Month: February 2014

The Arizona Republic advocates for wage theft from retirees

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ScreenshotDidn’t I tell you the editorial board of the Arizona Republic will have a sad over this ruling? Arizona Supreme Court smacks down Arizona’s lawless legislature, again: “State lawmakers cannot balance the budget by limiting pension benefit increases for retired judges, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday.”

Sure ‘nuf, here is the “editorial board” of the Arizona Republic arguing in favor of wage theft from retirees — keep in mind this is deferred compensation that these employees bargained for in good faith and have earned by performing their end of the bargain. They are entitled to receive payment in exchange for their performance. Reform pensions or lose them:

The Arizona Supreme Court just handed an enormous past-due bill to taxpayers.

The state Legislature’s attempt in 2011 to rein in the costs of poorly performing pension plans is unconstitutional, according to the justices. The Arizona constitution forbids reducing public-pension benefits, which effectively means that no matter how high the costs go, taxpayers simply will have to find a way to pay them.

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(Update) The Arizona Republic is all for denying you your constitutional rights

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ScreenshotThe Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, and the mouthpiece of the establishment Republican Party in Arizona, is schizophrenic when it comes to your constitutional rights to a citizens referendum and voting.

Columnist Laurie Roberts published a series of reports on the Legislature plotting end run around voters on election law: “a fair amount of skullduggery is afoot.”

Coliumnist E.J. Montini published Voters can suppress the suppressors: “The only way voters can guarantee it never happens again is to note of every politician who goes along with the scheme and, when those names appear next on the ballot box, suppress their re-election.”

But the “editorial board” of The Republic has twice now published editorial opinions essentially telling the voters of Arizona to “go screw yourself.”

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‘Cathi’s Clown’ takes a stand on SB 1062

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On Saturday, I asked Where does ‘Cathi’s Clown’ stand on the Religious Bigotry bill? The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) stealth candidate for governor of Arizona is the only candidate yet to take a position on the Religious Bigotry bill. Cathi Herrod from CAP is on State Treasurer Doug Ducey’s campaign steering committee (he proudly … Read more

The Trouble with E.Orr: The ‘mythical moderate Republican’ media meme

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State Rep. Ethan Orr (R-Tucson) appeared on MSNBC last week to discuss his vote against the Religious Bigotry bill, SB 1062. (Video below the fold).

E.Orr said “the insidiousness of this bill is that it excludes people from commerce, and if I have the power to exclude you from the commerce of society, I can exclude you from society itself.” Not the strongest argument one can make, but I will take it. (I think his young son got it right).

Screenshot-14I found this statement from E.Orr to be more interesting: “This bill is not the only voice that Arizona is speaking with, in fact it’s not even the only voice in the Republican Party.  I think most Arizonans and most Republicans are opposed to this bill and don’t want to discriminate against people based on homosexuality.”

OK, let me stop you right there, E.Orr. You were one of only three Republicans out of a total of 53 in the Arizona legislature to vote against this bill. 3/53 of the GOP caucus does not make you even a minority caucus within the GOP, it makes you “irrelevant” (as the Arizona Republic likes to refer to Democrats who have 37 seats in the Arizona legislature).

You are part of the “mythical moderate Republican” media meme.

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