UPDATE: Eclectablog also wrote an excellent diary earlier here on Daily Kos: UPDATEDx2 - And so it begins. Emergency Financial Mgr. fires entire government of Benton Harbor, MI.
The new Michigan law passed by Michigan's Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by Republican Dictator/Governor Rick Snyder which allows the governor to appoint Emergency Financial Managers with broad powers to fire elected officials, break contracts and dissolve towns is already wreaking havoc on the freedoms of people in Michigan, and they need our help!
On April 14, 2011 the Emergency Financial Manager of the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan issued an order stripping all city boards and commissions of their authority to take any action (except for calling a meeting to order, approving the minutes of meetings and adjourning a meeting). The bodies are prohibited under the act from taking any other action without the express authority of the Emergency Financial Manager, Joseph Harris.
See complete article here: Benton Harbor emergency manager strips power from all elected officials - MichiganMessenger.com
I don't know about you, but I believe the actions of the Benton Harbor Emergency Financial Manager are unconstitutional, and that President Obama (an expert in constitutional law) should be speaking out against this outrage!
How can it be constitutional for a political appointee to override the powers of of duly and democratically elected officials? This is a direct attack on democracy! It's fascism, and we should all be outraged!
If you think it's bad about what happened in Benton Harbor, check this out this report from MichiganMessenger.com :
In Pontiac, which along with Benton Harbor, Ecorse and the Detroit Public School system already has an emergency financial manager in place, local police voted to dissolve their union last week.
Michigan Fraternal Order of Police spokesman John Buczek said that Pontiac’s emergency financial manager Michael Stampfler had reduced the city’s police force from over 100 to just 41 and was prepared to lay off more as the new law giving him power to break contracts gained final approval.
The former Pontiac police officers hope to be hired on by the Oakland County Sheriffs Dept., which will take over police service for the town.
Buczek questioned whether Stampfler’s plan for police service would provide adequate coverage for the city of 66,000 and he said that his group is in complete opposition to the new law that gives appointees total control over local governments.
“It would appear once they abolish collective bargaining agreements they can just get rid of police and firefighters as they like,” he said. “The people who still pay taxes in those communities have no say."
Full story at: Emergency Manager law already forcing unions into new concessions - MichiganMessenger.com
Yes, you heard that right, the people who still pay taxes (and cast their votes) no longer have a say about how their communities will be run once an Emergency Financial Manager has been appointed by the governor!
The media, for the most part, has been silent about what is going on in Michigan. And where is President Obama on this issue?
I believe we can help our friends in Michigan by contacting the President to ask him to intervene - or at least use his bully pulpit - to speak out against this travesty!
Here's the contact info:
Contact the Whitehouse (Direct link to send an e-mail)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone Numbers:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
You can also help the people Michigan by supporting their efforts to reclaim their state through recalling their Dictator/Governor Rick Snyder. (Just click on this link): Reclaim Michigan - Recall Rick Snyder
As it says on their recall site:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil... is for good men to do nothing." ~~Edmond Burke