Michigan Gas Prices Fall But Still Rank 15th Highest In Country

Michigan’s average gas price dipped 3 cents over the week to $3.42 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel.

That’s 6 cents more than one year ago, according to Dearborn-based auto club AAA Michigan.

The national average fell 5 cents to $3.34 per gallon. That’s up 5 cents over the year. Michigan has the 15th highest average gas price in the nation. Hawaii has the most expensive fuel at $4.02 while Missouri has the least expensive at $3.05.

The Traverse City area has the lowest average price of $3.37 compared to nine other metro areas in AAA’s fuel gauge report. The Jackson area had the most expensive gas at $3.49 per gallon.

Top Michigan Democrats Protest Right To Work As It Cuts Into Their Pay, Err Worker's Pay

Michigan's biggest Democrats must really be afaid the union donations are going dry up if tens of thousands of forced union members stop paying their dues, while keeping their jobs

After meeting with Gov. Rick Snyder on Monday, a group of senior Democrats called on him to either veto Michigan's controversial right-to-work measure if passed by the Legislature or to at least put the vote off to allow more discussion.

Sen. Carl Levin, Reps. John Dingell, John Conyers, Sander Levin, Gary Peters, Hansen Clark and Dave Curson and Rep.-elect Dan Kildee held a press conference after their hour-and-a-half meeting with the Republican governor and said the meeting at Cadillac Place was "blunt."

The Democrats are sharply critical of the right-to-work proposal that would allow union members to opt out of paying dues.

MSNBC Host: Energy Costs Way Too Low

The host of Up With Chris Hayes was holding court over a panel discussion on domestic energy issue and stated Energy Prices are way too low in the U.S.

Before the discussion was to start, MSNBC had to go to a commerical break. To introduce the break Chris Hayes "My sense is that the price of energy is too low at some level right now, and I want to talk about that right after we take this break."

Then when MSNBC returned from break this is the conversation that took place:

Chris Hayes: We’re talking about the massive, extractive energy boom happening in America right now and how it’s transforming our politics and how that can be made to work with a sane climate policy, which is really the difficult question. Before the break I left the question on the table about the price of energy being too low right now. Basically we see this massive amount of supply has come onto the grid thanks largely to natural gas. The price has come down, and I think we generally think, “Oh, lower prices are better.” But it seems to me there’s a lot of problematic stuff about the price coming down sharply as it is right now in terms of incentives for efficiency and et cetera.

Dan Dicker: You would want the prices to go up a lot because it would drive the next stage towards renewables, and make that at least cost-effective. Algae fuel, we talk a lot about that…

C.H.: Some people talk about that.

D.D.: Yeah. The cost is about eight and a half to nine dollars a gallon compared to gasoline as it is now. You want the prices to go up to make these a little more cost effective. Drive the technology into them. Unfortunately it’s actually going quite the opposite. You talk about increased supply here in the United States. In fact, overseas demand is dropping. We are still in the midst of an economic problem in Europe. Chinese growth is going down. Indian growth seems to be going down. In this country we’ve done better in terms of efficiencies and our demands are starting to drop, so in terms of what economically you can expect, you will expect the opposite, or at least I do over the next several years, that oil prices will in fact go lower. Natural gas you can – because we have a futures market, we look forward to the future and see what people are betting the price is going to be. That doesn’t go over 5$ an MCF until 2020 according to the futures markets. So although you might want… we have to drive the renewable argument some other way, because price doesn’t look like it’s going to do it.

Frances Beinecke: Look, the only thing that’s going to change that is if we finally put a price on carbon.

C.H.: Right.

F.B.: The externals of all the fossil fuel development are not incorporated in the current price, so the environmental effects, the health effects, the consequences to communities, none of that is factored in. We have to change that, get a price on carbon, drive it up so we can promote renewables and efficiencies first and foremost.

Michigan Senator Gretchen Whitmer: Obama Keep Our Cash

LANSING, Mich. — A top Michigan Democrat is looking to President Obama to deliver retribution to Republicans after the GOP-dominated state legislature approved a package of bills that could make this stronghold of union power the nation’s 24th right-to-work state as early as next week.

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who on Thursday called the votes to approve the right-to-work measure “petty and vindictive politics,” sparked more backlash Friday when she said she wants the president, who is set to visit Detroit on a previously scheduled political trip on Monday, to push back on Republican Gov. Rick Snyder by holding back federal money for a new international bridge project to Canada and a badly needed mass-transit program in ailing Detroit.

“We are hoping that when President Obama comes to Michigan next week, that this is going to be on his radar screen, that he’s going to say Michigan doesn’t care about their middle class, [so] why should we be bending over backwards to make sure that this governor is able to deliver on his promise,” said Mrs. Whitmer in an interview with local radio station WWJ.

Her remarks, amid calls from other Democrats and union leaders to use all legal means necessary to stop the bills from becoming law, drew a stern rebuke from WJR host Frank Beckmann.

Violence in Lansing?: Far-Left Occupier Anarchist Lisa Fithian will be in Lansing, Michigan On Tuesday

Yahoo News is reporting that far-left anarchist Lisa Fithian is training protestors in Michigan on "direct action techniques" in preparation for the upcoming right-to-work protests. Fithian, exposed in the film Occupy Unmasked, is the radical frequently employed by labor unions such as the United Auto Workers.

According to Yahoo:

More than 200 activists attended training Saturday in preparation for a protest at the Michigan Capitol, where lawmakers are putting the final touches on legislation that would allow workers to shop for a new union or opt out all together. The legislation will alto have a say in what causes their dues support.

Between chants, cheers and applause, organizers warned those at the training to be prepared for insults and obstruction Tuesday in Lansing. The volunteers lined up on opposite sides of a long hall at UAW Local 600 in suburban Detroit and took turn turns portraying protesters.

Fithian is known for advocating violent behavior.

Brandon Darby, long time nemesis of Fithian commented:

Lisa Fithian openly states that she exists to make capitalism and patriarchy crash, she openly states that she needs to create chaos in order to build want she wants. Combine this with her open support of convicted bomb makers who wanted to burn and maim law enforcement officers and Republican delegates at the 2008 RNC -- I'd say this is a dangerous situation

Bill Maher Calls Iconic Singer Of Most Loved Tunes In History A "Teabag Idiot"

HBO host Bill Maher’s political views– and his crass way of expressing them– are well known to most. Every once in a while, though, he takes things a step further than normal.

The mega Obama donor claimed back in March, for instance, that he should be held to a different standard after calling Sarah Palin a “cu**” than when Rush Limbaugh called 30-year-old Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut.” On Sunday, Maher made another noteworthy claim.

Apparently Andy Williams, the iconic singer of some of the most-loved tunes in history, is to be remembered as a “teabag idiot.”

Congressman: "Obama Being Advised By Muslim Brotherhood"

The balance of world power is evolving as radical Islamic regimes consolidate their power throughout the Middle East. Speaking with radio host Frank Gaffney earlier this week, Rep. Louie Gohmert speculated that the Obama administration’s decision to back the revolutions in “the Middle East, Northern Africa and the Far East” was so “horrendous” the administration may be getting advice from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

Frank Gaffney, host: Congressman Gohmert let me just ask you quickly because you were one of five members of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich called you all the National Security Five, who back in June of this year wrote letters to Inspectors General of five different departments raising the question that some of these dismal policies that have resulted in the Obama administration embracing Islamists at home as well as abroad and finding itself I would argue squarely on the wrong side of history as far as freedom is concerned, may be a function of these Muslim Brotherhood associated individuals who are serving in or advising the Obama administration. Looking at what’s happening now, looking at what has developed since you wrote those letters, do you feel that that issue should be raised anew and much more aggressively as Congress looks into the fiasco in Benghazi and now more recently in Egypt?

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX): Absolutely. I think it almost makes a prima facie case when you look at the decisions made by this administration over the last couple of years, or actually all four years. You look at the decisions it made especially in the last two years in going through the revolutions in Northern Africa and across the Middle East and to the Far East, and the only way you can explain the horrendous decisions that were so completely wrongheaded would be if this administration had a bunch of Muslim Brotherhood members giving them advice. (via RWW)