Featured Stories
Let me help you with ‘Operation Dekookification,’ Laurie Roberts
July 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts is back again today with her "Operation Dekookification." Like former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, she engages in false equivalencies to assert that there are extremists in both political parties, but the truth is that Ms. Roberts' Republican sensibilities are offended by the Christian Dominionists and the Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists of the Tea Party who have hijacked her father's GOP and the party label.
Ms. Roberts wants registered independents, you know, "the 88 percenters, those independents who don't bother to vote in the primary," to vote for "moderate" Republicans in the GOP party primary this August. Operation going to the next level. Just two of the votes that Ms. Roberts flagged for her "Operation Dekookification" of the GOP:
I don't believe that most Arizonans think the Legislature should concern itself with contraception or the origin of Barack Obama's birth . . .
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Instead, we get a collection of characters obsessed with conspiracies and state sovereignty.
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I am asking you to vote, to buy into this audacious idea that Arizona deserves a Legislature that is actually representative of its citizens.
That is, one ready to move into the 21st century, focused on succeeding in the union rather than seceding from it.
Ms. Roberts states: "To be fair, not all of our leaders are ideologues, just enough of them to regularly land us on Comedy Central."
And that is where you are mistaken, Ms. Roberts. Using two of the votes you flagged for "Operation Dekookification" of the GOP, Rep. Carl Seel's "Birther" bill, HB 2177 (2011), every Tea-Publican member of the House, and every Tea-Publican member of the Senate (excepting Frank Antenori who somehow missed the vote) voted for the "Birther" bill. Every one. The Arizona Legislature became the first in the nation to pass a measure requiring presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship in order to get on the state's ballot. Governor Jan Brewer had to veto this bill.
‘Save Our Vote’ to oppose Open Elections/Open Government Act initiative
July 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Oh, I can already hear the gnashing of teeth and wailing, and the rendering of garments by the corporate media villagers who just love "good government" (Goo-Goo) proposals that promise simplistic solutions, but fail to deliver as promised. At least I will no longer be waging this fight alone.
Howard Fischer reports today (Updated) County attorney Montgomery leads new fight against open primary plan – East Valley Tribune:
[Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery] will be leading the effort to convince voters to keep the partisan in partisan politics.
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The formation of the Save Our Vote Committee comes on the heels of the failure of Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative Republicans to dull the move — and possibly confuse voters — with a competing measure of their own. But that plan fell apart when some GOP senators refused to go along.
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Montgomery said he can't say where the group will get the money for its campaign, saying that is being handled by others. There was no immediate response to messages to the organization's treasurer.
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So far, though, the opposition is all Republican: Montgomery said the other person involved in marshalling opposition to the initiative is former GOP Congressman John Shadegg.
But Montgomery and foes are not relying on public relations to kill the initiative. He said foes of the plan are weighing a legal challenge to have the issue kicked off the ballot.
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The potential legal challenge arises because the Arizona Constitution requires that all proposed amendments be limited to a single subject. Montgomery charges that this measure violates that because it affects everything from how candidates qualify for the ballot to how they qualify for optional public financing.
[Former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, leading the initiative drive] said Montgomery is off base, saying the proposal has been vetted by attorneys.
There are other legal problems with this initiative, such as it fails to identify a revenue source to pay for it as required by Proposition 101 (2004). Arizona voters approved Proposition 101, amending the Arizona Constitution "to require all subsequent ballot initiatives and referendums to specify a new source of revenue for any required expenditure." No source of revenue is identified in this initiative.
The initiative also conflicts with the charter city provision of the Arizona Constitution. Charter cities, such as Tucson, have constitutional rights that include the power to decide both whether to elect council members on an at-large or district basis, and whether to conduct elections on a partisan basis. Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejects 'Paton's Law'.
For contact information for the Save Our Vote Committee see Campaign Finance – Filer Details (Save Our Vote, opposing C-03-2012).
LD 10 Primary Debate at Drinking Liberally
July 10, 2012
Wednesday, July 11 we'll be hosting a debate for the three candidates running in the August primary for the AZ House of Representatives: Bruce Wheeler (State Rep, former City Council member)Stefanie Mach https://www.StefanieMach.comBrandon Patrick http://patrick2012.nationbuilder.com/ Moderator: Mike Bryan from Blog for Arizona. Join us at 6 o'clock at The Shanty. The debate will start at 6:30 sharp. … Read more
The GOP war on voting in the D.C. Circuit Court
July 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Monday, a panel of federal Judges on the D.C. Circuit Court began trial of the case of the U.S. Department of Justice challenge to the Texas voter photo ID requirement. POLITICO reports Texas voter ID trial opens:
The case, which could make its way to the Supreme Court, is the first major federal court showdown in this election cycle over a series of laws Republican-controlled state legislatures have approved that require voters to show photo identification at the polls.
In March, the Justice Department Civil Rights Division refused to clear the Texas law, known as Senate Bill 14, saying Texas officials had failed to prove that it wouldn’t adversely affect minorities.
As the trial got under way in a packed courtroom, DOJ trial attorney Elizabeth Westfall went even further, arguing that the federal government will show racial motivation in Texas’s passage of the law.
“The facts will convincingly demonstrate the discriminatory purpose and effect of Senate Bill 14,” Westfall told the three-judge panel in her brief opening argument in a trial expected to last through Friday.
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The law, signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in May 2011, requires nearly all voters to show photo ID when voting in person. Most forms of state-issued photo ID, including driver’s licenses and firearms permits, are accepted. However, student IDs from Texas state universities are not.
Last year, South Carolina passed a similar law, which the Justice Department also rejected. South Carolina has also filed suit, but that case has yet to come to trial.
Under federal law, lawsuits seeking so-called “pre-clearance” of changes to voting procedures in all of seven mostly Southern states and parts of nine others, are heard by three-judge panels composed of two district court judges and an appeals court judge. D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel and District Court Judges Rosemary Collyer and Robert Wilkins were selected to hear the Texas voter ID case.
Has Barber decided to ignore progressives?
July 10, 2012
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by David Safier I got Ron Barber's constituent campaign newsletter yesterday [Note: I mistakenly called the email a "constituent newsletter" when in fact it was a campaign newsletter. I regret the error]. Very nice. Very bland. Very incomplete. The first heading is BIG VOTES IN CONGRESS. Listed are his votes for the Transportation, Housing and … Read more
Romney returns to his ‘I’m rubber, you’re glue’ strategy
July 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Willard "Mittens" Romney reminds me of that kid in class who thought he was being clever by saying "I know you are but what am I?" in a snotty sing-song fashion. You know this kid; we've all known this kid. He was asking for it, and eventually I would pound his sorry ass. Kids were allowed to be kids and to fight back then.
Steve Benen today follows up on the other theme he has noticed in the Romney campaign, besides Romney being a pathological liar. It is his childish "I'm rubber, you're glue" attempt at psychological projection. Romney's intellectual development must have retarded around the age of six. The recursive rubber/glue game:
I think a pattern is starting to emerge.
Democrats note that Republicans are trying to buy the election, so Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to buy the election. Democrats point to Mitt Romney's vague agenda, so Romney accuses Democrats of having a vague agenda. Democrats criticize the GOP's "war on women," so the GOP accuses Democrats of waging a "war on women." Dems call Romney an out-of-touch elitist, so Romney accuses Dems of out-of-touch elitism.
And President Obama's campaign has characterized Romney as the "Outsourcer-in-Chief," so, well, you know what's coming.
In [a] new video from the RNC, the party accuses President Obama of being "the real outsourcer-in-chief." The main problem with the video, not surprisingly, is its detachment from reality — the RNC hasn't even tried to bolster the allegations with any evidence at all, in large part because the claims appear to have been made from whole cloth.
As the NRA would say, Guns don’t start fires . . .
July 10, 2012
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by David Safier The Sunflower Fire in Tonto National Forest was started by Steven Craig Shiflet, who fired an "incendiary shotgun shell" during a bachelor party. Shiflet loaded the incendiary shell, which was advertised to shoot "100 feet of fire," and blasted it into the brush. When the fire flared up, the men unsuccessfully tried … Read more
The economic stimulus of Medicaid
July 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
if our ideological extremist Tea-Publican Governor and legislature say no to the expanded Medicaid provisions of the Affordable Care Act, they are also saying no to economic stimulus and job creation. You read that right.
Sarah Kliff at Ezra Klein's WonkBlog reports Medicaid’s stimulative effect:
Here’s one factor governors may want to weigh as they consider participating in the health law’s Medicaid expansion: Study after study has found that federal Medicaid dollars spur economic activity beyond the initial investment.
Researchers find that a dollar of Medicaid spending increases spending both in the health-care sector and in other industries.
“For every dollar that a state spends, federal funding filters through the state economies,” says Robin Rudowitz, associate director for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. “That tends to go both into health service vendors as well as other sectors.”
Medicaid acts as a stimulus in two ways. First, increased federal spending on health care can, in tough budget times, free up state dollars for other spending. Medicaid spending can also ripple through the private sector, stimulating increased employment that leads to higher household spending.
Rudowitiz recently reviewed 29 state-level studies of Medicaid’s stimulative impact. Across the board, she says, “it was pretty consistent that Medicaid spending did generate economic activity.”
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One recent study found that every $100,000 in stimulus dollars increased employment by 3.8 job years. Each stimulus dollar had a multiplier of 2, meaning that every $1 of Medicaid spending resulted in a $2 increase in gross domestic product.
