Month: February 2014

Governor Brewer vetoes SB 1062

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Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) are having a bad week. First, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the state of Arizona of  CAP’s attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. The Ninth Circuit struck down the law as unconstitutional. Now Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed the Religious … Read more

Paul Waldman explains the Religious Liberty Campaign

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Paul Waldman at The American Prospect has an insightful look at the Religious Liberty Campaign of the far-right launched in 2012. This is not a recent home-grown campaign coooked up at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) as our local media would have you believe. CAP is just one of many far-right religious organizations in a network of far-right religious organizations that is quite literally seeking to redefine the meaning of the First Amendment. Platinum-Level Citizenship:

[C]onservative Christians have mounted a little war of their own, fought in the courts and state legislatures. The enemies include not just the Obama administration but gay people, women who want control of their own bodies, and an evolving modern morality that has left them behind.

In the process, they have made a rather spectacular claim, though not explicitly. What they seek is nothing short of a different definition of American citizenship granted only to highly religious people, and highly religious Christians in particular. They are demanding that our laws stake out for them a kind of Citizenship Platinum, allowing them an exemption from any law or obligation they’d prefer to disregard. They would refashion the First Amendment in their image.

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CBO scores GOP health care alternative to ‘Obamacare’

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Tea-Publicans are not serious about public policy. Everything they propose turns out to be a disaster.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report (.pdf) scoring the GOP health care alternative to ‘Obamacare’ finds that it would reduce the number of people receiving employer-based coverage, increase dependence on government-sponsored health care, and raise the national deficit.

Think Progress reports, GOP’s Own Health Care Bill Will Lead 1 Million To Lose Employer-Sponsored Insurance:

The proposal, which Republicans voted for in the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month, would alter the definition of full time employment under the Affordable Care Act from 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week and exempt more businesses from penalties for not offering employer-based insurance or lower the overall penalty burden. Under existing law, employers with more than 50 workers pay a penalty if their full-time employees (defined as working an average of 30 hours a week) receive subsidized coverage in the law’s health care exchanges.

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Federal Court rules Texas ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional

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The dominoes of discrimination continue to fall. Think Progress reports, Federal Judge Rules Texas Ban On Same-Sex Marriage Unconstitutional:

6a00d8341bf80c53ef01901df0a0f0970b-piA federal judge has ruled (.pdf) that Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. According to Judge Orlando Garcia, a Clinton appointee, the state’s marriage laws deny same-sex couples the right to marry, and therefore “demean their dignity for no legitimate reason.” Garcia stayed his decision pending appeal, so same-sex couples cannot begin marrying yet.

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The ruling would prevent the state from enforcing its 2003 law and 2005 constitutional amendment that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples. Voters passed that amendment by a 3-to-1 margin, but a plurality of Texans now support marriage equality.

According to the ruling, not only are these families denied benefits under the law, they are also subjected to “state sanctioned discrimination, stigma, and humiliation,” explaining: “In this case, it is clear that Plaintiffs suffer humiliation and discriminatory treatment under the law on the basis of their sexual orientation, and this stigmatic harm flows directly from Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage.” Garcia cited Windsor, the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, noting that not recognizing same-sex marriages “demeans the couple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects.”

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Poll: GOP primary voters want Gov. Brewer to veto SB 1062

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A poll of Republican primary voters taken this week reveals that a majority of Republican primary voters want Governor Jan Brewer to veto SB 1062. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Poll: GOP voters want Brewer to veto SB1062:

In the automated poll of 802 Republicans by Coleman Dahm, a Republican political consulting firm in Phoenix, 57.1 percent of respondents who were asked about the bill said they would like Brewer to veto it. Only 27.6 percent said they want her to sign SB1062. The remaining 15.3 percent had no opinion. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

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Bert Coleman, one of the firm’s partners, said that the poll was of “hard core” Republican voters who had voted both of the last two primary elections. He said the results show that even conservative Republicans believe the bill is bad for the state’s image and will harm its economy.

Now, you are scratching your head and asking yourself, “How is it possible that 50 out of 53 Tea-Publicans in the Arizona legislature voted in favor of SB 1062, when a majority of even Republican primary voters want Governor Brewer to veto this bill? How is it possible these Tea-Publican legislators were elected to office when they are so out of touch with their own constituents?”

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