Arizona Republic

The AZ GOP is such an embarrassment they won’t let the press into a forum

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Just, wowThe event was sponsored by two East Valley GOP committees and held at Campo Verde High School in Gilbert.

A reporter covering the event for the Arizona Republic was turned away at the door by GOP committee chairman Tyler Bowyer, the event’s primary organizer.

GOP gubernatorial candidates in attendance included Secretary of State Ken Bennett, State Treasurer Doug Ducey, state Sen. Al Melvin, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, attorney Christine Jones and former U.S. Rep. Frank Riggs. A seventh candidate, former medical-center executive John Molina, was seen negotiating with organizers for entry..

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Doug MacEachern is having none of your Equal Pay Day!

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Someone told me recently that they knew AZ Republic columnist Doug MacEachern well and that he’s nothing like how he seems in all his columns, in which he channels your angry Birther uncle chain emailing conspiracy stories from World Net Daily and Newsmax all day long. I’m not sure why it matters if he’s sincere or not since the resulting output is the same and he is being paid a newspaper columnist’s salary to do it, but I thought I’d let you know that.

Speaking of pay, Tuesday was Equal Pay Day – signifying the additional amount women have to work this year, on average, to earn what men earned, on average, last year. MacEachern is (or is pretending to be) very testy about Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Councilwoman Kate Gallego marking Equal Pay Day by announcing a plan to ensure gender pay equity for city contractors.

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Appalling AZ Republic false equivalence on national legislative orgs

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

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I don’t know for sure, but Alia Beard Rau’s recent piece looks like it started to be about the influence that American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Goldwater Institute, and Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) have on the Republican-controlled AZ Legislature, but then she was pressured by an editor to make it a “both sides” thing. Or maybe not, but whatever happened, the article is a testament to the incredible lengths the MSM will go to imply that the left is as powerful and corrupt as the right is.

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In which I express my fervent wish that Laurie Roberts will shut up forever about child abuse.

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

There’s a terrible, awful story in the news right now about a Phoenix couple who starved their baby nearly to death. So it’s no surprise that Phoenix’s own Nancy Grace, AKA Laurie Roberts, was quickly on the scene to flare her nostrils about it on her column. I mean, I totally could see it coming but, dear sweet Christ on chimichanga platter is this thing dreadful.

What profound insight does Laurie have to add to this horrible situation? Why, slut-shaming, of course.

The case of Veronica Marie Diaz showcases much about what is wrong with our society, about why CPS is so overrun and just how daunting the task will be as the state rebuilds our child-welfare system. Here’s a 27-year-old woman with multiple children and no father apparently in sight. But, of course, there is a boyfriend.

There’s always a boyfriend.

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They are none of our Business

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The AZ Republic’s Sunday oped was exultant over the business community possibly “getting its mojo back” due to things like the SB1062 veto and the large contributions that Republicans who went with the Medicaid expansion are getting.

Needless to say, they’d have you believe none of what is wrong with Arizona can ever be laid at the feet of business leaders even when the ed board has to admit (grudgingly) that it really is their fault, as in here:

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