Legislative Republicans Seeking To Interfere In County Level Redistricting
March 22, 2011
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings …and "interfere" is something of an understatement… State Sen. Lori Klein, late of the controversy over a bigoted letter that she read on the Senate floor, has proposed a strike-everything amendment to HB2289, one that is scheduled for committee consideration at Thursday's meeting of Senate Finance. It concerns
Fool’s Gold: G.I. praises “learning gains” at a school accused of cheating on standardized tests
March 22, 2011
by David Safier As Al Pacino [kind of] said in Godfather 3, "Just when I thought Matthew Ladner was out, he pulls me back in again." Ladner is now a "Senior Fellow" rather than an employee at the Goldwater Institute since he moved on to work for Jeb Bush's so-called "Foundation for Excellence in Education,"
Are they playing Good Conservative, Bad Conservative?
March 22, 2011
by David Safier I'm happy to say, I've never been in one of those Good Cop, Bad Cop situations where one cop threatens to beat the crap out of you, then the other steps in and "saves" you. But what we're getting out of the Russell Pearce/Jan Brewer confrontation sounds pretty close to the scenes
Alabama U.S. District Court Judge Halts Ban on Union Payroll Deductions
March 22, 2011
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: This is one of those pieces of anti-union "model" legislation that is working its way through Tea-Publican Legislatures across the country. There are currently bills in the Arizona Legislature that seek to ban union payroll deductions, SB 1555 (government employees; union dues; withholding) and HB 2395 (schools; payroll deductions; union dues). These bills
Court of Appeals reinstates FISA wiretapping case
March 22, 2011
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit challenging an eavesdropping law passed by Congress three years ago. Appellate Court Reinstates Lawsuit Challenging Wiretapping Powers – NYTimes.com: In the lawsuit, one of the few remaining on the issue, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups charged that the expanded surveillance
The GOP war on campaign finance reforms
March 22, 2011
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Not satisfied by the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that opened the floodgates to corporate-sponsored election ads, conservative opponents of campaign finance regulations have opened up a series of new legal fronts in their effort to eliminate the remaining laws restricting the flow of money into politics. To
The GOP war on the independent judiciary (and separation of powers)
March 22, 2011
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The "Birthers, Birchers and Secessionist" wing of the Republican Party in Arizona has long opposed the wisdom of the voters in approving the merit selection system for judges in Arizona. Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was one of the architects of the merit selection system for judges when she
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander: End federal funding of FOX News
March 22, 2011
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Mark at News Corpse blog gets it exactly right Stop Federal Funding Of Fox News: A few weeks ago video pimp and propagandist, James O’Keefe, released a heavily edited and deliberately deceptive video that purported to expose an institutional bias at National Public Radio. It was quickly debunked and denounced as a fraud
