Recall 1983

I am in the process of reprinting an old blog for those of you interested in the history of the 1983 Recalls. the video is very long but, it provides a lot of information.
The blog itself provides my perspective.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Recall 1983

I just finished watching a historical presentation on the recalls of 1983. I can not comment on the other recalls, although I knew the people involved, but I sure can comment on the McCullough Recall because I was smack dab in the middle of it. It was one of the coldest winters I can remember. This was truly a grass roots movement. We had next to no money and we only had our anger to keep us warm.

In the panel presentation, McCollough says he sent out people to present his side of the story. They were like thugs. We had to call the police on them several times. They badgered people who came up to sign. I remember him calling us a dogs breakfast and malcontents. We believed and I still do to this day, that it was some of his supporters who signed the petitions more then once. There were probably others who signed more than once by mistake because we were frequently in front of the same stores over a three month period. Some people may have forgotten if they signed. There were three signatures that appeared on a petition that were forged according to his handwriting specialist. When we investigated those three people said they did indeed sign the petition and we could not find the signatures on other petitions turned in. My question is who would think to hire a handwriting annalist to look over all those petitions unless you expect to find something.

I will also tell you right now that John Engler never had the authority to stop the recall nor did anyone else. They were collected by people who wanted McCollough removed from office and that was not something to be bargained away by anyone in Lansing no matter what they may have said.

Rose Bogaert, Chair
Wayne County Taxpayers Assn.

At Last Victory

I am delighted to announce that in the matter of :

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
SOUTHERN DIVISION

ROSE BOGAERT,
Plaintiff,

File No. 1:08-CV-687

v.

HON. ROBERT HOLMES BELL

TERRI LYNN LAND, individually and in
her official capacity as Michigan Secretary
of State,
Defendant,
ANDREW DILLON, WAYNE COUNTY
CLERK CATHY M. GARRETT, and
WAYNE COUNTY ELECTION
COMMISSION,
Intervenors.

We won! After all is said and done, the taxpayers of the 17th district will get to vote on the recall of Speaker Andy Dillon. If all goes well at the Secretary of States Office and we have no reason to believe it will not, the recall will appear on the November ballot. If you wish to read the whole decision, go to our website and click on Special Reports.

Now the challenge is to remove him from office. Andy Dillon the Taxpayers Villian has many resources behind him but we are hopeful that the people will remember the damage he has helped create in this state and continues to ignore, including higher taxes and a bad business climate

MEA and MESSA v Learning

Yesterday I attended a luncheon where the guest speaker was Kyle Olson who is President of Strategy for the Education Action Group (EAG). The EAG is a group of citizens and School Board leaders who are working together to insure that most tax dollars for education are spent to educate students. They are all about supporting school boards who make those tough decisions. When Michigan Senate Bill 418 passed, it allowed school districts to gain access and obtain anonymously "Health Insurance Claim Data" for bidding purposes and required that they get four competing bids. This video tells one story.

According to Mr. Olson, "the mission of the MEA and MESSA is not to look out for the best interests of the school districts - its to make sure that their members are receiving the best "Compensation and Benefits possible".

I am always befuddled by the fact that over 30% of our taxes go to education and we spend so little time electing qualified people who have lots of backbone to manage our districts.

It is nice to have caring parents on the board and others that reflect the demographics of the district but they need to have skills that will allow them to manage the millions of dollars entrusted to their care.

WCCC Sticks It's Hand Out Again

In an article in The Detroit News, it was indicated that Wayne County Community College will be asking for 1.5 mills on the November ballot. That is $1.50 for every $1,000 of taxable value of your home and property in Wayne County. What has changed since last year. The economy has gotten worse, more people have lost their jobs and must retrain and we have an unprecedented defection from the state. What are the reasons for the failure of the millage last year?

Wayne County Community College history has been marked with distasteful episodes. Classes listed but not held, students enrolled without attending and teachers paid for classes they rarely taught. It is true that of late it has operated much better and has expanded its suburban population to 40%.

So why did they choose to put the millage on last year when it did not expire until 2011? Some say it was to take advantage of a low turnout election. I say it was much more devious than that and they are doing it again. The language referred to in the newspaper this year suggests that they are requesting a renewal, when in reality, a levy of 1.5 mills would actually be an increase. It would undue any gains we would of had for the last 10 years under the Headlee Amendment which has limited the revenue increase to the rate of inflation and rolled the millage back. Since 2001, they have had an increase in student population from 17,000 to 70,000. A number of students require remediation. That means the education we have been paying for the last 12 years has been less than adequate.

I wonder if they know that if the millage is set to take effect as a renewal and passes this year they will have to take any reduction that occurs the next two years until the millage is levied? That was part of an Attorney General decision made this past year.

WCCC says they need to plan. So do we. Will our assessments be up or down in 2011? Will we be in or out of a recession? Will Michigan be in better shape or worse? Will population grow or decline? Will we have the personal revenue to pay for the tax increase, since every level of government is trying to hit us up for more money?

Fancy buildings do not an education make.

No Bumps

I went to a wedding in Ohio over the weekend and the first thing I noticed is that the roads were wonderful. Smooth as a baby's behind. The next thing I noticed is that I didn't have to detour. The part I like best is, there was only one half mile, from the Border to Nelsonville (60 miles past Columbus) that had any construction barrels.

What makes Michigan different? Is the weather so different? It seems we do have two seasons in Michigan, winter and under construction and we do not have the good sense to leave the alternate route from being under construction too. For years, before my mother moved in with me, I had to fight to get from the west side of town to the east side of town because the roads were being worked on. By the time next year would roll around, that stretch of highway needed repair and they were working on repairing a stretch a mile away. I know they are collecting taxes to fix the roads, but I think at some point they should learn to do a good job. Maybe that is the reason there are so few people coming to Michigan. They are having trouble getting here. I might have to rethink that idea because they seem to have little trouble leaving.


Update on my Hydrogen fuel cell. I still have not gotten my odometer replaced, but can sure tell the difference on my gas gage.
to be continued.....

Kwame Ordered to Jail

Kwame Kilpatrick has been ordered to jail for breaking the restrictions of his bond. He not only left the city, he left the country. He went to Canada on city business but the condition of his bond was that he not leave the city. The judge says he is not making the mayor an example. He says he would have put anyone who broke bond in jail.

If Kwame felt the need to leave for the sake of city business, he should have requested permission from the court. This is just another example of how politicians think that the law does not apply to them but only one the people they proport to represent.

Call Speaker Pelosi

Well it is 11:46 am and I have not received my odometer yet. I had previously wrote about the hydrogen fuel cell I put on my car. Well my odometer broke and I don't know how many miles per gallon I'm getting. So it gives me another reason to be angry at Speaker Pelosi as I watch all those dollars pile up at the gas pump.

Please call Speaker Pelosi at 1-202-225-0100 and tell her to call congress back into session for an up or down vote on energy legislation.

In support of this issue "Americans for Prosperity" is sponsoring an interesting event.

Save the Dates
August 13 and August 14

Hot Air Balloon to Stop in Farmington, Kalamazoo

Gas prices are squeezing your budget! Yet some lawmakers in Congress continue to refuse to support free-market measures that would lower energy costs. And global warming alarmists like Al Gore cheer misguided policymakers on by calling for more energy taxes and regulation.

Join Americans for Prosperity's 70-foot-tall hot air balloon in Farmington or Kalamazoo to learn more about the Hot Air in the energy debate. These events will be fun for the whole family and completely free! Bring the kids out for dinner/breakfast and a tethered hot air balloon ride.* The first 50 pre-registrants will receive a free t-shirt.

Farmington (pre-register) THIS ONE IS CLOSE!

5:00 PM -- Wed., August 13

Shiawassee Park (map here)
(at the corner of Shiawassee and Power Roads)
Farmington, MI

Kalamazoo (pre-register)

8:30 AM -- Thurs., August 14

Flesher Field, Oshtemo Township (map here)
3664 South 9th Street
Kalamazoo, MI

Contact Scott Hagerstrom for more information at shagerstrom@afphq.org.

Be sure to forward this e-mail. Encourage folks you know to sign up, including friends from work, family, your college, homeschool group, political group, and other community associations!

One of the driving forces behind Congressional inaction on the energy issue is global warming alarmism. We are working hard to bring you the missing half of the global warming issue. What will the impact of reactionary legislation be on our national economy, local businesses, and even your personal budget?

Voting

At about noon today I went to vote. There were two people at the poles besides the workers. At 6:00 pm my husband went to vote and there were two people there voting. It doesn't seem that the voters are very motivated. My pole has a lot of absentee ballots, but this is ridiculous. I think to many people feel left out. They feel it doesn't matter. They feel beat. Maybe it is presumptuous of me to make that statement, but this is the message that many have related to me. It doesn't seem that it matters what party is in control.

Our system of government seems to be evolving into into an oligarchy (rule by a few) instead of a democratic republic. As an example, the following video shows how one woman in power can control the fate of the entire country by enforcing her will.

It has come to the point where the parties support people because they have a (R) or a (D) after their name principled or not. Maybe we need another lesson in voting and what it means.

Well maybe that was not the lesson we had to learn. In spite of it all I believe that in this country we can make our elected officials responsible again. But if we choose to do nothing we only have ourselves to blame.

Rose Bogaert, Chair
Wayne County Taxpayers Association

Challenge Day One -

I have decided to include some questionable people running for office in Wayne County as part of my blog.

WHO IS THIS PERSON DISGUISED AS A MILD MANNERED POLITICIAN?

• A 35-year homeowner in the district
• A wife, mother, and grandmother
• A life-long Democrat
• A Schoolcraft College Trustee
• An adjunct professor at Madonna University
• District constituent services staff person for Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, Andy Dillon

Joan Gebhardt

• One of the mean, nasty, thugs that followed, harassed, stalked, took pictures and blocked us from collecting signatures for Speaker Andy Dillon's Recall

I wonder how long ago that picture was taken? I have never seen her hair like that or with a sincere smile and her people skills had much to be desired. In fact she was very loud when she talked to us, that is, when she wasn't insincerely grinning. She is running for the Wayne Country Commision 12th district which includes Inkster, Westland and part of Livonia.

I think she would serve us better in the county jail than on the commission. There are a number of undesirables running for office in Wayne County. A lot of them know each other well.

I'm Doing My Part to Reduce Energy

Here I am out on the cutting edge again. This past week my husband , my son and myself had hydrogen fuel cells installed on our cars. My nephew created this thing in the garage of his house in Ohio, where he has a machine shop. He has been working in mechanical and electrical engineering for years. Two days before he came up to install it in my 1993 Crown Victoria (definitely need better mileage there) , my odometer broke. We are running our tests now and it will take a few days for the electronics and oxygen sensors to catch up. My son, who is a chemical engineer, is already getting a 50% increase in his mpg. He can't really tell because he has spent some time time working outside this week in the heat and kept running his pickup truck to get his air conditioner to cool him off.

My husband lives so close to work that we haven't had a real test there, at least not enough to make it meaningful. So that will take some time. I will get my odometer this Wednesday. I did drive to and from Dearborn to Grand Rapids last week and filled up before I left. I had lots of gas left over when I got back. When the car was new it only got 15-18 gallons on the highway. Close as I can figure it only got about 10 mpg in the city before I put this thing on the car.

We will continue to take our mileage test until we get some meaningful data but at these prices I'll take a 40-100% increase in my mpg. I'll let you know how it all works out. He has a really neat design that will fit in any car. I'm really geaked about this.

Did I mention that it works on diesel fueled vehicles as well and that he heated his home with this hydrogen gizmo too.

I was watching TV today and some guy was talking about biofuel from algae. Looks like a plan to me. As far as I'm concerned we can do this thing if congress will get out of our way.

Rose Bogaert