J. D. Hayworth Accused of FEC Violations
December 16, 2009
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: One of the "four horsemen" of anti-immigrant hysteria in Maricopa County and the pied-piper of teabaggers, J.D. Hayworth, has been accused by former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods (and former chief of staff to Sen. John McCain) of violating FEC regulations by using his talk radio show on KFYI-550 AM to promote
Update: AZ GOP Executive Director accused of misusing Voter Vault
December 15, 2009
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Dawn Teo of the Huffington Post has more background on the accusations against Brett Mecum, Executive Director of the Arizona Republican Party Top Arizona Republican Accused of Using Voter Database to Stalk Woman: More misconduct has been alleged against Arizona Republican Party executive director Brett Mecum, who is now the subject of
The problem with for profit education
December 15, 2009
by David Safier The problem with for profit education is . . . it's for profit. Anyone who's looking to make a buck off of running schools has a constant conflict of interest between the students' best interest and the bottom line. Case in point. The University of Phoenix has to pay $48.5 million to
They’ve got a tiger by the tail
December 15, 2009
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Whatever arrangement Tiger Woods may have with his wife Elin, if any, the tragic victims of this sordid tale are two young children, Sam Alexis Woods and Charlie Axel Woods. This drama will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Perhaps Tiger should have thought of his children first. The self-destruction
The answer to David’s question about filibusters
December 15, 2009
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Short answer: it takes a two-thirds vote – 67 votes – to change the archaic rules of the U.S. Senate. Do the math. It ain't gonna happen. Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote this excellent analysis of the U.S. Senate back in March of this year Our
Keegan’s selective reading
December 15, 2009
by David Safier It almost looks like Lisa Graham Keegan and I agree. Almost. She has an op ed in the Republic praising the paper for its discussions of the problems with tuition tax credits. I am extremely grateful to editorial writer Doug MacEachern and The Arizona Republic for clearly defining in 2009 the intended
Let them eat (and eat and eat) filibusters
December 14, 2009
by David Safier Allow me a naive moment here. A filibuster is a delaying tactic where someone or a group of people talk endlessly on the Senate floor and continue talking until 60 Senators vote to end the incessant chatter. If no one can pull together 60 votes, the talking continues. It's not just saying,
NY Times, Nate Silver, G.I. and Me
December 14, 2009
by David Safier Imagine my surprise as I was reading through NY Times' 9th Annual Year in Ideas in its Sunday Magazine, when I came across the item, Forensic Polling Analysis. It's about uber-statistician Nate Silver's analysis of polling data from Strategic Vision LLC, in which he comes to the conclusion that the company makes
