A response to Justice Antonin Scalia
March 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: During oral argument of the Affordable Care Act, Justice Antonin Scalia posed this question to the Solicitor General of the United States: You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages? (gallery laughter) And do you really expect the court to do that? Or do you expect us to — to give … Read more
Imagine Charter Schools have the St. Louis Blues
March 30, 2012
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by David Safier This has been coming for a long time. Imagine Schools, a for profit company with the most charter schools of any EMO (75 last time I counted), is facing all kinds of problems with its six low performing Missouri schools which enroll a total of 3,800 students. Missouri Baptist University, which sponsored … Read more
Reagan Solicitor General, Charles Fried, critical of conservative activist SCOTUS
March 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Charles Fried is a professor of law at Harvard University. From 1985 to 1989, he served as President Ronald Reagan’s solicitor general. He specializes in constitutional law and is the author of many books on the subject, including 2004’s “Saying What the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court.” He also wrote a brief on behalf of 104 law professors arguing that the individual mandate is constitutional.
Professor Fried spoke to Greg Sargent after three days of oral argument on the Affordable Care Act and was highly critical of the conservative activist Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. How did legal observers and Obamacare backers get it so wrong? – The Plum Line:
[F]ormer Reagan Solicitor General Charles Fried was scaldingly critical of the willingness of the conservative bloc of Supreme Court justices to traffic in some of the most well-worn Tea Party tropes about Obamacare.
“I was appalled to see that at least a couple of them were repeating the most tendentious of the Tea Party type arguments,” Fried said. “I even heard about broccoli. The whole broccoli argument is beneath contempt. To hear it come from the bench was depressing.”
Professor Fried earlier gave interviews to Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein of the Washington Post.
Is it the end of a tax break, or a tax hike?
March 30, 2012
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by David Safier I haven't gone after the Star's headlines for awhile because they've seemed far less slanted than they once were. I figure, when the headline prepares me for the content of the article, it's a reasonable headline. Not so today's Star headline, GOP blocks Obama effort to raise taxes on oil firms. I … Read more
Will Huppenthal target University-level Mexican American Studies next?
March 29, 2012
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by David Safier This story, let me begin by saying, comes from Fox News Latino, not from some out-there, lefty radical publication. Here’s the headline: Arizona Official Considers Targeting Mexican American Studies in University It looks like Huppenthal thinks TUSD’s Mexican American Studies program could never have come into existence without the outside agitation of … Read more
Why the César Chávez March won’t begin at Pueblo High
March 29, 2012
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by David Safier
You could see this one coming. One weak-willed decision by TUSD to disband the Mexican American Studies program leads to a predictable string of bad decisions. The most visible is the banning of books from use by former MAS teachers. And now this.
This year's César Chávez March willl be held this Saturday, March 31, starting at 9am at St. John's Catholic Church (NW corner of Ajo and S. 12th Ave.). For years, it has begun at Pueblo High. The district's refusal allow the high school to be used as a staging ground is a direct result of the MAS controversy.
OK, let me be more exact. The district didn't refuse to allow the marchers to use Pueblo High. It just:
- Demanded there be no reference to the elimination of the MAS program.
- Demanded there be no disparaging comments about the TUSD administration.
- Demanded the District be allowed to choose the emcee to make sure # 1 and #2 are properly enforced.
It's all perfectly reasonable when you think about it. Why would TUSD allow school grounds to be used to condemn the actions taken by the District? Once the Board and administration started down the slippery slope of ending a program whose purpose is to teach about Mexican American history and literature, they really can't allow an event on school grounds that will talk about the latest event in Mexican American history: TUSD's disbanding of the MAS program.
And it's also perfectly reasonable that the organizers of the march would refuse to accept those conditions.
The result? TUSD has added insult — "No, you can't begin your celebration of César Chávez on school grounds" — to the injury caused to students by taking away classes they hold dear. Add César Chávez to the list of casualties of TUSD's caving to Huppenthal, Horne and their like.
You can see the flier with all the information about the march below the fold.
The Founding Fathers and Mandates
March 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The "original intent" types always ask, "What would the Founding Fathers have done?" Would the Founding Fathers have supported a federal health care mandate? It turns out, The Founding Fathers loved health care mandates (By Jon Green at Americablog.com): In light of the Supreme Court hearing arguments this week about the constitutionality … Read more
House Tea-Publicans jump off the cliff (again), vote for radical Ryan Budget 2.0
March 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
We are watching the slow suicide of a major political party. The Republican Party long ago ceased being the "Party of Lincoln," and as I have oft repeated, "this is not your father's GOP."
The Republican Party host has been hollowed out by its far-right extremist fringe parasites. All that remains of the GOP today are far-right radical extemists. And that poses a clear and present danger to the future of this country.
For all the talk in the media about "why can't we have compromise and find common ground solutions in the middle?," this is naive fantasy when one political party has dedicated itself to the destruction of government as its primary goal, and the destruction of its political opponents as the means to achieve it. We are living in troubling times.
Steve Benen writes, "A year ago, House Republicans linked arms, stepped off the cliff, and voted en masse for Paul Ryan's right-wing budget plan. GOP leaders demanded the support of nervous lawmakers, many of whom feared the party was overreaching just a few months into their term, and more than 98% of the caucus went along, as ordered." House Approves Radical GOP Budget Plan:
The blowback was far more intense than Republicans expected, especially given the fact that GOP lawmakers had voted to eliminate Medicare and replace it with a private voucher scheme.
A year later, it's happened again. The House this afternoon voted to approve Paul Ryan's new-but-not-improved budget plan, 228 to 191. As was the case in 2011, all House Democrats, including the Blue Dogs, opposed the far-right budget, but today, 10 House Republicans broke ranks and opposed the measure, up from 4 GOP members a year ago.
