Pima Republican Chair defends Kelly’s positions on issues Kelly pretends not to have a position on

May 21, 2012

by David Safier On KUAT's Political Roundtable, Pima Democratic Chair Jeff Rogers sparred with Pima  Republican Chair Carolyn Cox, mainly over the Barber-Kelly race. Carolyn Cox possessed a laudable quality Kelly had in spades in 2010 and is running away from in 2012 — the courage of her convictions. She defended eliminating the minimum wage, … Read more

Jesse Kelly Shoots Mouth Off at Marana Chamber of Commerce

May 21, 2012

By Michael Bryan

Jesse Kelly is trying to run from his past radical statements regarding eliminating and privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating the minimum wage, slashing taxes on the wealthiest, and eliminating vital oversight of the free market to ensure the public is protected. 

Well, he's still a radical, and it comes out when he's not appearing in carefully crafted campaign ad. In the video after the fold, we see Kelly addressing his base at the Marana Chamber of Commerce, where he is more comfortable showing his true colors, even though he knows that he is being filmed by Democrats (as he acknowledges at the end of the video). He just can't help himself. He's a true believer, a simple (some might say simplistic) man, and a straight talker. Those can be admirable qualities, but in a Member of Congress, convictions as radical and unrealistic as Mr. Kelly's are just downright dangerous to the public welfare.

On minimum wage:

When asked for his position, he scoffs, and uses an absurd scenario to denigrate the minimum wage. He hypothesizes that we could set it at $150 a hour, and that would just result in increased prices. Apparently, he is unable to discriminate between a small measure of fairness, and an absurdity.

Clearly, he thinks the minimum wage should not exist, and that free market forces alone should set all wages. He does not understand that the purpose of the minimum wage is not a naive attempt to vote ourselves wealth, it is to ensure that a person who works for a living does not have to live in abject poverty, and that even unskilled workers have enough money to afford the neccessities of life and a measure of dignity.

We accept as a society a slight increase in labor price imputs in order to achieve that meagre measure of economic equity. Americans overwhelmingly support the minimum wage, and even want to see it higher. But Kelly just can't understand that at all.

Energy resources:

"We are sitting on top of a mountain of money in this country."

Kelly continues to claim that the solution for our economic recovery is energy exploitation. He still ignores the fact that Arizona doesn't have any significant oil, natural gas, or coal resources and won't benefit from Kelly's dream of a Russian-style natural resource led boom. As in Russia, the primary beneficiaries of Kelly's dream are the oligarchs who have the wealth and political clout to exploit those resources, not the broad American public.

Kelly asserts he's a strong supporter of the Keystone XL Pipeline and he just can't imagine any reason to delay it. He says, "it's anti-the-American-people to stand against the pipeline…" He doesn't express any concern about the fact that we have no idea the environmental impact of a spill, nor any idea of how to clean up such a spill.

And, of course, his support for the pipline won't do a damned thing for Arizona: there are no direct economic benefits or jobs created in Arizona by this boondoggle. Kelly cites the price of gas as a reason to approve the pipeline, but TransCanada's own application, and indpendent analysis both indicate that the effect of the pipeline will be to strengthen price leverage for Canadian crude, increasing prices for refined products in the U.S. That result may seem counter-intuitive, but the pipeline moves gas production using tar sands oil to a deepwater port for world export, thus reducing local oversupply of gasoline products in the U.S and thus raising the local price. You know, supply and demand? That central idea of market economies seems beyond the intellectual scope of Mr. Kelly. Just who is Kelly really seeking to represent in supporting the pipeline: the people of Arizona, or the energy lobby and Canadian oil?

Oh, and the fact that his family business is a pipeline contractor wouldn't have anything to do with his position, would it? Surely, Mr. Kelly wouldn't be so crass as to support a dangerous environmental boondoggle that would raise gas prices just because it might profit his daddy's company in some way?

Job creation:

Kelly claims that Arizona is a number one location nationally for computer chip fabricators because of the dry air and geological stability. We do have those features. But Jesse then claims that the reason those jobs aren't in Tucson is "We told them they're not welcome. We told them we don't want them in Pima County, we don't want them in Cochise County. And that's just flat wrong." Yes, what you just said is just flat wrong, Jesse. Intel has long ties to Chandler, and Tucson was never seriously considered by Intel.

Kelly exclaims, "We should be booming down here. We should be Scottdale. We could be Scottsdale." I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in Scottdale, Jesse. If you like Scottsdale so much, move up there and run for office there. BTW, Jesse, Intel's plants are in Chandler, not Scottsdale. Disturbing that he doesn't even know that.

Environmental protection: 

"I will be attempting to defund the EPA and to strip them of their regulatory power."

Enough said. It's clear that Kelly has no concern whatever about protecting the health of citizens and the quality of our environment. Kelly is stuck in the mode of framing every protection of our environment as anti-business.

Kelly blames the EPA's regulation of coal plants' carbon emissions for there being no new coal energy plants being built in the U.S. He does not seem to grasp that plummeting natural gas prices due to domestic fracking has made them largely price non-competitive, in any case.

It goes without saying, perhaps, that Kelly is an anthropogenic climate change denier. So, to him, the idea of regulating carbon emssions to avoid catastrophic costs of climate change just doesn't make any sense.

It's very telling of Kelly's view of economic development that he would like us to be more like China, where the environment is not protected from pollution, and the people are suffering terribly as a result.

Kelly claimed:

"Everthing is made in China because we chased all that industry out.  Sadly, in many ways, right now… communist China is more elightened in business than the free United States of America."

We chased business out of America and into China? If you mean incentivized companies to move labor costs to low-wage Chinese factories with our tax code, your party did that thing and is blocking President Obama from undoing it, Mr. Kelly.

Multi-national companies have no loyalty; they go where they can maximize profit and externalize as many costs as possible. Part of that process of externalizing costs is not having to pay to prevent or remedy environmental pollution. Kelly's comments seem to indicate that he wants to kill the EPA to make it easier for companies to pollute America's environment like they do China's. That is insane and radical.

Tax Rates:

Mr. Kelly also claimed:

"We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world."

Problem is, that's just not true. The marginal combined effective corporate income tax rate (what a company actually pays doing business in a country, combining all taxes at the national and sub-national levels and taking into consideration deductions and credits) in America is about average for OECD countries, and significantly lower than many other advanced industrial nations.

Of course, such nuance is really beyond an ideologue like Kelly. He thinks the proper corporate income tax rate is zero, so, of course, he thinks it's too high, regardless of what it actually might be.

Of course, Mr. Kelly thinks that real people should pay taxes, even if corporations should not. He thinks that every person should pay the same rate, regardless of income. He says with almost unseemly enthusiasm:

"I love the flat tax… Every American should pay same small percentage of income to the federal government."

Really, even if they make very little? Yep. Even if they make billions? Yep. Kelly has completely abandoned the idea of progressivity in taxes: from those who benefit the most from our societies' services, more is required. He considers that "demonizing wealth".

Kelly's philosophy is "Keep what you earned, you earned it, and pass it on to the next generation." Never mind that nobody earns a fortune alone; the society around a capitalist allows and enables that accumulation of wealth through services to the individual and creation of the business environment.

Kelly's comment about passing it to the next generation would indicate that he doesn't favor an estate tax, either. No surprise that Kelly is in favor of such unearned wealth, that's how he makes his living after all.

Kelly reminds me of a teenage boy who is frantically trying to deny his dependence on his parents while worshipping at an altar dedicated to Ayn Rand, even as he lives in his parents' basement. Kelly works for his dad's constuction company, which gets up to 90% of it's business from government contracts. I'm sure that his position at the company was earned solely on merit, and has nothing to do with his position as scion of the family…

Let's get real: Kelly has never been exposed to the "free market" he worships so assiduously. His whole poltical persona is a smirking, swaggering, cock-sure denial of any collective responsibility or accountablity. He's all about getting the "nanny state" out of our lives, even as he nurses at that nanny's tit like an overgrown man-child. A recent article by Sara Robinson, "How the Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like a Bunch of Teen Boys Gone Crazy", perfectly embodies the childish political phenomenon that is the modern GOP right wing and, especially, the person of Jesse Kelly.

Watch the video after the click (Hat tip to AZ08RawFootage)…

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson Jewish Community Center CD 8 Debate on Wednesday

May 21, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Daily Star has provided more information about the CD 8 Debate it is cosponsoring on Wednesday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (JCC), 3800 E. River Road. The JCC seats in excess of 500 people. Seating is first come, first served. People who want to … Read more

The banksters of Wall Street own Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney

May 21, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

One would expect an amoral vulture capitalist who is all about making money regardless of the cost in human lives and communities destroyed to be the choice of the amoral banksters of Wall Street. Willard "Mittens" Romney is one of them, and he promises to return these banksters to the unregulated casino capitalism that nearly destroyed our financial system and the world's economy just a few years ago. Good times.

Steve Benen writes, Getting by with a little help from their friends:

With fundraising totals reaching extraordinary heights, there's no doubt that both President Obama, Mitt Romney, and their assorted allies will have plenty of resources between now and Election Day.

But it's worth noting that while neither side will suffer from empty coffers, there's a clear qualitative difference in the kind of donors that separate one campaign from the other. The Boston Globe had an interesting report on this the other day.

When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments.

"There's no doubt that there's been a big diminution of support for the president,'' said William M. Daley, Obama's former chief of staff and a former top JPMorgan Chase executive. "People in the financial services sector are saying, 'The president has been too tough on us, both in policy and on rhetoric.' ''

The top five donor groups in Romney's campaign are individuals and political action committees associated with large financial institutions, led by Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, according to information compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks campaign donations.

Arizona Republic endorses Ron Barber for Congress

May 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It turns out that Jesse Kelly is too extreme even for the GOP establishment conservative editorial board of The Arizona Republic, which endorsed Ron Barber for Congress today. Barber provides steady centrism district needs (excerpts):

We think Ron Barber is the best choice to finish Giffords' term.

Voters may want a different style in November. For now, Barber offers continuity and steadiness. He served as district manager during Giffords' 5 1/2 years in Congress, and he knows the district and the people. He wants to focus on problem solving. Barber cites as a model the cooperative efforts of Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater and Democratic Rep. Morris Udall to secure funding for the Central Arizona Project.

Barber is a former small-business owner, and he worked for 32 years with the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities before joining Giffords' staff.

Although the border is no longer the burning issue it was in 2010, Barber says ranchers in the district do not yet feel safe. He hopes to build consensus in Congress around security measures, such as stationing Border Patrol agents closer to the line; one rancher told him it took two weeks to get a hole in the fence repaired. He also wants to add horse patrols in rugged areas, increase use of unmanned drones, add more mobile surveillance units and pursue a public-private partnership to put up cellphone towers to reduce the number of communication dead zones.

These are practical solutions with bipartisan appeal.

Barber also says it may be time to uncouple the elements of comprehensive immigration reform and look at what can be done piecemeal. He mentioned the alternative Dream Act being offered by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and a guest-worker program.

GOP attempting to depress Democratic voter turnout in CD 8

May 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I have heard from Democrats since last week, several of them long-time party activists, who have told me that they have received mailers from the Jesse Kelly campaign, and have received both live calls asking them to vote for Jesse Kelly or robo calls asking them to vote for Jesse Kelly. They even … Read more

Democrats fight for your rights in the GOP war on voting

May 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There is a promo ad on MSNBC by Mrs. Greenspan (Andrea Mitchell) in which she says how terrible it is that political parties — plural — are trying to restrict the voting rights of American citizens.

Newsflash Mrs. Greenspan, there is only one political party that is subject to a federal court consent decree for voter suppression for over thirty years and that is the GOP. The RNC's latest appeal was rejected by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Court Rejects Voter Suppression Efforts | Truthout.

It is the GOP that has sought to impose new restrictions on voting in state legislatures across the country over the past two years. Why don't you report that story on your program Mrs. Greenspan? Or would you and your hubby no longer be invited to the best cocktail parties in the Beltway media bubble?

Did you miss this story as well, Mrs. Greeenspan? This week in the War on Voting: Obama and House Democrats fight voter suppression:

[Dorothy Cooper is] 96 years old and almost wasn't going to be able to vote this year because stringent new voter identification laws passed in her state, Tennessee, intended to, well, keep people from her like voting. Because her story made news, she got some attention and help from a powerful source.

Obama for America volunteers helped secure Mrs. Cooper's identification and is featuring her in GottaVote.org, a new tool developed by the Obama campaign designed to help residents in every state navigate the increasingly complicated voter registration process. In an email announcing the new site, the campaign writes:

GottaVote.org is a one-stop shop for getting the facts on voting, reminders for key dates and deadlines, and alerts on the status of voting rights in your state. It’s available in both English and Spanish (www.gottavote.org/es) because different languages shouldn’t keep Americans from voting.