Michigan Caucus

Bird Call

"Michigan needs a unique state bird."

Real­­ly? And so goes the debate in the legislature over the official designation of which bird species Michigan should choose as "official." The robin (Turdus migratorius) currently sits on the top perch but the battle to replace it is underway at the state capitol. Although the issue is regarded as many commentators as obscure, experts caution that the selection of an official state bird should not be taken lightly.

State Sen. Patty Birkholz (R-Saugatuck) is spon­sor­ing a bill that would make the Kirtland's warb­ler (Dendroica kirtlandii) Michigan's official bird. "Studies show that when people think the official bird is the warbler, they are more willing to ignore our cold weather, lack of jobs, crummy roads, a dys­func­tion­al gov­ern­ment and are more likely to sell all their world­ly posses­sions and move to Mich­igan, somehow help­ing the economy" said Birkholz.

But State Rep. Matt Gillard, an Alpena Democrat, disagrees, "Economists and ornithologists say that officially recognizing the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atri­capil­la) could bring in as much as $2 billion a year in tour­ism and high-tech investments. A sighting of just one unofficial chickadee in Superior Town­ship was di­rect­ly responsible for the expansion of the Hyundai tech­ni­cal center and the announcement of an ad­di­tion­al 600 jobs at the fa­ci­li­ty. Even an official warb­ler just can't match that kind of feng shui."

Tweeet!

St. John, Tigers and Lions

Something about tigers and lions that seems to sym­bo­lize the suffering of the Faithful - especially in ancient Rome and modern De­troit. Nothing says it better than this ban­ner hang­ing from St. John's Episcopal Church on Wood­ward Av­en­ue near Co­mer­ica Park and Ford Field.

The Fourth Amendments

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized, except if George W. Bush authorizes the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, and that ought to comfort you.

Yeah, makes us feel warm and fuzzy ...

Brewerism v. Anuzisism

Scoring the Chairmen's Propaganda

Mark Brewer, Michigan Democratic Party chair for over 10 years (left), and Saulius Anuzis, Michigan Re­pub­li­can­ite Party chair for less than a year, are both shills for their res­pec­tive par­­ties. And, un­for­tun­ate­ly (or may­be for­tun­ate­ly), no one believes what they say.  Well, maybe the fringe of each party believes their crap, but certainly no one else. So why do they issue those silly press releases or play those petty stunts that no one pays attention to?  Wish we knew.

But we don’t have to care to score each of their efforts. So starting with this post the Michigan Caucus' experienced team of judges will be scoring Brewer's and Anuzis' noteworthy propaganda efforts in originality, effectiveness, "Big Lie"-ism, plausibility and staying-power. A perfect score gains 10 points.

Fixin' the Machine

Michigan Caucus is preparing a special series on the "Nuts and Bolts" of how Progressives and Democrats need to "tweek" the political system in order to start winning elections and re­gain­ing a majority. But before we get to that here's a taste of what we're talking about (after the jump):

GOP Buys Detroit

We're not kidding.

Well, gotta hand it to former State Rep­re­sen­tative George Pappa­george and his Re­publican bud­dies, they finally figured out a way to sup­press the Detroit vote: buy it, or at least buy Kwame and the Kilpatricks.

Last year Pappageorge (R-Troy) ad­vis­ed his Republicanites that “if we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election.†Justified howls of racism ensued. Pappageorge and his apologists tried to explain it all away; he didn't really want to suppress the Detroit vote, no. What he really meant was that he only wanted to, ah, er, suppress the Detroit vote. Get it? We don't.