By: Sarah JonesMay. 23rd, 2011more from Sarah Jones

Michiganders, it’s time to show the country what you’re made of – and I happen to know y’all are made of hearty stock. Your recall petition against Rick the “nerd” Synder has been approved by Washtenaw County (thank you, Ann Arbor). And the nerd failed to file an appeal to the recall. I guess he thinks you can’t get those signatures….

But just like the old Tiger Stadium was the best place on Earth to watch baseball, Michigan is a state full of down to earth, honest, hard-working, tell-it-like-it is people. These are not the sorts of people to be bamboozled into losing their right to have their votes count or give up collective bargaining without a fight.

As I wrote in March of this year, Rick Snyder can be recalled. “The good news is that your Michigan governor can be recalled, with a scant 25% of total votes cast for his position at the last election. So, in 2010, only 3,162,154 voted in the gubernatorial race and I say only because this is how super bad things like Martial Law come to you – see, in 2008, 5,017,066 voted in the Presidential 2008 campaign, which means that a lot of people stayed home….you will need 25% of the persons who voted in the last election, which comes out to around 790,538 registered voters’ signatures for recall and you have 90 days to get them. No specific grounds are required, but you do need a reason.”

Yes, that’s a lot of signatures you need to get and that is why some of your local papers are calling this a “long shot”. It might be a long shot, but isn’t long shots what Michigan specializes in? Y’all brought GM back from the dead and I’m not going to say anything about the Wings right now, but we all know that Michigan is full of fighters. “We are the champions….we’ll keep on fighting till the end…” To wit:

This is a story that started off with a state in a depression that was hijacked by a seemingly moderate Republican into implementing anti-democratic and unconstitutional “emergency” measures. See, there is no emergency that needs to override the process of democracy (WMD, etc). The folks of Michigan were never going to buy that elite Republican trickle down con.

The story took a sharp turn to the left after Snyder took office and began removing rights from the people. He thought they were too beaten down to notice, and he smugly told folks that he was doing what the adults had to do – yet, never did he explain why an “adult” would have to ruin democracy in order to achieve the desired goal. Michigan does have a huge fiscal crisis, but the answer is manufacturing jobs that pay a decent wage, not tax cuts to the corporations that already exist there and hiking taxes on the elderly and poor.

Here’s a summary video of Snyder’s sins:

Some people weren’t buying his “reinvention of Michigan” baloney, like George Robinson of Garden City, Michigan who was taped at a rally protesting Snyder. George said, “I’m fighting against the Fascist take over of Unites States by several governors who met with Koch whores in California to destroy the working class in America. I hold two signs, I hold ‘Snyder is a Fascist Rat,’ which he is, and ‘We Do Not Allow Kings Here.’”

He continued, “They’re gutting all working people’s rights, and benefits, destroying middle class, George Bush and the Bush Crime Family did a well job, getting rid of 50,000 factories in this country, putting people on the streets in foreclosure, wonderful job! Vote Republican, cut your own throat!”

Watch here:

George wasn’t alone standing up to Snyder. Ten thousand marched in Lansing, five students chose to be arrested to make a point about democracy, they sang and chanted — but he didn’t listen.

So Michiganders took their fight to the ballot box again. Ironically, it was Saturday, May 21, the “rapture day”, when they began collecting signatures to fire Rick Snyder.

The Washtenaw County Board of Election Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the language (reason) to recall Snyder, which included saying the Republican governor should be recalled for supporting sweeping new powers for emergency financial managers, including throwing out labor agreements. It also cites his support for increasing taxes on retirees and low-income workers while substantially cutting business taxes. If that weren’t enough, there was the entire war on democracy, the financial manager trigger set up seemingly to target African American communities, teachers on food stamps, and the good old martial law talk.

Chris Bowers reported for Daily Kos that not only is the recall petition located at our favorite site FireRickSnyder.org legitimate, but it is valid even though the Governor has not been in office for 180 days yet. Bowers explains:

The recall petition is valid for 180 days in total, and 90 days from when the first signatures are gathered.
Signatures began to be gathered on Saturday, May 21, which means the signatures must be filed before August 20.
In order for the recall vote to be on the ballot in November, recall organizers believe they need to submit the signatures before August 5.

Chris ended his post with the warning, “the clock is ticking.” And so it is.

Gosh, I’m getting all rapturey just thinking about the Nerd leaving the mansion and heading back to Ann Arbor, where he will no doubt be reviled. For some reason, I imagine him cozied up to Ann Arborite and Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan, who is busy building his “No Abortion” town in Florida, perhaps just another Snyder way of saying “moderate”. Don’t get all mad at Domino’s, Monaghan sold his shares a while ago and he makes no money off of the pizza you eat.

For the third act in Snyder’s brief play, get those recall signatures signed and passed around. Who knew the rapture was going to take Rick Snyder home?