Civil & Human Rights

The Arizona Daily Star’s creative headline writer strikes again!

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

ScreenshotI almost spit out my coffee this morning when I opened up the fishwrap newspaper this morning. The print edition headline on the front page of our sad small-town newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, reads "Setback for AZ's voting ID effort" — on Martin Luther King Day, no less.

A quick Google search reveals that no other newspaper publishing this Howard Fischer report used this politically biased headline. Most used "Citizen proof request rejected by federal eelction commission." The Sierra Vista Herald used "State bid to change federal election law rejected." Hell, even our sad small-town newspaper did not use this politically biased headline in its online version: Panel rejects AZ's bid to require proof of citizenship for voting. All factual headlines.

The headline should read "A victory for voting rights," or "GOP voter suppression rejected."

Arizona Legislature Opens: Watch ‘State of the Hate’ Address (video)

by

by Pamela Powers Hannley

January 13 marked the opening of the Arizona Legislature’s 2014 session. Since Governor Jan Brewer took over the helm, this day of speecheshas evolved into a day of protest.

Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA) organized a major demonstration on the capitol plaza for the opening day. Chanting “stop the hate”, approximately 150 CBA supporters  brought attention to Brewer’s failure to protect the children of Arizona on multiple levels.

Late in 2013, Arizonans learned that more than6500 Child Protective Services (CPS) cases have gone uninvestigated. While the administrator in charge of CPS has said that his regular reports to the governor and the legislature included the large number of uninvestigated cases, Brewer has been acting shocked since the news broke. During her state of the state address on the opening day, Brewer announced that she has disbanded CPS and created a new agency that will report directly to her.

Calling attention to the CPS scandal, CBA activists moved their protest inside the capitol building and tried to go up to the 8th floor, where the governor’s offices are, to deliver dozens of stuff animals, representing the children who were lost in Arizona’s CPS system. (Watch CBA’s protest and interaction with capitol police in the video below.)

At Monday’s action, CBA also urged Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne to stop their attacks on DREAMers and allow them to drive legally. Watch the video after the jump.

EAC files its response in proof-of-citizenship case

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne and Secretary of State Ken "Birther" Bennett are in U.S. District Court in Kansas, Kris W. Kobach et al. v. United States Election Assistance Commission (13-4095-EFM-DJW) suing the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and threatening to impose a two-tier system for voting in Arizona and Kansas based upon whether you registered to vote with the Arizona voter registration form or the federal motor-voter form (NVRA). The Judge in his Order Remanding Matter to EAC for Final Agency Action (.pdf) gave the EAC until January 17 to respond to the order of the Court.

The EAC filed its response just minutes before the midnight deadline. Read the richly detailed 46-page EAC Final Decision on Proof of Citizenship Requests (.pdf). A bullet point summary of the EAC analysis follows:

  • Congress specifically considered and rejected proof-of-citizenship requirements whn enacting the NVRA.
  • The requested proof-of-citizenship requirements are inconsistent with the EAC's NVRA regualtions.
  • The requested proof-of-citizenship requirements are inconsistent with the EAC's prior determinations.
  • The Supreme Court's Inter-Tribal Council opinion guides the EAC's assessment of the states' requests.
  • The states' requested proof-of-citizenship instructions would require applicants to submit more information than is necessary to enable election officials to assess eligibility.
  • The requested changes would undermine the purpose of the NVRA.
  • The requested proof-of-citizenship requirements are not similar to Louisiana's request for modifications to the state-specific instructions.
  • The decision by the Federal Voting Assistance Program to grant Arizona's request has no bearing on the state's requests to the EAC.

CONCLUSION: "For the foregoing reasons, the Commission DENIES the States’ requests."

In short, go pound sand.

That didn’t take long: Religious bigotry bill clears senate committee

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this week I posted that Religious bigotry rears its ugly head in the Arizona Legislature. Arizona's most corrupt state senator, Steve Yarbrough (R-Chandler), is carrying this religious bigotry bill, SB 1062 (.pdf), for Mullah Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP). While the bill is ostensibly about "hatin' on the gays," Yarbrough "acknowledged there may be individuals who have religious beliefs about unmarried women, or even employing people who do not share their same beliefs."

JesusFacepalm2Got that? If you are not one of the Christian Reconstructionists and Dominionists of the CAP who want to impose a Christian theocracy in the United States — which would include Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and the hundreds of other religious beliefs and sects, and non-believers alike, all of whom are protected by the First Amendment from state-sanctioned establishment of religion or interference with the free exercise of their religion — this bill would grant a "get out of jail free card" for compliance with civil rights laws based upon the mere assertion of "sincerely held religious beliefs," not just for a religious institution, but for individuals and corporations or any business (because "corporations are people my friend").

Apparently they never learned that "hate is not a Christian value." All the CAP does is hate.

As I pointed out, "This is a slippery slope which can easily be abused to discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, sex and religion simply by invoking the "magic words" that it is "my sincerely held religious beliefs."" It is a bald-faced attempt to eviscerate the civil rights acts hiding behind the gossamer thin veneer of "religious freedom" to be a discriminatory bigot. A nearly identical bill passed the Arizona Legislature last year but was vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer.

The GOP has a jobs bill: keep the womenfolk barefoot and pregnant!

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in early December, POLITICO Tiger Beat on The Potomac reported that "The National Republican Congressional Committee wants to make sure there are no Todd Akin-style gaffes next year, so it’s meeting with top aides of sitting Republicans to teach them what to say — or not to say — on the trail, especially when their boss is running against a woman." GOP men tutored in running against women.

The idea was so comical that Gary Trudeau featured it in his Doonesbury comic strip in December.

Doonesbury

Apparenlty the NRCC forgot to school their male members of Congress that they should also not say stupid things in open committee hearings with C-Span cameras rolling.

You can't make this shit up. Congressman’s New Jobs Plan: Deny Women Access To Abortion So They Can Make More Babies:

During a debate over an anti-abortion bill currently advancing in Congress, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) suggested that Republicans support restricting access to abortion because it will ultimately benefit the economy if women have more children. Goodlatte noted that carrying pregnancies to term “very much promotes job creation.”