This story has all but been buried in the news: http://www.casavaria.com/cafesentido/2011/03/09/7876/michigan-governor-seeks-emergency-powers/
Michigan Governor Seeks Emergency Powers
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Related subjects: Executive Powers, Legislation, Open Government, Quid-pro-quo: Corruption, Rights & Freedoms, The Vote, U.S. Politics, Vote 2010, Vote 2012 Comments (0)
9 March 2011 :: staff
The governor of Michigan is trying to force through the legislature a bill that would establish emergency rule, LITERALLY. Gov. Snyder is seeking emergency powers that would enable him to 1) unilaterally declare a “financial emergency”, 2) disincorporate entire municipal governments, 3) dismiss elected officials with no replacement election to follow, 4) seize control of local civil services, 5) hand taxpayer money, services and POWERS to private, for-profit firms.
Gov. Snyder’s plan is the same kind of flagrantly undemocratic “emergency rule” used by military dictators to oppose any semblance of democratic opposition to their policies. While no one expects Gov. Snyder will be rounding up dissidents any time soon, the fight in Michigan is NOT about unions; the governor is attempting to wrest from the hands of every citizen of the state of Michigan, the right to determine who governs at the consent of the governed.
His plan declares an immediate end (with no projected restoration) to the founding principle of our democracy: that public officials may govern ONLY at the consent of the governed.
There is no moral, philosophical, legal or practical justification for Gov. Snyder’s claim that a “budget emergency” gives him the right or the power to order the suspension of electoral democracy in his state. Those who support his radical agenda will argue that this is not what they intend, that they are merely trying to be “expedient”. This is always the argument of statist profiteers who seek to centralize power; this was the argument of Italy’s fascists.
The process which allows the people to govern their government is absolutely sacrosanct in our democracy. There is no way for us to be the free society we claim to be, if that process does not remain sacrosanct. The budgetary discomfort and long, difficult days of work that some public officials might face given budgetary discomfort, are absolutely not a justification for eliminating the democratic process or establishing unilateral executive rule.
Gov. Snyder’s proposal is an insult to and a vicious assault on the founding ideals of our democracy, and a betrayal of everything the state of Michigan is supposed to stand for. This power grab is one of the most egregious and unashamed we have seen in any legislation in our nation’s history, and a very real threat to the basic civil liberties of the people of Michigan.
There should be an immediate federal investigation launched into this deliberate and coordinated attempt to strip the people of Michigan of their most basic right: the right to determine who governs and to build and to participate in their own communities.
Today, the people of Michigan staged the biggest demonstration in the history of the state’s capitol, to protest the governor’s emergency rule proposal. When Democratic lawmakers proposed an amendment requiring that the no appointed emergency budget manager be contracted for any amount higher than the annual salary of the governor, the Republicans rejected that amendment and voted to allow for-profit firms to take unrestricted sums as compensation for dealing with a “budget emergency”, even if those sums would further deepen the supposed crisis.
hopefully there is still a sane mind somewhere in Michigan government and this will not make it through the Senate. I don't know who voted this man into office, I can honestly say it wasn't me.
Michael Moore, in his address to the Wisconsin protesters, said that classroom size in Detroit has been mandated to 60 students! I have not been able to confirm this, however. My google search resulted only in stories that refute this claim... but with all the disinformation circulating, it's getting harder to discern propaganda from truth.
is fascism by another name. Americans are too trusting. We have been brought up on the notion that we are a free nation governed by democratic principles which many generations have struggled to preserve. We grew up believing that we can trust our government because it is us. The problem is that it's no longer us.
We are headed toward government by corporatocracy (to coin a term), a form of fascism in which corporations run by the super-rich elite buy, own, and control the government and use it against the rest of us. It is shocking that our nation, of all nations, should come to this after being founded on such glorious and benevolent principles of freedom. Where is that nation that was founed in 1776? No longer to be found.
Each day that goes by produces another infringement, another injustice, another lost liberty.
Why isn't this as obvious to others as it is to us?
Noa, the 60 student classroom is being vehemently opposed by parents and teachers. The emergency manager installed in the Detroit Public Schools has proposed 41 schools in the inner city be opened up to corporate investors as charter schools. Rick Snyder, the newly elected governor was on a news snippet speaking when he said he was 'HIRED' to do his job...was that a faux paux? I thought he was elected but maybe I'm wrong!!! I am so disgusted with government in general (and on an almost global level) I don't know what any of us can do on the physical plane, so I keep asking for Divine Light, transparency and intervention from a Higher Source. So many are hurting-without food, shelter, or means to change this in my area-even keeping as positive a mindset as possible one still can't help but feel it deeply.
Commodore, you're absolutely right. These are times when I find it difficult to be proud to be American. We've sat around on our comfortable laurels and watched it get worse and worse. I lived through the Detroit riots in 1967, I find it hard to believe 'we the people' can take much more being 'taken' from us. I pray for peaceful change-may all eyes be opened to the oneness that we are and sweeping change for the highest good of all humanity come to us now.
I thought the answer was for people to wake up and start demanding their rights. After seeing the Wisconsin bill pass into law - in the face of hundreds of thousands of protestors and the Wisconsin 14 holdout - I have to agree with you, Onesong... the American working class has lost control of this country and it doesn't look like we can do much about it.
I also believe that beings in other realms are assisting this planet when we ask for help. As things get worse, I think a lot more people will be praying.
God help us!
Noa