Tag Archives: racism

Celebrating the National Day of Service, and the legacy of Martin Luther King, by brandishing assault rifles at the Capitol

By Mark | January 20, 2013

While thousands of good Americans turned out yesterday, at the President’s request, to commemorate the life of Martin Luther King by volunteering their time as part of our National Day of Service, devout gun lovers across the country decided to express their patriotic love for this country a bit differently. Instead of volunteering to help [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Media, Michigan | Also tagged 2nd amendment, assassination, assault rifles, Bonnie Bucqueroux, CCW, concealed weapons, freedom hole, Gun Appreciation Day, gun control, gun rights, guns, Lansing, Lansing Online News, Martin Luther King Jr., National Day of Service | 12 Comments

Angela Davis to commemorate MLK Day at U-M with a speech on the threat of the prison industrial complex

By Mark | January 20, 2013

Activist, educator and author Angela Davis will be in Ann Arbor on Monday, delivering a lecture titled “Impediments to the Dream: The Prison Industrial Complex and the Dream.” Davis, as I suspect many of you know, before going on to have a successful career as an academic in the History of Consciousness Department as U-C [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1970, Angela Davis, Bob Sloan, Communism, Corrections Corporation of America, Elliott Currie, ex-prisoners, for-profit prisons, History of Consciousness Department, Impediments to the Dream: The Prison Industrial Complex and the Dream, Judge Harold Haley, kidnapping, Martin Luther King Day, murder, Natalie Holbrook, prison industrial complex, prison industry, prison labor, prison reform, prisoner rights, private prisons, Pure Michigan, Soledad Brothers, Students Organizing Against Prisons, University of California Santa Cruz | 11 Comments

Pure Michigan indeed

By Mark | January 9, 2013

I went off on a rant last night about how shortsighted and stupid it was for the administration in Lansing to politicize the widely-celebrated Pure Michigan campaign by using it to proudly promote their recent union-busting activities in a high-profile, full-page in the Wall Street Journal. And, apparently, I struck a nerve. Deadline Detroit and [...]

Posted in Marketing, Michigan | Also tagged abortion, ad campaigns, Battle of the Overpass, Dances with Wolves, Emily Mills, Jeff Clark, Ken Boyd, poverty, public relations fail, Pure Michigan, Rick Snyder, right-to-work, Ted Nugent, wolves | 34 Comments

Michigan’s 6 ballot proposals and how I intend to vote

By Mark | November 5, 2012

Other than trying my best to convince folks to vote for Syed Taj and Barack Obama, and against the likes of “mentally unbalanced” Tea Party-favorite Kerry Bentivolio, the race-baiting Pete Hoekstra, and the climate change denying serial liar Mitt Romney, I haven’t really said much about the upcoming election. To be honest, I didn’t think [...]

Posted in Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Alternative Energy, alternative fuels, ballot initiatives, Benton Harbor, Bill Clinton, charter schools, Citizens Research Council of Michigan, collective bargaining, Constitutional amendments, corporatocracy, disenfranchisement, dismantling of public education, Emergency Financial Manager Act, Emergency Manager, fear mongering, fracking, Headlee Amendment, home health care workers, House Judiciary Committee, Kerry Bentivolio, Koch brothers, League of Women Voters, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Matty Moroun, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Muskegon Heights, Pete Hoekstra, Proposal A, Public Act 4, renewable energy, Republican lies, Richard Murphy, Rick Snyder, right-to-work, SEIU, Syed Taj, threats to Democracy, union busting | 48 Comments

The Southerm Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok puts Michigan hate groups in context

By Mark | October 13, 2012

This evening, I had the occasion to speak briefly with Southern Poverty Law Center Senior Fellow Mark Potok. I’d reached out to Potok, who serves as editor-in-chief of the Center’s quarterly journal, the Intelligence Report, and its blog, entitled Hatewatch, as I hoped that he might be able to shed a little light on William [...]