ALEC exposed, corporate sponsors begin to back out

April 8, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Now that the political agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been exposed by ALEC Exposed, companies that have been members and financial supporters of ALEC are having second thoughts about being associated with its radical agenda. BREAKING: Intuit Out of ALEC; Coke, Kraft, Pepsi, too, while Koch Stands Ground (Rebekah Wilce, PRWatch):

A stampede seems to be on the way as more and more groups break ties and dump ALEC. Intuit, Inc. (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks accounting software) told the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that Intuit also decided not to renew its membership after it expired in 2011.

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Kraft Foods also announced that it won’t renew its membership in ALEC when it expires this spring, according to an email from Kraft Corporate Affairs Director Susan Davison. These announcements follow on the news that Coca-Cola and Pepsi are out.

I would dispute the "stampede" characterization. The "usual suspects" financing the radical right-wing agenda are staying put:

Other corporate board members are doubling down, most notably Koch Industries and Wal-Mart Stores. "Yes, we plan to continue our membership in and support of ALEC," Philip Ellender of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC told Politico. Wal-Mart refused to withdraw its support of ALEC, claiming, "Our membership in any organization does not affirm our agreement with each policy created by the broader group."

In Memoriam: Mike Wallace

April 8, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: There were giants of the news media that today's blowed-dryed pretty boys and girls fall woefully short of their standards: Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Mike Wallace, for example. Mike Wallace of CBS News and one of the creators of 60 Minutes died last night at the age of 93. One … Read more

George Will and the Arizona Daily Star’s creative headline writer

April 8, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It has been incontrovertibly established that Willard 'Mittens' Romney is a pathological liar. Updated: Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity Vol. XII.

Here is Dana Milbank on Mitt Romney’s serial dishonesty and mendacity, and why it goes far beyond the, er, accepted norms of standard political truth-stretching.

But Mittens suffers from another disorder frequently associated with pathological lying, psychological projection, a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which he then ascribes to another person. This is the old schoolyard taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue – whatever you say (about me) bounces off of me and sticks to you." Willard 'Mittens' Romney: 'I'm rubber, you're glue'.

Today we are treated to that paragon of conservative thought and commentary, the Neoconservative Washington Post's George Will, engaging in psychological projection on behalf of the presumptive Tea-Publican nominee, Willard "Mittens" Romney.

Here is the lead paragraph to George Will's opinion in the Post, What Romney needs in a running-mate (link caption: Romney needs a heavy-hitter as his vice president):

Barack Obama’s intellectual sociopathy — his often breezy and sometimes loutish indifference to truth — should no longer startle. It should, however, influence Mitt Romney’s choice of a running mate.

Whoa! Classic psychological projection from the always mendacious George Will on behalf of the mendacious Mitt. A tag-team double-scoop of mendacity with a cherry on top Sundae.

I have always despised George Will for the ease with which he lies — his lead paragraph above is a man looking at his own reflection in the mirror and ascribing his faults to someone else (psychological projection).

Will uses "big words" for which his conservative audience needs a dictionary to discover the meaning (if they bother), and he speaks with the absolute certitude of his own intellectual superiority to everyone else, which somehow convinces the intellectually lazy D.C media villagers that he must know what he is talking about — doesn't he? It's a nice schtick, but in the end George Will is just another propagandist for the right-wing noise machine. His act is to play the "patrician prevaricator."

Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejects ‘Paton’s Law’

April 7, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ahh, karmic justice. The wheels of justice turn slow, but they turn.

A few years ago, the wannabe tinhorn dictator of Tucson, Jonathan "Payday" Paton, sponsored a bill to punish the City of Tucson for being a "liberal bastion" by dictating to its residents how they are to conduct their local elections. Paton and his pals from the state of Maricopa got together and passed "Paton's Law," a special punitive measure aimed only at the City of Tucson.

I said at the time that Payday's punitive measure was of questionable constitutional validity, and sure enough, on Friday the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejected "Paton's Law" as unconstitutional. Can we please exile Payday to Elba now? State Supreme Court tosses law to alter Tucson's city elections:

In a unanimous decision, the justices said 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.

That means Tucson can continue to have candidates designate their party affiliation despite a 2009 state law that forbids cities from having partisan elections for mayor and council. Only Tucson has such a system.

And the court said lawmakers cannot force Tucson to conduct elections on a ward-only basis. A 2009 state law sought to strike down a hybrid system, used only in Tucson, where council candidates first must be nominated in a primary within their own wards, but then run citywide in the general election.

While the ruling most immediately affects Tucson, it has statewide implications.

There are 18 other charter cities. Friday's ruling spells out that they have certain rights that state lawmakers cannot take away.

The decision is a major defeat for the Republican-leaning Southern Arizona Leadership Council, which pushed for the change in hopes of altering Tucson politics.

It also is a [major defeat] for Jonathan Paton, who used his political capital as a state senator in 2009 to persuade GOP colleagues who control the Legislature to try to undermine a city system that goes back to 1929.

Paton, now a candidate for Congress, did not return calls seeking comment.

I'll bet he didn't.

Payday suffered another major defeat earlier in the week as well.

What is Romney hiding from us?

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Jed Lewison at Daily Kos asks the right question: Why was Mitt Romney willing to hand over 23 years of tax returns to John McCain's vice presidential vetting team but he will not do the same with the public. What's in his tax records that he was willing to let McCain's people … Read more

Tea-Publican tyranny: The impending death of democracy in Michigan is a warning to America

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." This famous "quotation" is frequently misattributed to Sinclair Lewis

The earliest known incident of such a comment appears to be a partial quote from James Waterman Wise, Jr., reported in a 1936 issue of The Christian Century that in a recent address here before the liberal John Reed club said that [Wiiliam Randolph] Hearst and [Father Charles] Coughlin are the two chief exponents of fascism in America. If fascism comes, he added, it will not be identified with any "shirt" movement, nor with an "insignia," but it will probably be "wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the Constitution." The Christian Century, Volume 53, Feb 5, 1936, p 245.

At the time Mr. Wise made this statement in 1936, European fascism was the greatest threat to the world. Mr. Wise could not foresee that his profound prediction would be realized today under a home-grown version of American authoritarianism, wrapped up in a symbol of American patriotism — the Tea Party — "and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the Constitution."

I have previously posted about the "financial martial law" in the state of Michigan, which empowers the new Tea-Publican governor of Michigan to declare a financial emergency and to dissolve cities and towns and their duly elected city and town councils and place them under state receivership and the control of an "emergency financial manager" appointed by the governor – which can be a corporation – with absolute (dictatorial) power. 'It Can't Happen Here' (its happening now in Michigan and coming soon to your state).

The Rachel Maddow show on Thursday night aired a segment on the Tea-Publican tyranny in Michigan that goes well beyond the tyranny of Michigan's "financial martial law." Tea-Publicans in control of the Michigan legislature are passing 'emergency" measures in contravention of Michigan law and denying Democratic legisators' demands for a roll call vote on these bills. They are not only disenfranchising minority voters in Michigan who tend to vote Democratic, but they are disenfranchising their elected Democratic representatives in the legislature as well. They are circumventing democracy, and as Maddow said, "this is beyond radical, it is revolutionary":