Month: September 2015

Carly ‘Demon Sheep’ Fiorina at Arizona Chamber event on Friday

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Sooo, the latest entry in the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s “parade of losers” Leadership Series is Mrs. Carly Fiorina : “Our fourth instalment to the Leadership Series will be Mrs. Carly Fiorina on September 11, 2015, at 7:00 a.m., with introductory remarks by Governor Doug Ducey,” the ice cream man hired by Koch Industries to run their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona.

I warned you about Carly Fiorina earlier this year. Carly ‘demon sheep’ Fiorina is baaaaa-ck!:

demon-sheep-300God help us . . . Carly Fiorina was named one of the “worst CEOs of all time” for engineering HP’s controversial merger with Compaq, and had to be ousted by the board in 2005.

Fiorina later lost a senate race to incumbent Barbara Boxer from California in 2010, a campaign most noted for her bizarre Demon Sheep ads in the GOP primary against Tom Campbell.

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Lots of comedy at Show Me the Funny

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ShowmetheFunny

“COMEDY FOR CHARITY is proud to present Stand Up to Stop Violence V, with Headliner John Heffron, winner of Last Comic Standing’s second season, who also has his own DVD, Middle Class Funny. John. An A-List comedian, he’s appeared on Comedy Central Presents, Chelsea Lately, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.Reveille Men’s Chorus, headed by their extraordinary conductor, Shawn Cullen, is back by popular demand with Reverb and a few tunes to raise the audience up.We are honored that Roxanna Green will be selling and signing her book, As Good As She Dreamed: The Redeeming Story of the Angel of Tucson: Christina Taylor-Green.Our Honorary Chair this year is business executive Bill Holmes, who volunteers and contributes his time and money in order to make an impact on our community.Too funny to miss, David Wayne Fitzsimmons will reprise his role as Emcee for the 5th year in a row. Nancy Stanley and Suzie Sexton will round out this talented cast, as well as Egokillaz who will do hip-hop dance to a few contemporary ditties.”

VIP Tickets ($50) include preferred seating and meet and greet with John after the show.

Getting to 41 votes against the Resolution of Disapproval on Iran deal

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Over the past two weeks, President Obama has secured enough Democratic votes to sustain his veto of the Tea-Publicans’ Resolution of Disapproval of the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran.

The only open question is whether 41 Democratic senators would vote against cloture to prevent the Resolution of Disapproval from coming up for a final vote. The undecided Dems who could save Obama from Iran veto:

Iran-nuclear-deal-1024x576After a big victory on the Iran nuclear deal this week, the Obama administration is looking to lock down support from the handful of still-undecided Senate Democrats.

The White House has gained enough votes to ensure the agreement ultimately survives Congress. But it’s still at least three senators short of the 41 needed to prevent a resolution of disapproval from passing in the first place.

The president can only afford to lose two of the remaining five undecided Democrats if he wants to avoid having to issue a veto — an action he’s taken only four times during his presidency.

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President Obama signs executive order for paid leave to federal contractors

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On Labor Day, President Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to offer workers up to seven paid sick days a year. In Boston speech, Obama unveils executive order for more paid sick leave:

President Obama rallied union workers here Monday, unveiling a new executive order that will require federal contractors to offer employees up to seven days of paid sick leave, a move he sought to contrast with Republican economic policies.

ObamaObama announced the new directive, which the White House said could benefit more than 300,000 workers, during a Labor Day speech in Boston. It was the latest in the White House’s year-long effort to pressure Congress to approve legislation that would provide similar benefits for millions of private-sector workers.

“Right now, you have parents who have to choose between losing income or staying home with a sick child,” Obama told a crowd of 765 supporters, including many labor officials, during the annual Greater Boston Labor Council breakfast, sponsored by the AFL-CIO.

Under the executive order, workers on federal contracts would be eligible for paid leave if they are sick or caring for a sick relative. They will earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, with a maximum of seven days a year, officials said. The new order won’t take effect until after Obama leaves office in early 2017 (contracts beginning FY 2017).

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Redistricting Roundup

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I posted about Arizona’s redistricting case before the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. Here is what is going on elsewhere in the nation.

Alabama

Federal judges last week ordered black legislators challenging Alabama’s legislative maps to come up with their own boundary lines. Redistricting case: Plaintiffs must provide map proposals:

The_Gerry-Mander_EditThe judges ruled in 2013 that the Legislature’s map did not violate the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court remanded the case back to the panel last March, saying the judges needed to reconsider how race affected the maps.

The three-judge panel Friday told the Legislative Black Caucus and the Alabama Democratic Conference to develop redistricting maps that follow the guidelines established by the Legislature in 2012.

The proposal must be filed by Sept. 25. Plaintiffs have the option of filing together or creating different plans. The state will have 28 days to respond.

The new proposals will not be the final word on the state’s district lines. The judges will consider the maps as part of plaintiffs’ broader argument that the 2012 map had racial biases.

“It’s an exercise, as we understand it, to help show whether the state was trying to target black percentages in each district, and thus sorting white and black voters by race,” James Blacksher, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Tuesday. “We believe our maps will show they could have accomplished all their objectives in a way that would not have split any precincts or sorted black voters from white voters.”

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