Month: February 2014

The Teabaggers want a Constitutional Convention

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Your presence is requested. For those of you who have signed up for a legislative account to submit testimony online, now's your chance.

Batshit1There's more GOP batshit crazy on Tuesday when the Teabaggers meet in the ironically named House Federalism, and Fiscal Responsibility Committee, Agenda (.pdf), in Room HHR 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Yowsa! The Teabaggers want a Constitutional Convention so they can discard the U.S. Constitution and start all over, because that is what happened the last time we did this in 1787 to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. I always find it amusing that the very people who like to call themselves "constitutional conservatives" are so hellbent on wanting to rewrite the U.S. Constitution (many of them much prefer the Articles of Confederation — states rights!)

HCR 207 (.pdf) is an "application for an Article V Convention to propose amendments to the United States (U.S.) Constitution." And what is it that the Teabaggers want?

  • Impose fiscal restraints on the federal government;
  • Limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and
  • Limit the terms of office for officials of the federal government.

HCR 2017 (.pdf) calls for a balanced budget amendment, one of the most ignorant proposals of all time. It would mean (a) eliminating almost all government programs, even curtailing national defense and (b) everyone paying higher taxes. God forbid we have a national emergency like a major natural disaster or a war.

Senate Elections Committee hearing on Tuesday

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In addition to attempting to repeal HB 2305 to deny the voters of Arizona their constitutional right to vote on a bill that the voters referred to the ballot as a referendum, there are several other election/campaign finance bills coming up in the Arizona legislature this week.

One of the principal architects of the GOP Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, Sen. Michele Reagan, who has fantasies of becoming our next Secretary of State to make it easier for her to suppress your vote, has several bills scheduled in her Elections Committee on Tuesday Agenda (.pdf), Room SHR 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Remember how Rep. "Fast Eddie" Farnsworth swore last week that he was not aware of any legislator attempting to revive elements of HB 2305? Yeah, that was bullshit, and everyone knew it.

SB 1232 (.pdf) would "require circulators who are not residents of this state (non-residents) and paid petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State (SOS) prior to circulating petitions and prescribes circulator registration information." The bill also "permits any person to challenge the lawful registration of circulators in the superior court of the county in which the circulator is registered."

The bill "Conditions the enactment of the following provisions on the approval or rejection of Laws 2013, chapter 209, the subject of referendum petition R-03-2014, at the next general election, or the failure of Laws 2013, chapter 209 to be referred to the ballot at the next general election:

a) eliminates the requirement that non-resident circulators register with the SOS prior to circulating petitions and eliminates the requirement that the SOS provide for a method of receiving service of process for registered non-resident circulators.

b) directs the SOS to remove all petition sheets collected by a circulator who fails to register as required.

The place where illusions shattered and dreams died

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By Karl Reiner

In Northern Virginia outside of Washington, DC, the stream valley of Little Rocky Run near U.S. Route 29 and the historic village of Centreville located on the plateau to the stream's west played a crucial role in the early days of the Civil War. It is the place where the dreams and illusions of a divided nation, presidents and soldiers began to CV mapdisintegrate. Today, less than 40 miles down the road, the fragmented U.S. Congress fritters away time sidestepping issues as it unthinkingly ignores the lessons so painfully learned in the past.

The United States had cracked apart due to a complex series of issues involving the growing industrial power of the North, the shifting of the balance of political power in Congress from South to North and the increasingly toxic issues of abolition and slavery. After Abraham Lincoln, an attorney expert in the emerging field of railroad law, won the presidential election of 1860, the planter class of the South decided to quit the Union. The result was a war that nearly everyone in the North and South expected to be inexpensive, glorious, short and decisive.

Action Alert: Manic Monday for the GOP batshit crazy base in the AZ Lege

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Your presence is requested. For those of you who have signed up for a legislative account to submit testimony online, now's your chance.

It's Manic Monday for the GOP batshit crazy base in the Arizona legislature. Below are just a few of the highlights (hardly a complete list).

MONDAY

Senate

Batshit1Judiciary Committee Agenda (.pdf), Room SHR1, at 2:00 p.m. includes: SB 1270 (.pdf), the Senate version of Rep. "Fast Eddie" Farnsworth's (R-Gilbert) bill to repeal the GOP Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305 subject to a citizens referendum ("citizens veto"), HB 2196 (.pdf).

SB 1469 (.pdf) "Allows a person having an interest that is or may be adversely affected by a constitutional provision or a statute that was enacted by voter approved initiative or referendum to file a civil action in superior court on that person’s own behalf or to join an action as a matter of right alleging a violation of any portion of that measure, or defend an action in superior court on that person’s own behalf or to join in the defense of an action as a matter of right in defense of any portion of that measure." Senate Majority Whip Adam Driggs is the principal sponsor.

This is a "teabaggers want to reverse your citizen-approved initiatives and referendums" vexatious litigation free-for-all. Those health care and education citizens initiatives that Arizona voters passed over the years — they are in the teabaggers' cross-hairs.