AZ Congressional Delegation

The sleeper issue of 2014: ‘Personhood’

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Taliban2012 was a banner year for the GOP war on women with old white males commenting on “forcible rape” and “legitimate rape,” and lady parts “shutting that whole thing down.” Rape Comments Cost Anti-Choice Candidates Their Seats.

The anti-choice zealots of the Christian Reconstructionist and Dominionist wing of the GOP appear to be headed down an even more divisive path in 2014 by embracing the “Personhood” amendment from Personhood USA.

The constitutional amendment would define a fertilized egg as a person and outlaw many forms of contraception. I would point out that it would also give a fertilized egg constitutional rights superior to the mother, whose constitutional rights would of necessity be suspended from the moment of conception until birth. No man would ever suffer such a deprivation of constitutional rights, hence the violation of equal protection and due process of law under this radical concept.

The “Personhood” amendment went down to spectacular defeats in the state of Colorado in 2008 and 2010, and even in the reddest of red states, Mississippi, in 2012.

Colorado 2008         Colorado 2010        Mississippi

No  73%                                No  71%                             No  59%

Yes 27%                               Yes 29%                             Yes 41%

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Boehner admits House Tea-Publicans are the problem on immigration reform

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Screenshot-6The weakest Speaker of the House in modern American history, and the consensus “Worst. Speaker. Ever.,” John Boehner, is the only reason that comprehensive immigration reform has not come up for a vote in the House that he controls.

Boehner fears a revolt from his nativist and racist Tea Party caucus of the GOP to depose him as Speaker and — replace him with who, exactly? Irrational fear has paralyzed this weak man and left him to blame the radicals in his own party for his complete failure of leadership.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, Boehner told industry groups and campaign donors in March at a Las Vegas fundraiser (the Sheldon Adelson primary) that, when it comes to immigration reform, the House Speaker is: “hellbent on getting this done this year.”

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck later walked it back emailing reporters saying that “Everyone can tell their editors to chill.”

“Nothing has changed,” Buck said. “As he’s said many times, the speaker believes step-by-step reform is important, but it won’t happen until the president builds trust and demonstrates a commitment to the rule of law.”

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Cliven Bundy says the Negroes ‘were better off as slaves, picking cotton’ – what do Rep. Paul Gosar and Tea-Publican legislators think?

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Confederale SoldiersWell I’m shocked! (not) It turns out that the conservative media entertainment complex-invented anti-government hero of the moment, Cliven Bundy, is an unrepentant racist who thinks that Negroes were better off when they were slaves pickin’ cotton.

The welfare cowboy freeloading off federal grazing land was profiled in the New York Times on Thursday. New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney was there to hear Bundy say this:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

That’s pretty rich for a welfare cowboy freeloading off federal grazing land to complain about the “Negroes” living on a government subsidy. I wonder if he hears himself when he talks.

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‘Ancestral rights’? Welfare cowboy Cliven Bundy is a fraud

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The conservative media entertainment complex-invented wingnut hero of the moment is welfare cowboy Cliven Bundy of Nevada, who does not recognize the U.S. government because he claims “ancestral rights” to the federal land on which this freeloader grazes his cattle without paying any grazing fees. Former Montana Governor and rancher Brian Schweitzer: Cliven Bundy is ‘a grifter’.

nevada“Ancestral rights”? Seriously, Dude? If you want to talk about “ancestral rights,” then let’s bring in the Native American tribes who actually have a claim of ancestral rights to the land. Hello!

Finally, some real reporting from KLAS in Las Vegas that exposes Cliven Bundy for the fraud that he is. I-Team: Bundy’s ‘ancestral rights’ come under scrutiny:

The I-Team dug into century-old records to examine Bundy’s claims.

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His cattle, until recently, roamed freely on land managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Before the roundup that sparked protests, confrontations and [militia] gunmen taking a bridge, Bundy explained his “ancestral rights” to the I-Team.

“I’ve lived my lifetime here. My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley here ever since 1877. All these rights that I claim, have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and the water and the access and range improvements,” Bundy said.

Clark County property records show Cliven Bundy’s parents moved from Bundyville, Arizona and bought the 160 acre ranch in 1948 from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt.

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Charles Pierce on Richard Mack

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Charles Pierce at Esquire has more on former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack, and his conspiratorial Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association in this report, The Latest From The Front:

The great victory for freedom and liberty (!) struck at the Bundy Ranch continues to resonate across the land like a 50-pound bag of manure dropped into a massive copper skillet. The latest insanity comes to us courtesy of The Blaze, the print version of the voices in Glenn Beck’s head, which voices seem to be a bit horrified at the whole business.

Mack made the chilling revelation on Fox News’ “The Real Story” Monday, two days after the tense standoff between Bundy and the federal government came to a peaceful end. “We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” he said. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”

Mack obviously was inspired by the hundreds accounts of how the Minutemen hid behind their wives’ skirts on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge, and of how the ladies of the Old North Church were arrayed in battle lines up on top of Breed’s Hill in Charlestown. And surely I can’t be the only one who noticed that Mack’s account is remarkable devoid of comment from the actual women he says he was going to use as human shields. I’m sure this is an oversight.

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