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Governor Granholm and Cheesy Portraits

  • Posted on May 7, 2011 at 12:25 pm

Governor Granholm

Former Governor Granholm has just had her portrait revealed to the world or at least to the state of Michigan.  I could mention all of the forced symbolism that seems to have been so important for her to include in this painting, but I think I will focus on the complete lack of emotion I feel when I view it.  This is of course the woman/man that was our first woman governor here in Michigan.  I always find it so interesting that women in politics feel they must look like men to govern.   This portrait of Jennifer shows us nothing of the soul of the woman that was our governor.  I have no feeling for this person.  It has been stylized to essentially make us feel that she has her pulse on the world and she has done everything she can to keep Michigan moving.  Of course while she has to look like a man, she did it wearing pumps that make her somewhat superior to any man.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110507/NEWS06/105070334/Former-Gov-Jennifer-Granholm-s-official-portrait-full-symbolism

I’ve been disappointed with all of our past recent governors.  They all profess so much love for Michigan, but they just can’t leave our state fast enough once they are finished “governing”.  As you can see, Jennifer now resides in the state of California.  Michigan is just a distant memory, something she can simply add to her resume.  Like her predecessors, she will probably become a part of that revolving door of corruption that is the politician/lobbyist.  Looking at OpenSecrets reveals our last two former Governor’s penchant for making money and using their political clout.  Here is John Engler firmly enmeshed in the world of business.  http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=32185

Here is also former Governor Jim Blanchard also exerting his political clout in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist.  http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=13806

You may think I am just being critical and these guys have to work.  My feeling is this.  If you thought enough of Michigan to want to be governor, why would you ever leave it?  Truthfully, Michigan was just a stepping stone in their resume life.  There are those of us that love Michigan and will do everything we can to promote it, educate it and live in it and there are those that will just use it and go on to their next job.

As for that portrait of Jennifer, I find myself looking from that left hand firmly planted on her hip to those shoes and all I end up thinking about is Napoleon.

How did that come into my head?  I think it is because they both have that look of pomposity that is supposed to tell us, the “little people”, just how important they really are to history.  If Governor Granholm wants us to remember windmills, cars, shovel ready projects, education and the global impact of Michigan, maybe she should have left us with the feeling that our young people could stay and live in Michigan to work all of those new found jobs.  Unfortunately, mine, like thousands if not millions of other young people, have fled our state making us look like an uneducated society.  The statistics imply that proportionately few people here have a college degree, just 24%.  We are 37th in ranking with the other states.  We educate them here in Michigan.  We have great schools and universities. http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_bac_deg_or_hig_by_per-bachelor-s-degree-higher-percentage

Trust me, our colleges are not just educating out of state people.  Our young people get their degrees.  Once they get that sheepskin, they leave the state for greener pastures, just like Governor Granholm recently did.  Imagine that!

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Evan Bayh and Other Political Opportunists

  • Posted on February 1, 2011 at 9:09 pm


Evan Bayh as a senator certainly isn’t my cup of tea as he is a fairly conservative Democrat.  Since I live near Indiana, I understood why he was conservative as the whole state tends to bleed crimson during most elections.  There was so much speculation when he decided to leave the senate.  Some people even thought he was going to try and run for the governorship again, if that’s possible.  I know Oregon and California both elected former governors.  He gave some speech about how he was fed up with the wide divide between the Democrats and the Republicans and he thought he could do more for people on the outside maybe in business creating jobs, etc. and blah, blah, blah.  You get the drift.

The truth is I don’t give a hoot and a holler about Evan Bayh.  I just find his new job to be very telling about him and politicians in general.  It seems to me that most of them don’t give a shit about their constituents.  It really is about them and their job possibilities.  They don’t really care about the people they have been supposedly serving.  That whole idea about them being “public servants” is just ludicrous.  Servants take care of people before they take care of themselves.  In Washington D.C. and even at the state level here in Michigan, these politicians only take care of themselves.  I’m going to give you some examples of what has my ire all bunched up like a ball of wax.

Evan Bayh who was actually once governor of Indiana obviously never really cared that much for the place.  He certainly didn’t go back and plant his roots in Indiana.  He has started his new job working as a lobbyist.  Imagine that!  He just took a job with a Washington D.C. law firm.  He’ll basically be a lobbyist rubbing elbows with Congress once again.  He sounds oh so noble about helping people in the video but of course the person he is really helping is himself.

There seems to be a clear pattern among many politicians.  They do their “service” and then they get “served”.  Evan isn’t alone.  Many of these politicians that profess to love their state always seem to end up somewhere else.  Here in Michigan all three of our last governors left the state for greener pastures.  Governor Blanchard is a partner in a Washington D.C. law firm.  Governor Engler went to work in Texas for many years.  His wife was named to the Freddie Mac board by Bush in 2001 and reappointed in 2002.  That’s pretty interesting but Engler has been tied to Texas and D.C., not Michigan.  Our latest ex-governor, Jennifer Granholm is going back to California to teach at her alma mater, UC Berkeley.  The truth is there is no loyalty by any politician.  Bill and Hillary never went back to Arkansas.

Personally, I’m sick of hearing about how we are “global”.  I’m a Michigander.  I would like some loyalty to my state and I’m sure the Hoosiers would like some loyalty to their state as well.  This really got me going the other day when I was watching “Morning Joe”.  One of the people on the show said they ran into Evan Bayh and he was taking his son out to play tennis at the Senate tennis courts.  Wow, what a country we live in.  The senate has tennis courts and great health care to boot and yet they can’t seem to let any of that wealth trickle on down to the rest of us!  I was listening and not watching but the next thing that was said was that he has this new job and Mika Brezinski’s brother works there as well.  That conversation is what got me thinking about how corrupt and egotistic these politicians really have become.  It’s all about the money.  It isn’t about the people.  The older I get the more decayed and decadent the system seems to me.  Nobody in Washington D.C. really seems to care about what’s really going on in this country, the loss of jobs doesn’t mean anything to them because once again, they will be taken care of just as they have been by the government for their entire adult lives as politicians

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