Well, everyone worried about Ted Kennedy’s death and what it would mean to any meaningful change to the health care system in the United States.  Apart from all the unwarranted hysteria about the Kennedy curse (he was old and he died…), I thought the press handled it pretty well, including The Kosmopolitan Online, which wrote a couple of nice editorials on Ted’s contributions to the Senate and how he was a one-man filibuster and so on and so forth.  I have to admit I never liked the guy, but staunchness and constancy aren’t very well spoken for in our representation, apart from on the extremely local level.  The paradigmatic Kennedy contributed a lot to health care reform while he was alive; he contributed even more by dying, creating an inamorata around which the Democrats could rally.  Democratic zeal for health care after his death is what got the legislation this far.

But now it’s fucked.

In an impossible victory, Scott Brown (R) defeated Martha Coakley (D) approximately 53 to 47 percent to take the late senator’s seat in Massachusetts.  The usually overwhelmingly democratic Massachusetts shocked the polity by electing to the senate the 41st member of the GOP, which keeps alive the Republican filibuster for the Senate health care bill.  President Obama’s first year in office is shot (unless he’s out of the country), and Democrats can wave goodbye any hopes of an expeditious piece of legislation.

Martha, Martha, Martha

I would understand if Martha Coakley had been in some kind of drug scandal and lost the election; I would understand if she was an ineffective campaigner.  No, I think Martha Coakley is another name for President Barack Obama and His Administration…Most democrats seem to have lost a little faith in their “change is coming” mantra, with frustration permeating throughout the House and Senate at the longevity of this convoluted health care bill.  Granted, the death of the champion probably didn’t help, but someone famous once said that things will one day be judged by the content of their character instead of outward appearances.

Scott Brown’s campaign platform makes the election even more painful for democrats to swallow: he actively opposes the health care legislation in the House and Senate.

It doesn’t help that Obama had a bad year.  What makes things worse is that he knows and admits that the year was bad, calling the Christmas Day attack of the Northwest airliner “a systematic failure” on the part of the administration.  The economy’s positive response to the senatorial election can almost entirely be attributed to increased faith in drug companies which would otherwise have been negatively impacted by the President’s health care package.  That’s sickening.

I think it’s funny that Scott Brown once posed nude for Cosmopolitan – it means we’re breaking down this crusty, white male paradigm of “what a politician should be” (iniquitous, venal, etc.).  I just wish Scott Brown was a (D).  Sigh…

In the last few months, speculation has abounded regarding the November 2010 Michigan gubernatorial election. But both sides face the same issue: electability in a general election for a likely primary winner. For the Democratic Party, the frontrunner seems to be Lieutenant Governor John Cherry, who despite his support from the party establishment is staring down opposition from the Obama White House because of his perceived lack of electability. He is trailed by State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (D – Washtenaw) and former State Rep. John Freeman. The Republicans have lined up an assortment of typical party faithful including Attorney General Mike Cox, US Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R – Holland), State Sen. Tom George, Huron County Commissioner Tim Rujan, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, and Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder. Rep. Hoekstra is polling as the frontrunner at this time, closely followed by AG Cox, but both would be significantly hampered by preexisting issues – Hoekstra by allegations that he leaked sensitive intelligence over his Twitter account, Cox by controversy surrounding his handling of an investigation into a Kwame Kilpatrick party at the Manoogian Mansion.

Mayor Bernero of Lansing presents an obvious alternative to the ticket of establishment candidates offered by both sides, but my support for the Mayor is because of more than just his electability. Bernero was able to facilitate more than $500 million in new investment within Lansing in his first term as Mayor, and was recently validated by voters in his bid for another four years in the office. In this election, he stacked up endorsements from an almost impossibly wide swath of interest groups and individuals on his way to collecting sixty-two percent of the vote as he handily disposed of his nearest rival, Councilwoman Carol Wood. Voters recognized his record, as he served in the State House of Representatives and Senate prior to taking office as Mayor, as well as serving four terms on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and showing promise in a private career at Alma College as well as Michigan Association for Children with Emotional Disorders.

Although the election remains eleven months off, it is not too early to recognize both the dearth of actually qualified candidates and the prowess of a few. Join us as we move Michigan out of our seemingly permanent position as laughingstock of the country, and forward into the new century. In considering a run for Governor in 2010, Bernero said Granholm’s legacy is Cherry’s “cross to bear.” These words bear an indisputable truth, but they need not be entirely discouraging. This can be the year we finally unite around a common hope, and demand a change from the establishment-dominated politics that have characterized our state for too long. Say no to the “inevitable” choice, and yes to Virg Bernero.

Milk Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black

Thanks to the state legislature, Michigan has become the premier market for motion picture filming outside of Hollywood. The Michigan Film Incentive Program has brought vitalized growth to our movie industry. Chances are at some point over the past year (or in the near future), a Michigan made picture will be making its way to a theater near you. The most recent example was the directorial debut of E.T. darling Drew Barrymore, Whip It, starring Ellen Page.  Barrymore had these wonderful things to say about Michigan, “Michigan was such a great place to film. I hope to come back and film again, there are so many great places to shoot. I was so lucky to have made my film here. I’m the grateful one, I promise you.” Clint Eastwood raved about the state after the completion of 2008’s Gran Torino, “Michigan will be the new film capital of the world.” Michigan, for once in recent future, seemed to making strides in the right direction.

Two weeks ago I was notified by a friend at Hope College that Dustin Lance Black (Writer of Milk [2008]) was in Holland shooting his follow up. Eager, I researched the project only to find that it would be bringing big names like Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly to Western Michigan. The news made me ecstatic: one of the biggest up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriters had enough faith (or at least incentives) in Michigan to choose it for his latest project.

Recently, students at Hope College reached out to Black and asked that he come and present at an open forum on homosexual rights. While this movement was student orientated, school administration has decided to ban Black from speaking. Richard Frost, Hope College Dean of Students, stated that, “from past experience, strongly-opinionated speakers usually don’t further academic discussions about gay, lesbian or transgender issues.” Instead, Frost opted to invite Black to give an educational lecture to the screenwriting department.

Dustin Lance Black has a lot to say on hope for LGBT-Q equality. While accepting his Academy Award for Screenwriting, Black said, “When I was thirteen years old my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California and I heard the story of Harvey Milk and it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope to one day live my life as openly as I am and maybe I could even one day fall in love and get married.”

As long as institutions continue to suppress issues–teaching hate–and ignore homosexuality, hope will never exist. President Obama challenged the American population on election night, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.” I can only hope that we are at the dawn of a revolution where people understand that the founding fathers, a group of men driven by Christian beliefs, had in mind a nation where “all men are created equal.”

As I’m sure many readers are already aware, the Michigan state legislature sent a series of emergency continuation budgets to Governor Granholm’s desk at around 2 am the morning of October 1, narrowly avoiding a shutdown of state government and sending the state’s services into what was essentially regarded the 13th month of fiscal year 2009. Four weeks later, we are still at an impasse, and the only real changes have been strategic ones.

Governor Jennifer Granholm

The governor recently announced the necessity of a further series of cuts to education, bringing the total dollar value of cuts up to $289 per student if new revenues are not raised. Despite Majority Leader Bishop’s willingness to meet with Granholm, and the Senate Republican’s final decision to send the six budget bills passed by both chambers to her desk, his caucus remains obstinate on new sources of revenue. A proposed tax on physicians yielded a weak astroturf effort at lobbying Democratic votes from affluent districts, yet failed along partisan lines.

Granholm has vowed to exercise her line-item veto power and sign the remaining budget bills to make the necessary cuts to higher education, human services, and community health, among others – a scenario that looks more and more likely as Senate Republicans continue to kill new revenue ideas. But if she doesn’t do this by the end of the month, a deadline that has been firmly set for weeks yet now is just hours away, she would effectively be forcing state government into a partial shutdown until a compromise is reached and the 2010 budget is passed in its entirety.

Many observers are speculating that she will do this intentionally, as a means of forcing the Senate to pass new forms of revenue. This would be one hell of a political move, evoking images of the Daley family in Illinois more than Granholm in Michigan. It would be going back on her promise to sign these six bills once Sen. Bishop sent them to her desk, and it would make her directly responsible for the shutdown. Lt. Gov. Cherry may not be a supporter of this decision, since it is certainly not without risk for her entire administration, and he is the unquestionable Democratic frontrunner for the 2010 gubernatorial race. But if she is truly a supporter of the programs intended to serve as her legacy (the last eight years would seem to indicate that she is), the next few days should prove to be interesting at the very least.

Exclusive Update

Sources confirmed new breaking developments over the last few hours, exclusive to The Kosmopolitan. Wednesday, October 28, House freshmen drafted a letter to be sent to Governor Granholm, Leader Bishop, and Speaker Dillon asking that they stop playing politics and finish the budget. A response was sent late Thursday, casting an ultimatum: that freshmen have until December 1 to find agreeable new revenue sources from which to fund the deficit in the K-12 budget, for FY 2010 and into the future. This would seem to imply that lawmakers will be given until December 1 to fund other shortages as well, including the Department of Community Health and higher education. If this transitive assumption proves true, it is safe to assume that the Senate will pass another continuation budget, extending purgatory for the state another 30 days.