The Arizona Republic’s unconstitutional pension reforms finally repealed
May 8, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic has a long and sordid history of anti-unionism dating back to when conservative newspaper mogul Eugene C. Pulliam (grandfather of former Vice President Dan Quayle) was the publisher of the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette. The anti-unionism of the Arizona Republic.
The most recent example was a multi-part series of "investigative" reports in the Arizona Republic in the fall of 2010 that relied heavily on the biased research of the Goldwater Institute and quoted liberally from Byron Schlomach of the Goldwater Institute in its reporting. The Goldwater Institute and ALEC manufactured a public employee pension crisis, and the Arizona Republic carried water for them. Public employee pension reforms – a manufactured 'crisis':
The Tea-Publican Arizona Legislature then cited The Arizona Republic series as a reason for taking up public employee pension fund reforms during the past session. Regular readers know that this was part of a national legislative effort through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its affiliated members like the Goldwater Institute. Two reports on the tentacles of the Kochtopus and ALEC. The only question is whether The Arizona Republic was a complicit participant in this effort. We report, you decide.
Both our Tea-Publican legislators and editors of the Arizona Republic continued to press for pension reforms even in the face of well-reasoned legal arguments that it violated an express provision of the Arizona Constitution and contract law (impairment of contracts), and violated the fiduciary obligations of the pension fund manager (Arizona) to the fund beneficiaries. Our Tea-Publican legislature adopted the state pension reforms argued for by the Arizona Republic as proxy for the Goldwater Institute.
Public employee pensioners sued, and the Court struck down the Arizona Republic's pension reforms as unconstitutional. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Eileen Willett ruled the Arizona Republic's pension reforms were unconstitutional.
How To Do The Q in QandA Correctly
May 7, 2012
By Michael Bryan As a frequent host and participant in public Q and A sessions, I frequently see egregious examples of how NOT to ask questions in a public forum. It is frequently painful to go through the open question period after a public discussion. Too few people keep in mind the real goals of such a … Read more
Watch Bill Moyers’ interview with Luis Alberto Urrea — a second nudge
May 7, 2012
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by David Safier Look, I don't want to get all English teacher on you and make this an assignment, but you really should watch Bill Moyers' interview with author Luis Alberto Urrea. It's simply the clearest exposition of both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border and of the experience of other-ness that comes from being Mexican-American … Read more
The Fire Next Time: The Euro Financial Crisis – a Keynesian revolution to ‘austerity’
May 7, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Yet another European leader has fallen as a result of conservative economics "austerity" measures, this time Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The French are revolting. The Greeks are too. And it’s about time.
Paul Krugman writes, Those Revolting Europeans (h/t graphic, crooksandliars.com):
Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and in both countries voters turned two thumbs down. It’s far from clear how soon the votes will lead to changes in actual policy, but time is clearly running out for the strategy of recovery through austerity — and that’s a good thing.
Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace.
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What is true is that Mr. Hollande’s victory means the end of “Merkozy,” the Franco-German axis that has enforced the austerity regime of the past two years. This would be a “dangerous” development if that strategy were working, or even had a reasonable chance of working. But it isn’t and doesn’t; it’s time to move on. Europe’s voters, it turns out, are wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest.
What’s wrong with the prescription of spending cuts as the remedy for Europe’s ills? One answer is that the confidence fairy doesn’t exist — that is, claims that slashing government spending would somehow encourage consumers and businesses to spend more have been overwhelmingly refuted by the experience of the past two years. So spending cuts in a depressed economy just make the depression deeper.
Moreover, there seems to be little if any gain in return for the pain. Consider the case of Ireland, which has been a good soldier in this crisis, imposing ever-harsher austerity in an attempt to win back the favor of the bond markets. According to the prevailing orthodoxy, this should work. In fact, the will to believe is so strong that members of Europe’s policy elite keep proclaiming that Irish austerity has indeed worked, that the Irish economy has begun to recover.
But it hasn’t.
Where are Arizona’s Stephen Sandstroms?
May 7, 2012
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by David Safier This is a "There's hope" story out of the Salt Lake City Trib. Stephen Sandstrom, one of Utah's biggest anti-immigration legislators, a good buddy of Russell Pearce, changed his tune and became what was called during the Bush era a "compassionate conservative." He still supports Romney, but unlike Mitt, he thinks illegal … Read more
200+ seniors at Barber press conference
May 7, 2012
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by David Safier Last week the Star reported about a Jesse Kelly press conference with 30 seniors in attendance supporting their candidate. Today I did a carefully approximate count of the people at the Barber presser. About 150 seniors stood behind him (they keep on wrapping around the wall beyond what I show in the … Read more
Legislatively-referred constitutional amendments on the 2012 ballot
May 7, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Remember all those wild-eyed radical ballot measures that Tea-Publicans tried to push through the 50th Arizona legislature over the past two years? Even with a super-majority in both chambers of the Arizona legislature, it appears that only four legislatively-referred constitutional amendments will be on the ballot this November. Prop. 114 – The Arizona … Read more
MAS Lit note
May 7, 2012
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by David Safier Went to see Ana Castillo talk and read Friday. Enjoyable and edifying. Bought her novel, "So Far From God." I'm about halfway through. It's a good, enjoyable, lighthearted-yet-serious read. It's part of my personal, too-late-started, never-too-late-to-begin Mexican-American Studies education.
