Month: November 2012

New Year’s Eve Cliff Diving Party?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Acapulco_Cliff_nealI suggested to Michael Bryan that Drinking Liberally might want to think about hosting a New Year's Eve "Cliff Diving" Party should Congress prove unable to pull its head out of its ass and come to an agreement on sequestration and taxes before then.

An Aculpulco themed party with Mexican buffet, Mexican beer and tequila drinks to celebrate Aculpulco's famous cliff divers might be fun.

Greg Sargent writes at the Plum Line today Why Dems shouldn’t blink in battle over tax hikes on rich:

If the “fiscal cliff” [austerity crisis] talks grind on towards the January 1st deadline
with no clear resolution, here’s what you can expect. Republicans will
call for all the Bush tax cuts, including those on the rich, to be
extended temporarily. CNBC commentators and others will warn that
Dems opposing a temporary extension are irresponsibly risking fiscal
cliff armageddon and threatening to tank the recovery. Spooked moderate
Dems may be tempted to agree.

Don’t do it. In reality, a temporary fiscal cliff solution —
including a temporary extension of the high end tax cuts — is one of the
worst things we can do for the economy.

That’s what Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics,
said in an interview with me today. Zandi has privately counseled Senate
Dems that a temporary postponement of a resolution will put the
recovery at risk.

Meet your new committee chairs in the Arizona legislature

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Republic's Laurie Roberts, who promoted Operation Dekookification of the GOP in the Arizona legislature, has failed miserably. The Tea Party has doubled-down on crazy. Just take a look at the new committee chairs in the House and Senate. Several of these chairs are the favorite culture warriors of Cathi Herrod … Read more

EIC Commissioner Mickey Duniho responds to the mendacity of ‘Chuckelberry’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

David Safier commented on this Arizona Daily Star report earlier, Vote-count auditing reforms urged on county supervisors. The article refers to Pima County Election Integrity Commission commissioner Mickey Duniho, who has prepared the Memo below for the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. David focused on the mendacity of Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson, but Nelson is protected by his boss, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, whose mendacity is legendary in Tucson.

Memo

November 19, 2012

To: The Pima
County Board of Supervisors

From: Michael A.
Duniho, Member of Pima County Election Integrity Commission

Subject:
Corrections of Factual Errors in Mr. Huckelberry’s November
20 (sic) Memo on the Election Integrity Commission’s
Recommendation Concerning the Sorting of Early Ballots for
Audit

The attached three
pages contain a detailed discussion of factual errors,
errors of omission, and distortions of fact contained in Mr.
Huckelberry’s memorandum which was sent to you on Friday,
November 16, 2012. The memo recommended against your
adopting your Election Integrity Commission’s unanimous
recommendation that you order the sorting of early ballots
by precinct for a hand count audit of a few precincts to
demonstrate to the public that computerized vote counting in
Pima County was honestly done.

It is unfortunate
that Mr. Huckelberry’s memo contained so many errors that I
cannot address them all in a three minute speech at your
public hearing tomorrow. I hope that you will take the time
to review these corrections before tomorrow’s meeting. I
plan to be available to respond to any of your questions at
tomorrow’s meeting.

Thank you for your
interest in election integrity.

 

Michael A. Duniho

Black Friday: Capitalist holiday or day of protest?

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Money02-bw-crop-sm72-300x217by Pamela Powers Hannley

Thanks to the tradition of giving salaried workers the Friday after Thanksgiving off as a vacation day + the availability of cheap credit + big sales and thousands of dollars in advertising, that Friday became the biggest US shopping day of the year decades ago.

Christmas season is a major money-maker in our capitalist society. In the cut-throat world of retail sales, Black Friday was the day that many retailers broke even– the day that wild sales brought frenzied consumers into the stores to buy Christmas presents a month early– the day their books moved "into the black". 

As a protest against this rabid consumerism and the commercialization of Thanksgiving and Christmas–- economic protesters re-invented the concept of Black Friday several years ago and promoted it as a day to stay home from the stores and not “shop ’til you drop”.

What is the true meaning of Black Friday today? Find out after the jump.

Prop. 409, City of Tucson Road Bonds Wins Approval

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Press release from the City of Tucson: VOTERS APPROVE PROPOSITION 409 NEWS CONFERENCE AT CITY HALL – 3 P.M. Unofficial election results from the Pima County Elections Department indicate the passage of Proposition 409, the bond package to improve the condition of City of Tucson streets. The approval of the bond package … Read more