Follow up on the Ted Nugent concert
April 30, 2012
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by David Safier I received an email from someone who knows someone who saw Nugent at the Pima County Fair (That's the closest I could get). Here's the report. Nugent told the crowd to thank Jan Brewer and Joe Aripaio because they were doing the right thing for Arizona. Nugent mentioned the kidnapping of the … Read more
I’ll be on the Buckmaster Show Tuesday, 12:45
April 30, 2012
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by David Safier I'm doing my second Blogger Beat segment with Bill Buckmaster on his Tuesday show at 12:45pm. You can hear the show on KVOI AM 1030. No idea what the topics will be. I'll see what happens when I get there.
GOP budget to be rammed through on Tuesday
April 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Remember this from the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair back in January? Don 'Tequila' Shooter: 'We don't need no stinkin' testimony on the budget':
The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Tuesday he is considering banning all public testimony when lawmakers take up the state budget later this year.
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His decision not to hear public testimony during budget presentations by government agencies isn’t entirely unprecedented, but banning testimony during budget-bill debates is.
If he takes the more restrictive route, it will surely invite criticisms from Democrats and groups who expect to at least be heard in committee.
Shooter's attitude: "I heard it last year."
The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports today that the GOP Caucus is reviewing the budget outline agreed to between the Tea-Publican leadership and Governor Brewer last Friday, and will vote on the budget this Tuesday — with no opportunity for the public to digest the final details or to testify on the budget. "We don't need no stinkin' testimony on the budget." Lawmakers expected to pass budget Tuesday, then tackle Brewer’s personnel agenda | Arizona Capitol Times:
The Republican-led Legislature plans to approve an $8.6 billion spending plan for the state on Tuesday, shortly after Gov. Jan Brewer and GOP leaders sealed a budget agreement last week.
They then intend to turn their attention to the governor’s proposal to overhaul the state’s personnel system, a source privy to the budget talks told the Arizona Capitol Times on condition of anonymity.
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Rank-and-file Republican members were briefed about the contents of the budget deal last week. They were given a few days to dig into the details of the proposal and bring back their concerns to leaders.
They will also meet this afternoon to discuss the budget for the first time in the open.
Approval of the budget sets the stage for adjournment of the current regular session. This is the week when bad bills that have been hanging around all session get slipped into other bills as amendments and get passed in the wee hours of the morning when no one is watching, not even the alleged "watchdogs" of the media.
Mann and Ornstein to the media villagers: ‘The Republicans are the problem’
April 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
All of us here at Blog for Arizona have posted about the corporate media's penchant for "false equivalency" arguments: both sides do it and are to blame, the government is broken, etc. This supposedly is the "centrist" conventional wisdom of the media villager establishment (it is, in fact, the reinforcement of the conservative worldview that government doesn't work and is always "bad").
Well, the "centrist" corporate media villager establishment ought to pay attention to their high priests of "centrism" who say that the media villagers are wrong, and they have an obligation to stop their false equivalency arguments.
Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, write this essay in the Washington Post on Sunday (adapted from their book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism,” which will be available Tuesday). Let's Just Say it: The Republicans Are The Problem:
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.
“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.
Arizona well represented at the ALEC Spring Task Force Summit in Charlotte May 10-11
April 30, 2012
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by David Safier
For ALEC trackers, their next big event is the 2012 Spring Task Force Summit May 10-11 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The big push is education:
- Digital Learning Subcommittee
- Stretching the School Dollar Workshop
- Education Task Force Luncheon
- Education Task Force Meeting
No other topic gets nearly that much coverage.
Attendance by Arizona Republicans could depend on whether they can wrap up the lege session soon — could the ALEC meeting be part of the push for early adjournment? — but we know for sure Sen. Rich Crandall will be attending. He's sponsoring the "Model Bill Discussion and Voting: Online Course Choice for Students." You can bet that model bill will be making it to a statehouse near you. Also leading not one but TWO discussions is Jonathan Butcher, the education guy at the Goldwater Institute. One is on Education Savings Accounts (ESA). G.I. wrote Arizona's ESA law, called Education Empowerment Accounts. The other is "Model Bill Discussion and Voting: District and School Freedom."
No other state has nearly the profile Arizona does at the Summit. We should be proud.
Download the official ALEC memorandum about the event
You can read the summary of the Online Course Choice for Students model legislation below the fold.
Obama campaign ad: ‘Forward’
April 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
As many commentators have written in recent weeks, Willard "Mittens" Romney is the "amnesia" candidate — he is relying on Americans forgetting what caused the Bush Great Recession — faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics — and the catastrophic economic circumstances President Barack Obama was left to clean up on entering office.
As Robert Gibbs said on Meet the Press Geegory on Sunday, "I think sometimes you listen to the Romney campaign and they do think a lot people in this country are stupid." "Their message is: You didn't clean up our mess fast enough."
The Obama campaigm is out with a campaign video this morning that puts the past four years in context in a narrative to frame the election. Jed Lewison at Daily Kos writes, New Obama campaign video: 'Forward':
At a bit over seven minutes, the newest Obama campaign video is longer than the typical political ad, but it accomplishes a great deal in those seven minutes, presenting the narrative of Barack Obama's first term, from the depths of the crisis he inherited to the ongoing recovery—in a word, 'Forward.'
[The video] makes clear that Obama's reelection campaign won't be shy about reminding voters just how bad the economic crisis was when he got to office—and just how fiercely Republicans fought him every step of the way as he put in place the policies that are helping America recover. Republicans will of course scream about that, and you can't blame them: if you had to deal with the legacy of Bush hanging around your neck, wouldn't you want to erase it too?
But the real power of the video is that it outlines the positive case for President Obama's reelection, recapping the key accomplishments of his administration—saving the auto industry, bringing Osama bin Laden to Justice, equal pay for women, ending don't ask don't tell, reforming student loans, and, yes, ObamaCare—including the birth control coverage mandate. And, of course, the most important accomplishment of all: turning America around and moving us forward.
Video below the fold.
A small scrawl on the wall for K12 Inc?
April 30, 2012
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by David Safier I'm not sure exactly what this means, but the Monroe District in Washington State is laying off 15.75 teacher positions because of budget cuts. Of those, 12.3 positions are from Washington Virtual Academy (WAVA), one of the K12 Inc. network of online/virtual schools. It sounds like WAVA is overstaffed, meaning it hasn't … Read more
Dethroned ‘King’ Russell Pearce wants YOU to pay for having dethroned him
April 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeane:
More accurately, ol' Russell's wingnut compatriots Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) and Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Avondale) want YOU to pay him, on behalf of the true beneficiary of this taxpayer money windfall, sleazy GOP political operative Constantin Querard.
As Stephen Lemons explains, "Something wicked this way comes." Russell Pearce Wants $260,000 of Your Money, and His Flunkies Want to Give It to Him (w/Update) – Phoenix New Times:
Remember when I informed you of the trial balloon being floated by toadies of recalled state Senate President Russell Pearce, lickspittles who long to give their lord and master more than $260,000 of taxpayer funds because he had to endure a recall election, one he lost by a humiliating 12 points?
Well, it's no longer a trial balloon, it's a full-fledged push from Pearce's proxies in the state Senate and House, who claim that the Arizona Constitution requires them to grant Pearce the $260K.
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The effort to help Pearce cash in and recoup money that was donated to him during the recall election by lobbyists, political committees and individual donors is being spearheaded by two Republicans, state Representative Steve Montenegro and state Senator Steve Smith.
Montenegro and Smith, as well as other Pearce lackeys in the Republican Party, have been making this massive payoff a condition of a budget deal with Governor Jan Brewer.
