Tag Archives: Indiana

Will Michigan follow Indiana and be the next “right-to-work” domino to fall in the right’s ceaseless quest to rollback worker rights?

By Mark | December 5, 2012

When the citizens of Michigan recently failed to pass Proposition 2, which would have established the right to collective bargaining in our State Constitution, we signaled to members of the Republican party that now was the time to launch their all out attack on organized labor. When Prop 2 lost by 15-points, we demonstrated to [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged agency fee, collective bargaining, corporatocracy, Dick DeVos, freedom to work, Greg McNeilly, health insurance, Jase Bolger, labor, labor history, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Proposition 2, Randy Richardville, Rich Studley, Rick Snyder, right-to-work, Robert Vodicka, UAW, unemployment, union busting, union security, unions, veto, voter suppression, Washtenaw Community Action Team, Windquest Group | 31 Comments

Election Night 2012… results, interpretation, and celebration

By Mark | November 6, 2012

OK, I’ve got my beer and I’m in front of a television… let’s do this, America. 8:13 I just talked with Growing Hope’s Amanda Edmonds. She heard from a friend of hers this morning that there was a handwritten sign telling voters at the Huron County Township Hall that state-issued voter ID was mandatory. Amanda [...]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Alan Grayson, Amanda Edmonds, Bridget M. McCormack, Carol Kuhnke, collective bargaining, Congress, Connie Marie Kelley, Debbie Stabenow, Donald Trump, Election Day, election results, electronic voting, Elizabeth Warren, Florida, Gretchen Driskell, Jeff Meyers, Jim Fink, Kerry Bentivolio, legitimate rape, Mark Ouimet, Massachusetts, Michele Bachmann, Obama, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Pete Hoekstra, Presidential politics, rape, Richard Mourdock, Romney, Senate, Shelia Johnson, solar powered abortion equipment, Steve Pierce, Syed Taj, Tammy Baldwin, tea party, Thayrone X, Todd Akin, Van Jones, Victoria Jackson, Virginia, voter suppression, WAAM, Wisconsin | 126 Comments

Ypsi immigration interview: Sunny Smith and Michael McAtee

By Mark | October 10, 2012

A few days ago, after posting an exit interview with my friend Josh, I mentioned that I needed to take a break from interviewing people who were leaving Ypsi for a while, and focus instead on interesting, new people moving into our community. Well, shortly after posting that, I received an email from a reader [...]

Posted in Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Ann Arbor loses artists, artists, curtain rods, Dos Hermanos, Indianapolis, Irvington, Josh Chamberlain, local business, Michael McAtee, Nicasia Marie Solano-Reed, Patrick Elkins, Sunny Smith, Water Street, Ypsi immigration interview | 7 Comments

Bob Sloan on the new slavery of the American prison factory system

By Mark | June 19, 2012

When I flew into Providence a few weeks ago, to attend the Netroots Nation conference, I caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel with a fellow by the name of Bob Sloan. Bob, like me, had won one of the Democracy for America scholarships, and we talked about our work as we made [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged ALEC, American Bail Coalition, Bill McCollum, Bob Sloan, Boeing, Bureau of Justice Assistance, CAD, Charlie Crist, Clearwater, company towns, computer drafting, corporatocracy, corrections, cubicles, Dell, Democracy for America, Department of Correction, early release bond, Escod Industries, ex-prisoners, factory, factory work, Florida, Floyd Glisson, GEO Group, HP, IBM, Indianapolis, Jack Eckerd, James Crosby, James McDonough, Janet Reno, Jeb Bush, job training, jobs, Keefe Commissary, Koch brothers, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, minimum wage, National Correctional Industries Association, NCIA, Netroots Nation, Newt Gingrich, Nordstrom, OnShore Resources, Pam Davis, Pat Nolan, PIE Program, PIECP, pride, Prison Fellowship Ministries, prison industrial complex, Prison Industries, Prison Industries Act, prison industry, prison labor, prison reform, Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises, prison sentences, prisoner advocate, prisoner rights, Private Correctional Facilities Act, private prisons, privatization, Ray Allen, recidivism, restitution, Right on Crime, slave labor, stand your ground, tethers, Texas, the cost of incarceration, tough on crime, UNICOR, unions, US Technologies, Wackenhut Corrections Corp, workers rights | 36 Comments

Republicans choose tax breaks for the rich over extending benefits to unemployed Americans

By Mark | December 2, 2010

I don’t know that I’m all that surprised to hear that all 42 Republican Senators have gone on record saying that they’ll block any legislation moving through Congress until the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy are extended. I kind of expected as much, given the amount of money they receive from the CEOs of [...]