Arizona Now Taxing People For Crime of Being Related To Criminals

America’s favorite existential vacuum the state of Arizona is back in the news this week, just like every week, with some acutely awful new first-of-its-kind state law requiring state prison visitors to pay a $25 “background check fee” in order to be allowed admission to see their loved ones in jail. Oh, hey, we notice that “background check fee” is in scare quotes?

Yes, it is! Because that is only this dumb law’s stripper name, to go on the receipt. The money is not actually for background checks; instead it’s “to repair and maintain the prisons” ever since the Arizona state government lost interest in funding them (but not filling them!). Nice of those families to pick up Arizona’s crime-fighting bills? READ MORE »

Media Matters Daily Summary 09-06-11

Fox's Trumped Up Attack On Hoffa Just Latest Example Of Their Selective Outrage
Fox has repeatedly attacked Teamsters president James Hoffa's statement that union members should "take these son of a bitches out" at a Labor Day rally, suggesting his comments constituted "a call for violence [toward] peaceful tea party members." But Hoffa was not endorsing violence -- he was urging his audience to remove elected officials by voting; furthermore, Fox has a history downplaying explicit threats or violent rhetoric when they are directed at Democrats and progressives. Read More

Fox "Straight News" Reporters Attack Clean Energy Investments
Fox News' supposedly "straight news" reporters recently asserted that federal investments in clean energy are wasteful and that the costs of green jobs outweigh the benefits. These claims are contradicted by several studies showing clean energy investments create more jobs than several other types of investments. Read More

Wash. Post Continues To Publish George Will's Climate Change Misinformation
In his syndicated Washington Post column, chronic climate change misinformer George Will falsely suggested that a supposed "global cooling" scare in the 1970's is comparable to the current scientific consensus on global warming. Read More

Timeline Of A Right-Wing Media Smear: Hoffa's Call To Vote Became "A Call For Violence"
After Fox News aired a doctored version of Teamsters president James Hoffa's Labor Day speech, the right-wing media pointed to the clearly edited video to accuse Hoffa of encouraging violence against conservatives. In fact, unaltered video -- video aired by Fox hours after the clearly edited version had been heavily promoted throughout the conservative media -- shows that Hoffa was encouraging the crowd to vote against Republicans in the 2012 election. Read More

Dishonest Hoffa Reporting Is Just Latest Attempt By Fox To Smear Unions As Violent Thugs
Fox News dishonestly edited a Labor Day speech by Teamsters President James Hoffa to push the falsehood that Hoffa encouraged violence against Tea Party activists. This is the latest example of Fox's pattern of smearing union leaders, members, and supporters as violent thugs. Read More

CA Dems Taking It On The Chin

The arrest in California of Kinde Durkee, a treasurer for hundreds of Democratic campaigns, on charges that she misappropriated campaign funds is clearly wreaking havoc in Democratic Party circles.

The chairman of the Los Angeles Country Democratic Party -- the largest county party in the country -- tells TPM he's just trying to "figure out what the hell we had" in the bank.

— David Kurtz

500,000 at Manchester, NH Tea Party Express rally

Conservative Professor Protests Use of Term ‘Tea bagger’ In Front of Ladies

How is America’s Socialist Patriarchy oppressing women lately? This time it’s truly awful: college professors are referring to America’s patriots as “tea baggers” in classrooms! WHAT?!? Now some of you may not know this, but the term “tea bagging” leads a sneaky double life, both as a term for the hazy Jesus warrior collective trying to trample the federal government with their heedless army of scooters, and also as an oral sex act involving testicles.

This is offensive to student lady ears in classrooms everywhere according to University of North Carolina criminology professor Mike Adams, who asserts that right-wing women should not be sexually harassed by professors talking about nuts. Nuts! There is another term that has two meanings. GAH. There we go again! READ MORE »

Perry cut volunteer fire department funding in Texas by 75 percent this year

RAW STORY

Under Gov. Rick Perry (R) this year, Texas slashed state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires like the ones that have recently destroyed more than 700 homes.

Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain were slated to have their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million, according to KVUE.

The majority of Texas is protected by volunteer fire departments. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas and only 114 paid fire departments. Another 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.

For that reason, aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could be more important than ever to the state where wildfires have recently been raging.

At a press conference Monday, Perry promised to seek federal disaster relief and said that FEMA would be in the state by Wednesday.

While the Texas governor has been highly critical of FEMA in the past, he told CBS’ Erica Hill Tuesday that now was not the time to worry about reforming the agency.

“The issue is taking care of these people right now,” Perry insisted. “We can work our way through any conversations about how to make agencies more efficient, how to make Department of Defense equipment, for instance, more available. There are a lot of issues we can talk about, but the fact of the matter is now is not the time to be trying to work out the details of how to make these agencies more efficient. Let’s get people out of harm’s way.”.................

Latest Scott Walker Fundraiser: Ask Rich Ladies To Give Him Their Purses

Villain prince Scott Walker has grown tired of the crumbling governor’s mansion the state of Wisconsin gave him as a fortress against the pitchfork mobs of voters that usually hunt him down wherever he goes, so he needs cash to insulate the walls from the noises of the commoners. And what do aristocrats do when they need money to fix up their castles?

They throw a wine and croquet luncheon, of course, during which Scott Walker’s wife will mug the assembled crowd of rich ladies who attend these sorts of things and auction off their expensive handbags back to one another for the highest price. How clever! The rich ladies love these sorts of games. All of them except one, who heard about this weird scheme in her invitation from the first lady and forwarded it to the media, because it is weird. READ MORE »

Texas High School Catches Al Jazeera Terrorist Asking People About 9/11

Texas is facing a few challenges right now — incredible plagues of drought and fire and horror that could make even a liberal yankee atheist wonder if an Old Testament God had been awakened from its watery grave deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

But narratives don’t exactly change overnight, which is why some school district bureaucrats in the Texan town of Booker threw a Brazilian journalist out of a high school football game, because he works for Al Jazeera. And they caught him just before he planted bombs beneath the bleachers asked some people about the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. READ MORE »