Rep. Matt Heinz first Democrat to announce for the Giffords seat
January 31, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Doctor Matt Heinz, Democratic Representative for LD 29, is the first Democrat to announce for the Giffords seat. Petitions must be filed 28 days from today. Arizona Rep. Heinz to run for Giffords' seat: State representative Matt Heinz of Tucson has become the first Democrat to officially announce his candidacy for the Congressional seat … Read more
Conservationists for Nancy Young Wright
January 31, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Former Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D-LD 26) is running for Pima County Board of Supervisors (District 1) this year. Below is an Announcement (.pdf) for a campaign event from her campaign.
The First Rule of Holes Revisited
January 31, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Oh, geezuz… I have previously explained how 20 years of GOP tax cuts have created a structural revenue deficit hole in Arizona that cannot be filled by "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics. This entirely disproved and discredited economic theory does not work and has never worked. The First Rule of Holes: "The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging." – Molly Ivins.
Yet last year our Tea-Publican legislature passed in a Special Session what was laughingly labeled a "jobs bill" — it was, in fact a corporate welfare tax-giveaway plan. The GOP's double dose of poison to kill Arizona:
Senate Bill 1001 is filled with tax breaks and incentives for businesses large and small. The legislative budget office estimated its cost at $538 million by 2018 [worsening Arizona's structural revenue deficit], when all the tax cuts are phased in.
* * *
Brewer's advisors acknowledged that there is no guarantee the changes would yield enough new investment and jobs to offset the anticipated revenue loss.
These corporate welfare tax cuts are delayed until May 2013 when the temporary sales tax will expire. These prospective tax cuts have not created one job, making the "jobs bill" label a sick joke. When the corporate welfare tax cuts do take effect, it will dig the structural revenue deficit hole even deeper.
But wait, it gets worse. Yesterday our Tea-Publican legislature debated three bills designed to give the so-called "job creators" of the investor class a huge tax break — reducing or even eliminating the capital gains tax — again based upon the "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics.
And once again it was the "geniuses" (the man's T-shirt in the photo reads "I have nothing to declare except my genius") of the Goldwater Institute promoting this entirely disproved and discredited economic theory that does not work and has never worked.
Mitt’s Dream Act is a Nightmare
January 30, 2012
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Posted by Bob Lord If I could wave a magic wand over all immigrant kids and confer legal status with a clear path to citizenship on them, I would. In a heartbeat. But I’m really not comfortable with the DREAM Act. There are some positions I took during my campaign that I’m less than proud … Read more
Resignations, plants, and rumors: Candidates update
January 30, 2012
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings …Confirming rumors of long standing, Andrei Cherny has resigned as chair of the Arizona Democratic Party to run for Congress in the new CD9. He joins State Senator David Schapira and Kyrsten Sinema in the field pursuing the Democratic nomination. No paperwork is up on the FECs … Read more
‘Survivor – GOP Presidential Primary’ : Post-Florida
January 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Willard "Mittens" Romney has used his substantial financial resources to try to score a knock-out punch in the Florida primary on Tuesday. He has outspent Newt Gingrich by some estimates 5-1 in Florida. If polling coming out of Florida can be believed, Mittens should score an easy win in Florida on Tuesday.
The corporate media villagers and Beltway bloviators will all sing from the GOP establishment hymnal Tuesday night that this is a "knock-out punch" for Mittens. But is it really?
Florida is a diverse state with several expensive media markets. Advantage Romney. But upcoming GOP primary/caucus states are less diverse than Florida (more solidly conservative), and have far less expensive media markets. The Not-the-Romney candidate(s) may be able to afford a competitive "air war" with Romney.
Moreover, despite a win in Florida by Romney he still trails Gingrich in national polling. Real Clear Politics polling average. (click for larger image).
Rick "man on dog" Santorum is out of money and out of momentum. His daughter's recent illness may give him a convenient excuse to vote himself off the island after Tuesday. That would clear the field and make it a two man race. Santorum supporters are far more likely to jump to Gingrich than to Romney.
In the NBC/WSJ poll last week Romney’s unfavorability rating among independents spiked 20 points in the last two months. The poll found that among all Americans, Romney is rated very or somewhat positively by only 31 percent, while he’s rated very or somewhat negatively by 36 percent. He's upside down in negative numbers and spiking. The more the public sees Mittens the more they dislike him — and its only January.
Dozens of national organizations oppose banning of books at TUSD
January 30, 2012
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by David Safier
It’s a long and impressive list — the organizations signing on to a Joint Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District. When groups of this caliber band together to oppose an action by a school district, that’s a very significant development. Here are some of the signers:
- American Association of University Professors
- American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona
- Antigone Books
- Association of American Publishers
- Association of American University Presses
- Authors Guild
- Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliate of the American Library Association
- International Reading Association
- National Council for the Social Studies
- National Council of Teachers of English
- PEN American Center
- People For the American Way
- Reading is Fundamental
- Student Press Law Center
You can read the entire statement after the jump. Here is an excerpt which discusses two essential issues: the discretion schools have to chose certain texts and not others, which does not include a restraint of unwelcome information and viewpoints, and the validity of the term “book banning” to describe TUSD’s actions.
The First Amendment is grounded on the fundamental rule that government officials, including public school administrators, may not suppress “an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” School officials have a great deal of authority and discretion to determine the curriculum, the subject of courses, and even methods of instruction. They are restrained only by the constitutional obligation to base their decisions on sound educational grounds, and not on ideology or political or other personal beliefs. Thus, school officials are free to debate the merits of any educational program, but that debate does not justify the wholesale removal of books, especially when the avowed purpose is to suppress unwelcome information and viewpoints.
School officials have insisted that the books haven’t been banned because they are still available in school libraries. It is irrelevant that the books are available in the library – or at the local bookstore. School officials have removed materials from the curriculum, effectively banning them from certain classes, solely because of their content and the messages they contain. The effort to “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, [or] religion” is the essence of censorship, whether the impact results in removal of all the books in a classroom, seven books, or only one.
Read the whole statement, including a complete list of signers, after the jump.
Isn’t that special! ADP Chair Andrei Cherny steps down
January 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
As Dana Carvey's SNL character the Church Lady would say: "Isn't that special!" Arizona Democratic Party Chair Andrei Cherny, for whom the party had to bend its bylaws last year in order to make him chair of the party, announced that he is stepping down today after only one year into a two year commitment to do what, exactly? He doesn't disclose in his letter to Democrats.
Some quick points. First, this is an announcement Cherny should have made in person to state committee members in Tucson on January 21. Second, when the party bent its bylaws last year to make him chair we were told he was some kind of wunderkind of fundraising. He has not been. I am sure that I was not the only one shocked by ADP Treasurer Rick McGuire's treasurer's report at the state committee meeting in Tucson. The fact that Democrats are doing slightly better than the Arizona GOP is little consolation in the age of Citizens United. Finally, I have had enough of people who use the chair's position only as a stepping stone to seek political office.
This leaves the Arizona Democratic Party with an interim chair, Vice Chairwoman Harriet Young, until the Arizona Democratic Party elects a new chair to complete Cherny's term at its Spring State Committee Meeting in Phoenix on April 21 — already expected to be a very long and possibly contentious meeting with the selection of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Cherny's sense of timing could not be worse.
And just who is going to step into the chair's position well into a presidential election year who has the capacity to raise a ton of money for campaigns on such short notice? No name immediately comes to mind.
Keep all of this in mind when you read Cherny's self-congratulatory resignation letter below the fold (things ain't as as rosy as he portrays them):
