Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, women of all ages now have greater choice and better control over their own healthcare. The new law means no or low-cost preventive services, including mammograms and cancer screenings. This year, we have so much to celebrate on National Women’s Health Week in terms of great strides in women’s health and access to healthcare. As we celebrate National Women’s Health Week, it is clear that healthcare works—and we must protect the care of women from political games that will take away their benefits.

National Women’s Health Week brings together women, health care providers, and all Americans who save on healthcare costs when women stay healthy to celebrate the many ways in which the Affordable Care Act is working for women.

Will you help us by writing a letter to the editor about the importance of preserving these benefits?

Should any or all of the law be repealed or rolled back, millions of American consumers—men and women—will lose critical healthcare benefits. So much is at stake right now, as political interests try to take healthcare coverage away from people. What happens to the mother of two with breast cancer who now has access to chemotherapy because of the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan? What happens to the recent college graduate who can only afford to be insured because she can stay on her parents’ health insurance? And what happens to the grandmother who relies on the Affordable Care Act for her annual mammogram and cervical cancer screenings? What happens to the millions of women who are benefiting from the law and receiving critical care if the law is rolled back? We cannot leave these women at the mercy of the insurance companies.

Write a letter to the editor today!

Together we can make a difference for the millions of American men and women who are already benefitting from the ACA and for those who will see benefits as the law is fully implemented in 2014.

In Michigan, children as young as fourteen, who are charged with certain felonies, are tried and sentenced, as if they are the same as an adult, to our harshest punishment, life without parole. Judges and juries are not allowed to consider the child’s age, troubled environment or lack of maturity before sending them to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

To date, 371 young people in Michigan have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison, without any opportunity to demonstrate rehabilitation and lack of risk to society. This includes more than 100 youth who did not themselves commit a homicide but, instead were convicted for their role as a lookout or following the orders of adult co-defendants. Michigan has the second highest number of children serving this sentence in the United States.

In the 38-page report titled Basic Decency: An Examination of Natural Life Sentences for Michigan Youth, Second Chances 4 Youth explores the fiscal and human costs of juvenile life without parole sentences and the documented racial disparities found in the plea process. The findings rely on publicly available data produced by the Michigan Department of Corrections and survey responses from individuals originally charged with first-degree murder in Michigan for crimes committed as youth since 1975.

Take a few minutes to read the report and join the Second Chances 4 Youth community. The report documents the many challenges youth face in the criminal justice system, including that:

• In the area of plea bargaining, there is a significant difference in the rate of pleas offered to adolescents based on the race of the victim.
• Juveniles are at a serious disadvantage in negotiating and understanding plea offers because of their immaturity, inexperience, and failure to realize the consequences or value of a plea offer.
• Attorneys who have represented youth convicted and sentenced to life without parole in Michigan have an abnormally high rate of attorney discipline from the State Bar of Michigan.

Basic Decency

Yesterday environmental groups stood together to demand that U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra reject any form of drilling in the Great Lakes.  Hoekstra told a tea party audience on Friday, May 11th, that he supported slant drilling in the Great Lakes, despite previous votes to ban Great Lakes drilling. Clean Water Action and the Michigan Sierra Club are opposed to any type of drilling in our lakes. 

Hoekstra has flip-flopped on this issue, but this is a gamble Michigan can’t afford to make. As a member of Congress, Hoekstra voted to ban Great Lakes drilling in 2005. In 2001, he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying “the only appropriate policy is to keep drills out of the Great Lakes.” That was prior to voting for an amendment prohibiting the Army Corps of Engineers from considering permits for new drilling operations. 

Following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Enbridge spill in the Kalamazoo River just two years ago, Michigan residents know that we can’t afford another catastrophe. Hoekstra’s plan to roll back federal protections and give drilling for oil or natural gas a chance is dangerous and outrageous. Protecting our Great Lakes should be a non-partisan priority.

The Great Lakes are a natural resource all Michigan residents grew up enjoying as well as learning about. From “HOMES” that we were all taught in elementary school, go ahead and tick them off: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Most Michigan residents can rattle off all of the names of our Great Lakes. What we can’t embrace is a person like Hoekstra who waffles back and forth between protecting them and protecting his Big Oil buddies. 

Check out this video of Hoekstra’s statement in support of drilling:

Live video from your Android device on Ustream

Take the example of the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional facility in rural Mississippi.  A report by the Justice Department describes “Systemic, egregious and dangerous practices” at the facility. 

The report also cited:

• Prison staff allegedly had sex with incarcerated youth

• Guards brutally beat youth and used pepper spray as a first response.

• The prison showed ‘deliberate indifference’ to prisoners possessing homemade knives, which were used in gang fights and inmate rapes.

GEO Group is the private company managing the prison and has since been ousted. It remains to be seen who will take their place in Mississippi, but the volatile and dangerous environment that was allowed exist in the South raises the question of necessary safeguards at other privatized prisons. This also creates the inability to rehabilitate offenders, not to mention jeopardizing public security.

The very same private company responsible for those abhorrent crimes in the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility are the ones who stand to gain from privatizing the prisons in Michigan. Not only is their reputation tarnished, so is the state Representative who introduced the bill. State Rep. Jon Bumstead (R-Newaygo) introduced HB 5147 to privatize prisons in Michigan. As reported by MIRS and Gongwer in February 2012, Rep. Bumstead also received a campaign contribution of $500 from a senior Executive with GEO Group, just 9 days before Rep. Bumstead introduced his bill to privatize prisons in the state of Michigan. When asked about the contribution, Bumstead side-stepped, saying “they could have come to a fundraiser, I don’t know.” A donor making a contribution to a state representative who lives more than 1400 miles away from Bumstead’s district seems a bit sketchy, don’t you think?

Federal Judge Carlton Reeves wrote that the youth prison in Mississippi "allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate, the sum of which places the offenders at substantial ongoing risk."

Let’s avoid making the same mistake in Michigan that was made in Mississippi. Allowing for-profit companies to take over our correctional facilities is wrong, especially when the legislators introducing these bills are the ones profiting. Nobody can put a price tag on public safety or peace of mind, and having a mistake the caliber of the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility is a mistake we can’t afford to make.

The news media worked itself into a frenzy last week, after a Florida blog speculated that Mitt Romney may be considering Gov. Rick Snyder as a candidate for for Vice President.

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.

Nobody really knew that much about the nerd when he was elected in November, 2010. The seemingly soft-spoken businessman discussed “shared sacrifice” and job creation as priorities - but his promises have fallen short for too many Michigan residents since taking office. 

Of course, now we all know the only  “sacrifice” Gov. Snyder had in mind came at the expense of Michigan’s students, seniors, and middle class families.

A sweeping $1.8 billion tax cut for corporate CEOs was paid for by slashing $1 billion from K-12 schools, and imposing $343 million in new taxes on seniors’ pensions.

The only job creation Michigan has seen since Snyder took office is a result of the dramatic comeback of the auto industry - thanks to the rescue plan that was opposed by Mitt Romney.

A major shortcoming of Snyder’s plan to give handouts to big corporations was that there were no claw backs in the legislation for job creation. That means there is no guarantee of a single job being created. Businesses were simply given a handout, with nothing more than a wish and a dream from the Snyder administration. They got money with no strings attached, and the only place that money is going is lining the pockets of greedy CEOs.

Nobody knows if Mitt Romney is seriously considering Rick Snyder as his running mate or not, but one thing’s for sure - when it comes to putting corporate CEOs ahead of our students, seniors, and workers, Romney and Snyder sure have a lot in common.

• Jim DeNardis, We Are The People Michigan and retired member of the American Federation of Teachers
• Jose Franco, One Michigan for Immigrant Youth
• Brandon Jessup, Michigan Forward
• Gail Spencer, American Federation of Teachers of Michigan
• Molly Sweeney, Detroit Action Commonwealth

We have five great candidates, and the winner of the Organizer of the Year Award will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony during the Michigan Summit on May 12th. Who will it be?

You still have time to register for the Michigan Summit and it’s easy as 1-2-3 to do it online!

By the way, this year’s Michigan Summit will offer a Letter Carrier's Food Drive collection site. Anyone who makes a donation to the Food Drive will be entered for an additional chance at winning one of the two Kindle Fire e-readers we’re giving away at the end of the Summit. Click here to register - and remember to bring a food item to donate!

We’re a proud supporter of the Midwest Conference, taking place May 10-11 in Detroit. This is a chance for all of us to meet with community leaders, union members, environmentalists, business leaders and elected officials together to discuss how our region of the U.S. is, city by city and block by block, building the foundation for a green economy.

The Conference will feature high-level keynote speakers, dynamic plenaries, and workshops at each of the four Regional Conferences, emphasizing local initiatives creating good jobs and a clean environment in a number of emerging clean tech sectors. Some of these areas include: clean energy manufacturing; green infrastructure and transportation; state and local initiatives; emerging green sectors like recycling, chemicals, water and agriculture; renewable energy and energy efficiency; and business, investments and new markets.

Join us for the nation’s leading forum for building a green economy and creating good, green jobs. Visit www.greenjobsconference.org to find a Conference near you today.

Rep. Aric Nesbitt just doesn’t get it. He apparently wasn’t listening when we called him out last September for passing a resolution encouraging the federal government to kick farmers off their land to build the Keystone XL pipeline, even as cleanup of the tragic Enbridge oil spill in Southwest Michigan continued. And he definitely isn’t listening to the thousands of Michiganders who called on him and 25 other Lansing politicians to immediately drop their ALEC memberships.

Last June he was named the chair of a brand new Natural Gas subcommittee, and the announcement said it would “focus on responsible ways to expand the use of natural gas...”

He’s got the expansion of natural gas down, as well as raking in donations from out-of-state lobbyists and PACs - but the “responsible ways?” Not so good at that. Maybe this should be expected from someone who earned “0” scores on his voting record from both Clean Water Action and Sierra Club.

In fact, the latest report from the Natural Gas subcommittee is a study in taking orders from ALEC and representing anyone but Michigan citizens. It states that the natural gas industry needs to be protected from “a federal takeover of the state’s regulatory role,” language lifted directly from an ALEC model bill to protect companies who engage in fracking.

But perhaps most insulting to the Michigan citizens whose interests are supposedly represented by the Natural Gas subcommittee was their recommendation that the state seek oil and gas leases on 5.3 million acres of state land. This recommendation is consistent with another ALEC model bill, “Resolution Encouraging Development of Liquefied Natural Gas.” As James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council explained, this would flood the market and drive down the price the state could get for its natural gas resources. Clift accurately called this a “stupid” idea at a time when natural gas prices are at their lowest in a decade. 

Dow Chemical Company also participated in the report, in case anyone still had any questions about its credibility. Dow is a member of the Task Force which authored the above model bills, and was a “Director” level sponsor of the ALEC Annual Conference in 2011.

Rep. Nesbitt already has an established history of taking free lunches from lobbyists while proposing resolutions that are insulting to Michiganders who care deeply about protecting our clean air and water. But recommending transparently bad policy in tandem with a major chemical company is new ground for Rep. Nesbitt.

Note: Michiganders can still add their names to the petition calling on Rep. Nesbitt and 25 other Lansing politicians to terminate their ALEC memberships immediately at progressmichigan.org/ALEC.

Today, citizens from around Michigan joined a coalition of voting rights advocates to send a message to Lansing politicians: keep your hands off our right to vote!

Why would Lansing politicians be so concerned with chipping away at our fundamental right to vote? Because it’s all part of a national movement to restrict voting for partisan gain. Republicans have been working for 30 years to hold voter turnout down, and now they’re betting the next election on a coordinated legislative effort intended to win elections by changing the rules. Republican politicians have introduced laws in at least 40 states that would make voting more difficult for everyone - and especially for voters who supported President Obama in 2008. 

In Michigan, the astroturf organizing component of this effort is being carried out by a local branch of “True the Vote,” a supposedly non-partisan outfit founded by a Texas Tea Party group that recently hosted the author of an article titled “Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American.” The same group also carried out Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s recall challenge efforts for him, challenging hundreds of thousands of seemingly-legitimate petition signatures, and has worked to purge voter rolls in several states.

These radical special interests are conspiring to keep you from voting - but a coalition of non-profits is fighting to protect your right to vote. The A. Philip Randolph Institute, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and Project Vote will be holding a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday morning, April 24th, to denounce this package of bills. As Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson should be taking steps to increase the number of registered voters in Michigan - just 22 percent of whom cast ballots to put her in office in November 2010. Instead she is engaged in a regrettable effort to drive turnout down across the board, which should not be the goal of any branch of government. 

He said that voters don’t care about ethical politicians as much as they care about job creation.

But Rep. Lund's committee isn’t talking about jobs - or about reforming Michigan’s broken campaign finance system. They’re talking about a package of bills that would impose a series of new burdensome and unnecessary regulations on voting rights. Stand up with thousands of Michiganders calling on Pete Lund and all other Lansing politicians to immediately withdraw from the corporate bill factory ALEC and reject these bills.

Paul Weyrich, founding member of ALEC, said in 1980, “I don’t want everybody to vote. ...As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” ALEC and its sponsors have a longstanding mission to pass laws that make it harder for Americans to vote, impose barriers to the popular referendum process and let big money flow more freely to campaigns. 

This week, no longer able to defend themselves on voter suppression legislation they spread around the country, ALEC announced they would eliminate their Public Safety and Elections task force. But the risk from Lansing politicians is still very real. Join Progress Michigan and thousands of Michiganders in calling on Pete Lund and his buddies in Lansing to drop their ALEC membership immediately - and drop these controversial bills that do nothing to address the real problems our state faces.

In 2010 when the ACA was enacted it made available a tax credit for small businesses. Small businesses with 25 employees or less can get tax credits of up to 35% of the cost of providing insurance to help provide health care to employees. The credits will rise to 50% in 2014.  In addition, churches and other non-profit entities, with 25 employees or less, are also eligible to receive tax credits towards the cost of supplying insurance to their employees. 

For more information about how to claim a credit, small business owners are encouraged to visit: http://smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/healthcare.php 

Today, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, is the national observance of Equal Pay Day, the day when women and men around the country recognize the wage gap between working women and men, and offer remedies to address pay inequity. According to statistics released in 2011 by the United States Census Bureau, women are paid, on average, 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid -- a gap of 23 cents.

It's shameful, but here in Michigan women's pay doesn't even measure up to the national average. We are paid just 74 cents for every dollar of men's pay. Women and our families are being shortchanged thousands of dollars a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime.

In 2011, members of the Michigan House and Senate introduced a package of legislation that would address this inequity. Now is the time for the Legislature to take action on these bills.

In addition to passing legislation in Michigan, here are four ways to close the pay gap:

First, we need to keep affirmative action programs in place to make sure education, jobs and promotion opportunities are open and offered to qualified women.

Second, employers must examine and correct their pay practices. Employers can get help in examining their pay practices through equal pay self-audit guidelines from the US Department of Labor.

Third, women must stand up for equal pay and for themselves. If a prospective employer cannot show that women and men are paid equally for the job you're seeking, it makes sense to look elsewhere. Positive signs include a hiring process that seeks diversity through affirmative action, written pay and benefit policies, job descriptions and evaluation procedures. A union for workers is another good sign. Women in unions earn 35% more than women in non-union workplaces.

Women who are paid less than men must discuss the problem with their employer. If there's a union ask their help. If discrimination persists, file a complaint with the local or state (name of agency for your city or state if possible) fair employment agencies or with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A fourth way to close the pay gap is through federal legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act. That's not a solution popular with employers, but it may be necessary. For employers who continue to pay women less, legal penalties or EEOC action may be the only remedies.

Pay equity is a growing national movement. States around the country are introducing pay equity legislation and women continue to recognize the importance of this legislation. Pay inequity penalizes families especially during times of economic hardship so we must address it when trying to boost the economy. At the rate we are going, the wage gap will not close for another 50 years. Women and their families cannot afford to wait that long!

Pete Hoekstra doesn’t think women deserve equal pay for equal work, and he has a history of voting against laws that protect workers from wage discrimination:

• In 2009, Hoekstra voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The bill allowed employees to sue employers for wage discrimination for a longer period of time. The measure was designed to overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled a worker could not bring a wage discrimination suit more than 180 days after the initial discriminatory act. [Roll Call 37, S 181, 01/27/2009; CO House Action Reports Legislative Week, 1/26/09]
• In 2009, Hoekstra voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have reversed the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. [Roll Call 9, H 11, 01/09/2009; CQ Weekly, 1/12/09]
• In 2009, Hoekstra voted against eliminating caps on compensatory and punitive damages for successful wage discrimination suits. The bill also put the onus on employers to prove that pay discrepancies between women and men doing the same jobs are actually the result of business considerations. [Roll Call 8, H 12, 01/09/2009; CQ WEEKLY - WEEKLY REPORT, 1/12/09]
• In 2008, Hoekstra voted against a bill that would lift the cap on compensatory and punitive damages that women may be awarded in wage discrimination cases. The bill would also require employers who contended that pay discrepancies did not result from discrimination to give an actual business reason for why female employees were paid less than their male counterparts. Democrats argued that the bill would close some loopholes for pay discrimination. [Roll Call 556, H 1338, 07/31/2008; CQ Today¸7/31/08]
• In 2007, Hoekstra voted against a bill to protect the victims of wage discrimination. The bill amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to allow employees to file charges of pay discrimination for a longer period of time. It also clarified that an employee is entitled to up to two years of back-pay if it is determined that discrimination occurred. [Roll Call 768, H 2831, 07/31/2007; Congressional Quarterly; CQ Today, 7/31/07]
• Hoekstra voted against an amendment to increase by $2 million the bill’s funding for the Women’s Educational Equity Act and to decrease by an equal amount the $319 million in funding for educational research. [Roll Call 304, H 3755, 07/11/1996]

Is your blood boiling? Don't worry, we've put together a place for you to tell Pete Hoesktra to get real.

There's a reason Pete Hoekstra is the first Senate candidate to endorse the 9-9-9 plan - a plan that would raise taxes on 84% of U.S. households - and it’s simple: he just doesn’t get it. After losing his campaign for governor, Hoekstra went to work peddling influence for a Washington lobbying firm before announcing his campaign to run for Senate.

Tapping far-right ad man Fred Davis, Hoekstra re-introduced himself to Michigan voters with his now infamous “China” ad, aired during the Super Bowl. At least this much is clear: Pete Hoekstra needs a dose of reality. Tell Pete to get real.

Below, we've embedded Hoekstra's greatest hits for your viewing pleasure:

• 32 percent of Latinos were uninsured in 2009—higher than any other racial or ethnic group--, and half of Latinos did not have a regular doctor, compared with only one-fifth of white Americans.
• Twenty percent of low-income Hispanic youth have gone a year without a health care visit - a rate three times higher than that for high-income whites.
• Latinos were diagnosed with AIDS at three times the rate of whites.
• In 2006, almost half of Latinos reported they did not always get care when they needed it, compared with 43 percent of blacks and 41 percent of white Americans.

The Affordable Care Act will help reduce these disparities and help deliver affordable coverage to as many as 9 million currently uninsured, eligible Latinos.

For more information or to find information about the ACA written in Spanish click here: http://www.cuidadodesalud.gov/enes/ for more information in English click here: http://www.healthcare.gov/

• Bone mass measurement
• Cervical cancer screening, including Pap smear tests and pelvic exams.
• Cholesterol and other cardiovascular screenings
• Colorectal cancer screening (except for barium enemas.)
• Diabetes screening
• Flu shot, pneumonia shot, and the hepatitis B shot
• HIV screening for people at increased risk or who ask for the test
• Mammograms
• Medical nutrition therapy to help people manage diabetes or kidney disease.
• Prostate cancer screening (except digital rectal examinations.)

In addition Medicare will now provide and pay for an annual Wellness Exam.  This service will now be covered under Medicare at no additional cost to seniors.

• A webform for supporters to email Mitt Romney to thank him for his Romneycare model
• A “quick tweet” feature, using the hashtag #ThanksRomneycare enabling Twitter users to share their own health care reform stories
• A Facebook page enabling supporters to share their health care stories

Join the campaign, and read more at ThanksRomneycare.com.

• Married
• Attending school
• Not living with their parents
• Not financially dependent upon their parents
• Eligible for employer sponsored program

For more information about the Affordable Care Act, visit: www.KnowYourCare.org

ALEC is not just another conservative advocacy outfit. An estimated 98 percent of their funding comes from big corporations, not grassroots members. Corporate lobbyists write ALEC “model legislation” and then send these bills off to state capitols around the country - including to Republican politicians in Lansing, several of whom were caught last year paying their ALEC dues with taxpayer funds. 

Laws are supposed to protect our rights and help keep us safe - that’s just common sense. In the wildest example of an ALEC bill designed to do nothing more than protect its corporate benefactors, Rep. Joe Haveman, who represents the safest Republican seat in the state House, introduced and passed an ALEC model bill that released a Pennsylvania corporation from liability for making workers sick by asbestos exposure. Attempting to defend his copied-and-pasted legislation from the single media outlet that questioned him on it, Rep. Haveman said it shows that Michigan is “open for business.” 

This is unacceptable. Sign our petition - demand that Republican politicians withdraw from ALEC immediately.

So far, progressive activists have been able to convince Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Intuit, Inc., and the Gates Foundation to stop funding ALEC. Turns out their far-right agenda doesn’t look very good when a little transparency is introduced.

Republican politicians in Lansing have proved again and again that they are far more concerned with protecting their corporate lobbyist buddies than creating jobs or adopting real reforms that would protect Michiganders and help preserve our rights. Now it’s time for us to fight back. Sign our petition and demand that Republicans in Lansing cut off the flow of special favors and easy access for this corporate front group immediately.

Note: list of lawmakers with ALEC ties below.

Michigan House of Representatives

• Rep. Dave Agema (R-74) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2008. Sponsored House Bill 4305 (2011). Compare to ALEC’s model “No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act.”
• Rep. Judson Gilbert (R-81) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005 while a state senator.
• Rep. Gail Haines (R-43) - Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force.
• Rep. Ken Horn (R-94) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2011.
• Rep. Eileen Kowall (R-44) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2011.
• Rep. Kenneth Kurtz (R-58) - Health and Human Services Task Force.
• Rep. Matthew Lori (R-59) - Health and Human Services Task Force.
• Rep. Pete Lund (R-36) - Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force.
• Rep. Tom McMillin - sponsored House Bill 4050 (2011) and House Bill 4453 (2011). Compare to ALEC’s model “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act” and “Competitive Contracting of Public Services Act.”
• Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R-80) - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.
• Rep. Amanda Price (R-89) - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.
• Rep. Mike Shirkey - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2011.

Michigan Senate

• Former Sen. Jason Allen (R-37) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2006. Former ALEC State Chairman for Michigan. Currently is the Senior Deputy Director for Veterans Affairs at the Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs.
• Former Sen. Patricia Birkholz (R-24) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005. Currently is the director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes.
• Sen. Darwin Booher (R-35) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005, 2007 and 2009 while a state representative.
• Sen. Bruce Caswell (R-16) - Health and Human Services Task Force.
• Sen. Mike Green (R-31) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2011.
• Sen. Goeff Hansen (R-34) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005, 2007 and 2009 while a state representative.
• Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R-29) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005, 2007 and 2009 while a state representative, and in 2011 while a state senator.
• Sen. Rick Jones (R-24) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005 while a state representative.
• Sen. Mike Kowall (R-15) - paid ALEC membership dues with taxpayer funds in 2009 while a state representative, and in 2011 while a state senator.
• Sen. Arlan Meekhof (R-30) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2009 while a state representative.
• Sen. John Moolenar (R-36) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005 and 2007 while a state representative.
• Sen. Mike Nofs (R-19) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2008 while a state representative.
• Sen. David Robertson (R-26) - paid ALEC dues with taxpayer funds in 2005.
• Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-20) - ALEC State Chairman for Michigan, Civil Justice Task Force.

Under the Michigan Constitution, bills are not supposed to go into effect until after the close of the current legislative session. This was intentionally designed as a check on the power of the Legislature, with the exception that if laws need to be implemented quickly in an emergency, they can take "immediate effect" with the consent of two-thirds of the body.

Republicans, who don't have a two-thirds majority in the state House, have been giving nearly every bill "immediate effect" in order to address very serious emergencies like graduate students attempting to form a union and denying the Democrats their opportunity to have their votes counted in opposition to this.

Out of 566 bills passed by the Michigan state House since January 2011, 546 have been given immediate effect. This represents 96 percent of all bills passed, including Republicans' unprecedented expansion of the powers of emergency managers and a bill that made it more difficult to collect petition signatures to get any issue on the ballot.

Maddow rightly calls this "the most radical thing that Republicans have done in the country." This from a caucus who cites "responsible leadership" as one of their three guiding principles. It truly defies parody. Please watch the clip below and check out the reactions to the show we've gathered from social media - and stay tuned for updates on how you can get involved in fighting back against these abuses of power in 2012.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sounds uncontroversial, right? Surely in the year 2012 there is nothing outrageous about the idea that no one should have to live in fear that they could be legally fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their job performance. It could be argued that this is a concept that would appeal to Republicans in Lansing. Making our state welcoming and fair to everyone so we can attract and retain a vibrant creative class that will fuel innovation and entrepreneurship should be a nonpartisan issue.

Well if you thought those things, you’d be wrong. Rep. Tom McMillin, a Republican who ran for office (and won his first election by just 123 votes) on promises that he would bring fiscal responsibility to Lansing, introduced a bill last year aimed squarely at these efforts. HB 5039 would eliminate every local government’s ability to pass any kind of non-discrimination ordinance. Never one to miss an opportunity to bully those whose views differ from his own, Rep. McMillin released a statement yesterday trumpeting his belief that the debate should be controlled by Lansing. Unfortunately, this breathtaking bigotry is par for the course for Rep. McMillin, one of the most ideological lawmakers in Lansing. 

If you can’t fathom what relationship there is between fiscal conservatism and denying equal protection under the law to every Michigander, you're not alone. But since HB 5039 has been stalled in the House for months, there is something you can do to get involved in the fight for equality. In Michigan, you can be fired from your job just because of who you are. That’s not right. Make sure to check out DontChangeYourself.com for updates, and get in touch with your state lawmaker to demand that they stand up for all of their constituents - not just those who agree with their beliefs.