrow" phrase is little more than a sales pitch devised by politicians that have little intent of creating many jobs for today. It is a throw in the towel sentiment wrapped in an advertising slogan. Sure, future job hawks brag often about snaring the occasional Washington grant of borrowed Chinese money to build a bridge or pave a road here or there, but these earmarked funds do nothing to create a robust long term employer/employee relationship. For statistics sake, I suppose, the Chinese funded two month job is every bit as valuable as the job that a person can land right out of college and work in until his retirement, though it doesn't do much for either the deficit or the economy.

The jobs of tomorrow, the ones being championed by today's bureaucrats come with a list of requirements. They require the government funded retraining of workers, the government subsidy of high speed rail, government provided safety, education, and welfare, and perhaps most importantly, the government blessing of a green outcome. When the government is able to line up all the properly considered components we will be, as Governor Granholm puts it, "blown away." These are, of course, all hugely expensive propositions that require the extreme taxation of today's citizens who are still lucky enough to hold down one of today's jobs. Each dollar taken from one of today's taxpayers is a dollar that is no longer available to be spent on one of today's businesses. Another cup of coffee is not consumed, another hamburger goes uneaten, and another roof project is delayed. Soon the waiter and the roofer's gofer are holding hands outside of the Michigan Works office.

Interestingly, the purveyors of tomorrow's jobs see little need for the relaxation of taxes and regulations that would allow a business of today to create jobs for today. They talk a good game about creating a place where businesses will relocate, and about laying the foundations for the jobs of tomorrow, but they do little to allow today's Michigan businesses to grow profitably today.

Michigan is not tax friendly. It is not regulation friendly. It is not labor friendly. I have heard it is even mean to puppies. Many businesses are leaving and others are closing outright because they cannot make a profit or they scrape buy on margins so thin it makes the whole enterprise unworthy of the effort. With each loss of business goes the loss of more and more of today's jobs and left behind are unemployed workers who no longer contribute taxes to the public coffers, but instead become a drain on them.

Legislators and the governor are nearing the end of a brutal budget process. There have been painful cuts and there will undoubtedly be more. It is time for the Michigan legislature to create a freer atmosphere in which businesses can survive and grow profitably today, and to stop meddling in the business environment by creating a never ending expansion of regulations designed to herd existing businesses, taxpayers and consumers down a blessed path.

Perhaps legislators and the governor can afford to wait for the jobs of tomorrow. Today's workers cannot.

Unions Killing Democrat Party? I Think Not.

This headline caught my eye on M-live.

Unions do their best to kill the Democratic Party in Michigan

I got a few paragraphs in before I read this:

But big labor is doing what it does best: Strong-arm and screw over the Democratic Party. (Just take a look at how how AFSCME is trying to kill President Obama's health care reform and the NEA and American Federation of Teachers are trying to quash education reform.) Naturally, freshmen are scared witless and looking to do anything to please labor, instead of questioning the true effectiveness of top-heavy organizations that peaked when poodle skirts were still in fashion.

What kind of reasoning is this? The unions monolithically (with the help of other misguided socialists) put these yokels into office, so why should this generation of union members not expect to get political favors in exchange for their votes when generation after generation of previous union voters were rewarded by big-government Democrats for choosing any candidate with a D behind his name?

It is the taxpayers and the consumers that have been getting screwed over by the unions, not the poor Democrat Party. How long should we expect unsustainable financial policies to stay in effect before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down? I'd say we are lucky the whole smoke and mirrors thing lasted as long as it has.

When the unions finally do fall completely off the scene it will not be because they abandoned the Democrat Party's socialist principles, but because of their unfortunate propensity for developing symbiotic relationships with hosts they don't mind killing.

How Many Pages of the Health Care Bill Will Your Senator Read?

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