Rick Snyder announces that proposals President Obama has put forth are good ideas. Without mentioning the President's name, of course.

He also didn't propose revenue increases on the wealthy to do it, but, instead on 'The little guy.'  Sounds like a Republican to me.

Published: Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 4:18 p.m. MDT

Snyder: Motorists need to invest more in roads

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder called Wednesday for motorists to pay higher taxes and fees as he introduced radical changes in the way roads are built, paid for and overseen.

Speaking to scores of road advocates at Lawrence Technological University, Snyder said he wants to distribute road funds based on road use and traffic. Currently 39 percent of state and federal road funds go to the state, while 39 percent go to county road commissions and 22 percent to cities and villages. He said that formula should be changed over the next seven years so that road funds are spent where they'll do the most good....


Snyder's new assessment of 'where the money goes' is not so radical.  For decades city and county governments have prioritized based on 'high traffic areas.'  There isn't anything new about that.  How does Snyder think the nation's infrastructure got to be such a mess?  There are bridges falling apart for lack of attention and he is proposing to formalize the solution now.


To formalize the 'high traffic infrastructure' for state and federal dollars first will mean there will be less angry voters.  

A veteran survives a war to be wounded in battle at a peaceful rally. What?

"The Rolling Stone" (click title to entry - thank you) has this under "Politics."  It's politics to aim at a rally participant and cause brain injury?  Since when?


In Oakland, California protesting economic oppression of an entire generation of people can only occur between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM?  Really?


...Over 1,000 (click here) Occupy Wall Street protesters returned to a public square late Wednesday in the western city Oakland, Calif., one day after clashes with police left one demonstrator critically injured.

Activists say 24-year-old Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen suffered a fractured skull late Tuesday when riot police clashed with protesters attempting to hold a demonstration in the square from which they had earlier been evicted due to illegal camping activities.

Police used tear gas and bean bag bullets to disperse the protesters, some of whom were throwing rocks, paint and other debris at police.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan on Wednesday announced an investigation into reports that his department used excessive force to disperse the protesters....

Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen with fractured skull after Oakland police enforce illegal camping law, October 25, 2011.


It would seem no matter where rally participants take their plea it is only tolerated long enough so as not to inconvenience the government.  Perhaps the government needs to understand now inconvenient the economic oppression of pandering to the wealthy and Wall Street sincerely is on a 24-7 basis.  The rally participants know that reality all too well.

WTF?!?! 2YR Chinese girl ruthlessly run over twice and pedestrians do no...

Evidently, a country with a policy to limit one child to a family has little compassion for the child. It seems as though when a country has a billion people there are plenty more where that one came from. In the reporting of another such incident, the argument was not about how the child was run over, but, whether or not the child was backed over again or even a second time. Evidently, running over children is a national past time so long as it doesn't happen twice.

CLIFFORD COONAN

CHINA WAS still reeling (click title to entry - thank you)  from the national outpouring of grief over the brutal killing by indifference of a two-year-old toddler in the south when another story of the horrific death of a child emerged from Sichuan province.

A cement truck had struck five- year-old Xiong Maoke, who attended the local kindergarten in Yunfeng in Luxian county, and the driver reportedly reversed over the body to kill the child, because compensation for a dead child is less than that for an injured one. The hospital bills are a lot less.

“How much shall I pay?” was the driver’s reported first comment.

Local officials now insist the story is not accurate. “An investigation found no evidence that the boy had been run over twice,” Li Zekun, head of the Luxian county traffic police team, told a news conference, in remarks carried by the China Daily newspaper....

Coats for Kids compliments of Local 223 (click title to entry - thank you)

Kids in Monroe, Mich., will be able to bundle up against the cold Michigan winter with new coats, thanks to Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 223 and DTE Energy. The workers and management at the Monroe Power Plant raised $1,600 to purchase coats that were then donated to the Salvation Army’s Coats for Kids program.

During the 11 years that the local union has taken part in the program, it has donated more than 1,000 coats, says Pete Burkit, co-chair of Community Action Committee.

In addition to collecting donations from the workers, including onsite Building  Trades workers, the committee works with local merchants to get a discount, “so we can stretch our dollars,” says Linda Schmidt, the other co-chair of  the committee.

Along with the new coats, 21 “gently used” were donated and then cleaned free of charge by a local dry cleaner.

Car Wash Workers Unite !

Oliverio Gomez, who has worked at Bonus Car Wash for nine years, says: "The contract includes a wage increase, health and safety protections, grievance and arbitration procedures and protections for workers if the carwash is sold. The agreement also establishes rights that protect workers from being unfairly punished or dismissed, among other things."

“As big as a football field” (click title to entry - thank you)

...In less than three months, the crew of over 100 Local 26 workers installed over 8,000 solar panels at FedEx Field, connected by over 19 miles of new wiring. Beyond the solar panels above the parking lot and affixed to the side of the stadium, more solar power is captured by the solar sculpture of a football player—affectionately dubbed “solar man” by the Local 26 crew—that can be seen outside one of the stadium’s main entrances. The solar panels create enough energy to meet all of the stadium’s power needs on non-game days, and about 20 percent of the stadium’s power during a game, keeping 1,780 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere while keeping the lights shining bright on the Redskins. “This installation shows how, through innovation, creativity and expertise, we are working towards a more secure energy future,” said David Crane, CEO of NRG, which oversaw the design and installation of the solar project....

The violence and retaliation belong to Wall Street. #Occupy Wall Street is a non-violent movement.

'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Debate How to Deal With $500,000 in Donations (click title to entry - thank you)

Published October 27, 2011

| The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK –  Once a rag-tag group that relied on donated pizzas for sustenance, the protesters camped out in a Lower Manhattan park are grappling with a new problem: how to manage and spend the nearly $500,000 they've raised in five weeks....

...Members of the group's finance committee are meeting with lawyers and accountants to get a handle on its spending and consider next steps, like whether Occupy Wall Street should incorporate and apply for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Such a move would require doing something that's so far been anathema to the protesters: naming leaders.

At the moment, Occupy Wall Street protesters say they don't have leaders. The only way big decisions can be made and money can be spent is if the General Assembly—a daily meeting at which everyone who shows up has equal standing—reaches a consensus....


Incorporating to form a non-profit corporation sounds right.  I wish them luck and the dream of employment for Main Street America again.  The most profound problem facing the Middle Class is actually being the Middle Class.  How the return of the Middle Class regains its foothold may be in the hands of groups such as "#Occupy."


At some point in time the General Assembly needs to elect Officers to the new non-profit.  It is required for incorporation and application for a 501(c)(3).  The General Assembly can still maintain control of the outcomes, but, officers need to be realized to carry out the business of the group.