Update: Tea-Publican Tyranny in Michigan – appeals court panel rules emergency manager referendum should go on the ballot, then stays its own order
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The petition drive to seek a referendum on Michigan’s emergency financial manager law took another strange twist today as a state appeals court panel ruled that it should go on the ballot, then stayed its own order to poll the entire appellate bench on whether to review the issue further.
The Detroit Free Press reports, Appeals court agrees to put emergency manager law on ballot, then delays its order :
The three-judge panel, in a unanimous decision, said existing case law requires them to support the group Stand Up for Democracy and order the Board of State Canvassers to put the issue on the November ballot. But the court said they believed that, but for the precedent, they would have found against Stand Up for Democracy for failure to comply with a technical type-size requirement.
The rarely-used procedure ordered by the court calls for a poll of all 28 members of the Court of Appeals on whether to appoint a special panel of 7 judges to resolve the dispute.
Resolve what? The court just found that existing case precedent and statutory law — the substantial compliance doctrine — requires them to allow the referendum to go to the ballot. Here again is the Memorandum from the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, which advises that Michigan, like almost every other state, follows the "Subtantial Compliance Doctrine" (.pdf), which holds that:
"It is well established by both statute and case law that petitions need only substantially conform to the statutory requirements," and that “constitutional and statutory initiative and referendum provisions should be liberally construed to effectuate their purposes, to facilitate rather than hamper the exercise by the people of these reserved rights.” The general rule is that “all doubts as to technical deficiencies or failure to comply with the exact letter of procedural requirements in petitions . . . are resolved in favor of permitting the people to vote and express a choice on any proposal subject to election.”
The ‘Romney Rules’
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Andrew Sprung at Xpostfactoid has compiled the “Romney Rules” for which the media villagers really ought to keep a copy of this in their pocket at all times for quick reference: Weekly, Steve Benen tallies up the latest instances of Mitt's Mendacity. * * * I find the laser focus on lying … Read more
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
June 8, 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. XXI: Campaigning in St. Louis yesterday, Mitt Romney, reading from his teleprompter, told supporters he would never be a "president of doubt and deception." You could almost hear irony … Read more
Move America Forward Freedom PAC fundraises using 2010 image of Jesse Kelly holding a gun
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Apparently someone didn't get the memo that Extreme Makeover Jesse Kelly 2.0 in 2012 is not that guy who ran for Congress in 2010. We are supposed to forget that guy ever existed. The Move America Forward Freedom PAC, supporting Jesse Kelly, put out a fundraising email request on Thursday in direct … Read more
(Update) Affordable Care Act delivering benefits to consumers
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: One of the things that polling tells us is that folks "hate" the Affordable Care Act, because it has been demonized in the media and serves as a substitute for President Obama himself ("ObamaCare"), but when you ask them about specific provisions of the Affordable Care Act, these same folks want and … Read more
Reminder: Get Out The Vote Concert And Rally – Sign Up For a Shift
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Announcement from the Ron Barber for Congress campaign: Gabby Giffords is coming home to Tucson to help get out the vote for Ron Barber in Southern Arizona. When:Saturday, June 9, 2012, 5-8 pm Where:The Rialto318 East Congress StreetTucson This election is important. It’s the choice between Jesse Kelly’s extreme ideas and Ron … Read more
Pro Publica: ‘If TV stations won’t post their data on political ads, we will’
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
This is something that major corporate media publications with financial resources like The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star could be doing as a public service, but probably have never even contemplated doing.
The local TV stations themselves could voluntarily post this public information online, but again, have probably have never even contemplated doing. They all like to make a big deal about how their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for public information led to their investigative reporting, but when it is public information held in the hands of the local TV media — not so much. Local TV news stations don't use this public information in their own files as a basis for reporting on political ads. Self-interest gets in the way of the public's right to know.
The investigative journalists at Pro Publica have had enough of the media conglomerates delaying new FCC rules in Congress requiring local TV stations to post public information about political ads online, so they have taken matters into their own hands. If TV Stations Won't Post Their Data on Political Ads, We Will:
Every local broadcast station has a repository of documents about political advertising that you have a legal right to see but can do so only by going to the station and asking to see “the public file.”
These paper files contain detailed data on all political ads that run on the channel, such as when they aired, who bought the time and how much they paid. It’s a transparency gold mine, allowing the public to see how campaigns and outside groups are influencing elections.
But TV executives have been fighting a Federal Communications Commission proposal to make the data accessible online. They say making the files digital would be too burdensome — it “could well take hundreds of hours for a single station,” according to comments filed with the FCC by the National Association of Broadcasters.
* * *
We tend to like the idea of public data being online. Since TV stations won’t put it online themselves, we decided to do it ourselves — and we want your help.
Ron Barber on The Daily Rundown with concern troll Chuck Todd
June 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Democrat Ron Barber was interviewed by DC media villager Chuck Todd this morning on his program The Daily Rundown. Chuck Todd demonstrated his superficial knowledge of the CD 8 Special Election race and focused on concern trolling over the political ads running in the district, because that's what DC media villagers like Chuck Todd find important.
Ron Barber did his best to talk about the issues, but Chuck Todd insisted upon demonstrating his own vapidness.
Video below the fold.
