Month: August 2014

Left and Right agree: Martha McSally is a fraudulent candidate

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In Blog for Arizona’s long running series “Questions for Martha McSally,” I have frequently pointed out that I consider her candidacy to be a fraud:

Screenshot from 2014-04-19 09:46:19I have said for some time “it is painfully obvious that Martha McSally is a vacuous candidate who does not know enough about any subject to offer a thoughtful and detailed explanation of her positions. So she continues to hide in the bunker and refuses to offer any detailed explanations of her positions.” McSally knows little about the job which she seeks, and is too intellectually incurious and lazy to learn anything about it.

There is no “there” there. McSally is unfit to be a candidate for Congress.

It turns out that I am not the only one who feels this way. In fact, the political Right feels the same way.

Tucson’s “Right talk” radio show host James T. Harris on KQTH (formerly “The Truth”) says “I think a fraud is being perpetrated on the nation . . . [FOX] nation does not get to choose whether or not she represents our district. It’s the people here [in Southern Arizona], we get to choose and I think they need to understand that what she’s shoveling out there in D.C. and what they are trying to foist upon us is fraudulent.”  Via The Arizona Daily independent, A-10 pilot exposes GOP’s McSally, “madness pure madness”.

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Why does Catherine Miranda have to have volunteers misrepresent her policy positions?

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Cross posted from the Arizona Eagletarian

A source told me he had been hearing for some time during the primary election campaign that door-to-door canvassers for state Rep. Catherine Miranda have been telling voters that the candidate, locked in a primary race with Army Reserve Capt. Aaron Marquez, is “pro-choice” on the hot button issue of abortion.

Miranda’s record in the legislature and public statements would immediately call such claims into question.

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Miranda lying to LD27 voters about her anti-choice stance and record

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Crossposted on DemocraticDiva.com After weeks of hearing voters at their doors telling canvassers for Aaron Marquez, who is challenging Catherine Miranda for the Arizona LD27 Democratic Senate nomination, that supporters of Miranda had told them she was pro-choice, the Marquez camp now has recorded evidence of the deception. I’m not sure if this phone-banker is … Read more

New Study: corporate tax code does not impose an uncompetitive tax burden

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Another day, another GOP myth about taxes debunked. Earlier this week, Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote at the New York Times Dealbook, Tax Burden in U.S. Not as Heavy as It Looks, Report Says:

monopolybFor years, chief executives have complained bitterly about the United States corporate tax code, arguing that it is too complicated and that rates are too high. The issue has reached a near boiling point this summer as many large American companies have sought to buy smaller foreign rivals so they can renounce their United States corporate citizenship and reincorporate overseas to lower their tax bills. Others are considering the move, known as an inversion.

Again and again, we hear that these deals are being driven by an effort to make our companies more competitive globally and that unless we “reform” our tax system — which is code for “lower our corporate tax rate” — we will lose business to foreign rivals.

It is a compelling narrative. But it may be wrong.

Edward D. Kleinbard, a professor at the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California and a former chief of staff to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, makes a captivating argument in an academic paper that the United States tax code — counter to the conventional wisdom — is not impeding global competitiveness. In fact, the opposite is true.

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Reject a GOP that threatens hostage taking and economic terrorism

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The Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, brazenly told POLITICO Tiger Beat on the Potomac this week that the anti-government insurrectionists of the Tea-Publican Party are plotting to take America hostage again to demand the ransom that President Obama accede to their every demand, or they will shut down the government and blame the hostage for their economic terrorism. McConnell’s plan to shut down Obama:

hostageMitch McConnell has a game plan to confront President Barack Obama with a stark choice next year: Accept bills reining in the administration’s policies or veto them and risk a government shutdown.

In an extensive interview here, the typically reserved McConnell laid out his clearest thinking yet of how he would lead the Senate if Republicans gain control of the chamber. The emerging strategy: Attach riders to spending bills that would limit Obama policies on everything from the environment to health care, consider using an arcane budget tactic to circumvent Democratic filibusters and force the president to “move to the center right” if he wants to get any new legislation through Congress.

In short, it’s a recipe for a confrontational end to the Obama presidency.

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