Air war to begin in CD 8 Special Election
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Republic reported in Political tidbits today: TV ads are beginning to flood the airwaves in one of the hottest congressional campaigns in the country: the race in southern Arizona to fill the remaining months of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' term. The National Republican Congressional Committee threw the first punch … Read more
Fact Check: Jesse Kelly’s ‘pants on fire’ – U.S. has 1/10 the oil ‘reserves’ as those of Saudi Arabia
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Washington Post's fact checker Glenn Kessler has his Pinocchios, and Annenberg's PolitiFact has it truth-o-meter that goes goes up to "pants on fire!" lie. Blog for Arizona has "the kid" with his own "pants on fire" rating.
Tucson Weekly editor jimmy Boegel this week calls out Tea-Publican candidate for the CD 8 Special Election, Jesse Kelly, for his lie about U.S. oil production. Editor's Note | Tucson Weekly:
When did it become acceptable for a candidate for office to flat-out lie?
I have been pondering this query ever since Jesse Kelly—the GOP choice for Congressional District 8—started claiming that the United States has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and therefore, it's unacceptable for Americans to be paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.
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It is fact—provable, verifiable, absolute fact—that the U.S. circa 2012 does not have the oil that Jesse Kelly claims it does. This is not a matter of spin or nuance or shades of gray or anything that is debatable. Period. It's a fact. Even if you stretch and extend to cover oil shale, the United States today does not have the technology to get usable oil from it.
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I use the Jesse Kelly example just because it's one of the more-prominent and more-recent examples. No matter the party or the politics, when someone starts spreading blatant, verifiable falsehoods, other public servants and civic-minded folks have a duty to call bullshit. Period.
Words to live by. But you are going to need way more information than this blurb from the Weekly.
Flake and Carmona on VAWA?
April 27, 2012
With the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in the Senate, with Kyl voting No and McCain voting Yes, the obvious question for those seeking Kyl’s seat is how they would have voted. I have absolutely no doubt that Carmona would have voted Yes. How would Jeff Flake have voted?
Sigh
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier The TUSD dominoes just keep falling in its battle against Mexican American Studies. In a stunning rejection of celebrated author Ana Castillo's offer to read and speak with Tucson high school students next week, Tucson Unified School District administrators added a new chapter to the nation's most troubling censorship crackdown and dismissed … Read more
E.J. Montini gets (partially) sucked in by Melvin’s nuke waste dump argument
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier E. J. Montini, a reliably smart and readable Republic columnist, got took just a little bit by Al Melvin's nuclear waste dump propagandizing. Here's the passage from today's column, presenting Melvin's figures with no rebuttal. "The French recycle 96 percent of their nuclear material into new reusable fuel rods," Melvin told me. … Read more
Why does Obama hate predatory for-profit colleges?
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier President Obama just got through delivering a speech to soldiers promising to crack down on for-profit colleges that lie to students and saddle them with huge student loans in return for little or nothing in the way of education or career advancement. He's doing it by executive order, because you're not going … Read more
Let us now pan Japan’s education system
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier I'm sure Japan has very fine tea [See post below]. But its education? Not so good, I'm guessing. I'm just trying to be logical here. Let me explain. A few decades back, Japan looked like an unstoppable economic engine powering its way across the world and devouring everything in its path. At … Read more
Let us now praise Tucson tea, education
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier Tucson deserves tips of the hat from both of our most recent presidents (Obama with his left hand, Bush with his right, naturally). Counter to TUSD's generally held (and overstated) bad image, C.E. Rose, a TUSD K-8 school, was given a national ed award for excellence for, according to the Star, "a … Read more
