Dr Carmona Supports the Civil Rights of LGBT Americans
May 20, 2012
By Michael Bryan I consider the fight for equal rights for LGBT Americans one of the true litmus tests for true progressivity in American politics today. If you don't think that the equal treatment under law of LGBT Americans is vitally important, you don't really think much of the central value proposition of the American … Read more
Arizona Republic endorses Ron Barber for Congress
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It turns out that Jesse Kelly is too extreme even for the GOP establishment conservative editorial board of The Arizona Republic, which endorsed Ron Barber for Congress today. Barber provides steady centrism district needs (excerpts):
We think Ron Barber is the best choice to finish Giffords' term.
Voters may want a different style in November. For now, Barber offers continuity and steadiness. He served as district manager during Giffords' 5 1/2 years in Congress, and he knows the district and the people. He wants to focus on problem solving. Barber cites as a model the cooperative efforts of Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater and Democratic Rep. Morris Udall to secure funding for the Central Arizona Project.
Barber is a former small-business owner, and he worked for 32 years with the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities before joining Giffords' staff.
Although the border is no longer the burning issue it was in 2010, Barber says ranchers in the district do not yet feel safe. He hopes to build consensus in Congress around security measures, such as stationing Border Patrol agents closer to the line; one rancher told him it took two weeks to get a hole in the fence repaired. He also wants to add horse patrols in rugged areas, increase use of unmanned drones, add more mobile surveillance units and pursue a public-private partnership to put up cellphone towers to reduce the number of communication dead zones.
These are practical solutions with bipartisan appeal.
Barber also says it may be time to uncouple the elements of comprehensive immigration reform and look at what can be done piecemeal. He mentioned the alternative Dream Act being offered by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and a guest-worker program.
GOP attempting to depress Democratic voter turnout in CD 8
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I have heard from Democrats since last week, several of them long-time party activists, who have told me that they have received mailers from the Jesse Kelly campaign, and have received both live calls asking them to vote for Jesse Kelly or robo calls asking them to vote for Jesse Kelly. They even … Read more
Democrats fight for your rights in the GOP war on voting
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
There is a promo ad on MSNBC by Mrs. Greenspan (Andrea Mitchell) in which she says how terrible it is that political parties — plural — are trying to restrict the voting rights of American citizens.
Newsflash Mrs. Greenspan, there is only one political party that is subject to a federal court consent decree for voter suppression for over thirty years and that is the GOP. The RNC's latest appeal was rejected by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Court Rejects Voter Suppression Efforts | Truthout.
It is the GOP that has sought to impose new restrictions on voting in state legislatures across the country over the past two years. Why don't you report that story on your program Mrs. Greenspan? Or would you and your hubby no longer be invited to the best cocktail parties in the Beltway media bubble?
Did you miss this story as well, Mrs. Greeenspan? This week in the War on Voting: Obama and House Democrats fight voter suppression:
[Dorothy Cooper is] 96 years old and almost wasn't going to be able to vote this year because stringent new voter identification laws passed in her state, Tennessee, intended to, well, keep people from her like voting. Because her story made news, she got some attention and help from a powerful source.
Obama for America volunteers helped secure Mrs. Cooper's identification and is featuring her in GottaVote.org, a new tool developed by the Obama campaign designed to help residents in every state navigate the increasingly complicated voter registration process. In an email announcing the new site, the campaign writes:
GottaVote.org is a one-stop shop for getting the facts on voting, reminders for key dates and deadlines, and alerts on the status of voting rights in your state. It’s available in both English and Spanish (www.gottavote.org/es) because different languages shouldn’t keep Americans from voting.
The Fire Next Time: The Euro Financial Crisis – G-8 to Germany: End Austerity
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In advance of the G-8 Summit at Camp David this weekend, Paul Krugman's column on the the Euro financial crisis was decidedly pessimistic with the government in Greece this week rejecting the austerity plan forced on them by European Union leaders a few weeks ago, forcing new elections to be called in Greece. Apocalypse Fairly Soon:
Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both economic and, arguably even more important, political — could be huge.
This doesn’t have to happen; the euro (or at least most of it) could still be saved. But this will require that European leaders, especially in Germany and at the European Central Bank, start acting very differently from the way they’ve acted these past few years. They need to stop moralizing and deal with reality; they need to stop temporizing and, for once, get ahead of the curve.
I wish I could say that I was optimistic.
Paul Krugman: Romney ‘a dangerous fool’
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Paul Krugman has said that Willard "Mittens" Romney is a pathological liar who will say anything to get elected. Now he is beginning to believe that Mittens is an ignorant dangerous fool. Win Some, Lose Some: Is it possible that I have misjudged Mitt Romney? My take has always been that he’s … Read more
Reminder: The Gathering of The Cochise County Democratic Party
May 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Announcement from the Cochise County Democratic Party: Please send your donation with this detachment to the address below, or call a contact number to RSVP. ============================================================================ The Gathering Cochise Democratic Party, May 26, 2012 Name ____________________________________________________________ Total Number of Guests _________ Address _________________________________________________________________________________________ City/ Sate / Zip _________________________________________________________________________________ … Read more
I think this guy is going places
May 19, 2012
by
by David Safier Six years late for the party and 17 years after it was published, I finally got around to reading Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father." I don't read book-length claptrap from politicians, but this was lying around the house and I was between books. It's not claptrap, not by miles. This is … Read more
