by David Safier I receive the Goldwater Institute Daily Emails. Know thy enemy. I pay most attention to the anti-teacher, anti-school-district tirades. But lately, G.I. has put out a barrage of emails about the evils of unions and the "common sense" solutions to cutting their power. It's been the buildup to the recent draconian anti-union … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senate Minority Leader David Shapira was a guest on The Ed Show on Wednesday night, discussing Governor Jan Brewer and her Tea-Publican legislature's full-scale assault on public employee unions and workers rights in the Arizona legislature this week. These bills would make Arizona the most anti-union, anti-worker's rights state in the union. And it is all being coordinated by the Goldwater institute, the corporate funded ALEC partner.

Sen. Shapira has set up the web page solidarity.az.org at Stand up for the Middle Class – David Schapira for Congress for a petition (look for the logo below) that you can sign and to receive updates on these draconian bills to allow you to make public comments on these bills — not that our super-majority Tea-Publican legislature gives a damn what you or anyone else thinks. This is Tea-Publican tyranny, and they must all be removed from office.

I have never seen a people more apathetic and resigned to accepting abuse than Arizonans. What the hell is wrong with you people? Our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana have stood up and turned out hundreds of thousands of protestors into the streets to fight back against the Tea-Publican tyranny. They have defeated Gov. Kasich in Ohio and they are about to recall Gov. Walker and Tea-Publican senators in Wisconsin. What's it going to take for Arizonans to slip off your shackles and to stop bowing your heads in defeat and to stand up and Fight Back! Take back our state!

Video below the fold.

by David Safier Seriously. It's in quotes, so I have to assume Sen. Lori Klein really said this about the draconian anti-union bills making their way through the legislature, bills which, according to someone from the Goldwater Institute, would make the Wisconsin legislation look "moderate." Republican Sen. Lori Klein, who sits on the Government Reform … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The lobbyists from the Golwater Institute will testify on Thursday about how public sector employees are paid more than their private sector counterparts. This is something that FAUX News Fraudcasting has been laying the groundwork for since early 2011. This claim has been refuted by several studies over the past year.

Just last week, the Arizona Republic reported Study compares pay, benefits of workers in Phoenix sectors:

A study Phoenix commissioned to settle disputes over public-employee compensation shows city workers earn slightly more in total pay and benefits than a combined average of competitive peers in both the public and private sectors.

But when benefits are stripped from the equation, Phoenix workers make far less in base pay compared with private sector entities and about the same as local public-sector peers.

The findings are contained in a study from the Segal Group that the Phoenix City Council will review today. Phoenix paid $430,000 for the 300-plus page report, and there is already disagreement about what the report says.

* * *

The study, released recently, based its findings on data averaging information from both the private and public sector. Cities used in the study for comparison included San Diego, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Houston.

Locally, most major cities in Maricopa County were included along with data on state employees. Private-sector information came from published databases and a survey of seven local companies or utilities.

The study shows Phoenix is roughly competitive with the public sector and 19 percentage points below market compared with the private sector when it comes to base salary. The report based its findings on the city's current labor contracts, which included a 1 percent wage cut that has been in place for two consecutive fiscal years.

[Compared with the private sector alone, total compensation for Phoenix employees is barely at market.]

by David Safier Every teacher has stories of students handing in too-good-to-be-true research papers where, in the midst of brainless copying, they neglected to take out phrases like "(See page 473)." It looks like Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin was one of those students. Burgin, who the Daily Kos post describes as "a 29 year old … Read more