Michigan Republicans, desperate for something -- anything -- to make themselves look good, have now resorted to bullying Democratic legislators in order to steal their legislative proposals.

Eclectablog:

But even Republicans don’t think that EVERY idea that Democrats have is a bad one. It’s just not something they want the rest of Michigan to believe. So, in order to deny Democrats any legislative victories in the current session, Republicans have begun using an approach that I haven’t heard of before: introducing legislation that is identical to a bill that was introduced by a Democrat and then supporting that legislation instead.

Oh, I see. In some circles which are not legislative, we might call that plagiarism. Then again, when you're a legislator used to having all of your legislation written by ALEC, I suppose it's not a far stretch to reach across the aisle and swipe whatever might make you look good. Their tactics are downright thuggish, as usual. After a freshman Democrat introduced legislation to give returning veterans resident status for college tuition, this happened:

It’s a great idea. With his background as a two-time Iraqi veteran with the Marine Corp, Knezek knows a little bit about the challenges that face returning vets. In fact, Knezek told me that he had a number of Republicans approach him after he introduced HJR L on February 28th to tell him they thought it was a great piece of legislation. Then, in early March, Republican State Rep. Jim Stamas (R-Midland) came to him and told him he’d have to pull HJR L.

“Why?” asked Knezek.

“Because I’m taking it,” Stamas told the dumbfounded freshman lawmaker.

And take it he did. Just a week after Knezek had introduced HJR L, Stamas introduced House Joint Resolution N (pdf). You might think that with such a blatant theft Stamas would have added his own spin to the resolution. You would be wrong. HJR L and HJR N are identical, word-for-word.

Well, then. Knezek was about as generous as he could be about it, saying he was glad to see it passed even if it wasn't his bill. I suppose that's true, but someone ought to put the bully in the corner.

In Pennsylvania, ThinkProgress warns that the latest version of Republicans' plan to rig the electoral college has been introduced into the state Senate:

Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) was one of the earliest supporters of rigging the Electoral College, backing a plan to do so as early as 2011. Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi was one of the leading supporters of election-rigging the and late this week, he — along with a dozen other co-sponsors — introduced a new plan to rig the Electoral College votes in his blue state of Pennsylvania. Under this legislation, a large chunk of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes would be awarded to the Republican candidate even though Pennsylvania is a solid blue state that has supported the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1992.

Meanwhile, MSNBC is reporting that Michigan Republicans are 100 percent behind a similar effort there:

The electoral college rigging scheme that drew criticism of cheating and was disavowed by many prominent Republicans now has the official backing of more than 1,300 Michigan Republicans.

According to the Detroit Free-Press, at the GOP party convention in Lansing this weekend more than 90% of Republicans voted in favor of a resolution to change the electoral vote distribution process from winner-take-all to one in which 14 of the state’s votes went to the winner in each congressional district. The final two votes would go to the state’s overall winner.

As we reported earlier this year, that planwould have given Mitt Romney 9 of the states 16 electoral votes, despite the fact that he lost the state by 9%.

But not all Republicans are on board with the plan. Governor Rick Snyder has said it’s ”not the appropriate time” to discuss a plan to change the electoral college, saying he’d prefer a bipartisan conversation held closer to a census.

Yes, well. Governor Snyder also said he wouldn't ram through a right-to-work bill in Michigan too, and after voters rejected right-to-work laws in that state, Snyder signed one into law anyway. I wouldn't take his concern over timing very seriously at all.

This isn't over. They're just operating in the shadows right now.

Slapping crying babies on airplanes is a bad idea, whether or not they're related to you

I guess Joe Ricky Hundley of Idaho hasn't been clued in to the fact that small children cry as airplanes descend to clear their ears and stabilize the pressure. When Jessica Bennett's 2-year old son started crying as the plane descended on a flight into Atlanta, this happened:

The boy's mother, Jessica Bennett, 33, of Minnesota told the FBI that she and her son were seated in row 28, seat B, on February 8 on Delta Flight 721 that originated in Minneapolis, according to an FBI agent's affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta this week.

The boy began crying because of the altitude change, and his mother tried to soothe him, court papers said.
Then Hundley, who was seated next to the mother and son, allegedly told her to "shut that ('N word') baby up," according to court documents.

Hundley then turned around and slapped the 2-year-old in the face with an open hand, which caused the child to scream even louder, the affidavit said.

Ya think? That sort of seems to go without saying, right? Hundley's the one crying now, since he faces an assault charge that carries a one-year prison term. Slapping other people's children is bad enough. Doing it while assuming the role of slave owner is far, far worse.

Don't let the black nurse care for the white baby

This one comes from a Flint, Michigan hospital. Again via CNN:

The lawsuit accuses managers at Hurley Medical Center in Flint of reassigning Tonya Battle, who has worked at the facility for 25 years, based on the color of her skin.

The man approached Battle, while she was caring for his child in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, asking to speak to her supervisor, according to the complaint filed in January by Battle's attorney.

She pointed the charge nurse in his direction.

The man, who is not named in the filing, allegedly showed her a tattoo that may have been "a swastika of some kind" and told her that he didn't want African-Americans involved in his baby's care.

The request, according to the lawsuit, made its way through management ranks, and was granted. Battle's manager called her at home to tell her she would be reassigned -- and why, the suit says.

[...]

The hospital's lawyer then objected to the decision, and the note was removed. The staff then told the father that they could no long honor his request, according to the complaint.

Even so, the lawsuits alleges, for more than a month no African American nurses were assigned to care of the child.

Emory University President defends 3/5ths person compromise

When one is arguing for the value of compromise, it might be a bad idea to cite the 3/5ths of a person provision in the constitution as a fine example of how compromise can work.

One instance of constitutional compromise was the agreement to count three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of state representation in Congress. Southern delegates wanted to count the whole slave population, which would have given the South greater influence over national policy. Northern delegates argued that slaves should not be counted at all, because they had no vote. As the price for achieving the ultimate aim of the Constitution—“to form a more perfect union”—the two sides compromised on this immediate issue of how to count slaves in the new nation. Pragmatic half-victories kept in view the higher aspiration of drawing the country more closely together.

Some might suggest that the constitutional compromise reached for the lowest common denominator—for the barest minimum value on which both sides could agree. I rather think something different happened. Both sides found a way to temper ideology and continue working toward the highest aspiration they both shared—the aspiration to form a more perfect union. They set their sights higher, not lower, in order to identify their common goal and keep moving toward it.

Far be it from me to argue with a university president, but the Federalist Papers have a completely different version of how that compromise came to be, and who argued for full personhood for slaves and who did not. Let's just say it went in the reverse direction. And, as Digby points out, there were some serious consequences, which we seem to still see today:

That "pragmatic compromise" was in service of a system that led to a bloody civil war and centuries of suffering for millions of African Americans. The "higher aspiration" wasn't met in that "compromise" it was forged in blood on battlefields filled with hundreds of thousands of casualties (and nearly two centuries later in the streets of Southern cities.) To use that as an example of how pragmatic compromise leads to the greater good over time is shockingly perverse.

Even more perverse, given the first two stories. Yes, the American Civil War never ended. It just shifted to new theatres.

Ed explains Preibus' strategy with regard to the electoral college

If you're just tuning into this, watch Ed explain Republicans' strategy for stealing the 2016 election. My hair is on fire --in advance of my head exploding. Preibus' "in your face" cynicism and thuggery is mind-bending.

I wanted to find a way to change the outcome, so I've been hunting down information on the different states to see how these efforts can be countered. Here's what I have so far.

• Virginia: Virginia has made the first move to change how their electors are allocated. Following their efforts to redistrict state Senate districts, a Senate subcommittee moved on Wednesday to make the change. Go to Credo Action and sign their petition which will remind Governor Ultrasound McDonnell that he shouldn't sign any bill that reaches his desk into law if he has aspirations beyond the end of his gubernatorial term. Virginia is also a state covered by the Voting Rights Act, which should mean a serious investigation of Republican efforts to disenfranchise minority voters in the state, who tend to be clustered in the areas. If this becomes law, minority voters will be deemed irrelevant.

There is some cause to hope, however. Republican State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel opposes the plan. She abstained from the subcommittee vote and has said she would "likely" oppose it in committee or on the floor. I hope she means it, because that would break the tie in the Senate and cause the measure to fail.

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I'm sure you'll join me in saying: Awwwwwwwwwwww:

We now find Snyder as one of the most unpopular Governors in the country. Only 38% of voters approve of him to 56% who disapprove. There are only 2 other sitting Governors we've polled on who have a worse net approval rating than Snyder's -18. He's dropped a net 28 points from our last poll on him, the weekend before the election, when he was at a +10 spread (47/37).

There's not much doubt that it's the right to work law and his embrace of other actions by the Republican legislature that are driving this precipitous drop in Snyder's popularity. Only 41% of voters in the state support the right to work legislation, while 51% are opposed to it. If voters got to decide the issue directly only 40% of them say they would vote to keep the law enacted, while 49% would vote to overturn it. This comes on the heels of voters overturning Snyder's signature emergency managers law last month. The simple reality is that Michigan voters like unions- 52% have a favorable opinion of them to only 33% with a negative one.

That probably explains Snyder's veto of that concealed-carry gun bill. A little too late for this piece of future political roadkill.

You mean after all that, they didn't even bother to have their new law checked against existing legislation? Ha, ha! Boy, the Kochs really should be more careful about the quality of the handmaidens they buy:

Lansing – Less than 24 hours after Governor Snyder signed his damaging “Right to Work” legislation into law, analysis shows that the flawed legislation may not even have the result the Governor claimed it would, raising serious questions about whether the Republican leadership even read the language of the bills before voting it through and signing it into law.

“It's become increasingly clear that the Governor presented the legislature with bills written by out-of-state extremists who had no understanding of Michigan's constitution or how our laws apply to Michigan workers,” said Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer. “This is what happens when the Governor does an 11th hour about face in a lame duck session showing utter contempt for our people by cutting out all public input, scrutiny and debate. That isn't leadership, it's epic incompetence .”

Someone needs to tell ALEC to get better lawyers!

Reports today show that HB 4003, which the Governor said would provide “Right to Work” type policies for public employees in Michigan, could not be implemented as intended as the Michigan Constitution gives clear authority to the Civil Service Commission over conditions of employment for the state's workforce. Experts have suggested today only a vote of the Civil Service Commission could enact Right to Work policies for state workers.

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

A series of questions have been raised in recent days over the legality of the “Right to Work” legislation as well as the process in which it passed. A lawsuit has already been filed against the Michigan House of Representatives for violating the Open Meetings Act as these bills were passed while the public was illegally locked out of the State Capitol and additional legal challenges are expected in the coming days.

I took a look at their Open Meetings Act, and it sure looks like Democrats have solid grounds to sue and overturn the new law. See, under open-meeting or "sunshine" laws, politicians aren't allowed to meet in secret to plan these little legislative coups, and since the Democrats had no idea what was coming, looks like a de facto violation to me,

via ThinkProgress,

Gov. Rick Snyder agreed to an interview with APR ("American Public Radio") host Jeremy Hobson, who stumped the governor when he was asked to explain... if the intent of his legislation isn't to destroy the unions... just how does "union busting" attract jobs to his state of Michigan?

SNYDER: This is about more and better jobs coming to Michigan. If you look at Indiana, they did similar legislation in February. And literally, thousands of new jobs are coming to Indiana where this was a major consideration in companies’ decision to move to that state.

HOBSON: Are you saying then that companies decided to go to Indiana, for example, because there’s less union membership in Indiana?

SNYDER: No, and I don’t want to speak for the companies but it is very clear that companies are looking at Indiana that previously did not. [...]

HOBSON: Well, make that connection though. You’re saying that, by not requiring workers to pay union dues, that therefore companies are going to be more attracted to the state. Why would that be?

SNYDER: Well, that’s a question for the companies but there is a strong sense, and companies do look at that. That’s something we’ve suffered here.[...]

HOBSON: Union membership has fallen dramatically in Michigan and across the country and it’s not as though that has translated into some boom in employment. I see the point you’re making, but it hasn’t been borne out in the evidence, has it?

SNYDER: Well, it’s been borne out in the Indiana case.

There has been NO "boom in employment" in Indiana as a result of their anti-union "Right-to-Work" laws. An LA Times report Tuesday noted that Michigan created more jobs last October (pre-RTW) than the year before while Indiana created less (after passing their own RTW in January.) MediaMatters points out, RTW states have produced less than 1/3 as many jobs as non-RTW states (900K vs 3-million).

Of course, we know exactly why Republican governors equate RTW with attracting jobs to their state: because many corporations have chosen states WITHOUT unions to open new plants (where they can pay employees less without fear of retaliation by organized workers.) So, despite numerous protests that RTW has "nothing to do with busting unions", Snyder's arguments defending RTW otherwise makes no sense.

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With controversy and protests swirling around Michigan’s anti-union legislation, Governor Rick Snyder paid a visit to Fox & Friends this morning where he surely knew he’d receive a friendly welcome. But the Curvy Couch Crew went beyond “hospitable” to outright approval. They also accepted without question his repeated assertions that the legislation – which he previously said was “not on his agenda” – is now “all about being pro worker.” Even more laughably, he pretended the legislation is not anti union.

Snyder said, with a straight face:

I actually don’t view this as anti-union, because it really gives the unions an opportunity to better present their value case. And if people see value, they should join and if they don’t, why should their resources go there?

Steve Doocy nodded along enthusiastically. Gretchen Carlson used the opportunity to take a shot at teachers and their union for taking the day off to go protest.

Via Eclectablog, the less-than-surprising news that Tea Party activists knocked down their own tent and videotaped it -- for Faux News:

There’s a video on heavy rotation at Fox News, being massively retweeted by conservatives and Americans for Prosperity, where they talk about the “brutality” and “violence” of union members at today’s rally in Lansing, Michigan to protest Right to Work legislation. The video shows an Americans for Prosperity tent coming down on the front lawn of the Capitol Building.

As it turns out, American for Prosperity (AFP) themselves were responsible for at least one of the tents coming down. Tom Duckworth watched one of the folks that had been in the AFP tent go around and loosen the straps on the tent. According to Duckworth, “the tent came down from the INSIDE.”

[Above is] video, shot in the office of Progress Michigan, of Duckworth being interviewed by former Progress Michigan Executive Director David Holtz:

This is Ed Schultz' outstanding segment last night on the insanity going on in Michigan right now. As I write this, thousands of protesters are flooding the capitol in Lansing, Michigan to protest the state legislature's cramdown passage of right-to-work laws.

Ed has some stunning statistics, but the one that should most stun is this: only SIX PERCENT of people in Michigan support the lame duck legislature addressing this issue.

After being condemned by endorsees like the Detroit Free Press for ramming through a law like this without any debate or consideration, Governor Rick Snyder should sit back and realize he has an opportunity and a decision to make.

If he signs this bill into law, he will serve the six percent who support taking undemocratic action to destroy the middle class and workers all over this country.

If he vetoes it, he will serve the 94 percent who do not want this law crammed down their throats in a lame-duck session of the Michigan legislature.

That's his choice. The people or the oligarchs. He can be a hero or a pariah. Granted, he could be a wealthy pariah, but still a pariah.

If Snyder is interested in any kind of political career beyond where he is now, he should choose to serve the 94 percent. If he isn't, then he will sign it and take his place as a Tool of Oligarchy.

His call.