The people have spoken, the bastards.

All your politics are belonging to us!

Primary election results in Ann Arbor are in. All incumbent Democratic council members were renominated and the rest ran unopposed and won by default. And that's it. There was your election folks. About 1200 or so people in a city of 114,000 decided it all for Ann Arbor. And now we, like the good sheep we are, can all go back to grazing until it's time for us to be sheared again. Bahhhh.

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Ann Arbor Chronicle writer concerned about redrawing ward boundaries (Dave Askins)
Worrying about ward boundaries in a city with 100% Democratic Party representation? Who cares?

Los Angeles county bothering property owners over piddling zoning law violations (Michael Cavanaugh, Reason)
Even though they live in near total isolation in the high desert areas of eastern LA county. I'm afraid that California is now so far gone that "Second Amendment remedies" are the only thing that is going to save  liberty there.

Milwaukee cops more scared of being called racist than they are of dealing with rampaging teen mobs (Jeff Wagner, WTMJ-AM)
Do you think the media and police would be reacting differently if this had been a group of 40 white people punching and robbing a group of black people?

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Livonia based U.S. Rep. McCotter decides to run for GOP presidential nomination (Det News)
It's hard to see why though.

Anti-affirmative action Michigan Proposal 2 (passed in 2006) overturned by US Appeals court (Michigan Daily)
The usual suspects are crowing about this big victory. Good for them. But somehow I don't think this is over.

Suburban LA counties looking into seceding, form their own state (CBS-TV)
Fat chance of that ever happening but I understand the sentiment. Futile as it may appear  I support all anti-state activity. Was anybody predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1987? Nope, that was impossible. Until in happened.

Recent Ann Arbor shooting over botched dope rip-off begs the question: "When was the last time anyone got shot over a beer deal?" (Lee Higgins, annarbor.com/)
Enough already. Let people have their dope. Illegal black-market stuff like dope deals breeds this kind of thing. Let's redirect the drug warriors and let 'em get back to real public safety work. Peace and order
first, eh?

Portrait of a "professional activist" (Peter David Blaska, Blaska's Blog)
"Jeremy [Ryan] tells us he is 'vital to the overall movement' because 'I ... make the GOP legislators very nervous. My mere presence causes automatic tension in any committee meeting.' Now, after harassing people in the Capitol for the last four months, the lad is out of money, can't pay the rent on his admittedly expensive apartment. (He does not mention the $3,600 on 15 citations for disorderly conduct.)"
A full-time hell-raiser up in Madison, WI since last January Jeremy Ryan has now run out funds to pay his rent and and other bills and so now is begging for money.  Hope all his friends in the public employee unions and the Madison activist community come through for him. Of course he could always go get a job though, eh? Sheesh. Dipshit slacker.

Living and working in the "1099 economy" (Erik Pages, NewGeography.com/)
"We used to call it 'Free Agent Nation.'  Now, it seems like the new term of art will be 'The 1099 Economy.'   While the names may change, they all point to a phenomenon of rising importance: the growing number of Americans who don’t have a 'regular job'  but instead work on individual contracts with employers or customers.   These folks don’t get the traditional W-2 paystub at the end of the year; they report their taxes with the IRS form"

Google Chrome hits 20% global share as Microsoft continues browser slide (NetWorkWorld)
I'm not sure it's really any smarter to trust Google than it is to trust Micro$oft. Corporations are corporations. A pox on both their houses.

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More layoffs at Ann Arbor.com 
The Newhouse corporation's experiment with a paperless newspaper is heading into the make-or-break stretch of their trial two year run.
Dayton, Ohio lowers standards for cops because the current crop of applicants can't meet them
So Dayton will end up with a stupider, but more diverse, police force. Progress.

Sign of the times...cont'd.

Please stop and pay toll.

Ann Arbor city manager Roger Fraser is again agitating for a city income tax of 1% for residents and 0.5% for commuters.  Tax and spend, tax and spend. From the linked news story it seems that more than a few of the council members are leaning towards supporting an income tax this time around.

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Ann Arbor city council is shocked to discover that providing a supportive and compassionate environment for homeless street people causes more homeless street people to come to Ann Arbor. Shocking, eh?


The Great Recession is over economists say. Whatever. There is a huge difference between the definition of recession used by economists and the reality of daily life however.

"Detroit Election Commission's rejection of marijuana [ballot] measure defies even stoner logic" - Curt Guyette @ Metro-Times

Bob Dylan is performing in Ann Arbor, East Lansing and Kalamazoo next month. How cool is that? Very, if you like his oeuvre, which I do.

"The sole purpose of Bill Maher’s HBO program Real Time is, it seems, to disappoint viewers by proving that the actors, musicians, and comedians they respect hold exceptionally dumb political views." Michael C. Moynihan @ Reason.com. True enough. But that's pretty much the case of all  celebrity comments and opinions on economics, politics,  and other serious topics IMO. And it's the principle reason I don't give a flying fook about what they think about anything as well. Some, like say Bono, Jerry Lewis and a few others, have made the effort to educate themselves about specific issues. But very, very few others do and that is why their opinions are worthless.

Cui bono? The California Beer & Beveridge Association is heavily funding efforts to defeat a ballot proposal to legalize possession & use of marijuana. That shouldn't really come as a surprise.