AZ Congressional Delegation

#TPP

Anti-TPP Rally at McSally’s Office on Friday, Feb 19

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Don’t get so caught up with the Presidential Primaries and the SCOTUS speculation that you forget about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that is still on the table in the Congress. This Friday, there will be an anti-TPP rally at Congresswoman Martha McSally’s office. Come on down! Bring your signs and enthusiasm. Here are a … Read more

Top Two Primary intends to demolish Democrats in AZ

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

StopTop2

As I drove home Wednesday evening I caught the tail end of a recorded segment on the radio about the Top Two Primary initiative. I heard a man telling KJZZ host Steve Goldstein (I’m paraphrasing) about how Democrats have little power in state government so Hispanic voters would do well to stop aligning themselves with them. I rolled my eyes and continued on but I saw this summary of the interview when I got home:

Arizona’s Latino community is gravitating away from either major political party.

Those were the findings of a recent survey by an organization hoping to reform elections in the state.

About 40 percent of Latinos in Arizona are Independent, a trend that becomes even more pronounced among millennials. According to the survey, more than 75 percent of respondents said Latinos should register as Independent and eschew the established parties. This is good news for supporters of a ballot initiative that would allow independents to run in the primary.

Danny Ortega is a co-chair of the Open and Honest Elections Coalition.

He said Latinos, who were once loyal to democrats, are increasingly disillusioned with the party’s inability to make meaningful progress on immigration, education and other issues.

“They don’t see the party as effective, number one,” Ortega said. “Number two, every state office is controlled by Republicans. The legislature is controlled by Republicans, and so Latinos don’t feel like they are part of the end game.”

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Congress wraps up appropriations, goes home for the holidays

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Remember just a few short weeks ago when Tea-Publicans were apoplectic over highly edited videos from an anti-abortion group attempting to smear Planned Parenthood, and the GOP House Freedom Caucus vowed that they would shut down the government if Planned Parenthood was not immediately defunded?

monstersAnd remember these same Teabaggers threatening to shut down the federal government over Syrian war refugees being allowed to enter the country after the terrorist attack in Paris, because they were all pissing their pants in fear,  terrified of monsters under their bed?

Yeah, that never happened.  to Paraphrase from the Bard’s MacBeth:

A Teabagger is but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Always remember that everything Teabaggers do is about providing grist for the Mighty Wurlitzer of the right-wing noise machine of the conservative media entertainment complex, and to pick the pockets of the rubes foolish enough to believe what these grifters tell them. They only vote against a bill when they are assured that there are enough votes for passage, so they can safely proclaim how they voted against the bill (without any consequences). It is all just a con game.

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Tea-Publicans vote to take away Americans health care and to defund Planned Parenthood; government shutdown looms

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kabukiWith the wall-to-wall media coverage of shootings in America this past week, you may have missed that the Senate used the budget reconciliation process to pass a partial “ObamaCare” repeal and to defund Planned Parenthood. This is part of the Kabuki theater that GOP Congressional leaders must engage in to appease the radical extremists who want to shut down the federal government to take the country hostage and to extort ransom from the Democrats and President Obama — “give us everything we want or we will kill the hostage.”

A government shutdown remains not only possible but likely this Friday, December 11, if the GOP Congressional leadership loses control of their Kabuki theater strategy.

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Rep. Martha McSally demonstrates that she is just another partisan hack

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McSallyIt received little notice in the local Tucson media last week, but Rep. Martha McSally (R-Tucson) delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s regular radio address on Saturday. The topic was fighting ISIS.

Currently there are 80 Members in the U.S. House of Representatives who are Veterans. Veterans in Congress (114th). Somehow, Rep. McSally deems herself a “national security expert” based upon her service as an A-10 pilot in the Air Force. If previous military service is all it takes to be deemed a “national security expert,” then the other 79 members of Congress who are veterans, and millions of veterans who are not members of Congress, are equally “national security experts.” This notion is absurd.

Let’s break down what Rep. McSally had to say. Rep. Martha McSally Urges Obama Administration to ‘Step Up’ in Fight Against ISIS in Weekly Republican Address:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Paris as they recover from last week’s horrific terrorist attacks. While we mourn this tragedy, let us be reminded those attacks could have happened here. This is not to instill fear, but to remind us to be vigilant. That’s why we’re calling on the administration to step up, provide global leadership, and put together a coherent and aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS.

“I need no reminders about the threats we face. Before being elected to Congress, I served 26 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a full colonel. I was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat and the first to command a fighter squadron in combat in U.S. history. In my career, I flew 2,600 flight hours, including over 325 combat hours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan six times, serving in leadership positions for the initial air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and counter-terrorism ops in Africa.

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