Our Tea-Publican lawless legislature loses in court, again (part the infinity)

6a00d8341bf80c53ef019103bb1102970c-piOur Tea-Publican lawless legislature has lost in court, again. This time it was our lawless legislature’s attempt to overturn the constitutionality of the voter-approved citizens initiative creating the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), Prop. 106 (2000), to determine redistricting election boundaries rather than the state legislature. Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (CV12-01211-PHX-PGR).

I have previously explained that, based upon case law precedents, this should be a no-brainer for the court in favor of the AIRC. Arizona Legislature v. the AIRC court hearing this Friday. And it was, except for Justice Paul Rosenblatt, who agreed with part of the ruling, but argued the citizen initiative wrongly removed any power lawmakers would have to influence how the politically sensitive lines are drawn in his dissent. Justice Rosenblatt is simply wrong. It happens.

Read more

Where does ‘Cathi’s Clown’ stand on the Religious Bigotry bill?

The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) stealth candidate for governor of Arizona is the only candidate yet to take a position on the Religious Bigotry bill. Cathi Herrod from CAP is on State Treasurer Doug Ducey’s campaign steering committee (he proudly displays her endorsement on his campaign web site).

Where does “Cathi’s Clown” stand on the Religious Bigotry bill? Ducey told Howard Fischer only that he is “studying it,” saying he will “approach this as both a man of faith and a businessman.” Head of economic development group asks Brewer to veto controversial religion bill.

Read more

Sen. John McCain and his fawning media base

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Grampy McCrankypants, Sen. John McCain, has a sad that the U.S. has not gone to war lately with  (insert country name here)  , because the man has never met a war he did not like. McCain knows nothing about foreign affairs, yet the media villagers hang on his every word as though his thoughts are worth listening to. Paul Waldman at The American Prospect dispels the media myth of John McCain in John McCain Says Ignorant, Belligerent Things; Press Swoons:

I'll admit that I know next to nothing about Ukrainian politics. And when it comes to the current crisis there, I don't have any brilliant ideas about how the United States could solve this problem, but that's partly because the United States probably can't solve this problem. My limited knowledge and lack of transformative ideas puts me on equal footing with John McCain. Yet for some reason, McCain is once again all over the news, now that the situation in Kiev[.]

Mcain grimaceWhat does McCain actually think we should do about Ukraine? We'll get to that in a moment. But if you had to sum up John McCain's foreign policy beliefs in a single word, that word would probably be "Grrrr!" Whatever the situation is, McCain's view is always that we should be tougher than whatever the White House is doing. This applies to both Republican and Democratic presidents. If we're already bombing somebody, McCain's answer to any challenge is that we should bomb harder. If we haven't yet commenced action but are seriously thinking about it, he thinks we should start bombing. If we're engaging in diplomacy, McCain thinks we should ditch all that talk, which is for pussies anyhow, and get "tough" with whoever it is that needs getting tough with.

That is, I promise you, the extent of the sophistication of McCain's foreign policy thinking. Despite the fact that he is regularly lauded by the reporters who have worshipped him for so long as an "expert" in foreign policy with deep "knowledge" and "experience," I have never heard him say a single thing that demonstrated any kind of understanding of any foreign country or foreign crisis beyond what you could have gleaned from watching a three-minute report on the Today show.

Please don’t make the religious bigot bill look like a “both sides” thing

Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

Opponents of SB1062, the bill that could basically allow any form of discrimination so long as it was “sincerely religious” are planning to amass at the Capitol today to protest this outrage and encourage the Governor to veto it.

Several of these signs will be available at the rally, and some have already been spotted on shop windows throughout the state. (more after the jump)