The GOP War On ‘Undesirable’ Voters
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: "King" Russell Pearce gets a lot of media attention for his anti-immigrant hate mongering. But one of his early "successes" (sic) was Prop. 200 in 2004, which required that voters be able to produce both identification and proof of citizenship prior to being allowed to vote in any election. This was a … Read more
The headline says it all
by David Safier Headline from the Salt Lake Tribune: Immigration: Utah wants world to know it’s no Arizona Utah legislators just passed a few immigration bills that allow police to use their discretion in checking people's immigration status when they make a stop. And people aren't required to carry their papers with them. And Utah … Read more
Seize the Day, or Seize the Tests (to check for cheating)?
by David Safier The charter school, Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and Middle School in Yuma, may be doing a great job seeing as how, "The school posted some of the highest gains in three grades on the AIMS test of any of the 1,337 schools analyzed by The Arizona Republic and USA Today." But … Read more
Teachers and admins cheating? What will we tell the children?
by David Safier USA Today put together a research story about teachers and administrators cheating on high stakes tests, and the results, while perfectly predictable, aren't pretty. In the six states studied, including Arizona, the researchers found whole classes and whole grades at some schools where the students made unbelievable — literally, statistically unbelievable — … Read more
G.I. sued by Glendale? G.I.’s Ladner says bye-bye
by David Safier Two unrelated items in the news about Goldwater Institute. First: I haven't followed the G.I./Glendale dustup closely, but it may be reaching a head. Basically, Glendale is trying to keep the Phoenix Coyotes. G.I. says the deal would be a government giveaway, a gift to the current owners, and it is fighting … Read more
Krugman: The Truth About Pensions
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: What Paul said. The Truth About Pensions – NYTimes.com: Dean Baker has a deeply enlightening analysis of state pension shortfalls (pdf), containing a lot of stuff I didn’t know. The basic moral is that the official story these days — of years and years of huge giveaways to unions, resulting in gigantic, … Read more
Unions are critical to the survival of the American middle class
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Tea-Publican plan is simple: kill the unions, and thus kill the American middle class. "All hail the new serfdom of the corporatocracy and our benign (sic) plutocratic leaders!" These batshit crazy loons hate government (and by government I mean "We the People" democracy) so much so that they would rather trade democracy … Read more
