Month: November 2012

When the media carries water for the Arizona GOP – Redistricting Edition

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A large part of the reason Arizona is a "red state" is because the Arizona media carries water for the Arizona GOP, from the state's major newspapers down to your local yokel evening news programs. The "liberal media" is a myth, particularly here in Arizona. We have a GOPropaganda echo chamber. When GOPropaganda is all that people see and hear and it gets reinforced in the media echo chamber, they tend to believe it.

Case in point, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC). There has been a coordinated effort among elected Republican leaders, their lobbyists/lawyers at the secretive GOP redistricting front group FAIR Trust, and the Arizona media to undermine the AIRC and to attack its credibility. AIRC chair Colleen Mathis has been unfairly demonized by Republican politicians and the GOPropaganda media, as have judges of the Arizona courts for upholding the law, in pursuit of a permanent Republican majority.

It began with conspiracy theories published by Christian Palmer who worked at the publication by and for capitol lobbyists, the Arizona Capitol Times and its sister publication The Yellow Sheet. (Palmer is now working for the billionaire bastard Koch brothers funded think tank, the Goldwater Institute).

Tucson Black Friday Wal-Mart protest draws 50 activists, no strikers (video)

by

J-m-p-s-157-sm72by Pamela Powers Hannley

Approximately 50 Tucson activists protested Wal-Mart's labor practices at a southside store on Black Friday.

The usual left-wing groups were represented– Jobs with Justice, Occupy Tucson, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), and college students. Who was absent? Wal-Mart workers and representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers–the union that played an integral role in organizing the national day of protest. 

Although Wal-Mart is infamous for paying low wages, intimidating workers who want to unionize, discriminating against women in promotion practices, and avoiding offering health care insurance by manipulating employees' hours, the tipping point for yesterday's protest was requiring workers to start Black Friday work schedules on Thanksgiving at 8 p.m.

Video of the Tucson protest and other details after the jump.

The Not So Fuzzy Math on Walmart

by

Posted by Bob Lord

I posted last week on the plight of workers at Walmart. In that post, I threw out some rough numbers to suggest how painless it would be for Walmart and other retailers to reduce dramatically the financial pain they're inflicting on their workers:

And it would take so little to improve their lives. Assume those Walmart workers average 1500 hours per year. That's 1.5 billion hours. It would cost $3 Billion to give each of them a $2 per hour raise, and $3 Billion is less than one percent of Walmart's annual sales, an amount it easily could pass on to customers. Does anyone stop to think of this trade-off — a three quarters of a percentage point savings to customers, versus a 20% pay increase to poverty level workers?

Frankly, I thought that my rough math may have overlooked something. But it turns out I'd gotten it just about right. Here's Robert Reich at Truthdig:

The U.S. deficit is shrinking, not growing

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Steve Benen reports The fastest deficit reduction in generations: We learned about a month ago that the U.S. budget deficit for the most recent fiscal year fell to $1.089 trillion, $200 billion smaller than it was last year, and nearly $300 billion smaller than when President Obama took office. For many on … Read more

More stories of failing K12 Inc schools

by

by David Safier

BROKEN RECORD NOTE: I realized I've written this many times before, but . . . Ex-Intel CEO Craig Barrett is hardly media shy. He gives his opinions on education and high tech issues freely and often in local, national, even international press. But I have yet to see or hear him mention K12 Inc., where he serves on the national Board of Directors. It would be interesting to hear his insider's perspective on a corporation where he occupies such an important position and which has been so much in the news.

Picture 1On Monday, K12 Inc. stock took a dive and has continued to limp along at around $16 a share since then. The share price may rebound, but the latest news from states where its online schools enroll thousands of students isn't looking good.

The stock slide began with the word from Wells Fargo that it downgraded K12 stock, saying the poor performance of its Colorado school, Colorado Virtual Academy, is the "latest example of K12's declining academic performance." I've noted frequently that Arizona Virtual Academy is on academic probation with the state's very forgiving Charter School Board, and in Pennsylvania, stockholders are suing because they were lied to about the poor student achievement at Agora Cyber School.

Now there's more bad news from Tennessee and Georgia.