Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

In contrast to the Tea Party, union members protesting in Michigan’s capital city of Lansing Tuesday were hailed by many as modern day heroes, even though they physically assaulted a Fox News contributor and tore down an Americans for Prosperity tent near the capitol building. Because, you know, that’s what democracy looks like. Or something.

The left is understandably outraged over the passage of Michigan’s right-to-work legislation, as statistics show unions in right-to-work states are significantly weakened. But they brought this upon themselves. The moderate Republican Governor Rick Snyder has repeatedly said right-to-work legislation was “not on my agenda,” and has done a praiseworthy job of working with both Republicans and Democrats during his first two years in office. But labor unions forced his hand when they sought to enshrine collective bargaining rights into Michigan’s Constitution with a ballot proposal last month. The proposal failed by a 15 point margin, so conservatives made a bold decision to take up right-to-work legislation, even though most polls show Michiganders are split on the issue.

Whether or not Governor Snyder will pay a political price for his acquiescence is unknown. He isn’t up for re-election until 2014, and there is talk that boisterous Senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer will run against him, but other Midwestern Governors who battled the unions, most notably Scott Walker, came out on the winning side.

Not only has Michigan been a hotbed of activity for economic conservatives, it has quietly become one of the most socially conservative states in the country. Just last week, state Senators passed a set of bills that will prevent insurance plans in Michigan’s Obamacare exchange, as well as private plans, from covering elective abortions. Coverage for abortions can still be included in the plans, but the policyholder will have to pay an additional premium for the service. The Senate also passed expanded conscience protections for institutions and individuals who have moral objections to providing or performing services that violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

Ed Rivet, legislative director of Right to Life of Michigan, noted the significance of the legislation: “We’ve lived for 40 years with abortion being built into most benefit plans, and you have to opt the coverage out of the plan. Now, it’s reversed. Now, if it’s abortion coverage, you can still have it, but you have to add it.” The bills, once signed into law, would make Michigan the 18th state in the union with restrictions on abortion coverage in the looming Obamacare exchanges.

This gentleman is expressing his displeasure with Steven Crowder's opinions.

A group of anti-choice thugs got violent in Michigan today when the state government passed legislation that would give people the ability to choose.

The choice, of course, is whether to join a workplace union or not. Michigan passed a Right to Work statute, and it awaits Governor Snyder’s signature, which will probably come tomorrow.

The unions didn’t like the idea that some workers might actually refuse to let their wages be garnished to line the pockets and fund the political goals of the union brass—goals often as cross-purposes with the actual interests of the union members, and in the case of teachers, certainly at odds with the actual well-being of the students.

So naturally the unions went to Lansing, ostensibly to demonstrate peacefully. But a not-insignficant number of them, with their knives and boxcutters and potty-mouths, violently ripped down the tent housing activities for Americans for Prosperity—a pro-Right to Work group—RIGHT ON TOP OF THE PEOPLE INSIDE including women and senior citizens. One thug bearing the emblem of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on his jacket, assaulted a pro-Right to Work activist, Steven Crowder, punching him four times in the face and chipping one of his teeth. Another thug threatened to kill people, boasting he had done so many times. Watch the video—WARNING: *censored* bad language, but it’s pretty clear what the thugs are saying.

Meantime, the police had to set up a cordon of riot gear-clad police officers around the building where the governor has his office. Is this America? Or Tehran?

All of this for what grave injustice? Simply because they are concerned a few workers might be able to get contracts similar to theirs (or better, even) without paying union dues.

The horror.

Compare that to the annual March for Life. (Marches, plural, nowadays, with them happening in locations other than Washington, D.C.)

Hundreds of thousands of protestors gather in various capital cities to protest the legalization of the violent killing of unborn human persons. Not a punch is thrown, not a tent pulled down, not a knife is brandished, not an angry curse word shouted in wrath. And these marches are over a matter that truly is life or death for millions of persons, and the great harm done to the mothers and fathers from the violence of the act and lost parenthood.

The anti-choice thugs in Michigan are getting frothy spittle violent over an opportunity for choice in employment arrangement. The pro-life people who gather annually simply rally, march, and pray.

Either pro-lifers aren’t passionate enough about life; or the anti-choice union thugs need a lesson in proportion and peaceful protesting.

I’m with the latter: stage your protest, sure, but keep in mind what actually matters and keep your hands to yourself. (In other words, apply those lessons your mother taught you: play nice, and quit throwing a foot-stomping tantrum.)

Electable? When the playing field is fair, that's Rick.

Part of the Conventional Wisdom of GOP primary season 2012 has been that Romney is the “most electable” of the GOP contenders.

Somehow that’s supposed to make us forget his absolute unreliability on pretty much everything that matters to conservatives. “Anyone but Obama” doesn’t mean we want someone who will slow down and manage better the decline of U.S., Inc.

Romney has won four primaries. But his victories have come in his own back yard (New Hampshire), including a state that sends Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to the Senate (Maine); a state with a heavy Mormon population (Nevada); and a state where he simply drowned the opposition in cash (Florida). So given a really fair fight he hasn’t won.

Contrast that with Santorum taking Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, four fairly different states, none near his home state, with different political tendencies, and all battleground states in the general election, despite a much smaller organization and far less money.

And Public Policy Polling has Santorum slightly ahead (but within the MoE) this primary election day morning in MICHIGAN. Remember: Michigan is Mitt Romney’s real home state and the state where his dad was a popular governor and his family is still active. For Romney, Michigan is pretty much a must-win. But since Michigan awards her delegates proportionally, even if Romney technically wins by a few percentage points—after spending scads of money in a state he should win handily—Santorum’s strong showing is still quite significant.

I’ve not been the most ardent Santorum supporter, torn among Perry, Gingrich, and him, but a podcast up today with the Wall Street Journal‘s James Taranto (hat tip to Ben Domenech) has me a little more comfortable in a Santorum nomination.

In short, while Santorum has been presented as too extreme to take on Obama and win, the polling and electoral trends have been in his favor, even as people *have* come to know him more and digest the media and Romney attacks/distortions they’ve been fed.

I still think I would prefer a Gingrich presidency, but since his negatives have been hovering north of Obama’s, making his chances of getting elected even lower, I could go for a Santorum candidacy.

One despicable leftist ad showed a Republican pushing a grandmother off of a cliff.

Christmas comes early for Paul Ryan. Politifact calls the claim that “Republicans voted to end Medicare” as the “Lie of the Year 2011.” http://is.gd/vgJWIm

GOP unhappiness with the field fuels buzz for Jeb Bush. http://is.gd/0rsajT

Dissident, pro-abortion, lesbian ex-nun leaves the Catholic Church and becomes an Anglican priest. http://is.gd/Nr1iE6

Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association endorses Newt Gingrich. http://is.gd/SRZF13

UPDATED: Iowa social conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats endorses Rick Santorum. (I thought he was leaning toward Perry recently). http://is.gd/lJY3V5

President Obama seriously thinks he’s the fourth best president ever. Maybe higher. http://is.gd/o9QYjO

Good news: Support for the death penalty continues to decline. http://is.gd/2K22nu

Iowa Republicans worry if Ron Paul wins the Iowa caucuses that it will ignored in future years. http://is.gd/9B2gSX

Awesome: Michigan withdraws $200,000 grant to Planned Parenthood. http://is.gd/H02uOf

Lame: The city council of Duluth (4th largest city in Minnesota) votes to oppose state marriage amendment drive. Jeff Anderson, who brought up the resolution, is planning to run for Congress against Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack. http://is.gd/sZroEA

National Democrats don’t want a repeat of their special election loss in NY-9. They are flooding Oregon’s special election to be held on Jan. 31 with $1 million in ads. The election is being held in OR-1 after Democrat Rep. David Wu resigned after a sex scandal. http://is.gd/TroWPy

A new study release this week by a team of Italian scientists gives more evidence for the Shroud of Turin’s authenticity. http://is.gd/YGLS8G

Obama would lose Pennsylvania if the election were held today, says Paul Kanjorski. http://cvote.to/9B  Kanjorski is a Democrat from Scranton who lost his House seat in 2010.

And by the way, CatholicVote.org’s PAC had something to do with that defeat. http://cvote.to/9C  

Fred Barnes has a must-read article on the unheralded successes of the pro-life movement, which I didn’t notice until now. http://cvote.to/9A

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is expected to announce a run for governor in days. Cuccinelli is a pro-life Catholic who gained national attention for filing a lawsuit against Obamacare. The election will be held in 2013. http://cvote.to/9D

I love Tim Pawlenty, but his explanation of why he ‘whiffed’ on attacking Romney over “Obamneycare” is just painful. http://cvote.to/9E

A local union leader in Michigan writes in the Detroit News about how the new EPA regulations will ‘devastate’ his state’s economy. http://cvote.to/9F

The Illinois Supreme Court to hear parental notification case. http://cvote.to/9G

The latest poll by McClatchy/Marist looks bad for President Obama’s re-election efforts. “By a margin of 49 percent to 36 percent, voters said they definitely plan to vote against Obama, according to the poll. Independents by 53 percent to 28 percent said they definitely plan to vote against him… Even among Democrats, 31 percent think the Republican nominee will win.” Sounds good to me. http://cvote.to/42

Mitt Romney is catching up to Rick Perry. The former Massachusetts governor trails Perry 28% to 24%. The four point gap is smaller than the 11 point distance that Perry enjoyed before his first debate. Michele Bachmann’s slide continues. She stands at just 8% in this Rasmussen poll. Others: Gingrich 9%, Cain 7%, Paul 6%, Santorum 3%, Huntsman 2% and McCotter 1%. Eleven percent were undecided. http://cvote.to/43

Executives from Solyndra will plead the Fifth, refusing to testify at a House investigative committee. The Obama administration awarded the green energy firm a $535 million grant in May 2010. Earlier this month, just 16 months after the grant, the company went bankrupt. The company’s owner, George Kaiser, helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. http://cvote.to/45

Kudos to Saint Francis University of Pennsylvania. They pulled an invitation to Ellen Goodman to speak after the Cardinal Newman Society called public attention to her abortion advocacy. The University said: “After careful consideration, the University felt Ms. Goodman’s body of work has reflected statements that are not in close enough alignment with some Catholic teachings and with the values and mission of the University as required for an event of this stature on the Saint Francis campus.” http://cvote.to/47

Other articles of interest:

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the early retirement of Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis due to health problems. The see is vacant, as is the case in Denver and Baltimore. http://cvote.to/46

The Michigan State Senate expected to vote on partial-birth abortion ban today http://cvote.to/48

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles remembers Dolores Hope’s “deep, abiding faith.” The widow of Bob Hope was a major benefactor of Catholic causes. She died Monday at the age of 102. http://cvote.to/49

The California GOP keeps its party platform pro-life – for now. http://cvote.to/4A

Great news from the Granite State: Pro-abortion Democrat John Lynch, who professes to be Catholic, won’t seek re-election to a fifth two-year term as governor of New Hampshire. His decision opens the race for governor wide open. Pro-life Catholic Ovide Lamontagne, who lost to (now Senator) Kelly Ayotte, is running for the GOP nomination. http://cvote.to/3Q

The Pennsylvania GOP (which controls the Legislature and Governor’s mansion) is considering changing the distribution of electoral college votes in the Keystone state from the current winner-take-all to allocating them by Congressional district. http://cvote.to/3R While considered a swing state, Democrats have won the state every presidential election since 1988. No Democrat has won a presidential election without Pennsylvania in over 60 years. If the proposal becomes law, Obama will have a tougher time reaching 270 votes. But Pennsylvania Republicans might face a backlash from independent voters that put them in control of the Legislature in 2010.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature are considering a proposal that would ban the research use of cells derived from fetal tissue in Wisconsin. Joel Schmidt, a biochemist and Catholic blogger has more details. http://cvote.to/3S

In Michigan, Republican legislators have submitted six different bills to increase school choice, including lifting the cap on the number of charter schools. http://cvote.to/3T

Other articles of interest:

Bad news for Obama administration: The Treasury Department has joined in the investigation of Solyndra, the now bankrupt company that was a touted as a model of President Obama’s green energy program. http://cvote.to/3U

Your tax dollars at “work”: Almost $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error over the last three years, according to data from the Labor Department. http://cvote.to/3V

Requests for unemployment benefits last week jumped to the highest level in three months, a sign that layoffs could be increasing. http://cvote.to/3W