Free Republic

Although details are not yet clear, according to early reports Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed Michigan Business Tax replacement appears to be good news for advocates of sound economic policy. Whatever the final details, lowering the tax burden on job providers and making the system much less complex will surely provide a boost for commerce in the Great Lakes State. Arguably of equal importance, press reports are saying the governor’s proposal would also end the Michigan Economic Growth Authority’s selective corporate tax break and subsidy program, and the state film subsidies as well. Research by Mackinac Center analysts shows that, at...

Redskins owner Dan Snyder filed a $2 million lawsuit Wednesday against the parent company of the Washington City Paper. The suit stems from an article written by City Paper reporter Dave McKenna in November. In the lawsuit filed in New York, Snyder says that the City Paper has "engaged in an ongoing campaign" to "smear his business and personal reputation," has published more than 50 columns in which he "was the subject of derision, ridicule and/or vilification," and that the November cover story on him "featured an anti-Semitic depiction of Mr. Snyder with horns on his head, bushy eyebrows, and...

Live thread on the State of the State address (cause I didn't see one started)...

This excellent article was published in the Detroit News (which can't be posted here due to copyright complaint). It is an excellent response to the RINOS and "moderate Republicans" who are whining and crying how the Tea Party lost the Senate for the Rs. Here's the link.

Updated: Tuesday, 02 Nov 2010, 8:00 PM EDT Published : Tuesday, 02 Nov 2010, 8:00 PM EDT GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Rick Snyder, the self-proclaimed "One Tough Nerd," is projected to become Michigan's next governor over Democrat Virg Bernero. Republican Snyder will take over as the state's 48th governor when he succeeds Jennifer Granholm in January. A two-term governor, Granholm was unable to run again for the office due to term limits.

You read it correctly. Despite the Democratic Party running the state of Michigan into the ground for the last twenty years and the current Great Recession hobbling the state further it seemed like almost an impossibility for a Republican to win a statewide race in Michigan. However, in the race to replace outgoing terrible Governor Jennifer Granholm a Republican has taken a wide lead in that state's race. This polling has been done by several local news organizations, including the Detroit Free Press. While this would lead to the poll to be less accurate than national firms it still appears...

Did you ever think you would see Republicans winning Michigan by a rout? Republican Rick Snyder holds a dominating 22 percentage point lead over Democrat Virg Bernero in the Nov. 2 election for governor, according to a new poll. Snyder leads Bernero, 51%-29%, with 20% undecided, according to the poll by EPIC/MRA released exclusively to the Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-Channel 7. Snyder’s appeal is especially strong among independent voters, who favor him 50%-15% — with 35% undecided. There are several GOP House challengers who will appreciate the top-of-the-ticket help.

Snyder Includes Money for LR Shooting Victims in BillBy The Associated Press 5/24/2010 9:18:12 AM LITTLE ROCK -- An addition to an amendment of a defense spending bill being considered by the U.S. House this week could mean money for victims of the shootings last June outside a Little Rock military recruiting center. During a meeting of the House's Armed Services Committee, Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., suggested the change to the Republican amendment, which originally was designed to help victims of a shooting last November at Fort Hood, Texas. Now the legislation acknowledges that the shooting death of 23-year-old Army...

Just when you think you've seen the most vile, disgusting levels of human behavior, you come across something that makes you fear for the survival of the human race. It's not that I wasn't aware of the vicious demonstrations held by the Westboro Baptist Church; I wrote about their malevolence in 1998 when they picketed the funeral of Mathew Shepard, a young man who had been brutally murdered by a couple of Neanderthals in Wyoming. Shepard was pistol-whipped, tortured, tied to a fence, and left to die. This happened not because he had committed a crime or hurt anyone, but...

A court order requiring the father of a Marine killed in Iraq to pay court costs of anti-gay protestors who picketed the funeral has not only angered the father -- it is prompting outcry among among veterans. The VFW issued a statement to its members calling on them to help the father, Albert Snyder of York, Pa., pay the $16,510 owed to Fed Phelps, the leader of Kansas' Westboro Baptist Church, which held protests at Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's funeral in 2006. "It is absolutely wrong for the court to order him to shoulder a financial burden on top...

BALIMORE, MARYLAND - Lawyers for the father of a Marine who died in Iraq say a court has ordered him to pay legal costs for the anti-gay protesters who picketed his son's funeral. The protesters are led by Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. Albert Snyder of York, Pa., had won a $5 million verdict against Phelps, but it was thrown out on appeal. On Friday, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Maryland ordered Snyder to pay the costs of Phelps' appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to consider whether the protesters' provocative messages,...

Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow morning, according to three sources briefed on the decision. Berry will become the sixth Democrat in a competitive seat to leave in the last two months but the first to announce his retirement since the party's special election loss in Massachusetts last Tuesday. Berry, first elected in 1996, had been noncommittal about his re-election bid for months although, privately, his allies insisted he was planning to run for re-election. While Berry had rarely been challenged in the 1st district over the past decade or so, the seat has a...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Democratic U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder of Arkansas says he won't seek re-election to an eighth term. The 62-year-old says he wants to spend more time with his wife and four young children, including a set of year-old triplets. Snyder has held the Arkansas 2nd District seat since 1997. His record in the House includes standing against proposed federal bans on same-sex marriage and late-term abortions. He also voted for health care reform, which was thought to have weakened him this year.

Here, Arkansas: Here’s your political “holy shit” moment of the day—Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder of the Second Congressional District announces he’ll retire. Full statement at jump. Republican Tim Griffin has been making a spirited run to challenge Snyder on the GOP side, facing Scott Wallace and David Meeks in the Republican primary. Soooo…who will jump in on the Democratic side? ***snip *** U.S. Representative Vic Snyder: “2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years. Over the last several weeks Betsy and I have had discussions...

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) has announced he will not seek reelection, 24 hours after a poll showed him losing his 2010 race by 17 points. Snyder released a candid statement saying the diffifulty of the race ahead was a major factor in his decision, especially considering his family situation.

Vulnerable Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) announced today he won't run for re-election to his Little Rock-based CD. "I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three one-year old boys under the leadership of their three-year old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election," Snyder wrote in a statement tonight.

Congressman Vic Snyder was first elected to Congress in 1996. Since his first race, he has never won with less than 58% of the vote. And in 2008, he was re-elected without opposition. Nevertheless, he is regarded as one of the most endangered Democrat incumbents because of his district’s Republican lean. According to a new poll by Survey USA, Snyder trails his Republican challenger by a huge margin:

GOP strategists see hopes for a comeback in the 2010 midterm elections, though, and they are focusing strongly on Democratic incumbents in McCain districts such as Marion Berry in Arkansas’ 1st District and Vic Snyder in Arkansas’ 2nd. While both of these veteran lawmakers maintain advantages in their races, the stepped-up GOP efforts to challenge them have prompted CQ Politics to change its ratings on the races — to Leans Democratic (from Likely Democratic) in Snyder’s race and to Likely Democratic (from Safe Democratic) in Berry’s district.

Dear Congressman Snyder: Thank you for including my family in your recent town hall teleconference on Monday December 14, 2009. We had asked your staff to speak with you, but unfortunately our question did not make it to you personally. As a result, I would like to ask you in this forum: Why did you vote for a health care reform bill that contains a government run option, one that the majority of the American people (and more importantly, the majority of Arkansans) are opposed to? This bill is fundamentally flawed and will result in lower quality of care for...

The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting three veteran Democrats who voted for the House version of the health care bill in a weeklong round of television ads that will begin airing on Thursday. The new 30-second spots hit Democratic Reps. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, Vic Snyder of Arkansas and John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina for their votes by using the words of fellow Democratic legislators who opposed the legislation. Among the statements the NRCC uses in it' new ad against Pomeroy is one released by the office of Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., when he announced he...