We are seeking well-organized, self-starters for a part-time position as a Michigan Summit Organizer to build reach out to community organizations, community leaders, and local activists to participate in the Michigan Summit. We seek an individual that has good relationships with organizations and leaders in their community and can effectively recruit members of their community to turn out to the Michigan Summit.

Field Organizer: Essential Functions

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Participate in a minimum of 3 weekly Summit Organizer calls.
• Reach out to community organizations and leaders, particularly communities of color, low-income communities and the LGBT community.
• Maintain a spreadsheet of individuals whom you have recruited to participate in the Michigan Summit.
• Help coordinate transportation to Summit, if necessary.

Qualifications: We’re seeking candidates who excel in relationship-building and are results-oriented.

You should have:

• Established cooperative working relationships with community organizations and leaders.
• Willingness to set clear goals and work independently to meet goals.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Passion for working collaboratively with community groups and progressive organizations.

Organizers will begin on 5/23/2013 and work until the Michigan Summit on 6/8/2013. Organizers will be part-time (5 hours/week) and will be paid a stipend of $250.

Locations: Mid-Michigan, Western Michigan and Southeast Michigan (One position in each location)

To Apply: Please send resume and brief cover letter by NOON on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 to Chong-Anna Canfora at chonganna@progressmichigan.org subject line: Michigan Summit Organizer Applicant.

The post Michigan Summit Organizer appeared first on Progress Michigan.

But this isn’t a normal ballot drive that we can simply educate the public about and successfully defeat – like last year’s Tea Party proposal to protect billionaire and wealthy special interest tax breaks and loopholes. No, the anti-choice extremists don’t even want to see this proposal reach the ballot.

All they need to do through the citizens’ initiative process is collect 258,088 signatures – a number equal to 3.48 percent of all registered voters in the state – and Republicans in the legislature can simply pass the initiative without a signature from Gov. Snyder.

As if this cynical and anti-democratic ploy wasn’t bad enough on its own merits, even the name of their ballot committee is based on a lie. They named it “No Taxes for Abortion Insurance,” but the initiative would go further than simply banning tax dollars from being spent on abortions, which is already banned several times in federal law. It would also mandate that regular private insurance plans cannot cover any abortions, which is exactly what Gov. Snyder singled out as problematic about the bills the last time they tried them.

Incredibly, it gets worse. The bill would again go further than federal law, even banning abortion coverage in cases of rape and incest. So 3.48 percent of Michiganders would essentially be telling women that they are required to buy extra health insurance, in case they are raped and decide they don’t want to carry their rapist’s baby.

This plan was undoubtedly hatched by the same Lansing Republican bosses who have pushed mean-spirited plans targeting retirees, middle-class families, homeowners, working men and women, and state employees. It amounts to a blatant attack on women, forcing them to pay more for care that they could need at any moment, without any advance notice. We’re committed to working hard to educate the public about their latest attack on the rights of women, so they can’t even convince 3.48 percent of Michiganders of their lies.

The post Anti-Choice Extremists Revive Rape Rider appeared first on Progress Michigan.

On May 16, the day of the 2012 election filing deadline, then-Democratic State Rep. Roy Schmidt announced he was switching parties to run as a Republican, and an unknown amateur bodybuilder named Matt Mojzak filed to run as a Democrat. Bolger and Schmidt planted the fake Democrat on the ballot to rig Schmidt’s election by denying Democrats an opportunity to nominate a new candidate.

What seemed like a perfect plan started to crumble the following day.

Here are the top five biggest lies from news stories that were published on May 17, 2012:

1. What Bolger said: “This was not done out of political expediency or convenience. He was disenfranchised by the politics of the Democratic party.” What really happened: Bolger and Schmidt met over Bud Lights and Schuler cheese to hatch a scheme that would inflict maximum political damage on Democrats by announcing Schmidt’s party change on filing day.
2. What Bolger said: “He didn’t ask for anything. There were no commitments made.” What really happened: Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons requested special police protection for Schmidt, paid for at taxpayer expense.
3. What Schmidt said: “I’ve never met him,” Schmidt said of Mojzak. What really happened: Surveillance video footage clearly showed Mojzak meeting in person with Schmidt on the day he changed his voter registration form.
4. What Schmidt said: “I believe I was sent to Lansing to serve the people of Grand Rapids, not political bosses.” What really happened: Attorney General Bill Schuette sent a text message to Schmidt on the day his party change was announced, saying, “Roy. Bill Schuette here. Call when you can (phone number redacted). Thanks.” According to Schuette’s spokesman, Schuette “was reaching out to Rep. Schmidt to welcome him to the GOP and to introduce himself.”
5. What Bolger said: “We would not have beaten Roy Schmidt. He was going to win,” Bolger said. What really happened: After the scheme fell apart and Mojzak withdrew from the ballot, Democrats nominated Winnie Brinks, who went on to defeat Schmidt by 25 points in November.

As a reminder, Speaker Jase Bolger is still under an active grand jury investigation for his role in planning the Roy Schmidt election fraud scheme.

You can sign our petition telling Bolger to resign as Speaker here.

The post Bolgergate: One Year Later appeared first on Progress Michigan.

We saw earlier this week that Superintendent Flanagan cares deeply about public opinion. On Tuesday, he championed a “skills camp” as an innovative solution that would make up for punishing the kids of Buena Vista schools by closing the school down for the rest of the year. But in response to outcry from Congressman Dan Kildee and in the national media, less than 24 hours later he was downplaying the “skills camp” idea, claiming it was never his first choice for the kids in Buena Vista.

As if Buena Vista didn’t bring enough bad news in this week for Michigan’s community public schools, the school board in Albion voted to close the high school there, which has been open since 1872. Pontiac Schools, who made news earlier this year when teachers were asked to bring toilet paper and other supplies from home, narrowly avoided missing payroll. Flint Schools announced their plans to lay off 139 teachers and staff at the end of this year. Inkster Schools’ superintendent resigned, and the board will be laying off all teachers at the end of the year, shutting down the high school and allowing a charter school authorizer to reopen it.

The problem here is obvious. Lansing politicians must reverse their decision to keep making cuts to community public schools, and do what the people of Michigan are demanding by investing in public education, supporting educators, and expanding early childhood education. But they need to hear from you.

Click over to the new Facebook page for the new “Skunk Works” group. Leave a message on their wall, and take their survey, to send a simple message: it’s time to invest in our community public schools. Then share the page on Facebook and Twitter, so your friends can share their thoughts too. It’s not going to be easy to rebuild education in Michigan after Rick Snyder’s hard work tearing down our schools and professional educators. But with your help, we’ll get it done.

Share on Facebook!

 Tweet

The post It’s A Skunk Works Party, And You’re Invited appeared first on Progress Michigan.

This seat’s taken.

Impeaching President Obama for the crime of “Presidenting While A Democrat” has been on the lips of conservatives since early in his first term, for everything from not defending the federal ban on marriage equality in court to just existing. But it’s reached a fever pitch in recent days, as some members of the right-wing media have suggested the President purposefully allowed American diplomats to die in Benghazi, Libya to help him get reelected, and personally intervened to make life difficult for the Ottawa County Patriots because of the serious threat they presented to his agenda (or something).

Where to begin? We’ll start with Benghazi, which will no doubt fade in the rear-view mirror after last week’s much-vaunted hearing, after which Darrell Issa acknowledged he had learned nothing new. Over the weekend, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, initially appointed by President Bush, called the supposed potential military response described by one diplomat a “cartoonish impression of military capabilities.” The whole thing collapsed on itself when Rep. Issa, followed by Fox News, began complaining that President Obama calling the attack an “act of terror” wasn’t the same as calling it a “terrorist attack.” 

Allegations of a politically-motivated coverup, beyond their reliance on a disjointed, misquoted narrative, simply don’t make any sense. If President Obama had really been looking for maximum political gain, he could’ve said to hell with facts and proclaimed that we were under attack by al Qaeda, counting on a rally-round-the-flag effect.

The IRS fiasco, while evidence of incompetence at an understaffed, overwhelmed department, certainly doesn’t point to a broader political scandal. Allegations of “Nixonian” behavior are laughable, considering no one has produced evidence, credible or otherwise, that anyone outside the IRS was even aware of the issues, let alone orchestrating them. No surprise then, that subsequent reporting has discovered liberal groups that faced identical scrutiny to the Tea Party whiners. In fact, the only group that actually had its tax-exempt status revoked was a liberal women’s group called Emerge America.

No, this was a story of incompetence – but not just at the IRS. It’s become clear this week that of the thousands who were motivated to activism by the Tea Party movement, very few of them had any idea what they were doing. For one thing, incorporating as a nonprofit was unnecessary for many of these groups. But for those who wanted to be a nonprofit, IRS rules don’t actually require them to apply for that status. They could have simply turned in their 990 forms at the end of every year. But because of the bad advice they were getting from other conservatives, these groups were filling out voluntary applications, causing IRS staff to become overwhelmed. If this was politically-motivated intimidation, it was certainly an odd way to go about it.

I have no doubts that conservatives will work hard to gin up more outrage this summer, over this and other scandals. But a little caution is in order before accusing the president of personal involvement in every incident – and before tossing around terms like “Nixonian,” the accusers should remember the things that Nixon actually did.

The post Impeach Obama? appeared first on Progress Michigan.

Michigan United (formerly the Alliance for Immigrants Rights & Michigan Organizing Project) is seeking an individual committed to civil rights and social justice to lead an important regional campaign. The Northern Borders Coordinator (NBC) will be responsible for managing an existing coalition of organizing and legal partners in northern-border states to address the burgeoning civil rights issues affecting immigrants and New Americans in these communities. These issues include racial profiling and abusive enforcement by the Border Patrol, religious discrimination and persecution, detentions of US Citizens and Green Card holders and inhumane treatment of detainees.

The coordinator will also be responsible for leading local work to hold border enforcement agencies accountable, and helping to plan our national conference.

The coalition is currently hard at work ensuring that border civil rights are addressed and protected in the comprehensive immigration reform bill being considered in Congress.

The applicant must:

• Have their own reliable car and drivers license. American-made cars are encouraged. -
• Have their own cell phone and computer.
• Be comfortable working with a culturally, religiously, and economically diverse group of partners, members, and staff.
• Enjoy a good challenge.

This is not an entry-level position. Applicants should have some prior professional community or political organizing experience, especially organizing and mobilizing coalitions. Applicants should also demonstrate strong organizational skills, a tireless commitment to social justice, a basic familiarity with immigrants’ rights issues, and be comfortable building new relationships. Be prepared for a fast-paced work environment with a high-level of autonomy. Proficiency with Spanish or Arabic is not required, but is extremely helpful.

The applicant should be comfortable with modern office software and learning new technologies. Michigan United uses Salsa Labs, the Voter Activation Network, Microsoft and Google productivity software, Facebook, Twitter, and Mobile Commons.

Michigan United is a statewide coalition of faith, labor, civil rights, business, and social service organizations working together to protect the civil and labor rights of immigrants, to reform the immigration system, to encourage civic participation and by immigrant communities, and to build a broad agenda for shared prosperity and re-development in Michigan.

Women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please send resume and cover letter to: ryan@miunited.org
Cc: evan@miunited.org
Subject: Northern Borders Organizer
Visit www.miunited.org for more information about Michigan United

The post Michigan United: Northern Borders Coordinator appeared first on Progress Michigan.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Contact: Jessica Tramontana, (517) 974-6302, jessica@progressmichigan.org

LANSING – Today citizens’ watchdog group Progress Michigan applauded Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan on the decision to provide funds to re-open the Buena Vista school district. The district has been closed for a week-and-a-half due to the financial mismanagement of local officials and state budget cuts approved by Gov. Snyder and Lansing Republicans.

“The students of Buena Vista Schools have been out of classrooms for eight days while lawmakers in Lansing pointed fingers,” said Jessica Tramontana, Communications Director of Progress Michigan. “There are hundreds of students in the Buena Vista school district who have been denied their constitutional right to a public education, and it should have never come to this. We applaud the decision to finally provide the funds for Buena Vista to reopen their doors, but it’s shameful children had to pay the price for political games in Lansing. It’s time we prioritize Michigan’s kids instead of playing the hot potato blame game, and that starts with Lansing politicians restoring the funding cuts they made to our public schools.”

# # #

The post Progress Michigan Applauds Decision to Fund Buena Vista Schools appeared first on Progress Michigan.

Passing suspicion-based welfare recipient drug-testing.

Because Republicans only believe in “small government” when it doesn’t involve vaginas or poor people, Republican lawmakers in Lansing passed a bill that institutes suspicion-based drug screening for welfare recipients. You’d almost think they believe being poor is a crime, so they should treat poor people like criminals.

Privatizing Michigan’s education system.

If you want to send your child to a school with fancy ads and poor results, Michigan may be the place for you in the near future.

Now, the same people whose opinion of the average welfare recipient is so low that they passed a law instituting suspicion-based drug testing, think women can’t make their own decisions, and believe homosexuals account for half the murders in large cities, have decided that it makes sense to give those same people a $5,000 voucher-card to shop around and purchase an education for their children.

Apparently poor people, women and gays can’t be trusted to make their own personal decisions – but when it comes to shopping around for their kid’s school? No problem.

Privatizing Michigan’s prison system.

This week, the Detroit Free Press’s Stephen Henderson said what everyone’s been thinking about Michigan’s alarming taste for secrecy and privatization:

Privatization might sound, in theory, like the way to bring Michigan’s prison costs under control.

But because the desired outcomes in the corrections system are about more than bottom-line dollar analyses, privatization is just not likely to deliver.

We couldn’t agree more (and would add education to that list). As we pointed out yesterday, voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea government should be so small you could drown it in a tub.

Literally taking from Michigan’s most vulnerable and giving to insurance companies. 

For the second time since taking control of Lansing, Republican politicians are working to gut Michigan’s model no-fault insurance system. What’s different this time? Rick Snyder is on board with the plan.

The Republican plan to gut auto no-fault (known affectionately as “Snydercare” around our office) would fundamentally change how auto insurance works for Michigan drivers.

The insurance industry won’t make any promises of cost savings beyond the first year in exchange for a cap on lifetime benefits. The cap won’t be fixed to inflation, so it will decline every year, making it easier for them to no longer pay for care for seriously injured drivers. Every driver will be forced to purchase more insurance to protect themselves from drivers with insufficient coverage. And once you pass the lifetime cap, which could happen in days or hours, that’s it. You’ll be forced to pay, or forced to rely on Medicaid and other public programs.

Even worse? The MCCA, the organization tasked with administering Michigan’s auto no-fault reimbursements, is based in the Cayman islands. In defense, their Executive Director Gloria Freeland said, “To simplify the tax treatment of these investments, the MCCA uses a Cayman-based financial vehicle.”

Robbing our schools to give to our roads.

Sometimes life just ain’t fair. Naturally, after Gov. Snyder failed to sell Michiganders on his proposal fund Michigan’s roads through increased “user fees,” he and his Republican colleagues decided the easiest way to raise the funds would be to pillage our education funding (again).

Don’t get us wrong, we should absolutely raise money to improve our roads, but now that the “user fees” proposal has failed why not just call them taxes for better roads and be done with it?

In the meantime, we should immediately start re-investing in our education system. Come on, it’s for the children.

The post Bills from the Boonies: 5 most recent proposals from Michigan’s fever swamps appeared first on Progress Michigan.

But when it was time to record Off the Record, it was an insurance industry lobbyist who showed up, not Rep. Lund – and not Rep. Lisa Lyons, the show’s first choice.

Another lobbyist, who was arranging the interview, claimed it wouldn’t work with their schedules. Presumably Rep. Lund would have said the same thing about his refusal to defend electoral college rigging in the pages of the Detroit News. But what does it say that of the dozens of other Republican politicians who support the plan to end auto no-fault in the state, not one was willing to face a panel of journalists and answer questions about the scheme.

The fact is, cutting people off from lifetime care would only affect a tiny percentage of people in the state – but they’re the people who most desperately need care, and would face bankruptcy from millions in medical bills if this privately-funded safety net was destroyed. People with disabilities, their caretakers and families deserve better than games from insurance industry lobbyists.

Whether or not Lansing politicians realize it now, they’ll face accountability from voters in just a few months, over this and the other corporate handouts they’ve forced through the legislature. Hopefully they keep that in mind as they consider whether to support this latest attacking on Michigan’s working men and women.

The post Republican Politicians Unwilling to Defend Plan to Gut Auto No-Fault appeared first on Progress Michigan.

The financial mismanagement of the Buena Vista schools has resulted in the district closing a month early, even though teachers volunteered to work for free.

It’s time for this administration to use the state’s rainy day fund to ensure that Buena Vista kids can get a quality education, and more importantly to ensure kids across the state are given a free public education as guaranteed in the Michigan Constitution.

To put it simply, this is why rainy day funds exist: for “rainy days” or an unexpected crisis.

400 students being turned out of their school and denied an education certainly qualifies as an emergency.

It’s obvious that politicians like Governor Rick Snyder took the side of corporate CEOs and wealthy special interests over Michigan kids when he signed bills to give a massive handout to corporations and short-changed Michigan schools by more than $2 billion.

Rick Snyder needs to demonstrate leadership instead of playing partisan games, and Republican politicians need to get their priorities straight by investing in education. We’re seeing the relentless failure of leadership from the governor, and Michigan kids shouldn’t have to pay the price for Lansing’s wrong priorities.

It’s past time to start putting Michigan’s kids first, and to invest in our community public schools. It’s our obligation to ensure a quality learning environment for all students. And we can start with the kids in Buena Vista.

The post Here Comes the Rain Again appeared first on Progress Michigan.