Coming soon: Tax-Free Fries
May 7, 2012
by
by David Safier Move over Freedom Fries. You're so pre-Iraq War. France is no longer a bunch of Freedom-hating cowards — or maybe they still are, but who cares? They're a bunch of tax-hiking Commies now that Socialist François Hollande is their new President. Expect a resolution to be passed in the House stating that … Read more
Speaker Tobin – what kind of cheese would you like with that whine?
May 6, 2012
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings Nearly every Sunday morning at 8 a.m., Channel 12 in Phoenix airs Sunday Square Off, a weekly political discussion show. When discussing issues and matters where there is a partisan divide, host Brahm Resnick will bring in a lineup of guests that crosses that partisan divide; when … Read more
Amazing Book: The Republican Brain
May 6, 2012
Book review, posted by John Denker The Republican Brain The Science of Why They Deny Science … and Reality by Chris Mooney This is an awesome book. While reading it, I was repeatedly tempted to say to myself: "I knew it! I knew it! Well, not 'knew it' in the sense of having … Read more
Wisconsin Update: Total Recall Primary on Tuesday
May 6, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison has a roundup of the latest news going into the Total Recall primary this Tuesday. Few are undecided about governor as recall primary approaches (highlights):
– The campaigns and special interests have spent about $40 million on a political blitz that has penetrated every household.
– Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who lost to Walker by five percentage points in the 2010 election, is expected to win the chance in Tuesday's Democratic primary to face Walker in the June 5 general election. Polls show him leading former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who has received heavy union backing; Secretary of State Doug La Follette; and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout.
– The state elections board predicts a voter turnout of 30 percent to 35 percent, or between 1.3 million and 1.5 million people, for Tuesday's primary, which would be the highest for a partisan Wisconsin primary in 60 years. Turnout is also expected to be high in June, and the race now appears to be roughly even.
Walker, Barrett in dead heat, poll says:
Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, one of the Democratic candidates hoping to face him in the June 5 recall election, are in a virtual dead heat in the days leading up to Tuesday's recall primary, according to a poll released Wednesday.
* * *
[Barrett] has a 47 percent to 46 percent lead on the governor among registered voters, the poll said. But among likely voters, the situation flips, and Walker leads by 1 percentage point, or 48 percent to 47 percent.
Both results are well within the [Marquette University Law School] poll's margin of error.
The Marquette poll was released less than 48 hours after the candidates' deadlines to file campaign finance reports, which showed Walker with an eye-popping cash advantage.
But the Marquette poll indicates the millions spent by Walker haven't led to him pulling ahead in the polls. These recent results are even closer than Marquette's March poll, when Walker led Barrett by 2 percentage points.
* * *
"Despite Barrett's late entry into the race, he has improved his position both among Democratic primary voters and in the general recall contest against Walker," said political science professor Charles Franklin, who is a visiting professor at Marquette and director of the law school poll. "The contest is now essentially a tie."
The poll interviewed 705 registered Wisconsin voters by both land line and cellphone and was conducted April 26-29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus about four percentage points.
Given the polling, Barrett's primary opponents are pulling their punches to keep the focus on beating Scott Walker. Dems in governor recall race make their case at final debate:
The Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls were careful not to jab each other too hard Friday and risk alienating each other's supporters; the nominee will need a united front going into June. Instead they spent most of the evening trotting out well-rehearsed talking points against Walker.
Barrett and Falk, who have emerged as the two front-runners in the Democratic race, kicked off the proceedings by taking the governor to task over a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released last week that found Wisconsin lost the most jobs of any state in the country between March 2011 and March 2012.
Scott Walker promised in the 2010 campaign to create 250,000 jobs in his first term. Now, Scott Walker is talking a lot less now about his pledge to create 250,000 new jobs.
Watch this!
May 6, 2012
by
by David Safier Watch Bill Moyers' May 4 show, an interview with author Luis Alberto Urrea. Just watch it. Just so you know, I hardly ever watch PBS, and I probably haven't seen 4 hours worth of Bill Moyers' shows in my life. I know I'm the perfect PBS demographic, but, well, their programming usually … Read more
David Cay Johnston: Social Security is not ‘going broke’
May 6, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A couple of weeks ago I warned you about An annual ritual of spring: 'The sky is falling! The sky is falling!':
The Arizona Republic today published an annual ritual of spring, the gloom and doom forecasts for the social security and Medicare trust funds. Social Security heading for insolvency even faster. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
First, you need to keep in mind that there is an entire cottage industry in conservative circles that has sought to do away with the social security and Medicare trust funds since the funds were first established.
* * *
And then there are the media enablers of this conservative opposition to social security and Medicare.
Like the Arizona Republic. Right on cue, the Republic last Saturday (4/28) fulfilled its role as a cog in the right-wing noise machine by publishing this "the sky is falling!" editorial opinion on the social security and Medicare trust funds. Hard choices have to be made.
At least the Republic stopped short of endorsing Rep. Paul Ryan's "Roadmap to America's Ruin" that proposes to turn Medicare into a coupon voucher system to purchase private health insurance plans, and the GOP dream of privatizing social security into individual retirement investment accounts so the banksters of Wall Street can rip you off and leave you destitute remains alive.
As I previously posted above regarding the Medicare trust fund, Sarah Kliff at Ezra Klein's WonkBlog tells everyone to take a deep breath and chill, Reports of Medicare’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Now let's hear from a tax expert, David Cay Johnston, on the social security trust fund. Social Security Is Not Going Broke:
Which federal program took in more than it spent last year, added $95 billion to its surplus and lifted 20 million Americans of all ages out of poverty?
Why, Social Security, of course, which ended 2011 with a $2.7 trillion surplus.
That surplus is almost twice the $1.4 trillion collected in personal and corporate income taxes last year. And it is projected to go on growing until 2021, the year the youngest Baby Boomers turn 67 and qualify for full old-age benefits.
So why all the talk about Social Security “going broke?” That theme filled the news after release of the latest annual report of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds, as Social Security is formally called.
The reason is that the people who want to kill Social Security have for years worked hard to persuade the young that the Social Security taxes they pay to support today's gray hairs will do nothing for them when their own hair turns gray.
That narrative has become the conventional wisdom because it is easily reduced to a headline or sound bite. The facts, which require more nuance and detail, show that, with a few fixes, Social Security can be safe for as long as we want.
A suggestion for Calvin Woodward of the AP
May 6, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Calvin Woodward of the AP has a report running nationally in newspapers today that appears in the Arizona Daily Star under the caption Obama vs. Romney: Where they stand on the issues. Mr. Woodward, as your report suggests, the caption rightly should be "Obama vs. Romney vs. Romney vs. Romney, etc." The … Read more
Action Alert: Tell Governor Brewer to veto SB 1332
May 6, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I posted the other day about how "the "Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists" Tea-Publican insurrectionists put secession from the United States on the November ballot. The House passed HCR 2004 on a 38-20 vote, sending the resolution to the Secretary of State. The resolution refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment declaring state sovereignty over lands, air, … Read more
