Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’

August 3, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXVIII: After Mitt Romney returned from his truly horrid overseas trip this week, one of his campaign aides tried to put a positive spin on the candidate's inexplicable gaffes. … Read more

Tea Party, tinfoil, and sustainable development

August 3, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember earlier this year when Birther Queen Sen. Judy Burges (R – Sun City West) was pursuing yet another tinfoil hat conspiracy theory against the controversial United Nations Agenda 21 “sustainable development” plan? Arizona Bill Would Ban UN Agenda 21 Within State:

The two-page bill, known as SB1507, would prevent the state, county, and city governments of Arizona from adopting any tenets of the UN Declaration and the Statement of Principles for Sustainable Development. It would block any other international schemes that violate the U.S. or state constitutions as well.

Under the proposed law, all public entities in Arizona would also be barred from cooperating with, funding, or implementing any programs linked to a controversial global organization known as ICLEI (formerly named International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives). The UN-backed non-profit organization, based in Germany, seeks to force the "sustainability" plan on the world by stealth.

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A Tea Party activist who testified at the hearing called Agenda 21 an insidious attack on American sovereignty in an effort to build a one-world order. He also said the Obama administration was using taxpayer-funded grants to prod state and local governments into implementing the "subversive" scheme.

The bill passed the state senate on a party-line vote, but died in the House where the bill was held until sine die.

It turns out that the Tea Party's newest darling, Senate nominee Ted Cruz from Texas, of whom the Washington Post's George F. Will recently wrote that Texas’s Ted Cruz gives tea party a Madisonian flair (the "patrician prevaricator" has abandoned his old money bluebloods for the Tea Party), is also a big fan of this tinfoil hat conspiracy theory against the United Nations Agenda 21.

July job numbers rebound

August 3, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The strong first quarter job growth numbers led to high expectations, which made the job numbers for April, May, and June all the more disappointing.

In July, however, we saw just the opposite: expectations were generally pessimistic, making this morning's job numbers rebound good news. Steve Benen provides his monthly jobs charts. Job growth picks up steam in July, far exceeds expectations:

The new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added 163,000 jobs in July, more than double the figures from the previous three months, and nearly double the predictions from economists going into this morning. The unemployment rate inched higher, from 8.2% to 8.3%, but as we've discussed many times, the figure can be misleading — the rate goes up when more people reenter the job market. [emphasis added]

As is nearly always the case, there was a gap in the public vs. private sectors — American businesses added 172,000 jobs last month, while the government shed 9,000 jobs. In terms of revisions, May's totals were revised up a little, while June's totals were down a little.

It's worth emphasizing that 163,000 new jobs in a month is not evidence of a strong, robust recovery, but given the severity of the Great Recession, the figures are relative — today's report is good news because it's evidence of real progress. July's totals are the best we've seen since February, and reverse the deeply disappointing trend of the last few months.

For context, note that so far in 2012, the economy has created over 1.12 million private-sector jobs, which is underwhelming, but is already better than five of the eight years of the Bush/Cheney era.

Rolling Stone feature on Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio

August 2, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rolling Stone has a feature article today about Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio by Joe Hagan, The Long, Lawless Ride of Sheriff Joe Arpaio (excerpts):

[Joe] Arpaio cues up the Rolling Stones to welcome a reporter "from that marijuana magazine."

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

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"My people said, 'You're stupid to do an interview with that magazine,'" says Arpaio, talking about Rolling Stone, "but hey, controversy – well, it hasn't hurt me in 50 years."

Arpaio is an unabashed carnival barker. And his antics might be amusing if he weren't also notorious for being not just the toughest but the most corrupt and abusive sheriff in America. As Arizona has become center stage for the debate over illegal immigration and the civil rights of Latinos, Arpaio has sold himself as the symbol of nativist defiance, a modern-day Bull Connor bucking the federal government over immigration policy. As such, he's become the go-to media prop for conservative politicians, from state legislators to presidential candidates, who want to be seen as immigration hard-liners. "I had Michele Bachmann sitting right there," says Arpaio, pointing to my chair. "All these presidential guys coming to see me!"

As Arpaio has faced allegations of rampant racial profiling in Arizona, he's declared war on President Barack Obama, accusing him of watering down federal immigration law to court the Latino vote – while Arpaio himself continues to investigate the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate, the favored conspiracy of his far-right constituents. "I'm not going to get into everything else we got about the president," he brags to a conservative radio interviewer while I'm sitting in his office. "I could write 9 million books."

Arpaio refuses to acknowledge the president's recent decision to grant temporary immunity from imprisonment and deportation to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. These people, Arpaio says, will "be arrested" in Maricopa County. In June, when the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of Arizona's controversial immigration law, the core of which allows law enforcement to demand citizenship papers from any suspected illegal immigrant they come across, Arpaio­ growled that he wouldn't "bend" to the feds, "especially when we still have state laws to enforce."

"If they think I'm going to surrender," Arpaio says, "it's not going to happen."

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But the all-consuming focus on immigration has come at a cost: Arpaio is so obsessed with the often illusory crimes of immigrants that he ignored more than 400 cases of sexual abuse he was responsible for investigating, including assaults on children. And it surprised no one that JT Ready, the Arizona white supremacist who shot and killed his girlfriend, her family and himself last May, had attended Arpaio rallies.

Yet such derelictions of duty haven't hurt Arpaio among the audience he cares about most. Since 1992, despite widespread criticism from human rights groups and local political leaders, Arpaio has been re-elected four times in Maricopa­ County, the most populous area of Arizona and a bastion of retirees and conservatives for whom Arpaio is a white knight, a defender of the 1950s Shangri-La they've sought to preserve in the largely white suburbs that ring Phoenix. "I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy," says Arpaio.