Ann Arbor: From small college town into the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

The sad but interesting story of the transformation of Ann Arbor into a one-party town written by Ann Arbor's ex-city attorney R. Bruce Laidlaw who helped set the whole process in motion.

Notes and pictures of the ruling nomenklatura class of the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

Old lame Democratic Party hacks from Ann Arbor and its environs like Congressman-for-Life John Dingell, his wife, various local pols, hacks, fanatics, kooks, dopes, and wannabes are pictured and profiled. Know your enemy folks.

Even people who benefit from big government love it less when they have to live under it.

What a shock eh? It's way easier to build an ideal society with other people's money, I guess.

Well they're finally admitting what's been the case for a while now

Democrats set to openly abandon White working-class interests in favor of Obama's coalition of elites, ethnic and racial groups, and public employees union members.

"Egregious idling" ordinance proposed for the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

If you leave a motor vehicle running more than a minute or so while parked you may be cited and fined by the minions of the city of Ann Arbor if a proposed ordinance is passed into law. This idea comes courtesy of of Ann Arbor City Nanny Council's Fourth Ward Democrat Margie Teall. What the fuck do we elect these idiots for anyhow? To supervise how tall our fences are and how long we idle our cars when it's cold out and other important stuff. Not to provide necessary and proper city services at a reasonable cost apparently.

Sign of the times: Good to know, but so what?

Information wants to be free!

David Askins of the Ann Arbor Chronicle written a very detailed article (complete with bar charts and maps) showing the location of campaign contributers to candidates for city council nomination in the Democratic primary election next month. Nicely done Mr. Askins.

However, unless and until Ann Arbor repeals the party label election form of candidate nomination (i.e., Democrat or Republican) this is all merely pro forma BS signifying nothing. The Republicans don't field candidates any longer in most wards and the other challengers to the status quo are either quirky independents (Bean) or odd ball Democrats (Lesko).

My suggestion is this: Let anyone who meets the residency and other requirements gather a couple hundred signatures from voters in their wards and put them all on a no party label ballot and let the voters pick the top two. Ann Arbor is a surprising diverse city for its size and there are a lot of good men and women who's talents should be available to us rather than the limited offerings of a small cabal of Democratic Party insiders (maybe a dozen) and selected by the small number of Democratic party primary voters (a few hundred).

Sign of the times: Winds of change starting to blow through the People's Republic of Ann Abor?

Maybe it's just me but I'm starting to see lots more comments at Ann Arbor.com, Ann Arbor Chronicle, and the Ann Arbor Observer bitching about the fact that our local governance is completely dominated by a small cabal of Democratic Party activists and a few hundred (city wide) Democratic primary voters.

Maybe people are waking up? I don't know if this means anything or if it does what and how it'll all work out but I suspect people are getting fed up with the system Ann Arbor has now where the only choices we have had for for the last four mayoral elections are between John Hieftje and Pat Lesko or John Hieftje running unopposed in the Democratic primary. We might as well be in North Korea for all our votes matter now. Ann Arbor needs to drop this system of party labels and let people run on their own merits, ideas and platforms. Whoever has an idea and is willing to stand before the voters should be able to get a shot at the office. That is what democracy looks like in my humble opinion.

Sign of the times: The Gentrification of the Democratic Party

The new gentrified Democratic donkey

Although private sector labor unions are still a big influence on the Democratic Party the policies actually followed by Democrats once in office is distinctly anti-working class. Democratic Party politicos tend to work hardest for policies favored by the gentrified college educated professionals that inhabit the suburban areas. And  if you are a non-unionized blue, pink or white collar working-class stiff the Dems don't do much for you; you just don't have enough clout.

"...California, New York and Washington, D.C. represent progress due to the enlightened social and environmental rhetoric espoused by the media, academics and politicians based in these regions. But in reality,"says demographer Joel Kotkin, who studies these things," this new ruling class seems likely to create an American future that looks a lot like today’s Great Britain, with a significant affluent population concentrated in core cities and some affluent suburbs that lives an exciting life at the top of the world economy, surrounded by a large underclass and a fading middle class."

Modern Democrats will fight to the death to make sure urban, unionized public employees like bus drivers, cops, firemen, teachers and bureaucrats get top pay and benefits, and gold-plated retirements that they can take at age fifty in return for their money and votes. The rest of us peons with no clout get downsized, privatized, out-sourced,  and displaced by immigrants and are then told to shop at Wal-Mart for the best value for our food stamps. I wonder what FDR would say about all this? Wall Street banksters and well connected corporate CEOs are green-lighted to scam the system in every way possible. And then merely wrist slapped and then bailed out if they fail. It's no accident that in recent years as much money from the financier class goes to the Dems as to the Republicans. State socialism for the rich and laissez-faire for the poor.

"The genius of our ruling class", says Gore Vidal, "is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return."

Indeed.

sign of the times...

Political parties? Who needs 'em? Ann Arbor politicians mainly: Ann Arbor today is about 75%  "progressive"* Democratic voters. And so the real (as in actual) election for city council and mayor is the Democratic Party primary election in August. This process is dominated by a small group of politicos and their followers who dominate the process. And so we end up with the mayor's race and most of the council races giving the voter the choice of voting for the only candidate on the ballot (the Democratic Party primary winner) or a to write in a name. Some choice. We might as well be in East Germany circa 1962 for all our elections matter.

* That's their term for what they are. In fact they are the status quo establishment.

Sign of the times...

The colossal arrogance of politicians in "safe" districts. To wit: Washtenaw county (i.e.,Ann Arbor area) commissioner Jeff Irwin (D) is so sure of being elected to Michigan's 53rd state house of representatives seat that he blew off a scheduled debate with his opponents last night. Not refused to debate his opponents, but who scheduled one and then did a no-call, no-show style blow-off. What's does Jeff care? He's gonna win anyhow and he knows it. So what if he stiffs the League of Women Voters and the voters who did show? Ain't it great living in a one-party district? Sheesh. We might as well be living in a "kinder, gentler" version of North Korea.

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Michigan Tea Party has links to Democrats - Detroit Free Press

Not that this news comes as a surprise by now but it is about time that the dead-tree media acknowledge it, given their view of themselves as the premier font of truth, wisdom, and right here in Michigan. Snark aside, I'm still glad they finally are drilling down into the muck about this obvious false-flag operation.

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One of Michigan's more colorful politicians is "involuntarily" leaving political office

Celebutard website TMZ's favorite Macomb county commissioner Carrey Torrice was defeated for re-election in the Democratic primary last week. Oh well, there is a huge potential career for her in the MILF porn business.

Sign of the times...

"Tea Party" political group gains line on Michigan's 2010 ballot - Detroit News

Persons unknown put together the time, money and effort to put the "Michigan Tea Party" on the ballot for 2010. Local tea partiers say they have no idea who these people are. Some have speculated that wealthy Democratic Party sympathizers put up the money, reputedly around $100,000, to obtain the 59,400 signatures required and pay for the legal work that the Michigan Board of Canvassers requires of independent groups seeking ballot access. The Democratic Party denies all this of course.

But as the old saying goes: Who benefits? Anybody pulling the Michigan Tea Party lever this fall would probably otherwise vote Republican and so every vote the MTP gets will be one less for the GOP. In a close race (like say Michigan's 7th congressional district) those "lost" GOP votes might be enough to give freshman U.S. Representative Mark Schauer another term. "Who benefits" indeed?