Featured Stories
Tucson Weekly wins big. (No surprise there.)
October 1, 2012
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by David Safier Travel to any other city and pick up a weekly newspaper. You're likely to see some good local gossip, personal and political, maybe one good feature, and lots of coverage of the local art and music scene. Pick up the Tucson Weekly and you're likely to be reading column after column and … Read more
Preschool? Romney says one parent should stay home instead
October 1, 2012
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by David Safier In Romney's elite Never Never Land, all children are raised by two parent families that can live on one income. That's the only way his solution to early childhood education works, which is, one parent should be home during children's early years — unless, I guess, a single parent is wealthy enough … Read more
TUSD candidate forum: What about TUSD’s finances and projected budget shortfall? (video)
October 1, 2012
by Pamela Powers Hannley
This is the fourth video in a series shot at the Tucson Unified School District candidate forum hosted by Drinking Liberally Tucson on September 26, 2012.
In this segment, candidates talk about budget cuts and the district's finances. Each candidate got 1.5 minutes to answer the question; three candidates were allowed 30 second rebuttals because they or their policies were specifically attacked by another candidate.
If you want to see the TUSD candidates live, the League of Women Voters, YWCA, and others are sponsoring a debate tonight, Monday, October 1.
Watch this video after the jump. Watch the whole collection here.
Election law cases in Court today
October 1, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
While we are awaiting a decision from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on voter ID in Pennsylvania (certain to be appealed to the state supreme court), let's take a look at other election law cases in court today.
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied petitions for certiorari this morning in:
Washington State Democratic Central Committee v. Washington State Grange, Docket: 11-1263
– and –
Libertarian Party of Washington State v. Washington State Grange, Docket: 11-1266
These are cases challenging Washington state's top-two primary system on a theory of trademark infringement to protect the use of the trademark of "Democratic Party" and "Libertarian Party" by candidates who are not the official candidate of the party, under a primary system that allows candidates to self identify party affiliation through voter registration. High court rejects Wash. top-2 primary appeal – AP. This is relevant to Prop. 121 in Arizona on the ballot in November.
In Ohio, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will hear two appeals today on early voting and Ohio's so-called "right church, wrong pew" rule for rejecting provisional ballots due to poll worker errors. Edward Foley, an election law expert writes at Election Law @ Moritz – Commentary: Two Big Cases Ready for Major Appellate Rulings:
In the next week or two, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will decide two Ohio election cases with both practical and jurisprudential importance. One concerns the rollback of early voting during the last three days before Election Day (November 6 this year). The other involves the invalidation of a ballot cast by a valid voter in the correct polling location, but to whom the poll worker erroneously gives the incorrect ballot for the voter's specific precinct.
Both cases present claims based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and both expose the current uncertainty of how the Fourteenth Amendment applies to voting rules, particularly in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore. The Ohio government lost both cases in the federal district court, but is seeking to reverse those two rulings on appeal. The Secretary of State, Jon Husted, declined to appeal the main portion of the provisional voting case, but the Attorney General, Mike DeWine, appealed on behalf of the State of Ohio as an independent litigating entity.
Huppenthal knows better, which means his “facts” can’t be trusted
October 1, 2012
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by David Safier Ed Supe John Huppenthal prides himself on his research, by which he means plowing through education studies and finding the ones that reinforce his preconceived notions — or if he can't find a whole study that works, cherry-picking an out-of-context stat. Whatever works. Here's an example of Hupp using a clever but … Read more
Reason 4,785 to despise the media villagers
October 1, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: There will be three presidential and one vice presidential "debates" in October. These are not legitimately debates, they are candidate Q&A. We should not call them debates, it is a misnomer. The media villagers care more about style than substance, focusing on body language and mannerisms (some networks will even interview so-called body … Read more
Obama campaign ad: ‘Table’
September 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In what some pundits are calling "Obama's closing argument," the Obama campaign has released an ad entitled "Table." In this two minute ad, President Obama calls for "economic patriotism."
Video below the fold.
Bogus ‘Mitt Math’ net jobs argument fails
September 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Willard "Mittens" Romney has been using a double-standard throughout his campaign. For President Obama, Romney insists that every job lost since January 20, 2009 is Obama's fault, despite the fact that the earliest Obama's policies took effect were in March 2009, and economists treat jobs as a lagging indicator, using the fiscal year budget … Read more
