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

by David Safier I have given the Star a heaping serving of praise lately — especially considering the source: someone who scours the paper daily and often criticizes it for its lacks and excesses. My only criticism of late was more about its owner Lee Enterprises and the corporation's virulently anti-union stance. That being said, … Read more

by David Safier Rule o' Law Russell can find neither the rule nor the law saying he can ban someone from the state Senate Building. Yet he says he has banned Sal Reza, and when Reza, who claims he hadn't heard of the ban, entered the building Thursday, he was arrested for misdemeanor tresspass. Under … Read more