they have not had a local democracy since last year, since rick schneider took it away. governor schneider and the republicans legislature has done is up end the idea that in america we elect people to represent us. in america, we are governed by a democratic form of government. michigan republicans are ripping that idea out by the roots. if there are problems to be solved we do not do it by democratic means anymore in michigan. we suspend democracy to get things done, indefinitely. and it means you can be stripped of your right to vote for officials to govern your town and state level you may not be allowed to vote in the state legislature. this picture shows michigan house democrats asking for a vote in the legislature and not being allowed one. republicans in the michigan house are being sued in court by their colleagues across the aisle. sued for stopping democrats from voting in the state legislature. the republicans are being sued for that. this is an amazing story. amazing that it has come to this, to one political party suing another for the right to vote. amazin

well, governor rick schneider and michigan have done is radical beyond radical. and if it is true that the law should not have even been in effect all this time, if it is true that republicans circumvented democracy and the legislature too. what do you call that? radical beyond radical beyond radical beyond radical, it's revolutionary, and i can tell you now that finally somebody has. michigan house democrats have sued the house of representatives. and specifically they have sued the republicans in the house of representatives. the democrats say that republicans are denying them the right to vote in the legislature. it's not just for benton harbor anymore, it's for the whole state. democrats have begun demanding role call votes to see whether republicans have this 2/3 majority they claim. they're demanding an actual count to see if they have all 73 votes that the republicans would need for these laws to go into immediate effect. this is the picture of the democrats demanding a vote like that last week. demanding it and not getting it. we asked the michigan democr

governor rick schneider replaced him in september. in part, the administration tells us mr. sampler recommended letting go of pontiac having become a place in oakland county. after having been an emergency manager, after having been willing to essentially dissolve the city he was put in charge of, michael stampler, this guy, is blowing the whistle on the law that empowered him to do all that. he now says, "i do not believe emergency managers can be successful. they abrogate the civic structure of a community and return it dismantled for the community to attempt to somehow make a go of it." a guy who has been there, who has been put in unilateral control of an american city says putting someone in unilateral control of an american city doesn't exactly prepare that city for good governance and standing on its own two feet in the future. yeah, right. right? he's planning on giving his speech on the emergency manager law next week at a rotary club which is just south of detroit. as much as it apparently infuriates the press in michigan for us to be the ones saying it, it seems t

schneider. it will be replaced by an emergency manager. it's pretty radical policy. the elimination of voting right at the local level. the state just taking over regardless of who you voted for. last night we reported on something even more radical than that going on in michigan politics. republicans in the state legislature there in dozens maybe hundreds of cases including when they passed that emergency manager law declaring they had the super majority to enact those laws immediately without the long by the state constitution. they appear to have done that without counting the votes that they would need. that endeding being handy because they did not have those votes. the practice looks and sounds a little like this. >> all those in favor, please rise. immediate effect is ordered. >> that was supposedly a michigan republican legislature counting to 73. no way, right? no way. we realize that our story has set off a bit of a bombshell in michigan politics. this is a bombshell. this is a radical

this week, for instance, there's a new drive to recall the state's republican governor, rick schneider. the language on the petition got approved on monday so now people can start signing those petitions if they want governor snyder recalled from office. this is try number two for rick snyder. it's a very high threshold you have to cross. a school board in muskegeon heights will appoint an overseeier to stripping power from the elected school board to maybe dissolving the whole district if he or she wants to. this is how michigan rolls now. in michigan now, democracy is not a way we solve problems. democracy is a problem itself that has to be got around. the republicans are in full control of the state of michigan since the 2010 elections and their expanded emergency manager law is not about democracy, not at all. do you want to see something in michigan that is about democracy? these boxes contain a couple of a hundred thousand signatures. just as some people are trying to put governor rick snyder on the recall, organizers are trying to put the emergency manager law on the ballot as w