From the apropos of nothing files: The Arizona Daily Star IT department (which provides technical support to TucsonCitizen.com) got a nastygram today from Google Ad Sense saying that a blog post at TucsonCitizen.com violated the Google Ad Sense terms of service in that the ad appeared on a page that had “mature content.” That was [...]
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Scandal Mongering 101
1. Facts don't matter -- just make up the facts (state your case as a "what if" proposition if necessary, or go to the FAUX News classic, "some people say . . .").
2. Logical consistency does not matter -- two diametrically opposed theories can be "true" at the same time. If one theory is not working for you, switch to the diametrically opposed theory.
3. When all else fails, throw shit against the wall and hope that something sticks.
Keep this in mi...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic has an editorial opinion today giving their direction to the Arizona House of Representatives on Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan, which could have just as easily been summed up in three words with a Nike ad: "Just do it." Our View: No time to punt on Medicaid.
This editorial opinion is entirely devoid of any discussion of the legitimate legal questions raised by Republic columnist Robert Robb in his column on Sunday. Senate pa...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Walter Pincus, the National Security reporter for the Washington Post, is a consummate professional, one of a diminishing class of reporters whom I respect and admire for his body of work.
Any time the media is at the center of a controversy, they can do no wrong in their view. They posssess an absolutist view of the First Amendment right of a free press. No limitations should ever apply to the media. But as we all know, the rights secured by the Bill of Rights, including...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Let's set Mr. Peabody's WABAC time machine to a little less than a year ago, to June of 2012 when this was the GOP position on national security leaks to the media. Republicans demand (again) special investigator to investigate leaks - CNN:
A group of Republican senators continued to fire away Tuesday at the Obama administration for its failure to appoint a special counsel to investigate leaks of classified information.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, once again led the char...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
An essential element of the conservative media entertainment complex cult is advancing conspiracy theories in which conservatives are perpetually being persecuted for their whacky beliefs by the big bad government and "librul" media. This is what gives the cult its cohesion, and its sense of tribalism. Conservatives rely on the high priests of the conservative media entertainment complex to tell them what to think, resulting in epistemic closure and a feedback loop.
Too o...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
ABC's Jonathan Karl got caught this past week having cited emails in his reporting that he claimed were directly quoted from the actual emails on Benghazi! Yeah, not so much. It turns out that what Karl cited as actual quotes from the actual emails in his reporting were from summaries prepared by staffers for Republicans in Congress leaked to the media. Those summaries are most charitably "inaccurate," and at worst intentional fabrications. ABC ran the story as an "exclus...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Saint Ronnie Reagan's speechwriter and Special Assistant to the President, Peggy Noonan aka the "Nooner," the one who wrote those speeches for Ronnie about how "I didn''t know nuthin' bout no arms to Iran for hostages!", and "I didn't know nuthin' bout no Oliver North running an illegal war in Nicaragua out of the basement of the White House!," has been slipping from reality into dementia for quite sometime now, just like Saint Ronnie, but the "Nooner" has completely lost...
Fox News reports that the Internal Revenue Service scandal involving the unjustified targeting of conservative groups also had conservative Hispanics in its sights. The list continues to grow and the excuses get weaker. Meanwhile, six-figure bonuses and promotions are the order of the day for the henchmen behind this outrageous focus and denial of tax exempt status requests for conservative and faith based groups.
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS commissioner overseeing the tax exempt division when i...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
This morning I posted:
The worst purveyors of this "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal have been the new Three Stooges, Sens. John McCain, his puppet boy Little Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte as "Shemp." They have perpetrated a fraud for purely partisan political retaliation. They besmirched the reputation of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who has been vindicated by the emails released this week.
The new Three Stooges owe Susan Rice and the American people an...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Major Garrett, who used to work for FAUX News Fraudcasting for years, left the GOPropaganda machine to go to work for CBS News. Last night on CBS Evening News, Major Garrett put a definitive end to the conservative media entertainment complex cult's "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal, with this report (transcript by) Josh Marshall: CBS Calls Out GOP For Doctoring Benghazi Emails:
MAJOR GARRETT: Scott, Republicans have claimed that the State Department under ...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It turns out that the conservative Tea Party and Patriot organizations who applied for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status did so because they were concerned that their activities violated the tax exempt status. They knew that their political activities skirted the legalities for a tax exempt status, so they sought the IRS "seal of approval" (the real IRS scandal).
You see, you do not have to apply for a 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Steven Benen explains, How to apply (or not) fo...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston, a columnist for Tax Analysts, and who teaches tax and regulatory law at Syracuse University Law School, explains The other IRS scandal : Columbia Journalism Review:
The burgeoning “scandal” over how the IRS chose for review 75 applicants for tax-exempt status puts on full display an unfortunate tendency in journalism—to quote people accurately without explaining the underlying context. Yes,...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I explained the other day "The real scandal with the IRS review of applications for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status from political organizations is that political organizations do not qualify -- and should not recieve 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Period." The real IRS scandal: the ease with which political organizations have been abusing the 501(c)(4) tax exempt status.
There has actually been some very good reporting on the real scandal (just Google "the real IRS scandal"), ...
844 page amnesty bill: “Being stampeded without enough scrutiny”
Plain spoken conservative Congressman Steve King is, without a doubt, the man many Arizonans would eagerly take in trade for our two double-talking, Democrat-colluding ‘Gang of 8‘ U.S. Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake.
No waffler, the Iowa Republican even posts his voting record on his website for all to see.
On the issue of “immigration” McCain’s site has a pull-down linking to Homeland Security, with no...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The self-important pompous assholes of the Beltway media elite have their noses in a snit. Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog sets it up, D.C. To Obama: Don’t Mess With “This Town”:
Well, it doesn’t get much more official than this: an VandeHei/Allen “Behind the Curtain” column announcing that D.C. (“the town”) is “turning on” Barack Obama, and there will be nothing but venom coming from any direction for the foreseeable future[.]
* * *
Too bad, v...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic(an)'s columnist Robert Robb had a column yesterday about the IRS "scandal" that left me wondering, "Where the hell did that come from?"
The real scandal with the IRS review of applications for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status from political organizations is that political organizations do not qualify -- and should not recieve 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Period. The real IRS scandal: the ease with which political organizations have been abusing the 501(c)(...
At the races, Roll Call’s political blog, takes note of Arizona’s upcoming First Congressional District race and focuses on state Rep. Adam Kwasman, the bright and energetic conservative representing LD 11.
Kwasman’s arena is a smart place to shine the high beam. His reasoned approach to the wide spectrum of issues facing Arizona has gained the notice of political watchers around the state, whether the topic is Medicaid expansion or our state’s porous border. We previously wrote Adam Kwa...
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Every once in awhile you run across a headline that the copy editor had to have read and approved, but is so unintentionally funny in print that you have to wonder, "what were they thinking?" Today's example comes from the Arizona Capitol Times:
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I posted about this previously, Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders and secession:
Remember the "Checks and Balances in Government" citizens initiative aka the "nullification" initiative from a nutty Scottsdale millionaire businessman, Jack Biltis, that failed to qualify for the ballot due to an insufficient number of signatures last year? Businessman spends $1.2 million to put nullification measure on ballot.
Biltis has decided to bypass the expense of another initiati...
