Featured Stories
Stephanie Cutter: I’ll see your whiteboard and raise
August 18, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Stephanie Cutter from the Obama campaign responds to Willard "Mittens" Romney's whiteboard lies about Medicare with a digital whiteboard of her own.
Cutter breaks down how the Romney-Ryan plan will end Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher system and making seniors pay up to $6,400 more. She also shares how President Obama is already strengthening Medicare and helping seniors save money.
Ross Perot must be loving this!
Video below the fold.
The reason why we cannot have nice things
August 18, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In the coming weeks, the opinion writers of the Arizona Republic are going to extoll the virtues of being a "no party registraton" (independent) voter while trying to convince you that the Open Government/Open Primary initiative is a good way to get more "moderate" Republicans elected to office. Democrats are "irrelevant" to them (as are apparently the more than 40% of Arizona voters who are their constituents).
This despite the fact that the head cheerleader for this half-baked idea, Laurie Roberts, acknowledges that "Independents" cannot be bothered to take a few minutes to vote in party primaries in which they are allowed to participate. 88 percent of independents didn’t vote in the 2010 primary, and so far in 2012, despite Laurie Robert's "Operation Dekookification" of the Tea-Publican Party and her pleas for independents to vote in the GOP primary, LaurieRoberts – Want to dekook? Then you need to get de ballot:
There are 626,633 independents in Maricopa County alone. Of that, 299,674 asked to be put on the permanent early voting list.
Thus far, only 25,376 of them – a pitiful 8 percent — have requested a ballot for the Aug. 28 primary.
Given that three quarters of voters cast their ballots by mail, it appears that independents are once again taking a pass this year.
Democracy is a participation sport, it is not a spectator sport. The civic duty of a good citizen is to take the time to get informed on the issues and the candidates, and to participate in the electoral process, and yes, the political process.
These voters have a plethora of excuses for having "checked out" of the electoral process and abandoned their civic duty to be a good citizen, none of them vaild.
The vast majority are politically disengaged and either uninformed or misinformed on the issues and candidates (just catch Jay Leno's Jay Walking segment sometime), and they are "too busy" to be bothered to vote. It's a wonder they ever took the time to register to vote.
Wild week for election law cases in Arizona
August 18, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
When I have a case that goes up on appeal, I always have to counsel clients that "the facts are on your side, the law is on your side, and you won in the trial court, but there are no guarantees — sometimes these guys just do whatever they want."
Friday was one of those times. AZ Supreme Court overturns ruling on open primary ballot initiative – East Valley Tribune:
In a brief order, the justices overturned a lower court ruling which concluded that the initiative to create a wide-open primary was constitutionally flawed. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain had said it illegally dealt with more than one subject.
The justices did not explain their decision, promising details later.
* * *
But the Supreme Court action does not mean the "Open Government/Open Elections'' initiative actually will be on the November ballot.
County election officials are still reviewing a random sample of initiative petition sheets to verify that there are at least 259,213 valid signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. And some preliminary numbers from the state's largest county suggest the petition drive could fall short.
Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne told Capitol Media Services she has checked 12,990 of the 13,076 signatures sent to her. Of those screened, 4,280 are invalid for an validity rate of about 67 percent.
Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office, said after clearly invalid petitions were removed, that left more than 358,000 signatures. And a 33 percent failure rate, if that proves to be the final number, would leave just about 240,000 valid signers, short of the 259,213 needed to qualify for the ballot.
Let's be clear what this initiative is really all about. The Chamber of Commerce establishment Republicans have lost control of the Republican Party to the Christian Reconstructionists and Dominionists, and the Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists fringe groups who have hijacked the GOP and purged the Chamber establishment Republicans from the GOP. The Chamber of Commerce establishment Republicans want "their" party back.
But rather than fight this civil war within the GOP, the Chamber of Commerce establishment Republicans want to rewrite the rules for everyone. They have a simplistic belief that this "top two primary" will magically allow more "moderate" Chamber of Commerce establishment Republicans to get elected — with the added bonus of denying voters any real choice in November by eliminating minor political parties from the general election ballot (Green, Libertarian, Americans Elect), and even Democratic candidates in many Republican voter registration heavy districts, perhaps even statewide races.
Devo: ‘Don’t Roof Rack Me Bro! (Remember Seamus)’
August 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Wow, flashback to the 80s. The new wave/punk rock music group Devo (best known for "Whip It!") announced they will release a song titled, "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro (Remember Seamus)" (audio link). Dog Seamus, mistreated by Romney gets song, video and app, watch and listen: In case you missed the story: … Read more
What will we tell the children (and the data collectors): Philadelphia edition
August 17, 2012
by
by David Safier More than ever, schools live and die by their standardized test scores. So naturally, there's going to be cheating at some schools to raise the scores. But is this a serious problem? The answer appears to be, yes. In Philadelphia a lot of cheating was going on in recent years resulting in … Read more
Romney doesn’t seem to understand this is a job interview with the American people
August 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I have said it before and I will say it again: Willard "Mittens" Romney is the "Worst. Candidate. Ever."
In more than 30 years in politics, I have never seen a candidate with such a sense of entltlement to office because he is a member of the wealthy elite ruling class, and at the same time who demonstrates such contempt for the voters and such disdain for democracy.
Romney doesn't seem to understand this is a job interview with the American people — he owes us an explanation of his personal life, his record at Bain Capital and as Governor of Massachusetts, and above all else an explantion of the policies he would implement if elected president. As the employer, we have the right to demand this information. If he refuses to provide it, he does not get the job. Period.
Today the Romney campaign told the American people to go to hell. "We are not going to explain anything to anyone." Such arrogance. Such contempt. Greg Sargent writes Romney advisers confirm it: We’re running a `just trust me’ campaign:
I noted here yesterday that Mitt Romney is running a “just trust me” campaign, in which his lack of specificity and transparency extends far beyond just his tax returns, to his bundlers and to large swaths of his policy proposals. Intriguingly enough, Romney advisers have now come right out and confirmed the thinking behind this strategy.
In a development that Dems are pouncing on right now, Romney advisers spelled it all out in interviews with Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei:
Advisers say the campaign has no plans to pivot from its previous view that diving into details during a general-election race would be suicidal.
The Romney strategy is simple: Hammer away at Obama for proposing cuts to Medicare and promise, in vague, aspirational ways, to protect the program for future retirees — but don’t get pulled into a public discussion of the most unpopular parts of the Ryan plan.
“The nature of running a presidential campaign is that you’re communicating direction to the American people,” a Romney adviser said. “Campaigns that are about specifics, particularly in today’s environment, get tripped up.”
You don’t say! Let’s step back and survey the overall picture so far.
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
August 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney — a whopping 33 entries this week. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXX: Mitt Romney gave a speech Beallsville, Ohio, this week, and presented an unfortunate attack against President Obama. "How can you go … Read more
CD 3 Democratic primary forum on Arizona Illustrated
August 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Democratic candidate forum between Rep. Raúl Grijalva, former state Representative Amanda Aguirre, and Manny Arreguin on Arizona Illustrated, KUAT-TV (PBS), from Monday, August 13, 2012.
Video below the fold.
