Tag Archives: AFL-CIO

Melissa Gilbert threatens to open a half-pint of whoop ass on Michigan Republicans, announces run for Congress

By Mark | August 10, 2015

I don’t know much about Melissa Gilbert’s politics, but, as she’s the only candidate running for Congress in Michigan who has called me “a prince,” I suspect I’ll be supporting her… [For those of you who weren’t around during those exciting days in 2013 when Gilbert was leaving comments on this site, just click here […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged affirmative action, Billy Idol, Congress, dogs, elections, Eric Schertzing, Harry Crane, Howell, Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert, Michigan's 8th Congressional District, Mike Bishop, Mike Rogers, pencil paparazzi, SAG, Screen Actors Guild, The Honeymooners, Timothy Busfield | 22 Comments

The successful campaign to stop the ICE deportation of Ann Arbor’s Jose Luis Sanchez-Ronquillo

By Mark | February 7, 2014

A few days ago, I met up with fellow Ypsilantian Martha Valadez, to discuss the case of Jose Luis Sanchez-Ronquillo, an undocumented 16-year resident of Ann Arbor who had been ordered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to report to the Mexican border for deportation. Since that meeting, ICE has granted Sanchez-Ronquillo a one-year […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Uncategorized | Also tagged #stopjosesdeportation, Alliance for Immigrants Rights, Anaheim, Bach Elementary, DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, deportation, Disneyland, DREAM Act, El Hielo, ethnic studies, executive orders, green card, ICE, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immigration interview, immigration reform, INS, Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio, Jose Franco, Jose Luis, Jose Luis Sanchez-Ronquillo, La Santa Cecilia, Martha Valadez, Mexico, Michigan United, Obama, One Michigan, prosecutorial discretion, racial profiling, racism, talk to the hand, undocumented workers, Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, WICIR, Ypsi immigration interview, z-snap | 16 Comments

So, what’s the Washtenaw Community Action Team?

By Mark | October 17, 2011

I’d heard mention of the Washtenaw Community Action Team over the past several months or so, but I never really took the time to figure out how they fit into the local ecosystem of left-leaning political organizations, or what their objectives were. Fortunately, however, I had the occasion this past weekend to exchange a few […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Corporate Crime, History, Michigan, Politics, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 40 hour work week, AAUP, Adam Warner, America Votes Labor Unity Fund, astroturf, banks, bridges, child labor, civil disobedience, collective bargaining, commencement, corporatocracy, Flint, Graduate Employees Organization, Great Flint Sit Down Strike, Gregg Barak, Howard Bunsis, Ian Robinson, infrastructure, Inside Job, Jane Slaughter, Koch brothers, labor, labor history, Martin Luther King, Maureen Taylor, Mehmet Yaya, Occupy Ann Arbor, Occupy Detroit, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, protests, Public Act 4, Right to Teach, right-to-work, Solidarity Forever, Stadium Bridge, Stand Against Snyder, Tom Weisskopf, UM Graduate Research Assistants, UMHS nurses, unions, Wall Street, Washtenaw Community Action Team, WCAT, We Are One, We Are The People, Wisconsin, With Babies and Banners: A Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade | 10 Comments

Van Jones sets out to counter the Tea Party, and Rebuild the American Dream

By Mark | June 26, 2011

Obama’s former green jobs czar, Van Jones, launched a campaign in New York on Thursday called Rebuild the Dream. I’m watching video of the inaugural event now, and I’m torn. On one hand, I appreciate the thought behind it, and very much like the idea of a progressive, reality-based equivalent to the conservative Tea Party […]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged American dream, Bush tax cuts, class warfare, deep patriotism, green jobs, infrastructure, July 5, MoveOn, populism, public education, Rebuild the Dream, social justice, tea party, The contract for the American Dream, Van Jones | 14 Comments

And so it begins… Benton Harbor’s EFM becomes first to invoke new powers, dissolve elected government

By Mark | April 16, 2011

Invoking the powers recently bestowed upon Michigan’s emergency financial managers by the Republican legislature, Joseph L. Harris, the Granholm-appointed emergency financial manager for Benton Harbor, yesterday dissolved all elected bodies within that city. (His official order can be seen below.) This, I believe, is the first instance of an emergency financial manager exercising the bold, […]