Civil & Human Rights

Action Alert: Kill This Bill – HB 2305 Voter Suppression

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Kill-bill-vol-1Yesterday the Arizona legislature took up the so-called election "reform" bills designed to restrict your constitutional rights as an Arizona citizen to citizen initiatives and referendums and to make it more difficult to submit petitions, and to make it more difficult for some people to vote (aka voter suppression). The conference committee approved it in five minutes without any public testimony.

Once again, these so-called election "reform" bills have now been grouped together under HB 2305 pertaining to "Initiatives; filings; circulators," House Engrossed Version and Senate Engrossed Version (the conference committee bill is not yet available).

The Arizona Republic reports, Arizona lawmakers forward bill on election changes:

Lawmakers broke a stalemate over wide-ranging changes to Arizona
election procedures Thursday, bundling several hotly disputed proposals
into one bill and triggering warnings of potential lawsuits over voter
suppression.

The changes, if approved by the House and Senate, would tighten
procedures for citizen initiatives and referenda, limit who can return a
voter’s ballot to the polls, and drop people from the permanent
early-voting list if they fail to vote by mail in consecutive elections.

“The one commonality in the bill is inhibiting people’s ability to
exercise the right to vote,” said state Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.

Gallardo attended the brief conference committee on House Bill 2305,
which ran less than five minutes, did not provide any explanation of the
proposed changes to the public in attendance, and passed without any
comment from the four Republicans and two Democrats on the committee.

The surveillance society that Americans chose to live in

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So everyone is having a freak-out today over Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman’s big scoop in The Guardian on the secret court order compelling Verizon to turn over to the NSA basically all of its call record data (as do other communications networks).  NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily.

I don't know what everyone is so excited about. Congress overwhelmingly approved the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and Americans terrified of terrorist attacks after 9-11 overwhelmingly approved surrendering their liberty for a false sense of security. Have you all forgotten that?

I fought the USA Patriot Act, and I have fought every extension of the Act — which the American people and Congress also overwhelmingly supported. You all got what you wanted. There is no surprise here. The government has been doing exactly what you asked for since 2001.

As the Senate Intelligence Committee co-chairs said today, ‘It’s Called Protecting America’: Senators Defend NSA On Phone Records:

The top two senators on the Intelligence Committee on Thursday
defended the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone
records after it was reported in The Guardian.

“It is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress,” Senate Intelligence
Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told reporters at an impromptu news
conference in the Capitol. “This is just meta data. There is no content
involved. In other words, no content of a communication. … The records
can only be accessed under heightened standards.”

“I read intelligence carefully. And I know that people are trying
to get to us,” Feinstein said. “This is the reason we keep TSA doing
what it’s doing. This the reason the FBI now has 10,000 people doing
intelligence on counter-terrorism. This is the reason for the national
counter-terrorism center that’s been set up in the time we’ve been
active.”

“And it’s to ferret this out before it happens,” she said. “It’s called protecting America.”

Tea-Publican Congress votes to deport the DREAMers

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

All that talk earlier this year about the GOP rebranding and learning its lesson from the 2012 election by reaching out to Latino voters was just that — talk. Actions speak louder than words. And today, the Tea-Publican Congress voted to deport the DREAMers. House Republicans Booed As They Vote To Deport DREAMers:

To a chorus of boos from the gallery, House Republicans voted 224-201 on Thursday to approve an amendment that defunds
the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The amendment, from
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), undercuts the flexibility that allows the
Department of Homeland Security to halt deporting DREAMers and instead
focus on people convicted of crimes.

After the vote, the House Hispanic Caucus tweeted,”House
Republicans just voted to treat DREAMers and undocumented spouses of
servicemembers in the same way as violent criminals.” Only six Republicans voted against the measure.

King, a virulently anti-immigrant [nativist] congressman, has already announced his intention to undermine any immigration reform effort. When Republicans last held a vote on a similar King amendment, it passed 238-175, with four Republicans voting against it.

But this time, the vote occurred at exactly the same time the House
means to march forward on an immigration reform bill that would give
DREAMers permanent legal status.

The ‘show me your papers before you pee’ bill is dead, for now

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The "show me your papers before you pee" bill is dead, for now. Arizona transgender bathroom bill won’t move: The sponsor of an Arizona bill targeting transgendered people who want to use bathrooms of the gender they identify with says he’s giving up on the issue this Legislative session. Republican Rep. John … Read more

Action Alert: Election ‘Reform’ Bills being heard today

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The AP reports that Arizona Republican lawmakers are again working to revive a series of
divisive election bills that opponents say will limit Democratic and
Hispanic voter turnout. Arizona lawmakers move to revive election bills – Fox 10:

Lawmakers are slated to debate the election bills Thursday and opponents
are asking their supporters to lobby lawmakers against the provisions.

Democrats who support Gov. Jan Brewer's Medicaid expansion plan opposed by conservative Republicans say the GOP-leadership wants to revive the election bills to stall the budget approval process.

Some Senate Democrats have said they won't support the proposed Medicaid expansion plan in the state budget if it also includes the election bills. Brewer needs Democratic votes to get the Medicaid overhaul passed.

The election bills seek to trim the state's permanent early voting list, among other measures.

REVISED 2 CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE 6-6-13 (Senate)

Thursday,
June 6, 2013

 

 

Time

 

Room

 

Bill Number

On Agenda

 

Short/Now Title

 

Type

 

Senators

 

Representatives

11:00 AM

HHR 4

2305

initiatives;
filings; circulators

FCC

*MCCOMISH,
DRIGGS, HOBBS BURGESS, WARD

FARNSWORTH,
MESNARD, QUEZADA

*McComish
replaced by Burgess and Driggs replaced by Ward

REVISED 2 CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE 6-6-13 (House)

Thursday,
June 6, 2013

 

 

Time

 

Room

 

Bill Number

On Agenda

 

Short/Now Title

 

Type

 

Representatives

 

Senators

11:00
AM

HHR 4

2305

initiatives;
filings; circulators

FCC

FARNSWORTH,
MESNARD, QUEZADA

*MCCOMISH, **DRIGGS, HOBBS,

BURGES,
WARD

*  McComish
is being replaced by Burges

** Driggs
is being replaced by Ward

REVISED CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE 6-6-13 (House)

Thursday,
June 6, 2013

 

 

Time

 

Room

 

Bill Number

On Agenda

 

Short/Now Title

 

Type

 

Representatives

 

Senators

11:00
AM

HHR 4

2305

initiatives;
filings; circulators

FCC

FARNSWORTH,
MESNARD, QUEZADA

*MCCOMISH, DRIGGS, HOBBS,

BURGES

* McComish
has been replaced by Burges