Month: August 2014

Howard Fischer carries water for the GOP on redistricting

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Now that Gov. Jan Brewer, The Wicked Witch of the West has lost her magic  and will soon melt away into nothingness, whatever will Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services do?

Fischer has been Brewer’s “unofficial” Public Relations agent, even shamelessly hawking her crappy book Scorpions for Breakfast in multiple “news” reports (most copies of which have gone to pulp by now). My suggestion is that Fischer retire and leave when Brewer goes.

Screenshot from 2014-08-29 05:34:35Howard Fischer is still carrying water for the GOP and its talking points. Democrats are irrelevant to him, and he rarely provides context to his usual stenographic “A Republican said …” reporting.

Howard returned to one of his favorite topics to spin for the GOP this week: redistricting.

The lawyers/lobbyists of the GOP secretive redistricting organization FAIR Trust, along with their hired gun before the U.S. Supreme Court, filed on behalf of our Tea-Publican controlled Arizona Legislature their Statement as to Jurisdiction on August 25. (A responsive brief is due September 29).

This is not particularly newsworthy, but Fischer saw this as another opportunity to spin the GOP talking points on redistricting. Republicans ask Supreme Court to scrap legislative districts.

You will note that Fischer only quotes the GOP lawyers involved in this case and dispenses with the FAUX News “fair and balanced” requirement of presenting an opposing Democratic viewpoint on the lawsuit. Worse, he does not present any constitutional legal expert on the subject (something he has done in the past) to provide some context as to whether this GOP press release disguised as a news report has any legitimacy (it does not).

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Proof Positive Ducey is Pure Scum

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You can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps. That’s certainly the case with Doug Ducey: Sean Noble; Joe Arpaio; Cathi Herrod.  You get the picture. But you can tell even more by what he does or, in this case, fails to do. We’ve all either seen the Republican Governors’ Association … Read more

I think I figured it out

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

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So there I was, with my insomnia, watching Craig Ferguson Wednesday night, when what did I see but this ri-donk-ulous ad from the Republican Governor’s Association. It claimed that Fred DuVal personally and single-handedly raised college tuition rates in Arizona an astronomical amount while serving on the Board of Regents. My first thought was that this is a brazen Swiftboating of DuVal, one that not only attacks one of his biggest strengths as a candidate (education), but will also get by the fact-checkers with an “inconclusive” rating because it’s technically true that tuition went up while DuVal served as a Regent. Conveniently omitted is the fact that the Legislature, not the Regents, were the ones who cut funding per college student by one third since 2007. What a bunch of lying scumwads, thought I.

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Fact Checking Doug Ducey’s new ad

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“Cathi’s Clown” Doug Ducey began his general election campaign with what the GOP-Friendly Arizona Republic (it endorsed Ducey in the GOP primary) referred to this way: GOP governor nominee Ducey airs new upbeat ad:

ice creamThe 30-second ad shows Ducey speaking one-on-one to the camera, sitting at a conference table in a business meeting and speaking in a park with constituents.

“The next governor comes in at a time of real opportunity,” Ducey, the former CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, says in the ad. ” On day one, I want to put forward a plan to kick-start our economy. I want to make our tax code more simple, I want to sign a moratorium to stop any new regulations going forward, and I want to have a bill that helps fund and clear our wait list at our finest schools.”

He continues, “The border’s critical, but so is growing the economy and creating jobs. I built a business, now I want to shrink a government and grow an economy.”

I recommend that political reporters invest in an Enigma machine to break the conservative code language that Dicey Ducey speaks in. Let’s break it down.

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3 films at the Loft in Tribute to Robin Williams

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Jumanji / A Tribute to Robin Williams Saturday, August 30 at 11:00am, Loft Theater, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. General Admission: $3 • Loft Members: $2 Good Will Hunting / A Tribute to Robin Williams Sunday, August 31 at 11:00am General Admission: $3 • Loft Members: $2 Hook / A Tribute to Robin Williams Monday, September … Read more