Month: September 2013

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "Kochtopus" Evil Empire, anchored in the state of Maricopa by its "death star," the Goldwater Institute, will sue to block Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan so that Tea-Publican legislators can deny hundreds of thousands of Arizonans medical care, and send some of them to their certain deaths. Their über-rich patrons seek to destroy the Republic for the "Kochtopus" Evil Empire. Goldwater to sue over Medicaid law:

The Goldwater Institute says it will file suit today to overturn
Arizona’s new law expanding Medicaid eligibility, a day after efforts
failed to refer the matter to voters.

The lawsuit against Gov. Jan Brewer and the state’s Medicaid
director, to be filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of
lawmakers who voted against expansion, argues that the governor and a
bipartisan legislative coalition violated the state Constitution by
imposing a tax on hospitals without garnering a two-thirds majority.

It also claims pro-expansion lawmakers ceded their authority to the
executive branch, allowing a state agency director to raise taxes on
hospitals to help finance Medicaid expansion in violation of the
Constitution’s separation of powers.

By Tom Prezelski

Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

To use a well-worn paraphrase of Mark Twain, there are lies, damned
lies, and campaign rhetoric. The last category includes those easily
refutable throwaway little fibs that inevitably arise during a
problematic candidacy.

One
example of this comes involves the financials of the increasingly
quixotic campaign of Ward III Republican Council candidate Ben Buehler-Garcia. As most readers know the City of Tucson has a public campaign finance
system which became the inspiration for Arizona’s Clean Elections Law,
which, in turn, has become a model nationally. Under this system, a
candidate receives matching funds by getting at least 200 individual
contributions of $10 or more from city residents. The system has been a
good way of making sure that narcissistic auto dealers who live outside
the city limits or sleazy political operatives from Phoenix are largely
excluded from our elections.

Buehler-Garcia has not yet filed for matching funds, though he
assures everybody that he has the 200 contributions he needs. He has
been making this claim for weeks, though his campaign finance reports say differently.
Though, at first glance, his reports seem to list sufficient
contributions, the most cursory inspection shows that some contributors
are listed multiple times and some live outside the city. In one case, a contribution from a Maricopa-County based PAC is listed as being from an individual.

This is all a matter of public record.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "citizens veto" (referendum) of the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, has more than enough signatures to qualify for the 2014 ballot. Thanks to all the many hundreds of volunteers for your hard work and dedication in collecting signatures during a blazing hot Arizona summer.

Your right to vote is sacrosanct, and those GOP legislators who sought to suppress your right to vote need to be defeated at the ballot box, and HB 2305 "vetoed."

The Protect Your Right to Vote Committee has posted the following press release: Protect Your Right to Vote delivers 146,000 signatures to refer HB2305 to the ballot:

PHOENIX
– The Protect Your Right to Vote Committee today delivered
approximately 146,000 petition signatures to the Arizona Secretary of
State to put the Legislature’s attempt to get tough on Arizona voters to
a vote of the people. An unprecedented coalition of more than 25
non-profit civic engagement organizations joined together to stand up
for Arizona voting rights and put House Bill 2305 on the Nov. 2014
ballot. The Legislature passed the bill — which changed almost 20
separate areas of election law with virtually no public testimony– by a
near party-line vote in June. The Committee is confident it has enough
valid signatures to exceed the 86,405 threshold to put the referendum on
the ballot, said Chairwoman Julie Erfle.

“Voters will have their say after all,” said Erfle. “It was wrong
for career politicians to try and influence elections by putting up
roadblocks for voters who might not agree with them and to make
criminals out of dedicated campaign volunteers. As we gathered
signatures, even in the heat of an Arizona summer and in the face of
efforts to block our signature drive, we were inspired by the
willingness of Arizonans to stand up for voting rights. We found strong
support from voters of all political stripes, persuasions and
backgrounds. That does not bode well for the authors and supporters of
HB2305, including many Arizona legislators.”

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"House Republicans are in disarray, unable to govern as a
result of division and dysfunction" over the best way to take America hostage for their batshit crazy plan to defund "ObamaCare" by threatening a government shutdown and/or breaching the federal debt ceiling, causing a global economic crisis. They hope to get their act together on their hostage demands by next week.

Also next week, the GOP war on the poor will resume when the House takes up the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka food stamps appropriation bill that it bifurcated from the farm bill back in July. Huffington Post reports, Food Stamp Cuts To Get House Vote In Syria's Shadow:

While the House and Senate hold hearings on authorizing military force [in Syria], a
bill that would cut food stamps is headed to the House floor next week
with relatively little fanfare.

"There are 50 million people in the United States of America who are
hungry, 17 million are kids," Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in an
interview. "It is something we all should be ashamed of, and the United
States House of Representatives is about to make that worse. This is a
big deal and my hope is that we'll treat it as such and not just let it
go by without a lot of discussion and debate because we're all focused
on Syria."

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Bipartisan Policy Center is projecting the federal debt ceiling will be reached between October 18 and November 5.

So on Tuesday, the House GOP leadership rolled out its latest hostage demands. Things did not go as planned, as the far-right crazies turned on the House GOP leadership for not being frothing at the mouth rabid crazy enough. Steve Benen writes, Boehner's shutdown-avoidance plan off to a rough start:

In just two weeks, the federal government will exhaust its current
budget and shut down unless Congress approves a temporary spending
measure called a "continuing resolution." The congressional Republican
leadership really hopes to avoid a government shutdown, fearing
it would be politically disastrous, and hopes to sell GOP lawmakers on
an alternative scheme.