Posted by Bob Lord

In the wake of the Senate hearings on Apple's tax shenanigans, a gaggle of opinion writers, including left-leaning Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, are urging the elimination of the corporate income tax altogether, with increased taxes on dividends and capital gains to replace the lost revenue. You can find Ezra's piece here and two others here and here.

Although these people raise valid points in their criticism of the corporate income tax, they’re seemingly ignoring...

By Tom Prezelski

Cross-Posted From Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

It probably tells you everything that is wrong with the Republican Party in Pima County that the hopeless candidacy of the clueless Mike Polack has generated more excitement among their activist base than the candidacy of a guy who nearly won 4 years ago.

Like Steve Kozachik, Ben Buehler-García distinguishes himself from most Republicans by not having complete contempt for Tucson and Tucsonans. This was the reason for Kozachik’s...

by David Safier

Fourth grade teacher Ellie Rubinstein decided to quit rather than take an involuntary transfer. She made a 10 minute video describing her reasons. What's interesting is that she left a career in advertising and public relations to become a teacher at age 45 "to do something meaningful with my life." She describes loving teaching but becoming increasingly discouraged by the regimen of standardization and testing.

You can tell from the video Rubinstein is one of those "difficult" t...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Announcement from Legislative District 2:

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The LD 14 Democrats will be tabling a voter registration and information booth at the Rita Ranch Family Fun Day this Saturday, at Purple Heart Park, 10050 E. Rita Road, Tucson. Volunteers will meet & greet, and register/educate new voters. Contact either Vice Chair, LD14 for Pima County, Jean Vickers at jean.vickers@cox.net or 520-300-4322, or Jan Kalthoff at clemjan@attglobal.net or 520-885-9005. Join Bob and Pat Fleming at the booth.

Family Fun Day 2013

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

As the days are getting longer, tempers are getting shorter at and around the legislature.

...On Tuesday, State Representative Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) now-famously led the House in a non-prayer "prayer", honoring the secular humanist tradition that a growing percentage of Americans embrace.  Today, State Representative Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) insisted that the House do two prayers this afternoon to make it up to the God he believes in. ...

by Pamela Powers Hannley

The Arizona State Senate and the House of Representatives begin each session with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

On some level, I understand the inclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance. Since Arizona lawmakers often challenge the authority of the federal government, stating the Pledge of Allegiance may remind them that Arizona is not a sovereign country; it's one state in the United States.

But a prayer at the opening of an official meeting of US lawmakers?

App...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It looks like Arizona's angry old man Sen. McNasty, John McCain, has had enough of those Tea Party punks hanging out on his lawn. For the second day in a row, McCain took to the well of the Senate to criticize a Tea Party senator as too effin' ignorant to be in the Senate. This time it was Tea Party darlin' Mike Lee (R-UT).

Greg Sargent has the play-by-play. Tea Party Senators jump the shark:

In a key moment on the Senate floor this morning, John McCain came very close...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As the New York Times editorialized this afternoon, "For the first time, President Obama clearly stated that the current state of war is unsustainable for a democracy and that it must come to an end." The End of the Perpetual War.

From the White House blog:

Today at National Defense University, President Obama laid out the framework for U.S. counterterrorism strategy as we wind down the war in Afghanistan.

President Obama discussed how the threat of terrorism has changed ...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For five years, Senate Republicans led by the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have systematically abused the Senate filibuster rules in partisan warfare to block President Obama's judicial nominees. There are currently four vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as a result of this unprecedented partisan obstruction by the GOP.

Today there is one less vacancy. The Septegenarian Ninja Turtle finally had to cave on hi...

by David Safier

Yesterday I posted about a column Tim Steller wrote talking about Edge High School, a charter school that serves students who are generally cast-offs from other schools and has a D grade from the state. The grade reflects the difficulty of the school's mission, not a failure of the school.

One grateful mother commented on a FB post by Steller, saying her son had problems at TUSD but thrived at Edge and graduated on time. Frequent BfA commenter Jana Happel also knows more about th...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"[N]o religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." - Article VI, Paragraph 3, U.S. Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." - First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"The liberty of conscience secured by the provisions of this constitution shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify pra...

by David Safier

The news has been so dismal when I've picked up my morning paper lately, I've considered trying to find a local chapter of NewsAnon to cut back on my addiction. Then came today. It wasn't all good, of course, but I'm not going to let the perfect news day be the enemy of a day with enough good news to cheer me up.

We will return to our regularly scheduled cynicism and dismay in the next post.

From today's Star:

• Great front page pic of Ironwood HIgh grads. Congrats, all!
• Three hig...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There was a mayoral and council election in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but also on the ballot was Prop. C, a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC. Prop C Wins: LA Voters Send Strong Message Against Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling:

Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition C, a resolution that instructed local and state officials to promote the overturning of Citizens United v...

by Will Greene

In landlocked Arizona most don’t know or care about developments in the world’s oceans.  Yet this is a story I cannot help but report because public awareness of the issue is so abysmal, and in the end it will affect all of us.  It is the other carbon problem - ocean acidification.

Oceans have absorbed one quarter of the carbon dioxide humanity has released since the beginning of the industrial revolution.  For years scientists thought this was a good thing.  It meant a re...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If you could not attend the presentation in Prescott, you still have an opportunity at a location near you. Phoenix tonight! Yuma on Friday. Tucson on Sunday.

Press release from Move to Amend. Arizona Barnstorming Tour with Ashley Sanders.

Arizona Barnstorming Tour with Ashley Sanders

May 10, 2013

Move to Amend is barnstorming through Arizona and we're coming to a town near you! Catch a talk in your area, and learn how you can get involved in the campaign to end ...

by David Safier

As I posted yesterday, Ann-Eve Pedersen and I have created a new half hour cable TV show, Education: The Rest of the Story. What I neglected to mention yesterday is that the wonderful people at Tucson Cable Access supplied the studio and the technical expertise which allowed the project to go forward. Special credit and thanks to Carolyn Brown who suggested the idea to us and did the title and editing work. The show airs Thursdays at 4:30pm on Cox channel 20 or Comcast channel 74...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The cracks in the GOP edifice of party unity are now open fissures. Longtime members of Congress who understand that they have an obligation to govern are openly critical of the Tea Party freshmen extremists who only believe in partisan warfare and their radical ideology.

Long-simmering divisions among Republicans burst into public view Tuesday evening, when GOP senators challenged Tea Party senators on the Senate floor over their refusal to proceed to formal negotiations...

By Karl Reiner

Many ardent conservatives believe the country is spiraling downward, the future bleak.  They urge buying gold, stocking up on food and arms, getting ready for the collapse of society.  The gloomy mindset may be a reaction to the fact that the recession was partly caused by the banking deregulation they advocated.

Their sense of unease is not completely misplaced.  The government reaction to the 2008 financial collapse sent budget deficits soaring and held interest rates to near...