by David Safier I've been told House Speaker Kirk Adams and Senate Pres. Russell Pearce are not the best of friends. I don't know if there's any personal animus, but I know neither wants to help the other move up to the next political rung. Maybe it's because both of them covet one particular rung. … Read more

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings From the Arizona Republic – Scott Bundgaard, R-Peoria, the majority leader of the Arizona state Senate, was briefly taken into custody with marks on his body Saturday, indicating he had been involved in a fight, an act of domestic violence, Phoenix police officers said. Sgt. Tommy Thompson said … Read more

by David Safier The crowd supporting Wisconsin union workers was already substantial at 11:30, a half hour before the noontime event was to begin. By noon the rally dominated all four corners of Speedway and Campbell. By 1:00, my estimate is that there were a total of 600 people — 500 minimum — on the … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I really resent the fact how extremists on the right today invoke a revisionist and fictitious false idol of Ronald Reagan as their justification for doing the most outrageous and most extreme things in his name. This false idol they worship (they may want to recheck the Second Commandment) is nothing at all like the complex … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: One of the favorite talking points of the right is that we have to lower corporate tax rates to make our state or country more economically competitive in the World. In fact, the Arizona legislature just approved lowering corporate tax rates in Arizona based upon this theory. Corporate tax rates are largely irrelevant when … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: NOTE: The following report should cause public employee pension fund managers and trustees, Arizona legislators, and knowledgable financial reporters to reexamine the facts and numbers asserted in the multi-part investigative report on Arizona's public employee pensions by The Arizona Republic from several weeks ago that relied heavily upon research and liberal use of quotations … Read more

Posted by AzBlue Meanie: I didn't have a good video of the proceedings for the earlier post, but now I do. After Democratic Rep. Gary Hebl finishes his debate time and yields the floor, there's a "flash vote" and the Republican majority passes the so-called "budget repair bill" (union busting bill). The vote was held … Read more