Posted by Carolyn Classen District 4 Republican Supervisor Ray Carroll is hosting a town hall on Feb. 13, 6 to 7 p.m. at the Kirk-Bear Canyon branch library. Supervisor Carroll was first appointed to his seat in May, 1997 and was elected in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008. Email: district4@pima.gov, 520-724-8094, website: http://webcms.pima.gov/government/board_of_supervisors/supervisor_raymond_carroll_district_4/ He will … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Bravo to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for calling for the restoration of ex-felon voting rights. Someone who has repaid their debt to society should not be forever banned from the franchise to vote. This holdover provision from Jim Crow laws should go. We are a better country than this. Holder Urges States to Lift Bans on Felons’ Voting:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called Tuesday for the repeal of laws that prohibit millions of felons from voting, underscoring the Obama administration’s determination to elevate issues of criminal justice and race in the president’s second term and create a lasting civil rights legacy.
In a speech at Georgetown University, Mr. Holder described today’s prohibitions — which in some cases bar those convicted from voting for life — as a vestige of the racist policies of the South after the Civil War, when states used the criminal justice system to keep blacks from fully participating in society.
“Those swept up in this system too often had their rights rescinded, their dignity diminished, and the full measure of their citizenship revoked for the rest of their lives,” Mr. Holder said. “They could not vote.”
Mr. Holder has no authority to enact the changes he called for, given that states establish the rules under which people can vote.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A couple of weeks ago I explained that Nevada's defense of same-sex marriage ban crumbles in Sevcik v. Sandoval.
State officials in Nevada, concluding that they can no longer successfully defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, have formally switched position to argue that the ban is unconstitutional. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, Nevada ends defense of marriage ban:
[State officials] did so on Monday, in a plea to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow them to withdraw their written legal brief defending the ban.
That request came at about the same time that the same-sex couples challenging the Nevada ban asked the Ninth Circuit Court to set an early date for a hearing as the case continues in that court. The state’s withdrawal leaves only the original proponents of Nevada’s voter-approved ban to carry on a defense.
The Nevada case in the Ninth Circuit is one of the furthest along among cases unfolding in federal appeals courts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last June in U.S. v. Windsor striking down a part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal marital benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married. Although the Court’s ruling did not settle whether states could constitutionally ban gay and lesbian marriages, a lengthening string of lower court rulings has interpreted the decision at least to seriously imperil the validity of such bans, if not to doom them outright.
Nevada officials cited that recent trend on Monday, telling the Ninth Circuit that the Windsor decision “signifies that discrimination against same-sex couples is unconstitutional,” and thus the arguments that the state had made previously in support of their state’s ban “cannot withstand legal scrutiny.”
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Last week, Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio) was quoted as saying, “Right now, Jesus himself couldn’t be the speaker and get 218 Republicans behind something, so I think Speaker Boehner is trying his best to come up with a plan that can get close to that.”
As I predicted last week, the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, raised the white flag on the latest GOP debt ceiling hostage taking. The Tea-Publican economic terrorists could not agree on what they wanted to take hostage this time, so the TanMan this monring said "Fuck it! We're going with a clean debt ceiling bill." (Yes he does speak this way off the record). GOP leaders will bring up ‘clean’ debt-ceiling bill.
For debt-limit deniers, the answer is always ‘No.’ Sen. Joe McCarthy Ted "Calgary" Cruz (R-TX), who apparently believes he is Speaker of the House, wanted another debt ceiling showdown. Cruz: ‘Clean’ debt ceiling hike ‘irresponsible’. Boehner blew off the blowhard demagogue this time.
Today the House approved a debt limit increase with most Republicans voting for default:
The House of Representatives has raised the debt limit on a vote of 221-201, avoiding the economic catastrophe that would have resulted if the United States had been forced to default on its debt. All but two Democrats voted for the measure. They were joined by 199 Republicans who favored default. [Only 28 Republicans voted yes.]
UPDATE: Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who is retiring, voted no. Initially Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), who is also retiring, also voted no, but switched his vote.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
You have all heard by now about last week's GOP dirty tricks by the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, setting up fake mirror web sites for Democratic candidates. If it's the NRCC, that means the Arizona Daily Star's former political reporter hack and all-around prick Daniel Scarpinato is involved. In fact, the Star gave "The Scarp" gratuitous copy in its reporting on this story. GOP fundraising websites touting Democrats called unethical:
A move by the National Republican Congressional Campaign has local Democrats seeing red over a set of new websites that appear to tout Democrat candidates.
The Republican political committee has created mini-websites for U.S. Reps. Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema touting their accomplishments and asking for donations.
However, those pulling out their checkbooks with the intent of backing the incumbent Democrats will actually be giving their hard-earned dollars to Republicans.
The tactic isn’t isolated to Arizona, either. The NRCC has created at least a dozen websites in other states similarly targeting other Democrats running for office.
Campaign staffers are calling the slick, one-page websites with their high-resolution photographs of the candidates a cheap political play, designed with only one goal in mind: to trick voters into giving money to Republicans.
NRCC national press secretary Daniel Scarpinato is proud of the mini-websites, saying voters can get information from the Republican-backed websites that is not readily available on the candidates’ sites.