Civil & Human Rights

George Takei is correct: move the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to Vancouver

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Russia has a long, dark history of its rulers scapegoating and persecuting minorities, in particular Jews, in official state-sanctioned pogroms, dating back to Medieval times.

Columnist Wayne Besen argues that Russia's Anti-Gay Pogrom Has Disturbing Parallels to Medieval Anti-Semitism:

What we are witnessing in Russia is a modern pogrom. The state is
imposing social death on its LGBT population and its new law is designed
to make openly gay people disappear through force and intimidation. If
one is out of the closet in this sick society, they will have a limited
future, to put it mildly.

History teaches us that targeting and bashing minorities is a
dangerous game that could lead down a road with unintended consequences.
The record is clear, particularly in this part of the world, that once
scapegoats are designated for retribution, things rarely turn out well
for the victims.

Of course, with the world watching and organizing a determined
campaign against Russia’s barbarism, things might not turn out so well
for Vladimir Putin’s Russia either. In real life, just like the movies,
the evil dictator and the uncivilized state usually get what they
deserve in the end, and I suspect this time will be no exception.

Protect Your Right to Vote Arizona Committee on HB 2305

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

2305hb11Jon Stewart of The Daily Show characterized Arizona as the "meth lab of democracy" for our "show me your papers" law, SB 1070. Stewart is mostly correct. Almost every "model legislation" bill from right-wing organizations like ALEC, FAIR, the NRA, Americans for Prosperity, the Goldwater Institute, Center for Arizona Policy, the Susan B. Anthony List, and on and on, was "lab tested" here in Arizona first, or followed a close second.

The Protect Your Right to Vote Arizona Committee responsible for the citizens referendum ("citizens veto") of the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, emphasizes this fact in a press release today.

Arizona at Front Edge of National Trend to Restrict Voting Rights
Politicians Add New Hurdles While Many of Nation’s Most Restrictive Voter Policies Already in Place

PHOENIX — Media outlets recently dubbed North Carolina’s sweeping new voter restriction legislation the “worst in the nation.”

But Arizona’s new roadblocks to get tough on voters — House Bill 2305 — is in many ways worse than North Carolina because it was approved on top of some of the nation’s most restrictive voting laws already in place, said Julie Erfle, Chairwoman of the Protect Your Right To Vote Arizona Committee. Erfle is leading a broad and diverse coalition working together to overturn HB2305 through a voter referendum. HB 2305 helps career politicians rig the system by preventing tens of thousands of eligible voters from casting their ballots. The bill will kick people off the early voter rolls and make it a felony for volunteer groups to help elderly, homebound and economically disadvantaged voters get their early voting ballots to the polls. It also helps politicians hold onto power by keeping third parties off the ballot and making it extremely difficult for Arizonans to overturn the Legislature’s decisions through citizen initiatives.

Jim Nintzel breaks down the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

2305hb11The Tucson Weekly cover story last week was all about the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305. Jim Nintzel provides the best breakdown of any media reporting on this awful bill to date. Ballot Boxing.

Jim Nintzel is also the host of the Political Roundtable on Arizona Illustrated, and on Friday he hosted a panel discussion on the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, with guests Jeff Rogers, former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party;
Barrett Marson, CEO of Marson Media and a Republican strategist; and Ann-Eve
Pedersen, president of the Arizona Education Parent Network.

Video below the fold (segment begins at 3:30 mark).

In Light of Local Poverty, Tucson Needs Creative Direction & Progressive Economic Ideas

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Development33-sig-sm72by Pamlea Powers Hannley

Business friendly? Tucson’s been there, done that, … and got the t-shirt at Goodwill. As former City Councilwoman Molly McKasson said, we put all of our eggs in the development basket and look where it got us.

Twenty percent of Tucsonans are living in poverty.

Thirty percent of Tucson children are living in poverty.

Fifty-two percent of Tucson children live in a one-parent household.

Seventy-one percent of Tucson Unified School District students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. (Statistics from the Arizona Daily Star.)

How did we get here?

The Back Story on Tucson’s Poverty Rate

In a November 2011 “What If?” article published just a few days before the last mayoral election, former Arizona Daily Star reporter Josh Brodesky interviewed activist, writer, and artist McKasson and mused about how Tucson would be different today if she had beaten former Mayor Bob Walkup back in their 1999 match-up.

I remember that election well. Walkup– a former Hughes Aircraft executive and former head of the Greater Tucson Economic Council– was the quintessential business candidate. Bankrolled by Tucson’s business community, Walkup’s campaign successfully painted McKasson as a flighty hippie artist whose no-growth, tree-hugging, water-conserving policies would be bad for Tucson (ie, bad for business and bad for growth). Meanwhile, Walkup was championed as a business savvy savior who successfully ran a business, and, therefore, (of course!) could successfully run a city.

As mayor, the glad-handing, ribbon-cutting Walkup promoted business development, Rio Nuevo, and ill-conceived, taxpayer-funded private projects like the downtown hotel (which went down in flames, thank goodness). Except for his pro-business, pro-growth cheerleading, Walkup was a do-nothing mayor who depended upon defense funding, the occasional TREO call center moving to Tucson, and housing boom construction jobs to bolster Tucson’s chronically low-wage tourist economy. The Tucson Weekly’s endorsement of McKasson (here) eerily  predicts what happened to Tucson under three terms of Walkup. Read it and more background and new ideas after the jump.

‘Tenther’ Tea-Publican Senators want to repeal the 20th Century

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Lewis-hine-child-labor-happy-birthday-shorpy-1910A century ago this country permitted child labor and sweatshop labor, and did not regulate the hours and conditions of employment because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Kidd v. Pearson (1888) (intra-state commerce), Locher v. New York (1905) (economic liberty and private contract rights), Adair v. U.S. (1908) (labor unions), and Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) (child labor). The Reel Foto: Lewis Hine: The Littlest Laborers (h/t photo).

"Tentherism" is a dormant and long-discredited legal theory today, but tenthers dominated the
Supreme Court from the late 1800s until 1937, when a majority of the
Court finally recognized that national leaders must be empowered to
solve a national economic crisis like the Great Depression.

Now our "Tenther" Tea-Publican Senators want to repeal the advances of the 20th Century. Think Progress reports, 36 Senators Introduce Bill Prohibiting Virtually Any New Law Helping Workers:

More than three-quarters of the Senate Republican caucus signed onto
legislation introduced Wednesday by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rand
Paul (R-KY) that could render it virtually impossible for Congress to enact any legislation intended to improve working conditions
or otherwise regulate the workplace. Had their bill been in effect
during the Twentieth Century, for example, there would likely be no
nationwide minimum wage, no national ban on workplace discrimination, no
national labor law and no overtime in most industries.