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A real doctor versus a flake on women’s reproductive health
August 25, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Jim Nintzel at the Tucson Weekly has already done an excellent job of reporting on this issue, so I hope that he will not mind that I repost his reporting at length here (kudos). Flake vs. Carmona on Abortion Rights | The Tucson Weekly:
Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s comments about "legtimate rape" and abortion have thrust the topic into the center of the nation’s political debate just one week before the Republican National Convention.
Congressman Jeff Flake, who is the odds-on favorite to win the GOP primary next week, has urged Akin to get out of the race.
After a speech Tuesday afternoon at the Pima County Republican Club, Flake said that while he believes abortion should be illegal in most cases, he supports an exemption for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
“I have always, throughout my career, said that there should be exceptions for rape, for incest and for life of the mother, “ Flake said. “I’ve received a lot of criticism from groups on the right because my position wasn’t as they wanted it to be, but that’s been my position and I’m sticking with it.”
But the Arizona Democratic Party is reminding voters that Flake was one of 227 co-sponsors on the bill that Akin was discussing when he got into trouble this week.
That bill, H.R. 3, was designed to narrow the circumstances under which federal dollars could be used to pay for an abortion. Among other changes in federal law, it would have redefined “rape” to “forcible rape” in regards to an exemption to the Hyde amendment, which blocks the use of federal funding to terminate a pregnancy.
The Christian Science Monitor has a good run-down of the controversy regarding the bill here. The CSM noted:
The term “forcible rape” was never explicitly defined, but pro-abortion-rights forces presumed the bill would preclude federal funding for abortions of pregnancies resulting from a variety of rapes where force may not be involved, including date rape, statutory rape, the rape of a woman who had been drugged, and the rape of a mentally incompetent woman. The bill also restricts abortions in cases of incest to females who are minors.
Flake said Tuesday that he makes “no distinctions” between different forms of rape. [Then why did he cosponsor the original bill that included the "forcible rape" language?]
“’Forcible rape’ seems redundant to me,” Flake said. [Yeah, you say that now after all the blowback.]
Where does Martha McSally stand on the Todd Akin abortion plank in the GOP platform?
August 25, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
CD 2 Republican congressional candidate Martha McSally has gotten kid-gloves treatment and a free pass from the local media villagers during this primary, running a below the radar campaign. She is an unknown quantity as a result. That is about to change after Tuesday's primary election.
The media villagers can start with a direct question about the hot-button issue of the week for Tea-Publicans going into their convention: "Where do you stand on the "legitimate rape" comments of Rep. Todd Akin running for the Senate in Missouri, and where do you stand on the "no exceptions" anti-abortion plank in the GOP platform?"
The media villagers should also ask her direct questions whether she will support Reps. Todd Akin and Paul Ryan's bill to redefine rape as "forced rape," an end-run around statutory rape laws and instances of emotional abuse and intimidation to limit access to abortions. And whether she will support Reps. Todd Akin and Paul Ryan's bill defining life as beginning at conception — thus reducing an adult woman to second class citizen status to her fertilized egg.
Does McSally's views on "small government" mean a government small enough to declare her uterus property of the state and to dictate her access to contraception and abortion, and general reproductive health? The kid-gloves come off now.
Now, I know that the leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, has told Tea-Publicans not to answer these questions, but you media villagers need to demand an answer and keep pressing. Don't accept the crap that Jesse Kelly pulled during his now infamous K-GUN 9 interview about support from an anti-immigration organization.
The Arizona Democratic Party issued this press release this week:
Jonathan ‘Payday’ Paton opposed to Tribal sovereignty on gaming
August 25, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
So what happens if you hold a press conference and Arizona's "lamestream" political reporters ignore it because it is just Tribal government leaders talking about gaming? Luckily the Arizona Democratic Party and DCCC were there to catch the press conference, in this press release.
PATON’S PLEDGE: UNDERMINE TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY IN AZ-01
Arizona has 22 Indian tribes, distinct in their rights and sovereignty. Arizona’s First Congressional District is home to 12 of these tribes, and they require a representative who understands tribes as distinctive nations and who respects their health and well-being, environment and economy.
The First District requires someone who will fight to protect the permanent reauthorization of Indian Health Service funding that was included in the Affordable Care Act and someone who will fight to stop the relentless push for uranium mining at the Grand Canyon.
Yet in a stunning display of disconnect, Jonathan Paton has pledged to undermine tribal sovereignty by supporting “further restrictions” on Tribal Nations’ gaming operations. It is because of tribal sovereignty that gaming came about. In 1988, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act so states that already have wagering (lotteries, etc.) as part of their public policy could negotiate with tribes to regulate gaming on a government-to-government basis.
Will the Open Primaries initiative be on the Nov 2012 ballot or not? (video)
August 24, 2012
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Backers of the Open Primaries initiative knew from the beginning that changing Arizona's two-party primary system to an open, "top two" primary system wouldn't be easy. They expected challenges from Democrats and Republicans, and that's what they got.
Earlier in the summer, Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona Legislature tinkered around with ideas to change or stop it. Secretary of State Ken Bennett tried to stop it by saying that it was unconsitutionally broad, but the courts squashed his attack.
As of mid-August, Open Primaries was back on the ballot, until this week, when Maricopa County said that there were an extraordinary number of bad signatures.
The latest news is that the Open Primaries/Open Government folks have filed a suit to get the initiative back on the ballot. Supporters claim that Maricopa County erroneously rejected.
Stay tuned for the next volley in this ping pong game.
For more background on the Open Primaries initiative– just in case you actually get to vote on it– check out the video debate between former State Rep. Dr. Ted Downing (pro) and former Mayor Tom Volgy (con). The event was sponsored by Progressive Democrats of American Tucson Chapter.
Videos after the jump.
Tampa welcomes the Republican National Convention
August 24, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Too funny. Ruth's List Florida, a pro-choice group that seeks to elect Democratic women to office, says it has paid for this billboard to greet attendees of the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Billboard greets RNC guests: Welcome to Tampa, a city run by Democrats: The billboard is at the intersection of … Read more
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
August 24, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney, setting a new record – 37 - number of entries. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXI: At a campaign event on Monday, a Republican voter asked Mitt Romney about falsehoods pushed by "leftists" and what … Read more
Romney blows the ‘Birther’ dog whistle
August 24, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
When his best buddy and campaign surrogate is the "Birther King," Donald Trump, this should not come as any surprise to anyone. Today in Michigan, Willard "Mittens" Romney blew the "Birther" dog whistle. Romney in Michigan: 'No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate' – First Read:
In a riff on Friday about being back in the state where he was born and raised, presumptive GOP presidential nominee made a joke alluding to the "birther" controversies that have dogged President Obama.
Expanding on his Michigander bonafides, he pointed out that he was born in nearby Harper hospital, adding:
"No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate," Romney said. "They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."
Romney did not mention President Obama or controversy over his place of birth, but many in the crowd of thousands here laughed knowingly at the line.
* * *
An Obama spokesman, Ben LaBolt, shot back: "Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.”
Video below the fold.
A look inside Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney’s tax avoidance schemes
August 24, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Thursday, Gawker published The Bain Files: Inside Mitt Romney's Tax-Dodging Cayman Schemes:
Mitt Romney's $250 million fortune is largely a black hole: Aside from the meager and vague disclosures he has filed under federal and Massachusetts laws, and the two years of partial tax returns (one filed and another provisional) he has released, there is almost no data on precisely what his vast holdings consist of, or what vehicles he has used to escape taxes on his income.
Gawker has obtained a massive cache of confidential financial documents that shed a great deal of light on those finances, and on the tax-dodging tricks available to the hyper-rich that he has used to keep his effective tax rate at roughly 13% over the last decade.
Today, we are publishing more than 950 pages of internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21 cryptically named entities in which Romney had invested—at minimum—more than $10 million as of 2011 (that number is based on the low end of ranges he has disclosed—the true number is almost certainly significantly higher).
Almost all of them are affiliated with Bain Capital, the secretive private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984 and ran until his departure in 1999 (or 2002, depending on whom you ask). Many of them are offshore funds based in the Cayman Islands. Together, they reveal the mind-numbing, maze-like, and deeply opaque complexity with which Romney has handled his wealth, the exotic tax-avoidance schemes available only to the preposterously wealthy that benefit him, the unlikely (for a right-wing religious Mormon) places that his money has ended up, and the deeply hypocritical distance between his own criticisms of Obama's fiscal approach and his money managers' embrace of those same policies. They also show that some of the investments that Romney has always described as part of his retirement package at Bain weren't made until years after he left the company.
