Month: November 2012

RupertGate expands to bribery of public officials

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It has been some time since I have posted about RupertGate, the British media scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's tabloid media empire in Britain. Numerous former employees of Rupert Murdoch's flagship tabloid newspapers have been indicted and are being prosecuted, and some are cooperating as witnesses in exchange for plea agreements.

Prosecutors are "rolling up" everyone involved in the scandal, working their way up the chain. All roads eventually lead to the man who runs the tabloid media empire, Rupert Murdoch. It is only a matter of time before prosecutors finish prosecuting everyone in the chain of scandal and turn their attention to Murdoch.

Keep in mind that Rupert Murdoch is a naturalized U.S. citizen and spends much of his time living in the U.S. where he runs the American crown jewels in his yellow journalism crown, FAUX News Fraudcasting, New York Daily News, and the once venerable Wall Street Journal, among other lesser gems.

So the latest charges filed against Rupert Murdoch's employees for bribery of public officials hold out the very real possibility of U.S. prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if that bribery was in any way directed from Murdoch's enterprises in the U.S. USDOJ: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Some reading for policy wonks on the Affordable Care Act regulations released on Tuesday

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ezra Klein's Wonkblog at the Washington Post offers a series of posts in a summary of the Affordable Care Act regulations released on Tuesday. This should give you policy wonks something to read over the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. Wonkbook: Everything you need to know about Obamacare’s regulations:

Everything you need to know about Obamacare’s regulations

The Affordable Care Act regulations came down on Tuesday. Here’s what they say.
“The Obama administration took a big step on Tuesday to carry out the
new health care law by defining ‘essential health benefits’ that must be
offered to most Americans… Insurance companies are rushing to devise
health benefit plans that comply with the federal standards. Starting in
October, people can enroll in the new plans, for coverage that begins
on Jan. 1, 2014…The rules lay out 10 broad categories of essential
health benefits, but allow each state to specify the benefits within
those categories, at least for 2014 and 2015. Thus, the required
benefits will vary from state to state, contrary to what many members of
Congress had assumed when the law was adopted.” Robert Pear in The New York Times.

Read: The health regulations in the Federal Register.

Gov. Brewer’s blind hatred for DREAMERS (proxies for President Obama)

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Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Gov. Jan Brewer's executive order denying driver's licenses and ID cards to
undocumented immigrants who obtain work permits through President Barack
Obama's deferred-action program is a significant change in state
policy, records obtained by The Arizona Republic show. Brewer's order to end migrant driver licenses 'contradictory':

Brewer_hateOver the past eight years, Arizona issued licenses and ID cards nearly 40,000 times to non-citizens who had federal employment-authorization documents. Since Brewer's Aug. 15 order, the state has issued more than 1,000 driver's licenses or ID cards to non-citizens with work permits while denying licenses to those with work permits issued through Obama's program.

The data show that despite the state's longstanding practice of issuing driver's licenses to non-citizens with work permits, Brewer has singled out so-called dreamers, denying them driver's licenses even when they have work permits.

The federal work permits are identical except for a number that identifies them as recipients of deferred action under Obama's program. Anyone with that number can't get a permit under Brewer's order.

"It's completely contradictory," said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "If you give a driver's license under one of these circumstances, they are all pretty much the same circumstance, so it's contradictory to say we will give to one but not the other."

Voting Centers? Really Ken, that’s your plan?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After spending the past two weeks in the national spotlight of shame for a poorly managed election, Secretary of State Ken "Birther" Bennett says that things went well, and only minor tweaks are needed. His only specific proposal so far is moving to "voting centers" instead of precinct voting, something I support as part of a package of larger reforms, but standing alone is not a solution to the problem. State officials seek vote reform:

Late
Tuesday, Maricopa County elections officials announced they had nearly
completed the count from the 2012 election, with only write-in ballots
left to tally. Maricopa, the largest county, was the last to finish its
count.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Ken Bennett said he will meet with
Arizona's 15 county elections officials to work on improvements to the
state's election system, from registration to ballot counting.

And House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he will introduce legislation to create a bipartisan commission to examine the 2012 election, as well as the 2010 and 2008 elections.

"Arizonans deserve real answers about what happened during this election," Campbell said in a written statement. "We need to know what caused the irregularities."

* * *

In a news conference, Bennett emphasized he is not proposing to scrap the state's existing system. In fact, he said, the system is working well, noting that it took 15 days to count the returns from the 2008 presidential election and that was in a year with fewer provisional ballots and fewer early ballots that came in late.

To cut down on a delay in final returns, Bennett said, counties might want to establish voting centers, which were authorized in a 2011 law that he proposed.

Voting Centers? Really Ken, that's your plan?

The writing life: Writing routines of the rich and famous… and me

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Sleepingby Pamela Powers Hannley

Years ago, I heard author Barbara Kingsolver give a talk on "The Writing Life"— inspiration vs blockage… stolen moments on sleepless nights, writing in her closet… writing boring technical reports as an information specialist at The University of Arizona… and her life before she became famous. Having been an information specialist at the UA, I could relate easily to her stories about writing for work vs stealing away time to write for yourself.

I also enjoyed learning about her writing routines– like writing in a walk-in closet at night in their tiny Tucson house, so she wouldn't wake her husband. I recently stumbled upon an article detailing the writing habits of famous authors— Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradburry, and others.

For a peek at their writing habits and their lives, read on.