In the Interest of Facilitating Inter-Partisan Communication
Posted by Michael Bryan Hat tip to AZSpot.
Michael Bryan
So Why Is Sheriff Arpaio Alleging Obama’s Birth Certificate Is A Forgery?
By Michael Bryan
I'm not going to nitpick at the latest buffoonery from Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Plenty of folks are already doing that… and totally missing the point of Arpaio's actions. I'm going to explain the very rational motivations behind Arpaio's showmanship.
Arpaio clearly has two major motivations in this latest move:
1) to bolster his allegation that the DOJ is investigating his department as an act of political retaliation, i.e. "I exposed Obama's forgery, so he's out to get me before I can unmask his conspiracy." There was no truly compelling motive for the Obama Administration to go after Arpaio, so by making this sensationalistic charge, Arpaio creates a compelling story for anyone who is already inclined to dislike Obama, and isn't really paying attention beyond the latest headlines.
2) to bilk the idiots in the Tea Party and Birther camps (not that those are mutually exclusive…) out of money and gather a national data base of potential donors to his campaign and causes.
I'll explain all after the link…
A Response by Leonard Clark to Criticism of the Effort to Recall Governor Brewer
By Tom, on Behalf of Leonard Clark of RecallBrewer.com
A Response to Bob Lord's post "Anatomy of a Doomed to Fail Recall — Blind Passion, or Blind Egotism?"
In the interests of full disclosure, I am proud to call myself one of Leonard Clark's recall volunteers and his friend as well. I wanted to reply sooner, but we have been busy with the petitions and events, as the interest is incredible. Regardless, please allow me to respond now.
As is evident above, Leonard is an active, determined and politically passionate individual. While we would all prefer to avoid personal attacks between our colleagues, I never fail to be amazed at how quickly we Dems eat our own when someone decides to just go out and "do it". Too often in this Party the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Instead of finding the good in a proposal or looking for some way it COULD work or how we COULD help, we instead find the flaws and pick it apart because it's 'not invented here' or "wasn't planned well".
Planning? cough, cough, Planning? In The Democratic Party? The brilliant strategic "planning" of the leadership of our Party can be seen most clearly in one stellar hometown example: The selection of, acceptance by, and departure of, our former Governor Janet Napolitano from Arizona to head The Department of Homeland Security. REALLY? Was no one else in the 50 States qualified?
This one act turned the entire State of Arizona over to Republican Control, brought us a new "Scorpion Queen" heroine for the excitable masses, ushered in the era of SB1070, and beget some of the most regressive anti-family, anti-immigrant, anti-union, anti-education legislation seen in this country in the last fifty years.
Lest anyone think this is 20/20 Hindsight, I, along the aforementioned Mr. Clark and several other liberals and progressives called KPHX and other radio and online shows while the offer and acceptance “dance” was occurring between the Governor and President. Many of us were questioning the move and predicting a coming catastrophe for our State. I am saddened to say we were right.Yet, some folks tell us we rank and file jest ain't as smart as our leaders and their "strategery".
So please don't preach about 'laying the groundwork', lining up the ducks, etc. The Democratic Party (which I would love to love) is chock full of ready-shoot-aim moments like the Napolitano Departure. These failures to gauge voter sentiments and exercise common sense create workloads for us running on for days, weeks and even years spent extracting ourselves from all-too-preventable mistakes.
The downside of a "reckless" recall effort at this time is extremely small in comparison:
The results of doing nothing? Further attacks on the families and workers of Arizona.
The results of success? An admirable milestone in Arizona history.
The results of failure? A little embarrassment that does not rule out any later effort.
Those are decent odds. In point of fact, considering all the regressive legislation coming our way, this Heinous Governor should be facing recall every minute she is 'serving' the business interests and donors that elected her.
Even the commentary pointed out "we’ve reached a point where disruptive politics are valuable for the disruption alone". Point taken.
[Editor – Please click through for the entire post…]
Imposing One’s Beliefs On Others Is Not A Religious Freedom
By Michael Bryan
Should these celibates decide who needs birth control?
The recent concern over "religious conscience" brought into focus by the controversy over mandating contraceptive care by self-insuring religious institutions to their employees, and exacerbated by a pending amendment in the Senate which would allow any healthcare insurer to deny any care that offends a moral sentiment, mistakes religious freedom for religious tyranny.
When relgious practices impose on the choices of others, the government has a legitimate role in ensuring that unequal power relationships do not result in imposition of religious beliefs on others in our society. Obama's contraceptive coverage mandate respects freedom of religious conscience by ensuring that employers cannot impose their religious beliefs about reproduction on their employees. When that employer is a religious institution, obviously the temptation of the employer to impose their views is manifest.
Of course, many in the GOP don't see it that way.
They think that religious freedom only includes the right of religious institutions to impose their views on others, using whatever means of coersion is at hand, including employment, ecomonic power, and contracts. Any move by the government to prohibit such impositions on others is viewed as a "war on religious belief", or some such nonsense…
Here in Arizona, Steve Yarborough and number of primary co-sponsors, including CD4 GOP Congressional Candidate Ron Gould, are bringing this pernicious conceit to Arizona with SB 1365, which would prohibits the government from denying, revoking or suspending a professional or occupational license based on any action deriving from a person’s religious convictions.
Dan Patterson, It’s Time To Go…
By Michael Bryan I have been a supporter of Rep. Dan Patterson. I like the man personally. I'm proud of the experience and knowledge he has brought to our Legislature. He has served with dedication and skill. But it is beyond time for him to put his constituents and his party before his personal interests … Read more