Depending on which political attack ads you believe, Judge Denise Langford Morris is either tough on crime, or a bleeding heart softy who lets violent criminals out early, or even off the hook altogether. For some reason, "I never sent an innocent man to jail" just isn't a selling point for elected judges (as is the case with Michigan Supreme Court judges).
Personally, and this is just me talking, I'm more concerned about how a potential top state law enforcement officer would handle big insurance and product liability cases. For at least one of these points, there is an attack ad: Bill Schuette, a Court of Appeals judge running for Attorney General, supposedly sided with an insurance company in a case involving a quadriplegic victim of an accident because he took money from the insurance company in the case.
According to LegalNews.com, Schuette did receive a $200 contribution from an individual associated with an insurance company years prior to the case being heard in appellate court. That would be like some random guy giving me a dollar today and then two years later when I'm on jury duty on a case involving that person I vote not guilty. I probably wouldn't even remember the dollar I received from the accused at that point. (Schuette probably had to ask his campaign manager to look it up in the database in order to figure out what exactly his opponents were blowing out of proportion).
Maybe this year we'll get more nuanced voting in the Attorney General and Supreme Court slots. But I'm not using the word "nuanced" here to mean "better informed," just "not all straight down party lines."
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tough nerd gets ahead of himself
"Michigan chooses Rick Snyder," or so claims Snyder's latest spot. Apparently, the Snyder camp is such that present and future are the same tense. Even an unconfirmed potential future. November 2 is still almost two weeks away. Let's say that voters do indeed choose Rick Snyder by a landslide. With a low enough voter turnout, that would still not represent the will of Michigan, mute to say "None of the above."
And supposedly Virg Bernero is a "career politician" and not a "job creator" like Rick Snyder. With both candidates claiming to have created jobs but with neither one actually refuting the other's claims with solid evidence, one has to wonder what kinds of jobs they're talking about. If I pick up a couple of illegal immigrants at Home Depot to fix my gazebo today, does that count as job creation? What if I give my neighbor's kid a buck to mow my grass?
And supposedly Virg Bernero is a "career politician" and not a "job creator" like Rick Snyder. With both candidates claiming to have created jobs but with neither one actually refuting the other's claims with solid evidence, one has to wonder what kinds of jobs they're talking about. If I pick up a couple of illegal immigrants at Home Depot to fix my gazebo today, does that count as job creation? What if I give my neighbor's kid a buck to mow my grass?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I created a thousand jobs, he lost a thousand jobs
No one disputes that jobs are a very important issue in Michigan for this coming election. Understandably, each gubernatorial candidates will try to present himself as the magic bullet cure for unemployment.
Virg Bernero has made his message about job creation a little clearer but its factuality remains open to dispute. Not surprisingly, one Bernero ad on TV claims that Rick Snyder, while at Gateway, allowed major downsizing to happen at that company. Instead of countering that with some kind of explanation, the Snyder camp has responded with an ad claiming that the unemployment in Lansing (the city Bernero has been mayor of) has skyrocketed to 88%.
Now, in one of Snyder's own ads, the "tough nerd" also lays claim to creating jobs, though avoiding the political pitfall of saying exactly how many. The point of this newer ad is to explain that Michigan lost so many jobs because the business tax is just so gosh darn high. For an outsider, Snyder sure sounds like an inside Republican: the answer to any question is always to cut taxes for businesses and the wealthy. I remain unconvinced that cutting business taxes guarantees that businesses won't cut jobs.
Virg Bernero has made his message about job creation a little clearer but its factuality remains open to dispute. Not surprisingly, one Bernero ad on TV claims that Rick Snyder, while at Gateway, allowed major downsizing to happen at that company. Instead of countering that with some kind of explanation, the Snyder camp has responded with an ad claiming that the unemployment in Lansing (the city Bernero has been mayor of) has skyrocketed to 88%.
Now, in one of Snyder's own ads, the "tough nerd" also lays claim to creating jobs, though avoiding the political pitfall of saying exactly how many. The point of this newer ad is to explain that Michigan lost so many jobs because the business tax is just so gosh darn high. For an outsider, Snyder sure sounds like an inside Republican: the answer to any question is always to cut taxes for businesses and the wealthy. I remain unconvinced that cutting business taxes guarantees that businesses won't cut jobs.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Brian the conservative
Stewie is not the only Family Guy character getting dumbed down. Brian is becoming quite the moron as well. I have a hard time believing that the Brian from Season 2 is a character who could be brainwashed into blindly and idiotically accepting Republican rhetoric after reading Rush Limbaugh's book. From this episode, we're to accept that Brian's liberalism was so shallow it could be easily transmuted and restored. This is perhaps an even sadder transgression against this character than having him eat Stewie's crap.
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