Our governor

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "set one's P.C. sensibilities aside, see a joke in the notion that a deaf, dumb, blind and dead person could out govern our current Governor."

Ok............Still not funny.

[rb336]

Anybody that thinks the current governor is effective at anything is seriously lacking in judgment.

Part of what I don't understand about the argument is bringing up Engler. Whether you like him or hate him, who cares? He's been out of office almost eight years now. It shouldn't come up anymore, and if you use your dislike of him to answer any question about Granholm's effectiveness, it's a diversion tactic plain and simple.

Diversion from what? From the brutal and obvious fact that Granholm has been ineffective in every way since she has been in office.

Fact -
More companies have relocated, or signed on to relocate to Michiganin the last 4 years than under all twelve of Engler's combined

Fact -
She got Toyota the land for their US engineering center instead of yet another dead-end residential development

Fact -
Electrolux and Lifesavers left Western Mich. because the state could not afford to beat the incentives the Bushies were offering the companies to leave

Fact -
The righties have spent the time bitching about how she won't change things THEY never even tried to change when they had three branches of state government all locked up

Fact -
The decline in the auto industry was not her fault

Fact -
Most of what has happened in Michigan could not have been prevented by ANY governor or state legislative body. The right seems to find it convenient to ignore the fact that several states that had the highest growth rates had WORSE tax structures for business than Michigan [[I posted Forbes articles to this forum at the time)

[sirrealone]

I've heard it before, rb336, none of the growth that happened when Engler was here had anything to do with him and none of the decline that Michigan has seen lately has anything to do with Granholm.

Isn't that the common answer?

I think it's become just words at this point.

And, actually, a lot of what you said was correct and I touched on it in my post. I mentioned that there wasn't a lot that Granholm could do about the recession or about the downsizinig.

But, my point was and still is, that she's done precious nothing to address the problems that have resulted from those things. She hasn't been willing to make cuts that are necessary when you talk about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost here. She hasn't been willing to re-structure the tax code to attract new businesses here.

And speaking of new business, please shed some light on your first point. Because, if what you said is true, that more companies have re-located here than ever did under Engler, then why are we seeing unemployment levels through the roof? Because it doesn't even out. I think a lot of the 'new companies' that have popped up are people hanging out their shingle when they can't find a job anywhere else. Technically, that might show as a new business, but are you really going to tell me that this is a positive, because I don't buy it.

The only 'relocation' I see is when house after house in my neighborhood goes up for sale, and the inevitable conclusion to the subsequent conversation is that they've been relocated...out of state. So far, nobody that's moved in has been relocated to Michigan. So, I'd love to see where all of these inbound people are, because I haven't seen it.

The Helen Keller thing wasn't meant to offend, sorry if it did. I just wanted to point out that there is, in my eyes, little difference between our governor and someone without a pulse.

[rb336]

I've heard it before, rb336, none of the growth that happened when Engler was here had anything to do with him and none of the decline that Michigan has seen lately has anything to do with Granholm.

What growth? there was no growth under Engler, except for the wallets/bank accounts of his cronies when he looted the rainy day fund

[rb336]

And speaking of new business, please shed some light on your first point. Because, if what you said is true, that more companies have re-located here than ever did under Engler, then why are we seeing unemployment levels through the roof? Because it doesn't even out. I think a lot of the 'new companies' that have popped up are people hanging out their shingle when they can't find a job anywhere else.

let's see -- billions invested by toyota, billions by hemlock semi-conductor for starters. jobs aren't instantaneous, but these and other major moves [[unisolar, GE alt energy engineering with 1400 engineering jobs, etc, etc.) are laying a very firm foundation for growth

[ccbatson]

Maybe Rb defines growth as something other than economic growth defined by income, employment, state productivity, consumer spending, etc. That could explain his assertion that there was no growth under Engler.

[rb336]

Maybe Rb defines growth as something other than economic growth defined by income, employment, state productivity, consumer spending, etc. That could explain his assertion that there was no growth under Engler.

none of that actually happened under Engler, except in the first half of his first term, due largely to programs introduced by Blanchard

[ccbatson]

Absolutely none of it happened.....EXCEPT...classic and hilarious Rb.

[Pam]

and see a joke in the notion that a deaf, dumb, blind and dead person

Helen Keller was not "dumb" in either sense of the word.

[Sstashmoo]

"Dumb" in that era meant one was not able to speak. Horrible choice of term.

[Pam]

"Dumb" in that era meant one was not able to speak. Horrible choice of term.

I know that, but she did learn to speak and even gave speeches.

[gnome]

Link? ... I've seen films of Ms. Keller speak through her aides, but have never heard her voice. I'd love to hear what she sounded like.

Could you explain why you think Sierralone was making fun of Ms Keller? This seems to be an important issue for, I'd like to understand your point of view.

[Pam]

Link? ... I've seen films of Ms. Keller speak through her aides, but have never heard her voice. I'd love to hear what she sounded like.

Could you explain why you think Sierralone was making fun of Ms Keller? This seems to be an important issue for, I'd like to understand your point of view.

Video of Helen and her teacher:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1uLfF35Uw

Helen Keller was a highly intelligent person by all accounts, so maybe she would have been a better Governor than Gov. Granholm, [[hypothetically of course) but he was just using her as an example of someone with a disability. Cheap shot.

In any case, I think Gov. Granholm is doing a decent job. Do all you Granholm haters really think Dick DeVos would be doing so much better? Remind us again what his jobs program was? He never mentioned it.

[sirrealone]

Well, as I said, her biggest 'disability' is that she is dead, and I still think that she would make a better governor than our current one. If that's the issue that you really want to latch onto, go ahead. Granholm is still a terrible governor.

[sirrealone]

let's see -- billions invested by toyota, billions by hemlock semi-conductor for starters. jobs aren't instantaneous, but these and other major moves [[unisolar, GE alt energy engineering with 1400 engineering jobs, etc, etc.) are laying a very firm foundation for growth

So, in five years, we're going to be blown away?

[ccbatson]

Pressuring a 3% tax on Doctors to get passed by Congress and threaten crippling of Michigan's health care resources is pretty impressive for a "dead" Governor.