Democratic Diva

20 Apr 2010 12:15 am
Posted by: Donna

1. Pride Festival

Was a blast as always and I was working it getting signatures for Dem candidates. You don’t usually get much resistance while collecting petition signatures in this crowd. “Hi, I’m collecting signatures to get (Dem candidate) on the ballot to run against (Republican incumbent)…” The words are no sooner out of your mouth than the person is grabbing the clipboard and the pen. Then there are those who, after you’ve patiently explained that signing the petition merely helps to get the candidate on the ballot and is neither an endorsement nor an indication of your intent to vote for them, will say that they “need to do some research on the candidate first”. Sigh. Look, if you don’t want to sign, just say no and move on. You aren’t fooling the campaign volunteer for one minute. If you were such a careful scholar of Arizona Democratic politics, you’d know who Felecia Rotellini is by now.

Met a few gay Republicans too. You’re just like, really? Why?

2. 47% of the country is officially on welfare now.

Time to make more room under the Welfare Bus and, boy howdy, is it gonna get crowded under there! Recall that people toiling for $8 an hour at Walmart who get Medicaid, food stamps, and the EITC are regarded as idle slobs on the dole with the entirety of their tax burden coming from cigarettes. Working poor? What working poor? Impossible! No one who works is poor! Payroll taxes? What are those? We know that poor people don’t work so how could they possibly have payroll taxes?

And now there’s this report that nearly half of all Americans owe no federal income taxes at the end of the year. You’d think that would be celebrated by anti-tax conservatives but, nah. Turns out too many of the wrong people aren’t paying. Remember that putting money into the pockets of the wealthy elite ennobles them and they are sure to do productive things with it that are of benefit to the world. But money in the hands of working people is wasted on dumb crap like “their kids” or “food”. It’s so unfair.

3. Normally hapless Republican legislators become laser-focused when something important is at stake.

Faced with the horrifying prospect of an initiative that would raise the state income tax on couples making $300,000 a year from 4.54% to 5.54%, they acted with remarkable speed. Robert Robb was quite distraught about it, and grateful that “(t)he hospital association dropped its initiative after running into a buzz saw of opposition from Republican legislators.” Those legislators wasted no time holding a hearing and to threaten a hospital bed tax. Carolyn Allen clearly knows her base – the haves, and the have mores – and knows how to deliver for them.

When it comes to the schools, health care, state parks, and various and sundry other dumb crap that benefits non-rich people, Carolyn and her counterparts will go back to their usual fumble fingered approach to governance.

4. Canucks still better be on notice.

Today, the AZ Senate passed the bill (SB 1070) that makes being brown in Arizona a crime. Except that it prohibits “racial profiling”. Which means that I can sue Joe Arpaio because he isn’t investigating my Canadian neighbors. Basically, when Jan Brewer makes it a law (either through signing it or allowing it to pass), I get to call the cops every time I think someone in my midst is saying “aboot” too much or being too polite (a sure sign of Canadian-ism). IOW, it will be shot down in the courts.

5. T Shirts!! We got ‘em and we’re selling them!

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