by David Safier They take kids who look like they're headed for trouble and use the Scared Straight tactic to show them what their lives will be like if they continue down their current path. Call Japan's former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Scared Solar. He used to be a big supporter of nuclear energy. Then … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A group of watchdog organizations rolled out a new multi-state effort
to share information and best practices on campaign finance legislation today, the first step in an effort to force organizations that spend
millions on political activity to disclose their donors. New multi-state group pushes campaign disclosure:
California's top campaign finance watchdog
announced Thursday a collaboration among multiple states to share
information on enforcing disclosure rules.
The 10-state effort,
which also includes New York City officials, was a goal of Ann Ravel,
the chair of California's Fair Political Practices Commission who is
soon leaving for a spot on the Federal Election Commission.
Ravel has repeatedly expressed her concern the federal government isn't doing enough to force disclosure of campaign donations, requiring states to step into the vacuum.
“For the first time, states
and cities are banding together to share innovative ideas, strategies
and legislation related to campaign finance,” she said in a statement
Thursday.
The collaboration (http://fppc.ca.gov/SUNCenter/) is called States' Unified Network Center, or the SUN Center.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It turns out that the biggest problem with the Health Insurance Marketplaces in the first few days of operation is that there is so much public demand that the computer servers are overwhelmed, causing delays and error messages. That is the kind of problem any business would like to have. "Get me IT — add more server capacity, stat!"
Sarah Kliff writes, Obamacare’s biggest problem right now isn’t glitches. It’s traffic.
If you've been trying to buy health insurance coverage on the
Obamacare marketplace, you're probably quite familiar with the screen [below]. It asks potential shoppers to hang on a moment because there are
"a lot of visitors on the site."
This screen has been a big part of the Affordable Care Act's launch
so far: There are lots of people who, in Obamacare's first 36 hours,
have had trouble signing into the new marketplaces. And even if they've
gotten in, they've found it difficult to move past the first few screens
of the application, where drop-down menus for security questions
wouldn't load.
The wait times aren't ideal. Some people who wanted to sign up for
Obamacare on launch day couldn't. But though I spent most of Tuesday on
the phone with people who were struggling to use the Web site, I don't
tend to think these initial glitches will have a significant impact on
the law's success.
Everyone I spoke with, even those who couldn't sign up, took nearly
the same attitude: I guess I'll come back and try again later.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Finally some good news: both the New York Times and Washington Post are reporting leaks from unnamed GOP aides that
Boehner tells colleagues U.S. won’t default:
House Speaker John A. Boehner, apparently sharing Obama
administration alarm about a possible debt default, has told colleagues
he will act to raise the federal debt limit even if he has to rely on
the votes of House Democrats, GOP aides said Thursday.
* * *
With concern shifting to a deadline in two weeks to raise the debt
limit, Boehner has told colleagues he will do whatever is necessary to
avoid defaulting on the federal debt, including relying on House
Democrats to help pass a a debt-ceiling increase, according to GOP aides
familiar with the conversations.
* * *
The aides indicated that Boehner is willing to risk infuriating some
of the most conservative House GOP lawmakers by relying on a majority of
Democratic votes — and less than a majority of Republicans — to pass a
debt-ceiling increase.
Doing so would reprise a strategy that
ensured passage earlier this year of measures to avert another fiscal
impasse, to renew the Violence Against Women Act and to provide federal
relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Such a maneuver in effect
would suspend the so-called “Hastert Rule,” an unwritten governing
principle of Republican House speakers since the 1990s when the chamber
has been under GOP control.
About that . . . Dennis
Hastert: The ‘Hastert Rule’ didn’t exist:
“Lookit, the Hastert rule didn’t exist,” former House speaker J. Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.) said in an interview Thursday. “What happened is you
lined up 218 votes.”“When I used the term ‘majority of the majority,’ that was in one specific case,” said Hastert.
In case you missed it, that was former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert giving his blessing to Weeper of the House John Boehner to move legislation with a simple majority vote in the House, you know, the way democracy is supposed to work.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Martha McSally told The Arizona Republic that her "top
priority will be keeping the A-10 aircraft, which she flew as the
first female airman in combat, from from being phased out at
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base."
McSally also told the Sierra Vista Herald:
Noting the district includes two important military installations —
the Air Force’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and the Army’s
Fort Huachuca in Serra Vista — she said both are in danger of being
closed if actions are not taken to strengthen them
with additional missions.
As for the air base, McSally, who served at Davis-Monthan, said the
Air Force is on the verge of making a bad operational decision to
eliminate the A-10, a close air support aircraft, a plane she
flew over Afghanistan.
There is no other aircraft which can provide the close air support ground forces need, McSally said.
Back in January of 2012, the Air Force announced that it would begin phasing out the 40 year old A-10 aircraft — in 2028. This has led to fear mongering by local talk radio, see James T. Harris Flake drops A-10 bomb on constituents – Arizona Daily Independent (Flake confirmed for listeners of the James T. Harris radio show that one of their worst fears was true: the A-10 has been marked for elimination in the next 1 to 2 years), and by Martha McSally that Pentagon budget cuts (i.e., the GOP sequester) could lead to the retirement of the A-10 in the next couple of years, or with the next round of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission in 2015. See this KGUN 9 Tucson report (sourced entirely to Martha McSally).
All this gloom and doom Armageddon talk is entirely speculation at this point. I've lived in Tucson long enough to remember the previous half-dozen times or so that Chicken Littles predicted "the sky is falling" with the imminent closure of Davis-Monthan, and the base is still operational. Davis-Monthan is a fair weather air force base for flight training in unrestricted air space with access to the Goldwater Bombing Range, and its "boneyard" for spare parts is a vital resource. Davis-Monthan has other critical missions assigned to it besides the aging A-10, so it is not closing any time soon.