Civil & Human Rights

Great Britain to approve same-sex marriage

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

What will all the Anglophiles in America do now? If Parliament and Her Majesty the Queen can sign off on same-sex marriage in Great Britain, what objection do these Anglophile Americans have to same-sex marriage in the "colonies" on the other side of the pond?  

The Guardian reports, Gay marriage bill expected to complete passage through House of Commons:

Legislation to introduce same-sex marriage is expected to complete its passage through the House of Commons on Tuesday, with the first weddings under the law to take place in England and Wales next summer.

Jubilant gay rights campaigners were celebrating the successful passage of the marriage (same-sex couples) bill through the House of Lords on Monday night – and vowing to take the fight for marriage equality to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

MPs
will debate amendments made to the legislation in the upper house on
Tuesday evening, but this is expected to be little more than a formality
and is unlikely to delay its progress into law, with royal assent
within the next few days.

The face of voter suppression in Arizona

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Reagan_mugSenator Michele Reagan (R-Scottsdale) wants to be Arizona's next Secretary of State. Her role models are Katherine Harris (R-Florida) (2000), Ken Blackwell (R-Ohio) (2004), and Scott Gessler (R-Colorado) (2012), Republican Secretaries of State with notorious records for voter suppression.

Sen. Reagan is the sponsor of the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, and she is damned proud of it. Last Friday, The Arizona Republic published a "My Turn" guest opinion by Sen. Reagan that can be boiled down to her shouting "voter fraud!" as the reason for her Voter Suppression Act. Reagan:
3 oft-forgotten election-bill facts.

This despite the fact that our current Secretary of State, Ken "Birther" Bennett, testified to a U.S. Senate panel in December last year that Arizona prosecuted a whopping fifteen cases of voter fraud in the last eighteen months. And none of these were cases of non-citizens voting, but rather "snowbirds" who voted in Arizona and in another state. 2.3 million ballots were cast in the 2012 election in Arizona. Ken Bennett's passion for voter fraud turns up fifteen cases.

A citizens referendum (or "citizens veto" in other states) has been filed by the Protect Your Right to Vote Committee to block Sen. Reagan's Voter Suppression Act. The Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Democratic Party, the non-partisan League of Women Voters, organized labor, and a wide array of Latino and voting rights organizations are in the process of collecting enough signatures to be filed by September 12.

John Oliver Nails George Zimmerman & Florida’s Racism (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley Over the weekend, George Zimmerman, the now infamous gun-toting neighborhood watch volunteer, was found not guilty after he shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin. Like many others, I was shocked at the verdict, I don’t agree with it, but I am sadly not surprised. I have not written about this because I … Read more

Update on the referendum to block the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Saturday, the Arizona Democratic Party held its Summer State Committee Meeting in Cottonwood, Arizona. A presentation on the referendum to block the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, was filmed by Blog for Arizona's Pamela Powers Hannley, who will post more about this meeting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghG6vesppWs.

Packets of information were provided to County Party Chairs and to state committee members at the meeting, along with walk lists for precincts. The Arizona Democratic Party effort will supplement the paid canvas being organized by the Protect Your Right to Vote Committee.

This is a call to action to Democratic volunteers, and to anyone who supports the sacrosanct right to vote for which Americans have fought and died to preserve. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country and this state. Democrats should contact your local Democratic County Party Office (see contact information below) and your Legislative District chairs.

You may also contact the Arizona Advocacy Network to volunteer (see announcement below the fold).

A license to kill

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

No, I am not referring to James Bond, 007. Any American living in a state that has lax gun laws and stand your ground laws, and which permits its citizens to engage in vigilante justice (like Arizona) has the tacit approval of the state for a license to kill. It is a sickness in our culture.

There are two good opinions on this topic that I have read. The first is Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal Blog, who writes, Licenses to Kill:

[T]he more I think about it, the real aberration in law and society
that’s been exposed by this case involves the incentives offered to
Zimmerman and people like him—not just in Sanford, Florida, but in much
of the country. At TAP, Scott Lemieux nails it:

Carrying a deadly weapon in public should carry unique
responsibilities. In most cases someone with a gun should not be able to
escape culpability if he initiates a conflict with someone unarmed and
the other party ends up getting shot and killed. Under the current law
in many states, people threatened by armed people have few good options,
because fighting back might create a license to kill. As the New Yorker’s
Amy Davidson puts it, “I still don’t understand what Trayvon was
supposed to do.” Unless the law is changed to deal with the large number
of people carrying concealed guns, there will be more tragic and
unnecessary deaths of innocent people like Trayvon Martin for which
nobody is legally culpable. And to make claims of self-defense easier to
bring, as Florida and more than 20 other states have done, is moving in
precisely the wrong direction. And, even more importantly, no matter
how self-defense laws are structured the extremely unusual American
practice of allowing large number of citizens to carry concealed weapons
leads to many unecessary deaths. (All 50 states, it’s worth noting,
permit concealed carry.)