On Thursday, the Michigan Nurses Association – Michigan’s largest union for registered nurses – endorsed Proposal 2, the ballot proposal that would lift Michigan’s state ban on embryonic stem cell research. This is exceptionally good news, as it continues to prove that medical professionals all over Michigan are lining up in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

“Prop 2 would allow Michigan scientists to pursue the most promising medical research today ¬– embryonic stem cell research – which could end the suffering of people with diseases such as Parkinson’s, heart disease, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and more,” said Thomas Bissonette, representative of the MNA and a nurse on the front line, at the press conference in which the MNA endorsed Prop 2. “Few people understand better than nurses and doctors what their patients must endure … and what might help them.”

Predictably, the most vocal opponents of Prop 2, the Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Scientific Experimentation group (MiCAUSE), have begun to lash out in any and all ways possible. First it was the tremendous lie about Prop 2 raising our taxes (it doesn’t), and now it’s the TV ad featuring the flashing logos of phony corporations like Cloneway and HumanHarvest being used to scare voters into going their way.

As the nurses at the press conference pointed out, everybody knows somebody who could benefit from stem cell research. We all have a brother, a cousin, an aunt, a parent, or a friend who has suffered from a terrible and debilitating disease, and have all endured the anguishing of watching that loved one waste away, powerless at the hands of Michigan’s archaic ban to stop it.

The merits and benefits of Prop 2 far outweigh the negatives; if there even are any negatives. It will lift Michigan’s decades-old ban on embryonic stem cell research and allow the members of our scientific community to begin developing cures and treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, diabetes, and Crohn’s. It will allow us in the mitten state to do what they’ve been doing in over 40 other states all over America. It will bring in new and better industries and technologies to Michigan and inspire our fledgling economy to flourish, rather than continue to languish and waste away. Most importantly, it will open up doors for so many suffering from debilitating and degenerative diseases.

Rather than taking away life, as its opponents like to erroneously claim, Proposal 2 will help save it and reclaim it. The ballot language specifically mandates that research will be conducted on stem cells that are created at fertility clinics and would otherwise be thrown away in the garbage. Instead of tossing these stem cells out like bad milk, why not use them to develop cures and treatments for patients all over Michigan? Nurses and doctors all over the state are in agreement: voting “yes” on Proposal 2 is the right thing to do.

Eaton Rapids Officer detains, questions, arrests, but never reads Miranda Rights!

I am starting this Blog to get feed back, from other concerned citizens. My son was involved in a scuffle in Eaton Rapids. I won't get into any specifics about the incident at this point. My main concern is that he was asked to come to the station to give a written statement of his account, which he did - but then he was questioned nicely at first then tricked, lied to and coerced in to telling way more than he should have, not knowing that he had the option not to do so. 

His Miranda Rights were never read to him, not even as the cuffs went on and he was taken to the Charlotte Jail where he spent the night.

We the (parents) were forced to put up $500.00 Non-Returnable bond money and turn over the title to our car, our ONLY car, to the bond agency to get him out. The so called offended person (that was involved just as much) has not and still does not want to press any charges, and shouldn't because he is just as much to blame, but his offences weren't turned into an issue. So now the state/Prosecuting Attorney takes over.

Remember the days when the only people who could vote were white males that owned property? We thought those days were long behind us, but apparently, John McCain and his Michigan crew feel otherwise.

Recently, Michigan Messenger uncovered a John McCain and Michigan Republican Party co-plot that seems to have come straight out of the 18th century playbook. In a phone interview with Michigan Messenger writer Eartha Jane Melzer, James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County GOP, revealed that the party has a list of foreclosed homes in Macomb County, and will be doing everything in its power to make sure that those voters are turned away from the polls.

As if it wasn’t enough for John McCain to take up residence with Trott and Trott – one of Michigan’s premier foreclosure law firms – and spend the past eight years supporting legislation that has brought about Michigan’s highest foreclosure rate in decades, but now he feels the need to keep these people from casting ballots, too. What do you do for an encore, Sen. McCain: demand that voters have a credit score of 825 in order to cast a ballot?

People, the time to speak up is now. Go to http://progressmichigan.org/nohomenovote and let John McCain know that this is unacceptable. Every American deserves the right to vote, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, or independent – it’s one of the most basic elements of what makes this country great. Some groups – women, minorities, lower classes – have fought and even died for the right to vote: a right that is supposed to be guaranteed, regardless of sex, race, and yes, even property ownership. Don’t let John McCain and the Michigan GOP or any other group or party undermine that Constitutional fact. Sign the petition today and spread the word!

[CROSS-POSTED FROM MICHIGAN YOUTH POLITICAL ALLIANCE]

Michiganians are stuck on automobiles in more than one way. Not only is our economy dependent upon the Big 3 automakers, we rely solely on automobiles to get around our state–and now it is taking its toll.

[CROSS-POSTED FROM MICHIGAN YOUTH POLITICAL ALLIANCE]

And it’s finally time for Detroit to start making some progress (or at least reverse the tumble downhill under Mayor Kilpatrick).

Yesterday, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice and pleaded no contest to a felony count of assault on a police officer. As punishment, he must “pay restitution to the city of $1 million; [...] surrender his law license, forfeit his state pension to the city and be barred from elective office for five years; and [...] serve 120 days in the Wayne County jail, followed by five years’ probation. The other charges were dismissed”(NYTimes). He also resigned.

In the new proposed regulations for the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Bush Administration distorts the concept of religious liberty, erects barriers to health care for women, and wastes tax payer money.

In the guise of protecting religious liberty and individual conscience, these regulations are one-sided and will trample a woman's legal and moral right to needed health care services.

On Monday, July 21st, a protest was held outside the Michigan campaign headquarters of Senator John McCain. This protest – with a heavy presence by members of ACORN – was launched in response to the financial connection between McCain and the law offices of Trott and Trott – a law firm that owns the building in which McCain’s HQ has taken up residence and has also carved out a reputation as one of the most brutal, cutthroat foreclosure practices in the state, as pointed out by Eric Baerren and Todd Heywood of the blogs Michigan Liberal and Michigan Messenger, respectively.

Given the fact that McCain’s camp has chosen to either pay rent to or receive generous “in-kind” contributions from a law firm that profits off of the suffering of so many Michiganders who have lost their homes, it’s perhaps not surprising that the McCain camp responded to the protest by pleading ignorance. A spokeswoman for the campaign stated that she was “unaware” of the protest outside: a statement which only served to further reiterate the image of the ostrich with its head firmly planted in the sand attitude that seems to be a defining mainstay of McCain’s approach to the issues.

Displaying this kind of obtuse “bunker” mentality demonstrates just how truly out of step McCain’s perception of the real world seems to be. From 2006 to the end of 2007, Southeast Michigan had seen its foreclosure rates jump a staggering 90%, and Michigan’s overall rate of home foreclosures pushed us into the third place slot in 2007, only trailing Nevada and Florida in terms of the highest number of state-wide foreclosure rates in the nation. By aligning with those who profit off the backs of others who have lost or are losing their homes, McCain is affecting an attitude much like the administration of George Bush before him – see what you want to see and ignore everything else.

The groups called on McCain to move his HQ and stand with the people of Michigan, not firms that profit from predatory lending. To date, McCain has failed to respond…surprised?

You, too, can tell McCain to move by going to: http://www.progressmichigan.org/mccain.

Minnesota had Jesse “The Body” Ventura, California has its “Governator” Schwarzenegger, and now Michigan can boast the dubious distinction of its own cleverly coined politician: Sen. “Smokestack” Patty Birkholz.

So what do we really know about Senator Birkholz? We know that she’s a Republican from Michigan’s 24th district; she’s a woman who seems to keep her nails trim and her hair neat. She has a simple, unremarkable sense of style. And from the looks of her recent role in the Senate’s energy bill, she’s a person whose insatiable appetite for fossil fuels should cast her out to live among wild mastodons, dressing in saber-tooth tiger skin fashions every day before saddling up Smoky, her pet triceratops, to ride to work on the Capitol. Yes, my friends, Patty Birkholz is hell-bent on keeping Michigan stuck in the Jurassic age, and her tendencies towards coal-ophilia seem to verify this monstrous truth.

Two weeks ago, when Sen. “Smokestack” Birkholz and her Big Coal Stooges in the Michigan Senate voted to keep Michigan locked in the dark ages of coal dependency, they simultaneously sent a signal to the rest of the world that we here in the mitten are not serious about moving forward with an investment in renewable energy and cutting-edge energy efficiency, or even about satisfying our state’s desperation for a diverse economy based on 21st century, good-paying jobs. In a completely boneheaded move, they even defined coal as “renewable,” putting it in the same category as real renewables like wind and solar power.

Michigan has reached an important crossroads, and we are all facing a real choice: we can either move our energy production and consumption into the future, or we can continue to cling to the past, relying on resources straight out of the Industrial Revolution to power our state. Come to think of it, coal has a lot of problems; way more than simply being old and unfashionable:

·         Investing in coal will create far fewer jobs than renewable energy will: in fact, Michigan stands to gain 46,000 new jobs if we choose to invest in renewable energy and efficiency

·         It will hurt jobs and the economy. States like Pennsylvania and Texas – even gun-toting, oil worshipping Texas – have done more to embrace renewable energy and seen thousands of jobs added to their state-wide employment rates. That’s thousands more than coal will create

·         Major banks like Chase, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley have backed out of financing coal projects, due to concerns over the inherent costs and risks involved

·         Not only is coal bad for jobs and bad for the economy, but it harms public health and contributes to global warming. Cardiovascular disease, asthma, chronic respiratory problems and premature deaths caused by air pollution from these plants cost Americans an estimated $160 billion every year in health-care expenses

·         Coal is a leading contributor to global warming. A typical coal-fired plant emits 3.7 million tons of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere annually

What’s more, a consistent reliance on coal-fire will send much of our hard-earned money out of state and – as mentioned above – send a powerful signal to the rest of the contemporary world that Michigan isn’t serious about investing in 21st century jobs and becoming a part of the world’s energy future. And the recent actions of Smokestack Patty and her sooty, fossil-fueled ilk are firmly placing Michigan in the “clinging to the past” column.

It’s unfortunate that Senator Birkholz has chosen to wield her power in such a way that will seriously disable Michigan’s energy future when she could be acting in the interest of pushing our state forward. As we’ve seen, investing in 21st century clean energy has already moved other states forward. Take Texas and Pennsylvania: two of the 23 states that have already planned a Renewable Energy Standard, and are consequentially presented with the same opportunities for growth that we here in Michigan should be embracing, too. Shame on Smokestack Patty and her coal-loving cronies for pandering to dinosaur, coal-burning energy giants instead of moving our state forward. In order to embrace the future and recast Michigan as a leader in emerging industries, we need to accept more clean energy alternatives that will propel our state forward.

Risen from the ashes of the Health Care for Michigan Ballot Campaign is Health Care for America Now phoenix, who, in two short weeks, not only didn’t quit the fight against America’s health care crisis, but took the strategy to a whole new level, too, by launching a $40 million campaign, committed to eliminating America’s health care crisis once and for all. Praise to Michigan health care advocates and their quick turn from ballot drive to full-fledged pressure campaign.

This coalition includes the groups Health Care for Michigan, MichUHCAN, MOSES, Michigan Citizen Action, Progress Michigan, ACORN, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America's Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn, NEA, National Women's Law Center, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, UFCW, and USAction.

Many important factors in America’s health care crisis include the inability for many to afford good, quality health care, as well as the millions of American’s who loose coverage because of a preexisting condition. What’s more, the health care crisis in America saps job creation - $1,500 from each car produced in the US alone goes to pay health care costs, putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, and hampering companies’ ability to create jobs. These costs have gotten so out of control that people now pay more for health care out of pocket than ever before – an average of $2,126, a doubled rate since 1998 – according to the New York Times. All this goes without mentioning that almost 1 million Michiganders alone are currently living without health care coverage, and millions more live in everyday fear of having their coverage stripped without adequate notice.

In the formation of this new coalition, leaders and members alike are expected to take on an untouchable giant that has benefited from the health care crisis for far too long: the insurance industry. For longer than should have been allowed, insurance companies have been continuously driving up health care costs for average Americans and make it harder for people to afford health care coverage on an out-of-pocket basis. They have profited, but people have not.

Bob Dylan once said that the times were a-changing, and this sentiment is certainly as true of America’s ongoing health care crisis as it was of the social scene in the 1960s. We need an American solution to an American problem, and the scrappy warriors from Health Care for America Now are just the ones to bring it for us.

There’s a lot of talk about water this week. And it’s not all coming from Slip ‘N Slide enthusiasts, either.

The good news is that on Monday, June 23, a deal was brokered between the Michigan House and Senate to protect the Great Lakes and our inland rivers and streams from withdrawal by dry states in the southwest. This deal makes Michigan the seventh state to ratify the Great Lakes Basin Compact – a package deal that would provide protection for the Great Lakes and its eight surrounding states. We’re looking at you, Pennsylvania.

The bad news, however, is that this fight is far from finished.

The protectors of the Great Lakes still have 20,000 leagues to go before victory is totally and finally accomplished. As water-protection advocates like Cyndi Roper and the rest of Clean Water Action’s Michigan team have warned, the struggle for public control over our state’s water supply still lies ahead. So does the effort to thwart bottled water industries who wish to swoop in and drain the falsely-deceptive “endless” water supply of the Great Lakes. (There’s a reason why “naïve” is “Evian” spelled backwards).

If ensuring public control over our water supply is ever to be a reality, legislators need to stop treating water as industrial commodity, and give it the respect it deserves: as a publicly-owned, highly valuable natural resource. Protection from the bottled water and corporations that would like to sell our water for profit to other H20-hungry states and nations must be established, and firmly at that. If Michigan legislators ever hope to push our state forward and cast us as a major protector of water, emphasis on the public’s right to control our own water is absolutely essential. The Great Lakes belong to the people, not to gigantic corporations or sprawling subdivisions in Arizona.

Get ready for the fight ahead over public trust or corporate control. It’s up to Michigan’s residents to stand up for the Great Lakes and our precious inland water sources. Together, we can prevent greedy corporations and other states and nations from pulling the plug and sending Michigan’s water down the drain.