Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejects ‘Paton’s Law’

April 7, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ahh, karmic justice. The wheels of justice turn slow, but they turn.

A few years ago, the wannabe tinhorn dictator of Tucson, Jonathan "Payday" Paton, sponsored a bill to punish the City of Tucson for being a "liberal bastion" by dictating to its residents how they are to conduct their local elections. Paton and his pals from the state of Maricopa got together and passed "Paton's Law," a special punitive measure aimed only at the City of Tucson.

I said at the time that Payday's punitive measure was of questionable constitutional validity, and sure enough, on Friday the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejected "Paton's Law" as unconstitutional. Can we please exile Payday to Elba now? State Supreme Court tosses law to alter Tucson's city elections:

In a unanimous decision, the justices said charter cities, such as Tucson, have constitutional rights that include the power to decide both whether to elect council members on an at-large or district basis, and whether to conduct elections on a partisan basis.

That means Tucson can continue to have candidates designate their party affiliation despite a 2009 state law that forbids cities from having partisan elections for mayor and council. Only Tucson has such a system.

And the court said lawmakers cannot force Tucson to conduct elections on a ward-only basis. A 2009 state law sought to strike down a hybrid system, used only in Tucson, where council candidates first must be nominated in a primary within their own wards, but then run citywide in the general election.

While the ruling most immediately affects Tucson, it has statewide implications.

There are 18 other charter cities. Friday's ruling spells out that they have certain rights that state lawmakers cannot take away.

The decision is a major defeat for the Republican-leaning Southern Arizona Leadership Council, which pushed for the change in hopes of altering Tucson politics.

It also is a [major defeat] for Jonathan Paton, who used his political capital as a state senator in 2009 to persuade GOP colleagues who control the Legislature to try to undermine a city system that goes back to 1929.

Paton, now a candidate for Congress, did not return calls seeking comment.

I'll bet he didn't.

Payday suffered another major defeat earlier in the week as well.

What is Romney hiding from us?

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Jed Lewison at Daily Kos asks the right question: Why was Mitt Romney willing to hand over 23 years of tax returns to John McCain's vice presidential vetting team but he will not do the same with the public. What's in his tax records that he was willing to let McCain's people … Read more

Tea-Publican tyranny: The impending death of democracy in Michigan is a warning to America

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." This famous "quotation" is frequently misattributed to Sinclair Lewis

The earliest known incident of such a comment appears to be a partial quote from James Waterman Wise, Jr., reported in a 1936 issue of The Christian Century that in a recent address here before the liberal John Reed club said that [Wiiliam Randolph] Hearst and [Father Charles] Coughlin are the two chief exponents of fascism in America. If fascism comes, he added, it will not be identified with any "shirt" movement, nor with an "insignia," but it will probably be "wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the Constitution." The Christian Century, Volume 53, Feb 5, 1936, p 245.

At the time Mr. Wise made this statement in 1936, European fascism was the greatest threat to the world. Mr. Wise could not foresee that his profound prediction would be realized today under a home-grown version of American authoritarianism, wrapped up in a symbol of American patriotism — the Tea Party — "and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the Constitution."

I have previously posted about the "financial martial law" in the state of Michigan, which empowers the new Tea-Publican governor of Michigan to declare a financial emergency and to dissolve cities and towns and their duly elected city and town councils and place them under state receivership and the control of an "emergency financial manager" appointed by the governor – which can be a corporation – with absolute (dictatorial) power. 'It Can't Happen Here' (its happening now in Michigan and coming soon to your state).

The Rachel Maddow show on Thursday night aired a segment on the Tea-Publican tyranny in Michigan that goes well beyond the tyranny of Michigan's "financial martial law." Tea-Publicans in control of the Michigan legislature are passing 'emergency" measures in contravention of Michigan law and denying Democratic legisators' demands for a roll call vote on these bills. They are not only disenfranchising minority voters in Michigan who tend to vote Democratic, but they are disenfranchising their elected Democratic representatives in the legislature as well. They are circumventing democracy, and as Maddow said, "this is beyond radical, it is revolutionary":

Join the Truth Team

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Willard "Mittens" Romney is lying about President Obama. The Obama/Biden campaign has a new tactic to highlight Romney's frequent falsehoods: fact-checking videos. Hold Mittens Romney accountable, join the Truth Team: https://my.barackobama.com/truthteamvid

Fact-checking videos below the fold.

Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney: ‘I’m rubber, you’re glue’

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It has been incontrovertibly established that Willard 'Mittens' Romney is a pathological liar. Updated: Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity Vol. XII.

But Mittens suffers from another disorder frequently associated with pathological lying, psychological projection, a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which he then ascribes to another person. This is the old schoolyard taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue – whatever you say (about me) bounces off of me and sticks to you."

Mitten's psychological projection disorder is receiving a lot of media attention this week. Here is just a quick sampling. Paul Werdel writes at TalkingPointsMemo I’m Rubber, You’re Glue or "I know you are, but what am I?":

Call it the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” election.

Running President Bush’s campaigns, Karl Rove became famous for taking his opponent’s single biggest strength and turning it into his biggest weakness. Mitt Romney is laying out another approach: taking his own top vulnerabilities and projecting them onto his opponent.

As Romney begins to settle into the role of presumptive nominee, he is deploying the strategy more and more.

* * *

The “I know you are, but what am I?” dynamic is clear, if contradictory. Obama says I won’t lay out my real plans for Medicare cuts? Obama won’t lay out his plan. Obama says I want to end Medicare? Obama wants to end Medicare.

Even in his choice of stock phrases, Romney has raised eyebrows in recent days for using his opponent’s favorite lines. Twice in his Tuesday night victory speech in Wisconsin, he referred to Obama as “out of touch,” re-appropriating what is easily Democrats’ favorite descriptor for Romney in myriad press releases accusing him of being too wealthy and removed from average Americans to understand their problems.

The question now is whether Romney’s ju jitsu will insulate him from future hits on his well-established reputation for political opportunism — or merely serve to highlight his problems further.

March job numbers: In like a lion, out like a lamb

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Forecasts projected about 200,000 new jobs in March, the new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics fell short of expectations. Steve Benen writes at The Maddow Blog – Job totals disappoint, unemployment rate dips:

The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs last month, while the overall unemployment rate dipped slightly to 8.2%. For the first time in a very long while, public-sector layoffs were less of a drag on the overall totals: the private sector added 121,000 jobs in March, while government lost only 1,000.

By any measure, today's disappointing totals are a real setback. While it's never wise to overreact to one report, March's job totals were the weakest since October, and reverse a three-month trend in which over 200,000 jobs were being created each month. In terms of revisions, January's totals were revised down a little, while February's were revised up a little.

While 120,000 new jobs would have been considered great in, say, late 2009, it's not even close to good enough now. This is a figure that barely keeps up with population growth, and is roughly half of what the economy should be producing as part of a larger recovery. Ideally, policymakers would see data like this and take steps to boost job creation, but given Republican efforts in Congress, that's no longer an option.

The overall economy has now added over 1.9 million jobs over the last year, and nearly 3.5 million jobs over the last three years. For America's private sector, it's 2.2 million over the last year, and 4 million over the last three years.

Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Steve Benen continues, The Maddow Blog – The search for silver linings:

But to borrow a line from Douglas Adams, don't panic. Brad Plumer notes some context that's worth keeping in mind.

One big question, however, is whether the BLS's estimates for March are actually correct. As Ryan Avent points out, because there's such a huge margin of error in these reports, there's a 90 percent chance that the U.S. economy added somewhere between 20,000 and 220,000 jobs last month. In recent times, the jobs figures have gone up significantly every time they get revised in later months. […]

Meanwhile, there's been a lot of talk lately about whether the freakishly warm winter artificially boosted the economy in January and February by helping the construction industry get an early start. (More on this below)

In other words, we paid in March for the good news in January and February.