AZ BlueMeanie

The Blue Meanie is an Arizona citizen who wishes, for professional reasons, to remain anonymous when blogging about politics. Armed with a deep knowledge of the law, politics and public policy, as well as pen filled with all the colors stolen from Pepperland, the Blue Meanie’s mission is to pursue and prosecute the hypocrites, liars, and fools of politics and the media – which, in practical terms, is nearly all of them. Don’t even try to unmask him or he’ll seal you in a music-proof bubble and rendition you to Pepperland for a good face-stomping.

Time for unions to stand united against this assault on working people

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Police and fire unions have, for various reasons, supported and endorsed Republican candidates and causes over the years. This often put them at odds with other public sector unions and trade unions. Some of the teachers unions have endorsed Republican candidates on the specious grounds that it is a Republican dominated district and they wanted … Read more

SCOTUS to hear SB 1070 appeal on April 25

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: From SCOTUSblog.com April arguments: The Supreme Court will conclude its oral arguments for the current Term with the major case on a state’s power to pass laws to control undocumented immigrants living in the state — Arizona v. United States (docket 11-182) — on April 25.   11-182 — Arizona v. United States  … Read more

Court strikes down the Arizona Republic’s pension reforms as unconstitutional

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This week our Tea-Publican Arizona legislature launched an assault to destroy public sector unions in Arizona, led by the Goldwater Institute.

PublicPensionsBut before this assault on working people and the American middle-class came the "softening up" phase, the assault on state employee pensions.

The assault began with a series of "investigative" reports in the Arizona Republic in the fall of 2010 that relied heavily on the biased research of the Goldwater Institute and quoted liberally from Goldwater spokesmen. The Republic has a long and sordid history of anti-unionism. The editorial staff of the Arizona Republic pressed the legislature for state pension reforms.

The Tea-Publican legislature, citing the Arizona Republic's "Investigative" (sic) report, which was really nothing more than restated Goldwater Insititute research, took up state pension reforms in 2011.

Both our Tea-Publican legislators and editors of the Arizona Republic continued to press for pension reforms even in the face of well-reasoned legal arguments that it violated an express provision of the Arizona Constitution and contract law (impairment of contracts), and I would argue violated the fiduciary obligations of the pension fund manager (Arizona) to the fund beneficiaries. Our Tea-Publican legislature adopted the state pension reforms argued for by the Arizona Republic as proxy for the Goldwater Institute.

Multiple lawsuits were filed and immediately things did not go as planned for our Tea-Publican legislature.

LD 30 Boot Stompin’ Red Hot Chili Lovers Cook-Off!

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:     You are cordially invited to the AZ LD 30    "Boot Stompin' Red Hot  Chili Lovers Cook-off!"    Saturday, February 25th 12:00 – 2:00 PM Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson 4831 E. 22nd St. Tucson, AZ 85711   Master of Ceremonies: Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild   Celebrity judging panel: Cheryl Cage, … Read more