Bill Schuette: Michigan’S Waiter General

[jamieuke]

http://thecompassionchronicles.com/2014/03/24/bill-schuette-michigans-waiter-general/

 

Bill Schuette: Michigan’s Waiter General

 

24 Mar, 2014

 

Schuette announces he will seek re-election in 2014 while pouring coffee at a Country Club during Lincoln Day. 63 of 64 comments on a news reporting of the event are negative toward the man and his history

 

 

 

by Rick Thompson/March 24, 2014

 

SAGINAW- Michigan’s Attorney General has announced he will seek reelection in 2014 to the office of the state’s top lawyer. Bill Schuette is sticking to what he knows: tried-and-true party formulas for success like oppose any social evolution on sensitive issues, appeal to the wealthy instead of the common man, and serve coffee to your supporters.

 

Schuette poured coffee for invited guests when he announced his 2014 campaign at the Saginaw Country Club on Saturday, a socializing tactic he has used at gatherings since 1984. The idea is sound; the opportunity to meet people is afforded when you visit each table, and the urn of coffee gives you the perfect chance to lock eyes for three seconds, flash them a smile and then move on without any substantive interaction.

 

Lincoln Day is the annual celebration and fundraising day for most county or state chapters of the Republican party. The event at the Country Club was hosted by the Saginaw County Republican Party.

 

While Bill Schuette plays pretend waiter, real waitstaff across the state are struggling with the reality of a Michigan that’s turned a cold shoulder to their problems over the last three years.

 

Many waiters are poor. They get sick, their kids attend public schools, many are on social welfare programs and they look for less expensive alternatives while they struggle to make ends meet. In 2014 Michigan, a waitresses (let’s call her Wilhelmina) will face a new set of hurdles put in place by Schuette and fellow Republicans after the 2010 election.

 

Wilhelmina’s kids attend public schools that are less financially secure than they were three years ago, due to a lower per-pupil state expenditure. Her kids get a worse education than they used to, as Michigan has fallen from 15th in the nation (in 2010) to 24th per Quality Counts, the most comprehensive assessment of American education available.

 

Wilhelmina has less chance of finding a new job in Michigan now. Forbes Magazine ranks Michigan 47th in the best states for business and careers, despite a $1.8 billion tax giveaway to corporate special interests orchestrated by those 2010 elected officials, including Schuette. The Center for Michigan’s Michigan Scorecard tells us that there is little or no improvement in quality of life , prosperity, education and civic participation in Michigan in the last five years, so Wilhelmina’s family is spinning their wheels as they try to get ahead.

 

The choices available to Wilhelmina are reduced. She has the chronic pain issues shared by 27% of Michigan’s households, but a state program to offer affordable health care was rejected by her elected leaders. That’s a problem for Wilhelmina, because in 2010 Michigan was ranked 28th in states by the United Health Foundation; today that ranking is 37th.

 

She can’t afford the prescription pain drugs her doctor wants her to take, but her options are limited since Schuette scared away the medical marijuana dispensaries in her town. Even if they were still there, Wilhelmina would be afraid to use them to save money because she fears the new drug testing programs imposed on financial assistance recipients could bounce her out of the program.

 

Lifestyle choices are limited, too. Her reproductive freedoms are challenged by rules meant to reduce family planning centers across the state, and she has to buy rape insurance; if she wanted to live an alternative lifestyle Schuette says she cannot have that choice be recognized by the state. Her father’s pension is now being taxed, and he may have to move in with Wilhelmina and her family. That’s a problem, too, because a new fracking operation started in her town and now her water tastes funny.

 

She tried to complain about the fracking, but Wilhelmina lives in a city who has been assigned an Emergency Financial Manager by the Snyder Administration; she attends City Council meetings but the elected officials in her town have no real power to stop anything anymore, and the EFM doesn’t meet with citizens. Wilhelmina is saving her pennies to move to Colorado, where her sick father might not be discriminated against for using medical marijuana to help him with end-of-life issues in a home they are forced to rent from a landlord.

 

There’s no need to belabor the point that Bill Schuette has never had to bust a sweat to earn minimum wage in his life. His connection to the state’s elite is well-established, as are his silver spoon childhood and the broad range of political positions he’s crafted into a career. Also well established: his reputation as ‘Billy Bong’, marijuana-smoking party animal during his college days.

 

Average Michiganders recognize the disconnect between Schuette and Joe Six Pack. In an MLive article reporting on Schuette’s announcement, 63 of 64 unsolicited comments placed on the website by readers were not supportive. Statements like, “he can run but he can’t hide,” “his decisions are attacks on the people” and assertions that he is “on the wrong side of history” were common. The frontrunner for the position of Democratic challenger to Schuette is MSU law professor Mark Totten, a man who may win the position purely on the grounds that he is the alternative choice to the state’s most reviled public figure.

 

Politicians are like a disposable diaper; when you decide they are full of crap it’s time to throw them out. I imagine the bank accounts of Dow Chemical, the DeVos empire and the Koch Brothers will have to be tapped very heavily to successfully re-elect Schuette, the pretend waiter. Perhaps this is the election where Wilhelmina and the people of Michigan tell politicians their vote cannot be bought.

[cristinew]

. Forbes Magazine ranks Michigan 47th in the best states for business and careers, despite a $1.8 billion tax giveaway to corporate special interests orchestrated by those 2010 elected officials, including Schuette. 

 

Just give the rich more money , and the jobs will come,   the biggest lie ever told ,

[Herb Cannabis]

The political situation will not change until more of us get off our azzez and hit the streets door to door in a grassroots campaign.  People must be incited to act and we the poor just don't do that.  Frustrating

 

Take a look at the home page, "Decriminaliztion, Legalization On Michigan Ballots in 2014,"  notice the comments.  Only two, mine and one other.  I would have thought that there would have been hundreds.  Frustrating.  I believe that when communities vote for decrim measures they are making a statement to our elected officials, that this is what we the people want.

[MiMedical]

I think some of the people just don't know how to go about such a thing, if we have 500 people doing it on their own then how would you group them all together. I think people need more information, instead of just reading about the ballots that will be coming up, how about information on where to get legit paper's for signatures. I have been asking and I always get pushed to NORML and I don't receive a response..besides standing on a corner with 20 people and waiving signs, like you said, grassroots, going door to door, off the azz and get active.

 

 

The political situation will not change until more of us get off our azzez and hit the streets door to door in a grassroots campaign.  People must be incited to act and we the poor just don't do that.  Frustrating

 

Take a look at the home page, "Decriminaliztion, Legalization On Michigan Ballots in 2014,"  notice the comments.  Only two, mine and one other.  I would have thought that there would have been hundreds.  Frustrating.  I believe that when communities vote for decrim measures they are making a statement to our elected officials, that this is what we the people want.

[bobandtorey]

Decriminaliztion ? if it had some grow rights written in it  people would help more

 

IMHO