NY Times breaks new ground on ALEC story
April 22, 2012
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by David Safier The NY Times has a front page story about ALEC: Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist. It picks up from the frequently told story about ALEC model legislation spreading to state legislatures around the country and moves the ball farther. It talks about how ALEC acts as a watchdog on … Read more
The coming week…
April 22, 2012
Posted by Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings As usual, all schedules, calendars, and agendas are subject to change without notice…and since it hit 100 degrees in Phoenix this weekend, the non-Maricopa legislators will be pushing hard to get out of town soon, both to avoid the heat and to get busy with campaigning. … Read more
March for Justice against SB 1070 in Phoenix on Wednesday
April 22, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Announcement from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network: Phoenix to March Against SB1070 and Federal Deportation ProgramsDuring SCOTUS Hearing Who: A Wide Coalition of Organizations [including Somos America and the American Civil Liberties Union] When: April 25th. March to begin at 3:00 pm Arizona Time. Where: Opening Rally at Civic Space Park, 424 N. Central … Read more
A preview of SB 1070 in the U.S. Supreme Court
April 22, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
This week the U.S. Supreme Court will hold its final week of oral arguments for this Term. Opinions in argued cases this Term are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the "big one" this week is oral argument of Arizona's infamous SB 1070 in Arizona v. United States (docket 11-182). The state’s immigrant control law will be defended by Paul D. Clement of the Washington law firm of Bancroft PLLC. Responding, and defending lower court orders that blocked four key parts of the state law, will be U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. The case will be decided by eight members of the Court, since Justice Elena Kagan is recused.
Lyle Denniston provides an exceptional preview at SCOTUSblog.com, Argument preview: Who controls immigrants’ lives?:
In 1903, a bronze plaque bearing the poem of Emma Lazarus was mounted on the Statue of Liberty in New York City’s entering harbor, and it used to be common for school children to memorize the most famous lines from hat poem: ”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Now, some politicians and advocacy groups vie to out-promise each other with ways – sometimes harsh — to deal with perhaps 12 million individuals living illegally in the U.S. And this year, in particular, that is a dominant theme in the presidential and congressional elections campaigns. The Supreme Court, too, has been drawn into the controversy. With notable symbolism in this election year, the Court will conclude its hearings for the Term on Wednesday by examining what the Constitution says about who can regulate the lives of immigrants. Its final ruling is likely to emerge by early summer, when the election campaign will be in full swing.
Adding to the symbolism, the Court will be reviewing the constitutionality of an Arizona law — the first, and a trend-setter of sorts, among sharp crackdowns by state legislatures on illegal immigrants’ daily lives. Its shorthand title — “S.B. 1070″ — is now popularly known, much more so than its formal title, the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.” Its official goal, as passed by the legislature in 2010, is “attrition through enforcement.” By attrition, of course, it means forcing a reduction in the number of undocumented immigrants arriving or remaining in Arizona.
Reminder: First Lady Michelle Obama Fundraiser in Tucson on April 30
April 22, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: RSVP’s for photoline guests are DUE by April 26th, 9:00 p.m. (Guests must arrive no later than 4:00 p.m.) RSVP online at: https://my.barackobama.com/April30TucsonReception
Fact checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
April 21, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Steve Benen's latest fact checking of the pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XIV: Campaigning in Ohio [Thursday], Mitt Romney told supporters, without smirking or sounding sarcastic, "If I'm president of the United States, with your help, I will tell the truth." [ROFL!] Ordinarily, those seeking national leadership positions … Read more
Guns, Nugent, Brewer and the Pima County Fair
April 21, 2012
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by David Safier
Recently, Jan Brewer declared the NRA has gone too far even for her when she vetoed the guns-in-public-buildings law. It takes some doing to be too far to the right for Jan Brewer.
Meanwhile, NRA Board Member Ted Nugent is scheduled to play at the Pima County Fair next Saturday. I doubt he'll be entering any public buildings while he's in town, so he won't have to call Brewer a jack-booted thug when he's barred from a local library for packing heat. But if the Pima County Fair folks adhere to their policies, he and his entourage will have to check their weapons at the gate, and Nugent might have to leave some of his incitement-to-violence rhetoric behind as well.
Among the "Prohibited Items and Behaviors" listed by the Pima County Fair are:
- Weapons
- Acts or threats of violence
You can see the entire list below the fold.
I hope Nugent is willing to surrender his arms like a good, law abiding citizen. And I hope the people running the Pima County Fair are consistent enough to insist he does.
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD NOTE: If you think Nugent's County Fair show should be canceled because of the incendary remarks he made a few days ago or you want to insist Nugent is unarmed on the Fair Grounds, either call the good people on the County Fair commission — (520)762-9100 — or email them — Office@pimacountyfair.com .
Mitt’s Enabler, The American Voter, and the Gluttons of Ancient Rome
April 21, 2012
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Posted by Bob Lord
It’s been a brutal couple weeks work-wise, which left little time for blogging. No shortage of material, though.
But I have a little time today to talk about my buddy, Mitt Romney, his enabler, the American voter, and the gluttons of Ancient Rome.
By way of background, I tend to bristle at empty platitudes, and the one bugging me the most these days is about how American voters almost always get it right and how the American voter is “smart.” There’s a spot running on MSNBC where Andrea Mitchell rails against efforts to suppress the vote for partisan purposes. She urges us to encourage voter participation and “let the chips fall will they may” because American voters are smart and will do the right thing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read a political commentator question the wisdom of the American voter. And when Bill Maher does so, it’s considered edgy (it has to be so, or it wouldn’t be suitable material for a comedian).
I’m opposed to vote suppression efforts for a whole host of obvious reasons, but as for Mitchell's assertion about the American voter being smart, what a load of crap. The average American voter gets almost all his / her information from the television, and not from news coverage, but from the 30 second spots that run during prime time. The statistics on this front are truly depressing. In “The Assault on Reason” Al Gore describes how the average American routine is to come home from work, flip on the TV, watch sitcoms and reality shows for four solid hours, retire to bed, then start the whole process over the next day. On weekends, we have sporting events to satisfy our voracious intellectual appetites. But Gore’s take on the American intellect is downright cheery compared to the picture Chris Hedges paints in “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.” As Hedges explains, the typical American truly is illiterate, and the widespread illiteracy extends to the supposedly educated segments of society, including college graduates.
In trying to understand how Mitt’s made it this far and how the polls show a close general election race, the waning intellect of American voters as a causal factor is not lost on progressives. Progressives correctly marvel at how American voters are so easily conned into voting against their own best interests. Gun owners vote Republican on the baseless fear that Democrats will take their guns away. Bible thumpers vote Republican because they abhor abortion, even though there is virtually no correlation between abortion laws and abortion rates, or because Democrats don’t share their ignorant bigotry towards gays and lesbians.
