Huge Numbers of Same Day Registrations for Recall

Huge Numbers of Same Day Registrations for Recall | MacIver Institute
A look at the numbers of same day registrants in Milwaukee, Madison and Racine for the recent recall elections.
We will update this chart with additional cities as the information becomes available.

Click on graphic to enlarge.

Michigan Supreme Court to decide if repeal of emergency manager law goes on ballot

Michigan Supreme Court to decide if repeal of emergency manager law goes on ballot | MLive.com
The Michigan Supreme Court will decide if a referendum of the state's emergency financial manager law goes on the November statewide ballot, settling a dispute on whether organizers' petitions had the wrong type size.
The court on Wednesday scheduled oral arguments for July 25.
Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, a group started by current and former business leaders, in late June appealed a ruling from the Court of Appeals that said the issue should proceed to voters.

Visa, MasterCard in $6B settlement over card fees

My Way News - Visa, MasterCard in $6B settlement over card fees
....the settlement is a victory for small businesses across the country because it could ultimately lead to banks lowering the fees they charge stores for customers' credit card purchases.
Landis, who owns Pittsburgh-based financial services firm Basic Business Concepts, said that would be a big relief.
She's now paying 3.75 percent each time a customer pays with a credit card.
If bank card companies reduce the fees they charge her to 2.75 percent, she would save a dollar on every $100 in sales.

Norton Shores drive-in theatre still attracting crowds

Norton Shores drive-in theatre still attracting crowds | wzzm13.com
Michigan was once home to more than 130 drive-in theatres.
Now only ten of them are still open, including The Getty 4 Drive-In Theatre in Norton Shores.

Letters: David Wells best choice in Circuit judge race

Letters: David Wells best choice in Circuit judge race | MLive.com
Muskegon County citizens will vote in next month's Primary Election to select two candidates to replace the exceptional Judge James M. Graves as circuit court judge.
The winners will face off on the General Election ballot in November.
I believe the most important traits necessary in a thoughtful and fair judge are experience and temperament.
Of the six candidates running to replace Graves, David Wells has the most impressive and varied experience.
His experience as a private judge, mediator and circuit court case evaluator combined with his decades of community service also includes his appointment as one of only three non-physicians in the country to the board that monitors and accredits all U.S. osteopathic medical schools.
It is clear that Wells has respect that is acknowledged on a national scale.
But I believe those who know him would say that it is his temperament that sets Wells apart from the other candidates.
Maybe it's because he's the father of an autistic son or the fact that David and Nancy have been foster parents.
Whatever the reason, Wells has an understanding and an empathy for those in need of justice.
Judicial temperament, experience and nationally recognized respect.
If we want an able replacement to one of the most respected judges in Muskegon history, David M. Wells deserves your vote on Aug. 7
FRANCINE M. LESSARD
Muskegon

Market Savior? Stocks Might Be 50% Lower Without Fed

Market Savior? Stocks Might Be 50% Lower Without Fed - CNBC
Theoretically, the S&P 500 [.SPX 1334.76 --- UNCH ] would be more than 50 percent lower—at the 600 level—if the bullish price action preceding Fed announcements was excluded, the study showed.

NBC And Microsoft Reportedly To Announce Split, MSNBC.com Rebranding

On Wednesday afternoon, Howard Kurtz reported that NBC and Microsoft will announce a deal to part ways, with the NBC purchasing back the remainder of MSNBC.com from the software corporation.
Reportedly, the plan entails a rebranding of MSNBC.com as NBCNews.com. The site currently ranks among the top three in online news sites.

Andrea Mitchell Struggles To Respond To Claim Obama Outsourced Jobs Via Stimulus

Andrea Mitchell Struggles To Respond To Claim Obama Outsourced Jobs Via Stimulus | RealClearPolitics
Sununu: [laughing] You're struggling, Andrea. You're struggling.

Mitchell: First of all, these are competing claims and we will get back to you with all of the numbers.

CBO: Top earners pay 68 percent of tax burden

CBO: Top earners pay 68 percent of tax burden | The Daily Caller
The top 20 percent of earners — the top quintile — bore 67.9 percent of the federal tax burden in 2009. The middle quintile paid 9.4 percent, while the lowest paid .03 percent of the federal tax burden.

Report: Thousands fled Canada for health care in 2011

Report: Thousands fled Canada for health care in 2011 | The Daily Caller
The nonpartisan Fraser Institute reported that 46,159 Canadians sought medical treatment outside of Canada in 2011, as wait times increased 104 percent — more than double — compared with statistics from 1993.
Specialist physicians surveyed across 12 specialties and 10 provinces reported an average total wait time of 19 weeks between the time a general practitioner refers a patient and the time a specialist provides elective treatment — the longest they have ever recorded.

Strategic Shopping: A Month-by-Month Analysis

Strategic Shopping: A Month-by-Month Analysis

6 charts that show the Welfare State run amok

6 charts that show the Welfare State run amok | AEIdeas

San Bernardino seeks bankruptcy protection

San Bernardino seeks bankruptcy protection - latimes.com
San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city in less than a month to seek bankruptcy protection, with officials saying the financial situation had become so dire that it could not cover payroll through the summer.

2012 7 10 Courts Public safety

Don't panic yet: The Detroit Free Press isn't closing, but a major change is afoot

Don't panic yet: The Detroit Free Press isn't closing, but a major change is afoot | Crain's Detroit Business
The company will have to tell the U.S. Department of Justice, though, before it can do anything radical.

The Free Press and Detroit News are linked at the hip via a 25-year joint operating agreement signed in 2005 to handle as one business unit the advertising, printing and distribution of the papers.
Under a federal law from the 1970s aimed to preserving newspapers, owners have to inform the feds when significantly changing or terminating a Justice Department-approved JOA.
The Detroit JOA, according to its terms (I have a copy) can be dissolved starting in August 2015 if the newspapers are both unprofitable – what the document calls "newspaper operating losses" sustained by the partnership.

The Eternal Stupidity of Liberalism

The Eternal Stupidity of Liberalism
Consider along these lines the spectacular failures of the USSR, Cuba, China’s communist regime, North Korea, etc.
In fact, there is no country which committed itself to a major socialist or communist makeover that did not thereafter implode.
Further, when Liberalism is applied to other areas of inquiry, the outcome is equally bad—such as so called “family planning,” etc.
So if liberalism is failure incarnate, why the perpetual slavering supplication of its blind, deaf and dumb followers?
Therein lies the mystery.

Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant

Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant
Today, a single Apple product—the iPhone—generates more revenue than all of Microsoft’s wares combined.

Conservatives Are Happier, and Extremists Are Happiest of All

Conservatives Are Happier, and Extremists Are Happiest of All - NYTimes.com
WHO is happier about life — liberals or conservatives?
The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking.
And it was the candidate Barack Obama in 2008 who infamously labeled blue-collar voters “bitter,” as they “cling to guns or religion.”

Obviously, liberals must be happier, right?
Wrong.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there.
 As noted here earlier, we don’t need more scientists, we need better ones.
“I was talking with someone the other day who advanced the proposition that there are probably only 50 really first-rate scientific minds produced in the United States every year.
And then came the question:
Does the current system of training and funding scientists encourage those 50 to stay in the game, or to find something else to do?”

Pennsylvania city workers to take mayor to court over across-the-board minimum wage salaries

Pennsylvania city workers to take mayor to court over across-the-board minimum wage salaries | Fox News
Employees of a Pennsylvania city, who have all seen their salaries cut to minimum wage as the mayor grapples with budget problems, are hoping a judge restores their paychecks in full.

NAACP Requires Photo I.D. to See Holder Speak in State Being Sued Over Voter ID

NAACP Requires Photo I.D. to See Holder Speak in State Being Sued Over Voter ID - Katie Pavlich
Earlier today, Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the NAACP Nation Convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
What did media need in order to attend? That's right, government issued photo identification (and a second form of identification too!), something both Holder and the NAACP stand firmly against when it comes to voting.
Holder's DOJ is currently suing Texas for "discriminatory" voter ID laws. From the press release:
All media must present government-issued photo I.D. (such as a driver’s license) as well as valid media credentials. Members of the media must RSVP to receive press credentials at http://action.naacp.org/page/s/registration.
For security purposes, media check-in and equipment set up must be completed by 7:45 a.m. CDT for an 8:00 a.m. CDT security sweep.
Once the security sweep is completed, additional media equipment will NOT be permitted to enter and swept equipment will NOT be permitted to exit.

Ironically, NAACP President Ben Jealous railed against voter ID just before Holder took the stage.

2012-7-10 Human Resources

Muskegon County Board of Commissioners

Muskegon County Board of Commissioners:
MEETING NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE MUSKEGON COUNTY BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS ON THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2012, 3:30 P.M., BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ROOM, 4TH FLOOR, MICHAEL E. KOBZA HALL OF JUSTICE, 990 TERRACE STREET, MUSKEGON, MI 49442.
MARVIN ENGLE, CHAIRMAN
BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
POSTED: 7-9-12, 10:00 A.M.

Steps in the double-talk direction

Steps in the double-talk direction - NYPOST.com
Our president has a funny way with words when it comes to describing the lousy economy.
Even for an election year, some of his whoppers would be laughable — if they weren’t coming from a man who wants to remain in charge of the country and its floundering economy for another four years

EyeOnMuskegon 7-8-2012 Primary election review

EyeOnMuskegon 7-8-2012

With Andy Fink and Sean Mullalley!

Santelli: 'Euro Titanic' Hits the Iceberg

Santelli: 'Euro Titanic' Hits the Iceberg
Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party leader, discusses Europe's looming fiscal crisis, and the problems with bailouts, with CNBC's Rick Santelli.

UN Report Pushes Global Taxes to Fight Poverty

UN Report Pushes Global Taxes to Fight Poverty
The United Nations continues to reveal itself as the main advocate and vehicle for global government, this time by pushing for a global tax on the wealthy to finance development and other needs worldwide, including so-called climate change.
The “billionaires' tax,” as its been dubbed, has been proposed by the UN's World Economic Social Survey (WESS), which asserts that it will raise nearly $400 billion a year. UN officials claim that such a tax is necessary to push the global body’s agenda “in the midst of difficult financial times.” Survey author Rob Vos, director of the UN's Development Policy and Analysis Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, declared in a statement,

Donor countries have fallen well short of their aid commitments and development assistance declined last year because of budget cuts, increasing the shortfall to $167 billion.

Although donors must meet their commitments, it is time to look for other ways to find resources to finance development needs and address growing global challenges, such as combating climate change.

We are suggesting various ways to tap resources through international mechanisms, such as coordinated taxes on carbon emissions, air traffic, and financial and currency transactions.

This year’s WESS includes provisions for a currency transaction tax of .005 percent, to be imposed on all trading of the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen, and the pound sterling.
CNS News provides some background:

The European Union’s executive Commission has proposed the introduction of such a tax — 0.1 percent for shares and bonds and 0.01 percent for derivatives — in the 27-member union with effect from January 1, 2014, an initiative expected to raise just over $70 billion a year. The WESS says a portion of that could be earmarked for international cooperation.

Don't panic yet: The Detroit Free Press isn't closing, but a major change is afoot

Don't panic yet: The Detroit Free Press isn't closing, but a major change is afoot | Crain's Detroit Business

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Scott Walker Prepares To Reform Higher Education

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE
Scott Walker Prepares To Reform Higher Education. Walter Russell Mead comments:
Change has to come.
After World War Two the United States built its modern university system by extending a model that was originally intended to groom the sons of a social elite to succeed their fathers as government and business leaders to manage the preparation of tens of millions of people for the business of life.
The template doesn’t work in many cases, and the result increasingly is that training and job preparation takes too long and costs too much.
The problem isn’t that America has “too much” education.
The problem is that a 21st century society needs to be able to teach more skills to more people at a much lower cost and in much less time than our 20th century institutions can manage.
It’s really that simple.

The most urgent business of a state university system at this point must be to reform and improve the kind of education (in many cases, training) that can enable the state’s citizens of any and every age to acquire skills and prepare themselves to flourish in a rapidly changing economy.

Michigan State Students React To New Bridge Card Regulations