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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

Conyers on Obama: ‘Why is he becoming so conservative now that he’s got the job?’

By Todd A. Heywood | 05.18.09 | 12:23 pm
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Photo by transplantedmountaineer via Flickr

DETROIT — U.S. Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, says it is time to repeal the 16-year-old ban on openly gay service members in the U.S. military. The controversial policy has become an issue for the White House since President Obama took office in January. During the 2008 campaign, Obama had promised to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but recently, the president has appeared to be backing off that statement.

“Why is he becoming so conservative now that he’s got the job?” Conyers asked during an interview with Michigan Messenger at a gathering of progressive activists on Saturday. “I think he is getting a lot of pressure put on him from the right, from conservatives. And he is trying to prove to the Republicans that he is bipartisan.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was grilled last week about the Obama administration’s support for repeal during daily press briefings.

According to a recent study by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Palm Center, the president has the executive authority to stop the use of the law to kick out gay service members through the controversial stop-loss policy, which forcibly extends the duration of service for members of the military beyond the original end date.

“That use of stop-loss forcibly extends service by those who wish to leave the military,” said Diane Mazur, professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law and co-author of the new study. “[S]uspending discharges for homosexuality would do the opposite [and] allow ongoing service by those who wish to remain in uniform.”

The Obama administration has declined to use the stop-loss policy to cease the discharge of gay service members.

“[T]he president’s determined that that’s not … the way to seek any sort of lasting or durable solution to the public policy problem that we have,” Gibbs said last week, saying legislative action is necessary to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Comments

  • karela

    We just got rid of one President who ruled by thuggery and used tricks to force things on the country without benefit of representation in the Congress. Bush wrote more executive orders than any President ever before and the result was more like a dictatorship than a government. I think that singling out any person or group of persons with a law is a violation of civil rights, but Obama is right on this. The changes need to come through legislation so that they'll be permanent and respected. Otherwise, the next time we get a Republican President, he'll just write a new executive order and we'll be back where started and perhaps worse off than we are. Bush's way was more like a dictatorship. Obama believes in Democracy. All Americans should be able to respect that. Just because the Democrats, and I am one now, are in power, is no reason to start acting like a bunch of thugs. If we one up Bush's ways, the next Republican will one up ours and Democracy as we have known it will be on a slippery slope.

    • wmforr

      I respectfully disagree with you.

      The legislative process is indeed the way to change the policy. But *in the meantime*, when implimentation of the policy is harming not only the military (which is booting out translators that it desparately needs) but ruining the careers of individuals for whom the President claims “empathy”, he has every legal right and indeed an obligation to put implementation of the policy on hold for the good of the nation.

      The real reason the President is shying away, I suspect, is that he is getting heat from the rabid Evangelicals who have been insidiously taking over the military and turning it into a religious army for the last eight years.

      • ShinjiJon

        I agree with the evangelical assessment. The problems that people are having in the Middle east with these religious military forces like Al Qaeda are shared by us in this country. The military is under attack by religious nuts that take advantage of the vulnerability of the soldiers and planting deep religious ideology into them in an attempt to use the might of the US military to push their view of the world.

      • Nardwilly

        We can not just disobey laws, because we do not like it. That guy on Rachel maddow pulled a stunt. He knew the consequences. The law is don't ask don't tell. NObody was asking him if he was homosexual. He told the nation. He must be decommissioned and removed form service. It is the law.

        • wmforr

          That guy Dick Cheney who's been going on TV saying he approved torture should know the law. he just ignores it. He must be tried and punished. It is the law.

          • Gnu_World_Order

            I agree however if the oligarchs who threw their weight behind the Obama candidacy had even a suspicion that their new mannequin would have his attorney general go after the war criminals of the previous administration then someone else would have given the 2004 convention speech and mainstream America would have never heard of a Barack O'Bilderberg, sorry Obomba.

      • daddon

        Rediculous, he is not getting heat anymore than usual. He is a very disciplined and focused man and knows exactly how and when he will remove don't as don't tell. remember without don't ask don't tell the military can remover every homosexual in the sevices, because the law reverts back to the former policy. We need a law to protect lgbt people in the military and make it safe and legal for them to serve.

        I am really getting tired of all this opinion based on nothing. If you are going to make a statement about why Obama does this or that show us the proof. You cannot, so shut up.

  • NowAnAgnostic

    Finally, someone is talking about the power and control the evangelicals have over our entire military. Everyone should read the book “With God On Our Side”–”One Man's War Against An Evangelical Coup in America's Military” by Michael L. Weinstein and Davin Seay. It is based mainly on the experience of Jewish, Agnostic, or Atheist Cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, where James Dobson's Focus on the Family is located across the interstate from the Academy. This is no conspiracy theory book. It is fact based on personal experience including law suits filed against the Air Force and coverage by the main stream media.

  • Nardwilly

    Obama has not become conserative. he is just not focusing on DADT. If Conyers has a bill he can pass through a committee, get on with it. The law must be obetyed until it is repealed.

    • Gnu_World_Order

      You're absolutely right that he has not BECOME conservative but right for a reason you didn't expect: He can't become conservative because he has always been conservative. Earth to Nardwilly, come in Nardwilly: Conservatives are all that you are allowed to vote for in an American presidential election, one allowed to be an open conservative and the other in the closet. Which is precisely the way that the billionaires who own this country want it. Doesn't sound like a genuine democracy? That's because it isn't.

  • ALOHAfirst

    Uh, Nardwilly, do some research and you'll find that you're incorrect. The President of the United States has the power to stop investigations of military accused of being gay, which essentially cuts out the the crap until Congress fixes it for the long term. It's an appropriate stop-gap measure that he should take NOW.

  • Ohg

    President Obama is not becoming conservative. President Obama is a practical man – he is doing exactly what he said he would do – he is using sound judgment with consideration for legal and moral boundaries. He is a mature man and we are proud of him. ……….

    http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/05/15/liberal-b…

  • jonraymond

    Obama may be Cute and Cuddly, but he”s not Housebroken

    I had kittens when I was young. When you first get a kitten they are so cute and cuddly. But they pee and crap all over the place until you house train them. How do you do that? There is one very fast and fool proof way. Rub their noses in their crap.

    The President has stated he will not release photos of torture carried out by the U.S. The argument is that this release would endanger the lives of Americans. Meanwhile, it”s obvious the photos would implicate the U.S. and the Obama administration, even though the torture was carried out in the previous administration.

    Our country and our leaders need to have their noses rubbed in the crap they do. They need to take a good long look at the death, pain, suffering and destruction these wars are. Look at the lost limbs, the dead infants and toddlers, the devastated families, the broken bodies of our GIs, their broken families, their lost wages of never being able to work again. Take a good long hard look at those pictures, show them to the American people and then once again. tell us why these wars are so necessary. Tell us why wars that proliferate terrorism, instead of quelling it, are necessary.

    http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com/?p=7

    • jimco

      jonraymond , crudely put but deadly accurate . Until liberals stop being ga ga and start blasting Mr conservative ass kisser he's just going to keep drifting right . I smelled a rat when he insisted on that little puke geithner then added insult to injury with Summers , his picks have been worse than abysmal . Have you seen the other corporate flunkys he's putting in treasury , my god . I am very nervous about this supreme court pick also as we know how he hates to offend conservatives , I'm afraid we may have been had and I would love to start rubbing his nose in it .

  • Lolis

    Obama needs to repeal DADT after we pass health care, no later.

  • LEGOates

    Absofrigginlutely spot-on!
    I can't even bear to visit some “lefty” sites anymore. What with them defending Obama's refusal to even consider any means of dealing with the banking crises, other than throwing more money at them than even the Pentagon could dream of, or his refusal to see that what's really a danger to America's troops is him NOT dealing forthrightly with those who authorized the torture of men, women and children; it's like a visit to some hard core, Bush-can-do-no-wrong, Rethuglican blog in 2004.

  • boogereater

    The healthcare reform is a sham. I urge you to pay close attention to the screwing we are about to get in the name of reform.

  • johnhkennedy

    “Why is he becoming so conservative now that he’s got the job?”
    Conyers asked.

    BECAUSE Democrats LIKE CONYERS ARE SO GUTLESS!

    IF Conyers Wants Obama to move Left, Conyers Must Push Obama To The Left.
    There is no other way, and Conyers whining won't get it done.

    Conyers own performance as a Liberal and Progressive appears to be mostly talk and little action.

    In spite of tremendous support for Impeachment of Bush and Cheney from the netroots,

    Conyers dithered and delayed for seven years
    and refused to have Impeachment debated or voted on by His House Judiciary Committee, and

    WHEN activists gave him a Huge National Petition Supporting Impeachment
    ( over 1.1 Million Signatures)

    CONYERS HAD THOSE DELIVERING IT ARRESTED…
    AND IGNORED THE PETITION.

    Conyers has never mentioned the petition.

    IMPEACHMENT Was Blocked BY CONYERS For Seven Years! By CONYERS!

    Most of over 34,000 US Soldiers would still be alive and un-maimed if Conyers had bothered to Hold Impeachment Hearings on the Bush/Cheney Iraq WMD Lies.

    If Conyers is serious about his concern that Obama is becoming Conservative
    Conyers has only Conyers To Blame.

    With Gutless House Democrats, Obama can avoid all the hard issues.

    Bush, Cheney and their Torture Advocating appointee Lawyers obviously violated US Federal Laws against Torture and Conyers knows it. SEE THE LAW http://tinyurl.com/besdd3

    Conyers is a lawyer, Obama is a Constitutional Lawyer, Bush's Torture Advocates were lawyers
    and nothing is done about Torture! Are they all working together? FOR TORTURE?

    IS IT TOO MUCH TO HOPE That Conyers' performance might improve.
    Time for Conyers to put up or shut up.

    If you do nothing else for your Country today,

    SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture
    AT ANGRYVOTERS dot ORG

    http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

    Over 250,000 have signed
    Join them and call yourself a Patriot

    Politicians who Refuse to Enforce the Federal Law on Torture
    and Refuse to Protect Our Constitutional Rights,
    WILL NEVER
    Get You Single Payer Health Care.

    They Haven't The Courage.

    .

  • Gnu_World_Order

    You're absolutely right that he has not BECOME conservative but right for a reason you didn't expect: He can't become conservative because he has always been conservative. Earth to Nardwilly, come in Nardwilly: Conservatives are all that you are allowed to vote for in an American presidential election, one allowed to be an open conservative and the other in the closet. Which is precisely the way that the billionaires who own this country want it. Doesn't sound like a genuine democracy? That's because it isn't.

  • Gnu_World_Order

    I agree however if the oligarchs who threw their weight behind the Obama candidacy had even a suspicion that their new mannequin would have his attorney general go after the war criminals of the previous administration then someone else would have given the 2004 convention speech and mainstream America would have never heard of a Barack O'Bilderberg, sorry Obomba.

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