Featured Stories
Craig Barrett says Arizona doesn’t spend enough on education (but he’s against Prop 204)
October 8, 2012
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by David Safier Note: So long as ex-Intel CEO Craig Barrett remains silent about sitting on the Board of Directors of K12 Inc., he's going to keep getting lots of ink pixels here at BfA. It's shameful that this self-styled education "expert" refuses to talk about the online schools his for-profit corporation runs, schools which … Read more
What a Flake: Is this any way to treat your B-ball buddy Obama?
October 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In several campaign ads, The Flake sharply criticizes Dr. Richard Carmona over a phone call — just one phone call — he received from President Obama encouraging him to run for U.S. Senate. Extrapolating from this one phone call, The Flake insists that Carmona was "handpicked" by Obama and he will be a "rubber-stamp" … Read more
Celebrate the one-year anniversary of Occupy Tucson, Oct. 14 (video)
October 8, 2012
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Sunday, October 14, Occupy Tucson will celebrate it's one year anniversary. Occupy Tucson was one of the longest-running encampments in the history of the Occupy Movement.
Although Occupy Tucson was a peaceful encampment, at one point, the Tucson Occupiers had received hundreds of tickets, primarily for breaking curfew at local parks– more tickets than any other Occupy group, except New York City. Some of those tickets are still winding their way through the court system, but most have been dismissed (including mine).
Occupy Tucson may not be camping in the parks anymore, but the movement is far from dead. Occupy Tucson is housed in a small office in the historic YWCA on 5th Ave. You can find out more information by checking out their website and Facebook page.
For a walk down memory lane, check out these videos of Occupy Tucson. After the jump is background information on the Occupy anniversary celebration (complete with a General Assembly, of course.)
Organizing Occupy Tucson, Oct. 1, 2011
Occupy Tucson General Assembly, October 9, 2011
The Tucson Progressive gets a ticket at Occupy Tucson
El Tour de Rio Nuevo March, TucsonJobs with Justice, Occupy Tucson, and Union Workers march to save postal jobs
Arizona Unionists and Supporters Protest Proposed Anti-Labor Laws
The Flake misleads on Dr. Carmona’s record
October 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
So have you seen the latest attack ad from The Flake against Dr. Richard Carmona with the tagline "another Obama big spender"? That's pretty rich coming from this guy.
Before I address the ad, let's look at The Flake's voting record on major legislation. Representative Jeff Flake – Voting Records – Project Vote Smart (this is the record of an ideologue).
The drivers of our national debt since 2001, when President Clinton was running budget surpluses and the national debt was projected to be paid off in full by the end of the decade, are: the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003; the war in Afghanistan and the unnecessary war in Iraq that were put on the nation's credit card; the unfunded Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy to Big Pharma; and the Bush Great Recession in 2008 which led to the TARP bailout of the financial system and a recovery package to prevent the country from spiraling into a Great Depression.
So how did The Flake vote on these measures?
The Flake voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 without paying for them. He voted for every tax cut measure under Republican control of the House (2001-2006). He proved that he is an ideologue by voting against tax cut measures contained in recovery bills proposed by the Obama administration under Democratic control of the House.
The Flake voted for the Authorization of Use of Force against "terrorist organizations," i.e., the war in Afghanistan, and the unnecessary war in Iraq. These wars were put on the nation's credit card and paid for with borrowed money that added to the national debt.
The Flake had an interesting game he played with runaway "borrow and spend" budgets during the Bush years. He voted for Republican House budget resolutions, which is the framework of the budget, but routinely voted against the separate appropriations bills that actually funded the government (so he could maintain his street cred as being against government spending). The appropriations bills The Flake did vote in favor of were for the Department of Defense. The Flake had a mixed record on those Supplemental Appropriations for the wars that the Bush adminsitation used to keep war spending off budget. The Flake voted against these Supplemental Appropriations beginning in 2006.
The Flake did vote against the Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy to Big Pharma. He does not get a pass, however. He subsequently voted against bills which would have permitted Medicare to negotiate for lower rates and to import prescription drugs to lower costs to consumers. He did nothing to control the cost of this subsidy to Big Pharma.
When the economy blew up in 2008 as a result of casino capitalism by the banksters of Wall Street and failed GOP economic policies, The Flake voted to do nothing.
That's right, The Flake would have let the financial system collapse and take the economy down with it in a death spiral of a Great Depression. The Flake voted against every recovery measure and voted against unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans thrown out of work as a result of failed GOP economic policies. If you think the past four years have been difficult, imagine the economic hellscape it would have been had The Flake and his ideological extremist pals gotten their way.
Given his record in adding to the national debt with the Bush tax cuts and two wars on the nation's credit card, The Flake is in no position to criticize his opponent, who has never served in elective office.
This Slow Recovery is Not Abnormal
October 8, 2012
By Karl Reiner The Great Recession that grew worse in the wake of the financial collapse of 2008 blew a large hole in the current theories of finance. Wall Street was supposed to be capable of calibrating its risks and markets were supposedly able to self-regulate. Unfortunately for the U.S. population, events proved they could … Read more
The flags are out!
October 7, 2012
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by David Safier The election is fast approaching, so the I'm-a-patriot-and-you're-a-traitor crowd is at it again. Pima County Tea Party Patriot founder Ally Miller has added two flags to her campaign signs. Ally and her ilk believe flag waving and using "Freedoms" three times in every sentence give them license to trample on the rights … Read more
The Test Police: coming to a school near you
October 7, 2012
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by David Safier The Star has a front page story from the Atlanta Journal-constitution, Test-cheating scandals inevitable, probe concludes. I posted about another article with similar information this week. The short version is, because high stakes tests are, well, high stakes, they inevitably lead to cheating by teachers and/or administrators. How much cheating? As they … Read more
Debunking Jack Welch? How About The Hard Truth Instead?
October 7, 2012
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Posted by Bob Lord AzBlueMeanie does great work. The volume of posts he puts out is prolific and I rarely disagree with him. And I don't on his post "Debunking The Jobs Truthers" post either. I just think the post is far too polite. Jack Welch outrightly accused of Obama of manipulating the jobs numbers. … Read more
