Dear Congressman Walberg

As your constituent, I am profoundly disappointed in your decision to sign on to a legal brief supporting Texas’s lawsuit against Michigan and other states. While there were admittedly inconsistencies in how the election was conducted in Michigan, it is clear from the evidence that these inconsistencies were:

• The result of human error and not a conspiracy to steal the election or defraud the public;
• In many cases corrected over the course of tallying the results, indicating the electoral process was functioning as intended; and
• Insignificant relative to the number of votes cast and the margin of victory in Michigan.

These inconsistencies merit investigation and practical solutions, potentially including national guidelines and federal funding, to ensure elections are conducted securely and results are tallied accurately and efficiently in the future. These inconsistencies do not merit, as Texas sought, the extraordinary step of throwing out our votes and having the State Legislature select Michigan’s electors instead. This suit, and your support of it, not only undermines Joe Biden’s legitimacy as the rightful president-elect but also the public’s faith in our democracy and the electoral process. I expect real leadership from you on this issue in the future instead of acquiescing to the irrational demands of soon-to-be former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Broken Promises

"Please note that because these funds are not yet available and funding is uncertain, you should make arrangements to cover the amount of your Michigan Promise Scholarship with other resources."

~University of Michigan Office of Financial Aid, in an email to students

On June 23, the Michigan State Senate, facing a $1.7-billion deficit, voted to axe the Michigan Promise Scholarship, which provides funds for over 96,000 students across the state, including (for the sake of transparency) me. (The scholarship may be reinstated before the state budget is due on October 1.)

I understand that the state has to either cut something or raise taxes, but I feel I have to respond to this guy:

These kids will just have to work their way through school like the earlier generations did. The days of the handouts are over.

Unfortunately, that's just not economically feasible. Upper-level engineering tuition at U-M is $15,926. How anyone could possibly be expected to pay for that plus rent, utilities, groceries, books, etc. without scholarships while taking on a full course load is beyond me. In my case, the $3300 that would have come from the Promise and the Michigan Competitive (also of uncertain future) is the difference between having expenses covered and taking a serious hit to my savings account. (The no-handouts crowd should note that I'm already assuming I'll work next summer and during the school year.)

Furthermore, financing college education makes good economic sense. College graduates are less likely to be unemployed, poor, or incarcerated, less likely to smoke, and more likely to volunteer, vote, and give blood. But because individuals don't consider the benefits to society when deciding whether to go to college, too few enroll. Government intervention in the college market makes sense, especially in Michigan, the Water Winter 15%-Unemployment Wonderland.

Yes, the state will have to do something unpleasant, but this unpleasantness hurts students now and will hurt Michigan in the future.

Losing a Little More

Under Michigan state law, political parties are allowed to post election challengers at polling sites to prevent voter fraud. James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County Republicans, might be taking the law a bit too far.

About two weeks ago, the Michigan Messenger, an arm of the Center for Independent Media, reported that Carabelli planned on dispersing lists of foreclosed homes to the election challengers to "make sure people aren't voting from those addresses." Now Carabelli claims he never said it and is suing Michigan Messenger for libel. Right...

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign and DNC filed suit against the Michigan GOP for the plan, citing in particular a state law allowing people to vote if they've lost their homes within 60 days of the election.

Obviously, voter fraud is not the primary concern of either party, but the fact that the Republican Party would discount a legitimate vote is sleazy, if not particularly surprising.

For more.

Changing Climate, Stagnant Politics

So, we haven't posted in a while, which of course means that nothing important happened in the past nine days.

Except the brief life of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. The act, which I first heard about on Monday, would have (1) created a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases--in my opinion, the best way to limit such pollution--and (2) allowed states to have tougher environmental regulations than the federal government, which California tried to do, but the Bush Administration's EPA denied California this right last December.

And now the bill has been filibustered to death. The supporters of the bill were 12 votes shy of the 60 necessary to invoke cloture and end debate. (Both Sens. Levin and Stabenow voted for cloture.) Senators will now wait until next year, when they will have a more supportive president and hopefully a more favorable legislature, until they try again.

Also on the climate change front, the NASA inspector general released a report stating that "political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years." Shock.

On a lighter note, there's a wolverine in Michigan's thumb!

The '01E Wolverine, North Campus, U-M, munching on the head of an Easter Bunny. (4/5/08)

Here We Go Again

Is it possible? The Michigan Legislature is actually getting something done?
The state is planning on a June 3 do-over primary for the Democratic presidential candidates, funded privately. Hopefully nothing falls through, and they won't settle on a mail-in primary like in Florida. Here's to making our votes count...

http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/03/michigan_democrats_target_june.html