Month: February 2014

Gov. Chris Christie’s ‘Sgt. Schultz defense’ begins to unravel

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A few highlights from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's "Bridgegate" statement at his press conference on January 9, 2014. Full transcript:

  • Sgt.SchultzWell, let me tell you, everybody, I was blindsided yesterday morning. I was done with my workout yesterday morning and got a call from my communications director at about 8:50, 8:55, informing me of this story that had just broken on the Bergen Record website. That was the first time I knew about this. That was the first time I had seen any of the documents that were revealed yesterday.
  • [T]the emails that I saw for the first time yesterday morning, when they broken in I believe the Bergen Record story, proved that that was a lie. There's no justification for that behavior. There's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government. And as a result, I've terminated Bridget's employment immediately this morning.
  • And I'll say one last thing, just so we're really clear. I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or it execution, and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. Regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover, this was handled in a callous and indifferent way, and it is not the way this administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it will conduct itself over the next four.

This is what is known as the "Sgt. Schultz defense," named after the Hogan's Heroes character Master Sgt. Hans Schultz, who had a recurring line in the show of "I see nothing!" or "I know nothing!"

LD 2 Democrats nominate 3 for vacant House seat in special election

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Daily Star reports, Pima County Dems nominate 3 for empty state House seat: Pima County Democrats have backed three candidates to fill a seat vacated by Rep. Andrea Dalessandro, who resigned two weeks ago to take an appointment in the Senate. Dalessandro was appointed to the Senate by the Pima … Read more

Stop pissing away taxpayer money on lawsuits: Repeal the remnants of SB 1070

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona's lawless legislature does not hesitate to piss away taxpayer money on lawsuits defending their unconstitutional and unlawful extremist agenda in court. It does this all the time, and frequently loses in court. The real losers in the end are Arizona's taxpayers who have to pay the attorneys fees and court costs for these ideological extremists.

Our lawless legislature — the Tea-Publican leadership — currently has three lawsuits in court challenging the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), the citizens initiative that created it, and the 2012 redistricting maps. This is a purely partisan endeavor that the Arizona GOP should be paying for out of its own deep pockets, not the taxpayers of Arizona.

Presente_LicensePlateAZ_300pxThe most recent example of our lawless legislature pissing away taxpayer money on lawsuits defending their unconstitutional and unlawful extremist agenda in court is the continuing litigation over the remnants of SB 1070, most of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which came with a warning from the Court that it would strike down the remainder of the law when a proper case and controversy under the remaining provisions of SB 1070 reached the Court. The writing is on the wall.

This week, the legislature approved using taxpayer money to pay the court costs of Republican politicians — some of whom are no longer in the legislature — in response to discovery requests in the litigation over SB 1070. Lawmakers approve funds for SB 1070 defense:

Saying they were protecting the legislative process, the House and Senate voted along party lines Thursday to hire a lawyer to help them fight subpoenas over the state’s controversial 2010 immigration law.

The legislation sets aside up to $100,000 to contest a request by the American Civil Liberties Union for the personal emails and other correspondence between some current and former lawmakers and those who might have helped them craft or line up votes for SB 1070.

LIes, Damned Lies, and Thucky’s Statistics

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Posted by Bob Lord

Oh, Thucky, you poor, pathetic, intellectually dishonest, little gnome. 

In my last post, Thucky On Double Secret Probation, I called Thucky out for this statement in a comment:

You ought to be concerned, we now have three years without any increase in government revenues in the United States. All these tax increases have yielded nothing.

Because Thucky was speaking of tax increases, I figured his reference to government revenues was to tax receipts. And, because the tax increases were federal tax increases (many of the states have been reducing their tax rates), I figured the reference was to federal tax receipts. After all, if federal tax increases had the effect of increasing federal tax receipts, you would think they had yielded more than nothing. 

Alas, Thucky was not referring to federal tax receipts, or even total federal, state and local tax receipts, but to actual revenues, including, as we'll see, a category of state revenue that by its nature fluctuates wildly from year to year. 

When you drill down into the government revenue numbers upon which Thucky relies and make appropriate adjustments for the revenue numbers that not only are unrelated to tax policy but are random in the short-term, the result is the same: The picture Thucky painted is wildly misleading and dishonest.

The complete analysis follows after the jump.